As always, BioWare own all.
If you have not read my one shot "Blind Date" yet, you will want to go and read that first and then come back and read this chapter. ;)
Thanks to Brody for beta'ing for me.
Mood Music: "Breathe" by Greenwheel; "Dammit" by Blink 182
Blind Date
Kimbri sat at her terminal while Kaidan showered. She felt badly that she hadn't checked her messages in the past couple of days, but then again the doctor's orders were for her to stay strictly off duty. It made her feel slightly less guilty that her inbox was mostly empty. So Dr. Chakwas was as good as her word when she said she was going to divert my duties to other members of the team to give me some real r&r. One message, however, had the subject line "Important: Citadel Intel." She didn't recognize the address, but junk mail didn't tend to make it through the security checkpoints into her inbox anyways. She ran the encryption program and opened the vid file.
It appeared to be the Dark Star Lounge as seen from the recorder on an omni-tool. The picture quality was pretty clear and defined, so it was unlikely to have been just a random vid recording. This had been recorded by someone with funding and skill. She watched as a tall leggy blonde in a blue dress sauntered into the frame. The woman on the screen seemed to reconsider then turned to leave when a dark figure behind her made her change her turn. Kaidan? The two figures moved to a table far in the corner and the camera zoomed in to follow. The heavy dance beat prevented the conversation from being audible but there didn't appear to be much in the way of dialogue anyway.
The man was indeed Kaidan, in a black stretch knit top and with a hint of gold chain peeking out from under the collar. He looked…tired, haggard, sad, and distracted. It made her heart ache to see him like that. Several minutes of footage passed with little interaction from either party when the blonde got up and dragged him off to the dance floor. She had to laugh at Kaidan's dancing. He was awful at it, but she had always found it cute—so typical of his reserved and cautious personality. She watched in disbelief as Kaidan and the woman tossed back several shots of alcohol then returned to the dance floor. Kimbri could see a visible change from the alcohol's effects. This dancing was not at all Kaidan's usual stiff moves. As Kimbri observed the blonde slither up and down his body from all angles her vision started to shift into red hues. Or perhaps Kaidan's dancing was stiff after all, she thought bitterly. The cobalt aura that flickered around his body and onto the woman's left no doubt of that in Shepard's mind.
Kimbri's hands balled into fists and her biotics flared. Then a thought hit her. Wait. Don't jump to conclusions. Didn't the same thing happen to Kaidan the other day? She felt her body start to relax. It's gotta be Cerberus behind this. They would have access to send me encrypted mail and I'm sure TIM could have gotten a message to Kaidan's account as well. He still wants me isolated. He knows that while Kaidan is my greatest weakness, he's also my greatest strength—that together... She let out a small relieved laugh, her vision returning to normal. I almost fell for it, too. But now that I think about it, it's almost obvious. When has Kaidan ever worn jewelry? And Kaidan drunk and…practically having a live sex act in the Dark Star Lounge? No. It was obviously a fake like those vids of her had been the other day.
Kaidan walked into the room and she gave him a forced smile. "Look at this, Alenko," she began gesturing and turning back to the screen. "They're trying to start another fight with this faked vid? There's a guy that's supposed to be you wearing a necklace and is so drunk that he's dry humping some girl on the dance floor. Isn't that just —" she turned to look at Kaidan. The color drained from his face as he watched the screen. He dropped onto the couch, elbows on knees, face in his hands.
"Kaidan?" she asked, worried.
"No, Shepard," he replied, his voice hoarse, "that is me."
"So that's—"
"The doctor on the Citadel that I mentioned, yeah" he answered miserably.
The jealousy and possessiveness that she first felt watching the scene flared again within her. Her first inclination was that she to strap on her armor and her hand canon, fly to the Citadel and take care of the problem at the source. That wasn't really the practical solution, of course, but it was what she wanted to do for that woman daring to touch him. Kaidan was hers. Kimbri couldn't help the next stray thought. It caused her to pause in horror. If they were that…intimate in public, then what happened later? She felt bile rise in her throat and like the world fell out from under her feet. Did he sleep with her? She looked at him to try to find confirmation or denial of her suspicions.
