Chapter Text
Garrus sat on the grounds outside the estate house and looked up at the stars. He’d always liked being outdoors there; inside, not so much. They’d used to come up regularly when he was a kid, escaping the summer heat of the lowlands for the cooler climate of the mountains. Even then, things had been fraught. He hadn’t always been aware, when he was very young, but as he’d grown older, he’d gotten more sensitive to the air of tension that surrounded the place. The way his mother smiled less often, even though they were on vacation. The way Great-Aunt Livia had been stiffly, punctiliously polite.
She’d been in residence even then, and old even then. It seemed as though she’d been old his entire life. Retired, even then, after a career in Survey. Planetary exploration. Ended when she’d fallen down a cliff on a high-gravity world, breaking several bones in her legs and pelvis, which had never set quite right. It wasn’t a career for a woman with a bad leg, and she’d been seventy-odd at the time, so she’d taken a graceful retirement.
She didn’t like to be asked about her health, so he’d refrained. That hadn’t stopped her from asking a series of hinting questions aimed at finding out what had happened to him.
He sighed and leaned back on his elbows. Shepard had headed to her guest room a while back looking worn out. He’d wanted to follow just to make sure she was all right, but he hadn’t been able to extricate himself from conversation with Livia. Solana had gone with her, which made him feel a little better. Of course she was all right, but she was still recovering, and it had been a long day, and his family could be hard to take even if you knew them, which she didn’t. Maybe he should have tried to prepare her better. He imagined himself handing her dossiers on his kin and snorted at the image.
Quiet footsteps behind him, slightly uneven. Solana. She sat down beside him and handed him a beer.
“Thanks.” He took a drink.
“No problem.” She opened her own bottle.
“Thanks for helping Shepard find her room.”
“No problem, again. I like her.”
“Good.”
They drank in silence for a moment, before Sol said, “Tycus was telling her something about how you just wanted the family to validate your life choices.”
Garrus groaned.
“I smacked him for you, so don’t bother.”
“It not as if he’s entirely wrong,” Garrus muttered.
“You know, if you actually talked to Dad, you might feel better.”
“I have talked to Dad.”
“About logistics and being Primarch, yeah. About the two of you, not so much.”
“Sol, leave it alone. We’ll work things out in our own time.”
“Sure you will.” She sighed. “Fine, I’m leaving it.” Then she punched him in the shoulder. “Omega, Garrus, really?”
He rubbed his shoulder. “Ouch.”
“Really? You went off to Omega and did your best to get yourself killed, and you didn’t even tell me?”
“Well, I knew you’d react like that, so—”
“And I’d have been right. Garrus. You used to tell me things.”
“You had enough with thinking about Mom—”
She hit him again, open-handed this time. “And you didn’t think I’d wonder where my only brother was after not hearing from him for months? A year? How did you think that little adventure was going to end?”
He shifted his weight, uncomfortably, and had no answer for her.
She went on, more quietly, “What, did you think we’d eventually shrug and say ‘well, I guess Garrus isn’t coming back. Good riddance’? Did you really think I wanted to lose my brother as well as my mother? What the fuck were you thinking?”
He sighed deeply and tipped his head back. The stars shone down silent and distant. “I wasn’t. Thinking, I mean. I wasn’t thinking that far ahead, or that clearly. I wanted... to make a difference. To do something purposeful.”
After a moment, she said, “I missed you, you idiot.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I went away and didn’t tell you, and let you worry.”
She nodded and wrapped an arm around him. “Apology accepted. Baby brother, don’t you ever pull something like that again.”
Part of him wanted to tease, to ask “or what?” But he’d learned, over the years, how to pick his moments. “I won’t.”