Why Wrex, Wrex?
Garrus and Wrex were standing side by side in the slow moving elevator each deep in their own thoughts. They had known each other for over 25 years now and still the evil contraptions moved at speed rivaling glaciers. Still, they were quiet, tense. They were on a mission of sorts. They were going to venture into the bowels of debauchery for one night. After all it was tradition to have a bachelor party. Maybe not a Krogan or Turian tradition but that never stopped either of them before. What made this awkward were the groom and his best man. Only because the best man was also the father of the bride.
It all started almost 20 years ago. Wrex and Garrus had been doing what they did; blowing things up and generally leaving a large swath of destruction in their wake. In the name of galactic peace of course. Out of the goodness of their hearts, or Wrex just wanted to shoot more things, they had answered a Turian transport distress call. It had been a lost cause but they got to kill a bunch of Batarians which is always good for the galaxy. They also came away with an unexpected passenger, a baby Turian girl.
There had been no real doubt about what to do with the baby. Tali had been trying, unsuccessfully for months to adopt a baby and Garrus had been barred from helping. Wrex was single, very much a bachelor, and in no way prepared to take care of a baby. So Garrus took the little girl home and the rest was history.
Tali refused to give up the baby and wasn't above using her mate's Spectre status. When the Citadel Social Services tried to go around that, Tali very politely told the social workers to go fuck themselves. When that didn't work Tali very calmly introduced them to an old friend of hers, her trusty shotgun.
Garrus did write a letter of apology and did send some flowers to the nice lady's hospital room but that didn't deter the CSS much. Until Garrus pointed out that this whole ordeal had lasted almost 6 weeks in which time Tali had taken excellent care of the baby. When that looked like it might fail Garrus very calmly explained to the CSS head that no one was going to take his daughter away from his mate or himself. Anyone that did might have to deal with a rather upset Spectre, his mate, another Spectre friend (Jane), a powerful Biotic (Liara, who was pregnant and getting very maternal toward the baby), and a dotting Krogan. That seemed to put an end to the dispute and little Adela Tali Vakarian was officially adopted by Garrus and Tali.
That's right, this tiny baby girl had big old Wrex wrapped around her tiny fingers. He would fight with Liara over the chance to hold Adela whenever Tali gave up her baby for a few minutes. How knew that Wrex had a soft spot for kids? Granted he did spend 22 hours holding and feeding the kid on the way back to the Citadel so some bond must have formed.
At first no one really thought much of it. Wrex was also nice when Jane and Liara's daughter Sheila was born and he made a handy baby sitter for Liara and Tali when he wasn't on mission with Garrus. He was Uncle Wrex and everyone thought it was cute. Even when Adela was three and announced that she was going to grow up and marry Uncle Wrex. Everyone just laughed and shrugged it off as toddler nonsense.
After all, Wrex was a round a lot and Adela really took a liking to him, crawling all over him and dominating his attention when he came to visit. It was taken as status quo even as a she got older. The one attempt to stop Adela from seeing Wrex quite so much had ended with Adela running away that night. The next morning Tali had been an absolute mess and in hysterics until Wrex called to say that Adela had run away to his place. Tali berated the Krogan as to why he hadn't called earlier to which Wrex sheepishly replied that he had left a message and didn't want to bother them too much as it was a Friday night. How Wrex knew what the Garrus and Tali were usually up to on Friday nights, Garrus never asked. Truthfully he didn't want to know.
"Just bring her over please. Tali and I would both appreciate it."
"What? Why do you think you can never get in touch with the Shepards on Saturdays until about 10 or so?"
"Wrex please. Just bring Adela home."
The whole episode was settled and Wrex became a standard fixture in the Vakarian's lives. He was just as anxious as Tali when it came time to send Adela to school. Garrus went along that first day as well but more for his daughter's sake then his own nervous feelings. It's never easy handing off the most precious thing in your universe to a total stranger, even if it is only for a few hours. Still Garrus was there to hopefully keep Tali and Wrex from fussing too much and giving bad advice to Adela. Tali told her daughter to be nice and polite to people and Wrex told her to kick anyone that wasn't being nice to her. Sure enough later that day Tali got a call from the school saying that Adela had viciously attacked another child.
