A/N: Although it's practically sacrilege and totally against canon to have Shepard raise a child that isn't Kaidan's or Liara's, there's already plenty of authors doing Shenko and Shepard/Liara stuff. And going totally against canon appeals to me, just because I can. :) For those who missed my earlier fic Old Soldiers, the setup is this: Five years after the events of ME, Shepard has a drunken one-night stand (she's a bad, bad girl!) with a fellow soldier, realises she's pregnant and decides to retire and raise the child. The unfortunate father doesn't figure into the picture. This scene is set shortly after Shepard retires. Phlybabe, if you're reading this, sorry about the Liara/Shep thing falling through.
9. Foiled Home Invasion
Eden Prime, Five and a Bit Years After Sovereign
Shepard's eyes snapped open in the darkness of her bedroom. Shafts of pale moonlight from the cloudless night sky filtered through the tempered glass of the upstairs windows, providing enough illumination for the former Alliance Navy Captain to see by. A glance at the digital clock atop the small set of bedside drawers informed her it was just after two in the morning, local time. Rolling out of the bed, Shepard smoothed down the extra large man's T-shirt that served as her sleepwear and went to check on her daughter in the next room.
Motherhood was the greatest experience Shepard had experienced, thus far. It was also the most terrifying. Where once she commanded a ship full of elite men and women and, at one point, been responsible for saving the galaxy - how very melodramatic that sounded, even to her own mind - now she was responsible for protecting the single most precious thing to her in this life. Her six month old child, Lauren. For the first several weeks after giving birth - and how quickly she'd forgotten the pain - Shepard had been awake almost constantly, checking on her daughter every few minutes, terrified that she'd just die if her mother wasn't there to watch over her. Eventually, Shepard was forced to sleep out of pure exhaustion and, when she found her child was still among the living upon waking up, she began to relax. Slightly.
Her baby girl slept the sleep of the innocent and the just in her cot. The baby's room had been painted with bright pastel colours, predominantly yellow. But no pink. No girl of hers was going to be subjected to the 'blue is for boys, pink is for girls' crap. And speaking of, Shepard couldn't believe how difficult it was to find baby clothes that weren't pink or blue. Somebody out there suffered from a real lack of imagination, she had thought at time, exploring the baby wear at the local department store.
Standing over the cot, and the sleeping child within it, Shepard was again struck by how impossibly delicate Lauren appeared. A shock of black hair surrounded her fragile head and, when she was awake, her blue eyes stared alertly at everything. As she stood watching her child sleep, Shepard heard a faint sound from downstairs. Head cocked to one side, Shepard concentrated on filtering out the sounds of the house - the faint hum of the air conditioner, the thump of the refrigerator's compressor as it kicked on, the faint shuffling sounds of an intruder in the house.
And after I spent a small fortune on the security system. With a final look at her child, her very own sleeping beauty, Shepard returned to her bedroom and made ready to confront the intruder.
Carefully, so as to avoid making any sounds herself, Shepard eased open the doors to her wardrobe and slid the coat hangers to one side, revealing the wall safe behind them. She pressed her right palm to the biometric scanner, opening the safe and Shepard quickly removed the shotgun from within. She hoped she wouldn't have to use it, she really did. For a start, a shotgun blast would wake her daughter and Lauren would be incredibly upset if her sleep were interrupted. Her cries could probably be compared to those of banshees. Secondly, blowing somebody's insides out through their back would leave a hell of a mess on the carpet. Should have gone with the tiles, so much easier to mop up the blood, afterwards.
Shepard supposed she could just place a call to the local police and wait for them to arrive but by the time they did, the intruder would be gone and, only having been retired for a short time, Shepard felt more than capable of dealing with the problem herself.
The retired Captain looked down at herself and frowned. She decided the over-large T-shirt bearing the words Vanguards Do it Biotically wasn't quite the appropriate attire for confronting a possibly armed intruder. On the other hand, she had to move quickly and breaking the hardsuit that she really wasn't supposed to have out of storage, running the diagnostics and actually sealing herself into it would take too long.
