and we just keep going...
They slowly broke apart, their hands reluctant to lose the contact to each other even through gloves and armor. Shepard sniffed the air and grinned.
"You scented me again."
"Sorry.."
"No, don't be sorry, it's not like we are having a secret affair." She sniffed again. "I like that smell, it's so... you!" She gave him one last smile that made his breath get stuck under his cowl and turned around to check the room.
Garrus needed a little time to collect his thoughts. He stared at the dead body of Saleon on the floor, killed like he had deserved it but not by him. There was still some unsettled rage in him, a hurt ego that made his plates itch. The monster was still there.
Shepard calling him over to Saleon's terminal woke him from his thoughts. She asked him to copy all the data off it and he was grateful to do something to distract himself.
Ashley looked through the door. "Skipper?"
"Report, Williams," Shepard said, not looking over her shoulder as she hacked a wall safe.
"Dr. Chakwas has declared the situation as serious for six patients and as life threatening for four. She has assigned her medical team to care for them for the next two days until the lazarett ship can be here."
Shepard groaned loudly. "So we have to hang around for two days?" She threw her head back. "I'm going to go insane!"
"Actually," Ashley cackled quietly, "that's exactly what Dr. Chakwas said what you would say. That's why she has ordered her assistant to stay on the Normandy and she will stay here with the nurses to take care of the patients. That way you can, as she said, play fetch for Admiral Hackett."
Shepard grinned widely. "Oh, how smart is our doctor. Sounds like she has already planned everything." She shut down her omni-tool and looked at Ashley. "We need a squad here for security."
"I volunteer!" Ashley called out before Shepard had finished her sentence.
"Of course, Chief." Shepard grinned even more, looking like a proud mother at Ashley. "Pick three marines to stay here with you, you'll be in command."
"Yes, Skipper!" Ashley made a sharp salute and turned on her heel. There was an unmistakable spring in her steps as she left.
Garrus looked after her and he had to smile. "So it's not only me..."
"Not only you what?"
"Not only me you are trying to make better."
Shepard smiled. "I hope after all this, we all have become better people."
They left the Fedele after Shepard had arranged for the crew to get paid by the credits she found in the wallsafe. The rest of the riches Dr. Saleon had accumulated were going to be paid to the families of his victims. Shepard very happily made use of her Spectre privileges to arrange that, before any corporate lawyers of Everest Artifics could get their hands on it.
Shepard ordered Joker to take them to one of the odd jobs the Alliance or the Council had lined up for them and they made their way down to the lockers in the cargo hold. Originally, Shepard had her own locker on the same deck as the captains cabin but she had moved her stuff to the crew lockers next to Ashley's weapons bench. That way she could stay with the squad for the banter or yelling as they were coming down from the mission.
She had told Garrus that she knew that she robbed the marines of the opportunity to complain about the Commander to each other. But she was sure that they could find other ways of venting their frustrations, she preferred to deal with their honest reactions directly. Or, as she had put it: "They can find other places to bitch about me, I wanna hear what they think when they don't care about rank."
It also gave Garrus and her an opportunity to spend more time with each other and by the soft smile she had on her lips, he could see that she loved that about it too. They took their armor off and checked it over, side by side, occasionally smiling at each other.
Garrus cleaned the connectors of his armguard with a brush when he thought about something. "You know, when we talked about prejudices back in the mess hall it got me thinking of Tali."
Shepard had her omni-tool connected to the systems of her armor and ran an analysis. "What about her?"
"You never take her with you. You even took Liara and she's hardly a trained fighter."
Shepard looked up. "God, Garrus, she's just a kid, I don't want her to get hurt!"
"She is not just a kid, the quarians don't let their children go on a pilgrimage without basic training in weapons and fighting and other things." He took the other armguard in his hand and cleaned the connectors as well. "She's not much younger than us and we saw her defend herself against Shadow Broker agents, you know she's capable."
"I'm just not sure...," she scratched her head as she searched for words, "she seems so fragile..."
"Ashley says she uses a shotgun."
Shepard stopped looking at her omni-tool and stared at him, her mouth hanging open before she found her words again, "Tali uses a shotgun?"
"That got your attention I see." Garrus trilled in amusement at the face she was making.
"Hell, yeah!" she laughed out and shook her head. "Damn, I did it again, I let stereotypes lead me on. I let my feelings get the better of me again."
"That's what makes you so special, don't change that," he said, underlying his words with rumbles of endearment.
"But.."
