Lizzie yawned and scratching her chest she strolled out into the kitchen. Miranda was already put together for the day, her chosen dress sleek and subtly sexy, her hair in a neat twist. She was drinking coffee and flicking through the news on her datapad.
"Morning," Lizzie shuffled to the coffee maker and poured herself a huge cup, waving away the offer of milk or sugar, "Prefer black." She hoisted herself up on the kitchen bench and let her legs swing free as Miranda set aside her datapad.
"So what are your plans for the day whilst I work?"
"Going to catch up with Tali. Haven't seen her in an age," Lizzie ran her hand through her short curls.
"That was the quarian you were talking to last night?"
"Yep, she works in the office of the quarian Ambassador,"
"Ah yes, Kal'Reegar. He arrived only last week. He has proved a popular choice. His service in the quarian military has given him a certain amount of credance that previous politicians haven't attained."
"Heh, well, he certainly seemed to enjoy Tali's company," Lizzie swung her heels easily as a wicked smile curved her lips, "And Tali could barely prevent herself bouncing."
"And what of his friend, the turian General? Did he not ask you to dance?"
Lizzie shrugged and sipped of her coffee, "That was never going to happen. A…I can't dance and B…I sure as hell wasn't going to dance in bare feet."
Miranda rubbed her brow, "Oh Lizzie, don't tell me you took your shoes off?"
Lizzie held out her feet, and the blisters that scored the heels, "Look at that! Look at it! We are taught to look after our feet! Jamming them into heels is not my idea of 'looking after them'."
"Gods, Shepard," Miranda shook her head, and hurriedly scanned the time, "Hell, I have a meeting with the elcor Ambassador in fifteen minutes."
"Don't worry," Lizzie drawled, snagging a piece of fruit from Miranda's plate, "I'm sure you can get there in the time it would take him to say 'good morning'."
"Don't be rude!" Miranda called from the front door. And Lizzie was left alone, she checked her watch, "Shit!" She was going to be late in meeting Tali if she didn't hurry. Fortunately, she was the expert in two minute showers and dressing in one.

Her booted feet rested on the seat of another chair in the busy cafe. Several people approached and tried to take the chair, but Lizzie's refusal was absolute. She only lowered her legs as Tali arrived, a little breathless.
"Lizzie! I am so sorry I am late," she sprawled in the chair, and took a moment to inhale some needed air.
"Hell, Tali, I would have waited, woman," Lizzie pushed the drink she had ordered the other woman toward her.
"Thanks," the quarian drank gratefully.
"So why the lateness? Had a good night, eh?" Lizzie wiggled her eyebrows.
"Bah!" Tali waved her hand, "Not like that. But I did stay up very late talking with the Ambassador. He wanted my opinion on some things and …well…I think we saw the Citadel start its day cycle."
Lizzie whistled, her eyes alight with the glint of teasing, "You flirt."
"I would never! He's the Ambassador! I just…"
"Oh, you find him sexy as hell and wished he would just suggest linking up your envirosuits and have at it."
Tali lapsed into silence and Lizzie was certain she was blushing.
"Okay, maybe," the quarian admitted.
Lizzie laughed, "Let's order breakfast. We can get you to work at least somewhat on time."
Tali raised her hand for a waitress, and the two women enjoyed a thoroughly relaxing hour.

"Come on, we can cut through here," Tali tugged Lizzie toward the red lit passageway, "It's a short cut for service people to get to the embassies."
Lizzie shrugged, taking her hands out of her pockets and strolling beside the elegant quarian. She rubbed her thumb and forefinger together. Something was making her edgy. She did something she promised herself she wouldn't do - she activated her implants with a touch on her omnitool.
"What's wrong?" Tali noticed the gesture.
"Nothing," Lizzie replied easily, "Just a message."
"Okay," Tali continued with her chatter. Lizzie glanced behind them. Yup. They were being followed. She was barely listening to Tali, and would apologise for that later. When the figure in front rose and she saw the very obvious outline of a rifle, she powered up her biotics and pounded him with a shockwave. It knocked the second and third man out of cover.
Lizzie whipped around to see the one following them was charging. She gave Tali a shove, and braced for impact. He hit her with hip and shoulder, she turned to brush aside the blow and trip him up, but a shot slammed into her arm. It hurt like hell. She snarled a curse, powered up her biotics and threw a ball of energy at the distant figures. The singularity held them suspended.
Lizzie charged the man who stood in front of her before he could turn around, and knocked him to the ground. She grabbed his pistol, punching him in the head, and lifting her arm, she shot the three men flailing helplessly in her miniature mass effect field.
She heard a cry behind her, ruthlessly shot the man she was kneeling on and turned to see Tali clamped to the chest of a fifth one she hadn't seen. He had a gun to her head and was using her as a shield, slowly dragging her back.
