December 20, 2187

When Shepard got back to their room, she discovered another work of art lying out on the bed in the form of a tailored pant suit made from navy-blue tussat silk. Delicate rose vines climbed the jacket's lapels, embroidered in a lighter shade of blue thread. The slacks sported an elastic insert in the waist that allowed them to hang flawlessly. A soft rose blouse with a short turtle neck and pleats down the front completed the suit.

Shepard dressed, feeling both beautiful and grateful, and headed down to the rehearsal. Forty-five minutes later, despite being ready to strangle Joker with her bare hands, she felt pretty good about how things would go the next day. She wrapped her arms around Garrus and Lenka, and headed into dinner as relaxed as she could manage with the entire galaxy waiting outside to burst their perfect bubble in a couple of days.

Tables covered the floor of the gallery, all candles, flowers, and gleaming silver over ivory linen. The flying buttresses in the construction along with the ancient paintings and statuary lent the gallery a palatial cast that took Shepard's breath away. She stopped so suddenly upon the threshold that she tripped. After staring for over a minute, she just shook her head, unable to come up with any words to do it justice.

"I think Stretch got us confused with royalty, or were you elected president of the entire galaxy, and forgot to tell me?" Garrus led her through the door, and they wandered a little until they found their seats. Lenka spotted the resident dog outside on the lawn and trotted over to the window to take a closer look.

In the center of every table sat a series of simple, silver bowls. Shepard picked up the empty one from the center of the arrangement. It measured as wide across as her palm. She replaced it and poked at the smaller ones around its circumference. Each contained a sample of a different herb or spice, some fresh, most dried. Tiny cards under each bowl said the name of the herb and the quality, state, or emotion associated with it.

Shepard picked up the closest one and sniffed it. "Hmm." She looked at the card. "Mint: tranquility." She looked to Garrus with a cocked eyebrow.

"Everyone adds two small pinches of the herbs or spices to the center bowl. The first is the one they think represents us as we are, and the second represents what they wish for our future." He smiled. "What we do with their choices, I'll share later."

Shepard's eyebrows went up. "Oh. More secret stuff."

"Good secret stuff." He took her hand under the table. "It's probably wrong, but I'd be completely okay with skipping the testimony and going straight to the secret stuff." He leaned in and nuzzled her neck. "You look absolutely beautiful, by the way."

She ran her fingers down the front of his suit. "You're looking pretty hot yourself, big guy." Squeezing his fingers, she leaned in to kiss him, letting the hoots and catcalls of their guests wash over her. She kissed him slowly, their tongues touching almost chastely as if it were their first kiss, but now, after so many kisses, the flush of pleasure and excitement struck deeper, a place quiet and serene, and reserved just for him.

"Mommy?"

Shepard laughed and collapsed into Garrus, her brow pressing to his as she broke the kiss and turned to look at the small batarian leaning on both their knees. "Yes, my darling?"

"Where do Ami Sol and I sit?" she asked.

Garrus grabbed her and picked her up, nuzzling her cheek before sitting her next to him. "You sit right there. Did Ami Sol send you to ask?" He tickled her.

Lenka gave a cheerful nod, then began to play with her silverware.

"You needed a chaperone," Sol whispered, slipping behind Shepard to stand at the head of the room.

"Yes, because we were in danger of throwing down right here, Stretch." Garrus chuffed and shook his head.

Sol ignored him and held up her hands. "If everyone could find their seat. Tali, make sure you don't sit in the wrong spot. There is only one sterilized dextro meal on the menu." Once everyone was seated and the room grew quiet, Sol spoke again. "This part of the bonding ceremony comes from the feast tradition after the hunt. The clans gathered around to share wild stories of the two bond-mates' adventures and heroics during the hunt. Almost all were completely fabricated, some just exaggerated. At the time, the purpose was to provide testimony to the new bond-mates' clans, reassuring their new families of their abilities and honour."

"You mean like during the turram match when Shepard was trampled by the entire crew?" Joker called from the table next to theirs. "I found that particularly heroic."

"I'm sure you can mine your cycles together for better stories than that, but yes." Sol held out her hand to Admiral Hackett, who had been standing by the door. She yielded the floor to him and sat next to Lenka.

The admiral scanned the room, wincing when he reached Kaidan. "It looks like almost everyone has recovered from the match this afternoon." He chuckled. "Keep the ice on that nose, Major."

