Chapter 8: At Least There's Vorcha

TLADOCS

Dawn gave the order for Garrus, Grundan Krul, and Thane to meet her in the hangar. Mordin and the odd couple were probably already down there waiting for her. She didn't really know what they'd find, if anything, but maybe it'd get them a step closer to figuring out how the hell those two came through the puddle of black ooze and how the hell to shove them back through. She didn't expect any trouble groundside, but with the potential for vorcha to come sniffing around, she'd go down in armor.

She left her cabin, chewing on the inside of her lip, and stepped into the elevator. As loathe as she was to admit it, she wasn't entirely sure if Jane V. and Garrus V. could really be trusted, having learned the full extend of her … predicament. Well, nearly, anyway. She still hadn't even really talked to Garrus yet about the cause for her recent influx of hallucinatory flashbacks. She didn't tell him that she'd somehow managed to cannibalize a tenth of the horde of consciousnesses trapped inside of her own. She would, though, soon. Probably. Maybe. It's not like he really needed to know, and he certainly didn't need even more reasons to worry about her—which clearly he already did far more of than she realized if he felt the need to pour out his soul to the older version of himself.

She sighed, gnawing on her lip until she tasted blood as the elevator came to a stop. The doors opened, voices trailing back to her from further in the cavernous room. Great, sounded like everyone was already there, maybe she wouldn't have to wait. She made her way to the back of the hangar, finding Thane and Grundan Krul already sat inside of the shuttle while Garrus stood outside with Mordin and the Vakarian couple.

"Alright, pile in. Jane V., you can take passenger seat up front if you want."

The redheaded woman shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I tend to take up less space, so wherever."

Dawn blinked once, and lifted her own shoulder in a shrug, if the woman didn't want to take her up on the offer to not have to sit in the back with three dead people, it was her call. "Alright, Garrus, you can pilot. I'll ride shotgun. Everyone else get in, or get left behind." She smirked, walking around the the other side of the shuttle to climb into the passenger's seat. She watched over her shoulder while the others climbed inside, Garrus V. waiting until his wife was secure before following suit. Unsurprisingly, the two of them sat on one side of the shuttle, while the rest of Dawn's team sat on the other.

The ride passed in relative silence, broken here and there by the occasional question from Mordin, or the faint hum of a wordless tune from Jane V. Knowing the exact location of the cave entrance, Garrus brought the shuttle in a little closer before settling it down on the rocky outcropping. Dawn didn't waste any time climbing out, taking a few steps back while she waited for the others, scanning the area for any sign of vorcha activity.

Once the shuttle emptied, and they all stood looking to her, she turned and led the way back through the cave. "You'll need light once we get a little deeper, past the recent mining area," she said, glancing back over her shoulder to Mordin and Grundan Krul, and they both gave her a quick nod of acknowledgement.

"As long as there aren't boulders to move or climb over and into tiny crevices, we're good," Garrus V. said, walking at his wife's six and just to her right.

"Well, unless the vorcha came in overnight and added boulders and crevices while we were sleeping, I doubt it'll be a problem." Dawn turned her attention back to her footing. "Don't see why it should be any different than what you walked through yesterday."

"After everything that's happened, I anticipate everything." Jane V.'s chuckle trailed up to Dawn, bringing a smile to her face.

"Never hurts to be prepared, I suppose. Worse comes to worse, we'll make them move the boulders while we watch," Dawn said, gesturing at the men around her.

She heard the soft chuff from Garrus at her right, and the even softer, cat-cough like laugh of Grundan Krul a little further behind.

"Brought explosive charges. Just in case," Mordin said, and she had no doubt he meant it.

The sharp sound of a smack drew Dawn's attention back over her shoulder to Jane V. The other woman rubbed her hands together, a gleeful smile on her face. "Wonderful. I love blowing stuff up."

Dawn grinned. "Pretty sure we all do," she said, tapping the side of her head.

"Uh, yeah." Jane V. gave her a look that screamed 'of course'. "Because blowing shit up is the best."

"Explosives not for fun. Not in cave. Could cause collapse. Must be precise, and only use if necessary." Mordin glanced between the two women.

