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The Park, Tuesday morning

Allie had spent the night walking the paths through the Preserve, determined to know the way around the island as well as she'd known the various ways around the Fringe.

Early morning found her sitting in a shaded part of the park across from MCA watching the flamingos. Instinctively Allie wanted to sleep once the sun rose, but forcing herself to stay awake was another part of Kanin's training that she realized was probably good to keep up with.

It also meant she got to appreciate a sunrise and the early morning quiet which wasn't such a bad thing after all.

[Open park!!!]

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Coincidentally - or rather, not so much, as Fandom only had the one reasonably-sized park - her current location was one of many on Kaidan's morning jogs. Earliest thing in the morning he could reasonably manage, in fact.

He slowed as he made note of a familiar figure. "Allie?" he called.

Looking up from where she'd been pondering exactly how flamingos managed to sleep on one foot, Allie smiled when she realized who had called her name. "You're back."

Kaidan winced. "Yeah, sorry," he said, "I should've checked in with you earlier, but the island's been pretty crazy." He covered the distance from the path to her seat fairly quickly.

"That's one way of putting it," she said. "Did it get you as well?" Allie dropped down from where she'd been perched on the back of the bench and slid to the side, leaving the seat open in invitation.

"Yeah," Kaidan said, sitting down in the offered spot. "Not... really something I wanted to go back to, but at least it's over with."

Allie frowned, "I'm sorry, that mustn't have been pleasant. Are you okay though?"

"I'm fine," Kaidan assured her. "Honest. How about you? Did the week get you?"

"No, it passed me by. It's probably for the best. I would have gotten in trouble for stealing all the food from the Perk or something," she admitted with a wry smile.

Kaidan's eyebrows went up. "Were you a, uh. Streetkid?" he guessed.

He got in one. "I was. I wouldn't register to donate, not after it killed my mother. The only thing I could do was go to the Fringe with the other unresgistered and scavenge to survive. I was good at it." Until one night her luck ran out. "I ran with a small gang. We did our best to keep each other alive."

Kaidan nodded, and tried- and failed- not to think about Shepard, and his Tenth Street Reds. "That's rough," he said, ever the master of understatement. "So-- what there was a donation law?"

Welcome to Allie's world. It was vicious. "There was. If you wanted supplies, you registered and got marked, branded really," Allie said. She turned her arm and tapped the inside of her left wrist. "Donate twice a month and you got enough supplies to keep you alive. I didn't think it was worth it."

"Like cattle," Kaidan said. "Yeah. I really don't blame you. That's disgusting."

"I wanted to change it. Which is stupid. What's one person going to do?" She sighed, finding the half-asleep flamingos extremely interesting. "Especially when I'm here."

"One person can do a lot."

At least if they were anything like Shepard.

"Not everything. But a lot."

"Maybe. I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see."

But she'd gotten Zeke and the research on Red Lung and Rabidism to the scientists at Eden. That was something at least. For now it would have to be enough.

Allie turned towards Kaidan, "So tell me about your mission. Easy? Scary? I'm glad to see you made it back in one piece."

"Pretty terrifying. And disgusting, too," Kaidan said. He'd hoped never to come face to face with husks again, and yet... "A terrorist organization dropped off some alien technology at an isolated research base. Turned all the locals into husks-- electronic zombies," he said. "It's inhuman. We had to go in and clean it out."

"If they're anything like rabids, then yes, terrifying is a good word," she agreed. "But those poor people. Why would they do that to them?"

"I don't know," Kaidan said. "Some kind of twisted experiment--? Eugh, I can't wrap my head around it."

"That's understandable. Because it's twisted and wrong and I don't think that's you," Allie replied.

He shook his head. "We've fought them before," Kaidan said. "But it was never humans responsible, you know?"

"Monsters aren't only the scary things that hide in the dark," Allie said quietly. "People will do a lot of things for survival, power. We used to call them pets. The humans that sold out to the vampires and acted on their behalf. They were almost worse then the vampires because it was their choice to be evil."

