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The ship was quiet again. Shepard had been leaning on the back of Joker's chair in the cockpit, watching the stars go by and listening to him wrangle with EDI, for a little while, but it was really just killing time while the ship settled for the night … or what passed for night in space.

At last she sighed and stood up straight.

"Places to be, Commander?"

She shrugged. "Can't stand around up here forever, Joker, or I'll be reminded who's really in charge of the ship."

He laughed. "Don't you forget it, either, Commander."

"Cerberus is in charge of the ship, Mr. Moreau. That's who the Commander meant."

Joker rolled his eyes in the direction of the speaker. "Yeah, whatever, shut up."

"May I remind you that I have nothing to shut."

"Do I have to hit the mute again?"

"Considering that the last time you did so you fractured your thumb and were in pain for quite some time afterward, does that seem like the wisest course?"

Joker grumbled at that, but didn't have a comeback. Shepard shook her head and left them to it. Overall, she thought EDI was good for Joker, kept him on his toes … so to speak. Not that she would ever tell him that.

She stepped into the elevator, telling herself that she meant to go up to her cabin, take her boots off, feed her fish. But the button she punched was for a floor in the opposite direction, and when the elevator doors slid open she turned to the right and headed down the hall to the port observation deck.

Thane was sitting there in the window, looking out over the stars. He turned and smiled when she came in, and her heart leaped, a smile coming to her lips automatically in response to his. "I was hoping you'd be here."

"I was hoping you would come down."

"I wasn't sure if I should, but I couldn't help it. I've been … thinking of you."

"And I you." He watched her as she crossed the room and sat down facing him on the bench. "Will you hear my confession, Siha?"

"Last time we talked like this, you said you would explain to me what 'Siha' means."

"I will. But first … first I need to explain myself."

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, Thane."

"I know that. But I want to tell you this; I need you to know the extent to which you—my current situation differs from where I was."

Shepard nodded. "All right."

"I don't have to, if you would rather not hear," he said hastily.

"If you think this is something you want to tell me, then I want to hear it. I told you I was here for you, for anything you need."

"I have no wish to burden you unduly."

"Thane. What is it that you want to tell me but are afraid for me to hear?"

He smiled. "You are quick to understand."

"I hope so."

"Very well." He took a deep breath. "I told you that it was enemies of mine who killed Irikah, in retaliation for my actions against them. I want you to know that it was not my intention to put her in danger, or Kolyat. When I married Irikah, the hanar let me leave their service to raise a family, and I attempted to find a way to do so, but I quickly found that I had no other skills but the ones they had so carefully created in me. So I freelanced."

"Why didn't you go back to the hanar? Surely they would have helped you?"

Thane shook his head. "They had already done so. They trained me, gave me skills to work with, and then they released me from my service to them. By the terms of the Compact, they had done for me all I could possibly have asked."

"Did Irikah know you were freelancing?"

"Of course. Not telling her would have put her in even more danger. But … she was brave, and stubborn." He smiled at Shepard, indicating that he found those qualities in her, as well. "She refused to live in fear."

"Very wise."

"Yes. She was. Much more so than I." He met Shepard's eyes with his own, and she wondered what they were really talking about, because there was clearly meaning in what he had said. Was he afraid to be with her? But he kept going before she could ask. "When Irikah was killed, I pursued those responsible. Once I had eliminated them, I thought—I tried to go back to Kahje, but Kolyat was … older, no longer the child I remembered, and my sister and Irikah's family were caring for him more than adequately. Better than I could have, with no skills at my fingertips but destruction."

"So you returned to your battle sleep," Shepard said, remembering what he had told her before.

He nodded. "But I had no goal. I took whatever commissions came to me, wandered aimlessly about the galaxy. Eventually, I accepted the Dantius commission because I didn't know what else to do."

