***Author's Note***

This is mostly a filler chapter, full of fluff and people being awkward. There is some story development at the end though :)

This chapter is dedicated to Gamer072196, and so is a surprise. This also means, I did this alone so I'm sorry if it isn't as good as the other chapters. and I'm sorry if I disappoint :/

Hope you enjoy :)

Chapter 25 - Recovery

Shepard smiled happily to himself when he felt the Normandy shudder as it came into dock at Omega. He had warned Omega ahead of time that his ship would need repairing and Aria T'Loak, with their precarious friendship, had organised the best engineers she could offer. He had also booked out rented apartments for his crew and squad to stay in for the few days they would be on the festering station.

He wished he could have docked on the Citadel, but it was too far away and far too political for his liking. Too many questions would be asked and too many of his crew and squad would have run the risk of being arrested. Himself included. He was a Spectre sure, but he had also promised the council that he would stay away during his affiliation with Cerberus. An affiliation that was now moot.

He shook his thoughts away and dressed in his most casual and comfortable clothes. I will not be working today. He decided stubbornly and made his way down to the CIC.

"Everyone! Listen up!" The crew in the CIC turned to face him, eyes still tired and faces still pale. The comm crackled in acknowledgement of the commanders in coming speech and began broadcasting his words across the ship. "As you may have guessed, we're now docked at Omega. I cannot begin to thank you enough for your tireless work to get us this far after all you went through on the other side of that relay." Members of the crew nodded their heads with small smiles at his words. "And so, Aria has graciously allowed us to dock and stay, she has hired engineers to carry out your repair works and we have arranged for places for us all to stay. You have three days to do as you please on the station. I have forwarded credits to you all and details of the rooms we have for ourselves." The crew became excited at the time to recuperate and relax, they all moved as one as they stood to make their way to the airlock. "Wait!" They stopped and stared at him. "Jeez, you're like school children." Small laughs echoed around the room. "Please...be careful. Don't cause trouble, and don't order drinks from batarian's. Clear?" Salutes and 'yes sirs' floated to him. "Dismissed." They began to file out of the airlock and into the festering heat of Omega's walkways.

"Shepard?" He looked over at Kelly who still had a few bandages over her arms and a slowly healing cut on her cheek. "I just want to thank you. For all you have done. Not only saving us, but saving everyone else we share the galaxy with. I don't kno-"

Shepard silenced her with a gentle hug around her shoulders. She froze for a moment before smiling into his chest and returning the hug, arms wrapping around his waist and...

"Hey!" He jumped back away from her as she laughed. "That is a private area that belongs to-"

"Me."

Garrus emerged from the elevator accompanied by Thane and Marie. He came and wrapped his arm about Shepard's shoulders and smirked down at Kelly as she laughed loudly. Marie and Thane chuckled and shook their heads and began to join the throng of people leaving the ship.

"Aw, Garrus. Share?" Kelly whined with smile, winking and pulling on Shepard's hand. "There's enough of him to go around, don't you think?"

Garrus hummed to himself. "Hmm. Maybe." He felt Shepard stiffen in horror. "If we could find a way to make this work then, yeah, definitely."

Shepard choked and began to back away from the two conspirators. "Nope! I'm out! I hate you both!"

He turned and ran toward Thane and Marie with feigned insult and embarrassment. Garrus watched him go before turning back to Kelly.

"Sorry, Kelly. Commanders orders." He grinned at her and began to follow the commander in question.

"Oh, don't worry about it." She smirked as a data specialist approached her and took her hand. "I have better plans."

The squad arrived at the apartments with Joker in the middle of them. They quickly picked their rooms and went about unpacking the various items they had deemed important enough to come of ship with them.

Marie ducked her head at Thane as he made their room to his liking and moved into the bathroom. She stripped of her clothes and bandages and looked at herself in the floor length mirror before her. She grimaced at herself.

She was still skinny, granted a lot of the skinniness now came from the toning of her muscles from her regular sparring with Garrus, Thane, and Shepard. But, she missed the way her old self curved gently. She used to have bigger breasts, she knew. Now her body was slim, angular and petite. Her hips were still noticeably female but they were smaller than they used to be. She sighed gently. That wasn't what she had grimaced at in the first place.

The angry red lesions on her body and arms were her cause for concern. Small holes and lashes that came from the tiny insects that had tried to disintegrate her and process her into the grey liquid for the Reaper. She knew that Kelly would look much the same.

