~Jane~

Jane was happy, happier than she had ever really admitted to feeling in her entire life, and it was all because she had finally swallowed her pride and spoke to Garrus about her feelings that she didn't even know how to explain.

Though they had only been in this new step of their relationship for a little over a week, she felt lighter, younger, and more full of life while around him. No one in her entire life had made her feel the things she felt when around him, and it took all of her confidence to keep her walls from rising when she treaded into unfamiliar territory. She didn't think that the confidence and power the N7 training was trying to instill in her, but she was damn sure she wasn't going to let it go to waste.

If her opening up and allowing herself to care for someone as she had never done before meant that she could continue to feel the pleasure she felt in Garrus' company and wrapped in his warm embrace, then she would gladly face the unknown. She knew that whatever was building between them was worth the uneasiness of the unknown.

Right now, though, Garrus was still at work stuck on a case that has been causing him problems since before she arrived to the Citadel on leave. She knew that regulations kept him from disclosing any information about and ongoing case, but she also knew him well enough that the tension in his shoulders and long days were a sign that the case was not going as smoothly as most.

Trying to keep her mind from getting caught up with her sense of uselessness to help him, she turns her attention to the black guitar in her lap. Garrus was right when he had told her that he'd take good care of it, she muses as she runs her hands along its smooth surface.

It seems like he had kept it nice and clean while she was gone, which she wasn't surprised to find when considering the upkeep of his almost immaculate apartment. What was surprising was the fact that it seemed like he had tried to keep it tuned as it was when she had left it here so long ago. The notes were a bit off still, but it was damn close considering that he probably didn't have the best knowledge of the correct sound.

It was then that it hit her, his ears were probably better at hearing the subtle shifts in key and tone, so perhaps he didn't really need to know how each string was supposed to sound. She smiles at the image of Garrus probably searching up what each string should sound on his visor and trying to match up the sound on the string.

He must have thought that to keep a guitar in proper condition, it needed to be constantly tuned. I guess I should tell him that it's okay to let it go out of tune, I won't hold that against him, she chuckles to herself at his endearing efforts to try and take care of her few belongings.

It doesn't take but a few moments to finish tuning the guitar the rest of the way and she immediately falls into the long ago familiarity of warmup chords from her childhood. Once her fingers feel nimble enough, she shakes her elbows loosely, letting a song pop up into her head as she starts to pluck the strings in rhythm.

As she idly plays in the empty apartment, she lets her mind drift with the music, remembering the happiness a guitar and its owner brought her as a child and wondering if she can start new memories with the instrument in her hands and the only other person who has ever meant anything to her.

She losses track of time and doesn't know how late is has become when she hears the front door's lock disengage and the heavy footsteps entering. She places her guitar to the side with a smile and moves to greet him in the living room, but stops short with a frown when her eyes fall on his form slumped at the table.

She approaches him slowly, noticing his tense shoulders, his low growl, and his hands clenched against the sides of his head, all signs that today was a very bad day. She sits at the table next to him, placing her hand against his back in solidarity, and watches as his mandibles flick in barely contained anger.

His growl grows louder as he drops his hands to fist on the table top. "What's the saying, Jane, C-Sec fucked me?" He doesn't look to her, but maintains his full attention on his hands as they clench and unclench. "I had the slimy bastard and they let him go…"

Though she doesn't understand the exacts of his anger, she knows that this is another instance in which he has found himself bogged down by the endless piles of paperwork and red tape. She scoots her chair closer to his side and places her hand at his wrist, a calming weight that he reacts to with a slight lessen in built up tension.

He sighs and drops his head, "If they had just listened to me, had just fried his ship or shot it down, the twisted bastard wouldn't be taking off somewhere to torture more people."

Unable to really add to his conversation because of her lack of knowledge of his case, she decides to just try and help him vent what he can. "I'm sorry, Garrus," she says for lack of anything else to say.

He slams his free hand against the table and his shoulders slump. "I was working on suspicious organ sales in the Black Market…"

"Garrus," she interrupts, "I don't want you to get yourself into trouble by telling me about your cases." She doesn't know what the punishment would be, but she's pretty sure that if anyone were to find out he was telling his human girlfriend about his case and suspects, things wouldn't end well.

Garrus shrugs dismissively, "C-Sec lost him because of their own stupidity. There's no way I'm ever going to get the chance to find him again, so if they have any complaints they have no one to blame but themselves." He looks to Jane and rolls his hand so that lies palm up on the table, a silent request which she gladly answers by twining her fingers with his.

He hums a low, bass mix of growl and rumble and strokes his thumb over hers, silently contemplating before continuing. "I was tasked with checking the Black Market once we received word that a large amount of organs were passing through. I had thought it was all just going to come down to a cloning facility selling off their extra supply or worst case it'd be some psycho chopping people up, but when we scanned the organs to match up the DNA, things got a lot weirder.

