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A Corner of the Park, Early Monday Morning

Allie had finally woken up and emerged from the protective dirt of the preserve at some point well after midnight. Feeling more hungry then she liked, she made a stop at the bar to grab a few bottles of True Blood before heading to her place for an incredibly long , extremely necessary shower.

Habit had her heading back out, her own sword comfortably over her shoulder. After a stop at the causeway and a few circuits of the island to check to make sure nothing else had appeared back with the Fandom residents, Allie made her way to her usual corner of the park.

Shut up. She'd missed the flamingos.

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To say Kaidan was a little embarrassed about his meltdown last night would be understating it. Sure, he hadn't actually confronted anyone with it - which was good - but... yeah.

He'd snapped out of it now, at least a little, but his thoughts were still elsewhere. Jogging was an automatic thing, routine; he hadn't actually expected to run into anyone he knew.

So he ran straight past Allie.

Perched on the back of the bench, Allie had watched Kaidan approach and frowned when he ran past. She quickly checked to make sure she hadn't turned invisible - it was Fandom, it was entirely possible. Since everything seemed normal, she shrugged and called out. "Good Morning!"

Kaidan slowed down, then stopped in his tracks. What-- Oh! "Allie," he replied. "Hey. Didn't see you there."

"That into your run? Or just that deep in thought?" she asked. Although after how many months, Allie was pretty sure she could pick the right answer.

"Just thinking," he said, and turned around, walking back to where she was. "What's up?" Beat. "I know what's up, just-- how are you feeling?"

"I'm no longer singed from the sun, no longer hungry, and I feel clean for the first time in a week," Allie replied with a small grin. "So all and all, I'm doing fine. The question is, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Kaidan said. "Spent some time last night processing. I'm just glad to see the sky again, you know?"

He wasn't lying, per se. Just embarrassed.

"Oh yeah. I've been roaming the island the last few hours. Between the sky and not having to worry about what's behind the next door," she said. "It was a long week. There's nothing wrong with taking some time to process. I think I'm going to twitch every time I open the door to my place for the next few days.

"Almost makes you want to set up shop in the woods, doesn't it?" Kaidan asked her wryly. "Nothing but clear sky and no doors for a month. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

"As long as I still have regular access to my shower, I could probably be persuaded." Allie wasn't kidding. After everything, the idea did sound appealing. "The last time I did anything camping like I was on the road with Jeb and Zeke. Let's just say it's hard to appreciate the night sky when you're worried about something coming out to eat you. That shouldn't be a problem here. So far the weird, little deer seem harmless."

"Most of the time, we have it pretty good," Kaidan agreed, taking a seat on the bench. "Last two weeks were pretty heavy, though. At some point I should probably check in on Jack."

That reminded Allie of the last time they'd sat like this, and the weird feeling that had been crawling under her skin that. She shot at quick glance at Kaidan, relieved when she felt nothing more the usual warm comfort she felt when they talked.

"Do that. And when you do, tell him I really, really want to talk to him."

"Worried?" Kaidan guessed, looking at her. And... yeah, the quiet normalness of it all right now? Much appreciated.

"Not really. Maybe. A little bit?" The bad thing about walking the woods alone at night is that it gave you way too much time to think. "I asked him for a favor. Thinking about it now, I don't think it was very fair of me."

Kaidan tilted his head at her. "What'd you ask?" he said. "I'm sure he thought it was fine."

That was not a happy laugh. "You have to understand. It was Saturday, after we got cut off from the other camps. After we found out about Derek, but before we knew there was a chance to get out. I was getting worried, thinking about what was going to happen."

Which didn't answer the question Allie!

"Uh oh."

Didn't answer the question, but it was giving Kaidan an idea of where this was going...

"Yeah, uh oh." She focused on the flamingos, their heads tucked under the wings as they slept. As a coping strategy, hiding her head sounded kind of appealing, even though Allie knew that just wasn't her style.

If she didn't look at Kaidan, well, she had reasons. "Kanin told me about becoming a vampire. After that, he said I had a choice about the type of monster I wanted to be. Let's just say if it came down to it, I was making a choice not to be the type of monster that hurt her friends or any other innocent person."

"Ah." Kaidan rubbed at his forehead. "I understand."

Well. No wonder she was worried about Jack.

"I wouldn't have asked him if we'd still had contact with the other camp," Allie said, still feeling the need to explain, to Kaidan or herself she wasn't sure. "There were two girls there that, well, they kill vampires for a living. I'm sure they would have been happy to help."

Kaidan wanted to say 'you could have asked me', but after everything the maze had dredged up for him, he... wasn't sure. Probably could have done it. Probably wouldn't have liked being asked.

"I get that," he said instead. "But... couldn't you have sat down and come up with something less... lethal?"

"It wasn't a spur of the moment thing. I'd been thinking about it ever since I woke up that first morning." Particularly after that lovely conversation with Karla. "Your biotics would have been the best bet, but even that would have only been a temporary solution."

"I just didn't want anyone to get hurt."

