This story is a mixture of my love for cop dramas and Mass Effect. Somehow, this became the love baby of both! Eventually, this will include all three games, but before that, we need to get around all of that Red Tape. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or anything related therein.

Partners

He was late, his head hurt, and he wanted to murder Chellik.

Not only was the bare-faced turian the reason for his being late, but the traitor was talking up Executor Pallin for the promotion to the Investigation Branch position. He knew that the rookies were in as well, and the damned turian was probably having his pick of the best new recruits for his section of the Wards while Garrus was running around like a pyjak with its head cut off.

For once, he wanted a day where everything could go right. He didn't want his omni-tool hacked, he didn't want to get into a firefight in the wards, and he definitely didn't want a recruit that wouldn't watch his six. Not today, Garrus thought with a growl, running a hand over his fringe.

By the time he made it to the office, already running thirty minutes late, he saw Chellik shaking hands with Pallin and smirking. There was a line of eager but subdued recruits standing to the side. Some were obviously hung over from the night before. Others looked tired, as if they hadn't been able to sleep.

Well, Garrus had gotten plenty of sleep thanks to the pyjak of a turian who had once been his partner. He figured that he should just sleep in the office and he'd never be late again. Or have my omni-tool hacked to keep my alarm from going off.

He finally walked into C-Sec and stood at attention as Pallin looked at him from the side. The Executor looked disappointed, but he didn't say anything. Instead he turned to the recruits. "Now that we're all here," he said with a wry look at Garrus, "I want to say welcome to Citadel Security Services. There are six divisions that you will eventually be sorted into—Enforcement, Network, Investigations, Customs, Patrol, and Special Responses. You are one of two-hundred-thousand constables, working to..."

It felt like Garrus had heard this hundreds of times. He stood and looked at the recruits instead of listening to the speech that he could probably recite in his sleep. Most were turians, all fresh off of their fifteen years of military service on Pavalen and ready to serve on the relatively safe Citadel. They respected authority and relished following orders.

Sometimes those orders grated on Garrus. He knew that he had to abide by the law, but criminals walked all over the fine line he had to follow and left dirty scuff prints on the path. All he wanted to do was to rid the world of criminals, no matter the cost. But there were rules against that and, once again, he was stuck at his desk doing paperwork.

Or, in this case, looking at fresh meat that was coming into C-Sec. He was surprised to see four humans out of the thirty recruits. Usually it was zero to two, but four was an uncommon number. If he'd actually read up on their dossiers, he might actually know why there were so many and what made them so special.

"So you all swear?" Pallin asked, looking at all of them with a raised carapace.

"Yes, sir!" they answered simultaneously, saluting with precision. Garrus's ears picked up one higher-pitched voice out of the thirty, and looked to see a tall, willowy female standing in the front of the three lines. She was one of the humans.

"Many of you will start off on the Presidium, as tradition to break you in," Pallin said slowly, finally stopping the pacing that usually accompanied his large speeches. "But a few of you have caught my interest. You will be placed with an Officer and taught with a hands-on approach. You will still be in Probational Status, but you will be afforded certain perks." He gave the closest human smirk a turian could give, showing off razor-sharp, pointed teeth. Garrus noted that the female human looked uncomfortable and put that away for future use. "Will Sergeant Haron, Second Lieutenant Luna-Galván, and Officer Vakarian meet in my office? The rest of you follow your designated Officer and keep the Citadel safe. Dismissed."

Garrus, appalled at the fact that he was getting called to his superior's office, tightened his facial plates and gave an intimidating glare to Chellik. The bare-face just smirked and led out some of the finest turian soldiers Garrus had seen in a while. Now, instead of having his pick, he was following a green-tattooed turian and the human female! She received part of his glare and once again looked uncomfortable but hid it well.

Pallin sat down at his desk, hands folded in front of him as the four of them stood. The female, much shorter than the males in the room, looked professional and controlled, even betwixt four predatory aliens. "I have called the three of you in here for a reason."

Garrus, never one to back talk a superior officer, thought, You don't say?

"Haron," Pallin said, "you were part of the squad that secured away Elysium. I read your reports and they were rather...disconcerting. I want you in the Investigative Branch working alongside Detective Chellik, using the same skill set you learned while on that mission." Sergeant Haron's face plates rose in the universal sign of surprise. "Dismissed."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." This was said in a rather confused voice, but the turian turned on his heels and left the room. Garrus had never felt such anger. Chellik is already Detective?! In the few moments I wasn't here, Chellik swooped in for the kill...

