Once again super sorry I haven't uploaded in sooooooo long. Had massive things happen in the real world and I kinda forgot about this story. I had a bit of trouble writing this chapter while trying to bridge my ideas for future story lines. It's a bit of filler before I get back to a bit more of canon. As always hope you ll enjoy and reviews are always welcome as well on any ideas for the story you might have. Cheers everyone :)

Chapter 9

Encounter on the Presidum

'Beep…beep…beep'

I hazily hear a beeping pulling me out of the darkness. Opening my eyes slightly, I see Chakwas and med techs rushing around. Not totally comprehending I try to hear what is said but it all seems hazy.

'Beep…beep…beep'

I can clearly hear the beep noise though. Looking to my right I see a heart monitor and remember 'Oh ya I'm hurt.' As if on cue all the pain comes rushing over and I involuntarily start convulsing. With that Chakwas rushes over and with some help holds me down while putting some sort of syringe into me.

The convulsing stops and everything fades to black again.

This time when I when I wake up its dark and I notice the pain isn't exactly gone but pleasantly numb. Not seeing Chakwas as I look around, I go to grab a cup of water and I notice that I can't move my right arm. My eyes focus and I realize that there is a curtain of red lying on my arm, only one person on this ship who has red hair. Behind her I see Liara laying her head on the desk asleep. Apparently my moving woke Shepard up as she starts moving. Looking up at me all I can say is "Thought I said you could only use me as a pillow if we were sleeping together."

"To be fair we were both asleep so I think that counts." She says with a small smile.

I start chuckling and then coughing. Shepard hands me the cup of water and I drink a bit to sooth my throat. Looking at me concerned she takes the cup from me. "Don't worry just don't make me laugh." She nods "So how bad is it?"

"Well you are going to be fine. You wouldn't have been in trouble if you hadn't tried wrestling that Krogan. When you did it caused some major internal damage to your lung since you already were hurt from the gun shot but you will be fine in a few days, the doctor said for you too just take a few days rest then light work for a week and you will be good. We almost lost you for a bit there but Chakwas brought you back. The joys of modern medicine."

"Well that's good I guess. So why is the doctor sleeping here?"

She looked behind herself at Liara. "Well after you saved her life she has been down here virtually none stop watching over you. Pretty sure she has a little savior crush on you."

I simply nod as my eyelids grow heavy again and the drugs pull me back under into unconsciousness.

When I came to there was light and I saw Liara and doctor Chakwas talking over by her desk. Turning Chakwas saw me waking up and came over. "How are you feeling mister Talon?"

Shifting my position I say "Not bad but I'm thinking that I'm going to quit the Krogan wrestling league."

She chuckles a bit as she runs a scan on me quickly. "Well you seem to be recovering quickly. You can go back to your room and move around the ship you just need to be very careful and restrict yourself from physical exertion."

"Thanks doc. Il try to take it easy."

With that she walked back to her desk and Liara walks over. "Mister Talon I wanted to thank you for saving me. I'm so sorry you had to risk your life to do so! If there is anything I can do to help you or repay you please let me know."

"Well to start with just call me Milo I don't feel right when people use my last name." Smiling as I sit up and swing my legs off the table very slowly I groan as I slid off the table. As soon as my feet hit the floor I fall forward right into Liara.

"Oof." As she puts me upright and blush's I say "Sorry I'm feeling pretty weak."

"No trouble. Il help you to the dining room, you must be famished."

"Thanks. By the way on a military ship it's always called a mess hall and yes I'm starving. IV drips don't help a ton when you're worn out from Biotic combat."

As we come to the mess hall we find it deserted except for a crewman refilling the food trays.

"Here sit down and Il grab you some food. Anything I should avoid?"

"Well it's all breakfast food so not really. Just double helpings of everything please."

Nodding she walks over and grabs a tray and starts filling it up.

Coming back over she gives me a tray and a cup of coffee. As I start chowing down she sits across from me with her own cup of coffee. She proceeds to ask me about how I joined Shepard and I told her how I was a C-Sec officer with Garrus and everything up to that moment. I didn't mention what happened to Amaya though.

"So where did you learn how to use your Biotics so well?" she asked me while looking over her cup.

