AN: Thanks to everyone who had favourited, followed and reviewed and special thanks to my beta Spyke1985.

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Two - My Mistake?

"Yeah, that's definitely their hideout." Tiberius said as he passed Sarah his sniper rifle to see for herself. Knowing that her father was a turian explained most of the oddities he had noticed, from her sub-harmonics to a least some her body language. Tiala was right, she did carry herself like a turian. However, as she walked he kept noticing other little quirks in her body language; some asari, quarian, or even krogan traits showed up. He even noticed her using a very drell-like gesture at one point.

He also couldn't help but notice how she kept to the shadows, purposefully avoiding the more crowded areas. She acted like a predator, but her eyes screamed prey as they scanned her environment for exits and escape routes, as if she expected to have to run at a moments notice. But what from, he couldn't figure out. Although, he figured it was the same thing that gave her the hardened look in her eyes and why she didn't seem to care about anything. It seemed to him that the more he found out about this human, the more questions he had.

"Plan?" She asked, pulling him from his thoughts, and he considered their options for a moment.

"We get a warrant and come back." He said simply and he saw a flash of anger cross her features, but it was quickly silenced.

"Okay then." She said, her voice a little strained. He got the impression that if it were up to her they would simply gun the mercs down and move on. The thought chilled him a little, although he partially agreed. She took one last look through the rifle scope before tensing up. She passed him back the rifle and he looked for himself as her sub-harmonics trilled with fury.

"Shit..." He muttered as he caught sight of what she had seen. They weren't just transporting illegal tech like he had thought. They were transporting slaves. He had no idea how the operation had gone unnoticed for so long on the Citadel, of all places, but it didn't change anything. "There's still nothing we can do without a warrant." He told her and she rounded on him, fury in her eyes replacing the hardened look that had been a permanent feature since they had met that morning.

"I am not letting them get off this station with those people." She hissed at him and he growled in response. He didn't like it either, but they couldn't just run off like they were vigilantes or Spectres. They were C-Sec and there was an order to things.

"It's procedure, Officer." He growled at her and then, to his surprise, she growled back.

"Look, I'm going. With or without you. You can either cover me, or go and tell the boss, but you need to make a decision." She told him, her tone harsh. He couldn't believe that he found himself pulling his weapon and nodding in acceptance, ready to watch her six. Or kill her. He hadn't decided yet...

"Fine, I've got your back Blue." He told her, still growling a little. He could have sworn that her expression softened momentarily as he used his nickname for her and he wondered if she had actually been worried that he would leave her hanging. If it had been anyone else, any of the other partners he had been paired with, he would have. But not her. He could deal with hot-headedness and a penchant for trouble so long as she actually knew what she was doing, and he knew that if he fought against her, chances were he would just be paired with someone worse. He couldn't help but hate the C-Sec policy of working in twos...

But he readied his weapon anyway as she leapt down from their perch, breaking her fall by grabbing at various ledges along the way. He immediately lined up his sniper rifle as she synced their comm channels and pulled out her pistol. He had to admire her swift efficiency as she entered the building, taking down most of the guards silently with her omni-blade so that she made it into the main compound before she had been spotted. Tiberius was glad of the open areas of the docks, which allowed him to follow her movements from up high without obstruction.

"Are you okay?" He heard her ask the slaves over the comm. Her anger had lessened from her voice and, for the first time since he had met her, she showed the slightest sign of actually caring about something as he heard concern fill her voice. "Okay, follow me." She told them but they only made it a few steps before they were overwhelmed. Tiberius cursed as he realized that they had walked into a trap. Maybe not a trap as such, but it was a situation that shouldn't have happened. They should have prepared more. Stupid, stubborn, human woman...

"Leave. Now." Tiberius heard the leader, a salarian, say as he approached.

"Not happening." She told him, he couldn't her her sub-harmonics over the comm but her single-tone voice did a really good job of conveying her anger without them. Despite the situation she was in, he felt a little more concerned for the mercs than for her at that moment. She exploded with biotic energy, catching him off guard. Hadn't she said that she no longer had the ability?

