AN: Okay, so I know that this is another short chapter but adding anything more would have just been for the sake of it. These interim chapters are shorter just because the story has gone from a large ensemble cast of main characters with many story threads, down to just Kira, Tom and Garrus. That'll change as we get into ME2, but for now I'll keep the updates frequent to make up for it. ^^

Thanks go out again to everyone who reads this, with special thanks to everyone who has followed and favourited, and super awesome mega thanks to Zombie Pixel and 1054SS325MP for the brilliant reviews. You guys are awesome. ^^

Hope you enjoy! ^^

Chapter 14 - When This Baby Hits 88 Miles Per Hour... You're Gonna See Some Serious Shit

Garrus awoke to find himself, not in the bed that he had set up at his base on Omega, but in a large double bed, his arms wrapped around the woman he had desperately been missing for the last several months. Although something was different. It took him a few moments to realise the blue markings across her face.

His markings.

He was hallucinating, he figured. He had to be. He had finally cracked under the pressures of Omega, dreaming up a fictional world where Sophia was not just alive, but his bondmate.

He was pulled from his thoughts, however, by the fact that she was no longer lying still, rather tossing and turning, her biotics flaring at random, although not hurting him. He knew that she occasionally had nightmares, their short time together had taught him as much. Side effects of the Prothean beacon, she told him, shrugging it off in the way that she usually did if she felt something wasn't important. He had always found it strange. Turians didn't dream, so to think that she gave over so much of her sleep to such distressing images that felt so real to her...

"Soph? Come on, Soph. Wake up," He found himself telling her gently, the words falling from his mouth without prompt.

She bolted upright, gasping for air. "Garrus?"

"I'm here, it's okay."

She nodded, distractedly. "Sorry. Silly humans with their nightmares. It must get annoying to have me keep waking you up."

He put his arms around her, gently nuzzling her neck in response, earning him a smile. "I don't mind. You haven't had a nightmare in a long time..."

She sighed a little at the opening he had left her, before nodding. "I was... reliving when the Normandy went down..."

He frowned a little. When the Normandy went down? He couldn't deny that he was confused, but he kept talking regardless. As if the information didn't surprise him. "What prompted that?"

She raised an eyebrow, giving him a look of grim amusement. "Your daughter asked me what happens when people die and I... I struggled to answer her."

He let his subharmonics trill a little with amusement, although he felt as if it should be shock. His daughter? "My daughter?"

She nodded. "Yeah. When she asks tricky questions, she's your daughter," She told him, finally smiling for real.

"So, what did you tell her?"

She shrugged. "I sort of evaded the question. Garrus, you're supposed to be able to tell kids something reassuring. Like, that you go to heaven or that it's just like going to sleep. Not that it's terrifying and painful and then just the never-ending dark..."

Garrus felt his heart constrict, thinking of what it was like for her to go down with the Normandy, something he had been avoiding thinking about. Mostly because he couldn't help but blame himself for not being there. If only so that she hadn't been alone. However, he simply sighed in response. "Did you ever consider, you know, lying?"

She shook her head. "No. The last thing I want to do is lie to them..."

"Which is why I love you, but Soph, what are you going to tell them when they start asking questions about... well, them?"

She sighed, curling up to him. "Evade until they're old enough to understand. Garrus, I still haven't entirely come to terms with Cerberus messing with my genes. I can't even imagine what knowing where they came from will do to those two..."

"Soph, it shouldn't matter how they came to be here, just that they are loved and that they are our children in every sense of the word." Their children? Garrus couldn't help but feel shocked as the words fell from his mouth. His subconscious really had some explaining to do, he figured.

She smiled a little. "You're right, it shouldn't matter. But I still think that it will..."

Garrus frowned a little as he awoke. Had he been thinking of Shepard? He definitely felt as if she was at the forefront of his mind - not an unusual feeling, sure, but also not one he was used to waking up with. He remembered Soph telling him that humans 'dreamt' when they slept after she had woken up one night thrashing, throwing biotic energy around at random.

