"When's the soonest we can get the Normandy turned around?"

"As soon as we drop from FTL, we can start heading back." Joker stated, under more stress than he'd have liked, due to EDI suddenly being shorted out. He had to manually do everything, now.

"And we'll be dropping out in about ten minutes?"

"Should, unless something terrible happens."

"Good. Let me know when we're getting close so I can get a team together."

"Will do."

Garrus turned to head back to the engine room, knowing he was needed there likely above anywhere else. His leg was still in bad shape, but he was able to walk and that was almost all he wanted. If he could just go back, and make sure Elizabeth was okay... Well, he'd take that over walking any day.

"Garrus, go! I'm not letting you kill yourself out here!"

"I can still fight!"

"Get your ass aboard the Normandy and get out of here! Spectre's order!" she snapped, face twisted in pain as her dark red-gold hair was stuck against her face in the dirt, sweat, and blood caked on her skin. It was such a stark contrast to just hours ago, and it seemed like years since they'd been laying in the quiet next to one another.

"Shepard-"

"Garrus, please." her voice cracked as she stepped forward, reaching up to cup his mandible. "I need to know you're safe."

"What about me? You're throwing yourself into the belly of the beast, and I promised you I'd follow you anywhere."

"You can't follow me here. This is something I need to do myself." she leaned forward, and he could see a shimmering light near the bottoms of her eyes. She was crying as she kissed him. "I love you."

"I..." he struggled for a moment. It felt like goodbye, and he wasn't ready for that. "... Love you too..." he resigned, and watched her walk away, turning and starting to sprint back towards the beam. The Normandy's bay door closed before he could see Harbinger's beam slicing through the dirt.

"Be safe." he whispered.

Since then, they'd been flying in FTL, and not an hour ago, a red light had flashed through the ship. It wasn't an alarm, but it had knocked out some of the critical systems. Joker nearly lost control of the ship, but he wasn't the best pilot in the Alliance for nothing. He maintained course, and thanks to Tali and Engineer Adams, the Normandy kept flying smoothly.

"Hey, Scars," James called out as he exited the elevator on the Engineering deck. It seemed as though he'd been waiting.

"Hm?"

"How much longer?"

"We should be exiting FTL in about... eight minutes or so. We'll have to cool down and let the vents run, but after that we'll be ready to head back." he said, turning to head towards the core.

"Thanks." he turned to step into the elevator, heading up to likely get food. None of them had eaten much, but James was always the first to respond to that particular need. Garrus felt fine, if not tired. But there was work to be done, and he had to push through it.

"Kaidan, James, I want you two to come with me." Garrus said, tossing both of them a couple of flashlights.

"Where are we going?" Kaidan asked, already standing.

"Elizabeth is down there somewhere, and I'm not resting until we find her." he growled. "I'll need help with some of the heavy lifting."

"And where exactly is 'down there'?" James asked hesitantly.

"In what used to be the center of the battle. The same corridor we walked down just a few days ago. I know this because I got a signal, which means she must be alive."

"It could be the suit hardware-" Kaidan started, but James quickly jabbed him in the stomach, causing him to grunt.

"Don't do that to him." James said quietly.

Garrus knew that it could have been a hardware malfunction, but he didn't want to believe that. It felt wrong to accept that truth, when his gut was telling him she was still alive.

"Sorry. I just... Can't help but think of these things." Kaidan muttered to Garrus as they waited by the elevator a few minutes later.

"I know. I thought of that too, but it just doesn't sit right with me to believe that. Not after all she's been through." There was a small pause as the three stepped in. "The worst thing I'm expecting to find is her omni-tool, and nothing else. But... I'm hoping to find her, preferably with a pulse."

"We'll find her. I don't doubt that."

Garrus waited for the other two to pull their hard suits on, checking over some of the tools they would be bringing along. It felt strange not taking any heavy guns, but he much preferred expecting to have to climb as opposed to having to shoot someone. Still, they all packed pistols, just in case. Climbing into the shuttle with Cortez, they set off to the nearest clearing towards the location of the signal. It was a good ten minute walk across the rubble to the general area, but ten minutes was nothing.

Touching down on the mass of rubble, Garrus was amazed. The corridor of building that once stood had now been crushed, with the foreboding shadows of the fallen reapers looming around in their place. It felt almost like an arena, as opposed to a battlefield, and that set Garrus on edge. He didn't know if it was just him, but looking over at his friends, he saw that they were feeling the same as he was. Or at least that's how it looked to him.

