2286

Chapter 21

Garrus Vakarian was just returning home from work. It had been a long tiring and boring day of…calibrations. He thought that he should maybe retire soon, maybe he and Tali could move to a nice beach somewhere with plenty of Turian drinks. Not off Rannoch of course. He wouldn't even consider asking the Quarian to live somewhere else after what she and her people had to do to get their home world back. The image in his head was nice, better than working day in and day out. It's not like he even really needed to work. He and Tali weren't rich, but well off enough to enjoy life without working. It was like that when you had a hand in helping save the galaxy from the greatest threat it had ever known. However, Tali was still a part of the Admiralty and it would be easier said than done to get her to leave that behind, no matter how much time had passed.

The Turian walked into the house he and Tali shared, going straight for the bathroom to relieve himself. Tali must have been in the kitchen preparing a meal. He remembered that she had the day off from her busy job. Upon walking into the bathroom, he noticed a large hole in the wall with a black smear around it. Garrus did his business and walked into the kitchen. "Uh, honey," he said, "What happened to the bathroom wall?"

Whitened glowing eyes glanced towards him as Tali looked at her husband over her shoulder. "There was a spider and you were not here to kill it," she replied sounding very serious.

"Let me guess, you used your shotgun," he asked.

Tali gave a nod of affirmation before turning back to the food.

Just then, Garrus' omnitool went off. He was receiving a call from their son, Han. His omnitool lit up orange as he answered the call. "Hey, son," he said as he took a seat on a bar stool at the minibar in their kitchen. It felt good to say those words. Before the war, Garrus had never thought of himself as the parental type. Though, after hearing his best friend talk about wanting kids with a certain blue asari, he thought it might be nice to have a family some day. While on the first Normandy, it never crossed his mind that he would one day be as close to the young Quarian as he was now. It didn't matter to him that Tali was a different species. Adoption was always an option. In this galaxy's case, the war was a double-edged sword. So many people lost their lives, but the galaxy was now united unlike any time before. And though the war took Han's birth parents from him, it brought Han to Garrus and Tali. "Haven't heard from you in a while," Garrus said, "How are things?"

"Oh let's see," the golden-eyed turian replied, sarcasm seething from his voice, "Ah, yes, Reapers, Cerberus trying to destroy Reapers, irony telling us we have to save them…what else is there? Oh yeah, Commander Shepard is a Reaper."

Behind Garrus, Tali dropped all cooking utensils on the floor before suddenly rushing over to put herself in view of her son. "How dare you speak of her like that!"

Han shook his head back and forth quickly. "No, Mom," he said, "I'm not joking. I'm dead serious. Dr. T'soni can tell you."

"Keelah!"

Garrus nearly fell from his seat before he said, "Son, you've gotta keep us updated on stuff like this. Liara is there?"

"Yeah," Han nodded, "Cerberus is also making Shepard clones. We have one on the ship. Oh, and the asari that was with Rex when she visited you guys is Shepard's kid."

"Ok, go back to Shepard being a Reaper," Tali interrupted, "How did that happen?"

Their son just gave a shrug of her shoulders. "I haven't the slightest clue," he said as he turned his head to the left giving a confused look to whoever was in his visual direction, "Uh, I gotta go. I think the humans have gone insane. One of them just pulled a very large…tree…into the mess hall."

"Hey, wait-," Garrus started, but the connection was already lost. He gave a heavy sigh before looking over to Tali. "Shepard's alive."

"I don't like the sound of this, Garrus."

Kota gave a gentle knock on the front door to Rex's cabin. The previous evening's events had weighed a lot on her mind and for once, she felt like talking with someone. She knew her mother's door was always open for her, but the younger asari didn't feel like talking with someone who was equally distraught over the situation as she was. Besides, Commander Williams had been refusing to come out from her room in order to change the bandages on her face, so this was a favor to Dr. Vang.

"Go away," Rex replied to the knock with a groan.

