"You know, I actually forgot that we set this up." Shepard said as she, Ashley, and Liara, walked into the Monastery space station.

"Well it looks like they didn't forget you Shepard," Ashley said, pointing towards a bronze statue of her in the middle of a garden.

"Seriously? All I did was get this place donated for their safety."

"True, but these young women often thought of themselves as forgotten by all and cared for by none," Liara chimed in, "So to them, you're more caring than any of their families."

"That's just depressing," Shepard said.

"Indeed it is," someone said from behind them. They turned to see Samara standing there with her daughters, "You have given them hope for a better future, enjoy the fame a little Shepard."

"Hey Samara, how've you been?"

"I've been well. I've been spending time with my daughters thanks to being assigned head of security."

"That's nice to hear. It's always good to spend time with family."

"IT'S HER! SHEPARD!" a voice yelled. Next thing Shepard knew she was surrounded by maidens, all of whom seemed to be shoving something towards her. She saw cakes, cookies, candies, bottles of what she assumed to be the liquor they made, and more than a few of what appeared to be different bits of art they'd made of her, small statues, sketches, full on paintings, and it looked like a VI chip marked with the logo of the group that made a VI of her.

"How did they have everything ready like this?" Ash asked Falere.

"Mother was contacted and told that you'd be visiting. She knew that we all had gifts for her, so she told everyone to gather them and to be ready." It was then that Ash noticed the basket she held behind her back that held cheeses, wine, and it looked like a hand-made note made meticulously out of fine paper with what looked like a poem written on it.

Having foreseen this reaction, Samara had several guards come to take all the gifts to the Normandy. And after about an hour of accepting thanks and one heart felt confession of gratitude from one maiden, whom she later learned had had an already abusive drunk of an ex-mercenary 'father' that had literally thrown her out onto the street for the commandos picking her up to take her away. That one actually got a hug from Shepard till she calmed down… much to the nervous cringing from several commandos.

That actually made Samara give a rare smile. It took about twenty minutes before Shepard had excepted all the gifts and was able to tell everyone that she needed to go on a mission but that she was willing to return when she had spare time.

"Give us some warning so we can prepare a feast for you!" one of the maidens shouted, getting many cheers of agreement. Shepard smiled and promised before heading back to the Normandy.

Once at the airlock Falere and Rila presented their gifts and Shepard gave them both a kiss on the cheek, causing both to blush and then run off to gloat. Samara, still smiling, smiled wider and said, "You know now that everyone here is now going to try and get a kiss as well, right?"

Shepard nodded, "Yeah, but if I can spread some happiness during this war then I'll be happy."

"They actually started a training program once everyone got here and have been working with the commandos to become an effective fighting force. Going so far as to have locator chips implanted so that they may be deployed in battle."

"Do they have weapon training?"

"Sadly, they do not. Nobody trusts them enough to supply them."

"Would you trust them if they received a shipment with enough armor and weapons to properly train with?"

"You've had a grand impact on them Shepard. They see you as one of them, broken but still willing to fight for what's right. Yes, I would trust them. Every Justicar here has agreed to start forming squads so that once the call comes, we'll be ready."

"Good, but let's hope that the call won't need to be made."

"Agreed."

Several hours later Shepard found herself in Liara's 'office' and was reading a report on a group who was willing to 'donate' several crates of heavily modified Justicar class armor and weapons to the mobile monastery. She smiled then looked over at Liara in front of all the screens.

It was late and the trip to Palaven would take several more hours, so she gave Liara a peck on the cheek and headed up to her quarters. In the entryway she found a young woman with dark tan skin, black hair, and a nervous look on her face waiting for her. She introduced herself as Communications Specialist Samantha Traynor the secondary Yeoman.

She then explained her job and a brief tour of the modifications made to the ship, luckily none of them involved removal of the modifications she'd had made while hunting down the collectors. After several minutes she left allowing Shepard to get some rest, not that she really did. She dreamt of the boy, burning.

She awoke with a start but was happy to find herself in Liara's and Ashley's arms. She looked over at the couch and saw that it was empty. Liara turned over, allowing her to use her omni-tool to send Kelly a 'where are you?' message, getting a 'I'm on deck 3' in response. Once Ash moved, she made her escape without waking either of them and headed down.

Shepard headed down and found that Kelly had commandeered the observation room and had turned it into an office and living space for herself. They talked for a while with Kelly doing a 'How're you doing' psych evaluation, something Shepard appreciated considering all that'd happened. They then moved onto all the stuff she'd gotten from the Ardat-Yakshi maidens, and Shepard gave a whistle. The booze alone would have them all drunk for a year, and some of it was expensive stuff too. Shepard guessed that while cleaning up and learning how to care for their new home some of the maidens had found some expensive stuff and had gone about having it sold and the proceeds used to buy her the gifts.

Then there were rations, packets of cryogenically frozen meat, cooking supplies, tons of candy ranging from simple chocolate to expensive candies from Thessia, one was the vid Vaenia, somehow they'd learned of her stuffed snowman Olaf because there were several stuffed toys, her love of fish was widely known thus there were several highly endangered species in tanks which she immediately had taken up to the tank in her quarters, and then finally there were the notes. One note in particular caught her eye. She guessed it was from the one needing a hug because it asked Shepard if she'd be her new 'father'.

"This Asari, Kareisha I think her name was, who's probably older than the two of us combined, wants me to be a father figure to her." (Kah-reesh-ah)

"You're good with the girls so how's this a problem?" Kelly asked with a giggle.

Shepard sighed, "All of these girls are basically imprisoned because of something that isn't their fault, and because of me wanting to keep them safe they've given me all of this stuff when they could've used the money that bought it to buy things for themselves."

