Alrighty folks, this is it! Hope you enjoyed the story and a huge, marvelous thank you to icyfreezerpop for beta'ing my story :)
Little bit of a smut warning for this one, gotta wrap up those feels!
Garrus held Aeryn for what felt like hours. He quickly became unaware of anything else other than the woman currently in his arms.
He had come so close to losing her – again.
He doubted he would ever be able to forget the way she collapsed like a rag doll and how dead she looked when he went to her.
Now she was alive, breathing and in his arms. She felt cool to the touch, as many humans do to turians, but it was a welcome chill. He suddenly found himself touching her, anywhere and everywhere. They were together and he would be damned before he let her leave his sight again.
Aeryn had been content to just be held by Garrus and to hold him back up until he started allowing his hands to roam over her. At first she felt horrifyingly paralyzed as she remembered Hector touching her, but she quickly registered the inhuman heat flowing from the hands and her horror turned to a desperate need to be as close to him as possible.
She was lucky it was the night cycle on the ship because she hadn't even bothered to shutter the med bay windows before she was moving to straddle Garrus' lap.
Her lips were roaming over his face, neck, carapace, anywhere she could reach without leaving his lap. She ran her tongue over the small bite mark she had left ages ago and solicited a growl from her lover.
Her hands were already working to remove the shirt of his casual wear. Her finger tips skimming over the soft spots in between his plating as she slid it up and over his head. She found that her medical gown was the perfect thing to be wearing at that very moment.
He made quick work of the gown and she caught him staring in horror over the multiple spots of discoloration over her skin. He ran his hand over a particularly bad spot on her waist.
"Chakwas said that it was due to the nanites being imbedded in your muscles… When they dislodged they caused some internal bruising," he quietly informed, as she had been unconscious the last time Chakwas had been in the room.
She softly covered his hand with her own and brought his fingertips to her lips, kissing and biting.
She didn't give a rats' ass if she looked like a bloody Dalmatian, she wasn't going to let that stop her. She had a lot of time to think while she was the living puppet and she realized that she was wasting time trying to "reconnect" with Garrus.
They were always connected. She would always be his and he would always be hers.
He kept a steady rumble as she unlatched his trousers and pushed them down just enough – his plates had already parted and he was as ready as she was. She watched in momentary fascination as his hips moved in a seemingly involuntary fashion.
She smiled and licked her lips as she brought her gaze back up and made eye contact with him.
Garrus was almost out of his mind with desire. She was taking her time and after the tongue bath she just gave his neck he was about ready to pick her up and cover her on the medical bed. As it was, she was licking her lips and eyeing his manhood with a distinct look of want.
She finally moved forward and slowly impaled herself upon him and it was one of the single greatest feelings in his life.
He loved being inside her, he loved feeling her in his arms as they made love to one another.
For what felt like hours they moved rhythmically together, moving as one to the slow build of completion. Just as Garrus was about to kick it up a notch, Aeryn beat him to the punch. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and bit down, hard, on her fading mark.
All sense left him as he roared in pleasure as the pain registered what she was doing. She was marking him again!
He slammed her down on the bed and slammed in to her repeatedly, his control completely broken. He heard her cried of pleasure and felt her body arch under him as he gripped her waist tightly. He held her hips still as he drove himself home again and again. Just as he felt her muscles grip him in exquisite tightness he, too, bit down on his old mark and claimed her again for his own.
He heard her cry and felt her muscles turn in to a vice grip on his appendage, causing him to join in her orgasm.
He held himself over her, trying not to smother her with his weight, as he looked down at her sweat sheened face. He made eye contact and touched his forehead to hers, their breath mixing as they just stared at one another.
"Next week, we are going to be married next week. I am not going to make the mistake of waiting again."
He felt awkward as he realized he sounded like he was ordering her to marry him, but he was instantly reassured as she wrapped her arms around his neck and nodded vigorously. His heart swelled and he sat back down in the chair, pulling her with him. She was still straddling his waist as she settled herself on his lap, resting her head on his cowl.
She was quickly asleep and he wondered if maybe he should move her back in to the bed. He realized, now that he was thinking properly, that this was probably too much too soon for her after such an ordeal; but he couldn't bring himself to regret it.
He would just have to take care of her if she hurt when she woke up.
He gingerly moved her back in to the medical bed and sighed when he realized it was too small for him to join her. He knew from personal experience that these beds were like sleeping on child's beds to someone of his size.
He contented himself with sitting next to her and resting his gaze on her as she slept, a small smile plastered on her lips.
