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This is part of The Shepard-Vakarian Files series. This one takes place sometime after Onwards.

I wrote this because I have crap going on in my life and wanted to write something fluffy. So I did. I'm not sure where exactly on the timeline it takes place in the series or exactly how old Aetius is during this, other than still pretty young. Unbeta'd because it's short and quick.

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Lilliana Shepard, the former captain of the Normandy, liked showers. There was just something soothing about the feeling of the warm water cascading down, caressing her skin, and now that she was (semi) retired, she would indulge in stupidly long ones.

This was especially when Garrus was home to watch Aetius, and she didn't have to worry about the little turian getting into some sort of trouble. Which he would if you took your eyes off him for even a second. Everyone said that it was just the age he was at, but it didn't make it less stressful for either of his parents.

With a sigh she hit the control panel to shut off the water flow and grabbed for a towel. As much as she loved Garrus for being willing to indulge her like this, it wasn't fair to leave him as the sole parental authority when she they were both here.

After getting dressed, she headed out to look for the rest of her little family. She didn't have to search very hard. The noise coming from downstairs clued her in.

"So you really think you can beat me?" Garrus' voice had that light quality she only ever heard when he was playing with Aetius. Hearing him tried to sound menacing around it was actually kind of amusing. She couldn't see him from the foot of the stairs, but the vidscreen was on over in it's alcove, so she headed in that direction.

She didn't hear what response Aetius gave to that, but she heard her husband chuckle. "And what makes you think that?" Shepard rounded the corner to find Garrus seated at one corner of the couch, half currled up and examining one of the cushions next to him. Aetius' own chirping laughter was coming from the floor in front of the couch itself.

There was an inaudible reply from their son, then "And pow!" She saw Aetius bouncing up at the exclamation before he disappeared from view again. "You can't escape me now!" This was followed by the clatter of something falling to the floor and she sighed. The VI that ran the floor cleaners tended to get annoyed when stray toy parts clogged up the machinery, and convincing Aetius to pick up all his toys sometimes felt like a lost cause.

Garrus clicked out an amused response. "I see. And how did he manage that little maneuver when my troops had the high ground?"

"He flew."

"..Aetius, that's a krogan."

"I know."

"You know krogan can't fly, right?"

"...He's special."

Shepard chuckled as she reached them and peered over onto the couch to see what the game was. Aetius was currently using the krogan toy he was holding to sweep the various, turian, geth, and what looked like asari figures Garrus had carefully arranged on the couch cushion onto the floor.

"A...special krogan." Garrus repeated, glancing at her and giving her a flared grin a she spoke.

"Uh-hu," Aetius nodded, apparently very focused on the task of defeating all his father's men, making various explosion sounds each time he knocked some to the floor.

"Well that looks like fun," she comment, causing Aetius to look up and give her a grin before going back to his game. "Losing badly, Garrus?" She leaned over and brushed her forehead across, something that made him purr.

"Only because someone has an unfair advantage," her husband drawled and gave Aetius a mock glared. "I wasn't aware we could have flying krogan troops. Completely changes the game when that happens."

"Should have asked about that before you started," Shepard teased as she stepped around to the front of the couch, being careful not to step on anything she could break. Even though she tried to be gentle, when she sat down she jolted the cushion enough that the last remaining turian figure on the seat bounced off and onto the floor. Garrus stared after it mournfully.

"And that's a total defeat," he sighed. "I'm beginning to thing the two of you were conspiring against me."

"Oh yes, that's totally what it is. A conspiracy." Shepard chuckled.

"Yep," Aetius agreed then paused and looked up at them. "What's a conspircy?"

"It's uh..." Garrus' mandibles flickered a little in though as their son climbed up on the now cleared cushion, still clutching his krogan toy. "It's umm...it's uhh...hmm" Shepard watched her mate rub the back of his neck. "It's when people start planning to do something secretly."

"And apparently this plot was so secret I didn't even know I was part of it," Shepard chuckled. "Still I guess it worked out in the end, didn't it Aetius?"

"Uh-hu," the little boy agreed with her, and leaned against her.

"What were the two of you playing anyway?"

"Spectres and space pirates!" Aetius explained joyful and sat up straight, waving his krogan toy around so excitedly that his mother was forced to lean back a little. "And I won!"

"Specters and space pirates?" Shepard repeated then gave Garrus a glared. Their son had heard people call her a Specter before, even might know in a vague sense that they protected the galaxy, but she had never glorified it to him. Never even mentioned it to him.

