"One less to worry about!", Garrus' jovial voice sounded over the coms and Shepard grinned.

She glanced behind and above them where Garrus was laying, sniping the husks around her. She popped the heatsink from her own rifle and loaded another, before peeking up over her barricade where she was crouched. Another wave was heading for them and with a grin, she stood up and began picking them off, as Garrus took care of the ones further out.

Across the way a bit, Thane knelt behind his own barricade and fired into the group of husks, occasionally exclaiming, "Go to the sea…" Suddenly, as Shepard was looking in on her team mates, several husks managed to get around her barricade and attacked her. She beat them off, laughing as she shot one and took the head off another.

Garrus' voice came over the com, no longer joking, "Praetorian at twelve o'clock, Shepard…"

Shepard cursed, she hated these damn things, and she was getting a little low on Ammo. She glanced over and saw the Praetorian was about 40 feet away and within about 10 feet of her were several clips. She darted out and began gathering the clips, reloading her gun as she went all the while listening to Garrus.

Garrus saw Shepard dart out in the path of the Praetorian and begin to pick up clips and he cursed. "Shepard, the Praetorian is on its way to you….you think maybe you might GET THE FUCK BEHIND COVER?" He watched through his scope as she turned to glance at him and he could imagine the grin on her face.

"Siha, perhaps retreating to cover might be a good idea…..", even Thane sounded concerned as he took aim and fired at the Praetorian before darting to a different cover trying to draw it away from Shepard. Garrus seconded that silently, but kept firing, the damn thing just wouldn't go down.

Shepard heard her team, but she was determined to grab the ammo, though she did keep a careful eye on where the Praetorian was. She caught Thane's darting to a different cover, but the Praetorian seemed focused on her. Measuring the distance and figuring the ammo and the thing's shields. Grinning, she turned and began firing into the thing, ignoring the cover, just walking forward, blasting away.

Garrus saw her start to walk toward the Praetorian, firing her weapon over and over, pausing only to pop the heat sink and reload, then starting again, "Spirits, Shepard…if you live through this, I'm going to KILL you!" he shouted into the com, before standing up and firing into the Praetorian's face as quickly as his sniper rifle would allow. He vaguely heard a curse and out of the corner of his eye he saw Thane stand and begin doing the same thing, firing over and over into the Praetorian. Just as the thing got within arm's reach of her, it keeled over, falling toward her. Garrus heard her laughter over the com as she threw herself to the ground and rolled to the side, barely escaping before the behemoth landed on her. Garrus leapt over the boulder he'd taken cover behind and hurried down the hill, cursing and getting more angry the closer he got. Thane had come from cover as well and was glancing around, keeping an eye for more husks. Shepard was scurrying around the area looking for anything she could get her hands on.

By the time he'd gotten to the flat area where the battle had taken place Garrus had built up quite a head of steam. Stalking over to Shepard, he stopped just behind her and snapped, "Commander, in the future if you intend to try and get yourself killed, at least give me the heads up so I can strap a bomb to your six…you can run in and attack like a caveman and take out the enemy and kill yourself in one move."

Shepard had stood up when she'd heard Garrus start to speak, now she stared, wide eyed at the Turian, who snarled out his statement and then turned on his heel and stalked toward the shuttle. She blinked slowly, surprised by the venom in his voice and his actions. As Garrus stalked off, he snapped his rifle closed and set it on his back as he went, not looking back. Carefully, she glanced over at Thane, who stood with an inscrutable expression on his face, before he turned and followed Garrus toward the shuttle.

Shepard frowned, she had figured that Garrus would be a little upset, but the fury in his voice was unexpected. She was half convinced that Garrus was over-reacting because of their personal relationship, but the look on Thanes face made her wonder. Despite the calm, inscrutable expression, she'd seen the irritation in his face . Biting her lip, she frowned, then picked up the small crate that had been their entire reason for coming here The crate contained a collection of religion artifacts for a Salarian religious group who had wanted it back badly enough to offer quite a bit of money for it. Getting on the com, she called Joker, who answered immediately, "Joker, the landing zone is secured…get a team down here and get the rest of these crate…I've got the Salarian artifacts."

"Roger that, Commander…soon as you get back up here, they'll be ready to go. Everything ok, commander?", even Joker's voice sounded concerned.

Sighing, Shepard said, beginning to trudge to the shuttle, "I hope so, Joker…but I'll have to get back to you on that."

