MAJOR rewrites - hope this turns out preferable to what I had before, and my apologies if my revisions did more harm than good. I'm very worried that I've only made it more confusing as opposed to more interesting, so please let me know.
Yes, yes, Bioware owns everything...
PART ONE: SHEPARD'S JOURNEY HOME
Mission: Out of the Woodwork
Destination: New York, NY, U.S., Earth
Status: Complete
A wisp of smoke rose from the barrel of her pistol as Commander Shepard stood gaping at the fallen body before her. "I... I didn't mean to... to kill him," she sputtered.
"You sure about that, Shepard?"
Shepard turned to look at Jacob, who maintained his usual serious demeanor.
"I can't tell if you're asking me that seriously or if you're dead panning," said Shepard. "What do you think, Thane?"
"I hardly know enough about Mr. Taylor to be able to tell," Thane was diplomatic as ever.
"I'm serious, Shepard," said Jacob. "This man... Sunny, as you call him... is responsible for the death of your daughter, he kidnapped the friend who's like a brother to you, he pimped out your long-lost sister, plus he just tried to kill you. Actually, he tried to kill all three of us," Jacob motioned to he three throwing stars now implanted in the wall behind him. "So are you sure that killing him was an accident? I just want to make sure because if you hadn't killed him I was planning on it."
"And come to think," Shepard seemed seriously overwhelmed, "I used to sleep with this scumbag - I mean, I had a baby with him even. I used to think he was the love of my life."
"You have terrible taste in men," offered Thane.
Jacob chuckled, "Now that was dead panning."
Thane considered Jacob carefully while Shepard avoided all eye contact. Everyone on the Normandy knew Shepard and Thane were steadily falling in lust, though they were still in the early stages of their relationship and pretended nothing was going on.
"Uh..." Jacob cleared his throat, "sorry."
Shepard looked back at her ex lying on the floor and sighed. "Well, I don't know what I expected..."
"You're tired, siha," Thane carefully laid his hand on the distraught woman's shoulder. "We should go back to the ship."
"I'll drop you two off at the dock," said Shepard. "I've got one last thing to do."
Jacob sighed, "Shepard, we've been over this - there's no way we're letting you go anywhere by yourself on this mission."
"The mission is over," she shook her head. "I appreciate your concern, Jacob, but this really is something I have to do by myself, and it's a kind of a drive to get there."
"Can it wait until tomorrow, Sabra?" Thane's use of her first name was rare, and it meant he wasn't taking no for an answer.
Shepard sighed and massaged her forehead as she thought. "All right, okay. I want to see Teddy in the hospital tomorrow anyway." With that she marched out the door.
As the two men followed, Jacob leaned in close to Thane and whispered, "Teddy is the kidnapped kid we saved today, right?"
"That is correct."
"All right," Jacob rolled his head around, cracking his neck. "I am going to sleep well tonight."
Thane nodded. "It has been a long day." Before letting the door close behind him, he looked around at the bodies and wreckage strewn throughout the large room, yet another crate-filled room in a dingy warehouse that Shepard's team had fought their way through. Except this time, instead of Shepard leading them, they had led her.
oOo
The day before the mission...
Shepard sat down at her desk, cup of coffee at hand, mentally preparing herself for this loathed task as she waited for the extranet to load. She had to do research for tomorrow's mission so she had some clue of what she was heading into. Her head swam as she stared at the screen. She had no clue where to begin and it didn't help at all that she really didn't want to do this, which is why she had been procrastinating all day. So instead she sighed and laid her head on the desk, hoping this whole situation would just disappear.
"Commander," a glowing blue orb appeared in the far corner of her eye. "Your team would like to speak to you in the conference room."
"My team?" Shepard raised her head, brow furrowed. "All of them?"
"All of them." EDI dissappeared.
"Shit." Shepard immediately started reviewing her action in the preceding weeks. What had she done that would constitute mutiny?
With her guard up on red alert, Shepard entered the conference room. Sure enough, her whole team was there.
