Chapter Two:

"How-" Ishtar looked around at the apartment spanning out in front of her. "Were Garrus and Zaeed ever here? For any length of time? Because they booby-trapped the fuck out of mine."

"I was trying to protect my girlfriend. I did tell you the code to prevent anything happening."

"Girlfriend?" Allison looked at Garrus. "You two are together?"

"I thought it was obvious," Garrus said.

"Do you have a coffee pot here?" Ishtar pointedly ignored Garrus and instead focused on Allison. "Seriously, I don't know what Zaeed did to mine but I could never keep mine for more than a week. I swear they were brought here pre-booby-trapped!" Garrus shifted uncomfortably, and Ishtar looked over at him. "Oh, no. You didn't-"

"Girlfriend. Safe. Protected."

Kaidan laughed. "And you thought I was overprotective."

"Thank god you didn't decide to start booby-trapping this place as protection." Allison looked up as Kaidan began to speak. "No. Never. Never ever. I am enough of a walking grenade to deal with things on my own, thank you."

"You are also pregnant. Forgive me if I want to try and keep you both safe."

"Urgh." Ishtar rolled her eyes. "Here we go again." She turned so that she was looking at both Allison and Kaidan. "Being pregnant? Does not make you incapable."

"No, but being a biotic with a biotic pregnancy where we're dealing with unknowns can be pretty fucking terrifying." Allison stood, hands clenched, Kaidan slightly behind her. "We have had to be so careful with this pregnancy. We still don't know the full extent of pregnancies on biotics, of the children of said biotics. Fuck, you know what?" Allison ran a hand through her hair, turning to look at the ceiling for a second before looking back at Ishtar. "I'm a goddamned medical paper waiting to happen right here. We don't know if our kid is gonna turn out all right, be born with three heads, or have cancer that'd kill them before they even turn one!"

"Blah, blah, blah." Ishtar moved a hand dismissively. "You're still a Shepard, right? Kid'll be fine if it's part you. Part him?" Ishtar looked over at Kaidan. "That's the worrying part. Even if you are a cheat that uses space-magic you're still kinda me and no kid of mine will have brain cancer. It'll take the fucking brain cancer and kick its ass until the cancer is sobbing on the floor!"

Allison was still glowering at her, but the intensity seemed to diminish a little.

"Ishtar? I've seen you and kids, hon. You get terrified around them. That's why you love having Grunt as your unofficially adopted child."

Allison relaxed at that, and grinned. "Huh. You're running a pretty multicultural family, aren't you?"

Ishtar ignored Allison briefly. "Grunt is my baby. He knows it, as much as it embarrasses him." She turned back to Allison, a grin on her face. "Seriously, suck it up. A Shepard kid is awesome, no arguments. An Alenko kid...well, I'm sure your genes'd pick up any deficiencies of his."

"No deficiencies here." Allison had a smirk on her face, and she stepped forwards. She turned back to look at Kaidan. "Any word on when Liara will be able to contact us?"

"She said within the hour."

"Time enough to get something to eat then." Allison moved over to the kitchen area, opening the fridge door and glancing through. "Garrus, you hungry?"

"I'll be fine."

"Ishtar?"

Ishtar sauntered forwards, nudging past Kaidan as she went. She caught a flicker of irritation on his face and grinned to herself. "I'm not picky. Growing up on the streets, you kinda eat what you can find." She glanced over Allison's shoulder into the near-empty fridge and grimaced. "Seriously? Biotics are food hogs; how do you guys not have any in here?"

Allison sighed and closed the door, looking over at Kaidan. "You still got the pizza place on speed-dial?"

"After we gave them a hefty tip to apologise the last time we ordered from them, yeah." Kaidan moved to activate his omni-tool. "What do you want?"

Both Ishtar and Allison spoke at the same time, mangling their orders. Allison and Ishtar exchanged looks, and Allison let her go first.

