"Commander." James says to Ashley as he stands. She enters his designated relaxing area, just an open side alcove he can sit and watch the world go by from, with a small gym set up.

"You're not supposed to call me that any more, James."

"What did you say?"

"What?"

"Never mind. Anyway, how's it going?"

"Ahhh, could be worse. I'll leave it at that."

"That's the spirit, compadre. Glass half full, no?"

"Something like that." Ashley replies, a little distant.

"You know..." James begins.

"Yes...?" Ashley replies, already hearing the mocking tone in his voice.

"I always thought you and me might, you know. Nothing serious."

"Are you saying you had a crush on me, Lieutenant?"

James rubs the back of his neck amongst incomprehensible noises. What started out as support has escalated far quicker than he intended.

"Gaahh... ahhh... well... maybe at first I..."

"Haha! Come on, Beefy, me and you, we're just buds, marines. I don't think of you like that."

Ashley punches his upper arm to little effect, but that wasn't the point.

"Yea, hehe." James responds. "Well as as were 'just buds', marines, you won't mind me saying that you're one lucky dog getting any time with the lovely Doctor T'Soni. The original blue beauty."

Ashley's face drops.

"Too far, Vega." she says, then turns to leave.

"Ha! You're too easy, 'Dark Destroyer'."

Ashley pauses to look back at him with anger in her narrowed eyes then continues on her way.

"Come on, Ash!" he shouts after her. "What did you want?"

She stops, returns, then composes herself, now ignoring James' facetious comments.

"I've been speaking with Garrus. Seems with Shepard's less than elegant exit from the fleet, it'd be best if I make the return and smooth the way. I just came to let you know before your tawdry outburst."

"You okay with that?"

"Yea. Things aren't the best here. Sha'li will be coming with me so I won't be alone or anything. Could be a hoot, two girls flying through the galaxy."

"Yea..."

"It was dumb. Garrus kept overstating that this wasn't Shepard's idea to get rid of me. I know that. I know what Shepard's priorities are and right now, it's getting these people back to the fleet. If I can help with that, great. Besides, it'll give us all time to think."

"I just hope they think we're worth it."

"What?"

"A handful of grunts, stuck thousands of light years away from the fleet? Lot of time and resources to pull us out."

"'Handful of grunts'? Huh! Speak for yourself, Beefy. You're talking about the crew of the Normandy here, Commander Shepard, the... girl squad! We're not done yet."

"Yea! Hehe. Girl squad eh? Wasn't sure I'd hear you say that again."

"Like I said, we're not done yet."

"So what can you do then?" Liara asks as she sits on her bed.

"Hm, not sure exactly." Verity replies, still unsure of the extent of her powers.

"You say you modded a weapon with your mind?"

"Well, I don't know if I'd put it quite like that but something definitely happened."

"Right then!" Liara announces.

She goes to Verity and takes her pistol from her hip, then holds it out to her.

"See if you can do it again."

"What? Right now? Just like that?"

"You need to know what you can do, what the extent of this is. And more importantly, the limitations. Don't be afraid."

"Hm, I suppose..."

"Go on then!" Liara enthuses as she thrusts the pistol towards Verity.

Verity takes the pistol from Liara and coyly looks at it, swapping it from hand to hand. She places her palm against the weapon's circuit panel and lets out a long breath then closes her eyes. She imagines the routine of manipulating the code, pressing the buttons, switching the relays.

"Goddess..."

Upon hearing Liara's exclamation, Verity opens her eyes to see the pink warp ammo projected display on the pistol, confirming success.

"Yea..." Verity says, little confidence in her voice, this still being strange to her.

Liara takes the weapon from her and manually de-activates the mod.

"Well you seem to be in control. Now see if you can do it from there, just with your mind." she says.

"Liara..."

"Come on. You don't know if you don't try."

"As long as you don't start making notes..."

"What?"

"I feel like you're studying me or something."

"Verity, I'm just trying to be methodical, to help you understand all this."

"That's another thing, Liara..."

"Yes?"

"You've been calling me 'Verity'."

"That's alright isn't it?"

"Oh. Yea. Of course it is. But you used to call me 'Shepard'."

"Hm. Yes. It seems a bit silly now."

"Come on, Liara. It's me. Don't be embarrassed."

"Well I'd always promised myself that once the Reapers were dealt with you and I could live together properly as a couple. I'd always imagined that we could just be me and you, Liara and Verity, not Commander Shepard and Doctor T'Soni. Just us, being us. When I saw you again and we bonded, I couldn't shake that feeling. It's thirty years on now but I still want that; me and you, together. We might still be fighting the Reapers but that war, the one back then, that's over. You can be my Verity now."

Liara has moved towards Verity and into a hug, turning her mouth towards her lover's ear.

"I missed you." Liara whispers.

"But what about Ashley? You still missed me then?"

"Oh Verity, don't. I feel bad enough about all this as it is. I think I lied to myself as much as her when I told Ash I wasn't using her as a replacement for you, but you were gone. She was becoming so strong and confident but... it wasn't you. It's always been you... do we have to talk about this now?"

"Is this how it's meant to be with us? Always something in the way of us sorting out some problem? How are you, by the way? Really, I mean. When we left each other on Earth, you were still going through some hard times there. Thinking you'd lost me again can't have been easy."

"I'm okay. Ashley helped even before we... sorry."

"No. It's okay. I know she's always been a good friend to you. To both of us."

Liara's face turns to one of frustration.

"Oh why did things have to happen like this? Why is there always some obstacle?"

"Liara..."

"I know why you get so dark and angry sometimes. It feels like there's some greater force at work, ensuring our demise. Not absolutely, just chip chip away."

Verity takes the pistol from Liara and places it on her desk then takes Liara in her arms.

"There's no urgency, we can see what I can do later. Just hold me."

Liara and Verity just hold each other a while, no biotics, no melding, no tech, just two people holding each other, trust and love, feeling the once lost warmth of their loved one.

"You know..." Verity begins.

"Yes...?" Liara responds.

"I'm going to have to keep my eye on you from now on."

"What?"

"You obviously have a thing for us humans..."

"Shepard!" Liara exclaims as she pulls out of the hug to admonish with her eyes.

"Oh! 'Shepard' is it now? Well I know when I'm in the doghouse, don't I?"

Liara slaps Verity's arm.

"Ow!"

"Oh shut up."

"Commander?" Joker knocks on the door.

Verity goes to the door and opens it.

"What's up?"

"Sorry to bother you, Commander, but me and EDI were attempting to run diagnostics on the Hunter like you asked, when... did you know there's an AI in the system?"