[Book Four] Chapter 21: Like father, Like daughter

Chapter 21: Like father, Like daughter

Jane gave birth to Matthew David Shepard in the middle of April. The little guy, just like his sister, had no hair at birth on his head, but Jane told Rick that he would be blond with her green eyes. He didn’t care one bit. What he cared about was having a son with the second woman he loved the most.
It has been a miracle that Hannah stayed outside the room and not barged in to have a look at her grandson and steal him from her parents. It was pure luck for her to be on the Citadel that day. She had decided to take a day off and she was glad she did.

The other children of the family had entered school for the oldest. Meaning Adam and Sandra. Already the latter was sneakily creating trouble, with Laura as an accomplice and Adam cleaning up the mess behind her. JJ was now four and was beginning to learn the alphabet a few years in advance via some games. TK and AJ were on their way to stand up on their own and were talking a bit. The two were really close twins and did everything together. They did ‘play’ with Leeha and Balden (when he was present) without making any fuss. On the contrary they were very happy to be with them.

Arianna was academically in her last year of middle school. Rick suspected that she was smarter than even him. He was both proud of her, happy to have someone else who would one day talk to his level but also worried. He was always worried in a recess of his mind, regarding his eldest’s future.

____________________________________________________________

The warlord creating problems all over the Traverse’ south border was indeed Bahlak. Kaidan had waited in ambush at the exit of the Styx Theta relay and boarded a pirate ship. He got all the necessary information from the crew and dealt with them like spectre do. The captain of the ship had been a gold mine of knowledge and in a single week a plan was formed. Rick would be dropped a few km away from the bunker’s entrance and infiltrate it at night when the guard would be at their lowest. He had worn a camo armor for the first time and it had served him well. With it he reached the area dealing with the oxygen recycling and diffused a powerful narco agent (Creation of one of his guys in the company) and put to sleep the ten thousand pirates and five thousand slaves without anyone knowing any better. After that he reached the control room, opened the bunker and called for the fleet composed of different species, most notably Asari, Salarians and humans. They didn’t bother with arresting the pirates and just shot them dead as they slept with the exception of Bahlak who was kept alive for Jane. She has wanted him dead for more than a decade, Rick wasn’t about to let anyone but her kill the asshole. Ashley was put in charge of the troops by Hackett who had put forward her name to the council via Hannah and was accepted. The brunette took satisfaction in dealing with a few dozen of them, before taking a small team to check on the slaves that were all gathered in the same place. The furnaces for trash recycling worked hours on end non stop and when the effect of the narco agent stopped no batarian corpses were left in the bunker. As the slaves woke up. The alliance released them from their collar and deactivated their cranial implants. At first they were wary but when Ashley talked to them through the coms about the situation, they all relaxed a bit. Some were unbelieving, some were crying out of relief. There were plenty of different emotional reactions.

Bahlak was kept sedated until Jane was not pregnant anymore, so around a month. When she was ready for the task, Bahlak was woken up and he didn’t like what he was told. When Rick showed him the footage of his people getting recycled he lost it, thankfully he was gagged.

“You broke illegally into Rick’s bunker with your people. By galactic law he can do whatever the shit he wants to you to defend his property. Second, Your entire species is made of slavers, people preying on the weak. Your entire doctrine revolved around one concept ‘might is right’ and now that you all got put down by someone stronger, you’re whining like a little bitch? Hypocrite much?”
“Now that I think about it, the batarian always went after weaker than them, never stronger.” said Rick. “No wonder the reaper went after them first.”
“And when they do fight someone stronger they run away but you’re aware of that Bahlak, right? After all, every time we crossed paths you ran. Don’t worry you won’t have to run anymore.”

And with that, Jane put a bullet in the batarian’s head.

“Want me to make a cup of his head?”
“... You know what? Why not.”
“... I was kidding.”
“You were?” exclaimed in surprise Jane.
“Yeah. I mean, taunting the guy, belittling him… That’s my thing, not yours. Yet…”
“I… I wanted to do that for a decade.”
“I get it. I’m not pointing fingers or anything. I’m just making a note. I’ll put that on the wacky hormones.”
“Let’s do that.”

Removing Bahlak’s head from his shoulder with her own lightsaber, Jane picked it up and they left the bunker for the Normandy. Rick closed the complex, like he did the others before leaving though. He had no plan for them currently but they could be useful in the future.

