Garrus was starting to think his mind had been playing tricks on him when he caught sight of the figure again, ducking into an alley across the street.
It was midday and there was a stream of people moving down the street, plenty enough for one figure to disappear into. By all accounts, it just looked like another human in a bad mood stomping through the Wards, shoulders hunched and head down, dressed in a long jacket and one of those lopsided hats human soldiers seemed so fond of, moving past the reporters without earning a glance. Garrus glanced over his shoulder at a couple of the reporters still flitting about and moved into the alley. It wound between several buildings and Garrus moved around one of the corners just in time to see the figure he'd been tailing straightening up into a more familiar posture.
Shepard froze midway through pulling the hat off her head, her eyes narrowed. She blinked in surprise as she recognized him. Garrus crossed his arms across his chest casually. "Nicely done, Commander, they didn't even see you."
Shepard ran her fingers through the short, messy cap of hair on her head. It didn't make the hair any neater so what purpose the move served, Garrus had no idea. "How'd you spot me?"
"I was in the right spot at the right time. Also, you move like a fighter, Shepard, posture can't change that. You're lucky the reporters are human. No turian would have been fooled for a moment."
"Ah, I'll make sure to carry a shock baton for the turian reporters then."
Garrus spoke without thinking: "You're a Spectre now, Commander, representing all of the galaxy. If you're going to use a shock baton on the turian reporters, you should use it on the humans too. It's only fair."
He paused for a moment, uncertain if he'd stepped over the line, until she glanced over at him, her mouth curving. He'd had enough experience learning to read human facial expressions to know the look in her eyes and that slow curve of the lips was genuine amusement. "What brings you down here to the Wards? I'd say you're cutting it close to when we're supposed to meet up at the docks but then again, so am I." She glanced down at the display set into her omni-tool as she fell into step beside him. She tugged the hat back onto her head as they emerged onto one of the streets, hunching her shoulders to take down her posture again. Garrus was fascinated by how such a small change in demeanor could make such a difference.
He gestured behind him. "I was checking up on Dr. Michel."
"How is she?"
"She's fine, she's seen worse than those punks and with Fist dead..."
"Yeah, can't say my heart is broken over that one. I guess Wrex saved Saren the trouble of killing him later."
Garrus thought that over and nodded slowly. "Once he didn't need him anymore."
"Are you heading up to the docks, then?"
"Actually, Dr. Michel needed some help and since there's still some time, I thought I could give it to her."
"What kind of help?"
"It's kind of...delicate." Garrus hedged around the question automatically, the same way he would have with Executor Pallin if he was trying to maneuver around him.
Shepard suddenly took a few steps forward and turned to look at him, walking backwards, her eyes gleaming. "Wait a minute, Vakarian, you're starting to sound an awful lot like me when I'm trying to put something past Udina. What's up?"
He shifted his eyes away from hers, uncomfortable. "Just Garrus is fine, Commander."
"Glad to hear it, but you still didn't answer the question." Her grin faded abruptly and she fell into step beside him again. "Is she in trouble?"
The concern in her voice gave him a pause, reminding him about who he was talking to. Shepard wasn't Pallin. In fact, he'd be hard pressed to find someone less like his former boss. "She was fired from her last job for giving away med supplies to people who couldn't afford it. She said there were no charges filed, but apparently someone did their research well."
For a moment Shepard just looked at him, clearly confused, and then her eyes narrowed. "Someone's blackmailing her?"
Garrus nodded, encouraged. "If the board finds out she could lose her license. The clinic could shut down. That isn't right. She helps more people with that clinic then the damned board ever will." He turned, moving toward a warehouse district a few blocks away from the clinic. "She's supposed to deliver medical supplies to the blackmailer in a few minutes. In that building right there." He let the implication hang in the air.
Shepard studied the building for a long moment- long enough for Garrus to worry a bit she might disapprove enough to order him not to do it- then she looked back at him, her lips curving again. "Imagine their surprise."
'Surprise' was a bit of an understatement.
Shepard was more than happy to go in ahead of him and draw the blackmailer out. No more than a few seconds after she disappeared inside, a krogan that had been attempting to lurk unseen at the side of the building followed her in. Garrus moved up behind him silently, shadowing him without the krogan even noticing. Small time hood, Garrus judged. Poor Dr. Michel seemed to be a magnet for them.
The krogan stopped short as he passed through the doorway and Garrus peered around him. Shepard was perched on the edge of the counter, swinging her legs a bit. She beamed at the krogan as he came in. A flustered salarian stood behind the counter, his hands starting to flutter on the counter top as he took in the sight of the krogan and Garrus moving up silently behind.
"What the hell's going on here? Who are you?" The krogan snarled at Shepard, taking a step forward.
"You're blackmailing Dr. Michel," Shepard said without ceremony, still swinging her legs. She was smiling, all friendly good cheer. "Bad manners."
Not to be outdone, Garrus deactivated the safety on the pistol in his hand with a loud click, fixing his eyes on the krogan as he whirled around.
The salarian ducked behind the counter.
