Garrus and Shepard waited with Kaidan and Liara in the comm room for the Normandy to jump out of the relay stream to access the comm buoy. They had another day of travel ahead of them until they would reach the Citadel and Shepard wanted to speak to Keggs and Nihlus before she presented her case to the Council.
They were silent; Kaidan stared ahead, deep in thought and Liara read something on her omni-tool. Garrus let his hand brush against Shepard's and was relieved to feel her return the pressure. He knew that Shepard was deeply worried about Ashley. Dr. Chakwas had spoken to her in the morning and her prognosis for Ashley's leg had worsened. Apparently the nanobots were still active in the wound, despite repeated tries to render them inactive.
Joker's voice came over the ship's comm: "We're dropping out of the relay now, communications should be working in a moment. Not all that well though, this is an old backup system."
Shepard thanked the pilot and tapped the interface on her omni-tool to open the call. It took a few moments until the holographic display flickered to life, showing the translucent shapes of Nihlus and Keggs sitting at their desks.
"Are we coming through alright?" Shepard waved at the two projected displays that seemed to get stuck occasionally and flickered.
"Yes, it's not perfect but it will do," Nihlus said and trilled a greeting for Garrus. It sounded a bit strange over the limited audio range of the comm system. Keggs nodded his head towards Shepard, Kaidan and Liara and flicked his mandibles towards Garrus. He wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.
Nihlus grinned at them. "We are eagerly awaiting your return, oh mighty warriors," he said in greeting.
On the other projection, Keggs chirped at Nihlus and shook his head before looking at Shepard and him. Garrus felt himself sitting straighter, Keggs had a way of making everyone try to be a better good officer.
Nihlus leaned forward, the bad transmission making his uneven fringe look like it was made of feathers blowing in a storm. "I have some good news! The Council is discussing a possible attack by Saren and his geth troops."
"Don't you mean the Reapers?" Shepard said with a sigh.
"No, the councilors are convinced that Saren will attack the Citadel."
"What do they know that I don't?" Shepard grumbled.
"What do you mean?" Keggs chimed in.
"Why is everybody so sure that Saren will attack the Citadel?"
Nihlus and Keggs both let out a surprised trill and Nihlus began to grin. "Well, how interesting, it looks like you are truly a human and not a turian in disguise."
Shepard laughed out, "A turian in disguise?"
"There have been rumors..." Nihlus said and snickered.
Keggs trilled a rather unfriendly remark at him that made even Nihlus stop his silliness.
"It may not be obvious for humans how important the Citadel is for all the other species in this galaxy," Nihlus said, now serious, "it is the connection between the species, the one safe haven. It has always been the neutral ground where peace between the different people of the galaxy was made possible. If Saren gets the Citadel under his control, our current society will fall back into chaos."
Shepard nodded. "Okay, I get that. But we need more, we also need a fleet to go to Ilos."
"What's at Ilos?" Keggs asked.
Liara stepped forward, wringing her hands. "I have identified the location in the visions as Ilos. The message is now complete, the protheans wanted us to know about Ilos. We don't know what we'll find there but it must be very important for the fight against the Reapers."
"If Saren is headed there, we have to stop him before he finds that information first," Keggs said and started to furiously type on his terminal.
Nihlus sighed. "The council is always very reluctant to call for fleet deployment, especially outside of Citadel-space. But I will see what I can do, I have made some connections. I've danced so many diplomatic dances lately, I should start teaching that. I may even have to take you along, my friend," he said to Keggs. The other turian's head snapped up and his face contorted like he had just sprained his mandible. "Yes, keep looking like that, it will scare everyone so much, they'll give us fleets just so that you leave them alone."
Keggs expression turned even grimmer but Nihlus was unimpressed. He trilled happily and winked at them. Garrus trained his face to be calm, Nihlus may have been utterly at ease with Keggs but he was not taking any chances.
"Anything else we should know?" Nihlus asked.
"Not at the moment but I need a favor," Shepard said.
"What can we do for you, sweetie?"
"The fucking cannon is still not working. I think the problem lies on some part in the software and the combination of turian and human technology and we need a specialist for turian code to work with the technicians on that as soon as we've docked. Do you know of someone who could help? The smartest turian smartass you can find?"
"Oh, I think I have just the guy." Nihlus grinned widely. "The smartest smartass, oh yes. Leo loves him to bits, I bet you'll like him too. His name is Leran Petarik, I'll contact him right away. "
The name sounded strange to Garrus, it wasn't a turian name as far as he knew.
"Mirhale might be helpful too," Keggs added and both Nihlus and Shepard nodded. The salarian tech expert of the ANIS team was familiar with all kinds of technologies, even turian systems.
"I had your repairs marked as high priority already," Nihlus continued. "Leran and Mirhale will hopefully be waiting for you when you arrive."
The translucent display flickered violently and static crackled from the audio feed. "I think we're losing you, see – " – with that the feed broke down.
Joker's voice came over the comm system, "I'm sorry, Commander, but that seems to be all we can squeeze out of that thing. We could try kicking it but I'm not sure that will change anything."
"No kicking of comm buoys," Shepard said. "But issue a repair request or something like that when we're on the Citadel, I don't know who is in charge of the comm system but someone needs to fix this thing."
"Will do, Commander."
Shepard turned to the people in the room. "Everyone get some rest, once we're on the Citadel, the next few days are going to be busy."
"What do you mean, you won't send a fleet to Ilos?" Shepard ground out between tight pressed lips, struggling to keep her voice from getting louder. She stared at the councilors on their pedestal as if she tried to project her thoughts directly into their brains.
By the unfazed reactions of the councilors it was not working. Garrus took a small step forward to stand closer behind Shepard. Not that she needed his support but he wanted her to know that she wasn't alone in this situation.
"Your reports have made it quite clear that the most logical next step for Saren is to attack the Citadel," the asari councilor said. Her voice was calm, as if she was talking about the flowers on Thessia. "Our first priority is to protect the citizens here and defend the integrity of the Citadel."
Shepard took a deep breath and spoke calmly, "But we don't know what kind of information or technology Saren will find on Ilos. We need to stop him on Ilos before he even gets a chance at attacking the Citadel."
"Our forces need to be here," Sparatus said with an angry growl under his voice, "we can't afford spreading ourselves thin on some vague assumptions and fairy tales."
Shepard opened her mouth and closed it with a snap. Garrus saw her fists clench at her sides. When she spoke again, her voice was calm and controlled. "In that case, let me and my team go to Ilos with the Normandy alone. With her stealth systems, we can land on Ilos undetected and..."
