Captain's Personal Log: Phoenix Massing Cluster, Typhon System, Planet Aite: Digital Exorcist

I touched the console and lightning jumped out and grabbed me. My hand was no longer mine, then my arm, then my chest. My heart pounded, my throat closed. Garrus, help! I could not scream. I could not move. My legs were not my own. My eyes were not my own. My head turned though I did not tell it to. My feet walked, though I did not tell them too. I fought, tooth and nail, I fought. I tried. But I had no weapons for this. Garrus, please, help me! Somewhere in the silence of my head, another voice screeched, "MAKEITSTOP!"

I think it was the loud, ear-splitting mechanical screech that was the worst. Or maybe, between screeches, the silence. The dead, complete silence. And the corpses. Scientists and technicians, hell, even janitors, just shot, execution-style or in the back, or in the gut and left to bleed out. Ashley's voice always echoed in my ear from Eden Prime, a lifetime ago: You never get used to seeing dead civilians.

The door in front of me bent and folded in on itself. My feet staggered toward it. "MAKE IT STOP!" Edges fuzzed. A voice I half remembered from somewhere in my subconscious echoed, "We control the horizontal and the vertical."

When we got back into the Hammerhead to navigate the planet after that, none of us felt much like joking. At least, not until I started driving. "Spirits! Shepard! When did you have time to get drunk before getting into this thing?"

"Shut up, Garrus." His low laugh from behind me answered, making something low in my abdomen tighten, as usual. I glanced over my shoulder at him, grinning. Thane just shook his head, smiling. He'd gotten used to our banter, I guess.

This mission wasn't supposed to be such a pain in the ass. But then, since when had cleaning up The Illusive Man's piles of shit not been? Too bad I couldn't whack him in the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. Not that he'd learn a damned thing from that.

The door slammed shut behind me. Booted feet pounded, armored fists hit the metal plating. "Shepard! Can you hear me! Shepard!" My-voice-not-my-voice answered, "Stand down, Garrus. Everything will be fine." Muffled, dual-toned voice. "We need to get that door open, now!" Muffled pounding, "Shepard!" he shouted again. I-that-was-me clawed my way to control, "Help. Me." The screeching mechanical voice screamed in my ear, "MAKEITSTOP." From the back my memory, came, "Do not adjust the frequency."

We'd had to race against time to keep… something… from uploading to the Extranet via EDI. Archer claimed it was a VI. From Garrus' shake of his head, that wasn't something a VI could actually conceive of doing. On the private channel the three of us shared, I reminded him, "Remember Luna Base?"

"I told you then, I didn't think that was VI. A VI is Mira. Remember how stupid that thing was?" He checked the readouts on his sniper rifle and we left the Hammerhead. "And why would the geth fight for a VI?"

"He has a point, Shepard." Thane took up a position on one side of a door, flipping the controls of the shaded glasses he wore to opaque, and readying his own sniper rifle. "A VI cannot think for itself or act on its own."

Garrus took up his usual defensive position opposite Thane. "All right. You have a point." I flipped to another channel, this one a tightbeam to the ship that EDI had encrypted against things like the geth. Hey, I'm paranoid. Not stupid. "EDI, watch yourself. Get those fancy defenses Cerberus gave you prepped and ready."

The AI's cool reply buzzed with static in my ear, "You don't need to warn me Shepard, I can deflect attacks at a nano-second's notice…"

"You might not have that long," I told her, interrupting her assurances.

"I- Understood, Shepard. EDI, out."

Feet dragging, legs stiff, fighting for control. Colors off. Red armor was green, blue walls were yellow. Can't blink. Get free. FIGHT GODDAMNIT, FIGHT! What's wrong with YOU! What's going on? Why? Metallic taste in the back of my throat. "MAKE IT STOP." Ears hurt. Head hurts. "I CONTROL ALL THAT YOU SEE AND HEAR." Geth shooting. I could move. Fire back. Face in the walls. "MAKE IT STOP."

And Archer… There was something that man was hiding. I didn't particularly want to find out, but I bet it had something to do what whatever that mechanical scream was that blasted our eardrums occasionally. The antenna needed to come down, though, and fast. Preferably not while we were standing on it.

