~Garrus~
"You know we still have to keep our relationship a secret, don't you?"
Garrus is pulled from his mindless stroking through Jane's red locks at her question and he takes a bit to replay her statement before properly answering. "I'm fine with people not knowing." He shrugs softly so he doesn't disturb the woman resting along his chest on the couch. "I know and you know, so that's all that really matters to me."
"No one would really approve anyways," she quietly says, a sad tone to her voice. "Is this unfair to do to each other?" She shifts a bit to look up to his eyes. "Is it fair to make each other constantly keep this a secret for fear of what our people would think?"
The look of pained fear in her eyes makes his chest hurt in sympathy and he strokes a thumb along her cheek. "Do you not want this?" He dreads the answer should it turn out that her earlier confession this afternoon was only a sudden answer that she no longer agrees with after thinking about it.
"No, no, no," she says quickly, a look of panic in her eyes, as she sits up and turns in his arms. She takes his face in her hands and looks deeply into his eyes with her emerald orbs. "I want this with you and fuck anyone else… but I want to make sure I'm not being unfair to you to make you settle with me. I mean, I'm not a Turian, Garrus. You can't tell your family about me, you can't let your work know about me…" She drops her head in defeat and her next words are almost inaudible. "I can't give you children."
His chest rumbles in pain at her words. "I didn't think you thought about something like that." He lifts her head by her chin to see her wet eyes and downturned eyebrows.
"I only ever considered it once everything set in." She smiles weakly and his chest tightens at the obviousness of its lie. "Now that I have had a chance to let this," she holds her left hand, ring fingered now adorned with his bonding gift, up and between their faces, "sink in, I know all the things that we will have to do and will miss out on because we are so different."
A soft keen echoes in his chest as he mirrors her hold and softly holds her gaze. "Jane, I don't care how secretive we have to be in public. I love you." His mandible quivers and he hums sadly. "I'm sorry that I will never be able to give you a family."
A tortured laugh escapes her lips and he inwardly cringes at the sound. "You can give some woman a family, Garrus. I can't give anyone a family, I can't conceive."
"What do you mean?" His voice is weak in confusion.
"Come on, Garrus. My mother did drugs when I was in the womb." She shrugs in self-dismissal. "I was born without the ability to have babies." She laughs that pained laugh again. "Figures I'd have periods without any of the benefits."
Garrus pulls her towards him, a purr of comfort and love emanating from his chest, and presses his forehead to hers. "I love you still, Jane. I know what I want and it's you." He rubs against her, his plates against her soft skin. "Whatever your heart decides I will always be here for you in any way I can, however you will have me."
"My heart wants you, Garrus." Her soft hands caress each mandible. "My heart has wanted you since I met you but I just never understood. I've never loved anything or anyone more than I love you."
Together, Garrus gently coaxes her closer as Jane moves to climb close, her legs straddling him to curl around his back. Garrus pulls her to him, his warm lip plates pressing softly against her lips, nipping softly in his own version of a pucker.
Jane opens her mouth and they both seem to have the same idea as Garrus' tongue comes in contact with her tongue as it darts past her lips. He softly purrs, promising devotion in words she doesn't know, as he caresses her tongue and willing lets her either push into his mouth or coax him back into hers.
After a moment of wordlessly pouring their hearts out to each other, Jane pulls away and lays slow kisses up his right mandible before returning to look at him, a genuine curve of happiness on her lips. She sighs and leans in to tight hug him, pressing at close as their bodies will allow as her arms wrap firmly around his neck.
He holds her just as firmly, one hand at her back and the other holding her head to the crook of his neck to feel her breath against his sensitive hide, and he realizes that she must have understood his harmonics without knowing the exact translation.
"I wish we could find somewhere to legally marry us without a fuss." She whispers into his neck and he hums in agreement. "I wish the Citadel was Las Vegas." He grunts in confusion and she pulls back with a soft smile on her lips. "Las Vegas has chapels where you can just go in and get legally married on a moment's notice. No need for fancy theatrics, just a witness, bride and groom, and official, but that's already covered." She huffs and her shoulders droop. "I just wish the Citadel had something like that, but I don't even know if that would work. I don't even know how Turians go about getting a marriage license or if it's private."
He chuckles and tilts his head. Clearly she doesn't know the Heirarchy. "Licenses are pretty much the same thing as you, we find an official and have it filled out. As for privacy, the Hierarchy doesn't delve into that sort of thing. What someone does when off duty isn't of any importance so long as it doesn't interfere with your work." He pushes a lock of her hair behind her ear. "Besides, I'm not a high enough tier for anyone to really care who I bond with, even if it's none of their business. What about the Alliance? Would they look at your records?"
She shakes her head, tossing her hair back out in front of her eyes and he chuckles as she places it back. "Humans have privacy laws. If I don't get married under an Alliance official then no one knows."
He hums in satisfaction at the thought and starts to quickly think of if the Citadel does have a place like she described. He suddenly remembers a place he was once called out to for a drunk and disorderly call. Despite that one incidence, which didn't really involve the place but the bar down the way, the place was in a quiet part of the Wards and so he cups Jane's cheek, grabbing her attention to tell her of his idea.