"You can't lock yourself away forever," Kota growled, "No one here cares that your face is all busted up, but you. Get over your looks and accept the fact you took an omniblade to the face." There was no reply, only silence. "Open up or I will break down this door myself!"

Suddenly, the door swished open, an angry looking human standing on the other side. Rex's face was heavily bandaged and a temporary eye-patch was over her empty eye socket. Once she had heard Kota's voice, the commander had quickly made her way to the door. Anyone else wouldn't have gotten her to open the door, but they had just gotten Kota back from Cerberus. However, Rex didn't want the asari to think that she was so anxious to talk to her, so she had to appear just as angry as she had with everyone else. "What?" she said bluntly.

Kota pushed her way passed the commander, grabbing the back of her collar to pull her along back to her bed. "Sit down," she said, forcing Rex down onto the bed.

"Christ, Kota," the human replied as she fell onto her bed before sitting up. She wasn't expecting the asari Spectre to be so rough with her, though in away, Rex enjoyed it.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself long enough for me to change your bandages," Kota said as she began removing the old, blood-stained gauze from Rex's face.

"Geez, what's your deal?" Rex winced slightly as the tape on her face pulled at some skin that was irritated and inflamed by her wound.

The asari opened a small can of medi-gel, rubbing her gloved fingers in the salve before dabbing the long cut on the soldier's face with it. She held the sewn-together eye lid closed over the empty socket as she started from the top. Dr. Vang hadn't any other method for keeping the slashed lid together than the old fashioned way. "You act like you're the only one who has father issues," Kota replied.

"Please, at least Shepard tried," Rex scowled, soon regretting it, "Mine never gave a damn."

"Did she? She's been here for a century knowing my mother had her child. Sounds about the same to me," Kota said as she was finished on the bottom of the opposite cheek.

"I thought asari were prepared and ok with the death of the parent that didn't have a longer lifespan, though that's irrelevant now."

"That's assuming all asari are alike. We're not," Kota responded as she began applying new bandages to the cut, "Looks like it's healing better than we expected. After these are ready to come off, we should probably just leave it alone. Oh, I thought I should inform you that Hawk has brought a large tree into the mess hall, wrapping it up in lights. I have no idea why, but she said it was human tradition. I think she's intoxicated." Kota discarded the old bandages and her gloves in a waste shoot in Rex's shower room. When she turned around, Rex was standing over her making her let out a startled gasp. 'Goddess, when did she become so light-footed?'

"I'm glad you're back," Rex whispered. She had the other Spectre back up against the wall, her left hand planted firmly against the wall, above Kota's right shoulder.

The asari gulped hard. She felt a blush starting to form across her nose and cheeks, darting quickly to her left in an attempt to get away. However, she was caught with Rex's free arm around her waist. The human suddenly pulled Kota closer, their abdomens pressing together.

Rex gazed down into Kota's blue eyes as she moved her hand from the wall to a blue cheek. Her index finger traced over the red markings on the cheek as her thumb rubbed her chin. It was obvious to Rex that Kota had gotten the red patterns from the memories she had seen of Shepard. They resembled the glowing scars the hero had. "I know you watch me whenever I'm in the cargo bay," Rex said with a certain huskiness in her voice.

Kota had her hands on the sides of the human soldier's shoulders to brace herself. She attempted to turn her head away to avoid feeling the awkwardness of staring into Rex's one blue eye, but ever so gently, Rex pulled her head back to face her. Their faces were now so close she could feel the commander's breath. As her knees quivered slightly, Kota felt herself giving in, letting down all the walls she set up around her demeanor. She had always tried to be so tough, just like her dad, but whenever in Rex's presence, she felt those walls crumbling. This is why she had continuously pushed Rex away. These feelings made it awkward. They made her feel weak, but all at the same time, she enjoyed it. The scent of the human was something she couldn't push from her mind. It was either a body wash or cologne Rex used, but whatever it was, whenever she could smell it, she would make herself scarce in that part of the ship to avoid her knees giving way.

