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Brie greeted her friend with a squeal, grabbing Raila’Zora nar Keelah Patriama’s hand the moment the quarian stepped through the door. The two girls had only ever seen each other via vidcom in the past, and Brie was ecstatic to finally meet her friend in person. Soldarus Vakarian followed at a slower pace, seeming more interested in the house than following his little sister.
Shepard leaned in close and said, “There are dextro-safe cookies on the counter in the kitchen.” They both looked over at Sol’s parent, who pretended not to hear them, instead focusing their attention on Liara. The boy’s eyes lit up and he raced into the next room.
“Thank you, Shepard. He’s been sulking ever since we told him he was going to be the oldest child here,” Garrus said. He threw his arms around Shepard and squeezed until she grunted.
“Missed you, too, Big Guy,” she said. She extracted herself from the sniper and turned to hug Tali. “How’s my best engineer?” she asked.
“Very glad we’re doing this. I’ve missed everyone,” Tali said.
“Well, you are the first to arrive,” Liara said. “Which works out well since Brie cannot stop asking about Raila. Not sure if you noticed, but she is a bit excited.”
The four adults made their way further into the house. Sol had found the cookies and settled on the floor in the living room. Shepard was surprised to see he had dished himself out a respectable number but hadn’t just grabbed the whole plate. She dropped onto the couch next to Liara and smiled at the boy.
“By the way, you’re not going to be the oldest one here in a little bit. Or rather, you will, but by months instead of years,” Shepard said to him. He sat up straighter to look at her, but Garrus jumped in before she could continue.
“The only member of the crew with a kid close to Sol’s age is Wrex. Are they going to make it?” he asked.
“Yep. The whole brood from the sounds of it,” Shepard replied.
“Wrex has a son who was born just after the war,” Liara explained to Sol. “So, he’s not much younger than you.”
Sol flashed them the turian equivalent of a smile and sat back to wait. Shepard was excited, too. With the reconstruction throughout the galaxy, adding the krogan and the quarians to the Council, and creating new laws regarding krogan expansion and population growth, Wrex hadn’t been able to get off Tuchanka for years. They spoke frequently, and she’d gotten to see vids of all the kids, but this was the first time the crew was going to meet any of them in person.
In fact, this was the first time most of the crew was going to see each other since Brie’s birth. Tali had to isolate when Raila was born, for her safety as well as the child’s. Quarian children didn’t get their first envirosuits until age five, being kept in clean rooms with limited contact until then. On Rannoch and on some of the still existing live ships of the quarian fleet, children born around the same time were often housed together for socialization and protection. Tali had retired to Rannoch to keep her daughter safe in her formative years while Garrus traveled back and forth on political trips to maintain their presence. It had been hell on all of them. Garrus had threatened to quit and move to Rannoch full time repeatedly over the past five years.
In addition to that, the Normandy had been dry docked for several months after a disastrous mission that lost the lives of three crew members and an entire colony of civilians. Shepard had read the reports, trying to help her friends through the aftermath. There was nothing they could have done differently or better. But knowing that didn’t help at first. The whole crew was put on shore leave for a month, pending psych evals. An eval that Ashley had failed when the time came. She took the mission failure hard and stepped back from the Spectres for a while. She had been living on Earth with her two remaining sisters for a year.
Once most of the crew had been cleared for duty, James took over the ship in Ashley’s absence. They went on a six-month tour concentrating more on his N-level assignments than Spectre missions. At N5, James could tackle assignments almost as dangerous as Ashley or Shepard and had proved himself over and over during the course of the deployment.
Word of a family tragedy had sent Steve and David off to David’s home colony. The two of them threw themselves into helping rebuild, taking a leave of absence from their military duties.
With all of that, it had been far too long since the whole gang had gotten together. So, when Ashley finally said she was ready to come out of hiding, Liara put the word out to everyone. Party at the Shepard-T’Soni house, and anyone who didn’t come was being written out of the will. Actually, she threatened to start a new memorial wall, of former crew members who were out of the family. They all knew she didn’t mean it, but the threat had the desired effect. Not one of them turned her down.
