22

That was just under three hours ago and the sight of Shepard laughing still made Kaidan smile. He had almost forgotten how the purple of her eyes seemed to light up when she laughed, or that the fine lines that now made her look tired had first formed as laugh lines around her eyes. A sign not of battles won but of life lived.

He had left the two ladies working with the Prothean Javik in the lower deck. He had just finished washing up before grabbing dinner when his omnitool clicked on. By the sound of echoing boots he knew it was a live feed. He heard Shepard's voice among others. He heard a soldier telling them SOP included assume hostilities, well the Prothean certainly counted as hostile when he had first woken.

"I don't think our guest will be a problem. Will he?" Came over the tool and he heard Liara's gasp. In his mind's eye he could see the thing grabbing Shepard as it had on the planet, sharing memories via touch. He was headed to the elevator before he even heard the reply.

"Among my people there are virtues we embody. I am vengeance. "Its odd voice crackled without any emotion.

"I don't care if you are the embodiment of "hey kids get off my lawn." We are fighting the Reapers can you help us?" There was something like a primal growl and Liara gasped again.

The telltale sound of a rifle being brought up and Shepard's unwavering voice. The elevator doors opened and he ran to the room which lay out just as he had imagined it. Four marines all having guns trying to train on the Prothean around Shepard's form. Her hand a fist extended back toward them in a hand sign without looking, trusting the Marines were well enough trained to follow unspoken commands.

Halt.

"That's not going to do any good boys. Our friend here is a biotic. But we have the same enemy so we will not waste our efforts on each other."

For a tense moment the thing looked poised to attack. Gathering his energy from around the room Kaidan felt his biotics tingling. Blue energy wrapped around his fists as he watched the four eyes appraise the slight woman in front of him before nodding. She lowers her fist and the marines leave the room with a salute.

Without turning she says "Thanks Kaidan." Looking up at the Prothean she continues." I am going to be upstairs. Have EDI call me if you need me. "She looks to Liara and then back to Javik. "Either one of you." She nods and turns to leave. Kaidan falls in behind her wondering what the hell just happened.

Shepard does not say anything as they step into the elevator. He hits the stop button between floors and turns toward her.

"What the hell just happened?" Confused at her smirk he demands an explanation.

"I think it turned out rather well don't you?"

"You are gonna get yourself killed pulling stunts like that! Why did you alert me anyway?"

"That was nothing. When I let Grunt out of the tank he bull rushed me and I didn't have 4 armed guards in the room." Shaking her head she explains everything simply as if it was the most obvious course of action.

"I turned on my audio feed because we saw him use that biotic attack on the surface. In closed quarters like that things could have gotten bad fast. Every Marine might be a rifleman but they don't account for biotics if they fired in a confined space. And Liara would have tried to analyze the Prothean while he threw me around the room like a bouncing ball. You would have kept me safe." She gave him a shy little smile.

Kaidan let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. He wanted to be mad at her for taking such stupid risks really he did. But hearing her say that part of her "master plan" had included letting him come to her rescue made him feel a little less pissed. After seeing her laugh like a crazy teenager on the planet and comparing the 50,000 year old alien to a cranky old neighbor he didn't know what to say but his crooked grin spread across his face despite himself.

"Come here you. "Wrapping his arm around her waist and gently pulling her in close." Don't try that again. Last thing this war needs is you getting sidelined because you wanted to give someone a birthday present they will never forget." He was chuckling now in spite of himself. For the moment she contented herself to be held, putting her ear to his chest.

"Commander the elevator has been manually disabled do you and the Major require assistance?" EDI's voice chimed over the speaker.

"Make sure you decon the thing when you are done with it! Geeze you have a room you know!" Jokers voice cutting in over EDI's.

Still wrapped in his arms Shepard tilts her head up to the speakers cringing. "Just for that Joker I am gonna rub my ass on all the handrails!"

"Hrrmmm" the voice intoned "That only works if you are wearing the black lacey ones." And the speaker cut off.