It was odd to wake up in what he'd always considered to be the mother in law apartment of his own parents' vacation home, Jenna plastered against him, John asleep on the other side. They'd pushed the couch up against the bed in a fairly successful attempt to gain some more space, but if this was to become a daily event, they'd definitely need to invest in a much larger bed. But something had woken him up...it was early, even for him. He lifted his head up, listening to the house... Again, a muted roar, followed by another... he placed the sound of an annoyed krogan well before he placed the not so alien sound of a truly pissed off bear.

"What the hell is that?" John whispered, and Kaidan extricated himself from Jenna's loose grasp.

"Wrex. And a bear." He replied softly, sliding into his pants and boots, picking up a pistol. John shadowed his every motion, letting Kaidan take lead to the outside access door. "I doubt if he needs our help." Kaidan said when the cool morning air hit his lungs and John secured the door behind them. In fact, Wrex would be probably just be insulted if they took his fun away from him...

"I know. But I want to see it anyway."

Kaidan was expecting exactly what he'd seen up here before, exactly what Jenna had confirmed she'd seen up here, fairly small black bears. Something beneath a krogan warlord's notice, unless Wrex happened to be bored.

"Holy shit." He muttered when he got his first good look at what was facing off in the dim shadows of the lower orchard... Wrex, hunkered over in threat, his eyes burning red...and one very large grizzly, his equal in size and bulk.

"Ha! Shepard!" Wrex greeted them with a jubilant bellow. "Your pet?"

"Nooooo..." John replied, his eyes turning to Kaidan in disbelief. "This is your bear?" There was a weight of recrimination in that question, and Kaidan shook his head slowly. No, there was no way in hell he would have let Jenna come into the orchard by herself, if he'd known this was down here. He had a certain amount of respect for her abilities, from what he gathered of her upbringing, she could handle herself ably enough out here, and she had done just that, for months. But this...no. This was a threat. A real threat. To Jenna. To his mother...to several of the people he'd invited out here, and it would be drawn closer to the house by the luxurious smell of barbecue still hanging in the air. Many of the Normandy's crew would react to this just as Wrex was, but enough wouldn't. Moving it was out of the question, and the threat to his family, his crew, was simply too much.

"Take that down!" He shouted the order, and Wrex laughed in answer.

.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`

Jenna woke to the sounds of several people above, someone singing mostly on key, laughter and she pulled herself out of bed and dressed. She climbed the stairs and immediately wished she hadn't... but it was too late to turn around and go back. She liked Vega, she was comfortable around him, and indeed, he sent her a wide smile in greeting. Joker, likewise. But the two women, no.

"Morning, Jenna." Vega said, not missing a beat in his cooking.

"Where's Kaidan?" She asked, trying to sound normal, even when Jack's eyes, Miranda's eyes, fell on her. There was no one here to attach herself to... No Kaidan. No John. No moms. She preferred the company of men, she always had...or older women. Not these two, they reeked of things she wasn't equipped to handle. But she'd die before she'd admit it to them.

"Wrex found a toy in the orchard. Alenko and Shepard went out to watch him play with it." Miranda explained, her gaze locked on Jenna. Jenna wished that she'd not simply thrown on the first shirt she'd come to, wished that she'd chosen something a little more adult, mature, restrained than a light, lacy shirt printed with strawberries and green shorts. Damnit, this is a cookout. A barbecue among friends. I'm the one who's dressed for it, I shouldn't be ashamed. She's the overdressed one. Who the hell wears a uniform for this?

"Toy? A bear?"

"You knew about it?" Vega seemed to find the idea much more interesting than it should have been. Were they all spacer kids, like John? Fighting for a world they'd never actually been raised on? "¿El oso grande?"

Jenna's grasp of Spanish was clunky but basically workable, one of her first jobs had been in a Mexican restaurant... But if Vega wanted to call it a big bear, then he could if he really wanted to. Usually the bears in this area weren't that impressive... you had to go farther north to get the big specimens.

Kaidan stepped into the front room, a pistol drawn and loosely held in his hand. "Jenna." There was a gulf of concern in his voice. "If we could see you down in the orchard, please."

"Ah, sure." She'd love a cup of coffee and a plate of whatever the hell that was that Vega was making...it smelled fantastic...but she registered the edge of command in Kaidan's voice. And he'd never, ever used that on her before. "Coming."

He remained silent when he walked her down to the orchard, and that was exactly what he was doing. John was down in the deepest part, his stance wary, catlike, balanced on the balls of his feet, his pistol leveled, his expression locked. Wrex was growling, huffing, hunkered down in a way that Jenna truly did not like at all. She'd known that krogan were dangerous, but she'd always felt safe, comfortable around him before. And between John and Wrex, something she first thought was a huge pile of dead grass, but only the dead and huge parts were correct. It was the largest bear she'd ever seen before in her life.

