Author's Note: I'd like to thank ChaseingTheWind and zulija for following and favoriting this story. I also apologize if this chapter seems rushed but I've been dealing with a bit of writer's block. The only way I could seem to get around it was skipping through most of the battle scenes. Sorry about the shortness of the chapter as well.

If you have anything you'd like to see in the next couple of chapters (or any chapter for that matter), I am open to suggestions. And by that I mean please give me an idea. All the ones I have are... boring.

Kaidan woke up what he thought was too early in the morning, and without even needing to move he knew that Catherine wasn't in the room. Should he have been shocked at himself for actually no caring about the consequences of last night? He couldn't find it in himself to feel anything but happy at the moment. Bringing his hand up to his face, he rubbed the sleep off, opening his eyes and sitting up half way to get a better look around.

The covers had been thrown back where she had previously been laying beside him, but other than that there wasn't much else to look in the room that had changed. He leaned against the wall and glanced over to the clock, seeing that he'd have to be up in an hour, anyway. He wondered where Catherine had gone to, but Kaidan wasn't so sure he wanted to go looking for her right now. He felt a small ache at the back of his neck, and he brought his hand up to rub at it, glad that it was easing the ache he felt. When he was about to go pick up his lonely clothes off the floor, he heard the door open. He hardly worried about who it would be, but when he saw the cup of coffee he smiled at her.

"Glad to see you're up." she hummed, setting both cups down on the table next to the bed, and then sitting down herself. She was wearing shorts and an old t-shirt from boot camp, looking hardly anything like her usual self. But the dark circles under her eyes were hardly noticeable, now, making her look much younger. So when she sat down, Kaidan reached around her waist, pulling her so that her back was against his chest. She gave a tiny yelp of surprise when he started pulling, but she melted into giggles as she nested against his chest, sitting between his legs. "Did you sleep alright?" she looked up and over her shoulder at him.

"I slept really good..." he smiled and kept his arms around her tightly, making it a little hard for her to move. "How long have you been up?"

"About ten minutes, more or less." She yawned, "I felt like I couldn't sleep anymore."

He nodded, and reached over to hand her one of the cups when she asked, taking the other for himself. They were quiet, and he rested his chin on her shoulder as his mind wandered.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course." he snapped his attention back to her, looking down and noticing that her cup was nearly empty. He'd only taken one sip from his own cup.

"I know that... You might not think about this the same way I do. But last night I put a lot of trust in you, and I really hope that it won't go to waste. I just want to know what you'd do if, somehow, the brass found out about last night?" she kept her head down the whole time she spoke. He had to think for just a moment.

"If they didn't want me serving under you anymore, then fine. But I hope that wouldn't keep you away from me forever. You did promise me some shore leave with you, if I remember correctly."

"I did, didn't I?" she smiled and her head lifted, sighing happily with a nod. "I just needed that peace of mind, thank you."

"Any time." He gently kissed her cheek, and replaced her cup with his. "You need it more than I do."

"And you should probably shower and get out of here unless you want the whole ship knowing you took breaking the regs very seriously." Catherine smirked, shifting herself so that he could get up. He shook his head at her words. "You can use mine, if you want. I brought you some fresh clothes."

"You just think of everything." he smiled as he sat on the edge of the bed. She beamed back at him as he walked over to her small bathroom to shower.

"Who votes we take the Mako into the creepy underground bunker?" Kaidan asked, trying to lighten the mood a little after he, Shepard, and Wrex battled at least a hundred, if not more, geth. And they were just getting started. As they all climbed into the Mako, they started down the long series of tunnels, ignoring practically all the geth they encountered, trying to push through to catch up to Saren. Kaidan didn't like getting thrown around in the Mako, but for now he could deal with it. He figured it only seemed especially bad now because he was so tense.

They were heading down a long corridor that seemed like it would last forever. The buildings on either side were overgrown completely by strange looking plants that resembled both trees and ivy. It would have been beautiful if there hadn't been a time crunch. Of course at that moment, a barricade had been set up. Catherine stopped the Mako, and the three climbed out. Almost instantly, Catherine seemed to know where to go. Kaidan followed, though he wasn't too sure of what she was doing, looking to Wrex who seemed to be just as wary.

"Just trust me." she said, activating the elevator. She looked unsure of herself, but there wasn't much else he could think of to remedy the situation.

She'd been right, and Kaidan was amazed to see what they had discovered. It was an actual Prothean VI, and it had set up the barricade. For a good reason, as well. The conversation seemed to last for hours, but a glance at his omni-tool as they turned away revealed it had only been a few minutes. To think that the Citadel was a gateway for the Reapers all along... It explained so much. Unfortunately Kaidan had been so caught up in his thought that he barely saw where they were going until he felt the Mako halt violently.

