Erin crept quietly through the ships corridors, trying not to make too much noise in case anyone was up. The last thing she wanted was another guilt trip from Garrus about her smoking. She opened the cooling cabinet in the mess hall, too close to the main battery but, it was where her drinks were. Gardiner had been kind enough to mix up a few for her and bottle them. Grabbing one of the larger bottles, she turned towards the elevator, so focused on the main battery door that she didn't noticed the shadow that stood at the medbay door as she rounded the corner.

Once the elevator doors opened up to the main bridge, Shepard continued to walk as cautiously as possible. Just in case. Soldiers like her weren't usually known for their prowess in stealth. Oh sure, she could make covert drops on a ship, but as far as pursuing a target quietly, it wasn't typical, usually. But her parents had insisted on those ridiculous dance lessons when she was a child, and the grace she'd developed from it constantly proved invaluable. 'Thanks Mom...Dad...wherever you are.' she silently prayed, her belief in God and religion in general had faded after they'd died. Even more so after Torfan. But picking up the assassin and watching as he prayed suddenly had her thinking on it again. The memory played clearly in her mind as she opened the airlock, how she watched as the drell bowed his head and clasped his odd hands together. The light green of his skin shone golden in the setting sunlight, like rays of sun shining through new spring leaves. *He's...beautiful...* she'd thought at the time, it had taken her a moment to collect herself and address him. She simultaneously thanked whoever was listening that she'd decided to search for the justicar the next day and dock in Illium for the night. It meant she got to smoke outside instead of the starboard observation room, which was where Garrus had caught her the first time, in the first place.

She opened the airlock and stepped outside of the Normandy, chuckling at how angry he'd been and taking in the sight of the city at night. A small smile played on her lips as she walked over to sit at the edge of the ship dock, plopping down to sit on the edge with her feet dangling over. She plucked the cigarette she'd stashed from behind her ear, and raised it to her lips as she flicked on her lighter. Taking a deep drag and inhaling the smell of Illium, she let her mind wander back to Nassana's complex and to the assassin.

**Memory**
Nassana had always been a nuisance and her sister was a pain, thankfully someone else had gotten enough of her and sent out that contract. And now Erin had to go in to talk to the assassin hired. There was a shred of ironic hilarity in that, but she'd laugh at it later. As she walked into the complex with Garrus and Miranda, Nassana seemed surprised to see her.

"Shepard? But...you're dead!" the disbelief was laced with panic in her voice.

"I know the scars aren't pretty but do I really look that bad?" Garrus chuckled and Miranda coughed over a spurting laugh, she smiled at her own joke.

"Very funny Shepard. This must be ironic to you, first you kill my sister and now you're here for me." Nassana's tone changed to its usual disdain, Erin had to bite back a snide comment in reaction to her arrogance. Here was someone who could be there to kill her and she was talking down to them? Arrogant AND foolish.

"There's that lovely charm I've missed. Who would bother to bring back a dead spectre just to deal with you? Honesty how full of yourself can you be?" She folded her arms and shifted her weight to her back foot after holstering her pistol.

"Why else would you decimate my security and destroy my tower?" Nassana's eyes narrowed.

"I'm just looking for someone. Not you obviously." Erin cast glances to her right and left, scanning the area. *He's got to be here somewhere, if nothing else he deserves that thank you from the scientists he saved.*

"Well if you're not here to kill me then why-" There was a loud thump from the far right side of the room. "Dammit! Check the other entrances!" She jabbed her hand in the direction the noise had come from, addressing two of her guards, then turned and pointed her finger at Erin. " You. Stay put." She was so busy waving her ridiculous hand at Erin that she barely noticed the drell who suddenly and quietly dropped from the vent just above her. He went to work quickly, snapping the neck of the first guard, crushing the seconds wind pipe while taking his gun and using it to shoot the third. "When I finish dealing with this nuisance-" She turned slowly at the sound of the guard gagging as he tried to breathe through his collapsed trachea, just fast enough to see her attacker shoot her remaining guard. She aimed her weapon at him, but he swept her arm up and over as he ducked. Bringing his hand cannon to her waist, he waited a moment before pulling the trigger. Where he'd shot her, her nerves would shut down almost instantly from the shock, allowing her to bleed out with a mildly numb feeling as she tried to draw breathe to sustain blood that was flowing from the bullet wound.

She died almost instantly, as he laid her down on the console behind her and folded her hands. He cast a cold stare across to Erin and her squad before folding his hands to pray. It took her a split second to recover from her thoughts.

"I was hoping to talk to you." She kept her voice even, trying to not show how impressed she was at how quickly he'd disposed of four well armed people in a span of seconds.

"Apologies, but prayers for the wicked cannot be ignored." He kept his head bowed as he finished.

