In Love and War
Chapter Ten – Seeking
Liara woke up the next day feeling still groggy. She didn't get much sleep last night, spending waking hours in the dark med bay replaying the conversations with Shiala and Shepard. How she wished yesterday were nothing but a dream!
Dr. Chakwas walked in later in the morning as Liara was coming out of her quarters behind the med bay. She spent the morning searching for news of her mother and Saren's whereabouts on the Extranet, and found remarkably little. "You look like you can move around better today." Dr. Chakwas pointed the bio bed for Liara to lie down. "How are you feeling?" She checked the asari's eyes and tongue, then listened to her breathing. "I'm happy with your recovery. The Commander must have a magical touch when it comes to caring for you. If you keep doing well today, I will let you out tomorrow and back to your normal activities." Dr. Chakwas noticed the asari's shoulders tensing up when she mentioned the Commander. "You are awfully quiet this morning."
"I ... I think I have offended the Commander." Liara watched Dr. Chakwas putting a medical monitor on her arm.
"Oh?" the doctor looked up.
"I was, distraught after talking with Shiala about my mother, but it did not give me the right to be such a fool." This was not one of her usual blunders when interacting with the crew. The deep wounded feeling weighed heavily on Liara's heart. "The Commander has been nothing but kind to me. I am so ashamed and uncertain what to even say to her."
Dr. Chakwas finished putting the monitor on the asari and started the scanning process. "Why don't you just apologize to her? Shepard may be a tough soldier, but she has a very big heart. No matter what you said to her, she'll forgive you."
"If she will ever talk to me again." Shepard hadn't come and checked on her since she left in a hurry yesterday morning. Liara told herself it was because she had a mission to worry about and prepare for. She had hoped the Commander would come by last evening but she didn't. The longer Liara waited for Shepard the more afraid she was to talk to her and more at lost about what to say.
Liara had never noticed how quiet the med bay and mess hall were during a planet mission. With the ground crew were gone and everyone else either worked at their post or in the CIC monitoring and waiting for action, the entire deck was eerie with silence save for the low hum from the engines. But just like a sudden storm, the med bay turned into a scene of chaos as the ground team returned.
Shepard and Kaidan rushed in together carrying Pierce whose left arm was covered in blood. Garrus and Tali each had a wounded Marine hanging on their shoulders. Dr. Chakwas and her two part-time assistants were ready to take their patients.
"What happened?" In the midst of shouting Marines and staticky comm voices crackling through their helmets, Dr. Chakwas shouted her question.
With Kaidan's help, Shepard put Pierce on a bio bed carefully and then she bent and put her hands on the edge of the bed, panting hard to catch her breath. Kaidan was panting also holding onto the edge of the table behind the doctor. They had a long sprint carrying the wounded medic.
"It was a goddamn ambush! The distress call was a trap. Pierce was trying to patch up my leg when a Geth Sniper got me in its sight. She pushed me down and took the hit in her shoulder." She stopped panting and helped Dr. Chakwas strip Pierce's armor.
"Commander, I need to do a surgery now." Dr. Chakwas motioned a nurse to join her as Shepard stepped away from the bed.
The Marine Tali was helping had a wounded leg but he was trying to stop Tali from pushing him onto a bed. Shepard pulled Tali away and put a firm hand on the soldier. "What's the problem, Corporal?"
"Commander, I'm fine. It's just a scratch, I can take care of it myself."
"Charlie, you get on this bio bed, right now! That's an order!" the Marine stopped struggling. Shepard bent down to lift his legs up to the bed, but her own wounded leg faltered.
Liara had been sitting quietly when the chaotic storm rolled into the room. She slipped off the bed when she saw Shepard and the others bringing in the wounded. First she helped Garrus putting a soldier on a bio bed. When she saw Shepard slip trying to help Charlie, she immediately moved over and helped the Commander to lift the Marine's legs on to the bed. "Thanks, Liara." Shepard said softly without looking at the asari. Before Liara spoke, Dr. Chakwas's second nurse took over from the Commander and started to work on the Marine.
