Jane rubbed her eyes sleepily as she woke up the next morning. She rolled over to greet Garrus only to find an empty spot next to her.
"Hmm, did he go to breakfast with Joker already?" She asked herself, still waking up. She got out of bed and grabbed her robe when she heard her shower running.
"So that's where he went." She said to herself, as she spotted his clothes still on the floor by her couch. "He should really bring some extra clothes since he's been sleeping here every night." She put her robe on and tied it, before grabbing Garrus's clothes and walking to the bathroom. She heard the water turn off when she entered so she decided to stand in the doorway as she watched him get out. She greeted him with a smile as she stood in the doorway, still holding his clothes. He let out a yell in surprise and rushed to wrap a towel around his waist. Jane let out a laugh and teased him about being shy, to which he denied and told her she surprised him. She expressed her doubt at that and told him he should bring extra clothes since he was basically living there, as she handed him his clothes. He took them from her hand and made a comment about all her clothes having the N7 label. She told him it was a perk as she walked past him, removed her robe, hung it up and walked into the shower. She told him to enjoy his breakfast with Joker while wearing a smirk he couldn't see as she had her back to him. She heard him question Joker's name in a distracted tone before his voice went back to normal and he told her he'd see her later before leaving. I feel a little bad for teasing him like that, but he deserved it for teasing me so shamelessly yesterday. Jane smiled to herself as she let the water run on her. God, this water feels good. I guess I was still a little sore from the other night. Jane had finished showering and had just put her robe back on when she heard someone at her door. Maybe I teased Garrus a little too much, if he's coming back already. Jane smiled and went to open her door as she loosened the top of her robe slightly. She opened the door and saw Liara standing there.
"Is that how you greet all your guests?" Liara raised her brow at Jane.
"Shit, no! I thought you were someone else." Jane told her as she rushed to tighten her robe again and could feel herself blushing.
"Someone like Garrus?" Liara asked in a teasing tone, as she walked into the room.
"Oh shush. Go ahead and have a seat while I get dressed." Jane told Liara as she grabbed her Alliance shirt and pants.
"Is it normal for humans to undress by their couches or is that a Garrus thing?" Liara called out to her.
"What?" Jane asked her as she came out of her bathroom after getting dressed. That's when she saw her crumpled up clothes from the night before still on the floor by the couch. "Shit! No, that's just… Did you need something, T'Soni?"
"Well, I was going to see if you talked things out with Garrus and figured out what you wanted to do. I'm guessing there wasn't much talking, though." Liara let out a laugh.
"No, we talked." Jane told her as she sat down on the couch with Liara. "I asked if he would be okay with winging it, for now."
"And his answer caused clothes to fall on the floor?" Liara asked.
"Will you stop that? No, he agreed that we could pace things as fast or as slow as I was comfortable with. He told me he was happy just being with me and knowing I was safe." Jane told her. "Aaand… That's when our clothes ended up there." Jane laughed.
"Jane, you're shameless!" Liara chastised her.
"What? It was different than the other night. He was very attentive and gentle. And, my God, I can't seem to resist being with him." Jane told her.
"By the Goddess, that is a little more than I needed to hear." Liara said with her hand on her face.
"Sorry. I just don't have anyone else to talk to about this. You're one of my best friends, Liara. Tali and Garrus were too. Still are, maybe? I haven't heard from Tali since the Relay incident and I'm not sure what I can call Garrus now. We're obviously past the platonic friendship thing but…" Jane kept talking really fast.
"You're rambling, again." Liara interrupted her.
"Sorry, guess I tend to do that when it comes to Garrus. It's difficult to get my feelings and thoughts together about him. I'm happy, but conflicted. He deserves the world, actually, a whole damn galaxy." Jane continued to spill out her thoughts to Liara.
"But you're not sure if you can give him that?" Liara asked her.
"I want to, I really do. I just, I don't know if I should? At least, right now." Jane confessed.
"I swear if you say anything about either of you possibly dying." Liara told her.
"Well, it's true. Anything could happen with the Reapers or even Cerberus." Jane told her.
"It's not like either of you had normal, safe jobs before all of this. You are an N7 Alliance marine and Council Spectre; and he was a C-Sec officer and vigilante." Liara told her.
"Maybe you're right. Well, let's get this genophage cured and solidify this alliance. Maybe I'll have some breathing room to think about having an official relationship with him." Jane told her. She does have a point. I haven't lived a safe life since joining the Alliance. "Speaking of Spectres, Kaidan got offered a spot with them."
"That's quite the honor for him. So, are things over with him?" Liara asked her.
