Remember Bioware owns all! Enjoy the trip, I know I am. This one is for Ash.
DIDN'T YOU LISTEN TO VIGIL
Standing at the control console it was up to Shepard to decide. Save the Destiny Ascension and the Council or hold back and wait to attack Sovereign. She thought back through everything that had happened to get her to this point. Kaidan had recommended to her that she save the council. Garrus recommended to her that she sacrifice the council. Then she remembered what Vigil had told them. The first thing the Reapers did when they attacked the Citadel, the reason they attacked the Citadel, was to destroy the Prothean leadership. That is what made up her mind.
"Joker, I'm opening the relay, save the Destiny Ascension, save the Council at all costs."
"Aye, Aye Commander."
"A noble choice, I hope it was the right one." Garrus said.
"Vigil said the first thing that the Reapers went after was their leaders. The Council is our leadership. For better or worse, we need our leaders to get through this. Vigil wouldn't have said it if it wasn't important." Garrus nodded at the Commander, it made sense.
Shepard looked down at Saren's corpse. Recently the cause of all their problems, she was able, in the end to convince him of Sovereign's control over him. He was able to break control just long enough to take his own life. Shepard, remembering Ashley, thought he got off too easy.
When the Destiny Ascension and the Council were safe, the Citadel station arms opened and the fleet could go after Sovereign. Shepard listened as Admiral Hackett gave the order to take down Sovereign at all cost. She told Kaidan and Garrus to go down and make sure Saren was really dead. Just after she heard confirmation of his death from Kaidan the world began to shake.
The implants that Sovereign put into Saren allowed it to animate his corpse to try and get control of the Citadel Control Console. The three of them attacked it with everything they had. When Shepard delivered the final barrage of shots she was yelling "This is for Ashley!" Sovereign's doppelganger was no more and the destruction of it took down Sovereign's shields.
Shepard, Garrus and Kaidan went back up stairs to see what was going on. Shepard watched with pride as her ship delivered the final blow and Sovereign exploded. Her triumph was short lived as she saw shards from the exploding ship heading towards them, she yelled a warning to Kaidan and Garrus to take cover and ran in the other direction to take cover herself.
She was hit with some debris and knocked over, she went flying and hit a post and dislocated her left shoulder. Then something heavy landed on top of her. Then there was silence. She didn't know if anyone else had survived, her comm link wasn't working. She tried to call Kaidan, Garrus or Joker, but nothing. She hoped they were okay.
It took a while without the use of her arm but she was able to work her way out from under the debris that had landed on her. She had to climb over a lot of pieces of the ship to get back to the center of the floor where the steps were. She jumped over another piece and thought she saw Kaidan's red armor. She climbed over another big piece and slid down and sure enough there was Kaidan and Garrus with Anderson and a Citadel Medic. She worked her way towards them seeing the smile of relief on Kaidan's face. As she looked into his eyes she smiled back, able to breathe again knowing he was alive. She walked right past Anderson to Garrus and gave him a hug then went over to Kaidan and gave him one too. She asked him how they were.
"We're alive. You don't need to worry about us Commander." Kaidan told her.
She nodded and turned towards Anderson and said "and this was just the beginning."
They were taken to the makeshift infirmary that C-Sec had set up in the wards. Dr. Michel and Dr Chakwas as well as other ships doctors were lending assistance to those who needed it. Chakwas was working on healing Kaidan's wounds while Dr. Michel reset Shepard's shoulder. Chakwas sent them both back to the ship, telling Shepard that the ship would probably be empty because everyone was on the station helping to search for survivors. Doc told her that she and Kaidan needed to rest and they would just be in the way in the infirmary.
Shepard asked her about the other crew members. Doc assured her that all of them were well, that Pressley was helping direct search parties and Joker was driving a transport shuttle ferrying survivors back and forth. Liara and Wrex were helping search for survivors because he was strong enough to lift debris and her with her biotics Liara could do the same. Garrus had only minor injuries and was with Tali trying to get the electronic equipment back online. Shepard thanked the doctor and helped Kaidan (who was still a little unsteady on his feet) towards the area where Chakwas had advised them they could find the Normandy. One of the C-Sec officers gave them a ride to the ship and they got on board without any further interruptions.
