A/N: Sorry for the delay! I had a sudden attack of Real Life. We know how that is.

The Plot Thickens

Kaidan blinked once or twice, speechless. She was what? What did he do? What she really . . . what? "You're what?" He narrowed his eyes. "This isn't like that time where you told me you were requesting my transfer off-ship and Ash was hiding under the bed with a vidcam, is it?"

"What?! No!" She suddenly frowned. "Unless Chakwas is in on it."

"So . . ." Kaidan frowned. "That explains quite a bit, actually, like the fact that you nearly, uh, decapitated me with a pillow yesterday."

"Hey!" God, she looked so adorable when she was trying to be offended, and he rested his forehead on hers while ignoring the churning in his stomach. She drew a deep breath and closed her eyes.

He took advantage of that to kiss her, picking her up by her waist and spinning her. She squeaked in surprise, throwing her arms around his neck. This was . . . it couldn't be happening. He wasn't even sure what he felt, some bubble of excitement, terror, love, joy . . . he set her back down and kissed her again.

Kaidan finally pulled back and looked down at her again, hands gripping her hips. "But . . ." He shook his head, rubbing his thumbs in small circles. She swallowed heavily, gaze dropping. "How? We weren't . . . I was still taking the suppressants."

"So was I. I don't know how it happened." She ran her hands together, staring at them. "But now we have to talk about it, I guess. Neither of us planned for this, and we're woefully inadequate when it comes to the stable lifestyle stage of life."

Kaidan pulled her back to the couch, letting her sit down. "All right. So . . . we'll talk."

If he was being honest with both of them, they'd never had this discussion. For all they'd known, Shepard wasn't even able to get pregnant. How could the Illusive Man have even figured Shepard would live long enough to have children, or that Shepard would even want them? He'd taken the suppressants just in case once they'd resumed their relationship (Shepard always took them, so she didn't need to get back into the habit), but it'd never been a major concern. Now it was.

She sat down, pressing herself against him. He slid his arm around her. "Well?"

"I don't know, Kaidan." Her voice was quiet.

"We should probably start with the obvious then." She looked up at him. He shrugged. "We never had the 'do we want children?' talk."

"I . . ." Shepard sighed. "I gave up even thinking about it after . . . well, after Lazarus."

He nodded, resting his head on hers. "Did you ever?"

"Once." She shifted her weight nervously. "Once I met someone I'd considered having them with."

The intention of her statement didn't escape him. "And now?"

"I don't know. We don't live the most child-conducive life, Kai."

"No. That we don't." He rubbed her shoulder. "But we can make it work."

"What about you?"

Kaidan shook his head. "To be honest, I've never really thought about it at all. I'm usually too busy making sure you aren't going to get yourself killed."

"True."

"And, I don't know. I-I like the idea on principle, but . . ."

"I need a straight answer, Kaidan."

Kaidan took a deep breath. "The Alliance is very used to parents having children on ships, and either way, we're Spectres. Sure, if we have kids, they'll be a target. But, now that the Reapers are gone, there's no ship that can bring down the Normandy. And you have to admit . . . anything we have is going to be one badass kid."

Shepard managed a small laugh. "Very true. I was beating up other kids at seven."

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me." He leaned his head on hers. "But I don't know, Marra. This sort of came out of nowhere."

"Do you think we can do this, Kai?" She lifted her head to look up at him. "I mean, really? I . . ." She sighed. "I'd be a horrible mother."

"After seeing what you do to your crew . . ." He shrugged. "I think there could be far worse parents than us out there."

"Worse, yes."

"We don't have to decide now either, you know."

"I know." She leaned her head back on his shoulder. "But you know what I think we should do?"

"Hm?"

"Go down to the med bay and find out what the hell happened with the suppressants."

"I agree." Kaidan stood, and Shepard followed. He grabbed her hand. "It, uh, might be nice, you know."

She smiled. "Yeah, I've thought of that too."

They grabbed the pill bottles out of Shepard's desk and headed back to the elevator, taking it down to the crew deck. When they passed through the mess hall someone who sounded suspiciously like Joker cat-called; Shepard leaned around Kaidan and made an ignominious gesture in his direction, leading to uproarious laughter from the crew.

Chakwas looked up as they entered the medbay, and Shepard closed the door behind them. "So I suppose you either told him, or panicked and are relying on me to?"

