AN: So here's my try at a dialogue heavy chapter hope it worked out well…

Chapter 9

Sean stood quietly staring up into the core. He had done this many times before to receive the little bit of peace it seemed to radiate into him. He remembered how he could just spend hours on time staring up into it and almost completely lose himself in its aurora. But today wasn't the same, but how he wished it were.

Sean uncomfortably fidgeted and looked around the engineering deck. He was as he felt, completely alone. Sean deeply sighed and looked up into the drive core once again, hoping for, by some miracle, that he'd find something.

"I thought I'd find you here." A voice said from behind him.

"Hey Shepard." Sean said slowly turning around. Memories of the mission flooded his mind, "How's Thane doing?" he asked.

"Sean," Shepard began, slowly taking a breath, "Thane's dead. I was there when he passed."

"Damn it!" Sean yelled slamming his fist into the railing. Guilt swept through him as he immediately blamed himself for Thane.

"That's not what I'm down here for Sean." Shepard said, bringing Sean back into the conversation, "It's about what you did when we arrived on the Citadel. What the hell happened there?"

"Listen, I'm-" Sean tried to apologize.

"No Sean, you listen." Shepard said raising an accusatory finger to him, "As your commanding officer I expect you to respect my orders."

"Shepard, I meant no disrespect from what I did." Sean said raising his hands to try and calm Shepard.

"Then what did you mean? You disobeyed a command I directly gave to you. You not only made me look bad, but the rest of the Normandy's crew in the eyes of the Alliance.

"I- I…" Sean stammered, trying to force words into his mouth, but nothing came forth. He wanted to say something, he wanted to tell Shepard of his dream that lead up to the Citadel attack, but right now he was too stunned to say anything.

"What you did was not only completely reckless, it could have jeopardized the entire mission. Your stunt nearly got the Salarian Councilor killed." Shepard paused, taking a breath to calm her rising anger, "Sean you need to understand this: You're the only person we have that has a direct link to The Illusive Man. You may not know this, but you're extremely valuable in this war and I can't have you endangering yourself."

"I understand." Sean said quietly, his eyes not leaving Shepard's

"I need to know that you won't be doing this. I need to know I can trust you, and that you will follow my orders." Shepard said.

Taking a deep breath to calm his rapidly beating heard, Sean slowly spoke, "Yes ma' am. You have my word that this will not happen again." Sean said.

"Good to hear." Shepard said leaving the core.

Sean, completely stunned, watched Shepard leave Engineering. As the doors whisked shut he shook his head trying to kick-start his stunned mind. He had understood the gravity of the conversation and his actions, but what he couldn't wrap his mind around was the Shepard that stood before him during that conversation. He had never seen that person before. This was different than the Shepard he had seen back when the Normandy was in Cerberus' control, this was a Shepard created by the war, and this Shepard he was scared of.

Sean let out a sigh and walked away from the core. And here he was again, alone. He was lost and only one thing was certain, he needed a drink.

Shepard entered Liara's room. Clean air filled her nostrils as she walked into the converted version of the Shadow Broker's base. Over forty screens flickered between galaxy maps and newly acquired information, but besides all the clutter the room was surprisingly clean. Shepard twister her head and saw Liara was frantically jumping from computer terminal to computer terminal while on call with one of her agents. She looked up and gave a quick wave recognizing Shepard's presence in her room before returning to business.

"Greetings Commander." Glyph said, its automated voice speaking with a cheerful and peppy tone.

"Anything new for me?" Shepard asked the VI.

"You have some new messages at the terminal."

"I'll save them for later." Shepard said turning to Liara who was finishing her conversation.

"Busy as always." Shepard observed.

"You don't get a day off as the Shadow Broker." Liara remarked, "So what can I do for you Shepard?"

"I just wanted your thoughts on our last mission." Shepard said, adjusting into a more comfortable stance.

"The beginning of mission wasn't anything new," Liara began, her face becoming more solemn.

Seeing Liara's change of mood, Shepard pried, "But?"

