"Aaaeeeeeiiiii!" He heard Tali yell as they began to run toward the safety of the tunnels. The opposite side of the valley had become destabilized when the first Kodiak hit. In the middle of a firefight they had missed it and it was going to cost people their lives. Kaidan cursed himself.

"Samara, Falere. On me!" Plava's voice sounded in Kaidan's earpiece. Across the valley he could barely make out the three small silhouettes.

"Oh no." He whispered having a sinking feeling he knew what was coming.

"Plava abort! Have the team support the tunnels. We wil…." Hell he didn't know what exactly, everything was happening to fast.

He saw a figure take a running leap off the edge and sure enough a second later a barrier is charging down the head of the snow. The other two figures adding support but their range was fast becoming an issue.

" Too far. A little. ."

Her reply came as he saw her biotic charge create a circle that pushed the Asari and Quarrian into the tunnel and covered over the opening just as the snow hit. Plava was covered over in less than a second but it was enough to prevent the snow from filling the tunnel and smothering Shar and Tali or so Kaidan hoped. In his native Canada he had heard of avalanches sucking the air out of tunnels as it carried down the slope.

"Plava!" Kaidan screamed, looking at the advancing edge for any signs of movement, surely she could have held her shield up while she covered over the cave entrance. But then the memory of Chakwas telling her not to use her biotics came back. There was no way she was still within range of Samara and Falere.

"Gonna need a little help with this one EDI. Think you can take over?" Shepard's voice cracked and raw suddenly comes over the comm snapping Kaidan back to reality.

"Of course Commander."

"Fly it close as you can. Bray and I can try the man catcher once you get a lock on her suit."

The damaged ship took a wide turn back toward the valley and from his vantage point it looked like the ship was flying right into the approaching snow before it veered to fly parallel with the snow.

"Kay you might want to get everyone inside this is gonna be a white Christmas. Have Karin and anyone else standing by." He saw the side door open once again but now there were two figures in the doorway Shepard and from this distance it looked like a Batarrian?

"I have the lock Commander. Sending the Coordinates now "

"Hell of a shot Shepard. This isn't bottle shooting." Garrus chimed in from the Normandy. The Turrian was out of breath probably running to check on Tali.

"Got something a bit different in mind . " A large projectile fired in the snow and came away clean.

"Damn. How many more mancatchers we have Bray."

"Two. At most." A baterian voice comes in the background of Shepard's comm. "Better make it count PJ."

"Always do four eyes." Another shot goes wide and a raspy curse.

"Seven hells ." She swore." Ok EDI send me the coordinates and an estimate of location for 5 seconds later. The damn snow is moving faster than the gun can shoot."

"Sent."

Kaidan was in the medbay listening to the low beep of a pulse. Somehow being here felt more surreal than the previous six hours. The lights had been dimmed and it was by his estimates well after midnight. Karin had checked on her patients and retired. This patient had not woken up yet.

Her eye lashes fluttered and slowly opened. Dull and full of pain at first but coming aware quickly. Bright green eyes.

"Hey there."

"I…I'm getting to old for this." Plava's voice was filled with pain but she tried to chuckle before wincing.

"I keep telling myself the same thing oddly enough."

"Shepard, where is she?" She tries to sit up but the restraints hold her down.

"Upstairs , Chakwas made her take some sedatives. I didn't get a full status report but she's alive." It was of course a huge gloss over, but given the events that had transpired, the Commander would be raising hell before the day was out.

The Asari turns her head to look at the sleeping Shar, balled up on a chair, and motherly affection crosses her features, momentarily erasing the pain.

"And Tali'Zora?"

"Bang up, bruised but also alive. Thanks to you. "

"How bad Kaidan."

"We don't have to talk about that now…"

"You don't restrain someone just because they were knocked out cold for twelve hours."

"Broken back, several ribs, internal bleeding but Karin stopped most of that. And your amp…. "

"That I knew." She chuckled darkly flexing the hand still in the flexicast. "I felt that blow a few seconds before I blacked out." She motioned for a glass of water and Kaidan helped her tilt her head up to drink.

"That doesn't mean you can't get your biotics back." He tried to comfort her. "Asari have greater natural biotics and once you heal…"

"We will still be at war on, and I am stationed on a backwater training planet. Thessia is gone Kaidan, surgery and rehabilitation is no longer an option as it once was." She reached out with her uninjured hand and took his, her hands still as cold as the snowbank they pulled her from. Here he had just spent the past several hours trying to think of how to break the news to her and she was comforting him.

"I am very tired Kaidan, thank you for staying with me until I woke but you should get upstairs. Shar will get you if we need anything." And with that she closed her eyes, but the worryline stayed, Alenko noticed on his way out. She was weighing her options.

Upstairs in the loft he passed Karin at the elevator.

"Hey Doc how is she?" He felt oddly guilty over having spent time in the medbay but he knew Shepard would still be out and Plava had been much more touch and go since coming out of surgery. Regardless of their feelings Shepard would scold him if she thought he was neglecting his people for her.

"Surprisingly well. Still elevated carbon dioxide in the blood from the low atmosphere. Some shapernal wounds that she isn't telling me how they got there, that will have to come out once she is rested and the usual assortment of bruises odd and ends from our beloved Commander. Go to her Kaidan, it will do you both good." She smiles and enters the elevator.

Entering the loft it was as if the past several days had all been an odd and terrible dream. Shepard was sleeping in the bed, on her side in the sweatshirt as if she had never left. Kaidan's heart twinged looking at her. He had so many questions but right now there was only one thing he really wanted to do. He pulled back the covers and climbed into bed, wrapping his arm protectively around Shepard.

Shepard woke sometime in the early morning. Kaidan knew that because he came awake to the feel of fingers running through his hair and warm breath on his neck. No alarms had gone off or messages received. It could have been four hours or four days after Shepard's return.

"Keep doing that I'm never going to want to get out of bed." He rolls over and wraps an arm around her waist, mindful of the meditape on her ribs.

"That's the idea, handsome." She gives the infamous half smirk and kisses him. "Gods I missed you. I know I don't tell you this enough Kaidan but I need you."

"You made it back Shepard, for now that's enough. Although one day you will have to fill me in on the Allers thing and the reactor shut down." He gives her a half sincere glare before pulling her close again.

"Put it on the list Major." She chuckles into his collar bone.

A/N : Yes yes I know I'm a terrible author. Needless to say my schedule is still all kinds of crazy so I hope to be around a bit more often but I have learned better than to make such promises. Until next time dears please R and R