Roarkshop here: Alright I know everyone is really excited to see Garrus and Shep get together. But it's not going to happen for a while so people can stop DEMANDING it of me. If the last 30 some odd chapters haven't been good indicators, I am taking my time with this story. And no amount of PM's or Comments will make me change when they get together. In fact, for every PM/Comment I get demanding that I rush the story and get to the "Good Parts" I will ADD another fluff chapter between now and then. So Stop it! Lol!

30 chapters seems like a long time to wait if all you want is the smutty bits. And in fact, I don't even know if I'm going to include smutty bits so, sorry to disappoint.

Now for the majority of you who have had such positive and overwhelming comments, thank you. You are the reason I can keep writing this story and I wish you all understood how much it means to me. Thank you so so so so much.

A Special shout out to ConnieCommaro (on deviant art) who did the FANTASTIC art icon for this chapter! LOOOOOVE!

Lovelovelove
Roarkshop

"If you want to go on this mission," Chakwas said, sounding an awful lot like a scolding parent, "then you're going to have to give me your word that you will not leave this Med Bay at all before then."

"What? That's like…. The worst conditions ever!"

"Those are my terms, Commander," the doctor said, crossing her arms. "Take them or leave them."

"The Alliance Military does not negotiate with terrorists!" Shepard shouted, throwing her fists up in the air.

"Well then I guess I'll have to tell Jeff that we're not going back to Citadel space," she threatened.

"Why should he listen to you over me," Shepard sneered, crossing her arms.

"Because, Commander," Chakwas said going to activate the comm. panel. "I control his pain medication."

"Alright!" Shepard said holding her hands out to her. "Fine, fine, I won't leave the stupid death-room until we arrive. Christ crackers you'd think I'd have some authority on this stupid boat."

"Authority is just an illusion, Jane," she cooed before sitting back down at her desk.

"Yeah, yeah."

The Med Bay doors whooshed open and Tali, folding her hands over each other, came into the room.

"Good morning, Jane," she said before going to sit at her side.

"Morning, Tali. How'd you sleep?"

"Alright. Can't complain. How are you feeling?"

"I hurt all over, but I'm healing up pretty nice," Shepard said, moving the sheet of the bed so she could hang her legs off the side. The wounds on her legs and arms from the numerous bullet wounds had already started to scar over. "I guess I have the cybernetics to thank for that."

"You might as well be a krogan now with the rate you heal," Tali teased. "But I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Good. Now that pleasantries are out of the way, I'm going to need you to delete that video you took yesterday."

The quarian's eyes smiled and she slapped her hands onto her knees.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about, Commander."

"Come on, Tali. I wasn't so out of it that I don't remember you doing it."

"Well you were 'out of it' enough to let me do it in the first place!"

"That's not the point," Shepard said with a grin. "The last thing I need is that getting leaked to the media. Jesus I thought my past was hard to live down."

Tali put a hand on her chest, feigning offense. "Why, Jane. I'm offended that you think I would take such a precious thing and leak it to anyone."

"I already know you showed it to Joker."

"Oooh," Tali said, slamming her fist on her knee. "That Bosh'tet! I should have known he couldn't be trusted."

They laughed.

"So has Garrus come by this morning?" Tali asked.

"Nope. He slept in here since his dad and sister were taking up the other rooms, but when I woke up he was gone and I haven't seen him since. He's not really fond of spending the day in here I don't think. Kind of like me."

"You're not leaving," Chakwas said, without turning around.

"Well I can't blame him, Jane," Tali continued. "It's hard for us to see you in such bad shape, Garrus and I especially. We've been with you for so long…"

"Yeah I know. It's hard for me too," she said with a laugh before clearing her throat. "By the way, Garrus told me about what you guys saw… you know… when I was still on the ship."

"Oh…" Tali looked down at her hands and started to run them over each other again.

"I'm sorry, Tali," Shepard said, reaching over to hold the quarian's shoulder. "I really wish you weren't so good at what you do sometimes. I didn't want you to have to see that."

"It was horrible," Tali admitted. "But I just keep reminding myself that you're alright now and that makes it better. I'm sure it'll go away with time."

"Yeah, you're tough, Tali."

"Well," Tali said, clearing her throat. "If you're going to make me delete this video, you should at least watch it with me once."

Shepard pursed her lips, thinking the concept over, before a smile crept across her face.

"Alright fine."

Tali brought the video up and went to sit next to Shepard on the bed. Shepard's face popped up on the screen with her arm wrapped around Kasumi's shoulders, singing an incredibly sour note at the top of her lungs.

