AN: I own nothing. Rated m, and thanks to my reviewers.

OoOoOo

He's more distracted at work than he's ever been. Garrus has filed the wrong paper work twice in the same day, and Chellick starts to take notice. Grimly he snaps his mandibles closed and forces himself to focus on the task at hand. Discreetly he's dipped into his own reserve funds to find out what has happened to Shepherd.

Four weeks, five days, eleven hours, and forty-four minutes since he has last heard from Tassus. Not that he's really been counting, it is just that he doesn't like his informants disappearing like that on him. His fringe aches, and his hands hurt from tensing and relaxing every time his omni-tool beeps or someone walks into C-SEC.

To make matters worse, it's all over the extra net about Dr. Saleon being taken down in a hail of gunfire and bravado. It digs into his spurs and refuses to release that it was by Chellick of all turians. Chellick! The male that wouldn't even listen when Garrus howled to go after the twisted freak, had somehow located and disposed of the salarian menace. To add to the insult, Chellick had rescued several species kept under sedation. One of which had turned out to be the Turian Councilor's sister, who'd recently been undergoing "treatment" for brittle plate syndrome. Some other bastard doctor had sold her unconscious body to the dear doctor for couple of days for his reprehensible experimentation.

His fear for Shepherd becomes nearly tangible when several children were among the list of those recovered. Several others had died in transport to medical facilities. And, equally as sad had been the loss of Executor Pallin who had accompanied Chellick upon hearing the whereabouts of the Coucilor's sibling.

So when she showed up at C-SEC, at Chellick's side, with her head held high; Garrus had been rendered speechless for a good half hour. He'd imagined her dead, tortured, sold off into slavery, and a hundred other horrible fates. His fear for her and worry had kept him awake at night. He'd been a turian possessed with making sure she was alive and well. He'd hardly eaten a morsel since the plea from Tassus. And then suddenly there she was, dressed nicely and smiling at Chellick. As if he was something special.

"Now, just as we'd discussed," Chellick said to her quietly, but Garrus had heard the undertones of respect and comfort in his words. "I have to say that you've really changed my opinions on humans."

Garrus wanted to rip his throat out and feed it to him. And what was he talking about?

Shepherd nodded quickly. "I understand perfectly. Thank you again, for helping with this."

"No," the white marked turian all but purred out, "think nothing of it. But if you ever decide that you need the same thing again," he trailed off suggestively and Garrus growled as Shepherd smiled.

"You'll be the first turian I call."

Spirits! What had happened while Shepherd was gone? Had she been rescued by Chellick? Had something else happened? And, by the Spirits, why was Chellick puffing out his chest over Shepherd like an over protective male? He had no right!

The alert came only seconds later.

They all jumped to attention as the Turian Counselor strutted proudly across the floors of the C-SEC building. His assistants scurried in his wake. Garrus like every other Turian has snapped to full salute as he passed by. His mandibles closed as he watched with azure eyes the proceedings as they unfolded. The Counselor stopped at the makeshift podium; his avian eyes scoured the crowd for any potential threats before speaking.

"As you know," he began with his voice vibrating sheer pride at his fellow turians, "there has recently been one that has gone so far above and beyond the call of duty that his efforts have caught my attention, personally."

Absolute silence greeted his words.

"Detective Chellick, if you would join me," he bade with authority, and Garrus watched Chellick assumed a position next to the speaker with only mild malice plaguing his thoughts. "This brave turian has saved countless lives at great risk. His valiant example should be a lesson to you all. It is my honor to name him the new Executor of C-SEC and shall succeed Executor Pallin effective immediately."

Shock rippled through the crowd. Garrus glowered at the news. It is not that he doesn't think Chellick is a safe choice, but it is not the person he would pick.

Warbles of congratulations, approval, or acceptance filled the air. Garrus failed to join his own tones to the symphony of subtle sound. Instead he'd been staring at Shepherd as if she's the answer to a question that has been unsolved for decades. Her gaze never met his. She's was too preoccupied standing silently by the nearest exit. He could tell she's waiting. For what, he didn't know.

