Thank you for the reviews, everyone! I'm so glad that you're enjoying my story. I'm sorry for all the feels. I owe some people tissues, I suppose! I hope that this next part makes up for my less-frequent posting (my buffer has been severely shortened by lack of free time). Enjoy!

He dreamed that she was calling out for him, lost somewhere in a maze of corridors and doorways. He could hear her voice, but could never seem to find her, to catch up with her.

"Thane," she cried, her voice panicked, pleading.

"I'm coming, Siha!" he called back, running down hallway after hallway, trying to follow the sound of her voice.

"Thane!" Her voice was more desperate, and he frantically pushed himself to run faster. She needed him, and he needed her. Where was she? Why couldn't he find her?

"THANE!" The shouting woke him up. He was in Life Support, lying on the cot that he'd set up to sleep on, and it wasn't Shepard calling his name, it was EDI.

"EDI? What is it, what's wrong?" He was still groggy, not entirely sure of what was going on.

"I am sorry to have shouted at you, Thane, but you were not waking up when I called your comm," she said, her voice was still the same one from when she had been merely the Normandy's AI, despite the fact that she was now no longer merely synthetic, but organic as well.

"It's fine," he said, "What's going on?" There was a beat, and EDI said something that made Thane's heart drop.

"It's Shepard."

"What about Shepard?" he asked, already pulling his clothing on, "Have they found her body?" At least it would be something, give him a chance to say goodbye and put his anxious unknowing to rest.

"Admiral Hackett did not wish to discuss it over the comm. He has requested the presence of the Normandy's crew on the bridge. He will be docking with us momentarily," EDI said, "I thought that you would want to be present."

"Thank you EDI," he said, "I do." She told him that she would see him in a moment, and he hurried into his clothing. He needed this, needed closure, as did the rest of the crew. It still hurt though, and he stood with his eyes closed while waiting for the elevator, carefully controlling his breathing and the vague nausea that he felt. The doors opened, and he found Tali and Garrus in the car, the Quarian woman leaning against the Turian in both a show of support, and to receive some herself, Thane could tell. Garrus coughed and stepped away from her when the doors slid open, but Thane waved his hand at them,

"Please, don't worry about hiding from me. I am glad that you two finally discovered your feelings for each other," he said. Both Garrus and Tali started to speak at once.

"Oh, we weren't-"

"You mean she was-"

They both stopped talking and looked at each other, before Garrus shrugged his shoulders and put an arm around Tali.

"Guess the cat's out of the bag," he said. Tali let out a small laugh,

"You've been hanging around humans for too long. You're picking up all of their idioms," she said. Thane stepped into the elevator, and the doors closed behind him. As the car passed up to the CIC level, Tali placed a hand on Thane's shoulder. "Are you alright, Thane?" He bowed his head forward,

"Thank you Tali. I am as alright as can be expected, given the situation." She nodded her understanding, and Garrus spoke aloud what they were all probably wondering.

"Why did the Admiral want to talk with us in person? How bad must it be if he can't even tell us over the comm?" Thane shook his head, and Tali spoke,

"I'd rather not think about it." Both men nodded, and stood silently until the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open.

It looked like the entire crew of the Normandy had gathered in the CIC for whatever Admiral Hackett had to say. There were plenty of familiar faces from his time with Shepard's crew, as well as a few new ones. Apparently a skeleton crew was managing the ship, in order to allow as many people as possible to be present for whatever news there was about their commander. One young woman, who had been previously introduced to Thane as Traynor, was speaking quietly with another young woman in an Alliance uniform. Thane could hear the conversation.

"What could be so horrible that he has to come tell us in person?" asked the woman whose name Thane didn't know. Traynor responded,

"I don't know. Maybe… maybe there wasn't," her voice trembled, and slipped down to a whisper, "Maybe there wasn't much left…" Thane closed out the conversation. His own speculation was bad enough; he didn't need to hear those of the other crew members as well. Dozens of horrible scenarios ran through his mind; she was so horribly mangled that they couldn't recognise her at first, she had been taken by the Reapers before the end of it all, and what was left wasn't even human, just a husk with blazing blue eyes, or, probably most likely, there simply wasn't enough left to bury. His stomach clenched as he struggled to push the morbid anxieties from his mind. All that speculation did was made it worse. He calmed his thoughts, relying on the breathing techniques taught to him so many years ago when he had first begun training to be an assassin, and waited for the Admiral to arrive.

It wasn't long before the message came over the radio, Admiral Steven Hackett requesting permission to board the Normandy. Major Alenko, the highest ranking alliance personnel member on the ship and temporary commanding officer, gave him the okay, and the airlock hissed as it was pressurized.

The Admiral's face gave nothing away as to what he was about to tell the crew; he was as serious as always. The anxiety in the room was palpable, but fortunately Hackett didn't draw out the moment.

"I know that you're all probably wondering why I've come here to talk to you instead of just saying what I had to say over the radio channel," he began, "What I'm about to tell all of you is classified. It's beyond classified, and there is a complete order of radio silence regarding the matter. Some groups might be listening in, and while the change may have made peace a possibility, there are a few groups who are still holding grudges. I really shouldn't be talking to you about this at all, but I know that you all followed Shepard through hell and you deserve to know what's going on. I trust all of you. Shepard trusted all of you, and that's good enough for me, so I know that you'll respect the order not to breathe a word of this outside the walls of this ship," He took a breath and paused, then said what everyone already knew was coming,

"We've found Shepard," he continued, and Thane closed his eyes, drawing in a lungful of air and bracing himself for whatever came next. Whatever he had been expected, it wasn't what the Admiral said, and he felt his breath leave him as surely as if someone had kicked him in the chest when the next words left Steven Hackett's mouth, "And she's alive."