Chapter Text
David Anderson never had children, but he had Shepard.
He was sitting with her after all this time, just staring at the stars.
Ships were falling but it all seemed far away.
“Not long now,” she said, flexing her limbs a little— trying to get the feeling of burnt armour to go away. She looked rough as hell, but she’d survived all this time. Why not a little longer?
“Don’t tell me I have to stand up again after all this,” he teased. His own voice sounded hoarse— maybe a little less than hers, but more gutted. His stomach hurt, and guilt settled in his chest. All this time and all this loss and he was gunna die on her in the last minute.
“I’ll carry you,” she said, her voice kind of faint. He couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.
“Bet your crew would just love to see that. All this work and I’m still making you haul me around.” His lungs hurt and it hurt to talk but he was going to go out as quiet as possible. Let her pretend it was something like a peaceful death. He hated to die on her, but it hadn’t exactly been in the plan. “You ever think about how... things might have been different? If this never happened?”
“Sure,” she returned. “Hard not to.”
He wanted to say something. To tell her how he wasn’t a father, but he’d had her and that’d been enough. He might’ve moved forward, might’ve adopted, but she’d always be his oldest. “Never had children—” he started.
“Time enough for that now,” she interrupted smoothly. He laughed a little because she wasn’t going to let him go anywhere with that thought. Maybe it’d be too obvious a note to end on.
“What about you?”
“I don’t have kids either, sir.”
“Would you want any?” he tried to think of Faust Shepard’s kids. Apparently so did she, because she made a face that made him laugh.
“Jesus, could you imagine? I don’t think the galaxy is ready for the biological nightmare of a human-turian baby,” she said.
“Is that you finally admitting he’s your boyfriend?” he asked, and she scowled out at the stars.
“Fine, you caught me. Shepard and Vakarian. You never met Grunt.”
“Who’s Grunt?” He felt like he might’ve known at some point, but it was hard to think when he could feel himself bleeding out around his own hand.
“Closest I’ll ever come to having a baby,” she informed him.
“Sounds krogan.”
“Is krogan.” What a shock. He’d have to put Faust having a krogan kid right up next to Faust hooking up with a renegade vigilante cop on his list of shit that still somehow managed to surprise him. He laughed, one last little wheezing noise. God his kid. What a kid.
“You did good child,” he breathed. “You did so good. I’m proud of you.”
“Shit don’t say it like that.” She was crying, and he figured she knew. By now she had to know because he sounded like shit and probably looked worse. He’d give himself a rest, after all this time. Earth had been a lot to deal with, especially not knowing where the hell in the galaxy Shepard was or if she was okay. He’d lost her once before and it just got more and more likely every day that he’d lose her again. “Anderson?” she asked, and his head sagged. His neck was too tired to hold it up.
Anderson? she asked, and god he hoped she made it out of this.