...
At 2:17 in the morning, a bloodcurdling scream woke Jack out of her deep sleep with a jerking start.
Ignoring the grunt next to her, she rolled over the dumb fuck next to her and rushed out of the room, pausing long enough to cover her naked form in a robe. Although as her smart ass husband would always say: she had more than enough tattoos that she didn't actually need to waste credits on clothing.
God, he really was a dumbass. If he wanted to keep her naked, all he had to do was fuckin' ask.
These sorts of screams brought her back to her nearly days, although it was not the pain that made her scream which brought her to a shudder, it was the pain which came after. Pain at the hands of those Cerberus doctor fucks who would poke and prod her for hours after the incident. They made her hate her abilities; hate herself for being such a freak of human nature. In her worst moments she wished she never existed.
Almost kicking in the door, Jack exploded into the bedroom and sure enough sitting on get top of her bed flailing about was her daughter, Randi; her small body was coated in blue biotic discharge field. It was sort of a primitive barrier which was little more than a painful static discharge. It kicked off her stuffed animals almost as much as it shocked the frightened little brunette girl, her long hair usually ponytailed like her momma was frayed and static charged.
Igniting her own biotics fields, the mother stepped forwards and lifted her girl out of her bed and pressed her tight into her grasp. Jack's biotic energy output, still wild and untamed even after all this time. She liked it like that. It guaranteed no one wanted to fuck with her. However, there was one person (perhaps two if he wasn't being a dumb boy scout cocksucker) in this galaxy that she would maintain control of her abilities for, and she was currently in her arms.
The blue haze covering Jack rolled over Randi, absorbing her meager by comparison energy output. While the static charge of the girl ceased, it would not end the pain quite so quickly. In the nape of her neck, Jack could hear Randi cry, and it tore her fucking heart out every time she had to hear it.
If she told herself seven years ago, she would let herself get knocked up – by the King of the Boy Scouts no less – on purpose, she'd probably slap the mother with a biotic discharge. Her being a mother sounded like such a terrible fucking idea on paper, and for the nine months and four fucking days of watching her body form a new life inside of her, she still felt that it was a bad idea; but the moment she held her baby girl in her arms, all those concerns, all those fears washed away. She vowed she would do better for her girl then what she got. She would have a family; she would get to live life free of violence and existential fear.
Most of all, she would never get tattoos. Ever… well, perhaps one. Something which all three of them could get like the feel good fucking family they were.
Jack paused and chided herself for sounding so domesticated. She sounded like the sort of woman whom Shepard's mother would approve of. Oh yeah, to add to her new little family, she got a mother-in-law to boot. A mother-in-law, who thought her son might have been gay because he was bringing home someone named 'Jack'.
Yeah, Hannah Shepard was a real fucking barrel of laughs.
"Mommy, it hurts soo much…" Randi spoke, hardly audible as she suddenly jerked against her mom's frame.
Pressing her lips against her daughter's head, Jack took a seat back on the bed, on hand gripping the back of Randi's head, her fingers pushing through her long hair idly.
"I know, baby girl," Jack murmured back to her daughter. "Do you remember what I said? Clear your mind, and squeeze me as tight as you can and make that your focus for when the pain hits again."
Again she felt Randi nod against her, but this time, however, her small arms, enhanced by her biotics gripped against her mother tightly. It was not a pain, but it was a discomfort which, for her daughter, Jack would unconditionally sit through.
"I know how much this sucks, kiddo. I've been there," she soothed Randi further as the child squeezed tighter. "So you gotta believe me when I say you're going to get through this; because you're me. You got my blood; and you're going to be a kick butt biotic 'cause you got me as your teacher. Right?"
Randi nodded, she was in clear pain, but she seemed eased by the reassurance her Mom gave her.
"And you got me as well," a tired voice spoke from the doorway.
