(Continued from Citadel Tower)

Alex wasn't sure when it happened, but it appeared that somewhere along the line she had been turned into a temporary pillow for Lin. Luckily, it appeared that Jon was too preoccupied with Jerome to comment on the scene. Chris, and most likely most everyone else, would notice her, but she knew Sarah and Chris wouldn't say anything about it.

They still had a good ways to go before they got to the SSV Vesuvius, where they could finally and utmostly relax. Still, aside from Jerome and Jon, noone was really talking that much.

"Hey, we got the time," Alex said, loud enough to grab attention, but not loud enough to wake the sleeping woman on her shoulder "So let's get things moving between us. I want name, rank, and specialization; I don't like reading files anymore than I have to."

"Alright, Service Chief Sarah Davids, Anti-armor and Demolitions Expert." Sarah began, crossing her arms behind her head and leaning back as best she could.

"Operations Chief Christopher West. Biotics." Chris said, his face twisted into a smirk, yet calm and composed.

"Gunnery Chief Jonathan Williams," Jon began, standing up to take an exaggerated bow "Master of all things electronic, and the God of healing."

"He's also the God of Bullshit." Chris said with a smirk.

"You can say that again..." Alex said with a short laugh "Now, the beutiful woman on my arm is 2nd Lieutenant Linnette Stone, Captain of Fireteam Stone, the Infiltrator and Sniper of the group. As for myself, I'm Staff Lieutenant Alexis Stone, the current CQB and Assault expert on the SSV Vesuvius."

As she saw Jerome's face begin to twist into a smirk, she let out a sigh.

"Before ANYONE," Alex began, staring at Jerome "asks: No, not by blood, yes we are, and no, you can't watch. Next."

Caoimhe listened, half turning to watch while Stone's group rattled off their basic introductions. Frank was situated at the far corner of the bay, so that made him next in the round-robin. He took his cue with a nod and intoned, in a casual basso profundo made for intonation, "Corporal Frank Farnsworth, Biotics Combat Support."

And that seemed to be it. He turned his face to Mary who picked up the ball and ran with it. Her voice and her grin were exactly what you'd expect out of a mountainous celt who regularly lugged around a gun bigger than her captain. "Private First Class Mary MacMurphy, specialist in shotgun diplomacy, the clear-cuttin' of paths and all manner of gen'ral mayhem from the right side of a barrel."

"Jerome Jameson, PFC...uh, I do his job." added Jerry, indicating Jon with a tilt of his head. "Can I be a Gunny too?"

This got him a light whap upside the back of the head from Mary, and there was a moment of "What, what'd I say?" before, grinning like an idiot, he looked over to Caoimhe.

Caoimhe looked back to Sigma. "Corp'ral Caoimhe Whelan, Infiltration and Exfiltration...and current captain of what the paperwork tells me is Fireteam Whelan."

The rest of her team made contributions then, with Mary sounding off. "Make a hole!"

"Ins-and-Outs, not @$%!in' abouts!"

And one low, keening wolf-howl from the back.

Whelan waited for them to subside, which didn't take long. "O'course, we've built up something of a repertoire of nicknames, in the last year. Some fool figured out my surname meant 'wolf', and it went all thematic on us."

"Ya'll are crazy." Chris said with a chuckle "We'll all get along quite nicely, methinks."

About that time, Lin was finally awake due to the wolf howl, and luckily for those around, she didn't draw her pistol this time.

"Well, glad to see your awake." Alex said with a smile "Current status: my arm's numb, and you missed the introductions."

"...and you didn't wake me for them why?" Lin asked, still slightly groggy.

"You looked comfortable, and I'll fill you in later hon." was Alex's response "After I finish my sparring match with Jon."

"Hey, Alex, look, I'll scrub the mess hall every day for a month if you don't make me spar again." Jon said, clearly not looking forward to a match.

"Hey, she made you her bitch for the week, remember Jonny-boy?" Sarah chided "Shouldn't've made that comment about the other Mrs. Stone."

"Hey, what's the big deal about the sparring match?" Jerome asked "It can't be THAT bad."

