Chapter 142

After sharing a laugh together, Joker, Shepard, and Harry calmed down but still smiled, Shepard suddenly sighed and looked up "Still, Captain Anderson should be the one in charge, it's like I'm stealing the ship from him".

Joker nodded "Yeah, it sounds like the Captain got screwed, but it's not like you could've stopped it, nobody is blaming you.

Everyone in this ship is behind you, Commander, one hundred percent, intercom is open, if you've got anything you want to say to the crew, now's the time".

Shepard nodded and immediately used the intercom to speak with the Normandy's crew "Listen up Normandy, this is your Commander speaking, we have our orders! Find Saren before he finds the conduit, and I refuse to let anything get in the way of that mission!

We all know what happened on Eden Prime, we saw the destruction, we saw the bodies, we saw what Saren did, and I plan to make him pay!

For too long our species has stood apart from others, now it's time to step up and do our part for the rest of the galaxy! Time to show them what humans are made of!

Wherever Saren goes, we'll follow, wherever he searches for the conduit, we'll be there, we will hunt him to the very ends of the galaxy and bring him down!

Humanity needs to do this, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of every other species in Citadel Space, Saren must be stopped and I promise you all... we will stop him".

Joker nodded "Well said Commander, Captain would be proud".

Harry grinned at Shepard "For sure, brought a tear to my eyes".

Shepard just lightly laughed at Harry and shook his head in amusement, he then turned his head towards Joker "The Captain gave up everything so I could have this chance, we can't fail".

Shepard walked away from the Joker, while he smiled, and then said "Yes sir!".

Harry smiled and nodded, he rather did like that speech from Shepard, in fact, he felt a little motivated to get to work, so with a nod to Joker and a small wave, he teleported to his workshop in the Normandy.

-----

Sometime after, Shepard, well rested after taking a break in his cabin, decided to go check on Harry and see how he was holding up or if he needs anything, so he went to the little room he gave him by the Engine room.

Though he stopped in his track when he saw a wooden door, he did not see before and stared at it for a few seconds, but in the end, he chalked it up to Harry's shenanigans and decided to check it out.

He walked up to the wooded door and reached for the doorknob and quickly opened the door, only to gape when an enormous wide room filled with actual nature inside appeared before his sight "What the..".

Shepard closed the door, and then stared at it for a few seconds in surprise, he then looked around the sides of the door and tried to make sense of how such an enormous room filled with actual trees, grass, and all sorts of plants could actually be behind the door.

However before he could ponder any longer, a voice called out to him from behind "Shepard?".

The Commander turned around and saw Le Fay, standing behind him and staring at him in confusion "What are you doing standing in front of Harry's Workshop like that, Commander?".

Shepard scratched his head "This is his workshop? Le Fay, there's a whole enormous forest behind that door".

Le Fay smiled and nodded "I see, well Harry works best with nature, he's a sage after all, but the reason he created an entire environment, is because he tends to test out whatever he makes and train with it a bit.

So he needs the space, plus there's a time dilation in there, I'm sure he's already spent a few days in there working on all kinds of projects for you, especially because we're already on the way to find Liara T'Soni".

Shepard nodded "Yeah, okay, I understand that but how? Were in a ship after all".

Le Fay giggled and walked up to the wooden door "Harry must have created a small pocket dimension and anchored to the door, so the forest isn't exactly inside the ship, only the door is.

It takes quite a bit of specialized space and time manipulation, to be able to do something like this though, but nothing Harry can't do".

Shepard nodded "I see, just when I think Harry can't surprise me anymore, he does something like this...".

Le Fay opened the door and both she and Shepard stepped inside, she then smiled at Shepard "It's best you just accept and try to digest everything Harry does, trust me, this is nothing compared with what he can really do".

Shepard nodded while he looked around the forest behind the wooden door, he then followed Le Fay as she walked towards a path that led deeper inside.

It took about ten minutes, but eventually, both Le Fay and Shepard arrived at a clearing, and inside of it, stood a small building, Le Fay walked towards it and Shepard watched as the door opened for her.

He walked up towards the door and was thankful it stayed open for him, so he stepped inside, he gaped when he looked around and found a fully equipped lab and workshop.

He then noticed Harry's sitting in front of a desk and carving something into a small metal plate, Le Fay walked up to him and hugged him from behind, Harry smiled and turned his head towards Le Fay and gave her a kiss.

