~Author's Note~ Thanks for all the reviews and the kind words, you guys.

And yes, my engineer's bonus power was a defense drone, so she had 3 drones. No, it's not overkill.

Enjoy.

The kickback from Shepard's new, (as in, scavenged), Crusader shotgun was far stronger than any other weapon she had handled previously, but she was getting used to it. How could she not love a weapon that had stopped two brutes in their tracks? Of course, the bad thing about using a shotgun was that she was covered in gore and she was pretty sure that if the Reaper troops had any sense of smell, she'd kill them just by being in their general vicinity. Or maybe that wasn't a bad thing. It would conserve ammo at least.

She turned to Garrus, her smile nearly ear-to-ear. "You sure know how to show a lady a good time, Vakarian!"

The turian took one look at her, her teeth pretty much the only thing he could see in the mess that covered his Commander from head to toe, and shook his head, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

The whine of her turret finding another target to shoot at brought her weapon back around. Between her sentry and her drone, the Reapers had to send a significant force to even challenge her side of their position, because those two would take care of quite a few troops before they even got close. And if they did manage to break through, her defense drone would incapacitate them just long enough for her to get a clean shot with her shotgun. Basically, it meant that only brutes had even got to the door so far. She had to give Garrus some credit for that, of course, pretty much every time he fired, an enemy dropped.

She had no idea what their ammo stores were looking like. They had used the first lull in the battle to split the pile, and take roughly half of it closer to Vega and Tali's side of things. Something she should probably have thought of beforehand. Vega wasn't as good of a sniper as Garrus, but he made up for it by pouring fire from his assault rifle into anything that got past Tali's drones. It was a good set-up, the only thing missing was biotics. She could use a good singularity about now. Liara would be able to give Garrus a few more kills by dragging some of the Reaper troops out of cover. She sure as hell hoped the asari had gotten off-world. Liara had gone with Jack to help her and her kids with barriers for the soldiers, but she had heard nothing from either of the two biotics after Hammer squad began their ill-fated assault. Damn it, she should have asked Hackett about that.

She checked on Vega and Tali, quickly, to see Vega finishing off a Marauder that had gotten too close, but they seemed to be under no real pressure.

"This is too easy," she muttered to Garrus.

The turian looked at her as if she were crazy. "Too easy? Five brutes charging down on our position in the last half-hour is too damn easy?"

"Where are the banshees, Garrus? Why are the Reapers not throwing everything at this position now that they know we're here?"

Garrus rolled his eyes. "Sweetheart, only the banshees can teleport, and that's only short-range. Their troops are probably scattered over this entire sector, so yeah, they're probably all heading back here. But without a Reaper giving them direct orders, they're just going to attack as soon as they get here, instead of waiting for the rest of their friends."

Shepard cocked an eyebrow at him. "Sweetheart? Really? You wait until we're in a fight for our lives to start calling me pet names?"

His mandibles flared in embarassment. "Well I watched this old human vid a couple nights back, and-"

She shook her head, and cut him off with a bruising kiss.

She pulled back when he gagged. "Am I really that bad, Garrus?"

"You have Reaper guts on your face, Shepard!"

Further conversation was cut off by a series of high-pitched screams, that seemed to come from all around them.

Garrus glared at her. "You had to ask."

Shepard glanced out of her door, and her heart sank. There were at least a half-dozen Banshees, all with wraiths supporting them.

Vega's voice was a little shaky when he yelled at her. "Uh, Lola, we might need some help. There's four or five of those screaming raros over here."

Garrus dropped to the floor, already lining up his sniper rifle. Shepard got behind cover, only stepping out to deliver an Overload and a few shots from her Locust. They killed two of the six banshees before they reached the door, but four banshees in close quarters combat is not a fight Shepard was willing to engage in. She pulled out her rocket launcher and fired one directly at the entrance. The banshees were all trying to cross at the same time, and there was simply no room for them to dodge.

