***Author's Note***

So...here's the sequel :D I decided to keep it in the same story as the first just because it as easier and no one seemed to mind either way.

The first couple of chapters will be what happened to the characters that have a bigger parts in this story during the months that Shepard was incarcerated.

Thank you to Gamer072196 who had a lot of input in the chapter :D

Hope you enjoy and review :)

Among the Stars: With Reapers

Prologue Part 1

The Months In-Between

Month One

It wasn't long before Shepard was completely bored. Just under a week, actually. He would sit in his room, cell?, and look out the window to take in the sights of Vancouver city. The city's massive white towers glinted in the setting sun and the buildings whose rooves were lower than his cell had neatly kept gardens atop them where people could be seen basking in the last of the summer rays. He shifted his hair from his face in frustration, never before had he felt so envious. To have the outside world so close but not being able to feel it, the air...the sun. Hell, even the windows didn't open.

His eyes inevitably drifted upwards. The sky was just darkening, the clear blue turning misty with a navy haze before eventually turning to black. One thing he did love about this room was that he had a clear view of the sky. No towers or buildings hindered his viewing pleasure. One by the one the stars came out and Shepard sighed happily. Looking up at the place he had grown up, the place he had died, and the place he had built a family, always brought a sense of nostalgia with it. He found himself looking for Palaven, again, and wondering if Garrus was there or still on the Citadel with Thane and Marie.

The door behind him opened with its usual soft hiss but Shepard didn't bother turning round to great his 'guest'.

"Shepard." Anderson's deep voice filled the room, shocking the silence into submission. "How are you feeling?"

"Bored out of my fucking mind." He looked over his shoulder at his superior. The darker man frowned at his answer before dropping a bag that he had with him. "Presents, Anderson?"

"There's no need to be that way with me, young man. I'm not the one who put you in here." Another frown.

Shepard sighed, a small defeated sound that hurt even his own ears. "Sorry, I just-"

"I know, Elliot." A painful silence. "Your mother asked after you." A shrug from Shepard. "I told her you were fine."

"Yes, well, maybe if my Omni-tool wasn't taken from me, along with all my other personal effects, I would have been able to tell her myself."

"Hmmm, yes. Another reason I've come today, well," Shepard was surprised, he had never seen Anderson so...awkward. "They've asked for your tags, Shepard." His hand flew to his neck automatically with a small smile. "Hand them over, son."

"I can't."

"Why? I know they can become sentimental, but I'm sure they'll give them you back...eventually."

"No, it's no that." Another smile and his eyes were back on the sky. "I lost them."

"You...lost them?" Disbelief tinged his voice. "How?"

"Oh, I dunno, a fight with a turian I think..."

Garrus growled in anger as he entered the apartment. He could not believe how dense the Council were being. How can they shrug their shoulders and move on!? He slammed his hands onto the kitchen work top and allowed his feelings to rumble out of him.

"They didn't buy it then?"

"Hmpf, we all knew they wouldn't." Marie sighed and sat at the table she and Thane had picked for their new home, they had graciously allowed Garrus to sleep in the spare room until he found his own place. A place, Garrus knew, that he was no longer looking for. "I'm leaving."

Her eyes grew round and then narrowed, a shifting of emotions that Garrus was now used to. She would have been shocked and then almost instantly curious, he wondered how Thane kept up. "Why?"

"I need to go to Palaven, I've put it of for too long with trying to get the Council to listen." He sat opposite her and absently twirled his talons around the dog tags on his neck. "I need to go to my father, make him listen. He'll be able to get the Primarch to listen. If not...well I think Archangel will have to make an appearance."

"Did I just hear the word 'Archangel'?" The door to the apartment opened and Thane entered with his usual calm grace, though he seemed tired.

Marie stood to help the drell to a seat at the table, his irritability from the medical tests showing through when he batted her hands away gently.

"Yeah, Garrus says he's leaving for Palaven."

Thane simply nodded, already aware of the situation and the need for things to be done. "When do you leave?"

"The next few days, maybe a week."

"I see, excuse me, I need to rest." He stood shakily and made his way to the back bedroom that he and Marie shared. Marie watched him go with her lip pulled between her teeth. Garrus went to pat her shoulder but she pulled herself together before he could, shaking her head and standing.

"Food?"

He nodded and, suddenly, they were back to being domestic. As though a talk of Reapers and Councils had never happened.

The many terminals cast everything in a constant blue-white glow. Feron was sick of it. On the one hand: he loved being here with Liara, with the Shadow Broker, he loved going out and helping the people who needed it the most. On the other hand, however: the constant chatter of information made his head hurt when he was sat with his friend, the blue lights hurt his eyes, the tension made him grit his teeth.

And then Shepard had gotten himself arrested and Liara would not forget about it. Everyday, she would check her sources again and again to find a way to get her 'precious' Shepard of Earth. A way to get him back in the field and, consequently, back with her.