"I will do my best and even more," the new executor proclaimed confidently. His mandibles had been kept wide and his facial plates drawn in expression of a leader. Garrus already disliked the situation, but when Chellick turned his gaze to Shepherd, Garrus had to forcibly keep himself from tackling the smug bastard. A slight nod passed between them and Garrus' keen eyes had seen it all too clearly. As a Vakarian his need for duty and justice weighed over his every decision, but he knew deep in his gizzard Shepherd was the reason that Chellick was now being celebrated. Somehow, it felt like a betrayal, which was ridiculous.

"Allow me to say that I will tolerate no slacking from anyone, and we are going to make the Citadel the safest it has been in years. However, I did not do all of this alone."

Garrus' pulse began to race. If he ousted Shepherd she'd most likely be harmed.

"All of you have been a great support. I look to count on you in the future." The flurries of congratulations, cheers of approval, and murmurs of surprise rippled through the sea of officers at this unexpected announcement.

The Councilor gave a closing speech that Garrus didn't hear. He could only watch as Chellick spoke with the influential turian. The others dispersed back to work, but Garrus felt compelled to draw closer and over hear the conversation.

"A fine job."

"Thank you Sir. I will make this my sole mission in life."

"See that you do."

"If I may change the subject, I hear that your nephew is entering basic training soon?"

"Yes, I have high hopes he will serve the hierarchy well."

"I'm sure he will, if he carries your bloodline and the spirits are willing." Chellick grinned, his sharp teeth glinted in the florescent light. "Allow me to introduce my nephew, Seratus." Garrus felt as if the breath has been knocked from him as he saw Shepherd gently nudge forward Tassus, whom he hadn't even noticed, only now the boy bore the same white markings as Chellick.

What the hell was this?

As Tassus approached the pair of older turians, Garrus honed in on Shepherd leaving. With the instincts of the predator his species evolved from, he follows her.

When he got her alone, it took all of his will power not to explode at her with violent force. Her scent is driving him to distraction and those deviant images in his head grew worse at her closeness. She smelled like home. Her odd limp fringe was pulled up as he's seen many human females wear, but on Shepherd it made her appear fragile like the weak spot in an enemies' armor. Garrus tried not to think about how it made her look older, and how that would have solved so many moral problems.

Her throat was adorned with a small and modest necklace. It certainly would not have hurt the creds in someone's pocket, but something told him it's the nicest thing she's ever worn. The thought made his throat tighten and he reminded himself that she duped him. Turian pride roared to life mercilessly as he recalled the wasted time and effort put into finding her. She was safe and sound. Wrapped up like a pretty package with Chellick.

Damn them both.

She mes his gaze, didn't even have the common decency to turn away and it's so like her he nearly forgot his rage. Nearly, but not quite. He held onto it with the desperation of a solider going through a suicide mission. He would fight until the very bitter end.

"Were you safe the whole time? What is going on between you and Chellick. Why did you leave the others? Did you abandon them?" He snarled the questions out quickly. "Answer me!"

Shepherd stared at him unflinchingly. "I never left them longer than was absolutely necessary and you know I would never abandon them."

He noted that she had completely skirted passed the first two questions.

"Tassus said-"

"Exactly what I asked him to say."

Garrus felt as if he'd been punched in the gut.

"So you were never in danger," Garrus said with a threatening growl.

She didn't make any pretense, and she didn't cower from the ferocious display he presented. "Oh, no. I was very much in danger," she said flippantly which dug into his plates even more, "the only difference is from whom."

He could only come to one sickening conclusion.

"You deceived me!"

She paused at his words and those same strange human eyes seemed to look through him once more. He had the strange recollection of his mother once staring at him in a similar fashion. It seemed as if she understood something that he would not know until he was older. It left him bereft of anything except humiliation and anger.

"If you want to look at it that way, then I suppose I did." Shepherd nodded slowly. "In my mind I was keeping you out of a messy situation. However, if you wish to place blame on responsible parties, be sure to include them all."

His fringe felt hot as his blood roared while all the pieces fell into place.

"Chellick was in on this?"

