Garrus hadn't planned on darting out of Commander Shepard's council hearing so early, but he'd received an urgent message from Dr. Michel down in the wards about a quarian, a criminal named Fist, and concern for her own safety. He'd jotted a quick message on the extranet to a few of his colleagues to make his whereabouts known, then hurried as fast as he could down to the med clinic run by Dr. Michel.

Unfortunately, for all his speed, he'd arrived just a little too late. He entered the clinic to a hail of gunfire, a bullet hitting his shields before he managed to take cover. Some of Fist's thugs had cornered Dr. Michel and had a gun to her head while the rest took aim at Garrus. Moving as quickly as he could, he drew his rifle and fired a shot. One of the men across the room crumpled to the floor and he retreated to reload his thermal clip and shoot again.

He managed to down two men before the med clinic door flew open. He was expecting it to be reinforcements for the thugs, but instead he was pleasantly surprised to find Commander Shepard and her two fellow officers, guns drawn.

They wasted no time in moving into action at the sight of enemy guns trained on them. Shepard threw a flash grenade and ducked under cover with the other female while the male officer amped up his biotics. A blue aura enveloped him and with a wave of his hands, two of Fist's men were flying in the air. Shepard turned and trained an assault rifle on them, firing off her rounds with deadly precision. The biotic let them drop and moved his attention to the next men, whose bullets were firing off of his shields.

It was incredible to watch them work. Garrus was mesmerized, particularly by the Commander's marksmanship. Not a single shot was wasted: every bullet found its mark. The other human female was good, certainly, but Shepard made it look effortless. The biotic was powerful too, though the effort of his skill was betrayed by the blood trickling from his nose. He had to stop, the blue aura of his mass effect field vaporizing as he backed under cover.

"Kaidan, are you okay?" Shepard asked, reloading a thermal clip.

"I'll be fine, Commander."

One thug remained. The one holding a gun to Dr. Michel's head. Shepard was still reloading her clip and the other female was tending to the biotic. Garrus had a clear shot and he knew he could make it without risking the doctor. He lined up his sniper rifle and in seconds his visor was flashing an affirmative that he had the shot. He let off a single round and the last of Fist's men crumpled.

Shepard and her fellow officers hadn't noticed him, and they turned in surprise at the sight of him. He offered a hand to the Commander and she took it, allowing him to help her to her feet from her spot under cover against the wall, her fingers wrapping around his. They seemed like tiny tentacles, so numerous and small compared to his three large talons.

They shared a glance for a moment, then he turned quickly to Dr. Michel.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

The woman was shaking, but not hurt. Garrus was unaccustomed to expressions of comfort outside his own species. He understood a pat on the back might be appropriate, but hesitated too long for it to be a natural response.

Shepard bridged the gap, placing a comforting hand on the doctor's arm. "You're safe now," she assured her.

"Thank you, all of you," the doctor said. "I really thought they might kill me."

Several of Garrus' human colleagues at C-sec had mentioned repeatedly that the doctor had a sexually attractive accent, in addition to being considered beautiful. Garrus had a hard time distinguishing the attractiveness of aliens, besides perhaps asari, and he certainly didn't understand the notion of a particular accent being attractive. He might ask the biotic his opinion on it later.

"Why were they after you, Dr. Michel?" Garrus asked. "You mentioned a quarian in your message."

"Yes, I treated a quarian for a gunshot wound yesterday in my clinic. She was fleeing from Fist. She had information on Saren, but I haven't heard from her since she left the clinic and I fear Fist may have found her," the doctor explained.

"Saren," Garrus clenched his fist. "What was the quarian's name?"

"She wouldn't say," Dr. Michel shook her head.

"We should head for Fist's office," Garrus turned to Shepard. She watched him with curiosity. "If we can get to Fist's office, we can use force if necessary to threaten him into giving us information."

"I don't love waving a gun around making threats, but if his thugs are any indication, it might be our only option."

Garrus admired the response, even if he couldn't fully agree with the mindset. It took a real dedication to a belief system to stand down from violence as a moral and first-option, especially in the face of a criminal like Fist, but she didn't completely dismiss the idea. It was idealistic, to be sure, an approach he wouldn't necessarily consider, but he could tell the Commander knew what she was about.

"Are you sure you're okay, doctor?" the biotic asked.

"I'll be fine, I promise," she smiled at him. Perhaps the biotic was attractive by human standards. It was so hard for Garrus to tell.

