[Citadel- Metroplaza Apartment Complex] Raising the Steaks

"So.. uh." She slowly made her way down the table and stopped. "How has work been? Have you met anyone interesting? I've just now gotten back to work myself. There's a lot of faces I don't recognize and .. Well, I think I still have a ways to go before I'm back in the system." She crossed her arms behind her lower back and gave the man a smile.

"But.. I needed help, and the Alliance is really giving me it."

"Work is going very well, I recently had a chance to meet Theren Akas, he's a turian admiral who's in charge of salvaging the turian warships that got bashed during the war. The Alliance is trying to get him to sell some of them to the Alliance, especially some of the bigger ships since we could really use them, even if we need to refurbish most of them. He's open to the idea but still a bit apprehensive to the execution. But we're finally getting somewhere and if things go fine, we might have ourselves the rights to salvage a couple of frigates, maybe even a cruiser." Albert sounded proud and smiled at Sarah, "we try to help where we can."

He finished his meal and drank his whine, "I'm still happy to be your friend, if that is what you are worried about."

"I know. I know, buddy." She gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Anyway, I just need a sec." She stepped back into the living room, back into her bedroom, and a few moments later, she was back to her original clothing, the most notable article being a black and green concert shirt that had seen far better days. Carefully, the woman opened her study door and entered, approaching the side of her infant's crib.

Seconds later, she made her way into the kitchen, a groggy infant hugged to her shoulder with her right arm. "This is Albert. Albert, Albert. He was named after you," She gave the baby a kiss on the forehead. "Preemptively."

Albert smiled at the child, "Hello, Albert, pleasure to meet you, you might not know it yet but you've got one of the coolest names ever." He looked back at Sarah, "he looks good. Hmm, is he biotic? Between you, the environment being eezo rich and so on?"

"I'm not sure, to be frankly, if that's passed on from the mother. I thought the test was at six months." She shifted the baby onto her other arm and opened her refrigerator, removing a long, thin bottle of milk. Setting it on the oven, she activated her omnitool and set the appropriate setting.

"Doesn't matter either way as long as he's healthy," Albert sat on the arm of the couch letting Sarah do her motherly duties.

"he looks happy enough."

"Part of my mad dash to find someone is because I have to go to work, I may have to jump halfway across the galaxy because of duty's beck and call." She brushed her son's blonde hair back carefully and gave him a silly face, before removing the prepared bottle and bringing the nipple to his mouth.

"I can't afford to keep a nanny with him all the time, and what kind of a terrible mother isn't there for her four month old?" She approached the couch and sat down, feeding the baby.

"Well, can't you talk to HR about it, I'm sure they could help you, I'm sure you're not the first person who has this problem, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have something there to help with that especially with the way they try to encourage everyone to have kids."

"They do. They have a childcare center in the tower, but what if I'm gone for weeks? What if I miss something like his first steps?"
She crossed her legs under herself and hugged the baby to her chest. "I don't think I'm going to keep working for the Alliance after my contract is up. I want to raise my son, maybe finally work as a musician with my cello, maybe travel the world or galaxy with him."

"Well, how long before the end of your contract?"

"A few years?"

Albert stayed silent for a moment, "I can think of two solutions, one is ask for a desk-job, within the Alliance, the other is in internal security, they don't move around as much if you're on guard-duty at the alliance or some-such."

"I have a desk job. I also may have to be an intelligence officer should the need be." She slowly stood up and rounded in front of Albert, with the baby resting against her shoulder, half-asleep. "Hold out your arms, you know how to hold a baby, right?" She offered the man a smirk.

"what?" he held his arms out awkwardly, "I have seen other people do it..."

Sarah demonstrated, holding the baby carefully in her arms. "Like this. Anyway, I think it's time for him to go to bed." She mumbled, taking the baby off to the nursery. A few minutes later, she returned in a much brighter mood. "Okay. Albert, would you like to do anything else while you're here?" She clasped her hands together, raising both brows. "I don't have a lot of things that won't wake the baby. I can make brownies?"

"What kind of things did you think I would suggest?" Albert asked with a chuckle, "thanks, but no, I wouldn't want to impose on you." He looked around, "I was tempted to ask if you could play some music but that would probably wake the baby."

"Well." She planted her hands on her hips and dipped her eyes to the ground in thought. "Music would wake him. I can't leave, smoking is out of the question.. We could finish off the wine and talk shit about CDN users?" She shrugged, drooping her arms by her sides and grabbing her elbow.

"I'm not big on that. I try to avoid rumormongering at all costs, you never know when it comes to hunt you."

Albert gave a shrug, "I think it's better that we call it a night, it was eventful after all, so a bit of rest is worth while."

The woman crossed past the couch and gave a nod, crossing her arms across her bust. "Okay. It was nice having you by, Al. I'm sorry about earlier, I tend to jump to ideas without thinking. No mental filter up in my head." She shook her head, peering up at her friend.

"Don't be, if anything you should keep in mind that I'm moving around a bit myself, I have an office on the Citadel, that doesn't mean that I'm in it."

He held out a hand, "friends?"