Garrus leaned in front of her door staring at the red lock. He gazed long and hard before placing his head on the cold metal.
'I'm here for you...' he whispered in his mind.
Emily closed her eyes as she felt a warm presence standing outside her soul, she moved quietly towards the door and placed her hand on it. Her heart beating slowly in her chest as silent tears coursed down her cheeks.
'I know...' she slowly sank to the ground in slumber.
Emily blinked her eyes open as her door whooshed open revealing Jack and Kasumi.
"C'mon girl," Jack said bending down and lifting Emily up by her arms.
"Huh? What? How did you two get in?" Emily asked brushing locks of hair off her face.
"Kasumi hacked the door. C'mon we're going to go get drunk. Did you know Kasumi has the bar downstairs filled!?" Jack said with glee.
"Shit? Really?" Emily asked while rubbing a hand across her stomach. "Does it come with food too?"
Kasumi grinned and pulled out a bag of brightly colored straw candy.
"Oh my god! Twizzlers?!" Emily yelled as she reached for the bag and held it to her chest.
"And chocolate!" Kasumi said with a shit eating grin.
"Wait..when...how?" Emily asked suddenly suspicious.
"When we were at the Citadel I 'found' a few crates of Earth junk food," Kasumi said rocking back and forth on her heels with her hands behind her back, her face only showing innocence.
"Found eh?" Emily stared down at Kasumi watching her grin spread into a full blown smile. "Fuck fine, let's go. Lemme uh..." she looks down at her body taking in the tiny shorts and exercise bra. "Get dressed?"
"Don't bother the mess is empty," Jack said waving a hand and pulling Emily into the elevator.
The trio ran into the Port Observation, seeing Kelly and Gabby already sitting at the bar, drink in hand.
"Hey Commander!" Kelly gushed handing Emily a bright pink drink.
Emily took a sip, her eyes widen in pleasure.
"Ohh, this tastes good," Emily said settling on the bar stool and beginning to sip her drink.
"Hey Emily? I just want to make sure you're feeling okay...?" Kelly's voice was soft as she placed a hand on Emily's shoulder.
"Yeah, fine," Emily said with a snort and chugging the rest of the pink drink. "Just keep the drinks coming and I'll be even more than fine."
"I was dead for two years! TWO YEARS!" Emily shouts as she leans back on the counter, legs gently kicking against the cool metal shelf. "How was I suppose to send him a message from the afterlife? And to top it off he tells me he 'loved' me. Really? We fucked for ONE night. And he 'loved' me!" Emily continued to laugh.
"So did you love him?" Kelly asked swirling her straw and blinking at Emily with amusement on her face.
Emily looked down at her drink, running a finger along the rim.
"Love is complicated isn't it? Hell I don't even know what it means." she holds up a finger at Kelly seeing her slowly start to answer. "Sure I love my shotgun, I love this ship, hell I even love you too Joker you fucking creeper!" She flicks a corner of the room off and Joker's laughter echoes into the room.
"I love you too Emi now gonna bring me a drink or what?" he asks teasingly.
"Someone get that man a drink!" Emily says swinging back slightly and almost falling, her drink dripping onto her chest.
"I do not think the pilot should be inebriated, Commander," EDI's voice droned with a slight hint of amusement.
"Awe you're no fun, EDI!" Joker complains good naturedly.
Emily lays on the counter, her legs bent at the knees as she wiggles to get comfortable, feeling Jack swat her ass.
"Hey Jack."
"Huh?"
"I want a tattoo. Hook me up."
"Shit for real?" Jack asks excitement flashing in her eyes.
"Yeah, get your tattoo gun and don't lie and say you don't have one. I saw it when I was in your room," Emily said smiling drunkenly at Jack.
"Alright be right back!" She dashes out of the room and Emily closes her eyes slightly, lifting up her drink to sip through a straw.
The door opens shortly and Jack returns, a small black case in her hand as her eyes rove over Emily's body.
"So where and what do you want?" Jack asks as she sets the case on the barstool and runs a hand down Emily's back.
"Shoulder blade and here..." Emily says typing something into her Omni-tool as Jack's pings.
"Huh, briar rose seems fitting and girly at the same time," Jack makes a noise of approval as she begins to set up the machine.
"Oh hey turn this song up!" Emily calls out to Kasumi who's parked in front of the karaoke machine.
Emily closed her eyes and smiled as the lyrics filled the room. She let out a soft sigh and began to sing along.
"The first time I was afraid I was petrified..." she lets out a soft hiss as Jack began to work on the outline of her tattoo.
"Stay still!" Jack says swatting her ass again.
"It feels good tho..." Emily lets out a soft moan and wiggles slightly.
Kelly's eyes widen as she notices the faded claw marks on Emily's hips.
"Uh Commander..." Kelly asks as she lightly touches one.
"Don't want to talk about it," Emily hisses and grits her teeth.
"So you're back from outer space, got that whiney bitch look on your face~!" Jack mutters as she slowly fills the outline in, her tongue peeking out lightly between her lips.
