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(Updated 1/1/12)
"Arrival at Fero's in 20 minutes, Commander," Joker crackled over the speakers.
The elevator doors didn't even have to open for him to know she was coming. Her scent traveled much faster than her. The citrus of her hair mixed with the earthy musk of her skin.
"Chief Williams, Vakarian" she called from the open elevator doors.
"Skipper," Williams called back.
"Commander," he replied at the same time.
"Suit up, ladies, we have things to shoot," she said, closing the elevator doors and heading back up.
Garrus smiled to himself as he started stepping into his armor. It had only been a few weeks but they had already settled into a nice rhythm of playfully jabbing each other. None of that would have ever flown on a turian vessel. Not with the Commanding Officer, anyway. Even with that, though, he was surprised that he was tagging along on their first big mission. She had taken him and the krogan and Tali'Zorah out on a few rescue missions before this, but Garrus just thought that was to see what they could all really do in a combat situation, or to make them feel useful on an Alliance vessel.
Perhaps the aliens on the crew weren't just a public relations stunt like he had originally thought. Maybe, just maybe, she actually wanted them there.
Apparently the young Gunnery Chief was just as surprised Garrus got invited to go, as she was glaring at him while she clasped her armor together. Suffice it to say it was an awkward elevator ride.
"What the hell was that?" Garrus asked, covered in some kind of green glop from shooting one of the converted colonists.
"The Thorian has turned them into some sort of zombies?" Williams said.
"I suppose it could be worse," Shepard said, shaking the goop off one of her boots.
"And how's that?"
"I don't know. I suppose they could have guns?"
Garrus laughed as they opened the hangar door, just to get shot at by some mind-controlled colonists, making them dive behind cover.
"You just had to open your mouth didn't you, Commander?" Garrus teased.
"Well I can't just stand around being pretty," she said as she fired off a stream of bullets into the creatures. "Careful," she said as they hid from the gunfire. "Don't hurt the colonists."
"This is a little more important that a few colonists, Commander. We need to hurry and take out that Thorian," Williams protested. Regardless that Garrus agreed with her, he was shocked that she spoke out against a direct order.
"Your opinion has been noted and just as quickly disregarded, Chief. You shoot the colonists and I leave you here."
"Aye, Aye, Skipper," she said moving in, but not happy.
"Vakarian; Williams and I will take care of the creepers, I need you to keep pressure on the colonists so they stay in cover. I don't want them getting any of that acid spit on them."
"Affirmative," he said, firing at the wall just behind the colonists, making them duck behind the crates. It was a lot of extra effort for a few colonists, but he had the feeling she wouldn't budge on it. It was one of the first things she said to him, about taking shots at innocent civilians.
"This..." Garrus said as the three of them stood there, aghast, staring at the giant Thorian. "Was not covered by my C-sec training."
"That does not look like any plant I've ever seen," Shepard said, staring up at the horrendous thing. "This may be... Problematic."
Taking out the Thorian proved difficult, every time they would shoot one of its tendrils, a wave of creepers would crash on them. Williams had moved in too fast, thinking she could get them all, but didn't see the one closing from behind her. Just as it started to spray acid onto her armor, Garrus took it down. She was burned pretty bad on her neck, but not nearly as bad as it would have been if Garrus hadn't shot it in the gullet in time. She was grateful, but you wouldn't know it by looking at her.
The colonists all thanked Shepard for knocking them out instead of shooting them, after the Thorian was destroyed. Even the asari that had been sacrificed was grateful. Shepard kept them back longer to help get the colony back on track, getting the water and power cells back, helping get the food supplies going again, taking out the rest of the geth so they could rebuild. The colonists were all rejoicing when they returned. The merchant there offered them anything in his stock as thanks.
"I'm good," she said, thanking him. "But if you've got a rifle in there worth a damn that doesn't overheat after every shot I know a turian who pops his heat sink too fast," she taunted, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at Garrus.
"You swore you would never tell anyone about that," Garrus said. "You said it happens to lots of snipers."
The two of them snickered and he nudged the Commander in the shoulder with the butt of his rifle.
The salarian merchant obviously did not catch on, but did have a superior rifle for the turian.
