Thanks to anyone who read the first chapter of this fic last month and to anyone who's reading this now :)

It was lovely to get such a positive response to the start of the story. I really didn't expect it.

I think I should say here that the first half of this new chapter is to explain Garrus' view on his relationship with Shepard, as well as to move the plot forward slightly. The whole way through Home, I only wrote from Teagan's perspective so I'm basically trying to rebalance that.

The early morning light streamed into the hotel room and fell over the bed where Garrus and Teagan lay curled together under the sheets. Both awake for some time, they had yet to make any attempt to get up and face the new day. Garrus, for his part, simply didn't feel much like separating himself from Teagan's soft body.

He had never expected to end up here with her, sharing a room, a bed, in a hotel on his home planet. A year ago, if someone had suggested that Commander Shepard would come back from the dead and then decide that she wanted to be with him, he would have personally paid for them to get their head examined.

Sometimes he still found it hard to believe that she was his mate, as if all the charged looks they'd shared, all their intimate conversations, all the nights they'd spent together were simply figments of his own desperate imagination. He was far more used to rockets and bullets coming his way rather than anything good after all.

And yet, undeniably, there she was right at that moment, lying beside him and showing no sign of wanting to be anywhere else. Her dark eyes were half-open and she was smiling, albeit in a vague sort of way.

After a while, she started to run one of her hands along his chest, a look of concentration forming on her face as her small fingers sought out the soft patches of skin hiding in between his plating. Garrus lay still, wondering what she was thinking until she finally cleared it up for him a few minutes later.

"We're so different."

"Ah, yeah, I guess we are." Honestly, he wasn't sure where this was going. She could be a real rambler sometimes when it came to talking about their relationship.

"I mean this shouldn't work, should it?" she murmured softly, "We come from planets that are thousands of light years away from each other and parts of Palaven could make me ill. We don't speak the same language. But we fit together so well. I mean, not just physically, but in every sense." She paused for a moment, her brow slowly furrowing. "Have you thought much about any of this stuff, Garrus? Does it ever, uh, bother you that we're so different?"

"Teagan," he said, her first name just rolling off his tongue after weeks of calling her by it. The first time he'd used it may have been a complete disaster, but he'd done his best to banish that memory from his mind. "Given how we spent yesterday evening, that seems like a rather odd question."

He watched her cheeks go red. He always found it amusing when that happened, though it seemed to annoy the hell out of her. It was such a strange biological reaction. Turians themselves couldn't blush; embarrassment was usually signalled by their mandibles beginning to flare uncontrollably.

Teagan struggled to regain her composure. "I didn't mean it like that exactly…it's just, well, you told me once you didn't have a human fetish."

He turned her head towards his so he could see her face, her eyes, properly. "I don't, but I want you. It doesn't matter to me if you're squishier and furrier than a turian woman."

As he spoke, he started to smooth down her messy hair, enjoying the feel of it under his talons. It was sticking up everywhere, tangled in strange shaped knots, since she hadn't brushed it yet that morning.

Distracted, she closed her eyes for a moment, but another question still formed on her lips, "You…you weren't always attracted to me though, were you?"

It was true, perhaps, that when they'd first met on the Citadel he hadn't really looked at her any differently than the hundreds of other humans he'd come across. But that was years ago now. On the SR2, his feelings had begun to change until he was dreaming about her and thinking about how her body would move in other circumstances, outside of battle, way more often than he probably should have been if he really only saw her as a friend and fellow comrade in arms.

"Not exactly," he said, the early morning haze he'd been in clearing some more as he tried to work out exactly what all of this was about. "I always liked and respected you, but when you recruited me again, things were…different somehow. You always seemed to be there, hanging around me, and it felt right. I started to find it hard not to think about you. Now you've got me good."

He glanced passed her face, towards the window. "Why all the questions so early in the morning anyway? It's only just light outside."

"I'm being neurotic, aren't I?"

"Maybe a little."

"Sorry, Garrus, you probably don't need this right now but I…I guess the looks we got on the tram yesterday and the way that idiot receptionist treated us are playing are on my mind a little. I've never realised before just how unusual our relationship is. To me, it doesn't seem strange at all so I keep forgetting that people on the outside might see things differently."

"Oh…"

Of course that's what she was thinking about. He'd noticed their reactions too, how could he not have? But as long as Teagan stayed by his side it was hard for him to give much of a damn about what strangers thought about their relationship. It was none of their business.

