Chapter 24
"They been down on that ship for a while now, I'm starting to get worried" Joe said with Miranda wrapped up in his arms.
"I'm sure he's fine Joseph, he didn't become Commander Shepard by being a push over" she said with her head on his chest.
John suddenly burst in the room shouting. "Liara's the fucking shadow broker now" he said walking back to the sofa exhausted.
"Uhhhhh, is that bad news" Joe said looking over at his brother.
"I don't know, I hope she doesn't let it screw up her head" John said.
"So who was the shadow broker, out of curiosity" Miranda asked.
"A damn yahg, Liara said he probably killed the original shadow broker about 60 years ago and took over" John said sitting back getting comfortable.
"Hmmm, I fought a yahg before, vicious bastards...did you kick his ass" Joe said looking at John expectantly.
"Worse" John said ominously.
"That's my boy" Joe said throwing his hand out for John to shake.
"Joseph, when the hell did you fight a yahg" Miranda asked looking up at him puzzled.
"Oh back on purgatory" he said pulling the sheet down to show the claw marks across his abdomen from his yahg fight. "Kuril was running a little side business outside of slave trading, he also held prison fights I was very popular, probably vids of me on the extranet" he said unphased.
"Definitely are" Kasumi said appearing and disappearing.
"What the hell, ok how many people are in here" Miranda said sitting up looking around, holding the sheet close to her.
"Damnt Miranda, I don't wanna see Joseph's dick" John said turning his head covering his eyes.
"Sorry Shepard" she said recovering Joseph's lower body with the sheet."but seriously, what the hell is going on on this ship, do we no longer respect each others personal space" Miranda said furthering her rant as John and Joe stared at each other.
"Miri calm down Kasumi's just being Kasumi.
"Joseph it's bad enough we're naked and your brother is in here, but I will not have everyone running in and out of here like this" she said looking at him clearly annoyed by his attitude.
"Uhhhh, I should go" John said getting up to leave the room.
"Later Johnny" Joseph yelled to him.
"And lock the door behind you" Miranda added.
"I don't believe this, this ship is getting out of control" she said laying back down.
"Miranda just calm down honestly your making a big deal out of nothing" Joe said pulling her to his chest.
"I am not"she said burying her face in his chest.
"Ok babe, can we go to bed now,I'll listen to you finish being pissed at the ship tomorrow ok" he said laying back.
"Uggghhhh fine Joseph" she said laying down turning her back to him.
"Come on Miri, don't be like that" he said wrapping his arms around her waist kissing the back of her neck.
"Mmmm, stop it Joseph, no fair" she said breathlessly.
"Stop being mad at me" he whispered in her ear as she turned to him looking in his eyes.
"God I wish you never found that spot" she said wrapping her arms around his neck.
"I wanna give you something" he said taking off the cross around his neck. "I never take this off, and I want you to do the same" as he put it on her neck.
"Joseph I don't think I can accept this, it means a lot to you, maybe you should give this to Jessica" she said holding it in her hands.
"She has her mom's, and you have mine, it's for protection" he said looking into her eye's. "Never take it off ok and I'll always be with you wherever you are no matter what's going on" kissing her lips.
"I love you Miranda"
"I love you too Joseph"
They arrived back on Illium four days later, John had to investigate a rogue project for TIM, so Joe and Miranda were going to get off and get his problem taken care of.
"Be careful John" Joe said looking his brother in his eye's.
"I'll be fine, you get that taken care of so we can keep kicking ass together" John said holding his brother's shoulders.
"I'm always with you Johnny, no matter what" he said hugging his brother.
"I know Joe, take care of him Miranda" he said looking at her "that's an order"
"Acknowledged commander" she said stepping off the ship.
"Oh Joseph, I forgot to give you something back" he said pulling a black box out of his pocket. "I told you to try again later, go for it Joey" he said hugging his brother one last time "that's an order"
"You got it commander" Joe said giving his brother a perfect salute before stepping off the ship with Miranda walking away.
"Joker, let's go find out what happened with this project overlord" he said as he walked back in the ship.
It had been a month since Joseph had his operation. John returned to Illium to see his brother and his niece making his way to Miranda's apartment. He had just blew up the batarian relay and was ordered to return to Earth to stand trial. Getting to the door knocking as Miranda opened it wearing civilian clothes and looking damn good.
"Commander are you alright" she said pulling him into the apartment "we saw on the news your wanted by the batarians" she said worried.
"I'm fine Miranda thanks for asking, where's Joseph" he said trying his best to hide what he was feeling.
"He's in the back room working out" she told him.
"So he's ok" he asked
"Operation was a success his biotics should no longer do any damage to him".
"Thank god, I need to talk to him" John said walking into the back finding Joe doing push ups with Jessica on his back enjoying the ride. He couldn't help but smile at the scene, which was making what he came here to do even harder.
