Zaeed opened up his Inbox for the tenth time that day. No messages. He began to feel the beginnings of dread take hold in his stomach. He quickly switched to the messages he sent. His eyes flicked from side to side as he read what he wrote. "Nothing in there says, 'don't respond' ". He found himself talking out loud instead of keeping his thoughts firmly in his mind. Zaeed huffed and stormed his way to the elevator.

"Shepard, Zaeed is requesting permission to enter your quarters" EDI blipped, almost as soon as she heard Zaeed knocking on the door. She grabbed a bathrobe off the wall and put it over the shorts and tanktop she was wearing.

"EDI what time is it?"

"2330 hours" Shepard groaned inside. What would that man want at this hour? It better be good, she was about to go to bed. She went and unlocked the door. EDI chimed again.

"Shepard, it is well within my capacity to unlock doors for you" Shepard detected a hint of irritation within the AI's voice.

"It is also well within mine, EDI. I believe in personally letting people in. No matter how advanced our society gets, I will always get up and open the door for somebody if they want to see me." EDI blipped away. As she arugued with EDI, Shepard felt Zaeed come into the room and wait agitatedly.

"So Zaeed, is there a reason you want to see me so late, or are you just trying to annoy me?" Shepard hoped that the smirk on her face would tell that she was joking.

"Shepard, you told us that you would always be open for any concerns your crew had. If I don't fit in that category, then just say the word and I'll get out of your hair." Something was really bothering him.

"I was just joking Zaeed. What is it?" Zaeed looked at her and she could see the anxiety etched across his face. It made him look much older.

"Remember when I told you about that 8 year old girl?" Shepard nodded and Zaeed continued.

"I didn't tell you all of it. While she was hitchhiking with us, some of the men tried to take advantage of her. Some of them were aliens, some of them were human. Seein' that the captain wasn't doing anything to stop it, I did. It's bloody sad that our species so easily loses what makes us different from the goddamn monkeys..." His eyes glazed over obviously lost in a distant time. Shepard spoke softly.

"What did you do?" Zaeed snapped back to reality and continued.

"...Half the men wound up dead on the spot. The other half were locked up in the airlock awaitin' captain's orders. After that the girl wouldn't leave my side. She swore herself to me. She took a knife from me and cut her hand before I grabbed it back. I have never seen a more serious and adult 8 year old. I knew I couldn't change her mind so I went along with it, thinking she would forget. She never did..." Shepard saw that this girl meant the world to Zaeed. It was something that Shepard might never understand. Zaeed continued in his gruff demeanor.

"Well, I dropped her off on Omega and got a place set up for her at an orphanage. I found some people to take care of her. You know makin' sure that she got food and that she wasn't adopted. I didn't think anybody would understand why she acted the way she did. I didn't even understand her at times. When she wanted a job, I got her a job working for Aria. She was 10..." Shepard gave Zaeed a sharp look.

"It's not what you think. She sat in a security office all day and monitored who came in and out of Omega's main ports. I heard she was damn good at it too. Every week I would get a letter from her. We have been cooresponding like this for the past 10 years. This week I didn't get one from her… Shepard I need to find out what's happened to her." Shepard watched as the tough veteran, who burned the leader of the Blue Suns alive, turn into a… she didn't know what. But it was scary. She had never seen a man act like this in front of her.

"Zaeed, are you sure that she didn't forget--" As soon as the words were out of her mouth she wished they had never been spoken.

"What, you think that after 10 years of writing every week, she would just stop responding to my letters! Maybe you don't understand what it means to swear yourself to someone, but you don't do it lightly." The patronizing tone, felt like a slap across the face.

"Okay fine. But how do you know she isn't being held for money or is part of an extortion deal by the Blue Suns. Would one of the people that you put in jail want to get back at you?" Shepard could tell that the thought had already crossed his mind. He looked down and was in deep thought.

"I don't think that's the case. I taught her alot about how to survive in those few weeks that we travelled together." Shepard knew if they didn't investigate, Zaeed might very well leave the crew. She needed him there. He was one of the few soldiers experienced in large scale warfare.

"Okay Zaeed, we'll check it out. Where is she?"

"She was on Earth last time she wrote." Shepard felt sick, she knew why Zaeed was so upset. There were a lot of worse things than death that could happen to an 18 year old girl on Earth. It was just the same as Omega. Zaeed saw the look of grief on Shepard's face and understood that she was thinking what he was.

"The only good news about that is she will still be on Earth." After having grown up in the slums Shepard knew how the underworld worked. It was more profitable to keep people on the same planet than selling them to batarian slavers.

"Once we get done with our business here, we will go to Earth." Zaeed started to walk out the door.

"And Zaeed, its only going to take a couple of hours at most. We'll get there soon, you have my word." Zaeed stopped to listen to her and continued walking.