"Your levels all line up with the test results." Chakwas explained as she looked over the read outs. "Actually, you're a bit healthier than you were before our little jump, which is good if you decid to keep it."
"Glad to know I'm in my fucking prime." Jack said, staring at the screens as her mind raced. "The quality of condoms in New Vegas not so much."
She was in Chakwas' office, a mobile medical center she'd parked in one of the rougher neighborhoods of New Vegas and expanded with the help of the Followers of the Apocalypse. The good doctor had been taking advantage of the Mojave's free medical care programs to wage a personal war on the lingering health problems of wasteland life. As such she was probably the only doctor Jack could trust, especially after her period was late.
"Jack, I understand the stress of the situation." Chakwas said, sitting down across from Jack. "Pregnancy during deployment is a tale as old time, but there's options. I have the drugs to terminate the pregnancy if that's what you decide, but the Mojave's prenatal and delivery care abilities have jumped light years in the time we've been here as well. You have options."
"Options?" Jack asked, the weight of it all resting on her shoulders. "Doc, never in my fucking life did I expect to be carrying a kid. After all the shit they did to me I didn't even think it was possible, so yea I've got options but that's half the problem. When you have options you have to make decisions."
"Motherhood is a scary thing." Chakwas said. "But if you somehow think that you wouldn't make an excellent mother because of your past let me dissuade you of that notion. I've seen you with Alena on her hospital visits, how you handle and talk to her. There's a side to you that I don't think even you see Jack, a side to you that's beginning to bloom the longer you stay among people like Shepard or the Courier. The decision is ultimately yours, it's your body after all, and what ever you decide I will support you one hundred percent."
"That means a lot doc." Jack said, nodding to the older woman as she tried to hide the panic on her face. "Really it does, so if I come across as a bitch just know it's not because of you."
"I've dealt with soldiers trapped in tin cans hurtling through space most of my career Jack." Chakwas said, smiling. "You are no where close the worst bitch I've ever treated."
?
Thought Seeker Wrail walked down the Strip with a smile on her face. The Mojave Government had finally approved her retinues diplomatic visas, and she was going to enjoy freedom of movement to its fullest. New Vegas reminded of her home, a small but storied settlement built atop arid steps where the sun burned a bright orange and the heat of the day lingered long into the night. In many ways she saw aspects of her people in the humans she passed, New Vegas was filled with refugees and hardened travelers all coming together to build a better world. If she squinted she could imagine them all as small Krogan, something that would send her warrior husband into a laughing fit if he heard it.
After a few more minutes of walking, Wrail found herself standing in front of a blocky building that to most looked like any other building, but to the trained eye was a stronghold. Two hulking Automata stood at the door, some kind of mix of the local Securitron and what they called a sentry bot. They stared her for a long moment before moving to the side without her having to say a word.
"He is expecting you Ma'am." They said in unison as the door they guarded swung open.
"Thank you." Wrail said, nodding to them both as she stepped through the doorway.
The interior was quite the sight, a sprawling workshop divided into four separate domains. One was encased in heavy plastic wrapping beffiting a biologics research outpost. Another was an exercise in controlled chaos where schematics and incomplete prototypes littered the table. In the middle of the room was a communal area where the other sections overflowed into and met each other. The final section was by far the most chaotic and obviously the work space of a child. Said child was hard at work rooting around inside the shell of what Wrail had been told was called an Eyebot.
The Eyebot beeped pensively as the girl slid something into place with a loud click.
"Oh don't fuss, ED-E." She said, patting it with one hand as she closed its hatch. "With that new memory board you should be able to run the sim with Legion all you like. You should be thanking me instead of complaining about oil stains."
The thing beeped again as it lifted off the table and swiveled to "look" at Wrail.
"Oh don't mind me." Wrail said, smiling at them and raising her hands in a disarming gesture. "I'm just here to see Mr. Craster. Is he your father, child?"
"Uh, yes he is." The girl said, timidly stepping around her workbench to approach Wrail. "I'm Alena and you're one of the aliens that came from out of the solar system, aren't you?"
