This was a stupid idea, Garrus told himself for the tenth time later that night as he boarded the elevator. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and twisted his hands together around the small data drive. All too soon, the doors opened.

This was a stupid idea, Garrus told himself again as he stared at the door to her cabin.

The green light glared at him when he approached it, taunting him, and his mandibles grew hot once again. He flicked them once, twice, then a third time. It barely seemed to help. It's not too late, a small voice whispered in the back of his mind. Just get back in the elevator and we can pretend this never happened. Garrus very nearly listened to it, stopping only because he heard the elevator's doors close shut behind him. He was stranded now.

For Spirit's sake, it's just Shepard, a new voice groaned. Knock on the door already.

Don't do it, the other one whispered back.

"I'm going insane." Garrus said aloud quietly, cupping his face in a hand. He sighed and then stood up straight, fixing his gaze on the door. He took in a deep breath, held it. A moment passed. Then he knocked on the door.

It seemed less than a second before it opened and there she was in front of him, one hand resting on her hip while the other was lost inside her copper hair as it rubbed the back of her head. The motion stopped when she recognized her visitor.

"Garrus." she stated, taking him in. He fought the urge to preen or straighten his clothes. He was wearing one of the few good civilian outfits he had left, thinking it an appropriate choice at time. Now, however, he wondered if maybe he should have worn his new armor after all. At least Shepard's attire was just as unusual as his, he reflected thankfully; Garrus had never seen the sleeveless, form-fitting top she now wore on her before, though he did remember similar ones being a favorite for the C-Sec humans during combat exercises. Had she been training up here before he'd interrupted? Her cabin was large for a spaceship, but surely there wasn't room enough for a proper workout session, was there? "What can I do for you?" she asked, breaking his inner debate.

"Shepard. I just, ah," he cleared his throat. "I just thought I'd come up to say thanks. For the armor. It fits like a second plate."

She blinked once, and then the corners of her mouth curled with triumph. Her hand fell down to her hip, joining the other one as she grinned at him. "Really? Honestly, I was worried about the fit a little. Turian measurements are…well, different."

"Hmm, speaking honestly, it was a little tight in the arms…." His mandibles spread into a smile when her face fell and he raised his hands in front of him in surrender. "Kidding, Shepard."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Real funny, Garrus. Good to know all those blows to the head haven't dampened that razor wit of yours."

"Some of us are just lucky that way, I guess." he answered with a shrug. Her lips twitched at the joke and a shiver of satisfaction went down his neck. He didn't know what to say next, however, and the moment began to stretch thin after that.

Shepard seemed to notice this as well, eventually breaking it by asking, "So you liked the armor then?" She glanced away as she spoke, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"I love it." Garrus said, staring at the strand. He blinked, then looked away. "Actually, Commander," he continued as casually as he could as his mandibles pulled tight against his face, "I, uh, wanted to give you this in return. As a thanks." He held up the data drive for her to take.

Her brow lowered as she took it, looking it over. "Garrus, the armor was a gift. You don't need to give me anything –"

"I know," he answered quickly, "and it's nothing special, trust me." he explained, glancing at the drive. "Just something I thought you might find…entertaining."

She glanced up at him with narrowed eyes, catching his tone. "Garrus, what's on this drive?"

"And ruin the surprise?"

"You know how I feel about surprises."

"Hmm. Well, if you insist, Commander…" he answered slowly, drawing out each word. He let out a long sigh. "It's a vid."

She paused and Garrus almost hummed with amusement as he watched her process this new information. She didn't disappoint him either when, a second later, her eyes flashed with suspicion.

"What vid?" she asked.

"Commander, really –"

"Answer the question, Vakarian."

He cleared his throat and waited a moment, holding her gaze. Then: "The Commander and the Citadel."

Shepard didn't move, only glanced back down at the drive with wary eyes, as if she was looking at a potential threat. "How the hell did you even get this?" she asked, words drenched with a morbid curiosity. "It's not even supposed to be out for months."

Garrus shrugged, leaning against the door frame. "I have my ways." he answered. Then, when she looked up at him and it became clear she wouldn't take just that for an answer, he added, "I did a favor for the director once, back during my C-Sec days. He owed me one, and when I mentioned who the copy was for, well…" Garrus flicked his mandibles. "He can't wait for your review, by the way."

"I'll bet," she muttered darkly, then sighed. "This is going to be a long night."

Garrus' subvocal's thrilled with quiet laughter. He took the cue, however, and straightened up to leave her to her misery. "Enjoy, Commander." he said as he turned to leave.

"What?" Shepard asked, startled." Oh no, oh no no no," she said as she caught his arm and pulled him into her cabin. "You're not getting out of this that easily, Vakarian. You started this, and you're damn sure going pay the consequences."

Garrus blinked, confused. "Commander?"

Shepard glared at him and held the drive up in front of him. She held it pinched between two fingers, as if loathe to touch it. "If I have to watch this then so do you, understand?"

