[Book Three] Chapter 13: Never catching a break

Chapter 13: Never catching a break

Docking on the Citadel, the crew of the Normandy wasted not a second of their R&R and quickly departed for who knows where. It was understandable with the war and the time they spent on missions.

Rick said goodbye to Kahlee who promised to stay in touch, something the man was alright with as he enjoyed his time with her. He also said his goodbyes to Jennifer’s students.

“Never stop practicing and show them what true biotics can do.”
“Aye, sir!”
“I’m surprised you kept calling me sir all along. I’m not part of the Alliance you know?”
“You’re not?!”
“Nah. I’m part of the Terminus clans’ royalty, way more lucrative.” he simply replied as he waved his hand nonchalantly as they departed. Turning to Jennifer they exchanged a look in silence.

“I still don’t hug.” she finally said.
“Good, because I don’t either. Would have made things awkward.”

That may have been the words they spoke but they still went with it. After a few seconds Rick slapped her butt, hard.

“What the fuck?!” she shouted as she got away from their embrace.
“I’m the lecherous perverted brother-in-law, I have an image to maintain, besides it’s an incentive to not hug again.”
“Well, you succeeded, Dickhead. I should punch you for that and for my sister.”
“You’re kidding, right? She would have slapped your butt too then fondled it.”
“Really?!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, it is a very pretty butt.”
“To her own little sister?”
“It wouldn’t have mattered to her one bit. She was even more of a freak than I am and she loved you a lot.”
“No wonder she married you.” she said as she picked up a small bag from the floor.
“You’re not taking her things?”
“I took some photos and trinkets but otherwise no. It’s yours.”
“The wedding dress is actually yours. It’s a tradition in your family for mothers to give it to their daughters.”
“Do you really see me getting married?” she commented flatly.
“Yes, don’t you?”
“Nah, too broken for that.”
“Not true. Can’t wait to see your face the day you marry and I give you my best ‘told you so.’”
“In your dreams.” she said scoffing.
“In my dreams I’m rocking your world while pulling on your ponytail.”
“Yeah, I bet you’d like that.” she said, smirking before giving him a nod and leaving.

He watched her leave and appreciated the sight of her ass swinging from right to left, something Jennifer intentionally did to mess with him. Afterwards he waited for Ashley, they were supposed to spend some time together then find a hotel room. While they did spend some time under the sheets on the ship, they tried to keep it to a minimum as it was also their place of work.
When the brunette was nowhere in sight after a few minutes, he knew something was wrong as she was a punctual person. He understood what was wrong when Jane exited the elevator and went in his direction with a smile on her face.

“Change of plan. I’m the one watching you today.” she said with glee.
“...”
“We have to go to the embassies first. Helena is on the station and asked to meet.”
“...”

At his silence, her smile dropped a bit.

“I just want to spend some day time with you. Didn’t we have fun in our downtime when we fought the collectors?”
“You dragged me left and right to buy fish and ship toy-models.” he answered in a flat tone.
“I didn’t hear a no.”
“Because there is no need to say it. Choosing between a whole day of sex with Ashley or… No, there is nothing you can offer that can compare.”

She pouted cutely at that but it didn’t deter her. She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him outside the ship.

“Fine. Only half a day then. I have to go see Kaidan anyway, apparently Udina wants to make him a spectre.”
“That’s… worrying news.”
“How so? Kaidan is a good soldier, he reached N7.”
“That’s not the point. Udina doesn’t make moves that don’t benefit him and I see no benefit in having a second human spectre. He doesn’t have the resources to spare a ship from the Alliance and I doubt he will give Kaidan money to get one. There is the crew also, where would he get one? A human one at that? No, there is something fishy about that nomination.”
“You think Kaidan should turn it down.”
“Quite the contrary. We need to keep an eye on the snake. Udina’s not competent enough and way too ambitious to be a councilor, that’s a disaster especially since he’s scared. He’s now at the head of the Alliance government with the parliament gone, that’s too much power for someone like him who has his homeworld attacked and with the other species refusing to help. I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays into someone else’s hand.”
“You mean… Cerberus?” Jane replied, catching on.
“Yes.”
“Shit. That’s not good, Kaidan doubts that my relationship with them is over. Is there any way you could prove that?”
“Difficult, I doubt he has incriminating evidence on his terminal. Looking at his money transfer may be better and no, I’m not doing it, that’s c-sec’s job, not mine. I have enough on my plate already.”