Shepard grinned. “Wrex isn’t the only one. Jacob’s coming, too. And he’s bringing the family,” she said.
“We finally get to meet the war-time love child?” Garrus asked.
Shepard nodded. But before she could respond, Jack and Miranda arrived, good-naturedly bickering like usual. Sam and Carla weren’t far behind, bearing a bottle of Liara’s favorite wine as a present. Kasumi managed to sneak her way in, making her presence known by stealing some of Sol’s cookies. Shepard called out to the room at large that they were the dextro cookies and anyone with a levo metabolism should get the cookies from the fridge. Not surprisingly, a plate of cookies mysteriously made its way to the living room table a few minutes later. Sol spent several minutes trying to find the culprit while Garrus tried not to laugh.
Jacob, Brynn, and their son arrived soon after. Daniel Taylor was a bundle of energy that gave Shepard a little insight into what a pint-sized Jacob must have been like. Sol opened up when Daniel ran over to him, and the two started talking quietly. Samara greeted everyone but quickly retreated to a quiet corner to observe the crowd. Shepard let her get away with it. They’d draw her out eventually.
The only ones they hadn’t been able to reach were Zaeed and Javik. Zaeed, last she heard, had taken over the Blue Suns, and had gotten them employment with various governments to aid in reconstruction. Javik had disappeared shortly after the war. No one had heard from him since. Just over seven years later, Shepard was pretty sure he was dead. After all, he had fulfilled his purpose as the Spirit of Vengeance for his people. He had no other reason to continue living.
Shepard had just started to worry about the rest of their guests when the door chimed. She opened it to find Steve and David, each holding a sleepy three-year-old in his arms. She stopped dead and stared at the kids.
“Hey, Shepard,” Steve said.
“Did you maybe forget to mention something when you RSVP’d?” she asked.
Steve chuckled. “Yeah. We might have left out the real reason we both requested leave for so long,” he said.
“Okay, get in here. I want the whole damn story,” Shepard said, stepping aside. “If you can get them to wake up a little, Brie and Raila are playing in Brie’s room.”
“They’ll wake up soon enough,” David said. “It was a long ride from the spaceport.”
“Is James here yet?” Steve asked. Shepard shook her head. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to save the story for when he is.”
“You haven’t told James?” Shepard asked.
“Well, he knows about the kids. Just not how we ended up with them,” Steve replied.
“Interesting. All right, we’ll save story time. Other than James, Ashley, Joker, and Wrex’s bunch, everyone’s here,” she said. As Steve started to walk past her, she grabbed his hand. “And what the fuck is this and why didn’t you tell us?” she demanded, holding up his hand so she could get a better look at the wedding ring on his finger. Steve blushed.
“Soon, Shepard. Soon. I promise,” he said. She let him go with a grumble.
She and Liara distributed drinks and set out snacks, subtly moving people toward the back yard. When Wrex’s bunch got there, they were going to need the space. Another chime sent Shepard running back to the door, calling for Raila and Brie to head outside. The two five-year-olds raced past her as she answered.
Joker gave her a huge grin and a gentle hug. “You’re not going to believe this,” he said. Joker had been tasked with picking up Ashely and James in the Normandy. The rest of the ship’s crew had shore leave to visit Thessia for a few days. Shepard looked over Joker’s shoulder to see her Spectre and N5 friends making their way toward the door.
With an infant cradled in Ashley’s arms. Ashley caught her eye and smiled. James looked nervous and happy at the same time.
Shepard looked back at Joker. “When did you know?”
“When I picked them up on Earth. They didn’t tell anyone,” Joker confirmed.
Shepard turned back toward the group and yelled, “Steve, James beat your surprise!”
“What surprise?” James asked as they got closer. Ashley covered the baby’s ears.
