Garrus sat, tapping his foot impatiently, as he and the rest of the squad waited for Shepard in the comm room. She had been out for an entire day, during which time they had remained docked waiting for travel orders. Whatever medication Dr. Chakwas had given her had been strong, but Garrus knew she probably needed the forced rest.

The doctor was also annoyingly guarded about the med bay. Liara could come and go as she pleased, since her bunk was in the back of the room, but whenever Garrus stopped by to check on Shepard, Dr. Chakwas ushered him away, telling him Shepard would never recover if she had a constant barrage of visitors. If he tried to sneak up through the ladder from the cargo bay, Liara would chide him and kick him back down.

When Shepard's voice had sounded over the intercom that morning calling the squad up to the comm room, Garrus had bounded up as quickly as he could, which was hindered considerably by the slow elevator speed. When he arrived, however, Shepard was not there, and they'd been waiting twenty minutes for her to show up.

Another ten minutes, after the initial twenty, passed before the doors to the comm room finally opened and Shepard walked in. She looked remarkably better, even despite the yellowing bruises around her eye and neck. She sat down at the chair in the center of the circle and leaned back.

"Sorry it took me so long," she said. "Dr. Chakwas wanted to give me one last exam before she let me go. That asari really took it out of me."

Wrex chuckled immaturely, but Shepard just grinned at him.

"Shepard, I didn't want to ask you while you were still weak, but I do have considerable knowledge of the Protheans. Perhaps I could meld my mind with yours and together we might be able to make sense of the Cipher. It should not be as energy intensive as when Shiala transmitted the Cipher to you," Liara suggested.

Shepard nodded. "I was thinking about that as well. If it won't totally wipe me out, then let's do it. We need all the information we can get to stop Saren."

She and Liara stood and met in the center of the circle. Liara touched her forehead to Shepard's and, as Shiala had done, told her to 'embrace eternity'. Liara's eyes went black and the two stood there, foreheads pressed together, unmoving, seeing something none of the others could.

Garrus was intensely curious about what it must be like. He had so many things he wanted to discuss with Shepard, and Virmire was only a day's journey away.

After a moment, Liara stepped back. "That was…the images were so vivid. All of my life spent researching the Protheans and this…"

"Did you see anything useful?" Kaidan asked.

Liara shook her head. "Whatever image was meant to be transmitted by the beacon, parts of it are missing. The beacon must have been badly damaged." She turned to Shepard. "What do you think the Reapers are, Shepard?"

"I…don't know…" the commander hesitated.

"Just say the first thing that comes to your mind."

"It sounds ridiculous," Shepard sighed.

"This entire thing is ridiculous," Wrex said. "Just spit it out."

"Well I already thought they were sentient machines just from the beacon itself…but…they seem almost like…like sentient ships," Shepard burst.

Liara nodded. "Yes, that is what I understood from the image as well. The Protheans were wiped out by a race of sentient…vessels? There must be some link between this and the conduit, but I cannot piece it apart from your vision. Perhaps there is another beacon, perhaps Saren is searching for it."

"If we don't have any other answers, I'd say Virmire is our best shot," Ash said. "The Council wants you to go there anyway, and they said there might be geth. If there's even a chance that geth are running around, then Saren can't be far behind, right?"

Shepard nodded. "I'll have Joker and Pressly set a course from Virmire. It's only a day's journery out from Feros, so we better be prepared." She headed for the door to plot their path.

Garrus wanted to stop her, to ask to meet with her up on the observation deck. He simultaneously felt like there was nothing and a million things he wanted to say to her. He didn't stop her though. She was the commander of the entire crew and they'd just finished a lengthy mission on Feros. She had a lot to catch up on and he would let her.

His mind was too busy to go down to the cargo bay, though, so instead he made his way up to the observation deck to sit and think.

The deck was empty, as usual. It got busiest around lunch hour, but otherwise he rarely saw anyone else up there besides Shepard and occasionally Liara. He took a seat on the couch closest to the window and sat staring blankly out at the docks until the ship pulled away and took off out of the atmosphere and back into space.

