Note: Okay, first off, I'm sorry for the delay. I moved, then there was Thanksgiving, Last Kingdom's new season derailed me for a bit, fell down the stairs, work, Christmas, and now the plague. Fear not, however, here is Chapter 13. Little New Years gift for you.

The title for this one is for the dungeon of torment in Greek Mythology. It seemed fitting. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. Keep them coming and please enjoy Chapter Thirteen: Tartarus

Mass Effect
"Foreign Relations"

Chapter Thirteen: Tartarus

Sidda wasn't immune to the dangers of her own mission and karma finally asked for the bill to come due as she took a massive hit to her right side. The Normandy proceeded on a few missions without her as Chakwas had ordered Sidda to be on some bed rest until she healed. Had Mordin not been present on the mission to the Krogan hospital they may have lost her…again. Sidda lost a staggering amount of blood and nearly died in Garrus' arms on the way back to the Normandy. Chakwas and Mordin managed to stabilize her and get her out of the woods; she chose the bed rest on the Citadel. EDI wasn't finished with how to integrate the IFF safely yet so Miranda and Garrus handled anything that was still up in the air.

Nov was happy to have her but mad that she was injured so badly and he waited on her hand and foot. Playing house with Nov was actually quite pleasant, as a roommate he was easy; he'd lived on his own for most of his adult life so he cooked, he cleaned, and he picked up after himself.

"Explain to me again how you got here?" Nov asked as he brought Sidda something to eat. He actually tried his hand at cooking a Human meal and so far it smelled good. Tasting it was something else entirely but she wasn't going to turn him away.

"Gingerly." She replied but that wasn't what he meant. He was referring to how she'd even gotten shot not how she'd gotten from the Normandy to his quarters on the Citadel.

He chuckled briefly. "No. I mean how did you get the big ass gunshot wound through your side?" He clarified and settled in for their movie night. He was still taking Sidda through the good vids that she'd missed while being dead.

It had been a busy week for Sidda and the Normandy, after the derelict Reaper was in the rear view Sidda deposited Nov back on the Citadel and set off to Tuchanka at the request of Grunt and found her long lost favorite Krogan, Wrex, sitting on a damn throne running the show. "Well, I went to Tuchanka, found Wrex and helped Grunt through his Rite of Passage. I'm part of his Krannt and his Battlemaster now, apparently. I got a breeding request from a Krogan…pretty sure it was Wrex." She explained as she grimaced to the pain in her side. "Then I went headlong into a defunct Krogan hospital with Mordin and Garrus to find a colleague of Mordin's and pretty much wiped out all of Clan Weyrlock. Took a round in the last big push during the longest damn fight of my life."

Nov shook his head, he understood missions and injuries were a part of the game but he didn't like seeing her hurt. "You really need to leave Krogan alone, it never ends well."

"Oh, believe me, Cal, if I could sit on this couch and do nothing for the rest of my life I would." She replied with a chuckle as she took a bite of the chicken and rice. "Damn, Baby, this is good. How'd you do this?"

"Well, there are these things called recipes, if you follow the instructions they work really nice." He replied with a chuckle making her giggle.

"Where'd you learn to cook?"

Nov cleared his throat as he ate his own dish. "My father."

Nov didn't talk about his father much, he didn't like him and Sidda knew that he was dead now. "You don't talk about your father much."

"That's because I hated the bastard." He answered sharper than he wanted to. "New topic please."

"Tell me more about your mom?"

"There's the real soldier." He commented. "She couldn't join the military on her 15th birthday like the rest so she went to school. Botany. She met my father when she was 20 and they had me before her disease paralyzed her."

"Disease?"

"Bone disorder. A lot like Joker's, what do you call it, Brittle Bone disease?"

"What happened between you and your father?"

Nov dropped the fork; he didn't like this topic because it still hurt. "I don't want to talk about that."

"Cal, come on. Everyone else seems to know but me."

Nov's sigh sounded more like an irritated growl but he relented. "My father was a pain in the ass. He protested everything…from military conscription, to colonization, to Rylo being used to produce food for the Empire. By the time I got to boot and they heard my last name, day one, my boot camp trip was hell." He paused during the retelling of things he didn't like to share. "I decided to be career military early and he disowned me when I was 22. Banned me from ever coming him so long as he was alive." He vividly remembered the argument in the kitchen when he refused to take his uniform off. He was proud to serve and was proud of his accomplishments. He'd stood up to his father, became his own man, and he was kicked out for it. It all still hurt but it hurt his mother the most.

Sidda felt the awkward silence as he was definitely uncomfortable telling her this. "Cal, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-…"

He cut her off quickly; she deserved to know this, to know these intimate details about him. He did a good job of deflecting to other topics simply because he didn't want to talk about it but she had a right to know him. "It's okay. Once people realized that I was the furthest thing from my father they let up."

