A/N: Wishing everyone a happy new year and such! This is a relatively short chapter, but things are going to pick up in the next chapter, so I'll make up for it. :D

Mr. and Mrs.

Kaidan stood at the front of the decorated room - where the hell had they gotten flowers anyway? - trying to resist the urge to thrust his hands in his pockets and rock back on his heels like Shepard was so wont to do. Garrus let Tali walk to the left as he joined James and Joker behind Kaidan, mandibles fluttering awkwardly at Kaidan as he passed.

"You ready?" he mumbled, distinct doubled voice rumbling as he tried to keep it quiet.

He wet his lips when he saw Kasumi slip back into one of the chairs, her lips drawn in a smile under her hood. If Kasumi was back, it meant that it would only be seconds now. Kasumi had used his account to buy Shepard a different dress, claiming he'd "love it" when he finally saw her in it, and finally breaking down and confessing that Shepard had been too upset to wear the one they wanted because it showed off the vast network of scars on her torso.

He finally cleared his throat quietly and glanced back at the turian behind him. "Ready enough."

Joker shifted on his crutch, only necessary because he'd be on his feet for longer than he usually was. "Better damn well be."

His first notice that Shepard was coming in was Admiral Shepard's quiet slip into a seat in the front next to Hackett and his mother, her encouraging smile up at him. It was followed quickly by the people in the back – political dignitaries, high-ranking and surviving members of the Alliance and other militaries, people she'd directly helped during the war, members of her old crews – standing, the aliens following the humans' lead. Kaidan stared at the aisle, anxiously awaiting anything.

He finally saw her, leaning heavily on her hand, and she met his eyes and smiled radiantly up at him. His breath, only just deciding it was safe to return, decided that a tactical retreat was once again in order.

He'd seen her in a dress once, and he'd known she'd worn it to get a reaction out of him, when they met on the Citadel after the attempted coup. And this . . . simple, but something that seemed both alien and perfect for her, hugging her body in a way that made him think quite seriously about the best way to get her out of it. But what he loved more than the dress or how her long hair had been piled on top of her head in a way so different from its usual regulation bun was the way her face had lit up as soon as their eyes met, the shadows he so often saw lurking there vanishing in a heartbeat.

As the actions of the humans encouraged the crowd to sink back into their seats, Kaidan reached out his hand and Shepard took it, her smile widening. "You, ah . . ." he started, voice stopping in his throat.

"Galaxy in the balance," she whispered, and he managed to grin around the lump in his throat. God, she was beautiful - the fact struck him as like a sack of rocks. "You ready?"

"Better be."

They turned to face the civil servant in charge of the public spectacle, and Kaidan ignored him as he rambled. He watched Shepard instead, eyes tracing the new scars on her neck and currently-bare arms, her hand warm in his, barely cognizant of the people around them as so often happened when they were together off a battlefield.

And after this spectacle there'd be another, this one a public celebration, and they would expect Shepard to dance at least once. And she would scowl and they would beg and she would finally stand up and fumble and limp her way through it, probably leaning on him for support when they didn't let her have her cane, and then go back to her second favorite pastime of feeding her biotic metabolism and her second least favorite (after dancing) of playing with dignitaries and politicians and people who wanted to thank her and name their children after her. And at some point, if he didn't keep an eye on her, Wrex and Vega and Garrus and probably Joker would try to break her off from the party to get her drunk, and she wouldn't refuse. If he was lucky, she'd only have a little, and if he was very unlucky she'd make an absolute idiot of herself and possibly lose all their money to Wrex again.

Shepard squeezed his hand and he snapped out of his reverie, unsurprised that she had been paying partial attention. She smiled, and when she replied to the officiant's question with a quiet, easy "I do," he thought his knees would give out under him. He repeated her answer without hesitation when asked, Joker discreetly fishing out the small metal bands that they'd removed just for this and passing them to him without either of them dropping them. He slid her ring back onto her finger, Shepard following his action a second later. And when the officiant told him to kiss her it had been all he could do to not sweep her off her feet and out of the makeshift hall and to where they could be alone, and instead just kiss her, both of them forcing themselves to step back long before they would otherwise have done so for formality's sake.

"Well, Mrs. Alenko," he murmured as he gripped her hand. She grinned back.

"Mr. Shepard."

And with that, they started down the aisle.

#

Kaidan managed to lose her sometime during the reception, after all the reception-type things were over.

Little did he know that Wrex, Garrus, Jack, Joker, and Vega had stolen her away to the hotel's bar, and they were currently sitting in a booth with the krogan shoved in the corner on one bench, Jack squeezed onto the end of it, Joker in a chair on the end, and Shepard, Garrus, and James crammed onto the other.

"And what's with all the frilly shit?" Wrex asked gruffly, big hand holding a giant mug of ryncol. "Surprised you humans ever mate at all."

"Shepard'd be the first to tell ya the wedding's not necessary for that," James said. Shepard snorted into her bourbon.

