Author's Note: Thanks to Sailor Centaurti1 for following this story, and stephanid98 for favoriting! As always, let me know what you think of the story, and if there's anything you'd like to see put in. Thanks and enjoy!

She had no idea what sort of trouble she had just gotten herself into. Catherine had apparently struck a chord in Kaidan that made him decide to pull her away from the group. She wasn't afraid of him, or what he could do to her, it was more that she was afraid of anyone who might see them. Yes, they were on shore leave. But it wasn't for very long. Either way, she sat down beside Kaidan at the end of the bar, putting her back to the wall and crossing her legs. Her hair fell into her face so she had to brush it out of the way, and in the process of doing so, she glanced at the bartender, and smiled.

"What can I get you?" the young woman asked.

"I'll have three fingers of Asari hard liquor." she said, turning to Kaidan.

"I'm fine for now."

She chuckled and he turned to look at her.

"What?"

"You'd better have something to drink while we're here."

"I will. Promise." he was smiling and she couldn't help but ease off a little and lean back. He wasn't acting like his usual reserved and kind self right now. While that's what first brought her attention to him, it was incredibly enticing to see this other side of him.

"Alright. Then tell me something." Catherine couldn't wait to see what his explanation of this was going to be.

"Hm?"

"Why'd you pull me over here away from everyone else? Thought you wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible."

"Maybe I changed my mind, since we aren't on duty."

"A Spectre's always on duty." she said, turning to take her drink as it appeared.

"Good thing I'm not one."

"Yet." she quipped as she put the glass to her lips, drinking a good third of the liquor. She put the glass down and looked back up at him, "You still haven't answered my question with a definite answer."

She watched as he thought it over, and waited patiently for him to respond.

"I wanted to spend some time with you while I didn't have to necessarily make plans."

"So you're essentially asking me out on a lazy date?" Catherine smirked. He nodded and she let out a small chuckle, lightly hitting his shoulder. "You're lucky I didn't leave early like I planned."

"Why were you planning on leaving early, if I may ask." Kaidan leaned over a little bit.

"Get a drink, and maybe I'll tell you."

"I'm going to need a definite answer from you." he grinned. She rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Get a drink, then I'll tell you. How's that?"

"Better." he waved the bartender over and got something to drink, looking at her expectantly. As soon as he had the glass in hand, she started to speak again.

"I was planning on going to visit my mom, since she's on shore leave right now, too. I don't know if I would have spent the night there, or not, but..." she trailed off in thought and after a couple moments she sighed, "I don't think she's doing as well as she used to be."

"I get that." Kaidan interrupted quietly. Well, as quiet as he could at the bar. She suddenly realized that this might not be the best place to talk with him about this sort of thing. She would willingly talk to him, though.

"Hey, listen. I'm going to go tell everyone I'm leaving. I'll tell them I have a meeting or something tomorrow morning." she took the rest of her drink, and gladly downed it, pushing the empty glass away gently, "Stay here for another half hour or so... And then you can come by my apartment and we can talk more, alright? I'm not comfortable talking about this sort of thing in the open."

Whether he would go for it or not, Catherine didn't know. She just knew that if he did go along with it, she would make it well worth his time, going out of the way to talk with her. He probably had plans to- actually, he probably didn't have anything better to do than spend time with her. After she saw him nod, they walked back to the table, and while everyone was there, she told them she was leaving. After a little protesting from everyone, she agreed to ten more minutes, then ended up staying another half hour.

"I'm really sorry everyone, but I need to get some sleep. I have a meeting first thing tomorrow morning. Stay as long as you want, I'll pick up the tab." she quickly backed away and headed for the door, ignoring all the protest to stay. She'd managed to walk all the way to the taxi stand without running into anyone, and as she was waiting, someone came hurrying over towards her, carrying something. It wasn't anyone she knew.

"Excuse me, ma'am, you dropped this!" he said, holding out something she would clearly never own, much less carry around: a purse. She chuckled.

"I think you're mistaken. I didn't take anything in there with me. And even if I did, my crew would know to hold it for me until I got back to the ship." she went to turn around and the man made the mistake of putting a hand on her shoulder.

She turned back and glared at the man, and when he didn't back down she hardly hesitated to throw her fist into his cheek, sending him slamming against the floor. And suddenly six men showed up, cornering her. She was a skilled fighter, sure. But even with her biotics six was too many to take on her own. So she did the first thing she could think of, and pushed the panic button on her omni-tool, alerting her whole crew with her location. She pressed herself against the wall, and tried to hold them off. She felt pathetic, being unable to save herself. The bouncers upstairs even looked at her, and stood there. If she had anything to say about that, they'd be fire before the end of the night.

Catherine watched as they inched closer. The man she'd sent to the floor was Human. The rest coming at her were Turian and Batarian. She was in shock, and didn't move when one of the men returned her punch with double the force, causing her to black out for what she assumed was just a few seconds when her head hit the wall behind her. Now that she was down on the ground, she was at a severe disadvantage. That is, until she heard shouting, and suddenly a small thunder of footsteps. Turning her head she saw her crew, minus Joker, running down the stairs. It would have deterred nearly any group even if Wrex hadn't been there. He'd shoved his way to the front of the group and growled into the face of a Turian, who immediately backed away. She let out a sigh of relief when the group scampered off, leaving their leader still groggy on the floor. She might have had a worse punch, but she knew where to hit to make it hurt. Ashley had already begun screaming at the man to get up and go home, Garrus backing her by threatening to call C-Sec. Meanwhile the only available medic crouched down and grabbed her chin, stealing her breath at the sudden action.

