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

A/N: Greetings all and welcome to chapter 8. Now I know I usually use these notes to explain why I've been so late posting, but this time I don't think I've done too bad for time. Besides! I've come across a piece of music that I wanted to share with you, my lovely readers. It reminds me of Shepard and Thane (well ok, it reminds me of MY Shepard and Thane) so much, and I'd like to share the feels with you. It's called 'Dreams On Fire' and is by A.R. Rahman & Suzanne. It comes from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack and is just epic. Give it a listen if you have a free few minutes. It melts my heart every time.

As always, reviews, thoughts, ideas and conjecture are cherished.

Yours faithfully,

L.G

To be Whole

A reunion is had, and Thane expresses himself in a new-old way

To enter Huerta Memorial Hospital from the street, one must walk through two sets of sliding glass doors. Once those are breached, the main entrance hall, with its marble floors and high ceiling, spreads out for a clean ninety metres from left and right, and an easy seventy from the main doors to the reception desks that sit in a wide semi-circle by the back wall.

Between these two points, sunk into the floor at the centre of the room, stands a grand and opulent-looking fountain that was erected in honour of those lost to the Battle of the Citadel in 2183. It is a delicate thing, multi-layered and silver, that was designed, according to its plaque, by a panel of artists drawn from every race that was affected by Sovereign's assault on the station. As the water cascades down along its pre-set paths, certain resonances and harmonies, echoes like those heard when one rubs one's finger around the rim of a wine glass, can be made out by those with sharp enough ears - a gift left by the Hanar involved in its construction.

Although they never divulged how they did it, the artisans - face-name Koryll, face-name Ayllis, and face-name Nidaal - were lauded as geniuses for the effect.

All of this beauty however - the fountain's grand, curving height; the melodious ringing as the water flowed; and beyond that, the views of the Presidium given by the lofty windows; the well-appointed decorations and the scents, from the cafeteria nestled in the room's left and topmost corner, of lovingly prepared meals from various cultures - could not distract one particular denizen of the wide and open space, standing casually as he was by the fountain's right edge, from his watch.

Before Thane's vigilant eyes, the comings and goings of the people entering and leaving the hospital were almost constant.

Incoming, he thought, taking in the newest arrivals as they came through the doors, three Asari, arriving together.

Incoming, a Human male, alone and in uniform.

Incoming, a Volus. Given the clipboard, I'd wager he is a courier.

Outgoing, two Humans, both male, speaking of a cigarette break between treatments.

Outgoing, an Asari nurse and a Human female. Colleagues, presumably.

This had been his lot for the past seven minutes. Watching. Waiting. Hoping for a sign of the only person on the Citadel that he wanted to see at this present moment in time.

His Siha.

His mate.

Looking down at his Omni-tool, he checked the time for the third time since he had forsaken his private room for the Hospital's foyer.

[13:41] it read.

He frowned uneasily.

As of now, she was eleven minutes overdue at the very least.

His mate was a woman for whom five minutes early was five minutes late, so this was highly irregular.

This...was actually beginning to worry him.

What was making things all the worse was that he simply couldn't contact her. After their brief tête à tête over the AICS in the earliest of this morning's hours, the radio silence they agreed upon had fallen and was being studiously maintained.

By Amial at least.

To his credit, Thane broke it only momentarily - logging in at [13:32] to see if she was available.

She had not been, and as he re-checked now -

..three clicks bringing the program up on his Omni-tool's user interface..

- yes...she remained off the grid.

With a disquieted huff, he turned back to his watch and tried to settle his mind. He reminded himself that the messages and conversations they had shared during their week apart had been as highly encoded as it was possible for such things to be, and that they not only had firewalls and the AICS's double-encryption protocols on their side, but also the goodwill and assistance of the most advanced AI in the galaxy. Because of these things, there was no way that the records of their communications could have fallen into nefarious hands. No way that Amial could have been tracked by some mole and brought to grief on her way to meet him.

These certainly were compelling points, but as he glanced at his Omni-tool's clock again - noting that it was [13:42] now - and then looked out to find no sign of her, they rang hollow. His worry beginning to become acute, Thane came to a decision. She had until [13:50] to reach the hospital. After that...he would need to do something more active in seeking her out than simply affecting calm as he waited where he stood. Resolved, he cast his nets wide again and got back to posting sentry.

Incoming, he noted, a Turian; civilian going on the lack of armour, and limping heavily. A recent casualty of some brawl or other most likely.

Incoming, an Asari dressed in purple with a lightly-marked face.

Outgoing, two Humans, one male, the other female. Voices raised in anger.

A glance down for his Omni-tool -

[13:43]

- and then back to the doors and the street beyond their see-through panes.

Incoming, a group of five Humans wearing unkempt Alliance uniforms. The faint scent of alcohol follows them as they pass. They're making good use of their furlough it seems.

Incoming, another Turian, this one wearing armour. No visible injuries or impediments. Likely a visitor.

Incoming, a lone Human female. Dark haired, with the shadows of old bruises on her face and a distinct limp. She is carrying what looks like a small carry-out beverage. Perhaps she is a patient coming back after a walk to the local coffee-house. I can empathise with her need to get out.

