"You've been very quiet." Shepard said as they entered a large suite of rooms one of Mantha's servants had led them to before quickly disappearing.

Kaidan glanced at her and then away. "Not much to say."

She let that hang for a moment and then looked at him again. "Not much to say or you're afraid I won't like the topic? 'Cause you've been chewing on something serious since Mantha told us what she wanted."

He made several steps into the large sitting room, saying nothing and then slanted a look at her. "It doesn't bother you that your sister contacts you after all of these years and it's not for a reunion? Not to get to know you again. Not anything to reconnect, but it's to kill someone. To do her dirty work for her."

"I knew when she sent that message that it wasn't for any frivolous reason, Kaidan." She responded, her voice carefully neutral.

"Really?" He responded with just enough of an edge to let her know he wasn't happy. "Because there is a lot of room between frivolous and murder, Shepard, and I don't like the fact that she assumed…rightly, it seems…that you would do it without any question."

"I owe her, Kaidan." The words were soft and a wry smile touched her lips. "Besides, it's a bit late for me to be taking the high ground when it comes to murder, don't you think?"

He stared at her and then shook his head as if in disbelief, his hand running fingers through his hair. "Shepard, I would like to think it is never too late to take the high ground when it comes to murdering someone."

"Kaidan." She sighed. "Look, if it helps you, think of it as doing your duty to the Alliance. After all, this prototype is meant for them."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "You don't know that, Shepard. This could just as easily be a setup. Cord-Hislop could be the proper owners and your sister's husband the one stealing the project. You haven't even bothered to find out."

She considered him for a long moment. "Okay. Let's find out."

Blinking his eyes, he gave a soft laugh. "That easy, is it, Shepard?"

"Something has you suspicious, Kaidan." She responded. "I trust your instincts. I trust you. If you say we need more information, then we get more information. Deadline or not."

He crossed the room, gathering her in his arms and simply holding her tight, loving the rise and fall of her chest as she simply breathed. After a moment, he cleared his throat and to her disappointment, moved back away from her, crossing the room where he could watch but wasn't tempted to touch her.

"I'll tag a few contacts in the Alliance and find out more about your sister's husband. I'll also tag a few less than upstanding and see what they have to say." He said. "Do you know her husband's name?"

"The background check I was able to do on the way here lists him as Todd Ian Morganstern. Mantha will be Samantha Rivers Morganstern." Shepard answered. "I can't quite see her as an up and coming businessman's wife."

"Was it the Mohawk or the tattoos that started you wondering?" Kaidan asked as his omni tool lit up and he began tapping commands.

"That's how she looked the last time I saw her, Kaidan." Shepard said quietly. "Tattoos, that hair. The pregnancy wasn't noticeable then, since I had no clue about it. But everything else…it's like she's trying really hard to remind me of those last days before the verdict, before I joined the Alliance."

Kaidan looked up, a smile on his lips. "I should have known better than to think you'd be taken in so easily, shouldn't I?"

"I don't know." She sighed and sat on the luxurious couch. "Part of me remembers her protecting me as I grew up. She taught me to fight. The only one who ever protected me, looked out for me." She scrubbed both hands through her hair. "But the part of me that grew up since then…the part that survived N7 training, survived Akuze and Saren and the Collectors…that part says there's a trap nearby and to watch out for it."

For a long moment she stared at her feet, working through her feelings and thoughts.

"If it's just emotional manipulation, that I can work with. Mantha always knew how to play others. Her favorite motto? Yeah, it was 'Use Your Friends Wisely'." Shepard rubbed the soft spot between her eyebrows.

"She never asked how you were, Shepard." Kaidan said quietly. "Not once. She didn't question you on how it was being dead, coming back to life. Nothing. Not even curiosity. It was straight to business."