Then Kaidan saw the blinding light from the Conduit. He was actually so surprised to see it that he couldn't form any words. Then his head slammed back against the seat as Catherine floored it.

"A little warning next time?" Wrex growled.

"Sorry, but we gotta go!" Catherine snapped back. Wrex grumbled something but was otherwise silent as they dodged more geth, trying to reach the Conduit before it closed. When they were close enough, the Mako shot up into the air, and the familiar feeling of FTL washed over him. They had no idea where they would be coming out. But wherever it was, Saren would also be there.

It had been nearly two hours since they'd left the elevator on the Citadel, and they were just now reaching the access panel to get back inside. Wrex went first, and then Kaidan had to practically push Catherine in as some of the geth came rushing towards them. He got nicked in the arm and as he fell in, Catherine saw it, clearly worried and furious at him. He stood up just fine and motioned for her to lead the way. Catherine glared before turning, punching some nasty holes into some of the geth with her own biotics. She'd been saving them until she saw Saren, and it was clear that they were minutes away from seeing him for the last time.

Kaidan saw the grenade before she did, and he pushed her towards Wrex, diving the other way for cover. She rolled with a grunt, but was upright before he was. And, as always, there was dialogue between them. He wondered to himself if Saren just liked hearing the sound of his voice, but as he listened to the words... it sounded like Saren was beginning to see his errors. This couldn't be happening.

In the blink of an eye, he saw Saren bring a gun up to his head. Then he was falling. Catherine saved the Council. Wrex placed another shot in Saren's head. Saren morphed into... Something resembling a husk. Saren disintegrated. The three were heading back to the elevator. And then Catherine was yelling at them to run, leaving her behind.

He made a mistake following orders. Why did he have to be such a good soldier? Why couldn't he see that there was no way she was going to make it and go back for her? Kaidan sat there with an injured arm and leg, shaking his head as he held back tears. Wrex sat with him, and while Kaidan expected some sort of insult to come from the beast, he said nothing, looking at the very least, sad. Anderson showed up not three hours later, both still sitting there pathetically. Though with all the bits of Sovereign sitting around, they weren't getting anywhere on their own.

"Come on, it's alright." Anderson said, helping him up. They started to walk away when Kaidan thought he heard distant footsteps. He furrowed his brow, and against his better judgement, stopped to turn around. "What is it?"

"I think I hear footsteps..." he said quietly, scanning the massive chamber for any movement.

"You do hear footsteps." Wrex said, actually sounding happy for once.

His eyes fixed on the largest piece that had fallen from Sovereign, and even in the blinding light, he could make out a distinct figure. He grinned and stole a glance at Anderson, who made the slightest motion in her direction. Injured leg or not, he ran towards her as she limped. He opened his arms towards her and met her with a clashing of armor as they embraced. Her body was heavy against his, and much to his surprise, he heard Wrex behind him mumbling something about humans being soft. Catherine parted from Kaidan, and grinned at Wrex. Both were surprised that he returned the hug, and then offered to carry her upon seeing her injured leg. Though Wrex started laughing as he threw her over his shoulder.

"Careful, big guy. Words gets out you're being nice to me and people might start to wonder if the king of the Krogan is actually king." Catherine laughed as they headed back towards the original destination. Kaidan walked behind Wrex so he could talk to Catherine easier.

"Between you two, I'll be lucky if I'm even thought about when the media finds out about all this." Wrex smirked. Kaidan didn't like the sound of that, but... It was true. They'd be famous after this stunt, and he didn't know if he was ready for that - if he was ready to be watched every second of the day.

"Kaidan, if you can't stop analyzing this, I can give you something else to think about." Catherine cut through his thoughts.

"What?" he looked up at her, to find her grinning. She stretched down so that she was eye-level with him, and her voice lowered as well.

"Two weeks. Wherever you want me."

"I can still hear you." Wrex said.

"Then you're not to say a word."

"Says who?"

"Says half my next paycheck." she said, leaning back up so she could get a better look at him over her shoulder.

"Get me some new armor and then we'll talk."

"Whatever you want, sweetie." Catherine smirked, making a show of her sudden generosity by kissing the Krogan's cheek. Kaidan couldn't help but chuckle when Wrex threatened to drop her if she did that again. She kept teasing him the whole rest of the way, but it was clear that everything was in good humor.

And all Kaidan could think about was where he could manage to sneak his new prize away for two weeks without the media following them.