“You’ll have to wait and see,” Shepard replied. “And, Ash? Wrex and his brood are on their way. The baby’s never going to stay asleep.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll try for as long as I can,” Ashley said. She looked exhausted. Shepard knew she’d been injured in her last mission. Being pregnant during her recovery couldn’t have been easy.
Shepard led James and Ashley through the house slowly, letting the baby sleep as long as possible. When they got into the backyard, James and Ashley stopped dead in their tracks and Steve froze in his chair, a child on each knee. Both children clung to him, looking around with frightened gazes no three-year-old should have. David sat next to Steve, grinning.
“I see what you mean, Shepard,” David said. “Ours were a surprise even to us. But you two managed to keep that quiet for a whole year!”
“What is it with this group and secret babies?” Garrus asked. At that moment, Liara and Tali both looked up to see Ashley’s infant and ran over, squealing. That was it for baby. She woke up and started crying. That set the twins off, distracting Steve and David with calming them down.
By the time they got the kids settled, Shepard noticed a large shuttle heading toward the field behind their house. She whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, everyone. The last of our guests are about to arrive. Anyone with nervous children might want to prepare.”
Brie, Raila, and Daniel immediately ran to greet the new arrivals. Brie knew who was in that shuttle. She must have told the others. Soldarus followed at a slower pace, less eager about meeting more strangers. Steve’s little boy sat with his arms around the pilot’s neck, while the girl stood quietly holding David’s hand. Ashley hung back, closer to the house, so the shouting wouldn’t startle her daughter.
The shuttle door opened and seven krogan children came barreling out. They stopped in a semi-circle around their smaller, squishier friends. All ten children planted their feet and roared. Brie was the loudest of the bunch. A hearty round of mostly gentle head-butting ensued while Wrex and Eve made their way over to the adults.
“Wrex!” Shepard cried. They did their own head-butting ritual, followed by Garrus and James. No one else got as enthusiastic, opting for more of a head-tapping. Eve paused to smile at the children before greeting everyone serenely. Even Sol got into it, sort of. When Wrex saw how frightened the twins were, he knelt in front of them and just held his hand out. The boy clung to Steve harder, but his sister reached out very carefully and put her whole hand on one of his claws. He leaned in closer and pointed to his head with his free hand. She looked at what everyone else was doing and leaned her head in, too. After the barest of brushes against Wrex’s forehead, she darted back to David. Wrex turned to Steve and the boy. Steve kept his arms around his son but leaned in for a little head-butt. The boy looked between the big scary guy and his dad, then leaned over to rest his head against Wrex’s. The krogan smiled and stood up.
“Nicely done, little ones,” he said, keeping his voice low so as not to scare them.
Once everyone settled and most of the kids ran off to play in the yard, Shepard cleared her throat. “Alright, we have been plenty patient. Steve, David, Ashley, James, you lot owe us stories!”
A general cheer went up. “I’m guessing ours is a little easier to tell,” Ashley said. Steve gestured at her to take the floor.
“Commanders first,” he said.
“As you all know, the last mission I ran went seriously south. The mercenaries we were after got the better of us. Our intel was shit. I got hurt badly enough that Dr. Kensington wanted me in a real medical facility. We were close enough to Earth that I requested to take my medical leave there. It was just supposed to be for a month or so, like the rest of the crew. But when the doc was running tests, she noticed my HGH levels were really high. An ultrasound later, I had some decisions to make.
“I— I admit I did a bad thing. I didn’t tell James at first. We were still calling the relationship casual, hadn’t really put a label on it. Never mind that we had been together off and on for almost five years. After the mission and my injuries, I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. I started to doubt he actually cared about me. By the time we got to Earth, I had convinced myself that the only reason we kept getting together was convenience. So, a month later, when the rest of the crew passed their psych evals and I didn’t, I let James fly off with my ship and my crew, and no idea he was about to be a father,” Ashley said.
