Five Seconds

Chapter 4: Spoonful of Sugar

Authors note: Hello everyone that is reading this, I've finally come up with a bit of a schedule when it comes to these chapters. I will post as many chapters as I can during the week, but when I start working full time again it will be difficult to get as many chapters out as I'd like, so I will make this promise: I will do all I can to get two chapters or so out a week, but if not, I SWEAR that there will be at least one chapter out a week, you can hold me to that! I got so excited when I got my first favorite alert, (Must be doing SOMETHING right yeah?) Also I forgot to put spacers in last time, sorry about that, will have them in this one! Makes it less confusing. So without further ado so begins the fourth chapter! I do not own anything in the Mass Effect Series, Bioware and EA own it, lucky suckers.

"I always liked Mordin," Aria said with a slight smile on her face before looking at Shepard, "He's as likely to heal you as he is to shoot you."

Those words echoed in Shepards' head as she walked down the steps to the clinic that the Doctor owned, Zaeed the mercenary/bounty hunter extraordinaire and Miranda in tow.

After taking out the gun ship with a grenade launcher it took everything Shepard had to keep herself together when she saw Garrus on the ground bleeding out in a pool of blue blood. She thought she felt her emotions falling apart when she didn't see him breathe, only to have it snap back into place when he took in a ragged breath. She and Daemon, still covered in krogan blood, lifted him up using two poles from the bunk beds and a sheet from the same bed, using it as a kind of stretcher. After they got him back to the Normandy Doctor Chakwas and a few Cerberus medics took the turian from Shepard and Daemons care, though the two stuck nearby, Shepard the most intent on staying with. However, they had to keep her from coming into the med bay; it took logical reasoning and the Colonels hand on her shoulder to keep herself from barging in anyways.

She had stood in front of the glass, still in her cherry red armor; Daemon had left to wash off the krogan blood from his armor and body, practically making her swear not to rush into the med bay, though every fiber of her being wanted to. "Come on you tough bastard…" She thought to herself as she stared through the window at the beeping machines, praying that they didn't flat line, "You can get through this…" She said in her mind, though whether it was just to Garrus or herself, or both, she couldn't tell. She could only wonder if she would be an even worse wreck if it was Kaiden in there right then and not her closest friend, but she couldn't think about him in the state she was in without feeling her eyes start to become blurry.

Thankfully a distraction came in the form of Jacob and Daemon who was wearing loose green camouflage jeans with a belt and a white t-shirt, the clothes she had ordered for him had arrived while they were down on Omega, his dog tags around his neck. Jacob and Daemon both gave a salute, before they stood near her, "How is he?" Daemon asked, his green eyes looking at the window.

"I don't know…he just got in," Shepard answered, looking over at the two, the blurriness in her eyes had faded in a blink, "How are you feeling Colonel? Being back on the field in an alien place must have been tough."

She watched as Daemon shrugged his shoulders, she noted that his physical size was in the middle, he wasn't lean, but he didn't have the bulk of those body builders she saw on the vids, he was just somewhere in between. "Didn't feel any different to be honest, one-hundred seventy years and it's still the same, same violence, different weapons and uniforms," he responded, "The only thing different is the type of opponents I'm up against," a small smile forming on his lips, she knew he was thinking about Garm the krogan Blood Pack leader.

"I heard that you tackled a krogan on your own," Jacob piped in finally, slapping his hand on the Colonels shoulder, "Damn what I would have given to have seen that."

Daemon just shrugged his shoulders before he looked at the glass at the medics at work, "Think he'll make it Commander?" asking the million dollar question.

She stayed silent, her lips pressing together as she looked at the window again, "He better…" she murmured, her fingers twitched, a sudden rush of nervous energy running through her veins, she had to move, burn off energy, suddenly pacing back and forth from the window to the cooking counter Mr. Gardener worked on.

She heard nothing from the two men for a moment before Jacob chipped in, "You could always go back to Omega, we still need to get the Professor and the Bounty Hunter. When you get back the surgery should be over."

She stopped for a moment, her hands clenching, she didn't want to leave Garrus alone, not with Cerberus, she looked over at the Colonel, his green eyes looked back, standing soldierly straight, hands behind his back. She could rely on him "Keep an eye on them Colonel, they try to do anything to him I'm trusting you to protect him," She ordered as she walked back over to the window, catching a glimpse of the prone figure of Garrus for a moment before the doctors blocked her view.

She belatedly realized that he wouldn't have any idea if they were going to do anything to the turian, being technologically impaired, though neither would she, but instead of pointing that out he gave her a salute saying, "Yes Ma'am."

