CHAPTER 18

Nuni was right; they had a lot of work to do. The notes waiting to be re-formatted into official reports covered her table, and the nearest three tables. Nuni patted Rosemary sympathetically on the back. "There's more in Cell 2B. Boxes and boxes of notes!"

Rosemary stared at her friend in disbelief. "Did you do nothing while I was gone?"

Nuni shrugged. "Like I said, it's been busy. I've been pushing bullets more than paperwork these days."

Resigning herself to the inevitable, Rosemary took her old seat and started to work. It was hours later, when she had cleared a fifteenth of her workload – that she finally visited the precinct kitchen for sustenance.

Weirdly enough, she didn't feel like having coffee. Instead, she took one of the orange juice packs she'd brought to work that day.

Mmm... tangy.

"Glad to see you back, Feeger?"

"No coffee, Fledger?"

"Welcome back, Retcher."

The C-Sec officers were friendlier than they'd been when she'd left – that was for sure. Most of them didn't get her name right; but life was never perfect. The reason behind their friendliness escaped her, however. What she absolutely couldn't understand is why she hadn't seen Veracia all morning. He disliked her far more than Nuni, and took pleasure in her clerical misery.

Tross and Rynak stopped by her desk to welcome her back to the force. They were very happy to hear that Wakey Brews was now open, and promised to visit after their shift. Nuni's admirer stopped by too, to offer his own greeting, glancing at Nuni's desk – which was right next to hers. Nuni was hard at work, however – and it became very obvious that the quarian didn't know he existed. Rosemary felt kind of sorry for him, especially since she didn't know his name – in her mind she always referred to him as Nuni's admirer.

With Nuni's help, they managed to get through half the work in record time – just three minutes before the end of her shift. Her fingers ached from typing.

"I can't believe you get to go home," Nuni said enviously. "What do I get? An hour break and then it's out on patrol for me."

"That's because I'm just a secretary," Rosemary said smugly. "You are a big, bad, for-real C-Sec officer."

"Your sarcasm wounds me," Nuni said wryly. "Go on then. Leave me to my hell."

"I will!"

Rosemary took Rapid Transit to Wakey Brews. She walked into the place, pleasantly surprised to find it already bustling with customers. Imitha looked relieved to see her. "Oh, thank the Spirits!" She waved Rosemary down, looking absolutely disheveled. "We need about three more pots of dextro coffee, we're out of Rannoch Spicer, and I can't find the hazelnut creamers!"

Imitha looked like she was about to cry, so Rosemary did a quick change in her office and took over for her friend at the counter. Four hours later, Rosemary found Imitha in her office, put together once more, but looking completely panicked. "I can't do this by myself, Rosemary."

"Relax, sweetie. What happened?"

"First of all... Nuni did too good a job at advertising the place. Do you know how many C-Sec officers came in? Too many. And they told their friends... How am I supposed to bake when I'm manning the front? I'm only one turian! I burned two entire batches of cookies," Imitha confessed, tearing up.

Rosemary felt terrible. She hadn't thought they'd be so busy so soon. "I'm so sorry, Imitha. I promise: I'll start hiring tomorrow."

"No! Tonight," Imitha insisted.

Rosemary shook her head. Imitha wasn't thinking straight. "It's going to take some time putting out an ad, Imitha..."

"Forget putting out an ad! You know people, and those people know other people! Reach out to Nuni, the scary Spectre lady..."

"Yadai's out hunting."

"Fine, then Balint! He's chummy with the councilors, isn't he?" Imitha was beginning to sound desperate.

Rosemary tried to get her friend to see sense. "I don't think the councilors are the type to work in a coffee shop, Imitha. Look, we can start tomorrow and..."

"Rosemary Dead-Varren-Meat Fletcher, if you don't find me some help by tomorrow morning I will gut you with a spoon," Imitha threatened, her subharmonics taking on a menacing tone. Rosemary's eyes widened. Imitha was glaring at her, her sharp blue eyes promising death. Jeez. I've never seen her like this before. I don't really know her, do I?