"I was trained in the Alliance as a Biotic Commando but ended up leaving after my training. I also had someone on the Citadel who helped me refine my techniques with some tricks from Asari Commando training."

For the next half hour we chat about anything and everything. Even with what I remember about the game I learn a lot more about her than is ever explained, how she received commando training at her mother's behest, how she has tenure offers from many universities for her knowledge on the Protheans.

After a bit I excuse myself to go to the cargo hold to see what happened to my equipment. She helped me to the elevator then said she was going to go back to the med to bay work on some research.

As I step off the elevator I see Garrus working on the Mako. He turns and waves at me so I walk over. "Hey glad to see you on your feet again. I was worried for a while that you would die and leave me with the paperwork." He says as he taps me on the shoulder gently.

"You know I always do the paperwork since you suck at it and always file everything wrong anyways. Besides you need me as your wing man since you're hopeless at picking up women." Smirking I reassure him again that I'm fine and wander over to the armory side of the cargo bay, which is strangely empty with no Ashley or Wrex.

I move to my locker and pull out my armor. Putting it on the workbench I see first-hand how bad the damage is. The entire left side of my breast plat is shattered to nothing and all the structural parts are crumpled to nothing. All in all my armor is unsalvageable except as spare parts so I start to disassemble what's left and put it in some bins that are for spare parts. In the end all that I keep is the helmet. With these types of armor catastrophic failure in one spot means you need new armor as a whole. Finishing my work I turn to see Ashley watching me.

"What's up Ash? Wait you don't mind me calling you Ash do you?"

Shaking her head she says "No that's fine. I was just watching you work on your armor and I got to say you are very efficient at that kind of work."

"Oh well thanks. I did use to be in the Alliance before my days at C-Sec and even they are technically a military institution as well."

Nodding her understanding she walks up beside me and sees that I cleaned all my tools and put everything back where it belonged. Turning to me she says with a thoughtful look on her face "Did you want to work with me in the armory? I could use an assistant with how much abuse our weapons take. I only ask since you don't seem to have any duties other than being a ground team member."

Leaning on the bench I ponder for a few minutes before nodding my ascent "Sure sounds fun and it's been awhile since I did this so I could use more practice anyways."

With that we informed Shepard of our idea who gave her approval and I started to work the same shift as her as we didn't need the weapons fixed at different times just after missions and to tweak them. During the next few days we ran back and forth between different leads and scanning planets. None of which panned out. So with us having no standing orders or leads Shepard decided to put it to the Citadel for supplies. This works out fantastically for me since I need a new set of armor. The whole ship is ecstatic as well since this means a few days of shore leave and minimal duty to watch the ship.

Chatting with Garrus over breakfast in the mess hall the morning that we are slated to arrive at the Citadel Liara approaches us. "May I sit and eat with you?" she asks us. With a mouthful of toast I mumble my ascent but it seems to be lost in translation. Garrus face palms himself and shaking it as well translates "Don't mind him he has the manners of a trained Pyjak. He says feel free." Looking at us incredulously Liara sits.

Still chowing down on my toast Liara starts talking to Garrus. "I see you have had to do this before?" She asks gesturing to me as I eat with a fork in one hand a cup of coffee in the other and a piece of toast in my mouth.

"Ya, we would tend to take breakfast together at C-Sec and people would try and talk to him but he was always stuffing his face. He always claims it's because of his Biotics making his metabolism fast. I know the truth though; he just doesn't like to talk to people in the morning." Liara laughs at this making me go slightly red.

"Hey! I'm just not a morning person and people asking dumb questions first thing annoys me. If I don't do what I can to make them leave me alone I can get violent. You saw what I did to that idiot Kuler when he decided to bother me in the morning when I was still new."

Looking back and forth between us Liara just says "What? What did you do?"

Garrus looks at her and says "Now first thing you need to know is Kuler is very racist only people he likes are Turian and Asari. He has been in trouble multiple times for it. When he first met Milo here he started to berate his species and try and shake him down."

"I'm guessing this didn't end well?" she asks with rapt attention.

"Well he actually kept his cool through most of it but after he said something pretty vulgar about his mother it ended badly for him. It took two medics to stop the bleeding. Full biotic punch to the mandibles which he just about tore off. There were witnesses and a holo of the incident so he got off with a warning since he was provoked far beyond what most people would take."