Outgoing, two Salarians. Physicians both, certainly. They're wearing hospital whites.

Another glance down -

..[13:45] now..

- and again, back to the watch.

Incoming, a pair of Asari. Both are smartly dressed and seem to be in a hurry. More visitors perhaps…seeking out a loved one who is either patient or refugee.

Then, while the doors remained open as these most recent entrants passed through, the piecemeal crowd Thane could see going on its way in the street beyond the hospital seemed to swell. Well used to the area as he was, he knew the cause. The elevators which connected the thoroughfare that lead past Huerta to the rest of the Presidium couldn't have been seventy metres away from the hospital's main doors. When a number of them emptied at once, the ensuing exodus was reminiscent, at least in his mind, of Kahje's great tide coming in.

That same rush came now, as he watched. The pink and blue and silver crowd swelled, and he fought, given their numbers, to keep an effective eye on those who began to head in his direction.

The sight was misleading.

There were a number of services beside the hospital's front, the sector's rapid transit station to name but one, which drew people from the main bulk of the crowd. Something like three fifths of those that looked to be approaching him broke off before they entered the area he was actively keeping an eye on, but slowly people began to filter through, and this time, as the clock ticked over to [13:47], his vigilance was rewarded.

Of the twenty-odd people making up the newest assortment on their way into the hospital, one stood out. One he could tell from absolutely millions.

Amial...thank Arashu..

His heart leapt at the sight of her - black hair, tousled, eyes fixed forward, on her destination, not on him, set shoulders and long strides, clad in black leather on top and canvas below, seemingly heedless of how the people around her automatically gave her a respectful three-foot berth - but he caught himself before the excitement and relief he felt could become outwardly visible. Much as his first and principle instinct was to simply go to her, he knew that in this moment, in this situation, he couldn't. If he did, and the malefactor his training-guarded mind told him might, against all odds, have been able to track either him or his Siha here, all of the anonymity-saving machinations they had gone through in the days leading up to now would be for nought.

What he could do though, prior to making his way back to his quarters to receive her in the absolute privacy they would need for a proper reunion, was catch her eye. He had done this precise thing - shared a glance with her and led her through a space, usually the ship's mess, towards some private nook where they could steal a moment together during an otherwise fraught day - many times during their first tour together, and knew that she'd recognise his intentions here if he played his cards right.

His plan set, he stood up from his spot by the fountain and planted himself causally within his quickly approaching mate's field of view. He watched her face closely, particularly her eyes, knowing that she'd sense his gaze and seek its source after a few moments of carefully maintained attention. With each step she took towards him, she became more and more aware, frowning and looking around suspiciously until…

Contact.

Blue eyes met green and through that connection, in the single brief moment it was maintained, he was made perfectly and unalterably Whole. That piece of himself that resided in her was returned by her presence, by their shared knowledge of each other, and by the look on her face when she felt it too.

That bond.

That Wholeness.

What he felt in his heart flickered through her expression - lighting it up like the sunrise paints the morning sky - but only for a fleeting second. She was as conscious as he was of their being in the open, of their needing privacy, and when he turned away after that formative moment, going against every instinct he had and moving away from that which made him Whole, she knew, as he knew she would, to follow his lead discretely.

Her entire body singing with excitement and anticipation, Shepard moved into their old, long established rhythm for getting out of public view as though it was second nature. She carried on straight past Thane and the gracile fountain he stood by, and cast her gaze up to the information boards on the wall above the front desk. After a breath or two was spent giving them a once over, she glanced around and saw her beau making his way towards what she knew from experience was the corridor that lead to the Patients' Lounge. Keeping sight of him was easy, he being the only Drell she could see in the area, and she watched as he sluiced with absolute ease through the room and its milling occupants - not a whisper of tension or excitement coming across in his gait. To everyone else who saw him there, he was simply getting on with his day, much like they were, and Shepard, as he slipped out of sight into the corridor, took a final quick glance at the information boards before moving to follow him.

She forced herself to stroll slowly, casually, as she pondered on their likely destination. There could be only one really. She knew from knowing him that in order to be comfortable letting his guard down, he would need to be able to control access to the space he was leading her to, and here in the hospital there was but one place he could do that.

His private room.

Making sure to maintain a relaxed facade, she ran through the directions in her head. Into the corridor, she thought, breaching said corridor and ambling along it in Thane's wake; his retreating form just visible as he made tracks down the sparsely appointed space ahead of her.

Then it's into the Lounge through the door at the end of the hall..

After that, straight on through the Lounge itself..past the reception desk and on through the clinical area..

Then it's a sharp right, then a left..and down another corridor..then a final right..and his door's the third along on my immediate right..

Smiling first to herself as her beau opened the Lounge's door and allowed a clearly ailing Asari through ahead of him, and then to him when he chanced a look back along the corridor and caught her eye for another brief second before he got back on his way, Shepard sucked in a breath and did her best to master herself lest she succumb to an excitement-born moment of uselessness right there in the hall.

