Jane

She really had to give it to her mate, he really knew how to build a home. She never doubted his ability to get shit done once he put his mind to it - the bastard too damn stubborn to quit - but building a beach house for the two of them and the kids almost single-handedly was a feat that trumped her own. What's killing the Reapers compared to building this two storied masterpiece by hand with minor help from herself and the occasional visitor from their Normandy family?

Jane wasn't much for gauging the 'style' of buildings and architecture, but she knew even with the beach-home look, there lay many hidden secrets and defenses Garrus devised to protect their family even here on Virmire. Large windows along the living area and master bedroom belayed the fact that the panes were triple reinforced with a secondary protection of massive metal shutters that could be drawn up from their concealed compartments beneath the large sun deck.

The front of the home - and windows and balconies of the two upper rooms meant for the twins as they grew older - had a large entryway laid in sand-colored, square stones broken with massive windows that spanned from the ground floor and up to the second, overshadowed by a small overhang of the silver roof. Even reinforced, Garrus didn't trust this side of their home to be open to the sea and rolling waves and built it so that their children's rooms would overlook the Wraith's living sector, protected by the heavily organized and guarded compound they faced.

Stepping through the entryway lead into a beautifully designed, marble floored foyer. Half steps lead onto a platform that soon broke off into more side steps on each corner that lead right and left into a large, open living area. Directly above the open hall between entry and living area, a walkway bordered in dark wooden banisters lay above and connected the upper floor bedrooms on either side. Two locked doors in the hall lead to an armory on one side and a workout room on the other, both built to be secure and without windows in case worst came to worst and the family needed to bunker down against enemies.

Up the short steps to the left lay the kitchen - and small breakfast counter closer to the windows overlooking the beach - and stairs leading up to the second story. A wall broke the kitchen from seating area, a dining table directly opposite before opening into the high-ceilinged, window surrounded collection of couches and entertainment system.

Across the deck from the kitchen and past the seating room, shaded windows and a small glass paned door led into the master bedroom, a large room they were currently trying to share with their twins while the finishing construction upstairs was complete. Once complete, the two of them would have the large bedroom - larger than the Loft on the Normandy, even - all to themselves from the walk-in closet to the luxurious spa of a bathroom that led to it.

Jane didn't know much about the design of the upper floors - the second with the twin's rooms and open airy loft above - but she knew her husband well enough to know the meticulous work he's put into the beautiful doesn't end on just this level of the home. Never, in all their wishes of a future in retirement, did she imagine a home like this and she also didn't ever expect to see her mate develop such skills to bring it to life.

Time to enjoy this house while we can before the two little monsters rip it apart. As if on cue, monstrous stomping like a stampede of klixen come plowing through the living room and into the kitchen where she and Ellie share cups of tea and companionable small talk. "Here they come," she says as she quickly sets down her mug and watches Damocles and Cassia, arms full of toys from their play on the seating area's floor. "Think of the little devil spawn and they shall come."

Ellie chuckles softly and smiles at Cassia showing her a toy of a human princess doll. "She's beautiful, sweetheart." The little toddler grins and flaps her mandibles, chirping, but Damocles on Jane's side of the breakfast table merely shoves a toy varren at her.

"I don't want that." He makes a growling whine and jerks his shoulders in a pout. "What?" She chuckles and takes it. "Fine, fine. Thank you." Smiling, she jerks her chin towards the pile of toys on the rug laid out before the living room windows. "Why don't you go play some more?" She points at the large, bulky ship toy meant for safety with little people prone to putting everything under the sun in their mouths. "I bet that ship's captain could show Cassia's princess doll a ride to her… uh…"

"Ball?"

"Right." Jane nods in thanks to the older woman. "Her ball… to see her prince."

"No."

"No? Why no?" She lifts a brow in confusion at his stern shake of his head. "She doesn't want to go? Cassia?" Looking to her daughter, the little child grins and bounces on her feet. "Does she want to go to a princess party?" Cassia nods rapidly with chitters of excitement. "Then ask Damocles if he can fly her there. What do you say, Damocles?"

"No!" He throws the toy on the ground with a huff of upset and it clatters across the tile floor.

"What the hell was that for?" Narrowing her eyes, Jane is damn sure her son is testing her for something she has no chance of understanding. Not unless she was two years old, apparently. "Alright, I'll bite. What do you want?". Damocles clambers closer and grabs the hem of her shirt, trying to use it to climb up. "Words! Words! Don't ruin my damn shirt!"

