When he awoke, she was gone. Her side of the bed was cool so she must have gotten up a long while ago. Garrus squinted at the chronometer, it was well past noon. He felt a touch of shame for having slept so long and wondered why she didn't wake him up. His head pounded a bit from all the booze that he'd consumed the night before. With a groan, he sat up, noting that his clothes were scattered about the room, haphazardly. One of his shoes had ended up in the aquarium, much to the fascination of the fish that flitted near it.
With chagrin, he realized he must have thrown it last night in his haste to get naked. He reached for his visor and put it on, adjusting it to settle it comfortably. Garrus lurched out of bed with a grunt, nearly tripping over the torn sheets that littered the carpet. He winced, thinking how it must be the fifth or sixth set of sheets he'd ruined. Terran cloth was just not strong enough to withstand the punishment of his talons. He'd have to rectify that, send off for some good turian synthetics.
He bundled up the fragments of bedclothes and stuffed them in the waste chute, along with his shoe that he fished out of her tank. He found the other one under her bed and with a shrug, chucked it too. He'd just have to walk barefoot to the battery, where his other change of clothes lay in his duffle. He pondered the idea of bringing his things up here, but decided against it. After all, he still didn't know exactly where she stood on the whole relationship thing. He didn't want to presume anything, didn't want to pressure her. This whole thing was still new to him, he didn't know human customs where this sort of thing was concerned.
After a bit of snooping, he found some more sheets and put them on the bed, corners tucked military fashion. He picked up as he went along, putting articles of clothing on as he found them. He flushed under his plates at how much her scent clung to his shirt, breathing it in deeply, mind going over the events of last night. Her skin and how it felt under his hands, her eyes as they bored into him with passion, the memories made his innards quake. He shook himself free of the recollection and finished picking up the mess they'd made. Dropped her clothes in the laundry. Righted the things on her nightstand that had gone askew.
He was finding somewhere to put an errant pistol mod when he found a drawer full to the brim with sheets and sheets of paper. On it he recognized the lines and black dots that denoted human music. Reverently, he pulled the stack out and sat on the bed, turning to place it next to him. He couldn't recall the last time he'd seen so much handwritten material. Paper was a rare commodity in space, and this had clearly come pre-printed with horizontal lines on it. Specialized for this purpose he realized. There was a title on the top sheet, written in galactic common. He read it aloud, "Violin Concerto 'Normandy' in E flat Major."
He didn't understand what E flat Major meant, let alone what a violin was. Garrus thumbed through the sheets and found that it wasn't just a song, or concerto or whatever, but many. Hundreds, even. Some were a single sheet, some were dozens. He started to separate them and soon had the entire bed covered in stacks, all written in her even, bold hand. Notations cramped every corner, notes flowed over page after page. He was taken aback at the volume of it, wondering how she found time to do this. He was filled with regret at his woeful lack of understanding, he was sure this was beautiful, a beautiful part of her and he could read none of it. Garrus started when a slim hand dropped on his shoulder.
He looked guiltily up into Shepard's face and she looked down at him with a look that was terribly like embarrassment. She ran her hand through her hair and grinned sheepishly, "You, uh, cleaned."
"I didn't mean to pry. I was looking for a place to put this-" He waved the pistol mod in the air, trying desperately to explain his intrusion.
"-and you found my, um, guilty pleasure." Baffled, Garrus watched her flush.
He chuckled and pulled her to him by wrapping an arm around her waist, sarcastically saying in a drawl, "Oh yeah, as far as vices go, this is right up there with dealing red sand."
She cradled his face in her hands and laughed with him, head thrown back, "It's kind of silly, I know. Now that I see it all out here, there's just so much of it. I hadn't realized how many there were."
He leaned against the headboard and she nestled between his legs, leaning her back against him comfortably. Garrus picked up the sheaf of paper he'd first seen and asked her, "What is a violin?"
She pulled up an image on her omnitool, a young human was holding a shaped piece of wood between his chin and shoulder, there were strings that ran the length of it over which the musician's fingers were poised. Shepard queued the vid and sound rolled softly from the device. It was high and sweet, vibrating through the air with a melancholic mien. Garrus followed the boy's fingers as they deftly flew over the strings, watched his other hand flex a long implement against the strings. Shepard pointed at the instrument, "Drawing the bow over the strings makes them vibrate. Each string is a different size, so it makes a different note. Putting your fingers on different parts of the neck plays all the notes in between."
"They vibrate at different frequencies." At her nod, he smiled, it was physics, he understood physics. "So what is E flat Major?"
