Hello it is Littleswiss and sorry for the waiting, you can blame me and the university. Me because writer block and university… because it's university. Thank you for all of your support and a big thank you to Mikle Silver, it's you that motivated me to continue. And for that I say thank you. Oh for the question if Garen will have a girlfriend, the answer is very probably no.

So here's chapter 8.

I don't own Mass Effect, bioware does, only my character belong to me. It's also applies to pop culture references.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Diana looks pissed while she asks me why baby-shepard doesn't know what a school is.

"Listen here, she's a child and she's old enough to go to school and you , by reason I don't know, didn't tell her about it. She needs to go to school and to learn , to make friends and to have a normal childhood." The last part is harsch. Wow, I definitely didn't see her that pissed. It's really brief but I can see some hate and fear in her eyes, however it's just a second. What I could have seen in those eyes make me angry and I do not know why.

"I will tell you why I don't want her in a school." I snarl. "You know what happened when I left her in the care of someone before I met you? They took her from me!" I roar. "And I think you have an idea of what happened of them." I say darkly.

"It's for her own good! She needs to go to school!" She shouts

"Stop…"

"She's my daughter! I have the right to know what's good for her. And I'm sure that I'm capable of teaching her myself!" I shout back

"Stop fighting please…"

"Do you want her to be asocial?!" Diana counters." She needs a stable environment…" When she says that, bad memories come back to me and I snap. An uncontrollable rage takes possession of me and I grab her by the neck and pin her against the wall.

"Do not finish that sentence…" I say very darkly before I'm interrupt.

"STOP" what… That shout surprises me and I let go of Diana and she gasps for air. I turn my head to see Jane crying. "stops…" she says it in a whisper. It breaks my heart. I tentatively raise my right hand to touch her cheek.

"Jane…" before I can make contact, her eyes widens and she gets out of reach and start running towards her bedroom and lock herself in.

What I have done. Now she's heartbroken and scared of me. All that just for a stupid story of school. I clench my fists in frustration. I'm angry, furious, at myself. I need to cool down.

" Garen…" I hear Diana but I don't' look at her. I walk towards the front door, open it and leave the flat without a word.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Diana didn't know what to do at the moment. It all started because of me, only because I couldn't control myself. She didn't know if she should go find Garen or try to talk to Jane. She took a chair from the living room and sat on it. Her fists were tightened and against her head. She sat there for a few minutes, thinking of what happened. Finally, she took her decision and stood up from the chair. She walked to the door of Jane's room and knocked on it.

"Jane, it's me, please let me in." After she said that, two minutes had passed. Finally she heard the noise of feet and the door opened. What she saw made her heart break. Jane's eyes were all red and tears were still coming out. Diana kneeled in front of her.

"Come here" she said with her arms opened. Jane flung in her and hugged her with all her strength. She cried into the shoulder of the ex-bounty hunter.

"Shhhhh. It's alright now. " Diana told to the little redhead. However Jane still cried for a few minutes. When she stopped, Diana took her by the shoulder and moved her to face her.

"Are you ok now?" Jane nodded. "Do you want to talk?" Diana asked her. She nodded again. Diana took Jane in her arms and walked towards the couch. She dropped gently Shepard on the couch and after that, she took the chair she used before and placed it in front of the little girl. They stayed in silence for a few minutes and finally.

"Is it my fault?" Shepard asked between sobs." Is it my fault that you and Dada fought?" Diana was a little taken aback by that question.

"What? No, it's absolutely not your fault. It's mine." She told her.

"B-but it was about me…" Jane didn't finish her sentence because she started sobbing again.

"Maybe it was about you, but it is not your fault. Sometime we are the subject of some dispute, sometimes it is our fault but in this case, it's not your fault. Do you understand'" She asked the girl.

"Yes." Responded the redhead. Diana got up from her chair and sat down next to Shepard. She made signs to Jane to come to her and gave her a hug. Shepard hugged Diana and cried against her. After 10 minutes of hugging Jane, Diana saw through the window of the living room that the sun was setting and look down to see that Jane had fallen asleep. She didn't want to wake her so she stayed where she was and close her eyes to think about the whereabouts of her krogan friend. And before she realized she too falls asleep.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Diana woke up, she felt a weight against her legs and looked down to see that Shepard had her head on her legs. Without making a noise, she looked at her omni-tool and saw it was 8 o'clock. Without making any sudden movement, she took Shepard head and with gentleness, she got up from the couch and put gently Shepard's head on the couch. She walked, careful to make some loud noises, around the flat and looked into Garen's bedroom. It was empty. The bed was clean. She was starting to get a little worried, but she told herself that he would be back soon… maybe.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

First person pov

When I was out of the flat complex, I was still furious at myself. I started walking in a random direction and walked, stomped, for a while. Everyone got out of my way but I didn't pay attention at all of what was happening around me. When I finally calmed down, I noticed that I was in the shady parts of Vancouver. It was exactly like I imagined: A lot of hobos, some prostitutes in the corners and gang members.

