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The Justicar's Dog of War	By : Doirly_No Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 55026 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 40
- 41
It was a picturesque day, a few wispy clouds drifted lazily across the sky and a cooling sea breeze tempered the blazing sun's heat into pleasant warmth. On the other side of a string of tall dunes from the ocean a little, blue girl ran with reckless abandon down a well traveled path. Hearing the waves crash just out of view and the feeling of grains between her toes egged her anticipation to its limit and her legs past theirs. She tripped, face-planting in the soft, white sand. Pushing up from the ground she tried to decide whether anything was hurt and by extension whether or not she should cry. Everything seemed fine and tears had no advantages at the moment, no chance of extra dessert or anything, so she got up ready to renew her sprint.

"Rila! Slow down!" the trailing matron called before turning around to her lagging bondmate, "Come on Sam, what's taking you?"

"I was just reading the side of the sunscreen bottle," Samantha Traynor and her oversized, floppy sunhat finally caught up. "It doesn't mention anything about asari or children. I don't know if this is suited for Rila. Maybe I should run to the store."

The worrywart's spouse and cured Ardat-Yakshi, Falere mentioned, "Asari don't require sunscreen."

"Are you sure?" the woman pulled off her big, round shades designed for a person three times her age to get a better look at the bottle she had pulled from one of the smaller bags hanging off her. "Maybe it'd be better to be safe than sorry."

"Scales don't burn, she'll be fine."

"But..." a squeeze of the shoulder and kind smile from her love finally got Sam to relent. "Alright fine, I guess I'll go put it back in the car."

"Don't you need some?" Adding some innuendo to her voice the matron continued, "And maybe some help putting it on?"

Which her bondmate completely missed, "No, I'm fine. I already took care of myself. Plus I have my hat."

"Well, if you're sure you don't want me rubbing a fine layer of oil over your glistening, sweaty body," Falere teased.

"Ohhh, I see." The two lovers closed the gap between them and Sam whispered, "Perhaps I could use a hand."

While the grown-ups flirted Rila continued to run ahead, not heeding her mother's advice and ended up tripping again. Asari children were some of the galaxy's most awkward creatures. Their heads grew a bit faster than the rest of them for the first decade of their lives which made them undeniably adorable, but also a bit top-heavy and liable to topple over. Again the little girl assessed whether or not to cry. She glanced over her shoulder to see her parents doing icky things and decided it better to get back to sprinting. After a hundred or so feet she reached a gap in the dunes where she made a hard right and finally she was at the beach. Stopping a moment to catch her breath she scanned the short stretch of privately owned sand and immediately spotted the reason she was so glad to be there strolling out from a gathering of tables, chairs, tarps and barbeques.

"Nana!" the girl happily hollered and restarted her sprint.

"Noodle-head!" Shepard just as happily replied, dropping to her knees with arms stretched wide.

Leaving a trail of giggles in her wake Rila ran at full speed across the beach, managing not to fall again until she could do it into her grandmother's awaiting embrace, "I missed you!"

"I missed you too," the woman clad in trunks and tank-top of clashing, garish, floral patterns replied as she lifted the little asari with a monstrous hug. "How are you doing?"

The girl was more interested in sharing something she knew than answering questions so instead asked, "You know what?"

Shepard shifted her hold so they could look eye to eye, "No, what?"

Then Rila said, "Mama said we're going to be moving here soon."

"You are!?" the adult exaggerated her exclaim a bit too much. "That's great!"

"Yeah, she said..." Noodle-head, which only her nana was allowed to call her, trailed off when she noticed, "Grunt!"

Immediately the mini-asari wiggled her way out of the woman's strong grip so she could run over to the hulking krogan. He saw her coming and knelt down to accept her, though unlike his former-commander he didn't prepare for a hug, instead he put one set of knuckles on the sand. Rila came to a screeching halt then carefully put her two little, blue feet in his palm and smiling broadly he lifted her high into the air, or high for her at least. Arms stretched wide she kept her balance like a wirewalker which was much easier for her to do when she was standing still. He made one of his weird, Grunt chuckles; somehow they weren't as creepy when she was involved.

By then the girl's parents had caught up and Shepard greeted them with, "I'm way cooler than Grunt, right?"

Falere answered while leaning in to hug her mother-in-law, "Well, he can lift her up with one hand outstretched."

