I don't own Mass Effect or any of the related content, but I do own Jagher Shepard. Here's some background on my Shep that you should probably know: she's a spacer, a sole survivor, and a soldier. She's a paragde, which means she's mostly paragon, but she's not afraid to get bitch when she has to. She romanced Kaidan Alenko. This fic is rated for language and some sexual content.

A/N: All this fluff is going to kill me, I think. I don't usually write things that are this fluffy.

Nine; month six.

"I don't need any more therapy."

"There's nothing I can do about it Shepard. The higher ups have decided you need further evaluation before you return to active duty, even if it's just a desk job."

"This isn't fair!" Jagher knew she was whining, but she couldn't help it. The Alliance brass had been dangling her return to duty in front of her for months now, even before she'd found out she was pregnant. "I'm not going to pass any evaluations now, Admiral, not while I'm all full of hormones!"

She heard Steven Hackett sigh and could picture him rubbing his forehead with one hand, a gesture he often adopted when he was unsure. "I'll have another talk with them, but they seem pretty set on this. After what you went through—"

"After I saved everyone's asses, you mean?"

"You suffered a lot of trauma in the war, Shepard, just about in every way someone can experience trauma. They need to be sure you're capable of handling more."

Jagher groaned loudly. She knew this conversation was going nowhere. They never did. She knew Hackett was trying his best to get her back to work, but that didn't make it any easier to sit around and wait. Not while Kaidan was back at work, and not while she had a baby growing inside her. "Let me know if you hear any better news."

"Of course Shepard. And I've told Kaidan this, but I want to give you my congratulations as well."

She felt herself smile despite her mood. "Thanks Admiral. Talk to you later."

"Hackett out."

Jagher laughed a bit as she hung up the phone. Her superior officer's standard goodbye had never seemed ridiculous when they were talking over comm. link but he continued to use it even when they were talking on the phone, vid enabled or not. When they weren't in a military situation, it seemed so out of place.

But the darker edges of Jagher's mood returned quickly. She was getting bored cooped up in the apartment, and her desire to go outside was all but gone. She'd spent more and more time dozing around, her child sucking all the energy out of her. It wasn't a terrible exhaustion or anything, just the knowledge that a nap or lying on the couch watching a vid would be preferable to just about anything else.

She grabbed the tin of cookies Tali had made—Jagher didn't even know what was is in them, but they tasted amazing, so it didn't matter—and assumed her position on the couch, stretched out on her side, one hand alternating between the cookies and resting on her stomach.

It was in this position that Kaidan found her when he returned from work, a turian in tow. Jagher rolled herself to her feet upon seeing their guest and threw her arms around Garrus.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" she asked after greeting Kaidan with a kiss. "I would have changed into something more presentable."

Garrus took in her sweat pants and tank top, an expanse of her stomach showing between. He gave her a smile. "Don't worry too much about it Shepard. I'm not staying for long. I have to head back to Palavan tonight and I just wanted to see how you were doing." He tentatively reached out a hand and placed it on her stomach, his smiling returning as the baby pressed against his hand. "Do you know the gender of the child?"

Jagher shook her head, the tendrils of hair that had come loose during her nap falling from behind her ear. She tucked them back in place. "We decided we want to be surprised, but I'm pretty sure it's a boy."

"How can you tell?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "Just a feeling." Jagher placed a hand over Garrus's. "Will you stay for supper? Kaidan's intent on cooking some grand meal since all I've been eating are Tali's cookies."

"I would love to, but my shuttle departs in an hour."

Jagher frowned, but didn't push. Garrus was in charge of a lot on Palavan after all. "How are things going?"

It was the turian's turn to shrug. "About as well as could be expected. We have most of the infrastructure back up, and the government is almost back to normal, but there's still a lot to do."

"Sounds about the same as here on Earth." Before she could stop herself, Jagher sighed heavily and looked out the window, her hands on her stomach. "I want to be out there helping, Garrus."

Garrus wrapped an arm around her shoulders to give her an awkward hug.

Jagher awoke from a nap a few days after Garrus's brief visit to find Kaidan seated on the floor, his head leaning on the couch near her belly. It was the sound of his voice that had awoken her. It took her a few minutes to realize he wasn't talking to her. He was talking to the child.

She remained still, moving nothing more than her eyes. Kaidan didn't seem to notice that she'd woken.

"We're probably going to have to move once you get a little bigger," he was saying. "Somewhere with a yard you can play in, trees you can climb. Room for brothers and sisters hopefully." Kaidan sighed a content sigh, the sound warming Jagher. "I haven't talked to your Mom about this yet, but I want to have at least three kids."

The idea filled Jagher with fear. Three kids? How could he be thinking about more kids when this one hadn't even been born yet?

She knew the answer before the initial though had finished. Kaidan thought about the future. He always had. He'd always had his eyes set on what he would do next, what they would do next. Jagher had never been good at seeing what was beyond the current mission, and her current mission was growing a baby, on giving birth to a baby. Just one baby. She didn't see anything beyond that because she had no idea how she was even going to do this once. She had no maternal instincts and she had no good example to go from. Her mother had barely stopped when she'd given birth to Jagher, and as a result, her earliest memories were of the inside of a ship, of running around the CIC, playing with those under her mother's command.

But Kaidan had been raised on Earth. His relationship with his Dad hadn't always been good, but his parents were both still alive and well. His relationship with his mother had never been anything but strong and good.

And she would have him. He wasn't going anywhere. It would be the two of them raising the baby. In a safe home, on Earth.

Kaidan's conversation with the baby had continued, but Jagher had heard no more of it. She reached out and grabbed his hand. For a moment, he looked at her with something like panic in his eyes—part of her wondered what he'd been saying—but the expression passed. She gave him a warm smile. He leaned forward and kissed her softly.