.

Loyalty and Limerence

Part 2

Chapter 6

The Normandy SR2, Present Day

Settling into a new normal was harder than he expected it to be. Sometimes Garrus felt like he could close his eyes and pretend he was still aboard the original Normandy, that when he opened his eyes Shepard wouldn't have evidence of his death etched across his cheek and Jane wouldn't carry the invisible brand of Cerberus across hers. But when he opened his eyes, he was met with all too real evidence of reality, and somehow he had to find his place in it.

Garrus had never really been one to struggle with focus, but since arriving on the Normandy SR2, it was like he'd suddenly acquired a scatter-brain. It was infuriating. Sometimes he managed to lose himself in the work for hours, and yet at other times, he stared at the screen with no idea what he had been supposed to be doing, his mind flashing back to the apartment on Omega as his pulse started racing.

At times like that, his mind always seemed to land on the same topic: Sidonis. What had happened? Where was he now? Was he dead? Or had he betrayed their team? Garrus put out some feelers in hopes of answering some of those questions, he'd gotten a hold of a few contacts around Omega who might be able to help. He wanted so badly to give the other turian the benefit of the doubt. He'd been his first friend on Omega, Garrus didn't want to think the worst of him, but it was hard to stop the rage bubbling up in his belly when he lingered on his suspicions about what might have happened. He kept reminding himself that it would take time before he got any answers.

In the meanwhile, once he'd started getting himself acquainted with the systems and the main battery, Garrus turned his sights toward the crew. One of the best parts of being on Shepard's original crew had been the sense of family he'd knit them into, and Garrus was hopeful that it would begin to feel that way again. But as it was, he didn't know how possible that would be. The Cerberus crew, while polite, generally kept to their own small cliques. Jacob seemed friendly enough, but didn't seem to spend much time on the crew deck other than the bare minimum for self care. Miranda only seemed to leave her office for administrative reasons and to retrieve meals, which she ate in her office.

As for Mordin, when he did leave his lab, he always had his nose in a datapad and seemed nearly oblivious to the goings on around him. Except for when he became far too interested in you, at which point Garrus found it beneficial to turn tail and run, lest he become an unwitting part of a science experiment. Honestly, he was mildly terrified of the salarian doctor. Even when he had to go to the lab to have his new facial cybernetics inspected and tested, it seemed like he got swept up into tests that he was almost positive had nothing to do with his injuries…

Like usual, Joker pretty much stayed up in the cockpit most of the time. Garrus went up to visit him occasionally, which sometimes seemed to help. Humor, particularly of the sarcastic brand, was a comfort that helped take his mind off the box full of feelings he kept avoiding in the back of his mind.

There were a few pleasant surprises amongst the crew, the first of which he literally bumped into while coming out of the bathroom a few days after he woke up aboard the ship.

"Ah, I'm so sorr-" The smaller, human man trailed off as his eyes drifted upwards in surprise. When their eyes met, both sets widened in recognition. "Garrus! They told me you had joined the crew!"

"Jenkins? What are you doing here?" Garrus couldn't help but smile as Richard Jenkins failed to keep the puppy-like exuberance from his face and voice.

"I was assigned to Shepard's crew along with a bunch of others from the original crew, like Joker and Chakwas! It's so amazing what they were able to do for Shepard, part of me still isn't quite sure this is real!" Jenkin's eyes almost seemed to sparkle as awe suffused his voice.

"I meant what are you doing with Cerberus? Why did you leave the Alliance?" It seemed to be a question he was having to wonder a lot lately. The joy seemed to melt off Jenkin's face a little, leaving him looking older than Garrus remembered.

"After everything happened, it was really tough, you know? You remember. And the brass were pretending like nothing happened, like the Reapers weren't real, and I kept trying to defend the Commander, you know? But they kept telling me I was wrong, and it was really frustrating. Eventually, Cerberus contacted me and made an offer and… Well, I'm not proud of it, but I couldn't really turn them down. They pay a lot more than the Alliance, and my pa has been really sick. Especially after everything that happened back on Eden Prime, it's been a struggle to pay for all the treatments he needs. But Cerberus has taken care of all of it, so I don't need to worry about him now. It's really amazing, the benefits are fantastic! And when they explained what's been happening to all those colonies, well, I don't want anything like that happening to Eden Prime. They've been through enough lately, so I want to do my part to stop the Collectors." Garrus stared in wonder as the younger man seemed completely unaffected by the lack of air during his long monologue.

