Disclaimer: I own nothing, I make no money.
Author's Note: This story sprout from a prompt on tumblr that goes "a hope-we-don't-get-caught-kiss" for Shrios.
Riptide
"Shepard glances from the window back to him as a mischievous grin breaks across her face. "I'm busting you out of this joint, Thane," she whispers roguishly, hooking a thumb over her shoulder to indicate her intent." - Shepard and Thane have never been the kind to waste away on hospital beds.
"Quick! Put this on!"
Shepard's anxious command is followed swiftly by a sweatshirt being thrown at his face. Thane catches the offending garment, and lowers it to raise his brows at her from his position on the hospital bed. "Siha?" He keeps a chortle held between his teeth at the dramatic way she clambers into the room and makes a show of searching the obviously empty corners for other occupants, finally nodding to herself and snapping her gaze to him.
She clunks a pair of boots at the end of his bed and hisses lowly at him, "Let's move it, soldier. We can't delay the operation any longer." She plants her back against the wall of his room and edges toward the door, peering cautiously out the window into the empty halls of Huerta Memorial hospital at night.
An amused smile stretches across his lips and he asks her, quietly, following her example, "Siha, what in the name of Amonkira are we doing?" He tries not to laugh, and even as he questions her, he is already swinging his legs over the bed and pulling the sweatshirt over his head. It is far more comfortable than the Huerta-issued cotton shirt and pants. He gets his feet into the boots next.
Shepard glances from the window back to him as a mischievous grin breaks across her face. "I'm busting you out of this joint, Thane," she whispers roguishly, hooking a thumb over her shoulder to indicate her intent. And then she pulls the hood of her own black N7 sweatshirt over her head and tugs it close to her cheek. "Alright, let's get moving. Kasumi's got the vidcams on loop but it won't be long before security catches on."
Thane pushes from the bed, chuckling, and he slides the hood of his own dark sweatshirt over his head in imitation.
Shepard flashes a wide grin and then pads the control console on the door to slide it open. She ducks her head out, left, then right, then left again. She puts a hand out and beckons him on, tip-toeing out into the darkened hall.
"What are the mission parameters, commander?" he whispers conspiratorially at her shoulder, playing along.
Shepard's eyes narrow in focus as she edges along the wall, checking cross corridors for any wandering nurses or attendees. "We have six minutes to make it out the east entrance before Tali's shunt program on the sensor alarms destabilizes." Her devilish grin is brilliant in the shadowed hall when she glances back at him. "Garrus has a get-away car waiting out back."
Thane barely manages to keep his chuckles at bay but at Shepard's sudden stillness, he tenses, straightening, ears keen in the dim. She holds up a fist to hold position and he dutifully waits at her back. Several seconds of taut silence stretches out and Thane has to smirk at the utter ridiculousness of their escape attempt.
And then Shepard is dropping her hand and motioning for the cross corridor. "Alright, Thane, flank out. We can't underestimate these sneaky orderlies. One foot out of step and they pounce!"
Thane chokes back his laugh, instead following her indication and slinking past the corner into the next hallway. Shepard isn't far behind. When she rejoins him, he tugs at the arm of her sweatshirt and whispers to her "What's our designation?"
Shepard raises an amused brow his way, continuing to edge along the wall.
He shrugs comically. "I mean, if this is a mission, we should have a call sign, correct?"
Shepard stops and purses her lips in thought, one finger pressed against her mouth. "Hmm." And then inspiration. A gleeful expression sliding over her features and she rocks on the balls of her feet with the energy of it. "Riptide!"
Thane offers up a raised brow, intrigued.
"You know," she whispers, leaning closer in the dark, "You bring the tide and I…well," she snorts in laughter, one fist planting itself in her other open palm. "I rip," she says, gaze narrowed, smirk menacing.
Thane shakes his head, a soft smile on his lips. "Appropriate," he concedes. And then he motions down the hall. "Are you expecting to have to…'rip'…tonight, siha?" he asks, chuckling. "I'd hate to make enemies of these kind, stalwart nurses." He almost snorts his incredulity at the end.
Shepard beams at him and then whips back around. "No mercy for the enemy, Krios, you know that. Don't lose your nerve now!" she urges dramatically, bracing exaggeratedly against the wall and then creeping forward once more. Sneaking along, she activates the comm. link in her radio unit. "Come in Rocketman, this is Riptide. I repeat, come in Rocketman."
There's a short burst of chatter on the line and then Garrus' drawl is coming through, slow and hesitant. "Uh, this is…Rocketman? Over." A short, sharp chortle. "What the fuck, Shepard." Another laugh. "Okay, yeah, roger that, Riptide. This is Rocketman, coming in clear. What's your ETA?"
