Author's Note: This is my entry for the "September Contest of Doom," aka a "four things that didn't happen and one thing that did" contest. For mine, this is from the perspective of Jack, many years after the (Control) end of ME3, and is purely an exercise in creative in-universe storytelling.
The door chimed for the third time. "Gimme a damn minute," Jack shouted, even though the closed door would stop them from hearing her. Striding forward, she hit the control, leaning against the doorframe and glaring out. "I thought you weren't getting here until dinner," she said.
"Sorry, mom," Jason said, giving her a hug. "But our ship got in early and we thought we'd surprise you."
"Hi grandma," Cerise said, eyes fixed firmly on her omni. "Happy Shepard's Day." The teen finally looked up as Jack reached out and touseled her hair. "Grandma!"
Her brother, Patrick, smirked, until he too was subjected to the same treatment, though being almost an adult he bore it better. "So, what are we going to do for Shepard's Day, grandma?"
"You still have to wait for your cousins to get here," Jason said. His wife, Yolanda, came up then, giving Jack a quick hug. "But we insist on cooking you dinner. Great Maker knows that dad shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a kitchen."
"Hey, his cooking isn't that bad," Jack protested. "How else do you think I keep this girlish figure?" Posing provocatively against the doorframe, she ran one hand down her stomach, over the stretch marks that had distorted some of her tattoos. Her two grandchildren both made wordless protests, covering their eyes and making puking sounds.
"I suppose you might as well come on in," she said, stepping back from the door. "Don't want you to catch a cold in this balmy spring." They followed her inside, but the door hadn't closed yet when another vehicle arrived, settling down in the street. "Crap, is everyone here early?"
Stepping out of the car, her daughter, Faridah, waved. "Hi mom! We brought cookies!"
Both kids perked up at that, proving that no child is ever too old for cookies, while Jack just looked forlornly at her belly. "Now I'll have to go on another six-month diet," she lamented. Snickering, Jason pushed past her and into the living room. "Alright, kids, you know the drill. Same as last year."
"Yes, grandma," they replied. From the other car, Jensen and Julie were running across the lawn, already conversing with their cousins about the upcoming holiday weekend.
The house was a happy blend of chaos and noise for the next hour, Jack sitting in her armchair in the living room while her two children talked about everything that had been happening over the last year, and at last the conversation turned to the holiday.
"Hey, grandma?" Patrick asked. "For school, we're supposed to do a report on the Normandy crew. Can you tell us about some of them?"
Jack snorted. "You want to know about the crew? Or about your grandfather?"
Cerise plopped down on the carpet, propping her chin in her hands, omni blissfully silent for once. "You've told us something about grandfather every year. What about everyone else?"
Jack settled back in her chair, motioning to Yolanda for a refill of her whiskey. "You want storytime from grandma, huh?" Taking the glass, she sipped slowly. Jensen and Julie likewise flopped around the living room, laying in positions she could only envy now. "I suppose. I warn you though, my memory isn't what it used to be."
Faridah laughed. "You mean you're going to lie outrageously and see how much your grandchildren believe it."
Smiling, Jack took another sip. "Do you really think so poorly of your own mother?"
A chorus of "yes" echoed through the living room, and Jack scowled, leaning forward and pointing her finger accusingly. "That does it, no Christmas presents for anyone." All four of the teenagers protested, while her children and their spouses just laughed. "Alright. You might find this hard to believe, but Shepard wasn't the first crewmember I met."
"The first one I met happened when I was fourteen, while I was stranded on Anhur. I'd stowed away on a freighter, and snuck off when we made landfall. Didn't take long to realize where I was, of course, but they took off before I could sneak back into the spaceport. This happened while I was skulking around nearby."
Jack shuddered in the cold, blowing on her hands to keep them warm. She'd already stuffed her clothes with anything she could find to help dull the effect of the wind, and now she huddled in the corner of a window, the store long since closed, but locked up better than her amateur hacking skills could break.
She watched the people in the street, scanning them for an easy mark. Most of them were batarians, and far too many of them would gladly slap restraints on her to drag her off to the slave markets. She'd seen that happen to a few other homeless people. They hadn't caught her yet, though. The shockwave she'd hit the first group with had sure stunned them.
Something large and red caught her eye, but it took a break in the crowd before she realized it was a scarred krogan, walking slowly forward as he played with his omni-tool and a credit chit. He had all the perfect signs of a normal mark - distracted, obvious money, probably unfamiliar with New Thebes - but there was the obvious downside of him being, yanno, krogan. They took pride in their scars, too, and you didn't get jagged lines down your face without being one hell of a warrior.
Her stomach clenched again. It had stopped making noise yesterday, and it had been almost fifteen since she'd eaten anything that didn't come out of a dumpster. Besides, she was a biotic. A kick-ass biotic. It's not like she needed to kill him, just take his credits and run for it. Krogan were big, yeah, but then they should be slow, especially with those stumpy legs.
Getting up, she shook her arms and legs to get the blood flowing again, and slipped into the crowd. Humans and batarians jostled her on each side, but she took it in stride, moving around them as she closed in on her target. He was mumbling to himself, lots of numbers, as he laboriously typed on his omni.
It took almost a quarter kilometer, of her right on his heel, before her opportunity came. A batarian stumbled on a small patch of ice, bumping into the krogan's shoulder. As he started shouting at the poor sap, she lunged forward, yanking the credit stick from his fingers and racing off.
She was on the edge of the part of town she knew well, but she should still be able to lose him. The thunderous bellow nearly made her piss herself, and the thud of his charging footsteps echoed between the shops. Catching the corner of a building, she threw herself down the alley, skidding across another ice patch and rolling across the ground.
Safe beneath the dumpster, she did her best to calm her breathing. The metal dumpster above her was cold, the ground beneath her freezing, but she'd put up with the cold for hours if she had to. Glancing at the chit, her eyes nearly bugged out as she read the three-digit number lit up on its surface. She could eat like a queen for weeks! Hell, she could even buy a ticket off this ice ball instead of trying to stow away again!
Heavy footsteps echoed through the alley, and she froze, slipping the credits into her shirt. Her breathing was as light and shallow as she could make it, watching as the red boots stomped closer. He'd slowed to a walk, probably searching the buildings for a door, or another exit she could have taken.
Two steps past the dumpster, he stopped. The quiet hum of his omni seemed especially loud, even though it was barely louder than the crowd on the main street. She could only barely see his heels, view blocked by her own shoulder, but she couldn't risk moving and giving away her position.
Panic seized her as the dumpster suddenly glowed with biotic power, rising into the air. Scrambling, she shot forward, trying to escape as the krogan roared behind her. Risking a glance back, she hit the dumpster with her own biotic power as she finally made it from all fours back to her feet.
Her last sight of the krogan was him groaning on the ground, the dumpster toppled over onto him. Then she was lost in the crowd, blending with them as she hurried through the anonymous mass and back to somewhere safe.