"I see. Well, I'm glad that they are getting your pa the care he needs." Garrus offered slightly awkwardly, unsure how to respond to the news of Cerberus' foray into benevolence. "And protecting the colonies is a good thing. Glad to see a familiar face, Jenkins."

"Yeah, absolutely!"

One, or rather, two additions to the crew that Garrus heartily approved of were the engineers, Ken and Gabby. They were much more willing to chat than most of the Cerberus crew, indeed Ken seemed somewhat incapable of not chatting whenever Garrus came down to engineering. They were also both fantastic at their jobs and it wasn't long until Garrus felt he had a firm understanding of the main battery's power draw and the Normandy's limitations in that department.

One of the more unexpected changes since the days of the SR1 was probably Shepard's more seemingly lax approach to his command. He'd always been fairly informal, referring to much of the crew by their given names instead of their family names as was done by so many humans. But he now seemed to have taken it a step further, and Garrus didn't know if it was his separation from the formalities of the Alliance or if perhaps Shepard had had some sort of perspective change after his rebirth.

Either way, he now seemed just as content as Jane to stride along the hallways of the Normandy dressed in casual civilian clothes, just a simple jacket, shirt, and some sort of pants he called "jeans". On top of that, Shepard was much less concerned about paperwork, seeming to delegate much of it to Miranda instead. Garrus had to guess she preferred it that way, she seemed to be the 'if you want something done right, do it yourself' kind of person.

With his increased spare time, Shepard seemed to show up "just to chat" much more often than he used to, which Garrus wasn't sure how he felt about. On one hand, Garrus was over the moon to finally be on a more equal standing with the other man and it felt highly gratifying to have Shepard come to him looking for thoughts and advice about various issues. And yet, Garrus found that he wished to just be left alone sometimes, as though the silence was therapeutic. But even on the occasions when the silence was not preferred, due in no small part to the lingering memories he wanted to forget, he was still not feeling himself after everything that happened. It seemed to result in a bit of a social barricade on occasion.

It was impossible to feel as though he could open up, even though he desperately wanted to go back to a time when he felt completely at ease with the other man. Garrus tried to lean on his sense of humor, faithful as it always was, but his jokes seemed to fall on the side of macabre more often than not. But if Shepard noticed, he didn't comment. After everything the other man had been through, himself, perhaps the darker humor resonated.

A good deal of the crew he really didn't see much of. Garrus didn't think they avoided him, they just seemed to keep to parts of the ship that he didn't frequent. He learned some about them by speaking to Shepard, however, who went out of his way to get to know as many of them as he could.

"Zaheed?" Shepard sighed as he rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and leaning against the railing near where Garrus was typing into the main battery's console. "He's almost more trouble than he's worth, honestly. I've walked in on him and Jane drinking and gambling over cards more than once." Garrus felt his fingers slow before coming to a stop as he processed the words.

"Is that so?" He tried to keep his voice sounding disinterested, and probably failed miserably. "Are they… you know-" Garrus flailed about for the right word, not really wanting to put it into words, "-together?" Shepard glanced at him, his eyebrows jumping up his forehead. After a moment. he seemed to deadpan at Garrus, making him wonder if he'd missed something obvious.

"Together?" Shepard finally asked, bringing a hand up to rub his eyes, "Good god, no, I don't think so. I know how Jane is with her, err, well, with people she's into." Shepard paused for a moment, looking back at Garrus before continuing, "No, whatever that-" He gestured vaguely off in the general direction of Engineering, "-is, I think it's just two troublemakers making trouble. Birds of a feather, you know how it is. Jesus, I think he's old enough to be her, our, dad." Garrus looked back down at his console, considering for a moment before he started typing again.

"I suppose. I didn't realize Jane was such a troublemaker, honestly. She's always been a bit… opinionated? But she seemed pretty professional, for the most part, aboard the SR1." Shepard chuckled at that, though there wasn't much humor in it.

"Yeah, I think some of that was the Alliance in her. But take that out of the equation, and she seems to be regressing a bit. She was always a bit of a troublemaker growing up."

"Back when you were both in that Earth gang?" Garrus asked before thinking, and he glanced up to see Shepard looking surprised.

