The Renegade Adored

Garrus: "Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged." (Shakespeare)

"So the next time you're out on the town with Officer Vakarian," the advertisement droned to Hayden's delight.
"Okay, you can stop that now." Garrus pretended to be annoyed and pulled Hayden away.
Hayden let herself be pulled into Garrus' arms, laughing lightly. "It's fun!"
"You filthy creature!" A Human woman, unfamiliar to either of them, stopped right in front of Garrus and Hayden, hissed at her. "Do you even think about the consequences of your actions?"
"Consequences?" asked Hayden innocently.
The Human woman practically spat the words at her. "What other people think when they see you slutting around with that - that alien!"
"Oh, no, I don't. I'd rather spend my time thinking about the toe-curling orgasms."
"What?" The woman glared at Hayden. "Traitor! Don't you care about all the men and women who died fighting these monsters?"
Hayden stared at the woman in amusement, then turned to Garrus. "Hey, honey, when you come up to my room tonight, we can pretend to have First Contact all over again, and you can occupy my Shanxi!"
"Okay, that was just bad," Garrus groaned. "You're not allowed to talk to Humans anymore."
"What? That was a lot better than your heat sink line."
Garrus picked her up and walked away from the screaming Human woman. "Let's just go."
Hayden giggled at the woman. "And then later, we can play Turian pirates raiding a Human outpost!"
"Please stop talking, Shepard."
"It'll be fun!"
"You're going to start a riot."
"More fun!"
"Besides, if you want to play something, I would rather appreciate Human culture. Like one of the dancing girls in those ancient vids. I'd appreciate that."
"Put me down, I need to do some shopping."
Hayden ran off, Garrus followed her more slowly, making sure that the Human woman wouldn't start a scene. The woman finally stopped screaming when two C-Sec officers approached her. Garrus shook his head and walked up the stairs after Hayden.
Two floors above, a man sat down shakily in the anteroom of a spotless clinic. Buried his head in his hands.
"Kaidan? Are you okay?" Her accent, so alluring in the past, grated on his nerves today.
"I'll be fine," he whispered. Didn't look at her.
She was a beautiful woman by contemporary Human standards. Long, wavy dark hair, slightly slanted brown eyes, full-bodied. A perfect blend of every strain of Humanity. "Let me guess," she said sharply, unable to keep the irritation from her voice. "You don't want to talk about it."
"Inez, please. Not now."
"Not now, not ever. Just wait until you get bored of me too, and I slip down the list to be another one of those women leaving pathetic messages on your terminal."
"I should have known my day could get worse," he muttered. "Inez, what do you want from me?"
"You selfish bastard! What do you think I want? I want to know where I stand with you! I want to know if we have a future together!" The other workers in the clinic had already retreated to the back room, leaving the two of them practically alone. "Ever since you came back from that assignment, you've been like this. You shut me out, you won't tell me anything!"
The image of a woman, small, slight and pale, almost childish in her proportions, her hands laid familiarly on an alien chest, her eyes wide and laughing as only a woman in love can, burned itself into his brain. All these years. All this pain. All for nothing. He still couldn't let her go.
"I'm sorry, Inez." He stood up, still didn't meet her eyes. Pushed her hands away. Tried not to listen to her heartbroken sobs as he walked out.
Kaidan walked over to the railing and looked down again. She wasn't there anymore, and neither was Garrus. Of all the people in the galaxy, why did it have to be Garrus? Seeing her with a Cerberus agent would have hurt less. He could still hear her sweet voice whispering to him, explaining that Garrus was the only other person she had ever trusted, and that she had only learned to trust him because of Kaidan's love.
And then he saw her, coming out of a weapons store on the level below this. Her datapad out, showing something to Garrus. Kaidan moved back, made sure he was in the shadows. Watched them smile and laugh, hands on each other the way new lovers do when they forget they aren't alone. Kaidan closed his eyes.
He couldn't let her go. But he couldn't ruin her happiness, either. Kaidan sighed, and watched the man he had once trusted more than anyone else in the galaxy walk away with the woman he loved more than life itself.