Disclaimer: The Mass Effect franchise and its characters belong to Bioware. Celia Shepard is all mine. Enjoy!
A/N: Sorry for the long delay in updating. I was training for my new job which kept me busy, plus I had many, many amazing prompts on my tumblr that gave me Shenko plot bunnies that I had to write. Speaking of prompts, the last half of this chapter was originally a prompt from eternalshiva, here and on tumblr, and as I was writing this, I realized I really wanted it for this chapter, so if you follow me on tumblr, I hope you like repeats. Anyway, enough rambling, enjoy!
Demeter wasn't what Shepard was expecting. It was a lush garden world, but it was quiet, too quiet, if you asked her. Their shuttle landed in the middle of a small city, and there weren't many people out and about.
"Keep your guard up, something's fishy," she murmured into her helmet comm. She gestured to Kaidan, and his omni-tool flickered to life.
"No hostiles, Shepard," he told her quietly, and glanced over at Vega, who was poking around with his rifle. He keyed in her private channel, "Feeling alright, Shepard?" he asked, a touch of worry in his tone. He'd seen her yawn a couple times, and she hadn't slept well the night before.
He heard her chuckle in his ear, "Stop it, Kaidan. I'm fine." She walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
He sighed, and tilted his head so he could catch her gaze, "It's not everyday the woman carrying my child goes out into a potentially dangerous situation."
She snorted into the comm. "I have been doing that for almost every day for two months now. I'm fine," she gave him a significant look, and stepped away, "Anything yet, Vega?"
"My uncle just pinged my 'tool," he replied, "It was pretty staticky, and I couldn't make out most of what he said, but I've got a Nav-point we can use to locate him."
"Just stay sharp," she warned, and moved ahead to take point. She knew Kaidan was still sweeping the area for hostiles, and Vega was keeping his eyes peeled for Cerberus or Reaper troops.
She growled when she spotted a Cerberus engineer placing a turret, "Take him out!" she bellowed, and with a burst of electricity, his shields were down and she was flying across the field at him, her shotgun raised to blow him away as soon as she made impact in a fiery burst of dark energy.
She heard Kaidan swear softly in her ear, and turned to select a new target. She grinned as a trooper rounded the corner, and with a resounding boom, she leveled him as well. "Damn it, Shepard! Wait for us so we can cover you!" Kaidan shouted, shooting a nearby trooper cleanly in the head.
She just grunted, and took cover; she needed Kaidan to deal with a shield pylon up ahead, anyway. "Kaidan, take out that pylon!" and she smirked as it exploded, knocking a trooper to his knees. She laughed maliciously as she fired her shotty, and threw a warp field to shred another trooper apart.
Kaidan caught up to her, and touched his helmet to hers as Vega called the all clear. "Bloodlust much, Celia?" he said quietly, and heard James' hoot of laughter.
She just smiled up at him, her eyes twinkling through the visor of her helmet. "Maybe just a little."
He shook his head and helped her to her feet, as Vega called, "He should be just up here, Lola."
"Lets go rescue his uncle," she grinned, and pumped her shotgun to eject the spent thermal clip.
James' uncle was highly amusing. They'd found him defending himself from a room full of Cerberus troopers, taunting each and every one of them before he sent them to meet their maker. They quickly dispatched the remaining troops, and Shepard was very interested in learning why Cerberus was there in the first place.
Unfortunately, Emilio wasn't able to tell them much. "Those Cerberus dogs just dropped out of the sky, started snatching people off the streets, and gunning down those that tried to resist. It was like a goddamned Collector attack," Emilio shook Shepard's hand, and clapped a heavy hand on James' shoulder before pulling his nephew in for a fierce hug. "Glad you showed up when you did, hijo."
James laughed, and pulled away from his uncle, "What are you doing out here? I thought you were on Earth when the Reapers hit?"
Emilio sobered, "I was, I managed to get off planet. It was pretty dicey, so ask me about it some other time."
"What about Dad?" James asked worriedly.
Emilio shot Shepard a look, and she grimaced, and moved closer to James as his uncle delivered the news, "He didn't make it. I'm sorry, James."
James blew out a breath, and rubbed his brow. "Okay. It's okay," he muttered to Shepard as she placed a comforting arm around his shoulders. "No love lost there."
"Oh, James, it doesn't matter, it's still hard to lose a parent," she murmured.
"Yeah, I guess it is," he gave her a gentle squeeze, "Thanks, Lola," he muttered, his voice oddly husky.
She stepped back, knowing exactly what the marine needed, to get back to work. "Alright, let's push the rest of the Cerberus troops back and head back to the ship. We'll contact Hacket to let the Alliance know the situation."
Back on the Normandy, Shepard left Emilio with James to help him settle in for the night. She also knew James would need to grieve for the parent he'd lost, even though from all accounts, Joshua Sanders hadn't been a very good father. She had a feeling Emilio was the best thing for James right now. She'd contacted Hackett, and he'd assured her they would take care of the colonists on Demeter. He was also sending a cruiser to pick up Emilio, Hackett was certain they could use him for something.
