Jack figured she should stop rolling her eyes, or she was going to sprain something. She had agreed to this 'field trip', as Donnelly called it, so that she could look at something other than the same damn walls and same damn people she'd been looking at for months.

So now she got to look at this place, which was a dark, dank corridor in Omega. Condensation dripped from random places, and there was a faint smell of garbage in the air. The whole scene was bathed in flickering fluorescent lights. One side of the corridor was lined with people selling all sorts of crap. At least, in her opinion, it was crap. Assface and the Buckethead seemed to think this was heaven.

"Hey, that's a Gerber 4CX heat exchanger! I haven't seen one of those in ages!" exclaimed Donnelly. He was pointing at something that, to Jack, looked like some random mess of metal. Its seller, a dumpy-looking human, straightened up and put a smile on his face.

"Going for a fair price, I assure you good sir!" said the seller. Jack turned away as Donnelly began haggling, and looked around. Tali was off at another booth, paging through an inventory screen and bouncing with excitement. Jack sighed, and hoped that somebody would try to mug them. Now that would be fun.

"Wow, Jack, look at this!" said Donnelly behind her. She turned back to look at the engineer's happy face, then down at the metal widget he was carrying. He really did seem to think it was something beautiful.

"Congratulations, Assface. I'm sure the two of you will be very happy together." She started walking away. Donnelly slung his new purchase into a duffel bag and puttered along after her, still chortling over his find. "So what is it good for?" she called over her shoulder.

"Well, it's not an exact fit for our heat exchangers, but some of the internal components are. I should be able to take the guts out of the case and weld them in as a replacement, if we need to. I might do it anyway. This thing's made of a niobium-iridium alloy and has an electroplated internal fractal design-"

"Now you're really boring me."

"You could always go back to the ship," said Donnelly. He didn't sound mad, more like just stating her options.

Jack shook her head. "Ohhhh, no. I stay out here and I can tell Shepard that I'm engaging in social activities with the crew. That makes him happy, and then I don't have to deal with the perky counselor twit."

"Suit yourself," he said. They caught up to Tali, who was asking questions of the heavy-set Batarian behind the counter. The Batarian did a double take as he saw them, which actually looked very impressive when done by somebody with four eyes. Jack wondered if that would make it an 'eight-take'.

"Donnelly! You shifty excuse for an engineer!" the batarian roared. His face was furious.

"Bartock! You jumped-up slave driver!" Donnelly roared back. He looked just as angry.

There was a tense moment. Jack shifted her feet and ready to squish the batarian. She was caught off guard by a sudden bout of laughter from both Donnelly and Bartock. There was then a great deal of hand-shaking between the two.

"Good to see you again, Marcus," said Bartock. "Let me take care of this customer, and we can catch up."

Tali shrugged "It's all right, we're together."

"I see. And so is this young lady, I assume?" Bartock nodded to Jack. He actually smiled at her, it was probably the first smile she'd ever gotten from a batarian.

"Yeah, Hi," Jack muttered.

Bartock turned to Donnelly. "I assume that your colleagues here are part of why you left Omega?"

Donnelly gave a little shrug. "Something like that."

Bartock shook his head. "I told you when you left, you had a pretty sweet set up here. I keep getting requests for you, and I keep having to tell them you're off doing who knows what."

"I told you, Bartock, I'm off saving the galaxy," Donnelly's voice dripped with sarcasm.

The batarian laughed. "Sure, sure. Play it mysterious. I bet you're working on an ore hauler." He turned a couple of eyes to Jack. "Or maybe a pirate ship?" he asked her, but there was a smile on his face.

Jack smiled back. "Oh, please. You know Assface. Does he strike you as pirate material?"

Bartock tilted his head to the right. "Assface?"

Donnelly waved a hand dismissively. "It's a term of endearment. I hope."

"Yes," said Tali. "And I'm Buckethead, apparently. If we stay here too long, I imagine Jack will come up with a name for Mr. Bartock."

