"Another thing I never expected when I joined the military: to see a human tuck in a krogan," Alenko observed lightly. "It's never normal stuff with you." His tone indicated he didn't mind, that he'd rather have the weirdness as long as she was there to share it.

Not for the first time, Shepard marveled at the love of her life. Mr. Three out of Three, as described to O'Conner, yes, but more at the fact that he dealt so philosophically with the weirdness, with the craziness, with everything the galaxy tried to throw at them. By now she felt sure she couldn't get out of bed some mornings if he hadn't been there to share the load.

"All the things they don't put on the recruitment posters," Shepard agreed, still smiling wryly. If Grunt hadn't had so much to drink, she doubted he would have been as teary and maudlin as he had been. Still, she was glad he'd been willing to open up to her…even if she didn't appreciate the krogan snot spattered liberally over her shoulder.

"Ugh," Alenko recoiled as she removed the towel. "What is that?" he asked, indicating the mucosal mix with an attempt not to look as disgusted as he really was.

Well, krogan didn't do anything halfway; nose-blows included, apparently. "The little snot slimed me, Kaidan," Shepard sighed, looking at the mess on her shirt.

"…you want some help?" he offered.

"Please."

Alenko got up and helped her get the shirt—Shepard enjoyed the drift of fingers as he gathered the material from the waist and moved up—off without getting any of Grunt's nasal ejections on her. "That is so gross. Krogan boogers."

"Kaidan! I did not need that!" Shepard moaned.

Alenko chuckled, tossed her shirt into the laundry basket, then caught her up in his arms. "Sorry. Couldn't resist," he grinned, kissing her temple, then her cheek, then her jaw, then her neck, by which point she'd begun to chuckle and squirm.

"Me or the snot-related humor?" Shepard asked, not sounding too upset.

"Yes." He rested his head against her shoulder, savoring the feel of her. "Still, it's not Thorian goo."

"Ugh. The shit they don't put on the recruitment posters. And for good reason! That was the nastiest I've ever felt."

"Ditto. So, did you have fun tonight?"

"Yeah." Shepard wrapped her arms over his. "I think everyone did. I hope they did."

"Tell me something fun about your krogan adoptee."

"He doesn't want to call you dad."

"I said something fun. That's just expected."

"Uh… Shepard found she had to struggle to isolate the memory she wanted. "We—he…on the shuttle before we attacked the Collector Base…nervous krogan are gassy. I never knew that with Wrex, because he was Wrex."

"So Wrex he'd make my head hurt," Alenko agreed glibly.

"Anyway. We're all there, and it's a lot of us crowded into a small pace, and he just cuts loose. Then he giggled and is like 'oops.' And we're all well aware that it's too late to—" her voice hitched. She was always sensitive even to jokes about spacing people, having been spaced herself.

Alenko kissed her tremble again. "Kicking his ass out the airlock, as our Prothean friend likes to say," he concluded gently.

"Yeah."

"Glad I missed that one."

"I'm glad you did, too," Shepard agreed, aware that her voice went distant as the old fear from Horizon, that he had been on the Collectors' ship when it took off, asserted itself. She shivered convulsively.

Alenko turned her in his arms, so she could rest her head on his shoulder. "It's okay, Shepard. I'm right here," he assured her, rubbing one broad hand up and down her spine.

"Yes you are." She tried to make the words coquettish and playful, but the attempt fell short of the mark.

"And I always will be."

Shepard leaned back, looked into his face, noting as she always did the creases in the corners of his eyes, the occasional silver hair among the black, the gentleness of the brown eyes. "Have you been happy? With me, I mean?" she asked, lifting a hand to touch his cheek.

"Very," he assured her, kissing her palm. "I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never does."

"Me too." She rose upon tiptoe and kissed him, soft and gentle.

"Hey, we're not on borrowed time anymore," he murmured into her hair. "We're going to win this thing, and when we do, we've got decades ahead of us. Decades."

Shepard closed her eyes, liking the assurance in his voice, even if she didn't feel so sure. But she liked the idea of decades beyond the Reapers…even if she couldn't see if for herself. "Sounds good to me."

She wondered how long gestation in krogan was; she felt sure that, once Shar was sure, Shar would let her know about the good news. She just hoped that Grunt would keep coming home.

"Shepard?" Alenko asked, his tone spiking with concern.

Shepard opened her eyes as she felt the tears fall. "Sorry," she breathed. "I just…I worry for people. You know. Grunt has a girl back home and-and I just hope he'll be able to keep coming back to her."

There was nothing to say to this. They both knew that death was a constant possibility for anyone and everyone, whether they were out fighting the Reapers or minding the home fires. "It's going to be okay, Jalissa."

Shepard nodded, swallowing hard. "I'm just tired."

"I hear that."

"Can we stay like this? For a little while longer?" Shepard asked, closing her eyes and snuggling closer to him, savoring the moment together, as she always did.

"As long as you need." But his tone said 'for the rest of our lives.'

And she knew how terribly brief those could be. She tried to wrest her mind away from the slow, dark spiral it was already beginning to follow, but found it increasingly difficult.