Dawn laughed, the sound echoing back to her off the walls only to be joined by the near identical sound of Jane V.'s laughter. "Thank you, Professor, for the lesson in proper explosive usage." She glanced over her shoulder, winking at Mordin when he smirked at her. "I don't know what we'd ever do without you."

"Already told you: cause collapse." Mordin's smile grew, appearing rather pleased with himself when Dawn nearly stumbled on a loose rock. "Should keep eyes forward."

She snorted, but didn't argue, catching Jane V. return her gaze to her own feet as well. Dawn turned back around leading the way in silence, pulling out her flashlight as they neared the narrow, dark passage that'd take them to the artifact. It occurred to her, as they entered the passage—forcing them to move first two at a time before eventually shifting to single-file—she'd been more comfortable with the Vakarian couple at her back on the way out than what she was on the way back in. Not that she'd ever let it show. Not for a second.

When at last the tight, enclosed passage opened up again, leaving them in the cavernous room with the artifact, Dawn let out a slow breath as she cut right, letting the others fan out. She swept her flashlight over the room, still seeing no signs of vorcha activity, or any evidence of the artifact having dumped out more Shepards overnight. Mordin wasted no time, hurrying to the softly glowing orb in the center of the cave, opening his omni-tool as he went.

Garrus lingered next to her, his gaze still searching the darkness while Thane and Grundan Krul followed the exuberant, old salarian. The Vakarian couple stayed near the opposite side of the entrance, Jane V. leaning against a rock, arms crossed as she watched the the others moving to the orb. Her husband stood beside her, his gaze occasionally sweeping the depths of the cave before passing over Dawn herself, keeping track of her as much as he guarded his wife. It didn't surprise her, not even a little. The turian probably expected Jane to push for control and try to shoot his wife at any moment.

"For what? What good would it do? Unless …."

"Jane," Dawn thought it warning.

"I'm kidding. Relax. I know killing her isn't going to fix any of this. There's no point in it, nothing to be gained." Jane let out a dramatic, exasperated sigh. "Hell, with my luck, she'd just end up being sucked right up inside your head."

Dawn suppressed a shudder, the mere thought of it being a possibility made her skin crawl. Surely that wouldn't happen. Right? Maybe she should talk to Mordin about it, in private.

"Careful, he might be tempted to kill her just to test the theory." Jane left Dawn with the impression of a smirk.

Dawn snorted softly, shaking her head when Garrus glanced at her, and thought, "No he wouldn't."

Jane hummed a little. "I said tempted, didn't say he would, but can you be sure?"

"Yes, gods, Mordin wouldn't kill her just to see if she ended up in my head," Dawn thought, glancing toward the Vakarian couple.

They talked quietly, their voices not quite reaching Dawn. Every so often, Jane V. nodded her head or waved a hand in the direction of the orb. After a few minutes, Dawn decided to make her way to the orb herself, see what Mordin's scans were telling him so far. She glanced over her shoulder, finding Garrus right beside her as she walked. A few feet behind him and off to the left, Jane V. and her husband followed as well.

Thane glanced up as they approached, his soft smile a welcoming beacon for her as she made a beeline to stand with him. Grundan Krul stood on the opposite side of the artifact, his omni-tool open doing his own scans, though Dawn didn't have the faintest clue what he might be looking for. Still, if the batarian planned on being the next Shadow Broker, she felt more than happy to see him gathering whatever information he could, on everything he could. Mordin moved about, scanning the orb inch by inch, mumbling quietly to himself. Jane V. took a seat not far from the dark liquid, pulling her knees up to rest her arm on top. She picked up a small rock and tossed it into the pool, earning her a tut from Mordin.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Working here. Disruptions to pool might give false data."

Sighing, she nodded, dropping her other arm to her knees, rolling the rock she had ready to throw between her fingers. "Any good news?"

"Yes. Traveled between universes, didn't die. Good news." Mordin sniffed, turning back to his scans. "Orb oscillating. Both exists and does not exist."

"Meaning what?" Dawn settled down on a boulder a few feet behind Thane.

"Meaning same orb—exact same—likely in multiple locations; multiple universes."

"I don't hear how we're getting back." Jane V. sounded frustrated, her face pinched in a frown before her gaze shifted to Dawn. "No offense."

Dawn shrugged.

