Liara paced around her small room situated behind the medbay of the Normandy SR-1, turning to look at her terminal every now and then.
Of all the times for the extranet to not have information, why now? She thought to herself as she became increasingly nervous. Talking to Chakwas about her ordeal proved fruitless, as the British doctor told her that, if it matter so much, she should just ask Shepard. However, asking anyone who you considered a friend their first name was awkward, let alone the woman who saved you from a life in a prothean bubble.
The asari had tried asking various members of the crew if they knew, and as it turned out, none of them knew what Commander Shepard's first name was either.
Truthfully, there were several more things to be worried about other than someone's name, such as sorting out Benezia's estate and noting down what could be recovered from Shepard's vision, not to mention the geth killing people and the crazy turian spectre that was on the loose, but the small curiosity had begun to play on Liara's mind relentlessly.
Sitting back at her terminal, Liara typed in a few more search commands and still couldn't find anything useful regarding Shepard, and the more failed searches that came up, the more Liara began to think that there may be an unspoken rule regarding whatever Shepard's first name was.
The maiden threw her head back in exasperation and ran her hands over her crests. Being frustrated was nothing new for Liara, as working as a prothean expert usually led to a lot of dead ends and brain taxing problems, but for something as simple as this…the anger was tenfold what it was normally.
There was a quiet hiss as the door to Liara's room opened, and in walked to source of all of the woman's frustration.
"Liara," Shepard smiled at the asari, before turning to look at her terminal, "What are you looking at?"
"Oh nothing, I was just checking to see if that reporter broadcast her interview yet" Liara lied, thankful that her last search had thrown up links to the interview that she was referring to
"Which one, Emily or the one with the black eye and split lip?" The Commander chuckled to herself for a moment. She had no problem with reporters most of the time, but when they started insinuating that she had no interest in humans she tended to lose her otherwise well maintained temper.
"Khalisah Al-Jilani"
"Ah the one I punched then," Once again Shepard smiled at the memory before noticing the concerned look on Liara's face and suddenly became embarrassed, "If she wasn't making the implications she was, then I wouldn't have hit her, I'm not like that"
"Okay" Liara said, turning away and allowing the faint thrum of the ship's drive core to fill the awkward silence.
"I guess Emily didn't really interview me so that should have been obvious" The Commander said after the awkward silence became unbearable, and Liara returned to looking confused. Her experience with humans had largely been with those on the Normandy, so she wasn't sure how they actually conversed with others sometimes. Adding onto a conversation that she had originally assumed had died off was a completely alien concept to the asari.
"Did you want to talk about something, Commander?" Liara asked, when she realised that the entire topic of conversation had thus far been about journalists and interviews.
"I did actually…I was just in the medbay and Chakwas said you wanted to ask me something" Shepard took to leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and her left leg up so her foot pressed against the metal.
"Why were you in the medbay?" Liara asked, knowing that the last mission involving gunfire had been over a week ago.
Shepard looked down and let out a sigh that vaguely sounded like a laugh before looking up again and shaking her head so the little bit of fringe she had swung out of her vision, "I was having a shower and I slipped this morning. Still had a headache so got it checked out for concussion, but I'm fine"
Liara couldn't help but let out a small laugh as she imagined the first human spectre falling face first onto the ground in a shower and needing to visit a doctor because of it.
"It's not funny" Shepard said when Liara's small laugh began to escalate into a fit of laughter, but she wasn't all that convincing, given that she was smiling and giggling herself. Letting the amusement die off, Shepard took on a serious face and asked, "Seriously though, what did you want to ask me?"
Liara's eyes darted around the room for any way out of the situation. While the Commander did look serious, her voice was soft and Liara had never known her to be anything but understanding around her and the rest of the crew (except the time that she almost bit Ashley's head off for sounding slightly xenophobic).
"Look, whatever it is, I'm sure isn't that bad" Shepard moved away from the wall and walked closer to Liara, who had been sitting in her chair the whole time, when she noticed that she had become incredibly sheepish and was beginning to blush an interesting shade of purple "I mean I've been asked some horrible questions over the years."
I should ask what those questions are…but later
"It really isn't that important" Shepard was crouching down now and trying to give Liara eye contact, but the moment the humans brown eyes met the asari's blue ones, the latter took a vast amount of interest in the floor.
"If it wasn't that important, you wouldn't be blushing and staring at the floor," the Commander said softly, "its okay, you can ask"
Liara muttered something under her breath and Shepard assumed that was the question, asking the asari to repeat it without making the situation any more uncomfortable than it already was.
On the third attempt, Liara made eye contact with Shepard and finally got out, "What is your name?"
Shepard's eyes flicked between Liara's for a moment, resisiting the urge to burst out laughing. For how terrified she was, Shepard had not expected this to be the question that Chakwas had said Liara was pressuring her for the answer.
"It's Commander Shepard" the human smirked, trying to ease the tension that had only doubled since Liara finally asked the question, but when she saw the pang of upset on the asari's face because she hadn't taken the question seriously, she resented her somewhat strange sense of humour.
"Really, Shepard" the asari's voice shook as the tension threatened to break her, and the amount of regret in the Commander's face wasn't helping her.
"I'm sorry…It's Hayley Elizabeth Cristina Shepard" Once again Hayley looked down and flicked her fringe out of the way when she looked back up.
"Hayley Elizabeth Cristina is your first name?" Liara questioned
"Oh! No, Hayley is my first name. Elizabeth and Cristina are my middle names. Some humans…most actually, have a couple more names in the middle"
"Why?" Coming from a species that disregarded their surname when they hit the final stage of their life, the idea of extra names in between the two main ones made very little sense to Liara.
"I don't know...we just do I guess" Hayley smiled at Liara, "it's stupid because barely anyone uses them. I remember my dad calling me 'Hayley Elizabeth' when he got annoyed before. Maybe that's why we have them, so we know our parents are pissed off with us"
Hayley began to laugh and Liara joined in with her, before the human abruptly stopped and suddenly looked upset.
"Shep-"
"Liara, you know my first name, and I'd like it if you'd call me by it" Any happy tone that was previously in the Commander's voice had left, and Liara felt more concern growing.
"Hayley…are you okay?"
"Yeah, it's just my dad, I…I don't really want to talk about it..." Hayley swallowed hard before averting her gaze to the floor.
Liara was about to reach out and cup Shepard's face, although she didn't know the reason why she was going to do it, when the intercom came on.
"ETA 30 minutes to Virmire, Commander" Joker's voice filled the room and Hayley stood upright abruptly, turning to leave the room.
"I should go…um…and you should get ready to go groundside…" She said as she hit the pressure pad for the door, and began to walk out of the room
"Yes…of course, Hayley" Liara stood up from her chair and went to fetch the armour Shepard had bought her. Whatever just happened, she wanted to know about…but maybe that topic was best left for the time being.
A/N: Decided to post a oneshot while I get over my writers block for Family Reunion. 'Elizabeth' comes from Lzzy Hale and 'Cristina' from Cristina Scabbia, the frontwomen of Halestorm and Lacuna Coil, respectively. Both Lzzy and Cristina are lovely (I've met them both) and I felt that this should honour them.