Jane Shepard decided that a long time ago that innocence wasn't all it was choked up to be. It was easy to see that back then in Romantic times it was all about finding innocence. The search for the idyllic childhood naivete.

She and Jack agreed that one you killed someone -didn't matter the reason- there was no finding innocence. There was no... 'second innocence' that they promised at the end of a story, there was no such thing as the promise of being able to return to your previous self.

Jane killed at the ripe age of thirteen. Jack, probably younger.

Jane didn't know why she was thinking about this, while she stared at the ceiling of her comfortable prison. House arrest was just about the last thing she expected from the Alliance, but hey, who arrests the first Human Spectre?

Jane looked over at the clock. 1 am.

She checked her omni-tool. No new messages.

She rolled over on her bed. No new thoughts.

"So, innocence, huh?" Jane asked the ceiling.

It didn't answer.

She didn't want to think about back then, because it didn't matter. Every second she wasted, every minute she spent here the Reapers were that much closer to the universe. That much closer to putting Jack in danger, again.

Shepard couldn't even tell where Jack was now and it hurt. It physically hurt to think that she might never see Jack again. Especially when all she could thinking about was the desperate grab Jack made for Jane's hand when they were falling off Collector platforms. Jane's heart skipped when she missed Jack's hand the first time.

Jane rolled over to her side to try and shake the thoughts. The other ones were easier to deal with, less raw. More easily handled and discarded whenever Jane thought she could handle it.

Beep.

1 new message.

The thoughts could wait until after she checked to see who it was from. It was from Jack, which partly surprised Jane.

I cannot believe that you wrote that fuckin letter after I jokingly said I'd work on the Ascension Project. Moreover, they gave me a group of little shits to look over and teach. Half the time they're more interested in each other more than learning, but I learned that being scary is just as effective as being calm. Gotta work on it though, half the shit are scared of me...

And the message went on. It talked about her day, her students, how she was doing, but most of all, how much she missed Jane and the Normandy.

All that crazy shit made me think that I could handle teaching, and let me fucking tell you that is a goddamn lie. Wish we could still travel together, or that we'd gone all pirate like I suggested.

Jane held the datapad and read it over again. Eventually, she fell asleep, the datapad loose in her fingers, but still within reach.

It became a source of strength for Jane to wait out the house arrest, and Jane even turned to indoors exercise -she could never get as intense as she preferred, but it was better than waiting- to keep up the muscle and to fill the time.

Then at 1 am, she get a new message from Jack. It was mindless chatter, and Jane couldn't reply right away without look suspicious, but those 1 am messages drove away the thoughts late at night and it made her feel open again.

Not quite a second innocence, since it wasn't the end yet, but Jane would take it and hold it close. It was good enough, she supposed, and soon they would see each other again. Everything would be safe, and everyone would be okay.

And damn if that wasn't what the Romantics were looking for.

A/N:This prompt was pretty tricky to get out, because neither this Jane nor Jack are particularly innocent. But in the process I thought about what I was studying in college and applied it. Wish I could write my essays in fanfiction form.