Chapter 5 – It's Not a Set-Up

'Aderia Tectus.' Shepard sat musing over the name as she leaned up against a wall with her arms crossed. Once she'd gotten them out of the tunnels, Sidonis suggested they wait up for Aderia at his apartment, a place he assured them they'd be safe. Shepard was more than willing to give the private apartment a shot, considering their luck with public locales up to that point. Garrus hadn't been keen on the idea, but he wasn't able to provide any other options for them to regroup. So the lot of them made their way to the residence without incident and now sat waiting for their mysterious intel source.

'Aderia Tectus…' Shepard mused again. It certainly wasn't a familiar name for Shepard; when she'd said the name aloud to herself, it had little meaning. But when Garrus said the name… Shepard glanced up to observe her husband anxiously stalk the length of the apartment for what had to be the hundredth time since they'd arrived. "Just let me know when you hit eezo…" Shepard commented.

Garrus stopped mid-step and stared at her, "What?"

"She means 'would you stop pacing the place before you make an unwanted sublevel?'" Vega offered from where he sat playing with his rifle on a worn-looking leather couch. "You're making me nervous, and I don't get nervous."

Ashley let out a mocking laugh from where she was perched at the kitchen island. "Right!"

"I don't!" Vega stated defensively.

"You were practically tripping over yourself when I brought you meet my mother." Ashley began, appearing smug and ready to recount the tale. Lucky for Vega, Sidonis had finally decided to break his silence and update them on the situation with his boss.

"Aderia will be here soon… she was caught up working on something on the other side of Omega." Sidonis said loudly. He'd been leaning against the wall next to the door since they'd arrived, whether to serve as lookout or to have a quick escape route handy, Shepard wasn't sure. "It won't be much longer, trust me."

Shepard observed Garrus give Sidonis a baleful stare before continuing his trek and muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, 'Should've gone to Aria.'

While everyone else seemed content to allow the tense silence settle back in, Ashley apparently had other plans. "Okay… let's play a game! Eye spy with my little eye…"

"Is it the neon lighting?" Vega asked in a bored tone, his answer cutting Ashley off before she could finish. "It's the neon lighting, isn't it?"

"No." Ashley said, sounding irritated by Vega's impertinence. "I didn't even finish…"

"The shuttles passing by?" Vega tried again, sounding a bit more interested being the game was proving to be a challenge. "No! No, wait…" he held up his assault rifle, "It's my rifle."

"No, James, it's not your damned rifle." Ashley crossed her arms indignantly, "Will you let me- "

"Is it-" Vega's brows knit as he struggled to identify something else in the apartment. "Could it be-"

But Shepard was already tired of listening to their game. "It's the faded blood stain on the carpet over there." she stated in annoyance, confident in her answer as she'd observed Ashley eye the stain when they'd first arrived at the apartment. "Game over."

Ashley raised an eyebrow at Shepard, "Yep… Okay I don't know if that says something about me for spying it or you for pointing it out."

"Humans are strange." Sidonis' metallic tone rang as he voiced his opinion. He frowned at the bloodstain on the carpet, ostensibly self-conscious about their observation, "I swear that was there when I bought the place."

Garrus abruptly ceased his pacing and faced Shepard. "Alright! You won! Let's go to Aria."

"Of course I won! Wait, what exactly did I win here? Are we still talking about Eye-Spy?" Shepard uncrossed her arms and pushed off the wall to close the distance between her and her husband. "Look Garrus, I know this isn't exactly what you were expecting, but you need to calm down."

"Well excuse me for being on edge." Garrus snapped, at Shepard, causing her to take a step back from him. "If you aren't nervous about this whole affair, then maybe you should be. The last time I met up with Sidonis anywhere, three merc groups got together and slaughtered my entire squad." He stated bitterly, "For all you know this is some elaborate set-up of his to save his own hide."

"First off, not very elaborate. I mean, I'm still here aren't I? Second, I'm not setting you up." Sidonis said carefully, finally glancing up from his omni-tool to defend himself. He held out his omni-tool toward Garrus. "There's the message. Aderia will be here soon."

"Why are you even working with her? Doesn't she know you set us up?" Garrus asked, turning his ire on Sidonis then.

