The Start of a Plan

Parable

Jane moved from the couch and watched the clearly alien snake bask in the warmth of its tank in the few moments between Dawn's request and Mordin and Thane's arrival. Her lie hung in the air thick and choking, but she refused to admit that death still taunted her many years after the war. Usually, she could turn away from its laughs and icy fingers - falling prey only in the unguarded hours of sleep - but being there put her face to face with her friends now dangling at the ends of death's strings.

She felt more than saw her husband step up beside her, his presence a calming and unmovable strength. The two stood in silence; Dawn and her own Garrus talked quietly among themselves about something in an obvious attempt to seem less intrusive as Jane stared absently into the unseen distance beyond the reptile's tank.

That silence lasted for only a moment before Garrus spoke quietly at her side. "Jane." He didn't lift his own stare from the reptile before them when she turned to look at him. "A moment?"

"Not really anywhere we can go, Garrus," she said with a chuckle at his seriousness, but immediately sobered at his pointed look down to her. "Alright. Where do you want to talk?"

Instead of answering her, he bypassed the question and steered the conversation towards his own inquiries. "Are you sure about this?"

"Don't think I can handle a bit of some needles and invasive tests?"

His stare didn't falter, he didn't fall for her flippant answer, and she sighed, looking into the sand behind the glass rippled by the the serpent as it had moved about. She felt his eyes boring into the side her skull as he used his sheer presence to push her towards opening up. He has always known she comes to him to silence the whispers of shadowy figures in the fog of the land of the dead, but damn him for being so damn persistent on getting it out of her.

"What do you want me to say?" she whispered, not sure if Dawn would hear, but sure the other Garrus would. Being heard or not, she needed to get her thoughts out to the only one who'd listen, and expected the other Garrus to have the decency to keep whatever he caught from their conversation to himself. After all, her own would have, so perhaps it wasn't too crazy an expectation.

And fuck it if they hear. Not like they don't already see it in my eyes.

"I want you to tell me what you're thinking." He rumbled, leaning over to press his mouth to the top of her head, a near impossible task given their height differences. He offered his hand and she took it, letting him squeeze her hand before he stood straight once more. "I know this isn't easy, won't be, because I know you haven't forgotten who stays up all night with you when you dream of that place."

She closed her eyes at a rush of cold that had to be an imagined fallout from her nightmares, of an abandoned world blanketed in fog and full of whispers and distant shadows. Even standing there in the well heated cabin - most likely for the turians and soon to arrive drell's comfort - Jane could swear she felt the tendrils of mist as it wisped around her ankles to drag her down. If she closed her eyes, she would see nothing but shadows and hear only whispers of accusations and loss.

A tug on her hand woke her from her trance as Garrus pulled her against his chest, hugging her with soothing purrs. "Jane. Tell me and we'll send them away."

"No, Garrus." Taking a deep breath, she exhaled and laid her cheek against his chest. "I didn't lie when I said it'd be nice to see them in another way than the dead I see when I sleep. And they aren't the same people I watched die, I missed my chance to say goodbye to." She huffed a weak breath of amusement that felt like ash on her tongue. "Maybe it'd be easier if they were pointing a gun at me in suspicion of just what the hell I am like back on Namakli. I didn't really freak out when I was too concerned thinking a Thane clone was fixing to fill me with holes or snap my neck."

"Only you would be more comfortable looking down the barrel of a gun." A hint of humor, though strained, laid within his rumbling vocals and Jane let herself smile softly.

She relaxed her arms to slide them around to rest on his back. Trying for the same relaxed tone in her voice, she said, "You know me. Can't really feel at home until I'm facing someone down with my trusty boomstick."

"Or that strange finger gesture you do."

Snorting, she swatted his back lightly before sighing and looking up to him. "And I'm not going to tell her to send them away. One, because we all need to know what Mordin thinks, and, two, because it's as obvious to me that she wants Thane by her side as it is to everyone that I want you by mine."

"I don't give a damn what she wants," he said with a low growl. "I don't want you stressing out. She has someone with her already, she doesn't need-"

"Garrus, stop." Her voice is soft as she stopped him, but still firm enough to show him just how she felt about his views on their situation. "We're not really in a situation to make demands."

