I DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO CONTINUE… But somehow I did it. I think. I'm not even sure, but it somewhat feels right. That makes sense. Sorry with how long it took- forever I know. ENJOY!

…

I slept well that night; no spins, no bouts of feeling sick, nothing! At the moment I was pressed against something solid and very warm, and right now being comfortable, warm and sleepy was a dangerous combination if I still wanted to see Garrus- and, you know the others of course… off. But right now was too much. I mumbled something incoherent as I snuggled in to the warm, rough thing. Now it wasn't rough-rough like sandpaper, no; much more like smoothed leather, if there was such a thing. Scales and leather? I didn't care anymore, I liked it. I felt the thing shift, the bed dipping as it moved. I grumbled as I felt it move away, not happy that whatever was keeping me so content was moving away. The thing stopped and grumbled back at me, a stray piece of hair was moved from my face. Whatever this thing was, it was nice. I liked it even more. The bed dipped again. Door. Water.

Now I wasn't as warm, the thing left! Where did it go? I told myself to 'wake up', forcing my body to sit up. The shower was going. I blinked, rather sleepily before I looked at the clock.

'09:00'

Garrus was getting ready to leave. Garrus. SHIT!

My eyes snapped open wide as I scrambled out of bed. '09:01' read the clock. I was out the door heading towards my own room. Crap, Shepard and Liara. How was I supposed to- the door was open and no one inside. I closed the door behind me and rushed into the shower, almost jumping in with my clothes. I scrubbed my body, face, washed my hair and was out in no time flat. Brushed teeth, partially dried hair, some makeup and clothes; perfect! 12 minute and… rounding 15 seconds. I opened the door to see Shepard holding 2 glasses with orange liquid.

"That was fast, I'm impressed Aurora." He complimented, handing one of the glasses to me like a reward. I took a sip and smiled. Orange juice- thank you! "We kind of took over your kitchen, hope you don't mind."

I smiled even more as we made our way downstairs, waving it off as I took another sip. Garrus was sitting at the island, talking to Liara over a datapad as he ate some food he had found, Liara was leaning against the island on the other side, drinking some OJ of her own as James cooked behind her.

"Good morning Aurora" Liara greeted.

"Morning" I replied. Shepard walked past me, pulling a chair out for me. I said my thanks as I sidled up next to Garrus. Garrus hummed lowly in greeting as he chewed his food. Shepard moved around to Liara, giving her a quick kiss to the cheek.

"Buenos dias niña, what would you like for breakfast?" James asked. He was making an omelet with whatever I had in the fridge. I sat up and looked at what he had grabbed till I noticed the leftover containers in the trash; empty. Leaning forward a little more I saw that Garrus had the rest of the leftovers on his plate including the charra. Garrus continued eating and looking at the datapad, possibly ignoring or just oblivious to me staring at the fruit. I leaned closer.

"Can I help you Aurora?" Garrus asked, not even looking my way as he continued to focus on whatever it he was reading.

"Yes." I answered as I sat forward a little more, leaning heavily on the counter as I looked at Garrus' plate. "Could I have a slice of your charra?"

Garrus nudged his plate over in between us as his answer and I sat back in my chair. Smiling, I took a smaller slice of the delicious fruit and ate half of it. I pushed the plate back in front of him.

"You can eat Turian food?" James paused in his cooking to switch looks between me and the plate. I rolled my eyes at him, humming my answer as I finished the half of my sliced fruit. The ice cube feeling melted away, leaving the sweet explosion of fruit flavor in my mouth. I was definitely getting this again. Garrus had finished looking at whatever was on his datapad and turned to face everyone. Garrus pushed the plate back to where it was in between the 2 of us, making a noise similar to what would be called a chuff. I smiled, snatching at small piece of the meat from last night and eating that as well. Garrus nodded his head and continued eating, leaving some pieces on the plate for me to eat.

"Wait, so you're telling me that she can understand what your sub-sound-monics mean?" James finally blurted out.

I shrugged my shoulders, "To a point. I can hear them but the actual meaning goes straight over my head most of the time." James finished his omelet and plated the rest of it for Shepard and Liara before taking the pan and spatula to the sink to clean it. Shepard dug into his omelet quickly. He shook his head, muttering 'weird'. Marines… "It's what feelings sound like as an action; the meaning behind what you do as a sound." That was as close as I could describe it. "I have to learn what each sound feels like and means." Garrus next to me rumbled quietly deep from his chest; a feeling of comfort washed over me. I smiled softly before taking another piece of Garrus' food.

"Is he doing something right now?" James questioned. He had finished washing what was in the sink and finished drying his hands, now pointing a finger at me, "You're smiling" he continued. I said nothing before looking down at my Omni-tool. It was 0931. His rumbling ended quiet abruptly at James' comment, his mandibles closing to his face.

"We should be heading out soon Shepard." Garrus stated as he saw the time. Garrus grabbed his now empty plate, along with Shepard's and put them in the dishwasher. We all headed towards the door, Garrus' bag already placed near it ready-to-go. I walked out last locking the door behind me. Garrus waited a few steps behind the others to walk next to me, his duffel bag slung over his shoulder. Leaving the same way he came.

"I'll call the skycars." Liara said, pulling up her Omni-tool. As we made our way to street, 2 cabs hovered above the call station already. One lowered; Shepard, Liara and James getting into the first car. The cab took off and the second descended to let Garrus and I get in. I slid into the back seat while Garrus dealt with his bag.

