Letting out a whoosh of a sigh, Kaidan rubbed his temples as he leaned back in his chair, stretching his back. He'd been at this for hours now, researching the main players in the club he'd spotted last night and taking notes on just who they exactly were. He'd found out a lot about them. Some of them seemed to be just exactly who they were, and he wasn't too sure if they'd know anything relevant to what The Illusive Man was up to.

What he really wanted to know was who that man dressed in black was. He had a pretty good idea of who Ashley Williams was. With a little bit of digging and some connections to the Feds he found out she was ex-military. She'd gone missing after a mission, presumed KIA and hadn't showed up on anyone's radar since. He knew she was dangerous, and now that Shepard knew, maybe she'd take a few more precautions when dealing with them.

But he worried about the man. He scanned through the pictures of Ashley's squad members and didn't come up with anyone who looked close to him. He scoured records of discharged soldiers, gave the description to his buddy who looked into other covert op teams, and still nothing. This guy, so far, was a ghost.

A nagging feeling in the back of his head told him to ask Shepard. Maybe she knew and had failed to mention it? He could coax it out of her with all the information he'd gathered on the workers at the club. It wasn't much, but it was something.

Picking up the phone at his desk he dialed the number to her PI office and was met with Samantha's chipper tone.

"Hey, Sam, it's Alenko."

"Yes, I recognized the voice. You want to talk to Shepard?"

"Yeah, I need to ask her a few things."

"Uh huh," Traynor said suggestively. "I'll put her on." He listened to the soft click and entered being on hold until her voice came onto the line.

"Hi, Daisy." He could see the smirk on the other end, and he rolled his eyes, but couldn't help the smile that spread on his lips. He chuckled and he heard her breathy laugh on the other end. "I heard that."

"Yeah, okay, so what do you know about The Illusive Man's right hand man? That man in black."

"You're presuming that I know anything at all."

"Don't play me for an idiot, Lon—er Shepard. I know you know something about him."

"What do I get if I tell you what I know?" She asked and he groaned. "Hey, you started this give a little get a little thing you know?"

"Right. Alright, what do you want?"

"What do you have?"

"Shepard—"

"Okay, how about you bring over some takeout from that Italian place across from your precinct and we can talk."

He paused for a moment. "Food? That's your bargaining chip?"

"I like food." She said simply. "I'm a sucker for carbs, Alenko, so you better bring me something good. White not red."

He sighed, smile back on his face, "Got it."

"Later, Daisy."

Roughly an hour later and Kaidan was making his way up the stairs that were now becoming all too familiar to him. He knocked on the door and heard her muffled voice, and she finally came to the door.

She had a smile on her face and it grew bigger once she'd seen the bag.

"I brought breadsticks."

"Man after my heart." She grinned, taking the bag and leading him back into her office. He noticed Samantha was gone and noted she must've sent her home for the night. "I've got wine."

"No thanks."

"Aw, come on. You're off duty right?" She sat at her desk which had been cleared of most things to give room for the food. She opened her drawer and took out a couple sets of silverware for them.

"You keep utensils in your desk?"

"Yes. Don't you?"

Chuckling he set the bag down on her desk and sat down taking out a couple trays of food and containers of sauce to place on the table.

"I miss this place." She opened the box he handed to her, and she began to pour the alfredo sauce onto her capellini.

"Yeah, the Captain said something about you going through the academy. Said you broke a guy's arm." He said as he poured the meat sauce onto his own pasta.

"For the record," She held her hand over her mouth then swallowed her bite, "he was trying to force himself onto another cadet. So I took care of him. She didn't want it to get out, because unfortunately it'd look worse on her than him, and that was that."

"Oh." He saw her a little differently once more. She was a protector, something he probably should've considered her to be from the start considering she did help a lot of people. She may have gotten in the way of numerous police sanctioned investigations, but there were a lot of instances where she went where cops couldn't go and was able to get the job done. He could respect that. Shaking himself from his thoughts he went to hand her a breadstick before pulling it back and watching her eyes begin to narrow slowly. "Who's the man in black?"

"You're bargaining over a breadstick?" She straightened before beginning to laugh. "That's playing dirty. You're not the angelic gumshoe I thought you were."

"Well, when there's information to be had, I pull out the big guns." He shrugged.

"Bread first." She held her hand out and he gave it to her. "Liara told me his name was Kai Leng. Then proceeded to tell me to stay away from him."

