Chapter 25
The Normandy was making it's rounds dropping everyone off where they wanted to go. All Cerberus personnel that wanted to go back to the Illusive Man were let off on Omega with Jack and Jacob. Samara departed on Illium when they picked up Joseph and Miranda, Garrus returned to Palaven to be with his mother and Tali returned to the flotilla. Grunt was taken back to Tuchanka on Joseph's orders as he refused to leave his battle master and father, Joseph had to explain to him the need for him to learn the ways of the Krogan before he agreed to go. They got to the citadel to drop off Kasumi and Thane, John called Joseph and Miranda up to the air lock.
"Alright guys this is your stop", he said looking at them.
"I don't understand John" Joe said looking at his brother.
"You told me once before to be a man, that's what I'm doing I'm being a man, go be with your family Joseph", he said smiling at his brother.
"I love you John" Joe said pulling his brother in for a hug.
"I love you too Joey" John said.
"I swear to god Johnny if you cry I'm gonna punch you in the fucking face" Joe said laughing at his brother. "You know where to find me, I'll be waiting for you" he said kissing his brother on the head.
"Who knew the great Commander Shepard was so emotional" Miranda said taking a jab at John's ego.
"Well scuttlebutt says that stone cold ice queen Miranda cries too" he said taking a shot back at her.
"Fair enough" she said walking down the ramp holding Jessica's hand.
"Goodbye uncle John " Jessica said looking back at him.
"See you later munchkin" he yelled to her.
"Take care of yourself John" Joe said to his brother.
"You too Joe, now get the hell outta here before I change my mind" he said to his brother stepping back onto the ship as Joe walked away to Miranda and Jessica.
"Hey, I got a friend down there his names James Vega, I'll give him a call" Joe yelled up to John.
He nodded to his brother before walking back onto the ship into the cockpit.
"Joker you sure you don't wanna go" he asked the pilot.
"Commander I go wherever my baby goes", Joker said turning to the commander.
"Ok, let's go home", John said sitting in the co-pilots seat to spend some more time with his good friend Joker as the Normandy pulled out.
"You sure this is what you want Miranda",Joe said looking at his wife.
"Yes Joseph, I'll be fine", she replied smiling down at Jessica.
"I love you babe" he said looking in her eye's.
"I love you too Joey" she said looking back at him taking her rings from around her necklace slipping them onto her finger ripping the Cerberus patch off her catsuit.
"Let's stop by my apartment I need to get something" he said as they hopped in a taxi headed for his apartment.
They arrived at the apartment as he went into his bedroom closet and began pulling up the floor boards revealing a safe keyed to his thumbprint. It opened revealing a single credit with an obscene currency on it.
"Where the hell did that come from" Miranda asked eye's wide.
"This my love was supposed to be my retirement money, but we know how that plan turned out, so now it's family money, I have a savings account too but I'm scared they may arrest me if I go to the bank" he said looking up at her before transferring the credits to a false bank account.
"You have a fake name too, Jesus Christ who did I marry" Miranda said shaking her head.
"Don't act like you don't have one or four", he said looking at her accusingly.
"God come on Joseph Michaels, we need to move from here, they could be watching and it won't be long before the Illusive Man realizes I've gone dark we need to get off grid" she said walking out of the closet with Joseph in tow.
"So Mrs. Shepard, where do you wanna go" Joe asked his wife.
"I don't know, Jess where do you wanna go",Miranda asked.
"Somewhere sunny" she replied.
"There we have it, of course you guys know I may have to grow a very large beard for this trip" Joe said.
"You mean like Gandalf daddy" she asked.
"You are definitely my child but no not like Gandalf baby, maybe like Rick Ross" he said looking down at her.
"Whose Gandalf and Rick Ross" Miranda asked.
"Gandalf is a fictional character from a book that was turned into a movie called Lord of the Rings and Rick Ross is a rapper from the early 2000's babe", Joe answered her.
Miranda pulled her omni tool up researching the characters quickly.
