Jane was crying. She felt awful and ashamed. Why couldn't she stop crying like a baby? Mom was holding her close as her engineer friend was looking at the turian omni-tool. Mom didn't seem surprised when Jane came to her. She didn't yell or scolded her. And she hugged her close when she started to cry. She didn't call a regular maintenance man, she called one of her friends and talked to him in whispers about turian tech and turian friends and discretion.

It had been a month, though. At first, Jane tried all by herself to get the communication protocols running. She dug a hole through the Extranet perusing hackers and developers forums. Then her grades started to drop, dramatically and she lost life as she realised that she couldn't do it all alone, because she was six and that coding software was complicated.

Then she finally begged Mom to help, because she didn't know what else to do to get Garrus back. And the tears had flowed. Andrew, the engineer was nice enough. He asked questions about Garrus. How old he was, what his favourite class was…

"Maths." She groaned. "He joked about how much he loved xenobiology now that I made it real…"

"Well, that's something we humans should teach our own children. How to deal with aliens. How to talk to them…"

"He says they're mostly learning to know the biology. Where is the heart, how does the brain work, why is it different from an Asari's or a Turian's… Also, how to recognise the age, so you would be careful with children."

She wasn't crying anymore when she was talking, but her throat was aching, as if someone was constantly trying to choke her. She was always suffocating. And soon, there would be the big summer holidays and she would be even more alone.

"Jane, I have bad news." Andrew said. "I can't bypass the protocols…"

Jane felt her throat constrict again and the tears well, but she pushed herself closer into Mom's shirt and listened.

"But now I know why it did this. What do you know of the omni-tool?"

"That it was Garrus' cousin's. That she was ground forces during the war and she died."

"Do you know what happens when you make a vidcall, or send messages?"

Jane didn't know, so she shook her head from right to left.

"It costs money, so Garrus' cousin's account must have paid for that right? I think Garrus' Aunt and Uncle closed the account because their daughter was dead. That's why you can't use the software. It's tied to her line. You'd need one of your own to use those now. And I'm pretty sure turian carriers don't cover Shanxi, Bug…"

Jane's eyes went huge. She started to cry again and this time nobody could stop it. She yelled until her voice was raw, cried until her heart was sore and empty. Mom had the doctor sign excuses for her and didn't bother her. She smiled whenever Jane was not crying and not making a fuss when they were eating. Adrew stayed too and Jane was grateful for that because she told him of her great plan to become N7 by the time she got twenty and he was amazed.

"Garrus, he… The last vidcall we had. He said he was proud of me. That I was his little human sister." She said, feeling like she was about to burst into a useless pile of tears like a baby with a soiled nappy again. She didn't like it. She didn't like being all alone with Mom.

"Well, he seems like a very considerate kinda guy, doesn't he?" Andrew answered. "From what I know, turians love their military. He really must love the fact that you want to be Alliance like your Momma."

"They do." Jane said, simply.

Sometimes, they would catch her watching the various pictures he had sent her. She'd hide them at first, but Andrew would always find the right words to make her share and Mom could watch too after that.

One day, it was harder. Because this day meant that it had been a year since she found Cousin Laverne's omni-tool in the bunkers. She didn't want to go out of bed this day, but Mom came to her room anyway and sneaked next to her in her child's bed to hug her tight.

"Look, Janey, I… I want to make you happy." She started. "So lately, I've been busy asking some friends some money to make a vidcall. We gathered enough for an hour. I want you to call Garrus and tell him you're alright. That means no crying and no yelling and throwing food everywhere for a while. Okay?"

Except that Jane could only cry. This time, it was because she was happy, though.