David Goodman 2: The Goodman Life
Written and submitted by Full-Paragon
"Honey, where's my tie?" David called, rifling through his luggage.
"It's on the desk sweetie, where you left it."
Glancing up, David found the tie dangling right in front of his face. "Oh, thanks."
"Mmhmm. What's Dora doing?"
Quickly putting on the tie, David frantically searched for his youngest daughter, finding her in the bathroom with Citti. Trying to get into their mother's makeup. "GIRLS!"
The both glanced up and smiled at him guiltily. "We were just looking dad." Citti explained. She was 27 now, and while a human that old might be a full grown adult, Citti was closer to 9 or 10. It was crazy to David, in the past 15 years, his daughter had only grown what to him was five, while he had gone from being a young man to middle aged. Dora 12, almost 13, but she was about the same age that Citti had been when David first became her teacher.
As David washed the girls off, Delana came in, carrying her purse and David's wallet. She kissed him gently on the cheek as she stuffed it into his jacket pocket. "Ready to go to the funeral?"
"Ready as I'll ever be with these two blueberries." David answered, scooping his daughters up with his biotics. They giggled, then David had to set them down. While having biotics was nice, David's were fairly weak, which was a good thing as far as he was concerned. If they had been strong, he likely would have been 'recruited' by the Alliance, and he had little desire to spend his life flying from one planet to another.
They made their way out of the hotel room, each parent keeping a firm grip on a child. David got Citti, and Delana got Nora. The Citadel was a nightmare for a parent of a young child, with millions of beings coming and going all day, and more than a few of them perfectly willing to kidnap a child. David was halfway regretting not taking the pistol Akkar had offered him, especially after seeing more than a few frightening looking individuals, including a krogan with a red head plate and a frightening looking scar over one eye. After what seemed like miles of walking, the Goodman's finally got to the elevator to the Presidium.
"Still can't believe she's dead," David sighed, squeezing Citti's hand as the elevator started up. "Never thought the Hero of the Citadel would get taken out on patrol."
Delana nodded, taking a moment to wipe a smear of something off Dora's mouth. "And poor Liara! First her mother, now her bondmate, you have to feel bad for her."
"Dr. T'soni is nice, is she going to be there?" Citti asked.
David nodded. "Yes, we're going to a memorial party she's hosting afterwards. You can say hi to her there."
"Oh boy! Do you think she found more prothean stuff? The stuff she showed us last time was really cool!"
"Why did Shepard die?" Dora asked, making a face as her mother finished cleaning her dress.
"She was a soldier. She was very brave, and saved the Citadel. Even if the Council and Destiny Ascension we're lost, she was still a hero." Delana explained. "We're going to honor her sacrifice."
"Oh, OK. Can I have another juice daddy?"
David was about to say yes, when Del gave him a look. David grinned sheepishly, he was a sucker for both his daughters, and his wife knew it. The only time he was ever able to be strict was when he was in the classroom, that was different for some reason. Thankfully, Citti was still as sweet and quiet as ever, and didn't try to take advantage of her teacher cum father. Dora was a completely different story, and new full well that if she batted her eyelashes and asked nicely, there wasn't much she couldn't get from dad. Which meant that David did his best not to say yes until AFTER he asked Del, who wasn't having any of what Dora was selling.
"You just had a juice Dora." Delana told her daughter. "If you have another, you'll have to go halfway through the funeral."
"But mom..."
"Don't but your mother, Dora." David interjected. Dora made a pouty face, but seemed to sense she wasn't going to get anywhere with her demands and fell silent.
At long last, the elevator doors opened and they stepped out onto the Presidium. It was still under construction and quite a bit of battle damage was visible, but there was a large crowd gathered for the funeral. Most of them were humans, but various aliens were scattered throughout as well. David stood in line with his family for hours to see the casket, spending most of that time holding Dora. It was closed, naturally, as Shepard's body had never been recovered. Even if it had, deaths in space didn't lend themselves toward bodies anyone would way to see.
"We waited for a box? What's in it." Dora asked sleepily.
"Just a memory, now. Go bad to sleep kiddo."
