Greetings All, I hope you're having a great weekend. Apologies for the delay in getting this chapter out. Real Life attacks. Deep sigh. As always thank you for all the favs, follows, comments, and reviews. You make my day and inspire me to keep going. These characters and this universe belong to Bioware, I'm just playing with them. Wishing you all the best.
Getting Up to Speed
Garrus
Garrus knew he was being decidedly unTurian but he frankly didn't give a damn. Unbidden he remembered Joker cackling hysterically after he'd first said that. He'd never gotten a clear answer on why, but it didn't matter. After weeks of loneliness and pain from being forcibly separated from his mate, he could finally, openly be with her. And though they might never have what they once did – Shepard wasn't going to send him away. For now that was enough.
He wasn't quite sure why Whiteson and Victus were there; but it didn't matter either. Victus knew and Whiteson was; what was it the humans said - the very soul of discretion. Though he could have done without the 'finally you're acting like a mate' undertones of Victus's sub harmonics.
You don't exactly tell the Primarch of Palaven to shut up; but Garrus's sub harmonics hummed with an 'enough'.'
Victus's sub harmonics just got amused at that.
Shepard and Whiteson couldn't hear them; but because she was holding his hand, Shepard could feel them. She looked from him to Victus and back. Obviously sensing something between the two men.
Victus tilted his head at her, obviously aware that she could sense the exchange, easing his mandibles out in a smile. (Garrus would have said smirk if asked.)
"What's going on gentlemen?" Shepard asked.
"Going on, Commander?" Victus replied blandly.
"Stop being evasive, Victus." Shepard retorted. "You're smirking – and yes I do know what that looks like." She glanced sideways at Garrus. "And Garrus is annoyed."
"Would I deliberately annoy my advisor?" Victus asked innocently.
"In a heartbeat." Shepard retorted. Whiteson discretely coughed into his hand and avoided meeting Victus's eyes. Garrus let out a very sarcastic hum and mandible clic. Victus tried to look the injured party but he obviously knew he'd been caught.
"There you are Commander." Came Chakwas voice as she slipped through the curtain.
"Chakwas! Is everything okay? Do you need help?" Shepard asked immediately.
That was one of the first things he'd admired about Shepard – that she was always willing to help, though sometimes she carried it to aggravating extremes. He remembered all too many excursions on the Citadel trying to help others; and invariably when time was tight.
"Everything is fine." Chakwas assured her. "Primarch, Whiteson." She greeted the other two then looked to Garrus.
"Garrus, how are you doing?"
"Tired." He admitted.
"Yes, well taking a stim when you're still recovering will do that to you." She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a hard look; he avoided looking at her and studied his hands. Chakwas was one of the few who could make him feel like a unplated youngster.
After a second she turned back to Shepard. "I was looking for you, Commander."
"Oh?"
"I think it's time you went back to your room and…"
"No!" Garrus exclaimed, struggling to sit up. Shepard put a hand on his shoulder to keep him still.
"Chakwas, I don't…"
"It's not forever. I just think you need to go take a shower." Chakwas interrupted her. "And you can't exactly use the bathroom connected to this suite."
"A shower…" Garrus saw Shepard's nose twitch slightly at that. "You trying to tell me I smell, Doctor."
"Not exactly." Chakwas replied, but her lips twitched.
Shepard glanced around the room, and he could almost tell what she was thinking. Who to ask.
She made her selection. "Do I stink, Primarch?"
Garrus could see Victus trying to figure how to phrase his answer because the truth was that yes, Shepard did smell. Not that he'd ever say that to her, at least, not in public.
After a moment. "Your distinctive scent is somewhat more assertive than usual, Commander." Victus replied carefully.
Chakwas started laughing at that. "That is the most politic way of telling someone they smell that I've ever heard, Primarch."
"Yes, well I do have some self preservation instincts." Victus replied. "And telling any woman they are less than perfect can be hazardous to your health."
"Hear, hear." Whiteson muttered.
"Alright, that's enough. I'll go shower." Shepard sounded testy, and then she got serious. "Is there still a bed for me in the med suite?"
"Yes." Chakwas told her. "We've released several of the less serious cases."
Realizing that something must have gone on. "What happened?" Now it was Garrus's turn to be concerned.
"The road crumbled under the human patrol vehicle and it went into the stream. Our APC was behind it and they got out and helped everyone get clear of the stream." Victus told him. "But everyone got badly chilled." At Garrus's look of alarm. "They're all going to be fine. Doctor Chakwas, Jakan, your sister, and even Lt. Vega were here to help."
"Vega was helping and he's still alive." Garrus was amazed, given Vega's knack of irritating Solana.
Victus gave a short hum of amusement and Chakwas chuckled. "We kept them apart."
"Come along, Commander." Chakwas motioned to the curtain. "The sooner you go shower the sooner you can come back."
"Alright, alright I get it – I stink." Shepard grumbled then turned back to him. "I'll be back in a bit, big guy. You need to rest." With that she gently squeezed his hand. He squeezed back but his soft contented purr stuttered as she left with Chakwas. Already he missed her.
"We do have a roll away bed we could bring in." Whiteson spoke up diffidently. "Put it next to Praetor Vakarian's bed."
