There was a tumblr prompt for shenkoappreciationweek2015: We Are Family.

And this happened. (It's all vorchagirl's fault! Oh and sorry, there is no sex. I know! How did that even happen?)

Alight Horizon

Kaidan pressed a little kiss on the young girl's forehead, "I'll be right back, you wait here okay?"

The girl nodded, an earnest frown between her brows. "I wait here, just here."

"That's right," Kaidan said, "I won't be long." He nodded towards the young woman manning the desk who had agreed to watch over his daughter. She smiled and handed the girl a few pens and paper.

He turned towards the hallway, looking for Admiral Anderson and the smile fell from his face. Something had happened. He could hear it in the clipped orders, hissed into omni-tools, see it in the brisk walks of officials, who were much too highly decorated to walk so fast through the hallways of the Alliance headquarters. He had been called here for a meeting just as he had been in a neighboring park with his daughter and then suddenly everyone went into high alert.

He searched the crowds for a familiar face. He finally saw the dark and stressed face of Anderson and began shouldering his way through the crowd. But then he froze. She was with him. Shepard.

He had not seen her since that day on Horizon. Even though she had been incarnated right here in Vancouver for the last six months, he had not been able to see her. He had asked for a meeting every day he had been on Earth but all he ever heard was a vague promise by Anderson to see what he can do.

And now she walked right towards him, strong, tall, her hair now black instead of red. She was flanked by Anderson and a young Marine with almost comically muscled arms. He looked vaguely familiar but Kaidan only had eyes for her. Shepard. She looked different and still the same way. A slim frame with strong shoulders, long legs that he remembered wrapped around him.

He shook himself out of the memory. So long ago and still so vivid in his mind, that one night before they had landed on Ilos.

"Anderson," he called over, trying to get his attention.

The admiral nodded at him and Shepard raised her eyes to him, apparently noticing him for the first time.

"Shepard," he said.

She hesitated for a moment before she said, "Kaidan." Something strange passed over her face.

"How is it going in there?" asked Anderson.

"I can never tell, I'm just waiting for orders," he said, his eyes straining back to Shepard.

Someone called from the door and the admiral ushered Shepard into the main conference hall.

"Anderson!" he called after them.

Anderson looked over his shoulder, still walking, "Not now, son."

The door closed behind them and he felt lost. Finally he could see her and again he didn't get the chance to talk to her.

"You know the Commander?" the young, beefy Marine asked him.

"I used to," he sighed.

He left the marine standing and went back to his daughter. He had to bring her somewhere safe, the atmosphere in this building felt more dangerous by the minute.

"Look, Daddy, I drew you with your friend," his daughter said as he picked her up. The picture showed a man with blue glowing hands and a woman with red hair. She had always like that picture, the one he had kept of Shepard and him in front of the first Normandy. She always wanted to know who the pretty woman was and he always promised her to tell her when she was older. He knew that that promise would not hold her over much longer.

"Let's go home, little butterfly," he said and set her on his hip. He had to be careful not to scratch her with his armor.

And then all hell broke loose.

The Reapers were attacking Earth, just like Shepard had predicted. He wanted to grab the next best Brass by their collar and yell at them that Shepard had warned them about this for years but there was no time for that. He ran out into the street and froze.

"Daddy? What are those?" his girl asked, staring at the giant crap like machines descending from the sky. A deafening drone sounded out as a red beam cut through buildings like a sword through vegetables. He watched in horror as a red beam hit the top of the very building they were standing in front of and he just ran.

His ran as fast as he could to the Normandy's dock, pressing his daughter to his chest. "Close your eyes, close your eyes," he mumbled. She was quietly sobbing, shaking in fear. Behind him, whole buildings just exploded, debris crashing down all around him. He kept a biotic barrier up to protect them and prayed that he could avoid the larger pieces that would crush them regardless of his barrier.

