A/N 5/29/2012: Thanks to GoogleFloobs for thetaing (Check out his story)! Again, this story is currently under revision, so please excuse any inconsistencies. A full plan of my revisions is avail in Chp. 59, Author's Explanatory Note: An Update.

Disclaimer: Mass Effect is copyright of Bioware. Ci-Ci is mine.

I welcome constructive and/or encouraging reviews/critiques. Please leave feedback!

Thank you for reading. Enjoy!

8 May 2183—SSV Normandy, Citadel Space

Shepard sat in his quarters, trying to figure out where the hell he should start. Despite the leads Anderson had given him, Shepard felt lost. He needed a solid mission with a set goal, not some vague lead about something that might not be true. Hackett had already contacted him with a couple of other missions that he was tempted to take before he even tried to get Saren.

Corinthia, of course, was trying to help him. With Pressley as the XO, she was essentially left to sit around, fix the Mako, and do whatever he told her to. Admittedly, they were sitting in his quarters, which wasn't the best of ideas, but he didn't care.

His quarters were sparse, with just a bed, desk, and bathroom. Corinthia had taken over his desk, datapads strewn everywhere and her omni-tool linked up to his screen to show readouts of each planet. Panels moved so quickly that he couldn't even focus on them, which was giving him a headache. At least she wasn't talking his ear off, but he found himself staring at how her brow furrowed when she was thinking, the curve of her neck and cheek...

Shepard caught himself and fell back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. He'd spent the time it took for the Normandy to leave the Citadel and go floating around the Mass Relay convincing himself not to attempt to win her heart. He wasn't convinced that she saw him as a brother, not after how she's kissed him, but he still had the "L" word lurking in the corners of his mind. THAT was something he couldn't afford to get himself into; it was the point of no return.

He groaned. "Ci-Ci, will you stop fucking around and just tell me where the hell I should be going?"

She didn't answer immediately. "What? Oh, sorry, Shep," she answered after a moment. "What did you say?"

"Where. The. Fuck. Should. I. Be. Going," he repeated angrily.

"That's not my call. At all," she muttered, waving her omni-tool and causing the panels to show only the information on Feros. "Right. Here we've got a distress signal coming from the colony…" She played it, but it was only chatter. "And that's geth interference. I'll see if I can get it any clearer."

"I don't care. What's next?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Just get going."

"Right. Residual hang-over."

"Ci-Ci!"

"Fine, fine! Noveria's got geth all over it, too, and Therum is where Dr. T'Soni is." She shut down her omni-tool. "Other than that, there isn't much else that we know. Noveria's got the most ridiculous business security in the galaxy, so it'd take me a couple days to get in, and then there's nothing but Exogeni on Feros and Therum's just in the middle of nowhere. So, where do you want to go first?"

"Pick something, okay?"

"But —"

"Cassie!" he snapped, sitting up. "You know that I'm not a detective. I'm a soldier. Get me to a fight, that's all I care about."

She thought for a moment before shutting down all the screens and sitting next to him on the bed. "Fine, we're going to Feros. I'm not leaving a colony in distress."

"Fine," he replied, closing his eyes. He grunted when she elbowed him in the gut. "What the hell was that for?"

She grinned evilly. "Are you coming or do I get to fly the ship? Well, tell it where to go. Joker won't let me touch the real controls."

He shut his eyes, enjoying the warmth of her proximity. Despite having decided against pursuing her, he wasn't about to stop enjoying being with her. "Sorry, Ci-Ci. That's not happening."

"Aw…" She pouted. "But I wanted to play with the hologram…"

Shepard patted her arm. "You've got your omni-tool, don't you?"

Her eyes lit up deviously. "I could reprogram the Galaxy Map to appear there…"

"No!" Shepard growled. "I'll confine you to quarters."

She narrowed her eyes critically. "That's a pod."

The crew bunked in coffin-like, upright pods in eight-hour shifts. Shepard, being the commanding officer, got his own bed and a room to himself.

"Can't I stay in here with you? Please?" she continued, rolling onto her side and looking at him as pitifully as she could.

Shepard almost said 'yes', but he knew what it would mean. He'd more than enjoyed waking up next to her, but this mission wasn't about them.