"What the-?" He heard her say as the blast knocked down the majority of the guards but left her vulnerable as she seemed as surprised as he was. He proceeded to take down the majority of the guards around her as she turned to the two krogan flanking the salarian, one of which was charging her. She jumped backwards, her hand catching the top of a crate and propelling her into a backwards flip, landing a safe distance from the krogan before she hurled two Warps at him, tearing down his armour. In that time the other krogan had started to charge her, pointing his shotgun at her, but she simply built up her biotic energy to create an impenetrable barrier around herself before charging him herself, colliding with him head-on. Tiberius looked on, shocked, as the krogan collapsed and she proceeded to unload a clip between his eyes. After that she made quick work of the remaining mercs since Tiberius had taken care of most of them with well-placed shots to the head.

However, in the resulting chaos the salarian had grabbed one of the slaves as a hostage and Tiberius had no problem seeing the raw fury in Sarah's gaze through his scope.

"Let me go or the bitch dies." He told them and Tiberius was a little taken aback by the very turian growl that came from his partner.

"Do you honestly think that will work?" She asked before proceeding to shoot him. Tiberius immediately jumped down to their position to find that Sarah had shot the salarian dead, grazing the hostage's arm in the process. He found her staring at her arm as the biotic power flickered out and died. She flicked her wrist a few times as if trying to fire them up again but nothing happened. He was too preoccupied with the sight of the wounded hostage to process this properly however, so he growled angrily at her.

"What?" She asked, snapping out of her daze, anger once again marring her features.

"You know what." He spat and she clenched her jaw. "You shot the hostage!" He told her and she continued to glare at him.

"So?" She asked and he was so close to hitting her it was unreal. She had just shot an innocent woman in the arm and all she had to say was 'so'?! She took a deep breath and let her expression soften a little. "It's just a flesh wound. She'll be fine. If I hadn't... There's no telling what he would have done." She reasoned, but Tiberius just shook his head. How could she be so cold about it? It was her first day on the job and she had just killed several people. Mercs and killers, sure, but still... She was acting with the detachment of a soldier who had seen more than enough conflict to last a lifetime.

"It's not how things are done here." He told her, his tone a little more harsh than it needed to be. Her expression returned to a stony state and her eyes became hardened once more as she retreated back to how she had been that morning.

"Sorry." She told him, no apology or any other emotion in her voice. He sighed, shaking his head a little. What was he going to do with her?

"Your behavior was irresponsible and reckless!" Sarah stood across the desk from the Executor, her hands clasped behind her back and her head held high, her expression blank and her sub-harmonics silent.

"If we had called it in and waited for an investigation, they would have gotten away Au- Executor." She explained, her tone calm and neutral. Solana Vakarian sighed as she regarded her niece.

"Sarah, this isn't about that! You shot a hostage! I know for a fact that that wouldn't be okay with your parents, so I don't know why you think it would be okay with me, of all people." She told her as she folded her arms in exasperation.

"I thought I had enough evidence and I made a judgement call. I'm sorry if you don't agree with it." Sarah said, her tone still formal and emotionless. It reminded Solana a little too much of her brother's response to being in trouble.

"Sarah, there are rules and procedures to prevent things like this from happening. Did you even read the handbook?" She asked and for a second she could have sworn that she saw a little guilt flit across her niece's face.

"I... Skimmed it." She admitted and her aunt sighed once again.

"Dammit, Sarah... If you wanted the freedom of a freelancer or a Spectre then you should have stayed put. When I suggested this to you, I assumed that you understood that. Was I wrong?" She asked, letting disappointment lace her sub-harmonics. She had been a mother for long enough to know exactly how to get the results she wanted.

"No! I... I'll do better. I promise." She said, her sub-harmonics voicing her determination and her aunt nodded at her.

"Good. Honestly, I had hoped that Tiberius would keep you in line and that you would get him to loosen up a little. He should know better. So, I'm punishing both of you." She said and watched with surprise at her niece's violent response to that, her sub-harmonics screaming NO!

"It was my call, not his. He had nothing to do with it!" Solana wondered for a few moments at the severity of the response she was getting, but filed it away for later. For now, she had to do her job.