Garrus was surprised how quickly their friendship manifested. She was impossible not to get along with. Funny, powerful, full of life and energy. Garrus never had a lot of friends, never really had the time or the patience. But her patience seemed endless. Every day she rounded the ship and checked in on everyone from the engineers to the pilot. The humans on the ship all seemed to revere her, save the pilot who always had something snarky to say. The rest seemed in awe of her every time she spoke to them. He understood the sentiment, but she had paid him the compliment of talking to him like he was any other crew member, so he gave her the same courtesy.
She seemed to have longer conversations with the aliens aboard than the rest of the crew. Asking questions about the past, present, future. She actually seemed to care, like she wanted to get to know them better. He actually caught the quarian and her sitting in the mess hall together, laughing like sisters. And, though the krogan was a man of few words she would goad him into conversations on the other side of the deck.
"Shepard," Wrex would say by way of greeting.
"Wrex," she'd say in reply, crossing her arms.
And it would go on like that until the krogan would finally crack and have a conversation with her. She couldn't have been hard pressed for friends, but still every day she made the effort. She was nothing but respectful to everyone until they were out of line. She was unlike any Commander he'd ever known.
He decided he definitely liked her.
"I'm concerned about all the aliens aboard the ship," Williams addressed, for something like the hundredth time one night. She had said it louder than she needed to, obviously unaware of Garrus' superior hearing, wanting to make sure he heard it.
"This again, Williams? Really? This is what you had to talk to me about?" Shepard rubbed her eyes with one hand, putting the other on her hip. It was like every time the girl thought of a new reason not to trust the aliens aboard, she had to bring it up. Shepard was really getting tired of it.
"Commander, this is the most advanced ship in the Alliance fleet, do you really think-"
"Ah ah" Shepard interrupted, wagging a finger. "This is a Council vessel now, Williams. So it's the most advanced ship in Council space. And do you know wwwwhhhhyyy it's the most advanced?"
Garrus couldn't help but laugh softly at the patronizing tone she had taken. Like she was talking to a school child.
"N-No ma'am?"
"Because the turians helped us build it. That's why. Both our technologies, mingling together. You gotta let this go. We are stronger as one whole rather than alone. And whatever your personal feelings on the matter, they are staying. So build bridges, catch more flies with honey, yadda yadda yadda." That whole last part about bridges and honey was lost on Garrus.
"Still. This is still an Alliance crew. There are Alliance secrets to be had here. There are-"
"Enough!" she said coldly, a severity overtaking her tone. "I have had enough with your rampant xenophobia, you have made me fully aware of it every chance you've gotten. It has been noted, cataloged, and filed away in the 'Problems-Ashley-Has-With-The-Aliens' folder." She sighed, tired of the conversation. "You're a great soldier, Williams, but you are turning out to be a really crappy person."
"Commander, I didn't mean any offense."
"Yes you did. You just didn't mean to offend me. But guess what? Those aliens, you're so afraid of are my crew. All of them. The quarian, the turian, and the talking battleship over there. And if I recall, Vakarian saved your skinny ass on Feros. They deserve your respect, and while I will not demand that you like them, I will demand that you keep it to yourself if you don't. If you have a problem with them, you have a problem with me. Are we clear?"
"I.."
"Are we clear?" she asked again.
"Crystal, Skipper."
"Dismissed, Chief," she said exhaling. The Gunnery Chief saluted respectfully, then stormed off.
Shepard waited until Williams was in her quarters before exhaling a large breath and rolling her neck in frustration, making her way back to the elevator passed where Garrus was working. "I see you're still hard at work," she said to him.
"Right, well, someone had to watch the show," he said, his mandibles clicking happily.
"You heard all of that?"
"Aye, Commander."
"Ugh," she pulled on the back of her neck with her hands. "I swear to god, Vakarian I'm like a god damn baby sitter. Williams is afraid of aliens, Kaiden follows me everywhere I go, Wrex wants to eat or break everything, Joker keeps trying to get the Chief and I to make out, Tali talks so fast about engines and turbines I can hardly understand her, and all the women on the crew giggle and chatter like idiots over the Lieutenant and fail to get the hint that I don't give a good god damn who gets in their pants as long as I don't have to hear about it! When I was a child I didn't dream about commanding a starship manned by children!" She ended the rant with a groan, then taking a deep breath. Garrus just listened, endlessly entertained.
