Disclaimer: Bioware and EA own everything, naturally, I'm just messing about in their sandbox. I promise to leave it as I found it.

AN: I didn't start playing Mass Effect until April of this year and was promptly sucked. in. Just finished my first ME3 playthrough yesterday morning (and was a weepy mess for 3 hours during), and all I'll say is that I'm happy I knew the ending going in, and happy that they announced the epilogue before I finished. Whether I remain so...we'll see. I'm sure we're all in that same boat.

Bioware does a great job of emotionally engaging story, though, even if the end isn't necessarily what we wanted.

ANYway. I restarted ME3 immediately after finishing, and this little ficlet comes out of Shepard's first visit back to the Citadel with Kaidan. She goes to talk to him immediately on arriving, they have the fateful 'can we get past Horizon' conversation, and I don't know about everyone else, but I ended up running around the Citadel forever collecting missions and doing a variety of other things after. I imagine that game time goes faster than real time does, so I figure they were on the Citadel for awhile, actually, and figured that my Shepard would go back to see Kaidan one more time just before leaving...

When the door to his hospital room slid open, Kaidan Alenko was not all that surprised. He'd been at Huerta Memorial for awhile, after all, and even though his condition had improved dramatically, it wasn't uncommon for the hospital staff to check in on him. He'd even had the occasional visitor, a drell with a respiratory problem being the most unusual. And, of course, he couldn't help a quick smile as he recalled Shepard's visit, which had quickly become his favorite, though she'd only been by once.

So, it was not a huge surprise when the door to his room opened. It was, however, rather out of the ordinary that the new arrival didn't announce their presence with a cheerfully bland greeting and, glancing over, he felt his eyebrows lift. "Shepard. Back already?" There was no hiding the pleasure in his voice, or the smile, in spite of his surprise.

Lingering near the door, Shepard felt her lips quirk in an answer to the smile on Kaidan's face. "Never left," she murmured as she moved toward his bed. "I got caught up in...a million other things. Hackett did tell me to get allies where I could find them, but I had no idea it'd involve me running myself ragged on the Citadel. I...we're about to head out, though. I only have a few minutes, they're waiting on me as it is."

This time, Kaidan's surprise was a direct result of the relative flood of words, followed by a lingering disappointment at the news of her imminent departure. "I'm glad you came by again," he replied, soft. "I sympathize with running around everywhere, too. Seems like we did a lot of that, back in the day."

"Yeah," Shepard returned, her smile widening, "yeah, we did." She sat in the chair next to his bed, perched on the end of it, resting a hand near his atop the blankets. "That's...not why I came by, though. I...I've been thinking about what you said the last time I was here."

Kaidan could feel the heat, the slight tremble of her hand on the bed where it was resting so close to his, and couldn't resist the urge to skate his fingers softly over the top of hers, hesitant. His throat tightened as he recalled their previous conversation, but he forced the words out anyway. "Anything in particular?"

Even though his touch was fleeting, Shepard's breath caught at the warmth it created in her chest. "You, ah, said you weren't seeing anyone. And that you still cared," she added, her voice dropping in volume as the tremble in her fingers increased. "I just wanted to let you know that it's the same for me. There's no one, and I still care. So much. And..." She trailed off and glanced toward the closed door and to the window into the hospital, mostly obscured by machinery.

"And?" Kaidan prompted gently, pushing past the sudden squeeze in his heart at her words. He hadn't realized just how much he'd been hoping to hear her say something like that, to let him know that there might still be a chance for him. For them.

The tips of Shepard's ears turned pink as she blushed, but she steeled herself and got to her feet. "And I didn't want to leave without... Well." Rather than finishing the sentence, she braced herself on that hand still on his bed and leaned forward to catch his lips with hers in a soft, undemanding kiss.

Kaidan's breath hitched at the touch of her lips and his far hand lifted to curve around her cheek, holding her in place. His own fingers trembled as her free hand came up to mirror his, and his eyes closed at the contact.

They lingered there, savoring the moment, until Shepard reluctantly drew away, running her fingers softly across his lips in a brief caress before she stood. Nearly breathless, she said, "I should go. The Normandy's waiting, but I couldn't leave without letting you know."

"Shepard..." Kaidan was almost as breathless as she, his eyes still half-closed. "Come back safe."

Shepard's hand, the one still on the bed, moved to grasp his for a moment. "I will. We'll talk later, Kaidan," she added, exactly as she always had on the original Normandy.

The faint smile on Shepard's face made Kaidan realize she'd done it on purpose, and he smiled in return, the familiar reply rising easily to his memory. "I'd like that," he murmured in quiet response. It was worth it, he realized, to see her face light up at those words, though it made watching her as she walked away that much more difficult. The door had long since closed behind her when he moved again, brushing his fingers over his lips as hers had. To the otherwise quiet room, he murmured again to himself, "I'd like that."

Reviews welcome!