Casey was surprised at just how easily she slipped back into life aboard the Normandy, though there were a couple of changes to her routine that she had been less than happy with. She had been given the all clear by Dr Chakwas after a couple of hours, and was now experiencing what everyone called "some well-deserved rest" in her cabin. Unfortunately, rest was the last thing Casey felt like she needed, as was being shut away in her room for the last five days, which was beginning to feel more and more like a cell. She had also missed out on the last couple of missions due once again to this "well-deserved rest". Casey was pretty sure the only person who should decide whether she needed rest was..well…Casey! But unluckily for her, her boyfriend seemed to disagree, and kept 'dropping in', supposedly to see how she was doing, but she knew he was really just checking to see she was still where she was meant to be.

Not that these flying visits were all bad, in fact, if Casey had to name her favourite thing about being back aboard the Normandy, it would be the night-time visits from Garrus. Her favourites were when he slipped into her bed while she was asleep and woke her up in his own unique way…

"Casey?"

Casey jumped, as though Kasumi could see right into her mind. If she could, the things Casey was remembering were surely enough to make even the ever-cool Kasumi Goto blush.

Luckily, she couldn't see her thoughts, and so Casey composed herself quickly as Kasumi dropped onto her bed beside her. "Enjoying solitary?" Kasumi joked, thumbing through the pile of magazines at the foot of the bed.

"That's what it feels like," Casey sighed, leaning back on the pillow. "I swear, I can't even go to get a glass of water without someone steering me back to the room."

"That must be a pain," Kasumi said rather absent-mindedly as she flicked through an Asari fashion magazine. "Do you think this head dress would look good on someone without those tentacle things?"

But Casey wasn't going to drop the subject that quickly, eager to get all her agitation out of her system. "It's driving me crazy, Kasumi! Mordin keeps offering me sleeping pills to help me "get a proper night's sleep" because apparently I have bags under my eyes-"

"Yeah, he asked me to slip this into your water," Kasumi replied, eyes still on the magazine, but holding a pill up for Casey to see. She put it back into her pocket, "Next time you see him, act like you've slept really well."

Casey rolled her eyes and continued: "Grunt keeps subtly asking what my favourite type of meat is….I think he wants to get me a present?"

"Yeah, he asked me how he could get a live Chicken on board the Normandy. Don't worry I talked him out of it."

"And Garrus keeps turning up, just to check I'm still in my cell-"

"P-lease Casey, we both know that's not the only reason he's coming in here."

Casey felt her cheeks reddening, she'd half forgotten that Kasumi knew about her and Garrus.

"How are things with you two?" Kasumi asked, finally putting the magazine down and giving Casey her full attention. Casey couldn't help but grin, "Good. Really good actually."

Kasumi smiled. "Glad to hear it. I'm starting to wonder if I should go for a Turian if I ever get bored of a holographic boyfriend."

"What about Jacob? I thought you had a thing for him?"

Kasumi groaned, "I'd have better luck with Mordin."

"You have. Or have you forgotten the party?" Casey asked wickedly.

Kasumi gasped, "Remember, we promised to never talk about that!" Then she let out a little laugh, "Anyway, speaking of parties in which all inhibitions are dropped and bad choices are made…we're having one tonight."

"Why?"

Kasumi raised an eyebrow. "Uh…because it's your birthday?"

Casey checked the date on her Omni-tool, it was her birthday! "I forgot!"

"Clearly," Kasumi replied. "But luckily, we didn't. And that's the reason you've been kept in your 'cell' for today. We knew you were fine two days ago, but it was simpler to keep you in here so you didn't question it today."

"Thanks a lot," Casey replied sarcastically, but she wasn't really mad. Her friends had been planning something for her birthday all along? She never celebrated birthdays, but something already told her today would be special.

Kasumi had left Casey with a brand new dress ("happy birthday, I promise I didn't steal this one"), and told her she could come out in one hour. Casey had spent the best part of that hour getting ready. She slipped into the beautiful red dress and tried to tidy her mess of curls. She was just finishing applying a little make up when the door to her room opened. Garrus stood there looking just as charmingly awkward as he usually did, and holding a small box. "Hi," Casey said, looking at him through the mirror as she fixed her earrings.

"Happy birthday," he murmured.

"You ok?" Casey asked, turning around. Garrus looked more than just awkward or nervous, there was another emotion on his face. But then just like that, it disappeared and he smiled. "I was just thinking how beautiful you are, and how lucky I am."