His family's reaction to the two of them being together gave him more cause for concern, however. Their opinions actually mattered to him. He wasn't sure if his mother would even be well enough to be told and Solana, well, Solana always spoke her mind, no matter what the subject at hand was. He was not particularly looking forward to trying to broach the subject with either of them, and he didn't even want to start imagining what his father might say.

With the exception of his father, however, he did want his family to know. Teagan was too important to him for him to try to hide how he felt about her. He just hoped they would both understand. Really though, there was no point worrying about any of that now. He could always panic about it all later.

"Well," he continued, "All that matters is whether this is working for us." He did his best to smile. "Besides, I've learnt to appreciate human physiology in a way I definitely didn't before, thanks to you."

Admittedly, he'd been a little shocked when he'd first seen her naked all those weeks ago. She was so different from him, with her smooth skin, soft curves, hair and those two wobbly mounds on her chest. But it hadn't changed anything; he'd still wanted her so badly. By the time she'd let him pin her down on the bed, he'd been almost aching with desire. Now he knew her body so well. Nothing about her was alien to him anymore and he'd learnt exactly how to please her and make her cry out in the darkness of her quarters.

For now at least, it felt like she belonged to him.

Garrus sat up and reached out for her, pulling her securely into his lap so that her back was resting against his chest. Despite what he'd just said, she still looked troubled, the same way she had done on the tram the day before.

Trying to sooth her, he started to stroke her hair again. "You know how much I like your hair for one thing," he said. She looked up at him, clearly pleased so he did his best to continue, "I also like your eyes and your, ah, lips and all those strange human things you can do with them." He ran a single talon across her mouth and she smiled. "Your skin is also very…soft and, uh, smooth and, umm…"

Unfortunately, he couldn't quite decide what to say next. Why, why, had he thought it would be a good idea to attempt to explain all of this just a few seconds ago? He'd placed himself on very dangerous ground, one wrong turn and he could praise something he really shouldn't or say something terribly offensive to a human. At least with turian women he'd known what the hell he was supposed to like.

In the end he decided it was best to play it safe and try to bring this whole thing to a quick end before he said something more stupid than usual. "And I like the rest of you too. I've already told you how wonderfully supportive I think your waist is." He stopped dead and shook his head at his own lame joke. "I'm not explaining this well, am I?"

"Don't worry, Garrus," she replied in a soft voice, "You're doing fine. Better than fine."

"That's a relief," he murmured, "I was trying my best not to put my hand in my mouth."

"It's foot, big guy. But you really did great." He watched as she laughed and a wide smile spread across her face, showing those small, strange white teeth." I like everything about you too, Garrus, hard plates and all."

He could tell from the way she was looking at him that she meant it. She really did seem to find him attractive and it was more of a relief to him than he would ever admit out loud to her or anyone else. He'd never been that vain, but there was no denying that gunship injuries were not a great look on anyone.

"Good," he said, "I think it's safe to say that not many non-krogan women would now."

She frowned at his comment. "Would it matter to you if I still had scars all over my body like I did when I first recruited you?"

He looked at her smooth, pale skin and then ran his talons down a part of her arm that had, until recently, been marred by a long orange tear. He was glad for her sake that all her scars had healed because he could tell they had bothered her, reminding her of her own mortality every single time she saw one of them. But even if she was still covered in scars from head to toe, he knew it could never make any difference to how he felt about her.

"No," he said simply.

"Well your scars have never bothered me either. They're not what I see when I look at you." Her tone became more playful again. "Anyway, you know you're the hottest guy on the Normandy. None of the other crewmen can compete with you, especially since only you have that voice."

"You like my voice?" He tried not to sound too ridiculously pleased.

"Of course. Haven't you heard it? Hell, you could probably read one of Miranda's reports or the operation manual for your console to me and I'd still turn to goo."

"Hmmm. That's good to know," he mumbled directly in her ear and then chuckled when she pushed him back off her.

"That's a dirty trick, Garrus. You're lucky I like you so damn much. You know, I never thought I'd want anyone enough to let them get this close to me and take me to their home town."

"When you put it like that, I feel kind of honoured." He made it sound as if he was joking, but the truth was he actually did. She could have chosen to be with anyone on the Normandy, there was no denying that. He'd seen the looks some of the crew gave her, heard Thane call her by that strange pet name, 'Siha', but she'd picked him.

She was laughing again. "Personally I think I should give you a medal for somehow getting through all of my bullshit."

"That really won't be necessary, Teagan." He scratched her head affectionately. "Getting to be with you is reward enough."

"Ha! Well, as long as you're sure."