"Still…" She thought to herself when she looked at the Colonel, "At least it's someone that isn't Cerberus," She reasoned, it made her at least feel a bit better, also the Colonel deserved a break, to collect his thoughts. Also she imagined it wouldn't be hygienic running around in armor soaked in krogan blood. She looked over at Jacob, nodding her head as she said, "Grab Miranda and gear up, we leave in an hour." Walking towards the elevators was harder then she thought it would be, as if she was tearing off duct tape that attached her to the med bay window, even when the elevator closed.

So it was she went back to Omega the same day. Finding Zaeed wasn't too hard after asking around (and buying FDA couplings for the engineer monkeys), she finally found him in the back of an ally in yellow battle worn armor, gun pointing straight at what must have been his bounty since he kneed the batarian in the groin, sending him sprawling to the ground. The batarian gasped for air as his four eyes looked at her, "Please…" he begged, "You have to help me…"

The bounty hunter didn't take kindly with that grumbling in a gravely british accent, "No one said you could talk jackass," giving the man the ground another firm kick to his groin.

She thought it was probably best that she spoke up before the mercenary decided to do more, "Zaeed Massani?" She asked.

The pepper haired merc turned around at the sound of her voice, she finally got a look at this feared bounty hunter. She imagined that if he was younger and didn't look as if half his face was redone he would be handsome, but like his armor he looked like he had been through and seen a lot in his time. "You must be Commander Shepard," he guessed right on the dot, "I hear we've got a galaxy to save."

"I take it you've been briefed?" She asked, wondering how much he knew.

"I've done my homework," he answered gruffly, "Cerberus sent me everything I needed to know."

After that she had grilled him more about his dealings with Cerberus, and about the batarian. She finally out stretched her hand, which he took firmly, albeit painfully hard as she said, "Good to have you Zaeed, we could use you after you drop him off, meet us near the quarantined area and we'll fill you in."

Instead of just taking his target and going he held his hand up "Just one more thing," he mentioned as he looked at her, "I assume the Illusive Man told you about our arrangement?"

That caused her to frown with annoyance as she shook her head, "No," she replied, "I guess he decided to leave that bit out."

"Good thing I asked then," he moved a bit closer to her before he continued, telling her about the leader of the Blue Suns and how he took over a refinery and was using the workers for slaves.

Her frowned deepened after that, but she nodded her head "I'll make sure we'll get that done," She promised.

"Good," He said with what might have been a satisfied tone, "get it done so then we can focus on being big goddamn heroes." That's when the batarian suddenly took off at a run. Not fast enough since the bounty hunter raised his pistol lazily, firing off a shot and nailing the running man in the leg, sending him sprawling to the ground. Zaeed holstered his weapon, picking up the convict, promising to meet them at the quarantine.

As they left the alley she looked over at Jacob saying, "Head back to the Normandy, I want to see Zaeed in real action."

Jacob gave her a salute before saying, "Understood Commander, I'll contact you when they're done with the surgery."

After he left Shepard and Miranda made their way to the quarantine, stopping just near the corner. She leaned back against the wall, her red hair pressing against the stone as she stared up at the sky, She must have looked troubled because Miranda asked, "You alright Commander? We could have waited for tomorrow to do this."

She looked down at the raven haired woman, her eyes the womans' face for any sense of sincerity in her question. After a moment she just sighed before she answered, "I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyways; I'd still be stuck in front of the med bay window."

"To make sure he makes it through? Or that Cerberus doesn't do anything to him."

"Both," She replied flatly, looking the Cerberus operative in the eye.

"Commander…", Miranda sighed as if this was a conversation they had too many times already, "Why would we do anything to him? We'd be risking the mission if we messed with him in any way."

"Says the woman that wanted to put a chip in my brain," She shot back, causing the paler woman to flinch before looking away; she didn't seem to have a response to that.

To Shepards' relief Zaeed had arrived just moments after to dispel the awkward silence between her and Miranda. "So why are we going into a diseased pit?" Zaeed asked as he nodded over at the door guarded by a turian.

"We need to pick up a doctor by the name of Mordin Solus," Shepard answered as she crossed her arms, "He may have something we need to counteract the Collectors." That seemed to have been all he needed to know since he started walking towards the turian. After a bit of persuasion from Shepard and a possible flashing of a grenade launcher and they were allowed through, to Shepards' relief the plague didn't affect humans, though she wasn't one to be turned away by a damned cough.

