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Took a few days for Sid to cool down. Took a few days for Vetra, too. Every contact who didn't pick up, or gave her a hard time—it needled her a little, all over again. She'd spent time, dammit, not to mention resources, getting favors from those people. It wasn't like she had to start from scratch, but the dent was there.
She saw Ryder's side of it, though, as the days passed. That Sid was just trying to do something good. Those hazel eyes of hers soft when she said it. Ryder wasn't usually soft, human or not, but Vetra got the feeling she was a marshmallow with her brother. It Scott pulled the genome for cats out of storage, Ryder would probably just laugh.
But that was Ryder for you: did her job, but didn't dare take anything too seriously. Looked like a coping mechanism to Vetra. Ryder had been through a lot, the past couple months.
Before she could indulge that worry any further—she did too much indulging, anyway—Sid called. Finally.
"Hey, kiddo," Vetra said.
Sid sighed—sort of frustrated, sort of relieved. "You're not still mad?"
"Wasn't too mad to begin with." Just worried. So damn worried it had made her too short, too sharp. She hadn't brought Sid all the way to Andromeda for her to get killed. That kind of fear was supposed to be behind them.
"Really?"
"Yeah. If you hadn't stormed off back to the Nexus, maybe you'd have figured that out," Vetra said, letting the worry slide away, something more amused replacing it.
Sid was quiet, but Vetra could hear her breathing. She was safe, and whole, and maybe she respected the business a little more now. And maybe she understood better, too.
Another point Ryder probably had right.
"I am sorry," Sid said eventually.
"Yeah? Me, too." Vetra paused, drumming her talons on her desk. "Look, you probably don't remember a lot about those early years, but they weren't...good. I didn't bring you to Andromeda so you could deal with what I did."
"What you still deal with, you mean." There was something sad and sour about her tone. She really was growing up.
"Sure, but not as bad as back then. Still. It's a lot of headaches."
"I get it. Really. You and Ryder…I've never seen anything like that before." She stayed quiet for another beat, but then she added, "But it was cool too, you know? Like an action vid. Ryder's a good shot."
"I'm a good shot," Vetra protested.
"Yeah, but so's Ryder." Her subvocals dropped a little; Vetra heard the genuine worry there. "Hey, is she okay? She got thrown pretty hard by that fiend."
Vetra swallowed. She'd done this—parenting, smuggling, lying, whatever—so long that it shouldn't have been hard to control her voice, not give anything away, but this was her sister. Something probably snuck through. "She keeps telling me that human skulls are harder than turian plate. I'm not buying it."
"Hah." Sid chuckled, entirely too much delight in the sound. "You worry about her, too. Must kill you that you can't tell her to stay out of the field."
"I prefer Ryder in the field, backing me up, actually." Though sometimes, when things went really, really wrong, when a firefight twisted out of their favor or when Ryder got hit too hard, she felt like she'd been gutted. She usually only had to wait an instant for Ryder to get up, to shake it off and get in cover and keep fighting, but for an instant, she had to wonder. What if someday she didn't get up? What if that day was today?
"You two were a pretty good team. I could see you just sort of…reading each other, in every fight. Playing to each other's strengths." Sid's voice went sideways, teasing. "Hey, is something going on there? Are you like...dating?"
The question hit like a jolt of that awful Remnant goo, straight to the chest. For a moment, Vetra couldn't even think of a response, though the obvious, true answer was no. No, nothing was going on. No, Ryder wasn't interested in her. Well, she flirted, but that was probably just for fun. Didn't mean anything.
"Spirits," Sid breathed, practically giddy. Vetra just felt sick. "I was joking, but there is something going on, isn't there? Tell me everything!"
"Nothing to tell," she said, but she heard the disappointment in her own subvocals, betraying the otherwise easy words. "There's nothing going on."
"Oh." Sid audibly deflated. "Is everything okay? You sound…"
She trailed off. Vetra rubbed a hand along the ridge of her carapace, trying to figure out what to say.
"Ryder's a good friend," she settled for, finally, and winced at how flat it sounded. "I don't think there's more than that."
"You're always so sure of yourself," Sid said, anxious now. "I've never heard you like this."
She had, actually—she just didn't remember. When Sid was still so young, when Vetra wasn't as good at hiding how she felt, when she'd come home from an awful job and just cry. And no matter how quiet she was, or what nook she hid in, Sid would always find her and climb into her lap and hug her.
And it would all be worth it. It would all be okay. Because Sid was safe, and fed, and loved her.
"Hey," Sid said, determined, "I think she likes you. She came to see me last time she was on the Nexus, you know, before…" She cleared her throat. "She said she was really glad you joined the Tempest."
