I wrote this little epilogue mainly because I wanted to leave this story on a slightly more positive note than the end of Chapter 10 does.

Teagan stood in her private quarters beside her rumpled bed, yawning as she slowly pulled on the pieces of her dress uniform.

A full week had passed since she'd returned to the Normandy from the grassy fields of Mindoir and already the whole trip was beginning to seem more like a strange dream than something that had actually happened to her.

She'd hoped, rather naively perhaps, that visiting the colony might end up having had some kind of earth shattering effect on her. That afterwards she would finally be able to think back to her childhood with her family and smile. But of course things were never quite that simple.

She didn't regret the trip, however. Aside from anything else, it had been nice to show Garrus where she'd grown up and tell him more about her family, even if she could never properly introduce them to him.

A lot of shit had happened to her over the last fifteen years, but she knew with absolute certainty that one good thing had come out of it all. She had Garrus now, and she was going to do whatever she could to make their relationship work. Maybe they would even be lucky enough to have future together one day. If not, then at least she would have the privilege of sharing some of her life with him.

The short time they'd already spent together had left Teagan feeling less lost than she had done in years. Her evenings weren't so long and lonely anymore and waking up with Garrus in the morning just felt right. The only real downside to this was that getting out of bed had suddenly become considerably more difficult for her. She always wanted five more minutes lying there with him, even if she knew that she was already running late.

She'd been fairly good today, however, only holding onto Garrus' warm body for a little longer than she strictly should have done before getting up. Now, less than half an hour later, she was almost ready for duty. She'd washed, eaten and would soon be finished dressing. Her undershirt and pants were already on and all she had left to do was fasten her uniform jacket.

Once she had finally closed the last clasp, Teagan brushed herself down, straightening out some of the creases in the material. She stood still for a moment or two and then strolled over to her desk, which now proudly displayed a framed photograph of her smiling with Garrus rather than her battered old N7 helmet.

She hadn't thrown the helmet out like she'd initially planned, however. In the end, she'd simply stashed it at the back of her closet so that it was almost completely buried by clothes. She'd figured that she shouldn't try to forget any part of her past, but that didn't mean she had to be tortured by the sight of the helmet every single day. Besides, the photograph was a far nicer addition to her room.

She leant forward and picked it up with a smile on her face.

"Teagan," Garrus said from behind her, amusement evident in his voice, "Why the hell are you looking at that photo again when the real thing is right in here with you?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I like it."

"Well, I'm glad that you do. Personally, I don't think it captures my best side."

They'd had it taken only a couple of days before, after they'd both stopped by Kasumi's quarters to have a 'few' cocktails. Teagan had got slightly tipsy, or very tipsy, depending on who was telling the story, and asked Kasumi to take a photo of them together in the middle of the evening.

The end result was ridiculous looking. Teagan was clinging to Garrus with a goofy smile plastered across her face and gazing at him with unfocused eyes. Garrus, who had been nowhere near as tipsy, was positioned rather awkwardly and didn't seem to know what to do with his hands. As embarrassed as he might have been though, he did look happy. And it had been a nice evening, bringing the three of them together for the first time since they'd returned from fighting the batarian slavers.

Teagan ran one of her fingers across in the picture. "I think you look good, Garrus."

He chuckled. "You're a truly terrible liar."

She put the frame down and turned round to him. He was still only half-dressed, standing on the other side of the room wearing just his black bodysuit and his boots. Teagan couldn't help admiring the way the skin tight material was clinging to his tall body, showing off every angle and revealing parts of him that were, regrettably, covered by heavy armour during most of the day.

"I really don't think it's that bad," she said, eyes still focused on him, "Though I have to admit, you do look even better in real life."

"Thank you. I try to stay pretty for you."

"Oh I can tell, Garrus. Honestly, it's going to be pretty damn hard for me to tear myself away from you this morning, especially with you still half-dressed like that." She smirked at him for a few seconds, but then her face became more serious. "You'll meet me back in here this evening though, won't you?

"Of course," he said, as if the thought of doing anything else had never once entered his mind.

"Great! I was thinking maybe we could grab some chocolate for me and some of the gloop you eat from the mess hall and then come back up here and watch a vid together."

"Sure, I'll do anything you want, provided it doesn't involve playing chess again. So what vid do you have in mind?"

"I'm not sure." She thought for a moment. "What about Fleet and Flotilla? I've wanted to see it ever since I heard that quarian and turian talking about it when we were in that bar on Illium. Apparently, it got awards for its portrayal of quarian and turian relationships."

"Alright then," he replied lazily. He didn't seem to care much about the choice of movie, but then they usually didn't make it the whole way through a vid before their attention began to wander away from the screen and onto other things.

"You know, I wonder if they're together now," Teagan said after a pause.

"Who?"

"The quarian and the turian from Illium. He was clearly crazy about her."

For some unknown reason, she wanted them to have ended up together, even though she doubted that the oblivious quarian had realised how her turian friend felt about her, much less decided that she shared those feelings.

Garrus smirked. "You could always track them down and eavesdrop on them again."

"I wasn't eavesdropping, I just happened to overhear."

