Chapter 18

A Hope Filled Future

Garrus Vakarian was many things.

For starters he was a great friend who had had Shepard's back many times since the original Normandy days. No matter what kind of trouble they were in, Garrus was always there covering her six. Whether she brought them to a colony being controlled by an ancient being, a frozen planet where corrupt criminals were allowed to do their business legally, a suicide mission or a war against giant death bringers, he was there.

"We're a team, Garrus. There is no Shepard without Vakarian."

Shepard suppressed her sad smirk at the memory of one of the final things she said to her Turian best friend before the final push. While it remained a true statement, being reminded again that she had almost broken that bond with her own death wasn't something she enjoyed.

That day was still a painful memory to look back at despite the war ending that same day. So many lives were lost, and had the Illusive Man not betrayed them they wouldn't have been forced to go on a full assault to try to end it all.

She quickly suppressed those lingering thoughts about what could have been and focused back on the Turian standing next to her. Besides for being a great friend who had watched her back through all of her battles, he was also stubborn as all hell.

His bullheaded stubbornness helped him to carve his way through the gangs of Omega, taking down the major power players enough that they joined together to kill him and his squad. The gangs had succeeded in only killing the latter and cornering the former. Yet after all of that he still continued to fight, likely expecting to die but hoping to take down as many of the mercenaries as he could before he did.

In a way that was classic Garrus fashion. He was expecting the worst so when it didn't happen he was pleasantly surprised.

If that wasn't enough to prove his stubbornness, after they reunited he let his face meet a missile pretty much head on and managed to survive. His face got scarred but it was nothing he couldn't handle.

"Hell Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face paint on there and no one will even notice," Shepard recalled telling him after it happened.

Saying it was of course in good humor, trying to make light of a situation that could have gone a lot worse than it had. He had laughed at it, albeit not very long since his face was still healing. Regardless, the Turian bounced back and joined her on their round trip to hell despite the questionable company they were around, rekindling their friendship as if she wasn't gone for two years.

Once again Garrus was watching her six with practiced precision.

Calibrations on the main battery arsenal consumed his down time at almost every hour of the day regardless of how many times she checked in on him. But that didn't stop her from going down to talk to him or bringing him with her on missions.

Bringing him down on missions got him away from stubbornly working every moment he had the chance to on their main guns and, if Shepard had to guess, away from his thoughts of failing his men. He had taken the loss of his men hard. Worse, he had a target to shove all of his unhealthy anger and hatred towards: Sidonis, the Turian who had sold his group out.

The red tape hating hothead had turned into a stick wielding hothead who wanted to bash in the heads of those who crossed innocents or him. Garrus's anger had run deep, deeper than the depths of the Leviathans den. The redhead had hoped that bringing him away from the guns and down to release that anger on mercenaries would help.

For the most part it had worked, yet once he found Sidonis the anger came back in full swing. Stopping him from shooting Harkin and Sidonis was difficult. Garrus didn't want to hear any of it, not after what he had lost.

In the end, though, he had heard her pleas and let them go. Shepard believed he had come out of it a better person. His anger subsided and though he didn't forget his men, he wasn't going around beating people with the stick anymore, or at least not as much.

His stubborn loyalty to her was something the commander had come to cherish as she did with all of those who she had joined her crew, but sometimes he was stubborn to a fault.

An example of said stubbornness was happening at the moment as he refused to leave her side. Normally she didn't mind having him by her side, yet right now he was purposely ignoring her request for him to go and talk to a woman sitting in the distance amongst the refugee camp they had been helping.

He's lucky Tali isn't here. She would have kicked his ass into shape by now,Shepard mused, letting the corner of her lip curl up into a smirk. The threat of a shotgun from Tali had a certain effect on her Turian friend like no other threat gave.

"You need to go talk to her," Shepard told him.

"Are we really going to go over this again, Shepard? I thought we agreed that we were at a stalemate?" Garrus asked.

"I didn't agree to that, and I will continue to bring this up until you move your ass Vakarian." He shook his head, refusing to budge from his spot. He wasn't going anywhere without coercion of some sort. Which is why I called in back up.

