Chapter Text
Kaidan’s theory, never spoken of but often thought about, was that families worked best in multiples of two. Two was fine. Two was long evenings in front of the fire with good beer, maybe a game on the extranet, Terra Bucks vs Vancouver Panthers maybe, and then when the Panthers triumphed in their rightful glory, he could slid across the sofa to his grieving wife, kiss her on the cheek, the neck, tease her from her clothes and continue the Panthers’ winning streak out in the bedroom.
Three clearly did not work. Three was Liara and Javik traipsing around a gallery, Rallik being alternately dragged or running on ahead to smear her sticky fingers over something priceless. Three was a dinner party where interspecies juvenile growth was compared – oh Rallik was reading by that stage – fair enough, but human infants struggle to hold up their own head for months. Tali and Garrus never compared Rael’s progress to Edie’s but a mercenary pride in his own daughter suggested to him that was because Rael was still playing catch up from his time in the orphanage. Three was planning seating arrangements around a child’s last accolade.
Two was his wife sitting cross legged on the floor with his daughter in her lap. Edie splayed her hand over the omnitool display and frowning. “Duck!”
“We’re getting to the duck,” Shepard said softly.
“Want duck!”
Kaidan suppressed his smile as Shepard resumed the story, the tale of the ugly duckling, wondering what Edie could relate to in the story. Perhaps she did just like the little grey cygnet. His daughter was beautiful and clever and never likely to be the ugly duckling. He lingered in the doorway, watching the scene. He would make it three. There wouldn’t be enough Edie for both of them to hold. There wasn’t enough Edie in the world. Three wasn’t good . . . four was good.
When they were two once more and he had finished tucking Edie into her bed, kissed her forehead, stroked her thick, dark curls and gazed down at her sleeping face – she was never peaceful in repose, always frowning, as though her little mind was in overtime while her body played catchup – Kaidan managed to pull himself away and approached his wife in silence, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and resting his chin on her shoulder. “Let’s have another,” he said.
She chuckled, barely looking away from her emails. “We can practice any time you like,” she purred, heading for the sofa, dragging him along in her wake. “Ugh Sparatus has started playing dirty with Tevos.”
Kaidan was quick to twist as they hit the sofa, catching Shepard in his arms as they fell to the soft cushions. He caught her cheeks between his palms and kissed her. “Please don’t talk about the Council when I’m trying to make love to you,” he scolded.
“Oh!” A grin came over her and she flicked her omnitool away, pushing him down and straddling his hips. “I didn’t realise you were trying to ‘make love’ to me, I do apologise,” she teased, chuckling as he worked his fingers under her shirt. She delivered light, quick kisses on his lips.
Two was easily distracted. When Shepard was warm and strong above him, her lips soft and seeking, her skin smooth under his hands, he was apt to forget about numbers and politics and everything apart from the woman who had agreed to love him forever. Shepard lowered herself over him, the rounds of her breasts brushing over his chest through far too many layers of fabric and murmured in a voice that purred with suggestion, “your place or mine, handsome?” She squealed in delight when he forced himself up – more than enough compensation for the physical effort it took for him to lift both their weights in one smooth motion.
“Mine,” he decided, supporting her hips as she twined her legs around his waist. “My wife’s too busy working to even notice.”
She tossed her head back at that, a little snarl curling her lips. “Idiot doesn’t know what she has.”
They were quiet as they passed Edie’s room, until Kaidan crossed the threshold of the bedroom and then Shepard resumed with a passionate kiss, a low moan echoing from her chest to his. Her fingers tangled in the neck of his shirt and one thumb scraped his chin. “I haven’t been neglecting you, have I?” she asked, wriggling out his grasp to sit on the bed.
“No, darling,” he assured her, going to his knees in front of her. He continued his slow unbuttoning of her shirt as he leaned in to reprise her kiss, letting his teeth drag across her lip as he freed her from the far too cumbersome shirt and slid it from her shoulders, chasing the fabric with his fingertips.
“You’d tell me if I did?” she asked, her skin expressing the shiver she carefully kept from her voice.
“When have I ever kept my peace?” he demanded, rocking back on his heels to look into her eyes. He brushed hair from her face with the back of his hand. “And speaking of, I wasn’t joking before.”
Confusion and irritation warred on her face – her irritation sprouting from her confusion.
Kaidan dropped his voice deliberately, let his hand fall to her breast to rest there atop the lace of her bra, his eyes half narrowed. “Let’s have another one.”
