Kaidan found his mother in a coffee shop in the transport hub, staring into her cup. He slid into the seat in front of her, waving at the waitress. He could definitely use coffee. Something. Anything. By now he'd reached the point where he was not going to get sleep that night, and he needed to go into head off a migraine mode until they made it home.

"So the party's over? I hope you didn't call it done on my account." She sounded tired, worn, and he sighed.

"Jenna will have to report this morning. We can't take her home ourselves, she has to go back with her training unit. It's best that she gets some sleep, at least." And John was more than capable of getting her to go to sleep. "Mom...it's out in the open. John proposed. We said yes."

"So what now? You want me out?"

Kaidan frowned, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest. Technically, his mother was living in his apartment. And if she wasn't there, she'd be in some closet sized, unsecured apartment...nothing he was comfortable with. "No. I don't want anything to change at the moment. No hasty decisions."

She chuckled, draining her cup and setting it down. She twined her fingers together, staring at him and he stared right back. If she left, then she left. But he wasn't going to be the one to push her away. "I love you, Mom. Jenna cares about you. Hell, you even get along with John's mother. You don't know him." He wasn't going to come out of this as the bad guy. He'd done nothing wrong and he certainly wasn't going to put his mother out. If she left, that would be her decision. "But you need to know that I love him. I have for years." To her, John was not negotiable. Jenna was the only person in this with grounds for that. "Do you want me to break up with Jenna?" It was nothing he intended to do, but his mother needed to understand his situation. He'd loved John for a hell of a long time. They'd been through terrible, terrible things together. He lived and breathed because of John. She lived and breathed because of John.

"No! I just...I just want you to think about this, Kai."

"I have." There was no right answer. There was only the best answer and he really thought that this was the best he could do with what he had to work with. "I just need you to work with me. I need you to be there for me." She spent time telling him that he never let her in, never let her support him...well, there it was. His coffee arrived and he took a long, appreciative sniff of it. "You keep telling me..."

"I know what I keep telling you, Kai. Thank you for remembering." She tried to put acid in those words, but she failed. "I want you to be happy. If this is what it's going to take...then this is what it's going to take. But you need to take care of Jenna now that you've gotten her into this."

"I know. I mean to take care of both of you. Things have changed." His father was gone. The safety and security of before was gone. He'd gotten through it all because he hadn't been alone and he wanted to keep it that way. The best way to get through the rest of it was exactly how he'd gotten through the beginning, with friends so close that they became family. "We'll figure it out when we get back to Vancouver. Right now we don't have the room for John anyway." The bedrooms in the apartment were too small... there had been barely enough room to fit Jenna into his, to add John was out of the question. Physically, John was a large man. But it was more than just his actual size...he felt larger than he was. And he tended to get restless, jumpy, caged. "I need you to at least try, Mom. Give us a chance."

"Alright, Kai. I still think this is a mistake, but it's your decision."

"Hmmmph." He snorted. "I still think it's a mistake for you to be out in Rio, on grad night, alone at 0400, but it's your decision."

"Touché. Walk me back to the hotel?"

They walked back in almost companionable silence, and he left her at her hotel room door, going down the hallway to the one he shared with John. It was late, by now if Jenna was going to make it back in time, at least one of them should be up. The living area of the suite was dimly lit by a vid screen, John lounging on the couch in front of it. The door to the bedroom hung open and Kaidan could hear water flowing in the bathroom. Jenna must be awake...

"Tell me if that's even humanly possible." John stated by way of greeting, motioning at the screen and Kaidan maneuvered to get a look at it.

"Ice skating doesn't seem like your thing, John." He chuckled. "But no, that looks like a disaster in the making." It looked painfully like the young woman caught in a frozen frame was going to face plant right into the ice.

"Ice skating isn't my thing. But Jenna is. And that definitely does seem to be Jenna."

Kaidan leaned in closer. It was Jenna... only a made up, doll like version of the woman he knew and loved. A very young, glittery Jenna...but that stare she had was all business. It was both beautiful and perhaps a little wrong. This was her before...before Kaidan, before the Reapers, before everything. She'd been this, a long time ago. But she wasn't this anymore. It was, like so many things, left to the past.

"What are you two staring at?" She demanded from the doorway, wrapped in a towel and grumpy from lack of sleep. And she was probably about to be even more grumpy... "That." He said, waving at the screen.

"Looks painful." John teased, and she moved to where she could see.

"Ah, hell." She growled, shaking her head and and moving away. "I thought the database was destroyed. Obviously only the useful parts of it was, I see." She dropped the towel, treating them both to a view as she climbed back into her underwear, tossing the dress on over her head. "And no, it wasn't painful. Geesh."

"You recovered from that?"