Mordin sniffed again, the sound laden with even more disdain. "Unprecedented discovery. Takes time to understand. Time to learn. Welcome to figure it out on your own."

Garrus V. rumbled, the sound heavy with warning coming from the shadows beside his wife, the blue glow of his visor standing out more than the rest of him.

His wife sighed, tossing the rock toward the far side of the cave, hitting something solid in the darkness before bouncing and skittering across the floor. "I'd much rather not relive the war, if it's all the same to you."

"Possible wouldn't even send you to your universe, if used without understanding."

"That's not helping," she said, her voice flat.

"Play nice, Mordin." Dawn leaned back, pressing her palms to the uneven surface of the rock behind her and stretched her legs out, crossing her ankles.

"Not play." Mordin glanced at her, giving her a sharp shake of his head. "Serious work. Trying to help, but can't be rushed."

Dawn sighed, turning her gaze back to Jane V. "At least he didn't threaten to tranquilize you."

The other woman snorted. "Might have made the waiting easier." She tilted her head back, glancing at her husband when he huffed and crossed his arms. "Well, for me, anyways."

"We don't have to stay down here. I just thought you two would want to be here. I can leave Mordin here with a guard or two, we can take the shuttle back up if you want." She shrugged. "Or have another brought down."

"Not that I don't want to be here, just … impatient, you know? I want this to be over," Jane V. said, shaking her head.

"I know. You know Mordin, though, if anyone's going to figure this thing out, it's him." Dawn glanced at the salarian, catching the slight tick of his lips, only a hint of a smile as he focused on the task at hand.

Jane V. let her leg drop, her armor making a thump against the cavern floor. "No, I trust him."

"We just wonder about what's happening on the other side." The older turian said, his face lost in the shadows save one blue eye behind his visor. "Our family, our friends."

Dawn sucked in a slow breath. "Well, I imagine, if Mordin gets this all right, you'll get back and no time will have passed. Or at least very little." She glanced over at the hovering blue visor. "So, if we assume the timelines are otherwise in sync, I'd say you, your wife, and your friends are off fighting the collectors, and the you that's here now, doesn't exist yet."

Mordin sniffed. "Time relative. All time exists at once, only perceived to have past, present, future. They exist."

Dawn considered throwing a rock at the salarian, telling him to be quiet and do his job but decided it'd only lead to him scolding her for a half-hour. "The point is, we're going to do our best to get them not only back to their universe, but to their time, so their absence isn't felt by their loved ones."

"Of course. Can confirm orb leviathan in nature. Fluid pouring from orb, in pool, quantum entangled." He stopped, glancing up at Dawn. "Like QEC in comm room."

"Well, if you can manage it, then know you have my thanks." Jane V. sounded tense, but her face betrayed little cast in shadows. She laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "If we don't just disappear from existence when it goes wrong, that is."

"Won't disappear from existence." Mordin gave a light shake of his head, his attention already back on the artifact.

Pushing herself back up to her feet, Dawn turned her flashlight back on. "I'm going to go look around." She shone the light deeper into the cave before glancing over her shoulder. "Anyone else coming?"

Jane V. smacked her hands on the ground, pushing herself up. "I'm in." She turned to her husband, her voice taking on an all too familiar commander tone as she said, "Ping me if Mordin finds anything."

Thane moved up to her side. "I'll join you, siha." He glanced at Jane V. "If it's alright with you?"

Jane V. held out a hand, gesturing for him to lead the way. "I don't care. I'll keep the freak outs down."

Thane hesitated at Jane's response, gaze shifting back to Dawn. She smiled and slipped her arm through his, tugging him along.

Shining her light out in front of them, she squeezed Thane's arm. "She's a big girl, her decision to make."

"Indeed."

Parable

Jane never thought she'd be bored trying to get home, but waiting for Mordin to run his tests was slowly becoming the most annoyingly dull things she had ever experienced. It didn't help that Garrus paced, on edge, the entire time in the Observation Room back on the Normandy the night before, but, down in the cave waiting for Mordin to do his magic, he just stood there. Menacingly.