His mandibles twitched. "You're kidding."

"Not a bit." she answered and then turned her back to him and walked further into her cabin.

Garrus stood there, momentarily stunned. He'd never planned for this. Never thought she'd invite him in to watch it with her. In fact, now that he thought about it, he'd never even been in her cabin before. A tension he was completely unfamiliar with clenched tight inside him.

"Don't even think about running away, Garrus," Shepard called from further in the room.

Garrus swallowed, knowing there was no backing out now. But then again, why would he want to? It was just Shepard, after all. Nothing to be nervous about.

So then why was he?

He shook the thought away and finally followed in after Shepard. She was hunched over a terminal at her desk, opening up the file, and he took the moment to look around. The cabin was sleek and organized, and his eyes caught traces of Shepard all over it: a collection of model ships carefully assembled and proudly displayed inside their glass casing; a pair of curious eyes glancing at him from inside a terrarium on the nearby shelf, directly across the empty fish tank; a down-turned picture frame on the desk, right beside another that held what looked like two pairs of ID tags. He lingered on the last two, his eyes narrowed with thought.

"There." Shepard declared, straightening up. She pressed a final button and the glass casing in front of her melted into black. A moment later a plain title screen appeared, the words The Commander and the Citadel hovering over a list of options. "All set to go." she continued, then froze, hesitating.

"What?" Garrus asked.

She glanced at him, then quickly away. "It's nothing." she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Just, ah, trying to figure out the seating arrangements."

"Oh." he said, looking around the cabin again.

She followed his gaze, brows heavy with thought. "There's a couch on the other side of the glass that could work, only it doesn't exactly face the right way…" She bit her lip.

"Where do you normally sit?"

Shepard paused. She retucked the same strand of hair behind her ear again and, not looking at him, answered, "The bed."

Garrus swallowed. Any other time, a score of appropriate – and a few inappropriate – one-liners would have danced out of his mouth. Just then, however, all he could manage was a quick and hopefully not nearly-as-shaky-out-loud-as-it sounded-in-his-head, "The couch sounds great, actually."

The couch, as it turned out, wasn't great. Shepard had been right when she'd brought up its placement issues – it faced the completely wrong direction and was also bolted to the floor, so moving it was out. Which meant there was only one option left.

"There's some extra pillows under in that drawer over there if you need some," Shepard said as they both settled slowly on the bed, over a foot of empty space looming between them.

"No," Garrus replied quickly, then belatedly added. "I mean, I'm fine. But thanks. For the offer." He shut up and concentrated on adjusting his pillow.

"Sure thing." Shepard returned without looking at him. She folded her hands across her stomach, as if unsure what to do with them otherwise. After a minute, Garrus found himself in a similar position. His mandibles burned against is his faceplates, but he resisted the urge to fan them. "All set?" Shepard asked a moment later with a crooked smile and raised brows.

"Ready when you are," he replied with a flick of his mandibles.

"Then here we go," Shepard murmured and pressed play.

What followed next were some of the longest, most painfully uncomfortable minutes of Garrus' life. He found himself unbelievably aware of how awkward his entire body could feel, even when in the simplest of positions, and was constantly battling to keep himself from fidgeting as one limb or another tingled or itched for attention. Worse, keeping up that control required so much concentration that he then ended up struggling just to pay semi-attention to whatever was happening up on the screen. The hardest thing about it all, as it turned out however, was ignoring the warmth coming off the body beside him.

But, luckily, the weirdness didn't last. As the movie progressed and the minutes trickled by, the insecurity faded with it. The process was slow – so gradual that Garrus hardly noticed it – but steady nonetheless. It began with the first scene "Commander Shepard" appeared in, donned in a sleek Alliance Blue outfit far closer to one of Miranda's cat-suits than the usual armor Shepard wore. The real Shepard let out a snort so loud Garrus almost missed the next line of dialogue, and then from there the wall of glass that had built between them began to shatter, piece by piece.

Garrus cackled with laughter when Commander Shepard swept gracefully across the dance floor at her Spectre Induction Ball, laughing all the harder as the real Shepard grumbled obscenities from her corner of the bed. Shepard's revenge came soon after that, however, and she all but cried with laughter during the scene where she single-handedly stormed the crime lord "Frisk"'s base and rescued the imprisoned turian C-sec detective in process. Both of them groaned in the scene where she was chastised cruelly by the corrupt Vorcha Councilor, who everyone knew was in Saren's pocket, and they cheered with approval when she subsequently hung up on him.

By the time the Virmire scene happened, all traces of the earlier awkwardness had vanished. Shepard was now sprawled out across the bed, her legs still casually tangled up over Garrus's from one of her earlier fits of laughter. He in turn had finally relaxed, leaning back leisurely against the two extra pillows he'd claimed sometime earlier. So when Shepard's Super Secret Shadow Force began their infiltration into Saren's base, Garrus was in a more than adequate position to watch the real Shepard's reaction.