"You have to wonder how someone justifies that to themselves," Kaidan said.

"Maybe they think they're making things better for themselves and their families. But at that cost?" She shook her head, "I wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

"Yeah," Kaidan said. He exhaled. "I like getting back out there, don't get me wrong. But this is also reminding me of all the messed-up things-- well, the reason why this isn't everyone's ideal job."

"Do you miss it? Even with the messed up things?" Allie asked. "Being back here teaching has to be a pretty abrupt change."

"Not... really abrupt," Kaidan said slowly. "My ship got downed. I hung around Vancouver for a couple of weeks, doing briefings. Then I got sent here."

"Why here and not back out there? I mean to me it just seems like you'd make more of a difference out there then here." She ducked her head, realizing that that possibly sounded wrong. "Not that you're not making a difference here. Because you are, but finding terrorists compared to keeping me company? One's a little more important then the other I think."

"It's a long story," Kaidan said, after a brief pause. (It really was. Between his still-unsteady emotional state of mind and the Council's attempts to snuff out anyone preaching about Shepard's reapers...) "And I go where the Alliance tells me to go. Even if I disagree with it."

"Normally I've got nothing but time," Allie smiled regretfully. "I want to hear the story, except in about a half hour I'm not going to be able to keep myself awake and that wouldn't be fair. Not if it's important to you."

"I'm not really big on talking about this to begin with," Kaidan said. "It happened. It's a pain in the ass right now, but that'll go, too."

He got up off the bench. "Don't let me keep you if you need to go grab some bunktime," he added.

Inwardly Allie fliched, getting the feeling she'd poked at a sore subject with a stick. But she raised an eyebrow when Kaidan got up.

"You're not keeping me from anything. This is partly training for me, but it's also me enjoying talking to you so there's no need to go racing off. If anything, walk with me while I head back and tell me what weird little presents you found when you moved things yesterday. Or," she said as she got to her own feet. "You can go finish your run in peace. Your choice."

Sore? Well, painful, yes. But Kaidan liked to keep things close to the chest in general; he'd talked with his therapist and with Jack about it, and even that often left him just a smidgen uncomfortable.

"I'll walk you back," he said easily. "Though, uh... my gift-stories are not quite as impressive as some I've heard about on the radio."

He was safe for the moment. Allie was still trying to figure out the limits of friendship in a non-life or death situation. For the moment at least she figured it didn't involve pushing.

"I have a collection of tiny bears and hair ties," Allie said as she started in the direction of MCA. "And bookmarks. So nothing too impressive. At least it was fun. Weird fun, but harmless."

"I have a large amount of small trumpets," Kaidan offered. "Threw most of them out. Between me and my housemate, we might've gotten flooded." Beat. "But at least we'd be able to have some music."

"I could lock the DJ in the storeroom on Friday," she offered with a grin. "You could play. It'll be a hundred times better then that stupid song about grandma and the reindeer."

"'Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer'?" Kaidan said. "Wow, yeah. I could do a great rendition of 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus' on the toy trumpet."

Dry tone? Oh yeah.

"The DJ played it on repeat one night. It was hell." Honestly the DJ was lucky he'd lived. "I'm sure your song is much better."

Have some sincere with a side order of snickering laughter.

"As a musician, I make a great marine," Kaidan said honestly. "But thanks for the vote of confidence."

"I wouldn't have known any better," Allie shrugged. "All of this holiday stuff is pretty new to me. For all I know bad songs on tiny trumpets could be an important holiday tradition."

"You don't do Christmas where you're from, huh?" Kaidan said. Then paused. "Of course you don't. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," she said easily. "It just means I'll appreciate it more now." A beat. "Maybe. I could have down without the powdered sugar falling from the sky the other day. And the bugs. The bugs were annoying."

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The Park, Tuesday morning

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