Thanks for all the lovely reviews on the last chapter, I felt warm and fuzzy for days.
Sorry that you all had to wait so long, but life and shit, you know how it is. As a matter of fact, this isn't even edited but I didn't want to wait any longer posting it. Any and all mistakes you find are mine.
Shall we bring back some Jane Austen in space? Yes we shall.
()()()
They made their way over to the Consorts chambers again. Walking side by side, their hands almost touching. Shepard was wiping absentmindedly over her forehead and suddenly stopped walking. Garrus had to skid to come to a halt beside her.
"What is it?" He asked.
"You scented me again." She stated.
"Yes?"
"That wasn't very smart, was it? You said that every turian and krogan will be able to smell your scent on me. Not exactly keeping things a secret, right?" She said.
Garrus stretched his throat. "I'm tired of this secrecy. Can't we just stop it?"
"No, Garrus, we can't. It's not the time yet, every turian who smells that, could turn hostile towards us. Humans and turians are still hung up on the old war." Shepard punched her finger into the breastplate of his armor. "We have to be professional, remember? We want to be taken seriously, we want to make a difference, we want to show people that it can work."
Garrus trilled slightly embarrassed. "You're right, I may have to use turian soap to get it off and even then... it's quite persistent." He murmured.
"Alright, we let the Consort know that things are taken care of, then we go home for a short time so I can wash and we can eat something. After that we go back to ANIS and collect on that favor from the asari Councillor."
Garrus chirped his agreement and they started walking towards Consort's place. Her assistant was very excited again and fluttered around them happily talking away about how amazing the consort was and how lucky they should feel to see her so soon again. Shepard turned her back to her so that she couldn't see how she rolled her eyes.
The Consort finally interrupted the stream of words by calling them over. She directed them to a sitting area this time and asked them about Septimus. Shepard nodded at Garrus, and he gave short a summary about what the general had said. After he had finished, Shepard relayed the reaction from Xeltan. The Consort nodded at that.
"Yes, I have heard that he has tried to contact me. I will call him to give him the opportunity to speak of his error and clear his mind." Sha'ira said with her melodic voice. Garrus felt once again how her voice and her mere presence calmed him. He saw it in Shepard too, the tension falling off her shoulders.
She thanked them with many, beautiful words that neither of them really paid attention to, as it didn't matter what she said. Her voice was so soothing. The spell broke when she wanted to put her hands on the sides of Shepard's face to mindmeld with her. Shepard jerked away and jumped up. Sha'ira looked truly confused and it brought an honesty to her face that made Garrus realize how much of her normal persona was just an act.
The Consort got up slowly and carefully stepped closer to Shepard. "I want to express my gratitude by offering you the pleasures of a meld with me. I can assure you that it will be wonderful for you and it would be an honour for me."
Shepard took a step backwards and held up her hands. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm sorry but I... eh... don't feel comfortable to receive such a gift from you. We already have an agreement with the Councillor and that will be enough for us. I'm glad we could help you."
Garrus stood up and placed himself beside her, an odd feeling rising in him that she needed him there with her.
Sha'ira had her face under control again with a calming smile. She took something out of the box on the table and handed it to Shepard. "Please take this locket from me as a gift for you. It may be useful to you one day." She looked up to them and it appeared as if she was studying them. "I see. Your bond is strong, I can see it clearly. May the Goddess Athame watch over you two."
With a tiny bow she left them and they made their way back outside. Shepard was looking at the trinket in her hand and then put in her pocket. She typed something on her omni-tool for a minute and sighed before she closed the screen again. Garrus wondered what she had written but he had noticed that Shepard always took notes and wrote things down. If it was important, she would surely tell him.
They walked over the walkway to a transport hub to take one of the trains running along the Tayseri Ward. Garrus thought back to what the Consort had said. "What do you think she meant by 'your bond, I see it clearly'?" he wondered.
Shepard seemed to think that question over. "Maybe she can see different electromagnetic wave lengths. There are people on Earth who say that they can see the Aura of someone, sort of like a light of their personality. I never believed that to be true but maybe the asari see different than us." She looked up to him. "Maybe you see different than me."