"Huh, didn't know you knew about that, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You and she were thick as thieves before, weren't you." Garrus couldn't help but feel the sting at the word 'before', wondering if things would go back to being that way again. "But yeah, back then, Jane was a bit of a wild child, you could say. Always getting into trouble of one sort or another. I had to pull her bacon out of the fire more than once." This time when Shepard laughed, it resonated with the soft cords of nostalgia.

Garrus was silent as he contemplated the information. None of it surprised him, given what he knew of her. Since reuniting, he had to admit that there was something about her that drew him even more than he'd been drawn during their days together years past. She'd always been confident, but it seemed to ooze off her now in a way that was undeniably seductive. There was something woefully stereotypical about a cop falling for a 'bad girl'. Though he supposed he was less of a cop and more of a vigilante these days, so perhaps that made it slightly better.

He didn't really know where he and Jane stood at the moment, honestly. Nothing about his feelings for the woman had ever been simple, he supposed, but the wild cacophony of emotions that seemed to well up when he thought of her was starting to feel overwhelming.

His hand froze a breath away from the door's holo controls and hovered as he hesitated. Garrus had stopped and considered entering the port observation deck a few times during his brief time on the Normandy so far, but everytime he either found some excuse as to why he couldn't, or he failed to work up the nerve to follow through.

Garrus wasn't entirely sure why he'd been feeling so off kilter regarding Jane. He seemed to be constantly oscillating between an intense desire to grab her and shake some answers out of her, and an intense desire to grab her and press his mouth plates to her lips in what humans called a 'kiss'. Either way, she elicited a strong emotional response from him and that scared him at the moment.

Garrus had been working hard to not let the churning mess that was his emotional state at present overwhelm him, and being in her presence seemed to cause it to spill over in a way he had no desire to handle. So his hand dropped to his side, he sighed, and he turned away from the door as his body made its way back to the main battery, his mind left behind to wonder and ache.

As soon as he made it back to his console, he looked down at his omni-tool and noticed the small ping that meant he had a new message. Recognizing the address as one of his contacts on Omega, his breath caught and his pulse quickened.

Sorry for the delay, but I might have information for you about S. Let me verify it, and I'll send the data along to you. Consider it payment in full for all your assistance in the past.

-I

Garrus' heart seemed to be hammering at his temples and he somehow wanted to cheer in triumph and scream with rage. He was so close to having answers, but now he had to just sit and wait and he was sick of waiting. Sidonis was either another dead, innocent comrade or he was a dead man walking, and Garrus needed to know which.

Taking a shaky breath, Garrus paced back and forth a few times as he ran a hand over his face, rubbing his eyes. Finally, he decided he should attempt getting some sort of work done on the Normandy's weapons systems, as work would make the time pass faster. But just as he came to a stop in front of the console, the door whooshed open. Whipping around, he came face to face with Jane.

"Jane-" He tried to not let his subvocals squeak, betraying his surprise and discomfiture, "Need me for something?" She paused, taking in his disheveled appearance and fidgeting mandibles before responding.

"Have you got a minute?" Jane asked evenly, her face a blank mask. Garrus hesitated, glancing away for a moment as he considered his options. The last thing he wanted to do at the moment was strike up a conversation, not when he was so close to having the answers he'd been craving for nearly a week since making it out of that apartment. He didn't want to stand around pretending like everything was okay when it wasn't.

"Can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations." Garrus gestured back toward the console behind him, and was about to turn back toward it when he noticed her irritated expression.

"Oh come on, you can find the time and multitasking ability to chat with John whenever he stops by, but not me?" Jane retorted as she crossed her arms, her face as unbelieving as he probably deserved.

"I'm sorry Jane, I just have a lot I want to get done."

"Yeah, no." Jane snorted before stepping forward to nab the edge of his shirt cuff. With a sharp tug, he was lurching toward the door as she turned and dragged him out of the room. They were halfway to the mess hall before his brain caught up. Tugging his arm away from her, he ground to a halt.

"What under the Spirits is wrong with you, Jane? What's all this about?" Garrus demanded, struggling to not let his features settle into a glare as he looked down at her.

"Come on, I have something to show you. I took a peek at the weapon system's specs earlier and they're looking fine, you can afford to take a small break." He recognized her tone of voice, and sighed as he decided arguing wasn't going to be terribly effective. Why were humans so damned stubborn? He glanced around the sparsely populated room and noticed the interested glances they were getting and rolled his eyes.

