Garrus was waiting in the cargo bay by the shuttle as Cortez performed the safety checks, to his surprise they were heading to Daratar, the same planet that they had removed the eclipse smuggling ring for and given the supplies to Cerberus to help with their mission. How fate would bite them back in the ass, now to have a splinter group from Cerberus using it for their own means against them. Checking the sight on his black widow he looked up when he heard her tell-tale steps, she looked unstoppable in her signature red armour, armed with her pistol and shotgun, her blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail. The armour did nothing to hide her curves and Garrus felt his lower plates twitch as he recalled a few hours earlier in the main battery, he deserved that for teasing her but he still felt a little riled up for it. She sent him a wink and cocked her hip, leaning back on her leg,
"Mouth closed Vakarian." She uttered quietly and laughed when he groaned. She brushed past him and neatly climbed into the shuttle and he quickly followed sitting far away from her, "I don't bite Vakarian…unless you want me to." She whispered and Garrus growled playfully,
"You're a cruel woman and I don't really fancy giving the others a show, so I think its best if I sit over here for now" He reasoned, she smirked and pursed her lips
"Wouldn't want a show" she drawled sarcastically and Garrus huffed out a strained laugh.
"Move over Pyjak." Wrex's voice rumbled as the shuttle shifted under his weight. He sat himself heavily next to Garrus "Let's get going Shepard. I've been itching to kill something."
Before she could respond Kai Leng pulled himself into the shuttle and sat by Jane gracefully, though a little too close for Garrus's opinion. He felt his sub harmonics begin to shake with hatred and wasn't surprised when he heard Wrex's start up as well.
"What's this dirt ball doing?" Wrex snarled out, his intimidating red eyes boring holes into the assassin who just matched the stare with an impartial one.
Jane sighed with exasperation and inched herself slightly further along the bench away from Leng,
"He may come in useful, this is Cerberus's supplier so he might spot something we can't." she tried to explain, "Or maybe he'll get killed and It'll save us a problem." She jested darkly and Leng cocked an eyebrow up at her,
"I was rather enjoying our time together." He said sarcastically. Wrex stood and towered of Leng,
"Shift, You've spent too much unwanted time with Shepard as it is?" He growled and Kai snorted in derision,
"I wouldn't have said unwanted-" Leng was silence when Wrex gripped his shoulder and hauled him over to where he was previously sat next to Garrus. Garrus bore holes into the side of Kais head as Wrex settled himself next to Shepard.
"Give me a reason, nothing I'd enjoy more than ending your miserable life." Garrus snapped and Kai Leng glowered back at him. Garrus could see his jaw muscles twitching with barely contained anger and smirked in response at him.
The rest of the shuttle ride was uneventful and extremely uncomfortable. Leng just looked at the wall of the shuttle with his arms folded over his chest in an eerily similar fashion to Shepard. Garrus could understand the benefit of having the man with the crew till this was all over but the mans insane obsession with Shepard made him uncomfortable. The fact that he'd slept with her under false pretenses made his blood boil and want to kill the man in the most horrific ways possible. He wanted to rip his arm off and beat him to death with it for even considering terminating his and Shepard's child, merely because it hadn't fit in with what Leng had wanted at the time.
Garrus only managed to tear his gaze away when the shuttle started rocking violently.
"We're taking fire Commander, we're going to go in hot," Cortez warned them, Shepard stood and gripped the overhead bars to pull herself towards the cockpit, overseeing herself what was happening.
"Don't land just get us close enough to the ground so we can jump. No need to risk the shuttle." Shepard commanded. Garrus loaded his weapons quickly, as did Wrex and Leng.
The shuttle slowed to a stop and Jane opened the door swiftly before they all jumped out. Shepard and Leng landed lightly on their feet and took off firing their weapons at the enemy. Garrus and Wrex were less elegant because of their mass and hit the ground hard, their bodies built for sustaining impact, they quickly joined the fray.
