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Loyalty and Limerence
Part 1
Chapter 4
The SSV Normandy
With some small amount of pomp and circumstance, the Normandy left the Citadel ahead of Commander Shepard's original projected schedule, staffed and supplied for wherever the mission might bring them. Garrus felt a little underfoot and it was hard to quiet the voice in the back of his head that sounded eerily like his father telling him that he'd made a huge mistake by jumping aboard this mission without thinking it through first.
The Alliance crew hurried about their duties without paying him much mind except to gawk a little as they passed him. Garrus did his best to ignore it, figuring some of them may not have spent much time around other species. It would probably get better with time. Just when he was about to go ask if there was something he could be helping with, John Shepard approached him.
"Settling in alright, Garrus?"
"Yes, of course. Your crew has been more than generous so far."
"Good, good. As for your duties between missions, I had some thoughts but I wanted to run it by you, first. I took a look at your service record, it seems like you have some experience with weapons systems. How about you come down to the cargo bay with me?" Leaving without an answer, Shepard was the sort of man who expected people to obey without question. Which they clearly did, if the smooth running of this ship was any indicator. When they arrived in the cargo bay, Shepard led him toward the vehicle parked in one corner.
"This is the M35 Mako, I'm guessing you haven't had much occasion to work on any Alliance infantry fighting vehicle models?"
"No, but I have experience with similar vehicles."
"I figured as much. I was hoping you would agree to help the crew with its upkeep, repairs, and calibrations, particularly its weapons systems." Garrus felt relief at the suggestion, knowing it to be well within his skill range. Tali had quickly stationed herself amongst the engineers soon after their tour of the drive core, and Wrex seemed content to help with the heavy lifting required to sort and organize the crates rushed aboard during their hurried departure.
"Absolutely, Commander. If you can have someone forward me the documentation, I'll start looking through it immediately."
"Perfect. The control console is right over here, it should provide access to all it's systems. But tech is not my forte, so I'll have Jane or Kaidan or one of the engineers come give you a better lowdown on it."
"Sounds good. I'll take a look at it in the meanwhile." Turning to the console, he started getting himself acquainted with its display. Not long after, an engineer came out to start walking him through the important systems.
Throughout the rest of the day, people came and went through the cargo bay. Shepard did some rounds, checking in with everyone periodically, ensuring everything was running smoothly. Jane, too, came and went, albeit a bit more sporadically, her omni-tool out as she checked on systems. She spent a good deal of time at the weapons station where Ashley was checking over and tending to an assault rifle. The two didn't seem to talk much, though that may have been due to Ashley's preoccupation with keeping an eye on what he was doing. It seemed like half the time he looked up from his console, he caught her staring at him with narrowed, suspicious eyes. Sighing, he tried his best to ignore it. A majority of the crew seemed welcoming enough, or at least managed to ignore the difference in species.
The difference between him and the crew seemed, to Garrus, somewhat more pronounced as he lay in his bunk many hours later, completely awake. The wards of the Citadel didn't keep a day-night cycle, but the Presidium did, mimicking a 20 hour day. Though many businesses on the wards kept their own schedule, some services like C-Sec based some of their scheduling and shifts on the Presidium day cycle. He'd been living and structuring his life around this 20 hour day for years now, including his sleep schedule.
Clearly the Alliance didn't conform to a similarly short schedule, as his body told him it was time to get up and going, yet the barracks was still dark with the muffled sounds of sleeping bodies. With a quiet sigh, Garrus decided that he might as well start his day. Squeezing himself out of his bunk, he gathered up his clothing for the day and headed to the bathrooms to get washed and dressed.
Soon, he found himself standing alone in the mess, shuffling through one of the partially unpacked crates of dextro rations. Standing up, he glanced around the quiet room, wondering how many others were up and about at this hour. He knew there was a night crew manning the CIC as they traveled through space toward their destination, but this deck of the ship was deserted. After eating a silent breakfast of something that somewhat resembled reconstituted food, he decided he might as well head downstairs and get to work.
When the elevator door opened, at first he thought the cargo bay was as empty as the crew deck above, until he noticed the flaming red hair of Jane Shepard standing at the weapons station. She must have been listening to music through her ear pieces, as her head bobbed to the silent tune. He watched transfixed for a moment as her hair bounced with each small bob of her head, the strands separating and dancing to a tune all their own. She reached a hand up and tucked a lock behind an ear, and he wondered for a moment what it felt like. He knew from his C-Sec training that it was inappropriate to touch a human's hair, as it was considered a fairly intimate action. But it didn't stop him from wondering if it was as soft as it looked.