Shepard headed them towards her cabin. "Where are you going Commander?" Kaidan asked her.
"Kaidan, I am taking you to my cabin, where if you're up to it I am going to do wonderful things to your body." She smiled at him.
"But Commander…"
"Don't but Commander me, right now the way I see it is we haven't been officially reinstated and until we are reinstated we are free to do whatever we want. At least that's how I see it, and I intend to take full advantage of that. Besides I just saved the Council and the Citadel, I think that entitles me to some loving." She told him.
"I agree with your analysis Shepard." He told her as she helped him to the bed.
"Shepard, we're going to need to get cleaned up first, and I really need to eat something."
"Well I can get you some food, if you can get to the shower by yourself" she told him.
"Yeah, I can do that." He told her.
"Okay well here and she pulled out a silk robe from one of her closets it was like hers only a bit shorter and black. I was going to give this to you at some point, now would be as good a time as any. I'll go to your locker and get you clean clothes and some food and I will be right back."
"Okay Shepard" he said as he got up from the bed and made his way towards the bathroom. She watched for a moment to make sure he wouldn't fall and then headed off on her errands.
She returned and heard him in the shower, she went over to the door and cracked it open and tossed in his underwear. Not that she planned for him to wear it for that long, but she wanted him to be comfortable. And it will be fun taking it off she thought to herself.
"Thanks" she heard him say as she closed the door.
She set out the sandwiches, enough to feed a hungry biotic and then some, and the drinks to go with them for him two pitchers of juice, one grape and the other apple, and milk for her. It was reconstituted, and again, not as good as the real thing but she did like milk. She started on a sandwich as he came out of the bathroom and joined her at the table.
"There that's better." He said and he bent to kiss her (leaning on the chair so he wouldn't fall) then he sat down and drank half a glass of apple juice before starting on his first sandwich. She noticed that his color improved once he started to eat.
"You were really getting weak there weren't you" she asked.
"Yeah, it was a tough fight."
"Well you did good."
"So did you Shepard" he smiled at her.
She finished her sandwich and milk. "I'm going to get cleaned up now." She went over to her closet got her robe and underclothes and went towards the bathroom. She stopped and turned to look at him. "You will still be here when I come out, right" she asked.
"Yes, I will still be here." He reassured her picking up his third sandwich.
"Good." And she headed towards the bathroom to get cleaned up.
Kaidan finished eating and cleaned up. He then went back over to the bed. He took off the robe and got under the covers. He noticed a data pad on the table next to the bed so he picked it up. It looked like it had some personal notes on it, so he went to put it back down when he noticed his name on it. He started to read it and he realized it was a first draft of a letter to Shepard's mother. In it she wrote about her chances of surviving the attack. She told her mother that she had grown attached to him and was requesting advice on how to go about it properly. It stopped there. Kaidan put it back where he found it, but smiled to himself. If she is writing about me to her mother, she doesn't plan on this ending anytime soon he thought. It was more proof of her feelings towards him. Kaidan stretched and closed his eyes and relaxed. He was asleep in next to no time.
Shepard came out of the bathroom and looked over at the bed and there was Kaidan fast asleep. Well it had been a long day. She laughed to herself; well I was going to wear him out anyway. She was feeling a bit tired now too, she went over to the bed, took off her robe and laid it on the chair over his. She climbed under the covers next to him. As soon as he sensed her he rolled over and put his arms around her. He was only semi awake and she couldn't get more than a grunt from him as his breathing resumed the steady pulse that meant he had fallen back to sleep. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the pressure of his arms around her. This feels so safe she thought, and then she joined him in slumber.
Shepard opened her eyes found Kaidan looking down on her, she smiled at him. "Good Morning" she said.