Heavy footsteps brought the commander and the Turian from their debate to the approaching crew member from their team. "Shepard. There you are. I was 'bout to call it a day," Zaeed greeted as he approached the two. "Garrus." The veteran nodded to the Turian. Garrus nodded back then spared the redhead a suspecting look, unsure of why the veteran had just randomly shown up. "So, what's the problem?"

"You see that female Turian over there?" Shepard lifted her chin in the direction of the sitting Turian. Garrus's eyes showed confusion and worry as to what she was doing once Zaeed looked over to the Turian. "What do you think?"

"Are you setting me up on some sort of blind date or somethin'?" Zaeed cocked an eyebrow in question.

At his response mixed with the steady, threatening gaze from Garrus the redhead laughed. Oh yes, this was definitely going to work in her favor. "Not unless you want me to." Her Turian friend's eyes were boring into her skull in warning to what she was doing. He apparently did not like the way this was going and continuing it could end up bad for her if the stare was anything to go by.

Zaeed wasn't really certain of what was going on so he shrugged and looked back to the Turian. "Eh, not bad I suppose. Turian women have never been to my tastes. Why? What's on your mind, Shepard?"

"Oh nothing." She waved him off innocently. "Just seeing if someone would go talk to her since someone won't."

His eyebrow cocked back up again in confusion. "What? Is Garrus pussyfooting around or somethin'?" The Turian's gaze hardened to a sharp point. At his look the veteran's eyebrow returned to its normal position while he crossed his arms over his chest. A smirk began to pull at his lips as he shifted his weight to one foot. "Too scared to go talk to a woman? Worried Tali might cut your balls off?"

Garrus's stare would have vaporized them both if he had the power.

Zaeed's smirk didn't leave as he returned his eyes to Shepard, who also wore a smirk. "I'm a bit old for her Shepard." He paused and seemed to roll the idea around in his mind. After a few brief silent seconds, he continued. "But I guess I could make an exception if she can."

"If you take one step towards her I'll carve another scar onto your face," Garrus threatened calmly. His tone remained calm, but Shepard could tell he couldn't stand the mere thought of their one eyed friend approaching the Turian woman.

Zaeed didn't lose his smirk one bit; in fact he had an even more humorous glint in his eye that almost made it to his dead eye. "Threats? She must be a special girl. Afraid Papa Zaeed might corrupt her?"

Shepard nearly lost control of her laughter at the twitching Garrus began doing. As fun as this is, I should stop it before Zaeed and Garrus start seriously fighting. "That's his sister actually," she informed.

This time Zaeed did lose his smirk as surprised tugged onto his scarred face. Surprise turned into a hard frown, his furrowed brow forming a small knot at the center. "So let me get this straight." He spoke slowly and to the point, his voice absent of all humor. "Your sister is right over there, alive, and you're standing here being too much of a coward to go talk to her?"

Shepard hadn't heard this level of seriousness from Zaeed in a long time, and it spelt disaster for Garrus's stubbornness. Using this tone with their friend was the very reason she had contacted him in the first place. Zaeed had a way about making you feel like an idiot when he needed to.

"I am not bein—"

The veteran quickly interrupted Garrus with his stare turning cold, possibly colder than Noveria and harder than a Krogan headplate. "Vakarian. Your goddamned sister is alive and you haven't even spoken to her. You're standin' here making excuses when you should be over there tellin' her you weren't chewed up and spat out after the damn Crucible was fired. Are you fuckin' stupid?" He pointed in the direction of his sister. "Go over there and talk to her or I'll get Tiny and we'll drag you over there."

They stared at each other silently, neither one showing signs of backing down. "Vakarian," Zaeed chided forcibly.

Finally, Garrus's defense cracked. He released a sigh of defeat and let his shoulders sag. "All right. But if I don't come out of this with all my limbs intact, Tali has a shotgun."

Both the veteran and the commander chuckled, "You don't need to remind me, Vakarian. If you're so worried about your health, you shoulda just spoke to her earlier."

The Turian shook his head in response, mumbling something about not knowing his sister then walked off to go talk to her finally.

Shepard watched him closely to make sure he didn't sneak off, but he didn't try to get out of it. His sister, Solana, noticed him right away and promptly punched him in the face before pulling him into a hug once he was in range. "Feisty. Might have enjoyed it," Zaeed sighed.

