This is a compainion piece for 'What I Will Be, I was', though that is not required to understand this.
Liara leaned back in her chair, spine popping as she stretched her arms above her head. The action released the tension in the muscles of her shoulders and she sighed as she brought her arms back down. She had held her position here on Illium for a little over three months, trading information to the highest bidder, playing mind games with the elite and the scum in equal parts. And always... always... trying to find information on the Shadow Broker.
She rubbed her temples, aware of just how far her life has spiraled away from her. Shepard was dead, Miranda wasn't sure she could fix her, and there hadn't been anything on the Broker in over a month. Shepard had been officially declared dead just before she arrived here, less than a month after she'd dropped her body off with Cerberus and had flown away. The funeral had been beautiful, but all Liara had been able to do was stare blankly at the empty coffin and pray to a Goddess her people didn't even really believe in anymore.
With a glance at the clock – the shops downstairs had been closed for over an hour – she began to gather her things and head out for the night.
"I'm going to head home," she told her assistant as she left the office, "I'll see you Monday."
"Of course, Dr. T'soni," the woman replied, nodding her head slightly without stopping the work she was doing.
"Go home," Liara told her with a laugh before heading down the stairs.
She considered actually going home herself. She could crawl into a bath, read a book, and maybe get a little more work done. Information brokers, she found, had weekends off as frequently as archeologists. That was, they had them off when there was nothing pressing to do, but most of the time an hour or two here or there to catch a bit of sleep was much more likely. She shifted the bag on her shoulder, and decided that it really wasn't worth it.
She needed a drink.
She needed to unwind.
She needed to forget for just a little while.
The bar was fairly empty for the time of night it was, and Liara easily found a stool at the bar.
"What'll be?" the asari bartender asked. There had been something familiar about the woman the first time Liara had seen her, and she kept telling herself she should see what she could dig up on her, but she never had. The Shadow Broker took focus.
"Whiskey, neat," she said, lowering her head into her hands.
"Mmn, who's the lucky human?" the asari said with a slight leer.
"I'm sorry?"
"This ain't a normal asari drink, kid," the bartender said, putting the glass in front of her, "which means someone's got their brain waves all in sink with someone who's got a love of human booze. And given how fast human's tend to go through your system, you were horizontal not too long ago."
Liara looked at the glass, thinking. It was true she'd never had a taste for human alcohol before Shepard. And it was true that after the joining, many asari would feel an echo of their partner for an hour or so after the meld had actually ended. But Shepard had been dead for months. She just liked the taste now.
"Maybe I just like whiskey," she said, standing up.
The asari matriarch shrugged and watched her go, thoughtful. Liara found an empty table tucked away in a dark corner and pulled out a data pad Just because she was here to unwind didn't mean she had to let her work fall to the wayside.
Her glass was empty, but she'd barely made a dent in the information she was sifting through when someone cleared their throat. She looked up, noticing the bar had filled up quickly as she'd sat in her corner. The place was now packed, and an asari, perhaps a century or so older than she was, stood at her side.
"Do you mind if I sit here? There's no where else, and I'm supposed to be meeting someone." Liara waved at the empty chair, and began to pack up. "Oh, you don't have to go! I just felt like a fool standing in the middle of that crowd all alone. Only asari ever born who can't dance, and I come here on a Friday night. Not exactly brilliant, huh? Let me get you a drink." She waved at a passing waitress. "What are you drinking?"
Liara stared at the woman, torn between just going home and joining her for a drink. She still wasn't very comfortable around people, but she could really use another drink.
"Whiskey," she answered, letting her bag drop back to the floor.
"Damn, you screwing a human or do you actually like the taste of shit?" the asari laughed when the waitress had walked away.
Liara stared at her blankly, thinking perhaps she should have left. Was whiskey that strange a drink? The asari's smirk reminded her of Shepard though, and it finally dawned on her that she was joking. "Neither," she answered.
"'Course," the asari laughed again, and then proffered her left arm, palm up, "I'm Teiron Riela, by the way."
Liara stared at the arm a second before grabbing the woman's forearm with her right hand. She leaned forward, tilting her head to the side, but meeting the other woman's eyes. It was an asari greeting, and one Liara hadn't used since she'd been traveling with her mother over five decades before. "Liara," she answered, leaving off her surname. T'Soni had been too familiar before her mother had joined Saren, and after the battle on the Citadel everyone seemed to know it. And letting Teiron find out she was the pure blood daughter of one of the best known asari traitors in recent history would probably cost her that drink.
