Chapter 10

Shepard decided she liked Aria. The asari cut straight to the point and kept things simple, just how Shepard liked them. She'd only glanced at the dossiers before coming aboard the space station, allowing her glasses to download the information she needed and distribute it at appropriate times. She figured they were two years overdue for a test run.

"Okay gang. Let's grab Archangel first." Shepard said, motioning towards the recruiters down the stairs.

"With all due respect Shepard, we need Professor Solus working on the Collector data right away." Why is it that whenever someone says 'with all due respect' they really mean 'kiss my ass'? Shepard bit back a smile at the memory of Ashley, shaking her head. She knew that Miranda's point was valid but she was a little annoyed that Miranda didn't know that she knew that. But, then again, that had been her game, hadn't it? To let them underestimate her. But that tactic can only work for so long before you have to make the choice. Did she keep Miranda and Jacob at arms length forever or did she give them a chance if for no other reason than to see what they did with it? She fell firmly on the side of giving them a chance but right now doing so would put her at risk in a way she hadn't been in years. Well, she figured, she could settle for making them think twice about double crossing her for now and decide on that chance later.

"Grabbing Archangel will be an in and out mission. Solus can wait for a day but from what Aria said our vigilante can't. You understand?" Miranda nodded, looking a little surprised. It was understandable, given that was easily the most Shepard had said to her since waking up so she gave the dark haired woman a quick, reassuring smile before they proceeded to the recruitment room.

"Well, aren't you sweet? You're in the wrong place, honey. Stripper's quarters are that way." She raised her eyebrow at the batarian before pushing her glasses up her nose.

"Funny. Not as funny as the poor logic behind your bosses attempts to get Archangel but, hey, I'm just here for the paycheck. I assume this is a standard canon fodder job. Standard fee of around 500 credits paid after the job's done, I don't pick up credits for dead friends and I remain a completely independent party, right?" To his credit he simply nodded.

"Good, seems like you might actually know what you're doing. Any questions?"

"Just one. How'd Archangel manage to piss off your bosses? He's just one guy." She narrowed her eyes at him as she tried to figure out why she felt so weird about this mission.

"He had a whole team but we dealt with them. Now he's just one guy. But he's got the advantage. It's his base of operations and he knows we're coming. He's planned for an attack like this. We've lost a lot of men trying to get him already." Shepard was impressed, whoever this Archangel was one thing was certain; he was a hell of a badass.

"Where do we go?" She asked, eager to get on her way.

Shepard decided that she hated Omega. She'd been told how shitty it was before arriving and she really didn't expect anything else but there was something about seeing a kid almost throw their life away that made her want to hunt down and shoot every criminal in sight. She was in this state of mind when she passed a weapons store on her way to meet the merc who would transport them to Archangel which had the one type of weapon Cerberus had not thought to supply her with. Hell, even the Alliance hadn't let her have one due to regulations.

"Shepard, you can't be serious!" Miranda exclaimed but Shepard had the gleam in her eyes that she only got when she found something really interesting. It was what Garrus called her 'mad scientist' look.

"Don't worry, I'm trained with it. Wait, shouldn't you know that already?" Shepard may not be ready to trust Miranda but she seemed good at her job and Shepard very much wanted to uphold the belief that the woman who had been in charge of rebuilding her was at least somewhat capable.

"Of course I know that but a sword is hardly practical on a modern battlefield." Shepard snorted at that.

"All armour has weak points. They can be tricky to hit with bullets but no one expects you to have a sword." Miranda was still frustrated but her next comment had an air of humour about it.

"That's because it's completely suicidal." Shepard just smiled as they made their way towards the transport.

"Not completely."