Casey looked at the ground, a smile spreading across her lips. "You're not too shabby yourself."

Garrus grinned again, and walked over to take her hand. "I got this for you, it's not much, but I thought, well I wanted you to have something special….something that really meant…something." He looked a little flustered, clearly unsure how to word whatever it was he was trying to say, so Casey decided to put him out of his misery as quickly as possible: taking the box and opening it. It was empty inside, except for a small piece of paper, which had some markings on it she couldn't decipher. She looked up at Garrus expectantly.

"It's Turian script, our oldest language. Roughly translated it says… "My heart belongs to you.""

Casey felt her eyes water, and she moved closer to Garrus, but he stepped back. "That's not it, it's just the best way I could think to explain what this means." He pulled aside the shirt he wore, to reveal the lower part of his neck. On it was a marking Casey had never seen before, a streak of blue which curled at the edges. "It's a tattoo," Garrus explained. "Turian's get them on their faces usually, it denotes our clan, and soldiers get them elsewhere for other reasons. This is one of the most important though, we get them to show others that we… I don't know how to explain it to a non-Turian….that's why I gave you the note…it basically shows that I've given my heart to someone…that I have a mate who I'll lay down my life for…that I have a purpose….does that make sense?"

Casey felt like her legs might give way. Was Garrus really telling her what she thought he was telling her? It was all she could do to nod and throw her arms around his neck (narrowly avoiding the tattoo). Garrus seemed happy enough with this response, because he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close to him as he could get.

"You guys are so lucky I'm the one who came to get you."

Casey and Garrus sprang apart, but it was only Kasumi.

"I don't know," Garrus began, sounding a little irked, "Others would've probably knocked."

Kasumi just smiled, "Always the charmer, Vakarian." She turned to Casey, "Come on, everyone's waiting!"

She turned and headed out, and Casey made to follow, but Garrus pulled her back. "Promise me we can finish this later?"

Casey smiled, "I promise. I doubt this will go on too long anyway, I'm not usually much of a partier."

When Casey woke up the next morning, she wasn't exactly where she expected to be. In fact, it took her a long time to realise exactly where she was, and that was curled up on the floor of Grunt's tank: the one he had been grown in. She had no idea where Grunt was, or how she'd got there, all she knew was that her brain felt like it was fighting to escape her skull, and that she may have been more of a 'partier' than she had originally anticipated.

Casey climbed wobbly to her feet when a memory from the party came rushing back.

"I want to play with it first!" Kasumi yelled, climbing into Grunt's tank.

"I'll be Shepard!" Miranda giggled, moving over to the controls and pretending to push the buttons.

"Roar! I am the perfect Krogan baby, fear me!" Kasumi yelled, charging out of the tank and throwing herself onto Miranda, causing them both to fall onto the floor in fits of laughter.

"My turn!" Casey had cried, crawling into the tank on all fours.

"Why was I crawling?" Casey thought out loud, but the memory continued.

"Ok I'll be Shepard now!" Said Kasumi, but Casey had lost interest, and was thinking instead how cool the glass of the tank felt against her skin. She had the urge to take all her clothes off, but she wondered fleetingly what Grunt would say when he came back…wait…did Grunt sleep in here? No…so he wouldn't mind if she did…

Casey lurched a little into a nearby table, and struggled to keep herself upright. Well, that explained how she'd ended up in the tank, but she was alone in here, where were the others? Garrus must be somewhere, and he must be in a worse state than she was, otherwise he would've carried her up to bed. She could ask EDI, but the thought of the AI's voice blaring out was not something she felt up to right now, and so instead she stumbled towards the elevator, intent on finding the Turian on her own.

She rode the elevator to the crew deck, wondering exactly what she might find up there.

If she'd been looking for a scene of devastation, she wasn't disappointed. Casey wondered how these people ever had the strength to save the galaxy when they partied this hard on their downtime. There were various crew members scattered around the mess hall, almost all of them asleep or passed out at or under the table. Among them were James, Ken Donnelly, and Kasumi. There were shot glasses and spilt alcohol everywhere, and Casey felt another memory coming back to her.

"Another," Grunt jeered, passing Casey a brimming shot glass. Casey shook her head, she'd barely been able to keep the last one down.

"She can't do it!" James cried, "That means I win!" Casey watched as Kelly Saunders practically swooned in the background, but Grunt shook his head. "No way, Casey here is more Krogan than any of you put together, and I wouldn't have bet on her if I thought she'd get beaten by a little girl like you!"

