Thank you for reading! Be well!
In the early hours of the morning, not long before the cares of the war and the ship and the galaxy were going to sweep Zia away from this little cocoon of normalcy they'd found, Garrus lay watching her sleep. It was rare to see her so relaxed, the lines of her face smooth and soft, and he treasured the moment for as long as it lasted.
She woke too soon; he had hoped she could get more rest. But she smiled as she saw him lying there. "Did you sleep?"
"Enough." The bed was strange, and built for humans, so it hadn't been his most restful night. Her bed on the ship was built for humans as well, but it was also built for utility, which made it slightly more comfortable for his purposes.
"We should get some turian furniture for this place."
"That would be nice."
"I'll put it on the top of the to-do list if we ever have some time off."
"I don't know when that will be. My commander's a hardass."
Shepard laughed. "That's not what you called me yesterday."
"Yesterday you weren't making me go back to work." He looked around the room. "It would be a shame to mess with Anderson's décor."
"It's not Anderson's, though, not anymore. It's ours. Garrus, I want—I want this to be a real home, someplace we can land. If that's okay with you."
Garrus hadn't really given the idea of what they would do after the war much thought. He didn't want to end up on Palaven, he knew that, and Zia had never expressed much interest in living on Earth, and she was right, a person should have a place that wasn't on a starship. He'd kept a very spartan apartment when he worked with C-Sec, but this was different. This was theirs. "It's more than okay with me."
"It's … a lot of place for two people, though," Zia said, somewhat hesitantly.
"I suppose." He looked down at her sharply, wondering where she was going with this.
"I didn't tell you, but I ran into Jacob yesterday while I was checking in at the hospital. Thank you for taking care of that supply transfer, by the way."
"My pleasure. What was Jacob up to?"
"He was there with his girlfriend. She's … she's pregnant." Zia sat up, her big brown eyes wide and serious. "We've never talked about this."
"No."
"And we can't have children together."
"No. But—I've been giving it some thought. One of the worst parts of this war is watching the kids react. I mean, if they're lucky, they've grown up thinking the galaxy is basically a decent place. Some rough spots here and there, but for the most part, life makes sense. Now they find out it was all a lie, and they wake up to see these things in the dark that have just been lying in wait, coming to destroy everyone and everything they ever cared about. If they survive, there'll be a hell of a lot of pissed off orphans looking for answers." He looked at Zia, wanting her to understand. "It seems to me that we might be that answer for a couple of them. Maybe a few."
Zia's eyes had filled with tears. "You are a hell of a person, Garrus Vakarian. You pretend to be all tough and logical, and all the time you have this soft, tender heart that you never let anyone see."
"Except you."
"Except me. And I love you for it." She took his hand and held it in both of hers. "I think those extra bedrooms would be just about perfect for some orphans looking for answers. I hope some day we'll have answers to give them."
"Me, too." Garrus pulled her close, holding her there, not wanting to let her go. For this moment she was his, just his, and she was safe, and knowing what lay ahead of them, he didn't know how much longer that would be true. All this talk about the future, and children, just made it that much harder to go back out there.
"Garrus." Zia took his head in her hands and kissed him softly. "It's not just us. We're fighting for all the children who aren't orphans yet, so that maybe they never have to be. For all the people who are bringing new life into the world, all the couples holding each other tonight and not wanting to lose what they have."
"I know. It's just …"
She wrapped her arms around him, climbing into his lap to get closer still. "I don't want to lose you, either. And it's entirely possible we'll come out of this on the other end. We have before. Saren, Sovereign, the Omega 4, the Collector base—"
"How many times can we do the impossible?"
"Once more," she said softly, and kissed him again. "Once more, and one more after that, and one more after that, until it's done and we can come home and raise our brood of adopted kids and quarrel and make up like everyone else."
"You paint such enchanting pictures of normalcy."
'What do I know? I've never lived a normal life."
"And it shows," he told her. "I should probably meet your mother, you know."
"Some day. After I meet your father and your sister."
Garrus clung to her, hoping that day would, could, come. Someday.
With another kiss, this one regretful, Zia climbed off him. "Duty calls, Vakarian."
"Right behind you, Shepard."
