As the shuttle approached the nexus, Lexi fancied she could see Sarah paling a little more with each hum of the engines. By the time they actually stopped, she was as white as her brother's hoodie and had started wringing her hands in a way that had to be painful.

"Sarah" Scott's voice was low and gentle as he crouched down before her, just like he had in the cryo bay. "Do you want to wear my shirt? That way you can pull up the hood and not have to look at anyone. And we'll go straight to the Tempest, I promise."

There was a slow, barely noticeable nod, and Scott stood up to remove his shirt. As he did, the t-shirt he wore underneath shifted and for a moment Lexi saw a few inches of his lower back. It wasn't much, but the horror of it was going to stay with her for a very long time. The entirety of the pathfinder's lower back was a twisted mess of long, pale red lines; scar tissue, Lexi's brain noted. Then the skin was once more covered and the hoodie was making it's way over Sarah's head.

Seeing the woman in her brother's shirt only reinforced to Lexi how much the size of them differed; the fabric, which had strained over Scott's broad shoulders, now fell in loose folds around Sarah, nearly covering her completely. The sleeves hung down past her hands, and the hem ended somewhere above her knees. She looked like a child in her father's clothes, and the image was only reinforced by the way she seemed to hide under the hood, casting her face in shadows. Scott folded up the sleeves with the patience of a man having done it dozens of times before, and then he took a firm grip of her hand.

"Do you want to hold Lexis hand, too?" he asked, voice carefully neutral. Lexi couldn't see what sort of expression came over Sarah's face, but whatever it was it made Scott flash a quick smile.

"Okay. let's go, then. The faster we go, the faster we get it over with."

"We won't stop?" Sarah's voice was barely audible.

"Not unless you want to" Scott promised.

And so they were off.

Scott kept his word, and kept a brisk pace through the common areas of the docks. A few people hailed or called to him, but he only smiled and shook his head, not for a moment letting go of his grip on Sarah's hand. Finally, they stood before the doors to the tempest, and Scott finally stopped.

"Sarah, I have asked two of my crew to meet us, and they are most likely waiting on the other side. Is that okay, or should Lexi go ahead and ask them to leave?"
"Who are they?" Sarah asked, voice as quiet as it had been on the shuttle but not as insecure.

"The first one is one of my closest friends. His name is Liam Costa and I'm pretty confident you're going to like him. He's one of the nicest guys you're ever going to meet."

"Do I call him Liam or Costa?" Sarah wanted to know.

"You call him Liam. He's the one who's about as tall as me with frizzy brown hair and an adorable smile."
Sarah giggled.

"Do you have a crush on him, big brother? You sound like you do."

"Only in a 'it should be illegal to be that cute'-way."

"Who's the other one?"

"His name is Drack. He is a krogan, and about a thousand years old. He is a very honest person, and you can count on him to say what he means."

"Does he mean what he says, too?"

"Most of the time, yes. He's battlescarred, though, and rather large for a krogan. Try not to be intimidated by how he looks, he's a nice guy. Just… don't tell him he's a nice guy or he gets cranky."

Sarah laughed, and it sounded like wind chimes.

"I want to meet them." she said, and Scott finally smiled.

"Alright then, let's go meet them."

The door opened slowly with the sort of humming sound that sounds almost satisfied and never failed to grate on Scotts nerves, and Sarah's already strong grip on his hand became painful.

"It's alright" he whispered to her as he led her into the ship.

Liam, who had bee leaning against the wall with an air of relaxed confidence, straightened up and looked with great interest at the hooded woman clinging to the pathfinder like she was afraid he'd leave her, but said nothing. Neither did Drack where he stood a bit further back.

"Sarah" Scott said as he escorted his sister forwards, gesturing to Liam. "this is Liam Costa, whom I told you about."

Sarah pulled down her hood, and for a moment Liam felt like he'd been sucker-punched. The brunette who looked at him with anxious dark eyes was a level ten knock-out.

She also looked absolutely terrified.

Liam hesitated, then held out his hand for her to shake and gave his best friendly smile.

"Hello there Sarah" he said and tried to sound welcoming, "it's nice to meet you."

Sarah looked at him very intently for a few moments, then she smiled the prettiest smile he'd seen since waking up in Andromeda and laid her hand in his.

"Hello Liam" she said in a voice lower than he had expected. "It's.. very nice to meet you, too."

Then she looked at Drac.k.

"You have a lot of scars" she noted calmly, "are they very old?"

Drack smiled, or did what substituted smiling for krogans.
"That they are. Would you like to hear a few stories?"

Sarah lit up like a flare gun.

"Yes, please!" then her eagerness turned into worry.

"I'm sorry, I'm supposed to introduce- my name is Sarah, I-"

Drack snorted and gestured with his heavy head.

"And I am Drack. Now come along, little Sarah, I have stories to tell."

She glanced quickly back at Scott.

"Go on" he encouraged, smiling, and with that Drack disappeared towards the kitchen with his new admirer in tow.

"What… just happened?" Lexi asked.

"I have no idea." Scott replied.