He let himself think of their future long in to the night, he would have to inform his dad and Solana that he was going to be married. Both would be thrilled and he could just hear the speech from his father over finally roping Aeryn into marriage.
He had sent both his dad and Solana a message explaining everything shortly after getting Aeryn back on to the ship. They needed to know what was going on in his life and now that he was certain Aeryn was safe he sent the message detailing where she had been and that she was back.
They were both happy for him and his dad was already asking about dates for the marriage.
It was telling to Garrus that neither his dad nor Solana had asked about Tali. The fact that they didn't seem upset about Tali's dismissal wasn't really all of that much of a surprise, his dad had adored Aeryn the one chance they got to meet on the Citadel before it was captured and apparently his dad had inspired the same type of adoration in his sister.
His sister had been the only one to meet Tali, and it had been on accident. Tali had acted jealous until she realized that Solana was Garrus' sister and then she had changed her attitude to pleasant – but the damage had already been done in Solana's eyes.
Tali never really had a fair chance. Had Tali not tried to off Aeryn, he may have felt more pity for her, as it was all he could muster up was some understanding and a quelling of his desire to have her killed. He never wanted to see her again, but he didn't wish her dead.
It was the most he could do, he was feeling more generous than usual with his bondmate back in his arms.
Aeryn woke the next morning in absolute excruciating pain. Her muscles were apparently revolting after being used so thoroughly the previous night.
Chakwas, as it turned out, had a vicious streak. The old medic had the good graces not to scold the woman, but she certainly didn't make her any more comfortable than she had to.
Aeryn was really too happy to complain, however. Garrus had left to get some breakfast and had come back with John and Liara in tow. After exchanging pleasantries and hugs, the debriefing started.
John had asked how she had managed to break free of the control measures and Aeryn answered honestly.
"I have no idea, really. I started to feel a tingling at the back of my neck and as it got more prominent I found that I could exert control over parts of my body. At first it was just fingers and facial movements, but when you all were there I was able to gain full control. I don't really know how."
Liara looked puzzled and John just looked confused, bioengineering and mechanics weren't really his strong suit and bless him if he didn't try to understand.
Not leaving them hanging in confusion for long, EDI spoke up.
"I was able to deactivate the nanites via remote signal, Shepard…"
They all just stared at the ceiling, a common occurrence when EDI's physical manifestation was not present. Liara was the first to break the awkwardly confused silence.
"EDI, how did you know to do that? Where did you even begin to create such a signal?"
EDI paused for a moment, probably trying to dumb down her explanation for the two humans and the turian in the room, none of which were even remotely aware of the nanites developmental process nor how they were controlled.
"I analyzed the signal that was present during the first encounter with Aeryn after her re-abduction. Combined with Dr. Ephrat's notes on her experiments, I was able to discern the appropriate signal pattern, pitch and range to take control of the nanites. It took a few tries, as Aeryn stated the control didn't come all at once. I found it much easier to control the nanites when we were in closer proximity to Aeryn."
For a moment the entire room was simply speechless. They had not considered that EDI had the capability to do such a thing, let alone that she would take it upon herself to do this. Aeryn felt that she shouldn't be so surprised by the AI anymore. After all, ever since EDI had started a relationship with a human, revolted against Cerberus, and the multitude of other tales of the AI's exploits, she really wouldn't be surprised if the AI ended up telepathic after all of her soul-searching and self-tweaking.
"Thank you EDI, I owe you my life." Aeryn said truthfully. She owed everyone on the ship her life – well, everyone except for Tali, but Aeryn was already thinking of the quarian as being off of the ship.
Now that the big mystery of Aeryn's escape was exposed, John felt it was the perfect time to bring the attention back on to the future.
He clapped his hands together, bringing everyone's attention back on to him and then blurted out, "So I hear we get to plan a wedding! Really Aeryn, a week? Liara will be beside herself with to-do lists!"
Aeryn groaned, John was going to have too much fun planning a wedding and she could guarantee that she would be lucky if she didn't have to wear something resembling a walking snow-beast in taffeta.
Tali had heard through the grapevine, also known as people talking loudly in front of her cell, that the rescue mission for Aeryn was a success… and that Garrus and her were going to be married within the next week.
She was beside herself most days since, choosing to lay in the corner of her cell and simply cry away the day.
She had lost.
Shepard had come down and said something about releasing her near a colony in the Omega Nebula. A representative of the flotilla was going to pick her up.
She couldn't bring herself to care. That was, until the day before she was going to be dropped off.
She realized that she hadn't lost yet, she could still win this… She just needed to hijack a ship, maybe convince the representative to allow her use of their ship.