Shepard turned her heels and instructed Tali, "Go get with Adams to check on the stealth drive, hold it until Joker can get us out of the geth ships' scanning range. There are too many of them, we can't risk being seen." Tali nodded and took off in a jog.
Shepard turned to Garrus, "Vakarian!"
"Right here. Shepard!"
"Did the second Mako come in?" Shepard wasn't looking at him but checking her comm in her ear.
Garrus moved towards the door, "I'm on it, Shepard! I'll update you as soon as I can." Shepard gave him a grateful look.
"Kaidan, get Ashley in here. The doctor needs to take a look at her arm." Shepard pointed at the only available bio bed next to her.
"Commander, I've asked her to come up but she said she was fine."
"Lieutenant! I don't care what she said. You tell her it's a direct order from her CO and drag her ass in here if you have to!" Shepard barked.
Kaidan turned to leave immediately, "Ay, ay, Ma'am."
After Kaidan left, Shepard punched the metal railing on the empty bio bed in frustration. "Damn it!" She took off her gloves and wiped her face with the back of her hand. Liara had been standing by Charlie's bed, watching the Commander giving orders to her team. She'd never seen the Commander like this before. When Shepard wiped her face, Liara saw blood on her hand.
Liara quickly walked over to the desk next to the bio bed and took a small field kit to the Commander. "Commander, you have a gash on you face. Would you like me to take a look at that for you?" Shepard was replaying the ground mission over and over in her head, examining what signs she might have missed. I should've been smarter than walking into a trap like that! She berated herself. When Liara quietly sneaked up on her, she jumped. Liara lightly tilted Shepard's face to scan the cut, Shepard looked into the asari's pure blue eyes and she turned away quickly.
"I'm okay, Liara. I can do it myself. Thanks." She backed up a step, removing her face from asari's hand, but she took the field kit from Liara.
The door opened again, and Kaidan pushed Ashley into the room. "See, I didn't make it up. The Commander did issue that order."
Ashley's irked face changed the minute she saw Shepard staring at her. "Sorry, Commander. I didn't mean to disobey your order. It really is just a scratch."
Shepard walked over to Ashley, the temper she had a minute ago seemed to have dissipated completely, and she led Ashley to the empty bio bed. Without saying anything, she carefully helped Ashley undo her armor to expose the wound. Everyone in the med bay seemed to relax a little with the Commander's mood change, except Liara who was struggling with a decision whether or not to talk to the woman. When someone came and helped with Ashley's wound, Shepard walked out of the med bay with a slight limp.
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The next morning, Shepard came in the med bay to check on her crew. She heard loud laughter and walked over to the group surrounding Pierce's bed. "What's so funny?" She seemed to be in much better spirits today with a smile on her face. Liara noticed the gash on Shepard's face still looked a little angry but visibly better than it was yesterday.
"Charlie was telling us his bar stories." Ashley wiped a small tear from her eye after she stopped laughing and she pointed at the Marine with a wounded leg.
"Commander, have you been thrown out of a bar?" The young Marine grinned.
"Don't tell me you can't hold your liquor, Charlie?" Shepard stood next to Pierce who was in sitting position with her arm in a sling but didn't seem to be in any pain or discomfort otherwise.
"I can hold my liquor just fine, Commander. It's the women I can't handle." After another round of laughter, Shepard replied, "They require a much more delicate touch, Corporal."
"Copy that Commander."
Ashley stood up, "I had a lot of work to do yesterday but someone pulled rank to stick me in here. I'd better get to it."
"Obviously that someone was right since Dr. Chakwas saw the need to keep you here overnight." Shepard winked.
"I only stayed to keep Liara company. If it were just these losers I'd been long gone."