And so, with great reluctance, Rosemary sent off a message to Balint. Imitha went to her office to 'de-stress' – which in Imitha's case, 'de-stress' was synonymous with sleep. While she waited for Balint to message her back, she went to her own office to unpack a few more personal items.

Rosemary's nose itched with the effort of trying to hold back tears as she took her father's urn from a box and placed it under his picture on the wall. Right next to her mother's picture and urn. She was alone now... No, not alone, but she was the only one looking after Oliver now... and now she had Keeya and thousands of hybrids to worry and stress about. Imitha was right next door, but she hugged herself, feeling the loneliness cut at her heart. She wanted to cry, but didn't. She didn't want Imitha to hear her. She didn't want anyone to think she couldn't handle the weight of her responsibilities.

A noise came from the front of the store. Rosemary took a deep breath before she stood to investigate. She'd closed the shop, hadn't she?

Balint was dragging in a large crate. He hadn't seen her yet. He moved it all the way to the back of the shop before finally seeing her standing in the doorway of her office. Rosemary was impressed; the crate was as large as she was, and he wasn't the slightest bit out of breath. "What is it?"

Balint looked embarrassed. "Er... It's um... I made some calls."

"Okay...?"

"It's your table. From Earth."

Rosemary couldn't believe it. Her mother's table? It had devastated her, but she had chosen to leave it behind on Earth. It had simply been too large and heavy to transport. She had left it to be donated to the local second-hand store. "When did you...?"

"After you left. You mad?"

She answered that question by walking up to him and hugging him. "Thank you," she whispered.

XOXOXOXO

By the time Imitha and Balint went out, it was 'night' in the Citadel. Or rather, the artificial light the Citadel generated was dimmed to simulate night. According to Balint, Oliver and Keeya were at home, safe, under the watchful eyes of almost a dozen officers. Rosemary decided to do some last-minute shopping in the Zakera Ward.

Half an hour later, Rosemary was quite pleased with herself. It had been a productive evening; she had made a few deals with suppliers for the shop, and now she was looking for a way home. The lines for the Rapid Transits were pretty long at this time of night. She debated getting something to eat, but decided against it. She'd prefer eating at home, with her family.

She slowed down as she walked past a sunbathing studio – advertising revitalizing artificial sunlight, of course. Still, Rosemary was tempted. It had been a month since her last sunbathing session, when EDI had parked the Normandy near Utopia's sun in the Exodus Cluster. She bit her lip, unsure. She did a quick check of her accounts. Should she splurge...?

No, not this time. She had to get home, and she didn't want to rush a sunbathing. She had stuff to do, and she could last another week or so. She started to go back down the street.

There were a lot of people on the street, coming and going from the shops still open. She'd been seeing a lot of krogan and vorcha around the street corners in familiar red armor – had the Blood Pack claimed this part of the Wards? She hurried her pace, suddenly feeling uneasy. There was a strange smell in the air – she couldn't exactly describe it. It didn't smell like a physical thing, really... more like anger... and excitement?

Was this a krogan thing? Because of Keeya, she now knew that krogans had a freakishly good sense of smell. She didn't know what to think. Could someone really smell... emotions? Was she smelling some kind of weird pheromones?

She didn't want to think about it. Spying a line to a Rapid Transit that was a few people shorter than any of the other lines she'd seen, Rosemary walked faster. Then she saw a turian in full armor turn the corner a few shops down. It wasn't the fact that she was in armor that set Rosemary in a panic – soldiers and C-Sec officers in full armor was a common sight on the Citadel. But the fact that the armor was white – and that she was wearing a familiar purple mask – threw her mind into hysteria. She looked around quickly, and ran to hide behind some crates by a seafood restaurant. Why does this keep happening to me?!

Rosemary tried to make herself as small as possible so as not to be seen by the almost-three dozen white-armored people go by. From what she could see between the crates, they were all brandishing weapons. Rosemary closed her eyes when the first shot rang out, and people started screaming. No, no! Furious at her own cowardice, Rosemary forced herself to open her eyes and type a quick message to Balint. The Divide was here! But where was here...? Ah, crap.

