[Citadel] Catching Up (Closed)

Cole's Place was counted as one of the better places to grab breakfast here on Zakera, and at a reasonable price too, even before the war. Miraculously, both the restaurant and its owner managed to make it out through the Siege relatively intact. It was here, Lynn hoped not to have a repeat of yesterday.

The first major CDN meeting for Lynn yesterday and it involved an Norwegian vomiting on a quarian due to eating the wrong set of amino acids. She sincerely hoped this meet-up would prove to be less dramatic, having one person at hand would help, and she still, despite everything from the war, counted her as a close friend.

"Is it just you today ma'am?" The waiter asked?

"I have someone coming, she should be here soon I think. Could I have an English Breakfast tea to start though?" She requested as the waiter left to take her preliminary order, all the while, she waited.

The last year had been... interesting for Allison Drew. That was really the only word she could use to describe it. The whole CPD thing wasn't really her cup of tea, but, well, it paid the bills, gave her the opportunity to see the galaxy, and, most importantly, let her stay close to Dan.

Not that it was all good. With half the relays still out, Allison spent a lot more time away from home than she would've liked. Lynn was lucky enough to get a hold of her just as she came back in from her last mission - fresh off the job, if the grubby piece of linen wrapped around her upper arm was anything to go by.

"Hey, Lynn!" Allison called loudly as she approached the table, removing her newly-acquired shades to reveal mismatched green eyes. "I'd say congratulations again on the wedding, but I imagine the words have lost all meaning to you by now."

Allison still considered it a miracle that Lynn hadn't cut all contact with her after she got kicked off the force - even before then, Allison knew the other woman didn't exactly approve of her rather loose interpretation the rule book. That said, she was incredibly glad Lynn hadn't abandoned her. Between the War, Sanctuary, and her current job, Allison didn't have many friends left, and Lynn was one of her closest.

"Get us a bacon butty and a large coffee, would you?" she said to the waiter, cornering him before she took her place at the table. "Gods above, I could do with some real food. The MREs out there were worse than the C-Sec cafeteria."

"Speaking of C-Sec, how go the new recruits?" Allison added with a teasing grin. "Strangled any of 'em yet?"

At the sight of Allison, Lynn perked up immediately as she greeted the ex-cop with a warm smile. "Good to see you." She said before turning to the waiter. "For me, a bacon and mushroom frittata, with perhaps a side of waffles." The waiter nodded as he took both their orders before returning to the kitchen.

"For the record, your probably the fifteenth person to say congratulations." She said whilst pouring milk and sugar in the tea. "As for the new lads, well, a good number of the recruits are ex-military vets from the war, so their a bit easier to handle. The others...Well, I can probably now sympathize with what my previous instructor had to go through when I first came on here." She paused to take a sip, savoring the aroma and flavor. "Enough about me though, how have you and Dan been?" She asked, a curious glance at the bandage around Allison's arm.

"Been off mercing it up again," Allison replied with a roll of her eyes. "Escorting journos--" Oh gods, she was starting to sound like Dan. "--through some Terminus hell-hole. Some advice for you if you ever fall on hard times and have to start contracting like me, Lynn - no matter how much the bloody principal insists he knows how to shoot, don't let him keep the Carnifex he somehow bought. First sign of danger - even if it's nothing - and the git'll start firing off. I'm lucky he only grazed me: those things can take an arm off. And I've already got enough robot in me."

"Not to say it's all bad, of course," she continued, accepting the coffee that had appeared with grateful hands. "The pay packet was nice enough that we can afford to chill here for a while longer, and Dan promises we'll go somewhere nicer than Desert Shit-Hole #23 next time."

"I can imagine." Lynn said, taking another sip of tea. Allison's merc life wasn't exactly a favorite topic to discuss about, it didn't help that her own approval of mercenaries was quite low, and judging by what Allison was telling her, stories like her wasn't the only one she went through.

"You know, I'm rather curious, how did you get "Dropkick" as a nickname?"

... OK, maybe Allison shouldn't have mouthed off so much about the mercing. She knew it was far from Lynn's favourite topic - an opinion shared by a considerable number of people, really - but her big mouth never did know when to keep itself shut.

