After being shooed from the bedroom, Joker and Wrex headed downstairs, the pilot lighting his omni-tool. "Garrus should be here by now, I'm going to see if I can't track down where he is."

He was heading for the apartment door when its call suddenly buzzed. Wrex immediately hauled out his shotgun, glaring.

"Relax, big guy," Joker said as he limped toward the intercom. "It's probably just Garrus with the others."

"You willing to bet on that?" Wrex asked.

"Uh…well not now that you said that all ominous and terrifying-like," he replied, giving the krogan a look before touching the intercom. The image popped up, Garrus speaking almost the moment he appeared.

"It's us, Joker. I have Helen and the others. Let us in."

"Could be a holographic rendering," Wrex said. "We open that door and mercs could come flooding in."

"We don't open this door Shepard could die," Joker said angrily, glaring at the krogan.

"She could if you open it."

"Oh for fuck's sake… I'm letting them in. If they're mercs you can kill them."

Wrex grinned, ratcheting his shotgun.

Less than a minute later the door opened. Barely even glancing at the krogan aiming a weapon angrily at her face, Chakwas looked at Joker. "Where?"

"Master bedroom. Upstairs, end of the hall on the left," he said. She rushed that way, medical case in hand and Vega carrying a much larger second case after her. The others filed in- EDI, Tali, and Javik, with Garrus in the lead. As Wrex shipped his weapon, Joker almost thought the krogan looked disappointed they weren't mercs.

"We got here as quickly as we could," Garrus said. "What the hell is going on?"

"Some merc group attacked Shepard out of nowhere," he said. "She's pretty badly banged around. I can fill you in on what I know…"

Garrus's eyes moved toward the stairs, drawn by the motion of someone slowly coming down. "Who is that?"

Joker looked around. "Oh, that's Brooks. She's been helping. Brooks, everything ok?"

"Helen shooed us out," Vega said, one step behind the analyst. "God damn but Shepard looks like she got hit by a damned skycar."

"She did," Joker said. "And that was probably the least exciting portion of the evening."

"Are you all right?" EDI said, squinting at Brooks as they got closer. "You are favoring your left arm."

"I think the medi-gel is just wearing off," Brooks said. "Everything feels less bouncy and more…throbby."

"That's right, you got shot. I totally forgot," Joker said. "C'mon, sit down. Chakwas can look at it after she finishes with Del."

"Thanks. It…I don't think it's bad, and it's not bleeding any more. But I've never been shot before, so what do I know?"

As she sat down, EDI went and sat down beside her, ordering her to take off her uniform jacket. Brooks did so gingerly, almost unconsciously tucking her dog tags into her under shirt to keep them from dangling in the way. EDI regarded the wound in her shoulder carefully. "It is small caliber but the bullet is still within the wound. I do not think it poses any immediate danger. As you said, the bleeding has stopped and you are showing no signs of shock. It will, however, require minor surgery to remove without causing more damage."

"Good to know. Hurts quite a lot though." She shook her head. "My God, listen to me. Here I am, whining about a little bit of pain and a minor bullet wound when Shepard…I still can't believe she survived all that! I mean, I know she's a marine and I-I-I' m just a desk jockey-I specifically took a desk job so I wouldn't get shot! A-and she-…she went through all of that, fought all those mercs, with no armor, no nothing, and-"

"Brooks reminds me of someone," Garrus said softly, glancing at Tali. "Can't remember who-"

"Oh shut up," she replied. "I haven't sounded like that for years. I was much younger, and I'd been shot too."

"You were the one that warned us, back at the restaurant," Joker said, looking at Maya. "You said someone was hacking Shepard's accounts. Do you have any idea who these clowns are?"

"No, none. My job is to monitor Alliance records and data to prevent hacking of officer IDs. I created a neat little program…I called it Mr. Biscuits, after my cat, he-"

"Seriously?" Wrex glared. She blinked, staring at the krogan as she seemed to literally shrink back into childhood.

"I-I-I'm sorry, that's totally stupid and irrelevant, isn't it? M-my program alerted me that someone was trying to hack her accounts but it was so quick-I didn't even think. When I saw they had gotten a link to her omni-tool I traced it myself so I could get to her first."