He realized he couldn't go on calling them 'the biotic' and 'the other female' in his head. They might take slight offense to the phrases if he used them out loud.

"I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself to your fellow officers when we met up in the tower," he apologized. "I'm Garrus Vakarian," he offered his hand first to the female.

She shook it hesitantly. Her grip wasn't as firm as Shepard's and he sensed she had a general anxiety about his involvement. "Ashley Williams," she said.

He shook the biotic's hand next. He introduced himself as Kaidan Alenko. His surname was almost turian-sounding. Garrus decided he liked this Alenko. He was a powerful fighter with a firm handshake, and he looked him right in the eyes when they spoke.

"Let's head out. Who knows how much time we have before we lose a chance at this information," Shepard said. "Thank you for your help, Dr. Michel."

"No, thank you. Really, you all saved my life," the doctor said sincerely.

The four of them exited the med clinic only to run headlong into a massive red krogan, deep scars running down the front of his face. He seemed unhappy to have run into them, but then again, krogan always seemed unhappy to Garrus.

"C-sec, huh?" the krogan barked, his voice guttural and low. He eyed Garrus' armor and then looked past him to the dead men on the floor of the clinic. "I guess I'm late to the party. You're looking for Fist?"

"How did you…?" Ashley began.

"Doesn't matter," the krogan shook his head. "Name's Wrex. Let's go. Fist won't wait for us."

Shepard didn't hesitate to follow the krogan, so Garrus followed as well. He could tell that Shepard's teammates were more hesitant. The krogan as a race had a reputation that preceded them and a history marred by disaster, some of it at the hands of the turians. Most people were afraid of the krogan because of their violent reputations, but Garrus wasn't interested in species stereotypes at the moment. A well-armed krogan was worth having on their team. Fist wouldn't be alone when they arrived.

The firefight at Chora's Den hadn't been totally unexpected, but Fist's men still managed to get Shepard's shields down when they first arrived. The addition of the krogan to their team was unexpected, but a welcome help. Shepard had never worked directly with one, but Wrex was built like an ox and he had no trouble plowing through some of the thugs when he grew tired of loading thermal clips into his shotgun.

There was no way that Shepard and her team would have made it into the building, let alone back to Fist's office without the aid of the turian and the krogan. Both were skilled at their work. Garrus could aim and fire a direct kill shot with his sniper rifle in the blink of an eye. Even she couldn't aim that quickly.

By the time they reached Fist's office though, Kaidan was running low on energy. His L2 implant gave him greater strength and control than most newer biotic implants, but it also gave him grief in the form of constant headaches and power that exceeded his own energy reserves. Fresh blood was trickling from his nose and though he wouldn't ever say it, Shepard knew his head felt ready to burst. Ashley did a good job of covering him at the end when his biotics cut out and he had to step out of the way of the gunfire. They worked well together. When they left, she would ask the gunnery chief to enter service on the Normandy. She knew Captain Anderson would approve the transfer.

They were at Fist's office by that point, and Shepard had Ashley and Kaidan pull into cover further back, mostly to let Kaidan recharge, but also because backup might be necessary. Two turrets were set up outside the office, with motion sensors ready to fire at one wrong move. Shepard was an infiltrator by training, and she knew if she could hack into the turrets' hardware, she could set them on each other and save the team a few thermal clips. To do so, however, she needed them in her line of sight, something that seemed impossible at the moment.

The krogan, Wrex, had made it to the other side of the doorway before the turrets activated and was stationed around the corner, waiting for a signal from Shepard. She and Garrus were pressed against a large, overturned shipment container that was effectively the only thing keeping the turrets from recognizing their presence.

"What do you need me to do, Shepard?" Garrus asked, gun held tightly against his chest while he tried to get a visual on the turrets through a reflection in his visor; he wasn't going to risk peering around the corner and activating them. The shipment container they hid behind was sturdy, but neither soldier was confident it would hold up to rapid turret fire.

Shepard glanced at the turian. His steely blue eyes were roving up and down the visor, in and out of focus, mandible flaring as he silently worked through a plan of his own.

"Tell me what you're thinking," she said.

