5: Truth

Garrus walked over to the table, making straight for Sidonis and Solana. "I know." He said, causing Solana and Sidonis to turn around.

"Know what?" Solana asked.

"I know that, according to John, Sidonis saved your life on Palaven." Garrus answered coolly. "Is that true?"

Sidonis' eyes widened "Who told him that?"

"Alice," Garrus said "Dad told her. Is it true?"

Sidonis seemed to hesitate a moment but Solana didn't "Yes."

…

Sidonis lifted another piece of rubble aside, revealing a dark hole. "Hello?" he called "Is anyone else still alive in there?" Behind him, he could hear Vakarian holding off the Reaper forces.

He saw something though the darkness, just a flicker of movement. He lifted another piece of rubble aside, making the hole large enough to crawl through. He could see someone hanging upside down, strapped into a chair. Sidonis crawled deeper into the hole, aware that he was climbing over the dead bodies of refugees who hadn't been lucky enough to survive the crash. He eventually got to the survivor, just as he heard her cough.

"Are you alright?" he asked, there was now enough room for him to rise to a crouch.

The survivor chucked before coughing "Y-You mean besides having a broken leg and being buried alive? Yeah, I'm just peachy…"

"Can you tell me your name?" Sidonis asked even though he already knew as he checked the area around him to see if it was safe to remove her.

"Sol-Solana…" she said before breaking out in another coughing fit.

Sidonis nodded; someone had been nice enough to give Solana their seat near the other entrance to the shuttle, and that had probably saved her life. It looked like she and the refugee to her right had been protected from the majority of the debris by the refugees to her left taking the brunt of the impact. Sidonis checked the other refugee, an elderly turian man by the looks of it, to see if they were still alive. He shook his head when he got no pulse, the elderly turian's heart must have given out when the shuttle had crashed.

"Alright Solana," he said calmly "I'm Lantar. I'm going to get you out of here okay?"

Solana nodded "Could you hurry up? I think all the blood's rushed to my head."

Beyond the rubble, he could hear the sounds of battle getting closer. Ignoring the conflict raging outside, he took out a knife "It looks like I'm going to need to cut you loose alright?"

Solana nodded "Just don't let me hit my head; I doubt getting a concussion would help matters."

Sidonis chuckled despite himself. Holding Solana up, he cut the strap keeping her in the seat and kept her from falling down, instead gently lowering her into his arms. Once he had her on the ground he asked "Do you think you can crawl?"

Solana shook her head "Did you hear the part about me having a broken leg?"

Sidonis sighed "Alright, I'm going to have to pull you out then."

Solana nodded and Sidonis grabbed her hands as her crawled back through the hole feet first, dragging Solana with him. It was slow going, and Sidonis was sure that at any moment the rubble would collapse on top of them and they would be crushed. Thankfully, he managed to pull Solana free without too much trouble.

He laid her on her back and moved to her leg, shaking his head at the sight. Her broken leg had already been in bad shape and the crash, combined with dragging her out of the rubble hadn't helped matters. "I'm going to need to set this." he told her calmly.

Solana nodded and grasped his shoulder tightly in her hand. "Do it."

Sidonis, with more practice than he liked to admit, carefully set the bone as best he could. Solana cried out briefly and her hand squeezed his shoulder but didn't acknowledge the pain in any other way. When he was done, Sidonis made a makeshift splint out of a couple long pieces of rubble and strips torn from his shirt. He moved to hold her in his arms, "Is anything else broken?" he asked.

Solana shook her head "I don't think so…" she smiled faintly and grabbed hold of one of Sidonis' hands "Thanks…"

…

"I didn't actually save your life." Sidonis said. "You wouldn't even have been in that position if I hadn't given up my spot for you."

Solana glared at Sidonis "We probably would have never made it to the next evac if you hadn't carried me for my dad, freeing him to shoot at any husks that attacked us."

"There were other survivors that helped too." Sidonis pointed out "And there was that krogan. What was his name? Brute?"

Garrus' brow plates rose "Grunt?"

Sidonis nodded "Yeah, he took out most of the Reaper forces we encountered."

Garrus made a mental note to thank Grunt the next time he saw him. "So that explains how you saved Solana-"

"I didn't really save-"

"Lantar, shut up." Solana snapped.

"-but how the hell did you become a couple?" Garrus continued.

Solana looked back at her brother. "Well, obviously when I learned who he was, my first thought was that I wanted to beat him to a pulp. But then I started to wonder why he saved me- don't-" Solana said when Sidonis opened his mouth to object "Eventually I managed to corner him on the refugee ship and he immediately told me everything." She shrugged "After that… I don't know. We started talking and soon we were seeing more of each other. I talked to dad and got him to at least accept Lantar, and when the war was over I convinced him to come with us to Sur'kesh to pick up mom. The rest is sorta boring mushy stuff that would probably make you vomit."