Shepard looked at him, a bit surprised that he had caught something she hadn't noticed at all. "I didn't think of that. I just…" She shrugged. "Hell, Kaidan, half the time I forget it myself. My mind just skips right over it. It can't compute." Letting the words trail off, she studied the flash of emotion that crossed his face. "It's different for you, isn't it? You can't forget it…that I died. It's there every time you look at me. I can see it. Part of you is wondering how long I'll be around this time. How long it will be before I'm gone again."

He didn't deny her words, didn't say anything at all.

"Are you ever going to forgive me for dying?" She asked, her expression vulnerable and unbearably sad.

His face revealed nothing of his thoughts and finally, unable to confront that stone wall anymore, she dropped her gaze to her feet.

"You're not staying here tonight, are you? With me." The words were quiet and forlorn.

"No." He answered and there was a grief of his own in the simple response. "I'm not ready for that yet. I thought I was. That we could just pick up again…I was wrong."

Shepard began to slowly nod her head, forcing the denial in her gut from bursting forth in a shrewish scream. By the time she was ready to say something, she looked up and found him already gone.


He was a fool.

Kaidan stripped off his armor, carefully laying the pieces on an old fashioned wood dresser in the room one of Mantha's servants had led him to.

He could be with her right now. Touching her. Smelling her. Everything he'd imagined for the last three years…he could be with her doing right now.

Instead he was alone in a room just like he'd been every night for the last three years.

She'd looked so lost.

Closing his eyes, he could recall the sorrow that had her shoulders slumped, almost curving in about her. He'd wanted to go to her, tell her everything was fine and that he was just being an idiot.

But she'd been right, as well. The small, petty part of his soul still blamed her for a death she hadn't sought, hadn't wanted and even now could barely comprehend.

She'd mentioned on the freighter as they traveled that she was looking forward to the First Contact celebration. She'd remembered something about fireworks being synchronized in several different systems but broadcast in live time for the first time and she'd really wanted to see whose were the best. He'd gently told her that the live broadcast had been such a success that they now repeated it annually. This would be the third year.

All that searching for her, that hesitant wanting to believe she was alive, seeing her alive on Horizon, waiting for her on Omega, all of it, why the Hell had he done it if he was just going to sleep alone? Why couldn't he go to her, bury himself in her and act as if the last three years had all been the bad dream he'd so often wished it could be.

Hissing softly he rubbed a hand over the scar tissue on his left hip, feeling the ghost of the old wound reach out and bite at him.

The problem was he wasn't the man he'd been three years ago. He was the one who had lived through her death. Who had managed to pull himself back from a gulf of grief and depression and decided that if he was going to live, he would do it on his terms and never again feel the guilt for obeying an order against every instinct his soul screamed at him with.

The problem was she was still, at her core, very much the woman she had been three years ago. Some of her rougher, more renegade edges were more visible and she tended to reach for them more easily than she had while answering to the Alliance. But she was still a damn hero who would willingly toss herself into the line of fire if it meant saving the Universe or even the life of another being and she would do it all with no thought of him or how much it would hurt him if she were to die. Again.

But that was the woman he'd fallen in love with, wasn't she? If so, did he really have any right to ask her to change? To be something that she wasn't just because he was selfish and wanted to be the most important thing in her life?

Cursing his own muddled thoughts, Kaidan jerked on a pair of sweat pants in Alliance blue and then pulled on a matching t-shirt before sitting down on the bed, his back propped up against a head board and keyed on his omni-tool.

He had work to do. He'd find out more about this mission Mantha Morganstern wanted them to go on. More about this person she wanted killed. The rest of it…that would just come with time.

Wouldn't it?


What did he want from her?

Shepard stared down at her feet. She hadn't moved since he'd left the room with such silent condemnation. She'd sat there and wondered what she'd done. What she hadn't done. What she was supposed to do.

She couldn't bear to lose him and the icy, numb feeling in her gut told her she was.

She didn't know what he wanted.

Okay, logic. She would use logic on this.

Standing, Shepard began to pace the sitting room area of the suite.

Fact: Kaidan loved her. He'd told the Council to go to Hell. He'd waited for her on Omega, waited for her to show up, hoping she would survive the Collectors. Those weren't the actions of a man who was just interested in sex.

