The metal doors slid open, allowing Kaidan to pass through them. Shepard hadn't surfaced from the cabin yet and so he'd been told to go wake her if she was asleep or see what the problem was if she was already awake.
As he expected, she was fast asleep, her blankets a tangled mess around her. To his surprise, however, she was sleeping peacefully for once. It was only a few nights since he'd been back on the Normandy but he'd heard enough to know that she wasn't sleeping well.
He hesitated, watching her for a few moments and unsure whether to wake her. Joker had made it clear that Shepard had to wake up, but to disturb someone sleeping so peacefully? It seemed a sin. Kaidan eventually turned away from the bed, deciding to give the commander a little while longer to sleep when something caught his eye.
Shepard's desk.
He'd been in her cabin once since returning but only in the doorway, not having time to look around properly. He'd never noticed the achievements she'd earned, nor the message system she had. No wonder she never seemed to have any new messages.
What brought him from his thoughts was a seemingly empty photo frame on the desk. He took a few steps to get a closer look, only for the frame to suddenly come to life, revealing a photo.
A photo of him.
Kaidan stared at it for a few moments. The scratches on it made it clear that it wasn't new. It looked like it had been handled a lot and the photo was an old one of him from before Shepard had died in the Normandy's destruction. Which only meant one thing: Shepard had had that photo since she boarded the new Normandy.
His eyes watered as he stared at it, unable to even imagine what Shepard had gone through during that time. And then he'd said those things on Horizon...and she'd still kept the photo. She'd stayed loyal to him during all those months, even when he'd hurt her feelings.
Not wanting to appear as though he'd been crying he wiped his eyes furiously before walking back to Shepard. Her hair was spread across her pillow, her arms pulled up to her chest. He sniffed quietly before easing himself under the covers next to her and slowly securing his arms around her waist.
"I love you so much," he murmured into her ear, a single tear dropping onto her skin, "and I'm so sorry I left you to go through everything without me. Nothing I could do...nothing I can ever do could make it up to you. I'm sorry, Shepard."
"Stay with me," she mumbled into the pillow, curling shifting over so that she was facing him as she slept. He let a small smile grace his lips, pressing his face into her hair. Her scent met him, smelling of lemon with a faint hint of chocolate. How he'd missed that smell. When the Normandy had blown up and Shepard had died, he'd had nothing left to remind him of her. Seeing her on Horizon...that smell hitting him again after so long...it tore him up. And now he was smelling it up close all over again, just like the night before Ilos.
"I promise I'll stay with you forever," he whispered, planting a kiss on her forehead and smiling softly when she pressed her face into his chest. "Nothing can take me away from you now."