"So can I!" She gave her former subordinate a quick squeeze, sighed then moved on, "Anyway, the rugrat tells me I'll be getting some new neighbors. Things not work out on the Citadel?"

"No," the matron quietly replied. "I just couldn't find a job. Given my age employers thought I was overqualified for entry-level work, but I have no experience or even a proper education so I am actually under-qualified for basically everything. Plus, there is still a lot of prejudice against Ardat-Yakshi amongst asari. Most stopped reading my application once they saw my previous residence was Lesuss."

"And I didn't get that promotion I wanted," Samantha added. "At least here we'll be close to family."

Shepard was overjoyed, though it came at the expense of her loved-ones' sorrow so she kept it to herself, "Well, you're in luck..."

A screeching cry interrupted them; they turned to see a whimpering Rila sitting in the sand clutching her head with a terrified Grunt looming over her, who said once everyone was looking his way, "She started it."

Many an eye rolled as the mother went to her daughter's aide, "Rila, what have I told you about head-butting?"

"Idiot," the two humans said in unison while shaking their heads at the large lummox; it wasn't the girl's first misguided head-butt and not once had it been his fault, yet every time he did something stupid afterwards to incriminate himself.

When a second krogan knelt down by the crying child Samantha asked, "Who's that?"

Shepard's voice suddenly soured as she answered, "RynCol-Y'all, she's with Grunt."

"That's an odd name." With more consideration the petite woman added, "I think, I'm not sure what's odd for a krogan."

It was quickly and tersely clarified, "She's a DJ."

"Ah, so is there something wrong with being a DJ?"

"Besides it leading to the adoption of silly names and it not being an actual job? No."

Samantha gave her former-commander a sideward glance, "Why do you care about what she does for work?"

"I don't," Shepard lied, both to her friend and herself. "But what kind of job is that for a hundred year old woman?"

This was getting amusing, "Why does her age matter?"

"It doesn't." Her eyes remained glued to the giant, tattooed alien trying to help cheer-up her granddaughter. "It just shows a lack of maturity."

A couple chuckles slipped out as Traynor asked, "Why do you care?"

Turning to the smaller woman Shepard squinted, "What're you getting at?"

"It just seems odd that someone who's married to an asari matriarch would get bent out of shape over a couple's age difference."

Her head started shaking several seconds before muttering, "No, that isn't even the same thing. She's like ten times older..."

"And Samara's like twenty times older than you."

"I am an adult, as is Samara and we are on a similar level of maturity."

"Not from what Liara and Samara tell me..."

"MEANWHILE!" Shepard preempted with a childish exclamation. "Grunt is a teenager who is still developing."

"I thought he did all his developing in that tube."

"Not the same thing."

Finally, Samantha gave her friend a condescending pat on the back, "It's okay, I understand. I know it's hard to watch them grow up, but at some point you have to let them out of the nest."

"Oh shut up."

"Well that's rude."

Not wanting to dwell on her relationship with Grunt any longer Shepard returned to, "Anyway, before we were interrupted I was about to tell you that I saw a 'for sale' sign in front of a house down the road."

Samantha was too kind of a person and let the subject go, a pleasantry that wouldn't have been extended if the roles were reversed, "Oh, we couldn't afford to live in an area like this. We're going to look for an apartment in the city."

"That's too far away. I'll buy the house for you."

"We can't let you do that."

"Let me? Ha! Try and stop me."

Traynor's resistance continued, "But..."

"No buts. Look, I could give you a million reasons, but I only need one. Samara and Falere have a lot of missed time to make up for and a family they never dreamed possible. They deserve to enjoy it as much as possible."

After a silent few minutes Samantha admitted, "I guess you're right. I have to run it by Falere first though."

"Of course." With no doubt in her mind as to what the matron would say, Shepard threw an arm around her former-specialist and added, "It'll be good to have you around."

"Thanks." A smile sprung up, "Rila will be ecstatic. I'll never be able to repay you."

With a sly smirk Shepard replied, "Well, there is one thing you could do to repay me."

It took barely a second for the younger woman to catch the meaning, "No way."

"Oh come on," she squeezed her friend's shoulder a little tighter.

"Never." This wasn't Shepard's first attempt.

"I'm going to buy you a house and you can't do this one thing for me."

