A/N: Oops, my fingers slipped.

!Welcome to chapter 17 everyone!

I know it's horribly late and I'm sorry for that. My work/life/writing balance has been completely out of whack of late, but I'm getting there. Anyway! Many and varied thank you's to all those who have read, faved, followed and/or reviewed News thus far. I really appreciate the feedback and do my best to work it into my writing.

Do enjoy.

Yours faithfully,

L.G.

In my absence

A concern is discussed, arrangements are made, and a potential war asset is discovered

Shepard was in the elevator again, travelling up to her rooms after an afternoon of trying to stay occupied so she didn't fret herself into knots over Thane's meeting with Kolyat. She'd done a good job of it, all things considered. The second he'd left she'd pounced for her terminal in the hope of updates on the war, and had found a message from Alliance Command about Eden Prime. Cerberus, who were after a Prothean relic of some kind, had pulled off an incursion of massive proportions, and she'd managed a good half hour of chin-in-hand brooding over that fact..

Who'll be on the ground-team with me?

What'll happen when we capture this thing?

Since the Crucible's still baffling us, could Prothean Find #2 be assigned to another race for study?

Let's say yes. Next question. Which?

How could we pick without being accused of favouritism and potentially alienating people we really need to get on with if this war is going to have anything like a positive outcome?

..before stress-induced antsiness made it clear that if she didn't move she risked tearing either her fingers or the nearest notepad to shreds.

So move she did.

Big time.

The ensuing three hours were a blur of cleaning. By the time she was done the bed was made; the floor was clear; the couch had had its cushions removed, wiped down, replaced and re-replaced when the first attempt hadn't made the grade; the closet had been emptied of its contents, cleaned out and refilled; the only accessible walls of the still empty fish tank had been buffed to a military gleam, and she was convinced, given the job she'd done on the place, that it'd be more hygienic for her to eat her next meal off the floor of her bathroom than it would be to have it served up on a plate.

Tidy didn't cut it as an adjective.

Her rooms were Goddamn IMMACULATE.

And now she was returning to them, to where she guessed Thane was, after spending a further one and one half hours in the Mess tending weapons and talking tactics with Garrus. She guessed because EDI, when she'd asked upon entering the lift if her beau had returned and if he had for his location, had stonewalled her with a blunt, sarcastic, 'I have a block that prevents me from answering that question.' Seconds of gaping disbelief had followed that offering, and she sent a glare towards the now empty dais by the door for its sometimes-occupant's new found respect for privacy.

She was getting more human-like by the day, that one.

Had she been here to see it, Tali would have had a fit.

Striding from the elevator the moment it deposited her outside her rooms, Shepard brushed off thoughts of her currently absent Quarian comrade and made for the door. Red as its panel was it opened to her when she neared it, and as the earthy scent of slowly heating sand hit her along with a wall of warm, dry air, she knew for certain what she'd assumed at EDI's snub. Thane was here, and there was barely time for prudence to demand she not grill the poor Drell about his son the moment she saw him before she was searching him out.

Past her workspace she went.

On towards the stairs, looking right and then..

..

Yes

He was settled on the couch wearing cotton casuals - his Omni-tool opened out for work on the coffee table beside a pot of sand and the sand heater - and she breathed a relieved, "Hey" when he looked around at her and smiled.

"Siha" he greeted, rising as she approached and embracing her to him. After so long a day - a day, incidentally, that was not over for him in terms of there being work to be done - the contact was for Thane as much welcome as it was needed, and the same went for his mate. She murmured happily as she buried herself against him and gave a gentle kiss to the side of his neck.

"God I missed you."

His smile warming at the words, he returned the kiss upon her temple. "And I you."

And then there was silence. To Shepard's ear at least. Her beau's chest sang with tonal affection, and she snuggled closer into him to better feel it; sighing contentedly as the resonance sank through her to the bone. She only spoke again, softly and clearly loathe to disrupt the moment, when she saw once more across his shoulder the glowing orange screen of his Omni-tool.

"Busy workin?"

Thane hummed a reluctant affirmative, inhaling against her hair before he replied. "For a little longer, yes. I've an errand to complete regarding Kolyat."

"Oh.." The need to probe roared but she tempered it, sitting back a bit as she asked, "How'd it go?"

If he noticed it, her mate didn't comment on her beat of silent indecision. ".. ..It was..enlightening" he offered. "Difficult. But all things worth keeping.."