"If you hated him so much why give me his knife?" she asked. It was something she'd never gotten a straight answer on.

He picked up his plate again and resumed eating. "That blade is a family blade, it belonged to my grandfather first and I loved him." He replied and was desperate for any other topic than this. "Speaking of family have you talked to your Mom?" Sidda's silence told him everything and he put the plate down again. "Are you kidding me?"

"What am I going to say?"

"I'm alive would be a start."

"It's not that simple, the mission-…"

"I know: Omega 4 Relay, Suicide Mission. I get that but if you live imagine how she's going to feel when she hears you've been back from the dead for this time before telling her." He saw her start to protest and found this ridiculous. "Tell her or I will."

Sidda glared at him. "Callus Nov, you wouldn't dare."

"Try me, Sidda Shepard." He wasn't kidding and she huffed. "New topic."

"Not so much fun when someone does it to you." He teased and ignored her playful glare.

"If I was feeling better I would stab you with this fork." She replied and he chuckled.

Nov's bed was akin to memory foam and wasn't as comfortable as Sidda would have liked but he did all he could to make sure she had all she needed. Sidda had traded one set of surgical scars for another. The ones she earned when Sovereign fell on her were gone now on her right side she had two long incisions that were tenderly healed and several smaller less precise wounds where they tore through the armor she had on, her liver had been hit and lacerated which is what nearly killed her and he made a note to thank Mordin when he saw him again.

Sidda hissed as Nov's fingers struck a tender spot. "Sorry." He said quickly taking his hand away from running light circles around the bandaged injury.

"Will you sleep, Cal." She said and shifted slightly. It was the middle of the night and he was still awake, watching her.

"Eventually." He replied quietly and nuzzled her closely. "I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I'll be okay…unless you're packing a spike chucking shotgun." She muttered sleepily as he cuddled up to her.

"I lost you once, I'm not losing you twice." He purred in reply making himself comfortable. Nov was sweet, he cared so much about her and it always showed. He had his moments but then everyone did, sometimes Sidda wanted to punch and sometimes she actually did but he loved her completely. "Besides…the only one who is going to attack you here is me."

She chuckled. Nov had been a complete gentlemen proving that he wasn't just there for the sex. "Ow…don't make me laugh."

Sidda woke to Nov squatted next to the bed looking at her. He was a very appealing face to wake up to and she smiled to him. "Hey."

"Morning." He smiled. "I have to go to work."

"Thought your job was looking after me." She said with a smile and gently shifted her position to lay on her side.

Nov would take care of her everyday if he got the chance. "That's not a job that's a privilege."

She couldn't decide if that was a good line or a bad one. "Oh come on, Cal…I already like you. You don't have to flatter me even more."

He chuckled to his admittedly bad line. It was honest but when it came to pick up lines it was pretty bad. "Are you going to behave yourself while I'm gone?" he asked. "There are weapons in the apartment but I hope you don't find a way to shoot yourself while I'm gone."

Her expression narrowed playfully. "Bite me."

He cocked his head slightly. "Really?" he asked gently with clear hopeful curiosity.

Sidda blushed, Nov wanted to put his permanent mark on her and she knew it. "Cal,"

"I know. I'm teasing you." He really did want her as his own for the rest of his life but she hadn't given him that permission yet. "If you need me, you call me."

"I can take care of myself, Cal."

"Sid," he said softly. "if you need anything, you call me. Okay?" he stressed.

He was so cute when he was playing the cuddly nurse maid but her stomach fluttered knowing that he cared so much. "Okay. I will."

He nuzzled her neck and took in a deep amount of her scent. "I love you." He'd say it every day, even though she hadn't really said it to him. As he began to stand up straight she stopped him sharply.

"I love you too." She said pulling him to her and kissing him.

She said it to him and he was elated. "When you're healed up I'm going to show you just how much I appreciate that." He chuckled and she stroked his cheek gently. Nov had to skedaddle and go to work before he got roped into staying with her.

After her shower Sidda carefully made her way to the kitchen to take the pain meds and find something to eat. She was limping even though her leg never took the hit. The Krogan shotgun was called a Graal Spike Thrower, a weapon she'd never seen before, had a catastrophic impact on her shields and barriers. One shot took them down and the next two shots took care of the rest. It was like being shot with a giant nail gun. She was favoring the right side and had started to limp from the sympathy of it.

After breakfast she checked her messages and found a rather colorful update from Garrus. The Normandy was still in once piece, Miranda and he did tend to get along fairly well and Miranda appreciated Garrus' leadership and experience. Garrus did mention that Miranda and Jack were giving him some considerable headaches after coming back from Pragia, the facility that Jack had been kept in and experimented on. Fortunately, Garrus managed to keep them from tearing the ship apart in a biotic display but Sidda sighed to the thought of the SSV Powder Keg once again. If it wasn't one thing it was another. According to his update they were on the way to Bekenstine for vague reasons revolving around Kasumi, must have been for her Grey Box. Sidda chuckled to the thought of how he was going to figure that one out.