"Morning. How are you feeling?" He asked.
She started to stretch and felt the pain in her shoulder, legs and back so she stopped. "Sore, in many places" she told him.
"Yeah, me too."
"Were you watching me sleep?" She asked.
"I have a confession, when you first arrived on the Normandy, you had the pod across from mine. I used to watch you sleep then. I missed it, so yes, I was watching you sleep." Kaidan told her.
"You know Kaidan, I think that is really sweet." She told him. "And maybe a little bit spooky."
"Yeah, so how do you feel about spooky." He asked as he leaned down towards her face.
"I think I can work with it." She took her hand and rubbed his chest as he kissed her. She felt his hand moving under her shirt and up her back as he pulled her closer to him. She responded by wrapping her arms around him and moving them to his lower back and then down further. What followed was a gentle morning of passion being mindful of each others aches.
Shepard came out of her cabin first to see who was around. There was no one in the mess area so she had Kaidan join her. The had just sat down at the table with their breakfast when Joker came through from the bridge.
"Morning" he mumbled at them.
"Morning" Kaidan said.
"Good Morning Joker, what's up?" Shepard asked.
"I have been helping shuttle medics back and forth to some of the ward areas. There are an awful lot of dead and wounded. It's going to take forever to clean this place up." He drank some coffee "Oh and Anderson wants to see you when you get up."
"Yeah I knew it couldn't last." She said looking at Kaidan who smiled back at her.
"Well they say no rest for the wicked." He said slyly to her.
"That's Commander Wicked, to you." She laughed.
"Oh and they are calling you the 'Savior of the Citadel' now" Joker told her.
"Great! Just what I need, another damned title." She frowned. "They forget I didn't do this alone."
"I'll just be Lieutenant Undetectable, with his turian sidekick Mr. Invisible." Kaidan said as he pointed to Garrus who was just sitting down with his breakfast.
"What's that about?" Garrus asked.
"Savior of the Citadel, that's what they're calling Shepard" Joker explained.
"Oh good, just as long as the leave me out of it I hate reporters" Garrus said.
Shepard Groaned, "reporters, oh shit." She looked at Kaidan "next time we try to save the galaxy remind me about the reporters so I can run away instead."
Kaidan saluted her "yes Ma'am!" they laughed at him.
Wrex, Tali, Liara and Dr. Chakwas had trickled in while the exchange was going on.
"It really is amazing the amount of damage that was done." Liara said. "The Citadel lasted over fifty thousand years and they were able to wreak destruction on it in a matter of hours. It's really sad."
"Not to mention the amount of lives lost." Dr. Chakwas said.
"Joker, how many ships did we loose?" Shepard asked.
"Eight" he told her.
"I'm going to need the names of those ships and I will need to know about the allied casualties as well. If I am going to talk to reporters I need statistics to throw at them." She said.
"Alright Commander" Joker said.
"Is that how you prepare before going to meet the press?" Kadain asked.
"I prepare for different things in different ways. I have a feeling that because I saved the council, costing human lives, that is going to be a problem. I will have to figure out a way to counter act that. I need facts and figures to do that." She pointed to Joker. "Include the crew compliment of the Destiny Ascension, and if it had any refugees on board."
"You need a secretary Commander" Joker told her.
"Maybe some day, but not today. I know it's a lot to ask Joker, but I know you can do it for me." He nodded at her. "Well I guess I better get going, you can all continue to help with the relief efforts until I find out where we stand and if I'm going to be court marshaled or not." She told them.
"Yeah, Commander, you just saved their asses, I don't think that's going to be a problem." Garrus said.
"Alliance Command might not see it the same way." And she saw Kaidan frown with a worried crease on his brow. "But at least we got one for Ashley." She got up to go and get ready for her meeting.
"Yes, there is that." Tali said "She would have been pleased."
"Yes," Dr. Chakwas said. "I am sure she is."
The Commander smiled at her as she left the room.