If he said he was disgruntled by the fact that Kai Leng was currently armed, that would be a lie as he downright despised the idea. Daratar was a dull grey planet filled with rocks and dirt, nothing aesthetically pleasing about it, the only saving grace was that it had breathable air. Garrus turned the volume down on his visor as a tune came on over the ear piece, he lined up an eclipse mercenaries helmet and squeeze the trigger,
"Scooped and dropped!" He called out smugly and heard Jane laugh over the radio. He sighted her further down the field amongst some shipping crates, it was scarily similar to when they first came here a few years back.
"Sound cocky Vakarian!" She breathed over the comm. Darting out of cover she biotically charged into a group of three mercenaries, she impacted with one who fell to the ground and quickly whirled round with her shotgun to send a blast through another. She rolled to the side avoiding a shot from the second merc then Biotically slammed him into a crate, a sickening crunch signalling his death. Her eyes somehow caught his through his scope and his breath hitched at the look of fire in them, a look he didn't think he'd ever see again.
"Very impressive Commander." He drawled his voice taking on a sultry tone and she smirked in his direction.
Wrex appeared in his scope and stomped over to the man she'd biotically charged, lowering his shotgun he blew the mans head off and shook his head and Jane.
"You missed one." He stated simply with a smugness and Shepard gave him a halfhearted glare. When the fire fight had finished Garrus looked around for the assassin, Jane clearly thinking the same thing opened up her comm line,
"Leng report, where are you?" She questioned and for a moment Garrus had hoped he had actually been shot. Unfortunately his annoyingly smooth voice echoed back over,
"While you lot were playing I was clearing out the warehouse." He explained, his voice leaking with arrogance.
Garrus made his way over to Jane as did Wrex as she led them towards the warehouse.
"If you shoot him in the back of the skull, I'll pretend I saw nothing." Wrex said quietly, which would have been difficult for the Krogan as they did nothing quietly. Garrus snorted a laugh and Jane looked over her shoulder to watch them momentarily before heading through the open warehouse door. Garrus stayed back with Wrex,
"I want to do more than that. I want to set him on fire, but apparently he still has his uses." Garrus said with clear annoyance and Wrex snorted. Wrex's atmosphere draw serious and he gave Garrus a rather concerned look,
"I was speaking with blue, and she seems to think Jane might be suffering from something called Stockholm's syndrome." Wrex said under his breath and Garrus felt his body go rigid. During his years in C-Sec he had come across cases of Stockholm's. Where victims of kidnappings had began to feel feelings for their abductors, started to construe their confinement as some form of endearment instead of mistreatment.
He shook his head in dismissal, Shepard was too strong minded to for that to happen to her and he voiced his opinion to Wrex,
"Nah that won't happen to Shepard. She's been through tougher things and come out fine, what she had with Leng is history from a time before all of this…nothing more." He excused. He knew Shepard hated Kai Leng for his part in her memory lose but everyone had noticed she was fairly lenient to the assassin, even with the threats she'd make on Leng's life Garrus had still found out from others she'd still had discussions with the man. The fact she allowed the man access around the ship, even if it was closely watched unsettled Garrus and vowed he'd better watch the pair.
"I don't know Garrus, you know better than any of us she would have sooner put a bullet in that mans eyes than work with him before this. Especially after what happened with the Drell. Now she's working with him, arming him, just keep an eye. She's been through a lot and now more than ever she needs us to be watching out for her." Wrex cautioned, "I've been gone a week and I'm needed back on Tuchanka, Bakarra said some of the clans are breaching the breeding limits imposed on us by the council." He groaned, scratching his jaw "and I don't feel comfortable leaving Shepard with him around her. So if you're worth the quad I think you are, you best keep her safe Vakarian or you'll have me to worry about." Wrex finished off with a stern protective tone before following after Shepard.
