It was late, long in to the hour of the wolf, deep into the bottle of Armali Gold 2166 when Shepard finally managed to ask Kelly a question. Not that he expected an answer, even three sheets to the wind the young woman had managed to turn every conversation to Shepard himself, his back ground, his relationship with his parents, the epic stand on Elysium, the Prothean beacon, Kaidans death, the revelation of the Reapers, Dying and the mission to this point.
His opportunity came after Kelly managed to steer the conversation to Cerberus itself. She'd looked at him, impassively as he'd detailed what had happened to Admiral Kahoku. She was going to ask a follow on question when he managed to get in first.
"Actually Kelly, I'd like to ask you a question" slurred Shepard.
Kelly sipped her asari wine, looked around for a few seconds debating, before speaking.
"Of course, Commander, ask away" her voice precise and chipper, showing no signs of the amount of alcohol that she'd drunk.
He briefly got distracted wondering how the hell a woman half his weight and with no cybernetic implants was apparently drinking him under the table and almost asked but figured that this was going to be his one and only question.
"Why'd you join Cerberus? You never talked about it. I mean Gardner and Ken and Gabby and that lady... the one who ya know does... something.."
"Patel"
"Yes!... No the other one.. who does.. whatever..."
"Goldstein?"
He wasn't sure but waved a hand in acceptance "Yeah, her. All they, them, mentioned it. You didn't."
Kelly finished her drink in one long swallow and put it down on the table, a finger running along the top the glass, eyes downcast.
"It wasn't something I set out to do you know? It's not like it was on a list: Get Doctorate, See the Citadel, Join Top Secret Pro-human Paramilitary."
She paused, filling her glass with the last of the wine and drinking a quick swig.
"I'd gotten a job with a clinic on the Citadel. It was great, so many interesting cases, so many different aliens. It was everything I'd wanted. Then they bought her in. She was young. Maybe twenty but she looked twice that easily. Turns out she'd been a slave of the batarians."
She paused again draining her glass in two quick gulps.
"She'd been raped, repeatedly, since she was seven or eight. Psychologically any sense of self that she'd had was gone. She barely identified as human. She missed the slavers. And..."
"And?" prompted Shepard.
"She killed herself. I don't know the exact details, I wasn't on for the shift but there was an investigation, even negligence charges laid against some of the staff. I felt as if I'd failed. That the Alliance had failed. I made a bit of a scene. And Cerberus some how heard about it."
"They offered you a job?" guessed Shepard
"Not immediately. There was a meeting with a woman in bar. She asked some pointed questions about how I felt about the Alliance's inability to protect humanities colonies from slavers and other threats. I guess I made the right noises because a week later I got an email asking me to join."
"And you did" summarised Shepard.
"Not immediately. I had some doubts, a certain spectre had uncovered some fairly nasty things about the organisation."
"Then how come?..." asked Shepard.
"The Cerberus offer included a dental plan" shrugged Kelly.
"You're joking, Right?" blurted a very surprised Shepard.
Kelly shook her head. "No, the clinic job barley covered my rent on a windowless shoebox of an apartment that I shared with three other people. No medical cover at all. Cerberus tripled my salary and offered full health cover including dental"
A dark part of Shepard wondered how often Cerberus had to utilise the health cover given how many of there projects seemed to end up with everybody dead.
"Is the cyanide capsule part of the dental plan?" Shepard asked as the thought came into his head.
"No but they added it when they fixed an impacted wisdom tooth that had been annoying me for three years."
Shepard just sat there blinking trying to process the idea. Kelly noticed and very carefully got up. She staggered to the door, noted a slightly guilty part of Shepards mind, and left as he pondered the idea of terrorists with kick ass dental plans.