Chapter 7
Shepard returned home that evening depressed. He didn't say a word to anyone and just went straight to the small study he had just off of the living room and sat down behind his desk. He didn't bother turning a light on. Tali had contacted him earlier that day and told him about Liara's death. He could remember much after being told, the rest of the day was a haze.
He looked at the picture on his desk and a tear slid down his cheek. The picture was of the Normandy crew just before they hit the collector's base. What was it about him anyway, how many people did he have to lose? First he lost his whole family to slavers and then one by one his handpicked crew kept dieing. First there was his best friend in the military Kaiden on Virmire. His death was the hardest to take because Shepard had left him to die. Everyone told Shepard that he had done the right thing, after all Kaiden was by himself with a bomb and if he had saved him it would have meant leaving Ashley Williams and about a dozen Salarians to die. None of that helped, Shepard still felt like he had murdered his best friend.
After that he had watched his ship go down with about 20 members of his crew that he could not save. Then there had been Zaeed taking out the Collector's base. He had not been overly close to Zaeed but he was still a member of his crew and he didn't like losing members of his crew. Mordin was another person Shepard had not seen eye to eye with but he had died making his and the galaxy's mistake right saving the Krogan race. After that he thought he had finished losing people but then Legion had given his life to make the Geth what they were today.
Shortly after that had come the news that Jack and her students were missing and presumed dead after a combined Reaper and Cerberus attack on the base they had been stationed at, there had been no news of them in the many years since. Jack's death was a very bitter pill to swallow because when she had first come on board the Normandy she had just been a very scared and angry person who hid from everyone, and yet Shepard had watched the cold blooded killer come into her own and become someone who could be trusted with the lives of teenagers who just wanted to help win the war. To just hear of her death and know that she most likely had to watch as "The Kids" and she called them had been killed one by one and know there was nothing he could have done to stop it, had been some of the hardest news he had heard during the Reaper war.
Then finally there had been Vega and Anderson on Earth in the last battle of the Reaper war. Anderson's death was a very hard one to take. Anderson had trained Shepard and unlike everyone else above him in the chain of command had always had his back. Shepard hand learned how to command from Anderson and when he got to earth and found him still alive after months under Reaper attack he felt like nothing could stop them. After the war Shepard had to make peace with all the death and one of the ways he had done so was by telling himself that it was over now. Then today happened and he lost one of the people who had been with him the longest. Liara had been so young and full of life and now she was gone at the age of 114. Shepard cocked a sad half smile at the thought, only 114 years old. It was research, Fucking research she should not be dead! Shepard wanted to drown himself in a bottle and not come up for a few days. He then remembered his family and his duty and knew he couldn't do that so he did the next best thing, he through the picture against the wall and it broke into pieces. Just then Tali entered the room.
"Dinner is ready." She said in a sad lifeless voice.
"I am not hungry." Shepard replied while looking straight ahead and at the wall that was in front of him instead of at her.
"I am not really hungry either but the children are worried."
"Yeah I suppose I had better come out." Shepard said his voice was now completely lifeless and with out feeling.
"How are you holding up?" Tali asked walking over to him.
"As well as can be expected I guess. How are you? After all you were there."
"It was awful." Tali said taking a seat on his lap and putting her masked face on his shoulder before breaking down into tears. "I should have gotten her out, all I can think about are all the times she saved one of us and when she needed me I wasn't there"
"It wasn't your fault." Shepard said hugging her.
"Yes it was. I was so busy getting myself out that I didn't think to look for her."
"Listen to me." Shepard said putting his hand under her chin and lifting her head so he could look her in the eyes. "It happened very fast and you had the rest of your team to look after. It was not your fault. You know Liara would not want you blaming yourself."
"Yes I know." Tali said regaining control. "We had better get back out there before the kids think there is something wrong."
"Yes, I guess you ware right." Shepard said standing up.
"Oh and by the way I got a message from Miranda Lawson this afternoon. She wanted to know if it was okay for her Jacob and Ashley to come over latter tonight so we can talk about what has happened."
"Send her a message telling her it's okay." Shepard said and he led Tali out of the dark and into the light of the living room where their children were waiting.
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Garrus still wasn't the friendliest person Kasumi had ever met but over the past few hours she had at least got him talking a little, even if it was only about weapons systems. Now she had gotten him to leave the cockpit so they could both get something to eat. All he had were Turrian military ration which Kasumi could not eat. This had worried her for a while and Garrus had gone to a cabin in the back of the ship, he returned a few minutes latter holding some containers.
"I knew I had some human rations around here somewhere." He said in a lighter tone then Kasumi had ever heard him address her in before.
"Let me guess." Kasumi said walking over and taking some of the containers out of his hand. "You never know when you will have Human prisoners."
