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Any where but here, she was invincible. But here, her head tucked on Garrus' shoulder, she was... this.
She used to dream of dawn from her the bedroom window of her father's house in Samana. She dreamed of sunsets, and mother on leave, and of the smell of sage and thyme. Of her first kiss, swimming in the waves off a beach in Sosua on a day trip.
Now, she dreamed of chasing a young boy through trees, watching him burn. She started to tremble. Except this time. This time she dreamed she burned with him.
Gloved talons under her chin tilted her brown face up to face him. "Shepard, what...?"
"Lie to me," she said flatly, looking up with the tears she only shed in his presence hanging of her lashes in quivering little drops the way sea foam used to cling to her braids as a child.
"I..." he looked at those tears. At the grim acceptance on her face, and the little girl fear in her eyes held back so deep he realized she probably didn't know she was feeling it. It broke his heart into more pieces than even EDI could have counted.
"Please," she whispered.
His mandibles fluttered a moment, then set against his jaw. He touched the back of her head and drew her closer. Pressing his mouth softly against her forehead, he trilled a little, in the same way his mother had always used to calm his fears after a nightmare, then flanged softly, "Everything's going to be okay."