-BioWare owns all, as always. Thanks to all who keep on reading this. I really appreciate it. This may not be the best chapter I have done, so please be gentle with me-

The Mind Of A Child

The little brunette girl was very brave as she sat on the examination table of Dr. Chakwas inside of the Normandy SR-2. Lily was her name, and she had just turned 7 years old. She looked around at all of the new surroundings, trying to take in the turn of events that just took place in her life. She had been whisked away from the only home that she had ever known and now sat inside of a real life starship! All of her friends would be so jealous of her right now. They always played around their homes and pretended they were on starships, traveling around the galaxy and meeting new creatures.

Their were definitely a lot of new and different creatures on this ship. She recognized them all from her schooling though. One was a Turian. Lily wasn't sure how to feel about him, since he had scared her back inside of her home. But he also saved her from the two big monsters that she didn't recognize. They scared her more than anything had ever scared her before! These nice people saved her though.

The lady with long brown hair was named Miranda. Lily had clung to her since they had left her home a little while ago. She always walking around and talking to a tall man that everyone kept calling Shepard. Lily guessed maybe they liked each other, but he wasn't poking her or pulling her hair like the boys her age did.

One thing that excited her the most was getting to meet Miss Tali, the Quarian. She talked funny from inside of her helmet that she wore. When Miranda wasn't around, Tali would talk to her and they would play little games that Tali said she played when she was a little girl. Tali told her that she used to be new on this ship too a long time ago. Now she was considered to be a part of the family on the ship. Lily looked around once more. Where was her family? Mommy and daddy had to be here somewhere, but she couldn't figure out where. Maybe Shepard or Miranda would know where they were at.

Dr. Chakwas continued her examination of Lily, while Miranda stood with a clipboard, writing down everything that the doctor was telling her.

"Lily has no broken bones," Dr. Chakwas said to her. "The only real damage done to her is the bruises and small lacerations. But those will heal over the process of a few days." Miranda jotted down everything that was just said. Dr. Chakwas liked to have a written account of all of her dealings, to coincide with what she had on audio and video record. It was just a safe way for her to be able to double check her notes.

"You are a lucky little girl you know that?" Miranda asked with a smile. "I am glad that we found you when we did."

"Is the Commander going to have Yeoman Chambers sit down and talk with her to make she has no psychiatric illnesses?" Dr. Chakwas asked.

"He is," Miranda replied. "He wanted you to clear her before Kelly sat down with her. Shepard holds your opinion in high regard."

"Well as far as I can tell she is an otherwise healthy young lady," the doctor said sitting next to Lily on the table. "No internal damage done to her body, no signs of anything that I can tell other than the bruises and lacerations which like I said will heal with time."

"Has been exposed to any Element Zero?" Miranda asked, reading off one of the questions that they had skipped over earlier.

"All of her tests came back negative," Chakwas replied. "She is not a biotic. And with the amount of biotics we have on this ship that may be a good thing."

"Biotics can be tricky if you do not know how to control it," Miranda said. As she finished her statement, Commander Christian Shepard entered into the infirmary and looked over at Lily.

"I am hoping to hear some good news about our new friend here," he said.

"First of all we learned her name is Lily and she is 7 years old," Miranda began.

Shepard knelt down a little in front of Lily, "Lily huh? That is a pretty name for a pretty little girl. What else?" He turned his attention quickly over to Miranda and Dr. Chakwas. Shepard wanted to interact with the child more but he had precious little time and he did not want to waste it. Making sure this little girl was okay was his first priority, that would give him the go ahead to have her sit down and talk to Kelly about what had happened on her home planet.

"She has no major injuries Shepard," Dr. Chakwas began, walking up the bed and putting her hand on Lily's back. "Some minor lacerations on parts of her body.." she said pointing to a cut on the girl's face. "And bruises scattered across her body as well. Other than those minor injuries she is okay."

"Physically she is fine Shepard," Miranda chimed in with. "Mentally though, it could be a whole new story. She has been fine sitting here, and not asked any questions about…" Shepard nodded and was able to finish her sentence for her. "We haven't gathered that much from her though, other than her name and her age. She has been quiet and content just sitting here watching us." Shepard got up from kneeling in front of Lily and looked down at her.

She was a beautiful little girl who looked like she was ready to just begin a deep exploration of the universe around her. Of course Shepard was sure that when her parents had held her for the first time they had envisioned Lily living a peaceful life on Egeos. Not sitting on a ship while their corpses were back in their family home.

He turned to Dr. Chakwas, "Would it be okay if we were to have her sit down and talk to Kelly? Just to make sure that she is okay. I am sure that inside of her little mind she has all sorts of information inside of that head of hers."

"As eager you are to get inside of her head, I would be cautious Shepard," Dr. Chakwas said. "Although she has been calm with Miranda and I, she is still in a very fragile state right now. The fact that she has not vocally mentioned.." The doctor mouthed the words 'her parents'. "…is quite astonishing to me."

"I understand your concern doctor," Shepard said. "But we need to learn what she knows, what exactly happened down on that planet. All we know is that the Anahaus came through and…well the carnage speaks for itself. An eye witness account will be very beneficial to us."

