***Author's Note***
I am SO sorry this has taken so long :/
I've been crazy busy because my life took a very unexpected turn and I just haven't been mentally capable of typing anything :P It's good news though: I found out I'm going to be a mummy :D
Also, this chapter touches on a mission that I've not gone into very much detail about because I didn't want to release spoilers for those who haven't played it, and I didn't want to bore people who have.
As always, let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions or wants :3
Big thank you to Gamer072196 for their patience and help during the funny state I'm in at the moment.
Chapter 36 – Respite and Darkness
Finally…rest.
Garrus groaned in relief as he sat down on a bunk that had been placed into the Main Battery. Just like old times. And it really was if one didn't count Shepard pulling his long hair out over the now mobile EDI, people invading his war room, endless calls, and constant questions from the crew. As soon as they had boarded, Shepard was mobbed, carried away in a crowd that was yelling updates at him. Garrus didn't fail to notice the look back that Shepard had gifted him with though, a look of longing and promises.
For now though, Garrus would wait and rest and eat. A crew member he didn't know offered him food and he gratefully took it. Another threw pillows and sheets at him which were put on the floor of the Battery. As he sat and ate on the bunk, his feet worked at the sheets and pillows to make them satisfactory to sleep on, a nice pile of mess that he could hide in.
He placed the empty tray beside him and sighed at the full feeling in his belly. When was the last time I was full? Days? Weeks? He couldn't remember, but it was a sure relief now. He knew he needed to shower but the energy escaped him and he began to unclasp his armour, then taking of his under armour, before crawling into his pile of sheets and humming gently to himself.
He wasn't happy. He wouldn't be happy until the war was over, until he saw his family and friends again. Until Shepard could lie next to him and not have to be up at the earliest time possible. But for now he could rest, at least.
As he lay down and got comfortable, he pulled up his Omni-tool. Might as well check my messages during this lull…
No word from Solona or father. Some spam, threats. More spam. Marie. He smiled at her pen name: ScaryEngineer, he hadn't seen it for a while, a week or two at the most.
Hey!
Just left the hospital and stopped off to get food, taking a shortcut of the Presidium to get home through the park.
Marie.
That was…unusual…
Usually her messages were happy with actual news, not random updates clearly sent to everyone. Odd.
He shrugged it off for the time being and decided that sleep was the most important thing he could do right now.
Shepard grumbled as he sat on his bed in his quarters, exhaustion finally setting in. He rubbed his face and replayed the day's events in his head.
Husks and other monsters swarming the small moon of Mennae. Endless rounds of bullets being spent as casually as the credits he spent on his fish tank. The blue light of it reflected his mood perfectly as he visualised the spread of death seeping through the galaxy as they quietly floated to their next destination, Eden Prime. Everything was a mess.
The day had got better almost instantly when he had heard that familiar voice rumble behind him as he spoke with the General, Gods, how he had missed him. And now he was back on board the Normandy, Shepard had watched him nod in his direction before walking to his past haunt. This is where he would be now…waiting.
Shepard stood quickly and stripped away the dirt streaked under suit he was wearing and got into the more casual attire of a pair of sweat pants and a shirt and nearly ran from his room.
"Ah!" Shepard collided with a small form and the two fell to the ground.
He waited for a second to allow the stars to clear from his head before looking to the person who lay panting beside him.
"Liara…what are you doing up here at this time? Is there something you need?"
Liara turned her face to look at him, a light purple blush tinting her cheeks "Uh, no. I was just…wondering if I could speak with you. Privately…" The blush deepened as Shepard rose and helped her to her feet.
He rubbed the back of his neck, a small amount of selfishness seeping through his mind as he thought about Garrus. His personal needs seemed so much more important than what Liara had to say.
"Can it wait?" He mumbled awkwardly "I'm kinda in the middle of something."
The asari crossed her arms over her middle and narrowed her eyes slightly. "What is it, Shepard?"
"Well," He coughed awkwardly to clear his throat. "You know Garrus just got back on the ship, I was just going to go a see him. See if there was anything he needed…" Why is it so awkward to speak to her right now?
"Oh, well I think the crew has already seen to his needs and I'm positive he's sleeping." She laid a small blue had onto his bare arm, smiling shyly up at him. "Please, Shepard, I really need to speak to you."