"Too late now, Zaeed," the redhead said, chuckling lightly at his apparent disappointment. Although I doubt Garrus would have let you even get close to his sister with those intentions. She was glad that Zaeed was able to convince her stubborn friend to finally go talk to his sister after not listening to all the good reasoning she had tried to convince him of.

Sometimes being nice about it didn't do anything. Sometimes you needed someone like Zaeed to come in and tell you how much of an idiot you were being. His threat to bring Grunt with him to drag Garrus was probably more factual than a threat as well. Garrus could put up a fight, but those two have a lot of strength, and if he brought Wrex as well I'm sure Garrus would have no choice in the matter.

Their Krogan teammate and the old mercenary weren't the kind to do things subtly. They were more of the forward approach kind, and if that meant dragging their teammate to his sister then they would do it.

"Thanks for the help. Garrus wouldn't listen to reason and I don't have a shotgun."

Her friend nodded. "Don't mention it. He's always been a bit thickheaded, but nothing you can't bludgeon past." Shepard smirked at his statement. "Reminds me of an old Krogan bastard I used to do business with. He'd claim he was out of stock of incendiary grenades when I knew he was anything but."

A familiar faraway nostalgic look took over Zaeed's features. Shepard had seen this look many times before and every time the N7 saw it she couldn't help but smile. He had some interesting stories and some of them were only things someone like Zaeed would end up seeing. "Always suspected I would get shot in the back one day, but he just enjoyed pissing me off. 'Why should I give you them right away when I can get under your skin?' he'd ask me. I would then proceed to threaten to rip his goddamned headplate off. Never took it seriously. He'd bark a laugh and hand them over."

"Grunt told me once that Krogan are more likely to shoot you in the face rather than the back. Maybe he didn't want to mess up that pretty face of yours, well, any more than it already is I mean," Shepard jested.

Zaeed gave a hearty laugh and slugged the commander in the arm. "As if your face was any better when we met. All scarred and glowin' like someone put a lava lamp in your head."

"Ha ha," she drawled, her lips curled up in a smile at the retort. Unconsciously the redhead brought her hand to her face. She could still remember the scars and how irritating they were. Staying positive had helped her recovery immensely, which had in turn stopped her from having to use her upgraded med-bay equipment. Having the option or safety net in case things went bad was nice though.

Zaeed's nostalgic look returned once more. "Then again, you may be right Shepard. Krogan bastard liked to make jokes about me being uglier than Turian's. He should have met Garrus after he got his face blown to shit," Zaeed said, chuckled as he spoke. "He would have had a real laugh about that. 'A Turian uglier than you Zaeed? That's a first.'" The veteran snorted. "I can hear it now. Wonder what happened to that ugly bastard."

"Still going to call it a day Zaeed?"

She was curious as to what he was going to do as she knew he had been busy helping refugees and playing mediator between those who argued. By mediator Shepard of course meant he was there to be the imposing presence of a veteran mercenary who didn't take anyone's disrespect to stop others from fighting by knocking down those who tried with a hard punch.

Most of the time, according to Zaeed, he didn't get to see much action but there had been a few humans and Batarian's who "needed to be taught a lesson in table manners."

From what she understood, he had slammed them through tables on separate occasions for trying to steal from the refugees who were in worse shape. There hadn't been an incident from them since.

Let it be said that Zaeed, the veteran mercenary who was betrayed and shot in the face leaving him horribly disfigured, had a soft side for those in need. But if you were going to say it then to be safe it was best to say it quietly out of his range of hearing because he was known to give others "soft sides" using bullets or his bare hands.

Maybe he'll go play some Claw to get a plushy Volus toy for someone. Shepard had to bite the inner part of her cheek to stop herself from laughing. It was quite cute and hilarious to see the hardened veteran holding a tiny Volus toy as well as getting frustrated beyond all belief over playing a game of Claw.

It probably wouldn't be best to mention I was able to play the game after him and I never once missed, she mused, a small smile forming on her lips. She had a weird sense of pride to have been able to play the game flawlessly while others, like Zaeed, couldn't for the life of them pick up a toy until they wasted hundreds of credits.

"Yeah, no sense standing around the refugee camp doin' nothin'. I was taking up useful space and those sorry bastards need every bit of space they can get," he responded.