Garrus thought about that. "I think I read somewhere that humans and turians have comparable range when it comes to colors but humans can't see in the dark."
Shepard nodded at that. "True, night vision goggles are a human invention, turians don't really needed them. My friend Hyun Su, remember? You met her..."
"Badass Girls Circle, I know." He said with a smile. "She took that picture we like."
"Yes, her." Shepard smiled. "She worked with asari in bioengineering and she said something interesting a while back. We describe asari as blue, maybe light- or dark-blue but that's about it. Asari have like 25 different names for shades of blue, so to them they look different, they have different blue shades." She looked up to him and she had that childlike curiosity on her face again that he had come to love. She was once again typing something on her omni-tool. "I'm writing that down for later, I'm going to look up what asari can and can't see."
They had arrived at the transit hub and entered a mostly empty wagon. They sat down next to the window and Shepard leaned her head back. To Garrus astonishment she had fallen asleep before the train had even arrived at travel speed.
Garrus heard the water rushing and stamped all thoughts about the water pearling on her skin out of his mind. They didn't have time and he really needed to stop acting like a hormonal teenager. He had taken off the upper parts of his armor, stretching his arms and rolling some tension out of his shoulders.
The food he had prepared for each of them stood in color coded bowls on the table, her bowl in red, his in blue. He had picked Shepard's after the picture on the package. It was something with fish and vegetables, a common combination in turian meals as well. Her fish looked really strange though.
Maybe they ate it differently than turians. He turned to his omni-tool to research human food when he realized that the recording, that he had started when they spoke with Anderson, was still running. He stopped it and skipped backwards to the talk with Anderson. He wanted to look at his face when he spoke of Saren but suddenly something else drew his attention. He let the recording play from the point where they left the embassy, the camera algorithm struggling with finding a focal point and the right framing. When he had moved his arm too much, the camera turned off completely, only recording short snippets whenever they walked.
When they had stood still, waiting for the train and while they sat on the ride, the camera turned on again. The algorithm focused on different faces, assuming an intent behind the filming.
A naked arm suddenly crawled over his shoulder and Shepard, smelling of turian soap came up behind him, pressing her face against the side of his fringe. He pressed back against her, feeling heat rush through him. She was saying something but his brain did not register anything but her touch. He groaned a deep rumble.
He turned around, grabbed her upper arms and pulled her over the back of the couch. With a laughing shriek she fell into his lap. She was naked, her skin still slightly damp on some patches. He pressed her against his chest, burying his nose in the crook of her shoulder, stroking her back and her waist with his hand. He heard her sigh and she somehow wrapped her body around his, molding against him. Her skin was so soft and her fingers were massaging all the right places under his fringe. He was losing himself in his arousal.
Shepard turned her head to kiss his mandible and then whispered against it. "Hey. I said, we should get going." Garrus let his subharmonics growl deeply in his chest, feeling her shiver from the vibrations against her skin.
"Can't hear you, naked woman." He rumbled and licked her jaw line up to her ear. She reacted with a deep, lustful moan. But then she pushed herself away from him and he reluctantly let her go. "No, no, no. I'm not showering yet again." She said and jumped away from him.
Garrus let out a sad subharmonic wail and he could see her react in empathic sadness. He stopped himself "It's alright, I'm just messing with you. But please, put some clothes on." He groaned, "You're really testing my reserve here."
She giggled, which made her breast jiggle and then turned around to walk to the bedroom, swinging her hips in a comically overdone way. He had to sigh. This woman is going to be the death of me.
A short time later she came back in her normal pants and a rather colorful T-Shirt. It had bright red and yellow shapes on the front and some writing on it. His translator was not helping him. "What does it say on your shirt?" He asked.
"Your translator not telling you?" She asked, pulling the shirt down to straighten it. He shook his head. A mischievous grin spread on her face. "Well, it says 'I fuck turians'."
"Please tell me it doesn't."