"Ambassador Udina," councilor Sparatus interrupted, "the Commander can't seem to let this go."
"Yes, councilors, I apologize," the human ambassador snarled while he looked at Shepard as if he wished she would go up in flames on this very spot. "Your results have been admirable but you are becoming a burden now. We thank you for your efforts, the Council will handle this now, with my help," he added quietly.
"How convenient for you," Shepard mumbled just loud enough for him to hear. She turned back to the councilors, ignoring Udina seething beside her. "If I could just ask for the Normandy to take us to Ilos, the ship can return to the Citadel right away and we will – "
"The Normandy is not your personal skycar, free for you to take around!" Udina yelled out. A thick vein stood out on his forehead as he opened his omni-tool and punched the interface as if it was a physical object. "The Normandy is now under lockdown at the dock until further notice," he said and a triumphant grin played on his face. "You will await your orders from the Alliance or the Council here on the Citadel." He looked at Shepard, daring her to defy him and judging by the whiteness of her knuckles, it took all her self control to not punch the small man in the face.
"Understood," she pressed out between clenched teeth and turned on the spot without looking at the council or Udina and Anderson and walked down towards the park like area with its blooming trees. Flower petals flew to the side as she hurried towards the exit, her eyes cast to the ground. By the looks of it, she was barely holding it together and Garrus feared for the next person who would set her off and receive all that penned up rage.
As it happened, that person was Nihlus.
"Where the flying fuck were you?" Shepard yelled at the turian, who waited for them in the elevator that took them down to the Presidium. "They fucking put us on lockdown, you must have known about that, why the fuck didn't you help me?"
Nihlus just raised a finger, pointing at the cameras above them. Tali looked up and started typing on her omni-tool.
"Oh who gives a fuck," Shepard spat out. "Why weren't you there?"
Above them, the cameras gave a short whine and let a few sparks fly. Tali closed her omni-tool and by the way she raised her head and folded her hands behind her back, it was easy to imagine the smug grin she was hiding behind her mask.
Shepard gave an appreciative nod to Tali before fixing her angry stare back on Nihlus. "Spill!"
Nihlus rumbled out a calming tone before speaking, "Shepard, I know a losing battle when I see one. That decision was final before you even entered the tower. Someone let a few internal files fall into my hands, trust me when I say, nothing you could have said would have changed this outcome."
Shepard's face had turned pale. "You mean they just played me?"
"If you mean they just waited for an excuse to get you out of the way and away from the Normandy, yes, they played you."
"Fuck!"
Garrus needed a few moments to process this information. "This doesn't make sense, without Shepard and the Normandy they wouldn't even know of this threat."
"But it was also really embarrassing for the Council to have their favorite Spectre defamed and to have to admit to their failings," Nihlus said, adding a tone of disgust to his subharmonics. "And the Reaper issue is not helping your case, Shepard. Makes you sound like a lunatic to them." He added a trill to indicate that he didn't agree with that. Garrus hoped for his sake that she understood it.
"I'm so very sorry that I uncovered a galactic threat and interrupted their spa time at Sha'ira's place," she spit out.
Nihlus trilled a humorous note and Garrus felt himself relax. Shepard could be a burning force of rage but luckily she didn't stay that way very long.
Kaidan, who had been quietly staring ahead, raised his head and looked around. "What I don't understand is, how the Alliance can agree to have the Council order the Normandy under lockdown. Also, why is this elevator taking so long?"
"I stopped it," Tali said, "I thought we needed some unobserved time to talk."
Nihlus and Garrus both let out a chirp of amazement. "You stopped the elevator for the Citadel Tower?" Nihlus said, his mandibles flapping.
"The security on this is insane!" Garrus added, staring at the translucent, purple mask of the quarian.
"I have some tools," Tali said, a smile in her voice.
"I bet Mirhale would love to have a look at those," Nihlus said, shaking his head.
Shepard had been quiet and stared in Kaidan's direction without really looking at him. "You're right, Kaidan," she mumbled.
"Right?"
"About the Alliance letting the Council walk all over them." Shepard's voice had lost the anger, she was back to analyzing the situation and finding a solution. "Anderson didn't say a single word during the whole thing, that's so unlike him. There must be something at play here that we don't know about."
"Can we get this elevator going again?" Nihlus asked. "By now, they probably already sent a poor technician into the ducts to find out what's wrong with it."
Tali typed a few things on her omni-tool and with a small shudder, the elevator started moving again. When the doors opened at the Presidium level, another familiar turian greeted them with an annoyed subharmonic growl.
"Why did the elevator take that long?" Keggs asked sharply.
"We had an elevator conference," Nihlus stated.
"I thought that's my thing."
"Not exclusively, at least when you have our magical quarian around," Nihlus said and threw a wide smile towards Tali. Even though her face was hidden, Garrus was pretty sure that she was currently very much blushing.
"Let's go," Keggs said and briskly walked towards one of the bridges that stretched over the Presidium lake.
"Where are we going?" Shepard asked. Garrus, Kaidan, Tali and Liara, who had not said a word after her statement to the council about the visions, fell in step behind her. Nihlus and Keggs took long strides and the non-turians struggled to keep up.
"We're meeting someone," Keggs said. He was discreetly looking around, checking for hidden followers, Garrus realized.
What have we gotten ourselves into?
Keggs turned right at the end of the bridge and took a sharp turn into an deserted alley that looked more like a service access path. A keeper was working at a terminal at the side, ignoring them as they always did. Shepard made a wide berth around it and eyed it suspiciously as she walked past it.
"Can you still feel them?" Kaidan asked her, making a quick double step to catch up to her.
"Yes, it's like a change in the barometric pressure. Not enough to be headache inducing but on the verge of it," Shepard said, massaging her temples.
"You feel the keepers?" Liara asked, finally speaking again.
"Yes, Kaidan does too."
"But not as strongly, at least I never fainted from being next to one," Kaidan said with a smirk.
"You fainted?" Liara called out.
"Yeah yeah, rub it in, why don't you."
"Do you get that weird hum next to the relay statue too?" asked Kaidan Shepard.
"The one at the lake?" Shepard shook her head. "No, I don't think so, I'll check it out next time I'm close to it."
Liara had opened her omni-tool and almost ran into a garden arrangement when they exited the alleyway. Garrus quickly pulled her to the side.
"Oh, thank you Garrus, I didn't see..." Her attention was back at the information on her omni-tool and the rest of the group didn't notice that she had stopped walking.
"Guys?" Garrus called over to them.