Harry then noticed Shepard and immediately smiled at him "Hey Shepard, had a good rest?"

Shepard nodded and walked up to Harry "Yes actually, we're already on our way to find Doctor T'Soni, so I decided to come check up on you, but I see that you made yourself at home".

Harry smiled and nodded, he then quickly finished carving on the small metal plate "The ship engines are too loud, especially for those of us sensitive to sounds, so I decided to make a place anyone can come into and relax, plus it's a great place to train and test whatever I or the girls make".

Harry then grabbed the metal plate and began to install it into a pistol, after he finished, he showed the pistol to Shepard "Like this pistol".

Shepard grabbed the pistol and began to hold it like he was getting ready to shoot, he checked the sights and even the weight "Hmm feels like any other pistol, but it's very well made".

Harry nodded and stood up, while Le Fay began to fiddle with her Omnitool "That's because, it's a normal pistol, but I heavily modified it".

Shepard raised an eyebrow "You modified it? How?"

Harry smiled "We'll, Valerie took a few of the weapons she collected apart, and we were able to figure it how some of the weapons were made and how they function that way.

But we also saw some flaws in the designs, for example, how the weapons tend to overheat, how the shots seem heavy and somewhat slower than regular lead bullets and the recoil has quite the kick as well".

Shepard nodded, everything Harry just pointed out, were common issues with modern technology, though research and development were always making improvements, they were kind of slow on coming out, and even then humans are usually the last to get such upgrades.

Harry then walked up to Shepard and pointed at the pistol "So, using what we know about magic guns and what we learned about the firearms of this universe, Valeria and I made some upgrades.

I built a whole new pistol from scratch, and added a few runes and enchantments to improve the pistol's performance, by quite a wide margin".

Shepard looked at the pistol, it certainly looked like any regular firearm available to anyone in the Alliance military, but it had been made from scratch by Harry and that was amazing to think about.

Meanwhile, Harry walked away from Shepard while continuing to explain "I resolved the overheating problem, by adding cooling enchantments on every piece of the pistol, along with stabilizing runes on the muzzle and stock of the Pistol.

That will absorb most of the kick and reduce recoil by fifty percent, as for the rate of fire, I added acceleration enchantments around the barrel of the pistol, this will increase the speed of the shots by at least twice the speed".

Harry walked up to a table and then clicked on something on top of it "Friday, give me a hardlight 3D simulation of the pistol, with all current upgrades".

A voice suddenly spoke up "Of course Sir!".

Shepard then saw some sort of hologram of himself shooting the pistol, he gaped as he saw clear improvements in the rate of fire, recoil, and number of shots "This is incredible, this pistol puts all other current weapons available to shame".

Harry nodded "Yup~ though it's still a prototype, we need to see how resistant the materials are and if the runes and enchantments can continue to maintain their structure while in prolonged use.

I suspect, that I will need to use other materials in the final product, stronger and more magical conductive, but for now, this should be a good start.

So I want you to use it in the upcoming mission, so we can get some data and see what the next step we should make".

Shepard nodded "Of course, I would gladly help, if this is the quality of the upgrades you're making, then these would be very useful to us".

Harry grinned "Ah Shepard, this is nothing compared with what I'll be making later, just you wait, when the girls and I are done investigating and researching everything we need, you'll be getting some real legendary rank gear".

Shepard nodded and he one hundred percent believed Harry, after all, what upgrades he did just now, were already amazing enough as it is, a part of him was both excited and afraid to see the end products.

Soon after, Harry, Shepard, and Le Fay, sat around a table and drank some tea, as they relaxed a bit, Shepard suddenly hummed and then said "How did you make that pistol in one hour Harry?".

Le Fay smiled "Remember Shepard? I told you that this place, has a time dilation, for Harry, it's been a few days, rather than the hour that you rested with".

Harry sipped his tea "Yup, it's been around 10 days for me in here, though I can change the time dilation setting, I can make it match the time outside, or even go for one year in here equals one hour outside, though I didn't feel it was necessary right now".

Shepard nodded "Incredible, this room was already amazing as it is, but with the time dilation, it will be very useful as well".

Harry nodded "So, what's up? You came to check on me?".