"Shit." She managed, "Fucking grizzly, here?" She'd been down here just hours ago, alone. She'd always been careful, but never this kind of careful... her largest fears had been twisting an ankle, stepping on a rattlesnake. Things she really thought could hurt, kill, her while she'd been living up here on her own. This could kill her just yards away from help, even help as viciously impressive as she had here.

"Yeah. Kaidan breathed, "You've been up here for the longest, most recently..."

"I sure as hell didn't see any of these. I saw black bears."

"These are indigenous?" Wrex growled, and she considered him. Indigenous?

"To this area? This used to be part of their natural range... there have been sightings in lower BC before, so yeah...they're indigenous."

"I meant to Earth. I didn't realize you had such interesting creatures to hunt."

Hunt. Yeah, Jenna gave Kaidan a wary look. Were they going to report this, or were they just going to dispose of the body and hope that nobody else was the wiser? "What?" He asked, apparently oblivious of the fact that this was probably illegal, or had been before the invasion.

"Are we reporting it?"

"Oh." His brows raised in thought for a moment. "Jenna, it was too dangerous. I have the Normandy crew up here, you. My mom. John's mom. Joker. Hell, even the combat team could have made a misstep with this thing. But yes, I will be reporting it. Protecting the crew is justification enough...we didn't come back to fall to the local wildlife, Jenna."

"Hmmm. Well, Vega's working on breakfast." The bear was dead. Not much else she could be expected to do with it, unless the thought of eating it was going to come into play. Not that she wanted to even consider taking it away from Wrex...it was obviously his kill. And he could keep it if he wanted to. Hell, he could eat it all by himself. Somehow, home now seemed to be a little less safe, a little less of a place to run to.

"Hey." Kaidan had the amazing ability to sense when her moods changed, was she so transparent or was he simply that attuned to those around him? He wrapped an arm around her, resting his forehead against her shoulder. "It's okay, Jenna."

Another body on the other side, another arm wrapped around her shoulder, John standing protectively next to her and Kaidan. He couldn't make it any more obvious than that if he tried, and Wrex stared for a long, long moment.

"I see." He grumbled. "Can I eat this, then?"

Jenna could feel John chuckle in response, shaking his head. "Of course you can eat it, Wrex." He stated, "It's yours. Unless the two Canadians are going to say that it's poisonous or something. And even then, you'd probably eat it."

"They're edible." Jenna confirmed. "It's his kill."

"Hehheh." Wrex chuffed in contentment. "Damn straight."

Even though it had started out roughly, it became a glorious day, clear, warm and joyous. Once the morning fog lifted, it was easy to put the scene down in the orchard behind her, once she had Vega's carnitas in her belly and a couple of cups of coffee chasing it down, it all seemed to fade behind her. It was time for more volleyball, more laughter, more games, more food, drink and music. A celebration of life.

.`.`.`.`.`.`.`

John leaned against the railing of the porch, admiring the view. There was a lot of it to admire...a perfect, beautiful day, just as he'd dreamed of, fought for, once things had gotten bad. It was the gathering he'd barely let himself hope for...one without the desperation of the last 'party' he'd help host. Then, they'd been filled with resolve and a good measure of resignation. But today, there was none of that.

"You've been awfully mellow." He stated, feeling Jack come up behind him, her biotic charge flowing ahead of her. Jenna was everything that usually agitated her, but she'd been almost polite in response.

"Hah." She snorted, taking the railing next to him, gazing down towards Jenna and Kaidan playing a sedate game of badminton against Hannah and Danielle. "You mean that I haven't taken a swipe against her?"

"Yes."

"I'm bitchy, but I'm not stupid, Shepard." She nodded slowly. "Normandy is all I've got. And even though he is one tightly buckled up son of a bitch, Alenko is part of that, and has always been. You are part of that. The quickest way I can break that, destroy it...is to go after her. Anyway, it's not like it's even sporting...is it?"

"No, it's not. She doesn't deserve it, either." Jenna was a genuinely nice person from what he'd seen, and the last thing she needed was either Miranda or Jack going after her. And it most certainly was not sporting. Those two more than had the capacity to kill Jenna without breaking a sweat, in that way, it would be like baiting a small child just for the joy of it.

"There are only two people I'm likely to end up working with now. You. Or Alenko. And my money's on him. So he went after a nice, clean cut, corn fed Canadian girl that his mom likes... predictable. She'll make him happy. But I am sure of a couple of things..."

He glanced at her and she shrugged in answer. "Alenko's on the short promotion list for O-7. He's been tapped to train biotics before, and with Hackett's push to bring the military back up to strength, his focus on training, his promise to leave Alenko here, at Vancouver, all point to a biotics school. Here, groundside. Don't want to piss General Alenko off, do I?"

General Alenko. John frowned, he should have seen that coming. As she none too jokingly pointed out, Kaidan had always served on the straight and narrow. He was three years older than John. He hadn't lost any time in service to unfortunate periods of death and working for Cerberus. He'd been two grades higher ranked than John for quite awhile, and his record was marked with commendations.

"No long face. You're up for promotion as well, and you'll get Normandy back."

While Kaidan stays groundside.