I spent the rest of the evening working my shift at Engineering. Tali was out investigating Noveria with Jane, which left me and Abhishek to handle everything.

"..so then you throw your freakin' helmet at the thing?!" Abhishek continued his line of questioning.

I chuckled lightly. "Well, I had nothing else. I ended up being really lucky with the timing. Slightly early, and the drone would have dodged it and shot its rocket at me. Slightly late, and the rocket would have hit me."

Abhishek shook his head, expressing shock. "You got to play hero, man. How did it feel?"

"Terrifying. I'd rather stay down here, and let the actual soldiers handle the fighting, thank you very much. I'm surprised I wasn't pissing my pants throughout that mission."

I was being honest. Merely thinking about that moment, with the rocket drone and Jane, gave me chills. What if it had gone wrong?

Abhishek smirked. "Yeah, but you got to do something you'll never forget for the rest of your life. Maybe nothing else will ever top that moment. Maybe… your life has peaked?"

The fresh memory of my almost-kiss with Jane flashed through my eyes…

"Nah." I shook my head, grinning. "It definitely hasn't."

"GET DOW-"

An explosion threw the both of us into opposite directions. Every inch of my body was in pain. I opened my eyes, and turned my head to see a rocket drone slowly approaching her.

"JANE!"

She couldn't hear. Or maybe I couldn't shout. The drone fired, and time slowed down as I saw the rocket hit her.

A huge explosion. Blood… everywhere. A blinding white light. Green eyes….

I jumped out of bed, violently.

"Wha-"

Okay. Just a dream. Just a…

I tried to slow down my breathing, and immediately winced as I felt a sharp pain in my right leg. Blood was trickling down to my feet. Apparently, my rapid dismount from the bed had caused a wound to re-open. I checked the time. 3 AM.

Shit.

I rolled up the leg of my trousers and cringed when I saw a bloody mess just below my knee. Using a piece of cloth, I kept the wound tightly wrapped, and started to limp towards the elevator.

The journey to the med bay was long and torturous. Despite my best attempts to stop the bleeding, I was leaving behind drops of blood on the floor, with every step. When I finally entered through the door, I was taken aback for a second when I realised that it wasn't empty.

A teary-eyed Liara was seated in one of the beds, silently sobbing. Dr Chakwas seemed to be busy scanning the asari's hand with her omnitool, while Tali and Kaidan stood nearby, having a quiet conversation. Behind them, seated on another bed, was a woman, mostly obstructed from my view. I didn't have to be a detective to figure out who she was.

As soon as the med-bay doors had opened, all five of them turned around. Jane got up from her bed to get a better look at me. She looked exhausted.

"Harry, what are you…" Her eyes widened as she saw my leg. "Doctor!"

Dr. Chakwas looked down at my leg and her expression soured. "How did this happen, Douglas? I told you, no pressure on the legs!"

"I had a…" I stopped myself. "I fell down. From the bed." Well, partly true.

She motioned me towards a bed. Before I could move a step, Jane had grabbed me by the shoulders. She guided me towards the bed, slightly limping. Carefully, I laid myself down.

"Commander," Dr. Chakwas spoke in a slightly annoyed tone, "you're the one who just came back from a life-threatening mission. Harry will be alright, he just needs some medigel. Please go back to your own bed and sit down, so that I can examine you."

"I'm fine, Doctor," Jane stated defiantly, as she sat down near my legs. "Just finish up with Liara, I can apply the medigel." She removed the piece of cloth around the wound and opened up her omni-tool. She looked determined to fix up my wound, apparently trying to distract herself, avoiding eye contact with anyone. I looked around at Tali and Kaidan, who were busy consoling Liara in hushed tones. What happened down there?

It took a few minutes for the medigel to close up the wounds. By that time, Tali and Kaidan had excused themselves from the med-bay. The doctor finally finished treating Liara's minor wounds, and the asari immediately stood up.

"I should be heading to bed, Commander..."

"Liara…. I'm sorry for what happened. Are you alright?" Jane spoke, looking at her with concern.

"I'll be fine. I just… need to lie down and sleep for now."

"Go ahead. I'll drop by for a talk tomorrow, okay?"

"I'd really like that, Commander."

Liara gave us all a nod as she slowly walked out through the door. The white-haired doctor immediately turned towards Jane, who put up her hands.

"I'm fine, doctor. Sprained my ankle a bit, nothing else."

"Okay, Commander," Chakwas replied, with a slight nod. "The painkillers I gave you will be enough then, I guess." She approached my bed, and examined my recently closed wound. "Looks okay to me. The medigel has done its job. You'll still feel mild pain in that area, for a while, but that's normal. I'd advise not getting out of this bed, at least for this night. Don't hesitate to wake me up if any problem comes up."

Jane spoke up before I could respond. "Sorry for calling you at this odd time, Doctor. We thought Liara's injuries were much more serious…"

"Not a problem, Commander. It's my job." She smiled, and turned to leave.

As the doctor left the med bay, I turned to look at Jane, who was staring at me intently.

"Jane… What exactly happened?"

