Promotion Demotion
The problem with being a Spectre is that all everything a Spectre does goes into the sealed archives. It's accessible only to the Council and not even other Spectres can get into those files. That's not to say news of what each Spectre did recently doesn't get around. Some things, like the utter destruction of entire asteroid bases tend to get around rather quickly. It's rather hard to cover up a missing planetary body after all. But that's all gossip. Gossip doesn't make up for actual information. Useful information. Information that would have kept Garrus from accepting this assassination job in the first place.
It's not that he's against cracking skulls open from over a kilometer away. On these missions he goes solo as Wrex is more of the destroy everything in sight kind of guy. Sometimes tact is needed and Wrex just doesn't fit the bill. Also these missions let him think. Too much it seems.
Like about his stalled relationship with Tali. Which was really all his fault. He was being stubborn because she was being stubborn. And culturally ignorant. But mostly just plain stubborn. Turians can both get married and be mated. Being the hierarchical society that they are, Turian households can have enough internal politics to give any Salarian spy unit a headache. Especially if the head has multiple partners.
A Turian can be married multiple times as long as they can "equally" provide for each person they marry. In reality the order of marriage is important. Obviously the first wife has more say than the third wife but only if that first wife had children. However if the first wife's children were girls and the third wife had a son then the third wife become more important. All that can be trumped though if the second wife is picked as mate. Being mated is the end all way of attaching oneself to another Turian.
Generally speaking, most Turians just get married once and mate with their partner. Still, that Tali wanted to become his mate for quickly really did throw Garrus off. Granted he had come to terms with it and offered to make her his mate if they got married. The reason he wanted the marriage wasn't for the legality of it. Being mated was what Shepard called a "common law" marriage but that didn't bother Garrus. What bothered him was that Tali didn't want to get married at all. Not in the Quarian fashion nor Turian.
Why? He never asked. He simply made his offer known and had left things in her hands; he'd agree to mate with her if she agreed to marry him. That offer had been set over a year ago. Tali had been on the Citadel almost 18 months and they had known each other for four and a half years now. Maybe they just weren't meant to be. After all they were a cross species couple. Or had been. Things really had cooled off in the last year. They still lived together but hadn't shared the bed for anything other than sleeping in months.
Garrus took out his frustrations with Wrex's proven method of stress release; making things go boom. Sometimes though he wanted things to go splat and so that is how Garrus took up more assassination missions. Like the one he had been on just recently. The one he wouldn't have gone on if he had had access to Shepard's files say that she was trying to recruit the same bastard Garrus was trying to kill.
In the ensuing Spectre on Spectre firefight, the only one that got hurt(okay, killed. He had been "hurt" about 15 rounds ago) was the guy Shepard had been trying to recruit. Of course eventually, the Spectres stopped shooting at each other once they recognized each other and talked things out. Shepard was a bit put out; she had wanted the guy to be her sniper for her team. She was ready to take on the Reapers and was putting together a team. Feeling bad, Garrus offered to take the guy's place and act under Shepard's command. After all, it was her mission and she did sort of out rank him in so much as she was a Spectre longer.
That's how Garrus got back on Shepard's team and he was glad. Not because he knew he would be doing something to truly help the galaxy, not because most of the old Normandy crew was coming together but because with him there, there would be no need to send Tali on the ground team.
That's right, Tali had gotten herself recruited and Garrus wish he had just bitten her a second time. Then he could order her to stay home. Well, ask her to stay home. Plead. Beg perhaps. He wasn't completely stupid. Tali knew how to take care of herself and knew his anatomy well enough to know how to hurt him. Garrus just didn't like the idea of her being in firefights again. With any luck, things would be like last time and Tali would play a supporting role with Liara, who was once again along for the ride.
Wrex wasn't asked to come along. Garrus requested that it be that way. Wrex was completely pissed off at Garrus until Garrus managed to explain his line of thinking to the angry Krogan.
"Dammit Garr. Don't tell me you're taking another solo mission." Wrex growled.
