Author's Notes - Hey guys! Back at it. I've noticed that not a lot of people actually tell me how they feel about the story. Pleaaaasssseee, I want to know what you think so far. Even if you have questions, ask them as a review or PM. As always, like, review, or favorite the story as well if you like it. It goes a long way when I see that number go up!

Chapter 12

Dinner

Garrus stood in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for his sister to finish her shift in the camp, against a wall of old gambling machines.

Garrus opened his omni-tool eyeing the chronometer and groaned over how long Solana was taking. If it was any longer, they may as well throw getting to Barcelona on time out the window.

Passing the few minutes he was waiting was easy, He sent it fiddling with the old slot machines or answering messages over advising matters, and coordinating with his Father's staff and the Primarch's office.

When she finally came through the huge entrance, Garrus could tell that she was drained. Her mandibles were drooping that showed a tired and beat field medic. Her trousers were stained a slight purple, undoubtedly from Turian blood.

As she slowly walked towards him, Garrus unfolded his arms and approached, " Tough day?"

She looked up and gave a grunt in acknowledgment. " Today may have been rough, but no one died on my shift." She shrugged as she reached her brother. " That's all I could ask for."

Garrus huffed. " That's true. It's better to have a bad day that'll be forgotten, and save them all, being remembered forever."

" Spoken as if you like being the hero," she jutted at him.

" No, I like being the thankless hero that is remembered by all they touch, not the hero that has to have a statue for them to be remembered." He paused, " Shepard is the same way. We both scoff at the fact that there will undoubtedly be statues of us and buildings named after us. Even then, we aren't even the real heroes." He embraced Solana, holding her hands in a comforting manner. " It's soldiers like you and everyone else in the camp. You all sacrificed, only to make us out to be heroes."

She withdrew her hands and sighed. " Give me a few minutes. I want to get out of these stained clothes. I'll meet you in 15 minutes?"

Garrus gave an inaudible grunt in response. He was not a patient person, and his time at C-SEC reflected that. His time working under a Spectre hasn't helped his patience, but he had to at least start to learn for his advisor position. Well, at least it gives me more time to do paperwork, he thought as he nodded. "Sure."


Sitting at the table, waiting for Solana while reading the unending pile of messages was killing him. It wasn't helped by being stared at from the banks of Turian officers that undoubtedly knew who he was. Time would pass faster if he could people watch, but that was not an option as he was the one being watched.

Doing a quick scan around the room, he could see every woman staring at him, undoubtedly for sinful purposes, while every man gazed, looking to know the Turian savior of the galaxy.

He was grateful when Solana appeared in a clean uniform. It finally gave him something else to fret about, instead of the hawk eyes coming from all corners of the room.

The tall Turian lifted himself out of his seat as Solana approached. She stood rigid as she gave a salute. " Advisor."

Garrus quickly embraced her, while she was still saluting, and joined their foreheads as he whispered to her. " Solana, that's not necessary. You're my sister, not a subordinate."

She started to keen, but successfully stifled it in the presence of everyone in the room. She took a few seconds to regain her composure before choking out, " Sorry, force of habit."

They ended their embrace and Garrus motioned Solana toward his table. " I'll get us food. You must be starving after your shift."

Knowing Solana, she would attempt to put up a fight, so he quickly settled her in before she would protest. Any fight in her would be taken care of from her lack of energy to expel from getting up. " Fine. I have no energy to fight you on this," she said angrily as she hung her head in defeat.

It got Garrus to laugh as he thought back to what he found out the hard way when he started his relationship with Shepard, Some things are the same, even across species.

As he stared at the table of food, he thought of how to play it. He hadn't thought this far forward on what he was going to say.

The food on the table didn't help him either. Every plate was mostly vegetables from the Quartan liveships, with meat from Turian rations to satisfy a need of protein for Turians. The dull grey and browns in every dish didn't inspire any attractive words, and looked unappetizing, compared to the multitude of colors from Turian food. Damn, I now know what Shepard goes through when we feed her Asari rations.

After looking over all the plate, he begrudgingly grabbed two trays with the most meat he could find. This will have to do.

