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Red Sky at Night, Red Sky in the Morning	By : lesbiaN7ncest Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 8232 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
March 6th, 2176 CE

Shepard Family Home, Earth
It was just over two months into the year and already 21-year-old Jane Shepard had seen enough fighting to last her the rest of it. While taking shore leave on Elysium, the colony came under surprise attack from a group of pirates, mercenaries and other hired thugs. It turns out it was lucky Jane had been there, because she'd been the one to lead the resistance effort before the Alliance Navy could deal with the invading ships. Jane had come close to death more times during those hours of Elysium than she ever had been in her entire life beforehand, but her actions helped secure a victory for an event that had been dubbed "The Skyllian Blitz" almost as quickly as it had happened. Jane had also been awarded one of the Alliance's highest honors: The Star of Terra.
It was almost four years now since Jane had joined the Alliance Military, and as such the same amount of time since she and her mother had first made love and decided to be more than just mother and daughter. Both had done a good job of keeping their relationship a secret during that time, helped largely by the fact they rarely spent much time alone together. Hannah continued serving on the SSV Einstein while Jane had been training at the academy for most of the time, where her leadership potential had been immediately recognized. As such, Hannah and Jane only saw each other if both were on leave or during special occasions.
Since it was so rare, Hannah and Jane had cherished every moment they spent with each other. The main problem for the first eight months was Jane's father, with both Shepard women agreeing that he should never find out. Fortunately he rarely made it to family get-togethers anyway, but unfortunately the reason this no longer became an issue eight months into things was because he was accidentally killed in an Alliance operation.
Both Shepard women felt that if one ignored the fact they were mother and daughter and the need to hide it, they had a very healthy relationship as a whole. Both loved each other very deeply, and there was more depth to their relationship than just sex and the overall thrill both felt from the forbidden nature of it. For one thing, during the week following the death of Jane's father, the two were almost always together to support each other, but almost purely as a mother and daughter. Beyond that, the two would often talk about things and just enjoy spending time together for days at a time without more than hug or brief kiss between them quite easily, and both could share a bed without needing to get naked and writhe under the covers every time. And yet at the same time, when they did make love, it was always one of the mostly deeply satisfying experiences for both of them.
It had been a week now since The Skyllian Blitz, and Jane was on leave again. Her first lot had been interrupted by the incident of course, and the Alliance had decided to give her some more time off. It was the least they could have done considering she'd been the one who saved Elysium. But this time she was taking her leave on Earth, at the Shepard family home no less, and in honor of her daughter's accomplishments, Hannah Shepard had also been granted some time to spend with Jane. Hannah had already arrived almost a full day earlier than her daughter by the time Jane arrived, and she was looking forward to giving her daughter some more good news.
"Mom, I'm home!" Jane announced as she walked in the front door. "You here?"
Jane put down the case she was carrying and shrugged a bag off her shoulder, placing it beside the case. She was still wearing her fatigues and couldn't wait to change into something more casual. It had been a long trip to get back to Earth, and with her face all over the news it was hard to take more than two steps without somebody recognizing her. Walking further into the main living room, Jane finally heard a response just when she was beginning to think perhaps her mother was out.
"I'm in the bedroom, honey!" Hannah's voice called out. "Just give me a minute."
Jane acknowledged her mother and went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. Putting the pitcher back in the fridge, she noticed a box of chocolates wrapped in a red and white-striped ribbon with a card.
On the card it simply had “Proud of you! Congratulations" along with her mother's name with hearts on either side. Hannah smiled warmly, slipping the card back under the ribbon again.
"Okay Jane!" Hannah's voice called out from behind the door. "Come on in here, honey!"
Jane cocked an eyebrow. Why was her mother asking her to go in there rather than just coming out to see her? Not wanting to over think things on what should be her first day of relaxation, Jane shrugged it off and approached the bedroom door. Opening it, the first thing she noticed was that it was pitch black inside, despite it not being that late. The curtains were pulled shut and Jane couldn't see much more than the vague shape of the bed ahead of her. Flicking on the light, Jane soon found out why.
