The next morning I was rudely awoken by someone shaking my arm roughly, I groaned and turned to face the other side, pulling the covers over my head. "Wake up, Vakarian." Growling I opened my eyes to be met with Alenko's irritated ones. "Why are you in my room?" I asked with more than a hint of annoyance. "The commander ordered me to wake you up, we're going on a mission." I sat up and waved him away, when he was gone I looked over to my bed. The commander probably left earlier in the morning, she was always the first one to be up, well, except for Joker maybe, but he gave me the impression that he didn't sleep at all. It took about an hour to get my armor on and to eat breakfast, I was still a bit grumpy at my rude awakening but soon forgot about it when I saw the commander smiling brightly at the galaxy map, she was getting better at smiling.
We had landed on some isolated planet with a lot of ice, even inside of the Mako we were shivering. It was silent for a long time, excluding the noises the Mako made as the commander drove haphazardly over the icy landscape. "What are we doing on this mission exactly?" I asked, the commander smiled and sad "We're looking for information on a ship that has been taken by pirates. For that information we are visiting a good friend of mine.". I felt the corner of my mouth twitch at her sweet smile. The mission was simple and the commander did most of the work, gathering information by chatting with her friend. Alenko had found himself useful in exploring the big library we were at. I just sat on a chair waiting for everyone to be done, I wondered why the commander had even asked me to go with them, she seemed to be perfectly capable of handling this mission on her own.
Back at the ship I remembered that the Mako needed repairing and I informed Shepard of this, she arranged for new part to be brought in and said I would probably be able to work on it in about two weeks. We then all sat down at the table on the middle deck for dinner. There were some conversations going on, but I did not care much for them, I was content with eating and listening. Then the commander spoke to me "Vakarian, are you sensitive?" I was glad I had not been chewing, because I almost choked on my own spit from her words. I could see the lieutenant choking on his food and heard Ashley pat his back while she laughed. Wrex looked utterly amused, while Liara and Tali continued their conversation, ignoring the others. "E-excuse me?" I managed to say feeling very embarassed. "Your skin is made of some kind of metal, right? Is your skin still as sensitive as that of a human?" I calmed down a bit on her explanation and everyone continued talking. "It is, which is why turians still wear armor." I answered feeling less flustered, I began to think the commander created these moments on purpose. The commander let out a soft 'huh!' and we all continued eating.
After dinner the commander went up to me and said "can I experiment on your sensitivity?" I thought for a second and slowly nodded. The commander seemed very happy with this and led me to one of the med clinic's empty rooms. She proceeded to trails different limbs with two small pointy sticks, asking me if I felt one or two trails. She also explained she wanted to know a turian's sensitive places for the inevitable fight with Saren. I was relaxed, I always seemed to be relaxed when I was with the commander. After testing my body she moved closer to investigate my face. She sat opposite of me and felt with her hands, she trailed over the warpaint on my face with her fingers, her fingers were a bit rough, which was ofcourse expected from someone who had fought all her life. I found myself enjoying her little experiment, she trailed her fingers on my mandibles. As she did so they twitched to her touch. I looked at her face taking in the look of fascination on her face.
She then cupped the side of my jaw and asked " tell me, commander Vakarian, do turians kiss? " I was confused and said " I don't know what you mean by that.". She then leaned in on my neck and placed her mouth against me, the touch was soft and gentle. She then explained "When humans feel attracted to each other and they have a relationship, they press their mouths against each other like that." She smiled looking a bit embarassed for heving to explain this to me. Who knew the commander who could kill someone in cold blood and was capable of manipulating politicians, would be embarassed about such a small thing. I chuckled and answered "No, turians do not have soft mouths like humans do." She looked so different when she was not on a mission, she seemed so free and relaxed. Then she asked "What do male turians find attractive?" I reached out to trail my finger on her soft skin and said "Most turians like it when a woman's waist is smaller than her hips and ehm, bust. Most turians also find the fringe on females very attractive." She then said "Then let me change the question, what do you find attractive?" I felt warmth spread through my body at her innocent words. "I think women with a strong personality are attractive, I also find a naturally tanned skin attractive. And I like long dark brown hair, dark eyes with long eyelashes, I like-" I was cut off when she embraced me tightly. I sighed at the gesture and embraced her back, for once she just stayed silent and we savored the moment.
