Welcome back! My apologies for the long absence. I'll be posting more again this summer! The prompt for this chapter was requested by the lovely brandon66, but with my own little twist. Please enjoy and review!

Red lights flooded the dark room before Shepard, illuminating the piles of rotting corpses in a bloody haze. The siren call of a reaper charging its laser sounded. Shepard tried to get up, tried to run, but his limbs, leaden, refused to move. In the distance he could hear a scream as the reaper's blast tore through the surface of the Earth, impossibly far from Shepard's place in the rubble on the crumbling Citadel, and yet still he could hear and see all. It was Liara's scream.

Shepard woke with a gasp. It took him a moment to gather himself ad take in his surroundings. He was at home, in his and Liara's condo on the Citadel, lying in bed. The space she usually occupied was empty but for the pile of dresses deemed not good enough for the event that evening. She'd gone off with several former female members of the Normandy's crew for a girl's night. They'd pooled together for a hotel suite, and she wouldn't return home until morning.

Across from the bed, Shepard noticed the thin beam of white-blue light pouring in from the hallway. The door was cracked open, Athena's blue eyes peering into the room.

"C...come in Athena."

Shepard tried to compose himself, reaching for one of Liara's dresses to to mop the sweat from his body, making a note to send it to the dry cleaners in the morning before she returned. He then turned his attention to the rather peculiar sight in front of him.

Athena was dressed in her mother's white bath robe, the majority of it trailing behind her tiny form, the sleeves eclipsing her arms. She also donned a fake doctor's head mirror and a plastic stethoscope. Her trusty sidekick, Grape, donned a makeshift head mirror comprised of what appeared to be toilet paper and a bottle cap. In her other hand, she carried a small flashlight.

"Athena? What are you-"

"Shh!"

Athena scaled the bed, swatting her father's hand away when he reached out to help her. She then crawled into his lap, pressing the wrong end of the plastic stethoscope into Shepard's chest.

"Mmhm... mmhm... Grape! Mark down heightened heart rate!"

She leaned forward, forcibly lifting Shepard's eyelids, painfully shining the flash light into his eyes. She gasped.

"Grape, his eyes are big too! And ugh!" Athena wiped the sweat from Shepard's brow onto another one of Liara's dresses (she's gonna kill me, Shepard thought) "He's all sweaty, too!"

Athena climbed out of Shepard's lap, whispering nonsense words into Grape's 'ear', and in turn pressing Grape into her own ear, listening to his imagined response.

"Well that settles it! Grape and I both agree! You're suffering from a nightmare!"

Shepard worked hard to hide his amused face.

"Oh? Is it serious doc? Am I gonna be okay?"

Athena smiled her sweetest smile.

"We'll think you'll be just fine! I'll go get you some medicine!"

"Medicine? Well okay..." Shepard muttered. But Athena and Grape had already disappeared down the hall.

When she returned, she had a large glass of warm milk in hand. She sloshed it everywhere as she walked, trying not to trip on the too-large robe. A wave of it went over the rim of the glass, slopping onto yet another of Liara's dresses (This is it. This is how I die.) Athena passed him what was left of the warm beverage, and he sipped at it with genuine appreciation.

"Do you wanna talk about it? Talking helps," Athena cooed, sitting cross-legged in front of Shepard. Shepard shook his head, heart tightening at the idea of his little angel ever having to know of the horrors of war.

Athena reached out and patted his knee, smiling at him.

"It's ok," she said, mimicking her mother's actions when she'd had nightmares, "I'll be here if you want to talk about it."

Shepard hummed his answer, staring into the bottom of the now empty milk glass.

"Hey doc, whaddaya say you sleep in here tonight?"

"Really? Can Grape sleep here too?"

Shepard laughed, pulling the tiny asari girl out of the over-large robes and into his arms.

"Of course he can. Come here."

The three of them snuggled up together, breath slowing until they were all fast asleep. It was the best sleep Shepard had gotten since the end of the war.

[\]

In the morning, Shepard awoke to a scrap of paper resting on top of his face. Upon closer inspection, he found it to be a rather hefty dry cleaning bill. He groaned as he looked up, eyes locking with a stern looking Liara T'Soni. At her feet, Athena played with a toy Alliance fighter jet.

"You're lucky I love you," Liara grumbled, kissing him good morning. "And that your 'doctor' was kind enough to leave a diagnosis to explain my ruined clothes and keep you out of the dog house."

Athena looked up and grinned at Shepard. He made a mental note to let her have an extra cookie the next time she asked.