Finally! It’s been months but I finally picked up willow again ಥ_ಥ next chapter wasn’t going to be a flashback but I like it better this way (^^ゞ
"You needed to see me sir?" Kaidan asked as he stood saluting Anderson in the doorway of his office on the presidium.
"At ease, soldier." Anderson replied, standing up to greet him. "I wanted to talk to you about Shepard actually."
"Lily?" He hurried over to his desk "why? Is she okay?" He liked to think he would've been the first to know if something was wrong. They did live together after all.
"Actually I wanted to ask you that." He responded.
"Sir?" Lily and Anderson were close, Anderson could just ask her himself, he didn’t have to go through Kaidan.
Anderson tapped his fingers on his desk, he wasn’t generally fidgety but he couldn’t help it when the butterflies in his stomach refused to calm down. "How is she handling the news about the collectors?" He had a pretty good guess what the answer would be but he didn’t want to assume. That wouldn't be fair to Lily.
Kaidan rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from the counselor “Not well...sir.”
Anderson nodded, but couldn't say he was surprised. “Well the reason I asked, Commander, is because we got word about which colony would be the next one to be hit.”
Kaidan’s eyes widened and he hastily took a seat in front of Anderson “What?”
“A colony in the Terminus systems, Horizon.” he shifted in his chair “I was going to send her but-”
“No…” he said softly and Anderson looked at him, raising an eyebrow “no, absolutely not.”
“Is she really that bad?” Anderson asked, Kaidan could be over protective of her the same way Aiden was. He was willing to listen, he had other people he could send but he wanted to know for sure it wasn’t just Kaidan’s paranoia keeping her from going. After all, Lily only did colony work, she was the best choice.
Kaidan nodded “Yeah, her nightmares are back, unless I'm in the room with her she doesn’t even turn on the news.” he twisted his hands together “it’s bad.”
Anderson sighed “Okay,” he picked one of the file folders stacked on his desk “I'll find someone else.”
Kaidan watched him from across the desk, he could just get up and leave, he hadn’t been dismissed but their meeting was pretty much over. “Uh, permission to speak sir?”
“Granted, Alenko.” He said, not looking up from his desk.
“Does it have to be a spectre?” He asked.
Anderson paused, finally looking back up “What do you mean?”
“For the mission, does it have to be a spectre?” He asked again.
Anderson closed the folder, folding his arms on the desk and leaving forward “What are you implying Commander?”
“Send me, instead of Lily send me.” He insisted.
“She’s not going to like that.” Anderson wasn’t opposed, he just wasn’t sure how good Kaidan was at keeping secrets from Lily.
“She doesn’t need to know.” going behind her back like this might come back to haunt him but he’d deal with that when and if it happened.
Anderson studied his face, something in his expression told him Kaidan wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer “Okay,” he slid a data pad containing the mission brief his way “be set to go next month.”
Kaidan saluted him “Thank you sir.”
After his meeting with Anderson he returned home, he knew Lily was going to ask about why he went to see Anderson, he just hoped she didn’t ask *too many* questions. It was wrong of him to lie like this, but he didn’t have a choice. He just needed to keep telling himself that, it’s to protect her, he doesn’t have a choice.
Lily stood on the balcony to their apartment, smoking. Kaidan had restricted her to three a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one a night. In all fairness he was being generous with it, it didn't mean she had to like it though.
“Hey.” Kaidan greeted, joining her outside.
Lily turned around, smiling at him “Hey,” they exchanged a quick kiss, Kaidan ignoring the taste of her cigarettes like usual. “How was your meeting with Anderson?”
Kaidan shrugged, leaning against the railing “fine, just went over a few things.” he answered, brushing her off.
“Hmmm,” she was nosy by nature, but she could tell Kaidan wasn’t interested in talking about it. “I was supposed to meet with him tomorrow, but he canceled it.” she put out her cigarette “did he seem okay?”
“He’s fine Lily, maybe something with the council came up.” he rubbed her back “i’m sure it’s nothing.”
Someone was lying to her, she didn’t know why but she got that feeling. There’s no way it was Kaidan, he wouldn’t do that to her. Must be Anderson, but about what? It’s not that she could ask, the only proof she had was a brief vid call.
She sighed “Yeah, maybe you’re right.” at least she hoped he was.
