"So they called C-Sec in to arrest a spectre killer on the spectre's own ship, and they never even considered double checking the killer against, well hell, anything, even a can of Tupari would probably have your pretty boy face on it!" Jack stood back from her stance, her her cocked in confusion as though she was playing a mental word game and being unhappy about where it was leading her. Understandable as "fuck" hardly rhymes with "torture" or "bitch".
As she was no longer humming like a early model holo-interface or having iridescent arcs traveling her skin, Shepard went back to leaning against the bulkhead, and wondering deep thoughts like, would Jack ever let him bring down an extra chair. "Shepard?" Snapping back, he noticed Jack had resumed her seat on her bed, her thin knees hooked under her chin as she eyed him with those irresistible eyes. Shepard quickly shifted his gaze to the back wall of her home before letting his eyes wander the perimeter. He'd noticed early in their association that any scrutiny would quickly lead to being ordered to clear the hell out, possibly with the chance of biotically strewn debris in his wake.
"Stop fucking zoning out and finish the damn story, dumbass!" "Oh, yeah, got distracted, and umm.." seeing his eyes flutter around the room without ever looking directly at her, Jack had a pretty good inkling of what had distracted him, but had decided that that was the only thing she'd let him get away with. Krogan boy walking in and eyeing her would end with either one orb of the boy's quad strung around her neck on a leather strap, or the lower belly of the ship suddenly decompressing as a biotic nova simply removed the whole bottom level from the ship. Shepard however knew not to push the opportunity, smart.
"Whatever, just fucking finish, or I'll get bored and decide to rub one out." Upon hearing her words, Shepard's head jerked back to Jack so quick that a pop like a knuckle cracking was hear by Jack. "Oww, Jesus fucking, damn it!" cried Shepard as he let his back slide down the bulkhead and let him settle in a crouch on the floor. Rubbing his suddenly red neck and ducking his very flushed face, Shepard mumbled, "So umm, it turned out Tali and Garrus had teamed up to hack the C-Sec databases and had written up specific instructions for the detaining officers, though they'd never considered the idea of a vengeful former associate winging me in the interrogation." Shepard had poured out the response in a half second as he jerked himself up and started to make the quickest dignified escape he could while not directly looking at her. "Well, see ya, work to do, Mercs to save, I mean kill."
With that, Shepard was already at the u-turn in the stairs and just about hopped the last 3 steps in his haste. Seeing the brazen soldier turn tail and flee left Jack staring with her mouth slack jawed. She's seen him literally tell hundred story tall monster to "fuck off and die" while looking classic Shepard-bored. She'd heard the conversation upstairs as Shepard had calmly let the Quarian down, where at the end the kid had been beaming and cheerful as ever despite being turned down by her idol. It was hard to compare that to the person who'd run like a 2nd rate shoplifter. Deciding to not burn the only relationship she'd thought worthwhile on the ship, Jack started to walk to the stairs before slowing to a halt.
For the first time in her life, free or otherwise, she didn't immediately want to force the issue, call him a pussy, and demand him to talk to her. She took a second to consider what she said, it was a new experience as she hadn't within memory ever reflected on a conversation after the fact before. Even though she could remember ever inflection and nuance to Shepard's side of the story, she couldn't even guess at her's, as though even in her own mind her words were worthless. Think hard, her lips compressed into a harsh line, Jack could only remember a few expletives, saying stuff just to rag on Shepard, but nothing in particular could stand out and let her know what made him freak.
Knowing the issue would either keep her down in her bunk for days as she went back and forth over the whole thing or simply leave the rest of the mission with her as the ship's pariah, well..more so, and not willing to chance the rest of her voyage on the ship alone without Shepard stopping by, Jack was surprised at the sudden hurt that developed in her chest at the thought. Thinking it to be hunger for a second, she jerked as the pain momentarily ebbed and immediately returned as she dismissed the hunger notion. It was Shepard, he was making her ache and she couldn't even point out why she felt something for anyone, or why that one would run away so suddenly. Looking at the stairwell Shepard had almost flown up, Jack muttered a despondent "Fuck." before turning and laying down on her bed.
