Who doesn't love a good filler episode? Well, chapters, I guess. Anyway, the holidays have come to the galaxy, even in times of war! So sit back and enjoy this fun little section; complete with hunting for food, surprise guests, and the notorious Black Friday shopping on the Citadel.. eventually. Let's do it.

FYI, since I'm going off the assumption that you have played the Citadel DLC (or at least watched it), I won't be getting crazy with describing the apartment. You know what it looks like already!

Chapter 10 – The To-Do List

Some much needed shore leave, and what a perfect time. Shepard stepped off the Normandy with his crew scattered in front of him and behind him, heading in different directions for what they were planning next.

"Commander," Kaidan said to him as he walked next to him.

"You look good for someone who got shot with his own bullets and had his head bashed in," he smirked.

"Yeah, well, karma's a funny thing; Eva Core died, and Alex got his arm shot off… the same arm, might I add, that threw those bullets back at me. I'd say I'm pretty good at getting back at people in my own little way. Can I talk to you?"

"Sure, what's on your mind, Major?"

"Not here. In private," he glanced at Miranda who was giving him a sheepish look. "No offense or anything."

"Oh, no, I get it," she playfully raised her hands up. "I'll have you know I've been kicked out of better places."

She pecked Shepard's cheek and continued on ahead while the commander and major slowed down until everyone had left.

"Sorry. It's just, I don't know, something I've been meaning to talk to someone about. You're probably the only one who can relate to this, anyway."

His eyebrows rose up. "Kaidan, you're scaring me."

"Don't worry, it's nothing like that," he sighed, rubbing the back of his head as he paused in speech for a moment.

"I kind of… slept with Jessie the other day."

Jaw literally dropped. Kaidan was NOT that impulsive, for that matter, he's not impulsive at all.

"You slept with Jessie? Jessie, Zaeed's daughter, Jessie? What happened?"

He shrugged. "The day I was cleared by Dr. Chakwas, I was packing up the stuff in my room that you and some of the other crew members left me. You know, get well soon cards and all that," he cleared his throat. "Jessie came by to see if I needed anything. I figured she was just trying to pay me back for helping her out."

"What happened then?" Shepard was still having a hard time believing Kaidan of all people would just have a fling like that, out of nowhere.

The thought of Zaeed finding out was a terrifying image. He didn't even want to think about what he would do if he found out.

"We were almost packed up, I was just making the bed. She had to use the bathroom, so I got everything squared away. When she came out… she was naked."

"That's as clear a message as any."

"Yeah, you're telling me. She walked up to me and put her hands on me, and well, the rest is history. I had to make the bed again before we left."

The commander shook his head with a small smile on his face. "I guess I could have seen it coming."

"What, no way. How?"

"Kaidan, you saved her dad's life when he was supposed to die. Then, you saved her life from Alex before he snapped her neck."

"Yeah, I shot at Alex with six bullets that he stopped with his hand, then turned them around and threw them right back at me," he shook his head. "That could've been it for me, and Alex still could've just killed her right after."

"Exactly," he nodded. "You could have died, but she would have. You risked your life for her, and you saved her father. I guess she's just got a thing for you now."

"That's the thing, though," the major shrugged. "I'm not sure I'm that into her."

"Oh, my god, Kaidan."

"What? Hey, if you had just met Miranda, and she came onto you the way Jessie came onto me, would that be enough to figure out if you had feelings for her or not?"

"If I had just met Miranda," Shepard crossed his arms. "Then no, probably not. But you saved probably the only family she has left, then you saved her life without knowing if you would have survived or not."

"I don't know. I'm usually not this complicated about stuff. I guess the idea of being with someone just wasn't on my front page of things I wanted."

Shepard leaned on the wall next to Kaidan as they watched the traffic of ships coming and going.

"I thought the same thing, too. Then I met Ashley."

"Yeah. I remember," he frowned, glancing to the ground. "Yet you chose me."

There was silence amongst them. The port had completely cleared; even the maintenance crew from the Normandy had left. They were completely alone.

"Does she know?" Kaidan asked.

Shepard shook his head. "No."

"Right. Well, I'll make sure it stays that way. I'm the only one who knew, anyway."

"Garrus knew," he shrugged. "Somehow figured it out after Ash died. I guess I kept him up at night."