Emily drifts off as the sensations of the needle piercing her skin lulls her into a state of contentment. Eyes half closed she listens to the girls sing song after song while the hum of Jack's tattoo gun moves over her skin.
"So Emily...who was better in bed?" Jack asks quietly.
"No one told me it'd be blue...but yeah...Garrus...definitely Garrus," Emily lets out another moan and her hips wiggle against the cold metal of the counter.
"Shit Em, stop moving..." Jack grunts as she swats Emily's ass again causing her to giggle.
"Starting to sound like you like it." Jack grins and shakes her head.
The door whooshed open, the girls go quiet except for the sound of the karaoke machine and Jack's tattoo gun.
"What the fuck is going on in here?" Garrus asks as he notices Emily's half naked form on the counter and Jack using some strange contraption on her back.
"Emily wanted a tattoo so I'm giving her one." Jack tosses a grin to Garrus and returns back to work.
Garrus leans over Jack's shoulder, taking in the supple muscles of Emily's back as the tattoo fills in with color, a soft pale blue with a mote of red in the center. Black thorns wrapped around the stem. He takes a deep breath and shudders as he catches the scent of her arousal and her blood.
"I uh...I gotta go...More calibrations to do," he says and makes a hasty retreat to his room.
"Wonder what his problem is," Kasumi asks getting up slowly and moving towards the door.
The door whooshed open again and this time Kasumi was face to face with Miranda who had four datapads in her arms.
"The Illusive Man sent more Dossiers to add to the crew list Emily, take a look and give Joker your course," she drops the datapads by Emily's head and reaching for a bottle of wine.
"Of course he would," Emily gives a long sigh turning her head to stare at Miranda.
"Hey Mira anyone ever tell you that you have a nice ass?" Emily slaps her hand across it.
Miranda lets out a soft laugh and settles on a barstool, wine in hand as she reaches for one of the datapads.
"Seems your friend Tali's on Haestorm and could use some help," Mira says holding the datapad up to Emily's face.
"Tell Joker to set a course to Haestorm then," Emily mumbles as she rests her head on her hands.
"Almost done with the tattoo..." Jack grunts as she finishes it up.
Emily and Jack charge off a head, while Garrus takes a spot up top to snipe incoming geth.
"This fucking place is frying my shields!" Jack swears up a storm while Emily echoes her sentiments.
"Mine too," Emily grumbles as Garrus laughs sarcastically in their comms.
"Fuck you Vakarian," Emily growls as she charges a geth, her shotgun blasting a hole clear through its abdomen.
"Thought you already did," Jack comments back sarcastically.
"Ah shut it," Emily growls as she slams into the wall panting reaching for her helmet and tugging it off.
"Put your helmet back on," Garrus' voice comes through hard and angry.
"Fuck you, no," Emily turns to look at Garrus position behind her and flicks him the bird.
"Don't make me come down there," he grunts taking the head off a geth to Emily's right.
"Right and do what? Spank me?" Emily taunts, anger lacing her voice as well.
Emily peeks over the wall, taking note of Jack's location and moves to her right. Her right foot sliding back as she prepares for a charge only to be slammed into a wall and a gloved taloned hand gripping her shoulder.
Emily looks up at Garrus' face seeing the clenched jaw and the mandibles tight against his face.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he growls as he reaches for her helmet and attempts to put it on her head.
"None of your goddamn business Vakarian," she growls, sliding a hand up his chest and pushing him back away from her. She tosses her head, and charges off, a laugh escaping as she hears him growl angrily.
She attaches the charges to the stone pillar and quickly dive behind cover. She and Jack share a smile before the two charge through the doors and look around.
"I wish Shepard was here to see this..." Tali's voice plays from a recorder.
"I am here..." Emily grins as she looks at Tali's image. She moves towards a window panel and palms it open, seeing a quarian injured and pinned down by geth. She jumps over the barrier and charges to his location.
"Kal?" Emily hands him a med-gel.
"Nice to finally see a friendly face," Kal says gesturing with his assault rifle. "She's across the way, don't think they've managed to get through yet but there is a colossus stationed in front of the door. Fucker has a regen that'd make a krogan jealous. Get her out of here, I'll distract them,"
Emily presses him down and shakes her head, "No, stand down and give us cover fire. Don't go sacrificing your life," she lifts her head up over the wall to peek across.
"We'll take the top right path, it won't give a lot of cover but the colossus can't get to us. Garrus you and Kal give us cover fire we're going in."
Garrus lets out another growl drawing the attention of Kal.
"She's not what I expected..." Kal says softly.
Garrus nods as his eyes watch Jack and Emily charge up the stairs and across the path clearing geth along the way, dodging the shots coming from the colossus.
Emily leans over the wall and studies the colossus and casually pulls out a sniper rifle. She tosses her hair as she settles the crosshairs on the face.
"Jack, toss it a shockwave. Garrus, Overload its shield," she lines up the shot and pulls the trigger sending three bullets to its head. "Fuck, this guy's tough."
The colossus begins to curl up and regen.