It didn't take long for trouble to start after they went in deeper into the slums, Blue Suns started firing, but either they were poorly trained or the plague was affecting them as it was easy to take them out. After promising an ill batarian to get him help from the clinic she learned a few things from him: A: Doctor Solus scared everyone after gunning down a group of Blue Suns that tried to rough up the clinic, and B: The vorcha started moving in right after the plague hit, but everyone didn't think they'd be smart enough to make something like a plague.

After that they just had to fight through vorcha territory. During all of this she started to see why Zaeed was considered the most feared mercenary in the galaxy. If he didn't get his target with a gun, which he almost always did, he certainly got them with explosives, a LOT of explosives. She started to wonder if his armor was so battered because of his own explosions and not just from enemies.

Either way with his explosives and Mirandas' biotics they were able to cut through quickly to get where they were now, walking down the steps and into the clinic after holstering their weapons. As she approached the counter she asked, "Mordin Solus?"

The receptionist pointed to her left before she replied, "Down the hall to the right…" she looked at Shepards' arms and armor saying, "Try and keep those in their holsters."

Shepard nodded her head at the woman as she walked towards the hall, looking around at all the patients affected by the plague; she was amazed how the doctor had kept the clinic going since resources had to have been limited. It was only when they got closer could she fathom how he kept it going, a voice called out, "Professor we're running out of cipoxidin."

The voice that responded came so fast she almost didn't understand what was said, "Use malanarin. Plenty on hand. Almost as good. Causes cramping in batarians. Supplement with butemerol."

The other voice called out "Got it."

The other voice which she now figured was Mordin continued, "Cenozine is the catalyst, bonds to genetic markers, hard to find, expensive to mass produce," a short pause, "why not heplacore?"

"So he's a scrapper…" She thought as she entered the room, seeing an older salarian moving about.

She finally came to the conclusion that he thought out loud since he changed his mind the moment she came in. "Too unstable," he realized, "inconsistent results, demozane better option," he reasoned before he blinked, "no demozane toxic to humans, not an option, not an option."

Before he could go into another long stream of thought she came forward asking, "Professor Mordin Solus?"

He seemed to have liked figuring things out instead of asking questions because he just lifted his omni-tool, scanning her before lowering his arm and starting another line of thought. "Hmmm," he wondered before continuing, "Don't recognize you from area, too well-armed to be refugees. No mercenary uniform, quarantine still in effect." He turned away from them looking at a terminal, still stuck in his thought process, "Here for something else, vorcha? Crew to clean them out? Unlikely, vorcha symptom not cause…"

"My god does he ever shut up?" Zaeed looked over at the nurse, the nurse just shrugged as if he wondered that every day.

Shepard was starting to wonder the same before she tuned back into the professors ponderings; finally she had enough and cut in. "Relax Mordin," she said, "For the love of God please relax," she thought before continuing, "I'm Commander Shepard, I came here to find you." She waited for a moment to see if he was listening, he was so she proceeded, "I'm on a critical mission, and I need your help."

He quickly shook his head before saying, "No, too busy, clinic understaffed, plague spreading too fast. Who sent you?"

She had braced herself for another long ramble that the sudden question caught her off guard for a moment before she answered, "Ever hear of a group called Cerberus?"

"Cerberus?" Mordin said curiously, "Thought they only worked with humans, unexpected."

Seeing she had his attention still she continued, "The Collectors are kidnapping entire human populations, and we're going to find out why and stop them."

"Collectors, interesting," Mordin paused, looking down thoughtfully before continuing, "One of few that could generate plague, our goals may be similar." He turned back to the terminal, tapping at the screen before he said, "Need to deal with plague first, use vents to spread cure, vorcha guarding environmental control center," he took a deep breath, "need to kill them."

"Now you're talkin'", Zaeed jumped in, punching his fist into the palm of his hand.

"Give us the cure and we'll take care of it," She promised.

That's when everything went to hell, suddenly the lights went out and the red glow of emergency lights turned on, the vents slowly turning off. "What the hell was that?" Miranda asked, Zaeed nodding as if she beat him to it.

Shepard looked over at Mordin who knew the answer, "Vorcha have shut down environmental systems," He replied, "trying to kill everyone, need to get power back on before district suffocates."

After giving her the cure and a heavy powered pistol he had one more thing to add, "One more thing. Daniel, one of my assistants, went into vorcha territory looking for victims," he took a deep breath, "hasn't come back."

