Might be a little slow at updating as I gotta go out of town for work but will try to get something wrote down will working. Just a reminder all reviews welcome tell me if I mess up anything from the universe badly as Im trying to not mess up the canon too much yet. Also send me any ideas you might have or advice. Much obliged :)

Chapter 4

The Cost of living

"Beep, beep, beep" groaning I roll over and hit my alarm. Blinking trying to focus on the time I roll out of bed and make my way to the shower. After turning it on I jump in and suddenly I'm very awake as I accidently turned only the hot water on. "AGH! Holy crapping devil on a skateboard that hurts." Authors note: I have some pretty weird swear words in life as well After my shower I look in the mirror, I have tattoo's on my chest, arms and back. The burn from the shower is pretty bad it runs all over my tats and most of my body. I didn't realise that the showers units here got that hot. Well this workout is going to hurt like hell! Rushing out the door I almost forget my workout gear as I'm late already to meet Garrus at the gym.

Dodging people I make my way into the heart of the gym to find Garrus waiting by the cardio machines. "What the hell happened to you?" he asks looking at the burns on my body.

"Stupid shower, accidently hit the hot water only and burned myself."

"Nice tattoos by the way." He says while looking over the ones that I have showing with my muscle shirt. Poking the claddagh pendant on my arm he asks "What's that one mean?"

Muttering I answer "It was on mine and my wife's wedding ring. I got it just after we got married."

Since Garrus saw my profile he knew my wife was dead and I'm guessing by the look of embarrassment on his face he regretted his question. "Um I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring up a difficult subject."

Waving off his comment I say "No worries man it's been a few years now. It will never be an easy subject but I can manage."

"Ok then. Why did you call me 'man' just now?"

"Sorry its slang from where I'm from. It doesn't mean anything in particular when said in that manner."

"Well whatever then. Let's get started then." He said with a shrug, then turned and walked to the free wait equipment.

For the next hour and a half we worked out hard then went to the sauna to unwind a bit. Afterwards we went to the sparring circle. Garrus proceeded to show me the Turian basics for their military's martial arts. After giving me a severe beating all the more painful for the burn on my body, I showed him the human equivalent of Krav Maga which had become the standard hand-to-hand for basic training in the biotics program.

"Damn that is some seriously good martial arts you got there Milo."

"It's one of the most dangerous types on Earth. But I prefer Tai Chi for perfecting the form of all the martial arts."

"What's Tai Chi?"

Stepping into a starting pose I start showing him the basics of the flowing movements and how it centered the body and mind. After finishing the last of our cool down exercises we went and changed to go for lunch.

We leave the gym and hit up a restaurant that sells food for both species and sit down for lunch. "So Garrus every day I come to work fairly early and you don't seem to have left. Do you even go home at all?"

"I haven't been going home much lately… it's this case with the organ smugglers, it's starting to get to me. I mean someone is pretty fucking messed up to do this."

"I know what you mean. When do we hear back about the tests being run on those ones we confiscated the other day?"

"Hmm they had a problem at the lab; they aren't going to get to them until next week."

He stops briefly as our food has just arrived. Eating we discuss what is going on in council space as I haven't been paying attention to galactic news. Batarians are getting kicked out of all the space that was contested by humans and their own species. The Asari were complaining about the Quarians being near some of their colonies again. The only other thing of note was that the Turians and Humans were going to be co-developing a ship of cutting edge design to help inter species relations. Stopping suddenly at this news my head started hurting like something was forcing its way out. Suddenly my Omni-Tool started beeping. Looking down I saw that I had a new message; opening it didn't say who sent it and contained only a short message 'Don't worry about thinking you are missing something once you need to remember you will. A friend.'

"Well this is weird." Showing Garrus the message he simply shrugged his shoulders. Deleting it we finished our lunch and I left to meet Amaya for my training.

After several hours Amaya commented that I seemed to be getting back control of my powers quite rapidly. She also kept commenting on my form but seemed to be not talking about my movements for my power. She made several other attempts at flirting that became more and more thinly veiled as it went on especially since I wasn't really reacting to them. We finished up my exercises and then I took her out for dinner as thanks.

Half way through out meal I looked up and said "Amaya I hope you don't think I'm not interested in you I just haven't really done much dating lately." I explained how my wife had been killed by a street gang back on Earth and I just hadn't done much after it happened.

"Well I'm sorry if I've been to forward if I had known I wouldn't have tried." She says to me with a look of sorrow and pity.

"Don't worry about it. I think it would be fine for you to keep trying I'm just gonna have to get used to it." I say flashing a grin.

Over the next two weeks I continue work and training. In between Amaya takes me out several times to help me get used to the idea of dating again. She actually has some succes as I start to come out of my shell and truly enjoy her company.

After work one day I rush to leave the office and Garrus chuckles and says "So you still not seeing her or has that status changed?"

Shooting him a glare then a grin I say with some glee "I think it's coming along nicely. We are going to watch a movie at her place tonight."

"Ooooh moving quickly I see." He says with his best look of innocence.

