Councilor Anderson

Purgatory exploded as they escaped, and with other ships in the vicinity Shepard felt there was no way she could avoid going public any longer. She decided it was time to visit Councilor David Anderson. As a result, she was restless. Nights like these, she visited Joker in the cockpit.

"Hey, Joker. You awake?" she whispered as she entered the cabin.

"Shh, shzz, zzzt." He spun around in his chair, a finger to his lips.

Shepard fixed him with an inquisitive look. "Joker?"

"I can tell when it's listening," he warned.

EDI's voice filled the room. "I am always listening, Mister Moreau."

"I know!" He rolled his eyes at EDI's holographic image. "So Shepard, why are you prowling around so early?"

"Can't sleep." Shepard sat down at the flight station next to Joker's. "Oh my god, you weren't kidding about these seats. Why have I never sat here before?" She nestled into the plush leather chair and turned to look at him. He was staring back at her, arms crossed over his chest. "What?"

"What. You aren't sleeping well at all, haven't been since we started this mission. Why?"

She shrugged and looked out the window, but she could feel him staring at her and hear him tapping his foot. "Okay, stop it. I'd hate for you to break your foot because of me. It's...I guess I'm just nervous about...what would you call it, coming out of the coffin?" She let out a short laugh. "Anderson always was a bit of a father figure to me, and I'm concerned he'll be disappointed in me, you know?"

"You sure it's not Kaidan?"

Shepard sighed. They had both been dancing around this conversation for a while, she knew, and there was no avoiding it now.

"There is that. I miss him," she whispered. She looked away for a moment to let the familiar swell of emotion pass. "I want to get in touch with him, but I can't. Send him a message from the Cerberus network? Can you imagine? And what if he's moved on? I don't want to turn his life upside down-"

"I'm sorry." Joker interjected.

"For what? Maybe I can understand that you might feel it was your fault somehow, but don't be ridiculous, Joker. It wasn't. They got the better of us that day, but it was not your fault."

A small green light on her omni-tool flashed, forwarding a message from her personal terminal. She tapped the screen and a moment later, sucked in her breath. Joker shot her a quick glance; she had gone pale.

"Commander? Shepard. What is it?"

She swallowed hard. "Councilor David Anderson. Ah...'On the off chance that the rumors are true, and you actually are alive, I need you to come and talk to me on the Citadel. A lot has changed in the last two years. You put me on top, and it's only fair that you be allowed to speak for yourself about what we've been hearing.'"

Shepard cleared her throat. "Damn. I wanted to be the one to make the first move. Well, that's it, then. The jig is up, as they say."

Joker smiled reassuringly. "We've got your back, Commander."

That meant something to her, having loyal crew and friends to rally around her. It eased her nerves a bit, but she couldn't do anything about the tiny little voice in the back of her head warning her the path ahead was going to be bumpy.

x ~ X ~ x

Shepard boarded the Citadel with Garrus and Jacob. Their first task was to meet with Kasumi Goto, the master thief Tim suggested she recruit. Shepard's instructions were to proceed to the advertisement terminal on the Level 27 docks. As soon as she stepped off the Normandy, she spotted the terminal and walked over to it. Looking around, she wondered how long she should wait. After a minute or two, the terminal jumped to life.

"Got problems with collectors? Try Kasumi's credit services."

Shepard looked at the terminal and saw a woman's image briefly before the screen switched back to static. She touched the screen and the woman's face appeared again. "Please tell me your password, Commander Shepard."

"Ah...silence is golden." Shepard snickered, finding the cloak and dagger routine amusing. She surreptitiously stole glances around the corridor. Ms. Goto had to be nearby.

"Good to finally meet you, Commander. Kasumi Goto. I'm a fan."

Like Zaeed, Kasumi had cut a deal with Tim and taken a large signing bonus to work with Shepard. "You're going to a party, and I've even purchased some evening wear for you so you'll look presentable."

"Great. My last dress got spaced. So...you'll give me all the information I need about this Donovan Hock fellow and the deal on board?"

Kasumi's image nodded and explained that she was going to retrieve her former partner's grey box, a neural implant that stored memories and images. Shepard could tell there was a story there; this partner had clearly meant a great deal to the master thief.

She nodded, her eyes now scanning the catwalks above them. "Okay. If that's what Cerberus promised you, we'll get it done."

"With any luck, you won't even have to draw your gun."

"I'll try not to be too disappointed, if that's the case," Shepard chuckled. The screen before her flashed with more static and Kasumi's voice drifted down to her from directly above.

"We should wrap this up. You look pretty silly standing there talking to an advertisement. I'll see you on the ship, Shepard."

Shepard was barely able to get a nod out before the thief turned and walked away along a catwalk, cloaking herself.

x ~ X ~ x

Security at the Citadel was tighter since Sovereign's attack, and Shepard had to deal with the matter of being dead. After seeing Captain Bailey at C-Sec, she went to Anderson's office, leaving Garrus and Jacob outside.

Anderson smiled and greeted her warmly, taking her hands in his. "Welcome back to the ranks of the living. I wasn't sure you got my message."

