Neross: Well hello there all my faithful readers. Guess who's back again?! And just in time for Halloween too! Think of it as my own little treat. Anyway let's all get down to the next highly anticipated chapter shall we?

Warning: This fanfiction may contain foul language, violence, adult situations, and sexual situations. Enjoy!

Beta'd by: Spyke1985

…..

Maria woke up the morning after the party feeling a bit off. Her muscles slightly ached from the cleaning she'd done. Her stomach was slightly upset from the alcohol, and after a moment of hazy wonder, the memory of the kiss she shared with Jaksus returned to the foreground of her mind. She lay still for a moment considering the kiss until she recognized that something else was off. Mostly, she surmised, the strange feeling came from being embraced by Jaksus.

Maria's face warmed and she was sure she'd turned the same shade as a tomato. She held very still, almost not daring to breathe. One of his arms was around her waist and the other was over her shoulder. She felt very much like a body pillow, not that that was a bad thing. In fact, it felt rather nice being held by the turian. None of this did anything to fix the color of her face however. She lay there wondering what to do and if this strange embrace meant anything, until she told herself to stop over-thinking things.

Or so she thought, until Jaksus stirred and woke beside her. And suddenly Maria felt as if she was paralyzed. She could almost feel time slow down as her heartbeat sped up. Jaksus yawned as he woke, which Maria watched with fascination as his mouth opened and his mandibles pulled apart to show off the very depths of his mouth. A mouth, she reminded herself, that she'd kissed.

Subconsciously Jaksus drew her in closer until she was practically squished against his chest. Despite her best attempts at self control Maria let out a tiny bit of a squeak and instantly found herself the subject of a direct, green-eyed, gaze. For what seemed like a blink away from forever, they were both quiet and withdrawn. Each one most likely focused on their own thoughts. But without speaking Maria could feel Jaksus' talons contract and relax at her waist and back. Finally the C-SEC agent broke the silence by releasing a sigh, then tugging on a strand of her hair. "This is ridiculous. I don't want us to go on being this awkward and quiet." He grumbled, sitting up and propping an arm up on his knee.

Maria sat up slowly, clutching the sheets to her chin and stared hopefully up at her bodyguard, "I thought you preferred it when I was quiet." She commentated in a hushed voice.

Jaksus growled and grabbed her by the chin, practically glaring at her, "Preferring solid, comprehensible sentences I can understand, to endless breathless chatter is not the same as preferring you silent and upset. I like you the way you are." Jaksus' voice was low and furious, but somehow Maria didn't find him frightening. In fact her mind drifted to something completely different.

There was a pregnant pause and Jaksus smiled, chuckled, and took her face between his hands. "What in this great galaxy are you thinking about Maria? You're face is as red as your hair." He mused.

Maria's eyes widened and briefly she looked away. She bit her lip and almost couldn't bring herself to say anything. "Oh, um, I… It's… It's nothing important. Just um…You…You just… I just think you sound kind of… Well… Sexy… When you're angry." Maria finally managed to stutter out.

Jaksus was silent for a moment before grinning and breaking out into laughter,"Maria, by the spirits… Honestly you are quite the little sweet talker." He told her. Then, in an instant, his mouth was on hers.

…

Jaksus had to admit, he actually liked kissing Maria. He'd kissed asari before, but none of them had been as soft, or as warm as Maria was. As he kissed her, he slipped his hands down to pull her closer. She was as soft as a child's blanket and as warm as sunlight. He tried not to taste her… But hints of her lingered on his tongue, and he was surprised to find that she was spicy, tangy; like some sort of exotic drink.

When he at last pulled away he found Maria dazed, and grinning. "Well that was um… That was definitely a learning experience." She murmured happily.

Jaksus chuckled, brushing the tiny human's hair away from her face, and grinned. "So glad I could help further your education in turian physiology." He told her.

Maria's face warmed again, although this time it remained a cheery shade of pink, instead of sinking into that deep red the C-SEC officer had come to know. Jaksus smiled and gently pulled her hands away from her face, wanting to kiss her again. But as he leaned forward to follow through on his desire, there was a sharp, loud, furious knock at their door. The turian let out a low growl and shot a glare at the door. When the knock came again, harder the second time, Jaksus rubbed a hand over his face, threw back the blankets and stormed to the door on agitated feet.

He assumed that it was Nava, the quarian proving once more to be a pain in the gizzard. However, Nava was nowhere to be seen when Jaksus opened the door. Instead there stood a tall, broad-shouldered human, with a coppery sort of brown hair and a pair of sharp gray-blue eyes. The man was dressed casually, and Jaksus almost thought he looked familiar… Until he spotted the fist flying toward his face.

The ruddy alien barely managed to dodge, and he instantly took a step back and growled in anger. Great, he thought, the apartment security had slacked off and let either an assassin or just a crazed thug into the building. Clearly his opponent had some kind of combat training, because the second punch was a feint first and then a painful shot to the side of Jaksus' face. He was thrown back, and recoiled as his hand went to his throbbing mandible. He shot Maria only a cursory glance, then glared at the man still advancing upon him. "Maria, get in the bathroom and lock the door. I'll handle this." He told her, already picking out in his head where he'd stashed his weapons and arms.

But clearly Maria did not run, because Jaksus could see her standing to the side of the bed, her face stuck in an expression of disbelief. Her turian bodyguard growled in frustration, but had no time to tell her to run again as he found himself tackled to the ground. The human from the doorway grappled him and knocked him good in the gut with his knee. Jaksus bent and groaned in pain, taking the first punch to his head like a wall takes an artillery strike from a tank. He barely blocked the next blow and snarled, using his superior height and body weight to toss the attack off.

