Chapter 27

Laura, Grunt, and Jack were put in cuffs, with a C-sec officer standing around the bar assessing the damage the three had done. Aside from the broken stool, the bar was in shambles and they even broke a few bottles of Rincal. Now that is alcohol abuse. Laura thought drunkenly, she sighed as she looked at her crew members.

"I don't think we should be allowed to drink together ever again. Unless we're in a controlled environment." Laura said looking at Grunt. "What? It's your fault, you could have just said yes to being my girlfriend." He laughed jokingly. Only bringing a smile to Jack's lips, "You two are ridiculous."

"I try." Laura said smiling a little looking at Grunt who only laughed a little more. The chatter over the C-secs com came into Laura's hearing. They said someone had gone through the fish tank in some sort of sushi restaurant. Only Shepard would pull a stunt like that. Sounds like they weren't the only ones who were making trouble for C-sec tonight. Maybe we can swap stories when we meet up.

Over her com came the sound of weapons fire as Garrus tried to call her. "Laura, Shepard is in trouble and I'm en route. Where are you?" the young girl let out a long awaited sigh with Garrus pausing. "I am with C-sec right now. Grunt, Jack and I got into a bar fight. So they have us in holding." Garrus sighed gently, almost too quiet for the transmitter to pick up before responding. "I'll be there in a moment to bail you out of there."

True to his word, a moment later Garrus was standing in front of Laura. He was apologizing to the c-sec officers. They let Grunt and Jack go as well, Laura was taken by Garrus. The two of them were now hot on the trail of Shepard, who was being shot at. "Shepard. Laura and I are on the way." Garrus barked over the com as they sped toward the rendezvous as fast as possible.

"Garrus is that you?" Shepard said through the com, and another voice came through. "Who is Garrus? Don't you know this is a secure channel? You're giving away Shepard's position if you are talking to her." Said some woman who Garrus shook his head to; if Shepard was already getting shot at it shouldn't matter. Shepard could handle herself. In fact the more heat, the better.

Laura took a moment to think, she knew Shepard had a lot of experience with taking care of herself. But Shepard seemed to have a way of getting into trouble with anything and that usually resulted in someone attacking her. It must have been Cerberus, again. Laura hadn't thought they wouldn't be stupid enough to attack Shepard on the Citadel again but apparently they were. Who else could it be?

"Shepard we're almost there. Everyone else is on the way as well." Garrus said sounding reassured they would reach her in time. "Good things are getting a bit dicey." Sherry replied only making Garrus smile as he walked behind Laura. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

Half way there Garrus stopped Laura. "It looks like Javick and Wrex are with Shepard right now. They want us to meet her back at the new apartment." She smiled a little, she knew Wrex and Javick would take good care of her. She looked at Garrus. "Do you know where the apartment is?"

"Yes I do. Come with me." He smiled and started to walk the other way. They made it to the sun strip part of the Citadel. It was filled with lights and so many attractions, Laura never saw this side before. It made her want to move to this side of the Citadel. Shepard entered the apartment with Javick and Wrex behind her. They seemed to be deep in conversation.

"I don't know! I've never seen them before." Sherry said looking at the Brooks, Javick and Wrex. "I can't believe you survived all of that. They had guns! And grenades! And those drone things!" Shepard looked at her like she was crazy; Sherry had gone through much worse than whatever these new people trying to kill her could possible throw at her. It had been that way for so long that it seemed to become normal. "Brooks, it's okay. I know this is a lot to deal with."

Brooks looked at her like she was crazy, she rose her arms up in an angry posture. "I got shot at! I've got medi-gel, but still, I took a desk job explicitly not to get shot at! And you killed one hundred guys with one pistol!" Shepard cocked her head to the side looking at her. "Well yes...that did happen...but it wasn't as bad as all that." Brooks started to pace side to side watching Shepard's movement.

"I mean who does that? Well you, I guess, but besides you? They said medi-gel might make me jumpy. Do I seem jumpy?" Brooks said. "How did you get mixed up with this?" Shepard asked looking at her. Brooks blinked for a moment as if she was thinking. "I monitor data for Alliance Intel to prevent fraud and hacking of officer ID's. Like someone using an admirals pass to get into a night club on the Citadel when that admiral is fighting on Tuchanka." She paused for a moment and looked at her.

"I wrote a tracking program. It's really neat. I named it, Mr. Baskets. After my cat. " Shepard looked at her taking it all in. She sighed for a moment. "Brooks." She said trying to call her out of her trance about her cat. "Right sorry. Anyways...Mr Bis...my program detected a breach in your classified flies. Soon, everything we had on you was compromised: personal files, mission reports, everything."

