Disclaimer: BioWare owns all of these fun toys we like to play with
As always, thanks to Brodyaha and SiaLater for making sure that the chapter is the best that I am able to make it.
Mood Music: "Terrible Lie" by Nine Inch Nails and "Mr. Brightside" by Killers
More Elcor
Kimbri awoke and blearily looked around, disappointed that Kaidan wasn't there. Was it a dream? At least it wasn't a nightmare. But if it was just a dream, couldn't we at least have had sex? Then she noticed the rumpled sheets on the other side of the bed and the pillow that still held an imprint from his head. She smiled and scooted over to that side of the bed, enjoying the lingering warmth and scent that his body had left behind. She stretched and got out of bed. She brushed her teeth and hair and wandered into the living room. Kaidan was on the couch studying something on a datapad. She sat next to him and ran her fingers over his forehead to smooth the lines of concentration. She thought he looked really cute when his attention was so focused. But the tension that was behind those lines could lead to migraines.
"Credit for your thoughts?"
He sighed. "More Elcor."
Kimbri rolled her eyes. "You've lost me already, Alenko."
He turned the datapad off and leaned his head back, massaging the bridge of his nose. "Shepard, is there anything that I should know about any of your crewmembers on the Normandy?"
She frowned in concentration. "Sure, there's tons that you should know about them before you ever even consider stepping foot aboard my ship. Like, don't wander downstairs in engineering by yourself. Jack doesn't really like company. Actually, just don't go anywhere alone on the Normandy." He opened his mouth in protest but she cut him to the chase, "Not that you wouldn't be trusted—just that Chambers can be…quite determined. All it takes is a secluded hallway and about 30 seconds for a male on my ship to become cornered by her. And while I don't entirely trust the little Cerberus chit, she is efficient. So I'd rather not be forced to space her ass for her hitting on you. But I had assumed that the Alliance would have given you dossiers on my people."
Kaidan averted his gaze and shifted his weight uncomfortably but he remained stoically silent. "Talk to me, Kaidan. You know that when you have those storm clouds over your head, it messes with my reception."
He looked directly at her, his eyes stony and his mouth set in a grim expression. "I'm talking about if there's anything I should know about you and the men on your squad."
Kimbri narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing his expression and words. "So…you're accusing me of what, Alenko?"
He stood, walked to an adjacent wall, leaned against it, and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not accusing you of anything…yet. I'm giving you an out—a chance to clear this up before it becomes a problem." His voice was low, controlled. But he wasn't able to completely suppress the blue electric flickering around his eyes and his right hand.
She got up and approached slowly, the cautious movements of predator backed into a corner. Her temper was rising as what he was implying was taking form in her mind. "Did you even read the message I wrote to you? Did it sound like someone who was frakking half of her squad?" Her body was humming as her fight-or-flight response stimulated her biotics. "Let me remind you, Commander, that you were the one who did the leaving on Horizon. You were the one that wrote a letter saying that you had started seeing someone else. And you were the one that wrote that you weren't sure if you wanted to pick up our relationship again. Yet I still felt like I knew you enough to be able to read your heart through the hurtful words and actions. I poured out my heart to you in that letter, Kaidan." Her voice went low, dangerous. "I'll ask you once more. What are you accusing me of?"
He took a step forward, glaring at her. Cobalt static buzzed between their bodies. He slammed the datapad that he had been studying down onto the table next to her. "Let's just say that I've experienced firsthand how you like to prepare the night before one of your famous suicide missions."
She was stunned for a moment and she was unable to breathe—like she had been hit in the chest with a rocket. She wanted her missing hand cannon…but she was not entirely unarmed. Before Kaidan could raise a proper barrier, a resounding crack of clashing biotic energies vibrated throughout the room. Kimbri grabbed the datapad and marched out of the French doors, leaving in her wake toppled furniture, some broken lamps, and an exact outline of her hand on Kaidan's left cheek.
Kimbri hoped that the sound of the crashing waves would soothe her soul and spirit. How could he say those things? How could he believe that I would have EVER cheated on him—even when we were broken up. I was never untrue to him. How could I? Not just that I couldn't do that to him. I couldn't have done that to me—to have betrayed my own heart like that. This was worse than him believing that she was in league with Cerberus. She wiped the tears from her face with her shirt and opened the files on the datapad.
