Friendship Collection
Acethebatdog2039
Mass Effect Fanfiction
Chapter 27
0-*- 10001 -*-0
Found
John dropped into the cab of the Kodiak exhausted
He was taken over a month ago
Some of the bruises had started to fade already
Others were still yellow
He felt some kneeling next to him.
"John?"
His father
"John?"
All John did was groan
"John, it's okay."
John sighed
"…Dad?"
"It's alright John, I got you."
He opened his bloodshot eyes to find his father in full combat armor, something Shepard hasn't seen since he was boy.
He also noticed a lot more gray hair than before.
When did his father get so old?
"Admiral, the other teams are clear, sir."
Garrus
"Good, get us out of here Garrus."
Shepard felt the Kodiak take off.
"Dad, what happened to Backey?"
"Dead"
Well that was good news.
"…Dad?"
The unasked question hung in the air.
"Garrus did it. I was looking for you."
John reached out and grabbed his father's wrist.
"Just rest John I got you."
0-*- 10001 -*-0
Altered
Katherine Chakwas was not a happy woman
Admiral Benjamin Shepard was refusing to leave her Medbay
He wanted to see his son.
That she could understand
But part of her wanted to punch this man in his face
Kat and Hannah had been friends for over 15 years.
She knew what this man was capable of doing with his hands and with his words.
She didn't trust Ben Shepard, not one bit.
But, Hannah had told her that he had changed
A heart attack will do that to a man.
He was getting help for PTSD and he was trying to fix things with his boy.
From what she knew, he even stopped drinking.
His hair was grayer and thinner, as was he.
The man was tired and need as much rest as his son.
"You have five minutes, Admiral." She sat down at her desk.
She watched the short exchange between the two.
One of Ben's hands was resting on the bedrail and the other on John's forehead.
She couldn't see what Ben had said but it calming to the young man.
Chakwas was thankful she could read lips, she watched the younger Shepard's.
'I love you too, Dad.'
0-*- 10001 -*-0
Chance
Miranda paced in John's quarters
The door open and Ben walked in
"Oh, Miranda, I can come back if you wish."
"No… no, it's fine. I was just thinking."
He watched her; she was playing with a piece of hair.
Something he never seen her do.
"Miranda, are you alright?"
She sat at the end of John's bed.
"You know I love your son right?"
Ben walked further into the room.
"I do"
"He's a good man."
Ben nodded, "A better one than me, yes." He said.
"He deserves to be happy. To have everything a man wants. We ask so much of him and he asks for nothing in return."
She couldn't look at her lover's father.
"Want to be able to do that for him, Admiral Shepard."
He sat down next to her on the bed.
"Ben, Miranda, you can call me Ben."
She nodded
"What is that you want to give him?" he asked.
"A family"
Ben smiled softly, "You've done that Miranda. You gave him a second chance at life; you gave him a crew that he can care for, his friends, Garrus, Tail, Thane, and you."
For a second Ben thought what it would have felt like to have a daughter.
"Am I crazy for thinking about this?" She stood up and started to pace again.
"About what?"
"I want," She paused, "I want to give him a family, a real family."
"A baby"
She nodded her arms across her stomach as she paced.
"It's a stupid idea," she said. "We're in the middle of a damn suicide mission and I'm thinking of children."
"It's not stupid, you're thinking of life after the Reapers, Miranda. It's normal."
She stopped in front of the fish tank.
"I wish it was easy."
"Nothing is ever easy."
Miranda watched the little Thessian Sunfish fish swim circles around each other.
"There's more isn't there?" He asked
She sighed, "How do you both do that?"
"It's a gift."
She pushed some hair behind her ear.
"I had some tests done on Illium the last time we were docked there."
She turned around pressing her back to the tank.
"Doctors found something, a benign neoplasm."
Ben just watched her.
"They said the damage renders me unable to have a child."
He was quiet; he wasn't sure what to say. He waited for the tears.
"Is there anything they can do?"
She shook her head.
"They said there are support groups, I don't want a support group."
The tears started.
Miranda looked down at her feet, something she hadn't done since was a small child.
He could understand that.
"Have you told John?"
"I can't, I don't want him to leave me because of this."
With that Ben was on his feet. He came to stand in front of her.
Lifting her chin with his finger they locked eyes.
"He loves you, and he would never leave you." He said "Now beating the doctors for upsetting you, yes."
She gave him a light chuckle.
"Miranda," he said in a firm but soft voice. "You have one of the best geneticists in the galaxy on this ship. Talk to him. See is there's anything Mordin can do."
"And if he can't?"
"It's Mordin. If anyone can do it he can."
She nodded.
"Thank you Admiral…Ben."
"You are very welcome, my dear." He smiled at her. "Now just think if Mordin can do it. Think of the beautiful babies you and John would make."
She laughed
"Can we keep this our secret?"
