It would take eight hours for the Normandy to reach their destination. That meant eight hours of rest, the time to think some things over, and maybe have some fun, but for Shepard it meant eight hours of forced rest by her doctor. Shepard felt good, even though she had wrenched her neck on their last mission a little. They had been asked by Wrex to pursue some missing scouts in the Nimah cluster. They had found the scouts, led by their tank-baby Grunt and a lot of rachni. Suddenly behind her Admiral Tali'Zorah shrieked like a five year old girl, panicked and ran in circles.
Shepard's head was jerked around to follow her with her gaze. Subsequently, she was stunned for a short moment, dealing with pain as her neck muscles were protesting against the rough treatment. Damn, but who would have thought that an admiral, albeit young, could run and squeal like that?
Shepard was very sure that she could watch the video that Liara took of that. The Commander had noticed from the corner of her eye that Liara, with a very happy smile, let a datapad disappear in her coat pocket. Maybe she should have felt sorry for Tali, but it was simply too funny.
Now Shepard stood nervously before Liara's door. She wanted to persuade her to a break away from her monitors for a couple of hours, to spend some time together. Since the evening after Thessia, a week ago, Liara had been behaving towards her in a cold and distant way. Shepard could not remember doing anything wrong and she felt a little hurt by Liara's rejection.
The door opened slowly. It was so encrypted, that with the exception of Liara, only Commander Shepard could enter the room, but somehow it seemed to her that she had to wait longer than the times before. Liara was in front of her monitors as usual. She did not even look up nor she greeted Shepard, instead she just continued to work. Shepard had once tried to understand what she was doing there, but had gotten a bad headache and had abandoned the attempt.
Glyph, the information drone and secretary of Liara, floated towards her. "What a pleasure to see you, Commander." Well at least one of them was happy to see her, Shepard thought grudgingly. She stood behind Liara and hugged her briefly but the Asari simply did not react. "Thank you for coming by." she only said. Would a look, a gesture be too much? Shepard felt a pang in her stomach. Actually, she thought they were past this phase for a long time.
"What are you doing?" Liara laughed shortly, but softly. "Things that you would give you a headache." Shepard poked her a little in the side. "Well thank you." She grumbled. "I'm trying to help deciphering a math problem, coordinating several deliveries in the direction of the crucible, I have to check the reports that I received by my agent and I will go through new recruitment options." Shepard sighed. "Shall I continue?" Liara had not looked up yet, so Shepard let her go.
"Can I do something for you," asked Liara, but her mind was already somewhere else. "I actually wanted to kidnap you for a few hours." Liara gave her a distant look. "I cannot Shepard, we have a trail that leads us to Kai Leng and I just have too much to do."
The commander nodded and swallowed her disappointment. Liara's work was important, and without her help, they would probably have no chance in winning the war. "Okay, I'll leave you alone," she tried to joke, but Liara was already back at work. A bad feeling crept over Jane, since she had not even noticed that she was already gone.
Shepard took the elevator to her cabin, wondering whether she should continue to work as well. However, Dr. Chakwas had very clearly stated that she would have Shepard declared unfit for service, if she were to try. Unfortunately, she had won EDI over as an accomplice. How could a human go behind a doctor while being monitored by her own ship?
Shepard threw herself on her bed, frustrated, and tried to spend time with a book. Her mind was roaming in circles and she could not concentrate. She was too overexcited to be able to sleep. Her eyes wandered slowly towards one of the data pads, but she instinctively knew that all hell would break loose, if she only touched it. Karen Chakwas had outmaneuvered her. Alcohol, sports, work, all of that was out of the question for her for eight hours and she respected the doctor too much to just leave her on a hazardous planet to die.
She stretched, watching her fish, she looked after her hamster and found herself thinking of simulating a battle with her ship models, when she remembered that Traynor had offered her a game of chess. Chess should be something which would not immediately let the alarm bells of Chakwas and EDI ring and it would distract Shepard, at least mentally.
"Traynor, I'm free for a few hours if you still want to play a game with me, now I have time."
It took less than five minutes, until Traynor was in her quarters. "I had to get an interface on the Citadel, even if that´s not as good as with real pieces." She looked around the cabin. "Wow, there are homes that are smaller." Traynor glanced into the washroom. "And a shower ..." she nearly died of envy. "The showers in the women's washroom are pure junk."
They played for a while and Shepard had to admit that she liked not only Samantha's company, she was smart and funny, but that she also had Traynor completely underestimated. "Ha, it's almost as if you were begging to live under my regime ..." Shepard growled. "In real life, this would have worked." Samantha laughed again. "In real life, you don't move on eight by eight fields," she teased her Commander.
Shepard also lost the next two games and her mood was swinging between frustration and anger, but it was fun. But as Traynor suggested another game Shepard relaxed, leaned back and stretched her legs out under the table. "No more playing, but if you want you can try out the shower?" Traynor gave her a curious look and then beamed. "Really," Shepard nodded, "See it as an order, I need to make sure that my crew is relaxed." She smiled at Samantha, who almost immediately jumped up.
