A/N: Holidays are so crazy! XD And I love LTFran for helping me crank out another chapter~ I know I say this every chapter, but many thanks again for all the sweet comments! (I hope you all got just as excited over the ME3 trailer like I did ^^)

Chapter 12

In the restroom, Shepard stood over the sink and began to splash cold water on her face. She looked at herself in the mirror and had to chuckle at her reflection. Garrus was right, she really did look like hell. I'm never going to have a drink again, she swore the same empty promise to herself that she had always done after she got wasted. She turned off the faucet and wiped off the dripping water on her face with the back of her arm.

Shepard stepped out of the restroom and turned the corner to head towards the kitchens. The area was empty and dark, save for a few emergency floor lights that softly illuminated the walk ways. The only thing she can see before her were shadows and all she could hear was the echo of her own footsteps. It felt strange to have the Normandy so empty… Shepard was always used to ship bustling with activity.

"EDI," Shepard called.

"Yes, Shepard?" EDI instantly answered.

Shepard felt relieved at the AI's quick response. "Can you turn on the lights on this floor?"

"Of course, Shepard," EDI replied and the lights immediately switched on.

Shepard froze from what she saw before her. She rubbed her eyes to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. "Uh… EDI?"

"Yes, Shepard?"

Shepard slowly circled around the mess table. "Is there some sort of party that I don't know about?"

"No, Shepard."

"Is this… spread for somebody in particular?" Shepard asked, her eyes still on the table.

"I believe it is for you, Shepard."

Shepard was confused and speechless. The mess table was covered with a perfectly ironed white tablecloth. A crystal vase was placed in the center, overflowing with a intricately arranged bouquet of roses. Fancy vintage silver utensils were tucked into carefully folded napkins. Two large polished silver covers were at each end of the table.

Where the hell did someone get a hold of roses? They were in space! Flowers from Earth were a rare and expensive luxury on the Citadel. And silverware? It was definitely antique. Shepard's mind raced, trying to figure out who would set up such a thing.

"EDI, who did this?"

"I'm sorry, Shepard. But I am unable to access that data."

"What?" Shepard laughed, wondering if it was another one of EDI's dry attempts at humor. "What are you talking about EDI? You're unshackled, you don't have any restrictions from Cerberus anymore."

"The block is not being caused by anything related to Cerberus. I am unable to access the data due to an unknown constraint."

"Unknown constraint? Are you under attack?" Shepard asked, instantly concerned.

"No. It is not a malicious hacking attempt by any means. It seems that somebody had placed a block to prevent me from accessing any data in relation to this dinner." EDI's artificial voice almost sounded irritated by the situation. "I apologize, Shepard. I wish I could relay more information, but I do not know."

Shepard scratched her head and returned her attention to the table. Somebody had gone out of their way to set this up and went above and beyond to cover their tracks.

She heard the elevators open and turned around to see Garrus join her at the table. From his perplexed reaction, it was obvious that he wasn't the one who set it up. "What's all this?" he asked, nodding his head at the table.

"Beats me. EDI thinks it's for me… doesn't know who did it though." Shepard stood next to Garrus, both their faces were equal expressions of confusion while they stared at the spread.

She didn't notice Garrus' eyes narrow suspiciously. Did Joker set this up? No… Joker wouldn't care enough to do something to elaborate. Miranda? She had the taste to make such an arrangement. Kasumi? She was a thief after all… it wouldn't be surprising if the antique silverware on the table was stolen from some museum.

Shepard stepped over to the table and lifted one of the silver covers and let out a gasp. "Oh, my God… I think that's an actual steak… dead cow, not some processed substitute. With a baked potato? I haven't had a potato for years! And is that… holy crap…" She whipped her head at Garrus with crazed eyes. "That's bacon on that potato, Garrus. BACON."

"Okayyy… I guess you're already impressed." Garrus chuckled and reached over to lift the other cover.

"What's that?" Shepard leaned over to eye at the other dish. "It looks like blue pasta."

"It's a traditional turian dish… it's difficult to find any place that would cook this anywhere other than on Palaven," he murmured.

"No use letting this go to waste! Let's eat!" Shepard enthusiastically said and quickly sat down.

He sat down in the chair across from Shepard's and slowly reached for his eating utensils. Who was the one who set this all up? Mess Sergeant Gardner was the only one with cooking skills on board… and even his rudimentary skills weren't good enough to cook such a complicated turian meal. He guessed he could scratch Miranda off the list… He recalled the time when she almost set the kitchen on fire from trying to boil an egg. Kasumi was even more unlikely… she smuggled take-out on board the Normandy as often as contraband. Samara? No… the Justicar was with him back on the Citadel, where did she have the time to do something like this? Tali was a good possibility, but he doubted the quarian had the knowledge to cook a meal for Shepard.

Garrus felt confident that he could rule Jack completely out of all this.

"This is delicious!" Shepard's voice snapped him out from his thoughts. He looked up to see her taking a big bite from her plate. "I was right, this is a real honest-to-sovereign steak! I have no idea how they got this, but I'm so happy they did!"

