~Author's Note~ And so, our story comes to an end.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to review, I appreciate that more than you can know.

I'm glad you enjoyed the ride.

~Nine years after the Reaper War~

"No, headbutting the other kid is not acceptable, I don't care what he called you... Eve Vakarian. You listen to me, now... No, it doesn't matter what your mother said you could do, besides I highly doubt she said it was okay for you to headbutt anyone who disagreed with you. Shall we go inside and ask her?... That's what I thought. Now go wash up for dinner, alright?"

Garrus Vakarian sat back in his chair with a contented sigh that lasted for all of three seconds, since his chair promptly collapsed under him and deposited him on the ground.

"Mordin! What have I told you about fiddling with- gah." He managed to extricate himself from the contraption and stood back, gazing at it. He threw his hands up in the air and then went and sat on the railing, gazing out over the water.

"Rannoch sure is nice this time of year," Katelyn said, as she came up behind him. She raised an eyebrow at the ruined mess of the porch furniture. "Having trouble with the chairs again, dear?"

"I'd have no trouble at all if it weren't for your son taking the bolts out."

"Oh, now he's my son, is he? I see." She grinned. "If you ask me though, it's because you're getting a little... hmm..."- she wrapped her arms around his waist- "soft around the edges."

He spun around in her arms, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Soft? Oh-ho, you're gonna regret that one, Shepard."

She waved the spoon in his face. "It's Vakarian now, or have you forgotten that so quickly?"

He grinned in response. "It's Shepard when you're in trouble."

She smiled, looking out over Rannoch, but it didn't reach her eyes. Her voice was soft. "It was fifteen years ago today, Garrus."

He instantly knew what his mate was talking about. Reaching out a hand, he gently brushed her cheek with his talons, and brought her eyes back to his. "You did the right thing, Katelyn. What they offered... that was not an option. There had to be a better way than that. And there was."

Her eyes were haunted, uncertain. "The sacrifice of that many people-"

"To save everyone. I told you before, if it had been Palaven they attacked, I would have made the same call."

She was quiet for a moment, staring out over the waters. "Wrex called yesterday. He said he had another youngling... if we were interested, that is."

He noticed she didn't meet his eyes. "What did you say?"

"That I wasn't going to make a decision like that without asking you first."

He smiled. "I think the Vakarian household can make room for another, what do you think?"

She glanced at him, then broke into a wide grin. This time, it did reach her eyes. "I think; I love you, Garrus Vakarian."

"You only think? You have doubts? I shall have to see what I can do to convince you."

She perched on the railing, her eyes lifted, her mouth smug. "I think that might take some serious work, Mr. Vakarian."

"Well, exactly what kind of work did you have in mind, Mrs. Vakarian?"

Tali's voice interrupted them. "Keelah! Would you two get in here already? We're all waiting."

Garrus' expression turned worried. "Tali was in there helping you with dinner? You two didn't try another one of your "experiments" did you?"

She hopped down next to him. "Now, now Garrus, it wasn't your turn to cook, so you can eat what we made and you will like it, sir."

"You didn't answer my question."

"We may have, ah, fiddled with a recipe or two-"

He shook his head, laughing. "You just can't resist, can you? Oh well, I suppose it can hardly be worse than the last time."

He put his arm around her, and the two of them went into the house together. And to Garrus' great delight, it wasn't worse than last time.

After the meal, while Garrus and Kal'Reegar were cleaning up the mess, Katelyn and Tali sat down in the common room. She never would get over exactly how a quarian looked with their suits off. The exotic beauty, the simple allure of seeing something that had been hidden for so long- well, suffice it to say she could see why Rannoch was such a popular tourist spot for young people of essentially every race.

Tali looked at her, curious. "What are you thinking about?"

Since she obviously couldn't tell her what she was really thinking, she just shook her head. "Nothing important. Is Kal living here with you?"

Tali blushed hard, and looked down at her feet.

