Curious Jealousy- a F!Shenko Fic

Chapter Forty-Six: Shoreleave

After the kind of day that she was having, she was giving serious consideration to getting rid of her fish.

Not to mention, never wearing another dress…ever.

Or, at least, never again anytime in the near future.

The only good thing that had happened was she was able to shoot things.

“How’re you doing, Commander?” Kaidan asked over the comm, his voice conveying more concern than what his words said.

None-the-less, she didn’t appreciate his question. “Are you serious?” she asked incredulously. “I just fell through a fish tank and down a whole hell of a lot of stories. What do you think?”

She could practically imagine him not to chuckle. “Okay, I didn’t exactly word that right. Are you hurt?”

There were times when just hearing Kaidan’s voice- no matter what he was talking about- made her feel like a silly teenager as opposed to a battle-hardened soldier. Butterflies would erupt in a massive explosion and small shivers would make their way through her body.

This was not one of those times.

She kind of wanted to strangle him for his ridiculous questions.

“Kaidan” she said quietly, trying to keep her frustration from being evident, “I’ve been running around for a while without any shoes, no medi-gel, no armor, and I fell through a fish tank. What do you think?”

“Hope-“

She dropped down into cover at the sight of movement. She was more than happy to watch Kaidan take out three assailants. He, of course, was in full armor and was using something other than a second-hand pistol picked up from a dead enemy.

Taking a deep breath, she walked up to him.

“Hope…” he paused to take her in. “You look good.”

Oh, she could imagine how she looked after everything she’d been through and she would not describe her appearance as good.

She wrinkled her nose at him. As he took out a few applications of medi-gel, she asked, “You think Hackett’ll accept my resignation after this? I’m seriously considering retirement. D’you want to take bets on his reaction?”

“Oh yeah,” Kaidan scoffed, carefully applying the medi-gel, “you’ll retire. The Illusive Man will join our side. The Reapers will give up and go back into Dark Space.”

“I was being serious.”

He rolled his eyes. “Sit down so I can put some of this on your feet- you’re leaving blood prints every time you step.”

Shepard sat down and gave him her feet. “This is why I don’t take shoreleave. First it was Elysium and now this.”

“Imagine if you had an infinite amount of leave.”

She considered that. Sighing, she said, “I’d be dead in a week.”

“Shame about the restaurant- best place to get sushi on the Citadel.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“It was one of my favorites.”

Throwing a dirty look at him, she took her feet back. “We’ll talk about it later.”

After helping her back onto her feet, he handed her his Mattock. “Let’s get you back to the apartment,” he murmured, pressing a kiss onto her forehead.

“I smell like fish.”

“I know.”

Walking back into the apartment with Kaidan, Wrex, and Brooks, it took all of two seconds for Brooks to start rambling.

Shepard was pretty sure that one of the favorite things that Brooks said was: “You killed a hundred guys with a pistol- a pistol!”

How else could she respond but by saying, “Well, yes, that did happen….”

Brooks was rumbling again when Shepard realized something. “Wait, Brooks. How’d you end up in this?”

“I monitor date for Alliance Intel to prevent fraud and hacking of officer IDs,” Brooks explained.

That seemed reasonable.

Before Shepard got the chance to say that, Brooks continued, “Like someone using an admiral’s pass to get into a nightclub on the Citadel when that admiral is fighting on Tuchanka?”

That gave Shepard pause. She glanced over at Kaidan to see if he had noticed the slip as well.

He had.

The only person to fight on Tuchanka in the Alliance was Shepard.

She was not an admiral.

Either Brooks knew something that she didn’t- like an impending promotion-, or she was lying.

“After running a tracking program, we realized that everything we had on you was compromised: personnel files, mission reports, everything.”

“Since when does hacking personnel records involve heavy-weapon fire?” Wrex grumbled.

Shepard frowned at him. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t had armor and something besides a pistol to fight with.

“Think of what criminals could do if they had Shepard’s military access codes. Or her Spectre codes!”

“Good reason to need you dead, Shepard,” Wrex nodded, understanding.

Pushing her hands through her hair, trying not to think of everything that was lingering in it, she nodded. “Okay, let’s figure out who they are and shut them down.”

They began discussing the pistol. It was true that the thing packed a hell of a punch and had saved her life while she made her way to Kaidan.

Liara walked in without even a hello. “Let me see it. I might be able to help.”

“Liara,” Hope greeted.

“Shepard, I’m relieved to see you in one piece. A shame about the sushi place, though. It was a favorite.” Liara smirked at Shepard.

Had it been a few years before, Liara would never had made such a comment.

Proof that everyone had come into their own since the SR-1.

Shepard glanced over at Kaidan who was studiously looking at the floor. Had he looked at her, he might have laughed.

“Yeah. I’ve heard that,” she murmured, scratching her head.

“Okay, so Liara’s searching for connections to the gun. What about everyone else?” Wrex asked.

“Yeah, what about those slackers?” Joker asked, casually walking in the door.

“Joker, boy am I glad to see you in one piece.”

He gave her a dirty look. “I found a few people who actually like being shot at.”

She had never been so glad to see her team members as she was in that moment.

“Alright, everyone talk to Major Alenko for your assignments. I’ve got to…go clean up, then we’ll get down to business. Any questions?” Shepard asked.

James stepped forward. “Did you really have to break the floor at the sushi place?”

Frowning at him, she ignored the question. “Any relevant questions?” When no one said anything, she nodded. “We’ll regroup in thirty and see what the next step is.”

Keeping her shoulders back, she headed upstairs to shower off the fish, blood, and anything else that might still be on her.