"He's your partner. He should have stopped you, not helped you. I think that I was hasty in allowing you to skip both academy training and the entrance exams. Sure, I know you'll pass, but it'll be a hell of a lot easier for me to justify your behavior if you ace the tests. I've put Tiberius in charge of your testing. Hopefully a day of tedious exams will be punishment enough for the two of you." She said, indicating that Sarah should leave. She wondered if Sarah was too much like her parents to ever really get anywhere with C-Sec, but she had to give her the chance, she decided.

Sarah found Tiberius by the lockers and approached him tentatively, worried that he would he angry with her. Worry was a new feeling for her. Anger, frustration and self-blame were all old hat, but worry? Especially about what another person thought of her? She must be more tired than she thought...

"Hey. I really am sorry." She said, voicing the apology that her sub-harmonics were already making. He nodded at her, his face and voice neutral.

"Why?" He asked and she frowned a little before answering.

"I'm sorry that I didn't follow procedure. And I'm sorry for acting recklessly. I'm not used to working with others or... I'm sorry. I've never... Been that extreme before. I just saw the option and I took the shot without really thinking." She admitted. "I guess you want a better partner now..." She said, regret lacing her sub-harmonics. He sighed and shook his head.

"No." He said definitively. "As long as you're willing to learn, we shouldn't have a problem." She nodded.

"I am." She said and he regarded her carefully before smiling a little, his sub-harmonics telling her that they were okay.

"I don't usually operate out in the field anyway. I just needed that intel." He said and she looked a little uncomfortable as she remembered their original objective.

"Did you get it?" She asked tentatively, unsure of how angry he would be if she had messed up his chance to get the data.

"Yeah, I got it, Blue." He told her and she smiled weakly as he used her nickname.

"Hey!" Philip cried as he jumped up behind Sarah, not recognizing the tension between her and Tiberius as he put his hand on her shoulder and caught her by surprise.

The next thing he knew, he was on the ground with the wind knocked out of him.

"Sorry." Sarah said sheepishly, glad for the first time in two months that her biotics were no longer responding properly. "You shouldn't sneak up on me." She told him apologetically, with a hint of warning.

"Okay, well, if you're done attacking me." He joked, causing her to wince a little, although Tiberius noted that she quickly returned her features to their regular stony state. "What's going on?" He asked.

"Nothing." Sarah said, trying to keep the upset from her sub-harmonics. She was still mad at herself for screwing up.

"Okay... Well, Tiala and I often go to this little café after work and we were wondering if you wanted to come with." He said.

"You're welcome too, Tiberius." Tiala supplied, causing Philip to shoot her a quick look. Sarah sighed and gave them a quick, apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry but I haven't had time to unpack or anything and I have exams in the morning. Another time?" She was just making excuses but she was tired of screwing up for one day.

"Yeah, sure. We understand." Tiala said, smiling in a reassuring way.

"Well, if Blue's not going then I'm out." Tiberius said as Sarah walked out of the room, leaving him alone with Tiala and Philip.

"So, what do you think?" Tiala asked him and he frowned.

"About what?" He asked and Philip rolled his eyes at the turian.

"Rookie. You spent all day with her. We've heard nothing. Not even a rumor about her." He said and Tiberius shrugged.

"She's... I'm not sure. She can't seem to decide if she wants to be friends with people or if she wants to keep them at arms length. I mean, I was convinced that she didn't have the nerve to handle a real fight and the next thing I know, she's charging a krogan. With biotics. And she seemed as surprised about it as I was. She's the most unpredictable person I've ever met." He said and the other two both frowned.

"Is that why you spent an hour in the Executor's office?" Philip asked.

"Yeah." He said, not bothering to elaborate and Tiala nodded thoughtfully.

"I heard what she said and she gave you guys a very fair punishment. But what I can't figure out is why exactly Sarah wasn't tested in the first place. I mean, it's not too unusual to bypass the academy but the entrance exams? I don't know anyone who wasn't tested." She said and Tiberius frowned.

"Wait, you have the Executor's office bugged?" He hissed and Tiala just gave him a dismissive wave of her hand.

