Author's Note: Spoilerific, you guys. If you haven't started Mass Effect 2 yet, or if you haven't finished your first playthrough...YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

This is my response to the lack of Kaidan Alenko scenes in ME2. Shenko forever.

Kaidan Alenko did not want to get out of bed. Namely because he should have been sleeping in one of the pods reserved for the crew. Instead, the woman he loved lay curled up against his chest. It wasn't often that they relented to such comforts, trying to keep the crew from grumbling about preferential treatment (not that any of their crew would grumble), and Kaidan was determined to enjoy every last moment.

And that was, of course, when the alarm went off.

Shepard groaned, pressing harder against him. "Double shift today. Kill me now."

"Not a chance," Kaidan murmured, kissing her brow. The wrinkles in the sheets had left an imprint on her cheek.

She kissed him back, and then rolled out of bed. Kaidan let her; he had to get up for his own shift, anyway. As Shepard pulled on her navy blues, she shot a glance at Kaidan, smiling.

"That reminds me. I managed to find a replacement set of armor for you until we can find something better. You might not like it, though."

"What is it?" Kaidan pulled up his pants. He was really beginning to hate the mercs that they had run into two days ago. Not just because they had shot at him (quite a lot), but because his usual Onyx armor had been so badly scored in the battle that he'd had to trash it.

"The only light armor I could find with decent shields and plating for you...it's Phoenix armor."

No. No way. "Shepard," Kaidan said. "Phoenix armor is pink. Maybe Ash liked it, but--"

"It's just temporary, you big baby," she laughed, pulling on her boots. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"You'd better," he said, leaning over to whisper into her ear. "You owe me big."

"I will," Shepard whispered back. "Even if it takes me the rest of my life."

"Good enough for me."

#

The alarms were going off around his head, demanding that "ALL CREW MEMBERS MUST REMAIN SEATED". Someone was pulling on his arm, trying to drag him away from the escape shuttle's only window. Kaidan shook them off, his eyes never leaving the wreckage of the Normandy.

All other escape pods had been jettisoned. Except for the one at the helm. Joker's shuttle. And Shepard's.

He shouldn't have left. God damn it, he shouldn't have left her there. She was alone on a blasted ship with a man that was essentially a cripple, and the unidentified vessel that had caused it all was circling around for another attack.

Come on, Shepard, get out of there. Kick Joker out of that damn chair and...Joker. Joker, I swear, if anything happens to Shepard because you are acting like an ASS, I will KILL YOU. I will kill you with my brain, I swear to God!

A beam of energy shot out of the attacking ship, slicing into the already-battered Normandy. The Alliance vessel crumpled, began to tear. Kaidan watched as their home was ripped apart.

Shepard!

Kaidan couldn't breathe. He was choking, choking on fear and grief and pain, but most of all on this strangled feeling of loss. It couldn't happen, it couldn't.

And then, a miracle. The last escape pod rocketed away from the debris and began to drift to their location. It was okay. She was safe, she...

No.

There was something else floating away from the Normandy. Something smaller. Something human-shaped. Something that was leaving a trail of oxygen in its wake as it writhed in the vacuum of space. Shepard.

Dear God, no. No. NO!

She was still alive--he could get to her. He had to save her, had to, she was going to die! The controls--were there no controls in this damn shuttle?! Biotics, then. He would pull her in...

Hands grabbed him as he let the dark energy course through his body. There was a sharp pain in his neck--sedative--and someone was yelling. He was yelling.

As his biotics dimmed and his muscles grew heavy, Kaidan took one last look at the woman floating through space. Her body was still, and she faded like a distant star.

Kaidan sank to the floor. Broken.