Somehow they made it on board the Normandy unharmed and for once he was grateful that Joker never left the pilot seat. The view from flight was devastating, the city, his city, was in ruins. It was a miracle that they even found Anderson and Shepard.

Anderson stayed behind, despite their protests and as the Normandy rose up into the atmosphere, Shepard actually looked at him for the first time. For a moment he forgot his anger. For a moment he was back on board of the first Normandy, his hands sweaty, his biotics prickling under his skin. And then she welcomed him on board, her smile taking his breath away. He didn't know it back then but in that moment he had lost his heart forever to her.

"Hey, Kaidan, care to introduce us?"

He looked at her dumfounded for a moment until he realized that she was looking at the little girl clinging to his hand. "Of course, Amanda, this is Commander Jane Shepard. Shepard, this is Amanda Grace Alenko."

Shepard stared at him until she had to breathe in again. "Your daughter?" She knelt down to look closer at Amanda. "Yes, I see it." She held out her hand and Amanda took it with a careful smile. "You have your father's eyes."

No, she has your eyes, Kaidan wanted to yell but he kept quiet.

Shepard rose up again but she didn't look at him. "This ship is as safe as any other place right now, so I suggest you find yourself one of the officer quarters to stay in." She bent down towards Amanda again. "But you have to promise that you always stay in the room when your dad tells you to, alright?"

"Yes, Commander Shepard," Amanda said, looking very seriously.

"Call me Jane, Amanda," Shepard said and turned away with a smile. "Your Daddy outranks me anyway."

He had dreamed about meeting her so many times, he had imagined how he would confront her with the daughter she had abandoned but none of that happened. He could never catch her alone and he just couldn't get a handle on her behavior. How could she look at Amanda, talk to her and not see who she was?

And now he found himself on Mars, fighting Shepard's old cohorts from Cerberus and she did not understand why he had to question her involvement. Just over six month ago she had worn those very same colors. She had worked with them, was it so far fetched that she could know something about them?

When he looked under the helmet of one of the soldiers to get access to the communications system, he was shocked to see that he was changed. "My god, he's a husk." And without thinking he blurted out, "Is that what they did to you?"

The pain in her eyes was unbearable to look at.

"How can you compare me to him?" she called out, her voice unusually high.

Did she really not know how all of this looked? "Shepard, how can I know what you are or who you are? Cerberus rebuilt you, you could be a puppet of the Illusive m

Man himself!"

"Kaidan..."

"Don't..."

Shepard sighed, "Words won't do anyway, there's nothing I can say that would convince you."

"Probably not," Kaidan had to admit. "I just want to know if the person that I followed through hell and back," he tried to look at her eyes and his voice caught in his throat, "the person that I loved, is still in there?"

For a moment he feared that she wouldn't even answer him. But then she placed a hand on his shoulder. "They didn't change me, not in here," she placed her hand over her heart. "Please believe me."

"I'm trying," he said, painfully aware of how close she was. "When this mission is over, we need to talk."

"About us?" Shepard still had her hand on his shoulder, looking at him as if she was trying to decipher his thoughts.

"And about Amanda."

Confusion passed over her face and she slowly let her hand drop from his shoulder. "Yes, Amanda, of course."

Did she truly not know? How could she not know?

They didn't get around to talk. He woke up in a hospital bed, omni-sensors glowing all around him and all he remembered was fire and a metallic voice asking to take his life. Judging by the expressions on the nurse's face and the very serious and long words used by the doctor, there had been a high chance that he never would have talked again at all. To Shepard or anybody else.

He was surprised to hear that he had missed over two weeks in an artificial coma to heal his burns. He didn't feel too bad now but he was aware that this was only thanks to the pain medication constantly feeding into his bloodstream. His skin felt numb and only mildly discomforted by the blankets rustling against burned skin and newly grown skin cells.

Right - fire, so much fire.

