"The commander's ready to see you now," the perky redhead told Kaidan with a dazzling smile. "You can go right in."

Finally. He'd been waiting on his ship for more than an hour, and he'd been pacing the command center for at least thirty minutes. He spent most of the time quizzing Joker on what they'd been up to and where they'd been, though he knew most of the answers already. He tried not to show too much of an interest in what Qynn had been up to, tried to not seem too concerned, but it was obvious he was still wondering about her well-being.

He figured what transpired between them was no secret, but at least Joker was being tactful about the whole thing. When he finally turned to go, Joker called after him. "Be careful, commander. She's not who she used to be."

That much was obvious right off the bat. The old Qynn wouldn't have made him sweat for so long.
He passed through the armory, the officer there nodded at his presence, but otherwise said nothing.

He entered the comm room to find the commander holding a conversation with the peculiar purple globe of light that was the ship's AI. EDI was its name if Kaidan recalled correctly. If he hadn't heard it arguing with Joker earlier, he would have thought she was crazy. Cerberus had all kinds of things hidden up its sleeve.

Qynn looked away from the table and the ball of light dimmed. "Well look who it is. I never thought you'd willingly come aboard."

"I figured, since I was in the neighborhood, I might as well drop by and see how the war effort was going." This was far from accurate. As soon as he'd gotten back from assignment, he'd requisitioned resources he'd need to track her down. He'd been putting off talking to her long enough, and he felt like they needed to do this in person.

"It's going, which is more than I could have said a month ago." She took up a datapad from the table and skimmed it. "I've been pretty busy with the people you've sent my way."

"I didn't do much." He rubbed the back of his neck with a hand. He hadn't done any of that to try to get in her good graces; he done what he needed to. "Some people just wanted the truth and I gave it to them."

"If Anderson hadn't told me he heard from you, I would have thought you were ignoring me."
After Horizon, he wasn't sure he wanted to talk to her again, but when she'd sent him that email, with irrefutable proof and of course had it checked for its authenticity, he knew he had to do something, even if he wasn't ready to talk to her yet. He'd passed her footage along, enlisting the help of anyone who would listen. She must have gotten a slew of communications from people in all parts of Alliance brass, but none from him.

"I'm sorry about that. I had a lot on my mind and all."

Qynn shook her head, raising her hands to stop him. "Don't worry about it. It's all water under the bridge. I'm pretty sure we're all on the same page now." She raised a brow inquisitively, as if inviting any objection. He had none.

"C'mon. Let me show you around."

Joker wasn't kidding when he said she had changed. She wasn't the same person he'd fought Saren and the geth with more than two years ago. She seemed more confident, more sure and at the same time, more relaxed. She hadn't bothered to put on her uniform to receive him, not that he had any right to complain. She didn't have didn't have to impress him, and this wasn't an Alliance ship. He didn't know what had happened when they'd gone through the relay, but it had made her a new person. Or maybe it was the new man in her life.

In her letter, she said that she had moved on and he was genuinely happy for her. She deserved to be happy. It was good that someone had been there for her he couldn't be. More like when he wouldn't.

He felt better about letting her go, now that he knew she was doing so well, but his masculine pride wouldn't let him leave this ship until he found out who replaced him.

She'd taken him down into the belly of the ship and introduced him to some of the crew, the ones who had been willing to talk anyway. "So they rebuilt the Normandy." He commented, awestruck. It was twice as big, he could tell that from the outside, but it didn't prepare him for the shock inside. It looked similar, but it was more than twice the size of the original. There was a lot more space, a lot more room. "She's nothing like how I remember."

"Any changes made were an improvement," Qynn said. "Trust me."

"Are we still talking about the ship here?"

"Here's the mess hall." She pressed on, acting as if she didn't hear the last question. "Fully stocked, comes with a decent cook. Wish we had one of these on the old Normandy."

"Speaking of the old Normandy, is Garrus around?"

"Yeah, he's in the battery just up ahead." She pointed to the set of doors on the other side of the mess hall.

"Mind if I stop in for a bit?"

She eyed him skeptically but shrugged. "Meet me at the elevator when you're ready."

Once Kadain made it to the battery doors, they slid open and he was greeted by a familiar turian silhouette.

"I wasn't expecting to see you so soon." He called over his shoulder, an underlying rumble in his voice.

Kaidan coughed, uncomfortable with being the target of his misplaced ardor. "I don't think I'm who you're expecting."

"Kaidan?" Garrus glanced over his shoulder.

"Long time to see." It wasn't that long. He had been there when he and Qynn had their falling out and Kaidan hoped he didn't harbor any ill feelings. He made it no secret that he didn't agree with what Kaidan had decided to do. In fact, the turian looked like he wanted to hurt him.