Her sanity waned with every minute, just not cut out for sitting around, doing nothing, and dealing with a situation she had no grasp of how to get back under control. All that seemed to have become entertaining consisted of her throwing rocks, but Mordin shot that idea down pretty quick. She had resigned herself to walking through the dark tunnels with Dawn and her Thane, looking for something to occupy themselves in a place where they had only two other options, try to study the orb, or watch other people do it.

"I can't believe you two are so calm," she grumbled, scrubbing at a scuff on her armor that she saw just within her peripheral each time Dawn's light at her back hit her. "This is the worst mission I've ever been on."

She didn't expect a real response to that, but Dawn's voice carried a slight hint of what sounded like mock indignation. "Seriously? Come on, I've got to be better than collectors or reapers."

"At least then I could shoot something." Coming out into the wider tunnels, Jane slowed down enough to finally be beside the two instead of uncomfortably in their sights.

After a moment's pause, Dawn spoke once more. "I have to try to stay calm … things get ugly whenever I let my emotions get the better of me. It, uh, tips the scales inside my head."

Kicking a rock with her heavy boot, Jane snorted at how the exact opposite was true for herself. "Yeah. I'm backwards. Too much quiet makes things too loud in here." She tapped her head before sighing. "I guess all Shepards are fucked up, huh?"

Dawn laughed. "You should've met me before this whole thing started. Sure, I was a badass on the field, but on shore leave … Commander Hot Mess, let me tell you."

Jane barked a laugh, almost missing Thane's chuckle, and grinned at her alternate partner in the hell that is being 'Commander Shepard'. "Never changes, then. Good thing I had Garrus around or, the first shore leave on the Citadel knowing him, I'd have been too drunk to remember the hotel I was staying at."

That got a small smile from Dawn, her lips quirking just so as if imaging it. "Sounds perfectly normal to me." Jane snorted at that, just wondering what messes the younger version of Garrus had pulled Dawn out of. "And Jane says that things don't seem all too different as far she's seen."

"Ever think about what ifs? Think there could be other universes, realities - whatever - out there where there aren't even the Reapers?" She huffed a light laugh at just how ridiculous that could be, how it would change things and how much would stay the same. "I'd probably be a grunt still in the Alliance."

"Gods, I hope so. It sure would make things feel a little more hopeful to know the reapers didn't exist everywhere." Tilting her head to the side, Dawn seemed to consider. "Though I wouldn't call being a commander a grunt, but yeah … probably never would've made Spectre. Or hell, maybe I would've and learned a lot more from Nihlus. Shit, Saren would still be around, too."

Jane shrugged at that, knowing enough from her own dealings with people of all kind of views on the man that a situation with Saren being alive wouldn't change all too much in the long run. Opinions aside, he was a dickhead, Sovereign or no, but it would definitely have stopped him from making such a damn mess of the place. "Eh. I have no real opinions on him one way or the other now that he isn't a pain in my ass anymore."

"Anderson ever get around to telling you the full story between him and Saren? Saren needed to be stopped even before he became indoctrinated. The way he handled things …"

Dawn's voice trails off, but Jane was only half listening anyways. What would this woman think of some of the things Jane did?

Pretty sure most of that would make me a war criminal, too. Well - more of one.

"Yeah…. Can't really comment on that. I know of it, but…"

The other woman looked over towards her, and she could feel Dawn's scrutiny, making her itch. "Some of the other Shepards…they did some things I don't personally agree with, but after having them in my head for awhile… I guess I can understand their reasons a little better."

"Afraid you wouldn't mine," Jane glanced at Dawn and narrowed her eyes in her own examination. "I have a feeling you'd put the galaxy, the war effort, before your loved ones."

Dawn's eyes turned to Thane before she met Jane's once more. "Suppose I would. Suppose I already have."

Some of Jane's nerves eased, but she still wondered exactly what that'd amount to if Dawn would end up facing the same war she had to. Still, she didn't speak more of it as she saw the tunnels brighten as the sun seemed to reach in between the passageways.

Yet, something felt off. She felt it, and figured Dawn and Thane could sense the change in the air as they slowed, seeming to soften their steps to be able to hear.

True to her suspicions, Jane heard a grating yell and sighed. "Wonderful," she said flatly, knowing exactly what made that sound. Pulling her weapon out, and hearing the other two do the same, Jane stalked closer to the entrance to the caves.