"I am Thought Seeker Wrail, and it is an honor to meet you Alena." She said, plucking a black tangle of metal pieces from her robes. "I'm happy I ran into you actually, this is a gift just for you."
"What is it?" Alena asked, her odd eyes focused on the gift as she stepped forward another inch.
"A puzzle that has entertained all of my grandchildren and myself on long trips." She said, kneeling down to offer it to her. "It's made of a special metal that warps into a new pattern every time it's put back together. Very popular among the Krogan and the Salarians alike."
"You remind me of my mother." A gruff voice said from behind Alena.
Wrail looked up to see a rail thin human standing behind Alena, having gotten there without alerting her to his presence. He was an odd looking human, all hard angles and lean musculature culminating in someone that was almost more bird like than anything else. Robed in a floral print shirt and pants made from thick canvas, he looked completely at ease despite the strange alien offering his daughter a toy.
"She'd break the ice with every kid, be they from trading caravans or just kids in town, with a puzzle she made herself." Rex Craster, the Courier, said as he came to stand at Alena's side. "You can take the gift Alena, I don't think the Thought Seeker is someone we have to worry about."
"Thank you." The girl said, plucking the puzzle from Wrail's hand and retreating back to her area with out another word.
"She's a beautiful child." Wrail said, standing up and looking down at Rex. "I am glad to see she's recovering well after Trenzia's folly."
"We're a tough bunch to kill us Crasters." Rex said, wincing a little at the Asari's name. "It's good to finally meet you properly though. From what I hear your Shard Council has a lot to offer us."
"And your people have so much culture and ingenuity to offer in kind." Wrail said, letting him change the subject without comment. "As such I'd like to have a conversation with you, get a feel for the man the people talk about in whispers or drunken tales of legend."
"No subterfuge?" Rex said, smiling. "How refreshing. If you don't mind talking while I work then by all means come in."
He pivoted on one foot and led her to his own section of the work shop where almost every surface was covered in black oblong lumps. In fact, the only visible sections of table that weren't covered in the things was a space for his terminal and where two oversized hand guns of unknown make sat. The guns were obviously custom made with a bulky body and a ribbed barrel reminiscent of a rail gun. As Rex sat down in front of the terminal the guns hummed to life and a slight tremor passed through the black things, a tongue of red energy snaking through the mass.
"Don't mind the mess." Rex said, taking one of the black things in his hand and showing it to her. "Had a recent break through with some synthetic muscle fibers and swarm robotics. What you're looking at is my masterpiece, a dual micro fusion mass effect core with a miniaturized blue sliver processor all wrapped in the latest synth metal muscle fibers. Work bot, interface, armor, and weapon all in one swarming package."
"Reminds me of a Geth construct the Quarians use for their long haul ships." Wrail said, examine the device. "Though I'm far from an engineer."
"Ah I dream of the day we have AI helping us out everywhere." Rex said placing the black thing back on the table and wiggling his eye brows as he opened a palm setting a number of them to forming into a ring. "Until then I can settle with a neural interface and some dumb AI setting these babies to work."
"And you made this all on your own?" Wrail asked, impressed.
"Oh no, well I put all of the ideas and tech together but most of pieces were made by other people." Rex explained, wiggling his fingers setting the ring to undulating and lifting off the table by an inch. "From the tesla coils in my skull to the robotics I've gleamed from alien sources all of it culminating in these babies, legionaries I call them."
"Well if nothing else, you'll bring some interesting new names to the Shard Council." Wrail said, chuckling.
"Why are you guys called the Shard Council anyway?" Rex asked closing his hand and letting the legionaries settle.
"I thought I shared the Codexes containing introductory information to our history with your people?" Wrail asked.
"You did but I've been cut off from the diplomatic channels privy to such information." Rex said, rolling his eyes. "Indulge me?"
"Ah of course." Wrail said, watching his expression closely. "We derive our name from the Shard, a mega structure left behind by a race known as the Reapers. In an era long passed it was even larger, with five whole districts that could house thousands. From what our historians can derive, a race called the Protheans discovered that the Citadel was not a bastion of advanced technology as they had believed but a trap set by the reapers."
"A honey pot." Rex said, going off what he'd read from Shepard's version of the codex. "The perfect place to move in and set up as your galactic capitol?"
