Shepard was on the bridge of the Normandy and clung with her hands firmly on her terminal. She was not alone, but she did not notice the other.
Time. Someone once said, time is relative. It can run fast, it can flow, but it can be chewy, extend to infinity. Time passes for each being different but equal to a single endpoint.
For Shepard the time slowed down until it was nothing else like the ticking of a clock.
Tick – Liara, trapped in a Stasisfield
Tack - Liara, which explain her insecure that she have an interest in her
Tick - Liara, which grabbed her by her hand and raised her as she fell, as all others were against her
Tack – Liara, as she comes for the first time at her cabin
Shepard does not realize that there are tears that drip like the seconds of the clock to the ground. Her eyes are blurred.
The Normandy, however, her ship, the fastest of the fleet feels the sadness, the helplessness of her commander, stretches and fly as fast as never before.
Tick - Liara on Illium, the sparkle in her eyes
Tack - Liaras glance to her promise for "marriage, age, and lots of little blue children"
The memories draw inexorably, relentlessly past her.
Tears concealed her view, gather on her uniform.
They approached the colony.
Shepard sits in the shuttle, she does not see Ash and James.
The young woman feels no one around her, she is alone.
She runs up the hill to her house.
She sees Liara, as she plants yellow flowers, such as her mother had loved.
Aethyta stands in the doorway. The eyes of the matriarch shimmering purple, but her look is icy cold. "Nobody messes with my girl!" The threat uttered at the Citadel, it was never as real as in those seconds.
Shepard goes into the house.
She wears Liara over the threshold. She laughs and says how cliché, but Shepard she spins around and stops her with a kiss.
Much she has experienced, rarely really been scared, but now she's scared.
Slowly, step by step, Shepard goes to the first floor. Time slows down. It may be seconds. For her it feel like hours. Each stage has a different memory.
The oven explodes, Liaras desperate scream from the kitchen. Her indignant look as Shepard had to laugh at at her sight dusted over with flour.
The door to her bedroom is open.
Liara takes Shepard's hand, beaming smiles at she says she is pregnant.
The young woman enters the room. She does not see the doctor who´s face is full of concerns next to the bed. She only sees her wife, her lover.
Liara lying on the bed, pale, her body looks too small between the sheets. Her head is turned to the side, the eyes are closed.
Shepard didn´t noticed the doctor which is now standing in front of her.
She feels a touch on her cheek.
"Shepard?" Her eyes dissolve slowly from Liara, her lashes fluttering, she manages barely to concentrate.
"Shepard, you hear me?" The doctor puts her other hand on Shepard's other cheek and turns her head softly to herself. Their eyes meet.
She never had so much fear as for the next few seconds.
The time in between seems endless. She saw the lips of a doctor were moving, but till the words reach her brain, it takes years.
"You must be strong now Shepard."
Time stood still.