Big thanks to kuroichi30866 for giving me the idea for the chapter being told from Garrus' side!

Hope you like it :)

Garrus was dreaming. Like most Turians, his dreams were incredibly vivid. When he was a boy he used to dream of growing up and becoming a Spectre: saving the galaxy through shoot-outs and space-battles. As he grew older, he dreamed about cleaning up the Citadel and becoming the best C-Sec agent there was: rewarded with clean streets and beautiful women. As time passed his dreams turned to nightmarish visions of the Protheans extinction, the Reapers, and the end of life as he knew it. But then they changed again, and he stopped dreaming about things that worried him, or things he wanted, and began to dream about a person. This was a person he hardly knew, yet as time passed, the dreams became more and more passionate, and he slowly began to realise what he had been telling himself when he woke could not be true: he had feelings for a human. He wondered, after finally confessing how he felt, and got exactly what he'd wanted, whether he'd still dream of her. He did. But these days, he dreamt less of ripping off her clothing and pinning her against the wall, and more about protecting her, about finding her in danger, about losing her, and these felt so much worse than any of the others.

This morning, however, he was lucky, and he was having one of his more pleasant dreams: dreams of he and Casey in the gun battery. She was smiling in that shy, yet seductive way that drove him crazy, but she was starting to blur, and he fought as hard as he could not to wake up, but it was no good.

He kept his eyes closed out of protest, trying to recall the dream, when he heard her stir beside him. He tried to open his eyes, but the bright lights of what he recognised in an instant as Shepard's cabin were enough to force him to squeeze them shut immediately. He groaned, he'd never felt like this before, there had definitely been something different about what he had been drinking last night. He wondered briefly why he was sleeping in Shepard's bed, but then the memory came flooding back, and he felt a grin spread across his face. He heard her move again, and wondered whether she felt as rough as she did…Maybe humans were more resilient? Maybe she'd be ready for another round?

He rolled onto his side, eyes still squeezed shut and attempting to move as slowly as possible to prevent his head from splitting open. Maybe just a little spooning first, until he stopped feeling like he was going to dissolve into a puddle of goo on the bed. Garrus reached out his hand and ran it along her naked back. She felt a little different, though Garrus wasn't altogether sure he trusted his senses right now, as he could've sworn he also smelled that strange cologne that Mordin used to splash on before a special occasion.

Garrus continued to trail his fingers down her spine, and he felt her move. "That's nice."

Garrus' eyes sprang open. That wasn't Casey's voice.

Next to him he saw Shepard suddenly open his eyes, and the two of them stared at each other in silence.

"Garrus?" Shepard asked, clearly wondering whether this was some kind of hideous nightmare.

"Shepard." It was the only reply Garrus could think of, but considering his hand still rested on Shepard's back, it didn't seem to quite fit the situation.

Shepard glanced around the room, and Garrus suspected he was checking that Grunt wasn't going to be snuggled up against his other side or something. "Uh…I don't wanna be rude if this is some kind of Turian friendship thing, or if I've at some point given you the impression that I'm up for this, but would you mind taking your hand off my ass?"

Garrus removed his hand like Shepard's skin was red hot, clearly he'd gone a little lower than he expected. "Why aren't you wearing underwear?" He asked, his voice thick with shock.

"Why are you touching me?!" Shepard retorted.

Garrus felt flustered, "I'm sorry, I thought you were Casey!" Then he froze, realising what he'd said. Shepard, however, seemed to relax. "Casey?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah," Garrus replied, thankful that Shepard was still lying on his stomach, and wondering at what point in the morning Humans usually put their underwear on.

"Ah man, I don't know if you've got a shot there…"

"Shep I feel a little uncomfortable with…wait…what do you mean I don't have a shot?"

Shepard shrugged, turning on his side to face Garrus, who immediately focused his attention on the fish tank behind Shepard's head.

"I don't know, she's just, like, a really sweet girl. And you're kind of a douche." Shepard looked deadly serious, but Garrus could tell from his tone that he was teasing him. Still, he took the bait.