Bartock put up his hands in mock surrender. "All right, no need for name-calling." Jack had caught a flicker of recognition in the batarian's eyes at the mention of her name. Shit, was there a bounty on her head here? She couldn't remember, exactly. There were a lot of bounties to keep track of. She had once sat down to figure out how much they tallied to when added together, and it came to at least the high seven figures. It might have gone up since then.

"Anyway," continued Bartock, "your friend here was looking for T6-FBA couplings. I haven't had any for a while, but I seem to remember the new quarian lad in the next hall had mentioned he'd gotten some. That's the only place I know of on Omega."

"Thanks, Bartock," said Donnelly, and shook hands again with the batarian. "See you around, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," replied Bartock. "Just come on back as soon as the galaxy is saved, okay?"

The three headed off down the hall. Jack turned several questions over in her mind. "So, Assface," she said, "you were here before joining the Normandy?"

"Yep. I did odd jobs around Omega for about a year. Bartock has a pretty good network of clients, and we're on a space station. Everything needs fixing, eventually. It was a good living." They came out of the main corridor and entered a narrower, right-angled hallway. They were alone for the moment.

"So why not stay?" asked Jack. "Not everywhere in Omega is a shithole. It can be nice here."

"Because the galaxy needs saving," replied Donnelly. His voice wasn't sarcastic this time.

Jack almost rolled her eyes again. "Oh, please. I know we're doing good works and shit. Hell, the Collectors need a solid kicking just on general principle. But they're not gonna kill us all."

Donnelly stopped dead, and Jack almost collided with his broad back. He turned to look at her in utter confusion. "You can't be serious." His voice was no longer light.

Now it was Jack's turn to be confused. "Yeah, I know there's supposedly these Reaper things that the Collectors are working for. Shepard keeps going on about them. I just figured he was a little...you know." She tapped her temple. "I mean, the guy was dead for two years. You don't come back from that and be all there."

Tali crossed her arms, and from her stance Jack could tell the buckethead was pissed. Donnelly didn't look too happy, either.

"Besides," continued Jack, "If these Reaper guys were real, the Council and the Alliance would be all over that shit. They'd be building ships, doing all sorts of science-y shit, making big guns..." Her two companions looked at each other, and then both looked at the floor. They didn't look angry anymore. Jack suddenly had a nasty suspicion. "They would, wouldn't they?" she asked, almost pleading.

Donnelly gave a bitter chuckle. "Never underestimate the power of denial," he muttered.

Tali touched Jack's shoulder. "Jack, the Reapers are real. You spoke to one."

"What?" Maybe the buckethead had blown a gasket.

"I saw the footage from Horizon," said Tali. "That 'Harbinger' creature that attacked you had a voice that sounded very much like Sovereign." Tali shuddered. "I suspect that particular Collector was being remotely controlled by a Reaper."

"Oh." Jack remembered the horrible feeling she had on Horizon, when those glowing eyes had looked at her. "Maybe so. Wait, how do you know what Sovereign's voice sounded like? You spoke to it?"

Tali shook her head. "No, but I was in the room when Shepard confronted Sovereign's hologram. It is not my most pleasant memory."

"Oh. Then Sovereign wasn't a giant geth dreadnought?" Jack couldn't believe it. This was huge, why weren't the high-ups working on this? It was criminal negligence, even to a criminal like her.

"Nope, it wasn't," said Donnelly. "Both Tali and I saw old Sovvy up close and personal during the Battle of the Citadel. No way that thing was just a big geth ship."

Tali tilted her head. "Marcus, I didn't know you were on the Citadel then."

Donnelly shrugged. "I wasn't, I was on the Perugia during the battle." He turned and began walking around the bend in the corridor.

"Stop, big guy," said Jack. "No more mysterious past horseshit, okay? What happened? How do you know for real that Sovereign wasn't just a geth ship?"

Donnelly turned back, his face curiously expressionless. He sighed and leaned against the corridor wall with crossed arms. When he spoke, it was almost as if he was reading it off of a printout.

