They burst through the apartment door in a fit of giggles and a tangle of limbs. Amanda escaped his grasp, feinting right to the kitchen and then breaking hard left to the living room. Kaidan was hot on her heels, years spent on her six paying off now as he read every tell she probably didn't even realize her body was sending. She dove for the couch, most likely intending to use the coffee table as cover, but he was already there, vaulting over the back of the sofa to land - a little unsteadily - on the cushion.
Amanda took advantage of his struggle to regain his balance by darting back toward the stairs.
Oh, hell no. Kaidan formed the mnemonic before she'd gotten more than five feet.
Amanda shouted her surprise, her arms pinwheeling as she struggled in vain to keep her feet on the ground. "That's no fair," she laughed.
"All's fair in love and war, sweetheart." Kaidan crossed the space between them in two long strides and wrapped his hands around her waist. "And I have two words for you." He dropped his field and used the momentum to bring her against him, hard. The contact made him burn, but close was never enough. Not for them. "Six. Weeks."
"Six very long weeks," she agreed on a moan. Her fingers slipped up his neck and carded into the hair at his nape.
He leaned into the brush of her fingers and slipped his hands under the hem of her shirt, his palms dragging across the smoothness of her skin at the small of her back. "Hey, baby?" He bit the curve of her jaw, just under her ear.
"Mmmm... what?"
"I'm home." And he let his biotics flare.
Amanda gasped and arched against him, her eyes instantly darkening. Their lips met hot and hard and fast. Amanda's tongue slicked across his lower lip in a teasing brush before she fisted the front of his shirt in both hands. They parted only long enough to tear it over his head, and then they were on each other again, teeth scraping against lips and fingers digging into flesh.
Kaidan rocked hard into the cradle of her hips, seeking more of that delicious pressure, letting her feel exactly how badly he wanted her. Together, they stumbled toward the stairs. He coaxed her up a step and then turned her around, dropping to his knees behind her and roughly tugging her running shorts and her panties down her thighs as he went.
He grazed his thumb, live with biotic static, across her folds, and she shouted his name like a prayer, her hands clapping around the banister, her back arching and her hips tilting back toward him. He leaned forward and ran his tongue between her lips, splitting her open, reveling in the taste of salt and sweat and her. She gave a guttural "Oh, God" and pushed back into his mouth, and he lapped at her, driving his tongue into her, desperate for more.
He shoved his own shorts down his thighs and pulled himself free, grunting at how good even the pressure from his fingers felt. He lined her hips up and then stood and pushed into her, both of them groaning in pleasure as her tight, slick heat enveloped him. Bracing one hand against the banister for leverage, Kaidan withdrew and then slid back in, hissing a breath through his teeth when he did. She felt too damn good. His strokes were short and deep at this angle, and he bottomed out with every one.
They rocked together, his biotics surging with the rhythm of their hips, sparking down his forearms and across his hands. He reached down and cupped her, pressing his palm firmly against her, the tips of his fingers easily sliding through her slickness to brush against them both where they were joined.
With every pulse of his biotics, Amanda's hips jerked and her breath shortened. With every matching thrust into her, he felt her tightening, the pressure spiraling and building until she finally broke in gorgeous waves of rippling heat around him. Another brush of static from his fingertips, another push of his hips, and he followed her over the edge, pleasure throbbing through him as he poured into her.
Kaidan bent down and pressed a soft, open-mouthed kiss to the wonderfully sensitive patch of skin on the curve of Amanda's neck, his lower lip brushing against the scar below it. She shuddered and arched at the contact - making him groan as she spasmed around him again - and then slowly bent over the banister.
"Hey, Kaidan?" she murmured, sounding as loose and sated as he felt.
"Yeah?" He palmed her hips, savoring the softness of her skin, admiring where they were still connected.
"Welcome home."
She gave a happy sigh and closed her eyes, relaxing against him. From her hips, Kaidan's hands slid up to the small of her back, his thumbs working against her spine before brushing up along its length. He cupped her shoulderblades, marveling at the creaminess of her skin, counting the freckles that dotted her back and connecting them with the tips of his fingers, turning them into constellations and galaxies.
