This is my first fiction and I hope you like it. 3

Constructive criticism and reviews are much appreciated.

Go easy on us Noobies… please? J lol

Oh, and I'm not sure if there are any spoilers in here…I'm sorry if there is?

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or any Mass Effect characters. They are property of BioWare.

Alex Shepard was in the crew's kitchen area ready to eat a late dinner. She had just came back from a confrontation with the illusive man.

Light footsteps approached her.

"Hey Shepard, what's up? I didn't expect you to be down here this late."

"Nothing much Tali and I'm normally not, but I got a lot on my mind especially after talking with the illusive man." Tali sits across from Shepard.

"Ah, Shepard I still don't trust him… but I trust you and that's why I joined you."

"Thanks, but I wish everyone trusted me."

"Still down about Kaidan, eh?" Shepard nodded and sighed while pushing her half eaten plate of food forward ever so slightly. "Listen Shepard, I know you love him… And he loves you too. Just give him time. It'll work out."

"I know I just wish I could explain it to him." Tali could see Shepard biting her lip.

Shepard took a deep breath, threw her head back and angrily whispered, "Why does he have to make things difficult?" Wiping her eyes.

"You know if everything was simple nothing would be exciting or precious or anything." Shepard nodded as she rose from her chair.

"I'm going to take a shower. Thanks Tali, I appreciate it. I need to clear my mind though. I'll try to be back soon."

Tali shouted after Shepard, "Maybe we can all go to get some drinks tomorrow."

"Ah, Tali. There you are, I've been looking all over for you."

"Oh hey Garrus."

Garrus pulled out two stripes of colors while Tali is staring out the window. "which one looks better for the Normandy's new color. I think a gray looks great but Joker thinks-"

"Hey, you went with Shepard to Horizon what happened between Kaidan and her?"

"Phew, how rude… you weren't even paying attention to me, were you?" Tali shock her head as she now turned to look at Garrus. "-Sigh- No one ever listens to me, not even…" His voice trails off.

"Please go on." Tali says smiling.

"Okay okay." He laughs. "Anyways, they got into a huge argument about Cerberus and why Shepard didn't call him and blah blah blah. You didn't expect me to pay attention to the details did you?" Garrus tilted his head.

"No, but I'm just trying to figure out how to help her… Oh hey when you go tell everyone else that we're taking a break tomorrow to go to Dark Star."

"Yeah sure. Hey don't stay up to late, ok?" He threw Tali a faint smile as he said that.

"Ok, night! Don't forget please." Garrus had left and the crew fell silent.

Hm, maybe I should head up to bed… I'll just leave her a note or something. Tali thought. She left a quick note to Shepard explaining she couldn't stay awake much longer.

-30 Minutes Later-

Shepard finally came down and read the note. She throws it away with what could appear to be a smile. At least she cared enough to leave a explanation. Shepard took a deep breath as she turns off the light. The Normandy is quieter than she would like to admit. Not hearing her crew around make her a bit depressed. Perhaps tomorrow would be a better day.

-The Next Day-

ED: Shepard, we will be approaching The Citadel soon. ETA 180 minutes.

Shepard looks up half asleep "Wait, why are we going to The Citadel?"

"Don't worry commander, nothing's wrong. Tali just suggested that we all take the day off at Dark Star." Joker said over the intercom.

ED: Jeff, I must insist that you take the day off also."

"I was planning on it mom, but I'm staying on the Normandy to fix her up a little bit."

Shepard laughs and reaches over to push the mute button before the Joker and ED start arguing..

-Down in the Mess Hall-

"Shepard, tell me again why we're going to a bar?" Says a voice coming from the darkness of a corner.

"Because we need a break?"

"I don't see why we can't drink here. No, no, instead you want us to go where there is going to be a bunch of drunken idiots."

"You need to get more social. Plus it was and order not a option." Shepard smirks cockily.

"Ugh, I hate you." The shadowed figure whispers to herself.

"we all know that's a lie Jack…Also one more thing, you and Miri need time to talk to each other."

"I don't want to be anywhere near that Cerberus Bit-"

"No being rude Jack. I swear, sometimes I think you just want to pick a fight with anybody."

"Well." Jack is silent for a moment. "Maybe I do…" Shepard throws her a dirty look. "Okay, okay, fine. I'll talk to her. Only if she doesn't act stuck up."

