Shepard typed furiously on her omni-tool as Roka went through the emergency procedure again. Her grasp of mass effect physics was rudimentary at best, but he took it all in stride.

"Uh, I hate to ask, but can you go over that last bit one more time?"

Roka laughed. "Of course. I know you're not a physicist by trade. I just need you to know some of the emergency protocols. It's always good to have someone else able to do these things."

"I just hope I never have to do one of these shutdowns on my own."

"Me too."

He explained once more as she added more notes to the burgeoning file. She looked up and noticed the other two engineers already walking out the door.

"Where are they going?"

"The mid-day meal."

"Already? This will be a novelty for you, having a real lunch."

"Oh, I figured you would rather stay here, you know, no paste that way."

"Who knows, maybe today they found a decent flavor. At least one of us deserves a real meal. Hell, it has to be better than the dry rations you normally eat."

He shrugged his shoulders. "It's okay, I don't mind."

She tugged on his arm. "I do. C'mon let's go."

He usually only ate sparingly in the mess, most of the others as uncomfortable around him as he was around them. But having someone else to sit and talk with, well, he could overlook the awkwardness for that. Which is how he ended up walking side by side into the hall with the only other person who didn't quite fit in on the ship.

The food appeared to be halfway decent today, well, his anyway. They even found a few open chairs at the end of one of the long tables. After gulping down the first bite, he chewed slower; it was really quite good for ship fare and he intended to enjoy it and the company for as long as he could. Lily, however, he wasn't real sure if he correctly interpreted human expressions, but it didn't appear as if she liked her meal as much.

"That bad?"

"Not one of their better attempts, but I've gotten quite good at shoveling it in and washing it down quickly."

He chuckled a little. "You know if you had joined an auxiliary unit you would have gotten better food."

"Need the money," she said in between gulps of water.

"Family?"

"Yeah, my mom lives on a colony and the taxes are higher there. My dad died a few years ago. What about you? Any family?"

"Yes, my parents and a younger brother and sister. I help them out as much as I can as well."

"Oh, nice, younger siblings to torment."

"Not anymore, my sister is serving now and my brother will be in basic next year. They both surpassed me in height a while ago."

"Oh, that's not fair. Don't they know that there is an unwritten rule of the galaxy that the eldest is always supposed to be the biggest?"

He laughed, shaking his head. "I wish. My mother was sick when she was pregnant with me, that's why they think I didn't reach the usual height of most turians. And how would you know about that rule? You're an only child."

He waited while she shoveled in another mouthful of paste before washing it down.

"My best friend growing up was the eldest. She just about cried when her younger brothers shot up in height past her. She used to tell me that all the time."

A comfortable silence fell over them as they tried to finish their meals before their time was over. Even better though, he decided, was the fact that her friend Vakarian was currently in the middle of a group several tables over with his back to them. Now if only he could think of something fun and flirty to say to her. 'Think Roka! Should I complement her skin tone like an asari? Do humans even care about that? Maybe her hair? Wait, what if it is considered ugly by human standards? Crap! You managed to at least say something while your fringe was half frozen and in the middle of a combat sim, but you can't think of anything while having lunch?'

He opened his mouth and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "You have the loveliest eyes; they remind me of this plant growing outside my parents' house." 'What the fuck was that, Roka?'

He scratched at the back of his neck as he waited for her response, praying to the spirits that she didn't laugh at him.

Lily stopped mid-swallow. "Uh, thanks."

"Crap, I hope I didn't offend you."

He lowered his head and stared at his plate. He blew it. He just knew it.

"No, it wasn't that. I, uh, just haven't had much experience with turians flirting with me. Okay, well there was a creepy guy in a bar once. I just didn't expect it, I mean I'm a human on a turian ship. Not getting tossed out the airlock is a win for me."

He lifted his head. Vakarian had never flirted with her? That was the best thing he had heard today. He gave her a smile.

"Well, I'll have to work on that then."

She laughed, "Why do I have the feeling you are a big tease?"

"Hardly," he said with a snort. "I like you. I just don't have any experience with humans, well, beyond you. I find myself struggling to say anything and hoping that I don't happen to hit on that one thing that pisses you off."

"I'm not sure why you are worried about pissing me off you are still bigger than me," she said with a grin.

"Yeah, and have you yank my mandibles, or worse I've seen you with a gun. Really don't want to piss off someone who is that good of a shot from a distance."

"Oh, now see that is how you flatter a girl. Well, at least this one. However, you can rarely go wrong with compliments. Now if you said something like 'hey baby, wanna get naked together?', then I might have a problem."

He erupted in laughter, drawing attention from those nearest to them. "Please tell me humans don't actually use that."

Her laughter joined his. "God, I hope not. But that was the first horrible line I could think of."

Roka tried not to groan when he saw Vakarian's head swivel around at the sound of their laughter. He tamped down on his feelings as he watched the man head straight for them.

"I thought I recognized that laugh. Not crawling through ducts today?" Garrus asked as he slid into a seat next to Lily.

Lily grinned at Garrus. "No, not today. Today Ceryx is trying to break my brain on engine room emergency protocols."

"I've never heard of any safety protocols that were funny. I guess I should check them out."

Lily shook her head. "Oh, no, we were laughing at horrible flirt lines."