Liara turned to looking a little awed at me while I very pointedly stare at the bottom of my coffee cup looking appropriately embarrassed. "Hey nobody talks about my mom." I mumble through my drink.

Garrus just chuckles at me while I glare at him. "Hey it's not like I like or agree with what that bigot was saying." He replies to my glare.

"Folks this is your pilot speaking we are now docking at the Citadel. Please put your seats and trays in the upright and locked positions and be sure to fly air Normandy again as you have no choice since you're all assigned to her."

Looking bewildered at the message Liara gives me a questioning look which I wave off with a "Il explain later"

With that Garrus Liara and I make our way out of the ship and onto the station. With a wave Garrus wanders off to take care of some business. Liara ask if I want help moving around for the day since I'm still recovering. Nodding yes she helps me down to the wards to shop for new armour. We talk as we walk about everything and anything. Arriving at the armourer that I always preferred from my days at C-Sec I proceed to haggle with the Hanaar over his prices versus quality. Liara proves very helpful with having experience with their species manages to get me a good deal. After finally settling on some mid-price ranged medium armor Liara asks if she can take me out to lunch for saving her life the other day.

Shrugging my consent we start looking for a restaurant to suit both our pallets. While walking we are in such deep concentration I don't notice when a familiar face suddenly shows up until they shove me to the ground. Grunting with pain at my injuries I look up to see Kuler standing there looking like he wanted to shoot me.

"You son of a bitch I can't believe you have the balls to come back to the Citadel after what you did to me." He says visibly shaking in anger.

Standing up slowly with Liara helping me while also starring daggers at my assailant, she looks like she wants nothing more than to rip him apart with a singularity. She steadies me then goes to move towards Kuler but I restrain her with a hand to her shoulder. Stepping up to him I say "Not sure what you mean Kuler you're the one who reported yourself for a crime, which I might add is your job, you know stopping crime."

Kuler just about frothing with anger at this point grabs me by the shirt and growls as he pulls me up close saying "Well now that you got kicked out of C-Sec I can make you pay and you aren't protected by the uniform anymore." With that he pulls back and tries to hit me in the face but Liara suddenly grabs his arm yelling for help. Kuler just hits her with a backhand knocking her to the ground.

Watching this happens I flare my Biotics in anger and shove Kuler away from me so that I can take a swing but the use of my powers also causes my wound to feel like its tearing open. With a sudden massive pain in my chest I stagger and my opponent sees this and goes for another swing when suddenly he goes flying through the air. Looking up from clutching my chest I see Shepard standing there looking pissed as all hell.

Kuler gets up from where he landed and pulls his sidearm to point at Shepard. "Get out of here human this doesn't concern you." When she doesn't move except to put her hand on the butt of her pistol he continues "I'm serious leave now this is a C-Sec matter. I can shoot you both and no one will question it."

Before she can respond Garrus runs up with his rifle drawn. Seeing him out of the corner of her eye Shepard smirks then crosses her arms casually saying "Actually you better leave officer this is a Specter matter and no can question if I or my people decide to shoot you."

Looking around confused Garrus decides to enlighten Kuler "You idiot we didn't get kicked out of C-Sec we were technically re-assigned to help the first human Specter as liaison's from C-Sec. Executor Pallin announced it around when you got in trouble for racism." He says gesturing to Shepard.

Looking shocked he starts stammering when Shepard pipes up again "Now you better leave before I decide to hurt you for assaulting a member of my team."

Putting his gun away Kuler quickly says "I'm so sorry Specter I didn't know. Il leave immediately."

I chuckle as he almost falls trying to scramble away. Turning to Shepard and Garrus I say "Thanks for the intervention I couldn't handle him with my injuries." Grabbing Liara's hand I pull her to her feet "Are ou alright?"

Brushing herself off she responds "Yes I'm fine. I didn't think things would escalate so badly since he was an officer. Next time Il just throw him with my Biotics."

Thanking her for the attempt to help I ask the others if they would like to join us for lunch. Everybody agrees and me and Shepard decide that everyone should try Chinese food since they make a kind safe for Turians as well. Jokingly I say "So after we finish there where should we eat in two hours?" Shepard breaks into fits of laughter while Liara and Garrus just look at us confused as we giggle all the way to the restaurant.