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"Garrus, look at this." Shepard was stopped in front of a kiosk.

He walked up behind her and, after a moment's hesitation, put a hand gently on her shoulder. The casual touch was new, and made his heart beat faster as she leaned against him. The sense of intimacy, of belonging, was so sweet he wanted to drown in it.

"Listen to this," she said, turning his attention to the news vid on the screen, Shepard's old friend Emily Wong at the news desk.

Wong was delivering a report, her eyes holding the camera unwaveringly. "C-Sec reports that a turian named Lantar Sidonis has turned himself in for the murder of ten people on Omega. Since Omega has no government that is recognized as such, there is no extradition, and C-Sec is uncertain how it will proceed investigating a claim regarding a crime in another location. Check back for updates on this unusual situation."

Garrus turned away, startled and surprisingly unhappy. What was the value in Sidonis turning himself in? Who benefited from him being locked away in a cell somewhere? No one. He had squared with himself the fact that Sidonis was still alive by telling himself that Sidonis was filled with remorse, and that would lead him to turn his life around, to devote it to the benefit of others.

Zia frowned, obviously confused. "I'm sorry. I thought you'd be glad to hear he did the right thing."

"The right thing? By getting locked up? Come on, Shepard, we both know that's nothing but a waste of a life."

"It's justice, Garrus. You wanted justice."

"I wanted him to atone!" Garrus corrected in an angry whisper, mindful of the people passing around them, and of Grunt, staring at them with great interest, not even pretending to be distracted by the hustle and bustle of the Citadel. "You can't atone in a cell! This is just … It's a pathetic attempt to get out of paying back what he owes."

"I'm sure he doesn't see it that way."

"Of course you're sure," he snapped. "Little Alliance monkey, can't think without your rules and regs guiding you."

Shepard narrowed her brown eyes venomously, the shot having struck home exactly as true and sharp as he had meant it to. "I'll see you back on the Normandy."

"What, you're benching me because I'm right?"

"I'm benching you because you're insubordinate. You got a problem with that?" She was in his face now, challenging him with every one of her scant inches of height.

Garrus was right; he knew he was right, and what's more, he was pretty sure she knew it, too. But she was still Commander Shepard, and her orders meant something. Especially here on the Citadel, where she was a Spectre. He was out of line—what was acceptable between the two of them was not acceptable in public. He nodded, confirming that he understood. "My apologies, Commander. I will report back to the ship at once."

"Thank you, Vakarian," she said crisply, turning her back on him and gesturing Grunt to follow. "Send Thane back, please."

Thane. Of course it was Thane, he grumbled to himself. Thane with his courtly ways and his sinuous movements and his flexible body and his expressive black eyes that followed Shepard wherever she went like a man dying of thirst looks at a glass of water. Not that Shepard had ever encouraged the drell in his interest in her, Garrus had to admit to himself. Still, it was hard to imagine she'd chosen the one crewmember he couldn't help comparing himself to as his replacement by accident.

He paced the confines of the forward battery for hours waiting for her to come back from the Citadel, and was relieved when it wasn't long after EDI reported the shuttle had docked that Shepard appeared in the doorway.

"You ready to talk?" she asked.

Garrus punched the button to close and lock the doors. "Are you ready to admit I was right?"

"The rule of law has value, Garrus!"

"Not as much value as actually living your life to the benefit of others. He owes the universe ten lives—how is he going to repay that debt languishing in a cell with three hots and a cot every day? He's pretty well set, when you think of it. Safe, warm, well-fed …"

"You talk about prison like it's a hotel."

"Might as well be."

"Said no one who'd ever actually been there," Shepard snapped.

"You forget, I used to run the Citadel's jails."

"And I just bet you treated your prisoners with kid gloves, making sure they had their milk and cookies at bedtime."

Garrus had to admit that he had not, in fact, treated his prisoners with any kind of gloves.

"I thought not."

"Fine, there are downsides. But you have to admit that no one benefits from Sidonis's life while he sits behind bars."

Shepard nodded. "I had also hoped he would find a way to atone. But you're talking about a man with very little imagination, Garrus. Someone who could think creatively probably could have found a way out of the situation he was in on Omega. Why should he be any different now? He looked for the easiest solution, the most obvious. He found it. And there's no guarantee that he'll go to jail. I talked to Emily and she said they're fairly stumped. No one's ever admitted on the Citadel to committing a crime on Omega before, and Aria T'Loak is hardly the type to take on more work when she can sit there on her couch and laugh at the Citadel being stuck with her problem."

Garrus could see Aria doing just that. And Sidonis had never been a particularly clever man, that much was true. "You have a point," he conceded.

"So do you. I don't mean to say that I think jail is the only answer. You're right, his life would be better used elsewhere."

They looked at each other, not sure where to go from there. "I'm sorry about the Alliance monkey crack. You haven't been that hidebound and rules-shackled in a long time."

"I'm sorry I brought it up in public rather than discussing it in private. I know how personal and painful a subject is. It just … didn't occur to me that you wouldn't be happy about the news, and it should have."

Wordlessly, Garrus opened his arms and Shepard fit herself there against him, so warm and soft and perfect. It wasn't their first fight ever, but it was their first since they became … whatever they now were, and certainly cut closer to the bone than anything they had thrown at one another previously. Garrus was glad to be past it with understanding on both sides.