One day after escape from the Blue Suns..
Jack was examining her artwork as best she could, bare under the scant illumination of the cargo hold lights. The cleanest was still her black omega symbol, but her phoenix as starting to fizzle out at the tips of her feathers. She'd heard the stories muffled through glass, being taught to the rest of a class as she'd sat alone and unheard. Fucking bastards just ignored me, wish I could've taken more out as I ran from that shithole. Jack looked up in the light filled with sublime quivers as her shoulders settled back, imagining ripping the arm off one of the faceless mob that'd been facing her and beating a few to death with it, and enjoyed a mellowing endorphin rush.
A small thrumming through the deck plating had snapped Jack's head forward, her eyes immediately focusing to the elevator doors. Seeing them open, she saw the Commander look around earnestly before spotting her by the "hidden" crew cubby hole. She'd nodded at him and expected him to wander on with whatever wanker thing he did when he wasn't being a meat shield. Seeing him oddly twist away though, Jack walked over to see what was the issue. As she walked closer, he seemed to become more fixated on the warning sticker stating main power feeds mounted on an overhead panel.
"Jack, hey, so looking around?" "Yeah, that a problem?" Hearing the challenge, Shepard couldn't help liking the girl's stones. Basically saying, "Bitch, try stopping me from going anywhere!", but with a small lilt. He recognized it, had used it a couple of times to make quivering masses of the nerves of his opponents before rapidly striking them dead. Feeling the mood, he simply arched his back straighter then relaxing it as he chuckled, never moving his eyes from directly in front of him. "Jack, anyone tries to stop you, please give me the courtesy of calling him a moron before you kill him. Seems like information like that'd be handy, if you believe in reincarnation."
Jack immediately stopped at his chuckle and declaration, seeing his relaxed posture merely talking to her without hawkishly eyeing her for any threats. If felt so weird that she felt a little lost in the moment, not knowing if she should fight or flee. She started to joke that he'd have to run quick before the coma inducing AI's voice announced that Shepard was to immediately report to the conference room for a urgent matter. He just seemed to vibrate for a moment, arcs erupting at his crossed fingers for a second before, his spine tensed, his posture becoming The Shepard rigid. Glancing back over his shoulder a millisecond before resolutely walking to the elevator, Shepard called, "Jack, check back with me if you need anything, and might want to put something on."
The elevator doors had barely closed as Shepard had started to back talk the AI, demanding to be taken to his quarters to finish changing, before Jack noticed her nudity as an afterthought. It hadn't been until he'd mentioned it that it had occurred to her; being alone makes things like nudity, volume control, hygiene, and a hundred details either become rote habit or left to the wayside. She wasn't one of those slobs who'd abandoned all hope, but little things like standing naked in the middle of a strange ship had long been a laughable issue. His reaction, or rather lack of reaction was definitely different. Even in her earliest memories as a girl, every man who'd seen her had seen her as an object to be used, usually for research or on occasion for a fleeting passion, but never with real interest in her. His instinctive respect of her modesty was almost humorous, if it also didn't make her stomach twinge as if poked.
...
"Hello, Dick."
Shepard had wanted to immediately begin his first introductions with Jack, but had been delayed as Miranda had unexpectedly brought the Illusive Dick from behind the curtain, so to speak. The holo-pad flickered occasionally, allowing flashes of the comms room grey to be seen as before the obviously overdone and inefficient office of the Dick was cleared up again. Chain smoking as usual, Dick was staring at him in annoyance, but arched a criminally perfectly plucked eyebrow at his greeting.
"Dick?"
"Just suffer through it, I'm not about to stand here another second if I have to hear that pompous title again. Dick is perfect for you. So what was so important that Miranda went around me and called up her boss, then had EDI try to order ME to this meeting while I was still removing my armor. By the way, the holo-pad in my room needs replacement."
"Fine, the title is just there be necessity when dealing with the uninitiated. Keeps them respectful until they seen my methods in action. The purpose of this meeting is your allowing access to our private data stores to this convict you picked up. I'd hoped the man capable of persuading a blood raged krogan warlord could acquire her help without giving the keys to the store, as it were."
Pausing for a moment to lean over and puff from his cigarette, he continued,"as to Miranda's actions, they were and continue to be my instructions, to contact me in the event of your direct opposition. You can't really expect us to place the keys and guns in your hands and not want to know if you going to immediately turn them upon us. We need a leader willing to fight the Reapers, not some man fighting a pissing match with every pirate and junkie in need who happens to meet your moral requirements."