Shaking her head, she showered quickly and dried herself. She took out the ointment Chakwas had provided for her and went about pasting it over the sores. Marie soon came to the realisation that she just couldn't reach everywhere on her body. Fuck sake...She rested her forehead against the wall of the bathroom. Just ask for help. It's not any different from what you do for him every day. So your skin is a bit splotchy at the moment, it's not like he'll care...will he? She wrapped herself in her towel and drew in her courage.

"Thane?" He was by the door in an instant, face expectant and drawn into a worried frown. "Can you help me?" She held out the ointment and he took it with a quirk of his brow.

"Yes, where do you want me to put it?"

She turned slowly and dropped her towel, shutting her eyes tightly so she couldn't see his reaction. She heard him growl at the back of his throat and she couldn't decide if it was disgust or anger.

"Are they sore to touch?" Not disgust then. She felt relieved that he hadn't simply said no and walked away.

"A bit."

A small hum. "I'll be careful then."

She felt his hands on her then as he slowly rubbed ointment into every cut and bruise on her back. He stepped closer to her as he did so and she could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck. Her eyes fluttered shut at the feeling and she braced herself against the wall.

And then a towel was being draped across her shoulders. She looked back at him as he washed his hands of the ointment in the sink.

"You should get dressed, I believe we are being made to 'go out' tonight." He smiled at her as he left the bathroom, leaving a frustrated and confused Marie behind.

Garrus laughed loudly as he watched the women in the group practically force Joker to drink with them. He laughed even harder when the pilot choked on whatever they had offered him.

He observed the levels of drunkenness around the group and decided that people would not be doing much tomorrow.

Jacob was swaying in his seat as he had a heated argument with a drunken Zaeed about guns. Garrus decided they were both wrong but kept it to himself. Samara was sober and talking with Legion who didn't drink or eat, what they were talking about he didn't know, his own level of intoxication muffling his senses. Mordin was attempting to take a skin sample from Shepard who was continuously batting his fluttering hands away, even as he tried to keep a level of concentration on Jack who was talking rapidly at him. Jack, herself, was holding onto the table for dear life in an attempt to stay straight. Tali, Kasumi, and Marie, had cornered Joker and were promptly getting the man drunk. Garrus shifted his gaze to Thane, whose hands gripped the base of his cup tightly as he watched Marie laugh.

"Thane? You okay?"

The drell blinked owlishly at him as his brain caught up with the question.

"Yes. I'm just watching her." He pointed gently at the human in question, a waver in his hands signalled how much he had actually drank. "She makes me so..."

"Frustrated?" Garrus replied sagely as he bobbed his head.

"Yes. How can I...create a situation that would lead to...places." His slurred words made Garrus snort. Another reason for his mirth would be the fact that this drell, a trained killer, and master of etiquette, was asking him, a rogue turian with a penchant for trouble, advice on getting laid.

"I dunno. Me and Shepard just kind of happened." Shepard, beside him, shifted at his name and turned to face them both. "In the meantime...might I suggest porn?" Garrus and Shepard giggled together as Thane blushed and became flustered.

"Pawn?" Marie sat beside Thane. "I used to love pawn shops!" The blush on her cheeks got redder when Thane turned to face her with a slight scowl.

"You used to enjoy porn?" He mused.

"Yeah, I used to pawn...things all the time!" She laughed and took a sip of her drink.

Thane sat up straighter and looked down at her. His eyes had narrowed and his lips had pursed in such a way that it looked like he had sucked on something sour. His ribbing went black and Garrus found himself holding his breath as he observed the change in the drell. Marie realised it too and watched him with raised eyebrows.

"What?"

"I'm not sure that I can be okay with this, siha." He murmured.

"Okay with what?" She honestly looked confused. And Garrus knew why.

"You used to sell...yourself...for porn?" Realisation dawned on her face and she laughed. She laughed loud and hard and gripped the table for balance as her body seemed to have lost control. Thane watched her as his face darkened. "I don't see why this is funny, Marie."

"Pawn! Not porn! I sold items to pawn shops!" She laughed harder. "You thought I meant adult entertainment?"

Thane relaxed visibly and took a sip from his drink before gripping her hand and turning back to Garrus.

"No, Garrus. I haven't thought of porn, why?"

Shepard chuckled darkly and squeezed his thigh beneath the table.