Pallin waited for the 'whoosh' of the doors to close before he continued. "Second Lieutenant," the Executor said, making the woman straighten a little more as he closed his eyes for a moment, "your credentials were...impressive, to say the least."

Next to him, the woman relaxed a little. Garrus couldn't see how this woman could do anything and tried to picture her holding a gun, only to see it fall from her arms because she couldn't lift it properly. She would break so easily!

"Thank you, sir," she said in a voice that was low and flat, without gravel or huskiness. It wasn't annoying and high-pitched like most female humans he'd met before. But it lacked the harmonics of a turian.

"You and three others were the only survivors on Akuze." Garrus's face registered surprised as he looked down to the wisp of a woman next to him. This woman took on Thresher Maws? This is the woman who survived, dragging three starving pilgrims all over the desert before killing the last Maw with a Grenade Launcher? She looked grim and stared out the window behind Pallin's shoulder. Pallin spoke again and she finally opened her eyes, but she would not look at him. "You saved those pioneers."

"I lost fifty fellow marines and over one-hundred pioneers," she said softly, her eyes partially glazed over. "Pardon me, I don't count that as a save, sir." Garrus's eyes flickered over the two golden bars on her collar, signaling her rank. She's too young to have gotten those without having been in battle. I've been told not to judge a book by its cover, but I could break this female with a squeeze of my arms. A Thresher Maw would decimate her.

"Many good men and women were lost that day," Pallin said just as softly, "but it still shows your ability to survive. You completed your mission in the end." Suddenly he turned the conversation around to Garrus. "Vakarian, I realize that you have once again lost your partner?"

Garrus's heart jumped to his throat because he knewwhere this was going. I am not going to have this human as my partner! "Yes, sir. He was shot last week and is still healing."

"Very well. Luna-Galván, I am putting you directly onto Enforcement Duty, with Officer Vakarian as your partner."

"What?!" they both yelled at the same time, looking at each other incredulously. She looked downright desperate not to be in this situation. Garrus was more furious—he didn't need to be made a laughing stock of because his partner was some female human! Even if she was the 'Sole Survivor' of Akuze, there was no way he was going to be her partner!

"No disrespect, sir," the woman said between clenched teeth, "but my skills would be better served in the Network branch or even Special Response. My tech is wasted in Enforcement and Investigations."

The Executor just looked at her with piercing eyes, the silence filling the air as the woman realized her mistake and went back to attention. He obviously wasn't used to someone questioning him or arguing back. "I don't expect another outburst against my authority again. Do you understand me, Luna?"

"Loud and clear, sir," she said indignantly, not meeting her superior's eyes.

This will be interesting, Garrus thought as he looked at her. He wasn't used to anyone wanting to break free from the regs, or anyone wanting to speak back to a superior.

Suddenly Pallin turned to him. "Garrus, I know you've been pushing for a promotion to Investigation. This is your chance to show me what you've got. Your next assignment is on your desk. You get me that proof and I'll promote the both of you to your preferred branch. Luna, your desk is behind his. Dismissed."

Garrus immediately turned and stormed out of the Executor's office, unsure if he should be angry or furious. He had no clue who this woman was and he sure as hell wasn't looking for a green recruit to train while on the job. He'd expected to get saddled with another turian, or even an experienced human for Pavalen's sake, not some wisp of a human that looked ready to break in half if he nudged her the wrong way! This was not the female who survived on Akuze!

He now stood in the middle of the C-Sec office, which was empty but for Heron, two human males, and two other turians, and was looking down on "Luna-Galván." She was very tall for a woman of Earth. She seemed all bones, though, nothing else on her scrawny frame except small bumps on her rear and chest. Her skin was dark and smooth as though it were dark satin. Only one scar marred her face and it was a curving slash that cut her left eyebrow in half.

Even though she was tall, she still had to look up at him. Her face was all soft curves, with a small nose, full "lips," and big, chocolate brown eyes that were hooded with tasteful smokey shadow. He didn't know what was attractive to a human man, but many of the men in the room were looking at her. He did have to admit that she smelled good, like gun polish and some kind of musk. But that was as far as the attraction went. He didn't have a human fetish.

