The Unknown: Book 1

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The Normandy still had a while to go until it reached Horizon, Gemma had spent most of the trip getting together as much information as she could on her parents and sent it all to Edi to get ready for the mission. She was sitting in the mess hall, a flask of coffee by her side, datapads were scattered around the table in front of her, she held her head in her hands, rubbing her temple with the end of her fingers.

Garrus was walking out of the forward battery when he stopped in his tracks to see Gemma sitting on the edge of her chair, crutches meters from her as if she had thrown them. He could see the frustration as she aggressively bounced her leg, he walked over to the end of her table, Gemma looked up. "Oh, hey. You okay?" She didn't keep the eye-contact for long and dropped her gaze back to her datapad, looking for pictures that clearly showed her parents' faces.

"I should be asking you that." Gemma looked up again, "you look like you're about to explode." He sat down across from her, moving some of the datapads to the side so he could place his arms on the table. Gemma didn't respond at first, she shrugged her shoulders. "I know you are worried, but they could have gone to Sanctuary to get help."

Gemma rubbed her forehead, she couldn't think straight anymore, "I highly doubt that, the last thing I saw before I passed out, was my mum being taken by a cannibal. If she did get away, she would most likely be injured and I have no idea where my dad could be." Garrus didn't know what to say. He sat back in his seat, he was never good at being supportive, Gemma copied his posture. "Let me ask you this: Tali told me about what happened to you and this guy who betrayed you. She never went into detail, but she mentioned how you were a different person and wanted nothing but revenge. How did you go from that to loving Shepard, if you don't mind me asking?"

Garrus sat forward and clicked his mandibles against his cheeks. Gemma could see he was annoyed and was about to apologize, but he held his talon up to stop her. "I'm not angry with you. I just... don't always like to talk about this." Gemma wouldn't mind if he dismissed this, she never liked herself to be pushed into an answer, so why should she do this to others. "I was betrayed by another Turian called Sidnois. He got my squad killed on Omega when we were trying to drop the crime rate that was going on. I was meant to die on my last day on Omega, but Shepard found me and saved my life when I got hit in the face by a rocket." He stopped to point out the healed skin and scarring on the side of his right mandible leading up to his cheek. "I told her about my need to kill him, she tried to talk me down more than once, but I never listened. I had to take the time to track him down. We went to Horizon when the Collectors attacked it and of course, Alenko got into that argument with Shepard. She changed after that mission, little missions she wouldn't go and sent me or Miranda to lead instead, she would only go if we were getting another squad member or helping with personal issues. She locked herself away and spent most of the time looking at Kaidan's picture Cerberus had placed in her cabin when she first got her ship."

Gemma tapped her fingers on her knees, she knew of the argument between Kaidan and Shepard, she felt angry at first when he told her, but she knew he did regret what he had said. "I never knew Shepard was that heartbroken by what happened between them." Garrus nodded as he clasped his talons into each other.

"Yeah, she was very depressed, she started to drink, but because of her implants she couldn't get drunk and that made her even more agitated, but I finally found out that Sidnois was hiding on the Citadel and going by a different name. When I went to tell Shepard the news, I found her huddled in a small ball on her bed, hugging a bottle of whiskey," Garrus sighed, remembering how Shepard looked at him, bags under her eyes, begging for help to get her life back on track. "So I told her, she woke up more when I went into more detail, she was bouncing about, wanting to kill him with me. I felt bad asking for her help, but I could not do it without her. We went to the Citadel and the more into the mission we got, Shepard was changing her attitude. She started to disagree with my idea on how to deal with Sidonis." He placed his talons calmly on the table, not wanting to slam the table in frustration, it still got to him nearly a year later.