Garrus took a bite from his meal and paused. Shepard noticed his hesitation. "Does it not taste good?" She asked, her mouth full.

"No… it's really good…" Garrus frowned. Too good.

Shepard stuck a fork in his direction. "Garrus, you've got to try this bacon. If there was a food to die for, it would be bacon."

Garrus rewarded Shepard with a laugh and took another bite of his food. "Considering that I'm a turian, I probably would die."

"Must suck to be a turian." Shepard let out a blissful sigh. "Last time I had a taste of real bacon was when I was still with the Alliance and stationed at Akuze. It was Christmas so the higher-ups decided to throw us a bone."

Garrus tilted his head at Shepard. "You miss the Alliance, don't you?"

"Hm…" Shepard thoughtfully chewed her food. "I kind of miss the Alliance like someone would miss a chronic toothache. Sure you feel liberated once it's gone, but you get so accustomed to the feeling of having it there that it makes you feel kind of empty without it."

"So there was nothing in particular you liked about the military?" he asked.

"If anything… I miss the camaraderie." Shepard smiled softly. "When you're thrown into some cramped quarters on a barren planet with miserable conditions, it tends to bring people together. Back then, I was close with everyone in my troop… you know, back on Akuze…"

As Shepard trailed off, Garrus put down his fork. "Sorry, Shepard. Didn't mean to bring back those bad memories."

Shepard shook her head. "No…they're not bad memories at all. I just felt a bit nostalgic thinking about all my friends back then." She let out a small chuckle and gave Garrus a pointed look. "It's funny how easy it is to make friends when you're faced with impending doom."

Garrus nodded contemplatively. "So you and Alenko were really close back on the old Normandy before I joined?"

"Kaidan?" Shepard almost choked but made a quick recovery. "Can't say that we were… I barely spoke two sentences to the guy when I was assigned onto the Normandy. He was a really quiet guy back then." Which is part of the reason why I feel so blind sighted by his sudden confession, she thought to herself.

Garrus gave her a questioning look. "But I remember first meeting you guys back on the Citadel. You both seemed pretty close."

"Kaidan and I didn't really start talking until after the shit storm from Eden Prime. Like I said, it's easy to make friends when you're faced with impending doom., Shepard replied offishly, wishing they could steer the topic away from Kaidan. Her mind kept drifting to the events just a few hours earlier and it made her head throb with pain from her hangover. She shoveled more food into her mouth in frustration.

Garrus caught Shepard's sudden hesitation and decided to take the hint. "Uh… Shepard, I wanted to thank you for today."

"Huh? For what?" she asked in mid-chew.

"For pushing me to speak to Sidonis. If you weren't there to talk me into it, I wouldn't have done it. I got a lot of closure today… thanks."

Shepard smiled softly at him. "I'm glad to hear. You seemed to have a lot of pent up emotions after I got in your way last time…I didn't think you really wanted to talk to me or anyone else about it either."

"I… didn't mean to offend you, Shepard. I've been getting used to keeping things like that to myself," he murmured.

"Don't be. I would have felt the same," she asserted. "You and I are both the same in that way. We both like to keep that sort of stuff to ourselves. When you want to talk to me about it, you will in your own time… like we are right now." Shepard paused and let out a small laugh. "And we both don't require that much conversation to know how the other is feeling. Now Mordin on the other hand… he can probably take a lesson from the book of Garrus."

Garrus stared at Shepard as she chuckled to herself and began to finish off her potato. It was almost eerie how well Shepard knew him. Here he thought that Shepard was no more this commanding officer. She was aware about all the inner turmoil that was going through his head but gave him the space he needed rather than the pity he would have despised.

He had joined her out of gratitude, he had stayed out of loyalty, and he continued to stay by her side out of friendship.

Only friendship, right?

Garrus cleared his head of the sudden odd thoughts and forced himself to come back to the present. He glanced at Shepard's meal and let out a small snort of amusement. "Judging from your empty plate, looks like you really liked that meal."

Shepard blinked and looked down. She had literally polished off everything on her plate. "Wow, guess I was hungrier than I thought." She laughed guiltily. "I wish I knew who set all this up so I could thank them."

"My guess is that if they went through all this to stay anonymous, they probably don't want you to know that they can arrange such a thing," Garrus thought out loud, still trying to figure out who the mystery coordinator was.

"Guess not." Shepard grinned. "I'd probably bug them to hunt this real food down every other day. I'm quite impressed that they could cook food that you could eat too."

"Yeah. Not that I don't appreciate Gardner's attempts at dextro amino cuisine, but most of the time Tali and I end up surviving on our junk food stores we buy when we land on a fuel station." Garrus got up and began to collect their empty plates.

Shepard quickly stood up and picked up her own plate before Garrus took it from her. "I'll help. It's only fair."

Garrus simply nodded and followed Shepard to the kitchen. Before Garrus was about to place his in the flash washer, Shepard grabbed his arm. "Ah, don't put these dishes in there, Garrus. This stuff is actual antique silverware from Earth. It's not made of the same stuff we normally use. If you put it in that washer, you'll end up melting it or ruining it." Shepard began to look through the cabinets. "Normally there's a special type of cleaner you use when it comes wash it… so you need to do it by hand."