"Yeah" Garrus said taking a seat on the other side of the workbench that also served as a table. "I have not had any Human prisoners for a while so for a minute there I was worried."
Kasumi opened on of the rations, it was bad mac and cheese with a bad steak. Touching a button on the bottom heated the food in a few seconds. She looked up at Garrus and gave him a teasing look. "Why Garrus if I didn't know better I would almost think you cared what happens to me."
"Don't flatter yourself." Garrus said a little gruffly. "I just can't have you starving to death before I get the information I need."
Kasumi took a bite of steak and then said. "You may think you have people fooled but I know you are just a big softie."
"Whywould you think that?" Garrus asked not quit believing someone had called him that.
"Tali told me about what you did on Omega."
"Wait you and Tali are friends?" Garrus didn't believe this. He always thought the Quarian had better judgment then that.
"Oh yes" Kasumi said lightly taking another bite of food. "We talked all the time on the Normandy, and I still talk to her when I get a chance."
"Well there is something I didn't see coming." Garrus said and Kasumi noticed that his tone was almost friendly.
"Yeah well when she ran out of things to fix in the engine room she would come up and we would talk." Kasumi explained. "I had a case of Turrian Brandy that I picked up somewhere."
Garrus interrupted her. "You mean you stole it from some important person just before we picked you up on the Citadel."
"Well if I did I would be stupid to admit it to a hard nosed SPECTRE like you."
"And you didn't invite me for a taste." Garrus said in a mock sad tone, boy he really was loosening up.
"Well it's not like you would have come any way."
"True." Garrus admitted.
"Any way she would come up and we would drink and talk. I wanted to know about Shepard and she wanted to know about Humans."
"I bet she wanted to know about how you guys mate." Garrus said with a sly grin. Yes! It had taken her all day but she had finally gotten something close to a smile out of Garrus.
"That was one of the things she wanted to know about. She told me that about her past with Shepard and at first all she said was that she was surprised he and Liara had not gotten together since anyone can tell she was in love with him."
"Oh I remember." Garrus said thinking back to when he had first met Shepard on the SR1. "It seemed like everyone knew Liara was in love with him but him."
"That is what Tali said." Kasumi continued. "She could not understand why Shepard didn't pick up on it. I told her it was most likely that he was interested in someone else."
"So you got them together?" Garrus asked shocked. He had been what the humans called the "best man" at their wedding and he had never heard this side of the story before.
"Not really." Kasumi said "I just gave her a little push. For months she would not admit it, I had a to tell her that I could tell he had feelings for her from the way they always talked before she would even admit it to me."
"Well given that there was no sign of Quarians ever being able to leave their suits for more then a couple of hours in sterile room at the time I can see why she would find it hard to believe."
"Yeah, I finally had to tell her that if he had never seen her face then it clearly didn't matter to him."
"Did that do the trick?" Garrus couldn't believe he was listening to this gossip but he was learning things about his two best friends he had never heard before.
"No, she still though Shepard would be better off with someone who's face he could see and he could mate with."
"It's a wonder those two ever got together." Garrus said. "I was telling Shepard he should make a move but he always said they were just friends like he and I were. I then told him that he had better not ever look at me the way he did at Tali."
Kasumi and Garrus both laughed at this. "What was wrong with him" Garrus thought. He never let his guard down and yet here he was laughing and swapping stories with a thief he hardly knew. Still he had to admit it felt good to not think about work and all the horrible things that went on in the galaxy for a while.
"Did that do the trick?" Kasumi asked turning the tables on Garrus for once. "Yeah, he admitted to me that he had been in love with her since he first met her on the Citadel. It seems you Humans believe you can love someone after just seeing them once, that always sounded strange to me."
"Then why didn't he say something instead of leaving poor Tali to wonder how he felt?"
"He told me that if she wanted to risk it that it had to be her choice alone."
"I see." Kasumi said nodding that she understood.
"So how did you get her to make the first move?"
"She noticed him getting depressed after losing Zaeed getting the Reaper IFF and wanted to come up with a way to stop him from being being depressed. I told her that it would be a lot easier for him to handle all the stress if the woman he loved was with him. She was still scarred but then she decided that if it was a suicide mission she and Shepard should at least take the chance."
"Well it worked I will give you that." Garrus said.
By now they had finished eating and it was getting late. Kasumi yawned.
"There are beds back in the old crew quarters" Garrus explained. "Sorry I have them all set up like cells"
"You just want to lock me up and tricking me is the only way you can catch me." Kasumi said with a smile.
"Hey I may be a hard nosed SPECTRE, but I keep my word. I told you I would not lock you up and I will not. I will even put your DNA in the system so that the doors will unlock for you if you want."
"That's okay." Kasumi replied still giving him a sly grin. "I think I can trust you. You have an honest face."
