This is set during ME1, but it doesn't have any particular place in continuity.


Liara sat at her desk in the storage room of the medical bay, frowning at the computer screen. Her research into what Saren and her mother could be plotting was going badly. She never liked to feel like she wasn't achieving anything, but this particular task was proving fruitless. Commander Shepard had been so kind to save her on Therum, and Liara wanted to pay her back.

She knew that a lot of the humans, especially Gunnery Chief Williams, still viewed her with suspicion. But she had been given a berth on the ship – regardless of whether it was a repurposed storage room of not – and was therefore a member of the crew. It was important for her to be treated as such, and she felt like a breakthrough in her work might help improve relations.

Interacting with humans was all very new to her. They had a lot more nuances to their personalities than other races, and Liara found it very confusing. She was still mortified that the Commander thought that Liara wanted to dissect her. Shepard had been quick to assure her that it was a joke, but Liara still avoided eye contact for several days afterward.

To distract herself from her thoughts and her work, she sipped at the hot drink Dr Chakwas had kindly brought in for her. It was tea, which she understood to be some kind of human beverage made from an infusion of leaves. The physician was obsessed by it, and Liara had to admit that she didn't find the taste as unpleasant as she first feared. She had baulked when Chakwas said milk had been added to her cup, as she understood it to be the secretions of a bovine ruminant. Liara thought it might have been part of a hazing ritual, but relaxed when she realised it was a normal custom.

She checked the time. Shephard, Ashley and Garrus were on a routine ground mission and wouldn't be back for several hours. Liara could make a discovery yet. But as she scrolled the page down, skimming through more useless information, the futility of the task hit her. She sighed.

There was a scuffling sound from the med bay and the urgent tones of several voices, which caused Liara to jump slightly. She wasn't used to hearing a lot of noise from next door. For a service ship with dozens of crew-members, very few people seemed to require medical attention. Perhaps one of the engineers suffered a minor accident downstairs. All those machines and sharp tools in such a confined space were bound to cause trouble at some point.

An argument seemed to be ensuing, and from the sound of it, Dr Chakwas was winning. Liara continued to type away at the computer, in an effort to ignore the commotion. Humans seemed to be very particular about their privacy, especially when it came to medical matters. She knew that being in the room next door wasn't really an intrusion, but she tried to retain the illusion of discretion anyway.

Liara started again when there was a brisk rapping on her door, and a soft pneumatic hiss as it slid open. Her deeply-ingrained manners caused her to scramble rather inelegantly to her feet to greet her visitor.

A rather harried-looking Dr Chakwas stepped in. "Sorry to disturb you, Liara," she said. "I think there are some spare supplies in here. Do you mind if I look?"

"O-of course, not at all," Liara stuttered out, still a little startled. "Is everything alright? I heard voices."

Dr Chakwas made her way to the neat pile of boxes and opened the lid of the first one. "Everything is fine, dear. Or it will be, once I've found something to knock Shepard out with," she said, rummaging through items.

"Shepard?" Liara asked with a frown. "I thought she was on patrol?"

"She was." Chakwas moved onto the second box, not finding what she needed in the first one.

The realisation hit her. "She's been hurt?" Liara gasped. "What happened? How bad is it? Can I help?" One hand flew to her mouth as the other one went across her stomach. The idea that Commander Shepard had been injured made her feel suddenly nauseated. They might have only known each other for a couple of weeks, but Liara already felt attached to the charismatic soldier. Shepard always made a point of stopping in and chatting with her every time she returned from a mission, even if neither of them had anything new to say. It was a comfortable routine, and Liara looked forward to it. The idea that it might be taken away from her made her feel ill.

Dr Chakwas's eyes widened at Liara's response. She hurried over and placed a comforting hand on her elbow. "She's alright, Liara, she's fine," Chakwas said soothingly. "A little worse for wear, but she'll live. I didn't mean to worry you."

Liara took a deep shuddering breath, acutely embarrassed by her emotional reaction. "I'm sorry," she apologised. "I don't know what came over me."

Chakwas smiled kindly at her. "The Commander has that kind of reaction on people. And she did save your life very recently. It's understandable that you would feel concerned for her welfare."

"Still, I shouldn't have overreacted, especially when you're trying to work," Liara said, rubbing her palms nervously down her outfit. "It was unnecessary."

"Overreacted?" Chakwas asked, laughing lightly. "That barely counted as 'reacted', compared to the histrionics Shepard is giving next door. She thinks it's a gross injustice that I'm trying to keep her confined to the med bay, even though she was shot in the shoulder and fell into a gorge." She retracted her hand from Liara's elbow, giving her a soft pat as she did, and went back to the boxes.

