Mass Effect: Citadel Incidentals

Chapter One-An Unexpected Rendezvous

The Citadel, Widow cluster, Serpent Nebula System,

Level 4, Huerta Memorial Hospital, 1118h, 2186

Shepard strolled casually with Miranda upon his arm and headed straight for the Sirta Foundation kiosk. He found it difficult to believe that they had stayed in business for so long, seeing as the company had run into financial trouble last year. The Reaper war must have put them back onto the market. Maybe these things got invented by some twisted arms dealer slash doctor slash mad scientist, he thought.

He quickened their step through the hallway and finally extracted himself from her as he approached the kiosk. Several patients cried out in pain, and he winced as he listened to their pleas. Miranda eyed him curiously. "You don't like hospitals much, do you?" she wondered aloud.

"Not many people do," he deflected her observation and swiped his credit chit across the scanner.

"I don't remember seeing this kind of reaction from you whenever you've stepped into the infirmary on the Normandy."

"That's different. I know Dr. Chakwas." He flicked his index finger along the screen to peruse the simple catalog.

"And you also know Dr. Michel here, if I'm not mistaken."

"The infirmary on the Normandy is a lot more quiet. So was this place, before the Cerberus attack and the coup." Shepard tore his eyes away from the screen and briefly glanced about himself. "I don't suppose you like hearing all this either." He went back to the electronic catalog.

"It reminds me of Eden Prime all those years ago," a voice from the patient wing called to them. The black man in a jump suit that hugged his body confidently made his way towards both of his former colleagues. "Way too much yelling, screaming, and gunfire. Then…silence."

"Fancy bumping into you here, Jacob," Miranda mused. "Nice to see you."

"And you as well, Miranda." Taylor's head bobbed up and down. He offered a hand towards her first, which she took, and then pumped Shepard's firmly. "Shepard, hey, thanks for coming. Wanna talk elsewhere?"

Shepard completed his purchase and nodded. "The commons is a good place, or maybe near the embassies."

As they piled into the elevator, Miranda turned towards him. "Why didn't you tell me that we'd be meeting Jacob here?" she inquired.

"I had some shopping to do, too. Figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. Was I being dishonest?"

"No, just your usual evasive self," she muttered and rolled her eyes.

Taylor pushed the '5' button for the Presidium Commons. "I wanted to thank you again, Shepard. How about a drink at Apollo's?"

"I'll take you up on that, but right now, I'm not gonna have anything stronger than a cappuccino. It's a bit early for me," Shepard announced as he confirmed his omni-tool's time. "So, Jacob, have you and Brynn come up with a name yet for that little bundle of joy you're expecting?"

"Eh…we're still…at a stalemate. I talked her out of calling the baby Shepard, at least. She's finally budged from that crazy idea," Jacob chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "I think we'll wait until we know the baby's gender."

"How far along is she?" Miranda piped in.

"Eight weeks now. She only just found out about four weeks ago, and it was the day that I first saw Shepard in the hospital. Sorry that I cut our conversation short that day, Shep. Brynn was calling me, and I didn't want to make her wait."

"No hard feelings," Shepard shrugged. "I've learned the hard way about making a woman wait."

Jacob's forehead wrinkled as he glanced upon Miranda, who gave him a 'don't look at me' expression. The elevator came to a stop as it reached its designation, and the three of them all fell into step with one another outside of it. "Shepard told me that you were with Dr. Cole on Gellix protecting quite a few ex-Cerberus scientists as well as their families," Miranda declared. "How many were there?"

"Originally, Brynn and I left with fifty-eight people, but, well…the Illusive Man got…tenacious. By the time Shepard got there, we were down to forty-three. When we all left, forty-one made it out."

"I'm told that Dr. Archer also made it out as well as did Dr. Baynard."

Jacob snapped his fingers as he came to a realization."Oh, that's right, you knew Baynard from before, right? I think you had wanted to put him on the Lazarus project if I'm remembering it correctly. Damn, it's a good thing that he turned you down."

"At the time, I was furious. I was almost at the point of begging for him from the Illusive Man, but in retrospect…I suppose you're right."

Shepard nearly scoffed. "You? Beg?"

"He had all the qualifications. The Illusive Man also wanted results; I simply had planned upon making it clear to him that in order to achieve those results that I needed…" she made a 'tsk' with her tongue. "Look, that's irrelevant now."

They arrived at the cafe, and Shepard spotted a very old friend from the marines sitting alone at a table that he had not seen in years. "Hey, I hope neither of you mind this, but I haven't seen Albert in years. Mind if I catch up with him?"

