The third day she spent on Hagalez, Shepard went stir crazy. She hated waiting so instead she worked. Worked on the crew transfer orders, worked on the cerberus files, worked on the questions and the possibilities. She had never worked so hard with so little information in her entire life. When she ran out of work, or things she could pass off as work, or Liara kicked her out for "her own good," Shepard worked out. She found a track through the station hallways that she could run-the change in scenery a welcome sight from the bland walls in front of the gym treadmill. She sparred with Garrus, with Jack, with anyone who she could talk into it, but it was never enough. She even got crazy enough to challenge Joker to a game of poker, which, of course, is a slippery slope to more games of poker, and by 1600 hours she owed him enough credits that he started to feel bad about it.
Now she was sitting at the ship's bar with Garrus, slowly nursing a gin and tonic, watching Joker play his new victim, while all four of them awkwardly danced around the Hannah sized hole in the room.
"Three Kings," Jack laid out her hand with a smile on her face.
Joker feigned heartbreak, a move Shepard now knew way too well, as he laid out his hand. "Trip Aces," he smiled at Jack as he scooped up his earnings.
"That's it. I'm out." Jack announced as she began to stand.
"C'mon killer. If you're out of cash we can always switch to strip!"
"Wouldn't want you to break a bone," she replied with a smirk.
"Ouch. Bringing out the cripple digs already."
"I play dirty." she winked at him. "Go on Vakarian," she switched her attention to Garrus, "it's your turn."
"Now him, I don't wanna play strip." Joker laughed.
"Well shucks, that's all I play." Garrus replied with a low, resonating chuckle.
"Comeon Archangel, we know you like playing the hero. Win back our money." Jack pleaded.
"Oh no." Garrus insisted, "I learned that lesson the hard way back on the SR1."
"Ha! I remember that night." Shepard jumped in with a laugh. "You were sour for weeks."
"I still hold that I only lost because of my lack of knowledge of human expressions."
"Well now you must be an expert," Joker winked at Shepard with a smile. "So I think we need a rematch."
"Well, I guess I have improved in that area…" Garrus trailed off as he threw a playful glance at Shepard.
She reached out and slugged him on the shoulder, her face warming. "Go for it big guy, You'll get your own special reward if you win back my money." Joker hooted at the implication and she swore if he could blush, Garrus would have.
"Shepard?" Liara's voice broke over the coms. Shepard was instantly on her feet.
"Yea?"
"I've got something, come see me."
"On my way." Shepard downed her gin and tonic and stood to leave. "You boys play nice," she directed at Joker and Garrus. "Keep an eye on them Jack. If they start losing clothes, come find me."
"Will do boss," Jack saluted with a smirk as Shepard turned and fled the room.
Running through the halls Shepard made record time back to Liara's workstation. She burst into the room out of breath and looking slightly worse for wear.
"Wuddya got?" she breathed.
"Dr. Ioto." Liara stated, knowing Shepard was in no mood to waste time. "She was an assisting physician who transferred off of Lazarus station five months into your treatment for a lead position at another Cerberus facility, Panacea Station."
"Took a promotion, huh?" Shepard commented. "Is she still there?"
"As far as I can tell, yes. She doesn't show up in any extranet death records, nor can I find any mention of her transfering elsewhere."
"What do we know about her?"
"Not much. Graduated from the London Academy of Medicine, worked for private institutions including Huerta Memorial for about five years until she left following an incident report. Looks like she was recruited around then and joined Cerberus soon after. We then have records for her at a few human colonies before joining the Lazarus team." Liara read off her dossier.
"So she started private, making big money. What was the incident report about?" Shepard asked.
"Looks like she was put on leave for 'behavior unbecoming of a Huerta Employee.' The report mentions theft of synthetic organs."
"Theft but no resale?"
"Correct."
"Huh. Only one other reason then to steal synth organs. Sounds like something caused her to rethink why she became a doctor and Cerberus gave her the chance to help those in need," Shepard deduced.
"Probably a good guess," Liara agreed. "Cerberus tends to prey on those in the middle of a life crisis."
"And organ theft after a completely clean and steller record seems like a crisis to me." Shepard agreed. "So where is this Panacea Station?"
"No idea." Liara confessed. "I'm working on that now."
"And when you know?"
"You'll be my first call," Liara confirmed.