"Don't be dense, of course he was. He may not look like it, but he's far more ruthless than he appears." Shepherd snorted in annoyance, but her strange human mouth stretched in a lopsided grin. "As for Tassus; If it came from the one person that disliked you the most, then I knew you would listen and take it far more seriously. That way I could ensure you would be out of the way."

"So you lied to me?"

"Without hesitation," she replied blandly.

"And you went to Chellick?"

She held his gaze. "Yes. I did. In fact, I approached him when I managed to gain some valuable information on Dr. Saleon. Or Dr. Hart, I should say. You have to admit that it was twisted to use that as an alias."

"That was my bust!" He exclaimed loudly. "I was going to personally pay that bastard back for everything he'd done and you gave that sort of information to Chellick?!"

"How would I know you were going to take him down? I'm not a mind reader," she bit out acerbically, "and if I was wrong it would have been someone's career. What I had wasn't concrete, and Chellick went in without proper authorization."

His anger reached such a height that he shook with it.

"Why?" Garrus shouted angrily. "Why do all this?! How could you do this?"

Her face contorted in rage and sorrow. "How? Easily. Why?" She tilted her head to the side and regarded him as if she had never seen him before. "Why else? For them! For the kids! A parent would do anything for their child, and though I am not biologically related to any of them I would and will do the same. Would you do any less? Besides weren't you the one practically begging for the guy's blood?"

Garrus carefully moved past the question. If he delved on it too long he would concede she had a point and that would only lesson his anger. He needed a familiar emotion right now.

"That doesn't make sense. Why go to this extreme? Dropping off the radar? Leaving the kids with some punk named Shroud?"

"Don't talk about Shroud that way. He could and did keep the others safe."

"Surely-"

"Surely what? Surely someone is going to take the word of an orphaned human who grew up in the Citadel maintenance tunnels that a deranged murder was in the docking bay?" Her face was incredulous, "or that others are going to help me out of the goodness of their hearts? Do you even understand how stupid that sounds? It might have been true for you C-SEC but not for anyone else. Or have you forgotten that this sort of trade is part of my world?"

Garrus swallowed hard, his mandibles clacking in open agitation. "What was so important that you would lie to me like this? That you would make me waste time searching for you!?" His words are sharp and meant to hurt. He knows they hit the mark when her face flinches.

"You want to know what was so important that I wasted your precious time? Tassus is the bastard son of a Primarch," Shepherd said venomously and it stopped Garrus in his tracks. The revelation was huge. "his father governs the star cluster in which the planet Gellix resides. Recently someone has been trying to find Tassus. For what, I can only assume is leverage against his father. Be it ransom or political pressure. Either way, Tassus would prevent the Primarch from being able to do something if we are lucky and he'll die if we aren't. Worst of all, until I know better I have to assume his own father would strike out at him because Tassus' very existence could demote him a few tiers. Tassus has nothing, is considered less than any colony barefaced born," she emphasized harshly, "he's barefaced and doesn't even qualify for the civilian tier. The lowest damn tier possible, the one meant for children and he doesn't qualify because of a Father that will never claim him and a mother that shoved him into the trash. So yes, I did this and I will do it again Vakarian, because when I picked that shrieking turian child from garbage and held him in my arms, I swore I would do whatever was necessary to see him live past this hell." She gestured to the Citadel with wide arms. "No colonly markings, no family, no money or connections. Surely you of all people recognize an easy target when you see one C-SEC. Tassus won't turn fifteen for a few more years and he isn't safe until he can get into boot camp, when he will be given the chance at rank. Until he has a tier to protect him, he's not safe, because he sure as hell can't claim a human duct rat as a surrogate mother to the Hierarchy. His bloodlines count for squat," Garrus was puzzled by the word as his translator had no equivalent. "Because if I prove them to get him taken in he will be dead within a week. So how exactly was I supposed to get him approved?"

Garrus tried not to think about how parts of him were reacting the near growl in her words. For humans he was sure it expressed anger, but for a Turian she nearly sounded like she was purring and that… No. Focus.

