Part XII, A Wasted Hymn

Garrus couldn't decide whether he loved or hated Shepard's apartment. One on hand it was in the citadel, his least favourite place, full of stuck up people who hadn't so much as even peeked out of their privileged bubble. Yet on the other hand, it was one the few places that he and Shepard could call their own.

Here it was their own bubble, tucked away from the horrors of the galaxy. The only place where they could gain a bit of normality. They could do things at their own rate, on their own time and just be themselves.

One of his favourite things to do among the normality was to wake up beside Shepard in the morning. When they were on the citadel they took the liberty of taking things a bit easier which included but not limited to; waking up whenever they wanted, ignoring reports, doing a lot of 'physical' activity.

This morning was one of those mornings where there was no alarm, instead Garrus woke up by his own natural body clock. He stretched out and instinctively reached for Shepard beside him, to find she wasn't there.

A flash of panic shook through him but was soon over as he looked up in front of him. There perched on the edge of the bed was Shepard, crossed-legged and sketch book in hand, clearly focused on her drawing.

"Don't worry big guy I'm still here" she said quietly, her eyes remaining focused on the notepad in front of her but a smile of reassurance spreading on her lips. Garrus couldn't make out what she was drawing but he found her look of concentration quite endearing. It was different sort of concentration to the one needed in the battlefield, here she was more relaxed, more at peace.

"Didn't know you could draw…" Garrus commented

"Well I had to keep some surprises" Shepard replied, still not looking up from her work yet smiling in response.

"What are you drawing?"

"You'll see once it's done" She then looked up and stuck her tongue out in an immature fashion, the two laughing before Shepard went back to her sketchpad. Garrus took the opportunity to lay back down but shifting closer to Shepard and resting his hand on her knee, making her gasp ever so quietly, he loved how he could elicit those reactions from her.

"Do you want to see this or not?" Shepard replied

"Well yes, but I can wait if we were do something else for a while" Garrus replied his hand gliding up her thigh suggestively, his eyes screaming the words 'come back to bed'. Shepard shot him an equally suggestive look, her hand slowly loosing grip on her pencil until it fell beside her. Garrus to the opportunity to bring his hand to her cheek, caressing it slowly. Shepard placed her hand on his, the two just getting lost in each other's eyes. If the eyes were the window to the soul, then their souls were intertwining and dancing with each other as they laid there.

"I am most open to doing… other activities" Shepard replied, her other hand caressing over his thigh. "But first, you have to wake up"

Garrus didn't sleep after that, the dream didn't help but usually he could fall back in dreamless state, but this time, he just laid there, his mind so full of questions and theories it almost went blank like a ship going so fast that you don't see it.

What had happened to Shepard's brain? What had caused? Or who? Could be reversed? Can she be saved? She has to be! She's Shepard, saviour of the entire fucking Galaxy! She deserved to be saved.

Deciding that laying in bed would solve nothing, Garrus wiped out his omni-tool and started to message Liara, explaining everything he had seen. Before long, he was receiving a video-call.

"What do you mean she might not be brain dead?" Liara asked getting straight to the point, her image flickering from the poor connection.

"I mean there was some activity monitored" Garrus tried to explain "A huge spike but then it disappeared"

"How long ago was this activity" Liara asked

"Just after she was recovered from the citadel"

"What was the level of her activity?" Liara continued to ask, her eyes now switching to the monitor next to her

"I don't know the number but it was huge, it was off the charts yet it only lasted for less than 2 seconds it seemed" Garrus explained

"That does seem pretty abnormal, and it just disappeared like that?"

"Just like that" Liara seemed to look away from her console and just stare into the distance, completely lost in thought.

"You're the best person I could turn to regarding this Liara" Garrus said, maybe trying to reassure her. "It's not a lot but it's all we have right now"

"I know" Liara replied still not looking to face him. After what seemed like hours of silence Liara then continued "If we could find the source that would be help answer a few questions"

"I may have Kasumi on that already, but I don't know how long that will be until we get concrete answers"

"I'll try and get a full history on all the records coming to and from the hospital" Liara added "That may lead us somewhere"

"Thanks Liara" Garrus replied, he truly was thankful for his friend, she was a rock through thick and thin these past few years. "I'll tell Kasumi to forward any information she finds to you to"

"Of course, good night Garrus"

"Night"

The day following started off pretty uneventful, consisting of reports, meetings and more of the boring bureaucratic crap. If you had told him two years ago when he was fighting the three biggest gangs on Omega that he would back doing the very thing that made him escape to the worst place in the Galaxy, you would have been on the wrong end of his sniper rifle. Oh how Garrus missed his rifle, maybe he'd take a trip to the shooting range later… pretend the councils smug face were at the end…

"Primarch Vakarian," General Corinthus greeted as he entered his office, the two had worked together quite frequently as they had been directed to be in charge of the rebuilding of Palaven

"General" Garrus greeted back "Any updates?"

"Rebuilding on the smaller urban areas have finally started and we've been given the all clear for now allowing refugees back to the major cities of Palaven"

Finally some good fucking news

"Good" Garrus replied "In that case we need to start gathering up supplies, the refugees will need supplies when they arrive" Corinthus nodded in reponse and the two got to work in calculating what would be needed for the oncoming refugees.

Then, it happened late afternoon, just when the work was going well and they felt like they had taken a step forward to actually bettering things.

Garrus's terminal flashed as if it was warning him of something. After taking a closer look he realised it was an emergency flash message. Corinthus looked at Garrus, his omni-tool lighting up with the same message.

"ATTENTION HIGH COMMAND" it read in bright white on a bloody red background

"THE SALARIAN AND ASARI COUNCELLOR HAVE BEEN ASSISSINATED, PLEASE STAND-BY FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS"

The messaged flashed over repeatedly, Garrus swore it was taunting him. As if the spirits or gods or goddess or whatever greater power was t aunting him on how no matter how hard he tried, the galaxy will always fuck itself up.

A/N: Short chapter for a comeback but I hope you enjoyed it :) (I haven't abandonned it don't worry! Just depression)