"Why would your first instinct be to get to Shepard to tell her in person?" Garrus asked. "Did you have reason to think they actually wanted her dead, and not just wanted her accounts?"

"Yes," Maya said. "I mean, it's logical, isn't it? Could you imagine what someone could do with Shepard's military codes and clearance, or with her Spectre codes? Only a fool would go after those without intending to eliminate the person they're taking them from."

"She's right," Tali said. "It would be completely stupid to steal a Spectre's clearance without getting rid of the Spectre. Otherwise, you're just committing an elaborate suicide, especially if that Spectre is Del."

"Right," Brooks said. "Like I said, I didn't even really think. I knew they had to be hitting her soon- they'd want it to be almost simultaneously with stealing her data. I just…grabbed my things and ran. I-I wasn't fast enough, apparently."

"Not your fault," Joker said. "If you hadn't shown when you did, we'd have gotten no warning at all."

"If I hadn't been there she wouldn't have needed to use you as bait in order to get to me," Brooks said miserably. "She could have slipped out with you. Instead, she stayed behind to try and help me and got blown through a fish tank and down the side of a building."

"Wait, that seriously happened?" Tali asked, looking over at the Normandy's pilot. "I thought you were joking!"

"Why, just because of my handle?" Joker asked. "That's…nameist. Or something."

"I think you need to tell us everything," Garrus said, folding his arms and looking at Maya and Joker. "From the beginning."


An hour passed as Maya filled them in on everything she had found…which wasn't much. Joker and Wrex then told them what had happened at the restaurant and afterward.

"They didn't have any kind of identifying marks on their armor," Wrex said. "It was all generic, Serrus Manufacturing plates and pads."

"That's para-military gear. Anyone from the Blue Suns to the Blood Pack uses it," Garrus said. "But they got into C-Sec. Intercepted communications, got a shuttle…hell, they were able to hack Del's accounts to begin with. From the sound of it, they were pretty organized and fairly hard-hitting."

"Which suggests a lot of expertise, training, and a lot of credits," Tali said. "No every day hacker can get into military accounts, or intercept police signals. And it takes money for that much gear and those kinds of weapons…not to mention paying the mercs to begin with. Could this be a branch of Cerberus? Maybe the Illusive Man is funding a secret op to take Shepard out of the picture, without pointing a neon flag right at his front door?"

"I wouldn't put it past him," Vega said. "Guy's a snake. And I could think of a thousand different ways he could wreak a lot of havoc with Del's codes and Spectre access."

"There has to be a way to find out for sure," Tali said. "Maybe EDI and I could-"

"Having a nice chat?"

A tense, pained voice came from the stairway. Everyone turned to see Shepard moving gingerly down the stairs, one arm around Liara who was carefully supporting her (and looking none too pleased about her being on her feet). Nancy and Helen were following on her heels.

"Shepard! Keelah, you look like hell!" Tali said. "Why are you walking around?"

"Doctor's orders, believe it or not," Chakwas said as they reached the ground floor. Nancy vanished down a hall, probably to go and get dressed out of her robe. "I was able to treat her concussion and her brain swelling but sleep is going to be off the table for at least a few hours, and she needs to move around so I can keep an eye on her motor reflexes and sense of balance. No fancy neurological monitoring equipment here, so we have to go about it the old fashioned way."

"That, and she knows she has no chance in hell of keeping me down on that bed without field restraints," Shepard said lightly. "Doc, any chance I can have a beer-?"

"No alcohol," Helen said sternly. "And I cannot believe I even have to tell you that. I-"

She noticed Brooks and her wound, and blinked. "No one told me someone else was injured!"

"It's not bad-" Brooks began. EDI looked at Helen.

"It is a shallow wound, however the bullet is still lodged inside. It is not bleeding nor could I detect any sign of infection."

"I…kind of overdosed on medi-gel," Brooks said sheepishly as Helen got to her side and began looking at the wound.

