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The Waiting Game, Part VI

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Part VI, A Mission Can Change But A Soldier Never Does

 

He loved watching her sleep, it was one of the few times in which Shepard seemed completely at peace, especially when there wasn’t any nightmares. Nowadays, peace was a rare luxury. He loved the way her hair seemed to flow down her back, her freckles dotting all other her body like the night sky.

Some nights, like tonight, Garrus liked to sleep with his head resting on Shepard’s’ chest, her hands resting idly on his fringe. Not only did Garrus find that breasts make great pillows, even by turian standards, but he liked listening to her heartbeat, it was a constant reminder that she was still with him, that death hadn’t come to claim her yet.

“Hey there” Shepard muttered, voice thick with sleep. Her idle hands began to run through his fringe.

Garrus grunted a barely audible hello before tightening his grip on Shepard’s body, feeling her subtle movements as she woke up. “You okay?” he asked, reluctantly forcing his head up to make eye-contact. A small, tired nod was all the response Shepard gave. One of her hands reached his, squeezing it gently.

“I didn’t wake you, did I?” Garrus asked, caressing his talons on her hand in a small circular motion.

“No, you didn’t” Shepard replied, brining Garrus’s hand up to kiss it. “But I think it’s time for you”

Garrus’s eyes narrowed slightly in confusion “What?”

“It’s time for you to wake up Garrus” Shepard clarified “Wake up”

 

“Fuck!” Garrus jolted upright in bed, as if someone had poured freezing cold water down onto him. He hated those dreams. They were far too realistic, far too personal. A cold reminder of how the real world and the world of dreams only blurred together more by the day. The worst part was waking up and finding the cold side of the bed where Shepard would be. Should be. Instead she was trapped in her own body, fighting between the line of alive and dead.

Begrudgingly, Garrus forced his way out of bed. He didn’t bother to look himself over, he knew he probably looked like shit. Much to the criticism of others, such as his sister and his team-mates, he hadn’t been taking very good care of himself.  As much as he would insist and lie that it was the lack of time, he, and the others knew it was the lack of physical and mental energy. Whether it was due to Shepard’s condition, the cabin fever which had slowly built up over the months of not leaving the station, the pressure of being the Primarch’s advisor or all of them at the same time, it was all taking a toll.  Nevertheless, every day he forced himself out of bed and faced what called to him. Feeling Shepard’s gaze on him, watching him.

Afterall, it wasn’t as if he had much of a choice. He couldn’t simply pack up and leave like he did 2 years ago. Back in the ‘good old days’ he wasn’t responsible for millions of lives, he didn’t have the confidence from the Primarch, and the reapers were merely a haunting thought, at the back of minds but  

When you’ve lived through as much war and destruction as the Normandy has then you learn one crucial fact.

Peace is an illusion.

When one war finishes, another battle takes its place. This one being in the form and Wrex and the Quarians vs the council. Round: Who knows.

After 4 months since the relays had been destroyed, 4 major relays had been fixed to working order, while another 5 more were very near finished. Finally, the long-awaited departure of the citadel from the Sol system back to the Widow cluster had arrived. There was still a lot of repairs in need to be done, but it’s core components and its outer hull was in decent enough condition to be safely moved through the relays. But to most people, the relays meant one thing, home.

Now, it could have been argued that the council kickstarted this whole debate by stating very bluntly that the council races get priority. Due to the obvious and reasonable decision of... Well we’re the council.

However, it could equally be as argued that Wrex did not help the situation by retaliating… aggressively. Only fuelling the council’s idea of the “bad aggressive Krogan who don’t deserve any respect”.

“I know I told you to play the angry Krogan act…”

Unfortunately for Garrus, his role as Primarch advisor meant he had to – of course – advise on the situation. If only he had a straight answer.

His patriotic, “good turian” response would have been to let the turians go first as they – along with the humans – had suffered the most collateral damage from the reapers compared to the other council races.

