Bioware owns all!
Many thanks to my support group Sesheta, Shenzi and Star. They keep me sane (or at least try).
My extended supporters Sirius, Aslan and now Alenko who keep my mind going and give me lovely feedback.
To my Beta, I can't believe you were okay with it.
Okay for everyone now. I know where we have been... I have an idea of where we are going. I don't know how well you will like it when we get there, but I sure am glad you're along for the ride. For those of you that love Ariana and her Kaidan... I have some things in the works for their future... but we still have to get through their past … so I bring you...
Recovery Plans
"So put your armor on and come with me." Shepard said as she pulled her armor out of the closet and tossed it on the bed, the legs falling off the side.
"Ari, you are not going to march right up to them?" Standing by the bed Kaidan looked at her with a frown on his face brows furrowed with anxiety. He already noticed that she had been up for a while, indicated by the very dry breakfast plates.
"Why not? If they wanted me dead all they had to do was hold you guys off for a few more minutes and I would be dead. Instead she saved my life. I think that has earned them a meeting." She shrugged as she picked up her torso armor.
"How do you know this is not a trick just to get you to trust them? I mean saving you so they can get you to do their bidding?" He rubbed his head trying to think of arguments to get her to rest more, but came up empty.
"Right, they arranged for me to forget to charge my shield." Grabbing her heart she shoved it under her shirt before pulling on her torso armor and secured it. "Then they had a crack shot merc, with no regard to his own life, shoot me in the leg and made sure that it cut through my artery in the perfect way to bleed out but be easily fixed with a field kit." She rolled her eyes at him shaking her head as she went to attach her forearm armor to the chest plate.
"That is not what I meant and you know it! You can't go anywhere near them, Ari. Let me go. I can talk to them." He grabbed the armor from her hands.
"Why would they talk to you?" She put her hands on her hips facing him.
"Well, I don't know that they would, but it is worth a try. You need to get rest. It has barely been a day. Your system is still weak. Doc says you should rest for at least two days. You have me, Garrus and the rest of the crew. Use us to find out what they want." He sat down on the bed in front of her with her arm armor on his lap and looked up at her. "I can help, Ari, you know I can."
"I like doing things for myself. Look, I don't want to argue with you, I just think it is important that I do it myself. Now if you want to fight about it we can. You will lose, and that would mean I would have to torture you for it."
He smiled up at her. "You probably would win too. Really, Ari, maybe we can invite them here."
"I don't think I want them on my ship. In fact I am pretty sure I don't. I don't see what the problem is if I just go out and talk to them. I mean how strenuous can it be? It's not like I have never been shot before." She held her hand out to him for her armor. "I feel fine."
He activated his omnitool. "Your blood pressure is still a bit low. No temperature to speak of. Still, you should rest like Dr. Chakwas said to."
"Sure, if you're going to check the numbers something is going to be off. She always tells me to rest and you always agree with her. I feel fine and I don't need any more rest, Kaidan." She walked over to her other arm on the bed and picked it up and started attaching it.
"Can't it wait twenty-four hours? I mean what's waiting a day going to change?" He put the arm armor behind him so she couldn't reach it and stood up walking towards her.
"Well, I don't know if it's going to change anything." Having finished attaching the arm she walked over and bent down to pick up her leg armor, he raced to catch her as she stood up and almost fell backwards and dropped the armor.
"See!" He picked her up and placed her on the bed.
"It was nothing, I just got up too fast." She pushed herself up to get up off the bed.
Quickly sitting on the bed he wrapped his arms around her preventing her from getting up. "Shepard, this is dangerous and you know it. I can't have you putting yourself in danger like this." He placed his forehead against hers "I don't know what I would do if something happened to you. You almost died yesterday. At least give it a few days, let us work out a plan."
"You said one day." She pulled back and looked in his eyes with a frown on her face.
