It was clear now to him that Shepard still felt...something for him. Whether that held a candle to whatever feelings she might be developing for a certain drell assassin was as yet unclear. Garrus really didn't know what to do about it. Could he make her any more happy than Thane? He didn't know, certain that he was still damaged goods.

Spirits, maybe it was time to stop running and fight for her, for this chance to be with her. It was shaky resolve, but there you have it. He'd been thinking about it all morning, after suffering through the most frustratingly erotic dreams he'd ever had. All soft flesh and whispers in the dark, the tumble of soft hair against his cheek. His hands and eyes full of her, making her cry out, making her writhe under him. He groaned, this was not helping him think straight.

They were on route to the Citadel, and soon Shepard, Thane and he were waiting in the airlock for the ship to dock. Garrus traded quips with Joker and EDI. He was amused by their sort of old married couple type of quibbling, so he, in grandest fashion, egged it on. In the interests of science of course, so he could make... observations, and to, borrowing one of Zaeed's many whimsical phrases, 'take the piss' in regards to Joker. He felt inordinately pleased that he was able to make Shepard laugh occasionally.

So, apparently, Thane had some sort of business on the Citadel, too. Shepard was killing two birds with one stone, as they say. He felt a tiny bit irritated by that. But he supposed it would be selfish of him to expect alone time with Shepard. They were here for business not pleasure. It was time for Garrus to get his head in the game.

Garrus was mildy surprised that they were able to get past security so easily. Shepard must have been back to the Citadel since her death, a fact further collaborated by a human man in a C-Sec uniform waving to her as she ran past. As she waved back, Garrus shook his head in awe. You would think being dead would be cause for concern if it were obvious from the whole walking, talking thing that you weren't. Doors just opened for Shepard. He shouldn't be surprised at this. Must be settled, though, so he let it go.

Fade turned out to be a volus, and a fake. The real Fade was an ex-C-Sec officer named Harkin. A real piece of work. Work meaning shit in this context. Garrus remembered the corrupt man from way back before he'd joined Shepard's crew the first time. A very bad egg, indeed. And now he was helping criminals drop off the grid? Oh, he was going to enjoy shutting him down.

The ride to the factory district was silent in an awkward way. He could feel Thane staring at the back of his head, blankly, tapping his fingertips together idly. Shepard was looking out the passenger side window, brows creased in deep thought. Garrus kept glancing at her sidelong. He knew her. She was going to say something. Something he wasn't going to like too much. But she kept her silence.

When the vehicle landed, they disembarked in silence. Garrus moved with purpose to a heavily guarded door. He eyed the Blue Suns mercs with scorn. Harkin walked into view behind them and stopped, staring, "Shepard?"

Then the little weasel ran for it, ordering his guards to attack. Garrus called after him, "Run all you like, Harkin. We'll find you!" As he and Shepard dropped into cover, he looked around for Thane, but the man had disappeared. Maybe he was pulling a Kasumi. After all he'd heard, he kind of did want to see the man in action. A strangled gasp made him look around his cover. All the guards were down and Thane was just standing there, Damn, if you blink, you miss it.

"Leave some for the rest of us." Cajoled Garrus, walking past him dropping the point of his rifle to the ground.

Thane smiled and said softly, "My apologies. I will try to kill them...slower."

Now that, that was a joke. Garrus was a bit stunned, could it be that this angsty brooder had a sense of humor? He felt a flush of shame, a moment of self realization when he realized that Thane wasn't the only angsty brooder in their little family.

And then all hell broke loose, there were mechs everywhere interspersed with the odd merc. Garrus stood on a crate behind another crate and started lining up his shots. He especially liked it when they bunched up and he could put a shot through one face and out another. He was scoped in on a merc about to squeeze off a round when the merc's head exploded, showering gore on his buddies, who dropped back to find cover.

Garrus looked over at Thane, who'd taken a similar position on the other side of this room. The drell shrugged, gesturing elegantly with his sniper rifle that he should keep going. Oddly, Garrus found himself smiling. Two snipers, oh, man this was going to be a damn cake walk. Instead of being put out, as he expected, Garrus found himself starting to appreciate the man's eye. They started a deadly crossfire that destroyed the enemy ranks, startling them into a full on retreat. Not that that saved them at all. If they left any part of themselves out of cover, there was soon a bullet in it.

The drell was nearly as good as he was, some of his shots not falling quite center and what Thane started, Garrus finished, definitively. They moved in tandem, finding perfect nests and just working the opposition over. So caught up was he that he was scoping the room for a good twenty seconds before he realized that all the mercs and mechs were dead. The adrenaline rush faded slowly, his blood cooling. Thane appeared beside him and they both hopped off the crates to the deck.

Garrus looked down at the smaller man, grinning, gave him a little bump with his elbow. Was surprised when it was returned. And Thane laughed, actually laughed. A loud crunch behind them had the two men spinning.

Shepard was there, leaning against a crate, munching on an apple. In the midst of this mayhem, Garrus was reminded of the time he'd found her eating a sandwich in the Presidium right after they'd defeated Saren. Wait, where did she find an apple? Did she even shoot anyone?

"Did you even shoot anybody?" Garrus echoed aloud. He crossed his arms, huffing in mock consternation.

"Not a one." She smiled a crooked, cheeky little grin at him between bites of fruit.

"Honestly, first the thing with that gun on Horizon, now it's grocery shopping. What do you even do any more?"

"My boys had it. So I just sat back and enjoyed the show." She shrugged nonchalantly, then tossed the applecore to the side and strode between the two bemused men. Then Shepard said to them, "I'm actually surprised I got the drop on you two. Slipping, Krios, slipping."

