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Garrus, Jacob, and Shepard shopped around the Citadel for a while, finding food provisions for the cook, getting some schematics for weaponry, the usual. When Shepard finally started getting recognized by the store owners, they didn't hesitate to ask her for an endorsement for their store if they would give her a discount, which she did happily.
"I don't get it," Garrus said, fondling his new scope. "How can they all be your favorite store on the Citadel?"
"Just don't ask questions and enjoy your new toy," she said back at him.
"Yes ma'am," he almost cheered.
A familiar voice called to them from behind, and Shepard's fists clenched subconsciously when she recognized the woman.
"Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani: Westerlund News," the woman said, holding out her hand.
Garrus started growling.
"I know who you are," Shepard said, leaning back into her hip.
"I was hoping to get an interview with you before you left again. Your story is due since you've come back."
"You tried to make my last interview a smear campaign, and you exposed my very private past to the entire galaxy. What makes you think I would be civil?"
"Because you're always civil, Shepard. You are the pinnacle of goodness!"
"I don't always travel in civil company," she said as Garrus walked up on her. Shepard caught him by the elbow and pulled him back. "Don't make a scene, love."
"What, you're civil so she goes unpunished?"Garrus snapped.
"Violence isn't going to make her a good person."
"It would sure make me feel better," he said.
The reporter cleared her throat nervously before making the camera light flash on, illuminating Shepard's skin as she stared confidently into it.
"Sources claim you were at the heart of the Presidium during the Battle of the Citadel."
"I was."
"Is it fair to say that the course of the battle hinged on your words?"
"It is."
"So you told Admiral Hackett to assist the Destiny Ascension, costing hundreds of human lives, and securing the continued dominance of the Citadel Council?"
"That's just like you. To concentrate on the human cost as if it's the most important. Turning me into the villain because I don't think a human life is more valuable than an asari's or a batarians. The Ascension, the dreadnought with the Council on it, had a crew of nearly 10,000. People... Not humans... but lives." She exhaled through her nose. "You don't want to talk about lives saved though, you want to talk about lives lost. Fine. The turian's lost more than twice the amount we did. They lost twenty cruisers. Twenty. Figure each had a crew of about three hundred."
"But... the human cost-"
"The Alliance lost eight cruisers. Shenyang, Emden, Jakarta, Cairo, Seoul, Cape Town, Warsaw, Madrid. And yes, I remember every single one. Everyone in that fleet, including the other races who lost their lives, are heroes. Their military owes them all medals. The Council owe them a lot more than that." She exhaled another angry breath. "They deserve better than you." She said before turning and leaving.
After they walked away, Jacob very promptly requested a fist bump, which Shepard gladly gave him.
"Damn, Shepard... That was hot!" Jacob whooped as they made their way across the wards. She laughed.
"Sorry you didn't get to punch her, Garrus," she said.
"If I would have punched her she would have been a lot better off," Garrus said laughing. "She's probably wishing I had."
They were still on the Citadel when Thane received the message about his son potentially following in his footsteps. Shepard didn't have any children, or family for that matter, so she wasn't about to judge whether or not it was actually important. It was important to Thane, and because of that they went. It didn't seem like something they were going to need a lot of firepower for, but as a general rule she brought Garrus along anyway. Plus, Shepard knew how little Garrus trusted the drell, so asking him to stay behind would have caused some sort of ruckus. Shepard certainly wasn't looking to waste time on a sniper-contest or some other damn thing.
They spoke to the C-sec supervisor that had helped them find Fade, and he had some information on a duct rat named "Mouse".
"Got pinched for selling illegal VI personalities. Was selling one of you after your ship got blown to pieces."
"Me?" Shepard asked pointing to herself.
"Yeah it would say something like 'I delete data like you on the way to real errors'."
Garrus tried to stifle his laughter, he really did, he just failed.
"Yeah, laugh it up, Garrus."
Shepard thanked Bailey and headed out to find this Mouse.
"You didn't tell him that Kolyat plans to assassinate someone," Thane said curiously after getting out of ear shot.
"Yeah, I also didn't tell him what youdo for a living. You in the habit of telling cops that you're an assassin?"
"I see your point... Thank you, Shepard."
She patted his shoulder.