"The Perugia was in the initial wave of Alliance ships, right after Shepard got the mass relay to the Citadel working again. The Destiny Ascension was getting pecked to death by a swarm of smaller geth ships, and word came down to save the Destiny. And so we did. The Citadel arms were all closed up, so we couldn't do anything there anyway. The Perugia did pretty well, we took down at least twelve of the geth ships. We did take a nasty hit on a starboard thruster pod. That limited our maneuverability, but we were still doing okay.

"Then Shepard got the Citadel arms opened up again. The fleet got the order to take out the big ship inside the Citadel. Our maneuvering was getting worse, so the thruster pod had to be fixed. I had to go outside to fix it. It wouldn't be too hard, either. One of the connectors had gotten sheared away by the strike, I could easily splice in a temporary bridge-"

Jack didn't process it right away because of his matter of fact tone. "Wait, wait," she interrupted. "You had to go outside the ship? In the middle of a battle?"

Donnelly gave her a faint smile. "We couldn't exactly call for a time-out, lassie."

Jack couldn't imagine pulling a stunt like that. "That's fucking nuts, dude."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't entirely crazy. I had a safety tether. And I got the thruster fixed pretty fast. But then when I was coming back, the Perugia was making our first run at Sovereign. We had to do some hard maneuvers to get out of the way of it's attacks. I wound up getting flipped around pretty good. I couldn't get back to the airlock, not while the ship was jinking that much. I just had to hang onto the hull and wait out the battle."

He stared off into space, not seeing either of them. "I saw Sovereign, i saw...It. It was clamped onto the Council tower like a tick. It was huge and jet black, and had this giant red eye. I was out there, face-to-face with It. I watched It kill at least six ships around me. I was waiting for It to kill me too. And then It seemed to...see me. I don't know, they kept telling me I was just imagining things. And It spoke. Right through vacuum, right through my suit, It made this noise that vibrated my skull." Donnelly tightened his arms, almost hugging himself. "I could have sworn it was saying my name. I don't want to think about it. Anyway, they came and pried me off the hull after it was all over. Gave me a commendation for bravery." He gave a dark chuckle. "And then they proceeded to ignore the whole damn thing."

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Tali patted Donnelly's arm. "You did well, Marcus. I think the noise you heard was when Saren was...transformed into Sovereign's puppet. I remember hearing a noise from outside the tower right after that."

"Damn, Buckethead," said Jack. "You saw Sovereign too?"

Tali nodded. "I remember during our final push up the Council tower. Sovereign was up the top and just kept getting bigger and bigger as we got closer. I had a crazy thought while we were going up...I thought the Reaper was just going to keep getting big enough to eat the whole universe."

Jack shook her head. "You're both fuckin' crazy." The reality started to sink in. "Holy shit," she said. "This is real, isn't it? Giant evil robots coming to kill us all."

"We'll be waiting for them," said Donnelly. "They're not immortal." He took a deep breath. "After all, Sovereign's dead."

The three stood in silence for a moment, then Donnelly shook his head in annoyance. "C'mon," he said, "let's see if we can find these damn couplings."

They did find Kenn the quarian, who did indeed have the damn couplings. Kenn was apparently on some kind of mission or pilgrimage, and had gotten stuck on Omega. Donnelly didn't haggle for once, and Jack could swear she saw the engineer sneak quite a few extra credits in as he paid Kenn. Tali and Kenn began chatting about Kenn's pilgrimage, and after a bit Jack tuned out.

This area was a little nicer, but not by much. It was less drippy, but the fluorescent lighting still flickered too much. However, a little ways over was a stand brightly lit with yellow neon. Hmmm...she was a little hungry, now that she thought about it. She nudged Donnelly.

"You want something to eat?"she asked him.

He nodded, and told Tali to take her time talking with Kenn. The pair strolled over to the snack stand. There were apparently burgers available. What the actual meat was, Jack didn't want to think about. They also served something called 'tacos'.

"This will keep the Doc happy too," said Jack. "She keeps bugging me to eat more."

They settled on tacos, and after a little bit the morose-looking turian behind the counter gave them their food. They stood off to the side and ate in silence for a while. The 'taco' wasn't bad, but also contained mystery meat of some sort. Oh, well. Jack knew she'd eaten worse.

"So how well do you know Bartock?" she asked Donnelly.

