Tiberius stands in the doorway of Garrus's office, his subvocal keening setting Garrus on edge as he wrings his hands, mandibles tight against his face and brow plates sloping down slightly in a worried expression.

"Dad? What's wrong?" Garrus asks, closing the report he was working on and trying to decipher the ominous look on his father's face.

"Where did Shepard say she was going when she left?" Tiberius clears his throat as if to disguise the concern interlaced in his usually authoritative tone.

Garrus moves to stand, now put fully on alert by his father's odd behavior, "Akuze. Why? What's wrong?"

Tiberius seems to wilt as Garrus confirms his fear, his rigid stance softening under the burden of the crushing news he has to deliver to his son. "Garrus… there was a thresher maw attack on a human colony on Akuze, the Alliance marine unit there was massacred." He almost doesn't want to meet Garrus's eyes as he continues, "But, I've checked the reports, she's not listed as killed in action…"

Before his father can finish his sentence Garrus is up and brushing past him; his heart pounds mercilessly against his ribcage as he storms down the hallway, feeling light headed from hyperventilation as he attempts to contact Jane, hoping that it wasn't her unit, that maybe she hadn't gotten there yet since it had only been four days. By the time he reaches his apartment he's tried and failed several times to bring her up on vid comm or even connect to send her a message.

Garrus spends the next few hours trying to get ahold of the commander of her ship to get an updated status report and communicating the information he acquired to her mother bit by bit. His mind reels as he discovers the events that led to the demise of 48 Alliance marines, leaving one known survivor and one soldier missing. Toombs, the lone survivor, reported that he was able to make it to safety after being warned by a fellow soldier nearby moments before the camp was attacked, but the rest were unfortunate enough to have been in their tents and were unable to evacuate in time. The maw's attack destroyed their camp and caused several cave ins of the tunnels beneath the ground surface, burying many alive as they tried to make their escape.

Garrus tries not to think of her alone out there, in some dark cavern or possibly buried beneath the sand and rock that had swallowed so many others. His stomach churns at the thought that maybe she would never be found; her body cold and lifeless in an unknown grave never to be visited and he has to resist the urge to vomit as he comes up with another plan to find her. He can't let that night be their last together, he never even got to say goodbye.

Reinvigorated, he goes to his computer and pulls up a message from Jane dating a few years back when she was really into hacking. She'd picked it up right away and was brilliant, the girl could work wonders with electronics, whether it was bypassing security to access restricted files or rewiring the intercoms to their apartments to work as a two way radio and mess with his dad. This particular hack would prove very useful now as he follows her instructions, connecting directly into her omni tool through Alliance medical servers and accessing her vital monitors. His heart leaps in his chest as he connects but his joy is short lived as he realizes that he's only able to pull up the history and no current readings. Looking them over he sees several spikes in adrenaline followed by bouts of hypoxemia, then a plateau period of a few minutes before her heart rate rose significantly and that was it, her omni tool simply stopped transmitting data.

Garrus feels enraged as he gets up from the computer, wanting to smash his fist into it but instead sets his sights on the nearby coffee table, flipping it over with a hard yank, sending the inlaid glass in thousands of pieces skittering across the floor and feeling slightly satisfied at making something else just as shattered as he feels. Feeling defeated, he makes his way down the hall to his shower and gets in, letting the scalding water beat down on him as all he could have done differently ran through his mind. Maybe they should have never gone out for that drink, they would never have ended up nearly naked tonguing each other without Kyrie's influence, and that wouldn't have led to him turning her down; maybe things would have stayed the same as they always had between them and she would have left like she planned, at least he would have been able to say goodbye. His head rests against the wall of the shower as he thinks, he wanted to be close to her like that, to touch her, and she had seemed to want it as well, should he have just given in to her? Maybe if he had taken her to his bed she wouldn't have felt the need to run away from him in the morning, maybe she would have stayed.

He shakes the thoughts from his head, knowing that she wouldn't have stayed, no matter how amazing things had gone between them because she couldn't, but he can't help blame himself. His head lifts quickly when he hears a noise from the other room and shuts off the tap, wrapping a towel around his hips and bolting towards the pinging computer.

Jane smiles softly at the gentle caress of his hand across her brow and tilts her hand into his palm, his warmth relaxing her as she slowly opens her eyes, feeling sluggish and groggy from the pain meds and flinching slightly when she sees Kitaro leaning over her wearing a puzzled look.

"Sorry…" She laughs sheepishly and winces at the pain it causes, "For a second I thought you were…"

"Garrus." He interrupts with a kind smile, "You've been calling for him in your sleep. I've been waiting for you to wake up so we could contact your ship, and Garrus of course. I didn't want to get his hopes up until we had good news."

"Was I that bad?" She asks, somewhat incredulous.

"Let's just say that if Garrus were to find out that I had you and that I let you die… I wouldn't be far behind." He says with a chuckle and moves to reach behind him, grabbing her omni tool. "By the way, your omni tool is destroyed, but a few minutes ago this light came on."

Jane bolts upright and snatches it from his hand, examining it and smiling when she realizes why the med chip had been reactivated.

"Easy now… grabby." Kitaro teases and looks at what she's doing.

"It's him! It's Garrus… I told him how to hack into my omni tool if he ever needs me and can't get ahold of me. He's probably worried." She sighs and leans back against the bed, still feeling a bit embarrassed about their night together and nervous to talk to him. "Can we call him?"

"Of course." He scoffs as if it's a ridiculous question and cues up the call on the terminal next to her bed. It seems like forever before he answers and she feels like she's losing more and more control over her heart as each second passes.

Garrus opens the call, slightly disappointed when Kitaro's face fills the screen, not exactly who he wanted to hear from at the moment and as if reading his mind Kitaro speaks up quickly.

"Hey Gar… it's not me calling, not really." He grins and turns the computer towards Jane, "Look who I found!"

Garrus is immediately flooded with a sense of relief and he sinks down into the chair tiredly, his emotions being all over the place all day fully exhausting him. "I've been so worried…" He begins, his expression softening into a calm smile, "The reports said there was only the one survivor, thank the Spirits you've safe!"

Kitaro scoots the console closer to her bed so that she can take over and leaves them to talk, chuckling at her proudly showing off the contraption made of bolts and pins they'd affixed to her broken leg and boasting about how impressive her scar would be jokingly. He can just barely contain his amusement at how deftly they dance around each other, so carefully avoiding the elephant in the room with an uncommon grace. Best friends indeed.