Authors Note:

Drksyders here! I hope you enjoy this stand-alone short story "Here if You Need Me." This is an erotic spin-off from our fanfic "A Tale of Two Shepards." This liaison takes place between ME1 and ME2 - between Chapter 15: Coping and Chapter 16: Work/Life Balance. More chapters coming soon. If you like it, please visit our other stories. Your favorites, follows, and comments are much appreciated!


Chapter 1: Late Night Calibrations

Sergeant Major Margaret Lynn Shepard lay in bed and watched the shadow of a Keeper stalk slowly across her ceiling. The spider-like visage passed over her slender face, framed by long flowing dark hair and pillowed on lean muscular biceps behind her head. The young woman stretched across the tiny military bunk in nothing more than her Alliance issue skives. The coarse fabric pulled taught over pale caramel skin and her dog tags pooled into a lump in the center of her chest beneath her tank top.

She forced her eyes closed and tried to will herself to sleep. Just when the peace and quiet began to settle over her, her squaddie erupted into snores on the other side of the room.

There was no sleep tonight.

There was only one window in her sub-basement barracks on the Citadel and she was the unlucky Alliance NCO whose bed was placed underneath it. The artificial daylight of the Presidium streamed through the window twenty-eight hours a day. The young Engineer had hung a sheet over the panes in a vain attempt block out the light for the sleep cycles. Yet, the silhouetted spider-like shape still crept across her ceiling. Maggie watched it with numb fascination.

Giving up on sleep, the young woman lifted herself out of bed and flopped into the seat in front of her console. If she was going to be awake, she might as well work. Her weary red-brown eyes began to roam across the lines of data from her brother's mission reports with grim determination.

Everyone had always said it was her eyes that smiled, her eyes that were full of life, and her eyes that made her unmistakably her brother's sister. It was her eyes that betrayed her now when the tears threatened again.

Don't avenge me, Mags. Make me proud. I love ya and I'll see you on the other side. Her brother's last message echoed in her memory.

She hoped she was making him proud.

Her brother had been Commander John Shepard, savior of the Galaxy, hero of the Citadel, and the first Human Spectre aboard the SSV Normandy. Two weeks ago in the Omega system, his prototype vessel had been destroyed.

Just like the Normandy, Commander Shepard was gone forever.

Grief-fueled hours slipped by as Maggie analyzed the most recent data from the attack. At approximately 0315, a message popped into the edge of her screen. It came from a Citadel Security account and it snapped her out of her grief-fueled haze.

From: GVakarian*csec-citgov

To: MightyMaggie*shepnet-oracle

Date: Feburary 28, 2184

Subject: Go to Sleep

Maggie -

Listening to your foul language is bad enough in the mornings without you being over-tired and mispronouncing things.

Insomnia can kill you.

- G

Maggie couldn't help smiling at the message. But, that smile darkened as slowly a thought scrambled through her brain.

How does Garrus know I'm awake?

Her eyes darted quickly around the barracks space and just above the door she found her answer. A small C-Sec security monitor vigilantly monitored her from the upper corner. She hacked into the messaging channel for it's feed and her fingers flew over the interface.

MS: What the fuck, Garrus? Are you watching me sleep!? That's just goddamn creepy!

The response came in seconds.

GV: Doesn't look like you're asleep.

Maggie turned towards the camera and offered it her middle digit and a smirk. Her terminal beeped again.

GV: Extra fingers… so useless.

MS: I'm not going to bother explaining to you what that means….still angry that you're watching.

GV: You should be sleeping. I did warn you about C-Sec's monitoring of non-council military detachments.

MS: You did. But, that doesn't mean YOU are the one watching. I see you're not asleep either. You working on those calibrations?

GV: And, other things. Come spend the night here again - at least my apartment has shaded windows and no surveillance.

Maggie stared uncertainly at the terminal for a moment. There was a lot more weight to the invitation than the mere words suggested. And, Maggie hated to admit that the last few hours of decent sleep she'd managed was almost four cycles ago. She'd spent that night in Garrus' bed after failing to attend her own brother's memorial service. As if sensing her uncertainty, the terminal chimed once more.

GV: And, I've got wine.

Maggie smiled.

MS: You should've opened with that - I'm on my way.


Enroute to Garrus' apartment, Maggie picked up a few items she was pretty sure they wouldn't need. But, it never hurt to be prepared.

As she paid for the levo-dextro allergy inhibitors, lotions, and "protection," the late-night Volus clerk gave her a wink. At least, she thought it was a wink since one glowing visor orb blinked off then on again.

"Quarian or Turian, Earth-Clan?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'll bet it's…. a Quarian...I've heard those... neural stimulators can be…"

"Mind your own damn business!" Maggie growled and the Volus seemed to chuckle.

"Earth-Clan are...really uptight."

Maggie shoved her purchases into the oversized pockets of her engineering coveralls and stomped out of the store before her flushed cheeks could prove the Volus right.

The encounter at the store made her even more anxious. Four nights before she'd shared awkward night of grief-fueled sex with Garrus. Then, they'd continued along like nothing had happened. Part of her had started to wonder if she'd just dreamed the whole affair. Now, she was going over to his apartment in the middle of the night and he had invited her.

Did that mean something more? I could still turn back for the barracks...

