This scene sprang up as I was writing a normal chapter of Ante Up. The beginning will coincide with the beginning of Chapter 28. I didn't want to include this in with the main story because it goes off into the left field a bit, haha.

But, several people asked about the relationship between Garrus' parents and Pallin, so I wanted to explain it and give some insight on the turian culture that's canon in Ante Up.

(Nothing explicit in this oneshot but...) If the idea of threesomes/foursomes or things of that sort isn't your cup of tea, that's fine. That's why this part is separate from the main story. :3

Also, in Ante Up canon, turian spoken language sounds a lot like Latin.

Custos = protector, guardian
Bis = two
Cordis = heart

If I spelled it wrong anywhere or have any other typos, I'm very sorry. Have a lovely day/night everyone!

After showering, Garrus and Shepard returned to the mess for a quick breakfast. Victus was no longer there, his seat occupied instead by Broccha. Across from him, Kanna was wolfing down oatmeal like it was going out of style. Liara was beside her with a bowl of her own.

Garrus broke off to stand by Kanna while Shepard continued on to find herself something to eat. He laid a hand on top of Kanna's head, grinning. "Sleep well?"

She smiled up at him and gave an affirmative hum around her mouthful of oatmeal. She swallowed loudly and said, "Miss Liara sang to me like Mama used to."

"Did she?" Garrus chirped, smirking at the older asari. Liara frowned back at him, her cheeks flushing purple, as Shepard joined them at the table.

"Sounds like we should tell Dr. Chakwas that she isn't the only unofficial mom on the Normandy," Shepard teased, handing Garrus a dextro protein bar and tearing into her own levo-bar.

"Very funny," Liara muttered, chomping onto a spoonful of oatmeal with a huff.

Garrus ripped open his ration and tore into it, gulping it down before asking Shepard, "Have you contacted Aria yet?"

"Nah," Shepard hummed. "Gonna call her up in a minute, see if we can work around this Oraka thing somehow." She crunched into her bar. "Nof'ing's ever f'imple."

"Sorry," Garrus said, nudging her with his elbow, "I didn't catch that."

Shepard swallowed. "Learn to speak granola."

"Granola?" Garrus questioned. "Is that what you call that crunchy stuff?"

"Yes," she said bluntly, biting off another chunk and flashing a wide smile at him as she ground it between her teeth.

"Cute," he muttered, nibbling at his bar.

Beside them, Broccha's Omni-tool lit up with an alert and he slowly stood and stretched, towering over both Shepard and Garrus. "The boss calls."

Garrus laughed. His mother was the one on the other line, making good her promise from the night before to call Broccha. "Her rank is forfeit now that she's retired, you know."

Broccha gave a throaty chuckle. "Retired or not, I know whose command I follow, kid." He pushed up his chair and stalked out of the mess, checking the message on his Omni-tool as he exited.

Shepard quirked a brow as he left, chewing thoughtfully on her granola. "Loyal to a fault, huh? Guess your mom made an impression on her squad."

Garrus hummed, "Mom is to him what you were to me, I guess." Shepard gave him a look of mixed shock and amusement. Garrus sputtered, "I meant three years ago, on the first Normandy. A mentor, a friend."

"Uh-huh," Shepard chimed, enjoying the sight of him fumbling.

"You know what I meant," Garrus huffed.

"You know, we should get going, too," Shepard said suddenly, circling around him and heading for the elevator. "Lots to do today."

"Right," Garrus muttered, waving at Kanna and Liara. "We'll be back later. Keep an eye on her?"

"Of course," Liara said, smiling.

"Bye," Kanna chirped as Garrus whirled and bolted around the wall to catch up with Shepard.

He joined her in the car, still flustered. She was grinning, still amused by the earlier exchange. "Shepard, I meant-"

"I know," she said, her smile widening. "You understand my confusion, though? Maybe I've read into turian relationships wrong, but there is Pallin..."

"That's completely different," Garrus grumbled.

"How?" Shepard asked as she pressed the key for the CIC. "I mean, you've said Pallin is like a... godfather or something, but you never really explained it."

"I believe your exact words were," he spoke an octave higher to imitate her voice, "never mind. I don't want to know."

