First Meeting

The first thing Esperanza Shepard felt upon seeing him on the balcony was an overwhelming sense of relief.

"Finally," she thought. "There's someone alive; someone fighting back."

Maybe she had a chance of getting some answers and getting the hell off this… whatever it was. The last thing she knew she was suffocating to death while plummeting to a planet's surface after her ship had been blown apart. Now she was following a phantom voice in the ceiling (or her head), wrangling with tech more advanced than she last remembered dealing with, all while getting shot at by mechs and watching said mechs kill the inhabitants of wherever the hell she was. Needless to say, this was a lot to take in. The sight of a (hopefully) friendly person who could answer at least some of her questions made her almost dizzy with relief. She was caught off guard when he turned to speak to her.

"Shepard? What are you doing here?"

"You tell me. I woke up on a table with a disembodied voice telling me to get armor and a weapon and start shooting."

"That would be Miranda. I'm Jacob Taylor, I've been stationed here for-" He was cut off by the sound of approaching mechs and a few very close bullets. He stood up and easily took out the mech that had just fired at them. "Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda woke you up. I'll fill you in but we have to get to the shuttles."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Shepard said, preparing herself for a fight. "Let's go."

After a few well timed biotic attacks and well placed shots, they managed to take out the attacking mechs quickly without using what precious little ammo they had left. As they stopped to breathe and fully evaluate the situation, Esperanza took the time to fully take in Jacob. The first (very inconvenient) thought she had was he was very attractive. He appeared to be in peak physical condition and was about two inches taller than herself. He had smooth brown skin that was a shade darker than hers, full lips, and a very nice pair of brown eyes. Yes, he was definitely attractive but that wasn't something she needed to focus on at the moment. She had questions and she needed answers.

"Ok, the last thing I remember is suffocating as I fell towards the surface of a planet. How the hell did I end up here? What or where is 'here' anyway?"

Jacob was silent for a few moments. He looked as though he was trying to work something out in his head. After a while he took a deep breath and started to answer her.

"I didn't think I would be the one to tell you this, but I guess I have to. I won't sugarcoat any of this for you Shepard; we don't have time for that."

"I'm don't care if it's nice or not," Shepard interrupted him. "I just want some answers. I'm tired of stumbling around in the dark."

"Ok. You did die that day. To the Alliance and the rest of the galaxy, you were killed in action. Right now we're on a station housing the Lazarus Project. The project started by my employer that's dedicated to rebuilding you."

"What about my crew? What happened to them?" Shepard asked. Panic was beginning to set in but she had to push it aside for the moment. She still had questions and she still had the issue of getting away from the mechs that were trying to kill her… again.

"Most of your crew got out alive. Some crew members below decks didn't make it and Navigator Pressley was killed by an explosion. The non-Alliance crew and everyone else got out safely though."

Shepard took a shaky breath and leaned on the balcony as a strange mix of relief and grief flowed through her. Her crew was her family and the death of even one of them hit her hard. She was relieved to find out that most of them did make it out safely.

"Do you know what happened to them?" Shepard asked.

"No," Jacob said. He moved to stand beside her. "It's been two years. They could be anywhere."

"Wait, what do you mean it's been two years? Two years since I died?"

"Uh… yeah. When they brought you here, you were very much dead. Honestly, I didn't think they'd be able to bring you back. Two years and a lot of credits later, I've been proven wrong. I don't know the specifics of what they did though; I'm just security you'd have to ask a scientist for that. I do know whatever they did was very expensive and involved state of the art technology."

"Did they-" Shepard started. She could barely get the words out as the mere thought made bile rise in the back of her throat. "Am I a clone?"

Jacob looked her straight in the eyes before answering.

"No. I asked them that myself not long after you were brought in. I figured that was the only way they'd be able to bring you back. Miranda, she's head of the Lazarus Project, said that wasn't an option. Our employer wanted you brought back exactly as you were."

Esperanza took a final long look at him before deciding she would, for now, trust him. She did still have a few questions but felt those would be better answered by Miranda.

"I still have some questions but they can wait. We need to get the hell out of here. Let's go."

Once she was on her new ship, now named the Normandy SR-2, she took some time in her cabin to try to sort through everything that just happened. In a few short hours she found out she had died, Cerberus (a group she spent her spare time destroying) found her body and spent two years and billions of credits rebuilding her. The current leader of Cerberus, The Illusive Man, brought her back for the sole purpose of investigating disappearing colonies. She also learned that said colonies were being "harvested" by Collectors and that her job was to gather a team together, go through a relay which no ship had ever returned from, find the Collectors, and kill them all.

On the positive side of things Esperanza found that her former pilot and doctor, Joker and Dr. Chakwas, were on the SR-2 with her. That lifted her spirits, if only a little bit. It was nice to know she had someone she could trust on the ship. If she had things her way, she would've been able to get Tali, a Quarian who served on the SR-1 with her, to come with her too. Tali was like the little sister she always wanted but never had. It was nice to see her again on Freedom's Progress and know that she still trusted and believed in her but it hurt knowing they probably wouldn't see each other again for a very long time.

As Esperanza laid on her impossibly large yet surprisingly comfortable bed, her mind eventually settled on the enigma that was Jacob. She'd been able to speak to him before they left for Freedom's Progress and after they got aboard the Normandy. She had also seen him in a fair bit of combat. In a lot of ways, they were similar. They were both biotics, she had him beat with power but he had her beat when it came to control. They also both prefered the same weapons. They were both (technically) former Alliance, and they both liked to keep in shape.

Outside of all the superficial similarities, there was something else seemingly drawing her to him. In the complete madness of her day, he was the only seemingly "normal" part about it. He was honest with her from the start and didn't sugarcoat anything. He stayed focused on the mission and, even though this most definitely wasn't an Alliance mission, saluted her and respected her rank like it was. When they were on the ship after Freedom's Progress, he went over new weapon mods and technology with her like it was something he did everyday. She found herself not wanting to leave the Armory simply because everything felt so normal there. It was something she hadn't felt since before Elysium. Saving an entire colony from a massive attack had sent her life as far away from "normal" as you could possibly get.

However, there was another person who did in some ways get her pretty close to normal. Ashley Williams. Like Jacob, Ashley spent her time with the weapons on the SR-1. Esperanza would spend hours talking with her, about family, friends, the mission, likes, dislikes, everything. They became fast friends and eventually something more developed. Before she died, they both made a promise to use some leave time to sort out exactly what they had together. She wondered if that promise was still good.

"Shepard, we are approaching the Citadel and will dock in one hour." EDI, the ship's onboard AI, said.

"Thank you. Tell Jacob and Miranda to meet me at the airlock when we dock." Shepard rose from her bed and started the process of gathering her armor.

"Of course Shepard. Logging you out." Now it was time to see if the galaxy was willing to accept her back.

Author Note: So, I absolutely hated everything surrounding Jacob Taylor's canon and background. I've written about it, in detail, in other places so I won't bore you with it here. Long story short, I feel Jacob is an under-appreciated character that desperately needs a "fix-it" fic so I decided to write one. I don't know how regular or irregular the updates will be because this is a massive undertaking but I will finish it. Needless to say, this will definitely stray from the ME2 and ME3 canon.

I'll focus mainly on interactions between Jacob and Shepard. It won't be a complete retelling of ME2 and ME3, just a glimpse of Jacob and Shepard's relationship. How it started, how it grew, and what it came to be. Comments and kudos are always appreciated. I hope you enjoy.