"Kai Leng? Why do I know that name?"

"Not sure, but already I don't like him."

"Look, Shepard, if she's telling you to stay away from him, we need to play this cautiously. We shouldn't get too close just yet."

She groaned, "Yeah, I know… I know you're right."

"It's not that horrible to admit when you're wrong is it?"

"Yeah, well, I don't really feel like waking up in an alleyway again."

Kaidan snorted, taking a sip from the wine Shepard had poured him. "I hope you don't make a habit of waking up in alleyways."

"I try not to. So what did you get on our Cosmic Love workers?"

"I'm supposed to tell you more information? What do I get?"

"I gave you Kai Leng, that's a whole lot of information there. I'm sure you've got some connections that'll tell you all about him."

Kaidan eyed her suspiciously. "Wait a minute, you already know more about him don't you?"

Sighing she finished off her glass of wine and he found himself doing the same when she poured them another. "Alright, yes I do. Samantha is great at collecting information and remembered this guy we worked with who was an informant of ours. Garrus went to talk to him about it, and he said Kai Leng used to be in the Alliance military as well. He worked on some covert missions and went rogue a few times, and got lost in this explosion, assumed killed in action, and never heard from again.

"Since they were embarrassed by his actions on several of the missions and how they let it get out of hand, they expunged his existence from the Alliance records. He's specially trained in all kinds of fighting techniques and weapon styles, and he's also very good at tech."

"Sounds dangerous."

"Apparently so. I'm not worried about him, but he's the one we should follow. Or Ashley."

Kaidan chuckled, "I don't know, you may not want to get near her again."

"I may not have to," She smirked. "I ran into James at the gym today and we had a talk. He thought she was as innocent as a sweet sonnet, but he knows something's up."
"Wait, you talked to Vega?" He quirked a brow.

"Yeah. We work out at the same gym. He came up to me and we had a chat. Bonded a little before we had a sparring match." Kaidan nodded slowly at her words. "What, you're not jealous are you, Alenko?"

He scoffed, "Why would I be jealous? So what, he forgave you for beating him up?"

"I don't know; I think he might enjoy that." She laughed. "If I continue to befriend him, he might just tell me more about her as he finds out her secret life."

"I seriously doubt that."

"Hey, it's something. We've got to catch Ash or Leng doing something. That'll be our ticket to taking down The Illusive Man. I don't know if we'll be able to do so otherwise."

Their conversation continued to flow, much like the wine as their meal was finished. Kaidan was growing more curious by the second about what caused her obsession with taking down The Illusive Man. "So what happened?" He finally asked. "What did he do to you?"

Her lips parted, a confused look enveloping her features as she tried to think. "There was… Something. I know there was… But for some reason I can't think of it…"

"I mean don't get me wrong, I don't need a reason for taking the guy down, but I was just curious. You seemed more hell bent on it. You took some risks and all."

"I know… He just gets under my skin. Now I'm really bothered why I can't remember what happened."

"Well, you have had four glasses of wine." Kaidan raised a brow and she began to laugh.

"I guess I have." He watched her take in a deep breath and sleepily smile at him from across her desk. A thought crossed his mind and he immediately staved the thoughts away.

"I should probably head out. Some of us have work tomorrow."

She scrunched up her nose and laughed. "I work too, Kaidan." He stood and she got up as well, following him to the door and leaning against the jamb as he stepped out.

"Shall I walk you home?" Shepard joked as they stood there together. Kaidan shook his head chortling softly at her remarks.

"I don't think that'll be necessary, Lonyn," he paused, staring at her, the urge to call her by her first name strong. To make her human, not to define her by just her last name which resonated with many who called her by just that. He placed his hand on her cheek, thumb running softly over part of her puckered scar and her cheekbone. Her light hues were haunting, right now they were slightly hooded from the amount of wine they consumed and the sleep that was nagging at them both.

The urge to kiss her was strong; like he had to savor every moment with her because the end seemed inevitable. The thought scared him, and he recalled his hand letting out the breath he was holding.

"I'll see you… Around." He spoke, and travelled down the hallway. "Be careful." He called back to her.

"Will do, Daisy, will do," she lazily said back to him.

Shaking his head, he made his way down the stairs with thoughts still nagging at him. Things just didn't seem to make sense lately, and it was beginning to bother him.

