Part II: Shepard

Chapter 13

Before he'd said a word to her, she'd already summed him up. C-Sec blue. Publicly arguing with his superior, making a childish demand that the older man stall the Council. She could tell by the range of voice as much as his attitude that he was young. The desperate need to crack the case showed a touch of arrogance. He wanted to prove himself.

At the time, Shepard had done her best not to roll her eyes at the juvenile turian. She'd always seen approval as an ideal of the naïve, and with the stakes so high to her in the Saren investigation, a whelp like him had never stood a chance at stealing her case.

In addition to allowing her to make accurate snap judgments, her attention to detail was what had gotten her the job as a commander so easily. It was part of what made her crew so comfortable with her leadership, and it meant that she was infrequently surprised.

As usual, her verdict had been correct. After joining her crew, he had become more patient and realistic. However, he was still reckless and obsessed with the silly idea of justice, and she knew the world would run out of opportunities to fuck him over before it had a chance to beat those stubborn traits out of him with humility.

The Archangel nonsense, though, had truly startled her. Of course hindsight dictated that she should have known - a vengeful turian donning a presumptuous nickname and going vigilante on Omega in the name of the innocent? Of course it was him. But being dead had thrown her off her game, and after the Illusive Man's insistence that the rest of her former crew was unreachable for various reasons, she genuinely hadn't expected to encounter any familiar faces.

Although she hadn't anticipated that he'd still feel the same after she'd been dead for two years, his little crush was a long time coming; she'd known about it far longer than he had. It was a large part of why she had constantly distanced herself from him. Sleeping with him had been a stupid mistake, a result of her residual feelings for Nihlus and the guilt she felt about Ashley's death. She'd never intended to string him along. And after finally reaching a certain measure of closure by convincing Saren to swallow a bullet, when she'd been drowning her rage and grief in whatever substandard rations of alcohol she could scavenge from the ship, his little speech about staying friends had sent her into hysterics. She supposed that had surprised her also.

His assumption that she'd been shot trying to save him had been correct. Not because she cared for him, but because for a moment, as he dropped from the impact of the missile and she watched his blood stain the floor, she was back on Eden Prime, holding Nihlus' shattered skull again. The second time she'd made an advance on him, blatantly neglecting his best interests, her sole intent had been ridding her mind of all thoughts of Nihlus. How could she have known he would wrongly guess that she had feelings for him? She had, after all, just tried to kick him off the ship.

Until now, the few times he had caught her off guard were only examples of random human error. Shepard, though observant, was nowhere near perfect. She still knew him like the back of her hand, if only because she needed to be well acquainted with her crew.

But Sidonis was a sure thing. She knew exactly what he would do: line up his shot, let the anticipation build for a pause to sweeten his victory, and pull the trigger without the slightest reservation. Garrus always did like to savor the last shot before popping the heat sink.

So when he called it off, she was at a loss for words as she stared up where she knew he had set up. What changed his mind? It was obvious that Sidonis deserved to die. He had even admitted to his betrayal. Could it be that Garrus pitied him?

Right then, she almost did it herself. She gave Sidonis a withering look, and he cowered before the much-smaller woman. That wasn't her call, though, and she knew it. Instead, she gave him a shove, and started back to the cab as a string of violent curses screamed through her comm. She was shaking her head, but there was a slight smile on her lips.

"If you say so, Garrus."

(A/N): Sorry it's so short. The rest of the story will be told from Shepard's perspective. It seems that the review feature is sort-of broken at the moment, so if you have feedback, you might have to PM it to me. I'd still love to know what everyone thinks.