"She knows. I told her everything." Sidonis said quietly, contritely averting his gaze. "She took me on anyway."

Hearing what Sidonis said made Shepard pause and blink at the turian in surprise. "Then why would she send you to negotiate with us if she knew about what happened between you and Garrus?" she asked, suddenly unsure about the turian woman's intentions.

Sidonis shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm not sure. Maybe I was the only person available in this part of Omega?"

"Uh-huh." Shepard shared a glance with Garrus. "Sounds like some kind of set-up to me."

"So what? This Aderia woman is trying to make Garrus play nice with his traitorous ex-comrade?" Ashley chimed from behind the group. Shepard turned to find Ashley had joined James on the couch. "Why would she do something like that? What could she possibly gain from it?"

Garrus shook his head, then stared off into space. "I don't know. She always was unpredictable."

"What does this Aderia woman even do?"' Shepard asked then, dissatisfied by how both Garrus and Sidonis had been dancing around a proper description of their would-be informant. "You haven't said much beyond 'She can get us the intel.' Is she an information broker of sorts?"

"Aderia performs wide array of services. Mostly smuggling and intel. While her methods aren't necessarily 'legitimate', her focus has always been to provide her services to benefit the people of Omega. It's why she worked with us." Sidonis answered before letting out a cough in response to Garrus' dark stare. "She'll help you out, I'm sure of it."

"Yeah, and what will her help cost us? I seem to recall you using the word 'negotiate'." Shepard pointed out.

"She's been having some trouble with the Blood Pack. I think she was hoping Garrus would help her out by taking out the leader." Sidonis explained.

Garrus shook his head again. "No, I don't do that anymore. I'm not here to relive the glory days of Archangel. I'm just here to settle things and go home. Besides, she owes me for that time we saved that shipment of hers…"

"You'll have to take it up with her." Sidonis said with another shrug. "I was sent to give you the terms. Intel for the Blood Pack boss."

Garrus scoffed in frustration and turned from Shepard and Sidonis to stalk toward the far corner of the room. Sidonis resignedly looked at Shepard with an expression that said 'Can you talk to him?', before returning his attentions to the omni-tool interface on his wrist. Shepard glanced at both Ashley and Vega who were pointlessly pretending they were preoccupied and not listening to the whole exchange. She exhaled exasperatedly before going after her husband.

"Talk to me, Garrus." Shepard said softly, leaning up against the wall next to him. As she gazed at him she noticed how grizzled he looked, how much more prominent his faded scars appeared, how dull his piercing blue eyes were; the events of the past few days were quickly taking their toll. "I hate seeing you like this."

Garrus glanced over at her. "I'm sorry. I'm trying to keep a… I don't know if you'd call it a positive attitude. Level head, maybe? I'm trying to keep it together, but I just-" he let out an exasperated groan, "Why can't things just go right? It seems every time I take charge, shit falls apart. Nothing ever seems to go right for me…"

"You've survived a rocket to the face, lived through one of the galaxy's worst wars, and married one of the sexiest human women alive, and nothing has gone right for you?" Shepard teased. When her tease didn't elicit even the slightest chuckle Shepard sighed, "Come on, Garrus. Things aren't exactly going right, but they most certainly aren't going wrong either." She gave him a wry smile. "I mean, there's been three attempts on our lives now and we're still alive. Whoever's got a grudge is probably getting frustrated as hell, meaning they'll be more likely to make a mistake. And when they make that mistake, we'll be there."

"Right." Garrus said, but the look in his eyes said he wasn't convinced.

Shepard reached up and cupped the side of his face to turn his gaze on her. "Trust me, Garrus. You don't have to trust Sidonis, or Aria, or even Aderia. When I say we're gonna get through this, we're gonna get through this." She dropped her hand. "Half your issue is lack of patience. It's only been a few days since all this started. But I get it. You think this whole mess is your fault and you want it fixed right away. Fact is, it's not your fault and we'll take care of it the moment we're sure of everything. Ok?"

"Ok." Garrus said flatly.

"I'm losing my touch." Shepard dropped her hand and glanced away from her husband, looking for a different approach. "Tell me about Aderia." She finally said, wondering if the name was enough to distract Garrus from his persistent worrying. "Don't worry, I won't get all jealous that she's your ex-girlfriend." she teased.

