AN: Hurried upload between lectures!

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!

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Nineteen - The Truth

Tiberius was awoken by a bright light at the far end of the room, causing him to groan. He was sure that it was far too early to be up. After allowing his eyes to adjust, the light finally registered as the terminal at the other end of the room, making him groan once more as he sat up, glaring a little at the woman behind it, curled up in her blanket as she worked.

He sighed, pulling himself up, out of bed. "Can't sleep again?"

She shook her head, her gaze fixed firmly on the screen in front of her. "Headache," She explained. "Plus, I had an idea, so I figured I might as well work. Sorry if I woke you."

He moved over to her, resting his hands on her shoulders as she worked. "I can't believe I fell in love with an insomniac..." He murmured, earning him a smile. "Come on, Blue, you need your sleep."

"No, hang on, I just have to finish this one thing..."

He rolled his eyes. How many times had he had to pull her away from her work when they were working at C-Sec? Probably about as many times as she had to pull him from his, he figured. It, apparently, was a habit neither of them had dropped, although he now had a new tactic in distracting her from her work.

"Come on, Blue," He murmured in her ear before lightly nipping down her neck, not missing the way she pressed her thighs together when she squirmed, trying to not let her mind get distracted as he moved his hands down to her waist, stroking lightly, pulling a light gasp from her lips.

She frowned, shaking her head a little. "No, just five more minutes..."

"We both know that when you say five minutes, you mean another hour," He reasoned, moving his hand down lower.

"No, just, if I lose this halfway through, I'll forget where I was," She told him, pushing him away from her as she kept her gaze firmly on her work. She gave a grim smile of satisfaction as he left her alone after that, although she worked as quickly as she could, hoping that he wouldn't just fall asleep in the interim. Although, if he did, she would just wake him up again. She figured it would be the least he deserved.

Finally, she finished her work. "Okay, so maybe ten minutes. But, still..." She trailed off as she turned to face him, only to see that he was stuck in place with a stasis field. "Wait... Shit, did I do that?"

"Yes, and I would be thankful if you would let me out, please."

She frowned a little. "How is it lasting this long...?"

He sighed. "I really have no idea. Again, can you get me out?"

She shrugged. "Not really. I always just let it wear off. Like I said, it normally doesn't last this long. But then again, in the past I would have already worn down my biotics in battle. I guess not using them might cause a bit of a build-up... Can you move?"

"A little. It seems to just be pinning my limbs in place at key points. I can still talk, obviously."

She put her hands on her hips as she stepped closer to him. "Well, I guess this is what you get when you try to interrupt my work."

He gave her a disbelieving growl. "Blue, I tried to get you to get some sleep and now I'm trapped here. How is that fair?"

She nodded. "You're right. You deserve much worse for those dirty tactics," She told him, stepping closer to him once more so that her body was flush with his, very glad for his habit of not wearing clothes to bed.

"We both know that it's the only tactic you respond to," He replied as she began to kiss along the sensitive skin of his neck.

"I would argue if you weren't right..." She murmured, her kisses moving down along his cowl, trailing closer and closer to the sensitive skin along his waist.

"Blue..." He moaned, his plates shifting.

"Yes?" She asked, softly teasing the sensitive skin with her tongue.

"Keep... Ah, yeah, just..."

She pulled away. "What was that?"

He answered her with a growl. "Don't stop."

"I didn't hear a please in there."

His growl deepened as he gave her a disbelieving look. "Seriously?"

She raised an eyebrow, her fingers just brushing the sensitive skin of his waist for only a moment, drawing a deep moan from him.

"Okay, okay, please..."

She grinned a little, knowing that this was entirely unfair of her. "That's better," She replied, moving her mouth down to his fully opened plates, coaxing his cock out with as little touch as she could manage, knowing that it was driving him crazy.

"Stop teasing..." He moaned.

She grinned, pulling away from his now fully-erect member. "What was that? You wanted me to stop?"

He growled once more, although this time it had a much more feral edge to it. "Blue..."

She took pity on him, knowing that he couldn't manage a more articulate response. She ran her tongue along the underside of his cock, still keeping her movements at a speed that she knew would be tortuously slow. Although she knew that her fun was almost at an end as she saw her stasis field start to flicker. She was half-tempted to initiate another one when it failed completely.

Before she could register what was going on, the world seemed to invert. The next thing she could make sense of was the sound of her own gasp at the familiar feel of Red taking her from behind, his pace fast and unrelenting as she struggled to find purchase, realizing that he had bent her over her desk.

