A/N: WOW! It's been so long! I know I have no excuses but a lot has happened to me the past few months and me and Mass Effect had a bit of a falling out.

Chapter 11: Fresh scars

It had already been days, Garrus had stayed completely stationary not willing to risk opening injuries. It had annoyed him to no end. Since the time they had come to an agreement and he had accepted her offer of an "alliance" she had been nothing but a pessimist.

"We need to wait until you're all healed up. You're of no use if you're just limping around." Was what she had said, no, stated quiet bluntly and he couldn't help but feel a blow to his pride that what she was saying was right. However her lack of Turian anatomy had left her looking a little incompetent and made her rants a little less potent.

"Shepard?" he looked towards the bright that crawled along the cracks and crevices of the cave wall the entrance to the dark cavern.

"Oh, Shepard…" He looked all around like some young juvenile trying not to get caught sneaking around doing something he knew would get him in trouble. And if truth be told he nearly was, with a 'Now or never' attitude he made his rather clumsy escape as he fumbled with stiff joints. He sighed as he stood up stretching his legs listening to hollow bones pop while unused tendons and muscles stretched. It wasn't long till he moved on out and into the sunshine. It only felt natural to have some kind of warmth beating down on him. Turians hated the cold so sitting in the shade for so long made his plates feel really shift uncomfortably.

It didn't take long for him to peel away the gauze from his arm to assess his injuries. The skin was still very weak and soft due to healing. It was definitely going to scar and leave and unattractive mark on his shoulder. It was an almost easy fix it wasn't as if… "Oh damn it!" It had dawned on him that he had been carrying around a rather irritating ill managed, thanks to Shepard, bandage on his face that he had sadly grown accustomed to, or at least, enough to forget about all together.

He felt up the side of his face still feeling human made the cheap military cloth as he went through a mental list of what he could use to inspect what he was certain was a great new asset to his features. He made his way back to the pile of armor that had been left unattended to and peeled the makeshift first aid in one un-mighty pull.

"Ahhh, fffff," the sounds feeling weak as they curled off his tongue and circled around tightly clenched teeth, it was true, he groaned leaning up against the closest wall of stone only to slide down hearing the scrapes from his rough back. The feel of his marred skin under his talons told him just as much any visual ever could. If anything all they did was kill his drive to even look at himself. His mom was going be absolutely livid when she saw this. He could already hear his sister telling him what a crazy fool for having half his face ripped off or whatever and his Dad's disaproving look when he told him how he managed to not only destroy his markings but half his damn head.

Another, rather humorous thought had popped into his head. He couldn't help but feel this wasn't going to help his chances at a girlfriend anytime soon. At most he might attract… a krogan? He couldn't help but laugh a little as though he could ever be that desperate. Then he couldn't help but grimace at how low he would have to fall. Not that he was racist it's just that Krogans where the last thing that could be considered, oh… he seen a vid. saying it, how did the human put it, up his alley. Just the thought made him feel dirty, clinical, and sick.

"Garrus?" He hear the tentative steps of Shepherd as her feet made her way over to him through stone and loose dirt. "Is something the matter?"

"No, everything is just fine and dandy, being stuck here with a soldier on the enemy's side. Having my face mauled off only to be scarred for life. Why, all we need is some fine liquor, a little music, and we could make a pleasant vacation out of it."

Shepard couldn't help but lift an eyebrow at his tone unusually sarcastic tone. Well sarcastic for anyone but him as she had learned yet suiting, however she noted this time it withheld slight aggression.

"No women?" Shepard said dryly.

"Not with this face," Garrus laughed getting up off the ground and stretching up the bottom half of his black under suit over himself feeling better at the snug covered skin. She looked over his scars and knew completely what was bugging him.

"Don't you think that you're being a little melodramatic?"

"Of course not, seriousness is my specialty Shepard, next to being a famous Varren trainer and being an astute specialist in the art of salarian science, and my award winning cooking."