"No, I know," Kaidan said. Though he still wasn't entirely sure he believed it, if he were honest with himself.

"We're going to investigate the strange case of the fallible fertility suppressants." Shepard held up the bottles that they kept in the Loft. "We need analysis." Kaidan shook his head, took the bottles, and handed them to Chakwas.

"Sure." Chakwas began sorting out the pills. "You two are sure you're not just overreacting?"

Shepard pulled herself up on one of the cots. "It's me. I can't exactly rule anything out anymore."

"True." Chakwas glanced up as Kaidan pulled himself up on the cot next to Shepard.

"We also need to consider," he murmured, just barely loud enough for her to hear. "The effect that both our biotics."

"Mm. I hadn't. My tech, too."

"Most of the medical research seems to indicate that biotic potential may be inherited," Chakwas said, by way of answer. "Nothing has indicated that a parent being biotic causes birth defects or any of the other problems of usual eezo exposure in utero. Granted, this is only on children with one biotic parent." She glanced up. "Not two. And you shouldn't use your biotics, Shepard. There's no evidence as to what that will do."

"Awesome," Shepard said. "Glad to know the academics are keeping up."

"It may become more widespread. All those Reapers' mass effect cores exploding over Earth – biotic humans may become the norm." She looked back down at her console, waiting for the results. "Have you made a decision yet?"

"No." Kaidan shook his head.

"Well, do you want the standard literature?"

Shepard nodded. "It wouldn't hurt. Haven't you figured that out yet?"

"No, Major. These things take time." She compiled her 'standard literature' onto a datapad. "Here."

Shepard promptly turned it on and started reading. Kaidan slid off the cot and joined Chakwas. "You are concerned as well?" Chakwas murmured.

"Marginally," he answered quietly. "I'm still worried about Cerberus, or Echidna, or whatever it's calling itself now. We may have taken out the Illusive Man, but . . . well, I know what EDI says about Cerberus cells."

Chakwas nodded. "I can think of a lot of people who'd be interested in anything sharing half of Shepard's DNA, even more if the other half is yours." She glanced over at him. "But you know what that means, Kaidan? If we find out that someone tampered with the drugs . . ."

"It means one of the Alliance crew is a mole for whoever it is, I know." He looked back at her. "We'll deal with that when we come to it. I'm far more willing to accept that one or both of us forgot to take our doses in all the excitement recently."

"What the hell is this? My feet are going to get bigger?"

Kaidan sighed. "She would be concerned about the feet."

"I have huge feet!" Shepard held up her hands. "I should be allowed to worry about what I damn well please!"

"She has a point, you know." Chakwas tapped something on her console. "She is-"

Shepard suddenly bolted for the medical bay lavatory. They both looked after her.

"How long is that going to last?"

Chakwas shrugged. "It's different for everyone. And while I said that the research looks good for children born to biotics, I never said the pregnancy was easy."

"Oh. That's wonderful." Kaidan ran a hand over the side of his face. "I thought that only happened in the mornings."

"Never said the pregnancy was easy," Chakwas repeated. "If you two decide to keep going, it will get worse for a few weeks, then better. That is until she is walking around the ship swearing because she feels like a whale and can hardly walk without tripping over her feet."

"Personal experience, doc?"

"No. I've merely known too many pregnant soldiers."

Shepard wandered back out of the lavatory, looking pale. Kaidan wrapped an arm around her. "You all right?"

"I feel awful," she moaned.

"You've been drinking?" Chakwas asked.

"And making myself eat, yes. I still feel awful."

Chakwas clucked her tongue. "You need to drink twice as much if you're vomiting this much."

Shepard moaned and dropped down on her vacated cot.

Chakwas' terminal chirped, and she sat back down. "Let's see. We've got . . . oh."

"That's the second time you've said that, doctor, and I didn't like it the first time," Shepard said, lifting up her head. "What?"

"That . . . can't be right." She tapped something again. Her terminal whirred and beeped. "That . . . no. That means . . ." She stood, storming to her drug cabinet. "I have to test everything." There was only one reason Alliance protocol would mandate the CMO to test every drug for content. And this seemed particularly bad, not just due to their circumstances.

"Doctor." Kaidan quietly put his hand on her arm.

She sighed. "Both of you have been dosed with fertility supplements, not suppressants."

Kaidan and Shepard traded a look. "Someone had to get them into our quarters," Shepard said quietly.

#

"Marra."

Shepard moaned and turned onto her side.