Especially since he'd turned down a sure shot at said sex.

Okay, so he loved her.

Fact: She loved him. She had told him…well, maybe not the words, so much. But he had to know. She'd told him things about her past that no one else knew. Oh, wait. She had said the words once. Sort of. She'd told him in the message before the Omega IV relay that she loved him.

Okay, she needed to tell him she loved him. Use the words. Speak them out loud.

Maybe she should practice that first, Shepard mused as the bottom sank out of her stomach at the thought of saying those words.

Would that fix this? Would he come back to her, then? Take his place at her back where he belonged? Where she could keep him safe and where she could turn around and know he was there for her the way he always…was…

She paused in her steps. Faltering as the realization of what she'd thought, how she'd acted, settled over her.

At her back. Where he would always be for her. Where she could keep him safe while she continued to face off against the Universe's bad guys.

Well, she'd made no pretense of wanting to keep him locked away where he couldn't be hurt, Shepard defended to herself even as shaking fingers pressed against her stomach.

Kaidan was a military man through and through. He'd told off his superiors so he could be by her side. What had she done for him? Told him a childhood story that she would never have revealed had they not been about to see her sister? Yeah, that was equal.

Kaidan had said to Hell with the duty that was such a core of who he was and waited for her on Omega. Waited, hoping she would survive and come there. What had she done? Sent him a pathetic little message telling him she loved him because she was too much of a coward to say the words aloud?

Kaidan had immediately made her mission…to see her sister…his mission because he wanted to be there for her. When had she ever…ever…been there for him?

Even once?

Her needs, her duty, her commands. They had always been first and back when he'd been a Staff Lieutenant and she'd been his Commander, that had been okay. But he was no longer a Staff Lieutenant and she was no longer his Commander, as he frequently needed to remind her.

Shaking, Shepard resumed her pacing, her soul steeling. Okay, she would treat this like a mission. A very important mission.

Mission: let Kaidan Alenko know how much he meant to her. How she didn't think there would be a whole lot of her 2nd life worth living if he weren't in it. She would use the words. She would tell him how she felt. She would make sure he understood how important he was to her. She would ask for his input on missions…maybe she'd even let him lead them.

She could do that. Shepard nodded, her stomach settling. She would be the one at Kaidan's back and support him. That would show him that she loved him and she wanted to be with him.

That would fix things.


Hunh. Mantha had horses.

Shepard strolled across the back lawn of the estate toward the corral. She wouldn't normally have been interested…what the hell did she know about horses? She'd spent the first half of her life in urban purgatory and the second half in space.

Apparently Kaidan Alenko knew a little bit about horses.

He was in the corral with a rope thingy and he appeared to be stalking a creature twice his size and more than three times his weight.

Personally, Shepard mused with wary fingers on her Hand Cannon, she'd have simply shot the thing if it didn't do what she wanted. That would show the other horses who was boss and then they'd do what she said. None of this chase around in mud and other yuck stuff.

Of course, she'd already promised herself that if it looked like that beast was going to charge Kaidan, she was taking it down. Maybe she should have her Widow out.

"You should have worn your armor." She called as she came alongside the fence.

The horse Kaidan was trying to capture spooked and went chasing off to the far side of the corral away from Shepard while he gave her an exasperated look.

"What?" She demanded, genuinely confused.

Kaidan gave up for the moment, joining her at the fence, leaning back against it on the other side from her. "I'm trying to catch the horse, Shepard. Your yelling makes it more difficult."

Frowning, Shepard glanced at the large red beast. "You should try a concussive shot near its feet. That would stun it long enough to catch." She patted her ammo packs wondering if she had any. "What are you supposed to do with it after you catch it?"

"Ride it. Which would be difficult if the horse were stunned." Kaidan answered with patience. "My parents have horses at their place. I've missed them."

"Why ride it?" Shepard tilted her head at him. "A hover would take you faster and more comfortably."

A corner of his mouth kicked up in a smile. "So speaks the city girl."