Shotgun in hand, Shepard grabbed the silken red kimono she'd picked up on her last shore leave in Japan, before retirement. Knotting the sash of the kimono, patterned with tigers and dragons, the ex Spectre padded silently down the hall to the top of the staircase. Pausing at the top of the flight of stairs, Shepard listened carefully. The intruder seemed to be in the lounge area. Carefully placing each foot so as to avoid giving away her position with a creaking riser, Shepard made her way downstairs.
The intruder, a human of average height from the looks of him, was indeed in the lounge room, back to Shepard as he inspected the stereo system on sitting on the entertainment unit.
"Touch the sound system and you're a dead man," Shepard said, voice just loud enough to carry across the room. The man jumped as though somebody had jabbed him in the butt with a fireplace poker and spun around. Aiming her weapon at the man's head Shepard switched on the powerful flashlight mounted under the barrel. The harsh blue-white light forced the man to raise his hand in front of his eyes.
He seemed familiar to Shepard. "You seem familiar," she said, voice conversational. She had the gun, after all, she could afford to be conversational. "Have we met?"
"Ah God that's bright! Wanna move the light outta my eyes?" he replied, wincing.
"But if I did that, I wouldn't be aiming the gun at your head anymore, would I?" Shepard explained. A small part of her was enjoying this diversion from nappy changes and three AM feedings. Much as she loved her daughter, there were times when Shepard missed the feel of her gun in her hands. Maybe she should consider taking up trap shooting? Pull! BLAM! A slow smile appeared on her face as she eyed the man before her. She'd definitely seen him before. Where?
"How did you get in here? I mean, I know every security system has flaws but come on. Help me out here."
The man said nothing, eyes squeezed almost shut to block out the light. Then a light dawned in Shepard's own mind and it became obvious to her. "You work for the company that sold me the security system in the first place. I remember seeing you coming out of one of the back office areas."
"I...I don't know what you're talking about," the man said, eyes flitting back and forth, as though looking for a way out. Shepard smiled broadly. This was fun! "Oh come now, don't be shy. I'm not angry. Well I am, a bit but mostly I'm impressed. Your company installs security systems in the homes of unsuspecting people then, with your inside knowledge of how the systems work, you come along, disable the systems, and rob people blind. The perfect crime!"
Her unwelcome guest said nothing to that and Shepard carried on speaking in low tones, "For future reference though, you may want to actually case the residence first, to make sure the homeowner isn't at home."
The man's shoulder's slumped. This crazy kimono-wearing gun-toting bitch had him cold. "All right, all right. You got me! Now are you gonna stop pointing the gun at me?"
Shepard snorted. "Hell no!" Backing towards the cordless phone sitting on a side table, Shepard continued, "Now I'm going to call the constabulary and have them come pick you up. Don't try anything stupid, now. I'm not above gunning down an unarmed man, if I think he's a threat to me and mine."
Keeping her gaze on the man and holding the shotgun in a one-handed grip, the fingers of Shepard's other hand danced across the surface of the table, seeking the phone. Got it! Phone in hand, the retired Spectre risked a quick downward glance at the keypad, looking for the right speed-dial number. She looked back up as the man made a run for the front door.
Instinctively, Shepard tapped into her biotics and hurled the man into the nearest wall. However, with her biotic amplifier in the upstairs safe, the hurl was more like a gentle push. The man staggered slightly before regaining his balance. Sighing heavily, Shepard intercepted her would-be robber, and casting the gun aside, grabbed him by the shoulder, dislocating his right arm. The man's scream was quickly cut off as Shepard clamped her hand over his mouth, tight.
"Mmmmphhh!" her uninvited guest said into the palm of her hand, "Mmmphhh!"
"I'm going to remove my hand from your mouth. Mainly because I don't like the sensation of your spit on my skin. I'm asking you to please be quiet because my little girl's asleep upstairs and if she wakes up, she won't be happy. Then I won't be happy. With you. Then who knows what I'd have to do with you. Nod if you understand."
Jerkily, the man's head nodded up and down. Shepard carefully eased her hand away before quickly backing up and retrieving the shotgun. The flashlight beam revealed the man's face, sweaty and ashen with pain. "You bitch!" he began. Shepard glared at him. "You broke my arm!" he finished in a quieter voice.
