The day had started much as the previous week's days had, with someone banging on his locked cabin door. It wouldn't even normally be a issue; Shepard would be awake before six and wait for the layabouts to wake up for an hour. Sometimes he amused himself in his moments alone by drawing faces on the sleeper pod windows, the look from Garrus as he'd woken to a poorly sketched Elcor blowing kisses at him, he lived for that kind of entertainment.
So it was all generally well and good to interrupt the commander who was most likely watching cartoons or the news and waiting for someone to annoy, except for the late night party celebrating their surviving the awards ceremony lead by that tool, Udina. The fact that the drab affair had been interrupted by biotic pranksters levitating a swimming pool sized globe of water from the lake to douse the pontificating jerk was definitely the highlight of the event, but still, 4 hours sitting in a crappy folding chair listening to politicians wax on about courage and valor, then sweeping back to their cushy chair at the corner of "no" and "fucking where", it'd wear a Krogan into self castration. Two hours in and his ass began a minor war with his lower back as to who had the worst positioning in this battle.
So it was after a long day of listening to people try to poet up some speech about a ton of people dying and watching the councilors never even flinch at the repeated usage of "just in time", that Shepard had spent the night sampling liqueurs at the local pub, sharing stories with Wrex and Ash, getting hammered in a drinking game against Joker, and then..Well even though it kinda fades into flashes of yelling and laughing after that, it seemed like he had a decent time of it.
The pounding started again and it felt as though someone was whipping his eyebrows with a red hot poker. "Enough, unless you want to discover the inventive uses of partial stasis and the myriad methods of punishment available to someone with cryoblast, I'd recommend giving me a couple of minutes." Hearing the pounding stop for a moment, Shepard started to lift himself when a spike of pain through his head made him drop back to his mattress with a thump. "Fuuuck." Shepard drew out with a hiss. Trying again, he successfully exited from the bed in a stumbling roll. Slowly reaching the door and adjusting the dial interface next to the door to the lowest illumination, he whispered,"Lights." Feeling his retinas attempt to detach and hide in his butt crack was a new level of low, and Shepard took a second to reflect, realizing he'd never experienced after leave pains so roughly in his life. He shoved his weak and bitching mindset in the corner for a good needling later, and switched to he commander face, though slightly haggard.
One last moment to brace himself, Shepard opened the door to see 2 rather large and well armored C-Sec agents point their weapons at him. Taking another moment to curse his creator, Shepard asked,"What up?" Barely a millisecond passed before both each grabbed a arm and pulled Shepard to the ground, one of the helmeted bastards leaning on his back while his partner reached around and secured his hands in biotic damper cuffs. Refusing to speak or even allow him to speak, Shepard was pulled along up the stair and past his bleary eyed but obviously shocked crew. He was in the airlock less than 40 seconds after opening his cabin door and had barely had time to jerk a hasty but calming head shake to still his ground crew as he was dragged out. He knew, no matter the cause, having any of his crew attempt to interfere would only cause headaches down the line. Much like everything else swung his way, the only chance to keep in the good graces of the council, the Alliance, and the public in general was to be seen as more politician than trained killer who got lucky at Torfan.
-.
The only problem with the citadel was the crowds, thought Shepard as he was lead into the station for processing. Knowing his status would prevent the worst of annoyances and that he could legally walk out whenever he wanted, he decided to endure with good grace while waiting for the other shoe to drop. Thus he stood at the back of a line at least 40 people and assorted aliens long, all of whom where hopping or twitching in mute frustration while each's handler stood stock still in line beside the accused. After 2 and a half hours waiting, wherein his military parade experience gave him the ability to just tune out of the whole process for the most part, Shepard was lead to the back office with a dismissive wave from the clerk, and cuffed to a interrogation table.
After another hour of waiting and listening the the hum and whine of cheap station air handling recycling the same air for the millionth time, a burly Volus waddled in the door wearing a crooked blue C-Sec armband around his head. While loose enough that it swung around the enviro-suited alien, Shepard imagined it was a joking concession to Turian official who demanded all parties keep identification in the case of attack or inspection. The Volus barely acknowledged Shepard's presence other than to hand him a manila file to hold as he hoped into the opposite chair. As he finally reached high enough to flip his hips into the seat, Shepard couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of his legs kicking futilely in the air as he situated himself. Finally stable, the Volus held out his hand imperiously for the folder which Shepard handed over magnanimously. "Guess he still gets a bit irritable about the lack of amenities for people his size," thought Shepard as he let the alien start to nonchalantly poke through the file making the occasional snort or whine as he seemed across something interesting.
After another few minutes of the Volus flipping actual paper, something usually mocked for it's inefficient usage of resources, and Shepard trying to remember the words to a kid's entertainment vid, the Volus announced himself. "It's in many ways a honor to meet you. Not many could have secreted away on a classified ship, and taken out the most revered spectre of our age. Certainly it's a point on your resume." The folder slapped against the table like using the human word was a irritation to him. "Some might even say it was heroic, but really did you think you'd get away with it?!"His statement had started as a slight whisper only to almost end at a yell before the Volus could stop himself and seem to settle a bit within himself as he tried to calm down.
"Dude, he was a dick and a coward, why the hell would you give a shit?" His laid back response and flippant gestures made the alien jerk as if struck, before he quickly jerked his shoulders up and started to screech "Coward, you piece of crap ape, you killed the only good person to ever stand for Vol-clan, hell..."with a slight pause, the Volus jerked his arm to his back and whipped out a fairly impressive hand cannon,"I should execute you in the most painful way imaginable even dreaming of hurting him. Still..", the Volus stood in his chair, the handgun lackadaisically switching between aiming at his head and navel,"I'd rather enjoy the years of torture and vengeance nearly every council race will want to suffer on your ass." With that the Volus jerked his hand and pulled the trigger, the micropellet tearing through Shepard's unarmored shoulder and dropping the soldier to the ground.
"Still, can't just walk away saying I never put a mark on the man who killed Shepard."
Clinging to consciousnesses and now thoroughly done with the idea of seeing what was going on, Shepard paused as his shock addled mind processed what'd been said,"Wait, fuck, what? Who killed me?"
AN: Still working on the details of Shepard's forgotten excesses, but knew this is how he'd be starting it out. Since I've gotten a comment about it, I guess I should explain that I write in a stream of consciousness, usually, so when I read back over it, I'll catch myself automatically filling in the missing places. Hopefully I'll get a beta reader in the future who can preview these, but until then, feel free to point out any problems, as I'd rather be embarrassed and fix it than (be) ignorant and being a irritating writer to read. Thanks to Taupe Two for pointing it out.