HERS

"Joker is finalizing preparations now. The trip should take a few hours," Miranda said to Shepard.

"Fine, let's get through the Omega 4 relay and take the fight to the Collectors. One way or another we'll get the job done."

Miranda smiled and saluted. She isn't quite the ice queen she used to be. Walking toward the elevator, Shepard's mind drifted back to the SR-1. She had tried to fight so hard to not care about that sexy lieutenant, but he won her over and with all the time and torture that had passed, she was still glad he did.

The door to her quarters swooshed open and she stopped to look at her console. She never took down Kaidan's message from her unread file. There it was, always open. Just seeing his name was like seeing a smile. She never did write back. She was afraid that everything she sent was bugged or tracked and she didn't want to put him in any danger.

Now she was the one who was in real danger. A trip to an unknown place with unknowable enemies where their probability of survival was bad at best. She ran through all the preparations and improvements they had made. There wasn't anything else left to do except go.

Shepard had helped the others deal with their lingering issues beforehand, but she was left with her own in the form of an open message and a picture on her desk. She wanted to see Kaidan again in person. There could be nobody else in her life. She missed him. She missed her old chain with their dog tags.

Gazing down at his picture, Shepard steeled her resolve. "I'm coming back to you, Kaidan."

HIS

Today wasn't a good day. Kaidan could feel the migraine coming on. His students were supposed to be adults, young ones, but still adults who had graduated from the Ascension Program. Right now, he felt like a glorified babysitter. There was no way they could be sent out for any missions yet, and he sure as hell didn't know why they promoted him to major. They were too undisciplined, and after a day like today…

They were practicing gentle pulls. He wanted them to have the ability to remove something from someone like a weapon. Heavy pulls were easy to teach. Light ones took finesse.

He sat glasses filled with water upon tables on one side of the room. He thought back to how ironic this was considering his time at Brain Camp, but he was sure he wouldn't be trying to beat anyone for failing.

The students filed in and looked at Kaidan quizzically. "I want you to stand on this side of the room and gently pull the glass to you without spilling the water. Or crushing the glass." He demonstrated and a couple of the girls giggled. "Now get in a line and I want you each to take a turn."

Kaidan stood behind the tables in order to get a good view of each student's technique. One young man, Philip Ashton, was particularly wild with his biotics. He seemed to have a good grasp of how to do things, but he was a showoff. When Philip's turn came, he was smiling at a pretty brunette standing near him. Instead of focusing on the glass, Philip just pulled in that general direction, and it wasn't gentle because before he could stop it, he had pulled Kaidan's dog tags from his neck and with a quick snap, broke the chain.

"Shit!" Kaidan cried out in pain. "Ashton, what the hell are you doing?"

The young man stared mutely at the dog tags that were now in his hand. He seemed to be studying them.

"Major Alenko, sir, this tag. It isn't yours," said Philip. "I think somebody messed up. This one says Rachel Shepard."

"No, there's no mistake," Kaidan said, grabbing the broken chain.

Another youth piped up. "Did you know Commander Shepard?"

"Yes," Kaidan reluctantly answered. "We served on the Normandy together."

"Wow! Why do you have her dog tag?" a freckled girl asked. Kaidan didn't like where this conversation was going. He was stuck. Lie or tell the truth and he was horrible at lying.

"That's really none of your concern. What you should be concerned about is how to disarm someone quickly with these gentle pulls before they even detect your presence. Mills, you're up." Bullet dodged.

Back at Kaidan's apartment, he sat down with his pounding head and pulled the broken chain from his pocket. He looked to see that it wasn't actually broken that the clasp had just given way. He fingered the tags and thought about that night on the Citadel balcony. Even now, his heart still beat faster at the thought of her.

He put the chain back together, hung it around his neck, and tucked it inside his shirt. His silent declaration. Just her. No one else.