His vocals kick up in ready to speak his mind as she turned to the door just as it slid open to admit two men who were dead to them just the day before. Mordin, just as she remembered, rushed in with the energy of, well, a man told he could examine alternate versions of people from another reality. Thane entered just as stoic as Jane remembered from her own past and nodded in greeting before moving to stand beside Dawn and let Mordin get to work.

"Told of varying ages, variance in years prior to incident. Assumed scarring when heard about surviving war." He took a deep breath, eyes blinking as he started to pace in Mordin Solus fashion.

That's unnerving. Jane watched as he passed back and forth, asking questions to no one in particular with the occasional glance between Dawn and her own crew and Jane and her husband. The continuing similarities to her own Mordin began to make her body break into chill bumps and her mind fall into the fog, but Garrus' hand around hers helped to calm her.

"Already running tests on samples from armors." He tsked and shook his head. "Operative Taylor's methods of collection peculiar. Still managed to obtain enough to test."

Jane zoned out again as Mordin talked, watching Dawn as her shoulders shifted up, then down in a sigh and she shook her head. Obviously, this Mordin listened to 'don't overwhelm people' just as well as her own…

Did. As well as he did.

Jane frowned and shook it off, stepping towards the couches to sit. Garrus stuck by her side and stood between herself and the walking, talking dead man. Whether he knew he was guarding her or not, she was grateful. She didn't know how she would react if Mordin actually did want to run tests.

"Curious," Mordin said as he stopped in place and turned to the two. "Would like to know events leading to transference. Will need from both parties." He opened his tool and stepped closer to Jane, but seemed to immediately notice how she tensed up at his approach and stopped. "Ah. Still uncomfortable."

"It's just…" Jane's eyes moved over him as she forced her body to stop leaning away. "A shock still."

"Understandable. Similarities," he responded with a glance towards Dawn from her place attempting to pull a chair over to the snake tank. Mordin huffed with a slight shake to his head when he saw Dawn's attention elsewhere before looking back to Jane. "Will try to minimize discomfort. Need to scan for traces of substance remaining on person."

"Remaining?" Jane lifted a brow as Garrus held out his arm for Mordin to scan instead of her. Mordin seemed to consider it before he must have figured one would have said traces just as much as the other would. "You mean that could be on us even after a shower?"

He nodded curtly. "Could leave residue only detectable through microscope, scan." Jane closed her eyes to the sound of him tapping away at his tool. When she no longer heard the slight click of the tool's interface, she figured he had the data he needed. "See no remaining residue. Looked over medical findings. No lasting damage predicted. Mostly discomfort from ingestion."

As if I needed to be reminded.

She couldn't keep focus on Mordin for too long before the memories of flailing against Garrus in attempt to rush after him, to drag the idiot salarian from taking a lift to his death, flooded her lungs and stole her breath with its icy claws. Just as well, as it seemed like Garrus could answer the questions as well as she could. Hell, maybe better. He did always pay better attention to situations than she did.

When she opened her eyes after what seemed like an eternally long blink, Mordin's dark eyes lay on her. "Explain first encounter with artifact."

"Uh…" She looked between her husband at her side and Dawn's group, the woman letting her pet reptile move between her hands. From the look of the room - and Garrus' mandibles drawn against his chin in annoyance - Mordin wanted this answer from her and her alone. "We found it in the cavern, just floating there."

"Visual appearance?"

"An orb? Like the - wait. Do you have Leviathan?" she asked as she looked over to Dawn over by the stairs of the cabin.

Instead of immediately answering, Dawn made a noise by sucking on her teeth. Her Garrus beside her growled low and almost inaudibly. If not for Jane being used to picking up on that quiet of vocals from her own turian, she'd never have caught it.

"Yep." Dawn looked up from the reptile in her hands and nodded once. "Those sons-of-bitches are here, too."

"They'd have to be, right? They created the Reapers, didn't they?" The other Garrus asked, mandibles flaring in confusion.

"Yeah." Dawn puckered her lips at her snake, snorting when it hissed at her. Pitching her voice higher - to the tone Jane often used on her twins when they were infants - she spoke to the serpent in her hands. "They made the Reapers and then left us to clean up their mess, didn't they, Spike? Yes, those assholes did. Then they tried to fry my brain when I went to talk to them."