"Surprise, honey!" Hannah called out.
Standing at the other end of the room stood Jane's mother, holding a bottle of wine in one hand and two tall glasses in the other. She had a large smile on her face, and for some reason was wearing her long, fluffy bathrobe that covered her from chin to toe.
"I should have known you'd do something like this," Jane said dryly. "I'm just surprised there were no balloons or streamers to go with it."
"What do you expect, honey?" Hannah said as she walked closer. "You're the Alliance's new hero, and humanity's savior. The best of the best."
"I just did what any good soldier should have done," Jane said as Hannah popped the cork and began to pour some wine. "Everybody is making too big of a deal out of it."
"Nonsense, Honey!" Hannah dismissed, handing Jane a half-glass of white bubbly. "Not every soldier could do what you did even if they tried to. Some would even say it was an impossible task. But you did it, and you deserve it."
Hannah put the bottle in an ice bucket on the nearby nightstand then raised her glass to her daughter. Taking the hint, Jane reluctantly tapped hers against it in response and the two drank. After Jane's was gone, she spoke again. "Even if you're right, the deed should be its own reward."
Hannah stopped drinking once the cliché had been delivered, raising one eyebrow as a smirk came to her face. She swallowed the last of her wine then took Jane's glass from her, placing both on the nightstand with her eyes never leaving her daughter's face.
"You may eat those words soon, Honey," Hannah said slyly. "Especially since I have some news for you from Alliance H.Q. that the Star of Terra is just the tip of the iceberg."
"What do you mean?" Jane asked skeptically. Hannah giggled like a girl half her age, then began backing away from her daughter slowly while never taking her eyes off of her.
"Well, one of the Admirals was going to tell you, but you were already on your way here when it was decided, and so he thought that I might like to give you the news instead. So I decided that rather than just tell you, I'd be a bit more.... creative."
Jane was about to ask for Hannah to explain more, but was left with her mouth hanging open as her mother tugged the belt of her robe and let the garment slide off her shoulders and onto the floor in two smooth motions. Jane was rendered speechless at the sight of Hannah standing before her in some very exotic lingerie, complete with frilly accoutrements, a garter belt attached to thigh-high stockings and even a little collar. It was mostly in a very dark, charcoal gray one could easily call black in poor lighting, with some of the straps and frills in red and white striped patterns. Portions of it were thin, almost transparent material and there was a hole in the center to reveal her mother's navel, while the cups accentuated Hannah's breasts and the cleavage dipped low.
As Jane was left standing there, Hannah slinked up to her speechless, ogling daughter, definitely proving that while she was going on 40, she had the body of a woman in her 20's still. Jane caught a glimpse of something rather noteworthy just before Hannah wrapped her arms around her and pulled their lips together to initiate a soft, sensual kiss. Slurping away from Jane, Hannah's next words confirmed what Jane suspected if the letter and number she'd seen written together on Hannah's collar hadn't.
"Congratulations, Jane. The Alliance wants you for the N7 program."
Whenever Jane was asked by anybody in an interview what it was like when she was asked to join the N7 program, Jane always gave the same answer: that it was one of the most memorable moments of her life. Of course, everybody who asked her didn't realize the true extent of what she meant by that.
"I'm.... I'm in the N7 program?" Jane managed to ask, still flustered and with her eyes roaming over Hannah's body. Her mother laughed in a manner that seemed both sexy and devilish at the same time.
"Oh no, Honey," Hannah said teasingly, drawing invisible swirls on her daughter's chest with one finger. "Not yet you aren't. You've been given the offer, but you still have to pass three trials."
"Three trials?"
"Yessss," Hannah hissed. "You see, you still need to prove yourself worthy of being in N7 to a superior officer. And since I'm the only one here.... that means me."
Before Jane could respond, Hannah darted towards her without warning, pinning her to the wall behind with a thud. Jane just yelped, staring widely into her mother's seductive eyes. Hannah licked her lips, taking in Jane's shocked reaction.