"Pleasure. What are you working on?"
"Nothing important," Liara said, dropping the data pad she'd been working with into her bag, "I'm an information broker here in Nos Astra."
"Cool. I work the docks, a guard. Wanted to be a commando, but my biotics are as bad as most humans! I'm probably the worst asari ever," Teiron giggled, taking the drinks from the waitress that had just returned. She turned up her nose at the smell of Liara's drink, and handed it to her with a smirk. "My mom thinks its horrible, doesn't want me out here. She's the reason I'm here."
"You're meeting your mother in a bar?" Liara asked, confused.
Teiron laughed, "No. My mom set me up with some Turian horticulturalist. Who the hell's ever heard of a Turian horticulturalist anyway? It's stupid, but apparently she knows someone who knows someone who was related to one of my dad's business partners, and apparently they have a kid. Who likes plants. Whatever. Guess we'd be made for each other. Galaxy's worst Turian and asari." She drank down half of the red concoction the waitress had brought her, shaking her head. "Never really liked Turians to begin with, though. Dad was one, but he died when I was still a baby. You know how that goes. They're just so spiky."
Liara grinned, thinking of what Garrus would say if she called him 'spiky'. She felt relaxed for the first time since she'd watched the Normandy crash, and only a very little bit of it had to do with the alcohol.
"Anyway," Teiron continued, "I'm supposed to meet him here, but I don't think he's going to show. When I talked to him on the comm he said something about Orchid hybrids or something. Turians breeding Earth plants, what's next?"
"I'm sorry," Liara said, sipping her whiskey.
"Don't be. It's cool. I can appease my mother and I have a more interesting conversationalist than a gardener. Not every day you get to meet the woman who helped save the Citadel." Liara met Teiron's eyes, shocked. "Yeah, yeah. I know you're that Liara. Aren't many Liara's working as information brokers," she laughed.
"I'm just surprised. Few asari are willing to speak with me."
"Bah. You helped stop your mom. And it's not like we get to choose our parents, right. I mean look at me! That whole 'don't mate with other asari' thing is all bullshit anyway. I mean its so damn good when they know what they're doing, right?"
"I wouldn't know." Liara admitted.
"Right," she said, nodding at the half empty glass Liara held, "into humans."
Liara didn't answer. There was only one human. There was only Shepard. But she was gone. And there was no reason to believe they'd actually be able to bring her back.
There was only Shepard.
"Yes. I suppose you could say that."
Three months later and Liara was sitting in the same place, laughing. It felt good to laugh.
"Anyway," Teiron continued her story, "the Krogan comes up behind her, looking all the world like he just came out of some kids dress-up box, covered in lipstick, and she looks over her shoulder. Krogan's ready to kill her, I can't say I blame him, but she just breaks down laughing." Teiron slaps her arm down on the table sloshing her drink onto the table, cackling drunkenly. "And the Krogan, he just stops mid attack and stares at her. It was amazing!"
Liara laughed with her, not entirely sure what was so funny about a rampaging Krogan, but finding the other woman's laughter contagious. She laughed even harder when their fifth...or was it sixth...round of drinks came, and Teiron wrinkled her nose in disgust at the smell of the whiskey. She did it every time, every week, but there was something cute about the way she did it, something that reminded Liara of Shepard.
"So, who is he anyway?" Teiron asked after drowning half her own drink in a single swallow.
"Who's who?" Liara asked, giggling as the words slurred together.
"The whiskey drinker. I mean, I've never met him, but you're always here with me on Friday nights, and you always come straight from the office. I know 'cause I walk you, mmhmm. But you always drink that crap. So who is he that stays in your system for that long...cause it must be daaaaaaamn good."
Liara looked down at the amber liquid in her glass, and shook her head, "I just like the taste of it. But not the taste of shit. Have you even tried this?" She held the glass out to Teiron, who backed away as if she were being handed a poisonous reptile instead of a perfectly good bit of alcohol.
"Nope, and never gonna. I still don't believe you though. I wanna meet him!"
"There isn't anyone, so you're gonna be waiting a very long time."
Teiron pouted dramatically for effect, her bottom lip sticking out, eyes wide. It might of worked if the corners of her mouth hadn't kept twitching. "Oh, fine," she finally laughed, "You win. At least that means I can do this." She half stood, leaning across the table.
