Spoiler Warning:While written for the March Contest for Aria's Afterlife (this month hosted by The Urban Spaceman), the following also contains some huge massive spoilers for Mass Effect Duality, my primary story. If you don't mind, read on, if you do, I would stop here, close this, and pretend it doesn't exist until I'm done actually WRITING the main story. XD

Garrus froze for a moment as he tried to gather his thoughts into some kind of defense. "...I know nothing about human young. What do you expect me to do?"

Ashley leaned down so her face filled the view screen in front of him. Her eyes looked hollow, and she bored into him with them like they were laser drills. "Garrus Vakarian. I swear to God, if you do not do this, I'll come down to C-Sec and find you. Use your imagination about what will happen next."

Garrus flinched as his mind treated him to the carnage an enraged Ashley Williams might inflict. "Ah … how long would you need me? I can't drop everything this second."

Ashley ran her hand through her dark hair, brushing the stray strands back from her face and tucking it behind her ear. "Just for tomorrow. The Major can't put off the Council anymore, and she can't take Willow with her. I'd watch her, but Kaidan's going into surgery one last time, and I said I would be there. Tali couldn't delay getting back to the fleet any longer and left last night."

"She stopped by C-Sec before she left to say good bye. What about Liara? I thought she was still on the Citadel, I just hadn't talked to her in a few days."

Before he even finished speaking, Ashley started shaking her head. "Gone. I'm not sure when she left. She's gone from airheaded archeologist to flighty, airheaded archeologist."

Garrus leaned back in his chair and sighed. "And as entertaining as it would be to see Wrex playing Uncle Krogan, he headed back to Tuchanka weeks ago."

"Hence my threats of bodily harm," Ashley said as she leaned back, mirroring his pose. "The Major just needs a little break, and she won't be gone a second longer than she needs to, but she's run herself down so much that she's forgetting things like the passcode to her own apartment. Which is Alarai234, just so you know."

Garrus took a moment, thinking about everything that could go wrong … and how much he owed Rhia and John. "... Fine. One day. But you better have some kind of primer on human young, or I'll spend the next twelve hours researching and panicking."

"I'll give you the rundown on everything you need, I promise," Ashley said. Her features relaxed for the first time since the vid call had begun, some of the tension leaving her muscles. "Thank you. If you need anything, call, though as babies go, Willow is a an angel. If she gives you any problems, I'll be surprised."

"Alright. I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night, Garrus, and thank you." Garrus sat staring at the console and the afterimage for several moments before letting out an exasperated sigh. He wasn't going to get anything done now and might as well get some rest. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

Garrus rubbed the side of his neck with one hand as Ashley just stared at him, her mouth open.

"Are you uh, going to let me in?"

"You aren't wearing armor," Ashley said as she looked down at the black suit he had chosen.

Garrus looked down at it as well. Yes, definitely better than the green. "Well, I'm not on duty or heading into a firefight, so yes, the armor didn't seem appropriate."

His words seemed to have no effect.

"You aren't wearing armor," she said again, clearly trying to make sense of world that he had just turned on its head.

"Turians are not bolted into their armor, Chief. We can take it off," he said, letting a little bit of dry sarcasm bleed into his voice. It finally seemed to pull her from her stupor, and she stepped back enough that he could pass.

"You could have fooled me, Vakarian."

The door slid shut behind him, and he looked around as he quickly examined the quarters of one of his former commanding officers.

The first thing, he decided, was that the room needed more light. Rhiannon Llewlellyn-Shepard might be content to sit in a dark room, but he wasn't. He crossed the room toward the window, pausing to look out over the view in front of him. He had always admired the Presidium, but to have an apartment there, even a temporary one, was something he never would have imagined.

"Like the view?" a tired, barely familiar voice asked.

"Well, you know it's not the view you could get from the main battery." Garrus said as he turned to face her. And for a long, terrible moment, he wished he hadn't. To say that Rhiannon Shepard looked haggard would be putting it kindly. For the commander of the Normandy's ground team to look that run down hurt him in a way he hadn't expected.

Rhia smiled, her lips forming a thin line as the silence started to stretch. "Garrus Vakarian, rendered speechless by little old me. Pretty sure that is a first."

"Just taking a second to regroup for my counter offensive, that's all," he shot back, finally starting to feel on familiar ground.

Rhia's smile widened, "Good. Wouldn't want you to lose your touch and what not."

