Kaidan and Shepard both stood up and began to glow with dark energy. Out of the corner of his eye Kaidan saw Shepard turn towards a person with dark hair, before his full attention was drawn back towards the front of the restaurant by gun fire and the entrance of four armed mercenaries. Kaidan used his biotics to throw one of the mercenaries into a wall. He shot another with his pistol just as he felt Shepard stumble into him with a gasp. He caught her with one arm around her waist and began backing them up towards a decorative wooden barrier between their booth and the entrance to the kitchen.

As Kaidan was backing towards cover firing his pistol, the C-Sec Special Response Team arrived. He stopped firing and dropped to his knees, bringing Shepard with him. Her face was obscured by her long hair; Kaidan could hear her gasping for breath and feel her shaking under his arm. He leaned back from her, "Shepard?"

"K-Kaidan?" she gasped looking up at him and held out her blood soaked left hand. Kaidan's mind came to a screeching halt for a moment before snapping into overdrive. He stood and grabbed her cape off the bench seat of their booth and pressed it to her side; Shepard's breath hissed through her teeth. Kaidan swung her up in to his arms and walked to the now deadly quiet front of the restaurant.

A C-Sec officer stepped forward to intercept him, "My…girlfriend's bleeding," Kaidan said.

The blonde haired officer reacted immediately, waving one of paramedics with a stretcher over. Kaidan gently put Shepard on the stretcher and stepped back. The C-Sec officer muttered a curse under his breath. Kaidan glanced at him and the officer said, "I'm Captain Bailey, I dealt with your girlfriend the last time she was on the Citadel." Kaidan recognized the name from Shepard's report and he also realized that Bailey was reluctant to name Shepard.

A hiss from the paramedic drew both men's attention back to Shepard. The paramedic had pulled the cape from Shepard's side and clearly not liked what he'd seen. Quickly pressing the makeshift bandage back, the paramedic punched the button to activate the hoverfield and rushed Shepard off. Two C-Sec agents followed at a run. Kaidan watched and very reluctantly turned back to Captain Bailey, who was studying Kaidan's face intently. Kaidan cleared his throat and Bailey asked, "Your name soldier?"

"Kaidan Alenko."

Bailey nodded slightly, as if confirming his suspicions, "I would prefer to take your statement in private at C-Sec," Kaidan opened his mouth, but Bailey motioned him to silence. "They took her to the Hospital here on the Zakera Ward, it's not far. I'll have a couple of agents escort you there. I'll come to get your statement later." Turning to an asari agent Bailey said, "grab your partner and take him to the hospital and stay with him until I relieve you."

OoOoO

Shepard opened her eyes to find herself lying on her back in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. She also had respiration assistor stuck to her throat and one attached to her chest just above her heart. "You're awake. You've been asleep for a little more than fifteen hours," whispered Kaidan as leaned over and gently kissed her forehead. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I got stabbed," she said and reached up to rub her mouth, only to encounter the breath mask. She sighed and rubbed her eyes instead, "I didn't think it was that bad. Then I felt sick and it was so hard to breath."

Kaidan's voice dropped to a low growl, "You don't remember who stabbed you?" She shook her head and Kaidan went on. "Well, Captain Bailey's people found the blade that was used to stab you on the floor. The knife was poisoned with Conium maculatum or Hemlock."

Shepard's eyes widened briefly then narrowed, "Are you kidding?"

Kaidan snorted, his amber brown eyes were harder than granite, "Apparently, the Illusive Man reads his history and has a flare for the dramatic."

"I'll say. "

"You certainly do know how to pick your enemies."Shepard growled something under her breath, Kaidan grinned wolfishly at her, nodding, "when you carry out that threat I want to help." Shepard nodded and reached towards him. The anger left his eyes and he shifted forward in his seat, "you were lucky; the doctor knew what Hemlock poisoning looks like."

The two of them sat there for several minutes looking each other. She brushed his face, "I had a dream about you. You said you were going to be my key to coming home.'"

