Garrus looked at the scientists that hooked up the cameras so they could record her explanation and follow it. 'Are you ready?' He asked her.

'Yes.' She said simply, she was always ready, for anything.

'How do we get you unplugged from the machine without causing harm to your brain or body?' He asked seriously and closed his eyes as her head slammed back and the red glow in her eyes brightened. She began to talk in medical terms and he had to walk away, there was nothing more for him to do here. He felt ill and was a little startled as the hand gripped his shoulder.

'She'll be okay.' Kaidan promised him.

'She'll be better than okay.' Garrus promised him, knowing that the Alliance wouldn't dare lose her to this, not when so many knew.

'I'd offer you a drink but I think you need a clear head as much as the doctors. We have the best neuroscientists in the world up here.' Kaidan smiled.

'And I don't think they can resist a pissed of Turian with a sniper rifle.' James said, poking his head in the doorway. 'Anyone fancy some poker?' He asked.

'You willing to lose the shirt off your back?' Garrus grinned, it was forced but there.

'Wouldn't be the first time.'

The poker game lasted the first four hours before the lack of news got to them and they tuned into videos. 'You know it's not often you get to see your girlfriends brain exposed to open air.' He said after a few moments of watching and James made a face before turning off the camera again. In the end, to take their minds of it they ended up recounting the whole story from Eden Prime to destroying the Reapers. Garrus naturally filled in most of the story, being there from the beginning, Kaidan missed the middle and James only knew the end. What they didn't talk about was that they all knew this would be a long road, that Shepard was unlikely to be herself for a long time, if ever, that you couldn't go through something like this and remain unchanged.

'I never really understood why she was with Cerberus, I think I get it now.' Kaidan said after a moment, when Garrus had finished with the assault on the collector base.

'The Illusive Man may think he was using her as a tool but, no, she never once agreed to an alliance, or anything more than using him for now.' He looked at him. 'She always took me along, so I guess I saw more of it than anyone else.'

'Why you?' James asked. 'I'd have thought the last person she'd want in a fire fight is you.' Garrus shrugged.

'You're a soldier, you take the people you trust will risk themselves to pull your arse out of the fire. Plus there's the devilish good looks.' Garrus grinned. 'Of course there's that time when she was relieved of command and I went back to Palaven.'

'So why separate?' James asked and Garrus frowned.

'You're not Turian so I don't really know how to explain it. You're taught to put society first, the group first, sacrifice yourself for the good of the people. The worst thing you can be is selfish. The Reapers were coming, I knew that more than anyone, we had to be ready. I like to think I bought my people some time and Shepard was doing the same. She's very Turian at times.' He smiled faintly at the idea. 'Of course, I did spend some of my down time reading up on human customs, Joker even sent me some vids.' James smirked. 'Not only those kind of vids but he had a healthy collection of what I assume is human pornography.'

'Do Turian's have porn?' James asked after a moment and Garrus chuckled.

'Every species with a sex drive does.' He grinned. 'Which is why there is no Salarian porn.'

'Ahh, so you've looked. I always knew there was something wrong with you.' Kaidan said with a grin

Garrus laughed. 'What can I say? I guess people have me marked as a xenophile these days. Anyway, the attack on Earth, you were both there, how did that go?'

OoooO

'Garrus, hey Garrus. Don't make me hit you to wake you up.' The Turian blinked wordlessly. 'She's out of surgery.' He sat up and got to his feet so quickly that James had to move for fear of being knocked over. 'Down the hall.'

Garrus didn't run unless he had to, after a certain age running was just undignified, but he took great strides to get where she was resting. 'How is she?' He asked.

'Brain waves are stable.' The doctor said, staring at readouts. 'Fortunately the machine used biotics to control her brain and once we turned those off at the hub we just had to remove her implants. There's no brain surgery as such, but she may take time to get used to the invasion of her brain stopping.'

'I didn't know biotics could do that.'

'No one did. She's on heavy doses of meds, but we can wake her up if you want to talk with her.'

Garrus shook his head. 'No, let her sleep, she's earnt it.' He took her hand wordlessly, tracing the lines on her face with his finger. It was probably in that moment when he finally let the grief go, he'd built a wall to stop himself from being hurt again if she suddenly disappeared and now he could dismantle it. Their relationship was strange, built on companionship rather than lust. He did admit to himself that he didn't find human women incredibly attractive, but, he found her attractive as a person. He was sure that she felt the same about Turians but it didn't stop the fact that they had fallen in love with a person, not a species.

He'd thought about sleeping with her before she had suggested it, but only as an idle thought, wondering how she would feel against him and nothing more. He'd never followed through on it because he respected her too much and he knew that she and Kaidan had a thing going on which had seemed pretty intense. Still when she'd mentioned skipping to the tiebreaker he'd not had to even think about it, the bond they'd shared made her the only person he could see a relationship with. Of course he'd overthought it by the next time she came down to the main battery which she'd found terribly amusing and that made him more nervous.

It probably hadn't helped that Tali had taken to flirting with him between those two conversations, that had been an awkward interlude for him. He liked Tali, but the same way he didn't have a fetish for humans he didn't have a fetish for Quarians and, honestly, the idea of having to disinfect yourself before sex was just a mood killer. He was glad Shepard had come to him, he would never have come to her, was too afraid of rejection colouring their whole friendship. When they had found each other orbiting Palaven he backed off a little, Kaidan's re-emergence hitting a bit too close to home, but she chose him. Now there was a fact that blew his mind. He had half expected her to go back to Kaidan when he reappeared, he had been waiting for it even, and it had never come.

He sat back in the chair and watched her breathe, the scars would show for a long time, but that was okay, he liked women with scars, it showed character. 'Good morning, Sir.' He looked around at one of the doctors and smiled.

'Yes. Yes it is.' He agreed, squeezing Shepard's hand softly.

'The doctors want us to transfer her to Earth for recuperation. After she's conscious and mobile again.' Garrus nodded at that thought, getting her off moon base would show her that she had saved her planet. 'There's an Alliance hospital we can send her to. She has no next of kin?'

'I think, just this once, that they'll let the alien boyfriend take her home.' Garrus said smoothly.

James strolled in. 'I thought you didn't have a home, Scars? Just a box room in a camp.' Garrus' mandibles twitched at that thought. James was right of course, Earth was intended as a stop gap until he could get home.

'Don't military members get accommodation given to them?' He asked after a moment.

'Yes, but you are not military.' He grinned. 'Well, there's a lot of humans gone now and a lot of remotish areas untouched by the reapers.' James said.

'Are you suggesting squatting James?' Garrus asked in amusement.

'I'm suggesting you get the Alliance to commandeer a house for her. It's not like they don't know about you two and, if I'm honest, any attempt to separate you two will be down to the campaign to get more babies born.' Garrus frowned. 'They want to rebuild the ranks and who better to do her duty…' He trailed off and Garrus scowled.

'I think she's a lot more useful than as a Yhag broodmare.'

'Don't get your panties in a twist, I'm not the one saying it.' Garrus felt his jaw twitch in pure annoyance, but the human was right.