"That was before you almost passed out by just reaching down to pick up your armor. How about this, you rest today and we will see how you're feeling in the morning. We have Garrus come in and we formulate a plan. But you stay in bed and rest." He sat up and undid the arm and pulled it off her.
"You have Garrus, Wrex, Liara and Tali if she can leave the engine rooms come in and we will talk about it." She looked in his eyes as he unsecured the torso armor and then she wiggled out of it.
"Agreed, we will talk about it and decide how we will approach them and what precautions to take." He got up and collected her armor and then shoved it back into her closet. "How about I have someone get you something to eat too?"
She turned and piled the extra pillows she insisted on having on the bed behind her and leaned back into them. "Yes, I think that would be fine. Maybe some grape juice too, I feel like having some."
"You want sandwiches or a meal?"
"Soup and sandwich, I think. Maybe some cheese with protein on it or something like that."
"Okay, I will see what they can do. I will be back shortly after I talk to the others."
He stood there for a moment and watched her settle herself and close her eyes. He walked to the door and left the room. Once the door closed he leaned against the wall and rubbed his eyes taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. That was way too easy which meant she was weaker then she was letting on. He decided he would talk to the others first and then bring her meal himself. Hopefully she would drift off while he was gone and get some much needed rest. His mind made up, he set off to look for Garrus.
Unwin watched the Lieutenant walk away from the Commanders cabin as she took a bite of her sandwich. He hadn't been in there that long this time. Well, she was still recovering from being shot. Looking down at the data pad in her hands but not registering the words there, she remembered her conversation with Jeff last night. Trying to steal a few minutes alone with him and they ended up talking about Shepard.
"So you eat dinner with them every night Jeff, why not have dinner with me?"
"It's our way. Listen, Shepard likes to keep her team close. We eat dinner, lunch and sometimes even breakfast together. During that time we talk about the things that need to be done. It's like an impromptu meeting."
"I notice that I am not invited to these meetings." She frowns looking away from him.
"She doesn't trust you yet, Ouis." He shrugged and she looked back at him creasing her brow and opening her mouth to speak, he put his hand up to forestall her. "Listen, it takes time for Shepard to trust someone. It took Kaidan and Garrus a long time to get her to open up to the rest of us. She took them on quite a few missions before she would even talk to them about anything other than the actual missions themselves." He rubbed her arm comforting her. "Believe me, she was a real bitch when she first got here. She would snap at the littlest thing. Her temper is legendary but let me tell you, it used to be worse."
"She seems to get along with you fine now." Her voice was sharp, her frown deepening.
"Yeah, well saving her ass several times with a smile certainly helped. Getting her down on Ilos... and yeah blowing up Sovereign. All those things helped." He took her hand in his. "Ouis when the Normandy was going down, she saved my life. I wasn't going to leave the cockpit and she just came and pulled me out." He touched her cheek at to calm her as her eyes got wide and a look of fear came to her face. "Yes, and she almost didn't make it because of me. She just barely got the door closed with herself inside. If she didn't know me and had hesitated instead of grabbing me... she would be dead. I live every day now knowing that I am alive because she knows me for who I am." He took both her hands in his. "Ouis, she is a great Commander, but she is also a great friend. I know you don't see it right now, you see a woman who can make your life miserable, and believe me, she can. But she can also be a good person. I believe we helped do that to her by being her friend. Just give it time okay." He looked up into her eyes giving her hands a squeeze.
"Well, what was she doing that she got shot yesterday?" She let go of his hands and crossed her arms. "On the Citadel, no less."
"Yeah, well, those things tend to happen to her. The first time we were here I think she got into no less than four firefights, and she wasn't even a Spectre yet."
"Okay, but how did the others know she was in trouble? The Lieutenant, the turian, the krogan and that asari..." she said the last and her nose crinkled in disgust.
"Hey, you're not jealous of Liara, are you?" He smiled at her and tilted his head to the side.
"Why would you say that?" She said a little too fast.
