chapter 18

Let me get this straight," Jane sighed as she stood before Juggernaut and his smaller shadow inside the medical bay onboard the Normandy while Dr. Chakwas was busy tending to what surprisingly few injuries they had, "you were walking along before you were suddenly attacked by several asari commandoes and a matriarch renowned for her skills as being one of the most legendary biotic masters in the last hundred years, somehow managing to defeat all of them without using guns before punching said matriarch in the face?"

Juggernaut sighed before pointing at his smaller counterpart, "It was his fault Boss Lady."

"Thanks dickhead," Jane was ready to snap them in half as she let out an ear piercing whistle that was loud enough to make all of the occupants in the room cringe.

"As I was saying, you managed to cause more than enough trouble that required myself and my husband," the last part was directed at the man in question, who was in line with the two of them wearing a makeshift splint on his left wrist and was doing his best to look sheepish, "in order to come bail you both out of C-Sec, thankfully the matriarch you punched was kind enough to avoid pressing charges and paid for the bail in full."

"She wanted to fight me or something Commander," Jason spoke up as Jane leveled an oh so scary look in his direction, "something about feeling my biotic aura and seeing if I had the skill to control it or some crazy mumbo jumbo."

"So you obliged her, in public, where several people were able to video the entire event and broadcast it live?" The tone she was using was obviously not a question.

"That was so cool by the way," Joker could be heard over the loudspeakers, "tell me that you got her number or something.

"I'll deal with you later Joker," her comment caused the pilot to hang up in a hurry before she rounded on her husband, "and punching a reporter? Seriously?"

John shrugged, "I wasn't about to deal with her smear campaign again."

"You broke her jaw and managed to fracture her collarbone," Jane clearly wasn't happy with anyone in the room, save for Dr. Chakwas as she continued doing her job, "I think that was just a little bit excessive simply because she pissed you off!"

"The first words out of her mouth were disrespectful and she was asking questions that she had no right to know the answer too," John shot back before looking down at the ground, a tactic least expected of him before he added on quietly, "she even asked when you were going to get knocked up by so there'd be another mistake running around."

"SHE SAID WHAT?"

Jason made a mental note somewhere in his head to make John the biggest sniper rifle he could safely fire without injuring himself and make it shoot laser beams for shits and giggles because the man was a genius when it came to getting Jane off topic.

"THAT FUCKING BITCH! I'LL KILL HER MYSELF!"

Jackson reached over with a fist once Jane turned around to rant and rave at the opposite wall, getting into explicit detail on what she was going to do when she ran into that reporter again while John reached over and answered the fist bump with his own, wincing at the pain shooting through his injured limb as he walked over and wrapped his wife up in a hug to calm her down, sending the two of them a very clear message to get the fuck out.

"That's our cue," Jackson whispered as he abruptly turned to the right and started walking, Jason was about one step behind him before he was stopped by a hand around the collar of his jumpsuit by none other than Dr. Chakwas.

"Not so fast," Jason gulped as she reeled him over to the nearest bed and forced him to sit down, "you managed to exhaust yourself again, this will add another week onto your restriction from ground missions."

Jason simply sighed and went through the rest of the procedure while John was over in the far corner comforting his wife, though the look on his face clearly stated that he hadn't been joking either about what he had said. Directly underneath the vow to make a sniper rifle was one that he would punch said reporter in the face hard enough to hopefully give her brain damage before Dr. Chakwas let him escape the confines of the medical bay as he headed straight for his workbench.

Along the way he discovered Jackson all but having an orgasm over the brand new Mako that had been delivered to the ship while they had been at C-Sec haggling over protocol before Jane had worked her magic (flashing her Spectre credentials and a scowl) to get them out.

"Its' so shiny," Jackson was awe struck as he patted the side of the tank in a loving manner, "I'll name you Precious."

"…."

Jason simply shook his head and continued to his workbench, hiding a smile when he finally got there, noticing that the latest addition had been set up nearby.

