Chapter 18
The next day Joe was up and full of energy, he spent most of the morning grooming taking his stubble down to near nothing and cutting his faux hawk into a caesar. He stepped out of the bathroom nearly unrecognizable to the untrained eye and into Miranda's room.
"How do I look babe" he asked her .
She looked him up and down he was wearing a royal blue polo, blue jeans, and tan suede construction boots.
"You look great Joseph, really" she replied smiling at him.
"Alright I'm gonna go ok, I'll see you later" he said walking over to give her a kiss.
"Alright" she said kissing him back.
"I love you Miranda"
"I love you too Joseph"
Landing on the citadel with Kasumi in tow cloaked, following him per Miranda's orders. He walked over by a lake spotting Ana immediately looking beautiful as always.
"Ana" he said standing in front her.
"Hi, Joey" she said standing up to hug him "you shouldn't have come Joe" she whispered in his ear.
"What are you talking about Ana" he asked pulling away seeing tears come down her face.
"I'm sorry Joe they made me do it" she said backing away from him as C-sec closed in.
"Ohhh, Ana no" he said softly " you have no idea what you just did" he yelled to her dashing off. Realizing he had nowhere to go being surrounded by c-sec officers he did the only thing he could. "Kasumi go get John now" he said softy as he dropped to his knees putting his hands on his head. Kasumi broke off back to the ship as fast as her legs could take her. She didn't know how he knew she was there but he knew and she was his only life line, she couldn't let him down after what he did for her.
Upon making it back to the ship Kasumi informed John of what happened. John called the team into the briefing room telling them all what happened. Miranda stormed out of the room off to the armory grabbing her guns walking towards the elevator.
"Miranda, wai-" John stopped mid sentence looking at her face, the woman that shot Wilson in the neck on Lazarus Station with a hint of something else in her eyes.
"Miranda we can't storm c-sec, we have to be smart about this" John said.
"He asked me to go with him John, I told him no" she said voice as cold as ice.
"I'm sorry Miranda but let's just calm down and go talk to c-sec about this, its probably nothing, I can use my SPECTRE authority to get him out" John said.
"Alright John we'll play it your way first, but I will not leave him in there if it doesn't work" she said voice showing no emotion.
They walked into c-sec spotting retired Admiral Joseph Shepard sitting waiting, his eyes lit up upon spotting John.
"John, my son" he grabbed his face pulling him close hugging him tight. He had heard the rumors of John being alive, even Anderson confirmed it, but it was nothing like seeing it with your own two eyes.
"Hey dad, how are you" John asked his dad.
"I thought you were dead son, this is amazing, how is this even possible" the admiral said holding onto his youngest son.
"I don't know dad, I got spaced, lost oxygen, passed out, then woke up from a nap...well at least that's how it felt to me" John said looking away rubbing the back of his neck.
"John they said Joey did some really bad things, they say he killed some people, they wanna execute him" Joe Sr. said tears falling down his eyes.
"That's not going to happen" Miranda said.
"Whose this Johnny" Joe Sr. asked.
"Yeah sorry, Miranda, this is Joseph Shepard Sr. my dad, dad this is Miranda Lawson, my second in command" John introduced.
"Nice to meet you Ms. Lawson" Joe Sr. said extending his hand.
"Likewise sir" she replied taking his hand as Bailey walked into the room.
"Bailey thank god, what's going on why did you arrest my brother" John said authority in his voice.
"Sorry Shepard we got a tip he was gonna be on the citadel today, we had to move when we had the chance" Bailey explained handing John the paper with Joe's charges.
"The first two I know of but the rest of this is bullshit Bailey, there's no way he could have done any of this, he's been on my ship the entire time" John said angrily.
"Sorry Shepard the evidence doesn't lie" he said showing the three of them footage of Joe gunning down a politician on the citadel.
"That's wrong, he was with me the entire time when we last boarded the citadel" Miranda chimed in.
"Well listen unless you can prove otherwise I have to go with my evidence, I'll let you in to speak with him while we wait for the council to get ready for the trial, Anderson recused himself because of his strong personal relationship with your family" Bailey said walking over to Joe's cell.
"I'm gonna get in touch with David, have him meet me on board your ship, see if he can do anything about this" Joe Sr. said walking away on his omni tool as Miranda and John walked in.
Joe was sitting with his head down hands cuffed to the table, Miranda walked over and began rubbing his head the way she always did as he looked up at her and then at John.