"Oh please. Your arm's just dislocated. If you like, I can break your other arm, so you can appreciate the contrast." The man sat on the floor, slumped against the wall and shook his head frantically.
"All right then. Now I'm going to all the cops. Stay right where you are."
"You can't keep me here! I know my rights!" the intruder protested.
Shepard laughed. "Rights," she said as she picked up the phone again. "That's a good one. You break into my home-"
"Technically, I didn't break into anything," he clarified, as though that small distinction put him above other common criminals.
"Tell that to the courts, slick. Break into my home, fully intent on robbing me blind and then you have the nerve to complain when the homeowner exercises her rights to defend her property? I'm gobsmacked. I really am. Absolutely...Hello, police? Yes, I'd like to report a crime. I just caught a man trying to rob my house. Might want to send along a detective from the robbery division as well, I have a feeling I may have inadvertently solved a large number of recent robberies, too."
Placing the phone back on the table, Shepard renewed her two-handed grip on the shotgun, an older Storm Mark 1. Not a patch on her old Spectre-issue weapon, christened Widowmaker but deadly enough against a man armoured only in dark jeans and a shirt. "Get up and sit down over there," Shepard told him nodding towards an overstuffed lounge chair. The man went, wincing as he supported his bad arm with his other hand.
"Now what?" he grumbled as he seated himself. Shepard sat down opposite him, feet crossed at the ankles, covering him with the Storm.
"Now? Now we wait. Cops should be about twenty minutes."
"You can't keep me here like this!" the man said, voice rising. Shepard merely raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.
"What are you going to do, have the cops arrest me?" she asked, smirking. "Even if they did, they'd still take you in for what I'm guessing is a long string of burglaries."
"You assaulted me!" the man insisted. This hadn't turned out at all like he'd planned. Actually, there hadn't been much of a plan to begin with. Just use his knowledge of security systems to gain entry to a house and take whatever he could carry. The crazy gun toting bitch was right about him not casing the place, he was forced to admit. Who did this scrag think she was anyway? Some kind of ex-military special forces operative?
"If anybody asks, you tripped and fell badly. Who are the cops going to believe, an upstanding former Spectre or a petty crim like yourself?" Shepard looked on in amusement as realisation dawned on the man's face. "You honestly had no idea whose house you were attempting to rob?" she asked, shaking her head. Apparently her saving the galaxy was rapidly fading from said galaxy's collective memory. Oh well, Shepard had gotten heartily sick of total strangers hitting her up for autographs and photos long ago. Fading into obscurity wasn't bad, by comparison.
"Spectre? Oh hell no!" the robber breathed. "You're that Shepard?"
"There's more than one?" Shepard asked, honestly curious. She eased her right index finger off the trigger, resting it instead on the trigger guard.
"Well yeah. Shepard's a fairly common name, after all," the man said shrugging. It was an awkward shrug, with only his left shoulder moving up and down. His head slumped forward as he heard the sounds of a vehicle pulling up in front of the house.
"Oh!" the former Captain said brightly, "The police are here already! Goody."
As the two uniformed officers, a man and a woman led the would-be thief to their cruiser, he said loudly, " She assaulted me! She broke my arm!"
"Dislocated," Shepard corrected the man. "Dis lo cay ted," she emphasised each syllable. "And besides, you tripped and fell trying to escape, don't you remember?"
"That's a damn lie! Look at her! She's got a gun!" the thief was almost frantic now, trying to convince the police that he was, in fact, the real victim.
"I have a legal permit for this weapon, run my name through your omni-tool," Shepard invited one of the officers. She waited as the female officer did so. When she was done, the officer looked at Shepard with renewed respect. "Wow, I never expected to meet humanity's first Spectre!" she said before turning to the thief, "And you, attempting to rob her. You should be ashamed. Don't worry, Captain, we'll take care of everything. After all, he only tripped and fell, right?"
"Oh indeed," Shepard said, nodding.
And with that, the two officers bundled the man into their cruiser. By now he was ranting about police corruption. Shepard shut the door on them and went back to bed.