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Taking a deep breath to steel her nerves, Bridget steps forward and knocks on the door of the tech lab. There’s a pause before she receives an answer. The door opens before her to reveal the newest member of her crew, sans rofjinn.
Her eyes roam his new attire for a moment before she snaps herself out of it. He doesn’t need her ogling him like a creep.
“Ryder,” he says casually, clearly not aware of the effect his presence has on her. “Did you need something?”
“Yeah, actually,” she manages to say in a pretty level voice. “I forgot something…again.”
He concedes with a nod of his head and steps aside to allow her entry. Tentatively, she takes a few steps into the cozy atmosphere of buzzing technology.
When she first joined the Tempest, this had been her favorite room on the ship. Almost all her free time had been spent tinkering on random projects. And then Jaal had chosen the space as his quarters and effectively kept her from getting anything done.
So she’d been periodically returning to his room under the guise of having forgotten something…which was partially true. She did have a lot of gear stored in the lab…But it’s also true that she probably should have just taken it all in one trip rather than milking the excuse to keep visiting him. He has more important things to do than be constantly pestered by her.
“What is it this time?” he asks, and though she’s inclined to believe it’s said in annoyance, she can’t deny the mirth in his tone.
She gives a shrug before stepping further into the room. “Not much…just a set of – ”
Her words are cut off when out of nowhere, they’re enveloped in darkness. She lets out a small squeak of surprise, jumping slightly where she stands.
She can feel her heartbeat pounding in her ear and just as she’s about to ask Jaal how he’s faring, the lights flicker back on. Looking over at her angara companion, she lifts a brow in question. He meets her stare, seemingly as lost as her. With a shrug, she gets to her feet and makes her way to the door. “Must’ve been a power surge…Maybe Gil knows what happened.”
When she tries to interface with the door however, it fails to respond.
With a heavy sigh, she opens her comms. “Gil…What’s going on? Why isn’t the door responding?”
“Shit, shit, damn it…” she hears from the other end. “Er – Sorry, Ryder…Nothing to worry about, just a routine – ”
“Gil? Gil?!” Kallo’s irritated voice soon makes an appearance on the comm channel. “What did you do this time?!”
The pilot receives a groan in response. “Nothing! I was trying to improve our energy output, when the console fried. Whoever put this rig together clearly wasn’t familiar with the concept of crossing wires…”
Bridget can’t see Kallo’s face, but from his tone of voice, she knows he’s bristling. “The concept of…You don’t have the right! It was fine as it was! What makes you think letting the bridge go dark in the middle of interstellar travel is a good idea?!”
“Hey, that wasn’t my idea! If this circuit board made a lick of sense, it wouldn’t have – ”
“Okay, we get it!” Bridget snaps, cutting him off. Sighing, she pinches her brow before asking, “Gil, I’m assuming the power outage affected the door locks in some way?”
“Yeah, sort of…” he answers after a pause. “I need to restart the system; that should fix it…”
And how long will that take?”
The silence that follows is not the least bit comforting. “Er…I’ll get back to you on that.”
Letting out a groan, Bridget leans her head against the door. “SAM…Any chance you can bypass whatever Gil did to the door?”
“Negative, Ryder. The mechanisms that have malfunctioned as a result of the power outage are tied to a grid that is currently unresponsive. Until it is repaired, there is nothing I can do. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
“It’s okay, SAM…”
Great, she thinks with a sigh. She’s locked in a small room with the man she’s been crushing on for what seems like forever, who just so happens to not want anything to do with her. This should go swimmingly.
Slowly, she turns back to Jaal, who’s tilting his head in an inquisitive manner. “So…” she begins awkwardly. “Looks like we’re stuck here for a while…”
“Hm,” he acknowledges. “It would appear so.”
An uncomfortable silence begins to stretch between them and after a while, Bridget forces herself to look away. She can still feel Jaal’s eyes on her though. It’s almost as though he’s studying her.