“Another child?” She was so pleased to figure it out that she almost didn’t think it through. When she did, she laughed and scooted backwards, shedding the rest of her clothes in a few effortless shrugs of her long limbs that had him scrambling to catch up – as always. “Don’t you think we’ve got enough on our plate?”
“Not nearly,” he muttered, launching himself across the bed in pursuit. She tried to dodge, but went for the pillows instead of the foot and so he snagged her ankle with one hand and tugged her back underneath him without much effort. She had planned for this eventuality and smacked him over the side of his face with a pillow, taking refuge underneath it when he blinked in surprise. “That’s mature,” he told her, planting a hand on either side of her shoulders. “That’s the kind of behaviour a mother would do.”
Shepard lowered the pillow to stick her tongue out. So he kissed her and tasted her while she manoeuvred the pillow under her hips and then raked his ass with her nails in typically Shepard-esque invitation.
“Oh, no,” he broke the kiss to say. “We’re talking about this now, Councillor. Edie needs a brother.”
“Mmmm. What if it’s a sister?” She craned her neck to try and kiss him once more, snorting with disappointment when he held himself out of her reach. She levered herself up on her elbows and did kiss him, snaking one foot over his calf and twisting her body, wrestling him underneath her. He carried them back over with their momentum, pinning her once more.
“A sister works too,” he said simply.
Shepard shrugged, her shoulder bumping his arm. “I feel like being on the bottom today,” she said.
“Baby, you’re on the top wherever you are.”
She broke into laughter, trying to stifle it by burying her face in the crook of his elbow. He stole the opportunity to walk his fingers down the curve of her thigh, prompting her to spread her legs in welcome.
“I love you,” he lowered his head so his lips brushed her ear. “I love our daughter. I want more.”
“What if the next one’s not as good?” she whispered, arching her back and letting him slide inside her. “What if we just really lucked out with Edie?”
“She’s a great kid,” he agreed. Perfect, he thought. “But we can do it again. She’s two. We need to get a move on before she realises she can get a say in the matter.”
That made Shepard chuckle, a little breathless, and her body convulsed around him. He made a fist in the sheets above her head and breathed – in and out – in and out.
“You, uh-” she swallowed raggedly, her eyes closing as she rocked up to meet him again. “You didn’t much like the last time I was pregnant.”
“’llbe diff’r’nt,” he promised, curving his left arm under her waist to pull her into a better position. Where had the pillow gone? She was all heat and silk around him, home, love, pleasure, everything.
“You want me pregnant again?” she asked, her voice high and whispery. “Want me . . . carrying your baby?” Her hand clutched erratically at his shoulder, fingers squeezing skin, nails digging in.
“Shepard,” he warned. Home, love, pleasure, everything. Her response was to flatten her spine against the sheets, drawing him in deeper with a determined hiss of air. He felt her breath on his skin, the unbearable heat of their bodies making even that little breeze a whisper of relief. Sweat beaded on Shepard’s collarbone and her eyes closed, going wherever she went when her nerves betrayed her and her body shook and quivered in response to him. He kept pushing, thrusting into her again as she tightened around him. When he surfaced from the physical, she was curled against him, her hand gently stroking his arm. Tangled together, he did think to tug the sheets back over their sweat chilled bodies before he let his head rest on her hair fanned out on the pillow.
He could only have slumbered for a while because he felt her weight shift, the mattress adjusting to support his weight only. He opened one eye, caught sight of her back as she sat on the edge of the bed, her hands reaching up to slick her hair back. He reached forward to trace her spine.
“You really want more kids?”
He smiled. That small voice, that resigned lilt that said – so we’re going to storm this heavily fortified base before I get my breakfast – that meant she was going to say yes. “Why don’t you?”
She twisted and scowled at him. “Who said I don’t? I just think that if we’re going to have more kids we really need a dog too.”
“Hmm.” Kaidan maintained an unimpressed grimace as she tapped out a few controls on her omnitool. When the orange glow faded she flexed her left arm and rubbed her implant, hissing. He sat up to kiss the skin, warm where it had changed in response to her command. “Maybe one dog,” he allowed and would have pulled her back down to the sheets if a plaintive cry hadn’t come from down the hall.
“I’ve got it,” Shepard said, kissing his hand before she rose. She snatched up a soft robe from the chair, the silk fluttering as she turned at the door to fix him with a glare. “You realise there’ll be a lot less of this?” she said, barely suppressing her smile.
Kaidan only shook his head. “I don’t think Uncle Javik does nearly his share of babysitting, that’s all I’m saying.” He settled back against the sheets, fighting the heaviness of his eyelids and listening out for a cry for backup. Three was good. Four was much better.