Authors Note: Well I updated this quicker than I had expected to at the request of some reviewers. Thanks for all the kind words, unfortunately this chapter is more of a set-up for later one's, but I hope it's not boring.
Garrus was silent. He watched Jane, Commander Shepard, rather, talking to the Baynhams and Shiala, the asari who used to follow Benezia, and in turn Saren. She had let the asari live, even though she had blindly followed Saren in his attempts to assist the Reapers destroy all intelligent life, and he was unsure if he would have been able to make that same decision. Garrus could not deny that he was a "shoot first, ask questions later" kind of officer, and he admired Shepard for her empathy; not just towards Shiala, but towards everyone she met. He could tell she was turned off by his no holds barred attitude about how to stop Saren, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized that she was probably correct. And the more he thought about Shiala, the more he realized that Jane was probably correct about that too; the asari was innocent, incapable of truly understanding what she was doing, and her oath to help rebuild the colony on Feros seemed genuine, so she did not deserve to die.
Garrus had a hard time accepting and understanding his attraction to the Commander. He figured that she was fairly good looking for a human female, although humans weren't exactly his, or any turian's, type (and he figured those feelings went both ways). He knew it wasn't aesthetics and he knew it wasn't just one thing about her that he found alluring, but rather an amalgamation of traits. Part of it was her combat abilities, which he truly saw for the first time just minutes ago as they were mowing down swarms of the Thorian's "creepers." She was fierce and disciplined, and she could have made any turian proud; at times Garrus would lose focus of what he was doing while appreciating Shepard's prowess as a leader. Perhaps another element of his attraction was how accepting she was of him; when Executor Pallin, his boss, decided that his time was up on his investigation of Saren, she knew that he was right and gave him this chance to help bring him down, and he was grateful.
"Hello, Garrus," said a calm voice that dammed his stream of thoughts.
He turned his head towards the voice, and his eyes met those of Liara, who had also accompanied him and Shepard on this mission. "Hello Liara, you fought quite well today for someone who isn't used to combat, your biotics are impressive, to say the least."
"Thank you Garrus, that is a perk of being an asari, I suppose."
"Is there something I can help you with, Doctor?" Garrus asked after a pause. He was hoping that there was some reason she had interrupted him.
"Oh no, I am fine, I just thought you looked bored and would enjoy some company."
"Ah, well thank you for the gesture, but I ensure you that I am far from bored" was the politest response Garrus could manage without sounding annoyed.
"If I may ask, what were you staring at?" Liara asked, after another brief silence.
He knew her social skills weren't as far along as most people her age, but he could not help but sigh when she asked the question. Luckily for him, and possibly her, Shepard had made her way over to the two of them a moment after she had asked.
"Good work here today, you two, just letting you know that you can both head back to the Normandy now; I won't be much longer."
Liara replied first, simply saying "understood, Commander" and started her way back towards their ship.
Garrus nodded and started walking, but stopped after just a few steps, as he realized that this would be a good opportunity to speak with the commander. He tried to make himself look busy, pretending to inspect things, but he made sure that he always had one eye on Jane. After a few minutes he noticed her say her final goodbyes to a few colonists and start towards the way they came in, so he quickly started jogging in her direction. Once he caught up she noticed him and was noticeably surprised.
"Garrus? I thought I told you to head back to the ship."
"Yes, well, I took it as more of a suggestion than an order, Shepard, so I decided to stick it out until you were ready, just in case."
"That's sweet of you, but everything was under control, I didn't need any extra protection" she said plainly.
Garrus became flustered by the bluntness of her words. "Yes of course, I beg your pardon, I... I didn't mean to question your..." He was cut off by her sudden laughter.
She noticed the confused expression on the turian's face. "I'm sorry Garrus, I'm just not used to seeing a Turian get upset like that. Your people are always so blunt and serious that whenever I talk to one of you I become very serious myself; I really have no problem with your staying."
"I wish I could say that that is just a popular misconception of our people, but unfortunately many turians seem to have been born without hearts" he said coolly, relieved by her explanation.
Shepard grinned at his remark; maybe a minute ago she would have taken that literally, but now she knew this other side of the turian. "I take it that you're not one of those heartless turians, Garrus?"
"I'm working on it, Shepard."
Ashley Williams was bumming.
"I think you should just tell him how you feel, Ashley, and just get it over with."
"Easier said than done, Tali."
The human and the quarian weren't the most likely of friends, seeing as one of them loved fighting and the other was more concerned with the ship she was living in, but they were both young women, and they had more in common than one would think.
"Why don't you just tell Adams how you feel if it's so easy?" Ashley knew the question was ridiculous and immature, but she wasn't in the mood to be lectured.
"That is disgusting! Just because we are both engineers that does not mean I am interested in him." Tali spoke with zealous sincerity, even though she knew Ashley was not serious. This was one thing about the Chief that bothered Tali, occasionally she would act like this and Tali would seem like the older of the two, but Tali was never capable of stooping to her level.
"Well I'm afraid to do anything until I'm certain that he's interested in me too, I can't help it."