"Oh, you haven't seen what Alex can do." Chris said, another chuckle leaving his throat "Hell, she's practiced Krav Maga since she was five! She's also graduated top of her class from THE best CQB schools on Earth."

"...oh..." Jerome said before turning to Jon "You're royally f***ed."

"Yeah, I already knew that." Jon said, rather bitterly.

"Oh, come on, she won't hurt you that much." Lin said with a sweet smile directed at Alex "Right hon?"

"...fine." Alex said, "But you better make it up to me sometime."

"O-" Jon began, but immediately clenched his jaw tight as can be, not wanting to make his situation worse.

"Hey, Mary, you the one who carries the big gun on your fireteam, right?" Sarah asked.

"Hell yeah! Y'think I'd be anything less?" Mary responded with a smirk.

"I sure would hope not."

Chris was, on the other hand, becoming bored and decided to bring out a small ball of an odd substance from one of his suit's compartmens. Activating some of his biotic nodes, he created a small warp field around the small ball, twisting it into various shapes.

"That's interesting." Frank said as he watched Chris mess with the ball.

"You like?" Chris asked as he twisted the ball into the shape of a bird "A bottle of fine whiskey says you can't beat that."

Lin on the other hand, decided to turn her attention to the last member of the new fireteam, the Captain at that.

"So..." Lin began.

"Caoimhe." Alex stated.

"So, Caoimhe, you look kinda young to be a fireteam captain. You must be pretty good to get that position at such a young age."

She listened, closing her eyes, as the Wolves started getting to know Sigma. Socialization wasn't her strongest knack, but she recognized the bonds forming as they found their matches and opposites in the new tribe.

Hearing her name, Caoimhe pivoted in place, turning and adjusting her grip on the rail so that she was facing in towards the squad and Lin. "I'm pretty young to be much of anything...but I fit this job, and someone seems to think I fit it well. The Lieutenant said you were the Infiltrator and Sniper for your team?"

"Yeah, though I admit I'm more sniper than infiltrator." Lin said, smiling "I've always been a good shot, but I had to learn infiltration."

"Hm... it seems having an infiltration background is a requirement for Fireteam Captain nowadays." Alex happily stated "I guess things changed when I got promoted, decided they couldn't find someone as skilled in my areas of expertise."

"You can ignore her comments like that." Lin said with a somewhat more evil smile than before "Trust me, you'll have to at ti-IMES!!!"

That latter portion of the word was drastically altered when Alex had snuck her hand down to Lin's lower back, then made a quick grab to a more personal part of Lin's anatomy. The comparably high pitch was loud enough to get everyone's attention, even the pilot's.

"Damn... that was one of the better one's." Jon said amidst his laughing.

"Lord... I think my ears are bleeding." Sarah joked as she feigned checking for blood.

"Dammit Alex!" Lin said with gritted teeth and furrowed brows.

Lin then attempted to backhand Alex, albeit in a 'friendly' manner, but she caught it effortlessly before twisting it and forcing Lin to turn in her chair to compensate. The end result of this move was for Lin's back to be pressed against the right side of Alex's chest, with Alex's arms around Lin's waist and keeping her hands from moving.

"Hey, we're still here, you know. So behave yourselves." Chris said.

Alex wasn't quite sure, but she could have sworn she heard the words 'You shouldn't have said anything' in Jerome's voice.

"You're going to pay for this you know." Lin said, playfully glaring up at Alex when she tilted her head back to look at her wife's face.

"I'm planning on it." Alex said, opting against pushing things further and instead finding out another bit of important information "Hey, Caoimhe, how long did it take you to get to the Citadel from Vesuvius? We've been on this ship for a while."

Caoimhe watched impassively, still making mental notes about how Sigma interacted. "Just about fifteen minutes or so..."

She flipped back about, facing the sealed ramp. "...which means we should be meeting up with them about..."

There was a soft, subtle shift in the ship as the TRAV slid to a stop in Vesuvius' docking bay. "...now."

