Chapter 28: An Old Friend and a New Future

When they reached the Citadel and Shepard had secured them a dry dock for repairs, she made her crew happier than she expected. She gave them all a month of leave. Half of it would be taken up with the repairs, but the rest let them relax and celebrate their victory in peace. No missions, no constant threat of death, just them and some even offered to take anyone that wanted to leave to a planet of their choice, after the repairs were done.

It was painful for her to see Rah being taken away however. Soon as the Normandy had docked, a medical team came onboard. They took Rah and put him into a medical stasis capsule. Shepard could see that her entire crew winced at seeing the N7 being taken away. Not only were his injuries still painful to look at, but it also reminded everyone of the Collectors. Jack left with them, but Rah had Fox take her to the hotel she was to stay at in his fighter. Shepard knew that her friend would be in good hands, but that wouldn't stop her from checking in on him while she was on the Citadel.

When the crew was all on leave, Shepard found herself being dragged away by Garrus into a skycar. She didn't protest when he brought them to a hotel and the rather large room he had booked for them. She couldn't believe that they finally had time all to themselves.


Shepard woke up to a chirping coming from her omni-tool. She looked around for the device and felt mildly disappointed that Garrus was already awake and no longer with her. It had been a very lazy week for the two of them, but they both needed the rest they got when not screwing each other senseless.

Shepard groaned when she picked up her omni-tool and found that it was already noon. She shoved it out of her mind when she found a message from Jack waiting for her.

Shepard,

The doctors are letting me go and see Rah today. Would you like to join me?

Let me know,

Jack

Shepard grinned to know that Jack wanted her to go and see her old friend today. Jack was probably nervous since she had never done this sort of thing before. Shepard sent off a message saying that she'd meet her at the hospital in an hour.

After a shower, a fresh change of cloths, and sending a message to Garrus about her plans, Shepard headed over the the hospital. Shepard found Jack pacing back and forth in front of the hospital.

The biotic woman didn't seem to notice, or care, about the strange looks that people were giving her. Shepard quickly stepped up to the woman when she spotted two C-sec officers approaching her.

"Come on Jack, let's go and see him." Shepard smiled warmly to her friend. Jack looked relieved and followed her into the hospital.

"Excuse me." Shepard asked a young man behind the receptionists counter. "We're here to see a Major Robert Carmine. Could you point us to his room?"

"I'm sorry miss." The receptionist replied. "He's not allowing visitors other than a few names he's given us." The man looked up at Shepard and Jack, raising an eyebrow at their appearances.

Jack still wore her new set of clothes and looked extremely out of place in the hospital, or even on the Citadel. Shepard wore her N7 casuals, but her hair was worn so as to help hide that she was Commander Shepard. To the receptionist, they must have been the weirdest people to have come in all year.

"We know. We're on that list." Shepard smiled politely to the man.

"Names?" The man sighed in exasperation.

"Katherine Shepard and…" Shepard spoke, gesturing for Jack to give her name.

"Jacqueline Naught." Jack mumbled. The receptionist looked up at both of them in defeat.

"Any relation to Commander Shepard?" The man asked, checking over something on his terminal.

"We're distant relatives." Shepard shrugged. She didn't need this man to tell reporters that she was on the station. She wanted to spend her shore leave in peace.

"Your names are here." The man sighed. "He's in room twelve eighteen. Take the elevator over there up." The receptionist pointed to an elevator to their left and then looked back at them. "He's in ICU so please keep it short, another woman already went to see him and has been there for well over an hour."

"Another woman?" Jack asked, steel in her voice. "Who?"

"I can't disclose names ma'am, I'm sorry." The man replied, holding up his hands in defeat.

"Come on Jack, let's not make him wait any longer." Shepard smiled to her friend. Jack scowled at the receptionist before following Shepard into the lift.

"Another woman? Who the fuck is he telling about this?" Jack snarled, mostly to herself when the elevator jerked into motion.

"Could be one of our old mates." Shepard shrugged. "A large chunk of the guys in our N7 outfit were chicks. I wouldn't be surprised if he had Fox tell them about what happened."

"The fuck?" Jack asked, looking at her in confusion. "Why would he tell them? Aren't you fuckers all secretive and shit?"

"To anyone not an N7 yes." Shepard replied. "But we're all family. Our outfit was like a bunch of eight year old siblings when we weren't on mission." Shepard chuckled at remembering once when they actually had a pillow fight in their barracks."Wonder who it'd be though. Not sure who'd be around the Citadel to stop by."

