I Was on Fire

Kaidan picked a secluded spot along the shore of the Presidium lake and laid out a blanket for them to sit on. Kathryn made herself comfortable and watched as he opened the box he'd brought, carefully placing the contents between them. A bottle of wine, glasses, a cutting board and knife, two wedges of cheese, sliced meats, a baguette, a small lantern. It was all terribly romantic and she sighed contentedly, laying back on the blanket to stare up at the Presidium's false night sky. It was quiet, the stars were bright, and a gentle breeze was flowing along the shore bringing with it the scent of the exotic flowers planted around the park.

"You really outdid yourself tonight, Kaidan," she said, turning to look at him.

He smiled and knelt at her side, helping her up into a sitting position. "Anything for you, Kate." Pulling her into an embrace, he kissed her and beeped.

Kathryn blinked. "What the ... ?"

She was on the couch in her apartment, slouched against Kaidan. They had fallen asleep while watching an Earth vid, the remnants of their dinner and an empty bottle of wine sitting on the table. She sat up and stretched, wondering what had woken her up. Another beep sounded and Glyph appeared a few feet away.

"Commander, C-Sec is trying to reach you."

Kaidan stirred and rubbed his eyes. "What's going on?"

Kathryn shrugged and stood up, smoothing out her clothes and running her fingers through her hair. "I don't know. What time is it, Glyph?"

"O three hundred, Commander."

"Shit. This better be an emerg ... no, no, don't jinx it, Shepard." Kaidan laughed as she tapped her omni tool and accepted the call. "Commander Shepard here."

The image of a turian C-Sec officer popped up before her. "Commander, I'm sorry to disturb you at this hour, but your presence has been requested concerning an incident involving a krogan-"

"Urdnot Wrex?" Kathryn was wide awake now, worried. Kaidan got up, straightening his clothes, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at her.

"No, ma'am, he says his name is Grunt."

"Grunt?" she said, her mind racing. "What's happened? Is he okay?"

"Yes, ma'am, he's fine. We're down on the Silversun Strip, at the Noodle House. Could you come down here for a few minutes?"

Judging the tone of his voice to be more annoyed than anything, Kathryn relaxed. Grunt was okay, but was having a run in with C-Sec. "The Noodle House? Um, yeah, give me about five minutes. I think I'm just up the street from there."

"Yes, it's next to Ryuusei Sushi, the place-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, the place that got wrecked. I'll see you in a few minutes." She ended the call and turned to Kaidan. "This should be good. Sounds like Grunt's gotten himself into some trouble and I need to bail him out."

"I thought he was still in the hospital."

"So did I, but it's been close to two weeks since Wrex's last update. Shit, I didn't even think to ask about him how Grunt was doing."

"To be fair, Kate, you were otherwise occupied."

She laughed. "Right, so I'm not such a terrible person. Come with me?"

He nodded and pointed to the front door. "Why not? After you."

They met the C-Sec patrol a few minutes later, and Kathryn introduced herself and Kaidan to one of the officers. A large crowd had gathered at the opposite corner of the restaurant, and Kathryn began to feel a bit nervous. What the hell has Grunt done?

"Ah, I got a call about an incident with a krogan?"

The turian gave her a curt nod. "Yes Commander, right this way."

He led them through the main entrance into the restaurant and brought them to a group of C-Sec officers circled around Grunt who stood nose-to-nose with one of them.

Searching Grunt for any signs of injury as she walked to his side, she was relieved to see that he appeared to be fine. "So, ah ... Grunt, anything you want to tell me about?"

"Ah, this clown wants to take me to lockup." She actually thought he might look a bit sheepish, if that were possible. "Figured I'd give you a call, straighten this out."

"Commander Shepard, I apologize for the intrusion, but this krogan insisted we contact you."

She chuckled, shaking her head. "It's okay. I can vouch for him. I'll sign any paperwork you have."

"Yes, ma'am." He dismissed the others and began calling up files on his datapad.

Kathryn folded her arms over her chest. "What happened?"

Grunt shook his head. "I don't know. I drank a bit, left the hospital, broke a few windows..."

"You were in that hospital recovering from the rachni encounter, Grunt."

"Yeah, didn't feel like sticking around."

"Most people stick around long enough to, you know, heal."

"Most people aren't me."

"Fair enough, but why is C-Sec here?"

"I guess they're upset about some broken glass."

The turian let out a puff of air, clearly eavesdropping and getting annoyed by what he was hearing. She sighed. "Before I sign you out, everybody walked away from this in one piece, right?"

"Sure, yeah, everybody's fine. The hospital's seen better days, though."

The officer was back with a datapad, and she took it from him without taking her eyes off Grunt. "Right. Tell me about the windows."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "A couple of my squadmates broke me out for my birthday, tried lowering me down the side of the building with a rope. It ... didn't work out."

She glanced at the datapad. Huerta Memorial Hospital, Atrium Windows, 2,000 credits. Jesus Christ. "It's your birthday?"

"No, I'm tank-bred, remember? You opened the tank. Come on, Shepard. Anyway, we got some pictures on the krogan memorial-"

"In the Presidium?" she said, looking him in the eye. She imagined Grunt and his friends climbing all over the statue and began to wonder how much this was going to cost.

"Well, yeah, that's the only one. When C-Sec got there, they were mad. Or maybe they were mad about their car being on fire. I can't remember."