"Since when does hacking personal records involve heavy-weapon fire?" Wrex questioned looking at Brooks surprised. Brooks spoke "Think about what criminals would do with Shepard's military access codes. Or Specter codes, even!" She sounded a bit surprised by Wrex's question. "Explains why they want you dead Shepard. Nothing to stop them until the damage is done." He added looking at Shepard now.

"Okay, lets figure out who they are and shut them down." Shepard said sounding so serious . "Idea's?" Shepard asked Javick and Wrex, Liara walked over to her. "Maybe. That pistol you picked up. Let's have a look at it." She said while Shepard pulled the pistol examining it. "For such a tiny thing, it packs a punch. Never seen anything like it before."

Liara activated her omni-tool "Nor have I. Let me see if I can find any information about it." She said while Brooks added something. "Well, you can try, but I should warn you. I haven't found anything yet, and I've been digging pretty deep."

Liara looked away smugly like she pushed Brook aside like she wasn't too smart. "I am sure you have. Glyph…" A drone came out in front of Liara, "Collating relevant information for initial review for Dr. T'soni." Shepard smiled at her friend. "Thanks." Wrex looked at Shepard. "Alright but what about the rest of the crew?" Joke walked in with a rather large smile on his face.

"Yeah what about those slackers?" Shepard walked up to him with a smile "Joker. You've been busy." Joker laughed a little speaking. "I found some people who actually like being shot at. " He turned revealing the crew. "Permission to come aboard Shepard?" Garrus asked with Laura right by his side.

Laura and Garrus both walked up stairs. They waited for their turn for Shepard to come talk to them. She went to Joker, then EDI and so on, until she came up stairs. "So how was your guys' shore leave?" Garrus looked at Laura with a smile on his lips, his mandible open and closed. "It was fun. I got to know Laura on a more personal level." His comment made the young girl turn red. "Garrus did you do something to my little girl?" She asked looking at him.

Laura nodded, looking down at her feet. "We did something you wouldn't approve of Shepard." Her comment only made her laugh. "Laura, it's alright. Its natural when you have feelings for someone the way you feel about Garrus. I'm just happy you two waited sort of a long time to take that step." Laura smiled at Shepard's approval, she looked at Garrus. "If you do anything to harm my daughter now Garrus you won't just have me to deal with. But you'll have Wrex and Tali to deal with as well. I think even Grunt and Jack will want to pound on you."

Garrus looked at his commanding officer with a smile on his lips. "Well, uh Shepard...I don't think I could do anything to hurt Laura. I really love her and I don't want to get on Jack's bad side." He sort of laughed looking now at his lover. "Shepard I found something if you want to check it out." Liara said calling up to her. "I'll be down in a moment." to Liara, to Garrus she said, "Garrus I was just kidding." Without another word she turned and walked down stairs leaving her daughter and her lover behind.

"I have made some progress Shepard. Would you like to call a meeting of the crew?" Liara said searching through the information. "Do it." Shepard said and Liara called everyone to the table, Laura stood next to Garrus. "We have a lead. I called in some favors to rub a trace on the gun. It led me to a casino owner named Elijah Kahn. He's suspected of using his profits to smuggle weapons onto the Citadel. Immediately after the attempt on Shepard life, Kahn made an interesting call."

Liara pulled up the conversation for them to hear. Everyone seemed to take a moment and they listened to what was going on. "So that's our identity thief?" Shepard asked crossing her arms looking at Liara. Garrus spoke "It looks like he's got an ID designer. Those things are a pain in the ass to get around." Shepard turned to Liara after hearing all the information. "Kahn didn't sound friendly to whoever that voice was. Maybe he'll pass on the information to us. Hopefully he's smart enough to know its not worth his trouble."

Liara smiled a little looking at her commanding officer. "That would take some extremely smooth talking if he sees you, he'll probably assume you're looking for revenge." Shepard smiled a little thinking about how good it would be to get revenge on the guy who sent people to attach her. "The casino has a panic room. Chances are he'll have gone to ground there. EDI can give us programs to hack the door but cameras and guards would complicate things."

Brooks spoke up looking at the group. "Yeah. Kahn would disappear or worse. If his guards open fire, normal people could get hit. Just like I did." She added sounding like she wanted sympathy from the group. "She's right. we can't risk spooking him. We go in quiet. Small team. No gun play." Shepard said with everyone nodding their agreement with her.