She swallowed a hum of gleeful exuberance before it could escape and show her up right then and there, dawdled purposefully by a notice board tacked to the wall on her immediate left, and then slipped through the Lounge's door a clear twenty seconds after Thane had. Instinctively, she checked the room's corners, left, then right, and then scanned the small clusters of people dotted about the place as she moved on through. Nothing out of the ordinary presented itself, her mate's broad back was still in sight, and she was a hair away from stepping from the Lounge proper into the clinical area sitting abreast of it when a familiar voice called to her.

"Shepard!" it said. "Hey, Shepard!"

She pulled up as soon as she heard her name, Thane disappearing from view around a corner as she turned, masking her mortification at being thrown off her stride as well as she could as the person wanting of her attention hurriedly approached her. "Williams" she greeted, shaking her free hand - the other being presently occupied by what looked like a carry-out cup of something hot - after a moment of slight but certainly present hesitation. The ghosts of Horizon and Shepard's seeming 'betrayal' lingered near both women still. "I didn't think you'd be up and about yet."

"More or less" the still slightly haggard-looking woman replied, cocking a slight grin and slipping her unoccupied hand into the pocket of the open fleece she had on over her day-to-day fatigues. "I'm allowed out of the hospital in short bursts now" she explained, tipping her cup slightly as she added, "Just came back from a walk to the local java-house."

"That's fantastic" Shepard grinned, genuinely pleased, despite her private and desperate need to slip off with her beau, to hear of her one-time colleague's progress. When last she'd seen her, she'd barely been able to sit up unaided let alone hike out to the local of her choice, so this was good news indeed. "They given you a release date yet?"

"Not yet" Williams huffed, rolling her eyes and forcing a breath between her lips. "The doctors always seem to have one more test they want to do. One more course of something or other they want me to take."

"Yeah, I know what that's like."

"Yeah."

Silence came between the women then, their conversations since being reacquainted on Earth having lost the natural flow they'd once enjoyed. As the elephant in the room - Ashley's remaining discomfort with Shepard's once-'alliance' with Cerberus and Shepard's resentment at being branded a traitor by a women she'd once considered a close friend - threatened to trumpet anew, the Commander saw her chance, took a half-step back and, giving her former sister-in-arms a little smile, tried, "Well, I'll jus-" only to be cut off by the arrival of a very welcome face.

"Oh Commander, you've made it!" a gleeful Karin Chakwas beamed as she came over. "And Commander Williams" she added, turning and giving Ashley a glowing smile and a warm handshake, "It's lovely to see you dear."

"You too doc" Williams grinned, flicking a glance at Shepard as the woman seemed to back up a step or two and made to get around their newly arrived old friend. She was about to ask her where the heck she was scuttling off to, but the doctor spoke first.

"Commander, I just saw-"

"I know" Shepard cut in, glancing towards the path her mate had taken a couple of minutes prior. "I'm going to-"

"Bring him out here when you find him won't you? Our meeting is over now, so he's all set for his transfer" Karin said, nodding as the Commander became doubly tense with excitement and breathed a nervy 'Yeah' before addressing Williams. "Sorry Ash. Got a thing to get to, double-time. I'll be out again in a bit. If you're still about, we'll catch up then, ok? It was great to see you."

Taken aback at the sudden change of circumstances, Ashley gave a slightly boggled nod as Shepard turned and high-tailed it out of sight through the clinical area of the wing. Shaking her head once and blinking her eyes clear, she caught Chakwas's eye, quirked a brow, and asked the first question that came to mind.

"Who's 'him'?"

Karin smiled. "Sit down, dear" she said, gesturing to the nearest pair of seats available. "This might take a little while to explain."

There was no sign of Thane when Shepard finally got back underway, her brief stop with the former Chief Williams adding a couple of minutes to the lead he had on her, but that didn't matter overmuch. He would either be waiting at an inconspicuous point along the way to further guide her, or would have made it to his room and, knowing that she knew his mind as well as she did, would be waiting for her there.

Putting on a little speed and making her walk purposeful, she took the first right she came to, eyes alert and attentive for signs of her mate's presence, and strode down the cluttered and bustling corridor with much the same intensity she'd had when she was sidelined by Kolyat a half hour back. She lingered on their chat for the briefest moment, but pushed away the swell of emotions and questions it raised within her and drew a single conclusion that was pertinent to the here and now.

She would tell him about it, but not yet.

Not in their early moments together.

Heck, perhaps not even today.

There was so much yet to happen, so many changes and moves and little stresses and suchlike to come that heaping talk of Kolyat and his desperation to keep him from leaving on top would likely overburden all concerned, and she couldn't have that. Not now, when everything she never thought would come real was.

Rounding the second corner and finding the corridor that stretched in front of her likewise free of her beau, she resolved, Tomorrow. I'll tell him tomorrow. After he's had a night in his own bed and a chance to settle and unwind, and told herself that, I'll have been able to mull over what Kolyat told me by then, and will be less likely to kneejerk.

She wasn't sure if she believed herself, rattled as she was by the entire experience, but she gave doing so her best shot.