"You're making that up," Vetra said, but she smiled, too.
"Honest!"
"Sure, Sid."
Sid huffed. "I just want you to be happy, Vetra. Besides—I'll never repeat this, so enjoy it—you're so cool. Why wouldn't she like you?"
She was. She was happy. And she was happiest, stupidly, around Ryder—who was all sarcasm and nonsense until it mattered, and then she was soft and sweet and kind.
Vetra just didn't know what her motive could be. What could she offer Ryder that she couldn't get more and better of anywhere else? Even right on this ship. It wasn't like she was hurting for company.
Sometimes, Vetra wished she could see herself the way Sid saw her. Maybe then she would have the nerve to do something about Ryder, instead of just hopefully, hopelessly waiting.
"That's sweet, kiddo," Vetra said, because it was. "Don't worry about my lack of love life. I'm fine, promise."
Sid gave it up this time. "When are you coming back to the Nexus?"
"Not sure. We're chasing something big and nasty." She both wanted to get it over with, and didn't. She was pretty sure Ryder felt the same. "Might be a while."
"Stay safe?" Sid asked.
"You got it."
They said goodbye, and for a moment, Vetra didn't budge an inch. If Sid could see it, damn, she was pretty obvious.
Or maybe her sister just knew her. Better than Vetra had ever let her, even. Something to chew on.
She was still chewing when someone knocked on the bulkhead, and the door slid open. "Well, well, well," Ryder drawled. Shit, this was a bad time for her to be happening by. "I've caught the one and only Vetra Nyx with her hands empty. No work to do?"
"Just hung up with Sid," she replied, spinning in her chair to face Ryder.
The funny drawl dropped away immediately. "Oh," she said, her eyes warming with concern. She took a step closer. "She okay? You two okay?"
"Yes, and yes. Said our sorries, moved on."
"Good." Ryder folded her arms over her chest, frowning. "I'm always off when I'm on the outs with Scott. I don't know if it's the same for you."
"Yeah. Hasn't felt great." She redirected, so that Ryder didn't get the chance to ask what else they had talked about. Vetra didn't know if her bluffing was good enough for that. "How is Scott?"
Ryder's frown turned a little deeper. A little sadder, too. "No real change." She rubbed a hand across her forehead. "I should visit more, probably. I just...hate seeing him like that. He's not like that."
"What's he like, then?"
"A goofball," Ryder said. "After noon, anyway. Not big on mornings."
"So, like you."
The frown faded a little. Moving in the right direction. "You think that highly of me, huh?"
"Are you fishing for compliments?"
"Mmm. Always." She sat down in a nearby chair, smiling now. "Do you have anything better in your arsenal than goofball?"
About a dozen things. Reliable. Trustworthy. Caring. The prettiest eyes Vetra had ever seen, somehow, whether narrowed with focused or—more often—crinkled up with laughter.
"You're a fair driver," she offered, to keep the mood light.
"Please, there's no need to sweet-talk me," Ryder said, but good-naturedly, and rolled her eyes.
Vetra chuckled. "So—is that really all you came down here for? Did you need something?"
"I'm sort of at loose ends, actually," Ryder replied. She fidgeted a little. "Thought you might be up for a game?"
"Gil won't play poker with you since you cheated, huh."
Ryder made a face. "I fessed up to it. What's the point of having an AI jammed in your head if you don't have a little fun once in a while?"
"No one likes a cheat," Vetra said, but without any real rebuke.
"SAM," Ryder said, keeping her eyes on Vetra's face, "scram for a while, huh?"
"Yes, Pathfinder."
There was nothing to signal that SAM actually went, of course, but the room became that much smaller, anyway: just her and Ryder, in the dim light from Vetra's desk and the background hum of the drive core.
Ryder pulled a pack of cards from the pocket of her sweater and waggled it enticingly. "Well? Easy money. Bragging rights."
There was always more to do. She was sure that Ryder would find something else, too, if Vetra turned her down.
But she didn't want Ryder to find something—or someone—else. Pointless as putting off the inevitable was, she was still going to put it off.
"Fine," she said, and got up to drag a crate in between their chairs. "But I won't go easy on you."
Ryder smirked. Vetra hadn't seen that exact expression before, the thing she was doing with her eyes—coy, flicking from Vetra's face, down her body, back up again, the dark shadow of her eyelashes almost dancing.
"Oh," Ryder said, and Vetra was glad that SAM had already logged off, that there was no one to mark the increase in her heart rate but herself, "I wouldn't want you to."