"Do you want the truth?" Jack asked.

His room had no response, of course. He didn't want to hear its true answer, anyways.

A few hours ago, Miranda had stood over him as he sat on his bed, wilting. "You need to shut up."

"Been told that before," Jack said. "Usually by people about to shoot me."

"Believe me, I've considered it." Miranda sighed. "Did you really show Shepard your contract?"

"She needed to see." Jack said. "No, deserved to see."

"Did she ask you to?" Miranda challenged.

Jack leaned back against the wall. Cold comfort.

"No more," Miranda said. "Nothing. Only speak when spoken to, and whatever you've been telling the Quarian-"

"Her name is Tali," Jack said. "She saved the galaxy two years ago, which is a lot more than you."

"If she tells Shepard half of what you've said-"

"Then it happens." Jack said. "Whatever."

"You are the greatest scientific - it's been nearly a year, how do you not grasp what you are?" Miranda asked.

Jack's shoulders slumped some. "I know."

"Do you?"

"Fuck off."

"Whatever happened to you may be the only chance we have to survive the Reapers." Miranda said. "How can you not see that?"

"If we can do that, they can too." Jack said. "Besides, there's nothing where I come from."

"Doubtful." Miranda said.

"I could cut your throat," Jack said darkly. "They say if you do something enough times you become an expert."

Miranda rolled her eyes.

Jack tried to settle against the wall. "Look, you don't need me for any of this, really. There are other people. Better people."

"But no else one like you." Miranda said. "We know you told us the truth, the whole truth, and it's obvious."

"What's obvious?" Jack asked. "That you're desperate?"

"You're like Shepard," Miranda said. "Practically a force of nature. When you put your mind to something, you get results. We need people like that more than ever."

Jack looked away.

"We weren't lying," Miranda said. "After this, you're free to go. But we hope it's clear by now that you don't have another place to go, that can help you - let alone accept you."

"Just leave me alone." Jack said.

"Listen, Armstrong-"

Jack raised lidded eyes. "Leave. Me. Alone."

Miranda looked at him, he wilted some more, but she did leave after a bit longer.

Miranda was probably right, of course. Cerberus were awful, he knew that, but he didn't fit in the Pitt for nothing. Whatever he was building here, especially with Tali, was probably dust in the wind soon enough (not that deserved someone like Tali). Jack pulled back his sleeve to reveal the scar he got from the Pitt. They'd had to do more than simply inject him with a dose of the vaccine to fix it: they had to cut into the infected tissue first, clean it, then inject the vaccine directly onto the spot. Hurt, hurt like nothing else, and he was useless for a few days afterward. It had given him time to think, time for Ashur to talk circles around him; a week and a half later or - Jack didn't really remember - he went out on his first raid.

That's where Jack was, caught in the murk, looking through his lap when the door opened again.

And there she was. Immediately, he wanted grab her ass, pin her under him, fuck her, come inside of her. Share some of the Elder with her; he wanted to kiss her long, deep; he wanted to hug her, tell her everything was alright; make her laugh; anything at all.

"Are you alright?" Tali asked.

Jack offered a smile.

Tali cocked her head, then shook her head. "Can I sit down?"

Jack nodded. He watched as she sat down at his desk, and glanced down to his footlocker. He took a breath, then got up.

He didn't say anything as he pushed the footlocker to the side, and then swiped away the pile of clothes, more Asari skin mags, and magazines on guns to reveal another, bigger trunk with two padlocks. He slid it out from under the bed with a grunt.

He kept his back turned to Tali as he opened the padlocks, and then entered in the password for the trunk's fancy electronic lock. The trunk sprang open, and he could hear Tali cock her head again.

"What is that?"

Jack took out the neatly-folded thing in the trunk and laid on his bed carefully.

"Is that a plaque?" Tali asked.

She was confused; of course she would be. None of these people had actually, truly, had to scavenge and salvage from nothing.

"Cerberus gave me the hoodies," Jack admitted. "This... is what I was wearing when they picked me up."

To any Waster, it wasn't notable. The raiders in the Pitt had their own armor, and required him to pick one of their suits. Most of it was ramshackle at best, but the they said was for "Iconoclasts" (as if any of them actually knew what the word meant), and while it wasn't proper armor, it covered all of his body. He'd taken one suit for himself, then had to buy another one, which was in shit condition. But it's what he had, so he spent the better part of a month perfecting it, making it his own: covering the tears with layers of tanned hide, dog and brahmin and molerat, replacing the soles of the boots, and he'd colored as much of it dark brown as he could, to mark it as his. He'd added a hood, too, made of more hide, with help from Squill. Next he reinforced it, and while there was plenty of scrap metal in the Pitt, most of it was wanted for the ammo presses, so he gathered old street signs, and in the end, cobbled together a breastplate with a few of them, in the center of it all a dark brown sign with white lettering that read NO EXIT.

Tali came up beside him. "I'm guessing you made this yourself?"

"You've seen better seamstresses, I know."

Tali pointed to one of the patches of hide. "Is that...?"

"Yep."

"It looks burnt." Tali said slowly.

"That's tanning for you," Jack said. "At least, what I could do. It works, anyway."

"You said this is what Cerberus found you in?" Tali asked.

