Horizon aftermath for humans.
Bold= Naira's thoughts.
Underline=Joker's thoughts.
Joker was sitting at the helm, checking the extranet for any interesting articles.
When he opened a questionable link, he didn't expect Miranda to come up behind him.
"What are you looking at?" Joker nearly jumped a foot in the air. He closed that link faster than anything you've ever seen.
"Uh, nothing. Nothing at all." he replied turning around to face Miranda, heart beating twice as fast and feeling the sweat fall down his back.
I don't need this.
"Relax; I'm not here to yell. I need to ask you a question."
Well that's unexpected.
"Uh, ok," his heart returned to normal.
She pulled something out of her pocket; a ring on a necklace.
"If you're going to propose….."
"What? No. Not at all. Why would you…never mind," Miranda shook the thought from her head, making Joker laugh. "As you probably know, Commander Alenko was down on horizon. As he walked off he dropped this. Any idea what it is?"
She handed the necklace to joker. He looked at it.
Huh. This looks like that necklace that Kaidan used to try to hide.
"I remember Kaidan wearing a necklace like this."
"But why would he leave it on horizon?"
"Well what happened?"
"He and Shepard had an argument, I think. They were out of earshot, and I really didn't care. Then he walked off, and she dropped to her knees. Then he dropped this."
"Maybe you should ask Naira."
"She's still in her room. I had to report to the illusive man, and Garrus and I finished everything on Illium."
"And no one's had any luck opening the door?"
"None whatsoever."
"Then I think we need to go to Haestrom."
"Can the Quarian open the door?"
"I'd bet on it. She and Shepard used to swap tricks a lot. If anyone can undo it, Tali can."
"Set a course then."
"Already on it."
Naira had lost track of time.
Maybe she had been in her room for an hour.
Maybe a week.
She really didn't care.
She just lay on her bed staring out the oddly placed window.
She watched the stars rush past.
We're moving again.
They had stopped at two planets since horizon, she knew that much.
But no one had opened her door.
That made her happy.
Minutely happy.
Maybe she'd never be happy again.
Maybe she'll waste away in this room, never to be found.
Then the door opened.
And in walked Joker.
"Shepard you look terrible."
Joker couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had never seen Shepard look this way.
For one thing, she wasn't wearing her clothes.
Just underwear.
She also looked like she hadn't eaten in a year.
"Go away Joker."
"Not gonna happen."
"Fine. What do you want?"
She still hadn't taken her eyes off the window. Joker decided to sit next to her; he almost stepped on the broken glass.
Poor Kaidan.
"Did you have to destroy the frame?"
Silence.
He sat next to her.
"What's wrong?"
"You have no idea? Hasn't anyone talked?"
"I want to hear it from you."
"Fine. Kaidan wouldn't listen to me. He thought that I didn't die, and that I had abandoned him."
"Ouch."
Naira looked at him.
"That's all you have to say?"
He smiled.
"It got you to look at me didn't it?"
Naira gave him a look of ridicule, and then noticed the necklace in joker's hands.
"What's that?"
"Actually that's what I wanted to ask you. See, you know Kaidan better than anyone. Miranda says that he dropped this."
Joker handed the necklace to naira, who was now sitting up.
She took it, saw the ring, and broke down into tears.
"What's wrong?" joker asked again.
"This," Naira said between sniffs, "Was Kaidan's mothers. She had given it to him when he enlisted. It was her wedding ring. Se died the next day. Kaidan proposed to me, with this ring. I told him to wear it, to avoid suspicion. I died the next day."
Naira broke down again.
"Shit." was Joker's response.
"Not gonna fall for the same trick twice."
But something was bugging naira.
"How'd you get in here?"
"Tali opened the door."
"Tali?"
"Yeah. While you've been moping in here, Miranda and Garrus recruited Tali, Samara, and Thane, saved Miranda's sister, and sorted out Jacob's father. They did better than you."
"How long have I been in here?"
"Two weeks. You look like you haven't eaten in a month."
Naira looked at her body.
"Not really. Growing up on the streets, I never looked much. Even after alliance training I still didn't weigh much."
"Is this relevant?"
"I guess not."
"Are you gonna come introduce yourself to the new recruits?"
"I guess. Let me get dressed first?"
"I don't know. I think I could handle you walking around like that."
That comment earned him a light punch, which to him was quite hard.
"Hey, watch the bones!"
As he walked out, he added:
"Please have a shower. You smell worse than Grunt after a battle."
That made Naira smile.
Maybe I just need to move on.