Shepard had been watching Samantha's house from a distance for a couple of weeks now. Her first intention had been to go over and just say hello, but Tali had pointed out it probably wouldn't end well. Clearly, Samantha had moved on, she could easily decide to just call the authorities if Shepard showed up.

When she'd read the dossier Liara had compiled, Shepard had gotten jealous when she'd seen that Samantha had been married to a Maya Brooks for a couple of years now. At first, she couldn't figure out why she felt that way, she hadn't gotten jealous when Liara had mentioned her husband after Shepard had asked about it.

There was something delightfully weird and decadent about being naked in bed with someone and asking them about their husband. According to Liara, Javik was a man with a dry, dark sense of humor, and he complained about everything, but Liara loved him. Hearing that, Shepard hadn't felt jealous, she'd felt glad that Liara had moved on. She'd felt a bit guilty for sleeping with Liara despite knowing she was married, but at the same time, she refused to take full responsibility for that.

They'd spent the entire day in bed, over two decades of longing for each other and the frustration of not having been able to feel each other manifesting as the two of them fucking like wild animals at first, the act then morphing and melding from that to quiet, slow and passionate love making. Technically, it had only happened once, after that first day they'd seen each other, they hadn't had sex.

But even though she acknowledged she had no right to be jealous of Samantha, especially not after the way she'd just behaved with Liara, she felt jealous. She got angry when she thought about Maya Brooks touching Samantha. She got annoyed when she realized Samantha had moved on almost immediately after being released, knowing she was carrying Shepard's baby, it wasn't right, it wasn't fair, this was her family, and Shepard wanted what was hers. The big house with the white picket fence, the kid and the dog were supposed to be Shepard's family with Samantha, not Maya's.

Yet, here she was, walking home in the chilly late November afternoon, light breeze catching dead leaves and dragging them along the street, a thin fog hovering in the air. She was with Samantha who was holding the leashes of the two ridiculously large dogs that looked like muscular miniature bears (Legion had informed Shepard that the breed was Cane Corso, but Shepard was still convinced they were half-bears rather than dogs) while Maya carried a little boy -Shepard's little boy- on her shoulders, the kid holding onto her forehead as he pointed out things he could see now that he was this high up.

Maya Brooks was a federal special agent, probably one of the people working around the clock to find and capture Shepard.

"What's so special about her?" Shepard had snidely inquired earlier today upon being given this information.
"Shepard Commander, it is merely a title," Legion had responded promptly.

Bless his heart, Shepard mused when she thought of Legion, for his heart is in the right place, but Lord only knows where his brain is sometimes.

Maya and Samantha entered the yard and let the dogs loose once they were securely locked behind the sturdy white picket fence surrounding the yard. The dogs didn't run off, clearly, they were properly trained, as dogs that size should be.

Shepard climbed to the second floor of the house she was in, the one across the street from Samantha and Maya's. The owner had been away for the past two weeks, he'd surprised Shepard last night, but she'd managed to hide and quietly leave the house before he'd even realized she had broken in there to spy on the house across the street.

According to the data Legion had pulled up on him and analyzed to figure out any patterns in the owners' routine, he wouldn't be home for another couple of hours, unless he deviated from his daily routine, but she assumed he wouldn't. Most people didn't unless they had reason to believe they were being stalked which is when it became intentional, a conscious decision to break the pattern. Shepard was willing to bet people would be surprised if they ever realized just how predictable they could be.

Shepard went to a window on the second floor so she could see over the fence. Samantha entered the house while the boy stayed outside with Maya. She helped him climb on the swingset and gave him a push.

Shepard clenched her fists as she fought the urge to just walk over there and let the boy know she was his father. She should've been the one pushing him on a swing, chatting with him and making him laugh happily. He was her son. Hers.

I want what's mine.

Samantha woke up when she heard her son repeatedly say her name. She rose to rest her weight on her forearm and glanced at the clock. It was almost three in the morning.

"What's wrong, lil' guy?" she yawned when she saw him standing by her bed, clutching a frog-shaped stuffed toy to his chest.
"There's someone in my room," he said and Samantha sighed a little, pulled the covers back and made room on the bed.

"You probably had a bad dream, but dreams can't hurt you. It's just your imagination. Come on, get in with me," Samantha said softly and he climbed in bed. He tucked his head under Samantha's chin and she put her arm around him, wrapped him up in the blanket and held him close. She realized he was shivering.

"Sweetheart, it's okay, it was just a dream," she tried assuring him.
"There was a lady in my room!" he insisted again and Samantha felt her heart skip a beat and her chest suddenly felt like it was imploding.

All this time she had told herself Shepard wouldn't come after her. Even once she'd heard of Shepard's escape, she'd adamantly refused to accept that she would do that, and since it had been quiet for a long while now, she'd assumed Shepard wouldn't come here. She'd had no reason to think Shepard would know about the child either, and she doubted Shepard would come after her in the hopes of picking up where they'd left off on Omega. Surely she'd understood that while her feelings for Shepard had been genuine, it had been just a fling, it wouldn't work in the outside world?

Shepard had never come across as delusional. Slightly weird and very callous yes, but not delusional. Samantha didn't believe she'd come here thinking Samantha would just run away with her and spend the rest of her life on the run with a fugitive. Even after the news about Saren Arterius's suicide and his note (in which he'd expressed deep regret over never speaking up about what had really happened on Torfan that day when the events leading to Shepard's prosecution had taken place), Samantha knew Shepard wouldn't walk free.