"That's pretty inefficient. Do all humans use such inconvenient utensils back on Earth?" Garrus watched Shepard dig through Gardner's storage drawers.

"Not really… like I said, it's antique. Ha! Here it is!" Shepard brought out a plain white bottle of cleaner, sponges and towels. She stacked the dishes into the sink and tapped a button to make the faucet run water.

"Then why use them at all?" Garrus asked, confused at what Shepard was doing.

Shepard smiled and used a sponge with the solution to clean the silverware. "Humans only use this kind of stuff when it's a celebration. Whenever my mom and I had someone special come over, she always broke out her fancy old china."

Garrus awkwardly took a sponge and began to wash his plate, slowly imitating Shepard's movements. "So… humans use these utensils when it's a special event?"

"Pretty much." Shepard began to gently dry off the forks with a towel.

"Huh…" He turned to look at her. "Does that mean eating with me was a special occasion?"

Shepard paused and met his gaze. For a reason she couldn't explain, she felt her pulse quicken and her face warm. She quickly returned her attention back to the silverware in her hands. "I… guess it is."

Garrus suddenly realized the impact of what he had just said and clumsily went back to rinsing off his plate. Was he falling into the trap the girls had set up? This atmosphere between them was uncomfortable… he didn't know how to act.

After Shepard dried the last piece of silver, she carefully placed them on the counter. She coughed to clear the air. "We'll just leave the utensils here. Whoever left it will most likely drop by and pick it back up. Thanks for the help, Garrus."

"Don't thank me, I really didn't do anything." Garrus rubbed the back of his head. "So are you going to head up to your cabin to get some sleep?"

"Yeah, are you going to head back out then?" Shepard asked, putting the cleaning supplies back in the cabinets where she found them.

"Maybe I'll take a nap before I head out. I could use a break myself." Garrus replied as they both stepped out of the kitchen.

Shepard nodded with a smile. "You deserve some down time too, after all the craziness today." She glanced at the mess table. "I'll take the roses up to my room. I don't think anyone else will be coming back anytime soon to take care of them."

Garrus nodded. "All right. I guess I'll see you later, Shepard."

Shepard simply smiled in response and turned her attention to the roses as Garrus headed towards his space located in the Normandy's battery area. Even though she didn't have much of a hand when it came to caring for flowers, she thought about asking around and seeing if anyone knew about taking care of them. As she lifted the fragile crystal vase that held the bouquet of flowers, she heard Garrus swear loudly in frustration.

"What's wrong?" Shepard spun around, the vase of roses in her hands.

She saw Garrus angrily kick at the doors to the battery. "Damn it! I can't believe they would go this far!"

Shepard approached him as he gave the heavy metal doors one last pound with his fist. "What do you mean 'go this far'? What's going on?"

Garrus let out a heavy sigh of frustration. "The doors to the battery won't open."

Shepard knit her brows. "That's odd. It was working fine earlier today. EDI, can you see if you can open these doors?"

"I am unable to open the doors, Shepard," EDI responded. "It seems that there is a manual malfunction in the control panel."

Garrus bent down to open the small panel to the side. As he lifted the hatch, he scowled at what he saw. Several wires were completely frayed… and it was made to look as though the erosion was natural.

"What a pain." Shepard huffed, looking over Garrus' shoulder. "The one day that Tali isn't here to fix the Normandy, everything just falls apart."

Garrus slammed the panel door shut and scowled. "Yeah… it's just a string of unfortunate coincidences. Well, I guess I'm stuck borrowing one of the sleep pods out here until we can get someone to fix it."

Shepard frowned. "But you hate the pods because you're too big for them." She recalled how he had set up the cot in the battery because his turian physique was too large for the sleeping spaces that were specifically designed for humans.

"It's fine." Garrus' reply was short. If I find out who did all this, I'm going to make them suffer.

Shepard shook her head and grabbed his arm. "Absolutely not. Here, come with me to my cabin. You can nap in my bed."

Shocked, Garrus looked down at Shepard's determined expression. "What? No! Then where will you sleep?"

"I can sleep on the couch," Shepard stated.

"I can't let you sleep on a couch!" he refused, horrified at the suggestion. In turian society, the one with the higher rank would never concede to a lower position. Shepard offering to sleep on her couch was equivalent to her volunteering to wallow in a pit of mud.

She easily read Garrus' thoughts in his face. "It's a comfortable couch. There's no use to be so stubborn about this." She forcefully pulled on his arm with her left hand while she held the vase of roses in the other.

Garrus tried to free his arm from her grip. "Shepard, I can't do something like this. You're my commanding officer."

"Then consider this an order from your Commander," Shepard replied tersely. "You are going to rest up in my cabin until we fix the access to the battery."

Garrus was speechless as Shepard dragged him towards the elevators. Oh yes, someone was going to suffer for this.