Garrus slowly opened his eyes when he felt something warm and wet touching his hand. He looked over and saw Carnifex licking him.

"Carn? What are you doing here? Wait, where am I?" He questioned himself then looked over and saw Jane's head on his shoulder, sleeping. He took a moment to smile at her looking the most peaceful he'd seen her in a long time and he could've sworn it looked like she was smiling. All of a sudden, it dawned on him that he was still in her cabin. Shit, did I fall asleep on her bed? Why didn't she wake me up or did she fall asleep first? He panicked as he recalled the events of the night before. He slowly got up in an attempt to not wake her up. Just then, his comm went off.

"Garrus, buddy. How's the commander? Is she okay?" He heard Joker.

"Shit. Yeah, she's okay now, I think." Garrus spoke quietly back as he exited Jane's cabin and went to the elevator.

"Why are you whispering?" Joker asked.

"Meet me in the mess hall and I'll uh explain." Garrus replied with a sigh.

Once he got to the mess hall, Garrus grabbed a dextro based breakfast and sat down while he waited for Joker.

"So? What happened? You never came back last night." Joker asked as he sat down with a coffee.

"She was upset because her dog tags weren't at the crash site. Do you know where they are?" Garrus asked him.

"No. She always had them on. We're supposed to in case something like that happens. So we can be identified and our tags can be given to our next of kin or whatever."

"Huh, strange. She was upset that no one would've remembered her if she wouldn't have been brought back."

"That's ridiculous!" Joker exclaimed.

"I know and that's what I told her. And I think it worked, she seemed better after we talked." Garrus told him.

Just then he saw Jane come into the mess hall with a coffee in her hand.

"Morning Joker. Hey Garrus." She greeted them as she walked by and went towards Miranda's office.

"Yea. Hey, uh Shep…" Garrus stammered out. I'm such an idiot, he thought.

"What was that about?" Joker questioned.

"I um kinda slept in her bed last night." Garrus said as he lowered his voice.

"Garrus! You sly dog." Joker exclaimed with a grin.

"No! Nothing like that happened. There was no alcohol involved this time and I just fell asleep talking." Garrus explained in a panicked tone.

"This time?" Joker raised his eyebrow at Garrus.

"Ugh. When Ashley died, she was already drinking when I showed up with my own alcohol. But she passed out and I just covered her up and left." Garrus sighed. "Besides…"

"What?" Joker asked.

"Well besides me being a turian and her a human. She's, well, she's her. An amazing, geth killing, Citadel saving hero and I'm just a turian that couldn't cut it as a C-sec officer or vigilante." Garrus replied as he fiddled with his food.

"Come on, Garrus. You didn't fail at anything. Jane recruited you on both the Citadel and Omega. You left to help her save lives and kick ass." Joker told him.

"Yeah. I only joined the first time to track Saren and I would've died had she not showed up on Omega. Hell, I almost did. Besides she has Kaidan.."

"Snap out of it! Do you see Kaidan here? Because I don't. I don't even think she's told him she's alive yet. And that's why you left and didn't even visit her after the attack on the Citadel, isn't it?" He confronted Garrus.

"Yeah. I saw them together and I just couldn't-" Garrus started.

"You damn, blue-blooded, trigger happy, idiot! You never even talked to her, did you? They weren't together then. They didn't get together until after we left for our mission. Do you have any idea how depressed she was that you didn't come see her at the hospital?" Joker scolded him. "And she didn't know what she did wrong to deserve the fact that you wouldn't even respond to her messages!"

"What?" Garrus looked at him dumbfounded. He'd never seen Joker talk like that before.

"Ugh. Nevermind. I have to go. We're going back to Omega to get that scientist guy. Just remember, you're important to her, okay?" Joker said as he got up and left.

Garrus took a moment to process what Joker had told him. He was still trying to figure out what he had meant when Jane came out of Miranda's office and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, buddy. We're off to get the scientist." Jane said to him.

"Right. I'm coming." He said as he got up and followed her.

Later that day, after they had returned from their mission, Garrus was looking over the guns in the Main Battery when he heard Jane say his name.

"Oh, hey. How's it uh going, Shepard?" Garrus greeted her, still a little nervous about falling asleep in her room.