"Gimm-me-ee!" His hand gropes the air towards his varren toy on the table with needy, desperate grunts and Jane sighs, completely lost at what this kid is thinking in that tiny head of his. "Mine! Mine!"

Throwing up her hands in surrender, Jane grabs the toy and hands it over. Damocles snatches it from her hand and runs towards the living room. "Not so fast, young man!" He stops mid step and spins, frown of frustration on his face. "Pick that up," she says and points to the ship on the kitchen floor. Instead of listen, Damocles merely shakes his head as he's like to do lately since their second birthday and she sighs, fighting not to give away any sign of weakness by rubbing her temple. I can stare down charging krogan, so, certainly, I can get one little child to listen to me. She tries to change tactics. "If you get that, I'll give you a cookie?"

"Nuh-uh." Dammit. "Don't want."

"Damocles." She uses the 'Commander Shepard' voice - minus some ire for any poor bastard looking at the business end of her gun. "Pick. That. Up. Don't make me get your father." Who will be about as successful, if not less so, than me.

"No!" He starts to clench his eyes shut, vocals raising to high and piercing trills. Jesus this kid can fucking belt it. Soon, Cassia begins to frown up at the two older women in accusation, and Jane knows that one is about to start up. Quick! Find a way to stop the fire!

"Damocles." Ellie's voice is stern, yet not enraged as she stands and looks down at the boy in the midst of his defiant tantrum. "Pick up your toys."

Her calm command seems to cut through the stubbornness as Damocles sniffles and looks up at his aunt. Their eyes seem to stare each other down before he gives in and ducks his head with a soft, "Okay." Properly scolded into listening with just the nonverbal promise of punishment, he runs over and picks up his toy.

"Ah-ah," she says, stopping him from running back to their play in the living room behind his jovial and already recollected sister. "Say you're sorry to mommy."

His tiny blue eyes look up to Jane, glistening with as close to tears as he can psychically get, and she smiles softly in promise that he isn't in any more trouble than this stern talking to. "Sorry."

"Forgiven," she says and leans down to kiss his fringe - which he promptly tries to scrub off. "Now go play." He nods and rushes back to their unexplainable game of jumbled words, sounds, and crashing toys. Once out of earshot, Jane narrows her eyes in suspicion at Ellie as she returns to the table and her tea. "How the hell did you do that?"

Chuckling, she shrugs. "I have no idea. I merely told him to do it."

"Bullshit. Garrus and I try everyday to get them to do shit and it's always 'no' until we have to trick them into doing it or get mad at them. Which we really hate." She jerks a hand towards the twins. "And you just waltz in and they listen! What. The. Fuck."

"They're just toddlers. I'm sure they'll grow out of it."

"Says?"

"The vids and extranet?" As Jane lifts a brow, Ellie shrugs. "I may have been researching children like them ever since coming back in hopes that you'd let me babysit someday."

Jane's expression softens as she looks over her grey-haired friend and nods. "You only had to ask. You've only been here about a month, and I didn't want to force anything on you." She huffs a laugh and sips her tea, putting it down to add, "And Arcanus is the last one I'd ever imagine asking to do anything along the lines of 'babysitting'."

"'I do not babysit, I have much more important matters to attend to'," Ellie impersonates, making a stern and slightly exasperated expression on her face, and Jane laughs. "But I'm not asking about Arcanus watching them, I want to watch them."

Snorting, Jane waves a hand in a 'have at 'em' towards the living area. "Go away and take them whenever you please. I think Garrus might thank you for taking them away for a bit so he can work without having to worry about what ifs or stop what he's doing whenever I have to piss or what not. Besides, sometimes I need to breathe without 'momma! Momma!' at all hours of the day."

Still, even with her frustrations, Jane can't help the happy chuckle of thinking to all the ridiculousness she has to put up with now that it's already in the past. In the moment, she questioned her sanity of ever having the children in between bouts of pulling out her hair, but when she can think back on them, she can see the enjoyment those two little bastards have brought into their lives. "If you really want to spend time with them, you only have to ask and you can spend however long. You apparently have more control over them than I do. But - and this is a big one - they still haven't mastered potty training, so you might want to wait."

Ellie chuckles and moves to refill her mug with some steaming water and dip in a new tea bag. "I've never ever thought about that, but I'm sure it shouldn't be too hard if they've already started learning." Jane snorts and the woman laughs. "That bad?"