"Veggie pizza. No pineapple. Gross stuff." Ishtar looked over at Garrus, a grin on her face. "See? I'm eating healthy."

Garrus just shook his head at that as Allison gave her own order - mexican chicken, and Kaidan supplemented it with his own of a barbeque pizza. Kaidan checked over at Garrus before he finalised the order, but Garrus shook his head.

"Delivery in twenty minutes," Kaidan said as he closed down his omni-tool. "Did you manage to call your mum earlier?"

Allison sighed. "No. I'll try again now."

[ - ]

Allison curled up in the chair in her study area, feet tucked beside her. She'd taken a short detour upstairs to grab her own N7 jacket, huddling down in it as she waited for the vid-call to connect, hoping she wouldn't be pushed to leave a message like earlier.

"Hi sweetheart." Hannah appeared on the vid-screen, looking slightly tired.

Allison smiled. "Hi, Mum. How are things?" She debated switching off the broadcast setting that flooded the whole apartment with the call; there was nothing too personal being discussed, and besides, the switch was on the other side of the office.

"Boring. Which is a good thing." Hannah smiled. "How are you doing?"

"Tired. Bored. Stressed." Allison moved to rest her chin on a clenched hand. "This pregnancy is going a lot more difficult that I had anticipated." She avoided mentioning the incident earlier in the day - one less thing that needed to be stressed about.

"Still taking your tablets?"

Allison snorted light-heartedly. "Yes. Between all the people who nudge me about it, I'd have to be in a coma to forget about it."

"Nausea?"

"Going away."

"Anemia?"

"Doc's given me iron tablets to take."

Hannah leaned back and cast a scrutinising eye at the vid-screen. "You're not telling me the truth. What else is going on."

"Nothing." Allison winced slightly, sensing that she'd been a little too quick to deny things. Hannah continued to scrutinise her through the connection.

"If you say so. I should be getting a bit of leave in a couple of weeks and I'll be able to see you and Kaidan then." Hannah smiled.

"Looking forward to it."

[ - ]

Ishtar rolled her eyes and mimed puking again as Allison and her mom spoke. Cutesy-lovey crap. Urgh. And that kid of hers was going to be exposed to the same stuff growing up. It was a miracle Allison even had the balls to stand up to the Reapers in the beginning!

Ishtar caught Garrus' eye as she continued pacing across the living area, and scowled at him when he began smiling. "What?"

"You're jealous."

Ishtar turned away, huffing. "I am not."

Garrus flexed his mandibles. "Stop feeling guilty. We'll figure this out and get back home soon. Don't worry."

"I'm not worrying." Ishtar turned away from Garrus and into the kitchen area. Thank fuck the layout was identical; saved her the time trying to figure her own way around, or asking the love-sick puppies for directions or help. She glanced over at the coffee pot, glad that it had some sign of coffee in it. Warming up already-existing coffee was one thing, but scrabbling through the cupboards to find it to begin with was another matter.

Ishtar just hoped that they had some half-decent stuff in the machine, not the sludge that they attempted to pass for coffee on Alliance vessels. Urgh. Surely that was one of the fastest ways to demoralise the people who worked for them.

Ishtar pressed in a command for the coffee to heat up, and the machine bleeped accordingly.

Then bleeped again.

And again.

Ishtar frowned, realisation setting in after a split-second, eyes widening and she backpedalled out of the kitchen. The time between blips grew shorter, and by the time she managed to dive into the living area they were almost constant.

The explosion seemed to rock the whole apartment, Ishtar cursing loudly as she clasped her arms over her head.

"Garrus!"

"I didn't do anything!"

Ishtar looked up to the sound of hurried footsteps, snorting as she saw Allison dash into the room, face as pale as anything. Kaidan came thundering halfway down the stairs, pausing on the landing partway down and glancing over the railing. He saw Allison in the middle of the living area, seemingly unharmed, and visibly relaxed.

