They traveled through space for several days, Nihlus not really having a destination, plus it seemed safer to keep Shepard away from others until he could communicate with her better. Her leg was healing very well, but he still tried to keep her off of her feet as much as possible. Which was not easy, every time he turned around she was on her feet doing something.

He heard her moving about from his pilot seat and sighed, pulling himself up and went down into the mess. "Shepard, where did you the idea that this was smart?" he asked as he saw her trying to scratch under her cast with a sharp two pronged fork.

She looked up at him as he took it away from her and took off his glove and slid his index talon under the cast and gently scratched her skin. She sighed as he soothed the itch and after a bit he removed his hand and put his glove back on. She said something to him that he was fairly sure was a thank you at this point.

"Okay let's get some of your language into the Omni-tool." he said as he picked her off the counter bridal style and set her back down at the table. He sat across from her and grabbed her hand, holding it up and pointed to it. "What is this?" he asked.

She blinked at him, looking at her hand for several seconds before answering. "Jeft?" she said and he recorded it on his omni-tool. They continued on, first with body parts, then when objects around the ship. It took most of the day, but he finally ran out of objects to ask her the name for. He wasn't sure how they were going to get some words, like verbs, and syntax was going to be hell. For now he just let her go back to her room and he went back to his pilot seat.

Right as he sat down his terminal blinked to tell him he was getting a call. He sighed and answered it, bringing up a holograph of the council.

"We are not pleased with you, Nihlus." the turian said. "You stunned three C-Sec officers that were under our orders and fled the Citadel."

Nihlus' mandibles flared slightly and his sub-harmonics vocalized his displeasure. "I did what you wanted me to; I got her off the Citadel and out of your hair. And, once we can communicate with her, I will bring her back and you will see she isn't some vicious animal."

"Well see," the turian said, knowing that Shepard wasn't a threat in the terminus and Nihlus wouldn't obey an order to bring her back anyways. Nihlus was very headstrong, he didn't like obeying an order he didn't like, but he and Saren were two of their top Spectres. There were no doubts that Nihlus got good results.

"You can keep her so long as she doesn't come into Citadel space." the asari said. "But it is not going to interfere or stop your duties; this is your hobby, not a mission."

Nihlus nodded in understanding.

"That being said there is a Blood Pack base that we need you to infiltrate and destroy. They have been creating some problems with transporting supplies, including food, weapons, and civilians." the salarian informed him.

"Slavers?" Nihlus asked and sat up a bit.

All three of them nodded, sent the coordinates, and disconnected.

He sighed and set a path to the coordinates before getting up to go get ready. "Estimate time of arrival in three hours." his ship informed him over the intercom.

Shepard

She felt the ship shift and got off of the bed to see what was up. They had just been drifting for days, so having the course changed was something new. She opened the door to her room in time to see Nihlus head down into the cargo bay. She followed him, hobbling as fast as she could.

He heard her and half turned, stopping to let her catch up. "What's going on?" she asked, and then remembered he couldn't understand her.

His mandibles flared a bit into a smile and ran his hand through her hair. He chirped something at her before he went over to a work bench and gathered up his weapons.

"Nihlus…" she said a little warily, watching him grab his pistol. When he didn't response she sighed and hopped up on the edge of the work bench and watched him meticulously clean his guns one by one. The similarity of it from the way she did before every mission or to calm down was reassuring, even if they couldn't understand each other, even if they were so different, there were some things different evolutions couldn't keep out.

Nihlus

He watched her catch up to him and could read the tension in her stance. She was smart to pick up that something was happening so fast. He brushed his hand through her hair—he knew the word for it now after their session of object naming. "It'll be alright, I'll protect you." he tried to sooth before continuing down to his work bench. People would think he was crazy for having his weapons laid out where Shepard could get ahold of them, hell they would think he was crazy for leaving his room unlocked at night, or the fact that unlike a lot of other turians he couldn't stand to sleep in his armor. He left weapons where Shepard could get them and made it to where she could get to him, but he trusted her and she never gave a reason to let that trust falter.

She said his name again when he picked up the pistol and he gave a low hum at the sound before he caught himself. Why did he enjoy the sound of his name on her lips so much? Sure he liked Asari, and Shepard did share several of the same characteristics, but to react like that? He swallowed a bit and started taking his guns apart and cleaned them, trying to take his mind off of the little pink alien with the gorgeous red hair. It didn't help when she hopped up on the table so he could even smell her. Clean, just clean the guns. After the mission he was going to have to dock and get laid, he was probably just too tense, need to burn off some steam.

He almost felt relieved when his ship informed him that they would touch down in twenty. He slid his guns in place and picked Shepard up, carrying her back up stairs and into her room. He set her on the bed and kneeled in front of her. "I will be back soon. Just stay on the ship." he told her and couldn't help his mandibles flaring into a smile when she jumped at the word ship. So the omni-tool's translator was working. He pressed his forward against hers for a split second before he got up and left.