"To begin, I need to see how you handle pressure when your back is against the wall," Hannah told her, and she pressed her body up against Jane's even more. "And in case you were wondering, I'm Pressure. Because seeing you builds me up and you can always get a rise out of me."
Jane founds her entire mouth being covered by Hannah’s, whose lips sucked onto her face like an octopus. At the same time, Hannah pressed her body into Jane even more, squeezing her against the wall. Jane had to breathe through her nose, but Hannah put a stop to that by reaching over with one hand and squeezing her nostrils shut. Jane felt the other hand begin to grasp one of her breasts, then gently massage it through her shirt. Jane now had no way of getting a supply of oxygen, and to make things worse, one of her mother's knees raised up between her legs to rub her there, and then pressed up further until she was lifted off of her feet and straddling it. Jane felt both good and bad, and didn't know how long she could take it. It was then her mother's words came back to her and made her realize what she had to do.
"I need to see how you handle pressure when your back is against the wall," Hannah had said, and then after that, "And in case you were wondering, I'm Pressure."
Hannah was holding her nose closed with one hand and massaging one of her breasts with the other, so Jane's arms were now free. All this time she had been just taking this, when she was supposed to be "handling Pressure" instead. Jane reached out with her hands and cupped Hannah's breasts in return, then began to rub her thumbs in circles around the tips, flicking Hannah's nipples through the nearly sheer fabric that barely covered them. Hannah gasped, removing her mouth from Jane's for just long enough to allow her daughter some air before she clamped her lips back on.
Jane kept feeling her mother's boobs, and then tried another retaliatory effort to deal with the pressure rising below. Using her feet against the wall to push herself up higher, she stopped her mother's bucking knee from rubbing against her nether regions, then clamped her own thighs down upon Hannah's and squeezed as hard as she could. Her mother began making noises of protest inside her mouth, eventually gasping to give more air to Jane, while also jerking her leg free from her daughter's vice-like grip.
Jane acted quickly, returning the gesture by raising her own right thigh up between Hannah's legs, eliciting another gasp and another chance for air. Releasing her mother's breasts, Jane grasped Hannah's hips firmly and pressed her mother's crotch down upon her raised knee, then began to drag her mother's entire lower half across her horizontal thigh. Hannah whimpered and gasped around and into Jane's mouth a few more times, but it wasn't long before she released the suction, giving into her daughter's valiant reversal of fortune. The two of them pressed their foreheads together, staring with wanton lust into each other's eyes as Hannah rode her daughter's leg. Hannah wanted to ride this all the way to climax, but it was too early yet. There were still two more tests after all.
Reluctantly, Hannah pulled herself off her daughter's wonderful thigh and regained her breath. Jane just stood and watched, still half-leaning against the wall and breathing a heavily with flushed cheeks. She must have got her mother fairly worked up already, since there was a damp line on her fatigues running from her right knee to halfway up her thigh. Hannah brushed some locks of mousy brown hair back behind one ear and smiled with a chuckle.
"Well, Honey. You certainly passed your first test. You handled Pressure very well indeed. Perhaps even...."
Hannah let the sentence hang as she reached down to run an index finger up between her legs. She raised the glistening finger before her daughter, taking a couple of steps forward and bringing it closer to Jane's face. Instinctively, Jane opened her mouth and extended her tongue. "....too well," Hannah finished as her daughter tasted her arousal.
"Two more tests," Jane said coyly. "How hard could they be?"
"Lie down and you'll find out," Hannah answered in sultry tones, taking Jane's arm and leading her closer to the bed.
Jane stood at the edge of the bed, just about to crawl onto it when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder encourage her to turn around. Doing so rewarded her with a deep kiss from Hannah, and she felt her mother begin to remove her Alliance-issue shirt while they made out. The kiss was broken so it could be slipped over her head, revealing a plain white tank top beneath. As soon as the newly removed garment was tossed aside, Hannah prodded her daughter’s chest firmly to push her backwards onto the bed. Jane just stared up at her mother, as Hannah took her left boot in her hands and began to remove it.