"You're not focusing on the important stuff. Whoever Sarah is, she's clearly had some training before, plus it sounded as if the Executor knew her personally..." Tiala trailed off and Philip frowned at them both.

"You guys are terrible, you know that, right? If she wants to tell us, she will. Plus, chances are that she went to Grissom given that she has biotics. Or had biotics or whatever the hell is going on with that. Maybe she's a graduate and that's why she wasn't tested." He reasoned and Tiala and Tiberius both gave him a shocked look, causing him to sigh. "You know, me figuring something out shouldn't be so much of a shock. It has been known to happen..." He said and Tiala smiled at him.

"Of course it has." She said, half jokingly. "Well, weirdness aside, I like her. What do you guys think?" Tiala asked and they both shrugged.

"I kind of thought she was a bitch until she 'Bel-Air'ed you guys. She seems like she might be alright once you get past the ice-queen act." He reasoned and Tiala nodded.

"Exactly." She said before giving Philip a slightly confused look. When did he become so astute? "So, what do you think, Smiles?" She asked and the turian shrugged.

"Doesn't matter. As long as she does her job, I'm not going to complain." He said and Philip narrowed his eyes at him.

"Wait, are you actually going to stick with her? You always request a transfer after your first day with a new partner." He said and Tiberius shrugged.

"She's not the worst I've ever been paired with and I figure Executor Vakarian will just give me someone worse if I ditch her." He said and Philip realized that he wasn't going to get anything more from the turian and so let it go.

"Okay then, you coming Tia?" He asked and the asari nodded, although she waited with Tiberius until Philip had left the room.

"That's a very reasonable excuse." She told him. "So why don't I believe it?" She asked and he sighed.

"Because I'm not sure if I do..."

Sarah trudged into the bakery and dumped her bag unceremoniously on the counter. Her Aunt Kara lifted her head and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, hello to you too." She said and Sarah groaned.

"I know, I'm sorry. It's been a rough first day..." Her aunt smiled at her, nodding in understanding.

"Tell you what, go and put your bag upstairs in your new room and by the time you get back your Aunt Lona will be back here and you can tell us both about it. Okay?" Sarah smiled at that, picking up her bag again.

"Okay, I will be back in five." She said before heading upstairs and dumping her bag in the guest room. It was smaller than her room on the Normandy and the window showed a view of the street below instead of the stars. It made her homesick. But she wasn't about to run back home to her parents. She was determined to prove that she could do this...

She spent a few moments unpacking her things, her heart giving a painful tug when she took out her blue colony paint and placed it in her small bathroom. She caught a look of her face in the mirror and frowned, taking her visor off for a moment. Her eyes would probably pass for human, the dark flesh making up the inside of her eye socket where pink should be could easily be confused for make-up, but she didn't want to risk it so she wore the visor. She found a hair band and used it to keep her fringe of hair from her eyes, revealing the small crest plates hidden beneath. Just one more thing to hide...

She hated that she was in such a sour mood, blaming the fact that she hadn't had much sleep the night before. Not that she slept much anyway, but she hadn't slept even by her standards for the past few days. Stress was doing a number on her body, but she couldn't tell anyone because she had to prove that she could cope, that she could do this on her own. She sighed, composing herself and looking to the positives; her testing tomorrow would almost certainly include hand-to-hand combat. Although she doubted that anyone could match her skills, she had spent the last three years making sure she was the best. It was how she coped...

She finished unpacking and brought out her clothes, mindful of a tear in her jeans where she had been hit in the fight earlier that day. She had covered it with a bandage before Tiberius had seen, careful to not let him notice any of her blood. She sighed as she took them off, examining the damage. They could be patched up and she was thankful. It was difficult to find clothes that covered the odd curves of her muscles, the things that just weren't quite human. Her jacket covered the turian proportions of her chest and waist, but she needed specially fitted jeans to cover for her legs.

If her Aunt Lona hadn't been a tailor she would have been screwed, she thought to herself as she put on another pair of jeans and put her boots back on, the heel covering the way her foot arched upwards like a turian's. The differences were still there, still clear enough for her to see. She sure as hell wasn't human, no matter what her new friends thought. But she also wasn't turian. The wound on her leg was evidence enough of that. It had closed up but an angry purple line was still present. Not red like a human, or blue like a turian, but purple. Completely unique. And she still wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not...

