A/N: Recap!

The idea is to take a character and do a short fic (they will rage between a few paragraphs to several pages) on each letter of the alphabet.

I will keep the characters exclusive to Mass Effect 2 because I, sadly, have never played Mass Effect 1. There will be mentions to ME1 characters and situations because I do know the general story. Please forgive errors.

This next segment will be Jack. Will jump around a bit between characters from chapter to chapter.

Disclaimer: This is BioWare's sandbox; I'm just building sand castles.

B is for Babysitting

She didn't do kids.

Loud, nosey, dirty, smelly kids. The only kids she'd come in contact with were the ones on Praggia, and she'd had to kill those. She looked down at the brat clinging to her leg and was tempted to repeat the experience, but Grunt was watching her and she did not need an angry Krogan.

Protect the children. Shepard had left her as a goddamn babysitter while she took the cheerleader and Vakarian to handle the incoming mercs and their mechs. Protect the children. In case someone gets passed the first line of defense, Shepard left her Team Destructo to guard the kids. Protect the children.

Who the fuck was supposed to protect her from them?

"Why are you colored?" the leg attachment asked.

"They're tattoos."

"What's a tattoo?"

"It's complicated."

"Why?"

Annoyed, she glanced away from the kid to look around. Grunt was acting like a jungle gym and had five of them crawling on him. She took a little satisfaction in seeing that seemed to be as lost as she was. Test-tube Krogan apparently weren't as fatherly as the rest of the species.

The kid attached to her leg shook the appendage when she didn't answer right away. She groaned, popped her knuckles, and tried to shake him off. He was surprisingly strong for a little guy. "It just is, kid."

"Why?"

She was at the end of her patience; these kids were entirely too clingy and hyper. Climbing on a giant lizard, bugging her with inane questions, and invading her personal space was not smart. They needed a healthy dose of fear to give them a proper education.

Her biotics flared and the kid detached from her leg amid a swath of blue light. She held him suspended in the air and glared at him. She was about to tell him off when he shrieked. At first she thought she'd actually hurt him, but upon further inspection, she realized he was laughing.

"Jack…" Grunt growled.

She turned; the Krogan had three kids dangling on each arm, one on each leg, and two around his neck. She took a moment to memorize the image, and then focused on the lizard. He didn't seem particularly pleased that she had one of their charges suspended in mid air.

"What? He likes it."

She floated the kid above her head towards the others. He giggled and clapped his hands together excited. Soon the other kids were clamoring that they wanted to fly too. Their high-pitch voices were annoying, so, to shut them up, she added a bit more power and floated them all.

Grunt, finally free from the tiny arms and legs, looked up to admire the blue biotic swarm of children. He grunted, "How much control do you have? They're not going to fall are they?"

"Please. Remember who you're talking to." Jack scoffed. To prove her point, she began moving the kids in a figure eight pattern in the air, much to their squealing delight. She crossed her arms, smug.

"Impressive."

"Hey, they aren't asking stupid questions or climbing on me, I'm happy."

The next thirty minutes were spent juggling children in the air as Grunt watched out for mercs. Just as Jack was starting to get really tired, she noticed a figure in bright purple armor approaching. She'd always thought Shepard had a real set to be walking around in armor like that.

"Jack?"

"Yep?"

"Why are the children floating?"

She shrugged casually. "They like it."

Shepard stood next to her and looked up and the giggling children for a moment in contemplation. Jack saw the commander give her a sideways glance and Jack was more acutely aware of the sweat pouring down her skin under Shepard's gaze.

Shepard stretched her shoulders out and added her own biotics to Jack's. She took the children one by one and set them on the ground gently. Jack was secretly glad for the help; she wouldn't have been as gentle after using so much energy to keep them up there.

Once the kids were safely away and back with their recently rescued parents, Shepard turned to Jack with a smirk. "That was an interesting use of biotic power."

She shrugged. "It shut them up."

"Maybe I should have you do all the babysitting gigs."

Jack flared biotic blue again, "I can shut you up too, you know."

Shepard just laughed.