Survivor

Chapter 20

Garrus
Samantha stood at the door to their apartment, her hand hovering over the manual unlock pad on the door as Garrus watched and waited silently for her to be ready.
  She took a deep breath and laid her hand on the pad, jumping slightly when the lock beeped its open alert and the doors slid open.
  She held her head high and walked in slowly, somewhat tentatively.
  Garrus admired her will to face things so soon, proud of the strong woman she was.
  He had already come in and cleaned up the mess that had been made during the invasion, so all she saw was their cleaned apartment.
  Garrus followed her in and laid a hand on her shoulder, which made her turn and give him a grateful smile.
  "You cleaned it up in here, didn't you?"
  He gave Samantha a sheepish smile and nodded, and to his surprise, her reaction was to stand on her toes and kiss him.
  "Thank you. This isn't as hard as I thought it would be thanks to you."
  Garrus brushed the back of his fingers across her cheek and pressed his forehead to hers. "Anything for you, Sam."
  Samantha smiled and kissed him, draping her arms over his shoulders as she pressed close to him.
  Garrus cupped her cheek in the palm of his hand and held her close, returning the kiss until his Omni-Tool began beeping at him.
  He let out a low growl of frustration as Samantha pulled away, apparently amused by the interruption.
  Garrus opened his Omni-Tool and frowned at the message on his screen.
  "What is it?" Samantha asked.
  "Someone wants a meeting with me. Probably Bailey or another high ranking C-Sec officer. They didn't say their name but it's a C-Sec issue Omni-Tool that sent the message."
  Samantha ran a hand over the stubble on her head and blew out a breath.
  "Go, then."
  "What? No. I'm not leaving you here alone! You just got home from the hospital! C-Sec can wait."
  Samantha laughed and shook her head. "No, they can't. Go. I've got this, I'm not blind anymore. Just leave me my medicine. I'm probably just going to head up to bed anyways. I'm tired."
  Garrus stared at her, torn between listening to her or staying and taking care of her.
  She raised a brow at him and held out her hand for her medicine and Garrus sighed in defeat.
  "Okay. But if you need anything, make sure you contact me immediately. Here."
  He handed her an earpiece/visor set and she took it, turning it over in her hands to look at it.
  "The visor is detachable, so you can wear it in bed while we wait for your hand to heal up enough to handle a new Omni-Tool. You can just give the command to send an emergency message. It'll contact both me and C-Sec at the same time with the message you say. Or you can just tell it to contact me if you need something that doesn't require C-Sec to come too."
  Samantha stuck the earpiece in her ear and adjusted it slightly so it fit her perfectly and smiled.
  "I'll be fine, Garrus. Just go okay?"
  He reluctantly nodded and leaned down to give her one more kiss before he turned and walked out the door, casting a glance behind him to see her standing where he left her, watching him leave.
  He glanced down at his Omni-Tool again to remind himself which apartment he was supposed to meet Hackett at.

