*Author's Note- Thanks for reading guys. I want to turn this into a sort of long form fanfic. I plan to update once every week or every other week due to college commitments. Reviews are greatly appreciated too! I want to know what you think and how you want the story to go.

Chapter 1

Passing Before Your Eyes

" You know I love you, I always will," Shepard said somberly. I love you so much more than you know, she thought to herself as she thought back to their retirement conversation.

"Shepard, I… Love you too." said Garrus as he held on to Shepard's arm for what could possibly be the last time.

Laura moved off the ramp and locked eyes as Garrus was left with his hand outreached begging her to come back to him. She thought about how sorry she was for breaking Garrus's heart and promise she made to him the night before.

She had promised him that she would do everything she could to come back to him alive. Her thoughts were interrupted as she turned toward the loud screeches of Harbinger and saw the plates on the Reaper begin to part with a slight red glow in the main cannon.

" GO!" she yelled as the Normandy began to slowly gain altitude. As the ship ascended, Laura had restarted her run to the beam as she saw a group of Alliance soldiers disintegrate when Harbinger's beam touched the ground. The parked Mako next to the soldiers exploded in a fiery plume.

Shepard felt the blast from the explosion as it lifted her off the ground and she felt pieces of her armor shatter and fall from her torso, being ripped to shreds from the incoming shrapnel.

Garrus saw Shepard being lifted off the ground and fail to get up.

Still on the ramp with Liara supporting him, he pushed off the Asari and hit the deck.

He reached out for Laura, trying to touch her, even as the Normandy was well off the ground. As Garrus was hanging off the ramp, he yelled at the top of his lungs as the Normandy moved higher and higher.

Liara had to remove her translator as Garrus' yell had amplified into a loud dual tone bird call for Shepard. He finally moved back when the ramp had started to shut and continually punched the metal floor of the cargo bay as it shut for good, not caring as he broke his talons on the metal.

" Garrus we need to go to the med-bay! Look at yourself!" shouted Liara as she attempted to get him up as his armor had been turned black and had more than a few parts turn into a molten gold color. Burning flesh could be smelt as the armor started fusing with his hide and plates.

" Garrus, NOW!" Liara repeated. He still hadn't moved so she called over James as he came running off the elevator.

As they both lifted Garrus' arms over their shoulders and moved him into the elevator James asked, "Where's Lola?"

"Where do you think?" Liara yelled as she shot a glare at James.

As they stumbled into the med-bay Dr. Chakwas was already at the ready to help." Get him on a bed, and remove the armor, quickly!" she shouted as they entered the door.

Garrus was still thinking about Laura holding his mandible and kissing him on his plates as if she knew it was the last time she would see him again. He thought back to when they first met and when they first made their feelings known to each other before going through the Omega-4 Relay. I'm going to die, he thought as even he knew when your life passes before your eyes, you know your time is up. His thoughts were interrupted by the pain of his burnt skin not covered by the natural plates Turians had meeting air as James and Liara undid every clamp and took off his armor piece by piece.

"This is worse than I thought, prepare a dose of dextro-anesthesia drugs and get all the medi-gel in that container James," said Chakwas. She placed herself over Garrus in the bed.

" Laura?" Garrus weakly asked as he looked up at the doctor.

Shepard leaned down over Garrus's face and lightly touched her forehead to his.

" Garrus, I'll love you forever, but you need to let go. Please, I beg of you. Live your life." She lifted a hand to gently rub a mandible. The warm touch of her hand reassuring him.

He reached out to caress her face between his talons. " No, Laura. I want you and only you. There's no Shepard without Vakarian."

Garrus reached up to caress Chakwas face, with the doctor not pulling back. " He's hallucinating. We need to get him under now." She said as she reached over to increase his anesthesia medicine dosage.

Garrus couldn't feel the pain anymore as he stared at the white ceiling and let out a faint call for Laura before he felt the arms of sleep grab him.

Laura moved closer to the cylinder and held the pistol with all of her strength and started to shoot. She heard the shots ring out one at a time and immediately had recollections of her life as she thought to herself, This is it, I'm gonna meet my maker.

She thought of all the times her and Garrus had together and how the past year with Garrus has been the happiest time of her life.

"I love you, Garrus," Laura said as she limped closer to the cylinder and felt the warmth of the heat when it had blown up.

Shepard hit the deck and felt for her transponder, the last thing she grabbed from her locker before the mission. Am I glad I got you, she thought as she pressed the start button and heard a faint beep as she started to fall asleep.

Joker looked at the console and saw a faint signal originating from inside the Citadel. " Holy shit, it may be the Commander. EDI, plot a course for search and rescue on that beacon," Jeff yelled.

" Done, but Admiral Hackett has ordered a full evacuation through the relay," said EDI.

" Well fuck Hackett, I'm not going to be the one to leave the Commander to die," Joker replied.

" I had hoped you would say that, initiating search and rescue protocols."

Garrus had felt like he was waking up, but was met only by the white tiles and blinding light from the ceiling. It felt like the med-bay, but he was more convinced he was dead waiting in what Shepard had once described to him as Purgatory, the mid-way point between life and the afterlife.

Meet me at the bar, he thought to himself. It's what he told her to do if the mission went sideways and they ended up killed.

" Garrus, I'm surprised you're awake after all you've been through."

Garrus turned to see the mysterious voice to only be Dr. Chakwas getting up from her desk." This is a dream, we should be dead after London, TELL ME I'M DEAD!" Garrus yelled as he tried to get up only to be put back down by the severe pain all over his body.

"You're not dead Garrus."

"Bullshit," he said as he started to whine through his sub-harmonics, mimicking an action humans call crying.

"And neither is Shepard."

No, there is no way. I'm dead. There is no way both of us survived, he thought just as he fell back to sleep as he saw Chakwas put him to sleep again.