"You're kidding," he answered darkly. He half-hoped that she wasn't, as that would be another indication that his feelings were returned.

"You have a bed and blankets," she replied. "And you're kinda fun to snuggle with — Wait, uh, forget I said anything." Her face turned bright red.

Shepard smirked. "So you were awake for that."

"Well, some of it, but I kinda thought it was a dream and... Yeah, it was my bed, too, so I had no idea what you were doing in there, you know?"

Shepard sat up, biting his tongue about how clueless she was. Admittedly, he couldn't remember getting into bed with her, but he remembered every heartbeat of when he'd woken up with her in his arms.

"If I had to guess, I'd say the sofa was too cold and you were the warmest thing in the apartment," he replied. "You aren't going to grill me on this, are you, Cassie?"

"No, I'm not," she answered quietly, biting her lip. "But I'll take that as a 'no.'"

"Everyone already thinks we're sleeping together, but, yeah, that's a 'no'." What the hell is wrong with me? She's practically offering and I can't take her up on it.

Corinthia laughed. "Figures. Why can't a guy and a girl just be friends?"

"Because it never stays that way."

"It did with us, though, didn't it?"

He snorted. "I know that you liked me at one point or another."

"Well, yeah, it's kinda hard not to..."

Shepard swallowed the lump in his throat. "Is or was?"

She hit him playfully. "Not like you ever liked me back, so what's it matter?"

"I guess you have a point," he muttered. He ran a hand over his face. He needed to make a decision about where to go. Noveria seemed like a big waste of time to him, and he wasn't in the mood to save anything. Maybe this T'Soni woman would know something that could help direct him. He wasn't hung over anymore, but he wasn't sure that he was comfortable running head-first into a fight. Corinthia may have handled fighting a pussy like Fist, but if something was big enough for the Alliance to pick up, it was probably a big enough problem that Corinthia was going to be in real danger.

His gut clenched nervously. He didn't know if he could send her into a fight, even if he would be watching over her. But if he was doing that, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on the rest of the mission. He glanced at her. Her hair was out of her face, letting him see both her eyes and all her scars. He could've prevented all of them, even the ones from the Blitz, if only he'd been faster, stronger, better...

Maybe this Dr. T'Soni would be a hacker, like Corinthia. No, Shepard doubted that anyone would be able to take her place. He didn't want anyone to, either.

Still, one more body — one more capable body — wouldn't hurt. Shepard worked best with small, highly-trained, and highly-skilled teams. Sending other people into battle just got them killed, but small squads he kept alive and unharmed. Except for Corinthia. Damn it, why did she have to be the one to keep getting hurt? When was the last time she walked out of a fight and wasn't covered in her own blood?

Corinthia's hand came to rest on his shoulder. "You alright?" she murmured.

"You sure you're recovered?" he asked softly.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you took a bullet to the head, that's why." He hesitated before adding, "I'm worried about you."

"Yeah..." She sat up and pulled her feet up so that she could sit cross-legged on the bed. "I'm worried about you, too. I mean, I always am, but it just suddenly got ten times worse than normal."

He nodded. "I feel that."

"Did the stakes really get raised that much?"

"How the hell should I know? This isn't the same. We're hunting down one turian like he's going to destroy all of humanity."

"Do you think he can?"

Slowly, Shepard took her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers. He wasn't sure, but he had a bad feeling that it could work. Taking Corinthia out of a fight wasn't an easy task, by any means, and the destruction on Eden Prime was much like that of the Blitz, but on a smaller scale. The geth weren't the most formidable enemy Shepard had fought, but they were unknown. Saren was unknown. That fucking leviathan of a ship of his was an unknown. If something could send chills up Shepard's spine, it didn't bode well for the galaxy.

"I don't know," Shepard breathed, for once not hiding how uncertain he felt.

Corinthia leaned against him slightly, covering his other hand with hers. "Meaning that he could."

"Yeah, meaning that he could," Shepard echoed. "Fuck, how the hell did we get into his mess?"

"You were so badass that they decided to make you a Spectre. Then I was apparently good enough to be considered for one, too, and then Saren decided to do something stupid on the planet we were going to."

"That isn't what I meant."