She rapidly found her breath quickening as his cock hit her in just the right spot on every stroke. She was already worked up from the time spent teasing him, it didn't take long for her to reach the precipice of orgasm, the feel of him spilling inside of her acting as the final push over the edge, leaving her gasping for breath.

When she was finally ready for coherent thought, she turned to her bondmate, folding her arms. "See what happens when you try to distract me from my work?"

He grinned at that. "Worth it, " He told her, drawing her into his arms. "So, can we go back to bed now?"

She nodded. "Yeah, yeah..." She inspected the tattered remains of her shorts that he had, apparently, sliced through. "Didn't we already go over you not ripping apart my clothes?"

He shrugged. "If you hadn't been wearing them, it wouldn't have been a problem. I don't understand your need to wear clothes when you sleep."

"Yeah, when Cerberus attacks us in the middle of the night and you're scrambling around for a pair of pants, I'm just going to point and laugh."

He raised a browplate at that. "Yeah, I'd probably just forego pants at that point..."

She shook her head, smiling, as he pulled her down onto the bed.

"Now, for Spirit's sake, sleep. We might actually be able to salvage a couple more hours before we have to get up."

"Right. Sleep. Got it. Or, you know, since we're both already up and my pants are already ruined..."

He groaned shaking his head. "You're going to be the death of me..."

Philip raised his eyebrow at Tia as Tiberius and Sarah entered the security offices, both looking as if they hadn't had enough sleep.

"'Morning, you two," He said, noting how Sarah went straight for the coffee. "Sleep well?"

Sarah groaned, shaking her head. "I'm not a good sleeper," She explained.

Tia frowned. "A holdover from your separation?"

All three of them noticed how she tensed a little; it had always been her give-away when she lied.

"Yeah, must-be..."

"But you're sleeping okay, though?" Philip asked Tiberius, earning him a glare from Sarah, confirming that this was a side-effect of her condition.

"Kind of..." Tiberius replied, earning him a knowing smile from Philip.

Sarah hit him lightly on the arm, in response.

"What?" He asked innocently.

She shook her head. "You know what."

"I thought you'd be in the lab," Tia observed.

Sarah held up her datapad in response. "I can work from here for a while. I spend so much time in the lab; I've barely seen you guys at all in the past month."

"Yeah, we'd almost started to think you were avoiding us," Philip joked, earning him another glare from the hybrid.

"I haven't been avoiding anyone, I've just been busy. In case you haven't noticed, there's kind of a time-restraint on this. Cerberus gets more and more comfortable every day and each of those days, about a dozen of their hybrids die." No one missed the bite in her voice.

Tiberius touched his hand to her arm. "We'll get them, Blue."

She nodded, smiling reassuringly. "I know," She replied before frowning as he rolled his shoulders. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just, new rule; no more biotics..."

"Agreed," She answered.

"Been there," Philip interjected, earning him an eyeroll from the two women in the room.

"You know," Sarah started, turning to Tia. "I've been wondering how those two became friends since they don't exactly have a lot in common but they just spend their time talking about us, don't they?"

The asari nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

Sarah sighed, her gaze resting on the datapad in Tia's hand. "Got any more info on what Cerberus are up to?"

Tia shook her head. "More of the same. They know that you're all here and they know that you're not moving. We're just trying to figure out exactly where in the city they're holed up but... It doesn't seem centralized in any way. We get a little bit of suspicious activity here and there across the city, but nothing to indicate a base of operations."

"So, no chance of anyone being allowed home anytime soon?"

"No, sorry."

"Where would you go anyway, Rookie?" Philip asked.

"I'm not asking for me. Some of the scientists here actually have lives and families."

Tia shrugged. "They knew what they were getting into when they signed on to this team."

"Yeah, but a lot of them didn't think we'd actually end up in a lockdown situation. I was talking to Amber about it yesterday and people are starting to get a little on edge."

Tia frowned. "It's only been a little over a month."

Sarah sighed, shaking her head. "Sometimes I forget you guys have been spec ops agents for years now. Listen, normal people need interaction with the outside world to stop them from going crazy. Amber's not seen her eight year old daughter in over a month. I mean, she gets scared when no one leaves the hall light on for her. What's she going to think when her mother doesn't come home? A month is an eternity for a child. She's not used to her mother not being there and she had no time to get used to the idea and it's more than a little worrying, I-"

She was pulled from her train of thought by Tiberius touching her arm, checking that she was okay through their bond. The glazed look her eyes had taken in the last few moments left as she locked her gaze with his, her breath a little gasping, as if she had just been pulled from beneath water.