"Marra, are you asleep?"

"You damn well know I'm not," she muttered. Kaidan's hand settled on her arm, gently running down it.

"You going to be able to sleep tonight?"

"I'll be fine." She pulled her pillow more firmly under her head. "Go to sleep, Kaidan."

He settled his arm over her waist, leaning down to kiss her neck. She grinned. "Love you," he murmured.

"This is what got us into our little issue, Kai."

"I don't know if it's so much an issue as just a . . . well, I don't know."

Shepard laughed. "Eloquent as always." She rolled over, staring up at him. "You really want this, don't you?"

Kaidan shrugged. "I don't know. I think it might be nice, though. You know, do something good that doesn't involve blowing things to hell."

She smiled up at him. "That's very true."

"But I will do whatever it is you want, Major." He leaned down and kissed her. "After all, I just want whatever you do. Within reason."

Her smile widened into a grin. "And I just want whatever it is you want, Major," she replied. "But . . . I don't know." She folded her arms across her waist. "I'm just not sure what I think about someone forcing this on us."

Kaidan rested his hand on top of her arms, propping himself up on his elbow. "Neither do I."

"You know, you're taking this awful well."

He stared back with an absolutely blank gaze. "I'm pants-shittingly terrified."

Shepard snorted. "Ah. Kaidan Alenko. Master of hiding your emotions so well." She leaned up and kissed him. "You'll be fine. If anything, you'll be the rational one and I'll be the one cleaning my shotgun when it starts dating."

He grinned. "I guess we'll have a chance to find out."

"I'm sure Chakwas is going to have us swing by the Citadel for me to get checked out by a real doctor," Shepard said. "Not that she isn't a real doctor, but . . . you know what I mean. So I'm reserving judgment until after that, and I think we both should. All my tech might cause problems, and we should be able to get a yes-no answer on the biotics. After that . . . well, we'll have this talk then, I suppose."

"I think that that is a very good idea." Kaidan collapsed back to his pillow, still staring at her. She turned her head to face him.

"But who could have gotten in here?" Shepard settled back into her pillow. "They would've had to do it when we weren't here, and they'd need to know the code for the door. EDI might know."

::I am not aware of any unauthorized entrances to your quarters. I will search the logs.::

"God, EDI. Eavesdropping!"

::I am sorry, Major. I am merely concerned with flying the ship at the moment, which takes less than a third of my attention. You and the second shift crewmen are the only people awake at the current moment.::

"Well, go bother one of the second shifters." Shepard waved her hand.

"Logging you out, Captain."

Kaidan sighed, resuming their previous conversation. "If Chakwas is right, we've been getting dosed since before leaving Earth. Someone could have replaced them on the ship before EDI came back online, but . . . how would they have known you would come back?"

She sighed. "I'd say Cerberus, but . . ." She shook her head. "We killed the Illusive Man. That leaves Echidna."

"And he may have planned this. We don't know."

"No. And we won't. Aside from that," Shepard shook her head again. "I've made more enemies than any sapient being has a right to make, but I can't think any of them would consider knocking me up revenge. They're usually far more straightforward." Kaidan laughed. "So apart from Cerberus, or Echidna, I just can't think of anything else that would get some sort of benefit out of this. But without the Illusive Man-"

"They just found someone new."

"Maybe."

They fell quiet, Kaidan rubbing his thumb over her bare arm. "When're we going to tell the others?"

"Oh, hell. Joker's going to have a fit."

"No, he won't."

"Yes, he will. Laughing."

"Oh." He paused. "Yeah. That he will."

"Chakwas already knows. Everyone else who'd have a fit about it, except Kasumi, are off ship." She settled again. "We'll call Liara tomorrow. See what she's heard about Echidna. We should probably tell Hackett, just because of our suspicions. I'll contact some of my contacts and see what they might have heard."

Kaidan nodded. "I'll hit up mine."

"They're probably the same people."

"True enough."

"As for the ship? I don't know. I'm not looking forward to explaining it. I think we'll wait until people start to notice. EDI. You hear that? No talking."

::I hear that, Shepard.::

"I'll just . . . not go groundside . . . for a while." She frowned.

"All right." He kissed her again before dropping back down to his pillow. "We should at least attempt to do some sleeping."

"God knows we won't be doing any shortly." She sighed and rolled back onto her side, smiling to herself as Kaidan wrapped his arm around her.