"Hmm. Well, it's not serious and it won't take long, but I have to get that bullet out and seal it up. Some pain medication probably wouldn't be amiss either."

"Oh, God bless you," Brooks gasped. Helen smiled at her.

"Let me get my medical case from upstairs. I can take care of it right here. Shouldn't be more than a couple of minutes."

As Helen headed back upstairs, Del removed her arm from around Liara (giving the asari a reassuring squeeze before she did so), then regarded the others. "So, I trust everyone's been filled in?"

"We were just discussing what our next move should be," Garrus said. "How we can figure out who these mercs are."

"It was suggested that they may be Cerberus," Vega said. "That the Illusive Man is trying to get rid of you without waving a flag that it's him."

"This didn't feel like his style," Del said. "Not that it rules him out. Their armor was fairly generic, but at least two that I saw without their helmets on were human."

"Huh. Come to think of it…" Wrex reached into his weapon's pack and pulled out a pistol. "Could this help?"

"You take that off a merc?" Del asked, even as Tali reached for it. Wrex handed it to her.

"Yeah, one of the guys at the skycar lot. Packed kind of a punch for such a little thing, I thought I'd keep it after I twisted his head off."

"This is a Korelian .38 caliber," Tali said, turning the gun over in her hand. "But it has some unique mods to give it more of a punch. The mods themselves can't be common- I don't recognize them."

Helen reappeared with a now dressed Nancy on her heels. Sitting down with Brooks she gave her a painkiller, making the young woman sigh in relief. As Helen went to Del's side, Liara went over to Tali, who showed her the gun.

"I may be able to find out who manufactures and supplies these mods," Liara said. "Or perhaps who sells such modified pistols. Glyph…"

She activated her omni-tool as Glyph appeared hovering over her shoulder. She scanned the pistol, then uploaded the data to her VI. "We need to scan our usual sources for these specific modification designs."

"Yes, processing."

"That could take weeks," Brooks said, looking over Helen's shoulder. "I mean, I'm not doubting Dr. T'Soni- I'm sure she's good, but there must be a million different-"

"I have it," Liara said, interrupting her as she looked at her omni-tool. "There are three known suppliers of these kinds of mods, and only one with ties to the Citadel- a man named Elijah Kahn."

"What?" Brooks blinked, stunned. "How did you-?"

"Kahn?" Del asked, ignoring Brooks as she looked at Liara.

"He owns the Silver Sun Casino, and he has been using his profits to smuggle weapons- some with these mods- onto the Citadel."

"Then we've got our supplier for these mercs," Wrex grinned. "Let's go get the bastard. Crack his skull. Find out what he knows."

"Not so fast, Wrex. We need to be a bit more subtle," Del said. Everyone stared at her, silence falling, and she lifted her brows slightly.

"…what?"

"Did you just suggest 'subtle?'" Tali asked.

Del gave her a dry look. "We still don't know for sure Kahn is where they got this weapon. Just because he supplies on the Citadel doesn't mean these mercs got them from the Citadel. They could have arrived here with them. I'd rather be completely sure before I bust someone's skull wide open."

"Now I'm getting concerned," Garrus said, and looked at Helen. "You sure her head is ok?"

"I hate all of you," Del replied. "Look. I'm not exactly in peak fighting shape at the moment, and there's a fucking army of mercs out there who aren't averse to shooting my friends and innocent civilians in order to get a crack at me. Right now, this apartment is safe, but we start running around too much after false leads and we're going to paint an arrow right here. We can't afford to waste time, but we also can't afford to waste it by sniffing up the wrong tree. We need to be absolutely sure this Kahn is the supplier before we shake him down for more information, otherwise we give away the fact that we have this gun and know about the mod. If we hit the wrong supplier, they have time to take out the real supplier, and we've lost the only lead we've got."

"Of course, you're right," Garrus said.

"It will take a little longer to verify without a doubt that Kahn is the one we're after," Liara said. "However I have no doubt I can find that verification if it exists."

"Good, then I want that done. Until we know for sure who to move on and the best place to move on them, we are going to have to lay low here and wait."

"Wait…" Wrex grumbled.