Whatever had happened while he slept, it had his mind fixed on Sophia in a way he had been trying to avoid since he had learnt of her death. As much as Kira had told him that she was being revived, he couldn't help his pessimism from occasionally taking over.

Although, Kira had been right. Shooting mercs was a good distraction. And he had to admit that he liked working with her. Her tactics were almost identical to his own, with a few adaptations here and there. Although, he knew that she had trained with the Hierarchy, something he still struggled to wrap his head around, which would explain some of her tactics. But some were a little too close to his own.

He sighed, shaking his head. He had agreed with Soph when she had taken the attitude of 'I don't want to know' towards the future. So, he refused to speculate. There was no point, anyway, since there was no way Kira would let anything slip.

He found his curiosity about the future fading along with the last dregs of whatever had happened while he had been asleep. He decided to simply let it fall to the back of his mind as he got up. He didn't really want to think too much about Sophia. It simply hurt too much.

"No."

Garrus gave Kira an incredulous look as she stood with her arms folded. In the last few months, she had happily backed down to let him lead their efforts against the merc gangs of Omega - he was the Spectre, after all, she had pointed out. Although, she had never been afraid of voicing her opinion, but today was the first time that she was outright putting her foot down.

"No? What do you mean 'no'?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Do you need a definition or-"

"No, Kira, I need a legitimate reason. Not just 'I don't like the guy'..."

"Just, please trust my judgement on this."

He sighed. "Kira, is there something you're not telling me?"

She looked away, fidgeting a little in concentration. "I don't... Okay, I don't have a life story for everyone in the galaxy, all I have is what's in the database, which isn't as comprehensive as I would like."

"You seem to have a good enough knowledge of the Normandy crew," He pointed out.

She shrugged. "You guys took down Saren. You can see how much everyone in this timeline knows about you guys from that. Is it really that surprising that you made it into the database?"

"So, none of what we're doing here is in the database?"

She nodded. "You're supposed to be here, doing this, but... I don't have a lot of details." It hadn't exactly been something her parents had been willing to talk about openly, and she strongly suspected that the events that took place here were kept from the archives at her their behest.

"Look, Kira, if you don't have any solid evidence then I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt."

That was the problem. She had pieced together enough to realise that her father's team wouldn't have been taken down without inside help, something actually working with them had only confirmed, but someone, other than her father, had gotten out alive, only to disappear. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

But she had no proof.

Garrus sighed, giving her that look that she had come to know all too well as his 'teaching her a lesson' look, something that she only now came to realise that she had missed almost as much as the way he'd buy her chocolate ice cream and a box of ammo when she was sad.

"Kira, even if you could prove that he was going to do something, you can't judge people on what they might one day do. You've changed this timeline enough times to know that."

"I just... I don't want anyone to get hurt."

"So, keep an eye on him. Seriously, Kira. Get to know the guy before you judge. See him in action. If you're still unsure, we'll talk about it in a month or so."

She folded her arms, knowing that he was right. Although she didn't have to like it. "Fine. I'll be his fucking friend, but if I decide that Sidonis is still untrustworthy after a few weeks, you need to tell him to get lost, okay?"

Her father sighed. "Fine, but you have to have some evidence, not just a 'bad feeling'."

She nodded. "Agreed."

Tom had been tempted to help Liara to retrieve Shepard's body, but Kira's warnings about interfering as little as possible were ringing in his ears. So he had kept his distance, observing from afar but nothing more.

Although he wished that he could just forget what had happened between him and Kira... he had always been confused over what had happened between his mother and sister but now it all made perfect sense. Because you couldn't not receive this information and be furious. Although there wasn't really a convenient target for his anger. Should he be angry at Cerberus? Of course, but they didn't exactly make the most convenient of targets, especially when he had to work with them. Kira was the most convenient target for his anger, it had been long enough now for him to accept that, but it didn't make the anger any easier to deal with. He wasn't ready to talk with her yet. He knew that Tali, in her concern for him, had messaged Kira, to try and get them talk talking again. But he knew that, even if she had responded, he wouldn't listen. He couldn't. Not yet.