"Ah, you were being rhetorical..." She shrugged. "The only thing we can do, now, is get ourselves out of this mess, right? We can do this, John. I know you can. I'll be with you, every step of the way you know?"

Shepard released a slow breath. Again, he wanted to kiss her, but the urge wasn't nearly strong enough this time to make him try to do it. Instead, he released her hand and got to his feet. "Then we can't start on Feros."

Corinthia flexed her fingers, wishing that he hadn't let go. "Alright, so where do we start?"

Shepard was out the door already, though, and striding through the common area. Crewmen jumped aside, saluting and shuddering at the fiery look in his eyes. Corinthia realized that staggering out of his cabin probably wasn't the best idea about five seconds after she'd done it. Everyone stared at her, but she didn't care. At this point, she was almost used to it.

"Shepard?" she called. "SHEPARD? Damn it, are you even listening?"

Shepard was already standing before the Galaxy Map, hand flying through the interface as he tracked down whatever planet he was looking for. "Joker, set your course for Therum in the Artemis Tau System. We're going to find Dr. T'Soni."

"Aye, sir," Joker answered over the comm. "Plotting a course through the Mass Relay now. ETA to destination: nine hours."

Corinthia composed herself and waited for orders.

"Pressley, get me Williams, Alenko, Garrus, Wrex, and Tali. We're meeting in the comm room in an hour."

"Aye, sir." He saluted and headed towards the stairs.

Corinthia started fidgeting. She liked sitting in Shepard's room much better, but she felt weird lurking in there when he wasn't.

"Ci-Ci, comm room, now," Shepard growled.

She nodded and took the necessary steps backwards to open the doors. She moved too quickly and bumped into the green, rectangular, holographic panel that served as the controls. It beeped angrily and turned red.

She rubbed her smarting shoulder and stepped back to let it open properly. Shepard tried not to laugh, but he needed to concentrate.

"What's up?" she asked as soon as they were inside and alone.

He took a seat at the center of the room, facing the screen that just days before had projected the images of Eden Prime. "Get me everything you can on Therum. I'm not walking into another mission blind."

"Aye, aye, sir."

He leaned forward, clasping his hands together. He didn't like how she'd gone all formal on him, but it was a necessity and he knew it. Every interaction they had was making it easier and easier for him to forget the walls he was trying to put up around his heart. Now that he'd started looking for the affections she held, he could see them with almost every glance she gave him.

Except now she wasn't even looking at him. She had her omni-tool open and had managed to hook it up to the giant screen. For a moment, Shepard wondered if she was the Shadow Broker, considering how deftly she was gaining access to highly secure files. Then again, if she was the biggest and most secretive information dealer in the galaxy, what the hell was she doing with the Alliance?

Shepard had only seen her at work a couple of times before, but this was nothing like anything he'd ever seen. He couldn't see half of the things she did, and yet she seemed to scan information and process it all before moving on to another series of screens. She was completely focused, her attention never straying to him or anything else in the room. She barely even noticed as the others filed in.

"What's with her?" Wrex muttered to Shepard.

"She's working," Shepard replied.

Wrex snorted. "Seriously? Looks like she's just messing around to me."

"Do you want to get your ass handed to you?"

"Hmph. As if that'd happen to me. I am krogan!"

Shepard smirked. "Yeah, and I am Shepard."

Garrus crossed his arms. "What, are we all going to go down and have a sparring match, now, to determine who's the best?"

Alenko shrugged. "I don't know. I'd say it's a toss up between Shepard and Wrex."

"I vote we put Ci-Ci and Williams in the ring," Joker radioed.

Wrex laughed. "Hah! The females are always the fiercest of the species."

"Is that really true?" Tali asked shyly.

Williams snickered. "You bet your suited ass it is. These guys don't have anything on us."

Corinthia was hardly listening. Therum was remote, little more than a mining colony and a few excavation sites, but Prothean ruins had been discovered, so the security was top-notch. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle, but she needed more than the hour Shepard had given her.

"You done, yet, Ci-Ci?" Shepard demanded.

"No," she answered irately. "I need another couple hours."