She whooped as the rocket turned all four of them into ash, and reloaded her launcher with her last rocket before turning around to-

There was a banshee directly in her face. Vega was pouring fire into its back, but the shots were just glancing off its barrier. Before she could do anything, there was a sudden, intense pain in her chest and she was hoisted into the air. Her launcher fell from numb fingers. It was curious, really. It almost felt like the thing was trying to freeze her chest. She looked down and giggled. The banshee had stuck her arm completely through and out Shepard's back.

"Honestly," she said to the thing's face, "that's rather rude. You could have just picked me up if you wanted a face-to-face chat."

It screamed, and the force from its yell deafened Shepard. That was okay, she was just trying to talk to this thing, and someone kept screaming her name. Made it hard to concentrate. Also rather rude. She was clutching something in her hand, something she had pulled out of her belt when she saw the banshee. A grenade. That was odd, why would she pull a grenade on this lovely friend? Maybe it liked grenades. She giggled again. Maybe it liked to *eat* grenades. After all, they did look like a kind of fruit she loved. She remember her mom making certain she got one on every birthday, even though it was extremely expensive to get fresh fruit shipped out from Earth.

So she unceremoniously stuffed it into the thing's mouth. "Happy Birthday!" After all, it's hands were occupied holding Shepard so they could talk. It was only the polite thing to do. "Remember to chew before swallowing," she advised her new friend. She looked to the side for a moment. Someone kept yelling at her. Oh, it was Garrus. Silly turian. He was probably just jealous of her new friend. She waved her arm at him to go away so she could talk. He raised his sniper rifle like he was going to shoot her friend. "No no no-"

She was flying. There had been something- maybe fireworks?- and now she was flying. It was fun, for the short time it lasted. Hitting the wall wasn't as fun. She slid down the wall and looked around. Where had her friend gone? There were a couple more of them in the building with her, but she didn't think any of them was her friend.

People kept yelling her name. One of them was yelling her first name. That had to be Garrus. She remembered, she liked Garrus. A lot. If she could find her new friend, maybe she could introduce them. Then she remembered, Garrus had tried to shoot her new friend. So she forgot about that idea.

She saw another explosion go off, another firework, saw Vega toss aside her... her... thing that shot fireworks. Saw the last of her new friend's comrades fall apart into ash. She giggled again. "To dust you shall return." She remembered that line from... it seemed another lifetime ago. She would rather go up to the stars than become dust. She looked outside again, searching for those two stars she had seen some time back. She couldn't find them. Too much dust. She hated dust.

There. There was a star, shining through. It was very bright. She focused on it, smiling.

Then Garrus was right in her face. She didn't mind. She loved seeing Garrus this close. Although her nose minded. She wrinkled it at the smell that was coming off of him. He really should take a bath. Did turians even believe in taking baths? No matter, she would insist on it before she let him kiss her again. He seemed to like that, she remembered. But she wouldn't let him anyway if he wouldn't stop yelling at her. He was shaking her, too. Honestly, could none of these people stop yelling at her? She just wanted to sleep. She felt so tired, and everyone just kept yelling, it made it impossible to catch a few winks. Tali was trying to pull Garrus up. She was yelling at him. All of them were yelling. Even Vega was yelling, although he was yelling and pointing and jumping all at the same time. Garrus jerked up, rounded on Tali, still yelling, this time at her. Shepard looked back for her star again. Strange. It wasn't there anymore. More dust, she guessed. Why would anyone want to return and become dust? She just wanted to see a star before she went to sleep. She felt oddly offended that her star had left. Did it not like the way she smelled? Well, she could hardly blame it if that was the case.

Garrus and Tali stopped yelling, and just stood there, glaring at each other. That wasn't nice. They were supposed to be friends. Vega was still yelling though. And pointing. And jumping. It was mostly in that strange language of his, though. Shepard smiled. At least it sounded pretty. Tali looked down at her omnitool, then over to where Vega was pointing. So did Garrus.

Oh look, her star was back! Funny. She didn't know that up close stars looked like ships. This one looked just like her ship, as a matter of fact. It must really be her star!

She was still laughing when the blackness finally rolled in and claimed her.