Survivor

Chapter 50

Shepard
  I gathered a purse, which was something I rarely carried, donned my Omni-Tool, and turned to Garrus, who was leaning up against the couch with a smile on his face.
  "What are you smiling about?" I asked.
  "Nothing. Just, you're finally going to have a day to go out yourself and spend time with friends."
  "And shopping for a dress. I told you that you're more than welcome to come along, you know."
  Garrus shook his head immediately. "Nope. Human tradition says it's bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding."
  I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Come on Garrus, you should know we make our own luck by now."
  "But we chose to go with a human tradition wedding."
  "Mixed with Turian, may I remind you."
  "Publicly human, privately Turian. I highly doubt many of our guests would be thrilled to see the bond mate bite..."
  I shrugged. "Have you called your family to invite them yet?"
  He grimaced. "Not yet, I'll take care of it while you're out."
  I opened my mouth to reply, but was cut off by the sound of the apartment door opening.
  I walked toward the door to see Kasumi, Liara, and EDI walking in.
  "Nice of you to knock," I sighed with a pointed look at Kasumi.
  She laughed and waved it off. "You're a friend, friends don't knock. Not the good ones, anyways."
  "There's so many ways the word 'good' would not be used to describe you so I guess it's true."
  Garrus chuckled and came up behind me to kiss my neck as he held my waist.
  "Go, have fun. Enjoy your day together. I'll be here when you come home."
  I turned to face him, letting his hands adjust so they could still rest on my waist.
  "You should go have a night out too. Get together with the guys, have some fun."
  He hummed in thought before he shrugged. "I'll think on it. I still have to make the call, remember?"
  I rolled my eyes. "It shouldn't take all night, Garrus. Just have some fun. You deserve it."
  He nodded. "Alright, alright. We're not even married yet and you're already playing the bossy wife..."
  I smirked. "We may as well be. You love it, though."
  "My girl has never been afraid of taking charge," he murmured as he brushed his lips across mine.
  Kasumi coughed behind us. "While this show is entertaining and sweet, could we get the other show on the road?"
  Garrus chuckled and kissed me before he let me go. "You better take care of her. Oh, and no strip clubs. I don't need her to see all the other single males and get any ideas about changing her mind before the wedding."
  I smacked his chest, drawing another chuckle from him. "You know I'm not leaving your ass for a stripper."
  I turned from him, letting my hips sway with attitude and glanced back with a smirk to see him staring just like I knew he would.
  "Alright, let's get going, ladies."
  Everyone made their own sound of excitement and we made our way out of the apartment to the waiting Skycar Kasumi swore up and down she bought with legitimate money.
  Nobody believed her but we climbed in and enjoyed the ride anyways.
  Even EDI smiled through the ride as we cruised through traffic to a wedding shop across town.
  "Any ideas on a dress, Sam?" Liara asked.
  "Not really, just figure I'll go with more of a cream colored dress than actual white."
  Kasumi snickered. "Yeah, it's not exactly a secret just how close you and Garrus are."
I reached up from the back seat to pinch her side, drawing a yelp from her as she continued to laugh.
"I think a cream color would be fitting. Delicate, yet still suggesting back to tradition, while respecting it."
"Yeah, because we all know she already played that card," Kasumi chipped in again.
"Kasumi, so help me, I will push you out that door and take your Skycar."
"You would really just dump me out into traffic?"
I shrugged. "You're resourceful. I have no doubt you'll survive."
Kasumi chuckled. "Yeah. Boosters do help break falls and stay out of traffic."
"I knew it wouldn't be your first time."
"I could make so many jokes right back to you on that. But I won't."
I sighed and shook my head. "I don't know how I even became friends with you."
"That's because you used to have good taste. Now Garrus has kind of kept you busy so you're used to being spoiled."
"Or I got used to military discipline again since I have been working with active duty military personnel for over two months."
"Eh, just technicalities."
She lowered the Skycar outside of the wedding shop and we all got out and entered the building.
Inside, a VI greeted us and EDI followed, keeping quiet as she had been.
I couldn't help but wonder about it, but Kasumi took me by the hand and led me to the center of the store, where wedding dresses stood on display with a chandelier overhead lighting them.
It left an almost fairytail feeling hanging around the store, like nothing could be wrong in life.
My eyes skimmed over the dresses, passing over all the white dresses, straight to the cream and ivory toned ones.
  I browsed through the hanging dresses and let my eyes skim over the displays, while Kasumi brought me dress after dress and Liara watched quietly, occasionally wandering off to see other dresses while she waited.
