Anderson's got too much on his plate to be embarrassed about the things Shepard knows about his relationship with Kahlee.
He has a resistance to lead. Wounded to care for. Troops to organize. He wants to just talk to Shepard, to let her know that everyone's proud of what she's doing, what she's made of herself. He wants her to know a lot of things, things that he should have told her after Torfan. After Aratoht. But he's tired, and she's tired, and he's just so relieved that Kahlee's alright, and it slips his mind. He tells himself he'll bring it up next time.
She checks in again, and then again. The bruises around her glowing eyes make her look sick.
Her holograph is transparent, and he sees the destruction of their homeworld through her blue form. His projector is set up yesterday in a ruined elementary school, the day before in a roofless apartment. The day before that, a ditch. He hopes these details don't make it to her end, hopes she can't see the reaping behind him, even though he knows she can. He cuts his transmission short when her eyes look over his shoulder. Today he's set up by the dead bodies, because there isn't anyplace that isn't by the dead bodies.
He knows she blames herself. She tells him she'll end the war or die trying.
He tells Joker to keep an eye on her. Joker tells him she has nightmares. She wakes up screaming, he tells him, chased by a dead crew through a dead forest on a dead planet.
Anderson worries about her, for the sake of the galaxy.
He worries about her.
Hackett calls regularly, and Shepard checks in frequently, but they don't have a regular connection on the ground. He updates them when he can. Enemy numbers, patterns of attack, allied retaliation. Intel gets passed back and forth between them. It's rare that all three of them are talking to each other at the same time. The news is never good when they are, but everyone is too exhaustedly busy to even think, let alone feel depressed.
Low-key anxiety thrums in his veins, for Hackett, and for Earth. For Shepard.
He remembers as her image dissipates into static that he wanted to have a heart to heart. But he doesn't call back. They have time. She'll get it done, and they can talk afterwards.
They still have time, and he has a resistance to lead.