'Viciously attacked' turned out to be kicking a human boy in the groin and then in the stomach while he lay on the ground. All because he was being rude to Shiela, who unfortunately took after her mother and was horribly shy. Adela had come to her 'cousin's' rescue and when the teacher asked her why she had beat up the boy Adela said she was doing what her Uncle Wrex had told her to do "beat some manners into people."
After that, the bullies of the class learned quickly to not pick on the quiet Asari girl or any of Adela's friends. Being the smart kid she was, Adela would normally let things slide in class until after the bell rang and everyone ran out to leave for the day. On days that a bully had done something, that bully normally would stumble and fall in the rush for the door and be trampled by his school mates.
And that's how it went as Adela got older. She was very much no one sense thanks to her very strong willed mother and her Spectre father. And Uncle Wrex told her not to let people try to bull her and that it didn't hurt to make a display of force early in the year. What Uncle Wrex said was just as good as her parents so Adela took it to heart.
Every year, at the beginning of the school year Adela would wait for some poor sap to go after Sheila. It was almost a game really. Adela would leave poor Sheila alone to be bait and sooner or later some moron would pick on her. Adela would make her grand entrance and often spend the first day of school arguing very level headedly with the councilor about why she did what she did.
"Do you know why I'm not giving you the same speech I always give you Ms. Vakarian?"
Adela cocked her head to the side, a gesture of curiosity, not used by Turians but something she had kicked up from her mother. "Why Ms. Mckay?"
"Because next you won't be attending this school and I know you won't be a problem for the rest of the year. I still don't understand why you do this." The Human councilor said. Turians had a much shorter school life compared to Humans or Asari. Primary school was only 7 years long starting when they were four until they were 11. Then it was off to secondary school which lasted until they were 15. When they were 16 it was off to the military for at least a year. Then bam, they were adults and could do as they please. Garrus and Tali had decided to let Adela go to a mixed species school partly for the exposure and partly to make Sheila and Adela happy. They home schooled her to make sure that she kept up with the Turian standards.
"Because Uncle Wrex said a display of power early in the year works. And it does. The past 6 years I've done it and no one picks on my cousin or anyone else so everyone benefits. All the bullies in my class as too afraid of me to do anything."
"Doesn't that make you a bully?"
"I thought you weren't going to give me the speech Ms. McKay?"
"I wasn't planning on it but looks like we're headed down that road aren't we?"
"Yes we are Ms. McKay. I suppose in a why it makes me a bully but I see it like I'm a Spectre. By doing a little evil I generate a more good. Daddy does it all the time. You aren't supposed to kill people in general but if you kill off the bad ones then the good ones are better off."
Ms. Mckay just closed her eyes and silently groaned. Every year it was the same. Granted she was having a very adult conversation with a 10 year old at the moment. Only the 10 year old was a Turian of a mix background. And her father was a Spectre. Ms. McKay could only imagine the bed time stories Adela got.
"But why must you do it every year?"
"They need reminding. Remember what happened last year? Bobby Toby and his friends thought they could beat me up if they worked together."
"You hospitalized Bobby Toby and broke all their left hands."
"At least I didn't break their right hands so they couldn't do their school work."
Adela liked remembering that day. Wrex had been so proud. Her parents had been understanding. After all, they had thrown the first punch. Not that it did them a lot of good.
Knowing that Tali would one day have to send her daughter off to basic training Tali had insisted that Garrus give their daughter ahead start. Tali even recruited Wrex who as all too happy to help out. Garrus just laughed his head off and asked Tali if she thought she was the first mother to think of this. So from the age of 3 on Adela got the best training she could. Between Wrex and daddy, Adela knew more ways to kill people by the time she was 6 then most career soldiers of any species. Between Tali and Garrus she also knew just as much there was to know about any tech. If she had been Biotic Adela was sure she would have gotten lessons from Wrex and Aunties Liara and Jane.