"Listen, John-"

"I know," the commander replied weakly, something only a few people saw in the commander; a change in his tone. "You remember what she said back on Virmire?"

"Yeah," he said, thinking back over the comm as he and Kirrahe fought off hoards of geth alone at the time. "I have the bomb, so who cares if I get shot?"

He scoffed. "Typical Ash."

Kaidan smirked. "Yeah. Typical Ash."

Shepard put his arm around the shoulder of easily his best human friend. "Women."

Kaidan shook his head with a half smile on his face as he agreed. "Women."

X X X

Shepard was in complete awe at what he was looking at. THIS was Admiral Anderson's apartment?

It was huge, lavish, and very, very expensive looking.

"This is… a big place," he said out loud. "I guess it makes sense to have the holiday stuff here."

Miranda stepped next to him, one hand on her hip as she examined the apartment. "Talk about an upgrade. I could get used to this," she glanced to him.

"Maybe when this is over," he smirked.

"I'll hold you to that," she kissed his cheek. "Is everything okay with Kaidan?"

"Yeah. He's just… having issues, let's just say. I shouldn't tell you wit-"

"Oh. I see," she said, walking away from him and into the kitchen. "I won't ask you again, then."

"Miranda," he rolled his eyes.

"No, no," she playfully teased him. "It's okay."

Shepard simply walked up to her, picking her up and placing her on the island in the kitchen.

"Oh, my," she gasped. "I didn't realize you were so eager to break in the new place already."

He kissed her, then broke away as he opened the refrigerator. "Go figure, it's empty."

"Can't say I'm surprised. Think about the last time the admiral was here," she replied as she hopped off the counter. "I'll whip up some kind of list to shop for Thanksgiving… only I'm not exactly sure what everyone else will eat."

"Yeah," he crossed his arms as he turned to her. "I'm not exactly an expert on what turians, quarians, asari, or protheans for that matter eat."

Miranda just shrugged. "I'll figure something out."

The console for the door rang, and Shepard approached it to see who was trying to get in. He pressed the button.

"Liara?"

"Hello, Shepard," she said through the video. "I'm sorry I didn't call you that I was coming, Miranda suggested that her and I along with some others went shopping for Thanksgiving dinner."

Shepard looked at Miranda, who just batted her eyes at him.

"Come on in," he said, unlocking the door.

Liara was inside a moment later as Glyph followed in with her.

"Glyph?"

"Hello, Commander, Ms. Lawson," he greeted. "I have prepared a list of appropriate foods and dishes suitable to all possible guests or all different races. I can narrow the list down to certain allergens, if need be."

"I guess that just depends on who we invite," the commander said. "I wasn't sure who we should invite."

"Obviously everyone on the Normandy if they don't already have plans," Miranda said. "I can try and get a hold of Jacob, if you want."

"Sure. Hey, Glyph, what kind of recommendations can we get for krogan dishes?"

"Were you planning on inviting Wrex and Grunt?" Liara asked. "Are you sure you can afford to replace all the broken furniture?"

Shepard just shrugged his shoulders. "Doesn't hurt to have too much and not need it. The fridge is empty as is."

X X X

Garrus was a little quicker than the others when he left. He got a strange message on his terminal just a few hours before they docked.

He walked into the refugee camp, even more crowded thanks to Cerberus ransacking the place. He walked over to one of the C-Sec officers standing at attention.

"Sergeant Vakarian?" asked the turian private.

"Hey, Dossell," he said. "I'm looking for my dad, he might be with my sister. Have you seen them anywhere?"

"Hm… yeah, I remember," he pointed towards the memorial center to the left of the camp. "They should be over there."

"Thanks."

He turned, and immediately, his father was seen examining the list of missing individuals on the wall.

"Garrus?" a female turian voice rang.

He turned. His sister was sitting with an ice pack on her ankle. Fortunately, that's all that it was. "Solana."

"Garrus," his father turned, a rugged former high-ranking C-Sec turian. "Good to see you, son."

"You, too," he looked to his sister. "How's your leg?"

"It's better. Just kind of swollen from the surgery. I didn't have a lot of time to rest cause of, well, you know."

Garrus shrugged. "Yeah," he looked to his father. "How bad is it?"

"I've never seen anything like it," his father replied. "The krogan showed up, but they aren't stopping them. They're just slowing them down."