She laughed out loud. "No, it doesn't but now I think I totally need a shirt like that." She sat herself down next to him and picked up her red bowl. "The thing on my shirt is a graphic like it was used in old comic books. It was to indicate a sound or a something like that. This one here says 'Ka-Pow', like someone gets hit." She was silent for a minute as she shoveled her food into her mouth. He studied her face as he picked his own vegetables from his bowl. When she chewed, her whole face seemed to work at that.
She looked back at him, halting her fork just before her mouth. "What?"
"Is it good? Your food, I mean?" He asked.
She seemed to think about that question. "Well, it's not bad but I think I could make something like this myself and it would taste better. But it's quite good for something readymade."
"Why does the fish look so weird?" Garrus wondered.
"What do you mean? It's cooked, for most fish, the meat turns white when it's cooked."
"Ah, that explains it." Garrus said. "We hardly ever cook our meats."
"Oh, I should make you some sushi with dextro fish one day." Shepard said before slurping the rest of her meal out of her bowl.
"I would like it if you made something for me if I can make something for you too one day." He said to her and it made himself feel warm inside to think of them working side by side in his kitchen.
"Cool! Hey, when Nihlus comes tonight, I'll cook something for you two." Shepard said enthusiastically.
Garrus hesitated for a second with his answer. "But you can't even taste it like we do!"
"Don't worry, I'll follow a recipe and you can do the final tasting. If it sucks we can still order something." She grinned at him, her tongue darting out to catch some residue from her food.
"Alright." Garrus nodded and transferred the video from his omni-tool to a large datapad. "I wanted to show you something. I had started a recording when we were talking to Anderson and forgot to turn it off."
"Why did you record that?" Shepard looked at him confused.
"You remember that I'm considered an expert on humans and lying? That's how I do that. I watch the recording afterwards and look for signs, tiny microexpressions." Garrus explained to her.
"So you expected Anderson to lie to us?"
"I didn't mean that disrespectful..."
"No, good thinking." She said with a sigh. "I'm always way too trusting when it comes to friends. You are right, he could have lied to us, I never even thought about that."
Garrus picked up the datapad to hold between them. "But that's not what I wanted to show you. I had forgotten to turn it off and it kept on recording the whole time. To and from the Consort, at C-Sec and the way home. Now look at this, I let it play a bit faster."
He started the video. On the screen the focus point of the camera was jumping from face to face, sometimes catching a face in the distance, sometimes a person up close. On the screen Shepard went over to the gardener and knelt down beside him. "Stop video." Garrus called out. He pointed to a turian in green clothing standing on the bridge in the distance, apparently reading something on his omni-tool. The camera had not focused on him so it was impossible to see where he was looking.
"Remember him." Garrus said and continued the video. On the screen Garrus and Shepard were arguing and then walked over to the C-Sec entry. Shepard pointed the turian out on the screen, lazily walking in the distance. When the on-screen Shepard and Vakarian left the C-Sec building and walked over to the Consort, the camera had turned off. But when they left the Consort's chambers, the green-clothed turian was leaning against the rail, reading on his omni-tool again.
Shepard looked up to Garrus and then back to the screen. "This guy was following us!"
Garrus nodded. "Yes, I didn't find him as we walked to the train hub but he was on the train, see?" He fast forwarded the video up to the point where the train was taking them down the Tayseri Ward to his apartment complex. "You had already fallen asleep, which I have to say is a strange habit of yours."
"Hey, that's the first rule of Basic. Sleep whenever you can, you might not get another chance anytime soon. Moving vehicles always make me sleepy and I trusted you that you wouldn't just leave me on the train." Shepard planted a soft kiss on his mandible before turning back to the screen.
Garrus enjoyed her gentle touch with a soft trill. He let the video advance up to the point where they had left the train. The green-clothed turian had sat away from them, looking intently at his omni-tool screen. "He's not looking at us but he's definitely following us."
Shepard tilted her head. "I think he has us on camera. He's looking at the recording on his omni-tool."
"Spirits be damned, you are right. But why is he following us?" Garrus kept looking for their follower but he couldn't spot him anymore. The recording switched to audio only while they were walking to his apartment building. As they stood in front of the elevator, the camera turned back on but their stalker was nowhere to be seen.
"I don't think he followed us to find out where I live." Garrus murmured.
