Chapter 26

The next morning, Cassidy received a message from Hackett asking them to take out a Cerberus fighter base on Noveria. In the afternoon they went back to pick up some items that they had scanned but had been chased out by Reapers.

–

They were coming back from a retrieval mission when Wrex's ID showed on her omni-tool. "How's it going, Wrex?" asked Cassidy. "We're saving the turians, but we're spread a bit thin. You remember on Tuchanka that mechanized Rachni?" "Yea." "Well I sent a team to check a place where we picked up what might be where they're making the mech Rachni. But that team went silent. I'm asking you to join with my best team to go see what happened to them and take care of the situation." "All right, send me the coordinates, we'll head straight there."

–

Cassidy saved the queen, again. She could tell Garrus was deliberately not saying that he disagreed, but she know he did disagree with her on this.

Back on the surface, she was thrilled when she heard Grunt's voice. "EDI, tell Dr Chakwas that Grunt's coming home and he'll need some attention." They got in the shuttle and Cassidy found the cabinet with towels and started toweling the Rachni blood off of him.

Dr Chakwas met them at the shuttle with the small forklift and a board on the forks. They helped Grunt crawl over onto the board and Dr Chakwas stuck a krogan size mug with a krogan size straw in his grasp and helped him get the straw in his mouth the right way. "Suck that down, Grunt. You know, the energy drink I worked up for you." She motioned the fork lift driver to drive Grunt over to the elevator. He finished the mug by the time they got to the elevator. "I can walk now, doctor" said Grunt and he rolled off the board onto his feet. He was a little wobbly though, so Cassidy took one side and Garrus the other and escorted him into the elevator with Dr Chakwas.

They escorted him into med bay onto one of the beds. Dr Chakwas took his mug and went out to the galley. Cassidy saw Samesh take a big pitcher off the back counter and pour from it into the mug. She took the pitcher with one arm and came back with mug and pitcher. She handed the mug back to Grunt, who started on it right away. She put the pitcher on the table next to his bed, "You fill that up as much as you want. Probably 3 more mugs worth in there. Cassidy said, "Grunt, when she releases you, you can stay in the life support room. We'll drop you off at Tuchanka in the morning."

All Garrus had to say before they went to sleep was "Siding with the giant spiders, again, Cassidy? I hope you know what you're doing."

Cassidy dreamed. She was back watching the stage. A pair of jugglers were passing clubs between them. They had six clubs between them. Then another pair of people came and started spinning two jumping ropes. The rachni queen emerged, three workers in her claws and jumped into the ropes. She started throwing the workers into the club pattern with the other two as she jumped a started chanting,

"Not last night, but the night before,

A whole lotta robbers came knocking at my door,

as I ran out, they ran in,

hit me o'er the head with a rolling pin."

I came to and chased them out,

The dog he bit them and they did shout,

The dog bit one, the dog bit two,

How many many robbers will he chew?

1, 2, 3 . . ."

–

They dropped Grunt at Tuchanka, then resumed scanning for resources.

At lunch, Liara came and sat across from Cassidy, next to Garrus. "Shepard, when we're done here, will you meet me in my office, please?" "Sure thing, Liara. Hand me the sugar . . . thanks."

–

Samara stayed behind to discuss Falere's plans. Cassidy shook hands with each of them. Samara shook hands with Garrus and nodded to everybody else.

Cassidy and company got back into the shuttle. Ashley said, "I heard Samesh saying they were going to do pizza tonight." James said, "Good. I like mine with hot sausage and spicy peppers." Ashley replied, "Pepperoni, mushroom, black olives are my favorites." Cassidy said, "I like most anything, but the very best is Chicago style, very deep dish, ingredients under the cheese, sauce on top of the cheese." Liara said, "Oh, I didn't realize that pizza was so variable. I had some on the Citadel when we celebrated Joker's birthday and all of them had a thin crust, sauce topped with cheese topped with ingredients. I'd like to try the Chicago style some time."

–

They went to the Citadel the next day. Cassidy gave the crew 24 hours of leave.