He sighed, knowing that the next part would be tricky as he approached the Cerberus facility where Shepard had been shipped to. He was half tempted to simply turn back, happy in the knowledge that Cerberus had her and had every intention of bringing her back to life, but he couldn't. The database told of how close Cerberus had come to installing some kind of control in his mother, something that he couldn't risk in this timeline. If he simply abandoned this and something went wrong, he would never be able to live with himself.

A small part of him wondered why this job couldn't have fallen to Kira. It wasn't as she had anything more pressing to do, although he knew that he could never bring himself to call her to ask for help.

He sighed a little. Maybe both of them were just too stubborn for their own good...

"Unidentified vessel, please leave orbit immediately or we will be forced to shoot you down."

"Well, at least they said please," Tom muttered to himself, not used to the silence that accompanied his comment before he activated the comm to reply. "Please stand-by, Station One. Clearance codes are incoming." He prayed to the Spirits that the codes were accurate as he transmitted them.

Several moments passed before they replied. "Unidentified vessel, you are cleared to land. A security team will meet you when you dock."

He sighed. Now for the difficult part...

Kira paced agitatedly, wishing that the exam room of the clinic wasn't so small. Agitated seemed to be a constant state of mind of late. Just as she had begun to reconcile her grief over losing Cai, she had lost her brother to her own short-sightedness. It was hard to not become lost in her anger, taking it out on the streets of Omega. Her father had done a good job of keeping her from going over the edge, but it meant that her temper was even shorter than usual, and she wasn't exactly known for being level-headed at the best of times. Something she blamed on her stupid genes. Apparently, designing a killing machine took a little creative neurochemistry.

"Must remain still," The Salarian scientist told her, quickly losing his patience. Kira liked Mordin; they had become fast friends – she was simply glad to have someone of a similar intellect to talk to for once – but not even he could talk her out of her chaotic thoughts when she got like this.

"I just can't believe that my- that Garrus wouldn't listen to me!"

"Understandable. Had no conclusive evidence. Or, any at all," He pointed out. "Now hold still!"

Kira finally obliged, although she only managed to halt her pacing for a few moments before resuming her agitated movements. "I just… I can't believe that he didn't trust my judgement."

"Why would he? Didn't work closely together on the Normandy. Both worked with Shepard, not together."

Kira finally stopped for real at that. It had been easier for her to build a new relationship with this Shepard, because their relationship in her timeline was almost non-existent. But Kira had always been close with her father. She often forgot that this Garrus didn't have the same memories she had. He had no reason to trust her judgement. At least, not to this extent. They had only been working together closely for a few months and she was sure that the overall impression she was giving was of an erratic personality, which, she had to admit, probably wasn't that far from the truth.

She sighed. "Maybe he's right… I am basing this on circumstantial evidence of something that hasn't even happened yet. Just… if I can prevent something from happening, I have the responsibility to stop it, right?"

Mordin shrugged. "Or is the responsibility to return the timeline to as close to the original as you can?"

She gave a resigned groan, folding her arms. "I think that ship sailed when I told Nihlus to stay away from Eden Prime. But… gah! I don't know. I'm no good at this ethical crap."

"Thought humans believed 'innocent until proven guilty'?"

She glared at him. "'Proven guilty' in this case may be a bloodbath…"

"Then surely the best way to prevent that would be to get close to Sidonis and keep an eye on him."

She sighed once more. "Maybe you're right…"

"Now, your arm. Unless you don't want me to return feeling in your fingers."

She gave him a grateful smile, extending her arm outwards. "Thanks for this Mordin. So, how's our other project coming along?"

"Concept sound from a biological standpoint. Not sure about dimensional physics."