He would have been on him in an instant, but he found Maria had actually managed to successfully put the man in a headlock… And oddly enough he wasn't resisting. Maria -for her part- looked livid. Not the shaken fear he expected, and had witnessed after their first attack. No, this is was just plain anger. And suddenly it all became clear… Because the man who'd attacked him looked just like Maria.

…

Maria couldn't believe her eyes when she spotted her youngest older brother standing in the doorway to their bedroom. She'd been convinced that Brandon would be on deployment for at least another three months. But there he was standing in the doorway… Well, alright, there he was punching the crap out of her bodyguard. Maria stared in horror, having only enough sense to jump from the bed and stand in disbelief as the two men tousled. Jaksus shouted at her to run, but Maria knew they weren't in any real danger. She did not, however, appreciate her brother beating up on her turian.

Her brain skipped a beat over that thought, but she threw it off when she found an opening at last. Jaksus had thrown her brother aside, and Maria simply reacted. She put her brother in a headlock. The one he'd shown her how to do as children and the same one she used to try and subdue him with which usually just wound up being an awkward piggy-back ride for her. This time however, her brother went still, though he shot her a very disappointed look, while Maria simply glared back at him.

"Brandon, stop trying to beat up my bodyguard! What in the world has gotten into you?!" Maria snapped.

Her brother easily pulled her off, and stood, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Jaksus, who simply glared back from his spot on the floor. After a tense moment of silence where the two men eyed each other up, Maria let out a frustrated sigh, threw up her hands in defeat and helped Jaksus to stand. "Brandon, why are you even here? I thought you were still out on deployment."

Her brother turned his intense gaze upon her and his lip twitched in agitation. "I got early leave the second I heard from Ren that your so-called protection detail was a god-damn turian. I don't know how dad signed off on this, but I am not about to let my baby sister spend the next year rooming with a skull-face, studying how aliens shake hands!"

Maria felt her blood go suddenly cold. She glared at her brother, and without thinking, slapped him as hard as she could across the face. Then, for added measure, she stomped on his foot, and hit him straight in the gut. She continued to glare at him as he bent over and could actually hear the quavering fury in her voice as she spoke. "Don't. You. Dare. Call him or any other turian that. My brother knows better and if not, then I don't care. I am NOT a child Brandon, and I will not let you, mother, or anyone else dictate what I decide to do with my life. This was my decision, and I am not some doll you get to cart around and do what you want with. Now you can either leave right this damn second… Or you can apologize to my FRIEND, and we can move on with our lives."

Her brother stared at her in disbelief for a long moment, and although she did not know it Jaksus was also staring at her in a bit of awe. But after a deep, intense silence, Brandon sighed, ran a hand through his hair and looked up at Jaksus with a deeply guilty expression. "I…I'm sorry. I guess I just flipped when I saw you without a shirt… And my sister laying in the bed. I…I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done… Or said… Any of those things."

Maria turned to look at Jaksus and the turian hesitated, then awkwardly shifted his stance and held out a hand, "It's alright… I think if I had a sister I might have done the same."

Maria rolled her eyes, but smiled regardless when Brandon shook Jaksus' offered hand. "Only child I take it?" Brandon asked.

The C-SEC officer nodded.

"Lucky S.O.B."

….

Brandon, it turned out, was a special-ops marine sent with Alliance research teams on colonization voyages. He'd never fought in the First Contact War, but he had lost a few good friends in the effort to reclaim Shanxi…which explained the slur and his tension around turians. Maria seemed almost insulted and embarrassed by her brother's bias. But it was something Jaksus understood all too well. At the very least, the two had a great conversation about their run-ins with batarians and their mercenary tactics. Maria sent them disapproving glares, but neither one seemed to care.

After awhile the brunette admitted that he'd earned himself a bit of early shore-leave by aiding in the defense of an Alliance trading frigate. He'd then learned about Maria's situation with Jaksus, as well as the batarian attempt on her life, and panicked. Ren, his life-partner, had been the asian Alliance officer in Maria's initial protection detail. The ruddy turian managed to recall the dark-haired man chewing the petite woman out the first day they'd met. It was rather funny now to find out that her tough-as-nails brother was committed to such a man. They made an excellent pair, and Jaksus said as much.

Maria's brother was flattered, but seemed concerned when the subject of Linda Shepard's visit was broached. It appeared the woman held an odd amount of respect and fear amongst both siblings… Which only made Jaksus more curious. The C-SEC agent wished to discuss it further, but Brandon admitted that he had plans to meet Ren at the docks and take his husband out to dinner. Maria had been about to ask if they could join them when Jaksus clamped a hand over her mouth and let Brandon go on his merry way.

He explained to the complaining human later that sometimes when a solider gets off leave, he just wants to spend that time with the person he dreamed about at night. Maria had stared at him a moment, turned a bright shade of red… And let the rest pass. Jaksus laughed, felt the desire to kiss her… Then remembered the words exchanged that morning between brother and sister… And suddenly he was unsure that he'd ever made the right choice to kiss her the first time.

…..

Neross: Alright so a shorter, less happy chapter this time. But it was needed. In any case I hope you all enjoyed the appearance of Brandon as well as the tiny little call-back to the beginning of this epic little tale of mine. I promise you I won't have you try to recall minuscule characters from the series…but you may want to pay attention to background characters in this fic, because trust me when I say they ALL serve a purpose.

Other than that you all know the drill. Leave a review to get me back to the grindstone quicker, and be sure to check my profile for updates. Love once more to my wonderful BR Spyke1985 and to everyone else,

A HAPPY HALLOWEEN! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!