"Precisely." Wrail said, nodding. "The Protheans discovered that the citadel itself was a massive mass effect relay, a nexus from which the Reapers would emerge from dark space and segment the galaxy as they saw fit. To stop this from happening, the Protheans developed a weapon called the Crucible and though most of their civilization was destroyed preparing it, the Crucible was activated. The resulting blast destroyed not just the Reapers but most of the citadel leaving one arm, or shard, intact. Thus, when the ancient Asari discovered it they named their new alliance the Shard Council."
"The Crucible you say?" Rex said, making a note of that. "Interesting as this is, I don't think you've stopped by to discuss my tinkering or your people's history. Why did you really stop by?"
"Ah good, we've gotten past the polite small talk." She said. "In truth, I've come to ask something of you and to give you a warning. I will start with the warning, you need to wrap up your game with the NCR as soon as possible because, and devote all the resources you have to either allying with the Shard Council or bolstering your void defenses. Especially now that you've imprisoned one of the Ascendancy's most enthusiastic diplomats."
"My game?" Rex asked, the annoyance in his voice obviously fake as he watched her curiously.
"Child, I have poured over the data and seen what you're playing at." Wrail said. "I fully believe that your little plan will work, but the NCR is the least of your worries. Finish them before the Ascendancy can catch wind of just how special your people are and come knocking with much nastier callers than Trenzia."
"There's nastier pieces of work then her?" Rex said.
"Trenzia is a student and daughter of one of the most vile females in the galaxy." Wrail explained. "Matriarch Benezia is her name and her blood line has produced some of the worst criminals in a splinter group started by war criminals. If it wasn't for her daughter Liara, who thank the Mother Tuchanka saw the light centuries ago, I'd make an argument for exiling the whole family. If Trenzia ever manages to get word to Benezia I expect nothing less than a full scale invasion of the Earth. Both to stop you from officially joining the Shard Council and to subjugate a talented young species into the Ascendancy."
"Invasion?" Rex asked, his grey eyes gleaming. "They have the numbers for that?"
"For a small under populated world like Earth?" Wrail said. "Yes, they very much do. The ascendancy represents two fifths of the galaxies Asari population but they also control some of the oldest and most developed worlds in their people's possession. From this power base they've absorbed what they consider lesser races in biotic slaves and soldiers, and through that subjugation have consolidated a fleet that rivals the Shard Council in capability if not numbers."
"So you're evenly matched?" Rex asked. "A stalemate."
"Indeed, since the Rachni wars and the Asari insurrection neither the Ascendancy nor the Council has made head way against the other." Wrail explained. "But something tells me that your people can tip the scale one way or the other. In humanity I see the Krogan reflected back, all of our potential, both creative and destructive, equaled by a kindred species. Trenzia sees it too, and I have no doubt that her masters in the Ascendancy will move to absorb you as soon as possible. It's true that you have made great strides in hardening yourselves against attack, and that may make them pause before attempting to subjugate you. But once you bring the mass effect relay in your system's outer reaches the galaxy will take notice, and there will be nothing stopping the Ascendancy from bringing their worst to your doorstep."
"So we should ally with you to protect ourselves, is that it?" Rex asked, no anger in his voice just contemplation. "Why are you bringing this to me and not Veronica?"
"Because you are the Courier, the legend pulling the strings in this quaint little puppet show." Wrail said, winking at him. "I've seen what you're doing Rex, and while I think Veronica's actions might have shuffled the deck as your people would say, you're still very much counting the cards."
"I really need to publish a book of metaphors that aren't gambling related one day." Rex said, rubbing his temples. "But hypothetically, if I was some shadowy bastard pulling the strings from the behind a curtain, how could I be sure you're genuine? How can I be sure you wouldn't just subjugate us like you claim the Ascendancy would?"
"For starters I haven't made any official reports back to my superiors about the examples of our races walking around New Vegas." Wrail said. "Nor have I made any note of the rumors that all of them came from another universe, or that the Quarian in your employ is scared to death of taking her suit off, or that the Geth in residence is like nothing my own Geth have ever seen. To add to that, I am offering you a place at the table Rex, for you and your people. The Council does not invade or absorb, we invite and foster. If you decide to join us, the Krogan will sponsor and mentor humanity, and in time I expect a human to take a seat on the council."