He set the ship down on a cliff that they couldn't be seen on about a mile from the base. After rechecking all his weapons he left the ship and pulled out his sniper, using the scope to see what kind of defenses the base had.

He saw three krogan guards, one at each visible corner, two batarians on the roof. There were also four two man teams that circled around the base, always having one on each side. In addition, at the door there were two turian guards. Shooting his way in wasn't going to work, the mercs on the inside would be alerted before he could take all the guards out and they would either lock down or hunt for him, either way didn't leave him a good way to finish this mission. The best option would be for him to sneak his way inside and kill them from the inside out. Hopefully he wouldn't have to blow the place up, but he did have the charges if that because necessary and could place them as he went. That meant he needed a way in though.

Just as he finished sweeping the place a third time for any openings his omni-tool beeped, informing him of an incoming ship. He turned and saw a cargo ship about to fly overhead, it wouldn't see his ship tucked away in the rocks and it gave him an idea. He waited until it was nearly over head and shot a magnetic hook at it. It caught and he quickly hit the button that pulled him up to it by the wire connecting the two.

He stood on the back of the ship and started hacking into the cargo door. "Come on," he muttered as the ship neared the base. He could hear the mercs talking about the new stock of cargo over the thudding in his ears as the door lifted enough for him to slide under. It shut behind him and he moved to a crate that looked big enough to fit him and started hacking into the lock. He felt the ship touch down and urged the hack to go faster. It opened as he heard the code for the cargo door being typed in and quickly slid inside, barely fitting beside the food rations. The crate locked back and Nihlus allowed himself to breath for a moment as he waited for them to move the crate inside.

He wanted even after the footsteps faded, counting the seconds tick by. He thought back to Shepard on the ship, wondering what she was doing, if she was worrying about him. He sighed and shook his head and started to re-hack the crate, it finishing in just a few seconds since he had already hacked it once. There was a beep from the outside of the crate and it opened. He climbed out and stretched as he took in his surroundings.

They had taken the crate to a storage room for food, which was good because it was completely deserted. He pulled out his pistol and locked a silencer over the barrel, best to keep quiet for as long as possible. He went to the door, stood off to the side, and opened it. He waited for three seconds before popping his head out real quick. No one was there so he set a charge by the side of the door and then moved. He moved quickly and efficiently through the halls, taking out anyone he came across before they could sound an alarm, making sure to place charges at main structural points in the building.

Near the end of running through all the tunnels he stumbled on a control room. After taking out the guards he was halted in his progress by a picture on one of the big screens. It was a picture of a creature like Shepard. Could this be her crew? Could they be the ones who attacked her? He checked the door and quickly went over to one of the terminals, hacking into it and trying to find the information about the creature on the screen.

"Come on…" he muttered as he scanned through the data, trying to find the files of recent kidnappings. He found it and clicked it to download right as he felt a gun press against the back of his head under his cowl.

"Back away from the terminal and get on the ground." a krogan's voice said behind him.

Nihlus did what he said, his hands up. He turned around slowly to face the enemy and was greeted by his company of a dozen vorcha and batarians. "So many to deal with just one person?" Nihlus said. "I feel honored."

The krogan slammed the butt of the gun into Nihlus' jaw. "Don't play coy; we know you're a Spectre." Nihlus rubbed his jaw, making sure his mandible was okay. "And we know about your friend on your ship." Nihlus tensed up just slightly and the krogan smiled. "We have people in route to invite it to join us."

Nihlus' world slowed down, his heart beat thudding in his ears. And then he moved, slamming his fist into the side of the krogan's face. The others quickly opened fire on him and he ducked into cover and pulled out his pistol. They tried to close in on him but he just shut them all down, his adrenaline pounding in his veins, making everything seem slow, giving him the time needed to aim the perfect kill shot.

He shot the last merc and went over to the krogan who was bleeding on the floor from several bullet wounds. "I would take the time to kill you, but you aren't worth the time." Nihlus said and stuck a charge to the krogan's back where he couldn't reach it. The krogan yelled at him, trying to get to his feet, but he was still too injured. Nihlus didn't pay him any mind, though; he just kept running through the halls, shooting down any mercs that tried to stop him, stealth thrown to the wind. He finally found a door out and started back up the hill that his ship was on, feeling dread consume him that maybe he was too late. And then he felt the shot, a sniper bullet grazing his cheek and sinking into the head of a merc that was trying to sneak up behind him. The merc fell and Nihlus just stood there, wondering what the hell was holding the gun.

A/N: Sorry for the wait guys, it's during the very crazy time of year where my summer job hasn't panned out and college has started so I'm currently working two jobs and going to 14 hours of school in high level classes. Anyways here is the chapter and if anyone is going to be at AWA this weekend (September 27th) I'll be there. Send me a PM and we can meet up, I'd love to meet some of you. As always thanks for your support.