I'VE NEVER KNOWN A HUMAN LIKE YOU. I WISH THAT YOU WOULD COME TO NOS ASTRA SO WE CAN SPEND TIME TOGETHER OR I COULD COME AND VISIT YOU ON MINDOIR. DO YOU THINK THAT I WOULD LIKE IT THERE? KISSES, ELNORA

"Frick, what do I do?" Ricky asked Shepard.

Shepard looked at the e-mail from her friend's pen pal, "Not really sure. How long have you two been dating? … I mean writing?"

"Three years, 3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days … not that I'm counting." Ricky said as he put the netbook on the desk.

"Clearly." Shepard laughed. "I don't know, Rickster. You can't keep putting her off forever."

"I know," Ricky groaned as he flopped on his bed. "If I can just make it two more years then I'll be of age. I can meet her on Illium and we can get married."

"Married? Has she said she wants to get married?"

"Well, no ... But isn't that what all you women want? Well, besides you! You want a new motorcycle and …" Shepard, knowing where her friend was about to go, got up and pinned him on the bed.

"Don't say it!" She threatened.

"… a krogan named Beast!" Ricky laughed as he wiggled beneath Shepard, "I know that you dream about your big hunkin' reptile!"

"Will you just let that go?" Shepard began fake choking him. "That was 6 years ago, you frickin ass."

Shepard rolled off her friend and they laid together on the bed looking up at the ceiling. Ricky stretched over Shepard to his nightstand drawer and pulled out a photo of Elnora. "Now, take a look at the picture she just sent."

Shepard shook her head and pushed it away. "I told you that they all look alike! And after the asari on Illium, I'm not looking at or talking to another one again in my life!"

Ricky shook his head, placed the photo back in his nightstand drawer. "I can't believe that you keep refusing to look at my future wife! How will you be my best man?" Shepard looked at Ricky as she got up, stood over him, bumping his legs with hers. Ricky smiled at his best friend, "Illium ... I don't get you Shep. If that had been me with that asari … oh, baby!"

Just then Ricky's mother opened the bedroom, "Hi Elizabeth." Shepard smiled at her. "Ricky, please leave your door open when you have company. Okay?"

As Mrs. Parks continued on down the hallway Ricky rolled his eyes as Shepard shook her head, "What is going on with her? We use to camp together in my backyard. Why did she stop trusting us? You're my best friend!"

"I know," Shepard sighed, sitting on the window seat next to Pepe Le Pew. "Dad saw Tyler and me swimming the other day and Ty helped me take of my shirt. Dad kinda flipped and told me to never let a boy undress me again." Ricky rolled his eyes. "What the frick? It was Ty! My shirt was tangled and … Dad got all red and … crap."

"Didn't I take your pants off once?" Ricky grinned.

Shepard laughed, "That was a bee sting, we were 8 and it was shorts!" Ricky continued to grin. "Okay, yes you got my pants … shorts off. But I don't think that our parents are really worried about the disrobing part."

"I know ... crazy. My mom looks nervous now every time you come in my bedroom," Ricky pulled up his shirt to patt his belly. "I mean ... really? I've known you almost all of my life ... double crazy."

"Triple crazy." Shepard agreed. "You know, all I kept thinking was how it was Ty ... It's not like it was Tait taking my shirt off … It was Tyler!"

"Wait …What? … Tait? Tait Rickman?" Ricky turned around on his bed so that he could lay on his back and hang his head upside down over the side just to get closer at Shepard. "You and Tait Rickman?"

"Shhh!" Shepard put her hand over her friend's face, "No. I'm just saying that …"

"Yeeesssssss?" Ricky mimicked a snake and then turned over, cradling his chin in his hand ... "Please go on!"

"Okay, freak. I like him. I like him and he likes me … or at least he says that he does. It's weird. We were just friends and then these past few months he started looking at me like … like …"

"The other blind and stupid boys?" Ricky said batting his eyes at her.

"Ass!" Shepard frowned as she got up and crawled on the bed next to him, "More boys have started acting weird around me, everyone but you and Ty."

Ricky sat up and pressed his forehead against hers, "That's because we know what an absolute creep you are!" Shepard fake slapped him and laid down on the bed next to him again. "So when did this Romeo and Juliet story unfold?" Ricky asked.

