He met her at the elevator and they ambled congenially to the medbay. He said to her, "This must be that 'deja vu' you humans are always harping about."
"What do you mean?" She said coyly, as if she didn't already know.
"Again, I find myself questioning whether or not you're crazy to involve yet another unknown on this suicide mission." He grinned at her, taking the sting out of his words. "Logic goes out the window around you."
She chuckled, throatily, "Life is not exactly logical. Explain this."
Shepard motioned at the air between them, eloquently underlining the obvious differences and the undeniable similarities between them at the same time. Garrus said to her without words that he wouldn't have it any other way. He walked her to the door of the AI Core, past a smirking Chakwas and stopped to stand next to the door, "I'll be out here. In case, you know, you need some comic relief."
Garrus watched her enter the core, knowing that more than likely they'd come out of there pounding each other on the back like old comrades. Shepard worked miracles it would take scientists decades to unravel.
Chakwas looked at him, brow quirked, "I'm surprised you let her go in there alone. Geth can be very dangerous."
"She doesn't need my protection from one geth on her own ship. On her own terms. If you haven't noticed, she can be quite dangerous, too. Deadly, even." He snorted at the thought of her in danger from so paltry a thing, half dead as it was. "I'd be more worried about the geth if it tried anything."
"Worried about a geth. Sometimes it's like the galaxy has gone mad." Chakwas sipped a beverage from the glass in her hand. He didn't have to smell it to know it was brandy. It was always brandy. If she were less capable, he would be tempted to call her a drunk. He'd been there, so he knew the signs. "Since you're here, let me change your bandages."
"Can't it wait? I'm kind of in the middle of something." He winced, the woman was trying to torture him, as usual. Over the last few days, his face had become increasingly itchy as the skin finally knitted over the cybernetics. He'd never have full sensitivity on that side again, but the tingling of the reawakening nerves was maddening.
Chakwas stalked toward him and he sighed resignedly, taking a seat so she wouldn't have to stand on tiptoe to treat him. Gently, she peeled back the bandages and made an approving hum in her throat. She handed him a small hand mirror as she moved to other side of the room to gather some more gauze and things.
Tentatively, afraid of what he might see, he looked at the right side of his own face for the first time since he'd been shot by a rocket so very long ago. The whorls and crevices of scar tissue covered a good majority of his neck and cheek, with section that were still healing over, circuitry and wires peeked out at him from the holes. It reminded him disturbingly of Saren and he shivered. Most of the paint on that side had faded off, it was only a semi permanent lacquer over the plates of his cheeks and jaw anyway and he'd been unable to re-apply the areas under the bandage. But now looking at it, he doubted if he'd ever be able to apply it correctly over the scarred skin. He sighed, putting the mirror down.
"It's not as bad as all that, Vakarian. I think the asymmetry is rakishly appealing." He looked at her incredulously. She dabbed at the scars with an astringent fluid and he winced, more at the smell than the sensation. Just the air on it was making it tingle unpleasantly and he sighed in relief as she placed a new bandage over the area, "It's coming along nicely. In a few months, you won't even need to cover it. Shame medigel doesn't make synthskin grow faster. We'll have to make do seeing as the Commander doesn't want to, how did she put it, 'waste resources upgrading the medbay'."
She made a disapproving sound in her throat and Garrus spoke up in his confusion, "Shepard didn't buy an upgrade? That doesn't sound like her."
"Hmph. I told her we could get a skin regenerator to finish healing her scars more quickly, and yours, I suppose, but she wouldn't have it, said her vanity wasn't so great that she'd put the crew at risk because she used credits that could have gone to shield or weapon upgrades making herself pretty again."
Garrus ran this over in his head. His own scars he was getting used to, didn't really want to get rid of anyway, it just wasn't important, but if Shepard was in doubt of her beauty because of hers, he saw no reason she shouldn't be allowed this one indulgence, if it brought her comfort. But then again, she may feel about it the same way he did, it didn't matter. Ultimately, he decided he would only talk to her about it if she brought it up first. He leveled a cocky grin at Chakwas, "Well, I think she's plenty beautiful. I think her scars look like constellations mapping some far off exotic place in the universe."
"You are a hopeless romantic at heart, aren't you, Officer Vakarian." Chakwas chuckled, patting his hand.
He dropped his chin in his palm and gave her his best devilish smirk, "So, speaking of rakish asymmetry, I hear Massani has been spending a lot of time in here. Must get banged up pretty often to be in here so much."
