Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Garrus wanted to help but when Dr. Chakwas gave him another of her disapproving glances and finally pushed him out of the med-bay with the words: "You are just too big and will be in the way", he finally slumped his shoulders slightly and marched to the battery door where he only sat down on the bench and let out a telltale sigh of frustration.

The med team consisting of Dr. Chakwas, Kaidan and Miranda with the assistance of EDI and two more nurses which Miranda brought with her were in the middle of relocating the Chimera soldier to Typhon's medical facility. And Garrus wanted to be there, he wanted to make sure they would treat the woman right and that she would be safe.

With another sigh he rose from his place and looked around the room which used to be his for such a long time. Back when Shepard was still around. He picked up a few of his tools which were lying on the floor since the last time he had been here. Weeks probably. With a sense of being at a loss with what to do with himself Garrus kept turning the slender, metallic tool between his fingers as his mind darted elsewhere.

If what they had talked about with Liara proved to be true, he might see Jane once again. But that prospect left him with oddly mixed emotions. How would it play out? Five years have passed for him but for her? He was not sure. He had no idea if Shepard was aware of a flow of time or if she might wake up and the last thing she would remember will be the War with the Reapers. And it worried him. He could still remember how uncertain she was when Cerberus brought her back. How she doubted herself if she was genuine or just a clone or a well-groomed weapon.

With a fluid motion of his hand Garrus threw the tools to the metal crate where they belonged and took a deep breath. He needed to see the Artifact, they needed to somehow verify if his theory was true, and if it turned out that Shepard had truly been there, then he needed to ask her. It was not his call to bring her back. Not without her having a say in it. He will not be another Illusive man and force her back to life if she did not want to be brought back. But he hoped she would. No. He prayed that she would.

Twenty minutes later Garrus marched through the halls of base Typhon. His mandibles were tightly shut around his cheeks and he felt a rising headache build up at the back of his head. Yet he had a purpose and had to see this through.

"Liara, can we meet in ten minutes before the labs?" His fingers brought up Liara's ID on his omni-tool and he called her up while still walking through the endless corridors which connected the docks and medical facility.

"Of course, Garrus, I will be there. I have all the files I could find on project Overlord with me. When you see Miranda, tell her I could use her help with this."

"Alright, see you soon." Garrus turned off the omni and blinked slightly as he realized his feet finally brought him to his destination.

The door to the spotless clinic swished open and he was admitted into a small atrium where a reception desk stood in the middle. Abandoned at the moment. He stood there for a while not sure where to turn or walk to.

"Ah Garrus, came in to check on the patient?" Miranda's voice made him turn to face her as she had just appeared in the corridor on his left.

"Something like that. How is she?"

"Stable, though I am quite puzzled by her EEG scan and readings. I've already heard from Dr. Chakwas about the implant chip, but still it makes little sense."

Garrus shifted his weight from foot to foot as he tried to plan out his next move. But then again, he was talking with Miranda, the woman who did impossible and brought Shepard back the first time, surely, she's had her share of crazy theories.

"Alright..., listen Miranda..." Garrus made a slight pause as his mandibles twitched nervously before he continued. "We need to talk, in private. I have a meeting with T'Soni in few minutes down at the labs and I would very much like you to be there. I..we..have a theory which might be interesting for you to hear."

If Miranda had any doubts about what Garrus had just said, her face betrayed nothing. She merely gave him one of her confident smiles as she nodded. "Very well, now that you have peaked my interest I can hardly say no." She placed her right hand on her hip as she tilted her head to the side. "I will be there, I just need to confirm some of the data I've gathered."

"Thank you." Was all that Garrus had said before he slowly turned on his heel and marched through the door and towards the elevators.

One elevator ride and several corridors later Garrus found himself pacing idly before now closed doors to the labs and neither Liara or Miranda were anywhere to be seen. He told himself that he will give them both five more minutes before he would hail them again on their omni-tools.

As the minutes slowly dragged by Garrus stopped his pacing and leaned against the nearby wall with his arms folded over his chest. He felt drained. He could not even remember when the last time was he got full night sleep undisturbed with nightmares or dreams about Jane. All of this started to take its toll on him. He just hoped that whatever might happen would be worth it.

His concern with Shepard had been so profound that he had to berate himself for almost pushing the whole situation with the Rifts out of his mind. That reminded him of their meeting with Harbinger. The memory of it brought shiver down his spine. But still the imminent threat of the Dark Energy was real and there, sooner or later they will need to figure out what to do about it. Hopefully when they get to the last Artifact they will have some answers or leads in their hands.

"Sorry for the waiting Garrus, we ran into each other and I explained Miranda our theory." Liara's voice brought him back from the dark brooding of his mind and Garrus pushed himself from the wall with a small nod towards both women who just showed up in the corridor next to him.

"No problem Liara." He gave her one of his toothy smiles before he shifted his gaze towards Miranda. "So, what do you think?"

"I admit the whole idea does hold some merit. And luckily, I was able to get my hands on the whole project Overlord data, good thing that Shepard let it continue when she found out. This might prove as the key to our understanding of what is going on with the memory Artifact. I was able to contact Dr. Archer and persuade him to pay us a visit. He confirmed his arrival on Omega in two days and I would like you to pick him up there."

