***Author's Note***
I am very tired as I post this, please excuse any major grammar awkwardness :P
As always, a big thank you to Gamer072196! Be sure to read their stuff, they have some really nice Dragon Age fics going right now :D
Enjoy and review!
Month Two
One thing he had to admit about the Alliance: They knew how to keep those in custody comfortable. His bed was soft, too soft for him. He was used to sleeping on the semi-hard mattress, or in a blanketed nest on the ground, or on the hard plates of a turian. Even though, he was comfortable and, if he lay just right, he could see the sky from his pillow. He would watch the ships go by, the people on the garden rooves, children playing. He would listen to Anderson nearly everyday, asking for details about Cerberus (which he willingly gave) and for details about his crew (which he never answered). He would eat his meals and do his exercises. And then he would be bored.
He had had a few good days of amusement though. Winding Anderson up was always interesting, making the maids blush when they came to collect his laundry, getting to know the Lieutenant that had been assigned to him was fun too.
His door opened and he sat up and grinned at a nurse. Her stern face merely looked down on him, as though he were a criminal that she had the distinct displeasure of making sure was healthy. Her severe hair cut pulled back her face and her dark make-up made him feel uneasy. This was not going to be pleasant.
"Uhh...what can I do for you, nurse?" He fumbled over his words and scowled at himself. Since when did anyone intimidate you? Well, Garrus when he's angry...or when he-
"Strip of your clothes, Mr. Shepard." She began pulling on her sterile latex gloves and an apron to cover her nurses blouse. He stared blankly at her. Nevermind intimidation, when did I become Mr. Shepard? "And tie your hair back."
"Ah, sure..." He pulled of his tight-fitting grey Alliance shirt and then stood to take of his sweat pants. When clad in just his underwear he waited for the nurse to finish her prep.
She looked up at him with a raised painted eyebrow. "Are you deaf, Mr. Shepard?"
"N-no." Wow, she has me stuttering now.
"So what part of 'tie your hair back' did you not understand?" She crossed her arm over her thin chest and stared up at him with unforgiving eyes.
"Oh! Sorry, I'm not used to having it pulled back." He gave her a sheepish grin. "Do you have a bobble?"
"Hmpf. And I suppose in Cerberus they just let you wear your hair that way? I see." She sniffed through a pointed nose and pulled an elastic from her pocket. "Thugs." She muttered beneath her breath, but Shepard could hear her. Hell, if he concentrated, he could probably hear her heartbeat in this pained and awkward tension.
He winced as he scraped his hair back and pulled it into a sloppy bun at the nape of his neck. She tutted at his messiness and motioned to the seat beside her. "Sit there, Mr. Shepard."
He sat down heavily and she began her trade.
Starting at his feet; she began to press, rather roughly, into every one of his joints. Every time she found evidence of a plate or AMP she would tut that annoying tut and scribble something down on her notebook. She pressed hard into each one of his ribs, and swabbed every one of his bullet wound scars. "Sloppy medic work." Then she turned her scrutinising gaze to the thin red lines that ran with the contours of his body. "Cheap cybernetics." She pulled at the skin around every glowing spot with a practised but hard hand and scowled at each one. The ones on his face seemed to annoy her the most. "Did they tell you when those would heal, Mr. Shepard?"
"Umm, no. But the visibility of them depends on my mood, I guess."
"So how do you feel right now?"
"Nervous, but other than that, I'm okay."
"Well, we seem to know how to keep our terrorists comfortable, don't we?"
"Terror-"
She pointed at the scars left behind from Garrus' bonding bite. "And these, what are they from? You may need a shot if it was from some kind of animal."
He fingered the bite mark with an affectionate gesture. "A turian." He paused, wondering whether or not he should reveal his relationship with the alien. Before he could decide however, she had decided for him.
"You'll need a shot then. Never know what diseases those aliens are carrying." She sniffed again. He didn't understand, he had been raised around aliens. Made friends with aliens easier than he did with people. He looked at her carefully then; she was older, wrinkles around those steely eyes and thin mouth. She had probably lived on Earth her entire life, lived through the First Contact war, probably treated victims from it. Definitely a xeno-phobe.
He was definitely revealing his relationship.
"Actually, Ms-" A look at her name tag. Oh dear. "Gargorus, it was a consensual thing. If you catch my drift." She clearly didn't. Time to be more blunt. "Turian's mark their mates as their own after they become bonded." A blank face and he sighed. "We had sex." She sputtered with disbelief, little specks of her spit landing on his bare skin and making him cringe. "Also, I'm not 'Mr. Shepard', I am Commander Shepard of the Alliance, and N7 alliance Marine and the first human Spectre." She continued sputtering.
"I will not work like this! I will not take this from a terrorist and a xeno-phile. Disgusting, outrageous. Cerberus dogs! Turian sympathisers." She muttered all of this as she packed her apparatus away and shuffled out the door, leaving a half-naked Shepard reclining smugly in his chair.
Bitch.
Lieutenant James Vega rounded the corner that lead onto the corridor that held Commander Shepard's room. A small mass barreled past him, muttering about terrorist rudeness and turians. Loco, completely loco.
