Whoever named this place Purgatory certainly got that right, Linda thought. A Blue Suns trooper risked a glimpse around a barricade; she took him down with one well-placed shot to the head.
"Nice shot!" Garrus yelled.
Shepard looked at him and grinned. "That's quite a compliment coming from you," she called back. They heard a familiar mechanical whine; "Oh, crap," they groaned simultaneously.
"Take cover!" she yelled, "heavy mech inbound." I really hate heavy mechs, Linda thought as she scrambled for cover.
Blue Suns were everywhere and the heavy mech was blasting everything in sight. Linda stood up, aimed and fired quickly, taking down two more mercs before ducking behind cover again. With as much time and money as Cerberus invested in bringing me back, you would think they would at least give me decent armor, she thought as she waited for her shields to recharge - again.
Glancing up, she saw that one of the mercs had flanked Jacob. "Jacob, look out!" she bellowed. He turned, but it was too late; Shepard saw him fall. "Hang on Jacob!" she yelled to him; then "Come on Garrus – I've had enough of this of this crap."
"On your six, Shepard" he replied.
They leaped out of cover and charged, taking down mercs in a hail of bullets. As they sprinted to the next barricade, Garrus grinned. He loved combat and knew that Shepard did too. They worked well together; all it took was a brief glance or nod to convey a world of information.
Shepard looked at him, raised an eyebrow and nodded toward the heavy mech.
"I'm on it" Garrus replied. He stepped out and blasted the mech with Overload while Shepard fired several missiles in rapid succession; the mech exploded.
"And stay down" Garrus said with a smile.
They ran to Jacob who was struggling to sit up. "Stay still," Shepard commanded while she examined him quickly. He had taken a bullet to the shoulder; it appeared to have passed straight through, but she didn't know what kind of internal damage there might be. She quickly applied medi-gel to relieve the pain, reduce the bleeding, and postpone shock.
After a couple of minutes, Shepard allowed Jacob to stand. "How do you feel?" she asked.
"I'm good Shepard," Jacob replied.
She knew he would hurt like hell once the combat adrenaline wore off. "Come on gentlemen," she said "let's end this."
"Jack better be worth all of this shit," she mumbled to under her breath as they moved out.
####
Back on the Normandy, Shepard made her rounds, checking on her crew. As usual, the last visit of the evening was with Garrus. When she entered the main battery, Garrus turned. "Shepard. Need me for something?"
"Got a minute?" she replied, grinning; their conversations always started this way.
"Of course," Garrus said, motioning to a nearby crate.
Shepard sat down and patted the crate next to her. "Have a seat Garrus. I'll get a stiff neck looking up at you."
Garrus sat and asked "How is the crew?"
"Jacob is in the Med Lab. He was lucky. The bullet missed all of his major blood vessels; it nicked a bone, but Dr. Chakwas has already repaired it. She said that he should be able to return to duty in 2-3 days. I told Rupert to give him whatever he wants while he is recuperating; he was already drinking a strawberry milkshake when I left."
Shaking her head, she continued "Miranda is pissed at me for insisting that she give Jack the data that I promised her."
"Wait," Garrus interrupted. "Miranda is pissed at you? Unbelievable!" Shepard stuck her tongue out at him; he laughed.
"You know as well as I do that Miranda isn't happy unless she gets pissed off at me at least once a day," she replied.
"Speaking of Jack, how is she?" Garrus asked.
"She has settled in as well as she can. She definitely has issues; I hope she will be able to work through some of them now that she is out of that hell-hole. I think she will be a good member of the team if…"
"She doesn't kill us all first?" Garrus said.
Shepard laughed. "Exactly. You're getting pretty good at completing my sentences."
"What is that human saying?" he asked. "Great minds think alike?"
She laughed harder. "That's it – and that is exactly what I was going to say next. Maybe I better get out of here before you start reading my mind!"
Shepard stood up, but then stopped. "Speaking of team members with issues," she said, smiling to take the sting from her words, "have you heard anything about Sidonis?" Sidonis had been a member of Garrus' vigilante squad on Omega; he was a traitor and responsible for the deaths of all of the other squad members.
Garrus stood up and began pacing. "No. I've put out feelers, but haven't found anything yet."
"You will," Shepard said with conviction "and when you do, I want you to tell me. I want to help you take this guy down. I've got your back Garrus – always."
She stepped closer to him. "I'm glad you're here", she said, her blue eyes studying his face. "You're a good man; we make a good team." She reached up and stroked his scarred mandible gently, smiled, then turned and left.
Garrus sat down on the crate and watched her walk away. He could still feel her touch on his mandible. Shepard has changed, he thought. She told him that Cerberus had insisted on bringing her back exactly as she was before and at first glance, they had – but there were differences. He watched her interact with the crew in the mess hall. She was much less reserved than before; she laughed easier and was more willing to let others see the person – no, the woman – behind the legend. She also touched others often, something she almost never did before. She was quick to give a crew member a friendly pat on the back, or squeeze their arm encouragingly. He didn't think she was even aware of the change; it was almost like the last two years had created a need in her for physical contact. He knew that she touched him more often; he certainly wasn't complaining. He wondered what would happen if he began touching her in the same way…
Shepard glanced up and saw Garrus watching her; she arched her eyebrow and winked at him.
Embarrassed to have been caught, Garrus hurriedly stood up and went back to his workstation to continue working on firing algorithms for the Thanix Cannon.
Shepard smiled; she was amused that she had been able to fluster the usually unflappable turian with a wink.