Garrus digested this information. "Sidonis, can I talk to you in private?"

Solana's eyed her brother suspiciously, causing Garrus to sigh "We won't be out of sight Solana, I just need to speak to him alone."

Sidonis put a reassuring hand on Solana's shoulder "It's alright Sol," he looked at Garrus and stood up "Let's go."

…

Ashley screamed so loud that John was sure he blew out an eardrum. "Come on Ash! Just keep breathing! Just like we practiced! Come on!"

Ashley glared at John "You ever do this to me again and I will rip off your fucking balls!"

John smirked "I thought you wanted a whole herd of children?"

"Fine, then next time, you carry the kid."

At the end of the cot, where she was ready to catch the baby, Chakwas said calmly "I can see the head Ashley. Just one more push."

With a determined look in her eyes, Ashley gave one last valiant push and released a mighty scream.

…

Garrus led Sidonis to where he had been talking to John a few minutes ago. Turning to face him, Garrus was surprised to see that Sidonis wasn't afraid. They stood there in silence for what seemed like ages (though in reality was probably closer to 15 seconds) before Garrus spoke. "I'm… not exactly sure what to say…" he admitted "It never really occurred to me that you would try to make up for what you did…" he gave Sidonis a hard look "Did you save Sol just because she was my sister?"

Sidonis glanced away "Well… when I was on that shuttle, I saw your sister and father trying to get on but being rejected because there was no more room. At the time I didn't actually know that they were related to you, but there are not many turians off of Invictus with those colony markings ya know? So I figured it was probably a safe bet that they were related to you so I thought 'Hey, why should I escape when they can't?' So I gave your sister my spot on the shuttle."

Garrus nodded "I thought that was the reason." He hesitated "Why did you betray me Lantar?"

"I told you, they were going to kill me if I didn't."

Garrus shook his head "There's more to it than that, I know there is, I know you Lantar, you may not be the bravest guy, but you were loyal to your friends."

Sidonis sighed, still not meeting Garrus' eyes "They… did things to me… horrible things…" he rolled up his sleeve and Garrus' eyes widened. Most of Sidonis' arm had been scraped completely clean of plates, leaving jagged scars that were only just starting to heal.

"But after you agreed what kept you from telling us what happened, telling me?" Garrus asked.

Sidonis looked at his feet "You… you never been on the receiving side of Tarak's torture… the scaling wasn't what broke me. He… when he was done, he held a sort of power over me, I was terrified of him… that if I didn't do as he asked, he'd…" Sidonis looked up "I heard that he died in the attack. Thank you for killing him."

Garrus' mandibles shifted into a faint grin "Don't thank me, Shepard's the one who killed him. I was too busy lying on the floor with half my face blown off."

Sidonis looked away "I'm sorry."

Garrus shook his head "I don't blame you for the scars," he grinned a little "Truth be told, I actually like them." Sidonis chuckled and for a brief moment, it was like they were back on Omega, laughing at another of Garrus' stories about Shepard.

Sidonis hesitated "So does this mean you forgive me?"

Garrus sighed "It's not that easy Sidonis… I can't just act like nothing ever happened"

Sidonis nodded "I know, I just… I really do love your sister Garrus, more than I thought was possible, but I don't want to get in between you two."

Garrus snorted "Do you really think at this point she'd let you leave?"

"Probably not," Sidonis admitted "But I don't want you two to hate each other just because of me."

Garrus looked in the direction of the mess where everyone was sitting "Listen… if your feelings for my sister are real, I won't stand in your way." He turned back to Sidonis, his expression hard "But if you hurt her, I will not hesitate to finish you off."

Sidonis nodded "I guess that's all I can ask for."

They were walking back to join the others when Ashley let out an extremely loud scream. When it faded away, Garrus heard something else:

The crying of a baby.

…

Ashley went limp as the baby finally slipped free of her body, breathing heavily. John smiled as he heard his new son crying and kissed Ashley's forehead "You did it Ash, he's here."

"She's here" Chakwas corrected.

John's head snapped around so fast that he nearly gave himself whiplash. "Huh?"

"See for yourself," Chakwas said with a smile, handing the wailing infant over to John, having already cut the umbilical.

John's eyebrows shot up "Yep, that's a girl."

Ashley opened her eyes as John gave her the baby "A girl? But… Dr. Morris said it was a boy…"

Chakwas shrugged "A mistake, it happens; probably a glitch in the ultra-sound."

Ashley sighed and cradled her daughter in her arms, a small smile touching her lips.

