Another little interlude to keep you occupied while my lovely soul mate/beta/bff and I work through the next chapter. Author's note: I've always really liked Anderson! I've been so happy to be able to write him recently. :)

Interlude 2: How I Wish You Were Here

The building was a modern 9-storey condominium complex, one of several sitting in the same block circled around a private parkette. It was a newer set of buildings, built in the last ten years, and in an area of the wards that was almost entirely young professionals. Anderson noticed the construction workers standing around a piece of machinery, discussing topics not at all related to construction. The back entrance to the building was blocked, so the reluctant human councillor disparagingly took the front entrance, grateful to have not run into anyone before he reached the lift.

When he got to the right apartment, the door was already open ajar. Concerned, he slid it open a little more, revealing the room inside. He was almost expecting it to be ransacked, but was surprised when he found it to be tidy, but lived-in. He knocked and called in, fingers mentally crossed that the inhabitant would be home.

Or maybe that he wouldn't be. Anderson wasn't looking forward to delivering this news.

He could see movement on the balcony, and instantly he felt his years of military instinct come back. Beneath his dress jacket, he knew his sidearm was safe in its holster- despite his two security personnel (thrust upon him the moment he became councillor) he felt safer with a gun on his person.

From the balcony doorway, Officer Vakarian appeared. Anderson relaxed.

"Your door was open," the councillor said, greeting the turian with a warm handshake. "I was concerned your house had been broken into."

"Construction in the courtyard," Garrus jerked his thumb toward the balcony. "Shakes the whole damn building and knocks doors open." He fiddled with the closing mechanism and waved his guests in.

Anderson entered, followed by one of his guard. The second stayed outside to watch the hallway. Garrus shut the door behind them.

"What can I do for you, Councillor?"

"Please, Garrus, I think we've been through enough that you can drop the formalities," Anderson said. "Please, call me David."

"All right David," Garrus sat on one of the chairs in the living room. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm afraid that I come bearing some bad news," Anderson sat across from the turian, his guard standing in the doorway.

"If it's about the Normandy, you're about three days too late."

Anderson froze.

"That was classified information," he stated, surprised.

"And that's why I paid an information broker a lot of credits to get it," Garrus motioned to his desktop. His omni-tool flashed and the images he had purchased of the Normandy's crash site appeared on the screen.

Anderson was silent as he walked to the workstation and flipped through the pictures.

"I haven't even seen these," he said solemnly, watching the images flicker on the screen. "How did you find out?"

"One of my contacts picked up Alliance chatter and forwarded it to me," Garrus explained. "So I contacted an agent for the Shadow Broker and this is what he sent me, along with the list of survivors and... otherwise."

Anderson ran a hand over his head, the short bristles picking at his palm as he did. He turned back to the turian, who had stood from the couch and moved back to the balcony. He should have known as soon as he walked in- the young turian, always so lively and cheerful in the past, looked tired now. His posture was slumped and his eyes dull. Anderson followed him to the doorway.

"I'm sorry," he said, standing straight, his hands clasped behind his back. "I know what she meant to you."

Garrus leaned on the balcony wall, looking over the courtyard, cigarette in his mouth. He nodded at Anderson.

"The worst part? Alliance stuck this up not one day after I received confirmation," he motioned to an advertising banner across from the parkette.

It was a recruitment ad, with Shepard's face beaming over the square. 'Come fight with humanity's greatest heroes!' it said. Anderson read it over and over again, his eyes moving from the tactless slogan to the image of Shepard- a younger Shepard, he noted- looking happy in her Alliance uniform.

"It's bad enough that they won't release her death to the public," he practically growled. "But this is just in bad taste!"

Garrus nodded.

"So I've been sitting here for the last two days, staring at that damn ad, wondering what I'm going to do next."

"You could always rejoin C-Sec," Anderson suggested after a moment of silence. "I'd be happy to recommend you."