"Tell us where to go, and we'll get started." Kaidan said, after visibly shaking himself.

"We need to head East." he said after consulting his omni-tool. They began their trek across the field, stepping over rubble, husks, marauders, soldiers, and more than enough civilians. Even though this wasn't his home, Garrus keened, the ache in his chest just thinking about all the innocent people who had fallen victim to this war. They hadn't tried fighting, they had just tried surviving all of this. Some made it, most didn't.

As they grew closer to the signal, there were more and more pieces of rubble in the way that had to be moved. If Garrus and James couldn't move it, Kaidan was called upon to assist with his biotics. They left their own pile of destruction behind them until they reached something interesting.

There was a... dome or rubble, supporting itself. Garrus couldn't deny that with the source originating from this point, and the structure being just large enough for Elizabeth to fit under, he hoped she was okay. Carefully, they began pulling the dome apart, surprised that there were several layers to it. Instead of tossing everything, it was peeled back. From above, once they reached her body, beautifully thrown to the ground, curled up like she was sleeping, she was resting in a lotus.

He was quick to look over her, glad to see that she didn't look broken. Aside from the hard suit melted to her skin, she looked like she was sleeping. The only problem was that she didn't stir when he gently moved her hand. It was limp and... lifeless.

"Kaidan-"

"Already on it." he said, dropping down and scanning over her. He cursed under his breath, and yelled something at James, taking out a small tool that whirred at a high pitch, cutting into the center of her suit. Once he pried the piece off, they saw the real damage. The suit wasn't melted to her skin like they'd feared, but rather it was coated in medi-gel, and dark red - nearly black.

Her chest was covered in bruises, and a few bones from her rib cage were pressing against the skin, though not puncturing.

"She hasn't been like this long." Kaidan muttered, not being gentle in pushing Garrus aside to straddle her, pressing his hands to her chest and counting quietly out loud. He whined softly, knowing no one else would be able to hear him.

Right now, Garrus was useless. He had no idea how to help, but he was just glad someone was helping at all.

"They'll be here in less than five minutes with a shuttle to take her to the hospital." James said, coming over to kneel beside Kaidan, and keep him on count. A minute or so later they switched off. It didn't look difficult, but Garrus had been told that the amount of pressure required, and so quickly in succession, was hard to maintain. He could only watch, however, as they switched off about three times before the shuttle came into view. Garrus finally stood up, ready to help hoist her onto the gurney, trusting the doctors to take care of her as he got into the second shuttle that would follow the first.

He couldn't sit during this ride, though. He stood, and held to one of the safety bars, watching the pilot and keeping an eye on the shuttle in front of them. It was all he could do to keep from asking if they could go faster - they could only go as fast as they were, without risking further injury.

"Garrus," Kaidan called out, making him turn, "she'll be okay. They said they had a pulse before they took her."

He nodded, and moved to sit, sighing heavily. It was going to be a long couple of days, he knew that. He might not be able to see her for another week, if things were really bad. So long as she was going to be okay, he could deal with the wait, however long.

Before he walked in, he knew she was awake. The yelling and cursing was sign enough of that. He grinned as he walked in to the door, catching her by surprise as she fought off a needle.

"Garrus!" she grinned, forgetting about the needle long enough to be injected. "Ow! God damn it!" she growled to the nurse who was smiling, putting her tray back in order before walking out without a word.

"You're doing a hell of a lot better than when I saw you last." he smiled, sitting down beside her on the bed, reaching out and brushing his hand over her cheek.

Half of her hair was shaven off, and it reminded him of Jack, a bit, the way it was laying. It didn't look bad, per say, but he definitely preferred all of her hair being there. Her hand reached up to meet his, and she smiled at him, brown eyes lighting up to a nice warm chocolate color. Granted he was referring to the human chocolate, but the color was a perfect match. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers, purring softly at the faint smell of her perfume.

"Elizabeth-"

"Shh..." she kissed him lightly, "I'm not going anywhere. Not without you beside me."

He felt a tightening in his chest, and he wrapped both arms around her as tight as he could without crushing her, or irritating her recovering injuries. He didn't often cry, but this was one occasion that he didn't particularly mind.

Then he woke up.

