"Oof." My head was pounding as I slowly woke up. "What a night."

"Shepard?"

I opened my eyes to find Mordin leaning over me.

"Jesus!" I dropped off the side of my bed hitting the floor hard.

Mordin walked around the bed to look down curiously at me.

"Damn it, Mordin, I've asked you not to do that." I pushed myself up off the floor.

"My apologize."

I'm guessing he wasn't that sorry. "We were up all-night partying. How are you so awake and not hung over?"

"Salarian. Don't require much sleep."

"Yeah, I know, but you'd think you'd sleep more than an hour to recover from last night."

"I did." He informed me. "Slept for an hour and a half."

"Oh, a whole half an hour longer."

Mordin shrugged. "It's morning. Thought you'd like to be awakened."

Aside from scaring the hell out of me, it was nice to wake up and see Mordin first thing.

"Who else is awake?" I asked.

"Unknown. I have yet to look."

I cocked my head. "Yet to look?" I glanced around my room. My bed showed signs that I wasn't the only one that had been sleeping in it and I saw a datapad I knew to be Mordin's resting on the night stand.

He'd been sleeping beside me and I wasn't conscious to see it?! Not fair.

I heard a low pained groan coming from my bathroom. I looked to Mordin.

"Ah, should mention. Javik passed out in bathroom."

"You saw this and just let it happen?"

Mordin shrugged. "Seemed harmless. Made sure didn't pass out in hot tub."

The prothean was barley sitting up on my bathroom floor. At least he didn't barf on or in anything important. "Is it time to rule the galaxy now? Kneel before Javik." His head lulled a little. "I…had a…dream. Fifty thousand years had passed. It was horrible. I was alone. The primitives had evolved. They ruled the galaxy. Salarins, turians, and…the asari."

I crouched down before him. "You really don't like the asari for some reason."

"There was one, 'Liara'. She had these eyes. And that voice, And she was…blue. No, no…it was just a dream."

"Denial." Mordin crossed his arms behind me. "Not good defense mechanism. When realization takes over, very stressful."

Javik sniffed the air. "I smell primitives." He stared at me as if he'd just noticed I was there. "It was no dream."

"Sorry to disappoint you." I stood up. "Are you okay in here?"

"Bah, leave me, primitive."

I turned to Mordin. "You heard the last member of the superior race."

Mordin and I walked from my room to find Liara and Garrus sitting across from each other.

Liara saw me first and Garrus turned to see what she was looking at.

"Shepard." He said tiredly. "Did we break anything last night? I don't suppose you need anything around here…calibrated."

I'm pretty sure I groaned.

"Yeah, okay. Maybe I should stop saying that word, but only if Liara stops saying 'by the goddess'."

I had to laugh at him changing his voice to badly sound like Liara's.

Liara must have been pretty out of it, because she ignored him and asked. "Was someone making tea? I could really use some tea."

Mordin nodded. "Tea. Not hang over cure. Helpful none the less."

"Garrus, where's Tali?" I asked as Mordin headed down stars.

"She's still recovering. She was pretty drunk last night. She kept talking about a tattoo she got with an omni-tool."

I contemplated that. "Omni-too?"

"She did say that." He stood up. "I'm gana check on her."

Liara followed his lead. "I'm going to find some tea."

They left me with a very groggy Samara sitting in my rock garden. "Shepard, good morning."

"Good morning?" I looked down at her. "Samara, if we ever do this again, don't say 'good' before 'morning'." I rubbed at my temple. "Very little of this is 'good'."

She nodded once then winced. "Where's your…?" She struggled to think of the word eventually giving up and made a finger gun. "You don't look right without it."

My hand went to my hip. She was right. "I better fix my fashion snafu then."

I went back to my room to retrieve my favorite gun. With Mordin and hungover Javik distracting me, I'd forgotten it on my bedside table.

I checked in on Javik again just to make sure he was still among the living. I needed to remember to thank Mordin for making sure the very last prothean didn't drown in my new hot tub. Wouldn't that be something?

"Wait a minute." I said aloud. "Why was there water in the hot tub?"

I mean, yeah, I'd thought about getting Mordin in it. I knew it was a silly and unlikely scenario, but it was a nice fantasy.

"Samantha Traynor." Kasumi said right next to my ear. When she'd first started doing that a year or so ago I jumped every time. Now, I just assume she's always there and will eventually get tired of it. Probably another long shot.

"Why was Traynor in my hot tub?"

"Oh, she never went in it. She'd been planning to, but couldn't talk EDI into joining her."

