Shepard walked the halls of the Flotilla in a full bio-suit. Tali and Garrus would meet her in engineering. She was curious why the Neema had requested Garrus instead of her, but at the time she had other things on her mind.
The old, battered doors of engineering hissed open. She could see the two of them hovering over a console arguing over some manifold or something. She wasn't particularly techy; another reason she liked having Garrus around. Sure she could hack a security system, but anything mechanical or more complicated than how to hot wire a transport was better left to others.
"What are you two fighting about?" Shepard said as she came up behind them.
"Shepard! It's good to see you!" Tali exclaimed as she turned and hugged the captain. "I'm so glad you're here. These new upgrades, if we can manage them, should at least put us on a level playing field with the Reapers. I guess it was a good thing we kept the base?"
"In hind sight, yes. Though I still have concerns about The Illusive Man. TIM always had more than one secret up his sleeve." Shepard said.
"I know what you mean. Until we know what he's planning we have to do the best we can with what we have. So, let's get to the task at hand... Garrus seems to think we should use a ..."
"I don't think. I know." Garrus rudely interrupted. His facial expressions were hidden by his helmet, but Shepard could picture them pretty well according to his muffled tone of voice.
"If you use that piece of junk," He pointed angrily at the display, "you're going to short out your power relays and be dead in the water. DEAD! Understand? Or does that not translate into quarian?"
"Now you listen to me, you bosh'tet, I've been working on this ship for just as long as you've been on the Normandy. I think I know my ship!"
Garrus started to say something that would probably be much more insulting when Shepard decided it was a good time to interrupt.
"Okay, okay... I think everybody needs a break. Let's go get some lunch or something."
"Yeah, that sounds appetizing, watching her shove a straw of gray matter into her suit and listening to her slurp up her liquid dietary requirements. I'm starving!" Garrus stated sarcastically and crossed his arms.
"What the hell do you eat? They look like giant bugs!" Tali shot back.
"And they're so good too. Nice and hot and crunchy, mmmmmmmm!" Garrus teased.
"You two better quit or I'm going to think you're flirting!" Shepard said with a smirk and crossed her own arms to make a point.
Garrus immediately stood a little straighter.
"Bosh'tet." Tali quipped.
"You too, please." Shepard raised a brow at her friend.
"Fine." Tali sighed.
"You know, I'd hoped that you two could learn to get along. You're certainly old enough to figure out how to stop acting like children." Shepard teased.
"Yeah, yeah, okay... you've made your point. Where do we go for bugs and paste?" Garrus grumbled.
It took months for all the upgrades to be completed. Constantly on the move to avoid being discovered by the Reapers slowed progress and made it difficult to complete outer hull reinforcement. After much debate and deliberation, Shepard and Anderson convinced the Flotilla to relinquish one of their ships for the Council, their guards and soldiers, and the survivors. The ship was small, but would accommodate the requisition, and was well armed and shielded in the case of an attack. Another moon or asteroid would need to be found. The Council could not stay within the militant body and risk destruction. The night before the members were to be transported, Rya delivered Thane Atmin Krios. Atmin meaning 'in memory of' or 'in honor of'. Kolyat asked the Captain to share the birth with his family because she was important to his father. Shepard had the honor of giving the baby to Rya after he was cleaned and examined for health. She almost couldn't give up the little bundle. He cooed at her with his tiny mouth. His scales were so small, like diamond dust on his skin. His coloring was pale green, but would darken over then next year. He looked so much like his grandfather with similar markings to his mother. Sonya wondered if she was holding the rekindling of the Thane she knew. Gingerly handing the baby over to his parents, Shepard found another reason that was hers to fight.
The armada was building. After the up grades were completed, the fleets of ships moved out in search of their enemy. Instead they found the geth and the rachni. They were working together and had suffered many casualties. It took some convincing, mostly of the Flotilla, to join forces with them. Shepard had hope of meeting Legion, but since he returned to his people after rewriting the heretics, the information gathered by him was shared. When she asked about him they would answer; 'We are geth', 'We are Legion'. The one that she knew was now all of them. The collection of programs that ran on the platform she identified as Legion dispersed among the rest, sharing their data. She understood, sort of. The human in her wanted to cling to a single identity, a single individual. Among the geth, this was not a concept. They understood it, but did not share it. Even though they all had his memories, she felt as though she had lost a friend.