"They did for us too, but we didn't know about them around this time." Jane shrugged and leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees, staring at the floor between her feet. "We faced them in the middle of the shit storm that was the war." She snorted a derisive tone. "Guess fucking with people's heads is old hat for them across universes. Did the same to us." She gestured between herself and her mate with a jerk of her thumb.

Dawn smiled weakly, eyes losing their focus on her pet. "Yeah, I guess it is." The second half of her response was lost in her whisper to herself.

Jane glanced up to catch Dawn's Garrus shift enough to watch Dawn in his peripheral. She knew that look from her own husband to know the turian was concerned for Dawn, but it was obviously something she wasn't aware of. Jane wouldn't push, though, because like hell would she want someone to dig around in her own problems.

Mordin pulled them all back to him as he cleared his throat and looked to Jane. "Speaking of orb? Size? Abnormalities in appearance?"

Jane gave him an incredulous look. "In comparison to what?" Lifting her brow, she leaned back and shrugged before holding her hands up in an attempt to size up the orb they had seen. "Hell, I can't even tell you it's size. Bigger than I can show with my hands."

"It had a rough diameter of a meter." Garrus answered for her, shrugging. "Was too preoccupied drowning to measure accurately."

Dawn looked up from her silent contemplation over her serpent - Spike, apparently - and asked, "Was it about the same as the one on our side?"

Jane nodded with her husband and shrugged a shoulder. "It looked like a Leviathan orb, but the size of the one down there, and a giant blackish grey puddle that sucked us in." She crossed her arms. "I wasn't really paying any attention beyond how the fuck we were going to get it on our transport to the Normandy."

"Similarities noted. Alterations?"

Jane shook her head and looked up to her Garrus. "You notice anything?"

"This one was surrounded by people with guns."

"Smart ass." Jane snorted as Dawn laughed, the first sound of amusement from her relieving over the solemn silence.

Across the room, Dawn's own Garrus chuckled, mandibles twitching in a gesture so much like her own husband. Even Thane showed some amusement with a soft chuckle. Mordin, however, seems unimpressed.

Never any fun, that one. Well, until he's jabbing us about medical porn.

"Could've been worse." Dawn drew Jane's attention as she spoke and draped her serpent over her shoulders. Moving closer, she stopped just next to the opposite side of the lounge "Could've been other people with guns."

"Even worse, vorcha," Jane countered.

"Vorcha would definitely be worse," Dawn said as she nodded in agreement.

Looking to Mordin from Dawn, Jane lifted her hands up in defeat. "I don't know what else to tell you besides the fact that there are some minor changes like James being around, EDI being unshackled, Legion and a quarian already buddy-buddy enough to start that interfacing thing. Biggest thing is the year difference. Other than that?" She shrugged. "Guess is as good as mine."

Mordin gave a curt nod, a gesture he often gave when cataloging a conversation for later recall. He then looked to Dawn, as if expecting her to add anything to the conversation. He got a narrow-eyed look, suspiciously close to the verge of a glare, as answer. His face quirked in a frown, but he didn't push whatever the hell that apparently was.

Instead, Dawn asked, "What was it like coming through? Did you… hear or see anything? Life flash before your eyes sort of thing?"

Jane frowned, crossed her arms, and stared down at the floor as if she could burn holes through it. She heard Dawn's Garrus hum and felt her own lay a hand on her shoulder to pull her against his side. Leaning her head on his hip, she closed her eyes and tried to remember something she had tried to force in the back of her mind. "It felt like drowning, but… not. It felt… like being spaced again. That weightlessness, that absolution." Her husband rumbled sadly and held her tighter, whispering something in that turian latin she never completely learned. Shaking her head, she lifted her hand to his to comfort him from his own memories of the pain of years without her. "I don't know. It's hard to explain."

"I'm sorry." Dawn shifted her weight. "I know this whole thing is drudging up bad memories for you, and we're poking old wounds. I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it'd help us figure this thing out, though. Maybe give us some ideas on how to get you two back home."

"All I know is that we touched it, it suddenly became like a bottomless pit where it was only an inch or so deep, and then we surfaced here."