"No, that's not exactly a secret. Do you think Saren contracted him?" Shepard asked. "Anderson said that he would get notified if someone accessed the old files."
"I don't know, that seems almost too subtle for someone like Saren."
Shepard nodded, "Right, he could just address the council directly and ask why someone was poking around in the old stuff. Hiring someone to watch us, what would that gain him?"
"Compromising pictures?" Garrus wondered.
"But he can't know if that would really bother us. No, I don't think Saren is behind that guy, if anything he would probably do it himself because he trusts no one." She said. "Who else could be interested in the two of us?"
The realization hit him square in the chest. "Oh no. Spirits take me, I know."
Shepard turned to him. "Who?"
"My father. Ancestors be damned, this is exactly what I should have expected from him." He put his face into his hands, growling his anger.
Shepard looked clearly surprised. "You father has hired someone to spy on you? Why would he do that? I mean, he could just call you, I'm sure he knows that."
No, he couldn't.
Garrus didn't want to explain what his denial of his fathers decretum had truly meant. That his father would never call him because as a good turian son it would have been Garrus's duty to initiate the contact. That the breakup with his family was not something he could fix with a simple call.
"I think... this is more about you." He said quietly.
"Oh." Her face scrunched up in deep thoughts. "He's spying on me? He must be really worried about my bad influence."
Garrus swallowed whatever he could say to that. Shepard had no idea how serious his father was taking this. He would have to talk to him soon to stop him from doing anything drastic.
Shepard was putting on her shoes and her vest and fixed her heavy pistol to her side. "He's overdoing a bit, don't you think? Maybe you should just call your old man. Clear the air. He obviously wants to know what's going on. Anyway, we should get going, I want to cash in on that favour from Tevos."
Garrus nodded and put his armor back on. His thoughts were spiraling out of control, he had thought himself to be safe from his family. But it was obvious that the older Vakarian was not about to let his son go on with his own life so easily.
They walked through the upper markets because Shepard wanted to look at a new pistol scope she had heard about. Garrus really didn't see the point of a pistol scope if you had a sniper rifle but Shepard apparently wanted her pistol to be the ultimate weapon for every purpose. She walked over to a volus merchant with determination and greeted him.
The volus strained his back to look up to them and his breather rattled. "Greetings, Earth-clan, greetings, Palaven-clan, what can I do for you?"
"I want to look at pistol scopes." Shepard said, pointing to a section of the kiosks shopping menu.
The volus took a wheezing breath. " Ah, yes, I have a wide variety of scopes. Here," another wheeze, "take a look." He opened a crate with different scopes and Shepard began looking at every single one. With a wheeze the volus started speaking again. "So, Earth-clan, you just came here from one of the colonies?" Wheeze. "Noveria maybe? Or Feros?"
"No, why would you think that?" Shepard asked confused.
"Oh, nothing, I just heard that people seem to be leaving those colonies." Another wheezing breath. "I hear a lot of things. Maybe if you are looking for information, " wheeze, "I may be able to help you as well." He was apparently very proud of that and seemed to try to straighten his back. On a volus that looked kind of funny and Garrus turned his face away to not give away his amusement.
"I'll keep that in mind. What is your name?" Shepard said with the corners of her mouth twitching.
"The name is Expat, Earth-clan."
"My name is Commander Shepard." She looked at him seriously and Garrus could not see a hint of arrogance or amusement in her features. "I'll be taking this scope, please deliver it to this address. I may come back to you for information."
The volus took a long, rattling breath. "Glad to be of service, Commander Shepard."
With a nod they both turned away and made it just around the corner before Shepard broke down in a fit of laughter. She held her stomach like she was in pain but she was laughing so Garrus thought that she was probably okay.
"Oh man! I can't..." She was trying to catch her breath, still giggling. "Wasn't he just the cutest, little wheezing potato you have ever seen? And so seriously proud."
Garrus fluttered his mandibles in a grin. He didn't know what a potato was but he could imagine. "It's hard to take the volus serious sometimes," He had to laugh. "But if I remember correctly, we had something on file concerning Expat. I think he works for the Shadow Broker or has at least contact with him."
