Miranda Lawson is the prodigal daughter (nobodysperfect) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-04-17 19:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, commander jane shepard, miranda lawson |
Who: Shepard and Miranda
What: Discussing recent events.
When: Late last week/over the weekend
Where: Shepard's place
Warnings: Talking of being shot, otherwise fairly low
To say that Miranda was in a bad mood was an understatement. Her paranoia was through the roof, and she was back to constantly looking over her shoulder. At least Oriana was staying with her for the time being, that gave her some peace. But she knew it would only be a matter of time before their father sent more people after them. She needed to get Oriana somewhere safer and she herself probably needed to move.
Miranda had asked Shepard to meet her. Her arm was in a sling as her shoulder healed from the gunshot wound she’d suffered. Isabela had done well with the initial treatment and getting her to a doctor eventually, but Miranda still wasn’t happy about it.
There was also the fact that her biotics had manifested, thus why she’d asked Shepard, with her connections, to help dispose of the body so the police didn’t get hold of it.
“After Ori finishes this semester of school, we can get her somewhere safer. She’s so damn close to graduating and then that fucking bitch of a reporter helped father find us.” Miranda cursed as she was pacing incessantly. A distinctive blue aura appeared around her, a sign that her biotics were going to get out of hand if she wasn’t careful.
"Well, I can't exactly bury Skeeter's body," Jane replied, as if they hadn’t done just that. Miranda looked like hell, or as close to hell as Miranda ever looked. She held out a hand, palm out towards Miranda. "Slow down, take a breath before you end up blowing us both up."
“Why not?” Miranda asked, sending an icy look at Shepard. She’d bury Skeeter’s body herself, if there was anything left of it by the time she was done with her. Miranda tried to calm down, but she was too worked up. “I can’t.” Which was bad considering Miranda was a powerful biotic.
“It’s a little trickier when it’s a well known person,” Jane pointed out. She came over to Miranda and put her hands on her shoulders, both to try to reassure her and to also let her own biotics try to adapt to Miranda’s. Let the energy wash onto her.
“It’s not like she doesn’t have a long list of enemies, you know.” Which was true. Skeeter certainly had quite the list of enemies here in Orange County. When Shepard put her hands on her shoulders, she finally stopped pacing and looked at her. She sighed and let the energy wash over her. “I’m going to have to learn how to control the biotics. At least once my shoulder is healed.”
“Yeah. I had to move apartments after I blew up mine the first time mine manifested,” Shepard told her. She used her biotics to try to redirect Miranda’s into harmless releases of blue energy. “Please don’t make me move again.”
“No promises, but I’ll try not to.” If Miranda did blow up Shepard’s place, she couldn’t exactly offer her a place to stay. Her apartment only had one bedroom and now Ori was staying with her for the next couple months at least.
Shepard laughed, and took a step back from Miranda. Their biotic fields were still joined, and she didn’t move far enough away to break the connection. She hadn’t actually been sure it would work, but if it helped Miranda retain control it was worth doing. She’d always wondered if it was possible.
“Do you want me to investigate your father?”
The field was...interesting. Miranda looked at it when Shepard took a step back. She lifted her uninjured arm to better watch the biotic field pulse around her. She tried to focus herself and settle down.
“No, I can do that. I should’ve kept better tabs on him, damn it.” There was a flare in the biotics.
“Yeah, you’re not going anywhere until you can avoid setting off flares.” As if it would help, Shepard opened the liquor cabinet. “But the offer is open. Do you know anyone sneaky?”
“Corvo. If I was especially desperate, Aria.” But Miranda would rather not have to ask that particular asari for any favors if she could help it. It was bad enough she was working for her currently.
Shepard couldn’t help the grin, “Okay yeah you’d really have to be desperate for Aria. Corvo is a good choice though.” Thinking of him made her miss her hayday, but then even in specops Jane had been the hammer, not the scalpel. Corvo? Was a scalpel.
Miranda gave Shepard a little look in response to the grin. “Yes, he is. He helped me and Ori disappear once, I’m sure he’d be happy enough to help again.” And he’d probably offer to kill her father, but for as much as Miranda hated the man, if anyone was going to kill him, it was going to be her.
“All right.” Shepard took another step back, letting the connection between then break. She wondered if the Normandy could help somehow. Besides a nuke from orbit.
“Where do you think you’ll send her?”
“I was actually going to ask her input on that.” Yes, Miranda could let Ori decide that, at least in this life. Once she got her degree come May, she could go wherever she wanted. Miranda just hoped that it would be somewhere where their father couldn’t easily find her.
“For the time being, I’ll ask Pryde to scrub what she can about both of you again. In case there’s anything new or that she missed. Maybe she can put a trojan in your dad’s systems.”
“I would appreciate it if she could get a trojan in there. Obviously in this life I couldn’t do that when I initially ran away. It would be nice to know what exactly he knows about me and Ori.” She didn’t care about what his business was doing. She was only concerned about what he knew about her and her sister.
“You want to ruin him?” Shepard asked. “Or at least have the groundwork laid for when you want to ruin him.”
She might be a little bloodthirsty. The idea of ruining Miranda’s father was an appealing one.
“I don’t want him ruined, I want him dead, Shepard.” Miranda shot back with a venom in her voice. “And make no mistake, if he comes after me or my sister again, I will kill him and damn the consequences of that.” She didn’t care if she’d spend the rest of her life in jail because of that so long as it meant her sister was free to live her own life.
