Executor Pallin's Office | C-Sec | Presidium Embassies | Citadel | September 7th 2174

"So let me get this straight. You want me to release this human, a confirmed member of one of the worst red sand gangs in the Zakera Wards, just because she can help you translate some fancy pictures you found on a human colony?"

"No, I expect you to follow orders. I am ordering this human's release, and you will respect my authority as Spectre and do it."

Liara watched the silent standoff between Executor Pallin and Saren the way an unfortunate stranger watches a lover's quarrel made public. It was amusing but oh-so-uncomfortable to witness. The only other turian in the room, the officer now formally (and fully) introduced as one Garrus Vakarian, was less than amused. He stood with his arms crossed and his weight resting on one leg, as though he was ready to flee the scene the moment this awkward 'meeting' was over. Saren had requested that Garrus join them for some reason that was as of yet unbeknownst to them all, and even though Liara could tell he was uncomfortable with the situation Garrus had been happy to have an excuse to leave the paperwork behind.

Standing in front of Garrus was Shepard, who seemed to be making a conscious effort to appear smaller than she actually was. In contrast to the tall turians surrounding her, it wasn't hard. And if she was trying to appear less threatening in the hope of bettering her chances for release, the heavy restraints locking her wrists together certainly helped.

Shepard had gone quiet after their little moment in the office, and had remained so during the meeting. Liara couldn't gauge what she was thinking, no matter how many sideways glances she gave the girl.

If she's from Earth it's likely that she hasn't had much experience with Citadel races, Liara pondered as she watched Shepard constantly shift her weight from one foot to the other, too uncomfortable to remain still. None of this is going to leave a flattering first impression if that's the case. I can't begin to imagine what's going through her head right now. Even I'm having trouble processing all of this.

Liara knew very little about humans, and most of what she heard was little more than prejudiced tirades from turian mercs she'd met on digs. Oddly, the few humans she had met on those very same digs were usually mild-mannered and respectful. Granted, all of those humans had been scientists. One had even taught her to play a song on the piano, though her initial lessons had been on a small keyboard made for travel. She knew however that most humans were not like those she'd met; scientists were a minority among humans, with most of their population being either merchants or military. They were more like turians than the turians were willing to admit, in her opinion. The two species even shared similar lifespans, remarkably short by asari standards. She'd often wondered if that was why they were so hotheaded, so short-tempered, because they didn't have years to spend weighing all the possible outcomes of every possible decision.

"Give me one good reason, other than your flashy title, why I should let a criminal walk around unchecked on my Citadel." Executor Pallin was clearly not budging, which surely would have gotten him in serious trouble if anyone other than Saren had been the Spectre demanding Shepard's release. Spectre authority was supposed to be absolute. They were the Council's own squadron of secret police, granted the clearances to make any demands and issue any orders, expecting them to be followed without question. The Spectres only answered to the Council. If a Spectre asked you to jump and you weren't a Councilor (or another Spectre, Liara guessed), you were expected to ask how high. At least, in Council space you were. The lawless Terminus Systems? Not so much. But Executor Pallin and a few other key political figures often spoke out against the dangers of unchecked authority being given to such violent-minded, recklessly driven individuals. Their voices weren't particularly heard by the Council, but they did exist. Pallin clearly gave no regard for the authority standing before him, and surprisingly Saren hadn't felt the need to call him out on his disrespect.

Indeed he must have been anticipating such a reaction, because his mandibles flared in a smug grin. "She won't be unchecked. She's even going to help you catch some real dealers, considering your own officers are incapable of doing it themselves. With an exception, of course..." Saren turned to Garrus, ignoring the surprise on everyone's faces at his matter-of-fact tone. "Vakarian, I did a little background check and as far as I can tell you're the only member of the Investigation Unit that's actually been able to crack down on red sand dealing in the Wards."

Garrus straightened up immediately, folding his arms behind his back. He offered a short, clipped "Sir," in response but Liara could hear the pride in his voice.