"That's the '81 Sectionals. I skated clean, finished ninth. Did not kiss the ice in that flying death drop. So who's taking me back?"

"I will. Kaidan's been up all night." John rolled out of the couch, clapping Kaidan on the back as he passed by. And for the life of him, Kaidan wasn't certain if they'd managed it or not. Neither one of them seemed...odd. Off. It was just another really early morning. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? He settled into the warm spot of the couch that John had just vacated, taking a deep breath and relaxing. He just needed to close his eyes for a moment...

He woke up some time later, still on the couch. Bright blades of sunlight cut across the air, across the carpeted floor, dust motes dancing in the spotlight. John had returned, he was reclined on the end of the couch, Kaidan's feet in his lap, dead to the world asleep. He'd covered them both with blankets from the bed, turned off the vid and the lights, and had crashed.

Kaidan extricated himself from the couch and showered, changed his clothes, ordered what proved to be lunch for both of them and then stood, staring out of the window. It was a beautiful day. Rio was lovely. He'd promised himself that if he made it to this point after everything was over, that he'd revel in each and every moment. He was alive. The world was still there. John was asleep behind him. It was all good. Everything that wasn't good was small in the grand scope of things, he just had to swim through the details. He was grateful. Yes, his mother was less than pleased, but she had to be alive to be less than pleased.

John shifted into wakefulness, yawning and scrubbing his face with his hands. "Morning." He breathed, then squinted at the light surrounding Kaidan. "Afternoon." He corrected himself. "So that's why I'm starving."

"I ordered already. It'll be up soon." They needed to be back in Vancouver by tomorrow morning, but the sooner, the better. By now, both Jenna and Vega were probably already there. "Everything go alright last night?"

"Was about to ask you the same. But yes, everything is fine." He stood up, walking up behind Kaidan and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "You doing okay?"

"Headed off a migraine. Calmed Mom down...slightly. Altogether not bad, not bad at all. But I want to go home." This had just been an interlude, but it had opened up things that needed to be done. Jenna was coming home. John was coming home. They needed to make that home happen, together. The three of them.

.*.*.*.

The interior of the transport was almost silent, exhaustion and a night of partying combined to leave most of Jenna's training class dozing as Davikoff was doing beside her. She was spending the quiet time to finally deal with messages...they'd started off yesterday as congratulations on her graduation and had switched over that morning to congratulations for her additional engagement, and then the expected school posting, report information and a request to show up at the Housing Office. How long it would remain sane, she wasn't certain... but the image that John had been staring at that morning was pretty obvious, it had taken some digging to find that. She'd thought all of those were safely gone, except for the ones her mother had, but she was obviously wrong. But if that was the worst they could dig up, she could face it. And it should be the worst, because Jenna had never done anything that really could be held against her.

"Your school orders come in yet?" Davikoff had not moved, his cover still pulled down low over his eyes, but her omnitool shed a lot of light on its current setting and the transport bay was dim. It was good to have it back, it hadn't been surprising when John had clasped it back on her that morning.

"Sure. Next AcTac, Vancouver. Surprise, surprise. Exactly what I was promised." She shrugged, lowering her voice. "Kaidan's stationed ground-side at Vancouver as well." It wasn't classified, but it wasn't something she wanted to be a source for.

"I know. Heading the Biotics Training unit. He wasn't what I was expecting, seems like a nice guy." She stared sideways at him for a long moment until he opened his eyes. "What? Oh, fine. I was expecting him to be bigger, is that such a crime? I figured that the guy who had Shepard's back was going to be a big man. I know... I know...he can kill me with his brain, not even move a muscle doing it. But seriously. He does seem like a decent sort. You can marry him."

"Well, gee. Thanks. I didn't know I needed your permission."

"Yeah, well, I've got your back, Rolfsmeyer. I expect an invitation, though." He sighed, sitting up and stretching. "We should be almost back. And then you should run as quickly as you can get the hell out of here... they had the extranet feed in the barracks disabled when I got back. None of these people have seen the news."

Well, that explained why she'd been left alone so far. A new message appeared on the list she was sifting through and her eyes were immediately drawn to it... Alenko, K. Our ETA to Vancouver, 1630. Talked to Mom, think things have settled slightly, will probably still be staying with her for a little while longer. Have received same request to report to HO as you have for new housing assignment. Will discuss tonight.

Kaidan.

Four thirty. They must have slept in or something else had come up, either way it was going to be hours before they arrived. "You want to go get lunch after we're released?"

"Sure."

The transport set down, the bay doors going up and Jenna smelled Vancouver. She was home. Back. It really was over, and she'd done it. "Morning, Chief." The ground crew's chief greeted her when she set foot on the tarmac and she fought down a grin. Chief. Service Chief Rolfsmeyer. It was all good. Once again, she was accomplishing things, she was out of the rut.