Garrus was momentarily bewildered by the unexpected seriousness of the conversation but found himself agreeing wholeheartedly with the old Krogan. Putting it to the back of his mind he jogged into the warehouse and stopped in his tracks. The room looked like a butchers shop with purple, red and green blood on the floor and splattered across crates and walls. He saw what looked like a Salarian with the head crushed into a pulp with brain and bone fragments surrounding it, the majority of the other bodies seemed to have wounds inflicted by a sharp object. He brought his gaze across the room and saw Jane glowering at a terminal her fingers typing furiously as she searched the console. Leng was sat atop a crate running a rag down his sword almost lovingly as he wiped the evidence away from his massacre. Garrus felt the uncomfortable tendrils of doubt weave into his mind as to how Jane found this needless slaughter okay, making your enemy swallow a bullet was quick and effective enough, while this was just brutality.
Leng looked over Janes shoulder and Garrus ground his teeth together, noticing how Wrex seemed to enjoy their proximity less than he did.
"Try searching 'Ettlemen'?" He purred over her shoulder and Jane snorted before turning her head to him, to Garrus's dismay she didn't move away from his closeness.
"No shit! The Illusive Man didn't hire you for your brains did he?" Jane remarked with a clipped tone, Leng chuckled darkly his eyes crinkling round the edges and still staring intently into her eyes. To Garrus's alarm his visor registered a minor increase in her heart rate before it settled quickly, but that irregularity was enough to give credence to what Wrex had been saying.
"No he hired me for my other skills." Leng stated. He jumped off the crate and sheathed his sword before pushing her unceremoniously out of the way, earning a glare from the woman.
Jane left Leng to search the console and came to stand beside Garrus who was casually leaning against one of the crates.
"Hopefully he'll find something. The sooner we catch up to Ettlemen the quicker all of us can get back to normal." She breathed in tiredly and Garrus sent her a small smile.
"And where would Leng fit into normal?" He tried to ask casually but the annoyance spilled into it clearly. Jane looked a bit perplexed by the question and furrowed her brows,
"In an Alliance cell, why you thinking of keeping him as a pet?" She attempted to joke but Garrus could hear his query had bothered her. He settled an interrogating gaze on her, pleased when she shifted uncomfortably under it.
" I was thinking of putting him in a body bag and burying him 6 feet under." He snarled and Jane looked a little stunned by his sudden aggressive nature, but Garrus wondered why it would surprise her, he openly loathed the assassin.
"We're not murderers Garrus." She stated firmly with a glare and folded her arms over her chest. Garrus leaned forward so he was a few inches from her, Jane having to crane her neck to not brake her stare.
"No, but he is." He jabbed a finger calmly at the sleek back of Kai Leng and walk off when she was mulling over his words.
"He's got an estate in Bekenstein, he's having his supplies shipped there." Kai Leng called over as Garrus came to stand intimidatingly by him, though he doubted the man would be effected by his looming presence.
"We've been there before, met that charming Donovan Hock." Garrus added and Jane just shrugged her shoulders, evidently it wasn't ringing any bells. "You wore this tight little black dress." He said playfully letting his voice drop an octave and enjoying her blush as her heart picked up,
"No I didn't! You're making that up, I didn't see any dress in my wardrobe?" She exclaimed hurriedly clearly embarrassed. Garrus chuckled and said loud enough for Leng to hear,
"It had to be binned...I might have tore it a little."
Jane smiled and cleared her throat when Leng turned round to stare at them both in initiation.
"Are you done?" He snapped and Garrus sent a childish grin his way. "I've sent the data to EDI, along with the rest of the information for Miss Lawson to sift through in case I have missed something. I doubt I have but you can never be too careful." Kai closed the console down and shoulder checked Garrus with a surprising amount of power behind it for such a small being.
"I guess that means we're all done here?" Jane breathed out with an aggravated aura.