"A lot of faith to be put in a species that nuked itself to near extinction and then spent the next two hundred years somehow making a nuclear wasteland even more dangerous." Rex said.
"No species is perfect child." Wrail said thoughtfully. "But I'll take not totally xenocidal and power mad over perfect any day of the cycle."
"Fair enough." Rex said, chuckling. "What was your question?"
"Oh yes, you can all it a bit of curiosity." Wrail said, bringing up pictures of the young Krogan she and her people had caught glimpses of. "My people have noticed a Krogan among the motley crew of Shard races you have wondering your quaint city. The one called Grunt if my information is correct. I can sense something in him, a honed edge to his body and soul as if he was created from the essence of the Krogan, if not their history. And before you start with the lie that these nonhuman came from the cryogenics section of the Zetan ship just know that I am aware of the rumors that these souls come not from our sky, but another universe's."
"Well, it's not like we were hiding that secret all too well anyway." Rex said, running his tongue his teeth in frustration. "From what I understand of Grunt, his story requires a bit of context if you can stand a bit of elaboration."
"Rex, I'm a diplomat." Wrail said. "If you manage to make your point in less than an hour's time then you will be in the top percentile in my experience."
"Good to know." Rex said, clearing his throat before continuing. "Since we're being honest, Grunt is something of a unique specimen, even in the universe he hails from. In that universe, the Krogan are nothing like you, or to be more precise, nothing like you are now. The war that destroyed Tuchanka didn't unite them in survival and comradery, it instead turned them into petty clans that lived on war and conquest. So when they were found they became weapons instead of the warrior philosophers you seem to be, and when the Rachni war was done you spread uncontrollably."
"My people call it the great flood." Wrail said, ingesting the information as if it was a new dish. "A healthy Krogan female can lay a thousand eggs over the course of a standard year. It is only through discipline, family planning, and education that we prevented ourselves from breeding the species to extinction on Mother Tuchanka and our settled worlds. In our culture the act of such unregulated birth is considered the most vile of sins, for not only would we be robbing food from our own children's mouths, but from other races' children as well."
"Your alternate counterparts didn't see it that way." Rex said. "From what I understand they overwhelmed world after world with their numbers until a whole new wars started. A war that required the use of a weapon that would essentially render all but .001% of a female's eggs viable, to curb their population and punish the Krogan for biting the hand that fed them. A thousand years later the Krogan are a dying people, which is why some of Shepard's crew are trying to create cure to save them. Grunt himself is an answer to the Genophage, the weapon, in that he's supposedly the best off all the Krogan bloodlines, an ideal Krogan to inspire your people to ignore the soft genocide of the Genophage."
Wrail processed the information slowly. Letting each word ruminate in her mind as her mind, honed by centuries of diplomatic service, absorbed the context. From a detached stand point it was almost interesting, a bit of history and a tragedy so astronomically harmful that a single could barely look past it as an unfortunate statistic. Yet her soul, the very spiritual connection that brought Mother Tuchanka with her where ever she went, cried out in sorrow as the information was committed to memory. Somewhere in another universe her people were dying, and her blood sang to help them.
"What do you think of that?" She asked the human.
"Of the Genophage?" Rex asked as he rummaged through a bin and withdrew a data drive. "I think it's a horrible miscalculation made by people who thought that they had the power to decide the fate of an entire species. There's an argument to be made that the Krogan needed a counter, something that would slow their advance so that some sense could be talked into them. But a genocide so slow that it gives the people its killing time to fully comprehend its depths? No. I've seen how common evil is Wrail, those people a thousand years ago who thought that stripping the reproductive rights away from billions of people, because the Krogan are people flawed as they may be, sickens me to my stomach."
"You are a good man, Rex." Wrail said. "Though I suppose your experience may make you more sympathetic to the Krogan, of either universe."