"Anderson, it's good to see you. This is...a little weird, this situation."

He nodded. "Hmm. Yes. I'll be honest. I was hoping to convince the other councilors to be here for this meeting. Unfortunately, they rarely listen to me. Sometimes I wonder if Udina would have been a better choice for this job."

Shepard could see he wasn't happy. "I'm sorry it hasn't gone well, sir, but I never did trust Udina. I wanted you on the council because you're a good, honest man."

"Well, thank you for that, but I just don't have the knack for compromising my principles and that's a bad trait for a councilor." He motioned her to follow him and headed out to the large balcony that ran the length of his office.

"There's been a lot of talk since you came back and some of what I hear has been, frankly, a little disturbing. I wanted to give you a chance to explain your actions. Maybe get the council to see things from your point of view, but they refused to see you."

She sighed and raised an eyebrow at Anderson. "What'd I do to piss them off?"

"You let the previous council die during Sovereign's attack on the Citadel. They feel you'll always put human interests before galactic concerns."

"The losses to the fleet would have been massive and I couldn't be certain the Citadel could be..." Pinching the bridge of her nose, she groaned. "There's no point going over this."

He turned to look her in the eye and scrutinized her face for several seconds. "Rumors that you're working with Cerberus haven't helped. What are you doing out there?"

"David, they tell me I died. As in dead, spaced. I didn't exactly have a say in this." She waved her hands around her body and started pacing. "Don't get me wrong, they did a great job and I'm better than ever now, but I did not ask for this. And I sure as hell didn't ask to be abandoned by the Alliance. I hear it didn't take long for them to turn their backs on me and this pesky little reaper problem." She stopped and shook her head. "I'm sorry. This is...frustrating, but I shouldn't take it out on my friends."

Anderson raised his hands. "Kate, I know you. I know you wouldn't be working with Cerberus without a good reason. What's going on?"

"The collectors are abducting our colonists in the Terminus Systems and we think they're working for the reapers."

"The collectors? We hadn't considered that. There's so little data, and they always seemed like a fringe threat. If they're a front for the reapers, this is big, but even that might not convince the Council to get off its ass. The others have sent the last two years convincing themselves the reapers don't exist."

Shepard started to protest, but he waved her off. "I have tried to get the truth out there, but they don't want to see it. It's easier to believe Sovereign was a geth warship."

"Goddamnit," Shepard cursed, leaning over the railing to look out at the shuttle cabs flying back and forth. "Some things never change, huh."

Anderson stood beside her and adopted a similar posture. "It's up to you to stop the reapers, Kate. All I've got is a title, if you want it. I'll reinstate your Spectre status. It won't win me any popularity contests, but they can't object. Your title was never officially rescinded when you died." He turned to look at her. "Besides, you're still a hero to humanity, and the Council knows the danger of discounting our opinion."

"Thank you, David. I'll take whatever assets I can, and coming from you this is as good as the first time."

Anderson shrugged. "It's more symbolic than anything, but it still has weight in some quarters. It's up to you to take care of the rest. I'll keep the Council and the Alliance off your back. Shouldn't be too hard if you're operating out of the Terminus Systems."

Ambassador Udina walked into the room at that moment and stopped short when he saw Shepard. "Shepard, what are you doing here?"

"Udina, pleasure as always."

Udina opened his mouth, but Anderson cut him off and gestured to the door. "We will talk about this later. If you don't mind?"

"Of course, Councilor." With a final glare at Shepard, Udina stalked out again.

Shepard let out a puff of air. "Well, that was pleasant."

They chatted for a few minutes about Udina's role and Anderson's life as a Councilor. It hadn't been a happy two years for her friend. As they wound their conversation down, she decided to approach the matter of Kaidan.

"Look, David, I'm building a team and I need people I can trust. I've got tabs on some of the old gang, but I haven't been able to track down Kaidan Alenko. Do you know where he is these days?"

Anderson short her a sideways glance before turning back to the view before them. "He's still with the Alliance, promoted to Staff Commander. But his file's currently classified. Even if I did know how to reach him, I couldn't tell you that. I'm sorry, Kate."

"I understand, David. I should go."

He gripped her hand in his and shook it firmly, clapping a hand on her other shoulder. "Take care of yourself, Kate. And for what it's worth, know that I'm here if you need me."

"Thank you, David. That means a lot to me." She tried to step away from him, but he held her steady.

"Just do me a favor, Kate. Be careful. You can't trust Cerberus."

Shepard nodded. "I know, David. Trust me, I know. But so does most of my team, so far. I'll be careful."

She turned and walked out of his office, waving at Garrus and Jacob to follow her. "I want to get this list of errands done as quickly as possible. We need to get to Korlus to find this warlord, Okeer."

"In a Blue Suns camp, if I recall." Garrus commented. "Should be good practice for the collectors."

Out of the coffin and into the fire.

A/N: An evil little voice in my head is thinking "Closer...closer..." You know what I'm talking about! Thanks to Bioware, my readers, and my friends Zevgirl and Zute. Thank you all for the reviews - you know I love 'em so please leave 'em! Cheers, Biff