Red Sky at Night Ch. 02

October 13th, 2172 CE

Arcturus Station

It had been a good week for Jane Shepard. She'd had time off from school to spend on the station, and her mother's ship, the SSV Einstein, had been docked for half of that time, allowing the two Shepard women to spend some time together. The SSV Einstein was one of the ships that had responded to the recent batarian raid on Mindoir, and after many of its crew had been subjected to the atrocities there the ship was allowed to dock in more often for regular shore leave. It was apparently the Alliance's way of trying to keep up morale and not overstress its people. Jane was happy to hear that her mother was spared the horror of getting involved directly in the events, but she could tell seeing what it had done to some of her closest friends had still affected her in the wake of it. Her mother never really spoke of it any more, and it had been months ago, so she seemed back to her old self for the most part. At the age of 18 now, Jane herself was about half a year a away of reaching the goal she was most gunning for: joining the Alliance military.

Jane walked confidently down one of the station's corridors, a clean white towel draped over her shoulders and a gym bag in one hand. With athletic shoes on her feet, some plain gray track pants and a loose white tank top, Jane was doing something few other teenagers her age did on their time off from school: hitting the gym. It was no surprise when she walked in to see her mother already present, walking on a treadmill. From the look of it Hannah Shepard had been there a little while already. The two of them had come there each afternoon for the past couple of days, working out for an hour or two and catching up at the same time.

"Hey, honey," the elder Shepard greeted her daughter. "A little later today than usual."

"Sorry, Mom," Jane said, "I caught up with a friend of mine on the way here. I didn't know they were on-station too."

Jane tossed her gym bag on a bench across from where her mother was running on a treadmill, then flicked the towel on top of it casually. Jane wandered over to a treadmill beside her mother's one, not noticing the smirk on her mother's face. As Jane mounted the gym equipment, Hannah spoke up. "Anybody special?"

"Nope. Just a friend from school," Jane answered casually. "I don't think you've met them."

"A friend by choice, or because you haven't tried for more?"

"Moooom!" Jane whined. "Stop doing that! Not every person I mention that I've befriended in high school is going to be Jane Shepard's future husband."

"I'm just teasing, honey," Hannah said, clearly getting a kick out of frustrating her daughter. "I just want to make sure you're not being reckless. You're at that age where your hormones can override your common sense."

Jane's machine whirred to life and she began jogging upon it. The pace was a bit slow for her taste, so she tapped it up a few notches before turning back to her mother with a smirk. "Me? Reckless? When have I ever been reckless?"

Hannah laughed. "When haven't you been?"

"Mooom!"

"Okay, you're not reckless," Hannah admitted. "But you do tend to throw yourself into things and push yourself too hard. With almost everything. Even now in fact. Are you sure that treadmill isn't going just a little too fast for you? It's at almost twice my speed."

"It's fine, mom. I can handle this level easily." Jane paused. "Besides, I can't be the best Alliance soldier if I hold back."

"All I'm saying is, I just don't want to see you with a big belly full of baby before your next birthday or something."

"Jeez, Mom! What type of girl do you think I am?" Jane said, half-shocked, half mocking.

"I don't mean that, honey," Hannah answered honestly. "I just mean that it's easy for one to do something silly when their brain isn't the one with the loudest voice. And don't push yourself too far, that's all I'm saying. You're a tough girl, but you're also human." Hannah let that settle before adding something else. "Besides, you're pretty fit as it is. You don't want to go from chasing off boys to beating them up."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jane said, one raised eyebrow. She cranked the speed up a little more on her treadmill.

"That if you keep up at this pace, you'll lose your femininity and be more muscle than woman," Hannah joked. "You don't want that."

"I want to be strong and fit, not a bodybuilder."

"Good to know," Hannah said with a smile.

"As for getting knocked-up, trust me, Mom," Jane said with conviction, "there's pretty much no chance of that happening."

"Too dedicated to becoming the best humanity has to offer to get involved with somebody else, is it?" Hannah queried. "A career military woman married to the Alliance."

"There's a bit of that," Jane said, her tone growing a little more serious. "And other stuff. Personal stuff."

"Personal stuff you can't tell your mother?"

