"I was lost without you."
That's what Liara said as I struggled not to cry. She had curled up against me as I said nothing, looking at Glyph splay my face across the stars. I remembered the innocent girl I had rescued all those years ago on Therum. Gone was the Shadow Broker- Liara was back, curled up against me. I had to admit- it was a pretty grand gesture.
"I was lost without you."
That's what Ash whispered from her hospital bed, words slurred from the meds and the head trauma. She gripped my hand like it was the only thing that was going to get her out of there. I was a bar of iron in a world of water. Despite Cerberus, despite scorning me, despite our past- I was what she clung to in the hour of her need.
"I was lost without you."
That's what Tali said, when she came back aboard. She was a different person in the flotilla, I could tell. She wasn't Tali, that girl who looked at everything with wonderment. She was her father's daughter, not caring about anything but the welfare of her people, the cost be damned. She lost perspective. I lost perspective.
"I was lost without you."
That's what Jack muttered, a full case beer into the night. She threw an arm around me, plopped her head on my shoulder. This wasn't her being drunk. This was her wanting to be held. This was her finally letting go of some of those barriers. I could feel black hair running down my shoulder and she leaned on me, there on the couch.
I heard it from everyone around me. Miranda, Garrus, Kelly...hell, Zaeed couldn't admit it, but he still said the closest thing to an admission of friendship from him. He told me that being back aboard the Normandy was 'good for him'. I grunted at him, and that was that. It just started to press on me from every side. Miranda nuzzled into me, and Samara just looked at me. Well, not quite. She looked at me as she meditated, then spoke in poetry.
"Listen to the music, not the song Shepard. Who was lost?" she asked quietly, staring out into the void. Her daughters were dead. Still, she sat there, the lightning abating as she stared out into the void. I threw myself into the couch behind her, watching.
"Everyone. Nature of the beast, Samara. Only the lucky few find the path."