#otek1

She smiled when the readings came through. He was ready. His organs were functioning on their own. Not as well as she'd like, a few more days and he'd be back at 100%, but her father had given her another 2 doses of  altered stem cells. They would make up for the lost time in the bacta and he would be able to eat and work his muscles, both of which were needed. He'd lost around twenty pounds so far and she was glad she could finally wake him.

She'd been giving him small electrical jolts to his muscles every few hours as well as physical manipulation once a day to keep his muscles conditioned as much as possible.

She nodded to her father and smiled at the rest that stood, waiting for her verdict. She tapped in the commands on the holo-pad on the side of the chamber. A whirring noise accompanied the slow lowering of the chamber into a prone position. The bacta quickly drained to the recycling reservoir. The doors separated and slid down into the side casing. She reached in and pulled Neo to his side, his lungs eventually expelled the serum. She laid him back onto his back and removed the IV containing the medication that kept him under. She flipped on her holo-tool, a green light ran the length of his body as it scanned him looking for organ distress or other abnormalities. Finding none, she flipped it off. "He is holding his own now. She smiled at the round of cheers. 

A green glow wrapped around her body as her biotics kicked in. She raised Neo's body and lowered him down on the absorbent cloth covering one of the beds. She pulled a blanket over him, adjusted his remaining IV and injected a solution that would wake him up.

She used her biotics to raise her to the top of the bacta chamber, punched in the holo keys that caused the top to slide into itself. She rose higher and then lowered herself into the tank with the drell. She gripped his shoulders for a moment and gave them a squeeze. She wasn't sure he could feel the touch, but she needed it as much as he did. She gently pushed him to the front of the chamber, until he couldn't move. She held her hand up and felt the syringe placed upon it.

She ran her hands down his spine, until her practiced fingers found the spot they needed. She tried not to think of her friend or the nice body beneath her fingers. She had no interest in the man, but she wasn't blind. She inserted the needle, very glad that he would not feel the pain of the spinal tap. She withdrew the precious fluid, held the syringe up. It was taken and another placed in its stead.

She gently tucked his head down and pushed him firmly against the chamber wall. She flipped on her holotool, its green light filling the fluid filled chamber, and scanned the back of his neck, Following the path directed, she inserted the needle into his brain-stem and withdrew a small amount of cell rich fluid.

She pulled him back to the center of the chamber. Gave his arm another squeeze and rose from the bacta serum.

When she lowered herself back to the ground, Vanny wrapped a towel around her. She murmured her thanks, and hurried over to her father, who was busy analyzing the spinal tap fluid.

She handed the small syringe with the stem cells and watched him begin to work on them. She absently rubbed her belly when her babies began to kick and then realized she hadn't gotten dressed. She slipped back into her robes.

_____

A few hours later, an excited cry brought her attention back to her father.  He was talking excitedly to Vanny. She hurried over to them.

"Ritumesium!"

She blinked. "You are not making sense, dad."

His smile broadened. "The oils produced by a flower found on Thessia." He frowned. "I'm not sure..." He'd never heard of the flower, yet that was the composition of an odd chemical that showed up minutely in his stem cells.

Savvy spun around. "The Rits plant is often used by asari. The petal oils are the weakest, the root oils the strongest. It is used to relax, and cause a more sensual and gratifying mind meld. Especially between two asari." She darted between Anzi and Otek, her lights flashing excitedly. "Humans discovered that it relaxes them to the point where their inhibitions are non-existent. According to C-Sec, it is used as a date-rape drug with humans. There are no reported records of the plant being used on a drell," the sultry voice intoned.

Otek flipped on his holotool and  pulled out a slide of blood. He put a tiny drop of the extracted chemical on the drop of blood. The three protheans watched the blood cells become still and die...and it happened in a blink.

"I'll start on the antidote," Otek said with a nod.

