At the Armax Arena, Garrus was soon coming to the realization that he was mistaken. Charlie had not killed a single batarian enemy. She hadn't been injured either, but she was clearly not trying to win. Garrus was getting extremely frustrated with her performance. So he started giving all of the enemies she was focusing on headshots. Usually, this was the point where she would call him a "kill stealer" and threaten him with violence, but she didn't.

"You're going to have to do better than that, Charlie." He taunted.

"Okay," Was her lackluster response.

What was wrong with her? The entire trip here, he had tried to engage her and she had just ignored him. Occasionally, he caught her pained glances at him. What had he done to her? Had he done something really bad that night months ago? Garrus knew she would never tell him what was wrong unless he was able to draw her out and this was usually the best way to do that, by appealing to her competitive nature. Spirits, she was usually more competitive than he was.

"You did really well." Charlie gave him a weak smile after the round was over, that Garrus immediately hated. Who was the meek stranger and what had she done with his Charlie?

"You want to go again?" Garrus asked hoping for a positive response.

"No, I think I'm good for now."

Charlie took off her helmet and shook her loose curls out. She hadn't even broken a sweat.

In the lobby, there were a few young men standing around in gear. Clearly they had the next turn in the room.

"Well lil' darlin' that's not very good score. This your first time?" One of the men asked Charlie. Garrus noted that he was tall and broad shouldered, definitely the type of human male that was supposed to be attractive.

This is going to be interesting. I might have to hold Charlie back from killing this man, but that might be a nice change of pace from this meek Charlie I brought with me.

"Actually, yes it is." Garrus looked down at Charlie sharply. She had drawn her shoulders in and had shifted the shotgun in her hand so that she was holding it loosely and unprofessionally at her side. Though it was her voice that was the most shocking, she had pitched her voice up and was almost speaking shyly and sweetly.

"I think I did alright though. At least I didn't die this time, right?" She continued. "I'm trying to get better. I think I hit some of them. Whoops!" Garrus watched as she dropped her shotgun and let the human male pick it up for her.

"Good thing you weren't using live ammo, so what's your name?" The man put Charlie's gun on a table and sidled up to get closer to her.

"Elizabeth, what's yours?" Since when had she started using her middle name? Garrus was having a difficult time keeping up with her.

"Lieutenant Daniels, Alliance Navy."

"A real Lieutenant? I've never met a Lieutenant before." Then she giggled. Garrus had heard Charlie laugh in a multitude of ways in the past, usually at her own jokes or at another's expense. But giggle? No, Garrus had definitely never heard that noise come from his friend. How was Daniels buying this terrible façade?

Daniels motioned towards the people behind him. "Actually, we're all in the Navy. So what were you doing in there with this … turian?"

The way he said that almost elicited a growl from Garrus, but he stopped himself when he noted the glitter in Charlie's eyes and the subtle shift of her smile to a slightly evil grin.

"This is my friend, Garrus. He was trying to show me how to properly use a gun, but I'm still no good at it." She pouted, and then lit her face up as if an idea had just occurred to her. "Maybe if some big strong Alliance soldiers could show me, then I would understand." Garrus noted the way Charlie ran her hand up and down the soldier's arm, as if testing the muscle corded there.

"Oh, well I'm sure we could do that. What did you have in mind?" Daniels managed to stammer out.

"Why don't I just go ask Mr. Ellocious if this can be a two-team game, you strong men against us? I mean we'll probably lose, but then it'll be fun. We could play for a round of drinks?"

"Um, are you sure that's fair? I mean we have a biotic with us and it's only the two of you?" Daniels looked over Charlie's form as if expecting to find another squad member hidden there.

This was when Garrus realized that Charlie looked rather unassuming in her black, form-fitting, light armor suit. The suit was standard gaming suite armor that would shut down any limb that had been hit. However, it was very tight and seemed to hide the fact that Charlie was in excellent shape and a force to be reckoned with even without a weapon. In the suit, she could have just been any other slender human female and that almost made Garrus laugh out loud.