Jane turned and headed toward the elevators, and with another sigh, Garrus followed. He would be lying if he said he wasn't at least a little curious. As he came around the corner, he found her standing a few paces in front of the elevator doors. Coming to a stop before her, he crossed his arms.

"Seriously, Jane. What is this about?" Instead of answering, she took a step closer to him, placing a hand on his chest. He nearly jumped out of his plates at the sudden intimate touch before she suddenly shoved him backwards.

Stumbling, he expected to hit the elevator doors with a hard thud, but the collision never came. Instead, he continued backwards as he toppled into the open elevator. As he regained his footing, a smirking Jane stepped forward neatly into the elevator, moving over to press the holo button for the shuttle bay.

It was like the world was suddenly made up with shades of red, his vision tunneling. Fury pumped through his veins as he clenched his jaw and fists. Garrus drew himself up to his full height and stalked forward until he was standing right before her, so close he could feel her warm breath mingling with his own.

He stared down at her, his flashing blue eyes latching onto and holding tight to her steely green eyes, and he noted, not for the first time, how much smaller she was than him. Nothing in her face or eyes changed, but he noticed the slight bob of her throat as she swallowed.

"I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, going to assume you are not trying to piss me off right now, Shepard." Garrus growled, his voice a low hiss as his mandibles snapped close to his face.

She remained silent as the elevator continued downward slowly, but refused to step back, regardless of the space behind her. Instead, she stood her ground, shoving her hands into her pockets and shifting her weight casually to one side. Her eyes narrowed slightly, a single eyebrow arching upward in challenge.

"Maybe that's exactly what I'm trying to do." She murmured slowly in a husky whisper that sent a shiver down his spine. They were so close that if he leaned down just a hair, their noses would brush, and he couldn't stop the voice that kept whispering just a little closer, just a little… Her eyes were so deep and he was sure he was going to drown in them if he stood there any longer.

The door pinged as it opened suddenly, making him jump, and the moment shattered. He ripped away from her with a snarl as he stalked out of the elevator, his heart pounding in his ears and his head buzzing from the intensity of it all. Coming to a stop, he tried to take a deep breath to calm himself, and Jane came up beside him and continued on until she was standing before a set of mats and a few basic workout machines. She turned and held her arms out at either side to gesture around her.

"What do you think? I pestered John about getting it set up when we arrived on Omega. It's all second hand, surprisingly difficult to get quality equipment on Omega for some reason, but I think it'll serve my purpose." Jane turned back to face the makeshift gym, crossing her arms.

Garrus glanced around the wide, open room, noting its dramatic departures from the original Normandy's. All of a sudden, with a whoosh of nostalgia, he was back in the old shuttle bay, a love sick puppy dog mooning after the red haired lieutenant who had so captured his heart and imagination. The woman standing just before him, glancing at him over her shoulder with measuring eyes. After a moment, he took another deep breath, letting it go with a sigh.

"Is this what you wanted to show me? A gym?" Garrus tried to keep the skepticism out of his voice as he raised a brow plate. She turned toward him slightly, scoffing.

"Don't give me that, you know this is exactly what you need." Jane muttered as she unzipped her hoodie and tossed it aside to rest on the weight rack, revealing the black tee shirt beneath. He forced himself not to let his eyes drop to examine how it hugged her curves, reminding himself that he was still mad at her. "And since when do you call me Shepard?" She asked, her voice raised in slight bemusement as she rolled her bad shoulder. He ignored the question, remaining still.

"What I need? How, exactly, is a little workout what I need? Unless this is some sort of commentary on my weight? That's a little rude, Jane. I think I look pretty good." Garrus retorted a hint of humor sneaking into his voice as he tried to hide his begrudging smile. Snorting, she rolled her eyes.

"I'm not arguing that, smartass. My point is that you're so wound up that you're jumping out of your plates at the slightest provocation. I'd never have called you the coolest, calmest tool in the shed, but I mean, come on. You nearly decked me back there in the elevator." She leveled a deadpan stare at him, daring him to argue.

"Okay, yeah, but in my defense, you were kind of being a pain in the ass."

"That's besides the point. You clearly need to let off some steam." With that, she walked forward into the middle of the mats, dropping into a defensive form. With dawning realization, he took a few steps forward until he stood before her on the mat. "You might not want to talk about it right now, and I get that, but you need to let it out somehow. One way or another."

Garrus opened his mouth to respond, but she darted forward almost before he could blink. He blocked her quick jab and jumped back in time to dodge her follow up. His suspicions confirmed, it occurred to him that he shouldn't have been surprised.

