They've made it. Against the odds they've survived their suicide mission. All of them. And she's resigned from Cerberus.
Miranda is sitting in her office. She's sneaked out from the reunion in the hangar when Shepard, Garrus and herself returned. She was so glad when Joker confirmed over the comm that everyone had returned safely without serious injuries.
She didn't mean to run away from the fun, but leaving Cerberus forces her to take some necessary precautions before she can truly celebrate. She's worked for Cerberus ever since she's fled her father when she was eightteen, and with the things she knows about the organization there's a big chance she'll be found dead in some alley on Omega with unidentifiable fingerprints or teeth.
First she downloads all sorts of files from the Cerberus network. That information might come in handy later. Then she reprograms some of the ship functions so that no information will be sent to Cerberus or the Illusive Man. And of course she has to shut EDI off from the Cerberus network.
When she's finally done that she sees that her downloads are at 71 percent. She can't believe to be so lucky that the Illusive Man hasn't immediately denied her access. Perhaps he's hoping she'll come crawling back to him.
She jumps up from her chair when the door suddenly opens. Jack appears in the doorway. Her eyes are furious but her cheeks are wet. Are those tears? She's cradling her left arm in an awkward position.
'You stupid bitch!' She supposes Jack means it like an insult, but it comes out like a strangled sob. She strides towards Miranda and grabs her by the front of her catsuit. 'Why the fuck did you sneak away and hide up here? I thought you fucking died!'
She's openly sobbing now and she pummels Miranda's chest weakly with her right fist.
Miranda wants to be cold. With the way Jack has treated her in the last weeks, she wants to feel the satisfaction of saying: I thought you didn't care. Get out. Why on earth would I owe you an explanation?
But she finds herself unable to get the words from her lips. Instead she grabs Jack's arm and pulls the other woman in for a hug. The other biotic's tears are hot against her skin.
She lets Jack sob for a while and can't help but saying. 'I'm sure everyone else has seen me come back, Jack. Anyone would have been able to tell you that I didn't die.'
'Shut the fuck up, cheerleader.' Jack sinks her teeth in the soft skin of Miranda's neck and bites softly. She nurses the teeth marks with her tongue. 'I fucking panicked, okay? You volunteered for every dangerous position Shepard brought forward. It's not that big of a stretch that you got your fat ass caught in the line of fire somewhere. I asked Zaeed if you'd come back, he said he wasn't sure.' She pauses. 'I gotta kill that pervy motherfucker, he must have been messing with me.'
Miranda silently thanks Zaeed for his misplaced sense of humor.
'Samara said you were fine but I had to see for myself. Plus, you could have fucking told me you'd survived when you came back.'
Miranda lets the unreasonableness of that request go and instead squeezes Jack tight.
The younger woman screams in pain. 'Ow, watch my arm, you dumb piece of shit.'
She grabs her left arm again with her right one and mumbles expletives under her breath.
'Are you okay?'
'I think it's broken.'
Miranda takes one look at it and confirms that, yes, it is broken. 'You should go see doctor Chakwas, Jack.'
'Fuck no. I hate doctors. Besides, she was stitching up Jacob. Fucking whiner had a paper cut on his forehead.'
Miranda does her best not to smile at Jack's description of Jacob. He's always been squeamish.
'Let me just stay here for a while. I'll go down there, later.'
'I suppose no one has had the time to tell you that I've resigned from Cerberus?'
Jack's eyes stare into her own. 'Piss off. For fucking real?'
'Yes. For real.'
'You told the Illusive Man to shove it where the sun don't shine?'
'Not exactly. But he wasn't happy when I disobeyed his direct order and ended the call.'
There's a huge grin on Jack's face. 'Damn, that pervy motherfucker must be so pissed. You quitting on him and Shepard flying off with his ship after all this money he spent on rebuilding her.'
She flashes a smile at Miranda. 'You did good.'
Miranda returns to her computer and sits down in her office chair. She wants to turn it towards her desk again, when Jack suddenly plops herself down in her lap and kisses her hard.
When Miranda pulls back from the kiss, she smiles. She feels lighter than she has in weeks.
Miranda enjoys it. She really does. Having Jack in her arms is one of the best feelings she's ever had. And kissing her is even better. But still she has to ask.
'So, what about that "I never want to see you again, fuck you bitch, I will kill you" stuff?'
Jack looks up at her with angry eyes, as if she's offended that Miranda would dare to remind her of all that.
'C'mon, you knew I didn't really mean that. That was weeks ago.'
She turns around so she's straddling Miranda and starts to nibble the side of Miranda's neck.
'You haven't spoken to me in weeks. How was I supposed to know that? You told me you wanted to kill me!'
'I didn't mean it. Let me prove it to you, cheerleader.' Jack clumsily tries to pull down the zipper on Miranda's suit, but the dark haired woman slaps her hand away.
The convict whines. 'Come on, Miranda. You did some stuff, I said some stuff. Who the fuck cares? We're on the same side now. You don't gotta make a thing out of it.'
'I want to talk about it.'
'You always want to talk. Why don't you use that mouth for something else? 'Cause I sure as hell missed it.'
'Damn it, Jack. Be serious!' Miranda harshly pushes Jack off her lap and stands up.
'Ow!' The smaller biotic screams. 'What the fuck, cheerleader?' She's stumbled into Miranda's desk and her broken arm is cradled in her right hand while her eyes fill with tears again.
Miranda immediately feels guilty.
'God, Jack! I'm sorry. Look, it's not that I don't like to kiss you. Or fuck you. But we need to talk about what happened. What I did. What you did.' She sighs and two annoyed brown eyes look up at her. 'Why don't you go to doctor Chakwas and get your arm fixed and afterwards you come back and we'll talk. I'll get us some wine.'
'Make it whiskey and we have a deal,' the convict retorts.
'I'll see what I can do.'