Chapter 40.5

She had followed him into Life Support an hour ago. She watched him just sit there at his table, the entire time, almost unmoving. Kasumi got jittery after sitting still for a few minutes. She couldn't imagine how he did it.

She shouldn't be thinking about that though. Instead, she should focus on why Shepard told her to speak with the solemn assassin. Besides being unnaturally stealthy, they didn't have much in common. Still, Shep had asked her to, and he did her a favor so she was inclined to do what he asked.

She had just relaxed her shoulders and was about to turn off her cloak when Thane said, "If you're finally ready to talk, I would appreciate it if you became visible."

She balked at him as the shroud fell. "How?"

"You're not nearly as difficult to sense as you believe. Not to mention the nervous energy that has finally abated."

"Has anyone told you how scary you are?"

The drell chuckled. "You wouldn't be the first. Now, why are you here, Kasumi?"

She wrung her hands as she sat down across from him. "Not really sure. Shep asked me to talk to you, so here I am."

"Why would he ask you to do that?"

She shrugged.

"What were the circumstances?"

"I was going through my partner's greybox. We were just about to dock with the Normandy after my heist."

Thane nodded. "Were you inside your partner's greybox the entire time?"

She didn't respond which was answer enough.

"Shepard is worried you will slip into his memories and never want to come out."

"That won't happen."

He was unconvinced. "How much time in the last cycle have you spent in the graybox?"

Kasumi opened her mouth to say not long, but the lie caught in her throat. She spent practically the whole day with Keiji.

"As I thought. You walk a precarious edge."

"I can handle myself," she snapped. Kasumi let the anger drain out of her as soon as it appeared, however. "Why would he want me to talk to you about it though? It's not like we're best of buds."

"Because drell have a similar problem. We have eidetic minds where we can relive memories in perfect clarity. Some would rather spend their time in the past than in the present."

"He's worried about me?"

"It appears so."

"If he was so worried, why did he let me keep it? I let him decide if it should be destroyed or not."

"Maybe he realized how important it is to you. I believe he understands loss and the importance of memories."

She didn't respond for a long time. Kasumi was still stuck on trying to figure out why Shep had sent her to Thane. She decided asking the drell wouldn't hurt.

"I'm still not sure what he's expecting me to get out of this talk."

"I don't believe Shepard is so manipulative to expect you to come to some startling realization about your behavior. He may just want to warn you of the consequences you may not be able to see."

Kasumi stood. This conversation was bringing too many questions, and she couldn't find a way to focus. "Thanks for… this," she said absently as she headed to the door.

"My door is always open if you wish to talk. And Kasumi," Thane said just before she left.

She stopped and turned to face him.

"I will leave you with this: You can't be Whole with your body is in the present and your soul in the past."

Kasumi gave him a small and unconvincing smile, mumbled a "Thanks," and retreated to her room. She grabbed the Keiji's greybox off the shelf and settled on her bed. She stared at it, unable to decide what to do.