"You've got to be kidding me," Shepard grumbled. She turned over and looked across the room at Kasumi, snoring loudly.

Shepard glared at her through the dark. She got up and walked over to her, lightly pushing on her shoulder. "Hey, Kasumi, hey."

Her eyes flew open and she grabbed Shepard's arm, "What? What is it?"

Shepard held her arm still, waiting for Kasumi to fully awaken and loosen her grip on her. "You're snoring, could you tone it down a bit?"

"Oh, yeah, I'll turn over, sorry." She readjusted her pillow and Shepard walked back over to the couch. Her quarters were uninhabitable temporarily due to a leak in the containment systems. Toxic gases were permeating and the engineering crew had fixed it, but there was still residual being filtered out. Kasumi had let her sleep in her quarters the last two nights, but she got little sleep with her constant snoring. Her room was quiet, as well. Shepard was used to hearing the sounds of the ship in her quarters.

Shepard pulled the blanket over her and started falling asleep when she heard Kasumi start again. Frustrated, she slammed her arms down on the couch. "That's it." She picked up her blanket and wrapping it around her, she left. Standing outside Kasumi's quarters in the early morning hours, she considered her options. She looked to her right at Thane's room. She scrunched up her nose, Bad idea. Not that she didn't like him, she did, but he liked her – a little too much. She didn't want to encourage that. She learned that the hard way with Kaidan on the SR1. She looked across at Samara's room. She shook her head no, they had just finished the mission two days ago where they killed Morinth. She needed her space. She sighed and walked through the mess hall.

"Medbay," she walked briskly in the door and was immediately met by Dr. Chakwas.

"Commander, what are you doing in here? Is there an emergency?"

"Oh, the quarantine, I forgot." Shepard turned and left. Some of the crew had a virus and were restricted to medbay. The Dr. was trying to keep it from spreading around the ship.

She contemplated her other options, mentally running through the rest of the crew. She even thought about sleeping in the shuttle, but cargo bay would be unheated and too cold to stay there. With the addition of Tali to the crew, all the beds were filled in the crew quarters.

"Fuck," she was exhausted. She looked down the hall at the forward battery. "Garrus!"

She yanked the blanket around her shoulders, and walked briskly to his door. Pinging it, she saw the light turn, and walked in.

Garrus was leaning on his elbow, squinting at the light coming in from the hallway. "Shepard? Is that you?"

She came inside and the door closed behind her, darkness in the room with the red glow of the equipment lighting up the room softly. She gave him a lopsided grin, "Sorry to bother you Garrus, but Kasumi's keeping me up again, and I need a place to sleep." She stepped over to his cot and looked down at him, "Can you help me out?"

He rubbed his hand over his fringe, "Uh, what?"

She stood on one foot and cocked her head to the side, "Please, I'm desperate. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in 2 days."

He looked down and got his wits about him, "Yeah, sure. I'll uh, get some extra blankets and sleep on the floor." He started to get up out of bed, but she stopped him.

"No, I'll just get in bed with you. You've got a big cot, and I don't take up too much room." She motioned for him to move back and sat in bed, picking up his covers. "It'll be fine."

Shocked, Garrus protested, "Are you sure, I mean-"

"Yeah, yeah," she wriggled her feet down in bed and leaned her head down on his pillow. "See, plenty of room still."

"Okay, as long as you don't think I will keep you up."

"Why would you do that? I know you don't snore, I've been around you on the shuttle when you've fallen asleep before. Do you have any other nasty nighttime habits I should know about?" she questioned.

He laughed, "No. I can really put out the heat, though."

"That would be nice. I'm freezing in these sleep shorts and tank." She sighed and pushed her back up against him, feeling his side next to hers. She relaxed and fell asleep.

