The present
Shepard was having a nightmare again. She was tossing and turning in her bed at the apartment that Admiral Anderson had given her before he had died. There were dead people everywhere surrounded by pools of blood, some were missing limbs, some organs. She was trying to run away from the sight of everything. It was in her past already, The Reaper War had ended couple of years ago, no one deserved to die anymore. Suddenly she stopped seeing something she never wanted to see: her crew and friends, dead. She fell on her knees, color fading from her face, tears flowing. Suddenly she felt someone grabbing her arm and she saw Kaidan, beat up and bloodied.
"Don't leave me behind…"
Her eyes jolted open and she sat wiping away her tears, her skin covered in cold sweat. The room was filled with a soft pink light from outside. Next to her the dark haired Major was laying on his stomach, sleeping soundly hugging his own pillow. Thank god she didn't wake him up, that was the last thing she wanted to do. They both have been busy with work, but Kaidan more so with his students. It was his first shore leave in months. She started relaxing, knowing she was home right now, with the man that she loved. She carefully kissed tip of his nose. He stirred a bit and continued his calm breathing. Shepard had noticed a scar on her his shoulder. It wasn't that big, but still visible. She touched it carefully with her fingertips, he would stir again and she decided not to bother Kaidans sleep anymore. She got up quietly and headed to the kitchen to pick up some tea, then heading to the balcony, leaving the tea on the table and leaning forward to the railing. Citadel never slept, the beautiful lights blinking. It felt cold, even if the weather was always warm. So much had changed since the war and it seemed very odd and quiet. She liked it.
Shepard felt Kaidans warm arms wrapping around her from behind.
"Hey, can't sleep?" he whispered while his lips were busy kissing her neck.
"No, sorry if I woke you." she said apologetically and turned to watch his lover. His face was full of worry, touching her strawberry blonde bangs and kissed her lips. The cold feeling in her turned into warmth and she kissed him back, resting her hand on his bare chest.
"It feels lonely without you and I want to be with you as much as I can" He said, pressing his forehead against hers and watched her sea blue eyes. Her eyes were full of happiness and he could see his reflection in those beautiful eyes.
"Come back to bed." He said after a while.
"Ok." He took her hand crossing his long fingers with hers. She followed him and saw the scar again.
"Can I ask something?" she said while Kaidan was leading her into the bedroom.
"Of course honey, what's up?"
"Well, I noticed you have a scar on your shoulder, but it doesn't look like a wound you would get from battlefield, so it got me a bit curious" She asked blushing. He was smiling, sat down and patted his lap to show her she could sit there. She did so and wrapped her arms around his neck and looked at him.
"Well, it's actually a promise to a girl I made a long time ago." He wrapped his hands around her waist and kissed her skin that covered her collarbone. She whimpered, but then took a bit of distance and arched her brow.
"Kaidan Michael Alenko, should I be worried?" He laughed, she rarely used his full name, but he knew she wasn't serious.
"Of course not. Don't worry Nessa." He said and kissed her again.
The past
Mathilda Alenko was a very caring, loving and a carefree wife and mother, but today she was worried. The CO of the ship her husband was serving on was visiting. Of course, her husband would do that, asking the CO on shore leave to visit. She had been cooking and cleaning for 2 days. The only thing she was worried about was her 8 year old son. He wasn't good with new people, very shy always playing alone, but when he was with his parents, he would turn into a very talkative person. She was helping him to wear his clothes and sighed:
"Kaidan, you have to behave nicely, ok? Your papas' Commanding Officer is coming to visit. She's bringing a friend for you to play with it. Don't be afraid, I heard she is very nice."
Kaidan looked at her loving mother, nodded and ran into the backyard. His mother sighed again and looked his son go.
Kaidan was smiling when he took his model of SSV Einstein and ran around with it, imagining he was the captain of the spacecraft. His father always told him stories of his adventures and he adored his fathers' stories. Kaidan wanted to follow his fathers' footsteps and become a space adventurer.
"Kaidan, come here!" He turned to the sound of her mothers' voice and next to her he saw a beautiful, long blond haired woman. Kaidan came carefully to her mother and hold his hand on her skirt.
"Kaidan, this is Hannah Shepard, she's your papas' Commanding Officer." Hannah kneeled over the boy, smiled and stretched her hand. He carefully put his hand on hers and she shook his hand.
"Nice to finally meet you Kaidan. Your father has told me a lot about you." That made him smile. Hannah stood up and turned to face the door.