"Feel better?" he offered with a grin.
"Yes. Much," she said smiling.
"Did you get it all out?"
"Yeah I think I pretty much covered it. And don't look so smug, the women on the ship all seem to be equally infatuated with you and your 'cold killing machine' persona you have going on."
"What can I say," he said, his eyes filled with laughter, crossing his arms. "There's not much I can do about being irresistible cross-species." She laughed, and rubbed her eyes again.
"Sometimes I feel like you're the only one on the Normandy I can have an actual normal conversation with," she said, holding her eyes on him as if weighing a thought. She could definitely see what made all the girls on the ship go wobbly kneed over the turian; His cool stare, his cold confidence. But Shepard was just glad to have a friend. Someone she could talk to about nothing. "What are the turian military rules on fraternization, Vakarian?"
"Commander?" he asked, hoping she would clarify but she didn't. Garrus was almost disappointed. He knew that the majority of the human women on the ship sought his attentions, but he thought the Commander was better than that. And he liked her, he didn't want to have to turn her down too. "Depends on the officers, really," he said, clearing his throat. "Though superior to subordinate is usually off limits."
"Soooooo you can't come have a drink with me in the mess?" she asked, still with the same heir of confidence, but obviously hoping she wasn't offending him or crossing a boundary. Garrus was relieved that was all she had meant.
"Well," he said wiping the oil off his gloved hands with a rag. "We're not on a turian vessel, now are we?"
"That's what I'm talking about," she said as she manipulated the intercom on the wall. "Tali," she said into it. "Get your helmet out of the Drive Core and meet in the Mess on the double."
"What? Uh... y-yes, Commander. Right away," came her voice meekly back.
"Wrex," she called out, but even she could hear his snoring from there. "Ah, hell. Leave him."
The three of them sat in the, now long abandoned, Mess Hall. Garrus and Tali sharing a bottle of dextro fruit liquor, Shephard soloing a bottle of god-knows-what-kind-of-horrible-smelling-liquid. They all laughed together as Tali told a story of almost accidentally hiring a prostitute on the Citadel.
"So there I am," she said between laughing breaths. "Trying to explain to the asari that 'getting under' my suit would literally kill me, not figuratively, but she didn't actually get the point until I started explaining, step by step, how my allergic reaction would occur."
"God damn," Shepard said, tears forming in her eyes. "Your people may prepare you physically for life outside the fleet, but nothing can really prepare you for the seedy side of people."
"What about you, Shepard?" Tali asked. "You always ask me about my life on the Flotilla and my pilgrimage, but it's been five weeks now and you haven't told me anything about your life before the Alliance."
Garrus thought for a moment. It was true for him too. He had talked to her about his potential specter training, why he joined C-sec, life on Palaven. But, besides what he already knew about her through her files, he was surprised to realize just how little he actually knew.
"What do you want to know?" she asked before taking another drink.
"What did you do before you enlisted?"
"Survived, mostly," she said, obviously not wanting to elaborate any further, but Tali's eyes were bright with curiosity under her mask. Shepard really did like the girl, when she wasn't going off on some Drive Core tangent or another. And they had both been kind enough to share their pasts with her, so it was selfish of her to avoid doing the same. "I grew up on Earth. New York City, actually. It's a big metropolis with tall buildings everywhere, not a lot of grass or nature of any kind that hasn't been put there on purpose. I spent most of my time in libraries, reading. They were just about the only places where you didn't have to pay to go in, and it would protect you from the rain and the street crime."
"Didn't you have any family?" Tali asked. Shepard could tell that Tali was regretting following this line of inquiry, so she tried to stay as upbeat as possible.