"That's a complicated one." She excitedly started explaining how to read music to him, jabbing at it in places to illustrate one point after another. He picked it up easily once he figured out that it was all math. This many beats per measure, as denoted at the beginning, what each of the different black dots meant, what the squiggley things were for, quarter rests, he thought smugly. And it all clicked once he found out exactly what frequency went with what note. Simple, really. The amazing part was how she knew to compose it this way, how it was shaped into a whole.
He was following with his eyes as she hummed a particularly lovely passage and thinking about telling her he loved her when she suddenly stopped and said softly, "Three weeks."
Garrus froze, the words dying in his throat, and said equally hushed, "The trial is that soon?"
"The batarians are pushing hard, they're calling me a terrorist, and a war criminal. Hackett wants me to go to Earth and surrender quietly." She sighed, putting down the paper and leaning into him.
He reflexively squeezed her arm, a tiny bubble of panic rising in him. Three weeks, it was no time at all. He calculated how long it would take to drop everyone off before heading to Earth and found it terribly short on time for just them. No vacation to some beach with their friends, no time to bring her to meet his mother, no time for...so many things. He took in a deep hitching breath, "What will they do?"
"I don't think they'll let me get extradited, but it's a possibility." He quailed internally at the thought, batarians were not kind to their prisoners, torture being not unheard of. It physically hurt him to think of her in that position, he would die before he let that happened. She patted his arm as she noticed his distress. Garrus swallowed back his fear for her. She continued, "It's more likely that the Alliance will drag it out indefinitely, which means I'll be in a brig on Earth for however long."
It wasn't much better, but at least she'd be safe, well treated. Already knowing the answer, he said, "Don't suppose I could stay there with you?"
She turned a sad smile on him, shaking her head, "Any hint of communication with Cerberus agents, even ones that worked for me, would probably make them suspicious enough to imprison you, too. Might cause a diplomatic incident with the turian government."
He doubted anyone would kick up a fuss over him, but he conceded the point. He didn't want to hurt her chances at acquittal. It seemed grossly unfair after all she'd done to save the galaxy, again. The words he'd been dying to say to her stayed unsaid, he wouldn't do that to her now. He couldn't be that selfish, make her lose yet another thing in her life. He ached to say them anyway, but thrust that feeling down, hid it in his heart for now. He contented himself with just holding her, breathing in the smell of her, so unique, gun oil and flowers.
She lifted away from him and he let go reluctantly. Her face turned away from him as she said, "I'm letting everyone off where they want to go. Do you want to be dropped off on Palaven?"
Garrus pulled her face around to look at him, his long fingers grasping her chin, "You're not getting rid of me that easily. I'll find passage from Earth."
She made a noise of disapproval, "I won't be able to stop them from taking you..."
"Make it a condition of your surrender. Those bastards owe you, more than they'll ever realize." He smiled gently at her, feeling happiness rise in him at the grateful flush in her face. He traced the line of her jaw. "How much time does that buy us to just...?"
Shepard laughed, he marveled to himself at how much she laughed now, so very different from the tense, implacable and emotionless Shepard he first met so long ago. He felt a surge of pride at being the one to make her laugh. "Well, officially, I have until 0800 on the 21st day to surrender the Normandy and myself, with all the traveling in the meantime, minus the trip to Palaven, that'll leave us maybe a day, if we rush."
A day, so woefully short, but a day was better than nothing. His mind scrambled to find ways to make the best of that one day. A couple ideas came to mind immediately, naughty ones, but he suppressed his libido with a ruthless push. It might happen that way, but that one day was too precious to waste on his own gratification.
Garrus yanked her to him and she landed against his chest with a soft 'oof'. He nuzzled her cheek lovingly, rumbling deep in his throat. Flicked his mandibles across her scars, she giggled at the tickly sensation,pushing away from him, rising up on her elbows to look down at him, "You need a shower, Vakarian. You smell like sweaty sex."
"Well, I did happen to get lucky last night with a very lovely woman. She took me home and you know..." He ducked under her playful slap, grabbing her wrists and pulling her in for a kiss. "Then she showed me what a violin is and taught me a new language. Incredible, but she does incredible everyday."
His praise brought a lovely blush to her cheeks, "Don't turians have musical instruments?"
"I've never seen strings on an instrument before, not sure if our fingers can move the same way. We have drums and long tubes with holes in them called a coriolinus." He keyed up an image of a turian playing a march and smiled when her eyes closed to listen to the warbly mellow tones. The dark faced male held it sideways, pinned between cheek and shoulder, his fingers dancing over the four holes in the top of its length and the two along the bottom.