Jack just grunted and they stayed silent the rest of the ride up. When the lift stopped, they stepped out to one of the ICU floors of the hospital. Another receptionist desk sat in front of them. An older woman looked up and smiled warmly at them.

"Can I help you girls?" The woman asked them warmly.

"Yes, we're looking for room twelve eighteen." Shepard replied, just as warmly. Jack couldn't help but feel sickened by the way everyone was being all warm and cozy all of a sudden.

"Oh dear, that Alliance boy must have himself a fanclub." The elderly woman smiled politely, both Shepard and Jack saw through the veiled insult.

"We're squadmates of his." Shepard replied innocently, thought the underlying tone of 'go fuck yourself' didn't go unnoticed by the woman.

"Yes, well, he has a woman visiting him right now. If you'd like to wait for her to be finished, the room is just down the hall to your left." The woman told them politely.

Shepard and Jack nodded and left, heading towards the room.

"Never thought that I'd find someone more insulting than you in the form of an old lady." Shepard snorted to Jack.

"Never thought it either." Jack replied, glancing over her shoulder. "Fucking bitch."

Shepard and Jack found the room that Rah was in, only for the door to open. Out of it stepped an Alliance officer. The woman wore a black Alliance uniform, but with no markings on it other than the N7 symbol over her right breast and the bars of a major on her arm.

"Red?" Shepard gapped.

Shepard was stunned to see her friend and fellow Ghost stepping out. The woman was just as Shepard remembered. Her delicate features, thick brown hair trailing down her back, short stature and and overly accented feminine figure.

"Kat?" The other N7 gawked. The two women stared at each other with Jack looking at them in confusion. The two N7's wasted no time in embracing in a sisterly hug and slapping each other on the back.

"Why is your sorry ass here? Shouldn't you be busy seducing some poor Asari for intel? Maybe blowing holes in merc ships for fun?" Shepard asked when the two women stepped away from each other.

"I would be, but both orders and seeing what the hell that sorry excuse for a marine got himself into had for me other plans." Red grinned to Shepard. "You know why it is he's more him than normal?"

"No clue." Shepard chuckled in response.

"Who's this?" Red asked, turning a critical eye to Jack. Shepard could tell that even with her smile, the N7 Fury was trying to gage if Jack was a threat or not.

"Red, this is Jack. She's one of my squad members and also a close friend of Rah's." Shepard introduced the other woman, carefully picking her words. "Jack, this is Ann Summers. She's an outfit mate of Rah and I."

"Good to meet you Jack." Red smiled to Jack, extending a hand to the tattooed woman. Jack shook it without a word.

"Jack, why don't you go in? I'd like the chance to catch up with Red for a few." Shepard told Jack. If she could see Jack's eyes, Shepard knew they'd have held a thankful look to them.

"So orders?" Shepard asked when Jack went into Rah's room and closed the door behind her.

"Yeah, Rah's to go and meet Hackett." Red told her. "Seems like he's going to take over for Jelly."

"Jelly?" Shepard asked, thinking to the CO of the Ghosts. "What happened?"

"He's stepping down." Red shrugged. "Going to 'do something more useful' as he put it. No clue what the hell he'd be doing."

"Well, at least I can't think of a better person for the job." Shepard replied, relieved that the fatherly figure for them all was still alright.

"You'd do fine." Red pointed out.

"I've got too many people that know who I am. Couldn't do that job with everyone searching for news on me from what my favorite color is to if I even wear panties." Shepard joked, earning a snicker from her friend.

"Yeah well, least it's the insane leading the stupid in this case." Red joked.

"Got to be more of a reason for Hackett sending you out here than to just be a messenger." Shepard prodded.

"Yeah." Red sighed. "I'm going to be his XO for a new project. Not only is he getting promoted to CO of the Ghosts but also to be one of the heads of the N7s. Hackett only said that it'd be something to help with the Reapers."

"So he actually believes me then." Shepard snorted. "It'd be awesome if he would do something other than sit on his hands about it."

"He's navy, the fuck did you expect?" Red snorted.

"Yeah well, just shows you that we're stupid enough to be marines and not mercs. Least as mercs we could do our shit the way we wanted to." Shepard joked back.

"You mean we don't already?" Red snickered. As N7s, and even more so as Ghosts they answered only to their CO and Hackett. No one else in the Alliance military mattered to them.

