Birthday: (in between me 1 and me 2)

Garrus ran his had along his fringe, growled and finally hit the send, before he rewrote the letter again. Hopeing he did not ruin his friendship with Her. Garrus shook his head and turned back to his work, he found Chellick much easier to work with... or maybe he had mellowed a bit. Thinking things thru a bit more now that he had met her.

Shepard plopped down, resting her head against the back of the chair. She had manager to remove her armor, taking a shower, eaten, finished her after mission reports, and given order to a new location in the Amada system in the Omega Nebula, where several ships had gone missing. She really should go to bed but she did not feel tired. Opening up her mail to see if she had any letters, or if it was more spam. One caught her eye. "Birthday?" She murmured the title and saw it was from Garrus. She had been both pleased and sad when he indicated he wanted to go back to C-sec, to try make things right. She had sent him with her blessing the last time they had stopped at the citadel. Clicking the mail open she leaned back in her chair and reached for her drink.

-Jane

I hope this is not too forward of me, but I was wondering if you wanted to catch a holovid and a bite to eat the next time you're visiting the citadel...you know assuming it not galaxy spanning disaster that your trying to divert.

I know your birthday is coming up soon, and if you tell me when you'll be here I can swing a day of vacation. There a little turian place that specializes in turian and asari foods. You know there are lots of turian-asari couples. Not that we're a couple. Unless you want to be.

I am really bad with this. I guess you can take this letter however you want and I'll abide by your decision.

-Garrus

Shepard felt a smile slow spread, finally giggling, hearing Garrus in her head reading the letter to her. She could almost see the way he would shift from one foot to the other when he was nervous. Putting her drink down, she typed out a quick reply. Yawning she headed for her bed to get some sleep, she had another mission in eight hours.

Sorrow: (shortly after birthday)

When Garrus came in to work the first thing he did was scan thru his email. There was a lot of junk, but he meticulously sorted everything into their appropriate inboxes. But stopped when he got to Shepard's reply. He sat there trying to figure out if it was a good response or not. Finally he decides that he could not know without actually opening the mail.

-Garrus

I would love to go on a 'date' with you. I'm not sure if that what your people would call it. But I think it would make a great birthday present. We can talk more about us over dinner.

I'm not picky on holovids, though I like older 'classics' video that was/is not in holo format. I don't keep up with the new movies.

The turian-asari place sounds good.

Trust me you'll be the first to know if I'm having a galaxy spanning disaster I have to stop.

Have to sleep now adrenal crash kicking in...

-Jane

P.S. you're paying ;)

Garrus felt as if his could fly, until Executor Chellick opened his door. The way Chellick stood, his mandible tight to his face told Garrus he had very bad news.

"Vakarian," Chellick stepped in to the room. "As of thirteen hundred yesterday CST, Specter Shepard was pronounced dead."

Garrus did not believe this, it had to be some kind of joke, he had just gotten her mail response, and sure it was marked low priority, which means it could take up to a week to arrive if the extranet is unusually busy. Finally he blurted out, "why tell me?"

"You know that C-Sec is responsible for telling next of kin when a specter dies. Though not many have any next of kin marked. Councilor Anderson and you are the only two on her list." Chellick came up to the desk, and dropped a datapad on it. "Here is the report, all of it, not just the civilian authorized information." as Chellick head back to his office he hesitated at the door.

"Take as much time off as you need. Send me your work and I'll make sure it gets taken care of." Chellick closed the door as he left, but that only muted the sorrowful keening that came from the room. It tore at his heart, he had not known Shepard but he had worked several cases with Garrus. He caught several officer that where standing, staring at him and the door.

"Don't you have work to do?" chellick snapped, the keening hadn't stopped yet. But he knew that Garrus would move on to throwing thing shortly. One of the turian detectives fell in step with Chellick as he headed back to his office.

"Who died?" the detective asked. Chellick glanced at the detective trying to gage his motive. One mandible flicked warily.

"Shepard." Chellick finally replied letting out a turian sigh.

The detective hesitated for a moment before continuing. "Word was Vakarian was trying to get her to go on a date with him. Send Detective Iallis and myself his cases."

"Thank you." Chellick replied and went in to his office.

an: CST= Citadel stander time