(First, a quick apology for taking forever to update. I had someone very close to me lose their life over the holidays, and it has taken me a bit of time to get back to the things I love including writing. Please enjoy, I will be updating more! Also, if anyone is interested in being a beta for this story, please PM me)

And It All Seemed Harmless: Chapter 12

In a sign of respect, Miranda turns her eyes away from the asari, whose tears were now falling freely as the spectre departs. Shepard wastes no time hailing a cab, and she doesn't look back as her taxi pulls away from the landing.

"Come on Jack we're done here." The operative states, taking the other woman by the arm and guiding her away from the asari's doorway. Despite Miranda's own feelings on Shepard and Liara's distracting relationship, the information broker was a strong ally and had served Cerberus well during her career. She deserved privacy in the wake of what had just happened. And, a smaller audience to her embarrassing emotional response.

Keeping her eyes forward as they walk away, Miranda only glances back when she hears the hiss of Liara's apartment door closing, just to affirm the asari was really gone. Taking a deep breath, the operative exhales harshly, her shoulders releasing a tension she didn't realize had been building there during the conflict. Jack isn't looking at the operative, purposely avoiding her glances like an animal who was very well aware when it had done wrong.

Miranda considers leaving it alone. She could pretend like she hadn't noticed that the convict's reaction to Liara had been starkly out of line. She could pretend that crossing that line was not a clear indication something else was going on in the other woman's complicated mind. Miranda was not close to Jack, and could not be held responsible for her mental health. And yet, the operative didn't want to just leave it alone.

Miranda chastises herself. Getting involved in Jack's mental health was like stepping onto the pressure plate of a mine. Any wrong step could cause the other woman to blow. And yet, she wanted to take that chance. She had seen a very raw side of the convict in her quarters a few hours ago, the other woman revealing very real wounds under her tattoos. And though Jack had been out of line, Liara and Shepard had also been emotionally driven and harsh. They could have very well scratched those wounds open again.

She could probably use someone on her side right now.

"Jack…" Miranda starts, rubbing the back of her neck nervously as she faced the convict. "I….you went too far." Goddammit Lawson, that is not the way to get her to open up on this topic.

If Jack is annoyed by Miranda's statement, she doesn't display it. The convict's eyes are devoid of emotion as she faces the other woman, a look that catches the operative off guard. Though she had seen Jack's eyes hold a myriad of emotions (typically anger) she had never seen the other woman's eyes look blank. The convict held her heart on her sleeve, and her displeasure with every situation was always piercing in her eyes.

"I um, what I meant was….shit." Miranda curses under her breath. Why was it so hard to talk to this woman when they weren't screaming?

"I'm trying to say I don't care that you went too far Jack."

Jack cocks an eyebrow at the statement, and a flash of anger crosses her eyes. The longer the convict stays silent, the more dangerous she seems. Miranda takes a shaky breath, swallowing back her fear as she continues.

"You….you got too involved. You accused Dr. T'Soni of being a harlot, and I know she said inexcusable things to you, but you went too far as well. Why….why did you get involved Jack? It's not like you to step into someone else's personal altercations...I thought you supposedly didn't care about anyone but yourself…."

"That's not true." Jack snaps, but the convict keeps her voice low, as if she is too exhausted from screaming at the information broker to scream now. "Well, maybe it is true. I think, shit I don't know."

Jack's eyes trail to the ground, and for a moment, the convict looks lost. The tattooed woman had survived the impossible her entire life by learning to look out for only herself. It was not easy being confronted with the possibility that she could not do that any longer, and her turmoil washes onto her face, embarrassingly visible to the other woman. Jack shakes her head violently, as if she could physically shake the dilemma of whether or not to allow herself to accept she cared about the Normandy.

"Why do you give a fuck if I care or not cheerleader?" Jack growls, her eyes slightly red as she looks into Miranda's.

"Are you frightened that if I start to care, you'll be the only heartless bitch left on the Normandy?"

"What?" The operative exclaims, frustration beginning to boil inside of her. She assumed it was a defense mechanism driving Jack to shift the conversation to someone other than herself, but that knowledge didn't make the shift any less frustrating.

"Don't defend yourself you Cerberus bitch. I don't think you're interested in why I stepped in for my benefit. I don't think you care if there's something else going on here for me. I think you're trying to figure out if you have any fucking excuse for not getting involved. We left the fucking ship to find Shepard because you supposedly care about her, and then you let that bitch defend what she does to Shepard!"

"Jack. I have known Dr. T'Soni longer than you know she…."

"Ohhhhh I see. Did you fuck her too? Is that why you didn't defend me back there? You didn't want that asari's azure on lockdown?"

