Freak on a Leash
Author's note: Post-ME3 fic. Destroy ending 'fixed' to be good (Shepard not dead, etc). Character default John Shepard but Spacer/War Hero biotic. No ME1 romance, Jack ME2/3 romance. Roughly 9-ish months post-ME3.
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Jack started to pace anxiously in front of Shepard. She tried to rationalize to herself, Okay yeah he has been coming over more and more, but damn he's asking for too much.
Commander Shepard still continued to uphold his duties as a Spectre and Alliance Marine, but no one said anything when he took an extended leave for days, or weeks, at a time to Grissom; the galactic community owed him as much.
Jack stopped stalking around her cramped quarters, and turned to face John Shepard head on, "Fuck John! Why the hell do you want me to meet your mother?"
He smirked and answered smugly, "Why not?" Her face contorted. She walked away and she locked herself in the bathroom.
Shepard slowly exhaled, got up, and proceeded to knock calmly on the bathroom door.
"Jack can we just talk about this? It's my mom's birthday. She wants to meet you."
He heard the sound of water rushing, the sink not enough to be the shower, "What? You fucking dumbass! You told her about me!"
He crossed his arms and leaned against the door-frame, "Yeah. You're part of my life, Jack. You're important. Of course I would tell my mother."
She actually laughed before she replied, "Awe. You tell your precious mommy that you're fucking a psychotic bitch. How precious."
He stood straighter, "No. I told her that I'm seeing a biotics instructor at Grissom Academy. Someone who has helped me take down the Collectors and the Reapers. Someone who knows how to keep her shit together in a firefight while reeking total havoc. And especially, someone who I trust unequivocally to keep my ass in one piece."
The bathroom door opened, and Jack was holding a glass of water as she smirked, "Jackass. You know just what to say, don't you?"
He pulled her into a loose embrace, "It is one of my better skill sets... But, honestly I'm more worried about the discussion we're going to have about what you're going to wear."
She smirked and poured her glass of water on his head, "I'm not. Wearing. A. Dress."
…...
Jack stood in front of of the mirror in her bathroom tugging and pulling at the uncomfortable silk green halter dress.
Shepard stood in the doorway and muttered, "You borrowed that from one of your students? It's a little revealing for a teenager, don't you think?"
She stalked out and pushed her way past him, "If anything, it doesn't show enough skin!"
She ripped off the dress, and sat on the sofa naked, "What the hell am I gonna wear? We're going to a fancy restaurant, right?" She raked her fingers through her strip of hair, "If you weren't so damned picky, I would just wear my normal crap!"
Shepard walked over towards her door, "I'll be right back. I have an idea."
Jack just crossed her arms, and waited for him to return.
When he got back, he had a large box in his arms. He sat it down on the coffee table in front of her, "I was saving this for your birthday, but –"
She interrupted him, "I don't have a birthday, smart one."
He grinned, "I've invented one for you."
She rolled her eyes, and he said, "It's two days after Halloween."
She quirked a brow, "I'll bite, why?"
He leaned on one foot, "Well, that was right after you blew up Pragia, and we were on our way to deal with Dr. Archer." He smiled, "We were in the armory cleaning our guns, it was the first time I saw you actually relax."
She rolled her eyes again, "You're such a pussy. Now what's in the box?"
He opened it with great finesse, and held out a dress. Jack quickly grabbed it and looked it over. It was all black, it had a sheer top with sheer long sleeves. The skirt of the dress was black velvet. It was probably three inches too short, but that made it all the better for Jack.
She muttered her approval by saying, "Not bad."
He tossed a solid-black bra at her, and said "You know, to wear under it. And I have these."
He pulled out a pair of knee-high black leather boots, ones that looked very much like combat boots. They had chains and studs on the ankles.
She quickly pulled on the boots, then the bra and dress, and walked back over to the bathroom. She shouted towards Shepard, "You can still see most of my tats. Hell yeah!"
…...
Jack was visibly fighting the urge to rip off the dark purple nail polish Rodriguez painted on her before she left. Jack didn't know how the hell the girl found out they were heading to Eden Prime to meet Shepard's mother. But the damned nail polish was really, really making her uncomfortable; not to mention she was already in a dress.
Jack elbowed Shepard in the taxi, "How the hell did Rodriguez convince me that the nail polish would look good? She said "it'll make you look pretty." Why the fuck do I care if I look 'pretty'? Now it's too late for me to tare the shit off!"
Shepard grabbed one of her fidgeting hands and kissed the back of it, "You look good. Really. What's bothering you?"
