"Muuuu-ummmmm," the front door opened to the sound of a youthful asari voice echoing down the hallway.

Eliza Shepard returned the call, "In the kitchen, Aethyta."

"Mum! Hey! Guess what?"

The girl, tall, beautiful, serene, just like her asari mother, with the lean muscles of her human mother dumped her bag on the kitchen bench where Shepard was prepping dinner. With a flick of her finger, she rose the item off the bench with her biotics and stared at her daughter, who sighed and yanked the offending article back over her shoulder and put it into the library. She returned and jumped up onto a stool, leaning on her elbows.

"Guess what?" she repeated, and reached out to snag a piece of carrot.

"Don't spoil your dinner," Shepard growled, threatening to smack the girl on the back of the hand.

"Better than cake," Aethyta replied with a cheeky smile, crunching down on the snack.

"Hrmmm. And since we are playing guessing games, I guess you have homework?"

"Slam dunk. Paper on the turian hierarchy."

Shepard raised a copper brow, the lines at the edge of her eyes crinkling, "You are confident, young woman."

"It's part of why I'm so excited! Guess what?!" Aethyta was almost bouncing on her seat.

"Okay, okay, I give up,"

"A Primarch is coming to our school!"

"Which Primarch?" Shepard continued chopping potato and her fingers nearly went into part of the evening meal at the reply.

"I think they said it was Primarch Vakarian…" Aethyta paused in her chewing for a moment.

"Garrus Vakarian?" Shepard was impressed at how cool she sounded when she asked the question.

"Oh yeah, you knew him, right? He was with you and Mum when you went up against the Reapers," Aethyta was nonchalant and chose to use her mother's distraction to snag another chunk of carrot.

"Yeah. I knew him," Eliza's voice trailed off.

"Anyway, he is giving this talk. Grissom Academy is a pretty big deal these days, and they are giving us final years a talk on where we want to head with our careers. Since he is in charge of Palaven space, I guess he is giving a talk to us about doing a stint with the turian military. Since they opened it up, a lot of folks head there before going Alliance then N7. And y'know, I really want to go there, rather than to Thessia…" Aethyta's voice trailed off when she realised that her Mum had chopped the potato into tiny little chunks.

"Uhh, Mum?"

"What? Huh?" Shepard glanced up.

"So, you should come to the talk? They are inviting parents along and stuff. And well, hey, it might be pretty cool for you guys to catch up again."

"Yeah, we lost touch after…well…after."

"So, cool, I will put you down."

"Yeah, sure," Eliza was distracted, pouring the vegetables into the steamer, "I have to do some work after dinner. Make sure you get your homework done, okay?"

Aethyta levered herself off her stool and frowned, "Yeah. Sure." She wrapped her arms briefly around Shepard's shoulders and gave her an affectionate squeeze. Shepard gripped her forearm tightly.

"Thanks, baby," she murmured, "Now scoot." She gave a small smile, "You can't get out of homework that easily."

Aethyta's laugh rang out.

Shepard sat in her office chair, staring sightlessly at the screen. Garrus. Theirs had been a complicated relationship. While they were all on the Normandy, things had been simpler. No one demanded anything of them other than killing Reapers or Collectors. They had shared as many nights as they could. Then reality crept in once they won the war. Garrus had to leave for Palaven. Shepard was a Spectre, Liara based her Shadowbroker's business aboard the Normandy. She had been heartbroken when she had had to end things with Garrus. He should have had a chance to have a family. It was impossible with her. And there was …well a lot of 'ands' as to why it wouldn't work. She raised her fingers to her brow and rubbed hard.

She and Liara had loved each other after a fashion. They had both been lonely and had true affection for each other. The decision to have a child together had seemed to make sense. But when Liara died when Aethyta was three it threw everything into a tailspin. Shepard supported Ferun in becoming the new Shadowbroker, and grounded herself to bring up her daughter. She had accepted a post that initially began on Earth, and when Aethyta, named for Liara's father, had gained a position in the Grissom Academy under the tutelage of Jack Naught, she had then moved her base of operations to Elysium. The space station was an easy transfer for her daughter. For the last fifteen years she had been on her own and most of the time she was okay with that. She was Shepard, she had made a career of coping with whatever life threw at her.

