Salt Water, Fresh Start

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Title: Salt Water, Fresh Start
Characters: Lori, Dr. Zhang, Toshi, The Wall, DJ, Suyin,
Genre: mostly friendship
Fandom: The Meg (Movie)
Summary: Lori meets the team for the first time and finds herself drawn to one in particular.
Rating: PG
Pairings: pre-slash Lori/Jaxx (Laxx? Jori? Jari? Loxx?)
Warnings/Spoilers: None -- prequel fic

I don’t own any of these characters, I’ve just seen the movie way more than any sane person would.

Lori focused on keeping her breath even as she prepared for Dr. Zhang to introduce her to the team of people he’d hired to work on Mana One. Mana One was a venture Zhang and his daughter had been working on using the funds of some billionaire named Morris who she suspected had more dollars than sense. Still, she was excited to be here. What she’d seen of the facility so far was incredible, and now that they were in the central control room, she was doubly impressed.

Zhang started going around the group that had assembled in front of the monitors and screens that she assumed would track her sub’s progress on their dives into the depths once they were hooked up and everything was wired in. “This is DJ, he’ll pilot our remote explorer.”

“Nice to meet you,” she told DJ, a sweet looking black man with glasses, as she shook his hand.

DJ smiled. “You’re my first Greenpeace agent.”

“I think you may have been misinformed,” Lori winked, and several people in the room chuckled.

Zhang ignored DJ, so Lori figured that must be par for the course. Zhang continued, “This is Doctor Heller, he’s head of our medical crew.”

Lori was pretty sure she knew who he was, but she’d only ever heard of Doctor Heller. She hadn’t seen him, even when everything was happening to her ex-husband. He had a scruffy look about him that surprised her, but she kept herself neutral and shook his hand. “Doctor.” He gave her a look that she suspected was false blandness. It seemed he surmised who she was too.

“Welcome aboard,” Heller told her, before pulling back into the rest of the group. She may not have been entirely sure that Jonas had encountered some horrible sea creature, but she knew for sure Heller had been part of the staff to railroad him out of the Navy after. But she supposed if he was going to be polite and her life was going to be in his hands that she would just have to avoid confronting him.

“This is Toshi. He will be going down with you to gather information,” Zhang indicated a boyish Asian man who gave her a quick bow.

“Hajimemashite,” Toshi said.

Lori returned the bow, slightly awkwardly, but she thought she got the depth of the bow about right.

“O-i de kite ur shi dezu, Toshi.” She knew she’d mangled the pronunciation. She hadn’t learned to Japanese well when she’d been living there, and she’d been out of practice living in New Zealand the last year.

“I look forward to working with you,” Toshi said with a laugh, so she knew she’d messed up the greeting, but at least she’d gotten close enough that he knew what she meant.

"You, too. Are you the only one going down with me?” she asked him.

“No, Aron Gunnerson will also be coming with us,” Toshi turned and waved at a large man who looked like he was related to Thor.

Thor’s cousin gave her a grin and shook her hand, “Everyone just calls me The Wall.”

Lori laughed in surprise, “All right then. Nice to meet you, The Wall.” She realized that since she’d met the crew that would be heading into the depth with her, something had loosened in her chest that she hadn’t realized had been tight. There was something great about being part of a team. She’d loved her last team, but when everything went sideways with her ex, things hadn’t been the same. Add a couple of years after the divorce finalized and she needed a fresh start. Today, standing with this crew, it felt like maybe it was going to be a good change and the chance to start over.

Zhang continued, but this time he was pointing out a face she already knew well. “And I believe you know Mac, our Station Chief.”

“Hey, Mac. How are you?” Lori was going to offer her hand, not sure what reception she’d get, but Mac opened his arms wide and grinned at her. Lori quickly ducked in for the hug and Mac wrapped his arms around her tight. She closed her eyes just for a moment and enjoyed the comfort her friend offered. He had always given the best hugs, and she was relieved that he didn’t hold her divorce with Jonas against her. Mac loved her and Jonas, but he’d been Jonas’s friend first, and she’d always felt that she’d have to give up his friendship in the split. Maybe she’d been wrong about that after all.

“I’m good, Lori. You look great.”