"Jane," he softly says, his subvocals warmly thrumming. "The Citadel does have a place like what you described."
"Really?!" She gasps and raises one hand to her mouth, a cute picture that makes her look much younger, and he smiles.
"Do you want to go?" He's pretty sure he knows the answer just because of her reaction but there's no harm in actually making her say it, a guilty pleasure he admits but he can't be blamed for finding joy in hearing her say it.
"Of course, what makes you think I'd say no?" She gives him a quick kiss right in the center of his brow plates. "What do we need to do? Do you know?"
He shifts to pull up his Omni-Tool, calling up the information on the establishment he remembers. He quickly glances over the extranet page for the business, a place called Castle of Love – ridiculous name – and takes note of the requirements for a wedding ceremony.
Quickly closing the interface once he has all he needs to know he looks up to Jane's hopefully eyes, wide in excitement, and purrs happily. "All we need that we don't already have is a witness, but I know just the person." Plus he owes me a favor.
"And clothes. We are not getting married in jeans and casuals." She plucks at Garrus' shirt with a chuckle.
"If you insist." He huffs in mock insult, but drops the act with a chuckle at her smack of lips and light swat. "Let me send off a ping to see if our witness is available and then we can both go out and find something." She nods and waits as he send off a quick message, smiling internally at his friend's possible reaction.
"Is this witness someone I would know?" Her eyes are innocently curious when he looks up, waiting for a response.
"Not personally, but yeah." He relaxes back in the couch. "Remember Detective Chellick?"
Her brows shoot up. "Won't he tell your dad?"
He chuckles. "Not if he wants to keep his own secrets secret." He doesn't really elaborate, wouldn't want to go back on his word if he expects the detective to help him. "Plus I helped take a few of his cases so he could take time off, so he owes me the little bit of his time that it'll take for us to get married."
She gives him a knowing smirk but he only responds with a flick of a mandible as his Tool chimes in an incoming message. He pulls it up as Jane opens up her own Omni-Tool to look at something.
"What kind of favor are you asking?" He reads Chellick's response, knowing the older Turian is most likely buzzing with suspicion.
"Just need you to be a witness for my wedding." He smirks, knowing full well the reaction he'll get.
"What?!" He laughs at the expected answer. Before he can properly explain he gets another message. "Aren't weddings a human thing?"
He chuckles, knowing full well that Chellick is already putting the pieces together, he's not a good detective because of dumb luck. "I already told you about her, remember?"
"I guess I should say it's about time… So I'm also assuming you'd want help legally filing this too?"
Garrus inwardly cringes at that little bit of information he missed. He completely forgot that technically their license would go through a branch of C-Sec as it gets sent to their respective governments and the last thing he wants is someone who knows his father to see it and spread the word.
He scolds himself for not thinking about how many connections his dad has from his long career, but he hopes that Chellick's offer must mean that he has a way around the little obstacle.
"Are you able to do that? Don't offer if you can't."
"I may not have as many connections as your father, but I do have someone who can properly transfer your files without him catching wind of it."
Garrus sighs in relief and silently thanks Jane for forcing him into initially playing nice with the older detective. With a quick glance to assure that she's still immersed in her Tool, he sends out his reply. "If you could play as witness and do that, we would be more than even. I'd owe you but I'm completely fine with it."
"Don't mention it, Garrus. Send me the location and time and I'll see you there… and congratulations."
Garrus closes his interface with a smile and looks up to Jane scrolling through her Tool, her brow furrowed in concentration. He touches her forearm softly and she snaps up to him, a split second of confusion from being pulled from her concentration before a smile pulls at her lips. "Got our witness taken care of?" she jokes.
He chuckles and nods as she closes her Omni-Tool, freely giving her his hand when she reaches out and locks his fingers with hers in the way that has become more familiar to him than he would ever imagine. "Chellick will be there. Now for you to find something to wear." He smirks at her scowl, not intimidated in the least to stop his goading. "How long are you going to need?"
"It's not just me, you jerk." She drops her scowl to a light lipped smile when he rumbles good-naturedly. "I think two hours is good. I mean how long would we need to find something, put it on, get fancied up, and arrive at the chapel?"
She snorts at his confused shrug and leans down to give him a quick kiss and rub her forehead with his. "I guess we should probably go do that then." He hums in agreement, but remains pressed against her head.
"You need to stop holding me back, Garrus. I have a dress to go look for." Her words are a stark contrast to her insistent pressure against his plates and as much as he would love to stay here, wrapped up in her, he also wants to legally become this beautiful woman's husband and bondmate.
"Come on, Jane." He lightly pushes her up and she reluctantly moves off of him. "I would like nothing more than to stay here with you, but I'd much rather do it with you as my wife and mate."
She smiles and nods in agreement before moving to her shoes. He does the same and before long they are both ready to head out in their own separate directions in search for something to wear when they are legally joined and officially start their life together.
~SquigglySquid says: Yes, I know this is a lot of chapters for this one event but I figured since it is the whole premise of the story that it deserves the extra time. Plus, the wedding will mark the end of part one and beginning of ME1.