Jack snorted, "Everything... I mean, it's just, I've never met anyone's parents before. I don't know what to do. How to act. I mean, what do I say? Hey my name's Jack and I'm fucking your son on a regular basis? Hell..."
Shepard peered over towards her, "Here. I'll help you with the introduction." He paused, "Just say, hi I'm Jacqueline Naught, but you can call me Jack. And you can tell her all about being a teacher and swap war stories. She's not like a regular mother. She's a soldier. An admiral. She'd love to hear all about you killing things. I swear."
She pushed farther back in her seat, "Fine..."
Once they got in the restaurant, Shepard and Jack were walking side-by-side towards the table where his mother and some of her guests were seated. Jack stared at the silver-haired woman who had waved and started to walk towards them. She really didn't look like how Jack imagined her. Her straight silver hair was cut in an angled chin-length bob. She wore a silver dress a few shades darker than her hair, with a plunging neckline. She was muscular, and built like a soldier. Her eyes were the same color as the Commander's.
"John!" She greeted her son and pulled him in a hug. As they parted she remarked, "I like the jacket." She cast an examining eye on John's dark blue dinner jacket and black dress shirt.
Before John could reply, she walked to stand in front of Jack. "You must be the girlfriend."
Jack started to introduce herself, "Hi, my name's Jacqueline Naught, but you can call –" John's mother interrupted her by embracing her too. Jack didn't know what to do, so she just pated her on the back once with her hands.
Shepard's mother grinned wide, "I've heard all about you, Jack. It's nice to finally meet you." She looked towards her son and waved, "C'mon lets join the others."
Jack managed to whisper, "What the hell was that?" as they took their seats across from his mother. John just smiled and shrugged in reply.
Hannah Shepard looked over at Jack drumming her purple fingertips across the table. When Jack noticed her looking, she quickly withdrew her hands into her lap.
"So..." Hannah drew out, "I hear you're a teacher, Jack. What do you do exactly?"
Jack was sure she had already heard about it from John, but she replied anyways, "I teach biotic combat at Grissom to a bunch of teenagers."
"Oh..." Hannah raised both of her eyebrows, "I had heard you were a biotic like John. There's not many human biotics, right?"
"Right." She ground her teeth uncomfortably. Jack could see this conversation heading down a path she didn't much care for.
John seemed to notice her discomfort, and redirected the conversation somewhat, "I know her students. They helped with support during the war too. They were even there for the final push in London."
Hannah nodded, "I think I've heard that before." She turned to face Jack, "You must be very proud of them."
Jack smirked, "Yeah."
Thankfully, another guest showed up then. Hannah excused herself, and went to greet the newcomer.
Jack leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, "I'm not talking about Pragia or my mother, if she asks. Just so you know."
As they were looking over the menu, Jack muttered to John, "Your paying right?" As she turned to look back at the menu, she noticed that the old guy across form her had a creepy leering look upon his face. He was staring at her breasts. Most woman would have probably been uncomfortable, but Jack simply used her menu to shield her hand, and covertly stuck her middle finger up at the man. Apparently stealth was not her forte, because John nudged her foot immediately after.
Within a few minutes, everyone had placed their orders, and some of the other marines started to talk about various battles. One kept bringing up Shanxi.
Jack had enough after the third attempt to rant about Shanxi, "Look you bigoted bastard. Anyone can be a serious fuck face no matter if they're turian or not. Shanxi happened so long ago. Hell, I don't even know if I was born yet. But that shit doesn't really matter anymore. Everyone's working together for now. And no turian is gonna stalk your ugly ass and rape you, so you don't have be such a jackass towards them. Turians aren't so bad. I've worked with one." She abruptly got up and excused herself, and headed to the restroom.
John quickly got up and followed her. He grabbed her arm in front of the restroom, and turned her towards him. "Hey, where are you going? I'm sure Garrus would've been pleased to hear you defend turians to an Alliance captain." He joked.
She pulled her arm out of his grasp, "Shit. Don't mention Garrus now... I was just acting like such a fucking idiot in front of your mother."
He pulled her into a quick kiss and said, "My mom doesn't care. She hates Robert. He's only here because if she didn't invite him, she would have never heard the end of it. Don't worry about it."
John brought Jack back to the table. And she had started to mumble an apology, but John's mother interrupted her, "You don't have to apologize to him, sweetheart. He deserved that." She glared in the direction of the captain, "Now you said something about working with a turian?"