Shepard smiles to herself at Garrus' acquiescence. "Coming in hot off the east exit, over. 30 seconds out. Confirm extraction, Rocketman."
Thane shakes his head behind her but follows her every move, slinking along the wall like some over-stated spy vid, and secretly, he's loving every minute of it.
"Copy that, Riptide. You are clear for extraction, over. Southeast balcony 20 kilometers off the east exit is clear. Ooh rah!"
Shepard stops at Garrus' interjection, her hand on the radio at her ear, her smile sloping off to the side with her amusement. "Come again, Garrus?"
His voice comes in tight and cautious over the line. "Too much?"
She laughs, and then slaps a hand over her mouth. "You've been watching too many old human vids," she whispers under her palm.
She can practically hear Garrus' eyeroll over the line. "Just get your asses out here, Shepard. I don't intend to get reprimanded for loitering by my former Sergeant."
Shepard muffles her snort of laughter in her hand. "Roger that." She switches the radio off and quirks a brow at Thane. "Just past this hallway. Ready?"
He leans against the wall beside her, shoulder pressing to hers, and looks down at her. "For anything," he promises her.
She smiles up at him and reaches for his hand, linking her fingers with his. "Alright, go!"
They break around the last bend and run straight into a salarian nurse with his head buried in a datapad. He pulls up short at their sudden appearance, startled enough to release a high squeak and then clamp his mouth shut in raw embarrassment.
"Quick, Krios! Activate stealth mode!" Shepard throws herself back against the wall and stills.
A sharp bark of a laugh leaves Thane and then he is clamping his hand over his mouth, watching wide-eyed as the salarian glares her down. She is still spread across the wall, frozen, staring past the nurse's shoulder.
"Commander…Shepard?" the salarian asks, planting his hands on his hips.
She stays awkwardly silent for many long moments, staring ahead, ignoring him. Thane braces a hand against the other wall and chuckles, gaze averted.
The salarian huffs. "Commander." It is more a demand than anything.
Shepard finally moves. She waves a hand dazedly before him. "We are not the patients you are looking for."
His glare only intensifies. "What are you doing, keeping a patient out of bed this late in the night?"
"Spectre business, nurse," she clips, eyes finally sliding to his. She still stands braced comically against the wall.
The salarian crosses his arms. "That is hardly-"
"Spectre business," she intones, eyebrows waggling.
He pulls back in confusion, shaking his head. "Wha – that doesn't even – Commander!"
But she is already sprinting down the hall toward the exit. "They've seen us, Krios! Run!" Her maniacal laughter filters down the hall and before he knows what he is doing he is bolting after her.
"Wait! Halt!" the salarian calls, fumbling after them.
Shepard breaks through the door and whips around to the control console as soon as Thane is out, the night air crisp and chill on his skin, the still sky broken by their laughter. Shepard shorts out the control panel with her omni-tool, sparks lighting momentarily from the circuit board, and then she is whipping around to Thane, smile brilliant, panting, exhilarated. "Come on!" she hoots, and then she is turning toward the waiting shuttle car hovering just off the hospital's east stairs.
His hand on her elbow pulls her back, and she stumbles into his embrace with the momentum. "Thane, hurry up, we have to-"
His lips stop her words as he braces his hands on either side of her face and pulls her to him. Her eyes are wide at the sudden unhindered affection but then she is smiling against his mouth, parting her lips for his tongue, curling her fingers into his coat, dragging him closer to her as her eyes flutter closed.
Their kiss is only broken by the sudden banging of the salarian nurse on the other side of the door. "Security! Security!" he yells.
Shepard and Thane break apart, laughing, gripping each other, panting and delirious on their own intimate high. "I love you," he gasps against her lips, breathless, eyes bright, body thrumming with anticipation. He cups her face around the hood of her sweatshirt, leaning in to kiss her once more, quick, eager, entranced.
She laughs as he pulls back, and they have never been as much in love as they are in this moment. Never been as whole, as content, as alive, as they are now.
An engine roars several feet off and Garrus' voice calls from down the stairs and across the platform, "You kids coming or what?"
Shepard beams in the darkness, looking up at Thane. "Up for a little adventure?"
His touch is sure, his smile tender. "You are my adventure, siha."
She lets out a vibrant, uninhibited laugh, and then she is tugging his hood down over his eyes and pulling him toward the shuttle. "I love you, too, Thane," she promises, voice a lilting melody of ease and heart and joy.
His hood obstructs his view, but it doesn't matter. He moves on impulse. He reaches for her and she is there.
He has always known how to find her hand in the dark.
And she has always known how to hold it.