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They've been bullshitting for the better part of an hour - and it's flown by, they're good at bullshitting - but there's something that's been bugging him ever since she stormed ahead of him right into that first firefight on Habitat 7. It's bugged even harder after their deathless trip to Eos.
"Isn't 'first do no harm' meant to be your guiding light?" he says, recalling how nonchalantly she threw those kett off the cliff. Remnants don't count - they're robots, hard to figure how to judge doing harm on a synthetic - but they killed a lot of kett today, and Ryder can handle herself in a fight far better than he imagined when he found out she was a doctor. A surgeon, no less. On the Citadel - Huerta, specifically, in all its shiny Presidium glory. With an upper Zakera apartment to herself, and a pet iguana named Albert.
Probably got fresh fruit on the regular, too.
"Yes," she says, draining the last of her beer, "for my patients. It's…" she makes a face, kind of scrunched up, and stares up at the lights, like no one's ever asked her this before and she's not sure how to phrase it. Maybe no one has - it's a rather unique skill set.
It's good though - they're in a rather unique situation. Anyone can throw a grenade and shoot an assault rifle (and he scoffs at himself, because while those may be common skills, he is damn good at them) - slightly less than anyone can blow up a floating cryo canister with her mind, drain a bad guy's shields and shoot him flat dead, then twirl her gun and give another bad guy a good thwack on the head with it…all within ten seconds, and all while looking extremely cool.
She looks back at him, a slight satisfied smile on her face. "I consider it more a halfhearted suggestion when it comes to people who are trying to kill me."
Liam snorts. Time well spent on the phrasing. He leans back on the couch and sets one arm around the back of it. "I take it this isn't the first time you've ignored that particular suggestion."
"You noticed that?" Ryder smirks. She tosses her empty beer bottle into the air. It flips over, end to end, and she catches it.
He can't help the grin that tugs at the corners of his mouth. There's a reason they get on so well - the same reason Vetra spent most of Eos rolling her eyes. "Bit hard not to."
She shrugs, like it's not completely bonkers that a Citadel-based civilian trauma surgeon can nail headshots on an alien with an experimental shotgun. "I spent a few years in the field before Huerta. Remote surveys, backwater colony startups, Omega. Firearms came in handy. So did biotics." She pauses, and bites back a smirk. "And knowing how to throw a punch."
Liam senses that there's a story - or ten - there, but he'll let those come out on their own. No sense pushing it - the mission's barely started, but already he can feel that it's going to be a long one. Fun, especially with Ryder and her can't find out what the button does unless I push it attitude leading things, but long. They've got time for stories.
He leans forward and clinks his bottle against hers. "It works for you," he says.
She smiles, and it's almost as bright as her hair.
Almost.