"No they couldn't. Remember what Mordin once said? The nuns believe that the burden was theirs to bare. They probably would only have been allowed to buy themselves things so miniscule that it might as well have been a joke."

"True," Shepard sighed again, "I'm going to go talk to people," she gave Kelly a kiss, "See you later."

They reached Palaven's moon and after a few firefights found the guy in charge. Then after a few more they met up with Garrus and then headed off to find a Turian named Victus to be the new Primark.

When they got back on board the Normandy things started to happen, and then EDI got a body. Dr. Ava's body to be precise, and Shepard thought, 'Damn, looks good.' After discussing how it'll be helpful and could be used to give aid in combat Edi said that she would head to the bridge. Shepard stopped her and told her to put on a uniform first and that one of Ashley's should fit the 'ahem' large bust size of the android's body.

Edi agreed and headed up the elevator to retrieve one. Shepard received a message from Ash a minute later asking about it and Shepard just laughed before heading up to the galaxy map. After plotting a course to look for salvage in the Artemis Tau cluster she saw EDI walk past and noticed Trainor checking her out in an obvious, 'I want to fuck that' manor.

Shepard walked up behind her and leaned in next to her ear, "You'd better move quickly," Trainer yelped, spun around, and grabbed her heart. Shepard just smiled before continuing, "You know, before Joker falls in love with her and grabs her first." Trainer just nodded before trying to get back to work.

"Considering I'd been flirting with her even before the sexy body, I think my chances are good. But I'll definitely step up my game."

Edi spoke through a speaker on Trainer's terminal, "If you would like Specialist Trainer, I would like to go over several possible improvements to this new body. Perhaps Shepard will allow me to open one of the meat packets she received to make a nice dinner to discuss over?"

"Granted EDI," Shepard said with a smile, "Have fun Trainer but remember," she said as she turned to walk away, "A lady doesn't put out till the third date."

Later she watched the security footage and laughed like hell at the blush that bloomed on Traynor's face as she said that.

A few days later they'd scanned several systems for useful items. Things such as 'The Pillars of Strength' property of the Batarians, several spec. ops. Groups, a few ships, and several destroyed fuel depots. Thankfully Shepard had had the fuel tanks enlarged and had gotten several tanks temporarily installed in the shuttle bay for the purpose of storing as much as possible for the jumps between solar systems.

Liara had also used her contacts to begin supplying armor, weapon, and shield modifications, to Hackett's growing armada so that once the fight truly started they'd do more damage than with what they currently had. She got the idea from Joker when he mentioned how useless the Turian fleet was when they'd gone to Palaven, and when the Destiny Ascension was almost destroyed when Sovereign and the Geth had attacked the Citadel.

They'd also done a smash and grab operation on a Cerberus lab. Getting out safe had been tricky but they managed it, and then Trainer found a phony Turian signal responding to a distress signal emanating from Grissom Academy.

Getting onto the station wasn't hard, and Shepard was very surprised to see Kahlee Sanders there. She'd worked with Anderson and the two had dated off and on for years, the longest relationship he'd had, so Shepard was very happy to see the woman who could have become her mother if Anderson had just asked. As she was about to head off to find more survivors Sanders called out, "The next time you talk to David, tell him I'm still waiting for him to put a ring on my finger."

Shepard smiled and said, "I'd be happy to see him do it," before walking off. A few minutes later and a bit of lightning-fast reflexes on Liara's part and they saved one young woman from getting shot in the head by two Cerberus troops, and then save another who was in bad shape and needed medi-gel badly. The two then made their way back to Sander's position.

Then they ran into Jack, and Shepard was happy to see her wearing more than just a bikini top and shorts.

"Hey Shepard, you're looking good for having had a full mental breakdown."

"Jack, good to see you wearing more clothes. Were the male students getting too distracted?"

"More like I needed to look more professional," She then did something that actually freaked Shepard out. She turned stoic and serious, "Seriously though, how've you been? The last time I saw you, you were curled up in a ball and barely able to function."

Shepard motioned for her to follow and the two walked away from the recovering students, "It was hard Jack. It took lots of, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'there was no other way that you could have done things' type of therapy sessions as well as meds and just getting myself back together to return to some semblance of normalcy."

"Well, you're not the only one who'd done some soul searching," Shepard looked over at her and she motioned towards a middle age looking woman. She was just a normal looking woman from what Shepard could tell, "Your girl Liara and," She looked at her hand and Shepard saw that she had a ring on her finger. She smiled as Jack continued, "My girl Miranda helped me find my mother. You could believe that she had a fit when she found out that her baby hadn't died but had spent half her life being experimented on. But after that died down, we haven't left each other's side for more than a few hours since."

Shepard pulled her into a friendly arm over the shoulder hug, "It's great to hear all of that Jack. People like us, we deserve to find our happiness… also, how is it that every couple but mine has gotten married by now?"

"Uh remember that mental breakdown?"

"Oh, right."

"Don't worry Shep, you'll get your happily ever after soon enough."

Shepard broke the hug and readied her weapon, "Here's hoping. Now let's go find the rest of the students and then get out of here."

"Right, oh and be on the lookout for a familiar enough face. I'm sure he'll remember you."

Shepard headed out of Orion Hall and began clearing a way through the station and boy did she see a familiar face that brought a glimmer of hope into her heart. David Archer. The last time she'd seen him was as she'd been unplugging him from project overlord.

After he assured the two he was with that she was a friend they talked for a minute or two before heading off join up with the rest of the group.

Then after a lot of fighting and enjoying the use of a mech suit they finally made it off the station.

Having found lots of items of some importance or use she decided to return to the Citadel. She thought she'd spend a day there, finding people who could use some of the stuff she found.

Oh how she was wrong.