"He can take a hit," Sol whispered, clicking her tongue. "Got to like a man who can take a hit."

When the chuckles died down, Hackett raised his trusty datapad. "Clanspeople, draw near and feast upon the bounty of the hunt, bringing with you tales of courage, honour, skill, and daring."

Joker guffawed and made a plowing gesture, starting a chain reaction that set Shepard's face and neck flaming.

She turned to glare at the pilot, trying to look stern. "Great, now my wedding will forever be the day that I got plowed into the mud. Thanks so much, Joker."

He nodded. "You're welcome. I think in the future, we'll leave out the pregnant waddle part, though. Makes everything more sad than funny."

Grunt shrugged. "I think the waddle's funny."

Shepard pointed at each of them. "Behave."

"Or what?" Joker leaned back and slung his arm over the back of his chair. "You'll send us to our rooms? You can't even waddle fast enough to catch me, let alone 'I am krogan!' over there."

Hackett cleared his throat and soldiered on. "Clanspeople, draw near and partake of fellowship, for with this union, two clans become as one, two families become as one, and two people become as one." He looked to the back of the ballroom and gestured for the staff to bring in their meals. "Clanspeople, be welcomed, feast, and regale us with tales exciting and bold."

"You're very good at this whole turian MC gig, Admiral," Shepard said as Hackett sat next to her.

He chuckled. "I feel like I've been memorizing it forever, but even so, I didn't trust myself to get through everything without having it in front of me."

"So," Liara called once everyone had their food. "Should we start with the great monkey hunt?"

Garrus groaned. "T'Soni, no."

She grinned. "I like that story."

"No. Just, no," Tali replied. "I've been trying to block that entire day from my memory."

Kaidan laughed. "I've seen you guys come back from missions covered in a lot of things, but that day took the cake for sure."

"Start at the beginning," Daniels replied. "Now you have to tell it."

"Which is going to require me telling it, I guess," Shepard said, "since I was the only person there willing to repeat those events." She laughed as Garrus's elbow nudged her ribs. "We'd just arrived in the Attican Beta cluster when Admiral Hackett called to ask us to go after a spy probe that had gone down on Eletania. The geth knew about it, so we had to find it and retrieve the data module before they did."

She shook her head. "We found the probe, but the data module was gone. There were a few dead pyjaks lying around the probe and no geth, so I figured that one of the beasties had run off with it."

Tali sighed. "She tells us we have to search the nearby colonies for the probe and Garrus grumbles, 'Oh, this is going to be fun,' under his breath." She giggled. "Shepard couldn't resist poking him, teasing him about missing the compulsory seminar at C-Sec on monkey search and take down procedures, what sort of criminal profile we were dealing with, and whether the C-Sec handbook recommended a net or a shotgun. The more Shepard and I laughed, the crankier he got."

"Imagine that," Garrus replied and shook his head..

"We searched the nearby colony, but didn't find anything," Shepard said, taking the story back up, "so we moved on to the next. I had Tali trying to herd the little buggers, keeping the ones we'd searched separate from the one we hadn't. Pyjaks were running everywhere, hooting and warbling up a storm. It was pandemonium. I thought I heard something—you have to remember that we were expecting the geth to show up any second—so I pulled my gun. These two just looked at me like I was insane." Shepard held up a finger as she paused to eat a mouthful of her really amazing chicken before it got cold. She couldn't remember the last time she ate real chicken, with real mushrooms in real cream sauce.

"And Garrus says, 'I take it your handbook favours the shotgun, Commander'," Tali added.

Shepard swallowed, her hand lifting to partially cover her mouth as she laughed. "Yeah, though, I couldn't blame him for getting a shot in. I'd earned it. Anyway, I hung up my pistol, and somehow, hooked a grenade, lobbing it seven or eight metres. It obliterated three pyjaks. I felt terrible, but then I hear this little voice from behind me. 'And humans wonder why everyone thinks they're bullies.'" Shepard shook her head and shifted a little in her chair. "Anyway, no data module at that colony either."

Tali motioned for Shepard to eat. "The next one was outside an abandoned mine. We checked all the pyjaks on the outside, but nothing, so in we went."

"I could never wash the stink of that place out of that armour. Ended up throwing it out," Garrus said. "Never smelled anything that bad before or since."

