Sorry it's been longer coming than usual, but I've been back at work and very very busy! Be patient, I'll try to be a bit more regular :)

Casey tried to calm her breathing, but it wasn't working. She got dressed into the armour in the back of the shuttle, then slung the sniper rifle over her shoulder. Not that I have any idea how to use it. She picked up the pistol, realising for the first time that it was her own: the one Garrus had bought her. "Where did you get this?" She asked, holding it up. Cortez glanced over before turning back to the console. "It got put in the armoury after the mission on Omega, figured you'd want your own gun.

"Thanks," she muttered, turning it over in her hands. Her thoughts were on Garrus. Would she get there in time? She knew he was tough. More than tough, but how much did that matter if a giant gun began firing at you?

Cortez dropped her at the edge of the colony. "I can't risk getting any closer if that ship's powering up," he said, as the doors to the shuttle opened. Casey nodded, and slipped her gun into the holster on her leg.

"I'll be right here," Cortez continued. "Bring the others and hopefully we can get the Hell out of here before that gun's fully operational. Good luck."

And that was it. Casey stepped out onto solid ground, and was suddenly all on her own. The air was hot and heavy, and her hair immediately clung to her moist forehead. She saw a number of buildings ahead, and wondered how on Earth she'd know where to start looking. She took a breath, and made her way into the colony.

She walked past a number of buildings, all of which appeared to be completely deserted. No colonists, no Collectors, no Shepard. But no Seeker swarms either, which was good at least. Casey wondered if they returned to the ship after they'd paralysed their victims.

She'd been walking for a couple of minutes when she heard a sound behind her. Without pausing to think, Casey slipped into one of the small buildings. Once inside she ran to a nearby bed, and hid behind it. It was lucky she did, because at that moment the door opened again.

Casey had never seen a Collector in real life, but she was in no doubt that the two figures at the door were Collectors. Their bodies were insect like and intimidating, and they had four eyes, each of which glowed yellow. Casey held her breath. The two of them seemed to be talking about something, and stood in the doorway making low growls and clicking noises. Casey saw one of them point to the far end of the room: just behind her, though she managed to duck below the bed before they turned around. She wondered why they were there, when all the colonists seemed to be gone.

Then she saw him. There was a colonist, he was hiding under the bed: unnoticeable by her until she'd dropped to the floor. He was in the paralysis that the Seekers put people under, with a look of sheer terror on his face. The Collectors continued to talk, but were making their way over now.

They know he's here! They're coming to get him!

Casey's heart was hammering so loudly she was surprised they hadn't heard it already. What should she do? There was no way she could get away without being spotted. Time seemed to slow down as she thought frantically. I have a gun. Two guns actually. The thought startled her. But it made sense. She was armed for this very reason: to protect herself. To kill anyone who would hurt her. And these two would definitely do that, given the chance. They were armed too, but she had one advantage: they didn't know she was here. They were almost at the bed, if she was going to do it, it had to be now.

Casey slid the handgun out of its holster and jumped up. She fired a shot into the chest of the first Collector before it'd even reacted to her presence. As the other one went for his gun, she fired a single shot into his abdomen. He dropped onto the floor. She quickly moved over to the first, who lay on the floor, firing a shot into his head as he reached for his gun, and then did the same for the second. The shots rang out loudly, and she prayed they didn't have any friends outside. But no one came.

Casey looked down at the bodies of the first people she'd ever killed. But she didn't feel anything. She wasn't happy, but she wasn't upset either. Still, her legs were wobbling, and she had to sit on the bed for a moment to regain herself. She dropped the gun beside her. Garrus had been right, changing the weapon had made a big difference. The gun fit so snugly in her hand: like it was made to measure. It almost felt like the bullets came out of her own hand, to reach the exact targets she'd wanted.

She heard the noise faintly at first: gunfire. But as she became more aware of what the it was, it seemed to get louder. Garrus! She thought desperately, picking up the gun and running towards the sound.

Casey arrived in a clearing, and it was Grunt she saw first, barrelling down three Collectors. He turned, and she heard him yell "Who's next?!" There didn't seem to be any shortage, as more and more Collectors, arrived. Shepard was a little further off, crouching behind some crates with Mordin. The both stood up alternatively to fire at oncoming enemies. She couldn't see James, Garrus, or Miranda's second team. There was a noise behind her, and Casey spun around. Three Collectors, clearly on their way to the fight, stood just a few feet away. There was a look of what could only be described as bemusement on their faces. This, however, didn't last long, and within seconds all three of them raised their guns. A gunshot rang out, and one of them dropped to the floor. The other two turned, momentarily forgetting Casey and looking for the shooter. Another shot, and another Collector down. Two seconds later and all of them lay dead on the floor at Casey's feet.