Shepard couldn't deny his logic on the matter. Even after making leaps and bounds on figuring out how to repair the Relays and helping the refugees on both the Citadel and Earth, there was still much work to be done and little space to do it sometimes.

Massive amounts of soldiers and refugees of all races were stranded in the Sol System because of the Crucible destroying the Relays. Although the space the Citadel and Earth offered was a large area, the Reapers had done a huge number on Earth by leveling entire cities. Places that could have once offered refuge were now nothing but skeletal ruins or dirt and ash.

In truth, the repairs needed across the entire galaxy were going to take more than a few months. Worst case scenario, if they couldn't bring the entire force of the galaxy back together for repairs they were looking at a situation similar to that of the Drell homeworld Rakhana.

Warring with one another for scraps of food and medi-gel until no one but a few thousand were left.

If it wasn't for the fact that I know we're getting really close to fixing our Relay, I would probably being worrying more.

No one was entirely quiet about news on fixing the Sol Relay. Anytime there was a breakthrough or the repair team fixed part of the Relay itself they would release the news to keep hope in all of the survivors hearts.

It was always one step after another with no huge steps back and that was amazing. There, of course, were hiccups now and then that would cause the repair teams to step back and try to figure out a way around the problem or how to fix it, but it was never too difficult.

When you put Salarian's, Quarian's, Rachni and Geth together in one room to solve technological problems you tended to get results fairly quickly. The Rachni were great workers and had been around a very long time. The Geth could work directly out in the dead of space if need be while also bringing their own intelligence on Reaper tech to help.

As for the Salarian's and Quarian's, they added their intelligence onto the other two, helping things move a bit faster. The recent intelligence found in the Mars Archives helped to accelerate the timetable for the repairs by a lot.

The equal to what they were doing would be shoving Turian's, Krogan's, Rachni and humans into one room when in need of a solution to blow something up or strategize a war. Results would be easy to get as the four races knew how to destroy and wage war pretty damn well.

"Going to hit up the Claw station?" Shepard joked.

"Hmm. Might not be a bad idea to show those smartass Salarian's that their kids game can't beat me." The redhead simply chuckled at her friend since he was actually serious when she was joking. "For now I'm going to go get a drink. Stop by the Claw machine later Shepard, I'll treat you to a game."

"Treat me to a game? Are you asking me on a date Zaeed?"

"And risk Kasumi stealing my armor so she can paint it pink?" He chuckled. "Not a chance in hell."

Shepard smirked at the thought of both Kasumi painting his armor pink and seeing him in it. For some reason she doubted that his badass attitude would lessen if he wore pink armor. In fact she was almost positive he would be even more of a badass in it due to how many people he would knock out or kill for trying to make a joke about his armor.

And trying to make a joke at someone like Zaeed wearing pink armor would be like trying to poke fun at a Krogan wearing pink. You'd be instigating your own death or mugging depending on what kind of mood he was in before that.

"Yeah, I don't think pink would be your color. See you later Zaeed."

"Later Shepard." The mercenary turned to leave at the same time a human woman who looked to be in her twenty's passed by them. Shepard quickly took notice of Zaeed watching her go by until she was too far into a crowd to see. Once she was out of sight he shook his head and began walking again. "Goddamn, what I'd give to be young again," she heard him mutter under his breath.

Shepard rolled her eyes and breathed out a laugh. Before leaving completely she stole once last glance at Garrus to make sure he hadn't dismissed himself from his sister quickly. He was still there talking to his sister, and that made her smile fully before she too left to go help some of the refugees and search for her hooded lover.

Garrus had wanted to talk to his sister but he had lacked the courage to do so, something Shepard was unaccustomed to saying about her dear friend. He was worried she would be in worse shape than she had been before they saw her, and then after that it was the excuse of she was busy. Another was he didn't want to go over and it not be her.

The last excuse was one to cover up his worry that she wouldn't notice him after not seeing her for an extended amount of time. Not only did she have the same markings on her face as Garrus, minus the scars, but he had confirmed it with his contacts before going.

In one hand she couldn't blame him for his nervous attitude about approaching his sister after everything they had went through. Would she recognize him or would he be another passing stranger? Would there be any hatred pushed at him for not staying with them during the war?

