Amy had just gotten out of the shower, and she sat quietly in her corner of the common area listening to Stryker make his "victory" speech. She pushed back a strand of wet hair from her face, the bitterness she currently felt threatening to make her lash out against the rest of the team. But Amy kept her composure, never being one for dramatic outbursts unless she was sure she was alone.
Fighting back a couple of tears, Amy skipped the toast and instead, she downed her drink and momentarily cringed as the liquor left the all-too familiar burning sensation once it had traveled down her throat. She kept the empty shot glass in hand, and when it quieted down a bit, she asked Grayson to meet her in the kitchen. Despite her knowing the outcome of the mission, Amy wanted to get the details straight, at least for her own sake.
First order of business for Grayson upon getting back to the ship was to head to his room and change out of his armor. He lingered for a moment, checking out his shoulder, which felt fine apart from the usual muscle fatigue of a long gunfight and the lingering burn mark from the laser blast that had grazed him. It didn't seem serious enough to require medical attention, but perhaps he'd check in on the med bay later, see if he could grab some healing gel to lessen the sting. The t-shirt and shorts he'd worn under his armor were drenched in sweat, and since he had no interest in staring out a window at a 2 second long explosion, Grayson took the opportunity to grab a shower before the men's room got too crowded.
He emerged from the shower feeling refreshed and wearing the only other set of casual clothes he owned, a sleeveless tee and track pants. He sat around silently as Stryker gave a speech. He was never one to refuse a drink, so he downed his own, then slid Maxi's over with a quick "do ya mind?" and downed that one too. Amy called him over to speak in private.
'Here we go then' he thought as she led the way into the kitchen.
"So, what's this about lass?"
"I just want to clarify a few things," she said, leaning against the counter after she found it, the shot she'd taken just starting to make her feel a little bit light-headed. It didn't help that she hadn't eaten anything in a while. Amy then pulled the sleeves of her off-white sweater over her hands before crossing her arms. "What exactly happened to my father? I know he was killed, but I need to know the details."
"Right, I figured as much" Grayson said, leaning against the counter, facing the wall so he wouldn't have to look directly at her.
"We were talking... negotiatin' a deal. I thought it was fair: information in exchange for a ride off the ship, seemed like he thought so too, but then out of nowhere, the guy throws up his gun, said if we didn't walk away, he was gonna open fire. I tried to talk him down, but it didn't work... I had to act"
Amy stood still for a moment, riddle with shock. So it was him who had been responsible for her father's death.
"But you didn't have to kill him...you could have easily incapacitated him with whatever fancy weapon you had on you. Why--why did you take the first shot?" Obviously it was hard for Amy to swallow the truth. Since Arex had already betrayed her, it would easily make sense for Grayson to do the same. The thought alone filled her with rage, and this time she acted upon it.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" she yelled, reaching for the closest thing behind her--which happened to be an empty glass--and throwing it in the direction of Grayson's voice.
The glass shattered against the cupboard directly to the left of Grayson's head, shards of it flew all across the countertop. He jumped back at the noise and turned on his heels to face Amy. The anger in her voice was nothing compared to the look of disgust on her face. It broke his heart to see her in such pain. With one hand, he absent-mindedly brushed the glass fragments together in a neat little pile, mulling a response.
"I suppose if you go to the root of the problem, it's that I'm a killer. Since I was a kid, all I've known is death, I became so familiar, so desensitized to it, that I made a career of it. In nearly 20 years I've taken my jobs as they rolled in, made the kill and moved on, I could've been changing worlds for the better or worse, never known because it's not my place to deal with the fallout.... but here, now..... what just happened, it's the first time I've ever killed to save a life.. to save
your life.
"I didn't need saving!" Amy cried, sinking to the floor in a mess of tears. At the moment, she just wanted someone to empathize with her, but such sentiment wasn't possible given the fact that her father had been leading the army of enemies.
"I've got no one left now..." she continued, whispering to herself as the sad truth sunk in for the young woman. Since she was on the ground, she hugged her legs for comfort and for a moment, she thought about what the rest of her life would be like from that point on.
Grayson crossed the room and knelt next to Amy. He spoke in a low voice.
"You won't want to hear this, I didn't wanna have to tell ya. Hell, ya might not even believe me, but your father was going to kill you"
He paused to let it set in, thought about reaching out to try and comfort her, but decided against it. He continued:
"His arm shot up, and I could see that his aim was locked dead center on your forehead. Any move I could have made to incapacitate 'im would've triggered a muscle response, and we wouldn't even be havin' this conversation. I'm sorry, but I had to do it"
As much as Amy didn't want to believe him, something about his voice made her realize that Grayson was in fact telling her the truth. She choked back whatever tears were left and turned to face him.
"I just don't understand why he would want to kill his own daughter," Amy said as she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. "But thank you for telling me the truth despite its consequences, and I'm sorry for not beliving you sooner."
Amy spoke in a monotone voice, and she looked as if her own soul had been sucked out of her.
"I'll go back to my room now," she continued, getting herself up off of the ground. "How long until my armor is fully functional again?" she asked, changing the subject.
Grayson pushed himself back to his feet and did some quick calculations in his head.
"Give us a day or two. I haven't gotten a good look at it yet, but should be able to patch most of it with stuff we have here. If not, I'll pick it up when we dock"
He reached out and gently laid a hand on her shoulder, hoping to shake her out of her reverie.
"Hey, c'mon I'll walk ya back" he muttered.
"Thank you," she replied as sincerely as she could. Despite the fact that Grayson was a killer as he had described a few moments prior, he was trying to get on her good side, and she appreciated his efforts.
"Sorry about the glass..." she added, smirking for a moment before she followed him out of the kitchen.
"Ah, no worries lass... yer aim was off by a couple inches anyway" Grayson chuckled as he led the way back towards the quarters. Most of the crew had dispersed to go back about their day after Stryker had finished speaking. It was a short walk they made within a minute.
"Here ya are. Listen, I wanna say it again, if there was any other way that could've gone, it would've and just.... thanks for understandin I guess" He leaned down somewhat awkwardly to wrap one arm around her shoulder, before withdrawing it quickly.
"Uh, I better get goin', get a start on repairin' your armor. Talk later?"
"Yeah, sounds good," she replied with a smug smile, leaning against the door with her arms crossed in front of her. "See you later."
Amy heard him walk away before she turned around and walked inside her room. It was very easy to tell that Grayson had some feelings for her just by how nervous he'd acted around her, the opposite of how trained killers usually behaved.
Everyone does have their weakness, she thought.
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