Saren gave Shepard a cold once-over before continuing. "You know as well as I do that this one isn't dealing, but as I understand it two of her comrades were able to evade capture. By using her as a decoy no less." Liara saw Shepard twitch in response, and it was clear from what she could see in the human's eyes that Shepard was thinking exactly what Liara was thinking. How could he know that? Liara of course had the added question of How exactly was she a decoy? Saren turned back to the Executor, his eyes narrowed in a challenge. "Release her and have her work with Vakarian to catch the real dealers. Think of it as a form of probation. She provides the intel, Vakarian goes back to doing real police work, and you get all the glory. How's that sound?"

He must be very informed to know about Garrus' unfortunate probation, and Shepard's capture! Liara thought. Clearly the rumors and stories about not just Saren, but Spectres in general, were true. Truly the best of the best. He'd only been in building for fifteen minutes and he already had the situation analyzed from every possible angle. It was clear from Saren's tone that there would be no room for argument, and Liara knew that there would be absolutely no real reason for Pallin to refuse. Clearly, from the distaste on Pallin's face, he knew that there was no way out of this either. If he refused, he would look uncooperative and spiteful. But on the other hand of course, acquiescing meant giving in to Spectre authority, the thought of which probably made Pallin furious.

Just when Pallin went to open his mouth to offer his response, Saren had even more to say. "And remember, if you feel like being difficult I have no issue contacting the Councilor. I'm sure he would be happy to remind you whose authority reigns supreme in this room."

The temperature in the room dropped a few a degrees, and Liara could almost swear she saw a shiver run down the length of Shepard's spine.

Pallin bristled, not afraid, but enraged by the comment. His words, when they made their way out from between clenched jaws, were as sharp as a razor's edge. "House arrest. She wears a tracer. If we don't catch at least five dealers by the end of next week, she goes to prison. There's no reason she can't help you with your research from there." Before anyone had a chance to respond, Pallin stood so suddenly that his chair slammed against the back wall. Liara could feel the anger boiling beneath his skin as he strode past her, to the door to his office. He wrenched it open. "Now get out of my office."

Liara, Shepard, and Garrus all looked to Saren, too nervous to even move without his approval. They all knew that he held all the power in that room, despite Pallin's anger and bravado. Liara cast another glance towards Shepard, and still couldn't read what the girl was feeling. She'd have to ask her later, when they weren't surrounded by peacocking turians. But all of a sudden the thought of being alone with Shepard made her nervous for entirely new reasons.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Executor. I can assure you, I respect your authority and years of service. They're the only reason I'm not having you arrested for challenging Spectre authority." Saren said in a tone that was nothing less than respectful, his gray eyes glittering dangerously. Everyone in the room, including Pallin himself, shrank away from the cold mirth in the Spectre's voice. Saren turned to look at Liara, his cruel expression easing minutely. She shivered under his gaze. "Dr. T'Soni, we have things to discuss. Bring your new… assistant, and come with me."

"Yes, sir." Liara failed to keep the stutter out of her voice.

"Vakarian, expect a full mission brief to hit your omni-tool later today. I expect nothing less than full success, and I'll give you everything you need to get it done." Saren seemed almost warm towards Garrus, perhaps as warm as a man hardened by war and firsthand experience of the worst the galaxy had to offer could manage.

"Yessir, thank you sir. I won't let you down." Garrus replied, tone professional but surprisingly curt.

"I know you won't." With that, Saren moved to exit the room, missing the suspicious glance Garrus gave to his back. Garrus' eyes then shifted to Shepard, and the two seemed to share a complex visual communication. Eventually Garrus nodded and gave the human a gentle push, guiding her to follow the Spectre.

"You'll be fine, kid. We'll keep you out of the can."

"No arguments here, officer. And, correct me if I'm wrong considering most of you turians look the same to me, but aren't you a little young to be calling me kid?"

"Depends. How old are you?" Garrus was both amused and genuinely curious.

"A lady never reveals her age, Officer Vakarian." Shepard grinned in an attempt to hide her discomfort and Liara couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from quirking up in a matching smile. It fell when Shepard attempted to flex her wrists and found herself incapable of doing so. The poor girl's wrists must have been aching, those cuffs looked terribly uncomfortable.

