When they were finally ready to show Kaidan, Shepard was nervous. It had been over a year since her organic body had died - what if Liara was wrong, and Kaidan's feelings had changed? Or what if they hadn't, but Kaidan didn't accept her the way she was now?

Liara's blue hand slipped into her mechanical one. "I know you, better than anyone. You have nothing to worry about."

"Alright, I'm coming, EDI."

Even as a digital consciousness, Shepard was a soldier at heart. She straightened to attention as she heard Kaidan's voice growing louder as he walked down the Normandy's corridor

"This had better be important, I've got a call with Admiral Hackett scheduled for—"

Kaidan trailed off as he entered the room, and saw Shepard standing there. But it was confusion, not recognition, that crossed his face, for Shepard wasn't Shepard anymore, at least as Kaidan had known her.

"Liara? What is this?"

Liara looked from Kaidan, to Shepard, and back to Kaidan. She took a deep breath. "This is Shepard."

Kaidan's face darkened at the mention of his former lover's name. "Shepard's dead. You of all people should—"

"Kaidan," Shepard cut him off. When he turned to look at her, she reminded him softly, "We knew it was goodbye."

Kaidan stared at her warily, so Shepard cast a glance at Liara and tilted her head towards the door.

Liara nodded, catching EDI's elbow and the two left them alone.

"You said you'd fight like hell for the chance to hold me again."

Hope and fear warred in Kaidan's eyes.

"Well, here I am."

Slowly, Kaidan reached out a trembling hand.

Shepard fought to remain still, knowing that Kaidan needed to come to her in his own time. When Kaidan's hand finally cupped her face, she felt nothing.

"You're hard... and cold."

"I'm still me."

Tears filled Kaidan's eyes as he pushed Shepard away. "No. You're not. The real Shepard died." Finally his tears spilled over. "My Shepard died!"

Shepard reached out with a cold hand, and brushed a tear away with her thumb. "I came back from the dead once before," she said softly. "Why is it so hard to believe that I'd do it again?"

Kaidan gasped, reaching out to grab the table as his knees buckled with the shock of it all. Shaking his head in disbelief, he refused to look at Shepard. "No. No, no, no..."

"I'm right here, K," Shepard reminded Kaidan. "You didn't lose me again."

"Shepard?" he breathed, his voice laced with fear. A fear that this wasn't real - that he'd be allowed to lose his lover a third time.

Slowly, so as not to provoke another violent reaction from him, Shepard stepped closer. "I love you," she said quietly, words meant only for Kaidan. "Always. No matter what."

An ugly keening noise burst from Kaidan's throat and he grabbed for Shepard, who pulled him into her arms.

. * * * .

As the years passed, Kaidan's skin started to weather and his hair became more silver than black.

"People are going to think you're my personal assistant android," he'd joke.

But Shepard could see through his attempts at humour, to the insecurities that he tried to keep buried.

Old age wasn't flattering - Kaidan's youthful good looks were fading, his strength was diminishing, and the migraines he's coped with in his younger years could cripple him for days now. Shepard, however, has been upgraded: a synthetic skin applied over her frame had been sculpted to resemble her human appearance, and she didn't look a day older than when she'd died; a new voice module that synthesised her organic voice, so she didn't sound like a computerised VI.

But none of that mattered to Shepard. What mattered to her was sharing Kaidan's life with him, bringing him happiness and joy, comforting him through the grief that followed their former crewmates' deaths, and holding him through the crippling pain brought on by his L2 implant.

"So, when are you going to trade me in for a younger model?" he croaked with a grin on his eightieth birthday, his laughter turning to coughing.

"Never," Shepard promised him, brushing her fingers through Kaidan's white hair.

"But seriously, Shepard," he said, his smile disappearing, "what happens to you when I'm gone?"

Shepard shrugged. "I go on."

"I wouldn't... I wouldn't blame you if you found someone else. Forever is a long time to be alone."

"I won't be alone," she told him. "There are billions of people in the galaxy. I live among them."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know. I don't need anyone."

"Will you miss me?"

"How can you ask me that?" she asked him. "Of course I will."

"I think, in a couple of centuries, you'll have forgotten who I am."

Shepard shook her head. "I could never forget you." She reached for the glass of water beside Kaidan and held it for him as he started to cough again.

"Never thought I'd reach old age," Kaidan remarked, wheezing slightly. "Always thought I'd die on the battlefield. I'd hoped, though..."

. * * * .

When Kaidan passed away three years later, Shepard took his body to Intai'sei and had it buried in front of the apartment she'd won oh, so many years ago from Admiral Ahern on Pinnacle Station. The first time she'd died, the paperwork for the property had slipped through the cracks - she'd only found out she still owned the property when she was searching for a kakliosaur fossil for reasons she can't remember, now. So much had happened during the war - so much pressure had been put on her shoulders. Kaidan had helped her carry it, by the end.

"I wouldn't blame you if you found someone else."

She remembered the words Kaidan had said, several times over the past few years, but there was no-one like Kaidan. She would live, and remember. Always.