Many thanks to Sharem and We Will Conquer who beta'd this story!

Chapter 3

A month passed. Shepard and the crew of the Normandy dodged another Cerberus attempt to rein them in. They dropped Grunt off at Tuchanka to learn more about becoming an adult under Wrex's tutelage, and Samara left to do some justicar work on Omega. Tali was almost finished with her tweaks to the Normandy—soon they would have to swing by the Migrant Fleet to drop her off. Jack seemed disinclined to leave, but did not give a reason why, only said that she would leave when she felt like it.

And on Kahje one day, Thane Krios gazed out on one of the beautiful sunsets, closed his eyes, and breathed no more.

Koen accepted the cold cloth and pressed it to the cut above his eye with a wince.

"Want to tell me how that happened?" Josiah's voice was mild and calm as always, but his eyes were worried.

"None of your business," Koen snarled, loud enough that some homeless folks eating a few tables over looked up.

"Wasn't gang related then."

Koen glared at him, suspicious. "How do you know?" His eyes brightened with inspiration. "It was, uh, just a fight with some Knife that got too close to Red territory. We showed him good."

Josiah shook his head. "Boy, every time I've seen you come in here with a bruise from a gang fight, you carried it like a badge of honor, not even minding the pain." He paused, looking at Koen over the rim of his coffee cup. "Was it your father?"

"Commander Shepard?"

Shepard came to wakefulness with a start.

"Yeah?" He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, halfway expecting to see the old pastor from Earth sitting at his desk, drinking coffee like he always was.

"The comm buoy we are currently linked to is attempting to send you a tightbeam video communication mail from Kahje," said EDI. "Shall I tell them to call back?"

"No, I'll take it," Shepard said, shoving aside the bed sheets. Real time vid mails were expensive from planetside to ship—and seeing as it was coming from Kahje…. A sinking feeling settled into his gut.

"EDI, tell Joker to set a course for the Citadel once the call is over."

"Of course, Commander." A moment passed. Shepard dug out a clean pair of pants from the wardrobe as EDI spoke again. "Commander, Mr. Moreau would like to remind you that we are scheduled to mine for iridium in this system as our current supply is at a very low level."

"I don't care!" He snapped, shrugging into his shirt. "Tell him that's an order, and if we're not headed toward the Citadel by the time I get to the CIC I'll kick his brittle ass."

"Understood, Commander."

After dressing, he spared a moment to splash some water on his face, washing away the last vestiges of sleep, and sat down at his personal terminal.

The sunny yellow face of the drell social worker from the hospital on Kahje appeared on his screen. "Commander Shepard, I'm sorry for the inconvenience of the call, but I'm afraid I have some… news."

Shepard's heart sank. "I thought as much."

A few seconds' lag and then Asaera inclined her head. "Thane Krios' soul has departed his body. His end was peaceful and painless." She paused. Was that a tremor in her voice or just a bad connection? "Please inform Kolyat that I have taken the liberty of preparing his vessel—his body—for burial."

"I will. We'll go to the Citadel to pick him up and should be on the way to Kahje as soon as possible." He paused. "Thank you for calling to let me know."

"Thank you, Commander."

The vid-mail connection ended.

When the Normandy reached the Citadel, it was still early morning according to the Citadel day cycle. Kolyat should still be asleep. Shepard had taken the liberty of renting out a small apartment on Zakera Ward where the young drell could live while he finished his community service with C-Sec. To this apartment he hurried, dodging early morning passersby and some bleary-eyed patrons who slouched out of the Dark Star, looking like they'd never gone to bed.

Shepard hurried up a couple of flights of stairs and walked down the corridor that the stairwell opened up to, examining the doors for the right number. There it was—

"Shepard!"

Right next to the door to Kolyat's apartment, Shepard turned as a figure in blue Alliance fatigues trotted down the hall to meet him.

"Kaidan," Shepard said, nodding. After the disastrous meeting on Horizon, Shepard hadn't heard a word from his former crewmate and assumed that he never would. But when Shepard had returned from the Omega-4 relay, Kaidan and Anderson had sent him a message that they were working behind the scenes, rallying support to prepare for the Reaper invasion. It hurt that Kaidan couldn't have been bothered to show his support personally, but Shepard would take what he could get.

"What are you doing here?" Shepard asked, momentarily distracted from his purpose.

"I'd heard you rented out an apartment on the ward, and I have some news so I came to find you." Alenko clearly had just woken up as well: a fleck of shaving cream still stuck to his neck.

"Anderson and I have been working on the Council for months, ever since you, ah… came back. In one her most recent discussions with Anderson, Councilor Tevos learned that you had an asari justicar on your squad and it changed the whole course of the conversation." Alenko grinned. "If Justicar Samara is willing to testify to your honesty for the events of the past couple of months, the Councilor is willing to perform what she called a 'mind joining' to ascertain the proof of the Reaper threat."

Shepard stared at him and ran a hand through his short-cropped hair. Alenko's grin faltered.

"Something wrong, Commander?"