He smiled at her and leaned toward her to kiss her forehead again before sitting back and regarding her for a moment. "I like the idea of taking you home, but you're going to have to wait for a couple of days. The doctors want you to stay here, despite the danger."

"Why?"

"Because, there's no known cure for Hemlock, Medi-gel won't do it. The human body usually takes two to four days to rid itself of the contaminate." He eyed her scar free complexion for a moment. "Though with those implants Cerberus put in, that may not be the case for you."

"Better safe than sorry," a man said from the door. He was standing next to Dr. Chakwas, "I'm Dr. Jemis. I treated you when you first arrived here. Dr. Chakwas and I have been talking about your medical history. Staff Commander Alenko and Captain Bailey have both informed me of recent events," the doctor gestured at the two C-Sec agents that Shepard hadn't noticed before.

"You're following our advice then?" Kaidan asked surprised.

"Dr. Jemis has agreed that it would be safer for you if we transfer Captain Shepard to the Med Bay on the Normandy for further treatment," Dr. Chakwas stated. An impish gleam came into the Doctor's eyes, "though I think it may have something to do with the reporter who showed up this morning looking for Commander Alenko and his unnamed female companion."

OoOoO

A day later, Doctor Chakwas declared Shepard's body free of Hemlock and certified her fit for light duty. Which Chakwas had emphasized did not include combat missions or sparring. Now Shepard stood alone in her cabin staring at her model of the original Normandy.

"Staff Commander Alenko is at the door, Shepard," EDI informed Shepard.

She turned and walked towards the door, "Let him in EDI."

Kaidan stood there wearing N7 armor holding a datapad with an unsure smile on his face, "Hello. I heard you need a new XO."

The first thing out of her mouth was, "When did you become an N?"

Kaidan blinked and looked down at the Special Forces designation on his chest armor, "About a month after you died I volunteered and was accepted. I got my 7 proficiency ranking on the mission I took right after Horizon."

Shepard stepped forward and brushed her fingers over the N7 and looked up at him, "You certainly deserve it. I remember how well you fight; and I saw that you're even more of crack shot than you used to be," her mind jumped back to his question, "you want to be my XO? What about the fraternization regs?"

"I didn't get a chance to mention it before, but I had a very interesting conversation with Admiral Hackett at Arcturus. Hackett doesn't care so long as our feelings don't cloud our judgment in the field."

"And how did he know we were together?"

"He was the one who approved my application to the Special Forces. During the final interview process something I said or did tipped him off to our relationship. Once the official interview was over Hackett invited me to have a drink with him. During the course of the next hour or so I told him more or less everything. Hackett was concerned at first that I was trying to get myself killed because I couldn't deal with loosing you. Which wasn't actually the case; I wanted to honor your memory by making myself strong enough to take your place in the fight against the Reapers and whatever else they decided to throw at us."

Kaidan paused a moment before adding as an afterthought, "Oh, and by the way, Hackett's a believer, like Anderson."

"Really? Good, at least I won't have to be Cassondra Complex Captain Shepard with my Alliance superior."

Kaidan chuckled briefly before going on, "Anyways, after I read the files on your campaign against the Collectors I told him that I wanted to be your Executive Officer. Hackett told me that he would approve of the transfer so long as we keep our relationship separate from duty."

"Just like that? Why would he do that?"

"I asked him that myself. He said quote: 'Shepard's a Spectre, which makes this a unique case.'"

"Meaning that he doesn't want either of us to have a reason to leave the Alliance," Shepard surmised.

Kaidan nodded. Shepard stepped back from her door, not taking her eyes from Kaidan's. He stepped into her quarters, the door shutting automatically behind him. "Well then," she held out her hand for the datapad, which he readily handed to her. She broke eye contact with him long enough to speed read the transfer request and sign off at the bottom before putting the datapad on her desk. Looking back up at him she smiled, "Staff Commander Alenko, your transfer request is accepted."

Kaidan smiled warmly, and stepping forward to wrap his arms around her waist he kissed her.