"Well, that's all the answer I needed for that. Did you finally go and ask him, like I said?"

The quarian nodded. Then, tentatively- "Well, I may have done a bit more than just ask." She grinned shyly, meeting Shepard's gaze again.

Katelyn matched her grin. "Men. They simply cannot take a hint. I thought I was going to have to drag Garrus into my cabin." The two women were still laughing when Garrus and Kal'Reegar entered the room.

Garrus smiled and said, "Look, Kal, they're already planning the next experiment to try on us."

The male quarian rolled his eyes. "Anything Tali does is an experiment. Never does the same thing twice, that would be too boring." But he was smiling when he said it, and it was obvious he was just teasing.

Tali started, smacking herself in the forehead. "Oh, I completely forgot. Liara sent me a message, apparently she knows the two of you are here, so she told me to relay the information."

Katelyn smiled and shrugged. "She isn't the Shadow Broker for no reason."

Tali continued, "The repairs to Thessia are nearing completion, they think they'll be ready in eight to ten months, and the Asari government has asked that you be the first official off-worlder allowed back on, Shep- I mean, Katelyn."

Katelyn turned to Garrus. "What do you think? Up for a trip to Thessia?"

He shrugged. "Let's see. We've been to the Elcor homeworld, we've been down to Kahje, Palaven, and now Rannoch. Thessia seems like the next logical destination. Unless you want to visit the Salarians first."

She shook her head. "Not until they've worked out their problems. You know, there's still a significant faction that's mad at me for letting Mordin cure the genophage. Heck, they're about ready to descend into civil war, last I heard. I don't want to drag the kids into that mess. Someone might try to use them against me."

Garrus nodded and the four of them were silent for a moment. Then Tali spoke up again. "I want you two to be the first to know. Well, besides Kal." The male quarian smiled and squeezed Tali's shoulder in response. She continued. "I've decided that I don't want to live on ships anymore, or design them. I told you a few years back that's probably what I would do in peace-time, but there's a huge need among my people for residences, and I'm pretty sure I'd be good at that."

Shepard smiled and nodded. "I bet you would, Tali."

The quarian hesitated then, shakily, "I was thinking... of naming the business Williams Residences. Is that... is that okay?"

Shepard had to swallow, hard, before replying. "I think she would be honored, Tali."

Tali nodded, and blinked a few times, but a few tears made their way down her cheeks despite her effort to stop them.

The reminder of the heavy price they had paid to defeat the Reapers once more settled over Katelyn and again, she questioned her decision.

Garrus saw it, of course, and opened his mouth intending to say something to change the subject. He noticed movement at the corner of the room and saw a person who could show Katelyn that yes, it was worth it, far more than anything he could say. So he merely nodded over his mate's shoulder and said, "Looks like someone isn't as asleep as we thought."

She followed his gaze and saw her daughter, Eve. The little krogan looked adorable, wrapped partially in her sheets, which she had apparently dragged down the stairs with her, but her eyes were red and she had obviously been crying.

"What's the matter, Evey? Bad dream?"

When she nodded, Katelyn stood up. "I'll take care of this, you guys."

She picked up her daughter and took the stairs two at a time, knowing Eve liked that. By the time they got to the bedroom, Eve was smiling. "There, that's better, isn't it?"

She nodded wordlessly, already crawling back underneath her covers. She grabbed her favorite toy, a stuffed Hanar, and held it tightly enough that if the thing had been alive, Katelyn was sure it would be crying out for release. "This one humbly requests that you- ack- loosen your hold on this one's breathing apparatus." She smiled, thinking about it, and looking at her daughter.

She glanced over across the room, to see Mordin in bed, but quite obviously not asleep, although he was trying his best to convince Katelyn he was. A few tools had fallen beside the bed.

"Mordin. You can work on that contraption in the morning. Go to sleep now, sweetheart."

The little turian grumbled something under his breath that Shepard didn't quite catch.

She moved over to stand beside his bed. "What's that?"