Garrus quickly held up his hand in a surrender gesture. "Not my idea Shepard. He's the one that came up with it." He nodded towards the smaller turian who was busying making the krogan toy zoom through the sky.

"Really," Shepard said dryly before looking down at her son. "And where did you learn it from?"

"Jaron," Aetius answered immediately without looking up. "We were playing it yesterday."

"Jaron..." Shepard muttered under her breath as she tried to place the name. "You mean the salarian you were with when I picked you up from daycare yesterday?"

"Uh-hu. That's him," Aetius looked at her. "He says he has a Specter in his family too. I told him you were better."

"He's a faster learner isn't he?" Garrus commented fondly. "He already knows the truths of the galaxy."

"Truth's of the galaxy? Really?" Shepard raised an eyebrow at her mate who chuckled.

"Come on, Lil. You've saved the entire galaxy how many times? I think by this point you've earned the title of best da..." he stopped and cleared his throat when he saw Aetius looking in his direction, "of best Specter in the history of the Council. Unless you know, you can think of some iother/i galactic hero out there."

Shepard couldn't help laughing softly. "Okay, you win this round, Garrus. "

"Always do," he said, with that satisfied little smirk on his face. "And, I think I'm allowed to be proud of my mate once in a while."

Before Shepard could think or a proper reply to that, she felt a tug on her sleeve?

"Mom, mom?"

"What is it?" she looked down at her to son to find him looking at the TV with his head cocked to one side. He pointed at the screen.

"Look, it's you!"

Shepard tried to stop a sigh, feeling a annoyed weight settled in her gut. She hadn't done an interview in over a year. This was probably yet another vid-documentary, unoffical 'biography' or report seeing fame by dragging up some scandal to use against her. She looked up at the screen, fully intending to tell Garrus to shut it off. When she actually saw it though, her jaw dropped open and all thoughts scattered.

"Oh, god," she groaned as the Shepard on screen proceeded to yell about being a hero of the citadel.

"I know that Blasto eight is supposed to be the worst Blasto movie ever made," Garrus drawled. "But I didn't think it was quiet that bad. Even if they did someone get the rights to your image." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as he looked at the screen ,and saw his mandibles twitch into a turian frown. "Though they did manage to get a very convincing actress for this. She looks like you. Even sounds like you."

As he turned towards her, Shepard buried her face in her hand so she wouldn't even have to look at the screen. There was silence from Garrus for a moment.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen an actress quiet that good. I know how you move, Lil. You can't teach an actor that."

"...I don't want to talk about it," she said raising her head a little. Garrus just stared at her, mouth open and mandibles twitching.

"So wait," he said slowly, " you're telling me that the woman who just got into a shoving match with a hanar was actually..you know...you."

"Duh," Aeitus cut in and gave his father a spread-mandible look. "'Course it's Mom!" Then he turned around and Shepard found him looking up at her in absolute adoration. "Did you really work with Blasto? Really?"

"Yeah, Lil," Garrus purred in amusement, "Did you really, really?"

"Both of you just…" she caught sight of Aetius' wide eyes and sighed. "It was just once, for a few minuets. Blame Javik for it," the last was said more to her husband than to her son. "He got roped into appearing in the movie, and I went with him to see what was up. We both got sucked in before we even knew what was going."

"So that really was Javik, not a computer generated image?" Now Garrus sounded very like he had just been handed a present. "I think the critics were wrong. This is clearly the best Blasto movie to ever exist."

Aetius start tugging at her sleeve before she could respond to that. "What was Blasto like? Did you get his autograph? Was it fun?"

"Blasto," Shepard sighed and told her son, "wasn't very nice." She glanced at the screen, which was currently showing 'Sluggard' blowing things up. It looked far more impressive with special effects added, and brought back memories she would rather forget. She brought up her omnitool and shut the movie down. "And no, I didn't get his autograph. They were…busy when I left."

"Wasn't very nice?" Aetius blinked up at her, his mandibles quivering. "But he's a Specter!" As if that was the single most important fact in the world.

For a moment she just stared at her son. Then Shepard burst out laughing. "Aetius," she said gently. "He's not a real Specter. Not like I was. He only pretends to be on in the vids."

"What?" Aetius glanced between her and the now dark vidscreen. "But you were with him!"

"We were only playing at it," she told him. "That wasn't real, not by a long shot."