The first showed her in the armory. She leaned against the table talking to Jacob. She heard her own voice, low and hoarse. Kimbri cringed inwardly. Right. That was the day after Horizon. I had laryngitis from crying over him for hours. She recognized parts of the conversation. She couldn't figure out what had bothered Kaidan…What the hell? Jacob had pulled her onto the table and was…pink skin showed beneath dark, both encased in flares of blue as they caused the table to rock back and forth. The datapad fell into a patch of grass as she dropped to her knees and wretched.
When her stomach had settled, Kimbri retrieved the pad with shaking hands. She didn't really want to see what followed, but she had to know what it was that Kaidan had seen. The second vid was in the forward battery with Garrus. Again, she recognized parts of the conversation about his impromptu wrestling with a former colleague. She heard her own voice challenge him to a spar session. But the part about it being a public match and his declining the challenge were missing. Then the scene proceeded to acts that she didn't even know humans and turians were capable of doing together.
She looked at the title of the third file. Thane. Of all of the men on the ship, he was the one that would have had any chance with her—in an alternate universe where Kaidan didn't exist. Although that would be a pretty bleak universe, she thought miserably. Krios was dark and dangerous—something that part of her recognized that they had in common. And although his belief system was different from hers, he did follow a strict code of morals. Thane had told her about his deceased wife and how he was alive with her. He had indicated that with Shepard he felt alive again for the first time after the passing of his wife. She could empathize. She felt the same way—but when she was with Kaidan. She understood how Thane could drop so easily into being a weapon. She had found herself doing something similar. When in a battle, her tactical side and battle lust would take over. It was wonderful in its anesthetizing effects. When she was in that mode it was just her, her comrades and her enemies. There was no room for the pain of the missing part of her soul.
It wasn't like that before—before her death. As odd as it sounded, battles were almost fun. She and Kaidan tore through buildings destroying every hostile in the area with their pistols and biotics. The sound of his voice telling her, "All clear, Commander," never failed to send shivers of pleasure through her body.
She mentally shook herself. She had one more vid to watch. Kimbri opened the third file and saw Thane in the life support section of the ship. Again, she recognized the conversations, although they seemed spliced together. Thane was talking about his wife, called Kimbri Siha, then held her hands. The parts seemed right, but out of context. Then began the visuals that even her Cain wouldn't be able to burn out of her memory.
She turned the device off, still feeling sick. She couldn't really blame Kaidan for his accusations when confronted with this. But those things never happened. Someone had set her up. Unfortunately, technical skills were not her forte. In the past, she had relied on Kaidan for that. He had a way with technical data. He was so logical—usually. Recently, she relied on Garrus or Tali. While Garrus would be interested to know and probably see what footage had been cooked up about him, she couldn't do it. Just too embarrassing—for both of us. And Tali? Hell, that would be like sending my little sister porn. No way. Then it came to her. EDI. The AI had access to all vid footage on the ship and could likely deduce how Shepard's image had been hacked into those vids. Perhaps she would even be able to trace a data trail to find out the person or persons responsible. Surely, EDI would be able to get to the bottom of this. Kimbri's omni-tool flared to life and she uploaded the data directly to EDI's interface on the Normandy. The hard part was going to be the wait.
Kaidan sat on the couch, his head in his hands. He could feel it coming on. The pressure that would continue to build in his head. He could take something. 'Chelle had given him a supply of migraine medications before he left the Citadel. But he wanted to feel the pain. Perhaps it would eclipse the pain in his chest and drown out the swirl of awful thoughts in his mind. He knocked back a shot or two of the Antivan brandy. Compared to how I feel now, the pain of a migraine would be merciful. Those images! He couldn't get them out of his mind. He didn't consider himself xenophobic. Hell, he'd fantasized about asari women just like any red-blooded human male had. But this? His Shepard sliding down to her knees in front of the drell…And Vakarian? The turian was supposed to be his friend. Dammit! Garrus had been there on Horizon. Couldn't he perceive that there were still strong feelings between Shepard and her former lieutenant despite the raised voices? Maybe Kimbri had turned to Vakarian for comfort after he himself had turned his back on her. Perhaps his message to Shepard had already been too little too late. Then Jacob. That was a double betrayal since he was a Cerberus agent.
