Disclaimer: Everything recognisable is Bioware's. Everything else is mine.

A.N: Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who commented on chapter one. I really appreciate the feedback and am thrilled that so many people enjoyed my little foray into Bioware's sandbox.

I plan on making this story a possible 'could-have-been' if Thane's arch had been rightly handled in-game. Thus, it will span through to and perhaps even past the end of Mass Effect 3's storyline. I will do my best to update it once every week or so, but this will vary a bit depending on chapter length and my work schedule.

As an aside, my Shepard's parentage is mentioned briefly in this chapter. If you'd like to learn a bit more about that aspect of her character, click onto my author's page and take a look at 'When there was life'.

To close, in gracious and humble thanks to all those people who enjoyed News, this chapter runs long. I suggest you enjoy it over a little time with a cup of your drink of choice to hand. Coffee worked especially well for me while writing it.

Yours faithfully,

L.G.

Catharsis and Reaffirmation

After the shock of revelation, tea, conversation and once-chaste affections lead to a request that's been months in the making, and an admission of what has long been known

It took almost an hour and a half's worth of tears for Amial to finally cry herself out. These weren't small tears either. Not the 'dab the eyes with a handkerchief and get on the with day' kind. These were the ones that left you utterly useless as they passed on through. That made eyes run like rivers and stole breath; made sobs come up as howling cries and buckled knees.

And she was perfectly ok with that.

Thane was with her.

He was HEALTHY.

And here, hidden against his chest..with his arms around her and hers around him..finally...finally...she could cry.

They could cry.

For remembered pain and futility. For relief. For nights spent light-years apart with nothing but worries to plague them. For every time Ami had had to leave the medbay on the Normandy to keep from breaking down just like this at the sight of her poor mate losing his fight. For every time she had swallowed those tears and for the fact that she'd never have to again, they wept together.

By the time the tears had come and gone, she felt about as useful and limp as a wet ramen noodle. Her cheeks were blotchy and damp. Her nose was running and stuffed up all at once. Her eyes were sore, her head was pounding, and…she felt Thane's cool fingertips touch her chin, tipping it back and drawing her eyes to his.

For a long moment he simply looked upon her, his fingertips stroking over her cheeks, her brow, coaxing her eyes to close as they drifted over their lids.

A breath then - his breath - was blown gently over her face.

It took a beat for her to catch on, but when she realised quite what he was up to she was so touched that an entirely involuntary sigh of contentment escaped her lips. He was trying to cool her skin down. To soothe the redness and warmth that crying brought to the face of even the most stoic soldier. She let herself bask in the feeling, a cool breeze on too warm skin always welcome, and opened her eyes as her mate's puff eased. He was looking at her with such concern that her heart clenched.

"Are you well, Siha?" he asked as he pressed a tissue, hastily plucked from the box on his nightstand, into her hand; his voice low and respectful of their proximity.

The composure Ami was just beginning to regain gave a wobble at his attentiveness, but she caught herself; unwilling to lose another second of their time together to tears. "Just a bit…shaky but...yeah-" she croaked, giving him a watery smile and leaning her cheek into his cradling palm. "-Are you?"

"The same...but…yeah" he hushed, purposefully mimicking her turn of phrase and delighting in the smile it earned him as he drew her close and canted his head to the left slightly so she could hide her face against his throat.

As she rested there, slumped and spent against Thane as he embraced her, Ami began gathering her wits; to put herself back together, bit by bit, in the aftermath of what had to have been the most emotionally testing experience of her life to date. Everything else...Elysium...losing her father to the Attican Traverse when she was nought but a nipper…even losing Kaidan to Virmire- They couldn't touch this. Not because they were lesser somehow.

Never that.

But those past times, even Elysium, which had won her medals and respect across the entire fleet, all represented things she had lost. People she had lost. Today, the most important person in her life - and she was ready to admit to herself that he was that, and had been for over a year - had been given BACK to her. And the relief- God. The relief that fact brought had hit her so hard that she was convinced it had destroyed and remade her in the second it took Thane to answer her 'Are you sick?' with, 'No I'm not'.

It made her breath hitch to think about it, even now, over an hour after the fact, and sent new tears, small ones this time, gentle in comparison to how she had gone to pieces before, rolling down her cheeks. She thought, since she was hidden away, that they were safe there - that Thane wouldn't see them and therefore wouldn't fret about her emotional state - but she'd underestimated him. He'd known as soon as he felt that hitch in her breathing, and tightened his embrace about her in response before easing back a little so he could see her face.