"I touched the liquid just before they came through." Dawn turned to Mordin and shrugged a little to the now clearly intrigued man. "The second I touched the stuff, a blast knocked me on my ass and then there was Jane, pulling herself out of the mess. He followed a few seconds later."

Mordin cupped his chin and hummed. "Possible conditions perfect for transference. Direct contact across parallels causes intersection of existences." He lifted a finger with wide, excited eyes. "Ah! Might be possible to return under similar conditions. Must correlate with EDI. Want to make sure return to correct time, correct date. Possible loss of minutes, but will not accept more. Need to run calculations. Determine capacity to replicate. Will take time." He took a deep breath and looked to Dawn. "Will need to examine orb and environment. Take samples, run simulations."

Jane's lips spread into a grin as she jumped to her feet with a slap of her hands. "Fuck, I don't know what half of that means, but it sounds a hell of a lot like we might be able to get out of this shit hole." She looked to Dawn. "No offense."

"No place like home, Dorothy?" Dawn said with a smirk and Jane snorted.

Dawn's Garrus looked completely lost by the reference, but Thane actually smiled. Either he got the reference, or he's happy to get the crazy people off the ship, Jane didn't know nor care.

"Give me some fucking red shoes and I'll click them all damn day." She looked to her mate and her grin widened further. She fought not to make an idiot of herself and jump in his arms, but couldn't control herself enough not to look slightly silly throwing her arms around him as he stood up beside her. "Hear that? We may just get our asses back to our own fucking universe!"

Garrus chuckled and laid his hands on her back to keep her close. Leaning down, he kissed her, nipping her lip in the best approximation for a turian - without a tongue session that'd probably get them kicked out of the room - and she smiled.

"Sounds like you guys will be bunking here for at least the night." Dawn shrugged when Jane dropped back to her feet and looked her way. "Unless you'd rather spend it camping next to the orb?"

Jane snorted and lifted a brow. "Right, because I'd much rather sleep on rocks next to some crazy monster puddle and run the risk of finding even more Shepards on the other side if it spills over."

TLADOCS

"More Shepards?" Jane's thoughts stuttered to a standstill before picking up again. "I … does this mean there are more? Others like her who aren't a part of us?"

Dawn swallowed, forcing a smile on her face, but with the way her eyes bulged, she knew it probably looked as fake as it felt. She didn't know how to answer Jane's question, or what it meant for her if it turned out to be the case. Turning her back on the excited couple, she took a deep breath and took Spike back to the tank. Garrus followed her, helping her get the snake back in his terrarium before resting a hand on her shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze. She leaned into him, patting his hand before offering him a more sincere, reassuring smile.

Sure, the Vakarians coming through the artifact was strange as all hell, but all things considered, it didn't even count as the strangest thing going on in her life. She'd handle it; she had to. Just like everything else.

She made her way back down to join the others, settling on the edge of the couch. "Mordin, I'll take you down there first thing in the morning. Unless you want to spend the night next to the creepy pond?" She scoffed and shook her head. "You know what, don't answer. I'm human, I actually need more than an hour of sleep and it's been a long day. I'll take you down tomorrow."

"Yes." Mordin smiled at Dawn. "Recommend eight hours."

"Five is plenty." She waved him off. She was not having the same argument with him she just held with Dr. Chakwas the day before.

"Shepard," Mordin said, apparently not getting Dawn's mental memo, "inadequate sleep decreases brain function, mood, productivity, libido. Decrease reaction time, muscle weakness, fatigue—"

She sighed and held up her hand to stop him from listing every single side effect. "Okay, six. Minimum. I promise."

"Of course, what he means is—what they all mean is—if you're not at your best, the big, bad, boogeyman inside your head will wrestle control away from you again and we just can't have that, now can we?" Jane scoffed, but it didn't cover the sting of rejection in her tone. "I messed up. I know I did. But I've been trying really hard to get things right. It'd be really awesome if everyone at least tried to meet me halfway and stop treating me like a plague outbreak."

"I've seen your efforts," Dawn thought, "and I appreciate them. It might be a little harder for some of the others since they can't hear you the way I do, but honestly, I think the doctors are all just worried and stumped by the whole thing so they're treating it the only way they can think to."