Garrus's gaze drifted lower, focusing on the very small person nestled in Rhia's arms. The little being looked up at him, one hand in her mouth, bright blues eyes meeting his. A shock of red hair stuck out from the little cap she was wearing. Even he had to admit she looked like her mother. And yet, in the shape of her face, of her ears, he could see Willow's father in her too. "Can't miss the family resemblance, can you?"

"I think everyone who ever met him thinks the same thing," Rhia almost whispered. She shifted the little girl, holding her against her shoulder and leaned over to pull him into a hug. "Thank you for doing this. Kaidan was trying to tell Ash to forget it this morning, but she needs to be there just as badly as he needs her there. If I didn't have to go deal with the Council, I would be too."

"It's not a problem. I can handle being a decoy. I've done it before, if you recall."

Rhia let out a dry chuckle and wiped at her eye with one hand. "Feros. God, when that bomb went off and you didn't answer, we all thought you were gone. When you showed up right as rain, I thought Tali might kill you for real."

"Oh, I was fine. I was nowhere near when it went off. And for being our supposedly mild-mannered engineering whiz, she does on occasion have a temper. I think that drone of hers was after me for a week." he said, waving one hand. Garrus glanced over at Ashley as she came out of the other room, holding a small bag.

"Everything you should need is in here," she said, setting the bag down on the couch. "If you need to leave for any reason, there is a carseat carrier that you can use. Just be sure that you fasten it into the car correctly." She looked over at Rhia. "Ma'am, if you're ready, I'll drop you off at the Council tower."

"Thanks, Ash, and stop calling me that. I'm not your CO anymore, I'm your roommate." Rhia turned back to Garrus, an edge of worry slipping into her face. "Moment of truth …. "

Garrus's hands shook a bit as he took Willow from her mother. The infant looked up at him as he cradled her.. Rhia took a step back and smiled as she met daughter's eyes. "Hey sweetie …."

Willow frowned, her little barely existent eyebrows coming together, but she didn't cry.

"That's my beautiful girl," Rhia said, the tension in her shoulders draining away. "I was afraid she was going to have a fit. You'd think she was psychic the way she reacts to the old team."

Ashley laid a tablet on top of the bag. "I wrote everything down you should need, and if you have any questions, just call me."

"And I'll only be gone about six hours, give or take, maybe less if I can escape the Council early," Rhia said massaging her neck with one hand.

"So, what you really mean is, I'll see you tomorrow," Garrus said with a chuckle. He started to say something else, but was cut off by a peal of high-pitched laughter. All three of them jumped at the crystal-clear sound.

All three adults looked down at Willow, who stared up at Garrus and reached up for his face with little hands. Garrus looked up at Rhia. "Um what is …." Another laugh burst from the little girl dragged his eyes back down to Willow.

Rhia covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. "God. I thought I'd have to look out for the human boys when she gets older. I think maybe I should be looking out for turians instead."

"Careful, she's a little young for you, you old fart," Ashley teased before turning to her CO. "We need to go. We're going to be late."

"I ... okay." It took Rhia a second to pull herself away, but even then she didn't quite make it to the door before she stopped and turned back. Even from across the room, Garrus could see the worry, fear, and stress that had etched itself on her soul in the last ten months. Garrus glared at her in mock annoyance.

"Go. We'll be fine, " he assured her. "We'll hang out. I'll tell cop stories she won't remember, and you'll be back before you realize it."

"Alright, alright. I'll see you soon." Rhia turned and led the way out of the apartment, Ashley right behind her. The door closed with a quiet hiss.

Garrus looked down at Willow. WIllow looked back up, blue eyes searching as her little brow furrowed again. A loud beep from his omnitool drew his attention to the message notification . He had to change hands to bring it up, and Willow chose that moment to flail and kick happily. His heart leapt as she nearly toppled from her perch, and he swore under his breath, cursing at the spirits of his homeworld. Willow stopped flailing and looked up at him, laughing again.

"Don't tell your mother I said that." He muttered as he finally managed to get the omnitool open and perused the message. "Willow, looks like we are going for a ride."

Her silver laugh echoed through the apartment as he reached for the bag of supplies from where Ashley had left it. Except it wasn't there.

Unease crept into him as he looked at the bag, nearly two feet from where he distinctly recalled her setting it down.

"What do you say about this one, hmm?" Garrus asked Willow as he rocked her carseat with one hand, the other tapping away at his console. "We do not like thieves. Especially not ones who try and smuggle military grade explosives, no we do not."

Laughter didn't greet him, and Garrus paused. Willow's laugh had been nearly a constant thing since they arrived at his office.

Still nothing. He turned, peering into the car seat. Willow was asleep.