"Need to finish cali... calibur... caliburitions."

She had to stifle the laughter that nearly exploded out of her at that.

"You can finish your calibrations tomorrow. Go to sleep. We're still here for another couple weeks, you've got plenty of time. Ask your father what happens when you try to calibrate on no sleep."

She bent down and kissed him on the head, then returned to Eve and did the same. She turned to leave, but her hand was grabbed by Eve's.

"What is it, sweetie?"

The little krogan looked up at her with big round eyes. "You're not going to leave, are you?"

"Just to let you get some sleep-"

"No, please! Don't leave. M'scared."

She sighed, and sat down next to the bed. "You don't need to be scared Eve. I'm never going to leave you, alright?" She yawned, her head nodding. "Never gonna leave..."

Garrus found her like that a half-hour later. He smiled, and picked her up, carrying her to their bed.

She woke up on the way, but was content to let him carry her. He noticed that she was awake, and whispered to her, "Every time you question what happened, and wonder whether you made the right decision, I want you to look at Mordin and Eve, and think of all the other parents that also have their kids because the Reapers were defeated. That's an order, now. You're one for one so far, don't disobey this one and ruin your perfect score."

She smiled. "Yes, sir."

He gently laid her down on the bed, and then he climbed in next to her.

Just before he fell asleep, she poked him in the side. "Garrus?"

"Yes?"

"He's definitely your son."

Epilogue

~Seven hundred years after the Reaper War~

Liara T'Soni took a deep breath as she finished her tale. "Wow, I'm really getting on in years. That's starting to take it out of me now. It was far easier when I told your mother all of that. And I'm sure people are gonna ask me to tell it at least once more today."

The three small asari younglings clustered around her feet were staring at her with wide, earnest eyes. The middle one spoke up, her eyes shining. "Wow! Shepard was a great hero! She's better than any of those old Asari we were learning about in school yesterday."

Liara laughed, her eyes twinkling with distant memories. "I think Shepard was a once-in-forever kind of person. The galaxy needed a hero like that, or it would not have survived. After all, not only did she defeat the Reapers, it was also Shepard who set all the races on solving the dark energy problem, and who convinced the council to outlaw the use of the relays to buy us more time. Only someone with her reputation could have pulled that off.

"And now, it is solved. Mordin Vakarian's team discovered a way to shunt the dark energy into darkspace five centuries ago today, thus the celebrations going on." She gestured around at the multitude of people from every race who were scattered around the park. Her voice turned thoughtful. "I can't believe it's been five hundred years. It seems like yesterday that Mordin came running into my quarters at 3 in the morning, shouting and yelling so much I had to get him to calm down before I could even understand what he was trying to say. I guess it was fitting that it was his team who solved it, given who his parents were. Although, for just that one moment, he reminded me more of a certain salarian I knew."

The three were silent for a moment, then the smallest spoke. "Grandmum, why was Shepard such a great hero?"

Liara sat back for a moment, lost in thought. When she spoke, they had to lean forward to hear. "I think it was because, despite everything, she believed in us. She was told by the Reapers that every single galactic civilization that had come before had failed to solve the problem, but she believed we could. Rather than bow to the Reapers' demands, and allow humanity to become one of them, she refused to follow the path they had laid out for her. She never gave up, and refused to give in to their demands, but above all else, she honestly did believe that the races, working together, could accomplish what the Reapers and their twisted versions of us could never do.

"She believed that we could all chart our own course, that we were not bound to fail as those before us had done, and that to succeed or fall on our own was a far nobler goal than anything the Reapers could offer us.

"I believe that was what made her so great: her refusal to accept that there was not a better way."

Again, there was silence for a moment.

The eldest of the three broke it this time. "Where do you think she is now, Grandmum?"

Liara smiled, and raised her eyes toward the stars. "I imagine she's at a bar, sharing a glass with a certain Turian. Somewhere up there." She smiled wider. "I do hope that they are saving a seat for an old friend."

~Fin~