On the ship, Kaidan was curled up around his pillow on the bed while sleeping on his stomach. He was still in the nude; the blanket thrown over his backside only covering a bit of cheek and one of his legs. When the light clicked on overhead, his face twisted and buried itself into the white pillowcase. Shepard had just emerged from the bathroom wearing a pair of red boxers with white stripes down the sides along with a white towel being used to fluff his hair. Walking closer, he climbed carefully up on top of his sleepy lover to whisper in an exposed ear. "Kaidan? Kaidan?" he cooed lovingly while nosing the shell of it. There was an audible groan.

"Just five more minutes…"

"You've be out for nearly twelve hours now. It's time to get up." At least that was enough to faze him into at least open his eyes a bit as he rolled onto his back to look at Shepard.

"Twelve hours? I haven't slept like that in ages…"

"I'll take that as a compliment," he chuckled as he got off the matress to return to the bathroom. Rubbing his face, Kaidan forced himself to sit up. The hand almost immediately moved from his eyes to holding his lower back in a hiss.

"Argh! Damnit John!" Shepard laughed loudly from the other room before coming out with two glasses of water. He handed one over to the sore man before sitting down on the edge of the bed with his own.

"What? Shouldn't you be used to that by now?" Kaidan downed half of his glass before speaking again.

"Well, it's been awhile for me, alright? You didn't have to be so damn rough…"

"You weren't complaining when you were panting underneath me or when you came so hard, you passed out right there."

"I was caught up in the moment!" he blushed while continuing his back at the same time as trying to finish his drink. His glass was taken from him and both were set upon the coffee table. "Wait, are we still docked on Ilium?" Shepard nodded and returned to the bed to snuggle up on his side.

"The crew took a bit of shore leave, but they haven't checked in yet. Should we call them?"

"Probably a good idea considering Vega is the commanding officer. Ha, I bet they haven't even left the bar yet."

"Or he lost a bet against our shuttle pilot in a poker game and is desperately trying to win back his pride." Still visibly sore, Kaidan shifted his weight to lie back against Shepard's chest. An arm was wrapped around him after tapping at the omni-tool to make a video call. It beeped, and beeped, and beeped some more, but there was no reply the first attempt.

Nor the second.

Nor the third.

Finally, there was an answer.

"Hello?" Vega said as his face popped up on the digital monitor. "Oh….hey commander…"

"Don't, 'hey commander' me, lieutenant. Where the hell are you guys?"

"Uh," he paused while looking around. "We're on Ilium…still."

"…Yes, I am aware of that, but why?"

"Well, uh." His throat cleared as there was noise in the background from a Salarian doctor speaking about triage.

"…Vega. Are you in the hospital?"

"Well, I'm not in the hospital. Uh, personally, you know?"

"Uh huh. Well then who is? And why isn't my dad answering his comm…?"

"Oh, your old man is fine, Loco. He just…uh…didn't want to be disturbed."

"Vega, I'm going to give you to the count of three to stop dicking around and tell me what's going on. One. Two…Two and a half…" There was silence as Vega's lips pressed together. He then licked them over nervously.

"Maybe, I should just show you, yeah? Hold up." There was shuffling as he stood up to walk down a hallway and gave a knock on a door. He was yelled at, but let himself in anyway. It was a shaky camera, but Shepard made out a hospital room with his father sitting on a stool at the Kyo's bedside. "See, Shepard? Your old man is fine…but uh. There was a bit of an accident."

"Accident?" Kaidan interrupted. "What the hell does he mean by…Oh my God!" he then exclaimed as he pointed at the screen. Shepard squinted to clarify exactly what he was looking at before staring bewildered after he made out what it was. Kyo was definitely in a hospital bed as his father lovingly attended to soldering on a new synthetic arm. Vega gave a nervous laugh as he quickly left the room before speaking into the video again.

"So…yeah. That's kind of it."

"WHAT THE FUCK, VEGA?!" Kaidan practically screamed as he sat up now. "You're gone less than a day and the new guy loses a FUCKING ARM?!" Apparently, the shock had suddenly made his lower back feel infinitely better.

"Hey! Don't look at me!" Vega yelled back defensively. "That's between him and Shepard's crazy old man!"

"Shit," Kaidan sighed as he collapsed back onto the bed. Shepard just groaned a bit as he tried to make sense of the situation.

"Okay, start from the beginning. What exactly happened?" he asked, but Vega only shrugged.

"They aren't talking. Me and Cortez were at the bar when Kyo won this karaoke thing. Next thing I know, the curtain goes up and they're both gone. We spent hours looking only to get caught up in some, um, Batarian drug smuggling explosion with them smack dab in the middle of it."

"Batarian. Drug. Smuggling. You have got to be shitting me right now."

"I don't know, man. This Turian guy saying that he was Kyo's friend ran up to us saying that the sarge saved his family or something from getting kidnapped and then run over, but then, like, some damn…armored truck exploded after it hit them instead! Your dad managed to pull Kyo out the fire, but his arm was messed. I mean, it was fucked, Shepard. Doctors had to remove what was left, so your pops here took this uh, I think it's a Geth arm? And then, like, modified it into something I ain't ever seen before. He's got some mad tech skills, it's crazy. Funny thing is, the damn thing works."

"…Are you telling me that my dad modified Geth tech to work as a human prosthetic? Where the hell did he even find a Geth arm?!"