John's shoulder's sagged "But… I bought all this boy stuff for him- er, her."

Ashley glared at her husband, she knew how excited he'd been when they'd learned it was a boy, but right now, she was too tired to be sympathetic "John, shut up and say hello to your new daughter."

John sighed and leaned down next to Ashley. He smiled when their daughter quieted down and opened her eyes, revealing them to be the same brown as Ash's. "I guess it's not the end of the world." He reached out a finger and chuckled when the baby grabbed at it. Then he did something that nobody would have expected from the legendary Commander Shepard:

He cooed.

"Hey little girl," he said sweetly "I'm your daddy," he put an arm around Ashley. "And this is your mommy. Welcome to the family."

Perhaps he had merely imagined it, but John could have sworn the newborn waved hello. "What are we going to name her?" he asked.

Ashley shrugged "I don't suppose there's a feminine version of 'David' is there?"

John shook his head, "Not that I know of."

Ashley suddenly thought back to her conversation with Alice the previous night by that pond in the Presidium Gardens. She smiled "I have an idea."

…

"Say hello to Lily Ashley Shepard." John said as he opened the medbay doors carrying the now sleeping Lily in a bundle of blankets in his arms. Everyone rushed over to say hello to the newest member of the Shepard family. First up was Hannah, who smiled as she held her granddaughter while Carn looked over her shoulder, the same smile plastered on his face. Next up was Miranda, who said as she held the newborn that missing her dinner with the ambassador was "Definitely worth it". EDI merely looked at Lily curiously when she held her, while Joker teased John good-naturedly. Wrex held Lily with surprising tenderness, and Javik just looked at Lily and said "Not as cute as a larva." Jacob held Lily like an old pro, flashing his pearly white teeth in a broad smile when Brynn brought Sabrina near and the slightly older infant looked at the newborn like it was the strangest thing she'd ever seen. Liara was very reluctant to hold Lily, but nobody could miss the way she smiled when she was finally coaxed into doing so.

Eventually, everyone got to welcome the newborn to the Normandy family, except for two people: Garrus and Alice.

John noticed his sister hanging near the edge of the crowd. He carried Lily over to her and said with a smile "Come on and say hello to your new niece." He urged.

Alice shook her head, talking a mile a minute "Are you sure? I'm not sure. I don't know how to properly hold her. What if I hurt her? No maybe I should just-"

"Alice" John said sternly, he'd never seen his sister so nervous.

Reluctantly, Alice allowed John to put Lily in her arms, showing her how to correctly hold the newborn. Looking down at her niece's peaceful little face, Alice felt a smile tug at her lips.

Garrus, who had been watching all this from afar, felt a strange feeling well up in his chest at the sight of Alice cradling the baby. Taking a deep breath, he walked over to Alice and looked over her shoulder at Lily.

"Hey," he said softly.

Alice looked at Garrus and smiled "Hey," she gave Lily back to John and turned to him fully. "Do you want to talk?"

"Yeah," Garrus and Alice moved away from the group and found a place where they could talk privately. After an awkward moment of silence, Garrus spoke up. "I'm sorry," he said "I've been a real ass these last few days haven't I?"

Alice grabbed his hand and gave it a gently squeeze "I haven't exactly been the most supportive person in the world either."

"But you were right," Garrus said "I did have my head too far up my ass to listen."

"Yeah but I should have trusted you more." She sighed "I guess we're both kinda to blame here." She looked deep into his eyes "Do you forgive me?"

Garrus gave her hand a squeeze "Do you forgive me?"

"Yes."

"Yeah,"

Garrus pulled Alice into his arms and gently pressed his forehead against hers "When I saw you holding Lily, when I saw your smile, I realized something."

"What?" Alice asked

"I want that," he answered "I want to have a family with you one day. But…" he looked away.

Alice turned his head back to meet her eyes "But what?"

Garrus sighed "You were right, we… I'm not ready to get married. We still have a lot of issues to work out. But I'm willing to wait if it means I can one day have a family with you."

Alice smiled and kissed Garrus, wrapping her arms around his neck. Garrus returned the kiss pulling her closer to him, and thinking that maybe… just maybe… they could get this to work.

A/N: Aaaaand that's a wrap! Check back in (hopefully) a week and check out the first chapter of my 9-chapter fic "Taken" to see what is next in store for Alice, Garrus, John, and the crew of the Normandy.

Normally I just say "As always, please let me know what I did well and what I can improve on" but this time I really do need the feedback, especially in how well I did with the emotional parts. The primary reason I'm posting these stories up here (other than for fun) is because I want to improve my writing ability. So please, constructive criticism is very welcome!