Kaidan felt the woman in his arms start to shake and pull back. Ashley was laughing. "L-T, I'll be honest. This isn't right," she said, giggling as she broke their kiss.
He smiled and chuckled with her. The kiss was nice, but he felt no fire, if he was honest with himself. "I think we can blame that one on the alcohol," he said, letting her go. "We'd have regulations against us anyway."
"Thanks for the reminder, sir," she deadpanned. "Well, now that we got that awkwardness out of the way; let's get back to the ship. I'm sure we both have some hangovers to try and sleep off." Ashley wrapped her arm around Kaidan's shoulders as the pair turned to head toward the C-Sec offices.
The walk had been quiet until, in the last elevator before the dock, Ashley broke the amicable silence. "I'm curious…what draws you to the commander?"
Kaidan, his head still swimming a bit, kept his gaze steady on the ground. "I'm not sure. She was there when no one else stood beside me at Brain Camp. She doesn't know it, but a letter she wrote," he stopped to smile awkwardly, "the only letter she ever wrote me, well, it stopped me from…a downward spiral I was in." His voice dropped. "It saved me."
"Do you feel like you owe her something?" Ashley asked, her voice just as quiet.
"Yeah, I guess…maybe I do."
x-X-x
The mission has to take priority. Lauren sat in her quarters mentally repeating that like a mantra. She had told Kaidan no and she had no hold on him. Reminding herself of that only furthered her frustration. Hadn't she left an open possibility after the mission was over? Quit torturing yourself with speculation! Clearing her throat, she stood and walked out of her quarters to the comm room where the team was gathering.
Upon entering, she saw Garrus standing with his arms folded. Lauren still wasn't great at reading turian facial expressions, but she thought he looked concerned. "Something up, Garrus?" she asked.
"Well, you could say so. It's just that this whole deal with Saren has gotten me to dwell on another case I was never able to close."
"Lay it on me," Lauren said, with as much authority as she could muster.
As Garrus started to explain, the door opened and Kaidan and Ashley entered the comm room. She kept her eyes squarely on the turian, but her focus was elsewhere. Lauren could see they were chatting in a friendly, but not overly friendly fashion. She tried to blot out the much too friendly position she had seen them in the night before.
Garrus' voice drifted back into her consciousness. "I'd really appreciate if we could follow this lead. This so-called doctor has to be brought to justice."
Lauren thought before she spoke, hoping she had listened well enough. "As long as this isn't some personal vendetta, Garrus. I've done those before and they don't turn out pretty," she cautioned.
Garrus nodded slightly. "The people at C-Sec were quite aware of your reputation and batarian-bestowed nickname. Though I wouldn't have done a damn thing differently in your situation, I understand the need for restraint. I won't let my personal feelings get in the way."
"Thanks, we'll check it out as soon as we can." Lauren turned to take her place in the center of the room. She pulled up a planetary chart of the comm screen. "This is Feros…"
Garrus took his seat between Tali and Wrex. The krogan eyed him with a look of amusement. "Since when did you take a liking to humans?"
"I was just asking her a favor on a lead that I didn't want to let get away," Garrus whispered, looking straight ahead.
"Sure, turian, you must think me a whelp with an undeveloped olfactory system. You're just as bad as that human male over there," Wrex chuckled.
"Even I could see it in your body language," Tali teased quietly. "Quarians can read into even the slightest movements."
"But?" Garrus started to protest. "Never mind…I'm not feeding either of you anything to keep this line of varren shit going."
x-X-x
Kaidan sat eating a snack while working on a datapad in the mess hall. "Gotta moment?" The words jarred Kaidan from his work. He looked up to see Jenkins, an apologetic smile on his face.
"Sure," Kaidan answered. "Have a seat."
"Can this be off the record?" Jenkins said nervously. "I, um, have a personal question and this was the only time I could get you alone."
"What's on your mind?"
"My brother, Robert…you were there at Akuze."
Kaidan's expression went firm. "Yeah…yeah, I was there."
"We only ever got the official report from the Alliance. My mom always felt like we were missing something. What really happened?"
"Well," Kaidan cleared his throat, "we were there to check on a research team that hadn't checked in in weeks. Our CO was sure it was batarians, so I think we all went in pretty cocky, especially after kicking their asses during the Blitz. We found a place to set up camp and hiked to where the scientists were supposed to be. It was this weird flat area in the middle of a hilly terrain. No one was there. Just their stuff. We went back to camp, and I kind of noticed we were in a similar flat place. The ground shook, and this…beast came up. Swallowed men whole. Spit out some kind of acid that burned other men alive. I was…messing around the Mako. I climbed inside and tried to reach anyone, but in that short period of time…they were gone. All of them. I never saw Robert die. I just…I tried to wait for anyone, but there was no one. I backed away and radioed for help. I'm sorry."
Jenkins eyes were misty, but no tears fell. "I'm sorry I lost my brother too, but I'm glad you survived. Robert told me how you helped stop the batarians from getting our farm on Eden Prime. He said he'd never seen another soldier like you. He said he always felt like he owed you, and I guess I feel the same way."
"You don't owe me anything. I wasn't any hero."
"Sir, if I may be so bold," said Jenkins earnestly as he got up to leave, "I think a hero is a regular person who finds strength to persevere in spite of overwhelming obstacles. He doesn't always save everyone, but he protects what's most important."
A/N: Jenkins little speech was partly an altered quote from Christopher Reeve. I believe that Superman's words will still resonate in the future. We are coming up on Virmire and I've been simmering ideas for it. As always, thank you for reading, and please let me know what you like and what you didn't!