"Brings back memories huh Johnny" Joe said looking at his brother "they're gonna kill me huh" he said looking straight forward.
"No Joseph, we're not going to let them kill you" Miranda said grabbing his face looking in his eyes.
"You two don't do anything stupid you understand me, there's no reason for all of us to be sitting here, John you got a fight to finish, and I need you to make sure he succeeds" Joe said looking at Miranda.
"Joseph I am not leaving you here to die" Miranda said.
"Yeah you are, Johnny make sure nothing happens to her, you owe me that" Joe said to John.
"Joseph you cannot die here, you can't leave us" she whispered in his ear.
"Us, what do you mean us, you and Johnny, John's a big boy he'll be fine" Joe said speaking softly to her.
"No Joseph, not John, I went to see Chakwas the other day" she said looking into his eyes waiting for him to get the hint.
The realization hit him like a burst of wind, the moodiness, the sickness, the extra sleep, " oh Miranda I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" he said looking down again.
"You have nothing to apologize for Joseph, you didn't do anything wrong" she said wrapping her arms around his neck.
"That's another kid about to be abandoned, you know I always hated my father for leaving my mom, but look at me, twice in one lifetime, I'm definitely living up to that Jr." He said sarcastically.
"No Joseph, you are a good man, and your going to be a great father, you just never had the chance, now let us get you out of here please" she pleaded with him.
"Ok...do what you gotta do" he said sitting back.
John and Miranda left the precinct headed back to the ship to meet with his dad and councillor Anderson.
Approaching the briefing room while the rest of the team stood outside listening in John and Miranda walked up over hearing the conversation before the doors opened.
"God damnt David he's my son, and you know he doesn't deserve to die, hell he would have never been in prison if you hadn't stopped that investigation"Joe Sr. yelled.
"I stopped that investigation because he asked me to Joseph, it was the only way we could protect John, that man's family wanted blood, somebody had to take the fall" Anderson shouted back.
Upon hearing that the entire team looked at John, especially Miranda.
"What's he talking about Shepard" she asked.
"Joe didn't kill that man in that bar... I did" he said walking into the room.
The entire team stood in shock except for Ashley, Samara, and Kasumi who already knew. Miranda followed him in shortly after, greeting Anderson and Joe Sr. again.
"David, I'm begging you don't let them murder my son" Joe Sr. said tears falling.
"I'm sorry it's out of my hands, there's nothing I can do except to tell you that nobody's guarding the roof of the council chambers today, and the door guards change shift at 1200 hours" he said before walking away.
"Uhhhh did he just suggest what I think he suggested" John said looking at his dad and Miranda.
"Johnathan, get it done, you owe your brother that much, it was a pleasure meeting all of you" Joe Sr. said exiting the briefing room and the ship headed back for c-sec. Upon returning he saw Joseph speaking to a woman and a young child, he decided to sit and wait until the woman left to walk in and speak with his son.
"Shepard you got another visitor" Bailey called out to him. Bailey was a good guy and was taking care of Joe because of his relationship to John. Joe looked up to see Ana walk in with Jessica, he stared at his daughter for a moment before asking them to sit down.
"Hi, I'm Joseph what's your name" Joe asked the little girl.
"Jessica" she answered shyly holding her teddy bear.
"It's nice to meet you Jessica, I'm an old friend of your mom's" he said looking up at Ana not knowing if she told her or not.
"She knows Joseph, she wanted to meet you, and seeing what's about to happen I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I didn't" Ana said holding her daughter's hand.
"Mommy told me you died" Jessica said to him.
"Yeah, that's because I went away for a real long time and mommy was very hurt, and it was easier to tell you I died than to have you wondering where I was and why I wasn't with you" Joe said to her tears falling.
"Why did you go away, didn't you want to be with me" the little girl said looking down.
"More then anything sweetheart, I did something bad and when people do bad things they get punished, so I've been on punishment" he said putting his hand out for Jessica to hold as she reached out and took it.
"Are you a bad guy" she asked looking in his eyes.
"No I'm not a bad guy, I just made a mistake" he said looking back at her.
"Are you going to hurt me and mommy" she asked looking at his cuffs.
"No, baby never, I would never hurt you or mommy" he told her.
"Why do you have hand cuffs on, if your not gonna hurt us" the smart and very observant girl said.
