A/N: Garrus is starting to act more Garrus like finally. Needed some more on the synthetic side of the crew too. Thought I'd spice it up and go with Joker's view of things. And of course some sweet Liara talk with Garrus. Now if only the two of them would stop being so frightened to tell each other how they feel we would all be happy! ;) Enjoy!

Chapter 7

It had felt good to tell Joker to loose the connection to the Illusive Man all together. Just as much as it felt good to wash the grime from her body that she had picked up from the Collector's base. Even with scrubbing herself twice, Shepard still did not feel completely clean but she did not think her skin could take anymore.

Now things should get better without that swine in the way. She wrapped herself in nothing but a robe and wandered back into her cabin. Her terminal blinked with a new message. Shepard clicked it on and skimmed over the contents. Huh, at least they sent one last thing that could be remotely useful.

"Joker," She hit the com button to reach her pilot. "Set a course to Illium."

"Yes, ma'am!" He sounded ecstatic to be on the move to put themselves further away from their previous position. Shepard giggled to herself. She was going to have to spend more time with her crew. They were like family now and she wanted them to know that. Her door hissed open breaking into her thoughts.

"Oh, hey, Garrus." She started to smile and turn towards him.

Garrus did not bother with any words. He simply walked straight towards her and picked her up with his powerful arms, holding her tightly against his chest. His warm breath tickled her neck as he buried his face into her hair and she thought she heard a low rumbling sound coming from deep inside his chest. "Don't you ever scare me like that again."

Shepard blinked at him confused. "Excuse me?"

Slowly, he removed his face from her neck and looked straight into her eyes with his piercing blue ones. "You died once, and I am not going to let you do that again."

A smile formed on her lips and her heart skipped a beat. "Don't worry. I don't plan on it."

"Good." Garrus purred at her.

His mandibles flared at her and he pressed his hard mouth to her lips and kissed her as hard as he dared. She answered his passion with her own and ran her fingers along his neck and up his fringe. The hard plates still felt oddly warm to her as she scraped her nails softly down his fringe. Garrus moaned at her touch and she felt her flesh pucker up at the sound.

She busied her hands in trying to remove his armor from him as he bent his head down and started licking her neck carefully but full of intent. Slowly but surly she removed the pieces she had seen him put on many times before and let them litter the floor of her cabin. Garrus pulled back the front of her robe to expose her chest and started traveling down her collarbone. Over time she had had gotten used to the roughness of his tongue and the light flicks to her skin tickled her more than anything. Garrus lightly ran his talons down her body, sending shivers through her spine as she let him peal back her clothing to give herself to him.

A moan escaped her lips as he nipped gently at her and picked her up to take her to the bed. Shepard enjoyed exploring his foreign body. It was different yet familiar at the same time. Their species was more similar than she had thought when it came down to the basics. But she had yet to explore it all. Every time was different; there was so much more they had not even tried yet either. Garrus laid her down and removed his visor before joining her to fulfill their need for each other.

For the first time Garrus actually understood his feelings clearly. After years of one-nights and gun fights, he wanted it all to just be over with. Shepard had shown him a world that did not hurt anymore, a world that he wanted to be a part of. It had been terrifying to watch her slip down away from him. He was not sure if he had yelled and if he did, he did not know what he had said. Even so, it was highly unlikely anyone was paying attention to what was being said. His blood had pumped so hard that the only sound he could hear was his heart. Armor scraped against metal as he reached out for her. Nothing had been more frightening then in those few seconds of uncertainty. He had to resist the urge to hold her against his own body with no intention of letting go right then and there in front of everyone.

Now he was just glad to be back on the Normandy with her safe and sound in his arms. He sighed and ran a talon down her body to her thigh. The first time he had thought that scars did not bother her because she was used to them. She was no stranger to them. He had remembered seeing one once that ran the length of her arm over two years ago while they were suiting up for a mission. Now there was only her smooth alabaster skin and he was not sure what to think anymore.

There were a few spots that were still slightly cracked from when Cerberus had rebuilt her and her cybernetics had yet to fully healed them, but eventually they would disappear. Once Garrus thought he had heard Dr. Chakwas tell her that there was research available to increase the rate of regeneration in her cells but Shepard had politely turned it down. Maybe it was for my sake. Shepard stirred beneath his touch and kissed her neck softly hoping that he had not disturbed her.

"Mmm…" Shepard mumbled softly. "Garrus?"

"Yes."

"What are you thinking about?" Her eyes were still closed so he was not sure if she really was awake. He had heard about humans sometimes talking in their sleep.

"Uh… nothing really important. Is there something on your mind?" He did not really want to tell her he was thinking about his scars. They had finally healed enough that he was not worried that they would break back open, but some of them still bothered him.

Shepard rolled gracefully in his arms to look at him. She opened her eyes and stared at him for a moment. Eventually her eyes traveled toward the scars that covered his right shoulder and part of his upper chest. With a careful hand she touched them, tracing them with her fingers slowly. Garrus tried not to pull away from her, but the look on his face gave him away. His pride had been easier to heal. These scars were more intimate that those on his face.

"I'm sorry." She whispered to him.

"For what?" The confusion in his voice was genuine.

"For these." Oh, great. I hope she doesn't blame herself for letting me get these. I was acting foolish at the time.

"It's alright, Lexi."

The look on her face told him a different story. "I know you have seen mine." She must have noticed that he had been running his talons on the very spot that she used to have them and the few scared cracks that she had left.

"Y-yeah. Mine will heal too."

"But mine will disappear." There was an odd hurt in her voice.

Garrus pulled her close. "Why would that matter? You look beautiful."