"How did you two ever manage to defeat the Reapers?" Ishtar yelled, staring right at Allison. "Fucking hell, a small explosion goes off and the two of you act like the world's getting destroyed!"

Allison looked over her shoulder at Kaidan, and whatever passed between them was gone by the time Allison looked back at Ishtar. Her face was annoyingly blank, and she folded her arms across her chest.

"We're not used to getting attacked in our own home."

Ishtar snorted. "That shit's obvious." She moved to stand up, noting that no real damage had been done other than to the coffee pot itself. Glass littered the floor around it and the coffee was slowly dripping onto the floor to join it, but nothing else looked affected.

Allison looked over to where Ishtar was and sighed. She moved an arm to rub the bridge of her nose with a hand.

Ishtar looked back at Garrus. "Since when did you have enough time to rig up the coffee pot? Why did you even do it?"

Garrus looked back at her, confused. "I haven't touched the coffee pot. Haven't even moved from over here."

Ishtar looked taken aback. She turned her attention to Allison and Kaidan. "You guys?"

"Unless people have started selling coffee pots with built-in detonators, it's nothing to do with us." Kaidan held his hands up in surrender. "Garrus and Zaeed never got past the discussion of setting up booby traps."

"Largely because you stated that we were more likely to set them all off than any potential intruder." Allison moved to sit on the sofa, rubbing her hands over her stomach. "We can clean it up in a bit, buy a new one tomorrow...it doesn't matter."

Allison closed her eyes and leaned back on the sofa. Kaidan, seemingly satisfied that something else wasn't going to explode, turned and walked back up the stairs. Once he was out of sight, Ishtar looked over at Garrus.

"Yeah," he said. "It's a possibility."

[ - ]

The pizzas arrived fifteen minutes after the coffee pot explosion event, Kaidan answering the door and accepting the delivery, as well as transferring a tip to the quarian that delivered their meal.

Ishtar kept her whole focus on her own meal, averting her gaze from where Allison and Kaidan were sitting. They'd managed to entwine their legs together so much that Ishtar expected careful disentanglement and five minutes before they even had a chance at standing up without falling over or pulling the other one over. They'd balanced their own pizza boxes on their laps, although they occasionally reached across to the other's box to grab a slice of their pizza.

Urgh.

It was nauseating.

Allison had flicked on the sound system before settling down, wordless melodies floating through the apartment as they sat and ate in silence. Allison and Kaidan she suspected because that's what they did, and Ishtar...well, she wasn't exactly in the mood for casual conversation.

Ishtar surrendered to the pizza once she'd eaten three-quarters of it; both Allison and Kaidan had finished before her, polishing off their pizzas and Kaidan disposing of the boxes. He'd walked back and asked Ishtar if she wanted hers saved; her response had been pretty much "no shit" and he'd shoved it somewhere in the fridge. Good opportunity for a midnight snack.

"You know, we don't exactly have a place to sleep." Ishtar looked at Garrus, and he returned her gaze with a thoughtful expression. "Can't exactly go to a hotel and expect them to put us up for free."

Ishtar caught Allison and Kaidan exchanging glances out of the corner of her eye, and mentally grinned. The good girl and boy scout would hardly let them sleep out on the streets of the Citadel, would they?

"We do have a spare room," Allison said, indicating the space near the front door, then paused as she realised who she was talking to. "Which you'd know. You can stay there for tonight."

"Just for tonight?" Ishtar said.

Allison bit her lower lip. "Until we can get this sorted out." She glanced over at Ishtar, and Ishtar shoved down the urge to get into Allison's face and ask what she was looking at. "We'll need to get you some new clothes tomorrow. I don't think anything I have will fit you."

Damn. Clothes. She hadn't even thought about that, and studying Allison Ishtar could see the differences in their build; she being more muscular, Allison being taller. Ishtar shrugged.

"Toss me a shirt to sleep in and I'll call it a deal."

