A/N - Alternate title; Gun to a Knife Fight
You'll have to pardon my French in this chapter, literally. I understand some of the nouns might not follow French grammar, but seeing as they speak mostly English, I thought I'd just stick to those rules. I hope it's not too awful, I learnt German in school. Of course, I could have set this in Germany, but then it'd turn into a Eurotrip, and I'm not comfortable writing Li'l!Shep getting beat up by a human robot with a funny accent.
That was a joke. A terrible one. Sorry. I'll be quiet now.

Also, thanks thedeadflag, you're saving me much embarrassment! And Ophalia, for helping me with my terrible french! :)

2169 CE – Local Cluster/Sol/Earth/Europa/France/Nord
Calais

France always felt more secure than UK soil, Alex thought. It was as if the country itself was less harsh, more forgiving, safer. People feel safest right before they die. The human was under no illusions; she knew that simmering beneath the glossy veneers, corruption and violence festered, like a disease. This planet was rotten to the core.

Those who were good, lucky, rich or smart enough had jumped to light speed the first chance they got, leaving the rest of humanity, the sick, the poor, the dispossessed to carve out meek lives for themselves. Alex did not blame those who left and planned on doing so herself as soon as possible but she couldn't shake the bitter tinge of resentment at the thoughts. She had always wanted to travel the stars.

Tired of her introspect, she studied the surrounding area. She and Liara had stopped at a small café to relax after their cross Channel journey and for Liara to reclaim her land legs. For a species that had begun in the sea, Asari apparently did not mix well with boats. Alex over heard her companion quietly muttering about moons and tidal cycles as they strolled along the street. It was cheating, she had insisted. Humans were far too angry. Even their oceans like to fight.

Apart from Liara's discomfort, the trip was going smoothly, which for Alex, only meant something else was brewing just out of view. She felt the twinge of a knot in her stomach. She was always tense, but the unfamiliar territory only served to amplify her anxiety. They were being watched. It was more of a feeling and instinct than a quantifiable fact, but instinct had kept Alex alive in the past, and she had learned to trust it above all else.

Save a few curious glances at the blue Doctor, the pair remained largely ignored by the shifting crowds. However, a trio of teenagers caught her eye. They had taken up position on wall across the street soon after Liara and Alex had sat down. All three wore ridiculously over sized, garish yellow hoodies and had drawn up their hoods to avoid attention. In so much as three giant animated lemons could, she supposed. Although their faces were obscure, Alex couldn't help but feel the burn of their eyes every time she looked away.

Liara hadn't appeared to notice, her own eyes darting around, taking in the alien environment. The human watched her silently, amused at the Asari's excited expression. She was like a kid in a candy store. Alex remembered Liara yelp as she downed the Espresso she had ordered, eager to try out this concoction called coffee that humanity raved about. The Asari, it seemed, had a stronger response to stimulants than humans.

Liara was currently hopped up like a kid with sugar, eyes full of wonder and hunger for exploration. Alex found her brand of innocent naivety endearing. She probably doesn't get out much. Which is a shame. Liara's fun. An orange tint had descended on the scene as the traffic began to disperse. It was getting late. The pair paid for their drinks and set off toward to shuttle station.

As the skies dimmed, the streets became deserted, doing little to alleviate the knot in the pit of her stomach. Hearing feet shuffling behind them, Alex quickened their pace. Turning the corner, she saw the same yellow Hoods, loitering under a lamp post at the end of a street, blocking their path. There were more of them.

Analysing the situation, she noted one of the Hood's playing with a butterfly knife as the sound of foot steps behind thumped in her ears. She made her decision. Ushering Liara into the nearest side alley, she grabbed the Asari's hand and ran.

As if to confirm her previous suspicions, the foot steps behind her exploded into a stampede, muffled only by snarls of indignation and rage. They kept running, twisting and turning. The pistol that the Human had tucked in her waistband rubbed painfully against her hip.

Alex lost track of the direction they were heading, only focused on getting away. There was a sinking in her stomach as the barks behind her became cocky and jubilant. They lasted for a few more twists and turns before running head on into a splinter of the gang. Flight had failed. Now it was time to fight.

Cornered, Alex placed herself between Liara and the Yellow Hoods. The Asari was panting and there was a hitch in her breathing. She was scared. These bastards have scared Liara. Any fear Alex may have had was immediately swallowed by anger. The Hood, who was still playing absently with the butterfly knife, stepped forward, his eyes trailing over Alex.

"Bonjour mesdames. I should think I'd remember such pretty faces on my streets. You are new here, no?"

Alex only glared. Liara stood behind her, clenching her jaw to stop it trembling, praying that her eyes did not betray her fear. Unimpressed by their silence, the Hood motioned and Alex was grabbed around her wrist and thrust forward. The man took the wrist in his own hand, examining the tattoo left bare on her arm, caressing it with his knife. He muttered to himself.

"La dixiéme rue. Un rouge?" He fixed Alex with a dark stare. "You are a long way from home, gamine."

"Just passing through."

