A/N: You know you're a crazy nerd when Preed starts singing. And it's a tribute to a certain Scientist Salarian. Also, warnings for non-explicit sexual content... involving Preed and Korso. Nightmares, perhaps, but I ship it unabashedly.

... Carry on.

# # #

Korso took in the place, eyes wandering over the familiar shapes and angles and the new unfamiliar details. "Place looks good, Sarah," he nodded, hands on his hips and leaning back on his heels. "Better than I left it, in fact."

"Thank you." Sarah clasped her hands and tried to smile. " We had some pretty major renovations done. Courtesy of Mister Silver."

"Right..." Korso frowned, folding his arms across his chest. "And just... who is he? Besides 'the man with the aarrrrm.'" He rolled his eyes, mocking the bearlike cyborg's gruff, salty speech.

"He's a friend of Jim's." Sarah shrugged. "He's gotten to be a friend of mine too, he's done so much for us."

Korso paused, and tried again. "Just a friend?"

Sarah blinked, realizing. "Oh - what? No, no, we're not - ew!" she laughed, high and nervous, then calmed herself with a deep breath and shake of her head. "No, Joseph. Jim just met him on the Legacy... Silver saved his life out there, and I'll always be grateful to him for that. Tell you the truth, I think they saved each other."

"Uh-huh. And is there a reason he's hanging around here pointing guns at me? Just a social call, or is he your new live-in bodyguard or something?"

Sarah hesitated. When she spoke again, her tone was guarded, measuring every word. "Just visiting. And we'd both - all of us - would really appreciate it if you wouldn't mention seeing him here to anyone."

Korso let out an unpleasant laugh even he didn't like the sound of. "Hah! Humans harboring an alien. Seems kind of backwards, doesn't it?"

"Please, Joseph. It'd be a good way to win some points with Jim. Picking a fight with Silver is the very worst thing you could do right now... in a lot of ways."

"Fine, fine. Your secret's safe with me."

The silence stretched a little too long, a little too awkwardly. When they spoke again, naturally, their words fell all over each other at once, like they had forgotten how to have a conversation.

"Sar-"

"Jos - sorry, you go ahead."

"No, you first. I'm the one barging in here, you get to grill me first."

"Okay." She took a deep breath. "You never wrote once. Or called, after..."

"No. And I'm sorry about that," he growled. "I'm sorry about a lot of shit I put you through. But I... I thought it would be better if you didn't know. Safer."

"That's bull and you know it." she shook her head vehemently. "You could always tell me anything, always-"

"I got a lead on the Titan." He almost spoke it in a whisper, like the name of a saint or sacred relic in a cathedral. "And I had to leave, right then. If anyone else got wind of it - if anyone knew my name, knew where I came from, and who was waiting for me here..." He looked at her, and his face was more open than he could remember, eyes brightening. "The Titan, Sarah. Hope for the entire human race."

"That's what I thought," she said quietly. "Nothing else mattered to you. All these years, it was always about that ship."

"That's not true," Korso shook his head. "Other things mattered. You and James mattered. But some things - sometimes you have to give up a good life, to do the right thing."

"Mmmm." Sarah folded her arms. "So it was all about some wild, great hope for the universe. And had nothing to do with the fact that you were bored with the slow life, did it?"

"What? No-"

"Stop hiding, Joseph, we were married! I know you. I know you could never be happy being an innkeeper, being a nobody, when you had a world to save. I know the look in your eye you'd get, when I was talking, or Jim wanted to show you something, and you'd be staring out the window up at the stars. You were thinking about what was out there, and what you could do to avenge a dead planet. You can take the man out of the army, but-"

"I was happy here!"

"Then why did you leave?" Sarah almost cried, the question ripping out of her after being forced into silence for so many years. Like picking out glass with tweezers, it hurt, but nothing else would let it heal. "Why did you wake up early that morning and slip away, when you thought I was sleeping-"

"I told you I didn't want to, I had to-"

"You wanted to run off and be a crusader again - a pirate, a soldier, a hero, anything but a father and a husband on this lonely piece of rock. You couldn't let go of the quest, and realize that it was enough to make a good life for yourself here-"

"Sounds like you've got me all figured out!" Korso snorted, started to pace around the room, arms flying in punctuating, snapping gestures, heavy boots loud on the hardwood floor. "Thank you so much for sharing all this with me!"

