-Garrus-

"Commander Shepard, I'm happy you've decided to take up my request for another interview."

It wasn't hard to figure out why Khalisah Al-Jilani asked them to all meet at the embassy offices. She wanted to talk about the newest, galaxy shaking development in the war, the Genophage Cure.

Garrus isn't surprised that she, of all people, would want a piece of juicy information directly from the source and, thanks to the deal the two women have, Jane was forced to oblige if she wanted Al-Jilani's pull with the public that are looking for any sort of grasp of this war. At least, he considers, he is here with Jane to help deflect the full brunt of the woman's 'reporting'.

"I made a deal, didn't I?" Jane responds as they approach. "How about we get this done and over with? I have quite a few things to take care of."

"No need to be in such a hurry, Commander. I hear this is your shore leave, after all." The woman's lips twitch in a bit of a smirk at the supposed catching the Commander 'enjoying herself on the Citadel in the middle of a war'. "But I believe what's on everyone's minds is only one of your recent activities."

The camera lowers and illuminates his wife's face and he steps into the frame, not wanting Jane to be completely alone in this when Khalisah says, "You've just 'cured' the Genophage, a groundbreaking achievement that will ensure millions of Krogan will start fighting the Reapers. Do you have anything to say to those that fear and believe that humanity has, thus, set the stage for another Krogan Rebellion?"

Crossing her arms, Jane looks straight in the woman's eyes, then the camera. "Humanity hasn't started anything but made an ally of the Krogan. Those you should actually worry about are those who worked to try and undermine every effort to unify the species against the Reapers."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No."

"Are you worried that, once the Krogan are on Palaven or Sur'Kesh, they would just attack the Turians and Salarians anyways? What's really keeping them from just attacking now that they have what they want? Can they really be trusted?"

"If you have to ask that," Garrus interrupts, "then how do they know you are to be trusted? The Krogan will have their hands full with the Reapers to want to try anything as it is and they know that attacking any other Council race will only destroy any chance they have at rebuilding after the effects of the Rebellions."

"But their breeding-"

"Is not a problem, Al-Jilani. Quit treating the Korgan like varren on a leash and understand that they are just as capable as we are of understanding this war."

Jane smirks at him and nods in agreement before turning back to the reporter. "My mate and partner is right. Wherever the Krogan are deployed, you can be sure that they will fight to the end to defend their allies."

He notices how she doesn't make a point of exactly where Krogan forces would and wouldn't be, of how there won't be a problem of retaliation for the Genophage on Sur'Kesh because they won't be on Sur'Kesh thanks to the Salarians' own Dalatrass. All for the better, though, as speaking the truth would only make it harder for the innocents who don't know the workings of politicians and bureaucracy. It wouldn't be just to bring fear and anger into the already tenuous situation.

"It's good to see that you think so, Commander, as I'm sure there are many who question if curing the Krogan in the middle of an already devastating war was that good of an idea." He notices how Jane sighs through her nose and rubs the bridge of her nose and Al-Jilani must see it too because she transitions quickly. "One last thing, Commander Shepard. There are rumors that Admiral Anderson, one of your biggest supporters during your incarceration-"

He growls and glares at the woman. "How the hell do you know anything about her time on Earth?"

Khalisah actually smirks that time. "A good reporter never tells her most trusted sources-"

He interrupts her by pulling his handgun from his hip, aiming at the shocked and suddenly fearful woman, and growls again. "Try again."

"It was anonymous! I swear!"

"Explain," Jane orders from his side, but he doesn't lower his weapon, not yet.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Al-Jilani says, "I was just sent an anonymous correspondence that said you had been incarcerated in an Alliance base, they didn't say why, but just said that you were 'being treated better than you should because you were in with the Admirals'. I promise you, I don't know who it was from and I was unable to track it back to the source with my limited resources."

He lifts his weapon and fires at the camera, destroying the entire interview by the reporter's shrill gasp of distress. In an instant, the sights return to their original target. "Where is this message?"

"I don't have it anymore. I tried to make copies, but it was gone."

"Means whoever sent it was good, real good. And we have no damn clue where to start looking." Shaking her head, Jane goes back to rubbing her head. "Fuck. This interview's over. Don't repeat what you know from that correspondence or you'll have him to deal with."