Liara looked at her, stunned, unable to move. Her breath quickened, her heart skipped a beat. Warm breath, heavy with the scent of the fruity concoction Teiron had been drinking, teased her face. She was so close. Teiron was leaning closer. She was going to kiss her. Liara tilted her head, ready to accept the kiss. Thoughts of Shepard dances through her head, but Shepard was dead, and she wasn't and she was drunk and this was good.
Teiron's eyes sparkled, her skin seemed to glow in the dark lights of the bar. She licked her lips, casually moving both their drinks out of the way before extending herself further over the table to steal the kiss she'd been waiting for. Liara felt her breath catch, suddenly, inextricably aware of how much she wanted this. Wanted not just to forget and move on, but to be loved again. Her stomach churned, Shepard's face, her voice, the feel of her skin, all of it rushing through Liara's mind as Teiron got closer. If Miranda succeeded, what would Shepard say? Did it matter?
Centimeters from their lips making contact, Liara's omni-tool went off. The spell between them broken, Teiron laughed softly, returning to her chair. She didn't looked embarrassed, she simply smiled and waited while Liara took care of whatever business had popped up. It happened occasionally, and Teiron never complained.
"I have to go," Liara sighed, her omni-tool going dark.
"What? Why?"
"I have a client who needs something, but I didn't bring a copy with me." Liara giggled suddenly, then rubbed her face with her hands, attempting to sober up. "I have to go." She stood, and grabbed her bag, moving around the table. As she walked away, she reached out, letting her fingers dance along Teiron's cheek. So different from Shepard.
Teiron gabbed her wrist with one hand, and waved down a passing waitress with another.
"I really have to go," Liara said.
"I'm coming with you. It's much too early for this night to end." She handed her credit chit to the waitress, still holding onto Liara. She didn't let go until waitress had walked on.
"It's almost twelve thirty, Teiron. I'd hardly call this an early night."
The other woman shrugged as they staggered together toward the taxi stand. "Maybe I'm just hoping to get lucky if we end up at your place."
Liara stumbled as Teiron spoke, and hoped she would believe it was just the booze.
Was she going to do this? Was she going to turn her back on Shepard so soon?
But Shepard was dead.
She felt waves of guilt rise up inside her, tears prickled her eyes. Shepard was dead. Shepard was dead, and there was nothing more Liara could do. She spent most of her evenings, still, crying over the loss of her. Would it be so bad to do this? To allow herself to be loved again?
It had been eight months, and that was longer than she'd been with the Commander. At what point was enough enough? When did she pick herself up off the ground? Shepard wouldn't want her to wallow, wouldn't want her to be sad. Liara glanced at Teiron, who was trying to climb into a cab, and thought perhaps once, as long as the other woman understood about Shepard, maybe it would be okay.
Half an hour later, her client pacified, she came down the stairs of her apartment to see Teiron standing over an old battered trunk. Liara had hidden it in a corner, pulling it across the floor and surrounding herself in all she had left of Shepard when the memories became too much.
"You and Commander Shepard?" Teiron asked without turning her head. There was a holo on the table, Liara with Shepard behind her, arms wrapped around her waist, head resting on her shoulder. They were both smiling. The holo had been taken a week before the Commander had died; Wrex had taken it, laughing at the two of them the whole time.
This wasn't how Liara had wanted to start this conversation. "Yes," she said flatly, a single tear escaping her eyes as she looked at the picture of Shepard.
"Oh, shit. I'm sorry."
Liara nodded, moving to stand at Teiron side. Her heart ached. She just wanted the pain to stop. She took the other woman's hand, turning her around to face her. Teeth digging into her bottom lip, she considered the consequences of what she was about to do.
But Shepard was dead.
She kept telling herself this, but somehow it never felt real. She felt guilty, but also empty, and she just wanted it all to stop. For one brief, glorious moment, she wanted it all to just go away.
She kissed Teiron. There was not the mad passion there had been the first time she'd kissed Shepard. There wasn't the warm buzz that had made her seem so light, made her feel so beautiful. She felt a little sick.
She didn't stop though. She raked her teeth across Teiron's bottom lips, pulling her toward the stairs. Clothes were discarded as they moved, tripping them both. There was nothing graceful about this. She cared for this woman sure, but did she love her? Perhaps not. Did she care? Not at all. They fell onto the bed, a tangled mess of limbs.
