-Garrus-
The bright light of the new day shines in to wake him when someone, rather rudely, opens the tent flap for entrance. He answers the entrance by growling in irritation at the glare and threat against anyone coming to do harm to either of them. It's residual, he assumes, from their constant state of caution and danger that may not completely go away after everything they've been through.
"Easy, Garrus," the voice of his father says with a soothing rumble.
"Dad?" He trills and stands from his bedside chair, the flimsy, uncomfortable thing. His father means his children are near and his children being near can mean that maybe, just maybe, their lives can start coming back together. All he needs is for his mate to sleep away the sedatives in her system.
Rushing to his father, he stops in his tracks with his eyes take in the little body in his arms. Eyes wide and vocals undulating from shock, to happiness, and back to disbelief, he reaches out with his only hand to their daughter, Cassia distinguishable from her brother because the lack of a fringe atop her head.
He purrs and smiles in complete joy as he cups her cheek, keening when she nuzzles back with a chirping squeal. "She remembers…"
"Of course they do," his father assures with a warm rumble, pointedly not looking at Garrus' wounds - probably having been warned by the Blue Suns doctors.
Just as he is about to ask where their other child is, Solana enters the now too cramped tent, Damocles in her arms. The baby immediately cries with a high pitched trill and clatter of his mandibles, hand reaching.
The joy in their faces is the best news he's had since hearing his mate is alive, the horrors and pain in between washing away with the looks on their not to tiny faces. Huffing a weak, overwhelmed laugh, he takes his son's hand, stepping close to press his forehead to one's, then the other's. "They're so big. They've grown so much."
"We've all missed you, Garrus," Sol says as she leans in to nuzzle his cheek. His father takes Cassia to his hip and grips the younger man's shoulder, pulling him closer and rumbling as he presses mandible to mandible.
When they part, his father asks with a look to the bed, "How is Jane?"
"Sleeping off the sedatives still. They say it might be a few days."
"And they're letting you stay here on something that can barely be called a stool? In your condition?" Sol trills in disbelief, looking around the tent before she scowls. "Are you even supposed to be out of bed yourself?"
He refuses to answer that, just as he refused to let anyone or anything drag him from from her side no matter what his supposed condition was or is. "I'm not leaving her," he says instead as he contemplates how to hold one of his children with only a single arm.
He doesn't pay attention to whatever reprimand his father gives as he steps closer to his sister and wraps his arm around his son in silent plea. She rumbles as she nods and helps Garrus get an arm around Damocles and hand under his rear as he takes him on his hip.
Smiling wide with a rumbling purr, Garrus nuzzles his head over the top of the barely formed fringe as he clicks and chirps in time with his child. "Hey, little guy. I've missed you and your sister."
With son in had, he rumbles in question to his father as he motions the bed with his chin and heads to his wife. Even asleep, she deserves to be with them as much as he.
"You want to see mommy?" Damocles makes a whirring trill and he takes that as a yes, leaning over to gently help the little one onto his mother's bed. Immediately, their son crawls up onto her chest and lays down, sending a sense of surprise through him. "He can crawl?" He asks with a trill.
His father chuckles and nods, handing over Cassia in the same manner that Sol had. "The challenge is getting them to stop crawling everywhere."
Garrus smiles in pride, not too surprised that their children would be fast learners. Already, they are starting to prove themselves capable of getting into trouble. It's alright, he assures them wordlessly with a loving purr and gentle nip of a kiss on his daughter's scalp. If they were able to destroy the Reapers, than they can handle their twins, right?
"They're so beautiful, Jane," he says, as he has been since he woke and had to be practically dragged to her tent. "Just like you."
His father smiles, but shakes his head with a slight rumble of admonishment. "I know you want to be here with her, but you're just as injured as she is, Garrus. You should be resting in a bed, not in an old, half destroyed chair."
"I won't leave her."
Titus sighs, making Sol glare at him for giving up so easily, and nods. "How about we compromise? You sleep in a bed and you can spend the days in here?"
He hums in thought at that and looks to his daughter. "What about Damocles and Cassia?"
"We can watch them in shifts," His sister says with a smile, rumbling in pride at her great idea. "You probably aren't going to sleep very long anyways, so we'll tend to them while you do rest and another can help you-"
She stops and clamps her mandibles shut, ducking her head at the unintended reminder of his own injuries. Not faulting her for something he knows she didn't mean in the way she now blames herself for, Garrus rumbles in reassurance. "I'd like the help, actually. Caring for twins was something Jane and I had to do together when they weren't crawling."
To add to it, Cassia grips his mandible, making him chuckle, his voice slightly off with the lack of movement in his gripped mandible. "And I'll apparently need help entertaining them now too."
"We have some toys for them," his father confirms with a nod and covers sleeping Damocles with Jane's blanket, tucking him in on her chest. "It's not much, but we were able to trade for them on the liveship."
"What ship were you on?"
"The Aurora," Sol answers for him as she starts to examine the medical equipment monitoring Jane's sleep. "A big ship, but full of families. We traded the carrier and small clothes for some food which we then traded for the toys to a family whose children had grown bored of them."