Much too soon, he slipped from her, pressing a gentle kiss to the scar that hugged the base of her neck as he did in apology. He crouched and helped her pull her panties and shorts back up, grazing his thumbs against the curve of her backside as she settled the fabric and then tucked himself back into his own shorts.
"Okay, birthday girl," he said, his thumbs traversing down the cords of her thighs, his fingers working into the muscle, kneading where she felt tense. "We've still got a few hours to kill. How does lunch sound?"
"Lunch," Amanda said as she turned around and sank next to him on the stairs, "sounds wonderful. I seem to have worked up an appetite."
"Good," Kaidan said, leaning forward and catching her lips in a soft kiss. She melted against him, practically purring against his mouth in contentment. He cupped her jaw, tracing it with his fingers before slowly pulling away. "Meet you on the couch in ten."
"Spoilsport," she grumped, but the easy grin on her face gave her away. She stood, moving to the living room, and he watched her go. He doubted he'd ever get tired of that view.
As Amanda settled on the couch, Kaidan stood and moved into the kitchen. He heard the television clicking on and the channels flipping rapidly as he pulled out plates and sandwich fixings and fruit.
He had lunch ready in a handful of minutes. After a cursory sweep to make sure he'd closed the fridge and the cabinets, he grabbed the plates and headed to the living room, passing Amanda her plate as he rounded the back of the couch.
She'd settled on the news, he noticed. There wasn't much of import as they ate - talk of fundraising for a new playground for elcor children, refurbishments to Huerta Memorial Hospital, a scandal involving the volus Councilor and bribes. Minor stories, to be sure, but still news. But then, as they finished and set their plates aside and Amanda curled up against his side, the top of the hour hit, and with it a repeat of the day's breaking story.
"Charles Saracino, formerly of the Terra Firma party," the anchor said, "was officially sworn in to the New York Parliamentary seat this morning after a landslide win in last week's special election.
Kaidan frowned at the screen as the newsfeed cut to a clip of Saracino at a press conference. Something about this felt wrong. After his conviction for tax evasion and the ensuing practical dissolution of the Terra Firma party, Saracino had essentially dropped off the map. That he would now have such a wide stage from which to spew his crap made no sense. Politicians like him didn't just rocket back to intergalactic prominence after falling so far from grace.
Kaidan's mind abruptly clicked into work mode. Politicians like Saracino - slicker than a snake oil salesman, just as duplicitous and successful because of it - weren't exactly a dime a dozen, either. Someone had wanted him back. Someone with a big enough pocketbook to make reporters forget the relatively recent scandals and either enough pull or enough blackmail material to make other members of Parliament play nice.
The implications made Kaidan more uneasy than he wanted to admit.
"On this, the day of her birth, I think it's important we take the time to say thank you to Commander Shepard - pardon, Commander Alenko, my teleprompter is correcting me." He had the decency to give an abashed laugh before continuing. "The entire galaxy will always be grateful to her for bringing about the end to the Reapers and the sacrifices she paid to save us all. However, it has been argued that in the years since, she has sacrificed the needs of the human race to appease the rest of the galactic community. From this position to which you, the people of New York, have entrusted me, I promise to put an end to that. I promise to serve the people of New York with integrity and I promise, should it ever be in doubt, I will always vote in humanity's interest."
Amanda shut the television off with an agitated flick of her wrist, her finger pressing against the power button on the remote with a sharp finality.
"I don't care how smooth sounds, he's still an asshole," she muttered, dropping the remote onto the couch.
Kaidan rubbed his hand against her arm, giving a distracted hum in agreement. "Did you know about the election?" he asked.
"Vaguely," Amanda answered. "The sitting member in New York's seat died suddenly two weeks ago. There was a bit of a scramble to find suitable candidates for replacement." She frowned. "I don't remember Saracino's name ever being mentioned in conjunction with the election, though. And wasn't he going for the spacer seat last time we saw him?"
"Yeah," Kaidan murmured, still fighting the feeling of wrongness. "He was. But it's been six years since then. Circumstances change."
Amanda raised an eyebrow at that. "But spacers don't," she said. "We had to buy three homes because living in one gave me cabin fever."
Kaidan snorted a chuckle. "Conceded. But maybe all three of his homes are in New York?"
