AUTHOR'S NOTE:A shortish chapter that serves as foreshadowing for things to come. Very exciting things, mind you. Anyway, I'd like to thank each and every one of you for all your favorites and reviews and follows! It means the world to me! I wasn't expecting this thing to get this sort of reaction, but I'm glad it did. Even though it doesn't really have much of a plot (right now), I'm glad you guys like it!

Garrus felt as though he was living in a dream. What time he didn't spend guarding dozens upon dozens of kids from those who would wish them ill, he spent with Shepard. Part of him still couldn't believe that she was alive. It just didn't seem feasible. Shepard had been reluctant to share any details about what she'd been through (he didn't blame her), but from what he gathered, she and a chunk of the Citadel crash landed on a foreign planet. She'd been in a coma for three whole months and when she woke up, she woke up alone, broken, and pinned underneath a giant piece of scrap metal.

If it had been anyone else, Garrus would have written them off as damaged beyond repair. But this was Shepard. Shepard, who defeated Saren and Sovereign. Shepard, who brought the Collectors to their knees. Shepard, who saved the entire galaxy from the greatest threat anyone had ever known. She'd died once, and all it did was piss her off. Dying twice would have shattered a lesser spirit. Not Shepard. She refused to fall apart and he refused to let her.

Together, Vakarian and Shepard lived out those early days in tentative caution. They were never more than a few minutes away from one another and Garrus had even taken up residence in Shepard's cabin a couple nights a week. He was there when she awoke from some horrible nightmare, gasping and panting for breath. Sometimes he wouldn't sleep at all, depending on how bad the dreams were. He'd simply sit in her cabin and read one of the many books she kept laying around and wait until the thrashing started.

She put on a brave face for the reporters and even for him, but Garrus knew better. Shepard wasn't shattered. She was fractured. And it would be a long time yet before she could feel truly whole again.

It'd been three weeks since their tearful reunion. Three weeks days since Shepard's spectacular arrival. Three weeks since she'd punched him in the face and very nearly catapulted him into death's arms. Three strange, quick, breathless, wonderful weeks. Shepard spent most of them doing "cognitive exercises" and physical therapy to regain her strength. Today, however, she decided to join him in his work.

"They lost their parents when the Reapers invaded? All of them?" She asked as they patrolled the ramshackle "recovery center." She had that look in her blue eyes again. That glazed, haunted stare. Garrus hated it.

In an attempt to cheer her up, he slipped a hand around her waist and pulled her close. "Yeah, but remember what I said in London? Right before you went off to save the galaxy?"

The doctor told him that asking Shepard if she remembered something was the first step in doing so. There were a few times when she did, but there were even more when she didn't. She had little to no memory of finding him on Omega, but she did remember how he got his scars, which only further proved his point that they drove her wild. She didn't remember tracking down Saren, but she did remember killing him. The Reapers, though…She remembered everything about them.

Shepard pressed her lips together in thought. A few of the kids stared at them as they walked by. Shepard's face had been incorporated into every vid, her name in every news feed. Her return had sent shockwaves throughout the recovering galaxy. If they hadn't known who she was before, they knew now.

"Babies, right?" Shepard said finally. She looked up at him, her mouth molded in the faintest of smiles. "Trurian-human babies? A lot of things may have changed since then and now, but I'm pretty sure biology still won't cooperate."

Garrus leaned down to murmur in her ear. Quietly, so the kids wouldn't hear. "Maybe not, but we should still try. You know, for old times' sake."

"You still have some steam to blow off?" She teased, smile lifting to a playful smirk.

Garrus laughed. Of all the things for her to remember, she had to remember that. He would've been embarrassed if he wasn't so relieved. She remembered. "Just a little."

Shepard tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear. It was getting longer now that she wasn't restricted by military grooming standards. Garrus loved the way it shone in Earth's sun, the way it fluttered in the breeze, the way she tied it up in a messy bun when she was working. He loved her hair, her skin, her eyes, her mouth, her nose, her arms, her everything. It took him so long to realize that. Too long. He'd never be that stupid again.

"You're in luck, Vakarian." She leaned into his touch, resting her head on his upper arm. "I think I've got a little steam to blow off, too."

"Glad to hear it." Garrus replied, and he was…Mostly. There was something stirring inside him, though, something fluttery and light. Nervousness? He'd forgotten what it was like to feel nervous. Saren made him angry. Sidonis made him furious. The Reapers enraged him and losing Shepard nearly broke him. Instead of breaking, however, Garrus used his fury, wore it as armor so nothing would hurt him ever again. Unfortunately, he hadn't realized just how deep Shepard's death cut him. It tore a hole where his heart had once been, it infected him like a sickness. Losing her meant losing a part of himself in the process.

Now that she was back, his rage had ebbed, leaving room for lighter things. Intimate things. Things he hadn't thought about in…Months. He hoped he still remembered how to do them.

"You stayed here all this time?" Shepard had the good grace to chance the subject.

Garrus was grateful. He nodded. "Yeah."

"Why? Don't they need you on Palaven?"

He hadn't heard from anyone on Palaven in weeks. His father contacted him just as infrequently, his sister even less. They didn't exactly take his decision to stay on Earth as well as he'd hoped they would. When he first broke the news, his father accused him of "clinging onto the ghost of a dead woman" and "shirking his duties to his people." Garrus took the latter in stride. He'd never been a very good turian. But that first one…

His sister echoed their father's sentiments. She yelled at him through the static filled comm link, her voice loud and cruel. She didn't understand why he fell in love with Shepard in the first place. His father called their relationship "irresponsible." His sister just called him an idiot. All these negative reactions resulted in a shouting match and ended with a dead comm link.

Garrus hadn't heard from either of them since.

He didn't want to tell Shepard any of that right now. It would only upset her more. Hell, it'd definitely upset him. To know that the parents of your significant other hated you. So he answered the tough questions the only way he knew how: With deflecting humor.

"Oh, I figured Earth needed some industrious turian help. You know how we are. Always working to benefit the greater good. If you're a turian, that is. Besides, I've never been good at the whole 'adhering to the rules' thing. They won't miss me over there."

"Garrus," Shepard sounded like she was getting ready to launch into one of her lectures. "You don't need—"

"You're not going to be able to lecture me into going back." He stopped, turning to face her. He took her hands in his and squeezed tight. "You're stuck with me now. Sorry. There's no Shepard without Vakarian, remember?"

Recognition flickered across her concerned features. It took her a moment, but finally, she stood on the tips of her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. A real kiss, a lingering kiss, the kind of kiss only love could bring forth. If they hadn't been in public right now, oh the things he would have done…

"I remember." Shepard whispered, her mouth scarcely leaving his.

Dizzy with need, Garrus had to force himself to step back. "You're a damn tease, Commander. It's mean." He complained. And meant it.

Shepard began to walk away and Garrus found himself following her like a lovesick puppy. Maybe that was the reason why he'd stuck by her all this time. Love, not duty.

"I'm just getting a little practice in." She said over her shoulder, her eyes glittering mischievously. "Before our sparring session."

As they completed their rounds, the only thing Garrus could think about was their previous "sparring sessions." If he remembered correctly—and he was pretty sure he did because you simply couldn't forget something like that-…

He had reach, but she…

She had flexibility.