When they were back aboard the Normandy they all departed for their own quarters. After washing Garrus dressed in loose black fitting clothes and went on a search for Lanaya. He would have rather wore his armour but had quickly found it wasn't the most comfortable thing for a baby to snuggle into. Finding Jack in the Starboard observation he was surprised to find both her and Kaidan in the room sitting on the floor with about a meter worth of space between them, Lanaya on her hands and knees in front of Jack. When he had entered they looked up at him beaming,
"Hey Garrus its incredible! She's trying to crawl!" Kaidan said loudly in a fond way and Garrus lifted his brow plates in a very human way.
"That's fantastic! I was starting to worry" he said truthfully and went to sit in the floor with them, all three adults making the points of a triangle.
Jack frowned at him in a bemused fashion "starting to worry? She's only four months!" She snapped in a defensive tone and Garrus smiled at her as Lanaya moved forward and backwards in a rocking motion on her limbs, dressed in a plane white sleep suit.
"Ahh, you see normally Turian children are crawling by two months and some are even able to run by 7 months. We're predators, they would have had to learn quickly millions of years ago." He explained and Jack went wide eyed and a little paler,
"She could be running in another 3 months!? She's already a handful now!" She said with clear alarm and both men laughed at her, she scowled at them but couldn't stop a smile forming, "why did Shep have to pick the bird man to breed with." She joked and Garrus chuckled once more.
Lanaya brought the attention back to her by yelling happily then trilling. She took a few wobbly movements forward before tumbling slowly on to her side, they all clapped in encouragement as Garrus leaned forward and corrected her position. She looked up to him and flared her mandibles in a smile, her blue eyes getting that determined fire that Janes did, looking somewhat less earth shattering on a infant.
A few more wobbly movements and she managed to crawl over to Garrus who caught her when she began to grow weary and lifted her into his arms. Pushing his forward to hers he beamed down proudly at her, wishing she could have met the woman she was named after with an overwhelming emotion of grief. Lanaya brushed away his sad thought by gripping his mandible with her small hand and letting her sub harmonics rumble with content.
"Garrus, I have recorded the CCTV of this moment. My research suggests parents enjoying seeing their child's 'first'" EDI called over the comm. Garrus looked up to her blue orb that had appeared and nodded his thanks. Then he turned to Jack who was looking dotingly towards the baby
"Thanks Jack, for watching her for us so often." Garrus uttered and Jack waved him off still staring adoringly at Lanya in his arms.
"Don't worry about it. After all the fucked up things I've witnessed in my life, it's nice to once be used for something other than killing." The statement was so utterly honest making it all the more somber. "Hell bird man! When we're done on this mission who knows, you might need someone to be a Nanny!?" She jested but there was an undercurrent of hope in there. Garrus cocked his head at that and smiled at her,
"What about the school?" He questioned. Jack moved over to him and took Lanaya, placing her happily on her hip and jigging,
"Ahh screw them, yeah they've been good for me but it brings back too many memories of the past. Things I'd rather forget." Jack said frankly,
"Until you've had your memories taken away from you, you have no idea how much you'd even cherish the bad ones if it meant you could just remember the good times." Shepards voice startled them, no one having heard the doors hiss open all too preoccupied in Lanaya. Her hair was damp and put into two braids down the side of her head, and Garrus could smell the coconut tones of her shampoo drifting over to him. She looked a bit melancholy stood in the door and a little apprehensive about disturbing the conversation.
"Shit Shep, I didn't mean-" Jack began but Jane walked up and halted her words with a raised hand and half a smile,
"Don't worry Jack, no harm done. Just be careful what you wish for." Jane said softly and her expression seemed to warm up a little more. She turned then to Lanaya her face instantly lighting up, Garrus wondered briefly if it was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen. "I was just coming down when EDI sent me the footage. I can't believe I missed it!" The pride in her voice was paramount as she stroked the infant's cheek affectionately. "Incredibly early though! Isn't that right you clever girl!?" she began cooing and Kaidan chuckled as he came to stand next to jack.
"Actually it's considered late by Turain standards." He added and Jane frowned at that, her eyebrows pulling together.
"What do you mean?" she asked quizzically, and Jack snorted.
"Ask your dinosaur."