"I traced one organ all the way to Tayseri Ward to a Turian who was very adamant that he wasn't missing his liver. Another led me to a former Krogan thug that was more than pissed that I believed he was missing his testicles." He rubbed his forehead with his free hand, "I'd rather not have another conversation like that with a Krogan who thought I was insulting his ability to count to four…"

Jane wanted to check that she really did just hear what she thought she heard, but even her own curiosity couldn't overshadow that this was about Garrus venting his anger and frustration. She was proud to be the one he trusted enough to lay it all out for. Silently, she tightens her grip to let him know to continue when he feels ready.

"I did more digging and found that nearly every organ could be traced back to a living civilian and that all of them had a connection to a Dr. Saleon, a geneticist. Most worked in his lab while others, like the Krogan, claimed to have been paid off for services rendered.

"I knew I couldn't take the word of some Krogan criminal that claimed something was up, so I went to Saleon's lab, hoping to find something solid to back up the claims, but I found nothing, not one thing was out of the ordinary. By that time, I didn't have anything solid against Saleon and I couldn't risk raising any alarms by continuing my search in plain sight of him, so I brought in some of his employees for questioning, to try and find more evidence.

"In the middle of an interrogation, one of the employees starting acting strange when I started to hit too close to home with my questions. He panicked and in his attempts to leave, he started to bleed profusely when we only tried to detain him. We offered to patch him up, offer him some medical assistance before continuing, but he only freaked out more.

"I knew something was up, nothing we did could account for the amount of bleeding he was having, he didn't come in hurt, and his outright refusal to let us treat him was way too obvious that something was going on. I ordered a full examination under the authority that he was a danger to himself and in no condition to deny medical treatment." Garrus shakes his head in disbelief, "The medics found incisions all over the guy and some were even fresh, barely days old."

"It all made sense, a twisted kind of sense, but one all the same. Dr. Saleon was using his employees as test tubes, cloning tissue inside their own bodies, then harvesting them to sell on the Black Market." He clenches his free hand and Jane grips his other in silent assurance. "Every person who agreed to this torture was poor or in desperate need of money, so they said he offered them a percentage of the sales for each organ. Only downside was that he only wanted the good organs, the healthy organs suitable for sell and transplant.

"If an organ didn't grow properly he left in their bodies, to slowly decay and weaken them. All the reports I've gotten from doctors say that they are all fucked up inside, healthy from outward appearances, but dying deep down."

Jane is speechless from the horrors he describes, the possibility that someone could suffer the figurative treatment of being thought of as something less than human, nothing more than an experiment. She now sees why Garrus has been so stressed lately since she's been visiting him, and she feels an anger in her own body building at the fact that he claims Dr. Saleon has gotten away.

Knowing that the answer isn't going to be good, she has to ask him for the rest of his tale because she knows that his rage will do him no good if left to build up inside. "What happened with the doctor and C-Sec?" If he needs to use her to vent, then so be it, she would gladly take that figurative bullet because he has done the same for her with her nightmares.

Garrus bows his head with a growl, his voice reverberating with his pent up anger, "He must have caught wind of his employees being taken in and seen by doctors because he blew his lab, destroying anything that might have given us evidence and took his remaining employees as hostages to the nearest space dock. By the time I found out and rushed to intercept him, he was already on a ship, disengaged from docking, and heading out of the Citadel. He threatened to kill every last one of his hostages if we didn't let him escape but I couldn't just let him get away, not with everything he did.

"I ordered Citadel defense to take his ship down, damn the loss of the hostages, but C-Sec went around me and countermanded my order. They were worried about losing those employees and any civilians should debris from his ship return to the Citadel, but I told them that with what I've seen of his victims, those hostages are dead anyway. C-Sec wouldn't listen, wouldn't do anything to stop him, so I had to sit by and watch that bastard fly away, out of my grasp, to disappear into a nameless maniac who can just do it all over again.," he slams his fist onto the table, but it has less force behind it, as if the telling of it all has drained him.

Jane strokes his hand clasped with hers with her free hand, thinking over how to say the thoughts running through her head. She understands his anger, hell she shares it, and she agrees completely with him, but how does she tell him in a way that doesn't lessen the value of the lives of those who could've died?

A moment passes as the two stare at their joined hands before she draws his attention. "I agree with you, Garrus," he looks to her with a tilt of his head. "Though you weren't asking for my opinion, I think that your call was best for those people. Their lives were taken from them the moment that doctor took them hostage and shooting his ship down wouldn't have made any difference from letting him go. At least then you could've kept him from doing it to more people." She looks into his piercing eyes, "Your call may have been ruthless, but sometimes a small sacrifice is what it takes to accomplish the bigger picture."

