Chapter 04: Apologies

Ric woke up feeling well rested. The talk with Liara had done him some good and  he went to bed early, staying awake wor twelve more hours to be in sync with the rest of the crew. Looking at the time on his omni-tool he saw that it was around 6 am. Plenty of time for properly taking care of the beautiful asari under the cover who was bobbing her head up and down very slowly along his entire shaft. It said a lot about their relationship if he could recognize her by her blowjob skills. Pulling the sheet up he looked into the eyes of his lover who drew a small smile at being caught while having her mouth full.

“I love being woken up like that by you, but I’m thirsty as hell, so I’m giving you five seconds to put your perfect little azure right onto my face.”

Not wasting a moment, Liara immediately removed the half of his cock lodged in her accommodating throat, stood up on the bed and sat on his face as she faced his member which she began to work again. Rick immediately went to town on her, grabbing firmly her buttcheeks and pulling it down, he began to lick every inch of her pussy with fervor. Liara moaned in appreciation and started to blow him harder and moved her hips in a circle. He went all out, sucking on her nether lips between licks of his tongue, sometimes both at the same time, sometimes only one. From the way she was getting wetter and wetter he knew she was getting close to her own orgasm and so was he as she was pulling all the stops. Deciding to be playful he relentlessly attacked her clit while putting both his indexes in her asshole and stretched  wide. That had been a surprise when he had sex with her the first time; asari intimate parts stretched a lot. Probably to adapt to the members of their mate. That’s why, despite her first time with a male, Liara took it like a champion immediately. She hadn’t been in pain or felt uncomfortable, just pleasure. He particularly liked to explore how scratchy she was, one time putting his own hand into her azure he fucked her with it and as she reached her peak he formed a fist. The result had been surprising and Liara had squirted in abundance multiple times as her body spasms.
Finally, Liara proved to be better by making him cum first, taking him to the base and making her throat vibrate by humming. The sensation was so intense that he released her ass and put his hand on the back of his head pushing her down as much as he could despite not having any more cock to fill her with. When his orgasm subsided, he let her go and she removed his shaft from her mouth with a loud pop then gave the head a tender kiss.

“I win.” she said in a smug tone, grinding her ass on his face.
“You had a head start. Literally.”
“It’s still a win.” she said and changed position.

She raised herself and turned around to face him this time before lowering her azure back onto his mouth as she looked into his eyes with intense lust. Already close to cumming she lasted less than a minute. His thirst was quenched for good with the delicious sweet nectar that she released. In fact he was drinking so much that Liara had to make it stop, her azure being too sensitive right after her orgasm.

Sliding down his body, she straddled him, her ass crack welcoming his still erect cock, and kissed him hotly before pulling back.

“Since I won, I’m choosing cow-girl.”
“Give me a minute to appreciate how beautiful you are and you can ride as wildly as you want.” he replied as he let his hands roam her body.



___________________________________________________________


After their quick session, Liara left Rick alone in his room, going to her own to take a well needed shower as she was reeking of sex. Fortunately for her, nobody got too close to have a sniff of her just well fucked body, though the smile on her face and the humming were clear indication of it for the most observant, meaning specialist Traynor. Meanwhile Rick, who needed a shower too, decided to postpone it for a bit and reviewed the plan EDI had given him. He still had a lot of work to do. Creating in the bit of space that was left a bathroom, with shower and toilets both. He also needed to soundproof the entire room. He didn’t want the whole bridge to know he was having fun. After preparing everything he needed to work with and on for a good hour, he finally got to take a shower. Exiting the elevator in the Crew Deck he found himself face to face with the last person he wanted to see at the moment: Jane.

“Good morning.” she greeted warmly but with a bit of apprehension.

Rick simply nodded and let out a grunt of acknowledgement before going around her in the direction of the men shower, clearly not wanting to deal with her. She didn’t take the hint however and followed him, not paying particularly attention to his destination.