“Did you tank the eval on purpose?” Shepard asked.
“No. I’m not sure what I would have done if they’d tried to clear me. Probably would have been honest with my docs and Command and asked for more time off. But I didn’t need to because that mission really did fuck me up. I was given more time. But they couldn’t hold the rest of the crew. Not when they had N-level missions they could send James on,” Ashley explained.
“You must have been upset when you found out, James,” Steve said.
“A little, yeah. She called me up while we were out in Horse Head and said she had something to tell me,” James said.
“My sisters convinced me that waiting until he got back to Earth was an epically bad idea, and that if I was right about his feelings, it was better to know early so we could work out visitation or whatever,” Ashley added. “Turns out, I was beyond wrong.”
“Yeah, I kinda figured. When those pirates had you prisoner on Garrus and Tali’s ship five years ago, he freaked. You should have asked me. I could have told you he was in love with you,” Shepard said. James’ face turned bright red, causing Steve to laugh and hide his face in David’s shoulder.
“Looks like Stevie owes you, Sam,” David said.
“Damn straight he does,” Sam replied with a grin.
Steve got himself under control and said, “Damn, Mr. Vega. I had more faith in you than that. Sam said it would take a kid popping up to make you two get your shit together, and she was right.”
“Hilarious, Esteban,” James said with a mock glare. “Anyway, when she finally told me, I said I wasn’t going anywhere, and put in for a leave of absence when our tour ended. That put us right about seven months, so I got to be there for the end.”
“I just want to know why you didn’t tell anyone,” Tali said. Everyone else seconded that.
“Again, that goes back to how messed up I was after that mission. All I wanted to do was hide. I was having trouble even facing it with my own family. The baby just felt like too much on top of the PTSD. Telling all of you would have made it that much more real. Which brings me to another announcement for the crew. James and I are both taking a step back for a while. Not retiring. We plan to return to active duty. But not until after our daughter’s first birthday,” Ashley said. Everyone got quiet.
“What about the Normandy?” Joker asked with alarm.
“I’m not sure right now. We’re still working it out with Command. She may get assigned to another N officer. She may dry dock for the year. Not sure what that means for all of you,” Ashley said.
“We’ll figure it out,” David said.
“So, what’s her name?” Liara asked.
Ashley grinned. “Everyone, I’d like to introduce Sarah Michelle Vega-Williams.” Sarah, after the sister who lost her husband early in the war and threw herself at the Reapers to defend the refugees when the Citadel was taken at the end. And Michelle, after their father, Michael, who died long before the Reapers came. Shepard gave Ashley a sad smile while everyone cooed over the baby.
When the group got quiet again, Steve looked at James and asked, “Any wedding bells in the future?”
James gave an embarrassed chuckle. “Ah, yes. We thought about eloping before the baby was born because of her religious beliefs. But we decided to wait so we can have the crew there. It’s a little too much on top of everything else right now.”
“So, keep an eye out for an invite in like a year or so,” Ashley finished. She turned to Steve and David. “Okay, enough about us. Where did you manage to steal these two cuties from?”
“Everyone, this is Lailene and Richard. They were born on the colony where David grew up. As you know, we took our shore leave to go to the memorial for David’s brother and visit for a bit. About three days after we arrived, there was an accident. Reconstruction out in the colonies has been slow. Too many colonies are still mostly wreckage. One of the larger housing developments had been cleared for people to move back in about a week before we arrived. The twins’ family had one of the apartments. Well, the whole damn thing came down,” Steve said.
“We didn’t hesitate. Didn’t matter that we were supposed to be on leave, or that Steve was still healing from injuries sustained in that hell mission. We jumped right into rescuing people. After two days of digging folks out of the rubble, we broke into one apartment and found these two trapped under a table with their dead parents a few feet away,” David added.
