Angst and fluff, what could be better? Enjoy :)

Break In

Six months into Shepard's house arrest

Movement could be heard from outside her temporary prison room. The apartments at the Alliance headquarters in Vancouver were nice but Shepard had grown tired of being locked in them after just the first week of her house arrest. The noise was faint but she could hear someone tampering with the lock. It could not have been any of her guards; each of them had their own keys and usually knocked before barging in. There was no guard posted during the night. They just locked her in her room, figuring she did not have the equipment to break out. The noise continued and Shepard reached for her pistol before remembering that she did not have it. The Alliance had relieved her of her command as well as her weapons when she turned herself in six months ago. For the first time in years she felt completely defenseless.

Shepard shot out of the chair she had been reading in and switched off the lights hoping to catch her attacker off guard. She stepped into the nearest corner and waited for the door to open. A tall figure shrouded in darkness stepped in, his face hidden from her sight. Shepard did not move until the door closed and then leapt into the air and tackled the man to the ground. Though she was significantly smaller than the man she had the element of surprise and quickly gained the upper hand as they wrestled on the floor. She managed to straddle the attacker and lifted a fist for a quick strike. She froze in place when she heard a familiar voice whisper urgently,

"Anna, it's me!"

Shepard paused for a moment, startled by the use of her first name before she registered who had spoken it.

"Kaidan?"

An omni tool lit up on the man's arm, shedding light over his face. Shepard found herself staring into the beautiful brown eyes of her former lover. His hands had gone instinctively to her hips, as if they belonged there. The position they were in felt so comfortable, so familiar that Shepard almost forgot the situation they were in. She just wanted to lean down and kiss him, to have him take her in his arms and hold her forever. Kaidan cleared his throat and cast an anxious glance to her still raised fist and she came out of the fantasy with a crash. She jumped off of him quickly and turned on the small lamp near her bed. The light gave the room a dusky glow, barely noticeable through the blinds on her one window.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed as quietly as she could manage. She did not want to alert any of the soldiers on patrol; not yet anyways. Kaidan got up gingerly and smoothed out his BDUs. His gaze turned to her and it almost looked tender.

"I needed to see you."

She stared at him in disbelief.

"So you scare the shit out of me by breaking into my room at two in the morning?"

He raised his hands in the air in self defense.

"I've been trying for the past week to get permission to see you but the council wouldn't allow it."

"Speaking of which, you could be court martialed if they caught you in here."

"I had to see you," he repeated softly.

"I've been here for six months, Kaidan," she retorted snidely. "Why do you suddenly need to see me now?"

Kaidan took a step towards her and she subconsciously took a step back. A flash of hurt crossed his eyes and he looked down at his boots.

"I just got back from an assignment last week. I've been gone since right after Horizon."

The mere mention of that planet forced the memories of their disastrous encounter back to her mind from the hidden depths she thought she had buried them in. Shepard turned away to sit down on her bed and rested her head in her hands. The sting of their fight had not faded and neither had the pain of watching him walk away. She couldn't handle that again.

"Why are you here?" She asked through a muffled voice.

"You never replied to my email."

She looked up to see the same pain reflected in his eyes that she felt in her own heart.

"Then I heard about you going through the Omega four relay and about…the Bahak system," he continued. "I came as soon as I was able to, I just…I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

He's concerned about me? After everything he said on Horizon, after calling me a traitor, a terrorist; he can sit there and tell me he still cares?

The flame of anger sparked to life as she shot up and quickly crossed the room to stand directly in front of him.

"How dare you! You made it perfectly clear on Horizon that you were done with me; that you wanted nothing to do with me. I'm a traitor, remember? Why would you care about a traitor?"

A mixture of shock and irritation danced about his features.

"Did you even read the email I sent you?"

"You mean that half-assed excuse for an apology? Yeah, I read it but I still don't get it. One line you're telling me you still care; the next line you are telling me you moved on. What the hell was I supposed to think? What is going on in your head?"

He shook his head in anger.

"What did you expect me to do?! You were dead! Then you just show up out of nowhere without even contacting me!"

Footsteps echoed outside startling them. They both took deep breaths and lowered their voices to near whispers.

"I tried!" Shepard was shaking from frustration. "I went to the Citadel as soon as I was able and I found Anderson. You know what the first thing I asked him was? Where is Kaidan Alenko. He stonewalled me, Kaidan. He said he couldn't tell me because of classification bullshit." Her voice became earnest and nearly pleading.

