It took some time and effort, but after a while, Garrus managed to force himself to focus on the information he had in front of him for the case. He wasn't very surprised to see a familiar face staring up from the datapad.

"Kishpaugh." He said, rolling the familiar name around on his tongue. A year and a half ago, he'd almost put the human away for good; at least before his own father had cut the dealer loose, citing Garrus's methods as reason enough. Garrus snorted at the memory. Maybe he'd tampered with some of the evidence. Maybe he'd been a little harsh in convincing that junkie to testify, but it hadn't made Kishpaugh any less guilty. Number one dealer of red sand, hallex and videlicit in two out of the five wards and his own father had wasted months of work because he wasn't doing it "by the book." For all that good that would have done. The bastard hadn't changed one bit. Garrus sighed and pushed the datapads away, trying and failing to keep images of the Normandy exploding outof his mind. It was no use speculating who had lived and who died, last he heard from the news the alliance was trying to recover several escape pods.

There was still hope. He'd track down the lead in the morning, after he'd gotten some sleep.

If he could sleep.

As it turned out, it took longer than a day for his lead to bear fruit. Closer to a week actually, during which the scant information about the fate of the Normandy was barely added to. They'd recovered a handful of pods and had reported the well being of and Tali'zorah vas Neema but they were refusing to release the names of any alliance personnel. He'd tried to contact a few crew members that he had the extranet accounts for but he hadn't heard back from anyone. Not even from Anderson. And Garrus knew stonewalling when he saw it. Her safety would have been big news. If Shepard had been alive, there would be no reason for the alliance to keep so tight-lipped about her condition.

She had to be gone.

She was gone and it barely registered as a blip on the citadel news network, almost like they were eager to forget what she had done, forget about Saren and the geth and Sovereign and move on to more pleasant things. The thought made his plates itch and his head throb as he stalked through C-Sec headquarters. At least he'd managed to arrest Kishpaugh on possession. Granted, he'd planted the evidence, but it wasn't like dealers didn't carry their product around. Garrus was glad to get a chance to interrogate him, even if he had had to fill out the paperwork first. He never had to deal with this tripe when he'd been working under Shepard. When it came to dealing with the bad guys all he'd had to do was point and shoot, not make nice. She'd handled that when the situation called for it.

Handled the reports to the council too; at least when she felt like it. Garrus smiled softly, remembering the time she'd hung up on the council mid-sentence. They'd deserved it. Garrus made his way to holding, nodding at Ridgefield and Monteauge as they passed, took a moment to congratulate Chellick on closing out a case and then found Jatasa waiting for him outside of interrogation. She was a real looker. The blue clan markings that were tattooed across her face were the same as his because she'd grown up in Cipritine, a stone's throw from his childhood home. But her eyes were a captivating green, her plates a soft cream color, and her waist, well…

If he'd been born with a waist as supportive as that, he'd have made a good dancer.

"Garrus." She said smoothly as he approached.

"Jatasa." He returned with a nod.

"He's all yours." She said with an odd look. Garrus took note of that, but walked into the room anyway. The human sat with his arms folded on the table, looking extremely bored.

"So nice to see you again, Kishpaugh." Garrus said airily.

"Fuck off, cuttlebone. I know my rights. I ain't telling you shit." Kishpaugh spat and fixed his eyes on the ceiling.

A snarky reply danced on the edge of Garrus's tongue, but the itch in his plates was getting worse. This same scene had played out a dozen times before with a dozen different criminals. Making nice with Kishpaugh and dancing around the issue was a far cry from how Shepard and the squad had dealt with that asari slaver. Or Helena Blake and her partners.

There was an easier way to do this and he knew it. It just kind of broke several C-sec regulations.

Strangely enough, Garrus found that he was okay with that. A kind of peaceful clarity settled over him, at odds with the sudden rush of adrenaline he felt pumping in his veins. Years of this nonsense; and he just didn't want to take it anymore. As always, it was Shepard showing him the way. The itch was getting maddening. Garrus turned and looked at the window he knew Jatasa was watching from and clicked his mandibles resolutely, tapping a few controls on his omni-tool. A simple hacking sub-routine and the door locked from the inside. By the time Jatasa figured out what he was doing, hopefully he'd have what he needed.

"You know, I'm having a very bad week." He drawled, pacing around the table like a nathak stalking prey.

"Aw you're not gonna start crying are you?" the human sneered.

Garrus ignored him and continued.

"My coffee was cold, one of my best friends is smeared across some spirits-forsaken nebulae in the Terminus systems, the Vaenia sequel is in developmental hell and to top it all off the Washington Hackers lost last night's biotiball game by five points." He stopped behind the human and clamped his hands down hard on Kishpaugh's shoulders.

"You do not want to test me."

Without warning he yanked backwards, pulling the dealer out of the chair and slamming him against the wall. Garrus's right arm slid up until he was pinning Kishpaugh's throat to the wall with his elbow. The human wriggled in his grasp and sputtered for air.

"Vakarian?! What are you doing, put him down!" Jatasa's voice came out of the room's speakers with a screech, but he could detect the outrage in her subharmonics. Garrus ignored her and continued.

"I'm going to ask you again." He growled in a low, menacing tone. Give me a name. Who. Is. Your. Supplier?" Each of the last four words was punctuated by a blow to the man's ribs with his free hands.

"Vakarian?! " The sound of fists thumping on the door. "What did you do to the lock? Vakarian!? Garrus! Let me in there! I'll break down this door if I have to!"