"No problem, Shep. I'll still have the cappuccino delivered to your table. Want it made any particular way?" Jacob asked with a smile.

"I'll take it however they serve it. Oh, unless they make it with that soy milk." He inserted a finger absently in between his lips. "In that case, tell them I only want the stuff that comes from a bovine."

"No problem." As Shepard gracefully exited, Jacob picked up a data pad from a table and scooted one of the chairs backward for Miranda. She studied him for a few moments cautiously as if to try and gauge his motivations, then followed through with his chivalrous actions, and sat.

"So, you and Shepard…?" he began and let his sentence trail away.

"You and Dr. Cole?" Miranda cleared her throat.

"Yeah, we're serious. I wanna raise a family and do it right, not like my own screwed up one," Jacob stated and shook his head. He paused to look at the view. "Sitting here with you like this brings back some memories."

"Good ones, I hope," she snorted through her nose.

"So, you didn't answer my question, Miranda."

"You didn't ask me one."

"Do I have to be so damned candid with you? Do you take some kind of sick pleasure in the fact that you make a lot of people feel uncomfortable around you?" He rolled his eyes and selected a few different drinks from the menu. "What'll you have, Miranda?"

"Armali Springs, if they've got the mineral water. Or Serrice Cascades."

"How does Citadel Rejuvenation sound? That's the extent of their choices that fit into that category."

She sighed. "Not very appetizing, to say the least. I've heard that some sanitation workers' bodies have been found in those treatment plants. A large cup of coffee will be adequate, then, thank you."

"Okay, then." He finished sending in his order and put down the data pad. "So where'd Shepard find you? I lost track of you after you split from the Normandy."

"Sorry that I couldn't keep in contact with you. If it makes you feel any better, Shepard didn't hear from me either. You were still with Cerberus then, and I went underground."

"Yeah, about a day before I turned in my weapons to the armory, I heard a couple of Cerberus personnel talking about you. One of them mentioned that he couldn't figure out why the Boss was so pissed off, and the other said that it was because you flew the coop. What exactly did you say to him?"

"He gave me an order not to let Shepard destroy the base, and I defied it, simple as that," she shrugged and folded her arms across her chest. "When he insisted upon the fact that I was to obey his ludicrous command, I told him right then and there to consider my disobedience as my resignation."

"Ha-wish I could've been there to see it," Jacob smirked. "Never thought I'd see the day when you'd stand up to him like that."

"I don't kowtow to anyone." Her eyes narrowed. "After I spent two years of my bloody life recreating and re-mapping this man's very own cellular structure, tissue, memories, and muscles, I deserved better than that!"

"You sure? I mean, that can't be the only reason why you refused to follow that order, was it? Your pride?"

She sighed and gladly accepted the cup of coffee as their server set it down upon their table. Jacob opened a can that boasted to give its consumer five full hours of energy. "No, you're right. It was a betrayal…of sorts…on the Illusive Man's part, I mean. All of those colonists…I don't care if that technology could've helped us."

"Boy, you've certainly changed…" he mumbled. When her eyes snapped to make immediate contact with his, he lifted up both palms. "For the better, I mean. I think Shepard's definitely rubbed off on you."

"He had an effect upon everybody on the Normandy, Jacob, even you."

"Yeah, but I was only with Cerberus for a couple of years. You, Miranda, well, it didn't seem like you'd ever step away from the Illusive Man," he pointed a finger towards her and shook his head in disbelief. "Don't get me wrong, he had some great ideals and good goals, but he got on my nerves sometimes."

"You were never anything but openly hostile towards him. Did you expect that he'd turn the other cheek all of the time?" she wondered. "Even Shepard was more respectful towards him than you."

Jacob guzzled the entire drink down in one large gulp and set the can down. "You know, he asked me about you once…Shepard, I mean."

"In what way?"

"He wanted to know what made you tick. This was before the two of you got involved…I think." He eyed her carefully, but as usual, neither her body language nor her face gave the answer away.

"So what did you tell him?"

"What could I tell him?" he chortled. "I said that if I knew, I'd either be with you or lying in a grave somewhere. He's got you now, and that's all that matters."

"Hmm…right now that's the only thing that's a certainty in this bloody mess." She took a sip from her cup. "I met with him a few times here on the Citadel before we ran into one another on Horizon."

"Horizon, that colony out in the Iera system? What was out there?"

Her face instantly darkened. "My father."

"Right." He knew that he had to tread very lightly around her when it came to this subject, so he decided to play it safe and not directly question her about the incident. "I think I remember Cerberus funneling quite a good chunk of money into that place after we were there last year. I'm guessing that there was an ulterior motive for doing that and knowing that Brynn's colleagues began to just vanish into thin air, it was probably linked to studying the effects of indoctrination. She said that she was working on an application for an implant-one that could be directly inserted into the base of the neck like an amp or something."

