"You let Grunt take her where?"

Shepard smirked and twined her fingers through his. "Is that really the part you take issue with? That Grunt took Ash to the aquarium?"

She watched Kaidan's face. She could see him thinking over her response to his query about their daughter's whereabouts. It was a gorgeous day in Vancouver and those didn't really come all that often. The sun was shining, there was a cool breeze rolling in off of English Bay and the puffy white clouds trailed across the sky with lazy abandon. It would have seemed almost criminal to refuse Grunt and Ash's request to go to the aquarium. And it wasn't like he hadn't watched Ash before.

"Alright, but if they burn that place to the ground that's your business," he said, taking her hips in his hands and punctuating his reply with a kiss.

Her laugh tickled his lips, "It's an aquarium, Kaidan. I think there's too much water to burn it down."

She could read his reply in the look he gave her. It was in the raised brow and the twitch of his lips. It said she's your daughter, Shepard, and Grunt learned everything from you. I wouldn't put anything past them.

"Have a little faith, sweetheart," she murmured. "I thought while we have the place to ourselves we could sit on the front porch and enjoy the beautiful day with a couple of lagers and the steak sandwiches I made myself."

His skepticism at that comment was understandable. Shepard was no culinary savant. She was lucky to make toast without burning it. She tweaked his collar and smiled up at him. "Faith, remember?"

Okay, so she hadn't really made the steak sandwiches; she had bought them from his favorite take away place downtown. Ash had been riding on her shoulders, Grunt had been laughing at the 'measly' portion sizes and she had put forth a huge effort to pay while keeping the two occupied. And she thought saving the galaxy had been hard.

Kaidan was already stretched out in one of the deck chairs and instead of taking the one next to him she lowered herself onto his lap. It wasn't often that they got the house to themselves and she was going to take full advantage of it.

She watched him take the first bite and her lips twitched with the urge to kiss him even before he'd swallowed.

"What?" he said when he caught her staring.

"Nothing," she replied with a laugh and leaned in to kiss the corner of his mouth. "I guess I'm just glad we're finally sitting here, enjoying a moment together with no distractions; with no world-shattering emergencies to call us away."

His arm was around her waist then, his mouth brushing her throat and the steak sandwiches and cold beers forgotten. It felt like the first time in ages when a quiet moment wasn't something that had been stolen in the dead of night when their daughter was asleep and the moon stood watch in the sky.

"MAMA!"

That was Ash. She was perched on Grunt's shoulder with the second-biggest stuffed shark Shepard had ever seen clutched in her tiny hands. The biggest was under Grunt's arm. When her daughter saw she had her parent's attention she held up the stuffed animal like a trophy.

Well it wasn't an emergency that pulled them apart and even though they would have to postpone their moment until the stars lulled their child to sleep it was worth it.

Ash demanded her attention with a face that Shepard had seen Kaidan wear a hundred times. She held out the animal again like a knight held a sword. "SHARK!"

"BATTLEMASTER!" Ash shouted when she didn't immediately gain her mother's full focus. Apparently Grunt had been teaching her new words.

Kaidan squeezed her waist and let out a soft chuckle when she blew out a long suffering sigh. "Look at the bright side, love. They didn't burn down the aquarium."

"SHARK!"