"What, the Enforcement lads never told you that story?" she said with a grin. Sometimes Allison forgot that not everyone was privy to her precinct's-- ex precinct's rumour mill. "Now, I usually consider it a secret to anyone who doesn't know already, but for you, Lynners, I'll make an exception."

Big mouth indeed.

"Lemme set the scene," she began, sweeping her arms dramatically and hissing as a splash of coffee sloshed out of the mug she was holding. "The year was 2184, and I hadn't been on the force for all that long. It was my first proper raid - typically SR stuff, I know, but they were still understaffed, and this wasn't deemed important enough to send in the big guns. More a house call, really, but 'raid' sounds more dramatic. We received a tip-off that there was this apartment in Shin Akiba stashing red sand, so a group of us newbies all head down, acting like we're proper hard--"

Allison abruptly cut off as the smell of bacon captured her attention - the waiter was back, and Allison all but grabbed the sandwich from his hands. And who could blame her, after spending all those hours literal light years away from any decent food?

"Stop me if I'm boring you," she mumbled to Lynn in between mouthfuls, glancing up from her food apologetically. Whether the apology was for her perceived rambling or her truly terrible table manners, none could tell.

"No, not at all." Lynn said as she started digging into her frittata. "Please, continue."

"Mmmphh," Allison said in response, swallowing a bite of bacon sarnie before continuing her tale. "So we're at this apartment, right? Dead quiet, not a peep when we knock on the door. So we force the thing open, and it's all dark inside. Things are tense - you know that little adrenaline rush you get before something big goes down? Well, I got that. Still all quiet though. Then suddenly..."

"Bam!" Allison shouted, gesticulating wildly and showering the table with crumbs. "Big black shape outta fucking nowhere! We all fall back, scared shitless, but I'm not letting this guy get away that easily. So, as I'm falling back, I do the only damn thing I can think of - fling my legs out and hope I hit something solid."

"I do. The shape goes down, and someone finally has the good sense to turn on the lights," she continued, sitting back in her seat. "That's when we notice something's off - this bloke's in C-Sec colours. Turns out the whole damn thing was some sort of initiation tradition for the newbie coppers in the precinct, but that wasn't the first thing out his mouth. No, this tough old git just sits up, looks me dead in the eye, and says 'Nice dropkick, Drew. Check your fucking targets next time.'"

"In hindsight, we shoulda known something was up," Allison added thoughtfully. "I mean, the lot of us were runts barely out of training - we hadn't even been out on the beat. You don't send the kiddies out to deal with a drug raid. But hey, there's my story. Now I think you owe me a secret in return, yes?"

Lynn nodded as she listened to Allison's story, taking bites out of her frittata in between.

Now it was her turn..."Secrets...Well, here's one from my early days in C-Sec." She took another bite. "Me and another officer were called to a domestic disturbance scene at an flat in Tayseri. Couple having a fight for some reason or another, you know, the usual. It was right at the end of our shift too. We arrived at the apartment, and the lighting is rather dim, so we both had a flashlight out. Suddenly, right as we opened the door, one of them threw a whiskey bottle at us. Nearly nicked my head in the process trying to dodge out of the way. The thrower than tried to lunge at my partner with a broken bottle, and not having enough time to pull out his taser, my partner decided to use his flashlight to subdue the suspect.". Lynn took a sip of tea before continuing. "Or at least, that's what Yefim told me, because he ended up swinging his flashlight so hard, he hit me in the process. I had to spend the next month or so sporting quite possibly the most colorful shiner you'll find in the galaxy."

"Hah!" Allison laughed, snorting up some of her coffee. "Those were the good old days of C-Sec, all right. Back when it was just domestic disturbances and drug raids, not indoctrinated terrorists and crazy monsters."

Allison never would forget the Cerberus attack on the Citadel. Or the Reapers' final assault, for that matter, though her recollection of that was fuzzy at best. All she could really recall was the big blue burst, the stickiness of her own blood as she lay in it, Dan standing over her as the husks drew closer and closer...