"Major Alenko? There's someone here to see you," the nurse said and stepped to the side to let a whirlwind of a girl of about three years rush into the room. The nurse had to stop her or she would have jumped up on the bed and probably taken off half his new skin along the way.

"Careful, little butterfly," he said to her, leaning over to let her hug him.

"Daddy! Are you okay now?"

"Not quite, but I am better now."

"Okay." She fidgeted a bit and looked at all the medical equipment with big, scared eyes.

"Hey, Amanda," he said, taking her hand and pulling her closer to the bed. "I know you were scared, I was too, that's okay."

Tears welled up in her eyes and she hugged him again and cried into his shoulder. Kaidan stroked her back, letting his own tears fall along with hers. After a long time, she pulled back and gave him a weak smile.

"I drew you a new picture. Of you and your friend who doesn't have red hair anymore." She wiped her nose on her sleeve. He was about to scold her for it but when he saw the many streaks of glittering and crusted snot he decided against it. There was a time and place for etiquette and being worried and crying over your dad was not one of it.

"Can I see it?" he asked, brushing a few strands of dark hair from her face.

"I gave it to her, you have to ask her."

"Oh, she visited you?"

"Uhumm," Amanda nodded and wiped more snot into her sleeve.

Kaidan couldn't take it anymore. "There's paper towels over there, could you please use one to clean your nose?"

"Sorry..." she said, taking a pile of paper towels to loudly blow her nose in them. "Oh, there she is!" she exclaimed, her voice muffled from paper towels.

The door slid to the side and Shepard stepped in, her armor black with a red and white N7 stripe down her arm and shoulder. She had always been so proud of making N7. To see her like this again, her armor resembling that old N7 armor, painfully reminded him of the time when he met her first. Everything had changed back then. He had learned what love was and how much it hurt.

Shepard hovered at the door, smiling at Amanda for a moment before looking at him. Her smile slowly faded and he knew in that instance that she blamed herself for his injuries. He turned to his daughter, "Could you wait outside for a bit? I need to talk to Shepard alone."

"Her name is Jane, Daddy," Amanda said, shaking her head at his blatant stupidity.

"Of course, you're right. Please stay in front of the glass there so that I can see you, okay?"

Shepard cleared her throat. "Private Westmore will watch her, don't worry." She nodded towards a young woman in Alliance BDU's and smiled at Amanda. "Private Westmore wanted to get herself some cake, would you like some too?"

"Oh yes, I love cake!" Amanda happily skipped outside, waving once more to him. "I'll be right back, Daddy!"

The door closed behind her and an awkward silence spread out in the room. Shepard stepped a bit closer, looking at the floor. "I can't believe you have a daughter," she said, "she looks just like you."

Kaidan raised himself up on his elbows. "Don't you see it, Shepard? She looks just like you!"

"Don't be silly, how could she look like me?"

"You are her mother! How can you not know that?"

If he had had any doubts if Shepard knew about her daughter, they disappeared when he saw her face now. She stared at him as if he had grown three heads on the spot. She even began laughing.

"Don't be ridiculous, I haven't been pregnant for a single day in my life."

She was absolutely serious, he could see it in her eyes. He fell back on the bed, rubbing his temples to keep the looming headache at bay. "Well, you must have been at some point because Amanda is your daughter, there is DNA proof."

Her face turned white. "How.. how even...?"

"She was literally left on Anderson's doorstep in a protected transport box, locked to Anderson's fingerprints. She was just maybe two weeks old at that point, healthy and well cared for. The doctors assume that she had grown to term in an uterine replicator."

"But... what made him think that she..."

"There was a note that said 'Shepard's child' and a simple DNA test proved it." Kaidan grinned to himself. "And because Anderson knows fucking everything, he had her tested against my DNA too."

He looked at Shepard, gauzing her reaction. She was white as a sheet and swaying a bit. He grabbed her hand to stop her from falling over. "Hey, hey, Jane, come on, sit down for a bit." He could feel her hand tremble as she pulled a chair closer and sat down.

