Author's Note: This is my first ME fanfic and actually one of the first I've ever written. :) The idea came from a conversation with my friends about the possible aftermath of the first game, since we were totally unsatisfied how there was no actual reunion with the love interest. So... here it is. Please drop a line if you have any thoughts. I put the rating as T to be on the safe side, since I've never posted anything here before and I don't want to offend anybody. I hope you like it! :)

Shepard waited until the steps of the night nurse had receded and then tossed the bed sheet aside, sat up and lowered her feet on the chilly floor. Her arm did hurt and she had a lingering headache, but she'd been through much worse without having to succumb to bed rest. She waited for a moment for the world to stabilize again, then tiptoed to the door and peeked out to make sure the coast was clear. She was in luck – the hallway was deserted.

The temporary hospital had been set up in some kind of a school, and all non-critical patients had been placed in the empty classrooms. Shepard, though, had been given a room all of her own because apparently she was a special case. Not that she needed it, she thought – in fact, she didn't think she needed to be in hospital at all. But after treating her broken arm the doctors had decided that she had a concussion, so they'd made her stay the night under observation.

However, there was another, far more important patient in this place – important to her, anyway. She had waited all evening for an opportunity to sneak out and check up on him, but it seemed that every five minutes someone would peek into the room, blocking her escape. She wondered if Dr. Chakwas had ratted on her tendency to sneak out of hospitals. But now, finally, the place was getting quiet and the few people here had more important things to do than stand watch on someone who clearly wasn't going to die.

She considered getting rid of the observation patches stuck to her body, but surmised it would only bring in scores of alarmed medics. In any case they should work fine even with her out of bed, as long as she stayed within the building. She crept along the corridor, peeking through doors until she found what she was looking for. It was a smallish biology classroom divided into three sections with canvas screens, but the first two beds were empty. Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko was in the third one, seemingly sound asleep. She crept into the room to get a closer look, closing the door quietly behind her.

She breathed a long sigh of relief when she saw that he was apparently unscathed and only had an ice pack on his forehead. He'd collapsed with a migraine almost immediately after they had been rescued from under Sovereign's remains, and she had longed to comfort him and make sure he was okay, but there had been too many people around. She had only managed one brief hug and a short squeeze of his hand before he'd been whisked away for examination. When she'd finally followed him to the hospital to get her arm taken care of she'd been told he was heavily medicated and sleeping. She hadn't wanted to ask too many questions, but she'd made up her mind to see him at the earliest opportunity.

She thought he'd been fast asleep, so she jumped when he raised his arm and lifted the ice pack off his eyes.

"Shepard?" he whispered in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

She didn't bother to reply, but bent down and kissed him full on the lips. For a long moment neither focused on anything else but the union of their lips. Then she withdrew to smile at him tenderly.

"Hi", she whispered. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Not too bad, right now", he replied with a tired grin, cupping her face in his hand. "I'm on some kick-ass meds. I'm hallucinating that a beautiful woman just walked into my hospital room and kissed me."

"Wiseass", Shepard grinned. "Seriously, though, I wanted to see for myself that you're okay." She sat down on the edge of the bed and took his hand in hers. "I didn't get to see you before and I was worried. I missed you."

He squeezed her hand affectionately and then looked at her more closely, noting the hospital gown, the sling and the patches lining her arms and chest. "What about you? Shouldn't you be in bed as well?"

"I'm fine", she said dismissively. "It's just a broken arm. I've had worse. Seriously", she added when he clearly wasn't convinced. "Besides, the next time I was going to see you alone is God knows when."

"Stay here, then", he said softly and shifted to make some room next to him. "To keep me company."

"Are you sure?" she hesitated, but the thought was too tempting. "Okay", she said and climbed in next to him – with some difficulty, she had to admit, because some of her body parts did protest to the exercise. She settled into the crook of his arm and laid her bad arm across his chest.

"Are you comfortable?" she asked.

"I am now."

She lay silent for a while, feeling the slow rise and fall of his chest under her hand. He kissed her forehead and brushed his hand against her cheek, then settled down to rest again. Shepard found to her surprise that her eyelids began to grow heavier as well. She hadn't felt as peaceful in... she couldn't remember how long.

"The night nurse will see us, though" he muttered after a moment.

"Patient confidentiality", she replied sleepily. "They can't tell anyone." She thought for a moment. "I can't believe I didn't think of that before."

He laughed softly and said something else, but she no longer heard him.