She was much happier when she was talking about music, so he let her ramble about how it was something Terrans called a 'flute'. Nodded when she showed him a picture of one, agreeing that they were much similar. Helped her gather up her songs and banish them back to her drawer. Once they'd tidied up, he took his leave of her, making plans to meet in the CIC later to discuss travel itineraries.
He got into the elevator, feeling the strange coldness of the decking beneath his bare feet. His mind was far away when a thump on the top of the elevator drew his attention sharply up. The hatch opened and a familiar green face peered down at him. Thane dropped down lightly at his side, his every movement stiffly nonchalant, as if he did this everyday. Which he might, Garrus never kept tabs on him to find out.
Garrus sniffed the air and shot a surprised look at the smaller man. If Garrus carried a slight odor from the night's activities, Thane reeked of it. He smelled the spoor of two different women on the male, one of which was alarmingly easy to identify. The drell stared steadfastedly ahead and Garrus grinned, unable to help himself, "So...you and Jack..."
"What happened to your shoes, Vakarian?" The assassin shot him a sly look, daring him to continue.
Garrus rubbed the back of his neck, "Ah...touche."
The men lapsed into an awkward silence, which Thane was the first to break, with a tiny smile curling his lips, "Hell of a night."
"You said it." They laughed softly, with each other, at each other. They separated at the mess hall, Garrus went to the battery to get his spare clothes and a towel and headed to the men's restroom to shower. He lamented not showering upstairs. But he'd had no wish to dress in his soiled clothing right after.
When he opened the door he found one of the shower cubicles already occupied. By Thane, who smiled in greeting when he spotted the turian. Of course he'd want a shower just as much as Garrus would. Garrus was really missing the upstairs bathroom, with its welcome solitude. He was spoiled now for certain. There was nothing for it, he supposed as he slipped with a sigh into the cubicle next to Thane's. The water pounded on his plates soothingly and he stood under it for a while, just enjoying the spray as it relaxed his muscles and chased away the last remnants of his hangover. He rumbled happily.
Thane hissed and it drew his attention. The drell was rinsing out a wound on his shoulder, close to his neck. Garrus focused on it and was startled to see that it was a bite, a ring of bloody indentations that were remarkably similar to the scar that was on his own shoulder. The other man caught his stare with a question in his eyes. Right, staring at another nude male in the shower, awkward. Garrus grinned and said, "Humans."
The turian turned to show the drell the scar on his shoulder between the plates of his chest and arm. Thane laughed and said, "Savages."
"Ha. That's what I said." He turned back to the water with an amused hum, "That's looking pretty nasty though, might want to put some medigel on it."
"What are you two ladies gossiping about?" Zaeed strolled into the room, stripped to the waist with a towel slung over his shoulder. He caught what Thane was doing and chuckled, "War wounds. Got some of those myself."
The human stripped the rest of the way and popped into the last stall, lit cigarette in his mouth as he flipped on the water. "Had a girl once who tried to take a chunk out of me every time we had a go at it. One night, she got a little too bitey down by my old john thomas, well let's just say only one of us got out of there alive."
Garrus winced, trying not to imagine teeth in uncomfortable places. And to think, he'd been visualizing Shepard doing...certain things down there, he'd forgotten about teeth. Suppose she got too excited and decided she wanted a nibble? He shuddered, no no no, not gonna happen. He soaped up quickly and scrubbed the sweat and dust from his skin, feeling infinitely better. He said in an aside to Thane, "Did Jack do that?"
Startled, the drell said, "No."
"Jack? I thought I saw you two disappear together." Massani laughed, soaping up his scarred whipcord lean body. "Wouldn't be surprised if it was her. She's got spunk, alright. Bit too young for me, I spent the night in our lovely chief medical officer's company."
Garrus wondered just how much 'thank the spirits, we're all alive' sex went on last night. Judging from the sound of it, a lot. He shook his head in amazement. People really were all the same, responded similarly to high stress situations.
Massani was the first one done, pulling his armor on over damp barely toweled skin, "Well, kiddies, this is goodbye. We're docking at Omega in a few and I'm the first one off this boat. No tears til I'm out of sight, okay? Vakarian, if you ever pry yourself off the Commander's arse, come find me, I have a good feeling we could do some serious damage together. Thane, you stay deadly."
They called their farewells after the man's retreating back, lapsing into silence when the door slid shut. Despite the man's tactless vulgarity, Garrus found he was going to miss the mercenary. He'd become part of the ship, part of them, and part of her.
