Garrus had been waiting by the skycar for about thirty minutes when he saw Shepard approaching. He didn't mind the wait however since he knew Shepard was doing something important. Besides he was enjoying watching things calm down around the area. The reporters had packed up and left after they got footage of Talitha being taken away in an ambulance. Most of the officers on scene left shortly afterward. During that time, Garrus watched as Shepard stayed by Talitha's side as she was loaded in the ambulance and then went to debrief with Girard. Shepard was likely going over every detail of his time with Talitha in the docking bay. Not just because it was procedure, Garrus thought, but also because all the things he learned about Talitha would be useful to helping the doctors treat her. Now that the debriefing was over, Shepard walked over to the skycar looking like he was ready to go home and collapse on a couch.
"Ready to finally call it a day partner?" Garrus jokingly asked since they were both several hours past the time their shift was supposed to have ended.
"More than ever," Shepard sighed, "I'm so tired I'm going to need to sleep for a week in order to get back to full strength."
Garrus chuckled as he and Shepard got into their skycar, "well we both know that's not going to happen. We have to follow up with the techs and Dr. Solus in the morning and then interview Wilkinson at the Citadome. Though I don't blame you for being exhausted. Things got pretty tense there for a second. Speaking of which, sorry it took me so long to take out that news skycar."
"It's okay, Garrus. I had the situation under…"
Suddenly Shepard snapped wide awake as Garrus' last statement was fully processed in his mind. He was well aware that a skycar nearly ruined his chances of talking Talitha down but he didn't know it was news skycar. Adding that factor to the equation resulted in a thought that caused Shepard to feel ill. This was picked up by Garrus when he noticed Shepard's face turning pale.
"What's wrong Shepard?!" he asked anxiously.
"We need to get back…now!" Shepard said as he frantically gestured for Garrus to start the car. "I need to get home before Ashley watches the news tonight."
"Why?" Garrus asked while getting the skycar moving.
"Because she CAN NOT see what the news skycar filmed before you shot it down. If she does, I'm never going to hear the end of it."
"Okay Shepard. I'll get us home ASAP. But in the meantime, maybe now might be a good time for you to tell me what's going on. Does this have something to do with what you were talking about back at Starfire?"
Shepard let out a deep breath to compose himself before continuing. "you're right. Now is as good a time as any I guess. The thing is Garrus, Ashley wasn't entirely thrilled about me joining C-SEC after we left the military. She tries to be supportive but the truth is she's worried that something will happen to me. The last thing she wants is for our baby to grow up without their father. If she watches the news tonight, she's going to see how her worst fear was dangerously close to coming true."
"What do you mean?"
"When that news skycar showed up, Talitha shot at it to scare it away. Unfortunately the skycar was literally right behind me at the time. When she fired her shot, the gun was aimed right at my head. Luckily I was able to realize what was about to happen and dodged out of the way. But Garrus, if I had taken just a split-second longer to dodge, I'd be dead right now and no doubt Talitha would be too. I felt the bullet fly right by my ear, it was that close."
Garrus was stunned into silence when Shepard finished telling his story. He had been wondering what had happened in the docking bay while the skycar blocked his view but now he almost wished he didn't find out. Realizing that his partner and best friend came so close to death was horrifying to hear. If that was how he was feeling after hearing about it, he hated to think how Ashley would take it. He now understood why Shepard was so desperate to get home…at least he understood part of it.
"Sounds like you really did have a close call in there Shepard," said Garrus, "but there is one thing I don't understand. Yes Ashley won't be thrilled if she hears about what happened tonight but she should be glad that you managed to save Talitha's life. Not a lot of officers would have taken the risk you did to save her."
To Garrus surprise, the reassuring compliment he gave didn't result in an appreciative smile from Shepard. Instead it seemed to have the opposite effect. The comment seemed to make Shepard sadder. Shepard turned to face away from Garrus and looked sadly out the window.
"That's actually the main reason she'll be mad at me Garrus," Shepard said, "I've been trying to reassure her that I won't take any unnecessary risks on this job but she knows that I won't be able to keep that I see someone in danger, my focus is solely on saving them, no matter the risk. Even my wife and unborn child get pushed to the back of my mind. It's because I don't worry about staying alive for my family that I'm able to take the risks I do to save lives. Believe me Garrus, I feel terrible about putting my family behind saving the lives of strangers but I just can't sit by and do nothing when people are in danger."
Garrus sighed, "I know what you mean. Look Shepard, I don't know if this will help but I think you're forgetting one important thing. You do take risks to save lives but you would never do anything that had no chance of you surviving. The way I see it, you're not pushing your family to the back of your mind to help you save lives, it's your family that keeps you from doing anything suicidal in order to do it."