"I wouldn't waste the oxygen it took to say a prayer for her, she doesn't deserve it." In truth she was glad that Nassana was dead, the galaxy was miserable enough without people like her adding to it out of paranoia. Pointless death, disgusting, a waste. Erin killed people yes, but only when they gave her no other choice. The drell shook his head slightly and regarded her...almost sadly.

"Not for her. For me." Her eyebrows shot up at that. She wondered how anyone so skilled and beautiful as this assassin could think himself wicked. Especially after taking out one of the worst intelligent creatures Erin had ever seen, of all organics anyway. "The measure of a person can often be difficult to discern. Take you for instance, all this destruction...chaos."

Erin smirked at that. Oh sure, she could to quiet. Undetected. But it was more fun when the baddies could hear the boom coming and know they're time is about to end. Everyone she'd ever chased had always acted cool and confident, even when she had them in her sights as they watched her. But in the end that's what always happened, and all the pious confidence in the world never amounts to a damn thing when you're staring down the barrel of a gun.

"I was curious to see how far you'd go to find me." He turned and glanced at the corpse of the asari that laid on the console, then cast his eyes upon her. Cold again. "Well, here I am." He'd walked around to stand in front of Erin, putting away his gun. Her eyebrows drew down in a frown.

"How did you know I was coming at all?" It wasn't an inconceivable thought that he'd heard of a dead spectre running around making ridiculous recruitments across the galaxy. Add the fact that the whole thing was funded by Cerberus and it was pretty much common knowledge for anyone who paid attention to intergalactic rumors. But still. He walked over to Garrus, stopping just at the end of his rifle, folding his hands over the base of his spine as he squared his shoulders and straightened his back. *Excellent posture* Erin thought.

"I didn't. Not until you marched in and started shooting. I prefer to work quietly. If I have to fight through guards I've made a mistake and I rarely make mistakes. But you, were a valuable distraction."

"You used me to kill her?" She wasn't angry at the thought, but it was surprising.

"I needed a diversion, you needed to speak with me." He waited for her squad to lower their weapons, obviously refusing to have the conversation she wanted to have with a gun pointed at him. Erin nodded at Garrus and Miranda, Garrus put away his rifle but Miranda just aimed her pistol at the ground. Ready just in case things turned ugly. He turned to face Erin once more. "You certainly held up your end of the bargain. What would you like to discuss?" he spoke the second sentence like he was angry.
**end memory**

Erin had been so swept up in remembering how she met him that she hadn't heard the airlock open once again. As she pulled another drag from her cigarette she saw a shadow from the corner of her eye and nearly jumped clear off the bay.

"JESUS! Krios! You scared me half to death!" she swore as she tried to get her heart rate under control again.

"My apologies Shepard, I hadn't intended to frighten you. Least of all 'to death' when you've only been alive again a few months."

He'd spoken matter-of-factly, but it was so blunt a statement that she couldn't help but laugh. She'd thought it'd been Garrus, or maybe Jacob, out to goad her about her habit again. Garrus she didn't mind listening to. He was one of the first who'd joined her team on the Normandy to take down Saren and Soveriegn, she saw him now as a kind of brother. Someone who you don't mind nagging you occasionally, because you trust them and their opinion, but you like them too much to tell them to piss off when you don't want to hear it. But Jacob? She'd tell him off everyday of the week and twice on Sundays, something about him just rubbed her the wrong way. But he was a good soldier and a decent arms sergeant, so she kept him onboard, for now.

"It's ok, is there anything you need? Something for your quarters?" he shook his head.

"I was curious what you were doing sneaking around the ship. Those," he pointed toward her cigarette, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Are not healthy for humans such as yourself, I believe. Many die from them, if my sources are correct." It took everything in her not to snap at him.

"Yes, I know. Thank you. I say again, is there anything you need?" She didn't want to be rude, but the whole reason she'd gone outside in the first place was to avoid such lectures. He didn't seem offset by her remark, maybe a bit surprised by her lack of concern for her own life. Then she remembered, he'd said he was dying, and here she was unashamedly smoking away at a habit that would kill her. "Uh...I-"

"What you do with your body is your business Shepard. I was in the med bay simply touring the ship when I saw you walk into the galley and back out. Why were you being so quiet?" His eyes were like two pools of liquid onyx, endless with rings of a slightly less dark green for irises.

"I...was...trying to not wake up Garrus." He waited for further explanation. "He tends to hound me when I smoke, trying to get me to quit." Thane just nodded, as if he understood.

"The two of you are...involved?" Erin had begun to take a sip of her drink and ended up sputtering it all over the front of her new favorite sarong and tank top, coughing and cursing. Thane stepped closer to pat her back, helping her.

