Survivor

Chapter 12

Garrus
  Garrus watched Samantha from the couch as she moved to the kitchen, a bit faster than before. Faster than he was comfortable with. It was killing him that he couldn't get up and help her, but it was killing him even more that he couldn't take her blindness away.
  If it was in the battlefield? He could do it. There was no counting how many times he had sniped or plain out shot an enemy that had been lining up a shot on Shepard. He had knocked her out of the way of bullets, shrapnel and blasts. Yet he couldn't help her across an apartment.
  Granted, it was because of her stubborn mind, but he understood her need to keep her independence. She was a soldier, and so was he. It was hard to imagine himself in that same position, he was sure he would go mad.
  It was just another reminder that Samantha Shepard was a survivor.
  Garrus was drawn out of his thoughts by the sound of Samantha slipping and hitting the ground hard, landing with an oomph. He stood and hurried to her to find her sat down by the kitchen island with her head in her hands.
"Sam? You okay?"
He gently laid his taloned hand on her shoulder and took in the information his visor was feeding him. No wounds, no broken bones, just increased stress and heart rate levels.
"I'm fine..."
Garrus sighed and sat next to her before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled him to his chest past his splayed legs.
Samantha leaned against him and sighed. "I'm so tired of this, Garrus. Why am I blind? I mean, Miranda and the Illusive Man had brought me back from oblivion and I wasn't blind then... What's different now? Why did I even have to come back...?"
Garrus stiffened and took her chin between his talons as he drew her to face him, even if she couldn't see him. "Don't ever doubt why you're here, Samantha. You're a damn important part of this galaxy, even if you don't know it full well. You should know that. Hell, none of us would be here if you wouldn't have been here. I wouldn't have been here if you hadn't come back the first time. I would have died there on Omega and we all would be destroyed. Instead it's the Reapers in the ground."
Garrus' voice softened and he brushed his hand over her cheek and rested his forehead against hers. "You deserve to be happy. We deserve to be happy. Together."
Samantha nodded, her hands slowly found his face and she traced her fingers over the outlines of his face, a reminder to herself that he's real.
"Are you going to work tomorrow?"
Garrus sighed and nodded. "Yeah. They need me at C-Sec. There's a lot of crime still. Looting and such. If you need or want me to stay, though I will."
Samantha smiled and shook her head. "No, you go ahead. Just remember you'll owe personal one on one time..."
He chucked and kissed the top of her head. "I'll be looking forward to it."
With that, Garrus stood and pulled Samantha up with him and guided her to the couch.
"I remember I used to like the smooth stone floors... Now they're a pain in my ass."
Garrus chucked at her words, then stopped for a moment. "So carpeting is easier for you? Like upstairs?"
She hummed her agreement. "It seems like it. The floors are too cold to go barefoot and that's the only way I'll be able to stay on them without slipping or being in danger of it..."
Garrus chuckled and sat next to her, gently wiggling one of her toes and she pulled her legs up closer to her chest, her nose scrunched up at him. "Of course, those fuzzy half inch thick socks don't help..."
She stuck her tongue out at him playfully and shrugged. "They're comfortable!"
Garrus grinned. "If only your enemies knew the infamous Commander Samantha Shepard wore pink socks with blue polka dots..."
Samantha reached over and smacked him, almost catching his mandible if he wouldn't have reared his head back.
Garrus caught her hand and held it in his, tracing small circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. "I'll admit, it really is nice like this. Just the two of us able to be a couple. There was always something calling our attention away from each other before."
"Yeah. Stolen moments don't exactly make for a complete relationship... And I don't want that for us anymore. We deserve better, just you and I."
  Garrus smiled at her and brushed his free hand over her head, stifling the sadness that came at seeing her long, beautiful hair gone like that. "It's not quite somewhere warm and tropical like the vids I promised we'd live like one day, but we'll get there. Maybe even work on defying genetics..."
  Samantha laughed, her face lighting up but she pursed her lips and shook her head at him as if scolding. "You would think you can defy nature?"
  "Well yeah. We did defy Reapers, didn't we? What's the difference?"
  "Genetics?"
  "Those are easy, especially after dealing with what we dealt with."
  Samantha raised her eyebrows at him and pulled her head back as if she was scrutinizing him. "Excuse me? And who's genetics do you intend to mod exactly?"
  Gates coughed and chuckled. "Well, my own, obviously... You should never have to endure anything for my sake!"
  "Uh-huh, that's what I thought." She sounded disbelieving and disgruntled but a smile played on her lips and she nudged him playfully with her elbow.
  "I love you, Samantha. I'll do anything to make you happy. It's what you deserve."
  Samantha wrapped her arms around Garrus and snuggled close to him, with her head rested against his chest. "I love you too, Garrus. Nothing can change that..."
  Garrus hummed in agreement and wrapped his arms around her to hold her close, and rested his chin on the top of her head.
  He couldn't help but think that he couldn't be happier. With the woman he loves in his arms safe and sound.

((A/N: I know. It's sad how they're my OTP and favorite writing topic outside my book Running With Little Leaf that I'm workin on and I haven't found time for either! So here it finally is, guys!! I can't believe it's been nearly a month since the last update! I'm so sorry guys! Good news though is Survivor has reached over 300 views!!! This makes me wanna do a little happy dance and squeal!!! Lol thank you guys so much for reading!!! Don't forget to comment and vote! Love y'all!!!))