"I've had a lot of time to think about it." Sarah hugged her elbows close to herself, and stared at the floor. "You were always chasing after Sam..."

Korso stopped dead, eyes going wide. He slowly turned, and when he spoke again it was in that same reverant whisper he'd used to mention the Titan - but with an edge of something else. Maybe fear. "What?"

"Even after he went where you couldn't follow. Why else did you marry his widow?"

"You stop right there, I-"

"And why else did I marry his best friend? We were both trying to get him back."

Korso stomped closer, arms out, as if he wanted to grab her in a bear hug, shake her, hold her close, something - but just didn't know how to touch her anymore. "Dammit, Sarah, I loved you! I-"

"And I loved you. Or at least we thought we did." Sarah didn't move a muscle, even as their faces almost touched, and his arms tried to encircle her - and failed, flopping back to his sides. "But it was always Sam. I think - we thought, if we could just hold onto one another, we could hold onto him too."

Korso shut his eyes and turned away, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand. "Sarah... what in the hell does Sam have to do with any of this? He's gone. Just - both of us, we need to leave him in his grave or whatever God-forsaken place he ended up out there in space, and move the hell on."

Sarah held her upper body tight, and shook. She took a deep breath through clenched teeth, willing herself to speak the two small, difficult, momentous words.

"Cale's alive."

Korso's face went slack, all the color draining from under the stubble. His mouth hung open, eyes wide, and for a moment he just breathed.

"How?"

"I don't know where he is," Sarah said quickly, and now the words were spilling out of her, she couldn't have stopped if she tried. "If I did, I'd have gone to get him in a heartbeat. But Silver - he hears things, he knows all sorts of people and finds out all kinds of things he's not supposed to know. And somewhere, out there, outside the Etherium... he caught wind of a blonde-haired human, around 19 years old... named Cale Tucker."

"Christ..." Korso breathed.

"I know, Joseph!" Sarah smiled - almost giggled. And for a moment there, she was the sweet young girl he'd known on Earth, married to Sam, happiest she'd ever been. Happier than when she'd been married to him, he knew that. The years melted away, and her eyes shone with hope.

"My son - he's alive. Cale's alive! He didn't get lost in the Drej attack. Somewhere..." she shook her head in wonder, unable to believe this miracle. "It drives me crazy, you know," she said, sniffing hard. "Knowing he's alive, but not where. Or being able to get a message to him... Silver's going to put the word out, try to find him, let him know he's - he's got people, here on Montressor, a place to come home to..."

Korso wasn't listening.

Somewhere there was a boy with Sam Tucker's eyes.

"Does James know?"

"No. I haven't... he knows about Sam and Cale of course, he's seen old photos, and pictures of Earth, but. I was always waiting for him to get old enough to ask more questions, and." She shrugged. "He always had so much else on his mind. I guess now is as good a time as any."

"He has the map." Korso whispered.

"What?"

"He has the map! Sam told me no matter what happened, he said to take care of his kid - your kid - because he'd have the answer." Korso stared at her, going from disbelief to the widest smile he could remember having, stretched so wide it hurt his unaccustomed face muscles. "Do you know what this means?"

His energy flooded back like an electric shock, he felt like spinning Sarah around, dancing with her in the Benbow's common room, just like they'd-

"It's the Titan again." she said flatly, smile fading. The years came back in a rush, and she suddenly looked so tired. "That's what matters to you, isn't it, Joseph? Not Cale. Now you can get back to your quest. You can keep trying to find the Titan, keep up your - your mission, in life. Keep looking for Sam. You can have a purpose again."

Korso was quiet for a long moment. "Don't you ever think about it?" he asked, voice rough, words hard to get out. "Having another shot - another Earth. Proving the bastards who tried to destroy us wrong, sorry boys, but humanity isn't over with yet! Having a real home, a real life."

A sad smile. "I have a home, Joseph. It's here, on Montressor, with Jim. We have a real life, and it's full of people who love us, new friends and old - Silver, and Dr. Doppler and Captain Amelia and their children, and maybe Cale will be part of it again someday... We have a real life - and you did too. You were part of that once, but..."