Casey turned, and watched as Garrus emerged from a nearby second floor window. He dropped down, but didn't look at her. He was too busy scanning the immediate area for more Collectors. Then he took hold of her arm, and pulled her into the building. He didn't stop until they'd gone upstairs, and into what Casey assumed was the same room he'd just dropped out the window off. "What the Hell are you doing here?" He asked, sounding angry.

"Casey?" James entered from a second door, inserting a thermal clip into his assault rifle. His face was damp with perspiration: the words written on his face now completely gone. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to warn you! The Collectors are attacking!"

James and Garrus glanced at each other, and Casey became painfully aware of the sounds of the battle outside. Above the rest of the noise came the words "I. AM. KROGAN!"

"Well, I'm glad you told us," James said, clearly trying not to laugh. "Otherwise we might not have noticed."

Casey's face burned. "Not them. Well, not just them. I mean the Collector ship, it's powering up. The gun's going to come online!"

Now James and Garrus looked concerned. "Shepard!" James called into his radio.

"Forget it," interrupted Garrus, "Comms are out, remember?"

"Shit."

"We'll have to find him and tell him," Garrus said, and James nodded. Then Garrus turned to look at Casey, and she was suddenly more aware than ever of how much bigger than her he was. Boy, could he look scary when he wanted to. "You stay here," he said, and she could only nod.

James and Garrus headed out of the door, closing it behind them. She heard the sound of something being dragged, and assumed that they had blocked the door with something heavy. Casey was relieved to have passed on the message, but in all honesty, a little annoyed that she'd been left behind. If only they'd seen her take out those two Collectors! Then she shook her head. That's right Casey, two Collectors. What good would you be against an army? You couldn't even take down three of them! You'd only hold the others back!

Knowing she was right, she slumped into a chair facing the window with a sigh. She could see the fight from here, and watched as Garrus and James reached Shepard. Shepard and Garrus ran to a console in the middle of the clearing, while the others continued to fight off Collectors. There were other enemies now, and from where Casey sat, they looked like humans. Husks, she thought with a shudder. They'd told her about those. She took the sniper rifle off her shoulder, and peered down the sight to get a better view. Shepard was typing something rapidly into the console, and Garrus was using his rifle to gun down approaching enemies. She couldn't take her eyes off him. There was something about the way he fought that was just so...desirable. He was controlled, focused, and didn't seem fazed by anything.

Garrus turned for a moment to talk to Shepard, and Casey saw a number of Husks appear as if from nowhere behind him. Without hesitation she aimed the rifle, and took out one of them with a shot to the head. Garrus turned, and took out the remaining Husks within seconds. He looked down at the body of the one Casey had killed, and then glanced up to the window with a curious expression. She watched as he gave a little smile, and then began shooting a group of Collectors who soon appeared.

Casey breathed a sigh of relief. Her first sniper shot had not only been on target, but it had actually helped someone. And she had to admit, there was a part of her that had enjoyed it. Watching that vile creature fall down dead before it could hurt anyone had given her a little thrill, and seeing Garrus' expression had given her an even bigger one. Was there some part of her that wanted to be in the squad like this permanently?

She couldn't think about that right now, so she decided to just do whatever she could to help. She moved the rifle, focusing on the different team members: first Shepard, then Garrus, then James, then Garrus again, Grunt, Garrus, and then finally Mordin. Wait...where is Mordin?

Casey scanned the area, but there was no sign of him. None of the others seemed to notice: they were all too busy, but Casey began to panic. What if he was in trouble? Mordin was her friend, and the whole reason she'd been allowed to join the Normandy, she couldn't let anything happen to him. She knew he'd been in STG, but that was a long time ago, would it be easy for him to get overpowered by a group of Collectors?

She was still desperately searching through the rifle sight for any glimpse of him, when she noticed something. There was a pile of crates not too far from her which had toppled over. Had they always been like that? She wasn't sure, but there was a chance they'd fallen recently, and Mordin could be trapped!

Casey slung the rifle over her shoulder and ran for the door. It didn't budge. Garrus! She thought angrily. She checked out the other one, but it just led into a little bathroom. Heading back to the window, she could see that little had changed outside, the others were still fighting and Mordin was still nowhere to be seen.