I got to hear a long, detailed account of a nightmarish mission, which started with trying to obtain a garage pass and ended with fighting swarms of supposedly extinct insect-monsters, asari commandos and… Liara's mother.

I was speechless at the end, unable to find anything to say.

Jane saw my reaction and gave me a weak smile. "Now you know why we were so silent."

"Liara… She must be feeling horrible. Losing her only parent like that.."

"Yeah, she's trying her best to look strong, but I don't think she's okay. I lost my parents when I was 16, it took me years to become… normal, again."

I silently nodded. Mindior. Where Jane lost her family… and everything else. She had a tragic past. I wanted to talk to her about it, but I was too afraid of making her relive those memories. I kept my mouth shut.

Jane sighed. "She's young, just like I was." She looked at me hesitantly. "Just like you are. Your father... How did you deal with him passing away?"

I looked away, absent-mindedly shuffling my arms. "It was… different, in my case. I hated him, Jane. I hated his guts. After all he had done to Mom, to me, I don't think I had the tiniest interest in him living or dying."

Jane stayed silent. She had read my personnel file. She knew about the famous scientist, Dr. James Douglas. She probably knew about the extremely public scandal. Anyone who saw the news knew. Multiple affairs. Multiple families. Multiple kids. Mom's tear-filled face flashed through my eyes…

"Sorry." Jane's breathy voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "I shouldn't have mentioned him…"

"It's okay." I smiled at her.

She smiled back and got up from the bed, presumably to leave…

"Scoot over."

"I'm sorry?"

"Come on. Scoot over. I need to lie down."

I continued staring at her in surprise as I shifted towards the left side of the small bed. Jane laid down beside me, resting her head on the pillow and facing the ceiling. She closed her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. Up close, she looked… amazing. I couldn't take my eyes off her, even if I tried to.

She noticed me staring at her and gave a playful smile. "Oh, no… don't get any ideas, Harry. You haven't even taken me out for a nice dinner yet." She winked at me.

I looked away for a second, slightly embarrassed. "I… I wasn't…"

"Sure," she deadpanned. "Harry… can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, of course."

"You were having a nightmare, weren't you?"

How did she..?

"….yeah. But how do you know that?"

"You were sweating. And shaky. Also, you came into the med bay with a bleeding leg. Normal sleep doesn't do that to people."

I nodded my head. "I.. jumped out of bed. A little too hard. It was the Luna mission. I saw the drone approach you. And this time, it fired at you. And then… well, my dreams have never been that violent..."

I felt embarrassed as soon I stopped talking. She's a freakin' Spectre. She has seen and experienced the worst of the galaxy. Good job, whining about your mildly annoying dream to her, you idiot.

She bit her lip lightly, as she kept looking at me. "I'm worried about you, Harry."

"I'll be alright, Jane. But I'm worried about you. You're throwing yourself at these intense missions. More than one in a day! Isn't this.. dangerous?"

She sighed and looked away. "It is. I'm over-exerting myself, I'm aware of that. But I can't stop myself. You wanna know how I really found out about you having a nightmare? I have been having a lot of them myself…"

I was taken aback. "You're having nightmares? Since when? How often?"

"More than I would like to admit. It's getting worse. It's gotten to the point where I'm actively avoiding sleep. And burying myself in work. Remember when I told you I wanted to talk about something? This is it."

I held her hand, and turned around to lay on my side, so that my whole body was facing her. "I'm here, Jane. I'm listening."

She smiled. "That's great to know, Harry. But I'm not really in the mood for a long, emotionally draining conversation right now."

"Yeah, you should really get some sleep. You look tired."

"I will, in a minute. How's your leg now?"

"It's great. Still hurts a bit, but, Dr. Chakwas said that's normal, right? How's your ankle?"

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. Now give me your other hand, I want to show you something…"

She closed her eyes for a second, as she held both of my hands with both of hers. Gradually, I felt an unexpected warmness spread throughout my body. It felt like every relaxing thing I've ever felt, combined. I closed my own eyes involuntarily, letting myself fall into the warmth.

"What is..."

"Something only a biotic can do." Jane whispered. "Feels good, doesn't it?"

I opened my eyes to look at her. "Feels... amazing." Both of us were surrounded in a blue glow. Not only did I not feel the pain from the wound anymore, I forgot what pain even felt like, momentarily.

Jane bit her lip as she stared into my eyes. "One last thing, before I let go." She brought in her face incredibly close to mine. "I believe we were interrupted last time…"

I got the hint, and I pulled her in for a kiss. There we were, lying in a small bed, fingers interlocked, lips locked in a passionate embrace. It was the perfect moment.

Unfortunately, even perfect moments come to an end. Soon, the cold air of the Normandy hit me once again, as we broke contact, and she started to get up from the bed. I could hear her breathing heavily. Whatever she did, it probably took some effort to maintain.

I watched her silently as she stood up and started walking away. The door opened and she stepped outside.

"Hey.. Jane.."

She turned back.

"Next time we go to the Citadel, maybe we can go out…. for a nice dinner."

The door closed on her beautiful, smiling face.