Title: Secrets and Cells
Characters: F!Shepard/Garrus
Word Count: ~2500
Rating: T
Summary: Garrus is in need of a rescue, Shepard provides. But not before subjecting him to a conversation.
Spoilers: Garrus' loyalty mission through Lair of the Shadow Broker.
Author's Note: Done for the girlsavesboyfic ficathon over on lj. The plot is really just an excuse to have a little character introspection/discussion, so if you're into that kind of thing, come on in.

Garrus awoke to the sound of a sliding door, and harsh light pouring in from the hallway; reflecting off of the energy barrier keeping him contained within his cell. He blinked several times, trying to get his eyes to focus to the sudden change in light, and swung his feet off the ledge that doubled as a cot, and let them hit the floor with a resounding thud.

The sight that greeted him across the way was one of the most welcomed he had ever seen. Commander Jane Shepard, armor shining a vibrant red as she leaned against the doorway, one ankle crossed over the other; looking for all the universe like she was just enjoying a casual afternoon in the Citadel wards, and not coming straight out of a firefight like the rifle in her grip indicated.

Of course, Shepard strolling through the wards with a gun in hand was prototypical, so maybe that look wasn't so out of place.

Garrus pushed himself up and across the small space in two swift strides, stopping in front of the containment shield, feeling the weight of imprisonment lifting from him with every slow step towards him she took, stowing her gun as she went. Spirits, but was he glad to see her.

She graced him with an easy smile as she came to a stop just on the other side of the barrier. "Hey there, Garrus. Found something of yours that I think you might have missed."

He glanced down, noticing for the first time the visor that she was twirling in her hand. He clicked his mandibles together, trying to contain his mirth. "I get tranq-darted on a scouting mission, taken to an outpost at the tail end of nowhere, held in a soundproof room for three days by a bunch of unaffiliated batarian mercs, who don't even have the decency to try and torture me for information, and you're concerned about my stolen visor?"

Her gaze swept over him, from bootless feet, up past his spurs, and over his bare legs and torso, before settling on his face. That smile of hers morphing into a smirk as familiar to him as his gun. "You're looking a bit naked without it."

He barked out a laugh at that. Only she could say something like that with a straight face. But, they could talk about his unclothed status later. At length, if she wished. For now, he just wanted to get the hell out of there. "Shepard?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Yes, Garrus?"

He lifted his brow ridges in as close an approximation of her facial expression as he could, earning him another of those subtle grins. "Think maybe we could discuss all of that after you cut me loose? I'm going a little stir crazy in here."

"No can do. Not yet at least." Shepard kicked lightly against the barrier barring the small cell, causing the whole thing to shimmer, yellow static bouncing back and forth. "Tali's working on hacking the controls for this thing down by the base's mass effect core. Real advanced stuff, apparently. Too advanced for the batarian raiders holding you here. Any idea what gives?"

Damn. "Not a clue. They really weren't much for talking. Tossed me in here and pretty much forgot about me." Garrus stretched his neck, enjoying the small popping sensation. "Fed me yesterday though. The service sucked, but the quality wasn't bad. A half-step down from Gardner's, but three full steps up from the replicator on the first Normandy. It was almost palatable."

Shepard crossed her arms, and leaned back on one foot, visor still dangling from her hand. "I'll be sure to note that in my report. Seriously though, not a word?"

"Nope. And my intel gathering was pretty much nixed by the soundproofing. Didn't even hear you shooting up the place out there." He paused, crossing his arms across his chest. "You did shoot the place up, right?"

She blinked at him, and then let loose a boisterous laugh. "What do you think?"

"I think it's too quiet out there now for you to have done anything but."

"And you would be correct. Kind of thought you'd have an idea what was going on, though. Huh. Maybe Miranda and I should have asked a few more questions before taking them all out." She waved his visor in the air, looking as far from sorry as a person possibly could. "Always been more of a shoot first, ask later kind of girl myself. Need to work on that." Garrus laughed at the gleam that filled her eyes, making the three, shining red dots within the green depths stand out all the more. It probably wasn't healthy how much he loved that look.