"No," Shepard chuckled at the irony. "No, that's great news, Kaidan. I really… wow. I just wish this had happened months ago." He rubbed the back of his neck. "The thing is, now is not really a good time."

Kaidan drew back with a frown. "'Not a good time'?" he repeated incredulously. "Commander, this is the first sign the Council has given that they're willing to listen to us about the threat of the Reapers, and you're going to blow them off?"

"No, I'm not," Shepard sighed. "One of my squad died and left his son in my care. I was on my way to tell him and pick him up for the funeral when you stopped me. In any case, Samara isn't even on the Normandy anymore."

"What?"

"She's on Omega doing… whatever it is that justicars do." Shepard shrugged, thinking quickly. A dead drell's son or a galaxy-changing mind meld? He blew out a frustrated breath. "Look, I have to do this for the kid. He doesn't have anyone left in the galaxy. Plus, I'll need to go back to Omega to find Samara. If you can give me a couple of weeks…"

Kaidan nodded, looking wary but relieved. "Of course, Commander. I got the feeling that Councilor Tevos wasn't much looking forward to meeting the justicar anyway. I'll let Anderson know."

"Thanks."

"Commander?" Kaidan's cautious voice stopped Shepard from where he had been preparing to walk away. "Your squadmate—the one who died—it wasn't… from your mission through the Relay was it?"

Shepard didn't look at him, knowing he would see the same expression on his former teammate's face that he had seen after Virmire. "No," he said after a moment. "Thane had been sick for a long time."

Silence fell between the two men. "You know that Ashley's mom was at your funeral, right?"

Shepard closed his eyes. "Was she?"

"Yeah. We let her take your Systems Alliance Flag since you didn't have any other family."

"We'll talk later, Ash."

"Looking forward to it, Skipper." A flash of a smile, mischievous brown eyes…

Shepard shook off the memory quickly, chest tight. He should call Mrs. Williams—apologize or something. Captain Anderson had taken the duty of informing Ashley's family of her death—it was the first time in a long time that Shepard had acted like a coward. He should have been the one to tell them—but how could he be the calm, compassionate commanding officer when his own heart was in shattered little pieces?

Enough. Shepard took a breath and turned to Kaidan. "Thanks for all your work, Kaidan."

Kaidan looked surprised. "You're welcome, sir—Shepard." He paused. "We should grab a beer sometime."

Shepard nodded. "Yeah. I'd like that."

He turned and walked the few feet left to the door of the apartment, wondering how he was going to break the news to the kid. Standing at the door, hand raised to press the bell, Shepard noticed with a shock that the door was already open. One hand went to his sidearm as Shepard stepped over the threshold

"Kolyat?"

The door opened to a short hallway: bathroom on left, kitchen on right, bedroom straight ahead. He could see Kolyat's lean figure hunched at the small desk he'd crammed into the corner. Shepard blew out a relieved breath and lifted his hand from his gun; no intruders then.

"Kolyat, you left your door…" His words faded as the young drell looked up at him, twin streams of tears running down his scaled cheeks.

"I heard you talking with that Alliance guy," Kolyat muttered, swiping at his face.

Shepard hesitated, then put a hand on the kid's shoulder. For once, Kolyat didn't shove him away.

"I heard from the hospital this morning and got here as fast as I could," he said in a quiet voice. "I'm sorry that you couldn't be there with him."

"No. It's okay." Kolyat rubbed at his eyes. "I mean, we both knew it would happen…" He looked away as his voice cracked and faded. "Can we leave now?"

"Yeah. Go ahead and pack your things. I'll go let Bailey know that you'll be gone for awhile."

"Wait. I'll… I'll go with you." Kolyat got up and hurried around the small apartment, throwing a random assortment of items into a small bag as if he wasn't really looking at what he was picking up.

"Clothes," reminded Shepard in a quiet voice.

"Yeah," the kid said with a fake laugh. "Almost forgot."

Soon enough, he was packed and the two left the apartment. They spoke little as they walked through the ward, and Koen wondered if he should say something. No one had tried to comfort him after Ashley died—they'd all been too busy grieving themselves. He might not have accepted it if they had—he'd been too angry at Ash for not surviving and at himself for trusting her words that she "could take of herself." But Kolyat wasn't a battle-hardened marine. He was just a kid who'd lost his father.

"Kolyat, are you okay?" He winced inwardly as the words left his mouth. Of course the drell wasn't okay—his father had died.

Kolyat's large dark eyes blinked at him, then he looked away. "Not… really. But… thanks. For coming. It… it means a lot."

Koen nodded. "Anytime, Kolyat. I mean it."

They walked in silence a few moments more. Then, hesitating, Kolyat spoke again, "Uh, Commander?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you tell me how you met my dad?"

Shepard thought for a moment—Thane had gone to Dantius Towers for the sole purpose of killing someone, but he also saved a lot of innocent lives that night. "Thane was on my list of people I wanted for my team. I picked up his trail on Illium. An old friend—an information broker—had heard he was in Nos Astra…"