"What do you mean a douche?!"

"Like, remember that time we went to the bar, and you asked that girl whether it was common for Human women to have moustaches?"

"Oh come on, how was I supposed to know that was offensive? I'd barely had any experience with Humans then!"

"Ok, then what about the other week, when Miranda got all pissy about the new interface on the galaxy map, and you asked whether she was menstruating?"

"Again, I didn't know that would offend her, and you were the one who said it first!"

Shepard laughed, "Yeah, but I didn't think you'd ask her!"

Garrus sighed, and Shepard patted him on the shoulder. "Garrus, you know I'm kidding. Girl like Casey would be lucky to have you, you want me to get Tali to find out if she's interested?"

"No, that's fine," Garrus replied, perhaps too quickly, because suddenly Shepard's face lit up.

"You dog! You and Casey?!"

Garrus, who was slightly confused at being called a dog, and alarmed that Shepard had inadvertently moved his naked body closer to him, didn't reply. But Shepard was unperturbed. "That's great man, I'm really happy for you."

Garrus nodded, "Thanks. But, can I ask you something, as a friend?"

"Sure," Shepard replied, "But I think I know what you're going to ask, and don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

Garrus shook his head, "Not that, but thanks. No, I was going to ask you to please put some clothes on. I think I've seen enough of 'The Great Commander Shepard' to last a lifetime."

Shepard glanced down, seeming to only now realise that he was completely naked. "Sorry Garrus!" He laughed as he jumped out of bed and towards the pile of clothes on the couch, seeming completely unembarrassed. "Habit, I wasn't expecting to find anyone in my bed, guess I just jumped straight in without realising. What the?!"

Garrus heard someone cry out, and leaned over the bed to see Mordin laying on the floor, thankfully fully dressed. So I could smell him, Garrus thought.

"Mordin?" Shepard asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Not…entirely sure." Mordin groaned, clutching his head. "Wondering if head about to crack in half."

"Maybe I should get some coffee on," Shepard suggested.

"Good idea," Mordin replied, nodding his head, but only gently. "One of the only drugs that works on both Humans and Salarians." He got up and moved towards the door. "May also take pain killer, ask Casey to mix solution perhaps, good practice for her, may have accidentally forgotten to continue her training since joining Normandy crew. Garrus, does she seem at all disappointed during sexual liaisons? Not with your performance, sure that is satisfactory, no, more of a disappointment at medical training coming to a halt?"

Garrus sighed, "No Mordin, and if you could not tell anyone about Casey and I, we'd really appreciate it."

"Of course," Mordin replied. "Though cannot understand secrecy myself, normal to want to relieve stress on mission such as this, in fact had similar liaison myself recently and worked very well. Not sure I would do it again though, cross species thing can be messy. Tell me, are you having any trouble with excess fluid?"

Shepard, who seemed to have forgotten all about getting dressed, turned to look at Garrus, clearly struggling to contain a laugh, "Yes Garrus, any fluid problems?"

"My only problem right now Shepard, is that you're still not wearing pants." Shepard laughed and began to get dressed, while Garrus made his way towards the door. He was sure he'd never get used to Humans and their strange ways.

Garrus made his way down to Casey's room, where he found her in her bathroom with her head on the toilet seat.

"Hey," she said in a dry voice.

"Are you ok?" He asked, as a feeling of concern immediately washed over him.

"I was, I went up to Shep's room and found you, then I came back here, and I've not stopped being sick."

"You saw me asleep?" Garrus asked. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Casey gave a tired grin, "I had this image of you waking up next to Shepard and thinking it was me, I thought it'd be funny. Plus, he was naked, and I wasn't sure I needed to see any more of him if he suddenly turned over."

The image of Shepard rolling onto his side flashed into Garrus' mind, and he replied through gritted teeth, "No one needs to see that." He looked back at Casey, who looked exhausted, and sat beside her on the floor. "Don't worry, we'll just have a relaxing day together here and you can really take the time to get over it."

