Fire on the Horizon

Chapter 22: Locked, Loaded, and Staring Down

The last few days had been hard. Liara went with Garrus and Shepard on the distress call only to find it was an Ardat Yakshi monastery. The commandos had been sent in to blow it up and had failed. Reapers had arrived and the only ones left were Samara, who had come to rescue her daughters, and her two daughters. By the end of it all, one daughter was left behind and alone while Samara was on her way to the Citadel.

Liara had seen the worst of what Reapers could do to her people and just kept denying it. Almost as if she knew it was there, acknowledged it, and then turned it off. As if the monastery was only that way because of the Ardat Yakshi. Then again, that was Liara. She had always seemed a bit removed from anything like that. Everything was academic to her. She was always the observer and always had a logical and reasonable calculation for why things were the way they were.

What scared Shepard was that one day Liara was going to get hit with the fact that some things aren't academic. Some things can't be explained and some things were just horrific because evil was real.

The Normandy had been asked to help with several small side issues that could gain them major footholds in the galaxy for the war. Needless to say Jane was tired. She was ready to get to the Citadel and have a few days of mandated leave for the crew. It would only be a few days, but the Citadel was still relatively untouched by the war, so it gave the crew a bit of relaxation even in the midst of the war.

Jane was sitting on the sofa in her cabin, looking over a list of orders she was planning on dropping off at port. She found it was easier to take in all the orders, approve it all at once, and send it to be filled while they were in port.

Garrus had left his order on the table and, as per usual, it was nearly all rifle related items or gear. She had just finished her order when she got a call from Joker.

"Commander, we can't raise the Citadel. I've been trying to get clearance to dock for half an hour."

Shepard was already in the lift and heading to the CIC. "I'll be there in a minute. Keep trying."

Shepard reached the cockpit in time to hear Jeff asking, yet again, for approval to dock. He turned to her and shook his head. Finally, he got in touch with someone. It was Thane. He told Joker that Cerberus had taken over the Citadel and communications with C-Sec were down. Shepard was turning and almost ran into Garrus.

"What's going on? I was talking back and forth with Adrian about coordinating some supplies and getting a docking bay set up for turian support. He went dark. I haven't been able to reach him in several hours." Garrus fell in line next to Shepard as they pushed through to the lift to gear up and get to the shuttle bay. Jane decided to answer him and call for a shuttle at the same time. She looked at him as she spoke into her coms.

"Cortez, have James suit up and get a shuttle ready. The Citadel is under attack. Cerberus has taken over. Unknown approach options. I'm gearing up. Ten minutes until departure." She kept her eyes on Garrus as she spoke to Cortez.

They arrived at her cabin and began to suit up. She was moving in a daze and going off pure instinct. The sound of Garrus locking and loading his rifle snapped her out of it. She turned to see him geared up. They didn't say a word as they left the cabin and loaded onto the shuttle.

The sound of gunfire could be heard before they even got to a landing area. Garrus told Cortez that the only reasonable area would probably be the C-sec landing zone. Shepard was thankful for three things right now. The first was having more than enough ammo to get through this. The second was having a former C-sec officer on her side that knew this place like the back of his hand. The third is how calm Garrus and James were being through this.

Within the next few minutes they came in hot and fought there way through to Bailey. He was injured but alive. He got them in and got them in touch with Thane. After that things went so fast it was a blur. All Shepard knew is that they were about to step out onto the landing that held the council and Kaidan. They had Cerberus behind them. They didn't have time for bullshit.

The doors opened and the first thing she saw was Kaidan with his gun drawn at her and hers was drawn down on Udina. Great. Just the bullshit she did not have time for. Thank the spirits she could talk him down and only Udina was hurt. She wasn't even sure how she did it. All she knew was that her finger was on the trigger, ready to go. Would she have shot Kaidan? That was a question she had to answer later.

When it was all over, when the council was safe and the discussions were done, Shepard holstered her weapon and walked off for a minute. Garrus and James were answering questions from C-sec. When Garrus got done, he began looking around for her. He was stopped by Kaidan.

"Garrus? Can I speak to you for a minute?" Garrus turned to Kaidan as he took a deep breath. He wasn't sure he wanted to have this conversation right now, at all actually. It was going to happen though and he knew it.

"Hey Kaidan. Glad to see you up and around. I heard Mars was hell. Glad today turned out positive." Garrus went for his military side and stayed stoic but approachable.

Kaidan smiled and kept his stoic military cool as well. "Thank you. It was not the best day of my military career. I know this isn't the time, but I wanted to ask you something. How serious are you and Shepard? I know there was something between you after Horizon."

Kaidan paused and held his hands up in a bit of defense. "Don't get me wrong. I understand. I just wondered if it was a one time thing. I still care and..."

Garrus was turian. A bad a turian, in his own words, but still turian. If he wasn't sure how he felt about Jane yet, he damn sure knew now. His territorial instinct was starting to kick in. He kept it cool though. Bad breakups happened. People get hurt. It didn't make Kaidan a bad guy.

"We care about each other and we are figuring it out, Kaidan. That's really all I can say on it. Honestly, you need to speak to her about it. If you'll excuse me, I need to go." Garrus turned to leave and find Jane. He had an idea where she was.

Kaidan stopped him. "Garrus, I don't want this to be an issue, but I still love her. I'm going to try."

Garrus didn't turn around. He stood still and felt his heart nearly stop. He thought, wanted to believe, that what he and Jane had was solid. He wanted to believe that they were good. Hearing Kaidan say that though, it shook him.

"I wouldn't expect any less Kaidan. If I were in your shoes, I'd walk through hell to keep her. I did."

Garrus didn't wait for a response. He just walked off to go find Jane.

Kaidan stood on the platform. He was determined to make this right and get back what he had lost and what Cerberus had ultimately kept from him.