"Well, damn, I'm falling for stereotypes again, am I?" Shepard said with her brows furrowed angrily. "I should be better than that. Just because he is small and round, I think he is not dangerous, what a stupid thing to do." She kicked against the wall in anger. "I'm always the first one to call people on their stereotypes, and I'm not even better, for fucks sake."
Garrus put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, at least you didn't show it when you spoke to him."
"Thanks to my pokerface." Shepard ruffled her hair and then they both started walking again. Leaving the market area, they came out on the Presidium and made their way over to the ANIS building. As they passed the statue of the krogan battlemaster, Shepard suddenly turned and ran over to a group of krogan. Garrus grew slightly uneasy but he thought it better to keep his distance. A human among them was probably easier to accept for a bunch of krogan, than a turian.
Shepard, looking tiny and frail in comparison, had of course no problem among the huge creatures. She talked to one young krogan who Garrus recognized as Skeev. She hit him hard on his hump as she left and the whole group was laughing. Garrus shook his head, her connection to the krogan was still unfathomable to him.
She came back to him and they continued their path. Shepard still grinned. "Skeev was really disappointed that there were no fish in the lake." Her face turned more serious. "I wonder where Wrex is, he didn't want to tell me. I hope he's not doing some stupid merc job."
"He doesn't really have that many options though."
"True. Still, if I want to recruit him, he needs to be, well 'clean'." She made air quotes with her hands. That was one of the human gestures that had found it's way into the repertoire of many species in record time. "The Alliance will throw a fit otherwise."
"What would you want to recruit him for?" Garrus wondered.
Shepard squirmed. "Ah, it's still classified..." She pulled his head down so she could whisper close to his ear. "I can't tell you details but there's going to be a ship. An awesome, awesome ship and we will be on it."
"What are you talking about?" Garrus looked at her confused, her face so close to his and her eyes full of excitement.
"Can't say more. Be patient." She whispered. Next to them a turian growled aggressively, obviously unhappy how close together they stood. Another turian passed them, making a disgusted sound with his subharmonics.
"Looks like we stopped at Judgemental Corner, we better find our way back to Modern Times Road." Shepard said loudly with a grin and brushed shortly over his hand before settling into her walk by his side. Garrus trilled his amusement at her remark and to show the other turians that he also didn't care for their opinions.
Spirits, I love her.
Back at ANIS, the office was mostly deserted, all the teams otherwise occupied. Garrus and Shepard walked up the stairs to visit the director and they had to wait a little. He held her hand, his thumb stroking the soft skin between her own thumb and her many fingers.
The door opened and he let her hand drop from his. The director stepped out, looking them over with stern but friendly look. She waved them over to follow her as she walked to a room on the other side of the gallery.
"Councillor Tevos was very pleased with how you had handled her request." The director said to them. She let them into an office with a single terminal on a table and two chairs. Garrus noticed two cameras on opposite sides of the room pointing at the table.
The director indicated to them to sit down but then called Shepard back to her to ask a question. "The councillor has relayed from the Consort that you refused the mindmeld. Anything I should know about?"
Shepard looked straight at her without showing any emotion on her face. "Just personal preference, ma'am."
"Alright, suit yourself. That terminal will give you access to the council database. You can take notes but they will be confiscated and reviewed before they are handed back to you. No pictures, no video. You have one hour."
With that she issued a command from her omni-tool and the terminal sprang to life. Shepard and Garrus eagerly leaned forward and Shepard typed in 'Saren Arterius'. The screen filled with many entries, a list of all assignments and an entry about his personal background
They both looked at each other for a second and with a nod, Shepard activated that link. The list was extensive and Garrus decided that it was unnecessary for both of them to look at the same stuff, so he opened a second window on his side and started to look through the list of assignments. Saren had been around the whole galaxy on his assignments. About half of his jobs did not come from the council, he just happened to come across a situation and intervened under his Spectre authority. Garrus had the suspicion that not all of these situations were as clear cut as his reports made it look.
Shepard was looking through a financial list on her side and had her face scrunched up deep in thought. "Wasn't the Arterius family kind of cast out?" She asked and Garrus leaned over to her side to look at the entries she had opened.