"You weep still" he murmured, stroking away a droplet as it meandered down her cheek. "Tell me what pains you."

Ami's eyes flickered briefly closed at his touch, and she smiled through the minor break in her resolve to cry no further. "They're happy tears" she replied, blowing a soft breath through her lips as she forced herself to calm. "They all were. But these ones especially. I'm just-" Her voice gave out mid-sentence, the thought it had carried lost, and she dipped her head bashfully to cover the slip; huffing out a wavering beat of laughter and reaching, with a polite pause to allow her beau to assent, to carefully refasten the buttons on his shirt.

Thane looked on with concern-edged affection, lightly cupping her hands in his as she worked. Not to impede or stifle. Rather, simply for the pleasure of feeling her fingers moving beneath his hands as he contemplated ways in which to help her settle a little easier. He looked back through his memories of their time together, searching for a circumstance comparable to this for guidance on how best to proceed, but realised quickly that there was no exact precedent to work off of. He had seen his Siha express everything from apoplectic rage to the most tender affection, but had never once had the opportunity to experience quite this facet of her personality. How could he have? At what point in their time together had there been cause for the release of a year's-worth of pent-up despair in an instant of shattering relief?

One thing he knew with certainty however, was that lingering on something that was causing her upset, even if that upset was brought on by relief, would not calm her in any which way. To that end, distraction was in order. For both of them.

But what kind?

Since he and his Siha dealt with crushingly emotional moments quite differently, finding something suitable would require careful thought. Ami was a more…demonstrative creature than he when it came to dealing with such things. She paced and dragged her fingers through her hair when she was angry or frustrated. Excitement gave her hands life as she spoke, and distress, though it turned her quiet, made her tense and jittery. She would try and divert her mind by picking at things, usually her cuffs, gloves or collar, though a data pad did in a pinch. Her work with his buttons was typical of this, and was as much an exercise in self-comfort as it was an effort to neaten him up a bit.

It wouldn't tide her over for long though.

She'd unfastened and then refastened the top three twice already.

He, on the other hand, given his generally introverted nature and predominantly Hanar upbringing, most often found comfort after times of high emotion by centring himself through meditation and prayer. Doing this allowed him to calm his mind, and made it less likely that he would lapse into a solipsistic episode, recalling the moment that had touched him and, because of the clarity of that recollection, redoubling its impact.

This penchant was not without exception however, particularly when he was in the company of a loved one. He was just as likely as she to find comfort in the simple fact that she was with him. In being able to linger near her, even if they did nothing but remain close. Now though, something more active than simple presence was needed. Something they could properly focus on.

As he pondered, Thane took a glance around the room, in search of inspiration. The night table was of no help. While it housed numerous of his effects, he doubted his Siha would find any of them particularly engaging, and the holo-frame that made its home on top would likely cause her to dwell on memories in which he was still struggling with his illness, not distract her from dwelling, period.

He knew also that his prayer books, sitting on the shelf above them, would do little to ease her. While she respected his beliefs, and had on occasion sat with him to listen to him reading through passages he particularly enjoyed, he knew from how her ear had been leant to his back or his chest as he read that she was sampling his voice, less the words he was saying. Though he had enjoyed this greatly, the warm weight of her resting against him always a comfort, something more active was needed now.

Something she could help with.

That they would both enjoy.

He considered this as his gaze moved out around the room, finding the windows, then the table and…There. Inspiration came in the form of his collection of black-based mugs.

Through all their enforced absence from each other, Ami had kept herself company with memories of her beau. Thoughts of his voice and its rhythms, his grace, his speed, his mind and how he expressed himself…All these things occupied her in the dull silence of her lonely Vancouver nights.

Being human though meant that her memory was nothing if not imperfect, and she had cursed herself for that during her incarceration. Entire evenings were spent wondering on what it would be like to perfectly recall, like Thane could, her favourite of his kisses, the perfection of their first embrace as lovers or the moment when, sat at the mess table on an otherwise routine evening, she had actually made him jump by stroking his ankle with her bare toes. All these things, she thought, would be made all the more special if she could record every detail for posterity's sake.

It was times like this though, times like now - when he was engaged in some careful task or other - that the merits of an imperfect memory truly outweighed its burdens. It meant she got to watch, her wonder at the grace of his hands undimmed by access to an endless stock of memories, as he fastidiously extracted a rectangular something from its box and sat it on his table.

