Shepard leaned against the window in Udina's office and took a moment to breathe. Unfortunately, a moment was all she had. The barbed lifeline that Sparatus had just tossed her meant she needed to get to Palaven as soon as possible. It was important to start building a coalition, to start uniting against the Reapers, but that wasn't the only reason for haste. It wasn't even the most important one.

Fear for Garrus was twisting her stomach into knots over and over again. She could feel her heart in her chest, a lump in her throat, every instinct she had telling her to run out of the room and through the halls, screaming at Ash through her omni-tool to get back to the goddamn ship, right fucking now.

But Udina had said there was additional business she needed to see to before she left his office, so she waited, channeling her impatience into an intent study of the Citadel skyline.

"Artie?"

Shepard's eyes widened at the familiar voice, the nickname that only her family used. "Jase?" She whirled and saw the grinning face of her younger brother Jason, in Alliance blues. His red-brown hair was cropped short, within Alliance regs; his brown eyes peered at her from features more angular than her own. Her face split into a grin to match his as she pulled him into a tight hug. He was a few inches shorter than her, which had always annoyed him - especially since his twin Penelope was a few inches taller than Artemis. "You got my message."

Jason returned the crushing hug, seeming as though he was trying to squeeze the life out of her. They had been greeting each other this way ever since Jason enlisted - it had started as a joke (naturally) but had evolved into something that was damn near a ritual. If Jason wasn't trying to crush a rib when he saw his big sister - or if Shepard wasn't trying to do the same - there was something terribly wrong.

"Yeah, which starts to make up for not letting us know you were back from the dead," Jason said, pulling himself back slightly so he could look Shepard in the eyes. There was real anger in his voice, and Shepard felt a twist of guilt in her stomach. "Mom had to hear it from the Alliance. Then she had to get special clearance to tell us. Your own brother and sister."

"Jase." Shepard squeezed her brother's arms. "You're right. I should have told you. All of you. I'm sorry." She took a deep breath. "Is Penelope okay?"

"Last I knew," Jason said. "She was out on Eden Prime. Helping them rebuild. Requested that planet because of you. What about Mom?"

"No word," Shepard replied softly. "Hackett promised to tell me as soon as he knew."

Jason let out a long sigh. "Well. At least I'll get that news right away." At Shepard's arched eyebrow, he grinned. "I'm coming with you, Artie."

"Oh, you are." Shepard folded her arms across her chest. "You know that for a fact."

"Councilor Udina gave me leave to join the Normandy." Jason folded his own arms across his chest, even tilted his head to the side in the same way she'd just done.

"He's as stubborn as you are, Commander," Udina added dryly from behind Jason. Shepard hadn't even seen him come in. "I despair of ever meeting your mother, who has built a reputation on stubbornness."

Shepard barely kept herself from scowling at her little brother. She hated when he mimicked her like that. "I know you've been out of the military for a few years, Jase, but usually you ask the commander of the ship you want to join before you get permission to leave your current post."

"Artie, I can't just stay here on the Citadel while Earth burns," Jason said. "I know that some people have to hold the fort down - but that doesn't mean I have to be one of them. You're going to be out doing the whole save-the-galaxy thing. You can't tell me you couldn't use my help."

Udina let out a long-suffering sigh. "Please, take him off my hands."

Shepard opened her mouth to argue with Jason again, but Liara spoke first. "You know, there is something that would be an excellent fit for your brother."

"What do you -" Shepard cut herself off as she got what Liara had been thinking. "Oh. You're right."

"Hey!" Jason sounded exactly like he had when they were kids and he'd been told he was too little to do all the things that his big sister could. "Don't talk about me like I'm not here!"

"Sorry, Jase." Shepard slung an arm across his shoulder and pulled him in for a sideways hug. "I'll explain in a minute, I promise." She shifted her gaze to Udina. "How would you like a replacement for Jason?"

Kara rounded the corner, trying to act normal, ignoring the giddy excitement she still felt from having had sex with Septimus.

"There you are." Ash's voice cut through the ambient noise, and Kara turned to see the other woman moving steadily towards her. Kara hastened her steps; she didn't want Ash to see where she'd been coming from, and draw the right conclusion -

Ash was faster than Kara expected, and Kara had to stop suddenly to avoid knocking into the other woman. "Hey," she said, keeping her voice soft and casual.

"Hey yourself. I've been looking everywhere for you." Ash was definitely annoyed. "Shepard called. We need to get back to the Normandy ASAP."

"Shepard? The Normandy?"

The flush in Kara's cheeks grew hotter as Septimus (apparently chucking her earlier request for discretion out the nearest airlock) came up behind her and placed a hand on Kara's shoulder. Ash's eyes widened in shock. Embarrassment flipped quickly into anger. Kara hated being judged, and she almost asked why Ash was so against her turian hookup (whether it was the hookup or the turian that she objected to). Then she realized that the shock was one of recognition. Well, frak. Ash knew who Septimus was. Which meant that he was someone worth knowing.