Aetius sank back down with his mandibles draw tight to his face, and Sheapard almost felt like she should apologize. She hadn't realized that he had believed in the Blasto movies that much. Or maybe it hadn't been the movies as much as the characters inside them that he had thought were real. She forgot how young he was. His grasp of reality and fantasy was normally very good.

"You know," Garrus said, distracting her. "I'm a little hurt you didn't bother to tell me about this." He grinned at her. "I think I deserve to know when I have a movie star for a mate."

"And that is exactly why I never mentioned it to you," she couldn't help grumbling. "I knew you would never be able to let it go, and I have been trying to forget it ever happened."

"You wound me Shepard," Garrus heaved a sigh that even had Aetius breaking out of his gloom to look over at his father. "Do you really think I would sink so low as to make fun of your movie career?"

"I am not going to grace that with an answer, Garrus. And I suggest you stop talking about it now. Otherwise you will regret it."

"Really now?" Garrus purred, "I almost want to see what you have in mind."

"Oh, you will," Shepard grinned, "but only after Aetius gets to bed. He's stayed up later than he should have anyway."

Immediately the little turian, who had been looking back and forth between his parent's in confusion looked at her with wide eyes before scrambling off the couch, all traces of disappointment about Blasto forgotten in the face of the bigger threat. "No! I'm not tired!"

"What?" Garrus gave his mate a blank look, then pulled up the time on his omnitool. "…Crap!" That bought a glare from Shepard and a pointed clearing of her throat as she glanced over to where Aetius was attempting to play with his toys and ignore his parents. "Sorry," the older turian said quickly. "I just didn't realize it was that late. Come on kid. Time to get to bed."

"No!" Aetius shot to his feet, all pretense of playing forgotten. He was giving them a look a stubborn look that his father would later swear he had inherited from his mother, even if they weren't connected by DNA. "I'm not tired! I can stay up later." He crossed his arms if that was the final say in the matter.

"Maybe some other time," Garrus said as he stood up and stretched. "Tonight, you get to go to bed. Good soldiers need their sleep."

"No!" Aetius darted around to the other side of the couch. Garrus growled something under his breath and went after the boy.

"Aetius," he said warningly, and Shepard could hear his subvocals humming even though her limited hearing. "Don't make me come after you." Lil couldn't help notice that her mate was pointedly ignoring the grin on her face.

"No!" Came the small voice from somewhere near the kitchen. Garrus quickly set out in that direction.

Shepard turned in her seat and decided to cut things off before it went any further. "Aetius," she called, "if you're good, and go with your dad, I'll come up and tuck you in."

There was a moment of silence, and then Aetius poked his head out from the kitchen to look at her. "Really? Promise?"

"Promise," she replied, feeling a tiny pang of guilt. It wasn't that long ago she had been in active service, and away for months at a time. Aetius still hadn't gotten used to have her at home all the time, and treated every moment she spent time with his as precious. Playing on that was bad, she reasoned, but at least it was getting him to listen.

Her son stared at her for a moment, then darted towards the stairs. "Come on, Dad!"

Garrus turned his head and turned to watch his mate as she stood. "He listens to you. Why doesn't he listen to me like that?"

"He listens to you most of the time, and you know it," Shepard said as she reached him. "Go get him ready and I'll be up in a bit."

"You'd better hurry," the older turian cautioned, "or he'll start to get impatient, and he's wound up enough I don't think I'll be able to distract him long."

"Don't worry, it won't take long," she gave her husband a kiss on the cheek as the distinct call of 'daaaad' echoed from up stairs. Garrus flared a grin at her, then headed up.

She went back into the living room and started to gather up all the action figures that had been left lying around the couch, and dumping them in the bucket that Aetius had lugged down from his room. If she didn't do this now, she was going to forget they were here, and she would end up stepping on the pointiest one in the morning. That was one very painful lesson she had learned early on.

As she tossed a particularly mangled looking salarian figure in with the rest, she paused. Here she was, hero of the galaxy, the first human Specter, the one who had vanquished the Reapers…and she was picking up after a child. A decade ago, if you had told her this was where she would be one day, she probably would have laughed about it. Some people probably still thought she was crazy for starting a family with Garrus, and dealing with all the fallout that had caused.

She honestly didn't care. After everything she had been through, after all she had managed to accomplish, she deserved a chance at the sort of happiness she wanted. Maybe the rest of the galaxy didn't understand it, but her friends, her family, they did. That was all that was important.

They knew that right here, right now, this was exactly where she wanted to be.