Coming up towards the opening of the passage that'd lead them into the large chamber at the entrance of the tunnels, she sneaked out behind Dawn and took position behind a rock on the right as the other Shepard took one a bit further left. Jane was sure Thane disappeared off towards Dawn's position, but didn't really care to look for him. She both knew he'd be better hidden than herself and, even if he wasn't the Thane she trusted, held some idea that he wouldn't leave her high and dry if she moved forward.

Way to put it all on the table, Jane. What's the worst that can happen? Getting shot? Sure…. No problem….

She looked towards Dawn and jerked her head towards a jut of rocks further ahead, announcing her move forward. The other woman nodded in 'we'll cover you' directly before she flicked her hand to activate her mic.

"We've got movement over here. Sounds like vorcha," Dawn announced, voice low enough not to reveal her position, and Jane ducked her head and moved as quietly as she could in her armor towards the cover. Her armor, bulky as it was, could protect her when she gets close to an enemy, but it made her fucking loud.

Signalling Dawn with the okay to move up, she heard the woman reassure whoever was on her mic, her voice sounding barely above a whisper to Jane. "Nah, I think we can handle it."

Jane. She sighed inwardly, glancing up towards the ceiling in exasperation at her husband calling to her through their mental link. What's going on out there?

She had a thought to really make him squirm with some flippant answer but reconsidered as Dawn moved past her and further into the open. It's nothing. Be done in no time.

Why do I not trust you?

She merely snorted as answer and jumped her cover, moving up as far as she'd be able to get to the growing sounds of yelling vorcha. Motioning at her comm when Dawn looked her way, she linked up their comms.

"Got any plans, or just go in guns blazing?" she asked, motioning her spike thrower.

"We can always try to convince them to leave … but vorcha aren't especially bright. It's your way home that we're guarding though, so the call is yours."

Jane shrugged, then nodded. "Good to know. Just don't shoot me and we'll be good." She chuckled lightly. "I'm pretty easy to spot, just look for the bulky as shit terminus armor and don't hit that."

"I don't think I'm very likely to mistake you for a vorcha, but thanks for the vote of confidence," she said with a grin and Jane matched it.

"Hey, have you met Garrus? He likes to hit me with concussives every once in awhile when I pull a move he doesn't particularly care for." With that, she cocked her boomstick and stepped out. "Hey!" All the vorcha turned to her, hissing and raising their weapons. "Aw… That's not too friendly."

Her barriers caught the first few shots, but it gave her a shot to get into the next closest cover as Dawn and Thane cover her. She saw a few biotics fly beside her and pulled out a grenade. Glancing out towards the actual entrance of the tunnel and beyond where the cave was bound to collapse and smirked. Just as Dawn blasted by with a charge, Jane threw the grenade, arcing it over Dawn as she opened fire on the poor bastard blown off his feet.

The grenade exploded with a thundering boom and sent a small group of the vorcha flying. Switching to her biotics, she targeted a vorcha with a flamethrower and quickly ordered, "Don't shoot him." Her arm glows with energy that pulls at her spine, and she threw what used to be a pull. "He's about to change sides."

For whatever the hell that probably sounded like to the other two, they listened and left the raging vorcha alone as he turned his flamethrower on his allies. Stepping out of cover, she ignored one vorcha beside her getting a taste of Dawn's reave and lifted her weapon, firing. The spike from her weapon launched with a speed that left nothing in its wake when it reached its target, leaving nothing but air where a head used to be.

"Man, I love this gun," she yelled over the gunfire as she loaded in a new spike.

Directly after the hiss of her shotgun died down, she caught Dawn's chuckle. "I tend to favor the Black Widow."

"Then you'd love that cannon Garrus packs. It's a freak weapon…" She shockwaved two vorcha and saw one's head explode - Thane - and the other catch fire - Dawn.

"Too bad I doubt he'd let me within three feet of it."

Jane snorted. "Don't feel bad. He doesn't even let me near that thing." She controlled another pyro vorcha. "I'm kinda jealous of that thing."

"Yeah," Dawn charged across the field and into a pair of vorcha before rolling out of the way to let the pyro do his work on the downed pair and said, "I don't think your husband..." she fired at another unsuspecting vorcha hiding behind a rock, "Likes me very much, so maybe make that ten feet?"

