A/N: Hello everyone and I hope everyone had a happy holiday (if you celebrated.) I'm back with two chapters for you, though I apologize since they are a little short... Hopefully you enjoy the lovely Shenko feels and my wrapping up some loose ends anyway and forgive me for the brevity!
Jules Hawk, your well-thought-out and written feedback never fails to make me smile! In the case of this chapter, I made some revisions to the section about Joker's reaction... there was some language there, but I expended because of your review, so thank you even more! And thank you so much for always taking the time! To everyone else reading, following, favoriting, thank you for spending your time with me, too!
I further apologize for any mistakes you may find in these chapters - they are un-beta'd and I spent a little less time editing than normal - my two teenagers are still on spring break today (they go back tomorrow! hurray!) so writing time is precious atm...
As always, all credit for the characters and universe within belongs to the amazing folks at Bioware... I just enjoy playing with their future lives, and I intend no copyright infringement.
The next day, Kaidan often found himself agreeing with his wife and wishing that she was there. Between the frustration of the mission (a long trek through seemingly endless desert) and the sickly sweet company (the two marines seemed to have settled into their romance nicely and weren't afraid to have everyone know it at this point) he so wished for Kat's company. When they finally reached their destination, he was actually glad for the short firefight that ensued, though it was over quickly. The wreckage that they discovered at the location the quarians had indicated turned out to be several escape pods from one of the frigates they had encountered in the skirmish before they reached Rannoch. Several of the pods were empty or held bodies of unfortunate crew who had not survived the crash landing, but two were still manned. The short firefight was the token resistance of those two, clearly not high ranking members of their crew, or very experienced in ground combat. The three of them easily overcame the two wounded soldiers, one human and one turian. The turian did not survive the firefight, but they were able to take the human, albeit wounded and unconscious, as a prize. A quick search of the escape pods revealed no clues, and Kaidan was forced to order the team back to Keelah, after administering basic first aid to ensure their prisoner would survive the trek. He sincerely hoped that Kat's day had been less tedious, and couldn't wait to return to her side.
Kat's day was tedious. Extremely tedious. If there was anything she liked less than babysitting engineers, it was babysitting technicians. Halfway through the day, she realized that she had exacerbated her own misery by asking for frequent updates on both the Normandy and the EDI project. She countermanded her orders, and fled to the only space she could think of that would make her feel better – Starboard Obs. Once there, she did something that Commander Shepard would never have thought to do. She curled up in the sleep chair and took a nap.
Kaidan found her there when returned a few hours later, and he took a moment to watch her sleep. She looked so peaceful, and he thrilled at the fact that he was the only person in the galaxy who ever got to see this side of the strong and intimidating Commander Shepard. In the years since they had met, he had truly come to know her – not just as a military leader and hero, but also as an incredible woman. She was the light of his life and the center of his universe and he loved her in that moment more than the last and not as much as the next. It never ceased to amaze him that he was lucky enough to have her in his life, to be building a future and a family with her, and he vowed once again in that moment, to do anything to fight for and protect that.
He moved away from the doorway and knelt beside the sleep chair and reached out to stroke her face, but she sighed and murmured sleepily before he could actually touch her.
"I was just resting my eyes," she said with a sleepy yawn, blinking said eyes open to meet his.
He smiled and completed his motion, stroking her face gently and placing a soft kiss on her forehead. "Rough day?" he queried.
"Not really," Kat answered with a sigh. "Just got tired of the 'we tightened this screw and soldered this wire' updates every ten minutes. As if I would know what any of it meant," she grumbled.
"You're playing coy again, Captain," Kaidan said with a smirk, "But I'm sure no one begrudges you a little nap. You did save the galaxy, after all."
"More than once, if the rumors are true," Kat bantered back, capturing his lips for a sweet kiss. "How was your mission?" she asked, turning her mind to business and trying to shake off the sleep fog. "Any luck?" She began to maneuver her bulky weight into an upright position and gave him a grateful look when he helped her up with a firm tug.
