What is even happening to me? I told myself that I wouldn't be able to get another chapter out this soon, but here it is.

So much motivation... What is happening to me?

Anywho, I hope you like the chapter, bit of lovey dovey, but I hope I also leave some unanswered questions for you.

Our journey continues...

(I own nothing)

Chapter 3: Namesake

It was going to be a cold night. The sun had just set, and the congregation of reporters outside of the hospital were huddling in. It wasn't quiet though, constant reports and interviews where being relayed back to the millions of viewers who were undoubtedly glued to their vid-screens.

After all, it wasn't every day that the Saviour of the Galaxy had a child.

Emily Wong, sighed at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. Millions of children were being born in the wake of the Reaper War. It was encouraged by the respective governments as a way to boost the population numbers of species which had been hit the hardest in the war.

Babies were popping out like vorcha.

Emily also knew that that Shepard was hardly the man who would want this kind of attention, he valued his privacy. And even though this was a famous baby, it was still only one of hundreds probably being born right now in this city.

How did she even get dragged here? She was a well respected journalist, and had had many job offers after her profile was launched on the Citadel. She was an investigative journalist, one of the best, and she didn't spend the past year and a half after the war, documenting the corruption that had sprung up, to be doing gossip news.

But the network had wanted her on this, because the only reason she had become so wanted was because of Shepard himself. They needed their best people, the one's viewers associated with Shepard, to do the coverage.

She might of been able to stand it, if it wasn't for who had been chosen to join her.

'Wong!' Kalisah Bint Sinah Al'Jilani yelled after her. 'That was MY take. What do you think you were doing?' she demanded.

Emily rolled her eyes at her. Why did she have to be so annoying? Al'Jilani had been too busy filming segments, speculating about Shepard's so far absence from the hospital, than doing her job. While Emily's curiosity had been piqued as well, she didn't think it warranted speculation on Galactic television about a possible affair with Flight Lieutenant Moreau of the Normandy.

So Emily had just taken the shot, and filed her segment instead. She had to admit, it wasn't just because she wanted to avoid cheap journalism.

She liked the colour Kalisah's face turned when mad.

'Come on, calm down. You can't do stupid segments like that when you work with me. I have standards, and Shepard deserves more respect that what you are giving him.' She stated.

Now Bint Sinah rolled her eyes.

'Oh come of it Wong. Everybody wants to know where the dad is, and they are all reporting on it. Even Allers is asking about it. I am giving my viewers, what they want.'

Emily turned her back to her, and fiddled with her camera, annoyed at what Bint Sinah's idea of responsible journalism was.

Still... She did have a point. Shepard was known, through the entire time that his wife was pregnant, to be a rather obsessive dad-to-be. There was no way that he would miss the birth of his child, unless something big had happened.

Something a little bit bigger than Jeff Moreau.

Unlike the News's claims, Shepard was not late because of a secret love affair, because he was filming a commercial or because he was on a secret mission to Terra Nova.

He was late because he was stuck in traffic.

Shepard was fuming in the back seat of the skytaxi. How was it, in this day and age, that traffic jams still even existed. According to his ever chatty driver, at this time of the day, people were lucky if they didn't get stuck.

This particular jam was nasty. Apparently four cars had fallen off the grid and had a bad crash. Traffic control had locked out that area and were trying to fix the problem, resulting in the two hour wait for skycars heading towards the outer city.

'I can't wait to tell my kids that I, ME, drove Commander Shepard to the hospital today' the taxi man called Victor exclaimed.

While Shepard more than happy to write out autographs and talk to fans, the man's enthusiasm and his lateness, made Shepard grind his teeth.

'I mean, it must really suck for you. I can only imagine what my wife would have done to me if I wasn't there to see my kids get born' Victor rambled.

Shepard groaned. That was exactly why he needed to get to the hospital right now! He didn't need the running commentary.

Victor must have heard him because he stopped talking. Shepard felt bad, after all, it wasn't his fault that Shepard was stuck here. It was all because he had to be so bloody stupid.