"Their clothes," he says as he finally gets the chance to look Cassia over, seeing her outfit to really be an oversized child's tunic pulled in and tied in places with scraps of extra fabric to resemble something passing for an outfit. Damocles in garbed in something very similar, though, at least, not in the reddish gold of his sister but a blue and green instead. "I assume they were traded too?"
"Actually, no. They were given to us by another woman when she saw that we were simply wrapping our own clothes around them to keep them warm."
"It brings hope to see charity even now." Garrus nods in agreement to his father's words, not expecting there to be much in the way of giving now that the war has left so many without.
Still, it leaves one glaring, worrying question. One that he just has to know for the sake and safety of his family.
"Did anyone see their fingers? Or their toes?"
There is, at first, confusion, but soon realization of what he's asking crosses their faces and his father shakes his head with a reassuring rumble. "No. We've given extra care to ensure that no one saw the signs of what make them yours and Jane's."
Sol snorts at that. "Everyone thought they were mine, in fact. Good news they have Jane's beauty or we'd never have pulled that off," she adds with a teasing smirk and Garrus chuckles.
"I owe you both for caring for them. I still don't know what would have happened to the four of you on the Normandy."
His father nods and hums in deep thought before saying, "We've heard that the human Alliance wants to hold a ceremony marking the end of the war and paying respects to those lost. Your crew, those that survived, are bound to be there. Last I've heard, only Liara knows of your survival."
"Wait. You mean no one else knows we lived?"
When his father nods, he looks to his sister to get the same response before Titus explains. "When Arcanus and his men found Jane in her condition, we thought it was better to let the two of you decide your futures after the war."
"So they went to find you. We don't know how he managed to bring you here and fake your death, but you both are reported as KIA according to what Liara told us." Sol frowns and paces a bit. "They invited dad in yours and Jane's stead to the ceremony."
"To which I'm going," he says, gaining a confused look from Garrus that he needs to explain. "Garrus, suspicions will be raised if I do not go. Either they will believe that there was a strife amongst our family, that I have no pride in what you fought for, or that I might see no need to go for the dead. Either one leaves too many questions, too many possibilities that someone might start searching for answers."
"You almost sound as paranoid as me," Garrus jokes with a chuckle, wondering if that's such a bad thing.
"I'll accept that if it means that we can buy you and Jane more time hidden away from people who will most likely look to, what's the term, drag your names through the mud? It's easier to take their anger out on something close than to acknowledge their fears and loss from this war."
Nodding in understanding, Garrus turns to his daughter and can't help his smile. "I won't stop you from going. I trust your judgement on this." If that surprises his father, he doesn't see it with his full attention focused on seeing all the new changes to his daughter's face.
Her mandibles are starting to show the the small spurs at the backs of her mandibles, the length that will grow as she gets older and closes on her womanhood. Her facial plates have started to grown together, filling in the gaps where her soft hide shows. Even her little teeth are starting to grow in, as illustrated by her harmless chewing at his too small, borrowed tunic.
The rain comes not long after his father leaves and sister takes to his tent to rest. With the heavy patter of drops leaden with ash and dirt from the war that leaves an odd smell in the air, Garrus leans against the bed to that he can help Cassia up to lay with her mother and he can free his arm to caress all of his most precious possessions.
He knows she would never accept it, but their daughter really does take after her mother, her features rounder, gentler, than any turian and vocals softer and less distinct from each other, as if one voice than can divide and come back together than the two separate vocals he hears in his son, that exists with every other turian.
Yet, in his son, he has to admit he sees himself. Be it pride or vanity, he hopes he sees strength in his son's features, perhaps more than he's had in his life. Garrus knows he will need it for the galaxy will not be a forgiving place, but one that will fight against him every step of the way, if not more than Garrus himself has had to endure because of their mixed blood.
He can't even begin to imagine what their struggle will be like knowing that the very Galaxy will not accept their existence, that their very birth will be looked upon as a crime against nature. It will be hard, sure, but he knows there is nowhere else he and Jane would be besides holding their hands, leading them on their path through the strife.
Hours pass and he's sure he spends some of those asleep with his head nuzzled up between their children on Jane's chest. However, most of the hours he spends just watching them, catching them as they stray close to the edge with their crawling and talking to them about nothing at all, just letting them hear his voice after so long as he uses it to ground himself in the reality that they're okay, they all made it through.
True, 'okay' might not be the term best used to describe his and Jane's conditions, but they're alive and, as far as the doctors have led him to believe, it is only their bodies with the scars. In all honesty, if he were to really let himself think of it, they came out of the war better than they planned, better than they expected.
What was that saying? 'Plan for the worst so you'll be pleasantly surprised'?
When night comes, and he can only tell it by the lessening of the voices passing outside the medical tent, the rain has started anew, pouring down on the tent roof in a staccato that sounds too close to gunfire for him to sleep. So he stays, not admitting to the fact that he wouldn't have left as it was in case someone managed to walk in and read it off his features and begin an admonishment to the contrary, and watches the slow rise and fall of his mate's chest as she lifts and lowers their children.