At some point she woke up, startled by a nightmare, and looked around her anxiously, disoriented. She saw Garrus sleeping peacefully next to her, then remembered coming to his quarters to get some sleep. He was on his back, and she was curled up under his arm, her arm wrapped around his chest. She focused on him, watching his face as he breathed slowly in and out. She pulled the sheet up and put her arm back around him. The feel of his skin was leathery, smooth and warm. She hadn't realized he didn't have a shirt on. She hiked her leg up over him more to get in a better position. She tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. She brought up her omni-tool. It was 3 am. She shut it back off and lay back down on his chest. She adjusted her leg some more, puzzled. Her knee was over his crotch, and she couldn't feel anything there. She looked up at him and moved her leg back and forth a little bit. Nothing. She knew little about Turian anatomy. Where was his penis? Her curiosity got the better of her. She moved her leg away and carefully reached her hand down and lightly felt around his thigh, then up higher. Under his, what seemed like boxers, was only a hard, flat plate. Hmm, she thought, that is the weirdest thing.

"What are you doing?"

Her hand flew up reflexively and she gasped as she looked up at Garrus' questioning gaze.

"What? Nothing."

"Really? Because it felt like you were touching around my crotch."

She could feel her cheeks burning. "I was just curious-"

"Indeed." He looked at her, amused by her embarrassment.

With frustration, she explained, "Look, I had my leg on you, and wanted to make sure I wasn't pushing down on your privates,"

"My what?"

"Damn, your penis, okay? I just wanted to make sure I wasn't making you uncomfortable by squashing your penis with my leg. I didn't feel anything down there, and thought that was strange, so I was trying to figure out where it was, which, apparently there isn't anything down there, and the whole thing is completely embarrassing, and I'm really sorry. Look, I'll just go back to Kasumi's quarters," she started to push herself up.

He stopped her, "First of all, let me assure you there is a penis down there, my plates just cover it unless I'm aroused."

"Oh, I see."

"And secondly, you're fine to stay right here," he pulled his arm that was around her tighter, "it's not a big deal, don't worry about it. I understand your curiosity."

"It's not curiosity like that, I just – well, I don't know anything about Turians, and I didn't want to make things awkward. I can see I was wildly successful." She said sarcastically.

He chuckled, "Don't worry about it. I used to feel that way about humans too, at first. Go back to sleep, it's late."

She leant back down on his chest, and thought a minute about what he said. "What did you mean, 'at first' ?"

"Hmm?" he mumbled.

"You said you used to feel that way about humans too 'at first'. What did you mean?"

"It's nothing, go back to sleep."

"Wait," she protested, "the way you said that was just weird."

He sighed, "I've been intimate with human females."

She was shocked, "You what?" she sat up in bed, pushing herself up with her hand on his chest, "When? You didn't say anything about that on the SR1."

He looked up at her wide-eyed expression, "That's because it was after that, after I was off the Normandy."

She shook her head back and forth, holding her palm up, "Really? I had no idea. You had a human girlfriend?"

He shook his head no, "Not a girlfriend. On Omega, it's a different place. There's lots of places you can go to find other people. Bars and dance clubs with rooms you can rent."

"You mean like consorts?"

He looked at her angrily, "No, not whores. Just – meeting other people. You see someone you want to be with, and if you both want to, there are rooms you can rent. Someone to be with, just for a night."

"Oh," she looked down at the bed, imagining him hooking up with other women, it didn't seem like him. "I'm surprised, I mean, I'm not judging you, I just didn't know you did that, that's all. You never talked about it."

"That's because as soon as I saw you were alive, I stopped." He glanced up at her.

She furrowed her brows, confused.

He shifted his weight in bed, "It was never a relationship. Any time I saw a tall, athletic girl with long dark hair and dark eyes, I wanted to lose myself in that dream for a night. The next day, reality came back, and it was over, for both of us," he took a deep breath, "But that's how those things go, you know?"

"You're not with somebody now?"

He smiled ruefully, "No."

She nodded and lay back down, turning around to face away from him. "Okay, Garrus."

He put his arm up over his head, and turned to look at the dark curls on the back of her head, "Get some sleep, Jane."

Frowning, she went back to sleep again. Her alarm woke her up some time later, and she pulled her hand out of Garrus', who had his arm around her, spooning with her. She switched the alarm off and entwined her fingers back in his, feeling his soft leathery skin. She thought about what he had confessed to her last night. It was so surprising. What else had he said, that he'd stopped as soon as he knew she was alive?

