Edwards walked down the stairs into the foyer and opened the front door. There was a porch along the front of the house with a bench swing on one end and a couple of Adirondack chairs with a small table at the other. Three steps led off the porch and into a rolling field. There was no road, not even a worn path. There were a few trees but nothing else of note for as far as he could see; no other houses, buildings, fences, or anything man-made. Edwards decided to finish exploring the house and depending on what, or who, he found he might trek away from the house later to see how far it was to the nearest town.

Entering the foyer again, he could see doors at the back of the stairs on either side. To his left was an open doorway leading into a parlor where he could see a grand piano and some furniture. There was a lot of open area in that room and vid screen hung on the far wall.

To his right was the living room, and he entered it. It was large with a couple of couches and three nice chairs. The room was tidy; no trash or even dust to be seen. It was too perfect, just like the rooms upstairs. The house was like a model home that a salesman would show saying, "Your house could look like this," except your house would have people living it messing things up. Either no one had been messing things up here or the person who cleaned this house was meticulous. In his head, Edwards heard his mother saying, "Where no oxen are the stall is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of the ox." "There are no oxen in this house," he thought.

There were four windows in the living room; two along the front and two along the side. A light with a fan hung from the ceiling. Along the final wall was a doorway leading into a hall toward the rear of the house. On either side of the doorway there was a large picture. To the left hung a picture of the Normandy SR2. It appeared to have been taken while the ship was docked at the Citadel. The picture to the left was of several crew members.

Edwards had never met any of the Normandy's crew but they were well enough known that he could recognize some of them. The crew picture included Dr. Liara T'Soni, Garrus Vakarian, Tali'zorah, an alien of a species he couldn't identify, a pretty brunette that Edwards did not recognize, a couple of Alliance marines, Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, and a humanoid mech. The picture looked as if they had posed for the picture. It was not a random shot but professionally done. The team appeared to be in good spirits. Noticeably absent from the picture was Commander Shepard. Edwards remembered the sense that there had to have been a third person with Anderson and the Illusive Man, and now Shepard was missing from this picture. "Curious," he said.

But there were no answers here so Edwards moved through the doorway between the two pictures and into the hall. On the right side of the hall there were two doors; one to a small bathroom and the other to a utility room. Seeing nothing much of interest in these rooms Edwards went through the doorway on the left side of the hall.

There Edwards found a large kitchen, with plenty of cabinet space; a nice refrigerator; a sizable kitchen island; a sink; and a stove. On that stove, there was a tea kettle which Edwards did not have to touch to know that it was still hot. Someone else was here and had recently fixed a pot tea. His mind made that sideways leap of logic that had gotten him out of many problems. Admiral Anderson had been on the Citadel; the pictures were of the Normandy; and, in the crew picture, Commander Shepard had been missing. He suspected his mystery companion was the Commander, but if so, where was she?

On the other side of the room was a dining table big enough to seat eight, three to a side and one on each end, and a door beyond that. To the left were the two swinging doors that would lead back into the foyer and to the right was a door leading onto the back deck. Glancing out that door Edwards caught a glimpse of someone sitting in a deck chair on the porch. She was facing the water so he couldn't get a good look at her but a few things stood out. First, she appeared to be human female. "I would assume Kalahira would be Drell," Edwards thought, but who knew. Maybe it was a Valkyrie and he was in Valhalla.

Lt. Commander Claudia Crichton, his late, what had she been? Girlfriend, he supposed. They had never spent much time talking about their relationship. Bobby regretted that decision now, but the past was unchangeable. They had used the term colleague but Edwards had other colleagues and he hadn't slept with any of them. Claudia had never appreciated Edwards sense of humor; in fact, she accused him of not having one. He could hear her saying, "Not funny, Bobby. Not funny at all."

The second thing Edwards noticed about was that she had dark red hair which was pulled back into a pony-tail, though plenty of strands appeared to be hanging loose. Third, she had a fair complexion and staying under the roof was probably a wise idea given the bright sun. Fourth, she appeared relaxed, or at least confident that she could handle any situation that came up, even though she appeared to be unarmed. Finally, Edwards noted that she was sipping tea and eating an energy bar. Shepard was a biotic, and a powerful one from what Edwards had heard, especially for a human. The one thing he associated with biotics, besides their abilities, was food. You always knew when a biotic was in mess because they got half again as much food as anyone else. "All signs point to Shepard," he thought.