"Joseph Michael Shepard" John said as Joe turned and looked.
"Uncle John" Jessica said jumping off his back running into John's arms.
"Hey munchkin, my god your getting big" he said holding his brother's child.
"Hey Johnny, you ok we heard about that batarian thing, you wanna talk about it" Joe said standing up.
"Yeah man that's actually why I'm here- what the fuck happened to your hair" John said looking at his brother strangely rub his head.
"Yeah man she had to cut it all off for the surgery, you should of saw it when it was bald" Joe said shaking at the memory "now we have matching hair cuts" he joked sending Jessica to get Miranda as he sat on the bed waiting for his brother to speak.
"Ok when you guys got off the ship I got a call from Hackett he wanted me to go save his friend who was being held by the batarians. She had evidence of an imminent reaper invasion so I went out there after I cleaned up the project overlord debacle. I snuck in and got her out when we got back to her station they had a piece of reaper tech, literally out in the open exposing all of them to it" by this point Miranda had joined the conversation sitting next to Joseph "so I ask her if they're properly protecting themselves from the thing the next thing I know her and the entire team turn on me trying to kill me. I fought as long as I could until they finally got me down. I woke up two days later on a table remembering what happened I started immediately fighting my way out after I found my weapons and armor. By the time I got back to the damn machine set to stop the invasion there was like thirty minutes left on it. I had to choose, let the reapers come through or kill 300,000 batarians. Hardest choice I ever had to make Joe." He said slumping down into the wall.
"John you did the right thing" Joseph said with Miranda agreeing.
"It was a necessary evil Shepard, it had to be done" Miranda added.
"I know but that still doesn't make it feel any better" he said with his head down "which also makes this next part even harder" he said looking up at his brother. "Hackett and Anderson want you to take the blame for this Joseph, so I can keep on fighting" he said unable to make eye contact with his brother.
"You can't be serious, they can't be serious, how can they even ask that of him" Miranda said outraged.
"Because they know I'd do it" Joe said softly looking down.
"Joseph no" Miranda said looking at him grabbing his face. "You cannot do this Joseph, this isn't right" she said as he looked into her eye's sadly.
It was then that John noticed the ring on his finger and the two dangling from the cross on her neck. They were married, that made him feel even worse about his request, he was once again about to rob his brother of happiness. Lost in thought he didn't even notice Miranda walk over to him and punch him in the face until the hit impacted.
"Let's go John" Joe said standing up walking out of the room.
"Where's Miranda going"John asked rubbing his jaw.
"She'll be fine she just needs some space, she knows this is the right choice" Joe said packing up Jessica's things. "John you take care of my fucking daughter ok" he said grabbing him by his armor.
"I will" John said helping Joe get Jessica's stuff.
"Jess, come here for a second" Joe called out to his daughter.
"Yes daddy" she said looking in his eye's as he got on his knees to meet her eye's.
"Daddy's gotta go away for a while ok, your gonna stay with uncle John alright" he said as she began to tear up.
"I don't wanna go with uncle John I wanna stay with you and Miranda" she said beginning to cry.
"I know baby but Miranda has to work, I can't leave you with her you have to go with uncle John ok, he's gonna take you to grandma Hannah" he said trying his best not to cry in front of his daughter.
"Ok daddy" she said wrapping her arms around his neck still crying.
"You ready John" he asked still holding his daughter in his arms as John picked up her bags.
"Sure Joe" John said feeling even worse than he felt when the batarians were killed.
They walked back onto the ship everyone noticing them looked down. Word must have gotten around of what Joseph was going to do, the sacrifice saddened them all. As John and Joe walked into the briefing room where the rest of the ground team was.
"Damnt dick head this isn't right, why are you here" Jack yelled at Joseph.
"It's for the greater good Jack the commander needs to keep the fight going" Garrus replied to her.
"This isn't right Shep, he doesn't deserve this, they won't give him the same treatment they'll give you" Kasumi said looking at John.
"It's a necessary sacrifice Kasumi, just like the relay" Jacob argued against her.
"I don't like this either Shepard, the alliance will give him to the Batarians" Tali said to John.
"Enough, I understand all your concerns but I'd rather not think about it right now, did Miranda come on board" Joe asked.
"Yeah the cheerleaders here, did you even think about her before you went a long with this decision dick head",Jack asked him still pissed at the decision.
Joe handed Jessica to John as he walked out of the room to the elevator to go to Miranda. He got to the office walking in finding her sitting on the bed crying.
"Miri I'm sorry" he said walking over to her.
She stood up looking at him with hate and anger as her biotics began to flare and she started slamming him into the ground. She slammed him until he was unconscious then she told EDI to get Chakwas.
He woke up in the med bay two hours later with a splitting head ache.
"Owwwwww, my head, make it stop doc" he said sitting up holding his head.