"Really, Jane? Violence doesn't solve all the world's problems." Garrus couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face as she smiled wider, her fists held up before her as she bounced on the balls of her feet loosely.

"Once it fails to solve my problems, I'll stop relying on it. Until then-" She attacked again with a flurry of jabs, managing to catch him in the side, causing him to jerk in pain. He responded with a counter attack, and the sparring match was off to the races.

"You know Chakwas is probably going to murder us both, right? I'm not supposed to be exerting myself yet." Garrus pointed out after a few minutes of back and forth hits. Jane shrugged, her smile sly and mischievous.

"I know, that's why I'm going easy on you." She chuckled, causing Garrus to roll his eyes at the jab. After a moment, her expression shifted to that of chagrin. "What she doesn't know, won't hurt her. I won't tattle if you won't."

"Fair enough." They fell into silence again, the only sounds that of their shifting feet, heavy breathing, and the exchanged blows of their fists. Time dragged on, and though he knew she was going easy on him, he wasn't mad. Even a week later, he still felt weak after everything that had happened.

"I shouldn't have been surprised to find you on Omega. Back when I was there last year, I could have sworn I saw you in Afterlife once, I even did a double take." Jane explained after a few minutes, her words interlaced with punches, "Managed to convince myself it wasn't you, but perhaps it was."

"Perhaps, I was known to get a drink there every now and then. Once, I went running after a woman in the markets who looked just like you."

"That was you? Christ, Garrus, I thought it was either some creep or… Well, something worse." Jane pointed out, causing Garrus to pause for a moment, his brow plates jumping upward.

"So that really was you? Spirits, I had nearly convinced myself I was going crazy." Garrus replied and she chuckled, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead before shifting back into a more defensive form to take a series of attacks from him. Once she managed to repel him, she chuckled.

"I'll admit to being impressed, you certainly didn't sit around twiddling your thumbs on Omega, your skills have improved."

"Well, yeah, I should hope so. Kept busy enough." Garrus took the moment of respite to roll his shoulders, hearing a series of pops. "There was always plenty to do to keep busy there."

"So, what did a turian like yourself do for fun on a place like Omega?" She asked casually as she danced to the side, her feet light enough to be a dancer, her from shifting to one he vaguely recognized from some of their past bouts aboard the SR1. He let his own form shift to a style better suited to the types of attacks he suspected were about to be thrown his way.

"If you spent any amount of time there, then you know what the place was like. A cesspool of slime and the dregs of society, criminals that preyed upon the weak with no real laws or consequences." Garrus felt the rage boiling up in him as he thought about it, about the people he'd spent nearly two years at war with. He threw himself into an assault against the human woman before him, finding a small amount of comfort in the force of his fists colliding with her blocks. He groaned in pain as her elbow caught him in the stomach. Recovering, he continued, "I wouldn't call my little cleaning service fun, exactly, but it was a good hobby, I'd say."

"So, you cleaned toilets in your off hours, sounds like a blast." She replied dryly with a snort, causing his mandibles to flick in amused indignation.

"You probably could call it that, honestly. Took out the trash, cleaned the filth off the streets. One merc at a time." Garrus ducked as Jane unexpectedly twisted and threw a kick careening toward him. They moved back and forth, exchanging blows in a familiar dance in a way that was somehow both relaxing and exhilarating.

"Like bounty hunting or something? Didn't get the feeling you were available for hire."

"No, no one was paying us. We made money by taking down slavers, pirates-" Garrus felt his jaw clench, "-and gangs that went too far." As she took a few steps back to wipe the sweat off her brow with the back of her wrist, she grinned.

"You must have done something right to piss off three big gangs." His harsh bark of laughter in response cut his labored breathing, but there was no humor in it.

"My manager at C-Sec would have been proud." Jane gestured that she was ready to continue, and he took the chance to go on the offensive. "We'd hit their shipments, disrupt activities." A few quick, well timed jabs and he managed to get a good hit, making her groan as she darted backwards. "Got under their skin. Made them angry."

Before he knew it, Garrus was laying out details about how his team had worked, what they had accomplished, the tactics they'd used. He outlined how he'd first found his way to Omega, how he'd formed his team, what life had been like fighting alongside them for the betterment of the community. Without even realizing it, their sparring match had begun to peter out and they were just standing before each other in the middle of the mats.