As yet, she hadn't the foggiest idea what the man was up to. Not five minutes ago they had been settled side by side on his bed, taking their time in calming each other in the aftermath of his revelation about his returning health. And now, she was rubbing her cheeks clean with the tissue he'd given her while watching him tinker with a...a...

What was that thing?

She lingered close and bent to examine it as he aligned the object just so, his fingertips pointedly lingering on its edges before he was engrossed with tidying away the box it came in.

Unwilling to disturb Thane's particular placement of the something, or indeed risk breaking it, Ami squashed the urge to reach and stroke the edge that his fingers had just left, and instead braced her hands on the table and gave it a proper looking at. It was silver coloured, about a foot tall from top to base, had no visible panels or buttons on it, and its surface was buffed to such a shine that it put her dress shoes to shame. Of these details, that last one stuck with her. She had a hunch about it and leant, peeping around at the edge Thane had last touched-

Fingerprints.

He'd left behind four little smudged fingerprints when he'd straightened it up.

Righting herself again as her mate approached, she couldn't help but grin. He was borderline obsessive about the neatness of his possessions, and she was damn sure that keeping this rectangular box of shiny metal clean would be driving him up the wall.

"So" she said, watching as a pair of water bottles and a small circular pot were set beside 'it' and just, just managing to stop herself from laughing when those fingerprints she'd noticed were also noticed, and promptly set upon, by he who left them. "What's it for?"

"It was a gift from Kolyat" Thane explained, rubbing away at the marks with a handkerchief he produced from his pocket. Once he was satisfied, he touched the very tip of his index finger to the centre of the front-facing side of the object, and watched with quiet pride as its interface lit up. With a couple of practiced clicks, the lower portion of the front panel was coaxed into sliding gracefully aside, exposing space enough for a single mug within.

"Tea, Siha?" he asked cordially, nodding towards the small clutch of mugs arranged neatly in the centre of the table, and noting with private relief that her face was quickly losing the ruddy red blotches that her tears had left in their wake.

For a second or two, all Ami could do was stare. "Tea?" she laughed, reaching over to collect a couple of the mugs and handing them over carefully. "Kolyat brought you a tea maker?"

"He did" Thane grinned, accepting them with a murmured 'Thank you' and setting the first, hers of course, inside the object of her curiosity. She watched him closely as he arranged it with as much care as he had the tea maker itself, giving the interface a tap to close the front panel once he was satisfied that all was as it should be. Another tap opened a small port on the device's top, into which the first bottle of water was decanted with great care.

"He told me" he recounted as he worked, "that he wanted to do something tangible to help me feel better. For all I tried to dissuade him, he decided that this might do the trick."

"That was really sweet of him" Ami noted, trying to square her last memory of Kolyat - frightened, bloody-lipped by her fist and so damn angry - with the knowledge that, beneath all that, he had something better about him than she knew. It seemed, she thought, that the young man had decided to get to know his father better despite the animosity he had felt towards him. How else would he have picked out such an oddly appropriate gift? By chance? Maybe. But she liked to think that he'd taken the time to get to know his father enough that both his love of tea, and his habit of fiddling with pernickety bits of technology, had come up in conversation.

She was drawn from her musings as Thane manoeuvred her in front of him, setting down the bottle and embracing her from behind.

"It was thoughtful of him, yes" he agreed, gesturing towards the glowing interface and revelling in being able to share something so charmingly domestic as making tea with her. "The top button, Siha" he instructed, finding the shocked glance she gave him over her shoulder greatly endearing.

"You want me to?" she asked, her disbelief at his allowing her to even consider interacting with something so delicate obvious. Her propensity to accidentally do murder on small household appliances had been legendary aboard the Normandy. It wasn't that she tried to do it. She simply forgot, on occasion, that not all tech was military grade. Thus, she was less careful than she ought to be and…well...the appliance, usually a coffeepot that caught her on the wrong side of 5am, would come off second best. With this in mind, the fact that her mate, who was equally as well known for how well he cared for his belongings, would think to let her within this one's minimum safe distance was astounding to her.

His mind though, it seemed, was made up.

"Of course" he encouraged, giving the shell of her right ear a gentle stroke as she goggled at him. Though her shock tickled him, he kept his tone warm and his face more or less straight as he directed her back to the panel. After an uncertain pause, she reached out.

