Title: No Dominion
Fandom: Mass Effect
Rating: PG
Length: 385
Pairing:: Kaidan Alenko/male Shepard
Content notes: Takes place approximately 2 months after the end of the Reaper war (Mass Effect 3, destroy ending). Makes reference to the opening scenes of Mass Effect 2.
Author notes: This takes place in the hospital in London where Shepard had been in a coma since being found barely alive after ending the Reaper War. It is Kaidan's voice. The title is a reference to the poem by Dylan Thomas quoted at the beginning.
Summary: Beyond all hope

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And death shall have no dominion
- Dylan Thomas

"Kaidan?"

"Shepard! Oh god, you're finally awake..."

"I'm alive? You're... not dead too?"

I want to gather him to me, let him rest his cheek against my heart so he'll know I'm real. But I can't... the tubes and wires that hold him together won't allow it. All I can do is take his hand. The hand I've held for weeks now. The hand that fits so perfectly into mine.

"Not dead... and neither are you. You found a way to win."

He seems dazed at my words and I feel the weakest of squeezes to my hand. I lift it to my lips and kiss his palm before placing it against my chest. My heart is racing, but at least he'll feel it beating.

His voice is hoarse, rough from long disuse, but he struggles to release the words bottled up inside. "Win? You're alive... so it must be. But the nightmares... wouldn't end. All my choices wrong. Everyone dead from my choice... trying to scream but no voice... no sound."

He gulps a raspy breath, then forges ahead. "... closed my eyes... the last time."

He struggles to sit up, frustrated by the rigging on the bed and his own weakness. "Now I open them... and it's you. Alive... alive... god, Kaidan, you're alive."

I stroke my thumb across his palm slowly, willing him to calm.

"Sshhh. John. Don't try to talk too much. It's over. You were nearly dead... in a coma for over two months. But you lived. You cheated death this one last time. Never do that again. Please... never do that again."

The squeeze of my hand is a little tighter. It feels like a promise. "One thing... need to tell you, Kaidan. When I died before - on Alchera - my last thought was of you. That you'd live. Firing my last shots on the Citadel - death all around me - your face was all I could see."

I never knew that... about his death. That he would have been thinking of me in those last moments, before I'd ever said anything about my feelings. I kiss his fingertips again and press his hand against my cheek, wet with tears.

He's silent for long moments. I hope my tears haven't upset him.

"Kaidan... stay with me?"

"Always."
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