After reading the update Sidda thought about Nov's little ultimatum, she had been putting off talking to her mother but really needed to. Too many things were up in the air and to be frank, it wasn't right to leave her in the dark.

From what she had been told by Hackett and Anderson that her mother had been promoted to Admiral, though she resisted, but remained in command of the SSV Orizaba. "Hi, Mom." Sidda began and the woman on the screen blinked several times.

Her mother had not changed, not even a little bit. Her auburn hair was still the same short regulation cut and she looked the same right down to the Alliance utilities she typically always wore. "Steven said that you were still alive but I didn't believe it." She commented, completely stunned.

She already knew and Sidda felt about three inches tall. "I'm sorry I didn't talk to you sooner."

Hannah didn't argue with that. "You damn well should be, young lady." Her mother scolded. "I have to find out third hand that you are alive and have been for months. David told Steven and he told me."

Sidda swallowed, Nov was right. Victus was right. Even Garrus was right. "I've been in the Terminus on…assignment."

Like mother like daughter. She was still mad at her, the excuse of 'buried in work' on flew so far. "Please tell me that you have at least spoken to Adrien."

That caught Sidda off guard and she stammered. "I…I have, actually." Victus said that he met her and she had allowed him to keep the dog tag she'd given him.

Hannah harrumphed. "He was probably elated to see you. Poor man had a hard time moving past your…" she trailed off acutely aware that her daughter was not dead. The details were fuzzy but she was definitely not dead.

"He broke up with me, Mom, five minutes after seeing me again." Sidda said sharply, she was tired of this already.

Her mother paused and took that in. She wasn't surprised but Adrien was a very respectful man when she met him at the funeral. "I'm sorry. Never thought I'd like a Turian as much as I liked him…anyway."

Sidda was uncomfortable with the topic. "You look good, Mom." She said changing the subject.

"And you look like hell, Sid." She said bluntly.

Sidda shrugged, Nov had commented that she looked pale. "Took a hit the other day." She said vaguely. "And managed to leave several pints of blood on Tuchanka."

Sidda wasn't going to tell her what she was doing and Hannah wasn't going to ask. "Well, maybe one day you can tell me what you've been doing when you're done with whatever you're doing."

There was a pause as Sidda confronted the elephant in the room. "I'm sorry about Dad. I…"

Hannah held up her hand. "Don't. There is nothing that you could have done and it wasn't your fault." She said with a gentle smile. "Listen to me, Sidda, you being back from the dead is enough for me. Promise me we'll catch up when you are through with your mission."

"Absolutely." She said with a hard swallow.

Hannah looked off the camera and Sidda knew what that meant. "I have to go now, Sid," she said. "please, take care of yourself."

"I will. I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, Kiddo."

Sidda conveniently left out the fact that she might not be alive after this going through the Relay. Nov was right to press her to tell her mother she was still alive but at the same time if she died stopping the Collectors her mother would have to lose her twice. It left Sidda with a terrible feeling. "Yeah…that sucked." She muttered and leaned over on the counter feeling the pain in her side.

Nov had been summoned to the Turian Councilor's office a second he'd gotten to the Spectre office. Sparatus was someone he was pretty familiar with, he'd never served with him but Victus and Maridus had before he followed a political path.

"Spectre Nov." Sparatus greeted plainly as the female Turian who'd escorted Nov in gave him an appraising eye on the way out. As Turian's went, Nov was as handsome as they came.

"Councilor," Nov greeted in turn and stood at ease, an ingrained habit after spending nearly his entire life in the military.

"I have to say I'm surprised to find you on the Citadel for a change." He said and gave him a look that Nov had received many times from Victus. The look of I know what you have been up to. "Don't try to deny it; I know you've been jetting off with Shepard every chance you get."

Nov nodded sharply. "Yes, Sir,"

"I know she was wounded," he went on and Nov eyed him. "word travels fast when a Spectre is admitted to Huerta Memorial. Especially one that all the computers seem to think is dead. How is she?"

Nov was hesitant to reveal any information. "Recovering." He answered. "She lost a lot of blood."

Despite it all, Sparatus had nothing but respect for her. She had proven herself against all odds and proven that she was right more than she was wrong. Eventually they'd trust each other at the same time. "Pass my wishes for speedy recovery." He told him and sifted through a few data pads on his desk. "That being said, Cal, may I call you Cal?" he asked and Nov nodded. "I would strongly advise you to remain on the Citadel for the time being, no more Normandy unless you are ordered. Clear?"