"Are" she finished at his purposeful pause, glad to see that he was willing to partake in their usual easy word-play. That, and the affection that suffused his expression at her attentiveness, told her more clearly than his words that the experience had not been dire.

"Yes. That said, we ended on a positive note. I gave Kolyat a copy of the AICS installation program, and he seemed to be more inclined to give using it a try than not. I had worried..but..for no reason it seems."

Shepard beamed. "Knew he'd see sense" she enthused, stepping back a pace then and gesturing towards his Omni-tool. "Shall I let you finish up? Don't want to keep him waiting for the message you're writing."

His reply shocked her. "It is not for Kolyat" he said, retaking his seat and indicating that she join him with a wave of the hand. Intrigued, she slid up on his left, leant to peruse the screen without thinking and, after what she was doing registered, looked sharply away with a regretful yip.

"Sorry! Not trying to read it."

"I doubt you could if you were" Thane soothed, watching with purposefully muted amusement as she moved around to the opposite side of the divan to escape the possibility of further accidental peeks. Only once she was settled did she allow herself a question, curious in spite of her caution.

"Is it Drellish?"

"No" he said. "Code."

"Code?" She almost laughed. "Who's this going to?"

"My contacts."

Then she did laugh. Just briefly though. Thane's regard remained serious, and her own soon matched it. "..When you say contacts.."

"People like those I once used to trace Kolyat" he clarified.

Unease took her now. "I thought things were ok."

"Indeed they are" Thane said with a slight nod, "but that does not mean that I can afford to be incautious."

Shepard boggled. "About what?"

"Precedent" he announced, the word spoken as though it explained everything.

To him it did.

To his mate..not so much.

"Precedent.." she repeated, grasping for meaning. ".. ..I remember you saying that yesterday during breakfast. About you and your..ahh.."

"Habit?" he supplied.

"Habit of leaving, yeah. What's that got to do with sending things to your contacts about Kolyat?"

Thane considered the question, framing his response carefully. He'd been hoping to have this chore done before she returned; to be able to speak about it, and about the meeting that'd given him cause to undertake it at all, with a more settled mind than he had now. Evidently though this was not to be, so he made the best he could of the situation, ordered his thoughts, and set about explaining himself.

"My son and I spoke of many things during our meeting. He made it clear to me that he felt he barely knew me on a personal level..barely saw beyond my face-name, my surface..and he was right. That distance, brought by time and the care I take to keep the less..savoury..aspects of myself away from him, blights us both. For all he knows little of me, I know little of him, bar what he elects to share."

Shepard glanced towards the sand heater as he spoke, dipping careful fingers into its base and stroking them through the grains she found within. For every third one she felt - hot but not scalding and very, very fine - she had a question for him, and so wanted to jump in with them. To pick and dissect and find things she could help with. Her old habit of taking his stress on as her own demanded she do so. But she didn't. Mastering herself, she kept her own counsel and focused on listening.

"Distance though" Thane went on, tilting his head a fraction as she looked back at him, "is not the root of my preoccupation with precedent. That was sown by a memory." His eyes flickered, growing distant as the recollection in question came to him.

"..'I don't know why he would accept the task' I say.

'To be closer to you maybe?' she offers.."

And then he blinked and was present again, his Siha sitting across to his right once more instead of standing beside him by the weapons rack in Life Support. She was watching him closely, nodding as she too recalled the memory he'd shared; prompting him on with the gesture.

"When it first came to me" he said, "I didn't think of precedent. Kolyat was keen to learn of my past..of my service specifically..and I was worried that he might be seeking, by doing so, to make that part of my life a more palatable thing to be associated with. To justify it somehow. That is not something I want him to do, so I discouraged him and steered our conversation elsewhere. I thought nothing more of it in that moment, but upon my return to the ship I considered things more closely. Thus, the idea of precedent struck me."

"Yours?" Shepard guessed, following as best she could.

"No" Thane replied. "His."

".. ..What's his?"

"Kelham."

The name, to Shepard, was like a punch in the gut. She sat back from the heater as if it burned her, all becoming clear in a rush. "You think he might get back into that kind of thing?"

"I..did consider the possibility" Thane confided, grimly resolute. "He has surprised me in the past. I didn't think him capable of pursuing a contract, yet he did. In my absence, indeed because of it, he did. And now, with the circumstances that faced him in that moment close to repeating, I couldn't but wonder."

That last bit there?

'...close to repeating...'?

That was news to the Commander.

