Chapter 4: Circle of Death [Note: Half-way point!]
"Hey, finish up we're heading to Tuchanka..." Jane stopped mid-sentence because, not only was Mordin singing, but so was Eve Shepard.
"For she is a krogan queen..."
Jane tried so hard to hold back her laughter, but couldn't for long. Once she gathered herself, "You two are really one and the same, huh? Wonder if it's a scientist thing..."
"Hey, you know that I've always been partial to karaoke, sis. Mordin and I were just singing a goodbye to Eve here. Has nothing to do with the fact that we're both doctors."
The light-hearted way the day started was overshadowed by the events that took place later in the day. Mordin had died, but had saved the krogan from the genophage in the process.
Jane seemed to be on the boarder of breaking. The stress of what was happening was getting to her. She was having nightmares. Garrus was worried, he brought it to Anna and Eve's attention.
"Hey. I was, uh, wondering if either of you had any ideas. Jane's not doing too good. I don't know what to do..."
Anna was the first to give advise, "She just needs some time to grieve, Garrus. Don't worry. She was like this when dad died."
Eve disagreed, "Hey, no way Anna. This is more than that. The fate of the entire universe is practically on her shoulders. It's going to take more than time to help her." She turned to Garrus, "Give her like a day to herself. Then try to comfort her, but don't bring up anything serious – especially anything related to death. Once she goes through the grieving process, we'll try to cheer her up. Sound good?"
Nothing extreme happened over the next few days, but Eve's calculation of how long Jane needed to process, was a little underestimated. Jane wasn't herself, they could all see it. But Garrus and the sisters tried to keep everything as close to normalcy as they could.
…...
James was in the mess, cooking and talking to Javik. Once Javik saw Anna approach, he excused himself from Vega.
"Hey, whatcha doing?"
"Making huevos rancheros, my abuela's recipe... Wanna taste?"
She shrugged, "Sure. Why not?" She took a bite from what Vega offered.
"Now, I don't know what kind of eggs these are – not sure if I want to know. But it is still the best thing I've had to eat since I've been here. What do ya think, Anita?"
Shock crossed her face, "It's great, Jimmy. Honestly. I don't think I've ever had anything like it before. What's it called again?"
"Huevos rancheros." He smiled, pleased with himself.
"Nice... Now, you're gonna have to cook for me all the time. I've only lived off of military rations since I was born."
"Whoa now. If I'm gonna cook for you, I'm gonna need payment." He grinned wider.
She stepped forward, laid a hand on his shoulder, "And what would that be?"
…...
Eve was down in the cargo-hold finishing up her modifications on her equipment, and Cortez walked up to her.
"Ah, Doctor Shepard?"
"Yeah, Steve?"
"Well, um, you're sister, the Commander, she had asked me to keep an eye on Anna. And well, I decided to go to you and not her first, because she seems to be a bit unstable right now."
"Yeah? Spill it out Cortez."
"Uh, well I just saw Anna and Vega go into that shuttle there. I, uh, have a feeling..."
She didn't even bother to listen to the rest of what Cortez was saying. This was simply too good; blackmail material worthy. She giggled. Now, to bust them, or to bring it up later? Hmm...
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it Steve." She said with the biggest shit-eating grin on her face.
…...
Eve went promptly up to Liara's office, and shouted, "Guess what!"
Liara still considered Eve a close friend – despite the whole misunderstanding, and the intervention from Mordin that recently happened.
She raised a brow, already knowing the situation, "Yes, I do know what. I do have surveillance across the ship, and surrounding every shuttle."
"Awe man. I can't surprise you with anything..." She pouted, "So, what are we gonna do about it? We all know Jane's opinion on the matter."
"Why do we have to do something about it?"
"Cause it's fun silly." She smirked.
But, they couldn't act on what was going on, because they had just arrived at the Citadel, and Jane went on comm announcing that it was under attack.
They all gathered for a briefing on the situation.
Jane was instructing, "We'll break up into two teams. I will lead the first team, and we'll clear the C-sec offices – Garrus, EDI and Eve will come with me. Team Bravo will be led by Vega – you'll provide support to the C-sec officers, and assist in securing the civilians. Alright, let's move out."
Before long, Bailey was directing Vega's team, and Jane was off tracking down the Salarian counselor. They came under heavy fire every so often, but shortly they were whitenessing Thane's battle with Kai Leng – and he just stabbed Thane.
"Eve! Help Thane! I'll take care of the assassin." Jane shouted as she ran.
Soon Jane, Garrus, and EDI were in pursuit of Leng, and Eve was behind with the injured drell.
"I'm Doctor Eve Shepard, Jane's sister. I'm going to help you, just stay still." He passed out.
In no time, Jane dealt with an armed stand-off with Kaidan, and saved the remaining counselors. She went to Huerta, where Eve was still with Thane. Eve and Thane's attending physician explained the situation, and soon thereafter, another one of Commander Shepard's former crew members had died. Eve felt terrible that she couldn't help the drell. She thought it was a direct indication of her failure as a doctor; she had no experience with Keprell's Syndrome.
Jane and Eve walked back to the Normandy in silence.
Kaidan was there waiting at the docks, he intended to ask for permission to rejoin the Normandy crew. But, Jane was in no mood to talk. She swiftly dealt with Kaidan's suspicions about why she shot the counselor, and left Eve to deal with Kaidan.
"Uhh... I guess you can come aboard Major. It's good to see your condition has improved. If you'd like, I can finish my earlier examination once we're on-board."