"Yeah… this should never see the light of day," Shepard said.

Garrus checked in with Jacob, Mordin, and Miranda before heading back to the Main Battery. He passed the Med Bay window to see Shepard, Tali, and Solana sitting with each other and laughing at whatever Tali was showing them on her omni-tool. Shepard had her face in her palm as she laughed, her face flushed with embarrassment, and Sol had a hand on her leg, comforting her as they laughed at her expense. Garrus smiled. Sol had always put on this front of being light-hearted and bubbly to avoid having to talk about how she had to take care of their mother, but Garrus could see through that the way he could see through Shepard's Commander mask. It wasn't the same thing when she was talking to Shepard, she was genuinely enjoying herself. He was surprised to see how fast Sol warmed to her, though now that he thought about it he shouldn't have been.

That's Shepard for you, he thought.

Garrus shook the thought out of his head and continued on to The Battery. He had to get it out of his head. Shepard was never going to think of him the way he thought about her. She wanted a big brother, a family, not …not…

He exhaled and opened the doors to The Battery to find his dad smoking and tinkering with the console.

"You certainly have this ship running smoothly, Garrus," he said as he exhaled a string of smoke.

"It's a good distraction if nothing else."

"You still think you're going to be able to reverse what's been done?" Teryk asked, turning to lean on the consol.

"I don't have much of a choice," Garrus admitted, sitting on the crates off to the side. "It's either that or spend the rest of my days pining after her like we're in some… ridiculous… romantic comedy."

Teryk laughed. "I wish I could be of more help, but I only ever fell for your mother."

"Yeah," Garrus said with an exhale. "Yeah I know."

"You have your work cut out for you. Solana seems to be quite smitten with her so I doubt you'll be able to avoid seeing her."

"If the only way to forget about her is to never see her again, I'd rather be the pining idiot."

"I see," Teryk said with a smirk. "You've got it bad, pup."

Garrus leaned back against the wall. "Yeah, I guess I do," he admitted. "I keep trying to pin point when it started, when the friendship first started changing, but I can't. It's just been little things here and there over the course of three years, building up more and more until it all came crashing down when I saw her covered in blood on the Augustine."

"She's certainly something," Teryk admitted with an exhale of smoke.

"You're not helping," Garrus said with an entertained smirk, looking up at him.

"I'm not trying to help. I think you're an idiot for running away."

"You can hardly call it running away."

"Oh? What would you call it?"

Garrus thought for a minute, then laughed and put his head in his hand. "Running away."

"That's what I thought," Teryk said with a laugh. "Look on the bright side, the worst that could happen is that she has a squadron of tiny green babies with another man while you watch from the sidelines."

"I hate you. A lot."

Soft-heart that she was, the human doctor inevitably changed the conditions of Shepard's promise so that she could now eat her meals in the Mess Hall with her crew rather than confined to the Med Bay. Teryk sat across from Garrus and next to Solana as they ate together. He was always surprised how good the food was for the Dextro-Amino's on board. Teryk was used to the generic military rations he had to eat when he served, but Mess Sergeant Gardener seemed to go out of his way to ensure satisfactory meals for both sides. Teryk figured that was more Shepard's influence than Cerberus, however. The Commander limped her way to the chair next to Garrus and Teryk observed as his son reached to pull the chair out without looking up from his food, as if he knew exactly where she was going. Shepard thanked him and sat slowly, trying very hard to hide the fact that she was in pain. It was like they didn't even know they were doing it, moving around each other, always aware of the other ones presence.

Teryk felt Solana nudge him in the ribs, letting him know she saw it too. It had all become so natural to Garrus and Shepard that the only people who could really see what was going on were the obvious outsiders.

The quarian and the annoying yeoman went to sit on the other side of Solana, across from Shepard, and the ladies all chattered away like teenagers. Teryk took note that Shepard seemed to remain silent in conversations like these unless one of the other girls directly involved her. Then she would give a curt, witty retort. She had to be in a great amount of pain, and he wondered how everyone was so oblivious to it. Her brows were knitting together, sweat was starting to bead on her brow; even without the advantage of hearing how her body was reacting internally he could still see the strain she was putting forth.

And, obviously, he wasn't the only one.

Garrus reached under the table and Teryk saw Shepard turn to the side as Garrus lifted her legs onto his lap so she could lean back in her chair.

"Stop pushing yourself," he said softly, without looking up from his food. Teryk and Sol had heard him clearly, but it was obvious no one else at the table had except Shepard.