"And their car was on fire because...?"

"I threw my bottle of Ryncol at it. Strong stuff. Went up like a bonfire." He laughed to himself, amused by his antics.

Kathryn shook her head, not sure what to say but fairly certain that she should just sign for the damages and look at the details later. Next to her, she could sense that Kaidan was having difficulty keeping his composure.

"The C-Sec guys jumped out, and I figured they didn't want it so I took it."

"What? You mean you-"

"We didn't get very far before they shut us down," Grunt said, nodding to his right.

She looked in that direction and winced. Roughly one hundred meters away, in a second dining room, a C-Sec shuttle was sitting just inside the restaurant, its front seat on fire, shattered glass around it glittered in the glow of the flames. The crowd outside was staring back at her through the hole in the wall. Take a good look at Commander Shepard and her idiot friend, the overgrown krogan child, she thought with a sigh.

"Sprayed us down with riot foam." Grunt laughed. "Didn't work so well on me."

Kathryn signed the datapad and handed it back to the officer. "And why is that?"

"Because I was on fire?" Grunt said. "You know, from the car? Come on, Shepard, keep up."

"Right. So where are your squadmates and how did C-Sec catch you?"

"My squadmates took off, but I got hungry, bought some noodles." That appeared to be all he had to say on the matter, and he sat back, staring at her.

She was reminded of a time when she was seven. She had punched a classmate in the stomach for calling her a boy and her mother made her apologize. Kathryn Hannah Shepard, you apologize to this boy for punching him in the stomach. The memory nearly made her laugh out loud in light of the current circumstances. After a pause, she put her hands on her hips, doing her best Hannah Shepard impersonation.

"Grunt, apologize to the nice man for setting his car on fire."

He shifted in his seat, sitting up straight again. "Fine. I'm sorry for setting your car on fire."

She frowned and tapped her foot. Rubbing the back of his neck, Grunt said, "And I won't do it again."

"Officer, I assume I've just signed for damages?"

"Yes, Commander." Turning to Grunt, he said, "You're lucky, krogan. Don't let me catch you up here again."

"You won't," Kathryn said as the officer turned to go.

Kathryn, Kaidan, and Grunt watched him walk away and leave the restaurant. A restoration team had arrived to begin working on cleaning up the restaurant and C-Sec was moving the crowd of onlookers away from the scene. Nothing to see here, she thought.

"So, how were those noodles?"

Grunt shrugged. "Eh, they were a little spicy."

She laughed out loud, feeling a surge of affection for the krogan, and put a hand on his shoulder. "I love you, Grunt."

"Heh, heh, heh," he laughed.

"Okay, let's get you out of here." Steering him out to the side street, she hailed a cab. While she waited for it to arrive, she sent Wrex a quick message. Sending Grunt over. Make him tell you why. You owe me, by the way. Real credits.

"Alright, Grunt. You are going to Wrex's for the night. You should probably see a doctor, but I'll let him decide what to do with you. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am, Commander Shepard."

Pushing him into the cab, she programmed the address of Wrex's suite into the autopilot's terminal and paid the fare. "I'll see you soon, Grunt. Party at our place. We'll let you know when." She closed the door and turned to Kaidan.

"So what now, Mom?"

She burst out laughing and slapped his arm. "Oh my god. Well, between Grunt and me, two of the Strip's most popular restaurants have been damaged or destroyed in less than a week. We should probably get the hell out of here before the locals take matters into their own hands."

Kathryn put her arm around his waist and snuggled close to him as they walked toward Tiberius Towers. She was quiet, thinking about Grunt and the others, what they had been through together, and all they were likely to go through in the near future. Kaidan had steered her through the lobby, into the elevator, and up to the apartment before she realized just how long she'd been lost in her thoughts.

Kaidan took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. "What are you thinking about, Kate?"

"My crew. No, my friends," she corrected herself. "Miranda's on the Citadel right now, Jack arrives tomorrow for a few days, I think Zaeed's still kicking around, and I've got a bunch of messages from other crew members, wanting to spend some time with me. Seeing Grunt reminded me ..." She hesitated, feeling conflicted. As a soldier, she had always assumed she would die in battle and the thought had never really given her pause. Now, things were different. She had changed, everything had changed... and yet nothing has changed.

Pulling back, she looked into Kaidan's eyes, seeing there his strength and conviction, grateful to draw on it for support. "Well, reapers or no reapers, life is short, right?"

"Right. I think we all feel the weight of our mortality every now and then, Kate." he said, steering her toward the stairs.

"No kidding. Glyph?"

The VI orb appeared at her side. "Yes, Commander?"

"No interruptions for the next four hours, and then we'll need a wake up call, please. And I'll need your help setting up appointments, arranging a party, that sort of thing."

"Yes, Commander. Good night."

"But I've got you until the morning?" Kaidan asked, a twinkle in his eye.

"For now and always," Kathryn replied, responding with a kiss. "No matter what."

A/N: Are you still there? =) Summer, quite happily, got in the way of my creativity, lol, but I'm back in the swing of writing. My thanks, as always, goes out to my friends Zevgirl and Zute, to Bioware, and to everyone who's following This is What Matters. Bioware gets the credit for most of this scene with Grunt, but I did put my own spin on it. I hope you enjoyed it. Have a great day. An early happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers! Enjoy the long weekend. Cheers, Biff.