Wrex had just sat down on a heavily reinforced throne like chair Jackson had seen on sale, meant for elcor ambassadors or something that they had gotten for a song before the large Krogan looked up.

"Whelp."

"Urdnot."

The silence for about a minute, "Guess I'll have to be nice to you now."

"That would be weird," Jason shrugged as he watched Wrex sit back and get comfortable, "like it?"

Wrex laughed, "I could get used to this."

Jason smiled as he turned to his bench, "Glad you like it."

"Fetch me my…"

"Not gonna happen Urdnot." Jason tossed over his shoulder as he stowed the rest of gear and went on a brief tour around the cargo to see if the other additions had arrived.

There were an additional four bunks placed along the walls leading towards the drive core, half a dozen storage lockers as well closer to his workbench, now he could finally stop sleeping on top of his workbench as he entered the drive core itself and looked around with a smile on his face.

Set up in the left hand side corner of the room was a row of equipment lockers set up as a miniature wall to make a semi-private nook that contained a real bed, a footlocker and pressed up against the wall were two larger cabinets crammed full of brand new parts and such. There was also a chain hoist system hanging from the ceiling to make those heavy lifting jobs a lot easier, a few more storage lockers scattered around the room and standing over a smaller workbench was a deliriously happy engineer staring at brand new tools.

Jason stood just behind her and off to the right so he could watch her carefully inspect each tool, catalog it on her omni-tool and put it back, the excited wiggling of her toes and the way she practically squealed each time she pick up something different told him that it was a job well done for sure.

"Ah Mr. Brody," Adams appeared from thin air as Jason turned to face the man, "we received all of the spare parts as well as the repair equipment, I thank you for that."

"Call me Jason and I only sent the list up to Shepard for their approval before they sent me the funds," Jason smiled as he heard a clatter behind him, along with a Quarian curse, "it seems your engineering chief is getting acquainted with the new hardware."

Adams laughed as he stepped around and approached the tool bench, "It would appear so."

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Jason suddenly found himself on the receiving end of an infamous 'Tali pounce' after she turned around and launched herself at him.

Getting tackled was the least of his concerns as he found himself flat on his back with the wind partly knocked out of him and an excited engineer straddling his hips while attempting to crush his ribcage in a full body hug in the drive core of the Normandy would forever remain as a novel experience to him while Adams had the decency to shake his head and turn away while Jason wondered how he was going to get Tali off of him without making her feel awkward.

Well not that he was going to argue with getting a super awesome hug from Tali could ever be a bad thing, in fact he was pretty sure that giving her a collection of brand new tools was as good of an idea as any to get into her good graces, even though it had cost somewhere around twenty thousand credits overall to obtain such a collection of high quality tools that ranged from simple screwdriver bits on up to electrical scanners that was beyond the standard sets of tools the Normandy had been outfitted with as Jason wondered how much longer he was going to have to wait for Tali to realize how they were currently embraced.

That lasted until the door slid open and Jason tilted his head back to see a familiar set of boots, well three sets of boots to be exact before he slowly looked up, Tali had frozen after the door opened before tilting her head up slowly to see who was standing over them.

Had anyone ever been caught doing something they shouldn't have by their own parents could easily relate to that feeling as Jason found himself looking at John standing there with a smirk across his face next to a stunned looking Jane, scarlet blushing racing across her face while Jackson stood there for a split second before he raised his hands and began clapping very slowly.

"This isn't what it looks like?" Jason offered weakly while he could feel Tali practically seize up, her legs squeezing him with more than enough force to be considered unhealthy to a regular person with fragile bones, but his were nearly as durable as steel.

Jackson stopped clapping long enough to snap a picture with his omni-tool before he turned around to face both Shepard's.

"I think we should leave the lovebirds alone for now," Jason could feel the urge to murder his twin steadily rising with each passing word, "they seem to be uh well kind of busy."