Casey looked at the drop from the window. Not too high. Garrus and James made it...She climbed out, dropped to the ground, and landed awkwardly. Pain streaked through her left ankle, and it was all she could do not to fall over. But she knew if that happened she wouldn't get up: probably just crawl off somewhere and wait to be rescued, and that was not going to happen. Gingerly, she put some weight on her ankle. Not broken at least. She hobbled over to the fallen crates, lucky to still be on the edge of the fight and therefore not come across any enemies.

"Mordin?" She hissed, beginning to move the boxes. Nothing. "Mordin? If you're in there, please let me know...otherwise I'm just moving crates..."

There was a noise then, nothing much, but enough to spur Casey on. After several minutes, and a lot of sweating, she found Mordin. He had been buried pretty deep, and seemed only partially aware of where he was. "Casey?" He asked dreamily.

"Come on," she said, reaching in and pulling him out.

"Are you a soldier now?" He asked, glancing at the armour she wore.

"No, as usual no one really knows exactly what I do," she replied, allowing him to lean on her. This made the pain in her ankle even sharper.

"You really smell."

Casey laughed, "Thanks."

At that moment a group of Husks arrived, and though he leaned on her, Mordin used his free hand to shoot at them with his gun. At least his aim's not off, Casey thought, as they began to fall all around them. She reached for her gun, and helped Mordin finish off the last few.

"Good work," he panted.

"You too."

"Chest shots...rather clumsy...should always aim for head. I'll give you a lesson back on the ship..."

"Right."

She dragged him out, intending to go back to the building, but they were cut off by more Collector troops arriving.

"Oh crap!" Casey gasped.

"Not good," Mordin agreed.

Suddenly the Collectors' heads began exploding, and Casey realised they were being shot with sniper rifles. She turned, and watched as Garrus and James took out the enemies. Grunt was at her side, and slung both she and Mordin over his shoulders, and ran towards Shepard and the others. He threw them down behind some shelter. Shepard looked at her and Mordin with a puzzled expression. "Casey? What are you doing here? What happened to Mordin?"

Casey was out of breath from helping Mordin walk, and could barely respond. "Came...to...warn...about...Collectors..."

Shepard looked confused, "Uh...well...I kind of know about the Collectors."

"She means their gun," Garrus cut in. "She's the one who realised it was coming online."

Shepard understood now, "And Mordin?" He asked.

"I helped him out, some crates had fallen on him."

Shepard nodded, "Keep him safe. We're out of here as soon as I can get the colony defence systems online. Comms are back up, thanks to EDI and Traynor." He began talking to EDI while punching numbers into the console beside them. Grunt and James continued to shoot oncoming Collectors, but Garrus stayed on the floor beside Casey for a moment.

"You ok?" He asked.

"Fine. You?"

He nodded. "EDI's managed to delay the Collector ship's gun from coming online. Some kind of infiltration of their systems, I don't know how exactly. But it can't last, they're already attempting to bypass her. We need to get these guns online. The others are on their way."

Garrus was still looking at her. "Nice shot earlier," he said. He reached out, as if to put his hand on hers, when James' voice rang out. "Vakarian! Wanna give us a hand here?"

Garrus got to his feet, and joined the others as they fought off Collector troops. Casey wanted to help, but one look at Garrus told her he wouldn't let that happen. He was just trying to protect her, she was sure of that, but she didn't like feeling useless. Unfortunately, it was a feeling she was more than used to.

Shepard was still typing things into the console, to no avail. Luckily the others would be there within minutes. Just as Casey started to think it might be almost over, a Husk appeared as if from nowhere. It jumped onto Shepard's back, its arms around his neck. Shepard couldn't reach his gun, and Casey was nowhere near a good enough shot to take out the Husk without hitting Shepard. She ran towards the two of them and grabbed the Husk by the neck, pulling and squeezing with all her might. Within moments it had let go of Shepard, and was scrabbling and scratching at her arms. Its long nails bore deep paths along her flesh, but she couldn't let go. It threw her around in an attempt to shake her off. Then she felt its teeth bite into her right arm once, then again, and again. She screamed as blood seeped from the wounds. Shepard was lining up a shot, but the way the Husk was moving meant it was only in the sights as often as Casey herself.

Then it stopped. It went limp, and she could finally release her hold. She couldn't have strangled it, she wasn't holding that hard, was she? Her questions were answered when Kasumi appeared out of thin air, her Omni-blade raised. "Can't stay out of trouble huh?" The sounds of gunfire surrounded them as the rest of the group joined the fight. Casey's legs trembled, she was losing a lot of blood, and Kasumi caught her before she dropped.