"I'm sorry." She said, sounding solemn. "I wasn't thinking clearly when I had you and Grunt follow me into a quarantine zone that had a plague that affected everyone except humans."

"It's alright. I mean, Mordin had a cure so we ended up alright." Garrus told her.

"Yeah. But if he wouldn't have had it- You already almost died once on my watch and I wasn't thinking correctly."

"Hey. I agreed to come with and I promised I wouldn't leave again." He blurted out, then realized by her puzzled look that he hadn't told her about his resolve to stick around no matter what. "Nevermind. If you would've waited to get different squad members for the mission, that Daniel kid probably would've died."

"You're probably right but still. It was reckless of me and I should've thought it through." She said while staring at the ground.

"Hey. I'm okay and so is Grunt. That's what matters. Everyone made it out alive except for the gang members and vorcha but I'm okay with that outcome. Plus, we just helped cure a whole damn plague." Garrus tried to console her. He made the choice to go into a quarantine zone with her and didn't want her to feel guilty about it.

"I suppose you're right-" She started when Joker came on the comm saying the Illusive Man wanted to speak with her. "Great. Just who I don't want to see." She sighed then told Joker she'd be right there. She said goodbye to Garrus then went on her way. Whew. I'm glad she didn't mention anything about last night. I wonder if she knows I ended up sleeping in her bed with her. Garrus thought as he went back to his work.

Later on, they had landed on Horizon. Jane had informed Garrus and Grunt that the Illusive Man had said it was the next colony to be hit. She admitted she didn't know how he knew but they needed to learn what the collectors were up to.

"Uh, it looks like they already got hit. No one's around." Garrus spoke up.

"Shit. Well, let's take a look around for any clues." Jane said as she walked forward. "At least it looks like Mordin's breakthrough for the swarms is working." They all looked around and realized the bug like creatures weren't bothering them.

As they went further in the colony, they came under attack from who Garrus guessed were the collectors. They took care of them rather easily enough. The second time they were attacked, they realized the Collectors had husks with them as well.

"Dammit. I hate these things." He heard Jane call out.

"Yeah. Saren had husks he used for the reapers. Guess they really are working with them." Garrus said as he shot the last one down.

"Well that's just fucking perfect!" Jane exclaimed.

As they went on, they looked over a dead husk in the ground.

"Is that one of the colonists?" Grunt asked them.

"I don't think so. Before, they used spikes to create husks and I don't see any here, so they must've brought them with." Garrus spoke up. Jane mentioned they were more advanced than the ones she encountered on Eden Prime then wondered if they were experimenting on the colonists for some reason. She took one more look at the husk then told them they weren't getting anymore victims and told them it was time to move on.

A little further down, they ran into more collectors they had to fight. After the fight, Garrus saw Jane pick up a strange looking gun. He went up to her and said it looked like some kind of particle beam. She expressed excitement and put it on her back before they moved on. They found two colonists that seemed frozen still and Garrus remarked that it looked like some stasis field and Jane said that must have been how the collectors were abducting colonists without leaving battle signs, but they still weren't sure why they were abducting them.

Jane hacked the doors to a garage and they went in. A moment later, they came across a man. He seemed surprised that Jane was human and accused her of leading the collectors to him. She asked him if he had heard the banging on the doors and told him they already knew he was there. Jane asked the man what happened and he said things were normal but the defense towers wiped out a power grid so he went down to fix it and then he heard screaming and saw his friends getting taken. He blamed the Alliance and a commander Alenko. Jane asked if he meant Kaidan Alenko and asked what he was doing there. Great. Kaidan's here. Garrus thought as he felt his heart sink as he remembered seeing him and Jane together back at the Citadel hospital but then he thought about what Joker said about them not being together and Jane not contacting Kaidan when she was brought back. I wonder why she wouldn't have told him anything, Garrus thought but shook his thoughts so he could focus on the conversation. The man said Kaidan claimed to had been sent there to help with the defense towers and accused him of spying on them. He then said it was the Alliance's fault for them being attacked because they were fine until they built the towers.