Of course, the geth liked to make things challenging. Thanks to having to fight our way to the supports, we were forced to blow them while still far too close to the dish. "Garrus, you and Thane, start running."

"What about you?" I could hear the worry in his dual toned voice, though he kept it to his subharmonics. Not too long ago, I wouldn't have known what the subtle dissonance meant. I resisted the urge to reassure him further. Professionals, dammit. I typed the command into my Omni-tool and just looked at him.

"Right behind you." I held his gaze for a moment and he nodded, taking off at a sprint. I hit enter and started running, the explosion shoving me forward. I ducked, protecting my head from debris and threw myself off the dish and into the air, watching Garrus and the platform for which I was aiming arrive faster and harder than I thought it would. I held my breath, hoping I'd timed it right, all too aware of how far down the fucking ground was and goddammit this was a stupid decision Shepard…. I had to tuck and roll, taking the force of the landing on my bad shoulder, implants screaming in protest. I gritted my teeth as I rolled to my feet. Not going to waste the medigel on it. Damned nanobots can take care of it. I came to my feet and caught Garrus' wide-eyed look of concern before he managed to get himself back under control.

Fortunately, he limited himself to, "Cutting it close, Shepard."

I winked at him. And tried not to breathe heavily after the slight brush with death. Of course, we weren't done yet. When I caught my breath, we climbed back into the claustrophobic Hammerhead and Archer's disembodied voice directed us to Vulcan station. "I really don't like the sound of that," I muttered.

Garrus blinked at me through his visor. "Why?"

"Nevermind. Hopefully, it's a dry heat."

"One of these days, Shepard, you're going to explain these jokes," Thane rasped.

I grinned. "Maybe. Not today, though." I pulled back the throttle and shot us forward. I'll grant the tin can one thing, at least it was fast. Which was a blessing. Leapfrogging lava flows to land on the floating boulders was not for the faint of heart and took every ounce of power the thrusters could give me. I'm not sure any of the three of us breathed until we were across the river.

Thane noticeably slumped in his seat. "That is a memory I wish I could forget."

Garrus clicked his cheekplates against his teeth. "I'm not sure any of us will forget that one any time soon. I really hope that was the hard part." It actually was. After that adrenaline rush, target practice on the mechs went quickly. It didn't take long to deal with Vulcan station.

"MAKEITSTOP!" More geth to shoot at it, more wrong colors. Feet don't work. Something was uploading to EDI. Protect EDI. Stop it. Fire at the bubbles. Shoot them all. Exploding bursts of wrong colors. "MAKE IT STOP!"

Of course, that left the next station. Prometheus was crawling with geth. Thane and Garrus had a headcount competition, each complimenting the other on direct hits on the flashlight heads.

God, I was tired of shooting geth.

"I am really tired of shooting geth," Garrus drawled as climbed back into the Hammerhead and shooed me out of the pilot's seat.

"Is this something you two do a lot of?" Thane asked, puzzled.

"You have no idea."

"OUIET!MAKEITSTOPPLEASEMAKEITSTOPQUIETMAKEITSTOP!"

The pain in my head erupted into a shower of pixelated sparks. I couldn't move, I couldn't close my eyes. I staggered forward. It had stopped. I'd shot out the impending upload efforts. I wasn't sure how I could tell, they'd looked like giant bubbles. Time moved so fast I moved so fast how could I slow down EVERYTHING SHATTERED

AND

STOPPED.

I stared horrified at the man hanging in the metal apparatus that had been at the center of the cyber illusions. Two thick tubes snaked into his mouth. His eyelids were pried open until tears ran down his pale cheeks, staining them. He hung there, crucified on technology. My stomach roiled and I fought the urge to throw up. I staggered forward. Peeling off my helmet, my gloves. I needed air. I needed nothing more between me and air. I am not a machine.

Archer shouted at me, excuses pounding at my horror. Of course, it was all The Illusive Man's fault. All because of Cerberus.

Bullshit.

Garrus and Thane burst in, guns drawn. "The square root of 906.01 equals…," the boy in the machine said.

"30.1," Archer replied.