"Relax Joseph" she said as she applied some medigel.
"I gotta talk to Miranda" he said hopping off the bed still woozy from her first attack.
"Joseph you need to lie back down" Doctor Chakwas said looking at him clearly disoriented.
"No, I need to speak to my wife" he said holding onto the walls leaving the room.
Chakwas noticed the ring on his finger as he stepped out of the room. That explained Miranda attacking him.
He got to Miranda's office finding it empty. "Gardner, where's Lawson" he asked.
"Commander put her in the brig for kicking the shit out of you" he answered.
" EDI, tell John to meet me in the brig right now" Joe said stumbling his way to the elevator getting on. He arrived finding John already down there waiting for him.
"Where is she" he asked his brother anger building.
"She's in here Joe, she's unstable that slam almost killed you" John said as they walked into the room finding Miranda in the back with her arms folded.
"Get her out of there now John" he said making eye contact with his wife through the glass.
"Joe I can't do that she-" he was cut off by angry Joe.
"I SAID GET HER THE FUCK OUT NOW" Joe yelled at his brother.
"I can't do that Joseph" John said standing strong in his spot.
"Open the door, I'm going in there" Joe said holding himself up with the wall.
"Joseph, I'm not letting you in there with her" John said.
"Johnathan, that's my wife, MY WIFE, you open this fucking door right now" Joe demanded as John opened the door letting him in.
"Miranda" he called out to her as she looked at him with tear stung eyes.
"How could you leave me Joseph" she said.
"I'm not leaving you baby, I'll never leave you, I just have to do what's right" he answered sitting down to avoid falling.
"You could have said no Joseph, how much does he have to take from you for you to realize your losing not gaining" she argued.
"Miranda you know and I know it's the right decision, if I wasn't your husband you know you'd agree with the logic" he said trying to sway her.
"Joseph they're going to kill you, there will be no rescue, if you step off of this ship onto earth your a dead man and you know it" she said looking down at him.
"I know" he whispered looking down.
"Tell me Joseph what does he have over you that makes you keep giving up your life, why are you trying so hard to protect him" she said walking closer.
FLASHBACK
2167
Young John Shepard was thirteen years old visiting his older brother while his father had shore leave on earth. Joe had gotten invited to a party and decided to bring John along with him because he missed his brother but he also wanted to get Danielle Benson alone. Joe decided he was going to multi task that night. They walked into the house everybody was yelling out to Joe greeting him he introduced John to a few of his friends and told them to keep an eye on him as he walked off to find Danielle. Joe's friends were keeping an eye on John as promised and everyone was having a good time. John looked around for Joe noticing he disappeared.
"Guys where's Joey" John asked Joe's friend Brandon.
"Most likely somewhere upstairs balls deep in Danielle" Brandon said as they all laughed.
"Oh ok, where's the bathroom" he asked as Brandon pointed him to the bathroom.
John came out of the bathroom and couldn't find Brandon. He asked a girl standing by the window if she saw Brandon or Joe. The girl told him that Brandon went outside so John turned to find Brandon because he didn't want to disturb Joe walking into a really muscular tall guy.
"Hey you little midget you hittin on my girl" the clearly drunk guy said to him.
"No I was just asking her a question"John said a little intimidated by the guy but trying to hide it because Joey told him to never show fear.
As quick as lightning the guy began wailing on John beating the shit out of him.
Joseph was upstairs doing just what Brandon predicted. Right when Danielle started to actually enjoy it someone started banging on the door.
"KNUCKLES GET DOWN STAIRS NOW HE'S GONNA KILL YOUR BROTHER" an unknown girl yelled.
Joseph hopped up immediately pulling his pants up running down the stairs. He saw Frank standing over his brother about to put a final stomp to his head. Joe then threw the most powerful warp a sixteen year old could produce sending Frank flying out the window. He then ran down to his brother cradling his head as John lay unconscious.
"Johnny I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry",he said crying holding his brother waiting for the ambulance to come.
PRESENT DAY
"He almost killed my brother because I was too busy fucking some girl, I was suppose to protect him and I failed that night, Johnny was never the same after that and I swore that day I would never let him down again that I would always be there to protect him from anything", Joe told her, tears falling from his eye's.
"Joseph he is not a child anymore, you don't have to keep protecting him, I'm your wife damnt... your supposed to protect me" she said straddling his lap holding his face. "I love you Joseph and I love Jessica, but if you keep trying to protect John your going to lose both of us" she told him as she held his head close to her chest.
"I'm sorry baby, I'm so sorry" he said holding her tight around the waist.
John stood outside listening to the whole conversation. The painful memories, the professions of love, the warnings of loss. He walked away before he broke down crying, he knew Miranda was right about everything. He knew that when Joseph stepped off this ship it would be the last time he would ever see him.