"Yeah," Shepard agreed. "That mine was horrific. It was so dark that you couldn't see a metre in front of you even with flashlights, and the floor was covered in six inches of water. There was pyjak crap everywhere, making the uneven ground slick as … well, as slick as shit." Shepard shuddered. "Suddenly, I'm not sure this is a good story to tell while everyone is eating."

"So, that place was completely gross, and totally not hygienic," Tali continued, "but, we dug in and started searching. An hour later, all three of us were strung so tight that we were centimetres away from snapping. Garrus was elevating swearing to an art form, I was certain the smallest suit tear would prove instantly fatal, and Shepard was a half second from pulling her pistol and putting a bullet in everyone, and not just the pyjaks."

Liara scowled. "Shepard!"

"It's the truth," Shepard admitted around a mouthful of green beans.

Shepard laughed and shook her head, reaching up to caress his cheek. "Tali was maybe twenty feet away and saw this pair of wrestling pyjaks on top of a pile of crates, so she climbed up. I watched until she got to the top, then turned to pick one of the critters up. It bit me, so I was prying yet another set of pyjak teeth out of my glove when this bloodcurdling shriek ripped through the cavern. I thought a Geth Prime had crept up on us and ripped Tali in half. I grabbed my gun and spun around, the pyjak still hanging from my glove, but all I saw was flailing arms, legs and pyjaks flying through the air."

Garrus sighed. "Right into me. I had three pyjaks stuffed under one arm, two in the other when this screaming lunatic hit me from behind. I staggered forward in the dark and stepped straight into a metre-deep hole. Fell face first, Tali and seven panicking pyjaks on top of me."

"Utter bedlam," Shepard laughed. "Poor Garrus, I thought he was going to explode before I got Tali and those critters off him."

"Poor Garrus?" The turian's mandibles fluttered. "You were laughing so hard that you could barely breathe let alone help anyone out of that hole." Garrus shook his head. "What a mess. Monkey crap head to foot … worst day of that whole damned run to find Saren. Thank the spirits the geth attacked us on the way out. I needed to kill things."

Kaidan chuckled. "When they got back to the Normandy, Joker refused to let Garrus and Tali back on until they'd been hosed down and put through three decon cycles."

"Hmmm." Garrus looked over at Shepard. "Seems only fair to counter that story with the one about the Alliance listening post."

"No!" Shepard shook her head. "I think the story quota has been reached, hasn't it?" She looked to Sol, her eyebrows raised, begging with her eyes.

"Nice try, Jane, but no." She looked at her brother. "Continue."

Garrus gave Shepard a teasing wink, his hand sliding over her thigh under the table. "The Normandy received a distress call from an Alliance listening post close to geth space. When we arrived, turned out it was rachni. Shepard, as usual, insisted on driving the mako. Those of you who were spared that experience, offer thanks to whatever gods you believe in."

Shepard elbowed him, eliciting a throaty chuckle as he leaned over to nuzzle her temple.

Liara let out a soft, strangled moan. "Throttle at max, cursing every three seconds as it rolled down cliffs, bouncing from corner to corner."

"My back and neck have never recovered," Kaidan groaned.

Liara laughed. "Remember the fights, Garrus? Kaidan screaming driving advice, Shepard threatening to build a brig on the Normandy to lock him in if he didn't stop."

"Slow down!" Garrus bellowed, grinning at Shepard. "You don't need to drive full throttle all the time!"

"Do you want to drive?" Liara replied, taking up Shepard's side of the conversation.

"Please!"

"Well, you can't, so shut up, and hang on!"

"Dammit Shepard, it's not supposed to slide down mountains on the roof!"

"It'll right itself!"

"Now you've damaged the wheels. I told you not to jump it off that ridge!"

"That's what omnigel is for, Alenko!"

Shepard felt her face and neck begin to burn and punched Garrus in the arm. "Okay. Okay."

"The scary part," Kaidan said, chuckling, "is that was an actual conversation." He winced. "More than once."

Shepard shrugged. "I was determined not to let that stupid machine beat me."

"Well, on that nowhere planet in the Styx Theta cluster, it did." Kaidan shook his head, then winced and touched his nose with delicate fingers. "Shepard set the nav point, hit the accelerator and we careened off in the direction the arrow told us. Between us and the listening post stood this massive line of rock, just as steep as anything. Shepard lost her cool about halfway up, so when we finally hit the crest, she floored it."

