"Are you mad they are gone?"
Jane's question is filled with empathy. Moving her ring finger slowly, Liara watches the reflections of light on the ring's silvery band. For a moment she gets lost in a particular memory.
"It's been 2 years. We're different people."
"But we had... something. Doesn't it mean anything to you?"
It's the first time Liara watches Jane cry. Knowing she's the one who caused the tears in those wonderful emerald eyes, Liara feels like her inner self being ripped into shreds. It's only fair. She knows that she does the same to Jane. For the greater good... Controlling herself, she clads her heart into the two-year-old armor made of ice.
"I will always treasure our time together. You are right, we had something. But you can't just come back and have two years of mourning suddenly vanish. I'm sorry, Jane, I can't get into this."
This is the moment Jane's heart breaks. A fresh stream of tears escapes the red-haired woman's eyes and all Liara wants to do is hug her and kiss those tears away, and tell her about the two years she spent in hell without her. Liara wants to give comfort and receive it by herself. She wants to feel safe in the arms of the woman she loves. But she can't.
Jane swallows heavily and turns around, walking towards the door without speaking a word. Just before she leaves Liara's bureau, Jane hesitates for a second and breaks the silence. Her voice is thin and broken and the woman's shoulders are trembling.
"I love you, Bluebird. I wanted..."
Jane shakes her head in defeat and steps out of the room. The doors are closing behind her and Liara sits down. She wants to feel something, but all what's left inside her is numbness. Hoping to provoke a reaction, Liara bends down to grab the picture of Jane she concealed under her table, but flinches back as she feels a sudden sting of pain on her chest, caused by a special piece of jewelry scratching into her skin. Pulling the chain out from under her clothes, she notices purple blooddrops on the scarred edges of Jane's old dogtags.
She is feeling the pain of the shallow cut in the tender flesh just beneath her left breast. She is feeling pain. She is feeling... everything.
Tears are escaping her eyes and she jumps up, running out of her bureau, not caring about her assistants surprised look. It's raining, but she runs further. She runs until she reaches Jane, who is standing besides the handrail at the spacedocks. Her shoulders are shaken with sharp sobs, a sight that makes Liara's heart ache. She grabs Jane's head and pulls her, stuttering apologetically, into a desperate kiss.
"Jane, I...I'm s-sorry! I l-love you! Please... please f-forgive me! I didn't..."
Returning her kiss, Jane closes her arms around Liara and she knows everything would be all right.
Forcing her attention back to the present time, Liara uses her left hand to reach further than before and caresses her bondmate's freckled cheek.
I was so close to loosing her forever... And yet she forged the symbol of my failure into a sign of her love...
"No. It was a wonderful idea."