Kira shrugged as best she could with just her right shoulder. "Leave the physics to me. I'm pretty sure that this message in a bottle will work. It needs to."

"Won't work just because you need it to."

Kira nodded. "I know. I just… I need the closure. To say goodbye for real, you know?"

"Understandable."

She gave him a grateful smile. That explained her behaviour over the last year alright. Understandable, but not necessarily acceptable…

"You know, you really should have bought me dinner first," Tom told the dark-haired Cerberus operative as the security officers finished searching him. He would readily admit that his default setting was 'flirting', but his heart was no longer in it.

"He has no weapons, Ma'am, but he does have a biotic amp."

The operative simply fixed the officer with a cold glare. "I think I can handle one biotic turian."

Tom raised a browplate at that. He was easily as powerful as his mother, which, he was pretty sure, made him more powerful than any other human biotic. But he didn't exactly feel like telling Cerberus that he was just another one of their failed experiments. Not that he had been a failure. Kira had been more than clear on the fact that it was her inability to develop biotics that had led to them being scheduled for termination.

Wait, does she blame herself for what almost happened?

He shook his head, trying to dispel the sudden insight into his sister. He needed to be angry with her. That anger was giving him the drive to do this, instead of simply returning to the arms of the woman he loved.

"Who are you and why are you here? Who gave you the location of this base?"

Tom sighed a little. "My name is Tom and I'm here because I know you have Shepard. And no one gave me this location, I found it myself."

"Why does it matter to you if we have Shepard?"

"Look, I'm not here to stop you. Just to make sure you succeed."

"I don't work with turians," She told him coldly before attempting to put him in a stasis field. He easy deflected her attack, causing her eyes to widen a little.

"Okay, I was asking nicely," He told her, fixing her with a glare of his own. "I agree that Shepard should be brought back. I'm not even going to object massively to her working with Cerberus, although I sure as hell want to. I'm just here to make sure you don't fuck it up. The First Contact War put a strain on everyone. You're going to have difficulty getting the resources you need. Lucky for you, I have data that might cut down your need for additional resources. So, you either work with me, or you risk never being able to bring Shepard back. I don't know about you, but I don't particularly want to risk the latter."

The operative gritted her teeth for a few moments before letting out a small sigh. "I will look at your data. If it has merit, I won't kill you."

He refused to lower his own glare. "I wasn't asking for anything more."

"So, 'Tom'? Is that your whole name?"

He shrugged. "It's all you're getting. You can call me Thomas if you think 'Tom' is too informal."

"I'm Operative Lawson," She replied, her tone still stone cold.

Well, this'll be fun… Tom thought, missing Tali more and more each second.

"Your arm feeling any better?" Sidonis asked as Kira left the clinic. She hadn't even realised that he was still there.

She made her best effort to bite back a scathing remark. "Yeah. Mordin patched me up." She couldn't keep the icy edge from her voice as she refused to so much as look at the turian.

"Did I do something to offend you?" He asked, stepping in front of her.

She sighed. "You haven't done anything."

"Then why the hell are you so cold towards me?" He demanded. "I would have thought that you had a problem with turians but you and Archangel get on just fine."

"I don't have a problem with turians. I just… I think Archangel can be too trusting at times," She admitted.

"So, you don't trust me?"

She shrugged. "Should I? I just met you."

"You don't seem to have any trouble with the rest of the squad."

Kira couldn't deny that she had been getting on quite well with the others that they had recruited along the way. She still kept to herself, letting no one but her father get truly close, but she was no worse than she had been on the Normandy.

"They've all proven to me that they can be trusted. You have yet to do that."

"Well then, we'll just have to change that, won't we?"

She sighed, knowing that she needed to get close to him to assess whether or not he was really the threat she suspected him to be. "Fine. Do you know anywhere near here that sells ice cream?"

"Ice cream?" He repeated, clearly a little unnerved by the nonsequitur.

"Yeah… I'm really in the mood for chocolate ice cream…"