A trip to the Citadel with Commander Shepard was … an adventure.
"Are you sure I'm going to need all of … this?" Jade spread her arms and gestured to the growing pile of armor, armaments, and personal items before her. "I mean I figured I'd, I dunno, be helping out with the unskilled labor or something after freezing up like that on the last mission."
"I can hardly keep loaning you my old armor and making you use a loaner weapon. There's a reason most of the team has custom equipment." Shepard snorted. "Besides, I saw how easily you took to the Mattock when I snuck you into the Spectre firing range. You're a natural, well, not really, you've got a lot of training and it's translating well to 22nd century weapons. I'd hate to waste that by making you peel potatoes on the Normandy the entire war."
"Well, a rifle's a rifle's a rifle isn't it?" Jade struggled to close the top on an armor crate. "Essentially a 'point and shoot' weapon of destruction. 'Sides I liked how it was less 'spray and pray' than some of those others you let me try. I'd also like to get my hands on one of those sniper rifles. That Viper was possibly the sweetest weapon I've had my hands on in ages."
"I thought a rifle was a rifle was a rifle?" Shepard arched a brow at the other woman.
"Sure, if you're talking about assault rifles," Jade opened her hands wide in a pose classic of a professional speaking about their area of expertise. "But long-range, highly accurate weapons, those can vary widely between individual rifles, let alone manufactures."
Shepard chuckled a little at Jade's enthusiasm and made a gesture of surrender.
"You and Garrus should get together and talk about that then." She said. "I'm utterly hopeless when it comes to delivering death from a distance. I'm more of an up-close and personal kind of gal."
"That's probably a conversation better left for when he doesn't think I'm out to put a bullet in his head any time he turns his back on me," Jade said with a rueful smile. "Trying to kill someone the first time you meet them isn't a very stable foundation to build any kind of relationship on. And locking up on a mission, even when there aren't any enemies nearby is just bad business all around"
"He'll come around after a few ground missions," Shepard said motioning for a clerk to take the crates away and have them delivered to the Normandy. "After all, he did eventually develop, if not a friendship, then a tolerance for Jacob and Miranda and they were both members of a human superiority paramilitary group. Besides, we've all frozen at one point or another. The key is that you got your head back in the game quickly and kicked ass the rest of that mission."
The two women left the shop and began making their way back to the Normandy chatting amicably as Jade tried hard not to stare at the aliens around her. It had been jarring at first, seeing all the different forms sentient life took. But as her translator caught and transformed the alien sounds into understandable words she soon adjusted to their presence.
It's no different from any other big city, I guess, she thought as Shepard stopped to talk to some person or the other. Same people, same rush, same scurry, same lights, same beauty, Jade caught sight of some sort of furtive transaction going on in an alley. Same dark underbelly, same crimes.
A flash of a dirty face behind a vent cover drew her attention before disappearing in an instant. Same unseen and unlamented non-people.
Jade leaned back against a railing and simply observed the swirl of life around her. This exact scene could be happening in New York, or Paris, or Bejing. Or Beirut. She closed her eyes against the memories and balled her left hand into a fist, digging her nails into her palm. No we're not thinking about that. Not now, not here. That was a long time ago.
She was startled from her train of thought by Shepard's gentle touch on her shoulder.
"You okay?" The other woman asked concern and curiosity on her face.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Jade searched for a change of topic that would distract the commander. "You know I still haven't opened that box we picked up yet?"
"Afraid?" Shepard led the way to the bank of elevators.
"No, it just hasn't seemed like the proper time yet." Jade shrugged. "Probably doesn't help that I'm still kicking myself for my initial reaction when I saw it. That was a rookie mistake."
"If you'd stop beating yourself up about the damn thing I might give you the opportunity to make up for your 'rookie mistake'." Shepard said as they made their way through the throng on the docks. "We're going to Eden Prime next. It's … I've got a lot of my own baggage tied up on that planet. So if you think you're up to another mission, I'd like you to tag along. Besides, I think it'll do you some good to see how far humanity has come since you last knew it."
"You wanna do that boss, you can take me back to Earth and show me the parking lot that used to be my family farm." Jade's chuckle choked off when she saw the stricken look on the commander's face. "What?"
"Nothing, it's nothing, let's get on the ship." Shepard's voice was distant, no hint of the friendly woman left, only the cold, hard commander. "Those colonists aren't going to be able to hold out forever.