Beaches

Prompt: Unpromted

Genre: Angst

His pain seemed to just completely dissipate when he saw her striding up to him, all confidence and swagger as if she hadn't just been, as far as he'd known, dead. Hell, there wasn't even a scratch on her. Leave it to Commander Fuckin' Shepard to send all the Reapers to their death without even so much as breaking a nail.

She stopped at some point in front of him, crossing her arms and dipping a hip, fixing him with a confident smirk. "Hey."

Garrus' mandibles flared a little…he couldn't help but smile back a bit. "Hey." he responded, shifting a bit. It felt uncomfortable, but not painful. It was like he couldn't even feel the bullet wound in his side that he'd been sure would end him. Seemed she had that affect on him. Took all his pain away with just one glance.

"Thought you were dead, Shepard."

She said nothing, gave a lazy shrug of her shoulders. "Easier than I thought it'd be. You look like hell, though."

He barked out a little laugh. Why did it feel so uncomfortable? He shifted again, holding his hand to his bullet wound tighter. "Yeah…but if you're here, I think I can make it through."

She looked a little sad at that. Shepard changed her stance and held out a hand to him, to help him up. He just shook his head.

"I don't think I can stand right now." he murmured quietly. "Might want to find a medic or maybe Chakwas."

A sad sigh passed her lips and she shook her head as well, hand moving closer. "It'll feel better if you stand. I promise." There was some sort of note in her voice, one he didn't like…as if she knew something he didn't and was sorry for it.

Though he didn't believe what she was saying, he did trust her implicitly, so he reached out and took her hand.

She pulled him to his feet, and there was no pain…instead, he did feel better, the discomfort from before gone. She clutched his hand tightly, and he looked down to see where their hands were intertwined.

And then he noticed that the blue blood that had been there before was gone.

She was giving him a sad look with a sad, apologetic smile, so uncharacteristic of her, and he knew. He turned his head to look, just to make sure.

There he was. The body battered, broken, blood still oozing from the wound, no longer held back by the limp hand slumped over it. No breath moved its chest, and its eyes were dulled, staring forever at the place where Shepard now stood, though now he knew that nobody would ever see her.

"Ah."

Shepard just nodded, squeezing his hand tighter. "Sorry, Garrus…I wasn't able to make it back. Or else I might have…" She took a deep breath, though such a thing was no longer necessary. "I might have been here in time…"

He turned to look back at her and, using her hand in his, pulled her against him, holding her in a tight embrace. He wasn't angry, or upset, though he supposed he should have been, but he wasn't alone, she was with him, and they'd completed their mission.

"I don't think I would have been able to stand retirement anyways." he joked, mandibles fluttering at the sound of her laugh. "Too dull after all this."

He pulled back just enough to touch his forehead to hers, a gesture that she returned, her eyes closing for a moment as they enjoyed it. As long as they had one another, it would all work out.

"Now, c'mon…" he whispered softly, squeezing her hand. "Drinks are on me." That prompted a smile, and he pulled away.

They walked hand-in-hand towards a path that hadn't been there before.

Maybe there were tropical beaches in Heaven, too.