Written for the Short Fiction Weekly Challenge on Tumblr.

Prompt: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words ( Write the "thousand words" (figuratively) behind the picture and share both if you can.)

Words: 500+

Characters: FemShep/James Vega (From my story, The Shelter of Each Other, though this easily stands alone)

BioWare owns all, I just can't leave it alone.

"James, hold up. You dropped something."

Kneeling down, Shepard picked up the piece of paper that had fallen out of the lieutenant's pocket. She turned it over in her hands as she stood up and then frowned when she realized what she was looking at. Looking up, she saw James looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"James, what is this?"

"Uh...you?"

"I can see that. Why do you have a picture of me in your pocket?"

While she waited for him to answer, she looked closer at the picture, trying to place where and when it had been taken. She looked so much younger! It was just her face, but it looked as if it had been torn from a larger picture. Recognizing some of the landscape in the background, she realized it must have been taken on the Citadel. Judging from her appearance, she guessed it was from when she had been made a Spectre. God, that felt like so long ago. Was it possible that it was only a little over two years?

"I, uh...well, see…"

Shepard couldn't stop the grin that slowly spread across her face as she watched James stutter.

"Are you blushing, Lieutenant?"

"No! I mean, maybe?" He took a deep breath and then finally met her eyes, though he still looked like he would rather be anywhere else. "I don't know if you knew this or not, but for a while after you...died, the Alliance had these posters everywhere. I was on a remote colony and they actually had the paper versions. They weren't...well received. This one was torn in two and lying on the ground."

"I'd heard something about that. Heard it didn't last long." He nodded and she continued. "But that still doesn't explain how it ended up in your pocket two years later."

"Commander, I...you were an inspiration to me. The only thing I've ever been good at in my life was being a marine and your actions and accomplishments motivated me." He shrugged. "I just thought you deserved better than that, so I took it. And I decided to keep it as a reminder of what I was working towards."

Shepard studied the man in front of her, seeing him in a new light. Even though he'd only served as her bodyguard, and only for the last couple of weeks, she knew that he was a more than capable soldier. Hackett wouldn't have chosen him otherwise. But that was all she really knew about him.

He'd just told her more about himself than she suspected he realized. It made her want to find out more, but first she needed to get one thing out of his head.

"Don't try to be me, Lieutenant. Hell, look at where I am now."

He looked at her in surprise. "Um...No offense, Commander, but I'm not trying to be you. I'm trying to be better than you."

It was her turn to look surprised as he took the picture from her hand, put it back in his pocket, and turned around to continue leading her back to her quarters. A smile crept across her face as she followed him. Realizing that he was full of surprises, she decided that she was beginning to like James Vega. Maybe having a bodyguard wouldn't be so bad after all.