His heart was racing, and his mouth was surprisingly dry. Garrus was sitting up in... a bed? It wasn't his. He looked around and his anxiety only grew. The grey walls were unfamiliar, the room was sparsely decorated. But there was a door that was slightly ajar, and Garrus could hear two male voices whispering quietly. Slowly, pulling himself from the bed, he stood and walked over. Opening the door, he found himself facing another wall, though following the voices down the hall, it opened up into a nice living room, where Kaidan and James were sitting, talking casually with one another.

"Hey, you're up." James said the second he appeared, smiling. "How're you feeling?"

"Confused." Garrus said quietly. "Where... are we?"

"Citadel. My apartment. Most of it didn't get damaged as bad as we thought." Kaidan said, holding up a hand before Garrus could speak again, "Sit down and I'll fill you in. You kind of passed out on us."

He nodded, and took a seat across from Kaidan in a chair.

He'd passed out nearly the moment he sat down, apparently from exhaustion. Garrus had been sleeping for nearly ten hours, now, but no one was particularly worried about it, since everything else checked out okay. After that, Kaidan and James had pulled him to Kaidan's apartment, since it was the closest. While it hadn't been easy, they managed it just fine.

"And Elizabeth?" he drawled carefully.

"She's in the hospital. We won't get to see her for a few days, and even then she's... in a coma." James said quietly.

"But she's okay, otherwise?" they both nodded and he sighed, smiling. "Then I can wait."

This time, when he walked in, the room was dark, and silent. She was asleep, but no longer comatose. It had been three months since she'd first been admitted here, and every day he'd been able to, Garrus had come to visit her. Though he wouldn't be able to for much longer - Palaven needed him back. He hoped she would wake up while he came to visit today - just yesterday, a few hours after he'd left, she woke up. Some of her memories were a little fuzzy, and words were hard for her to form, but the doctors told him she would likely recover from that in time, and if nothing else, the memories she had trouble with were the more recent ones - the ones she could probably live without.

He opened the curtain just a bit, to let some light in to her room. She was so thin, now, from laying in this damn bed. Her hair had been shaved - just how he'd dreamed, though it had grown out some, and in another month or two, it would be long enough that she could trim it all to one uniform length and still have something to play with. He sighed, and ran one hand through the red-gold hair that had been washed, and brushed. It looked especially soft today, and he smiled.

The next thing he noticed were two brown eyes looking up at him, and light pink lips curving into a smile. Her mouth opened, and he could tell by the way she was searching his eyes that she was trying to think of how to form what she wanted to say. He waited patiently.

"Hi Garrus." she finally got out, her voice quiet, and dry.

"Hi Elizabeth." he smiled, leaning down to nuzzle her affectionately. "You want some water?" he asked as he pulled away. She nodded slowly, and he turned tot he bedside tray, grabbing the cup of water with a straw poking out. He helped her get the straw to her mouth, and watched as she nearly emptied the contents of the cup.

"Thank you." she smiled, relaxing and closing her eyes. Her eyebrows knit together. "Are... You okay?"

"I'm okay. I've just been worried about you, but you're awake again." he said quietly, reaching over to take her hand, watching her mouth work to form the words again. It was painful, seeing her reduced to a limited vocabulary, and taking so long to form those simple words. But he supposed it was better than her not being able to do these things at all. And the more she talked the easier it came to her.

For a couple hours, they held quiet conversation, talking to one another, even though most of it was Garrus filling her in on what he'd been up to. He didn't let go of her hand, glad her strength was still there, somewhere, as she gripped his hand as tight as she could. Her whole arm quaked at one point and he chuckled, telling her he wasn't going anywhere, and she could relax.

"I missed holding your hand." she said softly. "That's all I could dream about."

"I'm just waiting for the day when I can actually hold you like I want to." he hummed. What he meant was that he couldn't wait to pick her up and hold her in his arms. Or even just hug her while she sat up in bed, without fear of breaking anything. Though he could tell by her smirk that she apparently took that to mean something else, and he laughed at her, shaking his head. Elizabeth was definitely still there.

"Garrus?"

"Hm?"

"You know I love you, right?"

It seemed to come out of nowhere, but then he remembered that she didn't remember saying it right before she'd ordered him to leave. He could only smile, and lean in affectionately to kiss her, still feeling that same tender affection he felt the first time she'd said it.

"I know. And I love you, too."