A/N: Recap!

The idea is to take a character and do a short fic (they will rage between a few paragraphs to several pages) on each letter of the alphabet.

I will keep the characters exclusive to Mass Effect 2 because I, sadly, have never played Mass Effect 1. There will be mentions to ME1 characters and situations because I do know the general story. Please forgive errors.

This next segment will be Garrus. Will jump around a bit between characters from chapter to chapter.

Disclaimer: This is BioWare's sandbox; I'm just building sand castles.


D is for Death

Not for the first time that day, Garrus wished he had brought his helmet. The air was thick with the coppery tang of human blood and sickly sweet death. The bodies of mercs and colonists littered the ground.

These colonists had died days ago. Their bloated, desiccated corpses were an assault on his nasal passages. The fresh blood of the mercs, at least, came with the satisfaction of vengeance.

He glanced over at Shepard. She was standing over the body of a young colonist, no more than three. The blood and grime her skin had collected over the past few hours cut a harsh profile of his Commander. She looked to Garrus as how the Spirit of Retribution should: bloody and wrecked.

The surviving colonists arrived then. One woman ran straight for the girl at Shepard's feet, crying out in dismay at the sight of the little broken body. She stood, fury radiating off her, and slapped Commander Shepard hard across the face.

A growl erupted from his throat and he itched to go for his weapon. Shepard gave him a look telling him to be quiet and let her handle the angry mother.

She allowed the woman to yell at her, accuse her of incompetence, and blame her for the death of her child before slapping her again and walking away.

Garrus closed the few feet between himself and Shepard. He found himself wanting to reach for her, to make sure she was okay, but stopped himself. The notion was unbefitting of their superior/subordinate relationship and he dismissed it as weariness.

Instead, he tried to comfort her with words. "I could still shoot her, if you'd like."

He got the small smile he was looking for, but she shook her head. "She was looking for someone to blame so that she wouldn't have to blame herself. I was an easy target."

"It wasn't your fault."

Shepard nodded and sighed. "Losing someone close brings out the worst in people, Garrus. I won't hold it against her."

He didn't have much experience reading human faces, but even he could see the sadness on his friend's face. And she was his friend. He wasn't sure when the dynamic had changed, but he couldn't deny that it had.

"Voice of experience, Commander?"

"Long time ago." She grimaced. And with that, her Commander face was back on and she got down to business. "Let's finish up here." She called to the group. Once she was satisfied that her people were moving, she turned to Garrus and proclaimed, "Virmire is just a relay away and Saren is not getting away this time."

If only a determined word was all it took.

Once they were through the relay, heading away from Virmire, away from the loss and devastation, Garrus went looking for his friend. She had disappeared once getting back onto the Normandy and hadn't come by to see anyone in hours.

He found her beating a punching bag in the cargo hold. He could smell the anguish, the anger, and the coppery scent of human blood mixed in with the sweat drenching her skin and clothes. It was a combination strong enough to almost completely mask the scent that was uniquely Shepard.

As he got closer, he saw that her knuckles were bleeding, but she ignored the blood and the pain and kept pounding the bag, leaving smears of blood with each hit.

"Commander." He called softly, trying to get her to focus on something other than the punching bag.

It worked, though not in the manner he had intended. She whirled around and would have landed a powerful kick to his hip if he hadn't been just the slightest bit faster. She reacted to his block with another vicious swing in his direction. He blocked again and again as she kept coming, but soon his combat instincts overrode his caution and he went on the offensive.

When he gained an advantage, he attempted to pin her down, to get her to stop and talk, but she blasted him with a biotic blast that sent him flying into the punching bag. She got to her feet as he regained his balance and they squared off again.

"Commander!" He barked, trying to get through to her

She launched herself at him with the aid of biotics and he landed hard on the ground; Shepard had him pinned. With a quick move that his father had taught him years ago, Garrus managed to reverse the situation faster than Shepard could block. He pinned both her arms in one large hand and had the other around her neck, but he didn't apply pressure beyond what was necessary to restrain her.

He looked down at his friend as she fought his grip. He wanted her to pay attention and stop fighting. "Shepard, please."

He didn't know if was the use of her name or the fact that some of his own blood decided to drip onto her face at that moment, but she froze. He felt the tension leave her muscles and she stopped fighting. He loosened his grip on her arms and released her neck.

"Garrus?" Recognition filled her eyes swiftly followed by tears.

He released her completely and allowed her to roll out from under him. She sat up and pulled her knees close to her body, wrapping her arms around them, and burying her head.

"I'm so sorry." She looked up at him over the tops of her knees and her voice, when she spoke, was small. "I thought you were…"

When she didn't finish, he supplied an answer. "You thought I was Saren."

She looked away, ashamed.

He stood and offered her a hand up. "Losing someone close brings out the worst in people. I won't hold it against you."

She looked him in the eye then and, after a moment, accepted his help.