Fine by me. "Okay, I'll see you later I got people to talk to."

"Yep." Jack throws a wave.

Hm, better go talk to Miri. See if I can get things settled between these two finally.

-Miranda's Office-

"Hey Miri, do you mind if I ask you a question or two?"

"Sure Shepard." Shepard sits down "What's on your mind?"

"Um… See I was wondering… Why do you hate Jack so much?" Miranda sits back in her chair and relaxes.

"Well I wouldn't say hate as much as unable to understand her. I don't know why she blames me for everything Cerberus did to her."

"Well would you be willing to talk to her over drinks tonight? We're all going anyways."

Please say yes.

"Sure but only if she doesn't curse me out." Miranda laughs and Shepard sighs with relief.

Thank you.

Shepard smiles. "I think we could work with that. I'll see you later."

"Sure Shepard."

Shepard left Miranda's office. Many things had changed since last night.

How could something so quiet a couple of hours ago change to being noisy so quickly?

Yet somehow all the noise was comforting to Shepard.

-Elsewhere-

"Tali, guess what? I found something great. You know that place we're going to? Dark star?"

"Yeah" She tilts her head in confusion but her voice sounds excited.

"Well my "source" tell me the Acting Commander Kaidan Alenko is on a mission near there."

"Wow! Really? That's so great. Thanks Garrus." Tali gives Garrus a hug. "You won't know how happy this will make Shepard!" Garrus is silent for a second.

"You're not planning on telling her are you?"

"Well actually I was…Why not?"

"I just thought it might be easier to just find him over there. You know, like a surprise?"

"Ohhh, I get you, that's an awesome idea Garrus. You're the bestest!"

"Oh…Thanks? I'm go get ready, yeah."

"Okay. Hurry up!!!" Tali smiles and giggles as Garrus leaves excited at the idea of getting Shepard and Kaidan back together.

-On The Citadel (an hour and a half later)-

"Shepard Commander, are you positive about being able to come here. We are Geth which are not allowed passed Citadel security."

"Don't worry Legion. I've already pulled some strings here and there. Captain Bailey was informed already."

"That was fairly nice Miranda."

"Don't mention it Shepard." Miranda smiles.

"Hey Jack did you see this place? They do wicked tattoos here."

"Move Grunt, let me see." Jack pushes Grunt out of the way of the window. "We should go check it out. C'mon." Jack quickly looked at Shepard and shrugged while Shepard threw her a quick dirty look. "Uh, on second thought, I've got something to take care of first. Then we'll check it out later." Jack turned towards Miranda and sighed. She hesitated and Miranda looked at Shepard confused.

"So uh. Hey sorry about cursing you out and you know all that stuff. You know…blah blah." Jack sighs.

"If you're trying to say you're sorry, It's okay, I think if I were in your position I would think the same thing. So…are we okay. Can we start this all over?" Miranda looks at Jack with a worried smile.

"Yeah…You know what, sure. why the hell not? Hey you want to grab a couple of drinks with me and Grunt?" Miranda laughs.

"Sure Jack, it's been awhile since I drank alcohol."

"Um. Excuse me guys." The fast-talking Salerian interrupted. "Krogen liquor shouldn't be consumed by humans. Does terrible things to your insides."

"I know that Mordin." Jack says turning toward Mordin.

"Oh carry on then."

"Thanks for the suggestion Mordin." Miranda says as she smiled in appreciation towards Mordin.

"Hey Shepard." Jacob looked at Shepard. "Me, Legion, and Mordin are going to look around." Shepard thought and nodded slowly, remembering that they didn't drink. She watched them as they approached a Salerian game trader.

Ooh. That's some nice armor at that store. Shepard thought splitting herself from Thane and Samara.

"Psst" Garrus motioned Thane and Samara. "Can you distract Shepard for awhile? Tali and I are going to go find Kaidan so they can finally talk this all out."

"So we are going to get to meet the infamous Kaidan Alenko that Shepard always tells me about?" Samara turns towards Tali.

"Yep. That's right, isn't it exciting? Tali giggled as she said that.

"Oh, Shepard! How about we go get some drinks, huh?" Samara quickly says as Tali and Garrus slink away.

