Wow! Thank you guys so much for the reviews- I've noticed that in the Mass Effect category they're hard to come by, so I appreciate them all the more.

Especially since I went through everyone's profiles and looked at what they'd written (since I get curious), and was nerd-excited to see that some of the stories that I've really liked were written by you guys! (Yes, even those of you who haven't written Mass Effect stories.)

Just wanted to say thank-you properly to everyone, and I hope this chapter is to your expectations!

_OoO_

"So what was an engineer doing on a high-risk mission?" Shepard stared directly at her as he asked, right hand laid comfortably on top of the console he was leaning against. Lynn felt decidedly uncomfortable already, and they'd just entered Shepard's room for the debriefing. She couldn't decide if it was his calm yet intense demeanor that was throwing her off, or the fact that they were doing this in his room as apposed to a side-office.

"Well, that's not the question I thought you'd start out with," she answered, shifting on her feet uncomfortably. The aquarium behind her hummed softly, and the turian to her left seemed to finally be paying attention to her- he'd been almost painfully ignoring her presence since they'd left the med bay, and it was starting to grate on her nerves.

Hell, the whole day was just wearing her down, and at this point she was so tired that just about anything would make her upset. She'd have to keep that in mind while she dealt with the hellish debriefing process. And her brother.

"What, you wanted me to ask what the mission was? Why you were transporting two turian children? Why the Alliance was as Palaven to begin with?" He paused slightly, tilting his head to left, almost seeming to size up her reaction to his words, "I've already spoken with the two other members of your team- Danny Hahn and George Lebowitz- so your version of the mission can wait. What I'd like to know is why you were there."

Alright, so she felt a bit stupid for not realizing that everything she had to say from here on out would just be rehashing to him. No wonder the turian looked so bored about the whole process. Though why he was even here for it she didn't know. Maybe it had something to do with Palaven being his planet or something.

"Ah, yeah, should've figured that one out myself," she scrunched her nose a bit, just to show him how stupid she felt, "well, the geth are really just machines, aren't they? I mean, they've got that 'spark'- or whatever you want to call it- that makes them something more than just a machine, but essentially that's all they are. And while it's all well and good for the men to shoot them and be done with it, having someone along who understands machines struck me as a smart move. And..." She paused in her speech, shrugging slightly and hoping he wouldn't dig further. The rest of it made her feel a bit stupid, and she didn't want to appear even more of a dunce in front of the Commander Shepard. She'd already get an ear full from her brother just for admitting that much, anything more and he'd lock her in a room that she couldn't hack her way out of.

"And?" He prompted, left hand lazily waving in her direction.

She shifted her stance again, looking everywhere but at him; she noticed with an idle detachment that the turian actually seemed interested in what else she had to say. Wouldn't find it interesting soon, though, more like stupid.

Sighing heavily, she let her arms flop to her sides in an 'what the hell, I'm already a moron' gesture, and said, "and, I figured the Reapers were essentially just machines, too, and you can't exactly go shooting them now, can you? So I convinced a guy, who convinced his superior, that having me along would be beneficial. Even if I can't make them shoot-able or whatever, I thought 'well, why not? They're machines, and you're a fast learner, might pick something up along the way.' And so here I am, on the Normandy, after crashing on Menae."

"Yeah, so how'd you end up on Menae," he took her foolishness in stride, which really surprised her, so much so that she couldn't stop staring at him for several seconds. It wasn't until he cleared his throat that she realized she was supposed to answer his question.

"We just barely managed to get off Palaven with Leerah and Saren, the other shuttle- the one with their mother- didn't even make it off the planet. We didn't make it off unnoticed, though, and our pilot couldn't shake whatever it was that was chasing us- I know it wasn't a Reaper, so I'm just assuming it was geth. He never said, just kept yelling at me to give the shuttle more power. He had absolutely no idea what was within my capabilities of doing to a craft that was currently flying. One whose engine wasn't inside with me. I wish more pilots trained like my brother, with knowledge of how their ship flies, instead of just how to fly it. Anyway, he flew too close to Menae, and before Captain Cassidey could tell him to go the other way, we were shot down. We lost our medic in the initial crash," she tried not to cross her arms after she'd finished talking, but it was hard not to want to put a barrier between her and the other two occupants.

"Yes, Hahn said something about you taking over medical, but didn't elaborate on it," the turian said, his talons tapping against his armor in a soft rhythm. That was it, she was tired of thinking of him as 'the turian.'

"I'm sorry, I don't know your name," she said instead of answering the question he was clearly trying to ask her. She turned her body to face him, absently noting that the two men had left her with clear access to the door- a way to make her feel safer, no doubt; so that she wouldn't subconsciously feel trapped. It was a tactic that clearly wasn't working.

"Garrus Vakarian," he answered, not offering his hand in a formal greeting. Well, she had forgotten his name, so she wouldn't take offense. Besides, was that even how turians greeted one another? If she was going to be encountering more of them in social situations, she'd have to learn; maybe the Citadel would have a library of some sort.

And she was drifting, obviously she was more tired than she'd thought. Rubbing her hands against her eyes, she grimaced and quickly pulled them away once she remembered about the dried blood that she still had on her arms. She should've found an excuse to head to the bathrooms earlier, because this was just disgusting.

