"Commander Shepard? I'm Specialist- Oh."
.
Both Shepard and Liara turned around as they heard Samantha exit the elevator just outside of Shepard's cabin. Liara's eyes narrowed. The disappointed tone in the Comm Specialist's voice was unmistakable... "I beg your pardon. I thought you were alone." At least I hoped you would be...
Liara turned her head back to Shepard and carefully (maybe a bit slower than usual, just to make sure Samantha saw it) let her hand slide down Shepard's arm before she turned and approached the elevator Samantha had just exited.
"I was just leaving," she announced after a short glare at the Comm Specialist before she entered the elevator, its doors immediately hissing shut behind her.
Obviously relieved that they were finally alone (and not in the slightest intimidated by Liara's glare, as it seemed... if she'd even noticed it), Samantha started again as if she'd never been interrupted in the first place... "Commander Shepard? I'm Comm Specialist Samantha Traynor, with Alliance R&D." She saluted, not quite sure yet on how to address the commander. The reports she'd read had been a bit vague... While Shepard didn't seem to mind being addressed and treated in a friendly and casual way by her friends, there were also reports indicating that she didn't approve of nicknames, namely: being called "princess" in public (which Samantha would have to remember, since it was a nickname she'd often used in previous relationships)...
Shepard, surprised by the abrupt ending of her conversation with Liara, regretfully took her eyes off the closed elevator doors and turned her attention to the woman now standing in front of her. She nodded, encouraging her to continue.
"I was part of the team retrofitting the Normandy after you turned it over to the Alliance." Samantha took a step forward, her heart immediately skipping a beat at the sudden closeness. She took a deep breath, which sadly didn't help with her nervousness, before she blurted out, "There weren't many of us aboard when the Reapers hit..." She trailed off, lost for words as she felt Shepard's blue eyes on her.
A smile appeared on Shepard's face as she noticed the Specialist's nervousness and, oblivious to the real reason Samantha's heart was pounding, she raised her hands. "Slow down, Specialist Traynor. You're doing fine," she said, trying to calm the nervous woman in front of her.
Samantha visibly relaxed, a shy smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Thank you." She sighed. "I worked in a lab. I never thought I'd be serving on a ship." So close to you...
Shepard nodded towards her cabin, a slight smirk on her lips. "Why don't you tell me about the retrofits?"
You can do it! Samantha took another deep breath before she followed Shepard into her cabin, trying her hardest not to stare at the commander's backside all too obvious.
. . .
"Whole worlds are being lost to the Reapers. What more will it take?" Liara turned her head as she heard the door to her office hiss open. She smiled at Shepard who casually leaned against its frame, immediately being cornered by Glyph.
"Who knows?" Joker's voice came over the comm as she made her way over to the commander, still scrolling through the datapad in her hand, showing even more devastating reports on the Reaper invasion. "Hell, maybe the Council's just taking petty revenge for Shepard hanging up on them all those years ago."
Liara's head shot up. "Wait. Shepard did what?" She'd always wondered why the commander's talks to the council had been so short... Most of the time, she'd had just enough time to sit down on her chair before Shepard was standing in her quarters again, eager to start another conversation...
"Sorry, I think we're going through some dark matter. Hello? Hello?" Joker's voice broke off after a, admittedly, very lousy imitation of static.
Liara's head shot back to Shepard, who had found a sudden interest in the floor beneath her boots, biting her lower lip guiltily while at the same time trying to stiffle a chuckle at the memory. Even Glyph seemed to have sensed the tense atmosphere as he returned to his station, turning away from his boss' narrowed eyes and feigning to scan the still empty upgrade terminal he'd just explained to Shepard.
Liara put the datapad down and took another slow, threatening step towards the commander. Shepard raised her head, an apologetic smile on her lips, but before Liara could start with her accusations, a concerned look crossed her face at the sight in front of her. "Shepard, what happened?" A cooling hand caressed Shepard's bruised cheek.
Shepard shook her head, waving her off. "Ah, that's nothing..." She chuckled and smiled proudly. "You should see Vega down in the Shuttle Bay..."
Liara's eyebrow rose.
The commander shrugged. "I was just doing my round, getting to know my crew... And if he wants to go all manly on me and the only thing he can think of to impress me with are his muscles..." She spread her arms. "That's what he gets."
Liara's eyebrow remained in place. If I didn't know better...