Seeing Dick settle back after his speech, and taking another puff of his cigarette, Shepard smiled at him with his eyes lighting up with focused biotic intent. "Allow me to apologize, clearly my ability is limited to one small successful collaboration of species against a near invulnerable sentient AI, maybe I should listen to the people who couldn't handle fucking thorian fucking creepers. Or rachnii, or blood raging krogan too stupid with adrenaline not to run down overlying angles of fire, through a mine field. Seriously, you guys are about the worst god damn vacuum headed idiots in the universe when it come to how to proceed, and you want to micromanage how I deal with my crew.?" At this, Shepard walked out of the field for a moment before walking back into the pad range with a obviously dazed Miranda being pulled along by the arm.
"Sir?!" Miranda's strident and fearful statement made clear her worries, was Shepard about to kill her on the Illusive Man's orders? Had he decided she'd failed somehow in her duties? Knowing these could be her last moments, she resolved herself to at least meet them without the pains of dragging things out by running or pleading, Shepard wouldn't be stopped by anything she could throw at him with the entire ship at her command, let alone where she was now. Seeing the confusion on her boss's face though forced a jolt of terror through her as she realized that Shepard had secreted his pistol from somewhere and was now simply holding it at his side, small tremors flicking through it every few moments as biotic charges arced to the gun's handle.
"Dick?" Taking another moment, Shepard calmed his features as he fixed is focus on a point a few meters in front of him, his shoulders slightly uncoiling. "Here's the deal, the one time only deal that's the only way I'll every be willing to hear a word from you." Seeing her boss jerk at the heated irritation in Shepard's voice made her terror equally be met with surprise, he clearly hadn't expected anything like this to happen. While it should have made her frantic, she suddenly realized she'd never considered the possibility that he might not have a plan, or know exactly what might happen. It had frankly been an obvious oversight on her part, but she'd just blinded by his earlier accomplishments and acceptance of Cerberus' role in keeping her sister from her father's attention. However, if either she or he could make such a mistake with Shepard, then Oriana couldn't be considered safe, not anymore. All these thoughts passed in a moment for Miranda, who now wished fervently that she'd made back up plans and resources secreted away in case of her death. It was another oversight, being on a suicide mission and all, but she'd just assumed much as her boss obviously had, that Shepard would lead everyone through, with legendary morality keeping him on a predictable straight and narrow path following information parceled out to Shepard in nuggets.
"I answer to you, they answer to me. If I say they get access, you will hear about it from the reports I would've likely been filing in an hour, and not from instant comms, without my knowledge nor shall I be being ordered around by fuck all any of you. If that wasn't clear enough, I could execute Miss Lawson, and in about 10 minutes have this ship cleared to only people I trust, and your AI just screaming away in it's little black box." At this Shepard leaned slightly back beyond the holo-pad's view before shooting EDI's pad in the room and leaning back withing range. "So, you want me, you really want me, the Lion, then you play by my rule book and games. Sure as fuck, this backseat QB bullshit is over if you want me to save all of our asses." With this, Shepard shot straight down, his bullet hitting the pad a few millimeters from Miranda's hand. She jerked back, but kept her head down, simply too afraid to think of anyway to save herself, barely noticing as the holographic display shattered and crackled before winking out entirely.
"Miranda." She jerked back at this before looking up, expecting a gun to held to her head. Instead, he stared down, his eyes full of seeming compassion, like he'd been in far worse places and had seen the infinite paths back. "You can go, you can stay, either way I wouldn't have wanted to push this. You know the consequences if we fail and I won't have his preaching or practices destroying all life in this cycle. Grow the fuck up and stow your bullshit, XO." With that he walked out the door, a few minutes later as she'd finally settled and had the wit to ask revealed that he'd immediately gone to his loft, finished removing his armaments, taken a shower and dropped off to bed with almost mechanical rigidity. The only sign of his agitation over the events being a sizable dent in the reinforced panel of the elevator wall.
AN: Sorry about the long time between update, I think I mentioned before that I was dutifully employed doing stuff no one here would care about. Suffice it to say stuff like that ruins my flow, but I am still doing chapters, still working up to the big dance (?) scene at the citadel. Fun, fun, FUN! Read and review, I totally dig it when people do. Even if they tell me my grammar sucks, which it does tend to do on occasion.