A/N - (and yes, I'll keep this brief since I opened with an entire chapter worth!) if you haven't read Reflections or the previous note, please stop now and go back! This fic is rated M for language and adult content (though this chapter is safe) so you've been warned! As always, all the credit for the lovely characters and ME universe I love to play in and write about goes to the wonderful folks at Bioware and I take no credit for them, nor will I expect to earn anything other than feedback from my efforts here! That being said, if you enjoy and want to read more, the review button feeds my cravings (and yours!)
Kaidan opened his eyes to see his wife's green eyes smiling down at him. Kat's chin was propped on the palm she had laid on his chest and she was half slouched over him, grinning and apparently watching him sleep. It was a rare and welcome look for her first thing in the morning recently, and he found her good mood infectious. He smiled back, even as she tilted her head up to kiss him good morning. When she resumed her previous position without comment, he cocked a brow at her.
"Not that I'm complaining, but what's put you in this great mood?" he asked.
She arched a brow back at him and leaned up for another kiss. She pulled back enough to say against his lips, "Other than my excellent dessert?" before she broke off and kissed him again.
Kaidan smiled into the kiss, remembering the night before. Her 'revenge' for his seduction before they had gotten to dessert had been to bring out the bottle of chocolate syrup and make him dessert.
"Plus, there's the fact that this is the first morning that your son or daughter hasn't decided to make me completely sick," she told him with a huge grin.
Kaidan smiled again and gathered Kat into his arms and tucked her against his side so he could reach down between them and put one hand on the gentle swell of her abdomen. Even at four months along, Kat's pregnancy was nearly undetectable – except for the small bump he now cradled under his protective palm and the constant morning sickness that had plagued her from nearly the start. Even as he let his hand smooth over her stomach, expressing his love to both his wife and the child she carried, he laughed mentally at her habit of calling the baby 'his son or daughter' anytime it made its mother unhappy. Since she was the one enduring the symptoms of pregnancy, he cut her slack and took the hit gracefully.
He brought his hand up to stroke her hair, thinking what a miracle it was to have her here - whole and alive and completely recovered - after the nightmare they had endured the nearly a year and a half ago now. Trying to add the joy of impending fatherhood to that made him think his heart wasn't big enough to hold all the emotion. He kissed the top of her head.
"Maybe the baby will give you an easier time from here on out," he told her in response to her news.
"Hmmm, it's still our kid," Kat replied, but her voice was still cheery.
Kaidan chuckled. "True enough," he replied before his mind turned to more banal matters. "Busy day today?" he asked her.
Shepard had reluctantly accepted the Alliance's restrictions – no combat, no spaceflight until after she was off maternity leave – but she continued to work as an instructor in the N program. These days, she spent a great deal of time either in the classroom or on the firing range with the N1s. She wasn't thrilled, but she was still working, and Kaidan knew she secretly loved teaching.
"New group incoming," she answered him with a yawn and stretch. She rolled back onto his chest and kissed him again. "But I don't have to be in class for another hour."
"Really?" he drawled and drew her back for another kiss. He could think of a few ways to pass the time and he figured he could show her a few.
###
Four hours later, Kaidan stormed into the base hospital, frantic to find someone to give him information. He had received a page on his omni-tool in the middle of his advanced biotics field test and the terse words 'Captain Alenko injured. Taken to base hospital. Condition unknown.' had sent him rushing here without even an explanation to his students. He ran up to the first floor information kiosk and right into a wall of muscle. Large arms came up to brace both of his and steady him. Kaidan looked into the calm, steady gaze of James Vega in surprise.
"James, why are you here?" he asked, panic rising again.
"Calm down, Major," James replied and let go of Kaidan's arms. He motioned to a nearby elevator and began to walk in that direction as Kaidan fell into step beside him. "I came down here to wait for you."
"Kat?" Kaidan asked around the lump rising in his throat. He was too afraid to add 'and the baby.'
"Lola's fine - the baby too," James answered both Kaidan's questions though he had only voiced one.
Kaidan found he could breathe again and took a deep one to steady himself. He skipped over the many questions that raced through his brain and cut to the one that mattered most to him, "What happened?"
The elevator arrived with a ping and they stepped inside. James selected a floor from the control panel and turned to Kaidan as the doors closed behind them. "She was on the firing range with a new squad of N1 candidates, and was hit by a stray bullet."
The panic rose again, but Kaidan forced it down. James wouldn't have lied. And James had said they were ok, but part of Kaidan wouldn't believe it until he saw Kat for himself.
"One of the newbies?" Kaidan guessed.
"Unknown," his friend replied as the doors of the elevator swooshed open and deposited them on a busy hospital ward.
"Ok, James, what aren't you telling me? And why are you even here?" Kaidan asked in confusion.
The last they had heard from Vega, he had been assigned to Alliance HQ in Vancouver. After the reconstruction, James had decided to transfer to the military police. Sure, he was an N7, but there weren't many enemies to fight, and with the relays still in an only semi-functional state, the Alliance concentrated their efforts primarily on Earth. James had laughed when he told them that guarding Shepard during those six months of confinement had given him a taste for police work, and he had proved that he had an affinity for it over the past ten months.
