Chapter 4
Jack woke up to the same routine almost every morning. Get up, stretch, head up stairs. Have a short conversation with Tali, then go and take a piss. She felt a presents in the room as she awoke; nothing life threatening, but still uneasy. She sits up and notices movement to her left, close to the stairs.
"You would make a terrible assassin." The tattooed girl states as she can now plainly see the purple cloth, tightly wrapped around the slender figure of the quarian. The masked alien stands, making the smaller girl look a little less intimidating as she walks toward her.
"If I wanted to assassinate you I would have simply hired Kasumi to do it for me. She owes me a few favors now." The quarian leans against the wall, obviously trying to look cool, and folds her, practically stick figure, arms across one another. Jack can't see the face of the tech nerd but she can tell by the way she is acting that the girl has gossip that she is dying to spread around. The bald woman then rubs her eyes as she arches her back, giving herself a good morning stretch.
"What do you want to tell me Tali?" The suited woman popped off the wall and starts to hop up and down like a small child on Christmas day.
"Oh my god, Jack you won't guess who called me late last night." Jack looks up at the girl with fake excitement.
"Oh my god who?" the jumpy girl doesn't process the Jack's sarcasm and continues with the conversation.
"Miranda!" Jack's eyes get big and her heart stops for a moment. Why the fuck was the cheerleader calling on the tech at all hours of the night? The convict could feel jealousy swell up in her stomach as she turns away from the mechanic to hide the redness in her face. Tali looks at the smaller girl in confusion.
"Jack are you o-" She is cut off by and angry look from the girl sitting in front of her.
"Why did she call you?" Tali was taken aback by the sharpness in Jack's voice. She wondered why the girl would be so affected by Miranda calling her. She thought the two hated each other. Jack stood and walked right past the alien in thought and started up the stairs.
"Never mind, I don't actually care I was just wondering." She leaves Tali in her cluttered hull with her last comment not really convincing to anyone, not even herself.
*after what felt like forever in the elevator*
The doors to the elevator swoosh open and the first thing Jack sees is the commander's cocky smirk.
"I knew you would be here." The red headed commander looks at her wrist as though a watch was there.
"However you are a little late don't you think? It's almost 0900 hours." Jack pushes past the ginger and waits at the commander quarters door.
"Fuck you and your military time, I shouldn't even be awake at this hour." the woman that single handedly took down Saren strides over and the doors open for her.
"I don't understand why you are always so harsh. I bet you are a big softy under all of that hard exterior, a teddy bear just waiting to be hugged." The commander continues into her room. Walking over to her desk Jack follows close behind.
"Don't pretend that you know me, you have no idea what I am or how I think." Jack turns away from the annoying red head and notices a small tank on the bottom shelf by the girl scouts desk. Jack pokes at the glass of the tank and a hamster pokes its head out of the little box house in its cage, darts around the glass tank and runs back inside the brown house. The ex-con chuckles a little and leans back to observe it better.
"I didn't think you were one for small animals Jack." At the comment, she looks away with a slight blush.
"Shut up girl scout. I just thought it was kind of interesting." Shepard turns around and hands Jack a data pad.
"Hook this up to your terminal, it has all footage for the past two weeks and access to any live video feed. Now in return I need something from you." Jack throws her hands up and walks away from Jaqueline, lessening the chances of punching her square in her freckled face.
"Of course, someone always wants something in return. I don't know why I ever expected any of this to come to me for free." The commander stood there and let the girl pacing in front of her to calm down. Jack finally goes and leans against the wall across from the desk.
"What do you want?" Jack crosses her arms and huffs. Jaqueline's lips spread into, what most people would call, an evil smile.
"I need something bought. Something that you can't just get anywhere, you have to go to the black market to get it." The convict looks at the ginger in front of her with a confused look on her face.
"What could you possibly need from the black market?"
"A special part, something I need for a mission." The red headed lesbian then hands her a piece of paper with seven numbers on it and an address. Shepard points at the number.
"This is the confirmation number, once you show it to them they will take you into the back and it will be sized. Don't ask questions, don't skip out. I need this done." The taller woman then turns Jack around and leads her toward the door. The door swooshes open again and Jaqueline pushes Jack out. The tattooed girl spins around with fists clenched, ready to deck the woman in front of her but is caught off guard by the door clamping shut in her face. The key pad next to the door lights up and the commander's voice emits from it.
"Also, make sure to still be wearing it when you come back. I need to make sure it works perfectly." The light on the key pad shuts off and Jack simply stands there for a moment trying to figure out what I could be. After about a minute she gets bored and heads down to the boarding deck.
Walking down the halls of the citadel Jack looks at the small piece of paper and compares it to the name of the address in front of her. It looked like⦠it looked like a wedding apparel store. What the fuck?! Is Shepard getting married? Jack stands outside the store and continues to compare the addresses until an asari with purple skin and blue facial markings approaches the tattooed woman.
"Are you Jack? You must be here for your fitting." Jack stops her thoughts in their tracks and looks the woman right in the eye as she yells at the top of her lungs.
"What the fuck are you talking about?!" the asari is taken by surprise by the smaller girls' outburst.
"A-are you not here for the fitting that Commander Jaqueline Shepard set up?" Jack glare at the note in her hand and mumbles to herself about how it had better be worth it. she then looks up at the purple skinned alien woman and nods her head.
"Then my name is Natalia, please follow me this way." Natalia ushered Jack towards the back of the store, past a black curtain that was so dark, it was almost too difficult for her eyes to comprehend. Making their way through the sea of darkness Jack can see that they are walking towards a light that is cutting through the darkness like a god's sword. The light keeps growing until they enter an room so bright that the tattooed woman has the squint until her eyes can adjust.
"Where the hell are we?" she rubs her eyes and looks at the girl with blue marking and a huge smile on her face. Jack then looks around and sees a sea of phallic looking parts, mounted everywhere.
"We are in a black market store called NOPARTS."