"Why my hot tub? Why the one in my room?"

"It's the only one, Shep."

"Right…still."

"I figured it wouldn't work." Kasumi lazily sat down on the edge of my bed. "It was still fun to watch her try though."

This confused me. "Why would she want EDI in a hot tub? It's not like EDI's wearing clothes. She's technically running around naked."

Kasumi just laughed.

I grabbed my gun, checked to make sure it was loaded, and attached it to my hip.

"I found 5 pictures." Kasumi waved the small stack at me.

"Very nice." I snatched them from her hand flipping through them. "But you missed one."

"I most certainly did not! Sneaking and finding people's things is my bread and butter."

"I admit, you're very good. I didn't think you'd find this one." I held up a picture of Mordin sipping the salarian version of tea. "But that doesn't change the fact you missed one."

"And where is this 'missed one'?" She air quoted.

"My bread and butter is being able to do the impossible." I walked over to my bedside table, pulled out the drawer, and ripped the picture from under it. The great Commander Shepard would never put something so important in such an obvious place. The best places to hide things are places nobody'd think to check.

I looked at the picture and smiled sadly. It was my most current picture of Mordin as well as my favorite yet least favorite.

It was Mordin in the elevator on Tuchunka. He was smiling a sad little smile at me with a slight wave. We both thought he wasn't coming back alive. He'd been saying good-bye.

"Since you somehow seemed to have stumped me, I have something for you." Kasumi smiled that troublesome smile. "I think you'll appreciate it more than 10 credits."

"O…kay?" Good, God what did she steal now?

Kasumi reached behind her back and presented a small data-pad to me. It was the kind a lot of people used to record their wills.

"Thanks?" I paused. "Are you trying to less than subtly tell me something?"

She laughed again. "No, there's already something recorded. Listen." She pushed 'play'.

"Shepard, hope you're well. Knew mission on Tuchanka could end things. Made preparations. Asked friends in STG to leave this with you next time you were off duty. Some of my older work: performances, stories. Merely entertainment, but entertainment useful at times. Good luck."

I stood staring at the data-pad, I'm sure my mouth was hanging open.

Kasumi seemed to somehow smile bigger. "How'd the little dare devil survive anyway?"

I snorted. Dr. Mordin Solus, salarian dare devil. "He says he doesn't know. He says the last thing he remembered was watching the cure upload, a loud explosion, then a cartilage breaking hug from Eve."

Kasumi leaned back too relaxed in my opinion. "I bet that was nothing compared to the Commander Shepard hug he got from you."

I didn't respond, embarrassed at how I'd acted when I'd found out Mordin was alive. More embarrassing was how I'd acted in between. Shortly after I'd lead Mordin to his 'death' Thane had died. Thane had been like a wiser older brother, the kind that seemed so much older than you were. I'd been full of crazy emotions at the time and for better or worse, anger had won out.

I'd pummeled James' punching bag until I'd broken my left hand's knuckles. I would have kept going if James hadn't practically tackled me. I could still hear Cortez's frantic voice telling me to stop.

"It's cute." Kasumi's voice brought me back to the present.

"What is?"

"He thought he was going to die, so he left you a little good-bye present." She pointed at me. "You, Shepard, and only you."

I smiled slightly. "I'd say he feels bad that I'm crushing after him, but his emotions flip flop worse than a pancake."

Kasumi laughed so hard she threw her head back. "There's something hilarious about you saying 'crushing' and not mean it in the literal sense." She clapped me on the arm. "I'm gana make myself scarce. Plenty of things to do before you boot some Reapers back into deep space."

And she disappeared.

I sat down on my bed and pressed 'play'.

"Hello, Perry the Pyjak. Happy to be here. 'Science Fun Today' very respected. Education of youth vital for future. Now children, science key to advancement but can seem esoteric, indirect. Practical demonstration helps. Release the varren! Native to Tuchanka. Dangerous predator, but can be incapacitated with common household chemicals! Observe…Wait, please move Perry the pyjack away from the varren. Puppets similar to prey, could trigger attack inst…Ah, problematic."

Once it was finished, I sat there, staring at the data-pad without really seeing it.

"Shepard?"

I jerked out of my haze and turned. Mordin stood in my bedroom doorway. He cocked his head at me.

"Everyone gathering down stairs. Vega created an excessive amount of scrambled eggs. Not nutritious. Fortunately others have contributed their meager cooking skills." He smiled slightly. "It is all edible. No guarantee on taste." There was a short pause. "Coming?"

I smiled myself. "Wouldn't miss it."