And that's how I got here. Well I think it's the perfect place to blow some steam, a lot of people are searching for troubles in that kind of place. Even If I smile of the prospect of a fight, I can't stop myself thinking that it is my fault that my baby-shepard cried. I also screwed up with Diana; I was fucking strangling her back there! I hope that she will kinda forgive me. While I'm thinking about that, someone bumps into me so I turn around to see who it is. And look what have we here, a member of a gang if I refer by the color scheme of his armor. And he also seems to be drunk.

"Watch it human, I'm not in the mood." I say with threats. Really I'm not in the mood but if he search for a fight; I'm going to say no.

"Fuck you, you big fat…thing." Well he's drunker than I thought. My answer? Grab him by the neck and pin him again the nearby wall.

"Listen here, human." God I love to say that. "Like I said before, I'm not in the mood, so either you shut your mouth or I will rip your throat out. Your choice." I think he's not that drunk, because if I'm correct by the face he makes, he's thinking. After 10 seconds he stops making that weird face and look at me, saying nothing. Smart choice. I release him and he falls on his butt gasping for air. I turn around and start walking random.

I keep walking for around 10 minutes and found a bar. It's called The Tempest. It's an odd name for a bar. Maybe it's linked to the title of the play of Shakespeare. Well like I care. The neon of the title are damaged because the s is not alight. I walk to the front door and it opens in front of me. Apparently it's not very common that an alien enter this bar, because when I enter, everyone, I mean everyone, stop what they were doing and look at me. I can see some eyebrows lift, other seems scared and a few put their hand near their gun. I look at them for a few seconds before I walk towards the bar. The bartender is looking at me with some fear, because he's pinching his mustache.

I don't think that the stool will support my weight, so I just put my arms on the bar. I look at the bartender.

"Do you have ryncole?" I ask him. He jumps a little at that. Now he just start to sweat. He gulps and finally has the courage to responds.

"Yes I have some. Would you like to have a glass of it?" He asks me.

"Give me all of your stock." I tell him. He seems a little surprised. But he quickly recover and he goes to the back door to take the bottles of ryncole. He comes back with three bottles. He put them of front of me and take a glass behind him and he's going to put it on front of me. I tell him with my hand that I don't want it. After that he leaves me alone to my drinks. I take one and uncork it and start to drink.

After I finish my first bottle, I take the second one and uncork it. When I start to drink, I hear some music start to play in the background. I think the bartender thought it might appease the tension. And the song is really old, from this period of time of course. I think the title is the story o'my lf.

When I'm about to take the third one, a hand grab it before I can. Apparently someone wants to seek for trouble. I look up and turn my head to the left to see that the guy from before, the one I pinned against a wall by the neck, has bring some friends, if you count 10 dudes in similar armor as him, some. And he's the one who grab my bottle.

"Look what we have…here." He said. "The thing that grab my neck." He says it a bit slow, the alcohol I presume. He uncorks the bottle.

"If I were you I wouldn't drink it." I tell him. Really, ryncole is not for another species than the krogan. He looks at the bottle and take a swing. Wait for it… and he promptly vomit on the floor. After he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, he looks at me with murder in his eyes. And he does the stupid thing: he throws the bottle at my head and it broke against my face, however I don't even move.

"Well if you want to play like that…" I say while cracking my hands. When I'm finished with them, I need to take care of a matter that concerns my baby girl.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When I come back to my flat, it's around 9.50 a.m. I open the front door and I'm tackled, more like someone ran into my legs, and I'm being hugged. I look down to see that's my baby-shepard. Her hair is a mess and I can see that her eyes are still a bit red. She still in her pajamas, a bigger version of the one she had when she was a baby.

"Dada! You came back!" She shouts looking at me while she's stuck on my leg. I missed you and your energy. I kneel down and open my arms to receive a proper hug from her. While I'm hugging her, I see Diana standing in the lounge. She's in her favorite clothes: her green hoodie and black pants.

"I see you finally came back." She says to me.

"Yep." I stop hugging Jane and tell to go play in her room because I need to talk to Diana. Jane looks at me with some fears because I think she's afraid that we will "argue" again. I assure her than no, I just needed to talk to her, nothing serious. She nods at that and goes to her room. I turn towards Diana.

"Listen, I wanted to apologize for last night, it was my fault." We both say at the same time. We look at each other for some seconds. Well that's award.

"We both are to blame?" She asks.

"We both are to blame." I confirm. I look at the time on my omni-tool. It's almost ten. Well it willhappen soon. At exactly ten, the omni-tool of Diana beeps and she looks at it to see she's received a message. She open it and read it aloud.

"Miss Black, I have the privilege of telling you that your charge, Jane Shepard, had been selected to integrate Elizabeth school, from the kindergarten to highschool. I hope that you are happy with this announcement because school will start in two weeks. Sincerely, the director of Elizabeth, George Sinclair." When she finish reading it, her eyes were big and she looked at me, mouth opened. And all she said was:

"You didn't..."

"Yes I did.".

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And finished! I hope that you like this chapter. Thank you for your support and do not hesitate to leave a review to comment or to help me. Thank you,

Littleswiss.