At a little after 1:00 PM, Edwards rolled into a small town in New Mexico. A week earlier the shuttle had dropped him off at his parent's farm. They had been surprised to see him home, but glad he was still alive. Bobby said he couldn't give them the details as they were classified but he had been discharged from the Alliance Navy. They told him that Jill and her family had been in touch and everyone was okay. But they were currently stranded outside the local cluster and it would be some time before they could get back. They could tell he was unhappy, though he tried to hide it. He stayed a couple of days, finishing his recovery, and getting ready for the trip. He made sure the bike his parents had stored for him was running well and got an early start one morning.

Major cities and some large towns had been devastated by the Reapers, but out here, in the small towns and rural areas, you could almost forget there had been a Reaper War. But it wasn't the Reaper War that haunted Edwards and forgetting would take a long time. He got off the bike; grabbed his backpack; and went into the diner. On the far wall was a vid screen and they were re-showing the Alliance press conference from the previous day. The star of the conference had been Commander Christina Shepard, appropriately hailed as the conquering hero. He'd been on the road when the press conference was held but it had been the lead story on all news shows last night. She had handled the questions adeptly, never blaming the brass or the Council for ignoring her warnings but instead praising them for their support. She also shifted credit to her team and to all the fleets that had helped in the attack on earth, especially noting the Krogan, Geth, and Rachni support.

The waitress motioned him toward a booth and Edwards slid his pack into the far side and sat facing the vid screen. "Can I get you something to drink?" the waitress asked. Edwards looked at her name tag, Rachel, and said, "Coffee's fine, Rachel. Black."

"Coming right up." She laid a menu on the table and walked away to get the coffee. There were only a couple of other booths occupied, but he knew it was after the lunch rush which, along with breakfast, was probably the busy time for a place like this. The sound was down on the vid screen but he watched anyway.

Rachel came back with the coffee and saw he was watching the screen. "She's quite the hero, isn't she? Our daughter," Rachel nodded in the direction of the cook, "ran around all last night pretending she was Commander Shepard fighting off the Reapers."

Edwards smiled, "I'm sure there are a lot of kids doing that. What she did was amazing."

"Did you lose anyone in the war?" Rachel asked. She nodded towards the cook again and said, "Jimmy's brother was in the Marines and those Reaper bastards killed him. Seems like everyone lost someone."

"All my family survived," Bobby said, "but I lost my four best friends. We were going to make this trip together, just traveling across the continent, now it's just me."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Thanks, but as you said everyone lost someone in this war," Edwards said.

"What can I get you?" Rachel asked. "If you're hungry that bacon cheeseburger is a half-pound patty and you get either fries or onion rings with it."

"Breakfast was a long way back," Edwards said, "so that sounds great. Do you recommend the fries or the rings?"

In a low voice she said, "I'd avoid the rings if I were you. Jimmy's real proud of them but unless you're use to a lot of grease they do bad things to you."

Bobby laughed and said, "Okay, give me the fries."

"We still got cherry cobbler back there too if you're hungry after the burger and fries. Don't need to tell me know just planting a seed, but cherry's the best cobbler he makes," Rachel said as she picked up the menu and left to put in the order. Edwards sipped his coffee and watched as the replay of the press conference ended.

He was checking his omni-tool when Rachel came by with fresh coffee. "That's a nice omni-tool you have there."

"Came with the bike. It tracks mileage and runs diagnostics on the engine periodically. Otherwise it's a basic omni-tool with voice communication, camera, and some apps," Edwards said.

"Forgot to ask what you wanted on that burger."

"Lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayo is fine."

"Okay, it'll be up shortly," Rachel said as she was walking away.

Edwards punched a contact code into his omni-tool and sat staring at it for a minute. Then he activated the code. There was silence until a voice said, "You know you could get in a lot of trouble for contacting me."

"I'm already in a lot of trouble and I don't care what they do to me. I wanted to make sure you were all right and say I'm sorry," Bobby said.

"How can I be all right when the man I want to spend my life with took off and left me," Tina said.

"That's what I'm sorry for, Tina. I could make excuses, but the reality is I made a huge mistake and I know it."

"I know what my mother did, and I know you thought you were protecting me. But you didn't give me any say in the matter. That's not how relationships work, Bobby. One of us doesn't get to make a decision for both of us."

She was right and he knew it. He'd screwed up again and taken an easy path. "You're right. I should have been there. I've been feeling sorry for myself when I should have been there making sure you were okay."

"Do you think calling me is going to make everything okay?" Tina asked.

Bobby paused and noticed that Rachel was walking towards him with his food. Right now, he didn't feel as hungry as when he walked into the diner. He saw Rachel motion with her hand as she had motioned to him and heard her say, "I'll be right with you." She sat the plate down in front of him and said, "Here you go. Need ketchup?" she asked and he nodded. Rachel left to get the ketchup.

"No, I know it doesn't," he said, then realized that the omni-tool was no longer active. She'd hung up on him, not that he could blame her.