"Now it's time for your second test," Hannah explained. "For this little exercise, I need to find out how well you cope under fire."
Hannah slipped off Jane’s left boot and began working on the right one. As soon as it joined its partner on the ground, she continued explaining. "And in similar vein to your previous test...."
Hannah left that sentence hanging too as she pulled herself between her daughter's legs and up over Jane's body, until her face was looking down onto Jane's. "....I'm Fire," she finished. "Because I'm in heat, you make me hot and I burn for you."
Hannah dipped her face down upon Jane's for another deep kiss, which lasted a couple of minutes before Hannah pulled away and began kissing her throat and upper chest, and then worked her way down even further. Much like their first time together, Jane's breasts were freed from the tank top and suckled upon, first one then the other, and it seemed every inch of her skin was being tended to by Hannah's lips.
Jane couldn't believe this was happening. At least not in the manner it was. Until now, whenever they'd made love it had always been a fairly straightforward affair. They'd never done anything like role-playing before, Hannah had never shown signs of such erotic imagination like this and she'd never been quite so dominating and kinky. As strange and new as it was though, Jane couldn't argue with the results. Hannah was tonguing her naval now and she was incredibly turned on. Her mother was already damn sexy in her eyes, but tonight she was a bewitching seductress on a whole new level. Hannah was Fire all right, and if "coping well under fire" meant holding off against what this woman was doing to her right now, Jane wasn't sure she could hold off much longer.
Jane felt Hannah's hand slip down the front of her trousers and two fingers beginning to rub her pussy gently. At this point the only thing Jane thought stopped it pushing her too far was the fact that there was still the cloth of her panties between the stroking fingertips and her sensitive folds, thin admittedly as said cloth might be. Jane gasped at each caress, looking up to see her mother's beautiful visage rocking gently mere inches above her own face. Hannah's eyes were half-lidded and filled with desire, her cheeks rosy with heat and her forehead beaded with sweat and plastered locks of hair. Jane realized that this was probably the closest thing to being pleasured by a deity. Hannah was as beautiful, as wise and as strong as any goddess of legend, and Jane was being made love to by her.
But this wasn't helping her pass this trial. In fact, it was just making her warmer and wetter. An old idiom came back to her as she thought about what her mother said about the second trial: you've got to fight fire with fire. With that in mind, Jane reached up with one hand and jammed it between her mother's legs suddenly. Hannah gasped, and Jane could feel her mother's slick, warm moistness through the thin material of the charcoal, N7-themed panties. Jane slid her three most prominent fingers across her mother's barely clad sex, the middle finger extending and pressing down ever so slightly not and then to run along the crease at the center. Hannah was audibly gasping above her, and Jane could already feel the hand between her own legs relenting somewhat. Jane reached up with her free left hand and loosened her mother's right shoulder strap, then bent down the cup containing Hannah's right breast, freeing the pink-capped mound. Jane leaned up, taking the tip between her lips and sucking at it, with the occasional nibble now and then.
Jane's head shifted between her mother's breasts, its attention now on a red and white striped bow at the nexus of Hannah's cleavage. Jane gently grasped one non-looped end of the bow in her teeth and leaned back, causing the bow to unravel and the crisscrossed line of lace running down Hannah's stomach to loosen. She let go and gave another ribbon cord of red and white a pull and the whole upper garment loosened as the cord unwound itself, the released pressure causing Hannah's left breast to ease itself free and pop over the top of the bodice. Jane eased the last of the garment off of her mother, leaving her completely topless now, save for the small collar still around her throat. Hannah smiled at her daughter with a mix of pride and lust then eased away before her daughter could push her too far. The older Shepard woman got back to her feet, standing at the foot of the bed and staring down Jane with a smirk on her face. She shivered as she watched Jane take the fingers that had been pleasuring her to her mouth and lick at them.
"Well done, honey," Hannah said, breathing a little heavily now. "You've only got one test to go. But it's the hardest one to pass."