"Hey, listen, I won't say she isn't pretty and all, but Ouis... she isn't you." He smiled and pulled her into his arms.
"But how did they know, Jeff? They went rushing out of here. How did they know?" She snuggled into his arms, but she couldn't let it go.
"I don't think they did know. I think they just didn't think it was a good idea that she be alone." He kissed her cheek.
"For that she needed the four of them to go?" She lifted her head searching his face.
"Like I said, trouble tends to follow her. I guess they all went as a precaution. It turns out they were needed so..." He didn't make eye contact with her.
"You are hiding something. Tell me." She pulled out of his arms.
"I am not hiding anything, Ouis. There are just some things I can't share with you, that's all. They aren't mine to share." He crossed his arms and looked at her. "You are just going have to accept that right now this is all you can get."
"Lieutenant?"
Unwin looked up into Lieutenant Alenko's eyes. "Yes sir?"
"There is going to be a meeting this afternoon in the Commander's cabin that I have to attend. We are expecting several big shipments today so I need you to assist the cargo officer to get everything checked in and to the right places. He is still shorthanded, well we all are for that matter."
"Certainly sir, no problem."
He nodded at her and turned and headed for the med bay and went inside. She checked her crono and saw she had about ten minutes left for her break. She looked around the room but there weren't many people around. Then the Lieutenant came out of the med bay, the doctor behind him with a kit in her hand. He went towards the elevator and the doctor headed for the Commander's cabin. Unwin got up and placed her used dishes in the cleaning chute and headed for CIC. She was thinking that it was too bad she couldn't work from the mess. You saw so much more there then in CIC.
Dr. Chakwas entered the Commander's cabin and walked over to the bed. Shepard was sleeping and still appeared pale, not that she wasn't normally pale to begin with. Activating her omnitool the doctor took some readings. It looked like her blood iron was still a bit low as well as her pressure but her white blood count wasn't overly high so no sign of infections. Red blood count in normal range but still on the low side. She should be fine in a day or two. Readying a vitamin shot with iron she put in on the table at the side for Kaidan to administer when the Commander woke. The doctor didn't want to interrupt the sleep the Commander obviously needed. Taking a last look at the Commander's face the doctor smiled to herself thinking that the Commander didn't look half as dangerous as she was when she was sleeping. Turning she quietly left the cabin.
Arranging with everyone to meet in Shepard's cabin had taken him a while, but at least Dr. Chakwas had gone and checked on her. She had been sleeping he was glad to hear. He went to pick up the lunch he had them prepare for her adding his to the order so that he wouldn't have to leave her before the meeting. He entered her cabin quietly and put the lunch on the table leaving the heat seals in place to keep it warm. He walked over to the bed and looked down at her face. She looked so peaceful when she slept and her mind wasn't planning great campaigns of damage and destruction. Or at least her torture sessions. He smiled to himself, yes she really did enjoy teasing him.
A frown came to his face as he realized she hadn't been doing that lately. The last time was weeks ago, when they first got the Antietam, that shower thing. Well maybe it was the new crew. Something had changed, that was for sure. She moved and took his attention away from his thoughts.
She opened her eyes and looked at him and smiled.
"Did my lunch come?" She stretched.
"Yes." He gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. "It's on the table. Doc was here and left a vitamin shot for me to give you."
"Why was Doc here, Kaidan?" She frowned at him. "You run and tell her that I almost passed out?"
"No, I didn't 'run and tell her' that you almost passed out." He sat down on the bed next to her. "I did ask her to check on you that's all." He took her hand in his. "You just seemed a little weak, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something."
"Like you could." She shook her head at him. "Fine give me the shot and let's eat." Pulling her hand out of his she threw the blanket off and moved to the edge of the bed offering her arm to him.
"Well, vitamin shots go better in the butt." He smiled and tilted his head at her.
"Don't you even try it Alenko, I am not so weak that I can't still knock you on your ass." she folded her arms with a stern look on her face.