Jack tried to contain her shock at her support as she replied, "Yeah. His name's Garrus. He used to be part of John's team too."
Hannah nodded, "Ah. Garrus Vakarian. I've met him before. He's a good guy." She decided to change the topic, as the other side of the table resumed their war talk. She motioned towards the most visible tattoo on Jack's hand, "You know, I have a few tattoos myself."
Jack quirked a brow, genuinely interested, "No shit. What'd you got?"
Hannah lifted up her right sleeve to show the inside of her wrist, "My late husband's name." She pulled on her dress to reveal the top of her right shoulder, "Alliance logo." She went to show her her left shoulder, "My son's name, birth date, and the day he supposedly died." Jack turned to see John go slightly red in the face and mouth 'sorry'.
Hannah pulled her dress into it's correct places and continued, "I also have a tramp stamp from the night I met his father." She pointed at John.
Jack couldn't help the devilish grin that spread across her face, "Really? You got a fucking butterfly or something?"
Hannah chuckled, "Actually it's a pink butterfly on a yellow flower. I would show you, but we're at a nice place, and I'm in a dress."
Jack was actually starting to find Hannah kinda interesting, no way she was passing on an opportunity, "Pfft. Well let's go to the toilet room then. I wanna see it." She stood and started walking, Hannah followed.
Once in the otherwise empty restroom, Hannah turned around in front of Jack, "If you unzip me, you can see it."
Jack quickly obliged and sure enough, on her lower back was a bright pink butterfly on a tropical-looking yellow flower. Jack snickered and poked it's center, "How lame."
She zipped Hannah's dress back up, and the older woman turned partially around, "I also have another one that John doesn't know about." She lifted her hair to expose the nape of her neck. And in thin black ink, there was a tiny cross followed by two equally small X's.
Jack traced an oval around them, "Prison tats. Earth... What the fuck?"
Hannah turned around, "I had two strikes. I can tell you about it at the table. John knows the story, but he doesn't know I've kept the ink. I'd prefer it if that remained our little secret?"
Jack nodded, "But don't think I've forgotten about the butterfly."
Once they were settled at the table, Hannah opened up about herself, "I was an orphan. I lived on the streets in San Diego, where I eventually helped establish a gang as a teen. The Sols." She rolled her eyes, "At the time, California had a dated three-strikes law for teen criminals. I was one strike away from life in prison when an Alliance rep found me, and convinced me to sign-up on my eighteenth. John's named for him. He saved my life."
"Cool." Their food had arrived while the women were away, and Jack was in the midst of devouring her meal, "I've heard of the Sols. A few years back they tried some shit at the Citadel and Illium. But they got their asses handed to them by C-sec and Eclipse... Now what's the deal with the butterfly?"
Hannah smiled, "I met John's father on my first break out of boot camp. We were drunk, and he convinced me to go with him and get the Alliance logos done. After the logo, I somehow ended up with the tramp stamp too. I don't know if it was my idea or his, but I've always maintained that he made me get it. No way I would ever want a pink butterfly. I've kept it though. It was always a joke between us."
"Funny," Jack took a drink of her wine, "I have a few drunk tats too. Somewhere..."
Jack turned towards John, "Now how come I can't get you to get anything done? No Alliance, no N7, not even Harbinger."
John shrugged, "I don't like needles."
Jack went back to her food, "Ain't that some shit."
As the meal came to an end, Hannah started to receive her gifts. John gave her a small box which, as he said, was from himself and Jack.
Her eyes widened when she opened it, "Oh my... This is beautiful. Thank you." She smiled at her son and Jack.
Her gift was a necklace that was a smaller silver copy of the metal John had received for defeating the Reapers.
Jack had to comment, "Yeah it is... Glad you like it. The necklace was my idea. He wanted to get ya a pin. Pfft." She took another drink of wine, "I'm not gonna lie. Necklaces and crap aren't my thing. But I'm getting used to pampering myself, since I have a paycheck now."
She half turned, and nudged John in the elbow, "Is it just me or is this some strong ass pussy drink?"
John spoke to his mom after he watched Jack wobble in her seat, "She's not used to drinking wine... But she does drink whiskey, a lot." He turned towards Jack, "I didn't think it would knock you on your ass."
She waved her hand with her glass about, "Hey! I'm not on my ass yet, Boy Scout."
Hannah snickered, "Boy Scout?"
Jack turned to face Hannah better, "Yeah. Cause he's always doing goody good shit. Like a Boy Scout... He probably helps little old ladies cross the street too, don't ya?"