"Hey," she said. "You're part of my crew now. Your family is my family."
Garrus cleared his throat uncomfortably.
Mouse was rather helpful, though the realization that Thane had been closer to this invisible kid than he had been with his own son was troubling. She guessed it was hard to make the jump from assassin to loving father.
"Elias Kelham," Garrus grumbled. "I've heard of him. Had a few C-sec agents on the payroll back when I was working. Bad news, Shepard. Usually pretty well protected. Might give us some trouble."
"Oh good," Shepard said as they made their way back to C-Sec. "I was starting to think this was going to be too easy."
They found out that Kelham still had his wallet on the agents at C-Sec. Bailey included. Shepard promised not to cause him any trouble if she could help it, and Garrus agreed to stay outside and help stall his lawyer until they could get some answers.
"Who the hell are you two?" the criminal asked, pulling against his restraints on the chair. "Where's my advocate? This is bullshit."
Shepard and Thane shared a glance and she winked at him before they circled the culprit.
"My name is Shepard," she said. "I'm a Specter."
"Commander Shepard? Bullshit. Prove it," Kelham demanded.
She drew her gun from her hip and held it idly in her hand, doing her best to imitate her endorsement voice.
"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite way to kill the man who doesn't answer my fucking questions!" She shouted, shoving the barrel of her pistol into the man's throat.
Shepard thought Kelham was going to hear Garrus laughing through her ear piece he was laughing so hard. Even Thane had to turn away to hide a smile.
"All right, all right, I get it!" Kelham whined.
"Good. Now, fortunately, I'm not after you. You contracted an assassin. Who's the target?"
"Joram Talid. A turian in the 800 blocks running for office."
"Thanks," she said condescendingly. "You won't see us again. No offense, but you're a problem below my pay grade."
They left the room together to find a still laughing Garrus.
"That may go down in history as the shortest interrogation ever," Thane complimented.
"You mean the best interrogation ever," Garrus said between laughs, trying to catch his breath. "Ah, damn. My face hurts."
"Alright," Shepard said as they made a plan. "Thane and I will advance on the bridge together to try and find Kolyat. Garrus, you stay with Bailey and bring in C-Sec if the shit hits the fan."
"Do you, ah… Think that's the safest course of action, Commander?" Garrus asked.
She put a hand on his shoulder. "Trust me, Garrus. It's gonna work out."
Garrus exhaled through his nose and nodded. He knew better than to fight her on it. And even as far as they had come as friends, he still respected her too much as a Commanding Officer to challenge her in public.
He did as he was told, making his way to his position with Bailey to wait for them to give them a location. Waiting. Garrus hated waiting. This is why stealth missions were stupid. So much time wasted when they could just find out what they needed to know the good old fashioned way; finding someone who knew more than them and questioning them. And by 'questioning', he meant 'pulling out their femur and beating them with it'.
"Where will you be?" He heard Shepard say through his ear piece.
"The darkest corner with the best view," Thane replied.
"The darkest corner with the best view," Garrus parroted to himself. He sighed, ticking his talons on the desk anxiously as he listened to the back and forth between his squad mates.
"I can't get a good angle. Where is he?" Thane asked.
"Do you have eyes on me?"
"Of course, Shepard."
"He's at my three o'clock."
"Pffft," Garrus said to himself. He bunched his hands into fists. This drell was incorrigible. Battle-field flirting when he should be worrying about his son?
Spirits, he was cranky. It wasn't like him to get so easily irritated. Maybe it was the boredom putting him on edge, making him look into it too much. The drell hadn't really said anything that flirtatious had he?
"Kolyat!" Shepard shouted, shaking Garrus from his thoughts.
He heard gunshots in his earpiece and stood, his instincts telling him to move, but not having a direction to aim them in.
"Thane," Shepard called.
"I saw," Thane replied.
"Garrus, he's heading into Talid's apartment. Bring back up."
"Affirmative," Garrus said, waving Bailey over.
Shepard felt bad for pointing her gun at the kid, he'd obviously never done anything this stupid before and was unsure how to react. But he was afraid, and Shepard knew how dangerous that can be when someone has a gun.
"This... this is a joke. Now you show up?" Kolyat said.