"You are crossing a line Jack. You are not to make assumptions about my sexual or romantic history and I don't think you understand how the doctor feels about Shepard. I strongly doubt she has a romantic or for that matter, sexual interest in another." Miranda retorts, her voice raising in frustration. "Though I disapprove of the relationship due to the distraction it provides, there wouldn't be a Commander without Liara. Doctor T'Soni rescued Shepard's body for Cerberus to resurrect her, I do not hate the broker, and I respect what she has done for us and for Shepard."

Miranda half expects the information to shock Jack, to cause her to regret her words accusing Liara of nothing but a passing interest in the infatuated spectre. Instead, Jack cackles, a long humorless laugh that unnerves the Cerberus agent.

"She's the one responsible for Shepard being Cerberus' slave? Wow oh boy you're right cheerleader, I trust her now." The convict drawls sarcastically, infuriating Miranda.

"Do you really wish Shepard was dead than with us?!" Miranda cries, not caring that she is the only one screaming in their conversation. The convict had sufficiently crawled under her skin.

"You know what Zero, I don't think you care that I didn't defend the Commander. I've shown time and time again I'm willing to risk my life for Shepard. I think you're offended I didn't defend you." Miranda hisses, appreciating the furious look that crosses Jack's face. Miranda knows she is being immature, trying to press the convict where it hurts so that she would be as frustrated as the operative was.

"I think you realize that you aren't as self-sufficient as you pride yourself on being, you want others to help you. And by the way Jack, I may not have shouted at T'Soni, but that was only because I was trying to keep you from injuring her. I defended you to the Commander…"

"DON'T FUCKING SAY YOU DEFENDED ME." Jack bursts, suddenly inches from the operative's face. The convict is shaking with rage, blue wisps surrounding her body. "Don't give yourself so much credit you BITCH! I don't care if you defend me or if you die in front of me. The only reason we're talking about what you did back there, is because you tried to trick me into thinking you might be a little like me today. One minute you're pinning me to your bed telling me you know what it's like to be an experiment, the next minute a blue bitch is calling me a fucked up experiment and you don't fucking care! Are you trying to get in my pants and use me to knock off some stress cheerleader? Is that why you're trying to sympathize with me? Or are you having trouble sleeping at night, and you need to convince yourself you've suffered as much as I did just to justify what you do for Cerberus!"

Miranda expects herself to be seething from Jack's words, but the second the convict stops speaking, her eyes redden further, tears of frustration and hurt threatening to spill out of them. The operative softens at the sight. The situation had clearly hurt the biotic, and Miranda suddenly felt a need to comfort the woman, to take away her pain in some way.

"Jack I...I am not trying to use you." Miranda says softly, turning her attention to the ground, no longer able to meet the other woman's eyes. "I am deeply sorry for touching you during our confrontation. I...I know you have a history of….I didn't mean to do anything that would make you think that. I wasn't lying to you Jack, I think...I think we may understand more about each other than we realize."

Jack doesn't respond, and Miranda takes a deep breath before she continues.

"When you said...when you said Shepard comes down to engineering to um, 'drink away memories of that blue slut,' did you mean…"

"I meant we drink together and she gets drunk and emotional and cries about everything in the damn ship that reminds her of Liara." Jack states simply, her eyes narrowing at the question. "I'm not having sex with Shepard so she can use me to forget that asari whore. Shepard would never use me like that. She's my….friend." Jack says, her voice straining on the word "friend" as if she had never used the term before.

Miranda nods, strangely relieved to hear Jack was not involved intimately with the Commander. Quickly blocking further thoughts on the matter, Miranda forces herself not to analyze why she's so relieved. She had a feeling the answer would be complicated.

"I….I'm glad. I mean, not glad, I don't care...that would just... be inappropriate. Of Shepard. And as the ship's operating officer it would mean a lot of paperwork on my end." Miranda defends, cringing at how lame her statement sounds aloud. Jack scoffs and shakes her head, the hurt never leaving her eyes.

"Nobody here is accusing you of caring Miranda. I believe you don't care. About what Cerberus does, about Pragia, about Shepard, or about me." Jack says softly, and her soft, pained tone cuts the operative.

"Jack…"

"Don't." Jack states, turning away from the operative, the convict straining to pretend the situation hadn't caused her carefully built walls to crumble at the edges. "I don't care where you're going now, but take a different fucking cab."

With that, the convict storms away, carefully keeping her face from being visible to the other woman as she does. Miranda watches her go silently, suddenly overwhelmed at Jack's accusation that she did not care about the other woman. For being so fucking "perfect", you can't even express that you care. Maybe this is why you're alone in this world.

A tear slips out of the operative's eyes, and she quickly dabs at it, unwillingly to allow herself to succumb to a weak display of emotion. Miranda takes several deep breaths and forces herself not to think about Jack. Then she calls a cab to go back to the ship.