~Author's Note~ And time to plow ahead.

Please drop me a review if you read, and enjoy the chapter!

~10 minutes earlier~

Garrus opened the door to the Garden of Eden cafe, the small bell at the door ringing to let the staff know another customer had entered the restaurant. The waitress smiled when she saw him, he and Shepard had given her a nice tip, if he recalled correctly.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Vakarian?"

Garrus knew exactly what he was going to order- simply more of the same. They made an excellent Palavenian grub "burger"- although that wasn't the name he was used to calling it. Still, he wasn't going to complain about them giving it a different name as long as it had the same taste.

He had just taken a seat, waiting for his food to be delivered, when a salarian sat down in the seat opposite his. The salarian was wearing a sort of armor that made it rather difficult to see its features.

Garrus' mandibles twitched. Something wasn't right. "Can I help you?"

The salarian looked up and met his gaze. "Garrus Vakarian?"

Garrus started as he realized it was a female salarian. That was even more odd, salarian females generally didn't leave their homeworld, for one to be all the way on Eden Prime... "That would be me. Who's asking?"

The salarian grinned, showing her teeth. "You should keep a better watch on your human."

Garrus opened his mouth to ask whether that was a threat, when the waitress came back to the table and delivered his food. When she moved, clearing his line of sight, the salarian was gone.

Garrus grabbed the waitress by the sleeve of her shirt. "Where did she go?"

The waitress looked down at his hand, and then back up at his face, and Garrus realized that physically grabbing a waitress in a cafe was probably not something that you should normally do. He released her shirt and repeated his question.

"Where did she go?"

"Where did who go?"

"The salarian, the one who was sitting right next to me at the table."

"Mr. Vakarian, there was no one else sitting at your table, much less a salarian. I have never even seen a salarian on Eden Prime."

"But.. I..."

She gave him a look that probably meant she thought he had had too much to drink. Shaking her head, she headed off across the room to the other tables. Garrus dashed outside the front of the cafe and glanced around. No salarian in sight. He had just started to ask himself if he should head over to Headquarters and get Shepard out of there, when she came out of the front door. She gave him a wave, and he waved back, motioning her over, unable to stop a sigh of relief from escaping him.

That was when the building behind her blew up.

Garrus landed beside Shepard, having jumped through the window she had just smashed. Gently, he rolled her over, trying not to aggravate any wounds she may have suffered.

"Shepard, hang in there. I'm gonna get you out of this mess."

Her face started to form a small smile, but then the injuries caught up to her and she passed out.

He picked her up, something he probably would not have done under "normal" circumstances, as he knew moving her could exacerbate a neck injury. But she couldn't stay here, not when the building she had just been in had been bombed.

And it was a bomb, Garrus knew enough of explosives to realize that. That knowledge, combined with the salarian he had met, made it rather obvious that the blast had been intended for Shepard. Someone was trying to kill her, and if they had any people in the area, they knew she may have survived the explosion.

So he had to move her before they got pinned down here, if any other enemies were coming. And Garrus always assumed more enemies would be coming. That way, he would be pleasantly surprised if none showed up. Spirits, he really hoped none showed up this time. It would be great to be wrong about this whole thing.

He decided to get out of the cafe- he didn't trust all those people in there, any one of them could stab him in the back- but he took the back entrance. Heading out the front, back onto the street, seemed to be tantamount to suicide. There were plenty of perches for snipers that could watch the entire road, and take him out before he had any idea he was even in danger.

He shut the door softly behind him, trying to stay as silent as possible, and headed down the alleyway.

He started firing up his omnitool, thinking about calling someone for help, and it was only because he had looked down to do so that Shepard wasn't killed. The red dot hovering on her forehead was recognized by the instinctual part of him long before his brain caught up to the fact that a sniper had her in his sights, and he threw both of them to the left. The crack of a gunshot rang across the evening air, and a round plowed into the street where Garrus had just been standing.

He cursed under his breath. He was in no position to fight, having to carry Shepard, and with an enemy sniper somewhere north of him. And the sniper doubtless had friends. He was in deep trouble. He headed off down a side road, using the buildings for cover, his head on a swivel trying to pick out any enemy forces before they could spot him, which was a long shot at best.

"Now would be an excellent time to wake up, Shepard. I could use some help."

There was no response. He rounded the corner and walked straight into a pair of gunmen. They stood, blinking at him, and before they could move, Garrus barreled into the one on the left, knocking him to the ground, and as the other gunman pulled a pistol on him, he smashed his headplate into the human's forehead. He took off running down the alleyway, but with his mind preoccupied on trying to save Shepard, he had forgotten to make certain that the human he knocked down was out for the count.

A sharp pain shot through his left spur as two shots rang out almost simultaneously. He stumbled and nearly fell, but managed to turn the corner.

And there was another pair of gunmen, and they were ready for him. Both had their pistols drawn and were regarding him coolly. When one of them spoke, his voice was odd, filtered obviously, whether to breathe better or to disguise his voice, Garrus wasn't certain.

"Give her up, Vakarian, and you can walk out of this."

The other sneered, looking down at the blue turian blood that dripped down from Garrus' leg. "I think he'll just be limping out of this. Come on, Coris, just finish him and take her."

Garrus heard footsteps running up behind him, but didn't bother to turn. It was odd that he was going to die in a back alley to a pair of thugs after surviving Omega. He was running through every possible scenario in his head, but without his armor, there was simply no way to cross the intervening space between him and the thugs without them shooting him, or more importantly to him, the burden he carried.

The person running up behind him rounded the corner, and without slowing, fired two shots. They both whizzed past Garrus and for a split-second, he thought that whoever it was, was a really bad shot. That was before both shots found their mark in the heads of the two thugs.

Garrus turned to see who his rescuer was. A human woman, vaguely familiar for some reason. She had dull gray eyes, straggly blond hair, and dirt spread across her face, and was wearing form-fitting black combat armor. All in all, it was a rather wild appearance.

She lowered her two pistols, still smoking, and shoved them into her belt. "Come on, Garrus, we need to get Shepard to safety." That voice... that voice was even more familiar.

"Who are you?"

She laughed. "Not surprised you don't recognize me, Garrus."

He stared, incredulous. The laugh gave her away, as it always had.

"Miranda?"