Months went by as humanity rebuilt Earth after the war finally ended. The non-humans left on Earth when the fleet bugged assisted in rebuilding, being essentially stranded. Any pettiness there might have been, any mistrust or prejudice was completely gone. As far as anyone was concerned, they were all just people trying to make the best of the situation. The reapers sought to destroy all life in the galaxy, but inadvertently brought it together.

Fortunately, many of the FTL comm buoys were left intact allowing some limited communication off planet. Most of the channels were choked up by scientists and military officials in order to coordinate the repairs to the mass relays and the Citadel. With the joint effort of allied races, the repairs were going surprisingly well. After building the Crucible, rebuilding mass relays was relatively easy in comparison. In fact, much of the Crucible was cannibalized in rebuilding the Citadel. No point in letting all those resources go to waste. It would take years, but the entirety of the relay network could be rebuilt, including the Citadel. Everything that was lost could be rebuilt. There were even talks of using the Citadel's Mass relay function to see exactly where reapers were hiding, and if there were any more lurking in dark space.

The scattered remains of the reapers still linger in Earth's orbit. At first salvage teams were worried that clearing the wreckage would put them in danger of indoctrination, but it seemed that they were completely dead. Valuable materials were salvaged from the reaper corpses, many of them being useful in rebuilding the Charon relay and the Citadel. Studying the reapers further would undoubtedly lead to major breakthroughs in technology, but for the time being, rebuilding the relay network took priority.

The Charon relay in the Sol system was fully repaired and was in the process of being tested. The most demanding and dangerous part of the test had been completed successfully, with several ships being safely sent through the relay to another rebuilt relay. Now it was only a matter of time to see if the relay could effectively coordinate and receive an incoming ship. While there was a good chance it would work, given that the receiving relay was successful, there was always a chance that something could go wrong. There were a lot of unknowns in rebuilding mass relays: there had never really been much call for it. Either way, the people of Earth were about to find out whether or not they would receive the support they desperately needed. There were rumors that the Normandy was going to be the ship that was coming in. Some thought that was a silly idea, stating that the Alliance wouldn't risk their most advanced ship in a test that could potentially strand it in deep space. On the other hand, it would have been a huge boost to morale if it was the Normandy.

The mass relay successfully receiving a ship was enough a morale boost. When it turned out that it actually was the Normandy, it was almost cause to celebrate. The Normandy had become something of a symbol of unity and hope, just as Commander Shepard had become.

With communications still in such disarray, rumors about the commander were numerous and widespread. Some thought he died while activating the Crucible. Others thought he might still be alive, either somewhere on Earth or wandering the Citadel. Some of the more outlandish rumors say that he ascended to a higher existence to eliminate the reapers. Of course, the truth was that he and Anderson were found on Citadel a few hours after the Crucible fired. They were in pretty bad shape, but they would live. There were a lot of casualties on the Citadel, but many of them were taken from the surface. Most of the inhabitants survived the when the reapers moved the station into Earth's orbit, including the council. A piece of good news in an otherwise bleak situation.

Anderson would continue organizing people however he could. The admiral knew he had his work cut out for him; there was a lot of work to be done. Shepard on the other hand chose to lay low for a while. He figured people needed to be focused on cleaning up the mess of the war rather than on him. No one was really sure where he was or what he was doing, but whatever it was, Shepard deserved to have a little break from everything. He had earned a reprieve.

It seemed like an eternity since the Normandy had left Earth. The last time, the reapers were mounting a full scale invasion of the planet. When ordered to bug out by Hackett, the reapers were about to get wiped out. Even given that their mortal enemies were meeting their demise, leaving Earth didn't feel right. This time, they were leaving Shepard behind. Joker almost couldn't bring himself to leave, but he knew if they stayed, they would have been killed by the Crucible firing.

After they crash landed on some garden planet, Garrus sat in the med bay with Tali, watching her quietly cry behind her mask. The turian didn't know what to do. Usually it was simple. "I'm sorry for your loss" just didn't cut it. There was nothing to say. He'd lost a good friend, a brother. Tali lost a great deal more. Of course she held on to the hope that he was still alive. She couldn't even bring herself to put his name up on the memorial wall. He couldn't really blame her. Garrus understood her grief, but was utterly helpless in attempting to console her. Even EDI was more able to comfort Tali more than he could. Something had changed in the AI, though. She had more humanity than ever before. Suffering a real loss might have had something to do with it. EDI was truly a part of the crew, not just some machine like the Illusive Man thought she was. Just another thing to throw in his face.