"Yeah, they have been for a while. Don't get me wrong, I care for him but it's different than it is with Garrus." Jane told her.
"Oh?" Liara raised her brow.
"I want them both to be happy. Difference is that I hope Kaidan finds happiness, but I want to be the one to make Garrus happy. It's hard to explain." Jane sighed.
"I think you just explained it." Liara smiled.
"Yeah, I guess so. Thanks." Jane smiled back at her. "Well, I should go talk to the Primarch. I'll see you later." Jane told her, as they exited her room and went to the elevator.
Jane entered the War Room on the ship and made her way to talk to Primarch Victus.
"Okay. We're alone, like you wanted. What happened with your ship?" She asked him.
"It's actually a platoon. Last I heard, they had crash landed on Tuchanka." He told her.
"Tuchanka?! What is a turian platoon doing there?" Jane asked louder than she had meant to.
"Keep it down!" The Primarch urged her as he looked across the room to make sure Wrex wasn't listening. "I can't tell you what their mission is because it's classified, but they were being led by Lieutenant Tarquin Victus."
"Victus?" Jane questioned him.
"My son." He told her.
"Ah, I see. You're asking me to take a big leap of faith here, rescuing your son and a whole platoon, fighting Reapers, and you won't tell me what the mission was?" Jane crossed her arms as she talked to him.
"I'm sorry, but I can't. It's classified." Victus told her as he turned his back to her.
"Fine." Jane relented. "But I better not regret this." She told him as she walked out of the War Room.
Jane had decided to meet up with Garrus in the Mess Hall to let him know about their mission. She heard Garrus saying her name in his conversation with Joker and asked them what they were talking about as she sat down. Joker told her it was guy talk, which she didn't believe. So, that's how he wants to play this? Jane thought to herself as she asked him if they were talking about where Joker got the "instructional" vids he had borrowed to Garrus. She smirked as Joker choked on his coffee but then he turned to Garrus and mentioned other crew members hadn't seen him in the quarters and were wondering what he could be doing all night and threw a smirk in Jane's direction. She was getting ready to tell him off when he got up and hurriedly headed for the exit, saying he had to go. Jane scowled as she said she'd get him back later and turned to tell Garrus about their mission for the Primarch. He expressed surprise about turians having a secret mission on Tuchanka and told her it would be bad if the Primarch had promoted his own son without merit. She agreed and told him to get ready while she got James and got up to leave.
"I don't have a good feeling about this." Jane sighed to herself as she reached the elevator.
Jane was walking to the War Room after rescuing the Primarch's son and what was left of his platoon, visibly angry. She went straight to the Primarch and interrupted him before he had a chance to speak.
"Seriously?! Cerberus has a bomb on Tuchanka, and you didn't think that was pertinent knowledge to share with me?!" She scolded him.
"Commander, please understand that-" Victus tried to explain his reasons to her.
"Oh, I'm not done. If we're going to make this alliance work, I have to be able to trust you!" She continued scolding him.
"If you're finished, would you have trusted me with information that could reflect bad on Earth?" He asked her.
"Yes, because I have to. Secrets like this are what jeopardizes alliances. Now, is there anything else you're hiding from me? Because now would be a good time to speak up." She questioned him.
"No, that's all." He told her, as he turned his back to her again. "Thank you for saving my son."
"Sure, Commander, we need you to get the other races to help Earth with the Reaper invasion. They should be ready to help for the good of the galaxy and their own survival. The turians need the krogan to help before they bring their men to aid Earth, the krogan need a cure to the genophage, the salarians are against it, the asari are staying on the sidelines, and we haven't even heard back from the quarians. Next time, I'd like to see Hackett or Anderson do things themselves." Jane angrily mumbled to herself on her way back to the Shuttle Bay.
Jane, James, and Garrus were in the shuttle back to Tuchanka to meet up with Tarquin Victus when he raised them on the shuttle's comm. He told them they were having trouble getting to their NavPoint because of Cerberus. Jane told him they'd have to land where they were and fight their way to the location then asked him to tell her more about the Cerberus bomb. He told her it wasn't Cerberus, it was turian. She angrily reacted hearing that the bomb was turian and told him she'd meet him at the bomb site. Jane turned to Garrus and called his name with her arms crossed, and he told her he didn't know anything about a turian bomb on Tuchanka. He remarked how it wasn't a terrible idea in case the genophage didn't calm the krogan down and told her he would've told her about it as she glared at him. She told him it didn't matter anymore, and they had to go diffuse the bomb before another war started.