He looked almost as awful as he had at the beginning of the vid. Haunted. Tormented. The red in her vision faded and the fire in her was doused as if by ice water. He was hurting and he was alone for two years and I wasn't there for him. He thought I was dead for all that time. He was free to move on long before that. She realized that she didn't have any claims on him for that time in his life. She had no right to have jealous feelings about him trying to find…some comfort. He owed her no explanation—not even if he had…she didn't want to even think about it. The commander in her wanted to demand the information of him. But she couldn't do that. She would try to be as understanding and supportive as she could.
She sat next to him, rubbing his back. "Kaidan, you don't owe me an explanation." She tried to catch his eyes but he wouldn't look at her. "You did nothing wrong, Sweetheart."
At that he looked at her, his brows furrowed. "How can you say that? Why are you so calm? I would have thought that you'd have left to storm the medical wards of the Citadel by now."
She gazed into brandy-colored eyes, trying to convince him of her sincerity, as well as to convince herself. "I…I wasn't there for you for two years, Kaidan. I was dead." She placed a hand on his cheek. "You were free to do whatever would make you happy. I have no claim on that part of your life." She looked down at her hands which somehow were in his without her having realized it. She was a little afraid to ask the next part, but she had to know. "Are you...still sleeping with her?" She heart let out a cry of pain at the very thought of him ever having been with the blonde doctor in the vid, let alone that there was still a relationship between the two.
"What?" he asked, incredulous. "No." He gently grabbed her chin, forcing her eyes to meet his. "Never. Shepard, I know what it must look like…but we never…I told you it wasn't serious."
"Well, I know that things don't have to be serious to happen, Kaidan." This line of conversation was rather embarrassing for her. She wanted to look down, to look away. But he held her face and her gaze firmly, trying to dispel this line of misunderstanding between the two of them.
"Not for me, Kimbri." His voice was firm but gentle. "I've told you that before."
Her tone was so low that it was almost a whisper. "But grief sometimes—"
"I'm going to tell you this once more, Shepard. I haven't had sex since Ilos. Nothing even close since being on the Normandy—" He gave her a lop-sided smile, "until yesterday morning."
The knots of worry dissolved and she began to feel tears of relief pricking at her eyes. She threw her arms around his neck. She pressed her lips to his, giving him a long, slow, loving kiss. When she pulled back, he kissed the tip of her nose and smiled at her. He pulled her back into his arms.
After a few moments of just enjoying his embrace she decided that there were a few other issues that needed clarifying. "Kaidan, can I ask you a question about the other day?"
He stiffened slightly for a moment then began rubbing her back. "Okay."
"What convinced you that the vids of me had been faked?"
He sighed. "I was hurt and angry, but I've had a lifetime of being able to set aside personal feelings and look at things logically. So that's why I tried to do. There was just something about the recordings that rang false. It just…it wasn't like you. Not the Kimbri I knew from three years ago anyways. I was afraid that perhaps you had changed more than I had realized." He shifted uncomfortably. "Then I noticed the lack of your biotic aura in two of the vids. I had Joker check the surveillance records on the Normandy for the same time stamps. The vids weren't the same. Parts of the vids were true, but there were things that didn't happen that had been inserted." He shrugged. "So I realized that I had been an ass and then the migraine took me."
Kimbri was contemplative. "Hmmm…and now we've been sent another incriminating vid. TIM has got to be behind this somehow. He doesn't want us together."
"Yeah, well mine wasn't doctored. And it's damn embarrassing. I, uh, was pretty drunk for that part of the night. I didn't quite remember being that…inappropriate in public."
Shepard hesitated then asked, "Do you think that she could have been in on it?"
Kaidan thought for a moment. "No. I don't think so. She came close to walking out that evening a couple times, not that I could blame her. I was pretty poor company."
Kimbri bit back a retort that only would have sounded catty. Instead, she kissed him on the temple and returned to the terminal on the desk. She keyed in the link to the Normandy. "Yes, Commander Shepard?" a modulated voice responded.
"Any progress on those vid files that I sent you?"
"Yes, Commander. The vids apparently were spliced together from real conversations between you and the crew members in question with other real events amongst members of the crew."
"Well that's clear as mud, EDI. Care to elaborate?" Shepard responded, obviously irritated.
"To my knowledge, mud is colored according to the local soil pigmentation. I have no records of clear soil or mud in my databases, Commander."
