Innocent Smiles

"You need me to what?" Shepard asked incredulously.

"You said you needed a temporary job on the Citadel while you look for a more permanent one, right?" Bailey stated.

"Yes, I want a job...but this…this wasn't exactly what I was talking about…" Shepard bit her lip.

"Look, I understand your desire to be closer to Thane at a time like this." Bailey cajoled, "I understand that the Drell is finding the side effects of the cure to be difficult to handle, and you want to be by his side. But I'm not a god forsaken miracle worker Shepard."

The long-time soldier sighed warily. "What kind of work would I be doing?" She grumbled.

Bailey motioned for her to come around to see the monitor. He pulled up a site from the Extranet and showed Carina a nice-sized building she'd seen near the upper districts before.

"I've been searching and searching for a more permanent solution but it will take some time. With that said, an old friend visited yesterday and I might have slipped her a few details about your situation. Her name is Karin Flannery. She works at a daycare and cares for kids of just about every species." Bailey looked at her.

"Bailey…but I'm a soldier." Shepard protested.

"So was she," Bailey smirked and brought up a different file, "Special Ops and Black Ops Military Grade Training and worked for both. She's retired now, prefers to stay and take care of the kids and her own kid. Her husband died three years back in combat, so she came back to be here for him, her son."

(Shepard)

"Codename Wilder…that sounds awfully familiar." I muttered.

"She was part of your crew for a few days during a mission. You were dropping her off along with a few different scientists on a planet in an uncharted star cluster." Bailey said absently and turned back to the monitor.

"Ah," I nodded.

There was a moment of silence before Bailey sighed and turned to me again. "Well Shepard I don't know what to tell you. It's either helping Karin with the Daycare or you will have no choice but to go back into the field on another six year contract."

I considered my options. I could either risk working with children, and I'm not fond of those, or I could take an even bigger risk and keep searching…it was highly unlikely that I could find a job in time. I'd already been searching for a month. I needed to make some payments as soon as possible. Thane, Kolyat, and I were in serious danger of losing our apartment and getting Thane kicked out of the hospital because we couldn't pay. Kolyat was even starting to consider taking up his father's line of work for a while to help and that's the last thing Thane and I wanted.

"I guess I've got no choice." I sighed.

"Good, Karin's waiting for you at the café." Bailey gave me a cheeky grin.

I glared at him. "I swear, if you planned this-."

"I didn't plan this, if you took the job I wanted to make sure Karin would be here to meet you." Bailey sighed.

I grumbled but went to the Café nonetheless. I found the only human there was a rather skinny brunette woman. She was warming her hands on an old-fashioned mug and seemed to be having a good time chatting with the turian across the counter. I walked over and hesitantly tapped her shoulder.

She tensed reflexively and I noticed her fingers splay out and tense, a natural reflex to those coming back from war. It was the reflex of reaching for a gun…

She turned warily before a grin split across her face. "You're Carina Shepard?" she asked.

"Karin?" I asked.

"That's me, I guess Bailey sent you over." She chuckled.

The turian rolled his eyes and took her mug. Karin turned briefly to stick her tongue out at him. I must've looked confused because she found the need to elaborate.

"That's Ilex, he's an old friend. We go drinking together sometimes." she smiled.

"Drinking? Don't you run a daycare?" I tried not to glare.

The woman managed to look deadpan and amused at the same time. "Honey, I run a daycare consisting of twenty-six children minimum and a staff of three, myself included. And that's on a good day. You'll be begging for a proper sloshing by the end of the second day."

"I doubt that." I retorted.

"Yet I can guarantee it." she countered.

"I'm in the army and in peak physical condition." I said, "Did you factor that in?"

"My staff member, Abigail, doesn't have an ounce of military training. But, she does triathlons, marathon runs, and has a severe, yet medicated, form of ADHD." She paused to lean forward, "She didn't even make it to lunch."

I raised an eyebrow before taking a seat beside her. Karin gave me a gentle smile. "But it's worth it ya know? The smiles on their faces and the fact that they are so energetic…" she looked at her hands, popping her knuckles, "It's nice to see innocent faces after so much tragedy."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small grey colored square easily known as a credit cache. It held up to two thousand credits. "Here, for you." She handed it to me, "It's maxed."

I didn't even move to take it. "What? No, I couldn't." I argued.

"I guess Bailey didn't tell you the rest of my background…" she murmured absently, "Hon, I can assure you this won't go missed. Besides, Bailey told me about how you're husbands' in the hospital." she grabbed my wrist and put the cache in my palm. "My husband, Hiram, didn't die instantly. He was stabilized and rushed here. He didn't receive proper treatment afterwards because…well…we were both on military payroll. We couldn't afford the bills." She looked at me, "Hold onto him, for me and Hiram alright?" she gave me a bright smile, picked up the tab, and walked out leaving me gaping at her and clutching two thousand credits.

"That's Karin for you," Ilex walked over snapping me out of my shock, "She was called Wilder for a reason." He smiled a bit more calmly and then left to take another order.

I had to get home and tell Kolyat. I sighed; he was only nineteen and was so moody. We also had a sort of mother against son rivalry going on…

Ooh, he was so going to laugh at me for this.