Charlie put her finger on her lip as if contemplating his words. "Well to make it fair, what if we are allowed to use tech abilities. Garrus can do a really cool thing where he makes your shields disappear? What is it called?"

Garrus couldn't help the smile that crossed his face at the completely innocent look Charlie was wearing as she gazed up at him. "An Overload?"

"I guess that's okay, then. Sure you two can use tech against us. Kay is our only biotic, but he's really good."

The second he said that the two of them could use tech abilities, Garrus noticed that Charlie's fingers started working furiously at her side. He had seen this enough to know that she was remotely accessing her omni-glasses.

"Oh goody, is this your helmet?" Charlie picked up the helmet sitting on the table and turned it over, while making intriguing noises. "It's very nice. I'll go check with Mr. Ellocious at the front desk and change the queue on the room. You did agree that we're playing for drinks, right?"

"Of course." Daniels boldly ran a hand down Charlie's backside and Garrus braced himself, in case she retaliated. She didn't, in fact she flashed the Lieutenant a seductive smile.

Garrus was not exactly sure what Charlie was up to, but she was acting like her old self and that made him feel so much better. She had clearly found a game and was playing it. Garrus spent the time she was gone by checking their equipment. None of the soldiers spoke to him, but he did note their appearances. They were all fairly young and arrogant, except for the one they pointed out as the biotic. He seemed out of place, not just in age as he was a few years older than the rest, but also in manner. Kay was standing separate from the rest of the group and seemed a little more cautious than the rest. He was also suspiciously watching Garrus, as if he suspected that this was a trap.

Charlie came bouncing back and proclaimed the match all set. Daniels graciously let them go into the large room first, since they were woefully outnumbered by the six soldiers. Once inside, Garrus turned to Charlie.

"So, what's the plan?"

"To kick their smug asses." Charlie had flicked open her omni-tool and was now furiously working on … something. "I need you to hack into the lights. Don't worry I told the clerk what we're doing. He okayed it, provided we put everything back when we're done."

"We're cheating?" Garrus opened his tool anyways and went to work on the lights.

Charlie let out an exasperated sigh. "It's not cheating. I asked the Lieutenant if I could use any tech skills and he said yes. If he didn't want something like this to happen, then I'm sure he would have mentioned it."

Garrus snorted, "I'm sure he would love to get you alone in the dark."

Charlie didn't look up, but did punch him solidly in the arm. Garrus wondered what it said about their relationship that physical violence made him feel better.

"So, if I'm working on the lights … what are you doing?"

Charlie giggled, but not the falsely sweet one from before, this one was pure Nacht. Vicious and disconcerting. "I hacked into their speakers and right now I am setting up a program that will blast extremely loud music, of my choice, into their headsets. I completely bypassed their radios and unless they have a very good tech expert with them … they're stuck listening to my sweet ass jams. It would even take me a while to completely back out of their system. Personally, if I were them I would shut down the whole thing and reboot from system, but they can't do that in the field."

"So our plan, which is totally not cheating, is to blind and deafen them?" Garrus asked dryly.

"Precisely. If you have a problem with my methods and don't want to put some Alliance assholes in their place, then say so now."

Garrus finished with the lights and turned to Charlie. "Oh I don't have a problem with this at all. In fact, this might be the greatest game we've pulled together."

Charlie gave him a wry grin out of the corner of her mouth. "Better than the 'fight' we had in front of last year's recruits?"

Garrus chuckled at the memory. They had spent over a month choreographing the twenty minute "fight". It was the perfect blend of theatrics. Charlie did fantastical flips and twirls about him and he kicked and threw her across the room. None of the blows actually hit them, as it was staged, but they had included props and fake blood. By the end, they had both "died" and the recruits were horrified at the spectacle. It was absolutely worth all of the preparation and clean up.

"Even better," he responded with complete sincerity.