"Just a month ago … He told me after one of mom's piano lessons with him. I was working on my stupid ass bike … that thing is driving me …"

Ricky turned on his side, "Back to the smexy stuff!"

"What?" She saw the fake leer on his face and pushed his face away again. "Stop! It's not like that. He is smart, nice and … cute. Something about his smile makes me-"

Ricky laughed, holding his stomach, "By the great Bacchus! Shepard is in LOVE!"

"Shut up Ricky!" Shepard jumped on top of Ricky again and began wrestling with him.

Ricky covered his face, and still laughing, "Okay! Okay! I give!" As they stopped wrestling Ricky realized something, "So are you the reason that he and his dad didn't go away this summer like he was talking?"

Shepard nodded, "His dad was taking him to the Alliance Museum after he didn't hear back from the Naval Academy … I know that I should have told him to go, but I asked him to stick around. Momma says to always put others first. But sometimes you have to think about yourself. Right?"

"Sure." Ricky answered. "You know that Broder wrote Freddy and said that boot camp in the Alliance is a killer. Man, Broder an Alliance soldier. Crazy! When I turn 18 … off to Illium! I don't care what my momma says. Elnora and me forever!"

Shepard got up and sat back down on the window seat. "You can't tell anyone. Not yet at least, okay?" Ricky said ok. "Not even Tyler!"

"Okay, okay. He gets along with your parents, right? I mean, I know the pastor likes him … he kisses her butt at church. I think he is really in love with the pastor and using you to get to her."

"Really?" Shepard asked. "Well ... that figures. Who doesn't love my mom?"

"True."

"Dad likes him too and he even invited him to go fishing with us this Sunday."

"Your dad invited him on one of your prison breaks?" Rick asked. "Crap! Your dad does like him. Maybe he is the son he wanted and now you will be thrown to the side."

Shepard threw Pepe at Ricky, "Freak!" The room grew quiet as Ricky looked at his stuffed skunk and Shepard looked out the window. "Tait wants to ask dad if he can take me to his prom."

Ricky whistled at the news, "That is serious. Prom. So what does he have that I don't have, girlfriend?" Shepard cocked an eye at him. "Wait. Let me think … He's almost 18, musKels, blooooond hair, bluuuuue eyes, purty face …" Shepard laughing pounced back on him, knocking Pepe on the floor.

Mrs. Parks hearing too much bed movement again popped back into the room, "Everything okay in here?"

"Shepard is trying to rape me!" Ricky said as he continued to scream with laughter.

"Miss Shepard, keep alert or you're gonna be caught off-guard!" and with that Shepard found herself pushed off her seat and sprawled on the ground. Looking up she saw her father standing over her with his Savannah Sand Gnats cap twisted at a goofy angle.

"Dad," Shepard knew not to fall asleep or daydream when out fishing with her father, "I'm telling mom on you when we get home!"

The thought of preacher woman took the smile off Pierce's face. Fishing on Sunday was an absolute no-no in the Shepard household for their daughter. Attending the Immanuel Baptist Church was mandatory. The thought brought his mind quickly around to the preacher, with Bible in hand, looking out and not seeing Eli in her seat, front and center. Not seeing her because she had snuck out with him before sun up, giggling like naughty children as Hannah lay asleep. They both knew that they would pay for this, but summer was in full swing and there was bass calling their names. When they had pulled onto Birgit's place she was heading out to work, "Eli? Oh, shit! You two are fuckin' nuts! Pastor is not going to be happy."

Pierce put his cap on Shepard's head playfully, "That was truly uncalled for little miss. We do not mention the warden when we are in the middle of a temporary prison break."

"Someone say 'prison break'?" Tait Rickman was struggling with his chair, tackle box, fishing poles and bait as he appeared from behind a tree. As soon as he saw Shepard still sitting on the ground, he smiled, bumped his knee on the oversized cooler, lost his balance and tumbled to the ground.

"It's about time young man," Pierce said as he helped Tait up off the ground. Then the two began picking up the dropped items and getting the boy settled in. "Eli and I thought that you had forgotten about today."

"No sir," Tait grinned as he looked over at Shepard. "I wouldn't forget, er … our fish-"

"Okay son," Pierce laughed, as he placed Tait's chair to the left of his chair. "Bait up, shut up and sit down."