"Yes, Sir." Nov replied. Sparatus wasn't his superior officer; Spectre's answered to the Council and tended to received assignments from one or all of them. The Spectre's had a pecking order as well; Sidda was the most famous of them all right now, and Nov was toward the bottom. In total there was around a hundred Spectre's in service scattered all across the galaxy.

"Good. Have a look at this. You technical skills have been likened to magic, Cal, so time to put it to the test." He went on and passed a pad to Nov.

Nov scanned it quickly then looked up at the Councilor who had returned to his duties. "You do know that I've been spending all my free time in the Terminus, right?" he inquired catching the gist of what was in the data he's received.

"Yes. A good portion of that data came from an upload given to Anderson by Shepard." He explained and Nov looked down at the pad again. "Look it over and report your opinion."

"Understood."

Taking time off to heal wasn't Sidda's strong suit; she was used to being on the move all the time so sitting on the couch or milling about the apartment was starting to drive her crazy. The worse part was it had only been two days. A new message chimed in making her heart skip a beat when she saw who it was from, a message from Victus.

"Sidda, I apologize for my behavior. Seeing that you had managed to move on impacted me more than I would have liked. I handled it like an adolescent child and took my anger out on you when you didn't deserve it. I never meant to say any of those things to you. I'm sorry. It took me a long time to figure out how to be without you, once I did manage it you came back from the dead. I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to say considering what I've already said but I wanted to tell you that…I wanted you to know that I care about you still and I'll always be there if you need me. Please take care of yourself. – Adrien."

Sidda read the letter about three times before she realized she hadn't taken a breath. She didn't know how to take that letter. The bottom line of it all was that he left her…Cal stuck with her no matter what. She closed the letter after staring at it for a longer amount of time then she thought. Nov was the one who pulled her in rather than push her away.

She stood sharply, regretting the sudden movement immediately. Her hand went to her side as the pain seared through her abdomen. "Fuck." She cursed as the pain effectively trumped the mixed feelings about Victus. "Son of a bitch." She added as the majority of the pain subsided. Pain meds were still next on the menu; she took a few more and then fell asleep on the couch. If nothing else she'd forgotten about Victus for the time being.

After spending so long in the military, Sidda had been conditioned for battle and combat. That awareness translated to every aspect of her so she knew when something was out of place. Something was out of place and Sidda woke up just in time. There was an intruder and Sidda rolled off the couch quickly to evade. The pain killers fogged her brain so her reaction time was slowed, biotic amps did a good job of helping to clear hangovers when the biotics were used but when it came to drugs a higher dose was usually needed for biotics thus harder to metabolize.

As far as she could tell it was one man in black armor, by the way he fought he was military trained. Sidda parried his attack quickly and was late on her own biotic attack as she was a bit disoriented and not at the top of her game. He staggered as he was hit by the dark energy but it was weak allowing him to shake it off quickly. Her attacker got to her and in a decisive action slammed his knee into her abdomen. Sidda screamed. It wasn't dignified and it was completely involuntary but the tender injuries gave her no choice. She'd lost the fight after that and she knew it but she was going to make him work for it. The pain was almost as bad as the initial injury on Tuchanka and it was enough to help him subdue her.

The bright side to this was he didn't seem to want to kill her, just subdue her. She blocked his next attack and produced a Warp attack but he didn't let her go, instead her attack failed and they both crashed. He successfully gained the upper hand and she cursed everything right now. He straddled her and dropped his left knee on her abdomen effectively asserting his dominance.

"Hello, Commander." The man over her greeted in a less than nice tone and he leaned in closer so she could get a closer look at his face.

She recognized him, vaguely, a face from before she'd died. "Toombs?" she questioned. Toombs was unstable two years ago and clearly he hadn't changed.

He gave her a sinister half smile and answered with a hard punch to her face causing Sidda to black out.

The Spectre office was quiet as Nov looked through the information Sparatus had given him. Batarian Tech wasn't his favorite subject, it was crude and outdated. However, based on the data he was looking at right now they'd made leaps and bounds progress.

"Hey, Cal," a voice greeted drawing his attention.

"Decian, hey," Nov greeted as the Omni-tool beeped an alert. The security sensor for his apartment, he switched it off and paid attention to Chellick. The detective was certainly more interesting than Batarian tech. "what brings you up from the depths?"

"Question for you," he began and leaned against the console he was sitting at. "how's Shepard?"

Chellick was his friend, they usually had lunch together, and it didn't really surprise him that he knew what was going on. Still it annoyed him, Sidda was too popular and a target. "Does everybody know?"

He shrugged. "When a dead Spectre is checked into Huerta-…"

"News travels…I know." He finished as he's already heard this from Sparatus. "I'm going to have to do something about that." He muttered in irritation. "So is that all you came up here for?"