Shaking off her brief and perfunctory bout of Kolyat-induced-melancholia, she checked her surroundings again for any sign of Thane. Again she found none, but noticed for the first time that the corridor she was walking through was a residential one. Private rooms nestled behind each of the doors she passed on her left and right, and she managed a nod or two and the occasional smile when she came across patients and a couple of itinerant nurses who passed her by on their way to some other part of the hospital.

Narrowly escaping being 'invited' by one of said nurses into an impromptu autographing session on the children's ward, she ducked around the third and final corner and found herself, quite suddenly and without preamble, within three doors of her mate's soon-to-be-former quarters. Realising this brought the excitement that had been quelled somewhat by the journey she'd had to take to get here back full force. It made her belly clench, her heart pound, and her palms sweat anew, and with every step she took closer to her goal the feeling redoubled.

By the time she actually made it to Thane's door, she was so overwrought that she stalled twice in her attempts at knocking before, having dragged her hands through her hair and wiped her palms off on her trouser-legs, she plucked up the moxy to press the 'bell' button on the cheery red interface.

She couldn't just barge in after all.

Expecting her or not, she knew his mind and his training. Everyone that entered his space, be it the rough six feet he claimed as his personal space or his private quarters, was checked to the same standard - assessed in ways he had been conditioned from boyhood to adhere to - and they came into that process a lot more positively if he was given a warning about their arrival than if they barrelled in and pounced for him. Thus, much as barrelling in and pouncing for him was what she wanted to do, and what she would have done had she been unaware of his mental checks and balances, she waited the second it took for the door to hiss open and tempered her exuberance consciously before making her entrance.

A wall of welcoming heat met her as she stepped through the promptly opened doorway, though Thane himself was not immediately present to greet her. He was in the room, certainly - she could feel his eyes on her - but catching a glimpse of him took a look to the left. She found him beside his now spartan bed. Straight-backed and focused, he was the picture of readiness when first their eyes met, though allowed his expression to soften visibly when the door hissed closed and locked automatically at her back - relief replacing the tension that had owned him during the journey he'd lead her on.

For a protracted moment they remained as they were, a smirk much like that which had begun curving her lips finding his when she quipped, "Sorry I'm late. Expecting trouble?" with the only ounce of wry sarcasm that the sight of him hadn't robbed from her.

"Always" he replied, playing along with her affected glibness until, after mere seconds, they could no longer pretend to simply be Shepard and Thane to one another. Silence came as they gave up the struggle, public masks of calm indifference giving way to what was their truth, and they drank in the sight of their respective other-halves across the nine or so feet that parted them; that ever-welcome feeling of Wholeness redoubling now that, out of the gaze of all and sundry, it was allowed to roam free.

They remained thus for two breaths.

Then need got the best of them both.

Thane came to her as she did to him; her blissful smile and joyous laugh met by words, "Oh my Siha" and a deep, thoroughly Drellish exclamation of delight. Their hands, reaching forth in welcome and urgency, touched first, then stroked up along their forearms as the distance between them was diminished to inches. Stepping into each other's space then, their arms came around each other and their lips met and finally, finally, in the perfect privacy of his room, every whisper of distance that had been forced between them over a week back simply vanished.

After their first, two further kisses were quickly shared - each finished hastily so the next might come. Then, as the last ended and Thane, seeking the warmth of her skin and a moment to collect himself, dipped his face to her neck, a sigh of relief that came up from her toes carried words from the gleeful and trembling woman's lips.

"Oh, thank God."

She couldn't quite believe it. They'd made it. They were really here.

It was something like a minute before Shepard, tucked as she was against her beau's body, had calmed enough to register anything about their embrace but the feeling of him; of his arms, strong and firm around her; of the softness of his eyelids and the bridge of his nose pressed between her neck and shoulder; and of his breathing- Dear GODS his breathing. She was fixed on it. Riveted by it. Every inhalation was deep and steady; every exhalation easy and without a hitch, pause or suggestion of difficulty – as she knew, in her every logical facet, it would be. The rattle his chest had once had as his illness progressed was gone now, replaced instead by something...new. Something that drew her attention back from the utter bliss she felt at being with him again to the here and now.

In many ways this newness was much akin to one of those low buzzing rumbles of his - the ones that she first experienced when she visited him a week back and that her ears had to work to catch - but now, as she pressed herself close to him and really listened, she could sense a difference. The sound was still difficult on her ears, but it was deeper now, and unlike her first experience of its quieter incarnation, which had simply given her goose bumps, it was physically tangible to her. If she had to compare it to anything, she'd be torn between the feeling of touching an amplifier during a set in a club, and the one you get when you cup a hand around your throat and hum.

Equal parts enthralled and puzzled by the rumbling, resonant turn her mate seemed to have taken, she eased a half inch between them and murmured, "Thane?" in her most tender, loving tone. The response she got - a slight tightening of his arms about her, a gentle suckle upon her throat and a, "Hhhrmmm?" that she'd swear she felt in her bones - caught her off guard, and she gasped and clutched at him as he raised his head and met her eyes.

And that look, that contact, made words very difficult for her.