Shepard turned around and came back. Liara was still reading, a frown had appeared on her forehead. "What is it, Liara?" Shepard asked, placing her hand on her shoulder.
"Some asari can feel the Keepers too, but most don't," Liara explained, her eyes on the texts on her omni-tool. "Asari scientist assumed that it has to do with a certain flavor of biotics, some variation that has a link to the keepers." Liara looked up to look directly at Shepard, "That would explain why Kaidan can feel them but you are not biotic. How can you feel them?"
"Well, it's a new thing and it definitely has something to do with the beacons and their visions. I never could feel them before that."
"But that would mean..." Liara stared at Shepard as if she expected her to finish the sentence for her.
Shepard took a step towards Liara and held her by her shoulders. Garrus also took a step towards her and placed his hand on her back. The asari was trembling.
"What is it?" he asked her.
"The reapers built the Citadel, the protheans used it just like us. Were the Keepers also built by the reapers? Or by the protheans? Are the sensitive asari, the biotic humans and you, feeling a prothean or a reaper connection?" Liara said quietly as if she was afraid someone else could hear her.
"Oh, I don't like this," Shepard mumbled.
"No, me neither," Nihlus said. The whole group had gathered around Liara, listening to her thoughts. "If the reapers control the keepers, we can't trust them. Spirits be damned, if the reapers built the Citadel, they could know of a backdoor to take control of it. The keepers could be their tools for that."
Keggs shook his head, "If there was such a backdoor, they would have used it already, there must be some kind of protection installed to prevent that."
Shepard's eyes went wide, "Maybe that's what Saren is after, a key to override that system. Maybe the protheans messed with the keepers so that they don't follow Sovereign's orders."
"And because the protheans changed the keepers," Garrus said to Shepard, "you can sense them through whatever the protheans added to your neural system with the beacons. I like that idea much better than you being able to feel reaper technology."
Shepard gave him a weak smile, "Yeah, me too."
"If such a backdoor exists," Nihlus said, urging them on with his hands and a subharmonic trill, "it's even more important that we stop Saren on Ilos or at least find out what he does there."
Shepard let out a snort. "We need the Normandy for that and working cannons and – oh! – the fucking lockdown lifted! And some protection against reaper influence would be nice too!"
"One thing at a time," Keggs said with a mysterious hum in his undertones. He seemed to have a few more pieces hidden in this game.
Shepard kept muttering under her breath about not having time for this as Keggs led them to an office building and stopped and seemed to wait for someone. After few moments, a skycar slowed down at the railing and Dr. Chakwas stepped out. She greeted the group with a nod and followed them as Keggs led them through a simple door on the side of the office building. It opened as he approached and closed automatically behind them.
"Why did you ask Dr. Chakwas to join us?" Shepard asked Keggs, as they walked through the dimly lit corridor.
"You'll see why," he said, his tone indicating that Shepard should just be patient. Behind his back she pulled her face in a grimace in answer.
The corridor ended at a big door that also opened when Keggs approached. They stepped into a huge hall that seemed to be under construction. An area in the middle was blocked off with fences, covered in white tarp. Behind the fences they could hear sounds that made Garrus' plates itch. When he looked over to Shepard he could see that the sounds made her uncomfortable too. It was quite obvious because she already had her pistol ready.
"I know this noise," Liara whispered, her biotics wavering around her like blue light.
"Me too," Kaidan whispered, his pistol ready as well, "That's a husk."
Keggs nodded, "That's correct but you're not in danger." He opened a section in the fence and let them through.
"Keggs! There you are!" The cheerful greeting came from Pauline, who was once again dressed in an extraordinary ensemble of some flimsy black thing and stockings with polka dots. She also seemed to be taller, her shoes had the thickest rubber soles Garrus had ever seen. But even Pauline's outfit was not enough to distract from the cage, surrounded by blue mass effect force fields, that stood at the far end of the enclosed area and housed a husk.
Pauline pointed towards the deformed, only vaguely human figure with a bright smile and said, "Meet Franklin, our guest."
"You keep a husk in here?" Shepard said with a low growl in her voice. She turned to Keggs, "You knew about this?"
Keggs just made a short trill to say that he did.
"Shepard, honey," Pauline said and left her workplace to put her hand on Shepard's arm, "we needed a test subject to develop that block for the reaper signal. How else were we supposed to test if it works?"
Garrus lowered his gun that he had aimed at the snarling figure in the cage. "That sounds reasonable, we really need that block."
Shepard looked around and finally lowered her pistol as well. "Fine, I get it."
"We are using every safety and precaution we have," Pauline explained in her cheerful voice, "we never enter the cage, we only use robotic arms to take samples, we scan from the outside, the mass effect field never gets dropped." A turian peeked out from behind an analyzer machine, trilling out an assuring tone.
Shepard kept looking at the husk like she wanted to kill it right on the spot. "That thing still makes me nervous." She looked around, "Where's Tali?"
"Tali?" Garrus turned to the left, expecting to see the quarian there but she was nowhere to be seen. He walked back to the fence door and looked out into the empty hall. "Tali?"
"Here," a quiet voice came from a pile of boxes that were covered in tarp. Garrus walked behind them to find Tali sitting on the ground, leaning against the boxes, her omni-tool glowing.
"I found her, we'll be right there," he called back to the fence door.
When he approached Tali, she stopped him with a shout and deactivated her omni-tool. "That would have zapped you if you had gotten any closer," she said.
Garrus sat down next to her and put his arm over her shoulder. Even through his armor he could feel that she was shaking. "What's wrong?"
A sob left her speaker. "That noise..."
"But you fought husks before with us," Garrus said, thinking back on the many missions where Tali had had no problem shooting husks with her shotgun.
"Yes and it felt like therapy, like making up for all those people on that ship," she said, almost too quiet for him to hear.
Garrus felt shame creep up his neck, he had never even spared a thought about how terrible it must have been for Tali on that ghostship where they found her. Locked up in the medbay, hearing the crew being torn apart by husks outside, unable to help. How long did she have to hear those noises, the screams of the dying and then the low growling of the husks looking for more prey? And still she agreed to help them in any way she could and fought husks with them like it didn't affect her.
"I thought I was over it but that noise, it.. it sounded just like..." she sobbed once, "when it had all gotten quiet, there was one husk in front of the door, it kept sniffing and scratching and it sounded just like..." with a sob she fell forward and cried.
"I'm so sorry, Tali, I had no idea," Garrus said, underlying his words with hums of apology.
"I'm sorry for being so weak," Tali sniffled.