His eyes moved from their point of concentration in his visor to lock with hers. "I think I can ricochet a bullet off of the steel beam there," he pointed to a beam that ran diagonally across the ceiling from just above where Ashley and Kaidan rested under cover. "If it works, it will deflect back and hit the turret to the right of the door, which appears to be the one trained in this direction. It won't stop it, but it will momentarily jam it. That should give you just enough time to run to where Wrex is and take cover there. You should be able to visualize the left-hand turret from that spot. Then hack into their systems and turn them on each other."

Shepard tried to trace the trajectory of the hypothetical ricocheted bullet in her mind. It was a batshit crazy idea. The turian was a skilled shooter, she'd seen as much already, but she didn't think anybody could be that good.

"You seriously think you can pull that off?"

"The other option is to turn and pivot and hope I can fire a shot to destabilize the turret before my shields cut out," Garrus shrugged. "The first option seems less likely to end in my untimely demise, which I'd prefer."

Shepard laughed. "All right. If you make this shot, Garrus, I'm buying you a drink later."

He smiled, his mandibles flaring almost all the way out before settling back against his face. "I'm holding you to that," he said.

She crouched into position to run as soon as she could, then she watched him as he readied his shot. He aimed his sniper rifle, lining the shot up directly into the corner where the steel beam met the wall. His mandibles twitched with concentration, but his hands and arms were as steady as stone. He let off one shot and an instant later the sound of the bullet richocheting off the steel echoed through the hallway. The right-most turret began to fire at the motion, but just as quickly, it stopped, the chirping sound of malfunction signaling that Garrus' bullet had found its mark.

But Shepard didn't have time to pause and be impressed, and Garrus reminded her as much.

"Go now, Shepard, before the turret repairs itself!"

She darted, ducking and rolling past the doorway, feeling the left-most turret's bullets catch her shields as she rolled past and ran right into Wrex.

The krogan caught her and yanked her behind the safety of cover before her shields could fall any further. Her heart was pounding in her ears then, in disbelief that Garrus had made the shot and she had made it to the other side in one piece. Surely enough, she could see the turrets from her vantage point, and she wasted no time going to work with her omni tool to hack them.

"I can't believe the turian made that shot," Wrex said, the disbelief registering in his voice with only slightly more emotion than an elcor might display. "I'll be the last one to compliment a turian on anything, but that was a damn good shot."

Shepard nodded, too focused on her hacking. It was easy enough bringing up the schematics on her omni-tool, and the defense system was done by an amateur, then it was just a matter of crossing data paths behind the defense system. That was her favorite part; she could lose herself in the intertwining data paths until she'd properly uncrossed them. It was almost like meditation, in a way.

The signal of her success came shortly after. Both turrets whirred as they turned to face each other, then obliterated each other in a hail of bullets. Only after the sound of firing bullets had completely ceased did any of them chance to come out from cover.

Shepard didn't know much about turian customs of affection amongst comrades; they weren't part of military training, but she knew that if Garrus were a human, she would slap him on the back in congratulations, so that's just what she did. He faltered, perhaps surprised at her strength, but quickly smiled when he realized it was a gesture of friendliness.

"Garrus, you son of a bitch. We could use a turian like you on the Normandy," she laughed.

"I'm sure the humans would take well to a turian in their midst," Wrex snorted.

Kaidan seemed to have recovered somewhat from the strain of using his biotics. He took the safer approach of shaking Garrus' hand. "That was quite a shot," he said.

"Thank you," Garrus replied sheepishly, his subharmonics subdued. Turians couldn't blush, at least as far as Shepard was aware, but they showed embarrassment in other ways. His mandibles spread away from his face, almost in mimic of a smile, but subtly different, more rigid. He was unused to praise.

"Not to be a spoilsport, but we can celebrate when this is over," Wrex interrupted. "Fist is in his office, probably soiling himself. We should take advantage of his fear."

The door to Fist's office was locked behind an encryption, but Shepard made quick work of bypassing it with her omni-tool. When the door swung open, it was to reveal an office noticeably lacking any living beings, human or otherwise. A shoddy desk was the centerpiece to the sparse office, and a heavy steel safe had been shoved into the corner.

Garrus' visor revealed the truth however; the heat sensors detected movement from behind the desk. Based on the shapes, it looked as though Fist had a gun, he was just waiting for the right moment to use it.

"I wonder where he could have gone," Garrus said, making pointed eye contact with the rest of the group.

Wrex cocked his gun and Shepard turned to the biotic, Kaidan, nodding toward the desk.