"I-" she tried, only to have the thought she'd wanted to convey flitter away when she felt his breath wisp over her lips. Valiantly, she gave it another shot, but was lost as she drew breath to speak. She got no further than repeating, "I-" before she was leaning for him and he for her, their eyes closing; her fingertips reverently tracing the edges of the pleating on his throat as they shared their first proper kiss - not a rushed peck now, a real lover's kiss - in over a week.

It was a breathless thing for them; excitement and roaring affection turning their first touch of lips to lips into their second and third without pause or hesitation, and then into their fourth through which they were offered a taste of each other when their tongues, bold and so welcome, met and caressed. They remained lost in one another for a count of minutes neither cared to specify, though the length of time spent mattered for nothing. Were it two minutes or ten, their absolution remained the same, and they only broke apart when some small portion of it was, for the moment, sated enough to allow them a pause for breath.

Their brows lightly touched together as the moment cooled, Thane gathered enough of his wits to stroke a travel-mussed lock of his mate's hair behind her left ear. He caught her attention with the gesture, and smiled as he spoke to her; his voice made newly rich by their closeness.

"Had you a question, Siha?" he asked, tracing her jaw tenderly with the pad of his thumb. "Or was your intent in speaking my name simply to..." He left his conjecture unfinished verbally, though leant, his fingers now used to tilt her chin up a hint to allow him to press a fifth kiss to her lips. This one, unlike the others, was chaste and light, and was answered, after being returned in kind, by a helpless smile and a gentle nuzzle of her comparatively well-defined nose-tip to his flatter more delicate one.

"Just...just give me a minute" Shepard managed, her voice soft and carrying an intimacy-born rasp much like that Thane's did. Her eyes heavy-lidded and lips so close to his that she could feel them brushing hers with every word she spoke, she took a moment to simply soak in what she was feeling. To let the affection in her soul warm her through and make itself at home in a way it hadn't been brave enough to before now.

Before she had always been guarded. Not with her emotions exactly - she loved him plainly and had done for over a year now- but with how deeply she let herself acknowledge how much she felt for him. The feeling was there. It quite simply was what it was. There was no deception or double-speak. But way back when, he wasn't going to make it. He was dying. And while that fact changed nothing of her affection for him, it made it necessary for her to protect her heart in every way she could in preparation for losing him. They had lived day-to-day, and then hour-to-hour as his condition worsened, and in that time she'd never let herself dwell on that wondrous and fantastic thing that every person who is part of a settled couple likes to dwell on.

The future.

On plans and possibilities.

The sad fact was that there were none back then.

Now though, they were no longer on borrowed time. She could think and imagine, postulate and wonder, and yes there was a war on, but right in this moment, as she felt her love breathing against her - felt his hands, strong but so gentle, stroking her back as he basked in the warmth of her body - she felt invincible, and that invincibility was subsumed and defined by one particular thing that would be happening today.

Closing her eyes tightly, she buried her face against her beau's neck and let out a silent scream of bliss and exhilaration. As he moved to accommodate her, appreciating the curve of her lower back and the tension in her muscles in ways that were reserved for him alone, she nestled as closely to him as she could comfortably manage before speaking again. Needing to share the cause of her glee with him even though she was damn sure he knew about it already.

"Thane?" she hushed, wispy, excited laughter edging her words as she clutched at him. "Thane? Did you know?"

"Know what, love?" he asked, her apparent amusement tickling him enough to bring an audible smile to his tone. He dipped his head against hers under the pretence of listening more closely for her answer, though he had no real need to. The softness of her hair against his face was what he sought with the movement, not a clearer vantage-point to listen from.

Feeling him draw near, she leant up a little, giving her temple to his jaw and a gentle squeeze to his torso before tamping down on the urge to squeal girlishly and enthusing, "You're going home today!" as if she were imparting some wondrous secret.

For that reason, in this second, she may as well have been immortal.

It felt that damn good to say it and hear it said.

And better yet, her bliss was catching.

There was nothing in the galaxy that could've kept Thane from laughing then; his happiness at the truth of her words rivalled only by his relief that they were finally, after almost eight months of hell and a week of necessary but hated aloneness, with one another again. Throaty and deep, the sound came as he redoubled their embrace, gathering her so completely against himself that, as he straightened up to his full height, he took her with him; worried chastisements about him straining himself -

"Careful, careful, careful! Mind your back! And your chest!"

- replacing her giggling levity as her toes dangled an easy inch and a half off the floor.

"I am well, Siha" he soothed, his hold upon her firm and his stance steady as he held her aloft. The feat was hardly one at all for him, truly. Not now. Drellish muscles are at the very least half again as dense as Human ones, and while his shoulders and lower back complained quietly to themselves - noting that a woman who was three fourths muscle, loved or not, was no small thing to lift after months of little more than gentle exercise - simply holding her like he was didn't put an excessive strain on him. He could manage this, he concluded, if it meant having her so thoroughly pressed against him for as long as she would allow him to keep her close.

Worried for him as she was, that didn't turn out to be long.

