Aside from a closed corridor with a rerouted path, you would never know anything had happened at the academy. Classes were ongoing, students and staff filled the halls with talk of work and studies, laughter and taunts. It was so very, normal. Which was the entire point, sure, everyone knew something had happened, they'd been informed that Jack had been injured. It'd been down played, no bomb, just some technical hiccup that took out a hallway. Nothing to see here, thank you, move along. Oh and the LT? He'd been called away for an unspecified period of time. Garrus understood the need for normalcy, but it still gave him a headache.

Two days now, Jack was still out for the count, and he and Liara were the only remaining members of the ill-fated, Shepard memorial party. The Normandy had left yesterday. People still had jobs to do, Anderson rebuilding the cities of Earth, not really sure what Joker and EDI were up to these days, Grunt training troops on Tuchanka, Kaidan being Canadian. Garrus wasn't sure what that entailed, or even meant really, but Shepard had seemed to enjoy pointing it out from time to time. Must be a human thing. As shadow broker, Liara made her own hours and Garrus was taking some long over due vacation time.

Still, it wasn't all bad. He had had lunch with his niece the last couple of days and enjoyed the time he spent with her. She was smart, resourceful, and inquisitive. Match that with her biotics and she was guaranteed a place in one of the turian Cabal forces units. Quite the future ahead of her. Spirits help her superior officers. She showed she was a Vakarian just this afternoon having grilled him on Jack, saying how she knew that some tech screw up wouldn't take her instructor down and wanted to know what really happened. He'd told her that it would if the 'tech screw up' caused an explosion in Jack's living room. Now, that had grabbed her attention.

"What sort of 'technical difficulty' would go off in her quarters?" The look on his niece's face had been incredulous.

"Oh, all kinds. Faulty lighting, bad coffee maker, old cooling unit, overloaded heatsink, bomb. All sorts of things."

"Wait. Bomb? Someone put a bomb in Ms. Jack's room?" Trinia's voice had dropped in volume while it rose an octave. "What happened?"

"We don't know everything yet. All we know is that someone tried to kill her and missed." It was Jack's to tell if she wanted anyone to know about what happened in the hallway.

"But, why would someone want to kill her? Is she okay?"

"Physically, she's fine. She's still unconscious, the doctors expect her to come around any day now." It wasn't really a lie, there wasn't anything wrong with her as far as anyone could tell, good brain patterns, physically in good condition, she should wake up. She just wasn't. "Not sure on the 'why' just yet." Also true. Could it have been an old enemy? Jack was sure to have at least someone from her past who might want her dead. Trinia probably had no idea what Jack used to be, none of the students would.

"Oh, she is going to be so pissed." Trinia had visibly relaxed once she knew Jack was going to be fine.

"That's putting it mildly."

"She does have an incredible temper."

"That she does, if she finds out who tried to kill her, I don't want to be there to see it."

"I don't know, I think they'd have more to worry about from Lt. Emerson than from Ms. Jack. He's pretty protective of her."

"Is he now?" He'd shrugged, "In any case, give her some space when she wakes up, okay?"

"Don't worry Uncle, I will. Now what about the LT? We were told he was temporarily re-assigned?" He remembered how his niece's face had changed from inquisitive to horrified in the span of a breath. "He wasn't shipped out, was he?"

Garrus had shaken his head in the negative, "You're right about him and Jack. He took the brunt of the blast, from the looks of things he covered her with his own body." He'd had to comfort Trinia, placing her in his arms when she let out a low keen in grief. Apparently the drone had gained her respect. He had no idea what to think of this reaper, here it was, befriending Jack, a task normally viewed as suicidal, and from stories he'd heard, a knowledgeable and patient teacher. "He's with specialists now. I have no idea whats going to happen." Specialists, right. The reapers had taken the drone, why, he had no idea, then or now.

Moving past a small group of students, Garrus stepped into the apartment he'd been seeking. The room was not nearly as bright as the outside corridors had been, it was more of a soft glow. Much more preferable, reminded him of the SR2's light settings. The quarters were lightly furnished, only a couch with minuscule table, and a desk filling the modest space. Definitely not a long-term residence. There was at least a bedroom off to the right with an attached bathroom facility. Sitting on the couch, her legs curled beneath her, Liara had her nose in a datapad. "Why, hello there."