"Not really, but let's just say I never really thought about how turians go until I started with them." While she's spent so long with Garrus and managed to change their diapers, she hadn't really considered the fact that they wouldn't all have the same anatomy as herself. It was quite the shock when Garrus sat them down - even their son - and told them to go 'potty' without teaching Damocles how to urinate standing up.

"Surprised by the cloaca thing?"

"Surprised is putting the entire night of me utterly flabbergasted and stuttering as I tried to restart my brain." How was she supposed to know that all waste comes from one place? Sure, she'd heard the word 'cloaca' used plenty of times, but she didn't know it actually worked that way. At least, she figured, it helped her potty train the kids whenever her mate was too busy or not around to do it. All she had to explain was why she looked different, but that wasn't too difficult a conversation at this age beyond the repeated 'why's. "Good to know about that now and not make a fool of myself around anyone smart enough to remember my shock. Well, besides Garrus, but I've had to explain weird human stuff enough to him to have a freebie."

"Speaking of differences between species, what are your plans for languages?"

She hums around a sip of tea and sets down her glass, drumming her fingers against the ceramic. "Garrus and I talked about it. I think we'll keep with the Galactic Standard at least until Garrus is done with the house and then we'll start with, at least, Palaven and Alliance Standard. I'm not sure if he wants to teach them Palaveni as well, though."

"Right, because it's like Latin for us. Barely used anymore."

Jane nods. "He knows it, his family knows it, but not many turians do. Especially not turians not Palaven born." Looking over to the twins, she exhales a heavy breath at the idea of the amount of work that will definitely need to be put into this task. "We figure that even if we can't all pronounce the same languages, we will at least be able to understand them. I can't exactly speak any turian language beyond a few sounds, and they won't be able to speak English, but at least we can understand what each of us is saying." She chuckles and looks to Ellie. "And writing, now that I think of it, but hell if we're starting with that too."

Ellie smiles and nods. "You know, Arcanus and I made a sort of promise and dare to learn each other's language."

"And how did that work out?" Jane lifts a brow as Ellie clears her throat, makes some clicks with her tongue followed by a low roll of her tongue. Once done, the redhead quirks the corners of her lips and tilts her head in a nod of 'not bad'. "What did you say."

"Hello, friend, my name is El." She shrugs. "It's the closest thing to my name without horribly mistranslating it back into English." Making a mock pout, she adds, "Arcanus thinks I sound like a dying whale once he saw them on a vid."

Jane laughs and nods. "Now that you say it - hey!" Jerking in mock surprise of the woman tossing her damp spoon napkin at her, she snorts and waves her hand. "Hey, I'll probably brutalize it too. Was that Standard?" Ellie nods.

"I don't actually know if Arcanus knows Palaveni, he's never told me."

"Garrus mentioned that it's hard even for them to speak if they haven't been speaking it all along and that it's not really translatable to other languages by Palaven Standard. Sounds like a pain to try and learn as a human."

"You're probably right." Her next words die on her lips as the terrors come running back into the kitchen to crowd Jane. "Looks like mom's in high demand today."

Jane snorts and sets her mug down to turn her attention to the twins. "Just you wait." Looking down to her son and daughter, she smiles. "What's up?"

"Hungry, mommy," Cassia says with a pout of her lip and mandibles that she knows is sure to get her whatever she wants. Usually, Jane tries to pretend she's unaffected where her husband falls all over their daughter for it, but she always breaks, only putting on a show of strength. These little jerks are my weakness.

"And what about you?" She asks her son and he grins, nodding so roughly she's sure he'll get a killer of a headache. "Why do I ever ask? Of course you are." Chuckling, she lays a hand on his head and smiles at her daughter with her doll still in hand.

"What do you feel like? Some Blasto Bits?" She lifts a brow at their head shake and stands, heading to the cabinets to look for food. "A peanut butter and jelly sandwich?" Another head shake and she crosses her arms, turns to them, and leans a hip back on the counter. "Afli slices." No. "Cheese and louza sandwiches." No. Jane sighs at nearly all of their favorite foods going out the window. "You gotta give me a hint." They yell together, jumbling up any legible answer, and Jane chuckles, holding up her hands to still their shouts. "Whoa, calm down and tell me one at a time."

Cassia is first to blurt out an excited squeal of "Ice cream!" and Damocles shortly follows her up with a chirping demand of "Fwrench fries!"

"You're kidding, right? You wanted that last night. You can't live off of ice cream and french fries, you two."

"But I want it!'' Cassia stomps a foot and juts her chin in a pout, butt Jane shakes her head.