After about a half minute, and at her insistence, she was set lightly back on her feet, though her fretful scolding was gentled to little more than a slight glare and a huffed, "Show off" by her mate's disarming smile and his seeming comfort after the exertion it took to lift her. He smirked at her tone, embracing her once more and replying, "Never" before setting his mind to distracting her from her pique and returning to the question she'd posed him prior to her little trip. "And as to returning home, yes, I did know. Could you not sense my impatience in the lobby?"

"I could" she replied distractedly, more concerned with making sure that he really was feeling well after her impromptu flight than with thinking on their very public reunion-by-sight. Needing in some deep place within herself to make sure, she curled her arms about him and ran her fingers in a firm but considerate trail from the base of his skull to the small of his back - pressing and massaging as best she could through the light shirt he wore in search of sore spots. Thankfully for her nerves and conscience, the only groan her attentions were met with was one of enjoyment; one that came, curiously, without the resonant echo of that hum-buzz he'd had about before he'd hefted her off the floor. Piqued by this, Shepard shifted in Thane's arms, welcoming his hands at her lower back and putting just enough space between them to allow her to press hers to his chest, his ribs; feeling for it as she noted, "I could have sworn I felt- Hm."

It took effort for him to reply, lost as he was in the feel of her. "Felt, Siha?"

Considering her options briefly, she drew in a breath and then, inspired by her earlier thoughts on the matter, guided her beau's right hand up to her throat. Laying his palm lightly against it, she explained, "It was like this-" before humming a few bars of the Alliance's anthem to facilitate her example. "That feeling" she said, touching her hands to his chest again. "The…resonance? Is that the word? That-" She gave a gentle press where her hands lay upon his body. "-Was all over here."

As he listened to her explain what she'd felt, Thane gently though pointedly slipped his hand from her throat and settled it back on her lower back. The movement was clothed as a courtesy, as a polite gesture to ensure her comfort, but that alone was not the reason he did it. He would never be comfortable with the sight of his hands at her neck. Not palm-in at least. The backs of his fingers and his fingertips he could forgive for their need to caress her there, but his palms? His curled fingers? No. They had threatened too many necks in their time to be allowed near hers of his own volition - irrespective of his utter and complete disinclination to do her harm of any kind.

To her curiosity however, he had a question of his own. "You could hear me, yes?" he asked, puzzling her if the slight frown and the wrinkling of her nose was anything to go by.

"Hear you?" she repeated, "I heard something, yeah. Like a-" She paused, her brows low with concentration, searching for a workable comparison. "Like a cross between a hum and a buzz, but-" Seeing his lips quirk in a grin, she swallowed her original thought and chuckled. After all the time she'd spent around him - learning of him as a person - of his people and their ways... she still made such an amateurish mistake.

"That's not the noise you were making, was it" she concluded, his long-past instruction on the main differences between their kinds coming back to her in a rush. "You were out of my range and that bit was all I caught."

Thane gave a nod. "Let me show you" he offered, clasping her hands in his and flattening them against his lower chest. For a moment he simply breathed, slowly and deeply, the knowing look in his eye letting her know that her enchantment with the sensation was both known of and appreciated. Then, after a particularly deep breath, he dipped his chin slightly, exhaled slowly, and both the noise and the resonance returned; the former to her ears, the latter beneath her palms.

"That's it!" she grinned, fanning her fingers a little wider to better feel him. "What is that? What're you doing?"

Finishing his lengthy exhalation, both noise and feeling easing with its passing, Thane sought an answer for her. "Tell me" he began, "You would recognise a loving tone of voice, yes?"

She favoured him with a cock-eyed grin. "Of course."

"And a look conveying the same?" As he spoke, he looked upon her in just the manner he described, warming his expression with the affection he felt for her. "A loving, contented look? You recognise one when you see it?"

Wetting her lips, her cheeks just a hint warmer for his attentions, she nodded, returning his gaze. "I'm looking at one" she said, leaning up a little to bring her lips within lingering distance of his jaw. Her intention wasn't to kiss him. The gesture was one she'd learned from him during one of their many and varied talks about their respective peoples and their courting habits. According to Thane, leaning in and lingering in this particular manner was something a female Drell would do to show appreciation for a gentleman's colours - the contrast between the predominant scale colour and the hue of one's cheeks and throat being one of the numerous qualities in a man that is prized by the fairer of the Drellish sexes.

Although she obviously didn't share the genetic predisposition to finding such contrasts attractive in the way a female Drell would, the gesture lost none of its import between she and her beau. It was not empty, or a feeble attempt at being something she plainly wasn't. It was a gesture he recognised; that translated perfectly for him. One that was given by her as an honest expression of how she cared for and admired him. It meant. It carried weight. And it was damn fun too, flirting with him like this.

Keeping her own (distinctly un-Drellish) appreciation for her mate's colours in mind, her honest favourites being the blackness around his eyes and the soft almost-but-not-quite pinkish hue on the very inner edges of his lips, she finished her thought with a coy, "..and I'm giving one back.." and withdrew once more to talking distance as her now flattered beau demurely tilted his head to the left, then the right, replying to her flirtation with one of his own; showing off his colours for her as any rightly proud Drellish gentleman would when complimented by his lady.