Kimbri watched a flicker of a smile cross Kaidan's lips. She sighed. "It's an expression of confusion, EDI."
"Oh, very well, Shepard. The recordings for the most part are actual."
"But I didn't—"
"The recordings are spliced together, Commander. There are those where you were having conversations with the crew members in question. Then the secondary time stamp in the underlying data jumps to a later time than is displayed on the video itself. In addition, those images consist of a composite of your face upon the body of other crew members."
Kimbri's expression hardened. "And which crew members would those be, EDI?"
"In the video of Mr. Taylor, the body belongs to that of Miss Lawson."
"Well, that would explain the biotic aura that I saw in that one." Kimbri jumped slightly. She didn't realize that Kaidan had come to stand behind her chair. He put comforting hands on her shoulders.
"Not to mention that the two of them have history together," Shepard added. "What about the other two vids, EDI?"
"Both of the remaining recordings appear to have the same body profile. It matches that of Yeoman Kelly Chambers."
A low hiss escaped Kimbri's lips. "That little slut!" Kaidan's hands gave her shoulders a little squeeze in warning. Kimbri took a deep breath. "EDI, do you have any indication of where the message originated?"
"The message that was routed through Mr. Mereau's account to Commander Alenko's was routed there from Yeoman Chamber's account." The even female voice continued, "Shepard, I thought you might like to know that the video e-mail that was sent to your account this morning was also routed from the same account."
Kimbri's entire body stiffened, her vision turning a hazy red. "EDI, put that little hussy's security on immediate lock down and get me Garrus!"
Kaidan's hands restrained her, rubbing soothingly into her tensed muscles. "Shepard wait. We could use this to our advantage. Could EDI instead monitor all of Chambers's actions—electronic and otherwise? By all means, put her security on lockdown so she does not have any accurate access to the ship. But what if you were to plant misinformation into the system. Then whatever she may be feeding Cerberus would be faulty. We could use this to our advantage."
"Keep your friends close but your enemies closer, huh?" Shepard was impressed. She also couldn't help but notice Kaidan's use of the word "we" in his plans. It gave her a warm feeling of camaraderie with the man that she missed since her forced leave of the original Normandy. Kimbri gave Kaidan a sideways glance. "I'm impressed, Commander. What has the Alliance been doing with you since I've been gone? Certainly not just a messenger boy for Anderson. This plan certainly is more devious than what I would have expected of you two years ago."
Alenko looked at once both satisfied and discomforted. "I'm, uh, not at liberty to discuss that, Commander. I'll leave that conversation between you and Anderson for a later date."
Shepard gave him a sly smile. "Very well, Staff Commander—for now." She turned back to the terminal. "Well, EDI? Can it be done?"
"I'm not versed in the seeding of false information into my systems, Shepard. I'm afraid I cannot help you in that."
"What if another member of the crew were to lay the needed misinformation? Would you be okay with helping them to place it in the databanks of the Normandy?"
"Certainly Commander. To whom would you like me to connect you?"
Kimbri and Kaidan looked at each other. Garrus was out due to his association with Chambers. Jacob wasn't a tech guy. Tali was just…too innocent. "Well, Miranda is the best one that comes to my mind."
Kaidan frowned. "The Cerberus operative in the skin-tight outfit?"
Kimbri raised an eyebrow at him. "Noticed that, did you, Alenko? And she is a former Cerberus agent. She fully renounced her loyalty to TIM when I blew up the Collector base against his orders. She outright disobeyed him and disavowed him then and there. I think she's as much on the run from him as the rest of us. Besides, she's still technically my XO."
"Be that as it may, I have another suggestion." Kimbri looked at him expectantly. "Joker. He's likely seen all of that original footage before. And he does have some experience hacking systems with all of the extranet content that he tries to hide from the powers that be. Plus I understand that he already has a good working relationship with the ship AI."
EDI spoke up. "Should I contact Mr. Moreau for you, Commander?"
"Yes, please, EDI."
"No need commander. I overheard part of the conversation. I'd be happy to help nail that little—"
"Language, Jeff," the AI chided.
If you are enjoying the story, please leave a review and let me know. :)
Mood Music for Chapter 13: "Wild 2 Nite" by Shaggy; "Naughty Girl" by Beyonce; "Adore" by Paramore; "This Will Be" by Natalie Cole