"The top one, right?" she asked, fingers hovering.

"Yes."

She pressed it as instructed, and watched as the contraption she was sure, moments ago, that she'd break by simply breathing near it, closed itself up briefly before a slim draw poked out towards her. Had she less control over her wits, she'd think the thing was poking its tongue out at her.

"Ok" she said, looking back at her beau quickly. "What's it asking for now?"

"Tea, of course" he smiled, reaching around her and bringing the little circular pot he had fetched over front and centre. "I'd recommend no more than one spoonful. The blend is potent."

"Gottcha" Ami nodded, pursing her lips in concentration as she opened the little pot. A delicate looking silver spoon, tiny and slender, sat amid dried black tea leaves, and she used it to carefully confer no more than Thane's recommendation into the tea maker's draw. Once she was done, she sat both pot and spoon back down carefully on the table and inclined her head to speak to Thane.

"And...top again?" she asked, her fingers hovering over the button. She gave it a press at his rumbled affirmative, watching as the appliance closed up and hummed into life. When the 'brewing in progress' icon popped up on the interface, she couldn't help herself.

"Heeeey!" she cheered, pointing at the little animated cup slowly filling up and giving a fist-pump at her success. "Did it!"

"Well done" Thane drawled wryly, muffling the chuckle that her little celebration drew from him by kissing the crown of her head. Ami didn't miss the snickering note in his voice though, and grumbled amiably while shifting in his arms and leaning into him carefully. He appreciated her caution, his chest still faintly sore if encountered without care, and tightened his embrace about her in thanks.

"I know you" she said, crossing her arms over his at her waist and smiling when she felt him rest his chin to the top of her head. "You wouldn't let me within ten feet of the thing if you really thought I'd kill it."

"Twenty feet, actually" he quipped, expecting and accepting her huff of mock indignation and the little chastising pat on the wrist she gave him for his wit.

"Fine, fine, twenty" she groused light-heartedly, catching his backhanded flattery only because she'd learned to pick it out through knowing him for as long as she had. "But I'm taking that as a compliment you know." She craned her neck around a little, her mate relaxing his grip upon her and meeting her eyes over her left shoulder.

"That you'd let me this close after so much caution" she said, decoding his words and basking in the warmth of his full attention, "says a lot about how much you trust me."

The hum of approval her insightfulness earned went right through her, and she drew breath to ask her beau why she had never felt it so keenly before today. Before she could though, the tea maker demanded, with a strident bleep, that she pay attention to it. It had finished its cycle and was adamant that, despite her distraction, she should retrieve her mug now.

Seven and one half minutes, a scolded fingertip and a spate of mild cursing later, chairs were pulled up at the table and conversation turned to Thane's recovery. He was infinitely patient in answering the thousand-and-one questions Ami posed him, his attention to detail and the crisp clarity with which he spoke undimmed by the passing of his illness, and she delighted in listening to him recollect the various self-imposed milestones he'd set and surpassed on the road to recovery.

The early ones were very small indeed, but also great in their own right. He spoke with distinct pride, for example, about being able to clench his fists an increasing number of times with every day that passed after his operation, and of managing to sit up enough to read his books without needing assistance after a week of repeated and persistent effort.

As the treatments eased in intensity and he began to regain the strength they had sapped from him, his goals grew more challenging. Getting out of bed without assistance was the first. Once this was accomplished, he graduated to making it across the room, then to doing both of those as well as making it a measured distance along the corridor and back. That distance grew to match his accomplishments until finally, a month and a half back, he was able to confidently make it around three floors of the hospital without need of support or rest.

Now, he concluded, almost seven months on from when he began, his dedication was paying dividends. By coupling his self-determined goals with the rehabilitation and exercise regimen he vociferously pursued, he was, if a little tired and possessed of a couple of soreness-induced oddities about his gait, well on the road to regaining much of his strength.

Though Ami wasn't aware of it at the time, Thane was, through this talk of progress and returning strength, hoping to politely guide them towards the topic of his joining her aboard the Normandy. Since the first reports of her escape from Earth reached him, he had set his mind on doing just that, and now sought only the appropriate time to raise the topic with her. He listened as she spoke glowingly of her gladness for his returning prowess, dipping his head modestly until her fingers found his chin and drew him back to her. She studied him for a long moment then, and he saw his chance.