Shepard looked over at Liara who was sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed and gave her a smile. Then Shepard raised her arm. "Hey everybody, good job yesterday! We took some hits, but we smashed a whole lot of them machines without any casualties. I call that a win!" All humans put their forearms together to bump the Commander's. "Oorah!" They barked in unison. Ashley and Charlie took off as Shepard shouted behind them, "Have fun with Wrex's battle station drills later today!"
Shepard turned to Pierce, "Where's Kaidan? I thought he was going to be in here last night. Otherwise I would have sat with you."
"I chased him off. He snored really loud and kept us all up." Pierce giggled. "Liara helped me when I needed it last night."
"Good." Shepard smiled at Liara again quickly and looked back at Pierce, "Lieutenant, I wanted to thank you for saving my ass yesterday. If it weren't for you, I…"
"Beg your pardon, Commander. What you did on Elysium … you avenged the murder of my family, you saved half of my friends' lives, and for that, no matter what I do in this life time or the next, I can never repay you."
Shepard's smile was replaced with a clenched jaw. "I lost many friends too on Elysium." Shepard put a hand on the medic's good shoulder. They both stayed silent for a few moments, neither wanting to talk about the painful experience.
Shepard was ready to leave and Liara stood up. "Commander, may I have a word with you?"
Shepard nodded but she didn't stop. "I'm waiting for some calls, walk with me to the comm room." Liara followed the Commander, noticing her limp from yesterday was gone.
Just as the duo reached the door to the comm room, Garrus and Wrex emerged from the stairs. Shepard brought everyone in. Wrex spoke first, "I don't think the Shadow Broker will be any help to us. He will likely want something in return, and that something won't be easy to get, or quick."
Shepard ran her fingers through her red hair in a slight frustration. "We don't have that kind of time, Wrex."
"I know. However I have my own sources on the Citadel. You want me to make contact?"
Shepard's face lit up. "I knew it. Do it, Wrex. We need to use our heads this time."
"And not just for butting either. You don't survive 300 years of mercenary work without thinking. That's not to say I don't enjoy the occasional head butt." Wrex started to plot his approach to the contact he had in mind.
"What about you, Garrus? Did you get anything from your old C-Sec contacts?" Shepard ignored the searching gaze from Liara.
"You know how useless those guys are, Shepard. But I got in touch with a Spectre who can lend a hand."
"A turian Spectre?" Shepard wondered how many of her peer operatives were aware of the truth about Saren and the impending doom that the Reapers might bring.
"Shepard, Saren has made enemies by killing Nihlus in cold blood. They want him to pay for his crime against a fellow Spectre."
Shepard allowed herself to have a sliver of hope after talking with Wrex and Garrus. Putting what they can get together with Anderson's contact has got to get me somewhere.
She motioned Liara to sit down with her now that they were alone. "I've contacted everyone I trust to help us find a way to reach your mother without alerting Saren. Anderson had a good idea and he's made contact with someone who might be able to help us, and I'm waiting to hear what he has to say." She gave the asari's arm a firm squeeze. "With Wrex and Garrus' connections together we might just get lucky."
The comm light blinked before Liara ccould say anything. Shepard quickly jumped up from her seat and hit the answer button. David Anderson came on the screen. "Captain, what's the news?"
"Shepard, I've got something. Meet me at this location and this time on the Citadel. This can turn out to be a very solid lead." Anderson typed on his computer and Shepard's omni-tool beeped to receive the meeting information.
"Thank you, sir! You don't know how much this means to us. I will see you then."
Shepard's excitement was unmistakable even in the dimly lit comm room. She sat back down next to Liara. "As I was saying, if we get lucky and my plan works, you won't be in this mess for too long. We'll dock at the Citadel soon. If you have relatives or friends on Thessia or the Citadel, you can arrange for your future plans there."
"You … you are throwing me off the Normandy?" Liara's face was filled with disbelief and apprehension.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews and PMs. All comments, reviews, suggestions and PMs are welcome.