Chapter Six: Options
Jane stood in the cargo bay, solemnly standing watch as the Alliance supply team unloaded the crates that had accompanied her on the journey to the Citadel. Beside her, John spoke quietly with the requisitions officer, but his eyes, like her own, kept slipping to the sleek silver coffin that waited for the funeral guard to arrive.
It hadn't been a planned stop. John wasn't expected to return to the Citadel for three more days, but the information he found, along with the Admiral's body, needed to be brought to both the Council and the Alliance. And it wasn't the kind of news that could be delivered through a vid screen.
"Shepard!" Both siblings snapped to attention when General Anderson stepped on board, but the old marine waved off the formality and gave a weak smile for the pair. "Two for the price of one. LC, it's damn good to see you again. How's your baby holding up?"
"Exceeding my expectations, sir," Jane replied, taking the hand he offered and accepting the congratulatory handshake he had promised her when the Normandy project had been completed.
"I knew she would. Can't wait to see what you'll be drawing up for us next," he added with a wink. If she had wondered how far into the chain of command her new project went, Jane did so no longer. "The first session is in four days, but you're technically still on leave until then so I'll leave you to it. Commander?"
Anderson nodded at John, and the men walked towards the remains of Admiral Kahoku. With a heavy sigh and a roll of her shoulders, Jane looked out past the Normandy to the Citadel wards in the distance. At least the few extra days would give her a chance to navigate the place she would be calling home for the eighteen months.
"You off to the new digs?" Joker asked, coming up from behind her along with Kaidan and Ashley.
"Yup."
"Sweet. We'll swing by around seven, then."
Puzzled, she looked over at him, but then it hit her. Jane had promised that when they got to the Citadel, she would let Joker and some of the other Alliance crew members take her out. Silently, she nodded at the three of them, and grabbed her duffel. But she hadn't even gotten ten steps away before Joker called out again.
"Jane, listen," he started more softly when he caught up, alone this time. "I know you worked a little with Kahoku on the Normandy project. If you'd rather have a night to yourself..."
"I'm going to have plenty enough of those in my future, Jeff," she reassured him, her smile weak but sincere.
"Ok, but what about your um...other options?"
"My other wha...oh." She saw where the direction of her friend's gaze was pointed and flushed. Garrus was there, making small-talk with one of the C-Sec officers and doing an absolutely horrible job of acting casual while he waited for her. Joker chuckled, and Jane turned her face back towards her friend. "I can't afford that option right now."
"But you're thinking about it."
"I am," she admitted, leaning over and giving him a peck on the cheek. "But I already have plans tonight. With you and whoever else got roped into it."
"Glad to hear I rank higher than a piece of a...ahh...I mean, see you at seven?" The glare she started to give him faded when Joker changed his tune, and Jane nodded again. This time with more meaning behind the gesture. Satisfied that he was happier with her response, she made her way towards the dock once more.
Jane didn't stop when she passed by Garrus and his friend, but instead gave him a playful wink as their eyes met. Taking a few more steps, she turned her head back to see if he would follow and was not disappointed. After giving her attention back to the path in front of her, it wasn't long before the turian fell in step next to her.
"So, this thing, with us," he started cautiously, pausing only long enough to get through the body scanner at the security checkpoint. "It's not just my imagination, is it?"
"No," Jane replied, suddenly wishing he had brought up anything else but the one topic they actually needed to talk about. "But I haven't really figured out what to do with it yet."
"Me, either. If it were just a simple attraction, that's easy enou..."
"But it's not, Garrus," she interrupted, pausing in the middle of the walkway to check her nav-point. The elevator she needed was at the end of the next hall. It was a long hall. And it was going to be a long elevator ride if he insisted on escorting her all the way to the Alliance military apartments. "I want to say it started out that way, but I don't really believe that. We could have fucked in every corner and cubbyhole on that ship, and we'd still be having this conversation right now."
Her statement stunned him for a moment, and while he stood to process it, Jane moved forward. She was irritated. Not with Garrus, but with herself, for finally realizing that while she was trying desperately to avoid getting emotionally attached, she had gone and done it anyway.
He caught up to her just as she reached the lift, radiating frustration. But he said nothing. Garrus simply stood there next to Jane and quietly seethed. When the doors opened and they walked on together, other passengers gave them a wide berth as they passed through to the back of the compartment. At the first stop, most got off and a few more got on. Again at the second, but at the third stop, when the doors closed, they had the elevator to themselves.