When we broke apart she placed another kiss on my crest and told me about her plans on investigating a space ship owned by pirates soon, I agreed to go with her and we both went our own way. The rest of the day it felt as if my mood couldn't get any better, I discussed some technical things with Tali and had a short conversation with Wrex. Then Ashley came up to me while I had been working out some details about the new parts that would soon arrive. "Hey Garrus, can I ask you something?" Not bothering to look up I said "Sure.". Ashley then asked me "Are you and the commander in a relationship?" When she said that it suddenly struck me that Shepard and I hadn't actually confirmed that. "Well, I don't really know. She seems to enjoy spending time with me, but she hasn't asked me to enter a relationship with her." I said. "Maybe you should ask her if she wants to be in a relationship with you, I'm sure Shepard would be pleasantly surprised if you ask her." Ashley said I told her I would consider it and went back to work, it would be good for the commander to have a nice surprise once in a while.
That evening in the showers I thought about what Ashley had said and decided I would do so after our mission. The warm water was soothing and reminded me of Shepard- no Deya's touch, I felt odd using the commanders first name, it seemed inapproperiate. Speaking of inapproperiate, my mind began to fill itself with images of Deya doing some more than inapproperiate things. I turned the shower cold and thought to myself, back when we were being educated about the human race their bodies hadn't seemed erotic in the slightest, but somehow the commander was more erotic to me than any turian I had ever met. Cooling my self down my arousal swiftly faded and I got out. That night I dreamt of her, not erotic though, just romantic.
The next day the whole crew was getting ready for the mission, the ship was very big so the commander had divided us over three teams the first team being Tali and Ashley the second Liara and Wrex and finally the commander, Kaiden and I. Team one was supposed to collect supplies and sabotage our way in, the second team would be out first and create a path by fighting off the pirates closeby. And our team would gather evidence and take out the boss behind the operation. The first half hour our team was waiting for a signal from Liara and Wrex, when we got the signal we left the ship together with Tali and Ashley who had to split up later to deactivate the security system. It took at least an hour to get to the main hall while fighting our way through enemies, when we arrived the boss behind all of the pirates fought with us for about half an hour. Just before he was killed the boss detonated bombs strewn about the main hall, causing some parts of the floor to collapse. I fell down and braced myself, I landed hard on a table and had to lay still for a few moments. Finally getting up I felt my whole back was bruised, and I winced when I realised it would hurt at every step. I looked around me and could not spot Shepard or Alenko, feeling panic slightly creeping up on me I took a few deep breaths and calmed myself. It is going to be fine, the commander can handle herself, even though her skin may be easily bruised. The thought of the commander being stuck brought me into action and I rushed out the door and checked every room on the level. The commander was nowhere to be found. Maybe she fell through this floor too, I rushed down the stairs and took out some pirates along the way. I then remembered that I had an earpiece for communication "Commander, this is Vakarian, do you copy?" I tried several times before giving up, my heart clenched at the thought of something bad having happened to the commander when my earpiece said "Vakarian, this is team one, do you copy?" I felt disappointed at hearing William's voice but answered"Williams, this is Vakarian. Have you heard from the commander?" I kept a walking pace as I opened every door on my way. "Good to hear you, Vakarian. We have not heard from the commander, what happened? We lost contact suddenly." She said, I answered "There were bombs placed in the main hall, we fell through on different locations." I then heard a piece of metal falling down and rushed towards it's sound. "Should we help looking for the commander?" Ashley asked, I said "Is Alenko with you all? I think I am getting closer to Shepards location, it would be better for you all to stay over there." I opened the door to the room, it was a large room with a long table and a lot of chairs. Pieces of the ceiling had fallen down and you could see the ceiling in the main hall, the main hall seemed to be collapsing as another piece of metal fell throughthe hole and made a loud metal 'clang!' As it hit the ground. There were no signs of Shepard when Ashley's voice entered my earpiece "Alenko is here, he has some minor injuries." Then Tali's voice interrupted "Vakarian, the ship is falling apart, get out of there!" I heard a loud crash right above me as she said this and I went back into the hall "Not before I find her.". I heard someone running in a side corridor and yelled "Shepard?" I was starting to panic, if it isn't her I might have to leave without her. "Garrus!" A voice replied, I immediately rushed over and Shepard rushed over to me, weexchanged smiles and quickly went up the stairs. Most of the remaining pirates had evacuated and the commander and I rushed to the main hall. The main hall was a mess, there were big holes in the floor and pieces of the ceiling crashed down.