Garrus and Charlie took careful positions around the room. The room was multi leveled and very large, with many raised platforms and fantastic places for cover. Garrus took up a high position in the back of the room as a sniper perch. There was a better place available, but it was the obvious spot to look for a sniper and this one had better access to the floor. As Garrus did not like to stay in one place for too long, this was definitely ideal. Charlie took up a loose position in the middle of the room. Her tactic was to move and move frequently. She wasn't stealthy, but she didn't need to be as she hit hard and hit fast.

When the crew of seven soldiers sauntered into the room, both of them were completely out of sight. Charlie waited until the Alliance soldiers spread out a bit before giving Garrus the signal to hit the lights. Through his visor, Garrus could see the soldiers start to panic and bring up their omni-tools. Charlie had sneaked around to the closest soldier and was about to tackle him from behind, when she hit the music.

The scene that unfolded was hilarious. The soldiers grabbed their helmets, but couldn't remove them as they would auto-lock in place as soon as the door shut. Charlie quickly disarmed the first soldier, shot him in the legs and arms to prevent him from moving, and slid the guns across the room.

They were purposefully not supposed to kill them, the fun was to disarm them and leave them helpless. Garrus was sure that if Charlie could have, she would have stripped them down as well.

"Now I hope all of you boys are enjoying my music. I picked it out especially for you." Garrus heard Charlie announce into the radio. "I'm already up by one on you though, so I would regroup for a better attack if I were you. Otherwise, it's just not fair."

Garrus saw that the men seemed to have gotten their bearing and had flashlights on their omni-tools. Charlie climbed onto one of pillars and peered over the side of it.

"What do you see, Charlie?" Garrus asked on their private channel.

"The biotic hasn't lit up, yet. I've got five of them huddled together over here. You see the sixth?"

"Got him."

Garrus lined up the shot on the wayward soldier and skillfully shot the man in all four limbs. It was kind of an amazing shot to precisely hit a flailing man from across a room, especially with a quick reload needed. However, Garrus was kind of awesome.

Meanwhile, Charlie had to guess at which man was not the biotic. With a wild stab in the dark she jumped on the man who was the easiest to pull away from the others. She angled her descent to place her hands on the back of his shoulders, to throw him off balance, and roll with him away from his companions. In the scuffle that followed he managed to get a few rounds off with his assault rifle, but she easily avoided the fire. Charlie could, after all, see in the dark with her omni-glasses. Thankfully, the tinted glass on her helmet hid the orange glow. The soldier managed to get the shotgun away from her, but she still had a pistol and he was easily disabled.

"That's three for us and none for you. What's wrong? I thought you were going to teach me how to fight? After all I'm just a little girl." Charlie mocked them after she had skipped back into cover.

"I'm moving up. I don't have a shot and you're having all of the fun down there." Garrus laughed into their channel.

"Roger that. I've still got no biotic. He's very good if he isn't taking my bait."

"Don't come from up high this time. They're looking for that now. I've got an idea. Come around to my position."

His plan as he quickly told Charlie, was to slip around the side of the cover the soldiers were using. Charlie would shimmy out and latch onto the legs of the nearest man and Garrus would yank them both back. It was crazy and foolish, and absolutely fun. Obviously it was not a tactic to be used in any other situation, but for this type of tomfoolery … it was perfect.

Garrus could hear Charlie giggling as he pulled her backwards with her prize. The man would probably have a sizable bruise on his backside tomorrow. The entire maneuver happened so quickly that Garrus and Charlie were able to disable him and make off with his weapons before he comrades followed after the kidnapped soldier.

Laughing and slightly out of breath, the pair watched the last two soldiers duck behind a different piece of cover.

After they composed themselves, Garrus said, "Well either he's not a biotic or he's playing it safe. Any ideas?"

Charlie glared at him through her helmet. "I'm not the planner. My plans consist of going over there, picking a fight, and hoping I can make it out in one piece. Got anymore brilliant schemes?"

"No, not really. We have to split them up if we're going to continue to non-lethally disarm them. How about you 'accidentally' get seen by one of them and I'll pick off the other one."