“That table saved their lives. It was just strong enough to divert some of the concrete around them. They ended up in a little air bubble,” Steve said. “We pulled them out, but they were traumatized. Richard wouldn’t let go of David and started screaming any time someone tried to take him. Lailene kept hiding under things any time we took our eyes off her for more than a few seconds. Until I took her onto our shuttle. Then she kept hiding there.”
“So, that’s what won you over, Esteban,” James joked. They all laughed.
“You’re not wrong, actually. One afternoon about four days later, I found her in the shuttle again, just sitting in the co-pilot’s seat. Since no one in town had claimed the kids, we were all just sort of watching them. So, no one said anything when I decided to fly her around. She had taken less damage when the ceiling came down than her brother. The hospital scared her half to death, so I decided to cheer her up. By the time we got back, I was in love,” Steve said.
“And in the meantime, I was working with Richard to get him to stay calm so the doctors could treat him,” David added. “After a few days, I just couldn’t stand the thought of leaving them behind.”
“So, that’s how we ended up with kids,” Steve concluded.
“Yeah, and how did you end up with wedding rings?” Shepard asked.
They both had the grace to look embarrassed. David rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, we’d been talking around it for a while. And it came up with my family, especially when we started the process of adopting the kids. Which the mayor pointed out would be easier to do if we were married.”
“And his mother is ridiculously persuasive,” Steve finished. “Before we knew it, she had the whole town in on it and they were planning the wedding for us. We had no reason to say no and it seemed kind of rude to at that point.”
“Is it Alliance legal, or Terminus legal?” Ashley asked. It was a good question. Sometimes, the colonies out in the Terminus didn’t feel they needed to file things like birth certificates, adoption records, or marriage licenses with the Alliance back home.
“Everything is Alliance legal. We made sure,” Steve said.
“Darn. I was going to say we could make it legal today. You have three superior officers standing right here,” Ashley said.
“Aw, thank you, Ashley. That’s really sweet. But the kids are having a hard enough time with all these people around. I don’t think they could handle a real party right now. But, how about in six months or so?” Steve said.
“Ooh, yeah. Like a second wedding to kick off a real honeymoon?” David suggested. Steve’s eyes lit up and that got the rest of them talking.
At least until Miranda pointed out that some of them still didn’t know how Tali and Garrus ended up with a turian son. That shifted the focus to their ambassadors.
“Not all that different from Steve and David’s story. Soldarus was born a couple of days before the Reapers hit Palaven,” Garrus said. “His mom was killed when the Reapers attacked their town. His dad made it to one of the refugee camps with him but died near the end of the war in a husk attack. Sol got stuck in one of the many orphanages that popped up after the war. Too many orphans, not enough stable adults. A lot of those kids are still out there.” Garrus paused, looking at the ground. “I wish I could do more to help them, but the population is just too unstable right now.”
“I fear an entire generation of kids from every world is going to grow up without families,” Shepard said.
“We were on a state visit to Palaven and went to visit the orphanage,” Tali continued. “Most of the kids ran up to us, asking questions and trying to get hugs. Sol just stayed in a corner, tinkering with an omni-tool. Castius said he’d seen the boy several times and was always struck by how much he reminded him of Garrus as a child. Intrigued, Garrus went over to talk to him. Within a few hours, he was smitten. And since we had discussed adopting a turian child at some point, and Garrus had been so gracious about me carrying another man’s child, I suggested we bring Sol home.”
“The hierarchy is so eager to find those kids homes. With our status in our governments, they didn’t even hesitate. Told us we were doing them a favor. Pretty sure I could have told them I wanted to adopt the whole orphanage and they would have agreed,” Garrus said.
“You would be divorced, but yes, they would have agreed,” Tali said. The group chuckled.
“Well, Shepard,” Wrex said. “I have a small brood. The Vakarians and the Cortezes each have two. When are you and Ashley catching up?”
“I literally just had a baby, Wrex!” Ashley cried.
“What’s your point?” Wrex asked.