"What happened?" She knew that voice, Garrus was at her side. He gently but firmly pushed Kasumi out of the way, and took Casey's arms in his hands, looking at them with a shocked expression. "Medi-gel!" He barked, and Jacob appeared, quickly applying it to Casey's skin. She screamed again, shook him away, it was burning! Kasumi reappeared, and roughly pushed Jacob aside. "Husk's have toxins in their saliva, you have to drain it first otherwise she could get blood poisoning."

Garrus looked at Jacob like he wanted to rip him apart. But Casey wasn't paying too much attention: her eyes were on the large needle Kasumi had removed from the med kit. "I'm sorry Case, this will hurt a bit," she said, as she inserted it into her arm. As she drained the poison, Casey immediately began to feel better. When it was done Kasumi picked up the small tub of medi-gel. "This will probably still sting a bit," she sighed. Casey recoiled slightly, and Kasumi paused, before handing the tub to Garrus. "Here, I should help Shepard anyway."

Garrus scooped out some of the paste, and took Casey's hand. He gently rubbed the medi-gel into her skin. It still stung, but there was something about the delicate strokes of his hands that soothed her, and she relaxed. Garrus' eyes never left her arms as he concentrated on his task. When he was done, the wounds looked better, though still there. There wasn't enough to get rid of the marks completely, so her arms still looked hideous. Garrus reached into the med kit and grabbed some bandages, and wrapped both arms from wrist to elbow. Finally he looked up into her eyes. "Better?"

Casey nodded.

"That's it?" Casey heard Shepard's voice from where he stood at the console.

"Yeah," Kasumi replied.

"I bang on that console for like half an hour, you click three buttons and the guns are online?"

"What can I say Shep? Some of us have got it, some of us haven't."

"Well let's get locked on to that-"

At that moment there was an earth-shattering noise, and the ground began to shake. Casey looked up, and watched as the Collector ship began to take off. The remaining Collector troops (of which there weren't many) and Husks, were easily taken out while they watched in horror as their ship left without them.

"Guess they saw we got the guns working," Garrus suggested. He glanced down at Casey and smiled, "Come on."

Casey heard Shepard talking to Cortez, arranging for him to pick them up. Grunt lifted Mordin, who looked worse than ever, and carried him to the landing zone. Casey got up, and then yelped. Her arms may have stopped hurting, but her ankle was still agony. Before she had time to protest, Garrus lifted her into his arms.

She saw the shuttle land, but that wasn't the only movement. A few colonists were emerging from a nearby building. One of them wore Alliance armour, and Casey watched as Shepard stopped in his tracks, before running towards the woman. She greeted him with a hug, but her expression was almost cold. "Who's that?" She asked as Garrus carried her towards the shuttle. Garrus followed her gaze.

"Well...I'll be damned: Ashleigh Williams."

"The girl who used to be on your squad?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want to say hello? I can walk the rest of the way."

"I doubt you can walk a single step," Garrus smiled. "No, it looks like she and Shepard are catching up."

"She looks mad."

"That's how she always looks."

She looked up at Garrus, who was still smiling, though he looked worried. "Honestly, I'm fine. I'm sorry if I worried you."

"Worried? Panicked. Hysterical. Frenzied. All words I would use to describe how I felt every time you almost died today. Hell, I almost ripped Jacob's throat out for applying the medi-gel too early."

"You don't need to worry about me, I can handle myself."

"Uhuh. And almost getting killed by Collectors, ripped apart by a Husk...that's handling yourself?"

She couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. His smile was gone, and he wasn't looking at her. She felt herself becoming slightly angry, angry that he seemed to have no idea what she was capable of. "Put me down," she insisted, and to her surprise, he did.

"You didn't see all the times I looked after myself. I don't need rescuing," she said indignantly. Casey turned to enter the shuttle alone, but her ankle gave out, and she ended up on the floor. Luckily the rest of the crew were either already on board, or talking to Williams, and so no one but Garrus saw. He helped her back up. "What was that about not needing help?" He was smiling now, and she couldn't help but laugh at herself. She let him lift her into his arms. He nuzzled her affectionately, planting a kiss on her neck that would've been difficult to see by anyone else.

"Casey, whether you like it or not, I'll always be here to pick you up." With that he carried her into the shuttle. No one gave them a second glance as Garrus sat down, Casey on his lap. She leaned into his shoulder, smelling his delicious scent, and was asleep before they'd even taken off.