"I, uh," she cleared her throat and raised her tone a little to seem light-hearted. "No, I didn't. At least as far as I know. I don't remember anything before the orphanage. And there wasn't enough room for all the kids in there so I eventually left, leaving my bunk to someone else who could use it." When she looked up at Tali again she could tell that the story saddened her. "Oh, don't give me that look. It really wasn't all that bad. The librarians were always very nice to me, let me stay in there as long as I wanted, some of them who I knew better let me sleep in there from time to time, even brought me breakfast in the morning, when the weather was really rough. And I got to read everything. I read about deep space and the colonies out there, the relays, the other races. At the time our knowledge on the other species was pretty limited but I absorbed as much as I could. And as soon as I was able, I joined the military."
"Impressive," Garrus rumbled. "I heard life back on Earth is pretty rough. Rougher than on Palaven, anyway, if you can stand the radiation."
"Back on the Flotilla we are told from a very young age of the crime on the streets of the other planets, and how we should feel lucky to be somewhere so safe."
"Yeah well, New York was always kind of a crime ridden place. A few hundred years ago New York was the arrival point for everyone who wanted in on the new country on my planet. So it became a crime hub really fast."
"How did you avoid getting hurt? Or killed?" Tali asked.
"Like I said I stuck close to the libraries, got my ass kicked from time to time, sure, but nothing I couldn't handle. You know what they say, 'whatever doesn't kill ya.." she laughed a little. Seemingly totally at ease with talking about, what Garrus thought, had to be a painful time in her life.
"Whatever doesn't kill you, what?" Tali asked, obviously never having heard the saying.
"Makes you stronger," Garrus helped. "It's a human saying."
"Oh, I see," Tali said.
"Why do you look so sad?" Shepard asked.
"What makes you think I'm sad?"
"I dunno... your helmet is pouting."
"My helmet?" she asked. Garrus laughed. "Well I uh, it just sounds like a sad way to grow up. Moving from place to place. Not having anyone to teach you about life or protect you."
"The streets teach you about life really fast. I probably learned the lessons better than if some loving parents tried to teach them to me." Tali and Garrus both looked at her half shocked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's the better course of action. Just the fastest. That's why I always hound your ass, Vakarian. About doing it the right way. Not just the fast way."
"I..." He drew the word out while he thought. "See your point, Commander," he said. There was silence in the room before the Commander chirped up again.
"Sure, I learned the lessons fast. When your survival depends on it, you adapt or you die. Would I have rather been taught slowly? Would I have rather had my father teach me right from wrong and force his ideals on me? Sure. But I didn't, and I quite like the person I am now, and I couldn't have been her, without my past guiding me there."
"There really isn't anything that can get you down, is there Shepard?" Tali finally said.
"Once you're down, you have to climb your way back up. It's easier if you just stay up to begin with." She winked at the quarian.
"What I want to know is," Garrus interrupted, before even really knowing what he was going to ask, but wanting to lighten the mood. "How in the hell did you hold off the Skyllian Blitz on Elysium?" He already knew, of course, but when the Commander's eyes lit up and she started telling the story, animating her hands as she spoke, he knew he had made the right call.
Tali, with her poor immune system, and zero tolerance, had gotten drunk a lot faster than the other two, and Garrus laughed watching the Commander carry the drunken quarian over her shoulder to her quarters.
"Shepard have I ever told you how pretty I think you are?" the drunken girl rambled.
"Yes, Tali, about fifteen times, now."
"Cuz I really think you're very pretty, Commander. I'm so gad I'm on this ship, with you and your humans. And that giant Drive Core. Have I ever told you how much I like your Drive Core?"
"Yes, Tali."
Garrus lay awake in his bunk that night, a foot hanging off the bed. Shepard was an orphan. It made perfect sense now. He had been talking to her about his father, the ridiculous demands, how he talked Garrus out of joining the specters, how furious he was at his fathers endless rules. How it felt good to tell him he was temporarily leaving C-sec to join a specter hunting Saren. Her words echoed in his head now.
He must love you very much, to want to be proud of you so badly, she had said.
"I suppose," Garrus said. "Though it doesn't feel like it sometimes."
Trust me, she had said. If he didn't love you, you would know it.
She had known all along that her parents hadn't loved her. Left to fend for herself in the streets of some crime ridden metropolis. Her words haunted him the rest of the night. He didn't realize how hard he had been clenching his fists until they started aching.