Re: Fill for Autonomous Natal Care Unit #429 2/?
anonymous
June 8 2014, 18:38:15 UTC
Despite everything that he had been told, the lies, the geth had survived the blast that had utterly annihilated the Reapers. So had EDI. The only things that had failed to survive were the Reapers and anything that had been based off of the old, unadaptable Reaper code, and creatures like EDI and the geth had had more than enough time to move beyond that point. It was almost too much for him to bear, too much joy, at the fact that these important pieces in his life had shaped themselves, had rewritten based off of his own moral directions, and had created an entirely different operating schema to process off on. A back up, they had called it. If anything, the blast had only purified them, wiping out any chance that the dormant Reaper code within them would corrupt them and turn them into monsters once again. Shepard had been more than satisfied.
“Not here yet?” Kaidan called to him from behind. Shepard’s attention pulled away from the window, unable to fight the magnetizing effect of Kaidan’s voice.
His husband, for they had completed their union as soon as Shepard had been able to walk and talk under his own power, stood resplendent in his dress blues, formal and yet relaxed. Shepard felt his eyes trace through the lines in the fabric, following muscle that he knew by heart. The man was older, more mature, but weren’t they all?
“No,” Shepard groused. Okay, so maybe he was being just a little stubborn. After all Kaidan had been the one who had wanted someone a little more… mundane.
“What are we going to do John?” Kaidan asked with a slight cock of his head. “The SPECTRE assembly is just a few hours away. We’d already be late just as it is. Maybe we should… umm, call…”
For emphasis, Kaidan held up the precocious, energetic bundle in his arms out, bringing Shepard’s attention to their child. The word, merely tripping along his brain, sent a wave of warmth through him at the mere thought. Their child. The family that he couldn’t even dream about, growing up as an orphan on the streets of Earth.
Little Ashley Alenko Shepard, named after a dear friend, struggled in her father’s grip. She had been found, wandering the streets, an orphan after the war. Her story was not unique, even before the arrival of the Reapers and Shepard had been almost beside himself, recognizing in the child a part of himself and he became even more desperate to save this young avatar from a life that he himself had been almost unable to escape. It had been almost a year of fruitlessly trying to search for the girl’s parents, relatives, anyone with even a tentative link to the girl, but they had found nothing. In the end, with Kaidan’s understanding and adamant acceptance, they had adopted a future, christening her with the name of a woman that they both remembered fondly, a sacrifice given so that they could live on.
Unfortunately, it also seemed that that name had bestowed their child with some of Ash’s sass and stubbornness.
“I wanna go too, papa!” Ash yelled out with all the certainty of a nine-year-old. “I’mma going to the Citadel! I’mma gonna be a big SPECTRE! Just like papa!”
“’I’m going to’, sweetheart,” Kaidan corrected almost by rote. “It’s ‘I’m going’ not ‘I’mma’.”
Ash squirmed in Kaidan’s grip, no child able to keep still for such a length of time.
“Who are we going to call Kaidan?” Shepard asked sensibly. “Everyone we know will be attending as well, and the ones that aren’t going are currently not in the Sol system, let alone Earth. Maybe we should just let her tag along and…”
“Out of the question, John,” Kaidan huffed. “For god’s sake, John. She’s nine!”
“Not here yet?” Kaidan called to him from behind. Shepard’s attention pulled away from the window, unable to fight the magnetizing effect of Kaidan’s voice.
His husband, for they had completed their union as soon as Shepard had been able to walk and talk under his own power, stood resplendent in his dress blues, formal and yet relaxed. Shepard felt his eyes trace through the lines in the fabric, following muscle that he knew by heart. The man was older, more mature, but weren’t they all?
“No,” Shepard groused. Okay, so maybe he was being just a little stubborn. After all Kaidan had been the one who had wanted someone a little more… mundane.
“What are we going to do John?” Kaidan asked with a slight cock of his head. “The SPECTRE assembly is just a few hours away. We’d already be late just as it is. Maybe we should… umm, call…”
For emphasis, Kaidan held up the precocious, energetic bundle in his arms out, bringing Shepard’s attention to their child. The word, merely tripping along his brain, sent a wave of warmth through him at the mere thought. Their child. The family that he couldn’t even dream about, growing up as an orphan on the streets of Earth.
Little Ashley Alenko Shepard, named after a dear friend, struggled in her father’s grip. She had been found, wandering the streets, an orphan after the war. Her story was not unique, even before the arrival of the Reapers and Shepard had been almost beside himself, recognizing in the child a part of himself and he became even more desperate to save this young avatar from a life that he himself had been almost unable to escape. It had been almost a year of fruitlessly trying to search for the girl’s parents, relatives, anyone with even a tentative link to the girl, but they had found nothing. In the end, with Kaidan’s understanding and adamant acceptance, they had adopted a future, christening her with the name of a woman that they both remembered fondly, a sacrifice given so that they could live on.
Unfortunately, it also seemed that that name had bestowed their child with some of Ash’s sass and stubbornness.
“I wanna go too, papa!” Ash yelled out with all the certainty of a nine-year-old. “I’mma going to the Citadel! I’mma gonna be a big SPECTRE! Just like papa!”
“’I’m going to’, sweetheart,” Kaidan corrected almost by rote. “It’s ‘I’m going’ not ‘I’mma’.”
Ash squirmed in Kaidan’s grip, no child able to keep still for such a length of time.
“Who are we going to call Kaidan?” Shepard asked sensibly. “Everyone we know will be attending as well, and the ones that aren’t going are currently not in the Sol system, let alone Earth. Maybe we should just let her tag along and…”
“Out of the question, John,” Kaidan huffed. “For god’s sake, John. She’s nine!”
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