There was no tentative buildup, no exploration and discovery of the other's body. There was just cold passion, and desire. A desire to pretend things were different.
Liara reached for Teiron's mind, wanting the meld, and the sense of otherness it gave. She refused to think of Shepard. Of the way the human had known, even without the meld, just where to touch her. How Shepard had been so gentle, so unsure of herself. She would not think about it. She brushed her mind against Teiron's, opening herself up to her, but then her biotics fell away.
It was like being pushed into a pool of ice cold water. She sputtered, drawing back from Teiron as the asari trailed kisses down her stomach. Beautiful eyes looked up at her, but not Shepard's eyes.
Shepard was dead.
"What happened?" There was real concern in her voice. She slid up the bed and Liara felt cold as their bodies lost contact.
"I don't know." Liara rubbed her head. She felt dizzy.
"We can stop." There was so much care in Teiron's voice. She ran a hand along Liara's cheek, frowning as she waited.
"No," Liara said, capturing Teiron's mouth with hers. She felt guilty again. For Shepard, and what this would do to her if she found out. For Teiron, for using her like this.
She reached again, for the meld, and again nothing happened. She growled, pushing Teiron back into the bed. "You do it," she growled. Wanting, no needing, this. To forget.
Teiron's eyes went black, and Liara felt the warmth of Teiron's mind, the love that radiated from it. Impossible. Though she'd fallen in love with Shepard quickly.
And then she felt nothing.
Liara awoke to the sound of a beeping heart monitor. There was a weight on her arm, and she saw the back of an asari crest, its owner asleep in a chair beside her bed. She was in a hospital, but she couldn't remember how she got there. The last thing she remembered was Teiron...
She sat bolt upright, knocking the asari off her arm. Teiron grunted, rubbing her face. She smiled, though, a bright, amazing smile that seemed to melt everything in Liara. It wasn't Shepard's smile, but it was a close second.
"You're awake," she breathed, reaching over Liara to hit the call button on the bed. "I've been so worried."
"What happened? How did I get here?" There was a cold sweeping panic in her stomach. If people knew what they'd been about to do, it could get very bad. Sex with asari was not uncommon, no one much cared as long as it just stayed casual, but it was still something that could be held over her. She had too much to accomplish, too much that needed to be done. The last thing she wanted was for the Shadow Broker to find out about this. The only one worse would be Shepard.
"You stopped breathing," Teiron whispered, taking her hand. Liara pulled it away, eyes darting around for anyone that might see them. Teiron frowned, but didn't press. "I called an ambulance. You're heart stopped on the way here. It...I was so scared."
The fear was evident in the woman's voice, and Liara tentatively reached back out to her. She laid her hand on Teiron's arm, and smiled, "I'm okay now, I think. But why?"
Teiron glanced at the door, checking to see if the nurse had arrived. She hadn't, but she leaned closer to Liara and dropped her voice anyway. It was obvious what Liara's reservations were. "I started the joining, and then it was like your mind shut down. At first I just thought it was a wall, and I pulled back, but then you just went still. I hadn't completely dropped the connection, and your mind just...I can't even describe how it felt. Like claws in my brain, tearing everything to pieces. I um...I told them we were heading for the baths."
Liara met Teiron's eyes, unable to find the words to thank her. Communal bathing...communal everything, was simply a part of asari life. Though when most maidens left the places they were born they learned to do things alone, places like Illium catered to the ways the asari would have been raised. Extended families shared a single roof, often with close friends. You would sleep with them, eat with them, and bathe with them. It had been amusing to Liara, when Shepard had told her stories of never wanting to take a bath as a child, because bath time had been one of her favorite times. Shepard had said she had described more like a day at the pool, only with soap. However, lovers rarely bathed together. Recently, it was mainly because most other species in the galaxy had issues with being naked with people they were not intimate with as if being naked immediately equated to sex, which Liara had never understood. How would one get clean, if you were still wearing clothes? Historically, however, asari lovers did not bathe together because the communal baths were a time to be alone from ones bondmate, to be accepted back into the fold of the larger community, back into your family.