"If I find him I'll do what I can," She promised before she turned around, walking towards the door, looking back at Zaeed and Miranda, "let's play doctor."

"Think I like your way of playin' doctor Shepard," Zaeed commented after she put the cure into the machine, the group turning around to go down the sides to turn on the vents.

"Oh you know what they say in that old vid…", She replied as she put a bullet between a vorchas' eyes, his brains spraying out onto the ground before she finished, "a spoon full of bullets help the medicine go down."

"You watched Mary Poppins?" asked Miranda as she lifted a vorcha into the air with her biotics before Zaeed finished him off.

"That or Rambo…" Shepard said as if she wasn't sure before she started to run down the ramp, guns blazing as she mowed down two vorcha before taking one out with her fist, "I was pretty hammered that night."

"I don' think Poppins carried around a machine gun umbrella," Zaeed chipped in as he blasted a vorchas legs off with a grenade, "Unless I fell asleep before that part."

"I'm surprised you even know what we're talking about Zaeed," Miranda said with a slight perk to her brow before slamming a vorcha into the wall before it crumpled to the ground, head bending unnaturally.

"I was a kid once ya know sweetheart," Zaeed replied gruffly as they entered the first vent room.

"You think the Colonel was alive when that came out?", Shepard suddenly asked as she turned on the vents, humming to life as the screen turned green. She realized she hadn't had the chance to really have a one on one with the Ranger since they first talked.

"I think he's a bit young for that honestly, I think that movie came out in 1964," Miranda pondered that for a moment before she nodded, "He looks like he's in his twenties."

Shepard looked over at Zaeed, who just looked completely confused, "What the bloody hell are you talking about?"

Before she could answer she heard the shouts of angry vorcha coming for them, she turned, rising her rifle as she moved over to the doorway, hiding herself behind the wall as she fired through the doorway, "It's a long story!" she shouted as she dropped one vorcha.

"If we got time to talk about a bloody woman that flies with an umbrella in the middle of a fight I think we go time!" Zaeed shouted back as he tossed a grenade, blasting away a krogans' armor before Miranda and Shepard took him out.

"Fair enough," She said as they started moving forward, and so between shots and dodging rockets she explained going to Earth and an abandoned facility where she found Colonel Daemon in cryo.

She finally finished when they reached the second room, standing in front of the control console as she started to push a few buttons. Zaeed just shook his head as he processed the information, "Just when I thought I had heard it all," he said, "another thing pops up to surprise me."

"Well stick around me Zaeed," Shepard said as the red screen turned green before she looked over her shoulder at him, "and I assure you that you'll see plenty more things…let's get back to Mordin then get back to the ship."

Meanwhile back on the ship Daemon stood in front of the window of the med bay as he was told. Anyone that tried to pull him away to eat or sit was turned down with a polite 'no thank you' it was getting harder for him to try and not make connections with people since they naturally come up to curious people, "And when you are older than 170 that just made you a curious person" he figured. Even the yeoman Kelly Chambers had come up to talk to him, but he had a feeling that she was doing it for more than just curiosity, as if she was analyzing him, getting to know the workings of his mind. After a while she had left, probably getting all she could of information from him.

He was surprised when Jacob came back a bit later, standing next to him before he explained, "Shepard picked up a new recruit and wanted to put him through his paces while in the quarantine zone."

He raised his head a little as if saying 'ah' before he turned his head back to the window, he wanted to stay silent, but a thought that was bugging him needed to be put out there, "For a group that's labeled as terrorists you don't seem to belong here Jacob."

Daemon heard Jacob laugh slightly before he looked over at him, "Maybe…but that's what I thought when I was with the Alliance," he said before he looked at the window. "Cerberus has been labeled as terrorists for good reasons," He said all of the sudden, as if it was something he wanted to get off his chest, "I admit it bothers me sometimes…but right now only Cerberus is doing anything about the vanishing colonists."

"So doing the right thing with the wrong people," Daemon said, he watched as Jacob just shrugged before looking back at the window. They just stayed silent for the next hour as the medics seemed to be finishing up; Jacob gave him a salute before walking into the med bay to get what he assumed was a sit rep.

"Colonel," EDI's voice came out from the speakers near him. After he tilted his head up to show he was listening the AI continued, "Commander Shepard has come back and wants to know Mr. Vakarians status."

Jacob came back as the AI talked, nodding his own head before he said, "We'll tell the Commander in the comm room." Daemon watched as Jacob beckoned him towards the elevator, giving the window one last glance before he followed right behind him.