"Sarah-"

"The worst part is -!" Sarah's voice broke - she took a deep breath, and made herself continue. "If you had just talked to us... if you'd just told us what you needed," She looked up, eyes wide and stinging with tears. "We would have understood! I would have - I know how important it was to you. All we wanted to know was that we were, too. You always wanted to be a hero, Joseph, and..."

She bit her lip, hot tears finally falling.

"You already were! All you had to do was look in your little boy's eyes to see it."

"Sarah... God, I... I'm so-"

"Don't say it! Don't say you're sorry." Sarah shook her head, not looking up at him. "If you had to do it over again - you would. Maybe you'd just do it a little differently."

She cleared her throat, turned and stiffly walked across the room, hand on the stair railing. "I'll talk to Jim," she said at last, voice raw. "Tell him how important the Titan is. But he knows already - he's a smart kid, Joseph, and he sees more than you think. And I will not force him, or even tell him I think he should help you. It's up to him. And you've got to accept whatever he decides."

"Thanks." Korso croaked, clearing his throat. "Appreciate it." He opened his mouth, but no sound would come out until he painfully forced it. "Sarah, I - you mattered. You and James both. You always did."

She didn't turn around, shoulders slowly rising and falling with a deep breath. "If you see him out there - if you really do find Cale, tell him..." she trailed off, fell silent for a few long seconds.

"What?" He asked, not unkindly. Or at least as kindly as he knew how.

"Tell him he has a family."

"I will. I promise."

Sarah nodded. "Good night, Joseph," she whispered - and started up the stairs. Her footsteps creaked above his head, and faded.

After a long, long few minutes of breathing and shaking and quiet curse words, Korso followed. He paused at the first landing, looking up the dark stairwell where she'd disappeared... then turned off onto the second floor, moving quietly through the dark house.

# # #

Korso hunched his way down the hall, hands jammed into his pockets, chin tucked down against his chest. He didn't need to look up to see where he was going; he still knew the floor plan by heart. The Benbow was new, improved, rebuilt, but the renovators must have used some of the original blueprints, because it was still fourteen steps up to the second floor. That was the strangest thing about being back here, how much it had changed - and hadn't. Every turn, every corner and angle was the same, but nothing inside of it was. Nobody who lived here was the same person anymore. It didn't even smell the same or have any of the same feel; it didn't resonate on the same frequency, he couldn't subconsciously pick up any lingering energy of his, any small imprint of himself left behind that meant he belonged here, that he was home -

"Well, thatwas educational."

Korso didn't look up to see his first mate sloping along beside him; he was too exhausted to even be surprised at how even here he appeared out of nowhere. "You were listening."

"Of course," Preed said smoothly. "She still has my gun - she might have pulled it on you and put several holes in your anatomy. Hell's fury and a woman scorned, and all that."

"No..." Korso shook his head, still not looking up. "Sarah's never been the ball-blasting type. Not unless I made a far bigger ass of myself than I - hey!" he stopped dead, and Preed ran into his back - though he'd been sure the Akrennian was next to him, not behind. "When did you start using human sayings?" He stared at Preed almost accusingly; this shouldn't be important but he just didn't want any more surprises, and didn't feel like dealing with whatever this meant -

"Wha-at? I make it my business to be familiar with my companions' cultures and idioms... extinct though they may be. and you humans do have unique ways of putting things, I must say. Odd little proverbs, even songs-"

"Oh, God, don't tell me you've been studying Earth show tunes."

Preed cleared his throat - and began to sing, a strange, staccato, singsong melody.

"I am the very measure of an excellent Akrennian,

With elegance and charm from here to Jupiter and back again!

A dashing individual, a fine upstanding specimen,

I am the very measure of an excellent Ak-krrrrenn-i-aaan!"

He rolled the last extended 'rrrrr,' and finished with a flourish of spindly arms, long fingers splaying in flying jazz-hands.

And by now, Korso couldn't breathe. His eyes squeezed shut and his shoulders bounced with stifled laughter, as he resisted the guffaw that threatened to burst out of him and disturb the entire inn. "Fuck me," he managed to get out. "You have, you crazy bastard - I don't believe it, that bump on the head really must have rattled some screws loose-"

"Well, it's such a catchylittle tune!" Preed grinned in a way Akrennians probably thought was cheerful, but any human besides Korso would find horrifying. Somehow that demented, toothy, inhuman smile just didn't fit bastardized Gilbert and Sullivan. "And I can certainly go on, I've got several more verses worked out-"

"No!" Korso almost shouted, finally letting out the laugh - but it came out in more of a harsh bark than anything, and it hurt his throat. The sudden pain brought him back to reality, and the sinking feeling returned. "No. This is not the time, or the place, I just... I need to think about everything." He started walking again - and after a moment, Preed followed.