Jane nodded and while still holding his arm went to an elevator, that was until he curtly pulled his arm out of her grip. That surprised her a bit but didn’t comment.


____________________________________________________________


“So, EDI… any idea of what types of clothes you want?” Ashley asked as both women walked in the streets of the presidium.
“For the field, something form fitting not restraining my movement.”
“And for out the field?”
“I do not know.”
“No preferences then?”
“Visually, I do but since my experience in recreational clothes is limited to a too small lab coat and one of Rick’s shirts and his coat, I don’t have enough data to have preferences.”
“Good thing we have all day to find out. Let’s start with the most important: underwear.”

____________________________________________________________


The half siblings had arrived in an empty office of the human embassies and were waiting for Helena to show up. Rick did the same thing that he did in her cabin when they were working for Cerberus, meaning flaring his omni-tool and destroyed all the bugs in the room. That it had been full of listening devices had been a bit of a shock for Jane at first as it was illegal but considering the backstabbing involved in politics, the shock subsided quickly. However it came back full force when the door opened and someone she was not expecting to see entered the room.

“Mom?!”
“Hello…”
“You said we were meeting Helena!” Rick loudly interjected.

Jane immediately knew that things were about to turn to shit. She knew that tone well. Quickly she tried to defuse the situation before it went further.

“We’re supposed to…”
“Try and make up? You, me and the whore? That now I agreed to give you a chance we could be holding hands, forgive each other and be happy ever after?!”
“No! That’s not…”
“Fuck you and the whore!” he shouted, not listening to what his sister had to say.

Turning to the balcony, he jumped over the rail and fell down to the lower floor of the embassies. Jane tried to see where he was going but knew that it was futile. She was panicking badly, hoping that this unexpected event didn’t screw up the one chance she has been given.

“Jane, what was that about?” asked her mother.

The young redhead ignored her mother and immediately contacted Liara. Normally she would contact Ashley but she was busy shopping with organic EDI so the asari was her best next option.

“Liara, he’s gone!”
“What happened?”
“Our mother showed up out of the blue and he just exploded and bailed out.”
“Our mother?” Hannah repeated as she grabbed her daughter and turned her around looking straight into her eyes.
“You pushed too much, Jane.”
“I didn’t! I just…” She began looking at her mother in defiance.
“He wouldn’t have left if that was the case.”
“We need to find him.”
“What do you mean our mother?” the older woman insisted but was ignored once again.
“No, we need to do nothing. He needs to breathe, to be alone and not have someone else hounding him constantly.”
“After Eden Prime?! Are you…”
“Jane!”
“He told me himself, Jane. Look, I’m at the presidium right now, get there and we’ll talk.” was Liara’s last words as she cut the communication.
“JANE ROSALIND SHEPARD, ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW!”

Hannah Shepard was finally out of patience. Her daughter’s slip up turned her world upside down. The son she failed, her son, that she believed had been dead for fifteen years was still alive and has been right under her nose multiple times during the last three. She didn’t doubt for a moment that Jane had been wrong. The man’s word and reaction to her appearance was proof enough of the authenticity of it.

That brought all kinds of different feelings, mixing inside of her and plenty of questions which she wanted answers to. After all, her son was alive and he was now her sole focus.

For her part, Jane looked at her mother and began to realise how much she had fucked up with that simple possessive pronoun.

Shit

____________________________________________________________


Rick’s rage had subsided quickly. By the time he was on the nearest elevator to leave the presidium he had completely calmed down and contemplated what he’s just done. Once again he had blown up. Once again he lost control of his emotions. Granted this time he didn’t strangle Jane and ran away instead.
The fact was, he was tired and there were too many emotional happenings right after the other. First, his identity was discovered by the one person he didn’t want to, second, Eden Prime, third finding his other sister and knowing who his dad was. Then nearly murdering the first sister he knew because just saying her name threw him in a murderous fury.  Seeing the woman who discarded him unprepared like that had been too much.
He knew that his reaction was irrational and lamented that fact. Had he been in his right mind he would have just played it cool and do what he’d always done. Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. Something he had learned early in his escape when he was a kid and that he still applied today.