"You are" he mused, admiring her just as openly as she had him before going on with his explanation. "And as easily as I can perceive that, through your expression, your actions, a Drell would detect my intentions towards them when they heard my voice."

"Your-"

"Here, love" he said, breathing into her hands again and giving what to him was a perfectly audible expression that she felt through her palms. "This-" And again he did it; gave another breath's-worth of communication. "-Is as much my voice as the words you hear me speak now."

"So it's...talking?" she tried, not sure if she was following precisely. Although she'd learnt a good deal from him about his people, this particular mode of communication had never come up. Since it was such a pivotal-sounding thing, she had to wonder at the omission, but lost out on pointing it out when he spoke to correct her.

"Not quite. Recall what I mentioned a moment ago. It is akin to an expression, or a tone of voice. There are no actual words spoken, but the tone, much as a frown or a smile would, implies meaning that a Drell would recognise. It's part of our language, you see."

The pieces coming together in her mind, Shepard breathed an intrigued, "Ohh…" and listened intently as Thane went on.

"My people are often perceived as stoic" he said. "Few take the time to realise that what we do not show often on our faces, we vocalise; particularly where emotion is involved. We are a...noisy race, if you will, but are sparing with overt facial expressions unless we are in the company of non-Drell with whom we are comfortable. In that sense, we are like the Hanar; reserved amongst outsiders, yet warm, vocally and otherwise, with those we know. It just so happens that few can actually hear us."

"That makes sense-" Shepard smiled, adding, "And I know you make an effort for me" as she touched her fingertips to his lips to caress the slight smile that curved them.

In truth, the legendary Drellish stoicism was something that had come along as a talking point early on in their relationship, and she knew, and had known for over a year, that her mate consciously made himself more...humanly approachable for her in terms of expressing his emotions facially. It was a habit she was both grateful for, and felt a stab of guilt over at once. Even though he'd sworn up and down that it was second nature to him and nothing like a bother, the thought of him working to ensure her comfort in a manner that, to his people, was at the very least foreign, made her appreciate him all the more and work to learn what she could of his people's etiquette so she could accommodate him in turn.

Hence, amongst other things, her occasional forays into flirting like a lady Drell.

With curiosity and learning in mind, she took the chance to dig a little deeper. "I wonder though. Why haven't I heard- Er...felt this kind of thing before? I've known you for over a year, and I would've thought..." Noticing the slightly uneasy cast his expression took at her remark, she backtracked quickly. "I mean, I noticed it a little when I first came to see you but...Tell me I'm stupid for missing it, please. You know me and how I tunnel-vision when I'm stressed out of my mind."

"No, no" he soothed, "You missed nothing. I..." In a rare moment of uncertainty with his words, he huffed out a soft breath, knowing that what he was about to say would unsettle her. "This mode of expression" he began, "requires a healthy pair of lungs. As my illness progressed, I began to lose the ability, and lacked it entirely for many years prior to our meeting. Gladly however, as my health has returned, I have been able to rediscover it in increments."

Though she tried to hide it, Shepard winced, the omission of this form of communication from their long past talks about his people suddenly making perfect sense to her. "I've got to be the densest..." she grieved, shaking her head as she held Thane's gaze. "I'm sorry. I didn't even th-"

"Amial" he cut in, hushing her with both his words and a touch to her jaw. "You mishear me." Taking another readying breath, he spoke again; the oddly sonorous sensation felt, as it had been, through where she touched his chest with her hands. "I was unable-" he said as he exhaled, the words seeming to echo faintly since he spoke them while speaking in this new-old way. "-But am no longer. Rejoice in this. Don't linger on memories you can do nothing to change."

"Says the man" she re-joined, "who I've known to spend days dwelling on one thing or another."

Quick as a whip and hoping to appease her, Thane replied through a little smile. "Do as I say, not as I do."

"Oh?" Shepard mused, brows raising now; her moment of mortified contrition slowly easing. "And what did you say Sere? When you held me before and spoke those pretty things I can feel but can't hear right."

Her mate did nothing to mask the deeply affectionate cast his expression took as he enlightened her. "I was telling you that I love you" he murmured, drawing her close once more as she gave a pleased gasp and beamed up at him. "In the manner any right-minded Drellish man would tell the object of his affections that very thing."

"I love you back" she enthused, embracing him as she revelled at his message and wondered at its delivery. She wanted to convey the same to him in just as special a manner, but the buzzing rumble that she now knew translated as affection wasn't something she could emulate. Curious then, she rephrased her declaration as a slightly breathy question. "How…would a Drellish lady say 'I love you back'?"

A new swell of that felt-but-mostly-unheard tone came up from Thane's chest as he took a breath, replying with utter and complete sincerity. "Just like that."

Her lips open, a soft laugh escaping, Ami nestled against him and held him to her as she spoke a mirth-tinged, "I love you" that was wholly heartfelt.

He knew, of course. Had heard the very thing from her not a breath or two ago. But, if only for the joy of saying it and hearing it said, it needed repeating.

"And I love you" Thane replied, smiling into his love's neck and curling his body against her. For a long moment they remained still, content to simply souse in each other's presence and the fact that, Gods willing, they wouldn't need to be parted again for an appreciable period of time. Then though, over her shoulder, a mess upon his table caught his eye and drew a low, almost scathing chuff from his throat.

