Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.

Rewrite Notes: Still inspired by the Beyonce song "Save the Hero," from the album I am…Sasha Fierce.

Author's Notes: Spectre Alena M'Tara is based off LuckyFK's Confidence picture on DeviantArt, check it out, but not at work since it's an artistic nude. FNG = fucking new guy.

Revision History: 01/03/2018

Part 1: Chapter 13::12 Days Post-Awakening: Citadel Part 1

The past three days had been extremely busy for the crew of the MSV Menrva, the Blood Pack cruisers had finally left Korlus and passed through the relay twenty-two hours after the team had landed on Korlus. Shepard had been through much longer mission's before, but this was the first time since her death that she had spent quite so much time in her armor and she had been very thankful that she could at least take off her helmet inside the shuttle when she started feeling claustrophobic inside of it. Once the Blood Pack ships left, they had lost no time sending the shuttle back up to the Menrva for more crew members capable of piloting the five transports they had just stolen from the mercenary group. Three of the transports were immediately sent off to New Canton, the closest independent human colony world to be sold, while the other two remained on Korlus for a few more hours. The first transport they loaded with the bodies of those that were being turned in for bounties, and the other they loaded up with the weapons and armor they had salvaged off the dead. Most of the salvage would be sold, but some of it, especially the armor, would be broken down into its component pieces and into omni-gel which could then be used to manufacture replacement pieces for their own armor.

Miranda had seemed simultaneously impressed and bemused by the speed and familiarity with which Shepard and Jacob worked together to get everything done using the same channels they had while serving in the Alliance. With the assistance of the crew, it only took them two days to complete their various tasks, the bodies handed over for their bounties, the armor and weapons earmarked for sale sold, and all five transports quietly disposed of to their new owners. By the time they were done, the Menrva Fund was 53 million dollars in the black and that was after paying what they owed to Cerberus. When Miranda had passed on a message from TIM complementing her on her speed and efficiency in reimbursing Cerberus, she had only smiled and sent back her thanks while inwardly deriving significant amusement at the thought of his disgruntlement. Which meant that since she had all of that out of the way, there was now only one thing left for her to do before heading off to the Citadel.

"No, Miranda," Shepard said firmly, "that places the ship and crew under too much risk. There's nothing stopping the Citadel from blockading the relay and boarding the ship once they realize your identities."

"But you're a Spectre," the dark-haired woman protested, "and you shouldn't be traveling alone without any protection at all."

"I'm not a Spectre right now," Shepard firmly informed her, "and if the Republics wants your heads after Trident, Anderson is certainly not going to protect a bunch of Cerberus personnel. No, I've already picked up my documentation that will get me as far as the Citadel without anyone realizing my identity. It won't hold up there of course, but then I don't need it to. You're going to leave me on New Canton and I'll take the regular transport shuttle from here to Terra Nova and then to the Citadel. I should be back within the next 72 hours."

"And if you're not?" Miranda protested.

"Then the rest of the Council has overrode Anderson and chosen to hold me somewhere until they figure out exactly what's going on," Shepard replied calmly, "let Jack and Grunt off on New Canton to make their own way and do the best you can until I'm released." Upon seeing Miranda's expression, she hurried to continue, "But I don't really think that will happen. I'm going to take the time during the Terra Nova layover and let Anderson know when I'm arriving, that should help set their minds at ease."

"Perhaps you should not go to the Citadel," Miranda quickly countered. "Our disguise worked on Korlus, it should work within the League provided we are careful not to give ourselves away."

Shepard shook her head, "And if it doesn't? Everyone faces incarceration if we are lucky and execution if we are not…no, I'm going to the Citadel." She had apparently been firm enough that time that Miranda realized there was no changing her mind and had finally let her leave, even if it was reluctantly. Which lead her to here, on Terra Nova, the planet she had saved from Batarian terrorists, in front of a communications terminal. She was traveling as Amanda Mitsotakis, hearkening back to her grandmother's maiden name, something even Anderson probably wouldn't recognize without doing a search on it. She made the call to the Citadel and then entered in Anderson's number by memory. Normally that wouldn't be enough to get her directly through to him, but then she entered in her Spectre ID. That should set off all types of alarms.