"Commander Shepard, the Illusive Man wishes to speak with you in the debriefing room." EDI's voice rang through the ship.

Casey looked back at Garrus, raising an eyebrow.

Garrus shrugged, "Maybe he's calling to see how the party went?" He suggested lamely. But they both knew that the Illusive Man only called the Normandy for one reason: to send them on some kind of dangerous mission.

Shepard called them in for a briefing fifteen minutes later, and after the events of the morning, Garrus was almost surprised to see him fully clothed. He tried to shake the possibly 'friendship damaging' image of a naked Shepard giving him relationship advice, and pay attention to what he was actually saying.

A Cerberus team had discovered an IFF, the exact thing they needed to get through the Omega four relay alive, on a derelict Reaper. The Illusive Man was instructing Shepard and his team to go in and get the device, and search the ship for the Cerberus crew, who had recently stopped reporting in.

"This is likely to be a dangerous mission," Shepard said in a much more tired voice than normal. He clutched his cup of coffee tightly, and appeared to grimace whenever there was a noise that was louder than he was expecting. "And because of this I want to bring the whole team down. It's important we get some experience working together like this before we hit the Collector homeworld, and I think this is going to be the place were numbers pay off. Ok?"

There was a mumbled response from the crew, and Garrus took this opportunity to really look at the team properly for the first time since they'd come into the room. On first glance it wasn't too bad: everyone was here at least (except Casey, who had run to the bathroom to be sick again just before the briefing started), and they all at least had clothes on (images from the party were starting to come back, and Garrus wasn't sure he could ever look at James Vega or Doctor Chakwas the same way). Jacob and Vega just looked tired, though Cortez was positively green. Miranda, however, looked physically ruffled, with her usually pristine hair all over the place, and held her cup of coffee like her life depended on it. Grunt and Jack looked pretty normal, and Garrus couldn't tell with Kasumi as she always wore that damn hood. Thane and Samara looked as serine as ever, though Samara's outfit didn't look as though it had been buttoned up correctly, and Thane appeared to be clutching the table at times for support. Mordin had actually dragged in a stool from his lab to sit on, as though his legs couldn't be trusted.

Shepard didn't wait for a more enthusiastic response, instead lead the team from the room towards the shuttle bay and armory.

"Hey, what did I miss?" Garrus turned around, Casey stood behind him. She smiled, though he could see that she was paler than usual, and looked like she might run back to the bathroom at any moment.

"We've found an IFF, we're all heading over to this derelict Reaper to pick it up," Garrus explained as the last crew members left the briefing room. It was just him and Casey now.

"Ok, cool, I'll get my gear," she replied, in what Garrus knew she thought was an enthusiastic tone. But he could both see and hear how tired she was. He knew she wouldn't like what he had to say. "Casey, I think you should stay here."

Yep, there it was, her eyebrows lowered and she seemed to stand much taller than a few moments ago. "Why not?" She asked, "Everyone else is going, and you know I can handle myself…sort of." She seemed to get a little smaller, and Garrus had the almost uncontrollable urge to pick her up and hold her close. But he didn't have time for that, so he had to make do with trying to convince her to stay. "I can see you're not well," he began, "And there's no way I want to risk your safety if you're not at your best. Shepard wouldn't want that either."

"I'm fine!" Casey replied indignantly.

Garrus smiled, "I might be more willing to believe that if you didn't have a little vomit in your hair."

Casey blushed, and tucked a strand of her beautiful hair behind her ear. "I guess staying here to have a shower wouldn't be totally out of the question," she muttered, and Garrus felt a weight lift.

"You'll be safe here, and I promise we won't be gone long."

Casey nodded, and moved closer to kiss him, then stopped herself. "Maybe I'll save that until I'm not, you know, covered in last night's bar."

She reached out and took Garrus' hand, squeezing it for a moment. "Be safe." Garrus nodded, kissing her hand gently and heading for the shuttle bay. He felt bad about leaving her, but she was safe aboard the Normandy. He couldn't help but feel surprised that he'd actually won this time!