Miss You Dearly

Photo

She looked out onto the presidium. It was beautiful, as always. Birds chirped, flowers from all homeworlds bloomed. The waterfall worked as usual. You could hardly even tell there was a war going on. It hit hard and out of nowhere, just as her brother said it would. She believed him, few others did. They were docked on the citadel again, gathering supplies, getting volunteers. She hadn't seen Garrus in a while, and was obviously happy when he stepped into the Normandy. She wanted to throw herself into his arms, but she decided it would be best to keep things professional, but when she found him in the main battery, they shared a kiss.

She took the elevator down to the refugee area. It always made her sad, to see all of these people without homes, but they kept hope, she she wanted to too. If the person fighting the war wasn't hopeful, then there was no chance of winning.

Garrus was busy, she didn't want to bother him, but she did know he was down here, getting places to stay for injured turian soldiers. She smirked. He was an amazing person. Probably the best she'd met. As much as she wanted to sit and watch Garrus work, that wasn't what she was there for.

Just as the whispers had said, there was a memorial wall for those who fallen during the war. People from all classes came by and placed photos and trinkets of their dead loved ones there so they wouldn't be forgotten. The wall was covered in pictures of all species and people stood by the wall and cried. It made her heart sting, she knew that they were experiencing more than anyone else.

She took the step down and angled her head up to look at the photos. Most had names of the people on them, so that when someone saw their picture, they'd know who was lost to this terrible thing.

She took the photo from her bag. It was a photo of Nihlus, the one that caught his beautiful features better than anything else. She held it with trembling hands. As she said, she didn't throw it away, she kept it somewhere safe until she had some sort of idea of what she'd do with it, and now she knew what she could do. Nihlus' picture felt small against the many other people who had been placed here, but like the rest of them, he died to the reaper war.

His picture needed no name tag, you knew exactly who it was just by looking at him. He was a strong turian, he always walked with his back straight and shoulders back, he was a military man, a Spectre, and he was her first love. As she thought of him, she felt a tear roll down from her eye. She hadn't cried about Nihlus in so long. Years, it'd been years since she looked at this picture and allowed tears to fall.

She dropped to her knees next to a crying asari and sat his photo against the wall. The asari looked at it, then up to her, she smiled a sad half smile.

"I'm sorry for your lost," the asari said.

"And I'm sorry about yours," she looked at the picture the asari had placed down. It was of a turian woman in black armor with white clan markings.

"He was a very brave man," she sniffled and Jane gave her a gentle pat against the back.

"It'll be better soon," Jane cooed to her, "I know that it'll get better."