Finally the smile Garrus was looking for began to appear on Shepard's face, "I never thought of it that way. Thanks Garrus."
"Anytime Shepard. Now let's get you home."
To that end, Garrus flipped on the skycar's siren and drove through the traffic in what could be viewed as an attempt to set a record for the fastest time to reach C-SEC HQ.
Garrus quietly entered his apartment and resisted his normal habit of turning on a light. When no sounds greeted him, he figured that he made a good call. The events at the docking bay had led to him getting home late enough that Tali was already asleep. Though he had every intention of letting his wife sleep, a part of Garrus wished that she was still awake. His ideal way of ending his day was by having a nice, tender moment with his wife. Especially after how rough things went the last time they were together.
From the beginning of their relationship, Garrus and Tali knew that there were going to be times when their professions would come into conflict with each other. Tali was responsible for representing the wants and needs of the quarians while Garrus was responsible for the safety of all the species who lived on the Citadel. While they both respected the pressures their spouse faced in their jobs, they each also loved their own jobs too much to let personal feelings for each other get in the way of doing them effectively. Which was why they made a promise to each other to keep their professional and personal lives as far apart as possible. When they were at work, they were Detective Vakarian and Ambassador Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. When they were at home, they were Mr. and Mrs. Vakarian.
Garrus went to the living room and collapsed into his chair. He was too exhausted to go up the stairs to the bedroom. It was probably for the best. He would risk waking Tali if he tried to crawl into bed and he was more than capable of sleeping comfortably in his chair. With his mind made up, Garrus closed his eyes and started to fall asleep.
"(kiss)….welcome home."
The attempt to fall asleep was interrupted when Garrus felt a peck on his cheek and opened his eyes to see Tali's face smiling at him. Getting his second wind, he grabbed Tali's head and pulled her in for a kiss on the lips. Tali then sat on Garrus lap and snuggled her head against his chest.
"It's good to be home," said Garrus, "did I wake you when I came in?"
"No," Tali replied, "I was waiting for you. We've always said we should never go to bed angry. With the way we left things at the embassy, I thought we should have one relaxing moment together before going to bed."
Garrus let out a relaxing sigh, "thanks honey. That sound's great. After the day I've had, I really need one."
Tali looked at Garrus and gave him sly smile while speaking with a sarcastic tone, "are you saying that because of what happened at the embassy or because of what happened at the docking bay?"
Normally Garrus would have responded with a sarcastic remark whenever Tali said one to him but froze when he had fully processed what she said. He had never mentioned being at the docking bays let alone what had happened there. There was only one way she could know about it. What was worrying Garrus the most however was that if she knew, then maybe…
Tali spoke (or rather squealed) again before Garrus could finish his thought, "I'm sorry but I couldn't wait for you to bring it up. That's the other reason I waited up for you. I saw you and Shepard on the news and you two were amazing! The whole time I was watching, I was on the edge of my seat."
"Tha…that's great honey but…"
"True, I thought the reporters were a bit harsh about you shooting down their skycar. I mean, you wouldn't have needed to do that if they didn't spook that girl and almost get Shepard killed."
"That's okay. I'm over it. But I need to ask you…"
"But when Shepard came out carrying her, (sigh) that was one of the most heroic things I've ever seen him do. And he's done a lot of heroic stuff. I'll bet Ashley's proud of Shepard after watching that."
A chill went up Garrus' spine, "how…how do you know Ashley was watching it?"
"Because I called her when I saw you and Shepard talking to that lieutenant on the news. She said she was…"
"YOU DID WHAT?!"
Garrus shot up out of the chair, knocking Tali off his lap. He anxiously paced back and forth as he realized that Shepard's fear was coming true. Their talk with Girard happened long before Shepard's close call with Talitha. If Ashley turned on the news shortly after her call with Tali, she would have seen everything. He checked the clock on his omni-tool. Sure enough, it was too late for him to warn Shepard as he was likely at his apartment already. For a moment, he felt sorry for his partner as he thought of what awaited him.
It was a brief moment though as Garrus stopped pacing and looked at Tali who was trying to figure out what had suddenly come over her husband. Upon seeing her, Garrus gave her a mean glare but fought to keep it from blowing up into an outburst of anger and frustration. He might have been justified for doing so as her big mouth was apparently going to lead to two blowups. One between Shepard and Ashley and one between Garrus and Shepard once Shepard realized how Ashley found about incident at the docking bay. For all Garrus knew, Tali may have wrecked the friendship the four of them shared.
