There we go guys. I tried to make this one longer than the last one! I'm going to try and make sure that each chapter has at least 2000 words minimum from now on.

As I said before, this story is to give a version of Shepard's life after the defeat of the Reapers. So what I write has no real relevance to cannon or whatever, I'm just making stuff up.

I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Two

Shepard awoke abruptly, wincing as the pains shot through his broken body. He quickly looked around the room to gather his bearings, having a mild panic attack as he remembered where he was. After a few moments, he rested his head back onto his pillow, content with his location. A quiet yawn caused Shepard to remember that he wasn't alone. A smile crept up onto his face as he gazed upon Tali sleeping with him, holding onto him tightly, protectively. He softly stroked her back as he thought about what he was going to do with this Quarian in terms of their future, causing a low moan to pass through her filter. Shepard sighed as he realised that Hackett will most probably not let him get on with his life anytime soon, even despite how much Hackett respected Shepard. He will want a full debriefing of what happened on the Citadel, -probably every fucker in charge will want a bloody debriefing- he thought to himself, and Hackett will most probably want to use him as the symbol of unity in the following months as the entirety of Hammer, what was left of it anyway, was stranded in the Sol system. –It's going to a long few months- he thought as he sighed again.

With the betrayal and death of Councilor Udina back on the Citadel, a lot of pressure and expectations had fallen onto Hackett's shoulders. His firm and decisive leadership of humanities fleets and leadership over the alliance joint fleets during the final assault had earned him in the eyes of humanity the position of being best possible representative of the human people. Humanities role in the final battle may have even finally cemented humanities spot in the galactic stage and removed the stigma surrounding the human people. –Hell, I've made a job of saving this galaxies fucking ass, so that sure as hell should count for something- Shepard thought to himself, smirking at the thought of humanity being the ones to ultimately rally the galactic races together in the end when the other galactic races looked down on humanity as a sub-par race. –Hackett will be a bloody good leader- he thought to himself with a satisfied smile.

Shepard quickly snapped out of his deep thought trance and turned his attention back to Tali. He snuggled himself closer to Tali and wrapped his arms around her body, hugging her tightly. His motions caused Tali to stir and awake. She yawned softly and quickly looked around the room and then finally to Shepard, as if she were making sure that it wasn't all a dream.

"Oh hey Dominic, did you sleep well?" she said sleepily, stretching her arms out, "That pull down bed wasn't that comfortable so I thought that I would just stay next to you… I hope you didn't mind?"

"Sorry Tali, I didn't mean to wake you, and yes I did sleep well… very well in fact thanks to a certain someone." Shepard said through a grin, also stretching his arms, only to quickly drop them again as pains shot through them. Shepard let out a sharp gasp as a particularly harsh bout of pain swept through his body.

"Keelah Dominic, stop moving so much, you are going to hurt yourself more. I want you to be strong and healthy again, not turn into a cripple because you thought the big mighty Shepard was too big and mighty too rest in his bed." Tali said in a half-mocking, half-serious tone as she stroked his chest, taking extra care to be as gentle as possible so she didn't cause any unnecessary pain to the man she loved, "and besides, it's kind of fun being able to bully the savior of the universe!" she added, softly prodding Shepard in the ribs and then letting off an evil laugh.

"Is that right?" Shepard replied through a laugh as he shifted his body over, ignoring the sudden influx of pain, pushing Tali off the bed, causing her to let off a high pitched squeal as she tumbled off the bed. Shepard sounded another hearty laugh and then braced himself for the inevitable retribution he was about to face as Tali got back up onto her feet.

"You giant bosh'tet!" Tali exclaimed as she quickly moved back to Shepard's side, prodding him in the ribs a little bit harder this time. "Do you really think that you will get away with that Dominic?"

"Ouch Tali, that really hurt!" replied Shepard as he made a dramatic show of rubbing his ribs and putting on a sad face, whilst making exaggerated sobbing sounds.

"I'm not falling for your usual tactics this time Dominic!" Tali responded as she once again prodded Shepard in the ribs, causing him to laugh this time and instead of resuming his dramatic show he shot his arms out and grabbed Tali by the waist. Tali made a show of trying to escape his grasp, but then she let Shepard pull her in towards him and they embraced warmly, giggling at the little escapade that just took place between them.