Garrus tried to recall what he knew about the Arterius family. "The Arterius family was not exactly influential but the brothers had both made a name for themselves around the time of the Relay 314 Incident. Later Saren's brother, Desolas, somehow went mad, destroyed most of their property and lost most of the families fortune. After he had died, Saren has associated the clan with another one, because he couldn't stand on his own."
"Yes, it says here that the Arterius clan is now part of the Serpentin clan. But he didn't take on their markings." She said.
Garrus hummed his surprise. "That's actually kind of insulting. It seems like he doesn't like his new clan. He prefers to go barefaced instead of taking on new markings? That is a true slap on the fringe."
"Being barefaced has some kind of stigma, right? Weird that he prefers that to the new clan markings. But then he never had markings. He happily uses their resources though. He is rich now, did you know that?" Shepard said, pointing at a list of firms Saren had invested in. "He has significant investments in Armax Arsenal and Haliat Armory on Palaven. And it says here he is financially invested in ExoGeni on Feros, Terlegin on Digeris, Binary Helix on Noveria... Help me out here, Garrus, why does this sound so familiar?"
Garrus also felt like had heard those names before. Then it dawned on him, "The volus merchant, Expat! He asked whether you came from Feros or Noveria."
Shepard stared at him for a second before she spoke. "Yes. Colonists are leaving there, turn up on the Citadel, most of them human, a volus merchant-shadow broker contact knows about that... is this just a big coincidence? We look up where Saren has his money and we find two, mostly human colonies under corporate administration. Saren is surely not investing in these companies out of the goodness of his heart, he doesn't even like humans."
"We should ask Expat about the colonists he met, get some names from him so that we can find them." Garrus said.
Shepard nodded, a grin playing around her lips. "Yes, let's talk to Exy-Potatsy, he..." she broke down in laughter, "I'm sorry, I can't... I shouldn't..., I'm sorry..." She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes.
Garrus shook his head, the volus were a client race for the turians and didn't look unusual to a turian. Garrus himself had seen plenty when he was still a child. For a second he wondered if she had ever laughed like that about turians. The thought stung.
Shepard suddenly stopped laughing and stared at him wide-eyed. "Now you're wondering if I ever made fun of turians like that." Her hand covered her mouth as she stared at him aghast. "Oh god, I never... I'm a horrible person." With a look towards the camera, clearly aware that they were being watched, she grabbed his upper arm, squeezing it. "I never laughed about turians like that and I will not make fun of other races ever again. It's wrong and I know that and I don't want to be that kind of person."
"Okay," Garrus said, a relieved trill in his subharmonics. "I wouldn't think you to be that kind of person." He put his hand on her arm and squeezed lightly. Slowly the tension left her face and a tiny smile returned.
Garrus looked at the clock on his omni-tool. "Let's use the time we have left to look over Saren's recent activities. We need the locations and what he said in his reports. And let's cross check his reports with the times in the logs from the Katanga."
They feverishly collected dates, read reports and tried to get as much information out of the database as they could. Before they got logged out, Shepard looked up which Spectres had worked with Saren. Only Nihlus name turned up. Garrus noticed how Shepard hesitated to look up information on Nihlus.
She looked over to him. "He's a friend. I don't want to find out secrets about him that he is not willing to tell to my face."
He took her hand. "I understand. Let's just check the times and then we can ask him ourselves about those meetings."
She sighed and began writing down the dates. "It always gets messy if friendship is involved." She murmured.
Garrus felt a knot of fear, would they one day come to a situation where their feelings for each other would collide with an investigation?
The terminal beeped three times and then shut off. Shepard dropped the datapad on the table and shoved back her chair. "Fuck, that wasn't enough time." She got up and began pacing in front of the door. "We have to review what we know as long as it is fresh." She looked at the camera on the other side of the wall and spoke directly to it. "I want my datapad back as soon as possible."
The door opened, indicating that they should leave. They went to the desk that Garrus had used on his first day and began talking. They poured out everything they still had inside their heads, comparing it, drawing a rough timeline of the last two years of Saren's activities.