"Oh screw you, ya damn Turian. You can only criticize how I date after I actually see you look twice at a woman let alone go on a date with them. I know most don't look like a sniper rifle but you might find one that has a collection of them or is good at calibrating them." This earns me a growl with a death glare as he shoos me out the door.

Getting to Amaya's she greets me at the door wearing a shimmer dress in a beautiful shade of red that contrasts with her blue skin wonderfully. "You look lovely today." I say while giving her a once over earning myself a blush and a embarrassed face that made her look cute as all hell. Going into her kitchen so we can start supper she tells me about an appointment with a doctor to get an annual check up done. She explains that like humans that Asari who use their Biotics often need annual checks if not more often.

We spend an evening cuddled on her couch and she seems to be trying her hardest to get me to stay over but I decline saying that I had to work very early as we had a break through with our case and had some interrogations in the morning.

"I say no now but I don't work the day after so how about I come over tomorrow night?" I ask while holding her chin up to my face.

"Hmm that's sounds delightful." She purrs while leaning in to give me a kiss. We keep our lips locked together just enjoying the feel of the other.

With the movie ended I force myself to leave knowing if I didn't I won't be going to work tomorrow and she will miss her appointment.

The next morning I meet Garrus at a clinic to arrest a Turian who apparently owned the liver the lab tested but was apparently still alive somehow and still working. Getting to the clinic for the arrest Garrus flexes his mandibles out in surprise while commenting "I wasn't expecting you to come in this morning. Figured you'd stay at Amaya's and call in 'sick' today."

Shooting him a glare I say "I knew it was a bad idea letting you too meet. Now all you do is plot evil deeds."

Laughing at me he just turns and waits for the officers to finish dragging out our suspect to bring in for the investigation.

Returning to the station we meet behind the mirror to the interrogation room to discuss how we were going to get him to tells us what was going on.

"Well I doubt it's him doing it, but he does work for doctor Saleon who is more likely to be the culprit. I want to go in and scare him then you can come in and do the whole 'good' cop thing that you keep going on about." I give a chuckle. He had started coming over to watch movies with me and Amaya and they had both watched some old Earth cop shows at my insistence. Garrus in particular had liked Dirty Harry saying that was how it should be done.

From my side of the glass I watch as Garrus starts asking question. Not being particularly inclined to help us tells him to stick it. This true to style warrants a cuff from Garrus. As the suspect starts to curse him out Garrus starts to get mad and starts to actually lay into him when suddenly he starts bleeding. Rushing into the room I yell "What the hell happened?"

"Are you alright?" Garrus says trying to see what had happened but the other Turian just starts to get more and more agitated and star insisting he was fine and must leave to go back to work. Not waiting for permission Garrus rips his shirt off.

What we see almost makes me sick. Covering his body is dozens of badly sewn up incisions. Almost all of them looked fresh and most of them were bleeding now.

Realising the jig was up and that he needed medical attention the Turian starts babbling that it was in fact doctor Saleon who had done this to him and also all of his coworkers and some patients as well who he made disappear after. "He told me to get you to let me go. If I didn't come back by about now he was going to flee the Citadel!"

Giving each other a look me and Garrus run out the door yelling at someone to look after the suspect and for a trio of officers to follow us explaining on the way what was happening. Jumping into a squad car I find shuttle registered to Saleon and that it was prepping for launch. Relaying this information to Garrus we go to Citadel control.

Rushing in, we run up to the waiting controller who was informed of our arrival. "Quick! Lock down his shuttle control!"

"It's no good sir he has already taken off." She says fingers flying over her interface.

"Then shoot him down. NOW!" Garrus yells at her.

At this moment C-Sec control calls my head set "Officer Talon we have seen the footage from the docks, Saleon took his employees and a patient hostage when he boarded his ship. You are here by ordered to let him go."

I relay this information to Garrus who becomes infuriated turning his head set to the call as well and says "Their dead anyways! We need to try and disable that ship."

"Garrus this is Executor Venari Pallin. You are here by ordered to not open fire on that ship!" Throwing his head peace down in disgust Garrus tells the controller to just send the military after the shuttle. But it was too late the shuttle jumped the relay and was gone.

Heading to the clinic I try to calm Garrus down and tell him they might find the shuttle and the captives still. He just sullenly shakes his head to placate me.

Once we arrive at the clinic we start going through it with the Citadel's equivalent of CSI. Looking in the back rooms we find more crates of organs and many operation rooms covered in blood and filled with strange equipment. Looking through his files we realise he has been causing his victims to grow extra organs inside themselves then harvesting them to sell on the black market.

One of the officers first on the scene comes up and tells me that there was only one patient on the schedule for that day. He hands me a data pad that logs all the patients. Leafing through until I get to today's date I look at the name.

Garrus come running in as his partner starts screaming. Running up he tries to get something from him. The other officer doesn't know what happen and just tells him that he handed him the patient log. Picking it out of Milo's hands he reads '9:30 Amaya Koraness'