Mordin tsked, frowning a little as he blinked at her. She blinked back, letting her eyebrows creep up her face, daring him to push the issue. If she didn't listen to Dr. Chakwas or Miranda when they got onto her about her daily habits, what made him think she'd suddenly start listening to him—especially in front of new people? New people who now watched her bicker with someone who really shouldn't be quite so interested in her personal well-being. She glanced at Jane V., catching an amused smile from the other woman. Her husband, on the other hand—who Dawn finally decided she might as well just think of as Garrus V. even though it applied to her own Garrus just as easily—seemed to be putting his old detective skills to use, watching her a little more closely than she liked.

Garrus chuffed, patting Mordin on the shoulder as he nudged the salarian toward the door. "Pick your battles, Mordin. I'll make sure she gets some sleep tonight."

Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned her attention back to Jane V. "Port observation work okay for you two?"

The woman shrugged. "Better than most places we've had to sleep." She glanced at her husband. "You good with it?"

Garrus V. hummed, giving the impression of seriously considering the question, but Dawn saw the same look on her own Garrus too many times to buy his act. "You know, I think I'd much rather sleep in a varren pit than a comfortable observation suite."

"Sure, I'll call Wrex." Dawn smirked. "We'll drop you off on Tuchanka."

"Smart asses, all of you," Jane V. raised an eyebrow at her husband before turning her attention back to Dawn and nodded. "Sounds good."

"Excellent. Tuchanka it is, then." She chuckled, raising a hand to keep the other woman from thinking she'd misunderstood. "The port observation is ready whenever you want. I'm sure you know where it's at. You're welcome to head down whenever … but if you'd like, I can pour us drinks and we can talk awhile."

Jane V. grinned, stepping away from her husband to plop down on the couch. "Drinks? Who am I to decline my gracious host?" She patted the seat next to her before crooking a finger at her husband. "Come, sit with me awhile." She smirked when he huffed, but he took a seat next to her as she crossed one leg over the other.

Dawn smiled, moving to the liquor cabinet. She glanced up to find Thane followed her over, gesturing at the cabinet by way of offering to help. Pulling out bottles of rum and turian brandy, she handed them over to the drell before going back for tumblers. He didn't say anything as he helped her carry everything back over to the coffee table, but she knew he felt every bit as concerned for her as Garrus did, he just didn't show it the same way. Undoubtedly, they both wondered what it all meant and how it'd affect her during a time when she seemed to be right on the precipice of breaking down completely.

Sitting down, she opened the bottle of turian brandy and poured both turians a glass, sliding one across the table to Jane V.'s husband before handing one to Garrus next to her. Switching bottles, she glanced at Thane and he nodded, so she poured some for him, adding far less of the rum to his glass than she did the next two.

After handing out the other tumblers, she sat back between Garrus and Thane. With her own glass cradled in her hands, she took a deep breath. "So, uh, life after the war … what's it even look like—on a galactic level, I mean?"

Garrus V. picked up his glass, looking it over before taking a sip. He hummed deep in his throat, a definite sound of approval.

Next to him, his wife took her time with her drink, seeming to hold the liquid in her mouth a moment before swallowing. She rested her arm on her crossed legs and sighed. "Like shit."

"Care to elaborate?" Garrus asked, flicking his mandibles.

Dawn took a swallow of rum, wishing not for the first time that she could drink herself into oblivion the way she sometimes did on shore leave pre-Cerberus makeover. Lifting an ankle up to rest on the opposite knee, she waited to see what the woman had to say. After a moment, Thane rested his hand on her ankle, his gaze shifting between the two oddities sitting across from them. She glanced at him and smiled, covering his hand with her own, tucking her fingers under his palm.

"People were scared during the war, they wanted someone to blame for how fucked it got." Jane V. shrugged, a frown tugging at the corners of her lips as her gaze wandered. She took another drink from her glass, finally settling her stare on the liquid inside as if it held some answer.

Garrus V., likewise seeming to be restless in his thoughts, fluttered his mandibles. "The end of the reapers didn't mean the end of the war."

"There's infighting between the species?" Dawn took another swallow, her eyebrows quirked in question.