Shepard didn't hear her, his mind running circles at the thought of Garrus in bed with little clothing on. "Uh, sure…" He patted her shoulder and stepped around her.
"Where are you going? I thought we could speak in your cabin?"
"Yeah yeah, we will, I'll be right back." He called for the elevator. Liara grinned and nodded, entering Shepard's room alone.
He wouldn't admit this to himself or anyone else, but he felt no small amount of relief as the elevator hummed into life and carried him down to the mess. He stepped out into a small gathering of the skeleton crew who were taking some time to eat, they saluted and Shepard nodded half-heartedly as he quickly made his way around the assortment of tables and chairs. His heart rate rose as he vaulted the couple of steps that lead to the main battery and Garrus.
The door opened easily and allowed him into the dark, warm room. Clicks and whirrs created him from the main gun and small flickering red and green lights briefly danced over the walls and panels. He couldn't see Garrus, so with a small sense of déjà vu, he began to pick his way around the room after signalling for the door to lock behind him.
He found the nest in a warm corner beside the bunk in which the turian should be sleeping. Quiet hums from inside the blankets made Shepard smile as he knelt beside them. He lifted an edge and saw the rough edges of his sleeping mate. As he slept he stirred, reacting to Shepard's scent.
A clawed hand darted out and wrapped around Shepard's waist, pulling him down into the pile of blankets and pillows and beside the turian. Hums of contentment rumbled through Garrus' chest and lulled Shepard to sleep.
Liara later returned to her quarters feeling angry and disappointed, laying down on her own bed with a churning pit of rage inside her.
It had been two days since Thane had discharged himself from the hospital. Two days since that unusual message from Marie. Two days since her disappearance was made official by Commander Bailey. Two days since he and Kolyat had donned their leathers and began their own search.
Thane had messaged Shepard for his assistance who had replied that he would be there in a few days after a mission on Eden Prime. It wasn't soon enough. Too much could happen between then and now, too much time would pass. Time which could be the difference between her life and her…
…no, he wouldn't think on the consequences. He would solve the matter and deal with the outcome when he gets to it. He wouldn't think about it.
C-Sec passed her picture around, asked for witnesses, and pasted her face over screens with large MISSING print beneath her and then C-Sec's contact details. It was a lazy way of doing things. Checking CCTV and tracking her steps through the Presidium as the night cycle came through the area. It annoyed Thane to no end.
He couldn't get a lock on her location; her Omni-tool was dark, as though someone had removed it from her wrist. She was last seen at a street café near their apartment, the owner had confirmed this when Thane had come asking. She sounded concerned but claimed to have not seen which way she had gone due to the rush hour crowds that had swallowed her small frame. And so, he sent out Mouse and the group of invisibles (after a measure of persuasion), to help track down his missing mate.
Waiting for news would be hard, but not doing anything and waiting on Shepard would be harder.
It was strange to be back on Eden Prime, where this all began, yet oddly satisfying to hopefully gain some closure from there.
It was as beautiful as always, rolling green fields cast in a yellow light as the sun began to set. Tall trees that housed some of the planets flying creatures created long dark shadows that almost reached the human colony they were destined for.
The colony was a stark contrast to the beauty surrounding it; completely vacant and devoid of life, barring the Cerberus personnel who had taken it over. Scorch marks dirtied the smooth white walls of the housing pods and bodies of the dead littered the streets and avenues.
His team, Liara and Garrus, were the back up. The back-up for absent Alliance forces as they stretched over the galaxy to fight Reaper forces. Liara had scowled at him that morning when he had asked her to join them on the mission.
"Why not James?" She kept her eyes on her many consoles in her quarters.
"Well, I've been informed that we're going to recover a Prothean artefact."
She had turned her head at this; scowl still in place, but with a certain curiosity in her eye.
"Fine."
Normally, he would have berated her for her obvious disrespect at a superior officer, but something was clearly bothering her. He made a mental note to ask her later. Now though, they had a mission to complete.
They followed a path down to a cluster of buildings that started the colony and used a nearby building as a shortcut. People's dinners and drinks were on tables, some toppled over in the rush as the civilians had tried to protect themselves. Shepard shook his head at a child's back pack that was hung up on the back of a chair. Cerberus really weren't holding back anymore.
