Greetings All. Sorry that this chapter took so long. Had to let it percolate in the back of my head for awhile. (If I've gotten military behavior wrong - I apologize now.) Also the chemical that Solana uses in Chapter 53 was sparked by an idea from greenmamba5's awesome Mass Effect story (Ante Up) over on Deviant Art. To all those who continue to follow this story, have faved it, or commented or reviewed it - you are awesome. You make writing this story even more rewarding.


Marching Orders

Shepard

Shepard made her way back to the med suite. She'd taken a ridiculously long shower. There were no water restrictions, Garrus was resting, and no crisis required her attention so she'd indulged herself. She figured that after everything she was entitled to this relatively small luxury.

Then there were the memories that the shower had stirred up. Apparently she and Garrus had gotten up to quite a lot of 'exploration' in the shower. Talk about adventurous. She was very grateful no one was in the hallways as she was probably redder than her hair right now. She'd be having, yet another, long talk with the Turian when she was positive no one was around. The last thing she wanted was to see Victus smirking at her, or rather Vakarian, which she had no doubts he would, or heaven forbid – Castis being disapproving. Solana she wasn't so sure of except that she'd use it as an excuse to tease her brother.

The one memory that didn't leave her blushing but rather giggling madly was her trying to explain the concept of a rubber ducky to a very puzzled Garrus. Some things didn't translate across species and apparently rubber duckies were one of them. And when she and Joker had broken into a chorus of 'The Rubber Ducky' song; he'd been completely bewildered. He'd looked at her like she was crazy and fled back to the Thanix and his calibrations.

She'd left Chakwas behind getting her own shower. Since the doc been called from her bed in the early morning hours to deal with medical emergencies.

Shepard made a note to check with Whiteson and see if there was any Serrice Ice Brandy to be had. In talking to/with Chakwas she'd remembered that the older woman favored it.

When she got to the med suite there were a new pair of guards on duty that she'd never seen before. Probably had to shift things around after the human and Turian patrols had gotten into trouble.

One guard started to challenge her but his partner poked him, hard, in the ribs with the butt of his gun.

"That's Commander Shepard you stupid varren." Came the not so quiet hiss.

Turians couldn't blush but they could look very, very sheepish; and that's what the first guard did.

"I…I'm sorry Commander…" He began and she waved off his apology.

"It's alright, don't worry about it." She smiled to ease him.

"No ma'am." He got very formal. "It's not. We, the Turians, owe you our people and our planet."

It was her turn to look sheepish. "The Turians were right there along side of me and I couldn't have done any of it without them."

The other guard, with a glare at his friend, had graciously opened the door for her. Apparently some Turians were impressed with what she'd done. With a shy nod to both men she slipped inside. She still didn't think of herself as a galactic hero; she was just a soldier doing her job.

Unerringly she headed for Garrus's bed? cubicle? area? She wasn't sure what you'd call it.

She stepped through the curtains and stopped. Instead of Garrus resting quietly in the dimness, his bed had been raised slightly so he was more sitting up, the light by the bed was on, if dimmed; and he was now hooked up to a host of machines, including an IV.

"What the…?" She exclaimed, startled.

"Commander.." A voice from the side drew her attention. It was Solana who'd been sitting in a chair in the corner. She stood up and stretched.

"Solana, what the hell happened?" She rounded on the female, puzzled and more than a little alarmed.

Solana looked at her brother and sighed. "Garrus actually being a good Turian for a change." At Shepard's look of confusion, she launched into an explanation.

Later

Vega

Vega stretched out his legs and sighed. The furniture might be old and a bit broken down but it was comfortable and welcoming, rather like that in his abuela's house. Damn he missed her; but he would be forever grateful that she hadn't been alive when the Reapers hit earth. The thought of the woman who'd raised him being turned into a husk would have been more than he could have borne.

Not wanting to dwell on that thought, he wondered if he could get something to drink other than tea. The locals sure liked it; but it didn't do much for him. Alenko was okay with it.

