Chapter 8

Anya could feel her heartbeat in her ears when she left the main battery. She had felt mortified when she spoke to Garrus, and she was sure that her smile when delivering the line about reach and flexibility had looked painfully forced, but he hadn't seemed fazed.

He seemed interested.

The thought made the pounding in her ears speed up. She felt lighter than she had in awhile, and she had to remind herself to walk away normally.

Commander Shepard would look ridiculous skipping.

She passed by the mess area and was almost immediately waylaid by Jack and Tali.

"Shepard!" Tali whisper yelled. Anya stopped in her tracks, breaking out of her reverie and looking around.

"Why are you being quiet? Nobody is around."

"Just get your ass over here and spill." Jack's tone was vaguely annoyed.

"Spill? Whatever do you mean?" she teased, grinning brilliantly.

"Oooh, see, now that may be the smile of a woman who fuckin' got some!"

"No-we didn't-we just agreed to give it a shot. Nothing has happened yet." Anya was flustered now. She tried to ignore the heat creeping up her neck.

"Aww, that's sweet," crooned the quarian.

"That's lame. How is that a success if nobody got off?"

"It's not about getting off-"

"I call bullshit."

"Look, it's about minding the line where sex with friends can ruin things. I'm not saying that getting off isn't a factor at all, it's just...it's not the main attraction."

"So, you're fucking boring." Jack's tone was flat.

"No, Shepard's just more interested in the man than the penis. It's not crazy…"

"We also have to take it slow until we find out how allergic we are to each other's bodily fluids, so…" Anya shrugged.

"Oh, shit, I didn't even think about that. So you want this dude to plow you so badly that you want him to even though it could kill you?"

"It's not...quite that drastic. I don't-"

"The point is that they're trying." Tali butted in, and Anya shot her a grateful smile. "Shepard, I'm sure you'll be fine. Are you happy?"

"Ah, more nervous than anything. Hitting on him tore my nerves up. I took your advice about the bad pick up line."

"How was it?" Jack was grinning now.

"There is zero doubt in my mind that I have never dropped a line that tacky and obvious in my life. I could feel my future self cringe in the present. That's how bad it was."

"C'mon, hit me. I gotta know, Shep."

"Nope, not even if you threatened me with being spaced directly into Harbinger's main gun."

"Shepard!" Tali sounded scandalized.

"It's not insensitive if I was the one who actually got spaced." Shepard glanced at Jack, and saw the shock on the other woman's face before she laughed.

"That-that was fuckin' dark. I needed that." The other woman walked away, chuckling. After she rounded the corner, Tali turned to Anya.

"Are you okay, Shepard?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Still working my way out of the weird headspace I ended up in on the Collector ship clusterfuck. I'll be okay."

"Are you sure, because that was…"

"I was trying to make a point, I wasn't trying to freak you out. Sorry, Tali."

"I just… You know that you can talk to me, right? I'm not just some weird quarian kid anymore, I've grown up."

"I know, it's just…" Anya ran a hand through her hair. "It's hard. Opening up, I mean, not treating you like an adult. I hate burdening people with my baggage."

"But with how much you shoulder ours, don't you think it's fair for us to help you?"

"If it's ever too much for me to carry alone, I will talk to you about it."

"Do you mean that?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I'm pretty sure you can talk to Garrus, too."

"I know. He has made that very clear to me. I'm never alone as long as I have one of you guys on my six." With that, Anya wrapped an arm around the younger woman's shoulders and squeezed briefly. The half-hug seemed to drive the point home.

"As long as you know." Tali spoke as Anya pulled away.

"Please, with friends like you guys, how could I ever forget?"

"Flatterer!"

"Please, I am literally the most charming bosh'tet you know."

"You are definitely a bosh'tet…" Tali feigned a pensive moment.

Anya snorted. "Alright, well, this bosh'tet is going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow, Tali."

"Good night, Shepard."

Anya waved as she walked away, small smile still playing across her lips. Tali's heart was almost always in the right place, and knowing that made her friendship with the other woman easy.

The smile faded as she entered the elevator. A thought had crossed her mind that made her anxious, and she knew that she would be obligated to indulge her curiosity.

The moment she was in her room, she bee-line for her desk. "Hey, EDI?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"I need a favor."

"How may I be of assistance?"

"I need you to send me every scrap of data about the Lazarus Project you have access to. I need to know what every implant, every graft, and every nanite in my body is for."

"Is there something in particular you are hoping to find?"

"Right now, I...I need to know how my body is likely to respond to allergens and toxins."

"As long as the nanites in your bloodstream are active, you should have a tolerance to most substances. The nanites are capable of filtering out even botulinum and arsenic, to a degree, with the nanites reacting more aggressively the more potent a potential toxin is."

"So with a milder toxin like alcohol…"

"You may become intoxicated, but you will metabolize it quickly, and it would be almost physically impossible to drink yourself to death."

"And allergens?"

"Your body should have little to no reaction to allergens. The few things that would cause a reaction will be mild, with subsequent exposure fine-tuning the efforts of the nanites."

"I see. That's... that's good to hear."

"Do you still require the available data on the Lazarus Project?"

"Yes. All of it. And get ready to be talking for a while, we are going to go over it, line by line until I completely understand my body and how it's limitations have been adjusted."

"Yes, Commander."