"As I recall, you edged closer and closer to where they were sitting until they caught you listening in on their conversation."

Teagan felt her cheeks redden slightly. "Well…subtlety is not one of my strongest points."

"I know. I've been on the receiving end of your pick up lines."

Rather than trying to think up some clever retort so early in the morning, Teagan simply picked up one of his gloves from where it had been left lying on the floor the night before and threw it at him. She giggled as it bounced lightly off his chest and then went to lift the other one.

In a flash, Garrus was charging across the room towards her. Before she could react properly, he grabbed her with one hand, pulling her body against his. Teagan played as if she was trying to get away from him, though she had no real intention of doing any such thing, so Garrus wrapped his other arm around her, trapping her arms at her sides.

"Careful, Teagan," he growled, "You don't want to pick a fight with me that you can't win. I might have to take you down."

"I'd like to see you try, Garrus…"

He leant forward, placing his face inches from hers. "Oh, really?" He licked down her neck, making her squirm, and then nipped the soft flesh there, making her squirm even more. She hoped he would keep using his rough tongue and sharp teeth on her skin, but instead he abruptly pulled away from her.

He caught her eye. "Maybe we should finish this later, we can't have you being late for duty, Commander."

She held his gaze. "And you need to get your ass down to the main battery, Officer Vakarian, but, God, I wish we could both stay here."

"We'll see each other this evening. I think you can contain yourself for that long."

Well of course she could, but a part of her didn't particularly want to.

"I wish I had calibrations to distract me all day like you do, Garrus," she said, "I can't wait until the repairs are finished and the Normandy can finally get back to business as usual. The last few days have been so repetitive and dull." She let out a sigh. "How about you meet me for lunch later in the mess hall? It would break up my day a bit."

They'd been eating together more and more lately, but he seemed pleased with the suggestion. "If you think you'll be able to tear your attention away from your food long enough to talk to me this time then yeah."

Teagan was still trapped in his strong arms so she couldn't react much to what he'd just said, other than by glaring at him. "Garrus, stop insulting my eating habits all the damn time."

"Sorry, sorry," he murmured, leaning down to nuzzle her, "Lunch with you will be nice."

"It's a date then. Though I guess I should probably head up to the bridge now, I've got a lot of work to get through today." She tried to wriggle out of Garrus' hold, but he seemed to be very reluctant to loosen his grip on her. "Uh…you have to let me go so I can leave, big guy."

"I suppose I do. Shame…"

Letting out a small huff of disappointment, he finally released her. Teagan didn't move away from his warmth immediately, however, knowing it would be hours until she would be in her cabin with him again. Instead, she looped her arms around his neck and took the time to leave a lingering kiss on his mouth before finally starting to head towards the door.

She made it as far as the top of the stairs and then turned back towards him. He was just starting to gather the scattered pieces of his armour together, but he paused in his actions when he saw her looking at him.

"See you later, Garrus," she said.

"I'll be in the main battery if you need me," he drawled, "Counting down the seconds until we're together again."

Teagan laughed. "I should hope so."

Despite his ever-present sarcasm, she could tell by the heated way he was looking at her that he would miss her presence over the next few hours, though probably nowhere near as much as she would miss him.

She waved at him from across the four foot gap which now separated them and started walking again, making it as far as the elevator this time before pausing. She had hours of standing over the bright lights of the galaxy map ahead of her, mining planet after planet so the repair crews would have enough raw materials to finish their work.

The shift was going to be long and boring as hell. Quite frankly, she'd much rather stay in this cabin, lazing about with Garrus all day, but she'd get through the work somehow or other. Her duty as Commander and fighting the good fight was always going to have to come first and her relationship with Garrus second. It was that simple. But at least she had an evening with him to look forward to once her working day was over.

She could probably endure any number of horrors as long as she knew that she had Garrus to come home to at the end of it all.

A small smile forming on her lips, Teagan pressed the call button for the elevator. She'd be back up here with Garrus soon enough.

Update (17/04/11): Sequel, 'Where You Belong', now up!

Final author's note (Updated 27/03/11)

So that's it: The very, very end.

Thanks to anyone who made it all this way with me, favourited the story or put it on alert! Thanks especially to anyone who took the time to review any of the chapters. I wanted this to be a sort of learning experience so your comments were all helpful and very much appreciated.

Personally, there are some parts of Home I'm happy with, others maybe not quite as much, but I'm definitely pleased I got the story finished.

I've now started working on a sequel of sorts to Home which will take Garrus and Teagan to Palaven for a while. This story was pretty much all about Teagan, so I guess I want to right this in the sequel by looking at Garrus' family situation and background in more detail.

I've already got a story plan laid out for it and I think the first chapter will post during mid-April (probably). I'm genuinely looking forward to getting stuck into a new story now.

Anyway, enough babbling from me, I hope you enjoyed reading Home. I definitely enjoyed writing it!

It's really been a blast :)

-WastedHeart

(One last thing: The shift to referring to Teagan by her first name rather than 'Shepard' at the end of Chapter 10 and in the epilogue was deliberate. It's supposed to indicate that she feels more comfortable remembering who she is now. Whether or not this comes across properly is another matter!)