Finding a Way: Mass Effect 1

When they were back on the Normandy, Shepard headed for the med bay, but ordered him to gather the team for a debrief in an hour. He thought about arguing with her, but she gave a somewhat stern look through her exhaustion, so he simply said 'yes, ma'am' and let it drop.

Stubborn as fuck is starting to be an inadequate descriptor, he thought.

He had everyone together in the Comm room as ordered when she walked in. She was still pale and her face was drawn, but she didn't look as tired. Instead of standing in her customary place at the front of the room, though, she took the seat next to him; the only indication she wasn't feeling well.

They ran through everything with the rest of the team. Garrus grumbled about the damage to the Mako, Wrex determined the Thorian might be close enough to a Thresher Maw to count, but since he wasn't there to see the creature, he couldn't be sure. Ash was equal parts intrigued and grossed out by the zombies, and Liara lost her scientific marbles over the Cipher.

"You hold an ancestral memory of the Protheans?! By the Goddess, that's amazing! Did it work? Can you understand the vision?" she asked Shepard.

"The images are...clearer, but still disjointed. All I get is a warning about the Reapers, but nothing about a Conduit or how to find it," she replied, hanging her head in frustration.

"Maybe I could help. If I joined my mind with yours, with my knowledge of the Protheans maybe we could make sense of things together," Liara suggested.

"I think the Commander has had enough Asari mind-melding for one day, Liara," he said, stepping in to try and protect her.

"Enough for a lifetime," she smiled ruefully, "but she's got a point, Kaidan. If there's any chance it could help..." she paused before telling Liara, "Do it."

He watched as Liara stood with her palms up and Shepard placed her hands over hers and repeated the joining process.

"That was incredible!" Liara said, when she and Shepard finally started breathing again. "I understand why you can't make sense of it. There are large parts of the vision missing. The data you received from the Eden Prime beacon is incomplete, likely due to the damage it suffered. Perhaps, if we found another beacon..."

"Alright. In the meantime, let's focus on finding Saren and stopping him. Joker, set course for Noveria. We'll follow-up on that lead about Geth there."

"Aye-Aye, Commander. Also, I've got an incoming message from Admiral Hackett with Alliance Command."

"Put it through. Everyone, dismissed."

He had taken his station on the bridge to coordinate the jumps to get them to Noveria, but just as the calculations were finishing up Shepard joined them.

"Change of plans, Joker," she said. "Admiral Hackett has ordered us to the Armstrong Nebula. There are reports of Geth ships setting up bases; it could be the staging ground for a full-scale invasion. We're the closest Alliance ship and, apparently, are 'experts' at dealing with the Geth now."

"You got it, Commander." 

They adjusted their calculations for transit. Kaidan cast a sidelong glance at her as they skimmed the relay for the jump just so he could catch her smiling out the viewport again.

"ETA just under twenty hours, ma'am," he said, checking his station readouts.

She had left the bridge and he had finished his duty shift. Later that night he intentionally woke himself up around midnight to go hang in the mess hoping to get another chance to talk with her. He knew he shouldn't be doing it...shouldn't want to do it, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. He felt drawn to her, connected, in a way he had never felt with another person. It seemed crazy after only a couple months knowing her, but he couldn't deny it. And he was pretty sure she felt it, too.