I trembled in anger. Rage wasn't an anesthetic. Not when you were also horrified almost beyond the point of rational thought. "I've seen enough of your cruelty to know he'll never be free from it here. I'm taking him away." And that's when Archer did something truly stupid.

He drew his pistol on me, fired and missed, and shouted, "No, leave him! He's too valuable!" But before the two of them could get a shot off, even in my revolted and dazed state, I still yanked the gun out of the scientist's hands and hit him in the head with it.

Leaning in to the son of a bitch, through gritted teeth, I shoved the gun in his face. "You even think about coming after him and this bullet will be waiting for you. Then we'll see who's valuable." I yanked the son of a bitch around in front of me and pushed him away from his brother.

"Where will you take him?"

"As fucking far away from you as I can get him. Thane, secure this son of a bitch. Just get him away from his brother." I held myself together long enough for Thane to get Archer out of earshot. "Joker, comm the Alliance. Tell them we have a special case for them to be picked up for Grissom Academy."

"Aye, Commander. You all right?" Great, my voice must be showing the strain.

"Just peachy." Bracers off. Not a machine. Need air. "Garrus is here. Send Mordin and Chakwas and probably Tali down to my coordinates." Pop the seals on my breast plate and back plate. Garrus was there to catch them. "And have them bring some clothes for a human male. And restraints for a second human male. Shepard out." Yank out the the enviro leads. Need out. Need air. Cool air against the mesh of the suit. Steadying familiar hands on my hips. Not a machine. I turned frantic eyes to him.

He looked at me with nothing but sympathy. "Aren't you going to need clothes?"

"Underarmor's fine. I don't know what he used to hack me and I'm not taking any chances." My hands were shaking. I couldn't get the clasps undone for the thighs. Garrus gently set the torso armor onto the floor. Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff… He had the thigh armor and greaves off fairly quickly. I tried to joke, "How'd you learn to unfasten a girl's armor so fast, Garrus?" It sounded weak, even to me. I couldn't stop trembling.

"Well, you learn a few things, dragging your ass out of hot spots. Boots off or on?" He was still crouched in front of me, looking up at me.

"On, too much blood." He took my still-trembling hands in his, holding them tightly. Before he could stand, I bent and touched my lips to his. I had to feel him. To know that he was solid and there and real and I was not a machine. Because I felt. Because I needed. Because I needed him. Oh, God. I admitted it in the silence of my heart, I admitted it. And I couldn't push him away. Everything shifted starboard.

He wrapped his arms around me and crushed me against him, one hand supporting my back, the other cupping the back of my head, holding my mouth against his. I wrapped my arms around his bare neck, my fingers stroking the smooth skin up underneath his fringe. I didn't want to let go. I'm not a machine. "Spirits, Meghan. I thought I'd lost you again," he whispered, when we finally came up for air. I rested my forehead against his.

"I thought I'd lost me." I shuddered. "I don't know how, Garrus. That... boy hacked me. Using geth tech, he hacked me." I closed my eyes. I couldn't stop the tremors.

"Look at me, Shepard. Meghan, look at me." He waited until I complied. His blue-green-silver eyes looked at me steadily. "We will figure it out." I took a shuddering breath and nodded. "You aren't a machine or a computer or whatever it is you're trying to tell yourself."

A corner of my mouth quirked up. "How do you always know what I'm thinking?"

His cheekplates flared out in a smile. "Practice. And you have a terrible poker face."

Garrus was wrong. I have a hell of a poker face. Except around him.

I held it together. Blamed the hacking on my armor, if I even admitted it, that was. It was almost five hours later before Mordin, Chakwas and Tali managed to get David out of that contraption, Archer sent off with another Cerberus ship, arranged a rendezvous with an Alliance cruiser to hand over David with some story about a random Mayday, the real story would be sent to Hackett and Anderson, Top Secret, Classified, "His Eyes Only," in the morning.

I sat in my robe on my couch, arms crossed over my chest. I'd turned off the overhead lights, leaving only the fishtank light and my desk lamp to dimly illuminate my quarters. I really didn't want bright light at the moment. I wanted to hide. I'd scrubbed till my skin turned pink. Scalding hot water. There were no scars to reopen, though. I had apparently fully healed.