"She's not always like this, I promise..." offered Jerome, as he and the others prepared to disembark. "...usually it's all rar, snarl, shoot 'em up kill 'em all...I think she's been picking up this Human Computer crap from Francis."

This earned him a deadpan glance from the team biotic.

Caoimhe smirked as the ramp unfolded, welcoming them into the dim fluorescent light of the bay. "Careful Jerry, you'll give me a reputation."

"You could use one..."

The pilot's voice interjected over the PA as the ramp met the deck. "Welcome back to the crypt, Dead Men."

"It's good to be back." Lin said as she was finally released from Alex's grasp.

"Well, now that we've gotten back to our comfortable coffins, I think I'll get a shot or twelve of my good ol' whiskey." Chris said after he hopped off of the Seraph's back end.

"Hey, take your gear off first. Getting drunk with biotics is bad enough." Alex said as she followed Jon off last "Alright, off to the showers."

Fireteam Stone and Alex all entered into their team's locker room, and both Chris and Alex were down to their Underlayer's before even stepping through the door. The rest of the team removed their gear in a much more relaxing pace while Chris and Alex took up two of the showers which were, luckily, real ones, not the sonic based ones.

In less than twenty minutes, Fireteam Stone and Alex were cleaned up and ready to relax. Though most of the team was wearing the traditional Alliance casual garb, Lin and Alex both opted to simply wear their skintight Underlayers.

"You know, I still think you do this on purpose." Chris said as he stepped out behind Sarah.

"For the last time: the Underlayer is simply more comfortable. It is NOT an attempt at semi-exhibitionism, nor is it distinctive teasing or flirting. It is, however, extremely comfortable." Alex said with finality before turning to see the rest of Squad Sigma "So, seeing as you're new here, do you need a tour or something?"

(Maiven, I was not sure if your characters were actually new to the ship, and if they aren't, then notify me and I'll change my post)

It was, perhaps, telling of Caoimhe's nature that she waited for the rest of her new squad to cycle through the locker room before shedding her own gear. One might readily presume that this was out of some odd-for-an-OD measure of shyness, but that was an incongruous with her tendency to go on wearing the underlayer as opposed to actual clothing.

Caoimhe stepped out of the lockers, resting one hand on the door frame. Jerome was leering and trying to pull Frank out of his shell with some crack about an All-Undies day, but he'd offer a passing leer at Mary in full armor just to keep his hand in the game.

She heard Alex saying something about exhibitionism and turned, one eyebrow raised, in time for her next question. "So, seeing as you're new here, do you need a tour or something?"

"It probably wouldn't hurt to get familiarized with the ship, if we're going to be stationed here." she replied, with a nod.

"Alright, Lin and I will give you the tour." Alex said as she looped an arm around Lin's shoulder "Hey Jon."

"...let me guess: meet you in the ring in an hour, right?"

"Actually one and a half, I'm not in a hurry." Alex retorted before focusing back on Caoimhe "Well, let's see, hanger and lockers are out, seeing as you already cleared off all your gear. So, next in importance is the quarters."

"Fighting, food, and sleep... is that all you think about?" Lin teased.

"Well, Sarah crosses my mind on occasion..." Alex said, feigning seriousness before receiving a rather rough hit on the arm "Anyway, come on, the quarter's aren't too far."

A fairly short distance, not too much more than a short run at triple time, was the living quarters.

"Alright, this is where the two squads stationed on board sleep, that would be your team and Lin's, though, sadly, Lin will most likely never join you." Alex said.

"In case you guys need to visit them for whatever reason, we also have a full set of sleeper pods on the other side of the ship." Lin explained "Though, typically, all the non-combatants use those, so we really have no business being over there for anything other than conversation."

"Wait, we actually have BEDS here?" Jerome asked, mildly incredulous "When the hell did we get THAT luxury?"

"About the time they started dropping us into the middle of Geth armored battalions." Alex stated.

"They treat us with almost an officer's luxury, for the most part anyway, because with each drop, they expect most or all of us to die." Lin further explained.

This would begit no comment as they traveled to the next area. Which happened to be the mess.