"Whiteson." Garrus protested, yet again. "Vakarian or Garrus is just fine. Being made a Praetor was just to give me equal footing with the other Advisors."
"Hardly." Victus spoke up, suddenly very serious. "You were made a Praetor because you earned it, Vakarian."
At that moment, Garrus was very glad that Turians couldn't blush or he'd have been bright blue.
Realizing that the two men might want to talk, Whiteson excused himself and left.
Victus stepped over to the bed. "Have you settled things between you and the Commander, Garrus?"
"We're working on it, Victus; but she isn't going to send me away." Now that Shepard was gone, Garrus let his exhaustion surface.
"Good."
"Are our people really alright?" Garrus changed the subject, not really up to discussing it right now.
"Yes, cold and wet though they're being warmed as we speak; but in general okay." Victus let him get away with the subject change.
"Though a couple are going to be on bed rest for a week or more."
Given how hard the cold hit Turians in, Garrus was surprised it was only a week.
"Now it's time you got some rest, Vakarian." Victus turned to go. "And no more wandering around the mansion."
Garrus's mandibles clicked at that. "I didn't exactly choose to do that Victus. The crazy Admiral had a gun in my face."
With a soft hum of amusement, Victus left him to his rest. As he settled back into his pillows, he could hear Jakan and the night nurse moving back and forth. A nearby familiar soft murmur made him realize that Solana was also helping.
Despite all their juvenile sniping, Garrus was enormously proud of his little sister. Being a battlefield medic was a difficult and dangerous job. She was a true Vakarian, probably more so than he'd ever been or ever would be.
Even though he was exhausted, Garrus knew he wouldn't truly rest until Shepard was back. Now that he could feel once more and that the threat of Renfield was removed – he had no intentions of ever leaving her side again. Not unless she told him to go, and something told him that she wasn't going to do that.
He'd closed his eyes and was trying to get some sleep when the familiar scent of armor polish and incomplete sterilization met his nose. He heard someone just outside the curtains, pacing slightly – followed by the clunk of a piece of armor falling off. He sighed.
"It's alright to come in, Hendan." He opened his eyes as his aide uncertainly peered in through the curtains.
"Praetor." Hendan, thankfully, was quiet enough that his voice didn't squeak. Garrus motioned him in.
The youngster slipped through the curtains only to get his leg spur hung up temporarily on one of them. After a few seconds of struggle, the curtain came free; and Hendan half stumbled in. Garrus's mandibles clicked in amusement.
"How are you doing sir?" Hendan straightened up, holding his wayward greave. Garrus wondered if duct tape could help with that. It seemed to be able to hold most everything else. Then again if anyone could get duct tape to fail it would probably be Hendan. Sometimes the boy was a walking disaster area.
"Tired." He told him. "What are you doing here?"
"I was helping the Primarch bring some blankets down for our people."
"Good." Garrus paused. "How are you and Nema doing?"
Given the flapping mandibles and wide eyes, Garrus figured he'd startled the youngster.
"Alright sir." Came the hesitant reply.
"That's good." Sometimes having a conversation with Hendan could be a bit like, what was it the human's said – pulling teeth. Tired, he let his eyes close again, half way hoping the boy would get the hint. Not that he minded him; he was just waiting on Shepard.
"Er, sir?" Came the hesitant question and with an inward sigh he opened his eyes again.
"Yes?"
After a few moments of indecision, Hendan spit his question out. "D..do you really have a bond with a human?"
Now Garrus was fully awake and he studied the boy, much to the youngster's embarrassment.
"I…I heard some of the others talking." Hendan admitted.
"Yes, I have a bond with the Commander." Garrus told him.
"She's a human!"
Garrus was about to take him to task when he realized that Hendan was not making a judgment; but rather trying to understand. He bit back the rather sharp retort he'd been about to make.
"Yes, she is."
"But…she…you..." Hendan trailed off, obviously confused.
"The humans have a saying, Hendan. Love happens as it wills." Garrus told him. "And in this case it willed that the Commander and I bonded."
"Oh."
Garrus had to feel sorry for Hendan. Raised in a fairly traditional family – all this had to be terribly confusing for him; and yet he was struggling to understand and accept. He might be clumsy and maladroit but he was trying – something a lot of older Turians weren't doing.
"Like you like Nema – so I like the Commander." Garrus told him. To his secret delight, Hendan did the Turian equivalent of blushing. He might not change color like the humans; but the flapping mandibles, warbling sub harmonics, and twitching faceplates said it all.
"Thank you for coming by…and thank you for saving us earlier." Garrus told him, hiding his amusement, as Hendan grew even more embarrassed. Garrus hadn't thought anyone's mandibles could flap that much, or their sub harmonics go through that many frequencies; but Hendan was proving him wrong.
"If you aren't needed here, why don't you go back to your room and get some rest." Garrus took pity on him.
"Don't you need anything, sir?"
"I have everything I need, Hendan, thank you." He decided not to get explicit with the boy. He didn't think the youngster was up for that yet.
With a shy nod, the boy left and Garrus settled back into his pillows. Hendan was going to be a fine soldier and a good man, if he just survived his adolescence.