"Looks like the fire fight was meant to distract us," Shepard frowned.

Fist's heat signature shuffled behind the desk and for a moment Garrus thought he might strike, but before he had the chance, Kaidan had him in the air, contained within a tidy and powerful mass effect field.

Garrus had seen Fist before. Most C-sec officers were familiar with the man thanks to his reputation for thievery and debauchery. Not much else could be expected from the owner of an establishment like Chora's Den. He was muscular, but not intimidating, particular not as he hovered above them with his arms and legs splayed, a look of complete and utter shock on his face.

"You can put him down now, Kaidan," Shepard said.

The biotic let Fist drop from the ceiling. He landed on the office floor with a thud, narrowly avoiding a concussion as he rolled his head up to keep it from bouncing off the concrete.

Before he could even think to escape, Shepard had her boot on his chest and her gun pointed at his head. Wrex chuckled and leaned against the desk to watch the scene unfold. Garrus stepped closer. He was happy to let Shepard lead the charge, but he'd be damned if he was going to take a backseat to interrogating the first real lead in the case against Saren.

"L-look, I don't know what you want but I don't know anything!" Fist cried.

Shepard rolled her eyes. "I haven't even asked you anything yet."

"Doesn't matter, I've got nothing to tell."

Garrus pointed his rifle at Fist's head. "Are you sure about that?"

"You won't kill me," he said confidently, eyeing Garrus' uniform. "You're C-sec. You'd be in deep shit if you shot a small time criminal for no reason."

"I wouldn't press your luck." Shepard said, digging her boot harder into the man's chest.

Garrus shrugged. "I guess he's right, Shepard. I would have a lot of paperwork to fill out if I killed him. I might even lose my job. But there are other things I could probably do and get away with a warning. My boss can be very understanding when he needs to be."

He moved his gun slowly away from Fist's head to point instead between his legs. Fist squirmed and began to sweat.

"Okay, okay. What do you want to know?"

"What do you know about a quarian who had information on a Spectre named Saren?"

"Nothing! I mean…I didn't do anything to her. You might be able to catch her if you hurry," Fist said.

"What aren't you telling us?" Garrus demanded, prodding his gun between the man's legs. He yelped in response. Levo-based species were so poorly designed by evolution, their reproductive organs hanging around outside of their bodies at all times, a constant weakness. It was easy to get males of any levo-based species to listen to you if you prodded them hard enough between the legs. They usually never had the good sense to wear some sort of protective padding there.

"I told her she was meeting with the shadow broker. That he would be interested in the info she had on Saren. But I actually sent her to meet with some of Saren's men. They were going to recover the data…by any means necessary. She was meeting them in a warehouse on the other side of this ward. She might not be there yet," Fist looked desperate now.

"We should take him out and go after the quarian," Garrus suggested.

"He gave us the information we needed," Shepard shook her head. "We haven't got a good reason to kill him."

"He's scum," Garrus said. "He's a thief, a murderer. He treats the women in this bar like…"

"I'm surprised," Kaidan interrupted. "You're a C-sec officer. There are laws for a reason. Why not apprehend him and…?"

"And what? The reason we haven't already arrested him is because he knows how to cover his tracks. I am a C-sec officer, but some people aren't worth saving. And it's not my call. If I shoot him, I'm looking at a suspension at best. But Alliance navy can claim jurisdiction with a human."

"Just because someone's done something wrong doesn't mean they can't change," Ashley took Kaidan's side. Shepard watched the argument unfolding, waiting to get a word in edge-wise.

Wrex stepped forward and shot Fist in the head before anyone could stop him. Blood spattered across Garrus and Shepard's armor.

"There's no use arguing about it," Wrex shrugged. "We shouldn't be wasting time. Saren's men could already have the quarian. I was paid to kill Fist, so none of you have to worry about an excuse. You were never here maybe."

"Hard to make that claim with his blood all over my armor," Shepard said. "But what's done is done. And you're right. We need to find the quarian. Garrus, do you know how to get to the warehouse Fist mentioned?"

"Of course. Follow me."

He led the way, Shepard close beside him, her team following obediently behind her, and Wrex bringing up the rear. It was an inexplicable bunch to the citizens of the ward who saw them pass by. A krogan and a turian working together was a sight in itself, but Alliance soldiers made it even more unlikely.