As he returned with the trays, his sister sighed when she saw the colorful selection. " Well, at least it's edible."

Garrus gave a huff as he sat down. " That's one way to look at it." He brandished his talons and watched Solana do the same.

In his entire time on the Normandy, he hadn't been able to eat with the crew unless he had hard-to-use utensils, for fear of freaking out the crew when he took the gloves off. It was a social stigma to show your talons in the presence of other species, for fear of looking like uncivilized monsters. The only person he showed his talons to was Shepard, and only in her cabin.

He was glad to finally use them for one of their intended purposes. He looked up to see Sol was staring at him, her green eyes piercing him, cutting him in half with her gaze, instead of getting ready to eat herself.

He put his talons down, bracing himself for more talking than eating. " Sol, I'm sorry. I should have been there," he said as he dropped his head to hide from his sister's glares for what he was going to say next. " We can talk and eat at the same time, but you know the threat we were facing. I was needed to help win this war, and that required me to be away."

She snapped at him. " Even if it means leaving our dying mother to die without her only son by her side." She jabbed one of her talons at him. " She was disappointed, but she understood you. I don't know why." She paused to catch her breath from the quick speech. " After I sent you my first message, you should've been on the first transport to Palaven, but what I got was no response. I had to find out through Father that you were alive, but more focused on stopping Collectors, and had no time to even say hello or let me know you were alive." She finished to give him some time to respond on all the actions she had laid out. A slight keen escaped her, but she quickly picked up some food and chewed with her teeth to help control the whimpering.

He reminisced over his time fighting with Cerberus. He was blinded by the rage of Sidonis's betrayal and the Collectors to not send a message to his family. He had spent all of his time finding Sidonis and preparing for the Collectors. He didn't even tell Shepard, it would've pushed her to take him off the mission and send him to Palaven for fear of him being pushed over the edge, if Sidonis wasn't enough.

Garrus remained silent to allow Solana to tell all of her grievances, leading to an awkward silence as he stared at her starting to lose control. She tried to control her emotions through shoving more and more of the unappetizing food into her mouth, even if she was unsuccessful.

Garrus finally reached across the table, and grasped her talons, to get her to finally stop and let all of her pain and grief show itself. " It would be better if we went somewhere else, maybe sparring or your room," he whispered to her as he motioned for her to get up. It would be better for her to be able to let it all out and beat the shit out of me if she must.

She finally controlled herself as she got up and sighed, " Yea, lets spar." She motioned to her prosthetic. " I need to test out the new leg, and I can beat on you as we talk, because we both know you won't go 100% on me, and it's going to piss me off if you don't."

Garrus smirked in amusement. " And how do you know I won't?"

She turned around to face Garrus, stopping Garrus as they left the mess area. " Because I know you will think of it as part of your punishment, but you can't let everyone see you lose to an amputee. So you better give it your all." She lifted a talon and pushed it into Garrus's keel, " or I will kill you."


It took them some time to find the room that was set up for sparring. It took them multiple queries to find the correct room.

They found he correct room, a dimly lit theatre with a stage lit by portable lights. The rest of the room was dark, due in part to the presence of non-working lights and general lack of energy to power them.

They walked down the rows of red seats, dirtied by the years of negligence, disrepair, and sand that was found seeping everywhere into the building, to reach the sign-up for use of the ring on the stage.

They idly waited their turn, wanting to air all of their grievances in the fight rather than make a scene with a pissing match surrounded by spectators.

When they were up, Garrus removed his tunic in customary Turian fashion, while opting to keep his trousers out of habit from his time sparring on the Normandy. It earned him some mystified looks from the crowd. Even Solana looked confused as to why he didn't shed his trousers. " Why do you still have your trousers on? Did the other species get to you? "

" Well, yes. The others on the Normandy don't take well to open nudeness, but it shouldn't be a problem for me. I had special trousers made that the fabric stretches and shrinks with my movement. It's just as if I was nude."

Solan gave a slight grumble over Garrus's conformity to other species. " I didn't know there was such a thing. It must be some top secret tech we don't know about yet."