"Besides, I wanted to punch him for that stunt back on Mars anyway..." Shepard's expression turned serious. "He could have seriously injured you..."
A slight blush appeared on Liara's cheeks at Shepard's concern about her safety. She had to admit that, over the two years she'd mourned her, followed by the time Shepard had been on the mission to destroy the Collector base, she had forgotten how it felt to have someone care about her well-being... But maybe that was just Shepard's way of treating her squad in general... She swallowed, images of Shepard's expression after Kaidan's injury shooting through her head.
"Shepard..." She locked eyes with her. "With everything still ahead of us... If something happens on a mission, if either one of us are hurt... Well, even more hurt..." she added, smiling shyly as she touched Shepard's cheek again.
The commander winced slightly. "Don't underestimate the pain! Brute's got a fist like a brick, I tell you..."
Liara's smile widened. She knew the commander well enough to know that a bruised cheek couldn't actually hold Shepard back from completing her mission, but it was still endearing to think that Shepard might have kept the bruise just to show it to Liara in hopes of some consolation... If that was the reason she had come by... Shepard's empty expression shot through Liara's mind once more, making her regret that she hadn't joined with Shepard the night before and was now forced to get her closure, as humans put it, "the old-fashioned way"... She sighed inwardly. She should have explored Shepard's mind while she'd been showing her the nightmare...
She took a deep breath and continued, "Shepard, there's something I need to ask before we go any further. It's been years since we were together. Are you still interested in us?"
Shepard smiled at her. "Well, since I've obviously not made that clear the night before..." she started and Liara rolled her eyes, thinking back to last night...
Whatever her plans might have been (not that she'd had any, of course...), soon after Shepard had greeted her, the whiskey consumed beforehand had taken its toll and Shepard wouldn't have even been able to reach her bed without Liara's help. And as soon as her head had hit the pillow, the commander was sleeping peacefully in a slightly irritated asari's arms...
Shepard jolted her out of her thoughts as she took Liara's hands into her own, gently stroking them with her thumbs. "I didn't forget you, Liara, I never have." Locking eyes with her, she added, "I want to make us work."
Liara exhaled in relief. "Good. I was getting worried."
Shepard's eyebrow rose, a playful smile on her lips. "Oh really? You mean because of the horde of ex-lovers I've gathered over the past year?"
Liara's eyebrow rose playfully and she winked at Shepard mischievously. "Don't worry, Commander, I think I can manage those..."
. . .
How dare she?
Liara glared angrily at Jack who'd just hit Shepard in the face and was now yelling at the commander right after they'd saved her and her students from attacking Cerberus troops. "Damn it, how many times did I tell you not to trust Cerberus?"
Shepard rubbed her aching chin. "Those troops had you on the ropes, Jack. I just saved your ass," she stated, her eyes indicating that she wasn't actually worried or even surprised by the ex-convicts reaction. Seeing the slight smile on Shepard's face, Liara still narrowed her eyes but crossed her arms in front of her chest, deciding against smashing the biotic in front of her against the nearest wall. There still might be time for that later, though...
"You want a medal?" Jack sneered but then gave a short laugh and punched Shepard on the shoulder. "It's been a while... Seems like they finally let you on board of a ship again, eh?"
Shepard playfully crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well, at least I wasn't the one running off as soon as the authorities showed up..." She nodded towards the students curiously leaning over the railing above them. "But seems like they still found you..."
"Yeah, Alliance brass knew I helped you." Jack shrugged her shoulders. "They offered me this, and apparently the students responded well to my teaching style," she added, raising her voice and smiling proudly at her students.
"The psychotic biotic."
"I will destroy you!" came the student's responses from above, reminding Shepard of all the times she'd fought alongside the tattooed woman...
"I have to say, Jack, you look good." Shepard smiled, oblivious to Liara's still narrowed eyes.
Jack rolled her eyes. "What, you wanna pin me against the wall in the subdeck again?"
Liara's jaw dropped.
Oh, don't pretend you didn't like it... "That's not what I meant."
Noticing Liara's reaction, Jack smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, well... maybe some of your attitude rubbed off on me..."
Liara's head shot back to Shepard, and noticing the movement from the corner of her eye, the commander finally turned her head, biting her lower lip as she saw the asari's expression. "Erm, I think we should find a way to get the students out of here..." she murmured before activating her comm. "Sanders, any ideas?"