"I would rather have them."

He blinked awkwardly at her. "What, why? I would give a whole hell of a lot just to have mine gone. "

"Because," She raised her head to look at him again, "They are a reminder to those things that make us who we are. Without them, we are just merely empty shells."

"Hmm." He never thought of it that way. "Well, it does not matter what scars I may get, I will follow you into hell and back."

"Me too." Shepard barely whispered back. Well, maybe having scars isn't always a bad thing. And eventually, they will heal.

Joker shook his head again. "For the last time EDI, I'm not calling the Commander. She is fine."

"It has been over two hours since our arrival at Illium, Jeff." EDI's voice droned over him like a mother hen and he turned his chair to look at her blue orb next to him.

"Well, some of us pay attention to the cams and when you see a certain Turian waltzing his way up the elevator to the Commander's cabin you just don't ask questions and you let things be." He tried to give the AI the best stern look he could. While he was glad that the pesky little piece of machinery was finally acting less like a mechanical robot she still did not understand certain concepts. Especially those pertaining to privacy, I swear I need to add another encryption on my extranet tabs.

"EDI, what is the purpose of love?" Legion popped into their conversation out of nowhere.

"Shit, who said anything about love?" Joker swirled back to the flight controls.

"Love has many definitions but the most used description of love is the profound tender or passionate affection for another. Its purpose eludes me."

Joker snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah it sure would." He said to himself.

"Ah. Is it safe to assume Shepard-Commander and Officer-Vakarian are in love?" Dear God Geth ask the weirdest questions!

"Whoa there buddy, I wouldn't go around asking that without know all the facts."

Legion twitched his head to the side and raised its eye flaps in curiosity. "From what I have gathered from the rest of the crew do they not have a passionate affection for one another?"

"I would have to conclude the same." EDI chimed in.

"Geeze, being out numbered by synthetics. Look, there is more that goes into love when it is concerning organics. It's complicated. Not something you can analyze like a test subject. Besides, nobody has been talking about love between them. There are many other reasons for their… well…" Uhg, how does one explain sex to synthetics?

"It is unlikely that Shepard and Officer Vakarian could reproduce an offspring, Jeff. The only other conclusion would be love."

"There is more than one reason… Look, forget it. Just don't talk about that kind of stuff in front of them." Joker rubbed his forehead with his hand.

"Why?" Legion asked curiously.

"I… I don't think they really want to think about that right now. Besides it is a bit more personal than your average question." He faintly heard a flagging like voice in the distance. "You see, EDI. I told you that they were fine."

"Hey Joker. EDI, Legion." Shepard greeted them all as Garrus readied the hatch for their departure to Illium.

"Hey, Commander." Joker tried to act as normal as possible.

"Looks like you guys were having a pretty deep conversation."

"Y-yeah you could say that." He glanced quickly at EDI.

"I hope you were playing nice. What were you discussing?"

Legion twitched his eye flaps and EDI blue field vibrated oddly. "Lov…"

"Nothing really to important, Commander. Just pretty much discussing the difference between certain concepts between organics and synthetics." Joker cut off Legion as quickly as he could. He was not sure if he had done so quickly enough but he heard Garrus's hand slip on the panel to the hatch and an odd clanking noise that followed.

"Err… right." Shepard crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. He could tell that he had not fully convinced her but luckily she was already running behind schedule and did not care to dig further. "Like I said, play nice. We will be back soon."

Nobody but Shepard ever really visited Garrus in the main battery anymore so the sound of the door chime made Garrus jump involuntarily. "Yes?"

The doors hissed open and Liara walked in. "Hello, Garrus."

He visibly relaxed and closed out his terminal to give an old friend his full attention. "Ah, it is good to see that you finally decided to visit the Normandy, Liara."

Liara smiled and walked around the room, examining his workspace. "I'm quite glad that I took Lexi's advice. It has been good to see many old faces." Her smile dropped slightly as she turned and looked at him. "I-I'm sorry about what I said the other day when we were going up against the Shadow Broker. I shouldn't have let my personal feeling get away with my judgment of my friends."

Garrus titled his head to the side. He remembered the embarrassing moment of realization that there might be more people who knew about him and Shepard than he liked. "And now Garrus is doing more than calibrating the Normandy's weapons!" She had sounded a bit angry and hurt. "It's alright Liara. Things haven't really been that easy lately for any of us."

She shook her head. "No, I was jealous that you two were there together and how you two look at each other. I… I've lost so much and those I have even started to care about."

"Feron?" Garrus asked curiously. Liara nodded silently and he could see tears starting to form.

"It wasn't right of me to be so upset with you two. Shepard is a good friend and I want her to be happy."

Garrus looked off to the side. "Me too."

"So, you do care for her." A small smile twitched across her lips.

"Y-yeah." More than I would like to admit.

Liara giggled a little. "Don't worry, I won't tell her how much."

If Turians could blush he had a feeling his face would be as red as Human blood. "Thanks. I'm just not sure how…" His voice trailed off slightly.

"It's ok." Liara placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I know you will find a way someday."

Garrus nodded. "Glad you came by."

"I will see you later, Garrus."

With Liara gone, Garrus opened up his terminal again. Human culture was very… complicated. Researching Human matting rituals was turning out to be quite difficult. There was also not really anyone he could ask about such things either. And all this stuff on gift giving as a way of courting one another is just plain weird. With Turians, one just came out and said it normally. Acting possessive was common as well between relationships that had a possibility of turning into a mating pair. He just was not sure how to express his feelings towards Shepard. Garrus sighed and clicked through a few more pages before one old looking Human custom caught his eye. Now this, this I can do.