Author's Note: Thank you to Turtletravers and asneed for the follow, and slothsassin, athena9090, JessNicole99, and asneed for the favorite. I would also like to thank Commander-hot-pants from tumblr for the render for this story. I appreciate it so much. And in case you've been wondering or haven't noticed, I'm back at school now, so updating will be much slower than it already was. I'll do everything I can to continue updating. I apologize this chapter is so short but I promise there will be much more in the next one! Please let me know what you want to see in upcoming chapters, or what you've liked so far. Thanks so much, and enjoy!
Stepping off the shuttle, Kaidan pulled his bag over his shoulder, ready to report for his new assignment at HQ in Vancouver. It was funny, being back here after what happened. He'd been sure the next time he was here, he'd be in handcuffs, being discharged, or held in prison. But no, after his interview with Hackett via the extranet, and Anderson's good word as a Councilor, he'd been excused for his desertion of a colony he was stationed at, and travelling on a Cerberus vessel for a week. Though, Hackett did grill him about that last part.
"What were you doing aboard a Cerberus vessel?"
"Shepard was in charge. She came to Horizon to stop the Collector attacks on the colony. After they left, I had no other way of getting back to the Alliance, and... I felt like I could trust her."
"I see..." there was a pause as Hackett ran his hand along his face. "Off the record, can you tell me what the ship was like?"
"It looked exactly like the Normandy SR1. Upgraded and much larger, but with what I could tell it was a huge improvement on the design. I don't doubt they built it solely to convince Shepard to work with them."
"Did Shepard say why she was working for them?"
"She's not working for them. The way she explained, she's only using their resources to try and save the colonists and stop the Collectors. She said no one else was willing to help. Surely she wasn't lying when she said she tried contacting you-"
"I didn't want to believe her. Had I known, I would have backed her, but I'm not sure we have the resources Cerberus does." Hackett sighed again. "Thank you for your report, Alenko. I'll contact you in a day or two with a new assignment."
"Sir, if I may?"
"Go ahead."
"Shepard said she was going to turn herself over to the Alliance when she was finished with the Collectors. I just hope that when that time comes, you consider everything, and... maybe try to save her from being discharged. We're going to need her when the Reapers come through."
"Noted. Enjoy the rest of your day, Alenko."
Now he was walking through the doors, heading through security before he could go to the offices and get an actual document. The woman at the station smiled when he passed through, and he could only nod, too focused on what he was doing to try and make conversation like he might usually do. Once he made it to the offices, he was directed to a woman who he hadn't met before, who simply greeted him, handed over an encoded data pad, and then bid him goodbye. He figured she likely had no idea what his assignment was, either.
As he walked out, he entered his credentials, and paused to take a seat on a bench just outside the offices to look over it closer.
He was surprised. He'd be staying in Vancouver for a while, apparently training a spec-ops group of biotics. Truth be told, Kaidan never thought he'd find himself in the position to be teaching anyone with biotics. He was a first generation biotic, so it made sense that someone would need to do it. But after his past, he'd never had the thought. It seemed fitting though. He'd suffered and would know what any student would need in place of his punishments.
Lucky for him, it seemed like the recruits had already been gathered, and everyone, including him, was assigned to meet tomorrow around noon to get a baseline for everyone's skills, and to begin team building. Looking over the goals for this group, and at the individual files, it didn't seem like it would be terribly difficult. But he knew better than most that records could easily hide dark secrets.
He'd been training the team for about a month, now. Kaidan wasn't worried about the group getting along, now, they'd all done that themselves, and a couple of them had even started jokingly referring to him as their uncle. Most were just hitting their twenties, the oldest sat at about 24. But they were a nice group, and quick learners. Each had a different skill to bring to the group, and they'd all begun collectively learning each other's skills on their own after training. To say he was proud of them wasn't far from the truth at all.
Returning to his quarters after dinner, he'd gotten a message on his omni-tool.
CS: Are you available to talk at all?
That was strange. Maybe she was stressed out, or had some free time for herself.
KA: I'm available now. Is everything okay?
CS: Do you think we could set up a vid call?
KA: Give me another minute and we can try.
He stepped into the room, and made sure he wouldn't be disturbed before sitting at his desk and opening up the terminal, linking his omni-tool to it, and proceeding to initiate a call with Catherine. It took a bit longer than usual to connect, which told him several things about where she was before she'd even popped up on the display in front of him.
"Hey you." she smiled, bags under her eyes even more obvious when she did so.
"Hey. Everything alright? You look exhausted."
"Thanks for the compliment." she deadpanned, then grinned. "I just finished up some business on Omega, so we're docked here for... a while." she looked to the side and sighed heavily, a hand running through her continually growing hair. He wished she were physically in front of him right now, she looked a little too stressed out.
"A while, hm?"
"Yeah." she paused, and he could visibly see her swallow before she croaked out the next phrase. "We're getting ready to head through the Omega-4 relay, Kaidan."
"You're-... You're serious aren't you?" he asked, the shock hitting him like a spike of ice in his throat and chest. That relay had claimed more lives than could be counted. "Catherine, I..."
"I just wanted to call you so that I could make sure I told you myself." she smiled. "That, and I'm freaking out over all of this. I have no idea what I'll be going up against on the other side, or if I'll even make it that far, and then I'm not even sure if we'll be able to get back or not-"
"Catherine-"
"-and Garrus says that we should be fine, but all he does is calibrate that damn canon-"
"Catherine-" he tried again with a little more force.
"-Miranda hasn't been much help, feeding me all these numbers-"
"Catherine! Just shut up for a minute, will you?" he practically yelled, startling her and himself some. He sighed, put his head in his hand, then looked up with a tiny smile before his hand fell to the desk. "You're going to be okay. You'll come back from the relay, and you'll come straight here to HQ. Everything will be just fine. Trust your judgement, and your team. They wouldn't follow you if they didn't believe in you."
She was silent for a minute before she started tearing up, and crying softly, burying her face in her hands. A voice on the other end - a familiar one- seemed to bring her from her tears. Soon, Tali was standing not far away on the screen, though Kaidan couldn't see her face. HEr hand rested on Catherine's shoulder and she seemed to immediately turn to stand and hug Tali.
In that moment, Kaidan felt useless. He almost wished her good luck and ended the call right there.
"We'll take care of her Kaidan. Just make sure she'll have something to come back to when we're finished." Tali said after Catherine sat down, showing her mask on the screen.
"Thank you, Tali..." he said, shifting his gaze slightly to Catherine. "I really wish I could be there with you right now to help you through this. But I know you'll do fine. Just send me a message when you get back, alright? Or have someone else send me a message, if you need to rest." Or if something worse happens, he thought gravely.
"I'll see you soon." she said with a forced smile before the call ended, and he sat there staring at a blank screen.
"Didn't even let me say I love you." he muttered with some amount of frustration. He'd wanted to tell her - just in case. But no, she'd come back fine. It would all be okay. Catherine would be okay. She had a loyal crew to look after her and aid her. Too many people cared about her, and she wasn't dumb enough to throw herself into the fire without a plan - even a half-assed plan worked for her.