Garrus had married a turian daughter of a Primarch. They had had two children. She had known that much, then stopped asking. Their lives went two directions. It happened. Yeah. It happened. She sat upright and leaned forward and brought up the files she was meant to be reviewing. Enough, Shepard. Enough.

"Aethyta Shepard, if you don't get your skinny blue ass in the transpo right now, I'm leaving without you!" Shepard growled.

"Mum, jeez!" Aethyta strutted toward her on high heeled boots.

Eliza raised a brow, "Aren't they mine?"

"You never wear them anymore, Mum! And they make my legs look smokin' hot!"

Eliza's lips quirked despite herself, "You aren't helping your cause, kid."

"How come you don't wear them anymore?"

"Bad knees, bad back," Shepard shrugged as she slid behind the controls of the shuttle.

"You're still good looking, Mum," Aethyta looked at her human parent critically, "I mean. C'mon, it's not like you are that old. What? Forty.."

"Finish that sentence and I open up the door and push you out now," they hovered over their house.

"Oh please," Aethyta snorted, "As if."

Shepard tucked the short strands of her copper hair, now liberally streaked with grey, behind her ears. Yeah. She didn't put any effort into her appearance. She never had. She had always worried about other things. And in the twenty years since she had seen Garrus, things had changed. Her waist wasn't quite as …supportive as it had once been. A small smile of memory curved her lips. She stared into the mirror of the school bathroom she had retreated to before the session was meant to start.

Wrinkles. Scars. Grey hair. She had earned every single one. She straightened and sighed. She wouldn't be the first human to ever see an old lover for the first time in years.

The only difference, she doubted many of them were still in love with them.

"Please give a warm welcome to Palaven's Primarch, Garrus Vakarian," the principal of the Academy led the applause, and the varied audience echoed it. The Vakarian name had gone around the galaxy. Everyone knew it. Saved the Citadel from Sovereign, held off mercs as Archangel, stopped the Collectors and destroyed the Reapers. He was legend.

And as Shepard sat in her padded auditorium chair near the back and stared down at the stage her heart leapt into her throat. He looked the same. A little older. A little more mature. But he was the same and as his voice was picked up by sensors and amplified around the room, she was back on the Normandy and no time had passed at all. She sank down a little in her chair. Gods. She remembered that voice.

Garrus had grown more adept at handling an audience. He had them laughing with his self deprecating humour and fielded questions from some of the sharpest minds in the galaxy with efficiency and intelligence. She glanced down as she heard her daughter speak:

"Hello, Primarch Vakarian, I was wondering if there is the opportunity to trial differing aspects of the turian military before making a decision?" Aethyta had stood to ask the question.

"Yes," Garrus nodded, "We have found that adopting the human method of finding a place of best fit, rather than following a more lineal method of family units." He peered out at the questioner and saw the tall asari touching her fingers to her ear piece. She then touched her brow in a gesture that brushed at his memory.

"Who asked that question?" he shaded his eyes against the glare of the lights pointed at him.

"My name is Aethyta Shepard," the girl replied, all confidence and hipshot arrogance. Oh. He knew that stance too.

He just nodded, "Thank you."

She was here. He knew it.

"Thank you all, you have honoured me by your attendance! If you have any questions, please get in contact with our recruitment officers here tonight," Garrus bowed his head in acknowledgment to the wild applause.

He was almost instantly mobbed when he stepped off the stage. A hundred people wanted a moment with the legend. His blue eyes scanned the crowd and for a moment, he thought he saw a flash of red hair near the back. But he could not be rude.

And it was several minutes before he stood before the asari who had asked the question. He held out his hand.

"Miss Shepard," his voice rumbled in his chest as she smiled broadly at him.