[ - ]

"This is quite an interesting scenario," Liara said over the vid-link. She alternated looking between Allison and Kaidan, and Ishtar and Garrus. "Something that's only been prevalent in theoretical papers and stories."

"Yeah, we get that." Allison learned forwards, brushing one of her hands against Kaidan's. "What we want to know is if there's any way to get them back."

Liara paused, musing over the question. To Allison's left, Ishtar fidgeted uncomfortably. If Ishtar was thinking anything like Allison, she wanted to get back home as soon as possible. This place would have been nice, but it wasn't home.

"I'll see if I can get some of my contacts working on finding information about this. Discreetly, of course. Unusual data patterns, energy spikes, anything which could indicate something amiss."

Allison leaned forward, smiling. "Thanks, Liara."

[ - ]

Ishtar had turned in late that night, as was her habit. Garrus, as a turian, turned in around the same time as she had but was up much, much earlier.

And, to be frank, Ishtar would have slept a lot longer if someone hadn't decided that nine in the morning was a good time to flood the apartment with rock music with a thumping bass line to it. She loved the stuff, personally, but not at nine o fucking clock in the morning!

With a grimace she tugged on her pants and, with a scowl, walked out of her bedroom and into the living room. She looked over at Allison, hair pinned back, sweatpants and a tank top, doing various weird contortions with her body, and scowled at her.

"The fuck are you doing?"

To her credit, Allison didn't flinch at all, just continued with her exercises. When both feet were on the floor and Allison had her arms by her side, she looked over at Ishtar.

"Morning," Allison said, giving Ishtar a wide smile; Ishtar only scowled more. "Ready to go shopping?"

Ishtar declined to say anything and instead stormed back into 'her' room. She made to go through the motions of being able to act like a functioning human being, then paused. She muttered out some curses, realising that she had absolutely nothing in the way of, well, anything.

Allison was turning the music off when Ishtar walked back into the living area. Stupid, leaving her back exposed to someone she didn't know...then again, she was a biotic and for all Ishtar knew could sense someone creeping up on her.

"I've got clothing and toiletries on the schedule. Anything else?"

Yeah, get back home. Ishtar held her tongue. "No."

"Great." Allison turned around. "I'll shower and get changed, then we'll get going."

Ishtar nodded, moving over to the sofa and collapsing into it as Allison moved up to the second floor. She paused partway up.

"Kaidan and Garrus headed out; Kaidan wanted to get Garrus' opinion on something, so it'll be just us two."

"Yeah, sure," Ishtar said. Great, a whole day with Miss Priss. Perfect.

[ - ]

The Citadel was perfect.

The Citadel was too fucking perfect.

In her timeline, the Citadel had started to recover from Sovereign's attack when the Cerberus Coup started, setting their progress back. Here, a similar amount of time had passed between the end of the Reaper War and now, and there was little sign of any damage whatsoever.

Of course, it could also just be that Allison was taking her through all of the nice areas of the Citadel, conveniently leaving out stuff like the Lower Wards. Yeah, that was just like the upper classes, forgetting that there were just perhaps some people who needed help, or even to just be acknowledged.

The fact that Allison was being so damned nice was also setting off alarms in Ishtar's head. Allison had practically given Ishtar free reign across the shops they'd been in so far, and if Ishtar had been in a mood to do so she was sure she could have maxed out Allison's account. Shouldn't she be a little more cautious about money? Shouldn't she be saving something for the kid?

Allison paused by a shop, looking as considering as Ishtar had seen her so far. As they moved on, however, Ishtar saw into the windows of the shop she'd stopped at.

"You waste your money on sh-tuff like that? C'mon, you can get chocolate anywhere."

Allison laughed lightly, a small smile on her face, but she didn't return a verbal answer. She continued on, heading up one of the flights of stairs around the Presidium Commons - they were almost done with their shopping trip, Ishtar having made an idle comment about new boots earlier on. She didn't think Allison had really heard or acknowledged it, but frowned when Allison stopped by another store.