Cassidy spent the morning running errands. Investigate the volus, fix the medi-gel sabotage, arrange the trade with Tactus. She messaged Garrus about lunch, he replied to meet him at the cab stand at the dock. When she got there, he was waiting with a big bag on his arm. "What's in the bag?" "A picnic lunch and other things." They got into the cab, he set it to manual control. "Where are we going?" "Someplace we're not supposed to."

They landed on top of one of the crosswalks. Garrus dug out a red & white checked picnic cloth, pulled out a couple small items that when activated took in air until they were floor pillows. He pulled out a small basket and set places for each of them. He put a red box in front of him and a blue box in front of her. He poured wine.

She had a turkey with avacado spread panini, an apple walnut fruit salad, salted cucumber chunks and a sampler of cheese slices.

When they had finished their sandwiches, he pulled a ceramic container out and opened it. One one side, the ceramic was decorated in red, the other blue. Each side had a reservoir of chocolate and an assortment of items to be dipped. She started with a strawberry. She smiled. He said, "Now that's the carefree smile I haven't seen for awhile now." "Well this was a very nice thought. Where'd you get the idea?" "There's this shop that does special occasions. They had this package listed 'Romantic picnic lunch.' All I had to do was pick which type of boxes to put in." "Most human guys wouldn't even go to the trouble of checking the special occasions shop. Romantic kudos for you, love." His flanges relaxed.

He stood up and pulled her to her feet and stepped them away from the cloth. He activated his omni-tool and clicked something. The opening music from Fleet & Flotilla started playing. He pulled her close, "Just relax and follow my lead." He began what she guessed must be a basic waltz and spun them around in slow circles. The music segued into Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line." He lifted his arm and said "you spin, yes and come back", they continued their slow waltz to end of the music. He leaned her over and kissed her. "Wow" she said and smiled big.

They went back to the picnic cloth and finished their fondue. Then they packed up and returned to the dock. "Meet me at Cherise's at 1900, dress nice." she said.

She continued with errands all afternoon. She supported Ashley and Cortez at the Memorial Wall. She started tracking down batarian code use. When she got out of the Spectre office, Khalisa bint Sinan al-Jilani stopped her. "How do you explain this, Commander?" She pulled up a long distance photo of her and Garrus dancing. "Check your Alliance civil records oh about 7 – 8 months back." said Cassidy. Khalisa did a search and said, "Your name is here in civil unions . . . You got married to . . Garrus Vakarian? Commander, how do you explain that no human is good enough for you?" One of the turian C-Sec officers walked up and said, "Would you like me to take her in for inciting a riot, Commander?" "Thank you, Officer Patrus Vakarian, but she's just hoisting her own petard. Grow up, Khalisa. All these members of different species are people, with personalities. Heroes can be found in every one of those species, as I see every time I go out there and take on the Reapers and Cerberus."

A small crowd had gathered and when she finished speaking, they applauded. Khalisa gave Cassidy a frustrated frown and walked off. Patrus encouraged the crowd to disperse.

An asari with her young daughter were still there. The little one said, "Mother, can I talk to Commander Shepard, please?" Cassidy turned and held out her hand to shake the girl's hand, "Hello, what's your name?" "Harane. That reporter said you got married. How come I never saw your wedding picture in the news, like other famous people?" Her mother said, "Harane, that's rude, I'm sure the Commander wanted privacy." "Here, Harane, just for you." She pulled up, signed and sent a copy of the pic Hannah had taken of the two of them. "Mother, you have to put in your code for me to accept this file. . . oh, there it is. Oh, Mother, look! Don't they look so elegant together? Your dress was very pretty and suited you nicely. I'll keep it private, I promise." Her mother pulled her away and said "Thank you, Commander." Harane turned around and said, "I want to be a Spectre like you someday!" Cassidy smiled and waved goodbye.

Cassidy went back to her errands. When that gun was put to her back, she turned to see Balak. She also saw Officer Noles and another C-Sec officer with their guns pointed at Balak. She talked Balak down and he begrudgingly committed the remainder of the Batarian ships to the cause. Noles asked, "You want me to arrest him?" "I want you to put a bullet through his head, but we're all making sacrifices today. Let me sign your report."