The Lost
Miranda waited at the Citadel docks. They were loud and filled with jostling people. It seemed wrong that everyone could continue with everyday life. But this was what she'd fought for, so that life could continue. She could not grudge them that. She sighed.
Kaidan was agitated, clenching and unclenching his fists. Tali and Garrus had their heads bent over Tali's omni-tool, quietly arguing over something. She had brought Kaidan, Garrus, and Tali with her. She felt that they deserved to be here.
A woman detached herself from the crowd and walked toward them. Miranda was struck with disorientation. For an instant, it looked like the Commander herself was there. After a moment though, her eyes cleared and she could see the minute differences between the two. This woman was older. Her face broader. But they had the same walk, the same facial structure and commanding gaze. She shook her head to clear it, and stepped forward.
"Captain Hannah Shepard?"
"Yes, are you Miranda? Thank you for your letter." Her voice was lighter then Shepard's, but it had the same strong overtones, the same inflections.
"Your daughter was an amazing woman. It's an honor to meet her mother. And, I felt like I should meet with you, you should know what happened at the end. This is Kaidan Alenko, Garrus Vakarian, and Tali'Zorah vas...vas Normandy. They served with your daughter."
Captain Shepard nodded at each of them, looking strained. "You were with my daughter when she..?"
"We were all there. These three were with your daughter from the beginning." Miranda grimaced. "When I first knew your daughter, I questioned her. But I learned that she had a great heart and greater strength. She will always have my admiration."
Kaidan spoke up. "Captain Shepard, I've been a soldier since I was a kid. Your daughter was the greatest person I ever worked with. I...I doubted her once and...I..she was a hero." Kaidan's jaw clenched as he looked away and fell silent.
Captain Shepard's expression trembled but didn't change. Only a wetness at the corners of her eyes betrayed her emotion. Just like her daughter, Miranda thought.
Garrus put a sympathetic talon on Miranda's shoulder as he spoke up. "I would been lost without Shepard. She always led us to do our best. She was my Commander."
"Shepard saved my life more times then I can count," Tali said in her softly accented voice. "She came back from the dead for us. She saved all of us." Tali gestured with her omni-tool. "She would have wanted you to have this."
This was a small datafile, containing perhaps ten minutes of images and video. Commander Shepard's face appeared over the omni-tool with a startling detail and clarity. The image had captured Shepard in the midst of some command or thought. Her brow was wrinkled and her lips pursed as if about to speak.
At the sight of her daughter's image, Hannah Shepard finally bowed to her grief and covered her face with her hands. Any noise she made was covered by the sounds of the crowd around them, but Miranda could see her shoulders shake in a brief sob. When she straightened, though, the only sign of her distress were the wet tracks on her cheeks.
"Thank you for bringing this to me. I don't have very much that was hers." The images in the file flickered past. "Is this the young man she spoke of? I don't think I've seen his holo before. How did he take her...her death?"
Miranda hesitated. "He died..before her. The night before her, as a matter of fact. But she didn't let even that stop her."
A single tear ran down Hannah Shepard's face at the news. "My poor girl," she whispered.
"No!" Miranda said firmly. "She was a hero. We should all be proud of her. She died saving us. We owe it to her to be proud."
"We all loved her, Captain Shepard," Tali added. "Any of us would have given our lives to save hers."
Captain Shepard straightened, firmly bringing herself under control. "Thank you for bringing this to me. It's good to know that she had such friends, for however short a time. I would like to be alone now."
"If you need anything, call us, we will come, ma'am," Garrus said.
"Thank you again. I appreciate everything that you've done." She made her farewells and headed toward her ship.
Miranda sighed. "I wish we could have done more for her."
"We carry Shepard in our hearts. That will need to be enough. I need to report in," Kaidan said.
"Good luck, Staff Commander Alenko. Don't forget her. Or us."
"I couldn't. Ever."
*****
Captain Shepard settled in to her bunk with a sigh. The tears that she would not shed in public came freely now, and she wept for her daughter. She wondered how it could be that she still lived while her only child was dead. Reaching out a shaking hand, she activated the datafile that the girl had given her. Her daughter's face appeared again, drawing fresh tears from Captain Shepard.
She managed to dry her tears while watching her daughter moving through the video. There were snapshots that she recognized as Commander Shepard's ship, the Normandy. There was her memorial plaza on Elysium. A short sequence from her induction as a Spectre. Years flew by in those brief moments. The celebration on the Citadel after Sovereign was destroyed. The small service when they had thought her dead. There was the recording Hannah had received from her daughter after her rediscovery. Some place that looked like a desert.
The last image looked recent, a few months old at the most. She recognized the place as Illium. Golden light poured over her daughter's face. She wasn't looking in to the camera, but rather at the person standing next to her.
It was the man that she had been told about. The audio portion of the file likely contained his name, but she was captivated by the holo of her daughter. She was smiling up at him. One of his oddly shaped hands was wrapped in her hair, the other was held between the Commander's hands. They were smiling at each other, sparkling with life and love. They looked happy.
"Oh, my daughter." Hannah Shepard whispered.
A/N: Shepard demanded that this be written. Please R&R. All feedback is welcome--please inform me of mistakes, OOCness or criticisms.