Shepard dogged gun fire from a merc in the research base that Jack had asked to blow up. The place should have been abandoned but clearly a salvage team had been going through it looking for anything valuable. Much to Shepard's horror since Kelly was with them and they were just a four person team.
Miranda had gone with them incase Jack had needed her for emotional support or to use her rank in Cerberus to access as much information for Jack as possible. And so far they'd found nothing but more and more evidence that Cerberus needed to be destroyed, and Jack just kept getting angrier as she'd heard of side experiments going on to make sure experiments on her wouldn't kill her.
When they finally got to the center of the facility, Jack's old room, she went from raging biotic ready to tear a planet in half with her mind, to looking like a scared little kid facing their biggest fears.
Miranda held her while Shepard placed and armed the bomb that'd blow the place to hell.
When Jack decided she'd had enough of the old place they headed to the shuttle and headed back to the Normandy, everyone swearing and cursing at Jack for having an itchy detonator finger when she set the bomb off while they were still a little close to the blast zone.
Hours later Kelly headed to Miranda's room knowing she'd find Jack there and sure enough as she approached the door she heard the tell tail noise of Jack taking her aggression out on Miranda's pussy.
So she waited till it sounded like they were done before knocking.
"Who the Fuck is it?!" Jack screamed through the intercom.
"It's Kelly. I was hoping you'd want to talk about how the facility made you feel." Kelly said as professionally as she could.
"I'm fine. Or at least I will be after a few more rounds."
"Uhm maybe you could send me some back up," Miranda said, "The way she's going I'll be unfit for duty for at least a week."
Kelly just smiled and left as the noises started back up.
She headed down to the cargo hold to talk to Tali for a while but ended up getting fussed over as said Quarian girlfriend checked her over like a worried mother while yelling at herself for not going with her girlfriend to keep her safe.
Kelly kept insisting that she was fine and that she thought she'd done well considering all that had happened and while she was upset that things hadn't gone completely as planned Tali did have to admit that she'd done well.
After that they talked for a few hours as the Normandy flew towards Illium and their next destination/mission.
Kelly had read the dossier on the mission that Miranda had given to Shepard and had done research on Miranda's father. She had to agree that he had no right or reason to be a father. He only seemed to care about himself and money. He once got out of charges concerning him literally beating a rival to death with his bare hands, and his ONLY real wife had taken a ship and left with nothing more than a note of divorce and saying she wanted nothing of his. Her last known location was on Omega where she sold the ship, bought a new one, got facial reconstruction, and then took off to god know where.
Kelly pushed these thoughts out of her mind and refocused on her girlfriend who was currently dressed in a black sundress, that has been made to look like the night sky, and from what Kelly was hoping, nothing else.
They were just starting to get comfortable with Tali in Kelly's lap, her lips trailing kisses down Kelly's neck while Kelly's hands had pulled the dress up and were roaming up and down Tali's deliciously naked body…
When Shepard cleared her throat.
The both let out a sheik of shock and hurriedly tried to right their clothing, Tali blushing so hard it could probably be seen through her usual mask. Shepard meanwhile was laughing so hard she was rolling around on the ground.
"While I… hate to… ruin your moment hahahahahahahahaha… the relay system is going to take us past… the Citadel and I was wondering if you wanted to help get supplies." Shepard said when she could catch her breath.
Kelly, who was red as a tomato, just nodded her consent while zipping up her suit.
Shepard left them and they stood there for a second before Kelly said, "Let's… pick this up later."
"Yeah."
Kelly then headed to her 'desk' next to the galaxy map where Shepard, who was wearing a bemused smile, was imputing orders into the keypad along the rail. Kelly tried to ignore her as she input information she'd gathered from a few sessions she'd had with the crew while trying to determine their mental health.
So far she'd gathered that while some crew members were having reservations about Shepard's mental health, they were coming around due to her willingness to face what sent her into fits of 'hysteria'.
"How're we doing in terms of moral?" Shepard asked without looking up from what she was doing.
"Well you're winning the crew back with your bravery. You almost lost them after the collector ship, I guess they didn't like seeing the goddess of war breaking down like a little girl."
"Nobody would… *sigh*" Shepard stopped typing, walked down next to Kelly and leaned on the railing, "Am I doing better... I mean am I truly getting over my fears, or am I just building up for a giant mental breakdown either once this is all over or in the middle of a fight?"