She shook her head, chasing the thoughts out. Not forgetting was all well and good, but that wasn't a moment she wanted to relive right now. The dreams were bad enough - Allison didn't need waking flashbacks haunting her too.

"Given that the galaxy seems to have a dark sense of humor, I'd rather not wonder if there is anything worse than genocidal cephalopods" Lynn mused as she took another sip of tea. It sometimes amazed her how well she had taken the events of the war. Separated from Callius, getting her eyes torn off in the siege, hearing that her family on Earth...well, they said "Not accounted for", but she knew what that meant, no need to elaborate on the details.

And yet, here she was, having breakfast with an old friend, talking about their lives.

"You know, hard to believe its only been a year."

"You're telling me," Allison replied, her gaze wandering over to the gang of construction workers on the street outside. Renovations had come in thick and fast after the War, and most of the important areas were starting to look like their old selves, but take a step off the main thoroughfares and the cracks still showed. "It's amazing how quickly everyone seems to have forgotten about it all. Not that I blame them for wanting to forget..."

She took a pensive sip of her coffee, her expression darkening for just a moment. Everyone Allison knew had lost someone - on Earth, to Sanctuary, to the other Reaper forces that had dominated the galaxy... It seemed wrong to her to act like it never happened, to forget their sacrifice.

And then she thought of the nightmares again. Maybe there was some value in forgetting after all.

"Hell, maybe people are just being optimistic. After all, if we can kick omnipotent god-squids to the kerb, what can't we do?" she said after a long pause. "Wish I could join 'em, but I'm of a mind with you. I can't help but wonder what else the universe has got lined up for us next. Hopefully something cute and cuddly, yes?"

"Personally, I would much prefer the next cosmic entity of unfathomable to be made of ice cream...I cannot believe I just said that sentence." Lynn said, moving from her frittata to a waffle as she poured the butter and syrup.

"You have a point though, the fact that we could pull together for something like this, it does give you hope we're all not just out for number one only."

"Guess it is a bit early for us to start acting like jaded old coppers and crusty old mercs," Allison laughed, banishing all thoughts of melancholy. "Let's save that for when we're more scar than person. Don't want to end up like Dan, after all - I'm telling you, that man looks like he's about to have an aneurysm when we have to deal with some of our customers."

Lynn snorted. "I bet. And Callius likes to remind me that I look like an enraged lawyer whenever the recruits missed an important detail during lecture. He even said he spotted a grey hair, I mean, seriously, I'm only 29 and I'm already getting old? He's lucky he can still count as my soon-to-be-husband." She chewed on another piece of waffle.

"But you're right. I mean, there are a lot of things I wished didn't happen, that whole damned war for one...But, you have to pick yourself up and make the most of it, you know...Damn it, I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

"They should put you on one of those bloody PSAs, Lynn," Allison said with a chuckle. "But I guess if they won't put you on the holo you can at least inspire the recruits. Hope the cream of the crop's better than it was in my year - did I ever tell you about that one asari who jumped on a guy for carrying a particularly... shall we say 'controversial' flashlight? I mean, it did kinda look like a geth, but still."

"I think you did." Lynn said as she scarfed the last remnants of her waffle. "You really think I have a face for holo? Well, never told you this myself. I did do a few bit parts for a couple plays back in primary school. And before I enlisted, briefly entertained the thought of theater acting. Than I tried to audition for the part of Lady Macbeth in a secondary school adaptation and well...there's a reason why I only entertained the thought." She said as she refilled her cup. "But thank you though."

"Hey, it's true!" Allison replied, the same easy grin on her face. "You wouldn't even have to act - you're the epitome of the good cop. You're actually qualified for the job, you do things by the book, and you still manage to be a hero sometimes. That's exactly the image C-Sec wants to be putting out there. People like me, well... I can really only claim the last one of those. And even that's debatable."

It wasn't; not really. Allison had done a number of 'heroic' things over the course of her service, from fighting cybernetic ninjas to take down a biotic supremacist to chasing out the Cerbies. But she couldn't help but think that that was all cancelled out by what she'd done to finally get kicked off the force. No matter how much that bastard of a marine deserved it, Allison knew that hadn't been the right thing to do.