If he hadn't behaved like a complete asshole, he would be with Ashley in what was the most important moment in their marriage so far. She was only trying to help him, and it was only now that he realised his nightmares must of being truly weighing on her mind, if she brought it up at all.

He looked out the window at the line of vehicles hovering. Nothing was moving and he banged his head back against the headrest. Why did this have to happen today of all days?

The radio to traffic control that Victor had, opened up on his omnitool.

Shepard leaned in to hear the crackling.

'Note... Diversion ahead at gateway 251... Will be further delays... Expected wait two hours' the radio cranked out.

Shepard groaned again and Victor looked at him with sympathy.

'It'll be alright Commander. I'll get us there' he said.

'I appreciate it Victor' Shepard managed. 'But it would be great if it could be sometime today.'

Victor chuckled while Shepard stared out the window.

'What's gateway 251?' he asked finally.

Victor answered cheerfully, happy that conversation had been opened again.

'They're maintenance platforms along the grid, if a car is in trouble, they can stop there and wait for help. Workers usually come up from the maintenance shafts.'

Shepard perked up.

'Maintenance shafts?' he questioned.

'Yeah' Victor answered. 'They connect to the slums underneath the city. Probably faster to use them than it will be in the air at the moment.'

Shepard pondered this before reaching his descison.

'Right' he said 'I getting out.'

Victor turned around alarmed. Shepard was already releasing his belt and engaging the emergency doors.

'What are you doing?' he exclaimed. 'To get over there, you would have to jump on top of the cars? What are you going to do when you fall?'

Shepard gave him a look, before opening the doors and transacting the creds to the taxi's account.

'Come on Victor' he said. 'I'm Commander Shepard.'

Victor was quiet for a minute while Shepard prepared to heave himself onto the roof of the car.

'It has been an honour Commander' he said truthfully.

Shepard paused in his examination, before turning to Victor.

'The honour was all mine Victor' he said. There was a slight pause while the driver processed receiving a compliment from the first human spectre. Then Shepard was gone pulling himself onto the top of the cab.

Shepard surveyed the top of the cars from his position on top of the roof. This would be harder than he thought with the strong wind and slippery surfaces.

Nonetheless, he was determined to do it. He could see the Gateway, it was only about one hundred metres away.

Still it was a long way down.

But Ashley needed him, and so did his kid.

With this thought on his mind, he made his first jump to the car in front.

Grasping for a grip, Shepard splayed across the roof in a spider like position Loud voices were yelling from inside to car, but Shepard ignored them and made his next jump.

By the time he reached the last car, horns were tooting loudly and windows were shaking from fists pounding on them. Shepard prepared to make his last jump to the ledge of the gateway, just as the car underneath him moved forward.

Falling off the side of the car, Shepard struggled to push himself off far enough to grab the edge of the ledge.

He managed to grab it with one hand and heave himself up. Panting, Shepard turned to look at the skycar occupants staring at him.

Standing he gave them a smile and a wave before turning and opening the shaft's door. A three man elevator ran down the length of the shaft and Shepard entered and pressed the down button. An ominous creek came from above him.

He hoped to god that the elevator was more reliable than the one on the original Normandy.

As the elevator started moving at a good pace, Shepard leaned against the railing.

The ride could have used a good conversation about immune systems.

The heavily graphitised door banged open, the omni-lock sparking from a bad hack attempt. Shepard walked out and surveyed his surroundings.

Since the end of the war, politicians had liked to portray Earth as if it had entered a new age of prosperity.

A fresh outlook towards the future.

That wasn't what Shepard saw here.

The slums looked like a sunken and grubby underground city. Refuse littered the alleyways and he had no idea where the light was coming from, but looking up, he realised that far up above him, old fashioned florescent lights dimly shone down upon the inhabitants of this underworld. At the sight of a well dressed person in the slums, the occupants of the area scattered. But by the look of the ones who remained, the slums had not been kind.

Shepard felt a flash of anger.