Each of the crew coped in their own ways. Kaidan was as quiet as ever, Joker kept telling his horrible jokes, Liara was glued to her screens looking for any intel on Shepard, and James worked out a lot harder than he usually did, which was a lot to begin with. No one really wanted to guess how Javik was dealing with it, or if was dealing with it at all. The whole ship just felt empty without Shepard. Having to deal with losing the commander a second time was just plain cruel, and this time they didn't even have a solid confirmation that he was actually dead. All they knew was that they had to make it back to Earth as soon as possible.

It took months to get the Normandy back into working order. However it would have been a moot point if the relays were out of commission. They didn't have the resources to reach Earth by conventional FTL drive, and even if they did, it could take months or even years to get there. Plotting the return trip would also prove problematic. The blast wave from the Crucible knocked the Normandy off course. They weren't even sure what planet they had landed on.

However, once enough of the Normandy's systems were brought back online, EDI was able to calculate exactly where they ended up. Once the ship was fully repaired, the crew was quick to volunteer to test the recently rebuilt mass relay when they heard that it was connected to the Charon relay. It was their chance to get back to Earth.

The Charon relay was tested first, sending a frigate through. The ship made it without any damage. With that success, the Normandy was ready to head through the relay to Earth. They weren't sure what they would find when they got there, but they just needed to get there. He people trapped on Earth could use some good news.

When the Normandy landed, there was a huge crowd swarmed the docking area. Normally, something like this would have extremely tight security. But seeing as the Normandy crew was mostly responsible for winning the war, there was fairly little chance someone was going to try to assassinate the crew. One would have to be insane to even try. Shepard had a habit of finding the best people in the galaxy to help him out. It would pretty much be suicide to attack them.

They began to file out of the ship. One of the soldiers securing the landing zone started to clear a path for them, but it was like trying to get out of a mosh pit. Tali was the last to step out. For whatever reason, She had grabbed Shepard's lether N7 jacket. Perhaps she would bury it, pay some last respects to the man she loved. She even slipped it on over her suit. It fit poorly on the quarian's small frame, but she didn't really care that much. As it was, Tali was practically on autopilot. She felt empty. Anyone could tell. As a quarian, it was normal for express her feelings through her body language. It was the way she walked. Stark and hunched, like someone who had lost everything. Shepard was the only person she trusted enough to show her face to. The only one she trusted her heart to. Losing him, again, was like having her heart torn right out of her chest. She knew that she would have to move on, but it wasn't going to be easy.

At least, that's what she thought.

She could see someone pushing their way through the crowd. No, it was parting. They were letting someone through. It didn't take long to find out who it was. Even Tali saw him, she could hardly believe it. She always held hope that she would see Shepard again, but her head told her that he was dead. There hadn't been any contact from him at all, even after FTL communications were restored. Not even Liara's Shadow Broker contacts could get any intel on the commander. But now, Tali found the hole in her heart suddenly filled to the brim; her Shepard was alive.

"Hey there, Tali."

Her reaction was automatic. She ran to him, her feet carrying her faster than she thought was possible. When they finally met in a crushing embrace, she almost knocked him down. She didn't care that there were hundreds of people watching. She needed to hold him, to make sure that she wasn't imagining it. It seemed to perfect to be real. As soon as his arms were around her, she knew that it was really him. He had come back to her.

"You goddamn bosh'tet." Tali was only half joking. She was a little angry at him for not contacting her before now. "You should have called."

"I'm sorry. I tried, but all the channels were hosed."

"Well, I guess you can make it up to me."

"I suppose I can do that."

Shepard took Tali from that place, away from the prying eyes and the gossips. Before now, their relationship had only been known to the public through rumors. Now it was out in the open and people were going to start talking about it non-stop. Not that it was a bad thing. It'll give people something else to talk about other than the massive amount of work that was still ahead for them. The rest of the crew ran interference with the crowd. While they wanted just as much to talk with their friend, they knew it was more important for him and Tali to have some time to themselves. The crew would just have to catch up later.

The two of them ended up going to café nearby. It was still somewhat under reconstruction, but the owners decided that it wasn't practical to keep the place closed on account of some faded paint and bullet holes. People were thinking quite practically these days: they weren't going to be very picky about where they ate, so long as they got food. And with so many turians and a few quarians still on the planet, a lot of places – such as this particular café – were serving dextro-foods, which was fortunate for the famous human Spectre and his quarian girlfriend.

