Jacob had taken to making paper space ships while a bored and awkward silence hung around them all - just because they worked together it didn't mean they had to get along.
"Hey, look- The Normandy." Jacob said and then threw his space ship across the room only for it to soon tip into a nose dive.
"Let's hope the real one works better." Miranda smirked.
"With Tali on board it's not like anything could go wrong." Jacob said fairly.
"I'll hold off on dismissing all of the engineering crew, if it's all the same." Miranda retorted.
"I'm just saying - she is brilliant. It must help her settle in quickly as she's lived on ships all of her life." Jacob reasoned.
Shepard thought fleetingly of when Tali couldn't sleep because The Normandy was too quiet.
"What about you, Shepard?" Jacob asked and Shepard looked up. "Do you think of The Normandy as home?"
Shepard merely shrugged. It was just where she did her job. She didn't have any particular emotional attachment to it. The first had supposed to symbolise cooperation between humans turians but the galaxy turned their backs on them against the reapers and let it get blown to hell. This new one just meant a new mission to complete.
"What did you parents do?" Jacob asked.
"Colony development." Shepard muttered; she did not like talking about Mindoir or her former life at all and Jacob seemed to accept this.
"What about yours, Jacob?" Thane asked and Jacob stiffened slightly.
"My mother works as a doctor, my father was declared missing after his ship went down." Jacob replied gruffly.
Shepard thought that if he didn't like people asking personal questions then he shouldn't be asking them himself.
"Liara?" Thane asked.
"My mother...well...everyone knows and I have absolutely no idea about my father." Liara replied.
Thane merely nodded.
"Miranda?"
"He's a wealthy business man." She replied simply.
"How wealthy?" Shepard asked with a smile and Miranda gave her a teasing, knowing look.
"Very."
"Really?" Shepard asked playfully, getting up and walking down to sit at the desk next to Miranda. "Millionaire?"
Miranda only smiled.
"Billionaire?" Shepard asked and her eyes widened when Miranda didn't answer. "Trillionaire? Wow...I knew you were loaded but jeez."
"He's loaded." Miranda reminded her gently. "I have nothing to do with him now - thank God."
"How much are you worth?" Shepard asked playfully.
"Personally? Almost nothing." Miranda replied offhand.
"That's not true." Shepard replied, eyes blazing and Miranda blushed slightly as she met Shepard's eyes.
"What about more fun questions like what did you want to be when you were a kid?" Liara asked and Miranda and Shepard jumped out of their revere.
"I wanted to join the Alliance." Jacob answered predictably.
"I wanted to be a nurse." Shepard replied.
"A nurse?" Miranda questioned.
"Yes," Shepard insisted, "why?"
"It's just a big leap from that to this." Miranda replied.
"Yeah, well, a lot happened." Shepard replied and she knew Miranda understood.
"I wanted to aid and serve the Hanar as soon as I was able." Thane answered.
"Don't you think it was a bit much for a kid?" Shepard asked tentatively.
"It was an honour." Thane replied and Jacob scoffed.
"What?" Liara asked.
"He's just a gun for hire." Jacob mocked.
"And what exactly do you think you are, Jacob?" Miranda asked and Jacob gave her a wounded look.
"I believe in Cerberus." Jacob responded.
"That's not entirely true." Miranda pointed out.
"Whose side are you on?" Jacob demanded.
"Now, now, children..." Shepard butted in.
"Perhaps Jacob is threatened by the fact that I operate alone? By the fact I've come to know and accept who I am while he is yet to do so?" Thane questioned lightly.
"Touché." Shepard muttered under her breath and Miranda gave her a smile.
"I know who I am." Jacob declared.
Thane merely glanced at him before turning back to the window.
"We are going to die here." Shepard declared dramatically, her head sinking onto the desk.
"He'll turn up eventually." Liara replied reasonably.
"Yes, but how many of us will still be alive? Will he want to clean up the blood from the floors?" Shepard asked sarcastically, looking up.
"It's your team- perhaps you should work on building them up." Liara suggested but Shepard simply grimaced.
"The team actually does work well when we're not forced to spend hours in one room together doing absolutely nothing." Miranda replied.
"It must be hard for you to accept Shepard's leadership." Jacob said.
Shepard smirked. It was petty if this was how he was going to try and get back at Miranda for not agreeing with him about Thane, although she couldn't help but wonder if something had happened between the two and that's why he was acting so childish.
"Why? She's the best person I've ever worked with." Miranda said finally and Shepard looked at her but she paid no attention.
"Glad I was worth bringing back then- without the control chip." Shepard muttered.
"Miranda was going to put a control chip in you?" Liara asked sharply.
"Yep..." Shepard nodded.
"That's disgusting! I didn't hand you to Cerberus for that!" Liara shouted.
"Relax, she didn't..."
"Shepard, how can you not care?" Liara demanded.
"Because she didn't do it, she wouldn't harm me now and I couldn't care less about what happened in the past when I've got enough going on in the present." Shepard snapped.
She knew it probably should bother her but she found it impossible. Miranda didn't even know her back then and she knew how Miranda deeply regretted ever having that thought even though they rarely spoke of it. Shepard wanted the conversation changed more for Miranda's sake as she knew how uncomfortable she would be feeling.
"What are we doing for lunch, anyway?" Shepard asked but everybody just shrugged.