____________________________________________________________

The subjugation of the terminus clans and of the batarians that participated in the raids for the past few years had made the news. With thousands of people enslaved now returned to their home, things couldn’t be pushed under the rug and made the news. Kaidan was given credits for the investigation as a spectre and Ashley for leading the mission (which got her a promotion out of it). There was no mention of Jane or Rick participating in the mission.
Back home on Celeste, a few days after everything, Rick found Jane drinking wine from the cup made out of Bahlak’s skull. Sitting by her side on the couch he kept looking until she had empty it.

“Was that good?”
“Better than I thought it would. It tastes like… victory.”
“Are you sure it’s not the expensive wine?”
“Perhaps, it’s not like I’m much of a wine drinker. I’m rather a beer or strong alcohol kind of girl. But after nine months without a drink, I needed it.”
“Won’t that change the composition of your milk for Matt?”
“... Yes but I think he can take the formula for a few days. Mommy has been waiting for ten years, I’m sure he’ll understand. Now are you done asking questions so we can snuggle?”
“Yes, ma’am.” he replied as he brought Jane to his side, letting her lie down with her head in his lap.
“...”
“...”

They didn’t say anything and just enjoyed each other’s presence and warmth in silence. Rick patted her head gently, letting his fingers go through locks of her hair.

They were alone tonight. Ashley was back on duty and had left earlier in the day after saying goodbye to her baby boys. Adam almost cried but toughened up and simply hugged his mother and told her that he loved her and that he would take care of his brothers as they would wait for her to come home. She almost cried too after hearing that.
Liara was with her students on some Prothean ruins down the planet that everyone could see if they looked outside their window. She was doing a bit early their midterms exam as having the ruins reserved for the Academy had gotten complicated at the start of the year. A new discovery had been made and the owners of the ruins decided to begin some new excavation at the same time. To avoid some problem, meaning having the students in the way, the owners had proposed to seal the new area discovered and get the students there early. It wasn’t that big of a deal, only one month and Liara believed her students ready, so the proposition was accepted.

Tali had departed to Rannoch to speak with Zaal’Koris and Ran. The plans they had recovered from the bunker indicated an attack on the quarians’ and geths' planet with several weak points marked. Instead of just sending the information, Tali wanted to see for herself what was the actual situation.

Finally, Dorothea was pulling an all-nighter because she had found something interesting during one of her tech classes. What was it? Rick didn’t know as the ebony goddess didn’t share but if she was skipping sleep over it, it must have been big.

That’s how Rick and Jane were enjoying a relatively romantic evening alone. They knew it wouldn’t last long, not with their new born son less than a month old. But they wanted it so they would have it.

“What are you thinking of?” Jane asked, her eyes closed and submitting to what Rick was doing to her.
“Do you want one answer among many or the whole list?”

“Humor me, please.” she replied with a small smile.
“How good your hair feels between my fingers. How Ashley deserved her promotion. About Arianna picking up the pace with her studies and probably starting school next year. About her probably being smarter than I am. Me worrying about her being alone. The Mass Relay project I gave to David and EDI? The new eye for Ashley which is almost done. The Eezo mining companies that are bothering me because of BLUE. If every intimate relationship I have is going well. If all my children are happy and are raised properly. If going to visit my mom with all the children is a good idea or not ...”
“...Your brain never stops, doesn’t it?” she said with a sad tone, cupping one of his cheeks with one of her hands.
“Only when my emotions overwhelm me.”
“...”
“...”
“Once I’m back in shape, let’s go see Aria.”
“...Are you sure?”
“Omega changed a bit with Auntie but it’s still Omega. It’s dangerous for the children.”
“I don’t think anyone would bother us if you’re wearing your helmet.”
“True, but you never know. And there is the problem of the Afterlife. It’s way too loud for them.”
“Really? The volume of the music is what got you preoccupied? Not the naked dancers?”
“The naked dancers won’t damage their hearing, permanently.”
“Not like we would bring them there in the first place.”
“True. The biggest problem I see is only being there for a few hours. I doubt mom would want to be woken up by crying babies. Wait! I’m an idiot, we’ll just have to go back to the Normandy.”
“We’ll have to change things in it.”
“The oldests can sleep in my quarters with EDI and the youngests with us in your cabin. They’re so small the four of them could easily fit in my bed.”
“That might work.”
“All that’s left is hoping she’s in a good mood. And hoping that Ashley, Miranda, Jennifer and Tali agree to let us take them there. Perhaps we should just go in passing with Celeste? Going through the Omega-4 Relay to show them the center of the galaxy?”
“You’re going a bit too far.”
“... Yeah you’re, right.”