"Look," she didn't give them a chance to speak, "if you all think I'm wasting time on this mission tomorrow, I can call it off. I respect all of your opinions, and if you don't like me goin out of the way for my personal bull shit we can just continue on to the reaper IFF. But if you're going to do something stupid like mutiny over this..."
"Mutiny?" Garrus scoffed. "Calm down, Shepard. We're gathered here out of concern for you."
Miranda stepped forward authoritatively. "We've noticed you're unprepared for tomorrow's mission. Sunny instructed you to meet him alone and without weapons... we seriously hope you aren't considering following those demands. You don't seem to realize just how dangerous this ex-lover of yours has become."
"We've researched him on both the extranet and Earth's internet," peeped Tali.
Miranda glared at the interjection. "Yes, we have. And we found out that he's not only into drugs but explosives and prostitution."
"Prostitution?" Shepard balked. "That can't be right, Sunny reproves of prostitution."
"Maybe he did, but not any longer," said Jacob. "This guy's a seriously bad man, Shepard. We don't know what he was like when you lived with him but..." he trailed off.
"Sunny was dangerous," Shepard shrugged, "That's why I wanted him.
More than a few eyes drifted over to Thane.
"But back then he just did drugs. He was a small time dealer," Shepard's eyes were fogging over, drifting off into some memory.
"Well, he's in the big time now, Shepard," Miranda said a little forcefully. "And his gang is huge. From what we understand, they have a reputation for not using guns. But they do use blades, projectiles, and possibly biotics. The last thing you want is a throwing star deep in your chest, Shepard."
"I've taken on hoards of thugs many times before," Shepard said, a little impatiently. "What makes this time any different?"
They all looked at each other, then they all looked at Thane. Thane glared at Garrus, Garrus glared back, and the two men had a short, silent power struggle before Thane won.
So Garrus cleared his throat to speak, "We're all afraid that..." he shifted uncomfortably. "Well, that you might be emotionally compromised on this mission..."
"Emotionally compromised?" Shepard's gaze darkened.
"Hear me out," Garrus demanded, "We all know your relationship and history with this man, we know he was your dead child's father, we know about Daisy and how she died..."
Shepard gave Thane the death look. To his credit, Sere Krios didn't even wince.
"Don't get mad at Krios," said Garrus. "We all did research and together pulled up every news article on Sunny's illegal activity's, and on the fire in your apartment building, and we found Daisy's birth and death certificates."
"The only thing I told them was that Sunny was supposed to be watching your daughter and failed to pull her out of the fire," said Thane. "The rest they put together themselves."
Shepard rubbed the lines out of her forehead, trying to relax the muscles there.
"We know this has to be very painful for you, Shepard," Samara's voice was smooth at water, as usual, but with a motherly tone. "Sere Krios and I are the only other parents here, and we were privileged to raise our children into adulthood... But we can still empathize that losing a child so early, before it's young life had even really begun, must be a true burden to live with."
Silence passed over the room. Shepard hid her face with her hands. Thane moved to her side and caressed her back, realizing before the others that their Commander was actually crying. Her biggest secret, the best kept secret in the galaxy, was being shoved back in her face for her to deal with. Shepard had been suppressing her feelings on this issue for 13 years.
"We want to help you, Shepard," said Tali finally.
Jacob cleared his throat, "I think I speak for the whole crew when I say that we all appreciate the personal missions you've helped us with... and we'd follow you anywhere, Shepard."
"Tali and Jacob are right," said Miranda. "You've bent over backwards to help every one of us. And this is our opportunity to pay you back."
Shepard shook her head, "You're going to follow me into that Collector base. That's what you're here for," her voice was strained with tears.
"That's true. We're going into that base to save the human race from extinction," Thane's baritone voice rumbled softly. "Tomorrow we're going to help you confront your demons, the way you helped us."
"This is all very touching, but what the Hell do you suggest we do?" Shepard wiped away the last of her tears and looked up at them with red-rimmed eyes.
"Yeah, come on," Jack growled. "Tell Shepard about the part where we kick her ex-boyfriend's ass."
Grunt chuckled with glee. Glee fueled by blood-lust, but glee nonetheless.
"Right," Miranda eyed the krogan warily, "Pull up the diagrams of Sunny's warehouse, Tali."