Obviously over exaggerating Samantha stated, "I rather my daughter starve in the streets than call you Mom."

"But I'm your mother-in-law and I deserve proper respect, especially considering I'm buying you a house."

"No," said flatly while escaping the larger woman's grasp.

A counter offer, "Then how about Mum, it'll be adorable with your accent."

The daughter-in-law mumbled under her breath, "I hate you."

Shepard burst out laughing, literally clutching her sides, which drew Liara over from the barbeque to ask, "Samantha, so good to see you. What have you done to my bondmate?"

"Wait..." the woman having a hysteric fit quickly interjected, wanting to be the one to answer though she needed a moment to stop choking on her own spit before she could, "Sam hates me. She said, 'I hate you'."

Swallowing chuckles dying to burst forth, the maiden managed to keep a straight face as she patted her friend on the shoulder, "It's remarkable you lasted this long. It took me only a few months of prolonged exposure to get fed up with her. You are a stronger person than I."

"I never realized how rough you had it, poor thing," and the two embraced in mock sympathy.

"It's okay, Liara likes it rough," Shepard's laughter was renewed by her own joke, until she was smacked upside the head by a blue palm.

"Honestly, how do you live with her?"

"Sometimes, I just don't know."

"So, anyway," scanning around Samantha asked, "Who else is coming?"

"Well," Liara crossed her arms and thought for a moment. "Many will be here Sunday when the Normandy arrives, including Admiral Hackett. Jacob, Bryn and their little horde will get here in the next couple days. Tali should already be in a taxi on her way here by now. I'm actually not too sure about the Lawsons, they said they're coming, but I'm not sure when. Then there's Kelly, who's coming with Hawke and her group from the Azure Sky."

"The Azure Sky?"

Reinserting herself into the conversation, Shepard answered, "That place we sent you and Falere for your honeymoon."

Samantha blushed and mumbled, "Ah."

With a flail of the arm the former-commander left the digression, "And Zaeed's saggy, old ass could be here anytime. He lives less than twenty miles down the coast."

As was the custom, Liara largely ignored her bondmate's weird outburst and moved on to, "I know neither Wrex nor Bakara can make it. The last round of peace talks went nowhere and the Council's attempt to pay off the Blood Pack didn't go well either."

"Sorry, I haven't been keeping up with the news. A bit too wrapped up in my own life to pay attention. Why is the Council involved in Tuchanka's civil war? And why were they trying to pay off the Blood Pack?"

"Short answer is the krogan leadership are assholes, including Wrex, and Bakara is awesome," Shepard summarized before expanding, "Longer answer is that krogan don't know what to do with themselves now that the genophage is cured. A lot of clans want to seek revenge on the salarians, turians and everyone else for that matter, call themselves the Guardians of the Hallows. Most of the rest of the clans want to move on and join the galactic community, that's the faction led by Wrex. They however lack a catchy name."

Samantha interrupted to guess, "So the Council is backing Wrex and the Blood Pack joined the Guardians of the Hallows, so the Council tried to bribe the Blood Pack into switching sides."

Quickly the former-marine threw out an annoyed, "Nope. Don't forget, they're all assholes, including Wrex. He thinks the only way forward is with the krogan totally united and he's willing to nuke anyone who disagrees with him. Stubborn ass won't give an inch and will only accept complete capitulation from the, as he calls them, rebels. And given their history the krogan aren't too big on capitulating. Now here's where Bakara's awesomeness comes in. She tried to play mediator and couldn't get anywhere, so she led a sizable group of likeminded krogan off Tuchanka. Bakara's group is the one the Council is backing. They gave her and her followers refuge and tried to bribe the Blood Pack into simply leaving the war, because at this point the strategy is to let the two factions beat the shit out of each other until Bakara's group, backed by the Council, can return to Tuchanka and seize control. They believe getting the Blood Pack out of the war will speed things up."

The first question that come to Traynor's mind was, "So, did Grunt side with Bakara?"

"Yep," Shepard said as she glanced over to see the most terrifying teenager in history sitting in the sand helping her granddaughter with a sandcastle. "I'm so proud of him. He's matured into a fine young man."

"I would mention how maternal that statement sounded, but I won't, because I rather not get yelled at again," the daughter-in-law of the other two mentioned offhandedly.

"Good because I rather not have to do it again."