"I can't believe I'm meeting you! Primarch Vakarian," she squeezed his hand and wouldn't let go, "I know you worked with Mum all those years ago."

"Your mother?"

"Eliza Shepard. Well, technically Liara T'soni. You worked with her too. But we decided to call them both 'Mum'. It made it easier on Mum's family. They couldn't quite wrap their head around asari biology and it was just easier to leave it at that."

Garrus fluttered his mandibles, silence stretching between them for a moment.

"Heh, sorry. I talk a lot. Just ask Mum. She says I never shut up long enough for others to get a word in edgewise," Aethyta linked her arm with his own and tugged him toward the stairs higher up, "She sat up here. She doesn't really like crowds and wanted to sit up the back here. Come on. I know she will want to say hi!"

The auditorium was emptying as people heading for the reception hall. Where he should be. Not walking up toward the woman he loved more than life itself.

Shepard clenched her fingers tightly on her stomach, her knuckles almost white. She watched Garrus walk up toward her beside her daughter and she stood up.

"Shepard," he greeted her simply.

She held out her hand, "Garrus."

They stood there in silence for a long while, neither letting go. Aethyta narrowed her eyes, glancing from one to the other. And her eyes widened in understanding.

"Oh," she breathed softly, "So…like…I'm going to find my friends. You know where…and…you aren't listening to a word I'm saying."

With a glance backward, she tripped down the stairs, calling out loudly, "Hailie! Wait up!"

Shepard stared up into Garrus' face. Still scarred and close up she could see that he was older. His plates had thickened slightly. More scars. More wisdom and patience in those bright blue eyes.

"I…don't know quite what to say, Shepard," he began hesitantly, giving what she knew to be a smile, "You always did leave me a little speechless."

"It's good to see you," she managed, and gave a soft laugh, "Primarch Vakarian."

"And you," he replied, his voice quiet, "Admiral Shepard."

They seemed to realise they were still holding hands and jerked away. They stood awkwardly.

"You should head back and meet your adoring public," Eliza nodded toward the entrance to the reception.

"Yeah. I should," he took a step back.

"Good to see you," Shepard nodded, "I'm heading off. Can't stand parties. Too many people."

Garrus was silent and watched the woman move toward the rear entrance to the auditorium. Into the darkened hallway. He called out abruptly.

"Shepard!"

She turned, and his sharp eyes could see that her knuckles were white on the seat back she clutched.

"Yeah?"

"I…missed you," he uttered hesitantly.

Shepard smiled then, and her eyes misted slightly, "Me too."

And he was left alone in the auditorium.

Shepard took a sip of wine.

"Wow," Aethyta entered the room, and dropped into a sofa seat across from Shepard, "I mean seriously, wow."

"Hrmm?" Shepard glanced up at her lovely daughter.

"The Primarch. I mean, I have seen him on vids before, but in real life, that man is sexy as crap,"

Shepard spat a mouthful of wine back into the glass, "Aethyta!"

"What? He is!" Aethyta protested, and got a sly smile on her face, "And you didn't tell me that you and he had a thing."

Shepard put down her glass on the table between them, lowering her booted feet to the carpet. She watched Aethyta carefully with sharp green eyes, "Aethy…"

"Mum," the girl began and rubbed the back of her neck, a gesture curiously akin to the asari mother she had barely known, "I'm not an idiot. I know that you and Mum weren't really…really together. I always figured that you guys were too busy, and you were. I mean, I know you loved each other but that was nothing compared to what I saw between you and the Primarch tonight. I mean, that was like..smokin' hot."

Shepard rubbed her brow, "That was a long time ago. And he has a family. It's an invalid topic. Even if we were…it wouldn't matter. He has a wife."

"No, he doesn't," Aethyta sounded surprised, and shifted to sit next to her human mother, taking her hand, "I thought you knew. Yeah, he was married. Had two children. Though I guess they are my age by now. But his marriage ended a few years ago. Turian divorce is pretty rare, but I guess it happens. I read up on him when I heard he was coming to talk. It was in the news back then. It was a mutual agreement apparently. She's on the Citadel now. His boys are in the military and he's …well, he's the Primarch still."

