"I'm going to need a lot of alcohol, you, and a long nap. Not necessarily in that order."
Shepard was leaning against the wall in the airlock corridor of the Normandy, the hem of her pants rolled up to her knees as she spread medi-gel on the deeper scrapes and wounds left from their battle.
"Add a shower to that list, Shepard. You have enough husk blood on you that Cerberus could probably clone it." Garrus reached a hand out and ran it through her hair. "How did it even get under your helmet?"
"I think it was on my gloves, and when I pulled the helmet off…" She made the motion with her hands, adding more blood to the already red-tinged mass of hair. Garrus moved his hand to wipe a streak of blood from her face. Shepard moved her own hand to cover his, her expression turning serious.
"I thought I was going to lose you, Garrus." Her words were soft, her fingers squeezing his. "When that platform fell after we killed the human reaper, I…"
Garrus moved his thumb across her cheek. "Thank you for saving me again, Shepard." He chuckled, leaning his head down to press against hers. "I don't know how many times I've had to say that, at this point."
Shepard moved her arms to circle them around his neck, pushing back on his head with her own. "You pulled me up into the Normandy just now, I'd say we're even this time."
They stood that way for several minutes until Joker's voice sounded in the room over the comm system. "Commander, we've cleared the Omega 4 relay. We're ready for you to start your walkthrough of the damages whenever you have a chance." Shepard pulled away from Garrus reluctantly. "And Garrus can come along too, if he wants."
"Joker, your spying thing has to stop."
"Yeah, actually I wasn't spying this time, Commander? Call it an educated guess."
When they left the airlock corridor and walked down towards the CIC, Joker was propped against the wall nearest the elevator, a self-satisfied smile on his face.
"I'm going do the walk through, you go ahead and get cleaned up and let Dr. Chakwas look at those injuries." Shepard muttered under her breath to Garrus before they got close enough for Joker to overhear.
"As long as you do the same after you're done."
Shepard managed to flash a tired smile his way. "I will, and then I'm going hunt down a shower and some sleep." Garrus nodded, and they stepped on the elevator with Joker. Garrus got off on the third deck, while Shepard and Joker stayed on to go check on Engineering.
His head was hurting. He had his own share of injuries from the fight and had been working hard to not let his face show the pain he was in. Garrus was very glad to see that Dr. Chakwas was ready to treat him as soon as he walked in. While she was removing the bandage from the side of his face that had been hit by the rocket on Omega, his omni-tool beeped.
Looking down, careful to not move his head and interrupt Dr. Chakwas' work, he opened the message that had the alert tone he had set for Shepard.
'My bed's big enough for the both of us if you don't feel like sleeping alone tonight.'
"Try not to smile so widely, Garrus, I'm reapplying this bandage." The amused voice made him jump slightly, and he tried to make his face look neutral again. The older woman laughed. "It's nice to see you and Shepard both looking so happy lately."
"Has Joker been talking?" Garrus had to assume the pilot had told the entire ship his suspicions.
"I have windows. Shepard visits the main battery far too often to just be checking on the state of Normandy's weapons."
Garrus remained quiet for the rest of the time she was tending to his wounds, wondering how Shepard would feel if she knew the ship was talking about them being together. It made him happy, if he was honest with himself, but they had never even really discussed the specifics of their relationship beyond their plans to sleep together and the rest of the ship was already talking about it.
As he discreetly made his way to Shepard's cabin, he pushed the worries from his mind. That could be dealt with another day, for now he just needed sleep. Defining their relationship could wait until things settled down.
When he finished taking a shower, Shepard was sitting at her desk, talking to Admiral Hackett over the vid comm. She appeared to be finishing up the conversation, but Garrus heard enough to know that he had given her another mission that needed to be taken care of soon.
He felt irritation flare at the man, as he watched her drooping shoulders as she talked. Shepard was exhausted, and before long she was going to run herself into the ground if she didn't get rest. When the call disconnected, she ran a hand through her hair.
"Another assignment?" Garrus put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them slightly. He had seen this on that human extranet site he had looked up several days before, it was called a massage.
Shepard nodded, moving her neck as he felt the tight muscles under his fingers. "Top priority. It can wait a few days, though." She waited until his hands stopped moving, and turned, speaking with a smile on her face. "You're going to put me to sleep doing that, and I need a shower first. I feel –and almost certainly look- disgusting."
While waiting for Shepard to get out of the shower, Garrus sat on the edge of her bed, trying to figure out how to arrange the pillows on the bed to accommodate his carapace and fringe.
When Shepard exited the bathroom and made her way to the bed, she stopped at the sight waiting for her and laughed. "It looks like you made a nest, Garrus."
"Don't act surprised. Didn't you call me a bird alien before?" He was lying in the middle of the 'nest', pillows under his head so he could rest comfortably in the bed that was obviously made for humans. Shepard shook her head at the sight and dimmed the lights before crawling into the bed next to him.
"Where are the blankets?" He heard her ask as she fumbled with one of the pillows. "Are they part of your nest?"
"I'll share them if you come closer." She laughed and he felt her soft skin when she scooted next to him.
"Never mind, I don't think I'm going to need them." He felt her arm wrap around his waist and one of her legs curl around his, her body pressed to his side. "I forgot how warm your skin is."
"Always happy to please." Garrus spoke softly, a hand resting on her arm. He bent his head to press his mouth to her lips. "Goodnight, Shepard."
