Garrus is returning very soon, probably next chapter. And Tali will follow. HOW? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? HOW WILL THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS CHANGE? I have no damn idea but I'll figure it out.

Shepard stood in Huerta Memorial Hospital, pacing. He reached to open the door and his hand recoiled. "This is stupid, I have to be there!" He reached for the door controls again but at the last moment his hand, almost of its own volition, stopped moving and fell limply to his side. He took a deep breath and tapped once on the door, opening it, and walked through. Thane lay in bed, his hands clasped over his wound and his eyes closed. Kolyat stood besides him, holding a thick book.

Shepard nodded at Kolyat and moved next to him, "Hey... Hey Thane."

Thane had a rebreather over his mouth, so instead he weakly lifted his arm as a greeting. Shepard tried to speak, tried to console Thane, but instead simply murmured, "Conserve your energy..." Kolyat greeted him, "Commander Shepard. My father told me you were no longer incarcerated. Perhaps you remember me? I came to donate blood and... well... he asked me to wait until you arrived and then..." Kolyat slid his hand over Thane's oxygen mask and gingerly removed it. "It won't be very long now."

Shepard nodded, "Your father and I... I'd like to be here."

Kolyat let a faint smile cross his lips, "He was waiting for you. Of course you may stay."

Thane's exasperated breaths finally culminated in a sentence, "Shepard... I'm afraid... I'm afraid I won't be joining you this time."

"You've done more than enough."

Thane's chest began to heave slightly as a few breathless laughs escaped his lips, "Those assassins should be embarassed. A terminally ill drell posed a threat to that 'Kai Leng'."

Shepard let a grim smile come across his face, "I'll pass the message along."

"There... there is something I must... I must... before it gets worse..."

Thane's words were interrupted by bouts of coughing fits, but finally he stabilized, "Kalahira, mistress of inscrutible depths, I ask forgiveness. Kalahira, whose waves wear down stone and... and... sand..." The coughing fits overpowered him, one of his hands covering his mouth.

Kolyat took over immediately, clasping his hands together and lowering his head, "Kalahira, wash the sins from this one and set him on the distant shore of the infinite spirit."

Thane let approval wash over his features, "Kolyat... you speak as the priests do... I... I am so very proud of you."

Kolyat opened the book and leaned over towards Shepard, "Commander, would you pray with me?"

Shepard nodded, the both of them speaking in unison, "Kalahira, this one's heart is pure, but beset by wickedness and contention. Guide this one to where the traveler never tires, the lover never leaves, the hungry never starves. Guide this one Kalahira, and he will be a companion to you as he was to me."

Thane smiled, staring at the ceiling above. Shepard kneeled besides the drell's bed, "I... I don't understand. You're a hero, why must you pray for forgiveness?"

Thane's hand lifted from the bed to Shepard's shoulder, "I... have already... prayed for forgiveness... this... was for you..."

Shepard held Thane's hand in his own as it fell to the side of his bed. Tears began to coalesce in his eyes and slowly trickle down his face, "I'm sorry... I pulled you into a fight you never should've been in... I... I got you killed!"

"I... was proud to serve... with you one last time... You will find your peace Shepard... but you must strive for it... and you must find... your Siha... I... hope you can quell the pain inside you... You were always a friend to me... Goodbye..." Thane turned his head to look out through the window, seeing for the last time the beauty of the world he was leaving. Shepard felt his pulse through his wrist. It was growing weaker by the second. He lifted Thane's arm and put it on his chest, glancing at the monitor to see Thane's heart stop beating. His lidded eyes closed and a faint whisper could be heard, "I am coming, Irikah."

Shepard's mouth was agape, tears across his face and a trembling body. "I... I... Thank you Thane. And thank you Kolyat. I... is everything-"

Kolyat put his hand on Shepard's soldier, "Everything is taken care of, Commander. He will be taken to Kahje and his body will be placed in the Eternal Sea. It is a body of water, reserved for the burials of the hanar and drell. He will be united with my mother in the oceans of the planet where he was born."

Shepard nodded and wiped his eyes, "I... Thank you. If you need help with anything just... just let me know."

Kolyat nodded and Shepard left the room.

"Shepard I need to talk to you."

Shepard leaned over the railing at Docking Bay D24, peering past the Normandy at the Citadel's majestic visage. "Miranda."

"Look, Shepard I-"

"You want to apologize. For everything they did. Because it was based off your ideas, your research." Shepard slowly turned around, crimson scars and cold, mechanical, maroon eyes both glowing. "I'm sorry Shepard. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I'm sorry for everything."

Shepard looked Miranda up and down, "I'll forgive you. But-" Miranda averted her gaze from his face, "LOOK AT ME!" Miranda's eyes immediately returned to her commander, the rage on his face quickly fading back into affability. "Miranda, what happened to me because of your work... You can't even stand to look at me. I will never be normal, truly human, again. But..." Shepard walked up to Miranda and held her hands, "Miranda, you gave me a second chance at life. And despite the... complications, I wouldn't have been able to stop the Collectors, to help my friends. Miranda, you gave me my life back. And I can never repay you for that. Every night I wonder about what happened to me. I've had time to ruminate on this and I can say wholeheartedly that it is not your fault."

Miranda bowed her head, her eyes locked on to Shepard's. "Thank you. I know that could't have been easy for you."

Shepard nodded, the anger he had displayed before replaced with warmth, "You defected from Cerberus a long time ago, and you have tried every day to make it up to me. You've made mistakes, but you are not your father."

He let go of her hands and returned to leaning on the railing, "Is that all?"

She nodded, "Yeah."

"Hmm... How is Oriana?"

"She's doing well. I haven't had a chance to speak with her for a while but with the blow we dealt to Cerberus today I think I might have gotten some breathing room."