"That mako actually took flight," Garrus said, miming the mako's flight with his hand. "Flew fifty feet out and then dove straight for the ground, right into the roof of a mining shack."

Kaidan continued to act out the crash as he took over. "The mako slammed into that nose first, rolled off the side, flipped the rest of the way down the cliff to bounce off rocks at the bottom and land nose down in a rachni tunnel." He shook his head, his expression one of comical wonder. "If you tried a thousand times, you couldn't have made that happen."

"We just sat there for a few minutes," Garrus said, picking the story back up, "trying to figure out if we'd survived with all body parts intact."

"Kaidan looked over at me," Shepard said, "with this look on his face that I can only describe as the ultimate, 'I told you so', expression." She chuckled. "I was slightly embarrassed and defensive, so I geared up to take him on the moment he opened his mouth. When the shock wore off, he just shook his head and said. 'Well, shit.'"

Kaidan laughed. "Was there anything else to say at that point?"

"Did you ever get her to let you drive?" Donnelly asked.

"Not the mako, no. She never really caught onto it, either." Kaidan sent a quick wink across to Shepard, then winced, his fingertips returning to his nose.

"You're still alive, aren't you?" Shepard shook her head.

"Thanks to Dr. Chakwas knowing a thing or two about realigning spines and treating neural trauma." Kaidan stood and swept down into an exaggerated bow to the good doctor.

She shook her head and turned to look at Garrus, just staring into his eyes and smiling. They'd come such a very, very long way.

Silver began to ring against crystal, and Shepard's smile widened.

"What are they doing?" Garrus whispered, leaning in close.

"It's a human tradition," Admiral Hackett spoke up. "It means they want you to kiss."

"Oh." He tilted his head a little. "I think I can manage that."

Shepard pressed her lips to his mouth, her eyes closing, the smile refusing to leave her face as their friends and family hooted.

After another hour of laughing until her ribs ached, Shepard saw Sol give Hackett a meaningful look, and he stood.

"Clanspeople, friends, and family, we welcome you to remain and avail yourselves of our hospitality. It is time for the family to retire for the private aspects of the bonding ceremony. If you have not contributed to the herbal mixtures on the tables, please do so. Tomorrow breakfast will be laid out between 0800 and 1000 here in the gallery, then lunch between 1200 and 1400. The human wedding ceremony will begin at 1600 at the crest of the cliff on the west side of the lodge." He scanned the datapad, then nodded. "On behalf of Garrus and Jane, I wish you a good evening."

Garrus stood and held his hand out to Shepard, who took it and stood, holding hers out for Lenka. She pulled the child in against her and wrapped her arm around the narrow shoulders.

"Did you have fun listening to funny stories about Mommy and Daddy?" she asked.

Lenka nodded and giggled. "You were a really scary driver."

"She was," Garrus agreed, leaning around Shepard.

It took them twenty minutes to get out the gallery doors and upstairs to their room. Shepard closed the door behind them, grinning as Lenka jumped onto the bed.

"The beds here are so soft, Mommy," she said, flopping over on her side.

"Compared to the one on the Normandy, they sure are," Shepard agreed. She walked to the end of the bed and looked down. A small fire burned on the hearth, and two low stools sat in front of it, a small table off to one side. "What's this?" she asked.

Garrus just bobbed his head a little, the flutter of his mandibles giving him away. The stools and table were part of something really important to him, but he wanted to wait for the right moment to reveal what it was.

Knuckles rapped on the door, Garrus striding over to answer it before Shepard could. Herros and Solana stepped inside as he pulled it open. Ah, he'd been waiting for back-up.

"Hey guys." Shepard frowned a little at their serious, intent expressions. "What's going on?"

Sol held out a hand to Lenka. "Come on, baby bird. Kiss your mari and pari goodnight, then let's go run you through a bubblebath."

Lenka sighed, but didn't argue. She stood on the bed to kiss Garrus, who lifted her down to the floor.

Shepard crouched to pull her daughter into a tight hug. "Wait until you try a bubblebath. You're going to love it." She kissed Lenka's cheek. "Mmmm. Oh my goodness, I love you."

Lenka kissed her. "I love you, too."