"That would work if one of them wasn't a biotic."

In the end, they decided to go ahead with the loose plan. Mostly because they had to do something and it was the best idea they had between them.

Charlie crept over to the men and Garrus stayed in the dark shadows ready to strike. She let herself be seen as she darted through the soldiers' flashlight. The soldier on the right spotted her and sent an arc of waist high rifle fire in the direction she was moving. Barely managing to dodge the spray of fire, she skidded to a halt behind a low piece of cover.

This was when Garrus saw the biotic. A bright blue light engulfed the man who had been firing at Charlie and he waved his arm out in her hidden direction. That was odd, because there was no way the man could see Charlie. Nothing happened for a few seconds after the arm movement and Garrus was starting to shift out of cover to grab the biotic's companion. However the biotic's head snapped to look directly at Charlie through the darkened room. Garrus was about to shout a warning to her, but a streak of blue energy leapt from the man and hit her before he could react.

Charlie was flying. Well more accurately, Charlie was being pulled through the air towards the shining blue man. She had a few seconds to consider her predicament and found it utterly hopeless. No amount of shifting would enable her to draw a weapon or escape the force.

"Charlie shut your eyes!" Garrus shouted through her helmet speakers. She immediately complied and could see a bright flash underneath her eyelids as the room was suddenly brightly lit and then plunged again into darkness.

The blue light surrounding her was extinguished and Charlie landed heavily on the ground and quickly rolled into cover.

"You alright?" Garrus asked out of breath into the radio.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Good job with the lights, but that biotic is going to be a problem."

Garrus moved over to Charlie's location. "I took out the other one while you were playing with the biotic."

Charlie groaned at Garrus as they shifted to another piece of cover. The biotic was able to track their location now and moving continuously was the only way to avoid getting hit.

"You still have that tech armor?"

Charlie grimaced under her mask. "Yeah, but it makes me glow so I haven't been using it."

"Alright, I want you to get close to him. That'll probably mean that you have to rush him. We'll split up and attack him from two directions. As soon as I see you're close enough, I'll take care of his shields and then you get up close and detonate the tech armor. Hopefully we'll be able to tackle him down then."

Charlie gave a quick nod and they set off. The main problem with biotics is that they usually have two sets of shields. In a normal combat situation, they would just whittle down the soldier's shields and finish him off, however this was a game and Charlie really wanted to keep everyone alive for humiliation reasons. The other reason she didn't want to "kill" anyone was because when you "killed" in the arena your entire suit shut down, including your headset. Charlie wanted them all crippled on the ground and listening to her deafening tunes until she allowed them to get up.

This soldier was good, very good in fact. He had positioned himself in a very defensible position in the field. There were only three ways to get to him and he was routinely checking each one of them. When the pair had split, it seemed that the biotic couldn't keep track of both of them. Charlie crouched down behind some cover about ten yards away from her target. She heard the slight whine of her tech armor shift into place and with a deep breath, Charlie bolted for the biotic.

The soldier saw her immediately and raised his right hand to shoot her and his left hand started to build a blue glow of energy. Charlie was half-way through her sprint and was starting to wonder if Garrus was going to hit the man, when a spark of electricity crackled over the biotic and he stumbled for a second. He did not waste any time in sending whatever had been building in his hand at Garrus.

Charlie ducked low and hugged his waist, as she slammed his body to the ground. She wasted no time in detonating the tech armor while she was still directly on top of him. While he was momentarily stunned Charlie got the pistol out his hands. Biotics, especially human biotics, are not known for having close combat skills. The majority of human biotics are powerhouses at controlling a battlefield, but if you get one alone, they're fairly weak. So Charlie was amazed to see the man block her attacks and actually succeed in flipping her over and pinning her to the ground. However the shock only lasted for a moment when her instincts kicked in.

Charlie wrapped her legs around his waist and used her strong core muscles to twist him off of her. Simultaneously, she slammed her forearm into his throat. His armor was strong enough to prevent a crushed windpipe, but it would definitely hurt.