"Yeah, well, at this point, I'd settle for you just exercising your hacking skills. Any idea how long before this field is down, and we can get the hell out of here?"

"Twenty. Give or take. Tali seemed almost impressed when we got to the core. She looked like a kid in a candy shop."

"Great. Just great. So what now?"

"Well, Miranda is taking care of setting up the link between EDI and the base's network, we should have all the info on these bastards and their employers by the time we bust you out. In the meantime, I'm thinking we could just...talk for a bit."

Garrus flared his mandibles, a flutter of unease in his gizzard at the tone of her voice. It was a tone that he normally enjoyed, albeit in a very different setting. Soft, and drawling, and utterly manipulative. He couldn't imagine that it would bode well for him now. Still, he couldn't keep from asking, "you have something particular in mind?"

"Yes, actually." And that smirk was back on her face, highlighting the red lines contouring over her cheeks and forehead. A moment passed and she folded herself into a cross-legged seated position, right there on the floor in front of his cell. She looked serene. It was...disconcerting.

He stared down at her, apprehensive, but with really no where else to go, he settled for rolling his shoulders back, and stretching out on the ledge lining the back wall of the pen he'd been calling home for nearly three days.

He watched as the muscles in her face relaxed, that ever-stirring gaze of hers focused on his as something like relief washed over her features. "I'm glad you're okay, Garrus. You had us – me – worried for a while there. Thought we were going to have to shake down the whole quadrant to find you."

"You know me, don't ever like to do things by halves."

"Not even getting captured?"

"Especially that, Shepard." He puffed up his chest with false bravado. "Need to keep my reputation in tact. How would it look if just anyone managed to take me in?" He held her gaze when he spoke, hoping that she could see how thankful he was that she was here. Even if he was still stuck in a cage.

Seconds ticked by, the silence edging into awkward, but never quite landing there, before Shepard spoke again. "The Shadow Broker...did I tell you that he had dossiers on all of us? On the whole crew?"

Garrus shook his head. "No, you didn't mention." He wasn't the least bit surprised though. Seemed the Broker had something on everyone.

"Liara, the last time we were by there – what, two weeks ago? She had them all pulled up for me. I honestly didn't think much of it. I mean, what information could he possibly have had that I wouldn't already know?

"I was orphaned when I was eight. I think I've told you that before."

Garrus heaved out a ragged breath of air, not entirely sure where she was going with this, but wanting to ease the conversation along however he could. She'd only every glossed over her childhood before, and if she was willing to talk now..."Once. After the incident with Finch at Chora's Den. You, uh, you didn't say much."

Shepard nodded, her gaze focused on the white-washed wall over his shoulder. "The official records list my father as unknown, and my mother as having died of cancer. Leaving me a ward of a state that just didn't give a damn. But that's not really true."

"Which part?"

She arched an eyebrow. "All of it. Pretty much. I knew who my father was – but he wasn't exactly the model parent. He only came around when my Mom was in need of a fix, and she couldn't get anyone else to deal it to her. They had an understanding you see. An understanding that eventually landed her with me."

Garrus felt a shiver go up his spine, and it wasn't due to his lack of clothes. "Red Sand?"

She shrugged, her eyes sliding back to his. "Amongst other, less designer narcotics. Didn't leave a whole lot of room for me in her life. She od'ed when I was eight, but I was an orphan long before that. Learned to fend for myself, and scrounge for food wherever, however, I could ages earlier it seemed. Just made it more official, ya know?"

There was anger burning inside of Garrus at the thought that anyone could neglect there child like that, neglect Shepard like that, but he tamped it down and nodded; knowing the emotions wouldn't do him any good here, still stuck in the cell as he was.

"Life was rough, after that. Not that it was every easy but..." She closed her eyes, and let a few moments pass without speaking. He didn't think she was done yet, so he let her be. "Not a lot of places I could turn to for help, not a lot of people out there worth trusting. And Finch and his crew...well, it took me a long time to get over that. A real long time."