"Well, this is obvious, and before you ask, they don't serve us anything besides the basic slop." Alex said, slightly disgruntled.

(Timeskip)

They had covered every part of the ship from engineering bay, to bathrooms, to medbay, to the navigation, meeting, and pilot's quarters. Alex had even shown them the captains' quarter's that she commandeered. Their final stop was the training area, which is where Jon and the rest of Team Stone was waiting.

"Well, seeing as how I've covered just about every portion of the ship that doesn't require crawling through ducts, are their any questions?" Alex asked with a smile "If you don't have any, then I invite you to watch me kick Jon's ass again."

Caoimhe remained more or less silent through the tour, committing the ships layout to memory while Jerome and Mary ambled along offering the occasional old-hat quip about the food ("At least it's consistent.") or the sleeping quarters ("What ever happened to Jiffy-Coff?") or the nav room ("We know where we're going?") or the...

Well, et cetera, really, but in a fun way.

None of them commented on their expected survival rate, but most of Whelan's team was still on the edge of youth's reckless immortality. They knew what was expected, they just felt comfortably certain that it wasn't going to happen yet. It certainly wasn't happening right now, so what the hell right?

The Corporal grabbed a mug of Instantly Bad Coffee In a Can on the way through the mess, musing. The LT set a relatively casual pace, but that probably had a lot to do with timing. By Caoimhe's mark, it was closing on the and-a-half point when they crossed the bulkhead into the training room.

Jerome gave Jon a sympathetic look. Frank was smiling as only Frank could, which was without smiling in the slightest. He'd seen Jerome in roughly the same fix too many times to not be vaguely amused, which noone commented on since it was a rare slice of humanity he offered.

Caoimhe sipped her coffee. "I get the impression kicking Jon's ass is getting traditional?"

Mary chimed in with a room brightening, if worrisome, grin. "I call winner?"
~~~~~
Cat in the upstairs window, staring down at me,
Life seems to have a purpose, when you're wandering aimlessly...
In the meantime, what am I missing? I'm missing out!
In the meantime, I will be living...there is no meantime, there is only now...
~The Ditty Bops, In the Meantime

"Eh, normally I call winner, but you can do it this time." Lin said to the bulkier of the two women "And no, it's not a tradition. More like a ritual."

A brief interruption occurred when Chris was thrown across the room via an unknown force, crashing into a punching bag before collapsing to the ground with the wind knocked out of him.

"Dammit Chris! I told you to lay off the booze you dumbass!" Sarah shouted as she ran to Chris' side "You're lucky you didn't hit the bulkhead this time!"

Alex, Lin, and Jon all seemed unaffected by the display. It was fairly common actually, given that alcohol tended to weaken Chris' control of his biotics, coupled with the fact that he really liked to drink. Anyway, Alex stepped into the square that marked the edge of the ring. Jon stood opposite her with a rather discouraged look, his hands on his hips as Alex popped the knuckles in her hand.

"Alright, you know the drill, and you know the rules, so here's the question:-"

"Go for speed, I'd rather not be spitting AND pissing blood for a week." Jon said as he took up the typical stance taught by the alliance navy "I just wanna get this over with."

"Alrigh, suit yourself." Alex said as she began to approach Jon at a quick pace.

Jon tensed and waited for Alex to be within striking distance before deciding to aim low with a rather quick kick. Alex reacted faster though, and drove her heel via a side kick into the leg Jon was using to stand on. As Jon dropped to the ground, he attempted to scurry back to his feet, but Alex didn't give him a chance. She kicked his supporting arm out from under him, sending his face back into the hard floor, and after that she caught him in the side of the ribs with a sharp kick.

Finally, to simulate the killing move, Alex drove a knee sharply into one of Jon's hands that was against the ground still, nearly crushing it while Jon yelped in pain. She then drover her other knee into Jon's armpit to keep him from moving well, and placed her left hand on Jon's neck while bringing her right hand back in a balled up fist that would do quite a bit of damage if it were allowed to hit, which she wouldn't let happen.

"Wow... I think that's a record..." Lin muttered next to Mary and Caoihme.