"You are not weak, you are one of the strongest people I know," Garrus called out, pulling her closer to him. "You survived all that and still signed up for this crazy mission to save the galaxy, you fought husks and geth despite all you've been through. There's no one else like you, Tali and you are not weak!"
Shepard came around the corner, "Couldn't have said it better myself." She sat down on Tali's other side and pulled her into a hug, giving Garrus a grateful smile over Tali's shoulder. "That was really bone-headed of me to never ask you how you feel around husks."
"Bone-headed?"
"Substitute with any word from your vocabulary meaning stupid-head."
"Bosh'tet," Tali said and she didn't sound like she was crying anymore.
"Sorry for being a bosh'tet," Shepard said, peering into Tali's mask and holding her helmet with her hands on either side.
"Is it safe in there?" Tali asked.
"Yes, the husk is locked up and surrounded by a mass effect force field. It can't get out."
"Okay, I'm coming with you." Tali stood up in one fluid motion and picked up her shotgun from the floor. Shepard jumped up from the ground like she didn't wear all that heavy armor and held out a hand to Garrus to help him up as he struggled with getting his legs back under himself.
"All these crazy and flexible pyjaks," he mumbled.
"You mean if we see a turian attack, we just have to knock him off his feet and he'll be busy struggling to get back up?" Shepard asked as she leaned backwards to pull him up.
Garrus pushed himself off the ground, but that made Shepard lose her balance and he caught her and pulled her to his body before she would fall backwards. For a second they stood frozen in that embrace, her face looking up to him, just a handwidth away from his. He could feel her breath hitch and a blush was rising on her face. "Just promise me not to try that with Saren, please," he murmured with a low growl in his subharmonics that had more lewd undertones than strictly necessary.
They stared at each other, their lips almost touching, lost in the others eyes for an eternity.
By the Spirits, I need her.
A giggle from Tali woke them from their trance. Shepard stepped back, a blush spreading on her cheeks and she punched him lightly on his armored arm. "So distracting, Vakarian, really unfair," she mumbled.
Garrus hummed a short apology that he didn't quite mean. If he could have had his way, she would be naked by now and gasping under his kisses.
"Go ahead, we'll be right there," Shepard said and walked back to Tali.
Garrus acknowledged her order with a nod and went back to the fenced off area. He took a deep breath to calm down the hum behind his cowl.
He stepped back into the make-shift laboratory, noticing the two women following him a few steps back. They were whispering to each other and stopped abruptly when they caught up with him as he held the door open for them. Shepard grinned at him and he noted that one down for later to ask her what they had been giggling about.
Pauline held a tiny glass case between her fingertips and the turian next to her held a slightly bigger case between two talons. Pauline looked up and beamed her characteristic bright smile at them.
"There you are, just in time."
Shepard walked up to her and curiously peered at the thing in her fingers. Tali joined the group too but her eyes stayed trained on the cage, her shotgun loosely in her hands. Garrus was convinced that she wouldn't shoot the husk right now but damn if she wasn't prepared to do so if just as much as flinched at her.
Pauline also assessed Tali's reaction and, apparently satisfied with it, she turned back to the group in front of her. "This is the emitter for a human implant, it will be part of the implant itself and not use any of the ports. I just need to scan your implants to adjust it to the different configurations."
"Go right ahead," Shepard said and turned so that Pauline could scan the back of her neck with her omni-tool. "It might be more practical if you gave me that program and I scan the members of my crew that will come with us."
Pauline nodded and swiped over the interface on her arm, "Done, you should send me the scannings back as quickly as possible so that I can make the necessary adjustments. The extensions should be done by tomorrow."
She turned to the turian who stood next to her. "This is Leran, he helped develop the turian implant. We had to devise a whole new implant because turians usually don't have one and it also has free ports for extensions. Once you have an implant, you might want to get other uses out of it too." She held the glass case up to the overhead light and Garrus saw something tiny glinting inside. "We thought that the emitter should be hidden. It is part of the base design for the turian implant and we did our best to integrate it into the human implant so that it's virtually undetectable."
Leran handed Garrus the glass case to look at and he saw a small circular device swimming in a clear liquid. The thought of an implant in his head momentarily distracted him from the fact that the turian handing it to him was clearly female but had been addressed as a male.
Keggs took a closer look at the implant, a disapproving trill in his subharmonics. Nihlus came up too and eyed the thing. "Where do you want to put it?" he asked the two people in front of him.
"Not the back of the neck like on humans," Pauline said hurriedly, anticipating a protest. The back of the neck was an extremely sensitive bundle of nerves and an erogenous zone. No turian would ever allow that area to be disturbed by a foreign object.
Dr. Chakwas broke her calm silence and stepped forward. "We are going to set it under the side of your fringe. We can connect the implant directly to your temporal lobe and it will be protected, invisible but still easily accessible."
It sounded good in theory but Garrus still winced at the thought of someone putting a device directly into his brain. He didn't even like the idea of attaching rings and piercings to his fringe, let alone an implant. But then again, getting his mind controlled by a reaper was a much more frightening prospect and if it took an implant to prevent that, he would be willing to do it.
"Are we sure that it works? Has it been tested?" Nihlus asked.
Instead of an answer, Leran tilted his head so that they could look under the lowest ridge of his fringe. The tiny implant was faintly visible in the shape of a circle that was protruding slightly from the skin under the ridge.
"I have been wearing our prototypes in the last seven days," he said with a voice that was wavering somewhere between male and female. "The first ones were not effective but now we found the right brain waves we need to block out."
"Brain waves?" Shepard wondered.
"Yes," Pauline called out excitedly, "that's how the signal works, by overlaying certain brain waves with the reaper pattern. We can shield those brain waves by cancelling them out with projections of the exact opposite. We can actually detect them quite easily because brain waves normally don't tend to be broadcast between species. If we detect brain waves-like patterns outside of a head, we know that we're dealing with reaper signals."
"Are brain waves that similar across species?" Shepard looked around between them, turians, humans, an asari and a quarian.
"Yes! Isn't that weird?" Pauline said, smiling even wider. "I was surprised too. Some things are common even across different species."
Keggs stared at the device and his subharmonics hissed and trilled an impressive collection of slurs. "I still don't like to get things stuffed under my fringe," he growled.
Nihlus shouldered him aside. "Put the first one under mine, it can't look any worse." He gestured to the disfigured side of his fringe, where Saren's shot had almost killed him. Fringe disfigurement had a social stigma among turians and even Nihlus, despite his sunny nature, probably suffered under it.
"It can only make you look prettier, baby," Shepard said, putting her hand gently on the mandible on his disfigured side.