Kelly stopped what she was doing and set her hands on either side of her terminal, "You know Allison, when you joined up with the Alliance I was afraid that one day you'd break down so badly in boot camp you'd get kicked out and move on to something else, but now… I'm afraid that if you break down, you'll never recover. The things we've seen since this mission started would keep ME up at night if it wasn't for Tali keeping my mind busy. That being said… I think you're doing better at facing your problems."
Shepard pulled Kelly to her and into a hug, "Thanks, I'm glad you're here to help reassure me in conversations like this."
Kelly nuzzled into Shepard's shoulder. They stood there for a minute before Kelly asked, "How long's it been since we went dancing?"
Shepard thought about it, "I think since after I graduated from the N7 program."
Kelly pulled back, "Wanna double date when we get to the Citadel?"
"HELL YEAH!"
"You know Shepard, when you said we were going dancing… this isn't what I had in mind," Ashley said.
Shepard had called Anderson ahead of time and had asked him to set thing up for the night, and he had pulled through greatly. There had been a charity ball scheduled and he'd made a donation, with Shepard matching whatever he donated, and he'd scored five seats. The ball had opened with a dinner and now the tables had been removed and everyone was either socializing or dancing.
"Hey Kelly and I prefer ballroom dancing since we had to attend fancy dinners whenever dad had to go to some formal event."
"And let me guess you attended lessons for those to?" Shepard nodded, "When did you find the time to do anything?"
"Allison did most of her homework in a study hall class she always requested at the end of her school day," Anderson said. He'd been discussing something with an Asari Shepard hadn't noticed but now that she had she looked familiar, "Let me tell you, Afternoons during high school were hell to get her and Kelly to all of their different activities, but definitely worth it."
"Yeah but still, ball room dancing? You do realize Shep that I don't know how to dance on a ballroom floor right?"
"Perhaps I could help." The Asari Anderson had been talking too chimed in and it was then that Shepard recognized her.
"Sha'ira?"
"I have clients here, all of whom would like to be seen conversing with me. Though Anderson here has been keeping me entertained far more than any other with tales of raising you Commander."
Shepard blushed at that while Ashley turned to her, "Nice to see you again. You said you could help with my lack of ballroom skills."
"It's nice to see you too. How's Liara doing, did the two of you come to a resolution?"
"She's fine, busy but fine. And we did, thank you."
"Good to hear. Now my solution is to start a quick meld with you and Shepard so that you can gain her experience with dancing."
"You might want to do that with all of us," Shepard said, "Kelly and I were usually dance partners with me usually leading. No doubt Ash would have me lead in the dance so it'd be good if she learned both roles in case I let her lead at some point."
"Wisely thought commander. Let's all go someplace quieter to do this."
Twenty minutes later they left the side room they'd commandeered for the teaching and returned to where Anderson stood talking to Councilor Tevos, "So the girls are doing well?"
"Yes they are mam. Seara is getting to be a lot like Allison in that she's becoming very protective of Kaira and getting in trouble whenever she's picked on."
"Just tell any bullies that she's got my protection," Shepard interjected, "That'll get any bully to leave her alone."
Anderson smiled at that and seeing that Sha'ira had gone to use the bathroom turned back to Tevos, "Would I be to bold in asking you for a dance?"
"As long as I don't see any wondering hands you'll be fine," A drawling voice said.
They all turned to see, surprisingly, Aria walking up to them, "I wouldn't think of it Miss Aria," Anderson said.
Aria scoffed, "Can it with the formalities. It's just Aria."
"Come now Aria," Tevos said with surprising authority towards the queen of Omega, "Anderson is just being polite. And if you're feeling territorial," She leaned in close and whispered something to Aria who smirked and turned to Anderson.
"You have twenty minutes."
"That'll be fine," Anderson said, taking Tevos's arm and leading her to the dance floor.
Shepard grabbed Ashley's arm and Kelly grabbed Tali's and they followed the councilors to the dance floor which mostly cleared when they entered.
The first dance was a waltz followed by a more basic dance during which Sha'ira asked Tevos and Anderson if she could cut in.
All in all the night went well and there was much applauding when Shepard and Kelly performed the Tango.
After it was finished they all headed to Andersons apartment and collapsed into bed.