"I know, Allie," Kaidan said, running his hand through his hair. (It gave him a brief static shock. That was more hey my powers are back relief than anything else...) "But we would've wanted to take a shot at figuring it out first."

"Sparking and back to normal?" It was half question, half hopeful observation.

Allie sighed, resting her elbows on her leg and her chin on her hand. "I know. I should have talked to you. I just couldn't." The room with the memories, and the one with the baggage? That would be why.

"Yeah, sparking," Kaidan said, holding up two of his fingers in front of his face.

They glowed a comforting blue.

He dropped his hand. "Look, whatever happened-- it's no reason to avoid talking to me."

"I know. I was here this morning wasn't I?" It wasn't just the flamingos after all.

"It's just at the time I really couldn't think of a good way to say Hey, by the way, you're probably going to lose another friend," she said. Because doing something permanent without warning him would have been the right thing. Yup, it would have. Really.

"And getting Jack to kill you without warning me was a better plan?" Kaidan asked, half-hurt, half-incredulous. "Jesus, Allie!"

"I didn't ask him to do it then. I was planning. I would have figured out a way to say something." Frustration was evident in Allie's voice, mostly because she knew Kaidan was right. "You're right. It was a shitty plan and I screwed up."

"You're one of the only friends I've got right now!" Kaidan snapped. Then he let out a breath, because temper... Temper was never good. "Look, we all made it out there alive, okay? That's... that's important."

"I know that. I know." Allie took a deep, completely unnecessary breath of her own. She didn't need the oxygen, but it centered her and let her focus. "All I can say is I'm sorry. I was trying not to hurt you one way and instead screwed up and did it in a completely different way. I'm sorry. I'll talk to you next time. I promise."

"You should." Jesus. He was surprised by his own reaction, but on the other hand...? What if she'd gone through with it? Wouldn't have just been him, would've hurt the hell out of Jack too, and...

He needed to focus. "Just do, okay? I've lost enough people these past twelve months."

Solemn and serious, Allie nodded. "I will. I promise," she repeated.

"Can I ask a question?"

Kaidan glanced towards her. "Sure," he said. "Go ahead."

Call it a wild hunch, but Kaidan had said that he'd lost people, meaning more then just Ash, in the last year. Allie was also pretty certain that the room wouldn't have shown them the memories of Shepard if he wasn't important to Kaidan. She had suspicions. Ones she really hoped she was wrong about.

"Where's Shepard now?"

~~Now there was the million-dollar question, not that Kaidan knew.~~ Kaidan took a deep breath. Released it. "Dead," he said. "Couple of weeks before I was assigned here, they attacked the Normandy. Blew it out of the sky. Most of us made it out alive, he didn't."

She would have been so much happier if she'd been wrong.

"They? Reapers? Or something else?"

"Something else," Kaidan said. "We didn't know, at first. Now they're talking about this species called the Collectors... I have no idea."

Shepard was still a sore spot. Ash, he'd managed to work through to a point with someone who had been there. Shepard-- well, Shepard had been the person he'd gone through things with.

"Of course. It's always something else."

Once again Allie faced comforting a friend over the death of someone she really didn't know. "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Kitty on Friday night. I'm not that great about knowing the right thing to say. But I can listen if you feel like talking."

"I'm okay," Kaidan said. "I'm dealing. Just got a shock to the system, but I'll be fine - don't worry about it."

She'd brought it up.

Yes she had, and she was still feeling guilty enough about the earlier part of the conversation that she wasn't going to push.

"Fine. I won't. But if you come by the bar one Friday and tell me stories, the beer's on me," Allie offered.

Kaidan... well, it wasn't a chuckle, the noise he let loose. More like the ramp-up to one. "Oh," he said, "Trust me. I've got some Shepard stories."

"Anything that can top going for a quiet walk and winding up involved in a Vorcha smuggling ring?" she teased.

"How about the time we went for a simple shakedown cruise to pick up a Prothean artifact, and we wound up turning into a group of twenty-odd mutineers, taking on an army of geth, a crazy Spectre, and the vanguard of an ancient machine race who intended to kill all intelligent creatures?" Kaidan asked her wryly.

Allie blinked once and snickered. "So in other words, yes."

"What happened to us with the vorcha is... uh," Kaidan rubbed the back of his neck. "Some of the crew liked to call that 'pulling a Shepard'."

"Things like that happened to him a lot." It was more observation then question. "You must find life on the island pretty boring most of the time."

"I went a little crazy sometimes, before they cooked up this part-time active duty thing," Kaidan admitted. He glanced towards the horizon. "But you know what, I'll take you up on that - I'll be at the bar later this week. I'll tell you some stories."

Allie could feel the rising sun drawing nearer and knew it was time to start heading home. "I'd like that. It'll be a better way to pass the night then the stupid game on my phone."

"I guess it's that time," she said, climbing to her feet and grabbing her sword. "I had more then enough sun yesterday."

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A Corner of the Park, Early Monday Morning

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