She sighed and pulled herself out of her melancholy, determined to not annoy her aunts with her bad mood. She headed back down to the café, aware that it was still business hours, so she took her hair band out and put her visor back on. When she returned she found her Aunt Kara laughing and holding her wife's hand. She had known Kara her entire life and had often stayed with her and Gran-Gran on Earth during her childhood, helping out in the bakery they ran there, until ten years ago her aunt had moved back to the Citadel and met the purple-skinned asari whose hand she currently held. Sarah couldn't help but smile at them, their contagious happiness pushing away her dark mood.

"Sarah!" Her Aunt Lona cried, pulling her into a hug, a little tentatively as she was aware of how little Sarah enjoyed hugging. People had always said that she inherited that trait from her mother, but she knew that it was a recent thing... "I haven't seen you in years. You're all grown up." Her aunt told her and she tried to smile through her discomfort.

"Thanks, Aunt Lona." She said sheepishly.

"Hey, Sarah!" She heard a familiar male voice calling from a near-by table and saw Philip and Tiala sitting there.

"Hey, guys. I didn't realize you meant that you would be coming here." Sarah said, as she moved to sit next to them. She knew that she should just nod and leave but that would be rude and she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Although she was regarding them coolly, too tired to fake a smile.

"Yeah, Philip here is lactose intolerant so it's one of his favorite haunts." Tiala explained and Sarah nodded. The bakery/café her aunts ran served specialist baked goods for people with certain allergies.

"I'm staying upstairs with my aunts." She explained and Tiala gave her a questioning look.

"You aren't living by yourself?" She asked and Sarah shook her head.

"It was one of the conditions of leaving home." She explained and Tiala leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner.

"So, it seemed like you and Tiberius were getting on well." She said in a low voice and Sarah sighed, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms.

"I guess we were at first but... I messed up and I didn't follow procedure. I managed to get us both in trouble with the Executor." She admitted and Tiala gave her a sympathetic look, but Philip just grinned. She didn't mention the fact that she would prefer to spend the day in the C-Sec building instead of an overcrowded ward.

"Ha! I knew you were a troublemaker like us and not a stick-in-the-mud like Guy Smiley." He said and Sarah shrugged.

"I guess I am a nuisance. Red must really hate having to work with me..." She said and Tiala shook her head.

"Nah, if he did he would have requested another partner already. At this point I think he'll just take someone who can hold a gun. Executor Vakarian keeps pairing him with the hopeless cases. Not that I think that she thinks you're a hopeless case! Just... You know..." Tiala tried desperately to dig herself back out of her metaphorical hole and Sarah put all of her effort into smiling at her kindly, although the emotion still refused to reach her eyes.

"It's fine. Honestly, I think she does think that. I have extensive combat experience but... not much else. I can handle a weapon but my biotics have been... inconsistent for two months now and I'm not so great at thinking before I act. Or tech. I'm shit with tech..." She joked and Tiala laughed a little. Truthfully her problems ran a little deeper than that but no one knew that.

"I'm the tech-y one in this duo." She confessed and Sarah gave Philip a questioning look.

"So, no offence, but what are your skills?" She asked him and he grinned.

"I can jam!" He said and she just raised her eyebrows, causing Tiala to sigh.

"He means that he plays guitar. The stupid thing is Philip is actually smart. He just can't be bothered." She said, shaking her head as Philip just shrugged.

"I don't get paid enough to actually bother with stuff." He reasoned causing both Tiala and Sarah to smile.

"I'm surprised the Executor hasn't just fired him. Her mate sure as hell wants to." Tiala told her and Sarah nodded. Her Uncle Chellick had always been the stricter of the two.

"Yeah, you're lucky you dealt with the Executor herself earlier and not with him." Philip told her and her smile widened a little.

"I don't doubt that."

Philip and Tiala stayed until closing and generally brightened Sarah's mood. Just as they were about to leave, Philip touched the skin of her arm where she had rolled up her jacket's sleeve and she put all of her effort into not overreacting. She managed to keep her composure as she said goodbye to the both of them and turned to her aunts.