_.
Shepard stood stock still at the galaxy map, staring ahead without seeing the ship before him. Kelly had noticed Shepard looked agitated as he'd jerkily walked off the elevator and had walked up to star at the holographic map wordlessly. He'd been standing there a few minutes before the elevator chimed again. Assuming it to be Miranda or Tali, both of whom seemed to have unerringly knowledge of when Shepard needed to vent. Kelly started smirking a little at the romantic notions, making sure to keep her head down to provide what little privacy the CIC of a warship could. Nothing could prevent her head from jerking back as someone grabbed the back of her uniform and pulled her off her small pedestal and towards the elevator. Seeing Shepard spin around, jerk and nod indifferently, Kelly could see Shepard turning back to the map with his head down as she was pulled with her heels skipping and stumbling to keep balance, the doors closing on his stiff ram rod straight form. Being let go, Kelly whirled around to give her assailant a piece of her mind before halting, the sight of Jack holding herself tight against the side walls of the elevator, hands and eyes both twitching back and forth in signs of clear aggravation and possibly fright.
"Jack.." Kelly started, before Jack held up a hand in warning and seemed to calm as she settled in to a plan. "Not now, wait until we're back to my ce..my room." Hearing the slip, Kelly knew that something had changed in the tightly coiled former convict. It had been a trying two months of complete stone walling from Jack as she'd tried to get her to open up to either her or someone on the crew. Remembering the look Shepard had given as he'd turned around, nervous and wired, Kelly couldn't help a small smile developing. Despite the obvious attempts by several of the team, Shepard's often glib and minimal answers to any socialization had left Kelly wondering if he either had a secret boyfriend or girlfriend to distract him, or if he had been damaged by his rather recent rebirth. Seeing the Jack looking equally as discomfited however, was definitely not a flicker of possibility in Kelly's mind previously, and she felt herself swept along in new considerations of mood and crew dynamics in light of the new paradigm.
"Quit with the kittens and daisy fantasy, Red, I can see little pink hearts floating out of your ears and it's already pissing me off." snapped Jack as she noticed Kelly's eyes glaze over and a giant smile stretch across her face. Coming back to the moment, Kelly decided to fix first their relationship before moving onto the truly dangerous territory. "Jack, do you know why people have to take a test with a living person before receiving their license to drive? Not, I mean, having someone observe; but why does it have to be a actual person and not some complex VI monitoring system?" Thrown for a bit by the sudden shift from fantasy dream barbie to strong voiced authoritative Kelly, Jack just answered without thinking, "Huh, I don't know, who gives a shit?"
"Other people, Jack. You see a VI couldn't be told to monitor the person's physical response to agitation or shifting conditions, and would allow a person who was drunk or emotionally unstable as happily as VI driver interface. Testing and eye checks are easy for a automated pass/fail test, but people are more like picking a unfamiliar lock, they take observation, guesswork, and persistence in the face of, well..someone like you." Upon hearing the last, Jack's face started to tense and she'd just started to retort, when Kelly looked her in the eyes like a stranger, gone was the bubbly infatuated pin up doll, now she was the observant professional that could break down causal factors from a hundred unknown conflicts just from a sentence, she stared back at Jack with confidence and compassion, and Jack felt herself suddenly deflate at the measured look.
"Jack, we could play footsie like I have to do with every patient, and I'll admit I'd probably enjoy the challenge particularly with you, but it's not a game and you need help, clearly. So, I'm making a new playbook for you to work through and in the end, maybe you'll find what your missing. Hell, it ultimately wouldn't even have to be me, might even help if it wasn't, but I'm pretty sure suggesting finding someone else you could trust would be just my own hesitation and I'm not willing to give up if it means nothing gets resolved." Jack looked stymied at the strong and logical development from Kelly, her words that suddenly seemed not like glass irritants wedged in her eyelids, but as a calming metronome of back and forth plan towards.. something, something that might not suck. Biting her lower lip, she held back and just as Kelly looked to start again, Jack whispered, "Just wait until we're at my bunk, please."