"We found several escape pods from one of the frigates we encountered. Multiple casualties, no intel, but there was one survivor. He's in the medbay at the moment," Kaidan reported. "Still unconscious but he should make it."
"Ok. Good," Kat said with a nod. "We can question him later, but right now we should check in on both teams. Wanna come translate for me, Major?"
"I'd be happy to, Captain," Kaidan replied, following her out of Starboard Obs with a small smile. Time for the public and familiar Commander Shepard to take over. Good thing for him he loved her, too.
After a quick report from the engineers which Kaidan broke down to Kat as 'everything is proceeding according to plan, the only thing needed is more time,' they moved on to the technicians. The shipboard AI informed them that the EDI team was huddled in a small conference room on the crew deck so they headed there. Outside the open door, Kat noticed Garrus casually leaning against the counter in the mess, seemingly carrying on a conversation with James, but his attention was obviously on the conference room. She made note once again that here was another complication she needed to iron out, and she gave Garrus a look full of meaning before she turned her attention to the occupants of the room. She startled a bit to see EDI's mobile platform laid out on the small table between the three, still and lifeless as it had been since she had fired the Crucible. She felt Kaidan's hand land on her shoulder and tighten in a squeeze of reassurance and realized that, as usual, he read her thoughts and emotions well. She turned her head slightly and gave him a smile of gratitude before turning back to the team, bolstered and ready for anything now.
"No progress, then?" she asked the three occupants of the room, naturally taking her place at the head of the table, but actually seating herself in deference to her condition. Kaidan moved to stand behind her at her right shoulder and his presence served as always as comfort and reassurance.
"On the contrary," Tali replied, "we are in the final systems checks and were simply waiting for your final approval before we took the last step."
"It didn't seem right to turn her back on without you here, anyway," Joker added laconically. Kat searched his face for any signs of distress, but he seemed completely himself.
"You're that close?" Kaidan asked with some surprise. Kat let her mind wander as Xen and Tali proceeded to give a summary of their process thus far. While she wasn't nearly as technically inept as she liked to pretend to be, she knew that they didn't need her input and she trusted Kaidan to digest the jargon and ask any necessary questions. When they finished speaking, the jist of the summary appeared to be they were ready to just flip the switch, so to speak.
"Ok then," Kat said with a nod. "Let's make this happen."
Tali activated her omni-tool and her fingers flew over the keys for a few seconds before she nodded with satisfaction and put the 'tool away.
"That should do it," she stated.
Everyone in the room held their breath and stared at the inert figure on the table for a few seconds before they saw one of EDI's fingers twitch. From that split second to the next, that moment that scientists, philosophers, religious leaders, and poets everywhere had been trying to define since there were first such things happened before their very eyes. The inanimate collection of alloys and plastics on the table became a living being. Most interesting was the fact that EDI had not moved other than that initial finger twitch, nor had she spoken yet, but everyone in the room was nonetheless aware that she was there, and 'alive' again. Kat found herself taking a breath to marvel in the beauty of that moment, and she grinned in wonder.
EDI sat up and spoke, reinforcing everyone's knowledge. Not surprisingly, her first words were directed at Joker.
"Jeff, why are we here? Did we defeat the Reapers?"
Kat watched her pilot closely in that pivotal moment. She noted that the emotions she had expected to see earlier were now flying over Joker's face in quick succession – anger, sadness, hurt, wonder and love and then finally a bit of panic. He turned to her with the panic still in his eyes, as if asking her to rescue him. Kat felt for him. It had been why she had gone to him with the decision. But she knew better than anyone that she couldn't help him now. He was on his own and would need time and space to sort through things with EDI. She also knew that while this was a moment that may have galactic implications it was first and foremost a reunion between lovers.
She stood and cleared her throat, indicating to the rest of the crew that they should leave quietly and give Joker and EDI the room. Most took the hint quickly, filing out without comment. Admiral Xen, however, held on to stubborn resistance. Kat gave the quarian her best glare until she relented and exited the room with a sigh. Kat was the last one out and closed the door behind her.