There were so many possibilities of bad things that could happen, leaving a lot of shades of grey between the black and white. Garrus has had a hard time dealing with the shades of grey in the past. I'm just glad I have been able to help when I can.

On the other hand she wanted to do what Zaeed did and tell him how ridiculous he was being about the situation. His sister was alive and a short walk away from him yet he was letting nervousness stop him from going to talk to her. There were people who didn't have the chance to go see their family members because they were dead while his was very much alive, yet he wouldn't go talk to her.

He was aware deep down at how stupid he was acting and he really wanted to go talk to her, but his stubbornness was stopping him. "I'll go see her later, Shepard, when she's alone," Garrus had told her.

That was not going to fly.

Shepard would have called in Tali to help but knew she was really busy going over some of the repairs on the Relay's with the other races and a few head Quarian's on the matter. She was handling important business and thus that led the commander to turn to Zaeed who would be blunt about the situation.

Zaeed wasn't one to skirt around issues once he caught onto what was going on. He knew she had called him for a reason. While her initial questions about what appeared to be a random Turian woman confused him, finally telling him it was Garrus's sister made him realize the true meaning.

She probably could have convinced Garrus to go with a little more coercion or taking the blunt approach, but she didn't want to spend another half an hour trying to convince him. When it came to hardheaded Turian's, Garrus could be on the top of the list or the bottom of it depending on the situation at hand.

Even after having a Mako explode practically right on top of him during the final run to the beam, Garrus was going to try to push through his wounds and follow her. Kaiden was in the same boat of wishing to follow her, but the severity of their wounds stopped them both from arguing.

That damn Mako nearly killed them. I wonder if that was fates sick sense of humor for all the jokes I used to make about how indestructible the Mako was. Not that it matters now. They survived their wounds and I made it to the beam in one piece…more or less.

The commander continued on her way, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her N7 hoodie as she searched and listened to the area around her for people in need. It was an old habit she had adopted over her time trying to save the galaxy to ensure that everyone received help no matter how small their problem was.

Eavesdropping was what it was called on a normal basis. For her it was a way to hear out the people who needed help but didn't have a loud enough voice to be heard or were blatantly ignored.

There had been more than a few doctors and scientists who needed help but were ignored by their superiors for one reason or another whether it was limited supplies or a lack of knowledge or Reaper tech in rare cases to help. Thankfully Cerberus had collected Reaper tech, which was an odd thing to say, and they had also made some breakthroughs that helped aliens.

Of course they marked those as failures, but Shepard had been able to snag them and use them to help those in need of those items. The Illusive Man did lend a helping hand to the war effort even if he didn't know it. Probably pissed him off if he ever found out about those "failed" research tests falling into my hands. He likely didn't take kindly to his soldiers failing to destroy them.

Garrus had once pondered on if the Illusive Man fired his commanders for failing or just lined them up and got it over with, and to be honest the redhead had to wonder the same thing. He had sent Kai Leng to his death in a way, or at least Shepard didn't believe that he would believe the sword wielding second-in-command would succeed.

Definitely not after that little surprise on the Citadel he gave Anderson and I. He was a cautious man, but after all the failed attempts on killing me, the Illusive Man had to have lost faith at one point or another. Then again he never lost hope on me turning my back on the others to help him so it's hard to say.

With her feet and subconscious mind guiding her, Shepard soon found herself at a camp made for orphans of the war run by none other than Conrad Verner. She didn't see the man anywhere around but she was happy to help when he asked for funding to create a place for orphans of the war.

He had messed up a few times over the years and had been her first creepy stalker. Yet despite all the frustrating circumstances she usually found him in, the man did help the war effort and would have taken a bullet for her if Jenna hadn't disabled the gun.

He had started the "Shepards" charity back on Illium to help orphans, POWs and refugees so in a way he already knew what he was doing where she wasn't sure how to set it up. Conrad managed to get enough people to help him out with it, for once not picking anyone who he shouldn't be talking to or listening to.

At least he's learned how to judge people a bit better.

The place was renamed after his original charity and offered a safe and healthy place for orphans who had no place to go or kids whose parents were somewhere out beyond the Sol System.

