Author's Note: I'd like to thank Kirsah and KerryResidentOfEarth for the follow, and darkerego for the favorite to the story. I apologize for the long delay, but I've been very busy with school again. Also I did celebrate my birthday, so I got absolutely no work done that day. I've had a few requests sent in by anonymous readers for the shore leave between the first and second games. I apologize for how crappy and short this chapter is, but I had to get something out. I may come back and revise it. Enjoy!

After the interview, Catherine looked much more relaxed to Kaidan. He'd gotten a couple messages from Joker, teasing him about his sudden outburst, claiming that he'd known all along that she and the lieutenant were an item. For the most part, Kaidan wasn't bothered by it. Mostly because Catherine got the messages too, and she laughed, threatening to make all of his extranet bookmarks public knowledge. That had shut him up pretty fast, and now they were left completely alone.

"Alright. Now that we are officially free from business, where are we going?" she turned to face him once they were alone in the apartment, standing near the small couch.

"What do you mean where?" he looked over curiously, hanging up his coat beside hers.

"I'm not staying on the Citadel when I have a vacation." she smirked, walking over and putting her hands on his chest as her voice lowered. "Besides, are you complaining that I'm letting you take charge?"

"You know I've taken charge before." he lowered his voice as well, grinning as he put his hands on her waist. She met his gaze, and suddenly the room was too hot for his liking. He took a step forward, forcing her to take a step back. And then he took another, and another, until she was backed against the wall. When she bumped into it, she let out a small gasp of surprise before she regarded him with half-lidded eyes and a devilish grin.

"So that's how it's going to be, hm?"

"You've relinquished your command to me, I believe." he growled in her ear as he kissed her neck. He could feel her shudder beneath him and before she got the chance to push him back, he snaked his hands up her sides and arms, snatching her wrists. In one fluid motion he was able to hold both wrists in one hand, pushing them above her head as he caught her mouth with his own. He never really got rough in intimate situations, but this had been a little more playful to start with. He assumed he was granted some leeway, and she wasn't exactly complaining.

At least so long as he wasn't just imagining feeling the pressure of her body against his. He let go of one of her wrists when she started tugging, and he felt her hand against the back of his neck, snaking up into his hair. Catherine pulled her lips from his, and gave him a firm look in the eyes, sighing softly.

"I'm going to be a little cruel, and make you wait until we're far away from here." she said, voice quiet and clearly wanting. At least there was a promise of something.

He silently accepted, but refused to let her go so easily. More tenderly this time, he pressed his lips against hers, and let one arm press her body against his. She eagerly pressed her hand that was buried in hair against his skull, just as her free arm slid between their bodies up his chest. Waiting was going to be a little difficult, for him.

Kaidan had to nudge Catherine awake after the shuttle ride. They travelled a good 15 hours from the Citadel to Earth, and she'd been so excited to go on this trip that she'd worn herself out nearly before they got to the shuttle. Both had gotten plenty of sleep, and it was still morning when they arrived in Los Angeles. He personally hadn't wanted to have to go through the city, but it was the only option for the available time. To his relief, they wouldn't be staying in the city, but rather far away from it.

"Good thing I'm paying for half of this trip, hm?" Catherine smirked as they retrieved their bags, and the key to their rental car.

"Not like I couldn't have covered it. But if that were the case, we probably wouldn't be staying in as nice a place as we are." he smiled.

"Yeah. Still, I'm sure I'd have enjoyed the trip all the same." she gave him a soft nudge and when they got to the rental, they put their bags in, and fought for two seconds over who would be driving.

"You know what, if you want to crash the car, go for it. You're the one paying." Kaidan gave up, smirking when he saw that she was mocking offense.

"You're just saying that because you've never seen me drive an actual vehicle. You know the Alliance has shitty vehicles, it's not just my driving skills, or lack thereof."

"I'll believe it when I see it." He smiled, already sitting in the passenger seat. She scowled for a minute before her face cracked into a grin, and she laughed with him, starting the car and driving off. She wasn't really a bad driver, he knew that. The problem more than half the time was the terrain, and things attacking her. And that wasn't going to happen, because they were vacationing without giving any notice to anyone. They'd disappeared overnight.

So, about two hours later, they were in Santa Barbra, throwing everything on the floor of the hotel room and heading out to the balcony to enjoy the sun - real sun. He could see the look of pure happiness on Catherine's face as she sighed with her eyes closed. He didn't say anything, but he did reach over to take her hand. Her response was to lean against him, putting her head on his shoulder. He liked the way it felt, and hoped this wouldn't be the last time they got to stand like this.

Things were quiet that morning, and after they had moved back into the cool room, they looked around on the extranet at some of the things they could do. Catherine was standing behind Kaidan as he sat in one of the two chairs in the room, browsing through his omni-tool. He noticed that about twenty minutes in to their search for something to do, she leaned forward more. He could see how tired she was, and he closed his omni-tool suddenly, turning to face her. She scowled.

"What?"

"We're here for a while. We don't have to do something today, we just got here. Besides, you look like you could use a little more rest." He took her hand gently as she rested it on the back of the chair.

"You just want me in bed." she narrowed her eyes, smirking.

"There's that, too." he grinned, not about to deny that it had been another reason. He'd been waiting for a chance to have her again, after all. Very patiently.

"Alright." she sighed, and leaned over to kiss the top of his head. "But we're going out somewhere for dinner." she said, practically throwing herself face-first onto the bed.

"What about lunch?" he dared to ask as he stood.

"We can skip lunch." she said with a grin as her head popped up. She crawled up to where the pillows were, and then patted the space next to her. Kaidan took her request and laid on his stomach next to her, head turned so that he could look at her.

Catherine's eyes were closed, and her face was more relaxed than he'd ever seen her before. There was a strand of hair crossing her face, and he took the liberty of moving it aside, brushing his thumb over her cheekbone. She gave a soft hum as her lips curled into a smile, and her hand reached up to be placed on top of his. Her eyes opened and Kaidan couldn't help but smile back at her. He could get lost in her eyes and not care what happened as a result. Things would probably fall apart without her taking care of things, though. But he had no doubts that she'd want him to be at her side through anything.

She took her hand away, but instead she propped herself up, leaning over to give him a rather firm kiss. The kind of kiss that neither really let go of for the next hour, and what really felt like the next couple of days.

They'd gone out to the beach, done all the typical touring, and even made a trip to the zoo. But at the end of each day, the two ended up in the same exact spot, regardless of how tired they felt. Kaidan lay on his back, while Catherine pressed herself beside him on her stomach, one half of her body covering him while her arm was thrown lazily across the rest of his body, and her head was tucked neatly into his neck while his arm curled around her back to hold her where she was. It was comfortable, and they didn't need anything more.

Their vacation wasn't long enough, for him.

"Wish we could stay another day or two." he said as they lay in bed, procrastinating on leaving the hotel, and getting back to the Citadel. He could feel her finger tracing lazy circles across his chest as her cheek pressed hot against his shoulder.

"I know." she sighed, and lifted her head with a smile to look at him. "Next time we'll pick somewhere with more to do, and we'll take more time."

"I like the sound of that." he grinned, pulling her flush against him for just a little longer before they had to go. He needed her warmth to remember it when he had to go back to sleeping without it again.