Garrus leaned back, sliding an arm over her shoulders. He still held his glass in his hand untouched—which spoke volumes to her about his level of discomfort with the situation despite what he might say.

"Certain species, yeah. There's always those others that want to take advantage, you know?" Jane V. scowled. "And the new fucking Council was shit, too busy tending to the politicians and high rollers to actually care about the little guys."

"Of course. Why'd they even keep the Council?" Jane snorted, the ridiculousness of the idea of the Council existing post-war setting her off on a tirade. "The way they acted about the reapers from the start, the whole Council should've been thrown out on their asses and an entirely new design put in place."

Shaking off the urge to laugh at the voice in her head, Dawn thought, "No arguments here."

She took a heavy swallow from her glass, wishing she could drown her disappointment in rum. "So, life as usual?" Dawn offered the other woman a wry smile and shook her head. "I guess I sort of hoped once it was all over, everyone would at least try to work together. Rebuild. Ditch the Council and make something new. Something better." She took another drink before sucking in a deep breath. "Make the sacrifices worth it."

The older turian laughed, cold and every bit as bitter as she felt. "You and Jane both."

His wife glared at him before sipping her drink. "Some at least took the treaties of the war to heart."

"What happened? With the treaties?" Dawn pulled Thane's hand to her lap, wanting to feel just a little closer to him. Shifting in her seat, she leaned her shoulder in against Garrus' side, finding she really needed grounding; the anchoring it seemed like only her two men were able to give her. Hearing life after the war wasn't at all what she and the other Shepards hoped for—the one thing able to make any of this worth it—felt beyond disappointing. In fact, she might call the sudden, hollowed out feeling in her chest 'soul-crushing'. Still, she refused to believe she couldn't change things. She just needed to fight harder.

The woman flipped her hand in the air. "The turians and most of the krogans are working together enough that they trade labor for transport of supplies and the like. The Alliance is too busy with their shit with the Hegemony to really cause trouble, and the salarians still have that division between military and politics."

"Wrex wasn't able to fully unite the krogans?" Dawn's shoulders slumped, whispers of defeat dragging her even lower. "And are there really enough batarians left to still be an issue?"

"There's enough left to put a small dent in the war efforts. With the Hegemony's hatred of humanity, is it really a surprise as soon as the galaxy's safe and sound they start stirring the shit pot again?" Weariness passed from Jane to Dawn. "Don't let Grundan Krul make you soft and give you a blind spot for all batarians, Dawn. You've seen the worst his species has to offer, you know the atrocities they're capable of. I just pray you're making the right choice giving him so much power."

"Put it this way," Garrus V. said, drawing Dawn's attention back to him with a flick of his good mandible, "does every human accept turians? Or are there still those that wish my species dead? Or the other way around? You can't really 'unite' a whole people with just one shared cause."

"As for the batarians," his wife added with a shrug, "there's enough to screw over those of their kind that don't want war."

"Yeah, and just how many don't want war?" Jane asked. "I'm guessing it's a very small minority."

Garrus cleared his throat and glanced at Dawn, his mandibles flaring, and she shrugged a little. He gave her a brief nod before turning his attention back to the others. "We've uncovered a group of turian terrorists calling themselves The Dissension. It's caused an uprising between turian and humans—The Dissension wants to see humanity removed from the galactic community."

"Of course I don't expect everything to be perfect, but a few years of peace at least isn't so much to ask." Dawn drained her glass. "Nothing unites people like a common enemy, but I guess it just doesn't last very long once the enemy is removed."

"And nothing divides them like suspicion." The older turian looked at his wife. "Turians hating humans is nothing new, but the asari accused us of being too biased with our relationship during the war, and that we used our positions to set up an alliance with humanity and the Hierarchy without them."

"They don't seem surprised to hear about The Dissension. Maybe they found out about them, too?" Jane gave Dawn a mental nudge. "Ask them about it, hell, maybe they can help us uncover more turians related to the organization."

"Another time," Dawn thought. "I don't want to veer too far off topic."

She snorted, turning her mind back to what Garrus V. said. "So what? They don't need to be involved in interspecies alliances. Well, this Council doesn't anyway. What's up with the new Council? Is it basically the same as before, or did everyone get a say in who'd be put in charge?"