"Garrus?" Said Tali. "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Hearing Tali's scared voice brought Garrus out of his current thought and he then saw how scared Tali looked. Upon quick reflection, he realized that he was one the verge of overreacting. Yes it was true that Tali telling Ashley about what happened at the docking bay was the wrong thing to do but she didn't do for the wrong reasons. Tali just thought Ashley should see her husband being the hero that both of them knew Shepard to be. In the past, Ashley would have appreciated it. But what Tali could not have known and taken into account was the stuff Shepard mentioned to Garrus. It was now up to Garrus to explain to Tali what she had unintentionally done. Taking some calming breaths, Garrus sat back down in the chair.
"Tali," he said, "by telling Ashley about what happened at the docking bay, you allowed Ashley to see Shepard almost get killed on live TV."
The look on Tali's face indicated she wasn't making the connection, "well that wasn't my intention. I certainly didn't know that was going to happen when I called. But why is that a big deal? It's not the first time that Ashley has seen Shepard in a life threatening situation."
"I know Tali but they weren't about to become parents back then. Think about it, Ashley is about to have a baby and she has now seen just how close her child came to not having its father in its life."
Tali gasped and covered her mouth in shock when the pieces came together, "Kee'lah. I didn't…I mean I didn't even think about. Oh Kee'lah, what have I done?"
Garrus jumped up to help the lightheaded Tali and brought her back down onto his lap, "it's okay honey. I'm sure that everything will be fine. The important thing is to learn from our mistakes so that we don't repeat them."
"I know," Tali continued, "I know you're right. It's just…I can't believe that all these months later it's still not setting in for me that my best friend is a mother now. I should have been more considerate of that when I called her. I mean being the wife of a C-SEC officer is one thing but to have a child with one, no wonder she'd be terrified seeing Shepard in danger like that. Oh, who am I kidding though. I'm not a mother. I have no idea what it's like for Ashley right now. I probably never will. What kind of friend am I when I can't empathize with what she's going through?"
"Hey, you are a terrific friend. When you asked Ashley to be your matron of honor, she said herself that she thinks of you like a sister. And besides, you should never say never about you someday becoming a mother. We haven't ruled out the possibility that we can have children of our own. Even if we can't, we could always adopt. But I promise you, someday you will get to be a mother and you will be a great one."
Tali looked up at Garrus and smiled, "and I know you will make a great father. Thanks Garrus. I needed to hear that. I'll call Ashley tomorrow to make sure she's okay. Ready to go to bed?"
Without saying another word in response, Garrus stood up while holding Tali in his arms. He then carried her to their bedroom and it wasn't long before the couple fell asleep in each other's embrace.
Shepard checked the time as he stepped off the elevator. He had made it back to his apartment building with plenty of time to spare. The news was not scheduled to air their next regular broadcast for another fifteen minutes. While Shepard knew he was still going to have to deal with Ashley's reaction to his near death experience at the docking bay, he was glad he would at least be able to be the one to tell her about it first. Once he planned out what he was going to say when he saw Ashley, he entered the apartment.
"Hey beautiful," he called out when he was inside, "I'm home."
"We have just received word that C-SEC Detective Shepard has gone inside to try and talk the woman down."
The voice that Shepard heard was not Ashley's. The initial confusion Shepard felt turned to horror when he realized what the voice was talking about. He checked the time and saw that it was still too early for the next news broadcast to air. So how could Ashley be watching the news now?
As he approached the source of the voice and listened to it more, Shepard noticed that the voice was also talking like the events at the docking bay were happening right at that moment. He knew that was impossible since he was at home and the voice was talking about him being at the docking bay. In that moment, everything clicked together and Shepard realized his worst fear had come true. The only way Ashley could be watching the live coverage from the docking bay now was if she had recorded it when it originally aired. Which meant she would have had to know about it while it was happening. For that to be true, someone had to have to told her about it and he had a strong feeling who that person was.
The source of the voice was the TV in the living room. Ashley was sitting on the couch facing the screen but not really listening to it. This didn't surprise Shepard since Ashley would have heard and seen everything the first time she watched it. Everything Shepard was seeing was set up for him to see as soon as he got home. Deciding there was no point in saying anything at the moment, Shepard turned his focus to the playback which currently was showing a reporter outside the docking bay.
"One of our skycars has just gotten into a position that will allow us to see what's happening inside," the reporter said, "let's go to them now."
The playback then cut to a shot showing Talitha and Shepard. Talitha had just become aware of the skycar's presence and aimed her gun towards it. Unfortunately the view couldn't show that because Shepard was in the camera's line of sight. The gun was obscured behind his head.
"No!" Talitha screamed. "She's no good. Don't want to be handled again!"
Ashley quickly hit a button on the remote and caused the playback to play in slow-motion. She set it for the slowest speed possible. As the footage slowly played on, Shepard watched as the gun fired and his video self ducked to the side. He knew that the bullet was close to hitting him but the slow-motion playback showed he had no idea just how close it actually was. Ashley paused the video and the frozen frame showed the bullet flying literally inches from Shepard's left ear. It was at that moment she slowly turned to face Shepard.