Looking up, "Garrus." A smile on her face, "Good morning. Slept well?"

"Horrible. Soft beds? Please."

Liara's soft chuckle filled the quiet room. "Sorry, I should have known." Unfolding her legs, Liara placed her datapad on the small table and patted the couch next to her. "Please, sit."

Garrus, reaching the couch in three strides, sat on the offered cushion. "So, I see you're already busy this morning, test results back on that bomb?"

Nodding, "It's military, human design, but not in use."

"That's all?"

"Garrus, this was not some spur of the moment decision. While poorly executed, some thought went into the planning, I will not say locating the manufacture is impossible, but it will be most time consuming." Glancing at the datapad, "My original thoughts proved correct, it was an advanced warp grenade cluster. Remarkable really."

"Remarkable?"

"That Jack survived, even with the reaper's intervention. The warp fields of that weapon are specifically designed to take down biotic defenses. It should have crushed them both."

Leaning back, tucking his chin to his chest in thought, "What would it have done to a vanguard's warp field?"

"It is hard to say, but I would hypothesize that a vanguard field would hold, but the biotic pressure from the blast would crush the user with their own field." Garrus could almost see Liara's brain making the connections as she finished her sentence. The asari, looking at Garrus sharply, "Truly?"

"So I was told, its how the reaper first rescued Jack."

"Incredible. We never saw anything like a true biotic during the war. Only those poor abominations." Even now, Banshees, mutated asari, were terrible to remember. Transformed into grotesque creations against their will, losing themselves and turned against those that once called them friend.

"In any case, let's be glad whoever planted that thing didn't think to set a timer and hide it under her bed. Seriously, who leaves a bomb in the middle of the room with a pressure switch?" Tactically, it was a horrible idea. Granted, if not for the soldier, Jack would have been dead anyways.

"Perhaps that was not the original intention, they could have been rushed. No one would have expected Jack to leave the party so soon."

"You have a point there." Sighing, "Why do all our parties end in explosions?"

"I remember one on the Citadel that did not."

"No, that one started with chasing a Shepard clone and ended with a battle in the cargo hold of the Normandy."

"The bomb, Garrus."

"Right. Bomb." Coughing lightly into his fist, "Military hardware; prototype perhaps? Something new, still in testing. How many places could be doing something like that?"

"Many, the Alliance is known to contract outside organizations as often as not."

"Right, so, like you said, that could take a while. That's also assuming the design wasn't stolen from the lab and made somewhere else." Scratching his jaw line, "The cameras were hit with an omni emp burst, so, no visual. Aside from the reaper, there haven't been any unscheduled ships leaving or arriving, the assassin could have left on one of the transports, or is still hiding aboard the station. Could be an employee, hell, it could be a student. This place does have a pretty extensive engineering set-up, I'm sure they could build one of these warp bombs here."

"Sadly, I agree. As for locating the facilities where this was designed, I will keep looking into it."

"For all we know, it could have been designed here. I mean, this is the première biotic and engineering academy in the Alliance."

"I had the same thought yesterday and I already spoke with Director Sanders, she politely informed me that, as we are not affiliated with the Alliance, we cannot be part of their investigation. Nor could she confirm, or deny, the technology developed under contract. She did seem quite apologetic about the situation and her inability to give me any useful information. This morning, I may have begun a data mine on the station's computers that in time, will tell us everything we need to know."

"Well, look at the broker go."

"I admit it has it's perks."

Sitting silently a moment, "You know, Liara, we might have something else to consider."

"I don't like how that sounded."

"It gets worse." Leaning forward to rest his arms on his knees, "From what I've heard, Jack is kind of important to the reapers. They saved her on that backwater colony and left a drone to watch over her. Do we honestly think they're not going to do something about an assassination attempt?"

"Oh goddess. I'd forgotten."

