A/N: Today is my birthday, and in celebration I give you chapter 10. Enjoy your gift while I enjoy my cake. :)
Seeing him, she feels excitement, relief, but also sadness. This is the man she fell in love with, but at the same time, it isn't. It's the man who fell in love with her, but he can't remember, as though it never happened.
She's torn when executor Pallin walks away, and he sighs turning toward her. Part of her wants to run up to him and sob with relief as though that were her Garrus, the one that told her to come back alive. Another part tells her to force herself forward and pretend that nothing happened between them, because after all, while she remembered it, no one else did. Finally, she feels her socially awkward high school self breaking through, telling her to find someplace to hide.
The internal torment prevents her from making a decision, and her feet won't move forward until she realizes she's staring at the turian in front of her, no real purpose. She forces one foot in front of the other, making herself move towards him, regretting her original indecisiveness that kept her from realizing how rude she must have seemed. 'What a terrible first impression.' She thought, rather angrily berating herself.
She gets within speaking distance of Garrus and forces herself to feign ignorance of the situation, "What was that about?"
He pauses a moment, debating whether to share the information or simply ignore her. He seems to come to the conclusion that anyone in this area is important enough not to ignore. "I'm Garrus Vakarian, the C-Sec Officer in charge of investigating the claims against Saren. Executor Pallin and I were arguing because I can't get into Saren's files, thanks to his spectre status." He sighs, crossing his arms while Shepard struggled not to fidget, for fear that any amount of movement would give her body a chance to break free of her mind. "Now, time is up and I have nothing."
Shepard smiles sympathetically, recalling the amount of red tape she had encountered over past few years. "That's a shame, though we have an eyewitness account of Saren's presence on Eden Prime. That should be enough to have him stripped of his spectre status."
He seems a bit startled by her knowledge of the case, but then his eyes trail to the Alliance symbol on her uniform. "I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?" He asks this question carefully, feeling rather silly for not catching her name.
"I didn't." She smirks, and crosses her arms. "Commander Elizabeth Shepard, Alliance Navy, Pleased to meet you, just don't get my achievements mixed up with my mother's, Commander Hannah Shepard, and hopefully we won't have a problem."
"Understood." He replies smirking back, likely thinking of his own parentage issues, but then he pauses again, "Come to think of it, you look familiar, Shepard. Have we met somewhere before?"
Shepard's cheeks flood with a blush as she considers the idea that he may have even the ghost of a memory of their time together, but in the company of others she deems it best to keep her mouth shut. "No, sorry. You must be mistaking me for someone else." The words are hard to force out, and leave a bad taste in her mouth.
One of her squadmates poke her in the back, she turns her head to see Kaidan. "Commander, we should get going. The meeting is starting."
"Go on ahead and wait for me." She instructs, waving him off. "I just need a minute to finish my conversation with Vakarian here." When they walk away, Shepard turns back to Garrus.
"Was there something you needed?" He asks, an inquisitive expression on his face.
She bites her lip, "Yeah, actually. I need you to find someone for me, if we don't already have enough to go against Saren, she'll have our final puzzle piece."
Garrus seems to perk up at this information. "I think I can handle that. Who do you need me to find?"
"A quarian, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. She's probably looking to make a deal to get in exchange for her information."
"I know just who to talk to." He hurries off without another word, beginning his search for the Quarian. She sighs, wishing he had said goodbye, but neither of them were very good at that.
She strolls up to the platform where the Ambassador was meeting with the councilors- and was relieved to that the captain wasn't there- as they finish the audio file Shepard submitted to the case, "This would be very damning evidence, if it weren't possible that Nihilus was in shock, and the suggestion that Saren was there, from the dock worker, convinced him that Saren was the one who shot him."
Upon hearing the Turian councillor speak, Shepard resisted the urge to face palm. 'Nothing is ever easy, is it?'
"Councilor, then where did the dock worker get the Saren's name?" She interjects, refusing to let the ambassador get a word in edgewise, knowing he was likely to yell at the council, and such would only hurt their case.
"Saren is a rather decorated spectre, which makes him quite famous." The Asari councilor answers. "And in some circles, even infamous."
"And we can't ask Nihlus what happened, as he is still rather unconscious at the hospital." The Salarian informs the commander.
"Then perhaps it would be prudent to adjourn until Nihlus recovers enough to come testify." Shepard suggests, recognizing that this was a battle that couldn't be won. No matter the weapon.
"Commander, I am a busy man." Saren spits out. "I have no time for these silly games and foolish accusations." She resists the urge to insult him, noticing the way he nurses his shoulder.
'Nihlus shot him in the shoulder.' She remembers the dockworker having said, "What happened to your shoulder?"
"I was thrown by an explosion during the mission I just worked." He says with a sigh, "Any more foolish questions?"
"You look pretty damn good for someone who was thrown in an explosion." Shepard tells him suspiciously.
"Enough." The Asari councilor interjects. "We'll resume the meeting in 24 hours, whether Nihlus is awake or not."
Shepard sighs, but turns and walks away, squadmates in tow. "What do we do now?" Ashley asks.
"We go find our newest turian friend. We find Vakarian."