They scuffled on the ground and in the end Charlie had him face down on the ground, a knee in his back, and his arms safely secured in a lock. He was incredibly strong, especially since Charlie was pretty sure he was enhancing his extremities with biotic power.

"Garrus, where the fuck are you? I need some help." Charlie growled into the channel. It was taking all of her ability to keep him down and she couldn't use a gun without letting go of one of his arms.

"Stasis. Wearing off now." Garrus' voice strained under the effort of speaking while frozen in stasis.

Eventually Garrus stumbled out and shot the man's arms and legs. Then he raised the lights in the arena and the duo went about the room collecting the soldiers from where they had fallen. They were lined up in a sitting position against a low wall and Garrus and Charlie took up poses in front of them. Charlie stood with one hip tilted up and her arms crossed over her chest and Garrus leaned one arm on her shoulder as he stood at a slight angle. Smug arrogance seemed to drip from their pores or, in Garrus' case, from between their plates.

"Are you going to let them out?"

"I'm waiting for the song to finish." Charlie replied with a wry grin behind her mask.

After about a minute, Charlie switched off the music and announced to the men, "Well I'd say that we win. How about you?"

"What the fuck was that?" said one of the men, who sounded a lot like Daniels.

"That was us winning. Was there something confusing about it?" Charlie replied sarcastically.

"You cheated!" Another man accused.

"Garrus, did we cheat?" Charlie looked up at Garrus with mock sincerity.

"Technically? No. We followed all the rules laid out to us by these soldiers. I mean we could have hacked their suits and crippled them that way or you could have stripped them naked. Don't think that I didn't know that you thought of that, Charlie." Garrus dryly drew the words out.

"See Garrus doesn't think that we cheated. Now I think you all owe us both some apologies and some drinks."

"I am not taking you out for drinks now, bitch." Daniels spat at her.

"Oh honey, I wouldn't sit at a bar with you if it was 2-for-1 Thursday. No, I want you to pay for our drinks. Garrus how thirsty do you feel?"

"Pretty thirsty, I'd say … fifty credits should be enough."

"Alright you owe us a hundred credits."

"The turian said fifty." One of the men spoke up.

Charlie placed a hand on her chest. "I'm thirsty too, though. However, that reminds me of my previous statement. You all owe us an apology. The Lieutenant owes me one, because you are a pig and the rest of you went along with this bastard. I also got the distinct impression that you men didn't care for my friend's species, so you definitely owe him an apology as well."

"Why the fuck would we apologize to you? Just because you beat us in a rigged game does not mean we owe you a damn thing." Daniels was clearly irate at the humiliation.

Charlie crossed the room, crouched down in front of the man, and raised the visor of her helmet. "Because I am Detective Charlie Nacht and this is Detective Garrus Vakarian. If we don't get an apology I'm sure we can find some charge to hold you fine officers overnight at C-Sec on. Isn't that right Garrus?"

"Definitely."

There was a slight pause as Charlie glared into the reflective surface of his helmet. "Fine," Daniels said, his voice cracking slightly under nerves. "I'm sorry I grabbed your ass and I'm sorry about the way I treated Detective Vakarian. If you let me move my arms, then I'll give you the credits."

"Gladly."

Charlie smoothly rose up to a standing position and between her and Garrus they shot all of the men "dead". A computerized voice gave them a score and time on the match and the door hissed open. The men shifted on the ground and stretched out their stiff limbs. Daniels took off his helmet and walked over to Charlie and Garrus.

"I just transferred the money to you. Please leave."

Garrus walked out of locker room and found Charlie already dressed and waiting for him.

"Do you feel like we just mugged those soldiers?" He asked her.

There was a smile tugging at the corners of Charlie's mouth. "Why? Were you actually going to call C-Sec and write up false charges?"

"It wouldn't have been false charges if Daniels had groped you again. That might qualify as sexual assault." Garrus' straight face was marred by a twitching of his mandibles.

Charlie gave up all pretenses and laughed out loud. "Let's go get drunk on their credits."