"Maybe," she said softly, clearly unsatisfied with his logic. He honestly couldn't blame her; he wasn't satisfied with it himself. "But it's not really for us to worry about," she continued before stretching languidly against his side. "None of our homes are in New York."
"No," Kaidan agreed with a chuckle. "They're not."
Amanda stifled a yawn and stretched. "I think I'm going to take advantage of our perfectly empty, perfectly quiet house and take a nap before we have to get ready for dinner. Would you like to join me?"
Kaidan kissed the top of her head. "As much as I'd love to," he murmured, "I actually have some work I need to see to."
"Suit yourself," Amanda said with a grin, tipping her head back expectantly. Kaidan obediently pressed a kiss against her lips, chuckling and then softly groaning into her mouth when he felt the teasing swipe of the tip of her tongue against his lip.
"Minx," he muttered against her lips.
"You love it," Amanda said with a grin and a wink as she pulled away. Kaidan stood, letting his touch linger as it ran along her arm, drawing out their last point of contact.
"Wouldn't have it any other way," he agreed with a grin of his own.
"Wake me in a couple of hours?" Amanda called after him as he headed toward the office.
"Aye, aye, ma'am," he responded with a sharp salute, laughing and ducking the pillow she tossed in the direction of his head.
In the office, Kaidan sank into the desk chair and called up his omni-tool.
The buzzing had been a communique from Coetzer after all. Kaidan frowned and heaved out a breath. Coetzer wouldn't have risked passing him intel in such a bold manner if it weren't something big, and frankly Kaidan didn't want to deal with a big case now; he wanted to decompress and enjoy being home with his wife and sons. He wanted to not still be heartbroken by the memory of the little girl they had found in the cargo bay of the asari's ship who couldn't have been much older than Shep, her eyes too wide and knowing for a three year old, her hair too wild and her knees too scabby. The magcuffs had been so large and heavy on her too-skinny toddler limbs that she could hardly even lift her hands. When Kaidan had finally managed to hack the lock on those damned cuffs, she had thrown her arms around his neck and clung to him hard enough to almost hurt, her silent trembling so violent he had been able to feel his own teeth vibrating.
Yeah, it would take him awhile yet to get over that one.
Kaidan stared at the subject line of the email, almost willing it to change. He knew it wouldn't. He knew he would open it, that he would never forgive himself if he didn't.
But it was nice to consider being selfish. Just for a moment.
Steeling himself, he finally opened the email. The message was simple and straightforward.
I've taken this to the brass, and they haven't moved on it. They deemed it "insufficient evidence".
Personally, sir, I think that's bullshit.
Attached were several files. Screencaptures of emails, he realized once he opened them. It was an incomplete conversation, but one that was coherent enough. The first was an email to the Office of the SecNav from a redacted contact listing all known Alliance personnel who had been Cerberus operatives.
The second was an email to Charles Saracino's office saying that they'd found the list he requested. The attached document had a nearly complete list of all the official Cerberus donors. While Kaidan didn't care for it, the donations had been legitimate. Some of the donors had been duped, some hadn't. But Saracino's aims had never been too far from Cerberus'. That he would want a list of their donors made sense.
The next email, however, Kaidan wasn't so capable of being charitable about. It was an itemized list of all the ways Amanda had been detrimental to Cerberus's aims and how she thus might be a threat to Saracino's goals should they cross paths in the future.
The fourth seemed innocent enough, but timestamps alone made it suspect – it came from the same source as the list of Cerberus donors and within minutes of the list concerning his wife. It said simply "Do you have everything in place to commemorate your swearing in?" There was a return email this time, which read only "The guest of honor arrives tonight. Can't have a commemoration without her."
The knot that had been tightening in Kaidan's gut turned to a lump of lead. In truth, this was insufficient evidence by Alliance standards. Coetzer hadn't even been able to record the sender on half of the files, and most of them had probably been routed through half a dozen proxies, if this truly were what it looked like.
What the Alliance considered sufficient proof and what proof he needed due to past experience, however, weren't even in the same ballpark. While this was far from conclusive, it definitely bore investigation.
He spared a glance at the chronometer on the desk and then weighed his options. He still had ample time before he needed to wake Amanda. There was no reason to tell her yet, no reason to worry her. Not until he knew more for certain. He settled into the desk chair and opened the extranet.
It was time for a little research.