"Guess that means I get to keep calling you kid, doesn't it?" Ignoring Shepard's indignant retort, Garrus turned to Liara. "Dr. T'Soni," he nodded respectfully. "I suppose I should thank you."

"Thank me?" Liara questioned, brow scrunched in confusion. "Thank me for what?"

"Well if you hadn't gotten all… science-y on our new friend here then I'd still be stuck behind that desk for the next two weeks. Thanks to you, I'm back on duty."

"Oh…" Embarrassed by the reminder of her less than professional conduct in the office earlier that day, Liara wrung her hands together before responding. "Well, you're… most welcome. I'm glad that Shepard will have such a respectful handler in these upcoming weeks."

"Handler? Geez, way to make a girl feel like a show pony. I'm right here you know." The tone of Shepard's voice was only mildly one of amusement.

Liara's eyes widened in response and she held her hands up defensively. "I didn't mean it like that! This is all highly irregular, and I truly apologize but I really couldn't think of a more proper way to word it. 'Partner,' is a little too… familiar, and I-"

"Easy, Doc. I get what you meant. Don't have a heart attack." Shepard was looking at her now with mild suspicion, eyeing the young scientist up as if she'd come to the conclusion that the asari might be a little slow. Liara's embarrassment only grew. "Now, I may be wrong but shouldn't we be following the scary scaly man?"

"Turians don't have scales, kid." Garrus piped up as he followed them out. "Your word for it is carapace, I believe."

"Carapace?" Shepard's face scrunched up in disgust. "Sounds… crunchy. Gross."

Apartment 1470 |Tiberius Towers | Citadel | September 7th 2174

Shepard was a distraction that was becoming increasingly more difficult to ignore, Liara decided as she watched the human twitch impatiently while Garrus went about removing her restraints. When they were finally off Shepard sprang away and immediately put the lush, leather couch between herself and the pair of aliens watching her with surprised expressions. Her multi-colored eyes darted between them distrustfully. It had become clear that the humor Shepard displayed back in the Executor's office had been a defense mechanism, and her reserves of playful sarcasm were running low. Her discomfort as clear as day.

Considering the rather large (unnecessarily large) tracer strapped to her ankle, Liara supposed she couldn't blame the girl.

"This might seem rude of me to ask, Shepard, but… just how familiar are you with other species? You seem… rather uncomfortable around Officer Vakarian and myself."

"Just Garrus is fine, doctor." Garrus was now appraising the spacious apartment, Liara's new base of operations courtesy of Saren Arterius. They'd all been surprised when they'd shown up at the address Saren had provided only to find luxury apartment towers climbing the skyline before them. Liara definitely had questions, but they would have to wait until she was in contact with the Spectre again. After the showdown in Pallin's office, Saren had given most of his curt instructions to Garrus, pausing only briefly to tell Liara he would be expecting her at the Presidium Embassies in two days' time to go over what she'd be expected to do. Then he'd stalked off without a word or glance at couldn't help but wonder if the three of them had cut into a time slot he'd otherwise reserved to take down a criminal ring or assassinate a political rival to the turian Councilor.

As Garrus strolled through the living area, he was clearly impressed. Soldiers were used to cramped living quarters and footlockers for storage; he was likely unused to extravagance. Liara, being the only daughter of a revered matriarch, had seen it all before. She preferred simpler accommodations, herself. "Nice place," the officer whistled. "So this is how the other half lives."

Ignoring Garrus, Liara remained focused on Shepard, who was now giving Liara her full attention from her safe zone behind the couch.

"…this is my first time on the Citadel." Shepard eventually said. "I've lived on Earth my whole life. The only asari I'd ever seen are dancers and I won't even pretend that means I know anything about you. The two aliens we really get frequently on Earth are volus merchants and hannar preachers. Even then, they don't waste their time on the streets where the Reds operate. Too… violent, to put it bluntly."

"And what streets are those, exactly?" Garrus quipped from the kitchen he was now exploring.