Shepard leaned back on her seat, "I shouldn't say this…but, by the Gods, Aethyta, whichever ones will listen, I'm still in love with the man. I thought the years would have fixed that. But it didn't. Seeing him tonight, it was like a punch to the gut."

Aethyta kissed her mother's lined brow, frown lines wrought by years of stress and concern, and loved all the more for it, "You are the best, Mum. You sacrificed so much to make sure we had this life. Maybe its time you did something for yourself."

"You don't feel like I'm betraying the memory of your mother somehow?"

"Silly human," Aethyta snuggled up, her head under Shepard's chin as she once used to, "She would be cross you said that and so would I."

"Careful, runt, I can still kick your butt," Shepard wrapped her arms around her daughter.

"I love you too, Mum."

Shepard felt the soothing calm flood her system that her little girl had been able to do since babyhood, "You too, kid."

FROM: ADMIRAL ELIZA SHEPARD

TO: PRIMARCH GARRUS VAKARIAN

Your favourite place on the Citadel. Meet me there at 1900 on the first day of the Council Meeting?

Shepard sat at the top of the world, back against a wall, her legs sprawled out in front of her. There was no breeze here, not in the artificial space of the Citadel. She had a bottle of beer in hand and sipped from it slowly. A cooler with another three sat beside her. The only outward indication that she was nervous was in the occasional tapping of her foot.

It was the first day of the council meetings, everyone needed advice and it had been a long day. Soon, the artificial light of the Citadel would dim and nighttime would hold sway. She watched the multitude of life go home from their own days.

The last of her slightly warm beer slid down her throat and she sighed. 1930. He wasn't coming. Well, it was a long shot. She set aside the old fashioned glass bottle for recycling and bent her knees to stand.

"Hey," the reverbed voice greeted, and Shepard jerked her head toward the speaker. He was here. Wearied. But here. "Sorry I'm late. The Ambassador was…" he shrugged, "talkative."

"It's okay," she reached down to snag a bottle, "Here."

The turian gave a sigh of pleasure, "By the Spirits, Shepard, this is almost exactly what I needed."

He levered himself down with a faint groan. Shepard couldn't help herself, she chuckled.

"Hey. My joints aren't thirty anymore, you know," the turian growled.

Shepard leaned over and nudged him with her shoulder, "I was laughing because my joints popped and cracked as I sat down. We got old."

She cracked the top off her second bottle, and they tapped in the centuries old salute. Both drank deeply.

"I was sorry to hear about Liara," Garrus began seriously after a moment, "I knew she had left a child behind, but I had no idea…"

Shepard paused and lowered her bottle. She stared down at her lap, "I was never going to have my own children. Not really. When I was rebuilt, Cerberus kinda…forgot to turn on some things. And Liara wanted a daughter. We were the very best of friends for so long, we made the decision that I would donate genetic material. When she died I lost a dear friend, and gained a daughter. Aethyta took my last name."

Garrus nodded slowly, "She is beautiful. The smarts of both her parents and the sass of her human parent."

Shepard glanced at him thoughtfully, "Tell me about your boys."

"I married Nethis to keep her parent's and mine happy. And she the same for me. After the Reapers, well…" he shrugged, "you know how badly we were decimated on Palaven. We had two sons and when they were grown, we went our separate ways. She was a good mother, and an exemplary scientist, but we had no wish to grow old together. Halen and Rex just finished basic training. They will both serve in the military - though I think Rex would rather be a scientist. He will do his two years as a grunt, then I will encourage him into the research facilities. He was more like his mother."

"I'm sorry. Really. I wished you could have been happy with her."

"I was in love with someone else, but she broke my heart. It never healed," the turian's voice was softly matter-of-fact.