Based partly on this, he made no attempt to be quiet when he opened the door. If it was Shepard, he preferred not to startle her into slapping him with a singularity. If wasn't and she was a threat, he was behind her and had a few surprises of his own. Whoever she was, she showed no visible reaction to the opening of the door; she didn't even turn her head to look at him before speaking.

"So, you're finally awake?" she asked as Edwards stepped through the door.

"Well, I thought maybe I was dreaming but I pinched myself and didn't wake up, so I guess I'm awake. Lt. Commander Robert Edwards of the Alliance Navy. Who are you and do you know where we are?" Edwards asked.

She set her cup down on the table in front of her, stood, and turned to him. It was, or at least appeared to be, Commander Shepard. Hadn't he heard some rumor about a clone? "I was actually hoping you could tell me where we are, Lt. Commander." She stuck out a hand and he shook it. "I'm Commander Christina Shepard."

Edwards quickly took her in. Freckles were scattered across her nose and cheeks and she had piercing green eyes. She was obviously fit and was wearing a white tank top with an N7 logo. He could also tell that she was sizing him up, but not the way a lover would. No, like him she was trying to determine if there was a threat and if so, what were the best attack points.

"No introduction needed, Commander. I recognize you from the news. You're quite the hero to all of us. Getting the Krogan and Turians to work together and the Geth and Quarians. Very impressive. Unfortunately, I have no clue as to where we are. SAI, excuse me, my omni-tool," Edwards said, "hasn't found anything to help pinpoint a location but thinks we might be on Earth."

Shepard had a puzzled look. "Sigh?" she asked?

"SAI. Sierra Alpha India," Edwards replied. "Short for Strategic Analytical Intelligence. It's an advanced virtual intelligence I developed from some prototype code I found. Long story. SAI monitors a lot of data continually and can draw some conclusions from the data by comparing it to information on record." He went on to cover what SAI had told him about being off-line for a time and why earth was SAI's suggested location.

Shepard motioned to an empty chair and she sat back down. Edwards sat down as well and Shepard told him about her walk through the house, including finding him sleeping in his room.

"You're a sound sleeper," she said. "You didn't react at all when I entered your room. In fact, I almost thought you were dead. Why not, I thought I was dead too. Now, I'm not so sure."

"Why would you think you were dead," Edwards asked. "What's the last thing you remember before waking up here?"

Shepard, true to her form, turned the question back to him. "You first," she said. Edwards gave a brief explanation about how chasing leads on Cerberus had led him to the Citadel before it was seized by Cerberus. He told her about hiding in Keeper tunnels and eventually finding Admiral Anderson and the Illusive Man. "I was about to check Admiral Anderson for clues as to why he was on the Citadel when something happened. The next thing I remember is waking up in the room upstairs.

"I can solve at least one mystery for you, Lt. Commander. You know about the Crucible?" Shepard asked and Edwards nodded.

"I reported directly to Admiral Hackett and you could see outside his office window," Edwards said.

"We found out that to make it work it needed to be attached to the Citadel. With the arms closed the only way on-board was through a beam the Reapers were using to send human remains to the Citadel for processing. During the push to the beam most of our forces were wiped out, but Admiral Anderson and I made it on board." She then walked him through meeting the Illusive Man; Anderson getting shot, though she avoided the subject of who had shot him; convincing the Illusive Man that he was indoctrinated, so that he killed himself; opening the Citadel's arms; and the discussion with the Catalyst.

"I hope you sent the bastards to hell, ma'am," Edwards said, without a moment's hesitation.

She let out a short laugh. "I did, but I didn't reach that decision lightly. In the end, too much was at stake to risk not destroying them. But setting off the Crucible is apparently what led us to being here, wherever here is."

They both sat quietly for a few moments. Shepard looked at her cup and it was empty. "I think I'm going to get some more tea. Want something?"

Bobby stood as well. "I didn't look through the cabinets. I could use something stronger than tea if there's anything in there."

"Not sure. I thought tea sounded good and it was in the first cabinet I checked. The energy bars were in there too and I was starving like I hadn't ate for days. I'm afraid I've eaten half this box. Guess we should take stock of what supplies we do have." They both reached for the door. Bobby stopped, smiled, and nodded. Tina opened the door and as she stepped through said, "I always open the door," and laughed. Bobby smiled, "Rumor is you never let anyone else press the buttons or drive either."

"Those too," she said and went inside.