A few months later...

Since Shepard had assured him that becoming a Spectre did not spare one from paperwork, Garrus had resigned himself to never escaping it.

His father's relief that he'd gone back to C-sec was somewhat brought down by the fact he was also starting Spectre training. C-sec was useful in keeping him well in the running for Spectre candidacy and he could help people along the way. He wasn't sure Pallin was exactly happy he was back, but the Executor couldn't really turn away someone who had helped save the galaxy.

Garrus looked up at the console in front of him with some impatience as it beeped, signaling an incoming message.

"Busting a slaving ring and stopping an assassination attempt on a councilor all in one month, I can't leave you alone for five minutes, can I?"

Impatience flipped over into genuine pleasure. "Shepard."

"What's doin', handsome?"

"Still dealing with the fallout from the assassination attempt. It's less trouble to let the assassin succeed."

"But then the other assassins start getting cocky." Someone spoke behind her. "Liara says hi. Oh, and Tali's settled on a ship like a proper quarian, did she tell you?"

"No, but I'm not surprised."

"Other quarian youngsters are going to be hard pressed to beat that particular Pilgrimage! Now all we need is Wrex to become Krogan King down there on Tuchanka and people won't be able to figure out if we're heroes or heathen rogue outcasts dead set on bringing back the banished aliens."

There were already mumblings here and there along that line, especially since Shepard kept pushing about the Reapers. He shook his head. "Where are you?"

"Heading out to search for missing ships. Rooting out the last of the geth."

"Sounds like fun."

"If you'd hurry up and get your Spectre status, you could help."

"Tempting, but you're the one who said to work on it at a steady pace."

"I could kick myself for saying that. Although, I admit I'm kinda jealous, it sounds like you're having all the fun!"

Garrus snorted, shaking his head. "Making things sound more exciting then they really are is also a talent I learned from you."

Shepard chuckled. "I have a feeling things will be getting a bit too excited all too soon. We'll need a Spectre like you out there, smartass or no. There's a lot of work to be done."

Garrus sobered a bit. "We stopped Sovereign. We disrupted their cycle already. We can beat them, Shepard."

"Your mouth to God's ear. Listen, we'll be out of range of most comm buoys for a while when we're out there going after geth. Howard wanted to say hi before we go, let me put him on."

Garrus sat back and waited, looking out the window, imagining he could look through space and past it to where the Reapers awaited. He imagined Shepard had a similar pose. Eventually, they didn't know when, the Reapers wouldn't be content with dark space and would come out of the darkness, intent on killing them all simply because they believed, without a doubt, that they had every right to.

And Shepard would be there to meet them, along with Liara, probably, and maybe armies of krogan and quarians right alongside her. And him, of course. He would gain Spectre status and be ready to use all he knew to fight with her. For all of them.

Garrus shared a pleasant conversation with Howard and turned back as he ended the call.

Shepard was right; there was a lot of work to be done.

AN: And thus ends ME1. I want to thank everyone who read, watched and reviewed with all my heart, as writing is ever so much more enjoyable when there's people out there who like reading it. I also want to thank PixAlchemist and lyonthal for their playthroughs of Mass Effect that I could use as a reference (links to their YouTube channels are in my profile).

I'm gonna collapse for a bit, as I've been in a writing induced fugue state for the past couple of weeks and then I have a short story of just general shenanigans and troublemaking in between ME1 and ME2, then I'll get the next story up. I hope you all will be back for Labyrinth- Mass Effect 2!

KD