She frowned. "Maybe I changed my mind."

Garrus chuckled. "There's not that much to explain about it, really. Think of it as... a secondary mating."

Shepard muttered, "A godparent with benefits? Humans don't exactly have anything like that. I mean, I'm sure there's some kind of fetish..." Garrus gave and amused chirp and cocked a browplate at her. "What?"

"Humans are so strange," he said, grinning.

"And turians aren't?" Shepard countered. "Your species mates for life, yet you make it sound like this sort of thing is common."

"Not, common exactly," Garrus replied, "but it's not uncommon either. We call it custos biscordis."

"Which means?" Shepard urged. She tapped at her ear to indicate that her translator hadn't even attempted to convert the words.

Garrus hummed for a moment, his jaw clicking shut as he thought of a translation. "The closest meaning would be the protector of two hearts."

They arrived at their floor and stepped out into the mostly empty CIC. Garrus glanced around, assessing how many people where within hearing range. Shepard pushed the topic, though, convinced that there were few enough people around to still consider the conversation private. "So, a secondary mating? And that's acceptable to your people?"

"It makes perfect sense," Garrus muttered. "We're a military species. Our entire lives, we're told that we could die any day... that dying in battle is honorable, even. On top of that, we're highly social beings that form strong bonds with those we care about." He stopped her in front of the galaxy map, facing her with a determined look. "Custos biscordisis something that came about because of that."

Shepard said, "Maybe I'm not following..."

"Okay," Garrus sighed. "As an example, take a mated pair. They've established their bond, maybe had children. Say one of them goes to war and gets killed. The surviving partner would be devastated by it, might not be able to handle it at all.

He continued, "Now, say that pair had connected with another pair-"

"A pair?" Shepard interrupted.

Garrus huffed, "Yes. If the two pairs had entered into a bond together, it would make to grieving process easier. The turian that lost a mate would have two others immediately there supporting them. Or, in the worst case, should there be children involved and both their parents die, the other pair would adopt them as their own."

"So it's between two couples?" Shepard questioned, leaning against her private terminal.

"Ideally, yes," Garrus said.

"I mean, that's similar to the human concept of godparents," Shepard said, "but you said there would be a physical aspect to it. Humans don't take it that far."

"Humans are prudes," Garrus scoffed. "Besides, I said it couldbecome a physical thing. Every bond is different. A physical connection is only established if there's a need for it. Remember how our stress response works, Shepard."

"And your first mate couldn't take care of that?" Shepard said skeptically.

"They couldn't if they were stationed somewhere else," Garrus said simply. "An easy example: Mom stayed in the Blackwatch and Dad went to C-Sec. If Mom was sent out, they might not see each other for months. But..." He hesitated, giving and embarrassed sort of humm. "Well, Pallin was in C-Sec, too, so the problem sort of resolved itself."

"And your mom?"

"Oh, she was fighting all the time, so she was fine," Garrus said offhandedly.

"So, Broccha..." Shepard said, trailing off to let Garrus finish the thought himself.

"You're still caught up on that?" Garrus grumbled. "They're close, but only as comrades. It doesn't go any farther than that."

"But what if your mom wasn't fighting?"

"Sparring," Garrus deadpanned.

"What if it wasn't an option?"

"It's always an option," Garrus muttered. "But, if not, there's the depressant shots."

"What if she'd taken them already?" Shepard pressed with a grin.

A frustrated growl rumbled in Garrus' throat. "Broccha and his mate agreed to keep their mating between the two of them. Even in the worst case, Mom wouldn't have become involved in it."

"But she could've?" Shepard asked.

"If they'd discussed it, I guess," Garrus sighed. "But that would've involved everyone, including Dad, Pallin, and Broccha's mate. And it wouldn't have been anything official or legally recognized. It would've been a lot of trouble for nothing."

"So Broccha's mate..." Shepard began.

"What about her?"

"Where does she play in to all this? If she didn't want to include anyone else, how did she cope while he was on duty?" Shepard crossed her arms, showing her defiance in response to Garrus' impatient frown. "And him being close to your Mom, and serving with her for who knows how long... didn't she get jealous?"