As the two adult humans stuck their tongues out at each other Liara finished answering the original question posed, "As for everyone else, they're already here."

Shepard asked, "Kasumi's here?"

Opening her omni-tool the maiden replied, "Silent alarms have been going off for the past twenty minutes. She seems to be in the den at the moment, though she has more than once tripped alarms on opposite sides of the house simultaneously, so I can't be sure."

"You're sure it's her?" she asked rhetorically.

"Only the rudimentary alarms that came with the house are being tripped, while the ones I had installed are going untouched," the security system on the luxurious, beachfront house was actually state-of-the-art; it just couldn't hold a candle to what the Shadow Broker was capable of deploying.

"So she's purposely setting them off."

"It looks like it."

"Why can't she just use the doorbell?" Shepard turned to Samantha to add, "More than once I've come downstairs in the morning to find Kasumi asleep on our couch. No warning, just out of the blue, bam, there's Kasumi. Better go say hi before she gets bored and starts screwing around with our stuff. You should make the rounds anyway. Aethyta looks lonely, maybe start with her."

Liara quickly jumped in, "No, don't!"

Taken back by the sudden exclamation Traynor quietly inquired, "Why not?"

"My father is just... umm..."

The maiden's loving spouse helped, "Aethyta's looking to get laid."

"I have a bondmate."

"Threesome then."

"No, Falere would never do such a thing."

"Live a little, I'll babysit Rila for ya."

"Why are you trying to push this?"

"Better you two than Grunt and the DJ. I don't like how she's been eyeing them."

Samantha stated firmly, "Absolutely not."

"Fine, back to plan A then; Garrus. Hopefully he's enough to slake her lustful thirst."

"Must you put it like that?" Liara asked with a shaking head.

"How else should I put it? She is a T'Soni after all."

Narrowed eyes, the maiden calmly inquired, "What is that suppose to mean?"

"Like father like daughter. I mean, you have slept with four of the people at this party." There was an exchange of bashful glances between the two other women. "And that number is going to almost triple once Hawke and her crew gets here. You do get around, my dear."

To asari promiscuity held no stigma so Liara was in no way embarrassed by her sexual history, but the way Shepard said it really pissed her off for some reason, prompting her to threaten, "Well, I guess I won't be sleeping with anyone else for the next few weeks then."

"Samara and I will miss you." Having two spouses held its advantages. "Anyway, better go check on Kasumi, see you two later."

"I hate her so much," the maiden fumed.

It dawned on Samantha, "Ohhh that's why she was laughing."

Shepard giggled her way up the beach as Traynor was shot a death stare by her mother-in-law. The house wasn't too far away, just a five minute walk inland. On her way to the worn wooden path that would take her through the dunes she passed a shack that held a bathroom, a small changing area, storage, a fridge, two assault rifles and a secret entrance to the Shadow Broker's underground lair. A normal shed really. Behind it was another common sight for the woman leading an uncommon life; a trio of geth mobile platforms. Being a Reaper, or rather The Reaper, she was considered a god by several factions of the synthetic race. She tried to talk them out of it, but their logic was too strong and they somehow managed to trick her into admitting she was a god and she's been trying to recant that slip of the tongue ever since. So there were always at least a few of the metal guys around. The programs housed in these three were particularly interested in organic socializing and requested to attend the party with a five page letter that read like a college thesis, explaining what they hoped to accomplish, how they would go about it and what impact it would have on the rest of the collective. Liara had to give her a TL;DR.

The platforms didn't so much as flinched as Shepard neared and once she was close enough she noticed none of their head lights were on. She was pretty sure she had seen this behavior before and believed they were exchanging programs between platforms or something, perhaps they were recharging. In any case it was a normal thing for them so she didn't worry. No, she would save her worry for what was approaching her from the other end of the path. Strolling toward her was Jack with nearly every single tattoo on full display as the 'psychotic biotic' was wearing nothing but sunglasses and the most miniscule of white bikinis. The bottoms were so brief that it would take no imagination to guess all the con's grooming habits.

Once within earshot Shepard asked, "What is that?"

"What is what?" Jack honestly had no idea what the problem could be.

They came to a stop a few yards apart. "What are you wearing?"

Still had no clue what could possibly be wrong. "A bikini."

"A bikini? Looks more like you tore up a napkin and attached it with some bits of strings."