Wanting to hear the woman better instead of over comm, Jane charged beside Dawn, kicking the knee out of one vorcha as Dawn blew the other away. "Yeah, he's… difficult."

With only a few vorcha left clustered together, Jane fired at one, Dawn caught another on fire, and Thane both warped and shot a fourth. With two left, it seemed like she and Dawn both activated their biotic charge, flying across the area to shoot in sync, each catching a vorcha between the eyes.

Wouldn't be able to do that again if we tried.

"It's alright," Dawn said, popping the heat sink of her weapon. "He doesn't need to like me. Yeah, it stings a little, but I've had far worse injuries. I'm glad that my Garrus was able to … ah, bond with him, though…"

Jane nodded as she holstered her own weapon. "Let me put it this way, does your Garrus trust me?" She lifted a brow.

Dawn smirked. "Who said anything about trust?"

Jane shrugged and looked to Thane as he rejoined them. "For my husband, it's one and the same."

"That's a shame."

"Tell me about it. He needs to relax sometimes, but he's just a grump." She sighed, letting the adrenaline start to wane back to a level where her heart wasn't pounding and she didn't feel ready throw a fist. "Comes from Omega, I guess. And then some shit after the war, now that I think about it."

Jane watched Thane and Dawn - without making it overly obvious she was staring - as he wrapped an arm around Dawn and she leaned into him. Oddly enough, it almost seemed as if that fight drained Dawn more than it should've. "I suppose neither of them had the same experience on Omega as the others."

"I can only compare the two, so I'll have to trust you on that one." Seeing as how there wasn't much left for them out there, Jane gave a subtle move towards the tunnels in silent request to go back. If she didn't at least go back to see what the hell was going on, she was sure she'd start looking for more vorcha to pass the time.

Dawn walked behind Jane, the sound of their footsteps ringing too loud in the now empty cavern. "I warned him about a few things before I died in the attack on the Normandy. When I found him, he had some of the same people with him, some different people, but he was set up in a whole different area. Right in Talons' territory, apparently. He killed Sidonis the day he met him, because he knew Sidonis would betray him." Hearing the echoing footsteps stop, Jane looked back over her shoulder to see Dawn jerk a thumb back towards the dead. "Think we should send them out here to move the bodies? Kinda a red flag to any other vorcha passing by."

Jane huffed a laugh. "Damn… I wanted to leave them. They create a distinct feng shui." Still, she stopped and leaned a hip on a large stone. "Sure. Give them a call." She waited for Dawn to send out a short alert to get all available hands on deck before shrugging when she had the woman's attention again. "Yeah. Seems like there's another big difference. The whole 'Archangel team' thing wasn't even something Garrus wanted, they just sorta… tagged along. And he sorta…" She gestured with two fingers against her cheeks in pretend mandibles, saying, "kinda cut Sidonis' mandibles off in some weird turian thing."

Dawn nodded, brows drawn down as if in thought. Considering all the shit she told Jane she goes through in her head, 'in thought' was probably putting things lightly. "Can't say any of the other Shepards' Garruses ever cut off Sidonis' mandibles… that we know of, anyway. They usually either kill him on the Citadel or we talk him out of it." Jane merely crossed her arms in silent signal that she was listening as it seemed like Dawn was going through her head and speaking whatever was in there. "For the others… Garrus saved Sidonis the day he arrived on Omega, after that Sidonis and he hit it off, started talking about cleaning the place up. The team built up around that ideal. For my Garrus … I think it was just a matter of him thinking he needed to be there doing that so I'd come back to him again like I promised … except … by the time I did, he'd lost a part of himself."

"Yeah, I can understand that," Jane responded, thinking back to the state she found her mate in. "I think that's a constant unless the others have different memories." She shrugged, not wanting to go down that rabbit hole.

"They were always a little more ... hardened. And they brooded for a while about Sidonis until we found him, but after that ... they were just ... Garrus. Awkward, cocky, and always at our six. They smiled more, laughed more ... I mean, yeah, they had some hard moments, especially later on when the reapers really hit and they had to make decisions on how to defend Palaven ... I guess I'd say they lost their naivety but they weren't calloused and jaded all around." She got quiet a moment, looking at her feet, and her mouth moved as she seemed to bite her cheek. "Probably didn't help that I made him watch me die, and then he had to be the one to recover my body because I fucked up somewhere along the line and lost Liara in the attack, too."