Shepard looked at him obviously sensing the cheap sarcasm with a serious face and raised eyebrow.

"Ok, I'm a horrible cook."

She continued on.

"I didn't do so great in my science classes but it was the teachers fault honest."

She continued looking at him but her serious face soon gave way to a humorous smirk. A face he inwardly admitted he liked, it made him feel a little better as well.

"And yes I am no galactic renowned Varren Specialist."

"Really now," she said chuckling slightly as the awkwardness and tension lifted from the air.

"Well you know what they say Shepard a face is worth a thousand words… I think." He said as he gestured to his fresh scars.

"Only if the face is worth reading Mr. Vakarian," She said as she walked back to the cave and started grabbing her stuff.

"What?"

Chapter 12: The poisonous ones

They had made their way further through the grassy plains and Shepard was happier when they had made out what looked like the edge of a thick forest. With some reluctance they had found themselves in an almost thick and fully habituated jungle the strange thing was that even here they couldn't hear the calls of birds or any other animal noises she would expect to hear. This was not something Vakarian was used to either but at least something Shepard could in some manner relate. Even though there were no animals, which caused Shepard to tense, where there was this much foliage there would have to be some food.

"Alright," Shepard stopped in her tracks as she turned to Garrus. For the first time she could see a clear emotion run across his face, anxiety, not so much as to cause panic but enough to feel uneasy in his surroundings as he looked from side to side.

"Alright… we are getting out of here alright. Is that right? Or maybe we are staying… alright?"

"Well it's getting darker so we might as well stay."

"Um, Shepard. Now might not be a good time to sound whiny and all but my instincts are telling me bad, bad, bad. So maybe we should go ahead and get out of here and find another spot before my bad, bad feelings are right."

"Don't worry Vakarian, I have this covered. Alliance soldiers are trained in similar situations as these."

"Yes, but Turians aren't. We are more specialized in a busting into antique stores to catch the bad guys, or blowing up military bases on moons these days. The most environmental action we see is colonies."

Shepard stopped in her tracks and looked at him with furrowed brows. "Really?"

"Well when you're training to C-sec specifications, yes. When they had me shifted off to help them on that ship that didn't give me much military training in other fields because it would have been pointless. My job, as I recall was to be really sneakily board and highjack metal ships, remember?" He said it with humor as though it didn't matter.

Almost as though she had just remembered she had turned away from him shoulders stiff with the memories of her crew mates before her eyes. Burned, bloody carcasses of people she had eaten dinner, conversed, even took showers and slept above and next to in bunks with the night before the attack. Then ultimately her father, had he looked like that when he died.

"Yeah," her voice held no humor but was calm, "I remember."

He had struck a nerve, and he now he knew it.

"I'll go look for food, you go ahead and use the supplies we have to set up camp."

"Fine, but don't get attacked by anything again. I don't think I'm in good enough shape to help you this time around Shepard." She didn't seem to pay attention to what he was saying because before he could make some other remark or ask a question she had started up running.

It wasn't long that Garrus had begun a fire giving up on Shepards lighting utensils and using a small concentrated electrical laser from his omnitools many settings. Soon the fire started and before he could situate himself Shepard had returned with armfuls of fruits both he was acquainted with and were foreign. She laid them on the ground as they both hungrily eyed what was in front of them. All he had eaten in the past few days was rationed nutrient paste as she had eaten her military provisions. Now they were nearly out and nearly starved.

Poisonous, new, new, yuck, he finally picked up a purple fruit with bright blue veins of juice that flowed under tender skin. Using ungloved hands he used his sharp talons to slice out little pieces and put them in his mouth. He looked at Shepard as she quickly picked up a red tough looking fruit and took a huge chunk chewing idly.

"Whoa!" He said smacking it out of her hand. "What are you doing that's poisonous," She quickly picked it back up and flicked the dirt off.

