This follows immediately after the end of my ME1 story, Beginnings and will (mostly) follow the events of ME2 but, as with Beginnings, I plan to take some liberties with the details. It is the continuing story of Shepard and Liara. Their story will be the focus but we will find time to deal with the Collectors too.

*Warning- might be a bit too much romantic angst and mush so tread carefully if you don't like that sort of thing.*

I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading and please review, comment or question if you feel so inclined.

Bioware owns it all.

Chapter 21

Jack paced in the small space she had claimed… three steps to the wall and three steps back. She wasn't normally indecisive…ignore people or kill them was her usual philosophy. Now…now she found herself wanting interaction other than the conversations she had with herself. She had rarely left her hidey hole since being on the Normandy. Even when she did make an appearance, the crew generally avoided her. In the time since Shepard had picked her up from Purgatory, Jack had started to feel empty, more alone than she had felt since the first year she spent at the facility on Pragia. When she was feeling particularly lonely, she wondered what it would be like to be a different person, a normal person who wasn't filled with anger. She had very faint memories of her childhood, the one before Cerberus got their hands on her, memories of a laughing little girl who played with other children. When those memories clawed their way out and tried to worm their way in to her thoughts, Jack had to stop them; remembering hurt too much. Venturing up the stairs, she slunk by the door to engineering, hoping it wouldn't detect her presence and slide open. She really didn't want to get stuck talking to Gabby and Donnelly again. And she would get stuck because now she felt like she had to play nice with everybody. Shepard had kept her word and helped her destroy the facility on Pragia. She felt the least she could do is try to stay out of trouble and attempt to get along with the crew. Then there was Liara. Liara made her less angry, made her expect more of herself. Jack cursed herself for feeling the butterflies in her stomach every time she thought of Liara. While her thoughts sometimes led her astray and her dreams tormented her with visions of what she knew would be an experience beyond price, she accepted the fact that she would never be more than a friend to Liara. Strangely enough, it was okay with her as long as Liara was happy and there was no doubt that Liara was beyond happy with Shepard. She had never felt so selfless in her life. Damn! How the hell did that happen to me? Managing to avoid the engineers, she stepped in the elevator and reached toward the control panel. There was a slight hesitation as her finger hovered over the panel.

"Oh, fuck it." She hit deck one and leaned against the wall as the elevator started moving. She had been avoiding Liara for two days, since returning from Pragia, but finally admitted to herself that she wanted to talk to someone- to Liara- about what they did to her there. She was terrified. She would rather face ten ships full of Collectors alone than talk about feelings. Unless those feelings involved an abundance of anger; she had no trouble expressing those. The elevator stopped on deck three. Jack stepped to the back corner, hoping to avoid any sort of interaction. When the door slid open and Miranda was standing on the other side, Jack let her biotics simmer just below the surface, ready to be called on at a moment's notice. "Just fucking great…the Cerberus cheerleader."

"Well, if it isn't the Normandy's very own crazed psychopath. I think I'll wait until the elevator has been decontaminated." Miranda turned to walk back to her office, leaving a fuming Jack behind.

Jack stood in the open elevator door for a heartbeat before stalking Miranda back to her office.

TTTTTTTTTT

"Commander."

Shepard and Liara were in their cabin deep in conversation when Joker interrupted. Liara had told Shepard about the information her agent discovered, information that had almost cost him his life. She had received fragments of information from her other agents over the past few days but none of it tied together. Liara couldn't make the pieces fit. She could feel Shepard's confusion and uncertainty and it made her angry, made her want to take Shepard far away and shield her from everything that could hurt her. If what she believed was proven true, she would make the Illusive Man pay.

"What is it Joker?"

"Jack and Miranda are having a disagreement."

"Damn it!"

"Yeah, it's not pretty. They're in Miranda's office. You better get down there."

"I'll take care of it, Joker." Shepard sighed, kissed Liara and stood to leave.

"Mind if I join you? I would like to talk with Jack. She has been more reclusive than usual since Pragia."

