Bioware Owns All.

Chapter 4

She Said

It broke my heart to have to become Commander Shepard to Kaidan, but I had no idea how far I could trust him. Or for that matter, how much I could rely on him to help us. We needed that bloody ship if we were going to have a prayer of defeating the Reapers. I stood silently, waiting for the results of my orders to come in, calming myself to plan the next set of actions once the flurry of activity was over. I spared a thought for my silly little hamster stuck in my quarters. I hoped the little guy would be all right and that someone would take pity on him and feed and water him if his auto feeder ran out before we found our ship.

"Commander," Miranda's voice yanked me out of my hamster-thoughts, "Traffic control just confirmed the capture of Joker's pod. They want us to pay a rather hefty fine for his illegal ejection."

I snorted, "Of course they do." I waved my hand, "Do it. I'm sure there's more than enough credits in that secret account Tali set up to cover it. Did they get a heading on the Normandy? Or did it just head for the Mass Relay?"

Miranda's face fell, "I'm afraid it just headed directly for the Mass Relay, Commander."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, it wasn't unexpected, but I could always hope for a break, couldn't I? "Well, then, your next task, Ms. Lawson is to compile for me a list of likely places Cerberus would take the SR-2, please. We're going to get our home back."

"Yes, Commander, I'll start on that right away. I may need Jacob's help as soon as he gets back, though," Miranda said, bringing her Omni-Tool to life and beginning to type into it.

"You'll have him," I promised her. She walked a little bit away to begin working on my request.

"Avery," Marie's voice called me over to her and Mordin, "I think we've found a hotel that will accommodate all of us, including Thane's special circumstances."

"Good job," I smiled, relieved to have that burden taken care of. "Book it, and I'll pay for it. And please, start steering the rest of the crew toward the hotel," I said as Gaby and Ken wandered up, obviously inebriated from their unsteady gait and their leaning on one another. I directed my attention to Mordin. "When you're both finished with that, would you please find out where Joker will be landing and meet the pod? I hope the thing didn't break any bones this time." He'd once told me that after throwing him into the pod before I died, the entry into Alchera's atmosphere had broken several of his fragile bones. Mordin nodded and the two of them bent their heads back to working on their Omni-tools.

I looked over at Garrus, who killed his Omni-Tool and shook his head at me, "I told him we were bringing in an irregular weapon for Spectre business and needed to know how to keep it unofficial." I grinned. It wasn't quite the letter of my orders, but he really was sneakier than I was. I'd have gone for the truth, however ill advised. I'd grown cagier and more wary in the past few months since my resurrection, but I apparently still needed lessons in obfuscation. Normally I would have been upset with Garrus' liberal interpretation of my orders, but I'd worked with him and been friends with him for too long.

"What'd he say?"

"We'd be better off going through one of the more irregular groups on the Citadel."

My face must've shown my distaste. "Meaning the black market, or the Blue Suns."

He held up a hand, "I know, I know. Leave it as a last resort, at least." I nodded, reluctantly.

Kaidan stepped closer to us, we both turned. "Anderson will meet you in his office, as soon as we can get there."

My eyebrows rose, "We? Are you coming with us, Commander?"

That quick half-grin that still managed to make me feel warm, half dressed though I felt, "It is my job . . ., ma'am."

Before I could reply, Thane, Jack and Jacob returned with the anti-grav crates with our gear. Oh, good, I could finally feel at least a little like myself again. There was nowhere to put on armor, but I could at least get my boots and a gun. "Thank you all for this. I suggest everyone grab their own gear and head to the hotel Chakwas and Mordin found. Miranda, gather everyone you can, relay reports when you get them to me. Continue your database search, Miranda, with Jacob's help, at the hotel. Jack, do you have all that Cerberus data still with you, or did you leave it on the ship?"

"Yeah, I got it," the convict told me. "Never leave home without it." Her glance at Miranda told me she still suspected the former agent to steal all the files back.

"Good, help Miranda and Jacob find where they might take our home," praying, for once, she wouldn't give me an argument.

"You want me to do what? Help the cheerleader?" She stared at me, her big eyes wide.

"Yeah, Jack, you probably know more about Cerberus by now than they do," I reminded her.

"Heh, you're probably right." She sauntered over to Miranda, a superior smirk on her face. Miranda just looked at me and rolled her eyes.

Jacob looked doubtfully at Kaidan, "You sure you're OK with this guy, Commander?"

I wanted to laugh. Was I OK with Kaidan? Emotionally, probably not, but I knew I had nothing to fear from my former lieutenant. "Yes, Jacob, I'm sure. Help Miranda and Jack. More importantly, keep them from killing each other?" The former Cerberus operative nodded and began to follow the two women as they argued.

I turned to Thane, "Siha, what can I help you with?" he asked before I could ask.

I smiled but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Garrus roll his eyes at the drell's nickname for me and not for the first time, either. I ignored it, Garrus was welcome to his own opinions. "Thane, can you use your contacts to sort of look around for somewhere Cerberus would hide something like the Normandy? Something that might be unofficial?"

He bowed slightly, "Something that wouldn't show up in the search Miranda, Jacob and Jack are initiating? I believe I can do that, yes, Siha."

"Thank you, please tell Miranda what you find." The drell left to follow the others to the hotel.

I turned toward my drunken engineers. They showed signs of sobering up, given the flurry of activity they'd just walked into, but I really needed to them to focus, "Ken, Gaby, I'm going to get a few things out of these crates. Then, I want you to take these to the hotel and let Miranda deal with where to put them." I was leaning heavily on the woman, but she wanted to call herself my XO, that was her fault. In truth, I'd always felt more like Garrus was my XO. I just didn't want to stick him with the paperwork.

I quickly scanned the manifests of the crates for my gear and found that a pair of my black knee-high boots had made it into one of the crates, as well as my Canifex Hand Canon. Quickly, I unsealed them and threw the sandals into the crate and stepped into my boots without lacing them right away. I unsealed another crate and pulled out my gun and a belt holster. I waved for Ken and Gaby to take the crates and together they stumbled away, gathering their crewmates as they went.

Suddenly, I was standing in the middle of Zakera Ward with only Garrus and Kaidan. It almost, but not quite felt natural. They'd been at my back during the hunt for Saren almost constantly, after all. But now… Kaidan was the one who felt out of place. Awkwardly, I sat and tried to lace up the knee-high boots without flashing either man. I glanced up to see they were both looking elsewhere as hard as possible. I grinned and got back on my feet and strapped the gun to my hip and thigh. I probably looked ridiculous, but I wasn't about to take the time to climb into full armor in the middle of Zakera Ward.