A/N: I'm sorry for the delay! Thank you Impslave, Kirabaros, jediserenity82, ela11, and Vorcha Girl for your reviews on the last chapter, and welcome new readers! As always thank you Vorcha Girl for beta reading.

Enjoy!

Chapter 45. Vancouver 2186

Six months later

"There is no evidence the Reapers are really coming. It could all be a ploy by Cerberus." The admirals looked at each other, nodding in agreement. Three sets of eyes turned Shepard's way. "Which leads us to the next point. You worked for a known terrorist organization."

"I didn't work for Cerberus, I worked with them because the Alliance had it's head so far up it's ass it didn't do a fucking thing to take out the Collectors!" Nick spat, her patience frayed. It was the same thing every week. "How much more proof do you need that the Collectors worked with the Reapers?! They were harvesting human colonies and processing them to build a human Reaper. And you did nothing!" She took a deep breath. "I saw it. I fought against it. It was tough, and it wasn't close to being finished!"

"What the Alliance did or didn't do isn't up for debate." One admiral cut her off with a swipe of his hand.

"The fuck it is!" she growled, stepping forward as far as she could, her voice shaking with contained anger. "I'm sick of having to put up with this bullshit. I'm sick of every bit of proof I give being dismissed. I'm so fucking done with telling you the same shit every fucking week. Fuck you!"

"Secure your tongue, Shepard," Admiral Michailovitch said cooly. Nick bristled. That he of all people was on the board judging her made her blood boil, and she was about to reply sharply when a hand landed on her shoulder. She glanced at Anderson standing behind her shaking his head. Nick curled her hands to fists and, taking a deep breath, stepped back.

The admiral leading the tribunal glanced down at the record in front of her briefly. "Considering Shepard's recent displays of anger, the reports of how she handled situations during her time with Cerberus, and her history with anger issues especially in the years 2176 and 2177, I suggest having her attend anger management counseling again. The hearing is adjourned."

"The Reapers are coming, and if all you're doing is sitting here twiddling your thumbs with your heads up your asses, we're going to be fucked. You had better be doing something," Nick snorted shaking her head in disbelief. She performed a perfect about-face and marched toward the door.

Before leaving the court she turned around once more. "Admiral Michailovich, you were in the battle of the Citadel. You saw and fought Sovereign. You know how many lives it cost to defeat him, and that was only one Reaper. How do you think we're going to fare against ten? Or a hundred?" She didn't wait for the answer, but stepped out of the courtroom, fuming.

Sunshine fell through the large windows of the her confined space while Nick paced the room. She realized she shouldn't complain about her "prison". She had a small apartment to herself; bed sitting room, bathroom, kitchenette, and a pretty nice view of parts of Vancouver and the North Shore Mountains. The view sent a wave of longing through her, and for a moment her thoughts returned to a happier time as she remembered seeing them for the first time with Kaidan.

A mixture of longing and anger rolled through her.

She hadn't talked to him since before she'd gone through the Omega 4 relay; she hadn't talked to any of her crew or her friends since returning to the Alliance.

She was being kept entirely in the dark and she had never felt so alone in her life.

Nearly a week had passed since the last hearing, and almost six months since she had handed the Normandy over to the Alliance. There had been innumerable tests - medical evaluations, psychological evaluations, you name it - run on her to verify she was indeed who she claimed, and that she had died. It had taken weeks before it was officially confirmed that she was Commander Veronika Shepard and for her trial to begin, but apparently only after someone had anonymously forwarded the files from Project Lazarus. That was what Anderson had told her when she asked.

Not that it had changed anything. Everything she said was questioned again and again, and then brushed aside. She felt like a hamster in a cage; trapped, running the same stretch every day without getting anywhere. Annoyance welled up in her again, and she felt tension building in her shoulders and neck.

If the brass would only listen.

But, here she was; cut off from her friends and crew, stripped of her rank, and on trial for blowing up the Alpha relay and her time with Cerberus. On top of that the Alliance apparently thought she was going to pass on information of some kind. That was the only explanation she could think of for her strictly controlled communications.

She snorted bitterly. The whole situation was ridiculous.

Nick stretched, dropped to the floor, and began her workout. Just thinking about the previous months made her itch to punch something, and the past week had been one of the worst so far; they were wasting so much time.

"Fucking idiots," she muttered, mentally counting each push up. At the count of fifty Nick balled her hands and continued on her fists. "The Reapers." Push. "Are." Push. "Fucking." Push. "Coming."