The elevator stopped at the Holding area, just below the Normandy’s docking bay. As a group of people wanted to take the elevator, Rick simply stepped out, not wanting to be surrounded by strangers in a tight space. While his plan of returning to ship was delayed he thought that he could have a look around. Already some refugees were there trying to legally enter the Citadel, others were putting pictures on a wall of people, probably mementos of people they had lost because of the war. He got curious at what others were doing and took his time walking the area.  At the end of it he found something intriguing and got closer to get a better look.

“Interested in the Shepard VI?” said a woman next to his holo lookalike sister.
“Maybe.”
“Want me to turn it on?”
“I’d appreciate it, thank you.”

The woman typed something on her omni-tool, the holo flashed for a second then heard the voice of Jane. Hearing it talk, his mood shifted as he found what the VI said amusing, especially the part about the seven percent accuracy of predicting what the real one would say.  It was so nice that it brought him back to his childhood, when it was only the two of them. Back to a time when the moments spent with her were the highlight of his day and made him happy.

And she hasn’t changed one bit.

That thought was something hard to take in. She was still the big sister he loved more than anything and anyone. As much as he loved his late wife. Part of him wanted that back, wanted back the banter and the teasing they had shared, the praise she gave him and the love. But the other part didn’t, too scared to be hurt again by her leaving once more. He knew it was irrational, that she’d not do that again as their relationship was now more than just siblings, but he couldn’t help the doubts. He could lose anyone else be it Ashley, Liara, and all the others important people to him but losing her again… He couldn’t.

“I’m taking it.”
“Are you sure? A kid damaged it by dropping some soda on it.” replied the woman.
“It’s fine.”

It was a very silent and pensive Rick that took up the elevator one floor up as the new owner of a corrupted VI of the galaxy’s hope. Walking through the area he saw a familiar back or rather a familiar ass.


____________________________________________________________


“And all this time you knew?!”
“No! I swear I didn’t! I only learned about it after leaving Earth!” Jane defended herself to her irate mother. “You want to blame someone, blame Anderson, Hackett and Helena!”
“They knew.” stated the older Shepard as a statement in a murderous tone. “They knew and didn’t say anything. Ooooh the things I will do to them once I get my hands on…”
“This! This is why they didn’t say anything.” Jane said and kept talking before her mother could say anything. “Don’t misunderstand, I don’t like it either, but I get why they did it and you do too, Mom.”
“The hell I do!”
“Can you imagine the scandal in front of the other species?! The alliance would have taken a severe blow from what you did to him!”
“Fuck the Alliance! HE’S. MY. SON!”
“Really? Fuck the Alliance? After spending nearly three decades dedicating your life to it?” Jane replied in both surprise and skepticism that her mother would say such a thing. “I guess Anderson and Hackett’s were right.”
“I don’t care what they think! I don’t care about my career when it’s about the two of you. What good had all those medals and titles got me? I tell you what, nothing. Nothing but shame, guilt and regret. Had I been a good mother, heck even just a mother, instead of being some careerist bitch I wouldn’t be so miserable today. I lost you, I lost John, focusing on something insignificant as climbing the ranks and because I was a stupid bint. “
“And a racist, let’s not forget that, it’s mainly why you lost him in the first place.”
“As If I could!”

The conversation came to a stop as Hannah decided that if it went on like this things would not end well with her daughter. She didn’t try her damndest to have her back and to just throw it all away now. Especially since her son was alive.

“Sixteen years… For sixteen years I thought he was dead, Jane.”
“Twenty one. You stopped acknowledging him when he was five.” the young redhead corrected.
“It could have been three years less had I known! I could have tried to fix things, to apologize! I could have…”
“He would have killed you, mom. Make no mistakes, he hates you, perhaps just as much as he hates me.” revealed Jane as she went to sit on a couch.
“I doubt he would have done that, I mean he didn’t try with you.”
“He did.”
“What?!”
“He did. Grabbed me by the throat and squeezed hard. Without someone there to bring him out of his enraged state I wouldn’t be here today.”

Her daughter’s answer took her aback. Her hopes for any reconciliations with her boy diminished greatly.