Shrugging, he squared his shoulders and pushed his way through the door and was subsequently welcomed by the smug face of a half-naked Commander. He reclined lazily into the chair and brushed out his long hair with his fingertips.
"Lieutenant." He said by way of greeting.
"Hey Commander, how's things?" He crossed his arms over his broad chest and leant, heavily, against the plain grey wall behind him. "Not too bored, I hope."
He stood then and casually pulled on his pants, his hair falling to one side in a golden curtain and revealing his marked neck. "I'm honestly surprised I haven't escaped yet and called for a pick-up."
"Ha, as if you could escape with me guarding your door."
"Don't test me kid." He said with a smile. Shepard looked similar to himself in age, even though the Commander had many more years experience than the Lieutenant. Vega knew he had to get what experience he could before he could have his own ship, his own crew.
"Hmm, we'll see."
"So, to what do I owe the honour?" He sauntered on over to the window and looked out over Vancouver.
James sighed and stood beside the Commander. "Ugh," He hated asking the same questions over and over again. "The brass want what information I can get about your crew."
"No."
"I know."
A pregnant silence fell around them. Shepard thinking about his beloved crew and carefully watching Vega from the corner of his eye, and Vega mulling over information in his head. Shepard caught onto his divided thoughts.
"What do you know?" Piercing brown eyes fixed onto him as his body twisted to face him, the setting sun turning his skin a gentle gold. "Lieutenant?"
"It's classified."
"I see that. What do you know about my crew?" His voice was thick with slowly bubbling rage.
"You know I can't tell you." Again, he crossed his arms over his chest.
Shepard rolled his eyes. "I found the bugs in this room the first week I was here, no one will know if you told me what you could."
"That isn't going to work on me, Loco."
"Ugh! Fine." He sighed and bit his lip as he thought. "Can you at least tell me who they found?"
"N-umm, I suppose." Shepard let out a small grin to celebrate his small victory over the bigger man. "They've found the Justicar, but she was never really hiding, the convict has been sighted once or twice, an officer on the Citadel has sent a few reports on someone he's keeping an eye on, and the turian was last seen taking a ship to Palaven." No serious information, no details on anything, just small bits about people who were easy to find.
Shepard nodded somberly before turning back to face the window. "What does the brass intend to do with them?"
James shrugged with an easy lift of one shoulder. "I really don't know that one, Commander, not my area."
After that, they slipped back into their easy way of being with each other. Talking about small things and slightly bigger things. Their favourite beers, teams, planets, missions (unclassified ones of course). And when James thought he had relaxed the Commander enough, he tried again, but with more tact this time.
"So, anyone special out there? A nice señorita that's waiting for you?"
"No, umm, not a señorita."
"Didn't you used to work with an asari?"
"Dangerous ground again, Vega."
James held his hands out in surrender at his tone. "Right, right! Sorry." I'm not getting anything out of him.
She is always on time!
Kaidan could see the top of her shining hair as she laughed at one of the waitresses who was doing a few tricks with the cocktail mixer. He approached her, but before he could announce himself, she turned and grinned at him.
"Hey. You want a beer?" She gestured at the bar staff who hastily passed her a beer and looked expectantly at him.
"Ah, I thought I'd buy you one." He took the offered beer and took a quick swig from it. Cool and sharp, the way he liked it.
"Do you buy all your friends drinks?"
"Not necessarily, no." They were escorted to a table in the back of the restaurant, a nice cozy spot dimly lit by candles as it over looked the presidium gardens.
"Then don't worry about it, I have enough creds." She shrugged and sat at her chosen seat before looking out of the window and sitting up straight. "Oh! Hey, you can see my apartment from here!"
"Really?" He glanced out with her as she pointed at the dark apartment. "No lights on?"
"Thane took Kolyat out to the shooting range. He likes to do things alone with him, sooo..." She let the subject drop with little grace as she supped at her beer and glanced down at the menu. "Now, it says pizza...but is it really pizza or is it that freeze-dried stuff?"
Kaidan chuckled, glad that he could relax around Marie without the worry of her drell partner watching them, like the first time they had agreed to do something. They had rounded a corner into an alley for a shortcut to the cinema when Marie had caught sight of Thane and his son following them. He claimed he was teaching Kolyat to be stealthier and was not watching Marie at all. Kaidan didn't believe it.
"It's actual pizza, I swear."
"I'll have that then." She shut the menu with a decisive snap and leaned back, easily, into her chair, watching the presidium nightlife below them.
"Me too." He gestured to the waitress and made their order for them. She grinned at the both of them and nodded with a gentle bob of her head before sauntering away with a grin on her face. It made him uneasy. "So, uh, you and Thane?"
Her eyes snapped to him as she took another drink. "What about us?"
He gulped and made a funny gesture with his hand. "You know...is it...weird?"
"Weird?" A dark brow nearly disappeared into her hairline.
"With, umm...stuff...and things." Oh dear, that was really smooth, man. He mentally slapped himself and tried again. He was a grown man, he could ask questions about other people's relationships. Right? "What I mean is: Is it strange being with an alien? Where you come from, well the time anyways, there wasn't even evidence of them. And now you're living with one."
