"Was he cute?"
Shepard scoffed at her friend on the phone. "That is not what you were supposed to focus on Liara..." She shifted the phone slightly, looking out the kitchen window into the yard to see Sam scoping out the tree for his new tree house.
"Well, it is simply to get a better understanding of him." Liara defended. "If he is fit, that means he takes care of himself and has some pride in his appearance."
"Riiight, that's the only reason." Jane smiled. "He was pretty fit for a civilian." She admitted, it had been nearly a week since her encounter with Marissa and Kaidan. Not much more had happened either, this town was famously slow.
"...Was he wearing a wedding ring?" Liara dared.
"Liara..." Shepard warned, not ready to go through this speech again.
"It has been over a year since..." She sighed, trying to be respectful. "He wouldn't want you to waste your life in old memories."
"I am not wasting my life." Shepard hugged herself, trying to keep those bad memories at bay; the ones where she lost one of the most important people in her life. "He was my husband for four years, and the love of my life or nearly a decade..." Her knee started to ache through her jeans, as bombs filled her hearing; she closed her eyes and took a few calming breaths. "Excuse me if I think a year isn't long enough to move on."
"...I'm sorry, I just hate seeing you like this." Liara admitted. "Are you okay?"
"Everything's fine..." Her black tank top was starting to feel itchy against her skin as she lied to her friend. "Listen, I have to go help Sam with his new tree house."
"Oh, alright, tell him I said Hello and I miss him. Hopefully I will be able to see you two soon."
"Yeah, I'll tell him and I hope so too...See ya."
"Bye Shepard."
She let out a relieved sigh when she hung the phone up. Jane loved her friends, but sometimes they brought back the memories she tried so hard to keep at bay.
"Mama?" Shepard jumped at the sound of Sam's voice. She turned to see him standing at the entrance to the back door.
"Hey!" She carefully walked over to him, trying to keep the limping to a minimum, and picked him up with little pain. "Aunt Liara told me to tell you that she misses you."
Sam smiled. "I miss her too...When is she coming here?"
"As soon as she gets time off baby, I promise, everyone will come see us." She hugged him for a moment.
"Can we start the tree house now?" His eyes lit up at the idea. Shepard gave a painful smile at how smilar they were to his father's.
"You bet!" She sat him on his feet and laughed as he grabbed her hand to pull her outside, where a pile of wood waited for them.
"Whoa, look daddy!" Marissa pointed over him from the passenger seat. Kaidan pulled into his drive way and stared at the beginnings of a tree house in the neighbor's front yard.
"Would you look at that..." He mumbled in awe. It didn't look like that when he'd left this morning.
"Can we go help?" She asked with excitement.
"I don't know Mars...You made quite the impressi-" Kaidan jumped when he heard the car door slam then sighed when he saw his daughter running over to the house. He shook his head, smile covering growing on his face; he should probably be more assertive with her, but he just couldn't do it. All she had to do was throw him those puppy eyes, and he went down.
He walked over to the house, catching up with Marissa. He could see his new neighbor hammering away at the end of the nearly complete floor. She gave him a surprise the first day he met her, she was beautiful. Shepard was her name, right? He racked his brain trying to remember but her blonde hair and blue green eyes kept lashing through his mind. He had been meaning to come over with a house warming gift, but kept putting it off because he was not very good at social calls. The other neighbors were talking about throwing her a welcoming party, he should see when that is again. He noticed a little head pop over up and look at them, that must be her son Marissa was telling him about.
"Mama...That girl is coming." Sam was sitting on a tree limb, watching Shepard finish up a few more boards on the floor of his tree house. "And a policeman in with her."
"Policeman?" Jane stopped hammering and crawled over to her son. Sure enough, Marissa was standing at the beginning of her yard and a police uniformed Kaidan walked up behind her.
"Hi there..." He hesitantly called up to her. "My, uh, my daughter wanted to know if-"
"This looks so awesome, can we help!?" Marissa interrupted, already running into the yard to climb up the tree. Shepard grinned, wiping the sweat off her brow.
"The more help the better!" Shepard agreed, helping Marissa up. It was only a six feet off the ground, but plenty high enough for a nine year old girl.
"This is like being on Daddy's shoulders, but way cooler!" Marissa cried in happiness, her brown eyes glittering in the sunlight. She was really cute.
"You can help me hold the nails for Mama?" Sam offered, holding the box up to the older child.
"That is a job for babies, I want to help hammer something!"
Sam looked at the nails and frowned before sitting them down. "Me too Mama, I wanna hammer something!"
"Now, now...I can't have you guys running around with hammers." Shepard put her hands on her hips.
"But I don't want a baby's job!" Sam pouted.
"I don't think that's a baby's job..." Sam looked over to Kaidan, who must have jumped up on his own while she was distracted helping Marissa. He ducked his head when Kaidan smiled at him. "Your mother needs those nails to finish this floor, she must trust you a lot to put you in charge of that."
Jane nodded "You bet I do, he is my best helper." Sam picked up the box again, this time with a smile.
"I guess I can hold the nails some more..." Jane rubbed Sam's head and gave Kaidan an appreciative look.
"Thanks officer Alenko, you sure you don't want to change?"
"Ah..." Kaidan glanced down at himself then laughed. "I suppose I should, and Kaidan works fine when I am off duty."
"I'll keep an eye on the pancake monster while you change..." Jane pointed to the girl currently trying to hammer a piece of wood to the wrong spot. "I'll put her to work, that doesn't go there!"
Kaidan rubbed the back of his neck, smile in place; which didn't look half bad, she noticed that Marissa looked a lot like him. "Thanks, I'll be right back."
"So, your dad's the law around here huh?" Jane joked to Marissa as she placed a few boards.
"Yep." Marissa agreed. "Daddy keeps everyone safe."
"What does your mama do?" Sam asked curiously.
Marissa was quiet for a moment before she shrugged. "My mom left a long time ago..." Shepard stopped hammering and frowned.
"I'm sorry to hear that..."
"It's okay, we don't need her anyway." Marissa smiled, probably to hide the pain. "Me and daddy get along just fine." Jane began to stand up , planning on walking over to the girl to comfort her, when a stabbing pain shot through her knee and up here leg. She let out a gasp and fell backwards off the tree-house.
"Mama!" Sam screamed, reaching for her. She was waiting or the ground to collide with her back but got another surprise to feel a pair of hands on on her waist, sliding slightly under her shirt in the attempt to catch her. Her back was pressed against a firm, warm chest as she was lowered to the ground.
"Careful!" His voice was soft, but full of alarm. Apparently Kaidan had wonderful timing.
"Good catch daddy!" Marissa cheered, and Sam looked relieved. "I told you keeps everyone safe."
"Are you okay Mama?"
"I'm fine baby." She turned to look at her savior. "Thanks to you of course." Jane smiled at him.
He returned her smile then quickly pulled his hands away when he realized he still had them on her waist. He had changed into a pair of worn jeans and an old, white tank top. "Well, it wouldn't have been too bad of a fall if I hadn't been around." He was the one to duck his head this time; was he shy? That was just adorable.
"With this leg, it wouldn't have been a walk in the park. Thanks..."
Kaidan just nodded then cleared his throat. "Uh...I guess we should hurry up and finish this floor before it gets dark."
"Right." Jane agreed, carefully climbing back up with Kaidan not far behind her.