“I was thinking, would you like to train this morning?”
“Can’t. Busy.” he said entering the shower room. “Red, the women's showers are on the other side.”
“Oh! Sorry, I’ll leave you to it.”
“The training starts once I’m done with my quarters. Be prepared, I won’t go easy on you like last time. You’re not a biotic novice anymore.” he said as he put his clothes on a shelf and began to undress.
“I can take everything you're sending my way.” she said as she exited the room, a satisfied smile on her face.

She went down to the Cargo Bay to get some exercise. Seeing James and Steve pulling up weights on the side, she instead went for the free treadmill, the other one being in use by Ashley.

"What happened? You looked like it was the end of the world at breakfast and now, like you earned the jackpot."

"I met Rick as I was going down here. He clearly didn’t want to see me but he agreed to start training again once he’s done remodeling his quarters. I consider it a win."

"It is, though… not to rain on your parade but…”
“I know. I’m aware that it doesn’t change anything, much. But he answered me and agreed to train when he could have just ignored me.”
“What kind of training are you two doing anyway?”
“Biotics. He knows more than a lot about them, Ash, even some things that the asari don’t.”
“Like what?”
“How to stick to a ship at flying speed and survive, for one.”
“Yeah, I still want to hear about that story.”
“The short version is when we defeat that human reaper…”
“Wait, wait, wait! A human reaper?”
“That’s why the Collectors were kidnapping colons. They used their genetic material to create one. It was still in its infancy, barely half a skeleton. Anyway, we killed the thing, it exploded and I found myself  falling to my death when he caught me by the wrist while he was hanging to the edge of the flying platform with his other hand. He pulled me up but fell. Fast forward a few minutes, barely making it to the Normandy with the bomb ready to blow up the Collector’s base and Joker began to fly the ship, gaining speed when a wall exploded and some debris landed on the cockpit…”
“Let me guess, it wasn’t some debris.”
“Correct. EDI immediately found out it was him, hanging to the ship by its tail. He was using his biotics to do so. Joker couldn’t stop going faster as we were escaping the base so as to not get caught in its explosion. Anyone else would have let go because of the sheer force of the air resistance. He didn’t. He still let go at one point but we were out of danger by then.”
“That’s insane!”
“Yeah. Hackett doubted that point in my reports but Anderson confirmed it with Karin’s. There were consequences though. His implant was almost fried and needed to be replaced, multiple broken bones… He was in a coma for a while. The worst part was… it was a desperate act on his part. He just applied the theory he had without really having tested it much before.”
“So, that’s what he’ll teach you?”
“No nothing like that.” Jane replied with a laugh. “But the principle behind what he did. Basically using biotics differently and more efficiently.”
“You know, the only thing I find of relevance, besides the fact that he’s a lucky idiot, is that he gave up his life for you.”

That particular point made Jane smile and comforted her. She needed no better proof that despite the state of their relationship he did love her.

____________________________________________________________

It took two days to complete his quarters; it would have taken only one if Ashley, not so subtly, didn’t stop him to work more than twelve hours as his sister had ordered. If connecting the shower and toilets to the ship’s pipes system had been a nightmare to achieve, it was done. The celebration between the two humans afterwards lasted for hours in bed until they were too exhausted to go at it again.

The morning after however hasn’t been as nice for one Jane Shepard however.

“EDI, play Reveille, trumpet version, and loudly please.”
“Are you sure? There are better ways to…”
“Oh, yeah I’m sure.”
“I will be blaming you.”
“Fair.”

Immediately after the end of the talk between the human and the IA the three hundred years old melody used by the military blasted through the speakers of the captain’s cabin. Jane instantly woke up with a jump and took a fighting stance, not knowing what was happening.

“It’s time for training.” Rick said looking at her confused but tense expression.
“Whaa.. what?”
“You got ten minutes to take a shower, dress appropriately for it and join me down in the Cargo Bay.” he ordered.

Looking at the time on her omni-tool, her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

“It’s not even 5 am!”
“Yes, because the training starts at five! Now hurry the fuck up and stop stealing my shirts!” he said, slapping her ass hard making her yelp and move.
“They took the previous one and never gave it back!” she yelled as she entered her shower.
“If she tries to go back to sleep, don’t hesitate to play the melody again in a loop.” he asked EDI as he left the room.
“Understood.”