She’s wracking her brain for conversation topics, but at the same time, she wonders what the point is. He’s already made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t trust her, nor has he shown any interest in the conversations they’ve had thus far. Damn it…why can’t Gil work any faster?
“You appear uncomfortable.”
A sharp gasp escapes Bridget and she glances up to find Jaal right there. He’d breached her personal space without her even hearing him approach. He’s leaning over her, his clear blue eyes locked onto hers and she finds herself at a loss for words.
“Are you bothered by small spaces?” he asks with an incline of his head.
She gulps, taking a small step back only to find herself pressed against the surface of the door. Jaal isn’t so much as touching her and he clearly isn’t intending to intrude on her space like he is, but she feels caged even so. “N-no…” she manages. “This just…isn’t exactly the ideal situation to be in, y’know?”
He hums in consideration, staring at her for a moment longer before retreating from her personal bubble.
She lets out the breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding and relaxes a little. How can one man make her lose her composure so easily? She feels like a pining teenager all over again.
Running her hands through the ends of her ponytail, she lets out a sigh. “Well,” she says as she walks past Jaal, trying her best to ignore his distracting aura. “If we’re stuck in here, might as well get some work done…”
She rifles through her toolbox before finding the components of her latest project. Settling down on the bench opposite Jaal and turning her back to him, she grabs her precision screwdriver and begins dismantling the side panel of the instrument.
Focusing on the task before her allows her to calm down a bit. It’s a soothing, mindless distraction that keeps her hands busy and her mind free from the ideas previously clouding her thoughts.
That focus breaks, of course, when her companion comes up behind her and peers over her shoulder. “What are you working on?”
She nearly jumps out of her skin and it takes a great deal of concentration to not lose her screwdriver in the caverns of the circuitry. He’s just so close. His breath is practically dancing across her skin and she has to suppress a shiver.
“It’s, um…” she answers with a shaky voice. “It’s a radio…for the nomad.”
He’s staring at the contents scattered beside her with intense focus, but she can’t quite gather his intent. For someone who supposedly wears their emotions on their sleeve, he can be surprisingly hard to read at times.
“I thought the nomad already had a built-in access to radio channels?”
“Oh!” She turns slightly so that she can face him better. “No…not that kind of radio. This one is for playing music! I actually rigged up a similar device for my motorcycle back on Earth so that I could listen hands-free. Those long rides can get kinda boring, so I thought…maybe some tunes might help?”
She begins to trail off, feeling like she’s not quite keeping his interest, when he asks another question.
“You were a mechanic?”
That prompts a genuine laugh from her. “No…nothing quite like that,” she answers with amusement. “That was more Emmett’s speed…He’s the one who put my bike together. I just modded the hell out of it.”
“And Emmett,” he says after a pause, “is your brother, yes?”
“Twin brother.” She gives him a wide grin. “We did almost everything together – especially getting into trouble.”
His brows raise slightly at her comment and she has to suppress a giggle. For all his apparent stoicism, his reactions can be pretty comical at times.
“Am I to understand you were a troubled youth? I must admit…I have a hard time picturing that.”
She laughs again. “Oh, like you wouldn’t believe…We got into all kinds of trouble on the citadel as kids…It drove dad crazy, but that was kind of the point. Plus, the thrill of trying not to get caught was just too much fun!”
There’s something in Jaal’s eyes as he listens to her, but she can’t quite put her finger on it. Not paying it too much mind, she continues with excitement, “When we moved to Earth, I saw all sorts of new vehicles I’d never encountered on the citadel…”
“Like this…‘motorcycle?’” Jaal asks with mild amusement.
She nods enthusiastically. “Yep! I thought they were just the coolest thing…And then when I found out my parents thought they were dangerous and obnoxious, the idea was even more appealing!” A nostalgic smile graces her face and she lowers her gaze somewhat. “It took a while, but Emmett and I managed to find the parts needed to put one together…We spent a whole summer working on it day in and day out…And we listened to the radio the whole time. We even sat through the boring commercials!”