"I am," he said. He wrapped his arms around her and they both fell silent. She often kissed the side of his face to show affection in these kind of circumstances, but he couldn't really do that. Instead he licked her cheek and then watched as she sighed and relaxed her body against his.

He knew without a doubt that he'd stay with her for as long as she needed him. He hoped it would be for years, rather than months because everything else in his life was such a mess, but this…this seemed to be working. The thought of her bolting from him like she had done for a few days after they returned from the collector base hurt like hell, there was no other way to put it.

At least they'd come this far, still together, still happy, after a few weeks. If things kept going so well, maybe she really wouldn't ever want to leave him again.

They made it downstairs for breakfast an hour later, both having rather reluctantly risen out of bed and dressed. The dining room was already populated by around ten other guests who were chattering quietly with each other as they sat around small square tables. At one end of the room, a buffet had been laid out across a couple of long counters.

The hotel boasted about serving gourmet turian cuisine on its extranet site, but to Teagan's untrained eye the dextro dishes on offer that morning looked more like an unappetising and completely inedible assortment of oddly coloured slices of meat, pastes and grains. Thankfully though, one small section of the counter had been reserved for human and asari food.

Her stomach rumbled when she noticed the pile of bacon glistening in one container. "God I'm so hungry," she said.

Garrus smirked. "Aren't you always?"

"Well, yes, but I'm especially hungry right now. I haven't had any food for hours and hours."

"Guess you better get to eating then. Otherwise you might begin to waste away on me."

"Guess so."

She strode over to the counters with the same determination she usually displayed when stalking a deadly enemy. By the time she'd finished piling her plate up with food, Garrus had already settled himself at one of the tables and was waiting patiently for her to arrive before he started eating. As she sat down on the polished wooden chair opposite him, he laughed.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"I just can't believe we're in a hotel on the turian homeworld and you still have more food on your plate than me."

"That's two jokes you've made about my eating habits in less than five minutes. I'd stop now, Garrus, unless you want a pile of levo food poured over your pretty head."

"Fair enough," he said and then started to eat, apparently deciding that making another wisecrack wasn't quite worth the risk.

Teagan followed his lead, feeling ridiculously happy as she munched on a piece of bacon, simply because she was getting to share breakfast with him like this. She could imagine for a moment that they were like any other couple staying in the hotel and forget that they spent most of their days fighting against near impossible odds on Godforsaken rocks scattered throughout the galaxy.

True, the two of them eating together wasn't anything unusual in itself anymore, but they were usually sitting in the Normandy's mess hall surrounded by noisy crewmen.

Leaning back in her chair, she began to watch as Garrus continued to shove strange food into his mouth. She had no major dextro allergy to the best of her knowledge, but as of yet she'd never been tempted to taste any of his meals.

Once on the Normandy, he'd wasted a full half hour trying to explain the finer points of turian cuisine to her while he picked at the horrible slug-like creature on his plate and she did her best not to pull a face. If it was possible, his breakfast today looked even more disgusting.

Teagan couldn't stop herself from grinning as he took another bite of some dark meat that was so tough she doubted human teeth would be able to tear through it. A couple of seconds later, however, the smile faded from her face. Behind Garrus' head, she'd noticed the turian receptionist from the day before leaning down to talk to one of the other guests in the dining room. As he moved towards the exit, he glanced their way. Admittedly, she couldn't quite read the strange expression on his face, but it certainly wasn't friendly.

Putting her fork back down on her plate, she opened her mouth to speak to Garrus, but then thought better of it. It just wouldn't be fair of her to bring up all of this bullshit again.

Unfortunately, it seemed he'd already noticed her discomfort. He touched her hand lightly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, big guy."

"You're still a completely terrible liar. What is it, Teagan?

"We can talk about it later."

"Tell me."

"Alright…" She hesitated for a moment, trying to pick her words carefully. "I don't want to sound like I'm stuck in a loop by bringing this all up again, but I guess I've just been wondering, why do some turians not seem to like seeing us together? I thought turians were allowed to do whatever they want in their personal lives so long as they still fulfil their duties as citizens of the Hierarchy. Or something like that anyway. I'm a little confused."

"Well you're basically right." He sighed. "But the First Contact War is still fresh in a lot of people's minds and there are…other issues. Some turians think that interspecies relationships are a bad idea because they can lead to the turian in the relationship having divided loyalty and not being as committed to the Hierarchy as they should be."