"No, I'm sure that even if I wanted to..." Garrus trailed off as he brought his lighter up.

"I'm sorry, I'm... In a bit of a funk," he said, turning back to Anderson. "I know that you two were close. She looked up to you as a kind of father figure."

"She said that?" Anderson asked, suddenly touched.

"Well, never in so many words, but you could tell. You know her, she could never give a compliment without adding two insults," Garrus replied. "Her own parents failed her, and you helped pick her up when she felt she was worth nothing. She looked up to you a great deal."

Silence overtook them. In the living room, the guard shifted uncomfortably where he stood.

"She never planned to join the Alliance Navy before you recruited her, you know?" Garrus continued. "She was planning on staying in her country's infantry. 'Canon fodder', she called it. Doesn't exactly make the job sound appealing."

Anderson nodded, remembering just how difficult it had been to recruit the young private to the Alliance after her specialized training in the Canadian Armed Forces was complete. Eventually, it had taken a promise that she would likely never have to return to Earth again if she left.

That was what she was concerned about- being forced to return to Earth once she had seen everything else the universe had to offer. It was the worst fate she could imagine for herself.

He had felt dubious about recruiting her at first, after reading the reports sent to him by one of the older Admirals, he and Captain Hackett had decided that she would be too high a liability- yes, she was good, but her behaviour was erratic, and the circumstances under which she had joined the military in the first place... He suddenly looked over at Garrus, who seemed to be lost in thought as he stared at the recruiting ad.

"Did she ever tell you… her reasoning for joining the military?" he had to ask.

Garrus gave a concerned look.

"She said something about wanting a better life for herself. I always assumed she went to a recruitment centre when she turned of age."

Anderson grunted and crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall.

"Why, what did she tell you?" Garrus asked.

"It isn't what she told me, I don't think she ever told anybody," Anderson replied. "But I read every report on her I could when we went to recruit, and I've always found it funny that… well."

"Well what?" the turian pressed.

"I found it strange that she befriended a Citadel Security Officer, considering…"

Anderson trailed off, suddenly regretting even bringing it up.

"Considering what?" Garrus' voice had started to rise. "I know she was a bad kid- so was I. People change."

Anderson took a deep breath.

"When Lina was seventeen, she was planning on leaving the city she had grown up in. She fell in with some unsavoury people, and one day decided that she could do a lot better for herself if she got out of Montreal," Anderson spoke carefully. "She acquired some money and took a bus heading west. On her journey, at one of the stops she had an… altercation with a police officer. A police officer that she ended up injuring, quite gravely."

Garrus stood, silent, the cigarette in his fingers burning down to the filter. He waited for the councillor to continue.

"Lina was given a choice then, be tried as an adult and sent back to Montreal, or join the military," Anderson gave a sad smile. "You can guess which one she chose. She spent a few months in a juvenile detention centre, and then she was brought to the Canadian Forces Base in Kingston in handcuffs. She excelled in her training, despite her temperament, and well… you know the rest."

Tossing the burned-out cigarette off of the balcony, Garrus shifted his gaze over to the Alliance recruitment ad across the park.

"She never told me," was all he said.

"Like I said, I don't think she ever told anyone," Anderson reasoned. "I personally think… I think she wasn't proud of her behaviour. All of the reports I've read of the incident describe a terrified young woman who insisted it was an accident."

"So you think she befriended me to… what, make herself feel better about it?" Garrus growled.

"I think she befriended you because she liked you," Anderson corrected. "Because she genuinely cared about you. And I'm glad that she found you when she did- even if it meant her grades slipped a bit."

Garrus suddenly smiled at the memory.

"That was her own fault, really," he said. "I told her to study when I was at work but all she did was watch vids."

"I think it was a way for her to feel normal," Anderson suggested. "To decompress from the expectations placed upon her."

"Or she's just a lazy fuck when given the chance," Garrus gave a laugh and lit another cigarette.

