Disclaimer: Everything in this story belongs to Bioware. I'm just playing in their sandbox and making sand pies with their tools.

I Loved Him First

Chapter III – Trusting the Turian

As a few days pass, I notice that the turian keeps returning to the hospital. At first, I think it's because of the doctor. They seem to be at least acquaintances if not friends. Then, as days go by, I realize that he keeps coming to visit me. I feel strangely touched by it.

Here I am, a stranger in an unknown world, and the only thing, or person, that is consistent in it so far, is the turian.

Or as he introduced himself to me, Garrus Vakarian.

He's the C-Sec officer in charge of my case (apparently, I am the case, appearing on the Citadel out of nowhere, and without any ID to verify who I am), but I still feel that he keeps visiting me not because of that, but because he wants to get to know me better. After getting the neural implant added to my repertoire of cybernetics, it's easier for me to talk to him as I can understand him now.

I often get confused by the subharmonics he uses – I am not familiar with "feeling sounds" as I call them. Nevertheless, he explains the different sounds he makes when he hears my own uncontrolled and confused subharmonics in reply.

He is unusually kind for a turian, I find out, after I meet another turian called Pallin.

Pallin is, for the lack of a better word, an ass. He has a deep-seated dislike for humans. For a few moments I wonder why, but then that strange glitch in my brain as I start to call it, supplies me with information on the First Contact War or Relay 314 Incident as the turians call it and I can understand why he doesn't trust humans. We are a greedy bunch after all.

I still have no idea what that glitch in my brain is. It is most active when I sleep. I dream of strange things that I have never dreamt of before. I dream of strange, but terrifying sentient machines that call themselves the Reapers, of different species in this universe, of a woman called Commander Shepard, and the strangest of all is a dream I dreamt when I took my afternoon nap.

The dream is of Garrus and a salarian called Dr. Saleon. I see Garrus follow him to the Docking Area, I see Garrus order to shoot the ship down, and I see Garrus's bitter face (I am getting better at reading the turian expressions) when his orders are overruled and the ship with Dr. Saleon gets away. I see him storm away in anger and when I wake up a few hours later, I see an angry Garrus pacing in the hospital.

"What's wrong?" I ask him. He turns to me, growls angrily, and then sits himself next to my bed in his usual chair.

"A suspect got away from me," he says and I frown. Before I can stop myself from opening my mouth, it is already running away from me. "Was it Dr. Saleon?"

He freezes, his mandibles tucked firmly against his face, as he stares at me. I realize, perhaps somewhat sluggishly from waking up only a few moments ago, that what I thought was only a dream, is in fact, a vision. I pale as Garrus stands up from the chair and comes to my bed, staring me in the eyes the entire time.

I ought to feel afraid of the turian invading my personal space, but I don't. I cannot explain it, but whenever Garrus is near me, I feel safe. And I ought to, he's big for a turian (way bigger than my 5' 3") and he's a crack shot with a sniper rifle, or so he claims (smugly so).

"How did you know that?" he asks me with a deep voice I have not heard him use with me before. I realize that it is anger. His subharmonics trill with a sound that makes me know that he's suspicious. I bite my lips as I feverishly think of what to say. However, in the end, I decide to tell him the truth. He is the only person I think of as a friend in this universe – the only person that I can see myself trusting with what I just realized.

"I just dreamt about it," I say, knowing that it's a bad explanation. Before he can say anything else, I plunder ahead, "I've been having these dreams ever since I woke up in this hospital. Most of the time I don't understand them. But I dreamt about you ordering the security to shoot a ship down and then they overruled you and the ship with Dr. Saleon got away. I dreamt about you finding out that the salarian was harvesting organs from living people and then selling them."

The hospital is silent for a while after that. I begin to get nervous that he wouldn't believe me or that he would think me crazy and decide to lock me away.

"You do have strange dreams," he finally says as he turns to look away from my face.

"I think they're visions," I finally admit to myself and to him. "Visions of the past, present and future."

"How do you figure that one out? Perhaps it was just a fluke that you dreamt about this just now," he says. I can see that he has trouble believing in what I'm telling him.

"Then how do I know all this stuff?" I ask, while my subharmonics trill with irritation. "How do I know that the Protheans were wiped out by a sentient machine race called the Reapers? How do I know that your sister's name is Solana? How do I know that Commander Shepard is coming to the Citadel in a few months? How do I know-"

"All right, all right, I believe you," he interrupts me, his subharmonics humming with comfort and confusion.

"Then would you believe me if I told you that I'm from another universe?" I ask him the question that was burning in my head from the moment I realized what was happening. I still can't believe that I'm trusting him with all this. I can see his mandibles snapping together in shock again. I seem to be giving him a lot of shocks lately. I almost smile at the thought.

"Another universe?" he finally asks.

"Yes, it was 2020 when I died in my universe, and then I woke up here," I tell him, fiddling with my fingers as I think of my death.

"You died?" he asks with his mandibles still frozen.

"I think so. I got into a car accident. I can remember my face being sliced into ribbons by the side window, and the car's motor exploding, and my feet burning, and then I remember feeling sleepy, and then nothingness," I say, staring out the window as I recall what happened. Then I turn to look him in the eyes and say, "And then, I wake up in here. I didn't know what was going on, or what you were. Then something in my brain told me that you were a turian. At first, I thought you were a dinosaur with some bird genetic material mixed in."

"What's a dinosaur?" he asks me. I grin at him. Out of everything I just told him, he chooses to focus on this.