Thane scowled at the light filtering through the curtains of the window. The day cycle had truly began on Omega, and Thane hated it.

His head was pounding and his mouth felt too dry. His scales felt grimy and his feet hurt. There was a muddled spot in his memory full of swirling faces and lots of walking through Omega as the humans in their group hunted for an open fast food place. He recalled Garrus complaining, pointing out that their apartments did have room service.

A draft ghosted over the exposed areas on his body and he shivered slightly, his hand brushing around himself as he hunted for the blanket he knew was around there somewhere.

His hand brushed a warmth and he wearily turned to look at the source.

Marie was curled beneath the blankets he sought after, her toes stuck out from them and her hands were folded beneath her face. He sighed and moved himself to get the blankets and distribute them evenly between them both. He lifted the edge and quickly put it back down, his neck and cheeks flushed a bright red.

The draft distracted him for a moment and he looked down at himself. Oh no...

He was as naked as she was beneath those sheets. His hands covered his mouth and he desperately tried to sort through his muddled thoughts. Please tell me we didn't...Arashu, please.

We entered our room. Bold and laughing as we teased one another with the spoils of the only open takeaway available. Her hair fell down her back as she turned away from me and sat on the bed. Hands fumbled with the buckles of boots and pants. Jacket zips and shirt sleeves. "Help me, Thane." My hands are deft and sure as I peel away her clothing. She sighs in relief as her bra comes undone and bares her chest to me. She crawls beneath the bedding by the wall and closes her eyes. I smile and take off my own clothes, crawling in beside her. Her arm rests on my waist.

And then blackness. He sighed in relief. We just slept.

He lifted the blankets and made a point of not looking at her exposed skin. He pulled them over himself and smiled in contentedness as she nuzzled her way into his side and eventually rested her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her, he would be happy enough if they stayed like this all day.

Shepard panted as he rolled away from Garrus, happily spent and content in basking in the glowing drowsiness that followed after sex. Damn...He turned to look at his turian and grinned.

His piercing blue eyes were fluttering as he fought the need to sleep.

He let his fingers play with the marks that Garrus had left on his shoulder and suddenly the curiosity was too much for him.

"So..." Garrus turned to face him with his own grin, silently laughing at Shepard's awkwardness. "This mark, what does it mean?"

He watched as colour filled Garrus' neck as he decided the ceiling was much better point of focus.

"Yeah, I should have asked you first...it just happened? Sorry." An apologetic trill left Garrus from the back of his throat.

"Ask me what?" I definitely should have looked on the extranet. He mentally slapped himself. he had meant to do it but just never got round to it, what with the threat of death, hunting for his crew, and then killing a Reaper. Oh, and spending a day asleep didn't help the matter. "Garrus?"

He turned back to him, his mind stumbling over the words he should use. "I...it's something turian's do. After we...ah..."

"Seriously?" Shepard's face had turned into a thunder-cloud of a scowl and Garrus flinched beneath his gaze. "What is this? Like a notch in the bedpost or something?"

"What!? No!" Garrus sat up, his sudden height looming over Shepard. "I've had sex before, Shepard!" Shepard opened his mouth but was rendered speechless by Garrus' hand over his mouth. He was tempted to bite. "Hush. I've had sex before and never have I marked someone. You can be sure of that." He moved his hand away.

"Right. But what does it mean?" he sat up beside Garrus, the blankets bunching around his hips.

"It's a sign. A warning to other turians that the person marked is unavailable and belongs to another." He took a deep breath. "Turian's, when we find...the 'one', mate for life, Shepard. Ah, Elliot, I should have said something to you before hand. I think, hope, that you are mine. My 'one', and I don't intend to share you." His eyes turned very intense. "If this is just a fling to you, I need to know now. I can't do this if you don't feel the same way..." A painful sound left him.

Shepard sat, his mind turning over itself in shock. "I...um..." He left it hanging as he stood and pulled on a pair of sweats. "I'll be right back." He turned and left Garrus in the bed, leaving the room and strolling down the corridor. He broke into a run.

Garrus placed his head in his hands. I should have asked him. I should have...

The pain in his chest wrenched a mourning cry from him. His head felt like it was going to explode. He just left. Garrus couldn't process it.

He heard running in the corridor, heavy footfalls and a small gasp as a bang hit the door. He snapped his head up at the door as a fumbling at the lock, almost as if whoever was there just couldn't get their hand to swipe at it.