Why was she so obsessed with him? What did the great Commander fucking Shepard have that he didn't? As far a Feron knew, the man was clumsy, awkward, and a bit of an air-head. He would always be grateful to him for saving him from the constant torture that he had been subject to by the old Shadow Broker's hands, but he just didn't understand why Liara wouldn't move on. Shepard would never love her back, Shepard would never appreciate her, Shepard was gay.

He stewed in his thoughts for hours, his memories of Liara surfacing and helping him drift away from reality.

"Feron? Are you okay?" Her sugar sweet voice brought him back to the annoying blue glow that paled in its purity when compared to Liara's blue skin.

"Yes, I was simply reflecting." He shrugged and stood to meet her.

"Oh, good." Her small smile that he loved played at the edges of her mouth. I could just tell her how I feel...

"Li-"

"I can't find a way to get him out. The Alliance have him locked up tight." Feron tried his hardest to keep from growling at her. "His crew are not trying to help him."

"Li-"

"The Reapers are coming, Feron, and I need to do what I can to help. I need to do my part, for him."

Feron sighed.

Garrus had left and their apartment seemed quieter. They were working hard to get Thane as healthy as possible, but no matter what they did, he would still have minor attacks or he would double over, clawing at his chest in an attempt to get oxygen. It hurt to see him this way, it hurt when he would push her away to keep his independence, but she would stay strong for him. She knew her choice to stay with him would not be easy, but it would have been harder to leave him and go to Earth or Palaven or Omega.

Marie sat with her back to the shut door of his office, her hair over her shoulder and twirling it between her fingers. She brought her knees to her chest and winced when she heard a small cough come from him. She wouldn't enter to help, he would prefer to handle it himself.

"Shepard, I suppose I should thank you for my freedom. Leaving the Normandy was the right decision. It was saddening to see our crew go their separate ways but it is better than answering questions in an Alliance interrogation room, I hope this message finds you well. As for me; Marie and I have moved into an apartment on the Citadel not far from Kolyat." He pauses and Marie holds her breath, dreading another coughing fit. "I think the first attack I had frightened him, I will spare you the details, it seemed very dramatic at the time but in comparison to the Omega relay it was a child's game. In any case, good luck in getting the Alliance to listen to you. Let's keep in touch." There was a click and Marie knew he had finished his messages to Shepard and their friends. She herself had yet to message anyone.

The door opened suddenly and she rolled backwards and landed on her back at his feet. He looked down at her with a quirk of his lips. "Eavesdropping, are we?"

She huffed and stood. "No, just sitting. I may have heard your message but that was purely coincidental." She looked up into his black eyes and sighed at the tiredness she saw there. How has it progressed so quickly? Maybe the feeling of things being finished? No work, no responsibilities...

He brushed his hand along her cheek with worry creasing his face. "What is troubling you, siha?"

She leaned her face into his palm, enjoying the small show of affection that had been neglected since they had left the Normandy. "You."

"Me?"

She nodded and shut her eyes, pulling in a deep breath to calm her nerves and gather her courage. "I talked with a doctor at Huerta."

"And what did he say?" He took her by the hand and pulled her to the living room where, together, they sat on the couch and leant back into the pillows. Kolyat would be there soon.

"I gave him Chakwas' files of you and he seemed impressed. He thinks that we can go for it."

"Go for what, exactly?" He wrapped an arm about her shoulder as a vid flickered, unnoticed, in the background. "Something that will me feel more irritable? More annoyed that day after day I cannot do the things I wish to most because I cannot stress myself? Or, are we looking at something more hopeful? What did he say, siha?"

Marie's eyes flickered to the picture on the wall of Thane's late wife. Her blueish colouring and orange eyes made her look exotic, the woman who saved his life, saved him from his battlesleep. She smiled then. A smile she would have given him on the Normandy, before everything seemed hard. A smile she would have given him when they were all facing imminent death, suicidal odds, and the stink of engine oil and eezo clinged to her like a perfume. When he would sit polishing his guns, meditating and praying on the lives he had taken that day.

"He said you could go for the transplant...if that is what you wish."

Kaidan wasn't one for pushing things but after he had heard that Shepard was currently being held in an Alliance base, in his home town, on Earth…well, he needed to get there as soon as he could. A first-hand account would need to be given about what had happened on Horizon, rather than his report on a data-pad. The members of his ex-crew he knew about, and then he would get on with finding them and bringing them to justice. Or at least some questioning. He sent message after message to his superiors in Canada with little luck on the matter.

He ran a hand down his face as he stared at his omni-tool, waiting for the tell-tale blip that would let him know that he had a message of some kind. How long would it take, really? How hard could it be for someone to check their messages and reply? He had even tried to message Shepard but, again, he had gotten no reply.

His drink came to the table and he smiled at the waitress in thanks, when something caught his eye. He squinted, trying to make up his mind on whether it was real or not.