It was exhilarating, feverish work against their own brain limitations. He loved it.
On the way back home, Shepard and Garrus both received a message from Nihlus, that he couldn't come tonight and would bring breakfast tomorrow morning. Shepard decided that she still would cook something for him and they went on a turian food market to buy the necessary ingredients. The turian salesman almost forgot to charge them, he was so dumbfounded by the concept of a human cooking for a turian.
Each carrying a bag of groceries they went back to Garrus's apartment. On the way he thought that he saw the turian again that had been following them this morning but he wasn't sure. Shepard was very quiet, apparently deep in thought. Garrus was also turning all they had learned today around in his head. He felt tired, it had been a long day.
As they entered his apartment, Shepard was full on yawning, he could see right down her throat. They put the groceries on the counter and both fell down on the couch. Garrus stretched his arms out and Shepard leaned against him, laying her head against his cowl. He was just about to say something when he noticed that she had already fallen asleep. Her ability to fall asleep on the spot was uncanny.
Garrus let himself relax as well and he nuzzled her hair, taking in her scent. He didn't notice it but he must have fallen asleep because he woke up from the chime of his omni-tool, announcing a call. He sighed and answered the call even though he couldn't see who it was. The screen lit up and showed him the face of his sister.
"Solana! I'm so glad to hear from you." Garrus called out and he realized in that moment how much he had missed talking to her. "How are you doing?"
"Oh brother, I'm doing fine. I should thank you, you know." Solana trilled a pointed remark at him. "Ever since you moved up to worst son of the universe, I can pretty much do what I want."
"You're welcome, sister. Glad I could help improve you life." Garrus sighed. Next to him Shepard stirred, waking up from their talking.
Solana tilted her head and chirped a question at him, if he was okay, if he was feeling well. Garrus answered with a trill of his own, calming her, telling her that he was fine.
"What are you doing brother?" Solana asked with a sigh, her subharmonics singing a sad tune. "Mother is crying at night, father is even more angry and cynical than usual and guess who has to take his jabs every night at dinner."
"I'm sorry Solana, I never meant for you to suffer because of me." Garrus said. He suddenly became aware of big, human eyes looking at him. Evidently Shepard had woken up and she was clearly confused. Then she noticed that he was talking to his omni-tool and turned her face to look at the screen.
"Um, hello? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude." Shepard murmured and moved to get up.
Solana called out from the screen. "Hello! You must be 'the human', as my father says." She made the mock-airquotes and Garrus was astonished that that gesture had made it all the way to Palaven. "I'm Solana, Garrus's sister."
"Nice to meet you, Solana. My name is Shepard, at least that's what I like people calling me.. ehm.. I let you two talk." She hurriedly got up and disappeared into the bathroom. Garrus wondered why she was so nervous.
"Spirits, what did you tell her? I'm not going to eat her." Solana said with a trill that said that she felt slightly insulted.
"Well, the last contact she had with our family was with father calling her an 'it' to send away." Garrus growled at that memory.
"Oh futuo, I guess then it's understandable." Solana shook her head and then straightened up. "Listen, I tried to contact you before but father was monitoring everything I did and blocked every message I tried to send you. I can only contact you now because he is out of range."
"What do you mean, out of range?"
"They passed through the relay, mother and father are on their way to the Citadel." Solana said.
Garrus felt like something had hit him on the head. "What? He's coming here? Why?"
Solana threw her head back. "Don't be stupid, brother. You know our father, he wants to have a nice, friendly talk about the errors of your way." Her subharmonics were openly mocking him. "And he brought mother along for some extra friendly psychological warfare."
Garrus felt a deeply instinctual flight reaction and had to get up to pace in front of his window. "If they just passed through the relay, they'll be here in three days."
Solana looked thoughtful. "Well... I had to hack his encryption first, that algorithm took more than half a day. So I think they will be there in about two days."
Garrus trilled in disbelieve. "Since when do you know how to hack?"
Solana answered with a harsh growl. "Since when do you know nothing about me and what I do anymore? Oh right, since you left!"