"Absolutely not Joseph I'll never kiss you again", Miranda said looking at him.
"Ewwwww, you guys are gross" Jessica said thinking of the two of them kissing.
"Ok seriously where are we going guys" Joe asked
"Let's go back to Miranda's house, I like it there, and Hannah and Big Joseph come see me there" Jessica said as they looked at each other in agreement.
"Back to Illium I guess", Joe said.
"Yeah I can live with that" Miranda said as they went to get a shuttle to Illium.
"Lieutenant Commander Johnathan Matthew Shepard you are hereby relieved of duty and are to remain in this facility until your formal hearing" Admiral Mikhailovich said.
"Understood" John replied saluting the admirals before turning being escorted out by an overly buff marine.
"Screw what they say, you did the right thing commander" the marine said to him.
"Thanks, I didn't catch your name" John said extending his hand to the man.
"James Vega sir, big fan" James said to Shepard giving him a knowing nod.
"Your Joseph's friend" John asked.
"Yeah, me and Machine Gun Joe go way back" James said.
"Machine Gun Joe?" John looked at him puzzled.
"Yeah he came to my high school to do a presentation one day really captivated me, we talked afterward a little bit about what he could do to guns with technology, his favorite was the machine gun and there was the name. You know before the bar incident, I always kept in touch with him, he was the older brother I never had" James explained.
"Yeah Joey likes guns and tech", John said.
"It was also his cage fighting name" James said walking ahead of Shepard.
"What?" John said catching up to James.
"Lieutenant Commander Williams are you sure you don't want to speak to him" Anderson asked the newly promoted Ashley Williams. She received a generous military push due to her tour of duty and intel she gave the alliance from being on board the Cerberus run Normandy.
"I don't know what to say to him sir, I don't know what happened when I got off the ship, I didn't see the relay incident coming" she said looking down holding her infant son Matthew.
"Does he know about Matthew" Anderson asked playing with the child.
"No sir, I don't think he ever knew, I think Joseph knew but he didn't say anything" she answered.
"Joseph, we received intel from an unknown source that cleared him of those heinous charges he was accused of, hell even I know he's not a naturally violent man" Anderson informed her.
"Yeah Joe is a good guy Miranda too, I despise Cerberus but she and Jacob weren't that bad" she told him.
"Well I think you should let John meet his son, according to your reports you convinced him to get Joseph to meet his daughter, don't you think he deserves to know" Anderson asked her.
"With all due respect sir, but if his head was somehow twisted or fucked with by Cerberus then hell no sir he will never see my son" Ashley said standing firm in her spot.
"Ok lieutenant commander I'll respect your wishes, now tell me more about the Cerberus operatives on board" he asked her.
"Well Jacob Taylor was a nice level headed guy, hard worker but shaky over Cerberus ideals, he was never fully loyal to them I wasn't surprised when I heard he cut ties with them after the mission. Miranda was a different story."she said getting up to get Matthew a bottle.
"How so?", Anderson asked.
"Extremely loyal to Cerberus, they saved her from her father when she was a teenager and protected her and her sister from him since that day, I was shocked to hear that she left Cerberus honestly no matter how much she loved Joseph, but he got to her somehow, I still don't get that relationship" she told him.
"You said Operative Miranda Lawson left Cerberus?" He asked questioningly.
"Yeah that's what John said in one of his emails" she informed him.
"That's funny, our recent Intel shows that she's still with Cerberus"he explained.
"What? Oh God. Does Joseph know? She asked.
"We believe he's unaware of her double life, we can't seem to find him, he's gone off grid as of the past few month's" he informed her.
"Oh god I need to talk to Liara" Ashley said standing up handing Matthew to Anderson carefully getting up walking to her terminal to send Liara a message.
Liara replied over a vid call.
"Ashley what's going on"she asked worried.
"Liara, Miranda's still Cerberus, find Joseph and warn him immediately, Anderson says the Illusive Man has been doing some weird things lately" she informed her.
"I'll find him Ashley, I promise we both know what this could do to John" Liara said before ending the call.