"So yes, I went to Chellick and proposed a temporary partnership. He'd give Tassus a family to belong to and markings. I would give him everything he needed from information, to eyes, to someone to take the fall and he would see Tassus into training with a new name. Tassus would be safe. And as an extra bonus he'd place my kids in good schools with reputable families. Chellick is legally willing to expunge their less than stellar origins from the records."

Shepherd advanced toward him, those human eyes pinning him in place far more effectively than any drill sergeant.

"Yes, I might have practically whored my skills out, but I didn't kill anyone C-SEC," the words drip from those fleshy lips with distain like freshly distilled venom. "I never stole, and I didn't break a single law. So whatever your problem is, it's not mine. I did was needed to give Tassus the same damn chance any turian out there has and to provide for those under my care. They can have real lives now. Don't you get it?"

"You risked Chellick's career!" He trilled out in fury.

"He risked his own career," she barked back equally as fierce. "Got that? He. Made. A. Choice. I only presented an option."

"Why him?" He pressed the issue he didn't want to think about, but buzzed in the back of his mind and would not leave. It plagued his every waking thought. "Why not come to me?"

"Because I don't give a damn about Chellick," Shepherd snarled, "I don't exactly care what happens to him." Suddenly her eyes flicked away and realization dawned on her face as her words replayed in his mind over and over.

"But?" Garrus growled lowly, his double harmonics edging a question she would never be able to hear. Her human ears could not pick up on the wondering undertone and the bittersweet hope vibrating through him.

Then it hit him like a Vorcha with a particularly nasty grudge. This was wrong. Everything that his twisted and deviant mind, by his species standards, dared hoped for was sick. He was sick and how could he possibly even think of dragging an underage girl like Shepherd into this? Something had to be wrong with him because no good turian would ever… could ever even possibly think that…

He just couldn't. There were so many parts of his life that would never allow Shepherd into them. The Kids, and the Shadow Broker notwithstanding, she would never fit in his world. A dextro and a levo? Not unless it was an Asari. And, Shepherd was human. She belonged to one of the newest races and coming a close second to the most hated. It would never work between them because even if he could throw everything else away, she was still just a kid. He could protect a kid, but if he let himself take this any further it would be abuse. He wanted to protect Shepherd from that sort of thing, just as he had with that Drell bastard. He wanted to keep her safe from people that wanted her. People like… him.

"Shepherd," he said softly, all traces of his anger gone and suddenly he feels older than his years. The vulnerable look in her eyes and his tone said it all. "Whatever you think about me, whatever you feeling… I'm sorry. I really am. It's just-"

"No," she interrupts him quietly, "I get it. I do. You're not into other species." Her downcast eyes twist at his heart.

He forces himself to crush the small speck of something that threatens to overwhelm him. Warmth spreads through his chest. So, she had felt it between them too. "No," he clears his throat awkwardly though his sub harmonics resonate with his sadness at the situation, "it's not that."

She quickly looks back at him, curiosity and pain in those limpid pools of alien color.

"You are… you're…" 'Too young' he wants to say but he doesn't want to hurt her more. "I'm C-SEC and you are-"

Her eyes turn cold, colder than he has ever seen. "A duct rat." She says flatly before her flat human teeth show between a mocking version of a smile. "A duct rat in a fancy dress is still just a duct rat. I see."

Garrus' mandibles fluttered in surprise. That wasn't what he was going to say, not even close. His taloned hand reached for her, but she's already laughing a hauntingly hollow note that withers his Spirit inside.

"I'm sorry Shepherd," he said again, hoping to absolve the weight that holds his heart down.

She turns from him, and begins to walk away. He knows she'll never hear the sounds of sadness and mourning emanating from him. How could she? She would never understand… hell he didn't even understand all that was going on. A strange sort of instinct and sense of duty was guiding him now.

He watches helplessly as she stops a few short yards from where she was. Her face turned partially toward him.

"Tell me something," she says calmly, "if I weren't a duct rat. If we had met some other way, would it have been different?"

Garrus looks away from her quietly, wracking his mind for the right words. He doesn't want her hurting, but she's young and what he feels for her is wrong. Garrus knows he is a bad turian, but perhaps he could do this one thing right. For her.

"Yeah," he gruffly replies, "it would have been different."

She leaves him standing there without another word.