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Shepard slips into the main battery, letting the door hiss shut behind her. She reaches for Garrus’ shoulder, turning him around and pressing a kiss to the side of his face. “Hey”
“Hey”, he leans to down to kiss her properly and Shepard welcomes him with a smile. “What brings you here?”
“Needed a break”, she sighs “All this Cerberus crap is just...so much.” Shepard rests her head against Garrus chest and he hums calmingly in response, rubbing her back in small circles.
“You’re doing amazing.”
“Am I keeping you from your calibrations?”
“Yes”, Garrus admits “But you’re my priority”
Shepard’s smile grows even wider. “Thank you.”
-
“Shep?”, Garrus voice chimes in over comm, cutting through her concentration. Shepard sighs and turns to face the voice interface on her desk.
“Yes?”
“Just wanted to check in, I haven’t seen you all day.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty much holed up in my cabin with all these fucking E-Mails. I need to plan a course that’ll let us go everywhere as quickly as possible.”
She knows Garrus well enough to hear the head tilt out of his voice. “Can’t you have EDI do that?”
“Too risky. I need to read everything from alliance command personally or I’ll get into trouble later.” She pushes her hair out of her face, wishing once more she’d thought of keeping hair ties around. The way her life is going now, she hasn’t had time to cut her hair recently. “EDI, can you ask Ashley if she could borrow me some hair ties.”
“Yes, Shepard”, the AI’s cool voice answers from...somewhere.
“You sound stressed”, Garrus speaks up again. “Take a break.”
“I wish I could”, Shepard replies “But I really really I can’t. Every moment thousands of lives are in danger. I can’t take time for a break. Sorry.”
“If you say so”, Garrus has switched from sounding curious to worried. “Just try to get some sleep, okay?”
“You know I wont”
-
London has left some marks. Large burn scars cover Shepard’s legs and arms. The scars from the Cerberus implants that once showed on her face have been replaced with cuts from the exploding Crucible hitting her in the face. She’s sometimes surprised she still has a face at all.
Shepard doesn’t care about the scars or how she looks. She managed to end a threat to her life and the life of everyone she loves, she got to marry and retire with Garrus and she finally gets some sleep. So much sleep. The only thing she really has to do any more are Alliance Publicity events and even those aren’t as serious as what she used to do. Then again, what could possibly be more serious then a war against mass murdering machines from the dawn of time.
“Wake up”
Shepard only grumbles in reply, hitting blindly in the vague direction of Garrus voice. He laughs. “Sorry, but you have wake up.”
“No I don’t”, she mumbles into her pillow. “I’m retired. I have to do nothing.”
“You agreed to speak at the event.”
She rolls onto her side, opening her eyes, but still refuses to sit up. “It’s an unveiling of a fucking statue OF ME. I’m already there.”
Garrus tilts his head at her. “You don’t want to go.”
“I really don’t.”
He takes her padd from the night stand and unlocks it, opening the messaging program. “Which excuse do you want to use?”
“Injuries acting up. I said I had other important engagements last time and Hacket knows it’s a lie anyway. Why do people keep asking me to hold speeches about myself? I hate it.”
Garrus shrugs “You are good at public speaking.”
“So are a lot of other people”, she sighs, finally sitting up. Garrus finishes typing the message and presents it to her before sending it. “Thanks”
“My pleasure. Now what do you plan to do with your free day?”
She pulls him onto the bed. “Enjoying retirement.”
He laughs. “Sounds like a plan.”