Khalisah sighs, but nods. "Yes, Commander. I won't speak of it to anyone."

Waiting until the woman rushes off with the scraps of whatever she can manage of her camera, he slowly lowers his weapons with a growl. "Who the hell leaked that information? I'll kill them."

"Easy," his mate soothes with a hand on his arm. "I has to be one of the Alliance soldiers from the base. Maybe out of fear? Look, it must have been a half-assed message because Al-Jilani, of all people, who have had a field day with some of the other shit that happened on that base. No, I'm thinking it's either a soldier or a reporter from one of the hearings."

"You can't honestly be accepting that there's a possibility that your imprisonment will come out."

"I don't really care right now. I seriously doubt that, at a time like this, people will jump at the opportunity to drag me through the shit when I'm running the show. Plus, we have Liara in our pocket to run interference on what the Alliance doesn't censor themselves."

"You put a lot of trust in Liara's abilities." He rumbles and holsters his weapon. "She seems preoccupied with the Crucible."

"You worry too much. It's not that big a secret that I was incarcerated. What's more important is that no one knows about what else happened and Khalisah didn't even ask or know about my pregnancy at the time or she'd have asked who the dad is and where the baby is." She smiles to him and takes his hand. "So, please, be calm."

Sighing, he nods. "I will try, but you can't blame me for worrying for the worst."

"I don't. Come on, we have shit to do before we can relax."

He rumbles and nods, following her out of the private office that Al-Jilani had reserved for the interview and into the crowded main lobby. It's then that his Omni-Tool lights up with an important alert he's actually been waiting for since Menae. Stopping with a release of Jane's hand that has her turning to in with a question in her eyes, he explains.

"When I got to the Normandy after Menae, I set up a program to scan the Hierarchy refugee and injured solider transport records for any of my remaining Task Force. I've been waiting since then for anything and I just received a confirmation that one of my men has made it off Palaven and onto the Citadel."

She smiles and comes to look at his Tool with him, so he translates it to Standard for her. "Corporal Junius Tactus?"

He nods with a rumble and closes his Omni-Tool when she steps back. "I'd like to head down to the Camp to see his condition later."

She shrugs and takes his hand, leading him towards the lift since they no longer have any reason to stick themselves with possibly the worst of the galaxy in those that refuse to see and acknowledge the impending doom both before and after it was destroying everything around them. "I don't see any reason why you have to stick with me for now. I just need to…" She sighs sadly and reaches into her pocket for an OSD. "I need to give this to a soon to be very distresses woman."

The Krogan's last message to his mate, he concludes with a hand over hers. "Are you sure you want to go alone?"

"I need to do this," she explains as she tightens her hand around the OSD before pocketing it. "I need to because I know who these people are. We helped them rekindle, remember?" At his confused rumble, not quite able to remember every person they meet like she can. "The Krogan citing poetry?"

"Oh… damn. And you want to do it alone? Why?"

"Because she's a widow. What good would it be to walk up right next to my spouse and tell her hers is gone?" She smiles in reassurance and he considers that she must have already felt the pain of this death that wasn't in her control already, played through it in her nightmares. "Don't worry, Garrus. I know what you're thinking and, yes, I can do this... It hurts, but I need to be there as a woman who knows love and not a soldier passing on a dying message."

"At least take Liara," he pleads as he calls the elevator. "I know she was wanting to spend some time with you off duty, maybe talk about the Crucible over a drink." But he knows it's really because even the young Asari can see the wear and tear on his mate, hopes to cheer Jane up in maybe a way only a woman's friendship can. He'll take any help from a different perspective, anything, to keep the love of his life above the floodwaters.

Sighing, she nods. "Yeah, you're ri-"

"Excuse me," a human man in a formal suit approaches them, a sadness to his forced neutrality in the way his eyes look over them. "You're Commander Shepard, right?" She nods, frowning in confusion at the obvious politician's approach. "I am Ambassador Dominic Osoba. We have never met, but you helped me find…" he finally frowns and ducks his head, "You provided me peace from my son, Bilal's, passing. You have provided my family a bit of peace by sending me his dogtags from Benning. It's more than anyone else had done. Words cannot describe my gratitude. Thank you."

"Uh," Jane looks to him quickly for assistance, but he admits he's just as lost. They never went to Benning, let along found and transported a man's dogtags. What is going on?

