Kaidan woke to an empty bed. He was surprised that Jane hadn't woken him. Shepard was the most observant person he'd ever met, there was no way she hadn't noticed the ring.
He glanced over at the clock groggily to see that it was just before 0700. He was honestly a bit shocked that he was able to sleep in that late. He was so used to waking up at 0600 on the dot for years that he had thought it was permanently ingrained. The high of the night before must have been enough to relax him to the point of breaking a habit more than a decade in the making.
Hackett was scheduled to be here in about an hour, which was plenty of time to get ready and have some coffee.
It was then that he noticed that the shower was running. Figuring that Shepard already had a head start on him getting ready, he opted to join her.
Kaidan jumped out of bed, and walked over to the bathroom. Shepard always loved her showers scolding hot, so the bathroom was full of steam. It looked like she must have been finished with the actual washing part, and was just enjoying the warm water flowing over her body. This was another simple joy that they didn't have enough time for anymore. Having a shower that was longer than 5 minutes, and instead of only washing away the grime from a battle, it also washed away all of your thoughts and problems.
"How about you stop staring, and come join me, Major?"
This was that keen observation he was talking about. Even with the noise of the shower, and her eyes being shut, she still knew he was there, watching her.
"Is that an order, Commander?"
Shepard chuckled as she opened her eyes to look at him. "I don't think I have the authority to order you around when we're off of the Normandy, Sir," she said coyly. "But if that's what'll get you in here with me, then sure, consider it an order." Even though Jane had command of the Normandy, Kaidan officially outranked her now.
"Don't you already know that you'll always be the admiral when it comes to our relationship?"
Shepard just let out a single laugh in acknowledgement, before letting the thought pass. "You know, I proposed to you, right? You didn't need to go get me an engagement ring."
"Ah, so you did notice."
They were both looking down at the rather simply beautiful ring, as Kaidan held her hand in his. It was a plain silver band with a smaller radiant cut diamond. The ring was not something that he thought represented Shepard well, but more something that he thought she would appreciate. She hated being flashy. It was something that would make a statement of their love, without being overtly annoying, or draw that extra unwanted attention easily.
"I actually got it almost 3 years ago now."
"What?" She turned to face him now, actually a bit shocked at the admission.
"Yeah…. You may have beaten me to it, but I've been wanting to do this for quite some time. I bought the ring on our last shore leave before Alchera. I had originally intended to try to plan some trip together for our next shore leave, but as time was going on I was finding it harder and harder to wait. I had finally just decided that it didn't matter where we were or what we were doing, I just had to ask you. That was the day the collector ship showed up."
"For 2 years, I held onto it because it was one of the only physical things I had to remember you by. Then after Horizon… I don't know. I guess I just never wanted to give up hope for us. I kept it as a reminder of what we had together, and who you really were, even if I couldn't see it at the time. And then finally, after Mars and your visits to the hospital, I could feel something pulling us together again. That's when I had the thought, that maybe if we actually get through this war, I'd finally get the chance to give it to you like I had intended to years ago."
Throughout his admission he hadn't really kept eye contact with her, instead looking at the ring, and all that it symbolized, but finally he met her gaze. "That is, until you talked some sense into me last night. So, you might feel that this was rushed, but I've just been waiting."
He could have sworn that there were tears building in her eyes, but it was hard to tell, being in the shower.
Shepard didn't say anything, she just grabbed him by the back of the head, and pulled him to her, aggressively to capture his mouth. Her hands were running through his hair, tugging slightly with her building anticipation.
Kaidan was easily getting caught up in the moment, but managed to pull himself away.
"What?," she asked, somewhat out of breath.
"Listen, I really like the path we were just headed down, but I don't really think we have time for that."
"Shit! What time is it?!". She quickly glanced at the clock outside of the shower. "SHIT! It's past 7:30 already!"
Kaidan just smiled as he watched her becoming frantic, knowing that it was plenty of time for him to get ready still. Shepard wasn't one to regularly wear make-up, but if he had to guess, she probably wanted to use a modest amount today, as well as dry her hair, so he would graciously grant her the continued first use of the shower. She was mostly done at this point anyway.
Both of them had decided to wear their dress blues, Shepard's with her skirt instead of her usual pants, and a modest pair of heels instead of her dress shoes.
As it turned out they had pretty perfect timing. The doorbell rang just as they were finishing up.
They both rushed to the door, and took a quick look over each other to make sure they looked presentable. Both gave each other a silent nod as they straightened out their jackets before opening the door.
Shepard quickly opened the door as they both took the standard salute stance.
"Admiral Hackett," They both said in unison.
"At ease," He said with a nod. He was standing with four armed guards, which were his standard entourage these days. He turned to them, and told them to kindly wait outside.
Shepard closed the door behind him as they all walked into the apartment.
Hackett was the first to break the silence. "I have to say, I'm surprised that you would openly admit your relationship to me."
With Hackett so readily agreeing to perform the ceremony last night, neither of them had been expecting him to even bring up the issue.