"Pretty well. We worked together for about a year. Why do you ask?"

"It was just weird, seeing a human and a batarian getting along." Jack was also wondering if Bartock would try to claim any outstanding bounty on her, but figured it wouldn't be prudent to say so.

Donnelly nodded. "Once you get 'em away from Hegemony influence, batarians aren't bad people. Bartock figured out that the Hegemony was spewing crap propaganda, and so he lit out for Omega on his own. He's a rare one, but yeah I'd say he's a good guy."

Jack finished her taco. She hoped Donnelly was right. The engineer seemed fond of Bartock, and he wouldn't like it if Jack killed his batarian friend.

Tali came bouncing up. "I think we're all set." She had the couplings slung over one shoulder in another duffel bag.

"Hey, Buckethead, did you want something to eat...oh."

Tali gave Jack an ironic tilt of her head. The buckethead could be very expressive, even without a visible face. "Sorry," muttered Jack. "I forgot."

"No problem, Jack. I appreciate the thought."

The trio began to make their way back to the Normandy. For once, Jack was looking forward to seeing the inside of the ship. She'd kept trying to remember if she'd pulled a job on Omega. Probably nothing big; Aria T'Loak was a total bitch about unauthorized large-scale theft. Such things definitely counted as 'fucking with Aria' unless the asari crime boss got a significant taste. So Jack probably didn't have any outstanding bounties on Omega itself.

They crossed a little 'T' intersection, and Jack caught sight of some armored mercenaries lounging around down one of the side passageways. The group consisted of two humans and two salarians, and all wore the golden 'E' of Eclipse on their chests. Was it her imagination, or had their collective glance lingered a little too long on her?

She kept a lookout as they progressed. On further thought, somebody could still make a run at them. After all, the bounty wouldn't have to be on Omega itself, would it? Jack tried to think of how many of her bounties were 'dead or alive' ones. She knew most of the 'alive, no matter what' ones were from Cerberus. Crap. She really should sit down sometime and figure this all out. Just in case they went somewhere where she could be shot on sight.

They were in a smaller side-corridor now. Just as they approached the next intersection, two of the Eclipse mercs she'd seen earlier stepped around and blocked their path. It was the two humans, and now they had their helmets on and pistols out. Donnelly stopped and stood there with his duffel slung over one shoulder and his hands in his pockets. He looked unperturbed, almost like he was going to fall asleep. Jack heard Tali's duffel hit the ground with a thud and simultaneously the clack of Tali's shotgun being chambered. Jack glanced behind and saw the two salarian Eclipse mercs at the other end of the corridor. The salarians had been starting to draw their weapons, but were now frozen at the sight of the unwavering bore of Tali's weapon.

Just as Jack turned her eyes back at the two humans, she saw that one of them had stepped forward with and raised his pistol. It was trained on Donnelly, about two inches away from the engineer's face. Jack's fist flared with blue light, but the human with the pistol shook his head.

"No biotics, Jack," said the merc. "Do you know how much you're worth?"

Jack felt the welcome thrill up her spine. Finally, she got to have some fun. "No. Why don't you tell me?"

"I don't think so. There's no reason for this to get ugly. You will come with us, quietly. We'll dose you with a biotic suppression drug. Or I will put one through your boyfriend's eye." Jack saw Donnelly quirk one amused eyebrow back at her.

The merc glanced at her. "Now, Jack, or I-"

Donnelly moved whip-fast. He slipped his head in, past the merc's gun, and his left hand came out of his pocket. Jack thought she saw something glittering on the engineer's fist. He punched upward into the merc's face, his arm looping over the merc's gun arm. The punch connected square with the merc's visor, which cracked into a crazy spiderweb pattern.

Just as Donnelly hit with his punch, Jack reached with her power for the other human. She also heard the boom of Tali's shotgun behind her. Jack yanked the merc over her head, turning him into a projectile. She aimed him at the two salarians, and saw that one was already down thanks to Tali. The other salarian looked up just in time to get a human-sized cannonball to the face.