"Something I can help you with, Vakarian?" Her voice cut through his musings, nearly making him jump. Her attention never left whatever it was that she was tinkering with on the table in front of her, but she had stopped nodding to the music he couldn't hear.
"Sorry, I was just surprised to see anyone at this hour." He approached her shrugging his shoulders as she glanced at him with an inquisitive eye.
"I can't usually sleep more than a few hours. The joys of insomnia."
"Ah, I can understand that. Everyone who's served has seen some things they wished they hadn't."
"Eh, some of it's from before the military, too." Jane's shoulders squared a little, and not wanting to make her uncomfortable, Garrus decided to drop the topic. "What about you? I was under the impression that Palaven's day cycles were a bit longer than Earth's?"
"True. But it's been a loooong time since I've lived on Palaven. The Citadel runs on a much shorter day cycle."
"That makes sense." Jane's omni-tool sprang to life around her wrist as she ran a quick scan on what appeared to be a new mod.
"So, mind if I ask what you're working on?" Garrus ventured, deciding it was probably a safe topic of conversation. Taking a good look at the shotgun, he realized that it was the one that Shepard had used while on the Citadel.
"My brother picked up this mod from a shop, I'm just getting it installed for him. It won't take long, but he's not quite as adept at technical things like this. It's not exactly Legos." That last word sounded odd to his ear, and after a moment, he realized it hadn't translated.
"Sorry, I don't think my translator caught that last word?" She looked up at him with a little shagrin in her face.
"They're just a super old school Earth toy, I used to pine for a set when I was little." Jane trailed off at that, fingers slowing for a moment as she seemed to drift on the memory. "Anyway, I know the Commander is up right now, too, but I think he's catching up on paperwork. So, I figured I'd get this installed and functional for him in the meanwhile." She turned back to her work, starting to put the gun back together.
"That's nice of you. Sorry to hear he's so swamped with paperwork that he's up at this hour to deal with it all, though." Garrus turned and started toward the Mako's console, deciding to finally get to work, as well.
"No, I think he's - well, I think he's just got other things on his mind." The large room was quiet enough, besides the normal background sounds of a ship in FTL travel, that her voice traveled well enough from across the space to continue the conversation.
"I see…" Garrus booted up the Mako's systems, but after a moment, turned toward her a bit to add, "I imagine he has a lot to think about after what happened on Eden Prime." This seemed to surprise the red haired woman, who turned full round to give him a penetrative stare.
"What makes you think that?" There was a hint of something careful in her voice, and not for the first time Garrus wished other species communicated with subvocals as well. Was it wariness? Protectiveness?
"I read the reports during my investigation. I know he had visions after his encounter with the prothean beacon. I figure that would be enough to give anyone nightmares." He kept his voice and subvocals as even as he could, not wishing to give the human any reason to take offense. The last thing he needed was some sort of awkward cultural miscommunication to ruin what good standing he had thus far. She stared at him for a moment before her small crooked smile reappeared.
"You're pretty astute. For a cop." This time he did catch the meaning in her tone, and he felt himself relax at the return of the teasing tone from the day before. He smiled as he turned back to his work.
"Ex-cop, but thanks, I suppose." Garrus drawled as his taloned fingers danced through the system's UI. "Not a big fan of law enforcement, Lieutenant?" He added a drop teasing to his voice, enjoying the repartee he hadn't expected to find on an Alliance vessel.
"I wouldn't say that, exactly. Perhaps we just didn't always see eye to eye when I was a kid." Garrus couldn't help his chuckle, thinking about his own butting of heads with his father growing up. And even during his time in C-Sec, for that matter. Their conversation stayed fairly light and companionable for the rest of the morning until the rest of the crew started appearing one by one for the start of their shifts.
As the days passed, it became their morning routine. Finding the cargo bay empty in the wee hours of the morning, he and Jane would chat and joke as they worked, he on the Mako and her on whatever project she currently had going. Garrus found he enjoyed having what he was starting to consider a friend on the mission. It helped him feel more at home and less alone as the only turian aboard. Whether it was debates about weapons, tech, or marksmanship, they never lacked for lively conversation and friendly banter.