"You know, walking into someone's territoire unannounced and uninvited could be seen as a threat, un... défi."

A challenge? This isn't going to end well. Alex registered the remaining Hoods pull out their own blades, either flick knives or straight razors. She wrenched her wrist away from the man's grasp but retained eye contact.

"Or, we could just be passing through." She said through clenched teeth.

Trying to reason was futile. She knew things were going south, fast. Her mind switched tracks, now scanning for escape routes and distractions.

"Cependant, it would be foolish to allow passage. If one was to make une exception, others might get ideas. And we can't allow that. At least, not for un prix, of course."

A price? Though her expression didn't falter, Alex felt a glimmer of hope. Perhaps this didn't have to end ugly. She kept her voice steady.

"What kind of price?"

"Oh, just une faveur, or two," The man gave a sickly smirk and any glimmer was immediately extinguished.

"From you and your," His eyes lingered over Liara. "Pute bleue."

That did it. In one fluid motion, Alex drew the pistol from her waist band and had it aimed squarely at the man's forehead. The circling Hoods bristled and growled but dared not step closer. Fucking amateurs. Not one of them had a gun? While the ball was now in her court, Alex was all too aware that she and Liara were still cornered in unfamiliar territory by knife wielding idiots. She adopted an icy glare.

"Now. I'm going to give you a choice, Mon chéri," Alex hissed, with a smile that contained no mirth, as venom dripped from her every word.

"You can let us go our merry way. Or I can paint this wall with your fucking brains. I'm good either way."

The Hood sneered.

"You don't have the balls, mon chaton."

Alex only quirked her eyebrow.

"Oh?"

Never breaking eye contact, she lowered her pistol. A smug grin spread across the man's face. She fired. The man howled and clawed at the bloodied mess that was now his left foot. Alex barely registered the yelp of surprise from Liara behind her.

The surrounding Hoods flinched, suddenly fumbling with their own weapons. The man steadied himself, pain and fury interwoven on his face. Alex stood stony faced and deadly quiet as she lifted her gun back to its original position.

"The next one is going in your fucking skull."

If the man had any sense, he'd limp away. Now. Instead, the Hood let out a strangled cry, stumbling forward as rage engulfed any self preservation the man had, his arms flailing wildly. Alex felt a searing sting flash down her face as she fired her gun, startled by the man's brash movements. He fell back, suddenly limp.

The next few moments were strange for Alex. She felt a disconnect between her body and her brain. It was as if she were watching a vid as a flurry of yellow limbs came flying at her, blades glinting menacingly in the twilight. She vaguely felt her gun firing as she saw blood stain yellow. Who it belonged to, Alex couldn't be sure.

Before she had time to reorient herself, she felt warm, blue arms grab her from behind. Suddenly, a crackle of energy filled the air, tickling Alex's nose, as blue electricity swallowed the alley, sending the sea of yellow flying. No longer overwhelmed, the Human's senses returned to her.

She grabbed Liara's hand and again, they were running. Cutting out onto a main road, Alex was dismayed to find themselves almost back where they had started. However, at least she knew the way to the shuttle station. Only when they were in its mercifully empty foyer did they slow down.

Her lungs burning, Alex collapsed against a wall of lockers, giving Liara a reassuring but breathy laugh. She stopped, noticing the Asari's expression. If she was human, all colour would have drained from her face. Alex wasn't sure if that was physically possible for Liara, however she did note a more pallid tone had swarmed her companion's fear stricken features.

"What?"

"Your face." Liara hissed, frog marching the human into the nearest rest room. Now that she mentioned it, Alex was dimly aware of a throbbing sensation down the left side of her face.

Looking in the mirror she grimaced. A steady stream of blood was trickling from a deep cut that ran from the edge of her hairline, across her eye brow, over her eye and down her cheek before skirting her jaw, coming to a rest at the tip of her chin. Alex twitched her face. Everything seemed to be working. Only a flesh wound. She gave a faint snort.

Looking at Liara through the mirror, Alex was relieved to see that, apart from being a little shaken up, the Asari was fine, rummaging through the human's discarded backpack. Alex turned her attention back to her cut, gingerly raising a finger to her cheek.

"Where do you keep your medigel?"

Alex only snorted.

"Please, I'm not royalty. There's a small tin in there, though, with a pink cat on it."

Liara returned to her rummaging, finding the aforementioned tin. What's a Bagpuss? Shrugging, she opened it and saw a rectangular metal contraption, a needle and some fishing wire. She continued to give a puzzled stare as Alex ruffled through the bag, pulling out a clear bottle. It looks like...

"No, you're not stitching yourself up. This is the Twenty Seco- And this is not the time for that." Liara scolded, snatching the bottle of foul smelling alcohol out of the Human's hand. Alex only glared.

"Yes I am and yes it is." She said, snatching the bottle back.

"You need medigel! I should think you of all people would keep a stock of it."

"Blue, I can barely afford to feed myself. If you want to go out and buy some, fine. I'll just wait here, bleeding in the corner until you come back from the shops in the morning, shall I?"