"If you say so, sweetie." He turned back to the other turian with a suggestive chirp, making Leran stutter a confused trill. "By the way, this is Leran, I put my hopes in him to find the problem with the Normandy's guns."
Leran chirped a greeting and Garrus couldn't stop staring at the turian and his short fringe. Only female turians had such short fringes and with the high rise of his cowl and the voice, he was certain that Leran was a woman. Her name was probably Lerana, a fairly common turian name. Why then did everybody address her like a man?
Pauline pulled a transportable operating unit forward and stepped aside to give Dr. Chakwas access to the control. The unit was just big enough to have Nihlus sit on a reclining chair and put his head into it. Dr. Chakwas worked the interface and with a whirr, a mass effect field built up around his neck and the opening of the device, shielding the operating area against the outside and sterilizing the air inside.
Nihlus kept on talking, a nervous hum underlining his voice, about Leron and how capable he was until Pauline took his hand.
"It's going to be fine, you won't feel a thing," she said, bending down to look into his eyes.
Nihlus sighed and relaxed. "Just... don't take a wrong turn there and suddenly I'm attracted to Hanar." He gave his characteristic smile and laid his head back.
Pauline smiled warmly and administered an injection to his neck. "We'll be careful," she said as Nihlus' eyes fell closed.
After a quick look on her omni-tool, she nodded towards Leran, who stepped forward with the implant. Dr. Chakwas and the turian worked quietly at the operating station. Garrus couldn't see exactly what they did, despite craning his neck. He wanted to know what he had to expect when he got the implant himself.
The procedure was over quickly, the operating device turned off but Nihlus stayed under sedation. Leran pushed his chair over to another station and placed Nihlus' under a scanner arc. "We're going to monitor how his immune system and his brain adapt to the object and the brain waves," she or he said.
Garrus walked up to the sleeping form of Nihlus. He looked over to the turian besides the chair and only realized that he was staring when Leran trilled at him. "Oh, I... why... I'm sorry," he stuttered. But he couldn't stop staring at the strong fringe and the elegant shape of the mandibles. Leran was an attractive turian, in whatever gender.
"Yes, it's true," Leran said with a subharmonic undertone that was only a little annoyed. "I look female and I was raised as a woman but I never felt right. I'm a man, no matter what this body looks like." He looked over to Shepard, who was talking to Pauline. "The humans call it transgender and when I heard how they explained it, suddenly it all fell into place. All my confusion, all my "wrongness". Suddenly I knew." A barrage of subharmonics spilled from him, making Garrus feel his troubles with him. Leran straightened and wiped his short fringe. "I know that many turians think I'm a freak but this is me. I'm not pretending to be someone else anymore."
Garrus recalled a segment from a vid-show he had seen. Older, traditional turians called it "another one of those stupid human ideas!". While humans had a long history of gender issues and difficulties with gender roles, it was a new subject for turians. Every turian was expected to contribute to the society and the rise of the Hierarchy in any way he or she could. According to the traditionals, there was no reason for turians to deny their born gender because their roles in the society didn't change.
Garrus had to admit that he had agreed with that view, simply because he never had to question it. But seeing Leran and hearing the conviction in his voice made him wonder what exactly it meant to feel like you were born with the wrong gender.
"I'm sorry that I was staring," he said, putting sincerity in his second voice. "You are the first transgender turian I have met."
Leran accepted the apology with a hum and checked Nihlus' vital signs again before he looked over to Shepard. "That is Commander Shepard, your anima?"
"Yes," Garrus said, his subharmonics singing without reservation.
"I have not seen that before, a turian with a human anima." He looked over to Shepard and then back to Garrus with a shy grin. "I almost want to ask how that works but I hate to get that kind of question myself."
Garrus sang out a friendly note that made Leran look up. "I offer you a deal. I'll answer any question you have if you answer any question I have without getting angry."
Leran trilled his agreement and blurted out the first question right away. "Don't your talons cut her? Human skin is even thinner than asari skin."
Garrus held up his hands to show Leran his talons. "Like most turians I know, I don't keep my talons sharp. But you're right, sometimes I scratch her and her skin suffers from the friction against my plates. But we have lotions to help with that and humans have incredible healing abilities."
"I heard about that, I couldn't quite believe it."
"I'm sure some things are exaggerated but I can vouch that her skin heals very fast."
"Fascinating, I wonder how their cell regeneration adapts to..." the familiar science babble that all highly intelligent people seemed to fall into after a while, only stopped when Dr. Chakwas approached them.
"Let me see your implant," Dr. Chakwas demanded and her voice, despite lacking the deep subharmonics, allowed no disagreement. But Leran seemed unsure and pulled away.
"My implant is fine, I made it myself and implanted it and – "
"Exactly," came Chakwas' voice, which had never been this snide before. "Are you a medical doctor? No, you're an engineer, an excellent one from all I heard. But I'm the leading expert in turian physiognomy at the Alliance and the best doctor you'll find right now. And now I will look at that implant."
There was a clear 'Yes, ma'am' in Leran's subharmonics and he dutifully layed his head to the side to give Dr. Chakwas access of the skin under his fringe. The doctor had to stand on her tiptoes to scan the area with her omni-tool.
"It looks good, the cut has healed well, the connections to your temporal lobe are straight and healthy. I have used a different neural support on Nihlus but this one looks good too. And your skin has attached to the implant without any reactions to it." She shut down her omni-tool and lowered herself back on her heels. "Well done," she said to Leran with a smile. "I can see that you have done excellent work but I would still ask you to contact me if you feel anything unusual or if there is any reaction at the implant's location, okay?"
Leran nodded. "Yes, Dr. Chakwas, I will."
Dr. Chakwas turned around and fixed a scolding look on Keggs. "You and I will have a conversation about how you allowed such an implantation without medical supervision by me or someone equally well trained for such a procedure."
Keggs looked downright scared and his subharmonics hummed in apprehension.
Dr. Chakwas turned away from him and pulled up a chair next to Nihlus. She obviously intended to stay and watch over her patient.
Leran watched her and slowly let out a breath, a soft trill escaping him. "Human women can be scary," he mumbled quietly.
Garrus trilled his agreement and grinned. He turned to Dr. Chakwas and asked, "When can we put the implant under my fringe?" He threw a trill to Leran to include him in the question as well. While Leran trilled out that he could be ready anytime, Dr. Chakwas shook her head.
"Not before tomorrow. I want to see how Nihlus heals first and if there are any reactions." She noticed that Leran opened his mouth in protest and raised a hand. "I don't have to tell you how highly unusual and dangerous it is to work with new and experimental technology like this and that one or two successful implantations are in no way sufficient proof for the functionality and safety of this procedure."