Ishtar folded her arms across her chest, alternating between looking at the store name and back at Allison. Allison kept the small smile on her face - an expression that was becoming maddingly annoying - and inclined her head.

"A shoe shop?"

"You commented on new shoes."

Ishtar walked through the doors of the store and quickly glanced around. A wide variety of footwear - to be expected, although most if not all seemed to be geared towards humans and asari. She veered around a few other customers, scanning the shelves and almost immediately picking out a selection of boots. She grimaced internally as she scanned through all the prices, the majority of them running easily into the hundreds of credits.

Urgh, this was another reason she hated the upper classes. Have something made and a famous person's name slapped onto it? You could easily swindle people out of ten times the expected amount. Most of the boots she saw also looked like they'd be destroyed simply by walking fast - money didn't guarantee quality, either.

She paused at the corner of a rack, eyes skimming down. Close to the bottom was a pair of calf-high boots, polished black. Four velcro straps running up the side, good thick soles...Ishtar picked them up, balancing the weight in her hands. They felt heavy, steady, and she ran a quick finger across the surface. Huh. Bio-leather. Damn, she hadn't seen that stuff around in years.

She put the boot back on the rack, sweeping a glance across the price and onto the next rack. Eight hundred credits; way more than she'd usually be willing to pay for something. But they were some nice boots...

Ishtar scanned through the rest of the racks, settling on a pair of shoes that was closer to a hundred and fifty credits. Nowhere near the quality of the boots she'd picked up, but she was willing to compromise. Somewhat. A store attendant, a young asari, came over and Ishtar asked for the shoe she was holding in a larger size.

Allison herself was scanning over some shoes herself, and caught the store attendant Ishtar had talked to. With a quick exchange of words the asari nodded and returned to her path to the backroom. Five minutes later, the asari walked back out, handing one box to Allison and the other to Ishtar.

Ishtar went through the motions of trying on the shoe, lacing it up and checking the fit. Good enough for her purposes. She sat back down to untie it, and a box was thrust into view.

"I don't want to hear any arguments," Allison said. Ishtar looked up to see a slight frown, a scowl of annoyance on Allison's face. "If these fit, you're getting them."

Ishtar took the box after a few seconds' hesitation and opened it, glancing in. They were the boots she'd picked up earlier, and Ishtar scowled at the idea that Allison had been eavesdropping or looking in on her as she shopped. Still, she yanked off the pair she'd picked up and stuffed them back into the box and slid on the pair Allison had requested.

God damn it.

They fitted almost perfectly. Ishtar stood up and took a few experimental steps around. This quality was worth paying a good price for and she fought to a neutral expression as she walked back to the seating area. Was that a smug expression she saw on Allison's face?

She tore off the boots and placed them back in the box with a sharp nod. Allison grabbed the other box, the one Ishtar had initially picked up, and returned it to the asari store attendant. Ishtar busied herself with trying to put the boots back in 'right' but gave up when Allison walked back over. Without a word, she picked up the second box and headed over to the cashpoint, scanning across her omni-tool to access and authorise payment.

Allison handed the box back over to Ishtar who took it without a verbal complaint.

Damn it, now I have to play nice somehow.

[ - ]

Allison's pace slowed ever so slightly, her eyes sliding to her left. She was carrying a few bags with items Ishtar had chosen, Ishtar herself carrying most of them, whether through stubborn determination or a refusal to rely too much on someone else she wasn't sure.

People continued to stream around them, idle chatter filling what would have otherwise been silence. The artificial sky slowly rotated overhead, skycars zoomed by, and things looked normal.

There. Again.

A subtle flicker, one that barely anyone else had noticed. People continued to pass by it, walk through it, without their strides breaking or their attention drawn elsewhere. It vanished for a number of seconds before reappearing.

Ishtar had caught Allison's varying attention, and Allison motioned for her to stay put.

