Sorry it took so long to update- I was sick for a while, and then had to catch up on the school work I missed. Anyway, after this chapter gets posted I'm going back to edit the previous. Didn't realize just how horrible it was when I posted.

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"Was that really necessary, Garrus?" Shepard couldn't quite hold back the laughter in his voice, even as he tried to look stern.

"Shepard, don't pretend to be innocent with me- we both know the only reason you let me in on this debriefing process is because you wanted me to ask those questions. Saves you from looking like an ass," Garrus flared his mandibles just slightly as he talked, making his subharmonics clash slightly - a smirk if Shepard had ever heard one. "Besides, it didn't make sense. The other two, Hahn and Lewobitz, talked about her as if she was their commanding officer, but in the med bay, she didn't seem to spare any of the wounded a second thought- just kept yelling about that turian child, Sid or Saren or whatever his name is."

"Damn, well I should've known there wasn't hiding anything from you. Next time I'll have to give you note cards or something though; you were asking the completely wrong questions," he said, hoping the human concept of note cards would translate well.

"Commander Shepard, secret renegade," Garrus rumbled a laugh, making his way towards the door.

_OoO_

Lynn felt extremely guilty for not going back to Leerah after her debriefing with the Commander, but she'd already put off talking with her brother for long enough. Any longer and he'd probably ignore anything she had to say entirely and (somehow) manage to pull enough strings to get her permanently grounded. Safe.

With a heavy sigh, she walked off the elevator, in no better condition to enjoy the CIC this time around than she had been the last time she'd passed through.

"What was the point in having a mute button installed into the Normandy if you were just going to override it? I don't understand how that's an offensive question, EDI," her brother's voice washed over her the closer she got, and she could hear the slight bit of panic in it.

"It sounds as if you do not enjoy speaking with me, Jeff, and I do not much like the implication of your wishing to know how to make mute a permanent setting," ah, that was the VI's voice; the VI with a distinctly female voice and female body. No wonder her brother was panicking, he was complete rubbish at handling irate women. But... VI weren't capable of emotions- occasionally emulating them, but that's as far as the Council would ever let it go.

"I was unaware that the Alliance had approved an AI," she announced her presence with the slight accusation, hoping to throw her brother into the offensive before he could begin berating her for being on Menae.

And it seemed to work, judging by the panic she could see building on his face. She repressed a giggle at the thought of him worrying about having to deal with two angry women.

"I was built by Cerberus before the Alliance took control of the Normandy; the crew felt it prudent to let them continue thinking I was a simple VI," Lynn could see why her brother liked EDI, though she had to wonder if he'd like her just as much if she didn't have such feminine features and was instead, say- more male? Something to tease him about in the future, perhaps.

"Yes, I can see the need for that, though I don't quite understand why Cerberus felt the need for an AI. Perhaps, when things have calmed down, you would care to explain to me?" She paused, only then realizing she hadn't properly introduced herself, "oh! Sorry, I'm Lynn Moreau, Jeff's sister- and I'm assuming you're EDI? I heard you two talking before introducing myself," she offered lamely, holding out her hand for the AI to shake. EDI stared at her hand for a moment, before carefully imitating Lynn's gesture, not really knowing what to do from there.

"I have seen humans do this before- shaking hands?- but I am new to this body, I don't know the proper procedure for this social interaction; am I supposed to initiate the hand shake, or is the one offering supposed to?" Trying hard not to laugh, because she didn't want EDI to get the wrong idea, she clasped their hands together and shook them once before letting go.

"Uh, well, when someone offers their hand, you usually just clasp it and shake once or twice; there's more complex social minutia, but I don't think you'll have to worry about that," she appraised the AI in front of her for a moment, tilting her head to the side slightly, "how about a mutual exchange of information? I ever have questions about how you work, I'll ask- you ever have questions about how humans work, you can ask me." Lynn nodded her head at this, as if already acknowledging EDI's acceptance, and turned to her brother, who looked as if he'd managed to dodge a bullet.

"No, that's a terrible idea! You'll be telling EDI all sorts of ridiculous things that are completely untrue," he shifted his chair around to face them both better.

"What, like that time you were ten and tried to climb up-"

"Completely untrue things!" He interrupted, Lynn's wide smile promising of future embarrassment. "And that's not really what I wanted to talk with you about, anyway; not after seeing you for the first time in over two years- and especially not after having my CO save your ass from Menae." He narrowed his gaze at her, and Lynn tried not to cross her arms or shuffle her feet.

"Yes, well, two years is a long time to be out of contact, Jeff. I... I needed to change some things in my life around, and then this war happened, and I was needed," she refused to back down from this. Sure, she felt stupid explaining it to 'The Savior of the Citadel, Commander Shepard,' and his turian friend Garrus- had she even gotten his last name? Not the time for wandering thoughts,- but she'd be damned if she'd let her brother tear her down. He didn't have the right to anymore; didn't have the right to tell her she couldn't do what she thought was right because he thought it was stupid.