Class was boring. Not a word Trinia had thought would ever describe her schooling after the first day she'd spent under the tutelage of Ms. Jack. Now, the highly vocal instructor was in some sort of mild coma and they were being taught by one of the biotic theory professors. Not to say the man did not know his field, he was very knowledgable, he was also about as engaging as an elcor poet. Two days of this and she, with her class mates, were nearly ready to mutiny. Even for a turian, the tedium was mind numbing. Read this, study that, write a forty thousand word report on the differences between each species' use of biotics and how the evolutionary process may have contributed. And to top it off, today was Tuesday. What happens on Tuesdays? Today, nothing.

She'd been looking forward to sparring, to getting her mind off of her talk with her uncle yesterday. She was confident that Ms. Jack would wake up, but not knowing when was worrisome. And her attacker had failed, would they try again, especially now while she was vulnerable? No one was allowed to visit her without express permission, apparently the Director was not taking any chances. Dr. Sanders had explained that with a simple, "She needs her rest." The vast majority of the station took it at face value.

Then there was the LT, who even Garrus seemed to think was not going to survive. What was she supposed to think of that? Was he dead already? What would that mean for her teacher? And who would she train with now? For the last few weeks, she had been paired with the vanguard during sessions, her own biotic abilities closely matched to his. Not the same exactly, turians had no 'vanguards' but they were pretty similar. She could teleport through objects, like people or walls, and he couldn't. Then again, he could splatter the same people and break down the wall, and she couldn't. Something to do with the way their biotic fields worked. He never showed them what he could really do, but then again, Ms. Jack didn't use her biotics often either, and not using his abilities didn't hamper is capabilities in teaching them.

The LT had been a great teacher, patient, full of confidence and experience. She'd gathered the courage just last week to ask him why he never removed his helmet. It had been after their session on what should be happening on a Tuesday, there hadn't been anyone close to them and it had seemed like the most opportune time. He'd simply shrugged, "Medical. Lets just say the war was rougher on some than others." He hadn't offered more, she hadn't asked. She hoped he'd be okay.

Thanks to her uncle, Trinia was one of the few who had permission to visit Ms. Jack. She'd been making use of that these last couple of nights, after dinner, she'd come down to the medical wing and sit in the observation bay, watching her instructor through the wall length window. She couldn't bring herself to sit in the actual room with her, it just seemed like an intrusion. Usually no one else was there, once she'd come in while her uncle had visited, she'd watched him sit there, in the room with Ms. Jack, and listened as he regaled his sleeping friend with war stories and tales from his new job as General Garrus Vakarian. She remembered how he'd laughed long and hard at that promotion.

Tonight, walking in the the observation room, Trinia saw that Jack had company again. It wasn't her uncle though, or Dr. T'soni. As she recognized the blue armor with the biotic ops emblem on the shoulder, Trinia felt herself drop into the seat behind her gracelessly. Whatever specialists had been working on him must have performed miracles because the LT didn't look any different from the last time she'd seen him. She felt like hugging him, a very undignified reaction, but nevertheless, very happy to see him alive.

Feeling now as she had back when she'd seen the LT carry Ms. Jack from her training session, Trinia felt she was intruding, but the same as then, could not make herself leave. So, here she sat, watching the LT as he reached out his hand and brushed the side of Ms. Jack's face with his armored fingertips. She saw his head turn, likely taking in the wrist restraints and the collar she wore. Her guess was proved correct as he moved and unfastened the bindings from her arms before removing the collar from her neck. He just stood there for a moment, looking down at Ms. Jack, before reaching out, and lightly brushing his hand through Ms. Jack's hair.

Now, Trinia had assumed there was something between them, and she was not sure if it was even sided, but there was no room for doubt that the LT at least cared way more about her instructor than he let on. It was either the most romantic thing she had ever witnessed, or the creepiest. If her teacher was aware of Lt. Emerson's feelings or not and whether she shared them was the determining factor, in either case, Trinia had no idea. So, yes, either romantic affection, or creepy stalker. Her thoughts were interrupted by the LT's voice, "I'm sorry it's taken me this long, Jack. A year. An entire year, but I've kept my promise. I never left you alone." Trinia was a little confused, as far as she knew, the LT hadn't known her teacher that long.

"Time to wake up, crazy chick."