Shepard blinked but then remember, why he was coming to see Harry before he got distracted with everything he just learned "Yeah, I wanted to see how you and the girls are settling in, and if you need anything.

Besides this being a whole new universe to you guys, you aren't military either, this sort of environment might be to stiff for some of you guys".

Harry nodded "Well, I actually have experience in a military environment, I was even an Anbu Captain, in one of the worlds I used to live in.

The girls have their own guild and experiences with military-like groups, so this environment isn't anything new to us, so we're fine".

Harry smiled "Right now we don't need anything per se, we're still in the process of investigating and researching things, I'm sure we'll be able to find what we need on our own as well, but thank you for asking".

Shepard nodded "What sort of things are you guys investigating and researching right now?".

Le Fay was the one who answered Shepard's question "Right now, we're looking into firearms, technology, and all sorts of advances that could prove useful for us or that we can improve on.

We're also looking into minerals, fuels, and even materials that could prove useful to us, there are actually a few exotic minerals and materials, that were very curious about already.

We're also looking into alien species and wildlife, back in Neo Kyoto, in our world, we have a place called the Natural Dungeon.

This Dungeon is a self-evolving place where everyone in the Yokai Faction and our allies can go in and get stronger. Monsters, creatures, and all sorts of beings constantly spawn in the dungeon, and drop all sorts of things, from money, to even precious metals and gems, among other things.

But the Natural Dungeon has one peculiar quirk, whatever Harry or the Potter Household, fights and kills, begins to spawn in the dungeon, which also includes whatever useful resources we find".

Shepard nodded in understanding "That actually sounds pretty interesting, but with what you're telling me, then aliens species and materials of this universe will begin to spawn in the Natural Dungeon right?".

Harry nodded "That's right, which means, that we will need all the information we can get, so we can spread it around Neo Kyoto, that way no one will be caught by surprise by a krogan charging at them, or a turian sniping them with weaponry of this universe".

Shepard hummed for a bit "To be honest, all of this sounds like a video game to me, but it's pretty amazing that a place like the Natural Dungeon exists, the place sounds like the greatest training facility ever".

Harry grinned at the irony in Shepard's words while Le Fay giggled, Shepard didn't know what he had said that got such humor out of his friends but decided to shrug it off, for now, he was happy his new friends were okay, and getting everything they needed.

-----

After relaxing a bit, Shepard decided to go make some rounds and speak with his crew in the Normandy, Harry stretched and decided to go with him so he could get to know his new friends a little better.

Le Fay decided to stay in Harry's Lab, she had some information to go through right now, so with that decided, both Harry and Shepard left the Lab, and then the forest inside the pocket dimension that was created by Harry.

Afterward, they came out of the door leading to Harry's pocket dimension and into the Normandy, Shepard then lead Harry to their first stop, the mess hall.

-----

Once there, they both went to speak with Kaidan, since they hadn't had a chance to speak with him yet, they found him checking out some sort of panel, but he didn't seem too busy.

So both Harry and Shepard approached him, Kaidan noticed them and turned his head towards them, he smiled and nodded "Anything you guys need?".

Shepard lightly smiled and nodded "Just trying to get a sense of where the crew's at thoughts?".

Kaidan hummed for a few seconds but then began to speak his thoughts "Well, the last couple of hours have been an eye-opener, that's for sure.

One thing is to know the galaxy is big, but another is, to find out that the multiverse is real and even bigger than we could have imagined, I mean, vampires? Yokai? Magic? and dragons?

Not only that, the fact that they're so powerful and can do all sorts of crazy things, is a little unnerving, don't get me wrong though, I know Harry and the girls are good people, but makes you think about, what sort of crazy and bad people are out there, you know?".

Shepard nodded in agreement, it was certainly scary to think about, someone evil with the same level of power as Harry or the girls have, to suddenly appear in their universe.

Harry smiled at Kaidan "There's certainly, a bunch of very evil and horrible people in the universe, but luckily for you, they don't have the power to cross to another universe.

There are a lot of rules and barriers, that prevent just anyone from being able to freely cross between universes like that, even someone that has the same level of power as me, don't have the leave to crossover.

This power of mine was really limited at first and it was only possible because Death herself powers that ability, now that I'm a Dragon God and have conceptual powers of my own, that ability evolved and became stronger, though it is still random though".

Kaidan nodded "I see, that does make me feel a bit better, at least I don't have to worry about another dragon god showing up and proceeding to destroy everything".