A scowl fleeted over her face as she stood up to shake out her muscles before slowly running through a kata. She glanced at the clock; it wasn't a gym day and it would be awhile before Lieutenant Vega came to escort her to the mess hall. Almost an hour later she finished her workout gently loosening her muscles before making for the small shower hoping it would wash away the tension together with the sweat.

A short time later Nick dressed thoughtfully. Scrubbing her hands over her face she let out a sigh. She picked up one of the data pads scattered on her small desk and turned it gingerly in her hands while she stared out of the window. The air was heavy and stifling as if a storm was brewing and towering gray clouds loomed over the mountains on the far shore. A short smile fleeted over her face as she watched some kids play on a terrace below.

Nick cast a glance at the datapad in her hand and turned her back at the window. She had written everything she knew about the Reapers down, every memory burned into her mind by the Prothean beacons.

The door slid open and she looked up in surprise to see James Vega walk in.

"Commander," he said, saluting.

She shook her head. "You're not supposed to call me that anymore, James. Stripped of rank, remember?"

"Not supposed to salute you either," he remarked drily. "We gotta go. The defense committee wants to see you." He turned on his heel and stepped outside holding the door open until she followed, slightly bewildered. Why would the defense committee want to see her? Her next hearing wasn't scheduled for two more days.

The hallway was much busier than usual, and she glanced around surprised. An unpleasant thought formed in her head.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Why's everyone so busy?

"Don't know," he replied as they walked down the hall. "They just told me they needed to see you. Now."

She slowed down, keeping her eyes on the large marine. "They needed to see me?"

James turned around. "Yeah."

Shaking her head, she caught up with him again. Anderson came down a flight of stairs towards them and she repeated her question.

"What the hell's going on?"

"Admiral Hackett's mobilizing the fleets," Anderson replied. "Something big's headed our way, that's all I can say."

Nick let out a laugh. It was a short, bitter sound. "It's the Reapers, isn't it? Everything's going south and now they come crawling for my help, right? God, they've gotta be fucking kidding me."

"We don't know for sure," came the Admiral's reply, "but the defense committee wants to see you."

"The defense committee is completely useless unless they want to talk the Reapers to death," she muttered. There was an amused snort behind her, and she glanced at Vega over her shoulder to see him hiding his mouth behind his hand.

"They're just scared. They haven't seen what you've seen. You have more knowledge of the Reapers than anybody else here on Earth," Anderson told her.

"Scared my ass. As for 'more knowledge', they haven't believed a word I've told them," she scoffed. "Instead, they grounded me, took away my ship, and put me on trial with no contact to my friends or former crew mates."

"Shepard, what else were they supposed to do?" Anderson asked sternly. "Hundreds of thousands batarians died when you blew up that relay."

Nick threw her hands up in exasperation. "What the hell was I supposed to do? Let the Reapers waltz through the relay? It was the only fucking choice!"

"Language, Veronika," Anderson said, reprimand clear in his voice. She glowered at him, but remained silent. "I know that, and so does the committee, even if it doesn't seem like it right now. You're the best chance we have, and they know it."

She bit back her sarcastic reply as they reached the courtroom access area. An administration secretary told them the committee was already expecting her and Anderson and lead them towards one of the larger courtrooms. Vega came to a stop. He always waited in the visitor's area when she was in a hearing unless he was invited inside. Nick glanced at Anderson, but he had also stopped to talk to another officer. She turned her attention back to James and saw him holding his hand out to her.

"Good luck with the committee, Shepard," he said, shaking her hand firmly.

"Thank you, James," she replied. "If it really is the Reapers then we're all going to need it."

The lieutenant nodded slowly and she heard Anderson asking someone "How did it go in there, Major?"

"Okay, I think. Hard to know. I'm just waiting for orders now."

The raspy voice made her stop short. She shot a quick look at James before turning around, her breath catching in her throat as she caught sight of the man she most longed to see.

"Kaidan," she said, walking slowly towards him. A medley of feelings crashed over her as she met his gaze, his amber eyes shining and the corners of his mouth pulling into his typical lopsided smile. Her heart pounded in her chest as she drank him in, noting the little changes she had missed during their vid calls; the snug fit of his clean-cut uniform perfectly accentuating the expanse of his chest, the beginning gray at his temples. Heat flooded through her.

By all Gods, he was so handsome.

Great, the Alliance is possibly under attack, and you get turned on.