Lucky me.

My door opened. I frowned, standing, irritation bubbling through my despair only to fizzle at the sight of Garrus entering with his arms full of my armor. He froze at the sight of my undress. "I'm sorry. Is this a bad time? I could come -"

"Just - set it over there." I waved vaguely in the direction of my desk. I kept one arm around my waist, holding the robe shut. I hadn't actually tied it since I didn't expect anyone to bring my armor back until tomorrow. I certainly didn't expect it back an hour after I left it with him and Tali and Mordin.

"It's clean by the way. However he got to you, it wasn't through that." Ice water, glaciers went through my veins as he straightened up and turned to go.

"What - what did you say?" I fumbled for the tie. I couldn't find it, where was it. Dammit. I nearly spun in a circle. "Garrus? What?" I didn't like the note of panic in my voice but there wasn't much I could do to control it. Staypleasestay.

"Oh, Spirits, Shepard. That's not what I… What are you looking for?" Rough hands gently cupped my face and I stared up at him, blinking. I hadn't heard him approach. He could move quietly when he wanted to, but usually didn't bother around me.

I choked back a laugh, grabbing his wrists. "You mean right this second or in general?"

"Either."

"My humanity for one." I realized I wasn't holding the robe closed and felt my face heat. I let go of his wrists and yanked the fabric closed. "The tie to my robe for another."

He looked around behind me. "I don't actually see the second. And I don't know how to convince you of the first." His thumbs stroked along my cheekbones and I leaned into the caress, closing my eyes.

"You found my helmet yourself, Garrus," I pointed out.

He released me, striding over to my desk to pick up the piece of armored plasteel. "This? Shepard! I wish I hadn't found it. You don't even know if it was the one you were wearing!"

"How else would it -?"

"How many spares did you have?"

"I-?"

"How many?"

"Two? Maybe three?"

He put it in my hands, gently. Though he was shaking, too, the kind of shaking he did when he was very angry, like when he wanted to shoot Sidonis. I knew he didn't want to shoot me, that left Cerberus. Or maybe throwing my helmet out an airlock. "I would like to remind you, as a former investigator, it is my considerable, expert opinion that this helmet was one of your spares, and Cerberus didn't have to make you a computer for a brain."

I carefully put the helmet on my table and turned to look at him, crossing my arms over my closed robe. "Thank you." I took a deep breath. "It doesn't explain how I was taken over as if I were just another AI."

"Spirits, Shepard! It is a problem. And one that we will deal with. All of us." He grabbed my upper arms, something I'd almost once broken Joker in half for. "I. Almost. Lost. You. Again. Today." His eyes searched my face, his cheekplates moving against his jaw. "That… asshole Archer… If his experiment had… hurt you. Taken you…" His voice cracked in a way I hadn't heard since we were talking about his men, "away from me." His voice went cold. As if the dual tones had merged and weren't harmonized any more. "There wouldn't have been anything left of him."

I put one hand on the unwounded side of his face; he leaned his cheek into it. "And Cerberus would have hunted you down."

He huffed out a laugh. "Ask me if I care?"

"Oh, God, Garrus, I care!" I stared at him, not sure what to do with the jumble of emotions I was feeling. Suddenly, I really didn't care about the damned belt. At least I had on underwear, and it wasn't ratty. Matching white lace, actually. Hopefully it made up for the fact that I had no makeup on and my hair was still damp. I put the other hand on the injured side of his face, carefully, gently. "The number of ways this thing could still go sideways? You don't get to go out in a blaze of glory if I don't make it."

He pressed his forehead to mine. "You won't be around to stop me."

I kissed his nose. "I will crawl out of the grave myself to kick your ass."

He laughed. "And there you go, taking away my incentive to listen to your orders."

"Garrus," I sighed, "someone has to stop the Reapers. Promise me. If I can't…"

"Dammit, Shepard!" He dropped his hands away and spun, pacing toward the fish tank. "You can't ask me that!" He turned back to face me. "You can't ask that I pick up the fight if you can't…" His voice broke.

"Who else can I ask?" I threw my arms out. "Who else believes in this enough to..."