It was there Shepard found Javik standing at a distance as he watched the kids of differing races play around, relax and be taken care of by the caretakers.

"Javik?" Shepard couldn't help but sound surprised at finding the Prothean here.

He inclined his head in greeting, his arms behind his back and his posture straight as always. "Commander. I did not expect you to be here."

"I hadn't really planned to. I sort of just ended up here. What are you doing here?"

"Looking to conquer the primitives of the new generation. They will serve as my minions as I reinstate Prothean rule." She stared at him a bit blankly then steadily cracked a smirk when she realized he was joking and then finally fell into a laugh. To hear a joke out of Javik of all people was surprising as it was refreshing, even if it was a bit dry and hard to tell if he was serious or not.

It was only difficult to tell the difference between Javik telling a joke and being serious because the Prothean had never been one for jokes or humor in the first place. The first time she had heard him really laugh was after falling through the fish tank.

Javik had started with his usual "During my cycle" she was so fond of using when he felt the need to tell them how ridiculous they were or how things happened during his original life time. I can't even recall all the times he said it because of how much I had to hear it, just like I can't count the number of times Garrus told me he was too busy doing calibrations.

After that he had proceeded to then laugh at her and call her a trailblazer. To be honest she had been too surprised by his laughter to pay attention to the joke at her expense. Javik was a serious person for many reasons, all of which were very justifiable, yet he managed to finally laugh after remaining serious for so long.

There was something special about that to Shepard, though she couldn't explain exactly why she thought it was.

"Your 'Joker' pilot believed I was serious. I am glad to see you understand humor better than him."

Shepard chuckled at the statement but did not bring up the lack of logic in his way of thinking, deciding it best not to address the matter. Sometimes you had to let Javik be right now and then.

"I'm sure he was just having an off day. So if you're not planning to take over the galaxy using these kids, what are you doing?" The Prothean shifted ever so slightly that Shepard had almost not seen it. Is he uncomfortable? She had only ever seen him show how uncomfortable he was once and that was when she had asked him about the memory shard.

"All I have ever known is war. During my cycle, all children were raised to be warriors. There was no time for what you call 'playing.' We each had a role to play in defending the empire, and those of the next generation had to be taught to defend themselves." Shepard began to understand immediately what he was getting at. "It is…strange to see children who retain their innocence."

Shepard saw children eagerly looking around like they were searching for someone. Must be playing hide and seek. "But it is a good strange," Shepard said softly. He didn't respond vocally or physically so she decided to continue. "They have a future now where they don't have to go through the plague of death that war against something like the Reapers brings. We fought for that future and now these kids have a chance at a life where the nightmare factory the Reapers brought doesn't exist."

"They must not forget what you achieved, Commander. Peace between different species is not easily gained without violent means, but it can be lost if the future generations are not careful," Javik told her.

I can always rely on Javik to really lighten the atmosphere, Shepard mused. He was right in some aspects, however. The peace they had achieved was not without struggle and there was still much to do to keep that peace. If the future generations did not learn from the mistakes of the past as their previous generations hadn't then they were sure to follow them. "Then we'll work hard to make sure we keep the peace during our time and ensure they learn from any and all mistakes we've made in the past."

Javik turned to her with a serious expression. "And if that does not work?"

"Then we step back, look at what went wrong and try again. Peace has only ever been unattainable when everyone stopped learning and trying again."

Her Prothean teammate nodded an understanding nod. "I think the galaxy could learn a lot from you, Commander." He his lips curled into a smirk. "For a primitive, whose ancestors used to live in caves."

Shepard laughed this time and shook her head. Some things will never change.

"I once thought hope was a foolish primitive ideal…but now I see it is not as foolish as I believed." He bowed his head slightly. "Thank you, Commander. A hope filled future may not be as dark as I thought it might be."

She bowed her head in return and without another word he turned to leave. Before he could dismiss himself completely, he stopped and turned back to her. "Oh and your 'Kasumi' lover is pretending to be invisible again." Shepard raised her eyebrows in a bit of surprise. "They call it 'hide and seek' but both their hiding and their seeking need work. Fool primitives haven't discovered she is pretending to be invisible yet. I worry about this cycle," he said as he continued walking away.