Shepard remained silent for a few seconds, "I'm sorry I snapped."

"Heh, well it's good to know that you can still intimidate with the best of them."

Shepard hadn't budged from his post in Docking Bay D24 for about an hour now. He could hear boots clacking against the metal floor, "I've held a friend's hand as he died and had a conversation with the woman whose research made me like this. Can we just... get a drink, Ash?"

"Yeah actually that does sound pretty good right now. Let's go."

Shepard stared at the swirling glass of emerald fluid in front of him. Ash glanced at it while nursing her scotch, "Why the hell did you order that shit?"

Shepard grimaced and gulped it down, "Increased liver functionality. Takes me like, a gallon of ryncol to get buzzed now. Too bad, because it tastes like vorcha shit."

"Skipper I-"

He turned to her and for the first time since he had woken up a genuine smile, not crippled by sorrow or guilt or anger, came across him. "Did you just call me Skipper?"

She laughed and turned back to her drink, "I guess I did. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah it has. What the hell is up with your hair?"

She ran a hand through her thick ebony hair, "Needed something to distract from the face bruises when I woke up. All some people could look at."

He scoffed, "I liked it before. Now you look like some kind of femme fatale Spectre, not the dedicated gunnery chief I knew. And how the hell did you switch over two shades of skin color?"

"I am a Spectre now and I uh... well I mean I spent like a month in fluorescent lighting. I'm just pale."

"Most people don't get so pale they switch to Caucasian from... what the hell are you?"

"Not too sure, but my mom's last name was Martinez. Guess I'm only going to be getting paler."

This piqued Shepard's attention. He downed his fifth glass of ryncol and turned to her, "What do you mean?"

Ashley swirled her glass of scotch nervously, "I... I mean, I'm becoming a Spectre and it's not exactly like you and I can..."

"Can what?"

"Shepard I doubted you and questioned you and fought with you and... Shepard I shot you!"

"Oh come on, you've done worse before and we were still friends."

"Like what?"

"... Remember that time you accidentally mixed up your scotch with that turian brandy Garrus was keeping in the fridge?"

"Oh god..."

"You tried to kiss me, almost shot Wrex, and then you puked on Tali's visor. And we were friends after that."

"Yeah but Tali gave me dirty looks for a while."

"Well you did try to kiss me."

Ashley craned her head to stare at Shepard, "You know, if you had gotten together with her before the Normandy blew up, I would've made a thousand credits. Everybody lost that bet. Your moves are shit."

"Who won?"

"Wrex. The big softy said you'd need a serious blow to the head to try anything. I suppose neural reconstruction counts."

Shepard chuckled, "Grumpy old bastard... Ash I need you."

"Have you seen yourself in a mirror? I'm not nearly drunk enough yet."

Shepard burst out laughing, "Don't like red?"

"Not particularly. Shepard, I let you down. I didn't trust you on Horizon, I didn't trust you on Mars, I didn't-"

"Do you trust me now?"

She stared at his eyes, "I do."

"That's all that matters. Please."

She nodded, "Okay. I'll come back to the Normandy Shepard."

"Thank you... So I saw you looking at James-"

"Fuck you sir."

"I don't think I outrank you anymore."

"Fuck you, Shepard."

Shepard met Cynthia on the Presidium, at her favorite sushi place. "Look, Cynthia I just wanted to make sure that there were no hard feelings with me resuming command of the-"

"Oh my god, shut up! It's fine!"

"Are you sure?"

She rolled her eyes and put down her chopsticks, leaning her head over the table, "See my hair?"

"Yeah?"

"Half of it is dyed black. I'm in my thirties and I'm going gray. Garrus might not know the difference but this is a bit much. I swear I don't know how you do this."

"Yeah, well I guess we all..." Shepard jabbed at his sushi with his chopsticks, forcing a few pieces of fish onto the floor. Annoyed, he grabbed a piece with his fingers.

Cynthia chuckled, "Some of us are good at leading galaxies, some of us can use chopsticks. And some of us are paying."

He raised an eyebrow, "The some of us who have thick, lustrous hair or the some of us who are going gray-OW!" He recoiled after Cynthia jabbed a chop stick at the bridge of his nose, "Not a damn word, John."

His business on the Citadel was dealt with-apparently Zaeed was around but neither he nor Kasumi had responded to his attempts at contact, so he could only assume they were busy. Or busy stealing and/or murdering people.

Shepard and his newly assembled crew stood before the Normandy. A few retrofits had been added, and Cynthia had taken this as a good enough reason to make an addition of her own.

The Normandy SR-3. Councilor Sparatus had given them a new directive. They were going to Menae.

So that's the end of the chapter and-WAIT WHAT'S THIS

"Commander Shepard!" The woman stumbled, running towards the commander as he boarded his ship. He turned to see her and raised a quizzical eyebrow, "Emily? Emily Wong, right?"

She caught up to him and bent over, panting as she caught her breath, "Yeah... yeah I... yeah..." She took a deep breath and stood up, "I... whew. Okay. I thought I was gonna miss you."

"What is it? Do you want an interview or something?"

"No, I want to come aboard the Normandy. I'm working for the Alliance News Network now, and they want someone aboard the Normandy to report on you, you know-rally the troops through media and all. Admiral Mikhailovich said he thought it was a good idea to raise support for Earth. I have a datapad with his reccomendation but I can't seem to find... where did I-"

Shepard chuckled, "Mikhailovich, huh? Alright. Welcome aboard Ms. Wong.

So it's a post-script. Yeaaaaah. Getting all fancy up in here. Diana Allers was a terrible example of marketing, being based off Jessica Chobot was her only personality trait.