For a mechanical woman, she was a lot lighter than James figured she was. He lugged the thing up the ramp, and into the elevator.

As the three of them waited, Vega took a glance towards Shepard. She was wearing a very serious face, but Dr. T'soni and him knew that she was a lot more worried about him than she let on.

'Maybe he didn't make a move on her, and she really did like him?' He wondered

The elevator seemed to take forever. When it made it to its destination, it whipped open its doors, and the Commander hastily rushed through it. The doctor slowly hobbled into the med bay, with James following close behind. Major Alenko was already on a sick bed by the time they had gotten there. James whipped the robot onto an empty sick bed across from him.

"Kaiden needs medical attention." James could hear the doctor say, "We have to leave the Sol system. "

"I know."

Vega knew it was better than to turn around now.

"The Citadel is our best chance. We can find help there."

"Get us to the Citadel, Joker."

Joker responded, "Rodger that."

"Hold on, Kaiden..."

James didn't know what it was, but suddenly, he felt a little annoyed. Sure, he should feel bad about Major Alenko's injuries, but something else just made him suddenly hate him. But why?

Vega blocked out what EDI was saying over the intercom as he was sorting out his own thoughts.

Before he knew it, though, Shepard was gone.

'No reason to sit around here...'

James paced over to the men's bathroom, and locked the door behind him. He ripped off his armor and threw it to one corner of the bathroom.

He didn't care right now. All he wanted was a nice, cool shower.

The feeling of the cold water against his skin was like all his frustrations washing away. He wasn't on Mars. He wasn't cooped up on a Kodiak while everyone else was in action. He wasn't even DRIVING the damn thing.

'Well, at least we got the data. Bet the Illusive Man must be boiling with rage for our snag.'

That definitely put a smile on his face. He finished with his shower, wrapped himself in a towel, and grabbed his gear. Boy was he glad he had already loaded his stuff on the Normandy BEFORE the Reaper invasion. Vega quickly strutted into the crew's quarters, and dropped his gear onto his bed. He then quickly changed into a set of fresh clothes, then took his armor with him to the hanger.

"So Vega, gonna cough up the money to replace our spare Kodiak?" Steve Cortez joked

He knew Steve from before the Normandy back on Fehl Prime, when it wasn't being attacked.

"That's what the Alliance is there for, Esteban."

"Heh, guess you're right, but man are they gonna be pissed!"

"True to that!"

James grabbed a set of his dumbbells and proceeded to curl.

"And I also see you're not gonna do your job here either."

"Not now. We're heading to the Citadel, and I plan on visiting it."

"Well, with Shepard as commanding officer, bet you can hit the Presidium. Have you ever been there?"

"Nope. Might make a trip there to see what all the fuss is about."

Cortez was silent.

"... seriously, man, are you ok?"

"Yeah, Estaban, I'm fine."

The exercise kept his mind off of what happened.