He wasn't sure what he expected when he came into the room, finding Shepard standing with a salarian that looked like he'd been through a lot, and an older man that looked like he had seen better days where his face was concerned.

Shepard looked up at him, giving a slight smile as she held her hand out, pointing at Jacob first "This is Jacob, he tends to the armor," she said as Jacob nodded his head. "And this," she pointed over to him next, "Is Colonel Daemon, Colonel, Jacob, meet Zaeed Massani and Mordin Solus," she pointed at one and then the other.

Before he could say anything the salarian was suddenly right in front of him, holding his omni-tool out as if scanning him before looking at the screen, "Interesting, elemental zero in blood stream…different," the professor said as Daemon started to feel like an insect a scientist would look at through a microscope.

Of course he didn't even have a clue what the doctor said, not expecting it to come out so quickly, "I'm sorry but…what?" he asked the salarian.

"Nothing to worry about," the doctor seemed to have misunderstood him since he was waving his hands in a reassuring manner, "would like to examine closer if possible."

"…Okay…", He said uncertainly only catching bits and pieces of it now that he knew what to expect.

That seemed to satisfy the doctor since he nodded his head and walked past saying something along the lines of, "Will be in lab if needed."

He watched as the salarian left, turning to say something he then had Zaeed in front of him staring as if he was sizing him up, "I hear you got some years on ya lad," the man said, Daemon caught the british accent amongst the gravelly tone.

"Most them spent in cryo," He replied, his green eyes looking into the mismatched eyes of the gruff man. Zaeed looked like he had plenty of war stories to tell, Daemon wondered if he was in the military before he turned to what must have been a rougher life style, he did have a mercenary feel to him.

Zaeed must have liked what he saw cause he gave the him a slap on the shoulder before he walked past him and out of the room saying, "Well we will see if ya lost your edge old man."

"Must feel good knowing someone's older then you are," He thought before he turned back seeing Jacob standing across from Shepard giving a review of Vakarians' condition. That look on her face when Jacob talked about the turian brought back the thoughts he had before about red head and the alien. "Perhaps she cares for him more then she lets on?" He thought before he just shook his head internally before he finally tuned into the conversation.

A bit too late it seemed since Jacob was about to say something after, "We did all we could but…" However he heard the door open and looked over his shoulder, the turian he thought wouldn't be up for days was dressed in his slightly charred armor with bandages on his right mandible. "Tough bastard…I didn't think he'd be up yet," Jacob voicing his own thoughts.

"No one would give me a mirror, how bad is it?" Vakarian asked as he walked into the room, looking over at Shepard Daemon guessed.

He didn't need to turn around to see the relief on her face as he heard it in her voice as she teased, "Hell Garrus you were always ugly, just slap some face paint on there and no one would notice."

The turians' laugh turned into a groan as he leaned back, Daemon was worried he was about to fall over before Vakarian said, "Damn it don't make me laugh, my face is hardly holding up as it is." He heard the alien give a sigh of 'oh well' before he said, "Ah well women were always hitting on me and not paying attention to you so I might as well give you a fair shot."

"And just what makes you think a woman would hit on me hm?" She asked, the humor in her voice evident.

"A turian can dream can't he?" Vakarian asked, his mandibles twitching in what might have been suppressed laughter Daemon guessed. After that he suddenly felt the turians eyes on him as if he was searching for something. He met the aliens eyes as the sniper nodded his head as if saying 'thanks' to which Daemon just nodded his head before he turned saluting the Commander before he left. As he walked past Kelly he felt her eyes on him, out of concern or some other reason he wasn't sure, but it made him click the button to the crew deck a bit faster.

Shepard watched as Jacob left, leaving her alone with her friend. As the door closed she suddenly walked over to the turian and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face against the cool metal of his armor murmuring, "Thank God you're alive…"

She couldn't see the look on surprise on his face before she felt his arms wrap around her. They stood like that for a moment before he pulled back, Shepard looking up at him as he said, "It was a close thing for sure, if the Colonel hadn't warned me…" He looked down, he seemed troubled.

"What is it?" She asked, her grey eyes looking at him searchingly.

"Shepard," He started before he took a deep breath, "he couldn't see it, maybe hear it, but still…"

She looked down as she thought back to the security video back at the facility; she hadn't seen anything change in the Reaper piece. "Yet the Colonel knew what was going to happen, how?" She wondered before she looked back up at her friend saying, "I think it's time I have a one on one with the Colonel, but first how are you?"

She watched his mandibles twitch as he looked to the side, "I can't talk about it Shepard…not yet, later," He promised. She just nodded her head to show she understood before he asked, "Where's the main battery?"