Jane sighed, a slight shake of her head. She turned her head to look at her mother, who had that look in her eyes that said, "if there's some problem you have that you're too embarrassed to tell me about, it doesn't matter and I'll love you no matter what it is." Jane looked around the room, which wasn't an overly big gymnasium, but still not tiny either. In either case, she and her mother were the only ones using it right now.

"I guess I should probably tell you, in case I do find myself involved with somebody suddenly," Jane said reluctantly. "I wouldn't want to shock you too suddenly."

"Go ahead, honey," Hannah said, rather calmly, yet Jane could hear the slight waver in her mother's voice. Like she was dreading what was to come.

"I might as well come out and say it," Jane said, getting that determined look on her face her mother knew all too well. "I don't like guys, Mom. I'm not attracted to them. They don't interest me. I like.... girls.... Mom."

Jane noticed her mother's eyebrows rise up at this, and Hannah looked down and let out a loud sigh. At first Jane thought her mother was gravely disappointed, but then Hannah swung her head back and looked up at the ceiling with a smile.

"Thank God!" she declared, surprising Jane to no end. "I was really worried there for a moment. I thought you were going to say that you were into some weird fetish or something. Or that you were becoming a nun."

"So.... you're okay with this?" Jane asked, brow furrowed and with an expression that suggested she was questioning whether the woman beside her was her mother at all. "We're cool?"

"Oh, honey," Hannah said, gazing at her daughter with eyes of care and understanding. "Of course we are. You're free to be whoever you want to be, and love whoever you want to love. You're my daughter and I love you, and you being a lesbian isn't going to change that."

"What about Dad?" Jane asked.

Hannah's smile faltered, and this time her brow twisted. "Now that I'm not so sure about. Oh, don't be worried, honey! He won't disown you or shun you or anything. He just might take some time to adjust, but he won't stop loving you either. You're his pride and joy. He was probably hoping to get some true-blue Alliance son-in-law or some such, and possibly some grandchildren down the line, but no.... he'll be fine. He's not the type of man to look down at you for this or anything like that. Certain hopeful wishes and hopes of his are simply going to be called to question, nothing more."

"I have to say, Mom," Jane said, grinning widely now, "you're taking this a lot better than I expected."

"Well, perhaps since you've told me a secret of yours, I should perhaps tell you a similar one of mine," Hannah said, an almost devious look on her face.

"What's that?" Jane asked playfully, believing that some kind of joke revelation was incoming.

"I'm attracted to women too," Hannah revealed, as casually as if she had said, "I like chocolate."

Unfortunately for her, the sudden revelation of her mother's sexuality took Jane completely by surprise, and she had the type of reaction she was almost expecting her mother to have from her own admission earlier. Her large green eyes went ever larger, and all she got out of her mouth was the word "what" before she stumbled on her treadmill. She tried to correct herself, but her left foot didn't land well with the fast whirring treads, wrenching the leg suddenly and sending a jolt of pain down her left thigh. The pain caused her to let go of the handlebars and she fell backwards, almost hitting her head on a weight machine a few feet behind the treadmill. Before she could open her eyes again, she felt two comforting hands on her shoulders and heard a soothing voice from her right.

"Honey!" Hannah said sharply. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

Jane opened her eyes and saw her mother's face looking at her lovingly just a few inches away.

"I'm not sure. I think I'm...."

Jane tried to stand up, but groaned in pain and slumped back down as a burning sensation seared up her inner left thigh and at her left hip. Hannah noticed her daughter's hand move to where the pain was most intense and she nodded at Jane with a frown.

"You've probably wrenched a few muscles in your upper leg and lower back," Hannah said. "There's a medical kit in the locker room, it's probably got some medi-gel in there."

"No!" Jane objected sharply. "No medi-gel."

"No?" Hannah questioned with raised brows. Jane shook her head.

"It's just some sprained and pulled muscles, Mom," Jane stated firmly. "I can't go running to medi-gel for every minor injury. I need to grow fitter, stronger and tougher, and medi-gel won't do that if I use it for every scratch, scrape, bump and sprain. We fix this and let it heal the traditional way."

"Ever the stubborn one," Hannah said, shaking her head but with a smile. "Let's go then. Need a hand up, or are you too tough for that?"

