A/N: To Suilven. Thank you for being my friend, for proof-reading my fics and for organizing that awesome Secret Santa fic exchange on CMDA. I wish you a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
Feliz Christmas! Merry Navidad!
Shepard looked out the tiny window in her cell to the snowy courtyard where she was allowed to spend an hour every day. She had been sentenced to house arrest, but since the only home she had had after joining the Alliance had been whatever bunk they would assign her to in military bases, she had been given a cell in the Cat 5 wing of the Alliance Headquarters brig.
That was where they kept all Alliance ex-officers that were being prosecuted for war crimes. The prisoners there usually left either for a life in jail or to face the firing squad. The military court offered no mercy for war criminals.
Right now, the Reapers invading Earth was possibly the only thing that could Shepard out of that predicament and that seemed even bleaker than the other two possible ends to her stay in the Cat 5 wing.
The dark, heavy rain clouds in the sky were not helping with her mood. Christmas was the worst holiday for her. She hated it ever since she had lost her family on Mindoir.
Her first two Christmases without them had been ones of utter misery and hopelessness. After joining the Alliance, she would always make sure she was busy with some assignment during this time of the year, preferably on some planet with a different calendar and no human colonies.
On the first Normandy, she had thought she wouldn't be able to avoid a Christmas party, considering how Ashley had been talking about it and planning it weeks in advance. But then Virmire had happened. Shepard had failed her team. She had failed Ashley, and Christmas had not been mentioned again on the Normandy.
Shepard might not have wanted a Christmas celebration on her ship, but there couldn't have been a worst way for it to get canceled.
After having been brought back to life, here she was again, facing this dreadful holiday with nothing but grief and tragic memories for company.
"¡Lola, Feliz Navidad!"
James cheerful tone and unexpected invasion of her cell made her jump and she barely held back a yelp. Damn. Being stuck in this place was making her soft and rusty.
"Merry Christmas to you too, James."
"Did I scare you?" he asked, a huge grin on his face, because he knew he had.
"Ha! You wish." She wasn't going to admit so easily that she had been caught off guard though. No way.
"I've got you something." James handed her a poorly wrapped box. He must've gift wrapped it himself and she was impressed that he would go through the trouble to do that for her.
Shepard had turned herself in and wouldn't try to run away; they both knew that, so James hadn't even bothered to lock the door behind him as he had come into her cell today. The real reason Anderson had assigned the lieutenant as her jailor had been to protect her in case the batarians tried to have her killed, after all she had been stripped of her rank and wasn't allowed weapons or any of her gear anymore. Which made it all the more odd when she opened the gift James had brought her and discovered it to be an omni-blade mod for assault rifles.
"You know I can't carry guns around anymore, right?"
"Yeah, but once they let you out –"
"If they let me out, it's to face the firing squad."
"Admiral Anderson won't let that happen."
Shepard sighed. James was just trying to be nice. It was not his fault that she was so bitter today. The gift he brought her… she had heard about prototype omni-blades being tested, but she didn't know they were already on the market, especially not as weapon mods. He must've gone out of his way to get her that.
"Thank you. I really appreciate it." And your faith in me. That's the best gift I could get this Christmas, she thought, wishing it were easier for her to vocalize her feelings. James deserved to know that. "Sorry I didn't get you anything. Do you think they might open a gift shop in the Cat 5 wing any time soon?" she said instead.
"Hey, Lola, don't -"
"Lola, huh? Thought I might've misheard you the first time."
"You kinda look like a Lola."
"Really? 'Cause it sounds like a stage name to me. Do I work nights as a stripper in your fantasies, lieutenant?"
"Now you do."
Shepard rolled her eyes playfully at him. "You're cute, so I'll let you get away with it."
He flexed the muscles of his chest and arms and raised one eyebrow at her. "Just cute? Lola, por favor, check out these guns."
"Not sure if I can fully appreciate them just by looking, you know?"
His eyes widened slightly, but he did not back down. "Go ahead. Touch them."
James was always flirting with her and Shepard had fun flirting back but, so far, neither had made good on their word.
So far.
Admiral Anderson got out of the shuttle in a hurry. Because of the holidays, Vancouver airspace and spaceport were busier than usual and it took his shuttle a lot longer to dock than he had anticipated.
He knew how hard Christmas day was for Shepard and, with her in jail, Anderson imagined it would be even worse, so he wanted to be there for her, to remind her that she was not alone.
When he got to the Cat 5 wing, he found it weird that there wasn't anyone guarding her cell. Looking through the small glass window of her door, he saw Lieutenant James Vega in there with her. The two of them were talking and she had a wide grin on her face like Anderson hadn't seen in years.
Looking more closely, Anderson noticed Shepard was touching James' chest, tracing his muscles with her fingers. It seemed… intimate. Then the lieutenant put a hand on her hip, drawing her closer and Anderson turned to leave. Were this any other day, he would've interrupted them and called them both out on their inappropriate behavior. He would've transferred James to a different posting and probably given him a disciplinary warning, too.
But this wasn't any other day; it was Christmas and Shepard deserved not to be miserable on this day for once. Anderson could always come back later to see her and he could wait until tomorrow to give James his deserved dressing down. Right now, though, he would let his two irresponsible rule-breaking kids have some privacy.
"Anderson!" Shepard spotted him at the door and invited him in as if she were someone who was having friends over at home and not a prisoner in jail.
James quickly stepped away from her and saluted the admiral formally.
"At ease, lieutenant. Shepard, I brought you something. Merry Christmas." Anderson gave her a bottle of a thirty-year-old scotch, which wasn't exactly easy to find these days. It had cost him an indecent amount of money.
Unceremoniously, she opened it and took a swig straight from the bottle. "What?" she said in response to his and James' shocked expressions. "Too many people want me dead. If I save this for some other time, I might never get to have it."
Anderson immediately felt like he could use a drink, too. Anything to help him wash down the bitter taste that cold hard truth had left in his mouth. Taking the bottle from her, he took a long swig of the pricey scotch.
If anyone had for a moment forgotten her predicament, it had been him and not her.
She deserved better than this and Anderson wished he could do more than just take advantage of his admiral status to smuggle in some booze for her.
"Hey, you two, quit hogging the scotch," James said. "Sir. Ma'am," he hastily added in his best serious and respectful tone .
Shepard tried, but she couldn't keep a straight face at his antics. Smiling, she passed him the bottle.
"Gracias, Lola." James winked at her and took a swig.
Night had fallen in Vancouver when the admiral finally left the Alliance HQ. He hadn't realized he had spent so much time with Shepard and James. Out of curiosity, he checked the HQ roster. Hadn't James' shift ended already?
When he got to the lieutenant's name on the list, Anderson was surprised to find out today was his day off. James had spent Christmas in a prison cell with Shepard by choice and not out of obligation.
Anderson was astounded. He remembered how comfortable Shepard and James were with each other, how easily the lieutenant had made her smile. Right then he decided he could overlook their inappropriate touches and impending break of fraternization regs. Some things were more important than the Alliance rulebook. Seeing the woman he loved like a daughter having someone care so much about her and make her smile after everything she had been through — and with all the uncertainty that still lay ahead of her — was one of them.