"Nessa, I know the painting is beautiful, but come meet Kaidan." Vanessa Shepard ran quickly to her mother with her strawberry blonde hair braided. She was wearing a blue dress and she was smiling when she saw Kaidan and continued her run to him. She put her hands behind her back and watched him with her big sea blue eyes.
"Hiya, I'm Nessa! What'cha doing?" He got a bit scared and ran further to the backyard.
"I'm so sorry for Kaidan, he's really shy around new people." Mathilda looked at Hannah with an apologetic look.
"It's ok, I understand." She kneeled to Vanessa: "Ok Nessa, play nice with Kaidan." Nessa nodded and followed Kaidan, while the adults went back inside, both of them worried.
Kaidan was sitting on a stump holding his SSV Einstein ship model and looked into the sky when Nessa came to him. She came in front of him, smiled and sat on the long grass field, offering him some candy from her bag. He looked at Nessa, blushed and took a candy. She smiled and looked at his toy
"I have the same ship at home, my mommy bought me one when we were visiting Citadel." He looked at her with amazement and finally got the courage to ask: "Really, what is it like?"
She chuckled: "It's a very big place with lights everywhere!" she stood up and started telling him about Citadel with her hands. Kaidan had always wanted to travel to space and hearing about the distant cities of the galaxy.
When the worried Mathilda Alenko came to check on his son, her eyes glistered with tears from amazement. Kaidan was sitting next to Nessa on the grass, telling her something in excitement, his tiny hand on the SSV Einstein toy, flying it around. Nessa was nodding in furiously, eating her candy and laughing. Mathilda had to take a picture of the sight and just looked at her son for a while.
"Nessa, it's time to go!" Hannah Shepard called her daughter from the door. Nessa looked glum and stood up cleaning her skirt.
"I'm sowwy Kaidan, I need to go now." Even though she was sad leaving her new friend, she was smiling widely. He now also stood up and looked at the young girl with his big brown eyes, he never had a friend like her and didn't want to lose her. Nessa turned around and started running towards her mother. Kaidan couldn't stand of her leaving and ran after her, not noticing the rock and fell on his back, hitting his shoulder against the sharp rock. His father had always told him to be strong, but now the tears we're flowing down his red cheeks and he cried with a loud yell. Mathilda, who now was running towards his son and kneeling down, couldn't hold her tears either noticing his shirt in a bit of blood. Even though she knew it wasn't anything serious, she wasn't prepared for this. Kaidan was almost never hurt, he was a careful child. She was now hugging her son, trying to calm down. His tears didn't stop.
"Mathilda?" Hannah put her hand on her shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry, I have some medi-gel with me."
Mathilda nodded and removed Kaidans' arm from his sleeve, while Hannah carefully applied some medi-gel on the wound. Nessa, who now was next behind Kaidan, blew on the wound.
"Don't worry Kaidan, I'll blow the ouchie away." and she continued. Kaidans' tears suddenly started to fade and Mathilda was relieved. Nessa smiled at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Don't cry Kaidan, the owie is away." she nodded with her lips up to her ears and gave him her last lollipop. As the mothers were telling each other their goodbyes, Kaidan suddenly grabbed Nessas hand. Nessa turned to see the young boy now blushing and with a loud voice she stated:
"Nessa, I'll marry you when this wound heals! I promise to protect you forever!"
Nessa smiled, took her mothers' hand and chuckled: "Okie."
Kaidan didn't see Nessa after that, until that one faithful day, when she came aboard on SSV Normandy.
The present
Shepard had tears in her eyes. His handsome Major was wiping away her tears and was smiling.
"I didn't remember that Kaidan, I don't know how I could forget that!" she yelled, leaning herself against him.
"I would have wondered if you did after the all you have gone through." He was petting her hair and carefully placed Shepard on the bed, stood up and took a small velvet box, kneeled down and opened it. It was a gold ring, with two tiny red hearts close together. Shepard was shocked and her tears were mow flowing down.
"I think it's time for me to fulfill my promise, finally after all this years. Vanessa Maria Shepard, will you marry me now when my wound has healed? It's now my turn to protect you from the universe and all the evil." He smiled, his hands shaking.
"Yes, of course I will!" She screamed and leaped to his arms he fell on his back and kissed Shepard deeply. That night, even though both of them slept on the floor close to each other, she didn't see anymore of her nightmares, but Kaidan and her on the same grass field as children.