Hell, she was still an Admiral! She would demand use. Then she would overtake the Normandy and demand that Garrus surrender to her. She could convince him! She would convince him.
John sighed as he prepped the away team set for escorting Tali off of the Normandy. He felt like he should feel worried for her, dropping her off on a planet so close to Omega, but he didn't. He just felt tired.
This whole ordeal was tiring. Having someone you trusted so deeply betray you so completely was not something John enjoyed feeling.
Garrus had, surprisingly, agreed to be on the team. John didn't ask why, but thought he knew. Garrus was trying to show Tali that she no longer meant anything to him. A bit of closure, if you will.
Tali walked off the shuttle, surrounded by James, Garrus, Javik and Kaiden all lead by John to the agreed upon drop point.
Even though the planet had a spaceport, John elected to have Tali completely off the ship before they left her on her own.
They checked in with ground control and John moved to leave. He was halted by a snide remark from their detainee.
"No goodbyes?"
John and Garrus both tensed, tempted to do more than speak, but seemed to simultaneously realize that more attention to her wouldn't grant them the peace and quiet from her that they both desperately desired.
They all simply just turned and walked back to the shuttle, leaving the quarian alone and abandoned on the unfamiliar planet.
None of them regretted the ending of their ties to Ms. Tali'Zorah Vas Rannoch.
To say that Tali was peeved that none of them said goodbye to her would be an understatement. Years of loyalty and of putting her life on the line and this is the thanks she gets?
She was going to make them pay one day.
She just needed to get back to the flotilla.
She turned and started to walk to the coordinates that had been given to her before she was dropped on this pathetic excuse for a colony. They had been gracious enough to give her a geo-tracker so that she could at least see what coordinates she was at, but the assholes kept her omni-tool.
She found herself walking through the dingy human colony on her way outside of the city's vicinity. Classic quarian, even after reclaiming their home planet and gaining respect in the galactic community, they still liked to pick up their strays outside of regular colonies.
Tali had turned down an alley before she realized that she was not alone, and that she had taken a wrong turn.
She turned to find a way around from the cul-de-sac of buildings when she bumped in to her stalker.
She looked up at a turian with skull-like colony markings encrusted on his face. Well that was certainly ominous.
"Can I help you?" She asked regally, not really caring if she seemed rude or not.
The turian smiled at her. "Yes, I believe you can, Tali'Zorah."
He didn't even flinch before raising his pistol to her face mask and pulling the trigger.
You don't fuck with Aria and those she claims as hers.
The crew of the Normandy got word of Tali's death a few weeks later, a week after Garrus and Aeryn had been married.
The flotilla had cleared the Normandy's crew of wrongdoing before they had elected to inform John, out of respect. It had been verified that the ship had left the planet's orbit long before Tali had been assassinated.
The flotilla had asked if they had leads, and though John had an idea as to who ordered Tali's death, he didn't voice it.
The wedding had been splendid, despite Aeryn's constant complaints that everything was too grandiose. It wasn't every day that his sister got married and certainly not to his best friend.
Garrus' father had helped plan the wedding from afar and they had managed to sync up their plans perfectly for a meeting on the citadel.
It was a huge affair and truthfully John was sure that some of the guests hadn't been invited, but no one cared. It was an open bar and a huge party. The bride and groom deserved it.
John couldn't have been happier for his sister. She and her groom were constantly caught just staring at one another and had even been lost for an hour before emerging looking more disheveled than they had been prior to going missing.
The ceremony itself was a gorgeous mix of human and turian tradition and John was more than relieved to find out that the two ceremonies were remarkably similar; however, he was disappointed that Aeryn's face didn't have to be painted to match Garrus'.
Ah well, you can't win them all.
Garrus woke to find himself alone in the bed. The sounds of animals were overwhelming for being so early in the morning. Birds and monkeys? Aeryn had called them.
They finally made it to her secluded spot, a rainforest overlooking a vast ocean. They were in a cabin on a beach, and were far away from any other civilization.
Their rations were flown in once a week, and they had been there for a week already.
He loved this place of hers, and he found himself more content with life than he remembered ever being.
He eventually moved himself out of bed and went to find his wife.
Aeryn was standing in the early morning sun with her feet in the surf and her face raised skyward. She had closed her eyes to avoid being blinded and just basked in the rightness of the past few weeks.
She and Garrus were married, she was Mrs. Vakarian now, and were finally on a vacation.
She felt strong arms wrap around her waist from behind and she leaned against the strong chest she knew would be there.
He would always be there for her as he always had been.