Liara gasped at the description of how Shepard injured herself. She couldn't quite process the knowledge that the Commander would be fine because the illogical part of her mind was panicking.

Dr Chakwas continued. "I kept telling her she would only injure herself further if she continued to squirm, but will she listen? Garrus and Chief Williams are just short of barricading the door to prevent her from leaving. I need to find a sedative to get her to lie down long enough to treat her." She moved the second box aside and opened the third.

"A sedative?" Liara asked. A sedative sounded more significant than Medi-gel, and she wondered again how badly the Commander was hurt. Surely she couldn't be that injured. There were plenty of voices to be heard when the ground crew entered the med bay, and Dr Chakwas seemed quite calm.

"Do you know where they are, Liara?" Chakwas asked. "I thought I had some next door, but I must have moved them back in here."

Liara shook herself out of her stupor. "There's a small box of syringes by my desk," she offered weakly. "Perhaps they are in there."

Chakwas picked the box up and pulled a small vial out. She nodded in satisfaction when she read the label and found that it was what she had been looking for. "Thank you, Liara. Sorry to have disturbed you." She turned and headed for the door, reaching a hand out to push the button.

"Wait," Liara called out, causing Chakwas to pause and turn. She raised an eyebrow in question, and Liara shifted nervously, self-conscious once again. "Can I see her?" she asked. "I know you said that she is okay, but I feel I need to see her for myself to know it is true." Liara dared to peek up at the human, but quickly dipped her eyes back down to the floor.

Dr Chakwas looked at the nervous young asari in front of her, anxiously toeing the floor. She had met several asari over the years and they all exuded a raw confidence and self-assurance. It was poise borne from the fact they lived to be a thousand years old, and everything they experienced was only a blip on their radar. Liara's actions were reminiscent of a teenaged human, awkward and unsure of themselves when dealing with others. Truth be told, Chakwas found it very endearing, and a welcome change to dealing with bull-headed soldiers.

"I'm sorry," she said, genuinely apologetic. "But I need to examine the Commander in private, as soon as possible. She needs medical attention, and I'm not sure yet how extensive her injuries are."

"I understand," Liara said quietly.

"You can see her as soon as I'm finished," the doctor promised. "I'm sure she'll like a friendly face after I've finished my poking and prodding."

Liara smiled weakly in response. She was disappointed that she would have to wait to see Shepard with her own eyes. But she knew that Dr Chakwas was correct, and couldn't blame her for that.

"I'll try not to keep you waiting," Chakwas said. She opened the door and stepped out. As the door slid shut again, Liara could hear Shepard's voice raised in indignation, and a calm Garrus trying to appease her.

The bulkheads were relatively thick, and Liara couldn't hear much of what was being said. She could make out some of the cadences though, and took a step closer to the door, as if that would improve her hearing. She did feel a little bit silly about it, but there was no one to see or judge, so she cocked her ear and strained to listen.

Three of the voices were arguing. Garrus and Ashley explaining to Shepard that medical treatment for injuries sustained in the field was not optional. Shepard maintaining that she was the superior officer in the room, and didn't have to take orders from subordinates. Garrus and Ashley pointing out that rank didn't account for much in the medical bay. Shepard threatening to space them.

After a few minutes of this the fourth voice chimed in. Chakwas politely but firmly asking for privacy whilst she dealt with her patient. Shepard still grumbling to herself about her lack of authority on her own ship.

The voices quietly drifted off and Liara found there was nothing but silence coming from the room next door. She walked back to her desk and sat down heavily.

The Commander was bound to be fine. Dr Chakwas had a professional façade she used when dealing with patients, but Liara saw no reason why she would use it to mask the extent of Shepard's injuries. And Shepard was well enough to be quarrelling with people, and resisting their attempts to keep her in bed, so she couldn't be that close to death.

But in the back of her mind, Liara remembered snippets of conversations her mother had had with her about humans. Comments about their short life spans and the habits they indulged in that made them shorter. Their soft, fragile bodies and susceptible immune systems. There were so many diseases and infections that could befall humans. Liara had skimmed through a book on human physiology when she was at university, and her mind boggled.

There was such much that could go wrong with humans. That was before they got shot.

Liara felt her stomach flip in anxiety, and picked up a sheaf of papers. Re-reading her notes from Therum would give her something to do whilst she waited for Dr Chakwas to finish.