The real turning point in everyone's lives came when Adela was 12. It was time for the boy and sex talk which Tali graciously left for Garrus to do feigning her lack of knowledge on the subject. Garrus had done it was open minded as he could. Turian were physically mature at 10 and he himself had spent a more than a few nights sneaking out of bed to hook up with the crush of the month when he was in secondary school. To Turians, sex was just sex and it didn't carry any particular emotional attachment until a Turian was 20 or so. At least in a regular Turian colony. The Citadel was a melting pot of different species, cultures and beliefs and Garrus wasn't sure just how all of it had affect his Adela. For him, he really was becoming more Quarian on the issue, wishing she would wait until she was older. Claimed would be nice or better yet mated but Tali hadn't waited that long. Granted Garrus had claimed her that same night.
Garrus had been amazingly clinical in his discussion sparing no deal with Adela who spent the entire talk with a permanent look of horror etched on her face. Not an easy thing for the Turian face to portray either.
"Do you have any questions?"
"YES! Why are you telling me these horrible things!"
"Your mother told me to." Garrus opted for the easy out.
"You've scared me for life dad! At least before I could just pretend you and mom wrestled on Friday nights! Now I know what you're doing. EWWWW!"
"Well, it's not the same with a soft body like your mother"
"Dad, I'm begging you. STOP. Please."
"Okay honey."
Garrus left his daughter's room and found his mate in the kitchen making supper.
"How did it go dear?" Tali asked.
"Mission accomplished. I think I've managed to scar her enough to put off sex until she's our age." Garrus said giving his mate a kiss on the cheek.
The sex talk didn't quite have the desired effect. It really just grossed Adela out thinking of what her parents did and it got her curious about how Krogans went about things. One day when Wrex had taken Adela to the park Adela blindside him by asking about how Krogans had sex. Wrex tried to side step by saying she should be having that discussion with her parent but Adela countered by telling Wrex she already had a conversation with her parents about it. Left with no other out and having been hopelessly accommodating of Adela since day one, Wrex answered in as much detail as she squeezed out of him. Which wasn't much. Krogans weren't particularly mushy and sex was sex. If Adela was disappointed she never showed it. The only real change was that she took to staying by his side or holding his hand more then was considered usual at that point.
Unbeknownst to the adults was that Adela had a plan and she was going to go through with it. Even if it would take a few years. And she make the next step in her plan on the one day no one could say no to her; her birthday. Okay it was her adoption day but since no one knew when she was born it was as good a day as any to have a party.
Of course there were school friends, Sheila was there as were her parents and of course Wrex. The one year he had missed her birthday Adela had locked herself in her room and refused to celebrate her birthday until Wrex was there to celebrate it with her. So that year she was 8 for an extra 3 months.
On her 13th birthday, after all the guests had gone home and Wrex made to leave Adela walked him to the door. There she simply declared she was going to get her real birthday present right then. Unceremoniously Adela placed her hands on either side of Wrex's big head, adjusted him where she wanted him and kissed him full on the lips in front of the entire extended family. And it wasn't an innocent peck either. The kiss lasted until Adela came up for air because everyone in the room was shocked to the point of being physically frozen. That all ended when Tali promptly fell to the floor having fainted.
That was just as well because when Tali came to she was very willing to hasten the extinction of the Krogan species even though Adela reminded her mother that she had been the one to initiate the kiss.
"Don't remind me. That's it. You're ground. You're not seeing Wrex again." Tali said with an air of finality.
"You can't stop me from seeing Wrex."
"Oh yes I can young lady. I'll lock you in your room if I have to."
"Tali maybe we should try to be a little more…understanding."
"Garrus." Tali said in a tone that the Spectre knew he was in trouble and probably sleeping on the couch tonight. If not a while.
"Well honey, the last time we tried that it only made things worse. Remember when Adela ran away?" That was Garrus' trump card. Tali had always felt so guilty that Adela had runaway because of a decision she had made.
"Yes."
"We don't want to repeat that so let's just not do anything rash." Later Garrus spoke with to Tali in bed, having saved himself from the varren house, and told Tali it was probably just a teen crush. At least they knew Wrex wouldn't take advantage of Adela and most likely didn't have those kinds of feelings towards Adela. So as long as Adela crushed on Wrex, Tali didn't have to worry about some boy trying to get into Adela's pants.