She felt the first tickle in her belly weeks ago. It was an odd sensation, like literal butterflies in her lower abdomen. Garrus still didn't know. Nihlus began to suggest that he be told soon. She didn't want to tell anyone else, not until she knew whose baby it was. Nihlus would accept the child because it was hers, but she was unsure how Garrus would react. He had strong family pride, though he rarely expressed it. Will he accept the child if it is Nihlus'? Will he insist on giving it the Vakarian name if it is his? Will he want to continue their odd family? All these questions plagued her long into the night as she lay in his arms and traced a finger over the blue markings on his lighter colored metallic carapace. Early the next morning, Shepard rose to go see Doctor Chakwas and a salarian doctor that was working in Mordin's old lab. Dr. Jeron specialized in studying inter-species relations. It was a coincidence that Shepard didn't trust, but she needed his knowledge if her child was going to survive. Her biggest concern at the moment was the difference in her amino-acid make up and that of the child's turian father. So far there were no detectable problems, so no counter measures had been taken. The further the pregnancy continued, the closer Chakwas monitored her. Today Shepard would learn, among other things, the results of the DNA match tests. Her palms were sweaty and her fingers flexed nervously. Nihlus offered to go with her, but she insisted on going alone. She didn't want to raise Garrus' suspicions that something was wrong or alienate either one of them any further.
"Ah! There you are Captain."
Dr. Jeron greeted her with a wave of a blue three fingered hand as she entered the med-bay. Dr. Chakwas sat calmly at her desk.
"Good morning, Captain. How are you feeling this morning?" Chakwas asked her as she turned toward her in her chair.
"I'm feeling a little queasy, but nothing sever." Sonya answered.
She took a seat across from the doctor on one of the beds. Her stomach fluttered and she thought she might vomit, but she didn't.
"Looking a bit pale." The salarian noted. "To be expected. As this is your first child, I would normally offer advice on what to expect, but no way to know under the circumstances. Which news would you prefer to hear first?"
He reminded Sonya of a blue, speckled Mordin with both horns. His bronze ringed eyes seemed excited. She felt like she was some sort of fascinating experiment for him. It helped to have Chakwas there with her as a humanizing element.
"The good news." Sonya smirked.
The salarian blinked at her.
"There is no bad news, Captain." Chakwas told her. "We have a few concerns, naturally. Yours is a very unusual pregnancy to say the least."
"I understand." Sonya nodded. "Well, let's start with why I've got a bun in the oven to begin with. Any more progress on that?"
"One should never leave cooking food unattended, Shepard!" Dr. Jeron exclaimed.
Sonya laughed. "Not literally. It's a figure of speech humans sometimes use when addressing pregnancy."
"Ah, yes... should have realized." Dr. Jeron muttered and busied his hands with his omni-tool running scans over her midsection.
"Well, Captain, I can tell you that the child seems to be developing along turian genealogy. The fascinating part is that the nano technology Cerberus used to help put you back together have been supplying the fetus with the proper amino acids. As long as they continue to do so, we shouldn't have to worry about that. " Chakwas explained. "The nano tech is probably also responsible for keeping you from go into anaphylactic shock. If you were going to have a reaction it should have already happened."
"You may begin experiencing strange carvings, beyond what a human may ordinarily experience." Jeron added. "Do you wish to know the gender of the child?"
His omni-tool paused over one side of her abdomen.
"That part wouldn't be developed yet, would it?" Sonya asked, surprised.
"Can tell based on genetic sampling, not visual confirmation." Jeron explained.
"Okay, sure." Sonya shrugged.
"He is a health boy." Jeron grinned at her.
She grinned back. Salarian smiles always made her uneasy. They didn't look quite natural.
"That's great news." She told him. She hesitated before asking the question that ran through her mind like a stock ticker. She wiped the sweat on her palms off on her pants, which were starting to get snug. She would have to tell Garrus soon. 'Bloated' was not going to pacify him forever.
"Whose is it?" She asked.
"Understandable to wonder. Polyandrous relationships complicated. Polyandrous relationship with turians even more so! Almost unheard of! And with a human! Your family has taken leaps into the future of inter-species relations!"
"Thanks, I think." Sonya said and leaned away slightly. He was smiling even bigger now and his eyes were wide with excitement.
"Well?" She pressed.
Jeron looked like he might pop a gasket. She'd never seen a salarian doctor so excited.
"That's a difficult question to answer." Chakwas said. "It seems that exposure to the cave moss is capable of some interesting effects which may have contributed to the conception in the first place."
"What?"
Sonya nearly fell off the bed.
"It appears that your child bears genetic markers and DNA coding from both paternal partners."
"Hhhwha..." Sonya felt faint. "How is that possible?"
"How is any of this possible?" Chakwas grinned. "The preliminary studies the salarians have done on the moss samples they collected are inconclusive. We don't know anything for sure. Some of the studies suggest that the trace amounts of element zero found in the moss may be a contributing factor. All we know is you and your husbands were exposed during intercourse, you conceived, and the child bears DNA from all three of you. He may be the first turian to have hair or brown eyes or more than three fingers. The implications are unknowable until we see the development. It's incredible really." Chakwas told her.