The commander and I began jogging to the other side of the halk when I heard the sound of metal piercing flesh and just a few seconds later a loud thump. Startled I looked back and the world seemed to slow down, the commander was on the ground, abig piece of metal had pierced her left leg and there was lood forming around it. The commander seemed to need a few seconds to register what happened and then she screamed, she screamed and liquid began to form at her eyes. I rushed over feeling my heart clench so tightly it hurt. She then screamed "T-TAKE-" Then she had to gasp for air and frantically waved her hand at the piece of metal piercing her leg. I felt myself shaking and tried to pull the metal from her leg, but it had lodged itself into the flooring. I panicked even more and quickly contacted the crew "The commander, s-she has a piece of metal, don't move! A piece of m-metal in her leg!". The commander was now sobbing hysterically unable to calm her breathing from the pain. I took her hand and let her squeeze my hand painfully tight as I impatiently waited for a response. "What!? Shoot it off then!" I heard someone yell through the earpiece, not even trying to recognise the voice I yelled "What?! Her leg!?" I was panicking and began to feel dizzy from hyperventilating. "No you idiot! Shoot the piece of metal!? The ship is about to collapse hurry up!" Shaking I pulled my pistol from my back and shot at the piece of metal, the sound of the commander wailing fading to the background as another big piece of metal fell down. I shot again, and again and again. I finally broke the piece off and pulled the commander's leg off. I got up with the commander in my arms, she had blacked out from either bloodloss or not enough oxygen. I sprinted through the ship, pressing the commander tightly against myself. After what seemed like an eternity I finally reached the Normandy, I pushed past everyone and went straight to doctor Chakwas.I left the doctor to her work and went out, but while I was walking towards the stairs my vision became blurry and I collapsed on the floor.
I woke up feeling horrible, my back hurt like there was no tomorrow and I felt like someone had beaten the rest of my body to pulp. I opened my eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the bright light. I was in the doctor's clinic on board of the Normandy, I examined my body and found that there was a gash in my right shoulder, ofcourse it had been patched up and it was already healing, but that didn't take away the pain. Other than that I had no serious injuries for as far as I could tell, but my body hurt all over. Doctor Chakwas looked up from her book and went over to me "How do you feel?" She asked, if it wasn't for her being the one who had patched me up I would have scowled. But instead I said "About how you expect to feel when you fall through a floor and landing on a table." I then felt a throbbing ache overtaking my head, I groaned and the doctor said "Well, I guess you're doing reasonable then." I suddenly remembered what happened to the commander and began "But, where-" doctor Chakwas cut me off and said "She's alive, we're at the citadel she is in the hospital clinic inside." I felt my body relax and my eyes suddenly felt abnormally heavy.
When I woke up the second time the headache had disappeared and I felt a lot better, but in need of a shower. I got up from the bed, I looked down to see I was in fact wearing pants and headed for the showers with a towel I quickly grabbed from my room. As I stood in the warm streams of the shower I noted to myself that I needed to visit Deya when I was done. I was in the shower for half an hour thinking and relaxing. When I went through the ship I noticed most people had left for the Citadel already, I nodded to Joker and went out. Walking to the clinic I thought about how good it felt to stretch my legs again, even though there was still a numb pain in my shoulder and I felt kind of sore. I entered the clinic and waved at the doctor, not paying too much attention to her. I immediately went over to the bed Shepard was sitting up in, she was talking to Tali with Ashley standing next to her. When I approached Ashley said "We'll come back later, get well!" And she dragged Tali out with her flashing a smile at me. I sat down next to the bed she sat in and I felt guilty seeing her being stuck in a place like this, I waited for her to say something to me, but instead she cupped my face with her left hand and pulled me in to place a kiss on my forehead. She then pulled back and smiled at me "Thank you." She said. I stood up and embraced her, wanting to show her that I would never let go, I would never leave her behind. She hugged me back and rubbed small circles on my back with her hand.
We talked for an hour about interesting and uninteresting subjects alike, then it was time for her to rest and I went back to the ship. "Vakarian." I heard Alenko say as soon as I entered the ship, I walked over to him "yes?" he looked guilty and said "Thank you for saving the commander. You did something I could not and you two deserve to be happy." This surprised me and I smiled at him "Thank you lieutenant." I said and walked on.