Shepard let out a huge yawn and stretched luxuriously as she made her way along a narrow path winding through some sparse vegetation and palm trees. She grunted as she hitched the overnight bag higher on her shoulder, cursing to herself as she rubbed her left eye.

She hadn't felt so tired in a long while, a very long while. It was not a tiredness she was used to, that came from hours of tracking in the wilderness or hunting down rogues or gunning down mercs. But she supposed it was a tiredness she had to get used to whether she liked it or not. Hiking boots crunched the coarse sand under her feet, leaving their imprints upon the ground where she had walked. Her mind flashed back to a time years ago when she would have made sure to cover up her tracks to avoid detection. But those days were long past and there was no need for such precautions here.

The evening air was fresh with the sharp scent of brine and the breeze was cool against her face. The soothing rhythm of waves washing ashore flowed through her ears, growing louder as she drew nearer to the shoreline. She pushed aside her weariness and quickened her pace with renewed vigour. Years ago, she would have stayed silent and continue on her way slowly and stealthily so as not to alert nearby hostiles - but that age had passed and no longer mattered.

Not long after, she broke through a thin line of coconut trees and was greeted with the sight of an immaculate beach stretching for miles and miles on either side of her. Fine, white sand padded the ground, little dunes all over the place and getting flattened out the closer they were to the shoreline. The tide was in, the salt-water of the sea crashing into the sandy shore with a muted roar before retreating back into the ocean. It brought all kinds of trinkets from the sea to offer to the earth; seashells of all kinds of shapes and colours imaginable, clumps of green seaweed and even the odd jellyfish or two.

In the distance, she could just make out a group of pod crabs scuttling around in the shallows. Above her was the deep blue of a twilight sky, alight with twinkling stars she knew she had probably passed before within the hull of a spaceship. A half-moon was out, throwing its alluring light across the beach. Upon the distant horizon, where the sea met the sky, was the tell-tale sign of the sun's recent departure left in a line of dusky orange.

Shepard heaved a sigh of utter contentment as she let the sea wind ruffle her hair and the sand to get stuck in the soles of her boots. She closed her eyes for a brief moment as she took a breath through her nose and allowed herself to finally relax and relish in the scent and sight and feel of it all. Of home.

She was back early – an unexpected development. The Council had assigned her on a mostly desolate planet to help oversee the founding of a new multi-racial colony. The galaxy was still recovering from war against the Reapers, but it was recovering swiftly. New colonies were being founded in uncharted worlds while homeworlds were being rebuilt. The Council were admittedly managing well amidst the chaos. Shepard let a sigh escape her lips. Until now, she wasn't sure how they managed to dig her out alive those three years ago, but alive she was.

The colony had kept her busy for a week, but operations were proceeding smoother than expected and the colonists were adapting to their new environment – and new neighbours – admirably well. She was seen fit to return home ahead of schedule and dismissed – which she promptly obeyed with a bit too much enthusiasm. Now here she was on Christmas Eve, finally back on this tropical haven of a planet and on her way back to her family. This planet she called home.

This was the first Christmas they had spent away from the Citadel, her assignment having put off their traditional, annual visit to the grand city – usually sparkling and gleaming with light and decorations in celebration of the human holiday. So Shepard planned to make up for it and make the most of Christmas by showing up early and surprising them – she actually wasn't due back home until the morning after next. So according to her plans, she had not sent them a message warning them of her imminent arrival.

Hoisting her bag more securely over her shoulder again, she began walking closer to the water and alongside it with plenty more energy in her step than her feet-dragging earlier, feeling impatient and rejuvenated from the idea of being inside her house again. Soon enough, walking felt too slow and she began taking bigger steps. Strides turned into a light sprint and before she knew it, Commander Shepard was running full tilt along the beach, her legs almost flying under her. Her hair whipped about in the speed of her dash. Sand flew everywhere and got into her shoes and on her clothes; bits of seawater sprayed and splashed over her calves whenever a wave rolled in and under her pounding feet but it only made her feel more free and improved her spirits. She grinned as the scenery rushed past her, taking her closer to her journey's end.

And at last, there she was; standing with her hands on her knees and her breath coming in heavy pants. Sweat coated her face in a light sheen, her hair plastered to her forehead. Heated skin was flushed red, cooled with the blowing sea wind. But her grin remained on her face as she looked up at a simple but roomy single-storey house facing the water.

It stood on reinforced pillars that elevated it a few feet off the sandy ground, a fair distance from the waterline. A set of steps led up to the porch and the front door. Large windows were to the left of the door and the house. All the shutters were open, allowing light to stream out to form bright rectangles on the sand. Thin, gauzy curtains prevented anyone outside from seeing what was inside, allowing some privacy. Without waiting to fully regain her breath, Shepard picked up her bag from where she had dropped it on the sand and skipped eagerly up the steps.

