Chapter 2
It started the very next day with a delivery of drizzik stew.
Pallin was sitting in his office, working through his lunch break like usual, when a delivery arrived.
"Package here for you, sir. It's from Craxius Restaurant." The turian courier who was delivering raised an eyebrow at Pallin. "Lucky you, Executer. They make some fine foods there."
Pallin said nothing. He merely nodded and then inspected the delivery. It smelled divine at least. He opened the delivery box to reveal a sealed container with steaming hot and golden stew.
He hadn't had real turian food like this in quite a while.
There was a small handwritten note with the delivery. He signed for it and let the courier go.
He stared at the piece of paper in his hand. It was in Alliance basic which he couldn't read but a quick scan with his omnitool revealed the contents.
It was from the human he had met the previous day.
"To Executor Pallin,
You should really eat a lot more than what you do so here is some drizzik stew I made this morning with Marcus.
He tells me that it is the best thing for hungry turians! I hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely, Anne Harper."
Pallin snorted but didn't throw the note away. It was very rare in this day and age to have handwritten notes.
He carefully placed it into one of the bottom drawers in his desk before turning his attention to the food.
The smell was intoxicating.
"Wow. Drizzik stew! I knew something smelled damn good around here."
Pallin looked up to the find the young Chellick boy at his door.
"Detective, I would imagine there are other things for you to be doing."
Chellick grinned. "I was here to deliver this, Executor. Vakarian's report on that salarian doctor. He wants to face the tribunal over what happened when the good doctor escaped."
Pallin let out a long-suffering sigh. He glanced at the datapad. There was going to be war over this with Vakarian's parents and he was going to get the brunt of it.
"Thank you. You are excused."
"Any chance I could get a taste of that..."
Pallin looked up.
"No. Goodbye, Chellick."
The next day more food arrived. And the day after. And the day after that.
It continued on that way for the better part of four months.
Pallin had sent word to the restaurant that he appreciated the sentiment but that it should stop.
It didn't.
Every note she sent with the food detailed how important it was to eat and eat right. She included little titbits of her life, new friends and places she had seen.
In spite of himself, Pallin began to look forward to the little messages she sent. It helped that the food was good too.
Then as it must always, one day no food came.
No little note to brighten his day either.
Pallin had been at a loss about why he felt so bereft.
By the third day of nothing, Pallin had enough. He went over every C-Sec report from the previous week, making sure none involved a little human with big blue eyes and blonde hair or the name Anne Harper. Nothing came up.
He became distracted from his work. He berated himself internally - he had wanted her to stop so why was he upset when she finally did?
He never responded to her messages so why was he surprised when she stopped sending them?
The answers alluded him.
He even caught himself rereading her last couple of messages, analysing them as careful as he would a piece of evidence to see if they held any sort of clues.
Finally, on the fourth day of ruminating, he dragged himself out of his chair and headed to Craxius.
It was a nice place.
Very popular among the dextro population although he had only been personally a handful of times.
When he arrived, he was greeted by a quite attractive young turian waitress.
After assuring her that he wasn't looking for a table and in fact was there to ask after Anne Harper, she chirped excitedly about how the human was such a great person and a wonderful cook.
She confided to Pallin that Anne had been taken ill and was recovering at home - which he also discovered was no longer in a room above the restaurant.
He thanked her for her help.
As he turned to leave, she asked if he was going to visit her.
Pallin stopped for a moment, hesitated, then turned and replied yes.
He didn't know why he did that.
The turian, Carvilla, smiled and handed him a package. "Please take this to her. I was going to call over tonight but I have to do some overtime to help out. Tell her that I'll be over tomorrow. Thank you, Executor."
Pallin nodded and left.
Just outside, he realised that he had forgotten to ask her for Anne's address.
He took a chance and quickly brought up Anne's files from the C-Sec archives. He smiled almost giddily as he realised she had done exactly as he had asked her to - her new address was filed.
That smile disappeared into a frown almost immediately after as he realised where she was living.
It was a rough neighbourhood in Tayseri ward. That place was mess that kept even the keepers struggling to maintain.
Not somewhere he would have recommended to anyone to rent.
It didn't take too long to find her apartment once he finally got there.
Very few sections had working lighting although the keepers were hard at work fixing that.
The outer pad of her apartment door was heavily graffitied and appeared to have taken damage from firearm discharge.
A sinking feeling hit Pallin right in the stomach.
He knocked. He heard from behind the door shuffling and coughing.
Finally the door opened.
Anne was wrapped up in layers and layers of coats, socks, gloves and hats.
No wonder he mused as he entered the apartment. It was freezing in here.
Anne looked at him in surprise. Her face had paled significantly with red blotchy patches around her nose.
Pallin placed the palm of his hand on her cheek. "Spirits you are freezing up in here."
"I wasn't expecting you of all people to come looking for me, Executor."
Pallin snorted. "I might have noticed the lack of lovely food arriving at lunch time."
Anne's mouth quirked up at the side. "Heh. I didn't think you would notice. I guess that's something I suppose."
Pallin looked around. The flat was dingy. A one bed flat with very few working components he surmised.
He absent-mindedly handed the package from Craxius to Anne.
"Your friend from the restaurant – Carvilla I believe her name was - wanted you to have this."
He was still assessing the property. This place should have been condemned not rented out he thought.
"Oh brilliant! My medicine."
Pallin turned to her. She seemed so much weaker than when he had last seen her.
Covered up by a mountain of clothes and she still managed to look so damn thin. Did she eat at all pondered Pallin.
An idea began to form in his head that he couldn't get rid of, like an itch he couldn't scratch.
Anne struggled to open the package with her fingers being so cold.
Pallin took it from her and easily tore it open.
Inside were some vials marked as human painkillers and antivirals. Anne sighed as she used an auto-injector to get some pain relief.
Pallin sat on the side of the couch staring at the damp walls and the generally terrible conditions.
Suddenly he knew what he was going to do.
After a brief internal fight over it, he turned to the human and said, "Pack up your things. You are coming with me."
Anne looked up with sleepy eyes. "What?"
"I said pack up your things. I am not leaving you here in this place. It will be the death of you. You will stay with me until you can organise a better apartment."
"This was the best place that I could afford..."
"I am sure you can do better. Even renting a room would be better than this."
Pallin wrinkled his nose in disgust at the walls.
Anne was getting incredibly shaky and was sinking into the heavily repaired couch that was in the living room.
Pallin grabbed the vial she had injected. It had a warning indicating the sedative effects of the drug.
"Oh spirits. Right. Hold on. I'll get you to the car."
Pallin caught her and lifted her up into his arms.
Anne was getting too sleepy to protest and just locked her hands around his neck.
Once he got her settled into the vehicle, he went and quickly threw whatever personal items he could find into a box.
Just a few bits of clothes, medicine, some datapads and a few holo-images – all of which came from her time on the Citadel.
He lifted one to see an image of a much healthier but still ridiculously malnourished Anne with Carvilla at some event in the Presidium.
He quickly tapped out a message to Craxius detailing where Anne would be for the foreseeable future and if they had any questions to direct them to him.
He closed the door behind him, quickly used his omnitool to scan the graffiti and damage to the console.
He was definitely going to review that later.