Shepard apologetically pointed at her helmet and turned her back on the small group as she listened to Kahlee Sanders' voice telling her what to do next. Jack leaned against a nearby wall, her arms still crossed and her eyes still on Liara. The asari momentarily considered shocking Jack by revealing her real name (just for the fun of it), but decided against it, instead she let her eyes wander over the ex-convicts body, wondering what it might have been, Shepard had-
"Be right back," the commander announced as she ran past the small group and up the nearby stairs.
"OK, sure. Take your time..." Jack murmured, her eyes back on Liara as soon as Shepard (or rather her well-shaped backside, as Liara suspected) was out of sight. An awkward silence followed before Liara felt a hand patting her shoulder. She turned to Garrus who'd been silent throughout the previous conversation. His mandibles twitched as he smiled at her. "I'm sure she'll explain it all to you later..." he offered and Liara nodded, a determined expression on her face.
"Oh, that she will..." Although she'd already gathered quite the knowledge about Shepard's past year (she was the Shadow Broker after all... she learned things...), it couldn't hurt to hear about the undocumented encounters she'd missed...
Liara still felt Jack's gaze upon her, but didn't even bother to engage herself in a staring contest. It was immature and she'd win anyway... She still couldn't stop the sting she felt in her heart, though. She knew from the beginning that Shepard had a... rather colorful past, but what bothered her more was the thought that the woman in front of her had been a part of Shepard's life when she, herself, had been absent... She hadn't been part of Shepard's squad when they'd taken on the collectors, she hadn't helped the commander during this time, but the tattooed woman eyeing her now had... Well, if she'd actually been a help, that was... Her eyebrow rose involuntarily. Judging by the woman's previous outburst, Liara doubted she'd been an essential (or very stable) part of Shepard's success...
"Erm, Commander, I think the console you're looking for is over there..." they heard one of the student's voice above them and not long after that, all turned their heads as they heard Shepard's heavy footsteps on the opposite stairs.
"Done, now let's get your students out of here," she declared before jumping down the remaining steps.
Liara sighed. She really likes those vaults she's learned from James while being grounded...
"So... the subdeck, hm?" Liara crouched behind cover next to Shepard.
"I thought you already knew that..." Shepard signaled Garrus to overload a Centurion's shields before leaning out of cover and taking out an Atlas' pilot with her sniper rifle.
"Well, Cerberus obviously didn't have surveillance cameras on the subdeck." Liara gave a short laugh. "Why would they?" she added while killing a Guardian with a single shot through the "mail slot" of his shield, as Shepard and Garrus had once referred to before they'd burst out laughing. Liara hadn't even bothered asking..
"What about the Engine Room? Did they have cameras there?" Shepard asked cautiously while shooting at the turret on a Combat Engineer's back, causing it to explode.
Liara's eyebrow rose in surprise. "What? No." She created a Singularity, lifting a group of approaching Guardians off the ground. "Why would the Illusive Man have surveillance cameras installed in the Engine Room?" Noticing Shepard's apologetic smile, she leaned out of cover and let the Singularity detonate loudly with a Warp before she turned back to Shepard, her eyes narrowing. "What?"
Being once more reminded of what a powerful biotic Liara was, Shepard blinked, hoping to deflect the asari's rage away from her... "Did I already tell you how beautiful you look today?" Shepard cleared her throat. "That outfit new? Very nice! It suits you..." she offered before rolling out of cover and charging at another approaching group of Centurions, preferring their blazing guns to the asari's glare at the moment...
"In the Engine Room?"
"Yep."
"On the cold, hard floor?"
"Uh-huh."
"I imagine that can't have been very... comfortable..."
Shepard gave a short laugh. "Nope, definitely not."
"And was that the last one?" Liara looked at Shepard as the door in front of them opened, the Combat Engineer in the next room dropping to the ground only seconds later after a well-aimed headshot.
"Pretty much, yeah..." Shepard rubbed the nape of her neck and turned to Garrus who was following behind them. "You keeping up, big guy?"
"Sure." Garrus gave her the thumbs up. "After hearing about all your romantic escapades for the last twenty minutes..." he murmured, sighing quietly. "And here I always thought I had reach..."
"Pretty much?" Liara sighed. "Did you sleep with everyone on the ship?"
"Not everyone..." Shepard stated while climbing into the empty Atlas seemingly just waiting for her. She scanned the Atlas' interior and nodded as soon as she'd gotten accustomed to the controls, the excitement about her new "toy" prominent on her face.