"Now wait a second" she said, disbelief turning the words briefly to a puff of mirthless laughter. "The last time he messed up, he hadn't seen you in a decade. Now he's had you in his life, on tap pretty much, for going on a year. If not more. He might not be as close to you as he wants to be, but going off the straight and narrow like he did before wouldn't get him any closer. Heck, if he did want that now..to copy you say, so that you and he might have more common ground..he wouldn't go out looking for hits. He'd join the military! And besides all that." She waved a hand, concluding that line of argument and moving on to the next. "Besides all that, he has a place here. A home. Friends. A job. Steady pay from that job." Each point was counted off on her fingers. "Why in the blue hell would he go and throw all that away?"

"I asked myself that every day after I learned that he was seeking work on the Citadel" Thane replied sombrely. "He had all of what you mentioned on Kahje, and more. All of that and a large, loving family, and yet..his aunts, uncles, innumerable cousins.. ..They were not enough to stop him from choosing as he did."

Shepard was unconvinced. "And yet you're still willing to leave" she countered, sitting forward and pointing towards him. "I know you. If you really thought he'd end up in that kind of trouble again, I couldn'tdrag you off this station if I tried."

As it turned out, her beau agreed with her. "Quite so" he said. "Quite so. Kolyat is impulsive, certainly, but not foolish, and for all I may not know his mind, I have come to trust his judgement."

There was a pause.

A black brow rose.

And then, tellingly, Thane huffed; seen through like glass. "More or less" he amended, going on, when his Siha's lips quirked, with all severity. "I do not however trust the criminal element of the Citadel. With the scarcity of Drell in Council space, let alone on the station itself, he would have turned heads with his comings and goings. And if Kelham bragged about the Drellish boy he'd employed to kill Joram Talid.. ..The Drellish boy with the name Krios.."

Shepard sobered quickly. "That's all it'd take."

"He would become a known quantity, yes" Thane affirmed, gesturing then to his Omni-Tool's screen. "I've had a number of my contacts listening out for indications that this has occurred since the Talid episode. Watching the dealings of those like Elias Kelham so that, if necessary, they could be discouraged from approaching Kolyat."

The weight he put on the word 'discouraged' made the Commander wince.

"As yet they have had nothing to report, but with my leaving putting him through another minor upheaval, I thought it wise to have them double down. Regardless of my doubt that he would once more seek to walk the path of sin, he is vulnerable now. Distracted. Easy prey for the unscrupulous." Indignation sent his cheeks and throat a rich though quickly dimming scarlet. "I will not allow him to be taken advantage of."

"Damn right" Shepard agreed, allowing herself only the briefest pause on the colour before their discussion again took precedence. She wasn't sure if she agreed entirely with either Thane's assessment of Kolyat's potential for re-offence, or how he was going about protecting him from the Citadel's criminal underbelly, but he hadn't asked for her opinion and she wasn't about to foist it upon him; particularly since, really speaking, it was more or less half formed.

Did paternal paranoia and unfamiliarity lay beneath his thoughts on precedent?

Maybe they did, but she couldn't think of a reason why that being true would be a bad thing. Her mate loved his son, and if his way of showing it was to erect a perimeter of watchful eyes around those that could potentially do him harm, so be fucking it. On said perimeter though, she had a question, and posed it as he quickly tapped another figure into his missive. "These people..these contacts. We're not talking child-spies are we? The poor?"

Thane looked scandalised by the suggestion. "Drala'fa? No."

"It's just that.." Wetting her lips, she glanced away from and then back to him. "Are you sure they're all still on-side? War changes things. Makes people frightened..Stupid.."

She couldn't, just couldn't bring herself to mention that her concerns were fuelled by the fact that an information leak had been the cause of Irikah's death, but she didn't have to. Thane knew her mind. He saw it in the painful reticence in her eyes, and replied, after she mustered..

"I don't want you getting burned"

..in as reassuring a manner as possible. "Perhaps I spoke carelessly when I used the word 'contact' earlier. You saw Mouse in your mind's eye, yes?"

She nodded. "Or someone like him, yeah."

He returned the gesture, contrite. "Then I have misled you and apologise. The people I have guarding Kolyat's interests did not come into their positions as Mouse did his; an urchin, once used by an assassin, now carving out a career in petty crime. They are professionals - the eyes and ears..Le'i'tal in Drellish..of those who utilise them - and are Compact-vetted, all. I would not have set them on this task were they not."

"Compact-vetted?" Shepard repeated, nonplussed. "They're..spies working for the Hanar?"