Finally, it was time for the speeches. The Goodman's had ended up toward the back, having been forced to make an emergency potty break for their daughters. They were pretty much what David had expected, and he spent most of them providing his girls with toys and coloring books. They had lost interest a long time ago, and frankly, so had David. He did over hear some punk kid complaining that life wasn't fair, and gave him a piece of his mind. If life was fair, Shepard would still have been alive. Hadn't the galaxy already lost enough?
After that, they stopped at a restaurant for snacks. David spotted a group of Alliance personal, and was shocked to recognize a service technician of some sort that had given his class a tour of a ship a few years back. Waving to the waitress, David ordered a round of drinks for the technician and his friends.
"Don't you think we've spent enough this trip?" Del murmured as their daughters played with the cheap toys that had come with their meals.
David shrugged and grinned at her. "Hey, got to support our troops don't we?"
"You do remember you surrendered your Alliance Citizenship don't you?"
"Oh, well, I'm still human, right?"
"Whatever you say dear."
Once they were finished, it was off to the wake. . "We're just going to say 'Sorry for your loss' to Dr. T'soni and move on, right girls?" Delana asked the girls for what had to be the fifth time.
"Yes mom." They chorused, and David glanced at his wife.
"You think they were listening?"
"Not a chance."
They made their way inside the hotel, showing the door guard their invitations. Liara was standing with a tired looking turian, greeting guests as they came in. Before David or Delana could stop her, Dora ran forward and slammed into Liara's leg, hugging the doctor tightly.
"I'm sorry for your loss!" Dora bawled, sobbing into what had to be an expensive suit. The whole line stopped, and David felt his face light on fire as he rushed forward and gently detached his still crying daughter.
"I apologize, Dr. T'soni. She's had a long day, and she was very upset when Shepard died." David apologized.
Liara smiled and put a hand on Dora's shoulder. "No, it's alright. Mr. Goodman, isn't it? It was your class I presented my findings on Mycothian Era prothean relics to at my old school, wasn't it."
"Yes, it was, my daughter, Citti really enjoyed that, as did the rest of the students."
Citti stepped forward with Delana and nodded. "Yes, thank you for teaching us about the protheans Dr. T'soni. I was really sad when Shepard died, she was a human, and my dad is a human, and he's really nice and takes good care of me. I bet Shepard was really nice to you too."
Tears leaked out of Liara's eyes, and the turian put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Thank you, Mr. Goodman, and your daughters. Shepard meant a lot to all of us."
After that, the girls didn't last long, and David and Delana took them back to the hotel room. They tucked their daughters in, and lay on their bed together, exhausted from the long day.
"Quite the day, wasn't it?" Del murmured as she lay her head on David's shoulder.
"Yeah. Hopefully this day will be one our daughters remember, a time when we were all together. I don't know what the future holds for them, but I know it doesn't hold that much more of me."
Del tensed in David's arms, and rolled on top of him to look him in the face. "Don't talk like that."
"Why? You know it's true. I'm no salarian, but think about it Del. I've bout about another 70 or so years left in me. By then, Dora won't even be grown up, and Citti will still be in university. After today..."
"Hush. You're not going to just up and die on our daughters, or me. You've got most of your life ahead of you, you're young yet."
"I'm young now, but what about in another 15 years? 30? How long can I have compared to you or them Del?"
"We talked about this. You know asari choose their mates knowing you don't live as long as we do. We have to live for the here, now. I can still feel you, and you can still feel me. Do you want to waste this time?"
At that point, Del adjusted her position in such a way that reminded David just what a wonderful woman he had married. They had to be quiet, and there was more than a bit of guilty pleasure knowing their daughters were not 20 feet away, but it was good to be alive.
When they finished, Del rolled off panting, and David put his head on her heaving breasts.
"Do you want another daughter?"
The question shocked David, asari tended to have rather long times between their children, usually at least 30 or so years. He raised himself up on his elbows to get a good look at his wife. She looked serious, in fact, she looked almost pleading.
"Why do you ask?"