"I'm sorry, Ambassador," he supplies while his mate quickly recovers. "But you must be mistaken."

Nodding, she takes over, "Trust me, we offer our sympathy and are grateful you can properly put your son to rest now that you know, but we aren't the ones who brought you in information. The Normandy has never been to Benning."

"If not you, then someone using your identity, Commander." Osoba frowns in confusion and hands them a datapad, the words on it a short note of condolences followed by a name, Commander Jane Shepard.

That shocks them and leaves them speechless for a moment, the only sound his slightly irritated growl. Why anyone would go out of their way to assume his mate's identity and, at least not commit crimes or the like, is something he doesn't care to know for it won't stop him from seeking retribution. No one takes his mate's name and uses it to fit their whim, claim ownership of the work she's done so they can, what, have some sort of sick enjoyment out of being someone they aren't?

"Sir," Jane starts after the pause. "I see here that this person was asking for 'the reward', did you pay them?"

"Not yet, Commander. They hadn't left a return address on the package. I was expecting them to reveal themselves or send me another package in case they had forgotten to include their extranet address, but when I saw you…"

"You thought 'why not personally tend to it'." Handing the datapad back, she shakes her head. "We cannot take any reward, Ambassador. If this imposter messages you, I hope you will alert C-Sec. Something just isn't right."

"I…I see. I'm sorry to have bothered you, Commander Shepard." He turns with a frown, stopping to look back. "Whoever it was, I hope they do not continue to have to hide behind another's name. I'd like to thank them."

She nods. "I'm sure you'll get the chance."

Watching him go, and the lift behind them open, she motions Garrus to back up into the elevator cabin. Once the doors close, she groan in frustration and looks at him. "What the fuck was that? Is this a fucking thing now? To pretend to be me?"

"I don't know," he growls in return, scowling at the thought. "But I think we should have Liara keep an eye out for any more uses of your name, see if we can track down these people."

"Agreed." Sighing, she shakes her head as her shoulders slump. "Fuck, I don't know what's going on anymore. It used to be that people didn't want anything to do with me and now they can't get enough of me. I miss only having to worry about Conrad Verner."

That actually makes him chuckle, helps ease the anger on his shoulders as he relaxes. "I think the human saying is 'speak of the Devil and he shall appear'? Whatever a 'Devil' is."

She snorts and raises a brow. "Where are you getting these human sayings?"

"The crew?" He chuckles and shrugs. "Might have been Adams or Copeland. I can't remember exactly."

"It's good to see you opening up, Archangel." She smirks at the jab to his old tendency to keep to either the Main Battery or their Loft.

Shrugging, he rumbles with a smirk as they lift slows to a stop at the Presidium, where they will go their own ways in attempt to get done with their duties faster. "You don't always complain about the time I spend in the Battery, especially not when you're in there with me."

"What can I say, I like giant guns to play with and you always seem to have the biggest." He chuckles and leans down to kiss her before they separate, she to the markets and he to a skycar terminal to find transport to the docks turned refugee camps.

When he arrives, he heads straight to the Turian designated camp in search for Tactus. They two weren't really friends in the sense that they had seen the other outside of their duties, but they were more than subordinate and commanding officer as most in the Hierarchy was. Garrus was that way with all the men and women in his Task Force, something he learned from his time with Jane.

Still, even as close colleagues, he wants to know what has happened to his Force even if it will most likely not be close to the best outcomes. As the front of the Reaper resistance, they would have been in the front lines, beside the heads of the chain of command in attempts to guide Generals through the warzone that was their planet, their home.

Knowing Tactus, Garrus isn't all that surprised to find the Turian with violet paints, even with a sling and cast around his arm, directing the more able of the refugees. As he approaches, he can hear what is being said, what, exactly, is going on.

"Inventory what we have here and we can begin to ration out medical supplies to the medical outposts throughout the Docks. I don't want to hear about refugees across the Docks trying to find their way over here because their medical tent doesn't have proper supplies. And if we're missing something, set up a trade with one of the other medical leads," he adds as he turns, eyes widening as he recognizes Garrus. "Spirits, Garrus?"

Tactus grins as Garrus chuckles and comes to him, shaking his hand in good will after everything they've been through. "Taken up your place as supply regulation?"