"What do you mean poisonous?" She said as she looked him in the face.

"I mean they'll make you go blind. If anything you should go try and throw that up before your body starts to digest it. The affects are almost immediate."

"If they are so immediate I would be blind by now!"

"What?" He said both irritated and confused.

"I ate one while I was looking for the rest."

"Wh… Wha?" He started splurting out. Was she that dumb that she would… "Have you ever eaten these before?" he asked.

"Well, no but I tried them a while ago and they seemed fine."

"Seemed fine! You don't even know what you're eating. You could have died!"

Shepard was a little surprised to see him so concerned.

"Garrus, I am fine. I wasn't planning on coming back here and bringing back anything poisonous. What makes this plant so bad and how do you know what it is. How do you know this isn't something else."

"Well either way its DNA is made of dextroamino acid. It might as well give you an allergic reaction."

"Why are you so worried all of a sudden? I would have thought that this was out of character for you."

"No… it's just that." Garrus took a deep breath. "I can associate with most of the foliage here but it doesn't make any sense. I have seen just about most of the vegetation here on colonized Turian worlds but the fact that we haven't been able to find anyone." He stood up and walked around. "The fact that we haven't found anyone is to disquieting. What happened here that would cause no one to be here? Why would anyone set up a planet to be inhabited this way and dessert it?"

Shepard watched him as he openly contemplated his thoughts and took another bite not giving any mind to the crunch of dirt in between her teeth. She thought these same thoughts over in her mind but couldn't help but feel some relief as she thought of how lucky she was there was no Turian colonies here. If there had been she would either be dead or a hostage, she would rather be dead.

Garrus stopped and looked over to Shepard. "Are you listening, Shepard?"

"No, not really, you see I am stuck on an alien planet where I might live the rest of my life and the last thing I want to hear as I make the great pilgrimage to find my new residence is about how hopeless the situation might be all over me being able to eat a piece of seemingly toxic fruit." She took another bite noting it tasted acidic like an apple with the texture of a pear.

Garrus looked on and sat down. "Yes, I guess I just had a slight panic attack. I just can't help but feel like something is wrong Shepard. It's not just the Turian colonies but there isn't nearly any life here, and that Varren from the other day looked nearly starved to death."

"Garrus?" He turned and looked at the human women as she had a contemplating look on her face. "Are Varren Turian animals?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well are they indigenous to your planet?"

"No, they are from Tuchanka the Krogan home world."

"So wouldn't that mean that Krogans would have been here at some point?"

"Yeah, I was starting to speculate that as well. But I would imagine they would have seen us coming on radar if they were still here. They have a habit of going to worlds with illegal contraband and leaving just the same."

"But if krogans were here they must have or had some place to gather. A base or something even if they aren't here anymore that would still be here right?"

"Yes, your right." He said seeing her obvious logic immediately without coaxing he knew what she had intended. "So, you have an idea where we are going to live. Should I go out get some drapes maybe."

"No but a mattress will do just fine." Here cocky grin came back as she had forgotten all about their recent discussions.

No one noticed the strangely ominous silver blue that was reflected in the clear juice that fell from Shepards' fruit as it hit the ground and was quickly absorbed in the dirt not to be seen again.

A/N:

Have you ever loved something so much that you had to let it go? Well I did! Yep I burnt myself out on the stuff, videos, comics, animations and… fan fictions =w=. Mmmmmm, Fan fiction. I'm sorry I'm ashamed. So I needed a bit of a break away from the mass effect… imagination… realm… place. =-= Yeah. I have also had some bad writers block, had to go to a wedding, a funeral, and the worst family vacation of my life. This is the part of the story before the real adventure/drama comes into play and Shepard and Garrus are just hanging out trying to set there bearings for a new planet and get comfortable enough to trust one another.

It's not a long chapter but I hope it will suffice and hopefully I didn't mess up on Garrus's character too much.

Read rate and review and always remember fluffy love yah!