She unhesitantly marched up to the door which automatically glided open with a smooth swoosh and let herself into her brightly lit home - here, there was no need for locks or bolts. She hurriedly kicked off her boots in the general direction of the shoe rack and dumped the sandy bag unceremoniously on the floor as she proceeded barefoot down a narrow corridor.

Various framed pictures littered the walls. There was one of the Presidium on the Citadel, with its eternally blue sky and lush trees and beings of all races of the galaxy moving about freely. There was another of a spectacular warship at a docking bay in Illium, with sleek outer armour and immaculate paint job – the Normandy SR2 in all her glory. On another spot on the wall, two framed Spectre certificates hung proudly side by side, each bearing a different name. Open archways on the walls led to other rooms on either side – with the right doorway leading to the kitchen and dining and the left to living room. The corridor continued further through the house before veering to the right, where she knew led to the bathroom and bedrooms.

Shepard's movements quickened. She leapt towards the living room, mouth open to deliver a dynamic greeting when something barrelled into her legs. With a startled "Oof!" and stumble, barely managing to keep herself from falling, Shepard began to laugh as she spun around once to catch hold of a little girl with startling green eyes and short auburn hair clinging to Shepard's sandy, wet pant leg. "Why hello, Adelheid," cooed Shepard. "What have you – "

"SHHH!" the three-year old shushed rather loudly, which was ironic considering she was trying to tell Shepard to be quiet. "Quiet Mommy! Quiet! Papa's sleeping!"

Shepard glanced up from her daughter's face, a chuckle dying on her lips and eyes widening in awe as she took in the room. Not much had changed about the room (an extranet terminal in the far corner, thick rugs thrown haphazardly on the floor and sofas, armchairs arranged around an oblong coffee table, three display shelves running along one wall, another wall buried under framed photos of a more personal kind - of the Normandy crew, of the family, of Joker and EDI's wedding and even one of a particularly interesting St. Patrick's Day celebrated on the Normandy) except for a single addition that seemed to fill up the entire room with its presence instead of just that square metre of space it sat on. It was a Christmas tree.

Or at least, what Shepard assumed was a Christmas tree. It was not an actual pine tree, but seemed to have been assembled from not-as-wintry bits and pieces. The thing was primarily made of whole coconut tree branches bundled together – starting with the largest ones at the bottom and getting smaller as they neared the top to form a vaguely conical shape. The delicate tip seemed to be topped with a bundle of braided coconut tree leaves.

Then came the makeshift decorations; on the very top of the braided leaves sat a tiny star crudely carved from what appeared to be driftwood. Seashells of varying shapes and small, smooth, coloured pebbles collected from the beach were tied to the branches as baubles and chains upon chains of island flowers wound around the makeshift tree, serving as a fragrant kind of tinsel. There were, Shepard noticed, several actual Christmas baubles hung sparingly around the tree – as if there had been too few of them to be complete.

Several boxes of many different sizes badly wrapped with coloured glossy wrapping littered the floor around the tree. There was even a rather suspicious looking package wrapped with white paper and red ribbon and was rather lumpy but Shepard was not thinking about that right now.

A Christmas tree. A very special Christmas tree. Made special because there was none other like it in the whole galaxy - and it was made by her family.

As Shepard took this all in, she found her heart full of a sudden bewildered warmth and wetness in her eyes. She blinked away her tears as she looked down in stunned silence at the grinning child at her feet.

"Heidi…"

"Merry Christmas, Mommy!" squealed the girl, jumping up into her mother's arms as Shepard knelt down to hug her. Shepard finally let out that chuckle as she held her daughter close, burying her nose into the little girl's hair; just savouring the moment. It was times like these that reminded her that everything she had done, all that she had sacrificed to get here, had been worth it after all.

Shepard did not know how long had passed before she could pull herself away from her daughter to ask, "Adelheid, what – "

"Shhh!" Adelheid hissed loudly again, making that 'police-like' expression and scowling up at her in a way only children were capable of. "You're gonna wake Papa and big brother!"

Then Shepard's eyes fell on the three-seater sofa by the coffee table and felt what remained of her heart melt away.

Draped across the sofa, with one spur-adorned leg hanging in the air and an arm thrown across the backrest with his fringed head hanging off the armrest, snored one Garrus Vakarian. On his stomach, under his other arm, was a much smaller turian of much darker colouring and shorter fringe – also asleep. Shepard noted, with a barely contained bark of laughter that escaped as a snort, that one glittering silver Christmas bauble was hanging precariously on the tip of Garrus' fringe.