"What the fuck do you care?"

"Rila's here."

"So? I got nothing she ain't seen before."

"You have plenty she hasn't seen before. She doesn't need to learn batarian death threats from your ribs or pejoratives for turian genitalia from your thigh."

"Well, looks like she's about to," then Jack made a show of stepping past the larger woman.

Shepard quickly grabbed her friend's arm. "Seriously though, you have to change."

The ex-con took a step back, crossed her arms and spat, "Fuck off."

"I can lend you something."

"Fuck off."

"There are some trunks and stuff in the shack."

"Fuck off."

"You won't even have to go back to the house."

"Fuck off."

"Stop telling me to fuck off!"

"I will once you fuck off."

"I'm not playing Jack," the former-marine crossed her arms, mirroring her half-naked friend.

"Neither am I, Shepard."

"You really don't want to test me Jack."

The ex-con raised faux shaking hands and taunted, "Oh no! I'm really scared now; the big, bad Commander Shepard's going to get me."

"No, not the big, bad Commander Shepard, she's reasonable and rationally. Right now I'm the big, bad Nana Shepard, who's completely unreasonable, utterly irrational and who will do crazy stupid things to protect her beloved granddaughter."

"You're kidding. You're doing this over a swimsuit."

"Completely unreasonable and utterly irrational."

Jack honestly couldn't tell if Shepard was joking, but it wasn't really worth the effort to find out and relented, "Trunks and a tank top. I'm not going to the beach wearing more clothes than I normally do."

"That's fine."

With that settled the tattooed belligerent headed for the ocean, tossing back over her shoulder, "Still though, fuck off."

"Love you too Jack," and the former-commander continued onward to her house.

A few more minutes down the path Shepard came to her home that was luxurious though not extravagant. She could easily afford a mansion the size of a small county, but instead the three spouses decided on a mere four bedroom, three and half baths residence with its own private beach. Each had their own bathroom and bedroom while the forth they shared as their marital one. So it wasn't like there was much empty unused space. The underground Liara lair and covert hangar in the nearby grove of trees where they kept the Winnie were DYI, as were the numerous concealed turrets and multitude of surveillance equipment. Really was quite the modest little place.

Shepard crossed the deck to the backdoor, which led to the open kitchen that connected seamlessly with living rooms to either side. She turned right into the den, its raised ceiling and two story high windows drowned the area with sunlight. Nothing on the thief's preferred crashing couch. She doubled back past the fridge to check the other side and again saw no trace of her most annoying friend, well except Conrad and maybe Joker. Come to think of it, there were a lot of names she could list off. How many would label her their most annoying friend, besides Liara and Samantha of course? Hopefully it was more than just those two. She searched the entire first floor including the bathroom for any signs of vandalism or pranking. Samara was upstairs and Kasumi wasn't dumb enough to go anywhere near the matriarch given the current state of things. So it had to be the basement, assuming the cat burglar wasn't following her around at that very moment.

As she reached the bottom step Shepard heard a tap and thinking she had gotten lucky she burst around the corner shouting, "Found you, you little rat!"

"Ah! What!?" Garrus exclaimed and dropped his can of ale; he had heard the footsteps on the stairs and knew someone was coming, he didn't however expect that someone to jump out and yell at him.

"Sorry, thought you were Kasumi."

"I see your mistake," the Shadow Broker operative bent down to check how much of his beverage was salvageable, couldn't give two shits about the carpet underneath it though. "We get confused for each other all the time. Like that time on Omega when we attacked the Blue Suns' base and that batarian mercenary yelled, 'shoot the ugly turian' and the other one asked, 'which one's the ugly one?' She was so hurt when the guy point at her."

"Well you're just too damn pretty," Shepard commented before asking, "Why are you just standing out here in the hall?"

"Never visited your house before." His eyes wandered back into the room he was in front of. "Wasn't sure it'd be okay to go in."

With a warm smile she said, "It's okay. You can go in."

