AN: Thanks to everyone who has favourited, followed and double thanks to everyone who has reviewed.

Special thanks goes to my beta Spyke1985! You're the best!

Okay, last update for today. Chapter 11 should be up in about a week.

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Ten - A Dose of Common Sense

Sarah sat crouched on the roof, sniper rifle in her hands. Watching. Waiting. She couldn't remember what she was waiting for, what she was expecting to appear in her scope, but she knew that it was important.

"Been waiting long?" A voice whispered in her ear as strong arms wrapped around her midsection, causing her heart to begin to race and her cheeks to flush a little. She dropped the rifle and turned to find who she had been waiting for. Who she was always waiting for.

"No." She lied to the dark-plated turian in front of her, her small, nimble fingers reaching up to trace the vibrant red markings across his face as his own three fingers moved to trace the deep blue ones across hers, increasing her pulse even more and causing her breath to hitch in anticipation. She had been waiting for far, far too long.

His hands moved down to brush her waist, pulling her closer to him. She was wearing her usual gray vest and jeans, minus her jacket and visor. She rarely got to see him without the tint of blue covering everything and it made him seem so much more real. Made her heart tug even more when his green eyes met hers. But right now, it wasn't her heart that had her attention, it was the heat growing between her legs as his hands teased her gently.

Patience had never been one of her virtues and she decided that she had had enough of his teasing, so she pressed herself closer to him and gently nibbled the underside of his mandible, earning her a deep growl that only made her need for him more intense. She quickly moved her hands across the clasps of his armor, wishing that he had worn something a little easier to remove. But then he wouldn't be him. She gave a self-satisfied smirk as the last piece fell away, her lips having never left his face, and he growled again, his chest vibrating slightly beneath her hands. Almost imperceptibly.

He seemed to lose his own patience at that, talons ripping through her clothes with a raw passion that she had rarely seen from him. The idea that she was the cause of this side of him showing itself made her give her own growl of pleasure, as he began to nuzzle her neck, his tongue moving slowly and making her wonder how the hell he still had the presence of mind to tease her. She rolled her hips against his, hoping to spur him on. It seemed to work, as he let loose another growl, moving his tongue from her neck. She gave a whine of frustration and he laughed softly in her ear. That pulled her out of her lust-fueled haze for a moment as her heart jumped to her throat and seemed to lodge itself there as he lowered his forehead to hers, his piercing green eyes staring at her with much, much more than just predatory lust.

"Blue, I-"

BLEEPBLEEPBLEEPBLEEPBLEEP

Sarah awoke abruptly, turning over so quickly that she fell out of bed and sharply onto the floor of her room.

"Cazzo!" She yelled as a sharp pain shot through her leg and she realized that she had banged it badly against the side of her bed, drawing blood from the sharp edge. Her carpet was now stained with purple blood as she sighed, waiting for the wound to close. It took a while and she figured there would be an angry purple line across the lower section of her calf for the rest of the day.

"You okay?" Tia's voice called out from the next room as she knocked on the door.

"Yeah... Just... Fell out of bed." She said, not wanting to open the door and let Tia see the purple blood stains everywhere. She decided to quickly switch her shorts for joggers before leaving her room, carefully slipping through the door, opening it as little as she could get away with, so as to not risk Tia seeing anything. Her asari roommate greeted her with a cup of coffee, for which Sarah would be eternally grateful.

"You hurt yourself?" She asked and Sarah shook her head.

"Liar. You only swear in untranslatable languages when you injure yourself." She observed and Sarah sighed at the habit she had picked up from her mother.

"It's not my fault your translator doesn't do Italian." She muttered as she downed her coffee, ignoring the scalding feeling as the hot substance - which she suspected wouldn't pass toxic screening the way Tia made it - worked its way down her throat.

"Bad dream?" Tia asked and Sarah blushed, shaking her head.

"No. Just... Weird dream." She said shyly, her blush deepening, and the asari grinned smugly.

"Ah." She said and Sarah glared at her.

"Don't." She warned, but the asari kept grinning.

"So... Is it not bad news that I used up all of the hot water?" She asked and Sarah groaned, annoyed that this was still a problem when they were living on a fucking space station.

"Shut up." She said as she downed the end of her coffee.

"Don't worry, he'll be back in a couple of weeks." She said and Sarah rolled her eyes.

"That's what you said a couple of weeks ago." She pointed out and Tia gave her a sympathetic look.