CHAPTER BREAK CHAPTER BREAK CHAPTER BREAK CHAPTER BREAK

The ride back to the Normandy was very quiet, the only sound in the shuttle was the engine and the occasional word from the pilot. Shepard tried to start a conversation, but Thane responded in single word answers and Garrus said nothing outside the occasional grunt. Shepard did notice that there was a low, deep growl coming from Garrus, but he wouldn't even look at her. Once back at the Normandy, both Garrus and Thane exited the shuttle first, leaving the Commander to follow more slowly. Kaiden was there with Mordin, and both watched the situation, Mordin started to speak, but Shepard thrust the box with the artifacts into his hands and said, "Take care of the artifact, Mordin."

Kaiden frowned, "Are you ok, Shepard?"

Shepard headed out of the shuttle bay, nodding to Kaiden as she said, "Of course…talk to you later."

Shepard entered the elevator, leaning back against the wall as the door closed. Sighing, she said, "Edie, what is the location of Officer Vakarian?"

"Officer Vakarian is currently in the quarters you share, Commander"

Shepard slumped a little, that was a good sign, she thought. She'd been afraid he'd been so angry he would have gone back to the Main Battery. Sighing, she said, "Thanks Edie" and triggered the elevator for her cabin.

"Of course Shepard, logging you out."

Shep rubbed her neck, rolling it to get some of the kinks out. As the elevator got to her floor, she exited, then hesitated in front of her cabin. She realized she was nervous; she and Garrus had argued before, but not since they'd moved their relationship to the next level. Most of her previous relationships barely met the requirements of that term; most were fellow soldiers who she had spent time with between trips. Her longest relationship had lasted a year, but they'd only been together for about 3 weeks tops during that year. The other side of that coin was she'd never really cared before if arguing would ruin something; none of her previous relationships had meant as much to her as this one.

Shepard rolled her shoulders and stood up straighter, she'd never been shy about confronting Garrus when they were arguing before, when they had been just friend, and she wasn't going to start now. At least that was the pep talk she gave herself that got her through the door. The first thing she noticed walking into her quarters was that Garrus' armor was stacked in the floor, not so neatly. The next was that the shower was running. She got out of her own armor, stacking it beside Garrus for now; you never put armor away until you'd cleaned it. Armor protected you, it paid to keep it in good shape.

Shepard knew she was procrastinating, so she forced herself to enter the bathroom, wearing only her tight under armor suit. She saw Garrus own suit laying on the toilet and looked at the shower through the steam. Garrus never looked her way, just said, "I'll be out in a minute, then you can have the shower."

Shepard frowned, that was NOT a good sign. Normally, Garrus would simply offer to share the shower with her. Sure enough, she watched as he palmed the shower control off and reached for a towel, quickly drying his body as she watched.

Garrus knew she was upset from the way she stood, biting her lower lip and not saying anything. But while his anger had cooled a bit, he was still angry and needed some time to cool off. He turned off the shower, grabbed a towel as she just stood there and watched him. Even angry with her, Garrus love watching her, clad only in her underwear and tight under armor suit that showed off her body fully, she was beautiful. He finished drying off and threw the towel at the laundry chute, and began to leave the bathroom, but he couldn't resist saying, "Enjoy the show, Shepard? Shower's all yours…"

Shepard started, blushing when she realized she'd been staring at him. She started to speak and had to stop and clear her throat before she could get the words out. "Where are you going?"

Garrus paused as he was about to slide past her, narrowing his eyes. His mate's emotions were never easy to read unless she was really lost in them. He knew that he was probably one of the few people who ever got to see beneath her calm, cool exterior mask. And he'd been one of those few for years, well before they'd become lovers. He watched as she chewed her lip, it was going to bleed if she kept it up. He reached out and gently extracted it from her teeth with his talon, and said, "I need to check the main battery". He wasn't prepared to see her whole body change; her head moved back sharply, her eyes blinked furiously and she swallowed hard, then said, her voice not nearly as strong as it usually was,

"Ok.."

She lowered her head, her hair was escaping from the bun she usually wore it in and fell in wisps around her face as she gazed at the floor. He turned and walked out of the bathroom, he knew she was upset, but he wasn't entirely sure why. As far as he was aware, HE was the one who she'd nearly scared the gizzard out of…running into that Praetorian like that. His anger flared back up and he marched to his quarters, grabbing clothes and putting them on along with the boots he wore aboard ship. He headed for the door and realized she was standing in the bathroom doorway, watching him with that strange, almost empty expression in her face. He'd seen it before, but as angry as he was, he couldn't remember when. She was chewing her lower lip again and he snapped as he started up the stairs, "You should take a shower, Shepard"

"Are you saying I stink?". She looked up, some odd light in her eyes.

"Yes…and quit chewing on your lip, you're going to make yourself bleed" And he stalked out the door and over to the elevator. Lia felt as though he's slapped her, but she couldn't help but move to the door and watch him get in the elevator; he never even looked back.

