Author's Notes: Hey, all. Sorry this one's a little short, but it's gets what done what I want it to, so there you go. Also, you can't really expect any of these chapters to be very long when I'm really just cutting up bits and pieces of a single 45-or-so minute episode. Anyway, here's Part the Fourth
Chapter 3: Dread
Thane leaned over the table. "Two cups of coffee: one with lipstick, one without."
"Oh, I get it," Garrus remarked." He wins their trust, they invite him in for coffee, and then . . ."
"He feeds," the Drell stated, standing up again. The two were standing in the apartment of the second victim. Thankfully, this one wasn't crushed; in fact, she was in the hospital owning to the fortuitous arrival of her older sister. Said elder sibling had ridden the hospital with her and was still with the maimed woman. Shepard and Liara were with them.
"How's she doing?" Shepard asked the brown-haired woman. Along with Liara, they were standing outside a hospital ward. Inside, a woman lay in bed with bandages on her eyes. Even with the covering, she looked a great deal like her sister.
"They had to sedate her because of the pain," the woman answered. "Who could do this? Why?"
"We're doing everything we can to find the man who did this," Liara assured her. "Did you get a good look at him?"
"No, I'm afraid not, but I saw his car," the woman replied. "It was red with a white hatch and . . . tail fins."
Shepard nodded. "Thank you. Sally, I realize this may be difficult, but . . . does your sister go to grief support meetings?"
"Yeah," Sally said. "Since Dad died a yea—"
"Aaaaaah!" The cry broke off whatever Sally was going to say. Turning around, they saw that Sally's sister was sitting upright in bed, trying to take her bandages off.
"Sarah!" Sally pleaded as she entered the room. "You have to leave the bandages on!"
"My eyes!" the woman cried, possibly not hearing her sister. "My eyes! They HURT!"
"Sarah, you—"whatever Sally was going to say was cut off by the sight that greeted her when Sarah had removed half the bandages covering her eyes: two bleeding circles right above her eyes.
"Come on, Jane," Liara whispered, taking the Spectre's hand. "We should go."
Shepard moved stiffly, barely walking, making no sounds. The only thing rapid was her trembling lip. Liara led her away from the room as the doctors began rushing in to help the injured woman. Once they were out of the way (and away from poor Sarah's yelling) Liara wrapped her arms around her beloved. After a moment, Jane responded, slowly bringing her arms around Liara's thin frame, then tightening them and burying her face into the Asari's shoulder. She made no sound, and Liara tried not to groan when the Grimm's strong arms became a little too tight; she just held on and tried to give strength and courage to the strongest and bravest person she and ever known.
After an eternity or a moment—neither knew nor cared—Shepard finally loosened her grip on the other woman. "Thank you, Liara" she started, but before she could finish, her Omnitool started beeping.
"Answer it," Liara said, her bright, blue eyes gentle and full and love. Sometimes, speech was unnecessary.
Jane nodded, then reluctantly let go of her partner. "Shepard," she answered, activating the communication function.
"Hello, Commander." To their mutual surprise, it was the coroner. "When I heard about the second victim, I came to the hospital where she is staying."
"We're here, too," the Sepctre replied. "It's getting pretty nasty."
"Nastier than you think," the man said. "Remember those little 'babies' swimming around in our first victim's eyes."
"Yes," Shepard answered through gritted teeth.
"Well, we found more in this second girl's eyes, but they're not babies anymore."
"Apparently, the worms are immune to conventional laser therapy and most toxins," Liara remarked to Garrus and Thane over the car's video feed.
"Then, they had no hope of saving her," Thane remarked. "According to the data you gave us," he said to Shepard, "the antidote is only effective if administered in the first hours after infection, and it is . . . very difficult to gather the ingredients."
"So, she never had a chance," Shepard sighed. Sarah was still alive, but her eyes were completing gone.
"Red chasse, white hatch, tail fins . . . that'd be a mark X if I've got my classics right," Garrus mused over the communicator.
Shepard nodded in thought. "What about his next target? We know he targets grief support meetings. Is there another one tonight?"
"No, this afternoon," Liara replied.
"When does it start?" Shepard asked.
"Almost two hours ago."
Author's Notes: And, now the story is more or less about halfway done. Sorry to all you Thane and Garrus fans. They will have more later, I promise, just wait another chapter or two.
Funny story, they were going to have a bigger part, doing the interview we saw Hank and Nick conduct in the original episode. Then, as I was proofreading, I saw that, in the previous chapter, I had said that Liara and Shepard had already done that off-screen. So, yeah. That's my excuse for why Thane and Garrus' part is so short and clipped.