Bioware Owns All.

Chapter 16

He Said

We all crowded into the stairwell and Shepard motioned for Vakarian and Tali to keep moving and for Liara to follow. I braced my foot against the door and looked at her questioningly. My ears were still ringing so when she said something quietly, I shook my head, not hearing her. She gestured for me to get out of the way and I saw Liara pause a few steps below us, watching Shepard intently. I moved where Shepard requested and watched her make the gesture for her mnemonic for Singularity: her arm outstretched, she jerked her shoulder back and twisted her wrist upwards. The small black hole spun and would block any attempt to open that door for a short while. Liara nodded and preceded us down the stairs. "I'll get the next one," she called to Shepard.

The Commander nodded and motioned for me to come closer to her. Puzzled, I complied. She put her hand on my shoulder but nearly lost her balance; reflexively, I reached out and wrapped my arm around her waist to catch her before she fell backwards down the stairs. We were still mostly deafened so she smiled her thanks and leaned on me to pull off her heels. I think I heard her say, "This is the last time I go on a date in a dress." This was a date? With whom? She switched feet to pull off the other one. We were about to start fighting and running for our lives and all I wanted to do was push her up against the wall and kiss her until neither one of us could speak any more. But she spun away from me after taking her other shoe off and patted me on the shoulder, thanking me. I swallowed my disappointment and went back to being a good Marine, trailing the Adept and covering her back.

My hearing came back and I grinned at the sound of the would-be robbers getting caught by Shepard's trap. At the next landing, Liara waited until we were past and made the same mnemonic gesture Shepard had. It made sense, since the asari was the one who'd taught the ability to Shepard in the first place. They'd taught me, but I'd never gotten the hang of it to make one as powerful as they could, so I stuck with practicing Warp and my tech skills. A good wide-area overload was often just as effective. But certainly not this time.

Shepard and Liara leapfrogged their Singularities as we raced down the stairs. It worked well for a while until the turian yelled, "Shepard, get down here! We've got company!"

"Sonofabitch!" she cursed under her breath. "Kaidan, Liara, watch our six." She sprinted ahead, her small bare feet flashing in the safety lighting of the stairs. I glanced at the asari and we both turned to automatically follow Shepard's orders. I was halfway down the flight of stairs looking for trouble as Liara laid her next Singularity trap when I realized how far back into my old habit I'd fallen. I glanced back at Liara and her embarrassed expression told me she'd just realized the same thing.

"Automatic, isn't it?" I asked, peering up the stairwell the way we'd come, watching for pursuit.

"Completely. You just want to do what she says," Liara agreed.

The order made sense, so I didn't rebel, but I'd have to discuss this with Shepard, later. Council Spectre or no, ordering Alliance officers around wasn't standard operating procedure. Not that Shepard had ever given a damn about standard procedure. It occurred to me that she'd sent Tali and Vakarian out in front, not because of their skills, but that to Shepard, they were known quantities in a fight. I tried like hell not to resent that. I hadn't fought at her side for more than two years, but it still stung.

I had actually been away from Shepard longer than I'd known her. But following her was still second nature. The hunt for Saren had taken roughly a year. The most stressful and dangerous year of my life.

And the most wonderful.

I wasn't sure I'd come to terms with her having actually died yet. Since Horizon I'd believed that she'd been lying to me for the last two years, undercover or worse, turned traitor, allowing me to believe she was dead, it hurt. It hurt worse than her death, thinking she'd lied to me and betrayed everything we'd fought for. I'd spent the last two years trying like hell to get over her. Horizon had put the lie to my efforts. Delan had said her name and even through the grogginess of whatever those seeker swarms had injected me with, I'd felt such an incredible joy followed by absolute rage.

Liara threw another Singularity in the direction of the landing we'd just left. I kept my pistol at the ready and continued down the stairs with her. Gunfire and shouting, Garrus' voice, "Scoped and dropped!" Tali's shouted, "Go for the optics, Chiktika!" and Shepard's shouted orders to both of them. Liara and I ran faster, but were still hampered by her need to recharge her powers until she could manage a Singularity again.

The asari wiped sweat from her eyes, "This would go a lot faster if you hadn't been neglecting what Shepard and I taught you, Commander."

"I'm afraid I had other things to worry about in the last two years, Liara." Like trying to dig Shepard out of me by the roots. Liara just shook her head at me. "Look, we just need to get down there and help them."

She nodded and threw another Singularity, turning to continue to race down the stairs. Stopping to finish recharging, she said, "Shepard told me she wanted me to tell you how she fell into Cerberus' hands."

I figured Liara knew the answer due to her new career as an information broker. I did not expect the words that came out of her mouth next. "I gave her to them."

I froze and stared at her, my stomach dropping into my shoes. "You did what?"

Liara yanked me out of the way and dropped another Singularity on the landing, "I tracked down her body. The Shadow Broker was trying to find it to sell it to the Collectors. I found it first. Cerberus contacted me and made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

"They promised to bring her back," she looked up at me, tears swimming in her blue eyes.

I swallowed, "Vakarian and Tali know this?" Liara, what did you do?

She dragged me down the stairs with her, I was too stunned to keep moving. My head was spinning and I could feel the beginnings of a migraine. "Garrus' first response was to punch a wall and yell at me for not telling him that I'd done it. Tali yelled at me."

She looked at me as if afraid of what I would do. I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall. Shepard obviously felt no anger toward Liara for what she'd done. Or if she had, it was long forgotten in forgiveness. "How did Shepard react when you told her?"