He leaned down to kiss her, then put something on the screen. It has been a long time since they haven’t watched anything together.

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Just before Summer break, Mordin came to Rick with excellent news. The potential cure for the Ardat-Yakshi was ready, all that was left was to test it. The idea had come from genome therapy from humans. While it did just activate or deactivate the predominance of a gene, that didn’t help the Ardat-Yakshi as both sets of gene had the mutation, but that made the Salarian think about replacing the gene with someone’s else. That would be an excruciating painful experience but if the subject was put into cryo sleep while the changes were made it was possible for everything to go smoothly. Rick had asked from Hackett a stasis pod that the Alliance had come up with for Safeguard, and began to Modify it with Tali under Mordin’s instruction. Rick was making sure that everything was perfect software wise and even created a VI for it while Tali simply redesigned everything in it to add any medical tool that would be needed.

It only took them  two weeks of non-stop work. Rick had to pass Arianna’s education to EDI. His daughter had not been happy at all. Not like she didn’t like EDI, she loved the woman but she liked the personal time she had with her father more. When her father explained what they were doing and for who, she asked plenty of questions at first, then relented with her complaints, understanding that her Daddy’s work could help ‘a lot of very sad people’.

Tevos was contacted and in the middle of June a meeting with the matriarchs was organized. Showing his discoveries Mordin explained that the process could take up to a few days if the patient was an Ardat-Yakshi and  less if they were only carrying the gene. Now the problem was testing the solution. It would put two lives at risk every time. The life of the Ardat and the life of her partner to meld with. Neither the Salarian and the human wanted to do this but it was the only way. Reaching out to the monasteries, the matriarchs found volunteers. Hundred of years old nuns willing to help the younger ones and next generations. For the partners? There always were criminals waiting to be executed somewhere in the Galaxy. They were all given a deal, should they survive they would escape death but be locked up for life in a big, cozy and luxurious cell. That was a good deal for those who still wanted to live so everything was set.
That was always the hardest part in the medical research field, testing on sentient beings. It went against what doctors believed in. Helping and healing people and not doing them any harm.What they were doing was the opposite of that but it was sometimes necessary to make some breakthrough and help even more people. Maleon’s experiment on Tunchanka on the female krogan was proof of how it could degenerate very fast. Thankfully with Mordin and Rick who had strong ethics or rather moral codes, nothing of the likes would happen.
They had ten volunteers but chose to start with one. For many asari the wait had been nerve cracking. They let her rest a week after the therapy, to check her vitals, if the genome graph was holding properly or if there were noticeable changes. So far the patient had come up with changed likes and dislikes concerning food. If that was the worst, then everyone was fine with it. When the time for testing the meld arrived, everyone was on edge. From the test subjects, as the partner would die and the Asari would have a taste of power, to the Matriarchs who hoped that it would work and their species would be free of a thousands of years old curse.

The meld happened and the vitals of the death row inmate skyrocketed. Nothing unusual though at it was what happened all the time. When the Asari stopped the meld. She backed off the criminal and began to cry. Quickly Rick brought her away to her sisters who comforted her, while Mordin was checking on the inmate. Everything and everyone was fine.

It was one success that gave hope to anyone involved and present. The asari undergoing the procedure would be kept in isolation and under watch, just in case something would happen but Mordin was pretty sure that the cure was perfect.

Rick shared the news with Samara and hoped that one day she would visit Celeste Academy with her daughters.

“Now, what? Tests on seashells for you?” Rick asked in a joking manner to his friend.
“Been there, done that after war. No. Focus on students? Getting old. Not much time left.”
“Then perhaps it could be your final project? Increasing the Salarians' longevity.”
“Hmm… Perhaps.”
“I’d really like If Arianna could learn from you.”
“Good daughter you have… Wish I could teach her too.”
“Well, next year probably?”
“Already?”
“Yeah. Though she’s just like her daddy, interested in anything and everything but more interested in biology.”
“Remember young man becoming xenobiology expert in weeks.” Mordin teased.
“True, but I didn’t do much with that knowledge.”
“For now.”
“... You’re right, for now.”

____________________________________________________________

“DADDY!” Arianna yelled as she ran to her father as she saw him entering their home. She was picked up and spinned around in one fell swoop.
“I’m home, sweetie.”
“Did you help the sad people?”
“Uncle Mordin did, I just assisted him. We think they’re going to be fine.”
“Good.” the redhead said, nodding in approval.
“How did you fare while I was gone?”
“Great! But I was bored, so I helped mom and Auntie EDI with my brothers.”
“Oh? What did you do exactly?”
“Reading them bedtime stories and rocking them to sleep.”
“No changing diapers?”
“Eww!”