"One of these days some Human is going to have to tell me what a dishonest face looks like."
"I guess it looks like mine." Kasumi said.
"Well have a good night." Garrus said. "I will be sleeping on a mat out here."
"Okay see ya." Kasumi said starting to walk out of the room and then turned around and faced Garrus again. "Garrus I don't get much of a chance to unwind or talk to people and I know you don't really approve of me but thanks for giving me a chance to talk and unwind."
Garrus replied with out thinking. "Any time" He had no idea why he had said that.
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Miranda had not known Liara well enough to really be effected by her death, Jacob had gone with Shepard and the Asari when they had taken on the Shadow Broker. Still she was going with Jacob and Ashley because she wanted to show a united front and she knew that tonight was her best chance to talk some sense into Shepard and get him to agree to more security to help keep him and his family safe.
When the three of them showed up they could tell Shepard and Tali's spirits were low, Shepard got out some drinks and they spent a couple of hours talking about Liara. It was a sort of informal Irish wake for their friend. Miranda didn't say much because she didn't have anything to say, part of her wished she had known this woman who seemed to mean so much to everyone she met better. Finally things calmed down and Miranda, Jacob, and Ashley got down to business.
Miranda started. "Shepard there is more to Liara's death then you know, I believe you and your family are in danger."
Shepard just looked at her stunned not saying a word. Miranda went on to tell him about everything that had happened and the fact that it looked like the Batarians had found some way to remotely control Object Alpha. She then told him that it looked like unknown people on the Citadel were working with the Batarians.
"Shepard I know you are not going to like this but we need to massively increase your and your family's security." Shepard continued to look at her stunned, the whole day had done a number on him. At least he wasn't bringing up the old excuses about how he could handle anything and he wanted his family to have a normal life. Miranda then went into outlining the plan the three of them had come up with that afternoon. The plan involved many more guards, no one in Shepard's family going anywhere with out at least three bodyguards, using armored cars from now on, and a special extranet hook up so his kids could do their school work from home. Shepard looked like he was about to object when Jacob piped in.
"Shepard I know you can handle threats against yourself." He said looking Shepard in the eye. "But imagine how you would feel if something happened to Tali or one of your kids, please don't take the chance."
Tali then added a simple. "Please listen to them and place her right hand on her husband's shoulder."
"Alright" Shepard said a little lifelessly. "I don't like living in fear but I guess it's for the best." Even though this was what they wanted everyone in the room felt a little sad seeing him give in, it was clear Liara's death had taken all the fight out of him. He wasn't the same Shepard they knew, tonight he was a beaten man. No one had seen him like this since the fall of Thesia, something he still blamed himself for not doing more to prevent.
"Oh and one more thing." Miranda added "I don't think it's a good idea for you to go to Tuchanka tomorrow."
Shepard stood up and said "I have to go, I told Wrex I would come."
"Skipper I really don't think it's a good idea." Ashley said "For all we know the Krogan could be involved."
"Doesn't matter." Shepard said forcefully showing them the old commander who had taken on the Reapers. "I have to go, Wrex said the galaxy was at stake. He will only talk to me in person. I will do everything you ask me to do but I have to go to Tuchanka." They could all see it was no use fighting him on this.
"Well if that is the case then I am going with you." Ashley said standing up. "I'll bring a dozen of my best SPECTREs with me and you do everything I say, got it?!" Her tone left no room for argument.
"Alright." Shepard said. He respected Ashley too much to fight her on this and besides he wasn't sure he could win a battle of wills with her.
"I will be staying here while you are gone to make sure your family is safe." Jacob said.
"Jacob." Shepard said. "I don't know how long I will be gone, so if you want to do that bring Brynn and the kids so they don't have to spend time away from you."
"If you are sure that is okay."
"I am sure."
He saw Tali was worried about what they were going to tell the kids. "We will just tell them it's a sleep over." He said with a smile.
He then turned back to his friends. "Now if you will excuse us it is late and I have had too much to drink so we are going to to bed. He and Tali left the room and their three friends left to put the new security measures in place. One thing was for sure until this danger was taken care of everyone's lives would be a lot more interesting.
Well there you have it chapter seven. Sorry the plot didn't move forward much but I got caught up writing character moments. The plot will be moving forward next chapter. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As always thanks for reading and please leave a review.
Okay I completely changed how Jack died because while I didn't like her that much at the time I first wrote this, in the years since I have come to really enjoy her story arc and I didn't want to do away with that any more.
I know Zieed's death doesn't mach what happened in the game, but I wanted someone to die suddenly and on something other then the suicide mission, I hope this doesn't upset too many people.
Thanks for ready and putting up with my insane delays. I will keep editing chapters and get them posted as quickly as I can so I can get to writing new chapters and finish this story.