She waited for it to connect, then waited some more. Finally, 'Please Hold' appeared on the screen and something about the chaos she could sense behind the innocent seeming message caused her to snicker at it. 'Connecting,' though sobered her up rather quickly. Then she straightened to attention at the visage that appeared on the screen, "Captain," she responded by instinct, then corrected herself, "Councilor." She had never quite gotten used to the change in position, even though she had been instrumental in him being assigned to it.

He snorted, then, "I wondered if it was actually you."

She sighed, "Despite the fact that it really shouldn't be, it is. I need to debrief, sir. I will arrive at the Citadel at 14:35 on the transport shuttle from Terra Nova."

He stared at her for a long moment and then nodded, "They're suspicious of you so you will need to go through a few hoops, but I'll make sure it happens."

Shepard nodded, "Understandable given the circumstances. I'll cooperate fully," she assured him, then gave him a smile, "looking forward to seeing you again Anderson."

Anderson nodded, "Be ready to explain where you've been for the past two years."

Instinct bade her to prepare him, "Sir," she said warningly, "Hades did have me, but then the three-headed dog paid an exorbitant sum to Charon to ferry me back."

"Shepard?" he questioned, looking startled at her statement just before she broke the connection.

Shepard closed her eyes, then quietly said what she somehow knew was the truth, "The Elysium Fields were beautiful beyond the ability of words to describe." She opened her eyes and stared at the blank screen…how did she know that? She questioned herself, and yet deep within she absolutely knew it to be the truth. Wherever she had been when she was dead had been a wondrous place to exist. That concept existed as a fact within herself that she could not seriously bring herself to question because she knew it to be unquestionably the truth…even though that was factually impossible. How would your body possibly have your soul's memories when it had been left behind?

"The transport shuttle to the Citadel will be departing in thirty minutes. All passengers for the Citadel please line up for your final security checks," the pleasant tone of the space port VI announced, pulling Shepard out of her thoughts.

Approximately three hours later Shepard disembarked with the other passengers onto the Citadel. Her grey and dark blue armor had drawn looks from the other passengers who were all in civilian clothing, but she had simply re-polarized her helmet and proceeded to take the time to meditate and run over her game plan in her mind once again. As she exited the embarkation walkway, Shepard glanced around the passenger reception area then zeroed in on the three armored and armed forms drawing everyone's attention to them. All three were feminine in form, though of vastly different heights and shapes, and wearing asari helmets with their faceplates polarized so you couldn't see their features. The medium weight armor all three wore was silver and blue and bore the insignia of the Spectre's on their right shoulders, and Shepard didn't know whether to feel special, or especially worried, at the sight of them.

All three asari Spectre's were already looking in her direction and the other humans around her, who had been giving her armored form plenty of space anyway, promptly drew even further away from her. Shepard inhaled once, forcefully telling her nerves to calm, and set out toward them. Her gaze was inevitably drawn to the tallest of the asari trio, who had to be one of the tallest asari Shepard had ever seen before at well over two meters tall, taller even than all but a few human males and as tall as most turian males. Basketball tall, her father's voice echoed from memory in her mind and she had to tamp down the feeling of nostalgia she felt as she recalled the conversation.

"Well, here I was starting to think we were mythical beasts," she quipped as she came up to the three of them.

None of them responded to her for a moment, then the second tallest asari standing slightly in front of the other two shook her head and replied, "Rare, but not quite mythical." She motioned toward a doorway off to the side, "This way please." When Shepard didn't immediately move she added, "Unless you like being gawked at?"

"Not particularly, but what's that way?" Shepard didn't budge.

"Where you're going if you want to go any further," the asari responded as she brushed by her, "I'll go first if it reassures you."

The asari's voice had been mocking, but Shepard didn't let that phase her. "It would," she confirmed as she turned to follow, the other two asari Spectre's falling in behind her.

"Not very trusting of your fellow Spectre's are you," the asari in front of her said as they stepped into the area on the other side of the door and it closed behind them.

