A/N: This was a kink meme fill. Prompt was:

While trapped on a cold planet (post war) Shepard desperately tries to keep Garrus awake while their waiting for help. It's too cold for him, but mildly cold for her. She can tolerate it. Garrus, not so much. In an attempt to keep him from passing out, she does the only thing that comes to mind. (Other ways just didn't work!)

Biting his exposed neck.

Naturally, Garrus responds. They have sex, get rescued. And Shepard has no idea she mated herself to Garrus.

Until Garrus can no longer wait to bed her again. Hidden truth comes out.

+Redheaded (canon) Shep or undescribed so we can insert our fav SHep.
+Awkwardness for Shep because Garrus keeps staring at her.
+Primal Garrus but no "roaring" or giant penis.
+Jealous Garrus if other men show interest before Shep knows their mated.
+Garrus, normally submissive to her command decides he's tired of her oblivious attitude concerning their relationship

Shepard had been strapped to a hospital bed for far too long. She had even been reunited with her crew for some time now, having hobbled back to Earth at a cripplingly slow pace thanks to the relays being down. They had all been ecstatic to see that she had lived, even if she was a little worse for wear thanks to those final moments in the war. No one was as happy as Garrus though.

Her entire crew had all stood at the memorial wall not so long ago, thinking there would have been no way that she could have lived, ready to pay their respects and say their goodbye's. Everyone except Garrus that is. He had been adamant to not include her name on the wall, and everyone else had been worried about him. They had seen how bleak things were at the end. No one had expected her to make it out of that hell, but Garrus had faith. He knew Shepard better than most. If anyone could have done it, it was her, and he had never given up on that stance.

He was glad to have been proven right. No one complained about all of the 'I told you so's' either, just happy to have their Commander and dear friend back.

They had all graced her bedside constantly, and helped her through rehabilitation. Even through the harder days, they had gladly stayed by her side, thankful for her sacrifices. She had lost a leg and some organs, and a significant amount of muscle mass, but science had come a long way. Robotic limbs were the next best thing, and with new advancements, you could hardly notice. The skin weave over top and the nerve connections were so lifelike, no one would be the wiser. She would be okay after a stint of hard work and rehabilitation.

But none had been more diligent with her care than Garrus. They had something special ever since the day they met, but even more so since their Cerberus days. Since before the Omega 4 Relay, where they had awkwardly stumbled through cross-cultural boundaries to have found something meaningful. They had been separated and left wondering where they stood with each other briefly while Shepard had been incarcerated, but the reapers had brought them back together, stronger than ever. Their reunion was perhaps the one good thing to come of that damn war.

They had made it through to the other side, somehow both alive, and he wasn't going to squander this chance. They had talked about a life. An after. Dreams of retirement and children. He wondered if those things were still on the table though. Shepard's eagerness and determination to get better surely weren't to be preparing for a life on the beach, drinking mimosas. She was slowly but surely becoming that soldier again. He could see plain as day that the military wouldn't be set aside so easily in her life.

But even still, he wasn't about to waste this chance to be with her. He would follow her wherever she went. He had even been one of the few of her crew members that still had family living after this war, and yet he had stayed by her side. It was a testament to what they shared together.

Castis and Solana would always be his family, but Shepard was his future. He wouldn't leave her. Not like this. Not now, after coming so close to losing her. For now, just knowing that his father and sister were okay would have to be enough, because he would follow Shepard back to the depths of hell if she'd take him.

Shepard's recovery had gone more smoothly than anyone would have predicted, but that's just who she was. Always breaking people's expectations. She had seen the repairs being done to the Normandy, and had constantly said that she wanted to beat it back into the field. Of course she had fulfilled that particular destiny through hard work and genetic therapies, given the medical go-ahead by the doctor's who had helped put her back together. Admiral Hackett had reinstated her position as Commander of the Normandy, and she was eager to get back out there.

So here Garrus was, waiting in her hospital room as she finished preparing herself in the bathroom, getting ready to go. Today was discharge day, and Shepard had been itching to leave this place.

Somehow 'stir crazy' had never managed to be a part of her vocabulary on a ship trapped in space. Being confined to her tiny hospital room and the short trek to the rehabilitation centre had left her restless and well acquainted with the term. She was more than ready to leave it behind and forget its existence.

Garrus had been patiently waiting, playing a game on his omni-tool, sitting with her bags adorning the top of her hospital bed, packed and ready to go when he finally heard the bathroom doors open. She was stunning. More vibrant than he had ever remembered seeing her. He figured it had a lot to do with finally getting out of this room for good, but probably even more so knowing that she had a future and a life to look forward to that wasn't a question anymore. He gave her a delighted mandible twitch as he gave her a once-over.

"Ready to go?," she asked with a beaming grin on her face.

"Mmm, I sure am," he said as he pulled her to rest between his legs, and hold her close for a moment.

She bent down to touch their foreheads together, moving her hand to the back of his neck, gently caressing the bottom of his fringe.

"So, where do you think they'll send us?," she asked, still keeping the contact between their foreheads, eyes closed and intimate.

"No idea. But it doesn't matter. I'll follow you anywhere," he said, hands on her lower back, just holding her there.

She finally backed out of their embrace, cupping his face gently, trying to be careful of his mandibles. "Good. Because there's still no Shepard without Vakarian, you know. I don't think I'd be anywhere near as excited as I am to get back back to work if you weren't going to be coming with me."

"Glad to hear it, Shepard. I'm not about to leave now that things are calmer and we can finally enjoy each other."

"Good to know," she said with a smirk. "Maybe we'll get to go somewhere tropical. I know it's not the same as retiring on a beach, but I'm sure we could find the time to check out the waterside or lay in the sand or something after the mission."

"That sounds perfect, Shepard."

"Doesn't it? We get to go back to work. Feel like we've done some good, and earn some nice time to take things easy afterwards. Just as long as it's nowhere cold," she said with a laugh. At least the chances of that were slim. In the grand scheme of things, most planets had moderate climates.

"Well okay then, Commander. Shall we go?," Garrus finally asked.

"We shall. It's been far too long since I've been on the Normandy. I think it's about time that we go home, isn't it?"

"I couldn't have said it better myself," he said, taking her bag, and leading the way.

They made their relatively short trek to the makeshift docking bay where Shepard took a moment to be in awe of her ship. It looked more pristine than ever before, save for the reveal from Cerberus. This time was much better though, still adorning Alliance colours, but now having had the time to be fully repaired and ready to go rather than being in the middle of a retrofit as they were attacked.

They finally boarded, and she couldn't help but think that the inside looked even better. There weren't unruly cables running everywhere, or crates haphazardly strewn in cubby's. Everything was prim and proper, and exactly how an Alliance run vessel should look. She liked it. She had never cared too much about the actual mess during the war, and even now it still wasn't about the lack of mess. It was about the fact that things were okay, and they had been provided with enough time to fix everything.

The reapers had been an enemy on such an unimaginably large scale that it was still hard for her to believe that they had actually see things finally being calm, and to have time in abundance was a rejuvenating new reality, but would take some getting used to.

She had taken some of that time to get reacquainted with everyone, and settled her new belongings in her cabin. They had gone through all of the pre-flight checks, and Joker had paged her to let her know that they were ready for takeoff whenever she was.

She made her way back to the galaxy map as she read her orders from the fifth fleet.

"Fucking NOVERIA?!"