"Hmmm, maybe I didn't find an apple threatening." Thane mused, exchanging a glance with Garrus.

"Think I can't kill a man with an apple?" Shepard turned an eye behind her to where they followed, her brow arched.

"On the contrary, I can think of three ways to kill a man with an apple. Two of them involve poisons, the last, a juicer and rubber tubing." Thane smiled, clearly amused.

"Hmmm, really." She smiled like she had a secret. They walked a door into a small room, conveniently filled with heat sinks. A blast shield was covering a window in front of them. She slapped a control and it dropped, revealing another crate filled room. Garrus didn't see any movement out there, but that didn't mean there weren't more mercs protecting Harkin. He peered into the factory, turning to Shepard when she said, "You worked with Harkin at C-Sec?"

"Yeah, he was a pain in the ass back then, too." Garrus clenched a fist, frustrated that he was so close to exacting his revenge, "But I'm in no mood to play his games. If he doesn't want to cooperate, I'll beat him to within an inch of his life."

Shepard sighed, turning to lean a hand on the windowsill, looking him full in the face, "You seem to be getting tense, Garrus."

The woman was maddening. She knew why he was here. He had to lay to rest this last bit of business. With difficulty, he answered her, trying to keep a growl out of his voice, "Harkin may know why Sidonis wanted to disappear. If so, he knows why we're here and I don't want him tipping Sidonis off-"

Movement out of the corner of his eye had him dropping into cover, closely followed by Shepard. He looked over at her, "Did you see that?"

"I saw something." She replied, checking her ammo, grabbing some heat sinks. "We won't catch him waiting here."

"Right behind you." He kept close to her six as they moved into the large room where Garrus had spotted movement. He immediately started assessing where the best line of sight was on each open zone up ahead. He saw Shepard pause for a moment, head tilted slightly as though listening to something, watched her smile in a devious way. Oh, someone is in trouuuuble.

True to form and probably because Harkin possessed not once ounce of creativity, they were immediately attacked by mechs and mercs. Garrus signalled to Thane and the two men started patiently constructing a kill box, forcing their enemy into smaller and smaller confines with deadly crossfire. Garrus looked over to Shepard, who amazingly had produced another apple, was tossing it lightly in the air. She waited until she had Thane's eye and gently lobbed it into a group of three mercs who'd bunkered down just inside one of the shipping crates. Garrus scoped in just in time to see one of them pick it up, turn it over and yell, "GRENADE!"

The mercs scrambled but to no avail as the explosive shoved into the apple's core went off, killing all three. Garrus couldn't help but laugh at Shepard's smug expression. Thane shook his head, a smile on his face, "Four."

"Keep counting, Krios." Shepard had another apple in her hand. Just how many did she have? Garrus wondered, but given the size of her pack, she couldn't have too many more. She was a bit closer to Garrus, almost within arms reach and her voice low, said, "This'll probably only work once."

Shepard gave the fruit an overhead toss, yelling "GRENADE!"

As the mercs shot their entire payload at the crimson projectile, they didn't pay attention to how far out of cover they had moved. Shepard drew a sniper rifle, a thing Garrus had never before witnessed, and popped the heads off four of them before they caught on. Holy crap, thought Garrus, jaw dropped in awe. Shepard reached over and gently closed his mouth, hand under his chin. Oh, this woman, this brilliant deadly woman. He wanted to grab her then and there, Harkin be damned.

"Five. Very amusing." Thane's voice drifted over to them, "But, I wonder, how many more you could have?"

"Just the one." The one being even now in her hand.

Garrus was dying to know what she planned to do with it, was stunned to witness this playful side to her on the battlefield. Just then, he saw them, "Heavy mechs!"

They hit the ground with a resounding thud, shaking the decking beneath their feet. Shepard leaned in close to him, close enough that he could smell her unique scent of gun oil and soap and he swallowed reflexively as he tried to hear her over the wild beating of his heart, "We're going to try for a two-fer."

"Two-fer. You're going to have to explain that one."

"Two for one. In about fifteen seconds, I want you to overload the one on the right, then drop it's armor as fast as you can, about half-strength should do it." She scrambled over to Thane, presumably to relay the plan. The two heavy mechs, still bunched together stalked slowly toward their position. Garrus counted under his breath, then unleashed an overload, popping the one's shields, then pulled out his assault rifle and laid into the staggering mech. He could see Thane doing the same to the other mech. Shepard was peering intently on something above their heads and when he glanced up for a moment, all he saw were servo-mechs transporting large barrels.

Suddenly, with one swift movement, she let the apple fly with a heave, grunting with the effort. Garrus, otherwise too occupied to watch its ascent, nevertheless heard it impact one of the barrels with a ping, setting off a creaking sort of groan that ended in a shriek as the barrel broke loose, falling perfectly into the midst of the two damaged heavy mechs.

He wasn't prepared for the resulting explosion and had to reel back in the face of the concussive blast. When his vision cleared, there was no sign of the mechs and Thane was standing next to him, an uncharacteristic expression of incredulity on his face. Shepard stood and nodded in satisfaction, "Nice."

Garrus barked out a laugh, "Two-fer. I like it."

Thane made his way over to them, "Six. Mmm, I am always gratified to be shown new experiences in my lifetime, Siha. But never have I witnessed as many as I have since joining your crew."

"To quote Randy Bachman, 'You ain't seen nothing yet." With that, Shepard led the two men past the remaining token resistance to the control room. A flick of her eyes told Garrus that there was another exit in the room. Without a word, he split off and stealthily made his way over to it, just in case the worm decided to make a run for it. Which he did, backing away from Shepard straight into Garrus' waiting arms.