"Stop." He leaned on the tank, his head on his arm.

I walked over and squeezed in between him and the fish tank. I didn't have to crouch much, he was at least that much taller than me. His eyes were closed. "Do you know what those two years were like?"

"You've given me a hint or two." I put my hand on his neck. He nuzzled my arm with his cheekplate pushing it into the cowl of his armor. He opened his eyes and straightened up enough to let me stand. "I want you to understand something, Garrus. Just because I'm asking you do this, doesn't mean I want you to have to do this. I never want to leave you again. I intend to see this through." I took one of his hands and put it on my hip. "With you."

He used that hand to yank me closer. "With me." His other came off the fish tank and cradled me as he ducked his head for a kiss. And his armor dug into my armpit.

I jerked back. "Ow. I really want to kiss you. A lot. But that," I knocked on the side of his armor. "Needs to come off."

He was already backing up and taking off his gloves. "Fine. But you'll need to do something to keep me warm."

I grinned. "I'm sure I can think of something." I walked over and yanked the heavy comforter off the bed. Even I got cold in this room at night. I turned and he was already down to his boots, nothing but his lower under armor on. I guess a two piece would be better than one piece. Too bad the Alliance and Cerberus didn't think of it. But that thought was vague. Knowing what turians looked like without their armor and having one half naked in front of you was an entirely different prospect.

Some of the descriptions claimed they were silver, metallic. That wasn't remotely close to what I was seeing. He yanked the second boot off and the light from the fish tank and the dim light from my desk lamp made him look iridescent. I knew the armor and the cowl on his civilian clothes and training gear didn't reflect what he really looked like, but the breadth of his shoulders surprised me all the same. He rubbed the back of his neck under his fringe. "Shepard? I'm freezing."

"Oh, sorry." I stopped staring and dragged the blanket over. Before I could do anything with it, though, he stopped me, his hands on my hips. Watching my face, he reached up and gently slid first one shoulder of my robe off and then the other. I let it fall away and shoved it out of the way so it wouldn't get caught up in the blanket.

"You're sure?" he asked, meeting my eyes. He hadn't yet let himself look at me.

"My heart's not racing because I'm nervous, Garrus. Well...at least not only."

He huffed out a laugh. "At least we're in this together, right?" He let his eyes travel from mine down over my shoulders and breasts, my stomach and hips and legs and back to my eyes. His cheekplates flared out and clicked back against his mouth in a way that I couldn't interpret. I tried not to read anything into it. He cautiously placed his hands on my waist, watching my face. I nodded and moved closer and he gently pulled on me, inviting me closer still, until I ended up climbing onto his lap as I had in the gunnery bay. I pulled the blanket up and around us, realizing he was actually shivering as I settled onto him. He slouched on the chair as I tried to get comfortable and warm him up, his hands stroked small circles along my waist and down my hips, making me tremble. I gave up trying to think and I tucked the blanket ends behind him so I wouldn't have to hold it. Then I rested my palms on his shoulders, where the smoother skin from his neck continued downward.

"Always. But, Garrus… I want to make sure - I'm not pressuring you or anything. I don't - if you're not comfortable…" His hands moved to the small of my back, continuing their light strokes. "Oh, god, that feels good."

His cheekplates flared out and his lips parted in that expression that meant he was pleased with himself. "Shepard, Meghan, you're not pressuring me into anything. If I felt pressured, I would have left when you suggested I take off my armor. Since it was a suggestion, not an order, right?"

"Of cou- Oh!" His hands trailed up and down my spine and I arched my back and involuntarily ground my hips against him, seeking friction. He let out grunt of pleasure of his own and his palms flattened on my back, his own hips rising against mine.

He rested his forehead on my shoulder, his breath coming fast against my collarbone. I wrapped my arms around his neck, steadying myself, pressing myself against him. "That- felt good," he panted. His hands moved down to my hips and held me still. I felt him grow hard against me. "Don't move, I want to savor this." He raised his head to look at me.

"The last shot?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. He laughed, which made his body move against me and my hips ground against his again and I threw my head back. He took the opportunity to run his rough tongue along my collarbone and up my neck to my ear. It was my turn to gasp. "Garrus!"