"Mommy! Pwrease?!" Damocles tries his best to be cute, and Jane almost looks to Ellie for help when the light thumbs of work boots comes down the side stairs from the upper floors.

"What's this I hear about food?" Her husband asks with a chuckle and cheerful - yet tired - rumble, but it soon grinds to a halt as he catches sight of the near tantrum situation. "Uh oh."

"'Uh oh' is right," Ellie says with a smile hidden behind her tea.

Looking to him, her eyes pleading, Jane motions the twins. "Remind these little monsters why it's important to eat more than sugary and salty shit?"

His mandibles click against his paint smeared chin before he looks down to them and lifts a brow plate. "Damocles, Cassia. You both know you can't have only ice cream and french fries." He chuckles and shrugs. "At least like turian food-"

"Not. Helping."

That only gets her a smirk before he nods once in 'you're right' and she can't quite blame him for wanting some amusement in his hard days - days that wouldn't be so long and tiring if he'd just let her help him. "Your mother is right," he says as he kneels down. "You need to eat real food now. You can have ice cream and fries with your snacks, but not as the only thing."

Damocles growls in frustration while his sister stomps her foot again. "Please?" She draws out the word with a needy whine, knowing that her father's resistance isn't as strong when he's been working, but, thank gods, he stands firm and shakes his head.

"No, Cassia." He stands and nudges them both towards the dining table and to their two chairs that sit higher to level the younger Vakarians with the table. "Now sit while mommy makes us something to eat. Then," he continues in order to cut off their protests and questions, "you can have what you want. But only as much as mommy says."

Yeah, thanks. Make me the one to deal with that big a responsibility. I might as well be taking on a yahg with nothing but sweet talks and good intentions.

Love you too, Jane. She gives him a glare from the kitchen and he flicks a mandible in a smirk. At that, she flicks a very expressive gesture with her finger with the twins in a position where they can't see. Let's make sure you don't teach them that anytime soon.

Jane waves him off and searches the fridge for some supplies to make the three each a sandwich, the twins a mix of levo and dextro and their father a larger dextro only portion. She can hear Garrus talking with the twins, his low voice at odds with the excited and high pitched chatter of their children. Ellie watches her make one sandwich meant for one of the kids before wordlessly grabbing another plate and making the second.

"Might as well learn what they want if I'm going to be babysitting soon," she explains with a smile as Jane looks between the plate and woman with a quirked brow. "Is this what they usually eat?"

"It's the most we can get them to eat for a snack. Fills them for the time being without actually keeping them from being hungry for dinner." She sighs. "Be ready for their tastes to be in constant transition, though. Last week it was pickles and cookies."

Ellie laughs and offers to take the two kids plates while Jane leads with her mate's. "I'm not surprised. I used to take care of my cousin when I was a teenager. She was probably the pickiest child around - until now," she adds with a chuckle as she sets the plates down.

Damocles looks expectantly for his fries and pouts when he doesn't find them, but Jane lays a hand on his shoulder. "Easy there, soldier," she says with a chuckle at his angry arm cross - The attitude is strong with this one. "Mommy just doesn't have enough hands." Also, I was trying to see if you'd forget.

Nice try with that one.

Shut it or I'll leave you to bath them - alone.

He actively shutters at the threat, the twins some of the hardest creatures to bathe in the Milky Way. Where one will splash and make a large enough mess to flood the room as she plays, only to run around the house naked in some imaginary world, the other will fight tooth and talon to keep from ever touching the warm water as if he'll melt in an instant. It takes both saviors of the galaxy working together just to get the two cleaned.

Oh, how they have fallen. From Reapers to nightmare two year olds.

Heating up a pair of individually packaged french fries in their heating unit, Jane motions with her chin to Ellie to grab their mugs of tea in order for them to join the others at the table as she grabs the ketchup. Can never eat fries without ketchup. Universal, I guess.

Once seated beside her mate, Jane watches as Ellie - despite her fears - falls into an easy and relaxed conversation with the twins. At least, the closest thing to a conversation with babbling toddlers that have a tendency to murder all intelligible language and invent their own jumbled words. Even worse is their habit of giving anyone who can't understand their secret language a look of complete disbelief. Still, Ellie handles it well and, with a shared look to her mate, Jane realizes that both the woman's worries were unfounded and that Ellie will protect their children just as anyone else in their chosen Normandy family would. There's just something about the chemistry between the three that makes her sure of it.