A/N: It's been some years since I've been on here, but I find myself consumed by this narrative. Based on Spacer Paragon Shepard. All Mass Effect Characters belong to Bioware/EA. Enjoy.

Chapter 1

Captain Garrus Vakarian's eyes stared blankly at the screen in front of him. Going on three years since The Reaper War, and the Turian was becoming more aware every day of why he had left C-sec in the first place. As a war hero, he had been welcomed back to the Citadel with open arms and given his current position as Captain of the Presidium sector in C-sec. Given his position and the nature of how things had changed due to the war, he had been able to influence some shifts in policy, removing some of the red tape that had driven him to joining Shepard in the first place. However, the red tape had remained in many aspects of his job. At least working in the Presidium meant that he had a bit of excitement given the rise of various organized crime groups since the end of the war.

Outside his office door, officers, lieutenants and the Captain of the Academy were busy processing the files of the incoming C-sec Academy class. Captain Xelia Hadarken was a tough, slightly older female Turian that had been appointed to oversee the training of new cadets. Only those that passed through the taxing curriculum she had instituted would graduate and become officers. There was a desperate need to replace the military and law enforcement of the galaxy after so many had been ruthlessly slaughtered.

Garrus' mind wandered briefly to those that had been lost. Family, friends, shipmates, fellows-in-arms... None had been untouched by the destruction the Reapers wrought. Sighing, he brought his thoughts back to present. No use in wallowing in the past. Those that had managed to survive were focused on rebuilding and on the future. Speaking of survivors...

He glanced over at the clock on his desk. He groaned and placed his face in his hands when the display brightly glowed "1600" at him. Another hour before he was supposed to leave, yet he had finished all his paperwork and background checks for the day. He had nothing left to do. Well, not exactly- he could help Xelia and her staff sort through the incoming cadet profiles. Garrus decided against it, feeling he had already done her a huge favor by conducting the rest of her background checks for her in preparation for the incoming class. Beyond what he had done already that day, he felt no more obligation to assist his friend and coworker. Besides, he had a bit of motivation to get out of the office a bit early.

Gathering his things and closing down his workstation, he locked his office door behind him and maneuvered through the organized chaos of the rest of the office. Captain Hadarken glared at him from her small fortress of data pads and emitted a subharmonic the expressed her extreme displeasure with his early departure. Garrus threw up his hands in mock helplessness and flared his mandibles in a smirk. Thankfully, the number of staff running around kept her from gaining his assistance through force. She could expand upon her irritation with him another time; for now, he had somewhere he would much rather be than at work.

The Asari nurse should have been granted sainthood for her patience. There were many that were lost during the war, and those that had been on the front lines and survived were horribly broken- both mentally and physically. The nurse was quite adept at aiding the physical ailments of her patients, but there was little she could do for their wounded minds. She found that the best way to help them was to simply let the cursing, angry soldiers she worked with to let their frustrations be expressed openly. Unlike many of her fellow nurses- who tsked at and scolded the foul demeanor of their patients- she simply nodded her understanding and kept on with her work.

The revered Commander Shepard was no exception to this rule. The hero of the galaxy, the one who had saved them all, was muttering angrily under her breath as she supported herself on the two bars that flanked her. Somehow, some way, the apparently indestructible commander had survived the impossible odds against her and made it through the Crucible's descent to Earth after the great red pulse of energy had killed all synthetic life. The decision had not come easily, but she saw it as the best option. Technology would go on, but artificial life forms would not survive. She had also received orders to live beyond her encounter with the Catalyst.

Pain and a terribly uncomfortable pressure was forcing its way up her legs and into her spain. She was acutely aware of every single place where the Salarian doctors had managed to put her broken legs and spine back to together.

"Less on your arms, more on your legs," the nurse gently prodded.

"Easier said than done," Kate Shepard growled through clenched teeth.

"The nerves and muscles need to learn to support themselves."

Kate didn't respond other than to allow more of her weight to settle onto her legs as she deliberately attempted to place one foot in front of the other. There was a sharp intake of breath between her teeth as more pain rocketed its way up her body. Do it, she yelled in her mind, Just go already! Her legs stubbornly disobeyed the mind that supposedly controlled them and shuffled awkwardly under her.

"That's it, you're doing very well."

She knew the nurse was just doing her job, just trying to help. It wasn't her fault that the soldier before her had been accustomed to a life in which motion and superb control of her body came naturally was infuriated at the lack of her body's response to her commands.

"Appears you have a visitor," the nurse said warmly, causing Shepard to look up with brighter, happier eyes than those directed to her own feet.