"Siha..." he spoke, but she caught him, breathing a wispy "Sshh" as her fingertips touched his lips in an affectionate, polite gesture for quiet as she looked upon him. He obliged, content in the knowledge that he could raise the issue with her later, though couldn't quell the need to kiss the pads of her fingers as she lingered so close to him. The smile she gave him in response was wide enough that it made the corners of her eyes crinkle.

"I'm so proud of you" she murmured, her voice laced with warm affection as she closed a little of the already slight distance between them and leant, her fingers slipping along her mate's jaw, to press a markedly tender congratulatory kiss to his lips.

It began as an almost chaste affection, soft and lingering, with smiles and mirthful huffs traded as one lead into the next, and that was just fine. Though a creature of monumental passion, particularly where her beau was concerned, Ami knew better than to hurry here. Outside of their most pressing, most needful encounters, where ardour erased all thoughts but to sate needs most carnal, kissing Thane Krios was not something she could rush. To do so would be to overlook the softness of his lips...the warmth of his breath…his taste, unsweetened tea and his own subtle flavour, rediscovered by her when they slowed their delicate touches of lip to lip to playfully, desirously, touch tongues.

And that...that feeling...just about...did it.

After a second's-worth of silent communication, hooded eyes meeting hooded eyes across the bare inch they had between them, they moved in tandem, each tilting their head the requisite number of degrees to allow them to bring their lips together fully. The contact was echoed by a soft and appreciative moan which may have escaped either or both of them, but neither had the focus to care.

Even now though, as Ami's hands came up to cup her mate's head and his own found her throat, her cheek, as they traded open-lipped kisses and their tongues touched and caressed, there was no real haste to how they expressed their affection. No hurry to complete one kiss and begin the next. No impassioned frenzy that would make hands clumsy or bring teeth against teeth in their haste. Such was not the meaning behind this kiss. It was instead the act of lovers remaking a long-missed, intimate acquaintance with each other after too long forced apart. Of reunion and re-learning, and of rediscovering old, well-loved common ground.

They parted gradually, gifting each other's lips a final, tender suckle before settling, their brows gently touched together, eyes closed, in a moment of silent appreciation of each other's presence. And it was then, while Ami's fingers were set to caressing Thane's frill and his thumbs stroked her jaw, that his resolve to wait for an 'appropriate time' to bring up his wish to travel with her deserted him and he whispered, "I would come with you, Siha" against her lips.

There was no thought behind it.

No plan.

The words felt correct. Easy.

They just...came.

He didn't even think to await a response, so caught up was he in the feel of her, and so engrossed in him was she that, although she'd heard him quite clearly, the words didn't register at first. She nodded, murmured a blissful, "Yeah of course" and gave his lips another loving kiss before her memory looped on her and she actually heard what he'd said. When she did, she sat back, staggered.

"…You- Wait, what?"

It took considerable effort for him to gather his wits, but when he had Thane sat himself up comfortably and, noting the four shades of shock and elation that passed over his Siha's face, repeated himself. "I would join you aboard the Normandy."

A tense beat of staring passed before Ami managed to splutter, "You're- I- Now wait. Wait a second" her head dropping into her hands while she tried to collect her suddenly scattered thoughts. Her beau frowned with concern.

"Have I overreached myself in wishing this?" he asked, hoping that he hadn't tripped over some social convention he was unaware of by more or less telling her that he wanted to travel with her again. Though he knew that stating a want plainly was, so long as it was done tactfully, not offensive in human culture, he hadn't a clue whether being so blunt as to tell a ship's captain that he would travel with her was appropriate. And looking back...he had to question whether his delivery was truly that tactful at all.

Knowing that the best road in such situations was the humble one, he sought to clarify himself and apologise. Ami though spoke before he could

"No!" she said, raising her head and looking at him again. "Of course you haven't. I just-" She trailed off, giving a huff of laughter and raking her fingers through her hair. "You sure know how to take a girl off guard."

With dramatic aplomb, Thane cocked a brow. "If my desire to be near you comes as a shock, Siha" he said, a hint of levity replacing the concern he felt. "I'm not doing my job right."

Despite herself, Ami couldn't help but smile at his turn of phrase. She reached then, seeking and accepting his hands as they slid into hers. "You're doing it fine" she assured him. "We just need to slow this down a bit. I'm getting two very different answers to the thought of you coming aboard ringing in my head right now."

