Garrus stared down at the dufflebag, his clothes a messy pile on the bed. He had booked them tickets on a cruiser that night to head back to the Citadel. There was no point in spending all of his time sitting at home wallowing in self pity and the overwhelming despair that filled the halls. Shepard had figured out they were leaving only a few hours ago, and he could tell she was a bit cross that he had bought her a ticket without telling her first, but she didn't outwardly call him out on it. She still was being very delicate around him, watching what she said and giving him lots of space.

It was a bit frustrating.

Garrus had been trying to talk to her about leaving, but every time he saw her, she was talking to his father or sister. If she wasn't doing that she was in the middle of a call or she would just disappear for hours. Which was odd, he didn't know where she disappeared to, and he knew this house better than anything.

As he gave up trying to solve the eternal conundrum that was his wife, she walked into the room.

Before he could even open his mouth to greet her, she was speaking. "I figured out why Udina was spying on us."

He blinked, lowering the shirt. How could she have done that? They had been in Palaven for the past couple days and -

She didn't tell him. She knew before they left. His eyes narrowed at her, and she met his eyes with no regret. No guilt.

"Shepard-"

Within the time it took him to say her surname, the look of defiance already past and she shifted into business mode. Her posture straightening, her eyes getting a focused look in them, everything about her screamed 'I'm the Captain'. It amazed him how she could look so military in a simple black shapeless dress. She completely ignored what he was about to say and powered through, "He is working for this group called 'Cerberus'. I've been contacting some of my friends who have access to more confidential information seeing if they knew anything about it, none of them would say anything, so I had Kasumi and Tali both do what they could to find information about it. Besides bringing up the human mythological creature, they found this out," she opened her omnitool and sent him an email.

He stared at her, his eyes searching her face to see any sign of what was going to be in the email. When he found none, he opened it up, and quickly skimmed the document within. It was labelled as 'top pirotiy, confidential'. He knew instantly that this was not for either of their eyes. He didn't want to know how the two had found this information, and didn't want to think about the trouble they could get into for even wanting to find it, let alone having it in their possession.

"About a month after the end of the war, a special op group of the Alliance dropped completely out of contact. No one has heard from them since."

"What does this have to do with Udina?" Garrus asked, getting straight to the point. There were other questions he wanted answered, but the most pressing was Udina at the current moment. While Cerberus didn't seem like it was all about peace and being kind to thy neighbour, their government and military units could deal with that as they see fit.

Though…the thought of a Spec Ops arm of the human military that went rogue…wasn't pleasant. They had technology that was the most advanced of their species, and they were privy to confidential secrets that could make or break the government. If they could just expose Udina as working with something that by all means was still together and using Alliance resources illegally, than they could cut off an arm for the organziation. Put them in the dark, as well as outsting Udina.

"He mentioned them by name, when he was talking to someone, I couldn't get any information from the survellience equiptment about who he was talking to. He was, however, telling them that he was close to revealing exactly how 'well' humans and aliens can get along," she explained, then shrugged her shoulders, "Whatever he means by that can't be good."

"We should dig a bit more, and then tell the Council about this, he needs to be out of power as soon as possible," Garrus told her, shoving the last few items he had into his dufflebag and zipping it up. "We should still keep an eye on Udina to make sure he isn't aware of what we are doing, is Kasumi busy these days?"

"I'll send her a message. Otherwise, I agree, but we're not going to the Council with this. Not at first," Shepard leaned against the wall, giving him an even stare. She was full Captain, and Garrus felt a bit intimidating for a moment. "I'm going to take this evidence to the Alliance. They need to come forwards with this information, or the Council, and every species out there, will think that we were allying with this rogue group if anything bad happens. It could set back our progress years."

Garrus wanted to shut that idea down, what if the human Alliance decided to just hide their shame and silence Shepard on the subject and it got to a point where they couldn't control the backlash? Yet...humanity had been a part of the galactic civilization for a couple years by this point, and they still had a lot to prove to the council and subsequent races. If they could prove they wanted to cooperate with the Council and weren't just looking for their own advancement in the galaxy, which Garrus was assuming Cerberus wanted.

So, instead he exhaled and looked away from her. "How do you want to go about this then?"

"We'll go back to the Citadel, and continue on like normal. You go to work, you mourn your mother, and I will deal with this political shit storm. Including having Kasumi do some more sleauthing, maybe see if Tali wants to snoop through Udina's messages, and maybe call Wrex to see if he can rough anyone up to get more information. When we get enough evidence, I will go to Earth and present the information to the Alliance officals there and after that it is out of my hands. What I assume will happen is that they will do their own digging and figure out that what I say is true and present it to the Council."