"You okay?" He asked softly.

She nodded. "Sorry... I just... Spirits, I hate when I do that. I just... I think I'll head back to the lab. Maybe being around other people when I'm this tired isn't a good idea..."

Tiberius gave an affectionate trill of his subharmonics, earning him a weak smile as she returned the sound, kissing him lightly on the side of the mandible before leaving.

"Okay, I'm just going to come out and say it; what the hell was that about?" Tia asked, folding her arms.

"What was what about?" Tiberius asked, returning his gaze to the work in front of him.

"We've been here over a month and I haven't seen any evidence that Sarah really knows anyone but Nat and now she's suddenly really worried for another scientist and knows loads of personal details about her? It makes no sense."

Tiberius shrugged. "Look, if you want answers why don't you talk to her?"

Philip snorted at that. "You know that this is Tia you're talking to, right?"

The asari just shook her head. "I'm worried. Sarah has always kept her secrets but... Well, it would be just like her to keep something to herself, even if it hurts her."

Philip just gave Tia a pointed look. "Babe, have you even tried asking her?"

"No, we've both been too busy. We haven't exactly had time to chat lately," She reasoned, shrugging.

Philip sighed, shaking his head. "Maybe Sarah's right... We've been specs ops for too long."

Tia shook her head. "Nah. Trust me; it takes more than a couple of years of this shit to become truly removed from normal society."

"Well, you would know..."

Tia rolled her eyes as she leant over to see what Tiberius was reading on his omni-tool, her eyebrow shooting upwards at her discovery. "'Human mating rituals'? I thought you two were doing well in that department," She teased.

Tiberius glared at her, growling a little with annoyance. "That's not- I was- Different context!"

Tia's smile widened. "I know, I'm teasing you."

He shook his head. "Philip's attitude is starting to rub off on you..."

"Ti, your best friend is human, why didn't you just ask about human dating?"

He raised a browplate in response. "Well, you're his fiancée. Do you honestly think he should be giving romantic advice?"

"Ah. Okay, well, when you put it like that, I agree. You're probably better off with the extranet."

"Hey!" Philip objected.

"Hush, you," Tia replied, playfully.

"Why are you looking up human stuff, anyway?" Philip asked. "You're dating Sarah. She's practically a turian, anyway."

"But she's not. She's also half human. It really bugs her when people try to put her in one category or the other, so I'm trying to not treat her like just a 'turian'," He admitted.

"Aww, that's so sweet," Tia said before turning to Philip. "See, that's what a considerate boyfriend looks like. I hope you're taking notes."

Philip responded by turning and glaring at Tiberius. "Dude, stop setting the bar so high. Seriously..."

Tiberius rolled his eyes. "Philip, if the bar was set any lower, you'd hit your head on it… look, I'm just trying to not mess things up, okay? Now, can you help me out or not?"

Philip shrugged. "The problem with human women is, despite our insistence to the contrary, they're all different. As far as Sarah's concerned, she's pretty laid back, dude. As long as you're not a complete asshole, you're probably fine."

Tiberius sighed at that. "Remember when things were simple?"

"No. Things are never simple, they just get complicated in different ways..."

Tiberius got through his work as quickly as he could, while still sure to not be making mistakes, getting away about half an hour earlier than he had anticipated. To his surprise, Sarah had also, apparently, gotten away from the lab early, presumably to catch up on sleep. The fact that she slept so little, often claiming 'headaches', hadn't gotten past his attention.

He tried her omni-tool and was automatically patched in.

She must've accidentally changed the answering protocols again, he thought to himself as he prepared to speak into it, alerting her to the fact that her omni-tool was transmitting, however he was stopped by the sound of her voice coming through the device.

"Okay, let's try this again... If I don't do it now, I'll never manage it. Computer, begin recording.

"If you're watching this then... Plan C went ahead as planned. And, I'm sorry for that, I truly am. If I really did go through with it, I'm guessing that you weren't happy about it. If I know you at all, I know that you'll be angry and looking for answers. I guess I'm recording this to try to give you some, even if they are a little late.

"So, here it is. You're probably wondering why the hell I gave up when there were other options and, you're right. There are other options. None with such a high chance of success, but still, not such an improvement to warrant my sacrifice, right?" She sighed, as Tiberius kept listening, unable to bring himself to turn off his omni-tool.

