"And then he brought up kids! Excuse me, but we've only been going out for three weeks, I don't think this is really the time to be thinking about children. I can't believe there are even still men like that in the galaxy!" Oriana was sitting on the floor in front of her armchair, grumbling as she flipped through the endless possible vid choices.
"Men like what?" Miranda asked from her seat actually on the other chair like a civilized person, one leg crossed primly over the other as she waited for her mate to emerge from the kitchen and join her. The smell of popcorn grew stronger by the second, and she worried Jack would burn it.
"You know, like in the old vids from the 20th century…acting as if all women want is to get married and have kids. I mean, what year is it? He may as well throw on a…a frock coat and a powdered wig!"
"Indeed," the older woman murmured softly, making a mental note to do a more in-depth background check on the young man. It couldn't hurt to double-check his family for connections to Cerberus or related organizations.
They were still around, and still had sympathizers. She'd know; she literally made her living tracking down and dismantling Cerberus cells and upstarts who would copy the organization's mantra and methodology. Ever since the first couple mass relays had come back online, her job had gotten exponentially more difficult.
But now was not a time to be thinking of work, she reminded herself as Jack emerged with an absolutely enormous bowl of popcorn, flooding the room with the smell of it.
"Hey Jack," Oriana piped up as she finally settled on a vid and Jack set the huge bowl down on the table, "Would you beat my boyfriend up for me?"
"Anything you want, kiddo!" One tattooed hand clapped the young woman on the shoulder, and the pair shared a grin. Miranda managed a small smile as well, a far cry from the sharp jealousy she'd experienced the first time the two had met. She'd never gotten along so swimmingly with anyone in her life, so to see the two most important people in her life bond instantly with each other…it stung. She'd been terrified of losing both her wife and her sister at once – to each other. As a result had been irritable and snappy for days, until finally a shouting match with Jack had cleared the air. And most of the horizontal surfaces in the apartment, when it came time to make up.
She squirmed inwardly just thinking about it.
Turning her face up almost automatically as the wife in question leaned over her for a kiss, she evidently forgot to censor her expression. Jack paused, centimeters from her lips, and both thin eyebrows went up; she'd always been able to read Miranda's arousal like a neon sign. The biotics instructor grinned, wicked this time, brushing her mouth against her wife's and then over her jaw and around to her ear. The older woman's breath hitched, and she wrapped her hands around lean, hard biceps to keep Jack from getting any closer.
"Can't even shut it off with your sister in the room, huh? Think you'll make it through the movie or should I," a pause to nip sharply at a pale earlobe, causing Miranda to gasp softly, "Take care of you now?"
Miranda was saved from the difficult decision by her sister's groan of annoyance.
"Come on you guys, I'm sitting right here!"
"My apologies, Oriana," replied the older Lawson sister stiffly, pushing her chuckling wife off of her and then patting her hair as if it would dare move out of place. "Jack just needed to…ask me something."
The younger Lawson just rolled her eyes, "For an old married couple you two sure go at it."
"Yeah, I'm not gonna complain though." The tattooed woman grinned, perching on the arm of Miranda's chair and waiting till Oriana's attention returned to the screen to lean over and nip at the other ear. She got a smack to the arm for her trouble, then finally settled down almost in her wife's lap, legs thrown casually over hers and back against the armrest. The opening of the movie – a sappy romantic comedy, over which the couple exchanged aggrieved looks – began to play.
"Hey, what am I beating your boyfriend up for, exactly? I need to think of what to shout while I'm kicking the shit out of him, you know?"
"He brought up having kids the other day," Oriana replied irritably, "as if that's all I want to do with my life. I haven't even finished school yet!" She glanced back at the married couple as she spoke, then rolled her eyes. "You two are so…I'd call it lovey-dovey but you'd probably beat me up too. You should be the ones talking about kids. Geez."
Miranda stiffened, drawing a curious glance from her mate, but a quick shake of her head put the issue on the back burner…at least for the moment.
Hours later, with the movie finished and Oriana safely in a cab bound for her dormitory, Jack and Miranda were busily cleaning up the last of the evening's dishes. The operative's mind was elsewhere, her hands moving automatically as she washed and handed off one dish after another.
"That's like the fifth time you've sighed since Ori left," Jack noted as she accepted the last plate and began to dry, "Either tell me what's up or shut the fuck up already."
There was no venom in her voice, just concern and some curiousity. Miranda just sighed again, wiping down the sink and stealing the towel to dry her hands, then turned and leaned against the counter silently for a moment.
"It's got something to do with kids, right? You got all antsy when she mentioned it." Jack leaned on the island across from her, arms crossed over her chest and head cocked to one side. "C'mon Miri, you married me, I think you can trust me with your feelings about kids."
Miranda sighed one more, rubbing her hands over her face uselessly.
"I can't have children," she finally spit out, eyes cast off to the side and voice low, "Oriana may not be able to either. It's…probably a result of the genetic manipulation." She chuckled bitterly. "Just one more way my father is running my life from beyond the grave."
Jack was silent for a long moment, the usually active – almost twitchy – woman oddly still as she thought. A frown curled her lips down.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Honestly? I have no idea. When we first fell together, it didn't seem like the kind of thing you needed to know. Later, it just…I never thought of us as the kind of couple who had kids, so I hadn't really thought about it for a while. Oriana broaching the subject just brought it into the foreground, I suppose."
"Do you…" Jack paused, picking up the damp dishtowel and beginning to twist it between her thin fingers, "Do you want to have kids?"
Miranda chuckled softly, rubbing her face again. "You know, up until recently I would have said no. I wasn't even sure I wanted them when I first had the tests done, it was just another item on the list when I was finally getting to know my own body and genetics. But now? With you? I almost feel like we could."
Jack nodded slowly, as if confirming something with herself, then set the towel aside and stepped forward, wrapping herself around Miranda and kissing her softly.
"Think about it some more," she suggested, nuzzling the soft throat before nibbling gently, "Right now I'd rather fuck than make decision, but when we do make one…don't forget I'm here, and I love you, and," her tender smile turned playful and she ground herself against Miranda's thigh teasingly, "I've got the same equipment you do."
Jack's touch rekindled the fire that had been largely banked as they sat through Oriana's choice of vids, and Miranda was happily moving towards incoherence when she was suddenly jerked back into reality as the meaning of her wife's words sunk in. She pushed Jack away a little to look searchingly into her eyes.
"You…you would? Really?"
The tattooed woman just laughed, her hands still roaming freely.
"For you? Yeah."
Miranda swallowed hard, then bent her neck to place kisses all over the other woman's face, sniffing back tears. "I love you," the operative breathed between kisses, "I love you so damn much."
"Yeah yeah yeah," Jack groused, turning her face away from the overdone affection. She was apparently done with sappy romanticism for the day, and her hands wandered to her favourite part of Miranda's anatomy. She gave a squeeze. "Now c'mon, I've been waiting to get laid since before that stupid movie."
Hand-in-hand, they adjourned to the bedroom rather than make a mess of the freshly-cleaned kitchen. As Jack threw her wife on the bed and climbed atop her, Miranda gave a somewhat silly smile, pulling the slight body down to rest on hers.
"How many times would you stab me if I called this practice for baby-making?"
"Babe, there aren't numbers that high."