"Finally," he muttered as he took his hand off the car seat and covered his face with his hands for a moment. She was a sweet baby, but the stress of worrying he would do something wrong was wearing at him. Combine that and the near-constant babble he had been maintaining to keep her happy, and the silence was absolutely golden.

"Officer Vakarian, do I want to know why you have a baby sitting on your desk?" Lieutenant Johnson said from the entrance to Garrus's office.

Garrus looked up and made a desperate gesture. Johnson got the hint and frowned, but said nothing as he crossed his arms, still expecting an explanation. Garrus stood and slipped to the door, making as little noise as possible. Lieutenant Johnson followed, and the door closed behind them.

"She just went to sleep. I've been forced to keep babbling for the last hour to keep her happy," Garrus said, his voice sounding raspy. "I don't think I've had to talk that much in my life."

"Whose kid is that? Cause even if we did have a bring your child to work day, unless you adopted, I'm pretty sure she isn't yours."

Garrus rubbed his neck. "Spectre Llewellyn-Shepard's daughter, sir."

The lieutenant's eyes widened a bit as he processed that. "I see. I assume this will not be a common occurrence."

"No, sir. I just needed to finish a few reports for the captain," he assured Johnson.

The other man's face screwed up. "You just gotta love administration." He shrugged, and his expression turned pensive as he looked at the door. "Alright, Vakarian, get your little charge and get out of here. I'll take care of the paperwork this time."

Garrus paused, eyeing the dark-skinned man.

Johnson snorted as he met Garrus's gaze. "Oh, don't gimme that look. We know who stopped Saren. Without her, the Normandy would never have gotten off the Citadel to go after Saren. And when they all showed back up here, she was right in the thick of it again. She might not have taken on Saren head to head like Shepard did, but she was the reason he had a chance to." Johnson shrugged. "A lot of people think they owe her. And I'm one of them."

He hesitated, looking back at the door again. "Besides, if the rumors are true, that's Shepard's kid too. And Llewellyn's got enough on her plate with him gone."

Garrus felt his throat constrict. It was all truth, but even now the words still stung. John Shepard had been a friend, and even months after the fact, it still tugged at him. The Normandy had been a family, in more than one way, and the its destruction had been crippling, as had been the death of Shepard.

"Ahem … You don't have to do that, Sir. I can get it done."

Sgt. Johnson's expression turned into a glare. "Vakarian, you know how much I hate paperwork. Get your spikey self out of this office, before I go and change my mind."

Garrus's mandibles clicked shut, and he nodded.

Johnson nodded back, a sharp motion, and continued down the hall at a brisk pace, leaving Garrus to his babysitting..

Garrus stepped back in and started packing his things up, including the baby bag.

"Alright, guess we're heading back home, kiddo. Hopefully your mother will be home soon too. And no more creepy moving bags."

"Garrus?" Rhia's voice echoed through the apartment.

"We're in here," he answered her, though his gaze never left Willow as she did her best to empty the bottle he held for her. "Spirits, I think someone was a bit hungrier than I thought," he muttered to her.

"How has she been for you?" Rhia asked as she stepped into sight. Willow made a happy sound and pushed at the bottle as her mother came into view.

"She's been good; it just took me a while to figure out human baby for 'feed me now'. Foreign language isn't my strong suite."

"Well, she seems to think she's done for now." Rhia leaned past Garrus and plucked Willow from her seat. "Thank you, again. If I'd put off the Council any longer, they probably would've demanded my resignation."

"It wasn't a problem. She's been good. She did decide my mandibles were toys at once point and managed to grab one. That was a bit awkward."

Rhia smiled and touched her nose with Willow's, who laughed and touched her mother's face. "Told you. Apparently she's got a thing for turians."

"Yeah, having to talk all day supports that theory … or at least the mystical power of our voices."

Rhia turned to look at him, confusion on her face. "Hmmm?"

"Apparently it was storytime with Uncle Vakarian. All day. She started crying at one point, but stopped when I talked to her. After I started, I wasn't allowed to end story time," he remarked wryly and stood. "Have you talked to Ashley? How's Kaidan doing?"

"There were some complications, but she didn't have any specifics yet. He was still in surgery when I was heading back here." Rhia shivered before she started to rock back and forth. Willow had returned to watching Garrus, her gaze taking on a slightly unfocused look as her mother swayed her towards sleep. "Once I get her asleep, I'm going take a quick shower. You're welcome to stay if you want."

"I can stick around for a while, at least till we hear some news about Kaidan. No reason to worry alone." He chuckled "Besides, your furniture is much nicer than mine."