He cleared his throat and suddenly looked even more uncomfortable. Teagan could tell that he thought she wasn't going to like what he was about to say. "And, uh, interspecies couples like me and you aren't going to be able to produce little turians to serve the Hierarchy when they come of age."

"Oh." The word came out almost like a squeak from her mouth. She had never thought about that before, not for a second. Of course, she still doubted that she'd live long enough to even contemplate starting a family most days, but for the first time it occurred to her that even if somehow, against all the odds, both of them survived the war with the reapers and stayed together then they would never be able to make children together anyway. Well, not without messing about with genetics and breaking a host of galactic laws, neither of which she would ever be remotely inclined to do.

"Look," Garrus said, "None of this stuff bothers me and, honestly, most turians probably are okay with interspecies relationships and think that people should be free to have them. But some feel….differently"

Seemingly unsure of whether to continue or not, he hesitated for another moment before speaking again, "Turians can, in some circumstances, call judicial interventions if they think a relative or co-worker is doing something that affects their ability to fulfil their duties. In rare cases, they can lose their citizenship or be forced to do hard labour. I doubt that's ever happened because someone's entered into an interspecies relationship though."

Teagan's eyes widened. "Being with me won't cause you problems, will it?" she asked. "What if your family objects and…"

He shook his head. "They wouldn't do that to me. My father didn't try anything after I left C-Sec for second time and he probably had more reason to want to bring me back into line then."

"So you're still a full turian citizen?"

"Yeah. C-Sec never came after me when I quit either. Anyway, I like to think the fact that I helped to save the galaxy again would get me off the hook for leaving."

"That is a pretty good defence."

"Yeah, it's not like I was backpacking through the galaxy and trying to find myself."

"No. You were mostly getting shot at."

"True."

They smiled at each other. Usually, they would have kept joking together for far longer, but, oddly, they both seemed to have run out of steam. After a moment, they looked down at their plates and started eating again. For some reason, the silence that hovered over them while they did so wasn't particularly comfortable.

"I'm sorry all of this is getting to you," Garrus said eventually, "I wasn't sure what it would be like."

Teagan looked up at him, wondering what had prompted him to say that, until she realised she'd been stabbing a piece of bacon with her fork. She set her cutlery down. "No, Garrus, I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be letting it piss me off. Hell, I'm used to people shooting at me on a daily basis, but I, ugh…I don't know what's wrong with me today. How come none of this seems to bother you?"

"You're not used to turians disapproving of you like this. I am. At C-Sec, at home."

A sad smile formed on her face because she realised he might be right. "Maybe that's it, although Councillor Sparatus doesn't seem to like me much."

"I think he hates everyone so I wouldn't take it personally."

Teagan tried to laugh, but it came out slightly forced. "Teagan," Garrus said, "If it gets too much for you…"

She cut him off as quickly as she could. "No, no. I'm alright. I'm sure I'll get used to it. We're probably going to get some negative reactions wherever we go. I can't see every human approving of this relationship for one thing, not for some vaguely thought out reason though; humans just seem to like finding excuses to hate each other."

She could still remember how confused she'd felt when she'd first started to study Earth history in high school on Mindoir and had realised what humans were really like. She'd learnt about the wars, the slavery, all the pointless death and suffering, brother killing brother for money, land, whatever, while sitting behind a wooden desk in a bright classroom.

Eventually her teacher had moved on to cover wider galactic history and it had turned out to be no less messy. Teagan had ended up feeling like Mindoir was a safe haven, separate from the complete madness of the rest of the universe. Or at least she had done until the batarians came and raided the colony, killing everyone she cared about. After that she'd realised nowhere was ever really safe.

"I've never understood why things have to be this way," she said, thinking out loud, more than talking to Garrus. "Maybe that makes me a naïve idiot, as well as a complete hypocrite since I've become part of it. I mean I'm a soldier, I kill people. I try to make good decisions, but I don't know half the time. I just wish humans, turians, batarians, whatever, could just get along and stop trying to shoot each other all the time. I'd be out of a job but that's a trade-off I'd be all too happy to make."

She stopped ranting. "And this conversation is getting way too deep for so early in the day. God, I just need to shut up and relax."

Garrus smiled. "You can keep talking if you want. I enjoy your lectures far more than my father's. You certainly get more animated and you don't threaten to lock me in my room at the end."

"Well, this one's over. I think I've bent your ear for long enough." She paused, realising that phrase probably wouldn't make much, if any, sense to a turian. "I mean I've been talking too much and not eating enough. I'm going to get some more food, this stuff's gone cold."