Hannah leaned down over Jane, grasping her by the hips and sliding her further down the bed and closer to her. Hannah's fingers slipped under the outer edges of Jane's panties at her hips next, and she slid them slowly down and off her daughter's legs. Tossing them aside, she encouraged her daughter's thighs to part, pulled her a little closer to the foot of the bed, then knelt down between her thighs. She looked at Jane's glistening pink folds for a moment, biting her lower lip in anticipation, then gazed up to her daughter's flushed face.
"You final test is to survive a direct assault," Hannah explained. "You have to hold out for at least ten minutes against a direct attack. And your opponent is me. Because I want to get through your defenses, breach your bunker and overwhelm you."
Jane's eyes boggled at what was before her. She was already so worked up and her mother was going to orally pleasure her for ten minutes before she is allowed to climax. She already felt she was damn close to release before, and how this. Those ten minutes were going to seem like an eternity, assuming she could make it. Jane could think of only one thing to respond with. "Elysium is going to seem like a breeze compared to this."
Hannah's smirk only grew at the comment. "And I'm not going to go easy on you either," she said.
Jane expected her mother to dive right in after that, but much to her surprise Hannah didn't. Instead she pressed her face against Jane's right thigh and kissed it lightly, about halfway between her knee and her already dripping pussy. At first Jane was relieved, but then as Hannah worked her way closer and began to nibble, lick and kiss her inner thigh, Jane realized it wasn't. This was just getting her more and more worked up, and wanting direct contact more and more. This meant that she knew that once contact was finally made, her chances of resisting it were going to be hindered. Jane was beginning to wonder if she should be considering her mother a succubus now rather than a goddess.
Hannah spent the first minute on Jane's right thigh then moved to the left to tend to it for the next one. By this time Jane was almost begging for direct contact, even though she knew it would probably be the end of her. Jane knew that failing this test wouldn't really mean failing the N7 program admittance, but that didn't matter, and Hannah knew it all too well too. Both of them knew that Jane Shepard was never one to back down from a challenge and hated to lose and fail more than anything else. Jane was going to give it her all not because of what it was, but because it was a task to be overcome. Drive and success ran through her veins, and the ability to overcome seemingly impossible odds felt like her destiny somehow.
Two minutes in, the assault finally came. Hannah's tongue ran along Jane's sex a few times before it pressed e between them and into Jane slippery warmth. Jane bucked and gasped as her mother's tongue snaked around inside her, but she held back, as if almost trying to will her highly sensitive nerves and her clit not to respond to it and try to go numb. Jane clenched and resisted, despite the pleasure washing over her and everything from her lower stomach to her knees feeling like they were on fire. She resisted looking down, knowing that the sight of her mother face working away at her would turn her on even more. Her fingers gripped and tore at the quilt and bedclothes under her, and her thighs pressed in futile resistance into the mattress to try and pull away from the sensations. At moments she was literally on the edge, only her will stopping herself from giving in as the release was right there not even an inch or a thought away.
And then it stopped. The intensity subsided, and while the pleasure was still there, it waned to a gentle, pulsing hint. Jane opened her eyes and looked down her body, and there was her mother's smiling face, glistening from her eyes down with Jane's juices. The point was, it was no longer pressed between her legs, and Hannah wondered why.
"You made it, honey," Hannah said with immense pride in her voice. "I tried to overwhelm you, but.... you made it."
Jane blinked in wide-eyed surprise for a few seconds, then just let out a loud groan as he head flopped backwards onto the bed. She lay there panting for a while, not even really sure how much time had passed in those apparent ten minutes. It felt closer to an hour to her. She heard her mother chuckle at the foot of the bed. "We're not done yet, honey," Hannah said.
This caused Jane's head to jerk up and face her mother. Except, she wasn't there. Jane's brow furrowed in confusion, until she saw Hannah emerge up from the foot of the bed again, with a wicked smile on her face. Rising up shortly after came a long, black object with a smooth tip. It took Jane a moment to realize that it was a dildo of some kind. Hannah laughed as she saw Jane's eyes go from the dildo to her, and the older Shepard woman brought it to her mouth and began to run her tongue along it. It began to shine as she coated it in saliva, and Jane finally spoke up. "I thought.... I thought I'd passed all the tests?"