"Shep, I'm not going to just sit on the sidelines and watch you take all the bullets here. We started this as a team, and we will finish it as a team. I'm going to be as deep in shit as you are when it hits the fan."

Shepard's mouth twitched upwards, "I don't think that's the expression."

He rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean, and if you're government says 'fuck off' and shuts you completely down after presenting the information?"

"I will tell them that I am going to be presenting the information the Council within a month, and give them the ultimatium of either being beside me when that happens, or facing the wrath of the Council when they figure out the Alliance just wanted to sit on it's ass and do nothing," Shepard exxplained, a bit of contempt in her words. Garrus rubbed his fringe and stared at her for a moment.

His voice was soft when he spoke, "If this goes belly up, you'll be tried against your people and sentenced you know. Throwing an ultimatium at your people doesn't exactly end well, so I have to say…" he inhaled deeply and she looked at him expectantly, her mouth already open to retort something. Typical Shepard.

"Alright, let's do this."

"I know you want to tell the Heirarchy and do things-" she paused and looked at him with surprise, "Oh."

He laughed slightly and picked up his dufflebag, "Did you think I would miss an opportunity to solve a case such as this? My detective career will skyrocket! Besides, one day I can tell people about this adventure. The first case that a human and turian worked on together."

Shepard smiled, and she reached across the bed and poked his arm, "Don't you get too excited about promotions, sometimes being promoted means that you just sit on your ass and order others around. That's what happened when I became a Captain. Boring, dull stuff."

Garrus walked around the bed and placed his dufflebag down near the door. "Ah, but I'm not old like you. That's the difference. I still have something to give," he winked at her and reveled in the way she mock glared at him. She turned and shoved something into her own bag, and he wondered if she was irritated with his comment instead of pretending to be. He heistantly walked up beside her and quietly helped her pack.

So many thoughts began to swirl around his mind. His mother's death always the most prevellent of the thoughts. Guilt about not being there sooner, not staying with his family longer, wanting to leave Palaven so he wouldn't be bombarded with so many memories that it hurt. Guilt that he was trying to think more about Udina and the situation on the Citadel than about his mother.

Yet, whenever Shepard's arm would brush against his or their hands would touch his mind went to her. How was she dealing with all of this? She was forced into a marriage with him and then a few months later her mother-in-law passes away, during a time of high-stress for her. Was she taking it in stride, or was she secretly stressed out and hiding it from him. He still wasn't sure when she was hiding something from him.

He shouldn't be thinking about her in a romantic way anyways...but he couldn't help it.

"Shepard..." he trailed off, the woman didn't look at him, just nodded her head to let him know she was listening. When he didn't continue right away, she didn't press him for words, but just allowed the silencce to consume them. There was so much going on right now, Garrus felt that words would complicate things even more. The words he wanted to say to her at least. Instead, he settled for something else, "Thanks for not telling me before we came here."

He left it at that, but watched her from the corner of his eye as she smiled softly. She reached over and touched his arm, causing his heart to quicken. "No problem, Garrus."

Garrus turned towards her and pressed his forehead to hers quickly, accidentally cracking their foreheads together. Shepard swore and placed her hand quickly to her forehead, backing away and rubbing the spot. His mandibles fell open and he immediately threw his hands up, as he had seen her do when she was showing that she wasn't trying to offend or upset someone. "Sorry!"

A laugh burst forth from her lips and she grabbed onto his arm to support herself as she doubled over. He didn't understand her laughter, and began to panic. Did she need a doctor? Were there any doctors on Palaven who knew how to treat a human? Would Doctor Chakwas be awake at this time? What was the time conversion between the Citadel and Palaven?

"You looked like you were about to shit your pants," Shepard wheezed, wiping her eyes from tears. She mocked him, throwing her hands up and giving an over exagerated look of fear. She patted his mandible lightly, "Trust me, Garrus, a little head bump isn't going to kill me."

"That wasn't exactly little," Garrus muttered, seeing her forehead turning red. "You've got a mark."

She smiled, "Don't worry, Garrus, it'll fade. I've gotten worse injuries from brutes like you."

"Brute, is it?" the attitude swung quickly in the opposite direction, realizing that she wasn't injured in the slightest. "Says the woman who could lift me over her head without blinking an eye."

Shepard flexed her muscles, "My guns are the only weapons," she winked, "Now let's check over everything and then go say farewell to your family," she placed her hands on his shoulders, "We've got a ship to catch."

Garrus had never found human muscles attractive, but damn, did she ever make them look good.