Chellick shook his head. "Do you know who this is?" he asked and handed him a pad.

The human male on the screen was unfamiliar to him and he was very unsure why Chellick was asking. "No. Should I?"

Chellick sighed and folded his arms across his chest. "Merc that keeps popping up on my radar. When I run him through the system he shows as Alliance but he's surprisingly well redacted."

"And you want to know if a friendly Spectre can get you more?" Nov grinned and Chellick snorted.

"I'd ask Shepard but…"

"She's probably asleep right now." Nov commented as he ran a search under his access code.

"You know, I thought Shepard and Gen. Victus were an item." Chellick commented trying to gently ask the question, it wasn't any of his business but he was curious. "I did have to track him down for her when she scared the living daylights out of me in my office."

Nov paused in mid type then sighed. "They were and now they are not." He said simply.

"So you get her now?" he asked and Nov looked kept typing.

"Yes."

Chellick was a cop and knew better then to press further due to the Nov's tone and guessed there was probably more to this little love triangle based on his body language. "Interesting."

Nov ignored him. "Anthony Toombs, Corporal, Alliance Marines." He announced changing he subject back to why Chellick was originally there.

"You have a whole book in here," Chellick commented and leaned over his shoulder. He knew the Spectres would have more information on this. "who uploaded it?"

Nov scanned down the dossier. "Shepard did." He answered with a blink or two. "Two years ago." Sidda wasn't the conventional Spectre, she didn't really have time to file reports aside from anything related to Saren.

"Scroll back up." He said. "Toombs was the subject of a Cerberus experiment. His entire Marine detachment was massacred on Akuze after a Thresher Maw attack; he was found to be the only survivor and was experimented on for an unknown amount of time until he escaped and executed the majority of the Cerberus scientists that worked on him." Chellick read out loud.

"All but one – that we know of – Dr. Wayne, turned over to the Alliance after being taken into custody on Ontarom by Shepard and her team. No further details." He read and vaguly remembered Cerrus talking about this when he came back to the Lante. "Look here, 'Highly unstable and extremely dangerous if given the correct trigger'," Nov read and got a bad feeling. "This guy's a mercenary?"

"Mmhmm." Chellick responded. "Been causing all kinds of trouble in the Blackhouse District lately…when Sovereign exploded it didn't have the common courtesy to destroy that section of the Ward for me."

The bad feeling wasn't going away. This guy had ties to Sidda and she was vulnerable right now. "What kind of trouble?"

"Illegal weapons deals, enforcement, protection rackets, usual stuff but progressively more violent." He said. "A few cops were injured in the last encounter."

"Do you know where he is?"

"No. We know he's on the station still but the tunnel rats say he's been asking a lot of questions about security in the commons and the apartments." Chellick answered and Nov quickly skipped through the rest of the files.

"Uh-oh." Nov commented as what he was reading wasn't making him feel any better. Sidda felt the need to add a full dossier to Toombs' file and it dawned on Nov. He rang up Sidda's Omni-tool but received no response. "Come on, Sid, pick up."

"What?" Chellick asked seeing Nov clearly worried now.

"Back me up?" he asked and the Detective nodded with a curious expression.

Sidda woke up and immediately let out a pained cry, everything hurt. Face, the back of her head, her entire torso, she felt it all. She was in a chair with her hands bound behind her back. The living area was a mess, the coffee table crushed, couch moved during the struggle and things knocked off the other end tables.

"Yeah, I heard you got shot." The man commented as he appeared in front of her. "Graal Spike Thrower is a nasty thing, the Krogan have a knack for making crude yet highly effective weapons."

Toombs, the sole survivor of Akuze and a Cerberus test subject, stood before her. He looked much better than he had when she first met him and he was in top of the line gear. She pegged him as a mercenary now but she didn't see any insignia or colors she recognized. "Toombs, what are you doing here?"

His expression was cold as he eyed her like a predator. "You lied to me. You pulled me out of that hellhole and buddied up to me then here you are...Cerberus stink all over you. You're one of them."

"Terrific. He's still unstable." She thought to herself. "I am not." She replied firmly.

"Yes you are!" he roared. "Cerberus ship. Cerberus crew. Cerberus funding. You are Cerberus!"

"No, I'm not!" she answered defiantly and he slapped her across the face.

"I've seen it, Commander!" he barked back. Once he learned she was alive he tracked her and saw a good deal of her handiwork in the Terminus. "You on Omega, on Illium, all over the Terminus flying Cerberus colors working for them!"

Eventually, someone would just ask her where she'd been rather than jumping to the conclusions and making up their own stories. "I didn't have a choice. The Normandy was destroyed, I died, Cerberus put me back together…I woke up to this shit storm. I didn't have a choice in it."