Groans of annoyance and finally the door opened with quiet hiss. Shepard fell back into the room, shirtless and with his arms full of...things.

He turned to Garrus with a face-splitting grin and held up the items.

Takeaway foods, bottles of alcohol, and data discs of movies.

"We are not leaving this room today." He dumped the stuff on the couch and walked back to the bed. Falling beside Garrus and taking his talons in his hands. "I wish you had said something sooner, Garrus. Here, I don't know what to give you but I hope this will do..." A small jingle and Shepard placed something in his hands.

Garrus sat and stared at Shepard in shock before looking down at his hands. His dog tags glistened and sat snuggly in his palms.

"Elliot, I...I thought you..."

Shepard shook his head and took the tags from him, unclasping them and reaching behind Garrus' head. Garrus leant his fringe into Shepard's chest and waited for him to finish.

When he pulled away, the dogs tags were tied around his neck and rested at the base of his throat.

"Humans don't mark our...spouses...and you don't have a ring finger. So this is the next best thing." He smiled at him then and Garrus sighed the biggest sigh of relief he had ever done. "Now, what do you want to do?"

Garrus laughed an dragged Shepard on top of him and reveled in the feeling of his hair on his plates.

"Everything."

Shepard stepped back into the CIC on his revived and now fully operational ship. Glad to be off Omega and back home.

A blinking green light at his private terminal made him groan. Can they not leave me alone for a week? If The Illusive Man thinks he's getting to meet Marie, he can simply fuck off.

He opened his messages and paused. His terminal lit up when he opened the message.

"Incoming message from Admiral Steven Hackett, Alliance HQ." He groaned again. What have I done now? "Commander Shepard. I need to discuss a sensitive matter with you privately."

"Fine." He turned and made his way to his quarters.

He stepped into his room and choked. Garrus was sprawled on his bed, naked, and completely asleep. Shit.

"Garrus?" No answer. "Shit..."

He opened his terminal and turned it to be sure the Admiral wouldn't see the passed out turian in his bed. This meant he was snuggly encased in the corner of his desk. His case full of his ships went black and Admiral Hackett's face appeared over him. Fuck...I forgot about that...

"Commander..." Hackett's face turned into a frown. "Why are you sat on the ground?"

Shepard stood hastily and brushed of his casual clothes. "I...uh...fell over?" From the corner of his eye he saw a naked Garrus stand beside his desk, out of sight of the camera but incredibly distracting. "How can I help you, Admiral?" Keep cool, Elliot.

"Yes. Thank you for your time. I'll keep this brief. We have a deep cover operative out in batarian space. Name's Doctor Amanda Kenson. Doctor Kenson recently reported that she found evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion."

Garrus was strutting in front of the fish tank, purposely trying to make Shepard laugh. He bit the inside of his cheek. "So why call me?" Fuck off, Garrus.

"Just this morning I received word that the batarians arrested her. They're holding her in a secret prison outpost on terrorism charges. I need you to infiltrate the prison and get her out of there. As a favour to me, I'm asking you to go alone." Garrus stood statue still.

"I thought the Alliance denies the Reaper threat. That must be some proof she found."

"Kenson's team found an artifact out in batarian space. She believes it's a Reaper device, proof that the Reapers are indeed planning to invade. I've known her a long time, if she say she has proof, it's worth checking out."

Shepard's eyes flicked to Garrus who was shaking his head stubbornly. "I have a hell of a squad with me, I'm sure they'd help out."

"Kenson is my friend. If the batarian's see a squad of armed soldiers, they'll kill her. This is serious, Commander. Go in with discretion, or don't go at all."

"I'll..." Garrus, stop shaking your head. "I'll make this a priority."

Hackett nodded his head in thanks. "The prison is hidden underground at a batarian outpost on Aratoht. I'll upload the coordinates now. once she's secure, confirm her discovery. We'll debrief you when you're back." The screen faded and Shepard turned to Garrus.

The turian scowled at him. "Nope."

"Yep."

"Shepard."

"First Officer."

"You're pulling rank on me?"

"Yes. I'll be gone a couple of hours, tops. You won't even miss me." He smirked and sent the coordinates to Joker.

"Got it, Commander. ETA, five hours."

"See? It'll be done before the day is out."

"Yes. Commander."

Shepard frowned.

Sorry if this isn't the usual quality :/

Anyhow! I hope you enjoyed it :)

Leave a review and the such ;)