Summary: Kelly Chambers finds love, and loss.

Important Note: This is a follow-on work to "Transitions", recommend reading that story first.

Revision Note: Re-imported text to restore formatting (italics) which got lost in initial upload. Content hasn't changed.

Revision Note (7/28/12): I realized I was missing page breaks throughout this work. They've been added (sorry for the inconvenience.)

Disclaimer: This is a personal work of fiction and constitutes fair use. This work contains depictions of violence, sexuality, mental illness, and harsh language. Regards/gratitude to EA Games/Bioware for a fun universe to play in.

Dedication: For all those who have lost the ones we love.


Prologue:

Kelly Chambers was having a wonderful time.

The weeks leading up to the wedding, though, had been a bit tense. Victoria was obviously hurting badly; a couple of weeks of counseling were not going to fix that. She was, however, functional, and smiling. She'll be okay, Kelly thought to herself as she watched Victoria and Liara welcome guests before the ceremony. They're so in love, she thought with a minor pang of jealousy. You never really had a shot Kelly-bear.

Things weren't set to kick off for another hour or so, so after she had greeted the guests, Victoria gathered her old crew from the Normandy together and spoke, "Thank you for coming. You don't know how much it means to me to be able to share this with you." She beamed at them, she sounded almost giddy. She'll be ok, Kelly was sure now.

Victoria looked amazing in her uniform. In fact, they all did. Brevet Ensign Kelly Chambers, sooner or later they'll give me that real commission, looked down at herself. Her 'salad bar' wasn't nearly as extensive as Victoria's despite being a nominal war hero herself, or anyone else's for that matter, but she didn't care about that sort of thing. Still, it was nice of Victoria to ask everyone to leave their medals at home. We might have all fallen over, she thought with a smirk.

Truly, she was just happy and honored that she could have done her part and served with such friends as these. She choked back raw emotion; she had grown to care about these friends, to love them, so much. Dear lord, please don't let me start reciting the St. Crispin's Day speech, she thought to herself.

She evaluated herself again; I do look pretty hot in uniform, especially with the old school skirt. She smiled. I wonder if Liara has any bridesmaids. Her thoughts trailed off, Shepard was talking again.

"I'd like to get a picture with all of you before things start," she smiled at them. They all lined up carefully, lest they jostle Joker too badly. Kelly locked her eyes on the hovering holo-imager. She turned her smile up to full intensity, held her chin high, and pushed out her perky breasts ever so slightly. The small device beeped softly and snapped the picture. They all relaxed somewhat.

Then, something amazing happened.

Kelly's eyes tracked in on movement behind the hovering camera. A face moved out from eclipse behind the appliance. Her jaw dropped. Holy shit, she's beautiful. A pale faced Asari Matriarch, she must be a Matriarch, observed the naval officers from beside the camera. She locked stares with Kelly and smiled. Kelly's heart literally leaped within her chest, her breathing sped, her pupils dilated. She tingled.

"That's Aethyta," Shepard materialized at her side, "She's Liara's father."

Kelly turned to look at Victoria.

Victoria reached up and gently pushed Kelly's jaw closed. "I can introduce you if you like," she winked.

Kelly could only manage a nod. Screw bridesmaids.