"New York City. The used-to-be crown jewel of Earth before the country had a series of shitty leaders and the rest of the world managed to get it's shit together before we did." It was curious, Liara thought, how quickly humans identified themselves as belonging to abstract groups despite their innate drive for individuality. Liara didn't even really know what Shepard was talking about, barely knew how Earth politics operated, but she could hear an undertone of defensive pride for where she came from.

"So, you don't have much experience with other species at all, do you?" Liara continued, her spirits falling. What if Shepard never grew comfortable around her or any other scientists that would surely want to study her? Liara already had several viable tests in mind and she wanted very much to get her hands on the tablets that Saren had found so they could get started, but for some reason it seemed imperative that Shepard trusted her first. Maybe trust wasn't the right word, but it would be better if the human could at least learn that she didn't have to keep a ten foot distance between herself and anything that wasn't human.

That would make translating the Prothean script a rather awkward affair. It was all too easy for Liara to picture herself shouting instructions across the room to a skittish human that (in Liara's worrying vision) had barricaded herself securely within a couch fort.

Liara didn't want for the two of them to have to tiptoe around each other, and even though it was obvious that she was very far from being any form of scholar Liara was certain that Shepard could learn to appreciate Liara's studies. Maybe she'd even enjoy it! That could at least begin to open the doors to further study of the galaxy and all its creatures. Haunting them in the background though was of course the fact that Executor Pallin had made it clear that Shepard wasn't out of the woods yet; she'd have to cooperate with at least Garrus to stay out of jail. And Liara refused to let Shepard go to jail. Pallinhad made a fair enough point about Shepard being perfectly capable of working from a prison cell; Liara might not be able to put up enough of an argument if Saren got it in his head that jail would be a more convenient place for her. Liara also felt bad for Shepard. The skittish human was being forced to get used to turians at a breakneck pace, especially for someone that had likely never even spoken to one before yesterday. But Liara's asari pride convinced her that if a human and turian could get along then a level-headed asari should have no trouble.

Even if that asari is a terribly awkward Prothean fanatic with a tendency to put her foot in her mouth, Liara thought.

Having reassured herself, Liara sent what she hoped was an encouraging smile Shepard's way. When the human didn't narrow her eyes or look for an escape route she considered the attempt a success. "Well, I promise that we mean you no harm. I have no intentions of trying to force any of my customs or beliefs onto you during this process. I simply want to understand how it is that you can understand what so many spend decades of study trying to understand. And keeping you out of prison is just an added bonus!"

Shepard seemed to consider her words, eyeing Liara up and down. Her gaze lingered on Liara's crest, the unfamiliarity easy to spot. "Yeah, about that… remind me again what it is I'm supposed to be helping you do?"

"Of course!" Liara hurried to answer, booting up her datapad and pulling up the image that had started this entire affair. 'The vigil will endure.' Liara gazed at the screen for a moment, perhaps willing herself to gain Shepard's unique talent and learn to decipher the complex images. When no such revelation came to her, as she sadly expected, she returned her gaze to Shepard. "Should I… come to you? Or…"

When Shepard just blinked at her, Liara awkwardly gestured to the spot next to her on the couch.

"Oh," Shepard mumbled. "Um… no it's alright. I'll ah, I can come over there."

To Liara's disappointment Shepard did not take a seat but opted instead to stand behind Liara, resting her hands on the back of the couch and looking over the asari's shoulder. They were almost close enough to touch, almost but not quite. Shepard's shoulders were still stiff with tension, though she was clearly making an effort to appear somewhat comfortable. When a crash came from the kitchen Shepard's eyes narrowed and she shouted, "Hey, Vakarian! Try not to break the kitchen before I even get a chance to use it, will ya?" Garrus either didn't hear her or chose not to hear her because another crash soon followed. Liara couldn't suppress a smile when she saw just the smallest fraction of the stiffness ease out of Shepard's posture as the human rolled her eyes. "Or just knock yourself out. I suppose that's fine too. So, Doc… what am I looking at?"

Liara figured she was better off letting Shepard get comfortable at her own pace, so instead of trying to maintain eye contact and work the datapad at the same time like an idiot she focused solely on the Prothean writing on the screen and let Shepard read over her shoulder.

The heat coming off the human's body was oddly comforting, anyway.