"Regardless of your reasons Shepard," Dr. Chakwas said trying to sound disapproving. "I still stand behind my decision. She is to fragile right now."

Shepard merely smiled and picked the child up into his arms. "EDI, have Kelly meet me the conference room immediately." He said to the ship's AI. In a matter of 2-3 minutes Shepard, Lily, and Kelly were all sitting up in the conference room, a room that at one time had been completely destroyed after the battle with the Collectors. But his crew was able to put everything back into place and once again have his ship be in pristine shape.

Shepard sat in the corner of the room, arms folded across his chest and a look of determination across his face. It was not by luck that they met Lily, Shepard knew that this was meant to be. Children were normally honest little people, and although they did not always know what was going on, they were able to revisit memories damn near perfectly. He wanted to know more about their newest enemy. So far he and his crew had only encountered one or two at a time, but the whole colony of Egeos was wiped out by more than just a couple of them. They had to have patterns to their attacks and some sort of coordination about how they did things. EDI was working tirelessly to try and gather anything she could from the security cams on Egeos but thus far they had very little.

Kelly and Lily were sitting and talking about school and all of the little friends that Lily had back at home. So far nothing had come up about her parents, which Shepard had found particularly surprising. It had been at least 4 hours since they had left Egeos and only a couple of times she had mentioned her family. Maybe she was smarter than she let on and knew what had happened to her family.

Lily and Kelly sat and talked like they had known each other before, and bonded very easily. That was the result that Shepard has wanted but he did not expect it to come as quickly as it did. But then the conversation turned down a road that, despite all of his wishful thinking, Shepard knew it would eventually have to turn down.

"Now Lily," Kelly said, trying to ease into the conversation. "Can you tell me what happened at your home today? You know, when the attacks began." Shepard said forward and watched intently, knowing that this was what he had been waiting for.

At first Lily didn't say anything for almost a full minute. She had a stone cold look on her face, one not of sadness or grief but one of shock and horror. It was to be expected considering what the young child had been through. And although time was of the essence, Shepard was willing to work with the girl while she tried to sort out her thoughts about what had happened. Her little hands clinched up into fists as she began to talk.

"I was sitting by the window in my living room," she began. "Some of the grown-ups began to scream really loud and run into the buildings. I wasn't sure what was scaring them so I kept watching. I heard gunfire. Lots and lots of gunfire coming from down the street. There were a lot of explosions and more screams. Not a normal scream, but one that was really loud. Cars were on fire and so were some…"

"Some what Lily?" Kelly asked. "Some people?" Lily nodded. Much to Shepard's surprise, Lily still had a stone cold look on her face. Callous almost. It had to be a defense mechanism, but surely she was too young to have developed an attitude like that. Despite her lack of an emotional response, Lily kept on with the story.

"People were on fire, just like the cars," she continued. "There was a lot of bodies and blood all on the ground. I saw some adults running away from loud noises, and some of my friends were running away as well. I didn't know what they were running from at first but I kept watching. Then I saw these big monster walking down my street, shooting guns at my friends and neighbors. One jumped onto an air transport and growled really loud.

"More of them came down my street, all with guns and big knives, bigger than what my mom uses in the kitchen," Lily said. She paused for a second, not looking at Kelly anymore but through her. After a moment she snapped back into reality and continued on with her story. "I saw as a group of them began to walk towards where I live. The rest of them kept shooting and walking forward. The people they didn't shoot they killed with their big knives or they bit them…a lot.

"I heard the monsters shooting and people screaming in the hallways where I live," she said. "Daddy finally came in and grabbed me away, right before our window cracked and broke all over our floor. I got cut up a little bit from the glass and the floor when daddy and I fell down. Mommy came running into the living room too and they threw me into the closet that we have a lot of things mommy uses to clean with." She kept quiet for a bit. She didn't talk, only looked at Kelly as if she was trying to figure something out. Shepard knew this moment was going to come but he was surprised that it took so long for her to come up with the question.

"Where is my mommy and daddy?" Lily asked. She began to look around the room, panicking slightly and squirming around in her chair. "Mommy! Daddy!" She called out as tears began to form up in her small eyes. After a moment of squirming she sat still in her chair and put her face in hands, allowing the tears to flow after the realization sat in. Her parents weren't on the ship for a reason. They were back at her house when the monsters came in. They had hid her from the monsters but didn't hide themselves from the monsters. She knew what happened to her parents.

Kelly began to tear up slightly, but was able to wipe away the early tears and keep her composure. She slid her chair over and pulled Lily onto her lap and rocked her slightly. Kelly specialized in psychology, but she was used to grown adults and adult aliens. Working with children was something completely different and this was a very delicate situation, one that she had never worked with before. In a matter of hours this young child had lost everything that is had known to be a normalcy in her life. Now she was being forced to realize that her parents were somewhere that she could not go, and somewhere they would not be able to come back from.

Shepard sat in the corner watching on. He kept his military bearing, not showing any emotion that would remind himself that he is human. Lily had told him all that he was going to be able to get out of her for now. Unfortunately, he did not get what he wanted out of the conversation with her. He needed to know how the Anahaus worked and coordinated their attacks.

He got to his feet and looked at Kelly. She smiled and nodded, letting him know that she had everything under control. Now it was time for him to try and put a finish to all of this.