Garrus wanted to slam his head into the bar. Wrex, and only Wrex called him "Garr" and got away with it. Why the Krogan couldn't say the last two letters of his name was beyond the Spectre.
"I'm not going on a solo mission. Shepard is getting a lot of the old team together and she asked me to come along."
"Really? I haven't heard anything from Shepard."
Garrus took a long drink of his Turian ale. How to break this to Wrex and still walk out of Chora's Den. And be able to sleep on Wrex's couch.
"I asked Shepard not to include you."
"Why Turian?"
"We've known each other a while now right?
"A few years. So? That doesn't answer my question Garrus."
"You trust me."
Wrex leered at Garrus.
"Okay, you respect me enough not to shot me. Right now. Anyway, I have no idea how long Shepard's insane op is going to take. And this mission is really going to tie up two Spectres."
"Get to the point Garrus."
"I want you to stay back so you can continue our work."
Wrex raised his eyebrow. "Our work?"
Garrus rested his head on the bar counter top. "Dammit Wrex. You know the Spectre business real well now and I want you to keep doing what we've been doing. Taking on the hardest, nastiest assignments the Council has to offer. Killing the scum of the galaxy."
"Why should I do any of that when you're not round? I don't even do any of that unless I specifically accompany you on one of your missions."
"Wrex, I owe Shepard a favor so I'm going with her to repay that debt. I've deputized you with Spectre powers for the duration of my absence. Just don't go overboard."
"Spectre powers?"
"Try not to do anything I wouldn't."
"Like blowing up an asteroid?" Wrex said with a large grin.
Garrus knew Wrex would keep up his work in his stead. Garrus just hoped Wrex really didn't go too overboard. Hopefully, Garrus had rubbed off enough to keep Wrex somewhat inside the rules, not to say that he didn't stretch them himself. At the very least, Garrus could go into Shepard's mission knowing things would be taken care of. He just had to deal with being stuck with Tali on the Normandy for a long time now.
A/N: I was going to make this a longer chapter but I think what I have in mind is best done from Tali's POV so Garrus's chapter has come to a close. Personally I can see Garrus and Tali both making it to ME2 as squad mates since they survived the last game. Wrex, Ashley, and Kaiden all can die so I think they make cameos at best. Just my thoughts. I think Liara is a given squad mate if that Asari from the trailers is her. Yeah for that.
I've got to say I have no idea how I used to do it. Before I could sleep in until noon. Now, sleeping in late is a task, a chore, something that requires actual work. I wake up at 6 and feel like I've over slept. It's madness. Just part of adjusting back to civilian life I guess.
Thank you to my reviewers. Right now for every fav this story has I have 2 people that were nice enough to make my ego bigger, I mean review.
BeckWreck: No sequel. Not planned anyway. In my experience if I make a sequel they tend to sputter and die. I do have a few ideas that could really twist this around but they wouldn't fit. I might do a few addon snap shots of could have beens. Hells, this was supposed to be a short two chapter thing to begin with.
Vshard: They say that emotions are universal so why can't emotions between two aliens have the same impact as human emotions? I'm drawing on East vs West (of the pond that is) for why I made up the mating thing. In the Western culture (US), which I think Tali fits into quite well, marriages come and go. Sad but true, being married isn't all that solid. While in the East (think Roman times) marriages were arranged and you were stuck with that person for life, like a mate. To solve that little issue of emotions it was common place to have mistresses, especially if you have standing in society. Arranged marriages still work out a lot better. They tend to make much more stable homes since divorce still isn't socially acceptable in most countries that still have arranged marriages.
Obsidian Thirteen: Sucks about the distance. I can understand. Used to (keep word) have a girlfriend. Then basic training came along and put a little distance and she jumped the first male she saw. Anyway, if I hadn't made it this far into the fic this would have ended without too much conflict. But you need to have fights in a relationship to keep it healthy. Nothing so massive that you break up but just enough to still confirm that you are separate people and you love the other person for being different from you. Now, what's that short story? I'm always looking for a good romance fic on here.