When she turned back, she noticed Tali making a beeline across the open mess to where Garrus still stood casually conversing with James and now Kris. When Garrus saw Tali coming and immediately broke off conversation and turned to leave the room, Kat sighed.
"Alright, you two, what gives?" she asked, impatience coloring her tone.
Both of her friends began to speak at once, a jumble of 'I'm not sure what you mean-' and 'I just realized I need to calibrate-' slipped out before she once again turned on the patented glare and stared them down with a hand raised.
"Ordinarily I'm not one to interfere," she began. "And I firmly believe in 'live and let live', but the two of you have been avoiding each other, even the subject of each other, since just after London. I care about the two of you, and I hate to see you unhappy. So, what's going on?"
When they both began to speak at once – again – Kat raised her hand again.
"One at a time, please," she said with a sigh, seating herself at one of the nearby mess tables. "Garrus, you go first."
"There's nothing to talk about," Garrus began, a little petulantly, then he quickly added after another of Kat's glares, "After London, when I received word of my promotion and was asked to return to Palaven, I asked Tali to join me. To marry me. She said no. I think it's fairly clear what that means."
"I said 'I can't'," Tali corrected softly.
"I fail to see the distinction," Garrus replied with the turian equivalent of a sniff.
"I said 'I can't', not that I didn't want to," Tali elaborated. "I had already discussed re-activating EDI with Xen, and we knew that it would take months – years – of research to complete. And I needed to be on Rannoch to do it."
"And you couldn't just explain that to him?" Kat wondered, shaking her head in amazement that a simple misunderstanding had driven such a wedge between her two friends.
"I couldn't take a chance that you would find out before I knew that we could do it," Tali answered, turning to Kat and imploring for understanding.
"Ouch. That stings a bit," Garrus replied, but mildly. "Still, you have a point," he added.
"So… to summarize," Kat began, shaking her head again, "Garrus, you wanted to be with Tali, and you asked her to return to Palaven with you when duty called. Tali," she added, with a hand wave to her other friend, "you wanted to say yes, but knew you had duties that conflicted, and you couldn't share the details with him." At both their nods, she went on. "So now the issue is, do you still want to be together? Because it appears that the things that kept you apart don't matter anymore. And honestly, I'm not sure they should have to begin with. If we've learned anything in the years we fought the War and the years since, shouldn't it be that life is too short and precious to not hold the people we love as tight as possible?"
Kaidan grabbed her hand and squeezed it, showing his agreement of all she had said, and his understanding of all the emotions beneath it that she hadn't voiced. He turned to his turian friend and gave a small smile.
"Garrus, if there's anything I've learned in these situations, it's that if the woman you love doesn't answer the most important question you could ever ask her in the way you want the first time, ask her until she does."
At that less than subtle hint, Garrus nodded and immediately went into action. He stepped closer to Tali and actually went down on one knee.
"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy," he began, almost formally, "I do love you, and I miss you, and I want to spend our lives together. Will you marry me?"
"Yes!" Tali replied, nearly jumping up and down with excitement before Garrus stood and swept her into an embrace.
Kat sighed and stood as well, turning to Kaidan.
"And I think our work here is done," she said with a grin. "Let's give them some space, too."
Kaidan nodded and followed her to the elevator. Once the doors closed after them, and they indicated the captain's cabin as their destination, he turned back to his wife.
"Savior of the Citadel, Defeater of the Collectors, Hero of the Reaper War, and now, Matchmaker to the Normandy," Kaidan mused with a grin. "You're one amazing woman, Captain Alenko."
"And don't you forget that, Major Alenko," Kat replied, matching his grin and leaning in to kiss him.
Before they could complete that kiss, and just as the elevator completed its journey, the shipboard VI interrupted them.
"Captain Alenko, your presence is requested in med-bay," the mechanical male voice intoned.
"I guess our prisoner is awake," Kaidan said to her with a shrug. "Feel up to some interrogation?"
"Why not?" Kat replied. "Apparently my work is never done."
"Well, with all those titles, you're a busy, busy woman," Kaidan bantered, deadpan.
"You're telling me, Major," Kat said with a nod as she directed the elevator back to Deck 2.