She spun back towards Donnelly, and saw that the engineer had trapped the first merc's gun arm to his side. Donnelly's big right hand had clamped onto the front of the merc's helmet and was merrily and repeatedly pounding it into the corridor wall. Even with the helmet's protection, Jack figured the merc's brain was bouncing around pretty good inside his skull. Donnelly finally let go and the merc slid to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Jack walked over to the other end of the corridor. One salarian had a nice hole through the chest, and the other two mercs were tumbled together and definitely out cold. She snorted.

"I guess it's their lucky day for three of 'em," she said. "I'd normally finish them off. But right now let's just get the fuck out of here."

Donnelly nodded. He slipped a set brass knuckles off his left hand and stuck it back in his pocket. Jack shook her head at him. "And here I thought you were a straight-up guy, Assface" she said. "That almost seems like cheating."

Donnelly gave her a big grin. "I told ya. I used to be a helluva scrapper when I was a wee lad."

Jack laughed. "And you crawl around on spaceships during combat. Well, I guess if you're gonna be mistaken for my boyfriend, it's good to know you have a pair." It might have been her imagination, but she thought she saw a little disappointed flicker in Donnelly's eyes when she used the word 'mistaken'. Jack looked over at Tali. The quarian was holstering her shotgun. "I pegged you wrong, Buckethead. You got a pair too."

Tali shook her head. "If I understand the meaning of that term, I'm pretty sure I don't."

----------------------------------------

"I don't get it, Thane," said Joker. "I mean, how can you say that sometimes your body is responsible for something and not you?"

Dinnertime was winding down, but the mess was still crowded. Donnelly suspected it was due to curiosity about their new drell recruit. For once, the assassin had decided to eat in the mess hall instead of in life support, and the word had rapidly spread. Especially among the female part of the crew, from the looks of it. He looked around with a little amusement as he sipped his tea. Kelly, Kasumi, and the rest of the women were all there. They all looked at Thane with visible interest. Even Simons, the second-shift pilot, was here. That surprised him. Up until now, Donnelly had been pretty sure that Simons only liked the ladies.

Actually, not all of the women were there. Where was Jack? After the incident over Haestrom, Donnelly had made a particular point to keep track of Jack's location. He did a quick check on his omni-tool...Jack was checked into Shepard's cabin. Hmmm.

Thane folded his hands in front of him on the table. "It seems odd, but it is quite simple," he said in his pleasant, rumbling voice. Donnelly had heard rumors that the assassin had some sort of terminal illness, and he wondered if the voice was a symptom.

"It is a matter of agency," the drell continued. "I understand that in most human religions, the anima or the soul is considered to have ultimate agency. It is the prime mover. It is responsible for all of its own actions."

Tali chimed in. "I don't believe in the soul, but for the sake of argument let's assume such a thing exists. Even then, the soul drives the body, correct?"

"Which would make me the Normandy's soul," said Joker. "You guys need to worship me a little more. I take cash, or checks if you show your ID."

Donnelly heard the elevator hiss open, and Jack came around the corner. Her step was light, as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She was actually smiling as she grabbed some fruit and a couple of nutrient bars and sat down across from Donnelly. He felt her kick his shin under the table, and he nodded a greeting in return. She didn't look over at him, and instead stared at the drell.

"Sometimes the soul is in control," said Thane. "But you are not aware of every breath you take, correct? The body does that on its own. Also consider the acts of digestion and waste elimination. These are not controlled by any conscious effort on your part. They take place automatically. And many times, if you are performing an action that is very ingrained, you may find yourself operating without thinking."

Garrus tapped one talon on the table as he thought. "Yes, I've sometimes taken a shot and didn't really realize it until after the round was away."

Thane spread his hands. "So the soul does drive the body, but not all the time. And therefore, in...certain circumstances, the body may indeed be operating under the agency of another. The soul is in contact with the body, but not directing it."

"It sounds almost like a free-floating form of Cartesian Dualism," said Jack.

They all turned to stare at her.

"What are you fuckers looking at? Yes, the crazy bitch has read a book or two."

