Author's Note: Just a short thing I posted on Tumblr and decided that I might as well post here too.

Kaidan found her lying in a puddle of blood, arms wrapped around her stomach. He wasn't sure whose blood it was… or maybe it was just that he didn't want to accept it.

"Shepard?" he said uncertainly.

Shepard coughed, removing her arms from her stomach to reveal a large hole in the mid-section of her armor. It was damaged to the point that the self-healing system could no longer be working.

"Medi-gel, we need medi-gel!" he screamed at no one in particular, dropping to his knees and pulling her up into his arms. His hands shook as he applied pressure to the wound in her stomach to slow the mixture of acid and blood.

Her eyes sparkled as she blinked up at him happily and she smiled like he was best thing she had ever seen. She reached up slowly to touch his face…to make sure he was really there; that she wasn't just imagining him. Her cold fingers were surprisingly steady as she met the familiar warmth of his stubble-lined jaw. There were tears on his face, but she didn't understand why.

"Did we do it, Kaidan? Is it over?"

His voice broke. "Yeah, Shepard…you did it."
Where was that damned medi-gel? He pulled his eyes off her for a slight second to attempt to find someone in the death and chaos around them, but smoke clouded his vision. He returned his eyes to her and found her smile had widened at his answer.

"We did good, didn't we?" Her thumb stroked his cheek fondly, smearing blood and tears. "You and I? We were great."

"Shepard, don't do this. Hold on. We need you. I need you."

"Kaidan…" she said softly, and her eyes unfocused as her hand dropped from his face.