Shepard nodded "Yeah, but still, random huh? I guess we were lucky that you ended up in Eden Prime then".

Harry smiled "Nah, I'm sure you and everyone else would be fine on your own, all I did, is make everything a bit easier for you guys.

I'm sure you would have been able to make this happen eventually, humans are a tenacious race and one that shouldn't be underestimated after all".

Both Kaidan and Shepard smiled and nodded in agreement to Harry's words, Shepard then turned his head towards Kaidan "Got to go and check on the others, but we'll speak more soon".

Kaidan nodded "Of course Commander".

With that said, both Shepard and Harry walked away from Kaidan, while heading to meet with the next crew member.

They headed back to the lower floor, and they both looked around for a bit, they saw Garrus speaking with the Requisitions Officer and Ashley by the workbench, doing maintenance on the firearms.

Since Garrus seemed busy right now, they decided to go talk to Ashley, she heard them approaching her and immediately stopped what she was doing and greet them "Commander, Harry".

Shepard smiled at Ashley "Hey Ashley, how are you feeling with everything going on?".

Ashley sighed "A little overwhelmed, if I'm being honest, but can't say that it hasn't been interesting, I mean, I got to see a real-life dragon, scaring the daylight out The Council! That was fun~".

Harry chuckled "Well, they were really getting on my nerves, I've met some real arrogant and stubborn people, but those guys were something else".

Shepard nodded "Yeah, I'm just glad you were there, who knows how that Council meeting would have ended without your help".

Ashley nodded "For real... I have the impression, that The Council was a little to happy to deny everything against Saren".

Harry crossed his arms and nodded in agreement to Ashley's assumptions "They were in denial, Saren was their best agent, and him being a traitor doesn't look good on them.

So they were in denial and refused to see the evidence for what it was, in the end, they were just trying to save face".

Ashley shooked her head and sighed "Politics, I really can't stand them".

Harry and Shepard had to agree with Ashley, after all, there was no doubt in their mind, that the Council was going to be a big pain in their asses if it wasn't because Harry intervened that is.

Shepard sighed "Well I'm glad everything worked out in the end, we'll leave you to your duties Ashley, but we'll speak more later".

Ashley nodded "Of course Commander, Harry".

Both Harry and Sheperd walked away from Ashley while waving a bit, suddenly they saw Wrex and Valerie walking over to the weapons locker while talking about something.

Curious about what, Wrex and Valerie were talking about, both Harry and Shepard decided to approach them, Wrex immediately turned around to face them when they got close.

The krogan grinned and nodded to Shepard "Nice ship you've got, Shepard, what can I do for you?".

Shepard smiled at Wrex "What are you both up to?".

Wrex grinned and then pointed at Valerie with his head "Little lady here, wanted to know more of krogan branded weaponry, so I decided to show off my shotgun, pretty fun I'd say".

Valerie giggled "Krogan weaponry packs a punch, and most of it is modified so only someone strong and heavy as a Krogan could use them.

Though I also heard, that they do make weaponry modified for human use, just without that extra oomph! Still, it's useful to check them out, since Harry and I might be able to come up with some upgrades thanks to their design!".

Shepard smiled at Valerie, he could see that she was very interested in firearms, Wrex nodded "Val here, seems more Krogan than whatever the hell a Vampire is, just as bloodthirsty too".

Harry chuckled "That's Valerie for you, sweet to her friends and a menace to her enemies, though yeah, she tends to get a bit bloodthirsty when she fights".

Valerie blushed and seemed a bit sheepish "I'm not that bad... I am?".

Shepard raised an eyebrow at her "Valerie, you came out of Chora's Den, drenched in blood and smiling widely".

Valerie blushed again, which made Harry and Wrex chuckle in amusement, Valerie pouted at them, but that just made them laugh even more.

Shepard smiled, he then decided to ask Wrex about what he heard about krogan in the elevator "Wrex, are your people really dying?".

Wrex huffed but nodded "We're sure not getting any stronger, we're too spread out and none of us are interested in staying in our system".

Harry hummed "Isn't that normal? From what I have seen, every species in this universe are spread out and seem to be prospering".

Wrex nodded "but they go to colonize new worlds, we're not settlers, were warriors, we want to fight... so we leave, hire ourselves out, and most of us never go back".