She continued to stare at her hands for a couple of moments, before letting them drop to her sides, and with an sharp inhale of air she nodded her head, and addressed Garrus again, "yeah. Yeah I was the replacement medic. I don't for the life of me know why- best I can figure is that the entire squad was made up of biotics, and they thought I'd at least know something. More than most of them, at least. I don't, obviously," she looked down at her hands again, before continuing, still eyeing the flaking blood, "didn't want to tell them that, though. They were already dealing with enough, trying to keep the perimeter secure. And since I'm not the best shot, I figured I'd be getting in the way if I tried to help clear the area. Most I could do was apply medi gel and try to keep the shields running."

She gnawed at her lip, trying not to imagine just how many people's blood she had on her hands, in a quite literal sense.

"Here," a wet wash cloth was placed into one of her hands, and Shepard took a step back once she grasped onto it. "I don't think Joker would like to see you like this for the reunion," he joked, and even then he sounded sombre.

"So we know why you were there, and how you ended up there, but now I have to hear your side of the story on why the Alliance was picking up turian children in the first place. I was under the assumption that people were already being shuttled off the planet?"

"Yeah," she began quietly, a harsh contrast to the frantic and painful scrubbing she was doing to her left arm, "but someone- I don't know who, that's something you'd have to ask Captain Cassidey, but unfortunately can't- was contacted by a turian politician on the Citadel. He offered to use whatever power he had to help Earth and the Alliance if we would get his family out. I think he was worried that they weren't going to be evacuated soon enough. I'm sure you know, sir, that we're in desperate need of any help we can get. So the Alliance sent a team of twenty, and I managed to wiggle my way on because I couldn't pass on the opportunity to study the Reapers."

She had moved on to her right arm, but could already see several spots on her left that she'd missed.

"Alright. I think that's all we really need to ask. I'd suggest getting the blood off your face before seeing Joker," Shepard added, not unkindly, despite how harsh the words themselves sounded.

"Actually, I've got one more question," Garrus interrupted her departure, and she tried not show how anxious she really was to leave. "Hahn said that in addition to being the medic, you were also going to try and fix the comm tower once you realized it was down."

Lynn stared at him, not understand where the question was, "yes?" She settled on saying, allowing her confusion to permeate the simple word.

"So you were going to leave your men without a medic and without someone who could keep the shields up?"

She didn't know him well enough to be able to determine if he thought she had made a bad choice by deciding to leave, or if he was looking for her justification in doing so. Either way, she settled herself firmly on the pissed-off end of the spectrum. How dare he?

"I had just spent the last hour watching my men die, because I couldn't do a damned thing to help them besides slap on some medi gel and tell them they were going to be fine. I had just spent that entire time dodging bullet and repairing generators and building those- those fucking useless pieces of shit that don't even deserve to be called turrets. All the while praying that the problem with the radio wasn't the comm tower; that it was something fixable like the radio needing a new wire or a scrambled signal that I could hack around. I has spent the past hour yelling at Sid to stop trying to leave the shuttle, and carting Leerah away from the dying men. She's eight for fuck's sake! So yeah, when the tower was down, and it needed to be repaired, I was going to go. Because none of the others would've known what to do, and we needed to get the distress signal out, or every single one of them would die. It was either leave them without a piss-poor medic and hope that Hahn could repair the generators, or watch everyone slowly die over the night. Now you tell me, which choice was the better one? Because I sure as hell didn't want to have to make it," she was trying not to suck in breaths at a rapid pace, trying to ease her grip on the wet rag in her hand, trying not march up to the damned turian and claw his eyes out for even suggesting that she would do something to hurt those kids.

His mandibles flared, and his eyes bore into hers with... With amusement. What the hell just happened? She thought to herself, still trying to restrain the urge to hurt him.

"Well, that explains why Lebowitz kept speaking about you as if you were his CO, despite the fact that he out ranks you," he said, and it sounded as if he was trying to restrain laughter. Son of a bitch, she'd just let her emotions get the better of her- again- obviously she needed to sleep, and soon. She was never normally this easy to rile up; of course she'd also never watched her entire squad die before, so semantics.

She was starting to get worried about how flippantly she was taking things. Maybe she should have a chat with Dr. Chakwas.

"Alright Garrus, if you're done trying to make her resort to violence, I think she deserves so go see her brother," Shepard cut in, effectively ridding the room of the tension that had begun to fill it.

With a relieved sigh, Lynn placed the wet rag against her right eye, before nodding at Garrus in something resembling acceptance, even if it was a bit terse. "Thank you sir. Though I don't think it'll be a happy reunion. If you don't see me tomorrow check the locked rooms," and with that she left his room and headed for the elevator.

_OoO_

So I was supposed to get her reunion with Joker in here as well, but answering all of those questions took forever. I know they're really mundane answers, so I hope I managed to make it at least somewhat interesting. And I'm also liking how she's got a back bone, that wasn't something I'd really planned on her having. In fact, the only planned thing she had was her complete devotion to Leerah and Saren, I figured being protective of children was a good quality to have in anyone, but something held especially high in turian culture. Them being predators and all.