Author Note: Like to point out a few things before you read this story. This takes place inbetween ME2 and ME3. Garrus is in a relationship with Shepard and that her background is Earthborn/Sole Survivor. Also this is my first story so please comment if you like so I can get better at this.
Helos Medical Institute looked like any other hospital in the galaxy. Maybe a little nicer looking with the park next to it, but that was about it. Yet he was nervous as hell to go in, "Shit, Vakarian, why the hell are you so nervous? She will be happy to see me…I think," Garrus pondered.
It had been more than a year or two since he last saw her and a lot of stuff had happen since then. After saving the galaxy with Shepard he went back to C-Sec with a renew sense of purpose. It was going well until he got the news of Shepard's death and it just took the wind out of him. He tired to honor her by staying in C-Sec, but with everyone trashing her memory he could not take it anymore. Besides, he was getting in a lot of trouble defending his friend and it would not be long before he pissed off the wrong person. While writing the report for his last case he saw that the criminal was part of some gang in Omega. Inspired yet again he decided to go to Omega and do some good over there.
His work there gained him a squad and a new name, Archangel, but when good things happen, bad things are not far behind. In Garrus case, he was betrayed by one of his squad mates, a kind of student to him, Sidonis. This caused his squad to be murder and put him in the fight for his life. In the middle of all that chaos, he saw someone he never thought would see again, Shepard. At first he thought, he finally lost it, but after shooting her a couple of times and hearing her curse in that colorful way she does; he knew it was her. Seeing her gave him his second wind and more of a reason to stay alive. Of course, when good things happen something has to go bad and that was getting a missile to his face. He nearly died, but with Shepard, back he could not die just yet. After surviving that ordeal and gaining some battle scars, he joined his friend, Shepard in another suicide mission. After a while, he located Sidonis and tried to get revenge against him. He brought Shepard along thinking it was a good idea, but Shepard stopped him from killing him by being her stubborn self. He was a bit pissed at first, but after talking with her, he understood why she did what she did. Still it would take some time him to get used to this new world of grey.
Not long after that, Shepard graced him with her slightly drunken presence and they began talking about random stuff. Things got interesting after he told her about his tiebreaker story and sufficient to say he was shocked to find out that she has a thing for scared men. He was even more surprised at himself that he said yes to her proposition. He kind of just said the first thing that came to his mind, not really thinking that maybe Shepard was just kidding. So when she came by the main battery the next day he gave her a way to back out, but she did not take it. She wanted to be with him and nothing was going to change her mind. After that, things changed between them. At first when he was around her he got a little nervous around her and would occasionally put his foot in his mouth, but as time passed, he began to relax around her. Being with Shepard was as natural as breathing for him and he began to wonder if their relationship could become something serious. Then it was time for them to hit the Collector base. With time not on their side, he decided to come clean with his feelings. Shepard listen and with just one touch to his face, all his doubts and worries just vanished. For once, everything went right for those few moments. Not only did that go right, but their mission as well. Everyone survived with maybe a little wear and tear to them and they blew up the Collector Base as a goodbye gift to The Illusive Man.
Everything seemed to be going well, but then came Hackett's mission for Shepard. Never had Garrus been so restless while waiting for her to come back. The first few hours he was ok, then several more hours passed by, and still nothing from her. A day passed and still nothing. When the second day came, he could not take it anymore and did everything in his power to find her. Luckily, by that time she made contact with the Normandy. She managed to make it to Normandy with barely a minute to spare and they all witness a system's destruction. Shepard had told them the Reapers were only minutes away from entering that system and that she had no time to find another way to delay their arrival. All of them understood, but Shepard being Shepard still beat herself up over it. Garrus tried his best to cheer her up, and while she touched that he tried, it did not work.
Shortly after that, she turned herself in and all the crew went their separate ways to prepare for the coming of the Reapers. Garrus wanted to stay and give her support, but she convinced him to go. "I will be fine, Garrus. They will more than likely keep me under guard for a few months till we can settle what happen with the Batarians,"
"This isn't the time for this bullshit. The Reapers are on our doorstep and I don't think they are going to wait for us to open the door for them,"
"True, when you have weapons that can destroy whole fleets in minutes and can control minds you really don't have to wait on anything do you,"
"We are going to have a lot of disadvantages when they come. A lot of lives are going to be lost because everyone who can do something about it is sticking their heads in the sand and hoping the crazy woman that is screaming, 'THE REAPERS ARE COMING!' goes away,"
Shepard could not help, but laugh, "I am assuming that I am the crazy woman, correct?"