Jack and Randi looked up. Sure enough standing there was the King of the Boy Scouts, who was half awake and had decided to grace the two of them with an appearance. Jack ignored to the best of her ability the fucking annoying little flutter in the pit of her stomach for the one man who could see past all her shit. The one man who was probably more fucked in the head than she was.
Seven years into their marriage, there was no way he should have still been able to hold that much goddamn power over her. Behind those baby blue eyes and smile hid the fuckin' devil.
"What in God's name are you talking about, Shepard?" she growled at her husband like he was full of shit. "You're not a biotic. You have nothing to contribute to any of this. So how about you just sit down, shut up and let me handle this?"
Jack watched as Shepard crossed his arms over her chest and allowed that awful smug smirk to bubble back up to the surface. It was the sort of look that made her still a little wobbly in the knees.
"I'm her dad. Why shouldn't I be involved?" he reminded her plainly as though that was all that needed to be said on the matter.
Jack bit her lip as she choked on her immediate response to tell him off. Stupid, sexy, dumb Shepard knew just what to say to get under her skin. It seemed so simple, trivial. But in a galaxy of normal people who tried to avoid biotics, to have one of them want to take an active participation was… sweet…
"Yeah… you're her dad. You get to do dad things with her. This is my thing, so… so screw off will you?" she snapped back, narrowing her eyes at the man, her brow arching slightly as she looked him over. "Jesus, Shepard, you think you always gotta be the center of attention or something?"
Her biotic flare up apparently over, Randi pulled back and wiggled out of her mom's grasp. The girl instead bolted and leaped into her father's arms like the traitor she was. Go figure that the moment Jack stopped being of use, Randi would seek out her dumb, stupid dad. She watched in envious silence as her daughter was lifted off the ground and clung tightly in Shepard's grip. She watched as her daughter giggled as her dad babbled some stupid cute inanities at her.
"We've been married for almost a decade… you know you can use my actual name, right?" Shepard spoke to her, looking over his daughter to direct his attention to her. "Or is because you would prefer it if I started calling you Shepard?"
Jack huffed and stood up and stalked towards her husband, she reached and smacked her fucking man on the back of the head, earning a giggle from Randi. Most would gasp or berate her for doing it, but the two of them had a mutual abuse agreement they abided to. She couldn't slap his ass with a singularity and he couldn't use that freak cybernetic strength he possessed on her, but they could give each other a whack every so often. You know, love taps. The point was neither were not delicate fucking flowers who needed to be protected.
"You know what? Shut the fuc-" Jack started and caught herself. She exhaled and added lamely "…fudge up."
As Jack turned away and went about fixing up Randi's bed. She heard him speak up suddenly as his small laugh died down.
"Mommy has a filthy mouth, doesn't she, Miranda?" Shepard said coyly, just fucking egging her own as usual.
Stiffening at Shepard calling Randi by her birth name she rounded back to stare him down. How the name 'Miranda' wormed his way into a top pick for their daughter's namesake was a big fucking annoyance to her. The simple fact that the Cheerleader brought Shepard back to life was a debt Shepard held onto, and grudgingly, so did she as a result. Rarely would Jack ever use Randi's full name… but it sort of suited her. Especially when she saw how the two of them, The Cheerleader and Randi, had a natural chemistry which pissed Jack off to no end.
To be honest, it was not a serious sort of anger. It was more along the lines of a sort of jealousy, which she would never dare to admit to. Randi liked to be a girl more than her mother thought she would. The sort of thing that bubble-assed brunette bimbo could be unlike her.
"Still can't believe you convinced me to name her after that cun-punt," she uttered under her breath, her statement earning a chuckle from Shepard.
Setting his daughter down on her own two feet, but one hand remaining clasped to her shoulder to keep Randi's still shaky post-biotic outburst body from collapsing, he looked from daughter to mother.
"I take it you both aren't going to sleep tonight?" he correctly guessed as Jack stepped forward. "Well, I got a proposition for us. I'll get the fireplace going, we can break out the marshmallows for roasting, make some coco… We'll make it an indoors camping trip. Sound good?"