--
Garrus knocked on the door of the apartment, feeling more like a criminal slinking around to do business than what this really was. He didn't even know what this really was though, which made him uncomfortable.
  The door slid open and Garrus entered, already seeing Hackett standing at parade rest by the window.
  "What's this about?" Garrus asked immediately, not really in the mood for formalities.
  Hackett turned his head to watch Garrus approach and gestured to the couch. "Have a seat."
  Garrus did as he was told, and Hackett took the loveseat by the window.
  "Cleanup crews have just found more bodies in the rubble around where the beam was. More notably to us, they just found Admiral Anderson's body. It's being prepared for burial as we speak."
  Garrus sat back in his seat, taking this news in. "I wasn't aware that they hadn't found him yet."
  "Honestly, we hadn't been able to get to that area of destruction yet. Shepard's lucky Lawson dived in to find her nearly immediately after the destruction of the Reapers. If she hadn't, Shepard would probably be dead in that rubble with Anderson."
  Garrus made a sound of discontent and turned his head to hide the pain in his features.
  "The funeral will be held tomorrow on Earth. Shepard is invited to come. Arrangements have already been prepared for her, including a room and transportation not only on Earth, but off the Citadel to Earth."
  Garrus' eyes were ablaze with fury and he stood, too upset to sit anymore. "She just had an operation today, dammit! We lost her for five minutes! And now you want her to go traipsing around off the Citadel? What the hell are you thinking?"
  Somehow, Hackett remained calm in his seat, his eyes simply followed Garrus back and forth as he paced. "I'm thinking I want to hold the respectful burial that's long overdue for a damn good Admiral I served with. I'm also thinking that Shepard would want to come, seeing that he was like a father to her-"
  "Put him in cryo! Shepard doesn't need this right now!"
  Hackett stood and caught the Turian by the shoulder as he marched past, a bold move with any angry Turian.
  "Shepard needs closure. Either you tell her about the funeral and I receive an RSVP for the two of you by 18:00 Citadel standard time, or I'll personally deliver the message tonight."
  A low growl escaped Garrus and he roughly shrugged the Admiral's hand from his shoulder before he turned and stalked out of the apartment still fuming.
  Who was Hackett to be telling him how to take care of his mate? And interfering with him taking care of her the way he saw fit by marching in and slinging around orders as if he were the one in charge of their personal lives!
  Garrus noticed people clearing out of his way to let him pass, unwilling to get in the way of a pissed off Turian. Apparently Hackett was the only one stupid enough.
  It wasn't long before Garrus found himself outside their apartment door and he paused before he hit the pad to open the door.
  If he went in seething mad still, more than likely he would say something he didn't mean and would regret. His throat clenched at the though of doing that to her, especially in such a delicate situation.
  He took a few deep breaths to calm down, closing his eyes as he did so.
  When he felt his anger was under control, he opened the door and walked in, looking around for Samantha.
  "Sam?"
  She came around the corner from the kitchen, drying a dish with a towel. "Hey, Garrus." She stood on her toes to give him a quick kiss. "How'd the meeting go?"
  She walked back into the kitchen and he followed, unhappy with the words he had to say next.
  "I met with Admiral Hackett."
  Samantha glanced at him with confusion and curiosity in her eyes but she still grabbed the next clean dish to dry.
  Garrus walked over and took the dish from her hands, setting it carefully on the counter before he led her gently by the hands to the couch to sit.
  "Sam... They..." He choked on the words as he saw the confusion on her face grow and worry join it. "They found Anderson's body..."
  The last words were so quiet they were a whisper, but Samantha heard. She sat there in shock, staring past Garrus as if there was a three headed vorcha behind him.
  He traced comforting circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. Her eyes focused back on him, pain written clearly on her face.
  "When's the funeral?"
  Garrus grimaced. "Tomorrow... You were invited of course. They have arrangements made for you to stay the night if you want to go."
  She nodded immediately, determination set in the way she held herself. "I'm going. You don't have to-"
  "No. If you're going, I'm going. That's the end of it. I'll RSVP. You may want to start packing, I don't know when the ship will pick us up yet."
  Samantha leaned forward and kissed him on the mandible lightly. "Thank you."
  With that, she stood and left, her hand sliding out of his as she walked away.
  Garrus' mandibles were clenched tightly to his face in displeasure, but he pushed past it, opening his Omni-Tool to send Hackett the RSVP.
  A message came in five minutes later that a ship would be at D12 at 20:00 CST for them.
  Garrus sighed and rubbed above his brow plate, a habit he had when he was stressed out.
This is going to be an interesting week, he thought unhappily.

((A/N: Chapter 20! Wow! It feels like a mere week ago that I was publishing chapter 1! So, I'm going to try to keep up with writing, hopefully write some chapters in advance like this one is and then publish every week. Trying to keep my mind busy, so what better way to do it than to write! I know the story is kind of lacking in action so sorry to those of you looking for the action packed romance. This is more of a closure to the romance of Garrus and Shepard, my take on it basically. I hope you guys are enjoying it though and as always, I ask that please don't forget to vote and comment if you like the story! Thanks!!!))