"Space woman, thank you very much." Shepard answered crossing her arms over her chest. "Really…what's the appeal?"

He looked at the horse, considering. "Nostalgia, maybe. They're magnificent animals. I had one as a boy I called Silvertip because of the white on the tips of his ears. He hated everyone else but he'd follow me around like a puppy hoping I'd have sugar or a carrot or an apple for him. I used to do tricks on him…have him gallop by while I snagged his saddle and pulled myself up. Sometimes I'd hang upside down from the side or ride backwards."

Shepard studied the quiet joy those memories brought him. "What happened to him?"

The happiness faded. "Brain Camp." The words were quiet. "I was sent away. They sold him while I was gone. No one else could control him."

Shepard scowled looking at the horse. Maybe if she cordoned off part of the cargo bay on the Normandy she could have a horse brought on board. If it made Kaidan smile like that again it would be worth it.

"So you have to be quiet and sneak up on them?" Shepard asked, narrowing her eyes in determination already assessing the corral and how best to corner the animal. She was going to help him catch that horse if it was the last thing that horse ever did. "I could cloak and come around from behind."

Kaidan laughed and reached out a hand, cupping her jaw before pressing a soft kiss to her lips. "You don't need to treat this like a mission, Shepard. I was just having some fun."

She wrinkled her nose at him. "What is that smell? That sweaty smell?"

He laughed again and brushed at his t-shirt. "That is horse, Shepard. Well, I'm sure some of it is me, but most of it is sweaty horse."

She considered for a moment. "I guess it's better than a Vorcha." A faint smile touched her lips. "Besides, I like sweaty Kaidan."

That earned her another kiss before he relaxed against the fence with her.

"How long have you been out here?" Shepard plucked at the damp stains of his shirt.

Kaidan shrugged. "Couple of hours. Right after breakfast. I asked Tayne and she said it would be fine." He looked at the large red stallion still eyeing him with wary distrust. "I needed some thinking time."

She licked her lips. "About us?"

Brown eyes met her own blue. "Yes." The answer was soft.

Her gut began to clench. What should she do? Go? Stay? Defend herself by demanding to know what he was thinking and what decisions he'd made? Or would that drive him off?

Biting at her bottom lip, she gave him a worried study. "Should I go?" The words were uncertain.

"No." He shook his head. "I was actually thinking of coming to find you." He took her hand in his, his fingers wrapping about her own. "I needed to see you again."

To reaffirm the fact she was alive, Shepard comprehended and sighed.

"Kaidan…" She began, unsure what she was going to say.

She hated this, hated the wimpy part of her soul that didn't know what to do and stood frozen for fear of making the completely wrong choice.

"Why don't you go catch your horse and I'll just stay right here?" She finally said, seizing on that choice. That way he could see her and still be happy chasing the thing.

"Do you promise not to shoot the horse if it charges me?" Kaidan asked in pointed tones, looking at her fingers which were still caressing the hilt of her Hand Cannon.

Shepard paused, considering.

"You do remember I'm a biotic, right?" Kaidan added, arching an eyebrow at her. "I could lift that horse and put it into orbit if I needed to."

Remember the mission, Shepard, she told herself before giving him a bright smile.

"That's right. Whatever you think is best, Kaidan." Pulling her fingers away from her weapons, she laid her arms along the top of the wood fence and deliberately put her chin on them, showing how much at ease she was.

He narrowed his gaze at her as if not quite believing her sudden acceptance.

"You know, that shirt is really wet and yucky. You'd be much happier with it off." She made the suggestion blinking wide, innocent eyes at him. Nunh, uhn. No ulterior motive here.

Another lift of his eyebrow and then Kaidan called her bluff.

"Good idea, Shepard. Hold onto it for me, will you?" He stripped it off with economical movements and held it out for her.

"Not a problem." She managed, her voice less than steady.