"That would be appreciated," Jane said. "Just so long as you don't carry me in. I still need to have some dignity."

Hannah tousled her daughter's hair with a laugh, and then slowly helped her to her feet. Using her mother to support herself, Jane was slowly led from the gym to the female locker rooms. Hannah helped her daughter take a seat on one of the benches. While Hannah rifled through the first aid kit just inside the doorway, Jane winced and rubbed at her sore leg, then moved her neck and arms around a little to make sure there were no other injuries she hadn't noticed yet. Aside from a big bruise on the back of her right shoulder, a smaller one on the same forearm and a slightly sore spot on her right knee, the rest of the pain was pretty much all concentrated in the same area.

Hannah placed the first-aid kit down, then got Jane to sit there and try and move her left leg, telling her when it hurt and where. Hannah nodded and confirmed Jane's reports each time, then asked her daughter to lie down face-first on a soft, thin gym mat at the back of the room. Jane felt her mother press down on the left side of her lower back, and after a couple of minutes of this her mother asked her to turn over and sit up. Gathering the medical kit from the bench where Jane originally sat to cart it to where she now sat, Hannah gave Jane her diagnosis.

"It definitely seems you've pulled some muscles rather nastily, so I think we'll just do a few stretching exercises to help you out, then you'd better see the doctor. There's also something in her that you can rub into your leg that might relieve some of the pain. Unless it's too close to medi-gel for you."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Jane said.

"Good," Hannah nodded. "For starters then, lie down on your back flat."

Jane did, then Hannah kneeled down to Jane's feet. Taking Jane's left foot in her hands, Hannah looked back to her daughter's face.

"Now, I'm going to carefully raise your left up, and you bend your knee as I do. I'm then going to put pressure on the leg, okay?"

"No problem," Jane nodded. "Go ahead."

Hannah nodded back silently, and then did what she told her daughter she would. Jane winced a bit at the motion, but it wasn't too bad, especially as it was done gradually. It hurt all right, but the way her muscles stretched and the manner of the pain let Jane know that it was having a positive effect.

"How's that? Not too bad?" Hannah asked, now resting most of her torso down upon Jane's left leg. Jane nodded up at her mother, whose head was only about a foot above hers, though hovering over her chest rather than her face.

"Good," Hannah smiled. "I'll let the leg down now for a few seconds, and then we'll bring it up again, and repeat the process a few times."

The first couple of times they repeated the process neither Shepard said anything not to do with the stretching exercise. On the third time back up, Hannah let out a laugh as she gazed down at Jane and spoke more casually. "Sorry about that, honey. I shouldn't have acted so casual about it."

"So it's true?" Jane asked. "You're not just messing with me or trying to make me feel better because I got hurt?"

"Oh, it's true alright," Hannah said. "I've been bisexual since before your age. Not exactly sure why, and I haven't exactly been shouting about it across the treetops or anything. In fact, you're now one of only a small handful of people that know."

"Dad knows then?"

"He knows, honey," Hannah said. "Not that it's mattered since we got together and you were born. I still appreciate the female form though. I may be married to your father, but that hasn't changed how I feel. It doesn't mean I'm going to cheat on him or anything, but I'm still human. The important thing is controlling yourself, like with anything."

"Is that some kind of dig at me?" Shepard joked. Hannah laughed.

"It wasn't intended that way, but it is now," the elder Shepard said with a wink. "Okay, that's enough of that for now. We'll see if some of this stuff helps before it starts swelling-up."

Jane nodded and Hannah released the pressure on her leg, letting her lower it. Fishing a small oval container from the first aid kit, she opened the lid and gave her daughter more instructions.

"You'll have to lower those pants, honey. I have to rub this into the skin."

Jane didn't think twice, since this was her mother, and she carefully pulled her track pants down her legs. It wasn't easy with a jolt of pain tearing down her thigh, so Hannah helped her until they were below her knees.

"That's far enough," Hannah said. "Open your legs a bit now, honey. Where's the pain worst?"

"Here," Jane indicated.

Hannah scooped out a gob of some fairly dull looking creamy paste and applied it to Jane's upper leg, just above the knee where the pain reached the lowest. The stuff itself was cold upon contact, but as her mother began running it in it began to feel warmer. Jane looked up at her mother as she leaned down over her, applying and rubbing all the while.