"So…" Red spoke slyly. "He say anything about me?"

"No." Shepard replied, shaking her head at her friend. Red had gotten it in her thick skull that Rah loved her and anytime she could she would try and get him, or others, to prove that she was right.

"In fact, Jack there is his, and he hers." Shepard told her friend, and a hurt look crossed her face.

"I don't believe you." Red told her. "Rah, our Rah, into trash like her?"

"Say one more thing about Jack and I won't hesitate to put you through a wall Red." Shepard told the woman, staring her down.

Both of them knew that Shepard would. While Red was a Fury and her biotics were more powerful, Shepard was a force a nature. Rah once joked that while suns shined, grass grew, and birds flew, Shepard hurt people. She was a force of nature and everyone in the Ghosts knew it.

"Fine." Red spat. "I won't believe it until I see it for myself." Red stepped past her. "I need to go, I have more important things to do than have my friends crush my hopes."

Shepard didn't stop her. She simply watched her friend's retreating back with defeat. Where she was thick about not seeing that Garrus loved her, Red was thick about Rah not loving her.

Shepard waited a while before finally knocking on Rah's door. Jack opened it and let Shepard in.


Jack couldn't help but hate everything about this "Red" cunt. She was everything Jack hated. She was attractive, tempting and too… perky. Only person that Jack hated more, was Chambers.

Needless to say Jack was more than relieved when Shepard suggested she go in to see Rah alone first. Jack felt her heart quiver at seeing Rah in his bed when she entered however.

He was hooked up to a few different machines, what they did Jack didn't have the slightest clue. Rah's chest was covered in bandages and some of it had blood soaked into them. He had a tube over his nose that Jack assumed helped him breathe.

When Jack entered the room, Rah was staring at the ceiling with a far away look to his eyes.

"Rah?" Jack asked, her voice soft. At the sound of her voice, Rah looked to her and gave her a grin that sent warmth through her entire body.

"Good to see you again Princess." Rah grinned to her. "Glad they let you in, didn't think they'd let you past the front desk."

Jack couldn't help but smirk. "Yeah well, Shepard helped."

"So, how you been holding up? Not causing too much trouble?" Rah asked her, a grin still splitting his face.

"Not yet." Jack chuckled. Without really thinking about it, she sat down on his bed, her hand finding his and holding it tight. "But I should be asking you that."

"I'm fine." Rah smirked. "Been through worse. On the upside, got myself some new lungs. Hopefully they'll last longer than the last pair." Rah tried making light of a situation that would have made other men dark and sullen. Jack admired him for that.

"Bunch of doctors running tests that show I'm fine, just need to be crammed in here for another week or so." Rah shrugged. "But I've had too much of this place already. Please tell me you have done something."

"I have actually." Jack told him, almost nervously. "I met someone in the Alliance, and she offered me a job."

"Sanders finally track you down?" Rah asked, a gleam in his eye.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Jack asked, perplexed.

A few days ago, Jack had been out trying to distract herself when she found that her feet took her to a park. While she was there, she found herself helping a young kid with his biotics. The kid was maybe eight, but he was using his biotics to try and throw a ball around, without much success. Jack didn't know why, but she found herself helping him. After an hour or so playing with the stupid kid, his parents dragged him away, saying something about not talking to trash like her. Jack felt furious, but then she met a woman in an Alliance uniform. The woman introduced herself as Kahlee Sanders and that she was the head of an Alliance school for biotics. She'd been watching Jack and the kid and was impressed by how Jack taught the kid even just basic control. They spent the next three hours talking about Jack becoming a teacher at Sanders' school.

"I told her about you, well Fox did, but that's besides the point. I figured she could use someone like you. Maybe even give you a home." The way that Rah smiled to her, lovingly and warmly, made Jack almost melt into him. Even when he was in an intensive care unit in a hospital, he was thinking of her over his own well being.

"Why?" Jack asked, trying to keep her voice from cracking. "I'm not really good with kids. An I'm not a teacher." Jack knew that she wasn't really cut out for the job, she just hadn't told Sanders yet.

"I don't believe that." Rah smiled to her warmly. "You have a gift Jack, you just don't see it like I do."

"The fuck are you talking about?" Jack asked, the usual bite in her voice gone.

"I can see things when I look at people. Might just be me being insane, but other than the lost little girl I see when I look at you, I see someone with a warm heart. Someone that would make an amazing teacher." Rah told her warmly. Jack normally would have spat in someone's face if they told her this, but Rah's words seemed to resonate in her.