Noticing Liara opening her mouth again, she raised a hand. "Heads up, I hear gunshots. The students need our help," she declared before staggeringly steering the Atlas up the stairs leading to the hall near the docking area where Jack and her students were already facing the approaching Cerberus troops, Liara and Garrus following behind her (still keeping a safe distance, though... just in case).
. . .
Purgatory's loud music drowned out everything else as soon as Shepard had entered the nightclub. She let her eyes wander around the place, trying not to get too distracted by the conversation between the two marines to her left...
"I'm a woman? Holy crap, I'm a woman! Where did these tits come from?"
"Mel, listen..."
"Were they cloaked? Are they infiltrator tits? Could there be more of them hiding?"
A wide grin on her face, Shepard climbed the stairs leading to the upper level of the nightclub and immediately spotted Jack sitting at a table nearby. The ex-convict raised her head from the datapad in her hand as soon as she noticed Shepard approach her table.
"Ugh! This sucks," she declared and threw the datapad she'd been reading back on the table.
"What've you got there?" Shepard leaned forward, turning the datapad to get a better look at it.
"Duty roster for the students. It's what I do for fun now. But speaking of..." Jack's eyes lit up as she grabbed Shepard's wrist and pulled her down to her, their faces now only inches apart.
Shepard gave her an apologetic smile as she pulled back. Jack nodded. "That asari, huh?" Shepard shrugged her shoulders, the smile still in place. "Yeah, figured as much..." Jack leaned back in her chair before she continued. "Hell, if you've turned into a wimpy little sissy that likes to read self-written poems to her lover at night, I don't wanna have you anymore anyway!" she declared, a mischievous smile on her lips.
Shepard crossed her arms in front of her chest, challengingly raising her eyebrows. "I'm hurt... Last time I checked, you were the one composing poems, Jacqueline Nought..."
Jack's jaw dropped. "I..." She scratched her forehead. "How'd you...?" Biting her lip, she shook her head and suddenly burst out, "Fuck this shit, let's do something else!"
Shepard nodded, a satsified smile on her face as she followed Jack up the stairs leading to the dancefloor.
"Everybody knows you can't dance, Shepard. This ought to be fun..." she yelled into Shepard's ear, a victorious smile on her face.
Shepard cleared her throat, placing a hand over her heart as she started, "My soul burns with a fire of darkness, quenched only in the pain of loneliness-"
"Fuck you!"
Heh, no need to tell her that I've had plenty of time to improve my dancing skills while I was grounded...
. . .
"Can I help you?"
Kelly's hand immediately dropped from her coat's zipper at the unfamiliar (and unexpected) voice. She spun around, turning away from the aquarium she'd just inspected.
An asari was standing in the doorway to Shepard's cabin, her arms folded as she eyed the former yeoman skeptically.
"I..." Kelly swallowed once under the hostile glare and started wringing her hands.
The asari raised her eyebrows expectantly, waiting for Kelly to continue.
"I was just..." Kelly motioned towards the aquarium. "I promised Shepard to bring her her fish back and I just thought..." She swallowed once more. "I just thought I should make sure they're well. You see, taking care of that many different fish requires a certain... carefulness... After all, there are-"
"Illium Skald fish, Thessian Sunfish and Prejek Paddle fish, yes, I am aware of that." Liara nodded, hiding her smile at the sight of Kelly's perplexed expression. "Not to mention Shepard's newest purchases... Koi fish, Striped Dartfish, Belan Jellyfish and a Khar'shan Snapping Eel. Which is quite the collection by now..." She motioned towards the upper half of the aquarium. "That's why I gave her an Aquarium VI to take care of such a wide variety of feeding needs..."
I've been replaced by a VI?
A smile started tugging at the corner of Liara's mouth as she noticed the former yeoman's hand clutching her coat, for once thankful that Shepard had decided to pay Purgatory a visit, giving her the chance to deal with the commander's former yeoman herself... "I'm afraid Commander Shepard has not returned yet, but if you'd like to wait for her..." She took a step towards the squirming woman. "Here, let me take that coat for you-"
"NO!" Kelly burst out, waving her hand dismissively. "There's no need for that..." She giggled nervously and turned towards the door. "I'll... I'll just leave now."
That's what I thought... Liara nodded, a satisfied smile on her face as she took a step aside to let Kelly storm past her and into the elevator. "I'll tell her you came by..."