"Docking Bay D-24." He muttered to the driver as he slid in. The driver nodded his head taking off quickly. It wouldn't take long to get to the Docking Bay, especially at this time of day; most people were already at work so traffic was light. Garrus sat up straight, his armor on and side arm at his side.

"Will you be passing any comm buoys while you're away?" I finally asked. His mandibles fluttered for a split second then clacked against his face. "Probably" he answered. There was a tense feeling in the air and I could barely- 'feel', what Garrus was feeling at the moment. He was blocking himself. I titled my head to the side staring at him. He's nervous? But why would he- My mind fought back to last night.

You. A voice echoed around me. You. You. You. You…He was serious. I hadn't replied; I hadn't given him an answer. No wonder he was acting like this. I could tell how his thoughts somewhat worked with how many times we had talked. He considered everything; all the variables and factors that he knew. He knew that I'd been drinking. His confession could have been what I didn't want to hear. There were too many things. I could feel a welling of some kind from my chest and quickly closed off that avenue of feeling. I needed to answer him. Luckily and unluckily, the ride had been extremely short thanks to this driver; he had taken the correct back roads to make this a speedy trip.

"Garrus." I called. He didn't answer.

The skycar slowed then drifted down to our destination. Garrus got out, grabbed his bag and waited for me to get out. I could see the minute movements his body was making. He wanted to move away but didn't at the same time. A mini war was waging on the inside for either the reason I was- hoping it to be, or another. The others were already here waiting for us. The 5 of us stayed together and headed to the entrance of the Normandy's airlock to say our goodbyes.

"Gotta get back to the gun cage and make sure that everything is ready." James said. He slung his arm over my shoulder giving me a small squeeze before sauntering off. "Adíos niña."

"I've got to go as well." Liara. "Gotta make sure everything is good-to-go." Shepard. Liara and Shepard, to my delight and surprise, both gave me hugs. Although Shepard's was a bit more awkward.

"The Great Commander Shepard, bad at hugging friends. Think you need some work on that." I teased. Shepard gave a small smile. He didn't look as tired as when I saw him when he first got back; he looked younger and a bit more relaxed.

"Friends huh?"

"Well I did let you kick me out of my own bed and drink at my place." He laughed at this before placing his hand on my shoulder.

"Maybe you'll let us do that again when we get back.

I nodded my head: "After everything that you've done to help me, you're more than welcome to come over anytime. Plus you're actually fun for a Commander."

"See ya later Aurora." Shepard and Liara headed towards the Normandy's airlock, their fingers brushing together every so often. I looked to Garrus who was staring after them.

"Garrus." I called again. He looked down at me, his mandibles still tight to his face. "You're worried." I accused. He stood his ground, still looking me in the eyes.

"Au-Aurora about last night."

I took a step closer as he sighed. "I've seen so many things go wrong, Aurora; my work at C-Sec, what happened with Sidonis," I knew about his work at C-Sec, it'd been mentioned before that he was actually a great detective but in the end too much red tape; he ended up following Shepard and was allowed him to do as he wished. But the name he said, I'd never heard that before- his voice warbled for a second but he continued anyways: "the Reapers and Palaven. I just want something to go right for once. Just…" He huffed softly. While it was what I had hoped he was thinking about, hearing how much this affected him and would affect him more was almost difficult; painful. I had already made up my mind and my decision was still the same; you.

I gave my Turian a small smile as he watched me carefully, and rocked up to stand on my toes (he was still taller than me) and gently placed my forehead against his while closing my eyes. To humans the gesture seen was intimate, many couples rested their foreheads against the other for the comfort of just being near each other; for a Turian it was even more. From what I could understand, it was like a hug and a kiss and a way of saying 'I love you' all at once; it was a way to say 'I care for you'; 'I've got you'; 'I'm here'.

"The time is 10 minutes after 10 o'clock, Citadel Time." Avina's voice rang out as someone asked her the time. Garrus seemed to be frozen. Then it started; he purred. It started out slowly and grew in crescendo till I'm sure that the entire docking area could feel him; and then he returned the gesture. I opened my eyes to see him looking back at me, his mandibles flared in a wide Turian grin.

"So, uh… what exactly does this mean for you and me?"

I pulled away from him and went back to standing normally, still smiling at him. Garrus took barely a half step forward so that I would be almost pressed up to his carapace; his purrs still echoing thru ought my body. I could barely feel the stares from those that milled about the docking bay. There weren't many human-Turian couples on the Citadel and possibly fewer in the outer colonies- or more, you never knew. The First Contact War, aka Relay 314 Incident, had left its sunken claws in the memories and hearts of those who fought and died on both sides. I was conflicted, Perfect timing on both our parts, genius even. I didn't want him to leave at all. I could feel that swelling come again and this time I didn't stop it. I could feel the soft purrs coming from Garrus still; it felt like my voice was cracking, like I had lost my voice and I was just starting to try and speak from a long time of silence… the closest thing I could do was rumble my happiness quietly. Garrus looked shocked for a second but smiled all the same.

Garrus' omni-tool started pinging loudly, making us both jump apart in shock. His eyes drifted between the airlock doors and me. I gently pushed him towards the door. He moved on his own then stopped, taking one last look at me.

"Fuck it all." He grumbled. He shouldered his duffle bag before grabbing me by the waist and pushing his forehead against mine. My eyes closed automatically.

"We'll finish this conversation after I outshoot Shepard again."