Thank you for reading!

Shepard lay back on the mattress, panting. That had been a particularly athletic bout; both she and Kaidan were strong and fit and not opposed to trying that strength out against, and with, each other, and to both of their ultimate mutual satisfaction. She was in command everywhere else, which meant she often allowed him to 'win' in these situations, let him take the lead. It was a break for her, and a nice change of pace for him … and he did it very well. For a man who claimed limited experience, he had remarkably good instincts.

Next to her, Kaidan sighed, a contented sound that made her chuckle.

"Did I wear you out, Alenko?"

"Not in the least. You want to go again?"

She pretended to think about it for a minute.

"Shepard?" There was alarm in his voice, and she chuckled.

"No, I'm good."

"That's a relief. Not that I couldn't, mind you …"

"Understood." She smiled up at the ceiling in the dark. He was a proud man, her Kaidan. Her Kaidan. That was new. No one had ever really belonged to her before. But he didn't really belong to her now either … he still belonged to the Alliance Navy, in many ways, and she to the Council. While she had some freedom based on her position as a Spectre, and he had some freedom based on his current assignment to her ship, they still had responsibilities that reached higher than a single relationship, and neither of them could afford to forget that.

Kaidan turned his head on the pillow, his eyes searching her face. "What's on your mind?"

"Just … thinking."

"I could tell. About what?"

"About you. Me. Us."

"I like the sound of that." He captured her hand and brought her fingertips to his lips, kissing them.

"And the Alliance."

Kaidan groaned. "That's not what I was hoping to hear about just at the moment."

"I know." When Kaidan let go of her hand, Shepard rolled onto her side, propping her head up on her elbow. "But I had a talk with Emily Wong—"

"The reporter?"

"Yes. She's doing a story about us."

"I thought she was about more hard-hitting stuff than that."

"That's what I said. Apparently she goes wherever the story's hottest, and today that's us, or so she said. She called us a 'power couple'."

"Really? Can't say I've ever seen myself as that powerful."

"Then you're looking from the wrong angle." Shepard poked his muscular upper arm, teasing, but she meant it. Even before his assignment to the Normandy Kaidan's star had been on the rise, and recent events had only served to improve his rep. She'd been surprised Alliance command hadn't asked for him already, to get their hands on him before he left on this next mission with her.

Kaidan shook his head at her, rolling his eyes at her unspoken pun. As his eyes rested on her face, he chuckled suddenly. "What I would have given to be a fly on the wall for that interview. You must have loved it."

"Well, better Emily than that other woman who ambushed me and made me look like an idiot." Shepard growled at the memory; that interview was still a sore spot, although the Alliance command had apologized for allowing her to be ambushed, and had managed to spin the interview in follow-ups so she didn't look as bad as she had been painted.

"Khalisah al-Jilani."

"That's the one. Fortunately, unlike her, Emily's good people."

"So what did you tell her?"

Shepard smiled. "As little as I could get away with. But just at the end she asked me something I can't stop thinking about."

"What's that?"

"She asked what we were going to do when you're promoted out of my command."

"Ah." Kaidan sighed again. He reached for her free hand and cradled it against his chest. "That's not anytime soon, is it?"

"I wouldn't bet on them waiting too long. You're a hot commodity, Kaidan. Not just based on your service record, which is excellent, but my own fitness reports on you have been deservedly stellar based on the work you've done, and you were part of the team that saved the Citadel. They'll want you in a high-profile command of your own before we know it." She paused, then said softly, "This may well be our last mission together."

Kaidan was silent for a long moment. "I was kind of hoping we'd have some time before this came up."

"I know. Me, too. But that's not the way the military—or politics—works."

He rolled over abruptly, pushing her over onto her back, his head hovering just above hers. He brushed the still-damp hair back from her face. "I don't want to lose you, Juniper. This, between us, this is the most real thing I've ever had in my life."

Looking up at him here in the dark, she could be fearlessly honest, with him and with herself. "It's the same for me."

"But across the galaxy, only seeing each other in vid-chat? It doesn't seem fair to ask you to do that."

"I want to, Kaidan. There's no one else I want to be with."

"And if that changes?"

"What if it changes for you?"

"It won't," he said, his voice deep and intense.

"You say that, but you don't know what lies ahead of us any more than I do."

"No, you're right. I don't." He dipped his head and kissed her softly on the lips. "What if we just take each day as it comes? For tonight, we're here together, and tomorrow, and then we'll be off on a mission together, just like we have been. Can we let that be enough, until we have to face something different?"

It was a charmingly innocent notion, and Shepard wasn't sure either of them was actually capable of closing their eyes to the future that thoroughly, but she didn't want to let him go, either, not now, not later in some shadowy future that was still only speculation. "Yes, please," she whispered, pulling his head down for another kiss, and then another. There would be time enough to deal with the future when it got here. For now, she was going to enjoy what she had while she still had it.