The tears fell from Liara's eyes and she turned to keep walking down, "She was upset, but hid it well. What she did when she got back to the ship, I don't know. She told me, then, that she understood and her mission was too important for her to have let a little thing like death stop her." The asari gave a short laugh and wiped her eyes, "She thanked me." I followed her down to the next landing, the tightness behind my eyes warning me of trouble to come.

I was silent the next few turns of the stairs. Running on autopilot, my training took over for my overtaxed mind. "Wait, why was the Shadow Broker trying to sell her body," I suppressed a shudder, "to the Collectors?"

"I can only speculate. I haven't gotten that far in my hunt for him."

"So speculate."

She glanced at me, put up another Singularity, and as we headed downward again said, "I think the Collectors, working for the Reapers, were interested in her genetic material because she withstood the beacons and the Cipher and because she killed one of them."

It made a disturbing sort of sense. Though I wasn't sure how much of what she'd done were her genes or just Shepard herself and everything she's had to endure from Mindoir to the Blitz, to the hunt for Saren. But in acknowledging this, I had to face the truth. Shepard had died. Truly and completely.

The stairwell ended and we emerged in a wide open mall-like area. We ran and reached Shepard and Tali and Vakarian and I ducked into cover next to Shepard. The burnt ozone tingle of her biotics made my own hum in response, a low-level vibration deep in my nervous system. She grinned at me, her eyes bright and her skin flushed with excitement and exertion. "Glad you could join the party, Kaidan!"

"Glad to be invited. What's going on?"

She raised her head just enough to glance over the short wall we were huddled behind, "Rearguard for the thugs upstairs, I think. They're supposed to keep anyone from sneaking out and getting help. I guess that's why we saw very little action on the stairs."

I nodded, grimly. It made sense. It also made Shepard's tactics that much more of a professional insult. I wasn't N7 like she was, but I wasn't an idiot, either. A small voice in the back of my head pointed out that I'd have done the same thing in her position. I told that voice to shut up. I also tried not to pay attention to the fact that my choice in cover had brought me very close to Shepard's bare leg. A flash of silver let me know she'd put her heels back on. I closed my eyes, briefly, and swallowed.

"Cease fire!" Someone up ahead of us yelled. "Cease fire! Commander Shepard, is that you?" It was an androgynous asari's voice. Most of them sounded like pre-teen boys to me, except Liara, for some reason who just sounded like a young woman.

Shepard poked her head briefly out of cover, peering into the distance. "Detective Anaya?" I lunged at her and pulled her back down.

"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed at her, belatedly realizing I'd knocked her back and I was kneeling between her legs, her skirt pushed up. I was nearly laying flat against her, her face inches from mine, my hands on either side of her hips, holding myself up, but still below the level of the wall.

Her blue eyes turned icy, "I'd like to ask you the same thing, Commander." She shifted her hips to pull herself out from under me, and God help me, my reaction was immediate. She must have felt it, or maybe saw me turn red. It certainly felt like the blood in my body had gone in two directions, south and to my face. She froze and the anger seemed to fade from her face, replaced by a grin I knew only to well. She leaned closer and whispered into my ear, shifting her hips deliberately, this time, "If you wanted to be on top, all you had to do was ask, Kaidan." I stared at her, unable to keep the heat I was feeling out of my expression. She kissed me lightly on the cheek and finally did slide out from under me, standing up, directly in the line of fire if someone still wanted to shoot her. I reached out for her again, purely to get her back behind the wall, but she evaded me. I realized then, that Vakarian and Tali were standing with Liara and another asari. I watched Shepard walk away and flopped back down to try to get my body back under control.

In a few moments, I was able to rejoin them, straightening my jacket as I walked over. "Detective Anaya, might I introduce Alliance Commander Alenko of the Concord," Shepard said, her voice showing no tension, whatsoever.

I nodded at the bright blue alien, "Detective."

She nodded back, "Commander." I was surprised to find she wasn't checking out either me or Shepard. She was, however, looking at Vakarian an awful lot. I couldn't help but grin.

"As I was just telling the Commander, Commander, apparently, we managed to pin down a small group of the thugs that were robbing Ariete between us and wipe them out. Maybe the lowlifes in the restaurant itself will surrender once they realize we've taken out their back up."

Shepard turned to look at me, "And I was letting the Detective know the back stairs were more than likely clear since we did not encounter anyone on the way down."

"Those Singularities won't last forever, Commander," I reminded her.

She smiled, it was more of a teeth baring than a smile, but I wondered if the non-humans we were with would know the difference. "Of course, Commander. But neither you, nor Doctor T'Soni encountered resistance on your way down, did you?"

"No, Shepard, we did not. Detective, I believe the stairwell is as secure as it could be, under the circumstances," Liara interrupted. Shepard and I were glaring at each other, but I was not going to look away first.

Detective Anaya broke Shepard's and my stand off, "Since none of you are apparently dressed for a SWAT mission, I think my people and I will deal with these would-be robbers. May I contact you later, Commanders?" The asari asked politely.

I looked away when Shepard did, long enough to nod my assent to the detective. When I turned back to talk to Shepard, she'd already walked away with Liara, their heads together, talking intently. I clenched my teeth. I would not use Pull to get Shepard back over here. I would not.

Vakarian was looking from me to Shepard, "Spirits, Alenko. Haven't you done enough to hurt her?" He turned on his heel and walked toward Shepard and Liara. I couldn't read Tali's expression, but I'm pretty sure the set of her shoulders was disapproving as she imitated the turian's departure.

I just couldn't win.