In the crescent-shaped room all along the single curved wall were a series of plaques, alters and memorials to lost friends and loved ones. No one should know so much sorrow as to fill an entire room with it. Each of the deceased had their own podium, with those for departed family members in the most prominent place directly opposite the door; a keepsake placed on top, a picture behind, and their names and a few touching words inscribed on the base. Garrus had bore witness to more than one of their deaths. He was there when Benezia was killed by Shepard, when Legion gave up everything for the good of its people and was on Virmire when Kaidan sacrificed himself. He couldn't read what was written in memoriam to any of them as he couldn't read asari or human, but he recognized the modified N7 chest plate, back-up Alliance issued helmet and had heard from Liara the significance of the broach with little, yellow wings. Samara's daughters and Shepard's family he had never had the chance to meet, but had been told plenty about. Sadly there were plenty of others that he'd known and could feel the sting of their absence.

Second only to family members was the placement of Admiral Anderson's picture and medals. Mordin Solus, a simple datapad beneath his picture with a host of records that Shepard listened to at least once a year. A small, drell bible was placed on Thane Krios's podium, he would have wanted to been remembered for his peaceful end rather than his violent life. And though not a friend, Javik and his Prothean Echo Shard were also represented, because he deserved better than just a mention in the history books. General Kirrahe, who died of old age not too long ago, had a fairly nondescript Scorpion pistol on his alter, but that wasn't his real keepsake; it was the unusually long inscription bellow it that transcribed his speech on Virmire that was truly meant to memorialize the man. Even every crewmember lost on the Normandy, including Ensign Jenkins had a plaque dedicated to them hanging on the wall.

Garrus mentioned as he scanned through the faces, "We have a lot of dead friends, don't we?"

"We have plenty of living ones too," Shepard replied, wearing a melancholy smile.

His scan stopped when he saw, "Udina?"

"He was trying to do what he thought was right, in the best way he knew how. Don't get me wrong, he deserved to die for his crimes, but he committed them in order to save lives. I'm not much better, not after what I did to the Bahak system."

"That was different though."

"It was, but not by enough for me to be a complete hero and him a complete villain."

Changing subjects slightly, Garrus commented, "Well, this sure is a depressing room you have here Shepard."

"Samara and Liara would disagree with you. Something about celebrating what time you have with a person rather than how brief it is. I don't know, it's some asari philosophy thing that's like the lifespan talk and it's super depressing, so I only half pay attention to it."

"Don't you think you owe it to them to pay full attention though?"

"Nope, for two reason; one I'm not entirely sure how long I'll live and have a good chance of outliving them both, which is a shitty thought I wish not to dwell on and two if I do go first then I don't need to worry about it, because I'll be dead. Honestly hoping for things to end in divorce, probably the least painful way to go, but that's all centuries away. So, fuck it."

Literally out of nowhere Kasumi suddenly de-cloaked between the two to say, "I have a question."

Both hardened warriors screamed like little children and nearly fell over in shock, Shepard being the first to bounce back to yell, "What the hell?!"

"What?" the thief asked calmly.

"How long have you been following me?"

"Since you questioned Jack's choice of swimwear."

"And you choose now to show yourself? When Garrus and I are having a serious talk about friends and death and the combination of the two?"

"You said, 'fuck it'. In my experience once someone says, 'fuck it' the serious part of the conversation is over, Shep."

"Did you have to scare us shitless like that?"

"You called me a little rat."

"What about me?" Garrus finally spoke up, having used every ounce of strength not to spill his ale again. "Why'd you have to scare me too?!"

"I didn't have to, I suppose. I just find the noises turians make when they scream funny."

Clutching his chest, he exaggerated, "That's twice in like ten minutes. Don't know if my heart can take it."

"Pfft, you're not that old, despite all those dumb jokes you make."

Pinching the bridge of her nose Shepard asked, "What is your question? And you better not have screwed around with any of my stuff."

"All I did was steal one sock. And my question is; what is that room for?" Kasumi pointed to the door across the hall.

"One sock," the homeowner muttered under her breath before answering, "My trophy room."

"But there's nothing in there."

Shepard said as she started out of the room, "Maybe, to a materialistic thief."

"I take none of that statement as an insult."

The former-commander shook her head all the way across the hallway and into what resembled an art gallery on the other side. Mirroring the crescent-shaped, white wall from the room they had just left and with hardwood floors underfoot that Garrus's turian sandals were doing a good job of scuffing it looked like a studio one would find in the ritzier parts of every major city. The kind Kasumi would visit afterhours. There weren't any noticeable control panels, the overhead lights automatically turned on when they entered. The two visitors were stumped as to how someone like Shepard could not have a single trophy or commendation and it wasn't humility. One doesn't set a place aside like that if they don't want to crow about something.