There weren't a lot of people in the café, just a waiter and the owner. It was just as well, the couple had just broken free of a large crowd in order to have some time to themselves. Tali was especially thankful that weren't any prying eyes around. It wasn't that she was worried about people seeing her with Shepard – she actually enjoyed showing off that Commander Shepard was dating a quarian – it was a somewhat private matter that she only really trusted Shepard with. She would eventually need to start trusting others with this particular thing, but she decided to ease into it.

Tali found a booth while Shepard ordered some hot drinks: black coffee for him and a dextro hot cocoa for Tali. She'd gotten a taste for chocolate ever since Garrus offered up some of the turian chocolates that Dr. Michel had given him. Tali needed to do something to repay Dr. Michel for saving her life three years ago, if the doctor was still alive of course. Tali was snapped out of her thoughts when Shepard sat down.

"So, I noticed you're wearing my jacket."

"Oh, right…" She had almost forgotten about that. She slipped it off and placed it on the table. "I'm not sure why I grabbed it. I wasn't really thinking…"

"I understand. Believe me; I've had that emptiness inside."

"You always seem so together, though."

"I had to be. I had a galaxy to save. I couldn't afford to let it get to me."

"You've always put so much burden on yourself."

"Well, maybe if you stick with me long enough, I could learn to lighten up." Tali chuckled quietly. It felt like an eternity since the last time she had smiled.

"We'll just have to find out, won't we?"

"Yeah. You know, that hot cocoa's gonna get cold if we sit her chatting."

"Right."

"You need help with the 'emergency induction port?" Shepard smirked when he said that.

"Heh, no. I think I can manage." Tali looked around a bit, trying to see if there was anyone looking. It was just them and the café staff. The quarian took a deep breath before putting her hands on her mask. There was a brief hiss before the barrier between her and the world came off. Shepard was immediately nervous about what she was doing. He could understand her taking the risk of removing her mask to see her homeworld unfiltered. She must really like cocoa.

"Tali… are you…"

"Oh, it's alright. I was scheduled for some limited exposure anyway." Her voice sounded much sweeter

"Wait… you had a geth installed, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I figured, you would have wanted me to be free of this." Tali touched mask on the table. Thinking back, she's amazed that she had gotten through the war without it even so much as cracking. Perhaps she would have it mounted. "Anyway, some occasional exposure is actually required to help the process a long."

"Well, I'm happy for you. You deserve some freedom after everything you've done."

"It will still take a while before I can go completely without my suit, but for now, a few hours is just fine."

The two of them sat and drank their drinks, talked about what had been happening over the past few months. They had just gotten back together, but it felt as if they were never apart. Those times didn't really matter, so long as they always found a way back to each other.

Shepard and Tali headed back to the Normandy. They kept talking about as they went, the Commander mentioning that the apartment Anderson had given him survived relatively intact. Tali though it was nice that he still had a place to call his own. Of course, Shepard said that he still wanted to help her build a home on Rannoch once the mass relays were back up and running. The two of them speculated on the likelihood that they would actually retire. The general consensus was "not any time soon." The galaxy still had need of them. Just because the reapers were gone didn't mean that there was any lest threat in the galaxy. In fact, with reapers gone, there would be a lot of groups trying to consolidate power, taking advantage of the fact that a lot of resources and attention would be on rebuilding after the war. Someone had to keep the peace, and after taking out the reapers, people would have to think twice about crossing Commander Shepard.

By now, the crowd had dissipated with just the Normandy crew waiting. As the couple approached, the crew saluted, even Javik. That was pretty unexpected. The crew looked ready to head into the city, either to relax after being stranded for several months, or to see what they could do to help out. The advantage of fighting something big as the reapers, clean up didn't seem all that bad in comparison. It was hard seeing everything that was lost, but everything that was lost could be rebuilt. Shepard wasn't sure how long it was going to take to get back, but it didn't really matter. What he did know was that the people of the galaxy would forge on. They won the war. The reapers had only made them stronger.

Things would be difficult going forward. The galaxy has been thrown into chaos in the wake of the reapers. But no matter how bad it was, Normandy would be there to take on anything that threatened the peace. Shepard once heard Legion say that it could not see a clear distinction between the Normandy and her crew. At the time, the commander wasn't quite sure what it meant by that. Now, he wasn't sure he could really see the distinction either. He and his crew were Normandy. They were family, and there was nothing that could break them apart.