"Damn it," he grunted. "What about you guys? How bad was it getting out?"

"Well, it wasn't easy. Even with my clearance, I couldn't get through too much. It didn't help that your sister broke her leg when a piece of debris fell on her; that slowed us down a lot."

"Thanks, dad," she rolled her eyes.

"Garrus," his father said. "A word, please."

They walked off from his sister. "I wanted to tell you how we got off away from your sister. She doesn't need the stress of your reaction when I tell you."

"Stress? Dad, you two got out alive. How can I be stressed about anything involving your escape?"

His father rubbed his forehead. "It's better if I show you," he looked behind Garrus, waving over.

Garrus turned, his stomach flipped and churned at what he was, who he was looking at.

"Sidonis."

Lantar nodded. "Hello, Garrus."

"Dad, what's going on?" Garrus said, harshness building in his tone.

"I helped th-"

"You," Garrus pointed to his former teammate. "You don't talk to me. Ever."

"Garrus," his father said. "This is exactly what I knew would happen. I know you have a bad history with Sidonis, but-"

"You don't know this man, dad. He got my whole squad killed, he-"

"He told me," his father cut in. "After he saved your sister and I from a banshee."

"What?"

"It's true," Sidonis cut in. "Listen, Garrus, you heard me when I talked to Shepard back then. I haven't slept in years, and I probably never will again. I was back on Palaven; I went to turn myself in to the government for what happened on Omega since the Citadel couldn't convict me," he sighed, sitting down. "I was remanded pending my trial when the Reapers attack. I teamed up with a couple of inmates to escape, but I eventually lost them as we got out. I was on my own for a couple of days, trying to survive."

"A reaper attack caved in the roof of the tram station your sister and I were leaving," Garrus' father added on. "One of the support beams hit your sister and trapped her leg. Everyone was running, and husks were killing everything that moved. I fought them until I ran out of ammo. I killed the husks, but then a banshee showed up. You may hate Sidonis for what he did, but I was out of ammo fighting a Reaper warped asari. He saved your sister and I and got us off of Palaven."

Garrus wasn't even sure what to say. Was his father telling him to thank Sidonis? Sure, he saved his dad and his sister from the Reapers on Palaven. That doesn't mean he didn't want to put a bullet in his head right now. His team, they worked so hard, accomplished so much, done so much good… Omega was finally a place where you could walk outside and not expect to get mugged, or worse.

Then he betrayed it all, to save his own skin.

But then he not only broke out of prison, but instead of just leaving, he saved his family. Do people really change? Sidonis wasn't always like this. But why did that matter? He couldn't save his team, all because of what he did to them.

But he turned himself in. He knew what he did was wrong. Then, he saved his family. How long could he hold onto this grudge against him? It was clear he was trying to make things right.

Garrus said nothing, he just stormed off.

"Garrus!" his father called to him.

X X X

"This is such a nightmare," Miranda said as she ruffled her hair, glancing through the shopping list. "Finding this much food so close to the holiday is going to be impossible."

"If I recall," Samantha said as they walked through the markets district. "You're the one who wanted to put this all together. The commander probably would've forgotten all about Thanksgiving if you hadn't said anything."

"Don't remind me," she sighed. "Okay, first thing, the essentials: Mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, macaroni?"

"I have almost no idea what any of these foods are, I'm sorry," Liara said. "Most of these foods are still very new to me, luckily I can eat them thanks to our DNA."

"Don't humans who celebrate Thanksgiving have some type of main meat in their course?" Tali wondered. "Like a, what is it, a turkey?"

"How did I forget that?" Miranda slapped her forehead. "I'm not very good at this."

As they moved on, Miranda glanced back at Jessie, who was stuck glancing at something through a window at a story.

"Jessie," she called.

"What? Oh, sorry," she replied, walking a little faster to catch up before returning to her regular speed. "I was just looking at something."

"At a store specifically for biotics. Are you a biotic?" she was genuinely curious.

"What? No, no, no, no, no!" she waved her hands. "They're just, I don't know, they're nice to look at."

"Biotics are nice to look at?" Tali asked.

"No!" she grunted. "The supplement store. Some people who use older models can suffer from migraines or worse. Some of this stuff really takes it away and helps balance biotic power."

"I see," Samantha's eyebrows raised. "So you're looking at it because you know someone who's a biotic that uses the older L2 implants?"