Harry crossed his arms as he thought about, what Wrex just told him, various ideas were already going through his head, and both Valerie and he shared a look.

Valerie nodded and smiled at him, she knew what sort of ideas, Harry was thinking about right now, Harry then turned his head back to Wrex and smiled "I have a few ideas on how to help your people Wrex, but let me think about some of them more thoroughly, well talk about it later cool?".

Wrex smiled and nodded "Sounds, good, you already want to help with the genophage, so I'm more than willing to hear any ideas, besides your a god! I'm sure you can pull a miracle out of your ass or something".

Harry chuckled "I certainly have been known to procure a miracle out of my ass on occasion".

Everyone shared a laughed for a few moments, soon after Shepard became curious about something and decided to ask Wrex about it "You explained about the genophage, but to be honest, I don't know much about myself, can you tell more about it?".

Wrex closed his eyes for a few seconds but nodded to Shepard "The salarians know all about it, they made it. All I know is that it makes breeding nearly impossible, thousands die in stillbirth, and most never get that far, every krogan is infected, and no one is rushing to find a cure.

Well except Harry, he seems to be the only one who cares about it, must admit, I'm surprised, in a good way that is".

Harry smiled "I draw the line on children and babies, the fact that this genophage seems to exclusively target those, well, I take that very personally".

Valerie nodded "Yeah, a good way to get Harry to kill you and destroy your soul, is to mess with children".

Wrex raised an eyebrow "You can destroy your enemy's soul?".

Harry grinned "Yup, in all kinds of very painful ways".

Wrex chuckled "Neat, now where do I go to send prayers to you Harry, you seem like the kind of god a krogan needs to follow".

Valerie smiled "Harry has a big temple back in our world, full of priestesses and everything! Though he's more of a mellow deity, so you don't need to pray to him to gain his favor! but if you really want to, just pray while saying his name and he'll hear it".

Harry huffed, but the small smile on his face showed that he wasn't really annoyed or anything, Wrex and Shepard nodded, and Wrex even grinned and said "That's good to know".

Shepard smiled "I'll make sure the crew knows, so we can pray to Harry before any meal and before, we go to sleep".

Harry rolled his eyes "Ha! Ha! Very funny".

Everyone once again shared a laugh, this time, however, at Harry's expense, but Harry just took it in good fun and also laughed.

After that, both Harry and Shepard decided to get going, so they left Wrex and Valerie to go back to their weaponry hobby and continued their rounds.

-----

Seeing that Garrus was still busy, they decided to go look for Tali, thanks to Harry, they were able to find her by the Field Integrity Monitor, it seems that Kunou was with her as well, so both the Commander and dragon god went to see them.

They found both girls, talking to each other in a corner of the room, but Kunou must have sensed them because she immediately turned her head toward them and waved.

This of course made Tali notice them as well, so she also turned her head toward them, both Shepard and Harry walked up to the girls and as soon as they were in front of them, Tali immediately began to talk with Shepard "Your ship's amazing Shepard, I've never seen a drive core like this before, I can't believe you were able to fit it into a ship this small.

I'm starting to understand why humans have been so successful, I had no idea Alliance vessels were so advanced!".

Shepard smiled and nodded "The Normandy's a Prototype, cutting-edge technology ".

Harry hummed "So this ship is a prototype, looks like it's a very successful one though".

Kunou nodded "I did some scans and looked at some of the schematics~ Captain Anderson was kind enough to send them to me when I asked, this is some very advanced stuff.

Though I'm sure you and the boys would be able to make something better, especially with Tony and Asgardian's technology we have access to, not to mention what sort of thing the guilds would be able to make to help".

Harry nodded "That's true, still, this ship shows how far the humans of this universe have come, it's very impressive on its own".

Tali nodded and then turned her head towards Shepard "A month ago, I was patching a makeshift fuel line into a converted tug ship in the Flotilla, now I'm sitting onboard one of the most advanced vessels in Citadel Space.

I have to thank you again for bringing me along, traveling on a vessel like this is a dream come true for me".

Shepard smiled at Tali "I had no idea you found ship tech so interesting".

Tali nodded "It comes with being a quarian, the Migrant fleet is the key to the survival of my people, ships are our most valuable resources.