Toombs still felt the pain of the experiments that he'd been subjected to. His nerves felt constant pain and he lived on injections to numb it, hearing her say she didn't have a choice angered him more than he already was. "I didn't have a choice. You went along with it. I was an experiment." Sidda tested the bindings, they felt like Omni-cuffs so there was no way she'd be able to break them. The red light in the kitchen was on so Nov's security trigger had been tripped. Hopefully, Nov would be here soon…or at lease C-Sec.

She rolled her eyes and growled. "Oh, buck up already and get over it!" She barked back tired of hearing the same old story. "Human colonies are the targets in the Terminus and I'm trying to stop it. The Alliance is stretched thin; Cerberus brought me back together and asked for my help. I'm trying to save people you fucking idiot!"

He punched her again, harder this time and Sidda tried to shake it off. "I trusted you. You told me you'd make them pay. The Alliance took Dr. Wayne…and let him go. They got their information but let him go with a slap on the wrists. I thought it was because you disappeared…maybe it was because you joined them."

She worked her jaw after the hit and glared up and him. "I don't know what to tell you, Toombs, I didn't know they let him go…I didn't know. Let me go and I will happily help you find him."

"No need for that." He responded with a glint in his eye that was reserved for sociopaths. "He's dead already and so is everyone else from Hades' Dog that escaped the first time. Except you…the one who lied to be about it all."

Sidda remained annoyed and shook her head. "Look, I've already been shot once this week…if you're gonna do it just do it already."

"Defiant until the end I guess." He said.

"Unbind me and we can go for round two." She growled. Toombs knew just how good she was and had done his research. "You want to brag, you want to dominate, you want me to hear your story otherwise you would have killed me in my sleep."

Nov piloted the C-Sec skycar at a speed that made Chellick a little nervous. "Mind telling me where the fire is?" he asked and put a hand on the dash as Nov wove in and out of traffic.

"Toombs was a Cerberus experiment, Sidda found him two years ago while investigating the murder of an Alliance squad on Edolus." He told him as Chellick watched another car come too close for comfort. "According to the files back there, Sidda talked him down and promised that she'd make Cerberus answer for what happened to him…Sidda was resurrected by Cerberus."

"So if he's on the Citadel and she's here-…"Chellick trailed off briefly. "Now what are the odds that all the questions he's been asking the tunnel rats are about how to get into a Spectre's apartment?"

"I'd say better than average. Sidda and your boss can yell at me later if I'm wrong but right as you came to see me the security alert in my apartment went off," he explained and kicked himself for not picking up on this sooner. "I switched it off because Sidda set it off yesterday on accident but now she's not answering when I comm her."

Chellick felt his stomach tighten; he really hoped that Nov was wrong. Sidda tended to fight trouble wherever she went hopefully now wasn't one of those times. "I can call for more backup."

Nov thought about that and came to one conclusion. "If he's there I don't want to spook him. Just you and me for now, Decian."

Chellick was used to being the driver…and Cal was insane right now. "If we get there in one piece, Cal, come on." Nov ignored him and focused on getting there in one piece.

Toombs was fiddling with something that Sidda couldn't readily see from her perspective and she eyes the clock. It had been nearly twenty minutes and still no Nov and no C-Sec, she began to worry. "If you're going to kill me, get on with it." She tested harshly.

"Do you remember what you said to me, Commander?" he asked in reply.

Vaguely, the memories were there but some she just couldn't recall in the correct order. According to Miranda it was a side effect of the Lazarus Project, all things considered Cerberus did a bang up job in resurrecting her. A few out of place memories was something she could live with. "Refresh my memory." She hissed.

" 'If I find them I'll shut them down…you have my word on it'." He said. "Well…seems to me you lied."

"Anthony, we've been through this: I wiped out a massive chunk of their operation while chasing Saren. Then the Collectors blew the Normandy out from under me and somehow Cerberus brought me back from beyond the grave. I didn't have a choice, same as you. I woke up to an entirely new world." She explained in a sincere tone tell him that she was through explaining her actions to him. It happened, it was done, it was time to move on. "So if you're going to kill me just put a bullet in me now and be done with it."

Toombs heard all she said but he wasn't falling for it twice. He trusted her once and she turned on him. "No bullet for you, Commander," he said in an unnerving tone then held up a syringe. "do you know what this is?" she flinched slightly as all the scenarios played out in her head all at once. "Thresher Maw acid." Sidda straightened her posture trying to the alarm in her expression. "Some survive it…most don't and it is a painful way to go."

"You get the hell away from me with that stuff." She snapped but it was a fruitless venture. He set on her as she tried to wriggle away but he wrenched her head to the right exposing the left side of her neck. "No!" she yelled as the needle pinched in and she felt the excruciating burn of the acid being injected into a vein.