"Tell you what, Wrex," she said, holding up her glass. "Me and Kaidan have been doing quite enough of that without all this shit."

Wrex guffawed and slammed his glass on the table. Joker shook his head. "Shepard, dammit, there's some things I don't want to think about."

"Too late," she replied.

"That . . . can't be comfortable," Garrus said, from where he was crammed into the corner of the bench by James. Shepard glanced down and shrugged.

"It's not all bad." She emptied her drink and waved for another. "The one they wanted me in initially was worse."

"I don't get this shit," Jack said, waving for a refill on her own drink. "Why the fuck are they so intent on getting you guys married?"

"We made a deal," Shepard explained. "They don't try to separate us, we endure this torment."

"Torment," Wrex guffawed. "How much torment was it when they made Alenko crawl up your skirt?"

"That wasn't my idea," Shepard replied hotly, grabbing her drink from the waitress. "The fuckin' interns looked at every stupid human wedding thing and decided to use it. Including having to make Kaidan crawl up my dress in public." She took a large swallow of her drink and nearly choked on it. "I suppose you approve of the fact that Kaidan winged it at James' face?"

James rubbed his forehead as they laughed. "It stung!"

"So'd the fucking flowers," Jack added. "Did you have to throw 'em at my face?"

Shepard merely chuckled and took another drink. "I was aiming for the back of EDI's head. Not my fault your face was in the way."

"What is it with human females and flowers?"

"Wrex, have you been watching too many human vids again?" Joker asked.

"It's supposed to make things nice looking," Shepard said. "And it's traditional. Again, the damn Council wanted everything 'authentic.'" She framed the words with air quotes. "I would have said fuck 'em, but it was our careers on the line. Or, Kaidan's, at least." She scowled and downed her drink. "How do krogan do these things, Wrex?"

"Gonna change now that the genophage got cured," he said gruffly. "Used to be making sure you had a decent line. None of this mating for 'life' shit." He hmphed. "Hope Bakara doesn't get any ideas."

James snorted. "That'd be a sight. Wonder what a krogan wedding would look like."

Shepard snickered. "Bet there'd be a lot of flowers." She made a motion with her fingers. "Right there, looped over your crest-"

"Not on your damn life," Wrex said.

"I don't know, Wrex, you might look good in a dress." Garrus paused, swirling his drink. "Bakara would be wearing the pants, right?"

Garrus winced when Wrex nudged him under the table. "Shut up, Vakarian."

"I think he's getting a bit touchy," Jack said with a laugh. He elbowed her, and she flailed a bit before ending up on the ground. They laughed, Shepard hiding her face in her arm.

They let their laughter trail off. Wrex finished his ryncol and waved for another - Shepard was pretty sure he'd put back at least 5. As the waiter brought them another round and Jack was still chuckling over Wrex dumping her on her ass, Shepard was sure she caught sight of at least one asari dignitary and her human female partner eyeing them suspiciously.

Shepard took her drink, and Wrex motioned with his. "Lookit that. Can't -"

"Wrex, stop. You're turning into a judgmental eighty-year-old woman," Joker said.

"It's a wedding. You always have one of those people," Shepard explained. "They really like to put on the judgy-specs."

"They whaty-what?" Garrus asked, stumbling over his words.

"Judgy-specs, really, Shepard?" Joker asked. Jack was too busy laughing into her drink.

"It sounded good at the time," she retorted, laughing into her own.

#

"God. Not again."

Kaidan couldn't, to be honest, be happier that Shepard was possibly providing them a reason to leave. He wasn't happy that her method of doing so, however, was to get drunk - quite drunk, if the sound of the group in the corner was any indication. He grabbed the back of Joker's chair, waiting.

"Hey, Alenko!" James said, raising his beer.

"Oi, look who it is," Jack said. "Bet we know what he's after."

Shepard glared at her, making them laugh harder, and braced herself on her cane to stand. "What's up, Kai?" she murmured.

"People are asking after you."

"Too bad," she said. "I'm having fun."

He nodded. "And if I leave you here much longer you won't be able to walk up to our room. Come on." Shepard pouted, then wobbled slightly on her cane.

"Fair," she said with a nod once she'd righted herself. Kaidan gently steadied her with a hand on her back. "I suppose I can play politician for a bit." She grinned, and leaned heavily on him as he led her back towards the ballroom. "Maybe for the right . . . incentive?"

Kaidan grinned, carefully kissing the side of her head. Her hair was still stiff with hairspray, and for a moment he wondered if he might be able to get a nice shower out of her tonight when she inevitably tried to brush her hair out upstairs and found it so crinkled and stiff that she would demand one, and hopefully demand his presence with it.

"Come on," he said with a chuckle. "Try to not act wasted."

"I am not wasted!" she protested.

And much to her chagrin, the first two people they ran into were the asari and her partner from the bar.