"We all make mistakes, whole peoples can walk down the wrong path." Rex said, offering the disk to her. "I used to be an evil man, the things I did to other people and the things I allowed because I thought that the strong should rule the weak will haunt me to the end of my days. But the last few years of my life have taught me something else, a truth that everyone, every people, needs to hear."
"It's not too late to change, it's not too late to stop killing people, to stop hurting people." Rex said as she took the drive from him. "People can change Wrail, your version of the Krogan are proof of that, and one day when we can visit the crew of the Normandy's universe I want to offer you passage to the other side. That's a holodisk with the entire codex from the Normandy verse, all of their history and culture unedited. If you're warning is to be believed then I think gesture of trust between us is in order, because truth is Wrail, I do think we need you and the Shard Council."
"You know there will be forces in my government that will want to exploit this connection." She said. "A whole other universe of our peoples to explore and ally with."
"Well you see Wrail that's where the caveat comes in." Rex said. "The other universe is a couple hundred years behind us chronologically, and their version of the Protheans failed to defeat the Reapers."
"Then it will be a fight for our brothers and sisters' survival then?" Wrail asked, surprised at how easy she was taking all of this information in. "A fight that might just be worth fighting if my instincts are correct."
?
Trenzia stood in the shadow of cave entrance and watched New Vegas glowing in the distance. Most of her tools were out there, spread across the Mojave in the beginnings of a network. setting the stage for things to come. Granted, it seemed that Trenzia would have to ally with the shit farmers to weaken the Mojave, but when dealing with infants you sometimes had to get your hands dirty.
"Miss Trenzia." Sylas Regier, the decrepit human who'd freed her said as he appeared from the safe house's hidden entrance. "The beds are all set and I've assembled the tech you asked for."
"Thank you Sylas." She purred, leveling her gaze on him and focusing her powers on him. "Your people truly deserve all the gratitude the Ascendancy can offer."
"Of...of course." Sylas said, his pupils dilating and his heart rate quickening. "I'm sure once I make contact with my people in the NCR they will be overjoyed to ally with your people. The NCR and the Ascendancy righting humanity's course together."
"Yes." Trenzia said, fighting the urge the snap the little idiot's neck.
The truth was that she had no intention of uplifting the NCR. They were as useful as the shit fertilizing their crops, not even tools just material to be used up. She looked back to New Vegas, at its glittering lights and drop ships flitting about its skyline. That was the real prize, the nexus of a whole new civilization that even without the Ascendancy's aid would have devoured simpletons like the NCR on its own. Men like Sylas believed themselves to be power brokers, but he'd be lucky if she allowed him to kiss her feet before he died.
"Well Miss Trenzia, I must be going." Sylas said, reluctantly gesturing towards the parked "truck" as they styled their vehicles. "There's a council meeting discussing a recent jail break."
"Oh sounds interesting." Trenzia said, forcing a smile before turning around and entering the safe house, locking the door behind her.
The interior of the safe house was decrepit and very obviously hastily cleaned. Grime aside the full suite of encrypted communication equipment did make the safe house a prime space for her operations until Remnant arrived. Trenzia walked to the back of the safe house where her communications officer sat before a monstrous chimera of human and Asari communications technologies.
"Report." She said, watching the dozens of screens as data feeds from all across the Mojave came in.
"Your prey has not move much in the last week, Lady Trenzia." She said, not looking away from her screens. "But his influence is felt on multiple points throughout the system. His pieces are moving into place as is the NCR's, and I speculate that his planned speech at the Dam will be force all the players into action."
"How so?" Trenzia said, licking her lips at the thought.
"My view is incomplete, our network is smaller and understandably more cautious than the Geth retinue from the Council." The officer explained. "But there are dozens of data points pointing to something happening at the dam. A recent bolstering of the local teleportation matrix in conflict with the council approved budget, diversion of a mobile spotting tower to a little used outpost overlooking the dam, and the scheduling of an out of Mojave school trip for the class containing the Courier's daughter."
"The same one who killed one of the infiltrators?" Trenzia asked.
"The very same."
"Hm, now wouldn't our new friends in the NCR like to be privy to that information?" Trenzia said, her mind already at work. "Pass it along to Sylas, but make sure that his handlers can see it. I'd like the little bitch to disappear before I take her father."