She poured herself another drink, only for Garrus to take it out of her hands and pass it to Thane. Neither of them said a word, even when Dawn scoffed. She covered the top of the glass, wrapping her fingers over the rim and tugged, only to sigh when she met resistance. Gods, those two were going to be the death of her just by trying to save her from herself.

She wasn't interested in trying to pry the tumbler free from Thane's grip, but damn if she wasn't going to assert herself. "I don't think I need to remind either of you: I'm a grown woman and in charge of this ship."

Garrus chuffed, apparently ready to take his own advice to pick his battles, and nodded at Thane. The drell frowned at her but dipped his head, letting her lift the glass from his hand without further issue. She took a drink, glancing up at but avoiding the gazes of Jane V. and her husband. She really needed to have a talk with her lovers and the rest of the crew about maintaining at least the image of boundaries and respect for the authority of their CO while guests were aboard.

"Same with the Council, as always. Next in line, so to speak. Or whoever was next considering how many were lost in the war and how much of a mess was left." Jane V. sipped her drink and nodded. "And the asari blamed us for Thessia. Assholes."

Garrus' mandibles flared, his head tilting to the side a little. "What happened to Thessia?" He finally took a drink from his own glass.

In unison, Jane V. and her husband both said, "Reapers."

Garrus V. scowled, shaking his head. "They didn't much appreciate when the word that they'd defied their own laws and had a prothean artifact in hiding on their planet got out, either."

"What's the backlash over the artifact been?" Dawn lifted an eyebrow, knowing all too well what Thessia looked like when the reapers finally arrived at the asari homeworld.

Memories of conversations with Tevos—or in the event the Destiny Ascension wasn't saved from Sovereign, Irissa instead—about the hidden artifact started to surface. Oh how smug the asari had been, wanting to hide the true source of their cultural and technological advancement from the rest of the galaxy. Hell, they even kept it hidden from their own masses, tucked away in a temple, hidden in a statue. The chagrin they must've felt when they realized the reapers left them no choice but to suck it up and ask for Shepard's help, using the artifact as a bargaining chip. How much sooner might they have finished the Crucible and identified the Catalyst if the asari agreed to join the fight in the beginning?

Grim hopelessness filled Jane's voice. "It wouldn't have changed anything."

Dawn took a deep breath, pushing away the memories and thought, "It might've saved more lives. Less people would've been killed. You'd be ready before the reapers got here in full force."

Garrus chuffed, and she glanced up at him. He studied her, concern thawing just a hint of the ice from his eyes. She lifted her eyebrows in question, and he nodded his head toward their guests.

Dawn cleared her throat, taking a heavy gulp from her glass as she met the gazes of the married couple. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch what you said."

Garrus V. watched her, the all too familiar perceptiveness of his gaze unsettling in the stranger version of a man she loved. She didn't doubt the other turian thought something was off about her, she just hoped he chalked it up to her being quirky instead of insane. Not everyone who heard voices in their head was crazy.

His wife rolled the foot dangling over her other leg. "The matriarchs lost their high and mighty stance now that they were called on their shit." Jane V. reached for the bottle of rum sitting on the table, her gaze flicking up to Dawn.

Smiling, Dawn nodded her head, and the woman poured herself another drink. Garrus V. hummed, turning his gaze on his wife with narrowed eyes. She glanced at him, the look on her face clearly telling him not to start with her. Dawn suppressed a laugh with a cough, but her Garrus didn't bother hiding his amusement, chuffing and fluttering his mandibles. At least it wasn't just her who put up with men trying to control her actions for her 'own good'.

Thane gently cleared his throat. "If I might ask, what is the significance of this artifact?"

Jane V.'s brows quirked, frowning as if she'd forgotten about Thane completely until he spoke.

Dawn turned to look at him. "It holds information we need to defeat the reapers." Her shoulder lifted halfway to a shrug as she spoke, but then she froze completely, horror sweeping over her as she realized what she'd just done. She shouldn't know about the prothean artifact yet. She needed to be careful; as unnerving as they were, the familiarity of the Vakarian couple made her let far too much slip.

"Oops," Jane said, because clearly it was so helpful in the moment.