"Look, I know it's not easy being separated from your bondmate bu-"

"No. Stop right there. Red is not my bondmate. He is a friend who I may or may not have slight romantic feelings for. That's all." She said and the asari sighed, shaking her head. She was often astounded by Sarah's stubbornness, but this had to be setting a new record...

"Scared everyone away, huh?" Sarah growled at the voice behind her, quickly spinning to hit whoever had gotten that close. But he dodged her fist. "I think I'm getting better at that." He said and she continued to growl, refocusing her attention on the punching bag in front of her.

"Leave, Philip. Now." She snarled at him, and he raised an eyebrow.

"What's got you so worked up?" He asked and her growl deepened. She was not about to have that conversation.

"Nothing." She said, starting to hit the punching bag once again.

"Yeah. Looks like 'nothing'." He observed and her growl deepened once more. It hadn't subsided for hours and she figured that he was right. Whoever might have been considering using the C-Sec gym had probably been scared away by her clearly aggressive demeanor. Any turian within a mile radius would know to keep their distance. She was showing all of the classic signs of separation from her bondmate, and anyone would be able to see it. Anyone but her.

"Leave." She told him again and he shook his head.

"Sarah, I'm not leaving. Something's been bothering you for weeks now. Are you stressed because of the gig tomorrow? Because you've got nothing to worry about. Seriously, you're gonna rock." He told her and she shook her head, clenching and unclenching her hands into fists to try and expel her excess energy.

"It's not that... I..." She started, unable to articulate what was bothering her.

"Come on, talk to me. I thought we were friends." He said and she sighed, losing her frustration-fueled anger for a moment.

"We are. I just..." Her growl turned into a feral snarl for a moment as she once more felt attacked by her frustration at her own feelings. She had ridiculous amounts of pent up, stress induced energy, and no way to expend it. Short of destroying every piece of equipment in the gym. She had already busted the treadmill in the apartment.

She threw a wild punch at the bag and slipped, tripping over herself and hitting the wall. Philip caught her before she hit the floor and she was very suddenly aware of how his skin felt against hers, how he was easily holding her, hand just brushing her waist as it rested on her hip, how his lips were just moments from her own...

She shook herself, pushing away before she did something she would regret. She really needed to get laid. She cursed her turian physiology, knowing that she needed to get rid of her build up stress, although she refused to acknowledge what was causing the stress. It most definitely was not that she had bonded to Tiberius, and the distance between them was causing her body to respond with crazy amounts of stress, doubled by the fact that she hadn't actually told him how she felt about him, which caused its own stress.

"Are you hurt?" He asked and she shook her head, although he frowned, indicating to her leg where her black joggers was sticking to her skin. "It looks like you're bleeding." He said, moving towards the wound. She immediately backed away.

"It's fine." She hissed sharply. "It'll stop in a moment." She said and he folded his arms.

"Sarah, it looks bad. Just let me look at it. I do know what I'm doing." He said and she shook her head furiously.

"I'm telling you, it's fine!" She said, knowing that he wouldn't back down until he was sure that she was okay. If she had learnt anything working with him over the last few weeks, it was that he cared about her. And she had to admit that she had come to rely on his upbeat attitude and bad jokes to keep her mind from the absence of Tiberius. It was still there, but Philip had a way of pushing it to the back of her mind.

"It's dripping with blood, I mean- What the hell?" He said as he looked at the bottom of the leg of her joggers where blood had started to drip out. Purple blood. Sarah sighed, falling back so that she slid down the wall and came to sit on the floor. Philip grabbed the gym's med kit and sat down next to her. He pushed the clothing away from the wound and he silently went to work, cleaning out the wound and applying a bandage.

"Aren't you going to ask?" She asked softly and he sighed.

"To be honest, I don't even know what the question would be..." He admitted and she smiled weakly.

"Hey Sarah, why do you have purple blood?" She offered weakly and he nodded.

"Hey Sarah, why do you have purple blood?" He repeated as he finished patching her up. She shook her head, climbing up and starting to pace. She really wanted to run. She wanted to run away and not stop. But, for once, she was tethered to the truth by her friendships.

"I just..." She started but her throat seemed to close up. What would he think of her once he knew the truth? He would be revolted. Repulsed. She was sure of it.

"You have a medical condition?" He guessed and she wondered if she should just take the out. "Sarah, you don't have to worry about what I might think. Judgment free zone, remember?" He said, his words cutting into her, deeper than they should.

"Judgment free zone, huh?" She scoffed before pulling off her visor and yanking her hair away from her fringe plates. "I am a hybrid. Half-human and half-turian." She hissed at him, her tone slightly manic. "Still not going to judge?" She spat angrily, storming away from him.