“Why… Why did he call me a whore?”
“Because you’re one?” Jane replied with an angry face.
“Jane! That’s no way…”
“The shoe fits! He wouldn’t be my half brother otherwise.” she revealed, shocking her mother. “You were married to dad at the time.”
“How do you…”
“Know? Well, Rick…”
“John.”
“I call him Rick because he hates John. He hates that name. Because you gave it to him and because it’s also his dad. Yes, we know who his dad is.” she added as Shepard senior had her jaw drop low. “We learned that from his own daughter. Seriously, you put Rick and Kahlee side by side and they could almost be twins. Well minus the twenty one years age gap. One DNA test later and we knew for sure. Now I dare you to look me in the eye and say you didn’t cheat on dad and are not a whore.”

Her challenge was accepted immediately.

“I didn’t cheat on your dad…”
“DNA test…”
“Are correct but your dad was well aware.”
“What?!”
“Your dad and I, we served on the same ship, that’s how we met. We got acquainted, became friends, we had fun and well… you were our little happy accident.”

Jane didn’t know what to think. It was the first time she heard how her parents met. She never really thought about it as by the time she was old enough to ask about it she had been too busy taking care of her brother and her mother was rarely home.

“When I told Matt I was pregnant with you… He was both ecstatic and worried. We were good friends and we loved each other but we weren’t in love. When I said I wanted to keep you he agreed without any hesitation to take responsibility. To make things easier for everyone, and that includes you, he asked me to marry him which I accepted. It was an unconventional marriage we had. He was free to have flings and so was I, which was alright as long as you always came first. The goal was to divorce once you were old enough to enlist, no matter if you did or not but we thought the separation wouldn’t have impacted you too much after all we had a great relationship.”
“What a convenient story.” Jane replied flatly.
“You can ask your dad’s lover. Frank will confirm it.”
“... Frank?”
“Your father had a big heart full of love.” Hannah announced subtly with a smile. “Frank came from a very religious family and homosexuality was more than a taboo so they kept it under wraps, which was fine with us. You grew up with both your parents in the same home and your father and Frank had their relationship and time to plan it secretly, while I was free to find love.”
“Except I didn’t.”
“No, life got in the way.” her mother said with a sad smile.
“It was really an accident then.”
“Are you saying that I killed your dad?” was said in anger as an answer to Jane’s statement.
“Well… it was a possibility, with you being you and Rick not being dad’s.”
“Matt wouldn’t have cared. Not as long as I wasn’t leaving him and taking you with me.”
“So he didn’t know you were pregnant?”
“No. In fact I didn’t know until I started to show and at the time I was already a widow.”
“What about his father? Was he aware?” inquired Jane, not wanting to know how her mom and Rick’s dad relationship.
“Yes.”
“So he didn’t want to take responsibility.”
“He did actually but he wanted to settle and retire. I didn’t and preferred to pursue my career on a ship. In the end, he just left.”
“He never tried to contact you to know how his child was doing?”
“Not once. To be fair, I didn’t contact him either.”
“Kahlee won’t like that.” Jane muttered.
“So, how do we go about it?”
“About what?”
“Bringing back John. Being a family again.”

Her mother’s bold declaration of her goal stunned her for a moment, before she began laughing hysterically.

“That’s not funny, Jane!”
“Yeah it is! He hates us both! And while I know he loves me just as much as he hates me… I don’t think he has an ounce of it for you, mom. Sorry to say this but it’s the truth. Besides, I think the one chance he gave me went up in smoke at your sight.” she said dejectedly.
“When there is a will, there is a way. I gave up on him once, I will not do it a second time, no matter how long it takes.”
“You’re right. But he’s as stubborn as you and me, perhaps more.”
“Then we plan. Let’s start with the beginning, when you found out.”

For the next hour Jane talked about everything that went between her and her brother since Mars to her mom. Hearing in her own voice the events and the difficulties that came with them gave her a new perspective. Her mother had been silent all along, simply listening with rapt attention to every word she said. The part about his suicide attempt, the reasons why and his complete dismissing of it, stabbed her in the heart hurting deeply the older woman and made her feel even more guilty.
Just when Hannah was about to ask some questions the door to the room opened and a very harried Helena came in.

“Sorry, I’m late! I…” the woman stopped talking on the spot as she noticed the murderous glare that mother and daughter were sending her way for different reasons.

I’m only an hour late!


____________________________________________________________


The conversation with the late comer has been unpleasant. For her as mama Shepard tore her a new one for hiding her son’s identity. Jane however got something good out of it. Apparently N7 had a surplus of Rick’s weapons and were giving them to her and her crew. That was something that has been welcome as their performance was unmatched so far on the field.
She left her mother, promising to  write often about the man of their family, though Jane was upfront on the fact that if she had to choose between the two of them, she would choose her brother and that she would tell him about her. That is, if he didn’t disappear on her.