That would have been the response we would have given 3 years ago. Now, things had changed, new depths had been introduced and the galaxy had gained another layer of complexity.

“Why don’t you head back to Normandy kid. If you stay in the real world, you may have to learn something”

Unlike the other races both the Krogan and the Quarians had gained something during the war, something to fight for, the Krogan had the future of their race and the Quarians had a home. Combined with the fact that the two races and fought just as hard and given up most of their resources towards the war. They had every right to voice their opinions and be treated with the same respect as the council races.

Despite this wider and deeper understanding of the galaxy however, Garrus still did not have straight answer… It was never that simple anymore.

 

“Vakarian!” The Primarchs’ voice snapped Garrus back to reality.  Oh right, he was supposed to have his answer by today. In front the Primarch, and the council… and Wrex… And the Quarians.

“Yes Primarch?” Garrus replied with some assertion, trying to hide his previous daze.

“Just making sure you’re awake, the meeting is about to start” It wasn’t clear whether he was annoyed or simple just amused, probably both. Though one thing was certain is that both wanted this meeting to be over already.

When they entered the meeting was already in progress, it clearly had not taken long for Wrex to start arguing with the Council.

“Ah, Primarch Victus” The salarian councillor greeted them, not in a welcoming manner but in a more ‘Oh good now you can face the Krogan”

“Councillor” the Victus replied as he took his place.

Other than Wrex and the council, the Admiralty Board, Tali among them to whom Garrus gave a small head nod of acknowledgement, along with members of the alliance such as Admiral Hackett. Well it was technically ‘their relay’ so they would be voicing their opinion.

After barely even 2 hours into the meeting, Garrus had fully understood why Shepard tended to avoid any sort of meeting with the council at all cost. They were awful! Boring, tedious, not to mention infuriating.  Every time a point was made, it was faced with opposition, it became increasingly difficult for Garrus to not sigh and groan with his head in his hands. He spared a glance at Tali who seemed just as fed up as he did, he had known her long enough to tell even if she was rolling her eyes

G. Vakarian:
> You’ve got the same look you have when you’re about to use your shotgun on somebody

T. Zorah:
> And you look have the same look when someone disturbs your calibrations. Although I could definitely use a round a shooting range after this.

G. Vakarian:
> Agreed. 
> What do you think?

T. Zorah:
> I don’t know. 3 years ago, I would have said that the quarians get priority because of all the treatment we have received over the past 300 years. But now, I don’t know. I feel like we’re not the priority here.

It was comforting to find that Tali shared his sentiment of confusion, but it did bring something to light. Those needing the immediate the transport out of this system was not down to a particular race or species.

“…besides the council races have more wounded they need immediate transport so…”

“All the races have wounded” Garrus interjected, interrupting the Asari councillor from her point.  “So that argument is pointless” The meeting grew silent for what felt like moments.

“Then perhaps you have a better solution” the Asari councillor replied. Perhaps he could, after all, what was the point of spending all that time trying to be involved if you’re not going to use that influence. What was Wrex’s saying?

Grow a quad!

“We need to deal with our wounded first” Garrus said “That above all else should be our priority”

“Our resources are stretched enough here already” Tali added “It would make more sense for the wounded to leave the system first, allowing for more resources to be focused on repairs”

“The more time we waste arguing about this, the more people suffer because of it” said Garrus

A silence filled with contemplation seeped through the atmosphere. Garrus and Tali spared each other a glance, wondering if the council would listen to what they said.

“Can we guarantee secure areas on each home world?” one of the councillors said

“We have several areas already secured” Victus answered

“It can be done” Wrex replied.

After that, most questions were directed to Garrus and Tali, forcing them to take the reins and lead the meeting in terms of logistics, practicality and plans and for once, they weren’t afraid.

 

“Well, that went well, I suppose” Tali said later, once the meeting had been as she, Garrus and Wrex walked back to their quarters

“Looks like the council finally decided to stick their heads out their asses and listen to us” Wrex agreed

“I seem to remember me and Garrus doing most of the talking” Tali retorted “You were just agreeing”

“I was supplying the moral support of an angry Krogan”

“And how is that angry Krogan doing now?” Tali asked with a smirk.

