It was easy to forget what normal life, however vaguely defined, felt like. The feel of satin against skin, golden sunlight warming bare shoulders, shoes of delicate straps and soles—all things that had become foreign to Shepard.

And she was second guessing whether or not she ever really wanted to reacquaint herself with these things again after this.

"Ooh, this one looks… fun."

Eve looked up from the rather confusing contraption in her hands—a one-shoulder strappy number in violent fuchsia—to Kasumi's devilish smile as she waved something very red and very short in front of her.

Shepard raised a blond eyebrow.

"Well, fun for the groom, at least," Kasumi qualified, giving the slinky dress another once-over before resignedly returning it to the rack. "Alright, then. Perhaps we should see if there are any nearby convents still intact? I could steal a habit for you."

"You're hilarious, Kasu," Shepard mumbled, trying not to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of silk, lace, and spandex that spanned as far as she could see. A sigh escaped her. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Shepard!" Tali's voice interrupted her moment of guilty self-pity and she turned around to find the quarian waving her over to another end of the store excitedly. As excitedly as she could appear behind the mask, anyway. "I think I found one."

She spared a glance at Kasumi who shrugged in response, and they began weaving their way through the racks to get a look at Tali's find.

"So, I'm curious," Kasumi began from behind her, "is the great Commander Shepard going to be taking the handsome Mr. Alenko's name when this is all said and done?"

A half-smile formed over Eve's lips as she deftly skirted around other patrons of the store. "Well, we talked about it. We can't deny that the idea is nice, but beyond that… we both agreed it's probably better if I kept my name."

"Aw, why?" Clearly, this disappointed the romantic in the thief.

Eve shrugged. "The fact is that there's still a lot of this war left to clean up. Not only that, but the brass is worried about how long the peace will last before everyone starts remembering their personal grudges, and hitting while there are still so many vulnerabilities. Whether I like it or not, my name holds a lot of weight. If my reputation can help in any way to remind everyone what so many fought and died for, then I'll use it if I really need to. Hopefully, I won't."

"Ah, like 'with great power comes great responsibility'," Kasumi cheekily supplied.

"Something like that," Shepard offered indulgently, before she finally reached the other side of the shop and let her eyes fall on the hanger in Tali's hand. Her breath caught. "Oh, Tali…"

"Wow," Kasumi whispered in agreement.

"It would bring out your eyes, yes?" Tali asked, obviously proud of herself.

With a grin, Eve checked the size—she'd sooner rely on that than bother trying anything on—then took the hanger and set off toward the counter, grateful they'd managed to find something in the midst of Vancouver's reconstruction. This was only one of a handful of open businesses, though more were reopening their doors every day. Even fewer had managed to get most of their tech systems back online, so customers had to do most of their shopping the old fashioned way for the meantime.

Her friends followed behind, Kasumi letting her gaze wander dreamily over the array of clothing and accessories. "So where's Liara, Shep? I thought she'd be fawning over the bride like the rest of us."

"She got held up with the refugee situation in Thessia," she answered, fishing out her credit chit. "She'll be here before the wedding, though."

"And the blushing groom is where today?"

"Yes, I'm surprised to see he isn't here," Tali added. "Usually you two seem inseparable."

Shepard winced inwardly. Were they really one of those couples? She shook her head, never thinking she'd see the day. With a self-deprecating chuckle, she watched as the clerk carefully packaged her purchase. "He's meeting with an old friend of his that he hasn't seen in a long time, and then I guess he's going for a drink and a game of poker with James, Joker, and Garrus later."

"Oh, old friend, hm?" Kasumi asked with renewed interest. "If he's anywhere near as studly as your boy toy, I expect to be introduced."

Eve couldn't resist the snicker. "Well, I assure you… she is probably not."

Kasumi froze, her voice dropping half an octave. "She?"

"Friend from his biotic training back when he was a kid," Shepard elaborated, taking the package and heading toward the door. She'd worry about shoes and other obligatory adornments later.

"And he's seeing this person alone?" Kasumi persisted, jogging to catch up. Tali tailed closely behind, trying not to appear interested in the topic.

Holding the door open for her friends, Shepard arched another brow at Kasumi. "Do you honestly believe I have something to be concerned about?"

The thief considered this for a moment, before shrugging. "You do pack a mean punch."

Eve smiled. "That's what I thought."