Garrus hated Omega. He'd still been deciding what to do after the funeral when a friend at C-Sec had asked him to help out with a case. He'd solved the case but he had found that a large supply of the drugs making their way to the Citadel had come from Omega so he had headed there, hoping to put a stop to the crap that he couldn't touch when he was at C-Sec. The stuff that had made him re-apply for Spectre training in the first place. He probably would have stuck it out longer had the Council not started to dismiss the Reaper threat and began painting Shepard as delusional. So he had gone to Omega and started to make a difference. And then, a few months ago, the piece of him that was missing was no longer so painful but, rather, morphed into a strange tugging feeling. As if something was trying to tell him that he should be somewhere else. Of course, before he had time to think about it too carefully he'd been betrayed and now, as he faced certain death, his thoughts turned to Jane.

He leant back for a second to take another stim as there was a lull between the waves of mercs being sent across the bridge. He'd been awake for days holding this position and he knew that time was running out but he was determined to take as many mercs with him as possible. He got ready for the next wave as his visor started to play a song from Jane's playlist and he almost laughed at how perfect it was.

I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab For Cutie - Note: This is kind of morbid so I'm not sure why I'm putting it on here but... it's one of my favourites and has been for years.

He lined up his sniper rifle as the next wave began to move towards him when his visor suddenly cut out before restarting. When it came back online the interface had been completely redesigned and there was a little loading bar at the bottom of the screen telling him that it was syncing. Syncing to what? His thoughts were answered as three new mercs approached, the leader catching his attention. Piercing green eyes met his own through her thick black frames and his helmet's tinted visor. She nodded slightly as she pulled a sword out with one hand and a shotgun out with the other and her biotics flared. Wielding a shotgun with one hand, using her biotics to steady it, was a trick she used when she was looking to impress, although the sword was a new touch. That was when a new song began playing through his visor.

"We are Sex Bob-Omb! One, two, three, four!" Shepard began to move, her body a blur of biotic energy, and Garrus would have stood transfixed if he didn't know exactly which targets she was expecting him to catch. Her two human squad members seemed at a bit of a loss as Shepard took on the crowd of mercs with extreme skill, sometimes making a move that seemed to leave her open but that left the mercs open to him when they tried to take advantage of it. Just as the song ended, the last merc fell dead and Shepard made her way up to him. He had a million questions but he no longer felt as if a part of him was missing, confirming for him that this was indeed his Jane.

The tugging feeling in Jane's chest was leading her straight to Archangel and she got the feeling that something obvious was right in front of her and she just couldn't quite figure out what it was. Until, of course, Archangel had removed his helmet.

"Garrus!" She exclaimed, forgetting about the two Cerberus operatives next to her as she ran up to him and wrapped her arms around him, making sure that he was real. She tensed for a second as the fears at the back of her mind worked their way to the forefront. In truth, she had been worried about how she'd been brought back. Sure, she'd looked over the Project Lazarus files and the science checked out as far as she could tell, but there was still the small part of her that worried that she wasn't Jane. Those fears were instantly crushed as Garrus pulled her close to him.

"Spirits, Jane..." He murmured, her heart reacting forcefully to the sound of his voice. She heard Jacob clear his throat, pulling her back into the present. She pulled away from Garrus, quickly looking him over for injuries, her visor telling her that he was running low on medi-gel.

"How'd you end up here?" She asked, carefully keeping his gaze. It had been a few months for her but for him it had been two years. He had changed, that much was clear, but the question was; how much?

"I could ask you the same question." He countered playfully, before lowering his gaze. "I... I screwed up." He admitted, his voice too low to carry to Miranda and Jacob who were thankfully staying back and giving them space.

"Yeah, me too." Her thoughts were pulled back to the final moments before she died and how sorry she'd been for breaking her promise. Something she may now have a chance to fix. "But I told you I'd be back. I may be a little behind schedule but I made it." She hoped it was enough.

"Yeah, you did." He grinned at her and she grinned back. Just like old times, she thought.

"So, Archangel, huh?" He groaned.

"I blame you for that, GuardianAngel." She laughed a little at that.

"Yeah, I've decided to change it again. I've thought of something way more appropriate."

"What?"

"Phoenix." His visor gave him the necessary information and he laughed in response.