"-I gave them hope." Garrus finished, after a moment, his shoulders held high and his back straight with pride at the memory of leading his team at their finest moments. Then reality came crashing back down on him and he felt himself deflate in defeat. "And now they're dead." He turned around, crossing his arms to hide the sorrow etching his face. "Shows what I know." He spat with disgust.

"Garrus…" Jane's voice was gentle, but he winced at the sympathy there, feeling his back stiffen.

"Jane," He cut in over her, tuning his head enough to glance back at her, "I know what you're trying to do here. Getting me to loosen up so I'll talk about it. And I appreciate it, it felt good to talk about them. But I-"

"What happened to them?" She cut right in over him in turn, her words firm in a way he knew meant she expected an answer, and yet gentle and encouraging. "How did those mercenary gangs take down your team?" Garrus hesitated as he turned around to face her again, his eyes seeking out hers. Slowly, he opened his mouth in hopes that the words would somehow find their way out. Taking a deep breath, he heard his voice leave him as though from far away.

"I'm not entirely sure yet, but I'm pretty sure it was my own damn fault." His eyes fell to the ground, unable to look at her anymore, "I'm currently looking into it, following up on some leads. But when I find out what happened-" He looked up at her again, his eyes flashing as his face set in hard lines, "I'm going to make it right, one way or another." Jane's eyes narrowed at that, her face drawing tight with concern.

"What do you-" She started, but Garrus shook his head.

"I don't know. But when I learn more, I'll let you know. I promise. I meant it, it was good to talk about them. Thanks." He smiled at her, though it was somewhat downcast. He felt the mounting exhaustion, both from the physical exertion of the sparring and the emotional exertion of opening that box he kept trying to pack deeper and deeper down. It felt lighter now, he felt lighter now.

"Good. You're welcome. I needed a good workout, anyway. Starting to get soft, lounging around on this fancy ship." She stretched her shoulders again, wincing as her bad shoulder popped. "Thanks for telling me about your team. They seemed like good people." He smiled at that, looking down.

"They were. I miss them a lot."

"I know." His eyes shot up at that, something tickling at that back of his memory. Her expression was open and earnest, and something about it made his heartbeat skip in his chest, his breath hitching.

"Jane, I-" He paused, and John's voice from days before was whispering in his ear.

What worries me is why Jane joined Cerberus.

She knew first hand what Cerberus truly was, she saw those experiments and knows what they did to Kahoku.

She won't talk at all about what she's been up to the past two years.

Jane has yet to give me anything resembling a reasonable answer to that question.

…Until I get to the bottom of this, I just can't trust her

"Jane, why did you join Cerberus?" The words were out of his mouth before he knew what he was asking, but suddenly, Garrus realized he needed an answer to that question. The transformation that overcame her face was instantaneous and complete. The openness from moments before had vanished, only to be replaced by a blank mask.

"I told you, it doesn't matter." He felt frustration begin to spark at her even toned answer.

"They're a terrorist organization, Jane. How does that not matter?" Garrus felt the heat in his words, not sure if he should try and reign himself in. Not sure if he could, his anger seemed to be on a hair trigger the past week.

Jane hesitated for a moment before glancing about, though the room was clearly empty.

"Maybe we can talk about it another time." Her voice dropped to a whisper, only barely audible, as she consciously turned her face away from EDI's nearby mounted camera. "The walls have ears." The four words hit hard as he considered the many possible implications.

Shifting her stance, she then said out loud "I had my reasons, I stand by them, and that needs to be enough for you. I don't want to talk about it anymore right now." With that, Jane turned around and grabbed a small towel that was hanging from a nearby machine, wiping her face. His frustration unabated somewhat, but his confusion and suspicions heightened, Garrus fought to let the matter go. For now.

"Fine. Another time, then."

"I promise." She added quietly, looking back at him. He nodded, and made his way to the elevator.

As he stood in the painfully slow contraption as it crept up to the crew deck, he heard his omni-tool ping with an incoming message. He looked down just as the door opened to see the sender, and froze. Registering the name, he hurried through the door and through the mess hall until he found the privacy of the main battery.

Opening the message, he felt ice take root in his chest as the words unfurled before him. The bone numbing sensation quickly crept through his veins as his vision began to tunnel again, the words jumping off the screen to echo through his mind.

…booked transport off Omega…

…accounts were cleared out…

…gone, no trace…

Sidonis.