"The truth is, if this cure doesn't work, I won't be sacrificing much. At the point at which I made this recording, I have a little over ten months left before the damage becomes irreversible. I... I am more stable than the Cerberus hybrids, but not stable enough... If you're watching this then the cure didn't work and there... is no hope left for me..." Her voice cracked. "Computer, pause recording." She stopped talking for several moments, nothing coming through his omni-tool but a static-y sound that he knew was a result of higher frequency sub-harmonics. He knew that it was a mercy that omni-tools didn't transmit those frequencies. He suspected that if he could hear them, it would break his heart. She hadn't said anything that he didn't already know but it was no less difficult for him to hear.

"Computer, resume recording." Her voice was so soft and strained that he almost didn't catch it. "Now you're probably pissed off... wondering why I didn't tell you. I just... I can't justify lying to you other than to say... when you look at me now, you don't see a dead woman. You see a future for us. How can I take that away from you? I guess... I just wish that I still had that, you know? That I didn't know. Every time you start talking about the future, you have no doubt that it's going to happen. And, even if it's just for a few moments, I don't, either... I don't know, maybe that's selfish... I can't tell if I'm doing it for me or for you, anymore - maybe a bit of both - but... I have no idea what I'm doing, all I know is that right now, you're not hurting... I don't know if it's ever worth risking that... So, just... I hope that you can forgive me and... I can wait, Red." Her voice cracked once more, becoming strained. "You know I never had much faith in gods or the Spirits - a result of my upbringing, I guess - but my parents did always talk about a bar in the afterlife. I know you've never been one for drinking but, I'll be waiting there for you... Just know that I can wait a little longer... In fact, I'll be kind of mad if you show up any earlier than thirty years from now, maybe forty... Computer, pause recording." At that point her voice became so strained, cracking every other word, it eventually dissolved into the sound that he had come to know, all too well, was her unique equivalent of crying.

He was hurrying to her office before he had even shut off the omni-tool, the sense of sorrow and regret radiating towards him growing more intense as he approached, bypassing her lock on the door.

She scrambled up as he entered the room, quickly wiping away the tears from her eyes. "Hey," She said softly, clearly more than a little startled by his arrival, her tear-laced eyes wide with surprise.

"Hey," He replied, unsure of what else he could say. "You okay?" He finally asked, a little lamely.

She nodded. "I'm fine."

He shook his head at the bad lie, moving towards her so that he could pull the strands of her hair that had become stuck to the tear tracks down her cheeks. "Blue, what is it?" He asked, deciding that it was probably best to not reveal the fact that he had been accidentally spying on her, even if he hadn't learnt anything that he didn't already know.

"Red, just... you know that I love you, right?" She asked, her eyes desperately searching his for an answer.

"Of course," He answered, pressing his forehead to hers. "Of course I do."

She gave him a weak smile, running her hand through her hair. "I'm sorry, it's just... Sorry, I haven't slept properly in days and it's messing me up and then I have to deal with stressful shit all day and I just... I'm reaching my tolerance..."

"Then let me help."

She nodded. "Yeah... I guess there's always that small part of me that tries to shoulder everything by myself. But... maybe that's half the problem." She sighed before frowning at him a little. "Wait, why are you mad at me?"

He shook his head, maintaining his stoic features. "I'm not mad at you," He lied.

She gave him a disbelieving look, folding her arms. "You are. You're furious. And scared. And... And you can't believe that I would think that a note would be enough... Wait, what?" She stared at him expectantly.

He shrugged. "You keep on accidentally setting your omni-tool to auto-answer..." He replied, not wanting to admit to spying.

"Oh... well... shit... And, it's not an accident. I set it before I go to sleep if you're not here so that I don't sleep through a call..." She admitted, her gaze dropping to the floor as she hugged her arms close to her chest.

He didn't reply. He had no idea what to say.

Eventually she spoke up. "This was only ever an emergency measure. Just in case I got worse quickly and never got the chance to explain. I guess I had planned on telling you when I had a better idea of whether or not Nat's cure would work."

"I know," He told her softly. "I've known for a while now..."

She frowned. "Then why didn't you-"

"Because I also know that you needed to think that I didn't know."

She sighed, shaking her head. "But you're still angry about it. Dammit, this is just like you, Red. You don't tell me when you're mad; you just give me a load of passive aggressive bullshit until you work through it."