"I, like you, only recently came to the Citadel myself. I was asked to come here to help an old friend of my mother's, who turned out to be Saren Arterius himself. How exactly the two know each other is not knowledge I have access to, but I do know that Saren is incredibly fascinated with Prothean technology and history. He funded an expedition, his teams found these tablets, and now I've been tasked with translating them." Liara paused, and turned to give Shepard another reassuring smile. "Now with your help, of course… is everything alright, Shepard?"

Shepard was staring at her in an odd fashion, not quite intense enough to be concentrating but too hard to be simply curious.

"Is something wrong?" Liara continued, growing uncomfortable as Shepard continued to stare. Was it getting hot in here?

Asking a second time seemed to catch Shepard's attention though, for she blinked and refocused. "What? Sorry, I was… distracted."

"Distracted?" Liara repeated.

"Yes, distracted." Shepard's cheeks did that weird human thing where they changed colors again. Liara would have to do some research and find out if that was a common phenomenon. Shepard cut Liara off before she could ask any more questions. "Go on, I'm listening."

"Very well… so first I suppose you should focus on helping Garrus. I don't even want to imagine having to do this research with you from inside a prison cell, so it would be better to just do as we're asked and not raise Executor Pallin's ire."

"There's a 'we,' already, huh?" Shepard smirked, genuine amusement in her eyes.

Immediately Liara decided that it would be better to ignore Shepard's response, as well as any feelings that may have sparked in her chest at the words, and continue right along. "While you assist Garrus with his police work, I can set up a bit of a home base here in the apartment. The tablets are being held in a secure office at the Embassies, where I'll be able to communicate directly with Saren and keep him updated with regular reports. He's requested that our first communication take place in two days' time; he wants to be certain that I have all the proper clearances and that we'll have no trouble accessing the office..."

Shepard was trying to listen, really she was, but she'd never been this close to an asari before and Liara was rather distracting. Specifically, the back of her head was. The whole not having ears thing was already odd, but the weird tentacle, spine things were fascinating. Shepard could almost swear that they moved every now and then. Liara seemed sweet for sure, not what she'd imagined an asari being like at all. Granted, most of what she'd heard about asari came from the guys in the gang after a few rounds of tequila. A lot of what she'd heard would have made a marine blush, but frankly marines had nothing on orphaned mercs like her. Mercs did dirty work for half the pay and prestige, and led far more dangerous lives. They were desperate people that constantly had one of three things in their hands: a gun, a drink, or a lover.

Shepard had had her share of all three (though the third had never been quite as high on her list of priorities) but she'd never been brave enough to invite one of the few asari dancers that did stints in any number of the many dark, obnoxious Earth clubs her gang frequented into her bed. She saved that for the guys and the bolder of the girls, most of whom were absolutely obsessed with the pretty blue ladies afterwards and ended up leaving Earth to take more jobs in asari space.

Rumors of asari promiscuity and… skill were known far and wide. But weren't they all girls? Did they even have the same... parts? It had been way too much for a blushing sixteen year old Shepard, that was still technically too young to be in a bar, to ask of a voluptuous, teasing dancer in a skin-tight one-piece. She'd been more than happy to avoid them, shying far away from the poles and stages and sticking to the bar itself with her head ducked down into a cocktail. Looking at Liara though, studious and awkward, Shepard wondered if the rumors she'd grown up believing were really true. So far the only thing that had lived up to her faded memories was the skin color, just as vibrant a blue as she'd remembered it. She wasn't quite sure if she should call it skin though; from the way the lighting in the apartment reflected off of her Liara looked more like she was covered in fine scales, more like silk than snakeskin.

I wonder how it feels…

Before she knew what she was doing Shepard was reaching her hand out.

