"They told me it was you, but I didn't believe it. Little Shepard grew up and turned into a soldier."

We stop and look to the man talking at us. Almost immediately, she steps out of the walkway and over to him. Garrus and I follow suit, flanking her. We're in civvies at the moment, but that doesn't mean we're not armed; one perk of being on a Spectre's team. I sneak a quick glance in her direction as the muscle in her jaw tightens a little. We've only been on a few ground missions together, but I already know that means trouble. My hand flexes, preparing to throw a barrier up around us if necessary.

Her response is pointed. "Have we met?"

"Name's Finch. You probably don't remember me, but we ran together in the Tenth Street Reds. Maybe you don't remember it yourself, running with a gang. None of the vids mention it when they're talking about you." He leans against the wall, waiting for her reaction.

My hand clenches into a fist. I don't like his tone.

"So? I ran with the Reds. That life is behind me now." I'm impressed Shepard is keeping her voice as even as she is; we'd talked the other night about her time in the Reds. It was not…pleasant to hear. Those bastards coerced her into joining and then treated her like shit until she escaped to the Alliance.

He raises his hands. "We're not trying to cause trouble, Shepard. We just want a favor, for old times' sake. One of the Reds, Curt Wiseman, got picked up by turians. We'd like you to talk to the turian guard in the bar and get Curt out."

Seriously? He just walked up to the first human Spectre and asked her to get –

"What was this guy arrested for?" Wait, what? I shoot a quick look over to Garrus, but he looks about as confused as I am.

The jerk smiles at her, eyes slowly sliding down and back up her body. I glare. In his dreams.

"Some stupid minor offense, maybe he had a little red sand; you know how the turians are. They declared him a problem, and now they're shipping him back for trial."

You know how the turians are. I roll my eyes at that, not the least bit surprised to learn he's a xenophobe. Before we can stop her, she takes a decisive step forward and slams him against the wall. Garrus reaches for his gun, but a sniper rifle isn't going to do any good here. I get ready to biotically pin him down or…something. If needed.

Her voice hisses through clenched teeth. "My gang days are over, Finch. Get out of my way." I gently press a hand between her shoulder blades and she lets him go, stepping back to stand beside me.

This is definitely the wrong time to be thinking about this, but it occurs to me that it feels nice having her there.

"Suit yourself, Shepard." Finch brushes himself off. "If you change your mind, he's over in Chora's Den. Take care of this, and you'll never see me again." She mutters something under her breath as he walks away. I start to ask if she's alright, but before I can say anything Finch turns back around to tack on some completely unnecessary bravado. "And Shepard… you may not run with the Reds anymore, but you really don't want us as your enemies." I see her roll her eyes at that.

"Asshole." I blurt it out before I can stop myself.

Garrus's voice is laced with his usual sardonic humor. "Maybe they can strap flashlights to their heads first, make it a little more like target practice."

We both look over to our friend and grin; he always knows just what to say. She sighs and stands straight. "Alright, let's go." Without another word, she marches off to Chora's Den.

"Shepard, wha–"

Her loud laugh cuts off Garrus's question. "What do you think? I'm going to go talk with a turian guard."

We blink at each other before trailing after the woman. What was she doing?

The thumping bass and neon lights assaulted my senses the second the door slid open. I groaned; it was so going to result in a migraine later. We made our way through the crowd, finally stopping near the back of the club. Shepard pulled me behind a sound barrier as Garrus stepped beside us, blocking some of the lights. I sheepishly grinned and nodded my thanks; they probably just saved me from that migraine.

Shepard raised a hand and waved to an armed turian nearby; probably the guard in question. He had the stance of someone used to being in authority. He walked over and stood in front of us. "Can I help you?"

She held her head up and met the guard's gaze. "Just wanted to let you know that some of Curt Wiseman's friends are trying to pull strings and get him out. They tried to hit me up for a Spectre favor."

I like to think of myself as pretty cultured, but I haven't spent enough time working directly with turians to completely figure out their facial expressions. That said, the way his mandibles twitched seemed like shock to me. I stifled a grin; she's shocked pretty much everyone at one point or another.

"The xenophobe? I should have known he'd have friends." His eyes flicked to an omni-tool, tapping a few orders out. "Thank you for the information. We'll increase the guard on his cell."

A familiar voice echoed from the private room behind us. "I knew you'd rat us out, Shepard! We'll get you back for this."

I swung around as Finch walked up to the four of us, hatred in his eyes. He looked unarmed, but my hand still immediately snapped down to touch my pistol while he kept ranting; you can never be too careful. "When we're through with you, the aliens will all know what the first human Spectre really is."

Not many people would look unfazed in the face of someone threatening their reputation like that. Shepard, though? She looked as if he were trying to sell her insurance. "My bio is public record; everyone knows I ran with gangs as a kid." Her voice was so flat, so bored, that it almost sounded dangerous.

"Well, they don't know that the Reds target aliens specifically. We've got the backers to handle off world missions now. Your alien friends won't like you so much when they hear what your gang does."

That made her expression darken. "The Tenth Street Reds was a gang, not an Earth first movement."

He continued, proudly crossing his arms. Asshole. "They're a human movement now; you think the vids will make that distinction? I can find a dozen Reds who'll swear they saw you kill aliens for fun."

The two of them stood, eyes locked. The thumping beat of the music suddenly seemed less sexual and more primal. I could feel the tension knotting up the muscles in my neck. I'm not ashamed to say I held my breath waiting for her response.

"No. You won't." Before any of us could react, her hand blurred as she pulled her holdout pistol and shot him. He went flying backward into a table, a ravaged hole where his neck used to be.

I stared at the body in shock. Did she just kill him to protect her reputation? He was a xenophobic ass who was probably breaking the law in more ways than one, but that just seemed too far. Sure, she was a Spectre and could legally kill anyone; I got that. That didn't make it right.

The guard seemed surprised but pleased; he gave her a bizarrely backhanded compliment before heading off. "Impressive. Perhaps the first human Spectre won't be a disappointment after all."

Garrus just nodded. He seemed almost…proud. Why was he so calm about this?

I looked back to her, furious and confused. She tucked her gun back into its hiding spot as she turned, and what I saw when our gazes locked shocked me to the core.

She looked…sad. I attempted to mask my anger, but it was too late. She had already seen it and her expression shuttered back to neutral before she looked over to Garrus with a stoic nod.

The two of us dutifully followed her out of the bar, eyes trained in case any friends of Finch's were waiting. Garrus didn't speak until we were out of that damn club. "Well, that's one way to take care of a problem."

"Don't get used to it, Garrus." Shepard gave him a grim look.

He chuckled.

A/N: I'm unsure if I'll add more or not! If I get inspired to flesh out the conversation Kaidan and Shepard have (in my head canon) about her killing Finch, I'll be sure to tack it on as a chapter here. I don't often delve into Kaidan's mind pre-"fell for Shepard" but I was inspired earlier tonight when talking about the background options. My Shepard is Earthborn and I always felt like the Finch thing could go a little further in explaining her backstory, so here's a little hint of that. As it stands at the moment, though, this is a one shot. A special shout out and huge thank you to my friend Sechura for reading and giving me her critique on it; it's a much stronger piece thanks to her. Please read and review! Either way, I hope you enjoyed it!