He had been so on edge after his lunch, the time for his mate's arrival having been closing in on him, that he'd fallen into one of her habits - giving his hands something to do while he waited by unpacking a small bag, sorting through its contents, and repacking it again. When her lateness became acute however, he'd abandoned the project and made for the lobby to keep watch, and the upshot of that was a markedly mussed tabletop and a bag that needed repacking before he could leave with her.

As he contemplated his folly, nestled now as he was in the rapture of his love's company, she shifted against him, raising her head to ask, "What was that now? I heard that one. That-" She gave a muted, throaty cough as her best approximation of a Drellish chuff, and turned in his arms when Thane nodded towards the object of his consternation. He seemed almost self-conscious, trailing off as he explained.

"I fear I was...Hm."

Ami however knew what she was seeing. "You were antsy!" she laughed, shaking her head fondly at the sight of the gutted bag and its contents spread across the table. It was hardly an egregious mess, and was nothing to what she would have done had she been in his position, but compared to the state of the otherwise pristine room it certainly stood out.

Thane dipped his chin bashfully when she met his eyes again. "Yes" he said, "I was at that."

"I understand the feeling" she replied, drawing in a shallow breath through her nose and letting it out slowly. "I've been climbing the bloody walls all week. Needing to just…" Taking a careful hold of his sides, she curled her fingers, feeling him as she walked a half step forward and returning to his embrace fully; her chin coming to rest on his shoulder. "This. Just this, you know?"

His answering rumble of agreement, again, went right through to her bones, and she murmured a greatly affectionate, "I love you back" in answer to his felt-and-mostly-unheard expression of exactly that sentiment before gathering herself and, with immense difficulty, putting a bit of distance between them again. It was just a pace though. That's all she could manage in the not towards Thane direction presently, and honestly even that felt like too much.

"Right then" she said, dropping her gaze to her hands briefly when, to accommodate the space between them without sacrificing physical contact, her beau slid his hands down her arms and took her hands in his. Caught in much the same manner she had been when her words failed her prior to their first proper kiss, it took her another try to make her vocabulary work for her.

"..Right..let's get you packed" she prompted, giving his hands a tug and glancing towards the table. "If we don't get moving, poor Doctor Chakwas will be waiting for us for hours, and I promised her I'd hustle."

Thane smiled. "Then hustle we shall" he replied, chuckling when she cocked a brow at his pointed mimicry and leading her over to the eviscerated bag and its once neatly packed contents. Opening it out fully to make re-filling it easier for them, he added, "Though I am sorely tempted to make this as drawn-out an exercise as possible."

With a curious frown, she eased the first of what turned out to be a portion of her mate's extensive collection of prayer books into the bag's main compartment. "Really? This from Mister Efficiency himself?" she smiled, "That's unlike you."

Her beau tilted his head slightly in question. "Is it? Knowing our circumstances, and the distance we will need to put between ourselves until we again find a private place to settle, wouldn't you want to prolong the time we have now as much as possible?"

"We'll have all the privacy in the universe when we get back to the Normandy" she promised, pulling up the nearest chair and settling to continue packing. The books were a treat for the fingers, paper-made and almost antique-looking as they were, and she slowed up consciously to try and give her beau as much of the reprieve from public life that he seemed to want as she could. "You sound like you're expecting a long afternoon" she added. "Know something I don't?"

He gave a short nod. "I spoke with Doctor Chakwas over lunch. Apparently, my chief physician has made her aware of his keenness to go through my daily care routine with her not only in person, but in person aboard the Normandy."

"Oh you're kidding me-" she drew, her curiosity fast being replaced by frustration.

"How I wish I was, Siha. It is not a long procedure by any means. Administering the injections takes less than a minute, and the daily scans and further checks have never spanned over ten since my health has stabilised, but Doctor Pyral is a man who can turn a ten minute procedure into a three hour discussion." He sighed softly, shaking his head. "Goddess if there is anywhere I would like to spend no time today it is in the ship's medical bay."

Irked as she was by the thought of being banished from her beau's side while his doctors poked at him, Ami knew the situation had its up sides. He'd be on the ship, for one. He'd be safe. He'd be receiving needed medical attention, and Doctor Chakwas would be getting even better at caring for him than she already was. She told him these things - soothed and placated him as they worked, and was given in response a nod and a measured smile from her still greatly disaffected mate - but the most pertinent up-side, that which interested her most, she kept to herself so she might surprise him later.

Her purchases from earlier in the day would very likely have made it to the ship by the time they finally returned to it. With him sequestered away in the medical bay, she would be free to unpack both them and his personal effects in his absence, and to put real time and effort into making his return as welcoming and comfortable as possible. Contented by this knowledge, Shepard welcomed her mate at her side as he too pulled up a chair, and turned her attention back to getting his effects packed.

And now!

Coming in the next chapter

Shepard and Thane leave the hospital.

A suspicious package causes a moment of hilarity.

And Senior ruins Junior's afternoon.