Garrus laughed as she actually got flustered, that calm demeanor cracked as a flush spread over her cheeks. She was saved from further embarrassment when Shepard came striding back in from the AI Core, the geth standing almost awkwardly behind her. Shepard looked from Garrus to Chakwas, a slow grin lighting her features, "Seriously, Garrus? Chakwas, too? If I'd known you were such a player-"
She shook her fist at him in mock anger and he held his hands up defensively, "I can't help that I'm irresistibly charming."
"And a shameless flirt. Kasumi told me stories, some of which involve a certain yeoman..." She laughed at his visible wince. Garrus really didn't want to be reminded. Shepard showed mercy then and turned to her newest crewmember, "This is Legion. He's going to be helping us fight the Collectors. Legion, this is my XO, Garrus Vakarian and Doctor Chakwas."
"I thought the geth worshipped the Reapers. Don't the Collectors work for the Reapers?" Garrus scratched his fringe, doubt coloring his voice.
"Shepard-Commander has been informed that the heretics following the Old Machines are not the geth currently residing beyond the veil. Geth build their own future." It was almost peeking from behind Shepard like a shy child. Why do I find that endearing? It's a damn geth.
The machine's cryptic statements made Garrus look at Shepard with brow raised. She shrugged, "I'll explain later. For now, Legion, until the crew gets used to you, try to stay in here or the common areas of the ship. If you feel the need to explore, I won't stop you, but no hacking. No fiddling with any of the tech on my ship, understood?"
"Understood, Shepard-Commander. We shall remain within the parameters you have set." Garrus watched it, no, him, might as well start personifying it now, mimic Shepard's posture and hand gestures. That was interesting, almost as interesting as the old piece of N7 armor strapped to Legion's chest and arm. Garrus was dying to ask questions, but didn't want to bombard the geth until he'd settled in. Shepard reached out and squeezed Garrus' hand before sauntering out, leaving the doctor and the turian alone with the geth, who seemed undecided on whether to retreat into the core or not.
With a strangely fluid motion, Garrus watched the machine turn and palm the doorlock. As it slid open, that shiny eye turned to him once more. He could see its lense focus on him and he put the slight rush of adrenaline he felt down to battlefield reflexes, he'd never had to converse with a geth before. It was usually shoot or be shot. "Vakarian-XO, we have reached consensus."
"About what?" It was going to be hard to get used to interacting with this strange crewmate, he saw.
"We find that the scars on Shepard-Commander's face most closely correlates with the constellation of Orion as seen from Shepard-Commander's planet of origin."
Garrus was stunned, his mouth dropped open in shock. Stutteringly, he said, "W-Wait, you heard me in there? Could she hear me in there?"
He was mortified to be caught out, but was relieved to hear Legion say, "We do not believe Shepard-Commander was able to hear your interesting hypothesis. Though if you'd like us to discuss it with-"
"No! No, that's fine. It's, uh, not important." He finished lamely as he waved his hands in what he hoped didn't look like panic. The flaps above Legion's eye flexed in what his brain wanted to interpret as confusion. It reminded him of that geth colossus they'd taken down on Haestrom.
"We will return to the AI Core." Without further ado, he did just that. The door slid closed behind the geth and Garrus exchanged a look with Chakwas.
She shook her head, "Madness."
He nodded agreement, but in the back of his mind he thought that Legion would fit in just fine. Just a different sort of person, or so he hoped anyway. Would be a bad day to have to fight Reapers and the Geth at the same time. This talk of different factions among the machines gave him hope that that wouldn't come to pass.
Tali was a mess. As Garrus rubbed her shaking shoulders as he hugged her, he wondered briefly how her suit handled tears, or if they just ran all the way down into her boots, to squelch as she walked. He stifled an inappropriate laugh at the image that conjured and consoled his friend. She was in a bad way. Apparently the admiralty board of the quarian flotilla were accusing her of treason, the penalty for which was exile.
He wished he could be there for her trial, to lend support, but he was taking a team to Tarith to disrupt some Blood Pack operations. Miranda was also taking a team to Jaob, where EDI had detected a Prothean signature. It felt like they still had so much to do before the Omega-4 relay mission possibly took the option out of all their hands.
Tali slowly calmed down and Garrus said the only thing he could think to say, "Shepard will sort it out. She always does."
They believed it, they always believed it. And then she did. Garrus wished he could pull off half the miracles she did. Tali sniffed inside her mask, "I wish you were going, Garrus. I could use all the friends I can get and you and Shepard have been there the longest."
"Hey, consider me there in spirit. I'll be thinking about you, Tali and wishing you luck. And if those bastards exile you, despite everything you've done for them, then they can go to hell." He flicked a mandible at her and said dryly, "And I'll be more than happy to send them there with a well placed bullet."
Tali took a deep steadying breath, "Shepard will sort it out. She'll sort it out. Stop worrying, Tali."