Unless of course Adela was the one forcing their hand into her pants. In this case Wrex. The scene was the secondary school senior dance. Adela was 15 and graduating. Two years of being openly affectionate towards Wrex had worked as planned, the Krogan secretly came to reciprocate how the young Turian felt. And it trouble him greatly. He was 1458 at this point. Even if Adela was an Asari, Wrex was old enough to be her grandmother's father. On top of that this was Garrus's daughter and Garrus was his only real friend. What bothered him the most was Garrus seemed okay with it. Or like he was waiting for it to pass. Tali just wanted to kill him. Wrex could deal with Tali but Garrus was something else.
Worse yet Wrex was drinking himself stupid that night because some random Turian boy was taking Adela to the dance. The senior dance, or any dance at any Turian secondary school was guaranteed two things; dancing and lots of hormone driven sex. Thankfully Adela hadn't attended any of her other year end dances but had been very insistent on this one.
Wrex was therefore really surprised when Adela let herself into his place and proceeded to strip as she walked towards him. Utterly flabbergasted Wrex didn't say anything when she planted a big wet kiss on him and started tugging at his clothes.
"I needed a cover so I could do this. The dance was perfect." Was the only words exchanged between them that night.
When Adela returned home the next morning sporting a fresh looking claiming mark Tali took it with a grain of salt. As Garrus pointed out, "At least she's over Wrex."
Adela never said who claimed her and let her parents minds think what they will. She acted as she always did towards Wrex when they were together in public, which was fairly affectionate at this point but didn't hint that they had gone to that last step together. Wrex for his part acted like nothing had changed. Truth be told he was mostly still trying to wrestle with himself why he hadn't stopped her that night nor any of the other nights she managed to sneak out to his place. He contemplated telling Garrus and he almost did many times. He even tried to get Adela to tell her parents for him. Finally an agreement was reached. The next time Garrus and Wrex went on mission he would tell Garrus and Adela would tell Tali.
"Garrus?"
"Yeah!?" Garrus yelled back to Wrex over the gun fire.
"I think I might have slept with someone I shouldn't have."
"What?! Who?"
"You're going to hate me for it."
"Tali?" You son of a bitch. If you weren't over there I'd shoot you."
"What, no! Adela."
"Oh, ok."
And that was the conversation. Wrex asked why Garrus was being so cool about it all and Garrus pointed out that Adela always got what she wanted and she could have done a lot worse. Only Wrex shouldn't expect Tali to be as open minded about it all.
Tali took it fairly well. At lunch with Liara and Sheila, Adela turned to her mother and calmed said, "Mom, I've been sleeping with Wrex since the senior dance last month." Adela had been quite tactical in her strike. Her mother wasn't going to make a public scene and Liara and Sheila really didn't have a problem with Wrex or interspecies relationships at all. It came with being Asari and their own family.
Tali for her part was mostly calm. "But you have a Turian claim mark."
"To keep all the Turian boys away. Wrex gave it to me."
"Why Adela?"
"Because I love him and he loves me."
"But he's a Kro"
"A Krogan? Mom, you're a Quarian shacked up with a Turian. Auntie Liara is an Asari married to a Human."
"Honey, like you said Liara is an Asari."
"So you're saying other species can't love each other if one of them isn't an Asari? What about you and dad? Are you saying you don't love him?"
"Does your father know?"
"Wrex said he'd talk to dad sometime during this trip."
"Eat your soup before it gets too cold honey."
Tali had been hoping for some kind of support out of Garrus but he only reminded her of how rebellious their own youths were in the face of their love for each other. As a result neither of them had any ties to their families anymore so if they act calmly, rationally, they could still have Adela in their lives down the road.
With their relationship in the open it was an open and shut case really. Wrex did his best to be somewhat respectful while Garrus and Tali were around but Adela never made things easy. The one that was most surprised was Jane who couldn't believe how Garrus and Tali were adjusting to this.
"Wrex."