Thane was quick to clarify. "They do not serve as I once did, no, and as to them being 'spies'.. ..Let me explain. To be Compact-vetted is to be trusted – and to be seen to be trusted - by those who either serve presently, or who have served and, through that service, gained notoriety enough to be seen as a worthy employer."

She gestured towards him. "Like you."

"Yes. And to be Le'i'tal, as the name suggests, is to be the means through which one's employer keeps watch over a particular thing; be it a sector of the market, a group of people, a single person or whatever else. Like a spy may, they watch and listen. They record and report back. But they are more akin to hidden, sentient recording devices than field agents."

The Commander gave an amused huff. "No silenced guns then?"

"No" Thane replied, smiling faintly.

"Disguises?"

"Unnecessary."

"Bombs? Poisons? Aliases?"

"In turn" he chuckled, "no, no, and they do operate under aliases of a kind, yes. Le'i'tal are Drell who have been placed by the Hanar in a position that, by its nature, allows them do their job while appearing to do another. Translators. Shop keepers. Personal assistants. Anything that lets them blend in easily, that compliments their memory or is second nature because it chiefly concerns their native tongue or culture, is fair game as a cover."

"Versatile" Shepard noted approvingly, asking then after a moment's reflection, "How can they 'be seen to be' vetted though? I can't imagine them advertising."

"They certainly don't publicly, no" Thane agreed. "Punters, for all the uninformed might look, do not find Le'i'tal. They make their need for one or more known, and Le'i'tal who are seeking employment find them. And when they do, when they initiate negotiations and wish to advertise their vetted status, they present the registration code they received from the Primacy when that status was officially confirmed. The employer is expected then to stipulate the number of days over-which they will compare this code - which changes and therefore must be re-sent daily - to the Primacy's registry in order to assure themselves of their potential employee's veracity. Three days is the minimum most Le'i'tal will accept. Anything less implies a lacking interest in security."

"And that's just not on at all" Shepard quipped lightly. Her lips twitched with the beginnings of a smirk; the words and the question following them jovial, less sarcastic. "How many'd you ask for as standard?"

"From those I've tasked with listening in on the deals and communications of Kelham and his ilk, three weeks" Thane replied, his mate's mirthful regard fading into curiosity as he went on. "Though I haven't a standard as such. I only used Le'i'tal twice in all the years I was active."

"Even though they're useful as all heck?"

"Yes. I scarcely had the time to properly vet them, and breaking an agreement with one who proves to be unsatisfactory after being vetted is costly in monetary terms. While they may use the Drala'fa as tools during their assignments, they are not, as Mouse was, paid in toys and kind smiles."

"I'll bet they're not" Shepard mustered, frowning faintly at the regret lacing the tail-end of his comment. It cut her to hear, much as it might've been appropriate given what it concerned, and she refused to linger on it. God knows Thane had long enough for the both of them. "Cagey folks, these eyes and ears types. Wanting employers to want proof like that."

"They are" he agreed, emulating her tactfulness and easing back on point. "And to your concern regarding potential betrayals, they're renowned as much for that caginess and their skill in working undetected as they are for their fidelity. In their trade, trust is everything. Without it, they would have no clients, without those, no business, and without that, they would not exist at all."

Shepard nodded along as he spoke, returning careful fingers to the heater's sand-filled bowl. In all honesty he'd had her at 'professionals'..that word being reserved for the cream of the crop where her beau was concerned..and she told him as much. "I can see why you're so trusting of your people." Then though, as she drew breath to excuse herself so he could get back to work, her potential war asset sense tingled.Hard. Struck, she couldn't not ask, "Do you think they'd be willing to help us against the Reapers?"

Narrowing his eyes thoughtfully, Thane joined her in appreciating the heater's presence by laying his fingers against its warm sides. "Circumstances being what they are" he said once he'd settled, "I see no reasons why you would be denied the aid you seek; except perhaps the simple inability to render it. The fealty to the Hanar that keeps Le'i'tal from accepting work from people without a link to Kahje won't keep them from you. Not now."

"So where do I start?" The question came quickly, and was followed, when a possible solution occurred to the Commander as she spoke it, by a suggestion and the brief touch of her sandy fingertips to Thane's clean ones. "You know them already. Could you put in a good word or two on my behalf?"

"No no" he said, as regretful at having to rebuff her as he was pragmatic about the need to. "I am not someone you want your cause associated with. Not even in so private a public arena as theirs."