Leran closed his mouth with a snap and nodded. "Yes, of course," he said.
Garrus had to grin, if Leran had never worked with human women before, he sure had some impressive stories to tell now.
"Then I'll be going to the dock and check the Normandy's software," Leran said.
Shepard smiled brightly at him, "Oh yes, please, I put all my hopes in you to fix the damn cannons."
Leran made a nervous trill but switched it to brave acknowledgment, indicating that he would face all challenges as they came. Keggs gave him a short nod with a proud trill and Leran seemed to grow taller just from that.
"I'll be around later, to see what you find," Shepard said and turned to Keggs. "Please tell me you have a solution to our lockdown problem."
"I might, but we have to gather some more information first."
"Every minute we wait, Saren may be closer to the key to the Citadel," Shepard growled.
"But if we rush, we'll be vulnerable, not to mention that we don't have enough implant enhancements yet for all of you to be protected against the reaper signal," Keggs said and the calming hum of his subharmonics seemed to have an effect on Shepard.
She let her shoulders drop and nodded. "Right, as you said, one step at the time."
Garrus turned to Pauline, "How quickly can you have enough enhancements made for the marines and for me?"
Pauline pointed to a professional printer at the far end of the lab. "The enhancements are being made as we speak, by tomorrow morning we'll have enough for every human of the combat crew on the Normandy." She picked up a closed jar with a familiar looking, circular device. "You implant is already done, we just have to wait until Dr. Chakwas gives her okay to implant it."
"What about Tali and Wrex?" Shepard asked, stepping up to his side.
"I'm not sure how quarians use implants and how we can add the reaper block to them."
Tali stepped forward to the table. "We use many implants, our suits are directly connected to our nervous system with implants. I'm sure I could adapt the enhancement that you made for the human implant."
"Excellent!" Pauline said. "Do you need need a sterile environment to work on that?"
"No, this table is just fine." Tali took the enhancement unit and began scanning it with her omni-tool.
Pauline turned back to Shepard. "Now with Wrex... the problem is, we have hardly any information on krogan and krogan immune systems. They don't get sick, at least no doctor has ever seen a sick krogan. I don't even know where to start with krogan, can they wear implants? Wouldn't their bodies just reject it?"
"They do have implants for their biotics," Shepard said with a shrug.
"They do? I didn't know that," Pauline said, smiling excitedly. "Then we could probably make an enhancement work like with human implants."
Shepard nodded, already typing on her omni-tool, "I'll bring Wrex here so that you can scan his implant."
"Try to get him here now, then check on the Normandy and then get some rest," Keggs ordered.
"With the lockdown, we have all the time in the world to rest until Saren and Sovereign hit us," Shepard sighed.
Garrus had to suppress a shocked trill. With everything that was going on, the actual, final threat they would be facing had fallen into the background, forgotten like the hum of the engine on a spaceship. He had been so focused on Saren that he had forgotten about Sovereign.
"I'm working on the lockdown," Keggs said quietly.
Garrus let out a trill of relief. He didn't know Keggs all that well but he had such an air of conviction around him that he trusted him completely to solve all their problems.
"But once you're out of the dock, we'll need a distraction so that flight control doesn't shoot you out of the sky."
Then again, maybe he didn't solve all their problems but rather made the right suggestions to make others work at them.
"I think I have an idea for a distraction, give me a few hours," Shepard said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Garrus was curious as to what she had in mind.
"Go, get Wrex here," Keggs said. "And gather some supplies, discreetly. It's a long way to Ilos."
"Yes, Sir!" Shepard said, straightening her back.
Keggs nodded with a short trill and left with long strides. Shepard turned to Kaidan. "Lieutenant, I want you to get us some nice supplies, stock us up on food, maybe we can get some decent beer?"
Kaidan grinned, "The foods of my people, got it, Shepard."
She took the few steps over to Dr. Chakwas and Garrus heard her asking about Ashley. He stepped a bit closer so that he could overhear her answer.
"We were able to filter out the nano particles but her left lower leg was too damaged. We had to amputate under her knee," Dr. Chakwas said. "She's stable now and we are working on fitting her with a cybernetic prosthesis. But it will be a while until she can go back to work."
Garrus trilled in surprise, "She will go back to work?"
Shepard raised an eyebrow. "You want to tell Gunnery-Chief Ashley Williams that she should take up a desk job?"
"Futuo, I wouldn't dare," Garrus snorted out.
"Exactly," Shepard said with a grin. "And if it takes the leg from a chair tied to her knee, Ashley will find a way to get back into doing her job." Her face turned serious. "I just hope the Alliance lets her, they have a bad track record in their treatment of the Williams family."
Shepard rolled her neck and indicated with a dip of her head to Garrus that he should follow her. They left the fenced-in laboratory with one last look onto the husk in its cage, that was following their movements with its blue glowing eye sockets. Garrus hurried to close the covered fence door behind them, he had no desire to keep looking at the eerie expression on the husk.
Shepard came up to his side and closed her omni-tool. "I told Wrex to meet us in front of the Citadel tower and then we can bring him here."
"Are you sure you'll find the way again?" Garrus teased and received the expected punch on his arm for that.
"Yes, you ass, I had my omni-tool trace the way, I'll find it."
"And if that fails, you have a C-Sec detective with you, who knows the Citadel like the back of his cowl and has an impeccable sense of direction – "
A light Overload charge hit him and made him stumble, as his armor stiffened for a millisecond.
"Ouch!"
"You so deserved that, you cock-sure turian you!"
Garrus laughed and grabbed her arm and pulled her close to him. Greenery and some trees protected them from onlookers and he honestly didn't care anyway. He wrapped his arm around her and pressed his forehead against hers. It felt like weeks since he last had been alone with her and his whole body and soul were missing her. He breathed her in, his marking scent releasing on her skin, marking her to be his.
She slowly tilted her head back and her hands came up to his head to tilt him until she could kiss him. By the way she held onto him, their armors scratching against each other, her fingertips playing over and under his fringe and her lips nipping and sucking at his mouthplates, he could tell that she had missed this intimacy just as much as him. His mouth fell open, his tongue meeting hers in an electric touch and the world around them ceased to exist. He didn't know where he was and what he was supposed to be doing, all he could think and feel was her – how she sounded and smelled and moved...
Some part of his rational brain urgently reminded him that the flowerbeds on the Presidium were not a good location to take off their armor and finally feel her naked skin. He slowly pulled his tongue back and she let go of his lips with a sigh.