"Crew deck, past the cook," She answered before she added, "I'll come with the Colonel is on that floor anyways."

Garrus nodded his head as he turned towards the door, they both walked out of the room, walking through the armory. Just as they were about to go into the elevator she heard Kelly's voice call out to her, "Commander, can I talk to you for a moment?"

She looked over her shoulder at the yeoman, she would have said later, but the look on her face changed her mind, she looked over at Garrus saying, "I'll talk to you later." She turned back to the woman, crossing her arms lightly, "What's wrong Kelly?" she asked.

The orange haired woman placed her hands behind her back, starting with her usual bit, "You've got unread messages at your terminal Commander also…" she looked down as if she had to put it correctly, "I've taken the liberty to talk to the Colonel, I'm concerned."

"What do you mean?" Shepard asked, a bit of concern crawling up her own spine as she thought of what she could have missed when dealing with the Colonel.

"When I talked with him he was distant, only giving quick answers as if he didn't want to make a connection," She explained in a formal manner, "and the few days he's been here I've heard he doesn't eat with the crew, like he's making an effort to stay solitary, and his eyes…I don't think he plans to live long Commander."

"You think he's going to kill himself?" She asked alarmed, she almost put out an alert and have the Colonel subdued before he harmed himself.

"I don't know…" Kelly responded, "But if he wanted to he could have a while ago, perhaps he feels he needs to complete this mission, that is part of the Rangers Creed isn't it?"

Shepard thought back to the words he repeated about the Ranger objective, she frowned, "So when this is over…" She said before she shook her head, she wasn't about to lose anyone, before or after the Collector threat was done with, "What do I do?" She asked.

"He needs something more to live for," Kelly answered, "He's been dropped in such an unfamiliar place I think he's barely holding it together…he needs something familiar to hold onto."

"I was about to go talk to him actually, I'll keep your suggestion in mind," Shepard said as she walked into the elevator, clicking the button as she took a deep breath as she thought about what she was going to say.

As the elevator door opened she straightened her shoulders as she walked to where the Colonel rested, moving to the door it opened automatically, as she walked in she could see him staring out at the stars. She cleared her throat to let him know she was there.

His head snapped around at the sound, suddenly turning smoothly and giving a salute saying, "Commander."

"At ease Colonel, there's no need to be formal," She said as she walked over to the window standing next to him. She took a deep breath as she exhaled, "We haven't had time to talk one on one since we first met, how are you?" she asked.

"I'm ready for action whenever you need me Commander," he replied, keeping his eyes to the window.

She turned to face him, her stance relaxing "I didn't ask if you were ready for combat, I asked how you are doing," She said, crossing her arms.

She heard nothing but silence from him for a long moment before he finally looked at her saying, "I wish I could say I'm fine…but it's nothing for you to worry about Commander I'll be ready," he turned, walking away from her before he sat on the edge of his bed, clasping his hands together.

"Now you see that's where you are wrong Colonel," She disagreed as she grasped the chair near his desk, pulling it out she sat on it backwards, sitting across from him. "When someone in my crew is not well that concerns me," She said as she tilted her head to the side, "Tell me what's on your mind."

He sat straight, his fingers twitching against each other, the muscle in his cheek twitching, he must have not wanted to say anything, but he must have not wanted to be rude as he answered, "It's nothing that you need to worry about but…I lost everything that ever mattered to me…I'd at least like to have one thing I am familiar with…my piano for example."

That made her perk up her brow, "You played the piano?" She asked curiously.

"One of the few things I looked forward to after being in the war zone for months at a time," He replied, "it helped when I needed an outlet."

"There are programs you can download on your omni-tool for a piano system," Shepard offered, but she had a feeling he would turn that down.

She was right when he shook his head saying, "That might work for some but…it wouldn't be the same, like I said it's nothing to worry about."

She said nothing else after that, her omni-tool beeping, giving her a reminder of a message. She glanced at it quickly for a moment, a smile crossing her lips before she lowered her arm, "Very well then Colonel," She said as if giving in before adding, "I think there is something you can do to keep your mind busy."

That got his attention; he raised his head to look at her, green eyes curious before asking, "What is your order Commander?"

Shepard stood up, setting her chair back beneath the desk before she said, "How do you feel about picking up a convict?"

So ends the fourth chapter to this story! Sorry it took a bit with all the stuff that's been happening with college, almost lost the laptop with this chapter in it! Whew! Please read and review!