Consider this my apology for missing a few days. Three drabbles in one chapter on the eve of the game's release. And tomorrow's the last chapter! I couldn't possibly be more excited for Mass Effect 3 tomorrow!

Hope you enjoy these, they're some of my favorites! Review please and tell me what you thought.

One Day

Exhale

This was it. I had compiled a team full of some of the best people that I've ever worked with. The Normandy had been given as many upgrades as we could possibly think of. We were as ready as we could be, given the circumstances. As we charted a course for the Omega 4 Relay, everyone headed off to their perspective station, past settled, focused on the mission ahead. Well, almost everyone.

In my quarters I admitted to myself that I hadn't put the past behind me. I was still trying to hold on steadfastly as it all slipped through my fingers. My eyes fell on the holo of Kaidan in its frame on my desk. His features stared back at me; warm brown eyes, thick dark hair, and handsome face. I remembered what it felt like to have his face pressed to my own, to trace his jaw with my fingers, my lips. And the longing was overwhelming.

I breathed in a deeply. Remember all of this, I thought. This is what you're fighting for. Then I exhaled slowly. Let it go. Walking away, I went to try and rest as much as I could.

There'll be time for it later.

Sick

When I woke up this morning I felt like my throat was on fire. It itched and burned while my nose was clogged and achy. The lucid part of my brain wondered how I could possibly be sick, with all of the Cerberus implants and my normally high-functioning immune system. Stress, my mind told me. You get sick when you run yourself too hard. Always have. This little consistency meant that I was still myself. I was still human. I may have died and been brought back to life, but I still got colds when I worked to hard.

And for the rest of the day I couldn't help the smile I had on my face, stuffy nose, sore throat, and all.

Three Times, No Replies

About Horizon…

The first time I read it through I was relieved he was still talking to me. And apologizing, believe it or not. It was a glimmer of hope that we could make it through all of this mess. That maybe he still wanted me, and maybe I would have something to come home to. I scrambled to write a reply, but collapsed from exhaustion onto my bed halfway through.

The second time I read it through I was angry. It was a half-assed apology at best, with to many ifs, buts, and maybes to be anything to hold onto. Furiously I deleted my half formed reply, and began forming a new one. By the time I had finished I had mellowed, and I read my reply over and, noting the amount of expletives, promptly deleted it.

The third time I read it through it sounded just like him. Cautious. He was trying to explain without attaching himself to me in any way. He was leaving a way out. Nostalgia coursed through me and I fingered the necklace I wore constantly ever since I had found it. There was a time that he would have put away that part of himself for me, thrown caution to the wind like we did the night before Illos. But, it had been two years, and that in itself had reverted him back to the reserved soldier that I had coaxed him out of. For the last time I started to put together a reply…and was interrupted by Joker, who informed me of a fight between Jack and Miranda. Sighing, I put down the datapad on my nightstand, where it stayed, untouched, until after we came back from the Collector base.