They left the building through its back door and followed the body strewn street to an elevator that would lead them to their objective. They approached it quickly, scanning the area around them for threats or survivors.
"Oh, Goddess!" Liara had reached the black pod like structure that was the Prothean artefact. Her mouth was wide as her fingers danced over her omni-tool, gathering data and storing it for later, her eyes darting back and forth as she checked and double checked what she had found. "It's…alive."
A Cerberus shuttle flew by overhead and Liara lead the way to her solution of the live Prothean.
Shepard would be here soon and the Commander had a "surprise" for everyone when he arrived. Personally, Thane wasn't interested in whatever surprise it was, he was more interested in the ETA the commander had sent him. A day, a day to travel from Eden Prime to the Citadel at top speed and over-working Joker. It was too long; it would be four days then since anyone had heard from Marie.
Thane's mind went to dark places more readily as the more time passed. Four days was long enough for a person to become severely dehydrated, to the point of death. Less time was needed if that person was being abused, sitting in their own waste, wounds getting infected, only to be reopened again.
He shook his head and continued sipping his tea as he paced their apartment's living room. Kolyat's snake was coiled on the arm of the couch, watching him lazily as it flicked its tongue out to taste the tense air. It irritated him the way it didn't seem to care, the way it could sit perfectly still as others around it scurried in a half blind panic.
A day and Shepard would be here.
How long have I been here? I'm so thirsty…
Marie forced her sore dry eyes open and cringed at the taste of her own mouth. The back of her throat hurt from days without fresh water and food, screaming for help had become impossible now. She just didn't have the energy anymore. She hurt everywhere from the cuts and bruises after being dragged from one overcrowded cage to the next. The stink of unwashed bodies and bodily waste made her retch but there was nothing in her stomach to throw up. She had no idea where she was but was quietly wondering how someone hadn't stumbled upon them after following their rancid smell. Though, even though an individuals smell was disgusting, people huddled together, regardless of race and species, in their cages to stay warm as they had been stripped from their clothing and sat festering in under-wear.
The body beside her in the dark moved and groaned, his pain becoming too much to lie on any longer. The man had saved her yesterday…or the day before..? She couldn't remember. But he had kicked at one of their captors when they had tried to pull her from the cage for more questioning. It had earned him nothing but a quick head-butt and an even quicker beating, but she had been left alone since then.
Being questioned on such little food and water had been a trying affair. The blindfold they placed on her eyes itched and gave her no warning when a fist would contact with her jaw or ribs. The gravelly voice, as it was always the same voice, claimed to know who she was and what she had done. Where she had come from, who her friends were, and who her lover was. The facts blurred in her mind as the fogginess of exhaustion clouded everything. Faces of her friends and family swam behind her eyes as they filled with tears of pain and frustration. They asked her things she had no answers for; where was Shepard stationed in the war, who were admiral Hackett and Anderson, when would the come for her?
She didn't know! She didn't know where Shepard was, she didn't know Hackett and Anderson, and she had never met them. She wanted desperately for someone to come for her, but she didn't know when they would.
She pressed her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, lowering her head carefully into the cradle they made and cried. She tried to stifle her whimpers, trying to stay strong for those around her, but soon the noise inside her escaped and she cried shoulder shaking sobs. The feeling of hopelessness was overwhelming, she wanted to go home. She wanted her friends and Thane, her brothers and sister; she wanted the safe humming of the Normandy's engine and the quiet chattering of Tali as she worked on something. The thought of never being with them again, of never seeing the stars or a new planet again; sunbathing in Tuchanka's hot sun, walking in Earth's rain, visiting the Presidium's gardens, her breath hitched and she felt her face crumple at the realisation that she was going to die in the dark surrounded by strangers.
A heavy warm arm snaked its way over her shoulders; the smell of unwashed skin filled her nose as she was pulled closer to the body who shared her cage. A small shushing sound came from the man as he rocked her gently as her head rested on his chest.
"It'll be okay…shush…it's okay…"
He had a deep voice, though it sounded sore from the dryness in his throat; it was comforting all the same. The warmth of his human skin against her cheek reminded her of earth and help lull her into a stormy quiet.
As I finished the editing, I realised how short this chapter was, and I'm sorry for that.
I'll try and update sooner and make it longer next time, though I can't promise anything :/
Review and the such :3
-Sophus xx