Ah, geez. That was so not fair, she moaned quietly, watching the sculpted muscles play beneath his skin as he took up the rope again and began to walk toward the horse. She could have sworn she remembered exactly how well defined he was. Remembered every sprinkle of hair from the curve of his pecs to the pleasure trail leading beneath his sweat pants.

Somehow, her memory had seriously failed her.

He began talking softly to the horse, the rope held in loose hands and Shepard could see for the first time the flair of blue biotics along the hemp strands.

"Isn't using biotics on the rope to catch it cheating?" She asked trying to be heard and not yell at the same time.

"So says the woman who wanted to shoot him with a concussive shot." Kaidan laughed back at her.

"My solution was practical." She grumbled under her breath and watched.

The movements were almost a dance, she finally decided. Kaidan would close in, stealthy but not sneaky, until the horse decided that more room was needed and would move away. Patient, Kaidan would continue, never stopping his low, soothing talk as once more he would ease the distance between them, trying to prove that he could be trusted. The horse was responding, too, she could tell. Ears pricked forward, eyes no longer as wild or fearful, he would allow Kaidan to come ever closer.

She was actually holding her breath when Kaidan finally slid the rope over the horse's neck, still crooning.

It completely sucked to be jealous of a horse, Shepard decided just as Kaidan looped a leg over the stallion's bare back and pulled himself up.

Completely sucked.

"I wondered if I would catch you alone." Mantha's voice spoke near Shepard's ear, nearly startling her.

Wary, Shepard glanced at the pregnant woman. "Should you be wandering about? Won't that make it come out?" She pointed at the large belly.

Mantha laughed rubbing her back. "No. Exercise is good for the baby. Besides, if I had stayed inside I'd have missed what a beautiful day we're having." Eyes nearly identical to Shepard's were focused squarely on Kaidan's naked chest.

"You're too pregnant to want to see a beautiful day." Shepard said in narrow tones.

Mantha laughed watching Kaidan gallop the horse about the corral. "I'm pregnant, LS, not dead. And that is some fine, fine scenery. Amazing what armor conceals."

"I've never punched a pregnant woman before." Shepard said idly and had the other woman laughing again.

"I don't remember you being this possessive as a child." Mantha commented. "I'm kind of surprised you're acting this way now. Especially after he requested a separate room last night."

Shepard deliberately looked away from her sister. "We're still working things out." She finally said.

"He's a man, Shepard." Mantha said quietly. "They don't say no to free sex without a good reason."

Shepard's jaw clenched. "I can tell you flat out you're wrong if you think Kaidan is like that."

Mantha put a hand on the back of Shepard's head and stroked her hair. "I just want you to be wary, Little Sister. Three years is a long time for a man. Especially one who buried you and moved on."

"We're working it out." Shepard repeated.

"Are you?" Mantha asked quietly. "Or does he have some other reason for being here with you?"

Shepard shook off the touch and moved away. "Mantha…"

"Just listen to me, Little Sister." Mantha took one of Shepard's hands and pulled her closer. "When you died, I was so angry. So mad at you. Tayne worships you and you didn't even know she existed. You didn't know about the two J's, my twins, who are just learning to speak. If it was that hard for me, Kaetayne, think of how hard it must have been for him."

"We're working it out." Shepard repeated stubbornly.

"Listen to yourself, LS." Mantha advised. "Look at yourself. You're hovering over him like you're afraid he'll just take off if you're not there to prevent it."

Stung, Shepard tried once more to pull away.

"No, LS, I'm worried about you." Mantha didn't let her go. "Do you have any idea what you looked like when you arrived here yesterday? Only slightly better than you do now. You're exhausted. You're stressed. He isn't helping matters with the whole 'work things out' routine. And he's Military."

Shepard narrowed her eyes at her sister. "Is that what this is about? I am Military, Mantha. I have been since the day you got sentenced for something I did."

Mantha shook her head. "No, LS. You're not. Not anymore. Not since you died. You're…I guess, freelance now. You can go where you want. Do what you want. You don't need to be tied to the Alliance, to the Council, to Kaidan Alenko. Not out of some sort of obligation."

