Title: Before Ilos
Fandom: Mass Effect
Rating: PG
Length: 200
Pairing: Kaidan Alenko/John Shepard (pre-relationship)
Content notes: Mass Effect 1, just prior to the mission to Ilos
Author notes: This takes place during ME1, the night before the mission to find the Conduit at Ilos. On the stolen Normandy, Shepard needs to talk. A double drabble, the first from Shepard, the second from Kaidan. This is prior to any acknowledged relationship between them.
Summary: Missed opportunity.

________________________________
There will be no sleep for me tonight.

Thoughts of tomorrow's mission overwhelm any hope of it.

I try one drink... no effect. I consider another but push the bottle away. A stupor isn't what I need tonight.

Everyone has sought their own comforts in this calm before the storm. Some have turned to one another. I turn a blind eye. Who am I to judge their choices? We could all be dead tomorrow.

What I need is an ear... or a shoulder. Someone to listen, someone to reassure without my need to ask.

I go in search of Kaidan.

___________________________

There will be no sleep for me tonight.

Blinding pain sent me stumbling to the medbay. Another migraine incoming.

Tomorrow's mission is critical. I need to be at my best. Or at least functional. Shepard needs me.

A voice pulls me from the edge of sleep. Despite the whisper, I'd know that voice anywhere.

Doctor Chakwas tells him I can't talk right now. Migraine. I strain to hear his reply. My eyes close, just for a moment. Then he's standing by my bed, worry etched on his face.

The lightest touch on my hand.

"Feel better, Kaidan. I need you."

_________________________________