  EDI didn't miss a thing, even advising Kasumi of which dresses I would likely turn down- which were most of them.
  With a breath of frustration, I made my way to the back of the store where there were dresses on clearance.
  The forgotten and unwanted dresses.
  As soon as Kasumi noticed, she came rushing to my side. "You're not really going to play cheap on your wedding day, are you?"
  I grimaced at her and shook my head. "I don't care if it's expensive as long as it won't break the bank. I care if I like it. This is the only wedding I intend to have."
  I flipped through the dresses, eventually moving onto the taller displays that would mean floor length gowns.
  I didn't know how it happened, but something made me stop when I had been flipping through those dresses.
  My fingers felt the lace material of the dress and my eyes caught the antique color and I pulled it off the rack, my eyes gazing the halter-held dress.
  A smile grew on my face and soon Liara, Kasumi and EDI were all at my side.
  "That's a beautiful dress, Samantha," Liara stated quietly, her approval showing easily.
  Kasumi nodded. "I've gotta give you credit, Shep, that's going to compliment you nicely."
  "It'll be a bit large on your frame, but once adjusted, nobody will be able to keep their eyes off of you."
  Everybody cracked a smile at EDIs compliment and Kasumi announced that she was going to find the store clerk to let me try it on and get it adjusted so we could take it home as soon as possible.
It wasn't long before Kasumi returned with a disinterested looking store clerk, who looked us all up and down with a withering look.
"What do you need help with?"
"I'd like to try this dress on and get it adjusted if it needs it, please."
She smacked the gum in her mouth in irritation. "I closed the fitting rooms already so I could do inventory. Was kind of hoping no one stupid enough to get married would come by."
We all stared at her, my heart dropping by the second.
Kasumi must have seen it on my face because she stepped in at that moment. "What my dear friend Commander Samantha Shepard was trying to say is, she knows the fitting rooms are closed but she was really hoping you could make an exception. She hopes to be married before her next deployment."
The clerk's eyes widened and she stopped chewing her gum as her face paled a few shades.
"You're Commander Shepard?"
I nodded, straightening slightly at the mention of my rank.
She started nodding immediately and gestured for us to follow her as she led us to a mirrored room that had a couple stalls for changing in.
"I'll wait out here for you so we can make those notes for adjustment."
The clerk placed herself at a respectful distance and busied herself straightening up the room while Kasumi gave me a smug, conspiratorial smile. "That's how you use titles for benefits."
I smiled and shook my head as I went into the stall to try on the dress.
As I undressed to slip the material over my head, I relished the feeling of the silky underclothes of the dress as it shifted to fit my body.
I came out of the stall to admire it on my body, deciding it was slightly too loose at the hips and waist, wanting to define those both for Garrus.
The store clerk scrambled to help me, quickly agreed with my decision and pinned some spots where it would inconspicuously tighten the dress, then made thorough notes on her Omni-Tool.
"Okay, so this shouldn't be too difficult to adjust, so if you just want to come back at about ten o'clock tonight, we can dispense this dress to you as long as you're happy with the adjustments made."
She looked at me hopefully, so I smiled and nodded. "That sounds great. Thank you. I'll be back to take a look at it tonight. Just make sure that waist is tucked right."
She nodded vigorously. "Of course, ma'am! I'll see you this evening!"
I smiled and went back into the fitting room to change back into my street clothes and handed the dress to the clerk before the girls and I headed out of the store. We laughed and talked about how the experience was there and shook our heads at Kasumi's use of my title and known name.
  For once in a long time, I felt like a woman. Like I didn't have a care but how my dress was going to turn out, what I was going to do for makeup on my wedding day, and what the rehearsal would be like.
  "Your stress levels are at an all time low, Commander." EDI commented as if she was reading my mind, a smile playing on her lips.
  I smiled back at her. "I know, EDI. I think I've finally found my place in life."

  ((A/N:Hey guys! I'm so so sorry I haven't been updating lately! I've had school, work and almost zero time on my hands! I'm going to try to do better for you guys because y'all deserve it after sticking with me this long! I'm sure you guys have figured it out already but the dress in the picture is kind of how I imagined Shepard's wedding dress to be :3 Thanks for reading! Especially if you've been with me from the prologue! If you like the chapter please do me the favor of letting me know by hitting that little vote button and leaving me a comment! Thank you again! Keelah Se'lai!))