It wasn't exactly what they were expecting…

"A… a whore house…"

"Looks like it." Weapons were checked at the door, armor too.

"See? I didn't need that armor after all." Liara teased as she walked past her father. She had asked herself maybe 100 times already if she was positive about the implant tracing… now that she was here, looking at scantily clad men and women serving drinks and much more to eager patrons, she asked herself 100 more times. The readings had been accurate, though… Shepard was, unfortunately, here.

"I can tell you one thing, Shepard better be one of the whores…" Aethyta muttered under her breath.

"A fan of Commander Shepard?" A sly Drell questioned, seeming too, creepily, appear from a darkened corner. Liara looked at him, doing her best not to glare bitterly. Everyone in this place disgusted her…

"I am… do you have any humans who happen to look like her?" Liara spoke up.

"It just so happens I purchased a look-alike from a few fine gentlemen not two days ago. They insisted that she was the real thing, just proves how perfect she is in resembling the commander herself." Liara glanced to the others and smirked.

"I'd like to see this find of yours… if you'd be so kind." He grinned like a crocodile and she followed him to a room in the back.

"Unfortunately, she has not yet woken up so we're only allowing Asari customers to…enjoy her… but I'm sure you can still have plenty of fun with her. Money up front, of course." He said. She closed the door, locked it, and unleashed. Soon, the reptile man was lying, bleeding, on the floor of the room.

"Filth…" Her eyes flickered from him to the body of the commander who lay quite still on a bed within. Liara straddled her gently, looking at her clothes. They had dressed her in some skin-tight leather… thing… Liara had to admit the view was… but she shook her head and stroked the Commander's red bangs away from her eyes. New scars covered the woman's body, complementing the ones already there… and her new arm was made entirely of metal… it was cybernetic, but still, Liara would miss the woman's real hand. She wondered how many nerves the woman had in this new arm.

Liara eventually realized that she wasn't doing anything, just sitting here staring at an unconscious Shepard. It obviously was her so what was Liara waiting for? She closed her eyes and pressed their forehead's together. Embrace Eternity… She didn't even know if she'd said it aloud or not.

"Hi there…"

"Hello, beautiful. Did you miss me?"

"I definitely did. I had to push out like 3 other Asari women… where the hell am I?"

"A whore house."

"I'm in a whore house?!"

"It's time to wake up and get out of this horrible place. I already killed a sleazy guy that wanted me to pay to have you for an hour." Liara helped to pull Shepard back into consciousness and grinned at her when the woman's eyes opened slowly.

"Owww… my head…" Shepard winced, rubbing it to prove its aching. Liara's fingers slid into the human's hair as she pushed her back and kissed her deeply, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"You were dead again…" She whispered against Shepard's lips before deepening the kiss once more. Shepard smiled into the sign of affection and slid her arms gently around the other woman's body gently.

"I survived again. Thanks to you."

"Always." They both grinned.

"You need clothes."

"And a gun."

Before long, the pair burst from the room, blazing. The whores took note and most ran for the exit quickly. The others who had accompanied Liara stood in an instant, the Asari and Salarian smirking a little too much.

"Did you two get to see a show?" Shepard asked as she gunned down the bartender as he moved to shoot.

"We should be asking the same of Liara." Doctor Chakwas asked.

"Oh it's good to be back. TAKE COVER!" Shepard commanded. It was like riding a bicycle, Liara was sure. They ducked behind an overturned table together and Liara smiled as she watched Shep look up over a table and gun down a few guards as they burst through the doors. The rest of their weapons were in the check at the front of the complex so Liara and Shepard were the main force in the assault. Eventually, Shepard tossed the gun to Garrus and used her own biotics to fight.

"Advance!" Liara called out as she leapt over the table and charged at a new hiding spot behind a counter, but as she ran, a guard looked up out of his own cover and shot. Liara felt it bite into the flesh of her tummy and rolled behind the counter, looking down at her own, white armor, Shepard's was back at the check.

"LIARA! Are you okay?" Aethyta called out as Shepard pounded the man's head into a wall furiously.

"I think so!"

She ran her finger along the wound and tried to imagine how far it would have made it in, but her brain couldn't handle that much thought as she was getting shot at. She looked up and created a singularity orb to help the others before getting back into cover and closing her eyes.

Eventually, the fire-fight stopped and Shepard leapt over the bar, looking at the injured woman. She lifted her up and carried her out of that place, the others following.

On the way back to the Normandy from the planet's surface, Shepard collapsed, the adrenaline and pain medication she was on wearing off quickly after they left the building. Doctor Chakwas attended her and they all knew that both Shepards might be in danger by the time they got back to the ship.

Liara lay on one of the hospital beds and Shepard was on the other, a curtain separating them. Liara had argued, but the medical doctor insisted because seeing Shepard in that state would cause unnecessary stress to Liara. The Asari was given a saline drip full of vitamins and a pain medication and then was given something to get her to sleep soundly while they patched her up, ran some tests, and did what they could for the baby to make sure everything was okay. Astonishingly, they said nothing aloud about the growing infant, at least not that the Asari heard. All she could hear as she drifted into the darkness were the sounds of them attending to Commander Shepard so close by. She wanted to be awake and holding her hand, but Liara had to give in for now… to make sure Shepard had a family to live for… Everyone had to be okay…