He laughed. "Hey, you can't blame a guy for trying. Here give me your arm." Standing up he reached for the shot and gave it to her. Disposing of the empty hypo he pulled her up into his arms and gave her a hug. He then walked her over to the table and as she sat he opened the heat seals on her soup and his meal.
"Did you arrange for Garrus to come here?" She picked up her sandwich and took a bite.
"Yes, Wrex and Liara too. Tali and Adams have several parts showing up today that should increase engine speed so they are going to be busy." He took some bread and folded it in half using it to push some food onto his fork.
"We really have to find something to increase shielding on the ship too. The attackers were able to cut through our shields like butter. We need to make sure that doesn't happen again. The fact that they were able to track us when stealth systems were engaged means they are either way advanced, or they were looking for us. You have to get them to step up the pace on these upgrades, Kaidan, I want to get moving again." She took a spoonful of soup and blew on it before putting it in her mouth.
"Alright, I will see what I can do." He took a bite of the bread and a fork full of food.
He watched her concentrate on her food as she quietly ate. He kept eating also, but noticed that her hand shook a little as she ate her soup. Finishing the piece of bread he put his hand down on the table and saw her look at the bracelet on his wrist then she turned to him and smiled putting her hand over his. He smiled back taking her hand in his and bringing it to his lips and kissing it gently before releasing it so she could continue eating. He continued to eat but kept an eye on her movements and did see that as she ate more the shaking diminished. By the time she finished her meal she had some color in her face and seemed stronger.
She got up and went back over to the bed without being asked to his surprise and she packed the pillows so she could sit in bed and then climbed in and put the blanket back on. He packed up the dishes and put them back on the tray and went out to the mess and dropped them in the chute. He walked by and grabbed more juice for them both and some milk for her and headed back to her cabin.
When he entered he went over to his closet and opened in and reached into a bag that was there and pulled something out. Shepard watched him curiously as he walked over to the bed and handed her the milk.
"I got you some milk and this." He held out a stick of chocolate for her.
"Oh, Kaidan, I am really not in an emotional talking mood." She turned away from him.
"No, no talking, just dessert. I just thought you might like a little chocolate. No strings attached."
She looked up into his eyes. "Really no talking?"
"No talking." He picked up her hand and placed the chocolate in it. " Just eating, okay?"
"Sure, I like chocolate, thanks." Opening the wrapper she took a bite and slowly chewed the sweet. She then took a sip of the milk.
Seeing that she was enjoying the treat and would finish it, Kaidan walked over to the table and started to move the chairs around the bed for the meeting. Setting up the juice where she could reach it when she wanted he looked around to see if there was anything else that needed to be done.
"God, I feel like a queen in a throne room." She was looking at the chairs around the bed.
Feeling an argument coming Kaidan walked over to the bed. "Now, Ari, you agreed to stay in bed if I got everyone to come here."
"I know, I was just saying it felt weird, that's all." She relaxed back into the pillows.
He sat down and opened his mouth to ask where the real Shepard was when the cabin door opened, he turned and saw Garrus walking in.
"So how are you feeling, Commander?" Garrus walked over and took a seat.
"I am feeling much better thank you. Hey, Garrus, we have to come up with some new weapons. I want something that can knock our attackers on their ass. You keep up with the latest weapons tech, anything new we can use?"
"Some stuff still in development, nothing concrete yet, but I will keep my ears open." He turned and looked at the door as Wrex came in.
"Yes, that would help. I guess I will have to search for more resources." Kaidan groaned and she stuck her tongue at him before continuing. "Cutting edge tech is going to be expensive. It won't hurt to be prepared." She pointed to Kaidan. "You can always stay on the ship and I will go with someone else."
"Not without me, you're not." Garrus pointed to her. "That mako is brand new and I am not letting you ruin it." He folded his hands across his chest.
"Hey I'm with Alenko, if you want to go careening up mountains looking for rocks I am staying here." Wrex said sitting down next to Kaidan.