"No, I will remind you, someone else will remind you and that's enough." He took her hand in his and made her look into his eyes. "Don't change, Sunshine."
"Alright, my Angel." She smiled so warmly that Garrus just had to press his mandibles against her face for a second, humming his love at her.
Garrus's omni-tool signaled that he had received an important message as he held on as best as he could while Shepard made the Mako climb an impossibly steep mountain. He linked his arm through the rail and opened the message. Communications were spotty at best out here in the Kepler Verge so he preferred to make use of them whenever they worked. He had sent a letter to his sister a few days ago, making true on his promise to keep her more in his life.
But it wasn't one of Solana's funny vids that she sometimes recorded in the morning before she got up. It was a message from his father. Garrus sighed and opened the message, dreading its contents.
[Word of your re-enlistment, your posting on the Normandy and your close relationship with Commander Shepard has reached the Elders. The clan elders have officially asked me how much the notarius has to record of Commander Shepard. You know what that means. I'll be on the Citadel on clan business for the next few cycles. Please contact me as soon as you can.]
Garrus let out a shrill keen that made everyone in the Mako turn and look at him. He dipped his head in apology and closed the message.
Shepard stopped the Mako behind a protruding cliff and had Kaidan check out the base they had marked on their map through the cannons scope. Admiral Hackett had sent them here into the Newton System, on a planet called Ontarom. The planet was so green, it was almost painful to look at it in natural light. Its nitrogen rich atmosphere made its plant life grow to impressive heights and giving it a very diverse range of native species. It was also extremely hot, even for Garrus. If it weren't for the unbearable heat and the electrical storms, the planet would have been a paradise.
Hackett had briefed them that someone was killing scientists that had been part of a special operation on Akuze. On the mention of Akuze, Kaidan and Shepard had exchanged a worried look and Garrus was trying to remember where he had heard that name before. It was easy to find out the main story of the incident where a whole platoon of Alliance marines had gotten killed by Thresher Maws. He remembered hearing about it in the news and he recalled Frank mentioning something about Akuze and how a black-ops group named Cerberus was somehow connected to that planet. Frank had been angry that this former black-ops group went rogue and nobody was talking about it.
"I see at least two sniper perches and mobile cover around the base," Kaidan relayed from the cannon scope. "Human mercs, as far as I can tell. They are definitely prepared for a fight."
"Well, it's not floating or walking turrets for a change," Shepard said with a grin. "We're going in!" She put the Mako into gear and drove towards the base at full speed, swerving to the sides to dodge shots. Garrus connected his omni-tool to the outside cameras to get a look at the shooter. He sat at a good sniping position but not safe from the Mako's cannon.
"Madhav, give them some warning," Shepard ordered and the young marine sprayed the covers around the base with shots from the submachine gun. The mercs shot back and a shot from the sniper hit the Mako squarely in the front. "Well, it looks like they are determined to get into fight with a Mako. Rather stupid." She shook her head. "Kaidan, take out those towers."
"Aye."
Two cannon shots later, the snipers didn't bother them anymore. Shepard stopped the Mako in front of the rather flimsy covers and the whole troop disembarked. The fight was short and deadly. Shepard had tried to talk to the mercs, to convince them to surrender but there was no getting through to them. Their movements were jerky and their eyes wide in a drug induced state of hyper awareness. They showed all the signs of being high on illegal battle drugs, they wouldn't even stop fighting if their limbs were shot off.
Shepard scanned the dead bodies. "Wouldn't have thought that people still use these. After the first soldiers developed severe anxiety attacks, these kind of drugs have quickly fallen out of favor." She looked over to the door of the base. "Strange to find this kind of merc out here."
She got up and motioned to them to follow her as she walked towards the entrance. Garrus could see beads of sweat on her face under her helmet. She stepped up to the terminal and began hacking the interface.
"I hope this place has air condition," she mumbled.
Garrus came up to her side. He was about to offer his help but one look convinced him that Shepard knew what she was doing on this interface. So he just settled behind her to give her a shade.
"Garrus?" came her voice over a private comm channel. He flicked his own comm to her channel.
"Yes?"
"What had you so... panicked back there when you read something on your omni-tool?"
"Oh, ehm," Garrus stretched his throat and almost bumped his head on the low ceiling. This base was built very much for human proportions. "It was a message from my father, he wants to meet me on the Citadel soon."
"We'll be going back there after we pick up Ash and her squad from the Fedele. The gun needs to get repaired and I feel like we are not making progress out here, we need more information. Maybe if we rattle the Council's door a little, they'll finally let us in on what they know." Shepard issued another command and the door indicator switched to green.
They all took out their guns and slowly walked into the first corridor.
"Anything specific he wants to talk about with you?" Shepard asked, still over the private channel.
Garrus felt heat rise up his neck, he wanted to avoid this conversation very much but he also knew that Shepard would not let him get away with some vague excuses.
"The clan elders have contacted him, wanting to know what I'm doing on the Normandy and how much the notarius should include about, well, you."
"And that means?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at him.
"In turian terms, we would be considered courting and they basically want to know how, ehm, serious we are." Garrus felt fear rise up in him, they had avoided the conversation about their feelings for so long, it had become natural. Creeping into a merc base was not the best kind of situation to have such a talk now.
They entered the next room, jumping behind cover when the first shots got fired into their direction. Kaidan pulled out a sniper from behind cover that Garrus took out, while Shepard and Madhav laid out cover fire. When the sniper was done for, the rest of the drug crazy mercs fell quickly.
Shepard send the rest of the squad on a search through the room and came back to Garrus' side. "Who is this notarius?"
Garrus gladly answered that question, that was safe territory. He could talk about turian customs all day if it meant to avoid the final assessment of the seriousness of their feelings for each other. "The notarius records the clan history. He or she writes down everything about all members of the clan, what they do, what their connections are, how they stand in the tiers of the Hierarchy."
"Why would they want to write about me? I would assume they wouldn't really like me anyway?"
"That doesn't matter. If you are, ehm, connected to me, you will have to be included in the clan history."
They entered another corridor, slowly walking forward towards another door.
"So," came Shepard's voice into his ear piece again, "even, like that asari that your family didn't like, she is still included in the chronic?"
"Yes, she is part of the clan's history, so her accomplishments are getting recorded to this day."
As the door opened, another group of mercs attacked them, sending them scrambling for cover on separate sides of the room. They both didn't have a clear shot on all mercs and had to work them down slowly. When the last merc fell, they both sat in silence for a minute.
Finally, Shepard appeared at his side, taking off her helmet to look at him. "So am I right to think that they want to know if you plan to bond with me?" Her face was unreadable to him.
"Yes, that's probably what they want to know." He took his helmet off as well, a slight panic making him feel like he would suffocate.
She laid her head to the side and raised her eyebrows. "So just going day to day and see what happens is not the turian way?"
Garrus felt his gizzard constrict, "No, that's not how turians approach a courtship." He was disappointed by her reaction but not exactly surprised. During his studies of human expressions, he had spoken with human and asari psychiatrists. One surprising insight had been how often humans were not really aware of their emotions. It seemed like they didn't even know what they felt half the time. As if the lack of subharmonics made it harder for them to tell what their emotions were.
She shook her head. "Garrus, baby, if this is meant as a proposal, it's a real shitty one."
He had to smile at that. "I know and this is hardly the time and place..."
Kaidan's voice came over the public comm. "Commander, we have another locked room and from the voices we can hear, it sounds like a hostage situation."
"We're on our way," Shepard answered, putting on her helmet as they jogged towards Kaidan's position.
As they ran, Shepard switched to their private channel again. "I'm not saying I would say no, but the fact is that we don't really know each other all that well. I probably know more about that sniper rifle in your arms than your quirks and bad habits."
"Some would call that a perfect courtship for a turian," he said and grinned at her.
"Yeah, I bet they would."
They came around the corner and stopped when they saw Kaidan and Madhav waiting for them. Shepard gave a nod and Kaidan opened the door for them. She stepped in first, closely followed by Garrus and Madhav, Kaidan behind them.
The room looked like a laboratory and in the middle a man in combat gear held a gun to the head of a man in a lab coat. He was yelling at him, calling him a torturer. The man in the lab coat was whimpering and begging for his life.
Shepard put her pistol away and stepped into the line of vision of the hostage-taker. "I'm Commander Shepard, I would like to talk to you, soldier."
The man looked at her with wide eyes visible under his helmet. His armor hid most of his figure but his face looked malnourished and sick. The gun was slightly trembling in his hand.
"No!" he yelled, "I'm done talking, I don't want to talk, I just want this monster, this torturer brought to justice. He.."
"Toombs?" Kaidan stepped up to Shepard, staring at the hostage-taker. "Corporal Toombs?"
The man stared at Kaidan for several seconds until awareness showed on his face. "Alenko. Alenko the biotic. Who would have thought that Major Bindlagen's prejudice against biotics would save your life, huh?"
Shepard turned to Kaidan. "You were supposed to go to Akuze?"
"Yes, I was in the same platoon as Corporal Toombs but back then... I was one of the first biotics assigned to a platoon, an L2 at that... Major Bindlagen didn't want me in the squad. She claimed I was unstable and would be a risk to the mission so I was sent to Alchera for a checkup when the platoon went to Akuze."
He turned to Corporal Toombs, "There was only one survivor, you were assumed dead with the rest of the squad, what happened?"
"Oh we weren't all dead! They took us away, me and three others, they wanted test subjects!" His breath came in ragged gasps and a violent shudder made his pistol tremble more. But he still had the scientist under his control, using his body as a shield towards the squad.
"Who?" Shepard asked, her voice biting. "Who took you away as test subjects?"
"Cerberus! They wanted to see how we would react to Thresher Maw acid, how much acid burn we could survive, how we would react to have it injected... they used us like..." Another shudder wracked his body.
Shepard turned her ice-cold gaze towards the man in the labcoat. "You are with Cerberus?"
"Cerberus is a legitimate Alliance operation..."
"Was. Not anymore," Shepard interrupted.
The man began to whimper, "I was just following orders, we were told to..."
"Liar! He was the one giving the orders! He ordered the injections and watched Hansen and Chirac die!" Toombs wrapped his arm around the scientist's neck and started strangling him.
Kaidan looked at Shepard and when she nodded, he took a step forward. "Toombs, if we had known that you were alive, we would have come to get you. We thought you were dead."
"No, I wasn't dead. I stayed alive, I held on just for this moment," Toombs hissed out as another shudder made him tremble. "I held on just to bring this man to justice, to watch him die." He looked at Shepard. "So are you going to stop me? Or are you going to let a dead man fulfill his promise to his brothers in arms?"
Shepard took a deep breath and changed her posture in such a way that she looked less threatening. Garrus wondered if she did that consciously or if it was just natural for her.
"I want this man brought to justice just like you, Corporal, but I want him in court, I want him to tell us everything he knows about Cerberus."
"No!" Toombs pressed the pistol so hard against the scientists head that he cried out. "He will just get away, Cerberus will get him out. You don't know who you are dealing with!"
"He will be prosecuted, I will make sure of it. I promise you, he will not get away."
"No, he has to die now, he will die for the things he has done!" His finger moved to the trigger and with one quick move, Shepard had her pistol aimed at him.
"You know I can't let you do that," Shepard said calmly.
"Then there will be only one survivor of Akuze, just like it should be," Toombs said, his voice full of defeat.
"I was at your funeral, Toombs," Kaidan said quietly. "I spoke to your mom and your sister. They would be so happy to see you again."
"My mom? And Juliana?" Toombs visibly deflated, the hand with the pistol dropping.
The scientist jumped away from him and began to shriek, "This man is insane, he doesn't know what he says, you have to protect me!"
"Oh, shut up!" Shepard grumbled and ordered Madhav to escort him to the Mako.
When the man had left the room, Toombs collapsed. Kaidan caught him and helped him to go outside. The ride in the Mako back to pick-up was rather uncomfortable. The scientist kept whining and shrieking until Shepard threatened to knock him out if he would not shut up. Toombs stayed eerily quiet, eyeing the man with so much hatred, it made the air inside the Mako feel cold even on this oven of a planet.
Back on the Normandy, they put the scientist into a locked cabin and left Toombs with Dr. Chakwas' assistant. Kaidan stayed with him, talking and listening. Shepard stayed with them for a while.
Garrus went down into the cargo-bay to put his armor away and kept himself busy with taking care of the Mako. His improvement to the underside of the Mako had paid off, she took the jumps and drops Shepard put her through without any problems now. One of the panels was a little deformed, he decided to replace it.
Working on screws and bolts always calmed him, he could let his mind wander. He thought back to the conversation with Shepard. While she had not sworn an oath of love for him like some part of him had wished she would, she had not brushed him off either. In fact, what had she said?
'I'm not saying I would say no...' The wrench slipped and scratched over the plate he tried to fix.
Wait, does that mean... ? She would say yes if I asked her to bond with me?
His trill of happiness made Wrex look up and grin on the other side of the cargo bay.
Oh Garrus, you loveable little dork you! Only these two would have a conversation like that during a gunfight.