"Damn it, Ci-Ci —"

"Look, I'll give you all that I've got now." She waved her omni-tool. An image of the planet appeared on the screen. "Therum's basically rock and lava. Dr. T'Soni is sitting at an old mine site that they converted to a dig site when they found Prothean ruins. Initial scans show no good drop zones for at least ten klicks in any direction. Haven't managed to figure out what kinds of enemies we're looking at because we're not in range for that stuff just yet and I haven't even started with the long range scanners yet. There hasn't been a report for nearly forty-eight hours from the dig crew, which leads me to think that there's something wrong down there." Corinthia gave Shepard a cursory glance before turning her attention back to the screen. "Alright, that's what I know for right now."

Shepard rubbed his eyes. "That's not much more than what the brief told us."

"You didn't give me much time, sir," she snapped.

"You're also the best damn hacker in the Alliance," Shepard answered calmly. "You're doing fine. Just sit down and calm down."

Corinthia really only turned formal when she was on edge, but she still settled into the seat next to him.

Across from her, Williams tried not to eye Corinthia's scars. They were brutal. How could she have survived without getting them removed? The way she smiled just made the lines go deeper into her face. They didn't go at all with her personality, but at the same time they made Williams feel barely a glimmer of camaraderie. Corinthia was tough, but beyond that, there was little left to the woman.

Williams didn't like Corinthia. The Lieutenant Commander was incapable of taking anything seriously, didn't treat anyone with respect, and had yet to do anything except hang on Shepard's every word. There was no good reason why she had been nominated for the Spectres, nor why she was still part of the crew. She smiled too damn much and looked like she was about to crack a bad joke instead of following orders.

"So, basically, we don't know what we're getting into," Garrus summarized.

"Basically," Shepard replied. "That a problem?"

"I can handle myself. It's Ci-Ci I'm worried about. She'll probably get distracted by something and go running off after it."

Corinthia laughed. "Yeah, probably, but then I'll be the one to find the critical piece of evidence that leads us to Saren or a new and shiny sniper rifle for you to play with."

Garrus smirked. "Well, if you bring me something, then you can go chasing as many shiny things as you want."

Everyone laughed. Even Sheaprd half-smirked. "Just remember that the pretty lava is hot," he cautioned.

Corinthia crossed her arms, frowning. "Yeah, yeah. Guess I'm keeping my shiny new sniper rifle to myself, eh, Garrus?"

The turian chuckled. "I bought that model two years ago. Careful, it shoots to the left."

Corinthia raised an eyebrow. "That so? I'll keep that in mind next time we get into a competition."

"Oh, you can count on that."

Shepard got to his feet. "Before we start making bets on who'll have the highest body count, there are still things we have to prepare for. I don't even know how big of a squad I'm taking in, so you'd best all get prepared."

Tali wrung her hands. "Prepared? As in we're going into a fight?"

"Don't worry, Tali, you'll be fine," Garrus assured her kindly. "I'm sure Ci-Ci won't let Shepard drag you into a fight unless you're ready for it."

"Oh, okay..." Tali didn't seem convinced and kept glancing at Shepard.

Honestly, the Commander had already decided to take Corinthia with him, but other than that, he wasn't sure. Wrex and Garrus had been good when they'd taken down Fist. Alenko was a good biotic, but Shepard was better. Williams had been determined and driven on Eden Prime, but he could tell by looking at her that she and Corinthia were not going to get along. And Tali... She'd just sort of appeared in the middle of a fight with some evidence and decided to tag along. Shepard had no idea what the quarian was capable of, or even if she could survive a rupture in her envirosuit.

Corinthia was back at the screen, fiddling with her omni-tool. Images of geth appeared. Within a few seconds, Tali was at her side.

"Wait, back up," Tali started.

Corinthia did.

"I've seen those before," Tali murmured. "Those are some of the weaker geth. They're the easiest to hack and take control of. I've done it a couple of times before. And those big ones? They're the worst. Their cannons can put a hole in any armor."

Shepard raised his eyebrows. "You know the geth?"

"My people designed them," Tali answered, her tone almost explanatory. "We have dreams of retaking our homeworld one day. Of course we know the geth. We study them, looking for weaknesses."

Suddenly, Tali seemed much more useful.

Corinthia's lips slowly turned into a smirk. "I couldn't get a thing out of their memory banks."

"They automatically wipe as soon as they are destroyed," Tali replied. "You have to be quick."