She was panting, almost whimpering when they broke their embrace. She looked up at him with hooded eyes, full of desire and lust and Garrus was just about ready to fuck her right here over the rail at the lake. His erection wanted to burst his armor and he wouldn't even have felt embarrassed about it if it did.
Shepard cleared her throat but her voice still sounded hoarse when she spoke, "It's been way too long."
"Agreed." Garrus tried to calm his breathing and his heart. Not very successfully.
"Way too long," she murmured and stepped out of the shadow back into the blinding white light of the Presidium. They walked side by side, their hands almost touching, both quietly panting.
"To change the subject," Shepard mumbled.
"Oh yes please," Garrus blurted out, desperate to get his mind off anything involving soft skin and strong arms.
Shepard snorted. "Alright. This Leran, something is different about him, right? He doesn't look like other turians."
"No, he's actually... I mean was... he – she was originally a woman..." Garrus stuttered, unsure how to phrase this.
"Oh, he's transgender? I've never heard of a transgender turian before."
"I saw a vid about it once but she – I mean he's the first one I have ever met."
Shepard looked up at him with her nose scrunched up. "What do you mean a vid about it?"
"It was a documentary about... well, traditionals call it 'another stupid trend from the humans', it featured a man and a woman who explained what being transgender means."
Shepard slowed down. "Wait, how is that our fault?"
Garrus stretched his neck. "Turian society is pretty gender neutral. We honor mothers of course and they get some advantages for birthing and raising children but other than that we don't distinguish between genders. Every turian is expected to work at his or her best for the Hierarchy, regardless of gender. So, there is no need to question your gender, according to the traditionals."
"But," Shepard raised a finger, "that's not what transgenderness is about, cause that's gender roles, not how you identify yourself. It's like, how did Svend say," she pinched the skin on her nose as she thought. "He said it's like you look in the mirror and think 'I'm not that one, I don't want to pretend anymore'. When you transition, you can finally stop pretending to be that gender."
"Is Svend trans?"
Shepard shook her head and began to walk again. "No, Svend says he's genderfluid. He is who he is but he doesn't believe in binary genders. On some days he feels more female and on others more male. And he likes playing with gender roles."
"Was that what he did when he picked up Kaidan at the dock?"
"Oh yes," said Shepard, laughing, "did you see how red he turned?"
Svend had waited at the dock in his combat boots, wearing a wide, yellow dress that fluttered in the gust of wind from the Normandy's docking. A yellow band was tied around his short, blond hair with a small bow on the side. Garrus wasn't well versed in human fashion but by the way Kaidan was blushing he figured that this wasn't the usual attire to pick up your boyfriend. But Kaidan had quickly collected himself and had pulled Svend into a tight hug.
They had almost reached the elevator doors to the tower but Wrex was nowhere to be seen. Shepard sat down on a bench to wait and Garrus sat down next to her. "You know, this whole discussion about gender seems kind of silly," Shepard said, "Here we are, on a station full of alien species, one of them doesn't even have more than one gender and we worry about how people fit into binary genders? Who cares?"
Garrus trilled a snort, "Turian traditionals care, according to the vid I saw."
Shepard leaned over to him, their armored arms clunking against each other. "Poor old turians, having to deal with all these annoying new ideas."
"It was so much simpler before humans started to ask all these questions."
"I know," Shepard laughed, "we're like a pest."
Garrus turned to her and smelled her hair. "I feel like I should say something poetic now but I'm drawing a blank on combining pest and destiny."
"That's the kind of poem I would like to hear," Shepard said and stretched up to almost give him a kiss on his mandible. But she stopped herself, probably realizing how very much in public they were. She sighed and whispered, "Later, Angel, later I will kiss you so hard."
Garrus' frustrated hum was so loud, that a turian couple walking past them turned around and stared at him. He trilled a short apology for his lewd sound.
"There's Wrex," said Shepard and stood up. Garrus followed her towards the large red krogan, who stomped towards them with another krogan in tow.
Shepard stood up to greet Wrex and discreetly squinted at her omni-tool before waving to the other turian. "Hello Skeev, good to see you again," she said, grabbing his lower arm like greeting an old friend. Garrus had to grin, Shepard easily acted like she remembered who the young krogan was, while she had actually checked her omni-tool for his picture.
He hid his amused smile by turning to the side and checking the area for people watching them. Which was unavoidable – two krogan, a turian and a human talking to each other wasn't that much of a familiar sight, not even on the Citadel. But it seemed to be just curious looks, not the kind of covert stare that an officer would have on a stakeout. Garrus had been on enough of those to know what that looked like.
"Shepard," said Wrex and then turned to look at Garrus. "Vakarian," he greeted and both Shepard and Skeev looked up in surprise at this unusual display of friendly respect.
Wrex ignored the pointed looks and nudged Skeev forward. "Tell her," he ordered.
The young krogan looked like he was about to burst but he kept his voice low as he spoke. "I have a friend, an asari –"
"His girlfriend," Wrex said, chuckling.
"Good for you," Shepard said to Skeev.
Skeev shrugged, "I like biotics."
"Yeah, I don't think we need details on that," Shepard laughed out, "what did you want to tell me about your asari friend?"
Skeev lowered his voice even more making it surprisingly quiet for a krogan. "She works in the office next to Tevos, the asari councilor. She told me that Tevos has had many visitors recently, more than in the last year combined. And one of the Matriarchs has not left, she's always around Tevos."
"Interesting," Shepard said, her finger playing on her lower lip. "We already noticed that there seemed to be someone with her in the room when we spoke to her but a Matriarch? Did she know the Matriarch?"
"I didn't ask her, we were... busy." The young krogan pulled his mouth wide into something that Shepard liked to call a shit-eating grin.
"No details, please!" Shepard interrupted, "Can I talk to your friend?"
Skeev opened his omni-tool and nodded after a few moments. "She'll be off work in about two hours and would talk to you."
"Have her contact me," Shepard opened her own omni-tool and exchanged her contact data with Skeev. "But don't have her mention anything about the council or the Matriarch, not over the omni-comm system."
Skeev acknowledged the order with a grunt and trailed off. Shepard took Wrex to the laboratory but Garrus excused himself and agreed to meet Shepard later on at his old office at C-Sec. He wanted to ask around the team if they had heard anything unusual and how the general mood on the Citadel was. But most of all he wanted to take a break.
Working with humans at C-Sec, he had quickly noticed that humans tended to stay up for close to 20 hours and then crash for the night, sleeping as much as 10 hours if possible. For turians, that kind of rhythm was unhealthy.
