The Normandy had finally arrived at the dead Collector ship, it seemed so far the Illusive Man's facts were correct. The ship was in a slow rotation, turning as if it was a dead fish in water. The Mass Effect field was still up as that was the only thing stopping it from crashing into the planet below it.

Shepard had spoken to Joker about their plan and quickest way of getting off the station before either the Turians or Collectors came to salvage the ship. Thane and Garrus were standing at the shuttle, both barely spoken to each other since their odd subvocal argument the day before.

"You care for her?" Garrus finally spoke up, he sat down on the shuttles bench with his sniper in hand. Thane was leaning against the door, his arms hung lazily at his hips.

"Could you be more specific?" he asks, not making eye contact with the grumbling Turian. Garrus nearly hissed under his breath.

"You know damn well what I mean. Do you care for Shepard?" Garrus had seen Shepard get hurt enough times, he wasn't going to allow it to happen again.

Thane looked at the ground, closing his eyes for a split second. It was true, he'd come to care for his Commander. But Garrus didn't need to know that. "No, she is my Commander, nothing more," he coldly replies.

"So what was with your subvocals yesterday, they told a different story." Garrus's mandibles twitched, he knew exactly what Thane's subvocals meant, but it seemed the Drell wouldn't admit it to himself.

"It was a moment of memory coming to my mind, it was just a coincidence that I was looking at Shepard as she walked past." Garrus knew about Drell and their perfect memory, they were known to sometimes slip into memory by accident.

"Hmm," he finally gave in, the lift doors opened to Shepard coming out. She smiled at Thane as she walked by, her armour just brushing past his leather jacket.

"Right, we are here. The ship is in fact out of commission, so hopefully, the Illusive Man hasn't fucked us over for once. We will take the shuttle, get the information we need and then we will get out of there. We might not even need our guns." She sat down across from Garrus, Thane sat in the far corner from them both

Garrus leaned furrowed, chuckling with loosened mandibles. "Yeah, I'm keeping my sniper close to me on a Collector ship." Shepard smiled at him, but her eyes kept drifting to Thane's, he noticed and looked back. Her emerald ears sucked him in, he swallowed back a cough and looked at the floor in front of him. Garrus watched them both and shook his head in disapproval.

The shuttle left Normandy and it was a somewhat quiet ride down until Shepard spoke up again. "So, Kasumi mentioned poker night tonight. You guys in?"

Garrus stretched his legs out before answering. "Of course, I need to win my credits back from you." He looked over at Thane, "you joining?"

Thane seemed taken aback by the question, he'd played poker many times before. But only with other Drell, other species would never let him. "I... I am unsure if it's wise."

Shepard and Garrus looked at each other, "why?"

"Drell are banned from most casinos, our perfect memory makes it easy for us to win nearly all games." It would take practise for a Drell to cheat, but Thane mastered it during his training with the Compact. He'd practise with other Drell, winning poker was a good way to gain the trust of those he needed to kill in the open of a poker game or party, those memories nearly crept back.

Shepard laughed, "oh, you are so playing now. Kasumi and Zaeed are the best and we need someone to knock them down a notch."

Thane swallowed, "as you wish." Shepard grunted, she wished he'd be more relaxed around her and the crew, but his shoulders were always tense. She expected him to be like this, but she wanted to make him feel at home on the Normandy.

They'd made it to their nav point on the Collector ship, other than seeing many destroyed stasis pods and burnt human bodies, the ship was empty. But there was the little fact of everyone finding out the Collectors were the Protheans. The once most advanced species in the galaxy, until they all disappeared fifty thousand years ago.

"Edi, I'm setting up a link with you and ship, but quick. This place is creepy." They all stood in a small huddle around the console. Shepard has become that much more determined to kill the Collectors. They'd come to realise they were soon planning to attack Earth and kidnap every human in the galaxy. Thane felt sick as they moved through the ship, it was too quiet for his liking.

"Data mining in progress," Edi announced. There was silence until Joker's voice filled their comms.

"Uhh, that can't be good," he muttered. Shepard turned away from the console, her finger held close to her ear.

"What's wrong?" she asks in fright. They were cut off when the platform they stood on started to move, it spun as they rose into the air. Thane fell to the ground, the wind was knocked from his lungs as he slammed into the cold metal floor. Shepard looked over, but Garrus was already running over to help him.

"Shepard, this ship was not destroyed by the Turians, it's a trap... a lure," Edi announces. She'd been overrun with garbage data for a moment, systems on the Normandy were going crazy. Joker was now in full panic mode, the ship was coming back online and soon the death of the Normandy might happen again.

"Commander, this ship is coming back online, get your asses back to the ship. I'm not losing another Normandy," Joker shouted over their comms. But Shepard and the crew were now cornered, other platforms were coming towards them and attaching, Collector forces were on them.

"Wait, we have hostiles. Get into cover," she shouted as they all dropped behind the console.