Her long dark hair brushed her lower back, drawing his eye to the curve of her bum as she casually leant on the kiosk talking with the asari matriarch who kept it. Her smile was brilliant and her eyes showed how real it was, too many people had fake smiles these days. The asari laughed as she packed whatever the woman had ordered into a bag and took a credit chit from her. She would leave soon, he needed to speak to her now.

He stood hastily, knocking his drink over onto himself and with a curse he began brushing the droplets from his clothes. He spun quickly and blushed. He had gained a lot of attention during his drink fiasco. Damn. He nodded demurely at his audience before looking back up at his target. She was watching him with a small twitch at the corner of her lips and slightly wide eyes, she remembered him.

"Marie." He greeted as he approached her with a friendly smile.

"Kaidan. Umm…how are you?" She motioned with her head for him to follow, which he did.

"Oh, don't worry about it babe, we'll clean up your mess." The asari nearly growled at him so he gave her an apologetic wince and a gesture with his hands, somewhere between a shrug and a wave. Smooth.

He turned back to Marie and matched her walking pace easily. "I'm good, trying to get back to Earth to…uh…well; I'm going to go home for a while, see my family and some…friends."

"You're going to see Shepard, aren't you?"

"What? No! I-" Her look clearly said she didn't believe him. "Yes. I need to give them a report on Horizon, he told you about Horizon, no doubt." She nodded and swapped the bag in her hands. He reached out to take it but she moved it away from him.

"I see. You know he doesn't deserve to be locked up, right?" They had reached the gardens in the Presidium.

"I can't say; he blew up a star system, worked with Cerberus, worked with criminals, and people he should have told us about." He looked pointedly at her.

"I won't be locked away to ask questions about things I couldn't possibly answer. Besides, my friends would never allow it." Her chin lifted in a show of defiance and Kaidan sighed. He wished he still held that trust for Shepard. She was right though; the crew he knew would never allow one of their own to stay in custody. Shepard was an exception, he had ordered them to let him go.

"I'll have to tell the Alliance about you, if they don't already know."

"No you don't, it's not like I'm going around taking out mercenary bands or killing people for the hell of it." She gestured vaguely around herself, irritation rolling of her as she glanced at the apartment block nearby. Does she live there? He mentally stored the new information.

"Okay, well can you tell me where the others are? I'll need to find the ex-convict who is still wanted, the thief, and the drell assassin. I know they were on the crew."

"How do you know?"

"Rumours, reports, sightings…I want the Cerberus crew mostly."

"I can't help you, Kaidan. Those people trust me and-"

"Get behind me, quick!"

"Wha-"

He pulled her behind him, shielding her with his body. Approaching them were two drell males and both of them looked exceedingly angry. The greener one put his hand into his coat and Kaidan flared his biotics in response.

"Kaidan! What are you doing!?" She shoved him away.

"It's the assassin!" He made to pull her back.

"I will ask you once to let her go." The green one spoke clearly and with layers of threat.

"What? So you can take her?"

"Yes." The blue one said.

"Over my dead body!"

"That can be arranged."

Marie shouted in exasperation. "Stop, Arashu, help me!" She stood between the men. "Kaidan, I live with him! Thane, leave him alone."

"You…live with him?" He looked between the drell with heavy suspicion. She lives with an assassin? "I thought he was-"

"What? You thought my father would hurt her? Pathetic." The blue one took the bag from Marie and fixed him with a withering glare before walking away from them and toward a block of apartments.

Kaidan was thoroughly confused. "He's your-"

"Partner? Yes." The green one, Thane, put his arm about her shoulder with a smirk before she shrugged him of and batted him away. He smiled at her and followed the blue one away.

Marie gave Kaidan an apologetic smile before bringing up her omni-tool. "My address changed so here's the new one. Message me and we'll get dinner, okay?" He nodded, staring after the drell with disbelief on his face. "I'm sorry about him, but if you tell the Alliance where he is…it won't be pretty." He nodded again, still staring after the drell. "If you get through to Shepard, tell him we said 'hi'. We haven't been able to get hold of him." Another nod. "See you around, Kaidan." Another nod.

It took him fifteen minutes to compose himself before he looked away from the apartment block. He checked the address she had sent him on his omni-tool with a small smile. I can't go to Earth yet.

Thane watched the human finally walk away from the park beside their apartment, lowering his sniper as the male turned his back. How dare he. How dare he touch my siha.

The smell of her cooking reached his nose and he smiled. Oh well. He listened to Kolyat and Marie bickering in the kitchen.

"I won't call you mother, you know."

"Kolyat, you once held a gun to my head. I think we've passed that stage in our relationship, dear." She said sarcastically as she stirred whatever was cooking in the pot.

I hope you enjoyed month one :)

The next few chapters will be similar, maybe two months per chapter depending on how much I write for the months.

Let me know what you think ;)