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Kaidan knew the moment he saw Shepard that morning, that something was wrong. She was hunched over slightly, her face pale and expression strained. He’d seen her in pain enough times to know that she was doing her best to hide it. She flinched and let out a small sigh as she sat down in the mess as he noticed that she was shivering. Before he could join her, he was already working out her symptoms and what they could mean, but all he could tell was that she was hurting and maybe running a fever.
“You okay, Shepard?” he asked, sitting down across the table from him.
“Currently, no. Eventually, yes,” she muttered, taking out two pill bottles - both over the counter medications and both ones he recognized.
Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen. One treated pain and inflammation and the other also treated pain but also fever. And they were safe to be taken together.
“Are you sure you should take them and not just go see Dr. Chakwas?” he asked with a frown, concerned that she was hiding a relatively bad injury.
“I’m willing to bet that if I told her what I was dealing with and how I treat it, she’d tell me that I’m doing everything right,” she muttered with a frown.
“It’s just that if you’re in that kind of pain, it might be a good idea to see her. Just in case it’s something… serious,” he said, carefully dancing around the fact that he cared and more than he should as her friend.
“I know what’s up and I guarantee you that it’s nothing I should bother Chakwas about,” she muttered, clearly not realizing that Chakwas was nearby, getting her own breakfast.
“Doctor Chakwas,” he called out, calling the doctor over.
“Good morning, Kaidan, Elizabeth,” the elder woman said, giving each of them a nod, “what can I help you with?”
“You mean beside the fact that Alenko is being a worrywort over me… again?” Shepard asked with a sigh and a bit of a frown.
“Mostly because you seem to be getting hurt on every planet we go to,” he muttered with a frown before turning to Chakwas, “I don’t know what’s going on but she’s clearly in pain and prefers to treat it herself rather than seeing you about it.”
“It may be easier just to tell me what’s going on with you, Elizabeth,” Chakwas said with one of her usual kindly smiles.
“I’d prefer to whisper it because it’s kind of personal,” she said and Chakwas nodded before bending down.
Shepard clearly moved so he wouldn’t read her lips and after a second, Chakwas chuckled.
“I have to agree with Elizabeth here. There’s nothing urgent about her current state,” Chakwas said with a smile before asking, “if the pain’s that severe, I’ve got something that should work, but it will impair you a bit, so you might want to avoid doing missions for the time being or just send the team along without you.”
He started to wonder what could cause her pain but wouldn’t be a medical emergency until something clicked in his brain.
Shepard was possibly menstruating. In which case, she was in pain from the cramps. And likely had an elevated temperature from that, which wasn’t uncommon. She probably didn’t want everyone to know her current state so had chosen secrecy. It was definitely worth sacrificing another one of his chocolate bars for, if it made her feel better.
The next time they were at the Citadel, he was going to need to get more chocolate bars with how quickly he’d been burning through them - mostly for Shepard’s mental health.
“Looks like Kaidan’s figured out what you’re dealing with,” Chakwas said with some amusement.
“Yeah, I think so too,” she lightly said with a smirk.
“Is there anything I can do to help you out?” he asked, feeling rather uncomfortable as Shepard put away the pill bottles.
“Tone down the mother hen for the next five days,” she tiredly sighed with a small smile. “I’m not dying, despite the fact that it usually feels like I am. And to remember this conversation in a month or so.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” he said, deciding to simply default to the proper protocol, getting a bit of a tired glare from Shepard that told him that she was almost as annoyed as she was amused.
He knew it wasn’t a glare that told him that his life was in danger or that she was going to work him over. Just one that was almost… fond. He could live with that.
After eating breakfast, he knew he had just enough time to creep back to the bunks so he could grab a couple of the chocolate bars from his rapidly diminishing stash. He frowned, knowing that they usually last twice to three times longer than this but smiled at the reason why. They were being burned through for a good cause. The most wonderful and beautiful woman in the galaxy, in his eyes. Who was now in a lot of pain only because of the natural processes of being a woman.
She deserved more than the chocolates he’d been plying her with, but he refused to do more. Any more and he’d be unable to leave himself a way out. Any more and his ability to defend his actions as merely being a considerate friend would fall flat. Furthermore, she hadn’t given him any clear signs that she wanted anything more than friendship from him, despite their playful battlefield flirting that had made them exchange light chuckling during the quiet moments during missions.
No, he decided he wouldn’t go too far as to not leave himself a way out, just in case she wanted nothing more than friendship with him, regardless of his feelings on the matter.
Nothing said he couldn’t sneak her those two chocolate bars in an attempt to ease her pain in some small measure. That was something he could defend as both a considerate friend and as someone who knew the pain relieving properties of chocolate.