"More damaged," Jack said. "But yeah. When they finally let me out, they gave me the stuff to repair it. The shields for my hoodies? That was me."

"Really?" Tali asked.

"Only one or two burns." Jack said. "Cerberus said they had people who could do it, but I wanted to learn how. After I was done with the hoodies, I also prepared this." He put a hand on the breastplate. "It's been sitting here for... I don't know. But something - I don't know." He paused. "I've been thinking of showing this to Shepard."

"Shepard?" Tali asked.

Jack took a breath. "She wants to know where I'm from. She doesn't believe me."

"Because you're lying."

Jack was quiet. "Not about what I've been telling you."

"All of it?" Tali asked pointedly.

Jack made a noncommittal noise.

"Did you make this while you were..." Tali trailed off.

Jack hummed.

"Why?" Tali asked.

Because he liked it.

"I - it's easier," Jack said. "To be like them."

Tali said nothing. Jack took his hand off of his armor as she turned away and paced to the other side of his room.

"You're weird." she said.

"At your service."

"When I was on my pilgrimage," Tali said, "I saw sides of the galaxy I'd only ever heard of." Tali took a breath. "The lowest wards of the Citadel... I only went down there a few times, and it scared me. I meet people like - well, what you. Who were kind to me, and then would, well, act like you. Most of them had also been through terrible things."

"It's a fun club," Jack shrugged. "Membership only costs your parents. But there's plenty of other options, obviously."

"Keelah, I know it might sound, but I was happy to be away from it." Tali said. "I didn't really want to see it anymore. Even in the Flotilla, I'd lived a sheltered life. Even when we were hunting Saren, we never truly went into the worst parts of the galaxy."

She turned back to him. "So, I guess - most people don't to hear any more."

"Okay," Jack said. "That's-"

"But I want to." Tali said.

"What?"

"What we're facing," Tali said. "With the Reapers... I don't want to become like you. Lose myself." She sighed. "Shepard went on a mission with Garrus the last time we docked at the Citadel. They found someone who betrayed him, and Garrus... Shepard wouldn't give me all the details, but Shepard said she should have stopped Garrus from killing the person." Tali's fingers flexed, unflexed. "And I've seen it: on the last mission I was on with him - he was different. He shot one mercenary who got tackled him five times. We needed information from another, and when they said they wouldn't give us any, he just shot them. Shepard saw, but just said we needed to move on. I tried to talk to Garrus, talk to her after the mission, but got nothing."

"So you want to what, study me?" Jack asked.

Tali wrung her hands. "I know how it sounds."

Jack turned back to his armor, put his hand back on the breastplate. "Do you know where I found this sign?"

"Jack, you can be upset with me," Tali said. "I'll go."

"I was scavving," Jack said. "Found it in an alley. There was a teddy bear under it." Jack sighed. "The cure, the baby, the leader of the slavers offered money for stuffed animals. Teddy bears were her favorite. That teddy bear was the first I found so I cleaned it, and after it, I kind of became obsessed." Jack's left hand hid in his pocket; the right tensed. "Once, he let me in to see their daughter play with them." Jack laughed, a little bitter. "There were so many. When Ashur told her that I was the one who gave them to her, she thanked me." Jack swallowed. "I couldn't handle it. I started to just bawl." Jack wiped his eyes. "The next day I went out raiding again, and - and if anything good can come from all of the shit I've done, then I'm fine with it."

Tali stepped up aside from him again.

"I think you're a bad person." she said.

Jack grew the ghost of a smile. "I mean, yeah."

Quiet. Almost companionable, and then Tali said, "I might miss you, if you were gone."

Faydra once, at his request, slow danced with him, on Date Night. Well, what he called Date Night. He hadn't done anything like slow dancing since his prom, and that day, he'd watched Reddup shoot two slaves who were getting intimate instead of working. His heart slowed down with her arms around his neck, his around her waist, and his pip-boy playing that Vera Keyes song that Susie always teased him about loving.

"This is stupid." Faydra said.

Jack had closed his eyes, smiled some. "Yeah."

"We could be fucking right now," Faydra said. "My shift starts in a few hours."

"Not tonight, if that's alright," Jack said quietly. "Just-"

"We're getting high tomorrow night," she said. "Your stash."

"Sure." Jack said. He put his forehead against hers. "Thank you."

"Whatever, Vaultie." Faydra said.

Jack took a breath, then asked Tali, "Have you ever seen Casablanca?"

"Yes, actually. I watched it a few weeks ago." Tali said. "It's alright."

Jack finally grew a small, fragile smile. "Maybe I can change your mind, if you're willing to watch it again."

Tali sighed, just little bit dramatically. "I suppose. My shift starts in a few hours, so we might not make it through everything."

"Then we'll make the most of it." Jack said.

He thought, then reached for her hand with his right. He realized, then, that the scar was still showing. His fingers brushed hers, barely, and she didn't pull away. His heart pounded, panicked, and after beginning to thread their fingers together, his breath hitched and his hand fled back to his pocket.

"I guess we will." Tali said.

Jack was probably crazy, but he swore she was smiling with her eyes.

The sign is a reference to something. Brownie points if you can figure out what. :)