Kaidan returned home to hushed whispers and boxes sliding across the floor. Quietly he walked to the broom closet and grabbed the baseball bat his father had given him for his birthday and sauntered down the hall to his bedroom. Only when he was outside the door could he make out voices.

"Damn I didn't know Kaidan could be such a fucking nerd." A woman, Jack, said.

"Hey, punta, we are here to help Kaidan unpack, not steal his shit now put that away or I will call Miri on you." Muscles replied. Kaidan was confused. They were in his house, uninvited . . . to help? Okaaayyy.

"Can you two knock it off? Before, I dunno, he comes home to find us digging through his stuff?" This voice he didn't know. Before he realized what he was doing he stepped into the doorway.

"It's a little late for that." Muscles, Jack, John and their accomplice froze. Kaidan put the bat against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "Care to explain?"

John rubbed his head and went to speak but Jack cut him off. "We're tired of you being cooped up in this apartment all the time and thought we'd speed the process up a little. Well James did. So if you're gonna call the cops, it was his idea." Kaidan's eyes shifted to the black man standing in front of him. He had his hands up and the look he was giving him was a 'I was pressured by those guys' look.

"Who is this?" Kaidan asked not breaking eye contact.

"Steve Cortez." He replied holding out his hand. Kaidan bit his lip before returning the handshake. That's when he noticed it. There was a scar on Steve's hand. Right in the center. Carefully he ran his fingers over it. Then like a wave he remembered how he got that scar.

It was a humid summer night. Kaidan and Steve were walking home from a late night movie . It wasn't a date, just passing the time with a friend. Steve was wearing his favorite shirt, a black tee with some old power cars,his favorite worn out jeans and his boyfriend's sports jacket decorated with an embroidered "R"

Kaidan was sure they were being followed. He kept glancing over his shoulder and felt like another set of eyes were on him. He began to walk faster and Steve followed. Every time they sped up so did the person following them. Steve could see the expression on Kaidan's face change to that of fear.

"Kaidan what's wrong?" he asked now clearly frightened.

"We're being followed." Kaidan replied. Suddenly they were running, but Kaidan wasn't like Mark or James. He was scrawny and could barely keep up with Tali who was constantly sick. When Steve looked over his shoulder Kaidan was on the ground, screaming. The man who was following them had ripped his shirt open and still had the knife in his hand.

Doing the only thing he knew to do, Steve ran and tackled the man off of his best friend. Unfortunately, doing so caused the knife to go through his hand. He struggled to keep the man down.

"Kaidan. Run!" He yelled over his shoulder. Kaidan gulped and did what his friend had told him. He ran. He ran to Apollo's.

"Someone! Anyone! Help!" He yelled that over and over before Ms. Sanders came and held him.

"Hey. It's okay. You're safe now." She said.

Ave Maria Gratia plena

"My friend. He's hurt. You got to help him." Kaidan was now begging.

Maria, Gratia plena

"Who is your friend? Where is he?" Anderson asked.

Maria, Gratia plena

"Steve Cortez. He's down by Afterlife and Omega." Kaidan was damn near hysterical at this point.

Ave Ave Dominus, Dominus tecum

"I'll take Vakarian and Shala'Ran and we'll go find him. Khalee can you take Kaidan to the station for me?"Anderson asked.

Benidicta tu in mulieribus

"Sure. We'll go after you." She said. At this point Shala'Ran and Sorius, Garrus's father, were behind them and were ready to hunt. Anderson nodded.

"Let's go. We have a predator to catch." And with that they turned and left.

Slowly as if waking from a really bad nightmare, Kaidan found were the singing was coming from. When he realized where he was, he was on the ground in the fetal position against the wall, and he was crying. John was rubbing his arms and singing quietly. Muscles, James, was next to him. Jack was standing with her arms across her chest, and Steve had his arms wrapped protectively around his waist. Everyone of them had looks that were a mix between worry and helplessness.

"You okay?" James asked. Kaidan nodded.

"Yeah, just a bad memory." Kaidan responded. John helped him up onto his feet and then gave him a hug. Kaidan barely resisted the tears that threatened to spill again.

