A/N - warning for language and ickiness

"I still think you should let me come with you," Garrus rumbled his disapproval as they lay in post coital flush on her bed. She lay face down, her head turned to look at him. He was curved over her, their legs entangled and his arm resting easily across her lower back. His head was propped on his angled arm as they spoke softly.
Shepard groaned, "Just leave it, Garrus. The gangs get one look at you and you will be the target for a thousand guns."
"Surely life on Earth has advanced a little further since the Contact War?" Garrus frowned, his talons gently tracing the ridges of her spine.
"Some of the gangs barely count as life," Shepard sighed, and ran her toes up his calf, "They are barely more than protoplasm crawling out of the primordial soup."
"So… I'm stuck on the Normandy?"
"You got it," she leaned forward and kissed him gently, "If things go wrong, I will need you to have my back. Ballas is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she is a vicious bitch."
"You have proof that she has a heap of your old gang?"
"Nope," Shepard sighed, "She's probably lying. But she will go after them sooner or later. She hates them only a little less than I. The Reds might be bastards, but I was once one of them. Cerberus might not have replaced my tattoo, but it's still there. On my heart."
Garrus' hand stilled on her upper back and he rumbled a sound of capitulation, "Maybe if you hadn't killed her lover…"
Shepard scowled, "Rastus Card was a snake. A low down, drug-dealing snake. He was cutting his drugs with anything he could get his hands on. Kids were dying. Buying from him was a death sentence. We had to cut him from the Reds. Her too. He just took it harder."
Garrus resumed the soothing rhythm of his hand across her bare flesh, and he felt the tension go out of the muscles, "I didn't say it was wrong. Tau has obviously built her own gang now, or she wouldn't dare go into Red territory."
"Yeah," Shepard agreed.
"Commander?" EDI's smooth voice sounded over the comm, "Mister Moreau wishes me to inform you that we are coming up on outer orbit. You will need to take a shuttle form here. The Normandy is unable to get through the debris field."
Shepard activated her comm, "Alright. I'm coming down." She propped herself up on her elbows, "Time to go to work." She kissed him firmly, and his hand tightened on her waist, holding her near for just a moment longer. She allowed it, but had to push him back gently after a few moments, "Gotta go."
She clambered out of bed, all long, lithe limbs and bad scarring. He lay there a moment, watching her dress, before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and rising to his feet.
"If you get into trouble, call me. I don't give a damn about the precious xenophobic sensibilities of those humans."
Shepard glanced up from where she was buckling on the undertunic. She gave him that rare, warm smile, "You are the first one I will call."

"How long has it been?" Garrus paced the cockpit.
"Chill, buddy," Joker drawled, spinning in his opulent leather chair, "She's only been gone a couple hours. Miranda has gone with her. She might not trust the Cerberus wench, but she knows that Miranda won't let an expensive investment die."
"Still don't like it," Garrus sat down in the co-pilots chair, his long legs crossing at the ankles.
"She's got it covered, big guy," Joker swiveled lazily and ran his fingers over his controls, "She wouldn't be the Commander otherwise."
"Hrmmm," Garrus rumbled his thoughtful reply.

Shepard leant against the low cement balustrade with her rifle held in a relaxed posture across her thighs. She felt eyes upon her. Couldn't see the faces, but she knew they were there. They were calculating the cost of her armour, her weapons and wondering if it was worth trying to take her down for them. The gun was a little hint that no. It wasn't.
A tall male figure stepped from the dark building that had once served as the Reds base of operations. It was condemned now and the . But she knew. Knew that this was where Ballas Tau had wanted her. But it was not Ballas that greeted her, but a man dressed in what no doubt passed as the uniform of whatever band of thugs she had put together to serve as her gang.
"Shepard," he greeted her, his gun held lazily, "Ballas sends her greetings and wishes for me to escort you to her."
She straightened, "If she has harmed a single one of the Reds, I will give her more than my fucking best wishes."
He stilled. Blinked.
"Come on, moron," Shepard growled, hefting her rifle. She gestured with the barrel, "You first."
"I…" he protested.
"Move it," she snapped, "I'm not here on a holiday."

"Serena Shepard," Ballas Tau's voice echoed from down on high.
"You are wasting my time, Tau," Shepard's voice was impatient, "Where the hell are my guys?"
"Dead," Tau's voice was easy, "I grew impatient."
"For your sake, you had best be lying," Shepard raised her rifle and sighted down it, sweeping the upper reaches of the old building.
A bag sailed down and crunched on the floor beside Shepard. The mouth opened and a head rolled from it. She knew the face, though it was twisted in the rictus of death. Pearson. They had been kids when they had dropped out of sight of the authorities, and hooked up with the 10th Street Reds. Kids with more anger than sense. They had done things. Things she wasn't proud of. But if she hadn't, she wouldn't be where she was now. And Pearson had stood with her through thick and thin, when there was plenty to eat, and when there was nothing. And this bitch had cut his head off.
Shepard stared down at the wide, dead eyes and the only indication of the emotion that exploded in her system was the whitening of her hand on the rifle.
"Vengeance is mine," Ballas Tau drawled, staying back in the shadows, "You killed what was mine, so I killed everything of yours."
Shepard couldn't trust herself to speak. She closed her eyes for a moment.
"And now, I will kill you."
Shepard's eyes snapped open and swung up her rifle, but too late the curled fist struck her from behind, followed by an elbow to the side of her head. She tried to defend, her rifle swinging around, but it was batted away, and she went down hard courtesy of a kick to the back of her knee. She was hit with a stunner and the pain that arced through her spine caused her body to bow. The scream was caught in her throat. And when she was hit again, this time harder, blackness overtook her senses.