“Unlike the krogan, humans can only have one baby at a time,” Shepard explained.
“And it takes us female types a little time to recover before we can have the next one,” Kasumi added.
“And yes, we’re planning to have at least one more, but it’s going to take a while,” James said.
“Okay, okay. Fine. You’re off the hook for now, Williams,” Wrex grumbled.
“What about you, Shepard-T’Soni family?” Eve asked.
“There’s plenty of time for that. Right now, Brie is enough for us,” Liara said.
“You might have plenty of time, T’Soni, but what about Shepard?” Jack asked. “Gonna pop out any baby saviors?”
“I will if you will, Jack,” Shepard said. The look of disgust on Jack’s face was enough to set everyone off again.
Then, as if some had flipped a switch, their laughter died out, replaced with smiles. They all turned to watch the kids play. Despite Sol’s reticence, he had bonded quickly with Daniel and Kresh. The other krogan children ran around Brie and Raila, being unbelievably careful for krogan. Wrex must have warned them to be gentle with the other kids. Lailene edged her way carefully into the group while Richard hung off to the side. After a few minutes, one of the krogan girls came over to Eve and climbed on her lap. She whispered something to her mom, who nodded. The girl ran back to the shuttle, emerging a few minutes later with two datapads and a couple of styluses. She walked carefully over to Richard and held out one of the pads. He stared at her nervously but took it. The two of them sat down side by side in the grass and started drawing. David looked completely shocked.
“She’s the first person other than Steve and me he’s opened up to in months,” he said.
“Besha has a way with the shy ones. She’s a bit reserved herself, so she understands,” Eve said.
Carla nudged Sam and nodded to the kids. “So, when are you gonna want one of those?” she asked.
“I’d say now, but we should probably wait a bit until Steve and David feel comfortable leaving their kids and Ashley’s ready to return. At this rate, the Normandy won’t have a crew left if we take leave,” Sam answered. As one, the group looked at her. “What?”
“Sam, you’ve never once expressed a desire for children,” Ashley said.
Sam shrugged. “Things change. Love makes anything seem possible,” she said.
Carla’s eyes shone and she threw her arms around Sam. “I love you, too.”
“In that case, wanna practice?” Ashley asked, nodding toward her daughter.
“I would be glad to, Commander,” Sam replied. She came over and gently took the baby from Ashley. Carla followed. The two of them watched the girl sleep, peaceful in the arms of Auntie Sam.
Shepard leaned over to Liara and whispered, “Okay, I’m game to start again whenever you are.”
“I just got my body back after Brie!” Liara exclaimed quietly. But her eyes never left the infant in Sam’s arms. “But we’ll talk about it soon.”
“Okay, enough mushy stuff. I’m gonna go chase kids,” Garrus said.
“I’m with you,” Jacob added.
Wrex just grinned and chuckled. He started lumbering toward the children. David looked panicked. Steve patted his arm and called out, “Wrex, try not to startle Lail and Rick, please.”
“I gotcha, Cortez,” Wrex said. He smiled kindly, not his usual grimace. Steve smiled back and relaxed in his chair.
“See, love? Nothing to worry about,” Steve said. “I trust Wrex.”
They settled into chatting, catching up on all the things that had happened in recent years. Some of it had been touched upon in vidcalls, some not at all. There was no story told that everyone had heard or experienced, so they played at being storytellers. In between tales, they traded off playing with the kids. Eventually, a few of them headed off to the kitchen to cook.
And the children, as was the way with children, ignored cultural lines, rank, or status. They didn’t know enough about history to understand hatred for another race. In that small bubble of childhood innocence, Shepard saw all the things she had hoped for the galaxy almost eight years ago. That first alliance, between the turians and the krogan, and ultimately with humanity, had sparked a light in Dana Shepard. These thirteen kids represented what the galaxy should be— all the races working, playing, and living together.
The Coalition had held up better than she’d hoped. Maybe this could, eventually, be their future.