"It was that night again wasn't it?" Steve kept his gaze on the ground. The arms around his waist tightened. Kaidan's response was almost inaudible.

"Yeah."

"It's not your fault Kaidan." Steve stated looking up. "I could have kept running. I could have let him do to you what he did to me. I could have let him kill you."

Kaidan was now completely curious.

"What exactly did you remember?" Jack asked

"I remember being stalked, Steve getting stabbed in the hand and running to Apollo's. After that there's nothing."

Steve looked up. His eyes filled with both shock and relief.

"Good. You don't need to know what happened afterword anyway." Kaidan, John and James looked at him with confusion and surprise. "You'd probably blame yourself, like you did back then."

"Do you want us to leave?" John asked wiping the stray tears from Kaidan's eyes. Kaidan shook his head.

"No. No, you guys wanted to help. You should help. Besides," Kaidan let a smile come to his face. It was small but it was there, "The less time I spend unpacking the more I get to spend with you guys right?" John let a smile sneak up on him, as did James. When they turned to Jack, she was already ripping into a box labeled Underwear.

With a victorious grin she pocketed his favorite Doctor Who TARDIS boxers. James went downstairs to the kitchen to cook some dinner for the volunteers and the conscripted Kaidan, While Kaidan and John finished the bedroom. Jack and Steve went downstairs to the living room and worked on it. Kaidan finally got a good look at his bedroom. Shepard and Jack had moved some of his furniture into a design that was relaxing to him. He didn't know why he found it that way but he did. The furniture was black and white as was Kaidan's lamps.

John remembered where Kaidan stored his clothes and how and worked on that while his ex put books on the bookshelf James had built.

Shepard ripped open the box of tee shirts and grabbed a hand full of hangers. Carefully he unfolded every shirt and hung them up with the front facing toward the left. He smiled as he recognized the designs on some. They weren't as faded as their older counterparts, but each one had a certain significance. There were seven in all. The first one Kaidan had wore on their first date. The Second one was their first kiss. The third the time Shepard took Kaidan's virginity. The forth one their first fight. The fifth one was their first vacation together. The sixth one was the day of the accident. The incident with Steve. The last one, Kaidan had wore on the day of the fire. The day Shepard thought he was gone for good.

Shepard wondered to himself if Kaidan had known that the shirts held significance to them both. He wondered if Kaidan remembered more than he let on. With a sigh he went to put Kaidan's jeans away. Stacking them neatly into the second drawer in his dresser. It took Kaidan a while to notice what he was doing and felt his cheeks warm when Shepard finally reached his underwear.

"Uh, I can get those." He said looking down. Shepard let out a small laugh.

"You've changed Kaidan. Never thought you'd wear these." The way he said that caused Kaidan's head to shoot up with lightning speed. The blush growing more intense when he saw Shepard holding up a pair of black boxer briefs.

"You really don't have to put those away." It was clear to John that Kaidan was acting very much like his old self, deer in the headlights. With a smirk Shepard threw the pair back into the box and walked over to the door.

"James probably has dinner ready. I'm also pretty sure that Jack and Steve are almost done with the living room. Wanna go check up on them?" With a smile Kaidan nodded. Together they walked downstairs to the kitchen where James had a nice chicken feast on the table. Jack and Steve had the living room completely furnished in a way that Kaidan was entirely comfortable with. The tan sofa was in nice contrast to the red wood floor. The TV turned at a relaxing angle for the group to gather round and watch some football or hockey. The fireplace was neatly organized with photos of Kaidan's family and his sugar cookie scented candles in perfect symmetry.

"Come on amigos, pendejo, food's done." James said after Kaidan got a good look at his living room. Slowly they moved to Kaidan's dinning table and sat. Kaidan took a chair near the middle. Both Steve and John took advantage of this and planted themselves on either side of him. Jack and James sat across from them. Soon laughter and light banter filled the room. Everyone knew Kaidan was going to go through a hard time. He needed to remember the good times, but at the same time the bad times just couldn't stay away.