"May I ask what they are?" Thane pressed curiously, stroking his mate's knuckles with the pads of his thumbs. She pursed her lips in thought before answering.

"The heart's screaming 'Yes, for the love of God gather him up and take him!'...and the head's agreeing but added, 'THINK about it first. There's a war on and he's been deathly ill for years'…So I need to think, and I need you to feed me information while I think, all right?"

He gave a slight nod, trying not to smile too widely at how she expressed her inner dispute. "Tell me what you need to know."

Ami took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and trying to settle her thoughts into some kind of coherent order. "Ok" she began. "I need to know that the Normandy can meet your needs. Medically I mean. I know we've got Dr Chakwas on-board, and I know she knows your case, but she hasn't seen you since the Normandy was dry-docked...so..." She paused for thought before settling on a good first question. "You mentioned rehabilitation. Could you do that aboard the Normandy?"

"I could" he replied, easing one of his hands from her grasp so he could take a sip of his tea before elaborating. "It began as soon as I was strong enough to see a benefit from it after my operation. The intensity grew over time, and the amount of assistance I required diminished as my strength returned. The 'rehabilitation' now is stretching and gentle exercise, and I am more than capable of seeing to that without medical aid."

"All right" Ami said, ticking off the first box in her hastily put together 'bringing Thane aboard the Normandy' mental checklist. "Will you need me to requisition anything in particular to help with these exercises or…"

"No" Thane replied. "I require no aid in walking, and the stretches are much akin to human yoga. A little space and quiet are all I will require."

There went checkbox number two.

"Ok" Ami said, moving on down the list. She approached the next point cautiously, not wanting to pry but knowing that she'd need to if her mind was to settle. "Would you mind explaining your actual treatments now? Not the physical therapy bit. We've got that bit down. Tell me about the rest."

Though he noted the apologetic cast to her expression, Thane was entirely unbothered by her question. "I have two kinds of treatments, Siha" he explained patiently, taking another sip from his mug. "Passive ones, which are concerned with maintaining my health, and active ones, which combat my illness directly. The passive part is made up of simple oral medications. Drell-specific vitamin supplements and broad-spectrum antibiotics are my present prescription."

"Is that likely to change?"

"It never has. The passive regimen has been the same, but for the strength of the antibiotics since my operation. While the incision here-" He sat his mug down carefully and gestured to his chest with his free hand. "-Was still healing, the dosage was triple what it is now. Just in case an infection set in. Luckily, none did."

Box three -check.

"I'm with you so far. What about the active part?"

"The active part of my treatment is given intravenously" he noted, returning his hand to hers. "Every evening two injections are administered, usually by my doctor, though I can self-administer if necessary. One is an immunosuppressant which is concerned with maintaining the integrity of my lungs and stopping the immune response which causes the cluster of symptoms that is commonly known as Keprals Syndrome. And the second targets the vascular damage the disease left me with and promotes self-repair."

Box four - check.

"And you'd be able to access those if you came aboard?"

"I would, yes" Thane replied. "The immunosuppressant is, though specialised, relatively common and easy to get a hold of. I would, were I to join you, fill a six month recurring prescription and pick up a new batch as necessary. And the same is true of the vascular self-repair formula. It is a common drug that is regularly prescribed to Keprals sufferers to slow down the illness's progression. In my case however, since the condition has been eradicated, it can actually do lasting repair." The flutter of bliss that unfurled through him as he spoke those words made his voice waver slightly, and drew a deeply affectionate smile from Ami as she asked,

"Are you taking anything else?"

"No, that's all. All of the heavy treatments - those which rid me of the disease - were administered in the month prior to and the formative months after my operation. Once they were confirmed as being successful, my current regime began in earnest."

"And that's…what?" she asked, hazarding a guess. "Two pills and a couple of injections?"

"It's six pills and two injections actually" Thane jovially corrected. "Four vitamin tablets. Two antibiotic tablets, and the injections."

"And that's it" Ami breathed, shaking her head in disbelief as her mate tilted his in a polite affirmative. "Unbelievable...Mordin- God, Mordin deserves-" She trailed off, unable to stipulate something she could give the man in payment.

"You know he wouldn't accept anything from you, Siha" Thane noted, stroking his hands along her bare forearms before retaking hers. "Besides, I doubt he did all of the work he has done for the betterment of a single Drell."

Ami perked up at this, drawn from her contemplations. "What do you mean?"