Glyph showed up in front of them saying "Dr T'soni, the casino will be hosting a charity event to assist war refugees." Shepard turned to look at Liara as if to say she should buy some tickets to the event. "Purchase some tickets Glyph. Then call up a layout of the building." Seconds later Glyph had pulled up the building layout.

Joker seemed so happy, "Score. So how close can you get? You don't usually pull a back door in a panic room." EDI chimed in looking at Joker with a seemed to be a smile. "This air shaft, it bypasses the security gate and ends up in a storage area. From there, the panic room's door-camera can be disabled." Ashley made a comment looking around the room. "Too convent. There's going to be alarms all over the place." Liara turned to Shepard. "I believe I have some countermeasures that may help. I'll know more once where inside."

Laura laughed a little looking around the room, she knew the one person that needed to go down the shaft had to be small. She looked at Wrex and then at Garrus. Neither one of them where small, but she was. "Who would go in the shaft? They need to be small in size." Javick commented looking towards Laura. She almost jumped in her skin. "Yeah and that's not me. Too many snacks of roast varren leg."

Laura looked at him, "Of course you're not that small! Wrex, you're two times my size." Wrex blinked laughing hard. "Ow, ow, you're making me laugh too hard princess." Laura smiled looking at him, Garrus watched them interact it almost made him laugh. They all turned to the smallest member of the team, Tali. "I suspect my suit's built in-tech would be picked up by security censers so I can't go."

EDI looked at them, "My presence in the casino would arouse suspicion. Mechs are not allowed since they could have cheating software." Brooks spoke up, "What you need is somebody trained in zero-admission tech. No electronics, no metal. Just undetectable polymers. We had a course in at Op-int, disabling a bomb with these little tweezers. See that bomb was filled with shaving cream though..."

Shepard glanced at Brooks smiling a little. "Alright you're in." Brooks stopped mid-sentence to catch up, she blinked "What? No. What?" Shepard smiled lightly, "You said it yourself we've all got too much tech." Brooks now sounded like she was regretting telling Shepard anything about her past experience. "But...I managed to get shot just coming out to talk to you. Now I'm supposed to hack my way into a safe room?"

"We'll be backing you up. The second you hit something you can't handle we'll cover you." Shepard said trying to sound reassuring. "If that's settled, it looks like one last hurtle to get us inside." Liara said locking eyes with Shepard. "Which is?" Sherry asked smiling kindly towards her friend. "Black tire required."

Shepard turned to look at her crew, thinking about who she should bring. She smiled looking at her daughter, she didn't know how much longer she would be part of her crew. Laura blinked. "Do you have anything nice to wear?" Her daughter's mouth almost dropped while she nodded. "But I have to stop home first." Shepard nodded, agreeing. "Alright I'll meet you outside the casino."

Sherry and Brooks both left, Laura turned looking at Garrus. "I guess I'm going on the mission with them. I'll be back soon." She smiled and kissed him on the mandible, leaving the room. Wrex turned to him. "So Garrus, you're dating Shepard's daughter? How's that going for you?" Garrus' mandible flared looking at him, he was embarrassed by her sudden affection.

"Uh...Laura you mean? We hm huh, we're good." Garrus spoke so casually about his mate. Wrex smiled a little walking closer to the turian. "You better take care of her. If you don't I'll be the first one in line to run you over Vakarian. I think Tali and Jack would take their sweet time with you. As for Grunt he would just take her as his mate." He looked at his old friend angrily. "I wouldn't let Grunt even think about having her. She is mine and I love her with all my heart." Garrus said flat out in defending his love for Laura.

"Wow I am happy the Princess has such a strong lover. You're alright for a Turian, Garrus." Wrex said jokingly patting the sniper on the back hard. He begin to laugh a little as if to say the things where cleared up between them. "So did you do the deed with her?" Garrus looked at the Krogan blinking; he knew what he was talking about. But should he really be telling Wrex about his sex life with Laura. "We did..."

"And how did Shepard feel about this?" He asked sounding a little surprised they did it so early. Garrus swallowed hard, he felt so bad about telling Wrex he knew everyone in the crew was now going to know about their relations. "She sounded happy that it was with me vs anyone else on the ship. She can see I truly care for Laura."

"I can tell but you're still going to have to prove it to me. " Wrex said as a smile overcame his lips, Garrus looked at him. He was now worried that he really had something to prove to Wrex, how much he truly care about his Laura.