Liara, oblivious, was still talking. "So perhaps once I've actually gotten to handle the tablets I could either take more detailed pictures or have full-sized holo-scans made to keep here for you to-" When Liara felt the slightest brush against her crests, a positively electric pulse shot down the length of her spine and her breath hitched. She flinched away from the touch and turned, wide-eyed, to find Shepard staring back at her with horror in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry! I swear, I didn't mean to hurt you!" Having taken a few steps back to give Liara space, Shepard hurried to explain herself. "I wast just curious and I know I should have asked before I invaded your personal space like a complete creep but I…"

The rest of Shepard's apology was lost on Liara, who was too busy trying to get a handle the erratic hum beneath her skin. "It's fine," she stammered out eventually. "As a scientist myself I completely understand the urge to, well… that is, I can certainly respect your initiative. There's plenty of things I find fascinating about you that I've yet to find the courage to…" she trailed off when she saw Shepard avert her eyes and tug at the collar of her shirt, a universal sign of embarrassment.

Despite the awkward tension clouding the air, it finally clicked what the bizarre color-changing skin phenomenon signified.

"Not you necessarily I mean!" Liara's mouth was running off on its own accord, clearly separate now from the sensible brain that was trying to regain control of the situation. "Humans in general are a fascinating species. Why do you only have hair on your heads, for example? And why do the males of your species have mammary glands when they never have to carry children?"

Now Shepard was running a hand through her hair self-consciously, still avoiding Liara's eyes and Liara wanted to run as far away as possible and go back to her dig sites and never have to interact with another creature for as long as she lived. And that damned hum still hadn't gone away. If anything it was more insistent now that Shepard do the thing again because Goddess had it felt nice. Liara sighed and put down the datapad so she could hide her face, more embarrassed than she'd ever been. Well, except maybe for that one grad party I actually attended and spent learning about the immediate effects of ryncol, she reminded herself. "I am so sorry. I'm… not the best with words. Especially when I'm embarrassed."

"Why are you embarrassed?" Shepard asked from somewhere behind her.

"Because what you did didn't necessarily hurt, it ah, actually… well, the opposite. Actually."

"The opposite?" Shepard sounded confused, and there was silence for a moment. "Oh."

More silence.

"Well…" Liara heard footsteps and when she looked up she saw Shepard seated on the coffee table in front of her. Tentative eye contact was made and Liara was relieved to see that Shepard's cheeks had returned to their normal color, which she supposed meant that the human was less embarrassed now. "Actually, humans do have hair all over their bodies."

Her scientific interest piqued, Liara was infinitely relieved to find herself back in comfortable territory. "Really?"

Shepard nodded. "Yep. It's just really fine. Well, in most places. It gets thicker in others. Guys get it on their faces. Women can too I guess but it's usually really sparse… or they're on some crazy hormone situation." Liara wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Her gaze dropped to Shepard's forearm, which was left exposed by her short-sleeved shirt. She could see the edges of the black and red gang tattoo, and her curiosity intensified. Shepard seemed to sense her question before Liara had the nerve to ask it and reached her hand out, palm up. "It's only fair," she shrugged when Liara flashed the girl a questioning look.

Human skin was not what Liara had been expecting it to be. It was warm, almost hot compared to asari skin. It was also softer than what she'd imagined, much softer. She was surprised to find that Shepard was right; humans were in fact covered in fine hairs that tickled when your fingers brushed over them. "Fascinating," Liara murmured, taking Shepard's hand into her own to run a finger over the odd markings on the human's palm. "And what are these?"

"Hmm? Oh, well I don't really think they have much of a purpose. They're just there. There is this thing called palm reading though, some people actually think they can read your future based solely on how the lines on your palm are shaped. "

"Some people?" Liara questioned as she traced her fingers up towards the tattoo on Shepard's forearm.

"Yep. It's not an actual science or anything like that, more like a… kind of folklore I guess." Shepard offered, trying to keep still. Liara's touch tickled.

Liara regarded the black ink permanently etched into Shepard's skin. Shepard explained that it was a graphic, stylized drawing of a human skull. A bright red 'X' on the forehead stood for the 10th Street Reds. Bright red shapes flitting around the eye sockets were birds, Shepard claimed. Liara would have to look this all up later. The tattoo wasn't terribly large, but it looked sinister now that Liara was finally able to get a good look at it... sinister in a manner that was somehow appealing? It was so alien to her that Liara was having a hard time deciphering her feelings. The concept of tattooing one's own skin with a permanent mark... and weren't they painful? Wasn't it basically intentionally scarring oneself? It was gruesome, but not completely unappealing. She brushed her thumb across the image, half-expecting it to be wiped away when she did so. Asari did not have tattoos, they lived too long to ever want to have something purposefully etched onto their skin that they might later regret. They were either born with facial markings or went without; permanence was not something the asari were comfortable with unless it was given to them at birth.

