If his heart had been made of glass and dropped on the hard floor, it could not have shattered into more pieces. The 'why's flooded in with all the bitterness and agony that came with such questions.; Why had she continued the project to bring him back if she was with another? Why did she allow him in her bed if she was with another? Then the question came of 'what'; What had she done in order to convince Cerberus to raise him from the dead in the first place? He was not human and of no particular value to the human-centered organization. So many questions, but the one that burned brightest wasn't a question or a statement. It was more raw and more powerful, making any answer to the other inquiries moot. The pain of loosing her to one who had sworn to protect her. The one person he felt he could trust because he was her friend, and his. Garrus had done more than protect her. He had taken her from him. The traitor would pay.

"Garrus!" He growled.

He sat up in a flutter of sheets and stuffing from the mattress and pillows as his talons tore through the thin material, flinging the gutted pillows across the room. He moved over her without touching her and crossed the room. The door to the lavatory shut behind him, cutting off the light the spilled out into the darkened room. It did not shut out the swearing words and curses that the translator couldn't quite relate to a word or phrase in a human tongue. In the darkness she sat with eyes wide, gripping the sheets. Nihlus never lost his cool. A turian with his face was destroying her bathroom. Glass shattering, metal pipes being torn from the walls and ceramic tiles cracking. The water that flooded the wash room floor leaked out under the door and soaked the carpeting. The curses turned to inarticulate howls then quieted to sobs. She'd also never seen or heard him, or any turian cry. As afraid as she had been of his sudden temper, though she could understand his anger, hearing him express such pain and sorrow tore at her as viciously as if he had ripped his talons through her and not the pillows and mattress. She tired to burry her own sobs in what remained of her pillow.

Hours later she woke face down in a tear soaked cotton wad. The bathroom door was still sealed shut, but the noises and ceased. She dared to cross the room. Nearer to the door the carpet became cold with water and damp, then wetter until her feet splashed in squishy puddles. She opened the doors without knocking. Icy water rushed out, released from the metal damn that had held back the flood. The chill that ran up her goose bumped skin forced a shiver from her shoulders. Carefully she took a step inside, steadying herself against the door jam so she did not slip on the wet flooring. Nihlus sat on the floor with his back in the corner wedged between the sink and the wall on the far side of the room. He hugged his knees close to his chest and rested his head against them. His shoulders expanded and contracted in slow steady rhythm with his breathing. It killed her to see him like this. To see a great turian and a Spectre taken down my something like a broken heart, and it was her fault. Tears would have added their salt to the floor as she slowly made her way over to him if she had not spend so many already.

"Nihlus?"

She spoke just above a whisper as she glanced around at the destruction he'd wrought on the small space. The holes in the walls left the steel of the construction exposed. The shower stall had been reduced to a ragged platform with the drain pulled out. The toilet was across the room in pieces from where it should have been. Water fountained out of the floor and walls where the water pipes no longer connected to anything. The sink was missing chunks, but must have been among the last to feel his wrath, for it was still attached to the wall. The mirror above it, however, had not survived so well. From the pattern of the cracks and the large dent and traces of blue blood, she would have to guess a head but and done the job. Speckles of blue also colored the walls where the holes had been made. Some of it was lost to the water that washed it off the glass from the shower stall. She tried to avoid adding her own to the mix as she stepped over large pieces of glass to get to him. The cuts on his arms became more apparent as she neared him.

"Spirits! Nihlus, are you alright?"

She knelt beside him, ignoring the icy cold of the water soaking up into her clothing.

"Nihlus, I'm sorry. It took them so long... Whatever that fucking asari did to you... They didn't know what to do. Nothing was damaged... I still don't know how they did it or what they did that brought you back. Garrus... it just happened. At first it was just for comfort, because he was my friend and I knew I could trust him. Then things changed... I can't tell you when or how or why. I don't know myself. It felt natural, almost as if he were you. I didn't really mean for it to happen. I... I'm... I'm so sorry. If they had figured it out sooner, if the Reapers hadn't come..."

"But he wasn't me." Nihlus groaned from his folded arms. "The Reapers came, he was there and I was..."

"Nihlus, don't. Don't do this to yourself. Please."

She touched his arm. It was tense and rigged, betraying his apparent calm. He flinched and swatted her hand away. In the flash of motion she saw just how bad his wounds were. Blood painted his face blue instead of white. Shards of glass stuck in his ribs. For the first time she herd the raggedness with which his voice came.

"Nihlus, you're hurt. We need to get to the med-bay! Let's go."

She tried to pull his arm, to get him to stand up, but he pulled away. This wasn't going to be easy. She tried again and he growled at her.

"Excuse me?" She said. "Nihlus, I care about you, maybe more than you know. Just because I bonded with Garrus doesn't mean I stopped loving you. Now you are going with me to the infirmary if I have to knock you out and drag you there!"

The wind was knocked from her body as her back hit hard against the tile wall. Her feet hung loose in the air. His talons tug into her flesh hard enough to draw blood where he pined her arms to the wall. A few droplets of red mingled with blue and the purple hue that trailed down his arm and dripped into the water reminded him of how they had once been as one in such a mannar. It only angered him further that it had been taken from him. His face was less than an inch from hers, teeth bared, blood running over his glowering features.

"Just try it!" He growled.

As she looked at him, his green eyes blazing with rage fueled by agony, she realized there was only one option. The fastest way to bring him to his knees was to hit the most tender spot. On a human male that would have been the groin. On Nihlus it was his battered and bleeding face. The face that was twisted and glaring at her. The wall behind her would not let her gain momentum, so she would have to use brute strength. She hoped it would be enough. She thrust her head forward as hard as she could, baring her teeth against the pain that shot through her from contact with his carapace. She hit the floor hard as he howled in pain and dropped her to grab his face, reeling back with the fresh, unexpected pain. She didn't wait for him to retaliate. She grabbed a loose pipe and swung it at his naked form as hard as she could. The force knocked him to the ground with a grunt. His arms shuddered when he tried to get up, then he collapse in the standing water.

There was no time to waste. Freshly resurrected, she wasn't sure if his body could handle the trauma it had endured. But there was no way she could drag a 115 kilogram male turian to the med-bay on her own. She did her best to prop his head up with a chunk of ceramic from the shower and dress his lower half before calling for aid. She went with them to the infirmary, but only stayed a few minutes. She was tired, cold and wet. She needed sleep. Everything else could wait until morning.