"Goddamn turians. Fucking Cerberus." Jane cursed as they fought their way to the bomb site. When they got there, Jane saw the bomb was big enough to take out a big chunk of Tuchanka, as long as anyone within miles of it. Tarquin told her he needed a few minutes to disarm the bomb, and she told him they'd cover him. She was scoping out targets from behind a large piece of rubble, when Tarquin told her the codes weren't working and he'd have to manually disable it. Jane told him she had his back when she felt a sharp pain in her left arm and realized she had gotten shot.
"Shit! It's always this damn arm." She muttered to herself as she shot the person who had hit her. Garrus asked if she was okay, and she told him she was and would put medigel on once they were done. Before long, Garrus was beside her behind the rubble and told her to go ahead and take care of her arm. She thanked him and turned around to apply her medigel when she saw Tarquin on top of one of the structure's arms, pulling out the bomb cells.
"Tarquin, no!" She called out right before the arm gave out and he fell with the cells, resulting in an explosion. She felt Garrus looming over her in a protective stance. She instinctively tried to get up to go help Tarquin, but Garrus held her back and told her it was too late. She angrily threw a grenade at the last standing Cerberus agent before telling Garrus and James it was time to go. She sat quietly in the shuttle as she put medigel on her arm. Dammit, there has to be something more I could've done to save him. Maybe if I had dispatched Cerberus sooner, or helped him with the bomb? How am I supposed to explain to the Primarch that I let his son die? How many others have to die for this stupid war?
Jane had walked into the War Room and caught Wrex and Victus arguing over the bomb. She ran up and got in between them.
"Seriously?! We have Reapers tearing apart the galaxy and you're going to fight about this right now?!" She yelled, still standing between them.
"Commander, we-" Victus started arguing.
"No! You had a bomb on Tuchanka!" She yelled at him, then turned to Wrex. "And you would have done the same damn thing! His son died making this right!"
"Alright, alright. I got it, Shepard." Wrex mumbled as he went back to his spot in the War Room.
"I'm sorry, Commander. But now you see why we had to keep this secret. I should've trusted you, though." Victus turned to her.
"Yes, you should have. I hate secrets and politics. Your son died trying to make this right!" Jane continued taking her anger out of Victus.
"You're right." He told her as he started walking away. He then turned around to face her again. "My son died with honor and respect. It'll be recorded in our history. That should make any father proud." He told her solemnly before walking away.
"Yeah." Jane sighed before heading back towards her cabin. Maybe I shouldn't have been so harsh on him. He just lost his son, and I yelled at him about it. He said any father should be proud, but he sounded like he didn't believe that fully. Jane was deep in thought when she saw Garrus sitting on the floor outside her cabin door. She asked him what he was doing as she opened the door, and he said he was waiting for her. She told him he could've just went in since he was practically living there as she sat down on the couch and put her face in her hands. He told her it didn't seem right and softly said her name when he looked at her. She told him they weren't able to save Tarquin, and she felt him grab her hands, pull them from her face, and hold them in his. He then said that he told her before that she couldn't save everyone. He told her that dying in action was one of the highest honors they could have. She asked him if they all aimed to die for honor and he told her that most did, but he had something more important to live for. She looked to see him smiling at her and asked what he was talking about. That's when he told her he would kill and even die for her. She tried protesting that she didn't want that, and he interrupted her, telling her he wasn't done. He pulled her into a tight hug and told her that he'd make sure they both would survive, that he wanted to live for and with her. She hugged him back, thanked him, and told him she didn't know what she would do without him. He made a joke about her having to find a different turian to influence with her charm and asked what was next for them. She laughed and told him sleep, she explained they had to look for a company of Wrex's that had went missing. He made a comment about them still doing diplomatic missions while not being under the direct employ of the Council. Jane agreed with him and told him it was time for them to go to bed as she went to change into a tank top and shorts. She asked him if he had brought extra clothes, he said he had and made a comment about sleeping naked. Jane voiced her surprise as she sat on her bed, and he joked that lately he had been. He told her he usually just sleeps in pants as he removed his shirt and got into bed with her. She lightly slapped his chest and told him he was horrible, he smirked and told her it was fun watching her blush. He then put his arm around her and pulled her close to him. She cuddled up next to him and let out a sigh.
"What's wrong?" Garrus asked her.
"I just- I went off on the Primarch for keeping the bomb a secret. I told him off and said his son died making things right. I feel bad for being so harsh on him now." Jane admitted to him.
"Well, whether you let him know you feel bad about it or not is up to you. I know you'll do what you think is right." He told her.
"Yeah. Thanks." Jane said as she leaned up to kiss him. "Good night."