James laughed, and Casey felt her already churning stomach drop, but Grunt was looking at her so hopefully that she sighed and took the glass, attempting to spill as much of the liquid as possible before it reached her mouth.

There was a blurry patch between that memory and the next one, but as Casey leaned over to try and hear what Vega was mumbling in his sleep, she vaguely remembered Grunt picking her up onto his shoulders while Vega fell backwards off his chair as he passed out. She guessed she had won, but as her head pounded again, Casey couldn't help but think she should've just let Grunt lose the bet.

The balloons, which Vega had compared to Miranda's breasts so many times that she actually hit him with a warp field, had now shrivelled, and were looking rather sad and tired. Casey searched the whole deck, but while she found Tali in the Kitchen and Miranda in her own room (both asleep), Garrus was nowhere to be found. She checked the gun battery, not there, the med bay, not there, and her own room: where she did find Grunt curled up in her shower, but no Garrus.

Casey thought as hard as she could, when was the last time she saw him?

"Now I'm sure I remember you telling me once that Turians didn't dance," Casey whispered into Garrus' ear. "Yet, here you are, dancing with me for the last twenty minutes."

Garrus grinned. "I never used to dance, never really saw the point of it."

"And now?"

"Now," Garrus said, pulling her closer, "I get it: it's the perfect way to get dangerously close to a beautiful woman, without anyone else knowing what you're thinking about." He moved his hips so that Casey was pressed right up against him, and looked into her eyes with a hunger she knew all too well. "I don't know," Casey breathed, "I think they might have some idea."

"Come on," Garrus said, taking her hand and leading her away from the growing group of people dancing by the kitchen. Casey didn't argue, looking around she could see that everyone was already too drunk to notice them leaving anyway.

Garrus led her to the gun battery, barely able to keep his hands off her, but as the door opened, they found that this room was in fact, already occupied. That in itself wasn't too much of a shock, alcohol and a stressful mission meant that people were pairing off all over the place. The surprising part, however, and the image that Casey swore would be burned onto her eyes forever, was the sight of James Vega, completely naked, bending a woman over Garrus' gun console…a woman with grey hair. "Doctor Ch-" Casey began reflexively, before Garrus clapped his hand over her mouth and pulled her out of the room.

Standing in the hall, wide eyed, Garrus and Casey both seemed unable to react for a few minutes, and Casey assumed that Garrus, like herself, was considering the benefits of bleach to the eyeballs. It wasn't the age difference, or seeing Vega naked (Casey remembered all too well what that looked like), it was that the Doctor was like a mother to the crew, and seeing her in that position just seemed wrong. Though Casey had to admit, for an older woman she was certainly flexible.

Garrus caught Casey's eye, and grabbed a bottle from the nearest table, drinking great gulps of the pink liquid. "Let's make sure we don't remember that," he suggested, and Casey nodded, taking the bottle and following his lead.

The alcohol seemed to help, and within moments Casey and Garrus were both in fits of laughter. Then the reason for their visit to the battery came rushing back, and the two of them quickly headed for Casey's room.

"I can't wait to get you in there and-" But Garrus' whispered proclamation was cut off when Casey opened the door to her room and found that it too was occupied. This time, however, they found Grunt, Ken Donnelly, Jacob, Cortez, and Joker, all in their underwear, sitting on the floor with a deck of cards. Casey felt her mouth drop open, but Jacob just cheered, "Casey, Garrus, come join us!"

"What are you doing?" Garrus asked.

"Strip poker," Joker replied.

"Ok…why are you playing strip poker?" Casey continued.

"It's just… it's what you do when you drink!" Joker shrugged.

"With no women?" Garrus asked.

The men looked around at each other for a few moments, before Joker replied: "Well, Miranda said she'd come, and to get started without her…and Gabby and Kasumi were here, but they left a while ago…"

"So you just kept going?" Garrus asked, a hint of laughter in his voice.

"I'm enjoying myself," Cortez laughed.

"Wait, so this isn't a test of masculinity?" Grunt slurred. "This is just a way for you to trick your females into getting naked?"

"Hey, Donnelly suggested it!" Joker cried.

"Ok, before you guys get into that," Casey interrupted. "Why are you doing it in my room?"

The men all looked around at each other, shrugging. Then Joker piped up, "Hey Case, if you could take your dress off right now I think we'd all feel a lot more comfortable."