"One of them broke your lip. And I can already see a bruise forming on your cheek. Is that all the damage?" he asked with a little bit of a smirk, dropping his hand to help her up.

"Uh, yeah. I think so." she moved to take his arm and stand but found that she was getting dizzy, and so she slumped back down. "Alright, maybe not."

"Hmph. They get scared too easily." Wrex grumbled as the other man ran off. Catherine let out a laugh and they all stared at her.

"What, Wrex? Not a long enough fight for you?"

"Not enough of one. You got all the action." he huffed and turned back, "I'm going back in for another drink."

"Well, someone has to keep an eye on him." Ashley said, rather fast to follow him, along with nearly everyone else. Liara was still standing there, in the back. She looked confused.

"Why don't you two help me back to my apartment?" she said a little quieter, grimacing. She felt like she was going to throw up; the taste of her own blood was something she could never get used to. Liara seemed to relax and came to her other side. She put an arm around both of them, admittedly leaning more on Kaidan, because she knew he could take her weight. They didn't get very far before she began losing consciousness. She'd hit her head harder than she thought.

She came too a while later, and it was dark when she opened her eyes. Catherine was still dressed, though she didn't have her shoes on. A few moments later she realized that she was in her apartment, in bed. Lifting her head slowly, she found that she could sit up at least. There was light coming from the other room, where the living area and kitchen were. She was about to reach for her gun, when she realized that it was probably just Kaidan and Liara. She'd asked them to help carry her back, didn't she? They'd probably want to make sure she was alright after passing out. She let out a soft sigh and closed her eyes, just trying to relax before attempting to stand, and then walk. She didn't get the chance.

"Hey. Are you feeling any better?" Kaidan was standing just inside the doorway, one hand gripping the frame of it. She opened her eyes and looked over, smiling a little.

"Yeah. I just have a small headache, but I'm sure it'll go away soon." she paused and then motioned for him to come over as she pulled her knees up to her chest, keeping herself covered by the blanket. He turned on the light, and then came in and sat down next to her, just like she wanted. "So how far did you have to carry me?" she asked while he was habitually looking over her "injuries".

"Hm... Just about the whole way there. We barely got ten feet before you passed out." he smiled and lowered his hand and his voice. "I told Liara she could go if she wanted, but she insisted on making sure we got you back here safely. So I had her open the door. She was pretty quick to leave, though."

"So... It's just you and me here?"

"Yeah."

She held his gaze for a while, and had to remind herself that right now, she could do whatever she wanted. There weren't any cameras watching her, or people that could walk by and get her discharged. Catherine hated that she had to remind herself of these things so often. So, she decided to hell with it, and leaned forward to give him a little kiss as thanks. She leaned back again, and didn't make eye contact with him for a few seconds. At least not until she realized that he was getting closer to her.

Now she'd done it. She'd opened up the gate and they both knew that there was absolutely no backing away from it now. His arm reached to the other side of her body and held him up as he stretched over so that he could meet her lips again. She was mildly surprised that he hadn't asked her if it was okay beforehand, or something. That's what he usually did. But his lips were warm against hers and she felt her legs relaxing, laying flat on the bed once again.

Her fingers were suddenly trailing up the back of his neck, and then tangling in his hair. It was a little strange that she was acting without thinking, and that suddenly it was getting a little hard to breathe. She pulled her head back and started panting to catch her breath, looking up at Kaidan and searching his face for... something. She didn't know what exactly. Then she was suddenly being pushed back, losing her breath once again as she pulled him against her. Her head hit her pillow again and she felt his weight on top of her.

"Kaidan, wait-" she gently pushed on his chest. He was immediately sitting back up and she could barely see how red his face was before he was moving to leave the room. "Kaidan, don't leave." she didn't mean to act like she didn't want it. But, he was already out of the room. She huffed and got up as fast as she could, not sure that she would be able to catch him before he left. Luckily she caught him right as he was about to open the door. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to turn around and face her. He wouldn't look her in the eye.

"I... I really should be going." he said, trying to escape her grip without pushing her or ripping himself away. She sighed and dropped her hand.

"Kaidan, you don't need to run away." she waited until he looked at her to speak, "It's just... It's been a while for me. And it's not that I don't want you here, but I don't want to rush into anything. You know?"

He slumped his shoulders and she met his gaze, offering a smile.

"Guess it's been a while for me, too."

"So, don't just run off on me. You didn't do anything wrong - if anything I just needed to catch my breath."

They both chuckled and she motioned for him to sit down with her so that they could talk. They hadn't exactly discussed the terms of their relationship, so Catherine figured that might help to clear things up. They didn't exactly have much to say, though. Other than being sure that they could separate this from work, they didn't really have many concerns about respecting the other person. By now they could generate fairly accurate assumptions as to how the other person might react to any given event.

"What time is it?" Catherine yawned, looking for her clock in the room.

"It's nearly midnight. I should really get going." Kaidan stood up.

"But what if I have a concussion and need someone to take me to the hospital? They say the first 24 hours after getting your head hit are the most vital in diagnosing a concussion." Catherine said quickly, smiling at herself. Anything to keep him from leaving. Kaidan looked back at her, his mouth open slightly and smirking before he sighed and shook his head.

"Fine... I'll stay." he put his hands on her arms as she popped up, grinning.

"Then you'll stay in my bed with me." she took half a step back, "In case I need medical help, of course."

"Of course."