"Fuck no," Ishtar said, keeping her voice low and quiet. Ishtar grabbed Allison's arm as the latter took a step forwards, and Allison turned to glare at her. "You're having a kid. Kaidan'd have my head if anything happened to you. I'm going; you're staying put."

Allison snorted. "This is my home."

"I'm better at sneaky! You biotics don't know how to kill quietly if you need to! You're all flashy and fancy and 'look at me I'm glowing blue!'"

"Sneaky? Says the woman who tried to deck me in the middle of a crowded Presidium." Allison yanked her arm out of Ishtar's grip and stepped forwards. "Stay here."

She heard Ishtar mutter something under her breath that sounded a lot like a string of curses put together with little creativity but continued on. Walking purposefully, most everyone stepped out of her way and the few that didn't did so after a few seconds of staring and commenting "is that Shepard?"

Oh, damn it.

Up ahead, Allison saw the flicker of a tactical cloak disappearing and saw Ishtar standing right next to where she'd spotted the anomaly. Allison broke into a run, dodging out of the way of people between her and Ishtar.

"Don't touch it!"

Ishtar backed up, looking over her shoulder. She seemed to study Allison before stepping forwards and reaching a hand up to the object.

As an explosion rocked the Presidium, Allison slid to her knees and threw up a barrier. Unlike her normal battlefield barrier that clung to her body, this was more like a small barrier sphere. As the area around her cleared, the dust settling down, she looked forwards.

"Ishtar?" Allison swept her gaze around, heart thudding. She called again, and after a few seconds a choking voice answered her.

"Fucking hell, what was that?" Ishtar stepped into view, a frown on her face as she coughed a couple more times, waving her hand across to try and clear the smoke and dust. Allison heaved a sigh of relief before cancelling her barrier and getting to her feet.

"What was that all about?" Allison said as she drew closer to Ishtar. "What did you do?"

"Me?" Ishtar shot her a dark look. "I went to check out what was going on. You were gonna slam some kind of space magic into it, no doubt. That would have caused a much bigger explosion."

"Like your interference didn't interrupt your sneaky attempt?" Allison folded her arms across her chest and glared at Ishtar. If that was what she considered 'sneaky', she could forget it. She drew her attention away from Ishtar and back towards where the explosion had occurred. Already, people were on omni-tools, some contacting C-Sec, others calling friends or family, and yet more just standing around in disbelief.

Allison stepped closer to the centre of the explosion, frowning as she scanned the area. Nothing seemed to be amiss aside from the explosion, and with the speed some people were attempting to get C-Sec to this area they'd soon be able to get some tech specialists down and investigate how something as simple as a seemingly ripple in the air had caused so much damage.

A flash of armour caught Allison's eye, and her frown deepened. C-Sec couldn't be there already, with armour and weapons as well? She took another step forwards into the smoke, narrowing her eyes to attempt to see better.

A flash of relief vanished and was replaced by equal amounts adrenaline and fear. She backpedaled as the all-too familiar white and gold armour of Cerberus troops appeared in her view.

"Move, move move!"

Allison yelled at the top of her lungs, shoving a few people away from the explosion site. Some did so on her command, but many more only took action when the Cerberus assault trooper pounded into view, weapon in hand.

The Presidium erupted into chaos, people attempting to get away, hurried comments involving thought that Cerberus was gone echoing around. Allison tore her attention away from the disappearing civilians, instead glaring at the Cerberus trooper. He seemed to be uncertain as to where he was, and Allison used that to her advantage. A blue shimmer appeared around her, and a second later she had slammed into the trooper, sending him stumbling back. She focused, slamming her fist down to the ground, her biotic barrier exploding all around her.

She moved back quickly, glancing over her shoulder for cover. The best she could see was some generic benches, nothing that would stand up substantially to a gun or any other non-melee weapon.

She saw the flicker of a tactical cloak disappearing and saw Ishtar appear behind the trooper, stabbing a knife into one of the weak points in the armour. Allison summoned a blue corona around her right arm, slamming her fist into the visor and shattering it. Ishtar dodged out of the way before stabbing the knife into the trooper's neck. The trooper fell, blood pooling around the body, and Ishtar pulled the knife out.