Taking the child's face between her hands, Shepard stared into the beautiful, dark eyes. "If you need us during the night, you get your ami to bring you right in, okay?" When Lenka nodded, Shepard kissed her again. "Okay, go have fun with bubbles, and sleep well, baby." She blinked back tears as Lenka took Sol's hand and followed her from the room.

Garrus made a low, soothing rumble and wrapped his arm around her. "First night apart. Well, that you weren't abducted by crazy people."

Shepard just nodded and swiped the back of her hand across her cheeks. "So, what's up with the serious looks here, guys?"

Herros set a small wooden box on the bed and walked over to take her hands in his. "Jane, on the evening of the first day, it's traditional for the parents of the male bond-mate to outline their famila notas on the female's face. The bond-mate then fills them in after the ceremonies are over." He squeezed her hands gently, looking uncomfortable.

"So, you're here to blue me up a bit?" Shepard shrugged and glanced at Garrus.

Garrus stepped into his father's place as Herros pulled back. "Shepard, we're asking if you'll take our famila notas."

Shepard smiled and reached up, her fingertips tracing his markings across his nose and right cheek, then down the length of his mandible. "Of course I will." Her fingers slipped down his neck to rest on the rim of his cowl. "Were you thinking I wouldn't?"

Sighing, Garrus reached up and laid his hand over hers. "It's not … . Shepard, you're human, and the dye lasts a long time. Wearing turian markings might cause problems for you on Palaven. Some turians … well, there's a growing xenophobic movement on Palaven since the war."

"Some turians will object to our marriage and children, and so will some humans." Shepard's spine stiffened, and she clenched her teeth, a slow-burning anger settling in her gut. It eased a little as she held Garrus's stare. "Don't think about it for a second, Garrus. Don't let their hatred and fear make you doubt. There are always going to be people who object to our family, and I don't have time for them." She slipped her hand around his neck and pulled him down until their brows touched. "Bottom line, do you want me to wear your famila notas?"

He caressed her neck and lifted the hand he still held up to press against his chest. "Very much."

She tilted her face to kiss him. "Then I'll wear my husband's markings, proudly. If anyone has a problem with that, I'll explain things to them."

Garrus returned her kiss, then pulled her in tight against him.

"I'll get Sol and see the little one to bed," Herros said, his voice a breathy whisper. "I'll be back when she's finished."

Shepard nodded without pulling away. "Thanks, Dad."

"What did I do without you?" Garrus asked, his voice barely stirring the air.

"Same thing I did without you, I suppose." She kissed him. "Not a problem we have to worry about any more."

She relaxed into his arms, hers slipping around him. "I know that it's not always going to be easy being a mixed species family. But, if you think I'm going to allow the opinions of the close-minded to change the way I live or force me to hide my love for you and our children, you're crazy, Vakarian." She kissed his neck, breathing him in deep. "I found the single best torin in the galaxy and somehow got him to fall in love with me. I'm proud to be your mate, Garrus, and I'll be insanely proud to be the mother of our children. No matter what."

Knuckles knocked on the door a second before it opened. "You decent?" Sol asked, sticking her head through.

Shepard laughed. "Dad left two seconds ago. How fast do you think we are?" She shook her head.

Sol chuckled. "I know. I just love it when your face goes red like that." She stepped inside and walked over to take Shepard's hand as the couple parted. "So, usually it's the mother who does the first step of applying the famila notas, but is it okay if I take our mother's place?"

"Of course it is." Shepard followed Sol to the fire and, with a complete lack of grace, lowered herself onto the floor-hugging stool.

Sol slid the little table in front of her. "Get it as close as you can, unless you want to have weird blue jagged marks all over your face." When Shepard got the table settled flush with her belly, Sol pulled up her stool and sat, placing the small, wooden box off to one side.

Shepard peered over the edge of the table at the contents. Cushioned on a soft, blue material lay a small mortar and pestle, brushes, and containers that looked as though they'd been fashioned from fired clay.

"This is our family's harediarcha," Sol said, her voice soft. She looked to Garrus and nodded.

He lowered himself down to sit cross-legged next to the table, and reached into the box to remove the mortar and pestle. "It's passed down from mothers to daughters," he said, removing a thick stick wrapped in tussat paper. He peeled back the paper to reveal something that looked almost like charcoal. He put the end in the bowl and smashed off a few chunks with the pestle.