That did it, Tali jumped off of him with enough force to nearly launch herself onto the ceiling as she began frantically talking a million miles an hour.

"Itisn'tlikethatatallwedidn'tdoanythingIdidn'tmeantoattackhimorassaulthim." At least that was what he thought she was saying as she jammed each hand into her armpit and tried to look as small as possible in front of everyone while Jason slowly sat up and got to his feet.

"She was just excited," three sets of eyebrows raised at him, "over the fact she had just gotten all of these tools."

Jason gestured over at the bench littered with brand new tools even though the smug looks and smirks didn't disappear as he sighed.

"We didn't do any of that." It was obvious his statement was directed towards one person in particular as Jackson finally spoke up.

"When are you two going to christen the bed?" Jackson nodded towards the bed set up over in the corner with a playful wink as John placed his non injured hand over his mouth to hide his smile as Jane simply let her full blown smile be seen by all as Tali looked like she wanted to seep through the cracks of deck plating and vanish forever.

Mental note, rig Jackson's HUD to play the most disturbing pornography courtesy of hacking into Joker's private files.

"Not cool," Jason threatened as he stepped forward with the full intention of pummeling his twin, "that bed is hers anyway and the tools are for the engineering crew."

"The bed….is mine?" Tali's body language practically screamed how uncomfortable she was with the current situation as she glanced over at the bedroom set up in the corner of the engine room before she turned to face Jason, "Why? I thought it was for the rest of the engineering crew in the event they wanted to take a nap."

Jane was the one to step in to save the day, "Tali, you have been reported to have fallen asleep in several areas that were not designated rest areas onboard the ship," that soul crushing dejected slump of her shoulders and the way her foot toed at the floor clearly said how embarrassed she was, "it has come to my attention that you are not comfortable being so far away from the engine room and I authorized having a bunk moved down here for your convenience Tali."

That part was actually true, Jane had jumped at the offer to provide more bunk space down in the cargo bay as well as the drive core for the additional members of the crew, complete with turning the back portion behind the Mako into an improvised firing range, which was considered a big violation in Alliance regulations. Before they had gotten jumped back on the Citadel by what seemed to be an admirer, they had bought enough supplies and new furnishing for the ship that Jane had agreed to, course the only thing John cared about was that the firing range had that fancy holographic target projector to simulate long ranges and such.

Jackson laughed, "Relax Tali, we were just messing with you, it isn't like Jason over here would jump your bones for the sake of it."

Tali nervously frittered about as John shook his head and left without so much as a word, Jackson opting to do the same thing after the look he received from Jason was scary enough.

"So that was some hug huh?" Jane had that coy smile on her face, "A fitting reward don't you think?"

Jason simply face palmed and groaned before Jane laughed again and patted Tali on the shoulder.

"We were just kidding Tali, now I want you to conduct an entire inventory and stow them in your new lockers that are to be used for engineering purposes only and get settled in after your shift is over," Jane seemed to be switching gears now, "I need to borrow your tackling dummy for a few minutes."

"Okay, thank you Commander." Tali said before she returned to ogling her shiny new tools.

Jane simply beckoned him to follow her as she lead the way out of the engine room back to his workbench where John and Jackson were waiting for them as Jane took a seat on one of the stools and gave him a look.

"Well?" Jason remained still for a moment, "How was it?"

"Need I remind you that fighting matriarchs of that level is exhausting, all of the equipment and supplies were obtained three thousand credits under the set budget and it appears that all of the modifications to the ship seem to be in order." Jason ignored the look on Jackson's face as he addressed both commanders.

"I was speaking about the cuddles 'n shit going on a few minutes ago." Jackson wilted under the glares he got from both commanders and his twin.

"Chakwas passed word that you are to be removed from any ground operations for at least another week," John raised his hand before Jason could speak, "absolutely no exceptions here Jason, you are to recover and pass a medical evaluation before either one of us thinks about letting you back on missions, understood?"

"Of course sir." Jason kept his facial expression neutral.

