Chapter four

It had been one hour since the Normandy had arrived into the Citadel and most of the crew had either gone ashore or stayed within their own decks. Shepard's small group had been through C-sec and was waiting just outside of Purgatory Bar, a club on the Citadel with dancing and drinking.

They had made a short stop here to speak to someone from their past and was now outside of the club. Kaidan held his head as a small headache spread across his head, though he tried to not let it bother him much.

Garrus, who was of the Turian race – like Saren had been, spoke with Shepard about the mission. His face had taken damage from his time on Omega and he had lost most of one side of his jaw. It had been patched up and he hardly noticed the change himself any more, but often he'd get a few looks from females of all races. He quite enjoyed the attention at times when they would show interest in him, but he had no interest in them. Garrus had someone he felt feelings for already. Not that he had told anyone this yet.

"Once we've stocked up on supplies here, and we've finished our missions, we'll head back out into space and see if we can't recruit more races to help us in the fight." Shepard said, rubbing his temple tiredly.

"Everyone is fighting off a Reaper or ten, it won't be easy. You saw how it was on Earth and back on my own home planet." Garrus said, his voice low so no others heard him.

People came to the club to forget about the Reapers. He would have disapproved of the notion usually, but he couldn't blame them. Most had come to the Citadel to escape their home planets which were being slaughtered by the Reapers.

Kaidan folded his arms, the headache subsiding again for the moment. He was one of the lucky Biotic's that did not have any worse side effects of the implants, migraines were the worst he had to deal with.

He listened tentatively to his two friends. The three of them, along with Ashley, Wrex, Tali and Liara had been there from the beginning. He was glad they were back together – or some of them anyway. They had yet to find Wrex or Liara and Tali was back on the Migrant Fleet, though Shepard had said he'd like to bring her along with them again. Her knowledge was invaluable, he had said. Kaidan had to agree with that.

"I understand we've all got the threat of the Reapers to deal with, not just the Earth... but if they had just listened..." Shepard said sighing audibly, still holding his head.

"The Council think they can ignore things and they'll just go away." Garrus agreed, "they've forced you to deal with this mess of theirs the hard way."

"Well, I can't blame them for trying to believe the Reapers were just an old myth, but you're right... thanks to them this task of saving the galaxy is ten times harder than it could have been if they had just listened." Shepard frowned, his lips thinning somewhat. He leaned against the wall, feeling the effects of the lack of sleep.

Kaidan pushed off the wall and moved closer to him, "You alright, Shepard?" He asked, offering a hand to the others shoulder. "You really aught to get some rest..."

"I'm fine." Shepard said firmly, as he shook his head. "You don't have to worry about me, honestly." The commander offered a smile to Kaidan, who wasn't buying his act in the slightest.

"Kaidan's right, Shepard." Garrus spoke up. "How can you save anyone if you're not rested? We're not needed for the meeting for a few hours yet. Get some rest, at the very least."

Shepard glanced between his two friends, sighed and then held up both hands in surrender. "Fine. Fine. You two win. I'll try and get some rest." He said to the relief of his companions.