"Right. So, what now?" Garrus breathed out in a slight impatience. Two days before the doctor arrives on Omega and the trip there and back...delays. He hated delays.

"Let's have a look at the Artifact, we've raised additional shields and applied some more security protocols around the labs so hopefully nothing will happen this time. But if what you're saying is true we might be able to extract some more data or get at least something."

As it were the three of them entered the lab which housed the first Artifact they had found, and it took Garrus a moment to adjust his eyes to the dim lights at the ceiling before he turned his gaze towards the faintly glowing obelisk. The alien tech sat there in the middle of the room and hummed in faint but quite peaceful sound. The familiar set of glyphs was dancing over its surface in the same way as when they had found it on Agetoton.

Meanwhile Liara unpacked some of the equipment she had brought with her and started her work, whatever that meant as Garrus had no idea what kinds of tests or procedures his Asari friend might try to conduct.

"Right so what we do know is that this Artifact is a high-tech storage device equipped with QEC receiver which means that we might be able to trace the point of origin of the data signal." Miranda said in a precisely measured tone of voice and Garrus had a feeling she weighted and analyzed each word before she spoke it out loud.

"We could use Specialist Traynor and EDI here for better results." Liara chimed in, in her usual calm voice as she finished unloading her tech and was now connecting various cables to monitors.

"Well we are grounded for two days anyway so they might as well get here and do the work. I will be upstairs at the clinic. If you ladies find anything let me know." Garrus turned to leave feeling even more down than before. It had seemed that everyone but him had something useful to do. With a tight click of his mandibles around his cheeks he brought up the the omni-tool again and dragged Samantha's and EDI's IDs into the call.

"Garrus? How may I help?" Sam's voice answered him first and by the faint music in the background he suspected that she was probably back in her room at the base.

"EDI you hear us?"

"Yes, Garrus. How can I be of assistance?" EDI answered with a hint of mild interest in her voice and Garrus was reminded again about how expressive EDI had become over the years. He could hardly remember the last time he thought about her as an AI rather than a friend and invaluable part of the crew.

"Liara and Miranda are downstairs in the lab with the Artifact we've found on Agetoton. I would like you two to join them and help them with the research, we have two days before we head for Omega so let's make a use of it."

"Of course, I am heading there right away." Samantha logged off from the call and Garrus swallowed a slight uneasiness at the prospect that even more people will know about his theory build entirely on hope. But she was best at her work and Garrus was sure that if there were any leads or information to be gained then the four women will find them.

"I will be there momentarily Garrus." EDI confirmed and same as Sam logged off and left him once again in a silence and with a prospect of having to figure out what to do. Without giving it much thought Garrus half dragged himself towards the elevator and pressed the number 1 at the panel.

He was torn between going to his quarters and try for some sleep or go back to the hospital and see how their prisoner was doing. Few moments later when his feet carried him towards the door to the clinic his inner conflict seemed resolved. He will only check on her quickly to make sure she was safe.

A human behind the reception desk looked up at him from her monitor just as the little beep announced his entry through the door.

"May I help you?" She asked in trained polite voice and offered a small smile.

"Hm... a patient should have been brought in here earlier today from Normandy. I would like to see her." Garrus straightened his back and tried for his most refined look of confidence.

"Ah certainly, she is in the room 102 right through this door, I believe that Dr. Chakwas is still with her." The nurse replied and pointed at the door to her right with that same polite smile.

Garrus only nodded and was about to march to the corridor she pointed out for him when her voice interrupted him again. "I am sorry, but are you by any chance Mr. Vakarian?"

Garrus turned around and focused his eyes on the woman, his visor was telling him that her heart rate was slightly elevated but otherwise she seemed quite honest in her question.

"Indeed. Anything I can help you with?"

"Well actually yes. This is a bit strange..." The nurse bowed her head in a small apology and he could see her thin brows furrow together into a thoughtful frown. "We've had a case of power failure a few days ago, I think it was right after Normandy had docked. We were all very excited to have heroes of the Reaper War in our facility."

Garrus let out a soft sigh as he fully turned to face the woman and braced himself for the sudden stream of words.

"I… I am sorry sir. I did not mean to drag this..." The nurse stuttered slightly, and he noticed a pink flush rise to her cheeks.

"It is alright. I am not in a hurry." Garrus inclined his head slightly to the side and hoped that the gesture would be interpreted as intended. A reassurance. Although with humans he was not so sure.

"Right, well after the power got back online and the terminals were working I noticed some, well disparities at our main message hub. I would not have been the one to even notice it normally but as it happened I was just visiting my friend in the communication HQ. Well to get to the point, one of the messages was filed for you. I can forward it to your omni-tool if you wish but it requires a password." The girl was fidgeting with her fingers slightly as she stepped a bit aside from the terminal at her desk.

"I thought you would like to try and access it, sir."

Garrus nodded and kept his trained armor of confidence around him as he slowly made his way behind the reception desk and focused his eyes on the terminal. And indeed, a received message with his name was there and at the bottom a field which waited for him to input a password. Only problem was he had no idea what to use.