For her part Jane took a really quick but cold shower to wake her up for good. While she wanted to go back to sleep, six hours not being enough in her opinion, she wanted more to spend time with her brother even if it was just training. That it would be only the two of them for a while was a bonus that she appreciated.

Exiting the shower, she discarded her sleepwear (his stolen shirt) on her bed then went to her closet. Opening her drawers she picked a sports bra and a pair of leggings that Ashley had bought for her when they were on the citadel. It was clearly not military approved but she didn’t care, she was feeling good in them and more importantly looked sexy as it accentuated her curves. She had dismissed the idea of ever wearing them, too scandalous for her taste but now that she was training with Rick she didn’t hesitate for a second.

God bless you, Ashley Williams

Quickly putting a pair of socks on, then her shoes, she raced to the elevator and arrived in the Cargo Bay with two minutes to spare.

“Good, you’re early.” he said then pointed to objects behind him on the floor. “Let’s get you warmed up. I want you to lift the smallest object first, then do the same with a bigger then another bigger one and on and on until you give a try to the kodiak. That will allow me to see how much you have improved in the past six months both in speed, strength and control. Endurance will come later. Now go.”
“Wait!”
“What?”
“Before we begin I wanted to apologize. I shouldn’t have reacted like I did. I just… It’s difficult for me to…” she began to say and found it hard to find the right words. Taking a deep breath she just speaks her mind. ”For sixteen years, almost everyday I wondered what happened to you. Were you dead? Used as an organ bank and discarded in a gutter or were you alive, sold as a slave to who knows what or who? Having you here safe and sound it’s… you can’t imagine how relieved I am but also how worried about it. Worried that you’ll disappear again and this time for good so I overreacted. I went all crazy overprotective big sister on her baby brother when you’re not a baby anymore. Not by a long shot. I’m sorry. I can’t promise you that I won’t do it again in the heat of the moment but I’ll do my best for it to happen as few times as possible.”

He looked at her in silence for a moment, making Jane nervous.

“What are you waiting for? Less talking, more lifting!”

She mentally sighed, knowing that there was a lot of work to do to fix their relationship. Taking the fact that he just ignored what she had said instead of snapping at her as a good sign, she activated her biotics and began warming up.
After all her solo training, she effortlessly and quickly lifted all the objects at her disposal except the kodiak; she wasn’t really  surprised. The shuttle weighed almost two tons and it took longer to channel the proper amount of power to lift it but she succeeded in the task.  The last time she tried that the height above the ground had been twenty cm, and it had taken all her concentration to sustain it for half a minute and was completely winded afterwards. Now, the kodiak was floating a good meter in the air and the effort she put in it had not been quite consequent.

“Keep it there until you struggle. When you do, you can put it down gently.”

In total she had kept it up for nearly three minutes before putting back down on the ground the shuttle.

“I admit, what I saw is very good. You’re clearly not a grasshopper anymore.”
“Training my biotics is the only thing I could do during my house arrest so I did. A lot.” was her answer given with a bit of pride.

Rick went to take something on the workbench, which she realized was the portative scan that she remembered him using back in Mordin’s lab.

“Does Karin know you borrowed her scan again?”
“This one is not hers” he said as he began to use the tool on her.

The scan done, he looked at the results silently.

“So? How are my nodules?” she inquired from the side
“Did you eat more than usual during those months?”
“More than my usual amount since I became a biotic?” she asked specifically to which he nodded. “Well… At first no. Not until the second month were my intakes increased, up until the last month were it stabilized. Is it important?”
“Very. You just unknowingly proved that the growth of the nodules peaked. The bigger they are, the more energy you produce, making your need for calories increase in consequence. It’s like a growing child. The fact that your need for food stabilized indicates that the growth did too.”
“Is it good or bad?”
“Neither. Though I’d say good, can you imagine having to eat for a whole company? You’d spend your whole day eating. Anyway, we can extrapolate the peak and the average growth per day of the nodules by comparing your current results with the ones from six months ago. Perhaps even more accurately since I have the results of my daily training for the first two months and that we’re half siblings. Our growth shouldn’t be.…”
“WHAT?!” she exclaimed loudly, stopping his mumbling.
“What is it?”
“What do you mean we’re half siblings?! What are you talking about?!”
“What do you mean, what do I mean?” he asked, confused but quickly realized what she was asking. “You didn’t know?”
“We’re not half! We have the same parents!”
“No we don’t. Matthew Shepard was your father but not mine.”
“Of course he was your father!”
“He was a brunette with brown eyes, our whorish birth giver is a redhead with green eyes. I am blonde with blue eyes. Genetically it’s impossible for us to have the same father. I can’t believe you never noticed.”
“That…” She didn’t know what to say.