She took a swig from the bottle, her face contorting, before offering the Asari, who only glared furiously. Alex shrugged, placing the bottle beside the sink and taking the needle and lighter from the tin.

"Make yourself useful and heat this up over the flame." Liara took the lighter grudgingly, as Alex lifted the bottle again, pouring the clear liquid over her cut, wincing. After Alex decided the needle was acceptably hot, she turned to her reflection and flinched as searing metal touched tender flesh. Her hand trembled as she pushed the needle through. She saw Liara looking horrified in the mirror.

"Here. At least let me do it. You'll only make a mess." She huffed, not unkindly.

Alex sat on the floor and leaned against the tiled wall, with Liara crouched, leaning over her. Comfortable silence fell and steadily, they made their way down the offending gash. Once again, Alex suddenly became painfully aware of simply staring into the Asari's eyes, entranced. She felt her cheeks bloom in colour. Eager to stop her mind thinking about it, she broke the silence.

"If you love it so much, how come you don't have any medigel?"

"I rarely need to use it. Plus, getting into a gun fight was not on today's itinerary." Liara added sternly. Alex met her gaze indignantly.

"They had knives."

"You had a gun."

"It was self defence. Not everyone has that magic blue shit!"

"You shot one of them. Twice. In the face."

"Liara! They-," Alex wanted to shout, but all fight had left her. "They could have hurt you." She ended weakly.

"And look at what they did you." Liara paused for a moment, as all anger drained out of her. Suddenly, she was aware of just how tired she was. She sighed and saw Alex looking up at her, intently. Liara gave a small smile.

"For what it's worth, thank you."

Alex returned her smile.

"So, what's with all this magic voodoo stuff you're packing? If I knew you could pull a Hal Jordan, we could'a had some fun back there."

Wiping away the remaining blood, Liara admired her handiwork. I'd make a good MD, she mused, satisfied and offered a hand, pulling Alex up. Exiting the bathroom, Liara went to the kiosk and ordered a private shuttle. Meanwhile, Alex tinkered on her omnitool. A familiar face appeared over her left arm.

"Hey Ma- Holy shit, what happened to your face!" Suddenly, David was joined by several others, all struggling to jam their heads together to get a better view. Toby gave a bark.

"Tough luck, Ma'. You had a hard enough time gettin' a guy as it was! Now your mug's even uglier!"

"Pffft. This is just me levelling the playing field. Wouldn't want to make it too easy. How're things? Roo hasn't exploded anything has he? Y'know, after last time."

A laugh came from the children as one of the boys flushed to the point Alex was sure she could feel the glow over her Omni. Luis, the second eldest of her kids, sighed, exasperated.

"Yes, mother. Everything's fine. You've been gone a day, you think we can't handle ourselves? I for one am offended." Mock annoyance in his voice.

"If you keep it up, there won't be any cake when you get back." The little girl chipped in. Alex's eyes widened.

"You wouldn't"

"I would."

"You used to be nice, Ivy. And the rest of you; Maybe I just wanted to show off my cool scar and make you all jealous." Alex chirped, keeping her tone light.

"I'll call tomorrow; you all better have something interesting to tell me. I love you guys."

Ivy was the only one to return her affections; everyone else merely gave tired groans. Alex laughed.

"Okay kids, over and out."

Over the course of the conversation, they had arrived at their shuttle; an X2K cruiser that had full auto-pilot, allowing all passengers to enjoy full leather seats, air con and enough leg room to dropkick a Krogan. Alex had always imagined that when she had finally made it big, the first thing she was going to buy was one of these and give it a cool grey finish and a cherry red racing stripe.

It was one of the passions she and David shared. They loved cars and she could only imagine what his face would be like if he were there to see it. She grinned at the thought. This did not go unnoticed by Liara but she held her tongue. Sitting side by side on the back seat, Liara glanced at her companion and saw the same glazed expression over Alex's face.

"You really do love them." Alex blinked, then met the Asari's eyes, gave a soft grin and shrugged.

"Yeah. They're my kids. I'm their mother, their sister, their friend. Whatever they need me to be."

"They love you. Though they do not say it. I suppose they do not have to."

"Yeah." The human went quiet and relaxed back in her chair. Liara mimicked her movements and nestled her head into Alex's shoulder.

"You are like a shepherd." She said absently, speaking to herself as much as she addressed her companion.

"Mhm?"

"That is the correct term, is it not? It was either that or call you a goatherd, but that is slightly less poetic. I would not want to cause offence."

"But yes, the children, they come to you, for comfort, for guidance. And you give them that. You protect them and help them where others would not."

She paused, as if to evaluate what she had just said before closing her eyes.

"You are their shepherd, and they are your flock." Alex considered this for a moment.

"Yeah. I like that. The Shepherd."

They sat in silence while the shuttle hummed along its predetermined route. The quiet was punctuated by a low purr, indicating Liara had fallen asleep. Alex felt a sting in her eyes, knowing she was not far behind. She shifted slightly as she nuzzled her good cheek into the Asari's crest and closed her eyes, losing herself to dreams of fast cars and super heroes of brightest blue.