"You have something to say?" she snapped, dropping her duffel and turning up to confront him.
"Yeah," he growled, but it wasn't words Garrus used on her. Grabbing a fistful of her hair, he pressed Jane against the wall, molding his body against hers. Lightning hot need coursed through her blood at the contact, and she grabbed at his hips as he buried his face in the hollow of her throat. Garrus nipped at the pulse-point near her collarbone, licked a trail up the side of her neck, then nuzzled Jane's earlobe.
"I could fuck you in every corner and cubbyhole on this space station, and it still wouldn't be enough," came his admission, voice low and humming with desire. And just as swiftly as he had grabbed her, Garrus pulled back, holding her at arm's length and facing Jane towards the door. She stood, stunned and aroused as the lift slowed, then stopped. And as the doors opened, he came up behind her, sliding her ruck-sack back over her shoulder and pressing his mouth against her neck one last time.
"I want you to be mine, Jane Shepard," he whispered before giving her a gentle shove into the foyer, ignoring the stares from the passengers waiting to board. When Jane finally turned around to face him,the elevator doors were closing, and his mandibles twitched with amusement.
Oh, Garrus, she thought as lift carried him away, I think I already am.
The ship was quiet in the early hours of the morning. With most of the crew on shore for a few more hours, the constant hum of computers and murmur of voices was missing from the Normandy, and Garrus was thankful for it. They hadn't been there to witness his fitful night trying to rest while the scenario with Jane repeated itself.
There were a thousand ways to have handled it better. Or worse, if he was being honest with himself. Logic warring with desire, allowing his emotions to slip through. But in the end, he had let her go.
"Don't you have an apartment?"
John Shepard's voice carried from across the room, and Garrus realized that he had been brooding over his breakfast. The Commander was making his way towards the kitchen, and the little machine that made the morning brew so many of the humans coveted. Including Jane, he remembered with a low groan.
"I couldn't afford to get side-tracked with C-Sec business, so I just came back here."
"Yeah, I hear ya," John replied sympathetically. "I always seem to get roped into someone else's business if I stray too far from the Normandy."
"I guess you just have one of those faces," Garrus joked, having seen firsthand how people were naturally drawn to the human. John laughed, the sound ringing rich and clear from the walls of the mess hall.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Doesn't leave me much time for a social life, though."
"Got a girl waiting back home?" he dared to ask.
"No home, and no girl to go back to. I spend most of my time on ships, so there's no time to put down roots and entertain...company," Shepard replied with a wink.
"Oh, I'm sure you could find plenty of company right here," came the turian's suggestion. "I think you're the only one who doesn't see how many sets of eyes are set on you when you enter a room."
"Oh, I see them, Garrus," confessed John, pouring a cup and making his way across the room. "But I'm the commanding officer. That makes things a little more difficult." Garrus didn't mention that he wasn't, technically, Liara's CO, and that the shy asari scholar practically hero-worshiped the Commander. The same went for Tali, but it was more difficult to read the quarian behind the bio-suit.
"What about you?" John's question caught him off guard, and Garrus stared at him dumbfoundly. "You have a girlfriend waiting back on Palaven?"
"Not exactly," replied the turian, giving his plate more attention that it deserved.
"A boyfriend?" Garrus nearly choked on his bite, knowing full well he had walked right into that question with his vague response to the first. When he finally got control of himself, John was watching him, amusement painted clearly on his face.
"There's a girl," came his confession, deciding that the truth, with certain details left out, would be the best option. "She's here. On the Citadel. And it's...complicated." That was putting it mildly, considering Jane was the Commander's sister. "We're still trying to figure things out."
John gave Garrus a sympathetic clap on the shoulder and smiled. "Is she worth it?"
"If she wasn't, I wouldn't have stayed on the Normandy last night," he said honestly. Satisfied with the answer, Commander Shepard gave Garrus a nod, then went along his way, coffee mug in hand.
The conversation left a knot of guilt in Garrus' gut, but he had told Shepard the truth. Jane was worth it, but right now the complications needed time to be smoothed out before he could bring anything substantial to her brother. Garrus just hoped, when the time came that he and Jane had figured things out, his new friend would understand.