After everything he had seen and done in his life, poverty like this still existed. He had hoped that his past could remain behind him, but seeing this waste of life he couldn't help feel a new motivation to do something to resolve what he saw.

This was, after all, where he had come from. And these were his people.

He pulled up his omnitool, to find out what direction he had to go to reach the city and started walking.

Along his route, he noticed a number of small groups gathering around spot fires. He remembered when that was a common practice for him.

You always got the best news from the hand warming sessions.

As he turned a corner he bumped into a lumpy mass.

Just as he was about to apologise, a baby's cry attracted his attention.

The woman garbed in rags, held a baby to her chest. It looked unwashed and malnourished.

Shepard's eyes locked with the woman's. They were a dull grey, empty of life. Of spirit.

And they were red rimmed.

Shepard knew what a red sand addict looked like. He had seen two in his family, and he knew the way their eyes looked.

His brother's eyes. His mother's eyes.

He stood in shock, as the woman retracted from his gaze and shuffled off, retreating into the dark.

His brother wouldn't stop crying. He tried to get him to calm down, but he just wouldn't stop. The blood had stopped pouring out of the cut on top of Isaac's head. Their mother always hit them when she was high. But she wasn't going to hit them anymore.

She was lying in the corner of the room, she hadn't moved for the whole day. She had come in like usual, angry and crazy. Swinging fists. She went after Isaac. She just kept hitting him.

Jarryd tried to stop he, but she pushed him away.

Isaac kept screaming. But then their mother just collapsed on him.

He scrambled out from underneath her, and crawled towards Jarryd. He tried to hide Isaac behind his body, he didn't want her to hit him again.

But she didn't move.

He held Isaac in his arms, whispering over his cries.

'I'll keep you safe.'

But he couldn't keep his promise.

Jarryd came back to reality, the memory leaving him reeling. He fell back against the wall, and slumped down onto the ground.

Once again, his past couldn't just stay there, where it belonged.

His reminiscing was brought to a halt, when a group of four human men walked around the corner. Before Shepard could even stand up, the men had surrounded him.

'Well, well. Looky here at this boys.' The man who seemed to be the leader drawled out.

'Looks like a little birdie has fallen from the sky, and landed in the wrong place.' He continued.

Shepard quickly assessed the situation. The four were armed with knives, no pistols. The looked to be holding them loosely, obviously not trained.

'I reckon if you give us some creds, we might just end our conversation there' the man continued with a grin.

Shepard decided the best way to handle this would be to do the unexpected.

'And who the hell might you be?' he answered aggressively standing up.

The three silent men shifted uneasily at his tone, but the talker appeared unaffected and answered back.

'Just a few members, of the toughest gang on this rock'

'And what gang would that be?' Shepard pressed.

'The Tenth Street Reds.'

The cocky smile was wiped off the man's face when Shepard quickly grabbed his knife, spun him around and pressed it to his throat.

The man swallowed at the look in Shepard's eyes. But then he was let go and stumbled back into his friends.

'What the hell are Reds doing out here? I thought they were in New York?' he demanded of them.

The men moved uneasily, they were not used to prey that attacked.

'There a lot bigger than that' one of the silent men said reluctantly.

'Yeah.' The cocky one had got some of his confidence back. 'We expanded.'

Shepard shot him a glare which made him fall quiet. He then turned back to the silent speaker.

'Where are you based here?' He questioned softly.

'Factory Number 127' the man replied uncertainly. 'We run our Red Sand base from there.'

Shepard scowled. So the Reds were the local dealers in the slums.

'Leave, before I make you' Shepard growled out.

The men gave each other a look, before heeding his advice.

Shepard looked after the sound of their footfalls.

The Reds...

He wanted to go after them, to see what the hell they were doing in Sydney. He remembered Finch saying when they met, that the Reds had expanded and moving to different things.

That was dangerous. Especially since they could hold a grudge, and his relationship with the Reds hadn't ended well.

But now wasn't the time for an investigation. A baby was being born. His baby.

Still... he would like to see if they had some information on things.

He walked for a couple of hundred metres before he came across a shaft with the sign 'Outer City'.