She looked down, playing with the visor in both hands. He watched as one gloved finger traced over the inner surface. Slow. Methodical. A list of names counting off in his head with each pass of her digits.

Erash. Monteague. Mierin. Grundan Krul. Melanis. Ripper. Sensat. Vortash. Butler. Weaver. And the one that was scratched – burned out – the one whose face still followed him in his dreams, even after Garrus had lined a shot up between his eyes, and pulled the trigger. He swallowed down the nausea that was threatening to stir, even in his mostly empty stomach. Seeing her with the visor, knowing that she'd never held it before, brought it all back to him in a way that looking at those names every day while he wore it didn't manage to.

When she spoke next, her voice was softer, more subdued. It pulled him back into the present with more ease than he would have thought possible. He didn't want to dwell on his past, not while she was here, revealing so much of her own. "The Reds were a means to an end for me, nothing more. I never really got what it meant it to be part of a family. Not back then at least. Never really understood how precious, and important it was to be a part of a...of a unit. Not until the Alliance. Not until the Normandy."

Garrus thought that he had gotten the hang of reading Shepard's emotions, but the one on her face now escaped him. It looked like determination, but it felt like something else. "Shepard-" Whatever Garrus was going to say, whatever platitude was on the tip of his tongue, died before it was ever given life at her next words.

"Not until you." And that look he did understand. That look translated across both their species, and more than anything, he wished that there wasn't a damn barrier separating them at that moment. His talons itched to reach out to her. "Family – I've...it's something to cling to."

Something clicked into place finally. Her sudden desire to tell him about her childhood, the overt discussion of family, the earlier references to the Shadow Broker's dossiers. Oh, shit... He sucked in a breath of stale, recirculated air, and felt his eyes go wide: just how much information had the Shadow Broker been privy to? She said that he had dossiers on everyone, which meant there was one on Garrus; which meant...Something like panic was flaring in his chest, and he had to fight the urge to pace. He wasn't ready to deal with this.

"The point is, Garrus, that I'm here. And I...I trust you. And if you ever need to vent, ever need to talk about anything. Anything at all. I'm willing to listen." Those red-green eyes were boring into his now, but they didn't look angry, or hurt, or anything else that he might have imagined, considering how much of his life he had kept censored from her, even despite their evolving relationship. Instead, they looked...hopeful.

"Shepard, I-" The barrier winked out in between them, the sudden absence of the soft golden glow jarring him from his line of thought. What could he say anyway? He remained seated as Shepard unfolded her legs and stood, tossing the visor at him. He snagged it mid-air with his left hand, but made no move to put it on. Choosing instead to just stare at her as she turned from him.

He had just managed to stand, the visor clenched in his grip, when she stopped her trek to the door, turning instead on her heel and closing the distance between them. Her warm breath ghosting across his face was a soft counterpoint to the finger poking him none-to-gently in the chest.

"And if you ever, ever, decide to go to Mordin Solus with a problem, before me, ever again? We're going to have words. Got it?"

He blinked. That was it? No deep, probing questions about his sister, or his mother, or anything else? "Got it."

"Good. Now come on." She flicked her eyes down over his exposed plates again. She was simultaneously standing entirely too close to him and not close enough for that look she was giving him. "Let's get you back to the Normandy. We've got some data to decrypt if we want to figure out who was behind this."

She started to stalk off again, but he stopped her with a hand on her elbow. "Uh, Shepard? My clothes?" The look on her face was pure evil. There was no other way to describe it.

"Miranda has 'em. She should be waiting by the shuttle. Maybe you can convince her to give them back." She tugged her arm from his grip, and backed towards the door. "If you ask nicely."

"You want me to walk through the station naked?"

There went that eyebrow of hers again, and that little smile. "Hey, I rescued you didn't I? And I brought you the visor. Show a little gratitude." And then she was out the door, laughter ringing behind her. Damn.

He fixed the visor over his eye, blinking to adjust the settings, squared his shoulders, and followed her out. "Naked it is."

Good thing he wasn't shy.

~End