"It's not going to be a problem, is it, sir?" Shepard asked.
"Fraternization is far from our biggest concern right now, honestly. You're not going to be brought in for this if that's what you're worried about. Though it does lead to my first matter of business here. As is the usual standard for this kind of thing, I do have some questions for you both, as well as the added complication of your jobs, I will have to address some concerns."
They both looked at each other slightly concerned, before turning back to Hackett, nodding in acknowledgement.
"Okay, well firstly, I should say that even though you're not in trouble, the rules on fraternization are there for a reason. I consider you both quite rational people, so I don't expect this to be a problem, but now more than ever your mission's success is paramount. It has to come before anything else, and we don't want emotions to get in the way. I suspect whether you get married or not, it's not going to change how you feel about each other though, which is why I had agreed to perform the ceremony. That being said, if either of you even suspect that you won't be able to perform your duties to their fullest extent because of your relationship, then the Major will have to be transferred."
Somehow in all of their excitement yesterday, they didn't expect to be lectured today. The reality of the situation was starting to weigh on them, though neither of them was regretting it by any means.
"Understood," Kaidan said with a nod.
"Good. You've both done me proud so far, so I don't anticipate this being a problem, but I need you both to be aware of what's at stake."
"Of course," Shepard said this time.
Hackett nodded, seeming pleased that they were taking it seriously. He wouldn't have expected anything less.
"Alright. Well that brings me to the actual pre-marriage counseling part."
"Is that really necessary?" Shepard asked.
"It may or may not be, but whatever the case, it's the standard. I take the marriages I perform seriously. I'll have you know that I have a pretty high success rate, and I'm not looking to screw that up. This is always the first step. Especially with how rushed you seem to be, I want you both to hear it."
"Okay," they had both agreed, but Kaidan was the one to verbalise it.
"I know how desperate things can seem in the middle of a war. You try to grasp on to anything to feel hope, and feel alive. I want to make sure that you're both serious about this. If everything goes to plan, there will come a time that this war will be over, and passions can die out. Especially after the lives you two have led, are you sure that when things calm down, this is something that you'll still want to have after all is said and done? It's not something that you're going to regret?"
"I can't fully speak for Kaidan, but honestly sir, I've been craving normalcy for some time now. I take my sense of duty seriously, and this war is too important to set aside for my own wishes, but assuming we win this thing... that life is the one thing that I do hope for. It's what I'm fighting for."
"She may as well have been speaking for me too, because that's also how I feel, sir."
Hackett took a moment to take in their responses. "May I ask, just how long you two have actually been together?"
Kaidan looked over to Shepard, as she nodded her agreement to tell him the truth. "We've been together since the battle for the Citadel, sir."
"I see. I suppose this isn't quite as rushed as I previously thought."
"No, it's not. We simply weren't sure if we'd ever get another chance." Shepard said, giving Kaidan a half smile.
"Well, not that I doubted you before, but that makes me feel better about your abilities to separate your love life from your work. You both have certainly proven yourselves over the past few years, and this hasn't gotten in the way so far, so I trust that you will continue to work well this way."
"The last thing I want to talk about is marriage advice in general," Hackett continued. "Marriage won't always be easy, and too many people tend to give up when things get tough. When you agree to marry someone, it's with the intention of spending the rest of your lives together. To be able to have someone to lean on through the hardships in life, just as much as celebrate the good. They come hand in hand. When things get hard, and they likely will at some point or another, remember the vows you're making today, and why you made them. Learn to compromise, and to do so without resentment."
Kaidan and Jane both listened to him intently, making sure that he knew they were taking his advice seriously.
"Now, with all that yammering behind us, I have to ask, are you both ready to get married?"
Shepard and Kaidan smiled at each other.
"Absolutely. It would be a privilege to be able to grow old with Jane. With lives like ours, I'm sure we'll go through our fair share of hardships, like you said, but we've always been able to work through them in the past. I have faith that we'll be able to continue to do so in our future."
"I've never wanted anything more," Jane said, with a huge grin. "To growing old and fat together!"
Hackett laughed at her surprisingly informal response. "Very astute, Shepard. Alright then. I'm a very busy man, so let's get to it shall we?"
Shepard guided them over to the hallway with the waterfall, thinking it was the most picturesque area of the apartment. Over the rather short ceremony, they exchanged the typical vows, truly meaning every word. Devoting themselves to each other. They exchanged rings, however they opted to keep them with their dog tags for now, mostly because they would feel bulky under the armour that they constantly had to wear. Shepard decided to join her engagement ring with it for this reason too. They shared a deep, but respectable kiss, as they held each others hands, and laughed out of pure joy. Glyph even took a few pictures so they'd have something to remember this moment by.
Admiral Hackett congratulated them both before leaving, even giving Shepard a hug, rather uncharacteristically.
Kaidan and Shepard were both just happy to have that over with. The wedding was only a small part of their devotion to one another. Now was the time for the rest of their lives.