He was hardly paying attention as the galaxy sped by around him. He'd been so worried about Shepard while she was in the med bay, maybe too worried. Turians didn't spend a huge chunk of time investigating their emotions. Topics relating to friendship and love were intensely private in turian culture, and Garrus was unsure how to even let himself think about them, let alone speak them out loud.

He must have been up in the observation deck for more than hour when he heard footsteps behind him. He didn't have to look up to know it was Shepard. He could smell that earthy scent he'd smelled back on Feros. Maybe she'd just come from talking to Kaidan. She took a seat next to him and prodded his side with her elbow.

"Shepard," he greeted her. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Yeah, thanks for carrying me. I wish nobody had seen it…" she sighed. "You're ruining my intimidation factor, Garrus."

He laughed. "I'm sorry. Next time I'll let you crawl back to the ship."

"Damn right you will."

They sat in silence for a moment, both of them staring out the window. Garrus looked down at his hands and mustered up the courage to speak his mind.

"Shepard?"

"Yeah?" she turned to face him.

"Turians don't…er…" he was having trouble finding his words. "Turians…erm…well we don't talk about friendship a lot. If you're friends with someone, you don't delve into the emotional aspects of your relationship. Or if you do, then it means you really trust them."

"Yeah?" Shepard urged him to continue.

"I haven't had many people in my life that I've really trusted. No one I would consider a really close friend. Even in C-sec…there's no one that I could say has been my best friend. The person I would trust with my life. I know we've already talked about…about how we just sort of instantly clicked. How well we work together."

"Garrus," she placed a hand gently on his shoulder and he finally met her gaze. "I feel the same. I haven't had a best friend since I left Mindoir. I've been too guarded. And that served me well trying to make a career in the military, but now…" she shrugged. "Garrus, I've never trusted anyone as much as I trust you. Even if it doesn't make sense. A few weeks, and I feel like I could tell you anything. You're the best friend I've ever had."

He felt his heart flutter at the words, unable to tear his eyes away from hers. He had never looked at a human and felt what he was feeling then. It was so unusual. He felt like he could drown in those brown eyes of hers.

He was suddenly distinctly aware of the earthy smell of her pheromones, fresh and fragrant. Had he misunderstood back on Feros? Had he been the target? It would have been so much simpler if she had been a turian. He would have known what her pheromones meant, would have been able to understand her body language better. He wouldn't have hesitated if she were a turian. But she wasn't, which only made him more confused.

All the time he was thinking, their faces seemed to be drifting closer together. His eyes moved down to her lips, so fleshy and foreign compared to his own rough, rigid ones. Had a turian ever kissed a human before? Was she leaning in, or was he? He could feel her breath on his mouth, a thin layer of static between them. She was so close he could almost taste her…and he wanted to.

"Shepard? Are you up here?" Tali's voice sounded from the ladder behind them.

Shepard moved away abruptly, placing a sizeable amount of distance between the two of them, her face flushed red. Garrus' head was spinning. All he could do was stare out the window and try to make sense of what had just happened. Or almost happened.

Tali clamored over, oblivious to what was going on.

"Tali," Shepard said, trying to act normal. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you could help me down in engineering. Adams and I have an idea for improving the efficiency of the drive core, but we need sign off from you. And actually, it would be good if you could check it out, because we're in a bit of a disagreement about exactly how to implement the upgrade…"

"Uh, sure. Yeah," Shepard stood up quickly. "I'll see you later, Garrus."

"Shepard," he nodded.

They disappeared down the ladder and Garrus found himself alone on the observation deck again, kicking himself for being so dense, and at the same time still questioning if he had been reading any of Shepard's signals correctly.

Their mouths had been centimeters away from touching and he was still not completely positive that it meant what he thought it meant. He slumped lower on the couch and tried to think about anything else.

A/N: As I said, a super short chapter that I felt kind of deserved its own space. More tomorrow Saturday probably.