Shepard turned and trudged into their bathroom, stripping off and entering the shower. She washed the grime off her body and washed her hair, fighting to keep herself calm. Eventually, she began to cry, leaning her forehead against the wall, sobbing. She realized that she'd gotten used to having Garrus there when she fell apart, holding her and stroking her hair. Even before they'd been mates, Garrus had been there for her, helping her stay calm and cool, Commander Shepard, in public, and there for her when she needed to be human. Now she stood in the shower alone, weeping because she didn't know what else to do. Fighting Reapers, Collectors, Rouge Spectre, Batarian Pirates, that was easy; relationships, those were difficult.

Eventually she left the shower, dressed and stood looking in the mirror. She really needed a haircut. She'd been putting it off, but it was beginning to get to the point where it got in her way. As Alliance military, she was used to cutting her own hair, keeping it short enough to manage in uniform and armor. If she was honest, she'd admit that part of her hesitation to cut her hair was because Garrus loved to play with it. Part of her seriously considered taking the scissors to her hair, but she decided to put it off until she wasn't so upset. Putting on her uniform, she splashed some cold water on her face to try and minimize the damage from an hour of bawling and headed out the door.

Garrus leaned back against the elevator, sighing. His anger had cooled considerably in the last nine hours; and he could even see some humor in it now. It wasn't like Shepard running into the fray was unusual and even beyond that, she had most likely known exactly where she was in relation to the Praetorian. Sighing, Garrus rubbed his neck, twisting his head, he'd intended to come back up here and talk to Shepard much earlier, but once he'd gotten to the Main Battery he'd found that one of the repairs that had been done while they'd been down on the planet had taken the Thanxx cannon completely offline. It had taken nearly nine hours to get things straightened out and working right. He was tired, sore and grimy from crawling in and out of access panels and all he wanted was a hot shower and to crawl into his nest with his mate.

He reached the cabin area and entered into the cabin being as quiet as possible. He went down into the sleeping area and looked into the nest, expecting to see his mate there. But the nest was empty and just the same as it had been the last time he'd saw it. Garrus frowned, looked over at the couch, thinking she might have fallen asleep there, perhaps waiting for him. Not finding her, he then checked the bathroom, but still no Shepard. He turned on the lights and checked around for a note or something, but again, there was nothing. Other than their combined armor sitting on the floor waiting for them to clean them, the cabin was just the same as always.

Finally, Garrus said, "Edie, where is Commander Shepard?"

Edie's voice was cool, and Garrus could have sworn there was a measure of censure in it, "Commander Shepard is not in the ship currently".

Garrus started, they were not in orbit around any planet, so where in the Spirits could she be? Had she taken a shuttle somewhere? Garrus frowned, "Edie, what do you mean Shepard is not in the ship?"

Edie's voice DEFINITELY carried a note of censure, Garrus decided as she said, "That usually means that Commander Shepard is not in the ship, Officer Vakarian."

Garrus threw the ceiling a dirty look, then said, "I'm aware of what the words mean, Edie, I'm asking where exactly Shepard is. Did she take a shuttle somewhere?"

"No, Officer Vakarian"

"Then where the hell is she, Edie?", Garrus was getting frustrated and while he knew that snapping at Edie wasn't going to do anything, he couldn't help it. He was tired, irritated and now worried about his mate.

"Commander Shepard is currently outside the Airlock near the cockpit"

Garrus shook his head, he wasn't sure he heard that correctly, so he asked, "Edie, did you say she's OUTSIDE the airlock?"

Edie's voice held reproach, Garrus would have sworn, "That is correct, Officer Vakarian…Commander Shepard is working on an access panel outside the ship near the cockpit"

Garrus cursed, "Spirits! Edie, tell me she's not out there alone….", Garrus was already heading out of the cabin to the elevator

"She is not out there alone, Officer Vakarian"

Garrus paused waiting for the elevator, sighing in relief, "Who is with her, Edie?"

Edie's voice was quiet, "There is no one with her, Officer Vakarian"

"WHAT? Edie you just told me that she wasn't out there alone….", Garrus was shocked and scared. Ever since the destruction of the first Normandy, when Shepard had died she'd hated EVACing, being outside in space made her nervous, something he could very much understand.

Edie's voice came again as Garrus entered the elevator, "You told me to tell you that Commander Shepard wasn't "out there alone", I did as you requested."

"Damn it Edie, that wasn't…..Spirits, never mind. What's she doing out there?"