Rhia smiled weakly. "That's fair." She looked back down at Willow, who smiled back, and slowly walked out of the Kitchen, heading toward the bedrooms. Garrus stood and straightened, wincing as his joints popped. His hand brushed against cloth, and he pulled back, turning.

"Sorry, I thought you were in the other room." He stopped, and looked around. There was no one there. Had he imagined bumping into someone? A chill ran down his spine. This apartment felt just creepier and creepier.

Garrus tugged the blanket up a little higher over Rhia's shoulder, as he spoke into his omnitool.. "No, she's fine. She fell asleep on the couch a bit ago and is still out. How's things on your end?"

"Kaidan's out of surgery finally. They had to remove part of his amp on his spine to get at the damage and reattach it when they were done. He should be okay, but they won't know for sure until he wakes up," Ashley said as she tried to keep from yawning. "I'm still waiting for them to let me into recovery to see him."

"Know how long they'll keep you waiting?" he asked as he paced a little ways away, his voice deliberately quiet to keep Rhia from waking. Or Willow, but she was in the other room, sleeping soundly, He glanced at the baby monitor next to the couch, making sure the light on it was still on, and that it was working.

Still green. Good.

"I'm not sure. It's seeming more and more likely I'm going to end up camping out in the lobby down here."

He stopped and stared out the window at the view, looking down on the Presidium. "If you're still there in the morning, I'll see about detouring and bringing you some breakfast."

Ashley groaned. "If you do that, I might actually kiss you."

"Careful there. I might take-" He stopped as he Willow start to fuss. "Hey, hang on a second, WIllow just woke up."

A shushing noise echoed across the baby monitor and Garrus relaxed. "Never mind. The major's got her apparently."

"I thought you said she was asleep?" Ashley asked, confusion coloring her words. Garrus stared at the baby monitor on the end table. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he looked it, and then back to the couch where Rhia remained sleeping. The slow rise and fall of her chest under the blanket seemed entirely too slow next to the sudden rush of his pulse.

"Ashley, when I hang up, call C-Sec," Garrus whispered as he stepped over to the baby bag and reached in. "There's someone else here."

"I will, then I'll be on my way," Ashley promised.

Garrus clicked the omnitool off as his other hand closed around the pistol's grip. The gun made an electronic, whirring beep as he cycled a round and checked the safety.

Darkness shrouded the narrow hall as he stalked towards Willow's room. Shadows blurred the edges over everything, reducing everything to outlines. Turning a light on was the obvious answer, but would also alert the intruder. If whoever it was hurt her...

He slammed that thought away as violently as he could. He had to stay in the now, not worry about possibilities.

The door to Willow's room loomed in front of him, and he paused, trying to listen for any sound.

SIlence answered his effort, and he took a breath, let it out, and punched the door control. C-Sec training took over, and he swept the room from left to right, stopping with his gun leveled in the center of a man's back.

"Step away from the child. Now." Garrus heart pounded. He didnt want to shoot, not this close to Willow. But if it came down to it, he might not get a choice.

And then the voice of a dead man set him reeling. "Shhhhh, you'll wake her."

John Shepard. Hero of the Citadel. KIA on mission above Alchera. Body never found. Dead friend and father. All those facts screamed through Garrus' s mind like an avalanche of denial to the clear and visible truth in front of him.

"Shepard? How … how is … you got spaced. Joker saw you get spaced," he stammered, the words spilling out of him as he lowered the gun. "How are you alive? Where have you been all this time?"

John's fist flashed across Garrus's vision like an oncoming missile. The blow caught him below his right eye, and sent him reeling, even as his "friend" pounced on him, sending them both staggering back into the hallway.. A sharp chop sent the pistol sailing uselessly to clatter in the hall and a half second later, iron-tight hands fastened around his throat. Garrus punched at him, but John simply ducked his head and pressed forward, pinning him to the wall.

"I said, you'll wake her! You'll wake her!" John snarled just centimeters from Garrus's face, and in his fading vision, the only light was the fiery glow of ocular implants, lending a mad gleam to Shepard's eyes.. He choked as he grasped at John's hands, desperate for a breath, but the dead spectre just kept tightening his hold.

Blue light started to fill his vision. Stories of spirits coming to collect those souls of the dead filled his mind, all the stories from his childhood that he had only ever given passing belief and attention to. Apparently, he had been wrong. The spirits were watching, and it was his time.

"Get away from them, you son of a bitch!"