"What're we doing, Shepard?" Garrus asked as they sat in his car around the block from the club close to lunchtime. She was periodically looking through binoculars and he was growing impatient.

"I'm just trying to see if we can spot Kai Leng or Ashley so we can follow them." She said.

"Why can't we just go in there, rough some people up and do it that way?" He whined and she thought he looked like a pathetic puppy.

"Ah, come on, Garrus, you know you won't feel very good about that in the morning."

He chuckled, "You're just trying to stay on the good side of your detective friend."

"Oh stop, Garrus, it's not like that."

"Oh sure, you're saying that, but I don't believe it. The two of you were mooning over each other when I came in to your office the other day."

"We were not. Now you're just making shit up."

"Things about you that are not made up: you're a terrible dancer, a terrible driver, and you want the detective."

"Don't know what you're talking about, Vakarian. The Major and I are just being friendly."

"Major?"

"What? Oh, detective, you know what I meant." She waved a hand. She went to get out the car and Garrus grabbed her arm.

"Shepard, what're you doing?"

"Relax, I'm just going to go see if, I don't know a back door is open."

"You're not an infiltrator, Shepard, you're more of a stay on the rooftop with a sniper rifle type or let me mess your face up with my fists kind of woman." He said. "Stealth isn't exactly your strong suit."

She took offense to that, probably more than she should. "I can be stealthy when I want to, Garrus."

"Your track record lately has shown otherwise."

She pulled her arm away, straightening up an old coat of hers. "You were the one who was wanting to go in guns and fists blazing five minutes ago."

"I was joking, Shepard, I don't like what we've found out about this Kai Leng guy. We need to be careful."

"You know what, how about you go calibrate your guns or something? I want my damn coat back." She walked around the car, heading down the street and slipping into the crowd of people making their way and going about their business. She didn't know why she was so off her game lately, and it really bothered her. Just like not being able to recall moments that she knew were there, but seemed so clouded and fuzzy.

Like not being able to remember the core reason as to her investigation of The Illusive Man. He did something, and it was personal. A shoddy memory of her telling him to go fuck himself was prominent in a deep part of her memory. But why couldn't she recall anything vivid?

Slipping into a café across the street she purchased a mug of hot chocolate and a paper to peruse. She wasn't going to be an idiot. She really just wanted to get out the car and out into the fresh, crisp air. She periodically glanced between the patrons, trying to recognize any potential faces from the night she went to the club. No one seemed to jump out at her, and there was virtually nothing interesting in the paper to read.

She stared into her mug, swirls of whipped cream dancing as she slowly meandered her spoon along the inner walls. She could lie to Garrus, but she couldn't exactly lie to herself. She did want Kaidan, but not just a wham, bam, see you never kind of way. She actually enjoyed being with him, feeling as if she could share the entirety of her broken life with him. If she could exactly piece together the details she probably would tell him, but she was finding it harder to remember her past despite knowing she knew full well about it.

There was something traumatic that happened to her, looking up at the sky and the stars filled her with awe and dread in a single glance, and it caused her to question details until her mind fogged up and her head began to hurt. Something was going on. Something bigger than just this investigation. Maybe… Maybe it had to do with this investigation as well? She tried to brush it off; getting drugged didn't exactly help, and she tried to blame it on that.

Her thoughts were interrupted as someone sat at her table, and she immediately grew alarmed and was on full alert as she saw it was Kai Leng sitting there. Her hand settled in her lap creeped to her hip, resting on her gun and he shook his head, smirk settled upon his unsettling face. She hated him. She didn't even know him and she burned with hatred for him.

"Lonyn Shepard," he spoke, almost robotically, staring back at her behind a pair of black shades.

"Kai Leng."

"You seem to be doing quite the digging."

She contemplated her words, trying to choose them carefully. "Who says I'm digging about anything?"

"We have reason to believe you're running a private investigation into The Illusive Man's legitimate business."

She resisted the urge to scoff. "I was only at the club for a good time and good drinks."

"Yet, you were inside his office."

She shrugged, "I thought Ash was taking me to the VIP room to have some better quality drinks. Maybe you should look into why she brought me into his private office."

Smirking again, he sat up straight, "You're trying to play cute, Shepard. It's not going to work."

"Are you worried about something, Leng? It sounds to me like there might be something you're worried about."

"A piece of work, just as your file says." He dug at her.

