Click. Click.

Jane eyed Jack carefully, watching the tattooed woman click open and shut the detonator. Jack seemed irritated, especially at Jane's insistence that Jack couldn't murder the man who tried restarting the program.

Click. Click.

Jane didn't like how Jack was fussing with the detonator. It was like it was being used for something other than to annoy the occupants of the shuttle.

Click.

It took Jane half a second to realize that the button was still exposed and primed. Jane managed to hit the cockpit door once before the explosives went off and rocked the shuttle. Shepard was grateful that Jack had some patience, as they weren't all knocked off course or crashed from that little stunt.

"What. The. Hell. Convict I swear-" Jane started. Her outline started to glow blue, and only intensified when Jack made her response.

"Fuck off Shepard." Jack interrupted with a smug smile. "I said I was gonna blow the stupid thing, didn't I?"

"Not while we were next to the damn thing!"

"My goddamn mission, my call... Soldier."

Jane formed and unformed a fist at the tattooed woman, instead opting to simply tower over the shorter woman.

"What, speechless because I can parrot your words back at you, dumbass?"

"No. Alliance regs say that-"

"You ain't Alliance, so speak your damn mind for once!"

"You're impulsive and- ugh! You don't even think before you act! Your actions sit like an elephant on my goddamn chest! I can barely breathe before it shifts around and breaks something else!"

"Well, that makes sense since you've got a stick up your ass too! Might as well just get-"

"You finish that sentence and I swear I'll make you clean toilets for a month."

Kasumi looked between the two biotics and said, "we nearly get blown up and you two need a room. Let's just get to the ship before anyone does anything they will regret." She added under her breath, "or squish the adorable Japanese thief like an ant."

Jane jabbed her finger at Jack one last time before plopping herself forcefully back into her seat. "This isn't over, Convict."

Jack smiled like she'd won first prize at the carnival.

"Jack, you are to arrive at my quarters in five minutes. Or, since you can't tell time worth a damn, get in the elevator now." Jane said, leaning into the PA system on her desk. Joker had it installed mostly as a joke.

He probably regretted it by now, Jane figured. She stood up and moved to finish taking off the rest of her armor, the catsuit underneath still on Jane was nice, but given that she didn't want to change in the Armory she had to finish dressing in her room.

She managed to finish putting on her Cerberus fatigues just as Jack arrived, a bottle of mostly untouched booze in hand. Jack took a swig as she entered, making it clear whose bottle it was. Jane, ever the soldier, couldn't drink while on the job anyway.

"Sit." Jane ordered, pointing at her table.

"Fuck. You." Jack's 'witty' response was predictable, but still irritated Jane nonetheless.

"Sit." Jane persisted, without change in tone or demeanor.

"I ain't doin' shit."

"Sit down, or I will space you and no one will miss you." Jane threatened, leaning in to enforce the height that she had on Jack. "In fact, I'm sure it would be a service to half the known galaxy to do so, so I say sit."

Jack growled, but sat down. She took another swig after she did so and placed her bottle forcefully on the table. "So, what did you want to talk about, Girl Scout?"

"Can I tru-" Jane was interrupted by her sudden shortness of breath. She deemed it a small episode but continued. "Can I trust you?" Jane forced it out, trying to sound less out of breath than she had been just a few seconds ago.

"Did you seriously stumble on that? That's, like, four fucking words, Soldier." Jack asked, genuinely amused to see the Commander, despite her appearance, struggling with something. Jack thought it was all easy for the other biotic, but she guessed she was wrong.

"It happens. It's nothing major. Now answer the..." Shepard forced herself to take a breath. "Answer the question."

"Are... you okay? I've never seen you like this." Jack said, more out of social conventions than actual concern. "Don't, like, croak on me while you're chewing me out. They might blame me."

"Fine. Just a minor..." Jane said, leaning on the table more for support now. "Nope. Shit, I need... my oxygen tank... inhaler. Can't... breathe."

Jane had hoped that the mission hadn't aggravated the problem too much, but her implants had apparently caused another asthma attack by their inferior design blocking whatever part of her brain that told her lungs to breathe properly and automatically.

"Fuck! What? Is this a prank? Are you fucking with me right now?" Jack yelled, standing up and nearly knocking over her booze.

Jane's response was to point at where she kept her supplies for when this happened and to turn slightly blue.

"Fuck."

A few minutes of fumbling and a call to Chakwas later, Jane sat at the foot of her bed, oxygen mask over her face and fuming. This wasn't supposed to happen, she'd been fine right after the mission and usually the atracks happened shortly after she took off her armor downstairs. That usually took-

Except the argument with Jack had thrown everything off. Jane had come this close to using Slam on the convict and thus her timing had been off. Jane buried her face in her hands as much as possible without disrupting the mask.

"So." Jack said, trying to break the tension and to rub it in Jane's face that she had to stay while the doctor took care of Joker having broken a leg for some reason. Jane bet that it was him trying to grease the cameras again. "Every mission, she said?"

Jane started to hit her head against her knees.

"Why? Wait no, don't tell me. L2 implants." Jack said. "Shit, you got unlucky. Even growing up I knew enough about them that they made sure I had a better version than that deathtrap."

Jane didn't say anything, she'd opted to hide her embarrassment by laying her hands and face on her knees.

"Still. Better off than a lot of those poor shits. Heard about the even more unlucky L2s on Omega. Some can't feel anything at all, can't remember anything, and tend to shit themselves." Jack said. "Listen, can't say that understand, but you got to see a lot of shit about my past today so consider this payback for asking all those questions earlier." Jack punched the Commander in the arm, awkwardly trying to play nice.

Jane moved her face up and moved the mask enough to reply, "don't tell anyone about this either. I'm supposed to be invincible and came back from the dead, but Cerberus kept the L2 implants. I told them that the problem no longer existed, because I wanted to believe it too."

"Psh, we all wanna believe stupid shit. I wanna believe that I'm the toughest bitch in the galaxy. Might not be true, but I'll act like it is. Helps me unwind knowing that I could take you in a fight." Jack said, looking at the clock. One minute, Chakwas said.

"Once I recover, you, me, and the training room. No biotics, just fists."

"Pfft, I'll take you up on that. I'll fucking win, too."

"Shepard could make the biotic barrier. She's as capable of it as the rest of us." Miranda said to the room, as they planned their next move in the Suicide Mission.

Jack looked at the back of Jane's head, trying to see if that would make the soldier's thoughts more apparent. "I'll do it. Shepard's a better shot than I am. Anyone can keep my ass alive, she can. Problem, cheerleader?" Jack moved to lean on Jane, as though she were claiming the taller woman.

Miranda tried not to look like she'd eaten a lemon. "No."

Jane whispered two words to Jack, which made Jack smile.

"Damn right."

A/N: 10 chapters, nearly 1,500 hits total, 8,122 words, 1 review, 8 comments, 20 kudos, 4 bookmarks, 3 followers, and 2 favorites. By a lot of people's standards, it may not be a lot, but I still want to be proud of how far this has come, and everyone who supports it by doing any of the above. We've still got a long while to go, but ten chapters is a lot more than I thought I'd ever write for this. So I wanted to take this section to say: THANK YOU! (Plus, if you want to have regular updates with announcements or talk to me, I have a tumblr: .com go ahead and send asks, prompts, whatever you want to send my way!)