"Should I stop?"

"I will shoot you. It may not be concussive rounds." He gave a low chuckle, the one that already made things low in my body tighten, and moved to the other side, repeating the long stroke with his tongue and began to move his hands up and down my back again. I trembled and my hips moved against his. I ran my short fingernails up his neck where he was really sensitive under his fringe, and trailed slow, open-mouthed kisses up along his neck toward his cheekplates on his uninjured side.

"Shepard?"

"Mmm?" I asked around kisses, trying to figure out if I could get his scouter off. At this point, it was just cheating.

He pulled gently on my bra strap across my back. "Two things: is this necessary?"

I stopped at looked at him. "It isn't. But you know what taking it off means, right?" In answer, he moved his hands to my front and cupped my breasts, sliding his thumbs over the nipples through the lace. I took a deep breath as lightning shot from there to my core, forcing me to clench my fists to keep from sparking. It had been a very long time since someone had made me lose control of my biotics simply doing that.

"Does that answer your question?"

I uncurled my toes. "Yes, yes it does. Do you want me to do it, or do you want your first lesson in unhooking a bra?"

He shifted his hips under me and I moaned. That felt way too good. "Normally, I'd be up for the challenge, but I'm not sure I have enough blood in my brain right now."

"I can feel that." I had the bra off in about two seconds. I lifted it out of the blanket, raising an eyebrow at him. He flared his cheekplates in a wide grin and put his hands back on my breasts as I dropped the lingerie. He rubbed his thumb across my bare nipples and I gasped. I leaned down and kissed him, moving my hips against him in encouragement. When I pulled away, I asked, "What was the second thing?"

He seemed to be concentrating on my breasts. Much as I really liked what he was doing, and I really really did, every non-biotic nerve ending was standing at attention, and the only reason those weren't was because I had them locked down tighter than a maximum security prison, I wanted him to answer. "Garrus?"

"Hmm? Oh, are you supposed to be wet? I mean… I know I am… but are you?" He was? That would explain the extra wetness that I'd been trying not to pay attention to. It certainly did not feel bad. Quite the opposite.

"Yes. Is that bad?"

"Spirits, no!" He took a deep, shaky breath. "But I need to get out of these." I held his gaze and slid my hands down his chest to his waist. His hips bucked against me.

"Did I hit something sensitive?" I asked, kissing him.

He kissed me back, "I'll show you after we get these off me." I grinned and continued to the zippers I'd been feeling against the sides of my legs. Probably the only way you could get something so tight over his spurs. One mystery solved. I was just glad they only went to his knees. I slid one side down, while I kissed him, his tongue chasing mine, following the zipper under my leg, then back behind my ass, his hand leaving my breast to stroke the underside of my thigh up to the edge of the lace of my panties. I trembled at the effort it was taking not to spark at this point as I repeated the motion and his hands switched, the one returning to my breast, the other stroking the underside of my thigh.

I pulled away and looked down. "Um… I think you're going to have to do the rest. I can't get that disconnected from an erection when I am familiar with the anatomy."

He started laughing. "It's not easy when you are familiar with the anatomy. Do you know how often I've had to do this lately after you've left the gunnery?"

I grinned and raised myself up enough to give him room to work. I also leaned over and kissed his neck, open mouthed, touching him with my tongue. "Every. Single. Time. I hope." I felt him move and he handed me the underarmor pants to get rid of. I grinned and threw them over my shoulder.

"If it wasn't before, it will be now." He slid his hands down my back and I shivered, but I kept kissing his neck, kneeling on either side of his legs. His hands continued down to my ass running under my lace panties and sliding them off my hips. I chuckled and pulled them the rest of the way off, letting him steady me and trying not to dislodge the blanket. Before I sat back on his lap, though, he surprised me. He kept the one hand on my hip that he'd used to steady me, but teasingly, he lightly slipped his free hand between my legs. I gasped and straightened up to meet his eyes, my hands on his shoulders. "Is this all right?" He pressed a little harder, somehow finding my clit immediately. I moaned and bent one leg up, giving him more room and arching my back.

