I sat at the mess table, as Shepard walked over with a glass of water. She sat down, placing the water in front of her.

"Ready to start?" She asked, smirking.

She was going to enjoy this way to much.

"Trying moving this glass towards you."

I stared at it for a second, contemplating.

'Do I just imagine it moving? That's usually how stuff like this goes.' I thought.

I shrugged internally, and leaned forward opening my hand, and concentrating on the glass.

Shepard sat back, arms crossed as she watched me.

"Now don't be disappointed if it doesn't work the firs-"

She stopped as the glass jerked forward a few inches and then slid to my hand, water sloshing over the sides.

"Wha- How- Not even I was able to do that the first try."

I shrugged, raising the glass to my lips and taking a sip.

"You said yourself that I was already using powers I shouldn't be able to."

She scowled.

She had me move the glass a few more times, each time the glass slid a little slower. On the last one, the glass slid from Shepard to me without spilling at all.

She sighed as she stood.

"This may be easier than I first anticipated." She said, almost sounding disappointed. "Come on. Let's go try something a little harder."

oOo

Rose's P.O.V

oOo

I cringed as I heard another Thunk.

We were almost to the Monastery, and Shepard and Anna had been training basically none stop since we had left the Citadel almost five hours before.

After the water, Shepard had Anna try to move larger and larger items, before they moved on to sparing.

Another crash had given away the fact that Anna had once again been flung across the room.

I had watched for a while, from the safety of the windows in Engineering. But I eventually found my way down to the subdeck, where I sat on the lower stairs, reading on my Omni-tool.

I jumped when the Elevator started running.

Sighing, I stood up and made my way back to the engine room, walking through the hall and towards the Elevator, nose still glued to my Omni-tool.

The door opened and I walked forward, running into a wall of solid muscle.

Hands grabbed my shoulders to steady me as I looked up at Vega.

I felt my face heat up.

"S-Sorry." I stuttered, walking into the Elevator the rest of the way, so the doors could close.

He chuckled.

"Aye, don't worry about it, Chicka."

My embarrassment turned to annoyance, as I glared at the nickname.

"You couldn't think of a better nickname?" I asked flatly, eyebrow raised.

He shrugged.

"It's the only one I could think of on the fly."

"You could just call me Rose." I said, eyes narrowed.

"But where's the fun in that?"

I shook my head in annoyance as the Elevator started to move.

"Enjoy watching Anna get flung around like a rag doll?" I asked.

He laughed.

"Yeah. She was trying to learn how to intentionally put up a barrier. But Shepards throws just kept breaking through them."

I laughed.

"Man… I shouldn't laugh. It could've been me in her shoes if that's the they wanted it."

I turned my omni tool off, and looked around the Elevator. Which seemed to be taking longer than usual.

I looked over at James, and just noticed he was wearing a tank top instead of his usual Alliance issue t-shirt.

James looked over at me, and I jerked my head to face forward, silver hair flinging around me.

"Enjoying the view?" He asked, smirking with an eyebrow raised, as he flexed his arms.

My blush deepened, and I rushed out the Elevator doors as soon as they opened, listening to James' chuckle as I did so.

oOo

Anna's P.O.V

oOo

I sat on one of the lower steps in the war room, as I waited for the briefing to start.

Every part of me ached. I felt like one giant bruise.

After we switched to hand-to-hand, instead of actually learning, it mostly resulted with me being thrown across the room, when I failed to but my barrier up in time.

My head jerked up to see a very, red Rose (No pun intended) enter the room, followed by a smirking Vega.

A smile spread across my face.

She teased me about Jeff, now I think it's time for a little payback.

Keeping her head down, Rose made her way to me, sitting down quietly.

"What's a matter?" I asked smirking.

Given the fact the made it to the War room about the same time, I assumed they had ridden up in the Elevator together.

"Things get a little heated on the way up?"

She gave me an 'Shut up or die' look.

"You liiike him." I said, copying a certain blue cat.

Her glare hardened.

I opened my mouth to speak again, but stopped when Shepard started talking.

Rose stared at Shepard as she spoke, deliberately ignoring Vega's gaze from across the room.

I sighed.

At least she seemed to have more sense then I did when it comes to falling in love with a fictional character.

'I love Jeff. But sometimes I wonder if marrying him was the best decision.'

I couldn't ask him to leave his Family, his job, his friends, his entire life, behind.

"Anna."

My head jerked up to see Shepard look at me with a raised eyebrow, everyone else in the room already standing.

"Huh?" I asked, slightly embarrassed at the fact I had been paying absolutely no attention to what she was saying during the meeting.

"I said to go suit up."

"Uh… Right." I said, rubbing the back of my neck as I stood keeping my head down as I exited the room.

'Gah! I can't think about it right now. I need to focus. We can deal with it when the time comes.'

oOo

I plopped down on the bed, still wearing the undersuit for my armor.

I'd been too lazy to change back into my regular clothes.

I sighed.

There weren't very many missions left.

It made me wonder how it would end.

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. I didn't want to leave. I liked being around my favorite characters.

'No, my friends.' I corrected myself harshly.

I couldn't think about them as just fictional characters anymore.

I'd fought with them, ate with them, laughed with them, hell, even yelled at some of them.

I'd even come to tolerate Miranda.

I laid down, and hugged a pillow, fighting back tears.

I heard the door slide open, and someone approached the bed.

The bed sank behind me as Jeff laid down, and wrapped his arm around me.

"Hey." He said softly.

"Hey." Was my quiet reply.

"Are you alright?"

"I don't know anymore."

"We're gonna make it through this." He said, reassuring me, as if he'd read my mind to figure out what was bothering me.

I guess we'd been worrying about the same thing, more or less.

Sometimes it's easy to forget, that you're not alone.

I rolled over and snuggled into him, and he stroked my back.

"Let's go see out daughter." He said, smiling.