The Unknown: Book 1

Home.

"What was your idea on how to deal with him?" Garrus dropped his gaze and he knew he wanted to give Sidonis the most painful death he could think of, he lowered his head, even more, closing his eyes.

"I wanted to shoot him straight in the head with my sniper, he was lucky to have such a quick death. I got close to doing it, but." He looked back up, looking past Gemma and at the wall, not wanting to see her expression at his honesty of how much he wanted Sidonis dead. "I stood on the balcony, scope in hand. Shepard stood in my way and was talking to Sidonis. I told her to move to the side, but something clicked for her and she changed her mind. She saw the pain and regret that Sidonis had for what he did. She would not move and stopped me from killing him, I wouldn't dare shoot if there was a chance that I could get Shepard with the bullet." Gemma was sitting on the edge of her seat, getting more invested in the conversation. "I heard the pain in his voice, he did hate his life and it sounded like he was ready for death. I told him to leave before I changed my mind. Shepard tried to talk after, but my emotions were something I needed to sort out alone."

"I'm guessing Shepard was not too impressed by the fact that you would not talk to her?" Gemma could imagine Shepard was one to have little patience when it came to making sure her crew is okay after dealing with something so life-changing. Shepard knew how depressing it can be, definitely with what happened with Kaidan, she had never felt so depressed. Garrus had struggled with a lot, mentally.

"Yeah, she would hardly talk to me on the way back to the ship. She had to help Thane, so I went back to the ship and sent Grunt to take my place. After she got back, Joker warned me Shepard was on the way to see me, she was pissed off by the sounds of fear in his voice." He gave himself a little bit of humour in his voice. Even the biggest of Krogan would step to the side when Shepard was in a bad mood. "I carried on working on the forward cannon and the doors swung open and on the other side was one very angry Commander." He shook his head in humour. Gemma imagined that this was now a funny memory between them both. "She shouted right in my face, she wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways. She said how selfish I was because I couldn't see how she had helped me, many swearing words later, some I never even heard of before, she finally let me talk."

Gemma giggled at him, Garrus looked up, his mandible loosened and formed into a smile. "That sounds just like Shepard." Garrus knew Shepard was very pissed off at him after that mission. The way she went off on him, made him laugh in her face then argue back with her, Shepard had tried to hold back the smile her lips were trying to pull at his response.

"Well, I did laugh at first, she seemed to have calmed down with that. I did say sorry for how I reacted to her helping me, we sat down and talked for what seemed like days. It was late into the evening shift when she was nearly falling asleep on me." Gemma started to see the love he had for her in his eyes. Some of the crew had come into the mess hall but didn't stay long. "She changed after that, little parts of the old Shepard started to peel through, we spent most of the nights having fun and joking around. One night..." Garrus looked down at his legs, sitting back with a thud, "we had a few drinks and I was half drunk, of course, Shepard wasn't at all. We um... kissed. I was puzzled about what I was meant to do after, I never even kissed a human before."

"Please tell me, you didn't run off?" Garrus slowly nodded his head, "dammit, Garrus. Shepard isn't one to just kiss anyone" Garrus wouldn't make eye contact, he agreed with what Gemma was stating. Shepard had never been one for hook up and one night stands, but being with a human was just something that frightened him, he didn't even have much experience with his species.

"I know, I know, I hated myself so much for doing that, but I got scared. I had feelings for Shepard, but I was confused about what those feelings were. We avoided each other for days after that, she wouldn't take me on missions and when we all ate together, I would eat in the forward battery" Gemma never thought she could see Garrus as the one to hide from Shepard. Garrus crossed his legs under the table. "We finally talked after most of the crew had enough of us both acting weird and they locked us in Kasumi's room."