Notes: Due to my busy schedule, updates will be less frequent than they used to be.

Full revision of the story is postponed to an unknown date.

Lia felt strange. No one had done anything for her since she arrived on Citadel. Everyone treated her like a thief, no one had helped her on her pilgrimage, and now this stranger came and helped her, even though he has never seen her before. And this stranger was no one else but Commander Shepard.

But now he was gone. Lia had to go on and find some way to survive. She couldn't spend all her pilgrimage in the turian shelter, and she had to take something valuable back to the flotilla. A new ship would be great, but the longer she stayed on Citadel, the more it became a dream, rather than a reality

She went to several shops, but no one would accept her for longer than a day. At such pace, it would take years, if not decades to get enough money for a ship. Maybe she should have gone to Omega instead. She knew life there was even harder; her friend Kenn was there on his pilgrimage and they were in contact all the time.

Lia kept thinking about what to do all the time. After a few days, it was decided. She was leaving for Omega. She could handle a gun, and knew that Omega was the best place to get credits for it.

Lia sat on a bench in some park for three hours, thinking about how to get there, or what would happen to her. It was very stupid for a quarian to start mercenary work on Omega, and she knew it. She didn't even want to go there after she thought about it. A human walked up to her, but she didn't notice him.

"Hey," He said, sitting down next to her.

She raised her head, not expecting anyone to pay attention to her.

"Uum...Hey? Do we know each other?"

"No, we don't. But when I see someone, especially a quarian sitting on a bench for three hours, without moving, I know something's wrong."

Lia wasn't sure what to say. She thought that he wouldn't be interested in her problems. Even if he was, how would he help?

"This is my problem. I can handle it."

"I heard when you asked that clerk how much tickets to Omega would cost. That's not a place for a quarian to go."

It was hard to believe. Some stranger came to her and is trying to help her, again.

"It can't be worse than this..." She said, and started thinking about Omega again. "Why are you talking to me like you care?"

The man looked at the ground. "I have several reasons for that. I can tell you one of them." He looked at Lia for a second. "I knew a quarian. He was a good man. I met him on a colony where I was stationed to defend colonists from Blood Pack. He already had his pilgrimage gift ready, and was going to head back to the flotilla next day.

He was very... energetic. Hell, he was almost hopping instead of walking, like a little kid. The day before the Pack attacked, I was invited by the family he was staying with. We had a good time. He told me that as soon as he would get back home, he would give his little sister the longest hug in the universe..." The man sighed. It was hard for him to remember.

"What happened when the pack attacked?" Lia felt like she didn't want to ask, but curiosity overwhelmed her.

"The next day, we got reports that the Pack was attacking other small farms on the planet. The town looked peaceful, and no hostiles were around in 15 km radius, so our unit was divided into several squads and sent to different locations. Me and two others stayed to prepare mechs for defence. Guess what?" The man lifted his head and looked at Lia."It was a diversion... That night, we detected movement, and they kept getting closer. We took all civilians to shelters, but the quarian refused, saying he could handle himself. I didn't have time to argue, so I just told him one more time to go, and ran to our shuttle to get geared up.

It was brutal.. I saw a Krogan tear my squadmate in half. The other one took a bullet in his shoulder. Suddenly I saw a black figure run to him from the town. It was the quarian... he applied medi-gel to my squadmate's shoulder, took a gun from a dead Vorcha, and started defending with us. I yelled him to go back, but he wouldn't listen..."

After a few minutes we were overrun. A few LOKI mechs were no match for all those raging Krogan and Vorcha. A Krogan hit me with a concussive shot, and would have killed me, but the quarian shot him with his last round. The Krogan turned to him, roaring like an animal. He restrained the quarian with no effort. He didn't try to run, he knew that if he ran, the Krogan would kill me instead. The Krogan started tearing him in half. He was crying in pain, but I couldn't even see straight, my muscles were too weak to pick up a gun.

Somehow I managed to shoot the Krogan with my pistol. His shields were already down, and Carnifex rounds penetrated his armour. Before he died, he threw the quarian aside in anger. When I was able to get to him, it was too late. He broke his neck when the Krogan threw him...his death is on me. He sacrificed himself to save my life."

The man stopped talking. His face showed anger and guilt.

"Keelah... must have been horrible. He was about to go back home to his family and... Why are you telling me this?"

"I have never seen a quarian since. It's been about one Earth year after that, and I still feel guilty for not trying to stop him from taking that gun. I would've died there if it wasn't for him, so I owe him my life. He helped me then, I'm going to help you now." After a moment's pause, he continued "I'm a freelancer. Trading, scavenging debris fields, making deals with some corporations is what I do. I could always use help on my ship, and I will pay well. Safer than Omega, better than this. What do you say?"

Lia was even more surprised now. He sounded young for a human, couldn't have been older than 30, but he had his own ship and was hiring a quarian he didn't know. He definitely trusted quarians. What could she say? After a few seconds, she said in a shy manner:

"Well, if you really mean that, there's no reason for me to refuse. Thank you"

"Great. I believe I got myself my first employee" He tried to hide his anger and suppress the memories. "We haven't met properly yet. David Grayson. Former Alliance."

"Lia'Vael. Lia'Vael nar Ulnay."

"Nice to meet you. Now get your baggage, and go to docking bay S-3. I'll be waiting there." He turned around and was going to the bay already.

"I... I don't really have any baggage. I don't have anything..."

"What?" David turned around swiftly "Now that is not acceptable." He did something with with his omni-tool. "There. I transferred 1000 creds to your omni-tool. Go buy whatever you need, and meet me at the docking bay."

"I can't accept this. You've done enough for me already, I..."

"Consider it your first payment." And he walked away.

Thank you for the review. Helped me a lot.

I've been getting complaints that the story was moving too slowly, so if you want to go right where the main storyline begins, you can jump to ch. 9. I wouldn't recommend it, you'll miss some details about the characters in the first 8 chapters, as those are mostly introductions to the story.