"I believe she is working on one of the navigation systems that was damaged in the attack". Then Edie's voice seemed to becomes more personable as she said, "I have been monitoring Commander Shepard's vital signs at Doctors Mordin and Chakwas's behest; her heart rate and breathing are both severely elevated, I have asked if she needs assistance, but she has thus far refused."

Garrus growled, "Damn her stubborn…", as the elevator opened into the CIC, Garrus headed through, not bothering to say anything to the late night crew. He reached the airlock and glanced in, seeing Joker sitting in his chair, nervously fidgeting with his controls. He glanced over and saw Garrus and sighed in relief,

"Thank god! I told her that we could wait to work on that once we got to our next stop, I can manually set the auto pilot if I need to, but she insisted on going out there, alone…."

Garrus growled and nodded at the pilot, entering the airlock and beginning to suit up. He got the EVAC suit on and added magnetic boots, then took the extra few seconds to check the suit and seals. It wouldn't do to space himself because he was in a hurry to get to Shepard.

Garrus stepped outside the airlock and secured his umbilicus to the metal slides that ran around the outside of the Normandy and secured his magnetic boots to the ship as he began to make his way to the small form working on the nose of the ship. He walked close enough to see she was working with an arc welder, so he stopped a good distance away and used the com to speak to her, "Shepard…"

So intent was Shepard on the repair she was working on as well as forcing herself not to freak out. Her breath was loud in her ears, and she could feel her heart racing, no matter how much she tried to stop it. Despite the loud breathing, she kept feeling she was suffocating and she refused to look up, instead, she stared at the hull of the Normandy where she was working. When she heard Garrus quiet voice in her ear, she carefully turned off the arc welder and half turned, only to gasp and grab at the umbilicus as she felt herself lose her seat on the hull.

Garrus heard her gasp and reached out, his long arms barely able to grab her shoulder, keeping her balanced. He looked into her helmet and saw her eyes un-naturally wide, he spoke, "It's ok, amica…it's ok. You're fine…your oxygen is fine, you're secured to the ship….just breath." Garrus had both hands on her shoulders, gazing at her. He saw her blink inside the helmet, then half close her eyes and draw a deep breath, before she looked at him again. He was happy to see her eyes were less wild and terrified and more contained. She nodded, then looked down, taking another deep breath, before sitting back down and continuing to fix the wires. Garrus switched his umbilicus to the other slide and knelt down, "How much more do you need here?"

When Shepard spoke over the com, her voice was shaking a little, "Just this connection and the one on that side….I've gotten the main connection set up, but there were several other half and full breaks…these are the last two."

Garrus nodded and bent over, slowly working his hands down the wires, looking for the breaks, finding one, he used the tool beside Shepard to strip and splice the wires, and when she was done, held his hand out for the arc welder. She handed it over after hesitating and he went to work on the last connection. It didn't take him long, probably because he wasn't on the verge of panic and passing out the entire time. He turned off the welder and stood, checking his umbilicus automatically and putting the tools in the tool box that had its own umbilicus line.

Garrus stood and offered his hand to Shepard who took it and allowed him to help her up, together they made their way toward the airlock.

CHAPTER BREAK CHAPTER BREAK CHAPTER BREAK CHAPTER BREAK

Once back inside the airlock, Shepard leaned against the bulkhead as the airlock repreassureized. Once it was safe, Garrus and Shepard got out of the EVAC suites and Shepard secured they tool box, after refilling it. Garrus stood and watched her, not saying anything as he took in her sweat soaked hair and uniform. She looked like she'd been swimming instead of in a dry EVAC suit outside the ship. She looked up and caught him watching her and gave him a wan smile, "I'll bet I smell even worse now, huh?"

Garrus widened his mandibles a bit and quipped, "Let's just say that I suggest you shower before you try and go in the elevator with anyone but me…"

"Wow, Commander….you REALLY stink…I can smell you all the way out here…", Joker's voice called from the cockpit, and Shepard called back

"Watch it, Joker…or next time I'll make YOU crawl under the panels to fix your station…"

Joker muttered something, but Shepard and Garrus walked off, heading for the elevator. Trying to keep the mood light, Shepard quipped, "You want me to ride up alone so I don't offend your nose?"

Garrus was still watching her, widened his mandibles a bit and said, "I'll take my chances…right now I'd walk through a Krogan camp without armor just to get to our nest…."

Another tremulous smile and Shepard and Garrus got in the elevator as Shepard said, "Did you get the cannon fixed?"