Good job, Starbuck. Your random hey-let's-frak-an-alien-for-the-hell-of-it hookup turns out to be someone important.

"You never said that your CO was Shepard," Septimus said. "Your turian-loving CO."

Ash groaned. "God, this is turning into the worst-kept secret in the galaxy."

Wincing, Kara turned to face him. "I didn't want to be judged by her merits," she said. "I wanted to be judged by mine."

Septimus laughed. "Well, I have to admit - that's a refreshing change of pace from the idiots who go about bragging that Shepard saved their asses once upon a time, as though that makes them special." He dropped his voice. "And for what it's worth, your merits were … quite impressive."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Ash said from behind her.

Kara was sure that her face was bright red by now, which just annoyed her, because she was usually much better at controlling her emotions. But hey, new universe, new rules, apparently.

"Please give Shepard my best wishes, and let her know that I would like to speak to her when she has free time," Septimus said. His mandibles flared in what Kara was coming to recognize as amusement. "And remember what I said earlier, Kara. You simply must come see me again the next time you're on the Citadel.."

She thought about Lee, and Sam, and then smiled at Septimus. "I'd like that," she said.

"Then I will hope to see you again soon." Septimus nodded to Ash. "Commander Williams. Always a pleasure."

When he was safely out of earshot, Kara turned to look at Ash and hissed, "Who was that?"

"You -" Ash stopped, then barked out a laugh. "No. Of course you don't know. That's General Oraka. Shepard helped him stop moping over the Consort - uh, that's an asari matriarch who provides companionship and discretion to, uh, important people -" She shook her head. "I guess he feels like he owes her."

"Great." Kara shook her head. All she really took away from that was that he was someone important that Shepard had helped before. And that he had a fondness for non-turians. "Not one. Frakking. Word. I don't want to hear how bad of an idea that was, I don't want to be chastised-"

"Hey," Ash cut in. "Did it look like I was going to chastise you? I'm only responsible for getting you back to the ship." She shrugged. "What you do with your shore leave is your business. It's just kind of …"

"Funny?" Kara practically snarled.

"Funny that you managed to hook up with perhaps the one turian in the place that Shepard and I have a history with."

Kara stared at her for a few more moments before she finally relaxed, lowering her defenses. Ash nodded as if she knew what Kara was thinking. "I won't say anything," Ash promised. "To anyone."

"Good, because if you do, I'll spill on Shepard."

"Figured as much. Now, come on - we really do have to get going."

The elevator door opened onto the crowded docking bays. Ash started winding her way through the crowd, Kara following a step behind. She had a tight rein on her emotions. She had to face Shepard, and Lee, and not let either of them know what she'd gotten up to at Purgatory.

When Ash stopped abruptly, Kara barely avoided crashing into her. Again. Either Kara was getting careless, or Ash was in the habit of stopping short like this. "Dr. Chakwas!" Ash cried, her face splitting into a huge smile.

A woman who had been seated on one of the benches stood up. She was closer to the Old Man's age than Kara's, with a prominent streak of gray in her hair, but her movements were fluid and athletic. "Chief Williams!" she said, just as excited as Ash, then shook her head. "No, I'm sorry, it's Lieutenant Commander Williams now."

"Don't worry about it, Doc," Ash replied, still grinning broadly. "Please tell me you're here because you're coming back to the Normandy."

"That's exactly what I'm doing." Dr. Chakwas sounded relieved. "I've had a bag ready to go ever since I got the news about Earth. Not that I haven't enjoyed the chance to work in R&D for a time, but my place is on the Normandy. And Shepard agreed." She shifted her gaze to Kara. "You must be Captain Thrace. Shepard told me a bit about you and your people."

Kara took the hand the doctor offered and shook it. "I know at least one of, uh, my people, who's going to be very happy to have you on board."

"Lieutenant Gaeta, yes." Chakwas patted a case resting at her feet that Kara hadn't noticed before. "Between him and Joker, I'm sure to stay busy until the bullets start flying. Which will probably be soon, knowing Shepard."

Kara blinked. "Wait, is that … it's ready?"

"Of course it is," Chakwas replied smoothly. "EDI's scans were more than sufficient."

"Wow." Kara shook her head. "That really didn't take long."

Chakwas smiled. "No, it did not."