" Well, when you work with Shepard, you have a lot of resources to help."

At the mention of Shepard, Solana gave a groan as she removed her trousers, revealing the toned figure of a female Turian that belonged in a front combat unit, or even the Blackwatch, with the exception being below her left knee being replaced with a fully functional prothetic.

A crowd started to gather in the viewing area below, interested in both the sparring session, and Solana.

" Are you sure you should be be sparring?" Garrus asked as he examined Solana's leg.

" I'll be fine. Stop making excuses to back out, brother," She scowled as she got in a ready position, bending her legs and holding her talons in front of her in a fighting position.

Garrus sighed as he parted his legs in a fighting stance on the other side of the designated sparring area.

They both circled each other while swiping, and attempting to grab each other, to probe for weaknesses. The silence between them was only penetrated by the soft hum the the portable lights and murmurs from the onlooking Turians.

Garrus felt that he should put up some fight, but let Solana get the upper hand, only to beat her after she gave everything she had in an emotion fueled fight.

Garrus held his stance, but allowed Solana to grab him as he moved his hand too slowly to evade. She pulled him forward, placing him on her back and lifted her back, letting gravity do the work. As Garrus landed on his back, she turned around and placed herself on top of him, pinning him under the weight of her body.

Garrus had to struggle to continue with the match. If he stopped fighting, the match would be called as a win for Solana. She moved her face close to Garrus's and spoke in a low angry tone. " Why did you leave us? Was it purely for your fuck buddy of a Human?"

Struggling to gather breath, he choked out, " No, it was to fight the Reapers. You know them right? The bastards that took your leg and mate?"

The mention of her mate drew a low subharmonic growl and her to lower her body more, choking Garrus even more. " How do you even know about that? It must have been Father, right?"

Garrus spotted an opening as she moved her face too close to his. He extended his arm, under her head, and flipped over, taking Solana with him. He placed his forearm into her neck, replicating what she had done, but kept his face far enough away. " Yes, I just found out. You know I could only get small messages out. The network was overtaxed with military communications. I couldn't talk, or find out any information on either of you. Hell, I found out you guys were alive not from Father, but from the Primarch, when he asked me to be Dad's advisor. "

" It doesn't change how Mater died without both of her children, or how you did nothing to help, " she shot back as she continued to struggle against him.

Solana's insistence that he didn't care rubbed him the wrong way, and what better way to change tune than tell her all the things he did do behind the scene.

" O yea? How do you think she was able to get into the treatment facility on Ser'Kesh? It sure as hell wasn't on goodwill. When I enquired, they were filled to capacity. I was only able to get her in by pulling strings and sending Collector tissue and tech. I couldn't come back. The threat to everyone was too great for personal issues to get in the way." Garrus started to let his emotions to get the better of him as he let his guard down to allow Solana a chance. She took the advantage by gripping his head and kicking him over her and swiped at his face, her talons grazing his faceplates.

She locked his head between her legs and pulled on his extended arm. She started shouting loud enough for the onlooking spectators to hear. " AND YOU THINK THIS REDEEMS YOURSELF FOR NOT BEING THERE?!"

Well this hasn't gone completely as planned, he thought as the darkness started to approach from him being choked.

He struggled to fight off his sister, but could only do the one thing that came to his mind. He freed his arms and started to abuse her prothetic. As he twisted and messed with the extension, he choked back. " NO, BUT I HELPED AS MUCH AS I COULD! YOU KNOW HOW THE TURIAN MILITARY WORKS, AND THIS IS NO DIFFERENT!"

The twisting of her prothetic finally paid off with her breaking her grip, finally leaving him with a chance to breath. As he gathered breath, he looked over to see Solana struggling to regain her stance. He stood up and approached his sister as she struggled to recover, her prothetic giving her trouble as she stood up. He locked his arms around her neck and fell over on his back, pulling her to the floor on her back. Garrus whispered as Solana started to choke and stop fighting from exhaustion. " Looks like you aren't quite there yet, sister. I did everything I could. Do you think I would've rather been by Mater's side or fighting?"