A relieved look spread across Shepard's face. She took Liara's hand and pulled her close. She nuzzled her neck before placing a kiss on her forehead, her nose and, finally, her lips.

"Commander, you really should hurry before they blow a hole in the Normandy with those biotic blasts."

"Okay, Joker. I get it."

TTTTTTTTTT

They heard yelling as soon as the elevator door opened on the crew deck. Shepard spared a quick glance at Liara before briskly walking to Miranda's office. She opened the door and managed to take one step before Liara grabbed her shoulders and threw her to the side. She felt something graze the side of her head as she stumbled into the wall. When she looked down, the sword that had been hanging on Miranda's wall was at her feet. She picked it up and pushed off the wall more than ready to unleash her anger at both Jack and Miranda. Her agitation lasted for about half a second before turning to amusement at what Liara had done. She had trapped them in a biotic field, a bubble much like the one she had used to free Shepard and Tali from the crumbling ruins of the Citadel Tower after the battle with Sovereign.

Liara looked at the deadly sword Shepard was now holding in her hand and felt her heart jump at how close it had come to stabbing Shepard. "Are you okay, Shepard?"

Shepard wiped her hand across the small cut on her head then motioned toward Jack and Miranda, a smile tugging at her lips. "Yep, just fine. It only grazed me. Please continue."

Liara turned her attention back to Jack and Miranda, who had been silent since seeing the look on Liara's face as she pushed Shepard away from the sword that nearly impaled her. Liara was pleased to see that both now looked more frightened than angry. She looked around the room at the destruction the two had caused. They had obviously been flinging anything that wasn't bolted down at each other. "You are very lucky that Shepard wasn't seriously injured. If she had been…"

Shepard could feel the anger coming from Liara. She moved to her side and placed her arm around her waist. "What are the two of you doing? You endangered the entire ship using your biotics. We have to work together to stop the Collectors. We have to trust each other, at least in the field, and I wouldn't trust either of you to watch my back. This needs to stop! If you want to kill each other after the mission that's fine with me but either this crap stops now or both of you are leaving this ship."

"Shepard, you can't kick me off the ship. This is a Cerberus vessel and I am the chief Cerberus operative on board."

"The Cerberus bitch thinks that what they did to me on Pragia was okay. She…"

Shepard lifted her arm, pointing the sword at them. "I mean it. I won't let the two of you endanger this ship because you insist on acting like children."

"Fine. I can keep it together until the mission is over. I just hope she survives so I can rip her part myself." Jack, seeing the disappointment in Liara's face, was the first to capitulate. Another scathing look from Shepard convinced Miranda to agree to a cease fire… for now. Liara released the biotic field and took Shepard's hand.

"Shepard, we need to clean that cut."

"It can wait a few minutes. I want to talk to Miranda then I'll go see Dr. Chakwas."

Liara gave Shepard's hand a squeeze and released it. "Jack, would you like to join me for lunch?"

"Sure, anything to get away from the Cerberus… from Miranda."

TTTTTTTTTT

Liara woke early and extricated herself from Shepard's arms. As usual, she spent a few minutes watching Shepard sleep. Liara was never less than amazed at the difference in Shepard when she was sleeping. Not only did she look younger, but the tension in her face was gone. She looked peaceful. Liara ached to see that look on Shepard's face all the time, ached to build a life with her away from war and death. Liara smiled as she thought about the bonding ceremony they still needed to plan and what their life would be like once the Collectors were finished. They had never seriously talked about children but Liara wanted to raise children with Shepard, wanted a part of her and a part of Shepard to come together to form a new life. She raised Shepard's hand to her lips and kissed it before leaving the bed and moving to her console to do some work. As Liara waited for everything to come online, she thought about her conversation with Jack yesterday. They had ended up eating lunch in the cabin at Jack's request. Jack talked about her life living in the Cerberus facility on Pragia. It was far worse than anything Liara could have imagined. She had sensed that Jack just needed to talk to someone so she sat quietly and listened. She was surprised at the tears Jack shed and even more surprised that Jack allowed her to pull her into a hug when she could no longer control her own emotions. Jack clung to Liara, held on to her as she finally gave her tears free rein, allowed them to flow without shame for the first time.

