A/N – last real chapter, and I hope it pleases you as much as it does me to see our Shenko get the happy-ever-after Bioware denied us. Thank God for fanfic, right?
One month later, Shepard stood, pacing her cabin on the Normandy, trying to walk off the nerves that threatened to have her stomach empty its sparse contents over the simple, elegant – beautiful – white gown she wore. She stared around the room that had become her haven. Her quiet place to retreat when things got too difficult, when she felt she would break, and felt disappointment that it was failing her today, of all days. She had done everything she could to take her mind off things. She had fed the fish – twice – she had poked at her hamster, Boo, until he refused to come out and squeak at her anymore, she had toyed with Petrovsky's chess set, activated the gruesomely silly husk head she had acquired from Bryson's lab. None of her usual distractions were working. This was, she thought grimly, her most challenging mission so far. Waiting until Garrus came to collect her for her wedding. Wedding, she thought again, her stomach flipping. She sincerely hoped she didn't puke on the groom.
The decision to hold the ceremony on the Normandy had been the one detail about her wedding on which she had stubbornly refused to budge. The mothers had tried to convince her that a simple, elegant chapel near Alliance HQ would be more appropriate and easier for the guests to access. Shepard had put her best stare in place and - this time - she had won. In the end, being married here, on the ship where it had all begun – or at least a reasonable copy of that ship – had appealed to the mothers' romanticism and they had seen the poetry of it. Shepard just wanted familiar surroundings for this most unfamiliar of events.
She looked up now, the butterflies in her stomach threatening to become large birds, as she heard the door to her cabin open. She expected Garrus, finally coming to say it was time for him to escort her to the shuttle bay (the only area large enough for the ceremony and guests.) She was surprised to see her mother instead.
Hannah took a moment to study her daughter. She knew her well enough to see the nerves just beneath the cool surface Kat was trying to project. She knew that the nerves were just that – normal bridal jitters, not the panic or fear of a woman unsure of what she was doing. She nodded in approval as she took in the simple, elegant gown she and Marina had finally decided upon. A simple white sheath of the finest silk – a material that was rare but still timeless in its elegance – fell from a strapless bodice and hugged her daughter's toned figure before flaring out slightly below her knees. It had few embellishments, just some understated embroidery around the waist and on the small train that flowed out behind it. It was, she decided, the perfect gown for her daughter. It enhanced the woman she was, instead of masking her.
Hannah stepped towards Kat now, carrying her gifts. She took a moment to set her packages on the couch then placed both hands on her daughter's shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. "You look beautiful, honey," she told her, "Kaidan is going to be so thrilled."
Kat smiled at the woman who had been not just her mother, but her role model, for all her life. She knew that she would have to work hard to live up to the example that Hannah set for her, but she didn't plan to fail. "Mom," she said quietly, relieved to have her there so she wasn't alone in these last moments, "you look beautiful too."
Hannah reflected that it was the first time she had ever been called beautiful in uniform. She had, in typical Admiral Shepard fashion, eschewed the mother-of-the-bride tradition and chosen to wear her dress blues - adorned with her many medals and commendations - to her daughter's wedding. She knew Kat would expect nothing different.
"I hope you don't mind that I wanted to take a moment with you before I have to hand you off to your groom," Hannah said, "but I have some things for you." She reached behind her and retrieved the first of the two packages. "The first is necessary – a bridal tradition." She handed the box to Kat and watched the pleasure come over her daughters face when she opened it to see the simple clutch of white roses – live ones – that she had chosen for her daughter's bouquet. "Good, I'm glad you like it."
Kat nodded, confirming her mother's statement. "It's beautiful, perfect." She brought the bouquet up to her face and inhaled the gentle scent of the fresh roses.
Hannah extended the other box, a smaller one, with trembling hands. She took a deep breath and forced back the tears that wanted to come, not willing to mar the perfection of this day with sadness. "This one is for sentimental reasons," she told Kat, "because I felt there was a person who couldn't be here today, but needed to be represented." She watched as Kat opened the box, to find her father's dog tags, given to Hannah all those years ago after his death, nestled inside. Kat looked up at her, tears welling in her eyes. "I thought we could wrap them around your bouquet, so that you carried a part of your father with you today."
Kat nodded, and watched as her mother made good on her words, tears falling now, trailing down her cheeks. Hannah gently wiped the tears from her daughters face, and looked her in her eyes – so like her father's. "Hush now, honey, don't cry. Your father would be as proud of you as I am today. Give a smile for him."
Kat smiled as requested, albeit a trembling one, and hugged her mother. "I love you, Mom." They broke apart as they heard a knock on the cabin door. It was time.
Shepard noted, as she stood at the end of the aisle that started just off the elevator, on the arms of her escorts – her mother on her left, and her best friend, Garrus Vakarian on her right – that they had done a damn fine job of turning a simple shuttle bay into a festive wedding venue. She had no idea how the mothers had accomplished it, but if she had learned one thing in the time since the women first met - over her hospital bed months ago - when they teamed up, they were unstoppable. A fact to file away in case she ever found herself on the wrong end of an argument with the team in the future.
She raised her chin proudly and began the short, slow walk towards her groom. Kaidan looked amazing, she saw, in a simple elegant tuxedo. She knew that he could have chosen to wear his dress blues for the ceremony – it would even be expected of an Alliance officer – in the same way that she could have worn hers. But he had told her, in a quiet moment when they had talked about wedding plans, that this day was for them, not the Alliance, and he would dress accordingly. She appreciated the love and sentimentality that the gesture indicated.
As she reached her destination and her mother and Garrus both kissed her cheeks and took their individual places – her mother in the front row of seats behind her and Garrus beside Joker, who was standing as Kaidan's best man – and she glanced to her left and saw Liara and Tali standing in their places as her attendants, she reflected that her walk down the aisle had been just the final steps in a long journey, one that had brought her here today to be joined with the man looking at her with such love and devotion. She took a deep breath, and his hand, and turned to Kaidan to begin the ancient and traditional ceremony that would join them in a bond that they had felt from nearly the first moment they met, all those years ago. A good ride indeed, she thought to herself, the best.