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry, Solana." Garrus sang his embarrassment, he had truly neglected his sister. They had been close when he had lived on Palaven, even when he was in the military they had stayed closely in contact. But when he had left for the Citadel, contacting her felt like having his old life intrude on his new life, and he avoided talking to her because of that. "Could you get a private address, where I can contact you without father knowing about it?"
"You know how he is, he wants to know everything about what we do at all times. It has gotten even worse now that you denied his decretum." Solana made a long sigh. "But I'll try. You should get one too, don't think he wouldn't try to monitor yours as well."
"Yes, I will. Contact me with your new address and I will call you on that one from my new address." Garrus fluttered his mandibles in a wide smile, it felt good to talk to his sister again. "Thank you for warning me."
"What are you going to do?" Solana asked with a sad chirp.
"I have to face him." Garrus growled.
"Spoken like a true turian. You better prepare your human girlfriend for the storm of unfriendliness coming her way." Solana trilled a farewell and ended the call.
Garrus stopped pacing and looked out of his window. The glass was turning dark again, dimming the lights from the Citadel and the Nebula. He suddenly felt very tired but full of unspent energy at the same time. Soft steps behind him made him turn around. Shepard came up to his side, leaning her head against his arm.
"So, that was your sister." She stated.
Garrus put his arm around her and pulled her close to his side. "Yes, she warned me that my father and my mother will be here in about two days."
"To visit you?" Shepard asked.
Garrus snorted at that. "Yeah, right. More to yell at me for disrespecting my family and to convince me that I should be a good turian and find a turian mate."
"Now that sounds like fun." Shepard said sarcastically. "I better find a place to stay then to avoid them."
Garrus was shocked. What did she mean by that? She was leaving him to let him face his parents alone? "I thought... aren't you going to stay with me?"
Shepard freed herself from his arm and turned to face him. "I'm not fighting with your father. That's a fight I cannot win. I know that may look cowardly to a turian but I really see no point in talking to him. He won't change his opinion just because we look so nice together."
"But he will be attacking you and everything that humans stand for! You have to defend yourself." Garrus felt like the ground was falling out under him. He couldn't understand her.
Shepard crossed her arms in front and looked angrily at him. "Why? His opinion of me doesn't matter to me. I don't care what he thinks of me or humans in general. I'm with you, not him and if he hates me that is his problem, not mine. I'm sorry that you have to suffer from him but I don't care what he thinks."
Garrus threw his hands up, how could she say things like that? "That is my family you are talking about. Those people define who I am."
Shepard looked confused. "You define who you are, not your father or your mother or aunt or whatnot. Only you and your actions define who you are."
She began pacing in front of him. "If there is one thing that I learned, it's that people don't change. They don't change their opinion unless they want to. You father is not coming here to be convinced by us, he's coming here to vent his anger and I don't see why I should let him yell at me. Nobody yells at me."
Garrus felt anger rise in him. "This is not as easy as you think."
Shepard shook her head. "I think it's very easy. Why do you let your father walk all over you like that?"
"You don't understand what family and clan mean to a turian." His voice was louder than he had intended to.
Shepard's eyes narrowed to angry slits. "Because I don't have one? Is that what you're trying to say?"
Garrus knew she was unfair. "Have you told your aunt about me? What did she say?"
"Why does it matter?" She turned her back to him.
It was just like he had thought. While he was breaking up with his family, becoming an outcast from his clan, she had not even told her one relative that she had a turian as a boyfriend. "You are such a hypocrite!" He yelled. "You expect me to abandon my family but you can't even admit to your aunt that your boyfriend is a turian."
"You really think that of me?" Shepard had raised her voice as well.
"What else can I think? Have you told her? Have you?" He was yelling loudly now and in the second he realized how wrong that was, he saw Shepard's face harden.
Her voice was dangerously quiet. "Nobody yells at me like that. Nobody."
He couldn't stop himself. "Tell me!"
"What's the point?" She snarled and grabbing her vest from the back of the couch, she ran out of the door.
The door closed behind her and he was left standing in the middle of his living room, alone with his anger.
()()()
I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Here, have a cookie, we'll get through this together.