"With an attitude like that, it's a wonder you didn't get killed." Thane held Shepard's gaze meaningfully, and she understood what he was trying to tell her at last, that he had intended to be killed in the commission of his last job. "Well, if that was the case, it's lucky we came along when we did," she told him. She tried to imagine what it would have been like not to have met him, to have lost him in the process of getting to him, and still be empty and lost and sad as she had been after her resurrection, after Horizon. It was a bleak picture, and she lifted her hand, wanting to touch him, but pulled it back, not sure if he was ready for her to do so.

Thane was looking out the window and didn't see the gesture. "It was an intervention by the gods," he agreed softly. "I had … I never set out to do so, never put it into so many words, but I had resigned myself to death. I would have fulfilled my contract, and if Nassana's guards had caught me afterwards …" He shrugged. "I would have died in that penthouse, gone without a whisper. It would have been a good death." Now he looked back at Shepard, and his eyes warmed. "But I wasn't alone on that job. Unknown to me, someone else was there, pushing to reach the target, forcing me to move faster, challenging me. In order to fulfill my contract, I had to reach her first."

"I had no idea you'd planned to die in there. Did … did Cerberus know? Was that why the Illusive Man sent me after you?"

"No. They had contacted me, but I ignored the messages. They might have been able to discover the truth of my condition, but I question whether they would have sent you to recruit a dying assassin."

Shepard refused to look away. He wanted her to, she could see that. He wanted her to be reminded that his time was short, to rethink whether this was where she wanted to be. But it was—she didn't have to rethink it. She felt something in his presence she had never felt before. Not just desire, or attraction, but a sense of rightness, a sense of … completion, perhaps, as if in some way they belonged together. She had never put much stock in romantic notions of soulmates, but if they existed, she imagined it felt like this, like when you were with the other person it was exactly where you were meant to be. "It's hard to tell why the Illusive Man does what he does," she said now, refusing to take the out he had offered her.

Thane was silent; she could practically see him wrestling with himself. At last he said, softly, "So be it."

When he didn't continue, Shepard leaned toward him. Equally softly, she said, "Thane?"

"My mind had been dead a long time," he said. "Ten years asleep, ready to cross the sea at last. When I entered the Dantius Towers, my body accepted the possibility as well. I was ready. But in that penthouse a miracle was awaiting me. I met another Siha. Few are privileged to meet even one."

She slid closer to him. "What is a Siha?" she whispered.

"One of the warrior angels of the goddess Arashu. Fierce in wrath. A tenacious protector." Their faces were very close to one another, his eyes fixed on her face. "Shepard—Juniper. Siha."

"I'm glad you told me all of this," she said.

He blinked, surprised. "That was not my confession, Siha. This is: After you saved my life in that penthouse, I came to respect you and the way you handle yourself and the way you care for your crew. In our conversations together, I began to enjoy your company. I like you very much. And … in the process, I find I have come to care for you." Thane studied her face, worry in his eyes. "Perhaps I'm being foolish. After all, we are very different."

"We are," Shepard agreed. "I treasure our differences; I want to explore them." Her cheeks flushed as she considered the more carnal meanings of that idea, but she didn't take it back.

"Then … you feel it, too?" he asked, his voice deeper and rougher than usual.

"I thought I had been more than obvious. No one's ever accused me of being subtle. But this kind of thing has happened to me so rarely that maybe I'm more reserved than I thought. I … I don't know if we know each other well enough yet to call it love, but I feel it, Thane, whatever you want to call it."

His hands caught hold of hers, touching her for the first time. His skin was cool, just the slightest bit rough. She clung to his hands as her eyes clung to his, their bodies moving toward each other until their foreheads rested together. They sat like that, feeling as though they had crossed a wide chasm just to get this far.

At last Shepard sat back. She would have liked to kiss him, but that could come later. She would savor the anticipation, greater for knowing he felt it, too.

"I have never felt affection for another species before," Thane said. "I'm not sure what to do now."

She wasn't either; and there remained the question of whether they were physically compatible, which wasn't one she wanted to get into just now. Smiling, she held his hands a little tighter, letting him know she wasn't going to let go. "We'll just have to figure it out."

He smiled, too. "I look forward to the memories."