Anderson smirked and nodded, glancing through the windows into the living room. His guard motioned to his watch, eagerly attempting to tell the councillor that he had an important meeting shortly. Anderson looked away, ignoring the motion.

"Why was there an N7 campus on the Citadel?" Garrus asked.

"Sorry?" Anderson asked, taken back by the question.

"It's normally at Arcturus, right?" Garrus clarified. "So why was there an N7 campus here?"

"Construction," Anderson clarified. "They were doing construction to Arcturus, we couldn't house all of the ensigns. So we created a satellite campus to train the handful that couldn't fit."

"Is that why you were here? To keep an eye on Lina?"

Anderson gave the turian a sideways glance.

"She always liked me, since I recruited her," he replied. "The Fleet Admirals in the Alliance pulled some strings to have me oversee the satellite campus and, yes, keep an eye on Lina. She may not have respected every superior officer, but I could always get her to see reason."

Garrus let out a laugh.

"It was all for her, wasn't it," he mused.

"What do you mean?"

"She spent so much of her life thinking that she had to fight for everything she had earned," Garrus said.

"I'm sorry that she felt that way."

"Yeah, me too."

"Would you like to get a drink?"

"More than anything."

/—/

When Garrus returned to his apartment several hours later, he collapsed onto the sofa and sat in the dim living room, staring at the wall for what seemed like an eternity. He and Anderson had gone to a jazz club around the corner where the councillor had bought them both two fingers of very old, very expensive scotch to sip on while they talked.

Eventually, the conversation turned from reminiscing about the Commander to their own lives.

"You must have some idea of what you would do after taking down Saren," Anderson asked.

Garrus shook his head, "I never thought that far ahead."

"What about C-Sec?"

"C-Sec and I have permanently parted ways- my father saw to that after I left."

"So you don't have any plans as to what you're going to do next?"

"I've had some ideas the last day or so," Garrus replied, and seeing Anderson's inquisitive face added "Nothing worth getting into, really. My first stop, I think, is to go home."

"Ever think of rejoining the military?" Anderson suggested.

"I'd have to start all the way at the bottom," Garrus laughed. "I'm too old for that."

"Well, whatever you have in mind, I'm sure Shepard would want you to do your best."

Garrus grunted a response and the two of them sat in silence, the only sounds in the bar were the gentle clinking of the glasses as the bartender put them away and the ringing of the piano keys by the pianist in the corner.

"What did you see in Lina that made you want to recruit her?" Garrus asked.

Anderson considered this for a moment.

"I saw someone who wanted to prove herself," he replied. "I saw someone who wanted to make a difference."

Now alone in his apartment, Garrus recalled those words. Hastily he stood and walked to his workstation, bringing up the video call and punched in his mother's code. The screen went black and the words Please wait while we connect your call… flashed bright green across it.

"Please be home, please be home," he whispered. "Please be home…"

"Hi, you've reached Gael Vakarian. I'm not here at the mo-"

"Fuck," Garrus swore, but listened to the rest of the message anyway. He would probably look like hell to his family but he didn't care. Or maybe it would be too dark for them to properly see him in the message. As the answering machine beeped, his own image suddenly appeared on the screen, illuminated only by the light from his monitor. He cleared his throat.

"Hi Sol, I just wanted to let you know… you're probably going to be hearing some bad news pretty soon. I just wanted you to know that I was all right.

"I'll be coming home, shortly. Just give me a few days and I'll catch a flight over when I can. Say hi to mom for me."

He disconnected the call and pushed away from his desk. Outside, his ward had just started its night cycle and the only light coming into the living room was from the Alliance recruitment ad across the way.

He stood in the window letting the light wash over him for a moment. In the other buildings he could see lights turning on in the other apartments, unaffected by the barbaric lumination of the the recruitment ad. Down in the park, the construction workers were long gone, and soon he would be too.

He tore his eyes from the ad and, stepping into the balcony doorway, lit another smoke.