A/N: Soooo I've been missing for a long while. Sorry. I'm not sure if there's anyone even still interested in this story but seeing as I have it finished on paper I thought I may as well update it. I'd love to edit all these chapters, make it all a little less terrible but sure, we'll see if I have time.

Anyway, I hope whoever is still reading out there enjoys this chapter. It's a massive filler. Apologies.

"I'm your commanding officer, so you have to do what I say."

"No, I don't. We're on shore leave, remember?"

"Kaaaaaaaidan!"

"No no no. Don't you 'Kaidan' me."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No!"

She looked up at him, puppy dog eyes in gear, and apparently they were working. He sighed and chucked a bit of crust from his slice of pizza into the now empty box.

"Fine, you win. But tomorrow, I get to choose."

"Yep, that's fine with me. Are you seriously not going to eat that?"

He opened his mouth to reply but she had already snatched it up and popped it into her mouth, closing her jaws tight to make a point.

"It's a remake," she said through her chewing, causing her words to sound only barely recognisable. "I mean, there's been tonnes of remakes, but this one is the most recent. Dunno why you're so against watching it, you've got the damn book."

Kaidan turned to look at the bookshelf and cringed. He had hoped she wouldn't notice.

"What's the deal with the books anyway? No offence, but I didn't think your pay-check was that high."

Kaidan scratched his head and stood up from the sofa, making his way towards the shelf. Shepard watched him come back with a book and drop down onto the sofa. He held the book out for her to see, and then opened the front cover to show some handwriting.

"They were passed down through the family. I'm an only child and my parents don't bother with reading so I got them. Do you really think I would've bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?"

Shepard pouted her lips and shrugged her shoulders, taking the old book from Kaidan's hands.

"If you don't like this then you certainly wouldn't like the original. It's all mushy and lovey dovey and there's no action whatsoever. I mean, seriously. What kind of book is that? I don't understand why people call it a classic."

"Maybe because it's a fantastic piece of literature that we'll never see the likes of again. Nobody writes like Jane Austen."

"Aha! So you have read it!"

"What, no?! I-"

"Tell me, was it the original of the adapted one? It was the original, wasn't it? Well, Alenko, you're about to watch Pride and Prejudice multiplied by 100 awesomeness."

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

"I don't have a choice, do I?"

"Nope!"

It was the first time he had ever seen Shepard gleeful; completely out of her element and out of character, but enjoying it. He couldn't help let a smile grace his lips.

"Stop smiling like you know something I don't and set up this damn thing for me. I don't do technology."

Later, Kaidan let out a sigh.

"Okay, yeah. It wasn't that bad."

Shepard sat up straight from her place against his side and looked at him in comedic horror.

"Wasn't that bad? Wasn't that bad? Did you not see Jane and her girls kick zombie ass? Dunno what you think, but they'd be pretty handy against a couple of husks."

Kaidan rolled his eyes and noticed that the black rings around Shepard's eyes were now slightly more pronounced and her eyelids were growing heavy. It seemed that the past few months of saving the world had taken it's toll on her. He smiled down at her after she had placed her head back on his shoulder and decided that it was time for bed, whether she liked it or not.

"Pan?"

"Ugh, what do you want, Alenko? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"We should go to bed. You're falling asleep again and you'd regret bunking on the couch in the morning."

No matter how tired and out of it Shepard was, she still froze after his statement. He said 'we'. Usually that wouldn't make her think twice; they'd just head off to their separate rooms. But when he said 'we', he really meant 'we'. It wasn't really a big deal. They had slept together in bed before, that night before Ilos, but perhaps it was the fact that it had been triggered by a heat of the moment decision made it, in Shepard's mind at least, irrelevant.

They were really together-together, and it was only now she realised it still hadn't to sunk in. She was most certainly being stupid about her sudden anxiousness about the whole thing. But no matter how much she berated herself as Kaidan stared at her, waiting for an answer, she knew she was going to feel that way no matter what.

She wondered if Kaidan had felt this way with his first girlfriend. Probably not.

"Yeah," she replied quietly, sitting up properly again but now prepared to actually move. "Fine. If it means you'll stop being a mother hen." She forced a smile.

He looked at her, puzzled.