She bumped her head against his before snuggling back against him. "Goodnight, Garrus."
When they woke the next morning, it was to a lazy feeling where neither of them wanted to get out of bed. But after a few 'good-morning' kisses, the lazy feeling left and Garrus was soon tossing their clothes to the floor.
His movements were more deliberate this time. He knew the things Shepard had liked the first time, and enjoyed getting another chance to get better at them. By the moans coming from her mouth after only a few minutes with his tongue, he assumed he was improving.
And the oils and ointments supplied by Mordin were put to good use, as well.
There were many chances to display their reach and flexibility, one in particular so satisfying that the sounds Garrus made caused EDI to check over the comm system if everything was alright –worried because of the heightened level of noise coming from Shepard's cabin. To which Joker broke in, his voice sounding smug, that EDI should probably put the cabin on mute, drawing an exasperated groan from Shepard.
Eventually they collapsed together, turian and human legs tangled, exhausted and covered in sweat, along with… other things. Shepard ignored Garrus' warnings that she should shower off until she started itching, and then he took matters into his own hands and carried her to the shower himself.
And since he was already in there, and soaked himself, Shepard told him that he might as well share the shower with her. It didn't take much to convince him that it was a great idea.
"We have to leave this room eventually." Shepard said lazily, her head resting on Garrus' chest as he trailed a hand through her hair. She closed her eyes to the touch, her body aching with a much sweeter feeling than grueling hours spent in battle had ever left her with. She pulled a blanket over them both, their bare skin was still wet from the shower and she knew Garrus didn't like the cold.
"We could wait until Joker finds some reason to call for us." Shepard heard Garrus' suppressed laughter in his words.
"You're going to have to hope there's food in this room somewhere if you want me to stay in here much longer."
"There's two unopened bottles of wine on the table." His hand trailed along her spine. "We never got around to opening them."
She shook her head, feeling her face rub against the rough skin on Garrus' chest. "Food, Garrus. I can't live on alcohol like you obviously can."
He laughed, "You're the one stopping us from moving."
"Because I'm comfortable."
"You have to move if you want to eat, Shepard."
Pulling away, feigning a frown, Shepard made herself get out of the bed, regretting her decision as soon as she was away from the warmth. She bent and picked up her shorts and t-shirt that had been thrown on the floor earlier that morning, and felt Garrus' gaze. When she turned to look at him, she liked the relaxed, easy smile on his face.
"Seeing something you like, Vakarian?"
"You don't have to ask, Shepard." He eventually followed her lead, extracting himself from the bed to pull on his clothes. "You going to tell me about this mission that the admiral wants you to take on?"
Shepard pulled a clean pair of pants out of her wardrobe, and dug through the clothes until she found her N7 hoodie, feeling she deserved a casual day after just saving the galaxy again. "Over breakfast." Garrus looked down at his omni-tool, an eyebrow plate raised. "Lunch, then." She corrected, putting on the clothes.
They had four more days together. Four blissful days of relative peace, until Shepard left on the assignment she had received from Admiral Hackett, telling Garrus only the bare details.
Garrus felt lost once she had left. Sharing a bed with Shepard every night had made it difficult for him to go back to sleeping alone. He kept waking in the night, expecting to feel her next to him and instead found the bed empty and cold.
She had tried to make her mission sound like a standard procedure, but the fact that she was in Batarian space without backup made him pace the corridors of the Normandy, ready to take off after her at any sign that there was trouble.
That sign of trouble came with a frantic message from Shepard, after radio silence for days, requesting pickup. Garrus heard the message come across the comm in the cockpit, where he had taken to waiting in hopes of receiving word for Shepard, and saw as she tore across the station, running for the ship. His first thought was of battle, but could see no one chasing her.
Shepard was sprinting into the cockpit before the door fully closed behind her.
"Get us out of here, Joker!"
Without waiting for an answer, she turned and ran down the corridor to the galaxy map, Garrus following at her heels. Without pausing to take off her helmet, she vaulted the steps and watched the map. Garrus stood behind her, watching as one of the blue pulses that marked a mass relay shone bright before extinguishing to red.
As Shepard dropped her head at the sight, he knew what had happened. The Bahak system's mass relay had just been destroyed. He didn't know how many Batarians had depended on that relay, but he didn't have to ask to know what would happen to them now.
Shepard had checked herself into the med bay for Dr. Chakwas to treat the injuries she had taken while on Aratoht. She was still there when Admiral Hackett boarded the Normandy.
Garrus sat in the cockpit of the Normandy with Joker, both silent for several minutes after the Admiral boarded the ship.
"They're going to blame this on Shepard." Joker finally voiced the one thing that had been on Garrus' mind since he had watched the Bahak mass relay flicker red. "They sent her there, and she's going to be punished for it."
Garrus knew he was right, but he didn't want to accept it. "Whatever happened, she did what she had to do." Shepard hadn't confided in anyone since she had been back on the ship, instead choosing to keep to herself while waiting to hear from the Admiral.
A half-hour later, which felt more like an eternity to Garrus, Admiral Hackett left the ship, and Shepard stood in the cockpit, finally read to talk.
She told Garrus and Joker everything that had happened, what she had been forced to do, the Batarian lives it had been necessary to sacrifice. They both agreed that she had done the right thing, but Garrus wasn't stupid. He knew it was only a matter of time until things turned bad for Shepard.
It was two weeks later that the Alliance called, formally requesting that Shepard go back to Earth.