"Someone has to do it. C-Sec doesn't have a handle down here and there's no way there's any kind of order in this chaos. That leaves too many people unattended for my liking."

"Logistics always was your better skill," Garrus says with a smirk that gets him a mock glare. "What happened to the arm? Fall out of a shuttle again?"

"Laugh all you want and, what do humans call it, Karma will bite you in the ass?"

"And I'll fall out of a shuttle or injure my arm?" He lifts a brow plate.

Tactus shrugs with a shake of his head. "Spirits if I know. I just know the saying and some of what it means." He straightens and looks over the new, dark blue armor. "But I'm more interested in hearing what happened to you. Last we heard, you and Primarch Fedorian were trying to get off Palaven but were downed on Menae."

He nods with a rumble and explains, "You're right. Fedorian didn't survive and, with the comms as they were, it took longer than it should have to find the new Primarch. By then, word of the War Summit Fedorian ordered made it out and, well, that's when Commander Shepard-"

"You're mate," Junius interrupts with a knowing smirk and Garrus wonders how far that interview made it through the galaxy. Not that he minds.

"Yes, my mate." He hums in 'be quiet and let me explain' and the man pulls his mandibles tight at the slight reprimand with no real bite. "She arrived by the time we got word from Command that Adrien Victus was the new Primarch. The War Summit didn't go as planned and, long story short, we cured the Genophage."

"Well… that's not really something for casual conversation," he says in stunned surprise.

"No, not really." He chuckles as he follows Tactus to sit on a crate turned bench, choosing to stand as his friend takes a seat. By the tired look of him, he probably hasn't slept, or even sat, since he's arrived. "Junius," he says with a low hum, looking him in the eyes. "What happened to the others? Do you know?"

Shaking his head, he says, "I don't know what happened to anyone but Nemos." He frowns at the name and ducks his head. "We were transporting a shuttle to an evacuation ship when one of those damn worm necks hit us. The shuttle dropped out of the sky like a rock and only myself and a few others made it out. We ended up here."

"Damn." Hira Nemos was an excellent soldier, thought out of the box like so few Turians, and it was a shame to see someone like that go down not fighting, but falling out of the sky in a damaged shuttle. "We're losing too many to this war."

"And from the sounds of it, it looks like you and yours are the only ones who know what to do to end it."

Garrus nods somberly, not sure how that's going to be possible, but doesn't say anything to contradict him. Looking around, he sees the bustle and busy movements of Tactus' men moving about, trying to do as he ordered, to make sense of the chaos down here among so many with nothing, nowhere else to go.

"I should leave you to tending to your new duties," he says as he steps out of the way. "With your skills, I know you can make some sort of order down here, Tactus. Heal up and do what you can."

"And you do what you and Commander Shepard do best," Junius responds with a chuckle, being handed a datapad to look through. "Take care, Garrus. Spirits guide you."

"And you, as well."

He leaves the small alcove and begins to head to the main hub of Turian communications to check up on any word from Palaven when he sees Javik, of all people, down by the memorial wall, staring at the images of those lost or missing. Curious –and confused, he'll admit – he goes to him. "Never figured you for one to visit the refugees, Javik."

"I do not understand this 'refugee' concept. In my cycle, you either fought or you were used as a distraction for those who could to plan their attacks." Four eyes scowl as they look over the Docks, judging every living being here, Garrus knows. "Your people should not harbor the weak and useless. They eat food and use supplies better suited for those who fight."

Sighing, Garrus shakes his head and wonders how Jane can manage any sort of conversation with this man. Even James, it seems, has a liking to him and, though Garrus doesn't necessary dislike Javik, it's hard to take him seriously when everything is compared to his cycle – a cycle that so obviously failed. "It's not about-"

"Help! She's got a gun!"

He head snaps up at that and he growls, rushing towards the crowd alongside a group of C-Sec officers. Shoving his way through the crowd and ignoring the Officers' warning with an assurance that he's a Spectre able to take care of himself, he makes it to the front of the crowd to find someone he hadn't expected to be holding a weapon to her own head, Yeoman Kelly Chambers.

"Kelly," he nearly whispers, vocals soothing as he holds his hands where she can see.