The gambit paid off; Shepard watched Garrus get all flustered like he did back at the Black Hole Lounge. "She's not my ex-girlfriend. The two of us were never an item. If anything, she'd be considered an ex-lover… we only ever had a one-night-stand." Garrus let out a nervous cough and Shepard could've sworn she saw a blush rise in his chiseled features. "Now that I think about it, I've already told you what little there was to tell."

"You did? When?" Shepard thought back to all her conversations with Garrus. As far as she knew, he'd never named any of his past flings. He'd only ever confessed to one encounter in all the years the two of them had been together… "Wait just a minute…" Shepard let out a laugh. "Aderia was the scout. From the story you told me. The story that was basically the reason you and I got together."

"Shepard, it's not funny." Garrus stated, but his declaration did little to stop Shepard from having another laughing fit.

"It's hilarious." Shepard said with a wide grin. "This is the woman who inspired our favorite euphemism!" From across the room Vega and Ash glanced up from what appeared to be a game of rock-paper-scissors. Sidonis also cast them a curious glance from where he stood guarding the door once more. "Reach and flexibility… now I've definitely got to meet this woman!"

Garrus let out an embarrassed groan. "I knew telling you was a mistake." But as Garrus returned his gaze to Shepard, she could tell he was feeling less frustrated already. "Please don't say anything that would… maybe I should just do the talking."

"Oh, but Garrus! I've got so many questions!" Shepard smirked at Garrus' dismay. "I mean there was 'something' about that encounter that left an impression on you. I'm really curious about…"

"Shepard, no." Garrus said sternly. He left the wall and wrapped his right arm about Shepard's waist to pull her close. "Besides, she never left quite the impression you did, Commander." He murmured softly, pressing his forehead to hers. Shepard swallowed her teasing as her heart rate rose and warmth rose in her cheeks. Garrus leaned down and nuzzled the side of Shepard's neck, his breath warm against her exposed skin as he spoke, "You're right, as always. I'm just nervous… anxious for all this madness to be over with so the two of us can get back to our lives." He pulled back and looked down at Shepard. "What bothers me the most about all of this though, is how they hurt you and I was unable to stop them."

Reaching up to stroke the scarred side of his face again, Shepard gave Garrus a sympathetic look. "It's going to be alright. We're going to be alright. Garrus, I'm alright." She dropped her hand and patted his chest reassuringly. "Besides, 'I'm hard to kill! You should know that.'" She said facetiously.

"You never let me live anything I say down." Garrus grumbled, but Shepard could see a brighter mirth in her Turian's eyes again.

"'Til Chakwas do us part, dear." Shepard smiled when Garrus chuckled.

A low, seductive voice cut into their banter then, prompting Shepard and Garrus to pull apart from one another and face the armored individual approaching them from across the room. "Well, well… look who's back in the vigilante game." Drawled the female Turian, who was eyeing the two of them with obvious amusement. She shifted her gaze from the both of them to focus on Garrus and give him a nod. "It's good to see you again, Garrus."

Shepard glanced at Garrus, who was apparently put off by the appearance of the Turian woman. Taking it upon herself to cover for her suddenly and frustratingly dumbstruck husband, Shepard cleared her throat and took a step to close the distance between herself and the turian woman. "You must be Aderia Tectus. I'm Commander Shepard. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, though I'm sure the circumstances could have been more ideal." Shepard held out her hand.

The turian woman's expression was unreadable as stared at Shepard's proffered hand for several seconds before she eventually gripped it and gave it a brief, firm shake. "I see Garrus has already mentioned me. Good." Aderia sounded pleased, purposely looking past Shepard to meet Garrus' stare. "Shall we get straight to business, Garrus?"

Garrus let out a nervous cough and rubbed the back of his neck, and Shepard couldn't help feeling irked by his unanticipated awkward fumbling. He finally averted his gaze from both Shepard and Aderia and strode past them to head toward the living room. "Yeah. The sooner this mess is dealt with, the better."

"Of course." Aderia gave Shepard a curious look Shepard could've swore was a sneer. She turned to follow Garrus, leaving Shepard to stare after then two Turians.

"That's the understatement of the century, Vakarian." Shepard muttered to herself before she too followed the Turians to the living room.