Captain Hannah Shepard walked slowly along the pathways and bridges of the Citadel Presidium. She paid only enough attention to her surroundings to avoid coliding with other pedestrians, and had no set destination in mind. That was not the purpose of this walk. Though she now spent most of her time on the bridge of a dreadnaught, Hannah had started as a marine doing ground missions, and as a result had learned to do her best thinking on her feet. And she had a lot to think about.

Her only son, John, had died nearly two and a half years ago, and yet was alive. At first she had dismissed the increasingly frequent reports of his reapearance as nothing but rumors. After all, it would hardly be the first time the public refused to let go of a celebrity. Then Councelor Anderson personaly informed her he had spoken to John, providing video evidece of their conversation. Even now, her son's face was on the public news terminals, his voice in store advertisements.

Why, then, had he waited this long to contact her? Five months of silence since his apparent resurrection, untill this morning. Even now, all she got was an irritatingly brief invitation: "Finally free to talk. Meet me on the Citadel in two days. Docking bay D-24. I have a lot to explain"

Couldn't he have bothered to put some of that explaination in the message itself? Why all the secrecy? Does it have anything to do with these Cerberus rumors? So deep was her contemplation that she did not notice a verry public spectacle until she was standing in the middle of it.

A young krogan was attempting to climb the Krogan Monument statue, while a wizened salarian with only one horn appeared to be scolding him. As the rest of the crowd watched from a disance, Hannah decided to investigate, approaching the salarian cautiously but without fear.

"Why Climb statue anyway? No possible gain!" the older alien yelled.

"No one else has done it! It will make a good story," the krogan explained excitedly. He had now reached the statue's knee.

"Still good story when someone finaly calls C-Sec?" the Salarian retorted.

"Let them try to stop me. I am pure krogan!" The reptile continued to climb.

"Will kill authorities or wind up in cell. Either way, Shepard displeased." The salarian did not appear to have started with much patience, and what little was left would not last long.

"Who are you to interpret my Battlemaster's will, old man?" the krogan bellowed.

"Shepard?" Hannah Inquired, now close enough to address the salarian without shouting.

"Yes, that Shepard, part of his crew," he said dismisively. "No, cannot introduce you, buisy dealing with..." the salarian trailed off, turning to face her. He put a hand to his chin as his eyes rapidly scanned her features. "Human female, atire marks as off-duty Alliance officer, same eyes, similar bone structure, age appears to be in correct range." he paused briefly, inhaling sharply through his nostrils. "Could be coincidance? No, must ask. Captain Hannah Shepard?" he asked, extending a hand in tennative greeting.

The human took a half step back in suprise but shook the hand. "Yes, how did you know?"

"Proffessor Mordin Solus, former STG, selected for quick analytical mind. Was informed you would be visiting Normandy while docked. Not expected til repairs complete, however."

"I was already here on shore leave," the Captain stated, "I wouldn't know John was here if you two hadn't drawn so much attention to yourselves."

"Suppose not," Mordin replied "Team quite effective under Shepard's command, but some individual members-" he paused and sniffed again "-unpredictable without direct guidance. Grunt prime example."

Grunt simply chuckled and continued his ascent. He was now well above the wasteline of the stone titan.

Mordin raised his arm threateningly toward the krogan as his omni-tool's holographic interface bloomed into existance. "Cease immediately. Will be forced to administer neural shock."

"No you won't! I'm out of range! And too tough," Grunt gloated.

"Unfortunately correct," the proffessor sighed. He opened a significantly less lethal application and began scrolling through a list of icons. "Perhaps other crew in area could... Ah, Perfect!" He jabbed one of the icons with his index finger, and the holographic form of a female quarian appeared. "Tali'Zorah? Buisy?"

The envirosuit was different than the one Hannah had seen at John's funeral, newer and a much better fit, but the voice was the same. "No, just finishing some shopping for..." the younger woman's eyes went wide as her body took on a nervous stance. "Mrs. -Captain- Shepard? Er, Hannah, um, what are you doing..."

"Time for that later, need help with Grunt," Mordin interjected. "Have my coordinates?"

"Um, yes I'll, uh, be right over. I just..."

"Excellent!" Mordin cut in, hanging up. He began to hum something that sounded suspiciusly like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" as they waited for the quarian's arrival.

The store must have been verry close by, as Tali came sprinting towards them less than two minutes later. "Hannah," she began."I didn't know you knew Mordin. How are you doing?" She was talking too fast and wringing her hands at her waste.

What has gotten into her? the human thought. Tali had been a wreck at the funeral, they all had, but the few times they'd spoken since then she had always seemed much more self confident.

Hannah spoke slowly and with a hint of her confusion. "I didn't, til just now. And I'm fine. Tali, is there something wrong?"

Before the quarian could reply, Mordin coughed and pointed at Grunt, now beginning to pull himself onto the statue's shoulder.

Uppon seeing the krogan, Tali's hands seperated, briefly clenched into fists, and were finaly thrown into the air in exasperation. "Bosh'tet! I swear, every time we let him out," she muttered. "What exactly are you doing this time, Grunt!?"

"I will reclaim this monument for the krogan!" he proclaimed with glee.

"No. You will come down this instant," Tali commanded, simultaniusly activating her omni-tool and drawing her shotgun, "or I will shoot you down and Chatika will be waiting at the bottom." It was hard to believe this was the same girl who was stammering over introductions mere seconds ago. Grunt looked dissapointed but complied, sliding down the statue to the ground. "Good. Now, go back to the Normandy and don't leave your room until Shepard talks to you."

The krogan slowly shuffled away grumbling to himself. "Fine," he spat. "But I will finish this one day."

"Should somone follow him?" Hannah asked.

Mordin shook his head. "Will follow instructions," he said with confidence. Tali put away her weapons.

"If all it took was pointing a gun, why didn't you do it?" the Captain questioned, pointing to the Carnifex on the salarian's hip.

"Misunderstand," he explained. "Not about threat. About authority. Grunt sees me as fellow subordinate, likely lower standing than himself. Sees Shepard as Battlemaster and, if not misreading cues, something of a father figure. Tali roughly equal."

"Why?" Hannah asked, as Tali attempted to make herself as small as possible.

"No krogan would dare disobey Battlemaster's mate," he finished simply.

Hannah and Tali were both completely mute for several seconds.

Finally, Tali called out a feeble "Suprise?" coupled with a weak shrug.

Suddenly, Hannah understood John's message. Her son was undead, had effectively adopted a krogan, Tali was the mother, and that was only what she'd learned so far. "A lot to explain" didn't even begin to cover it.

Author's note: Feels good to have finals wrapping up and be able to write again. This idea came to me while thinking of how I want to characterize Hannah Shepard when she shows up in Soul of the Machine (under what curcumstances I shall not say). One of the questions I asked myself is how she reacted to the events of ME2, which lead to asking how she met the new Normandy Crew. This way was deemed too silly to be what happened, but too amusing not to try and write down. Hopefully it wasn't one of those times when something's only funny in my head. I may at some point write a more serious Shepard reunion/squad introduction that's actualy in the same "canon" as my other stories, but this one was mostly just for fun, which is why this Shepard uses the default "John".

Thanks for reading!

-Swordshade.

P.S.: For those of you wondering, SotM 4 is coming along nicely and should be up this weekend. But when has anything ever gone according to plan?