"First of all," Garrus groaned, "we don't bother with jealousy very often."

"Says the possessive turian," Shepard chirped with a smirk.

"Possessive, yes," Garrus said simply, "but I know you wouldn't betray me."

"You said before that you wouldn't want to include anyone else, though," Shepard recalled, "and Sol said you were the jealous type, remember?"

"Jealous isn't exactly the right word," Garrus said. "Competitive, maybe. There couldn't be anyone else involved with us because I'd want to outdo them."

He was suddenly very close to her, nearly trapping her against her terminal. "Seems like that would be a common problem."

"It's not, really," he said, tracing a hand up her arm. "If there's even the slightest possibility that it would cause hostility, we just don't agree to enter into custos biscordis. It has the same importance as a bondmating and can't be reversed once it's in place. And, just as you can only have one legally recognized bondmate, you can only be officially connected to one other pair."

"What's the difference between official and unofficial?" Shepard said, bringing up her hand and splaying it against his chest.

"Markings," Garrus replied, touching her left shoulder gently. "A bite on the left side symbolizes a primary bond." He dragged a talon across her collarbone to the other shoulder. "The right symbolizes a secondary bond. There could be one or two bite marks, depending on the circumstances. In my parents case, they only have one mark, from Pallin, because they bonded after his mate passed. Pallin has two marks, though, one from Dad and one from Mom, and the scars are connected."

Shepard's brows curved into a sad arch. "They bonded after she died?"

"Yeah," he said. "Pallin and Phaedra, his mate, agreed to bond with Dad as soon as he found a mate. Of course, then he bonded with Mom and it changed things a bit. She hadn't been raised around turians, so she didn't know anything about our culture. Dad didn't want to spring something like that on her until she was ready." He frowned. "But then Relay 314 happened and Pallin was a complete wreck. They had to do something."

"That's..." Shepard traced his mandible and it quivered with a whine that was just outside of Shepard's hearing range. "That's so sad."

"It turned out okay, at least," Garrus said. "You haven't had a chance to really see them together, but they compliment each other well." He changed the subject. "Anyway, you asked about Broccha's mate earlier."

Shepard nodded. "Yeah. You haven't said much about her."

"Yulia's her name," Garrus said with a hint of a smile. "She used to watch Sol and me when we were kids."

"Where'd she serve?"

"Tech division during her basic, but nowhere after that," Garrus supplied. "She's a civilian, works as a receptionist at a Sirta Foundation branch on Palaven." He grinned. "You'd get her in a room with Broccha, Mom, Dad, and Pallin and she couldn't understand anything they talked about. Bombs and guns and terrorism. She'd always just come play with us kids. She always said she dreaded the day that we went to basic, because we'd all become military nuts like them."

"You, Sol, and her kids, I guess?" Shepard said, smiling. Garrus motioned for her to walk away from her terminal and they began walking toward the airlock.

"That's right," Garrus said. "Broccha's got four kids. Three sons-"

"One he wants to hook up with Sol," Shepard teased.

"Oh, he's tried that with all three of them," Garrus grumbled. "The oldest two are mated now, so he was talking about the youngest." He laughed, his eyes squinting happily. "Spirits, it's been years since I saw them all. Well, since basic at least. We all went our separate ways after that. Anyway, three sons and a daughter."

Shepard grinned at him. "A daughter, huh?"

"Before you ask, yes he tried to set us up, too. Didn't work so well," he said with a barked laugh. "Melia can't stand me."

"Can't imagine why," Shepard teased. "You're so law-abiding, traditional, and non confrontational."

"That's what women look for in a man?" Garrus chimed. "Well, damn, I've been doing it wrong this whole time."

As they reached the airlock, Shepard tiptoed to kiss his scarred mandible. "Wouldn't have you any other way, though."

"Like I said," Garrus chirped. "Humans. You're a strange breed."

"The strangest," Shepard sang. "But you love it."

"I do," Garrus purred, swinging an arm around her back to escort her out. "So... Oraka?"

"Yeah, time to settle this mess and get back to Aria."

"He better not be pouting in a bar somewhere, Shepard, or I just might put him out of his misery this time," Garrus joked.

"You and me both."