"So," Hannah started. "Now that I know.... is there really still nobody special in my little girl's life?"

"That's still the truth," Jane said, almost regretfully it sounded. "It's not like I'm not focused on other things though."

"Yet at the same time, you know you like other girls," Hannah said, putting Jane on the spot.

"I know I find girls attractive, but.... I haven't found anybody that's, well...."

"Special?" Hannah finished.

"Yeah, I guess that's right," Jane said. "Still.... what does another woman look for in a woman?"

"You're asking me?" Hannah said.

"Well, you've told me you like women too now. What do you look for in a girl?"

"Honey, different women look for different things in a woman, just like they do if they're interested in men. There's no single answer. You yourself will like certain kinds of women for different reasons than somebody else will."

"I guess," Jane said with a sigh. "I just sometimes wonder if you're right about what you said earlier."

"Oh? How's that?"

"I mean about me being too, I don't know... butch. Too much of a tomboy, or too tough for most women. I mean, women are into women for them being like women right? For being feminine, like you said, not for being mannish!"

Hannah laughed, still rubbing the cream into Jane's thigh as she did. When she stopped, she leaned in close to Jane and looked down at her daughter with one of the most loving and caring expressions Jane had seen.

"Honey.... you are anything but mannish. You are beautiful and gorgeous, and you have a wonderful personality and a very attractive figure. You are strong, but you have in no way lost your femininity."

Jane felt her mother's free hand gently stroke her cheek, and as she gazed up at her she felt a strange sensation in her stomach. She always knew her mother was beautiful, and at the age of 36 Hannah Shepard was in her prime, looking closer to 28 thanks to her lifestyle and career. But as she gazed down at Jane with that loving, half-lidded look of warmth, with locks of brown hair clinging to her forehead and her skin glistening with beads of sweat all over, it was suddenly quite different for Jane. She was suddenly aware of her mother's lustrous lips, the way her mother's tank top clung to her body and the fact she was wearing small athletic shorts that revealed almost all of her perfectly sculpted legs. Jane noticed the way her mother's tank top plunged down at the front into a soft valley, and the swell of the mounds that it led to, peaked off with two distinct imprints pressed against their sweat-soaked covering. Time had seemed to slow, and Jane noticed the incredible softness of her mother's palm against her cheek, the weird sensation in her stomach that seemed to rise and fall between fear and want somehow, and most of all how closer her mother's hand now was to her most tender, sensitive area. Jane felt her heart begin to beat, and her face felt hot, and what her mother did next didn't help matters.

Hannah lent down slowly towards Jane, and placed a gentle peck on her daughter's lips. It was no different from any other kiss that she'd been given before, but while it only lasted a split second, for some reason the sensation seemed to linger there for longer. Her mother pulled back away slowly, and for a moment Jane thought her own beating heart was going to drown out her mother's words.

"You're perfect, Honey," Hannah said. "If I was half my age and I wasn't your mother, I'd jump on you in a heartbeat."

Jane's mind was a fog after that, which is why she replied with what she did. "If you did, I think I'd let you."

At first Hannah smiled at the comment, clearly taking it as just a joke on her daughter's part, but as she looked at her daughter's face she noticed the reddened cheeks and hazy eyes that seemed to stare straight through her. It clicked that Jane had said it with rather heavy breathing, and how much her daughter's chest was rising and falling. Hannah looked into her daughter's eyes with a puzzled expression, and her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but nothing came out. Suddenly aware of her hand still rubbing her daughter's thigh, she gazed down to notice the tips of her fingers less than an inch now from Jane's sex. She stopped the motions, and then slowly took her hand away, leaning back up to kneel at Jane's feet.

"Well, I.... I think that's enough for now," Hannah said, clearly flustered. "I think we'll leave your care in the hands of a doctor now. You'd better pull your pants back up and I'll help you to the med-bay."

"Mom, wait," Jane said as she pulled herself up without Hannah's help. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Jane. I understand," Hannah responded.

"No, it's not okay," Jane huffed. "I didn't mean to say that to you, I was just.... I just got caught up in the talk, and then what you said, and.... Like you said before, at my age my hormones run wild, and with you rubbing my thigh like that and all the...."