Once in the med-bay, "Dammit!"
"That doesn't sound good ma'am."
"No, sorry. It's just that I haven't finished my designs for the upgrade I've been working on for you. Umm, do you mind if I ask you to come back in a few days, like two? Everything should be in good order by then."
He softly chuckled, "Sure thing... If you don't mind me asking, how's your sister doing?"
"Which one?"
He was confused, "I'm sorry, what?"
"Oh, uh, sorry forgot. The Commander has two younger sisters. We're twins, I'm the youngest. My twin's Second Lieutenant Anna Shepard. She's usually around the war room, or the cargo-hold, if you want to introduce yourself... But anyways, I assume you're asking about Jane? Well, she could be better. That's for sure. Her boyfriend, Garrus, is trying to help, but the stress is getting to her. You know?"
That was just more information than Kaidan could process, and it was all spit out fairly quickly.
"Wait. Three Shepards? And Jane's with Garrus?"
"Oh, sorry. My mouth again. But yeah, to all of it."
…...
Jane had declared that the crew would be on shore-leave until a later, still yet to be determined, time, and that the crew was encouraged to help in any capacity possible with the efforts to restore order in the Citadel.
Sometime later, Jane found herself, drunk, and waking up on the couch next to Aria. Aria just gave Shepard a face, but she couldn't tell what type – she was too far gone. Then she came across Jack, and actually had a somewhat intelligible conversation with her. Jane didn't even notice her sisters there.
"Hey, Jane and Jack. How about we take a little breather on the dance floor?"
Jack answered first, "But everyone knows Jane can't dance."
Eve was persistent though, "C'mon." She winked.
Sure enough, a drunk Jane and sober Jack, Anna, and Eve were on the dance-floor. Jane didn't even know what the hell she was doing, but hey, it felt a whole lot better than sulking.
"Damn. The dance gene must have skipped Jane." The biotic was very amused.
And so was Joker. He just happened to be at the bar, and was recording with his omni-tool.
Once Joker had enough laugh-worthy footage, he went over to the booth where the men of the Normandy were gathered.
"Hey, I'm going to forward something to your omni-tools. And you all better look at it now."
"This better not be anything... unsavory, Joker." Kaidan hadn't been part of the new crew for long, but he clearly remembered all his... questionable occurrences with Joker.
Vega started laughing, "Lola! What the hell? And who's that hot tattooed chick dancing with Anita? She looks familiar... God, I'm going to keep this forever..."
Garrus' face fell, this was not good for Jane's reputation. But man, it was certainly something. He would have to decide later if he would show this to her. "Joker, don't send this to anyone else. This... shouldn't be spread around."
…...
Jane awoke later that evening, thankfully, in her bed. Garrus was there waiting for her to wake up.
"Uh... I have something to show you, you may not like it though."
"What?" She saw the all-embarrassing vid of her dancing like a lunatic with Jack and her sisters.
"Who shot this?"
"...Joker..."
…...
She spun Joker around so fast in his chair, he nearly fell out.
"Who the hell has seen this?"
"God. Garrus ratted me out, didn't he? Well just Garrus, Kaidan, Vega..."
Jane was horrified. But, thankfully, Eve was there to stop her from going all krogan on them all.
"Hey, hey sis. How about we punish them at their own game?" She took her aside, aware of Joker listening. "You know how we all used to play poker with the other military brats? Well, Anna has actually won a few poker competitions, high-stake competitions, and I don't think anyone here knows that. So how about we challenge them to a game?... And make it strip-poker so they can't resist. By the end of it, they'll all be bare-assed." Jane didn't look convinced, "Hey, we're so much better at cards than any of these nitwits. I've actually watched a game between James and Joker – they suck oh so very much. It's embarrassing actually..."
Things we're getting crazy aboard the Normandy. Now Jane found herself in a ridiculous poker match with Garrus, Kaidan, Vega, Joker, Anna, and Eve. Jane was wearing her N7 hoodie for extra layers, just in case Eve's plan didn't fall through.
Within a few hours, sure enough Anna was wining – she was still fully clothed. Jane had only lost her hoodie, socks and shoes. Nearly all the men were down to their skivvies, except for Garrus. Kaidan still had his shirt though, but Eve had just lost her pants.
"Damn Anita. Where are you pulling this out of? Whenever we had a game, I always won." Vega grumbled.
She smirked, "That's because I let you win, Vega. Didn't anyone ever hear of the Ruby of Skyllian-Five?"
Joker's eyes went wide, he had only his boxers, hat, and socks on, "You're the Ruby of Skyllian-Five? But, but you won over half a million credits!"
"I donated them all. Citadel Orphan's Fund."
Joker couldn't believe it, "EDI, is this true?"
"Yes, Jeff. The Lieutenant has won over 2.3 million credits throughout the past 6 years. She's donated all of her winnings to charities. Primarily Earth's Red Cross and the Citadel Orphan's Fund. She has only removed her travel expenses from her winnings. Her most recent competition was the one you mentioned, that resulted in the 572-thousand credit winnings. She is the youngest human consecutive champion of Skyllian-Five Poker, at age twenty-seven."
Joker about died, "Holy Crap! Why are you still in the Alliance then?"
She shrugged, "I like to kill stuff."
Sure enough Eve was right, and not just about the poker. That after Jane went through the grieving process, she needed to be cheered up – and this certainly did the trick.
…...