Sometime later they lay entwined on her bed, when Kaidan moved so he could look down at her face pillowed on his chest. "You haven't asked me how I could stay with the Alliance after what they said about you."

"No," she said simply, shifting slightly so she could meet his questioning gaze.

"Why?"

"Because I think I know most of the answer already." At his questioning look she went on, "two and a half years ago there were two main things in your life, the Alliance and me. When I was KIA all you had left was your career. You still had family and so on, but you lost yourself in duty to escape the pain. And also like you said, as my top lieutenant you inherited the nearly impossible job of stopping the Reapers, which meant you needed the Alliance's resources to continue the fight."

He ran his hand through her long hair, "You're mostly right; but it wasn't just to escape the pain. I stayed so I didn't have to face my life without you too often. You know how intensive N training is; it left me with very little time to myself and exhausted enough at night that I didn't dream about you. But you're right about the rest."

"Speaking of N training, how's your hand to hand these days?" she said grinning.

"Much better than it used to be. Why?"

Still grinning at him, "Despite what he said, Garrus is overseeing the addition of a sparring ring in the vehicle bay."

"What do you mean? What did he say?"

"When we were gearing up for the 'Suicide Mission' he explained to me that on turian war ships there's full contact sparing. He said it was supposed to relieve tension before a mission. Anyways, I offered to spar with him, to which he responded 'I'd rather not add my name to the list of people you've knocked on their asses.'"

Kaidan laughed, "So instead you'll knock me on my ass?"

With a positively wicked gleam in her green eyes she said gravely, "Not until I'm cleared for regular duty. And anyways, better me then some thug on a mission." they lay comfortably for several minutes before Shepard asked, "do you want to share the Captain's Cabin with me? I'm sure another private terminal could be put in."

He looked down at her again, "Why?" at her look he explained, "I hadn't actually given it much thought, Shepard. Do you want me too?"

She smiled, "Yes I do. There's another officer's cabin down on deck three that Miranda Lawson used when she was my XO. I was just hoping you wouldn't want to use it."

"Hmm…" he said pretending a grave expression to tease her. She affected a pout, which she wouldn't normally do, knowing exactly what he was doing, "I think two and half years is enough time apart from you," he remarked and began to tickle her.

She fended off his attack by the simple expedient of getting out of bed. She turned to face him long enough to stick her tongue out at him before going to take a shower. Kaidan debated going to join her for a long moment before deciding he really ought to go get his things from Joker. He'd left his duffle bag with the helmsman for his talk with Shepard so he wouldn't seem presumptuous. Sighing he began to pull his N7 armor back on.

Author's Notes: Just in case you didn't know KIA means Killed In Action.

For the purposes of my story Kaidan was N-6 at Horizon. He wasn't wearing his armor because he didn't want to give the locals anymore reason not to trust him.

For those of you who don't know what a Cassondra Complex is it's a reference to Greek & Roman mythology. Apollo, in additions to his other domains, was the god of Seers. He fell in love with a mortal girl named Cassondra and asked her to become his lover. She said she would if he made her a Seer first. Apollo agreed and did so. After Apollo gave Cassondra the Sight she told him she would not have him ever. Rather then remove her Sight, Apollo let her keep it but cursed her never to be believed. Cassondra was the Seer who foresaw the fall of Troy. So a Cassondra Complex is when you know something horrible is coming but no one believes you. Harry was suffering from a Cassondra Complex in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Many thanks to my excellent beta reader Wyl.

Thanks to my wonderful reviewers:

Noelle1230 : Thanks! I hope you like the rest of my story as much.

jen4306 : Every time I think about ME3 it's got something to do with Shepard at least disagreeing with tIM.

Kassandra Black : I'm a big Shenko shipper as well (obviously). I thought that perhaps I hadn't handled them getting together very well.

Anne Onymous: I missed that one, thanks for pointing it out!

porcupinetheater: I know, I love Rock Bottom Brewery too.