He rose early, made sure all the documents he would need were in his datapad and headed off to the hospital at a fast clip, one hand on a stasis pod hovering next to him. Otek was on a quick trip to Illium with Vanny to gather a few black-market supplies he'd need for Neo's care. For the next three or four days, while awaiting their return, it would just be Neo in the bacta's embrace under Anzi's eagle eye. With, no doubt, the Council's guards parked outside the entry of his ship. 

He arrived at the Huerta and moved directly to the front desk. He handed them the document rich datapad and asked for the release papers. He nodded to Anzi, who took control of the stasis pod and moved off towards Neo's room.

The hospital seemed more than relieved to release the Spectre. It would get rid of the armed guards, a dead man they did not wish to add to their stats or get sued over, and it would keep the man's fiance from returning. Win-win in their eyes. 

The guards stepped aside, but kept careful eye on the proceedings. Draek was not allowed to leave the Citadel. And anywhere on the Citadel he went, they were to follow. 

By the time the release paperwork was finished and he'd made it back to his brother's room, Anzi already had Neo in the stasis pod. He looked down through the glass, his heart constricted with pain. The drell's eyes had been closed...thankfully, but the look of unimaginable agony was frozen on the man's features. And somehow...somehow, he looked smaller. Talyn sighed and backed away, nodding at Anzi. 

Her gaze followed his finger and she wanted to dash off to see her friend. But she remained impassive. It was imperative that she showed no emotion.  "Who's assigned to him? And what is the diagnosis?" 

"No one is assigned to him. The doctor on that responded to the ER call resigned from the case late last night. No one has picked it up. The drell is a dead man. No one can figure out why he's dying and when he comes out of stasis, he won't live long. No one wants to add that stat to their record." He shrugged and gave a sad shake of his head. He wouldn't add the man to his stats either. Poor fucker.

Anzi's eyes narrowed and she frowned. "The case is now mine. He's my patient. I could care less about stats." She turned and swiftly made her way to the drell's room. The guards had to scan her and her credentials before they nodded and allowed her into the room.

When her eyes saw him, ice ran through her veins. Neo...no. She didn't know how she was going to save the man, but she knew that she would employ any means, regardless the cost, to do so. 

She picked up the data chart that sat in the slot on the back of his foot board, sat down on a chair in the room and began to pour over every detail. 

When she was finished, she sighed, rubbed her expanding belly and commed her father. "Dad,sorry to bother you, but when it comes to lab work, there's no one I trust more than you."

"Of course, Anzi. What do you need of me?" he replied.

"I need you to come down to Huerta. I have a new case. A case no one wants. It's Neo, dad. He's dying and no one has been able to figure out why." She drew in a ragged breath. I'll be taking samples of blood and biopsies of tissue from various locations. I want you to handle them, dad. Find me something...anything. I'm not letting him die."

Otek was stunned. Neo? He was all to aware that in the middle of war anyone could die. Friends and family were just as likely as anyone else. It shouldn't have phased him, but it did. He wasn't ready to lose anyone he cared about this cycle. Probably because there were precious few he cared about this cycle. "We WON'T let him die, Anzi. I'll be right down there for the samples."

He typed a message off to Talyn, letting him know about Neo. He received an intimidate response, which he hadn't expected. Apparently, the drell was a few hours out from the Citadel and would be arriving shortly.

He also shot off a text to the turian, even if their relationship was not as cordial as it had once been. He just wished Cryno would let the past go now that he had someone he loved and intended to marry. 

Anzi reached in through the stasis field and felt the immediate numbing of her hand. She knew Neo's OT was the more rare implant, rather than a carried device. She depressed a spot on his wrist. She couldn't feel her fingers working, but knew they did when his OT glowed. She pulled up the screen. She took his other hand and depressed a finger over the holopad, allowing the details to pop up. She scanned through and found a small list of beings under family. His list was no larger than hers. It was sad how so many had so few.

She flipped open her own OT implant and commed Mavic and Rine as well as Cryno.