"I think that taking them head on would work better. It's not like the Reapers won't know we're there, and skirting around in the outer edges will do nothing more than make us waste time and energy attempting to be inconspicuous when they know where we are."
"But we would be riding too much on the idea they know where we are. What if they don't? We could be losing a plain advantage if we just put the idea of skirting around to the side and not even bothering with it."
"Of course they will know, they are synthetics. Giant robots that could wipe out half a city with a single beam."
"That doesn't mean they know where individual humanoids are."
"I hate to interrupt, but why not compromise? Send a stealth team of equal amount of forces from each race and use the rest as a technical brute squad? To attack them from the front?"
Not for the first time did Shepard smile as Kaidan smoothly interrupt the fighting turian and prothean, easing his way in an offering of a compromise. It was quite adorable to watch really, Kaidan, who was easily dwarfed by both races, looking up and all but batting his eyelashes as Garrus seemed to attempt to stare him down and Javik just looked slightly awed by the humans offer.
He heard them mumbling a bit more, agreeing on a compromise and discussing tactics with Shepard later, obviously not having seen their Commander lingering in the doorway, and Kaidan gave them both brilliant smiles, nodding his head as he chirped on about how easy that was.
"Yes, sorry Major," Garrus sighed, reaching up a hand to rub over his face and Javik nodded beside him, "just a bit on edge. Tired. Haven't been getting much sleep lately with the final adjustments to the Normandy before we reach Earth."
Kaidan gave him a sympathetic smile before glancing down at the mug he was holding, one that was steaming and Shepard hid a smile as the Major looked oddly forlorn before reaching out and pushing it into Garrus' hands.
"Here, this'll keep you awake a little longer. Finish up and go to bed, get some rest," and Shepard smiled again as he looked at the equally tired Javik, sparing a glance for his backup coffee -because someone always conned Kaidan out of one of his coffees, leading to the necessity of carrying two as backup- before handing it to the prothean, "and I don't know if your race can handle it, but here, this should do the trick. And same orders as Garrus." He watched them both as they nodded, giving him appreciative smiles before taking sips and groaning in satisfaction. Kaidan nodded happily as well before he turned and wandered back over to the kitchen, yanking out another couple of mugs.
"Aw, come on! Why can't Kaidan be Commander? At least he's nice!" Joker's voice rang out, and Shepard spared a glance to see his pilot limping forward to stand beside him, offering a grin.
"Because I think having a Commander who's actually nice and listens before going on insane missions might just be too lucky," Garrus snorted as he walked past, Javik right behind him. "So we'll just have to settle with Kaidan convincing the Commander for us."
"Yeah, in the bedroom," Joker laughed, wincing and crying "hey!" when Shepard smacked him in the back of the head, thankfully not turning red. That would've been awkward. Garrus laughed though, shaking his head affectionately before leading Javik out of the room, making their way down to the lower decks together.
Shepard's smile followed them, and overwhelming feeling of love for the two warming up inside him and frankly he was scared about that. He'd never had much time for family, but the way his whole crew acted was enough to practically warm his lonely heart.
Not to mention Kaidan.
"Ugh, you've got the Kaidan face going on. Stop thinking about him."
Shepard laughed and shoved Joker playfully just as Kaidan finally looked up and spotted them, smiling brightly as he wandered over with his new two mugs.
"Shepard!" he chirped, grinning as he leaned in to brush a kiss over the Commander's cheek while Joker gagged, "I thought you were looking over the Shadow Broker records with Liara for last minute information?"
"I was, thought I'd come in for some coffee myself, keep me awake," he replied smoothly, cuffing the back of Joker's head with a grin, "what about you? I thought you were doing last minute preps with Tali?"
"Coffee break," Kaidan grinned, holding up the two mugs before he was pressing one into Shepard's hand and the other in Joker's, "but I guess I can make more." Without really waiting for an affirmative or not, he pecked Shepard again lightly, ruffled Joker's hair and wandered off, calling a "Go back to work, slackos!" over his shoulder with a wave.
"You know, always knew he was gay," Joker commented, getting another smack and Shepard had a fleeting thought of wondering if the guy liked being beaten up. He heard the snigger beside him, and looking down and seeing the smile on Joker's face made him return it with his own.
"You're an ass."
"You like the ass. Never pegged you for a gay though, I have to admit."
Shepard snorted into his cup before taking a drink, smiling at the flavour and seeing Joker drink his own, nose wrinkling, "don't like it?"
"Different."