"Well seeing Sean after Thane's..." She paused collecting her thoughts, "I just feel bad being so cold to him when he first entered the ship. Just when I say what happened- He just took Thane's death so personally, I just couldn't- It's hard to say this, but I think I was wrong about Sean." Liara said, her thoughts everywhere at once.

"Well, everyone makes mistakes. And in Sean's case, he boarded this ship as an enemy, so your thoughts weren't alone." Shepard said trying to reassure Liara.

"I just let my personal feelings about Cerberus cloud my judgment of Sean's character." Liara sighed, resting her arms on top of her computer screen. There was a long pause as both of them waited for the other to start up a different conversation

"On a completely different note, I did find those files on Sean." She added tapping away at her computer, "It took a lot of digging, but he originally worked for the Alliance. Birth name: Alex Dean."

"This is nothing new to me." Shepard said shrugging contently.

"But how? Did Sean tell you?" Liara said confused.

"Not entirely." Shepard began, "When he first showed up he remembered nothing of his past. But somehow his past caught up to him. Turns out he was a Cerberus experiment. They tested a control chip in his brain."

"That explains his being captured by Cerberus again." Liara thought out loud.

"Yes, and one mission lead to another until we returned to Sean's place of origin."

"Do you think he remembers the labs? Did he get any information out of it? I mean, that information on Cerberus could be pivotal to the war." Liara said, her head perking up.

Shepard chuckled a little, "Sure. The lead doctor there gave him everything. I'm sure he has it stored somewhere. Try talking to him, he'd probably be more than willing to help you out."

"That would be great. Thanks for the chat Shepard." Liara said as she returned to furiously typing on her computer.

Sean sat alone at the bar in the lounge area of the Normandy trying to cure his loneliness through alcohol. He slowly swirling his drink in his glass looking deep into it. The effects of the alcohol hadn't quite hit him yet. Though no matter what Sean drank, he still couldn't find the answer in the bottom of any of the glasses. But right now he needed something to get his mind off of that. Sighing, Sean leaned back against the wall.

The doors hissed open and in walked Garrus.

"Didn't expect you here." He quipped, "Well anyways. How are you?"

"Eh." Sean said taking another swig of his drink, "Still a bit shook up."

"Hey, if this is about Thane, he knew what he was doing. I saw him in action a few times, I guess his disease finally caught up with him." Garrus said walking towards the bar.

"No I'm past that. I'm just a little bothered that I served on the same ship, but I never really got to know Thane that well." Sean said returning to an upright position.

"Well he knew you enough about you to come in and save you." Garrus said.

"Yeah." Sean sighed, "You want something?" He offered.

"Sure I'll have whatever you're having, but in Dextro."

Sean reached over the bar and poured Garrus a quick drink, "And to saving my life I owe him."

Garrus lifted his glass, "To Thane."

"To Thane." Sean repeated, clinking his glass against Garrus' before chugging the rest of the liquid down.

Wincing, Garrus said, "Well on a more positive note your heroic actions on the Citadel did not go unnoticed."

"What do you mean by that?" Sean said raising an eyebrow.

"Someone may have leaked that you stepped in and saved the Councilor." Garrus said grinning, "and it looks like the crew of the Normandy may be warming up to you now."

Sean lightly punched Garrus in the shoulder. "You loud-mouth." Sean said smiling, "and to that I owe you."

"I'll put it on a tab." Garrus chuckled.

The two continued to talk as they shared a few drinks.

Shepard smiled as she left the room unnoticed. It was good to see Sean smiling once again. He needed a friend in this time, and it seemed like Garrus was.

Shepard slowly returned to the Galaxy map. If Sean needed his mind off of the events at hand a little bit of action would help. Shepard scrolled through her mail at her private terminal. Perfect She thought as her eyes fell upon a new assignment. She sent the coordinates to the cockpit and stepped down from the map. She entered the elevator yawning and keyed the Capitain's Cabin. Her rest was long overdue.