She had been standing there in the cold, looking out the window of one of the old laboratories. It had started snowing again. Badly. It looked like a blizzard. She had her arms crossed along her chestplate, thumping her foot, annoyed and perturbed with a scowl on her face.
A week! It had been a whole fucking week of this shitty assignment already, and there was still no end in sight. She said nowhere cold, damn it! Of course she had only said it to Garrus. Why couldn't the Alliance be mind readers?
The one fucking threat left in this galaxy was pirates, and something about the equipment in this specific lab was too important to lose, and easily sought after for a quick buck. They had already killed off a few gangs looking for just that. Shepard had killed them with more ease on her conscience than most of her enemies, because it was thanks to them that she was stuck here.
The only good thing about this job was that Garrus was here, constantly wanting to make things better. And he did. This assignment would have been insufferable without him.
She heard footsteps gracefully coming up behind her. She didn't even bother looking back, still having her little tantrum.
"Why the hell did I agree to this?," she huffed out.
Garrus came up behind her, and encapsulated her in his comforting grasp. "Because it's what you do. Your sense of duty has always been too strong to deny what's expected of you."
She squeezed herself out of the hug so she could face him. "Garrus," all but with a glare, she said, "We're basically a team of glorified guard dogs."
"That may be so, but this is where they need us right now. You've done the impossible, and rid this galaxy of the reapers. Everyone is so at peace with each other right now that soldiers aren't needed for much more than guard duty. Isn't that a good thing?"
She huffed out a sigh of defeat. He was right. She had already known it, otherwise they wouldn't be here still, but sometimes it was nice to hear about why they were still here, and Garrus had reminded her of that. "Would it really have been too much to ask to have been somewhere tropical though?," she said with a laugh.
"Apparently," was all he really offered on the matter, sympathising with her. She hadn't even had anything resembling a break before their departure. She had just wanted to get right back into the thick of it, and then was met with her worst fears. A boring job in the freezing cold.
"Well hey. At least we still have each other, and I've finally managed to set up that surprise," Garrus continued.
That finally seemed to make her perk up a bit. "Yeah?"
Garrus had been wanting to take her on a proper date, but her strict schedule for physical therapy, and marksmanship and hand to hand combat testing had left them with little time to do much before leaving Earth again. They had spent their time rekindling on the Normandy on their way over here, but that was never private enough to truly enjoy themselves, save for when they were in her cabin. He had wanted to do something nice for her, and he had finally thought of something before their rotation out today.
He took her by the hand and led her to one of the back corners of the loading bay they were in. He had set up a picnic behind some crates so she hadn't seen what he was doing this whole time. He had arranged some of them to use as seats and a makeshift table. While they were on a mission, they usually had to rely on ration bars, but he had somehow managed to sneak in some of their favourite staples from the ship, with two thermoses, and a little battery powered lantern in the middle of the table. There was also a nice comfortable blanket off to the side lying on a snowbank, which she had assumed was for cuddling afterwards. It was all very sweet.
She just stood there with a warm smile on her face, being taken aback by the gesture, wondering how she ever could have gotten so lucky.
"I know what you're thinking," Garrus cut in. "That we should be on the job right now, and not fraternizing, but I've set up a perimeter. There are sensors at the entrance, so we'll know if anyone's coming."
"You think of everything, don't you?," she said with a smirk. "But let's face it. That blizzard means no one's getting in or out of here any time soon. I think we'll be fine."
"I suppose you have a point. But it's nice to have the peace of mind."
"It is. And thank you, Garrus. This is exactly what I needed right now," she said as she went over to him and gave him a chaste kiss in thanks. Kissing had never been his thing, but he had always reciprocated to the best of his abilities knowing that it was important to her, even if he did feel like his mandibles just got in the way more often than not.
"I'm glad you like it. Here, come sit down," he said, as he moved to sit on one of the crates, and pat the one next to him, indicating for her to come join him. "I made you a sandwich and got some help from Traynor to make you a fruit salad. It's just canned stuff. All of the fresh fruit was gone already."
She just looked over to him now, hardly being able to believe how much thought he had put into this for them.
"That's fine Garrus. It's more than I ever would have expected. Thank you," she said, finally sitting next to him.
They sat down and enjoyed their lunch, finally getting caught up on the little things going on in their lives. Garrus had been left with a lot of questions about where exactly they stood. They were clearly still together, that being obvious from both sides, but he wanted something more serious. He was too scared to rush her into anything though, knowing that she was probably adjusting to life again, so they kept their conversation simple.
He did mention that he wanted her to meet his father and sister, but that it could wait for whenever she was comfortable, or for sometime that they were already headed in the direction of Palaven. She seemed interested, and Garrus took that as a good sign.
After they had finished their food, Garrus had finally moved to the last things on the table. "And now for the best part."
"I was wondering what was in those," Shepard said, curiously.
"The red one has coffee in it, just the way you like it. The blue one's mine."
Shepard looked at them with an intrigued smirk, finding her playfulness in the moment.
"Mmm, why don't we pop some Levo/Dextro antihistamines so it doesn't matter. That way we can do other stuff too," Shepard said, seductively, as she moved to straddle his lap. The meds weren't technically meant to be used so they could eat each other's food, only to make sure that they wouldn't be poisoned if they had accidentally ingested some, but Shepard was more interested in the other benefits of the drug.