She visited Kaidan at the hospital and congratulated him on his opportunity to be a spectre. She hesitated a moment to share with him what Rick thought about it but believed that honesty would be a start to mend their friendship and restore the trust. She didn’t know if that had worked but that was one thing done and one thing less she needed to think about.

Next came the conversation she wanted to have the most. The one with Liara. Learning what Rick’s thought about her efforts threw her out of the loop.

“I thought… we were getting better. He never said anything.”
“That’s because he’s retreating inside himself. He sees it as your problem.”
“He may have said something like that before he…” she confessed.
“Violently tried to murder you?”
“But we patched things up afterwards! It was going the right way!”
“From the way you talked about I thought so but apparently not.”
“What am I supposed to do then? I can’t push him and I can’t not do anything!”
“Be clear with him for one. With the incident earlier I mean.”
“That’s a given!”
“For two… I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?!”
“Jane, he’s the only relationship I have ever had and he’s certainly not the average guy. The only advice that I can give you is rather limited.”
“I should have asked Ash.” she said but backpedaled fast. “Not that your advice is not appreciated or useful! It helped a lot when he… Well, I got my chance.”
“You know… Now that I think about it, you asked me and sometimes asked Ash but did you ask him?”
“I… No.” the redhead replied in realization. “Do you think he will give me an answer?”
“I don’t know but it’s worth a shot isn’t it? At this point you don’t have anything to lose.”
“No, just my brother forever.” came the sarcastic reply.
“If you didn’t already…”
“Not helping.”

Ashley and EDI joined them right at this moment, the latter being dressed in a fitting white summer dress.

“Wow, EDI. you’re gorgeous.” her commander  said.
“And the dress suits you well.” added Liara.
“Thank you.”
“You should see the few other outfits she bought. The other ladies in the shop were so jealous.” Ashley joked.
“I do hope you bought some equipment though, not sure dresses would be that useful in a fight.”
“A good distraction at the very least.” the brunette teased.
“I’ve bought the necessary armor parts for field deployment.” was her only comment.
“How do you feel wearing proper clothes?”
“This dress is comfortable as it doesn’t constrict me. I have noticed that I do not like that.”
“No catsuit like Miranda then?” questioned Jane.
“No. Members of the crew already looked at me lecherously, I do not want to give them more reason to do so, so I chose less form fitting clothes.”
“Well, that’s good because I’m not sure the alliance has a uniform with your size.”
“Neither the underwear.” Ash commented.
“I do not understand why organic people wear those. Especially the female; bras are atrocious.”
“Welcome to the female organic world EDI where pros come with cons.”  stated Liara.
“Did you try sports bras? They’re way better.”
“They didn’t have her size.” replied Ashley. “By the way, where is Rick?”
“I don’t know. He ran away when our… my mother unexpectedly showed up. Liara advised me to give him some space.”
“Good advice.”
“Though, it’s been half a day, and I need to talk to him. The problem is : I have no idea where he could be.”
“The blue rose hotel, floor 13, room 1351.” EDI announced.
“How do you…” Ashley started but the AI immediately answered.
“I put a tracking software in his helmet while he was asleep.”
“EDI that’s a serious breach of privacy.”
“I did like you wanted, commander. Though I thought that a simple software was better than an actual tracking device under his skin.”
“That’s…”
“Who cares? We know where he is, let’s go.” Ashley said as she stood up.

They all went, except Liara who chose to enjoy her time, drinking her beverage. She believed that Rick should be left alone and that if the others wanted to bother him it would be without her.
It didn’t take much time to find the hotel, being in the presidium. It was a luxurious one made clearly for people with a lot of means. When the trio arrived at the room’s door. They knocked but got no answer. They knocked a second time and heard some muffled sound coming from the other side. Fearing the worst, Jane brought down the door and entered, ready for a fight, followed by Ashley and EDI.
The sight awaiting them was not what they had expected.
On the bed was a woman completely in the nude on her back, with her legs tied up behind her head with her hands. She was blindfolded and gagged but the most outrageous detail was the two plugged firmly inserted in her pussy and her ass. Jane was the first to get her grip on reality back when she recognized the woman.


“Miranda?!”

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