"It's been 50-50 so far, so I don't really have any strong expectations either way," Shepard reminded her.

The black faceplate swung her way, "Saren Arterius and Nihlus Kryik," the asari sighed and then the visor depolarized, revealing a medium blue face with the purple markings of the Asari's former, and many would argue still, highest ranking nobility. "I believe you hold the distinction of not only being the first human, but also the first Spectre ever inducted specifically to track down another Spectre."

"Yay me," Shepard replied laconically as she also depolarized her helmet, causing the asari's dark blue lips to curve ever so slightly.

"Indeed," the brown eyed asari agreed, then stuck out her hand, "Tela Vasir," she introduced herself.

"Amanda Shepard," the two of them exchanged a carefully firm but not too firm handshake with the slightly taller asari. Shepard looked over to the other two asari, the very tall one and the one which at least was approximately her height. She was starting to feel short, and that wasn't usual as at just under two meters she was normally taller than most human females.

The very tall asari depolarized her helmet revealing a lavender hued face with both purple lineage markings and what looked like natural purple markings and freckling around her eyes and forehead. Shepard stared up at her in surprise, Liara had some dark blue freckling but nothing at all like this, it was unusual and actually quite interesting looking. One raised brow above clear, lavender colored eyes that almost matched the asari's skin color jolted Shepard's attention and she realized belatedly that the asari had her hand extended toward her. "Alena M'Tara," the tall asari said in a deeper voice than Shepard expected and she had the feeling the nais had just repeated her introduction as they shook hands.

"Cesra Vanis," the purple hued asari with reddish-purple lineage markings and amused blue eyes who was Shepard's height introduced herself immediately afterward, stepping forward to stand beside her taller fellow Spectre.

Well now that she had thoroughly embarrassed herself with her gawking, thought Shepard, "So, now that we're here," she glanced around at the empty corridor, "what's next?"

"What's next is that we continue down this way," Vasir spoke up waving her hand toward where the corridor curved out of sight. "We've setup a room for you to change out of your armor into clothing we will provide you. You'll hand over your weapon and omni-tool, then go with the medical staff for scanning. After your identity is verified, then we will escort you to your meeting with the Council."

Efficient, Shepard thought as she nodded, "Alright then," she said, and then grimaced at her flat tone which betrayed her lack of enthusiasm for the upcoming poking and prodding.

Vasir subtly stiffened and all of a sudden the three asari surrounding her didn't seem quite so friendly. Their aura's suddenly pressing up against her own definitely didn't as she actually felt them expanding to encompass her. "Is there something you want to admit?"

Shepard eyed her carefully, aware that all three asari were using their auras to try and sense if she was about to use her biotics. "Not being enthused about the upcoming poking and questioning?" she responded, careful not to make any threatening moves. "I've asked a bit about my reconstruction, but not exactly every detail about how they managed to get me breathing and walking again after having been half burnt then frozen solid."

The asari's brown eyes narrowed at her words, but the nais didn't otherwise react and Shepard suspected the other Spectre didn't actually believe her. "The scanning is non-negotiable," Vasir finally responded, "you're not approaching any of the Council members until we are certain you are who you claim to be."

She gave the asari an annoyed look, "And I didn't refuse to, I just said I wasn't looking forward to it or their resulting questions because I may not know the answers to them."

Vasir studied her for a moment longer before responding, "Their job is only to determine if you are actually Amanda Shepard, not to demand the specifics of your…reconstruction."

Shepard noticed the hesitation before the other Spectre used the same word she had, but didn't comment on it. "Let's get it over with then," she said tersely earning herself another suspicious look from the asari. She frowned as she followed Vasir down the hall, why was this bothering her so? What was up with this passive-aggressive almost sulky lashing out about it she was doing like some damn teenager? This pit of reluctance and almost dread that just grew as she got closer to the door that had finally appeared around the bend of the hallway. She just really didn't want to do this all of a sudden and wished there was a way to just skip past this bit. She was unaware that her footsteps were slowing as they approached the door until she realized how far ahead Vasir had gotten from her and how close the two asari were behind her because their auras were now brushing up against her own. Determinedly she sped up her pace and managed to arrive in enough time that it was only moderately noticeable that Vasir had to keep the door open for them for an extra few seconds. She entered the room, turned, and stared at the image of herself reflected back at her. Disconcerted at the idea of undressing in front of a wall full of mirrors she turned and looked at the rest of the room. She frowned puzzled, "A locker room?"