She pushed herself back up against him and heard him let out a low groan.

"Sorry, I forgot to turn my alarm off."

"You're making things hard for me, Jane."

"I turned it off, you can go back to sleep."

"No, that's not it, you keep moving your backside up against me, and it's going to get unprofessional real quick."

She felt a shiver up her spine that surprised her. She squeezed his fingers more tightly in her hand and pulled him towards her chest. She could feel a change in the air, feel herself getting warmer, the anticipation of what she could decide and what would happen. She slowed her breathing and cleared her throat.

"Have - you ever thought about you and me, Garrus?"

Without hesitation, he answered, "Constantly."

She leaned her head back in his direction, "Really?"

"Yes."

"You've never said anything about it."

"This is the first time you're asking me."

"We've been friends for so long, you feel that way about me? Since when?"

"Since the first week on the SR1."

She thought back quickly to all the time she'd spent with him, she couldn't put her finger on anything that seemed like more than friendship.

"What about you, Jane?"

"I don't know, I've never really thought about it."

"Oh, I – hope I haven't offended you." He said.

She shook her head, "No, I just feel like an idiot that I didn't pick up on it before."

He tensed, considering the folly of blurting all that out to her. Holding her so closely, feeling the soft warmth of her skin, her long dark hair splayed out on her back within his reach. How many nights he dreamt of being able to run his talons through it, how many years he mourned her death, and having her back here with him again, in this intimate way, was beyond his comprehension. His fear of pushing things too far, pushing her away was strong.

"I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable, Jane," he started to pull his hand away, but she held on tight.

"You haven't," she said quietly. She attempted to process what he'd said. She felt his fingers start to go through her hair, lightly pulling it. "Garrus, I –" she stopped.

He let go of her hair and got his other hand away from hers, pulling back. It had been too tempting, he didn't know when he'd have another chance to do that., "Look, I'm sorry to bring it up. I guess so long has passed, so much has happened, I'm not as much of a coward as I was on the SR1. But I don't want to jeopardize the close friendship we have."

She turned to look at him and reached her hand up to his face. He put his hand against hers, holding it to the scarred and bandaged side. He took a deep breath and said quietly, "Who do you think all those girls on Omega were Jane? Pale imitations of you. My attempt to recapture what I was too afraid to pursue. My regret for that ate me up," he started to choke up and looked down.

She felt his strong emotions merge and intensify hers, as she felt the full impact her absence and presumed death had on him . She leaned into him, and hugged him, as she felt him softly sob a few times. "Garrus, I'm so sorry."

He held onto her tightly, cradling her. He took a few deep breaths and pulled away. She looked over at him with concern and wiped the tears off his face.

He chuckled, shaking his head, "No one brings this out in me like you do."

She gave him a small smile, "I-"

Her omni-tool went off, "Commander, we're approaching Illium. You have several messages regarding mission options."

She clicked it, "I'll check my computer in a minute. Are my quarters safe now?"

"Yes Commander."

"Thanks, EDI." She turned to Garrus, "I have to go."

He nodded, "I understand."

"Thanks for letting me sleep here."

He swallowed hard, "Sure, Shepard."

She smiled and knelt up in bed, inching towards him. She took his face in both her hands and leaned down towards him, hesitating, "I don't know how to do this,"

He closed the distance between them and kissed her, reeling in her taste and feel. Too quickly, she pulled back and gave him a few more soft kisses before pulling away further and looking at him, smiling broadly.

"Yeah, Garrus, yeah." She nodded. "This is right."

She got up off the bed and pulled her blanket off and around her shoulders. At the door, she turned and looked back at him, leaning against it.

"Can I see you later?" he asked.

She was charmed by the awkward ordinariness of his request. "You mean like a date?"

"I suppose so. Yes. I'm asking you on a date."

"Definitely. After you suit up and we go see Wrex on Tuchanka. Think we'll have time after that?"

He nodded, "Yes, I'll make the time."

"Me too."