"I like where your head's at, Shepard, but we're still on the clock."
She just huffed out in defeat. He was right. She was just bored of the job, enjoying her time with him and had gotten ahead of herself. Even with the sensors there as backup, that likely wouldn't leave them with enough time to get their clothes back on should they go off right in the middle of a steamy lovemaking session.
"I wouldn't say no to cuddling on the blanket though," Garrus offered in exchange.
"Okay," she said with a reluctant smile.
She slowly made her way off of him just in time for them to feel the ground move beneath their feet. They heard cracking noises like the earth was breaking apart, and hissing and popping coming from beyond the walls. The power had gone out rather excitingly, with sparks flying as wires snapped in the midst of structurally unimportant walls crumbling. That last part was a bit of a blessing in disguise, otherwise they both might be trapped under a pile of rubble right about now.
The shaking had stopped, and everything had calmed down. Shepard and Garrus could only just barely see each other, thanks to the little lantern that Garrus had for mood lighting.
"Are you okay?," Garrus finally asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. You?"
"I think so. What the hell was that?"
"An earthquake probably. Perfect timing. Right in the middle of a fucking blizzard," Shepard said, her disdain for this assignment easily making itself known yet again.
"Yeah. We should probably walk the perimeter. Make sure everything's okay."
"Good idea," She agreed.
They both started walking, checking on the damage, each going in opposite directions of the rather large loading bay.
They turned their suit lights on, and Shepard brought out her M-5 Phalanx, mostly for its extra flashlight as well, but it didn't hurt to have a weapon drawn either. There was crunching beneath her feet. The source of the noise became obvious as she checked the wall.
"The windows blew out," Shepard said loudly enough so that Garrus could hear her from the other side of the room. That meant that there was another potential entryway for assailants, and also that the blizzard was no longer being contained to the outside, as she could see a small pile of snow already starting to form and blow in, with an added breeze chilling the air. It was already cold in here before, and now this just made it worse.
Garrus had been checking the doors on the opposite side. None of them were working. That shouldn't have been surprising though, being power operated. It did mean that they couldn't retreat further into the building though. Come to think of it, it also meant that they couldn't go through the main entryway anymore either.
"Doors are all locked," Garrus reciprocated from his own observations over on his side.
They both finished their walk-around and met up at the front where the main garage door was, which is also where Garrus had his sensors set up.
"Looks like your sensors are busted too," Shepard said.
"They shouldn't be. They were on a generator," he said, scanning his flashlight over the equipment, following the power cord back to its source.
It had been knocked over in the quake, and was now lying under a small pile of rubble. Garrus crouched to examine it. It had been dented, but still looked like it could be functional. Shepard just pointed her flashlight at it so Garrus could see what he was doing.
"If we can get this working again, maybe we could attach it to one of the doors. We can move further in where it's warmer, or get out if the shuttle can come get us."
"Sounds like a good idea. We could probably get out of one of the windows if we really had to though."
"I guess you're right, but it couldn't hurt to have it at least," he said as he was already opening up the side panel trying to figure out what was wrong. He had reattached some wires, and tried to examine it as best he could in his limited light.
"Well let's give it a try, I guess," he said, as he hesitantly pressed the button to restart it.
A shock had immediately gone up his arm and jolted throughout his body. It was bad enough that Shepard had seen the blue light as he started gurgling out in pain, and rushed over to knock him away from the source.
"Jesus, Garrus, are you alright?!," she asked in a panic, as she gave him a once-over.
He blinked and coughed for a minute, as he slowly started to sit up, and Shepard offered him her hand.
"Yeah, I think so," he forced out. "Is it at least working?"
She looked back at the offending piece of equipment, "All that effort, almost dying by electrocution, and it sure doesn't look like it." Shepard said, as she kicked it for emphasis.
"Great," he muttered out, brushing himself off a bit. "Does it suddenly feel a lot colder in here to you?"
With the windows open and the new breeze, it had chilled the loading bay a bit more, but his suit should have been keeping him warm still. She turned back around to look at him and make sure he was okay. As she ran her flashlight over him, she could see smoke coming from his back.
"Garrus? I think you're on fire."
"What?!," he asked in a panic as he turned around for Shepard to see, and trying to turn his own gaze as far back as he could to see what she was talking about.
"Shit! I think it's your battery pack from your environmental controls. The shock must have shorted it out!," she yelled as she hurried to help him take off his chestplate.
At least it was something she had a lot of experience with now, and they got it off in seconds. She then ran and threw it out the nearest window as hard as she could. Not even a minute later, they both saw it burst into flames, before exploding in a significant ball of fire.
Shepard was left huffing from the adrenaline rush of it, shocked for how close Garrus had come to being in that. After everything they had been through, he had almost been taken out by an armour malfunction. It's not like they weren't built to sustain electrical shock. It wouldn't have been the first time that he had been hit with it thanks to their battles together, but he had always been fine before.
She turned back to Garrus, utterly relieved that he was okay. He seemed to be in just as much shock as she was, still staring out the window at what could have been his fate. He was a shivering mess in nothing but the remnants of his armour and his undersuit which wouldn't have been nearly enough to protect him from the elements in here.
"Shit."