A/N: Sorry it's taking so long to get these chapters out. I am highly distracted at home right now and thus finding time and quiet to write in difficult. Thanks again to those of you reviewing, reading and following this story. And as always, please let me know what you think! And bonus cool points for whoever can guess where the title of this chapter comes from.

Just Communication

Shepard had drifted off to sleep while comparing the atmospheres of Earth and Palaven. She thought she might have hit on something that could be affecting the turians on a broad scale but filed it away to discuss with the doctor in the morning. She was dreaming of reports and statistics when an incessant ping entered her subconscious and roused her from her slumber. Groggily, she searched for the sound and activated her omni-tool when she realized it was the source. Her messaging program was being flooded with messages from Kaidan. She barely had a chance to skim through the contents, most of which were something to the effect of 'Shepard?' or 'Shepard, are you there?' or 'Shepard, are you awake?'. She yawned as she took in the number of messages as quickly as she could, but they just kept coming. She smiled sleepily as she opened one and responded.

'I'm here, Kaidan. What's up?'

The response was almost immediate.

'Oh, finally! Shepard, Hey. Sorry for waking you, I know it's late there.'

She yawned again as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

'Yeah, that's ok, Kaidan.' She wished she could hear his voice.

'Wha'dya need?' she asked, switching over to voice input as typing was too taxing for her still foggy brain. She smirked as she realized how much of her edge she had lost during the last several months. Not good, Shepard.

'We just got the NY comm tower up and running. Can you get to a vid terminal for a test run?'

She smiled, rubbing her eyes again. Leave it to Kaidan to call me for a test run. She could feel sleep quickly leaving her mind at the prospect of actually talking to him, of hearing his voice and seeing him.

'Sure, give me a minute. I'll message you when I'm ready.'

If she had been able to see him, she would have expected him to smile at that.

'Ok, I'll talk to you in a bit.'

Her sleepiness was gone almost instantly as she weighed her options. All of the vid-capable terminals that were connected to the comm tower were in the old church, and she didn't really want to get dressed and walk all the way over there.

Geez, listen to me. I'm getting so... lazy.

She fiddled with her omni-tool, trying to get a remote connection to the tower.

It took her the better part of an hour to make a stable connection to the comm tower, not because of any amazing security measures on the tower itself, but rather because she kept making idiotic, rookie mistakes.

I seem to have lost a lot more than time and muscle mass while I was out.

Chakwas mentioned difficulties with attention and short-term memory, but she couldn't keep from wondering if the good doctor might have missed something. Perhaps her implants didn't entirely fix themselves and were causing some other connections to go a little haywire.

Once satisfied with her connection, she sent a message to Kaidan. Setting up her camera attachment on the omni-tool, she sat in bed and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. The nights were starting to turn chilly, which only made her miss her lover's warmth even more. It didn't take long for Kaidan to respond, as if he had been waiting there for her message.

"Shepard?" his rough voice crackled through the tiny speakers. A grin spread over her face as his image shimmered into view.

"Shepard, hey." he sighed, joy and relief evident on his features. "Why are you coming through orange?" she could see him trying to diagnose the problem, his eyes diverted to some control panel she couldn't see.

Ever the fixer. He was always more of a tinkerer than I.

"Hey, Kaidan." She caught his attention. "It's the light from my omni-tool." she explained watching his eyebrows shoot upwards.

"Didn't think Hackett was allowing remote access yet." he said, skeptically.

"He's not. I hacked it. Besides, it's 2 am here. I wouldn't want to disturb him on the off-chance that he might be sleeping."

And I wanted to just talk to you without him standing over me.

"You sure you just don't fell like dealing with him after what he did a few days ago?" His voice was amused, knowing that she wouldn't let a little thing like an argument keep her from doing her job. "Or maybe you just wanted me all to yourself for a bit?"

Damn, he knows me too well. A brief guilty look passed over her face as she looked away, and she heard him chuckle.

"Water under the bridge, Kaidan." she waved her hand dismissively, ignoring his second question. The movement caused the blanket wrapped around her to slide, revealing a bare shoulder and the curve of her breast. She quickly caught it and put the cloth back on its perch.

Not that I wouldn't sit here completely naked if I knew for a fact he was alone.

"Shepard." Kaidan's voice was a soft deep purr, barely audible over the speakers. "What are you wearing?"

Her grin, which had refused to go away, turned wicked.