"Understood ma'am." The officer said. "We retrieved a neural buffer implant from the armory if you would like to take the Courier into your harem."
"Oh you tools know me so well." Trenzia purred. "I think the Courier will make a fine father to many many daughters, don't you agree?"
"Yes." The officer said, letting a single twitch register through her stoic expression.
"Oh buck up Dorla." Trenzia said patting the officer's head. "Your father was stupid enough to come to me without the buffer on, and from his death I gave birth to you. Cherish that gift before I take it from you."
"Yes mother." She said. "Thank you mother."
?
Billy Deliman was a bit of a loser. He'd spent his time in the NCR military as a caravan guard for the supply chain stretching all the way back to the republic and turned on his XO the moment it looked like the Courier's forces were going to take the dam. There was the expectation that he'd get preferential treatment, after all he had just thrown away his life in the NCR to join up with the man who led an army of fucking robots. But ever since the second battle for Hoover Dam, Billy had been the guard for a morgue, a highly classified black site morgue mind you, but it was still a morgue and he was still a guard.
"Maybe I should go to one of the schools they're opening up in New Vegas." He mused to the idle sentry bot charging across from his desk as he flicked cards into a hat. "Get one of those engineering degrees they're handing out and see if I can't start a shop."
Neither the hat nor the bot replied.
"I mean, shoveling brahmin shit would be better than chilling my ass down here all day." Billy said, rolling his eyes. "I bet you Joanne would love an engineer. That said, she loves a man in uniform too, and this one's gotten me some good tail."
The clearance buzzer rang and Billy looked at the camera feed from the front entrance. Two people in Mojave regulars uniform were standing in front of the blast door, both of their faces obscured by bandannas. Rolling his eyes, Billy clicked on the intercom and said:
"Shift change isn't for another six hours boys, go home."
"Making a pick up for Big Mt bio division, high priority." One of them, a woman by the sounds of her voice, said as she raised a requisition order in front of the camera.
"Fuck, the eggheads want corpses now?" Billy said, rolling his eyes and activating the key pad at the door. "Alright, enter your clearance codes and I'll get the system to allow access."
"Oh damn." The woman said not pulling the form back, hiding her and her companion from the camera. "I think I forgot my code but I have it written down, just give me a sec."
"You know you're supposed to have those memorized, right?" Billy said, chuckling. "Lucky your XO doesn't-"
He was cut off as an electrical shock traveled through his spine to knock him unconscious.
"Lucky for her she's the XO." Kasumi Goto said, holstering the stun baton she'd just used on Billy and placing a device on his terminal. "Shepard, should have the terminal cracked momentarily."
"Good." Shepard said through their comm link. "Is the package secure?"
"Yep, though I'm used to stealing valuables not corpses, you owe me for this one Shepard." Kasumi said, looking down the hall to where a body lay on a stretcher, sealed in an auto wrap body bag.
"I'll make it up to you somehow." Shepard said, stepping through the blast door as soon as it was opened wide enough to let her through. "That was easier than Rex made it out to be."
"The place probably relies on the fact it's in the middle of nowhere for most of its protection." Garrus said, stripping off the uniform. "You'd be surprised how many extremely dangerous things are locked away in what's essentially a hard to reach scenic overlook."
"No matter the species you can't discount laziness." Shepard said, rolling her eyes as she looked at Billy. "He going to be okay?"
"Probably." Kasumi said, patting his head. "I'm using local tech, so he might have a little back pain for the next few weeks, or the rest of his life."
"Another thing I need to haunt my conscious, just what I needed." Shepard said as she walked down the hall towards the gurney.
When she reached it, Shepard ran a finger down the seam over the corpses face and watched as it released revealing the body's face. Rex Craster's face looked up at her, well, it was Reximus' face but a chill passed through Shepard nonetheless. Her gaze lingered on the gash through the monster's throat, flecks of blood still clinging to his beard and the shock of the attack still on his face.
"Are we sure about this?" Garrus asked, appearing at her side. "I mean I know Rex says its for a good cause, but grave robbing is a bit out of our usual sphere."