Thane's fingers tightened around Dawn's hand, a gesture of support, but Garrus sat rigid on her other side. He rumbled deep in his chest, something she felt more than heard. She kept her gaze locked on Thane while her mind raced, trying to find a way to recover from the mishap.

"Just how do you know that?" The suspicious timbre in Garrus V.'s rough voice made her hackles rise.

Garrus pushed himself up from the couch. "Excuse us. Shepard, can we talk for a moment, please?"

Fighting to school her features, to slip the old familiar commander's mask back into place, she turned her head to look up at him. She expected to see coldness there, or at the very least the constant, near oppressive concern his eyes normally held. Instead, she saw blindingly bright hope. It'd been so long since she'd seen him express anything even close to resembling optimism, she'd almost forgotten what it looked like. He held his hand out to her and she took it, letting him pull her up from the couch.

"We'll just be a minute," Garrus said, almost absently as he led her off toward the bathroom.

Confused, Dawn's gaze darted to the couple just as they shared a look between themselves. Definite suspicion and intrigue colored Jane V.'s green eyes just as much as it did the blue of her husband's. Glancing back over her shoulder at Thane, Dawn found him watching the other couple, but he seemed as perfectly relaxed as ever—which, of course, just as easily might've meant he was prepared to kill the two of them as it could mean he considered making them a cup of tea.

Garrus opened the bathroom door and waited for her to enter before stepping inside himself, the door swishing closed behind him. "I think you should tell them."

She turned to face him. "What?" Her eyebrows twitched, her mind racing to find the hidden joke, because surely he couldn't be serious.

"Tell them." He waved a hand back toward the cabin. "You're not going to have another chance like this, Dawn. If there something—anything—to be gained here from you telling her about Jane and the others, it's now or never."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, far from intoxicated, she still found she regretted pouring herself a second glass of rum. Dr. Chakwas had been on her for weeks about her caffeine and alcohol intake, pushing her to drink less of both and get more rest, but hell if she'd listened. The throbbing ache behind her eyes worsened, punctuating the point.

Jane stirred restlessly in the back of her mind. "Maybe he's right."

"Even if they believed me, what's to say we can trust them with this?" Dawn dropped her hand, looking up to meet Garrus' gaze. "Hell, what's to say it doesn't freak them out and cause an incident on the ship? We didn't exactly take their weapons away."

He flicked a mandible dismissively. "Then we kill them."

Her eyebrows shot up, her jaw hanging slack. "Garrus!"

"What?" He shrugged, flaring his mandibles wide. "If it causes a big enough issue to make them draw their weapons, you expect me to not shoot them?"

"They're …" Lifting a hand she grasped at the air, trying to find the words to express what she felt. "... us."

"No. She doesn't even look like you and he's … just another turian from another world who happens to share some of the same characteristics." Eyes bright with excitement, he shook his head. "It's like Jane told me the day she shot me: I'm not her Garrus, and she's not my Shepard."

The sound of Jane's wounded gasp echoed through Dawn's mind. "Now, that's not fair! It's not how I meant it, and he knows it. I was only saying we didn't really know each other, not that his life is somehow less meaningful because he isn't the same turian I personally knew."

He waved back toward the door again. "These people aren't us, Dawn. They're not even from our universe. But hell if I can see letting the opportunity pass us by to learn every damn thing we can about them and how it might play into what's going on with you. For all we know, she has the same thing going on with her, but you're both just too stubborn to be the first to speak up about it."

The notion hit Jane like running right smack into a brick wall. Dawn felt the thousands of new questions and musings it brought to the surface, and she struggled to push them away before they overwhelmed her. She'd deal with them later, when she was alone and didn't have her Garrus staring at her with enough hope in his eyes to steal her breath away; waiting for her to answer him.

She chewed on her lip until she just barely tasted blood. "What if they just think we're crazy?"

"They came here through an artifact from another universe … it doesn't get much crazier. Besides, who cares what they think?" He shrugged, his mandibles fluttering lightly against his face. "If they need some kind of proof, you have a ship full of people willing to corroborate your story, and if you really need to, you can show them the vids from the Lazarus Project."

Shepard sighed, her fingers worrying her forehead until he pulled her to him. Resting her cheek against the warmth of his breastplate, she sucked in a deep breath and let it out slow. "Okay."