"You know how to use a gun, Tali?" Shepard asked lowly.

Tali hesitated. "Well, I mean, I've held a pistol before..."

Garrus stood. "C'mon, Tali. I set up a bit of a practice range in the cargo hold. I'll show you how to aim."

Shepard nodded. "Alright, dismissed. You'll have assignments when we're two hours out."

Everyone filed out, Wrex cracking his knuckles and growling, "You'd better let me fight, Shepard, or else I might knock some heads around here."

Corinthia lingered, eyes glued to the screen. Shepard released a long breath after everyone else was gone.

"Fuck," he groaned. He wasn't ready for this. Charging into a mission with almost complete strangers? Corinthia would be there, but at least she knew Garrus, but Shepard didn't need two snipers. With geth around, he needed tech experts, which meant Corinthia and Tali, or soldiers, which gave him Wrex or Williams. Alenko knew a little about electronics, but Shepard had a feeling that the Lieutenant was better suited to watching things back on the Normandy.

Of course, he could always send two teams...

"Garrus is sweet," Corinthia said absently.

Shepard's jealousy seethed and surfaced. "What was that?" he snapped.

"Garrus is sweet," Corinthia repeated, "for showing Tali the ropes. He's really a terrible turian, you know. He likes humans, for one."

"Like you?"

Corinthia blinked. "What? What are you talking about? Me and Garrus? Hah! That's funny." She laughed, clutching her sides as giggles overtook her. "I can see that so clearly."

"Is that so?" Shepard murmured.

Corinthia raised an eyebrow. "You alright, Shep?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Let me know if you find anything else."

He got to his feet and went back to his cabin. He didn't feel rested. The only night that he hadn't had nightmares about the beacon had been when he'd slept with Corinthia, but he doubted he could convince her to join him again, for whatever reason. Then again, she might. He'd watched her sleep a little and she'd looked so peaceful...

God, he needed to get her out of his head. Concentrate on Saren. Do something other than wish he'd turned his face so that her lips would've caught his when they were in her apartment. He stripped and got into bed, fitfully drifting into sleep as he imagined what, exactly, it would be like to have her for his own.

Pain. Horror. Agony.

Those are the only words that can possibly describe the first image of the beacon. A brief flash of a beautiful planet — green, developed, utopian — and then, in the blink of an eye, the paradise is destroyed, burning orange and red, flakes of ash floating everywhere as buildings burn, massive ships reaching with arms to envelop an entire building, red beams shooting out and taking thousands of lives...

Then, a creature, eyes glowing orange and skin flaking off like dead leaves, standing over a terrified being. The creature stares emotionlessly ahead as it rips out the throat of the being like the husks tried to do to the colonists on Eden Prime.

A scream, long and bone-chilling. The being is struggling for life, trying to warn something — anything — that will listen, but the warning falls on deaf ears.

The ship, floating silently in the air, a solitary eye glowing red as it readies an attack. An attack at the viewer.

No one would survive.

No one could survive.

It is the end of all things.

Shepard woke, almost screaming. His heart was beating such a violent tattoo that he thought it would burst. He shivered in his cold sweat as he gasped in air. He'd just relived the beacon's vision and it was a hundred times worse than the first time and the images were burned into his mind, this time, so that, waking, he could see them.

He'd never felt this terrified before in his life. Even Corinthia's life-threatening situations weren't the same; the cold chill he'd felt had been fear, but at the same time he'd known he could get to her. This, though... There was something else about it that was just wrong. He pressed hand over his ribcage, trying to calm his heart, but it wouldn't stop. What he'd seen had made all of his experiences look like an innocent game. This enemy — whatever it was — spelled doom for every living, breathing creature in the galaxy.

Shepard lay back down, attempting to sleep again, but he was wide awake. His heartbeat refused to slow, so he got out of bed and stepped into a cold shower. He let the icy water run over him for almost an hour, but the vision wasn't leaving. It was more confusing than ever and he was supposed to be gearing up for a mission. All he wanted to do was go to Corinthia, see if she could help him —

No, he couldn't do that to her. She didn't deserve to see what he had, even if she had mentioned feeling a little bit of it. If she could stay innocent for as long as he had, he wasn't going to take that away from her.