Jane merely hummed, movement from the tunnels catching her eyes, and glanced over to see the two turians making their way over. If turian hearing was the same across realities, then Dawn's Garrus heard everything, and she wasn't sure if Dawn really intended that. Clearing her throat to change the atmosphere in the air, she forced a grin and called out.

"About time you two joined the fun! And you came for the best part," she said as she stood up, motioning to the bodies. "Clean up!"

Jane looked aside to catch Dawn put on her 'Commander Shepard' face and stepped slightly out of the way of a tense younger Garrus. Tense being one word for the cold look in his eyes. Having her own husband stop at her side, and feeling his eyes scan her for injuries - man, can't even take a shit without him thinking I found trouble - she silently thanks the fact that at least her Garrus seemed to be able to lock that Archangel shit away until he needed it.

The other woman forced a smile at her Garrus, but Jane was not stupid enough that she didn't see right through it. Hell, maybe that's because she's used that very expression before.

"Garrus," Dawn said to her own turian partner. "Wanna come throw dead vorcha over the side of the cliff?"

His chuff almost seemed to echo, but there was the slightest of shifts in him that she'd never have caught if her own Garrus didn't do the exact thing. A bit of the ice in the younger man's eyes seemed to thaw as he flutters his mandibles. "I thought you said it wasn't my job to clean up your messes?"

Dawn pouted, jutting her lower lip. "I'll make an exception, just this once."

Jane snorted and looked up to her own stoic, still as stone, Garrus. "That look makes me think there isn't any news about that damn orb." His expression - a look of frustration and disappointment pulling his mandibles against his jaw - was her answer, and she sighed in her own irritation. As nice as these people were, she was tired and wanted to just pass out and sleep. Preferably on a planet, not a ship, and preferably not with a husband so tense he slept even less than normal.

The younger Garrus' unscarred hum drew her attention, and she caught just the last bit of his own examination of his loved one. "I'm sure we can handle it," he said, gesturing between himself, Jane's husband, and Thane, "if you two want to go keep an eye on your favorite mad scientist."

"Hey," Jane interjected with a chuckle, "I wouldn't really use 'mad' for the man who thinks it's funny to try and give the entire Normandy sex vids because their commander is gettin' some. I'm sure there's something much more fitting for that kind of maniac."

"I was using her words for Mordin, but uh, hmm… I'm not really sure how to respond to that."

She snorted and laughed, looking to Dawn. "Should I send you the vids?"

Thane coughed into his fist, blinking twice but otherwise saying nothing. Dawn snorted and shook her head. "No, I think we do just fine on our own, and if we want porn, we can always ask Joker."

The younger Garrus hummed again. "They might be interesting to watch…"

Jane grinned and mock whispered, "I'll send them to your tool. Top grade stuff, made in the future, too."

That pulled a laugh from Dawn. "Joker will be jealous."

Jane shrugged. "Eh. He'll only know if you all go around shoving them in his face."

"Oh, I'll tell him," the younger turian assured, a teasing sounding rumble in his tone, "and when he tries to pretend he's not interested and fails, I'll sell him copies."

"Grade A plan. I approve." She nodded and turned to her own Garrus. "Well, I did all the hard work with Dawn and Thane, so you have to clean up."

"Just what I was hoping for sitting in the dark watching Mordin study that orb and sing under his breath." His voice was flat in that way he always used when he was amused and trying to act unaffected.

Dawn tugged her Garrus down by the collar to get a kiss, then gave Thane his own kiss. It seemed the two Shepards had similar ideas, and Jane yanked down her husband and hugged him, giving his mandible a nuzzle. She had hoped it would have given the other three some more privacy, but she still ended up hearing Dawn reassuring Thane quietly.

Jane guessed she'd just have to keep it to herself that Dawn was obviously going through some shit in her head. Last thing she wanted to do was make it seem like she was studying them, at least not when her mate is doing that enough for the both of them.

She actually liked those people, even if a part of her still held her gun close.