"Do you… will you go back to them after all this? That life?" Liara asked, voice soft.

"The Reds?" When Liara nodded Shepard shook her head, contemplative before she continued. "I really don't have any reason to. It was just a way to get by. If some semi-decent ink and shady weapons dealing meant a full stomach and a warm bed, then…" She trailed off with a half-hearted shrug, clearly uncomfortable with the subject. Her voice had grown small by the time she finally said "...it's hard to be an orphan on Earth." Liara could sense that there was more to the story, plenty of history that had helped shaped Shepard into what she was. She was infinitely curious about just what sort of crimes Shepard had committed, she had to admit. It would be... unwise of her to get attached to someone truly dangerous, after all. Red sand was a despicable trade, but neither Saren nor Garrus believed that Shepard had anything to do with it in specific. She'd mentioned weapons, and Liara knew that the black market was big on weapon mods. Had she been a weapons dealer? A smuggler?

Had she ever killed anyone?

If she hadn't, Liara would actually have her beat in that one category. Pirates and slavers frequently made homes on the remote planets she researched, and not all of them could be warded away with a fancy biotic display.

"Alright ladies," Garrus announced, having reappeared from the kitchen. "Just to be safe I made a quick sweep for bugs, you never know what sort of weird security measures these high-class landlords might have. I actually found one in the downstairs bathroom, you'll be disgusted to know."

Liara and Shepard both pulled faces at that announcement.

Garrus couldn't blame them. "Shepard, I'll be coming by to get you set up with a C-Sec grade omni-tool, yours was of course confiscated and will be pretty much torn apart by Talid when he finds out you're not going to rot in prison like he wanted. He'll try to find anything that'll connect you to red sand, but you're a smart girl so I don't think he'll be finding anything."

"Damn right he won't." Shepard went to cross her arms and realized that one of her hands was still being held. The pair made awkward eye contact one final time before Shepard pulled away and stood up. "If you get a chance, could you pull some stuff for me before he completely destroys it?"

"Sure, so long as it's not illegal."

"Are pictures of pets illegal?"

"You have a pet?" Garrus questioned, incredulous. "What, is it here on the Citadel wandering around somewhere looking for you?"

"No, he passed a couple months ago." Liara heard the sadness in Shepard's tone. "I just kept a few pictures and vids of him for keepsakes."

Garrus nodded. "Sure. Anything else?"

Shepard shook her head. "Nah."

That's it? Liara wondered. All she has are some pictures of a lost pet? The thought was heartbreaking. She remembered Shepard saying that she'd grown up alone on the streets until she'd been snatched up by the Reds, a concept completely foreign to Liara. Asari were not a species with a particularly high population of orphans; it was almost unheard of for asari children to grow up without at least one of their biological parents. It was of course difficult if the mother was the parent lost, because the father might be of a species with short lifespans. Even then, someone else would take the child in, siblings or extended family. Did Shepard not have that? If Shepard lacked any familial relations that was sad enough, but what about friends? Surely there were people Shepard was close to, contact information she'd want saved?

"Well, then I guess that's that." Garrus' voice interrupted Liara's train of thought. "Oh, and by the way… someone broke your bathroom mirror."

The turian was out the door before Shepard even had a chance to yell at him. Once again, human and asari were alone together. The tension in the air had eased, but a new sense of awkward unfamiliarity had taken its place. The two were strangers, completely new to not only each other but each other's entire species.

As Liara would come to learn however, Shepard was incredibly good at easing tension.

"So…" she drawled. "What are we going to do about food?"

Liara is precious and Garrus is the best wingman. Next time on CotC: Detective Garrus and Doctor T'Soni start to work their magic.

-Cel