"Yup."
"As in our Wrex."
"Yes."
"Urdnot Wrex the Krogan battlemaster and former bounty hunter."
"With your daughter."
"That's what they've told us."
"I need to lie down."
At Adela behest, she went off to do her year of mandatory military service with a claiming mark and a mating mark. Tali, already in tears at the spacedock, broke out into a fresh wave when Adela proudly showed off what Wrex had given her last night.
"Oh boy. I can't believe I'm going to say this but honey, when you get to your training unit I want you to do what you used to do in school." Garrus said upon seeing the mating mark.
"Kick one of the boys in the alls?"
"Better yet, attack one of your drill sergeants. And really show off that mark. I mean flaunt it."
"No problem but why daddy?"
"Well at night time no one really keeps an eye on the barracks and if you thought the school dances here had a seedy reputation they might as well be a baby shower by comparison. If you take out one of your instructors it will show everyone not to mess with you since you can obviously take care of yourself. I'll be waiting for the call for I can clear things up."
With that Garrus and Tali started back to their place leaving Adela and Wrex to have a very public goodbye that drew many on lookers.
"Any of you Turian whelps even think about making a move on my mate remember that I'll come find you." Wrex barked out at the crowd.
"That's only if I let you live." Adela laughed.
Thanks to all the advanced training Adela had gotten from her parents and Wrex, basic was a breeze. No one touched her at all. Literally. Her combative partners would all back down and she one that cycles championship by just being there. No one wanted to take on the person who had beat up a drill sergeant so badly he cried. That and she hadn't been punished. When Garrus got the call her was expecting he just wanted to make sure the same old rule was in effect. Anyone with the stones to actually fight and win against a DS had the easiest training ever. It was the ones that fought and lost that suffered. The drills of ages ago had decided to reward anyone who came prepared. Those that weren't got to suffer like the rest of them.
As soon as her year was up Adela was back on the Citadel and moved in with Wrex. A few years later Adela simply picked out a date and told Wrex they would be getting married on that day. Having been whipped long ago Wrex just nodded and went back to reading his book.
So here Wrex was. In the universe's slowest form of transportation with Garrus. Going to Chora's Den simply because this would probably be the last time they would have a reason to go as customers and be able to get away with it.
"You know Wrex, I'm glad you and Adela decided to get married."
"You know she's the one that decided this."
"I know. Tali thinks this will ruin both of you. She's still trying to talk Adela out of marrying you."
"You could never sell marriage to Tali could you?"
"No. Something about how it made her parents unhappy."
"We've been living together for a couple of years now. I really don't see how signing a piece of paper will make much of a difference. We're both happy."
"And I'm happy for you. Now, if I recall correctly, this time it's your turn to pay."
"Aww come on Garrus. The last time we came here was well over two decades ago."
"You know the rules. I won the last round so you pay."
"Fine. Dad."
"Don't you ever all me that again. It's hard enough wrapping my head around the fact that you will be my son-in-law."
"Whatever you want Pops."
"Fine fine, we'll split the bill."
"Sounds like a good idea Garrus."
A/N: The bonus chapter. I had this nutty idea and thought, why not? As for Garrus's and Tali parenting, particularly Garrus, I drew from my own experience with my own dad. He's pretty much of the mind that if it makes you happy, he's fine with it. Any mistakes and or consequences are yours to deal with. I was going to try to do something with this in the main body but not bad so a stand alone.
I made up a lot about the Turian culture based loosely on Rome. Adela means "noble" by the way in latin. Also the fact that I have her hold out until she's an old maid of 15 is a statement too. I love history because up until the 1900, a bride that young was still common. That's only 4 generations ago. Your great grandparents. Not that long ago really. It's only been in the last hundred years or so that kids are thoughts to be incapable of emotion or their own thinking. Everything is just something they don't understand because they are too young or not old enough. Personally I blame liberals that are trying to make the world into a horrible place. I would also like to blame conservatives for trying to make the world into a horrible place. Both are just trying to force their views of how the world should be or used to be and trying to get there but really, they just fuck it up for all of us.
Love you all for reviewing.