That was a revelation she had not been prepared with serious implications. Matthew Shepard, her father died when she was very young, a few months before Rick was born in an accident on the ship they were on at the time.. She had few memories of the man but they were good ones. If what Rick was saying was the truth, then her mother had a lot of explaining to do. Knowing the woman really well she wondered if the accident was really one as she would not put it beyond her mother to get rid of her father. That was if Rick was right. She bitterly admitted that his argument was compelling but she refused to believe until she saw the proof.

“DNA... I want to do a DNA test.”
“As you wish. Now, back to training. I want to see your aim and your other skills.”

Getting her mind back into it, Jane turned around and began to display her skills on the smallest object in sight.


____________________________________________________________


The DNA test was done in secret by Rick under her watchful eyes in the med-bay while Karin was away. He didn’t even bother to look at the results and simply gave them to her. They confirmed that Rick was telling the truth or rather was right. She cursed herself for never having connected the dots though to be fair, she was just a child back then and the occasion to compare her brother and father’s looks never presented itself as the latter was already dead when the former came into her life. Add to that that she was already taken by this new addition to the family with his mesmerizing big blue eyes and the idea that they were half siblings didn’t cross her mind once. He was her baby brother and that was it, nothing else mattered to her. In insight she wondered if she didn’t attach herself to him like a leech because of the loss of her father a few months prior as a coping mechanism. At the time, Rick hadn’t been tested yet and nobody knew he was a biotic, hence her mother was actually taking care of him like any mother should despite being a single parent and trying to build a career in the Alliance’s military, it was to her the only moments she felt belonging to a real family.

If dad is not his father, who is?

That was the first of questions about his father that she asked herself and intended to ask her mother as soon as she met the woman. She understood better now why he was calling their mother names, whore being the insult coming back the most. After all Hannah Shepard had been married to her father when Rick had been conceived.

She shared that information with Ashley who had noticed a change in her comportment. The only thing the brunette had to say was:

“See the bright side of it. Since he’s only your half brother it’s fewer risks for any babies between the two of you.”

Jane just rolled her eyes. She had never thought of having children as she wasn’t even searching for a relationship after the few deceptions she had with the opposite sex, and she clearly didn’t think of having some now with the war. However with this second reference of making babies with Rick by the brunette, the image of a redhead blue eyed little girl had entered her mind and it made her smile for a moment, before squashing this thought down. Hard. That prompted Jane to begin a very serious conversation with Ashley.

“It’s the second time you’re talking about babies, Ash. Are you thinking about it?”
“Sometimes.” confessed the woman. “Not now obviously and not for a few more years, but now that I’m a Lieutenant Commander…”
“With Rick I suppose?”
“Preferably. But after Eden Prime… I’ll just find some guy or go to a sperm bank. My mother would be furious with me if I did but…” she stopped there and just shrugged, clearly indicating that she’d do it anyway.

Liara chose that moment to enter the room; seeing them at the bar she joined them.