At the bar Garrus ordered a very nice Menaen brandy and Charlie had her usual scotch. He was pleased that she had relaxed into her old self, but he was still sure that they needed to talk. Garrus had known Charlie for long enough to know that if he didn't say something soon, she would force whatever was bothering her down and they'd never talk about it.

Garrus took a breath and tried to sound as casual as possible. "So, how have you been?"

Charlie finished her drink with one last swallow and tapped the glass as a signal for another one. "Well I'm living in an apartment alone for the first time in … actually this is the first time. Grace is off-station in a different system and I can't see her for another two weeks. I can barely meet the eyes of my 'best friend'. I've got neighbors, colleagues, reporters, anonymous supporters, and anonymous hatemongers calling me at all hours of the day. I almost got Grace, you, Saren, and a large portion of the Citadel killed because I couldn't talk down a crazy man. And to top all of that off, I got a promotion that up until a week ago I would have said I deserved."

Finished with her statement, Charlie knocked back the freshly filled tumbler of scotch. She promptly made a face and coughed. Garrus watched her and bit back a comment about how you are supposed to sip scotch.

"You missed something in that." He waited until Charlie gave him a tired look. "You almost got killed too."

When Charlie shrugged her shoulders, Garrus grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. "You almost got yourself killed and for what? I saw that look in your eyes, Saren missed it and thought you were playing a gambit, but I know better. You were going to let him kill you to save us and do you know what? You were wrong. It was stupid and reckless; you're supposed to know better than that."

Charlie uncharacteristically let her eyes fall away from his gaze. "I really was going to. I wish I could tell you that I had a plan to go along with that; like I knew that Grace was gearing up for a biotic breakthrough, but I didn't. It was my last play to keep him from killing her, from killing both of you."

"There is always another way that doesn't include a suicidal gambit."

Charlie glared at Garrus at the word "suicide". She looked like she was about to say something, but instead she let her tense shoulders fall and she stared at the empty glass.

"Charlie? Say something. Tell me I'm an ass or something, please." Garrus said.

"I … no. You're right. It was stupid." Charlie lit cigarette and watched the blue swirls of smoke drift into the empty space between them.

It was frustrating Garrus to no end to see her like this. When they had been messing with the Alliance soldiers, he had allowed himself to think that they were going to go back to being friends. But now it seemed they had gone backwards and Charlie was slowly sinking back into her shell. Self-deprecation was not a good look on Charlie.

Garrus ran his talons across his fringe. "Yeah, you can be incredibly stupid, but so can I. Listen, I don't know what happened a few months ago between us, but this has gone on for far too long. I'd like to claim all of the stubbornness, but you definitely contributed. Now I miss my friend, my real one, and I'm trying really hard to talk to her, but she's ignoring me. I don't know if I did something horrible that night or if you did or if it was just really awkward. And yes I know that you were lying and something actually happened." He added as Charlie started to open her mouth to speak. "The point is that I don't care. If I did something wrong, I'm so sorry. If you did something wrong, then I don't care. If it was just a horrible cross species liaison, then well I never claimed to have a human fetish. So, let's put this behind us. I don't want one night of drunken stupidity to ruin all of this. I don't have 'feelings' for you and I'm pretty sure that you are asexual and incapable of feeling for anyone." Garrus heard Charlie give off a snort and he took it as a good sign. "So, let's just go back to me being oblivious of your gender and us being friends."

The sentence hung in the smoke drenched air in the bar for far too long. It was beginning to sour when Charlie finally spoke. "What if I did something really bad?"

Garrus rolled his eyes at her and looked at her dryly. "Did you take naked pictures of me with male hanar prostitutes and are now attempting to blackmail me? Just so you know that would never work. You're better off selling those to Fornax for their 'Plates and Tentacles' special issue, because they have been harassing me for years to get a glimpse of all this." He waved a hand luridly down the length of him and took, what he hoped was, a provocative pose at the bar.