The krogan hesitated. "Look, all I need is the medical supplies and no one needs to know the doctor's little secret." He kept himself turned toward Garrus, obviously considering the turian the more dangerous of the two.
"Well strictly speaking, no one needs to know the doctor's secret at all. It's not vital information. If it remained unknown, it wouldn't bring harm to anyone. If the doctor's clinic is shut down, however, it could bring harm to plenty of people," Shepard said.
"Also, you couldn't tell anyone anything if you're dead," Garrus pointed out.
"There is that, too."
Up until that point the krogan had done a heroic job of managing not to look nervous but he was starting to fray around the edges, shifting back and forth from one foot to the other. Definitely small time hood, Garrus thought contemptuously. "Okay, hold on, I'm just the middleman..."
"Which begs the question of whether this job is worth dying for." Shepard slid off the counter and moved a few steps closer to the krogan, making him even more nervous. Now he didn't know which way to turn. If he attacked one, he put the other at his back. Shepard paused just out of reach and cocked her head, her hands in the pockets of her trench-coat.
Garrus cocked his gun pointedly. It isn't.
"Yeah, this is more than I bargained for." The krogan held his hands up.
"Wise decision. And of course, you should tell your boss that there's no need to take things out on the doctor by spreading her secret around. Because then we'll have to track y'all down. Which will make me rather irritated and I'm not at all fun when I'm irritated."
The krogan took a couple steps backward, almost running into Garrus. Garrus didn't blame him, if she'd been smiling at him like that, he'd be looking for an exit too. He stepped aside, putting his pistol away, and turned to give the krogan room to pass, watching him as he left.
When he turned around, the salarian had popped back up and was babbling at Shepard. "It's good to see him humbled so!"
"What the hell was that all about, anyway? Who was he working for?" Shepard turned back toward him.
"Someone named Banes and that's all I know, human. I only ever spoke to the krogan."
Garrus filed the name away in case they needed it. "So, you won't be giving the doctor any trouble either, right?" He made it a question but his tone made it clear what the answer needed to be.
The salarian's eyes widened. "Oh, no. No, no, I mean the doctor no harm. She's got nothing to worry about from me!"
Shepard smirked and sauntered toward the exit, following Garrus out.
He glanced around to make sure the krogan was definitely gone and headed for the clinic. "I really didn't think talking would work, I thought I'd have to end up killing him. Probably would have been more efficient."
"Yeah, but come on, it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun."
He made it a point not to agree out loud to that one.
"Besides," Shepard continued, "you go around killing everything that bothers you, you run the risk of becoming boring and predictable." Garrus eyed her, not sure how to respond to that. She just smiled.
Dr. Michel was understandably relieved to hear she wouldn't be bothered anymore, thanking him so warmly Garrus was actually a bit embarrassed. But it lightened his heart to see her turn back to her patients, looking like a great deal of weight had been taken off her shoulders. Shepard leaned against the wall, giving the doctor a little wave but otherwise keeping back and letting them talk. When he broke away, she watched him approach with the same kind of look she'd had when he'd asked to join them; thoughtful, like she was coming to some sort of decision about him. She was silent for a moment when they left the clinic, then: "She and some of the other nurses were surprised to see me, kind of protective of you. I guess your boss doesn't approve of you helping people on the side like this, yes?"
"Former boss. And no, he didn't."
"Former...you quit?"
"I handed my paperwork in earlier today. The bureaucracy...well, you saw it. The Council ignored my investigation completely because they didn't want to even consider that Saren might have done something. The damn bureaucrats are always on my back." Garrus stopped himself. The frustration with the whole Saren affair and C-sec in general was apparently not as faded as he'd thought it was because it had all come bubbling up at that simple question.
But Shepard was nodding slowly. "Like I said when we met up with you, it looked like you were pretty tied up in that regard."
"If I'm after a suspect, it shouldn't matter how I do it, as long as I do it. But that's how it always is. Protocol and procedure always come first. It didn't start out that way, but as I rose in ranks, I got saddled with more and more red tape. I couldn't stand it anymore." Garrus gave her a quick look and found her studying him with that thoughtful, assessing expression again. It was starting to worry him a little bit. It had been a risk he'd jumped at, teaming up with Shepard, but he had no illusions she could and would cut him loose if she disapproved.
She finally looked away. "I'd just hate for you to regret it later."
She sounded genuinely concerned, which smoothed out a twist of anxiety in his chest. "I hate leaving. But working with you...it gives me a chance to get off the Citadel. See how things are done outside C-sec. You're a Spectre, you make your own rules. You're free to handle things your way."
Shepard gave him an odd look he couldn't quite interpret, then looked away. "You're right, I suppose I am. Strange, I guess that hasn't quite sunk in, yet. I haven't been without a chain of command for...hell, eleven years. I never expected I'd be without it. Hah! No wonder Udina keeps looking at me like I'm a time bomb, I bet he expects me to use hunting Saren down as some kind of springboard to build an army and take over the universe."
Garrus couldn't help himself. "I'm glad I picked the right side, then."
