Shepard ran her fingers over the spines of the books – the paper books – wondering where the hell Kaya had found so many. The Chronicles of Narnia. Harry Potter. Winnie the Pooh. The Lion and the Mouse. My Neighbor Totoro. Kaguyahime. The Littlest Prothean. Primarch Victus Goes to Palaven.

Shepard chuckled at the last one. Kaya had collected a damn library of children's literature from every major planet in the galaxy. She had left a datapad filled with instructions, too. Summaries of each story. Which were age appropriate right now, which should wait for later.

There was a suggestion at the top of the list that Shepard and Garrus read them all on their own.

"Your respective knowledges of Earth and Palaven literature are sorely lacking. –K.C."

"A very thoughtful gift," Solana said behind her. "From Garrus's stories I had not expected to be very fond of Kaya. I was happy to be proven wrong, or to at least see another side of her."

Shepard smiled. Kaya had … matured since serving under her aboard the Normandy.

"You'll have to give Kaidan the credit for that one," Shepard said, stowing the datapad away in the bookcase. "When we struck our odd arrangement with the Council, she was a lot more rough around the edges."

"That's one way to put it," Solana said mildly. "Insubordinate and reckless might be better suited terms."

Spoken like a true Turian.

"She was dealing with a lot," Shepard explained, a little surprised to hear herself defending some of Kaya's behavior.

"Any Turian officer would have thrown her in the brig after that outburst on Palaven."

"Oh, trust me, I thought about it," Shepard said with narrowed eyes. "Unfortunately, the Normandy doesn't actually have a brig. Don't ask me. It was jointly built with your people."

Garrus called out from the living room, "What are you two talking about behind my back?"

"We were discussing your rather interesting ex-Lieutenant," Solana replied.

Garrus groaned from the other room, leaving Shepard to guess that this was not the first time the subject had been broached.

"And I take it the words 'insubordinate' and 'reckless' made it into the conversation?" he asked from the other room. "Sol, she had her entire childhood stolen away by one injustice after another."

Shepard had always found this particular soft spot interesting, leaving her to wonder what exactly Kaya had done to get under her husband's plating. It seemed most of the old crew – particularly Jack and Vega – had the same strange blind spot. Shepard had mulled over the possibility that Kaya had indoctrinated them on more than one occasion. But she suspected it had more to do with their role in training Kaya. Even Jack had expressed respect for Kaya's stubbornness on the training ground, no matter how much the doctor whined about it later.

"Actually, Sol was saying that Kaya had surprised her," Shepard said, walking back into the living room.

Garrus was playing on the floor with Ash and Andy, helping them build a tower out of some holoblocks. Shepard laughed silently at that term Kaya had used: exploding ovaries. It did seem fitting, given how the situation made even Archangel look quite adorable in his new role.

"I see what you mean about her moods being … fluctuating," Sol explained. "Even when significantly intoxicated, she proved herself to be quite graceful and kindhearted last night. It was not what I was expecting."

"Then again," Shepard mused, "pretty much anyone would look graceful next to a few drunken krogan."

A light flashed on the screen next to the front door. "Councilor Li is on vidcomm," the VI said.

Garrus grumbled something unintelligible before saying, "Send it to the study."

"I thought you were supposed to be on vacation," Sol said.

"Technically, I'm working from home," Garrus corrected her, standing up. "A Councilor's job is never done, as I'm learning. Hopefully this won't take long."

When Garrus returned, he passed Shepard a very meaningful look. Shepard put down the model Normandy – a gift from Joker – she had been flying around Andy's head with an impersonation of the ship that would make Tali proud. She set it down, gently, saying, "Okay, now it's your turn, private."

"Sol, we'll just be a minute," Shepard said, standing. Andy grabbed at the hem of her pants. "I'll be right back, I promise."

She walked over to Garrus in the kitchen, finding herself reflecting on how different her two new children were. Anderson had opened up much faster than expected, for all his shyness yesterday morning. Ashley was harder to read. Shepard could see how the struggles of her young life had made her much older than her six years. More importantly, they seemed to have imparted a severe mistrust of everyone around her.

Shepard knew that game. She had put up the same walls after Mindoir. But that knowledge of what was ahead made the battle only more daunting.

As she approached Garrus, there was a fire in his eyes that Shepard certainly recognized but had not seen in a long time. It worried her.

"I have to go meet with the rest of the Council immediately," Garrus told her. "Li just gave me an update on some very … interesting information."

"Oh?"

"An anonymous inside source just sent a mountain of data to the Council," he said in a rough whisper. "It implies that the Indigo faction in the Alliance Admiral Hackett was afraid of is still very active, and they're definitely planning something. It sounds like they've been working with data Dr. Marcus sent them on Kaya."

"Damn it."

"We still need to work on verifying all of this. It's also of note that Agents Van Dyne and Malik just went dark. They were the other two Indigo field agents."

"Should we call Kaidan?"

"No, not yet," Garrus sighed. "It sounds like Councilor Li had some doubts about the veracity of it all. Of course, she's biased. I wouldn't want to believe the Turian Hierarchy was up to something this devious, either. I'm sorry to leave like this, but you've seen what Kaya can do. If this is true–"

"Then someone in the Alliance is trying to take a distinctly Cerberus-like route toward building an army," Shepard finished. "And that deserves your full attention. Don't worry, Sol and I will hang out for a while. So much for that paternity leave, though, huh?"