Hannah continued licking for a few moments, her smile growing at Jane's question. When it was fully coated, she lowered it to Jane's swollen pussy lips, making her daughter jump as the tip rested right upon the crease. Hannah left it resting there as she explained further.
"You have, honey," Hannah said proudly. "But there's still one final step to go."
Before Jane could ask, Hannah slid the dildo back along Jane's pussy lips until the tip was at the center of them, and then pressed it down and into her daughter. Jane reeled at the object entering her, gasping and throwing her head back. She looked back to her mother as Hannah let go of the other half of the sex toy, noticing now that it wasn't a handle on the other end, but another faux phallus. Hannah smiled at her with a wicked grin again before she began to lick the exposed, second head sticking out of Jane's vagina.
"Wh-what's that," Jane asked shakily as Hannah kept lubricating. Hannah ceased using her tongue, and instead brought her fingers to where Jane's pussy met the object within it. She began caressing around it, gathering Jane's wet arousal in her digits and then stroking them up the obsidian protrusion to continue the process that way. Jane couldn't help but fidget at her mother's work, as Hannah explained further.
"Well.... you've passed all the tests, but you've still got to do what you set out to," Hannah said. "You still have to enter the N7 program."
Hannah finished coating the dildo and then stood up. Reaching down between her own legs, she parted her panties from her crotch to expose her own moist sex, and then crawled up onto the bed above Jane. Straddling her hips above her daughter's, she slowly lowered herself until her spreading folds were right above the vertical tip of the dildo, then pausing she looked at Jane with heavy-lidded eyes of lust and spoke.
"And, in case the collar and the trials haven't been a big clue.... I'm the N7 program."
The two women's eyes met and locked at that moment and Hannah felt Jane's hands reach up and rest upon her hips. With the same half-lidded gaze of sexual want, Jane pressed her mother down so that her pussy impaled itself down upon the obsidian obstruction between them. Hannah moaned as the object entered her, and Jane began to buck her hips upwards into her mother. The object slid between both of them, causing mother and daughter to moan with pleasure. Hannah reached forward and slipped off her daughter's sweaty tank-tip, then brought their lips together in a passionate kiss as she fondled the younger girl's breasts. Jane's hands stayed upon her mother's hips, helping forced them down upon her with every reverse thrust she gave.
"I have to admit," Jane said between ragged breaths. "It feels good to be inside the N7 program. In fact, I hope I'm in here forever."
Hannah laughed then let out a low, primal moan. She shook her head at Jane, but smiled at the same time. "I'm not sure the N7 program could handle that!"
Jane laughed and pulled her mother down for another passionate kiss. Hannah eventually pulled away from her daughter and threw her upper-half back, where she began riding her daughter wildly. The sight of her mother writhing up and down upon her lap, her naked breasts bouncing about, drove Jane crazy. She reached up to palm Hannah's orbs as her mother rode her way to orgasm, and Jane herself was brought to climax only moments later. Hannah collapsed atop her daughter, both still inside each other and twitching with stabs of pleasure. Jane gently kissed her mother's throat as they lay there coated in sweat and their own liquid pleasure, and after a few moments, Hannah reached behind her neck and unclipped the collar there. Placing the N7 badge at the center of Jane's throat, she looped the collar around Jane's neck and clipped it into place. She kissed her daughter softly on the lips. "Congratulations, honey," she said.
Jane just smiled, and the two lay in each other's arms until the morning came. Little did they know that the next morning was the beginning of the end for their relationship.
Jane awoke in tangled sheets, discovering Hannah not beside her, and the dildo no longer in her. She took a shower and pulled on a clean robe to find Hannah in the kitchen, cooking breakfast. It looked and smelled like bacon and eggs, and Jane could already feel her mouth watering. Hannah laughed when she saw Jane and Jane wondered why until Hannah pointed at her throat: she was still wearing the N7 collar. She can't believe she'd missed that, having showered with it in a bathroom with not one but three mirrors.