"You are going to want to put my friend down," Lizzie intoned lazily, "Or it's going to end in a lot of pain for you." She refused to clamp a hand on the wound on her arm. She could feel blood sliding down to slick her hand, and drip on the floor.
"Screw this! It was meant to be an easy job!" the youthful voice was trembling.
"Put her down," Lizzie continued conversationally, "And I wont shoot you in the head."
"How can I trust you?" came the quavering reply.
"How much choice do you have?" Lizzie rose her weapon to point it at Tali.
Tali was making small sounds of terror.
"Okay! Okay!" the kid let Tali go, his hands up and trembling, he was barely more than eighteen, "Now let me go?" He seemed to forget he even had a gun.
Tali stumbled forward onto hands and knees. Lizzie didn't even look at her, just shot the kid in the knee with a double tap. He fell over, screaming, "You have a few questions to answer, kid."
Tali crawled away from him before rising to her feet, trembling hands on Shepard's arm, "Oh gods, Lizzie," she looked back at the three dead men further along, "What did they want?"
"To kill or kidnap you," Lizzie's voice was flat and cool, her green eyes still alight with her biotics, "Come on, lets get you to the embassy. Kal'Reegar will have guards there. Let me just get this one sorted." She took a purposeful step toward the wide-eyed kid lying on the ground, clutching his injured leg and crying.
"You wont…kill him, will you?" Tali asked quaveringly.
Lizzie glanced back at her friend, "No. He can't answer questions when he is dead."

Lizzie had the gun out as she strode toward the embassies. When a guard tried to stop her, she just jammed his ID in her face, "Elizabeth Shepard, N7, get C-Sec up here NOW." She moved past him toward the quarian embassy and the door slid open to Tali's ID.
Kal'Reegar was seated behind his desk, another quarian handing him a series of datapads. He glanced up at the unfamiliar sound at his doorway. Without hesitation, he leapt to his feet and came forward.
"Someone just tried to kill your tech analyst, Ambassador," Lizzie pulled Tali forward, "Someone wants her knowledge, or wants to shut her up."
Kal'Reegar placed his hands upon Tali's forearms as she wavered where she stood, "Ancestors….Tali'zorah, are you alright?"
"I…I think so, Lizzie…" Tali turned her head to look at her friend.
"I was in the right place at the right time. I managed to stop one of them, he will be in C-Sec custody shortly. You are going to want to put Tali in protective custody until C-Sec can figure out what has gone wrong," Shepard's voice was still cool. Her left arm was burning like a bitch now and it was a struggle. She wiped her hand on her pants to stop it from dripping on the Ambassador's pretty cream coloured carpet.
"Come with me," Kal'Reeger put his arm around Tali, "She can rest in the rooms out the back. We have many guards here. She will be safe."
Lizzie nodded, "Right."
"Wait here until I return?"
"As you wish, Ambassador," Lizzie bowed her head.
Lizzie moved to his desk and laid the gun on it. With a hissed intake of breath, she tried to examine the hole in her arm.
"You are hurt," a vaguely familiar voice from the comfortable looking couches over by the windows distracted her. She shaded her eyes against the glare from outside. A tall figure rose from the seating and made its way toward her. Within moments she realised it was the General from the previous evening.
"Ahh, General Vakarian, right?" Lizzie watched him warily, "Yeah. One of them got a little close." She plucked at the sleeve.
"You respond oddly to being shot, Ms Shepard," Garrus peered down at her arm, taking it in his strong hands.
She tried to pull away to no avai'l, "How should one respond, General? Go into hysterics? Faint?"
"That would probably be the usual response, yes," Garrus gestured for an aide to approach, "Bring the first aid kit," he instructed her, "I need medi-gel."
"Look, really, it's fine. I will head down to the hospital. I just wanted to be sure Tali was in safe hands," Lizzie curled her fingers around his to pluck off the probing fingers.
"You are quite headstrong," Garrus accepted the kit from the quarian and opened it, ignoring her protests, "I'm not incompetent, you know."
"I'm not going to die from a bloody arm wound!" Lizzie snapped in reply. There was an audible gasp in the room from the aide.
"Just pretend you are following orders," Garrus was implacable, as he tore the arm off her shirt. She grunted low in her throat and he looked up into a face that had gone pale.
"Here, sit. It will be easier," he cleared some space off the Ambassador's desk.
"Look, I don't think…."
"Just do it, woman, and stop arguing," he growled, his subharmonics rippling with warning.
"Don't try that voice shit with me," Lizzie snapped, "I am not one of your little underlings, General."
He flooded the wound with a yellow paste that made her catch her breath and clutch his arm, "Damn…" she breathed out, releasing her grip, "Sorry, that stung. What the hell was that?"
"Antiseptic," Garrus put the tube back in the kit, "Your suits would normally use medi-gel immediately, and you would not get infected, but in the interim between the wound and getting treated, you may have picked up all kinds of bacteria." He paused, pulling out a bandage and wrapping her arm, "It isn't too severe. You will have quite the scar though."