His subharmonics gave a disbelieving trill at that. "Because, you know, you're one to talk about keeping things from people."

"Not important stuff! Not stuff to do with us."

"Then what the hell does this count as?!"

"This is my problem!"

"That's your problem, Blue! It's always your problem! You never see how stuff might affect other people!"

"No, the problem is that I see all too clearly..." Her voice was low as she slumped against the wall, raking her hand through her hair. "This is why I didn't want to tell you, Red."

He sighed, folding his arms. "Blue, you... you need to trust people more. You should trust me."

She frowned. "I do trust you."

"Then why didn't you trust that I could handle this information?"

She was at a loss at that. "I guess... I didn't see it like that. I just didn't want to hurt you... I'm sorry."

He sighed. "I'm still mad, Blue, but now I'm mad because I can feel you becoming guilty over thinking you've hurt me but you haven't even asked me about it."

She simply gave him a questioning look, unsure what he meant.

"You say that you'd rather not know but... I don't agree with that. I'd rather shoulder this with you so that you're not alone."

She just looked at him, shaking her head, disbelief evident in her gaze. "Spirits, what did I do to deserve you? I just seem to keep fucking everything up and you don't... You stick it out."

Yeah, well, we're not all as good at running away as you are...

"Wow, that was... harsh..." She muttered as if he had said the words aloud.

"Wha- I didn't-"

"No, you're right. I am good at running away. It seems to be the only thing I'm truly gifted with."

"Blue, I didn't- I mean, I would never have said..."

She nodded, sighing, as put all of her effort into stopping her lip from trembling once more. "I know. Trust me; I have accidentally slipped into enough people's heads to know that they can't control what they think."

"Like this morning?"

She nodded. "The longer I'm around someone and the higher emotions are running, the easier it is to slip into it. Hell, I have to spend all of my time keeping track of what people have told me and what I've just picked up... Sorry, I didn't mean to pull us off into a tangent about more of my problems."

Tiberius sighed. "Blue, I think a tangent was the least I deserved..."

"If I wasn't fucking spying on your thoughts, I wouldn't have heard it..."

"No complaining. This bond thing was your doing."

She nodded. "Exactly. I mean, I didn't even ask or anything. Why are you with me, Red? I'm a total bitch!"

He gave her a light trill of his sub-harmonics, the turian equivalent of a kind smile. "You're not as bad as you seem to think, Blue. You make mistakes, like anyone else."

"No. I can't make mistakes. Not anymore... Mistakes are fatal..."

"Blue, you can't beat yourself over every little thing because you're scared that history will repeat itself."

She sighed. "I know. Trust me, I'm through with scared. I've had enough of it... I swear, if Nat's cure does work, I'll eventually be killed off by stress-related illness."

He ignored her bad joke, simply cutting through to the underlying issue. "Blue, it will work."

She frowned a little at him, disbelieving. "You really believe that, don't you?"

"Of course I do. Blue, you're one of the strongest people I know. If anyone can pull through this, it's you."

She groaned, shaking her head. "As sweet as that sentiment is, there so many things wrong with that..."

He rolled his eyes. "Let me guess; scientists make the worst patients?"

She nodded. "All of the cynicism and self-diagnosis as doctors, without the actual medical training."

He frowned. "So, have you just been treating yourself?"

"Well, no. That implies that there's a treatment. Nat figured out a potential cure, but, while related, it's a little different to the cure for the Cerberus hybrids. Nat's working on me, and I'm working on them."

"How close is she?"

Sarah shrugged. "She'll come up with the cure, I have no doubt about that. It's just a question of whether she can do it in the next ten months before the damage becomes irreversible. If not, you can either let me go ahead with Plan C or you can watch me die, slowly and painfully for six months."

He sighed. "Can we just... What was it you said before? 'Wait until it's a problem'?"

She nodded. "Yeah... We can."

He pulled her into his arms, simply taking comfort from the fact that she was here now. "Blue, you were wrong," He told her softly.

"Oh? Any particular thing I was wrong about or just in general?" She replied, just as softly.

"I still see our future when I look at you."

"My god, you are such an optimist... And I love you for it. So, what? You still see our mid-sized house near the beach and filled with cats?"

"'Filled' with cats? I thought it was only going to be a couple."

She shrugged as best she could while not moving from his embrace. "I could never have pets as a kid. I'll probably end up compensating..."

"Blue?"

"Yeah?"

"I actually think I'd be okay with just staying like this forever..."

"Yeah. Me, too..."