Zaeed couldn't sleep. It had nothing to do with being drunk or not actually sleeping in a bed. Those were all too common to bother him. No, this was entirely because of the woman sleeping in his arms.

He'd known Kat and Ryan since they were children, though she'd never known him. Her father didn't approve of the line of work he'd chosen after the war.

He'd already been off-planet and too far away to travel back when the murders happened, so he hadn't been able to attend the joint funeral mass that had been held. But they'd kept in touch over the years.

Zaeed frequented the Argo whenever he was a shuttle-ride away on a job. And that's where he'd stayed for awhile after he'd been betrayed by his partner and so-called friend, shot in the face and left to die just so the bastard could take sole ownership of their mercenary gang. Zaeed's jaw clenched in anger as he thought about Vido.

And then his thoughts drifted again to Kat. He remembered that day eight years ago and the sheer panic on Steven's face when the Admiral had called, asking for help in finding Marcus. Zaeed didn't ask why. He'd never liked Marcus, always felt there was something off about him. But then Steven had called back, four days later. The panic was still evident, but it was for an entirely different reason. And Zaeed had listened as Steven told him what had happened with Jason and then with Kat.

"She saved my life, Massani. It shouldn't have been like this. Fathers are supposed to protect their daughters, not the other way around."

Zaeed remembered Steven saying he had taken the bullets and put them on a chain which he wore with his dog tags.

The mercenary was brought back to the present by Kat whimpering and flinching in her sleep. She woke with a start and bolted from the chair.

"Damn him. Damn him!" she muttered as she started pacing around the balcony.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Zaeed asked as he watched her, shifting so he was sitting on the edge of the chair.

She spun around so fast, he was amazed she wasn't dizzy. She came over to stand in front of him. "What did you mean before?" she asked quietly. "When you said you know a hell of a lot more than I think you do?"

"Let me put it this way," he said as he stood up and put an arm around her shoulder, guiding her back inside the apartment. "There's not a whole lot I don't know about you. Except the story behind your tattoos." He stopped and turned so he was facing her and took her left hand in his as he used the fingers of his other hand to trace the outline of the tattoo on her left shoulder. "The others, the Alliance stars and bars and the N7 in the cross-hairs, those are self-explanatory. But this one, it doesn't fit."

"Technically, it's still related. It's a joker's hat, for my best friend Jeff. One of his instructors in flight school nicknamed him Joker because he never smiled. Now he's lucky if anyone even remembers what his real name is." Shepard sighed and moved over to the couch before continuing. "Anyway, I have the hat and he got a black cat, partially because even when we were kids, he always called me Kat and also because my N7 nickname is Shadow Cat. He has a slight needle phobia and only agreed to get the tattoo on one condition: if I promised not to use alcohol to try to forget my problems with my family. The last time I did that, Ryan's graduation, I ended up not speaking to my dad or my uncle for three months."

Zaeed sat on the coffee table across from Shepard. "So tonight was... what?"

She sighed again and shook her head. "I don't know. A promise broken, is probably what Jeff will say."

He took her hands in his, rubbing gentle circles on the backs of them with his thumbs. "Or he'll realize that it wasn't the family that was the reason you felt the need to drink tonight."

She looked doubtful when she said, "I guess."

He stood and pulled her to her feet. "Come on. You need more sleep. You can sleep in the bed, I'll sleep on the couch."

She shook her head as she clung to his shoulders like a lifeline. "No, please don't leave. I can't... can't sleep alone. Not tonight."

Zaeed heard a loud and persistent beeping coming from his bedside table. He hit the button to turn off his alarm and the beeping stopped. However, it was replaced moments later by loud and creative swearing. He turned his head and blinked a few times against the sunlight streaming through the window. When his vision finally cleared, he saw Jason on Kat's omni-tool vid-chat.

Fuck.

"This is not what I meant when I said don't let her out of your sight, Massani," Jason snarled.

"Bloody hell, Jason, it's too early for... this," Zaeed muttered. "Nothing... this isn't what it looks like. Seriously."

Kat rolled over and groaned. "Who the fuck is being so loud?" she asked as she rested her head on Zaeed's shoulder.

Jason scoffed. "Not what it looks like? You really expect me to-"

"Careful, Jason," Zaeed warned. "You're coming awfully close to implying something. You cross that line, there's no going back. She'll never forgive you. Come to think of it, neither will I."

"I didn't-"

Kat raised up, her arms on Zaeed's chest, her head on her arms. "Uncle Jason, if you intend to call me a whore, please do it quietly. Not that it's any of your goddamn business, but this is the sum total of what we did last night: we talked, drank two bottles of whiskey and talked some more. That's it. End of story. Good-bye." She reached over and hit the button to disconnect the call.

"That was... impressive," Zaeed said with a hint of a smile as he pulled her into his arms to keep her from taking a nosedive off of the bed.

She grinned. "It was pretty damn good considering I'm not entirely awake yet." She hit the button when her omni-tool beeped again, expecting it to be Jason calling back. It was Ryan.

"Hey k-"

"Nope," she said as she shook her head and hung up. She leaned back against Zaeed and sighed.

He ran his fingers through her hair. "You OK?"

"Not really." She turned her head to look at him. "Can I skip today, just go on to tomorrow?"

"That would be-" Zaeed was interrupted by someone pounding loudly on his front door. "Seriously?" he growled. "It's not even 0700. What the hell is going on?"

"Can't get any damn peace," Kat said. Her omni-tool beeped for the third time. She reluctantly hit the button to answer it and let out a startled squeak as she saw who it was and promptly fell off the bed.

"Answer the goddamn door," Hackett growled.

Zaeed was sorely tempted to throw Kat's omni-tool across the room, but settled for hitting the button to disconnect the call instead as he rolled off the bed and picked her up off the floor.

"That sounded like it hurt," he said, gently cupping her face in his hands as he checked for injury.

"It did," she grumbled.

He chuckled and kissed her forehead. "Come on. Let's go face Hurricane Steven."

"Steven, is there some reason you're trying to break down my bloody door this early in the morning?" he asked icily a few minutes later as Admiral Hackett stalked into the room, a murderous look on his face.

"You. I asked you to look after my daughter and this... this is..." Hackett trailed off, grinding his teeth as he paced the room.

"Again, Dad, as I told Uncle Jason when he called at... whatever ungodly hour this is," Kat said as she walked over to stand in front of Zaeed. "Nothing happened. And again, it's none of your fucking business if it did."

"Katie-"

"NO, Dad. I'm sick of this. You guys keep treating me like a goddamn child, think you can dictate whatever the fuck I do. You can do that all the fuck you want once I come back from shore leave, but until then, leave me the fuck alone."

Hackett seemed to have been rendered completely speechless, a feat Zaeed hadn't realized was possible.

Kat glared at her father for a moment, as if daring him to say something, before she turned and kissed Zaeed, winked at him and stormed out.