"Is there something you want to tell me Mark?" Ashley said in a cold tone.
Shepard took a few cautious steps towards Ashley, "Ash, please, I can explain."
Ashley stood up before Shepard could continue, "explain what? That you were almost killed by a crazy woman? That you were out answering a call when you were supposed to be off-duty and coming home?"
"Ash…"
"Or maybe you should explain why you deliberately put yourself in that position despite the fact that you might have been killed and left our child without a father."
Shepard took another step towards Ashley and tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Ash, I…"
Ashley walked past Shepard and headed for the stairs leading to the bedroom. She stopped short of walking up when she let out a surprise gasp. The baby was kicking again. Bowing her head and with her eyes filling with tears, she gave her belly a gentle pat to in attempt to calm the baby.
"How could you do that to us Mark?" Ashley asked while not taking her eyes off her belly. "Did you even think about us when you decided to take that call?"
"Of course I did," Shepard said, "not a minute goes by where I don't think about you and our baby. But I couldn't just ignore someone who needed help."
"Even when that 'someone' is a mentally disturbed woman with a gun who could shoot you at anytime?"
"Ash, that woman had been held as a slave for almost two decades. Nobody can go through that without scars. Thanks to Garrus and me, she now has a chance to put that behind her and have a normal life."
"But what if she doesn't? Twenty years of painful memories is a lot for someone to overcome. She could potentially spend the rest of her life in a mental institution. Of course, that's assuming she doesn't relapse. You might have been able to talk her down this time Mark but you won't be there to stop her if she snaps again. If that does happen, then you will have risked getting killed for nothing."
"Ash…"
"You told me yesterday that your job was not going to put you in nearly as much danger as when you were a solider. But the way I see it, it wasn't the job that put you in danger. It was you choosing to take crazy risks that put you in danger. I guess I was a fool for thinking that us having a baby on the way would make you not take those kind of risks anymore."
When she finished speaking, Ashley stormed up the stairs and head for the bedroom. Shepard ran up the stairs after her but was unable to reach Ashley before she closed the bedroom door. He went to pull the door open when he heard a click. Ashley had engaged the door's lock. Despite knowing that was what happened, Shepard pulled on the door to try to open it but it wouldn't budge.
"Ash," said Shepard, "open the door."
Shepard was not one to panic easily but he was beginning to feel it overtake him. He and Ashley had some minor fights in the past but this was different. None of their fights ever got so bad that Shepard was faced with the risk of being forced to sleep on the couch. There used to be a spare bedroom he could have used but that was being turned into the baby's nursery. But the possible alternate sleeping arrangements was not Shepard's biggest worry. It was just the fact he was facing the risk of needing them at all.
"Ash, please, don't do this."
Shepard could hear movement on the other side of the door but it was likely Ashley was only getting dressed for bed. Normally in a standstill situation like this, Shepard would pull out his persuasive charm to help swing the outcome in his favor. In this case however, he refused to that. When he and Ashley got engaged, he swore to himself that he would never use his charm on Ashley again. He had used it before when he helped her overcome her distrust of the other races. While Shepard always used his charm for good causes, it wouldn't be hard for someone to misinterpret it as him manipulating people to his side. The last person he would ever want to be accused of manipulating was his wife. With that option off the table, that left Shepard with only one other choice. He would have to plead his case and hope for the best.
"Ash, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you had to see what you saw today. I wish I could promise that something like that won't happen again but we both know that's not going to happen. You're right about how it is my choice that puts me in risky situations and not just because my job calls for it. I will never be able to stand by and do nothing when someone needs help. That's just who I am. But you were wrong when you said that having a baby on the way hasn't affected that part of me. Ash, I love you and our baby more than anything in this galaxy. You give me a reason to come home everyday. I may put myself in risky situations but it's because of you and the baby that I will never put myself in a situation where I have no chance of surviving. What I'm trying to say is that while I can't promise that I won't put myself in risky situations anymore, I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to ensure I come home and our baby everyday."
Silence was the only response to Shepard's plea. He put his ear to the door but there was not even a faint sound to indicate Ashley was coming to open the door. Shepard wanted to try again but no there was no point. If Ashley had made up her mind and was not going to open the door, he was going to have to respect it. He turned around and started walking towards the stairs. He had made it to the top of the stairwell when he heard a click. Turning back to the door, he saw it slowly open. Ashley was on the other side wearing her evening lingerie. She still had tears in her eyes but she was managing to give a small smile as she reached out her hand for Shepard to take. Shepard smiled back as a feeling of relief came over him. He gently took Ashley's hand and followed her into the bedroom.