He nodded, "You call me the second," he pointed a finger at her, "Mordin gives you test results and all that."
Miranda reached out and gave him a hug.
Something she never did with her own father.
"Thank you Ben."
"You are very welcome, dear" he said again. "Welcome to the family Miranda."
0-*- 10001 -*-0
Cartoons and Stomach Flu
He moved slowly, all he wanted was his own bed.
He hated being away from everyone for so long
John opened the door to his cabin
Inhaling deeply
Ah, it was nice to be home.
Checking on both his fish and space hamster he was pleased to see that Miranda managed to keep them all alive.
Slipping under his covers John sighed
"Commander, Doctor Chakwas requests your presence in the Medbay."
John groaned
"EDI, tell her I'm not coming down. I'm staying up here."
"Commander, Doctor Chakwas requests your presence in the Medbay." EDI repeated
"I don't care, I'm staying here."
John buried his head under his pillow.
"Commander, Doctor Chakwas requests your presence in the Medbay."
"Shut up, EDI!" His voice was muffled
"Commander, Doctor Chakwas requests your presence in the Medbay."
"EDI, leave me alone. That's an order!"
The AI paused, "Yes, Commander"
The commander sighed nestling down in the blankets
He wasn't sure how long he was asleep but a knocking on his door.
"John, will you tell this AI to open the damn door?" His father's voice flooded into the room.
John sighed under the blanket
"EDI let him in."
"Stupid AI" Ben walked through the door.
John was lying on his stomach with his head under the pillow.
Ben crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed.
"How you feeling kid," he asked
"I've been better," John's voice was muffled, "Did the doc send you up here?"
"Nope, since when do I listen to doctors?"
"Good point, how long you staying Dad?"
"Few days"
John nodded; he rolled onto his side pulling the pillow off his head.
Ben looked down at his boy
"Dad, do you remember when I just turned seven before you were shipped out again, Mom and I had the stomach flu?"
"I do," He didn't know where John was going with this.
"Mom was better before I was. You stayed in bed with me; we watched cartoons and movies all day."
"Yeah, I believe you loved the cartoon 'Special Ops'"
"Next thing I knew you and I were at the zoo and before that we went fishing. Then you were gone for three years."
"That wasn't my plan John"
"I know," John sighed, "You never did talk about it"
Ben was silent
"I mean, I didn't know anything was wrong till I was older. You were never around a lot after that and when you were well let's say you weren't very pleasant."
"I know, I did and said some terrible things when you were growing up and like I said before I wish I could take them back."
"How do we always keep coming back to this?" John wondered aloud, "Every time we're together we somehow talk about this. I don't care anymore. The past is the past. We can't do anything about it. We might as well get over it and move on."
"I'm trying John, there's just so much."
"I know Dad; I just want us to be able to have some type of father son relationship. Go fishing again or something"
"We will," Ben cleared his throat, "You better email your mother."
"Yeah, well, I'm waiting for an apology from them. Did you know Mom and David got married?"
Ben shrugged, "I have no say in what she does with her life John, and we divorced sometime after your funeral."
"So you didn't know"
"I didn't"
"Does it bother you?"
He shook his head, "What bothered me was that she failed to inform you. Then again you didn't know we divorced. Who told you that anyway?"
"In one of the emails Uncle Joe sent he made a comment about it. I don't think he meant anything by it."
"Ah, well I'll have to have a talk with my brother then."
John was struggling to keep his eyes open.
"Go to sleep JD, we'll talk more tomorrow."
John nodded, "Night Dad"
Ben smiled softly, "Night son."
He made sure his boy was comfortable before heading for the door, "EDI lights please."
"Of course Admiral"
Ben stayed till the cabin was cloaked in the blue light from the fish tank.
0-*- 10001 -*-0
Therapy
"Admiral Shepard, good morning. Come on it"
"Thanks Doc"
Doctor Beverly Weston closed the door behind her patient.
"Please take a seat Admiral."
He unbutton his suit coat of his uniform, he sat down and crossed his one leg over his knee.
Doctor Weston sat across from him.
"How are you doing today Admiral," she asked
"Call me Ben. I've been coming here for months and you still call me Admiral"
"Excuse me?"
"My name is Ben. I'm sure you have that in your file somewhere."
She chuckled, "Of course sir."
He looked around the office; this Doctor Weston wasn't like any psychologist he met before.
Then again he didn't know many psychologists.
Doctor Beverly Weston didn't look to be a woman in her fifties, she held herself with grace and poise, making herself a very elegant woman.
"Why do you do that?" she asked
Ben didn't answer he just gave her a questionable look.
"Look around the office that is."
He smirked, "I'm a solider Doctor Weston. Habit I guess for me to look for all my exits."
"I have to keep reminding myself of that. I don't deal with the Alliance very much."