Still, someone had to know, and soon, or else Shepard feared that the vision was going to drive him insane. If Cassie was really going to be his only option, he wasn't sure what to do. She was the only person he could be weak around, really, and not think less of him.

He blinked, the ship appearing before his eyes. It wasn't any use: he had to find Corinthia and tell her everything. He'd watch her, make sure that she wasn't being hurt by it. After dressing, he headed down to the cargo bay. Wrex, Alenko, and Garrus were taking pot shots at a set of armor set up against a corner. Williams was huddled in front of a computer screen, having a murmured conversation with someone. Tali and Corinthia were nowhere to be seen, but from the giggling coming out of the engine room, they were bonding in there.

Alenko grinned. "Shepard! Wrex and Garrus are arguing who's the best shot and I keep telling them that you'd win any day."

Shepard tried to look smug, but he felt that he only succeeded in looking pained. Alenko's smiled faded a little and he left Garrus and Wrex's side.

"You alright, Commander?" Alenko asked quietly. "You look a little shaken."

For a moment, Shepard debated if he should brush Alenko off or tell him. Alenko seemed like a good guy, but Shepard didn't hang around good guys. Ever.

"Beacon," Shepard finally replied.

"Want me to find Ci-Ci?"

Shepard shook his head. "Not sure she'd get it."

"I think she would. She's got the right kind of heart to understand anything."

Shepard rubbed his eyes. "It's more than I don't want her to know. She'll worry too much."

"Everyone's worried," Alenko replied quietly. "At least, everyone that saw Eden Prime. They're worried about the geth and humanity. But Anderson and I know better. I saw what that beacon did to you."

"What about Ash?"

"She's worried about humanity, not you. She doesn't like anyone here much, so far as I can tell." Alenko scratched his head. "Seriously, Shepard, what did you see? I heard your summary, but that's nothing new to vets like us."

Shepard glanced around. "I'm not sure what exactly I saw, but it was the death of a species and the galaxy." He had a bad feeling about the ships he'd seen, like they were eerily familiar.

"If it's enough to shake you, then the Council did the right thing to make you a Spectre. That way we can hunt Saren down."

Shepard put his hand on Alenko's shoulder. "Exactly. What was that you said about a shooting competition?" Shepard needed something — anything — to get his mind off the nightmare.

Garrus rested his sniper rifle against his shoulder. "I've seen your biotics, but I want to see you use a real gun."

Shepard smirked, though it was strained. "You'd better start defining your terms, Vakarian, because I am a living weapon." He was trying to sound confident. Maybe he did, because neither Garrus nor Wrex seemed to notice that Shepard wasn't feeling himself.

Alenko stepped in. "Well, you'd better find something that everyone can use, Garrus, we because we all know you're the best sniper and I'm not going anywhere near Wrex when he had a shotgun out."

"Wise plan, human," the krogan growled.

Alenko picked up standard issue pistol. "How about this?"

Garrus, Wrex, and Shepard laughed.

"You kidding me?" Wrex guffawed. "That little piece of crap? Hah!"

Shepard eyed the pistol from Alenko's hands. It was standard issue for normal soldiers, not even the N7 stuff Shepard had. "You could at least pick a good one."

Alenko took aim and shot, hitting the armor's helmet directly between the eyes. "Seems fine to me," Alenko answered with a shrug, offering the pistol to Shepard.

Shepard blinked for a second. He wasn't quite in a good enough humor to laugh, but the mood was lifting. "And here I thought you were only a biotic, Alenko."

The Lieutenant grinned bashfully. "Nah, I just don't like showing off unless there's a point."

Garrus grabbed the pistol. "Hey, let me try that." His shot hit close to Alenko's, but off by a couple inches. "Well, he'd still be dead," Garrus excused.

Wrex snorted. "I'm not shooting that thing."

"Yeah, because it won't fit in your hand," Alenko teased.

"I thought you were afraid of me."

"Well, yeah, but your shotgun's aimed at the dummy."

Shepard could feel the nightmare receding as he relaxed. He picked up the pistol and shot, hitting the helmet as well, but not as accurately as Alenko.

"Round two," he ordered, handing Alenko the pistol again.

