Chapter Text
“I thought you wanted a cat?” Garrus blinked in confusion while he looked around at the caged dogs. This particular shelter had opened up after the invasion, when a lot of pets were left without their owners. Data-pads were in little slots next to each kennel he walked by. Descriptions of the pets, names that had been on their collars which had since been removed. A lot were disabled, missing libs, ears, or eyes. Varying degrees of severity.
It made him look at his fiance, Kerica Shepard, who had been found in the rubble three days after Harbinger had been taken out with the Crucible. The beam to the Citadel had stopped working, the Crucible had been fired at, London had been lost, but Zaeed had said something that made them laugh. “So the Crucible just like everything else, huh? Hit it hard enough and it’ll start working. Good to know. Probably a loose screw.”
So then it fired like it was supposed to, creating an EMP strong enough to knock out all of the Reapers in the area. It also knocked out the Geth, the Normandy and essentially EDI, and a lot of other ships but those were what were in range. The ships that weren’t in the way of the wave zoomed in and destroyed the Reapers that had toppled over. No one knew how long the EMP would last. It had taken some time to get the Normandy back online, at least the life support and lights had backup generators while they tended to the wounded, including himself and Liara.
“I do want a cat, and I’m going to get one, but I want a dog, too. I can have both.” Kerica seemed to find what she was looking for, kneeling down slowly with her hand supporting herself on the glass. She put her hand to the slot where the dog’s nose poked out to sniff her hand and lick it, then put its paw through.
She had garnered several injuries and medical problems. Damaged lungs, broken ribs, nearly crushed left side on her arm and leg. As the savior of the galaxy, she had gotten the best medical treatment available and priority. Then even Miranda dove into old files with Liara’s help as the Shadow Broker to get access to the Lazarus Project. It took a year, but Kerica was walking. She had just barely scraped by without a prosthetic for either her arm or leg, but barely. Under her pants she had a brace that supported most of the weight, and her arm had jerky movements. She had a weight-limit, and while she had stopped going to a therapy doctor every day, she had given him full-reign to make sure she kept doing her exercises. Given full, honorable leave from the Alliance and Spectres after the crap ton of metals, Kerica was instead given the job title as an Adviser in helping rebuild the worlds.
“Of course you can have both. I just didn’t know you also wanted a dog.” Garrus said smoothly, stopping beside her. It was a yellow looking dog she had decided to pet, and it was really fluffy too. It had missing patches of fur, burned or ripped out. It didn’t have any missing limbs, but it did have a limp, so maybe it had had a broken bone? “What kind of breed is this one?”
“This is a golden retriever. I called beforehand to a bunch of places to see if they had one, and so here we are. I’m not so picky about cats. I liked a bunch of strays when I was younger. I always wanted a Labrador or a retriever, though.” Kerica explained rubbing the dog’s ear, “C’mere, Garrus, let this pup smell you.” Standing just as slowly as she knelt, she took the data pad with the dog’s information, “Looks like it’s a boy dog. The name on it’s tag was Beetle...what the heck?”
“Beetle? Who names their pet Beetle?” Garrus gave her a look, but he knelt down next as she had suggested and was surprised when the dog started licking his gloved hand. Hesitantly, he reached and scratched behind the same ear Kerica had. He could be imagining things, but it looked like the dog was smiling.
“Maybe it either ate them or chased them as a puppy. Who knows.” Kerica shrugged, “The rest of it says that they found the poor boy lurking in the shadows, not really hiding, but as they tried to catch him, it darted to another shadowy building. It became apparent when he didn’t go too far or would circle back, that he was trying to lead them somewhere. The team eventually found a survivor. A little boy too scared to move anywhere. It was hard to separate them, but the boy needed medical attention and the dog wasn’t allowed.”
“That’s actually a nice story.” Garrus smiled and stood back up, “So, let’s get him. I’d prefer it if we didn’t keep the name Beetle, though.”
“No...I like Shadow, what about you?” Kerica grinned.
“I like that.” Garrus looked at the dog in the kennel, “What about you? Do you like ‘Shadow’?” He earned a small bark and the dog stood from it’s sitting position, wagging its tail. “Shadow it is.”
They went through the process and as soon as the dog got let out of it’s kennel, it jumped up and put it’s front paws on Kerica’s shoulders. If it wasn’t for Garrus behind her to catch her since her leg gave out, she would’ve fallen to the floor. “Hey!” Garrus snapped, about to bring his hand up and push the dog down, but Kerica stopped him.
“It’s alright! Haha, hey, boy! Nice to meet you, Shadow.” A bark and a lick as she rubbed his back. She had to turn her head away and made playful ‘ew’ sounds, “Okay, okay! Be a good boy and get down.” He ‘urf’ed and slipped off of her, his tail wagging like crazy, “Good, good, yeah, how about we get a collar on you?” He sat down and Kerica handed Garrus the collar in her hand. It was tattered and obviously the original, but the tag was brand new with the dog’s new name on it, along with Shepard’s information on the back.
Garrus was shaking his head as he took it, but he got down and put the collar around the dog’s neck, fastening it so it wasn’t too tight. Kerica then leaned down a little to clasp the leash on the metal bit in the back of the collar. “Let’s get you outta here, huh boy?” A happy bark. While he supported her, Kerica continued to hold the leash and the three of them left the shelter. Garrus wondered just what sort of shenanigans a cat, a dog, and a hamster would get into.