Liara had purchased her apartment because of it's human bath, the long, rectangular hollow box built into her washroom. Her building, however, like all asari focused buildings in Nos Astra, had a communal bath on the top floor, but she had never used it. She liked being alone, as strange in an asari as in a Quarian, but Teiron's lie gave the impression they were old friends, and there was nothing in that which could be held over Liara's head in her job.
The nurse walked in, a tall asari matron, smiling broadly. "Well, look who's finally decided to join us," she said with a laugh. Teiron smiled once at Liara then excused herself, leaving the nurse to run whatever tests were needed.
Two days later Liara was wishing more than anything else that she could just leave. They'd hooked her up to heart monitors, brain wave scanners, they'd tested her biotics, her ability to start a meld. They didn't test the joining, it was not something that could be tested in a lab, but all the other tests came back normally. Her heart was fine, her lungs. But there was always another test. She supposed they couldn't blame them, collapsing while undressing for a bath wasn't exactly a common experience. Still, she was tired of being stuck in this bed, of the doctors and the needles, and the fact that Shepard wasn't there. Teiron had come to visit her every day, and she found herself looking forward to her coming. She caught herself looking at the door whenever she heard someone walking by. She'd feel a jump of hope, and then she'd feel this overwhelming guilt.
She leaned back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, and attempted to fall asleep. It was the most stressful thing they'd let her do.
She was just about to drift off again when the door slid open. Teiron came bounding into the room, still in her uniform from her job on the docks.
"Liara, they're letting you go." She bounded up to the bed, kissed her quickly then flushed purple before taking a step back. "Sorry," she muttered, "I just know how much you want to get out."
Liara smiled despite herself. Teiron knew how to make her day. She was like Shepard in that regard, Liara thought. Able to take a miserable moment and make okay. Not necessarily happy, but better. The ache in her chest deepened, thinking of Shepard. Of how, in all this time, she still hadn't told Teiron that she had just been using her. Sometimes it felt like she wasn't though, like she could really fall in love with the older asari. But then she'd think of Shepard, and her heart would break all over again.
"That's great! I just want to go home," she said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "I want to get out of this bed."
Teiron grinned and pulled a chair over the bed from against the wall. "This afternoon, you should be safely at home."
"Is that why you're still wearing that?" Liara laughed, gesturing to Teiron's uniform.
The woman looked down and smiled. "No. There's been some kind of bug infestation of something at my apartment. They won't let anyone back in until this evening. Didn't find out about it until I got back there after work. So I came here instead, but I didn't have any other clothes."
"It looks good on you," Liara said, then blushed. She hadn't meant to say that out loud.
"I'm partial to paper hospital gowns, myself," Teiron laughed, "but that's just me."
She'd been out of the hospital for a month. She'd gone back to the office for the first time this week. Teiron had moved onto her couch, making her dinner every night, getting her groceries, cleaning up the house. It felt good to have her around, and Liara didn't like it. She didn't want it to feel right, or good. But there would be days when she wouldn't feel guilty for watching the way the other woman moved, when she'd brush up against her and not jump away. She'd planned, the night she ended up in the hospital, to sleep with this woman. Now she was more or less living with her, and she felt worse for that than what she'd been about to do before.
She kicked her feet up on the coffee table, and went back to work. She hadn't gone into the office today, Teiron was supposed to be home early. She transferred the credits over to the Salarian business man for the information on the Sirta Foundations lead researcher, then transferred that information onto her client, who paid her four times for the same information. She really shouldn't enjoy this so much.
"Hey," she said as the front door slid open.
"Hey, yourself. Why aren't you dressed The doctor's appointment is in an hour?"
Liara looked down at the nightdress she still wore, and shrugged. "I'd really rather not go."
Teiron came around the sofa and threw herself down beside her. "You said you wanted to find out what was wrong. Dr. Bel'lar is the best. That's she's here on Illium is amazing, that she agreed to see you is an honor. Don't...don't you want to...?"
They had attempted to bond again, a week after she'd returned from the hospital. Liara had once again been unable to start the meld, and rather than risk another trip to the emergency room, Teiron and moved from the bed and onto the couch.
"Teiron," Liara sighed. It wasn't that she didn't want Teiron, Goddess knew she did. But part of her felt that as long as this continued, she could live this half life with her. Faithful to Shepard, but with Teiron at her side.
"Get dressed. I'm sure she'll know what's wrong with you." She pushed Liara off the sofa, and chased her upstairs. She stood at the top of them, preventing Liara from going back down until she'd showered and dressed. She hooked her arm in Liara's afterward, and led them down to her hovercar.