"Pues bien, I guess we're partners," she said conversationally. She was putting up her fringe. It was long and wavy, colored a dull brown, the same as the two thin lines of hair above her eyes. She was twisting it in complicated ways that looked as though it would hurt before she tied it off at the end. It dangled down her back in a tail.

He wondered vaguely about the first words she'd spoken. They'd been different than human Standard, but his translator had still translated it. But he didn't care at the moment. He was too furious for words.

She sighed and skirted past him, moving over to her desk. "Just what I wanted," she muttered under her breath, starting to organize her own things on the desk. Garrus would have lashed back, but when he was angry, he didn't feel much like talking. Instead, he wanted to hit something. And, since she looked like she would break if he even touched her, he knew that it wouldn't be her.

He bitterly moved over to his desk, sitting down and turning his back to her. The dossier was sitting prettily on his desk, with a large CLASSIFIED written across the top in red ink. He raised his eye plate and opened the seal to the manilla envelope. Suddenly the woman was standing next to him, leaning her hip on the side of his desk as she crossed her arms over her chest. "So, what's our mission?"

"You mean my mission. This is for my promotion. You're still on Probational Status."

The woman, his partner, sneered and planted both of her hands on his desk, leaning in to him, effectively making him look her straight in the eye. "Look, I didn't ask for this either. You heard what Pallin said. This is on both of our heads. I planned on being in Network, but Investigation is damn fine with me, and you aren't going to hold me back by keeping me in the dark, comprende?"

She'd said this low, but Garrus looked around to make sure that no one had heard him being chewed out by a female human. "Look, human—"

She gave him a disgusted look. "It's Second Lieutenant Mía Luna-Bailey, not human. Call me Mía, call me Luna, I don't care. You don't see me calling you 'turian!'"

"Luna." Her very-human name rolled disgustingly off his tongue. "I'm not going to have some green recruit ruin my investigation. This is my only chance."

"Yeah, well this is my only chance, too." At this, the human clenched her jaw and turned her eyes way from him. "So, what's this assignment?"

Garrus was glad that there weren't many people in the room. Actually, he was happier that there were at least a few. Now he had a reason not to throw her through the wall. "I was just getting to that."

For once, she was quiet as she watched his foretalon rip open the top of the envelope. He enjoyed seeing her squirm uncomfortably at the sight of his predatory nature. Slowly, Garrus pulled out the information. Both of them looked at each other in confusion.

Formal Investigation into the Activities of Specter Saren Arterius

Charges - Treason

Prepared by: Captain David Anderson

Approved by: Councilor Sparatus

"This is an impossible mission," she whispered, her eyes narrowed. "There's no way we'll be able to find anything on a Spectre!" Her dark brown eyes, once rather dull, were now filled with fury as she slapped her hand on his desk. "This is my only shot and it's ruined from the first day!"

Garrus wanted to tell her she was wrong about automatically giving up, but he knew that she was right. There was no way that they would find any information on Saren. Every mission that he would have been in would be classified. "Whatever it is, we've got to work on it. If a Spectre has gone bad, that's all I need to know. We'll figure it out." For my job.

"Why would the turian Councilor give the approval for this investigation?" she asked aloud, rubbing her chin with a small, frail, too-many-fingered human hand. "He's the one who put Saren in for Spectre Training."

At least she knows what she's talking about, Garrus thought with a sigh. "Who knows with politicians." He rifled through the information on the data pad, trying to find where to start. He then looked at the top once more. "In the next few days, I'm going to visit Captain Anderson, get his take on all of this."

"What about me?" Mía asked with a raised eyeplate...if that's what it was. It looked like a little line of fur. "I'm not just going to sit and do paperwork."

"Well then, you joined the wrong job," Garrus bit back, glaring at her once more. He didn't want a human on this case. She probably thought that all turians were human-hating fanatics, ready to kill on sight. And, since this was a Spectre, she probably thought even worse of all this. "Now start doing your job and get me some information."

There was a moment pause as she straightened, looking behind him at her desk. "Where should I start?" she grumbled out, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Just find me something." Garrus wondered how he could have her sitting behind his desk for the rest of the investigation. Even her walking back, having the human males—and a few turian males—stare as she sauntered to her desk made him want to plant his face on the desk multiple times. He even tried to think positive. That had been Chellik's desk—maybe it was an improvement.

The improvement lasted all of thirty seconds before she asked him how to sign in to her C-Sec account.

This is going to be a long investigation.