Thinking about Alenko made him wonder what was up with the Major. He'd come skulking back in from somewhere a couple of hours ago, looking like a kid that had been doing something he shouldn't have.

The Major was acting pretty odd. Granted most of the biotics Vega had served with had been aliens. Still Alenko's behavior was peculiar enough that he was gonna talk to the Doc when he got a chance; besides that gave him another opportunity to give Scar's little sister a hard time. He smirked. Solana was way too easy to wind up. Scars had figured out his game very quickly and had given as good as he'd gotten.

That led him to thinking about Scars…and by extension – Lola. He shook his head and smiled ruefully. It had been painfully obvious to entire ship even though the two had tried to be discrete about it. Well, it had given everyone something to focus on besides the damn Reapers and what was happening on earth – or any of the other home worlds.

Trying to forget some of the reports he'd heard or overheard during that time made him suddenly restless and he stood up. He wondered if he should go use the gym. Unconsciously he touched his left eye. He would not, however, be using another Turian as a sparring partner – not after Lieutenant Tafero.

If Scars had been available he would have happily challenged him; but from what he'd overheard – Scars wasn't going to be up to sparring for a couple of weeks, maybe more.

Just then there was a knock at the door. Puzzled, he went over and opened it to find Lola..the Commander standing there.

"Hey Lola, what you doing wandering around at this hour?" He indicated for her to come in.

"It's almost time for breakfast, Vega." She sounded curt as she came in. She glanced around then looked up at him and tried to smile. He knew her well enough to realize that she was forcing it; but he wasn't totally sure what the underlying emotion was. That made him cautious – he'd learned only too well that when Shepard was hiding her emotions that something was big was probably about to go down.

"Alenko here?"

"In his room. I'll get him." He turned to go; but stopped to look back at her. "Everything okay, Commander?"

She smiled again – this time it was more genuine – less forced. "Yeah, it's okay James."

With a nod, he went over and knocked on the door that led to the adjoining room where Alenko was bunked down then opened it and stuck his head in.

"Yes…what is it?" Alenko was laying on his bed, fully dressed. Seemed like nobody was sleeping in this morning.

"Commander's here and wants to speak to you." He said.

"Tell her I'll be right out." Alenko about catapulted off the bed, looking very eager.

Vega closed the door and turned to Shepard who was standing there with her arms crossed staring fixedly at a picture of what someone had told him was the current royal family. Some of whom had actually survived the Reapers, or so he'd heard.

"He'll be out in a second, Lola."

She nodded still staring at the picture, then shook her head and turned to him with a smile.

"Planning on doing some more sparring, Vega?" She indicated his face.

"Not with any Turian grannies." He retorted and she snorted in amusement.

"Awww, afraid are you?" She teased.

"Would you tangle with her?" He tossed back.

"Probably not since she's managed to take on most of Victus's general staff." She admitted.

"Awwww, afraid are you?" He parroted and she grinned at that.

Then the door opened and Alenko came out. Seeing Shepard a big grin split his face and he hurried over to her.

"J..Shep…Commander, what can I do for you?" He looked like, to Vega's disbelief, like he was about to try to hug her.

Shepard spun at his approach and detachedly, Vega realized that she was altering her stance to….

With that fluid economy she possessed and explosive power she could unleash – she swung on Alenko. Her fist cracking against his chin and knocked him backwards onto the floor.

"You fucking coward." She growled, advancing on him. Startled, Alenko scooted backwards away from her – desperately trying to bring up a biotic shield.

"Whoa, Lola." Vega, not sure what was going on; but sure he shouldn't let it proceed, quickly got between the two. "No hitting Majors."

"He's lucky that's all I did." She snarled; but didn't try to force her way past Vega. Fortunately. If he didn't want to take on a Turian granny – he sure as shit didn't want to tangle with a pissed off Commander Shepard.

