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Garrus awoke to a light shining in his eyes so brightly he couldn't see anything past it. "This must be human heaven," he remarked, pleased to hear his voice sounding normal in his ears. "Aren't they the ones who always want to 'go toward the light'? If this was turian heaven, there would be a bar. I was promised a bar."

To his utter delight, the voice he loved best replied, "Don't you dare, Garrus Vakarian. Bar or light or shiny pink unicorns, you're staying right here with me." She had been crying; he could hear it. She was crying again now, but he could tell they were tears of relief.

"Shepard?" He squinted. "I can't see a thing."

To his relief, the light was moved, pointing away from his face, and as his eyes adjusted to the change, he could recognize her there. The soft fuzz of dark hair, her beautiful features, her hardsuit—even more battered than he remembered, he noticed.

"You scared the hell out of me," she told him, reaching for his hand and holding it tightly.

"Well, you kept saying you were a better shot than I am, so I figured I'd give you a chance to prove it."

"I think you might have gone a bit too far."

He shrugged. Or tried to—his shoulder twinged and convinced him he'd better not do that again soon. "Just the usual minor flesh wound. Did you give those Reaper bastards a few slugs for me?"

"More than a few. It's over, Garrus. The Reapers are gone. Obliterated." She smiled. "It was so satisfying to see them exploding."

"And the rachni queen?"

Shepard shook her head. "I think she was ready, though. And glad to be able to get revenge on them for what they'd done to her. We promised to care for her children, to give them a world to colonize, far away where no one would need to come after them again."

"What about—?" So many names came to mind that he couldn't think of one to start with.

"Okay. They're all okay."

"All? No kidding. Really? Everyone?"

Shepard nodded, her smile widening. "No kidding. Broken bones, internal injuries … I don't think anyone made it out completely unscathed—but alive. No one's going anywhere for a while. The Crucible did a lot of damage to the mass relays, which will have to be fixed. But with so many fleets here on Earth, everyone's highly motivated. A team of salarians and asari are out there right now working on the Sol Relay, and we believe the others are in progress as well, although communications are sluggish, as you can imagine."

"It's really over, then." It was hard to believe.

"Yeah. And you missed it, lazybones."

"I'm sorry."

"I know." Her smile faded and she pulled her chair closer to where he lay. He hadn't noticed the state of the room before—it was small and cramped, the walls cracked, and the single light a desk lamp someone had brought in. If this was where he had been put to recover, he had a pretty clear picture of how extensive the damage was here on Earth.

"Zia, are you all right?"

"I'm fine. I'm going to have scars in some interesting places—"

"How interesting?"

"By the time you're well enough to go looking, they should be healed enough for you to investigate," she told him, her brown eyes glinting wickedly.

"So now what?"

"Now you get well. I help Anderson and Hackett clean up here on Earth. Liara's gone to the relay to help with that, and I think Kasumi is out there as well. Jack and Grunt and Wrex and Vega are all on clean-up; Cortez and Joker are doing flyovers looking for survivors and any remnants of Reaper forces that might be out there. Dr. Chakwas hasn't sat down since the battle ended. She was the one who worked on you—I wouldn't have trusted you to anyone else. Kaidan's become our liaison to the Council and the rest of the galaxy—he and Tali and EDI and Traynor have been working nonstop on communications, trying to get reliable systems up and running."

"Nice time for a vacation, then." Garrus faked a yawn. Well, not entirely faked.

"You go right ahead and rest up, Vakarian. I have lots of plans for you once you're back on your feet."

"Such as?"

"Such as us getting married, as soon as we can get a path open back to the Citadel so your family can be with us. Adopting a whole houseful of children. Retiring to that tropical beach you mentioned."

"Commander Shepard, retiring?"

"Archangel, too." She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed the back of his talons. "That was … I thought I'd lost you, and I just had to leave you there, not knowing if you'd still—if you'd still be—" She took a deep breath, her voice shaky as she continued. "If you'd be alive when I got back. I never want to go through that again. If you really think retirement sounds boring, I'm sure we can both get all the work we want, but—"

Garrus shook his head. "Nothing with you could ever be boring. I'm happy to retire with you and spend a couple of lifetimes lying on a beach watching our kids play. I love you, Zia."

"I love you, too. I never want to think about a galaxy without you in it, Garrus."

"You never have to. I promise."