"Move over so I can sit down," he heard Tina say in his ear. He lowered his head and shook it as he moved closer to the window.

Rachel walked up looking shocked. "You're Commander Shepard," she said.

"Yes, I am Rachel," Tina replied, reading the waitresses name off her tag.

"Can I get you anything?" Rachel offered tentatively.

She asked for tea. Before Rachel could walk away, Bobby stopped her. "She wants hot tea, not iced, and you better have the cook fix another bacon cheeseburger with fries." Tina turned and kissed him on the cheek. She then picked up a fry and stuck it in his mouth.

"Now you can't say I ate all your food," she said. Bobby reached down with his right hand intertwining his fingers with those of her left hand. He was a little surprised that Tina let him. Rachel came back with the tea, the bag still in water. Tina let it sit for a minute before removing the bag and stirring the tea.

Before she finished stirring, she leaned over on Bobby and said, "The only thing that is saving you is that I know my mother played you. Now, give me a list of what are you going to do to make this up to me, Mr. Edwards. And consider your first choice very carefully."

Bobby looked at her, right into her eyes, and said, "I love you, Tina, and I'll never leave you again."

"Never," Tina said, and smiled. "You get another fry," she said and putting it in mouth, ran her finger along his lip. Bobby smiled now and kissed her. "That's two and you're going to need to repeat two a lot but that's not going to cover it. For starters, I get to drive when we leave."

"Wait. No. Absolutely not. Have you ever even driven anything with less than six wheels? That's not a Mako out there. You drive us off a cliff and we're dying," Bobby said. Tina just looked at him and smiled. "No. Just no. I'll drive us until we find a big open lot and I'll let you try it there."

Tina squeezed his hand and, with a smile, said, "Are you protecting me?"

"You? I'm protecting me," he said, but couldn't keep the smile from his face. He looked at her and she winked. "Fine," he said, "you can drive."

Tina let go of his hand; picked up the burger; and took a bite. "This is a really good burger. It can't be good for you." She held it up for him to take a bite.

When he'd chewed his bite, he said, "We do have one little problem. I'm not with the Alliance anymore and I don't think they'll let me back in."

"I talked to Hackett after the press conference and said I was going to come find you. He approved and he let me take SAI, who's with Liara on the Normandy now. I'm not the only one you abandoned, you know, though SAI blames himself for your situation." Bobby hadn't even considered that. He still thought of SAI as a VI. "Hackett knows what my mother did and he's worried about you. You screwed up and he can't just let that go, but with all that happened, especially the loss of the rest of your team, he's concerned. I am too. Are you okay?"

"No." Bobby lowered his head. "It'll take time. It's crazy that out of the five of us I'm the one that survived. But, and I'm serious here, I'm not just making a pass at you, I'm …" Tina stopped him by putting a finger up to his lips.

"To be clear, it's not just a pass but it is a pass."

"Well, obviously," Bobby said.

"It better be," Tina said with a smile.

"Anyway, I'm better now that you're here." Bobby kissed her.

"I guess you two are more than friends," Rachel said with a smile, holding out the second plate of food.

Tina pointed at Bobby, "I'll steal from his plate if I want anymore. He needs to learn to share before we have kids."

"I have to learn to share?" Bobby said.

"See how defensive he is Rachel. Men."

"I hear that, Commander," Rachel said with a smile. "Ma'am, if you don't mind my daughter would love to meet you."

Tina said she didn't mind, and before they left the diner she had signed several items for people there and several pictures were taken. Jimmy refused to let them pay for their meals and insisted that they have the cherry cobbler with ice cream. Bobby got a couple of bites and considered himself lucky.

Out at the bike he went over how to operate it, telling her it wasn't that hard. It wasn't like the old gasoline powered bikes and it did have many advanced safety features, "but don't test them out please," he said. For the first time riding a bike, he felt she did a good job, especially based on her stories of driving the Mako.

Before they had left, he asked her how long she had before she had to be back to the Normandy. "We, Bobby. The question is 'How long do we have before we have to be back to the Normandy?' The answer is three days."

"What's the Alliance going to say about someone not in the Alliance being on the Normandy," he asked.

"I have a Turian, Quarian, Asari, Prothean, and two AI's on the Normandy, none of whom are Alliance. If Hackett will not reinstate you, you'll have to work for free but you'll get room and board. And the room's nice. There's an aquarium, model ships, a personal bathroom, and some side benefits," she said with her 'cat-that-ate-the-canary' smile. "I know we don't have time to complete your route, but we'll come back and do that later. Maybe bring some of the Normandy crew along."

"Well then, we should go back the way I came. I need to stop in and see my parents again before I leave," he said.

"Taking me to meet the parents. You're not getting serious on me now, are you Bobby?" She said as she moved close to Bobby.

"Yes, I'm am," Bobby said.

"You're one step closer to making this up to me," she said with a smile before she kissed him. Then they got on the bike and headed towards home.