Shepard laughed. "We'll have to stop Saren from doing it first, though."
Tali'Zorah was waiting at the entrance to the docks. She waved exuberantly as they rounded the corner and hurried toward them. "Captain Anderson asked me to find you and tell you they're waiting in a private dock instead, over there. I've seen it. Your ship's amazing, Shepard!"
"Hey, Tali. I guess Udina came through on that, then. What..."
"Commander! Commander Shepard!"
Shepard looked behind her and rolled her eyes, cursing softly. Garrus followed her gaze and shook his head as Khalisah al-Jilani crossed the floor toward them in as close to a dead run as her dignity would allow her, a camera drone floating behind her like a faithful pet. She'd obviously been laying in wait out of sight somewhere, otherwise Alliance members would have shooed her away.
"Who's that?" Tali peered around them curiously.
Shepard kept walking, drawing Tali along. "She's the decline of modern civilization in one surgically altered package. Don't look into her eyes, Tali, she'll kill your brain cells off by the dozens."
al-Jilani picked up the pace when she realized they weren't going to stop, doggedly pursuing them. "Any particular reason you've been avoiding the press, Commander Shepard?"
"I gave a press statement to Ambassador Udina's people and spoke to Emily Wong earlier, Ms. al-Jilani. The only reporter I've been actively avoiding is you and why you're surprised at that is anyone's guess."
Garrus didn't believe for a second the reporter was actually surprised. She was one of the loudest, shrillest reporters from the notoriously shrill Westerlund News and the ongoing battle between the pro human news group and the crew of the Normandy was reaching legendary renown. Some C-sec officers had actually been taking bets on who would get called in when the reporters' constant harassment finally brought a fight on.
The camera drone swooped around them in an attempt to cut Shepard off and almost crashed into Tali, who jumped back with a yelp of surprise. Shepard caught her arm to steady her and glared back at the reporter. "Shall we see if I can turn that into an assault charge on one my crew?"
"Your crew," al-Jilani's voice was snide as she raked a gaze over the three of them. Garrus could only imagine what she was thinking seeing humanity's first Spectre with a turian on one side and a quarian on the other. She didn't turn her camera on but Garrus caught the soft beep that indicated she was recording sound from either it or her omni-tool. Obviously, she considered any legal action the Alliance might take worth it to get something she could twist from Shepard. "Is your crew comprised entirely of aliens now that you're answering to them, Commander?"
"I didn't agree to an interview, Ms. al-Jilani, take your agenda and find someone else to annoy." Shepard started walking again. "Or make shit up, that's what you do anyway."
"Your report on the depths of turian corruption in C-sec wasn't true at all but it was well received, I hear. On Earth, anyway," Garrus commented. When al-Jilani moved forward, he made it a point to put himself between her and his commander.
"Which is pretty much the only place in the galaxy that watches Westerlund News." Shepard smirked.
"Wait, weren't you the woman that did that idiotic report about how quarian 'space bums' are responsible for the spread of half the galaxy's plagues? I saw it while scanning some news archives." It was hard to tell but Garrus was reasonably certain Tali was glaring at the reporter.
"Doubt it was her, she doesn't care about the galaxy," Shepard murmured to her.
"The Council has been treating humans as 'poor relations' for the past 26 years. Is that why the turian is with you? To make sure you put the Council's needs above the needs of Earth?"
"Garrus, are you a spy for the Council to make sure I put its needs above the needs of Earth?"
"Not last time I checked, Commander."
"Glad we cleared that up."
Tali started giggling, which really annoyed al-Jilani. She kept at it, her words snapping out in short, staccato bites of irritation. "You've been given command of an advanced human war ship..."
Shepard's head jerked softly, as if in surprise. The reporter honed in on it, her eyes lighting up. She opened her mouth but Shepard overrode her. "Speaking of which, these docking bays are off limits to reporters by command of...well, everyone, really."
al-Jilani hesitated and Shepard paused, looking back at her with her eyebrows raised. A couple of Alliance soldiers were standing guard further down the docks and sat up when they came into view, taking in the scene. Garrus saw al-Jilani take it all in, process it, and decide not to push her luck. Looking disgusted, she called her camera drone back to her. "Let's hope having you as our first Spectre is a step forward for humanity and not backward." With that dramatic line, she turned sharply to stalk off...
...and ran straight into Wrex, who'd come up behind her.
The reporter let out a shriek and jumped a full foot in the air backwards, stumbling and landing on her ass. Wrex snorted and stepped around her.
Shepard hooted with laughter. "That's one for the five o'clock news."
al-Jilani glared at her as she climbed to her feet.
"Commander." Everyone turned as Captain Anderson came out of one of the docks. He gave al-Jilani a hard look. "Commander, the ambassador is waiting for us. Ms. al-Jilani, you have ten seconds to get off the docks before I have you taken into custody. An officer is waiting at the end of the corridor to make sure you haven't taken any illegal images or sound bites that might be a threat to security. Commander, if you please." He turned around and disappeared back into the bay.
Shepard sighed. "I wish I could learn how to do that."