Garrus looks into her eyes, searching for something, seeming to ponder if her words are merely to calm him or the truth. "I had figured you would try to convince me that letting him go was the right choice. That sacrificing innocent people would make me no better than him."

"Is that what you want? For me to challenge your judgment call?" Now it is all clear, he is so used to someone on his back demanding that all he does is wrong, that his judgment is flawed, that he doesn't have the confidence to follow his instincts when all is said and done.

He growls and looks away from her, "I know that making that call was the right choice, but looking at it now, would it be better if I had accomplished it or not?"

Jane squeezes his hand, pulling his attention back to her eyes, and she locks gazes with him. She's never seen him so at odds with a decision and it's heartbreaking. She knows what she needs to do to give him back his control, his quick reactions to gut instincts, and she will do whatever it takes to help him see in himself what she sees.

"Garrus," she starts sternly, "You've got the best damn instincts I've ever seen in a person and I've never even seen you on the field. You may be one hard headed and brash bastard, but you know what you're doing." She tugs on him so that they are spun to face each other in their chairs, "Don't you ever doubt your decisions because I would've done the same damn thing." Her voice softens and she drops her head, surprised when his own drops and presses his forehead against her own. "Don't ever change, Vakarian," her voice is barely above a whisper.

Suddenly, Jane finds herself pulled into Garrus' lap with a low growl. She doesn't have time to remark on his speed and remarkable ability to make her feel less like a marine and more like a damsel before he pulls her head to his to press his mouth against her lips with bruising force.

She moans at his intensity, which he gladly takes advantage of by plunging into her warm mouth with his coarse tongue. He has gotten forceful with her before, but this she knows is about the release, the easing of the tension that's built up since his case went ass backwards. He pulls away from her mouth to attack her neck with a growl as a hand forcefully cups her through her clothes and Jane has to admit that something in his urgent need sends hot sparks down her belly.

She tries to reach for the clasps of his armor but she is stopped by the sound of tearing fabric and a rush of hot air against her chest. She gasps at the sudden sensation but doesn't get a chance to catch her breath before Garrus hooks a talon under the center of her bra and tears through the fabric.

"Damn it, Garrus. I need that." She huffs, unable to put up much of a fight when one hand wraps around her back and pulls her closer and his wet tongue circles a hard nipple.

"Then get a new one." His words are barely audible through his deep thrumming and she gasps when he clamps his mouth around one breast, his teeth against her flesh but not breaking the skin. She moans and grinds into him at the sensation of his almost too hot mouth and tongue combined with the idea that he could rip her apart if he wanted to. Probably not best to think about the fact that possible pain gets her worked up.

Garrus works her breast between one hand and his mouth with such force that she's shocked how fast she's started to soak her panties. She's had plenty of quick fucks before in her life, but she's never been so turned on by someone so demanding and dominating as he is now.

Usually, she was always the one to take command and control, almost never allowing another to have the satisfaction of taking her. Here, with him, she wants nothing more than to lay back and take everything he has to give, and the thought of him doing just that has her throwing her head back with a wanton moan.

He reacts strongly to her submission, growling and lifting her up to the table. He stands between her legs and forces her back against the table, all while continuing his assault on her chest and neck. With one hand on her right breast, twisting her nipple just to the brink of pleasure and pain, and his tongue lavishing her neck with a reverberating thrumming, his other hand snakes to the closure of her pants, nearly ripping them open with his talons.

"Garrus," she moans as he legs are bared to the chill apartment air. She vaguely hears the sound of something heavy dropping to the ground before his hands move to her thighs and pull her hips to the edge of the table. She wraps her legs around his waist to rest on the juts of his hips and he rewards her with a low rumble and a rub of his hot sex across her already weeping folds.

She gasps at the ripple of pleasure that shoots up her spine from the mere stimulation of his ridges along her clit, not really having the state of mind to remark on how ready he already is for her.

One of his hands comes to the table beside her head, holding him above her, as his other moves under her butt to raise her hips. She shifts to take him in hand, but he stops her with a growl and a clamp of his jaws around her neck below her chin. Her breath rattles in her throat and she can feel the assuring purr more than hear it as his tongue caresses her skin, but she relents and lets her hands move up his body to take hold of his shoulders.

He growls approvingly, and shifts his hips so that his tip is nestled right amongst her inner folds. She inhales, knowing full well what he plans, before he plunges deep into her with a hard thrust, pulling a deep moan from her.

He is gentle enough with his first plunge that he doesn't force his entire length within her, knowing where to stop before reaching that point of pain, but the intrusion is still sudden and she can't control the responding clinch of her muscles. He releases a moan before pulling back and thrusting against her hard, still stopping himself from going completely in, but adding more of his length with each plunge to widen her.