"You don't think the boy's going to help us," Preed said flatly, as Korso strode up to a door like all the others in the hallway, digging for the room key Sarah had given to him.

"James? Why would he?" Korso mumbled, jamming the key into the lock with more force than was probably necessary. "Talking with her... almost getting my nose broken - starting to think it was a fuckin' stupid idea coming back here. Oh, she'll talk to him, or at least that's what she said," he shoved the door open and stepped inside. "But I'm pretty damn sure that it'll just be you and me shoving off this rock tomorrow."

"Yes, and we can't have that." Preed's dark sarcasm had no humor about it at all - and it was completely lost on Korso, who didn't so much as grunt in reply. Preed slipped through the doorway before it shut behind Korso, though the human didn't seem to notice.

And he wasn't listening. "Cale's alive. Fine. Still back to square fuckin' one. Less than one!" He growled, pacing around the small, cozy room like a prison cell, not seeming to notice Preed was there at all. "Where do I even start looking for the kid – one kid, in the whole galaxy? And what if this Silver jagoff gets to Cale first, tells him he has a family, and he decides he'd rather come back here to this goddamn rock, and live with his mommy?"

Preed leaned back against one wall and folded his long arms, hooded eyes following Korso's stomping paces across the room and back. He didn't say a word, just let his captain rant, and took it all in like a sponge.

"Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker, He's floating somewhere across the universe, God knows where - and can't find the Titan without him! Needle in a haystack, inside another goddamn haystack!" He aimed a kick at the wall – but stopped when he saw the floral wallpaper lovingly spread on it.

"It's over." He let out a long sigh instead, sank down to sit on the bed as all the fight drained out of him. "I keep thinking it can't get worse, and then guess what the fuck happens? And now what?" he rested his elbows on his knees, and forehead on clenched fists.

"Back to a floating prison called a station, rotting in a human ghetto, behind a chain link fence? Or maybe we'll go back to drug running, smuggling and hiding under the bed and holding my breath whenever there's a raid! Deciding whether we wanna eat or breathe that day. Well, fuck that. It's just another kind of cage."

Korso opened his eyes, shivering at the long fingers on the back of his neck, and the tingling hairs that stood on end. He looked up with some annoyance, too tired for any real edge. "Not in the mood, Preed." He grunted. "Not in my ex-wife's house, with my son in..." he stopped, irritation fading with a resigned sigh. "Quit messing with it."

He reached up and slapped Preed's hand away from where it picked and worried at the edge of the new cranial metal plate.

"It hurts like the devil." Preed growled, sharp teeth flashing. "Doesn't – feel right, it's too tight or-"

"Course it hurts, how the fuck you think a metal plate in your head's supposed to feel?"

"I don't know, but I can't think with it like this, it's – it's agony-"

"Fine. Fine, we'll get it looked at or something. Just quit fucking with it until then, I don't need any more problems right-"

"And why should I?" Preed stared at him, beady eyes unblinking. "If you're going to be this fatalistic, what's the point of anything, really? I never would have thought you the sort to give in to such dramatics, you've always left that to me-"

"Shut up, Pr-"

"Oh, come now, stop moping. What makes you think your little game is over - a ship, a human, what's the difference?"

"Difference is, nobody keeps track of individual humans by name, unless they're personal property. Free humans are ghosts in the system, we come and go and nobody knows our names. Real nice if you want to stay under the radar – and if this kid has stayed off of my radar for so long, he doesn't want to be found."

He shook his head, breaking eye contact. "But still. God. After all these years, the kid's alive... Sam's boy..." A smile suddenly broke across his face, surprising both of them, most of all Korso himself – it was still strange to feel those muscles engaging, he didn't know he remembered how to smile like that.

"Can you believe it? Fuck me, Sam Tucker's kid. Wonder what he's like...?"