Tali activated the hologram in the middle of the conference table to show a virtual replica of the warehouse Sunny operated from.
Miranda smirked, "All right, Shepard, here's the plan."
oOo
The morning of the mission...
"Okay, boys, either of you ever ride a motorcycle before?" Shepard gestured at an example in the store window.
Shepard, Thane, and Jacob were standing in front of a vehicle rental place right outside of the customs office of Earth's New York City spaceport. The spaceport itself was suspended several miles above the city and they had taken a shuttle down to customs. Making it through the many security checkpoints was uneventful, and Thane was used to getting strange looks, so that wasn't a problem. He supposed most Earth humans had never even heard of drell.
"Can't say I have, Shepard," Jacob walked up to the window display and whistled. "They almost look like the ones in the old vids, except no wheels."
"Don't worry," said Shepard before she approached the shop's consultant. "I'll drive, one of you rides in the side car, the other rides behind me. While I take care of this keep your eyes peeled for anyone who might be Sunny's spy. We wanna keep his eyes on us so the others can sneak in with the guns and Tali and Garrus will have time to hack the main terminal." She turned to the consultant and started specifying what she wanted.
Thane and Jacob turned to each other, an uncomfortable question between them.
"I'll ride in the side car, if you don't mind, Krios," said Jacob. "Motorcyles just really aren't my kind of thing. Plus, I'm not as close with Shepard as you are..."
Thane's brow quirked in response.
"I don't mean to suggest that... I just mean..." Jacob stammered.
"I take no offense, Mr. Taylor." Thane didn't betray the knot that formed in his stomach. He understood that this meant getting very close to Shepard's backside, a part of her body he had only brushed against once by accident. And on this day she had opted out of her usual plated armor and gone for a sleek suit instead. It was less conspicuous for travelling around Earth, but it clung tighter to her curves than her armor. It was going to be a long day for Thane. But he kept his cool when it came time to climb on behind her.
"Hold on tight, Thane," she warned.
Thane leaned forward, leaving almost an inch of space between him and Shepard, and carefully wrapped his arms around her, just barely touching her stomach.
Shepard slapped his thigh playfully, "I said tight, Sere Krios."
He pressed his chest against Shepard's back and locked his arms around her waist.
"Better," she said over her shoulder, their helmets clinking against each other. Then she revved the engine and with a jolt they bolted off.
Shepard zipped through the streets of New York City so fast that Thane could barely recognize the landmarks he had seen in holos. She certainly made sure the ride was exciting, turning every corner sharply, lacing her way around other transports, and taking more than a couple pedestrians off guard.
"Why didn't you just rent a car, Shepard?" asked Jacob over the engine at the one red light Shepard actually stopped for. "We could have just flown over the street traffic." Jacob looked pointedly up at the stream of cars flying around the taller buildings.
"Motorcycles are more dangerous," she shouted back. "And we can hide a motorcycle easier."
Progressively the quality of buildings and streets diminished until they reached the slums. She carefully parked in an alleyway behind, what else, an abandoned warehouse.
"If we're lucky this will still be here when we're done," said Shepard as she removed her helmet and shook out her hair. "But be prepared to walk."
"What do you expect to find inside?" asked Jacob.
"I dunno," she shrugged. "This is supposed to be a peaceful meeting, but nothing Sunny ever does is peaceful. He doesn't like guns, though. We'll probably be met by a slew of martial artists. There's a small chance we'll make it through without a fight."
"What if we get in there and they have guns?" Jacob was cautious as always. "I gotta admit I'm feeling a bit apprehensive without my guns."
"We escape," said Shepard. "We're gambling here, but we stick to Miranda's plan. Luckily we all have biotics and strong hand-to-hand combat skills so I'm not too worried... plus I'm sure Thane's hiding somethin sharp and nasty in all that leather. Okay. Ready?"
"Let's go," Jacob nodded.
"You ready, Thane?" asked Shepard.
"I look forward to the challenge," but Thane was glad he was hiding three blades.
"That's what I like to hear," Shepard smiled. "Come on, to the front."