"The collectors are attacking remote colonies, the Alliance was trying to help." Jane told the man. He said he thought they were a myth to keep people in Alliance space. He told them where the towers were and Jane told him to stay put and lock the doors behind them once they were gone.

They arrived at the tower the man told them about and Jane hacked the console. She radioed Joker that they needed help getting them online. EDI told them it would take a few minutes to get through it and warned them they had company incoming. They all ran for cover and started taking out collectors and husks as they appeared.

"Ha! Six! Whatcha got, Vakarian?" He heard Jane yell.

"We're keeping count?" Garrus asked her even though he'd been secretly counting his.

"Of course! Don't we always? Let's bet on drinks again!" She said with a laugh.

"Heh. Okay. I'm at seven." He said as he shot down a husk. I really did miss this, he thought to himself.

When they thought they had gotten them all, some kind of flying construct that looked to have several husks fused into it came towards them. What the hell is that thing? Garrus thought. He glanced in time to see Jane aiming the particle beam she picked up at it and noticed it was slowly whittling down its barrier. After a few moments, it exploded and he heard Jane let out a victory yell.

"That's got to count for at least eight! Did you see all the husks on it?!" She hollered and Garrus just laughed. They witnessed the tower's laser damage the collector ship enough to cause it to retreat.

"Damn. You can fight, Shepard." He heard Grunt say. Just then, the mechanic from before came out saying he had heard of Shepard before.

That's when Garrus heard a familiar voice speak up, saying she was commander Shepard and announced she was the captain of the Normandy, first human spectre, and the hero of the Citadel. Kaidan, of course. Garrus thought as he saw him walk towards them. He then called the man Delan and said he was in the presence of a legend and a ghost. After Delan walked away, cursing Kaidan for making it instead of his friends, Kaidan went up and hugged Jane. Garrus wanted to stop him but figured it wasn't his place. Just then, Kaidan pulled away and had a sour look on his face. When Jane asked if something was wrong, he started angrily telling her that he thought she was dead for the past two years and told her he thought they had something and that he had loved her. He then asked her why she didn't tell him she was alive. She tried to explain to him that she wasn't conscious and she was just on a Cerberus operating table the past two years. That's when he backed up and went off on her for being with Cerberus and looked at Garrus and couldn't believe he was with them as well. He said he couldn't believe the reports were true and accused them of working for the enemy. She asked if the real reason he was there was to investigate her and he said he was there to investigate Cerberus and went off on her for being with them. He accused her of turning her back on what they believed in, betraying the Alliance and him. Jane tried to plead with him, telling him he knew her and that she'd never betray the Alliance. Garrus tried explaining he was too focused on Cerberus to see the real threat. Jane tried telling him that he was letting his history with Cerberus cloud his judgement but he wouldn't listen to her. He accused her of being blind and insisted she was different and a traitor. He then looked at Grunt and said something about Jane replacing Wrex pretty quick. Garrus could see how hurt she was so he spoke up.

"Dammit, Kaidan. Would you listen to reason and stop accusing Jane of being a traitor?!" He confronted him as he stepped in front of Jane.

"Of course, you're sticking up for her. You're still following her around like a loyal puppy." Kaidan scoffed at him.

"No. I know what she's doing is the right thing. And I'm being a loyal friend." Garrus stood his ground.

"Right. And where were you when she was in the hospital? Or the Normandy when we got shot down and she died?" Kaidan asked him.

"That was a mistake. I've owned up to that. But I'm here now and I'm not chastising her for doing what she believes is right!" Garrus yelled at his face.

"We both know why you're with her and it's not to be her 'friend'. Go ahead. I'm done with her anyways. I don't associate with dirty, damn traitors. She was better off before Cerberus got ahold of her." Kaidan said angrily.

"Why, you-" Garrus started as he rolled his hand into a fist, ready to punch him.

"That's enough, you two!" Jane yelled as she put herself between them. "Kaidan, don't take your anger out on Garrus. And Garrus, I don't know what's going on between you two, but we have more important things to do."

"I have to get back to give my report, anyways. So long, Shepard." Kaidan said as he turned and walked away.

"Goodbye, Kaidan." Jane said with a sad sigh. She then radioed Joker for a pickup. "I've had enough of this damn colony."