His omni-tool went off and his glanced down at it, not wanting to take his attention off of the Commander. Whatever had triggered this she was furious and he was afraid that she'd go for the Major again.

It was Admiral Hackett.

He opened a channel and before Hackett could say anything. "Er, Admiral I think you ought to come to my and Alenko's quarters – the Commander is here and she's angry about something."

"Understood." Hackett didn't even question him.

Meanwhile Alenko had gotten to his feet though he didn't try to approach the Commander.

"I…you…" He began and she started to move towards him. Instinctively he backed up.

"Commander." Vega got between them again.

She glared at Vega but came to a halt; however he could see her seething like the caldera on a volcano – ready to blow.

"I was just thinking of you…" Alenko began.

"The hell you were." She snarled again and about shoved past Vega.

"Major. Kindly shut the fuck up." He threw over his shoulder as he, again, blocked her. She stared up at him and Vega could see rage; but in the background he caught a hint of something that he'd have almost said were tears. Lola didn't really cry so whatever had gone down had truly upset her.

Moments later the door opened and Hackett came in, still struggling to button his plaid shirt.

"Vega, Commander, Major." He took in the scene. "What the hell is going on?"

"Nothing sir." Alenko spoke up before Vega could.

"I cold cocked the Major, Admiral." Shepard sounded like any officer reporting on their day.

Hackett looked a bit taken aback by that.

"That's not professional behavior, Commander." He said hesitantly. Like Vega, he realized that something had gone down and while Shepard wasn't averse to punching out reporters she usually didn't take on fellow officers.

"Neither is being a spineless coward and going behind my back." She retorted. Hackett eyed her and then the Major, who was now looking guilty.

"What happened?"

"it was…." Alenko began.

"I was asking the Commander, Major." Hackett said coldly.

Hackett

Damn, Hackett thought to himself, now what the hell had the biotic done. He knew instinctively that it must have something to do with her relationship with Vakarian.

"The Major.." Every word out of Shepard's mouth was rimmed in ice. "Decided that since I said no – he was going to go behind my back and try to convince Vakarian to dump me – so he could swoop in and save me."

Hackett swore mentally at that and glared at the Major.

"Is this true, Major?"

"Yes sir; but…"

"No asses, Alenko." Shepard growled interrupting him. "What the hell did you think that was going to accomplish? Did you think after telling you NO that I was going to come running to you for comfort?"

From the Major's guilty silence that was obviously exactly what he'd thought.

"It WOULD NOT OF HAPPENED, Alenko." Each word was clipped out of steel.

"I…" Alenko began again.

"The only damn thing you accomplished was to almost start another incident between us and the Turians." She went on coldly.

"Commander?"

"Turian bond mates don't usually just dump their partners, it's a mutual thing." She explained. "And they don't take to being forced away from their partners." Here she paused and glared at Alenko, who backed away from her a little more. Hackett didn't blame him.

"You damn near triggered Vakarian into attacking you."

Hackett about choked at that.

"The only thing that kept your moronic hide in one piece is that you'd been on the ground crew together." Shepard voice was cracking and Hackett realized that she was near to crying. "And he retained enough sanity to not go off on you."

Even Alenko was shaken by that, as well he should be Hackett thought grimly. He might be a biotic; but Vakarian was not only Turian; but had fought along side biotics and had no doubt learned how to deal with them. Hackett wouldn't have even begun to hazard a guess as to who would have prevailed in that fight; but it would have been a blood bath both literally and figuratively.

"I didn't know." Alenko said faintly.

"And you didn't give a rat's ass." Shepard shot back, then she looked at Hackett.

"Sir, am I CO of the Normandy?"

"Yes." Hackett was startled by the question.

"Then I want the Major gone before I get back to the Normandy." She stated. "I don't ever want to see him again." She started for the door. "I'll accept whatever punishment you deem appropriate, sir." With that she was gone, leaving a stunned silence behind her.