"Just put the gun down, kid," Garrus said from the door as he entered with Bailey. Shepard noted how fast they had gotten there. Perhaps C-sec's reaction time was a lot quicker now a days.
"Get out of my way, I'm walking out of here and he's coming with me," Kolyat threatened.
"They'll have snipers outside," Thane said, trying to reason with him. Shepard thought he was doing a crappy job of being comforting. This obviously wasn't something Thane was very good at, logic brain that he was.
"I don't need your help," he protested. "All of you, back off."
Thane did as his son said, obviously unsure of what to do.
"I'll do it," Kolyat threatened. "I'll kill him."
"Oh hell," Shepard said, not amused, "I'll kill him." And without a second thought she shot the turian. He made a gargling noise and crumpled to the floor. "Hostages only work if your enemies care if they live," she said.
"Oh my gods," the kid wailed, the gravity of the situation finally settling in.
"Yeah that's what a dead body looks like, you're obviously not prepared to create them, so stop acting so tough."
"What the hell, Shepard?" Garrus shouted, aghast.
"Interesting solution," Thane said.
"What?" she said as if nothing was wrong. "You said you didn't want Kolyat taking a man's life. Problem solved. Now we can move on."
"I don't dispute the logic, just the morality."
"What do you care?" Kolyat shouted. "I know what you are!"
Minutes later, Garrus was still staring at Shepard, wildly confused. She noticed it out of the corner of her eye as Thane and Kolyat were escorted out of the room.
"Oh come on, Garrus. Do you smell blood?" She taunted before lifting her pistol to shoot at him to prove her point. Garrus flinched, but his shields didn't even fizzle. She had concussive rounds in her gun.
He laughed as he relaxed.
"I have to admit you had me there. Spirits, I thought you just killed that guy."
"That doesn't sound like me," she said.
"This coming from the woman who just last night gave me a lecture on not caring about the civilians?"
She laughed.
Garrus sat with Tali and a few others in the mess when he heard Thane and Shepard coming out of Life Support. No doubt she had been checking how he was feeling after the ordeal with his son. He still didn't like the drell much, but Shepard had seemed to warm up to him, and while that was strangely irritating, he trusted her judgment.
"Thane, you want some tea?" Shepard asked as she headed to the kitchen.
"I would, thank you, Shepard," he said as he took a seat across from Garrus.
She tossed him a tea packet which, of course, he caught without looking.
Shepard took the seat at the head of the table between Garrus and Thane, bringing her two mugs of hot water with her, sliding one to the drell. He nodded to her in thanks.
The crews laughter turned raucous regardless that the drell stayed mostly silent, though seemed to enjoy himself just fine. Garrus caught his eyes lingering on Shepard a few times as she spoke and he couldn't figure out why it got under his skin so easily.
Unhappy with the drell's silence, Gabby tried to induce Thane into a conversation that ultimately lead to him telling them the story of how he had met Irikah, his wife. The men in the crew quickly started filtering out of the Mess. Tali, Kelly, Kasumi and Gabby were glued to their seats, sighing.
"That's so romantic," Kelly said, holding her chin on her hands. "She's a lucky lady."
"On the contrary," Thane said, looking down into his tea. "It was I who was blessed."
A general consensus of "awwwwe" went through the girls, not Shepard though. Garrus realized he must have already told her this story on one of her trips into his quarters.
"Where's your wife now?" Garrus asked, curious why he was so interested in Shepard if he was already spoken for.
Garrus saw Shepard wince, and suddenly regretted asking.
"She ah... She is no longer with us."
Gasps from the girls as they covered their mouths and/or helmet.
"What happened?" Gabby asked.
"I don't think that's any of your business," Shepard said as she set her mug down. "Krios was nice enough to share with us, but now you're being intrusive."
"You're right, I'm sorry Thane," Gabby said.
"It's quite alright," he said, sharing a glance with Shepard, thanking her silently.
"What about you, Shepard," Tali said teasingly, trying to change the topic. "When are you going to settle down and start a family?"
Shepard laughed.
"Hai, Taichou," Kasumi said. "When will you want little ones?"
"That's assuming the Collectors or Reapers don't kill us all?"
"Yes," Tali said.
Garrus laughed.
"Probably never," she said, sipping her tea.