One or maybe two shots rang out over her screams and Toombs abruptly pulled her sideways onto the floor with him. She saw his vacant expression looking at her and the back part of his head was missing, blown away by Nov who appeared over her.

"Decian?" she heard him ask quickly and then heard Chellick respond.

"Clear."

Sidda began to convulse as Nov plucked the needle from her neck. She could see both of them as Nov put a hand over her neck. "Spirits, is that acid?" Chellick asked in horrified disbelief.

"Medic, Chellick, medic!" Nov ordered loudly as he tried to maintain his cool.

"Two minutes, they're coming."

Sidda was in fog of pain, fear, and whatever else was happening to her body with that acid being injected and everything started to drift away as the vision began to narrow as well. "Sid. Sidda!" Nov called trying to keep her focus on him. "Come on, Baby, hang in there. Don't leave me, Sid, come on." She didn't hear much more after that as her vision closed like the old fade to black set from old movies. The last thing she saw was Toombs dead eyes.

The doctors at Huerta were not exactly thrilled to see Sidda back for something other than a checkup on the shotgun injury. She had acid injected into her bloodstream no less and that took some creative thinking to correct. Nov only understood part of it as he was an engineer not a doctor. Suffice to say they stopped the spread of the Thresher Maw acid, fixed the ramifications of it – mostly – and she stabilized. The shotgun wound was fine for the most part but extremely tender now, there was a worry about the liver laceration but the surgical binding held and the site of Toombs' injection showed a very unique scar.

It was Sidda's turn to cook dinner, a way to repay Nov for both his hospitality and his protection, and the fact that he had be unbelievably gracious. When Garrus entered he immediately identified when she was cooking just by the smell.

"Rommus Stew?"

"Yep."

"You can't eat that."

"Really? No!" she replied sarcastically then chuckled. "It's for Cal. It's his favorite."

Garrus smiled, he had is issues with Nov but he made Sidda happy. "Mine too."

"Fantastic. Taste it." She ordered. "I can't taste it so tell me if it's good."

"You never cooked for Victus?"

"Not dextro food." She answered and he took a spoonful of the broth and tested it. "He did most of the cooking."

Garrus listened and put the spoon in the sink. "Little bland. Needs more of that." He said indicating to a tall canister of spice that Sidda couldn't pronounce.

Sidda took his advice and added more. "So…I heard how Bekenstein went." Sidda teased.

Garrus groaned. "Don't start with me, Shepard."

"You do know that undercover is a figure of speech right?"

"Shut up."

She chuckled. "So, how's the Normandy without me?"

"Quieter." He joked. "Part from Miranda and Jack trying to tear the place apart everything else has been fairly quiet. Just got back from Illium."

"I bet the Illusive Man is screaming." Sidda muttered and Garrus snorted.

"If he is he's doing it to Miranda not me." Garrus replied. "Speaking of…EDI managed to integrate the IFF…it's ready to test."

The idea of the Reaper tech being integrated into the Normandy made her uncomfortable. "Minimal crew test. Give all non-essential personnel leave on the Citadel."

"Miranda's already volunteered to oversee it. What about everyone else?"

"Anyone non-essential, mandatory leave…including you," she pointed using the butter knife as she worked on her own dinner. "if the test is successful…"

"Suicide mission it is." Garrus finished for her and grabbed the Turian version of a breadstick from off the counter and snacked on it. "Well, the Normandy is fully upgraded – everything from the Surgical Med Bay to Thannix Cannons – top of the line…she's ready to go."

Batarian Tech was as barbaric as anything Nov had ever seen. Due to his prowess even back in OCS he underwent advanced tech training. Everything from Turian to Human tech, Nov could understand it and work it. Batarian tech was not elegant like Asari, versatile like Turian and Human, or resilient like Quarian, but it was damn effective despite how crude it appeared to be.

His apartment smelled like home and he froze as he entered. The good bits of his childhood rushed back as the smell of the stew made his stomach growl. "Sid?" he called and found her in the kitchen. "Whatcha doing?" he asked playfully seeing the place settings for two set up on the island.

"Making dinner for you." She said with her hands on her hips and a smile on her face.

He looked her up and down and couldn't help but make a mental remark of how pretty she was. "For me?"

"Yeah. You've been a really good sport about everything lately, even when I'm being a real bitch, and…you saved my life." She explained and he moved closer to the island looking at everything she'd prepared for him.

"Anything for you." He replied and Sidda blushed deeply. "You did this for me? This is the best thing anyone has ever done for me." He said with a genuinely happy tone. "Thank you."

"Stop it." She blushed deeper.

He put his right around her and pulled her close. "I love you." He said and kissed her.

"Dinner first, Playboy." She said between kisses and he chuckled.