"Garrus?" Her eyes widen and she starts to cry. "Oh, Garrus… I can't stop it… Every time I close my eyes I see them, feel them touching me."

'Them', the Collectors, the pawns of the Reapers that attacked and abducted the crew to try and melt them down into some kind of Human Reaper. He can understand why something like that could cause such a trauma, can make even the hardest of soldiers suffer the effects of PTSD. Kelly Chambers never stood a chance.

"Kelly, it's okay. We can talk through this, help you."

How does one combat this? How does he talk someone down from ending it all when he himself had attempted it on his own? How would he even begin to help a sufferer of this trauma if he has never felt it, never sought help for his own problems when they occurred?

"No. I don't… I don't think you can. Nobody knows that feeling. I watched people get… get liquidized before my eyes!" She lowers the weapon and he feels the tension at his back somewhat ease, watches the C-Sec officers still with their weapons up.

Now, more than ever, there is no leeway to take chances in such a crowded area. He knows that, for humans, there is supposed to be an effort to talk someone down from suicide, but, for Turians, suicide in a choice only one can make. However, in this situation, there's a fine line between Chambers taking her life and taking another and it's a line that C-Sec won't allow to be crossed. Brutal and inhumane most would claim, but most effective in ensuring the safety of others.

Rumbling, he steps closer, willing to disarm Kelly if he has to. It's the least he can do after she served on the Normandy and kept their secrets quiet once she was no longer under their command. "It's going to be alright. You're right, we don't know that feeling, but there are people you can talk to, who can help you through the pain, the fear."

"I can't, Garrus. I feel them touching me all the time." She rubs her free hand through her hair, whining as her wide eyes scan the crowd of on-lookers. "I thought I could help down here, but all I feel is everyone touching me, their…hands all over me!"

"No one will hurt you here, but if you want away from the Docks, away from all the people, then let me help you to a skycar, out of here." He looks to the people with a growl. "Get out of here under Spectre orders or face the consequences."

Heads duck and whispers pass, but the crowd begins to disperse slowly, like an ocean draining at the pace of a slow trickle. It's still a good enough start as Chambers sighs and drops her head, sniffling as she says, "I… I want to get out. I want… I want to live without fear."

"We can get you that," he assures as he comes to her and stands well from her side, well outside her personal space so that she doesn't feel his 'touch'. "Come on. Let's get you out of here." He looks up to the C-Sec officers and nods in silent assurance that he has the situation handled.

Just as they're lowering their weapons, and just as the crowd is but a few individuals milling about to find their place, he sees a figure that really shouldn't be here at this exact time, this exact situation. Coming to, most likely, gauge the situation and see what the 'primitives' are doing wrong now, Javik scowls at the woman Garrus is trying to keep calm as he crosses his arms and stops before them.

Before Garrus can say anything in any way to get the Prothean to disappear at least this one time, Kelly looks up and everything collapses with her shrill gasp.

Screaming loud enough to make Garrus think his ears will bleed, Chambers whips her cheap, half broken pistol up and, as if in slow motion, he watches as her finger starts to compress the trigger. It's enough of an incentive for the officers still in the area to move to protect even the strange alien and they bring their weapons up, again in a realm of slowed time, and fire.

Reality and time rushes back to normal just as Garrus sees Kelly's eyes widen, red blossom on her shirt, and her gun fall from her hands before her body follows. His ears are still ringing from her voice, but he doesn't need to hear the screams or panicked shouts trying to be calmed by the Officers as he kneels down beside the woman.

Kelly Chambers is dead, gone before her body hit the ground, and it's all he can do to just close her eyes for her. He sighs in defeat at one more life lost to this war, even if not in open battle, and hopes that at least this kind of battle, the fight within, is not something he will have to witness too much more.

As if hearing his darkest thoughts and desperate pleas and knowing the person he thinks of, his tool chimes. Opening it, his voice is flat as he answers. "Vakarian."

"Hey, Scars. You might want to get down here. Lola's taken a liking to the hard stuff and I'm worried she might start a fight with the biggest, baddest Krogan in here. And there's a lot of 'em."

Growling, he stands. "I'll be right there."

Closing the call, he damns this war one last time for what it's done to them all and hopes Jane's simply drinking for shore leave and not, as he fears, trying to forget the past few days of loss she's endured.