After a minute of standing in the emptiness the two longtime comrades turned to their off-again-on-again superior, which was on again since they all worked for the Shadow Broker; Shepard being second only to Liara in rank. The seasoned soldier ran military operations while the talented scientist ran basically everything else. Samara was all but retired from such things, though still served as liaison to the Justicars who had joined the organization. She was still a former-commander, having decided it best to move on from being Commander Shepard. It was time for her to be her true self, thus why she waited until her friends were visibly annoyed by the lack of anything happening to actually cause something to happen. Her true self was quite irritating; a pretty, little maiden unwittingly helped her realize that much to the chagrin of everyone else around her.

On the lip of the doorframe was a practically invisible button that one had to know was there in order to find. When pressed the bulbs in the ceiling dimmed and the crescent wall lit up with the glow of thousands of tiny, projected screens. There were static images and looping videos, some stayed anchored to a single spot while others wandered, and after awhile each would fade out to give another time to shine only to pop up again somewhere else. The collage of pictures was like the night sky, but instead of stars and galaxies the field was filled with faces. After looking for more than a few seconds a commonality became apparent, that every single shot had a new born baby as its focus, though plenty included parents, family and friends. Every known sapient species was well represented including krogans, quarians, batarians and vorcha.

"What is all this?" Garrus asked in awe.

With outstretched arms the great soldier replied, "The Shepards."

"What?"

"Every single one of these kids has the same name, Shepard. Their parents sent many of these to me, but I also had Liara do some poking around."

"Excellent use of the Shadow Broker's resources."

The collection's owner heard her turian friend's sarcasm, but ignored it to sincerely respond, "Yes, it was."

Kasumi scanned the overwhelming adorableness a few moments before commenting, "You're getting soft, Shep."

"Careful, last time someone called me soft an armada of giant, murder bots from space attacked the galaxy. Not saying those two things were connected, though I'm also not, not saying those two things were connected."

"Great Kasumi, you've doomed us all!" Garrus's sarcasm remained strong as he literally threw up his hands. "Now I need to go get another ale, because I'm not facing another armada of giant, murder bots from space sober."

As he started for the door Shepard mentioned, "It isn't a foregone conclusion, though if Kasumi took it back the chances might improve."

"Sorry, I can't risk it. I'm getting another drink."

The former-commander called after her turian friend, "There's some in the fridge. Oh, and if you're heading down to the beach could you bring Aethyta a beer. Green cans, bottom shelf."

From halfway down the hall he hollered back, "Yeah sure."

Shepard then asked the thief beside her, "Just how drunk is he?"

"My guess would be fairly. I mean it isn't like he drinks that often so his tolerance can't be that great."

"Excellent," the former-marine barely resisted the temptation to wring her hands evilly.

"Why is that excellent?"

"It's nothing, never mind. So, want to look at some baby pictures?"

"Ugh."

"What?"

"I mean." Coincidently Kasumi remembered, "Oh! The reason I'm here."

"Besides sock stealing?"

"Actually this came up while I was sock stealing. I was in the hall when Samara suddenly called me in. I was cloaked at the time, so it kind of freaked me out."

"Her awesomeness will do that to people sometimes."

"Yeah, anyway she needs you for something, so you should probably go see what that is."

"Okay." Shepard then pointed a finger directly at Kasumi and stated, "Now no more snooping, go down to the beach and don't be invisible."

"How is that fun?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out. Oh, and wear normal beach going attire."

"But that'll expose me to the sun. I burst into flames in direct sunlight."

"Tough, use sunblock." Shepard started out the door, but realized an ultimatum was probably necessary, so added, "Or I'll stop looking the other way when you steal shit on missions."

"There only knickknacks."

"That salarian vase was worth over a million credits."

"Well that salarian was a pirate."

"Which is why I looked the other way. Don't make me stop doing that."

"You'd really do that over this?"

"You heard my conversation with Jack."

"This has nothing to do with Rila."

"Nana Shepard is all sorts of crazy."

With an eye roll Kasumi conceded, "Fine. I'm keeping your sock though."