Garrus refrained from making any comment as she leapt up from her seat, plate in hand. When she returned to him a few minutes later, he'd finished eating and was sitting with his hands resting on the dark blue tablecloth.

Unsure of what to say next, Teagan remained silent for a while, moving her food around with her fork but not putting much of it into her mouth. She started to pile it all in the centre of her plate, carving a strange sculpture out of the scrambled egg and then decorating it around the edges with pieces of sausage and bacon.

"So…" she said once she was finished making a complete mess, "Are you still planning to see Solana today, Garrus?" She couldn't help thinking she was starting another awkward conversation between the two of them, but this was actually something they needed to discuss, unlike everything else she'd been jabbering on about.

"Yeah," he replied, "She has the day off, but she's told me she'll be out until lunch time. We're going to meet in the family home. She still lives there. So did my mom until recently."

"Oh…why did your mother move out?"

"Because she, ah, hasn't been doing so great lately, she's been staying in a local medical centre. Most of the time she's okay, but she has…off days."

He tried to keep his tone casual, but Teagan wasn't fooled, she could read him better than most humans now. Cursing herself for asking a question about his mother so flippantly, she reached out to stroke his hand.

Whatever came out of her mouth next was bound to sound like some meaningless platitude, but she knew she couldn't just sit there, staring at him in silence when he'd been so good to her over the last couple of hours.

"I'm sorry, Garrus," she said in the end, "Solana told you that your mother had got a place in that off-world medical trial the salarians are staging soon though, didn't she? Maybe that will make a real difference to her."

"I hope so."

"Me too. You know what some salarians are capable of. Look at Mordin. Fair enough, his experiments on the Normandy scare me half the time, but they do seem to work."

"That's true," he said, flaring his mandibles slightly.

"Yeah it definitely is. Hopefully, Solana will be able to tell you more about the trial later and it'll reassure you a bit. When exactly do you need to leave to meet with her?"

"In a couple of hours. I might try to see my mother later as well, but only if Sol thinks she's up to it today."

"Right, sounds like a plan." She paused. "Do you…do you want me to come with you to meet Solana, Garrus? I really am here for you, but I don't want to get in your way today." She spoke slowly, with care, knowing she'd already said far too many unhelpful things since they'd woken up together. "If you think it's best to see her on your own first, I totally understand. If you even want to leave it a few days before you introduce me to Solana then that's fine too. It's all up to you."

"I…haven't decided what to do about that yet. I was thinking though, either, way, you could come with me to the house for a while. I could show you around before Sol arrives."

The suggestion instantly brought a smile to Teagan's face. Honestly, she wasn't sure if she was ready to meet his sister, but she loved the idea of getting to see the Vakarian family home.

Part of her excitement stemmed from the fact that she'd never had an opportunity to snoop around a turian house before. Mostly though, she wanted to see where Archangel, the former protector of Omega and her most loyal soldier and closest friend had spent his early years. She doubted the place would be anything like the snug little cabin she'd grown up in on Mindoir anyway. His parents had both spent years earning money as high profile officials on Palaven and the Citadel. Hers had been rather unsuccessful farmers who'd never seemed to have more than a few hundred credits lodged in the bank.

"I like that idea a lot, Garrus," she said, trying not to sound too much like an over-excited ten year old on their way to a theme park.

"I thought you would." He looked at her with a warm expression on his face. "It seems only fair since I got to see where you grew up already."

"You're sure you want me to come?"

"Yes. Completely."

He sounded like he really meant it, causing the smile on Teagan's face to widen into a grin. "Will I get to see any embarrassing photos of you as a baby?"

"Maybe a couple."

"Then I really can't wait. Do you think I have enough time to get a little more breakfast before we leave the hotel though?"

Garrus shook his head in amusement. "I think so, but I'm glad I'm not paying for this meal. You're eating even more than you normally do."

Since it had been half an hour since his last joke about her eating habits, Teagan decided against pouring the remnants of her food over his head. "Well, I did say I was feeling more peckish than usual today."

Still grinning, she started to retrace the path to the buffet for the third time that morning. It was probably best not to tell him that her excessive eating in this instance had very little to do with genuine hunger and a lot more to do with her jangling, clanging nerves.

So this chapter was hard to write, but, hey, it got done eventually.

Unfortunately, I'm coming to the end of my part-time creative writing course and have two stories to write before the 2nd June. This means Where You Belong will not be updated again until sometime after that date. Sorry!

After that though, I'm hoping to update every two weeks.

Thanks again for reading.

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