"Y-you can't do th-this." Kishpaugh gasped in his ear. "You're c-sec."

"Let me let you in on a little secret, Kishpaugh." Garrus whispered in the human's ear. "I've finding it really hard to give a damn. Told you, I've been having a bad week. I don't care about you, or your well-being. If you do, you'll tell me what I want to know." He applied more pressure with his elbow, making Kishpaugh's eyes bulge. The human gasped and struggled against his elbow, but Garrus refused to relent.

"Th-th-thralog Miri'kit." the human finally wheezed, his eyes wide with fear and pain. "H-he's a b-batarian." Garrus cocked his head to the side in surprise as it was rare to find batarians on the citadel.

"Can you give me a description?" Garrus asked, not letting the menace drop out of voice, though he eased up with his elbow.

"I- I dunno, we've never met in person." Kishpaugh babbled. "Look, I-I'm just the middle man alright? He's my supplier, I-"

A clicking sound came from the door and Garrus spared it a glance. Jatasa was almost through.

"Where is he?!" Garrus yelled urgently. "Which ward?!"

"He's not o-on the Citadel! O-omega. Omega, all my shipments come from Omega." Garrus threw Kishpaugh back into the chair. His Kuwashii visor didn't register any increase in pupil size or any other indicators that Kishpaugh was lying. Scared out of his wits, yeah, but telling the truth. But Omega? That space station was on the other side of the spirits be damned galaxy, deep in the heart of the Terminus systems.

"There now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Gqarrus drawled. The door slid open and Jatasa bounded through, one hand on her pistol. Garrus stared at her blandly.

"Outside. Now." She seethed, forcing him to walk out and following after him. "What the hell was that?" she barked as soon as the door had shut behind her.

"It's called getting results. You should try it some time." Garrus said flatly.

"Come off it Garrus. How long have we known each other? How long?" she pressed, moving around to stand in front of him.

"Years." He sighed. "Years, we went to academy together."

"That's right, Garrus." She affirmed with a nod. "Which means I know how you think. You've been acting strange the last couple of days."

"Have I?"

"Two units of Red Sand went missing from an evidence locker two nights ago. Someone busted the lock."

"Hm." Garrus replied without looking at her.

"Didn't your report say that you found two units of red sand in Kishpaugh's skycar?"

"Hm."

Jatasa huffed in annoyance. "You're not the only one capable of doing detective work Vakarian."

"But I thought you were part of a special response unit?" he said sarcastically, attempting to move to her right. She stepped in front of him.

"You know as well as I do that we're all pulling double shifts and working outside our divisions until recruitment picks back up. "

Garrus groaned inwardly. Jatasa was such a…well, turian. Ah well. I could have come up with a better insult anyway.

"You're leaving a trail that a krogan could follow. " she continued. She was agitated. There was something in her voice; maybe a touch of concern? Worry? He grimaced. He didn't need her charity. Not now. "Talk to me Garrus, why'd you assault your suspect?"

"Because," he said in annoyance, his voice starting to rise. "No matter what we do, it's never enough! Plug one hole, two more start leaking. Put a criminal away and he's back on the streets in a matter of months, and in that time three more rise in his absence. Trying to keep crime down while large portions of the wards and presidium are being rebuilt doesn't help either! Sometimes you need to put the screws to them. "

"So if the rules become inconvenient, you're just going to flat out disregard them?" Jatasa said, narrowing her eyes.

"I don't know. Maybe. Yes." He said with an air of finality.

"What about due process? Sentient rights? The Citadel accordance?" Jatasa shot back, managing to sound shocked and offended at the same time.

Garrus threw his hands up in exasperation.

"Do they care about their victims? Did that elcor serial killer care about the people he killed? Did Saleon?"He spat, voice continuing to rise as the resentment he'd been keeping in boiled over. "Does Kishpaugh care how many kids he gets hooked on sand? Why should we care if they make it to a nice cushy cell intact? Why should we care if they live or die?" he finished, breathing heavily. Jatasa was quiet for a moment.

"You've changed, Garrus." She said softly, her voice losing some of its hard edge.

"The galaxy changed." He said, in a slightly subdued tone.

Jatasa shook her head. "You've been different ever since you got back. You were always one to bend the rules but now you're just breaking them. I'm going to have to bring this to Executor Pallin's attention." She said heavily. "Maybe you need some time off. We've all been working around the clock, and it's clear you need to de-stress before you crack."

"It might be a little late for that."Garrus chuckled bitterly.

"I'm serious," she said, touching his arm in concern. "Look, I get that you spent the better part of the year traipsing around the galaxy with that human spectre-

"Shepard." He said, voice tinged with harshness. "Her name was Jane Shepard, not that anyone gives a damn."

To his indignation, Jatasa ignored his little outburst and continued. "That fight's over. Case closed. Saren was stopped. I don't know what kind of vigilante mischief you got up to with that loose cannon of a spectre, but you're back with C-sec now, there are reg-"

"Do what you have to do Jatasa. I'm not going to stop you." Garrus interrupted in irritation as he pushed past her, fed up with having the book thrown at him. A heavy silence hung in the air before she called after him, the hard edge creeping back; he knew that meant she was hurt.

"That's Officer Melenis to you, if you're going to act like this."

A dismissive wave was his only response. He knew she didn't deserve his ire. She was one of the better cops that C-sec had. But in that moment, he just couldn't bring himself to care.