Fire on the Horizon

Chapter 31: Beachfront Property

"Upload the code to th Geth. Tali, call off the fleet if you can." Jane's heartbeat was about to break through her chest. She had Tali standing next to her trying to call off the fleet. Legion in front of her uploading the code at 40%. So, she did what she always did. She rallied.

"If you believe in them for just one minute this war will be over. You have a choice. Please. Keelah'se'lai." She stood holding her breath. If Garrel didn't listen. If he kept firing...

"All units. Hold fire."

She let the breath out she was holding. Blinking once, she looked at Legion who had just said there was an error in uploading.

"Shepard Commander, I must go to them. It's the only way."

WIthin a few moments Raan, a geth representative, Tali, and Shepard stood to witness peace in action.

Shepard walked over to Tali as Raan and the geth discussed locations for settlement.

They sat down looking at her waterfront property. Tali announced she would be coming with Shepard. They talked it over and Jane ended up agreeing. She honestly couldn't imagine facing the rest of the war without her. They stood and made their way back to the Normandy. As the shuttle moved into the shuttle bay, Jane had to smile a bit. Waiting in the window of the Engineering deck was Kaidan. He did a small finger wave at Tali as she disembarked the shuttle.

There was a small part of Jane that was reminded that Kaidan rarely was waiting on her when she got back from a mission. She always had to search him out. The thought evaporated quickly. She had her back turned picking up some of her gear off the floor of the shuttle when she caught the smell of sandalwood and heard a deep voice behind her.

"Excuse me? Do you by chance see a human spectre and disgraced Commander Shepard on the planet surface? She said she was going out real estate hunting and I haven't heard from her."

She loved that side of him. He could sound totally serious and yet, if you knew him well enough, you caught only the humor.

Jane picked up her helmet and turned around. "You know I think I saw that woman down there. She seemed like a real bitch. You sure you're missing her? I mean I could take her place big guy."

Garrus crossed his arms and jutted out that hip in the way he did that drove her crazy. He shook his head and stepped towards her.

"Oh, I don't know. She brings a lot to the table. Commander, Spectre..."

She moved into his space and smiled with one hand holding her uniform jacket and her other hand holding her helmet. "Disgraced. She's a disgraced Commander. Just ask the news caster on the Citadel announcements."

Garrus leaned in and kissed her cheek, leaned up and brushed his forehead to hers, then grabbed her helmet. Switching it to his left hand he put his right arm around her shoulders as they walked out of the shuttle and into the bay.

"So, geth and quarian peace huh? When you set out to do something you really nail it." They stepped into the lift. As the doors closed Shepard smiled to herself.

"Well, I set out to do you and I'd say I nailed...."

Garrus chuckled and nudged her arm. "Stop it. You have three vidcom's pending along with about 400 messages to clear. You also have range time and a few other things to handle."

She stepped out of the lift at the Captain's Cabin and turned to him. "Coming?"

He handed her the helmet and pushed the buttons. As the door closed he winked. "I thought we just discussed that."