Kara heard Lee's voice from behind her, calling her name. She turned to see him and Tyrol walking up. Ash made the introductions while Kara stared at a spot on the wall. She'd thought she could look at him without feeling embarrassed, because there was no frakking reason for her to be embarrassed about what happened - but apparently she'd been wrong.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to get cheek swabs from all of you once we're onboard," Chakwas said after she'd shaken both Tyrol and Lee's hands. "I peeked at the retrofit reports and they left me the DNA sequencer. Hopefully there's enough genetic diversity amongst your group such that I can get a fairly narrow window of time for your ancestors' departure from Earth. I'll compare your mitochondrial DNA to the known lineages-" She stopped and shook her head. "Well, you probably don't care too much about the technicalities."

"You're a geneticist?" Lee asked.

Chakwas smiled wryly. "By personal interest only, I'm afraid. Being the doctor onboard a ship like the Normandy doesn't leave me much time for anything else, but I'm certainly competent enough to run a few gels."

"That would be ... huge." Lee was always like that, Kara thought wryly. Always thinking about the bigger picture. "You can't imagine how important it would be to our people. Would more samples help?" He turned to look at Ash. "When do you think that we could go back to the Fleet?"

Ash shrugged. "You'd have to ask Shepard when she gets here. I don't have a clue as to where we're heading next."

"Palaven."

Everyone turned to look at Shepard, standing behind the group with Liara, a salarian, and a strangely familiar man in what Kara was coming to recognize as Alliance casual dress. Shepard took a step forward. "Councilor Sparatus has requested our aid in getting the Primarch off the planet, so that he can attend a summit that will decide where the combined forces of the turians, asari, and salarians will go. The Normandy is the only ship that can get in and out safely, since the Reapers have already entered the system."

"Sounds like fun," Ash said. "Good to see you again, Jason."

"Likewise." The grin on the man's face only made him look more familiar, which was weird, because Kara was sure she'd never seen him before.

"Oh, right." Shepard thumped the newcomer on the shoulder. "This is my brother, Jason. He's agreed to head over to Galactica and act as a local guide, so to speak."

Now that she was looking for it, the resemblance between the Shepard siblings was obvious. Jason nodded at each of the Colonials in turn. "I've had a lot of practice explaining simple concepts to people over the last two years. Artie's promised me that your military is smarter than the average human constituent."

Artie? Kara was thrown by the nickname for a moment, then she laughed silently at herself. Of course Jason wasn't going to call his sister by their last name, and Artie was quite obviously short for Artemis. But it was still weird to hear Shepard referred to by another name. Gods, and it had only been … a day? Less than two, for certain. So, less than two days since Kara had first met Shepard and learned about all of this.

And yet … it was starting to feel almost normal. That was almost certainly down to Shepard, who had done her best to integrate Kara into the Normandy's crew. She had a bunk, her gear, and the knowledge that there were going to be asses to kick in the near future. Feels like home.

"Your sister's been making a lot of big promises, recently," Lee said, returning Jason's nod.

Jason sighed. "Yeah, well, she actually is good for them."

"It just kills you to have to admit that," Shepard teased, giving his shoulder another solid thump.

"Ow!" Jason pulled away, rubbing his shoulder. "What the hell was that?"

Shepard looked chagrined. "Sorry, I … forgot I'm stronger than I used to be."

"Yeah, well, next time you hit that hard, make it the goddamn Reapers, okay?"

"I said I was sorry." Shepard shook her head. "Anyway, this-" she indicated the salarian "- is Jondum Bau. He's another Spectre. He's here because - ugh, I'm doing this in the wrong order." She turned to look at Lee. "How would you like to take Jason's place here, working for the human Councilor?"

Lee's eyes widened in shock. "But - I don't know anything about how things work here - that was kind of the frakking point of having Jason go to Galactica and the rest of us stick with you -"

"You'll catch on quickly. If you don't, I can ship you back to Shepard," the salarian said. He had a high-pitched voice, somewhat squeaky, but still perfectly understandable. "Also, you'll have me to help you adjust."

"And you can have my place," Jason added. "It's a nice efficiency apartment in Zakera Ward. Not that far from the main line to the Presidium."

"You're serious." Lee looked between Jason, Shepard, and Bau. "You actually want me to do this."

Shepard folded her arms across her chest. "You're here to represent civilian interests. In my opinion, you can do that much better from the Citadel than the Normandy. Councilor Udina is the de facto leader of the human race by virtue of not having been at Arcturus Station when the Reapers hit it. There's a serious power vacuum right now, which gives you a hell of a lot of leeway to just get things done. Better to ask forgiveness than permission and all that."

Lee still looked stunned, so Kara stepped forward, touching him lightly on the arm. He turned wide eyes on her. "You find us a new home, Lee," she said fiercely, her eyes meeting his. "You find us some goddamn place where we can settle down and still be ourselves. That's the best thing that you can do for the Fleet, and I think Shepard's right - this is the best place for you to do it."

For a moment, as they stared intently at each other, Kara was sure that he was going to kiss her. Or maybe she just badly wanted to kiss him but couldn't bring herself to actually follow through.