John just looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "I'm not, ah, gonna answer that. Why don't we change the topic."
Jack took another drink, "Fine! Wait. Did I ever tell you about that time Grunt tried to kick my ass, and Zaeed just watched with his little fucking squinty weird ass eyes?"
This got John's full attention, "What? Was this on the Normandy?"
She shook her head, "Naw. Omega. While you were out busy killing Samara's fucked up daughter. We snuck out. The cheerleader didn't know."
Jack turned back towards Hannah, "Okay. So Grunt's this giant krogan man-child. And Zaeed's this old washed-up merc dude. And you know Omega, right? Anyways... Zaeed, Grunt, and myself... And Tali, but this story isn't about her. Anyways, we three stayed on the engineering deck and we decided to go out and I dunno drink or fight or some shit. So, Grunt and I start arguing about shotguns. Eventually, he whips his out to show me that it's better than mine. And he starts shootin'. At me. I have a pretty strong barrier, so all it did was bruise when he got too close. I only got him to stop by using a biotic pull on the gun, and taking it myself. That made him pissed. I threw it, said 'Fuck this', and hoofed it back to the ship. Zaeed just watched everything. Asshole."
Hannah started to laugh loudly, "Oh dear! Oh... Man, that reminds me of this one time when I was in charge of a bunch of fresh fodder. There was this one poor kid, as big as a krogan mind you, who just would not listen for shit. Bullheaded is what he was. And a motor mouth. Even then I was old enough to be his mother, and yet he kept ogling me. Must have had a thing for older women, I don't know. It was flattering at first, and then just plain out annoying. His insistent flirting, and he just would not listen. It was a short time before I had enough. I challenged him to a 'dance' of sorts. I was hoping to at least knock his teeth out so he couldn't blabber anymore."
John groaned, "I don't think I want to hear this one..."
After giving John the evil eye, she continued, "So, he just keeps running his fucking mouth the entire time we're fighting. I bloody his nose, bruise his eye, and flip the asshat flat on his back, and he still doesn't listen. All he says is, "Damn, Lola. You must be somthin' in the sack." So I kick him in his fat ass face."
John holds up a hand to interrupt his mother, "Wait a sec. Lola?" He turns towards Jack, "Isn't that what Vega has started calling Liara?"
Hannah starts laughing, "Awe. You mean you know the kid? James Vega? Oh, please tell me..."
Jack snickers, "Yeah. The 'asshat' helped John out in the wars right after Earth got hit."
Hannah wipes a tear of laughter from her eye, "Ah. Well at least the kid turned out to be useful... Right?"
John nodded, "Yeah. He's a good soldier. Though it does sound like he hasn't changed much from the sounds of that story."
…...
Hannah visited with a few of her other guests, and soon all had left save John and Jack. The three gathered at the bar, drank until their hearts' content, and said their goodbyes.
John hugged his mother tightly, "Happy birthday mom. I'll miss you."
She patted him on the back, "I'll miss you too. Keep in touch, okay? Or the next time I see you, you'll be greeted with a kick in the behind." He chuckled and released her.
Hannah turned towards Jack and hugged her too, "Take care, hun. And good luck with those kids. I know how frustrating it can be at times."
Jack broke away from her and shifted her weight, "Ah. Thanks. Oh, and happy birthday."
Hannah replied with, "Thanks Jack," and a smile. She turned to address both of them, and clasped her hands together, "Well, that was fun. And thanks again for everything you two. I want to hear all about any new adventures you guys go on." She winked, and stepped out of the restaurant.
Once Hannah was out of view, John pulled Jack in a loose embrace. "I think my mother likes you," he said in a teasing voice.
Jack snorted, "I would think so, cause she's kinda me."
John chocked-snorted, "What?"
She punched him lightly in the shoulder, "You have mommy issues dude. Your mom's a tattooed orphan that used to run with gangs. And likes to kick the shit out of people. Yeah. I totally don't see any sort of connection there." She rolled her eyes.
John shook his head slightly in response, "How the heck can you think so much. Aren't you drunk?"
"No. High metabolism, jackass." She paused and seemed to think about what she was about to say, "Now. I wonder if that's the whole reason you started talking to me in the first place?"
"What reason?"
"You saw me as your mommy." She smirked.
He held her closer, "Jack, you are not my mother. I can assure you. Now let's just forget about this, and head to the hotel."
Jack teased, "Fine. I'll just keep it for blackmail later."
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Author's note: A John Shepard with a possible Oedipus complex. omg... lol. ;)