She shrugged again, "That may be, but I'm not the one accusing anyone of anything here. You're making me wonder what the reason for this conversation is."

He was quiet a moment, eyeing her behind his shades. She couldn't see his eyes and it made her unnerved. "You would do well to leave The Illusive Man alone. You would also do well to leave this town."

"Am I being threatened?"

"Take this conversation any way you'd like, Shepard, but know this; we know." He stood, getting ready to leave as he put his fedora back on.

"So do I." She smiled back up at him. "By the way, I want my coat back."

Kaidan was back at the club without Shepard, but with Garrus Vakarian. He wasn't exactly sure that it was a good idea to bring the Turian along, considering he was associated with Lonyn's firm, but he let it be and figured for now he was safe. They seemed to be more concerned with her than they were with him.

The club was all bright lights on stage in a dimmed setting; cool piano music filtering from the swift fingers of Jeff Moreau. Tali was hitting all the right notes on stage and he chuckled as Garrus was intently watching the Quarian crooner.

"Looks like someone can't keep their eyes off of Tali." Kaidan laughed, taking a swig of his drink.

"What?" Garrus sounded startled. "Oh, no. Nah, she's… No. It's nothing. I'm just admiring her singing. She's good." He babbled, trying to wave off Kaidan's observations. "Besides, why would a gal like her ever look twice at my ugly mug?"

"Don't sell yourself short. You never know. You could talk to her during the next set break."

"What? Why would I… No, I can't."

"I didn't think something like this would get you so nervous," He laughed again. "Do you do anything other than work?"

"Uh… Well… Not really." Garrus scratched at the back of his head nervously. "I don't get out much. Mingling amongst the crowds like this isn't exactly my strong suit. I'm more comfortable when there's a clear cut mission involved. Get in, get out, get things done."

"Alright, how about this. You go introduce yourself to her, and I'll make the rounds and scope out more people. You can let loose and have a little fun."

"Right…"

"All I'm saying is, you look like you really want to talk to her. So go do it. Now's your chance, and she's been glancing this way all night."

"How could you tell?" Garrus dryly joked.

Chuckling, Kaidan patted him on the back. "I wouldn't exactly lead with that one when you talk to her."

"What do you—" But it was too late. Kaidan had gotten up and went over to Tali who was speaking with Jeff after she stepped off stage.

"Hi, Tali Zorah?"

"Yes? Hello!" She greeted him cheerfully.

"I just wanted to say you're a fantastic singer."

"Oh," she seemed to beam, "thank you! I appreciate the compliments!" She giggled.

"Also, my friend over there, the Turian," he glanced over, and Garrus looked like he wanted to hide. "He wanted to ask you something."

"Oh did he now?"

"I'll just warn you now, he can be a little shy."

She chuckled again. "Well, maybe I should go say hello then."

Kaidan smiled as she walked over towards the table, and if Turians could blush Garrus would certainly be doing that at the moment.

"Smooth move, Copper." He glanced over at Jeff who was about to say more when his attention turned to something, rather someone who was walking up behind him. Kaidan glanced back and saw Edi, and quickly slipped away to let another couple of lovebirds have their moment.

He debated on getting another drink, and decided to head over to the bar. Crowded as it was, he figured he could possibly eavesdrop on conversations, and that would certainly be the best place to do it.

Kaidan was making his way through a group of people when he was grabbed and brought to a dark corner devoid of other patrons. It was Ashley.

"Look, I know who you are, I know you're a detective, and I know you're with Shepard."

"No, I'm no—"

"I know. You can't lie to me about it, I know everything. I just need you and Shepard to know this. I didn't want to betray her. I didn't mean to." She seemed desperate, trying to make him believe her. Truth be told, she didn't give him a bad feeling despite looking at her file and knowing with whom she worked for.

"You're a pretty good actress," he narrowed his eyes at her, pulling his arm from her grip, but she grabbed his hand again before he left.

"No, just listen to me, LT, I'm telling you the truth. I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't want to be where I'm at, I swear. I… Please, just please tell Shepard I'm sorry." And with that last plea she was gone.

He felt sick to his stomach at seeing her desperation; guilt was washing over him. Should he believe her? Could he?

AN: Since this is a story from my Shepard and Kaidan's POV, I'm thinking of doing one shots of Garrus/Tali, Jeff/EDI, and maybe Ash/James after this is over? If that'd be interesting let me know (: