Todays theme is Jane Austen meets Dirty Harry in SPACE! Or something like that.

Garrus' omni-tool chimed with a message.

[Suit up, low atmosphere environment, don't look up where we are, it's a surprise! - J]

Garrus shook his head and fought the temptation to log into the navigational interface of the ship to see where they were. He knew that they were originally on the way to the Citadel but made one more stop on the way. As he put on his armor, he was surprised to see Tali at the lockers, reinforcing her suit with armor. It looked like Shepard had taken his suggestion to take Tali on missions.

After having verified that his armor sealed perfectly, he sauntered over to the quarian. With the armor attachments to her suit, she didn't look quite as fragile anymore but Garrus could understand why Shepard had thought she was. The big shotgun next to her belied that assumption.

"Did Shepard tell you where we are going?" he asked her. Tali looked up and despite her mask hiding her face, he got the sense of her smirking at him.

"Yes, she did but I'm not supposed to tell you." Her speaker flickered as she chuckled.

Before he could ask further, the Pilot's voice came over the ships comm, "We are in orbit of super secret location, ready when you are, Commander."

Garrus had to hide an annoyed huff, it looked like everyone except him was in on this game. He was about to open the nav interface on his omni-tool when the elevator doors opened and Shepard ran over to them. She had a happy skip in her step and the way she grinned at him made him forget his burst of annoyance.

She skidded to a halt next to him and placed a small kiss on his mandible. With a little giggle at his surprised face, she took her collapsed helmet from her locker and attached it to the back of her armor. Then she almost ran towards the Mako, ushering them in, still with that excited grin on her face.

During the drop he strained his neck to look out of the front window but the view was utterly bland. Whatever planetary surface they were falling towards, it looked like it was just grey rocks and dust. Jagged edges of craters told of a non-existent or a very weak atmosphere. He wondered what exactly Shepard wanted to surprise him with on such a place.

The Mako touched ground and bounced a few times before Omar had it under control. She drove the tank around one of the old craters before she stopped. Shepard put on her helmet and gestured to him to do the same. They depressurized the cabin and jumped out onto the surface. Gravity was very low and made him bounce around a little before he settled.

Shepard nudged his side and he could see her smile through her helmet's shield. "Now to the surprise," she said to him through the comm, "you said you wanted to see Earth one day and we don't really have time to stop there but -" she pointed upwards, "I can at least show you Earth." Her smile was practically burning through her helmet.

Garrus followed the direction her finger pointed to a planet above them. It was impossibly blue with green patches under white clouds. The color hue was completely different to what he would see if he would look up to Palaven. Shepard stood beside him, staring at the planet, a happy smile visible through her helmet.

"That is Earth?" he asked rather stupidly.

"Yes, we are standing on Luna, Earth's moon. Here, three humans left their own planet in a rocket and landed on an extraterrestrial object. That was the first time humanity went into space. It was about 214 years ago not far from where we stand now."

"Only 200 years ago?" Garrus stared up to the planet. Turians had been travelling space for almost 3000 years. No wonder his father considered humans childish upstarts.

She turned her head to look at him. "We are really just babies to you, aren't we?" she said, her voice free of malice.

"Yes, maybe a little," he said, giving his voice a friendly undertone. "It really shows that you humans don't do anything halfway. You start at something and then you go forward as fast as possible, no matter who or what tries to stop you." He turned turned to bump his helmet against hers. "And I have the perfect example for that right here." He trilled his subharmonics in love and wondered how much she understood of it. "Thank you for showing me Earth."

"It was the best I could do right now." She pressed back against his helmet and he wished their armor would not separate them.

They stepped apart with a sigh and Garrus looked at the planet over them again. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah." She sighed. "Yes, it really is beautiful."

"Any other reason why we are here?"

Shepard laughed a little. "You mean I can't use this super secret stealth prototype of human and turian engineering to show my boyfriend Earth?"

He hummed at her and they turned back to walk to the Mako. Shepard's tone changed to her usual command voice. "There is an Alliance training ground here. The local VI has malfunctioned, it seems to view everything as a threat and reacts according to its programming. We are asked to disable its power source because it doesn't answer to remote commands anymore. It has weapons under control and might use everything in the compound against us."

She had included Tali in the comm and the quarian spoke up. "This sounds like a bit too much ability for a VI."

Shepard pulled the quarian up into the cabin and sealed the door. She left her helmet on, they probably didn't have to drive far. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Are you sure they didn't research AI capabilities here?" Tali said.

Shepard looked at her thoughtfully. "That is a good question. For all his talk when he gave me the mission, Hackett didn't really mention what the purpose and capabilities of this VI was."

Shepard stayed very quiet for the rest of the mission and Garrus noticed that she took many recordings with her omni-tool. They didn't meet much resistance from the VI. The Mako's cannon made short work of the external turrets and the turrets inside fell easily to their combined tech assaults and Tali's shotgun. The VI fought them with poisoned gas next but their armor was still in low atmosphere mode and the gas didn't affect them.

Finally the last generator turned off and the lights flickered and died. In the darkness, only the terminals gave some lights and they all displayed a message at the same time before they too shut down. Shepard recorded the message with her omni-tool before the system died.

Back in the Mako, she displayed the message. It was a block of numbers:

01001000

01000101

01001100

01010000

Tali laid her head to the side. "I'm not sure what that is."

"I think I know," Shepard said, "this is binary and you can convert it to letters... let me see..." she typed quickly on her omni-tool, "there."

She projected the omni-tool display up so that they all could see what it said: H E L P

Tali made a loud gasp. "The VI asked for help? What does that mean?"

"Fuck if I know," Shepard snarled, "and I bet nobody will tell me either."

Garrus nodded at that. He made a copy of the data from Shepard's omni-tool but he wasn't sure what he should do with it either. AI research was forbidden anyway and it was doubtful that anybody would want to talk about it.

They called the Normandy for pickup and left the dusty grey moon behind. As they left the Sol system, Joker took an extra slow turn around Earth before pointing the Normandy towards Pluto to the Charon Relay. Garrus noticed how quiet all the humans were when they saw Earth through the windows and on the screens. As adventurous and forward they were, they still missed their home planet.

After another day of travel, the Widow Relay delivered them to the Citadel. Shepard and Garrus had spent the whole day with the engineering crew, taking notes, complaints and suggestions for improvements for the maintenance crew in the dock. The Normandy was scheduled for a full day of repair for the cannon and they wanted to use the time to have anything else fixed that had come up during this unusual shakedown run.

Shepard had contacted Anderson to schedule a meeting with the Council but it was of course too short of a notice for an official Council session. It took the interference of Nihlus to at least get the Councillors to agree to a vid-conference in Udina's office. Shepard and Garrus both cringed at the thought of meeting the dislikable human ambassador.

Before this meeting started, Garrus and Jane stopped at the ANIS offices. They found Dania and Terlin at their desks. Shepard greeted them with hugs while Garrus kept to a friendly nod that was half human and half turian. Which was kind of strange since he nodded towards an asari and a salarian.

"Where are the others?" Shepard asked, pointing to the empty desks.

"The boss and Lorenzo are in a meeting with the director and the head of Alliance intelligence," Dania said. "You probably want to know what we found out about Saren."

"Fuck yes, that would really be something."

Terlin stepped up to them, his omni-tool glowing. "That's easy because we found nothing."

Shepard turned to him, her eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Nothing at all?"

Dania flicked a tiny ball of blue light from her finger, the only open sign of her well hidden anger. "Not even a fleck of starshit," she hissed out. The ball of light smacked on the floor and left a small smoking hole in the carpet. Garrus noticed that there were several such black marks on the carpet around her desk. "He truly disappeared, not a single trace of him."

"And there is something else," Terlin said closing the omni-projection on his arm. "We keep running into walls. The salarian and the turians gave us some info but nothing we didn't find out on our own and the asari gave us nothing. Not even confirmation of the things we found out."

"And..." Dania hesitated for a moment but continued on a nod from Terlin, "there are some coincidences..." she took another breath and then turned on a projection on the main vid screen in the middle of the office.

Terlin scratched the spot between his horns, a nervous gesture that many salarians had. He kept fiddling with the projection.

Garrus tried to make sense of the screen. "What are we looking at here?"

Terlin sorted the display into four case files. "Our current cases. Attacks on small bases, outposts, research bases."

Garrus nodded, "Yes, that's the kind of stuff we got sent to sort out too."

"Yes, out there in the Traverse," Dania said and pointed at the screen, "but these are all in Council Space, long established settlements."

"Husks?" Shepard asked.

"Yes," Terlin said, "husks and geth. But not many and - and here comes the strange part - most people we find have been killed by biotics."

Shepard shrugged. "Why is that strange? This is basically asari space, most settlements are probably asari. Maybe that's what asari husks do."

"All the husks were human based," Terlin said.

Shepard sighed. "I really wish somebody would explain to me why that is so."

Dania turned to Shepard, fixing her dangerous eyes on her. "You probably know that biotics can feel biotics."

"Yes, Kaidan told me that a while back and Liara..." Shepard seemed to think for a while and Dania kept looking at her until she continued, "she said human biotics feel different than asari biotics. Something about the difference in biotic nodes in the body..."

Dania had started to lean forward when Shepard had mentioned that the biotics felt different and eagerly interrupted her, "Yes, yes, it feels different and also," she raised her finger, a faint blue light glimmering on top of it, "traces of trained combat biotics also feel different than normal asari biotics."

"Really?" Garrus and Shepard called out at the same time.

"It's subtle but it's there. And..." she hesitated, "the people we found dead were most probably killed by asari commandos. I could feel it."

Garrus and Shepard jumped forward at the same time and began talking. "So, wait... what...?"

The asari looked at them and the anger in her eyes looked even more dangerous than the blue glow on her fingers. "Yes, it means that asari commandos are going around and killing soldiers and civilians. We have no proof other than my feeling and that isn't good enough but..." She breathed out harshly and flicked another tiny ball of biotic energy to the floor. Another black spot sizzled in the carpet. "...but something is going on and by the Goddess I want to know what!"

Shepard let herself fall into a chair and drummed her fingernails on the desk. "Matriarch Benezia had asari commandos with her."

"Saren had some too, on Eden Prime," Garrus said.

Shepard hit her fist on the desk with anger flaring in her eyes. "The asari are hiding something."

Dania nodded. "I contacted some old friends, and the feeling I got, how do you humans say, between the meaning?"

"Between the lines."

"Yes, I like that expression." Dania nodded to herself, flicking through messages on her omni-tool. "They don't really say it but there are political shifts, Matriarchs working against each other, religious sects that suddenly gain more support, some old beliefs that everyone thought had been eradicated. Something is happening on Thessia."

Shepard had her forehead in thoughtful wrinkles. "I have many questions for the asari councillor but I'm pretty sure that she won't tell me anything." Her omni-tool chimed with a message and she looked at it. "Speaking of which, the councillors have time for us now."

She got up and they bade goodbye to Dania and Terlin, asking them to keep them up to date.

The vid-conference with the councillors was frustratingly fruitless. They didn't learn anything new and the promises of support from their respective intelligence felt empty. Even ambassador Udina noticed it and waited till the connection was closed to fall into a vicious rant about the Council species and what their political leaders were doing. Despite the truth in some of what he said, the angry hate in his words made Garrus and Shepard uncomfortable. They excused themselves quickly.

Garrus hoped for a quiet lunch with her somewhere but of course the universe decided against that. His omni-tool chimed with a call from his father. Garrus trilled out his annoyance before he answered the call.

"Yes, father?"

His father made no effort to hide his annoyed subharmonics. "The Normandy has been in dock for over two hours by now, where are you? I messaged you, I needed to meet you as soon as possible."

Shepard raised an eyebrow in question at his tone but kept out of the camera frame. Garrus imagined giving him a taste of his anger but he kept his subharmonics under control. He was still a turian son. "We had things to do for our case, a rogue Spectre has to take precedence sometimes." A bit of anger seeped into his voice and by the change of trill from his father it was clear that he had noticed it.

"Don't take that tone with me, son. I expect you at these coordinates right away." He closed the connection before Garrus could even answer.

Shepard stared at him. "Wow, who stole his lunch?"

"Let me call him back and tell him that he has to wait." Garrus initiated the call -back but Shepard stopped him with her hand on his arm.

"No, why wait? This is about the notarius, isn't it?"

"Yes, most probably."

"You'll have to talk to him anyway, why not now. I'll come with you, if you want." She smiled a bit lopsided at him, clearly not all that happy at the prospect of having this conversation with his father. "I know it won't be fun but if you tell me to stand by your side, I will."

Garrus felt a flush of relief, this would have been much harder if Shepard would not be there with him. "If I'm to defend our relationship and have you included in the notarius' chronicle, I really need you there."

Shepard looked at him for a moment, her mouth hanging open. She swallowed hard before she asked, "You'll have to defend us?"

"Yes, most probably."

"Oh fuck, I'm not going to like this conversation," she said, raking her hand through her short hair. "I need something to eat first and maybe a whiskey."

Garrus flinched. "To appear before my father drunk..."

Shepard raised her hand. "Kidding on the whiskey." She pressed her hand against her stomach. "Not on the lunch though."

Garus breathed and let a his subharmonics hum out the confusion that made his head spin. Shepard took his hand and pressed it, looking up to him with a careful smile. Garrus knew exactly how she felt. This talk could only go well or be an absolute disaster, there was no inbetween.

They got some food in boxes to eat from and ate while they slowly walked towards the coordinates his father had sent him. They arrived at an office area, where his father always rented an office when he spend time on the Citadel.

Shepard had been very quiet while they walked and not just because she was inhaling her noodles. She threw the container in a trashcan and pulled on his arm to stop him before they entered the office building.

"What exactly is your fathers role in the clan? Is he the notarius?" she asked.

Garrus shook his head. "No, he is actually the official head and representative of the Vakarian clan."

Shepard's eyes widened. "You're shitting me."

Garrus tried to trill at her reassuringly. "The clan elders are the real leaders of the clan. My father has been named representative in reward for the high tier he achieved for his service at C-Sec. That was years ago, I was a small child back then. He manages the clan finances, internal disputes and communications and he can order the notarius to alter the clan chronic."

"Now I get why this is so important for him," Shepard mumbled so quietly that he almost didn't hear her.

"What do you mean?" Garrus asked but Shepard brushed the question away with a wave of her hand.

"Let's just get this over with, we don't have much time." She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands.

Garrus looked at her and wondered if the light tricked him or if she looked even paler than usual. He had hardly seen her the last few nights and wasn't sure if she had even slept. He made a mental note to take better care of her and making sure that she actually slept regularly. There were dark shadows under her eyes that he had not seen before.

They entered the building and went up a few levels to the office. Garrus remembered having been in this building before, they provided temporary offices for business people that stayed on the Citadel for a short time only. After he had moved to Palaven, his father had always rented an office here when ever he had stayed on the Citadel.

Garrus' omni-tool signalled that he had arrived at his destination and the lock of the door in front of them turned green. The door slid to the side as they approached, obviously programmed for Garrus' omni-tool. Aethius Vakarian sat behind a desk that looked nothing like Garrus' desk used to look. His father always had an orderly desk, no matter how much work he actually had to do. His workspace area was clean, pads were stacked in straight piles and little storage boxes were lined up in a row on one side.

He looked up from his terminal as Garrus entered and trilled a short greeting at him. But his trill cracked in surprise when he saw Shepard enter at his side.

"This is an informal meeting, you didn't need to bring her," Aethius said, his subharmonics wavering in annoyance.

"Nice to see you too, Dome Vakarian," Shepard said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

The older Vakarian dipped his head into the cowl of his armor and changed the tone of his subharmonics. "I apologize, Commander Shepard, it is nice to see you." He turned to Garrus and greeted him with a trill that was friendly enough but did not make him exactly feel welcome.

Aethius didn't wait for his son to return the greeting and Garrus grew increasingly uneasy. This whole situation made the plates on his back itch.

The older Vakarian took a short breath and then indicated with a snarl that he was getting right to the point. "I wanted to talk with you about your situation with Commander Shepard. Your stationing on the Normandy has already been added to the chronicle but your further involvement may need clarifying."

Garrus opened his mouth to say something but Shepard's voice cut through the short silence.

"Situation?" Her voice might lack subharmonics but the angry undertones were unmistakable.

Aethius Vakarian puffed up his fringe and walked around his desk to face Shepard. He was towering over her, using his height to impress her. In any other situation, Garrus would have laughed about this; Shepard faced krogan without even blinking - a puffed up turian was not going to impress her.

When she didn't move, Aethius turned to Garrus, ignoring her. "Maybe you could provide me with a better expression for your situation then."

If Shepard were a biotic, she probably would have shot warps from her eyes at this point. Garrus himself was angrily hissing out his anger and stepped up to his father. He was even taller than him by now, but he still felt a bit like a little boy as he looked at his father.

"Shepard and I are in a relationship."

"And what does that mean?" Aethius hissed at him. "Are you bonded? Promised to be bonded? How long term can this be, with a human?"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Shepard called out.

Aethius turned his head to her, his subharmonics anything but friendly. "Humans are fickle, they change their minds. How long will this relationship last?"

Shepard folded her arms in front of her chest. "Nobody can predict that."

Aethius stepped over to her, bending down to bring his face right in front of hers. "Turians can. A turian will never break a bond."

Shepard held his gaze, staring right into his eyes. "What do you want to hear from me? As long as we can stand each other, I will not leave your son, that I can promise."

Garrus felt a trickle of happiness in his gizzard, remembering what she had said the day before when they had talked about bonding. He knew humans, he understood them and he knew that they were sometimes fickle when it came to love. But he knew that Shepard would never make a promise like that lightly. He wanted to kiss her so much in this moment and he almost missed the deprecated hum his father made.

"What does the promise like that from a human even mean?" Aethius hissed out.

For a second, nobody said anything. It was so quiet that they could even hear people in the office next door talking.

And then Shepard exploded. In retrospect it was probably the lack of sleep and the stressful mission that made her lose her control.

"For fucks sake! I'm not listening to this! I have done nothing that would make me not trustworthy, so why don't you just admit that you hate humans and don't want your son fucking one!"

Aethius stepped back, his mandibles slack in shock. Garrus now realized that the child-like curiosity and wonderment that he loved so much about her came with another attitude. One that she usually had under control. But in this moment, the anger in her broke out, pure, child-like rage against unfairness and circumstances she could not change.

"Don't you fucking tell me about humans this or that, I don't speak for humanity, I speak for myself. So what is it about me that disgusts you so much?" Reddish patches had appeared on her skin and she was clenching her fists at her sides.

Aethius took a small step back, shaking his head and turned to Garrus. "This is just like with Lirni De'Lisa, she knows nothing about our traditions..."

Shepard realized that she was being ignored and jumped up to sit on the desk, sending a pile of pads clattering down. When Aethius whipped around, his subharmonics shrieking in anger, she showed her teeth in a menacing grin. "Let me guess, that's what this is about. The asari your relative brought into the clan, so blue and always touching him. And after he died, she still wanted to be part of the family. And you didn't even invite her, did you? But she still turned up, how embarrassing..."

It is a soldier's ability to always know where to aim for the killshot. This was the first time that Garrus had seen that ability used verbally.

Aethius trilled out in fury before he caught himself. He was a cop, he knew how to control his subharmonics. That he had even displayed this much reaction showed how accurate Shepard had read him.

Before he could say anything, Shepard jumped off the table and walked towards the door. She didn't look at him when she said, "Don't worry, I won't ruin your christmas dinner with my filthy presence." She walked out with determined steps and the door closed behind her.

Aethius whipped around and raised his finger to Garrus. "How does she know about this?"

The last time Garrus had seen his father this angry was at the infamous "Vakarian shouting match" during his time at C-Sec. Pallin had ordered them on different teams after that.

"I told her about Uncle Gelden and his asari bondmate once, and Shepard pays attention."

Aethius sang out his annoyance and Garrus hissed against him. His father stepped up so close to him, that their armored cowls scratched against each other. "This disrespect, is that her influence?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Garrus snarled out, "this is hardly the first time we're arguing." He turned away and leaned back to give himself some space. "Does mother know about this?"

"Your mother..." Aethius let out a soft trill, "she is not head of the clan."

"She never would have accepted this, the way you treated Shepard." Garrus felt eerily calm, detached even. This disaster could not get any worse and he knew what he had to do. He drew a breath, letting his cowl fill from within. He shook his head and turned around. "We are done here."

"You don't even see how she has you under her spell, like a fool!" his father yelled out.

Garrus stopped, puzzled by his own emotions. He should have felt upset, angry; but he was calm. His body was light, filled with air and love. He straightened his back and turned to his father.

Aethius mandibles snapped tight to his face, what ever he had wanted to say, he kept it to himself.

Garrus took another breath, tension falling off him like a heavy coat. "You made me choose, father. Not her, she never made me choose, you did. I'm choosing her." He turned and walked to the door. "May the Spirits guide you, father," he said quietly and let the door close behind him.

The hallway was empty, Garrus slowly made his way down through the building and walked out into the daylight of the Presidium. He found Shepard without even searching for her with his omni-tool. She stood on one of the bridges arching over the lake, looking over to him.

The way her shoulders were hunched forward made his chest hurt. She looked so small, so defeated. The need to protect her rose up in him and made his gizzard clench in anger at his father. How dare he make this strong woman feel that way.

When he had reached her, she turned her head away as if she was too hurt to look him in the eyes. Garrus stopped, momentarily too confused to know what to do. Shepard was always so strong and so sure of herself, he didn't quite know how to deal with her like this. He put his gloved fingers under her chin and turned her face towards him. The hunted look in her eyes actually scared him and made his gizzard clench.

He softly hummed for her, watching her face relax. "Hey, Sunshine," he murmured to her.

She smiled sadly and leaned her cheek into the palm of his hand. "Hey," she whispered and she seemed to want to say something more but hesitated. Garrus gave her time and watched the emotions flicker across her face. Finally she leaned forward, resting her head against his armor cowl and sighed.

"I'm sorry my Angel."

Garrus wrapped his arms around her. "What are you sorry for?"

"For losing my cool. It was all just too much for me, this mission, the way everyone is stalling us and then your father with his prejudices..."

"It's okay. My father was unreasonable and it was just a matter of time until the clan would have started to ask questions," he said into her hair. "They won't bother us anymore."

He noticed people on the bridge giving them strange looks but he ignored them. This was his purpose, she was all he needed.

He realized in that moment that it didn't matter that she couldn't promise a bond like a turian would. It was not in her human nature to make a promise like that but he knew deep in his soul that they belonged together. A Spirit was binding them. She would stay with him, he trusted her and he trusted the love he saw in her eyes whenever she looked at him. That was enough.

She looked up and her eyes had a wet shimmer to them. "They won't bother us anymore?"

He held her gaze. "No. I had to make a choice."

"And you chose me." There was a tear glittering in the corner of her eye.

"Yes."

She wiped her eyes and smiled at him. "I know it's easy for me to say but I choose you too. I..." she swallowed the rest of the sentence and Garrus wondered what it was that she was so afraid of of saying.

Shepard looked around and noticed that people were watching them. She stepped back and stroked through her hair, a light pink flush showing on her cheeks. "It seems we are putting on quite a show here." She gave him an apologetic smile that he answered with a trill of the same kind. "We'll talk later, I promise," she said quietly and turned to walk further over the bridge.

Garrus took his place beside her, they walked slowly with no certain destination. The light reflected from the lake and he remembered how it had made patterns on her shiny hair the last time they walked like that. Today, her hair looked dull and unkempt, even the blue streak looked faded. She had not taken care of herself recently and he hadn't even noticed.

"I don't know what to do, Garrus," she suddenly said. He waited for her to continue and she did. "We aren't getting anywhere. When the Normandy is ready tomorrow, I don't even know where to point her to. We have no new information about Saren and I'm sick and tired of playing errand girl for the Alliance and the Council."

Garrus nodded, his frustration sounding out subvocally. "There has to be something we're not seeing."

"I'd put my money on the asari," Shepard said, an angry bite in her voice. She suddenly stopped and a wicked smile appeared on her face. Garrus felt a giddy trill rise in him, there was a promise in that smile for something exciting to be happening.

"You know," she said with a wicked undertone, "since I'm so disgustingly human..."

"Shepard.."

"No, hear me out, we played by the rules, we work with ANIS, we ask the councillors nicely if they can help us, we even have a Spectre on our side!" She stopped and placed her hands on her hips. "And nothing. Maybe we should do this the human way for a change."

Garrus flared his mandibles in a grin. "I'm not sure what that means but I bet I'm going to like it."

"Councillor Tevos lives on the Citadel, right? Do you know where she is during the day?"

Garrus hesitated for a second, the councillors offices and apartments were kept a secret for security reasons. But he had been a cop, he knew at least where the councillor's offices were located. "I know where she has her office."

"Let's visit her." She winked at him. "I'm not going to shoot her."

"I didn't think you would, Sunshine." Even stressed and frustrated, he knew that she was not that crazy.

They took the elevator past the administrative offices of the Citadel to a high security level. This level only housed the asari, salarian and turian Council offices. Two turian guards stopped them as they exited the elevator but Shepard flashed her Spectre sigil towards them. They had to let them through but Garrus had no doubt that they were already calling for reinforcements.

The doors to the asari offices opened and an asari receptionists scowled at them from behind a desk. She got up and stepped in their way. While she looked older, she no doubt had combat training and did not look intimidated by the armored and armed human in front of her.

Neither did Shepard as she stared the receptionist in the face. "I have to speak to Councillor Tevos."

"You'll have to make an appointment," the asari sneered at her.

"I'm not waiting for appointments, I'll speak to her now." Shepard had her arms crossed in front of her chest. Her heavy pistol was quite visible on her hip.

"You will have to..."

Shepard let her arms drop and stepped up to the asari. "Listen. Spectre Shepard needs to speak to Councillor Tevos in an urgent matter and unless you want me to shoot up this place, you will lead us into her office right now."

The receptionist jumped back with a snort and her hands began to glow blue. Garrus heard the guards running up to the door in the hallway and Shepard and him pulled out their guns at the same time.

The guards stopped in the door, facing Garrus's pistol. Shepard aimed at the receptionist's head, a dangerous smile on her lips.

In the silence, the back doors opened and Councillor Tevos stared at the scene in front of her. She looked at Shepard, who still aimed at the receptionist but looked at the Councillor now.

"Really, Shepard? Is this how you want to make the first human Spectre known?"

Shepard holstered her gun and straightened. "I do what's necessary." She nodded towards Garrus and he holstered his gun as well.

"You may go," Councillor Tevos said to the guards and indicated to Shepard and Garrus to come into her office. The receptionist let the biotic glow on her hands disappear and sat back down at her desk as if nothing had happened. Garrus had to admire her stoic nature, he wondered how many times she faced Spectres demanding entry at gunpoint.

The doors closed behind them and Tevos turned around with an angry scowl. "What is this about then? I find this behaviour highly inappropriate, I hope you have a very good reason for this."

Shepard walked over to the asari. She tried to look unthreatening, as much as that was possible in full armor. "I need your help, Councillor. Saren is just part of the threat, there is a much bigger threat on the horizon and I need all the help I can get to save us."

Tevos shook her head, "Shepard, the Reapers are a myth..."

Shepard roughly grabbed the asari's hands and placed her on the sides of her head. "Look into my mind!" she yelled out, "See what I see. See what will happen if we don't stop this."

Tevos stared at her, trying to step away but Shepard held her hands to her head. "See it. Please, see it and then tell me what you know so that I can prevent it from happening." She leaned in even closer to the asari, her voice a pleading whisper, "Please, see it."

Her pleading voice cut like a knife into Garrus' chest. How desperate did she have to be to ask for a mind-meld, despite hating it so much.

Tevos looked at her silently and then nodded. Her eyes changed color and she whispered "Embrace eternity."

Shepard's head fell back and before her eyes closed, Garrus saw a green shine come over them. He hurried to stand behind her and caught her as she swayed. The councillor's face suddenly contorted as if she was in pain and she gasped. Shepard sagged down, only Garrus wrapping his arms around her from behind prevented her falling. The councillor gasped again and her hands were shaking.

Both women looked like they were in pain and Garrus desperately prayed to the Spirits that they would get out of this meld unharmed. Finally, with a choked cry, Councillor Tevos drew her hands away as if they got burned. Shepard opened her eyes, looking around disoriented.

She shook her head and let Garrus lead her to a couch. He sat down next to her and she leaned against him. He could hear her heart beat rapidly. Councillor Tevos staggered to a chair and sat down with a sigh. Shepard looked up to her, massaging her temples.

"Did you see it?"

"Yes," Tevos whispered.

They waited. Tevos typed something on her omni-tool and Shepard's and Garrus's lit up with the receipt of information. The councillor leaned back against the chair. "I had ordered a team of commandos to find Saren and infiltrate his group." She looked out of the window towards the light of the Widow nebula. "I have not heard from them since Eden Prime. I hoped that they were under a communications lockdown, that one of them would contact me again, but-"

"They fell under his spell," Garrus said.

"If you want to call it that..."

Shepard massaged her temples once more and then looked at the asari. "Matriarch Benezia said that his ship has power over them, that it has a voice in their minds."

"It influences the mind? Even the mind of a Matriarch? That is a frightening thought," Tevos said. She looked out the window again and Garrus wondered if she prayed to her goddess. After a few moments she looked at them and stood up. "The Council received a message from a salarian reconnaissance team on Virmire that contained information about Saren. The message was fragmented, we don't know whether he is there or has been there. It may be nothing but we can't be sure."

Shepard stood up, "Virmire it is then. We will head there as soon as the Normandy leaves the dock." She walked over the councillor, Garrus following her and extended her hand. "Thank you, Councillor Tevos. I hope the next time we meet, my entrance will not need to be quite so dramatic."

"I would appreciate it. I would also appreciate it if you wouldn't hang up on us when we contact the Normandy."

"Of course," Shepard said, keeping her face perfectly neutral.

The Councillor opened the doors to the receptionists room for them, where they faced a full squad of asari Commandos. The squad quickly stepped to the side to let them through. Garrus had to grin at the angry looks they got from the squad members as they left the rooms.

Outside in the hallway, Shepard's proud posture faltered and she grabbed Garrus' arm to keep herself from stumbling. Her hands were trembling violently. Garrus was shocked how tired she looked, the shadows under her eyes were even darker now.

"You need to rest, Sunshine."

She shook her head, "The Normandy, we have to get ready, we have to go to Virmire right away..."

"The Normandy won't be ready for hours and you are dead on your feet." Garrus supported her whole weight by now, the mind-meld seemed to have sucked the last bit of energy from her. He called for a skycar and when they exited the elevator it was already waiting for them. He programmed it to take them to his apartment and by the time the skycar had swerved into the main traffic, Shepard had fallen asleep. Her cheek rested on the cowl of his armor.

At his apartment building, he gathered her up in his arms and carried her all the way up to his place. The apartment smelled of stale air and dust, he hadn't been here in a while. Not that Shepard noticed any of it. He threw the dustcover off the bed and pulled the blankets back to lie her down. Taking off her armor had become easy for him, she hardly flinched when he took the pieces off her.

As soon as all the pieces of her armor were off, she rolled to the side and cuddled up in the blanket as it was her usual fair. Garrus chuckled to himself and took his own armor off. He allowed himself a luxuriously long shower before he crawled into the bed himself. Their positions were strangely reversed with her sleeping behind his back. He was just happy to hear her sleeping and slowly he drifted off himself.

Movement behind his back pulled him out of the soft drift that wanted to lead to sleep. Jane scooted closer to him, her breath ghosting over the skin under his fringe.

"Are you awake?" she whispered.

"Almost."

"I want to say something and please just listen, don't say anything."

Garrus held his breath, waiting for her to continue.

"I know you wanted to hear something different from me today," she whispered. "But with this crazy mission and all that is going on... I'm not even sure if I will make it through to the end and I don't want you to be bound to me in case this thing goes bad."

Garrus trilled out and turned to look at her but she softly pushed his head back. "Shhh, please, just listen. I don't want to promise anything that I may not be able to keep. But I want you to know that... I'm not going to leave you. Please believe me. I'm staying with you as long as life lets me. I love you, Garrus."

Happiness warmed him up like the sun itself lived inside his cowl. He turned around, his whole body and soul yearning for her. He couldn't say anything but his subvocals were singing out in love for her. He pulled her close to his chest, he had to feel everything of her, touch her, hear her heart beat. He nipped along her neck and throat while his hand stroked over her waist. She gasped with the sweetest breathy moan and her lips found his mouthplates and he kissed her like he had never kissed before.

He carefully nibbled on her lips and she responded by sucking on his mouthplates. Their tongues met, softly stroking and tangling until it they both had to take a breath. After gasping in air, they kissed again, softer this time, lingering touches of soft lips against mouthplates.

Garrus noticed that Jane's eyelids were drooping and he let her lips go with a sigh. She cuddled against him up with her head resting on his arm and fell asleep in seconds.

He could not follow her on that path. His heart was beating too fast to fall asleep.

The great moment! Miss Can't-Communicate-Her-Feelings-To-Save-Her-Life has finally said the words! Sorry that she was too tired for sex. Soon, fear not.

The story with the asari in the Vakarian clan is a reference to something Garrus told Jane in Chapter 14. Oh yes, foreshadowing, I can do it! Apparently Jane pays more attention to these things than me because I had to search forever to find the chapter where that had happened.