She didn't respond verbally, but her face turned pink as it filled with blood and her heart skipped. She jumped a little when the bald woman slammed her tray on the table.

"Glad to see you've stopped being a pussy and come out of the Med Bay, Shepard."

"I couldn't stay in there another minute," Shepard said. "It was torture to be hidden away from your kind, gentle demeanor, Jack."

"Yes, Jack," Tali interjected. "I'm always wondering why you don't have more friends, the sweetheart that you are."

"What can I say?" She said through her food. "I'm a fucking Care Bear deep down."

They laughed.

Jack, rather ungracefully, went on to explain how she had joined up with a cult years ago, detailing where she had gotten the haircut. She had even befriended a nice human couple and flew around the galaxy with them causing mischief.

"So you actually have had friends before. Color me surprised," Garrus teased as he finished his food.

"Fuck you, Garrus," she spat.

"Hey. Everyone needs a little help now and then. No shame in that," Shepard offered.

"Help. Right. They helped me to their bed. Then when we finally took down a big score they helped themselves to my share. I saw where that was going, so I got them first."

"Shoot-first-talk-later isn't usually conducive to a good friendship," Shepard said, sipping her tea.

"Neither is a friendship based on delinquency and corruption," Garrus added.

"That's easy for you fuckers," Jack said, waving a hand. "Look at you douche bags. Peas in a god damn pod, the lot of you. It's easy to lecture someone about friendships when you're Commander-Fucking-Shepard and people fall in love with you if you so much as spit on their shoes."

Solana tried to hide a laugh behind her hand.

"I wish it was that easy," Shepard said, motioning a hand to Garrus. "I'm pretty sure Garrus here hated me for a good 2 missions."

"Bullshit," Jack said, leaning into the table.

Kelly Chambers leaned her elbows on the table and put her face in her hands. "What's this? The inseparable two were once enemies?"

"Not just us, I'm pretty sure Tali didn't like him either. He was kind of a dick."

Garrus exhaled and leaned an elbow on the table. "Why do you have to bring this up again?" he said with a grin.

"Oh yeah," Shepard said, laughing and leaning forward to pat him on the shoulder. "We were just talking about this the other night."

"And it wasn't two missions. It was barely one mission. And I didn't hate you."

"Is this about the mission on Earth's moon?" Tali said. "I vaguely recall some tension."

"Oh this is going to be good," Solana said.

"Zorah," came Shepard's voice over the Normandy's speakers. "Vakarian; arriving at Luna in 3 minutes. Suit up and meet me on the bridge."

Garrus strode to his locker and removed his armor, stepping into it systematically. First mission with the Spectre, besides proving Saren was a traitor but that was just a lot of running around. This was going to be action and Garrus tried to fight the excitement creeping through him. As he clacked his boots into place he heard the dark haired female mumbling to herself, hoping the Commander intended to leave him and the quarian in one of their moon's craters. He exhaled through his nose and reminded himself that he wasn't here to make friends.

When he got to the elevator, the quarian was already waiting there and they stepped in together, silently. Garrus hadn't really spoken to the quarian much, but it was obvious that the Commander grew fond of her rather quickly. Garrus tapped his food.

If the best of human and turian engineering went into this vessel, he wondered. Why the hell does this elevator always take so long?

"You know," he said to the girl, breaking the silence. "Helmets are incredibly limiting in the sense of scope of vision. You might want to reconsider your choice in armor."

"Many people think less of the quarian's for traveling in the Flotilla and wearing our exo-suits everywhere, but we have to because our immune systems would be unable to sustain very long in a foreign planet's atmosphere. We are forced to wear helmets so that we don't die."

"I'm pretty sure people think less of the quarian's for creating the geth, not your armor choices," he said, shifting his weight. "Your people endangered the entire galaxy when they let the geth break free. I hope they are properly contrite."

"As the turians are properly contrite for releasing the genophage on the Krogan, I'm sure," the quarian spat back.

He had to hand it to the little scavenger, she had a point.

The elevator doors, mercifully, opened and the quarian stepped out in front of him. They traveled down the CIC in silence before reaching the Commander near the cockpit. She turned to acknowledge them with that bright smile of hers and holding her red helmet under her arm.

"Vakarian," she said, tilting her head to the side. "Where's your helmet?"

"Severely limits my field of vision, ma'am. I wasn't going to use it."