"Technically he's in a morgue not a grave." Shepard reminded him as she closed the bag and fixed a teleporter beacon onto it.
"You know, you remind me of Miranda when you talk like that." Garrus teased as he started wheeling the gurney down the hall.
"Well I can't take her ass so I'll steal her mannerisms." Shepard said she followed close behind.
They wheeled the gurney out in the open and sent it off with a burst of orange light. A moment later, Shepard's omni-tool beeped and she saw a new message in her inbox:
Package received.
"Who knew grave robbing was so easy?" Shepard said.
"I thought we weren't grave robbing?" Garrus asked, grinning.
"Morgue robbing then?" Shepard said, sticking her tongue out at him. "Come on, let's go grab some drinks. I want to smell like booze instead of corpses."
?
Rex sat in his living room, holding Jack's hand and staring at her blankly. She had arrived just after Wrail had left and they'd had a quiet dinner before Rex finally got her to tell him what was obviously bothering her. When she finally did tell him, Rex had almost passed out.
"Rex? Come in Rex?" She asked, surprisingly amused despite the bomb shell she'd just dropped right in to his lap.
Well, he'd more literally dropped something in her lap but was neither here nor there.
"I don't know what to say." Rex said, looking into her eyes. "How are you feeling about this?"
"Scared, angry, and happy all at once." Jack said, chuckling as she squeezed his hand. "I'm afraid I'll be a horrible mother or that the kid will turn out as fucked up as I am. Angry that we let this happen, that I was stupid enough to get pregnant in a foreign universe when I've got a war to fight back home. But despite all that, I'm fucking giggly over the thought of holding a little brat of my own and watching it grow up with their sisters."
"Parenthood is nothing but conflicting emotions I've found." Rex said, lifting her hand up to kiss it. "That said, all of my kids came to me after the baby phase."
"Well, you don't get to be the tragic protagonist dad with this one." Jack said, watching the realization of what she said come over his face.
"You want to keep the baby?" Rex asked, breathless.
"I do." She said, smiling. "It's probably a stupid thing to do, but I want to be a mother Rex. Not until this moment did I realize that, and I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you. That much I know."
"I promise that I will be there for you and the baby." Rex said, fire lighting his grey eyes.
"I know you will." Jack said, laughing. "You're annoyingly consistent with this kind of shit."
"I come from a long line of inconsistent father figures." Rex said. "I might over compensate just a bit to make up for that."
"You'll be fine." She said patting his cheek. "This does change your master plan though, doesn't it?"
"Fuck yes it does." Rex said, shaking his head. "I can't put you on stage with me during the speech at the dam, to many unknowns. But that doesn't mean we have to over compensate, hm, tell me what's something I've done recently that's really pissed you off?"
"Uh let me see." Jack said, pantomiming opening a notebook. "Blew up our bathroom with your stupid home made tooth paste, let Roxanne eat my share of the bacon, used all of my shut gun shells and left the box empty in my gun cabinet. Plus you've been very lazy with the massages lately and I will not fucking stand for that."
"Brilliant!" Rex said, ignoring the genuine annoyance in her tone as he kissed her. "Wind that all into a expletive laced tirade and we have the perfect cover for you to go on a little vacation to clear your head. Should put you out of the way and give you a good reason to snub me at the speech."
"You do realize that I am actually mad at you for those things, correct?" Jack asked.
"Oh yes and I will work on that, promise." Rex said, offering her a smile. "You're lucky you're-"
She was cut off by Rex's omni-boy, an experimental prototype variant of the pip-boy integrated with Omni tool functionalities, beeped.
"That's Shepard." He said, opening a message that was just one word:
received
"What's that about?" Jack asked.
"Just the last thing I needed for Saturday." Rex said, kissing her again. "Well, second to last thing."
"Oh?" She asked, wrapping her arms around him.
"Oh yeah, I just need Arcade to sow a set of metal arms onto a corpse and we'll be all set." He purred, pulling her close.
"You ever think that just blowing your enemies up with your fuck off space laser might be easier than all this?" Jack asked.
"But would it be anywhere near as fun?" Rex asked, cutting off her reply with a kiss.