He grabbed her arm before she could get too far, pulling her back so that she was facing him. He could see the tears lacing her ice blue, turian eyes and he suddenly saw a side of Sarah that he was sure she kept well hidden. Despite all of her bravado and snarky attitude, she was insecure. It didn't match up with his idea of Sarah, the woman who was old beyond her years and simply didn't care what anyone thought of her. He wondered if this was the side of Sarah had she had only shared willingly with Tiberius, and that Tia had glimpsed through keen observation. Her gaze fell to the floor and when she next spoke she sounded angry and bitter.

"I am literally a turian in human skin." She told him and his hand moved over her arm, showing the clear definition of plates beneath her thin skin. In the areas where the plates weren't, the thin outer layer of skin merged with the thicker skin beneath it. It was as if someone had taken a small turian female and covered her in a thin layer of human skin. Now that he could see it, he couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed it before, although she had always been careful to cover herself with modest clothing. Suddenly her strange proportions were very noticeable, though not disturbingly so. "I look too human to be a turian, but I act too turian to ever truly be a human." She said and he frowned a little.

"Why are you doing that?" He asked and she frowned back at him in confusion.

"Doing what?" She asked.

"Acting as if I'm about to run away from you. I'm not running, Sarah." He told her and she kept frowning.

"Why not? I'm a hybrid freak." She spat and he shook his head.

"That's not true and you know it. I think that whatever is messing with you has you doubting yourself, and you shouldn't." He said and she shook her head.

"Phillip, look at me. How could... I mean, how could anyone..." She trailed off, unsure of how to voice what she felt. How could anyone love something like me? It had never bothered her before. She had always been happy with who and what she was. But she had never really thought about falling in love.

"Oh, Sarah..." Philip said, his tone carrying all of the connotations of 'don't be so silly'. She sighed, steeling herself to push away from him and head home. She would probably end up telling Tia everything and then... Hell, she'd probably go home for real. Stop waiting around for Tiberius and just cut her losses. There was no way that he could-

Her train of thought was interrupted by Philip lowering his mouth to hers, kissing her gently, tentatively; as if testing the waters. She immediately stiffened up, before pulling away and running as fast as she could from whatever the hell had just happened between them.

Sarah returned to the apartment to find it empty. She started to pace agitatedly, unsure of what else to do. What else could she do? She wanted to talk to Tia. Or did she? She knew that there were unresolved... Things between her and Philip. Honestly, it had kept her from ever looking at him that way.

Apart from once or twice.

But who could blame her? No one could claim that he wasn't a good looking guy. But... He wasn't Red. That was her problem... And she suspected it always would be her problem. But he'd left and had been gone for weeks. If that wasn't a clear enough message that he didn't feel the same about her, she didn't know what was. If he felt the same way then how could he stay so far away? How would it not be driving him mad?

So, she should move on. Shouldn't she? Yes. Of course she should. She couldn't just wait for him. She wasn't some pathetic young girl who was going to wait around for some guy. No matter who he was.

Right?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door beeping, alerting her to someone on the other side. Tia would have just let herself in, so Sarah knew that it wasn't her.

"Go Away!" She growled in Turian Common. Since arriving on the Citadel, she had only spoken TC when she'd been alone with Tiberius, in order to avoid suspicion. Now she simply didn't care.

"Sarah?" Philip asked from the other side of the door.

"Leave me alone." She said and she heard him sigh loudly.

"Sarah, please just let me in. I want to apologize." He said and she bit her lip, her sharp teeth drawing blood, before sighing and opening the door.

"I'm sorry." She said, aware that there were better ways to handle what had happened than to run away. She switched back to speaking Human Common, not wanting to have this conversation via translators.

"I should be the one apologizing. You were distressed and I took advantage and I'm sorry." He said and she shook her head.

"It's not like I was wasted or anything. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run." She told him and he shook his head.

"I should have just told you instead of kissing you but... Sarah, you have to know that there is nothing wrong with you. And any guy not willing to look past... This," He indicated to her face. "Isn't worth it."

"Is that your way of telling me that you can 'look past' it?" She joked and he stepped closer to her, nodding.

"Yeah, it is." He said honestly, his voice low. She felt her mouth go dry. She knew all too well that the turian reaction to stress was for her system to become flooded with hormones. The fact that she was still young didn't help. She either fought it off or she screwed it off.

Option number one wasn't open.