"Not an option," she said, patting her helmet. "You can take it off once we get in the bunkers, but if you want to live, you'll need it. Earth's moon has about one millionth the atmospheric pressure as Menae, and even less oxygen."

"What? Why do you even know that?" he asked.

"Menae is your moon," she said with an eyebrow quirked. "So a better question would be: why don't you?"

The quarian tried to hide her laugh.

Garrus nodded respectfully and bit down the angry growl threatening to come up his chest as he turned and headed back for the sluggish elevator alone, kicking himself for letting the human get the better of him. Damn her. Here he had thought she was different from all the other humans, but she was just as condescending as the rest of them. He couldn't help but respect her, but that didn't mean he had to like her, right?

Just as long as the job gets done, he told himself.

Garrus idly wondered how many times today he had reminded himself of his purpose on this damned ship.

As they worked their way through the first bunker, taking out the random AI as they went, he couldn't help but notice how the Commander kept looking at him. Was he imagining it? Or was she studying him? He put his helmet back on and decided to ignore it as they headed out.

They entered the second bunker and Shepard removed her helmet before she, too, armed herself with the sniper rifle she had on her back. He had only seen her in action a few times but he had never seen her use his weapon of choice before.

An uneasy feeling nested in his stomach as he unsheathed his rifle.

As the rogue AI sent wave after wave of synthetics to protect the core, Shepard was making a point to shoot Garrus' targets before he could. Her aim obviously wasn't as good as his, as she always hit the things in the arm or chest, but she was more or less rendering him completely useless she was so fast. Imprecise, but effective.

Was she taunting him? Or was she just out to prove that she was superior to him? He fought his instincts to prove himself, and reminded himself that his training didn't allow for speed over efficiency. He had been drilled on precision, on careful aiming. As much as he wanted to fight it, he wasn't about to let her get the best of him.

She's the Commanding Officer, he told himself. She's the most important part of the mission. Don't fight back. Do your job. Don't stick your neck out. You're here to protect her and keep the mission from failing. Don't forget it. You're expendable.

Still though, the burning deep inside him to prove his worth was hard to fight. By the time they had reached the third bunker he had to keep reminding himself to think about his training. Aim, breathe, steady, shoot. But every time she hit a mark before him, it all slipped a little farther away. He hadn't even noticed how he had started growling as he took targets out clean, precise, and fast. He wasn't thinking anymore, he was feeling; using nothing but his reflexes and his instincts to send bullets through the cores of all the synthetics surrounding them.

Shepard put her rifle away, and equipped her pistol.

Once the last bunker had been cleared and the rogue AI had been deactivated, Garrus realized how he had been growling, and forced himself to calm down.

"Normandy," Shepard said into her comm. "Mission accomplished. Ready for extraction."

"Roger that," the pilot confirmed.

Shepard nodded and took Tali by the shoulder.

"My goodness, you're handy with that Omni-tool."

"I uh… yes. Thank you, Commander," The quarian said sheepishly.

"And you," she said, patting Garrus on the shoulder as she passed him. "Great work."

He fought the urge to scoff.

"Thank you, ma'am," he said instead.

Garrus gripped his console in his gloved talons, cursing himself. He had been practically useless until the end of the mission. Even then, he had let the human's taunting get the best of him. She was trying to prove her dominance and he undermined her by proving his superior skill. He shouldn't have, it was a rookie mistake. If he were on his last military vessel, he could be court-marshaled for acting out against his C.O. like that. He figured he had better start working on his apology.

He had also better figure out how to swallow his pride. And fast.

The Commander's scent hit him as she came up from Engineering, no doubt having just debriefed the quarian and probably heading for his station now. He took a few long, deep breaths to try and calm down.

"Vakarian," she said in her usual chipper tone. "Good job out there today."

"Yeah I uh… Thank you, Commander."

"Man, when you really get going you're hard to keep up with. We gotta work on that some more."

"Yes ma'am. I apologize for that and it won't happen again," he said. Spirits, the words even tasted bad.

Even Garrus, with his limited knowledge, could see that the look that flashed across the human's face was confusion. She tilted her head to the side in that way she did and studied his face.

"What are you apologizing for exactly?"

Garrus blinked and took a moment to pick his words, sure that she was testing him.

"Undermining you, Ma'am. You're the Commanding Officer and I shouldn't have gone out of my way to shoot your targets like that. I let my pride get the better of me and I apologize for it."

She squinted at him and opened her mouth like she was trying to think of something to say.

"Come with me, Vakarian. Bring your rifle," was all she said as she turned and headed back to the elevator.