“And you’ll get your chance.” Shepard was the last person to object to a justified murder, “But wouldn’t it be nice to have him watch his empire crumble before he dies? Like twisting the knife.”
“I rather think knowing that his empire will die with him is more than enough. I was supposed to be his heir, and I turned my back on him. And who knows, maybe I’ll just take his empire, throw out everyone he put in place and replace them with my own.” Miranda would certainly do well to be a CEO, she had what it took to be one. And to re-create her father’s empire as she wanted it? That would be the ultimate ‘fuck you’ that she could think of to give him.
Shepard nodded. She’d have Kitty leave some back doors in case Miranda changed her mind, or needed the extra help to take over, but she’d support Miranda however she needed .”When you’re ready, we’ll make sure it happens cleanly. But not painlessly.”
“He won’t know what hit him,” she commented, her biotic field flaring again before she managed to reel it back in. “Besides, I need to make him pay for my getting shot.” She glanced at her injured shoulder. She knew she was damn lucky to be alive. The bullet could’ve easily hit her heart or lung or something else vital instead of just her shoulder.
“You’re lucky you’re around to make him pay.” Shepard stepped into the kitchen to get Miranda some water. “Want me to take a look at it? Who dressed that anyway?”
“I know I am.” If Miranda had died, Oriana would be in her father’s clutches by now. “Isabela at first, then I actually saw a doctor.” Miranda was trying not to think about the fact that she’d been shirtless so Isabela could tend the wound. But the pirate had exceptionally steady hands.
“Isabela?” Shepard almost said something, but then changed her mind and went with a different tact, “You know, I should be surprised she could handle a bullet wound, but I’m not actually all that surprised at this point.”
Miranda narrowed her eyes, expecting some comment from Shepard on the matter of Isabela. But she was both relieved and pleasantly surprised by the fact Shepard chose not to pointedly comment on Isabela. “I was a little surprised, but she had a good hand at helping.”
Oh no, Shepard would just save that for later. She was actually torn on the Isabela thing - Shepard remembered what it felt like to be into someone who she couldn’t have. It hurt. But it was also cute seeing Miranda flustered.
“Yeah, she’s really good with her hands.”
It definitely hurt, but right now Miranda had more important things to worry about than fretting over her feelings for someone else. Though at Shepard’s statement, she eyed her. “Do you know that from personal experience?”
“You could say that.” Jane handed Miranda the glass of water, unable to avoid giving her a cheeky grin. “She smuggled my team on a mission once or twice, back when I was with Specops. We might have gotten handsy on a few occasions.”
“Of course you did.” Miranda responded in deadpan as she took the glass of water and took a drink. “At least someone had fun.” Was she jealous? Possibly. Maybe a little. But considering she didn’t have any claim to Isabela, she had no right to be jealous, so she just pushed the feeling aside.
Miranda seemed jealous, making Shepard wonder if she needed to talk to Isabela. Get this sorted out. For both their sakes.
“It was a thing.”
In Miranda’s mind, it was already settled. Isabela didn’t do commitment, and Miranda couldn’t do no strings where Isabela was concerned. She just needed to get over her emotions was all. Emotions were stupid, after all.
“I should start looking into getting another apartment. And maybe using a fake name.” Yes she was changing the subject, partly because she was trying to ignore things Isabela-related, and partly because she had to figure out how to keep both her and her sister safe.
Emotions really were stupid. They’d gotten Shepard into trouble on more than one occasion, so she could totally get that.
“Jaqueline,” Shepard suggested. She even managed to keep a straight face.
Miranda shot a pointed glare at Shepard. “Fuck you,” she retorted. “There are far better names to choose from than that.”
“I know, but no one would ever expect you to pick that one,” Shepard pointed out, neglecting the fact that no one else knew of her animosity towards Jack.
Though Shepard had considered locking them in a hotel room together on more than one occasion.
Miranda nearly made a comment, but bit her tongue instead. Saying that Jaqueline sounded like a stripper name was rather hypocritical given her profession. “No, but pretty certain only you and maybe Aria even know who Jack even is here.”
“Let a woman dream…” Shepard sighed dramatically. “If you want to go that route, I know people who know people. We can get you squared away with a new identity.”
Keeping Skeeter unaware wouldn’t be too hard. Seed a story about Miranda fleeing to Canada and that’ll get her off her tail. She’d probably even publish that.
“I probably should’ve done that when I first ran away.” But of course, she’d only been sixteen years old at the time, she hadn’t thought of everything. Plus, Corvo had taken her and Oriana in, they’d had protection. She just wished she would’ve changed their identities long before now.
“Are you on anything?” Shepard thought Miranda needed something harder but they didn’t need anything that might interact. Killing Miranda wasn’t high on her to do list.
Miranda blinked at the question, completely caught off-guard by it. “Uh, no? Why?” She wasn’t even entirely sure if Shepard meant prescription drugs or illegal drugs. Either way, the answer was still the same.
“For the pain,” Shepard clarified, realizing that had in fact been sudden. “I was going to offer you a drink.”
“Oh, right. That.” Miranda glanced at her shoulder. It did hurt, but she didn’t want to use any medication to dull it. “I could use a drink, though.”
“All right.” Shepard went to get a bottle to share. They could figure out what to do about Oriana while letting the whiskey melt their limbs and help Miranda forget what a douche her father was.
Miranda definitely welcomed the whiskey. She could definitely use loosening up a bit after being wound up so tightly. And she’d very much like to forget all about her father for a little while.