"Not a damn thing." She lowered her voice to match his. She didn't miss his eyes sliding shut, or the twitch of his jaw or the deep growl from the back of his throat as she slipped into the memory of her and their last night together.

"Oh how I miss you." he breathed, still lost in the memory. He took one more deep breath, and when he opened his eyes, he was back to business.

"How are things out there?" she asked, sensing that the intimate moment had passed.

"Bad. As bad as London at least." He said, grief flashing briefly over his features. "Manhattan is completely decimated. I barely recognized it. And the other boroughs were also pretty much wiped out. We located a survivor camp a couple hours ride away operating in the RF, but much of their tech went to shit in the attack. They've been surviving, but most of their supply stores are dwindling fast. Been using old solar radios to communicate and no one with the technical expertise to fix the tower survived, so otherwise, they've been in the dark." He scratched his head. "It's good we came when we did. I don't think many of them would have survived the winter."

"Small blessings." she smiled weakly. She could see the strain on his face, knowing that he had spent some time in the city as a young child before his family settled in Vancouver. She hadn't seen New York in years, not since her sister's death. Her sister, and her father were buried near her grandparents in a cemetery there. Now, that was likely gone as well.

Just one more casualty among so many. Her bitterness was like a millstone around her neck.

"How many got out of the city?" she asked, trying put on the Commander Shepard voice.

"Not many, five, six thousand maybe? Most of the survivors have been coming from the upstate area or neighboring states." He rubbed his hand over his dark, tired eyes. "Should be a couple more weeks to get everything processed before we can load everyone up and head home."

"When's the last time you had a decent night's sleep, Kaidan?" she asked, realizing the irony of their now switched positions. He chuckled on the other end, yawning.

"What was the last time I was in your arms, Shepard?" She could see love for her burning in his eyes despite the low quality of the video feed. She smiled a small concerned smile.

"Oh, Hackett will probably tell you this when you talk to him, but Liara and Joker are going to come pick you up... eventually. I don't really have a time table yet. He's finally letting Liara check out the information in the archives in Vancouver."

"Vancouver? Really?" his voice had changed suddenly. It was still tired, but it held an edge of excitement and hope. "What's she hoping to find there?"

Shepard knew that he was still holding on to the hope that his parents made it out alive, but no one had heard anything out of Vancouver since the offensive to take back Earth began. It could be as simple as not having access to the technology to contact others, or it could be that everyone was killed. Still, she knew it meant a great deal to Kaidan to know for certain, one way or another about his parents, and Vancouver was the closest place to start the search.

"The data they pulled from Ilos on the Conduit and their research into the mass relays." She caught the brief quirk of his lips that always happened when she mentioned Ilos. "Liara thinks there may be information on how to restart the relays in it. And, honestly, it's the best lead we have on it." His eyes widened.

"That would indeed be good news if it's there."

"Yeah, it could save the turians." She felt a swelling of guilt as she thought of Garrus. "So, they'll be doing a quick refit of the Normandy before coming to get you. Not sure how long it will take or when Hackett will give them clearance to leave."

"Liara going to the archives, with Joker on the Normandy, and they're coming to get me on the way to Vancouver? Why do I get the feeling that you had a lot to do with setting this up?"

She grinned at him again.

"Why, Major Alenko, whatever do you mean?" the mock innocence in her voice belied the mischievousness in her nature. He chuckled and shook his head.

"And that's why I love you, Shepard." He beamed through the orange glow of the omni-tool's vid terminal.

"I love you, too." she was surprised at how easily those words were coming to her now when they had been so very difficult to say before. He yawned again and she caught it as well.

Damn contagious things, yawns.

"I should let you go." he said, his voice suddenly tired. "It's late."

"Yeah, you need to get some rest." She tired, and failed miserably, to sound motherly. He chuckled, no doubt also recalling when he was always the one telling her to rest.

"I'm not the only one." he pointed out.

"Sleep well, and I'll talk to you later, Kaidan." She yawned out his named as her weariness settled over her. A knowing smile lit his face.

"I'd like that." He stared at her a moment longer before shutting down the connection.

She flopped back into her nest of pillows and blankets and wrapped herself tightly into a cocoon. His face was at the forefront of her mind as she drifted off, but her sleep was far from peaceful that night. For the first time since she woke up, since the Reapers had been destroyed, Shepard dreamed of fire from the sky and of the ghosts of those long past.