Pairing: mShenko | Rating: M
Summary: Interconnected shorts featuring Sam Shepard and Kaidan Alenko, in the years before the Normandy. The slowest of slow burns.
Chapter Summary: Endings and beginnings.
This is it - it’s finished! Thank you so much for reading and flailing and living this story with me. It means more than you will ever know.
Thank you to @nightmarestudio606, @n7zachammer, and @urrone, for betaing!
Art by @xla-hainex. The crew of the SSV Myeongnyang, from top to bottom: Captain Anya Oseguera, Service Chief Clay Beaudoin, 1st Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Lieutenant Commander Sam Shepard, Corporal Kara Pendergrass, Private Muriel Aslany
02 December, 2182, Arcturus Stream, Arcturus, Arcturus Station
The N7 emblem on Shepard’s dress uniform is crooked again.
Kaidan glances at it out of the corner of his eye and scowls, but it’s Pendergrass’ turn to walk on stage and get pinned, so the crooked N7 will have to stay crooked for a little while longer.
The auditorium the Alliance uses for promotion ceremonies is always stuffy, especially in full dress uniform.
Putting on their dress uniforms had been about as complicated as getting in their armor, quite frankly, especially since they practically had to break out the instruction manual. Remembering where the hell Pendergrass’ salarian military commendation pins go, ensuring that the decorative chain on Shepard’s uniform is black instead of gold, to signify being an N. And on and on.
All that work for something that none of them, not even Shepard, who looks natural in anything, are comfortable in. On Kaidan’s right, Aslany sits so straight in her seat that you’d think she’d been starched instead of the uniform. Pendergrass won’t stop scratching. Beaudoin, who’d only dolled up under duress – specifically Aslany’s duress – sits in the back, but he keeps tugging at his waistband like it’s too tight.
“I’m not even getting promoted,” he’d protested before they left the ship. “Why the hell do I have to be here?”
“Because you’re proud of us,” Pendergrass had replied, and he’d just clapped her on the shoulder and said nothing more about it.
She walks on stage now, officially receiving a Specialist designation. Captain Oseguera does the honors, and Pendergrass grins so wide Kaidan can see her teeth from several rows back.
Shepard, seated to Kaidan’s left, tugs at his collar. The N7 pin gets more crooked. When Pendergrass is safely off the stage, Kaidan reaches over and straightens it again.
Aslany leans in and whispers, “He’s doing it on purpose.”
Kaidan raises a skeptical eyebrow. “He is not.”
Kaidan’s gaze darts back to Shepard, who now wears a smirk. And a crooked pin.
“You’re the worst,” Kaidan mutters. “Don’t you dare walk up there like that.”
“Trying to order me around, Staff Lieutenant?”
Pendergrass returns to her seat beside the newly minted Corporal Aslany, whispering excitedly under her breath. Kaidan does his best to ignore the crooked pin, but when they finally call Shepard’s name he makes a last-minute lunge. It’s straight by the time Shepard gets past him, and Kaidan takes a little solace in the fact that Shepard has to cover his laugh with a cough.
But all traces of laughter vanish when he gets to the stage.
Captain Anderson was supposed to pin him as a Staff Commander. Shepard had been craning his head around looking for him ever since they sat down. But the person who greets him on the stage isn’t Anderson.
“Who’s that?” Aslany whispers.
Kaidan’s never seen her before, but that doesn’t keep him from recognizing her. They have the same build. Same posture. Same eyes.
“Captain Shepard,” Kaidan says under his breath.
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