"It was Kelly, wasn't it?" Thane threw a panicked look at Garrus, who smiled soothingly as he toweled the moisture off himself, "Relax, your secret's safe with me. Though considering how off balance you are at the mere mention of her name, maybe you'd like to talk about it."
The smaller man sighed as he pulled on his leather pants, the red set, that was different. Garrus looked with interest at the pattern of scales that ran along the drell's back, completely platonic, it was an intriguing pattern. "Jack and I were...in the conference room. I was highly inebriated, as was she. I shouldn't have lost control like that, it complicated later matters.
"When we were done, Jack left and I-. I try to leave-she steps in my path-the smell of bourbon on her breath-hands on my chest-she says 'love me, Thane'-I resist the urge push her away-she could fall and hurt herself-" Garrus watched the drell's eyes flit back and forth, he'd heard of this phenomena before, but watching the memory take Thane so completely was a bit unnerving, "-I step backwards until my legs bump into the table-her hands are everywhere-my head is spinning-she kneels between my legs-intense pleasure rushes through me as she takes me into her mouth-I try to deny her-her teeth latch onto my shoulder-I panic-my hands feel weak-all I can think of is Jack's face, Jack's body-The wrongness makes me push her away finally-she leaves hurt, tears falling down her cheeks like a river and I feel guilt-would it have been so bad to pretend?-I feel a sickening rush of relief as the lock turns red."
Panting slightly, Thane came to a stop, awareness of the present stealing over him. Garrus sees the shame in the set of the man's shoulders, and a flush of crimson embarrassment on his neck frills, "Wow...So you crawled through the ducts to escape CIC?"
With a sigh, he said, "Indeed. I slept for a time in the ventilation between decks as well. And I was afraid that Miss Chambers was at her station and didn't want to cause her further harm by my presence. I never intended to signal interest, I don't understand what I did to garner her attention."
"Riiight. Because it couldn't be the whole dark and mysterious thing. You're not even attractive, scrawny green thing that you are." Garrus chortled to take the sting out of his words, making it clear that he was joking. Thane laughed with him, at ease once again. "You know, Kelly almost cornered me once, too. I made the mistake of trying to get her to shut up by flirting with her. Bad idea, a gross tactical error that had me running away like my ass was on fire. Kasumi never lets me live it down."
He scratched his fringe, giving the shorter man a sideways glance, "For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing by turning her down. She would have been far more hurt if you have given her a...what do the humans call it...a 'pity fuck'."
"What an...awful phrase." Thane ran his tongue around his mouth with distaste, as if the concept was making his stomach turn. "Though I have to admit to my own shame, an accurate one. The yeoman didn't do anything to deserve that...degradation."
Thane clipped on his fringe jewelry, and turned to the turian, "Did I hear Zaeed correctly, Shepard's taking us all to wherever we want to go?"
Garrus remembered that the drell had missed out on the mornings doings too and nodded, "Yeah, she's surrendering the Normandy to the Alliance and there's a chance they may try to detain us if we're with her."
The assassin snorted as if to say, Let them try. "Are you going to Palaven?"
"Uh...no, I'm going to hitch a ride from Earth, won't be the first time."
"You've been to Earth before." Thane looked at him curiously.
"Yeah...for Shepard's funeral. Spirits, it seems so long ago now. Like it happened in another lifetime."
"That's not untrue. You are not the person now that you were then. This you is a good friend, true and strong. That past you...was broken by circumstance. As I was when my wife was murdered, as Shepard was whenever you first found her." Thane smiled at his shock, "I do not need to know the particulars to know that Shepard was not always whole. It takes one who has the scars to see them in another. I never imagined to see so many broken souls in one place, nor expected to feel so much joy when they were mended. It is a rare gift that she has and I think she learned it from you."
Garrus felt keen embarrassment at this praise, looking away from the drell's intense stare, "Where will you go?"
"I'm not sure. I think I'd like to ask Jack to forgive me, then ask her if she'd like to travel with me. I'd like to see a desert before I pass." He had a wistful look in his eye and Garrus felt a bone deep kinship with the assassin, so little time, there was just not enough damn time. "Jack has such beauty of soul, buried in the darkness she's wrapped around herself. I've seen the flame in her, flickering like the smallest candle, I'd like to see it grow."
He nodded, agreeing with Thane. They all had hidden depths that begged unearthing. Oh how he was going to miss them, all the brilliant bastards.
Thane gripped the turian's arm, "This is not the end, Garrus. We'll all see each other again, in this life or the next. Fear not."
Thus comforted, Garrus searched out Shepard, to stand beside her as the spirit of the ship diminished with every person's departure.