Javik as usual, she thought with a smirk then turned her head to the kids who were seeking to find her cloaked lover. That little cheater is using her cloak to hide from the kids.

After a bit of searching, she saw the shimmer of her lover's cloak. There you are. Her lover was hiding under a table completely invisible thanks to her cloak, causing kids to run past her. Slowly she created a small biotic field, gripping the table and moving it so it would screech across the floor.

One of the kids stopped and looked at the table so Shepard did what any one in her position would do: she moved the table again right as Kasumi's cloak shimmered again. Immediately the kid caught on and walked over to the table with the other kids in tow deciding to dog pile the thief once she revealed herself.

Everyone went into a fit of laughs including the thief herself. Shepard leaned against the wall and watched on, smiling blissfully at them. Kasumi caught her eyes with her own and sent her a beautiful smile before sticking her tongue out at her for getting her caught.

For a good ten minutes the red-haired N7 watched as her lover went from playing with the kids to helping them tidy up the mess they all made by playing and getting them ready for their dinner time.

There was a sudden pang for family she felt in her heart watching her lover escort the kids around. For the longest time the Normandy team had been her family and they would forever remain that way, yet she couldn't help but think back to the parents she lost years ago on Mindoir.

She wondered what they would think of Kasumi and if they would be proud of her for staying alive long enough to experience as much as she had. In their absence, Anderson had become a fatherly figure and Chakwas became her motherly figure. She had to guess that if they were proud and happy for her that her parents would have been to.

For a moment four of the kids around Kasumi morphed into the four kids her vivid imagination granted her with and the pang got worse. Without all the friends who had joined her on the Normandy, the redhead wasn't sure if she would remember what having a family was like. Most of her memories from her life on Mindoir were scattered at best and completely gone at worse.

If there was something she wanted to do it was be there for her kids as they grew older. She didn't want to be a parent who didn't know her children because she spent too much time away from home.

To be able to see them become adults and explore the galaxy they had fought to save was a deep desire of hers, and though the pang was telling her to settle down now, the commander knew she couldn't. Settling down now would cause her to fail at the very wish of being there for her kids through both their younger years and into their adult years.

So much work to be done and we haven't even started galaxy wide repairs. She sighed and thought back to the conversation she had with Kasumi this morning.

"Ana…I- I know this may be asking a lot, but can you promise me that we'll…settle down and live out on that beach and do what you dreamed of? I know we have to help with repairs and I'm all for it, but after the Relays are up and after we've helped the galaxy get stable…if there comes a time when it looks like they are throwing all the weight on your shoulders, will you please walk away from it all and retire?"

At first, before Kasumi had finished her entire question, the commander was confused. She wasn't sure why she was so worried about them not settling down after all the conversations they had. Of course she would settle down with her on that beach and fulfill those dreams; she wouldn't wait until they were too old to really enjoy those dreams.

Once she finally finished her questioning she understood the worry in her lover's voice. Shepard knew the thief wouldn't allow her to be weighted down by all the decisions again, but her lover was worried she'd let herself be dragged in so far that she couldn't back out.

The thief would remain at her side regardless of her decision but she didn't want to see her so burdened ever again. Kasumi also knew the redhead well enough to know that she would do all she could to help and that it was possible she might end up taking a large amount of a burden again despite intentions of not wanting to.

Watching Kasumi saunter back over to her with a smile on her face and feeling the pang in her heart for having a family made her answer even more easy to say now than it was to say before.

"Yes, I promise I will Kasumi."

"Hey Shep. You okay?" Kasumi asked noticing the faraway look in her eyes.

Shepard smiled and hugged her. "More than you realize." Her lover kissed her tenderly on her cheek and intertwined their hands.

"That's great." She tugged on her hand a little. "Come on I got a message from Jack that she needed some help with her students, so I volunteered our help. I wonder if David is still doing okay," Kasumi said, never once losing her smile as the redhead smiled back and caught up to her so they could walk side by side.

Everything felt a lot better holding her hand. Even if it was gloved, she could still feel the warmth of her hand in hers. It washed away the pang for settling down. Having Kasumi and her team by her side was all she needed right now. One day, somewhere down the line, she would fulfill both her promise to her hooded lover and the dreams they had.

I think you're right Javik. The future does hold a lot more hope than I realized.