It shouldn't have surprised Kaidan that the bar was as busy as it was, but he couldn't deny that he hadn't been expecting it. It made sense, of course. With huge portions of the city in shambles and only a few businesses in good enough shape to keep their doors open, people would flock to places like this. People would self-medicate any way they could. Philosophically, he may not have agreed with it, but when he considered his own reactions to losing loved ones in the past… well, he couldn't claim any moral high ground. He'd once been one of them.

On the other hand, it stood to reason that some would be celebrating, but he couldn't help but think that after nearly two months since the war had ended, this was the time when reality began to catch up once again, and the rush of endorphins from the Reapers' defeat had long since gone, leaving only painful, open wounds in their stead. From the look of the people in front of him, it seemed a fair share of everything.

"Kaidan!"

He turned toward the direction of the voice, a little lighter in timbre than he'd remembered, but there sat a familiar face at a corner table. Pretty, sun-kissed olive complexion, and older than the youthful face he'd once admired.

With a smile, he lifted his hand in a brief wave before he shuffled toward her, his slight limp thankfully becoming less bothersome than it had been since the Crucible.

"Rahna," he greeted when he approached. "It's been a long time."

Her smile was bright, teeth stark in contrast against her bronze skin. "It has, Kaidan. Too long. Please, sit."

He noticed immediately that her Turkish accent had faded a fair degree since they'd been teenagers. Sliding into the seat across from her, he swallowed, not sure where to start. Luckily, she spoke again and eased the burden from him.

"You look well," she told him. "The years have been kind to you."

He very nearly barked a laugh, but managed to cover with a weak, polite chuckle. If anything, the years had aged him considerably beyond his own thirty-five, sparse strands of grey interspersed throughout his coal black hair, and lines around his eyes. He was pretty sure the majority of it had happened in the time that Shepard had been gone after the Normandy SR1. He didn't argue the compliment, however, but chose to accept it as nothing more than a social nicety. Or perhaps that he was simply happier these days and it showed. "I, uh… thanks. You look well, too."

Her smile became impossibly brighter before a sheepish look crossed her face. "I saw you all over the news vids when the attack happened. I couldn't believe it was you. I always knew you'd planned a career in the Alliance, but I hadn't expected that you'd be…" She gestured with her hands, as though trying to snap the right word clean out of thin air. "…so crucial." Instantly, she looked chagrinned. "I mean… I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that… it's so amazing to see someone I once knew so well practically leading the defense of our lives in the biggest catastrophe that we've ever seen! I don't know if I'm saying this right…"

Kaidan held up a hand to stop her and sent her a gracious smile. "It's okay, Rahna. I understand what you mean."

She gestured behind him then, waving the barkeep over to deliver a second round. "We will have a drink, no? I want to hear more about what you've done since I last saw you."

"Ah," he started awkwardly, again fumbling for the most appropriate thing to say. "Alright… well, I joined the Alliance pretty much after the… incident at Brain Camp blew over." He paused to observe her for a moment, curious to how she would receive the reminder. Her expression was nothing but sympathetic, and he felt an uncomfortable and inexplicable twist in his gut. "Had a few different posts before I ended up on the Normandy, and… well, a few things in between, some promotions, then I was… ah, reassigned to the Normandy. That's kind of a long story." He gave a shrug, nodding thanks to the barkeep as a Canadian lager was placed in front of him. "The rest is history."

"And you know the Commander Shepard well, yes?"

"The Commander Shepard," he repeated with some amusement before taking a swig from the bottle and slowly nodding. "I do, yeah."

She began speaking again before he could get the chance to elaborate, though he wasn't sure what he'd even say. "It must be wonderful to have been involved in something so important. The risk you took…" Her expression took on a twinge of regret as she paused, her mouth turned down. "I am sorry that I ended things between us the way I did. I was frightened and so weak… I should have been strong, like you've always been. Like that Commander. I… I think that's mostly why I asked you to meet me. I owe you a very big apology."

Kaidan couldn't decide if he agreed or not. Part of him had always wanted some sort of vindication for whole fiasco—killing someone, regardless of whether or not it was defensive, left a mark, especially on a kid. Hell, he couldn't even deny the fact that it had fueled his decision to come here, to some degree. Her rejection of him after that had nearly undone him back them, forcing him question whether or not he was right in his actions.