Tali was one the few people who could get away with teasing Wrex, he seemed to have a soft spot for the quarian ever since their time fighting Saren on the SR-1.  The list of people Wrex could tolerate was small at best, but those he did, he cared about.

“I was the one with bullets flying at me”

“And I gave you the moral support to dodge them”

“Besides, I think we have Shepard to thank for that, the last time they didn’t listen… well…” Tali said, half in thought. “You going up to see her?”

“Yeah” Garrus replied “I’ll see you two later” And with that he left, heading towards Shepard’s unchanged, unconscious body.

 

The room hadn’t changed either, still that stale, clinical smell. What he would do to open a window and allow some sort of air into this room. If the hospital had been planet-side, he wouldn’t hesitate to do just that.

When he arrived, one of the nurses was wiping down Shepard’s face and neck, a job he quickly took over, allowing for the nurse to leave and giving Garrus some privacy.

“Looks likes the council are finally having a change of heart and are listening to what we had to say” Garrus said as he gently wiped Shepard’s brow with the cloth. “You should have seen Tali, she was… I believe the human phrase is on fire?”

The beating of the heart monitor seemed to echo and copy Garrus’s words.

“Though I suppose one angry quarian is nothing compared to an angry spectre?” a small smirk layered Garrus’s words, although it did pretty quickly. For a while Garrus said nothing and simply focused on wiping her face and neck. Once that was done he drew his talons up to her hair and made little strokes through her locks, like he used to do when she was still asleep, lying next to him in the same bed, only dreams in her mind.

“You were pretty stubborn, still are” he said, trying to pick up from where he left off. “Which is why wherever you are, I know you can hear me, I know you’ll come back”

Garrus lowered his brow to hers, closing his eyes, wanting to only focus on her breathing, her heartbeat, a reminder of her state.

“Don’t go too far” he breathed into her hair “Don’t go where I can’t follow”

 

 

 

One thing that Shepard had learnt over her career as an N7 and later a Spectre was distinguishing truths from mistruths. Finding the lie in what seemed obvious.

 “Do you recognise this place?” a voice in the back of Shepard’s mind spoke. Of course she did, she had come here hundreds if not thousands of times before.

It was the Citadel, but something was off. Well multiple things were off.

It all seemed the same, the buildings, the architecture, the presidium lakes, the clinical cleanliness of it all.

Shepard walked on taking in her surroundings, occasionally touching a wall or a bench to check and see if it was real.

“Those are real things? You can’t feel if you’re not real?”

It was odd for it to be so clean, perhaps the citadel was not as damaged as she thought.

“Strange, I always thought the citadel to be cold and clinical but now even more so”

It seemed to empty with everyone gone, so calm and peaceful and….

“There’s no-one here!”

Even if evacuations had taken place, there would have been at least some left behind!

“HELLO, ANYONE THERE!” Shepard called out. Nothing, just her echo. There was no-one, not even the keepers. Just her, alone.

“Someone must be here, someone must have been left behind” The citadel was huge and she was only in the presidium, surely down in the wards someone must be there.

           

With her destination set in mind, Shepard walked on alone, with nothing but her thoughts as company.  

Ah! I'm sorry! Look I did have intentions to finish this chapter a month or 2 ago but since exams finished, I have been working non-stop and then going away, plus with trying to find the inspiration to write. So yeah I'm sorry.

I hope you enjoy this chapter despite that as I'm actually going somewhere now with this. I've been super inspired by Hellblade which if you haven't played, is really good! I recommend. It does seem a bit confusing but don't worry, things will get explained!

Anyway, hope you like it and until next time :)

Part VII: projectwritten.deviantart.com/…
Part V: projectwritten.deviantart.com/…

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4evergarrus's avatar
FANTASTIC i am eagerly awaiting more xxxxxx,