"...You can't be serious." Garrus said flatly, though the slight rise in his subvocals made it very clear that he wasn't as sure as he was trying to sound.

"Oh come on, I'll be fine."

It was her reckless face, the one he'd seen in too many bad situations. Her eyes were a little too wide, how she stood with her shoulders too far back and an exaggerated swagger for an audience that didn't need to be impressed. "Shepard."

"You know I can do it."

"Whether you can or not isn't the question here, you're not doing it."

"As if I haven't done it a hundred times before? Come on Garrus, let's live a little!"

"Don't make me hold you down you bosh'tet." Tali nearly growled.

" Oh not you too Tali. After everything we did can't I have a little fun on my vacation?"

"No."

...A wide flat toothed grin spread slowly across Shepard's face as she stepped backwards. Towards the shuttle door.

"Garrus get her away from there-" Tali was gripping the wall and trying to override the door controls with her tool while Garrus moved with much less caution than he really should have with the shuttle was hanging wide open to the atmosphere. Shepard moved faster than either of them however and already had a hand on the opening.

"SPIRITS SHEPARD DON'T-"

"Catch you on the ground!" Whatever last words they had for her, Shepard couldn't hear over the roar of the wind ripping past her as she leapt out of the shuttle and plummeted solo through the hazy Tuchanka sky.

Urdnot Wrex had more or less figured that something like this was going to happen.

Down on the ground the gathered krogan peered up at the arriving ship, which was jostling slightly more than good shuttles tended to. He handed off the fidgeting child on his arm off to Bakara. "Just a minute. This won't take long." Mordin crawled up onto her mother's back next to her brother and they peered curiously at their father as he stepped forward into the middle of the landing pad.

A few hundred feet above the door of the shuttle banged open and he could just hear a distant shrieking as a small figure leapt out. The sound wasn't clear at first but the closer it got the better it could be made out as "WREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXX~~~~~~!"

The big old krogan grinned terrifyingly broad and threw his arms out. Blue fire enveloped him and he caught her with ease in a biotic pull and drew her down for a crushing embrace. Shepard laughed bright and joyful as he spun her around, hugging him back with all her might and burying her small face in the crook of his massive neck. "Just like a sister of mine to make the best of an entrance." he said as she set a kiss to his scarred cheek.

"Good to see you again too, Wrex."

"You look a lot better. Vakarian been doing his job?"

"Beautifully. You been doing alright out here?"

"Heh, of course. See for yourself." When he finally put her down in view of the crowd she was temporarily deafened by the roar from all around them. Everywhere she looked there were krogan: cheering, stomping, rattling their crests, lifting their little ones up onto their humps so they could see her... It was the best feeling of relief and her heart soared like it hadn't in months. This was what they had been fighting for. Adrenaline through the roof, Shepard bellowed back her best roar to her enthusiastic hosts.

She had just finished an impromptu speech- a pretty good one if she did say so herself- when the shuttle came to a rest on the ground and unloaded its remaining passengers to another round of cheering from the crowd. Her friends weren't... quite as enthused. Tali stood gripping the doorframe and Garrus was moving forward immediately, long legs covering the space far too quickly. From this distance it was all too easy to see the pale throat and quaking mandibles that betrayed just how badly frightened she'd made him. He stopped barely inches away and she could practically hear the hammering of his heart.

"What were you thinking?" You didn't have to be able to understand subvocals to pick up on the anger and the fear that must have been strangling each other when he spoke. She tried to reply with a light-hearted teasing but nothing would come out of her throat. She'd needed it, needed the adrenaline that brought peace when things were too still and she'd had it damn it but at the cost of...

"BATTLEMASTER!"

Thankfully she didn't have to think about it long. She barely had the time to turn around before Grunt charged out of the crowd and had her wrapped up in a crushing embrace, deep laughter blowing her already windswept hair from her face and she was spared having to examine painful feelings by the sudden surge of pride at the sight of her oversized baby boy. "I missed you too."

There were some new scars on his hide and his crest seemed a little more solid than before, but the 'heh heh' and his toothy grin was exactly the same. "You're taller" she noted, looking him over and touching a particularly nasty scar on the top of his head. "Get this one from a Reaper?" Over Grunt's arms she could see that Bakara had gone over to Garrus a little ways away from the crowd and was talking to him too low to be overheard. Tali was gripping his arm so tight it was like she was worried he'd explode if she let go. It made her feel guilty but she was distracted from that by little hands tugging at her pants. While she hadn't been paying attention a gaggle of krogan children had gotten away from their parents and gathered around her. They were different colors and sizes but they all had the same expressions of excitement and awe...