Tali was unimpressed by the response. "You're afraid?" Ashley nodded. "You go into battle and kill without any second thoughts, and you could die from that, but you're afraid of telling Kaidan that you like him?"
"Pretty much; those are two completely different things, there's no time to think about death too much in the heat of battle, but if I'm talking to someone all I can do is think about what I'm going to say."
Tali realized that her approach was not going to sail with Ashley. "So how are you going to find out if he likes you?"
"I..." she stopped just as soon as she had started, as the man they were talking about walked out of the medical room and into the mess area where they were sitting, with a big smile on his face.
He stopped and his expression turned from happy to perplexed upon seeing the wide-eyed Williams staring up at him with her jaw dropped. The quarian also seemed tense. "Am I interrupting something?" Kaidan asked.
Neither of them had a good answer for this, so after a few awkward seconds Ashley replied with a soft "no," and Kaidan took his answer and moved to his nearby station.
Ashley and Tali leaned forwards so they could hear each other's whispers.
Tali spoke first. "Not bad, maybe next time you'll manage an entire sentence."
Ashley did not appreciate the sarcasm and glared at her friend, while stealing a glance at Kaidan. "Well what was I supposed to say? 'Oh, we were just going to discuss ways I could get you to like me!?'"
"Sure, that might have worked."
Ashley could not tell if Tali was being honest or sarcastic, but she was probably right, and it bugged her. She stole another glance.
Kaidan was a mess. While he was relieved to have finally told someone, albeit indirectly, about his feelings towards the Commander, he prayed that Dr. Chakwas would not let others in on their little secret. Not only was that idea concerning him, but he knew his anxiety wouldn't die down as long as Shepard was on Feros and he had no idea of how things were going. And on top of all that was his recent, brief encounter with Ashley and Tali, both of whom had just recently left the area. He was sure he had caught them in the middle of something that was most likely private and embarrassing, and maybe even about him. Considering the look that was on the Gunnery Chief's face when he saw them and the frequent peeks that she made in his direction while they were whispering to one another, he felt pretty confident that he was involved.
"Maybe they were just discussing my migraines, which would make sense; most people think I'm sensitive towards them..." His train of thought was cut off by the sudden appearance of Liara, who, he knew, was making her way to the top level of the Normandy where she would join Captain Shepard and whoever had taken his spot. Without looking in her direction, he said a curt "good luck" to the asari, only moving his eyes in her direction when she failed to respond. Apparently at a loss for words, Liara just gave Kaidan a quick bow of the head in recognition and scuttled up the nearby stairs.
Not long after this he heard the elevator come to a halt and its doors opened. Garrus. Kaidan had no quarrel with this turian, but his history with the species had left him with a certain hesitance about trusting them completely.
"You're going with the Commander?" he asked in Garrus' direction.
"Yes, she just alerted me" replied the turian.
Kaidan wanted to say something about keeping the Commander safe, but he knew that that could be consequential, so he just said "be careful out there" to the infamously brash C-SEC officer, and let him go on his way. The Lieutenant knew that no good was going to come of returning to his thoughts now, if anything he'd just end up getting another headache, so he decided that it couldn't possibly hurt to pay Ashley a visit.
"ETA is two minutes, Commander"
"Thanks, Joker."
Shepard and Liara were in the Normandy's cockpit, waiting impatiently for the ship to land. Jane was always like this before a mission; her adrenaline built up to a point where she was almost excited about the prospect of kicking some ass. Liara, on the other hand, was more anxious than anticipatory, and Joker could tell.
"Don't worry Blue; with the Commander by your side you'll be just fine."
"Thank you for the reassurance, Joker, but right now I am more concerned about a safe landing that I am about of my own abilities" countered the asari, clearly not too familiar with Joker's competence.
"Don't you worry about Joker" said Shepard, chiming in, "he's the best pilot mankind's got to offer." She gently placed a hand on the pilot's shoulder and he tensed up, his motion causing the Normandy to rock once, and causing the Commander to lose her balance in the process.
"I'm sold" offered Garrus, who had finally decided to join them.
Jane, who had now recomposed herself, gave a knowing look at Joker, who proceeded to pretend that he had not noticed.
"Coming in for landing." Joker lived up to his reputation with a smooth landing of the Normandy in Feros' starship dock. Commander Shepard, Liara, and Garrus promptly exited, and that familiar voice alerted the ship that Pressly was standing in as the commanding officer while Shepard was away. He watched from his seat as the three of them were halted by someone who Joker assumed had to be a colonist. He was just getting up to go to the bathroom when he saw a gunshot in the corner of his eye. He fell back into his seat while he watched the Commander and her team in a firefight against a handful of Geth. He noticed the colonist's body on the ground, dead, the poor bastard probably never saw it coming; but he was relieved to see that the Commander had no problem wiping out the Geth. He grabbed his crutches and made his way out of the cockpit, relieved, in need of "relief," and hoping that the Commander would touch him again eventually, you know, so he could make up for that little humiliating moment earlier.