Chapter 7

Shepard decided to go over some reports in her cabin. Garrus was busy calibrating some upgrades on the Normandy's guns and advised that they shouldn't leave the Citadel till he was finished. Not really a surprise, that Turian was always calibrating something. Meanwhile, she was listening to some music in her room. She heard some noise outside her cabin door. She opened the door to find Jack and a couple of guards that were unconscious. Shepard rolled her eyes. "Going to take me on, again, Jack?"

"They refused to let me in. They said you were busy."

"I can make the time. Come in." Jack wandered into Shepard's room.

Jack looked around Shepard's cabin. Her eyes settling on the fish tank and the fish swimming around and then her eyes went back to Ari's. "Nice digs you got around here."

"Thanks. The fish help me relax. I know a few Asari mediations; the fish help me focus on eternity. Might help you sometime as well. I can…."

Jack cut Shepard off. "No thanks. I don't surrender my focus to oblivion."

"Running on pure adrenaline all the time wears me out, Jack. Sometimes I must let it go. But I get it, you rather be in control. Everyone around you is a threat, a knife to the throat, or a gun to the head."

"Damn straight, Shepard. You let your guard down for even a moment and someone can kill you."

"So, you finally decided to come out of your dark hole to see me. That…." Shepard paused, "Took some guts."

Jack nodded and turned and went towards a glass cage that held a hamster in it. "Didn't know you had a pet hamster, Shepard."

Ari grinned. "Name is Sovereign." She tapped on the glass of the cage and Sovereign popped out, gave a light squeak, and ran back into his little cubby hole inside the cage.

"He's cute, Shepard."

"Don't say he's cute. He's a half kilo killer fuzzball and the Vanguard of our Destruction." Shepard said with a fondness for the hamster and a light laugh, thinking how amusing it was to name a hamster after the Reaper she had killed.

Jack laughed. "Whatever, I'll take your word for it."

"You want a drink or something?"

Jack paused. "Fuck….I don't even know why I came here. I am acting like you're my goddamn therapist."

"We don't have to talk. We could do something else if you like."

"Like what?"

"Come with me."

Shepard took Jack by the hand, and they went in the elevator and down into the shuttle bay. A few empty cargo containers were around them each with targets pinned on them.

"Welcome to my training room, Jack. I come here to shoot shit."

Jack nodded and looked over at the various guns Shepard had in here. "Nice selection, which one do you like?"

"I like sniper rifles myself. One shot dead on and the target is dead. Course it doesn't really work on armored and shielded targets but doesn't mean I still don't love the sniper rifle. What about you?"

"Can't argue about the sniper rifle either, but I like something that works in close quarters. A pistol or shotgun is nice and then out and out biotics."

Shepard nodded and picked up a pistol, took an aim at a target, and fired.

"Nice shot."

Shepard nodded in response. "Life is much easier from the barrel of a gun. I know you don't want to talk but…I told you about my hair... but I want to know…I want to know about your tattoos."

"Some of them are for prisons I have been in. Some for kills, you know good ones. Some of them are for things I have lost. Those aren't your business, they're nobody's business. And some are because, hey why the fuck not."

Shepard aimed her pistol again and shot through another target. "You're tough, but you can't have survived alone all these years."

Jack aimed her pistol and fired dead center into the middle of the target. "When I was starting out, I ran with this girl Menara and her boyfriend. They knew their way around. I thought they'd help me." Jack snorted. "Right. They helped me into their bed, and when we finally did take down something big. They helped themselves to my share of the take. I knew where it was heading, and I got em first. Never bothered with friends after that."

"They sound like selfish pricks, that doesn't mean they were going to kill you."

"I get feelings. I don't need proof. I do the smart thing. I always do the smart thing if people fuck with me. That's probably something you should remember."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. It sounded like Jack was going to threaten her and Shepard's hand tightened on her gun. "You work pretty hard at not letting people get close."

"I've been with lots of people. If you're asking about a boyfriend or a girlfriend. No, it's a waste of time and it never works. You let someone get that close, it just means they need a shorter knife. Lonely and alive works just fine, thanks."

"Seems like you miss it a little more than you want to admit."

"Pick every little word apart if you want. But it doesn't change the way the galaxy works. Come on you've been around."

Shepard put down her gun, slightly disappointed in Jack's answer. "You know what. I am done. I need to get back to my reports."

"Wait a minute…. it's my turn to ask the questions. You've been doing your best to try and get to know me. Why? You invited me the fuck up to your cabin and now this! Are you eying me up, because if this is just about sex, maybe you should just fucking say so."

Ari turned. Yeah, she wanted Jack, but not like this. She'd just prove that all she cared about was instant gratification and that would damage all the progress she had made with Jack.

Ari sighed. "I…." she paused. "I am in no hurry. I want to know what makes you tick first."

"You don't need to know someone to sleep with them. You just have to know where to put it."

Shepard walked away and she heard Jack's gun raise and she tried to move out of the way, but the crazed chick decided to shoot her in the foot.

"What the fuck was that for?"

"I am telling you like I told you earlier…. don't fucking get close to me or else."

Shepard hobbled up the stairs. Jack shooting her in the foot wasn't going to kill her but it sure hurt like hell. She hobbled through the crew area and managed to make it back to the med bay. "Damn it Doctor, I followed your advice, and this is what it gets me."

Chakwas came over with her medical equipment in hand "I see your courting with Jack is coming along nicely."

"Very funny. You know trying to get close to Jack is like tangling with a damn Reaper. Both seem hellbent in trying to kill, injure or maim me in the process."