Dr. Bel'lar didn't have an office on Illium. She kept her practice on Thessia, where she worked for a university there. Teiron had heard she was coming to lecture on Illium, in Nos Astra, in fact, and had written her about what had happened. Sort of. That it was the joining that caused the problem was not written of. Liara's position was too precarious to risk.
The doctor had agreed to see Liara at a local hospital. The couple had been to a half dozen local physicians, but as far as anyone could tell Liara was perfectly healthy. Some issues with stress they'd prescribed herbal supplements to help with, and she wasn't, apparently, getting enough sleep. The doctors had received the wrong impression as to why she wasn't sleeping, and the resulting conversations had been awkward. The more so because Liara knew Teiron wished the doctors' assumptions were true.
Liara tugged at the hospital gown she'd changed into when they arrived here, and glared at Teiron who had laughed at her. The doctor had come in to see them, took blood, ran some scans and then said she'd be right back. That had been half an hour ago.
"Its no use. It leaves nothing to the imagination," Teiron laughed.
"I thought you liked paper hospital gowns," Liara chided.
"I do. But you're going rip it if you keep trying to tug it down. And then I'd like to see you explain that."
"It will be easier to explain then why you insisted on joining me in here. I'm a hundred and seven."
Teiron giggled. "Two hundred and twenty. I win." She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. She looked so much like Shepard when she did that. Well, if she wasn't blue.
The door opened on Liara's huff, and the doctor came in.
"Okay, Dr. T'Soni. There are a couple of things it could be, but honestly, nothing is really jumping to the front. Your blood work is fine, everything seems to be in order. I'd suggest taking up meditation, it could be a tension issue. Otherwise, you're still very young. Give it a little while, and more than likely the issues will clear up by themselves." The doctor looked at Teiron, who had sighed dramatically. "I know that isn't what you want to hear. I want you to come back here once a week, have some scans run. Maybe we can find something, but I'm not hopeful."
Liara nodded. It wasn't what she wanted to hear either, but part of her was happy. Happy she had a reason to not let go of Shepard.
Teiron stood at her front door two weeks later. Liara had already made it into the kitchen and was unpacking their groceries.
Her groceries. Sometimes she forgot that Teiron didn't actually live here. She was just putting the salad dressing into the refrigerator when she noticed Teiron hadn't joined her.
"You okay out there?" she asked, moving around to look at the door. Teiron still stood outside.
The look on her face was on of reflection, and Liara didn't like it. She knew it would happen eventually. She'd just wanted to live this lie for a little longer. Teiron was leaving. Liara hadn't expected her to stay, to sleep on the couch and deal with Liara shying away when she tried to hold her hand.
"I love you," Teiron said as Liara walked up to her.
"What?"
"I love you. I want you to know that. That's why I'm leaving." She was looking over Liara's shoulder. Liara turned to see what she was looking at. Shepard's trunk, now covered by a green throw blanket, was in her line of sight. And the holo of her and Shepard. It was still there. Liara bit her lip and turned back.
"You're..." Liara's voice caught, "You're leaving because you love me?"
"I just want you to be happy. Maybe...maybe we'll run into each other again, huh? I'm moving back to Thessia."
"Thessia? How long?"
"I meant to tell you before. I really did, I'm just...Goddess, I can't do this." She turned away, wiping a tear away.
Liara waited a beat, watching her go. She rushed into the hallway, grabbing her shoulder. Teiron turned, smiled at her sadly.
"I..." she couldn't say it. She loved Teiron, certainly, but she didn't love her. She didn't know what the difference was, but it was there, and she couldn't say the words and have Teiron not understand. Instead she brought Teiron lips to hers, kissing her softly. Their tears mixed, and the kiss tasted like salt, but she did not break it until her chest hurt from lack of oxygen.
Teiron sniffled, eyes glittering with tears.
"Shepard is one hell of a lucky woman," she said, and then she walked down the hall. She turned the corner and was gone from sight.
Over a year later, Liara stood in her apartment, rubbing her neck and looking out at the city sprawled out before her. She'd never seen Teiron again, but she still thought about her. Not as often as she thought of Shepard, but every so often.
Liara felt a warm tingle at the base of her skull. She rubbed it briefly, then really paid attention to the feeling.
Shepard.
Shepard was alive.