"I didn't say I wanted to, I said it was necessary." She adjusted the blanket with a frown on her face and then looked up as Liara came into the room.
"That's right, pretend you don't love going up and down mountains in that thing. Both Garrus and you love to push that damn thing to its limits." Kaidan leaned back in the chair and folded his arms smiling at her.
"Shepard, how are you feeling?" Liara said moving her chair closer to the bed before sitting in it.
"I am feeling fine, Liara. Okay, so everyone is here. Garrus, if you could fill Tali in later let's begin. I want to contact the Shadows and find out why they are following me and what they what."
A chorus of "What?" "No!" and "You can't!" came from Garrus, Wrex and Liara. Shepard waited for them to calm down, glaring at Kaidan when she saw the smirk on his face right before he cleared it to neutrality.
"Okay, now if they wanted me dead, I would be dead. She saved me and I think that earns her a meeting." She glared at Kaidan again waiting for him to say something.
"Shepard, just because she saved your life doesn't make her a good person to meet with." Wrex said.
"I don't see why you have to meet with her. Couldn't you just drop her a note or something? Why do you have to put yourself in danger?" Liara asked her.
"You can't tell if someone is lying to you in a note, Liara. I think they want to contact me. Why they haven't tried probably has to do with the fact that I am never alone when I leave the ship." Shepard picked at the blanket.
"And after what happened yesterday, that is not going to change anytime soon, either." Kaidan's stern face brooked no argument.
"Can we at least discuss the fact that we have no idea who these people are? We have been watching them for what a week or two. No one has gotten any closer to their real identities." Wrex looked at Garrus. "You would think that C-Sec could have come up with something by now."
"Information is only as good as the contacts themselves. I don't think they are getting anywhere because it's human colonies that these people are from." Garrus said looking at Shepard.
"Why did the Alliance engineers have to play with the engines? Tali has not had any time to search on this stuff." Shepard banged on a pillow. "It doesn't matter, I think the direct approach is the way to go here. I will just walk up to them and ask them." She crossed her arms.
"Yeah, still not loving that idea Shepard." Kaidan rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe they didn't know that you would be attacked, and they couldn't have known where you were going, but I still think this could be a set up. I mean, maybe they didn't want you to get hurt as bad as you did. We don't know that they weren't part of the attack." He leaned forward on his leg.
"We don't know they weren't part of the attack, but they did try and help me, so it doesn't feel right. I mean they tried to help me by attacking the assailants, before I was shot. They did kill a couple of them right?" Shepard looked around for someone to answer her.
"Right, two of the bodies were killed by biotics." Wrex nodded at her.
"Well, there, then, would they have attacked their own men?" She turned to Kaidan.
"I think they might, yes. You are a hard woman to get to, they would need extreme means to get to you. I think killing their own people is not a far stretch for that." Kaidan sat back in the chair and folded his arms.
"No, that's stretching it a bit far, I think. So I want to walk up to them and ask them questions. What strategy can you work out for me to do that, because people, that is what I am doing." Shepard leaned back into her pillows crossed her arms and waited.
"We need to set up as many people observing as we can. You need to make sure they don't ask you to go anywhere else." Garrus leans forward making notes on a data pad that he picked up from her table. "If it's just a meet and greet then treat it as such. Take two people with you. Have one person be distracted so you can see if they take advantage of that. The other should be hyper-vigilant as to be the threat. We can see how they react to this and if they will even talk to you at all."
"Well, Kaidan has already played that he is interested in her body, so he can be the distracted one..." Shepard started.
"Hey, I didn't say I would go along with this idea." Kaidan interrupted her.
"Fine, Liara can do distracted just as easily as you can." Shepard waved her hand in his direction.
"Now, wait a minute." Kiadan pinched his nose between his eyes for a minute before looking at Shepard. "Fine, you want to walk up to them, then I am going to be standing right next to you. You want distracted, I will do distracted."