Preed didn't answer. And if Korso noticed his dangerously darkening glower, he didn't react; his eyes were brighter than they'd been in years, and a decade seemed to fade away from his face along with the tension lines.

But then he crashed again, smile becoming a pained grimace.

"Shit. Shit! Got a better chance of finding a ready-made brand new Earth than finding him, let alone the Titan! God! I almost wish I didn't know the kid was alive!" It all hit at once – the enormity of the galaxy, and the smallness of the human race. Of one person, of one tired, hurting old bastard in a floral-walled inn, wishing he was anywhere else.

"I can't find him alone – and James isn't about to give me the time of day, I'd bet on that. No matter what I do..." He frowned, staring at the ground, teeth and jaw working silently. "Can't keep doing what I've been doing. Don't know where I'm going from here, but. It's not gonna just be you and me running after this. End of an era, I can tell you that for sure..." And he went silent again, poring over thoughts kept tight behind his clenched teeth.

But behind the frustration, something else was still there; that tiny spot of salvation, the last lifeline tossed to him by a man dead for fifteen years. Sam was still doing it, still pointing him in the right direction, giving his sorry ass one last reason to hope.

Preed caught the wistful, faraway look in Korso's eyes, and stewed. The human was withdrawing into himself into a place fully his own, into memories and thoughts only he knew, something Preed could never imagine or touch.

"Has running with me really been so terrible?" His tone was light and flippant as ever, but narrow, shrewd eyes never once stopped studying Korso's face, scrutinizing microexpressions like a vital sample under a microscope.

Korso smirked. "No. It's been a hell of a ride... stop, or that thing'll never heal." Korso sighed, and reached up to pick Preed's hand off his head again.

"Then why... would this 'era,' as you call it, need to come to an end? Why change a perfectly good routine, hmm?"

Korso didn't answer at once – and he didn't move his hand either, just let it rest on the undamaged half of Preed's head. "Because some things are more important. Because once this is over, maybe humanity'll have a fighting chance again. And I can have a real life."

A few long breaths of stillness. An oddly gentle moment for the two of them, Korso's hand on Preed's healing skull and half-destroyed ear. But as always, the silence was charged with that edge of danger below the surface, of knowing that everything could change in a heartbeat, and neither ever quite knowing how it all would end.

A real life, he'd said. A real life.

Preed could have done any number of sudden, lethal things and felt entirely justified. And for a long moment, he considered them – until he thought of something much, much better.

He reached out with sibilant hands, turned Korso's stubbled face back to look at him. Long, possessive fingers encircled the human's neck, and ever so slightly began to squeeze, and pull him closer.

"Don't want to hurt you," Korso murmured, voice raw and gravely; he gave the metal plate a light tap with a fingernail.

"But my dear, tortured Captain," Preed curled around him like a serpent's coils, teeth and nasal horn scraping across the back of his neck and under his jaw, long hands spreading across his chest and digging in sharp. "I believe you could do with a different sort of pain."

Korso clenched his teeth, resisting for just a few more breaths, while wiry-strong arms pinned his own down. "No matter what happens – I'm never going back in that damn cage."

Preed curled around him tighter, arms and legs locking around in desperate possession...

...And came to a decision.

"No," he whispered, turning the sharp-toothed bite on Korso's collarbone into words. "You're not."

Korso's eyes rolled back in his head and he took in a deep, shuddering breath – and let himself be pulled under.

# # #

A/N again: I think this was the hardest chapter I've had to write so far, with all the dynamics - I want everyone involved here to have clear motivations and wants and needs, and come across at least as a little sympathetic. Yeah, Korso's a dick who abandoned his wife and kid and fooled himself into thinking he was doing something noble, but I don't want him to come off as a complete douchewad, otherwise why would we want to read about him? Same with Preed - icky, slimy bastard, but with some relatable fear of losing the only person who really gives a crap about him. Sarah is just totally awesome and sympathetic anyway, but I still tried to get a balance of her giving Korso the wakeup call he needed without coming across as a bitch. And the connection to Sam... needed to be tangible, and painful and sweet all at once.

... I think I put way too much consideration and psychoanalysis into my fanfictions. xD I just hope I did an okay job of getting all of the above across.

Reviews are wonderful, and I thank EVERYONE who has given me one, from the bottom of my heart. You guys rock entirely.