She would need a sparring partner for that, and only two people she knew on the Citadel were good enough to challenge her. Tiberius and Tia. Tiberius wasn't around and Tia, while good, couldn't make up for Sarah's superior strength.

Then there was option number two.

Which wasn't really an option, because the other person would have to know about her being a hybrid.

Which Philip did, her mind supplied unhelpfully.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked and she sighed.

"What about Tia?" She asked and he frowned.

"What about her?"

"You two have... That weird thing that you two have." She said and he sighed.

"Why is this the first thing girls ask me?" He groaned. "I already told you this. Tia turned me down shortly after we first met but she was the only person I knew when I first arrived here, so we kept hanging out. But there isn't anything between us. She has made it more than clear over the years that she wants nothing more than friendship from me." He told her, his hand moving up to play with her hair. "Is that all you want?" He asked softly and she sighed, looking away.

"I... You know that I don't want any kind of real relationship." She said and he nodded, moving his lips to her neck, starting to kiss her softly and she realized that she was teetering on the edge of reason.

"I know." He said softly, his hands on her waist. They were unpracticed with turian females, but she was too worked up to care.

"I would just be sex." She warned him, biting back a growl of pleasure as he pressed her body against his.

"I am perfectly happy with that." He said, pulling away from her neck to show a cheeky grin before he pressed his lips to hers again. They were soft and fleshy like Rael's had been and she hoped that humans wouldn't be all that different. Her lips parted with pleasure, as he stroked her waist in just the right way, and his tongue made his way into her mouth. The kiss was sloppy, he was a little too pushy and his mouth had the ashy taste of cigarettes.

But she didn't care.

The main, overriding problem were his eyes. When she opened hers and looked into his stormy gray ones, she was struck by the fact that they were definitely not that deep, piercing shade of green that she craved.

She pushed the thought away, pulling her top off over her head as he removed his own. She moved her hands along his chest, feeling the muscles moving beneath his skin as he started to remove her jeans. They were both far too impatient to wait around, and she could feel his hard length through his own trousers as she helped him to remove her own.

At that point she was suddenly struck by the fact that they were still standing in the middle of the living room and started to laugh a little.

"What's so funny?" He asked her and she shook her head, taking his hand and leading him back into her room. Her bed was small (she had never really considered the possibility of another person sharing it with her), but it would do. She pushed him back until the backs of his legs hit the edge of the bed and he fell backwards onto it. Before he could get back up, she was straddling him, kissing him along his neck. He laughed a little at her impatience, before slipping his hand between her thighs, causing her to growl a little as he caught her by surprise.

She knew that she was similar enough to a human female in that department for him to not have any trouble. And she quickly realized just how little trouble he was having as he found her clit and began rubbing in just the right way that made her growl once more with pleasure.

"You keep doing that and I'm going to come before you eve-" She was cut off by a moan as he kept teasing her and she moved down to his underwear, realizing that somewhere he had lost his pants without her noticing it.

"Wait, do have a-" He asked but she cut him off with an impatient growl.

"Do you want me to bore you with a biology lesson, or do you trust me when I say that you can't knock me up?" She asked and he nodded before she removed his underwear as fast as she could as he moved to kiss her again, before positioning his length at her entrance.

"Stop teasing and just do it." She growled, as he lazily circled her clit once more, her breathing heavy and ragged. He laughed softly before pushing into her slowly and she growled deeply once more. That was all the encouragement he needed to start thrusting and she kissed frantically along his neck again, her pulse racing as her body reacted to his touch.

She still couldn't shake the nagging feeling clouding everything. That it wasn't right. That he wasn't right.

She pushed the thoughts away, instead focusing on the feeling of him pumping in and out of her, hitting her in exactly the right spot. Over and over again. The feeling of his hands teasing her breasts, ignoring the fact that there was two fingers too many. Ignoring the fact that they didn't fit together exactly right.

It wasn't long before all rational thought escaped her and she was growling in his ear as her muscles clenched around him and pleasure cascaded through her, pulling him with her over the edge.

He gave a few more lazy thrusts before pulling away and she was once again struck by the fact that his eyes weren't the right color as they met hers. She smiled weakly at him, the fact that she had been ignoring, and running away from, finally sinking in.

She was bonded to Tiberius, and she would always be bonded to him. Even if she didn't want to be, and even if he didn't want her to be. It wasn't something that she could change.

"Sarah?" He asked and she realized that she had been with her own thoughts for several moments and was biting her lip so hard that it was bleeding. She looked up at him and saw that his expression was a mirror of her own. A hollow laugh escaped her at the sight.