"Okay then, Phoenix. How do we get out of this one?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"No escape plan, Archangel?" His eyes darkened as he looked away.

"No. No escape plan." Shepard felt her heart almost break as she realised just how close she had been cutting it.

"Well, with the three of us we've got a better chance of fighting them off." She reasoned, as she spotted scouts approaching their position.

"So, we wait for a gap in their defences. I like it." He looked at the scouts through his scope before offering it to her.

"We'll have to split up. You can do the most damage from up here and I can do the most down there. I'll leave Jacob with you." Garrus raised a brow plate at her.

"I'll be fine without him." She cut him off with a look.

"Garrus, I just got you back. I am not losing you again." At that he leant in closer, making her mouth go dry.

"Jane, I just got you back." He countered and she knew that whatever she was feeling, he was feeling it too.

"So, we take one each. Miranda comes with me, Jacob stays with you." He regarded her for a second, she was till painfully aware of how close they were.

"You don't trust them." It wasn't a question, he knew her too well.

"No, I don't. Not yet. But I'm trying to give them a chance." He nodded as she stepped away to give orders to the two other humans before she left with the other woman, giving him a smile and nod as a kill counter for each of them appeared on his visor's display. Just like old times... he thought as he positioned his rifle.

Jane was grinning as she headed back up to Garrus. She'd almost forgotten how good it felt to fight with him and every second she was fighting without him in the basement felt dull by comparison. She ran into the room just in time to see a gunship appear and gun down him down, causing her fury to build, her biotics flaring. But her glasses told her that he was okay. Hurt, but he would survive so she made her way over to him, barely stopping to shoot at the mercs being dropped off by the gunship. That was of course when Garrus tried to move and dove straight into the path of a rocket. The screens of her glasses flared red to get her attention as her fury cascaded through her causing her biotics to flare to dangerous levels.

The kind of levels that could take down a gunship in one blast.

As soon as it was down she collapsed next to Garrus, keeping herself awake through sheer force of will as she applied the end of her medi-gel to his wounds. She heard someone call a shuttle but she couldn't register anything other than the image immediately in front of her. The image of her best friend dying in her arms.

"Don't do this to me Garrus. I need you." She murmured in Turian. She figured she'd probably butchered it without a second voice box but she didn't care. Suddenly, he violently gasped for breath and was struggling to stay concious. He might just make it, she dared to hope as the shuttle arrived.

Garrus awoke under the haze of painkillers and tried to remember what had happened.

He'd been trapped in his base.

Shepard had saved him.

The gunship had shown up and gunned him down.

He'd been hit by a rocket.

"Don't do this to me Garrus. I need you."

Her Turian was excellent for someone missing a second voice-box but he wondered about the last phrase. It translated as 'I need you' but it was reserved for use between lovers, akin to saying 'I love you'. He figured that it was probably a translation error but his heart raced at the thought that it might not have been. He quickly discarded the thoughts, she needed a friend and he refused to let his feelings for her, whatever they may be, get in the way of that.

He finally opened his eyes and found himself in a medbay, similar to that of the Normandy. He looked over to his right and saw Dr Chakwas who gave him a quick smile.

"Ah, I see you're awake." Her voice was low. "You took quite a hit but I managed to fix you up. I've had to implant some cybernetics but nothing too drastic."

"How bad is it?" He asked, feeling the bandage over the side of his face.

"It'll heal." He nodded. He'd never been particularly vain but there was something about having half his face torn off that made his insides go cold. "You should rest." He was about to argue but as he sat up he realised that the sudden movement made his head swim. He was still filled with painkillers. He was about to disregard this and try to get up, to see Jane, when he saw that on his left side another bed had been pushed up against his and in it lay a sleeping Shepard.

"It was the only way I could get her to rest." The doctor explained. "After you got hit she took down the gunship with a single biotic blast. I don't even know how she was standing when she brought you here but she refused to leave your side so I improvised. You can both sleep here tonight so that I'll be alerted to any change in your conditions. You should both be fit for duty tomorrow. I would prefer it if you both waited a couple of days but I've treated you both enough times to know that that's not going to happen."