"Spirits..." Sonya breathed. Element zero? "I... how do I tell them?" She wondered aloud.
The doctor smiled at her. She seemed genuinely happy about the situation, but she wasn't the one growing a mutant inside of her.
"Thank you doctors... I... I have to go."
Sonya left, grabbing an apple on her way up to her cabin. She threw the empty core away in the trash receptor when she walked through to doors to see her boys still asleep in the bed. She was still tired herself, more than she should have been, but the new information throbbed in her mind. She drank some water and checked her messages. There was a heavily encrypted one from Anderson.
D.S. S.
We are safe.
S. D.A.
D.S.S.; Dearest, Sonya Shepard. S. D. A.; Sincerely, David Anderson. It was his way. Simple, safe and let her know what she needed to know. She wouldn't be able to respond or tell him about his 'grandchild', but she hoped that he would get to hold the baby when he was born without hiding in a cave on some god forsaken rock. A warm, taloned hand on her shoulder pulled her eyes from the screen. She looked up into the strong face of the Spectre turian who returned from the dead.
"It's a boy." She smiled.
His mandibles dropped in a wide, toothy smile.
"He's yours..." She told him. His smile widened. "He's Garrus' too."
"Of course he is. We're a family."
Nihlus knelt by her chair and looked up at her. He ran a hand lovingly through her hair.
"I'm glad you feel that way, but that's not what I meant." She corrected. Nihlus' brow plates knitted.
"Is the child well?" He asked, concerned.
"He's okay. He's mostly turian. The nanos are making dextro-amino acids for him."She paused, flexing her fingers. "There was something about the moss in the caves. They're not sure what caused it but somehow..." She paused again and he took her hands in his.
"It's okay. Whatever it is, we'll get through it." Nihlus assured her.
She grinned at his tender heart, but she doubted he would feel so open when he heard what she had to tell him.
"You both are his genetic father. He has DNA from both of you. They're not sure what will happen with his development with two turian fathers and human thrown in the mix."
Her heart felt as though it stopped beating in her chest when she saw his pupils shrink to the size of needle points. He released one of her hands to fall back and rest his shoulders against the wall. It couldn't have been a worse time for Garrus to walk up the short set of stairs as see the looks on their faces.
"What's going on?" He asked cautiously.
"Garrus, you'd better sit down." Nihlus advised him. "There's something you should know."
Garrus took up a spot on the floor next to the open shower room door. He sat ,knees up just as Nihlus did, with his back to the wall.
"Hit me."
Sonya glanced down at Nihlus. He nodded, but kept his eyes glued to the hand that rested over hers. He gave it a squeeze. She squeezed back, but hers didn't let up. She gripped his palm hard as she prepared to deliver the news to her more short tempered mate. Her eyes flicked to his; filled with his worry over what would come out of her mouth. She flexed the fingers of her free hand.
"I'm pregnant. He has paternal DNA from both of you."
Garrus' mandibles fluttered. He activated his omni-tool to check his translator. "Say that again, I think I may have a malfunction."
Sonya tightened her grip on Nihlus' hand. It was starting to really hurt, but he let her do it.
"I'm pregnant with our son. His paternal DNA is made up from both you and Nihlus."
Garrus' neck lost color. He sat silent for a long time, staring at her as if trying to rewind time and change the past. She almost wished he had started yelling and breaking things that this. When she began to worry that he might not ever speak to her again, he averted his eyes and stood up to full height.
"How?"
"Well..." she took a deep breath, "Preliminary results suggest trace amounts of element zero in the moss found in the caves may have contributed to... well, helped make it happen. And also why there are two father DNA sequences."
Garrus' mandibles closed tight along his jaw. "I... need some time." He said quietly, and left the room.
She knew better than to follow after him, but she worried what he might do. Nihlus never left her side. He held her in the shower and she helped him dress then they proceeded to the command deck. They didn't speak a word outside of professional conversation. Garrus avoided them, and did so quite well. She never saw fringe or plate of him the rest of the day. She knew they didn't blame her, but she couldn't help feeling guilty and responsible for what happened. If she hadn't brought Nihlus back, if she aborted the pregnancy; it wasn't the best timing, if she had kept her distance when things between herself and Garrus started becoming more than friendship, if she had found more convincing evidence for the Council before the Reapers crossed into the galaxy, if she had just done something differently then perhaps none of this would have happened. Nihlus seemed to be sensing her thoughts as his bright eyes glanced at her for a second, then back to the galaxy map.
"Don't blame yourself, my love."
He spoke low so that no one else could hear and put his hand gently over hers on the rail. It was the last thing he said to her before she climbed into bed with him that night. Garrus remained hidden and otherwise occupied with anything work related well into the early morning hours the next day.