"I have some rounds to do, please take your time." The nurse smiled and grabbed a stack of data-pads and on silent feet left the lobby. He was grateful for a privacy. After all, if he was about to screw up the message by inputting a wrong password he did not want witnesses around for his failure.

The message had no visible sender.

Garrus idly drummed with his taloned fingers against the smooth surface of the desk as his mind went through a list of possible words which could have had any connection to him. In the end he settled on one option, Archangel. It was a gamble and knowing his luck he probably had only one chance to get this right. In the end he took a deep breath and with a determination typed in: Archangel.

An odd bleeping sound bounced through the room before the screen came to life with rows and rows of odd symbols which looked like some code which he had never seen before. Garrus swiftly brought his omni-tool to life and with a breath caught up in his throat started a download. He did not expect the message to be this big as minutes dragged slowly and the data still poured from the terminal. Finally, he could see the ending line and to his surprise a single word which made sense among all this mess blinked at him: Bellerophon.

Garrus blinked once and made sure the message was truly downloaded into his omni-tool before he hovered his finger in search of "delete" button. But it was not necessary. As the screen of the terminal spasmed once with what had looked like some interference and the message disappeared from it, leaving only black screen and a single blinking startup line at the upper left corner.

"More riddles. Wonderful." Garrus muttered under his breath as he rose up from the desk and slowly made his way towards the corridor which led to the room 102.

"Ah, hello Garrus." The familiar voice of Dr. Chakwas greeted him in the door as she rose her head to look at him and immediately turned her eyes back to the omni-tool she was reading before.

"Hello Doc." Garrus replied in a silent voice, almost a whisper. Somehow, he felt like it was appropriate to lower his voice. His eyes turned to look at the patient. He noticed she was dressed in different clothes. Light green gown instead of white she'd had back on Normandy. Her crimson curls were all combed to the left side of her head and the breathing tube which was connected to her throat before was now gone.

"How is she?" Garrus finally asked and without even giving it a second thought he moved himself to the side of the bed and sat down into the white chair with a soft sigh of relief as his tired legs finally relaxed.

"She is doing well, under the circumstances. We were able to put her off the ventilator as she can breathe on her own now. Although otherwise her condition remains the same." The warmth in Dr. Chakwas' voice made him look up and he noticed a small smile she gave him before she went and checked the IV bag which connected through a long catheter line and ended plastered to Shepard's left forearm.

Shepard. Garrus almost let out a surprised gasp. Just when did he start thinking about this woman as Shepard? But it was there. The same need to keep her safe. The same worry. The same butterflies in his stomach when he caught a hint of her scent, faint and mixed with hospital odors but it was hers. And Garrus felt a tiniest and softest of purrs building up in his chest. Damn he needed rest. He was not thinking straight.

To get his mind off the things he shifted slightly in the chair and looked back at the doctor. "Have you ever heard about something called Bellerophon?" He asked and persuaded himself, at least for the time being, to keep his eyes locked on the doctor and not on Shepard.

"I believe it was a hero in ancient Greek mythology. Why?" Dr. Chakwas replied and gave him a curious glance as she stopped her inspection of the monitor with various life signs displayed on it.

"I… it was something I came upon, recently and it sounded rather interesting." Garrus replied. He was not even sure why he did not tell the good doctor the whole thing. But perhaps in the light of his other wild claims he wanted to conduct his own investigation on this matter. There were after all enough people around who could presently think him crazy, he did not need to add to it.

"I see, well I am not the best person to ask about this. In any case I am done here for now, are you staying?" Dr. Chakwas gave him another of her unreadable glances and then a small reassuring smile.

"Hm... I think I will...stay for a while." Garrus rumbled with a sigh as his self-control finally shattered and he lowered his gaze back to Shepard's face. Spirits she looked so pale.

"Very well. But Garrus, do me a favor and get some rest. You really look like you need it." Dr. Chakwas lightly patted his shoulder and left the room with the soft whoosh of the door which shut behind her and drowned the room in silence.

He kept his eyes on that pale and unmoving face for a long time. Thoughts were rushing through is head. Hopeful thoughts which were doused right away by a voice of reason only to arise again and louder. Garrus knew he was lost. No matter how hard he tried he knew that the hope he had felt for the woman on the hospital bed to wake up and be Jane would probably turn to a bitter and painful disappointment. But right now, he allowed himself a few moments of optimism.

Garrus sank deeper into the hard and highly uncomfortable hospital chair and gently took hold of Shepard's hand. Her skin felt so cold under his fingers. And with that same soft purr he felt in his chest before he slowly started to circle his thumb over the top of her hand.

"I have no idea what to do Jane. Not when things are like this." He whispered to the silence of the room and leaned in slightly closer.

"I could deal with life and death but this...this is neither and I am losing my grip."

He could almost hear Shepard's voice reply to him. "Hang in there Big guy. You'll get this done. You always do."

And with those words ringing through is mind Garrus finally fell asleep, his fingers still lightly wrapped around the fragile and soft human hand in his.