"Why not?" Shepard pressed, consternation sending her fingers burrowing anew into the heater's grainy depths. "I'dve thought someone they see as a worthy employer.."

Thane shook his head, and with seven words, "Worthy or not, my reputation precedes me", turned her misapplied focus into complete understanding. And the more he spoke..

"That is not something we can risk. Not when you're trying to rally people from all cultures, all races and creeds to you"

..the more she knew he was right. Nothing but nothing made the general populace twitchy like the presence (even if it was only implied) of an assassin, and twitchiness was the last thing she needed her burgeoning crusade to rally the troops to inspire.

"All right" she said, putting paid to her hopes of things being straightforward. "Direct contact's out. How about just pointing the way? Showing me where to post my flyer? Help wanted to avert end of universe. Apply here."

Despite the severity of the situation, Shepard managed to smirk faintly as she spoke and Thane mimicked her; a wry, humanly-inaudible chuckle escaping his lips. His jaw faintly quivered after it passed, and he caught her eyes lingering before they flicked up to his.

"Mirth" he explained, gesturing to the area that'd held her attention. "Excitement or mirth is expressed facially by Drell with a trembling jaw, and to your questions, yes, I can point you in the right direction. I can advise you on how to advertise your need for Le'i'tal, and if I recognise any of those who respond - and they will respond – I can give you an insider's opinion on their suitability. I'll also walk you through the protocols and procedures working with them entails. Anything more though.."

"Is a no-go from the off" Shepard said, filing away her beau's cultural aside – seems I was right about Scalia – and filling in again the purposeful pause he left after his words. "That's fine. They won't even get a glance at you Thane, I promise. Not even in the way I'll word my flyer." She returned her fingers to his then, giving them, when he laced them with hers, a loving squeeze. "Thank you. Really. They'll be a huge help if I can reach them."

"You will" Thane assured, certainty in his voice. "I'll make sure of it. In fact, once I've sent my own their latest orders we could put your request for aid together. Would that please you?"

It would. It really, really would. But Shepard was torn. "Hasn't your day been long enough already?" she brooked, her expression wavering into concern.

Thane's wasn't nearly so severe. "It is no trouble" he replied, moving back behind screen and keyboard so he could finish off his current project and get on to the next. That his mate's worry eased first into thankfulness, and then into the picture of coy flirtation as she looked upon him did not slip his notice, and he did nothing to quell the tonal 'I love you' that rolled through him when she acquiesced.

"All right" she said, "but only if downtime's scheduled right after. I don't care what you say, the day has run long."

And with that, she was up. Up and busying herself with remaking their bed (its neatness bedamned), pondering the content of her to-be flyer, and thinking up something relaxing to do once the workday ended properly and they could finally unwind.

A vid?

Dinner?

A show?

Dinner and a show?

She wasn't sure, and was just about to ask EDI whether she knew if anything good was on at the nearest theatre when movement from the vicinity of Thane drew her eye. Having tapped the last character into his message and sent it off to those it was intended for, he set his Omni-tool aside and reached for the small pot of sand that was sitting beside the sand heater. From it he decanted three small, grainy handfuls into the heater's deep base, then used a closed fist to flatten the sand down to his liking and glanced over, when he felt her eyes upon him, to find his Siha watchful and curious.

That curiosity was not one-sided. "When you had your hand in here earlier" he mused, his own contemplations about downtime and what to do with it prompting all he now did and asked, "did you find the grains abrasive?"

Shepard blinked at the question, pausing her assault on a pillow to answer, "Not in the least."

"They were pleasant then?" he probed. "Gentle on your skin?"

She nodded, straightening their blanket out now and wondering on his sudden interest. "Very, yeah."

"Excellent." The word was almost a purr, as was the question that followed it. "Siha, what was it you asked me when I prepared the heater for the mugs yesterday morning?"

Shepard thought back quickly, excitement licking through her as she began to catch his drift. "Bath time?"

"After our work is done, I should think so" he smiled, chuckling deeply when, after asking..

"For both of us?"

..and receiving his..

"Of course"

..she beamed, moved to settle by his side with all haste and eased his Omni-tool back into its place before them.

A/N two, the sequel. Guys. Hey guys! Any idea who might make a good Le'i'tal? I have someone in mind. Someone we know.

And now!

Coming in the next installment!

The mission to Eden Prime is undertaken.

Thane feels out part of his new role among the crew.

And Shepard brings back aboard more than she expected to.