There was a palpable tension in the air as they ran across the wards, guns in hand. Kaidan and Ashley hadn't approved of the killing, and they were clearly wary of the krogan, more than they already had been at least. It didn't seem to faze Shepard. Garrus watched her out of the side of his eye as they moved. She was focused on the task at hand. Whether she was aware of the disquiet in her ranks or not, he couldn't tell. Perhaps it was only a scent he was picking up from the uneasy humans, one the humans' noses were too weak to perceive. Or perhaps it was a commander using good judgment. A crew member's individual opinions on an error in the mission shouldn't compromise collecting valuable information, and Wrex was still an important asset if they were going to encounter more gunfire. Their bruised egos could be tended to after the battle was won.

The warehouse on the other end of the ward was stacked with shipping containers. As they approached, softening their steps, voices sounded from the center of the warehouse. Garrus pulled the group to the side behind a set of the containers to take cover, then he carefully peered out to observe the scene. Shepard, not willing to miss what was happening, forced herself next to him so she could see as well.

The quarian was still alive, that much was immediately clear. Her back was turned to them and all they could make out was her purple head scarf and the back of her matching protective suit.

"Did you bring it?" A distinctly turian voice sounded. In the shadows where the quarian stood, Garrus couldn't see the turian at all.

"Where's the shadow broker? Where's Fist?"

"Don't worry about it. They'll be here. Have you got the evidence?" A talon brushed the quarian's side and she slapped it away.

"Forget it. The deal's off." She looked around unsurely.

Shepard prodded Garrus and pointed across the warehouse. From the other side, a group of thugs in protective armor were approaching. Shepard moved to a set of shipping containers closer to the quarian and Garrus began to line up a shot. Shepard beckoned Kaidan over to assist her, but before he could move, the quarian threw a flash grenade and ran.

With the smoke from the grenade, it was too difficult to line up a shot, so instead, Garrus and Shepard both ran for the quarian. They collided with her past the set of shipping containers they were hidden behind, and the three of them went tumbling to the ground.

Before the quarian could fight back, Shepard was gone, ducking ahead to take out Saren's men before they recovered from the flash grenade. Ashley and Kaidan followed her into the fray. Wrex seemed to hesitate, curious about the quarian's data, then decided bloodshed seemed preferable, and hurried to follow Shepard and her squad.

"We're here to help. Don't run. Are you hurt?" Garrus knelt down beside the quarian, who was already reaching for her gun.

She turned to face him. Beneath the protective shield that sealed her in to her immune-containing suit, all he could see were her bright, fierce eyes, and the outline of her nose. There was anger in the look she gave him, but it quickly subsided to relief when they locked eyes. It seemed she trusted him, at least more than the turian who was trying to kill her a moment earlier.

"I'm fine," she replied shortly, pushing herself to her feet. "I should help your friends."

The sounds of gunfire and screaming were echoing around the warehouse. The two of them exited cover to assist Shepard and the others, only to find they had already taken care of the problem. Kaidan flung the sole survivor of the carnage into a wall using his biotics, then they turned to rejoin Garrus and the quarian.

Shepard was quite a sight, walking out of the filtering grenade smoke, dead humans and turians at her feet, Fist's blood spattered across the front of her armor. She hooked her gun onto the holster on her back and offered her hand to the quarian.

"Are you okay?"

The quarian shook her hand and nodded, "You saved my life. Thank you. But who are you?"

"I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance navy. These are my squad mates, Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams. The krogan is Wrex."

"Urdnot Wrex," he corrected gruffly.

"And I'm Garrus," the turian said, offering his hand as well. The quarian shook it.

"My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Why were you here? How did you…?"

"We're looking for information on Saren. We need proof that he's gone rogue for the council. Dr. Michel said you might be able to help us."

Tali nodded. "I can, but we should discuss it somewhere safer, before someone comes looking and finds the six of us standing around a bunch of dead bodies."

Garrus couldn't argue with that plan, and neither could Shepard.

"Perhaps we should take her to see your ambassador," Garrus suggested. "He'll want to hear about this."

"Good thinking, Garrus. Let's go."

She led the way out of the warehouse and Garrus felt a rush of adrenaline and excitement. This might finally be the break he needed for his case. And he had a bunch of humans, a krogan, and a quarian to thank for it.

A/N: Thanks for the favs/follows again! I'm going to try to stick to a roughly weekly update Tuesdays or Wednesdays if I can. Reviews/constructive criticism always appreciated.