It was subtle. At first, she merely watched, face carefully blank as the squad stormed through geth after geth. Her lip curled up into a ghost of a grin during her showdown with "Recks", but the curve grew sharp as the scene went on, all but cutting into her skin when the battle with Saren finally began. The smile was gone when Garrus next glanced her way, her face once again neutral as she watched Commander Shepard fighting to rescue her stranded squad mate, bitter tears streaming down her doppelganger's face as the rest of her crew pulled her away and onto the ship for evacuation. When the ship finally broke orbit amidst the roar of an explosion hot on its heels, all Shepard did was blink once, twice, and then that was it.

After that, the quiet tension that formed during the scene vanished with it, and the earlier ease returned when they both snorted as Commander Shepard assured her crew that "of course the Council will listen, trust me,".

Shepard shifted slightly a little later, and Garrus glanced over at her, noticing for the first time how only mere inches separated one of her hands from his own. His gaze trailed up her arm, more exposed than he'd ever seen it before, and he found himself fascinated by the scatterings of dots that marked her skin. They were similar to ones on her face, only bigger and darker. He wondered how long it would take to count them all.

Shepard laughed at something he'd missed. He coughed, clearing this throat quietly, and turned his attention back to the film.

A half an hour later, the ending credits finally appeared on the screen. Shepard muted it just as a song began to build up in the background – something called Das Malefitz, Garrus thought, making a mental note to purchase it later – and then she stretched, sighing.

"So what's the verdict?" she asked as she sat up, finally removing her legs off of his. They felt strangely cold as her weight disappeared from them, despite the welcome arrival of blood flow as his circulation returned.

Garrus followed her lead and sat up as well. "Well, at least they got the part with Mako right." he commented drily. The memory of internal screaming mixed with Shepard shouts, yelling at him and Kaidan to hold on to their guns, as she launched the Mako into Conduit's relay still sent shivers down his fringe.

"My moment of glory." she agreed wistfully. He rolled his eyes.

"What time is it?" he asked, opening up his omni-tool. Spirits, how the hell did that happen?, he thought when he saw the answer.

"Crap," Shepard groaned as she too glanced at her clock. "I was supposed to have those reports finished for Miranda two hours ago." She sighed and rubbed a hand across her forehead. "I'll get the Miranda Stare for sure this time."

"Sorry..." Garrus apologized, scratching at his scars.

She shook her head, lips curved up in a rueful grin. "Don't be. This was fun, Garrus. More fun than I've had in…well, a lifetime really." She added, eyes flashing. She turned to him. "Thank you."

"Anytime, Commander." he said, meeting her gaze. They smiled at each other, and for a moment Shepard's face seemed to tense, as if she was on the verge of saying something. Garrus waited, curious. She said nothing, however, and he realized he must imagined it. Still, his mandibles began to warm for some reason and he looked way. He rubbed the back of his neck as he said, "Guess I should get going then."

"Right," Shepard said, standing up as he did so too. She followed him to door, standing back when it opened and he stepped out.

Garrus paused after he crossed the threshold, hesitant to leave. He turned back to Shepard, knowing he should say something, even if he wasn't sure what. "Thanks again for the armor, Commander." he finally managed to get out.

"Anything for my favorite turian," she replied, brow arched. "And Garrus?" she added, then paused as she bit down on her lip. For an instant, Garrus thought he saw the same tense expression flicker across her face he had moments ago. It was gone before he could be sure, however, and instead all she did was give him one last smile, curved and full. "It's just Shepard from now on. Can't be having my best friend calling me by rank all the time, now can I?"

Garrus blinked, mandibles twitching. "Sure thing, Co-….Shepard."

She grinned. "Good. Sweet dreams, Garrus."

The door closed.

Garrus stood there, staring at the metal.

Best friend?, he repeated, feeling his mandibles grow hot once again. The warmth sent shivers down his fringe and, the more he thought about Shepard's words, the more it seemed to spread. It was a strangely pleasant feeling, one he hadn't felt in longer than he could remember. He smiled, repeating the words to himself again as he finally turned to leave. Best friend, huh?

Garrus could work with that.

A/N: So this is it! It's finally over! When I first sat down and wrote that first chapter so long ago, I had no idea Among the Tombs was going to turn out like this. I'd never written any fic over 2,000 words before - let alone anything like the multi-chapter monstrosity this turned out the be - and I'd never would have imagined it would be well over six months before Garrus and Shepard's trip to Omega finally reached its conclusion. Looking back, I've learned so much about writing and about these wonderful characters from this amazing experience, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. More than anything, though, I'm grateful for all the absolutely amazing support and feedback I've gotten from you all. This fandom truly has some the greatest people ever in it, and I know this story never would have made it this far without you guys. So thank you again so very much for sticking with me and this story, and I hope you all enjoy the ending as much as I did. : )