"Yes," Vasir's voice was very close behind her, "chose a locker for your equipment. Cesra will bring you your replacement clothing."

Shepard grunted in response, still feeling very uneasy, scanned the lockers and moved over toward one of them. She tried the lock, it was unlocked, she swung the door open stared at her mirrored reflection there and then pushed the locker door all the way open so that she didn't have to look directly at it.

Vasir came up beside her, glanced for a moment at the fully open locker door and then behind her. "Something against mirrors?"

Of course she had noticed Shepard thought with a quiet sigh. When had she become so mirror adverse? The first night she examined herself in the mirror to see the extent of the damage to her body, she answered herself. Ever since then she had simply avoided looking in the direction of the one in her bathroom or the ones in the female bathrooms on the third deck for that matter when she was undressed or about to undress. "Just…" she stopped shook her head with a sigh and then reached up to unseal her helmet. She ignored the searching look Vasir gave the quarter-inch long hair on her head and the glacially slow healing gaps between the sections of new skin on her face that revealed the orangish bio-synthetic muscle underneath as she sat it down on the long bench beside the lockers. Reaching up she began the process of unfastening the armors chestpiece that provided extra protection for her upper torso and fitted over the medium weight armor underneath it. Sectioning armor pieces like this was one way the Anoydine armor provided such flexibility to its wearer, you could wear very mobile light or slightly less mobile medium armor and then fit additional armor pieces over the top along the chest, arms and legs for added protection.

"Here," Vasir said as the nais stepped over the bench, picked up the helmet Shepard had just taken off, and stored it on the upper shelf of the locker. "How long since your last surgery?"

Before she could answer the tall asari, M'Tara, came up to them holding an insert designed to fit in the tall locker and hold armor pieces so you didn't have to stack the armor pieces loose inside, "Here's the armor insert."

Shepard took a step back so the two asari could fit the insert into the locker for her armor while berating herself for acting so immaturely. She was hardly going to impress a trio of centuries old Commandos with this type of behavior. She had tried to play off her reaction and yet Vasir had immediately noticed her odd behavior. Not exactly how Shepard wanted to make an impression with her fellow Spectres. "It's been twelve days since I woke up on the Cerberus station," she snorted, "to one of their guys trying to re-kill me with the stations mechs."

Vasir's brow rose at her answer, "That's quite recent, do you know why he wanted you dead?"

"No idea," Shepard responded as she got the front set of fasteners undone then reached around behind her to get the rear ones, "except that from the information I found on my way though he seemed jealous of the woman who was his boss."

"Here," M'Tara moved around behind Shepard, "let me help, it will go quicker with two."

"Alright," Shepard agreed, not that she really felt had much choice, but she wasn't opposed to some assistance. When Vasir started assisting with the armor removal as well though Shepard couldn't help but ask, "Are we on a deadline here?" Part of her mourned the opportunity to make a smart remark about having two asari stripping her out of her armor but she wasn't sure it would go over well at this particular time, and then of course there was Liara. The last thought brought a flood of mixed anxious and hopeful emotions that she shied away from facing, especially at this time.

"A bit of a one yes," Vasir confirmed, "it's going to take them some time to complete your scan and bloodwork."

Shepard stared at Vasir, "How much time are we talking about here to take a few scans?" She frowned as another possibility occurred to her, "Or are they doing a repeat of the work up they did when I joined?" That made sense as they were trying to figure out if she were actually who she claimed to be.

She felt the taller asari move closer behind her, "Are you objecting to two asari stripping you out of your armor?"