"I know, I don't like it either," Shepard said. "But we can't afford to be stupid about this. Tali, can you make sure everyone's omni-tools are clean? They compromised mine, no reason they won't at least try to get into everyone else's."

"I'll get right on it," she said.

"There you are," Helen said, as she finished up sealing Brooks' wound. "You may be a bit sore for a day or two but you're as good as new."

"Thank you," she said, gingerly testing her arm. Then she grimaced. "Great."

"What's wrong?" Helen asked.

"Oh, nothing…I just realized I'm going to have to write a report about getting shot. I hear those are really complicated."

"It's faster to just make a template," Shepard said. Brooks stared at her.

"Yyyyyeah, I think you get shot a bit too much."

The door suddenly chimed, and the air was filled with the sudden sound of weapons being drawn. Del herself reached for her own hip, but of course she was now dressed in yoga pants and a tank and not carrying. The motion made her wobble a bit, and Liara instinctively reached out and steadied her.

"I forwarded Joker's message to Ashley," Garrus said. "She said she would meet us here. That's probably her."

He looked at Del, who gave him a short nod. "Go."

He headed for the door, but Del noticed he didn't put his own pistol away as he did so. Everyone kept their weapons up and fixed on the door as he opened it.

Ashley stepped in lifting an eyebrow at all the guns bristling her direction. "Wow, you started this party without us, I see?"

"Us?" Del asked, as the weapons started to lower.

"Yeah, ran into a pal of yours downstairs. She's pretty eager to help."

"Jesus, Del, you look like fuck took a shit all over fucked up shit," Jack said, stepping in behind her.

Del grinned.


There really wasn't much to do besides sit around and talk while Liara continued to try and verify the information she'd found. Nancy spent her time gathering snacks and drinks for everyone, and trying not to fuss over Del, but Shepard could tell she was worried, nearly as much as Liara was.

Shepard was far from happy herself. Her entire body hurt, her head throbbing miserably. Chakwas had given her painkillers but they did little to no good. Every fiber of her wanted to lay down and sleep, but of course that was forbidden right now too.

Her physical discomfort was her smallest concern, however. The apartment was still under Anderson's name and had no official tie to her whatsoever. That they hadn't already been attacked showed these mystery mercs weren't aware of it. That didn't mean they couldn't become aware of it. If they attacked the apartment en masse…

You have at least a dozen well trained and combat tested warriors here right now, and enough guns and ammo to supply a platoon.

They have guns and ammo too…and a small army.

Do you really think they would be able to contest you and your friends?

That's pride talking. If they attack, maybe we can drive them back. Maybe we can't. But Nancy and Liara will be in the crossfire. Liara's got combat experience but Nancy's just a retired nurse. And what about Helen?

Fuck. I'm going to find whoever's behind this and fuck them up, I swear to God.

"Shepard, looks like what happened at Ryuusei made the news," Garrus said, sitting down nearby with Tali and switching on the view screen. Del looked up at it to see an image of the restaurant, roped off by C-Sec. As the reporter spoke, talking about an 'armed incident' at the 'upscale eatery', the image switched to a hovercam outside which showed the ruin of the back of the restaurant, and the broken signs she had tried to use to stop her fall.

"You really fell all that way?" Tali asked.

"Yeah. Believe me, every inch of me is feeling it."

"I'll bet." Then she sighed in such a way that Del knew some teasing was coming. "You know, back when I first came to the Citadel on my Pilgrimage- back before we met I mean-I used to walk past that restaurant and look in the window at the fish swimming around inside. I always told myself I would go there someday, when I had proven myself to the galaxy…when I was worth something more than just a suit rat. I would go in, just like the other important people, and have dinner…be their equal."

"Tali, you're worth a million of those starched collars," Del said. "You always have been."

Tali smiled at her. "Thank you for thinking so. Doesn't matter now anyway. The dream is ruined, because you went and broke their floor."

Del chuckled weakly. "Tali-"

"With your face."

"It wasn't with my face."

"Looks like it was with your face."

"I really really hate you, Mei Mei."

"I really hate you too, Jie Jie. I really hate you too."