Five minutes later, she found herself standing in his bathroom wearing a tank top and pyjama shorts, looking at herself in the mirror. She heard Kaidan in the room outside her door and then gave herself a shake to get moving. With her teeth brushed and her fingers quickly run through her hair, she left the bathroom to see Kaidan sitting on the bed, tugging on a grey t-shirt.

Shepard went red when she realised she was just standing there and staring at him, but was saved from her humiliation when he got up and came over to her, taking her wrists in his hands and then sliding them down to his own.

"Thanks for spending your shore leave with me," he said quietly, his voice low and simply wonderful to Shepard's ears. "We're going to have to make the most of it I suppose."

He gave her a small smile and kissed her lips gently, slowly pulling away and leaning his forehead against her own. Kissing the top of her head, he let go of her hands and turned to get into bed. He took off his omni-tool and tossed it on to his bedside table. The action would have made Tali cringe.

Fortunately, he missed Shepard awkwardly climbing into bed. When she had lain down on her side facing him, he looked into her eyes and pulled her closer by her waist.

"Night, Pan." he said, his lips against the top of her nose and his forehead against her won again.

"G'night, Kai."

The moment his arms had gone around her, she relaxed, and curled up beside her Staff Lieutenant. She had never felt better.

Shepard woke up, startled. Her eyes flickered open to see Kaidan's t-shirt clad chest in front of her. She had cuddled up against his chest and he had draped his arm across her waist again. He was sleeping peacefully, breathing deeply. Relaxed as he was, all of the stress and worry from the Geth and Saren seemed to have disappeared from his face, the frown lines on his forehead now smoothed out. But Shepard couldn't just lie there and admire him. There was a reason she had woken up.

Holding in her breath and blocking out the sound of Kaidan's, she concentrated on the noise coming from the kitchen and sitting room. When she heard someone let out a curse and the crashing sound of glass, she decided that it definitely wasn't her being paranoid and imagining it.

She looked at Kaidan, absolutely baffled at how he still managed to stay asleep and then got out of the bed. She heard him let out a funny little whine in his sleep when his arm was no longer around her, and then tossed himself over to the other side of the bed, swallowing loudly. If it wasn't for the intruder in the apartment, Shepard would have laughed.

Silently in her barefoot, Shepard pulled her open N7 hoodie off of the chair by the bathroom door and quickly rooted through her small bag for her pistol. She had put it there in case. Just in case. This was why she liked being armed at all times.

With her hoodie covering her bare shoulders and her pistol loaded, ready to go, she went through the arch way connecting the bedroom and the others together. She rose her gu straight up on the guy who was leaning over the pizza box covered coffee table by the sofa. He turned and almost choked on his own breath.

"Hands up and on your knees!"

The man looked terrified as it was, but then got a glimpse of her N7 logo and looked like he was about to pass out. All colour had drained from his previously tanned face. None the less, he did what he was told until Kaidan came around the corner, wiping the sleep from his eyes, and promptly dropped his arms to his sides. He didn't budge off of his knees however; his eyes were still trained on Shepard and her imposing pistol.

"Alenko, what the hell?"

Kaidan opened and closed his eyes slowly on last time before properly observing the situation. The man before them had broken glass scattered around him. Shepard hadn't even noticed her surroundings, and probably should have questioned why their intruder had brought in a stash of shot and whiskey glasses with him. She had been too busy wanting to shoot him.

"Whu…" Kaidan trailed off, and then realised what was really going on. "Really, Mark? What the hell are you doing?"

Shepard looked back and forward between them and had yet to lower her gun.

"Hey, man. Heard you were back in town for a bit and I thought, sure hey! Let's welcome him back! Obviously someone's already cut me to it."

Mark nodded cheekily over to Shepard, who in turn looked back at Kaidan, confused. She seemingly had no idea what the guy was talking about. For all the violence she saw almost every day, she was incredibly innocent when it came to day to day life.

"When I gave you that code so you could crash here, I didn't mean you could use it when I'm here. And come on, man. It's the middle of the night.

"Actually, it's only half eleven. Seem someone's been worn out." He winked at an oblivious Shepard. "Speaking of which, could you please ask your scary N7 chick to get her gun away from me? Kinda making me uncomfortable."