"Obligation?" Shepard repeated, stunned. "Mantha…"

"Listen to me, Little Sister. You, who you are, what you've done…it's all bigger than the Military. It's bigger than individuals…especially ones like Kaidan Alenko." Mantha took Shepard's hand and placed it on her stomach. "What you're doing is for the future of humanity. For species everywhere. You can't limit yourself."

Shaking her head, Shepard stared at her. "Mantha, you called me here to kill someone. Not…not…politics."

Mantha tossed her fingers in dismissal. "I could hire a team of Vorcha to do that. It was an excuse to get you here, LS."

"Holy shit, it's moving." Shepard said in shock as she tried to jerk her hand back from her sister's stomach.

"She knows her aunt." Mantha said evenly, not releasing Shepard's hand. "Calm down, she isn't coming out just yet, trust me."

"Why are you pushing this, Mantha?" Shepard stilled, her blue eyes focused on the older woman. "What do you get out of this?"

"A chance to get to know my little sister." Tears sparked in the pregnant woman's eyes. "I didn't give you the attention I should have when you were younger, Little Sister. I couldn't even though I was so proud of you…everything you'd done. Everything you have done. Surviving Akuze, Eden Prime. Saving the Citadel. You have single handedly done more for humanity than any ambassador."

Shepard's eyes closed. "Mantha." She said quietly, the name regretful.

"Just think about it. Look at how big this place is, LS. You would fit in so easily." Mantha motioned to the house. "Tayne adores you. She has a right to get to know you. I want you as part of my family again."

"I…should go." Shepard said softly and this time won the freedom of her hand as she pulled away and headed back to the house.


What was that? What was going on?

Kaidan brought the stallion around again, his gaze on the Mohawk haired woman who wasn't bothering to hide the determined smile on her lips as she watched Shepard leave.

Surprise, surprise. There was a secondary agenda in drawing Shepard here.

"How are you feeling today?" He asked politely bringing the horse alongside the fence where the pregnant woman stood.

Calculated eyes looked up at him. "Tired, as usual. But I wanted to talk to you. I asked Shepard to give us a moment."

"You call her Shepard." Kaidan observed dismounting, his hands running up and down the nervous creature's neck.

Mantha's expression stilled and then softened as she answered. "For your benefit. I'm afraid that Kaetayne will always be my child."

"I thought you'd always called her Shepard. Even when you were children." Kaidan bluffed on a hunch and was rewarded with a disarming smile.

"That was what she preferred." Came the easy answer. "She wasn't much on sentiment , ever."

Kaidan studied the older woman, his gaze even. "I believe it was more of a lack of opportunity rather than a conscious effort. And Shepard has mentioned the same thing about you."

Mantha turned to him, rubbing her stomach. "Look, Commander Alenko, can I be honest with you?"

It would be a refreshing change, actually, Kaidan mused but only gave a slow nod of agreement in response.

"I want my sister to stay here. I want her to be safe." Mantha's words were measured and quiet. "I want her to rest and recover from everything she's been going through and I want her free of the Alliance and the Council."

Kaidan's dark eyes betrayed nothing. "Does Shepard have a say in this?"

Mantha made a dismissing motion with her hand. "My sister is a hero, Commander Alenko. She doesn't know how not to be. Unless I push her to do this, she'll let you and the Alliance and the Council run all over her until she is exhausted and burned out. I refuse to allow that to happen."

Touching. The hint of tears, the soft, maternal rub of her fingers over her unborn child, the concern in the break of her voice.

He didn't believe a bit of it.

"I agree with you, Mrs Morganstern." He finally answered. "Your sister is very much a hero. But I have to say, I can't picture her here." He motioned about the estate. "She belongs in space. It's what she loves."

"If you loved her, you would encourage her to do what was best for her." Mantha said quietly. "I know you and she are having problems right now. Shepard said she wasn't sure she wanted to continue the relationship. She said you'd changed so much."