"So, you've been busy making friends." Her Aunt Kara said as she sat at the counter.

"Yeah, I guess." She said, her expression unchanging, and her aunt gave her a sly look.

"Philip seems to like you." She told her and Sarah shook her head.

"Aunt Kara, I've only been here five minutes. I'd like to just start with making friends, which is enough of a pain in the ass..." She said and her aunt nodded sympathetically.

"So, who is this Tiberius that Tiala mentioned?" She asked and Sarah frowned.

"Red? He's the guy Aunt Sol paired me with. I managed to get in trouble on my first day and I dragged him down along with me." She said and her aunt frowned a little.

"Sarah, why are you here? Don't take this the wrong way, I love having you here, but what happened to going to university? I know that you've taken an interest in your parents' work over the past few years but if that's the case then you'd be better off staying on the Normandy. So why here? Why C-Sec?" She asked and Sarah sighed, shrugging.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." She said before heading back upstairs before her aunt could say anything else.

Sarah sat on the roof of the building, watching the skycars pass by. She wished that there was an artificial night cycle on the Citadel. The permanent daytime combined with the time-difference was throwing her off. She was exhausted, but she was determined to not touch the sedatives again. So she settled for playing music through her visor as she watched the cars fly past.

"Dear Frustrated Superstar, your mother's waiting in the car

To whisk you off to your new premiere

And all the friends who knew your name

Are waiting, wondering what became

Of the girl that they once knew but never loved

They never loved.

So every city tells the lie

Of beggars, tramps and butterflies

Of all these things, then what am I?

A princess in a threadbare gown,

A gaudy, painted circus clown?

A child who lost her key and can't get home?

All the things I never was -

A traitor in the Western Wars

A girl who did it just because.

Do or die, or don't at all

Prepare to suffer for your call

Some things have to hurt or they're not true.

They can't be true

When you die, you'll wonder, "was that it?"

Will you think of how you'd wished you lived?

Well, you're here now

Yes you're here now.

So I only want to be up there

With a hundred others, I don't care

'Cause I'm here now

Yes I'm here now."

The music was cut off by her omni-tool beeping and Sarah sighed before moving to answer it.

"Hey, sis. What's up?" The image of the girl asked, tucking her short dark hair behind her ear.

"I wouldn't even know where to begin." She replied, sighing at her honorary younger sister and Hilary nodded.

"Yeah. I... I worried about you leaving home." She told her and Sarah sighed. There it was. Hilary had never spoken to her about what had happened that night, but Sarah had long suspected that the younger girl knew. Sarah suspected that she simply didn't know how to approach the topic, so she'd left it alone. And Sarah was glad for that. It was her burden and she refused to share it with the young girl.

"I'm fine. Really. This is just going to take some getting used to." She said and Hilary smiled.

"The 'Intergalactic Nursery' doesn't quite prepare you for the outside world, does it?" She asked and Sarah shook her head, smiling.

"No it does not." She said, her smile was finally genuine and matched the one Hilary was giving her.

"At least your mom was just the commander and not the freaking AI. It's left me with some really weird habits..." She joked and Sarah's own smile took on a bittersweet edge.

"Made any slip-ups yet?" She asked and Hilary looked away.

"No. There have been some close calls but... I guess I'm not hiding much. I'm using my real name and it's not as if I have to hide my appearance like you do. How about you?" She asked and Sarah sighed.

"No. Sort of. I wasn't planning on telling anyone anything. I was dumb enough to think that I could just show up, do my work and leave without ever talking to anyone. I... Miscalculated." She admitted and Hilary laughed a little.

"You can't keep yourself closed off forever, Sarah. At some point you have to let people in." She told her and Sarah simply folded her arms stubbornly.

"No I don't." She said, simply and brightly, causing Hilary to raise an eyebrow.

"Yes, you do." She said, but Sarah refused to budge. "You'll figure it out for yourself soon enough." She said, sighing. Sarah just shrugged.

"Whatever you say. So, any cool stories from flight school?"