Garrus stopped what he was doing when he received the following email to his Citadel net address:

Vakarian,

I just want answers. Please. You owe me that much.

You know where I live now.

-Shepard

It was 11:00 P.M.

Garrus knew Liara was sleeping next to him, but he felt this overwhelming urge to go see Shepard. It flooded his chest, overwhelming his senses. His heart ached, it welled in his chest. It felt like impending doom. Like right before they went to the Collector Base. Right after he had first been with Shepard intimately. He could remember every moment of it.

"Hey. I brought wine. Best I could afford on a vigilante's salary."

He cringed at his…awkwardness. He sighed and realized his mind couldn't stop, not like it used to. It was the strangest memory, one that both hurt him and aroused him simultaneously, to his chagrin.

He slowly moved off the bed, decided to get coffee before getting dressed to go see her. He needed time to…calm down.

Liara woke and draped a hand around his waist. "Garrus?" She mumbled, opening her eyes.

"Are you okay?" She slowly sat up in the bed and turned the lamp on her nightstand on.

He shuffled his feet anxiously, then turned to face her. "I'm okay."

"Come back to bed." She gently pulled on his arm. He sighed and rolled towards her and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'll be back soon."

Liara sighed and laid back down, pulling the sheets closer. She inhaled deeply and told him in a whisper, "I know you're going to see Shepard." Her voice trembled as she spoke, "I can't face her. Not yet." She looked over her shoulder and told him pragmatically, as she often did, "I don't want to interfere with this, Garrus. It is in your hands alone. I will respect whatever decision you make, but for the love of the Goddess, please make a decision soon."

Without another word, she turned the lamp off and got comfortable under the covers.

Garrus closed the bedroom door.

His talons hovered over the steering wheel. He was outside the hospital. He had received notice from Shepard that she had requested a private room for their meeting, one in which there would be no doctors or nurses interrupting them…and especially, there would be no leaking of their conversation to the press.

He parked behind the hospital and pulled at his jacket collar, rolling it up against his neck. He slipped through the hospital doors and was easily able to walk into the elevator. The security guard only nodded at him before the elevator doors closed. The top floor. It reminded him of the elevators on Ilos. He fell into another memory.

Shepard leaned against the hard, glowing green wall and sat down. She was beaten to shit. Her nose was bleeding from using her biotics. Her head was buzzing. Liara was commenting on the beauty of the design of the elevator. Shepard felt the blood touch her lips and she wiped it away on her glove. She looked up at the blue eyed turian, who stood near her.

"When we take that bastard down, I need you on my six, Garrus." She spoke softly, yet still commanding.

"There's no other place I'd rather be, Shepard." He reloaded his sniper rifle and extended his hand to her. She grabbed it and he pulled her up. The elevator door opened slowly.

"About fucking time." She pulled her pistol out and walked out into the vine filled hallway.

The elevator door opened, revealing cool tile that met the metal of the elevator. Garrus slowly exited and looked around. There was a small table to his right, a giftshop past it, and various rooms which were closed. The lights were dim, but he looked to his left and there was a single door. He walked towards the door and before opening it, he saw through the small window. There she was.

She was standing tall, her body leaning into a crutch to compensate for her marred leg. Her hair had grown substantially. It flowed to her midback, naturally wavy obsidian locks that always smelled of cinnamon.

The scent hit him as he opened the door. He almost fell right then and there. Shepard turned around and looked at him so coldly she may as well have stabbed him. It was an instant sense of guilt, of shame, but mostly disgust with himself for seeing that he did this to her. Her eyes were red, her cheeks were wet. Her left hand's nails were bitten to stubs, the only real nervous habit that she had acquired during the stress of the Reaper invasion. Her dark circles had returned like a black smudge underneath her eyes. She looked so small, so fragile, that Garrus felt his once flawless vision of her had shattered.

She was broken.

He wanted to say something. Anything would be better than this silence. This deafening silence. He closed the door and sat at the chair in front of her. She looked down at him. It felt appropriate.

"Shep…" It stopped so abruptly. He tried to speak her name. It felt so hollow on his tongue. The name which once burned in his memory and his heart, a word which had been given so much reverence, a monument. A temple that only existed in his own reality. The real Shepard he loved. He tried to say her name again. His throat felt as if it were closing up, her name now suffocating him.

She interjected. "I didn't die, Garrus. I was asleep. You could see me, for fuck's sake. I was right there and you still…" She had to pause because she felt her emotions getting the better of her. She didn't want that to happen. She turned and faced the wall for a moment and inhaled deeply before turning back to him. "I just want to know why you couldn't wait for me. What was the urgency, Garrus? Just answer that."

His tongue formed the words, but his brain was unable to process the stress he was experiencing. He looked out the window and placed his hand against the window sill, then turned his head towards the dark-haired beauty in front of him. "You know I have always loved you, Shepard. Always."

Her eyes burned into him, almost brighter than ever, glowing in the dim light of the hospital room. His heart burned with the weight of her silence.

"I could not watch you wither away, I…" His mouth felt so dry, sweat beading and blurring his vision. The tips of his fingers were numb. "I went to see Liara, so she could find another neurologist that specialized in coma patients. She had already set up an appointment with him before I even saw her. I don't know…I just…" He sighed and saw she had not once looked away from him. She did not speak. She just listened.

"After he examined you and reviewed your past medical…procedures, he told me there was a less than twenty percent chance you would gain full function if you ever woke up. You were gone for fifteen months and I was told you would not wake up, and if you did, you would not be the same, even with your extensive cybernetics." Garrus felt so exhausted suddenly, so drained. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth, his hands almost shaking. The words barely came out of him. "I was told to unplug you, Shepard. That was his final recommendation. The sooner the better…"

Shepard took a step back. She finally looked away, her eyes meeting the floor. He reached for her hand. She wanted to resist but it felt so natural. It felt so normal. So perfect. Their hands fit together like nothing had ever happened.

"I was lost without you…and Liara gave me hope for the future. I don't…love her, and she doesn't lov-"

Shepard pulled her hand away like she had been burned. "I can't accept that excuse Garrus. Just…tell me, what the fuck you were thinking…" Her words came out like venom, hot and brutal. "Did you think I was just going to die? After everything we went through—"

He grabbed the back of her neck, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her. He kissed her hard.

Her breath and words caught in her throat. She melted into him and leaned into him, unable to bear her own weight on the crutch. He held her there and moved his mouth to her neck. Shepard whimpered under him and he pulled away and looked into her eyes. She was still angry. She was so outrageously angry, and he still did not answer her questions.

But…maybe the answers could wait.

Author's Notes: I am taking a lot of personal experience and putting into my work, but my goal is to keep the characters as "in character" as possible. I hope the story is cohesive and flows well, but I ask for your reviews! Please let me know what I could improve on!

Cheers!

-BrokenEmber