And just like that, the pressure on this throat vanished as Shepard the Madman hurtled away, flung back into the dark. Garrus hit the floor, gasping for air as Spectre Rhiannon Llewellyn-Shepard came down the hallway at a run, biotic energy bleeding off her in a halo that turned her from tired mother to guardian spirit. Her strained features and sunken eyes looked nearly feral as she skidded to a stop next to Garrus. She looked down at him, then back up at the nearly invisible figure of John who had just risen to his feet, before sending another wave of force thundering down the hall, slamming the intruder into the corner. John tumbled to the floor and immediately bounced back up, and dove out out of sight around the corner.

Garrus lurched to his feet and snatched the pistol from the floor at a run. He cut back across the living room, just as out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a dark form break across the kitchen and reach the door to the apartment. Garrus cleared the distance to the door in five long strides and frantically jerked his head from side to side. His gun mirrored his motion, tracking down the empty hallway

His racing heart hammered in his chest as he looked back and forth, not understanding. No doors, no alcoves, nowhere to hide. Garrus backed into the apartment, and kept his gun trained on the door. "Major?"

"We're fine. Did you get him?" Rhia's voice answered in the darkness of the apartment.

Garrus slapped the lights on, bathing the rooms in a warm yellow glow.

"No, but he's gone, I think. C-Sec should be on their way as well."

"Did you get a good look at his face?"

"Not sure. He clocked me good. It was a bit jumbled there for a minute," he lied, a shiver running through him as he did. The truth would be so much worse than the lie, right now. "Did you see him?"

"No, I kind of blasted first and asked questions later." A moment later, Rhia stepped into the light of the living area, Willow tucked against her protectively in one arm, a heavy caliber pistol in the other, hanging in a loose grip. "Who would do this? I mean, she's a child. Who would have dared?"

The anger in her voice made his gut twist. "I'm not sure. We'll figure it out though, " he said quietly. Though it might mean putting down a friend in the process.

Garrus watched the blood run from Ashley's face as he explained what he had seen, the horror seeming to strip the life from her.

"Are you sure it was him? I mean, you didn't just imagine it?"

"As sure as I can be, considering I was getting choked at the time," he said, his voice hushed as he glanced toward the kitchen. Rhia stood rocking Willow, still recounting her version of events to C-Sec. "I don't even know how he managed to get in here. The door was locked, the windows are intact. The vents are so small that you could barely get a child through them, and John was not a small person." He flung one hand out to encompass the room. "And on top of that, there is the whole 'died in space' bit."

Ashley shifted from foot to foot for a moment and didn't immediately answer, and Garrus's attention sharpened on her. "What is it?"

She looked away from him. "There ... was a rumor I heard floating around a while back, that some Alliance black ops team had gone out to Alchera and that Shepard had survived. Joker saw him get spaced though, so I just kind of wrote it off. Now... "

"Now it seems a lot more like fact than fiction," Garrus finished for her. "Damn it, I think I preferred thinking I was seeing things."

"You're telling me. I'm going to be seeing ghosts everywhere now." Ashley wrapped her arms around her stomach.

"What about the major? Should we tell her?" Garrus asked, against looking over.

Ashley shook her head. "No. Not yet anyway. If we find out something more concrete though, that might change."

"Until then we keep an eye on things. Both eyes when we can spare them," Garrus muttered grimly.

"That is going to be hard. Rhia was going to be heading on deployment in two weeks. She said something about taking Willow to John's mother aboard the Kilimanjaro until she got back."

"Alliance dreadnought, right? Well, that's as safe as we can make Willow, I suppose, surrounded by soldiers on board one of the most well armed warships in the galaxy. Do you know where she was going?"

"She wouldn't say. Just kind of implied that it was in asari space. I was a bit distracted at the time and didn't press though." Ashley sighed, and rubbed her brow. "This is just one of those days."

"We all have them. Hang in there, Chief. We've got this covered." He gave her arm a small squeeze as he started for the door. "I'll be back in a while. I'm going to have give my half of the report."

As he walked past the kitchen, he noticed something. Willow slept, unconcerned with the events around her. And hadn't cried once since everything had gone to hell. She knew that her mother would keep her safe.

He wrapped that around him like a kinetic barrier as he stalked out of the apartment, his anger starting to simmer to a boil. No one was going to touch that child, he would make sure of that.

Author Note: This was a combination of an entry for the Aria's After Life Forum March Contest "A day in the life", and a prompt given to me by Palaven Blues from a list of creepy freakin prompts to write. Massive thanks to both Palaven Blues and Mizdirected for helping to hammer this into something at legible, if not entirely sane.