He watched her flip through her note pad. Odd to see something like that, Ben had no clue that they still made those things.
"Alright, let's start where we left off last time, which was with your son, John"
Ben smirked at his son's name.
"You missed our last session together two weeks ago."
Ben nodded, "I was with John"
"Good, how did that go?"
"Pretty well, he did make a comment that every time we're together we somehow end up talking about his childhood."
The doctor made a note.
"His childhood?"
"Yeah," Ben shifted in his seat, "Or I guess the lack of a childhood. The fact that John saw me as a drunk and wife beater hit me pretty hard. Which I can't argue with, I did some stupid shit when he was a kid."
"It's good that you can admit that to yourself. How is your relationship with John?"
"Slowly getting better, we email almost every day. He tries to call me at least once a month. But, he's busy I can understand if he can't, but we're emailing."
She made a few more notes.
"He made the comment about wanting to go fishing again, which is something we haven't done since he was about seven."
"A father son outing, that's a great step. How do you feel about this?"
"I'm looking forward to it."
"That's wonderful. I'm glad you're making progress with him. How about your ex-wife, Hannah?"
Ben snorted and shook his head, "Well Hannah and I haven't said more than five words to each other since we divorced two and half years ago."
"I see so no progress there." She made a few more notes and looked up at him. "What about your younger brother, Joseph?"
"Well, I call him Joe. He and I have been talking a bit more. I'll be spending the Fourth of July with him and his family. He likes to point out that's he's a grandfather now."
"His oldest son's child, I believe you talked about this before."
"Yes, Steven, Joe's oldest. Steven and his wife have a little girl named Ann. She was born on John's birthday, just turned 3. Beautiful little girl from what pictures of her I've seen."
"When was the last time you saw Ann?"
"A while ago, she must have been just born. Hannah and I were still married."
Doctor Weston nodded, "Alright let's move on. Tell me about your own childhood, Admiral… Ben."
"It was difficult but Joe and I got through it"
"What made it difficult?"
"Our mother passed away when we were very young and Father didn't take it very well."
"How so?"
"At first he didn't do much of anything, but as the years passed he started drinking and yelling more."
"How did that affect you?"
Ben looked away and cleared his throat.
Memories of Father yelling and throwing things and blaming them for everything came to the forefront of his mind.
"Ben?"
"Sorry, could be one of the reasons why I ended up hitting the bottle myself as an adult. Another reason why I hate myself for what I've done to Hannah and John. I knew what it was like to grow up in that type of household and let myself become my father."
She made a few notes.
"Tell me about your career."
"Why? You have my file."
She chuckled, "I want to hear it from you."
"There's really not much to tell. After I turned 18 I went to college, headed to OCS after words became an officer. Hannah and I married just after I made First Lieutenant and I was 25 when John was born. Severed in the First Contact War, did a tour of duty at Gate."
"You were the commander at Gate during the siege."
"I was, they gave me a medal and told me not to talk about it for twenty years."
"Would you call yourself a hero?"
Ben shifted in his seat, "Oh, no I don't. I've never would call myself that. I would call John that, but never myself."
"You would call your son a hero? Why?"
"Because he is, simple as that"
"According to you military personal file you went missing on a mission. You were gone for three years. Tell me about those three years"
"I was part of a recon scout mission, John was seven. We were told it was only going to be a few weeks. Scout a few outposts here and there and then get sent home. But, I seem to have terrible luck. On our way to the second outpost we were attacked by batarian salvers."
Ben's leg dropped down to the floor. He rested his elbows on his knees, he stared at the floor.
"…I've never really talked about this before Doc.
"That's okay… take your time."
"All I wanted was to get home to my family. I had made a promise to John that I would come home."
Ben pushed himself out of the chair; he made his way to the window.
"I really don't remember much of the first year from when I was missing"
"Why do you think that is?"
"Once the batarian salvers figured out that myself and one of my men were officers we were taken from the group. Maybe I've locked it away?"
"Why were you and your men separated from the group?"
"They wanted information from us. There were rumors of the Alliance killing some Batavians from one of their colonies, all false it turns out"
"I see. What happen during the other two years?"
Ben started to pace in front of the window.
"Some of the men were sold. They said I was worth more. So they kept me. The Alliance doesn't pay ransom for officers. A good friend of mine, Steven Hackett, heard rumors of Alliance officers being kept. Tried to find us... took him two years to do so."
Ben felt his body start to trembled, he stopped in his movement.
"Doc, could we stop here for today?"
She made a few quick notes in her legal pad.
"Of course, Admiral," She stood up, "Would you like a cup of tea?"
"I would like that very much."
0-*- 10001 -*-0
A/N: Oh, it's been five months since I've updated? My bad. My best friend called me a horrible bitch followed quickly by a love you. Next one should be up soon. Count down to Mass Effect 3!
Ace
Edit: Fixed some stuff.
