Thank you for reading!

As they were preparing to return to the Normandy, Shepard was called up to a debriefing with the council, and told Garrus not to wait for her, so he headed for the elevators back up to Normandy's docking bay on his own. On the way up, the elevator stopped and who should get on but Kaidan Alenko—with his Alliance-issued duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

"Going somewhere?" Garrus asked him warily.

"Shepard didn't tell you?"

The conclusion Garrus had been trying not to jump to was now staring him in the face: Shepard had invited Kaidan back to the Normandy. "Oh. No, must have slipped her mind. It's been a busy day."

"I'll say."

"They don't need you on your own, flying around doing Spectre things?"

Kaidan looked at him searchingly, as if trying to determine if that was Garrus subtly telling him he didn't want him on the ship. "Honestly? I think they can't afford to outfit another Spectre ship. Between the strikes on human holdings and Udina's embezzlement, the Alliance isn't exactly solvent right now."

"You sure you shouldn't stay on the Citadel and help get things straightened out?"

"Nobody wants me trying to run the Alliance, least of all me." Kaidan shook his head. "I donate most of my pay because I'm terrible at managing money." He cleared his throat, looking down at his boots. "I don't know what I'll do if I ever have to retire."

"You almost didn't have to," Garrus pointed out. "If anyone's trigger finger had twitched—"

Kaidan reached out and hit the emergency button, the elevator sliding to a stop. A computerized voice issued instructions on what to do if your elevator was stuck between floors, but both men ignored it.

"All right, Garrus, let's have this out before we get on the ship and have to be crewmates again. You obviously don't want me aboard. What's that about? I thought we were okay again."

"That was before you leveled a weapon at the woman I love."

The words hung between them. Garrus had never used that word to describe Zia to anyone but her before, and he could see that Kaidan hadn't expected him to do so now.

"You have to admit, the situation was a little tense."

"You have to admit you don't trust her. You still have that whole Cerberus bug up your butt, much as you might want to pretend you don't. So why are you coming back on board her ship, under her command? And for that matter, having two Spectres on the same mission rarely goes well. Are we going to have a hierarchy issue?"

"No. We're not," Kaidan said decisively. "Shepard is—Shepard is more than a Spectre. She's the best hope this galaxy has of surviving the Reapers, always has been. She's in command."

"And the next time we go up against Cerberus? Do I have to worry that you watching her back is going to end up with you shooting her in it the first time you get nervous about her loyalties?" Garrus took a step across the elevator, using his height advantage to force Kaidan to look up at him. "Because if you ever point a gun at her again, you'll have my bullet between your eyes. She could never have shot you, but I could do it without so much as a feather's weight on my conscience." He wasn't sure the truth went quite that far, but he didn't need Kaidan to know that.

To his credit, Kaidan didn't back down, and he didn't bluster or get defensive. "Understood."

"Is it?"

"Yes. Look, Garrus, when … all that went down, with Udina, and I had to shoot him—well, that was my decision, right then, that once and for all I was trusting Shepard. End of story. And she trusted me not to shoot her."

"She's a better person than I am." Garrus hit the button to get the elevator moving again. "Glad we had this little chat, Kaidan."

"I love to be threatened by my friends." A faint smile said the comment was a peace offering.

Garrus chuckled. "You need better friends."

"When the galaxy doesn't end, maybe I'll look into it. Hey, I heard a rumor—is there a living Prothean on the Normandy?"

"Maybe."

"It's always so hard to tell. I've heard everything from the Normandy being secretly a Reaper-built vessel to Shepard being the second coming of the goddess Athame."

"That's a new one. She's not even an asari."

Kaidan shrugged. "I guess that doesn't matter. Oh, and then there's the one where she's secretly the Shadow Broker."

Garrus laughed. "Close, but not quite."

"Close?"

"Wait till we get on board." More seriously, Garrus looked his friend over. Kaidan looked wearied, dark circles under his eyes. "It going to sit okay with you, the way things went down with Udina?"

"I … guess?"

"You didn't have a choice. He was in too deep to surrender."

"I know. But thanks for saying so." Kaidan reached out his free hand, and they shook. "This is my promise that I have your back, and Shepard's, and that of every other crew member of the Normandy."

"Thanks. I appreciate it. And I have yours. That's a promise." Suddenly a crew member Kaidan might have some trouble backing up came to mind. "Has anyone told you about EDI?"

The doors of the elevator slid open at their docking bay, and the two of them stepped out, moving toward the ship.

"What about her?"

"She took over the robot body who attacked you on Mars."

Kaidan stopped walking. "Seriously? No wonder the rumors about the Normandy are so crazy—they're just trying to keep up with the reality. So … the ship's inside a robot?"

"More or less. She's … something else, all right. You going to be okay seeing that body as a crew member?"

"Whew. Yeah, eventually. Thanks for the heads up." He grinned suddenly. "Joker must be over the moon."

"You could say that. Oh, also—there's a reporter on board."

"On the Normandy? Shepard let a civilian on board? No way."

Garrus nodded. "The reporter, Allers, convinced her we could bump up support for the war that way. It seems to be working all right, but … she asks a lot of questions. She'll probably want to interview you."

Kaidan gave an exaggerated shudder. "I don't know what's worse—the ship wearing the body of the robot who tried to kill me, or a reporter."

"I'm told she's cute."

"You don't think so?"

Garrus shrugged. "I'm biased—I compare everyone to Shepard."

If Kaidan did, too, he wisely kept that to himself.

The airlock doors opened, and Garrus stood back to let Kaidan through first. "Welcome back to the Normandy, Major."