She trudged upstairs with her dinner tray, and dropped it next to her laptop, and looked longingly at the bed. She was exhausted. Chakwas had told her it was normal, and if she needed to rest, then take a nap. Thirty minutes. She'd just lay down for thirty minutes, and set her 'tool to wake her, and she stripped out of her sweaty clothes and dropped facedown on the bed, dead to the world in seconds.
Kaidan came into the cabin three hours later, and frowned at her untouched dinner, and was poised to chastise her when he found her sleeping, curled around his pillow. The sight of her made him realize his own exhaustion and his jaw cracked as he yawned. He made the decision then to join her, and dropped his own clothes to the floor, and pulled the quilt up to cover them both as he slid into the bed to take the place of his pillow.
He grumbled to himself as he woke from an elbow in his side. He heard Shepard's sleepy mumble for him to roll over, and he screwed up his face as he moved to comply and realized he was already on the hairy edge of falling out of the bed. "Shepard, give me some room," he mumbled tiredly, and went to shove her over so he wasn't in danger of sliding out of the bed. Their bed was a battleground they fought on every night, sometimes he won, but mostly he lost.
Shepard grunted in her sleep, her dark curls covering her face as she protested into her pillow, but she settled down after a moment, murmuring in her sleep. Kaidan rolled onto his belly, and laid his hand on her flat belly, a sleepy smile curving his lips at the thought of their baby growing there. With that last thought, he drifted back to sleep, still feeling crowded on the tiny sliver of mattress he'd been allotted.
He woke some time later, and shivered as he realized she had rolled to the opposite side of the bed, and taken the quilt with her. He sighed, and yanked on the quilt, and rolled to his side, and kept a death grip on the coverlet to prevent her from stealing it again. He heard her soft protest in her sleep, and stifled another sigh when she rolled over, and snuggled against his back, her skin on fire where it brushed against him. He squeezed his eyes shut, and was soon asleep again.
When he woke for a third time, he groaned at the feel of her half draped across him, her nimble fingers teasing his thick shaft, her head resting against his chest. He could tell from her steady breathing that she was still sleeping, and wondered what kind of dream she was having. He felt her small foot sliding up and down against his calf, and bit back a groan as the pad of her thumb gently brushed against his silky tip, and her long fingers wrapped around him.
He pressed his head back into his pillow, the effort to keep his hips still as her hand pumped up and down his length was nearly unbearable. His heart stopped when she pulled her hand away, and with an unintelligible murmur, she rolled away, curled on her side with her back to him. He rolled with her, and wrapped his body around hers, his thick arousal nestled against her center, surprised to find her wet and hot against him.
His hand closed around her firm breast, and his lips found the base of her neck, and he felt her shiver against him as his teeth scraped against her spine, his tongue brushed roughly against her neck. He heard the soft noise she made in her throat, and smiled against her neck as her legs parted slightly to afford him better access.
He knew the exact moment when she woke, her hand grasping his as he kneaded her breast, and her head tilted forward as his mouth closed over her spine again. "Kaidan," she breathed, her soft words lingering in the air as she arched her back into him. She gasped as the hand she was still grasping tightly slid down her taut belly, and her thighs parted instinctually as their fingers found her sensitive cluster of nerves, stroking her in small circles that made her thighs quiver. Enthralled, she mimicked his movements, her fingers stroking over her own flesh as he did, soft moans escaping her parted lips.
She groaned as he slipped a finger into her slick sheath, and at his husky chuckle of approval, followed his lead, riveted by the effect their combined efforts had on her beleaguered senses. She felt his thick erection rubbing against her fevered skin as his hips moved against her, and heard his soft pants and half-groans as their entwined fingers slicked over her sensitive folds, making her pant with anticipation.
He slowly pulled their fingers from her molten core, and with a smooth shift of his hips, pushed into her tight entrance with a low groan. She cried out as their conjoined fingers stroked her clitoris in rhythm with each slow thrust of his hips. She reveled in the feel of him, filling her deeply, and the ache he created each time he retreated, only to fill her again.
She cried out as her climax rolled through her, felt her muscles spasm around him, knew he was close as she felt him swelling within her. Another orgasm rocked her unexpectedly when his teeth clamped down hard on her neck, heard his muffled grunt as his own release took him, his hips bucking into hers as he emptied into her.
They lay panting, curled into each other as their heartbeats gradually slowed, and their breathing slowed to normal. "You're a bed hog, did you know?" Kaidan murmured into her hair.
"Is that what prompted this?" she wondered, sleepiness sneaking up on her as she lay there, relaxed and content in his arms.
He laughed sleepily, "No, you started this by jerking me off in your sleep and then leaving me high and dry. So I decided to finish what you started."
She smiled, her eyes heavy as her lashes fluttered against her cheeks, "I thought it was a dream."
"One hell of a dream, darling," he mumbled.
"You're one hell of a man," she smiled, and felt his arms tighten around her as they both slipped into sleep in the exact middle of the bed. This was a battle he was looking forward to for the rest of his life.