She narrowed her eyes at him as she thought about her answer, her beer hovering just below her mouth. She went to answer but they were interrupted by the waitress. "Wine! For the cute couple!" She cheered and placed a chilled rosé wine on their table with two elegant wine glasses. Marie choked on her own breath as Kaidan's eyes widened with a daring blush on his cheeks. "And your food! Enjoy!" Pizza was placed between them, but rather than two individual pizzas, a single sharing sized one was there instead.
When the waitress took her leave Marie shrugged and took a slice of the steaming pizza. "I can't believe you did this. And to answer your question: No, it's not weird. It's amazing, and a sharing sized pizza wont change that."
"I-I didn't do this! I swe-"
A beeping sound came from her Omni-tool and she opened it up.
"Shit, I gotta go! I have to pick something up for a trip." She placed a credit chit down with a sheepish grin. "Sorry, Kaidan."
"A trip? To where?" He stood with her.
"We're going to Earth, to the desert, before the next stage of Thane's treatment." She brushed imaginary crumbs of herself and made for the exit with a wave and a smile.
Treatment? For what?
Kolyat sighed as he turned the lights on in his father's apartment. Damn, I really wanted an excuse to shoot him. Another sigh escaped him as he watched his father meticulously clean and put away every part of the sniper rifles they had been using. Beautiful guns that hadn't been needed that night. What a shame.
"Kolyat, why do you keep sighing?" His father looked up at him from his work with a smirk. "Did you wish to shoot him that bad?"
"Just one small bullet wound to the leg? Please?" He clasped his hands together and put on his bed puppy dog eyes. "Please, I swear to Arashu that he wont be hurt...that bad."
"No, Kolyat. Now, help me put these away before Marie gets home."
"What if she doesn't come home for hours?" He taunted. "What if she's goes and gets drunk with Kaidan? What if she doesn't come home until the morning because she ends up with him?" His father scowled at him.
"We just watched her leave the table. Alone." He sighed as he shut the clasps on one of the cases for the guns. "Besides, he is not her type."
"How do you know what her type is?"
Thane looked at his son with a furrowed brow and pursed lips. It quickly changed to worry, shock, and worry again, when the door to the apartment opened and admitted Marie as she carried medical supplies for their trip to the desert.
"Thane? Kolyat? Home early, aren't you?"
Kolyat stepped forward to hide the guns from view. "Uhh, yeah. We, uhhh, we were just putting things away...and stuff."
"Oh, okay." She shrugged and breezed into the kitchen to put her own things away.
Kolyat looked to Thane who had his hands clasped together as though in prayer, his lips moving rapidly and eyes shut.
Spirits, will this pain ever end!? Garrus bent over his desk in his old bedroom and keened. He couldn't help it. For two months, he had been holding this feeling in. But now, oh spirits, he had to find some release from the ache.
Things that cluttered his desk tumbled to the ground as his talons clawed at the wood. His other hand grabbed at the dog tags around his neck and his legs shook with the sudden weakness that washed over him.
Why? Why does it hurt so much?
His door opened and earth-brown plates and piercing blue eyes appeared around it. "Garrus, dear?" His mother stepped in to his room, her skeletal figure wobbling slightly through her own weakness. Her drawn face and fading plates made him hurt more. At least her eyes are still bright.
He attempted to stand straight, to be strong for her, but he just couldn't make his back work.
"Garrus? Tell me, what's wrong?" She sat on his bad with a shaky rattle of breath and peered at him with concern on her weathered features. "What has you so stressed?"
He shook his head, and lowered himself back into his chair. The wash of pain had passed, for now. "Nothing, mother. Just trying to build my case to present to father."
"Do not lie to me, son." Her blue eyes that matched his went hard. "Have you mated?"
Damn. "No! I'm just stressed with this." A vague gesture at his desk.
"Who is she?"
"She?" Damn. "She, ah...isn't umm-"
His mothers eyes widened, her mandibles grew slack. "He?"
I shouldn't feel ashamed. I'm bonded with Commander Fucking Shepard! He straightened in his chair and fixed her gaze with his own, a trill of defiance and pride echoed around them. "Yes, he." He fingered the tags pointedly.
"You bonded with him?" She held her hand out for the tags and he obliged. She read them, with each syllable her mandibles widened. "Commander Shepard?" He nodded and puffed out his chest with pride. The pain nearly forgotten. She smiled at him, her eyes glistening, and he felt some tension leave him. "You could do a lot worse, son." She stood and threw the tags back. "I guess I'll cancel the meeting with the Omintan's and their daughter, hmm?" She winked at his relieved smile and nodded as she began to walk away.
"Mother?" She paused at the door to listen. "Please, don't tell father...I'd rather him find out from me."
"Of course, dear." She shut the door behind her.
At least someone doesn't mind. He rested his hand over his chest as a small pain shot through him. Spirits, I cannot wait for this to end. Why is it so hard to hide things from mothers?
Like I said: I was super tired when I edited this and I'm really sorry if it's not up to par :(
Anyhow, review and stuff :) makes me happy ^^