“The conversation seemed serious, what is it about?”
“Babies.” answered Jane.
“Babies?” the asari repeated with a brow raised.
“Mm-mm. Any thoughts about having little blue children?” Ash asked.
“None. I’m way too young to be a mother.”
“Say the 108 year old woman.” teased Jane.
“Hey! If we follow Rick’s logic…”
“Which no one ever understands.” quipped the brunette.
“I’m a decade younger than the both of you.”
“In your dreams T’soni.” replied the redhead sipping her drink.
“For a centenary, you’re still gorgeous.”
“Thank you Ash. Now how did babies come up? No offense, but none of you seemed particularly interested in them.”
“Skipper was…” she began but looked at Jane wondering if she should continue her sentence. The shrug she got made her think she could. “ speaking about… finding out being a half sister.”
“You didn’t know?!” exclaimed Liara in shock. The negative shaking of the redhead’s head was explicit enough for an answer.
“Then I joke that since they were half, the risks for any babies together were fewer. Afterwards the conversation drifted to babies in general.”
“Still with Rick as a father I presume?”
“For Ash.”
“If possible. I mean what kind of girl wouldn’t want the children of the man she loves? Crazy ones, that’s who.”

Just like Jane, Liara began to think of a child from Rick. they would have none of his looks of course as they would be asari but the idea of having forever in her life a part of him, centuries after his death, was one she liked. She knew she would regret it for a long time if she missed on that.

“Thinking about it now I… kind of agree.”
“Asari are lucky, you can have some with women.”
“Oh? Any women you’d have their children, Ash?”
“Well… the two of you for a start.”
““ME?!”” exclaimed her drink buddies both.
“Yeah, why not? You’re both gorgeous and have plenty of endearing qualities. We’ll make beautiful daughters together.”
“Daughters? Not sons?” asked Liara.
“My father had four children, all daughters.”
“That doesn’t mean you’ll automatically have only daughters.”
“No but it might be a hereditary trait. From my mother’s side I think. She was a single child but had four aunts and no uncles.”
“Wow, that’s a big family you have.” commented the asari.
“Not really, it’s just me, my mom, and my sisters now. Everyone else died without an issue or the children died too.”
“Oh! I’m sorry to…”
“It’s alright, mom was never close with her aunts, I think I may remember one of them visiting one time when I was a kid but…”
“Well girls, not that I don’t like your company but I’m getting up early so I’m going to crash in my cabin.” announced Jane after finishing her drink and standing up.
“Already?!”
“Skipper, it’s like not even 9pm, yet.”
“I know, but Rick is waking me up just before five for training and I want to enjoy my eight hours of sleep as much as I can.”
“5AM? Damn!”
“So that’s why he wasn’t in bed this morning when I woke up because of the cold.”
“Need a warm body by your side?” Ash asked, both as a question and an invitation.”

Jane grunted in exasperation, her hands up in the air in surrender then left the room without a word.

“You know what, Ashley? I think I do since Rick is not around.” the asari said, boldly putting her face a few inches of the brunette’s.

She may have been teasing but she hadn’t been prepared for her head to be grabbed and her lips to be smashed against another pair. When Ashley broke the kiss, Liara was out of breath.

“I…”
“It’s happening blue, give me five minutes to pick up my toys and I’ll rock you world.” the LC stated and went out of the lounge.

Liara took a few seconds to register what happened then shrugged her shoulders and left for her quarters to prepare herself. Ashley had displayed an aggressivity that she didn’t mind seeing more of.

____________________________________________________________

The day of the summit finally arrived. Everything and everyone was ready on the Normandy to receive the dignitaries of the species participating. Primarch Victus representing the turian Hierarchy was already there obviously; the next one was Wrex, representing the entirety of the krogan since he was the chief of the biggest clan and followed by many others. The last one was Dalatrass Linron who didn’t bother with formality and went straight to the meeting room.

“EDI?”
“Yes, commander?”
“Are you sure Rick can’t get out of his quarters? I don’t want a diplomatic incident with the salarian because their Dalatrass got killed.”
“Affirmative. I let Miss Williams go in to distract him half an hour ago. She argued that she’d be a better deterrent than a simple locked door despite the fact that I would be rewriting the locking code if Rick tried to bypass it.”
“Good thinking, Ash.” Jane said under her breath before thanking the AI.

She knew that the negotiations wouldn’t go well but she didn’t need Rick interfering. They were already at war with the reapers, a second one with any of the races in the meeting room would spell their doom.

Taking a deep breath, she joined the leaders at the negotiating table.