A/N: I'll add all author's notes for future chapters to the end of the chapter, since the title's already part of the chapter (just in case you wondered...)
Well then... my dear readers (and reviewers, thank you!), I'm starting to realize that working on a couple of different stories at the same time might not have been the best idea... In other words: I'm so sorry for the delay... I still don't exactly know where I'm going with the story, but I guess I'll decide that in time... For now there will be more serious chapters and then there will be... well... chapters like this one... (Oh Kelly... Can't blame a girl for trying, I guess...)
To your reviews... brownton, I'm glad the memory parts weren't too weird, 'cause there are bound to be more of those...
And DragonsWillFly, of course! :) I could never forget about Liara! I loved her in every ME part, but ME3 reminded me of how much I've actually missed her...
Since I've got the majority of the story written down already, I might as well add some sneak peeks... If I keep up the upload tempo, you'll have forgotten all about them by the time I upload the actual chapter anyway... :) The story starts a bit rusty, but it should get better... sneak peek?
"Liara?"
Garrus carefully stepped into Liara's office, noticing her sitting at her terminal. She turned her head and pointed an accusing finger at him, but he held up his hands, both of them holding a bottle, before she could open her mouth.
"You're coming with me!" he ordered, securing both bottles against his chest with one hand and pulling her up with his other, now free, hand.
"Garrus, I-"
"No excuses, T'Soni..."
Garrus led her straight to the newly decorated Port Observation Deck. Liara turned her head in awe as she took in the room she'd never entered before, what with all her work and... her lacking need to socialize with certain members of Shepard's crew that did seem to spend a lot of time in here... But to her great relief, James seemed to have found something else to occupy his time at the moment.
She relaxed and sat down on the, admittedly very comfortable, couch, leaning back and crossing her legs. Garrus placed both bottles on the table and approached the nearby bar to get glasses for them. "Found a stash of Serrice Ice Brandy in here a while ago... I hope Dr. Chakwas doesn't keep count..." He turned and approached her with a turian equivalent of a smile. "So... I heard about your... incident in the CIC..."
Liara buried her head in her hands and groaned.
"Liara, are you sure your info drone is just analyzing data?"
Liara's head rose. "I... yes, Glyph is programmed to-" She stopped, her eyes narrowing as she observed her "assistant" at his nearby workstation. Her eyes widened. "By the Goddess, Glyph, what are you-" She jumped up, almost stumbling over some datapads spread out around them as she hurried over to the upgrade terminal and grabbed the drone, inspecting it thoroughly.
Shepard propped herself up on her elbows, an amused smile on her face as she watched Liara catching the struggling drone in a stasis field while connecting it to her terminal, quickly scanning the data on the monitor. She gasped. "Oh my..." Turning her face back to the drone, she exclaimed, "Who set you up for this? You were supposed to monitor and analyze all incoming data, not..." Her voice trailed off as her cheeks darkened.
"Heh, I thought the red light indicated something like that..."
Liara turned her head back to Shepard, still exasperated. "This isn't the time to joke, Shepard. Imagine what would have happened if he'd leaked it!"
Shepard shrugged. "Well, I guess there are worse vids on the extranet..."
"This isn't..." Liara shook her head. "How could this happen anyway?"
"Oh, I think I know how..."
"It is well known to have happened many times before." Benezia sat down at the edge of Liara's bed, reaching over to close the book on Prothean history her daughter had been reading.
"Mother!" Liara exclaimed, averting her eyes as she felt her cheeks heat up.
"I simply want my daughter to be prepared. I want you to know everything there is to know before you leave, little wing."
Liara started rubbing her forehead in irritation. "Mother, I will be spending most of my time alone on digsites. If..." She bit her lower lip. "Should the time come that I might consider... mating-"
"Trust me, little wing, you will meet someone special one day..." Benezia crossed her legs, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Maybe you'll run into a dashing krogan mercenary during one of your digs..." she offered.
Liara's eyebrow rose. "I don't know if a krogan-asari-union would produce anything useful..." she mused.
"Oh, you'd be surprised..." Her mother's eyes lit up for a moment, a knowing smile on her lips.
So, these are just a couple of examples... Mean, I know... :) You'll just have to wait if you want to know when they take place... and what "CIC accident" Garrus is talking about. You won't have to wait long for that conclusion, though... I hope it'll be worth the long waiting periods...