Rex smirked as the asari's eyes closed, even though it hurt her face to do so. Kota's breathing had become heavier. She knew she was having the effect she was hoping for on the other Spectre. She tilted her head down and to the side.

Kota had been fully prepared and terrified for Rex's lips on her own. On the inside, she was greatly disappointed when they never made connection. On the outside, she let out a sigh of relief as she felt the soldier's lips give her a gentle peck on the cheek. She opened her eyes to see Rex with a smirk still on her face as she let go of her prey, turning away. If she hadn't snapped out of her trance right then and there, Kota would have melted into the floor.

"You can leave now," the human said as she walked back to her bed. Turning around to sit down on her bed, Rex saw that Kota had already escaped her lair. She blinked, a bit surprised, blowing her breath into her palm to see if it smelled. When it didn't, she gave a shrug of her shoulders and proceeded to lie down.

Venz was entering the mess hall with a large green and red box with a golden bow on top. "The tree looks really nice, Kacie," he said as he set the box down next to the tree that had blinking lights of all colors wrapped around it. Ornaments of ever hue were scattered over its branches and it wore a flashing bright white star on top. Venz noticed the star was a little crooked and with his height, he easily reached up and straighten it up.

"Thanks," Kacie replied. She was currently sitting at the dining table trying to wrap a lot of presents while wearing a Santa hat. Wrapping paper and ribbons of many different colors were scattered all over the place.

Han was also sitting at the table across from Kacie. They had explained to him that it was Christmas time on Earth and this was a common tradition started by the Christian faith of humanity. There were many other traditions celebrated at this time of year too, such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. The turian was just confused as to the folklore of a big man in red riding around in a sleigh with reindeer, delivering presents to children. "So, what's with the socks on the wall?" he asked curiously.

"Those are for smaller presents that are harder to wrap and candy," Kacie replied, "But if you've been bad, you get coal."

"Yeah, these traditions sound like they were started by a drunken man," Han said.

Kacie just gave a shrug of her shoulder. "Maybe so, but they're our traditions."

Grant was just now entering the mess hall. "Oh wow! You guys put up a Christmas tree! Awesome!" Excited as a child, he walked over to look up at the tree. "Wait. How did you get it?"

"I may have stolen it from the Citadel when we dropped General Williams off," Kacie said as she rubbed the back of her neck with a nervous smile, "Heh." Everyone else suddenly facepalmed, shaking their heads.

"Yeah, you're definitely getting coal, Hawk," Han said before he got up to leave the room.

Liara was another one who hadn't left her room for some time now. She was lying in her bed with sheets wrapped around her body, her face down in her arms that were propped on her pillow. She had not slept in over twenty four hours and she had shed so many tears that she simply was not capable of anymore so she couldn't figure out why she could not sleep. Actually, she did know. It was Shepard. Liara didn't know what was worse, Shepard being dead and gone forever or Shepard being alive, but not being able to be with her. It pained her so much. The love of her life was right there, so close, yet so far away. She was happy that Shepard was alive, but mad at the former human at the same time. If she had not forced her to go back to the Normandy, she may have been able to join her. They could have jumped into the green beam of light together. However, she knew that if things had transpired in that manner, she would have killed their unborn child in the process. She knew she shouldn't have even ran into that battle and she knew Shepard still had anger towards her for it. She could feel it in the short meld they shared when Guardian had 'indoctrinated' them. If she had done all of what she briefly wished what would have happened, she would not have Kota right now. In all honesty, Liara was a bit surprised, yet relieved, that her lover had not scolded her for mapping her genes and creating their child in the heat of the moment. Liara thought of this a sort of punishment from the universe for pushing Shepard away up until their final moments. If this is what the human had felt like, Liara was eternally apologetic.

Yay, I'm stuck in a blizzard and trying to find my way home again. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. The next chapters should push the story more along and have more action. Thanks for all your reviews, favorites, follows, and PMs! I enjoy talking to you guys!