Author's note: I got inspiration from the story from a picture I found, well, several pictures and I just wanted to create a happy ending for the characters from the stories.
Life After Death
The room was silent except for the noise of his snoring and the rhythmic beat of the monitor. It had been weeks since the Reapers fell, since he had saved the galaxy. A recovery team had found him on the Citadel, bleeding, unconscious, but alive. Despite the gunshot wound and the loss of blood, he had managed to surprise everyone and made a complete recovery. It was only a matter of time before he'd be able to leave the hospital room with his lover. The door opened and he awoke from his slumber.
"Who's there?" he asked, sitting up.
"Kevin," Kaidan called out. "It's just me."
"Oh, Kaidan, I was just dreaming," Shepard said to him.
"About anything in particular?"
"You, I'm glad you came back to me," Shepard told him, a smile on his face.
"I'm glad I did too," Kaidan said with a grin. "I was talking to the doctor, she told me you should be out of here in a few days."
"That's good news, I'm getting tired of just lying here."
Kaidan looked at him with a smile, the bruises had almost completely faded to the point that it was almost as if they were never there, just a bad memory. When Kaidan had first seen him, he was still in the ICU, still bruised up, no more blood, no burns, but wounded nonetheless. It had broken his heart into a million pieces to see the man he loved like that, so much so that it almost brought him to tears just thinking about it. It had been hard on him, but Shepard had been awake when he came in that first time and the love Kaidan saw in his eyes had told him that everything was going to be okay somehow.
"I know you are sweetheart and I wish I could just take you out of here, but I doubt they'd let me," Kaidan sighed with a heavy heart.
"It's okay, I know that they want to make sure I'm fine, but it's driving me crazy," Shepard said with a chuckle.
Sitting down in the chair by his lover's bedside, Kaidan took Shepard's hand in his. "I know it is, it's driving me crazy too," he gently caressed Shepard's cheek with his other hand. "But they just want to make sure you're all better."
Smiling, Shepard replied, "I figured as much, it's still making me crazy though."
With a laugh escaping his lips, Kaidan leaned in for a kiss on his lover's cheek. It was a gentle, sweet kiss, the kind of kiss only a lover could give. Still, he longed for the day in which he could do more than just kiss his lover. That day was coming soon, he knew, but he still wanted it so much.
"You know, I was thinking," Kaidan began, straightening up. "When you're out of here, we should head to my parents' house. My mom says we're more than welcome to stay as long as we want."
Shepard thought for a minute before saying, "You know, I'd love to."
"Then after a few months, I was thinking we should try to find our own apartment here in Vancouver," Kaidan continued, excitement in his voice.
"Screw that, let's get a house," Shepard scoffed.
"A house, you think we should, I mean, do you know expensive a house would be when Vancouver's all rebuilt?" Kaidan asked incredulously.
Shepard laughed, "I bet, but I think after all we've been through, after everything we've done, we deserve to have a house."
Kaidan considered this for a minute, "You're right," he sighed. "We definitely deserve a house."
Reaching out with his other hand, Shepard patted him on the side. "Then it's settled, we're getting a house and we're getting married."
Words escaping him for a minute, Kaidan asked just to be sure, "Really, you mean it."
"Of course I do, you're the man I love, I want to spend the rest of my life with you," Shepard assured him with a smile.
Grinning from ear to ear, tears in his eyes, Kaidan kissed his lover softly. After everything he went through with him, he was so grateful to hear him say that, to know for sure that his life with him was just beginning. There was actually going to be a tomorrow, a life after the Reapers, a life free of fear.
After chatting for a bit, dreaming of what their lives would be, Shepard began to doze off. With a kiss on his forehead, tucking him in, Kaidan watched as Shepard fell back to sleep. Sighing contently, Kaidan sat back in the chair to watch over him until he awoke. With his eyes feeling heavy, the lids about to shut, he let them close and he too, fell asleep.
Feeling the warmth of the sun on his body as it streamed in through the window, Shepard awoke to find Kaidan asleep in the chair, snoring rather loudly. Turning his head, he looked over at the clock on the nightstand by his bed. It was 10:03 in the morning, almost time for the doctors to check on him.
Putting his hand on his lovers, Shepard said, "Kaidan, it's morning, time to get up."
"Huh, what?" Kaidan asked confusedly, still half-asleep.
"It's time to get up," Shepard repeated. "The doctors are gonna be checking on me soon."
The door to the room opened and familiar voice called out, "Shepard, there you are."
"Doctor Chakwas, it's good to see you," Shepard said with a warm smile.
"It's good to see you too," she began, returning the smile. "I have excellent news. I was talking to the Chief of Emergency Medicine and he told me that they see no reason to keep you any longer. Congratulations, you've made a full recovery."
With tears forming in his eyes, he told her sincerely, "That's excellent news doctor."
"It definitely is," she smiled, turning to leave. "Do bundle up though, it is nippy outside."
"You hear that, you can leave," Kaidan said excitedly after the door shut.
"Yep," Shepard nodded, sitting up in the bed. "And it's about time too."
After a few minutes, Doctor Chakwas came back to look over his lifesigns again just to be sure. With a grin, she turned off the monitor. Sighing, Kaidan helped remove the monitors' leads from Shepard's chest. With another grin, Chakwas turned and left the room.
Eager to finally get out of this hospital, ready to put all of it behind him, Shepard got out of the bed. Barely able to contain his excitement, Kaidan helped him out of his hospital gown and into some civilian clothes that Steve had brought over from his cabin on the Normandy with a grin. After glancing around at the room one last time, he grabbed Shepard's bag and the two left the room. When the couple got to the doors of the hospital, a snowstorm had started. Reaching into the bag, he pulled out two scarves, a blue one and a red one. Carefully, he put the blue scarf around Shepard's neck and loosely tied it.
"There," he said, tying his own scarf around his neck. "Now let's go home."
The two strode through the double doors of the hospital without stopping, without looking back. The thought of the snowstorm didn't deter them, the scarves kept them warm. The rest of their lives were waiting for them, the freedom to live without fear. It was a new day to live, a new day to love, forever theirs, always.