Oh, direct score there, Kaidan thought even as the logical part of his mind told him it was a lie. Shepard wouldn't have discussed their relationship with her sister. Would she?

"No one could blame you, Commander Alenko." Mantha reached out, laying a hand on the fence as she looked up at him, earnest. "She died. You had no choice but to move on. It must have been so difficult for you, but look at you now. You've got rank and status with the Alliance Military…the same Alliance Military that got my sister killed."

"What do you want, Mrs Morganstern?" Kaidan asked, a thread of anger in his voice.

"I want my sister safe and sound, Kaidan." A tear trickled from Mantha's left eye. "That's all."

"You might want to get inside, Mrs Morganstern." Kaidan advised as the horse under him pranced backwards under his not so subtle urging. "I hear putting your feet up in very beneficial to pregnant women."

"Just…think about it?" Mantha pleaded. "For her sake."

"I do think about it, Mrs Morganstern." Kaidan told her quietly. "More often than you think." He gave a nod and turned the horse away from her, effectively silencing her.


She was approaching this all wrong.

Shepard lay on her back on her bed, staring at the ceiling, her head pillowed on her arms as she considered matters.

So what if she sucked at personal relationships? Her mistake had been in thinking it wasn't like a battlefield strategy. Her mistake had been believing that this wasn't a war when in fact, it very much was a war and guess what? Shepard gave good war.

Damn good war.

She should have remembered the flirting before Ilos. There wasn't any problem so simple in the Universe that Kaidan Alenko, bless his fine ass, couldn't think to death. That was his mistake…well, hers as well for allowing it. He should have said to Hell with it the first time he lost his temper over the datapad. He should have said to Hell with it when he learned there were surveillance bugs in her bedroom on the Normandy. They could have taken care of them in less than five minutes and gotten down to greeting each other properly.

Her mistake had been in letting him use his tongue for talking.

So the mission remained the same, let Kaidan know who she felt about him, but the parameters had changed and the battlefield had as well.

Honestly, had she really thought she could let him take point? That was her spot. She was the one out front who could assess and evaluate and infiltrate. She needed him at her back…not because that was where he belonged, but because that was how they worked best together. Yin and yang. Offense and defense.

Seriously, this love stuff? Not so hard once you dumped all the emotional crap out of it and treated it logically. It became very simple then.

She was going to get Kaidan Alenko alone and screw his brains out.

So. That problem solved.

Now on to her sister.

Shepard rubbed her eyes, angry and weary. Had it really been so long that Mantha thought she'd forgotten how good Mantha was at manipulating and lying? Or was she simply counting on Shepard wanting so badly to connect with her sister that her brains had leaked out and she'd become stupid?

To be fair, Maybe Mantha had no idea that Finch had approached her on the Citadel…or maybe Shepard's screwed up brain that had slept through two years was finally paying off with memories that weren't as old for her as they were for others.

The Tenth Street Reds were a human first organization. Dedicated to the supremacy of humans in the galaxy. A poor, stupid man's Cerberus and Mantha had been running that gang since Shepard was fourteen.

One thing she and her sister had in common? They didn't give up their people or their responsibilities once they had accepted them. The Tenth Street Reds or those on the Normandy, it didn't matter.

Mantha had overplayed her hand when she'd said Shepard had done more for humanity than anyone else and stressed the human aspect of her victories. Most would have commented that Shepard was a hero and left it at that.

Idly, Shepard wondered if Mantha would next ask her if she'd put all her past relationships behind her.

Eyes narrowing, Shepard smiled. That would mean Mantha going after Kaidan as well and if she thought she could trick that man, Mantha was in for a sad surprise. But then, this whole trip was proving that Mantha didn't know her little sister very well at all.

So what did she owe Mantha? As a sister. As a child whose life had been saved. As a teenager whose future had been salvaged.

Shepard's eyes slid closed and she inhaled through her nose, centering herself in the maelstrom of emotional pain blowing through her. With a grief for what might have been, she made her decision.

Before they left, Mantha would be paid in full.