Holy Goddess, the purring tenor voice in her ear was evoking thoughts firesides, fur rugs, silk sheets and maybe some bondage gear. Liara, the voice in her mind reminded her and that was enough for her to regain control over her libido. As Vasir laughed at her reaction she reached up and pushed back M'Tara's helmeted head from beside her ear, "I'm registering that as a deadly weapon," she jokingly threatened. The tall asari behind her chucked in response, then stepped back, giving her a bit more personal space and also completely ignoring her question, Shepard noticed. With all three of them working on removing her armor she was down to her undersuit and waiting when Spectre Cesra Vanis returned carrying a stack of silver and blue clothing along with a familiar plastic bag containing a folded light blue medical onesie.

"I noticed I'd never seen you in our dress uniform," the purple hued asari commented as she placed the clothing on the bench. "I know we don't have one tailored yet for humans, but hopefully you don't object to the asari style after you get through with medical?"

Suddenly a lot more interested in the clothing Cesra had brought her Shepard slipped the onesie in its packing off to the side and picked up the top piece, which appeared to be a long-sleeved blue jacket with silver piping and examined it. "I didn't know the Spectre's had dress uniforms or I'd seriously thought about wearing it at least to the Citadel functions." She held it up to her, noticing that the high-necked jacket was cut high in the front and back but the sides went down to her knees. She looked over at the remaining stack noticing the thigh high boots and what looked like a skin-tight silver undersuit that went with the outfit. She smoothed her hand over the thick but silky feeling fabric and the part of her that still loved dressing up was absolutely delighted at the thought of wearing it. "Thanks," she said with a smile as she looked up, only to see all three asari staring at her with varying degrees of bemused or amused expressions.

"Glad you like it," Cesra commented, "I think you'll look good in it."

There seemed something off in her voice, but when Amanda glanced her way again her smile seemed genuine. Maybe…she self-consciously raised a hand to her shorn hair, at least it was as thick and the same dark auburn color as before, and her smile slipped.

"Your hair doesn't look terrible maiden," Vasir's voice interrupted her thoughts, "and it is worn with a hood." The asari reached down and picked up another item. When she held it up Amanda could see that it was indeed a hood, a long one that when worn would probably reach to her shoulder blades in the back.

Embarrassed that she had been so obvious about her concern, Shepard nodded, "Thank you, I'm still trying to getting used to having no hair." She brushed her hand over the upright short length of it, "At the rate it's growing I hope it will be as long as I usually kept it in another six months."

Vasir nodded, then glanced down at her omni-tool, "We are expected in another fifteen minutes," she announced, glancing sternly at all of them.

Alright then, Shepard thought as she turned a bit self-consciously toward the locker as she reached up for the fastener of her undersuit at her neck. Hopefully she wasn't expected to strip all the way down to her birthday suit with all three asari watching her. Not that she wasn't unused to undressing in front of other's, but it was another thing when everyone else wasn't also getting into or out of their armor. She unzipped the undersuit all the way to her navel then shrugged out of the suit's shoulders and began pulling it down her left arm. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Vasir frown at her and then move closer as she stared at one of the exposed areas along her back.

"I do not think this should look like this," the asari said then reached out and pressed down.

Shepard hissed at the sudden pain, then looked over her shoulder at where the nais was pressing. The skin graft edges along the orangish bio-muscle were red tinged and inflamed looking.

"How long has it been like this?" Vasir inquired, then looked over at Cesra, "could you go get Dr. T'Rani for me?"

"Err," Shepard responded rather at a loss, "I don't think it was like that yesterday?" She winced at the asari's return look, "It definitely wasn't like that after Korlus four days ago."

"You don't think it was like this yesterday?" Vasir sternly questioned her and Shepard suddenly had the feeling of being questioned by a higher ranked officer. "You have unhealed areas of skin and you don't check to see how they're doing when you bathe?" the nais questioned her. "What, do you bathe in the dark?" her tone was exasperated. Shepard couldn't quite meet the asari's brown eyes, actually…she didn't often turn the bathroom light. She didn't really want to look at obvious seams in her skin and what was actually underneath it instead of true muscle anyway, and in the dark she felt less like she could be spied upon. If she couldn't see, then hopefully they couldn't see. She looked back up when she heard Vasir sigh, "Remain here," the asari said to her, "you should be in the hospital on rehab instead of out running missions on garbage scows like Korlus." The asari scowled, "No telling what you might have picked up on that cesspool of a planet."