"Good, it would work better since you have already indicated that you like what you saw. Now, Garrus, I think you would be best as the second person." Shepard smiled sweetly at him "No one can do hyper-vigilant as well as you can. Wrex, you, Liara and Tali will have to take up positions around the area where they are stationed. You must stay out of sight, but have a good line of sight if needed."
"Right, I will scout the area tonight and see what the best positions are. We can take some extra crew men and stake them out in the dock area so it looks like we are stepping up security. C-Sec has already sent over some personnel to keep an eye on the dock area." Wrex said.
"Wait, why did C-Sec send personnel over?" Shepard sat up.
"I would think it was because a Spectre was shot." Liara said.
"It doesn't look good for them not to act on that Shepard. You know how the press can be." Garrus added.
"The press? You couldn't keep this secret?" Shepard threw herself back into the pillows.
"We needed C-Sec to extract you quickly and safely." Kaidan reached for some juice.
"No, you didn't, you could have gotten me out." Shepard glared at him.
"Not going to argue it. You were unconscious. I was in charge. C-Sec was called. It's done." Kaidan gulped his juice then put it back on the table.
"Shepard, you lost a lot of blood, it was the right call." Garrus said.
"You always stick up for him. Fine. Wrex you will now have to figure out a way to get rid of any cameras the press may have around too." Shepard sat up again. "Tali can probably help with that, you know, render them inoperable."
"Yes, I think she has something that should work rather well for that." Wrex claps his hands once. "I would love to see the look on the reporter's faces when they try to watch the data feed."
"So Liara, you and Wrex figure out the best places to station everyone, Garrus and Kaidan with me. That's how we are going to work this." Shepard lay back in her pillows.
"When are we going to do this?" Garrus asked.
"We'll need a day or two to set things up." Wrex looked at Shepard.
"Fine, shoot for the day after tomorrow. That should make Doc and Kaidan happy, it seems I am supposed to be resting." Frowning Shepard closes her eyes.
Wrex gets up and heads for the door. "Come on, Liara, let's see what we can spot today."
Liara stood up "Certainly Wrex." She pats Shepard's legs. "Feel better, Shepard." Shepard just waved at her.
They left the room together.
"Is there anything else I need to do?" Garrus looked at his data pad.
"Update Tali and see if C-Sec has uncovered any information on the Shadows. I'll check with the Alliance again." Kaidan stood up and walked Garrus to the door.
"Will do, I'll check in with you later, Kaidan." Garrus heads out the door.
Kaidan put the chairs back where they belonged and walked back over to the bed. He stood there and looked lovingly down on Shepard.
"I know you're pissed that I got C-Sec involved, but you are a Spectre. You work for the Council. They are the Council security. We didn't know if there were any other assailants around that might be on the way. I needed to get you back to the ship quickly, it was my best option." Kaidan crossed his arms in front of him waiting for her wrath.
"You were in charge, it was a command decision. I will not question it." Shepard said without opening her eyes.
He gets on the bed and lay next to her. "But you would have made a different decision."
She reaches down and takes his hand. "I don't know that I would have made a different decision or not. All I can think is that if you were injured I would want to get help to you quickly. I assume that was your thinking. But I am not going to question your decision, Kaidan. I trust your command abilities. I just don't want the press around."
Kaidan took her in his arms and gave her a hug. Letting her go he stood up.
"Well, I have to get back to work and see if I can get more information out of the Alliance."
"Check and see if they have gotten any further in the new shielding." Shepard adjusted the pillows so she was lying down instead of sitting back on the bed.
"Alright. Do you want me to come back for dinner?"
"Yes, and bring Doc. This way you can both watch me for signs of decay while I eat." She smiled at him.
"Alright, I will bring Doc. Try and get some more rest. Call me if you need me."
"I always need you, Kaidan." Her voice sounded sleepy.
"That's good to know" He kissed her on her forehead and then left her to rest.
Shepard was asleep before the door closed.