"Speaking of medical evaluations," Jane dragged his attention back to her, "skipping out on that doctor and that admiral was a serious mistake on both of your parts."

Jackson huffed, "That guy looked like he wanted to do some very unpleasant things to us, Jason more than me."

"Full analysis of genetic makeup followed by multiple medical scans to get detailed readings on subject's cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, muscle density, tissue arrangement, chemical analysis and basic node scans for biotic aptitude," Jason was sure to add the thousand yard stare look as he spoke in a downright creepy monotone, "then there would be multiple blood, fluids and tissue samples taken directly from the subjects to be processed for further study before a complete evaluation of reaction times, endurance, strength and agility would be conducted upon each subject in comparison to a regular unmodified test subject before combat simulations would begin, from there medical tests on fatigue and drug induced…"

Jackson reached over and slapped him across the face gently, "Come on bro snap out of it, don't go all Dr. Frankenstein on me again."

Jason made a show of blinking several times before shaking his head, he figured that he had sounded extra creepy because the normally stoic John had a wary look on his face as Jane looked worried for a moment as he sighed, "Sorry about that."

"Okay," Jane sounded out of her depth as she gave John a sideways glance, "ask Anderson to stall the Alliance R&D board for a while?"

John simply answered with a nod, "If not we can tell Admiral Hackett personally why we don't feel the need to hand over our team members for unnecessary medical testing."

"Uh ish nay on the xray," Jackson said as he motioned towards Jason again, "less depressing topic please?"

"Oh right," Jane said as she got to her feet and activated her omni-tool, "another thing we wanted to inform you was that we handed your ammunition mod over to the Alliance brass and they signed a contract on the spot to fully field your prototype, congratulations Jason, you are now part of the many independent weapon research and development branches that the Alliance would like to hire for further projects."

Jason arched an eyebrow at the files he was getting streamed to his omni-tool, "Gross income estimate for single project?"

"About two million," John answered before he raised a hand, "which you will not be spending on this ship or crew in a flaunting manner, that is our job, you keep it."

Jason had to sit down as it finally sunk in, he was a millionaire already.

Jackson however let out a whistle, "Damn bro, guess you'll buy the next round of drinks when we reach port again?"

The looks he got from both commanders spoke volumes, "When you get to go maybe?"

Jane sighed, "As part of your incentive to avoid attracting unwanted attention again, we've decided that you'll be needing an escort of at least one member of the ground team at all times during port calls, Jackson doesn't count."

"Oh man, guess I get to be the third wheel around here." Jackson scoffed as he wandered over towards the Mako as John stayed where he was, Jane walking over to do her usual rounds with the crew as Jason deactivated his omni-tool and turned to face the commander.

"Anything else commander?"

John shook his head, "Its Shepard when the rest of the crew isn't around and I have to ask, did you leave that gift basket in my quarters?"

The girly looking collection of bath soaps, expensive human chocolates, silk sheets and several bottles of high quality wine had been an immediate afterthought for abandoning them at the elevator, Jackson had picked it out before they splurged and got a couple bottles of the nicest bourbon and hard liquor with a box of bedroom munchies for abandoning John to deal with the unpleasant doctor guy and his admiral stooge. If they had the time to find more bribes after getting arrested it would've looked like a small business had sprung up in their quarters in order to lessen the overall punishment they were going to get, any idea that could potentially help.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Jason should've just held a sign over his head declaring that they had done the deed, "I will notify you if I ever see anyone entering your quarters again."

John simply grunted an acknowledgement and didn't look remotely convinced, "Uh huh sure you will, just don't break into my personal quarters again."

"Understood, do you want me to update the firewalls for you?"

"Don't bother, there probably isn't a lock you can't hack."

What John would never know was how true that particular statement actually was as Jason turned back to workbench and smiled, now he had a little spending money, a glance over at several of his unfinished projects gave him an idea.

Two million for an ammunition mod? Well then, challenge accepted.