Of all the things she had imagined and prepared for, Shepard realized with dismay, she hadn't come close to considering this one. With her admission, Vasir had obviously decided she was the FNG who couldn't be trusted to take care of themselves. Shepard emphatically shook her head as she pulled her other arm out of the sleeve of her undersuit and let it hang from her waist, leaving her upper body bare except for her sports bra. "No," she protested, the stopped realizing how she sounded, inhaled and tried again. "No," she stated in quieter, but more determined, tone, "I have to stop the Collectors from taking more humans." She hesitated, waffling and then decided that it would just be best to go all in now that she had started, "And I have to figure out if the Illusive Man's actual goal is getting is hands on the Collector tech on the other side of the Omega 4 relay and stop him."

"Stop him," M'Tara unexpectedly challenged her, "and how exactly would you do that? You obviously aren't taking care of yourself. You aren't paying proper attention to your wounds, and you definitely aren't eating enough to support your biotics."

What? Shepard stared down at herself at the last, noting in dismay the visibility of her ribs underneath her skin, but she weighed…herself or she had been before Korlus. Shit. Yes, she definitely looked like the FNG now. She looked up at the taller asari, "My wounds and weight can be easily fixed, especially since," she stared down at her gaunt looking torso in frustration and to be honest a bit of concern, "this just happened because I wasn't paying attention to my weight for five days." She looked up, her expression writ with fierce determination, "As for how I will stop him, that's relatively easy, or easier than finding Saren at any rate since I know where his objective is already. All I have to do is make sure the Council either gets there instead of him, or catches his forces there." She glanced back and forth between the two asari, "And don't tell me that either of you would let something like this stop you, you would fix the problems and drive on, just like I'm going to."

"Speaking of your biotics, how are yours so strong now," Vasir's question caught her by complete surprise, "How are you charging and flash-stepping?"

Somehow they knew about Purgatory, Shepard realized after her mind caught up with the change in topic. "I told you I was frozen," she responded, "from what I was told, Cerberus used an experimental process to temporarily force my eezo nodules into a receptive state similar to the condition underdeveloped nodules are in during puberty and added more eezo to them. Since I was frozen at the time, they were able to insulate my eezo nodules from my neural tissues and drain the mass effect field fluctuations that occurred during the process so that they didn't send me into convulsions and burn out my neural pathways." She paused and then added, "As for the other, ask the Council they classified it." That appeared to catch both Spectre's by surprise given the way they stared at her.

Before they could question her about anything else though Cesra came back followed by another blue hued asari with reddish-purple lineage markings wearing a standard red and white doctors uniform. "Dr. T'Rani, your patient Amanda Shepard. Amanda, meet Dr. T'Rani."

"Pleased to meet you," Shepard responded and held out her hand to shake.

The doctor paused just long enough to exchange greetings before beginning her examination, "Unless there is an underlying pathological cause, such as a bacterium or other microbe, this is probably not that serious as there are no signs of obvious infection. Have you recently spent a significant amount of time in your undersuit?"

"Yes," Shepard responded, "almost 30 hours four days ago and then going on eight hours so far today."

"How long has it been since you received your skin grafts?" the doctor asked next.

Shepard shifted uneasily, "I don't know honestly, I only woke up twelve days ago."

Dr. T'Rani nodded, "In that time can you tell me how much they have healed?"

Her voice was low and soothing, and as she moved around Shepard found herself slightly distracted by the hints of her perfume, very lightly floral with an amber undertone, quite nice. Shepard lifted her arm, turned so that she could see the gap in her skin and compared it to what she recalled from the first time she had ever looked at it, recalled the horror of looking at it, at the soft pulses she could see in the bio-synthetic muscle underneath, when it was beginning to sink in that it didn't appear that she had any of her actual skin left at all and she was wondering how much of her musculature she had been left with as well or what condition her…she felt cool fingers on her face lifting it.