This time, Alenko was far off the mark. "Hey, that kinda looks like a mouth, doesn't it?" he asked, examining his handiwork.

"So was that first one a lucky shot?" Shepard asked.

"And here I'd hoped you wouldn't catch on," Alenko answered, winking.

"Catch on to what?" Corinthia asked, sliding to stand next to Shepard.

"That's he's just a lucky bastard," Shepard answered, trying to concentrate on the dummy and not the fact that she was barely four inches away from him. He could smell her shampoo.

"What'd he do? Hit it between the eyes?" she asked. For a moment, Shepard thought she was going to step forward to look at the armor, but instead she just raised her omni-tool to scan it. "Huh. Why are we shooting up Shepard's armor?"

"WHAT?" Shepard demanded. "Who said you could do that?"

Garrus and Wrex pointed fingers at each other.

"It wasn't labelled," Garrus started.

"Better than aiming at the crew," Wrex finished.

Corinthia touched Shepard's tattoo. "Seriously, Shep, you bought another set, remember? The onyx and crimson one?"

He glanced in her direction, a little surprised that she'd touched him, but feeling any of his anger recede into pleasure. Her eyes were glittering deviously and she was trying not to look smug, which in turn made her look nothing short of adorable.

"I didn't," he answered darkly. "I bought you the sniper rifle instead, remember?"

"Oh, well, I went back for it, then." She trotted to his locker and, with some effort, dragged out the armor case. "Oof, this is heavy. Why are you wearing heavy armor, again? I thought your biotics didn't work with it."

"It's not that they don't work, Ci-Ci, it's just that it's harder to move," he answered, opening the case. Corinthia had gone all out and bought him the best set of armor on the Citadel. She'd even managed to get them to emblazon the N7 special forces symbol on the chest piece. "You pay for this with my money or yours?"

"Mine," she answered. "I mean, I owe you for saving my ass on Eden Prime, don't I?"

He put his hand on her shoulder. "Thanks, Cassie."

"Anytime, Shep."

It took him a moment to remove his hand, his mind rushing back to the nightmare. He wanted to tell her, but at the same time he wasn't sure that he could.

She sensed his discord, it seemed, because she brushed her fingers against his. Maybe it was an accident on her part, but it was almost too perfectly timed to be anything else.

"You wanna talk about it?" she asked softly.

Shepard couldn't answer. He was seeing it again, but this time the creature with the glowing eyes was standing over her. He wanted to grab her, drag her into his arms and hold her, but instead his fists clenched and unclenched.

Corinthia took his hand and silently led him to the Mako. She shook her head in answer to Alenko's inquisitive look.

"What's with that?" Garrus asked.

"They don't want to be overheard," Alenko answered.

Garrus snorted. "I may not know much about humans, but isn't that usually what people do when they're trying to be... alone?"

"You know that this is Ci-Ci we're talking about, right?"

Garrus nodded. "Well, I'm no expert, but when a female constantly talks about a male, it's usually a sign."

Alenko didn't answer. It wasn't any of his business to go around sharing that Corinthia was into Shepard, especially since the nature of her relationship with the Commander continued to defy the bounds of friendship without actually crossing lines. Besides, there were regs to consider. They were both officers, but of different ranks. It wasn't allowed to happen. Then again, Shepard didn't care and Corinthia was constantly insubordinate with anyone she knew well enough to joke with.

Garrus toyed with his sniper rifle. "How much do you want to bet he and Ci-Ci will be — what do you humans call it? Lip-locking? — before we get to the next mission?"

Alenko raised an eyebrow. "It's against regs to gamble."

Garrus shrugged. "I'm not part of your military, so I don't see the harm in it. Besides, I'm pretty sure everyone already knows how it's going to end."

"And did she tell you she likes him?"

"It's less about her and more about Shepard. He practically threatened me after she hugged me," Garrus chuckled. "He doesn't know I don't go for humans."

Wrex snorted. "Humans," he growled and plodded off.

Alenko crossed his arms. "Fifty credits that it's longer than that."

"What makes you say that?"

"They've already been friends for a long time. Might take her a while to come around."

"You're on, Alenko."

Alenko and Garrus shook hands. "You're going down, Vakarian."

"Hah! That's what you think now, but you just wait."