Shepard made the decision then to act like nothing had happened. All of that mess could be dealt with later because right now she had other responsibilities, other people who needed her to be strong and in control and the hero they had come here to see. Two of the smallest kids tried to start climbing her legs and got into a scuffling match about 'who should be on Commander Shepard's back' that nearly knocked her over. Grunt huffed, grabbed them by their tiny humps and chastised them.

"Don't jump on the Squishies! They're fragile and you'll break them!"

"Grunt they're infants. I can handle infants."

"That's the rule Battlemaster. Teach them early or they never learn."

One of the little ones he was holding peeped up "Shepard's not a Squishy, she's a krogan! You said so yourself!"

"Well... yes, but..."

Immediately the little ones started crowding around Shepard again, asking questions about why she was such a funny looking krogan and about all the tough things she'd killed and somewhere behind her Wrex was laughing. The crowd was bliss, laughter and smiles and joyous tears dripping down rough faces. They had spent so much of their lives thinking they'd never be parents, and now here they all were together... It was good. It was so good to be here. This was where Shepard needed to be, and it was impossible not to smile.

The worst of the fight was over in a day or so. At least Shepard and Garrus hid it well if there were still rough feelings after that. Tali doubted that either of them could hide it from her if there had been any more permanent damage to their relationship...

Garrus was now nearly as bad as he had been in the very beginning again. If Shepard was with her or Wrex or Grunt he handled it but at all other times his feet never left her shadow. Shepard acted fine and downright joyful when she was out among the krogan people but when it was just the three of them she awkwardly avoided addressing that anything was wrong, pretended what was happening was normal. Tali had spent more than one night sitting with Wrex or Bakara venting her frustrations to the point where it triggered her mask's internal cleaning systems because of the tears. These were her friends, they had all been through so much together, but they had been broken by things none of them could control and her engineer's hands didn't know how to fix it.

A massive leathery hand engulfed Tali's shoulder when it settled there. "You're beating yourself up again. What did I tell you about that?"

"I know Wrex I just..."

"They're fat headed. They'll fight and figure it out on their own terms. All that the rest of us can do is keep an eye on them."

Tali ran her hands down the fabric of her cowl and stared up at the sky. She felt so tired. "It doesn't feel like enough. We fought so hard for this..."

"Trust me kid, I know the type. Comes with being krogan. Just because the war is over doesn't mean you stop hurting things. Even if it's each other. You need to stop thinking you can control it and go home."

"You know I can't do that Wrex." she said softly. The Homeworld would still be there in a few years, but Shepard needed her right now. More than Tali needed Rannoch.

He shook his big red head with a sigh. "Yeah. Had to try anyway." Then with a quirk of amusement to his features "Frankly I'm more surprised you didn't lay a claim on her first. Vakarian certainly took long enough to do it."

"WREX! I couldn't- She was my Commander, that's just not done!" Tali turned a few interesting colors under her suit as she tried to shy away from him, embarrassed at having been called out. "Look if there had been any sign she was interested- But I'm over that now, and Garrus is practically my brother, and I'm happy for them and glad to let it go, and- and you bosh'tet you're just trying to embarrass me to distract me aren't you?" He only stopped laughing when she punched him in the side, and then he peered over with broad amusement in his big red eye.

"Never change Tali."

"Thanks, Wrex." she said with a sigh of relief, leaning into her friend's side.

He stayed up with her until she finally fell asleep and dropped her off in her room. Directly across the path was where Shepard and Garrus were staying. It was quiet now so they were done arguing, or fucking to avoid talking about any of the real problems at hand. Sometimes it was easier to brush the real problems under the rug with a good rut but it was only ever a temporary release from reality.

He had no doubt they'd pull through it. As stubborn and as in love as they were? It would just take time. Wrex had every intention of letting them stay and work on the planet and their problems as long as they needed. And with family dealt with for now, Wrex headed off to the next issue that needed the Clan leader at this hour.

(author's note)

It's been a very long time. I had the first draft of this written down on scrap paper, I've got a bit more in first draft form and a basic outline of where I want to go, though I need to find where that one page I had ended up. I'm gonna do my damndest to finally get this done this year, then either revamp the earlier chapters to my current standard or finally go back to tackling The Reversal and fixing the disaster I created by forgetting husks exist and figure out how the ending should work. Wish me luck.