"I, um-"

While the girls bickered, Miranda noticed a familiar drell Spectre standing in the corner of the hallway they were heading towards. "Give me a minute, you guys."

She walked towards him, relatively excited to see him. "Hello, Thane."

"Good to see you, Miranda."

"You look much better," she pointed out. "Almost as if you were never sick at all."

"Yes, the treatment was a success; I no longer carry Kepral's Syndrome anymore and am in perfect health again. The Council has kept me busy lately."

"Of course," she nodded, looking around to make sure the other crewmembers couldn't hear her. "Have you made any progress lately with my sister?"

"Some. I can confirm that she is alive, and she is not in the custody of your father at the moment. She is currently moving across planets every other day, so she is difficult to track precisely," he said. "It will take time, but I am confident I can locate her thanks to the Spectre resources I have access to now."

"I appreciate this more than you realize," she warmly smiled. "Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to help."

"It is no trouble at all. I should let you resume your errands. I have errands of my own to run," he smirked. "Spectre business."

A giggle escaped her. "Of course. You Spectres do keep busy."

"In a sense," he smiled. "I will contact you if I hear anything further. Please excuse me."

"Have a good day," she said as they parted ways.

"Thane looks well," Liara said as Miranda joined the group again. "I guess he really is cured."

"Why don't we invite him to dinner? Has Shepard done so already?" Tali asked.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I'll ask him when we get back. Okay, let's see, next we have…"

X X X

Shepard walked into Purgatory, the bass felt in his chest as he glanced over to the bar on the lower level to find Garrus sitting at the bar. He had gotten a message asking to speak with him earlier.

"Garrus?" he asked as he sat next to him.

"Hey, Shepard," he said, downing the last of his drink.

"How many have you had?"

"Not enough," he shook his head, signaling for the bartender to serve him another drink. "It's like this day can't get any stranger."

"What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "My dad and my sister, they're alive. They're fine, actually. I just saw them about an hour ago."

"That's great," he said, confused as to why it would lead to him coming to drink.

"Yeah, that's what I thought at first," he paused, taking a sip of his drink. "I ran into Sidonis. He's not only alive, but he's the one that saved them and got them off of Palaven."

"Sidonis? I thought he turned himself in."

"Yeah, he did. Only the Citadel couldn't prosecute him due to Omega practically being anarchy in a sense of due process; it wasn't "illegal" on the grounds where the crime was committed, so they couldn't hold him. He went back to Palaven and turned himself in, got locked up and was waiting for his trial in a cell when the Reapers attacked."

"And I'm guessing he broke out and saved your family," he finished, ordering a drink himself.

"Bingo," Garrus sighed. "He told my dad what he did. He got ahead of it, Shepard. That… I don't know why that makes me so angry. He had no right."

He hand balled into a fist, slamming it into the bar. "No right!"

"Garrus," Shepard put his hand on his friend. "You're right. Sidonis shouldn't have said anything. But you've gotta calm down."

"What?"

"You're shaking, Garrus."

He glanced down at his hands. They were literally trembling from anger.

"I don't see how we were able to work with someone like Kai Leng, and here I storm off from my family the second I see Sidonis," he sighed. "What's the matter with me, Shepard?"

"There's nothing wrong with you, Garrus. But that was different; we were desperate after we saw what Alex could do."

"Didn't make much of a difference, he still took all of us without breaking a sweat."

Shepard shook his head. "Don't remind me. But to be fair, he ended up hurting himself without us even doing anything to him. And if I recall, someone took his arm off on Rannoch."

Garrus laughed. "Hah. Yeah, I suppose that's true."

"It's gonna be okay, Garrus. But you do need to talk to him, after you cool off."

"Sidonis? … Yeah, you're right. But not right now; I'm a little too hammered and emotional at the moment. I'll definitely… definitely need a clear head. And a gun."

"Garrus."

"Kidding! That's the alcohol talking."

End Chapter 10

So here you go, lots of little fun stuff happening, just in time for Thanksgiving! Man, I'm behind. I gotta hurry up and catch up before Christmas. Let me know what you think in a review! New chapter coming soon.

PS - I know I said at the beginning that Shepard didn't romance anyone, but there will be a big explanation as to why she was mentioned as a "romance" (technically, but since she didn't survive it was never considered as such... technically; you'll see =b)