Miranda remained silent as he spouted off his theories. Her gaze shifted towards the table where Shepard and his friend were sitting. Unfortunately, she could not see him; she only saw Shepard's back. But he did seem to be enjoying himself; he slapped his palm onto the table as he guffawed over a joke that his friend told him. Jacob's voice broke her out of her taciturn observation.

"How's your sister doing these days?"

"Fairly well, thanks. She's staying with me on the Normandy and has apparently become very friendly with the communication specialist there."

Jacob clapped a hand over his mouth in shock. "Did you just say what I think you just said?" Even though his words were extremely muffled, Miranda got the gist of it.

"We're going to go take down the Illusive Man."

He removed the hand from his mouth. "Please tell me that I'm dreaming or that we're in an alternate universe, Miranda, because as I swear to God, I never thought that I'd see or hear about the day when you'd willingly let yourself walk onto an Alliance ship."

"I'm a bit amazed myself, really." She took another drink from her cup and rested both of her elbows onto the table. "But irony seems to be the norm these days."

"Are you keeping Shepard in line?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed derisively. "As if I could. EDI gave me some hardware for Shepard's head gear and software for my omni-tool from Devlon Industries so that I could tactically advise him throughout any missions on a separate channel from his squad as well as the Normandy that he didn't take me on. Unfortunately, during the first one, I had to break contact and maintain radio silence."

"What happened?"

"Oh, there was some kind of interference-probably some feedback that was looping through either a Cerberus protocol or an Alliance code somewhere. Who knows?" She waved a hand in the air. "But he got mildly injured during that one; if only I'd been able to…oh, it doesn't matter now. Water under the bridge."

"So he's got you wrapped about his finger, huh?"

"I beg your pardon?" Miranda lifted a curious eyebrow at him as she consumed some more coffee.

"Well you just said that it was a big chore to keep him in line." Jacob gave her a crooked grin and picked up the data pad once again to order another drink. "And you came with him instead of going after the Illusive Man all by yourself."

"That would be completely asinine, nearly as foolish as when you ran into that cave on Tortuga without waiting for backup like I told you." She crossed one leg over the other and set the cup back onto its saucer.

"Whatever, Miranda." He fidgeted nervously in his chair. "You never walked that way with me in public; he's got you lock, stock, and barrel. And hey, I'm really happy for the both of you. He's a much better man for you than I ever was."

That goes without saying, she thought. "What's Admiral Hackett got you doing these days?"

"I'm escorting the scientists here and there. Sometimes I see some action, but I bet that as time gets closer to the final battle on Earth, I'm gonna see a helluva lot more. Believe you me, I'm ready for it." He held up one of his gloved fists triumphantly. "I think that this weapon's gonna really help us win against these Reaper bastards. What about you?"

"I heard that this is a major project. I'm surprised that Hackett didn't order Shepard to send me over there once he heard that I was no longer a part of Cerberus and free of their assassins." The waitress brought over another drink to Jacob, who wasted no time in getting that one open as well.

"Maybe he did; Shepard wouldn't let go of you that easily, though, at least…not without some persuasion on his part."

A tiny smile tugged upon her lips upon that thought, and she finished the coffee.

"Thanks for the drink, Taylor. It was good to catch up with you," Miranda gave him a perfunctory beam and arose.

"Looks like he's having a good time with that long lost friend." Jacob threw his next drink down his throat. "Sure you don't want another?"

Her eyes wandered about the Presidium; they found someone else she wanted to speak with. Someone whose skin was as blue as the Citadel's artificial sky, and someone who was leaning against a railing on the Presidium from the opposite end of the park probably daydreaming about Shepard. "No thank you, Jacob. I've gotta run."

**A/N**-The meat and potatoes will come much later on, I promise. And I keep my promises.

The next conversation (in the next chapter) will occur in between Shepard and my original character named Beckett. Let me know how you all feel about these. It'll encourage me to write more. Thanks to everyone for reading my work so far; leaving feedback is extremely edifying. The more positive comments I get (or suggestions towards these), the faster I write. Oh, and music helps me tremendously, too, classical, in particular. No, it's not because Miranda listens to classical music; I grew up doing so. Incidentally, I'm not a huge fan of Nielsen, but I can understand why she is. You'll see some of my more favorite composers (or artists) come out in the chapter that describes a date in between Shepard and Miranda on the Citadel. I'll list them off at the end of the chapter so that you all can take a listen, too, if you'd like and visualize it better.