"Sleep well?" Hannah asked.
"Almost as well as I didn't sleep just before hand," Jane said with a sly smirk. "I woke up a few times and we were still inside each other. I enjoyed just moving a little now and then as you slept on me, watching your beautiful, peaceful face as you slumbered."
Hannah blushed and she bit her lower lip. "I actually woke a few times too. I noticed the same thing. Except.... I actually got off a couple more times, gently pressing against you. I tried not to wake you, you looked so peaceful."
"You're full of naughty surprises lately, Mom," Jane said, wrapping her arms around her mother and turning her away from the cooking to face her.
She was about to pull Hannah into a kiss, but Hannah's eyes widened and she stopped Jane with a single finger and sudden whisper of "wait!"
Jane was confused, until Hannah pointed behind them. The living room there had a large window, which was exposed to the front of the house. Normally some foliage and a large yard would stop anybody on the street beyond from looking in, but there was a group of people coming up the driveway, almost at the front door. They weren't looking in to see anything, but if their attention wasn't on getting to the entrance as quickly as possible, they could have. Jane and Hannah spotted a few items with the half a dozen people that pretty much gave away who and what they were.
"Reporters," Jane sighed.
The doorbell rang as soon as Jane had commented, and she reluctantly approached the door and answered it. Microphones and floating cameras were thrown in her face, as questions bombarded her about what happened on Elysium, and one reporter had somehow found out about the N7 admittance, which led to another barrage of questions. Eventually Jane managed to get the reporters to leave, but it was only the beginning.
Over the next week, Jane and Hannah found themselves being hounded by the press about Jane's recent accomplishments. They couldn't leave the house without being jumped on either on the way to their destination or at it. They'd come home to find reporters waiting, messages about interviews, some requests and some orders from the Alliance "requesting" that Jane go somewhere and say some things. Our of paranoia, Jane even got their house scanned and found a bug in their kitchen in a bouquet of flowers they had been sent. By week's end, Jane had come to a reluctant conclusion that broke her heart.
"We can't do this any more, Mom," Jane said, holding Hannah's hands in hers as they sat on the edge of their bed. "We can't be more than mother and daughter any more."
Hannah went pale, hugging her daughter closely. They had already agreed to keep things purely familial since that morning when the reporters first arrived. They thought that they'd need to lay low until things died down, and just act like a normal mother and daughter for a while, but Jane could already see that it wasn't enough.
"You're overreacting, honey," Hannah said, but even she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Jane. "We can work through this."
"No," Jane said, removing herself from her mother's embrace. "We can't. I'm too much of a celebrity now. Too much of a poster girl for the Alliance. I'm surrounded by vultures, and they won't go away. We were lucky to make it this far, but both our careers would be ruined if they found out now. And if we continue this, they will find out, you know they will."
Hannah squeezed tears from her eyes as Jane squeezed her hands. She nodded reluctantly and regretfully. "I know," she sobbed. "I know."
"I love you, Mom," Jane said, which now felt like a chill to Hannah's heart when before it warmed it. "But we have to let go of each other. At least in that way. We have to let go and move on." She paused. "And we can't look back."
Hannah just nodded, and Jane felt tears come to her eyes too. She placed a gentle kiss on Hannah's forehead, and then stroked some loose hair behind her mother's ear. "We can do this. We are strong. We are Hannah and Jane Shepard."
Hannah nodded at her daughter's words, and Jane gave her a stern not, then stood up. Hannah tried to hold Jane's hand for as long as she could, but distance eventually defeated her. Jane stood in the doorway and paused as Hannah looked on, feeling helpless.
"I'm going to my.... my own room, mother," Jane said, and she turned to her mother with shiny eyes and almost whispered the last words before departing. "Good night."
And with that her daughter left their bedroom. No, it was now simply her bedroom. Hannah tried to be strong and suck it up, but alone in the dim light of her bed lamp, instead she just collapsed to her bed and cried herself to sleep.
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Red Sky at Night, Red Sky in the Morning