"And I was in love with someone, but thought I should do the right thing, and broke his heart, and mine. I thought he deserved the chance to have the family I couldn't give him."

Garrus was silent for a long moment. He took a sip of the dextro-beer, then set it aside. He awkwardly climbed to his feet, joints groaning in protest. Shepard's eyes misted, and she ducked her head. It was a few moments before she realised the strong, three fingered hand hovered before her. She looked up, and he was waiting, something enigmatic in the depths of his eyes. She grasped the hand and he proved he was still strong. She was drawn to her feet with only the slightest protest from the knee she had shattered all those years ago.

She stood before him, less than a pace away. He reached out and traced her features with that rough taloned fingertip.

"You are still beautiful," he said gruffly, "Age has not made any difference to the fierceness that I fell in love with."

She swallowed hard, unable to speak.

"That I am still in love with," he took a step closer, and she watched his face with wide eyes. He brushed her lips with a thumb, "I missed your softness. I missed your kisses. I missed your dancing."

She narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to retort…and he kissed it. He slid his arms around her waist, no longer hard muscled but his embrace was no less fierce for it. She slid her arms around his neck. And they fit together as they ever did.

"Wow," she gasped when they broke the kiss, "Some things never change."

"This is still my favourite place on the Citadel," Garrus drew her back for another hard kiss, his palms memorising her new curves.

Shepard awoke and groaned, this bed always made her back ache. She turned over and thudded into something very solid. She gasped and sat up. Oh. It was…Garrus. A small smile curved her lips. He was here. Naked. In her bed.

"Hey! Mum?"

Shepard's sleepy gaze upon her lover snapped wide awake. Shit. She slid out of bed in a panic. Grabbed her robe and belted it.

"Mum? Why aren't you up?"

Shepard glanced at the clock beside the bed. 0900. Shit! She looked around wildly, bent down and grabbed Garrus' pants. She threw them at him.

"Wake up!" she hissed, "Garrus! Aethyta is home!"

"Huh?" he blinked blearily, "What?"

"Get your pants on!" she snapped and strode toward the door before her daughter could make an untimely entry.

"Sorry, kid," Shepard slid out of her door, not opening it fully to allow full view of the room, "Had a late night meeting."

"Uh huh," Aethyta looked unconvinced, her arms folded across her chest, "Need breakfast then?" Her voice was one of innocence, "Coffee?"

"Yeah, that would be great…" Eliza was uncertain. She knew her daughter.

"And uh, should I get out the dextro stuff for the Primarch?"

Shepard stilled, her hand on the railing leading down the stairs. Her daughter glanced back at her smugly.

"His shuttle is parked out front, Mum. It's a little hard to miss. Plus, there are like…four messages on his datapad which is on the loungeroom table. Along with...uh…I'm guessing your shirt."

Shepard went red. Really red.

Aethyta smirked.

Garrus appeared from the bedroom, shirtless, "Hey, Shepard. Have you seen my …" he lapsed into silence, "…uh…" He glanced between the two women helplessly.

"Cool," Aethyta nodded, pouring out two cups of very strong coffee, "My Mum's boyfriend is Archangel." She took a sip.

Shepard glanced at Garrus who moved to lay a hand on her upper back. She could feel his talons at the level of the N7 tattoo on her shoulder.

"And a Primarch," she continued easily. She glanced up at Garrus, "So, you think this might help me get an inside track into the turian army?"

Garrus chuckled, "So, I'm guessing she didn't get that mercenary attitude from Liara." Shepard dug him in the ribs with an elbow. He grunted.

"I'm gonna have the coolest parents in history, ever…" Aethyta grinned, and picked up her school satchel, "See ya, Mum… Primarch. Gotta get to school. You know. Responsibility and all." She winked and closed the door.

Garrus slid an arm around Shepard's shoulders and tugged her back against his chest. Shepard leaned on his strength.

"So…hungry?" she murmured.

"Mmmhmmm," he nibbled her neck.

"Me too."

She turned and led him back into the bedroom.