He stopped at his apartment and sat down on his couch without taking off his armor. He was asleep before he could order the windowpanes to darken.
When he woke up again, his omni-tool told him that over an hour had passed. Looking further down, he noticed a shock of black human hair on his thigh. Shepard was curled up on the couch, her head resting on a pillow on his armored thigh and she was fast asleep.
He softly drew his talons through her hair and she stirred. When he stroked his thumb over her cheek, she opened her eyes and smiled at him.
"Hey sleepyhead," she murmured, "why were you so tired?"
Garrus kept on stroking over her soft cheek. "Turians sleep differently than humans."
Shepard's eyes became wide. "Oh? I didn't know that. I probably should've read that brochure."
Garrus grinned and began to explain, "Turians usually stay up for about five hours and then take a short sleeping break for an hour before returning to work. It's perfectly normal for turians to lean back in their chairs during the day and sleep for a short time. As a result, night time sleep doesn't need to be as long so that most turians only sleep for four hours at night."
Shepard said up, concern showing as a frown on her face. "Wait, so I forced you to follow my schedule even though it wasn't right for you? Why didn't you say something?"
"I'm used to the human rhythm from working with Frank and I know how to take my breaks when ever possible."
Suddenly a smile spread on her face, "I knew it! You said you were working on the Mako but you were actually hiding down there to sleep!"
Garrus hummed a smile at her. "I did sleep right next to the Mako a couple of times but I worked on it too!"
"How did you sleep there? There's no bed or chair."
"Turians can sleep in any sitting position."
"Just like a cat, I knew you were a cat," Shepard said and then turned serious. "I'm very sorry that I didn't know all that and didn't accommodate for that. I'm going to adjust your schedule to that and we'll find a way of fitting that in. Actually, in some areas on Earth, they traditionally take a sleeping break during the day because it gets too hot. It's called Siesta."
Garrus let out a subharmonic sound of surprise, "Not only do you have areas on Earth that are as cold as Noveria and people still live there – you also have areas where it gets too hot to work during the day? And people also live there?"
"We are a resilient species."
"I am aware, believe me."
"I'm going to get you a Siesta chair," said Shepard, already typing things into her omni-tool.
"No need, I can sleep just fine by sitting down anywhere."
Shepard lowered her head and looked at him sternly from under her eyelashes. Garrus felt a shiver crawling down his lower back. He loved it when she looked at him like that, even if she didn't mean it in a sexual way in this moment. "On my ship, the representative of the turian Hierarchy will have a Siesta chair to take his nap in. End of debate."
She closed the omni-tool interface and punched him on his arm. "I can't believe you let me sleep everywhere and anytime and don't tell me that you need to sleep too."
"We're not that different that way it seems," Garrus said and thought fondly about the many times when she had fallen asleep on a transport or on the Mako, her head resting on his shoulder. He loved those moments when she trusted him to watch over her and protect her while she slept for a few minutes.
Shepard stood up, agitated. "But that's just the thing, I was counting on you to take care of me while I took the obligatory navy-nap. But I would have watched your sleep too if I had known that you're tired."
"I know you would have, don't worry about it so much." Garrus grabbed her arm and pulled her back down to him.
Shepard leaned back against his cowl with a sigh. "You have to tell me these things. Angel, I'm just a dumb human. They didn't mention sleeping patterns in the military brochures. Actually," she sat up and looked at him, "I heard that turians need less sleep, there were tales of turians that never slept during the war on Shanxi."
"Funny, I heard the same kind of stories about humans during that war."
"Well, there are ways to stay awake – certain drugs, combined with implants..."
Garrus shook his head, "You humans are terrifying with your ease of implant use."
"You really don't like implants, do you?" She looked at him and softly stroked over the area where the implant would go.
Garrus' subharmonics vibrated with deep discomfort. "I find the idea of attaching technology directly to my brain disturbing."
Shepard kept stroking, her thumb brushing over his mandible. "But turian biotics use implants too."
"You may have noticed that biotics are stigmatized in our society?" Garrus sighed, even during his time at the base camp, biotics had been separated from the military. Saren was the only turian biotic he had ever heard about and he was more feared than admired. "People think that biotics are dangerous and cannot be trusted. They are trained in the Cabal, separated from their family and clan..."
"That doesn't sound good," Shepard said. "But humans have issues with biotics too, Kaidan has some stories to tell about that." She looked at the spot on the side of his head again, softly poking at it. "And that biotics use implants put a stigma on implants too?"
"I never thought about it but, yes, that could be a contributing factor." He thought back to the stories he heard as a child, told by older children who watched vids that were not quite for their age. About biotics and killers that went crazy from implants, told in hushed voices as if they were real.
Am I still influenced by spooky stories from my childhood?
"I wish I could say that you don't have to do anything you don't want but..." Shepard huffed out a breath, "I'm afraid without an implant, you could turn into a liability. The combat team for Ilos has to be protected against the reaper signal."
"Don't even think about leaving me behind," Garrus interrupted her, "I'm getting that implant tomorrow no matter what."
Shepard placed a kiss on his mandible. "Alright."
Her omni-tool chimed and she checked the interface. "I'm meeting Dania and then we'll talk to Skeev's friend. I hope Dania can pick up on asari things that I would miss."
Garrus tried to stand up but Shepard pushed him down. "No, you keep taking your break and later –"
"I was going to check at C-Sec what they've heard and poke at some old informants," Garrus said, stretching back out on the couch.
"Good idea, I wonder how much of the geth and the reaper threat has transpired here on the Citadel."
She stood up but leaned back down to press a kiss on his mouthplates. He eagerly opened them to meet her tongue with his own. Her soft lips were hot and cold at the same time and she hummed as she nipped and sucked along his mouth. She sucked his tongue into her mouth and kept on humming. The vibration of her hum traveled straight down his spine and he thrummed a subharmonic answer of his own.
With a smacking sound she released his mouth and pressed her cheek against his mandible. "That hum, I want to hear that inside my body tonight, do you hear me, Mister?"
Garrus almost choked on his own tongue. "Yes, Ma'am, certainly."
She snickered and gave his mandible a small peck before she left, turning one last time at the door to act out a kiss to the air. Garrus had trouble falling asleep because he just kept on smiling.
Notes:
- Reaper blocking signal inspired by Spyke1985=actually-fen-harel
- I'm aware that the expression "born in the wrong gender" is not the correct term but it would be what Garrus is calling it at this stage where he has not learned about less transphobic expressions
- I so want to write a story about Skeev now