"It holds everything we need for the different traditions and ceremonies," Sol continued, smiling. "We watched our father do this more than once. Especially Twig, because he kept messing his face up." She reached out to touch his scars where the famila notas was barely visible. "Guess somethings never change."

Shepard grinned. "Yeah. He thinks the scars make him look all dangerous and sexy."

Chuckling, Sol set out the brushes. "I blame Gira and Rossus's oldest son. He had some impressive scars from his time in the military. Garrus idolized him when he was little."

Garrus just tilted his head in a slight shrug and ground the chunks into a fine powder. He frowned a little, then shook his head. "I don't remember that."

He tested the powder a couple of times, then set the pestle aside and took the largest of the clay jars from the box, pouring a little of what looked like a thin oil into the bowl before going back to grinding. Three times he added oil, then nodded and slid it over to Sol.

"We made sure the base wasn't going to give you a massive rash or anything," Sol said, grinning at Shepard with a gleam in her eye that didn't reassure her. "The brushes might be a little rough on your face." She winced. "They are made for somewhat tougher hide."

Sol picked up the brush and took a deep breath. "Okay, now we just hope that I have a steady hand." She leaned forward, bracing her elbows on the table. "Lean in the best you can so that I can reach you."

Shepard leaned in, folding her arms on the table's top to brace herself. Sol gripped her chin gently and dipped the brush in the ink.

"Hold still or you are going to have a really bad case of blue freckles for the next year or so." She touched the brush to the center of the bridge of Shepard's nose. The bristles scratched a little, but nothing irritating, and Shepard found it easy to sit still as Sol dotted the outline of the markings on her face. After nearly an hour, the turian leaned back and looked Shepard over with an appraising eye.

"Looks good." She pushed herself up and sidled past her brother. "Dad will be knocking in a moment. Good night, you two. Don't stay up too late."

"Goodnight, Sol, and thanks," Shepard called. "See you in the morning." When the door shut, Shepard grinned at Garrus. "Do I look like I have the pox?"

He chuckled and took her hand. "You've got the blue pox. I hear it's a lifelong affliction."

Shepard shook her head and sighed. "Whatever will I do?"

Knuckles rapped against the door.

"Come in." Shepard twisted to grin up at Herros. "How do I look?"

He chuckled. "Covered in dots." He laid a hand on the back of Garrus's cowl as he squeezed past.

The comfortable, casual affection behind that contact made Shepard's eyes burn with tears again. Being a human-shaped bundle of hormones really sucked sometimes.

"What?" Garrus asked. "Are you okay?" He started to get up.

"No, Garrus. I'm fine. It's just crazy pregnant lady stuff. I'm getting a little tired." She pressed her palm to his chest. "I'm fine."

Herros sat and settled himself as Sol had done, then stirred the ink, giving Garrus a nod of approval.

Shepard leaned against the table, assuming her braced position. This time, Garrus took her fingers in his, holding them loosely as his father filled in between the dots, outlining the markings. His practiced hand made quick work of it, and he pulled back in less than fifteen minutes.

She looked back and forth from father to son. "Well? How do I look? Do they suit me?"

Pushing himself to his feet, Garrus smiled. "You look beautiful, and they look as if you were born to wear them." He nuzzled the top of her head, then picked up the utensils, carrying them to the bathroom.

"You are always lovely, Jane," Herros said. "In every way." He laid his hand on her head. "I'll see you in the morning." He chuckled. "Try not to cry for a couple of hours or you'll streak."

Laughing, she gave him an exaggerated nod. "Sure, Dad, give me the one condition I probably can't keep." She wriggled her nose, unable to feel the markings at all.

He nodded. "Keep tissues close at hand." He called goodnight to Garrus from the door, then left.

Garrus returned a minute later, just as Shepard started getting up. "No, stay there for another second. We're not quite done."

She sank back onto the stool. "I have to get up soon. I'm starting to feel like an anaconda that ate a deer and then tied itself into a knot."

He sat across from her this time. "Remember the herbs on the tables?" He withdrew one of the jars from the box. "This contains both how our friends and family see us as we are, and what they hope for our future." He uncorked it and dumped it into the clean mortar, then placed it in the center of the table. "Tonight we grind them up with a little oil." He poured a tiny pool of oil into the bowl. "And then add it to a larger container of oil to permeate through it until tomorrow night."

Grinning as she picked up the pestle, Shepard ran her lower lip between her teeth. "And what do we do with the oil tomorrow night?"