"What happened to her?" He asked, unsure if the doctor would give him an answer.

"Exactly what you know happened. She died and the Council pretended that she had been delusional. The Alliance was little better. A few months later Joker and I were contacted by Cerberus, they were working on bringing the commander back. It took them two years but they succeeded."

"So where are we now?"

"Cerberus also rebuilt the Normandy. I'll let the commander explain properly when she wakes up." With that the doctor left and Garrus turned to Jane's sleeping form.

"What have you gotten yourself into, ani?" He muttered, surprising himself by using the Turian term of endearment used between bondmates.

"Nothing I can't handle now that you're here." She muttered back, rubbing her eyes. "Did you just call me Annie?" He shook his head at his luck.

"No, it's a Turian term." She began to sit up a little but thought better of it as she was still exhausted.

"What does it mean?" Now he had three options; tell her the truth and deal with the consequences now, lie and deal with the consequences when she found out or refuse to tell her and hope that she wouldn't bother to look into it.

"I'll tell you later. I'm too tired to explain now." She frowned a little but decided to let it go. Mostly.

"Fine, baka. Have it your way." She smiled smugly, knowing his translator only worked with Common. "Hey EDI, what time is it?" She called out when she realised that she wasn't wearing her glasses or omni-tool.

"23:46 Shepard. The doctor has requested that you sleep in the med-bay tonight and will clear you both for duty tomorrow morning, provided your conditions continue to improve." A synthetic voice told her. He frowned, it had too many inflections to be a simple VI.

"Is that an AI?" Shepard smiled dryly.

"Welcome to life working with Cerberus." Her tone was flat.

"Are you sure about this? Those experiments we put a stop to were pretty brutal." She sighed, lying on her side to face him, keeping her voice low.

"No, I'm not. But the crew seem alright so I'm giving them a chance. Plus, I don't see a way around this. The Collectors are abducting entire human colonies which is bad enough in itself but they might be working with the Reapers. That's why I'm glad you're here with me. If I'm walking into hell, I want you by my side." He laughed a little at that and she became very aware of how close they were to each other. She was wearing her vest top and joggers while he was just wearing a pair of pants, his torso partially covered by bandages but there was still a lot to see and she surprised herself by liking every inch of it. She'd never found turians attractive before but this was Garrus and she felt her breath hitch in her throat as she found herself wondering whether or not turians could kiss...

"You do realise this plan has me walking into hell too? Just like old times." She smiled at that, his voice pulling her mind back to their conversation. She couldn't help but frown a little, however, as she saw the bandage over his face.

"How bad?" He muttered, looking at her intently.

"Hell, Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face paint on there and no one will know the difference." She smiled and he chuckled a little, glad that the painkillers were still working. "Plus, it can't be worse than mine." She indicated towards her body and he looked down at her and saw that her skin was laced with glowing orange scars. But what caught his attention was that her vest had worked it's way up her body, leaving her waist a little exposed. He knew that for humans the waist wasn't a sensitive area so they weren't as bothered by it being exposed but it still made his breathing a little irregular, especially once her realised that the doctor had removed his own top to work on his wound. He stopped his mind from continuing down that path with extreme effort as he felt his groin plates begin to shift.

"Jane, you can barely notice them. Plus, they make you look badass." She smiled at that, her eyelids becoming heavy.

"Okay, we'd better actually get some sleep. We're picking up Professor Solus tomorrow."

"You mean the crazy salarian? Fun." He smiled as they drifted off to sleep.

AN: YAY, they're back together! Yeah, I'm going to change the rating to M now. I still haven't decided if I'm actually going to write the smutty bits or just gloss over them but you can't be too careful. Hope you enjoyed!

Also, the second song is We Are Sex Bob-Omb by Sex Bob-Omb.