"You're not the only one who worries about time. I'm still pretty young, in fact, relatively speaking, I'm younger then you now. But I can't imagine a mate I would rather have with me to raise my children. You're so wonderful with the girls, even if you do let Dora wrap you around her little finger. You're always there for them, always have time for them. When you were to go hunting with Akkar and Grumbar, you had everything packed up and ready to go, even had that new gun I bought you for Athame's Day. But Citti was sick, and I was so pregnant I could hardly move, not to mention a little ill myself. Instead of going out with your friends, you stayed home with a girl who was leaking at both ends and cared for your wife."
"But that's just the right thing to do," David protested. "You're more important than any quiil'na hunt. Both of you."
"And how many other bondmates back home do you think would have done that?"
"Um, Grumbar, if Ithina asked."
"That's because Grumbar does EVERYTHING Ithina asks, but rarely volunteers anything. You volunteer. You would rather spend a night home with the girls cooking and singing those ridiculous songs you find then go out drinking, or shooting, or just about anything. I find myself wondering sometimes if I could ever bond with anyone after you."
"Hey, now don't talk like that. You'll find someone, a nice turian or maybe even another human. You're only 368. You've got a long life ahead of you."
Delana sighed and laid back down. "I know. But you're my first, really." That prompted a raised eyebrow from David. "Oh, I know you were a virgin when we were married, despite Akkar and Grumbar's best efforts, yes, I knew about that 'bachelor party,' and especially my own, but I certainly wasn't. But before you, aside from Citti's father I was never in any relationships that lasted longer than a fling. And she didn't stick around for very long. But you David... I don't have to wonder if you've run off. I don't have to worry that you'll find someone more attractive, or richer, or-"
"Hey now," David interrupted, "There isn't anybody more attractive then you."
"You flatter me, but you know what I mean. You didn't even glance at any of the human women at the wake tonight, and I have it on good authority that many of them were rather underdressed and attractive."
"I did too look at them!" David protested. Now it was Del's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"Oh really? Name one really attractive female we saw tonight. I know I can."
That stumped David. While he did notice attractive woman, human and asari, thank you very much, it was more just background noise to him. He wracked his brains, but most of his memories of the night were of carrying Dora or entertaining Citti. He did remember one human woman at the wake though, chatting up some turian dignitary with a Champaign glass. Mostly, he remembered her because she had smiled at him when Dora started snoring. "Um, that blonde, in the black dress." He managed.
"She was pretty cute. But which breast was her mole on?"
"Huh?"
"Which breast was the mole on? I can tell you, that's for sure."
Wracking his mind for where the mole had been, David came up dry and hazarded, "The left?"
In reply, Del kissed him on the cheek then rolled over. "Goodnight. We'll talk about having another one in the morning."
"Oh come, on, was I right? It was the left breast, right?"
"Trick question. There was no mole. Sleep well."
Groaning, David lay back. A man was not supposed to be out classed by his wife in the bird watching business. Granted, Del wasn't human, and her tastes seemed to include humans of both sexes and asari, but that didn't mean she should be able to spot the hot chicks better then David could.
"Man, I hope Akkar doesn't get wind of this, otherwise I'm going to lose my man card."
"Akkar is a woman, David, go to sleep."
The next day it was time to leave the Citadel. The family made sure to stop at every tourist trap and pick up what even David had to admit was a ridiculous number of stuffed toys for Dora and Citti, but Del seemed to be in a rather good mood, and darn it, the girls were just too cute in their traveling dresses. David had ordered a yellow and pink Hello Kitty (would that brand ever die?) ensemble for Dora, and when she made her puppy dog eyes at him with that sickeningly cute cat staring at him, his wallet just flopped open.
They managed to make it onto the shuttle with David's retirement fund intact, and even Del had to admit that the number of toys was a boon when they had an eight hour flight ahead of them. Eventually, the girls managed to take a nap, covered in stuffed Avina's and keepers.
"So, about what I asked you last night." Delana murmured as they couple took a moment to snuggle in exhaustion.
"That was totally unfair. It's was a False Dilemma fallacy and you should know better than to trick your poor husband like that. Honestly, I should be the one ogling breasts, not you."
"Then what, pray tell, are you doing right now?"