Lori choked up a little, even more, comforted than she could’ve imagined by Mac’s kindness. She whispered so that the others wouldn’t hear, “How is he?”

“He’s drunk and renting out fishing boats he barely keeps running, but he’s alive. I haven’t spoken to him since he asked me to leave him alone, but I keep tabs on him, make sure that he’s stable enough,” Mac whispered back.

“Thank you,” Lori took another breath and made sure she had herself back together before she pulled away.

“It’s really great to see you.” Mac gave Lori one last pat on the shoulder and pulled back. “I’m glad you decided to join up. I wasn’t sure you would.”

“It was hard leaving the old purpose, but it was time for a change.”

She heard the door to the control room swoosh open, and she turned to see three people enter the room. The first was a graceful woman who looked to be Zhang’s daughter, who Lori knew was a huge part of the Mana One project. Right next to the woman, holding her hand, was a little girl who appeared to be her daughter. She was a cutie with a big grin, a pink tutu, and a spring in her step.

“Ah, perfect timing!” Zhang welcomed the newcomers into the room.

“Sorry we’re late, Bàba, Jaxx was showing me an issue we’d run into with the lab layouts, but it’s solved now.”

“It’s all right; come and meet Lori.” Zhang swelled with pride as he introduced Lori to Suyin and Meiying and it had Lori grinning, too. It was a moment later that she realized her focus on Zhang and his family meant that she hadn’t gotten a look at the third person to come in.

Lori was noticing the newcomer now.

“And finally, this is Jaxx, our engineer. She is designing everything, including your sub, so you’ll be working closely with her in the final stages of design and building.”

Lori swallowed hard. She couldn’t get any air out through her throat. She almost got enough air through her vocal cords to speak, so she swallowed, cleared her throat, and tried once more. “Um, hi.”

She couldn’t be sure, but she was pretty sure she had been shaking Jaxx’s hand about twenty seconds too long, so did her best to let go. She wanted to smack herself in the face, but managed to refrain for the moment. There was no sense in looking like even more of an idiot if she could help it.

“It’s great to meet you. I’ve heard lots of good stuff about you.” Jaxx told her. The expression on Jaxx’s face was amused and relaxed, but also calculating and maybe, Lori thought, a little bit predatory.

Jaxx looked around the room, “Actually, would you all mind if I borrowed Lori for a bit? I’d like to show here a few of my designs and prototypes so I can get her input.”

“Of course!” Doctor Zhang enthused.

“It was great meeting you all,” Lori told the group, and with the possible exception of Heller, she did mean it.

“Come with me,” Jaxx said and tilted her head to the door she’d come through. The dark strands of her hair moved away from her face, and Lori got the best view yet of the woman’s eyes. With her dark hair, angular face, piercing green eyes, and full lips, Lori thought Jaxx looked like a Sidhe Queen. Beautifully deadly and impossible to resist. She forced herself to look away.

The halls were still a lot of uneven flooring, and the lights were mostly hanging lanterns. Lori looked around in awe though, because she could see what it was going to be. It was going to be incredible.

Once they were down the hall some, Jaxx continued. “I know I should be designing a sub that anyone can pilot, but I told Doctor Zhang that I thought you should get a say in layout, control design, and responsiveness since you’ll be the main one piloting it. This is a big mission and any advantages I can give you could make all the difference in getting you down and back safely.”

Lori’s mouth felt like she hadn’t had a drink of water in days, dry and desperate, and Jaxx looked like an oasis, crisp and quenching. Lori was in trouble; the last thing she needed right now was to fall for a coworker. She tried for swallowing again. “It sounds like I’m in good hands.”

Jaxx’s smile was huge. “Oh, the best,” she said and winked.

Oh yes, Lori was in deep, deep trouble.

I spelled the way Lori replies to Toshi wrong on purpose to try to express that she isn't getting it right. I don't speak Japanese, so I had to look this stuff up to the best of my ability. If I've messed it up, beyond what I intended, please let me know.

This is what I went off of:

When meeting a respected for the first time in Japan, you may say oai dekite kouei desu. This means “delighted to meet you” and is pronounced oh-aye dic-tish-te ko-ee dis.

https://www.wikihow.com/Say-Nice-to-Meet-You-in-Japanese