"I'll try it." Jack agreed. "Wait, you see a lost little girl when you like at me?" Jack was puzzled. She didn't think that Rah could be any more weird or insane, but that kinda pushed that boundary.

"Just like I see a scared little boy when I look in a mirror." Rah chuckled. "One looking for a home, but not sure where to find it."

By the look in his eyes, Jack could tell that he wanted to say more, but he didn't want to say something that might drive her away.

"Well." Jack replied, laying down in the narrow space on the bed next to him. "You can find one with me."

"Good to know Princess." Rah chuckled, wrapping an arm around her. His slight wince didn't go unnoticed to her, but he didn't say anything in complaint.

"You're not going to be rid of me for a while yet Boyscout." Jack replied, gently resting her head on Rah's chest.

For a while, they lay like that, content to just be near each other. Other than the beeping and hissing of the machines that were hooked up to Rah, they reveled in the warm silence that settled over them.

After a while, a knock at the door broke their peace.

"I'll let Shepard in." Jack groaned.

Before she could get up, Rah pulled her into a light kiss. When they parted, both smiled lovingly at each other.

Jack got up and went to let Shepard in, putting on a mask that hid her feelings for the man just behind her.

Why does he make me feel almost normal? Jack asked herself and let Shepard in. It was a question that she didn't think she'd get an answer to any time soon.


When Jack let her into the room, Shepard felt almost as if she had walked into an oven. She could feel the heat and warmth that Rah and Jack had been sharing just a moment ago and wished she hadn't entered. She was past the point of no return now however.

"So, you fine yet?" Shepard asked, trying her best to ignore the feeling of invading on the time that Rah and Jack had.

"You know me Sarge." Rah chuckled. "Nothing but my own means will keep me down."

Shepard felt a little put off when Rah's gaze flicked to Jack. She still couldn't shake the feeling of being unwanted in the room right now.

"Jack, would you mind giving Sarge and I a minute? I need to talk to her about some N7 bullshit." Rah asked the woman. "We'll just be a minute."

Jack nodded and left, Shepard caught the warm smile that Jack sent Rah's way when she thought Shepard wasn't looking.

"So what is it?" Shepard asked when Jack left, feeling the room cool off a bit.

"Red tell you about Jelly?" Rah asked, letting out a sigh and rubbing his hands over his face.

"Yeah, and what Hackett wants you to do." Shepard replied.

"I'm going to accept it. I don't want to, but I will." Rah sighed, looking back at the door. "I'll hate myself every day, but I'll do it."

"You know that she'll understand." Shepard told her friend, trying to ease his worries. "Knowing you, you'll find a way to stay near her."

"Thing is, I have no fucking idea what I'll do what I get promoted." Rah sighed. "I didn't even want to become more than a basic grunt, now I'm getting promoted to fucking General of the N7s. The fuck am I going to do with that to stay near Jack?"

"You always think of something Rah. I know that it's the one thing you're best at if nothing else." Shepard assured her friend.

"Gonna be a bitch with Red though." Rah chuckled. "On the upside, when I do figure it out, I'll have that little pyjak off my back."

"Not nice to call someone that's basically our sister a pyjak." Shepard mock scolded him.

"Yes mom." Rah replied, rolling his eyes.

"Now sit up straight and eat your vegetables." Shepard joked and Rah snorted.

"Yep, you'd be a weird parent Sarge. If nothing else, I'm going to make you win the shit with the Reapers just so that you and Scarface have kids. I would pay money to see that." Rah joked, but the look in his eyes told her that he was dead serious.

"Only if you and Jack do the same." Shepard grinned. Rah looked at her in mock horror and Shepard couldn't help but start laughing.

When she was done, Shepard grinned to her friend and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll let you and Jack have some time alone. Just promise me you won't do anything stupid too soon." Shepard pleaded with her friend.

"Sarge, everything I do is stupid." Rah grinned.

"Point taken." Shepard replied. With that, she left the room.

"Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." She told Jack going more than a few feet.

"I'll do my best." Jack replied with a small thankful smile.


A/N: So insomnia both is awesome and horrible at the same time. On one hand, I pulled the piece of fluffiness together, on the other I can't sleep :D.

Anyways, I'm going to need to take about a week or so to get a couple of papers done. I'll still write when I can, but it'll be a bit before I update again.

Please let me know what yo all thought! Once more, thank you all so much for the continued support!

Until next time!