From Tait's first day at Roald Amundsen High School, he became part of the popular crowd. He joined the baseball team and with his athletic abilities, good looks and sweet personality he could have easily had his pick of the local girls. He had avoided dating though; instead he had focused on his studies, baseball, martial arts and piano lessons. He had really not wanted to learn piano but his father insisted and over time he found that he liked going to the Shepard home. Mrs. Shepard had quickly become an "adopted" mother to him and he couldn't help but laugh at the way Mr. Shepard and Elizabeth teased each other. He started attending the Immanuel Baptist Church and helped the pastor whenever she asked.

Over the next two years Tait and Shepard slowly became friends, with her showing him around Mindoir, introducing him to her friends and both attending each other's sporting events: her rugby matches and his baseball games. She had even taken him to the shooting range where she tried to teach him to shoot her Aunt B's Helix sniper rifle. "Tait, as Aunt B would say 'focus, breathe and squeeze'." He had not enjoyed being around firearms so she focused on teaching him how to fish … He discovered that he could share his feelings with her and she wouldn't laugh or do silly girl things. They would work out together and she even took him cliff diving a few times. Well, he would go but unlike her he was too aware of the risks and chose to just watch.

In fact, Tait was much more cautious than Shepard and while he thought her daring nature was great, it also scared him. The chances she took worried him that she could get hurt. But looking back, that was where he started to really see her in a different light. Then when he shared his dreams of becoming an aerospace engineer, of being part of a team creating new types of spaceships, she had smiled and encouraged him. With her he felt safe to talk about his mother who had died just a year before he moved to Mindoir. Safe to tell her the real reason that she was not with them … She had taken her own life and he had been the one to find her body. She had shot herself in the head and he had seen the aftermath. Her letter simply read, "I can't anymor". In her arms he had cried one night after giving his standard line "I only think about all the good times that we had and the happiness she brought into my life. Everything else is … well, it means nothing." Shepard had looked deep into his eyes and he had crumbled. For the first time since he had held his dead mother in his arms, he cried.

Yes he noticed that Shepard was developing into a very attractive and well built girl, along with the other boys, but he was falling for her easy charm and the way that she listened, really listened. After she had returned to Mindoir, following her 16th birthday, there were a few local boys that even told her how they felt and when she confided it to Tait he panicked at the thought of her dating anyone other than him … So he braved the fear of rejection one evening after he had a piano lesson at the Shepard home.

She had been working on her Indian motorcycle when he walked over to her. He watched as she struggled with the clutch and he could see her getting angrier. "You frickin bitch! If you don-"

Tait took her by the arm and as she turned to face him, he smiled and hoped that she would calm down. She looked up at him and he had planned on saying something nice, romantic … okay, something corny. But when Shepard turned still angry, all he could do was smile at her. She saw his smile and her anger evaporated. She stepped into him and reached up … sharing her first real kiss. The kiss was tender, soft and chaste. As they pulled away he looked down at her clutch, "Can I help?"

Shepard smiled and watched as he started working on her bike. Hannah had seen the whole thing and smiled. She couldn't have picked a better boy for her daughter. How do I get Pierce onboard with this? she thought as she watched the boy helping her daughter fix her bike.

Tait was a beautiful boy, fair skin with blond hair and dark blue eyes. Shepard loved when he smiled; it showed off his dimples. She also loved how he always seemed to see the good in things. There wasn't a malicious bone in his body and he really cared about people. He was quick and precise on the mat at his father's martial arts school but off the mat he was mild in temperament. She had never seen him angry and he had a way of cooling her jets when she felt herself getting angry. All he had to do really was just smile at her.

Shepard looked at her father as he helped Tait untangle his line and smiled. She knew that while her father liked Tait he did not want her to date anyone. She hoped that he liked Tait just enough to let him escort her to the prom. But she wasn't holding her breath. In the last few months her dad had started to treat her different around her guy friends. Even today, her father was sitting between Tait and her on the bank.

As the hours passed, the trio enjoyed the peacefulness of the Kalix Lake on Birgit's place. Tait would sneek looks at Shepard in-between his bites of a pear while Pierce read "The Maltese Falcon" silently and Shepard sketched the river.

"Mr. Shepard," Tait had just recast his reel, "I was wondering if next Saturday …. Well, if next Saturday …." The boy seemed to lose his nerve and began fiddling with his reel.