David averted his eyes, which had been happily peaking down Del's blouse. She wasn't even looking!
"Anyway, that wasn't what I was talking about."
It took a moment for David to catch on, then he nodded. "Oh, right, another kid."
"We have enough money, if you can curtail anymore spending operations like this trip has been."
"That's not what I'm worried about, the money always takes care of itself. What about you? Asari usually wait a lot longer to have another one, and we've already got two."
"That's beating around the bush, to borrow one of your species idioms."
"Well..."
"Look dear, ultimately, I'm the one who chooses. I'm not like a human woman, it won't be an accident if I get pregnant, and you will definitely know when it happens."
"Considering the last time was the best three hours of my life, how could I not?"
"So you do want another."
"Well, I at least want the sex. That was even better then a regular melding."
"Be serious."
"I'm trying! Look, if we have another, how old will she be when I kick the bucket? Seventy? Eighty? And you know I'll spend the last two decades or so mostly useless, if I make it as far as twelve decades."
"She'll be old enough to know you loved her."
That one hit David pretty hard, and he could tell Del had aimed the comment to make sure it struck home. "Yeah, I guess."
"Look, Citti already considers you her father, and has since almost before we bonded. Dora thinks you're Athame's gift to the world. And I already told you I can't imagine a better partner for raising children. And I know part of you wants another one, if for no other reason than the way you reacted when you got to hold Ti'gunu's new baby."
"They are pretty cute at that stage."
"So why do you hesitate?"
For a few minutes, David just sat there, thinking. He wasn't slow or stupid by any stretch of the imagination, Del wouldn't have put up with him if he was, he just liked to have time to think things through. He had thought about applying to teach on Thessia for quite a while before he had even looked into it, and he had spent more than a few sleepless nights before he decided to propose to Delana. But when David did come to a conclusion, he acted.
"It's because ultimately, I worry that I'm being selfish. Because I'm afraid that I'll see my children as nothing but a legacy to leave, a mark on the world that will endure far longer then I will. I suppose every parent see's their kids that way, but it's no stretch to say that Dora might well be around a thousand years after I'm dead. Not to mention the burden that puts on you if God forbid something happens to me. Asari kids are a lot more responsibility then human ones."
"David, you do realize I was a single parent for almost decade before I met you?"
"But you were not the single parent of my kid. I could never walk out on my own kids, or put them in a place where their survival was endangered because of me. Yes, Citti is my daughter now, but that just reaffirms my point. If I died tomorrow, would you be able to take care of the girls? Would you if we added a third?"
"Could you?"
"Ouch. Points off for Ad Hominium, but I see your point. I would find a way, even if I had to work until I dropped dead."
"Exactly. Just like I would. I won't lie to you, it scares the blue off me to think of raising a pureblood daughter alone. Even with you around, some of the other parents still look down on Citti."
David growled, a low, rumbling sound deep in his chest, and unconsciously bared his teeth. The turian sitting in front of him assumed a submissive posture, and the salarians behind him recoiled. Sometimes, David forgot that he was 90 kilos of muscle and biotics, and built like a short krogan. He calmed down when Del rubbed his belly though.
"Oh stop it, or I might just go into trance right here."
"Hmph. If it wasn't for my behavior contract, some of those smug bitches would have broken noses prettying up their snotty faces."
"Touching, but you still haven't answered my question."
"Yeah, I guess I do want another one, if you're willing. We have to find something to do with all those old baby clothes."
Delana kissed him on the cheek and looked quite smug. "That's good, because I started preparing myself a week ago, and it would be a pain to stop the process at this point."
"WHAT?" David half bellowed, causing Dora to wake up and Citti to stir.
"Daddy, you loud." The kindergartener mumbled before snuggling back up with Fix-It-Keeper Jr.
"Oh hush. You can't tell me you didn't realize what was happening."
"Well no! There was the trip, and then the funeral, and getting my grade turned in and-"
"For someone as smart, passionate, and aggressive as you are, it amazes me how little you perceive unless it's pointed out to you."
"I perceive plenty."