"Never? You don't want a family some day?" Gabby asked.
"It's not about what I want, Gabby. It's about what's attainable."
"You could have had anyone you wanted on the old Normandy Shepard, don't act like men don't want you," Garrus chided.
"Not anyone," Shepard teased, nudging him in the ribs. "And besides, that's my point exactly. Men usually want me, but that's as far as it goes. I've told you girls before I've never had an... encounter with a man that didn't end up ruining the whole thing. I've never had a serious relationship, so I guess I don't know what I'm missing."
"Wait... never?" Kelly asked. "You've never had a boyfriend?"
"No," she said with a shrug.
"I'm pretty sure Kaidan still thinks he was your boyfriend," Garrus said. The three people privy to the joke laughed.
"Even so, I find that hard to believe, Shepard."
"Men never want that from me," she said. "They think conquering a powerful woman somehow makes them more powerful. Once they realize I'm not going to order them around, or adhere to whatever crazy fantasy they've invented in their heads, the novelty of it dies and they bail. Not that I can blame them, who wants to get saddled with as much baggage as I've got in my past? No, I don't think I'm the settling down type."
"But what about all those demerits?" Kelly said. "Your file is riddled with marks for fraternization early in your career. You mean to tell me none of those men were boyfriends?"
"Ah, yeah," she said with a laugh, rubbing the back of her neck. "Well that was in the beginning. I was trying to, I don't know, Chakwas says I was trying to reclaim the power, or something."
"With sex?" Garrus said, confused.
"That makes sense, actually," Kelly admitted. "When someone is learning to deal with a rape-trauma they can either become very afraid of intimacy, or very casual about it, using it as a tool rather than a bond."
"Well this got weird," Shepard said, clearing her throat. "Anyway I don't do that anymore. It's too messy and complicated."
"But you deserve to be happy," Gabby said.
"I am happy," She said beaming a smile. "And besides," she gestured a hand to Tali and Garrus. "I have these two schmucks to keep me company."
"That's not what she meant," Tali said.
"I know. But look, the longest functional relationship I've ever had with a man is with Garrus," she said gesturing to him. "And the only reason I've managed to make that last as long as it has is because it never got muddied up with sex because he thinks I'm squishy and repulsive."
Everyone in the conversation laughed except Garrus.
"What is this anyway?" She asked, setting her mug down. "Cry about Shepard's defective love life night?"
"Your comrades simply express a desire to see you made happy," Thane offered. "You who put forth so much effort to see that they are made happy."
Shepard didn't have a response for that.
"It's seems silly you would just give up like that," Garrus said. "That's so unlike you."
"Of course you don't understand," she said, starting to get a little angry that everyone was prodding her.
"What's that supposed to mean? Why shouldn't I understand?"
"You're a turian, Garrus. Your people bond for life. When you put your bond-marks on someone they are yours forever. Breaking that bond by any means other than death pretty much get's you shunned on Palaven, right?"
"So?"
"So? It's not like that for humans. We pretend we're like turians but we're not. We believe in happily ever after right up until they can't stand you anymore. We have something called divorce on our planet: Legally severing from your spouse permanently. It's a regular practice. More than half of human unions end that way."
"That's... I don't even...That's barbaric."
"It's true," Kelly said. "My parents split when I was just a kid."
"No one I have ever attempted to have some kind of relationship with has ever stuck around long enough for me to call it that. Call it abandonment issues, call it whatever you want. But it's the facts. Not very romantic, I know. But as William's used to say; A pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist. You ask why I've given up on the whole practice, that's why. Because it's all bullshit for humans. We should just do what salarians do; Make breeding contracts that only last until the courtship emotions fade."
"Maybe that is also your answer then," Thane said, sipping his tea. "Maybe you've simply been looking in the wrong species."
Garrus' fists tightened under the table.
Shepard smiled and looked over at the drell.
"Why, Mr. Krios," she said leaning her head on her hand. "Is that an offer?"
Unaffected, Thane lowered his mug to the table, his cool eyes hanging on her, the slightest hint of a smile creeping up on him.
"If it were, you wouldn't have to ask," he said.
Shepard patted him on the shoulder with a laugh.
"You're okay by me, Thane," she said. The girls unanimously agreed.