"Goin' in, keep tossing shockwaves and keep its shield occupied.
"What do you mean you're going in?" Garrus asks, his subvocals humming with venom.
"What do you think I mean?" Emily says tilting her head to the side.
Emily blinks and pulls her biotics to cover her skin. She cocks her hip, sliding her right foot back and charging into the colossus, shotgun blasting holes into it's side. Emily rolls to the side, dodging a slew of lasers aimed at her and rolls up slamming her fist into the colossus followed with another round of shotgun blasts. She casually pulls out a grenade and rolls it under the colossus before diving into cover. A wicked grin flashed across her face as it exploded sending the colossus into the air with a shower of broken metal and sparks.
Emily rolls her shoulder and grimaces as she feels a small twinge of pain. She watches Garrus walk towards her with a scowl on his face, Jack's behind him giving her a thumbs up and sticks her tongue out at Garrus' back. She turns ignoring Garrus' reaching arm and heads towards the door bringing her omni-tool up to hack the controls to open it.
"Just give me one minute to finish this download," Tali's voice comes from ahead of her. Emily made her way towards Tali, arms across her chest and a closed off expression on her face. She cocks her hips impatiently.
"Thank you Emily, if it wasn't for you I would have never made it out of this room. This whole mission has been a disaster. I wished I joined you back on Freedom's Progress..." she says her voice coming through her helmet filled with sadness.
"Yeah...me too," Emily says softly her expression flickers briefly as she notices Jack tinkering with a console.
"So are you able to come with now?" Emily asks her head tilted to the side.
"Yeah, I'll just deliver the information...is Kal alright?" Tali asks.
"I'm fine Ma'am," Kal says softly from behind Garrus.
Tali nods and shakes Kal's hand.
I'm sorry Kal, I'm not going back to the fleet," she tells him while gesturing to Emily.
"I'll be joining the Normandy."
Emily walks over to Jack and leans against the console. A soft sigh escaping her mouth as she leans her head back.
"You look pissed," Jack says quietly, dark eyes studying Emily's face.
"Tired, pissed, what's the difference." Emily says with a toss of her head.
"So you're not even going to say hi to me? My feelings are hurt," Garrus says playfully at Tali, wrapping his arms tightly around the quarian woman and spinning her around.
"Good to see you too Garrus. Now, put me down I still have my shotgun," Tali laughs playfully.
"Ohh kinky..." Garrus drawls seductively eliciting another laugh from Tali.
Jack watches as Emily's face pales slightly and her eyes cloud over briefly in pain. She reaches over and gives Emily a small push, distracting her slightly.
"Let's get out of here," Jack says as she pushes away from the console and moves towards the door with Emily right behind her. Garrus keeps his arm around Tali and stares at Emily's back.
Emily sat on her bed and stared at her fish tank watching the fish swim around in lazy circles. She had made sure to get Tali settled down in engineering and watched as Ken and Gabby made her feel welcomed. She flopped on her bed and stared out the window watching the stars drift pass. Her mind settled seeing the bright and happy expression on Garrus' face as he spun Tali around and she felt a pang in her heart.
'Could use a drink...' she sits up and pulls on a pair of pants and heads to Kasumi's room. Hearing whispering she peeks her head around the corner and watches Tali and Garrus heads close together as the two whisper quietly to each other. Garrus' eyes drift towards hers, expressionless before turning his attention back on Tali.
Jack walks off the elevator and spots Emily and quickly moves closer to her. She peers over her shoulder to see Tali and Garrus sitting close. Her mouth spreads in a feral smile as she takes a step into the mess, a fist glowing blue with biotics. Emily reaches for Jack's hand hissing slightly as her biotics flare briefly before dying out.
"Forget it, it's okay," Emily says, eyes slowly welling up with tears. "Let's go see Kasumi, she might have stocked the bar again."
Jack turns to stare at Garrus and bares her teeth in warning as she wraps an arm around Emily's waist and leads her to Kasumi's room.
"What was that about?" Tali asks Garrus curiously, lightly punching him in the shoulder.
"No idea," Garrus answers evasively his eyes clouded over slightly.
"Bosh'tet Garrus don't lie to me. That small human was ready to rip your head off. What did you do?"
Garrus leans back and rubs the back of his neck letting out a soft sigh.
"Emily and I..." Garrus pause, hesitation stuck in his throat, "we had an affair I suppose that's what a human would call it."
"You what?! What about Kaidan? Does he knows?" Tali exclaimed agasp.
"I know...I just...got caught up in the moment. Maybe it was a mistake, I don't know."
Tali placed a hand on his shoulder, "You still have feelings for her don't you? from back then? Two years ago?"
Garrus combed his fringe giving a long blank gaze, "I do but... I don't know, things are just so...muddled...Either way, it seems she regrets it. She's human, it wouldn't have worked anyway. The Contact War is too fresh in a lot of people's minds."
"So what? If you care for her..."
"Just drop it, we didn't bring you onto the ship so you can pry. We'll leave it at that," Garrus turned and headed to the battery.
"It's not prying..."