"Mmhmm. Like ties in front of your face, or unzipped pants? Or backwards shirts, or the fact that our daughters outfits clash horribly?"
David glanced at the girls and frowned. Citti had on green and brown, and Dora had on yellow and pink. "But you've said before those outfits look good on them."
"Individually, yes. Together, they could make a krogan's eyes bleed."
Wisely deciding that clothing choices were not an argument he was equipped, David let the subject drop. "So, uh, that's what, another three days or so?"
"Yes. My mother is coming over to take the girls out to the park that day."
"All the way from Illium?"
"She's due up for a visit. Oh, don't give me that look, she wasn't all that bad to you last time."
"She was upset I don't have breasts! She insulted my manhood!"
"Mother's never really understood why anyone would be attracted to males. Too much extra equipment."
"That doesn't mean she should tell me I would look better with gazongas!"
"Hush. Citti's awake."
"No I'm not." Citti protested, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. "What are gazongas?"
David snapped his mouth shut and did his best not to fume. He hadn't really gotten mother in law jokes until he had one of his own. Now he was more than willing to tell a few. The personal insults were not that bad, what irked David was that Dora was clearly Grandma Pi'Ror's favorite. Oh, he knew he played favorites, but it wasn't because Citti was a pure blood.
With Grandma Pi'Ror, everything was about Dora. Citti was a second thought. Dora was always cute, smart and entertaining. Citti always looked a little pale, or a bit too short, or a bit slow for her age. Dora got far and above the better presents, and Citti's birthday's were on occasion forgotten for a few months or even skipped altogether. A fairly even tempered person, David had tried to give Grandma the benefit of the doubt and not lose his temper, but he had lost his shit when Grandma had made a private comment to him while he drove her back to the spaceport.
"It's a shame there weren't humans around when Delana was a girl." The elder Pi'Ror had remarked.
"What do you mean?" David had asked, just making polite conversation.
"Oh, my daughter just finds your species so attractive. Things would have worked out so much better."
Sensing a trap, but unwilling to let it go, David had prompted, "What would have?"
"Why, Citti of course. If her father had been a proper mate, she would have turned out so much better and-"
At that, David had nearly crashed the ground car as he stopped at the side of the road in record speed, slamming both his and Grandma's face into the dash. His nose bloodied, he had turned with glowing blue eyes of rage to his sputtering passenger.
"Now, before you continue your banal, insensitive, and frankly insulting line of thought, MS. Pi'ror, consider one thing." David had growled.
"What is that, you lout!"
"Citti is MY daughter. Just as much as Dora is. And people who insult my daughter do not fucking well get rides to the spaceport from me. They can fucking way, or hitchhike. People who insult my wife, I hit. Blood relation to her or no, consequences be damned. Are we CLEAR, MS. Pi'ror?"
Sniffing in indignation, Grandma had just answered. "Perfectly. Now drive, I don't wish to be tardy."
David had been pretty damn sure Del would hear about the whole thing before he even got home, but all she had asked was how he managed to get blood on his new shirt. As far as David knew, she had never found out, and as far as he was concerned, that was for the best.
He was still ready to kick Grandma out of the house at the first sign of trouble. Though that would probably be pretty hard, Del hadn't gotten her stronger biotics from nowhere, and Grandma Pi'ror had been an Eclipse merc captain before she had retired.
Still, when David got mad enough, he would be willing to try his luck against a krogan, and Grumbar had abundantly proven to David already that even a laid back, flabby, well meaning krogan could kick his ass on accident. No matter how awesome that final score of the Biotic Blitz Ball had been, it had not been worth a chest bump with a krogan. As three cracked ribs and months of wheezing had proved. That was why he preferred to think his actions out, David knew that when he got mad enough, reason and logic went out the window, and he flat out wasn't a good enough fighter to let anger rule him like that.
Still, all in all, having Grandma Bigot over was a small price to pay for three hours of the best sex ever and a new daughter. As the girls finally woke up and started fussing, David lost himself in his parental duties, but inside, he was quivering with excitement. He was going to be a father again.
And though he didn't know it, his fears were not unfounded. Many of the galaxies children would soon be orphans.