Kaidan glanced over Anderson's shoulder, Nick's familiar frame catching his attention. He had tried so many times the past six months to contact her, and he had never succeeded. Every attempt had been cut short. Now she was in the same room he was, and was talking to one of the largest marines he'd ever seen. Curiosity surged through him as he watched them, but he presumed she was waiting to testify just as he had.

Maybe they would have a chance to talk before she was called in.

His eyes snapped back to the admiral at the question about how his hearing had gone. Truthfully, he didn't know. It wasn't the first time he'd been called on to testify, but today was the first time he had had the impression the board was actually paying attention. There had been a tension in the air that was almost palpable. Even now there was a static surrounding everything that made it difficult to keep his biotics under control. He could feel the dark energy crawling under his skin.

Something had changed.

He cast another look past Anderson, and his mouth went dry as his gaze met Nick's. Their eyes locked as she walked towards him. He turned to face her fully, unable to tear his gaze away, and opened his mouth to greet her.

"Admiral," he heard the voice of one of the administration clerks, "the committee is ready for you now."

Frustration and disappointment ran through him as Anderson stepped into his line of sight intercepting Shepard and guiding her towards the courtroom. The same emotions slid over her face like a passing shadow as she looked back over her shoulder. He let out a slow sigh, watching her retreating form wistfully, and whispered her name.

She had been so close, so very close.

His hands curled to fists briefly as the doors closed behind her, and muttered under his breath, "Damn."

"You know the Commander?"

Kaidan turned his head in surprise. The unknown marine Shepard had been talking to had stepped next to him and had probably seen both his expression and heard his little comment. He looked at the courtroom doors again. Completely inappropriate images danced through his head as he thought of how intimately he had got to know her.

"Yeah," he answered, his gaze unfocused as he continued to stare towards where Shepard had disappeared for her hearing. "I, uh, served under her for a while."

Silence followed his answer and he turned to see the other man studying him carefully. Kaidan watched him glance at his name tag and his rank insignia.

"Really?" Disbelief colored the marine's voice.

"Really. She was my commanding officer a few years back," Kaidan replied cooly, annoyance creeping up on him. He gave himself a shake. "You know her?" he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Lieutenant James Vega," the other introduced himself. "I've been the Commander's bodyguard since she turned herself in."

Kaidan raised an eyebrow and gestured for Vega to walk with him.

"You've seen her every day the past six months?" Lucky bastard.

"Pretty much, yeah," Vega returned. "Anderson assigned me the minute she handed the Normandy over to the Alliance."

Kaidan nodded slowly. Sometimes he wondered if the admiral knew more about what had happened between him and Nick, or if it was pure coincidence that they had sometimes missed each other by mere hours. Anderson had also been the one that had told him several times to stop trying to contact her; "Until the trial is over," the admiral had said.

His omnitool pinged. It was Ashley. With an apologetic gesture at James he stopped and took the call.

"Kaidan," there was a hint of panic in her voice he hadn't heard since their first meeting on Eden Prime when she had witnessed the slaughter of her platoon. The barking sound of suppressing fire could be heard in the background. "They're here. The Reapers. Get everybody you care for to safety!"

"Ash, where -," he began.

"Just do it!" she barked and disconnected the call. The pressure in the air seemed almost unbearable suddenly. Swearing under his breath he dialed his sister's number. Nobody answered. If he was lucky she was already heading out to the orchard with her family; he knew his parents had already left.

He felt the low, familiar hum of a Reaper before he heard it; it seemed to reverberate through his whole body, starting at the base of his skull and growing steadily louder.

"Dios!" James exclaimed. "Do you hear that? What is that?"

Kaidan nodded, and headed back towards the courtroom, motioning for Vega to follow him. "Reapers," he answered the lieutenant's question just as a blast knocked him off his feet and he staggered against Vega. They crashed to the floor and scrambled back to their feet, coughing. Dust filled the air and debris lay scattered around them. Several other people also tried getting up; a few lay still. Too still.

He staggered to a woman lying on the ground nearby and checked for life signs. There were none. Shaking his head he moved to the next body while James helped a young man to his feet. Kaidan gazed through the gaping hole at the chaos outside. His gut churned.

This was his home.

Grinding his teeth he opened his omnitool and tried getting a connection built up with Anderson.

"Major ...enko, … that you?" The admiral's voice was disrupted by static.

Kaidan answered in the affirmative, holding the omnitool close to his ear to make out the words in the feeble connection. "Get to … ormandy! We … meet you ...ere," were the last words he could make out before the connection broke off. He hoped Anderson also meant Shepard with "we".

"Vega!" he called. "We're heading for the Normandy!"

A/N: Reviews are welcome :)