"Kaidan has his with a tablespoon of sugar, cream and lots of milk."
"No wonder, I have mine black."
Shepard laughed and shook his head, flashing Kaidan a grin as he looked over, "so do I. But they are technically his coffees so we get what we're giving really."
"Not complaining."
Almost simultaneously the two turned and left the room, making their way up towards the cockpit where Joker slid into his chair appreciatively, sighing with relief and Shepard grinned as he perched on the armrest of the chair, looking over all the control panels and screens. He could see one on every crew member, Tali working at a terminal, Javik and Garrus seeming to be arguing over some object, Liara recording some sort of hologram, Vega in the middle of cleaning his weapons with Cortez, EDI in a discussion with Chakwas, Traynor looking to be giving some interview with Diana.
"Do you watch them?"
"I have a camera trained on every member of the crew, EDI's idea. We wanted to make sure the crew was okay," Joker replied easily, leaning over to watch the crew as well before tapping at one of the screens, "there goes your boyfriend."
And Shepard watched enraptured as Kaidan made his way down to the lower decks, seeming to pause at every crew mate. He stopped at Javik and Garrus, swooping up their dirty mugs and taking them away, passed Liara a food bar of some sort, handed Chakwas a glass of brandy and kissed EDI's cheek -much to Joker's disgust, and quick reassurance of "he's banging Shepard, and gay, don't worry"-, kissed both Traynor and Diana on the cheek and held out coffees, dropped a plate of sandwiches between a squabbling Vega and Cortez, and stopped to converse with Gabby, Ken and Adams.
"His idea of work aye? He reminds me a bit of a mother."
"Have you got sound?"
"Well, if you're the daddy of the crew, he's technically the mummy," Joker quipped as he reached over and hit the switch, stopping Shepard from hitting him as he started listening.
"You're a lifesaver, Major," Gabby was saying as she removed another mug from Kaidan's loaded arms, taking a sip and moaning. Ken watched her with almost hungry eyes as he winked at Kaidan, taking another mug from him.
"Does the Commander get special treatment like this? Or is it other kinds…?" he asked, ignoring the all but shrieked KEN from Adams.
"I don't know Kenny, does Gabby get special treatment from you? Or are you too busy drooling over her to do much else?"
Even Shepard grinned at that one, laughing at Joker's hiss of "would you like some ice for that burn" as Ken's mouth moved open and shut, Gabby's face flamed up and Adams awarded Kaidan with a high-five. The Major offered them all smiles again before handing the last mug to Adams and depositing some food, murmuring another "get back to work" before disappearing from sight again.
"Your boy has sass," Joker chuckled, smiling up at Shepard who looked pretty pleased. The sound was off again, apparently the microphones didn't work all that well down in the deeper parts of engineering where Tali was, especially when they were fiddling with all the bits and bobs. So Shepard just watched as Kaidan wandered over and handed Tali her own mug before fishing out a straw to hand to her, grinning as she clapped and hugged him. It was quite adorable really, how lovely Kaidan was with the crew, and Shepard smiled when Kaidan finally relaxed back to drink his own drink.
He looked away to see Joker watching him, his usual smirk a soft smile and eyes borderline sad, "you really love him don't you?" he asked, his voice seemingly hesitant and Shepard wasn't surprised when he all but whispered an affirmative. Joker just nodded and finished his drink, patting Shepard on the arm lightly before leaning forward to place the mug on one of the ledges in front of the controls.
"Here, I can-" Shepard started, reaching out to take the mug but he was stopped by Joker slapping his hand and yanking it away.
"No, leave it."
Shepard frowned, surprised when Joker didn't meet his eyes as he asked a quiet "why?"
"Because…" Joker took a breath before looking up and offering Shepard another small smile, "because with what we're going into its good to know there's still a little bit of kindness in this galaxy."
Shepard was stumped, surprised at the sentimentality coming from Joker before he nodded and finished his own drink, turning away to walk back through to the rest of the ship.
"Hey… Joker?"
He knew the pilot didn't turn around as he mumbled a "yeah?"
"Promise me… promise that whatever happens you'll make sure Kaidan gets out? Please?"
"You know I can't promise that."
"Yes you can, and you will. Kaidan needs to be alive."
"You know that if I lose one… I lose the other."
Shepard sighed, looking down at the mug in his hands, tightening them around the ceramic. He gave it a humourless smile, knowing that Joker could probably see him but not caring as he began to walk away, his last words floating over his shoulder.
"But we all need to know there'll be a little bit of Kaidan in this galaxy."