He couldn't breathe, and the name seemed to blare through his head like a fog horn. Garrus had never thought himself capable of murder in cold blood. He clenched a fist as rage settled into his bones. Apparently, he'd never known himself until that moment.

2 Months Ago

The files she'd managed to pull off the lab console had proved to be quite an enigma for awhile, but they were slowly starting to shed their secrets. She'd managed to put together two small reports on what she'd found for the council, which seemed to at least confirm for them that Cerberus didn't seem to be building some sort of weapon of mass destruction.

But there was something about the Lazarus Project that just rubbed her the wrong way. There was something… Something tickling the back of her mind, and she just couldn't figure it out. The pieces weren't lining up quite right.

She knew it was something medical, there were huge amounts of resources being poured into research and development of very specific medical advances for this project. But as far as she could tell from the wording, it all seemed to be relating back to one man… Just a single, particular man. Was it some sort of super soldier development project? She supposed that could be a danger to Citadel space.

The doctor, Wilson, popped up over and over again, so she knew he had to be a key player. Strangely, she even saw references to Liara T'soni at a few points, though it was unclear what role she had played in it. Jane was preparing to send a message off to Liara as soon as she had a safe opportunity to do so. Miranda Lawson also seemed to be mentioned occasionally, and though Jane only knew her by her reputation within Cerberus, it interested her. She was one of the Illusive Man's right hand lieutenants, but she seemed to be leading this Lazarus Project.

Which led Jane to the last and final file she'd yet been unable to do much with. It was heavily encrypted and had given her a lot of trouble. But it didn't seem terribly large, so she'd left it for awhile. However, curiosity was starting to get to her, and the past few nights she had devoted what time she could to cracking it.

When the code finally caved and she was able to access the file, she realized it was a garbled sound bite from what appeared to be a video log. Cleaning it up, she was finally able to get it to play quietly in her ear buds.

"-physical reconstruction of subject is complete, but we still need to evaluate all mental and neurological functions. Our orders were clear: Make Commander Shepard who he was before the explosion - the same mind, the same morals, the same personality. If we alter his personality in any way, if he's somehow not the same man he used to be, the Lazarus Project will have failed. I refuse to let that happen."

It wasn't until her third playthrough of the sound clip that it started to make sense in her brain. As all the pieces to the puzzle started to settle into place, it was as if her world began to spin the wrong way, nausea setting in as she began to understand the implications. She lurched forward off her bunk as the bottom seemed to drop out of her belly, and she stumbled to her feet.

Lazarus… Brought back to life by Jesus… Brought back to life… John. Dead… Bio-synthetic fusion. Same man he used to be. Massive funding. Before the explosion. Medical breakthroughs. Dead... Back to life… John!

Jane struggled to make it to the door, her stomach threatening to send up what remained of her dinner. Stumbling into the hall, she made her way toward the bathroom, making it just in time. Minutes later, she stood before the running sink, her chest heaving as she tried to prevent herself from hyperventilating. She scrubbed her mouth and nose with the back of her hand before splashing her face with water, the world still spinning somewhat.

What had they done to her brother?!

Forcing herself to take deep, slow breaths, she tried to calm down. She couldn't make assumptions, she didn't have all the facts. But one avenue of investigation seemed clear. Liara was involved somehow, more than she'd let on.

Jane,

Please forgive the delay in replying to your last message. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you everything before. I didn't honestly believe they would succeed, I'm still not sure it's even possible, and I didn't want to hurt you more than you'd already suffered, should nothing come of it.

I helped retrieve Shepard's body after it was taken by the Shadow Broker. He planned to sell it to the Collectors, I'm still not sure why. Cerberus told me they could bring Shepard back to life, so I handed his body over to them. Please don't hate me. I'm not sure if I made the right decision or not, only time will tell. From what you've told me, I'm beginning to hope.

However, I was concerned about some of what you relayed, and so I did some more digging. This Doctor Wilson… Could he possibly be a Doctor Steve Wilson? I know he was connected with Cerberus, but I suspect he may recently have been hired as a double agent for the Shadow Broker. If your Wilson is, in fact, Steve Wilson, then Shepard may be in grave danger. The Shadow Broker is still working with the Collectors, and while I do not know their intentions, I do not believe their interest in Shepard to be friendly.

I will continue looking into the matter, but please do what you can to protect Shepard. You know better than anyone how much rests upon his return. We need him.

-Liara