"I didn't plan on drinking today. I thought I told you that Samara?" Shepard looked at Samara perplexed and a bit suspicious.

"Well, maybe we should go find the others." Thane said hastily.

"Sure… Hey where did Tali and Garrus go?" Shepard said baffled.

"Oh they… They um-" Samara couldn't think of a good lie.

"They went to go buy you a new armor. They saw you looking at the ones in the store. Don't say anything, it suppose to be a surprise." Thane interrupted Samara.

"Okay then that's fine with me." Shepard smiles cockily. "Lets go." Samara looks at Thane and sighs with relief.

-Elsewhere-

"okay now that Shepard is preoccupied lets get going."

"Wait… Tali I was thinking, maybe after all this." He pauses. "I don't know, we could get something to eat… Or something." His voice trails off.

"Oh." She stops for a minute to think. "Sure, I'd love that." She smiles and Garrus sighs with relief.

"Okay, now we can go." He smiles.

-Meanwhile-

"I can't believe I hated you so much." Jack turns toward Miranda who looks like she's had a bit to much to drink. Miranda stops for a minute.

"Honesty?" Miranda says sloppily.

"Yeah. I always thought you were a stuck up bit-"

"I get your point." They both laugh while Grunt is drinking a bottle of red Krogen liquor bored out of his mind.

Samara passes by with Thane and Shepard and Shepard spots the large Krogen and the two girls. Shepard comes to a halt and walks over to them.

"Hey guys, mind if we join you?" Shepard says with a puzzled smile.

"Sure, the more the merrier. Isn't that what humans say?" Grunt looks toward Miranda and she nods. They pull up chairs. Grunt leans in the direction of Thane and whispers, " Thank you for coming. You don't know how boring these two are when they're not fighting." He points to Jack and Miranda and Thane laughs.

"Wow, you guys look pretty sober." Shepard snickers.

"Yeah, we're pretty much out of credits." Jack frowns.

"Well you guys look like you're having fun and I'm glad, so I'll buy the rest of the drinks-For everyone." Shepard grins.

-10 drinks later-

"I just don't get it." Shepard looks at the table full of empty glasses. "how could you all drink so much?" She whispers to herself.

"Shepard, you are the one who offered to pay." Grunt says.

"Okay, okay. Gosh, I guess I have to be in charge of you guys so you don't get kidnapped." She rolls her eyes.

-In a Different Part of Dark Star-

"Look over there. Garrus isn't that Kaidan with those Alliance soldiers?"

"You know what?" Garrus looks over. " I think it is. You want to go talk to him?" Tali nods. They both walk over to him and the guys. They could hear the men talking about how easy the mission was. The Alliance soldiers pointed in their direction and Kaidan turns around. Tali grabs him by the arm and pulls him over to a booth, all the while Kaidan seems to be slightly bewildered.

"Sorry about that guys, we're just going to borrow him for a couple of minutes." Garrus to the men who now appear to be wildly baffled as to why a quarian and turian were kidnapping Kaidan. Garrus walks over to where Tali took Kaidan.

"Tali…Tali Zorah, is that you… And Garrus. What are you guys doing here?" Kaidan now seemed more nervous than anything.

"Well, we're here to talk about Shepard…"

"Oh no…Something happened to her." Kaidan looks down. "How could I let this happen? It's all my fault. I wasn't there to protect her. I'm so selfish." Kaidan whispers to himself.

"Wow Kaidan, I didn't know you cared about Shepard that much." Garrus states as he slowly sits next to Tali.

"How couldn't I? I loved her. She was the best thing that happened in my life." His voice now breaking, trails off. Garrus looked at Tali, she sighed while shrugging.

"Kaidan, nothing has happened to Shepard." Kaidan's eyes looked up at Tali. "She's perfectly fine."

"So." Kaidan looks slightly relieved. "She's completely fine?" Garrus and Tali both nod.

"But, all those things you were saying when you thought something happened, you said because you love her right? Well you should be telling her that not us. She needs to hear all that."

"Plus you should apologize for being so harsh to her on Horizon." Tali says profoundly.

"You're right. Thanks guys, remind me to buy you guys some drinks when you have a chance." Kaidan smiles and pauses. "Now where can I find Shepard?"