Casey rolled her eyes and turned around to leave, Garrus close behind, struggling to keep a straight face. As they left, Casey heard Donnelly say, "So, are we going to carry on? Because I think I can win this."

"You got nothing Donnelly!"

"You're so on Donnelly, I'll keep your underwear as a trophy!"

"More drinks!"

Casey laughed as she and Garrus got into the elevator. "This whole ship is crazy."

But Garrus wasn't laughing now, and he pressed her against the wall. "I'm crazy, and we need to find a room." Then his eyes seemed to light up, and he pressed a button on the console. Within seconds the elevator doors opened and Casey gasped.

"Shepard's cabin?!"

Garrus grinned, pulling her into the huge, and mercifully empty, room.

"Doesn't this break all of the guy-friendship rules?" Casey asked, "You know, doing it in your friend's bed?"

"Nah I'm pretty sure the guy-rule is, if you have a woman, you have the right to do it anywhere," Garrus slurred, taking another drink. Casey had never seen him so drunk, and it was kind of funny. Garrus was normally so controlled, even during sex, but now he was stumbling, giggling! She put her hands on his face, "Someone could come in…" But she already knew that she didn't really care at this point, not now that she was looking into Garrus' icy blue eyes, feeling his long fingers on her arms.

"Then we'll have to be fast," he replied simply. And with that he pushed her onto the desk, and hitched her dress up to her waist. Casey felt the familiar throbbing between her legs as Garrus' fingers trailed along her thigh. He didn't take her underwear off though, instead gently caressing the material of her white lacy panties. He stroked her opening through the fabric, and she felt herself becoming wetter and wetter. He pushed his finger inside her, as far as the fabric would allow, and this drove her crazy. "I thought you said we needed to be quick!" She panted into his ear.

He just smiled wickedly, continuing to stroke her, before saying "We do. I just love the sounds you make."

Casey whimpered with desire as he continued with his teasing, but then a thought crossed her mind. "It's my birthday! I get to be in charge today." Without uttering a word she unzipped Garrus' pants and pulled his long, thick, hard self, free. He stopped what he was doing as Casey slipped her panties to the side and wrapped her legs around his waist. She pushed him against her, just enough for her wetness to spread to the tip of him.

It was enough, Garrus let out a growl and pushed himself fully into her. Casey gasped with pleasure, clearly gone were the days when he eased himself in gently, and she was eternally grateful for that!

Garrus pounded into her again and again, and Casey soon felt her orgasm building. And from the way Garrus was biting her neck, she guessed it wouldn't be long for him either. Within moments Garrus' bucking stopped, and he let out a final moan of pleasure, followed closely by Casey, who could barely control the way her body contorted against him. He held on to her tightly, breathing heavily into her neck, then moved away. "Casey, I'm sorry, I lost control." Casey didn't know what he meant for a moment, then felt a trickle of blood leave her neck and travel down her body. He'd broken the skin when he bit her, only a little, not much more than a cut, but still he looked mortified. "It's fine," Casey said, turning his head so he was looking into her eyes. "I like it when you do." And she meant it, the cut barely hurt, and she'd certainly enjoyed the biting. Garrus, however, still looked concerned, and gently licked at her neck with his rough tongue. Casey knew that this kind of biting happened a lot between Turian couples, and that the 'cleaning up' afterwards was a very intimate thing, and as Garrus held her close and gently mended her wound, she could definitely understand that.

Casey smiled, gently touching her neck. The cut didn't hurt. So that was the last thing she remembered doing with Garrus, but it didn't explain where he was now. The rest of the memory was blurry, and she was pretty sure more drinking followed. Did Garrus come back downstairs with her? She closed her eyes and strained hard to remember. There it was, a flash of her leaving Shepard's Cabin, glancing back for a moment. Garrus was asleep on the bed!

Casey hopped back into the elevator and rode it upstairs. Nervously, for she had not seen Shepard yet, she slipped inside. Yep, there Garrus was, still fast asleep on Shepard's bed. Casey raised an eyebrow, but he wasn't alone. Shepard was there too, fast asleep, face down, on top of the sheets. And what was Mordin doing on the floor? Casey smiled, watching Garrus sleeping. No doubt he'd be a little surprised when he woke up, reached for her and instead found Shep.

She remembered that they never had the chance to finish the conversation that they'd started in her room, but that didn't matter. They both knew what he'd wanted to say.