Garrus nodded, leaning against the elevator wall, still watching her. Shepard nodded, "Good…what was wrong with it?" She had half thought that was an excuse to stay away from her, so she was slightly surprised when Garrus actually told her,

Garrus shook his head, frowning, "When they fixed one of the other systems they actually bypassed the cannon's safety feature which took it offline. I couldn't get it back online until the I found the bypass and re-did it. I managed to get both the systems and the Cannon online and working together, but it was a… what is that word you use for huge messes that nothing goes right in?"

Shepard frowned, "A clusterfuck?"

Garrus nodded, sighing, "Yeah, it was a clusterfuck. Good word for it."

They reached the loft and exited the elevator and Garrus said, "Why were you EVACing all alone, Shepard? I know there are rules against that…"

Shepard nodded, "I had Joker watching my six…and there wasn't anyone else available. The Autopilot needed to be fixed." She began to strip off her clothes, looked at Garrus and headed for the bathroom before removing more than her shirt. Garrus frowned, but followed her,

"Joker might have been watching your six, but if something had happened, he couldn't have gotten to you quickly enough to do any good…you should have waited until someone could have been out there with you."

"No"

Garrus shook his head at her quiet but authoritive tone. That was Commander Shepard making a final statement. He gazed at her as she finished stripping and turned to the shower. "What do you mean no?" He made a decision and began to strip his own clothes as she adjusted the water.

Without looking around she said, shrugging, "Just what I said…no. No one is allowed out with me." She didn't look over at him, just stepped under the spray of the shower, bending forward to let the water hit her head and run down her back.

Garrus hestitated, then finished stripping and stepped behind her, she started, but didn't object so he reached up and began to massage her head and wet hair. She sighed as he reached over and picked up the shampoo and squirted some in his hands, rubbing it into her wet hair, massaging her scalp as he did so. She sighed and leaned against the wall, eyes closed, letting him wash her hair.

Quietly he turned her around, pulling her forward and leaning her head backward to wash the soap out of her hair. She never said a word, just sighed and soaked up the comfort of his touch. He reached for the soap and began to wash her body, and her eyes opened, watching him. He ran the soap over her, washing away the sweat that had becomes sticky on her skin. She looked up at him and her eyes were open, she swallowed hard and said, "Are we, ok?" She leaned forward, resting her palms on his chest, looking up at him and the expression on her face was like a punch in the gut.

Gently, he lowered his forehead and touched hers, sighing as he moved his hands to rest on the swell of her hips. He had no idea how long they stood like that, just being together but finally he said, "We're fine, amica…we'll always be fine. Even when I want to wring that pretty little neck of yours, we'll be fine."

She smiled a little and said, "Even when you're being an insubordinant, stubborn dick, we're fine?"

Garrus chuckled, quipping, "Ha…that's why you love me…."

Pretending to be serious, she slid her hands to his shoulders, shaking her head and looking at him seriously, though her eyes were laughing, "No no no, Garrus….I said I loved you FOR your dick, not because you WERE a dick…."

Garrus threw back his head and laughed, feeling the tension leaving him as he teased his mate, "You wouldn't want me any other way, Lia…admit it…."

Shepard shook her head, "You're right…I love you just as you are Garrus…arrogant, egotistical, insubordinate, annoying…everything you are, I love. I wouldn't change a thing…."

Garrus smiled and rested his forehead on his mates again, "Yeah, I feel the same way, amica…."

Together they stepped out of the shower and dried each other off before walking to their nest, hand in hand. Lia crawled in first, stretching against the padding and support materials on her "side" as Garrus arranged himself, his feet on the "perches" (as Lea called them) and settled in the support of the lining. Once he was settled, he opened his arms and she slipped in, still on her side, but cuddled close to her mate. He nuzzled her hair and his talons stroked up and down her back as she rubbed her cheek against his chest and her foot ran up and down his leg, playing lightly with his spur. Quietly, he said, "Lia…why do you EVAC? I know it terrifies you…"

There was silence for several long moments and Garrus thought maybe she'd fallen asleep, until she said, softly, "Because it terrifies me."

Garrus considered that for a moment, then said, "You do it because it terrifies you, so you will get used to it?" He felt his mate shake her head against him,

Lia sighed, she hated psychology and she especially hated trying to explain her own, "Not exactly…I don't think I'll ever be out there and NOT think about…well about dying. ", Garrus arms clenched around her without him even trying, "but if I don't do it, then when I have to, I won't be able to. If I give in to the fear, then what happens if someone need me to EVAC? I'll be so afraid I won't be able to do what I need to do in time"

Garrus shook his head, "Yes you will…Lia, you're the strongest woman I've ever met…if someone needs you, you'll be there no matter how scared you are…just because they need you."

Lia chuckled, "You have more faith in me than I do in myself, Garrus…"

Garrus hugged her close, "usually…"