The Normandy departed the next day without the majority of her crew, just enough people to run it and test the IFF. Sidda left to talk with the Council and then Anderson, a wasted venture on both accounts as they all still saw her as either a traitor or a troublemaker. When she returned to Nov's apartment she found Nov and several others in the living room watching TV.

"Who are all these people?" she asked as she followed Nov into the kitchen.

Nov threw a beer bottle into the trash and fished a few more out of the fridge. "Well, that's Decian." He pointed to Chellick. "And that's Garrus…come on…we didn't play that hard last night."

Sidda rolled her eyes. "Do you ever tire of being a smartass?" she asked.

"Not a bit." He chuckled twisting off the top of the beer he kept for himself. "The ones you don't know are friends from work."

"Cops or Spectres?"

"Little of both." He replied with a chuckle.

Of those in the living room Isla, Sidda, and Kasumi were the only Humans, Tali was the only other non-Turian and she joined them at the island in the kitchen. "Thank you for the invite, Cal." She said and Nov nodded.

"No problem, Tali." He replied. "Hope they're not too loud for you."

Cerrus was loud while watching sports, the only time he really got riled up when he wasn't working. "Not at all. There was a roar from the living room as terrible call sent the rest into an argument. "Or not."

"He was out." Chellick said loudly.

"No he wasn't. See, look at the replay." Isla said.

"He was out." Chellick repeated and then had to endure Isla's smirk when it turned out that he was wrong then he cursed loudly.

"I'm having a flashback." Nov commented to Sidda and Tali.

"To what?" Sidda asked as she fished out something to snack on.

"The Academy…Engineering School to be more specific." He answered. "Had four roommates…reminded me of home when the neighbor kids would take over the living room and watch the game." He explained. "Mom hated the noise we always made and she'd kick us out at half time."

"What about you, Sidda," Tali asked. "did you like watching games?"

"Oh yeah." She commented. "When I finally got to Earth I saw a lot more of them." she added and her eyes settled on Garrus. "Garrus, you look bored."

"I am bored." The Turian replied. Garrus wasn't one for sports, he didn't mind watching it.

Tali chuckled to Garrus' boredom. "Tyr gets worked up when watching sports." she continued as Nov gave her a beer and a straw. She would need to filter it but she would enjoy the drink.

"Why do I find that hard to believe?" Sidda asked and Nov chuckled.

"No he does." Nov added, he'd watched many games with him and knew better. "He just likes getting more riled up because you pissed him off." He sniped to Sidda.

The next morning bad news came from the Normandy. Things had gone wrong and immediately soured Sidda's mood.

"What the hell happened? How did the Collectors find you?" Sidda demanded as Joker sat on the edge of the table in the Comm Room. The IFF test was a catastrophic failure as it broadcasted their location to the Collectors. Miranda, Legion, Joker and EDI managed to fend them off and expel the remaining uninvited guests but the cost was still great, they'd lost several crewmembers.

"When we plugged in the IFF it began broadcasting our location."

"No one thought to check that first?" Sidda admonished to everyone including Garrus.

"It's no one's fault, Sid." Garrus interjected and patted the pilot's shoulder. "No one saw it coming."

"Garrus is correct, Shepard," EDI added as her icon popped up. "the harmful data in the Collector drive was even more sophisticated than the black box reaper virus' I was given."

"There was no way to know of the corruption until it was activated, Shepard-Commander, we were prepared to defend against automated hacking not a location broadcast." Legion added. The Geth had apparently been absolutely instrumental in repelling the Collectors and saving Miranda's life.

"What about unshackling an AI?" Sidda commented sourly still thoroughly irritated.

"We didn't have a choice; if we did nothing we could have lost the entire ship let alone the crew." Mirada defended. Her view on the matter made Sidda pause and take note. She wasn't really angry at her crew, they did what they could, she was angry that none of this was going as planned.

"EDI cleared the ship she's okay." Joker said as EDI assured Sidda and the rest of the present crew that her protocols were still in place.

"And the IFF?" Garrus asked trying to steer the conversation in a better way. Sidda was grumpy and understandably so, the mission was going to be hard enough anyway, now she'd lost crew members like Chambers, Chakwas, Donnelly, and Daniels.

Sidda folded her arms across her chest and tried to remember that none of this was intentional. Just bad luck. "Scrubbed clean and integrated. We can go through the Omega 4 Relay whenever you want?" the pilot answered.

"Head back to the cockpit." She requested with a sigh and a gentler tone. "Get everyone back on board."

Joker carefully got off the table and nodded. "I'm sorry, Commander."

Sidda's scowl softened. "You guys did all you could. It wasn't your fault."

Joker, Legion, and Miranda left and Sidda leaned forward on the table; her side still ached from the trauma to it lately. "Why me, Garrus, why me?"

"Because you're the only one crazy enough to pull it off." He replied.