It just didn't make sense. It didn't seem like her, which was why it had broadsided him so. Sure, she'd been rather hypersexual since the moment he had arrived. But he figured that it was because…because she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Not because she was a complete and utter…
He groaned and took another swig of the brandy straight from the bottle, dispensing with the glass altogether. How could she write the letter that she wrote after doing all of…that. It just wasn't logical. Shepard wasn't casual about this stuff. She was a born and raised military brat like he was. Military protocols were bred into her. He and Shepard themselves never had more than that one stolen night. Even with the loosened regs on the SR2 he just couldn't imagine her all of the sudden being so laid-back (so to speak) about sex—christening every compartment of the ship with any male available.
Something isn't right here. There's something that I must be missing. He stood, a little unsteady between the brandy and the impending migraine. He moved to the terminal and opened an extranet channel to Joker on the Normandy. It pinged twice, then Joker answered with a leering tone. "Hey Alenko. Surprised to hear from you. Didn't think you two'd be coming up for air yet."
"Moreau, what the hell was with you sending those vids?"
"I thought you'd like them. I know I did. Thought that they'd get you in the mood."
"Yeah, well, they didn't. And I'm just lucky that Shepard didn't have her hand cannon or I'd have gotten more than a slap mark on my face."
"Damn, Alenko! I thought you'd have more sense than to show them to the Commander! We already know that she doesn't swing the asari direction because of Liara."
Kaidan massaged the bridge of his nose. "Joker, what does this have to do with asari?"
"I sent you asari porn. You said that you had a thing for that in the past." Joker said in confusion. "What did you watch?"
Kaidan groaned. "Definintely not that."
"Kaidan, you're doing your silent-scary-angry thing. What did you see?"
Alenko let out a long breath. "Look. Do you have access to security footage on the ship?"
"Oh, hell yeah. Well, except for the Commander's quarters ever since she told TIM to take a hike. She didn't like me...anyways, you should really see some of the stuff that Chambers chick does. It makes fetish sites seem tame. This one time she-"
"Jeff! For God's sake stop! I don't want to hear about it."
"Geez, loosen up a bit, Commander Boy Scout. I'd think you'd be in a better mood after getting—"
"Joker," Kaidan growled, "can you look up time stamped footage or not?"
"Uh, sure. Give 'em to me." Kaidan gave him the date, times and locations from the footage, cringing at the thought of the pilot watching Shepard's sexual encounters.
"So…we have Shepard talking to Jacob in the armory in the first, her talking to Garrus in the forward battery in the second, and her talking to Thane in the third." Joker's tone became cautious. "Um, if I may ask, Commander, is there a problem with her talking to her male crew mates? You're not seriously that jealous, are you? I mean, she gets to know all of her crew—the women too. Even the Ice Queen. That's why they all follow her. Shepard cares."
A ray of hope entered Kaidan's soul. "Talking? That's it? You're sure, Joker? Nothing more?"
"Yeah. I'm looking at the footage right now. Her voice is a little weird in the one with Jacob. Bu…um…right. She was feeling like crap that day…um, sick or something." He changed the subject. "Was there something else that I was supposed to be seeing?"
"No. Thanks, Joker." Kaidan closed the channel. He felt better and worse at the same time. Kimbri hadn't...And what if she had? Could he really say "cheated" even if she had been involved with someone else? It's not like he had any claim on her. He could have made his message clearer. He could have told her he wanted to work things out rather than that giving himself an "out." He liked to think that he would have been fair minded about it. But he wasn't entirely sure that he would have. Not after he grieved for her for over 2 years. He didn't particularly like that revelation about himself.
There was no use dwelling on alternate realities. He had enough problems on his plate. Like having made unsubstantiated accusations and pushing Kimbri away again. There also was the fact that some unknown entity out there set him up to take that fall.
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Chapter 9 Mood Music: "Comatose" by Skillet, "There Was Another Time in My Life" by Reliant K, and "Call on Me" by Janet Jackson