"Filter it." His mandibles flared and fluttered hard when she sighed. "The rest I'll leave until tomorrow night." He laid his hand over hers and they ground the herbs into a thick paste. When he declared it ground well enough, he scraped it into another jar, which he shook, corked and set up on the mantle.

When Shepard started to lever herself off the floor, her legs refusing to obey even the most simple command, he just chuckled. "Stay there for another second, and I'll clear this away."

Shepard sighed. "You know, there was a time, I could get myself up off the floor."

"For all you complain, I know you love it." He set his stool and the table in a corner and pushed the box out of the way. "Come on, sexy. Up you come." He held out his hands.

Taking his hands, Shepard hauled herself up, laughing softly as he pulled her into a tight hug. "I do love it," she admitted, "but, I'm going to stop there because Dad told me not to cry for a couple of hours." She pulled back. "Okay, I am going to change into my jammies."

"Sol said to look in the top drawer of the bureau when the subject of nightwear came up. I'm going to enjoy our first childless night and not wear those ridiculous night trousers." He moved to the wardrobe and began taking off his suit. "Oh, now this is nice," he said, pulling out a blue robe with black trim. "It's turian."

They looked at one another and said, "Sol," at the same time, then laughed.

Still chuckling, Shepard opened the drawer and pulled out a t-shirt and shorts made from blue tussat silk. "Your sister is amazing." Stripping quickly, she changed into the soft nightclothes. She ran her hands over her belly and down her thighs, then laughed. "Oh my god, I can't stop petting myself."

Having donned the robe, Garrus climbed up to sit in the middle of the bed, his legs crossed, hands resting on his knees. "Then come over here and let me pet you instead." When Shepard sat next to him, he said, "Okay, this is going to take some doing, but I want you to sit on my legs and wrap your legs around behind me."

Shepard shot him a dubious scowl. "Are you trying to have me fall off the bed and land on my head?"

"It's a traditional position. I'll help you."

Shepard crawled up onto the mattress, gripping his hands and chuckling helplessly as he steadied her. "This is not an easy position for a fat lady to get into."

Once she was settled, he smiled, mandibles fluttering, and placed his hands on his daughter. Fluttering turned to flicking hard with what Shepard knew was delight when she felt the baby move under his hand. Shepard laid her hands over his, stroking the backs of his talons with loving fingers.

"I've dreamed about this moment," he whispered, looking up into Shepard's eyes.

She stared back, silent, knowing she didn't need to speak. He would see everything he needed to know in her eyes, the love and devotion in her gaze a mirror of his own.

He reached out to run the back of a talon outside the markings on Shepard's face. After he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, she knew he was trying to put words to feelings that words just diminished. She smiled as his subharmonics thrummed and took his hand in hers, lifting it to press a kiss into the palm.

"So, is this part of the ceremony?" she asked, still nuzzling his hand.

"Tomorrow others will give us their blessings, but tonight, I wanted to give you my gift." He leaned over the side of the huge bed and picked up a small, locked crate, placing it on the mattress beside them. He unlocked it, then reached out and brushed her neck with his talons, a painfully hopeful look in his eyes.

Shepard lifted the lid off the crate and set it aside. She reached in and pulled out a towel wrapped around something squishy and plush. Her heart thumping soft and quick, she placed the package in her lap and unwrapped it. When she saw the first wooden eye, she let out a soft mewl of mixed pain, surprise, and delight. She sobbed once, a small explosion of joy so profound that felt as though it would crack her chest open. Tears blurred her vision so she couldn't even see the rest of her old, cherished companion as she pulled the towel aside.

"Morgan." She picked him up and hugged him, looking up to meet Garrus's eyes, tears raining so hard and thick that she could barely breathe. "How?"

His eyes shining, Garrus picked up the corner of the towel, mopping up the tears before they could cause streaks. "Turned out the storage facility was just buried under a ton of rubble."

She threw her arms around his neck and covered his face in kisses. "I can't believe it," she whispered at last, pressing her brow to his. "This is so unbelievably beautiful, Garrus. Thank you so much." She lifted the battered old stuffed animal to her lips and kissed the end of his muzzle. "He was the only thing other than the ring that I could bear to look at after what happened." Reaching out, she caressed his face. "This is the single most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me. Thank you so much, my love."