"I have no specifics" he said, "but I do know that Mordin requested that the medical board allow me to remain on the ward after my need for the hospital's facilities ended, so that he could continue to monitor my case. We have been in communication, he and I, and he often speaks of 'outside applications' for the therapy he devised through treating me."

Ami thought on this for a moment, and came to a conclusion that - if a little outlandish - certainly wasn't outside the realms of possibility given Mordin's past exploits. "Do you think he's looking to beat the Illuminated Primacy to the punch?" she asked, referring to the Hanars' repeated attempts at making the Drell immune to Keprals Syndrome.

"I'm unsure of his motivations" Thane replied, gently steering their conversation back on topic, "but I'm sure that he will be just as able to monitor my progress aboard the Normandy as he is here. In fact," he added, his voice gaining a mildly conspiratory edge. "I'd wager that it would be easier for him. The way he tells it, the bureaucracy involved in consulting on a patient's case here is an abomination."

Chuckling at his none-too-subtle nudge, Ami checked off box five on her checklist. "Ok Mr making my case for getting sprung from the hospital-" she said, becoming a lick more serious as she spoke. "Let me make something clear now. I don't care how well you feel, how quickly you're healing or what Mordin's got planned for Kahje. If you come with me, I'll be dead before I see you out on active combat duty. You copy?"

"Understood" Thane agreed, unsurprised by her insistence and, in small ways, glad of it. Though he took immense pride in his physical abilities, he was not so stubborn as to be blind to the fact that he wasn't fit for frontline combat. Physically robust in general, yes. Able to withstand day-to-day life and its knocks, certainly. But combat? Not yet. He did, however, have a thought as to how he could be of use to her off of the frontline.

"If I may though," he brooked, waiting for her nod of assent before continuing. "I believe my training may yet be of use to your war effort. I cannot fight," he noted quickly, sensing her brewing dissent, "and do not seek to. But I can train others to fight. I can advise, strategize and deconstruct threats."

Shepard nodded as she listened, slipping her hands from Thane's, lacing her fingers together and bowing her head in concentration as she forced herself to evaluate the situation through an objective lens. She was certain beyond all doubt that Thane wasn't up to combat, hence her insistence on him staying out of frontline duties. She could square that away.

Yes, he had medications he had to take, but they were common. As long as she could make sure that the medbay was well stocked with what he needed, which she could given her status and right, as captain of a ship, to procure what she needed to uphold the duty of care she had over her crew, that wouldn't be an issue.

His explanation of what he could bring to the crew was entirely valid, and there sure as heck was room onboard for another combat expert, irrespective of the fact he'd only be advising. Cerberus were becoming a recurring problem for her on missions, and she'd use anything he could give her to make dealing with them in their various offensive capacities easier on her and her team.

There was a reflexive yes on the tip of her tongue. And yet-

"I'm gonna have to talk as two people now Thane because, as you know from serving with me, I am two distinct people to you. There's Shepard, who's your Commanding Officer. And there's Ami, who's...well…yours."

"As I am yours" he replied, nodded his understanding as his Siha gave him a helplessly affectionate smile. He was implicitly aware of what it was to live as two people, having done so for much of his life. To her 'Shepard' there was Thane Krios, assassin. And to her 'Ami' there was Thane Krios, husband, father, and now, mate. These Thanes, though they shared a name, couldn't have been more different; just as 'Ami' and 'Shepard' differed by leagues from each other in many ways.

Though his words went right to the heart of her, Shepard gathered her professionalism about herself and focused on the task at hand. "Speaking as your commanding officer" she said, "I can't see any reason why I should refuse your request to re-join the Normandy. But I'm gonna need you to meet me halfway on this."

Thane cocked his head to the side slightly, curious. "How so?"

"We're hauling out at 22:00 tonight. We've got assignments to complete and resources to collect, and I don't want you rushed off your feet running to catch up with our schedule. When you leave this place, and you will, I want you to be calm and ready to get to work. So, here's our halfway. We're due back on the Citadel in eight days' time. That's when our contacts want their goods and when we're booked in for minor refits in engineering."

That sounded familiar. "Upgrades?" he asked, smirking faintly.

"You got it in one. We're costing the Alliance a fortune" Shepard snickered, though she quickly became serious again. "Anyway. We're back in eight days, and if, by then, you've sent your medical files over to Chakwas so she knows what to do with you when you arrive, and if your doctors here clear you to travel, you're as good as conscripted. Your experience is one of a kind and I know you can contribute a hell of a lot to the team, even standing back from the frontline."