Donnelly smiled and sipped his tea. The elevator hissed again, and now Shepard came strolling in. As far as Donnelly could remember, this was the first time since the Horizon mission that he had seen his commanding officer smiling.

"Commander!" said Gardner. "Let me put together something for you."

"Nah, don't bother." The Spectre also took some fruit and bars, and sat at one end of the table. He smiled at everyone. "Good to see you all here together. It...it reminds me of old times."

Jack gave Shepard a gentle smile. Donnelly took another sip of tea as he looked at them both. Jack and Shepard together, eh? Hmm, he hadn't seen that one coming.

He took another sip. Yes, all things told it would be good for Jack, it would give her some stability. And it would be good for Shepard as well to have somebody. Donnelly didn't want to think about how long it must have been since the poor lad last had any companionship. Yes, on the whole this was without a doubt a good thing.

Donnelly realized he was gripping his mug very tightly. He stared at his hand in confusion. He set the mug down as if it was full of mercury fulminate, and flexed his hand open. Was he feeling...jealous? Donnelly sighed internally. He did not need this, not now...

"Hey Assface! Gardner asked you a fuckin' question!"

"Hmm, sorry?"

"I was just wondering what's up with the accent, that's all," said Gardner.

Donnelly drew himself up and fixed Gardner with a green-eyed stare. "Sergeant, I want you to understand something. I will only say this once. I do not have an accent." He paused. "Nae oan yer bike, ya great bampot, an' stoop talking oot yer fanny flaps!"

There was laughter, and Thane even smiled.

Tali shook her head. "That really doesn't translate well. My visor keeps saying it's Spanish."

"I still say it's adorable," said Kasumi.

"No, seriously, Assface, spill," said Jack. "I wanna know too. Since I'm a scunner, whatever the fuck that is."

Donnelly rubbed his face. "It's not a big mystery. I grew up in Glasgow, which is not really thought of as a hotbed of intellectual prowess. My grades were good enough to get me into a posh school, and when I got there I felt a huge pressure to sound...well, to sound less like where I came from. It's just habit at this point. Except in extreme circumstances, I tend to revert back."

"Like when you're manhandling a crazy bitch into a pressure suit?" asked Jack.

"Aye, during times like that, ya wee scunner. Besides," he continued, thickening his accent slightly, "If I let it oot too much, I turn in'ta a verritable towerrr of raw sexual charisma. Gotta give our new wee green laddie a chance w' the ladies, right?"

Donnelly toasted Thane with his mug, and the drell nodded in reply. Jack kicked Donnelly in the shin again, harder this time. He gave her a mock glare. "What was that for?"

She waggled her eyebrows at him. "Just being a wee scunner."

"Heavens, woman, haven't you injured me enough?"

"Oohhh, is da big stwong man aww hurt?" Jack cooed. "Do you want momma to kiss it and make it better?" She suddenly vanished under the table, and Donnelly felt her yank up his pant leg.

"Hey-" he began.

"Not even a bruise, you big baby," said Jack from under the table. "Lemme give ya something to whine about." There was a sudden sharp pain as Donnelly felt her teeth go into the side of his calf.

"Ah! JE-sus!" he yelled, and jerked back, spilling tea on himself. "What the hell?"

Jack unfolded herself from under the table. She crossed her arms and shook her head. "You are such a pussy, Assface. G'night, you jackoffs." She sashayed away to the elevator.

Shepard chuckled. "I'm glad to see Jack's finally interacting with the crew," he said with an arch tone.

Donnelly looked down and checked his leg. It hadn't been a mock bite; he could see the imprint of her teeth in his flesh. "What the hell got into her?" he grumbled. "At least she didn't break the skin." He pulled his pant leg back down.

"Good for you that Jack didn't," said Garrus. "If she drew blood, then according to turian custom you'd be bethrothed to each other."

"Oooh, interesting," purred Kasumi. She was seated next to Garrus. "So turian courtships consist of biting?"

Garrus gently tucked one talon under Kasumi's chin, tilted her head back, and gazed into her eyes. "Yeeesss," he purred back. "Biting, fine dining, formal wear, handcuffs, long walks on the beach. Occasional gunplay."