He swallowed hard then looked to the crate. "I knew he was all you brought with you, but I thought after you watched me go through my mother's things that you might want more of your parents." He reached into the crate, laying a fairly large, thick, rectangular parcel in her lap. "I asked Admiral Hackett to contact the colonial authorities on Mindoir, but they only had one thing."

Shepard stared into his eyes, heart thumping hard and fast against her ribs, terrified to look down as he pulled the towel back. She'd never imagined that anything had been kept. Clutching Morgan to her chest, she looked down, reaching out with a shaking hand to pull back the last fold of towel.

"Oh my." She laid her hand on the soft, battered leather, not even needing to turn it over to see the front in order to know what it was. "Oh, Garrus." She stroked her fingers over it. "How?"

He lifted it and turned it over, the gold embossed letters on the front as tattered as the rest, but still visible. "It was in the cultural museum. Hackett managed to squeeze it out with a patrol returning to Earth. We owe the museum a display now. I told them you had a spare Star of Terra you could send them."

Shepard stared at the cover, stunned and dry-eyed. She opened the cover and smiled, running her fingers over the first page.

"What is this?" Garrus asked.

Shepard sighed. "Every family bible records all the important events in the family. This is the births page." She slid a finger down the list. "There's my grandfather. He had eight brothers and sisters." Chuckling, she pointed them out. "Then my dad, he was an only child. A ton of second cousins, and then me." Laying her palm down on the page, she looked up. "This is …" She shook her head and took a wavering breath. " … the most amazing thing, Garrus. I don't know how you managed it, but thank you. Thank you so much, my love."

Tears sprang into her eyes again as love and gratitude welled up within her, spilling out the only way they could escape. He reached out, cupping her neck in his hand, his thumb stroking her ear.

She leaned into the touch. "How did I get so lucky to find you?"

He shrugged. "I've always felt like the lucky one."

Shepard wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in to touch her brow to his. "I have something for you, but it's halfway across the room, and I'm never getting out of this position." Closing her eyes, she tilted her head to kiss him.

He returned her kiss, pulling her into him as it deepened, his hands sliding under her shirt to knead her back and shoulders. When they pulled apart, panting, he whispered. "It's actually very easy to get out of."

"Mmm, but I don't want to now. I just want to kiss every inch of you that I can reach, but I'm terrified that it'll smudge me." She kissed him again, then looked down at her oldest friend. "I never thought I'd see either of these things again. You've given me something unbelievably precious." After a moment, she set the bible and toy horse inside the crate. "Help me up, husband."

Garrus turned until his legs hung over the edge of the bed, wrapped his arms around her then stood.

Shepard lowered her legs. "You're right, that was easy." She kissed him, then gave him a gentle push to sit him back on the bed. "My gift was made by my very own little hands." She grinned and hurried over to open her bag. She pulled out the gift and crawled over the bed to sit on her heels, facing him. "This gift has caused a rift between myself and Steve, by the way, for all the water flowing across his shuttle bay."

Garrus turned to face her, drawing one knee up onto the mattress. He snapped the catches on the container and lifted the lid. He gave her a sort of confused, incredulous frown, but his mandibles fluttered. He lifted the thick, hardcover, fabric-bound book from the container. "You made this?"

Shepard nodded and untied the closure. "Open it."

He did, revealing a large, cream coloured blank page with feathered edges. He ran his talons over the paper. "You even made the paper, didn't you?" The frown returned. "How?"

"I picked bundles of grass on Pertexa, then dried it for a week, then ground it up with old mission reports and some cotton, which may or may not have been the sleeve off the uniform I used for the cover." She pointed out the small, blue strands and chuckled. "Okay, it caused a couple of rifts with Steve."

She reached into the container again. "These are charcoals of different hardnesses." She set them on the page and reached up to lay her hand where his neck eased into the front of his cowl. "Talent like yours shouldn't stay bottled up for years on end, my love. It needs to get out and stretch."

"It's the most amazing gift I've ever been given," he said, his voice soft. He set the sketch book and charcoals back in the container and pulled her into his arms. "Well, outside you and the girls." He let out a long breath. "Thank you, Shepard."

She blinked, trying to keep her eyes dry. "You're welcome, Garrus." She pulled back and kissed him. "I love you."

"And I love you, more than I thought I could ever love anyone."

She smiled and bumped her brow against his. "Hmm. Guess we should get married then, huh?"