It was the former-commander's turn to roll her eyes as she left the thief in her objectively worthless trophy room. Back up through the house she went, passing Garrus in the kitchen grabbing drinks out of the fridge along the way. At the top of the stairs she saw the door at the end of the hall wide-open, flooding the corridor in afternoon sunlight. Inside the room she found her elder love rocking gently in a plush recliner, facing the window while cradling a small mass wrapped in a blanket. Samara didn't say a word as she approached; when she got close enough the matriarch simply held the slightly wriggling bundle up. Shepard immediately stepped forward to take the item then offered an arm to help her wife gingerly get out of the chair. After a bit of a struggle the asari was standing and the human was able to redirect her focus to the little, blue face peeking out from off-white linen. It was difficult to enjoy the moment with her daughter while listening to the pained grunts of the girl's other father, the joining that impregnated Liara involved all three of them so really all three of them were the parents.

Shepard lifted her eyes to watch the once mighty Justicar shamble awkwardly across the floor, then a gurgle from below drew her attention right back and she began bouncing the baby while blabbering, "Oh Benny, Benny, Benny. How's my girl? How's my big girl?"

Though she wasn't expecting one her question was answered from the walk-in closet across the room, "She is ready to go down to the beach. Fed, burped and changed."

The topic needed no follow up so she mentioned, "The girls are here."

"Yes, I know. Falere called from the taxi."

After hearing a few more labored groans Shepard asked, "Do you need any help?"

"No, I will be fine, thank you."

"Kasumi said you wanted me for something."

"I could use help carrying the baby's things to the beach."

After a few minutes too many Samara emerged from the closet in a one-piece purple swimsuit with matching sarong and the woman handed their daughter back while commenting, "You know Rila's going to be annoyed with you?"

"I will be able to play with her in the water just fine." The matriarch then did a little needling, "Besides, Grunt is here and it is tough to pry her away from her giant buddy."

"I'm way cooler than Grunt," Shepard mumbled under her breath before telling her wife, "This could have been avoided."

"I do not see how."

The human's vision narrowed on the cast encasing the matriarch's lower leg as she slung a bag over her shoulder, "You could've not taken the surfing lessons. I told you it was harder than it looks."

After a moment's contemplation Samara stated, "I have many regrets in my life; this is not one of them."

"Could at least use the crutch, like the doctor told you to."

"I have experienced worse pain."

"I'm sure you have, but that doesn't seem to be stopping you from hobbling around. It'll take you an hour to get to the beach at this pace." Shepard then surged forward to snatch away the baby and added, "Here, I'll carry everything. You just worry about yourself."

With a bemused grin Samara surrendered, "If you insist."

"I do, now where is it?"

"It is most likely somewhere on the back porch."

The younger woman stuck out her elbow, offering it to her aggravating love, "Then I'll be your crutch until we get the metal one."

Already linking arms with her wife the matriarch asked, "Are you sure you can manage all this weight?"

"I'm sure I'll be fine." After a few steps Shepard thought out loud, "You're going to be a real pain in the ass to take care of when you're pregnant, aren't you?"

Chuckling, "My previous bondmate had absolutely no desire to ever mother a child. After our first daughter was born she had a change of heart and offered to be the mother of our second. By the third she was practically begging to be the one who got pregnant."

"Why didn't you let her?"

"I had several reasons at the time, but looking back it was most likely just stubbornness on my part."

"But you've grown wiser, right? You're not so stubborn anymore, right?"

"I suppose we will have to wait and see."

Shepard did not like the smile on the matriarch's lips at all but leaned over to give them a peck anyway, then dipped her head down to give little Benezia one as well. They picked the crutch up along the way to the beach, though Samara still didn't use it, choosing to hang on to the strong arm of the former-marine. It wasn't so long ago neither would have thought they'd ever be in such a place with a spouse and a baby in their lives. For the asari it was an impossibility, a dream abandoned centuries ago. For the human it wasn't even a consideration, it was the life others dreamed for. After all, this path began because she was running away after the Alliance brass attempted to doom her to a similar fate of a peaceful life on some beach somewhere. She never would have guessed how nice sand between the toes could feel. Then again, the Alliance probably wouldn't have let her organize and occasionally participate in vigilante-type, covert operations all across the galaxy. Without that life would kind of suck, but as it was nothing about her life sucked. She kind of missed the collar sometimes though.

The End
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The Justicar's Dog of War