He'd joined with Cerberus (albeit it was more like joining up with Shepard but she wasn't going to get into semantics). He'd stopped returning her messages- vid or written- and he'd stopped sending her updates. Hell, he hadn't even told her he was alive after the Normandy SR-1 had been destroyed. So he could just take his opinions and, and... and keep them to himself. She wasn't going to let that large, painful gap in her soul destroy the chance she had at being with her brother right now. At the end of the galaxy. Because he could die, she knew that all too well, and because she could die- Menae hadn't been her first close call, just the first where she felt responsible. And because the galaxy was being torn apart around them and she had nightmares about the dark spaces between stars lighting up in flames and Reapers.

"Lynn, I just," he sighed, slumping further back into his chair and twitching his hand across his "Alliance Official" baseball cap. "You're not safe, and I don't like it," he finished, flopping his hand back down onto his armrest.

"Well it's not like I'm throwing myself off buildings or staring down a Reaper with nothing but a shotgun! Jesus Jeff, it's as if you've forgotten that I can take anything down- remember that time you were being chased by a goose? That was a good dinner we all had, wasn't it?" She snapped her teeth at him in a way that would have been odd to anyone else, but made Jeff start laughing.

"Just let an older brother worry for his sister, would you? And I promise not to mention mom," he added quietly, both siblings not quite able to reach the other's eyes.

"Yeah, well I can't stop you, but I won't turn it away either," she huffed out a quiet sigh, glancing towards the elevator and noticing that Garrus was just getting off. She still had to thank him. "I've got to get back down to medbay, but I'll talk more once I've gotten things back to manageable, okay?" She rubbed the back of her neck, hoping that it didn't sound as if she was pushing him away. She'd barely even talked to her two-years-gone brother for five minutes; that couldn't be a good sign, could it? She used to be able to say anything, for hours, and now here she was running away.

She walked quickly down the walkway leading back into the CIC, trying to make her way to the elevator before either her conscience or her brother could call her back. Half way towards the galaxy map, however, Garrus caught her attention.

He wasn't waving her over, or staring a hole into her head until she noticed him- hell, he didn't even look as if he knew she was there. But she had to thank him, and he had annoyed her, and so somehow those two traits combined into a constant Garrus is here notification. With another tired huff she approached him; best to get this unpleasant business over with now.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Her brother's voice shouted from the cockpit, and she was so startled by his barking tone that she almost twisted her ankle as she turned back towards him.

They stared at each other for a moment before Lynn got tired of just standing there, "what? I was walking." Clearly her time away from her brother had been detrimental to his mental health.

"Yeah! With- with hips- and you've never- you- it's like you're a girl."

Lynn continued to stare at him for a moment, completely perplexed, before realization hit and she felt as if she was on the verge of world-ending mortification.

"Er, yeah. I store my shotgun at the small of my back, and it's just- um- just easier to walk that way. Must've become a habit," she didn't look at him- her brother thought she walked too suggestively and oh God this was mortifying- but instead at the logo on his cap.

"Shotguns! You're using shotguns now! Lynn you're not even supposed to be using guns! Why would you need one? They've got shit long-range capabilities, you're not getting in close enough to actually use it, are you?"

"Well the turrets aren't exactly going to help me if they're taken down, are they? And we both know I'm shit at using a pistol, you were there when I had to test in order to be approved for one. So I figured, hey, shotgun, no real aiming necessary there, not when the person's close enough for me to need to use it," she shrugged her shoulders in an attempt to get rid of the conversation entirely. How that would work, she didn't know, but she wasn't above trying it out.

"See, I could understand why you were on Menae. That was not only a good power grab for the Alliance, but it involved kids. So I didn't question it. But you're talking now as if you're going back out, as if you've already been out, and I don't think it's such a great idea. You're just an engineer, Lynn, you're supposed to be modifying shielding and thrusters for ships, not trying to take back bases or fixing downed comm towers."

"But that's where I'm needed! The only engineers we've got out there right now are either Cerberus- Cerberus Jeff!- or soldiers that took a couple classes and wouldn't know how to fix a downed shield generator if their life depended on it- which is does. The Alliance is working on it; over the past year I've seen people out in the field that really do know what they're doing, but until then it's up to people like me to go out and do what they can."

They both paused for a minute, trying to figure out how they had gone from her swaying her hips when she walked, to butting heads on how much danger she was putting herself in.

"I want you to stay on the Citadel, please, Lynn. I don't... You can't go back to these types of missions. Let me talk to some people, hell, I'm sure Shepard wouldn't mind pulling a few of his Specter-only strings; I'll have you doing important work, but from the Citadel," the pleading tone in his voice almost broke her, but she wouldn't back down.

"No. And don't you dare do it behind me back, either. I love you Jeff, but you lost the right to tell me what to do a long time ago, and if I'm needed for a mission, I'm going," they looked at each other for a long moment, before Jeff broke eye contact and nodded slightly. "I won't do anything stupid- someone's got to save you from your own stupidity, and nobody else'll do it if I'm not around." Her throat tightened traitorously at the word 'around'- they both knew she meant if I die, when I die, I will die. They both knew she wasn't going to be asked to go on the easy missions, either, not with her expert knowledge of most things tech. She'd be sent on more missions like Menae, now that she'd pushed that door open with her subtle requests; now that she'd shown what she could get done.

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So this is the most logical spot to end this chapter, and the next one will have more Garrus in it, I swear. Honestly, she was already supposed to be "stuck" on the Citadel by this chapter, but damn is she wordy. Anyway, hopefully you like it