The cute disgusted face she made, with her nose wrinkled up made him laugh. Still carrying her he went to the living room where he found only EDI sitting on a couch, looking at a datapad. It was mid morning and Jane was probably working off her pregnancy fat while the other children were either at school or in daycare or at the nursery. Putting Arianna down he sat next to EDI, gave her a kiss on the cheek and looked at what she was reading. Those were answers to problems usually seen during the last year of high school. Rick was dumbfounded because Arianna has not been at that level yet. There were only two explanations he could think of for this. Either EDI was the greatest teacher that has ever lived, or Arianna held herself back. While the former may have been possible the latter was more plausible. Looking at his daughter he simply asked her.

“Arianna, this is great! Why did you not tell me you were that advanced in your studies?”

The little girl’s face turned bright red, so similar to her mother when she was embarrassed.

“We could have prepared you faster and…”
“STUPID DADDY!” she shouted and ran out of the room leaving behind a frozen Rick.

For the first time ever, Arianna had shouted at him, insulted him and more importantly ran away from him. His mind was so shocked and confused that it had shut down.

“Rick?” asked EDI from his side but got no answer.

His eyes were haggard and his mouth gaping. Checking his vitals with her sensors everything was fine and she didn’t understand what was happening. She called out to him again and even after poking him he gave no reaction. She was reminded of the time Jeff had seen Jane all dolled up when she went on her first date with Rick. Just as she was about to literally shock him out of his metaphorical shock Jane came home.

“What’s wrong with him?” Jane asked as she saw her brother’s state.
“Arianna yelled at him that he was stupid and ran out of the room five minutes ago. He’s been like that ever since.”
“She did what?! Why?!”
“I do not know. But she looked just like you when you’re embarrassed so she may have been at first but she quickly switched to being angry and did what she did.”
“Where is she?”
“Probably in her room.”
“Alright. Can you…”

Jane waved indicating at Rick and EDI, understanding the message nodded. Going to her daughter’s room she found her under her cover. Walking slowly, she sat on the bed, by her little girl’s shape and began to caress her back through the sheets and blanket. The shape moved away at first but Jane let her hand follow it.

“Sweetie, what happened?” asked Jane in a soft tone.
“...”
“I’m not mad if that’s what you’re worried about. Neither is your father.”
“...”
“... Come on sweetie, talk to me. What’s bothering you?”
“... Daddy is stupid.” came a small voice.
“I know. Despite being smart, sometimes he’s the stupidest in the galaxy.” replied Jane as she laid behind her daughter and pulled up the sheets and blanket to show her daughter’s face.
“I just wanted to spend time with him but he doesn’t want to.”

”Oh, Arianna… There is nothing further from the truth. If he could have it his way, you’d be in his arms all day everyday and all night every night."

"That’s not true! He just wants me to go to school.”
“No, what he wants is for you to have a good and happy childhood unlike him.”

At that, Arianna turned around and looked at her mother for a moment.

“Daddy didn’t?”
“No. And before you ask, no I will not tell you. What I will tell you however is that he felt very lonely with no people around him that were as smart as he was.”
“He had no friends?”
“No. Not until he was twenty. It’s more than half his life.”
“... That’s sad.”
“It is and that’s what he doesn’t want for you. He thinks that by going to school at your appropriate level you’d be able to make friends and that you won’t ever feel alone or lonely. He’s so worried about you and your future that he didn’t realize that you wanted to just spend time with him.” Jane confessed as she put a wild lock of her daughter’s hair behind her ear.
“... I shouted at him…” Arianna whispered. “He was praising me and I shouted at him…”

“As I said, he’s not mad. In fact he was so shocked at your outburst that… he kind of shut down. He’s probably wondering why his daughter is hating him right now.”
“I don’t hate him!” the young redhead defended.
“I know but as you correctly said, your father is stupid. You hit him right in his greatest insecurity. Failing you as your father.”
“He’s not!” Arianna protested again with a frown.
“Then you should go and tell him that and that you just want to spend more time with him. Because right now he’s probably moping on the couch and only you could bring him back to his usual self.”

Arianna nodded and hugged her mother before darting out the room yelling ‘Daddy!’. Jane looked at her go and a smile crept onto her face as she thought about how father and daughter were so alike.

‘In the end she really was a daddy’s girl. Huh, I need to make sure Matthew is a mommy’s boy.’