"Hey, man! All those Geth died after you did your thing with that Reaper shit. There's a lot of salvage out there! I mean, sure I asked, but then he looked like he was about to kill me if I were to keep asking," shrugged Vega while rubbing the back of his neck. "I see where you got your crazy from." Shepard remained silent for a moment due to how hard he was rubbing the space between his eyebrows and nose. He wasn't sure if he was even mad or surprised by this. Kaidan remained silent as well as he pushed himself to sit up properly and attempted to stand, but Shepard grabbed his hand before he could walk off.

"Vega, are they discharging him anytime soon?"

"Uh…Hold on, let me ask. Hey! When are you letting my boy out?" asked Vega to an Asari doctor who had walked by.

"Your boy? I'm sorry, are you his father?" she asked, obviously confused as she typed into a datapad.

"Uh, no. I mean I'm his friend. Why? Do I look like his father?" Vega then smiled. "Are you into single dads?" She just shot him a nasty look before pulling up the information.

"Ah, yes. He's free to go at any time. Is there anything else?"

"Uh, no…No that's it. Thank you." He watched yet another one get away but turned back to his omni-tool. "He's free to leave whenever."

"Then get your asses back here for debriefing. That's an order." He sighed at that.

"Yes, sir. We're on our way. Vega out." Shepard pulled Kaidan back down to the bed after the call disconnected to curl up against him, his face pressed against any bare skin he could reach. Kaidan laughed a bit, petting the black feathery hair of his distressed lover. A few hours passed before the crew returned to the ship. Dr. Chakwas buzzed up to the captain's chamber to inform Shepard and Kaidan, still in bed, that everyone had arrived back to the ship in one piece.

Sort of.

When the pair entered the med bay, Shiro sat alone at Kyo's bedside soldering the remaining exposed flesh parts of Kyo's shoulder with a protective metal alloy covering.

"Lift your arm now. Let's see if that helps take the weight off," he ordered and was obeyed. The new mechanical arm was lifted with wiggling fingers.

"Yeah, that's a lot better. Just doing the forearm strained my biceps. Thanks," Kyo smiled, but Shepard suddenly became very disturbed at how long their gaze lingered.

"Ahem!" he coughed loudly to interrupt the moment that his father and the young singer shared. This caused both of their faces to look flatly at him. Kaidan, however, was quickly fascinated about the arm and pushed passed Shepard to get a better look. It was Geth for sure; however, there were four fingers and a thumb to look like a human hand. He could hear the mechanisms inside as it moved about and was amazed at how smoothly it operated. There were no signs of strain and no cheap, jerky motions like he had imagined. He then couldn't help but poke at it, not sure what to think, and poked a second time trying to get it to react.

"I can't feel a thing, in case you're wondering," Kyo laughed as he poked Kaidan back playfully, but he jumped away uneasily. "It's like wearing heavy armor all the time. I'm actually used to it, so it's not that big of a deal."

"Yeah, but you can't take it off," said Kaidan wearily as he continued to stare in suspicion. "How the hell…? What exactly happened? I've been in plenty of firefights and explosions, but I never lost a damn limb before." Kyo looked to Shiro, who answered for him instead.

"It's not important," he spoke as he gave a firm look to Shepard. "It's over and done with. It was just an accident and won't interfere with the mission."

"What the hell do you mean, 'it's not important'?" Shepard protested. "You don't get to decide that! I'm in charge here and…"

"Leave it alone, Sol. I said it's not important." The voice suddenly became very fatherly.

"…I'm going back to my room to rest," Kyo muttered softly as he slid off the bed in an attempt to escape the situation.

"No, you stay right there and answer me," Shepard began, but was once again cut off by his parent.

"That's fine, Kyo. I'll meet you in there."

"What? I said…"

"I said it's fine, Sol."

"That…"

"Solaris Shepard." With his real full name being called like that, he made a face he hadn't made in over twenty years. There was silence, which was more than enough for Kyo to nod to Shiro and take his leave. Kaidan watched him go before turning his gaze back to a viable standoff between his lover and his potential father-in-law. With Kyo gone, Shepard spoke up again.

"You're not going to continue to undermine me on my own damn ship, dad." Shiro only glared.

"Sol, I'm over twice your age and used to change your piss-drenched sheets. I did the best I could with what I had and made a lot of mistakes, but I never taught you to whine so much. I'm doing what I can to make up for leaving you like I did, but you're going to have to trust me. Kyo didn't do anything wrong."

"Maybe he's right, Shepard. I'm sure Kyo will tell us when he's ready," Kaidan said as he put a hand on Shepard's shoulder. Shepard turned to look at him, surprised by this however, he nodded at the urging.

"Fine. Fine. Whatever."

"Thank you," Shiro smiled to his son and gave a grateful look to the other biotic. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I should check on him…so…" Shepard took a step to the side to unblock the doorway and watched his father hurry out of it. In truth, Shiro hated fighting with his son, as there was enough guilt between them already. Still, he was more worried about Kyo right now than the semi-hurt ego of his grown boy. Around the corner, Shiro walked into the bunkroom where the lights were turned off and Kyo was lying on the bottom bed they shared with his eyes closed. Quietly, he slipped in and removed a glove so he could touch the metal arm with bare fingertips.

It twitched in reaction.