"Holy shit," Shepard muttered as they climbed out of the sublevel and into a medical facility.
Alenko looked around, but couldn't see what the problem was. "What is it?" he asked, moving so Javik and EDI could likewise ascend.
"This-this is where they took me after Lazarus station," Shepard answered slowly, looking around. "I thought…that son of a bitch..." She didn't sound angry, more stunned, as if the Illusive Man had done something admirably clever. Then, she gave a humorless laugh. "Talk about keeping your friend close and your enemies closer. How's Sheffler's team doing?"
"Very well. His tech has launched five fighters throughout the station's lower levels. Needless to say, as long as we remain low-profile, we will be the least of any Cerberus forces' worries," EDI answered. "I requite a moment to get us through this door."
Shepard nodded, but kept glancing around as if unnerved.
"You said you'd been here before?" Alenko prompted.
"I didn't know the Illusive Man put me on the same station he was," Shepard answered. "But apparently he did."
"If it helps, it is unlikely you would have been able to leave this deck," EDI offered.
"Thanks, EDI."
"Shepard, this console does not appear to have been properly scrubbed. You might find interesting data on it." With that, EDI returned to the door.
For lack of anything better to do, Shepard approached the console. Shepard opened the console and began poking at the data. Alenko watched her color ebb, her eyes grow wide.
"Shepard?"
"It's Lazarus data," she answered, as if through numb lips. She cued the records to playback.
Alenko's stomach squirmed uncomfortably, his mind replaying the datapad of the work in progress that had been Jalissa Shepard, as he listened to the Illusive Man argue with a scientist about will versus won't, how anything was just a matter of resources…
…and watched Shepard's increasing discomfort as she listened to the scientist arguing about her condition: clinically brain-dead, so much trauma, no oxygen…
"If I had known you were so tenacious, I might have allied with you sooner," Javik observed, sounding impressed.
Shepard gave a shaky laugh, but she didn't look comforted. "Everyone told me it was bad. I just…" she trailed off, as if to say part of her hadn't wanted to accept just how bad 'bad' really was.
"I thought you were just on life-support," Alenko admitted. "But clinically brain-dead…?" Questions piled up, but he quickly pushed most of them aside, settling on, "…how you feel?"
Javik snorted. "There is no need to coddle her."
"You what? Shut up, Javik. I was talking to Shepard, not you," Alenko fired back.
The Prothean blinked both sets of eyes at him. "If you showed that much spirit to the krogan, I think he would harass you less."
"Noted." Alenko turned back to Shepard. "Shepard?"
Shepard shook herself. "Ready to not be here," she answered. "How's that door, EDI?"
"Progressing. I must be delicate if I am to remain under the radar. I apologize for the inconvenience."
"It's alright. Better safe than sorry." Shepard moved away from the console, but Javik didn't. Rather, he took her place and opened the next file.
Nosey green bastard.
Alenko moved to stand with Shepard, who took a shaky breath. "I don't remember much…" she glanced up, for a moment her soldier's resolution slipped aside. "Maybe I'm just some superbly programmed VI that thinks it's Jalissa Shepard."
"You're not," Alenko answered as firmly, but gently, as he could. They had hashed this out before, and Shepard had never revisited the topic, but he suspected it was something she wrestled with periodically. "And you're real enough for me."
"Thanks." Shepard took a deep breath, pushing her personal concerns aside. Sometimes Alenko envied her ability to do just that—especially when he listened to the Illusive Man's efforts to insulate Shepard from the real Cerberus, to make sure she only saw what he wanted her to see: her objective, and the people helping her get there.
It made him sick to hear the effort put into keeping her away from anything dodgy or sketchy, because he knew how he had reacted to seeing her working for them.
"It's okay, Alenko," Shepard said, tapping his shoulder so he would feel the touch through his armor. "We got past that. And I knew what he was doing."
"Do you regret any of it?" Alenko couldn't stop the question.
Shepard's expression was devoid of guilt or judgment. "I did what I had to do. We did what no one else was willing to do. So no, I don't regret spending his money or using his people. My only regret is not being able to put a slug in his head at the end of the relationship."
Alenko gave a reluctant chuckle, seeing how earnest Shepard was. "Sorry I keep bringing this up."
Shepard shrugged. "At least we're not fighting about it." It was as close to 'don't worry about it' as he would get, because she knew it would continue to bother him.
"Yeah," Alenko agreed. "At least there's that." It might not seem like much, but it had been a pretty big problem early on, and even afterwards. But they had gotten past it, and past Horizon. Him and his wife, he reminded himself.
"I am through," EDI announced.
Alenko realized, as Shepard took point again, that EDI gave him a particular look as he passed. It made him think it wasn't Shepard who would find the console's data interesting. The AI had done it to ensure that he understood Shepard's position, in case it wasn't a topic he and Shepard had discussed.
"Point taken," he muttered.
"I have no idea to what you are referring, Major," she answered with a smile that was too innocent to actually be innocent.
Alenko snorted his 'yeah, right,' then let the matter drop with a heady sigh. Hopefully, this would be the last of these uncomfortable 'Alenko, you idiot' talks. He hoped it was.