"That was all a load of bull, wasn't it? What you said about there being nothing between you and Tia?" She asked and he sighed.

"No. She has made it clear that she doesn't want to be more than friends but... Somewhere along the way she stopped being a good friend who I thought was kind of hot and became... Something else altogether..." He admitted and Sarah nodded, laughing again.

"Yeah. Same." She admitted and he frowned before realizing what she meant.

"So, you and Smiley...?" He asked and she sighed.

"I fell for him. Bonded to him. And... I've been running from it ever since I realized." She admitted and he nodded.

"That the bondmate thing Tia told me about?" He asked and Sarah nodded.

"Yeah." She said and he frowned a little.

"The way she said it, it sounded like a two-way thing." He said and she sighed, nodding.

"Between two turians, it always is. Hormonal reaction to pheromones or something. No one is exactly sure why that's the case. But obviously, I'm not a full-blooded turian. The normal laws of nature don't apply." She told him, before laughing again.

"What?" He asked but she kept laughing, shaking her head.

"This is weird. Talking about this with you. Naked." She told him and he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. We just had sex, remember?" He said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes, nodding.

"I know. But it's still a little weird." She admitted and he shook his head as he got up and put his pants back on.

"Better?" He asked and she smiled at him.

"I didn't say that I wasn't enjoying the view." She said playfully and he folded his arms.

"Just not turian enough for you?" He joked back and she shook her head.

"Just not him." She admitted and he nodded as she put on some pajamas.

"Yeah. I know what you mean." He said and she frowned a little.

"Ask her again." She said and he shook his head.

"No. She made it clear that she doesn't want to be more than my friend and I don't wanna lose that." He said, sighing.

"Trust me. She's changed her mind." Sarah said and he nodded.

"You gonna tell Smiley?" He asked and it was her turn to sigh as she looked towards the small box on her desk. She hadn't opened it since Tia had first given it to her. She was too scared by what it might mean.

"Yeah... I think it's time to stop running." She said and he grinned at her.

"I can totally see it. Five years from now you two'll both be respectable C-Sec officers, living in a fancy part of the ward, married and pregnant with your first little hybrid baby of your own." He told her and Sarah's face fell a little, but she pushed back the thoughts that were starting to lurk on the edges of her mind.

"Living right next door to you and Tia." She said and he smiled.

"Yeah... For the first time in my life, a future like that doesn't seem so far-fetched." He admitted and she nodded.

"I know what you mean..."

Tia hated working late but she knew that it was necessary. Tomorrow was the twenty year anniversary of the end of the Reaper War, and if she wanted the day off to play in the band tomorrow, she had to do prep work over night. Philip was supposed to be helping her but she had expected him to bail. Even if he was there, he would probably end up being more of a hindrance than a help, anyway, she figured. Sarah wouldn't be much help either. She had little patience for such work anyway, but there was no way that she could remain focused right now.

"Need a hand?" A voice came from behind her but she didn't turn around, too engrossed in the datapad in front of her.

"Five weeks?" She asked and he sighed, although it sounded more like a growl to her.

"Yeah, I know." He said.

"She's not going to forgive you, you know? At least, not easily." Tia said as Tiberius sighed again, sitting down next to her.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from her. And I deserve it." He admitted.

"So, you finally got some sense knocked into you?" She asked and he nodded.

"Yep. My granddad can be extremely blunt when he wants to be. Once he figured out what was wrong, he practically pushed me back onto the transport. I thought that after what happened to my parents he would agree with me but..."

"He actually had some common sense?" She asked and he nodded.

"Yeah. Pretty much." He said and she finally looked up from her work, rolling her eyes, as his constant fidgeting in her peripheral vision distracted her from her work. She suspected that if she could hear his sub-harmonics, they would be growling with agitation. The theory was confirmed by the wide berth that the other turians in the office seemed to be giving Tiberius.

"You've made yourself sick." She observed.

"Yeah. Serves me right I guess." He said, not entirely succeeding in biting back a frustrated growl, and she snorted.

"Yeah, it does. I mean, dumb move, Smiley. You're not even twenty yet. You know that bondmate separation is worse the younger you are. Especially when you haven't actually marked her." She said and he nodded.

"That's an understatement." He growled and she rolled her eyes.

"You can't ignore biology, Smiles. So, does this mean that you're going to tell her how you feel?" She asked and he nodded.

"Yeah..."

"About damn time."

AN: I know, I know! Sorry about the cliffhanger! Chapter 11 is coming asap, I promise!