They had been laying together for a couple of hours, simply cuddling each other and talking softly together when suddenly the door swung open and a grinning Taurian came striding into the room.

"Well look who decided to finally wake up you lazy bastard!" Garrus boomed as he marched towards Shepard, "and it looks like the prince has found his princess. We can all live happily ever after now!' he added, winking towards Tali. Tali face palmed, rolling her eyes behind her mask at Garrus's words.

"Don't worry about knocking or anything you prick Garrus!" Shepard retorted in a joking tone, "with a head like that mate, I wouldn't be barging through any doors, you would give anyone who didn't know you a bloody scare," continued Shepard, grinning broadly.

"Kind words for your best buddy there Shepard," Garrus replied as he clasped Shepard's arm, "it's good to see you up and awake, how are you holding up?" added Garrus, much more serious now, a genuine look of concern crossing his face as he looked towards Shepard and then to Tali, who was sitting up next to Shepard, tightly holding his other hand.

"It's damn good to see that you've pulled through as well Garrus. I'm holding up pretty well, just I feel like absolute shit, I can't move without bloody pains," Shepard replied as he clasped Garrus's arm back, "I'm doing fine," he added and then he gazed towards Tali, "we're doing fine."

"I just can't believe that it's all finally over…" said Tali in an exhausted voice, "we have nothing to worry about anymore, our fates are finally ours and ours only to decide."

"All my life I have been fighting the Reapers. Now I just don't know what to do… I-I've been a soldier my entire life…" Shepard said through a sigh as Tali gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, "I can finally get on with my life."

"We all can now Shepard, we all can, and it's all thanks to you. Without you, it would have been a completely different story today, hell I don't think we would have even made it this far," said Garrus, content with his words, "I owe you a round or two Shepard."

"What you said on Earth Garrus, it meant a lot to me. I've never had a better friend in my life," replied Shepard, the pride clearly audible in his voice, "There's no way that I could have done it without you at my back."

"I never would have pinned you for the emotional type Shepard."

A laugh erupted between the two friends.

"Enjoy it while it lasts Garrus, I can only deal with your face for so long."

"It's been a hell of a ride Shepard."

"That it has Garrus," replied Shepard, the relief heard strongly in his voice, "that it has."

Tali simply sat there next to Dominic, holding his hand and listening to the two friends talk to each other. A smile had formed behind her mask as she listened to them speak; she loved hearing the banter between them, but most of all she just loved how they spoke to each other. Their friendship had been forged in the same way as hers had been with Dominic, through fire and blood, and they shared a deep bond that would never be broken. Just hearing Dominic talk freely with nothing weighing down on his voice anymore made her heart flutter, he was truly hers now, there was nothing holding him back any more. A sudden wave of sadness swept over Tali's face as she remembered the sight of Earth from looking out the side window of the Normandy. It was one thing to see the destruction first-hand on foot as they fought through the streets of London, but it was another thing to see the scale of destruction caused by the Reapers from the Normandy. A pang of guilt hit her as she realised that her home world, Rannoch, was relatively untouched by the Reapers, whilst Earth had taken the full brunt of a Reaper invasion.

Her thoughts then started to drift towards Rannoch. Dominic had absolutely stunned her by his determination to help her people and retake her home world. She knew that Dominic was stubborn when he put his mind towards something, but keelah… he was able to unite the Geth and Qaurians as well as taking down a Reaper by himself! The smile found its way back onto her face at the thought of Admiral Han'Gerrel trying to come to terms with the fact that the Geth actually wanted to help the Qaurians. The thought made her giggle. Her thoughts then drifted towards her other friends and family. She wanted to see Auntie Raan again and to show off Dominic to her. A wave of sadness swept over her as she remembered Kal'Reegar. He was also so dutiful and stoic. Dominic had told her that he had received an email from Primarch Victus saying that Kal'Reegar had led a squad of Qaurians in defending valuable Taurian war assets, dying in the process. She knew that it was an end that he would have seen fitting. She was proud of him. Then her thoughts drifted towards her father, Rael. How she wished that he could see how far she had come. If only he had lived long enough to take a step on Rannoch… She shook her head. Such things should remain in the past; she had her future… their future, she corrected, to look forward to now.