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12. Message
The ship is quiet.
Arianna tips the remnants of the glass encasing the fish tank, into the waste disposal unit. She steps around the whirring dryer currently pointed at the carpeted flooring and casts a critical eye over the rest of the room to make sure she's got every last scrap. She sighs; she could never keep the sodding things alive anyway. They would have to get someone in to replace it though; she'd found the empty tank sort of soothing.
Which is probably why she'd destroyed it in the first place.
It had been cathartic at least; she did feel miles better than when she had first read the email. But then Miranda had stuck her foot into her bubbling pot of suppressed emotions and she'd exploded; literally.
The doors hiss open and Miranda steps through with an odd expression. Arianna sighs and closes Kaidan's message on her terminal. She's read it thousands of times in the last few weeks and it's not making any more sense to her. She supposes two years is a long time. But though it's been that long for him, Arianna feels like it has been a few weeks since they had been having dinner on the balcony of their Citadel apartment, watching the shuttles whiz past haphazardly. It feels like it's only been a few weeks since she woke up wrapped in his arms; since she kissed him goodbye to go and chase her latest tip from the Spectre office.
"Is this a bad time?" Miranda's voice cuts into her reverie.
She shakes her head, she's been drifting off too much lately. "No it's fine." She smiles, "What did you need?"
"Your scars are looking better," Miranda notices, pulling a small felt pouch from… well Shepard's not sure she wants to know where from, "and your hair's starting to curl." She frowns, "That doesn't match our Intel on you." Her critical, scientist's eyes are narrowed with a slightly worried expression.
"Relax," Arianna says with a dismissive wave of the hand, "you didn't do anything wrong. I have naturally idiotic hair."
"Really?" Shepard notes a distinctly clinical fascination creeping into her voice and she frowns.
"Did you need something, Miranda?"
The woman who is effectively her XO, shakes her head to clear it and refocuses on Arianna's face with an oddly apprehensive expression. "I came to give you this." She says, thrusting the felt bag into her hands. "I ah… I found them around your neck when we brought you in. There was nothing in our information about you saying you were married so I put them in a drawer in my office and forgot about them. I figured they were an heirloom or something. Then a few weeks ago we got to Horizon…"
Arianna tips the contents of the bag onto her palm and freezes, the emeralds in her engagement ring glinting back at her.
"Shepard?"
Arianna's head snaps up to her XO and she realises she's been staring at her hand for a bit too long. "How… how did you figure it out?"
Miranda snorts in amusement, "You and Alenko were practically seconds away from trying to kill each other. You were bickering like an old married couple. That phrase is kind of appropriate here don't you think?"
Arianna doesn't remember if she answered. She doesn't remember Miranda leaving, or anything she'd said. The next thing she knows, she's standing in a pool of fish tank water and broken glass, the green of her biotics flickering to nothing.
She sighs, throws the dustpan and brush onto one of the shelves near her desk, sits down and reopens her private terminal. The email is waiting, as it seems to have been every day since their reunion.
Arianna,
I'm sorry for what I said back on Horizon. I spent two years pulling myself back together after you went down with the Normandy. It took me a long time to get over my guilt for not being there and try to move on. I'd let my friends talk me into going out for drinks with a doctor on the Citadel. Nothing serious, but trying to let myself have a life again, you know?
But then I saw you, and everything changed. You were standing right there in front of me but you were with Cerberus. I guess I don't really know who either of us is anymore. You were everything to me, but a lot has changed in the last two years and I can't just put that aside.
Please Ari, just… be careful. I've watched too many people close to me die – on Eden Prime, Virmire, Horizon, on the Normandy. I couldn't bear it if I lost you again. If you're still the woman I remember I know you'll find a way to stop these Collector attacks. But Cerberus is too dangerous to be trusted. Watch yourself.
When things settle down a little… maybe… I don't know. Come find me and we'll talk.
Just take care.
Kaidan.
Why the hell was that man so stubborn? It was infuriating! He did have a small point though; she agreed that Cerberus was up to something. But she couldn't sit back and watch the Collectors get away with whatever it was they were abducting the colonists for. Kaidan should know that, should agree with her.
He's right; a lot has changed. He seems different to the man she remembers, more self-assured, older, wiser and more confident. She frowns at the screen and twirls the rings around in her hands, spinning them on the chain. She has no idea who this man is anymore, she realises. Part of marriage is growing together, and changing together. But he's had a two-year head start and has left her behind. She thinks for a moment before hitting the "reply" button with a determined set of her jaw. They would fix this, somehow.
The ship is quiet.
Just a short one today :) Next time - ME3! Hooray!
Now we get to the good stuff!