Commander Shepard sat in the mess hall wearing an old Alliance uniform Kaidan had kept from her closet. Shepard felt like an impersonator wearing the uniform. She remembered telling her crew that after all this reaper business that she would in the essence retire but all the sitting around while Kaidan was off doing his job made Elizabeth bored and more importantly lonely. Donnelly and Daniels weren't in the engineering level anymore, they were on Earth coordinating the rebuild of the mass effect relays and Chakwas hold told her Daniels was expecting. EDI had to dump her reaper coding before she became nonfunctional so now she was having a harder time recoding herself to that awareness and intelligence level. Shepard ran her fingers through her now long red hair everything was so different she was having trouble adjusting to it and after having to be brought back from the dead twice Shepard was feeling abnormally weak. By now Javik would have gone back to the scene of his last battle and said good-bye to the galaxy once more. Shepard hated when she wasn't able to say a final farewell especially to a comrade. She had been to scared to ask Kaidan about the rest of her crew and her old crew from her Cerberus days who had helped fight in the war per her request. Shepard could not bear to think that she had put her friends in positions to die it made her feel like the angel of death. Her friends like Tali, Kasumi, and Liara should have never been dragged into this war. It was selfish of Elizabeth to use her friendship with them to guile them into the war to end all wars. Shepard thought to herself that Tali and Liara must have regretted ever meeting her, without Shepard they would have probably never had to become so efficient with a gun.
Shepard walked into the med-bay carrying her loot from Kaidan's quarters.
"Chakwas?" Elizabeth questioned softly as she entered causing the older woman to turn from her work station to face her.
"Shepard is everything alright?" Chakwas questioned quickly before looking at the bundle in Shepard's arms and smiling.
"Now please do tell me you how you managed to get that many bottles or Serrice Ice Brandy when you haven't even been off the ship yet." A rare smile spread across Elizabeth's face.
"There were a few up in the captain's quarters. I figured Kaidan wouldn't miss them and I know I owe you a few. We missed a few yearly toasts." Chakwas smiled as she rose from her seat easing Elizabeth's burden by taking a few of the bottles.
"I hope you don't plan on drinking all these bottles today. I may be able to handle my liquor better than the average older woman but don't let that fool you into thinking I'm invincible." Elizabeth smiled and shrugged setting the rest of the bottles down on the counter.
"It's only four bottles. We can save some for later. Just didn't feel like drinking alone and figured I owed you." Chakwas smiled as she grabbed two glasses and pulled out a seat for Elizabeth.
"What shall we toast to this time?" The doctor asked as she filled both the glasses with the purple liquid.
"Being alive?" Shepard offered taking her glass and Chakwas nodded in approval.
"To being alive." Chakwas affirmed clinked her glass against Shepard and they both quickly finished their glasses.
Shepard relied heavily on the wall for support as she left the med-bay where Chakwas was left sleeping on one of the cots. Elizabeth made her way to the elevator crawling the few feet from the wall to the door of the elevator. She giggled to herself at the thought of people seeing her, the great Commander Shepard kneeling in front of the automatic door waving her hand trying to get high enough for it to open.
"Elizabeth?" Shepard could hear the panic in Kaidan's voice and he swooped down beside her wrapping his arms around her body to keep her upright.
"Kaidan!" Elizabeth giggled with excitement returning what she thought was a hug to Kaidan.
"You're back, it feels like you were gone forever." She smiled up at him.
"Shepard, Elizabeth; are you drunk?" Elizabeth laughed loudly while nodding her head.
"The good Doctor and I had more things to toast to then we thought." Shepard smiled as she rested her hand against Kaidan's cheek.
"I think I toasted to you more than once."
"You roped Chakwas into drinking with you?" Kaidan asked as he brushed some hair from her face tucking the strands behind her ear.
"My team just came back from a mission we could have needed Chakwas' medical attention." He chided gently as Shepard let out a small scoff as her head rocked to the side before she corrected it.
"I just so happen to know that you are a more than capable field medic Mr. Alenko."
"Dear lord Elizabeth how much did you drink?" Kaidan asked with a chuckle.
"You can't even hold your head up."
"Kaidan," Elizabeth started with a small voice.
"I miss my biotics, I miss sharing a bed with you, I miss who I was; who we were, and I miss all my friends." Kaidan stroked her cheek and placed a small kiss upon her lips which she leaned into eagerly.
"I'm working on it Elizabeth." He spoke soft against her ear as his hands rubbed her hips soothingly.
"Come on." Kaidan stood with ease while still holding Shepard the elevator opening.
"Let's get you to sleep and then when you're sober we can work things out."
"I love you Kaidan."
"I love you too Elizabeth."
Elizabeth sat up slowly her hands holding her head she hadn't had this bad of a headache since she tried to keep up with Wrex and Grunt's drinking. She heard Kaidan's muffled yelp as he rolled off the couch adjacent to the bed as he tried to get up and get dressed for the morning. Elizabeth watched as he shuffled his way to the bathroom admiring the way his briefs hugged his firm backside. She tried to repress a laugh as Kaidan tried to make his way through the dark. He knew the light would wake her up and make her headache more intense and if there was one thing Kaidan was an expert at it was headaches.
"Are you awake?" Kaidan asked softly his voice rough with sleep.
"Mhmm" Elizabeth affirmed a smile upon her lips.
"How you feeling?"
"Woke up thinking I was dead again, was scared for a few seconds but then I saw you." Kaidan chuckled softly and turned the shower on.
"Well now that you're sober, think you could spend some time with me?" Shepard grinned as she rose from the bed making her way to the bathroom.
"That an order Major?" Kaidan chuckled as he wrapped his arm around her waist pulling her against him.
"It is if that's how you want to play it. It's been a long three years Elizabeth."
"I wouldn't want to keep my husband waiting any longer." Shepard grinned and closed the bathroom door to enjoy reuniting with her husband.
This semester is finally over so I'm stress free and trying to work myself back into a schedule of updating my stories! drop a review!
a/n: I got a review about someone being confused about an earlier story arc with Hannah and Kaidan being engaged. That was all a scenario Shep was living through in her head which was conducted as testing by Tali and Brynn to make sure they were bringing back Shepard just as she was. Sorry if I didn't make that clear enough!