Shepard, Thane and Garrus just about made it back in time as the Collector ship came back online. It tried shooting at them, but Edi was able to jump the ship to another system before they were destroyed. Joker had just about come down from his second heart attack, he looked up at Shepard, she stared blankly at the windows, her chest rising and falling with a deep breath.

Garrus and Thane stood behind her, they knew she was at a raging point. "Shepard," Garrus muttered as he tried to touch her shoulder. She turned, brushing him off and storming towards the comms rooms.

"I'll kill the fucking bastard," she screamed as she stormed through the CIC, the crew in there quickly moved away. Her boots came with the sound of thunder. Thane and Garrus followed, Miranda and Jacob were already in the comms room, witnessing the entire shitshow of a mission.

"Edi!" Shepard shouts as she throws her helmet on the floor. "Connect me to that twat, now!" The table lowered and Edi did just as she asked. The Illusive man appeared as she came through his hologram floor.

"Shepard, good work with the ship. Edi has transmitted the data from the ship. We now know how to get through safely." Shepard let him speak before she finally let rip into him.

"That wasn't also what she found, you used the Turian signal as a fucking trap for us. They never even found that ship, you could have gotten me and my crew killed. Let alone this ship that cost more than bringing me back, you watch your back. I will not allow you to endanger my fucking crew, are we understood?" Everyone in the room kept pure silent as they watched Shepard rage into the blank wall, though to her it wasn't that. The man smirked at her, not caring much for the attitude.

"Shepard, I knew you'd be put off if I told you the truth, we both must accept that some corners are being cut for the Collectors to be stopped. They did not anticipate Edi, I knew you'd make it off successfully." He blew the smoke from his lips, sighing as he brought up the small terminal that connected to the arm of his chair. "Edi's data has determined that the Collectors use an IFF system for safe passage, I have a team currently working on a derelict Reaper."

"I was just on the ship, why didn't you tell me to grab it then?" she scoffed in anger. The Illusive Man shook his head.

"Like I just said, Edi just confirmed it. How was I meant to know? Anyway... we have recently lost contact with Dr Chanada and his team, board the Reaper and get the IFF. Be careful, the Reaper is obtaining a brown dwarf, expect gale-force winds." He ended the communications. Shepard stepped out, looking at the floor, her blood was boiling.

"You okay, Shep?" Jacob asked as he stepped closer. Miranda was typing on her omni-tool whilst Thane and Garrus stood by the door. Thane had picked up Shepard's helmet, he held it close to his chest.

"No," she snarled. "You all heard about the derelict Reaper, but if we go. We will be so close to going through the relay. We need to make sure the team is prepared." Shepard knew they had to hold off, more of the crew wanted to see her about personal matters.

"We should go right now, Shepard," Miranda commented, not seeing the point in waiting. Shepard slammed her hands on the table.

"No! We go when we say we go, end of story. Everyone but Thane, please just leave." She looked at Garrus, mouthing a sorry, she didn't mean to be angry towards him. It was just for Miranda and Jacob. He gave her a small nod and left with everyone else. Thane and Shepard stood at opposite sides of the table, both staring at each other.

"Are you okay, Commander?" he asked as he walked around the table. He passed her the helmet back, she looked at it. Feeling upset for herself, she'd caused some paint to scuff off the side when she threw it.

"No, I'm not okay. I'm so mentally drained and my list of shit to do just gets longer and longer. How do you do it?" she asked as she looked at him with tears in her eyes. Thane wasn't sure how to comfort her, she was so fragile at that moment and he'd not spent much time around humans to know how to help them with being consoled.

"I'm not sure what you mean?" He needed more information, he'd had very dark days in his past. But Drell had a different way of seeing their lives, as for humans who were known to be very emotional.

"When you were killing people left, right and centre. How did the burden of any of it not get to you? How did you not become... depressed?" Thane looked at her again, he generally didn't know what to say. "I am so alone, Thane. I can't talk to Garrus or even Tali about this, they just don't understand. But you seem to do," she cried out.

Thane finally felt the wall around him break, he moved closer and left her body slump into him. Even with her armour on, she was very warm. Shepard cried into the leather shirt, he could feel the moisture being sucked into his skin, but he barely cared about it. "I... I never did deal with it, I am just very good at hiding my emotions."

"You could say that again," Shepard laughed into his chest. She pulled away and fanned her face down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to break down on you. I sometimes just need a shoulder."

"It is alright, Commander. If I can ever be a... shoulder for you, please find me." He offered her another smile before taking his leave, needing to wipe his shirt down with the tears stained into it.

Shepard watched the door close behind him, she sighed and stopped another cry breaking out. She was so used to being on her own, never being able to find someone with a good shoulder to lean on when she needed it. But with Thane, her body automatically did it, she never understood why. Her heart would beat faster around him and she became hot and flustered, the man was just perfection with legs in her eyes.

She knew she had to get her feelings under control, every human counted on her to stop the Collectors. She sighed before wiping her face and leaving the comm room to go back to her normal duties.