Seeing them like this made Shepard all warm inside but also awakened something predatory within her. Letting loose a much more malicious grin now, she crept up to the sofa, careful not to make a sound.

"Mommy?" came the uncertain call.

"Quiet now, honey," whispered Shepard as she slinked further forward and closer to the two sleeping turians. She stopped when she was within range, then bent her legs in preparation to pounce and took a deep breath to ready herself for a great shout.

Before she could even move, Garrus Vakarian's eyes abruptly snapped open and he rolled off the sofa in a flash, taking his yelping son with him to the floor. Leaving him squawking there, Garrus whipped around and Shepard suddenly found that she was the one being pounced on. With an embarrassing squeak and indignant yelp, they both tumbled to the ground in a frenzy of flailing limbs. The silver bauble tried to cling onto the turian's fringe but was sent flying across the room seconds later. When they finally stopped, she found somehow managed to land on top of him instead of the other way around. That still didn't stop that mischievous boy-scout smirk from making its way to his face.

"Thought you'd know better than to think you could sneak up on me. Coming back early just to catch me unawares? Not that I'm complaining about that, but you need to do better if you want to even have a chance at mildly startling me."

She returned his smirk with a knowing one. "Look who's talking. It looks like I'm not the only one who's been doing some sneaking." She nodded at the tree.

Garrus' mandibles flexed sheepishly as he reach up to scratch at his good one with a talon and shifted his eyes toward the tree as well. "Ah, er, it was… supposed to be a surprise for when you got back. I thought you'd appreciate us celebrating such a popular human holiday."

Shepard gave him a smile – real smile this time, one that spoke of tenderness and love. "And it is, trust me – it is. I wasn't expecting anything like – I mean, it didn't even cross my mind – "

She was interrupted when Garrus raised his head off the floor to touch his forehead to hers. "Welcome back. I missed you." then seemed to hesitate before adding, "and Merry Christmas."

Sheaprd leant into the touch, pressing her own forehead against his. "I missed you too." she looked him in the eye. "And Merry Christmas. Hey, at this rate I'll make a human out of you yet."

His mandible flared. "Heh. I always have been a bad turian anyway."

Their brief reunion was interrupted by a loud complaint in a whining flange, "Dad, did you have to do that?" grumbled the young, dark turian as he got to his feet and shook his head groggily. Garrus growled a chuckle. As Shepard, somewhat reluctantly, eased off and allowed him to sit up. "Sorry about that, son. Got caught in the moment. Your mother is back home."

At these words, the little turian seemed to fully awake, all sleepiness left his amber eyes and all complaints at his father flew from his brain, forgotten. "Mom!" he yelled joyously as he launched himself over the coffee table and into Shepard's waiting arms. "Merry Christmas, Mom!" Shepard grunted at the impact but felt her mouth stretching into a grin as she kissed her son's forehead and hugged him tight. "Merry Christmas to you too, buddy. Hey, watch yourself there big guy. No jumping over furniture, remember?"

"Yes, mom." came the bored, dutiful reply. For some reason, Shepard just found that so endearing. She smiled down at him.

"Good boy. Now, what have you three been up to?"

He froze as he slowly looked up at her then slowly at the tree. "Aw man! Mom, you ruined your own surprise!"

"Yes Mommy, you ru- ru- ruee- " Adelheid scrunched up her face as she tried to imitate what her brother had said. "Ruueie- "

She couldn't help it – Shepard burst out into gales of laughter as she knelt on the ground and hugged her two children close to her. Garrus then wrapped his arms protectively around the three of them, bringing them closer as he nuzzled her hair. Shepard smiled.

Here in this tropical garden, there may not be snow or pine Christmas trees, but the clock was sounding the new hour of the new day, bringing with it Christmas and the holiday spirit.

And with her family beside her, Shepard was of the opinion that it was as good a Christmas as any.

A/N: It's 3:30am on Boxing Day (day after Christmas) right now, it's a miracle I managed to finish this on time (it is still Christmas in GMT right?) and I am damned sure there are some mistakes up there. There have to be. But I wanted to finish this as a Christmas gift to any who may appreciate it. Hope you like it! The ending was rather rushed, unfortunately. But I hope it's still okay. As always, constructive criticism is welcome.

Thanks guys, and have a Merry Christmas!

- Kasumi

P.S.: I don't celebrate Christmas, so if anything about the fic feels off to you please forgive me for it and point it out! Thanks! :]

5/1/2013: Some formatting changes and error-correction. Thanks to Revolving Dragunov for pointing so many of them out! And in case wasn't really clear - yes, Garrus and Shepard adopted. :3