"The one and only, although maybe Jack can give you a run for your money," Shepard punched him on his shoulder. "Hey, I was just kidding, Shepard,"
"Sure you were, Vakarian," she smiled. It had been a while since he saw her really smile. "Still you are right that we are not in the best situation now. I think at most I gave everyone a few more months to prepare for war, but,"
"We will all do are best, Shepard. Everyone who supports you know what is at stake and we will be damn to let all your effort to stop the Reaper go to waste," Garrus grabbed her hand and gently squeezed it. Shepard returned the gesture and put her head on his shoulder. They stood there for a minute just being content with each other's presence.
Shepard was the first to notice a couple of soldiers coming toward them, "Guess my time is up," Garrus looked toward their direction, giving them a glare that would freeze hell itself. Shepard notice and nudged him in the ribs, "Don't be mad at them. They are only doing their job,"
"I understand that, but it still doesn't mean I have to like it," he eyed the Normandy. "You know we could…"
"No,"
"Oh come on Shepard, just like old times,"
"No," Garrus was a little disappointed to say the least. Shepard gently put her hand on his scared side of his face. "As much as I would like to ditch this place and 'borrow' the Normandy again; we have to play this one by the book. Besides Garrus, you have an important job to do,"
He arched his eyebrow plates in confusion, "I do?"
"Yup, it's your turn to be the crazy one screaming, 'THE REAPERS ARE COMING!' I am pretty sure you will get more attention than me with that voice of yours,"
"What is so special about my voice?" Shepard let out a small grunt. "What was that about?"
"Garrus, you could read a damn dictionary and make it sound both interesting and sexy. Hell I would have gotten better grades in school if my teachers sounded as half as good as you," Garrus could not help, but chuckled. Shepard then kissed him on his scared cheek. "Gotta go," He wanted to grabbed her and really kiss her goodbye, but he thought it might be inappropriate with all the Alliance soldiers around.
"Shepard," she stopped and turn around, "try not to cause too much trouble while you are here. I won't be here to save your ass, you know,"
She chuckled, "You know I can say the same to you, Vakarian. How many times have I pulled your ass out of the fire?"
"Not nearly as many times as I have for you. Besides that is the real reason why you always bring me to every mission you go on. No one can save your ass like I can," Garrus had an impish look to him, which Shepard was not going to have. Shepard walked back to him, she swagger those hips of hers more than Garrus was comfortable with and got up to his face.
"I'll admit you defiantly have an impressive 'reach' in the battlefield. Enough to take a headshot or two away from me," Garrus was about to say something, but Shepard shushed him and got a little closer to him, "but I am the more 'flexible' one with my long and short range moves, it gives me quite the edge in battle as you know and then there is sniping any of the one you miss,"
"That I miss?" Garrus retorted.
"Ok, the one I get by distracting you with my body, Vakarian, happy?"
"If that is what you call pushing me out of the way to take the shot sure, I am happy,"
"It's called saving your butt from the all the killer bullets. Since this Turian," she lifted his chin a bit, "does not know how to duck,"
Garrus narrowed his eyes at her, "Turians don't need-"
"Commander," one of the soldiers interrupted, "we really should be going now,"
Both Garrus and Shepard were not too pleased for the interruption, but she replied, "Just give me a minute, soldier," The soldier quickly went back to the other stockier soldier. "Man, what a way to kill the mood," Garrus nodded in agreement. Shepard pulled his head down so that they were touching forehead to forehead. "How about we settle this once and for all once I get out of here?"
"I'm game what is the challenge going to be this time?"
"How about whoever takes down the most Reapers wins?" she replied.
"Fine by me, finally get to one-shot kill one with my baby," Garrus looked at the Normandy's Thanix Gun.
"Oh no, that is my baby, Vakarian,"
"Sure you captain the ship, Shepard, but that gun is all mine. I did the upgrades, keep it clean, and calibrate it every day. So by all rights it is my gun and any kills that gun does are mine,"
"As you said before I am the captain of that ship and thus everything that is the Normandy is mine. Plus I remember helping you with that gun sometimes so there is another reason why that gun should be mine," she argued.
"Sure, if you consider distracting me help, then I will agree with you on that point," he countered.
"I did not hear you complain about my 'distractions', Vakarian. In fact I remember how much you loved my little distractions. You were quite vocal about it,"
"Shepard,"
"Garrus,"
Both were dead set in have the Thanix gun on their side and so it was no surprise they came up with the same conclusion. "Tiebreaker," the both of them said at the same time. They nodded in agreement. Shepard, turn around to leave, but Garrus pulled her back into his embrace.
"I hope to see you again before everything goes to hell,"
"Same here,"
"And if that doesn't happen, just stay alive, Shepard, so I can save your ass stylishly yet again,"
"Psst, in your dreams, Vakarian,"
Garrus put his mouth next to her ear and whispered, "Shepard, my dreams about you are going to be a lot more fun than the stuff we do in the battlefield," she began to blush and Garrus couldn't stop smirking. "You will be doing a lot of that in my dream as well," Shepard quickly pushed him back and tried to regain some composure.