She looked up to him. "Ilos."

"Yes, the night before Ilos."

"But, my implant..."

"Maybe the beacon fried it."

"I was pregnant when... Alchera... oh god, how could she have survived that?"

"She is a survivor for sure." Her hand felt cold in his and she had not stopped trembling. "They must have found her when they... rebuilt you."

Shepard seemed to come back to her rational self now and shook her head. "No, Miranda would have told me."

"Miranda Lawson, who rebuilt you? She's Cerberus, you can't trust her."

"I know," Shepard said, color slowly returning to her cheeks. "But this - she would have told me, I'm sure of it. It must have been a different department, maybe they were just looking for cells and fertile eggs at first before Miranda took over."

"And then they suddenly had a fetus growing and went from there, you think?"

"Possibly. I wonder who it was who suddenly found their conscience and got her out of there?" She looked through the glass wall out to where Amanda and Private Westmoore had returned with pieces of cake on small plates. They sat down to eat and Shepard stared at the small girl with tears in her eyes. "I have a daughter."

She turned to him, tears running down her cheeks. "We have a daughter and I didn't even know!"

Kaidan raised his hand despite his shoulder protesting but hesitated to wipe a tear from her face. "When I saw you on Horizon, I thought you had been alive the whole time and that you had left her on Anderson's doorstep, abandoned her."

"No wonder you were so angry."

"You were alive and you never even asked about your daughter."

"I didn't know she existed!"

"I know, I know now." Kaidan laid back, pinching his nose. "And then I wrote you that message, how I didn't need you."

Shepard was so quiet that he had to look if she was even still breathing. She looked over to Amanda. "The doctor, is she raising Amanda with you now?"

Kaidan had to laugh. "The doctor went out with me and afterwards handed me a card of a friend of hers, a psychiatrist. She said that I had a serious case of hero worship and untreated grief. No, Amanda lives with my parents and I live there too whenever the Alliance doesn't send me on missions. My parents love her to bits and probably spoil her rotten when I'm not around."

"Do they have a garden?" Shepard asked quietly.

"Not just a garden, there is a forest right behind our backyard and a river where we go fishing sometimes."

"A garden and a forest," Shepard breathed out. He was suddenly reminded that she used to be a farmer's child on Mindoir, living with nature all around. She had always loved gardens, in the short time they had had together after the battle of the Citadel, they had spend most of their free time in the park, helping in clean up and taking care of the flowers.

"She loves flowers," he said, taking in her face and how she looked at his little girl.

Their little girl.

He leaned over and this time he touched her cheek, wiping the tears away. She stilled, staring at him with wide eyes and he almost wanted to apologize. But then she leaned into his touch, still looking at him. They both froze, waiting for something to happen.

He leaned closer and for a moment he thought she would pull back but then she leaned closer and her breath touched his lips. But before he could feel her lips on his, he heard her sigh.

"Kaidan," she whispered, her breath mingling with his. "I don't know if this is a good idea. I don't want to kiss you just because you are familiar, because I still remember what you feel like."

"You still remember?" His nose touched hers.

"I may have been thinking about you - sometimes," she whispered, her upper lip almost brushing over his own.

"I may have been thinking about you a lot - sometimes," he mumbled into her mouth, leaning a fraction closer so that his lips finally touched hers.

"But we don't really know each other anymore," she said, every word a soft brush of her lips.

"Maybe we could get to know each other again," he said and pulled back to look into her eyes. "Hi, my name is Kaidan Alenko, nice to meet you."

She smiled at him. "Hi, my name is Jane Shepard and I would like to know..."

"What would you like to know?"

She raised her hand and brushed her thumb over his eyebrow. "I would like to know if I could convince you to kiss a stranger. She may be half artificial -"

"- but I still know her," Kaidan said and crushed his lips against hers.