"Amanda?" the doctor's voice was softly questioning, but her blue eyes were sharp and probing on her face.

What…damn it, no, no, no, not a good time to get caught up in a memory, "Umm, maybe about…" she hesitated for a second then said, "two millimeters of growth?" She met the doctor's gaze steadily on, willing herself to bluff it out. Nothing to see here, nothing at all.

"That's particularly slow for twelve days," the doctor commented, "I suspect your stress hormones are highly elevated since it's usually the causative agent in these cases." She paused for a moment then added, "We will run a few tests through to make sure that is actually the what is causing it along with checking the irritated areas at the edge of the skin grafts for anything that should not be there."

"So, if it's not an infection what's causing the redness," inquired Spectre Vasir.

"Long periods of direct exposure to the damp fabric of the undersuit," the doctor promptly responded, "The fabric is moisture wicking and bacteria resistant, but ideally you should be wearing loose breathable fabrics and changing them as soon as possible if they get wet or sweaty."

The last was directed toward her and Shepard nodded her understanding, "I'll do my best to limit the amount of time I'm in my armor until it fully heals."

"What about her thinness," M'Tara gestured toward her, "she says this is from five days of not watching her weight, but surely she's not been eating enough for longer?"

"How can you be that thin and not be starving?" Cesra sounded honestly concerned for her.

Shepard sighed, "It really has only been five days, and no I haven't been starving. I usually eat more than I want to actually."

T'Rani held up her hand while giving them a stern look, "Not unusual with cybernetic replacements. They take more energy from the body than the muscle mass they replaced, and it seems to take the body awhile to adjust to them. I'll work up a caloric estimate for you to follow after your scans are done." The asari then gave her a stern look, "It's better to ensure you are eating enough to maintain your weight, especially while healing, than attempting to regain it."

"I understand," Shepard attempted to mollify her, while wondering why Chakwas hadn't warned her about her cybernetics requiring more energy. She had accounted for her biotics in her estimation of how much she should be eating but not the cybernetics, which went a long way towards explaining why she kept losing weight instead of maintaining it. "Trust me I'll pay better attention to it now that I realize how fast I can lose it." She hunched her shoulders, standing here with her undersuit halfway down it was starting to get a bit chilly.

"Tela, could you get my patient a blanket or large towel please," the doctor said and the two nails exchanged glances for a moment before the Spectre inclined her head and disappeared from sight at the end of the locker row.

Vasir returned a moment later with a beige colored large sized towel, which she handed over to Shepard. To her surprise it had been heated and she slung it over her shoulders with a sigh of pleasure at the instant warmth. "Thank you," she included them both in her gratitude.

"Alight," Dr. T'Rani said, "I've got a few more things to prepare in the laboratory since there are additional tests that now need to be run. Shepard I'll expect you in there shortly."

"I'll be right in," Shepard said to the asari's retreating back as she leaned over to strip her undersuit all the rest of the way down and step out of it.

"Everything maiden," Vasir informed her, "don't tell me they let you keep your underthings the first time?"

Shepard sighed recalling it, "No, they didn't." At least she had the towel now, she thought, taking some comfort from that. "You know I'm plenty old enough to have children, right?" She commented in irritation as she awkwardly tried to one handed lay remove her bra.

With an audible sigh, Vasir reached over and placed her hands on her shoulders, holding the towel in place. "You are ready to have a child then? Bear her in your body, give birth to her, nurse and dedicate the years needed to raise her?" Shepard turned her head to give the nais a rather horrified glance, in the middle of this? Through the clear faceplate of her helmet Vasir smirked at her, "Strip and dress in your lovely paper jumpsuit maiden, we just used up most of the extra time in your schedule with the doctor looking at your injuries."

Shepard growled a bit in annoyance at Vasir, as now with two hands she quickly stripped of her bra and underwear and reached for the plastic package. Still though, she knew it could be much worse, she could be standing here without any towel being held up for her to hide behind. Even more significant it indicated that her three Spectre guards had decided she wasn't an active threat, or they were much better actresses than she guessed.