*cough cough* "No, no we're not." *cough cough* "We've just been friends for a long time, I trust him and he likes to look out for me. He's more like a brother than anything else." As she spoke she stood and wiped the drops of her drink from her sarong that hadn't soaked in. Thane watched her swat away at the folds of the elegant skirt, so unlike the methodical and efficient armor she usually wore, or the Cerberus base leathers. "Dammit, this is brand new too." When she straightened up, damning her skirt for not being waterproof, she looked over to see him staring at her. "Everything ok?" He didn't respond. "Krios?" Still nothing. "Thane?!" This time she spoke with a bit more force, and he blinked then shook his head.

"I apologize, I was..." He seemed to be at a loss for words, but she waited patiently. "I was...just wondering about your skirt." He finished bluntly, and with none of his usual carefully planned ease or finesse. Unexpectedly it made her laugh.

"Yeah, you aren't the first either. I guess when your reputation gets thrown around as 'the Butcher of Torfan' and 'Savior of the Citadel' it's easy to forget that yes, I did those things, and yes I am that Erin Shepard. But I'm still a woman too. And I like wearing feminine things sometimes, but missions are just so constant I hardly get to wear one." That and the crew would likely never let her hear the end of it. The great Commander Shepard liked to wear skirts, there was a gender discrimination jab/joke in there somewhere but, she was too tired to think about it.

"I think you look lovely." This was another thing that set him apart from almost every other man (no matter the species) she'd ever met. He spoke so plainly, so upfront with his thoughts, she'd never seen a man like that who wasn't holding a beer, a blunt, or a blonde blue-eyed bimbo. Garrus and Wrex always did just that, Joker too, but they were different. *Wait a minute. Different? How?* She wondered to herself.

"Thanks Krios, I appreciate that." She smiled at his compliment. "How are you finding the Normandy? Comfortable in your quarters?" She flicked her cigarette over the side of the bay, sitting down again and letting her feet dangle. He nodded in response to her question.

"The AI was correct, the life support bay is slightly more dry than every other area of the ship, though the medical bay is fairly dry as well." He crouched down to sit cross legged next to her. "I thought perhaps you'd want to hear more on my illness. I did give you my word that I would tell you more once on the ship." Erin nodded and set her drink down beside her. "It is not communicable, even to other drell, it's called Keprals Syndrome." Erin nodded.

"What exactly is the problem?" She thought maybe Chakwas could help, and if not her definitely Mordin.

"My people are native to an arid world, but the hanar rescued us (some of us) from extinction. But Kahje is humid, it rains everyday there, and our lungs can't handle the moisture. Over time the tissue loses its ability to absorb oxygen and it becomes harder to breathe. Eventually, we suffocate." She could hardly believe what she was hearing. The man was admitting to slowly suffocating to death and he was still on her ship, still going on this mission. And completely free of charge at that.

"The hanar can't do anything for that?" It took her a moment to realize she'd asked that question out-loud, too late to take it back though.

"The hanar are currently funding a genetic research project, they should be able to adapt us. But I do not think my body will still draw breath by the time it bears fruit."

"Are you sure you should be on this mission? I don't mean to look a gift assassin in the mouth, but it doesn't seem like a good idea for you." That was when she realized she was actually concerned for him. *Well why wouldn't I be? I need him healthy for this mission. Dying slowly by suffocation is not healthy.*

"I should be fine for another 8 to 12 months. The more time I spend in humid environments, the faster it progresses." He used his hands, gesturing back and forth in illustration. She watched as he weaved them in the air thinking how strange his third and forth finger looked webbed together like that. But still, it just added to the alien beauty of him. "I think it's safe to say that by the time my body is incapacitated we'll be victorious...or dead. Either way, I won't be a burden." He seemed so at ease with such a grim destination looming so soon. Not that the Collectors weren't a severe thing to face, but there was something in that he would die soon anyway that made her heart hurt for him.

"You know, Chakwas is a very talented doctor and Mordin is the bet genetic scientist I've ever seen. Between the two of them they might be able to help you." He shook his head in polite refusal.

"The issue is being tended to. I have known I will die for many years Shepard, I thank you for your offer, but I doubt your ships medic or the professor will be able to help me. " He stood and turned toward the ship. "I shall leave you in peace for now. Thank you for your concern, trust me, this will not affect my performance." He turned back towards the ship and bowed once more to her before boarding the ship again. Her eyes narrowed in mock anger, for no ones particular benefit but her own entertainment, and thought. *Hmm...he doubts Mordin could do it huh? I may have to see just what the good professor thinks about that.* And so she stepped back onto the ship as well, positive that Mordin was either already or still in the lab. Either way, she had a challenge for him, and she intended to see if he was up to it. If for no other reason than that Mordin was a friend, and he'd love the challenge of curing a currently incurable disease, at least that's what she told herself.