"Where did you get a weapon?" Allison asked. Ishtar wiped the knife on her jacket sleeve, casually walking up to where Allison was standing.

"Your kitchen."

"My-? Urgh." Allison wiped a hand over her face, grimacing. "What the hell are we gonna tell C-Sec when they get here?"

"We don't?" Ishtar looked at Allison, and she wasn't sure whether to take Ishtar seriously or not. "What exactly is C-Sec gonna say to you? Shake their fingers at you because they can't detain a Spectre?"

"I was more thinking about you." Allison sighed before holding her hand out. "Give me the knife."

Ishtar took a step back, looking at Allison suspiciously. "Why?"

"Because I need you to get the hell out of here before C-Sec does show up. Or have you forgotten that you were in their cells no more than a day ago?"

With a grumble, Ishtar handed over the knife and Allison slipped it into the waistband of her jeans, obscured by her jacket. Checking that it wasn't visible, Allison nodded at Ishtar. "Get back to the apartment."

Ishtar levelled a glare at Allison before she turned, picked up all the shopping bags scattered around, and headed off.

[ - ]

As soon as she was five steps out of earshot, Ishtar loaded up her omni-tool and scrolled through her contacts list until she found Garrus' name. Hoping that it still would connect to the right Garrus, and also she wouldn't somehow be charged some extreme roaming cost, she selected the option and waited for the call to connect.

"Ishtar?" The connection was voice-only, but it had connected. Ishtar swiped her hair back and looked around cautiously.

"Some creepy shit is going on here. A Cerberus trooper just assaulted us - me and Miss Priss - in the middle of the Presidium."

"Everything all right?"

"Yup, just peachy. Cerberus guy bled out on the floor of the Presidium, and Allison's playing nicey-nice with C-Sec for me." She looked around as she hit the skycar area. "I'm heading back to the apartment; where are you?"

"Doesn't matter. I'm heading back now as well. Meet you there."

[ - ]

Allison settled onto one of the nearby benches with a sigh. She kept a continuous eye on the Cerberus trooper, ready just in case he decided to spontaneously come back from the dead and start attacking again.

Stranger things had happened, right? Like she spending two years on what was practically an operating table, not to mention a her from another universe randomly showing up.

Fuck.

Allison hid her face in her hands, bending over. Forget Cerberus, forget the Reapers, at this rate she and Ishtar would destroy the Citadel simply by virtue of being around each other.

Footsteps sounded nearby and Allison snapped her head up, relaxing slightly when she saw Garrus approaching with a couple of other C-Sec officers. His expression twitched in amusement, a turian smile.

"Been busy causing chaos, Shepard?"

Allison gave him a smirk as she stood up. "You know me, Garrus. Can't got a few months without some kind of galaxy-wide threat landing at my doorstep."

Garrus chuckled at that, ordering the two C-Sec officers to secure the scene. He instead walked over to Allison and looked down at her. "Are you all right? Need to get to Huerta?"

Allison snorted and rolled her eyes, moving her head as she did so. "No. Please. I'm unhurt. I just..." she waved a hand over to where the Cerberus trooper was. "I wanna get home, take a nap, and wake up to find that this was all one very bizarre dream."

Garrus nodded and moved to coordinate the other officers. Within a few minutes the scene was secured, Allison's statement taken (the knife brandished as 'proof' of her role in attacking the trooper), and Garrus returned his attention to her.

"Back to your apartment?" Garrus said, and Allison relaxed.

"Yeah." She made to move off when Garrus gently closed his talons around her elbow. Allison frowned slightly and looked back. "I can handle myself, you know." She gave a pointed look at the trooper.

"I know. Kaidan's orders." Garrus gave her an apologetic look, and she sighed.

"All right. Lead the way."