She's through those doors." Garrus points. "It shouldn't be to hard. She's with a large drunk Krogen, a drell, and an asari justicar. Can't be that hard to miss." Kaidan thanked them and was on his way.

"So I've heard they serve great food here, even for quarians." Garrus says as he moves to the seat opposite of Tali.

"Cool, I can't wait to try it. Even if it's not that great, it's nice just to spend some alone time… You know away from all that chaos." She says hastily with a nervous smile.

-in another place-

There she is. I can't remember the last time I saw her beautiful green eyes. How could I let her slip away so easily before? Whatever happened then, isn't going to happen now. Kaidan contemplated. He slowly approaches the table full of empty glasses. Kaidan now stands about five feet away from Shepard.

Ugh. What do I tell her? What to say? I don't want to make an idiot of myself again. Maybe I'll just- Samara gets up and bumps into Kaidan, (who now lost his train of thought) who in turn, trips and falls on Shepard.

"Oh geez, I'm so sorry." She says. "But can you please watch where you are-" Shepard looked up to see Kaidan's beautiful brown eyes. "Kaidan…" She whispered, tears now gathering in her eyes. He looks into her eyes with a faint smile. Silence between them. As a piece of her blonde hair slipped in front of her face, Kaidan hesitated for a moment and pushed it back behind her ear. He got up and helped Shepard up with a smile. The tears fell from her eyes down her face as her eyes searched his body in disbelief.

"Its…" She pauses. "It's really you. But I thought-"

"Shepard, it doesn't matter what you thought then. I just need to tell you that I love you and I want to be with you." He looked into her eyes that were still searching him. More tears. Kaidan wiped her tears away and she hugged him.

"Kaidan…I love you and I missed you so much. I'm sorry if I broke your heart and I'm sorry about Horizon. I didn't want to keep anything from you, I really didn't. It was just so hard to explain."

"Shepard you don't need to apologize it's my fault. I should've listened." More silence. "But that doesn't matter now. All that matter is that I'm here now."

"Maybe we should talk this over somewhere quieter like the Normandy. It's just outside of here." Kaidan nodded.

"Tali. I'm heading back to the Normandy."

"I'll be there soon. I'm going to get Jacob."

"Okay, don't get into any trouble."

"Aye-aye commander."

-Normandy mess hall.-

"Well that was a long day." Shepard sighs with relief after making sure everyone was safely in their respected areas.

"Well we could wait until the morning. Um…is there a free bunk in the crew's quarters?" Shepard shifts her eyes to the floor.

"Not really…" Silence. "I mean, well. There's a couch in my quarters. You could use the bed and I'll take the couch. C'mon I'll show you were it's at."

-Captain's Quarters-

While Kaidan gets distracted by Shepard's fish tank she quickly runs over to her desk to put her picture in the drawer. She turns around.

"So uh, this is it." She says confidently.

"Bigger than on the original Normandy." He laughs.

"I'm just going to take a shower then I'm going to bed." She looks down again.

"Okay, I'm just going to go to sleep then. I'll see you in the morning?"

"Sure, night."

-One hour later-

Ugh. Why is it so hard to sleep tonight. Shepard thinks tossing and turning. Well I might as well do some paperwork. She heads toward her desk and turns on the light and gets to work.

"Alex…What's wrong?" Kaidan looks up groggily.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. It's just, I can't sleep. I'm used to sleeping in my own bed." She shrugs.

"Nothing is stopping you from sleeping in your own bed." He smirks.

"You are." She jokes. "But I guess you're right. I probably should get some sleep. Scoot over." She says as she sits on the bed. He sits up. "I really missed you." She sighs.

"How long are you going to make me feel guilty."

"I'm sorry." She laughs. "Before anything else is said. Kaidan I love you." She blushes.

"I love you too, Alex." He kisses her. "Alex." He pauses. "A thought just came to my head." More silence. "It might be a little crazy but…Alex Shepard will you marry me?" Shepard looked confused. "I mean, I don't care what happened before. I just want to spend every last moment with you." Shepard's confusion turns to tears.

"Kaidan I don't know what to say."

"How about yes?" He smiles.

"Of Course!!!" She gives him a big hug and kisses him.

The next morning Shepard told everyone about her and Kaidan's engagement.

And everyone lived happily ever after ( you know even though the war with the reapers is still going on.) 3