Chapter 11

"Thank god you're here. I was getting sick of fielding all of these requests on my own." Commander Bailey greets Shepard as she wanders into the human embassy office. Her brows furrow briefly. "The Council told me that you would be acting as the interim Councilor; you get to deal with all of the requests in my stead."

"Way to sell the job Commander." Shepard retorts. "I thought I was just going to be in charge of finding the replacement?" She had planned on just coming in long enough to get the stack of files that Sparatus, the Turian Council representative, left for her. But clearly that was a rouse to make her head in.

"Nope. You are the human council representative until you find a replacement, which should deal with the fact that you are technically without a job."

"I'm not without a job—I still have my title; I just took my name off payroll." All of the resources she got preparing for the Reaper war she invested back into the Alliance, but still she felt she could do more so she simply alerted Hackett that she was not going to take payment during her leave of absence.

"Whatever you say; still has you with no income on one of the most expensive stations in the galaxy, and I have no interest in fielding all of these requests on my own." Bailey says as he digs out the key for the currently closed office.

"Fine, but the moment I find someone else for the job I am out."

"Yes, and am sure that that will be done within the next year, possibly year and a half." Bailey remarks. As much as she hates to admit it, but he is probably right. Putting Anderson on the Council was an easy choice, but he hated every second of it. Anyone who would want the job would likely be a poor fit for the job, but anyone who would be a good fit likely would not want the job.

"Just let me into the office and forward anything that needs my attention."

"In exchange I'll deal with the reporters." The only glint of cooperation that Bailey appears. "Speaking of which, one of the C Sec desk jockeys accidentally leaked a few images from the security footage from your engagement. As a congratulations and sorry for not stopping the leak before it happened, this is for you."

He hands her a stack of picture frames. She flips one over; it is one of the stills. It is an adorable shot of her embracing him after he slid the ring on her finger, zoomed onto the ring. "C Sec security got these?"

"Yes, and the person who was watching the feed then moved the angles to get some shots to sell to the reporters. I did crop a little bit, but the Extranet probably has a few better images."

"Thank you Commander, these are lovely. But now you do realize that having me here means that you will have to do more reporter fielding than with Udina."

"You don't care as much about formalities and regulations as him, and you won't be hiding a secret agenda the whole time. I'll take it."

She takes the key into her new office; it looks exactly the same as the first time that she came to the Citadel. She immediately grabs one of the free standing arm chairs and drags it over to the veranda and syncs her personal tablet to the embassy servers. She may be stuck here for a while, but she is at least going to do things on her terms, which means no desk unless she has an official meeting.

She logs in to her Extranet mail account to find a second wave of congratulatory messages, but this time they are all accurate. She does not open them all, but simply finds the one she was looking for; from her mother.

Hello Sweetheart,

I am so happy to hear about your engagement to Garrus, so much so that I am not at all annoyed that found out from the tabloids instead of from you, but I know that he is a good fit for you. Did you know that he kept me in the loop when you were recovering from your injuries? I approved of him when you first messaged me about your budding romance with an alien, but I knew he would be perfect for you when he forced you to do that tango (still my favorite video on the Extranet). Anyways, I am so happy for you and you will tell me when the wedding is before the reporters find out. I love you and I hope I can see you soon. Five years is too long to go without seeing each other.

Love you,

Mom

Shepard quickly sends a reply with a copy of all of the pictures that Bailey gave her, along with an update of her new role as temporary Council representative. She stops her break and then starts with the fifteen-thousand two-hundred and forty-three requests that have piled up since Udina betrayed everyone.

She started by categorizing them based on form submitted and then sets up an automatic filter to sort them in the future. Then she accepts every single transfer request for refugees to return back to their colonies. She is not sure why she is needed to approve these transfers; the colonies need all the help they can get and any one would know that. Bailey already ran the names through C Sec; literally all she had to do was click approve. She could bang these out by the end out the day and then she could start reading some of the four hundred and something files from Sparatus.

"Shepard—the Council is waiting for you for an update on humans on the Citadel." Bailey's voice cracks into her intercom.

She gets up; this is not going to be easy.