He was also finding that most of the crew was starting to warm up to him slowly, as well as to Tali and Wrex. By his third day aboard the Normandy, he was receiving warm greetings from crew members when he sat down for meals. The crew generally ate in fits and bursts as their shifts allowed, but Shepard made a very concerted effort to eat at a regular time, encouraging his ground team to join him as often as possible. Garrus immediately saw the brilliance of it as they all started to get to know each other through the comradery of a shared meal.
Five days into their trip and he was starting to feel like they might actually be a team, not just disparate individuals along for the ride. He was getting to know bits about Kaidan's biotic training, Ashley's family, Tali's Pilgrimage, even some of Wrex's frankly outlandish and unbelievable stories of his time as a mercenary. He shared a little about some cases he'd worked on during his time in C-Sec, and both John and Jane Shepard shared some about their N level training, which varied in interesting and unexpected ways.
While Garrus was enjoying getting to know the crew, it was Shepard that he was most interested in. His service record was outstanding, and it was a no-brainer why he'd been humanity's candidate for their first Spectre. Yet even more impressive than his record was the man himself, just not in the way that Garrus had expected. He'd been sure that Shepard's newfound status as Spectre would mean that he would shrug off all the red tape not necessary for completing their mission. But Shepard clearly put a lot of stock in crossing all his 't's and dotting all his 'i's, demonstrated by his filling out all the necessary reports for both the Alliance and the Council. However, it wasn't just the letter of the law that the man strode to live by, but the spirit, too. He truly believed in what he practiced and preached, and appeared to live his life in the service of doing right by everyone and everything.
"-If getting the job done means endangering innocent people, then no. We get the job done right, not fast. Got it?" The Commander's voice was calm but firm as he explained the flaws in Garrus' views about the mission.
"I wasn't trying to -" Garrus froze mid sentence, rethinking his response. His first instinct had been to defend himself like he had when his father had berated him over the Kishpaugh case. But for some reason, Shepard's disappointment cut him to the bone in a way his father's never had. "I understand, Commander." He finished quickly, averting his eyes. He'd always thought his father's reverence of the red tape and proper procedures made him naive, short-sighted, and less effective, but he knew this wasn't the case with Shepard. Shepard got results, and according to his service record, he didn't cut corners nor sacrifice his ideals in the process. And soon, he was going to get to see how Shepard operated first hand.
As they neared a full week aboard the Normandy, they arrived at their destination. Garrus was nervous and excited to see how they actually worked together as a cohesive unit. Standing behind the Commander as they arrived in orbit above the human colony of Therum, Garrus looked out the cockpit window at the reddish planet.
"The atmosphere should be safe, though you probably won't be comfortable. A little hot for my tastes." Joker read off some specs about the planet as Shepard leaned over the pilot's chair to take a look himself.
Garrus rolled his shoulders, adjusting to the feel of wearing armor after a week without it. Besides him, Jane stood in her own lighter armor with her arms crossed, her brows knitted in concentration. Nearby, Ashley and Wrex also stood armored and ready to head down to the cargo bay. After a few more minutes discussing the planet below them with the pilot, Shepard turned to leave, beckoning the team to follow, and they all fell in with him.
"Okay, as I'm sure you remember from the mission briefing, somewhere down there is the Doctor Liara T'Soni, and we need to find her. You four will be joining me on the ground, Tali and Kaidan will be remaining here to provide support. Joker is picking up some strange readings near one of the mining facilities on the surface, and he is going to drop us nearby in the Mako. Any questions?" After a short back and forth, they arrived in the cargo bay to begin arming themselves and loading equipment into the Mako.
After ensuring he had the team's location and life signs information synced to his visor, Garrus started pulling his weapons out of his locker. Checked them over, he affixed them to their proper positions on his armor's maglocks. As he inspected his sniper rifle's sights, he looked over to see Jane doing the same with her own similar weapon. To his surprise, she, too, had a visor affixed over one eye, data and targeting information scrolling. Looking up to see him watching her, she cocked her head to the side, the gleam of a challenge in her eyes.
"So, Big Guy. I know you fancy yourself something of a sharpshooter. How about a little wager?" Jane's casual, offhand question caught him off guard, and with a small flick of the eyes he once again took in the N7 inscribed upon her armor. With a slight dryness in his mouth, he wondered idly if he wasn't perhaps biting off more than he could chew afterall.