Jack had no snappy outburst or faux insult for her husband. She wasn't sure why she still got taken aback by John, but she was. She had seen that man kill before. He still did it as a job. The fact that he could so easily flip that killer instinct on and off and not get lost to it was a gift she envied him having.
As Randi emitted a positive "Okay, daddy!" and took his hand so that she could be led out of her room for their impromptu indoors camping expedition, Jack lingered behind and watched with a small, reluctant smile as she watched her dope of a husband lead their child away.
Shepard... no... John might not have been a biotic like the rest of his family, but sure knew how to handle them…
…
…
Thankfully it did not take a whole hell of a lot of effort on John and her part to get Randi back into a state of comfortable sleep. In front of the roaring fireplace, her head rested into her mother's chest, Randi fell asleep as though she was just a toddler once again.
As she slept, she was wrapped up in a warm, gentle biotic field emitting from Jack like an energy blanket coating mother and daughter. There Jack remained, locked in place, a little uncomfortable, but unwilling to disturb the peace and quiet Randi had found. The only thing that caught her attention was the footsteps entering the lounge from the kitchen. Sure enough it was John.
Offering him a faint smirk, she watched as her husband took a seat behind her, one arm wrapping around her waist, and the other draping over her shoulder so that his hand could gently graze through Randi's hair. Silently, Jack leaned backwards, her frame resting against his. She looked up at him with soft eyes, which she only permitted in the privacy of their home. She did, after all, have a reputation to keep.
Twisting her head up at a somewhat awkward angle to watch him drink his own hot cocoa, Jack leaned up to kiss his chin. She watched in mild amusement as John returned the kiss with one of his own, his lips touching against her mouth, his lips forcing open hers as she accepted the tip of his tongue to graze against hers. It took all her efforts to pull back, if not for a child sleeping on her, she'd rip open her nightwear and fuck him until they were both raw and sticky… and she, possibly pregnant again.
Moaning a soft sigh as she decided to rain check that last deed – seeing if Shepard would be interested in expanding their family unit by one - instead, Jack placed one biotic coated hand against the side of his face. She smirked as she noticed one of his hands had somehow found its way inside her robes, cupping her left breast.
"You know, sometimes I forgot how much of a fucking pervert you can be," she murmured, trying not to pay too much attention to the tingling in her chest. "I really love it."
Earning a playful breast squeeze, Jack nearly laughed and leaped, it took the sound of Randi whimpering in her arms to keep her from moving any further. Jack bit her lip and averted her eyes away from her guy.
"Hey John?" she breathed to him, settling against him.
Shepard craned his neck to look at her. If Jack was using his birth name, then he knew that it had to be a good thing.
"This is what I mean by Dad things," she murmured as she looked down on their daughter, still thankfully unaware of her surroundings. "A fire, marshmallows… hot chocolate. You gave our girl things to be interested in instead of focused on what happened. You just… do Dad things good…"
Above her, he heard Shepard emit a small chuckle.
"More like I do you good," he retorted back like he was being fucking clever.
If not for their daughter in her arms, Jack would have slapped him in a status field and fucked him right there. Instead she settled for a small smack on his cheek as she nestled into his chest. It would have to wait until later. Jack signed softly. The sacrifices one made for the ones they loved.
So instead of fucking what little brains her dope of a husband had, Jack leaned back to press her lips against his and she rested herself against him, one hand reached out, lacing their fingers together. Privately she smiled as she closed her eyes.
"I love you, John..." she breathed to him. "... you dumbass..."
Jack did not need John to reply all lovey-dovey – which he was notorious for - she already knew where he stood on the matter, and that was a nice confidence to hold.
…
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Never wrote Jack before. Nothing special, just a quick little idea I got a few days ago. I hope it was to your satisfaction. I really like her as a Shepard romance, a close second to Tali anyways. Officially this is a oneshot, but who knows. Thanks for reading.