"You shouldn't be up," the voice of his father reprimands softly with a rumble as he enters the dark tent, his clothes smelling of the rain and ash. "But I expect you'd want to be here."
His chuckle is gruff, tired from the day of waiting for his wife to awaken and still feeling the affects of his long time asleep, but never regretting a second he's spent since waking. "Just like old times." Hearing his father's confused rumble as he draws closer, he explains. "Jane and I used to say it before every mission since every one always tended to go the same way."
"Horribly?" Titus teases, seeming to understand, and the younger turian chuckles with a nod.
"That's putting it lightly. But it meant more than that to us." He finds his wife's hand and links their fingers. "Through it all, I am with her, no matter what new trouble we find ourselves in. It's been that way since we met."
"So it was a reaffirmation."
Garrus nods and squeezes her hand. "Even if she knows I'll be there, it doesn't hurt to say it."
"No…it doesn't," her soft voice whispers and he nearly yelps in surprise, eyes wide as he looks to her.
"Jane?" He trills as he stands and leans closer to her, pressing his forehead to hers as he purrs. "You're awake," he whispers, as if needing to confirm it to himself.
She makes a noise that has to be a snort. "Good. Was gettin tired of the empty bar…"
He smiles and releases her hand to caress her face. "There's a surprise for you."
Seeing her confused look with eyes still have lidded in drowsiness, he motions his father to help him as he wraps an arm around Cassia and picks her up. His dad picks up Damocles and helps Jane sit up, her eyes widening as her mouth falls open in shock.
"Is this…"
He smiles and nods, offering Cassia. Let's hope this happiness holds her attention long before I have to tell her.
"Yeah, this is them. Our children," he says as Jane tenderly takes their daughter, kissing her on the forehead before each cheek and making the child emit a shrill scream of delight.
"Oh my God, they're adorable!" She grins as he chuckles and takes the little girl into one arm, motioning for their son too. "Gimme, gimme!"
His father helps get their son into her free hand and Garrus takes it as the perfect chance to shift to further block his missing side, wanting to keep it out of sight for as long as possible and ride that crest of amazement before her own state falls into place. A silent thanks goes to his dad for shifting the pillows behind her to make up for her possible lack of balance without her lower legs, of which he isn't sure if she feels that 'phantom limb' like he has been plagued with.
He can't pull himself to imagine what the news will do to her good mood as she grins widely and makes the softest sounds of awe and love to their children in her arms. When she looks to him with the warmest smile, he smiles back and bites back the horrid keen at having to be the one to destroy that happiness with what they've become.
That time comes all too soon for them when she slowly starts to take in the room and frowns at the obviously different feeling within her own body. He can see understanding wash over her before she looks to him and examines his own state, her eyes widening as her expression falls.
"Dad," Garrus says as she clenches her eyes shut, the salty smell of tears cutting through the air. "Check on Sol?"
Though it's addressed as a question, his father understands it as what it is and steps out, giving them the privacy they'll need to fully understand their new bodies.
Looking to her, he sighs and says, "I can tell you've already started piecing it together…"
She sniffs and opens her eyes, wet with tears as she holds their children tighter to her sides, taking her strength from them. He doesn't blame her. "I could guess I've been asleep… But my body feels…wrong too."
Of course she'd pick up on the worst of it and he sits beside her, keeping his body turned from her but moving his head to look at her, to take her hand in his only one. "We were hurt bad, Jane. You were pinned beneath the rubble on the Citadel." Squeezing her hand, he decides it just best to say it, his mate never one to lighten the weight of whatever she had to say with soft, kind words so he wouldn't be the one to do it to her.
"They had to remove your legs from mid thigh down," he says softly with a keen and watches her expression go professionally blank, she turning to the Commander for strength.
"I…," She stops and her mouth opens and closes for a few moments as she goes still. "They took my legs," she whispers and he nods with a frown.
"I'm sorry, Jane."
She is silent for a moment before barking a very dry, humorless laugh. "Guess we have no choice but to retire. Figures I'd go down by a fucking space station." As he nods, her brows quirk in thought and she squeezes his hand. "The dreams. With the bar… Our limbs went numb. My legs, your…" Her head snaps to him and eyes widen with realization. "Your…"
Rumbling sadly that she had to find out so quickly, that she has to worry about him too, he turns to show his entire damaged left side and hears her gasp, her arms twitching around their children as if she could suddenly grow another to reach out. "It was all they could do to get me out from under the Mako."
Helping her lay the children on the bed where her legs should be, he helps her free her hands so she can touch over his scarred side. Her fingers rung over ropey, burned flesh and plates, mapping all new scars as she cries and presses her forehead to his chest.
"I'm so sorry, Garrus… I wasn't fast enough, strong enough."
"Jane. We lived." He cups her head and presses his forehead to hers. "I know it'll be hard, but we can get through this." Wanting to help her, he smiles weakly. "And now we finally get the retirement we've always wanted."
Her eyes are still pain and tears roll down her cheeks, but she gasps a single chuckle before nodding, her lips finding way to his mouth plates as she speaks. "We've earned it."