"It's… more than alright." My control was fraying. I was only a matter of time before I sparked all over both of us. "Where did…," he rubbed gentle slow circles on it with his thumb, and slid another finger inside, "you find out about that?" His hands felt like nothing I'd ever felt before. Thicker fingers, stronger, rougher.

He chuckled. "Wrex's 'instructional videos'."

I tucked my head in against his. "They're called porn, Garrus." He nodded, turning his head to press his harder lips against mine.

"That's how he got them past the filters."

My laugh turned into another gasp. "If you...ahh… keep this up… I'm going to lose control of my -"

His steadying hand moved up to cup the back of my head and he pressed his mouth to mine again. He let go enough to press his forehead to mine and tell me, "Then let go. I trust you." His finger pushed further inside me and pressed my hips against his hand harder. I was so close, but this wasn't how I wanted to come.

I wrapped my arms around him, "I trust you, too." He withdrew his hand and while I ached with its absence, he guided my hips where he wanted them. I leaned back to meet his eyes as I felt him at my opening. He held my gaze as I lowered myself on to him, following the pressure of his hands. I stopped, closing my eyes, feeling his warmth and his pressure. It was definitely more and different than I was used to. But oh, it felt good. I still had to adjust.

"Meghan?" I heard the concern in his voice. "Am I hurting you? Because I don't think I can pull out…You're soft… spirits!" I could feel his hands on my back, uncertain where to hold me. I think he really wanted to hold me tighter, push himself further in, but he sincerely didn't want to cause me pain. I opened my eyes and met his wide eyed gaze.

"Mmmm….You're not hurting me." I eased down and settled against him the rest of the way, "You feel wonderful." He ran his hands up my back, then down, grasping my hips.

"Good, because I think you've just turned me into a dirty…" he inhaled sharply as I rolled my hips against his and felt his fingers spasm against my ass, "xenophile. Completely spoiled." He let out a dual tone moan.

"Well," I whispered against his lips, "I had to return the favor." I kept moving my hips against him, feeling that long, slow flame of an orgasm that had been building since he first touched me begin to crest, a fire expanding outward from my core, my nerve endings burning as it engulfed me. I wrapped my arms tighter around him, and felt him somehow widen within me, increasing the heat and pressure. "Oh, God, Garrus!"

He clung to me, his own his hips thrusting upward against me. "Don't stop, Meghan. Dammit, Meg, don't stop!" He nearly growled. I'd never heard him shorten my name before. I quickened my pace, arching my back. He bent his head and ran his tongue first over one nipple and then the other and that was all I needed. I lost control and flared. My orgasm shot through me with the heat of molten lava and I leaked dark energy over both of us. Garrus came with another growl of my name, clutching me tight against his chest.

I collapsed against him, panting. I really needed this blanket off, but he would probably freeze. "I didn't hurt you with that flare, did I?"

"Oh, hell no." He ran his fingers through my hair, unsticking it from my back. I felt about a thousand degrees cooler. "Do you do that every time?"

"Flare?" I laughed. "You should take that as the highest compliment. Only if the sex is that good." He made a pleased noise and wriggled a little. I moaned, another jolt going right to my core. How the hell was he still inside anyway? "Oh, god, don't do that!" My hips moved against him of their own volition, seeking more friction.

"Why, did I hurt you? Are you," he laughed, "wanting more?"

"Human women can have more than one.." I sat up a little. It was his turn to moan. I froze. "Aren't you… you know… done?"

"Turian men can also have more." We grinned at each other. Experimentally, I ground my hips against him and got another moan out of him.

I shook my head and stopped teasing him. "But not on this chair. I don't think my knees can handle this again and that can't be good for your back."

He sat up, shifting inside me to the point where I had to wrap myself around him again and it was my turn to moan. "I can't withdraw though."

"Why?"

"Chafing?" He sighed. "I'd explain, but it'll make me feel dirty and clinical and really kill the mood."

I giggled. "Noted. No biology lessons during sex. Can you carry me?"

He gave me a look. "It's not like you're heavy. You get the blanket."

A/N

I'd like to thank WarlordFil for some of the biology headcanons. A long time ago, I once asked permission for "someday" when "I got around to it." Well... Meghan and Garrus finally got around to it...