Call Me Maybe

Cassiopia Vakarian was late. She had never been particularly punctual to begin with, but after spending countless hours putting together paperwork and data for her superiors, her sense of time had really been lost. As she rushed out the door and onto the presidium, she practically missed her childhood friend.

"Hey, Vakarian!"

Blinking her ice blue eyes, Cass looked up from the data pad clutched in her talons and pulled her mandibles into a broad smile at the young Asari who was approaching her. "Nezzie! What are you doing here? I thought you were on a mission with your squad?"

Young Benezia T'Soni rolled her amber-gold eyes which were in stark contrast to her almost teal skin. "We got back early and I heard you're finally putting your application in so I thought I'd walk you over to the Citadel Tower. Figured you could use the support."

Swiftly pulling Nezzie close in a one-armed hug, Cass was a ball of nervous energy. "I'd love for you to join me. We have so much to catch up on! How's the family?"

"Eh," Nezzie shrugged, dark freckles standing out in the bright light of the presidium, "They're fine. Mom just finished another book with Dad, so that's something. But what about you? I hear you're the terror of the military."

With a heavy sigh, Cass shook her head. "Nezzie, those boys are the worst. They try way too hard to impress me and besides, we have nothing in common!"

Pouting, Nezzie crossed her arms over her chest. "You say that about all of them. Has it ever occurred to you that your standards are just a little high?"

Cassiopia pressed her mandibles tight against her face. "Nez, come on. You know my family. The bar's already high. I mean, it's not like there's nothing wrong with them…"

Together the two stepped into an elevator, which whirred to life and jolted them upwards. As the scenery slid past, Nezzie rolled her eyes. "At least you don't have to worry about your dad telling them stories about 'in my cycle…' or your mother threatening to flay them with her mind. So what, there's not someone out there for you?"

Wrinkling her nose briefly, Cass shook her head. "It's not that there isn't, it's just…I dunno, I guess I'm too busy to worry about it. Besides, it's hard to live up to the standards of your parents."

"Speaking of which," Placing both hands on the young Turian's shoulders, Nezzie arched her thin blue eyebrows, "Cass, you don't have to do this. I know that everybody expects you to, but you don't have to become a Spectre. You could…"

"Could what?" Cass' intense silver eyes didn't waver from Nezzie's gold ones, "I could join C-Sec like Adrian? Look, I love him, but I'm nothing like my brother. I want to do this for me, not because my mom did it or for anyone else."

The elevator doors slid open and Nezzie swept Cass into a tight embrace. "Then go do it. I'm sure you'll be great. Not that I could stop you anyway."

With a distinct gleam in her eyes, Cassia bounded out of the elevator and up the council steps. Halfway up she spotted a human who glanced up as she approached. He smiled, deep indigo eyes crinkled with the expression, his hair darker and more similar to her mother's than her own toffee colored plates.

"Cass. Wasn't sure you'd make it. Cutting it a bit short, aren't you?"

Clicking her teeth together, Cassiopia gave a playful growl. "You know me Adrian, I like to keep things interesting."

Adrian Vakarian smiled at his twin sister, his deep mahogany hair swept back and away from his face. "Well, I won't keep you. I just sent one of the guys from my unit up there, so you might run into him. Oh, and I think mom and dad might be around. Thought I saw them here earlier. Hey! Are we still on for lunch tomorrow?"

Already taking the stairs two at a time, Cass glanced back and waved. "Yeah, yeah, I'll call you tomorrow and we'll confirm a place to meet!"

No sooner had the young Turian ascended the stairs than she crashed headlong into someone going the opposite direction. She stumbled and straightened, ready with a smart retort, but found she was cut off.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

The poor soul unfortunate enough to run into Cass stood before her, brows furrowed in concern. He was human, wearing the blue and black uniform of a C-Sec officer. Pale green eyes blinked at Cass from beneath a slightly unkempt mop of wavy, ashen blonde hair.

At last finding her voice, the dumbstruck Turian nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'm ok."

A smile split the human's features before he blinked and shook his head and extended a hand. "Sorry, I'm James Kendrick."

She considered for only a moment before taking the hand. "Cass Vakarian."

James nodded thoughtfully. "Never met someone with a name like that before…I like it. Oh jeeze, sorry, am I keeping you from something?"

Still a bit stunned, she blinked. "Yeah…just…Spectre registration. Wait, that's it? You've never…" She trailed off, expectantly.

Arching an eyebrow, James shook his head. "Not sure what you're getting at."

"Oh." Cass blinked rapidly, stunned. Usually when she dropped her full name there was some sort of remark about her parents or something along those lines, but…"

It took James a moment before he seemed to realize what the Turian was getting at. "Oh! I mean, yes, I've heard of…but you're not them, right? I mean, we all grew up learning your parents' names in history books, but….yeah."

After a long, awkward moment, James cleared his throat. "Uh, right, I'll uh, let you get to your business. But uh, hey." He glanced at Cass, who was already a step up. "I'll stick around. I know this great place that does dextro and levo food. Can I get you a bite to eat? To make up for running you over?"

She considered it for only a moment, a gleam in her eye that was distinctly her mother's. "Throw in a drink and we have a deal. Wait five minutes."

Farther up the steps, Commander – although officially she was to be referred to as Admiral – Erin Shepard sat hand in hand with Garrus Vakarian, watching as their daughter darted off, handed in her Spectre registration, and then practically skipped back down the stairs to leave with the young human.

Time had passed and neither of the war heroes was as young as they had once been. Shepard's hair was longer, now streaked with silver and signs of weathering wore on Garrus' plates. However, one thing that hadn't changed was that where one went, the other wasn't too far behind.

A wry smile pulled at the corner of Erin Shepard's lips. "Now why does that look familiar?"

"It's only appropriate," Hummed Garrus, pressing his cheek against Shepard's, "A Turian and a human falling in love here?"

Pressing back, Erin chuckled. "Impossible."

Garrus purred softly against his bond mate for a long moment. Inhaling her distinct vanilla scent, he sighed. "Shepard?"

"Yes?" Her ocean blue eyes were closed, content as she leaned into him.

Decades later, Garrus had to smile. No matter how long they were together, he would never be able to forget that first day when he'd seen her and stepped aboard the Normandy. In his eyes, she would always be the bright eyed, ambitious human who'd approached him in this spot almost three decades earlier.

"Thanks. For everything."

Fin

It's done. It's finally done. After four years, I am finally declaring this fic done. This weighs in at 167,000 words and I could not be prouder.

First, let me thank every single person who has been reading this along the way. Without your love and support this story never would have become the epic that it is. And many thanks to those who were with this from the very beginning.

Thank you to Bioware for making Mass Effect and not only giving me a pairing that I adore, but also tearing out my emotions and stomping them into the ground.

This is absolutely not the last you'll see of me writing about these two, but for now, their saga is finished. As for what else is out there, I defer to David Anderson.

"Shepard', I said, 'Let's see what we can find.'"