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“You wanted to see me, Captain?”
“Shepard, thanks for coming down.”
“Thanks for………..What’s this about, sir?” Shepard asked, face turning slightly to one side as his sharp eyes watched me with suspicion.
“Well we have a new crew member joining the Normandy, and I thought maybe you could help out, show him how things work around here,” I began, starting to pace.
“Captain I don’t have time to nursemaid a newbie-” Shepard objected, and right then I knew he’d missed it. Shepard was more my special forces attack dog than a true XO to the ship, and he knew it. He wanted to know why I’d forgotten. He didn’t catch how many temporizing lines I’d just strung together, or what that could mean, because he was no longer looking for manipulation from me. Shepard was smart, but also still living in the world of perfect military trust, tight-knit squads and barfights, gods in armor and brothers in arms...
It would have been so easy for those god-damned Turians to do to him exactly what they’d done to me all those years ago.
Isolate, and destroy.
“He’s hardly a newbie,” I told Shepard with a hint of reproach, “-we’re lucky to have him.” Dammit, this wouldn’t work if he didn’t at least give- Shepard’s head began to turn as the other Marine walked in, and his attention was no longer on me. I knew my man, and I knew that blank/fascinated look. It wasn’t- -quite the reaction I had been hoping for but hell, if it sped up the process of them learning to trust each other, I’d take it.
“Commander Shepard this is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko,” I introduced them, and to this day, I’m not sure if Shepard even heard me.
He was too busy not being alone.