Eventually his hard thrusts have her open enough to allow him to plunge deep, all the way to his wide base, and he adds a twist of his hips each time their flesh slaps together to brush against her engorged clit. Jane can do nothing more but hold on to him with her legs and arms, clinging to him as he pounds into her relentlessly.

She feels the tightening in her belly that signals the start of her orgasm and she tries to hold it back, trying to hold it off until he starts to show signs of his own closure. He must feel her body's jerky movements because his mouth releases her neck to run his tongue along her neck, from chin to twirl behind her ear. He plunges deep into her and rocks his plates against her clit hard, and that combined with his hot breath against her sweat chilled skin sends her over screaming and digging her blunt nails into the plates and hide of his neck.

She comes down after who knows how long to find that he has released her neck to rest his head against the wood of the table, his heavy, growling pants in her ear, and mandible flicking against her sweat slick skin and hair. His hips rock softly as he rides out her tight clenching on his cock, a low rumble flowing from his chest to hers.

Her sex is sensitive, but seeing him so ready and still so needy has her own body responding in kind, so she moves her hands to his ass and squeezes his dick in time as a silent cue to continue. He moves his hands to the opposite edge of the table, gripping hard and causes his shoulders to rise, and he looks straight into her eyes. His vivid blue eyes, pupils wide with lust and desire, lock onto her own and she feels herself involuntarily tighten at the sight above her.

Without further pause, Garrus starts back up with his brutal pace as if they hadn't stopped. Her breasts bounce with each hard plunge and echo of wet flesh against slick plate. The sounds are obscene, but they only help to urge the two on and soon she's writhing under him, a second orgasm building up. His movements become more stuttered and he shifts to bring one hand to their joining to stroke against her clit in time with his motions, trying to draw out her climax in time with his own.

Like a wave of intense sensations, Jane throws her head back and screams as her second orgasm sweeps through her veins. Lighting sparks through her body from where they are connected and she doesn't have the sense to comprehend him bowing over her with a low moan as he finishes into her, filling her with his fluids.

When she comes down, Garrus is holding himself on his elbows over her flushed body, panting and barely able to hold up his weight. She leans to him, kissing him against his mandible, which he flicks out in an imitation of pressing into the kiss. "Damn Garrus," she smirks when he looks sideways at her, "when you said Turians use sex to ease stress, I had no idea it'd be like that."

He flicks a mandible in a soft smirk, "Not really going to apologize for jumping you."

She wraps her arms around his neck, letting him settle more of his weight against her. "I wouldn't want you to." Then she remembers, "Oh, and you're buying me a new bra. Those things are expensive."

He chuckles, "Ruined clothes come with having a Turian boyfriend, I'm afraid." She smiles at his use of the word and presses her head to his, which he responds with a soft rumble. "Also, I think I might need to replace the table."

Her eyebrows draw down in confusion and he pulls up and out of her, giving his hand in offering to pull her up. When he pulls her to her feet he points to the table, where six gouges are dug deep into the far edge of the table. Three of the gouges on one side trail from the edge and down to midway through the table to stop near where her head was. "Looks like you got a little carried away there, Garrus."

He shrugs dismissively and somehow pulls it off with his armor's codpiece still missing. "I think it adds character."

She snorts at his response while he bends down to grab his discarded armor and she finds that most of her clothes are ruined. She should be miffed at the thought that he ruined a good set of clothes, but it's nice to see him past the doctor situation and she can always go shopping for some more. It isn't like she's spending her money on somewhere to crash when staying at his apartment.

"You know," Garrus walks up to her, and strokes a hand through her sex strewn hair. "I think I'm liking this look on you. You should walk around the apartment naked more often."

That does it, she laughs uncontrollably at the image of herself spending her entire time on the Citadel in the nude. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Garrus. Wouldn't want to cause a scene."

He flicks a mandible, "who would see? We're too high up to actually be seen by passersby or transports and nobody just walks into my apartment but you or me." He tilts his head as he looks down at her, "Plus, Turians don't really have anything against walking around the house naked. It's quite common, actually. I used to do it all the time when I was alone." The image of Garrus walking around the apartment without a scrap of clothing is something she could definitely live with. "And you like that idea…"

"Damn you and your ability to smell arousal," she huffs with mock indignation.

He hums and nuzzles against her sweaty scalp, "I like your smell. It's unique and a bit distracting sometimes."

"Well then," she stalks slowly to the bedroom, throwing him a sultry look over her shoulder, "why don't you teach me a lesson about causing unwanted distractions with my alluring smell."

His response is a low growl of approval and arousal and the sounds of his footfalls and armor dropping to the ground as his makes his way to the bedroom to show her the benefits of Turian stamina.