Bridget has a feeling Jaal only understands half of the vocabulary she’s spewing at him, but he seems entertained even so. That’s already a marked improvement from their past conversations.
“Then when we finally finished the bike, we realized neither of us knew how to drive the damn thing!” she says with a laugh. “We had to get a turian friend of ours to show us how…” Her smile turns wistful and she sighs happily. “I fell off that damn thing more times than I can count…But I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything. That was probably my favorite summer on Earth to date…”
Her grin begins to fade and she speaks a little quieter. “I loved that bike more than was probably reasonable…It’s a shame I couldn’t bring it to Andromeda…”
Jaal regards her with a soft, seemingly concerned gaze.
He stares at her for a long while before murmuring, “So this…radio you are working on…Is a way to connect yourself to that summer, yes? To bring a piece of home to Heleus?”
She hadn’t thought of it like that, but hearing it out loud, she supposes he’s right.
“Yeah,” she says with a chuckle. “I guess that’s true.”
The barest hint of a smile tugs on Jaal’s lips and it’s all Bridget can do to avoid staring openly at the sight. Up until now, his smiles in her company have been a rare occurrence. His gaze lingers on her a while before he leans forward to address her. “Family is important to you,” he says simply. His smile stretches just a tad wider. “Perhaps we’re more alike than I thought.”
She gives him a puzzled look in response. “What do you mean?”
He makes a brief noise of consideration before speaking. “When your ship first crashed on Aya, I had no idea what to make of you…or the rest of your kind. You were an enigma – and in many ways, you still are.” His eyes peer into hers gently, searching for…something. “You’re fascinating, and special…and strange.”
She doesn’t know what to say to that. It turns out she doesn’t need to though, as he soon continues. “To know that we share this common trait…it is a comfort. And…I am glad you were willing to share this side of you with me. It is truly an honor.”
Bridget blinks in confusion.
Oh. She hadn’t expected such a…heartfelt answer from him. He’s gazing at her with genuine happiness and she doesn’t quite know what to make of it. She’s about to open her mouth to respond when all of a sudden, the door to the tech lab wooshes open.
“Pathfinder,” SAM alerts her. “Gil has successfully restarted the grid and the door is now unlocked.”
Letting out a heavy sigh, Bridget abandons her previous train of thought. “Thanks, SAM…” she says halfheartedly before glancing back at Jaal.
“I guess I’ll, uh…get out of your hair…so to speak,” she jokes, gathering her supplies in her arms.
Jaal’s face scrunches up in perplexity. “What?”
She can’t help but let out a snort of amusement. “I’ll give you your privacy…I didn’t mean to intrude, but well…the door’s open now, so you can have your sanctuary back. I won’t disturb you again. Scout’s honor.”
His confusion quickly transitions into concern. “That wasn’t…You weren’t intruding, Ryder.”
There’s a softness in his voice that wasn’t there earlier and it stops her in her tracks. Against her better judgement, she looks up to meet his gaze.
“This was…is your lab…” he says with mild hesitation. “Sitting with you, watching you work, hearing your stories…That was something I greatly enjoyed. And…if it is agreeable to you, I would love to continue such an arrangement.”
Bridget’s heart skips a beat. She gathers her tech closer to her chest and looks down at the floor, trying to suppress her growing blush.
If this keeps up, she’s going to need to have Lexi on speed dial for whenever she’s in Jaal’s company.
“Y-yeah,” she stammers. “That, uh…sounds pretty great.”
And then he does the unthinkable. He gives her a full, toothy grin. “I am glad to hear it.”
Oh sweet mercy, but that man could melt butter with that voice.
Knowing full well that her face is reaching an unbecoming shade of scarlet, she bids him a quick farewell before ducking out of the lab while she still has the chance.
It’s like she’s a teenager with a crush again. But for the first time in a long while, she doesn’t feel like a fool for letting herself hope for more. Even though the sting of rejection is an incredibly likely scenario, she strongly believes that seeing Jaal smile like that is more than worth the price of any pain she might endure.