"Let me take you to see Lola and I'll answer your questions later," Vega replied.
Since that fit Kaidan's priorities fairly well, he didn't argue.
She looked pale and somehow tiny, Kaidan thought, as he stood in the door of her room several minutes later watching her sleep. His mind kept trying to torture him with memories of another time, another hospital room, and he found he couldn't quite bring himself to walk over to her bed yet. He had spoken to her doctor before coming to see her, and the man had assured Kaidan that she would recover fully and no harm had been done to the child. The doctor had gone on to say that although he didn't consider her in any danger, they would be keeping her overnight for observation and to give her obstetrician a chance to ok her release as well.
She had been shot in the shoulder – a through and through - mere inches away from a fatal wound. Logically, Kaidan knew the modified armor she wore during her pregnancy would have prevented an injury that serious. It was only because of her changing shape that she couldn't wear the standard Alliance chest plate – they just didn't make a maternity version of those – and instead had to settle for a vest similar to old-fashioned Kevlar. The downside was it left portions of her shoulders and her entire arms uncovered. Since her work on the range was hardly considered dangerous, the Alliance considered it a fair compromise. It was something that Kaidan planned to address with the Alliance quartermaster on base – once he had his wife safely back home.
"Are you just going to stand there looking at me?" a very much awake Kat grumbled from the bed.
He moved quickly to her side and sat on the edge of the bed. He took her hand and kissed it – and again had to shove aside painful memories of doing this once before – then leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Sorry, I thought you were sleeping."
"Not anymore," she replied, clutching his hand a little hard. "Kaidan… the baby?"
"Everything's fine," he reassured her, and placed a hand over the bump in emphasis. "Doctor Kramer will be in tomorrow just to make sure, but they said there are no problems."
She breathed a sigh of relief then winced as her injured shoulder twinged. She shifted a little trying to reposition the sling that held her left arm immobile and he reached over and assisted her. When she settled again, she paled as she realized the implication of what he'd said.
"Kaidan, I'm not staying here," she pleaded, "they can't keep me." Both panic and tears were welling.
"Ssshh," he soothed, brushing her hair back from her face, and then a tear off her cheek. "It's only for one night." He fully understood the cause of her panic – even shared some of it himself. It hadn't been that long ago that she was confined to a hospital fighting for her life.
She fought back tears and panic, reminding herself that this was not like the last time, and that she had more than herself to worry about now. It took long moments, and she wasn't thrilled about it, but she finally relaxed and sighed – despite the pain. Still, she clung to his hand and couldn't prevent herself from asking in a voice that didn't even sound like hers, "You'll stay with me?"
Kaidan kissed her forehead again and then he smiled at her. "Where else would I go?" he asked.
###
They released her the next afternoon with a clean bill of health. They cautioned Kaidan that she would be sore for several days and her arm would need to stay immobilized. Since he didn't plan to let her so much as walk to the bathroom alone, he wasn't worried about following doctor's instructions.
When he landed the aircar in the parking slot in front of their small house on base, Kaidan noted an MP vehicle parked nearby. He exited the car and went around to help Shepard out, and wasn't surprised to see James Vega approach. He had been conspicuously absent while Kat was in the hospital, and if Kaidan didn't know him better, he'd say James was ducking his questions.
"Major, Lola," James greeted them with a cheery grin. He was in full uniform, but they were dressed casually so he didn't salute.
"James," Shepard greeted him. She motioned him over for an awkward one-armed hug, and then she stepped back and questioned, "What are you doing in Rio?"
"I was coming to see you," James told her, "I just got on base when I heard that you decided to use yourself as a target for the novatos."
She laughed a little and replied, "It wasn't the plan - just happened that way." She didn't see the tightening of James' face, but Kaidan didn't miss it.
"Let's go inside where it's more comfortable, and we can catch up," he suggested. He took Kat's elbow to escort her in the door and received a sharp jab to the ribs for the effort. He grinned. Despite her displeasure at his hovering, her stubbornness was the best sign to him that she would be fine.
They went inside and seated themselves in the small living room. After a few pleasantries, Kat finally leaned forward and cut to the chase. "Ok, James, spill. Why aren't you in Vancouver?"
"I've been assigned to investigate a series of bizarre crimes," James began as way of explanation. "Four people have been murdered – not just here on Earth, but throughout the galaxy. The first was an agent for Noveria Internal Affairs – Gianna Parasini. Several weeks later, a salarian named Maelon was found dead. Then shortly after came an asari named Shiala, and finally a turian general named Oraka. It took the fourth one for the Alliance to notice the pattern and get involved."
It hadn't taken Kat much more than two, but then she knew and remembered these people better than any Alliance intel agent was likely to. To her, the pattern was clear. "Me," she said to James.
He nodded to confirm her guess. Kaidan also followed the clear pattern – he either knew these people directly or of them from his time on the Normandy. But he asked the question that remained, "Who is killing people connected to Shepard? And why?"
"That's what the Alliance sent me here to ask the two of you," James replied.