"I'm grateful for the opportunity" Thane replied, bowing his head in thanks despite his disappointment at the thought of having to wait before he could re-join the crew. He understood her caution however, and was comforted by the fact that she was so welcoming of the idea that she was going so far as to make plans with him about it. Of all the outcomes he had foreseen resulting from his request, this was second only to leaving with her now.

"And we're glad to have you" she replied, taking a moment to rake her fingers through her hair before refocusing on her objective. Candid honesty with Thane.

"Now…speaking as your Ami," she began, visibly shedding her veil of professionalism as she prepared to lay herself bare to him. It was small things that marked its departure; that made the change from 'Shepard' to 'Ami' obvious. Her posture relaxed and her eyes, once focused and stern, warmed visibly as she looked at him. She sought his hands again, welcoming them into hers where before she'd released them in an effort to put literal professional distance between them. Most tellingly of all though, her voice lost the measured quality it had when she spoke as Shepard. Ami paused, misspoke on occasion, and had a habit of speaking as her thoughts came to her, as they did now.

"Ever since you brought up coming with me," she said, "all I've done is...try and dissect the logic behind the decision. I've got caution in one ear, reminding me that I need you to make sure that you're fit to travel because I'm petrified by the thought of rushing you aboard only to have you get sick. And I've got pretty much everything else in the other ear, yelling at me to get my act together and take you with me…and I realised not two minutes ago that I hadn't even said, outright, that I wanted you to come with me at all."

"Siha," Thane drew, lacing their fingers carefully. "Implication is like a second language to me. I hear even what is not said...I always have."

Ami shook her head. "You shouldn't have to" she said. "Not with me. So…listen a second. Please?"

Struck by how suddenly vulnerable she sounded, he gave a slight nod.

"I want you to come with me" she began, "not because of your skills...or what you can give to the war effort. Those things are important, but they're not why I want...no…why I need you on the Normandy. Mordin said it better than I ever could. He once told me that fighting to save a galaxy's worth of people just wasn't fathomable to him. He could think it in his mind, obviously. Could crunch the numbers and knew the stakes, but it wasn't personal to him." She paused a moment, feeling her heart flutter at the intensity of her mate's gaze.

"He needed a personal connection to what he was fighting for to make it feel worthwhile to him" she went on, emotion making her voice quiver faintly as she spoke. "To make it meaningful. Worth the sacrifices. He chose his favourite nephew as his reason to keep up the fight. And mine- I…can't believe it took almost losing you for me to say this out loud. Mine is you."

A whispered "Ami" escaped Thane's lips quite without his having meant it to, perhaps as an expression of modesty, or perhaps one of simple shock at how openly she spoke; how she went on, undeterred.

"I love you, Thane Krios. And there's nowhere else I'd rather be than by your side."

He knew. The intensity in his face melted into utter delight, and he knew, and had known for time uncounted now. Of course he had. As with many things between them, their affection for each other was most often expressed in quiet ways. A look across a room. Toes touched to an ankle beneath a table. Fingers covertly laced together during an elevator ride. It was simply how it was done between them. Quietly. Never hidden, but never made overt. But somehow, saying it out loud now, making it plain and hearing him reply, as he embraced her and pressed their brows together, with an emotion-gripped "And I love you", just made everything…right.

That evening, Shepard and Thane parted ways at the main doors of Huerta Memorial with the promise to reunite eight days hence. Because they had been in a public space then, they politely shook hands before going their separate ways. Both though were showing the effects of their day together. Thane's gait had lost all but the faintest whisper of unease about it, and Shepard may as well have been walking two feet off the floor on her way back to Docking Bay D24. The faint beginning twinge of a very familiar, very welcome itch on her fingers and neck made it all the sweeter. If she ended up bathing in cold cream tomorrow, so be it. Thane was healthy, and was coming home soon.

Settled back in his room after his mate's departure, Thane pulled the blinds that hung over his windows half-closed to dim the 'natural' ambient light, took a seat at his table and sent two messages from his Omni-tool. The first was to his doctor, asking for a meeting in the morning to discuss transferring his notes, and his person, to the Normandy. And the second read thus,

/Kolyat.

How are you? I would speak with you after your shift tomorrow evening. There are things we must discuss. I am in fine health son, worry not.

Rest well.

- Thane/