"What brings you here?" Garrus asked; he didn't sound particularly hostile, but he didn't sound friendly either. He was still sore.

"Just following up on the people and info I sent Qynn's way." He thought he could see the turian bristle, as he turned his attention back to his console.

"Wouldn't a message have been quicker?" He added undue inflection to the words. She'd told him about that, huh?

"So Qynn's been keeping you pretty busy?" He needed a way to segue this conversation to find out what he wanted to know, but small talk wasn't exactly his forte. Especially not with someone who obviously didn't want to be talking to him.

Garrus' shoulders shook with laughter. "You could say that…" The words hung in the air between them, oddly.

"What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" A slip, he knew Kaidan had been promoted to Commander. "I've got to get back to work."

"Alright, Garrus. You win. I'll leave." He threw his hands up in a sign of defeat. "Just let me ask you one thing." With a sigh, the turian wheeled around again, his arms crossed over his chest. He waited silently. "You and Qynn were pretty close—"

"Are pretty close," Garrus corrected.

"Since you guys are so close, do you know who she's seeing now?"

Kaidan had never heard a turian snort with laughter, and it wasn't a pleasant sound. "She didn't tell you?"

"No."

"Then I'm not going to tell you." Garrus said with a derisive shake of his head. "She must not have told you for a reason and you know how she gets when she's mad." He turned away, waving Kaidan away. "The last thing I want is to get her angry."

Well that was pointless.

The few Cerberus crewman scattered about the floor watched him as he passed through unattended. Most of them were former Alliance men and women who didn't like how the organization did things. His presence was unwanted, but they seemed to tolerate him for the time being, on Shepard's orders.

Kaidan arrived at the elevator to find the commander plus one; a stately looking drell. He was drawn up to his full height, hands clasped behind his back. He nodded at Kaidan's approach.

"Thane, this is Commander Alenko of the Alliance. Kaidan this is Thane Krios."

Kaidan extended his hand, and was surprised when the drell enclosed it in a tight, almost painful grip. Fathomless black eyes met Kaidan's own and made him feel disquieted to say the least. "Alenko. Qynn has told me much about you."

So she was Qynn to him, huh? Was everyone on the ship on a first name basis with her?

"Krios… Why does that name sound so familiar?"

"I'm sure you've probably heard of him by reputation. He's was an assassin for the hanar."

"An assassin?" He'd heard stories about an assassin going about Citadel space snuffing out the lives of the unjust, but he thought they were just myths, or people blowing smoke. It didn't seem too smart to make a man who would stand out so much an assassin, yet here he was, meeting the man in the flesh.

"I've recently retired my services. I only act at the commander's need of me." The drell said smoothly, and Kaidan thought he saw a flush cover her cheeks.

They piled into the elevator and rode it to the command center together. Kaidan and Qynn exited and the drell stayed aboard while the lift continued upward. As far as Kaidan knew, there wasn't anything up there but the commander's quarters. What business could he have up there…?

Oh.

Realization dawned on him and he looked at his tour guide, eyes wide with disbelief. She's gone xeno.

"Kaidan?"

So she'd jumped sides. The savior of humanity was boinking an alien. If there was ever proof of her ideals diverging from Cerberus', this was it.

"Kaidan." Her hand was on his shoulder, trying to get his attention, shaking him.

"Huh?"

"I have some things I need to take care of, so I have to go. You can hang around longer if you need to, but I won't be available for some time." She gave him a chaste pat on the back. "We should meet up again soon, and have a nice long chat."

"Right, no problem." And just like that she left him standing beside Joker's chair. He watched her go, confusion etched on his face.

"She let you down easy?" the pilot gibed, trying not to look too amused by Kaidan's predicament and failing.

"Something like that." Kaidan chuckled to himself, smoothing a hand across the back of his neck. "I can't believe it."

"I told you she's changed," Joker chastised, his hands neatly tucked behind his head as he reclined in his pilot's chair.

"I never would have thought: Her, with an alien? The drell?"

Joker laughed, "The drell I can understand, seeing as he's kind of human shaped, but Garrus?"

"Come again?"

"Shit." Too late Joker realized he said too much. He pulled his cap down over his eyes to shrink, but Kaidan wasn't going to let it go.

"What do you mean Garrus? How can she be with both of them, Jeff?" It all made sense now. They were close, alright, closer than he wanted to think about right now.

"That's what I wondered at first, then I realized I really don't want to know the mechanics of it. But somehow, the three of them found a way to make it work."

Kaidan's head was spinning. "I-I should go." He made his way towards the airlock, trying to keep his hands from shaking. He knew that he had no say in the matter, but the idea of the three of them sent shivers down his spine.

One day, he and Qynn would have to have a nice long talk about the matter. Friend-to-friend. But today was not that day.

If you've made it this far, I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. ;) -M