It seemed to Shepard as if Traynor enjoyed the shower literally and audibly. They talked through the open door, while she was playing around a bit with the settings of the chess interface. She was so distracted that she did not notice that the door to her quarters opened.
As Shepard had left her back in her quarters, her bad conscience was gnawing at Liara. She knew that Jane had been prescribed absolute rest by Dr. Chakwas. It was only that some projects were so close to a solution, that she could not just leave. So she had done everything in the next two hours in order to finish them, or to assign tasks to Glyph so that the drone could filter the data. In the end the two hours had become three and Liara was feeling tired and irritable. But when she walked into the quarters of the Commander, her mood sank to the bottom. It took her not even a moment to capture the scene.
Shepard sat on her couch tinkering around with a chess interface. Beside her was an empty wine glass and in front of Shepard's bathroom were a few clothes lying around. Liara knew that it was Traynor's uniform that hung over Shepard's desk chair and she heard the young woman in the shower.
A part of Liara knew she should turn around and go, that the situation was not what it looked like, but when she heard Traynor's, "it depends on whether she's interested...," it was too late. Liara felt herself losing control and a cold anger rushed through her veins.
Shepard felt a tremor, a slight trembling all along the Normandy. She looked at her water glass and saw a slight wave of ice forming. Shepard put the interface back on the table in order to have both hands free and turned around. She was offered a frightening picture. Traynor was standing in the shower and grabbed a towel, but did not dare to move. Liara stood in front of her. Her biotics brightened the room and the cold look in her black eyes made even the Commander cringe.
"Traynor get out of here!" Shepard ordered softly, her breath condensed. Traynor's good manners became evident when, despite the danger she was feeling, she immediately followed the order. She grabbed her things carefully and then walked slowly past Liara. The Asari fought fiercely to stop herself from using her powers, as Traynor passed her. She did not look at Shepard because she did not know if she could control herself.
"Liara?" Shepard tried diplomatically. The Asari didn't turned around, her gaze was fixed on the cabin door. "I see you take good care of the needs of your crew," she said with a cold and shivering voice, but Shepard felt that she was getting angry herself. "We played chess." When Liara's glance met her, she didn't move back, even if she should have most likely jumped for cover. Nevertheless, she wasn´t aware of any wrongdoing. "In the shower?" Liara lowered her voice almost to a hiss. The surrounding blue lights flickered and a few things on Shepard's desk began to fly. "Since when does the Alliance allow you to shower naked in front of your Commander?"
As their eyes met, Liara's eyes were slowly reverting to the normal azure. "I have no time for games, and you don't either." She turned around and tried to leave the cabin. Shepard was sure that she was not talking about chess and Liara's arrogant reaction was too much. "How dare you!" Liara turned and both glared at each other, the air almost crackled with tension.
"For days you ignore me, which is okay, because we need your information, but if I spend a couple of hours with someone else, playing chess," she emphasized the last word clearly, "you freak out." Liara hand went to her forehead, a gesture that she used whenever she was confused or overwhelmed. The conversation would lead to nothing, but she knew herself well enough to judge that she overreacted and that she had interpreted the human behavior wrongly - again. So she just nodded and turned to leave.
Shepard couldn´t believe what Liara was about to do. She rushed to her and held her by the shoulder. "You want to go?" Liara nodded again. "I thought you did not have time for games ..." Shepard tried while she gulped her anger down. She was getting tedious. "I have interpreted specialist Traynor's behavior wrong, probably, I'm sorry."
Shepard put a hand on her chin and turned Liara's face gently to herself. "You did not, but do you not trust me?" Liara's look opened up. In her beautiful eyes Jane could see every emotion and a slight blush was spreading across her cheeks.
"Even though I do not think that Traynor will look ever again in my direction now." Shepard attempted to say with a smile, "so that means, that you must now monitor my incoming messages." Liara laughed quietly and hung her head.
"That was a joke, feeling better?" Liara shook her head and Shepard gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Remind me never to make you angry." Shepard pulled her towards the sofa and pointed to the chess interface. "Do you have time now?" Liara lifted the interface up and recalibrated the changes that Shepard had made. "I do," she replied ruefully.
It was not that she had even a slightest chance against Liara, but it did not bother her. Liara was successfully distracted and she felt strangely calm. After Liara's jealousy attack she probably did not need to worry about her relationship with the Asari. "One more game, Commander?" Liara teased her after another defeat. Shepard shook her head. "No, I do not think my ego can handle another loss. Maybe I should play against James ... " she said lamely.
She threw Liara a longing look from the side. They still had three hours until they reached their destination. "Shower?" Liara raised an eyebrow. "Is that an order Commander?" Shepard nodded and grinned widely at the Asari. "It is," she stood up, held out her hand for Liara to take and pulled her towards her bathroom.