She also didn't believe for a second that it had been a suicide. She didn't care that the reports on the news and the stories "The Cult Of Shepard" posted online detailing the timeline stated that Saren had taken his life prior to Shepard's escape.

She'd seen the way Shepard could slither into another person's head (Samantha had occasionally wondered if she herself had been indoctrinated by Shepard during her time in prison with her, because there were things she still couldn't explain about her own behavior from that time when she looked back on it all now) until they were willing to do anything for her; odds were Shepard had talked someone into killing Saren for her, or that she'd simply talked Saren himself into blowing his brains out. That theory was in conflict with the timeline, but Maya had explained to her that time of death wasn't an exact science, Shepard could've very well been there.

She wouldn't come after me, Samantha mentally assured herself once more and was about to close her eyes again when she realized what was off. The dogs were barking agitatedly as they paced back and forth, the soft thuds of their heavy paws easily audible. They never barked for no valid reason, they were trained guard dogs who wouldn't alert the house over a raccoon or a squirrel.

"Maya," Samantha whispered and reached behind her to shove at her sleeping wife. "Maya, get up, there's..." she stopped herself in the middle of the sentence, not wanting to scare her son any further by acknowledging that she too was now convinced there really was someone in his room.

"What?" Brooks grumbled sleepily and turned to face Samantha, reaching to put her arm around her and pulled her closer while pushing herself against Samantha's back tighter.

"Would you go check Elliot's room, he's convinced there's a strange lady in there," Samantha mumbled and Maya frowned at that, needing a long moment to process what she'd been told. Once she'd managed to piece it all together, she went to the safe embedded into the back of a closet, unlocked it and pulled out a revolver. She loaded it quickly and snuck out, closing the door behind her.

Samantha swallowed hard, listening to the dogs' barking, her arms wrapped tightly around Elliot as he pressed himself against her tighter.
"I'm scared," he whimpered.

"It's okay, sweetheart, it's okay," Samantha whispered and nuzzled the top of his head, realizing she wouldn't be able to to convince him, she wasn't convincing herself either. She knew what Shepard was capable of, she knew exactly why some people knew Shepard only as "The Reaper". She seemed immortal and indestructible, Samantha had witnessed her surviving countless of different types of assaults when some of the other inmates had tried taking her out. Shepard's resilience was something Samantha had appreciated about her back on Omega but that was because back then, Shepard had been on her side. That wouldn't be the case now, at least not when Samantha would make it clear that she wouldn't go anywhere with Shepard, let alone allow Shepard to take her son.

Samantha heard the heavy footsteps approach the bedroom rapidly, the dogs were still barking. Samantha got out of bed and knelt down, pulling the covers up.

"Quick, hide," she whispered and Elliot crawled under the bed. "Whatever happens, don't make a sound. It's going to be okay," she then said and pulled the edge of the blanket back down to cover the gap between the bed and the floor, and stood up only a couple of seconds before Shepard burst into the room.

"Hello, Samantha," she greeted almost politely, like this was a completely normal situation.
"How did you get in here?" Samantha asked when she could once again get a word out of her mouth after recovering from the shock of having Shepard in her house. She almost didn't recognize Shepard at first and looking at the difference a simple haircut and a dyejob did, it became obvious why Shepard hadn't been caught yet.

"I've been watching you and I noticed you close the doors leading from the front of the house to the back to keep the dogs out for the night. All the bedrooms are out of the dogs' reach, so it really was just a matter of picking the right window to climb in through," Shepard explained and Samantha ground her teeth. She'd repeatedly told Maya to let the dogs walk freely around the house even at night, but she hadn't agreed, she'd said their pacing kept her up.

"I want what's mine."

"I don't have anything of yours," Samantha denied and Shepard chuckled. She stepped closer to her and slowly snaked her arm around Samantha's waist, and to her shock, Samantha found herself easing into the half-embrace, wanting to feel Shepard against herself, realizing she'd missed her and the almost intoxicating feeling that overwhelmed her when Shepard was close.

"I don't appreciate being lied to," Shepard murmured as she cupped Samantha's cheek with her hand and ran her thumb over Samantha's lips.

"I'm not lying," Samantha said and pressed a small kiss on the pad of Shepard's thumb. A part of her was screaming at her to do something, fight back, get Shepard out of here somehow, anything, just as long as she'd do it quickly before Shepard would start looking around and before Elliot would lose it and just start crying. Another part of her was desperate to stupidly succumb to Shepard's charms, surrender, throw herself into her arms and relive moments from a few years back when everything had been horrible and simultaneously the happiest time of her life.

"Yes, you are, but I forgive you... for now," Shepard murmured, leaned in and pressed her lips onto Samantha's, slowly deepening the kiss, the tip of her tongue flicking over her lower lip. Samantha whimpered into the kiss, hating how much she loved being kissed by Shepard and how tingly it made her feel all over, she wanted to just melt into Shepard's arms. She felt weak in the best possible way.

"Get away from her, you bitch!" Maya's voice broke through the trance. There was a loud thud and Shepard turned slowly to face Maya. She managed to take a couple of steps toward her and Maya raised the weighty cast iron skillet she'd picked up to use as a weapon, not really wanting to shoot anyone despite having the gun handy. Maya had just prepared to hit her again when Shepard collapsed heavily onto the floor.