"Plus Thane'll be there to watch your back. He's a good guy and a decent shot. So no worries there." Garrus resolved to have a word with the assassin to make sure he knew what treasures he was guarding. Not that Garrus had any doubts, it was just for his own peace of mind.
Leaving Tali feeling better he hoped, he sought out Shepard and found her in the unlikely location of the forward battery. Garrus looked around at the almost unfamiliar room, he spent far less time in here than he used to since...well, since things had progressed between he and Shepard. He still came in here to calibrate the Thanix cannon but he didn't linger anymore. Hell, all his armor and weapons were down in the hold, lovingly stowed with everyone else's gear.
She was sitting on his bunk and he had a flash of memory of the two of them writhing in the dark upon it, passionately and felt an answering flush beneath his plates as he looked at her, sitting there with a long black case across her legs.
His curiosity was piqued by its size and the fact that it had no maker's mark anywhere that he could see. Shepard looked up at him with a crooked smile, "I've been...trying to find a good time to give this to you. I was going to wait til we went through the relay, but then I thought now is as good as ever. It should come in handy."
The way she said it made him think she was worried about his safety, too and he felt a warm flush. He sat next to her, "What is it?"
Wordlessly, she handed it to him and he hefted it, surprised at its weight. It was one of the expensive hermetically sealed cases that can go through hell and back without a scratch and he flicked the latches open with anticipation. He slowly opened the top and took in the sleek deadly thing nestled inside. His mind's eye imagined it coiled like a viper, ready to lash out at any hint of provocation. He was looking at sudden inescapable death. With trembling hands, he caressed its oily finish that gleamed with an almost sinister light, he whispered, awestruck, "The M-98 Widow...Jane..."
Her face lit up with a burning fire and she tackled him, arms around his neck, kissing him furiously. He slid the case to the floor, wincing at the heavy thud it made as it clattered to a stop. His blood was in a furor as her hands massaged all the right spots under his fringe, he groaned into her hair, hands coming up to card it through his talons. Spirits, he loved her hair. He loved her. They relived their first night together on that cramped cot, with the same urgency in every caress and thrust.
And when it was over, they held each other in the dark, as close as their skin would allow them to be. He idly fingered the healing ring of bitemarks on her shoulder, not sure if he should be feeling the tiniest bit proud of having left his mark on her, as indelibly as she'd marked him, body and soul. "So..."
A smile in her voice, "So?"
"Just how long have you had that rifle hidden away?"
"Since the Collector ship." He laughed at her chidingly, twirling a strand of her hair idly around his fingers.
"That was before we-" she hummed an affirmative against his throat, it sent a delicious shiver through him. He sighed softly in mock exasperation, "You know if you just wanted to get me into bed, that rifle would have had me at your mercy."
"You're not at my mercy now?" It was a low sensual growl and he felt his heartbeat quicken. Spirits, this woman is dangerous. Her eyes glittered in the dark and he imagined a feral light in them. Then her gaze softened and she whispered, "I was waiting for you to come back to me."
His heart ached for her. He'd been so blind then, didn't see her reaching for him in the dark until it was almost too late. He pressed his mouthplates to her temple, breathing her scent, "Well, I'm here. You found me."
Her voice held a note of victory, "Yes, I did indeed. And you don't get to go anywhere now, so be safe."
He chuffed into her hair, saying with a note of reproach, "I would have been safer before now if you'd given me that rifle."
She scoffed, "I think you could have held your own with an old Viper I."
"Be that as it may be. Imagine the damage I could have done with that tank-killer." He shook a fist in the air, excitement in his tone. She laughed at his boyish glee. "The old Viper didn't have the stopping power of wet tissue paper."
"So you approve?"
"Oh baby, you buy me the nicest things." He tickled her ribs, drawing a sound of consternation.
"Will you teach me how to shoot?"
"That Widow might rip your arm off..." She was looking at him so soulfully now he laughed, "Of course, we'll just have Mordin stand by for any accidents."
"Whenever this is all over..." She frowned, knowing some promises were best not to speak aloud. Not in the face of the horror that still awaited them.
He broke into the sudden silence, forcing a cheerful note into his voice "When we get back from the relay, we should go somewhere. Somewhere nice. For a while. We'll take the whole crew. Some downtime on some tropical planet. It'll be great."
She relaxed and smiled, indulging this fantasy, "Yeah, cool drinks and warm beaches. Somewhere not too humid so Thane can go, too."
His mandibles fluttered happily at the scene, feeling that it might be in reach, even for people like them. But his heart knew better and a tiny kernel of fear planted itself in his gut. Dreams were enough for now.