Shepard turned her head to Kaidan slowly, her mouth side open with shock. This guy had some nerve. Her eyes pleased with Kaidan, please let me shoot him, please oh please. And in return he rolled his eyes and sent a glare in Mark's general direction.

"Pan, I advise you not to shoot him."

"Please?"

He gave her a stern look. He was mothering her again. "I'll bring you to this great shooting range tomorrow. Deal?"

"Ugh, fine."

Shepard reluctantly lowered the gun. She sent dagger looks to Mark as he smirked back at her.

"So, how did you end up tumbling with an N7, Kaidan? Thought you were off with Commander Uptighty."

Shepard flinched. She felt Kaidan seize up beside her.

"Commander Shepard is N7," Shepard stated bluntly. She silently wondered if Mark was going to dig himself into a bigger hole.

"Yeah, but they'd hardly have two N7s on one mission, right? Anyway, I heard the Commander's really pushy about her crew and doesn't like anyone else challenging her leadership. Man, some of the stories I've heard… You'd swear she thinks she's N7 personified. Now I can't see a lovely lady like you working alongside that banshee."

Kaidan closed his eyes and took deep breaths, not wanting to even look at Shepard's face. The vibes said enough. Shepard, on the other hand, was keeping up the facade of politeness. She wasn't imagining this guy impaled on a spike at all.

"I just pulled a gun on you and you call me lovely? Stop me if I'm wrong, but by your logic, your judgement of Commander Shepard, shouldn't be from the rumours you hear then."

Kaidan opened his eyes and looked through his barely opened fingers on the hand he now had pressed to his temples. Surprisingly enough, Shepard was still standing there calmly; perhaps slightly red in the face with her jaw clenched. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted her finger caressing the trigger on her pistol.

All the while, his obnoxious, idiot friend, was oblivious to just who he was insulting.

"Mark-", Kaidan began, wanting to stop it all, kick his friend out and go back to the warm comfort of bed.

"Well, it's not like I'll ever get the chance to judge for myself, will I? Probably holed up in some training facility for her shore leave. It's sad really."

Shepard felt herself go red; not from anger, but more so humiliation after realising that if it wasn't for Kaidan, that is what she would be doing. She never knew the public viewed her this way, and before hadn't cared what they thought. For some reason, now she cared a lot.

She stayed quiet and looked down at the wooden floor, feeling slightly ashamed of herself. Mark noticed, peered over at her in confusion and then looked back at Kaidan. The biotic took in a deep breath and glared at him, and stepped closer to Shepard to touch her shoulder.

"He's just being a dickhead," he said quietly in her ear, well aware of Mark curiously looking over at them and hearing Kaidan's words.

"What did I-"

"You know, Mark," Kaidan began confidently, giving his friend a smirk. "You always meet the most unlikely people in the most unexpected places. Don't you think, Commander?"

He looked down at Shepard, grinning, knowing that his friend was most likely about to freak out and fall at her feet, pleading for forgiveness and his life. Shepard looked back up at him, the red now gone from her face, and was instead replaced with a cheeky grin. She dropped it when she robotically turned and looked Mark in the eye. He was pale.

"Pandora Shepard. Nice to meet you, Mark…?"

"Cl-clif-clifford. Clifford, Sir. I mean, ma'am. Commander."

"Well, it's good to know you've heard of me, Mark Cl-cli-clifford, 'cos let me tell you, the stories are nothing compared to how I really kick everyone's asses, own the galaxy like a boss, and personify the N7 title. Let me just go get a grenade so we can finish this conversation with a little more of a boom."

Her words were absolutely dripping with sarcasm, so she fully expected the guy to get that she was joking. Instead all she got was the look of complete petrification in his eyes.

"Please don't kill me, ma'am."

Shepard couldn't help but snort with a laugh. Here was the asshole, still on his knees, begging for mercy. I should totally keep this going for a while longer. Alas, Kaidan got there before she could continue her fun.

"She was joking, Mark. And don't call her ma'am. She's on shore leave."

Mark swallowed.

"Okay, uh… Ms Shepard?"

Remember, please leave a review! I would appreciate it so so much to know if there's anyone still reading :)

~Ted