Charlie attempted to keep her face straight, but failed miserably and ended up burying her head in her arms and laughing loudly. Garrus let at triumphant grin spread across his face as he took a sip of brandy.

When she finally stopped wheezing, which Garrus privately thought was just a little too much laughing at his expense, Charlie said. "Alright, it wasn't that bad. You're a good man … er turian, Garrus Vakarian. I'm just glad that you didn't decide that we shouldn't get drunk together anymore."

"Spirits forbid it. What would we do together if we didn't drink? I guess there's work and sparring, but that's clearly not enough. So, let's talk about other points you made in your previous confession. You really think that you failed Grace?"

Charlie scowled into her drink and lit a cigarette. "Did you know that Mya's mother told me that Grace was biotic years ago? I completely ignored the woman. I don't think that I failed Grace, I know I did."

"Charlie, you have spent the past six years giving that child all you could. You were more active in her life than most parents and you are single. I'm just saying that I don't think there is anything else that could have been done. Even if you had brought her in for testing, which would have been crazy because there was no way she was biotic as far as you knew, all of this would have played out the same way. Grace would still be taken off-station to a special school. There is nothing you could have done to prevent that. At least you didn't completely cut her out of your life for the past eight months and not tell her why."

Charlie gave him a look. "It's not like you are her parent."

"Charlotte, I'm a little like her parent. I spent almost as much time with her as you did, aside from this year, and I would frequently stay over and watch her overnight. Also I went to all of her school functions and I went to, at least, two of the PTA meetings for you."

Charlie raised a hand to her face. "Oy vey ist mir. We are the most ridiculous family. I can't believe we aren't an NBC sitcom."

Garrus ignored the last sentence as it was a classic Charlie-ism to make references that he didn't understand. He was slowly building a list of them in his head. Sometimes he would catch himself using them to other humans and he was slightly gratified when they didn't understand them either. Garrus typically wrote it off as yet another example of the odd that was Charlie.

"Excuse me, Detective Nacht?" The male voice belonged to a slightly short, yet broad dark-haired male. Garrus recognized him as the biotic from before and subtly braced himself, in case the male decided to take some revenge for the embarrassment.

Charlie turned to size up the male and said, "Kay the biotic, right?"

Garrus judged her words and silently thanked the spirits that she was not drunk. A drunken Charlie was much harder to control.

"Actually, I prefer Alenko." The man scratched the side of his face where a day's growth of facial hair was forming. "Kaidan, if you're feeling informal, but I do prefer Alenko."

Much to Garrus' surprise, Charlie blanched. If he didn't know her better he would have thought she was terrified of the small man.

Eventually Charlie realized the face she was making and she blushed and cleared her throat. "Lieutenant?"

Alenko gave a friendly chuckle. "No, ma'am. It's just Private Alenko. I'm sorry to bother you like this, but I couldn't talk to you in front of the marines. When you said your name … I … I didn't realize it was you. I caught your interview with Wong."

Charlie closed down her face immediately and absently reached behind her for her glass. "Oh."

"No, you don't understand." Alenko nervously scratched the side of his face again. "What you said in the interview was … well I've never heard a non-biotic talk like that to press before. I wanted to personally thank you. I'm sure you're concerned about your daughter. Do you want to talk about it with me? I have some considerable experience in that field."

Garrus saw this as the perfect time to make an exit and stood up to do so, while motioning for Alenko to take his seat.

Charlie quickly snaked out an arm and caught him firmly at the wrist. "Where the fuck are you going? What happened to 'Grace is my daughter too'?" Her obnoxious mimicry of a turian voice would have been extremely offensive to anyone else.

Garrus gave a grumble as he resumed his seat and Alenko took up a stool on the left side of Charlie.

Alenko ordered a beer and Garrus noted the look that he gave Charlie out of the corner of his eye. His eyes stopped at her arm and he muttered a quiet curse.

"What?" Charlie, who was clearly on the defensive, harshly asked.