"I tried, Kaidan. I swear to you, I tried. But then I finally found you after months of searching and you weren't even happy to see me."

Her voice almost broke with her words but she steeled her resolve. She would not break in front of him; she would not give him the satisfaction of seeing his tears.

"You were working for a known terrorist organization! What was I supposed to think?"

"I worked with them, not for them. And I ended that as soon as my mission was accomplished."

"The Shepard I knew would have never considered working with terrorists."

"I would do almost anything to save the lives of innocent people. The Alliance turned their back on them but I couldn't. I can never stop helping people. You know that, Kaidan! You know me." She looked away, unable to bear pain of looking at him. "At least I thought you did."

"So did I." He sounded defeated and when Shepard finally met his gaze the anger and tension seemed too much to bear. It felt like a chasm had formed out of the rift between them and there was no way to cross it. She turned her back to him and walked over to her bed. She pushed the covers down and refused to look back at him.

"When everything else was going to hell you were the only thing I could think of. All I wanted to do was hold you and have you tell me everything would be okay. Instead you turned your back on me and walked away. So just go, Kaidan! Go back to your 'doctor friend;' I can't take this anymore!"

"I don't want her!" The ferocity of his statement surprised her. He closed the distance between them and forced her to look him in the eye. "I am sorry! It killed me to walk away from you. You meant the world to me and when I lost you, I fell apart. I should have been more understanding, I should have listened .I couldn't get past Cerberus and it clouded my judgment. I was an ass and I know I deserve your hatred but I don't want us to end."

"What do you want?" She whispered. His nearness was infuriating and intoxicating all at once.

"I want…I want things to go back to the way they were."

Shepard shook her head sadly.

"That can't happen, Kaidan."

His eyes lit up in a wild blaze filled with lust and he stared at her with an overpowering intensity; she felt her knees grow weak at the sight of it.

"Why not?" he whispered, his voice low and husky. Before she could respond he caught hold of her waist and yanked her flush against him. Her breath caught in her throat and she could not bring herself to protest as his lips crashed down hers. They tugged and pulled as his hands roamed over the small of her back down to her thighs. His tongue ravaged hers and brought out a startled moan when he picked her up and carried her to the bed. They both landed in a heap of tangled limbs and Shepard took the opportunity to push him back gently.

"Kaidan, what are we doing?" Her question came out in a breathless pant.

"I don't know," he replied in between lavishing her neck with heated kisses. "What I do know is that I never stopped caring about you. I never stopped wanting you. We are not going to get everything solved in one night. For tonight though, I just want to pretend that nothing has changed. It's just you and me; we can deal with the rest in the morning."

He looked so earnest, so endearing and Shepard could feel the love he tried to hide radiate off of him in powerful waves. She could not resist him even if she wanted to. At that moment their problems, their fights, and their anger did not matter. He wanted her and she desperately needed him.

"Anna…"he murmured in her ear and that was all it took. She kissed him with all of her pent up frustration and memories of too many lonely nights; and he kissed her back with all of his grief and pain finally releasing its hold on him. Their reunion was rough and passionate; an intimate battle between them raged with no clear winner at the end of it. Their second coupling was far more tender, softer, and slower. Kaidan held her as if she was the most precious thing in the universe and to him she really was. Exhausted she fell asleep within minutes, her arms tangled around him as his fingers stroked her hair.

She was awoken by gentle kisses to her lips, cheeks, and neck. She opened her eyes and saw Kaidan leaning over her, a soft smile lighting up his features. It was still dark outside.

"I have to go," he said sadly. "Your guard will be coming to his post in thirty minutes."

She closed her eyes, trying to pretend that his words were not true and they did not hurt.

"I know," she finally replied and rolled away from him, bringing the sheets to rest over her shoulders. She put back up the wall between them to save herself the heartbreak of his leaving. Kaidan rubbed her back, remembering how much she loved it and she felt her defenses shatter once more.

"Anna…"

"No, it's fine, Kaidan. I understand. I don't want you to get in trouble."

He moved to the other side of the bed and got down on the floor so his face was directly in line with hers. He caressed her cheek with his fingertips before leaning in to kiss her deeply.

"We will get this figured out," he stated with confidence and Anna actually believed him. Maybe they really could get past everything that went so horribly wrong. She smiled and kissed him once more. He got up and went towards the door and gave her one more heartfelt gaze before sneaking back out of the door and out of her life.

Three hours later everything went to hell.