On the other hand, he was older now, and he'd done a lot in the time since to make peace with a great many of his choices. He knew he'd have done it again in a second to defend the life of an innocent person, something he believed he'd been doing since. There were no longer any attachments here, no emotional investment of any kind in this girl. He'd found the love of his life and she was elsewhere today, spending time with her friends, taking care of a few things in preparation for their wedding. Any feelings he still harbored for Rahna were merely residual traces of the resentment he'd developed when he was young. It was less a feeling now and more a memory of a feeling. Did he really need any of that vindication? Probably not.

"It's done, Rahna," he sighed, nearly shaking his head before thinking better of it. He looked down at the beer bottle for a moment, stalling for words, before meeting her eyes again. "Apology accepted. It's over now, though, and everything is probably better for it. Who knows where we would have ended up otherwise?"

Immediately, he was reminded of his conversation with Eve as the words passed through his lips. No matter how screwed up or painful things might have been through it all, the fact is that he'd seen a lot of good come from it. The Reapers were gone, his mother and their family's property—both here and in the orchards further inside British Columbia—had been spared. Not to mention he was getting an opportunity to marry the woman he'd loved for years, against every odd that had once stacked up seemingly without end. That itself was nearly miraculous on its own.

Rahna was nodding slowly, her onyx eyes fixed on the table. "You've always been so kind-hearted and gentle."

He offered a smile. "Well, thanks… but hey, everyone always thought the same about you. I'm sure none of that has changed."

She didn't respond. It unsettled him, but he could only assume that she was simply feeling a great deal of guilt.

"What have you been up to since then?" He was trying to get her to talk now, to ease some of the tension that had thickened the silence.

Finally bringing her eyes up to him, she managed a smile. "Oh, I've travelled a little. Probably nothing as expansive as you, but I've been able to go off world a few times since camp. I joined a faction of Earth-based biotics where I could continue my training and put it to good use." She shrugged then. "I figured it wouldn't do me any good to have all of that power and not do anything with it. I want to hear more about you, though. Surely, nothing I've done is as impressive. Are you living here in Vancouver now? I assumed so since this is where you asked me to meet you. Or does the Alliance keep you in space at all times?"

"Ah," Kaidan chuckled awkwardly. "Well, I actually just came back here about a week ago to see my mom, but we're looking into getting some land here. We thought about buying a house, but I'm considering building on account of… well, everything."

"We?" Rahna inquired with interest, her dark eyebrows knitted. "You and… your mother? Or…?"

Right. Kaidan had forgotten that, in spite of how much it seemed like everyone already knew, most of the world outside of the Alliance had no idea about his relationship with the famous commander. He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to share the information so openly, but there was no way it would stay hidden forever. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if Khalisah Bint Sinan Al-Jilani was already compiling a juicy story full of wedding details that she could smear and scandalize to her heart's content. She'd probably try to stow her way onto the Normandy for the ceremony in hopes of getting an exclusive vid. He nearly grimaced at that thought.

Deciding that it probably wouldn't make much difference, ultimately, he opted for honesty. "No, actually… I'm getting married in a week. To… uh, to Commander Shepard."

Before Rahna could portray any hint of shock, her face broke into a smile. "You are? That's… that's great!" Kaidan tilted his head as her voice faltered. She plowed ahead, though, before he could deeply analyze it. "Congratulations, Kaidan. Commander Shepard, wow. I had no idea."

"Thanks," he replied carefully, watching her expression. He wasn't sure what he'd expected in response, but he didn't quite know what to make of this, either. The words were certainly customary enough, but there was something present below the surface that he couldn't place.

"Well, I really should be going and I suppose you should be getting back to your fiancé, no?" She smiled and stood, reaching for her handbag. "I'll take care of the drinks on my way out. It was nice to see you, Kaidan. Perhaps we'll get to see each other again soon. I'd love to meet your commander sometime."

With that, she was making her way out, leaving Kaidan in a state of confusion over her abrupt departure. He supposed it was possible that she'd come to meet him with the intent of pursuing something with him… as disappointing a thought as that was. It wasn't unheard of, though. People from the past tended to come flocking around once you became famous, sniffing around for a piece of the romanticized glory to call their own. He hated to think she might be no different.

With a shrug, he reached for his beer and put it out of his mind. He had better things to focus on and places to be.

So it's not my best, but I keep discovering all these little points I need to touch on before moving too far ahead into the meatier parts of the story, even as loose as the plot is in this whole thing. I went through three drafts of this friggin' chapter before deciding to just post it and be done with it. Next chapter's already half way done.

Thanks for the feedback and the faves! I look forward to hearing more from you.