"I was just thinking that if Daniels and the others had met you dressed like this, they never would have fallen for the 'innocent girl' routine. What happened to your arm? Those are bite marks." Alenko gave Garrus a wary glance, as if he might be rabid. Garrus raised his arms innocently.

Charlie just laughed. "Oh yeah that's where a raptor tried to take a bite out of me back on Mindoir. I say tried, because he ended up with a shotgun to the chest. I know I could get the scars removed, but I like keeping the stories with me." She lifted her forearm so Alenko could get a better look at the old wound.

Alenko's brow furrowed as he studied her arm. "I've never seen a woman with skin like this."

Charlie shrugged, but Garrus interjected. "What's wrong with her skin?"

She gave him a sardonic grin and raised her other arm to Garrus. "I have some gnarly calluses all over me. How have you not noticed this?"

Garrus narrowed his eyes and looked at the rough skin. It wasn't that he didn't know that Charlie was scarred, but he had never compared how she looked to other human females. Now that he was considering this, Charlie was definitely differently shaped and textured.

Alenko's eyes travelled over her arms and shoulders. "What kind of gene mods did you take?" His voice was hushed and slightly troubled.

"Eh, just strength and dexterity, though it was the Mark 3 strength mod."

Alenko's eyes were definitely full of concern now as they snapped to Charlie's face. "I thought that women weren't supposed to go past Mark I."

Charlie groaned and knocked back the rest of her drink. "Actually a man or woman can get the same mods. The strength mod just regulates how large and dense the muscles are. Now it's true that if a woman gets a higher strength mod they might have trouble with pregnancy, because the abdominal muscles are woven too tightly. But I'm not planning on having kids, I can barely keep a handle on Grace and she's an angel, and even if I change my mind I can have surgery to separate the muscles. Most women just opt not to worry about it."

Charlie tapped the side of the tumbler to signal the bartender for another one. "Besides I needed them if I was going to continue to kick this guy's ass." She gave a friendly punch to Garrus' ribs and he only partially feigned the pain.

"Well I feel much better about having my ass handed to me by you. Though that music was so loud it did give you a significant advantage. I can't really handle bright lights or loud noises very well."

"That noise was music and I'm not apologizing for you having a lack of taste."

Kaidan snorted and took a sip of his beer. "I didn't know the rest of it, but The White Stripes in the beginning was a nice touch. Though I haven't heard classic rock used to illicit fear before, well outside of bad old vids."

Charlie's entire demeanor changed so quickly that Garrus almost fell off his stool. She was positively glowing with giddiness. "You know about The White Stripes?" The words were spoken so quickly that Garrus could hardly decipher them.

Alenko looked at her like she was an idiot. "Do I know about Jack White? Are you kidding me? Once he lost that drummer, his career was huge in the 2020s. My dad was kind of an old music buff when I was growing up. His most prized possession was an old physical media disk of White's. So I kind of was forced to listen to that repeatedly as a kid."

"He lost Meg White? I don't know if I should be sad or not. I mean she wasn't the greatest, but I kind of liked the whole shtick they had. So I guess that means that the Raconteurs made it big?"

"Actually …"

Garrus tuned out the conversation at this point, as they were talking about long dead humans that he didn't particularly care about. Eventually, the conversation swung back around to biotics and Grace. Garrus was included again and they proceeded to have a very interesting talk about the girl. Apparently, her innate ability was extremely rare among humans and Alenko was surprised to learn of it. He had also heard very good things about the Ascension program and promised to keep an ear out for anything ill about the instructors there.

The conversation wound down and Garrus was struck by two things. One, was that Alenko was good man and he was pleased that he had sought them out. The other was that Charlie had relaxed and all of the awkward tension that had been present between them had completely dissolved by the end of the night.

Author's Note: Alright, I have you all caught up with AO3. This means that we will be moving to my actual schedule which is a chapter every three days. I can't keep up with editing a chapter a day. Just in case anyone was curious the music that Charlie plays is The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army", Streetlight Manifesto - "Keasbey Nights", and OK Go - "Invincible".