He obliged with an exhale, preparing himself for the reprimand he was no doubt going to receive.

The ride up the elevator was painfully silent. He listened to hear heartbeat, calm, controlled, and wondered if he had a hard time telling what she was thinking because she was human, or was she even hard to read amongst her own kind? Either way Garrus was biting down his irritation with her attempts to intimidate him.

She walked into her office without looking back and Garrus was unsure about following her. This definitely wasn't common practice among turians.

"Commander?" he said, standing at the threshold of her quarters.

"It's alright, Vakarian. Come on in."

He ducked under the door frame and stepped inside the small room as she pulled up two chairs. She sat in one and motioned her hand to the other across from her, requesting that he sit there, and he did. She crossed an ankle over her knee and leaned back casually. He set his rifle on the floor.

"Okay, now," she said. "What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Ma'am?"

"This under-minding me."

"Undermining," he corrected.

"Whatever," she said waving a hand. "The point is I don't know what you're talking about and need you to explain it to me. Permission to speak freely."

His mandibles clicked. This was just great. She hadn't even noticed what he'd done? Had he just shot himself in the foot?

"You said that when I get going I'm hard to keep up with. Weren't you reprimanding me?"

"What? No. It was a compliment."

"But you were shooting my targets," he said. "I saw it. You were making an effort to shoot what I was aiming at before I could."

"I won't deny that," she said, beaming that wicked grin at him. He fought the urge to snap at her.

"Well with all due respect, Commander. Why? Why would you go through that effort if you weren't trying to prove your superiority? I shouldn't have stepped on your toes like that. I let my pride get the better of me and traded my training in exchange for being able to beat you to the targets."

"Well that's exactly why I was doing it," she said.

"I…what?"

"Stand up," she said as she stood and reached for his rifle.

He did, tentatively.

As she straightened, standing in front of him, she activated the rifle so it shot open and into its full form.

"What is this?" she said.

"A sniper rifle," he replied, quirking a brow plate in confusion.

"Wrong. What is this?"

"Uh, an X-2 Equalizer VII."

"Seven? That's it? Remind me to get you a new one. Anyway that's still not what I want to hear. What is it?"

"A uh… A C-sec military grade sniper rifle."

"Wrong again, Vakarian. What is it?"

He scoffed and shifted his weight in frustration. "It's my rifle, Commander. What do you want me to say?"

"Exactly that," she said, pushing the rifle against his chest with a smile. "This is your rifle. There are many like it, but this one is yours. I was shooting your targets to get you to own that rifle in your hands."

He looked down at it then back up at her, confused.

"I will admit that I could probably do with a little more operational discipline, and maybe somewhere down the line you can teach me that, but it isn't what got me where I am today. And it most certainly isn't why I brought you onto the Normandy. Every turian has that military grade 'sir-yes-sir' ingrained into them. If that's what I wanted, I could have picked anyone to come with me. But you're different, Vakarian. You light up when you fire this rifle, you love it. I took out your targets to get you angry; to make you stop defaulting to that training." She pressed the tip of her index finger to the center of his forehead. "I need you to stop using this," she said before moving her hand to point at the center of his chest. "And I need you to start using this. Heart is why I need you, Vakarian. It's what you have that the average soldier doesn't. When you stop using your head and your rigid military training, you start using your instincts by default. And when you do that you are unstoppable. That is what sets you apart, and that is what separates soldiers from legends."

Garrus' mandibles clicked as he looked down at the tiny woman in front of him, observing the severity in her face. He tried to think of something to say, but nothing would come. This human hadn't been trying to prove she was better than him, she was trying to help him be better.

"Do you want to be better, Vakarian? Do you want to be the best you can be?"

"Of course I do, Commander."

"Well I don't know much about the turian military, but I know that they want uniformity. I know they want a cohesive unit, and that's not what I want. I need individuals; individuals with fire and passion. You are not a soldier to me, you are not a number. I don't just see what you can do, Vakarian," she said, smiling up at him with her hands on her hips. "I see what you can be, and I promise that I will help you get there, because you were born to stand out."

Garrus studied her face for sincerity. There was no threat, there was no indignation, her warm green eyes told him she was nothing but earnest. He tried not to look stunned, and failed.

"Y-yes ma'am," he said after clearing his throat. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Dismissed Vakarian," she said with a nod. "Rest up. I'll be needing a lot more of you."

Garrus nodded and turned to leave, ducking under the frame of her door again. He smiled to himself.

Heart, huh?