But we don't have anything like this, we make do with cast-offs and second-hand equipment, we just try to keep them running for as long as we can, some of the fleet's larger vessels date all the way back to our original flight from the geth".

Harry raised an eyebrow "Wasn't that about three hundred years ago? Wow, that's a lot of time for a ship".

Tali fidgeted with her hands a bit but began to explain "They're constantly being repaired, modified, and refitted, they aren't pretty, but they work, mostly.

We try to make ourselves as independent as possible on the Flotilla, grow our own food, mine and process our own fuel, but some things we can't make on our own, a patch to maintain the hull integrity requires raw materials we just don't have, that's why our pilgrimages are so important".

Kunou smiled "The quarians sound like such handy people!".

Tali seemed to be happy about Kunou's opinion on quarians, or at least that's what Harry got from her posture and mannerisms.

Tali nodded to Kunou and continued to talk "Our lives aren't easy, resources are scarce and we are constantly on the move, everything we do must in some way contribute to the continuation of the migrant fleet.

There are seventeen million quarians in the Flotilla, and each of us relies on the others for survival, the bonds among my people are strong, unfortunately, we have to surrender many of the freedoms and civil liberties other species take for granted".

What Tali just said, intrigued Harry, Shepard, and Kunou, but it was the Commander who decided to ask more about it "Liberties? Like what?".

Tali wasted no time to elaborate "Well, it's illegal for parents to have more than one child, if our population grows too much, it would strain our resources to the breaking point.

Of course, we also can't allow our numbers to become too few, if our population is in decline, the rule against single births is temporarily repealed, and in extreme cases of population decline, incentives are even offered to encourage multiple births, though The Conclave hasn't had to take such measures in nearly a century".

Harry hummed "I see, it's kinda sad about having only one child, I myself have quite a lot actually, and I can't imagine my life without them all".

Shepard turned his head towards Harry, and raised an eyebrow "I kinda feel bad for your girlfriends now".

Kunou blushed and shook her head "Hey! They're all adopted, but we love them all very much, though we ourselves want to wait before we have children of our own.

Most of us have responsibilities and duties within Neo Kyoto and the Yokai Faction, some of us are busy with all sorts of projects and research, that we don't want to postpone, so we're waiting a bit before we have children of our own.

Though Harry was still able to make us mothers nonetheless" Kunou giggled in amusement.

Shepard raised an eyebrow at Harry "Now I'm curious as to, how Harry did that?".

Tali nodded "Yeah, just how many children did you adopt and why?".

Harry hummed "Well, let's see... Hope was actually created between me, Jean, and Ereshkigal or rather we helped in the creation of rebirth for a conceptual being, she's the closest to a blood daughter as you can get, without actually giving birth.

Eri, sweet Eri... I rescued her when she was being kept locked away, and experimented on since she was a baby... she has had a very horrible first few years of her life, but since I adopted her into the family, she has grown into a cheerful and strong little girl.

I also fell in love with a mother, who had a horrible and abusive husband, the man was such a bastard, that she broke... she made a few mistakes and ended up being locked away in a psychiatric ward.

When we got together I ended up adopting her children, though all of them are a grown-up, I tend to spend time with them and even spoiled them, like any of my children".

Kunou giggled "It's funny to watch Touya and Natsuo get sheepish whenever Harry spends time with them, though most of the time, they just hang out or drink together.

Fuyumi though, she really enjoys being spoiled by Harry, she's a bit of a daddy's girl with him, though I'm not surprised, their biological father, really was a horrible person.

All three of them didn't have a good childhood, nor did they have, a good male role model growing up, but Harry treating them like friends and his children has helped them a lot".

Both Shepard and Tali turned their head towards Harry and smiled at him, Harry just smiled back and went back to explaining "Then there's Sherry.

My niece Morgan and Hope, adopted her as their sister, so I adopted her into the Potter Family, she also had a tough childhood and had a pair of not-very-supportive parents...

Then we have numerous amounts of demigods I adopted into the family, some of their godly parents, really neglected them and practically abandoned them to their luck, so I adopted them all".

Shepard shook his head "You don't do things by half, do you, Harry?".

Tali nodded in agreement "But, this shows the kind of guy you are, to think you would take care of and love so many children, children who had bad childhoods and you gave them the care and love they need".

Harry smiled and felt a bit embarrassed, but he was also happy to think, about his children, he really did love them all.