That particular subject was not one Roka wished to include Vakarian in. A glance at the clock revealed that mealtime was about over; that would work as a way to end that topic. A fact that numerous people had noticed, as the room began to empty.

"Nice seeing you again," Roka said with a nod to Garrus.

He stood up and picked up his tray. "Don't worry, Lily; I have another project lined up for us this afternoon. One that doesn't use mass effect physics."

"Damn, lunch is over already," Lily said with a sigh as she picked up her own tray. "Catch you later, Garrus."

"Sure thing. I better get going to the battery before Sergeant Riortin yells because I'm late."

Lily and Ceryx headed in one direction while Garrus went the opposite way. Neither of them noticed that Garrus had stopped for a moment to watch them.

"So what are we doing?" Lily asked.

"I remembered what we forgot to do the other day at his mention of crawling through ducts. We need to go fetch the lamp that we lost."

Lily groaned. "You're going to have me drop down that chute on a rope, aren't you?"

Ceryx shook his head with a smile. "Nothing quite so drastic."

They walked through the ship, descending further down.

"I hope you're not going to quiz me on how to get back out of here," she muttered as they dropped down yet another ladder.

"What? You weren't taking notes?"

He tried to keep the laughter out of his voice, but he gave up holding it in at the look of absolute horror on her face. When he started laughing, she smacked him lightly on the arm.

"That was just mean!"

"This from the woman who said, 'oh, I'll put the machine on random, it will be fun.'" The last statement he made in a falsetto as he attempted to imitate her voice.

She laughed at his attempt to sound like her. "Okay, you got me there. But I did promise not to do that again!"

Still chuckling as they walked, he finally stopped at a hatch. He opened the door to what looked like a tiny little space.

"It should be in here. This is sort of a catch basin for several different conduits."

"No light?"

He rolled his eyes. "I'll go in if you want. It should be the largest thing in there."

"I'll do it. I did drop it after all."

She got down on her hands and knees as she tentatively crawled in. The only light was what came in behind her. Patting her hands around she tried to find the missing headlamp. Ceryx leaned up against the wall as he watched her try to find the missing lamp. Although maybe he should have gone in, watching her on her hands and knees had his thoughts going somewhere they shouldn't while on duty.

"Ooo!"

"Good, you found it?"

"No, I think I found a credit chit...sweet!"

He laughed and waited once more. By now she had nearly disappeared into the little space. It wasn't long before she came back out with the lamp clutched in one hand and a big grin on her face.

"Got it."

"Anything else?"

"Not that I found, though I could have stood to find some more credits though. What now, boss?"

"Back to emergency procedures."

She let out a groan. "Right. I don't suppose you have any idea on when we might get shore leave?"

He shook his head sadly. "Not for a while I would think; we had several days not too long ago. My guess it was when the Captain was watching the war games, most likely yours. Got plans already?"

"Oh, well. I had hoped to get some food for me to stash in my locker, you know, purely for emergency situations. And Garrus is going to owe me one big ass dinner at the rate he's been losing at our nightly Cascade games."

"Oh," he said, his voice soft. Of course, Vakarian would have beaten him to shore leave plans.

"You should come with us. You can watch as I gloat and stuff my face silly," she cackled.

"Hmm, if you think he wouldn't mind." It wouldn't be ideal, but he would take what he could get.

"Sure. It will be fun. Now, let's go see if you can pound some more info into my poor abused brain."

"I'm sure we can stuff some more in there."

Garrus made it to the main battery in time. As he walked, his thoughts were on the fact that Roka seemed not to want to share their jokes with him. So whose flirts had they been laughing at?

Riortin was already busy working on one of the guns, the protective panel removed so he could access the inside of it. He looked up at his arrival.

"Good, come on over and I'll show you some of the inner workings on this old girl."

"Sergeant, what do you know about Corporal Roka?"

Riortin looked up at him and, seeing the look on Garrus's face, his mandibles flared in a grin.

"He's a good engineer even though he is barefaced. Why?"

"Uh, just curious," Garrus mumbled back.

Riortin let out a loud laugh. "Son, nobody is going to believe that. Spirits, his fellow engineers have been gossiping about how smitten he is with his human apprentice to anyone who will hold still."

"What?" Garrus said as his mandibles went slack.

"Now everyone kind of figured you and that human were an item since you came aboard and you two had been tight as a pack of varren. But since Roka has been seen in her company more and more, we all just figured you came to your senses about that human."

"That human has a name, Lily Shepard, and she is worth more than most turians I have met," Garrus said, his voice low.

Riortin chuckled some more at Garrus's obvious displeasure. He did so enjoy riling up the young ones.

"Seems to me you were the one who failed to show any interest."

Garrus's shoulders sank a little and some of the rigidness left his spine at that telling comment. He was right he had gotten caught up in all the activities on the ship and he had failed to let the person who was important to him know that, well, she was important to him.

"Vakarian, if you are dead set on that human then I suggest you tell her. Because if you do nothing, well, there is nothing worse than having a Private moping about the main battery, day after day."

"I will."

"Good, now get your ass over here so we can get to work."

"Yes, Sergeant!"

~Thanks once more to Mordinette for all her help! And thanks to the readers whose enthusiasm for this story has made this project that much more fun!~