Either way, the moment passed, and Lee stepped away from her, turning to look at Shepard. His body went rigid, professionalism replacing his earlier hesitation. "You have a point. It'd be foolish of me to turn this opportunity down." He gave a dry chuckle. "Good thing I've always been a quick study."

"You've been doing fine so far." Shepard grinned and laid an encouraging hand on his shoulder. "Bau will get you an omni-tool and take you to Jason's apartment. Then you'll have whatever time is left in the day to get oriented before you have to report for work in the morning."

"Gods. Report for work in the morning." Lee shook his head. "Do you know how normal that sounds?"

"And nothing about the last three years has been normal," Tyrol added, somewhat unnecessarily in Kara's view.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," Bau said. "Is there anything you need from the Normandy?"

Lee shook his head. "Everything's still with the Fleet. I didn't even think of that until now."

Jason raised his arm, omni-tool flashing into life. "Let me - wait." His fingers halted. "You don't have a 'tool yet. I was going to give you access to my bank accounts."

Lee's eyes widened, and his reply was almost a stammer. "That's - extremely generous of you."

Jason shrugged. "I won't need it while I'm with your Fleet, I figure."

"And it should go without saying that if you drain his savings or take out ridiculous loans, there won't be enough of you left to send back to Galactica." Shepard's voice was light, but there was a serious, almost predatory look in her eyes.

"Artie," Jason protested.

"What? I can't look out for my little brother?"

"I don't need looking after. You do."

"Jase," Shepard said in almost exactly the same tone her brother had used a minute before. "Hero of the Blitz and Savior of the Citadel, remember?"

"Didn't save you from dying." Jason crossed his arms and glared at his sister, who glared right back at him.

"Do I have to act as your mother since she's not here?" Chakwas interrupted the siblings with what Kara thought was a rather good icy glare.

Shepard and Jason both deflated instantly. "She's MIA," Shepard said.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Shepard," Chakwas replied. "I didn't-"

"It's okay, Doc. You're right. We've got more important things to do." Shepard offered her hand to Jason. "Truce?"

Jason clasped her hand. "Truce."

Shepard grinned and activated her omni-tool as soon as Jason let go of her hand. "Bau, this should suffice to get Lee set up with a 'tool and whatever else you think might be useful. Once that's done -"

"I'll use my Spectre authorization to give him access to Jason's finances," Bau finished, nodding his agreement. "And I'll also take him to Jason's apartment." He paused. "I can look that up, but it'll be faster if you just tell me right now, Jason."

Jason nodded, rattling off an address. Zakera was the only part of it that Kara understood. She decided not to worry about it too much. It wasn't her that had to figure out how to live on this giant alien space station, after all.

"Well, since you don't have anything, we may as well go now," Bau said. "Say your goodbyes."

Shepard grinned. "Don't make it sound so final, Bau. I'm sure we'll be back sooner or later. There's plenty of planets that need saving -"

"Plenty of races that need browbeating," Ash interjected.

"Little problems that need solving," Liara added.

"You make me sound so predictable," Shepard huffed.

Jason chuckled. "That's because you-"

Shepard turned an indignant glare on her brother, who grinned irrepressibly.

Kara cleared her throat to get Lee's attention, then held out her hand. "Be seeing you," she said. "Don't get eaten alive by the bureaucracy."

"I'll try," Lee replied, taking her hand. Kara steadfastly ignored the electricity that went through her hand, the way her pulse sped up as she looked at his face.

Tyrol waited until Kara stepped back, then saluted Lee. "Good luck," he said.

"To you as well, Chief," Lee replied, saluting back.

Kara watched as Lee followed Bau away, through the security checkpoint. Lee was looking around in awe, much as she had earlier. She wondered when she would see him again, and on the heels of that thought came a strong and completely unexpected sense of foreboding. It put her in mind of the absolute conviction she had felt about the direction of Earth, immediately after she returned to the Colonial Fleet.

Why now? Why is this important?

And how is it going to go wrong?

Kara shook her head. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just seeing him go when there was so much uncertainty between them.

"Hey. Let's go," Ash said, touching her arm lightly. Ahead of them, Shepard had stopped to talk to a woman with some weird drone thing following her.

Kara put it out of her mind as she turned her back on Lee, heading for the Normandy and the continuation of her new life.

You might have noticed I uploaded a cover photo for this story... it's art I had commissioned, a few months back, from the awesome bloomingcnidarians (on tumblr). I do a lot better with writing characters when I have visual references. Given that this is fanfic, the only two people that I didn't have good references for were Jason and Penelope, so I figured I would fix that. And since Jason makes an on-screen appearance for the first time here ...

I love it, it's awesome, and I hope you guys like it too :)