Chapter 35

A/N - Delayed chapter? Dragon Age Inquisition. Enough said.

"Where's the fucking info you promised me?" Was the first thing Jack asked even before Shepard had a chance to say 'hi'. Looking around, Shepard wondered why Jack had chosen this place to make her own. There was plenty of more comfortable rooms on the Normandy. Down here in engineering with nothing but a mattress seemed like an odd choice.

"It's only been a few hours, you'll have it soon enough." Shepard explained and silentlysighed while rolling her eyes as she felt Holt's presence right behind her. The man was actually using her as a human shield against the biotic woman.

"A few hours for something that should only take a few moments!" Jack exclaimed as she seemed to try and make eye contact with Holt. "You were the one that said it would be easy to fix, where's my access to the Cerberus files!?" She demanded and Shepard could tell that Holt was about to sneak away so she grabbed his arm and pulled him next to her.

"Just give her what she asks for." Shepard whispered, making sure that Jack didn't hear.

"That's the thing, I've already given her access to most of the network. If she wanted more specific stuff then she would have to say exactly what she was looking for and I would have to get it from specific terminals..." Holt explained in a whisper of his own as he looked warily in Jack's direction.

"What? So she just-"

"She just hasn't noticed. And I'm not about to tell an emotionally unstable biotic woman that she's being silly."

"Why add woman into that?" Shepard whispered with a raised brow.

"... No reason, ma'am."

"Stop it with your fucking whispers. Will I get the info right now or will I have to take it by force?" Jack growled as she lightly flashed herbiotics. Shepard was not about to let threats like that go unnoticed.

"I don't care about your attitude." Shepard began as she took a step towards the biotic. "I don't care about what you think of the people on the ship." She continued as she kept walking, Jack let her biotics die down as she took a step back with a confused frown. "But I do care when those people,my people, are getting threatened." She was right up in Jack's face by now. A small part of her was slightly worried with how dangerous this woman was but Shepard knew that she could be equally dangerous. If Jack was gonna be a part of the team, she would not be allowed to throw around threats like that without Shepard doing something about it. "If you had taken a moment to actually cool your head you would've noticed that you already have access to what you asked for."

"Bullshit." Jack snarled back, Shepard remained standing where she was as the biotic brought up heromni-tool. "I have not received anything that would..." Her words died down as she looked on the screen. Shepard was silently grateful that Holt had been telling the truth. If it had turned out that Jack had not received the files after all then the Normandy might have turned into a similar war zone as the prison ship, given how impulsive Jack was.

"If you need more detailed files, Holt here can help you with that. But if you threaten anyone on the ship again, you'll get nothing." Shepard said as she turned around and started walking back towards the stairs. "Save your anger for the real enemies." She added to which Jack simply scoffed.

"You make it sound like Cerberus are not enemies." She said as Shepard motioned for Holt to follow her. He would probably follow either way, she guessed that he did not want to spend any more time near Jack for now. Once they were back out in the corridor, Holt let out a sigh of relief that he seemed to have been holding for hours.

"I'll admit, that one frightens me a bit."

"Surely, someone in your line of work should be used to dangerous people by now?" Shepard asked as they went into the elevator.

"Predictable danger is so much more easy to deal with than unpredictable danger."

"Fair enough, I guess." She chuckled as Holt ordered the elevator to move. "Just surprised that I ended up having the biggest balls in this relationship."

"I'm more than fine with wearing a skirt if it means I don't have to deal with someone like Jack when she's in such a mood."

"I'll remember you said that." Shepard said with a mischievous grin. "You won't be in trouble for giving her access, I hope?" She asked with a bit of concern as she moved closer to him. Shepard didn't really have access to same amount of information that Holt was able to reach. If there was anyone that The Illusive Man would punish for doing something like this it would be Holt.

"Nah, I mostly gave her access to stuff that already was sort of public. She'll probably demand more later on but this should keep her happy for now, if she's capable of feeling that emotion." He explained with a grin.

"Just run things by me before you sell out another organisation."

"It's fine, I'll just hide behind you if the big, bad scary guys come for me."

"... We should find you a skirt as soon as possible." Shepard chuckled as she leaned in and initiated a kiss. Sighing comfortably as she felt his arms snake around her, she simply cherished the moment before the elevator doors would open and someone would probably be standing right there. When she tried to break away though, she felt those arms keep her locked in the position. "You wanna give the people in the mess hall a show?" She asked with a raised brow.

"Unless they have a direct feed to this floor, I think they'll go about their dinner without any entertainment." Holt answered with a chuckle as the elevator doors opened. Glancing back, Shepard saw that this was the floor of her quarters. Before she could say anything, Holt had lifted her up in his arms to which she gave off an embarrassing surprised squeal. "Unless that was a question, in which case we can take the elevator back down?"

"No, this is fine." She laughed as Holt began walking towards her quarters and she felt relived that no one was here to see her being carried like this. At least, she felt relieved until she remembered that there was someone always watching. Glancing up to where she knew there was a security cam, Holt quickly calmed her worries.

"Joker is busy eating right now. You don't have to worry about him seeing this and rubbing it in your face later."

"And you're sure of that because...?"

"Surprisingly, Joker is a man with a very strict schedule which he follows almost religiously." Holt explained as he somehow managed to get her locked door open without putting her down.

"I'll take your word for it." Shepard whispered as she pulled his face closer with her arms that were resting over his shoulders. "And if you mention that his commander was being carried like a bride through the Normandy, I'll have to kill you both."

"Geez, Shepard. Marriage talk already? I've not even met your parents."

"True, I wonder what they'll think when I bring home some man wearing a skirt?"

"'Now there's a man comfortable with himself' would be my guess."

"That's certainly true about you from what I've noticed." Shepard smirked as Holt let her gently down on the bed. She quickly dragged him down with her and pushed her lips against his. Breaking the connections after a few moments with some heavy breaths. "Time to see if you can make other feel comfortable..."