*Author's Note- Hey guys, I only want to see what you guys think about me starting another long form. It is going to be a prequel of sorts to Mass Effect Andromeda. Obviously, we don't know where the universe actually will lead, but that's the fun! As always, review, favorite, and follow if you enjoyed!

Chapter 5

In Our Memory

Shepard was getting antsy and was pacing around the room slowly. It was painful for her to be up and walking around when she had just woken up a week ago, but her mobility isn't the most important thing on her mind.

What was taking priority over her pain is the state of Garrus. He had run out of her room after he had walked in on her looking up Turian bonding. She had her suspicions after she had remembered her conversation before the final push to the beam. She had started to remember everything. The sound of his voice, every touch, and even the feeling of his mouth plates against her lips had been remembered.

She always had feelings for him and may have even thought of him as more in those moments before the push, but she can't remember. In due time she will remember and she will make things right with Garrus. He had always hated people going behind his back even when he routinely did it in his work, but this was something different. This was the woman he loved not trusting him to tell her himself about the way he felt.

Both of them had not trusted each other, be it his current condition or her memory loss. Both of them had to clear the air and get what they needed said to be told for the sake of their relationship.

In this moment, waiting for Garrus to come back has been the most nervous time of her life, even more than facing Reapers, Collectors, or Saren. The big, bad Commander Shepard was taken down not by a Reaper, but her decisions on her relationship.

Well, I get what I deserve, she thinks as she paces around her room staring at the door to the hallway.


Garrus turns the last corner and is staring down the last hallway that leads to Laura's room. Every step he takes returns the sound of his boots giving a clank of the metal floor meeting his metal combat boots. Every step he took was making him more dizzy and hot. He was still comfortable with the heat as he felt like her was back on Palaven with the effects of Amans countering the cooler temperature of Earth. He feels his heart is about to beat of of his chest as he stops in front of the door as his hands are fighting against his will to reach up and press the holographic open button.

He takes a deep breath and lets his face plates relax as he hears the hiss of the door starting to part and tries to keep a straight face as he walks through the door to see her standing next to the bed staring at him as he walks through the door.

They both remain silent as they wait for the door to complete it's cycle and shut so they don't have anyone listen in through an open door.

" I'm sorry," is the first thing she says when the door closes. He's surprised as Laura is the most stubborn person he's ever met. Apologies aren't the sort of thing she would say.

"Me too," he responds with a sigh, " But why are you sorry?" he says with a surprised splay of his mandibles.

" I have suffered from memory loss."

With her reply he was really shocked.

She had been acting normally as they would have on the Normandy in their fight against the Reapers. She must not have had huge memory loss if she still remembered that they were in a relationship and she said nothing over his continued coddling of her in the hospital. It must not be that bad if she is ok with it, he thinks as his mandibles flutter in thought like they so often do when he sits over the console in the main gun battery on the Normandy.

" I don't remember the day of the battle."

Well that's fine, it's not a bad as I thought. As he finishes his thought he remembers that a majority of their conversations about life after had occurred hat day. She doesn't remember our conversations.

With that Garrus feels even sicker about what he is about to tell her. What if she disagrees? What if she doesn't want to anymore? he thinks as he lets out a sigh to get ready to speak.

O my God, how bad is he going to feel about this? is her thought as she stares at his face with his mandibles fluttering in thought, something she has seem him do plenty of time when he looks at her.

" I'm hurt that you had to keep this from me, but I'm just glad it is only for a day. I was worried that you had completely forgotten our time together and were afraid to say anything over how protective I am.

" Even if I was afraid I wouldn't turn it down. You have been perhaps the nicest person to me I can remember. Who would turn down being pampered by a Turan?" she questions as she walks up to him and puts her hand to the scarred side of his face, running her fingers over his mandible.

He shuts his eyes and purrs as it brings him back to her touch when they were on the Normandy. How she would run her hands over his face, giving both sides equal treatment as if there was nothing wrong with him.

" So what did you have to tell me?"

His eyes open wide and the same feeling of dread runs through his body as he is brought back to reality. She really knew how to take away all of the stress and emotions I was feeling.

" Well, I'm…," he stutters as he tries to form what he wants to say, how he should tell her this without him possibly losing her. " I ugh, I've gone into Amans."

" And what is Amans?" she asks. I want to give him every chance to tell me himself, for his own sake.

" Well it's a Turian male mating process. Ugh, I don't know if Humans have something equivalent, but basically we feel connected to someone for life. It usually ends up being bonded, but that's up to the female's discretion."

" So basically falling in love?"

" Kinda, but from what I gather, it's a lot stronger than love," he says as he uncomfortably shifts his weight to his other leg, " The male is bound to the female for life, even if she rejects. So, they basically remain friends for life. It is a biological process for us after all."

" How long have you been in Amans?" she asks as she moves her hands to the back of his head and massages under his fringe as he lets out a soft purr that vibrates through his chest to her as she moves plush to his chest plates so she can reach his hide behind his head. He looks down as she continues to scratch.

" Since I had seen you again on Menae. I always had feelings, but when I had seen you again I couldn't change how I felt. You had been brought back to me. It may have been fate, the Spirits, or luck, but I felt that I would never let you go. Like I said the first night we spent together, too many things have gone bad for me, I need to try to make this right. That is, if you'll have me. " With that he gets on his knee like the vids show.

" You know you need a ring, right?" she questions with a smirk on her face, mostly to be her smart ass self.

With this he sighs and gets up looking around the room. He takes a small piece of tubing and tries to tie it into a ring as much as he can with his three fingered hands. He restarts and holds out the makeshift ring-like tube as he had watched in the vid he had watched while in the toilet a day ago. " By the Spirits, will you marry me and be my bondmate?" he nervously hums as he looks up and tightens his mandibles.

As she reaches down to his face to caress the scarred side of his face as she starts to shed tears, " Of course I will. There is no one else there to hold me up to help fight the Reapers. There is no one else who I would rather be married or bonded to in my entire life." She knows that every word that she speaks is true. No one had been there for her through everything. Liara and Tali were with her through everything, but it just wasn't the same. They weren't the people she could vent to after she had to make a huge decision that affected the entire galaxy. The only one she felt had gotten what she would vent about is Garrus as he had dealt with similar situations, not in the terms of consequences, but in terms of ethical decisions. Like he said, " The ruthless calculus of war," and deciding who should live or die had taken it's toll on her and the one who was always there was Garrus.