He cracked the lock, and entered the elevator.

He wanted to get out of this pit of memories.

Abby was beside herself. What the hell could Shepard possibly doing to take so long.

What was so complicated about driving to a hospital?

Meanwhile a bunch of idiotic reporters where standing outside the hospital, making on air comments about Shepard's absence.

Which would have been fine, if some idiotic nurse hadn't left the program on in Ashley's room.

'WHERE IS HE!'

Abby winced at Ashley's tone. Somehow, she was maintaining that she was not going to push, until the father arrived. Her doctors were desperately trying to convince her otherwise, but Ashley was in a whole other state of crazy. Between yelling about Shepard's non-presence and reciting poetry out loud, she was simply sitting with her face screwed up, deliberately ignoring her doctor's advice.

She was also kicking people out.

Lynn walked out and closed the door behind her.

'You too huh?' Abby questioned.

Lynn nodded, and Abby sighed sympathetically.

'If he doesn't turn up soon, I'm pretty sure we should schedule it for another week. Ask if they can pencil her in next week' Lynn stated frankly.

Abby couldn't agree more.

'WHAT THE HELL DOES HE THINK HE IS DOING!'

They both covered their ears.

'The way I see it, he better turn up bleeding, or she will never forgive him' Lynn stated plainly

Abby could only nod, before another nurse was kicked out of the room.

Shepard was bleeding.

The stupid elevator door wouldn't open when he came out of the shaft, and he had cut his hand on the rusty metal, while prying it apart.

Still, despite the fact that he was bleeding, covered in dirt and was extremely stressed, he had finally made it to the hospital.

Only to find a pack of journalists waiting outside the lobby.

Crap.

Determined to plow through them, he picked up his pace.

At first Emily Wong thought the dirt covered man was a homeless person, but after he had pushed through half of the people in his way, she realised it was Shepard.

She came to that conclusion at the same time as everyone else, and suddenly all the camera's were pointing at him.

Ignoring all the questions being thrown at him about his late arrival, he continued to bowl over reporters on his way to the entrance of the hospital.

Much to Emily Wong's delight, Al'Jilani was one of the journalists knocked off her feet.

He marched towards the information desk, and the receptionist jumped up at his arrival.

Not in the mood for pleasantries, Shepard demanded to know where Ashley was.

Spotting his unhappy expression, the receptionist offered to escort him to the room personally.

She was wise in remaining silent

Shepard marched into the waiting room making Abby and Lynn both stand up.

'What the hell happened to you?' Abby questioned eyeing his condition up.

Exasperated, Shepard said darkly 'It's a long story'

Looking around, he asked 'Where's Ashley?'

Lynn answered pointing 'She's in that ro-'

'I AM GOING TO KILL HIM'

Shepard quickly made his way through the door and to Ashley's side.

'I'm here Ash, let's do this' he said to his stressed wife.

She locked her manic gaze on him and shouted 'WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I HAVE BEEN DOING?'

Abby had to praise Shepard's courage when he calmly replied.

'Keep it for later honey. Just push now'

Ashley let out and exasperated sigh, before, finally, she started pushing.

No less than ten minutes later, and a gurgling cry filled the room.

Shepard locked eyes with his son, and in that moment his heart melted.

Tears poured down his face as he cut the cord, and turned to face Ashley who was looking with wonder at Shepard.

He walked over to her and they both cradled their boy in their arms.

A few minutes passed, before Ashley asked 'What do you think we should call him?'

Shepard hesitated before coming to his choice.

'I think... Kaidan' he said.

Ashley smiled down at the baby, before cooing to it.

'What do you think hmm? Do you like that Kaidan?' she said.

Shepard smiled into her hair. There would be no better namesake for their son.

Minutes passed before Shepard said 'Ashley, I am so sorry about being late-'

Ashley cut him off 'We are going to talk about it, and I am still mad but... for now, just make sure you are here for the next one.'

Kaidan seemed to approve anyway.

What are those thoughts you are dying to write down. Hit me with reviews, I beg you.