"These people think that I did something bad again that I really didn't do" Joe said that part looking at Ana " So they don't really trust me to be alone in here with you guys" he told her.
"Will I see you again" she asked him
"Count on it sweetheart" he said swallowing the lump forming in his throat.
"Ok, so you can take care of Christy for me, and when you come see me again you can give her back to me" she said handing him the teddy bear smiling.
"I promise, I'll protect her with my life" he said holding on to the bear tightly as they stood up to go.
"Goodbye daddy" she said looking back at him.
"Bye baby" he said giving her his best smile.
As they left the room Joe Sr. walked in. "Joseph" Joe said looking at his father.
Back on the ship the crew was getting together a plan of action to break Joe out.
"Alright Kasumi I want you cloaked at all times, sneak in and get Tali access to the security. Tali when she does that I need you to make it dark real dark. Once that happens everyone else step in and neutralize the guards only concussive rounds got it we're not killing anyone today." John said as everyone agreed with the plan.
"My brother is a great man, he believes in the greater good even at the cost of his own happiness, he use to be a civilian, a normal person, it's my fault he became what he is... everything he is. I have to live with that for the rest of my life, what I can't and will not live with is his death. I will not watch my only brother die, so let's do this quick and clean then get the hell off the citadel" John said grabbing the last of his weapons before the QEC began to ring.
"Hello son" Sr. said sitting down across from Jr.
"It's been a long time, didn't expect you to show up for this" Jr. said looking at his father unable to hide the resentment in his eyes.
"Your still my son and I love you Joseph, your mom's on her way to the citadel, she wanted to see you one last time" he said to his son.
"I don't want her to see me like this Joe, not like this" Jr. said looking down.
"Joseph she's your mother, don't deny her the chance to hold her oldest son one last time, bad enough she still thinks John is dead, she doesn't believe the news reports"Joe Sr. said.
"Ok, I'll see her, but Joe I need you to do something for me ok, you promise me" Joe Jr. said looking in his fathers eyes.
"Anything son" he replied.
"Take care of my children, protect them as if you were a good father and they were yours, I can't ask that of John with everything that's going on but I will ask it of you, you owe me this" Joe Jr. said voice empty of all emotion.
"I promise son, so the little girl that just left here is yours, I thought the mother looked familiar, that girl you dated before...well you know" Joe Sr. said sadly.
"Yeah, be in her life, love her like no other, be a father to her when she needs it, if you don't I promise I will haunt you to your last breath" Joe Jr. said voice full of resentment.
"I will son, I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, I'll make it up before I die, I promise" Joe Sr. said saluting his son before leaving the room.
"What the hell do you mean rogue operative sir" Miranda said clearly furious to the Illusive Man, who had just informed them of a Cerberus operative who has a personal vendetta against Joseph Shepard.
"Just as it sounds Operative Lawson" the Illusive Man said cooly taking another pull off his cigarette. "William Santos is a Cerberus sleeper agent posing as a citadel prosecutor. He just stopped reporting in, I had my assistant look into what William was doing and that's what we found" he finished.
"That dirty bastard what the fuck did my brother ever do to him" John said fuming and pacing back and forth.
"Operative Lawson see to it that Mr. Santos is 'terminated' from his employment with us" TIM said looking at Miranda.
"With pleasure sir" Miranda replied hiding her anger before TIM ended the call sending over proof of Santos' guilt.
The Illusive Man sent them pictures of Santos with Ana and Jessica, copies of the real reports for the crimes Joe was accused of, a full dossier of William Santos' skills and history, and the date and time Joe was meeting Ana on the citadel.
"This must be the husband she was telling me about" John said looking at the picture of Santos.
"Why would he want to set Joseph up, he told me the wife cut all ties with him when he went to prison" Miranda said looking at John.
"Maybe he knows she's still in love with him" John said looking away as Miranda stared at him. "The day I saw her on the citadel...the way she spoke his name, the look in her eyes when I told her he was on the citadel, if I noticed it I'm positive a Cerberus trained operative would know, especially one that's been living with her for years" John said looking back up at her.
"You think he knows" she asked John.
"Probably not, it wasn't on his mind, he just wanted to see his daughter" John said cocking his gun.
"Well we can discuss it later, right now Joseph's daughter is in serious danger" Miranda said walking out of the room.
A/N: Picture the little sister from Orphan and that's what Jessica looks like in my head, and who didn't think Joseph was gonna have a loyalty mission ;).