XOXOXOXO

Rosemary cowered behind the crates, wincing at the sound of gunshots exploding all around her. She'd been hiding for almost twenty minutes, not daring to move. Where the hell is C-Sec?! She couldn't believe she was smack in the middle of a damn gang war! Why me...?!

Her omni-tool flashed. She let out her breath. Balint was here. He was looking for her, but she didn't know where she was, exactly. She couldn't very well send up a flare. Damn it!

She had no choice. She had to see where she was. Rosemary inched down the alley in the direction of the lesser sound of gunshots. She crept to the side door of a restaurant called 'The Stand'. Wait a minute... She'd heard of this place. Nuni had mentioned in passing that this place had pretty good ramen. She had remembered that, because it'd been a long time since she'd had ramen. She passed her location to Balint on her omni-tool.

She looked up and froze. A quarian and his son were huddling behind the exposed bar of the restaurant's front. Then she saw a krogan charge down a Divide batarian only a few feet away … Damn it! Rosemary took a deep breath and shot out from cover. Praying for luck, she climbed over the bar to get to them. Her heart was beating a million miles a minute, unable to believe what she'd just done.

"What...?!" The quarian stared at her.

Rosemary shook her head. "Get into the restaurant," she hissed. "It's safer inside."

The quarian shook his head. "No – it's closed. Locked from the inside. Almost got shot when I tried it."

Not more than twenty feet away from them, they heard a barrage of bullets shoot through glass – shards exploded all around them. Rosemary instinctively moved and rose up just enough to shield them.

Rosemary peeked over the bar to see the krogan and batarian, locked in close, bloody combat. Calling on the burning energy in her veins, she ran to the door of the restaurant and pulled. Sure enough, it was locked. Gritting her teeth, she tightened her hand on the handle and roared as she ripped the door almost off its hinges. Rosemary panted. Employing her krogan strength came to her more easily these days – but at a price. Her head was now throbbing, and her limbs were burning from exhaustion.

The quarian and his son couldn't believe their eyes – but they knew better than to ask questions. They thanked her and made a run for it. She tried to run in after them, but a bullet blasted into the wall by her head.

"You! Abomination," the batarian screamed, running toward her.

Rosemary slammed the door and faced the Divide member, her legs feeling weak from fear... and annoyance? Did every member of Divide have her face memorized? Was she that big a threat? She wasn't even a soldier!

Rosemary only had her strength, and he wasn't close enough to tackle. He raised his gun – Oh, shit!

She could only stare as an omni-blade ran through the batarian from behind. He fell, and she saw Balint standing behind him, his omni-blade wet with blood. He looked at her, his eyes flashing golden in the streetlights. He was shouting at her. "Come on!"

Rosemary forced herself to move, and soon she and Balint were running for the abandoned Rapid Transit. They were running past felled vorcha and krogan, and the occasional gangster in white armor. Did Balint do all that? She was impressed. But... he was a sniper, wasn't he? Well, Garrus was too, and he had still handled himself well with that Divide assassin.

"RAAAAAGH!"

"Oof!" Rosemary was knocked off her feet and pinned to the wall by a charging krogan. She struggled, confused. Why was he attacking her? She wasn't even wearing armor! Then she saw it – the krogan's eyes were slashed. The krogan roared in her face – in pain and in a blood-frenzied rage. He couldn't tell who or what she was! He gripped her up by her throat. Rosemary thrashed helplessly. She may have krogan strength, but this krogan was stronger.

The krogan tried to knock down Balint with his other arm, but the C-Sec officer grabbed it. She gasped for breath, disbelieving what she was seeing. Balint was stronger than the krogan. He pressed his pistol under the krogan's chin. "We're not Divide, you idiot," Balint spat. "We're C-Sec."

The krogan hesitated. He let go of Rosemary, and she fell to the ground.

"Get down! Get down!"

The cavalry had arrived. At least fifty C-Sec officers stormed the area, with Veracia himself at the forefront. Rosemary was relieved to see them. Veracia glared at Rosemary. "You seem to attract trouble, Fletcher," he growled.

Rosemary massaged her throat. "No, sir," she rasped. "I just have shit-bad luck."

Veracia grunted agreement.