Pierce had seen the way Tait had looked at his daughter. Hell, he had noticed how boys around town were looking at her. It drove him crazy. But Tait had never been obscene or disrespectful with his daughter ... and when Hannah had mentioned that the two young kids liked each other he could see that Hannah approved. He liked the kid but date his daughter? That would mean kissing ... and he might try ... I"ll killl him! But after talking with Hannah about the young man and the upcoming prom ... "You know he might ask her, husband." Hannah said. Aw, crap! But okay ... it was agreed that he would approve if asked. Not that he was happy about it or going to make it any easier on the boy to ask, so he just sat there looking at him.

As the sounds of the lake and woods made their way between the two, Shepard got up from her chair and stretched. "Dad, do you want a sandwich or something to drink? I think momma made you a Dagwood Special! Yum!" Pierce shook his head while not breaking eye contact with Tait.

Shepard went to the cooler and pulled out a chicken salad sandwich, chips and a Coke as she looked back and saw her boyfriend looking at his shoes while her father sat looking at the boy. "Dad, leave Tait alone."

"Naw, it's okay," Tait responded. "We were just talking about next Saturday."

"Oh, prom," Shepard said as she plopped back in her chair. "So can we go, dad?"

Pierce kept looking at the boy, who was nervously picking at his jeans now. Shepard reached over, pushed her dad and raised a brow at him. Shit old man, why didn't she look homely like you? No, she had to grow up into a beautiful girl like preacher woman. Why couldn't you be a fugly girl? The night before when Hannah told him that Tait and Shepard liked each other, he told her that he was afraid that Tait might do something. Hannah had laughed and then told him, "Pierce, you shouldn't be worried about Tait taking advantage of Elizabeth. You should be nervous of her taking advantage of the boy. The great Shepard can lead a horse to water and make it drink."

Shepard looked at her dad, smiled and bit into her sandwich. Oh, Bacchus, you have your mother's brains. I'm fucked! Pierce narrowed his eyes, trying to look fatherly … "Where is it and who will be there to chaperone?"

"You know where it's at," Shepard bit a chip, "Tait's dad will be there and I was hoping that you and mom could go as well."

"I don't know Eli." Pierce thought of seeing his daughter slow dance with a boy and he was feeling a little sick.

"Come on dad. It would be good for you and mom to just go out, dance and relax." She smiled.

Pierce looked at his daughter, not knowing if she was joking or serious. He turned to the very quiet and nervous Tait, "You want the preacher woman at your prom?"

Tait nodded, "Yes sir, Mr. Shepard. Both of you."

Pierce took his hat off, placed it on his knee and looked out over the river. Well that was good, right? He wouldn't have wanted any mother at his prom, especially his or his date's. God, he had loved his prom. He screwed … wait. Crap. This boy is wanting to …

"So? Can I go to the prom with Tait?" Shepard asked as Tait went back to looking at his boots.

He could feel his daughter's green eyes on him and knew that he would give in. He sat lower in his chair, put his cap back on his head, lowered it to hide his eyes and raised his hands. "As long as you can get the preacher woman to chaperone, you can go with Tait."

Shepard laughed, jumped from her chair and into her father's lap. He began laughing too as she removed his cap, put her arms around him and kissed him. "You are one fine father, Mr. Shepard."

"Thank you, Miss Shepard." Torn between two green eyed females, that was Pierce Shepard's lot in life.

Later that afternoon as they arrived home, Pierce looked at his daughter and whispered, "I just remembered that I promised to see Rowan at the pub."

"Dad, are you leaving me to face mom alone?"

Shepard looked at his daughter, smiled and slowly began backing up. "Important business calling."

"You know they call that being a coward, right?"

"As my pal Rowan O'Hara would say, 'Ní thuigim'" And with that, Pierce tipped his baseball cap at his daughter and headed towards O'Malley's Pub, whistling "When Irish Eyes are Smiling".

Shepard watched her dad until he rounded the corner and then turned to look at their front door. Shepard knew that her mother was going to give her an earful about missing church and fishing on Sunday. She had heard the "You are the daughter of the pastor, young lady. How do you think it looks when the pastor can't even get her own to church?" Pierce had left his daughter to face the preacher alone.

Young Shepard looked at the front door, took a deep breath and placed her hand on the door knob. "Here goes nothing," she said to herself as she turned the knob.