Maggie found her knees bouncing wildly as she sat on the near-empty transport enroute to Garrus' apartment. Her mind was dancing about just as badly. Part of her simply couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that maybe this was a bad idea. Garrus has been her brother's friend after all. They'd been through hell together and the Turian was probably struggling with just as much grief as she was. Plus, his sister was a friend and he was a different species after all.

Doubt began to nag at her.

Then, she remembered the gleam of the curving metallic plates covering his chest, the deep thrum of his flanged voice when he panted and they way his odd Turian hips had bucked beneath her. She shivered. Just the thought had made sitting on the transport a bit warmer and damper than before.

Oh man… I'm getting myself into trouble again, she sighed to herself, embarrassed at her own thoughts.

Fuck it. She was a grown woman, consenting adult and all that. So was he. Well, a grown Turian that is. Getting laid never hurt anyone….unless they wanted it to.

With renewed determination, she punched at the panel of his apartment building. She smiled up at the camera and the door swished open immediately. Maggie headed for the elevator.


Garrus held his breath and stared at his screen, awaiting Maggie's response to his invitation. He caught himself rubbing the back of his own neck, a nervous and flirtatious gesture, as he sat at the terminal of his apartment.

He glanced at the C-Sec surveillance feed of Maggie's barracks on his second monitor. It had been frighteningly easy to hack. In an odd fit of possessive protection, he'd bolstered the security on the feed so no one else could view it. Unless, they were better at security systems than he was and there weren't many who could make that claim.

In the streaming images, he watched the youngest Shepard study her terminal. Her odd and dangerously long red-streaked fringe flowed down her back, sticking out oddly in places. She stooped in front of the glowing screen as shadow of a keeper stalked across her ceiling. Even without seeing her face, Garrus could still read her mood easily.

It was almost two months now that he'd spent with her. Nearly every waking hour, day-in and day-out. He knew every little detail of her expressions and body language. It was an awareness he simply couldn't turn off when he was around her, especially since that night four cycles ago. Even on the display, he could sense her razor-sharp mind weighing pros and cons; analyzing his words for implications and snares. He'd have to push her past the uncertainty. Something humorous, something fun...

He typed quickly.

GV: And, I've got wine.

His mandibles flared wide into a grin when he saw her response. Garrus was rubbing his neck again.

The back of Turian necks were an erogenous zone and his body was practically buzzing with lustful desire. He'd made the mistake of doing a bit of research that evening, muti-tasking with his weapons calibrations. He never would have guessed that Humans had only been around the galactic scene for 30 years based on the sheer number of Fornax vids they produced.

Humans must have an insatiable appetite for porn.

Despite the immense volume of Human erotica on the extra-net, there were still a relatively small number of Human/Turian sources. But, there were plenty enough to give him some guidelines, sate his curiosity, and set his hormones raging. Coupled with his memories of his brief tryst with Maggie, he was teetering on the edge of sanity. With Shepard gone and the Reapers practically knocking at the door, Garrus figured the galaxy had already gone crazy.

He might as well go crazy right along with it.

The Spectre candidate pushed himself away from his terminal and tried to tidy up his apartment. There wasn't much to tidy. Weapons bench, work station, tiny kitchenette of food, then bedroom. He'd made sure to stock some levo-friendly breakfast this time and...other supplies.

Even as a C-Sec Officer, Grrus had always been a loner entirely focused on his work. He'd pretty much forgotten what it was like to sleep with someone. Until, he'd found Maggie sobbing in his arms. Garrus had been lost in his grief over Shepard's death and there was something about sharing that pain that had woken him up. Her closeness, her scent, everything about that night was breaking away the last shreds of an old life. One that Shepard had already turned upside down.

He'd lost that life now - just like he'd lost Shepard. He had nothing left except pain...except her.

And, it had felt so damn good to have sex again! In five years on the Citadel, Garrus had only indulged in one fling with an old squadmate. The solitude hadn't bothered him in the slightest. But, since that night with Maggie, sex had been practically bubbling through his mind. He felt like a short-fringed, awkward teenager again.

Garrus liked to think that he'd matured past the stupid, hormonally driven flings of his military life. Most Turians spent their military years in a fluid mix of sexual exploration and combat. Basic Core Competency Training (BCCT), or the four years of training that constituted Garrus' personal version of hell, lasted through most of a young Turian's impressionable years. Garrus had to admire the social engineering of Turian society. BCCT packed up all the rampaging impressionable teenage Turians, inundated them with insane amounts of physical and mental conditioning, dosed them all with birth control, and kept them under tight supervision for four years until they'd grown up and learned a bit of sense.

Sense he had entirely lost thanks to a tiny human girl.

It was the smell, Garrus decided. It clouded his thinking. From the first moment he woke up next to her, he could smell her. He could still pick up her scent, faint like a distant ocean, on his clothes and lurking in his bedroom. Every time he inhaled it, he felt the closeness, the trust, the pain, the weight of her body moving on top of his. The smell broke him and he was helpless to stem the tide of want. Even when she was by his side, covered in grime, wielding a sniper rifle, or just laughing at a bad joke, he couldn't stop himself from wanting.

Four days of wallowing in desire and several hours browsing Fornax had driven him to the bold invitation that evening. It felt like a grinding century before the display panel on his apartment wall chimed. Garrus saw her smiling face on the monitor and buzzed her in without a word through the intercom.