When he finished, Lizzie jumped down and backed away from him. Garrus handed the kit back to the aide, who took it and scurried out. He turned, leaned against the desk and folded his arms across his broad chest.
"You can handle yourself in a fight," he said to her, watching her pace toward the window.
"I was in the right place," she began, staring out of the glass to the rest of the Presidium.
"At the right time, so you said," Garrus finished, "But I did not ask a question."
She glanced back at him sharply, "So what?"
"If C-Sec is going to be here in a moment to investigate the office of the quarian ambassador, I would like to not be in the dark."
"And what business is it of yours?" Lizzie mimicked his posture, and tilted her chin upwards in pride.
"Kal'Reegar is a friend and he has only just taken up the position," Garrus retorted sharply, "I don't want some Alliance grunt with no more training than a pyjack creating a political mess."
Lizzie strode toward him, her cheeks flushing with anger, she slammed her finger into his chest, "I don't give a gods damn about your politics!" Her voice whipped him with a snarl, "Five murderers were going to take down one of my oldest and dearest friends. If she was very unlucky, they were going to kidnap her first."
Garrus paused and eyed her with suspicion, "You took down five armed men?"
"What?" Lizzie snapped, "Like it's hard?"

Kal'Reegar strode back into the room, followed by his guards. He paused at the doorway, and eyed the human and turian cautiously.
"Everything alright in here?" his voice was wary.
Lizzie turned and took a few paces toward him, "Tali? Is she alright?"
"Shaken up, she is cleaning up, there was a lot of blood…" the quarian's voice trailed off as he looked at the torn shirt, the bandage, the blood smeared on Lizzie's pants, "…are you alright?" He looked up to her face again, and back to Garrus. The turian just scowled.
"Fine," Lizzie rubbed the back of her neck, "What exactly does Tali do in your office, Ambassador. They were waiting for her. They weren't expecting me, but they were waiting for her, one of them said they thought this job was meant to be easy."
"How many?" Kal moved toward the couches and gestured for her to sit.
"I'm dirty," Lizzie shook her head. The creamy couches would not recover from her grime.
"You saved Tali's life, I don't care about the damn couches," Kal's voice grew gruff.
Lizzie paused a moment more, then sat on the edge of one of them, "There were five."
"You killed five?"
"No, four," Lizzie corrected, glancing toward Garrus, who joined them, lowering his lanky form into the comfortable cushions.
"So one got away?" Kal was concerned.
"No. I captured him for questioning,"
Kal looked around, "What? Where is he?"
"I shot him in the knee, bound his wrists and threw him in a cleaning room. C-Sec will pick him up shortly," Lizzie reported with a blank expression.
There was silence from the quarian. He looked at his friend. Then back to Lizzie.
"Just who are you, Ms Shepard?"
Lizzie rubbed the back of her neck and sighed, "I guess it will come out sooner or later. I'm Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Shepard, on leave after passing my N7 training before my first posting to Eden Prime."
She sensed rather than saw Garrus shift, his bright blue eyes intent upon her.
"You are N7," Kal repeated incredulously.
"Is it so hard to believe?" Lizzie raised a red-hued brow.
"Uhh," the quarian was non-plussed, "Well, after I saw you at the party last night, as Ambassador Lawson's escort, yes. Yes I am surprised."
Lizzie paused, and after a moment a smile curved her lips, her very first, and it lit up her face, "Good. I like to surprise people."
"Ambassador?" the aide was wringing her hands as she approached, "A C-Sec officer is here."
"Good, let him in," Kal waved her away, and rose, "Hope you are up for this, Lieutenant Commander."
"I just want to check on Tali and head back for a shower," Lizzie levered herself upright, and had to hang onto the back of the chair for a moment. She saw Garrus watching her and straightened her spine, turning her gaze away from him deliberately. Show no weakness.
"Ambassador?" the C-Sec officer walked in, "I'm Officer Bailey. Sorry to interrupt but I believe there has been a critical incident. I have four dead men in an alley near here."
"Four dead and a fifth tied up," Lizzie corrected and stepped forward, "I am the one you need to talk to, Officer. Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Shepard, N7. I just brought Tali'zorah here because this was the closest place I knew would take her without question."
"You could have brought her to us, Lieutenant Commander," Bailey reprimanded, typing on his datapad.
"You would have had plenty of questions," Lizzie retorted flatly.
"Yes, it's what we tend to do. To find the bad guys," Bailey replied, his lips quirking despite himself.
Lizzie paused, "Good point."
"Alright, can we sit down somewhere. I think I have a lot of questions and I hope you have the answers."
Kal gestured to his desk and a couple of aids brought up more chairs, "Please, feel free."
"Thankyou, Ambassador," Bailey acknowledged and gestured to Shepard, "Shall we?"