"Damn it, Vakarian, get your ass out of here and go help save the universe from its stupidity,"
He chuckled, "All right, Shepard, I'll go and save the universe while you are here playing nice. Just don't blame me when you have nothing to shoot at, because a certain Turian single handily took care of the Reapers with one shot,"
Shepard narrowed her eyes, "When I get out I am going to have to knock down that ego of yours a bit,"
"I am sure you will do more than that, Shepard," she turned around quickly and walked off with her escorts. Garrus was pleased that he got under her skin. It was quickly becoming his new favorite thing to do with Shepard as were other things. Still with Shepard gone, the world seemed a little duller somehow to him. Therefore, to distract that feeling he began his plan of attack to help prepare the universe for the coming invasion.
First, he went to Citadel and hoped that all the information that he gather up till now would finally open the council's eyes. It was no big surprise that they brushed him off. He was not one to give up so easily and stayed there for about two week. With time not on his side, he decided to try to get some help from someone he never thought to go to, his father. Highly respected by several high officials in both the Citadel and Palaven, it was worth a shot. So, he prepared himself to go to Palaven to meet his father.
As he was packing up his things he came upon his good luck charm, an old amulet that had nicks and cracks everywhere on it. It was a gift from his mother when he first joined the military. He remembered trying to give it back to her since he knew how much it meant to her, but she insisted he keep it. Saying that a little luck could not hurt keep the bullets away. So he kept it and tried to keep it in good shape, but the thing kept getting more scratches and dents that he was afraid it would break at any moment. He put it away in a small box for a while and somewhat forgot about it. Still every time he packed, he remembered to bring it, but never took it out of the box. That was until whole Omega fiasco. Everyone was dead and he was going upstairs to make his last stand when he saw the box. He could not remember ever taking the box out of his bag, but there it was. Needing a little luck on his side he took the thing out and put it in his pocket. Sufficient to say that little bit of luck helped him survive days of the mercenary's onslaught, and brought Shepard back to him. Still luck can only get you so far and a missile is not a bullet. So the amulet did its job until that point. "It has been a long time since I last saw her and Sol said she wasn't doing too well," he quickly made up his mind and booked a flight to Sur'kesh where she was staying at Helos Medical Institute for treatment.
Now he was inside the institute, walking down a very long hallway or what felt like a very long hallway. As he was walking down the hallway he mentally checked off each room he passed, 523, 525, 527, 529 his mother's room number. He was finally there and all he had to do was open the door. A very simple thing to do, but Garrus did not know what to expect or what to say. It had been a long time since he has seen her in person and he felt like a bad son for not coming to see her sooner or talk with her more on vid chat. He was beginning to have doubts when a very familiar voice came from behind him, "Garrus, the door does not open unless you push the big holographic button that is right in front of you or have you hit your head one too many times and forgot what a button looks like,"
Garrus let out a heavy sigh, "Still the smartass I see. Nice to know some things never change," He turned around and looked down at his little sister, Solana.
"Sprits, what the hell happen to your face?" she exclaimed.
Garrus just shook his head, "Hello to you too, Sol,"
She took a step back and apologized, "Sorry, but can you blame me? Last time we saw each other…well you defiantly did not have this," she poked at his bandage, "nor did you tell me about it last time we talked. So I am completely within my rights to freak out a little at seeing your face," Family, they can be supportive at times and the rest of the time they can kick you in the plates with no remorse.
"Thanks for calling me ugly, Sol,"
"Hey, that's not what I meant," she blurted out. "It was just that I was surprise that's all. Which I am pretty sure is going to be mom's and dad's reaction when you go through that door," He was not expecting his father to be there and was now even more nervous to go in.
"Dad's here?"
"Of course, he visits every chance he gets. He is spending the week here before he goes back to Palaven,"
"I see," It seemed to Garrus that caught a lucky break, but he was not ready to face his father just yet. He did not have his customary shot of brandy that he takes before any meeting with his father.
Solana grabbed a hold of her brother's arm, "Come on time for the prodigal son to finally return to his family," she opened the door and dragged him in. "Hey everybody, guess what I found just right outside the door," She pushed him toward the bed and he fumbled a bit.
"Hey, mom," he nodded at her, "dad," and nodded at him as well.
"Garrus," replied his dad.
His mother slowly lifted herself up to a sitting position. His father tried to help her up, but she gave him that look that said, 'I can do this myself.' "So how was hell? Is it still how I remember it?"
"If it is getting shot from every direction and things blowing up all around you then nothing changed,"
She laughed, "Good to know some things don't change and Garrus,"
"Yeah,"
"It is really good to see you again,"
All of his nervous just melted away when she smiled, "Yeah, mom, it is really good to see you too,"