Solana continued to choke and tapped her talons on the floor to signal a tap out, a loss for her. As she rose and went to collect her clothes, Garrus continued, " Do you imagine how hard it has been for me, not knowing if you and Father were alive, or not being there as she died, I could only hope she had a peaceful passing, but I won't know, because I wasn't there."

Garrus started to keen in the middle of the sparring square, drawing confused murmurs from the spectators. Solana turned around at the keening and approached him. She grabbed his limp talons and held them. She looked up into his face, letting her mandibles slack. " She did go peacefully." She started to choke as she reached up and pushed Garrus's forehead to hers. " She wanted you to know that she loved you and also to " Give them hell," I don't know what that means, but she wanted you to know."

Garrus chuckled at his mother's use of Human idioms. The last time he saw her was before he left for Spectre training after leaving the Normandy. He taught her some idioms and other snippets he learned from the crew, but mostly Shepard's use of idioms and jokes, because when he found out what they meant, he couldn't help but admire her creativity and humor.

His reminiscing on his last visit was broken by Solana, giving a quizzical expression. " So what does it mean?"

His mandibles widened in a smile. " Basically, it means give it everything you have and make your enemies suffer. Something that all Turians in the Hierarchy follow, as you know."

She snorted as she turned to retrieve her clothes. Garrus sped over to his side and picked up his tunic, putting it on with the same haste.

He waited for Solana to finish dressing down from the stage and was met by congratulations from the other Turians that were watching their match.

She limped down, still showing the effects of the prosthetic, both from general use and their sparring session. She looked up as she approached. " Look, I'm sorry about being angry over Mater's death, but I'm still mad over you not being in contact." She sighed, " Plus there's the issue of your potential mate. Has it happened?"

Garrus looked at her, surprised that she knew it was more than a fling. " Yes, I've gone into Amans if that's what you're asking. But, how do you know?"

She gave a sly smile. " Do you think you're the only one Dad talks to?"

They walked up to their rooms and talked of everything they both had missed, excluding Solana's mate's death. Garrus's travels, Solana's attempts at becoming Blackwatch were huge points of their discussion until they made it to their rooms.

As they reached his door, he turned to Solana to tell her goodnight. She was wringing her hands together. " Look, no matter what I said earlier today, I hope you're happy. I also hope that we can get over our issues, as I have a huge part to play in your mating ceremony. Believe it or not, I''m actually excited about it."

" Of course, and you should be excited, even if it's because of unfortunate circumstances." He moved closer and touched foreheads with her, showing his affection. " I love you, Sol."

" I love you too, Gar. You better get going. You got somewhere to be."

Garrus watched Solana walk away, but could only think of how glad he was to finally be able to make it back to Shepard. His plates had been itching from the amount of time he had been away from her. He needed to know if she was safe and wanted to hear of her exploits for the few hours he was gone.

He was delighted to open the door to find her laying on the bed, with data pad in hand.

She set the pad down and got up to greet him at the sound of the door opening. " Hey big guy. How was dinner with your sister?"

" We ended up sparring, and I got new scars to show for it. I hope you like them," he said as he motioned to markings on his plates from Solana's scratching. "Otherwise, better than I thought. Worse than I hoped, but we'll get there," he said, while nodding.

She embraced him. " I love your scars and good. Maybe you both can pick up in Barcelona when she's on leave." She left his embrace and moved to pick up the bag in the corner of their room. " But, we gotta get going. Your father filled me in on my new job, and we can talk all about it on the way to Spain."

As they walked to the on-waiting Kodiak, Shepard looked down at the pinging of her omni-tool, notifying her of a new message. As they took their seats, she opened the message.

She frowned as the sender was unknown, and there was only one person she knew who would send an unknown sender message to her omni-tool.


Shepard,

Need to meet in Barcelona, preferably before you start your job and get settled in. I'll be waiting.

SB


She showed the glowing screen to Garrus and retracted when he gave a nod. She leaned back and pulled out the data pad she was reading, settling in for the long flight to their new life.