When Jack finally pulled away, she was obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable. Hoping to put Jack at ease, Liara told her about her own encounter with Miranda when she took the Project Lazarus data. Jack did seem to relax when she heard that Liara had broken Miranda's jaw with her fist and even tolerated Liara's teasing about the excessive amount of clothing she had been wearing since their shopping trip on Illium. Liara's console chimed to indicate new messages. She turned her attention to work and started sifting through the dozens of messages she had received from her agents.

TTTTTTTTTT

Shepard rolled over, her hand reaching for Liara. Finding only a pillow, she slowly opened her eyes to see Liara sitting at her desk. She was completely naked and, Shepard thought, the most beautiful sight she would ever see. Shepard lay quietly watching Liara at work. She was quickly scanning documents and replying to messages. Shepard wondered if Liara had slept at all after her conversation with Jack yesterday. She had been very upset when telling Shepard about the things Jack had endured. Shepard found herself wishing there had still been Cerberus staff on Pragia when they destroyed the facility. She knew that Jack had suffered but hadn't realized the extent of the torture she had endured. The first thing on her agenda for the day was to talk with Miranda and, hopefully, open her eyes to what Cerberus had done and would continue doing to achieve domination over every species in the galaxy. Looking at Liara and aching to feel that blue skin pressed against her, Shepard revised her agenda for the day.

"Dr. T'Soni, please come back to bed."

Liara turned, a smile lighting her face when she saw Shepard's sleepy eyes and disheveled hair. "I can't come back to bed. I have work to do and I'm too excited about seeing Wrex today to sleep."

Shepard rolled over to her stomach, wrapped her arms around her pillow and rested her chin on it. "I didn't say I wanted you to come back to bed so you could sleep."

"I see." Liara felt her heart rate pick up and her motivation to work fade to nothing when she saw the lopsided grin on Shepard's face. She stood, her biotics faintly glowing from her building desire, and walked to the bed.

TTTTTTTTTT

Shepard, Liara, Grunt and Mordin stepped off the shuttle and were greeted by some very imposing Krogan who were not happy to see a Salarian landing on their planet. Shepard tried to be diplomatic but, unlike Wrex, most Krogan only understood violence. She was forced to fight to prove her worth before the team was allowed to enter the remains of the once thriving city. It didn't take long for the Krogan to realize that Shepard was more than she seemed when they were left face down in the dirt as she led her team from the landing zone. They had no further trouble as they walked through the ruins of the Krogan home world. Liara was practically bouncing in her excitement to see Wrex. When they reached domain of the clan chief, a Krogan stepped in their path and grabbed Liara's arm as she tried to pass. In seconds, Wrex had his Krogan guard pressed against the wall with one arm and Liara wrapped in the other.

"Don't ever touch her again. These are my friends and you will show them respect. Now, get out of my sight and make sure everyone understands that Shepard and anyone with her are honored guests."

After catching up with Wrex, Shepard told him about Grunt's origins and asked for his help with Grunt's excessive aggression. Wrex explained that Grunt was a juvenile and needed to complete a rite of passage to prove he was worthy of adult status and a place in the clan. He sent Shepard to see the clan shaman. Liara, assuming the rite would be a fairly harmless ritual much like the Asari rite that is held to celebrate the transition from childhood to adulthood, decided to stay behind to spend time with Wrex. Several hours later, Liara asked Wrex how much longer the rite would last. Her face blanched when Wrex told her that rites had lasted for an entire day depending on the strength of the thresher maw.

TTTTTTTTTT

"Wrex, I can't believe you let Shepard do this...what if something happens to her? I can't lose her again, Wrex. I can't."

Wrex was pushing the vehicle to its limit. It never crossed his mind that a thresher maw would be a significant threat to Shepard. But seeing Liara so upset brought back memories of the attack on the Normandy and Shepard's death. If something happened to Shepard to cause Liara pain, he would never forgive himself.

When they arrived at the location, Liara could see Grunt just ahead of them but there was no sign of Shepard or Mordin. She leapt from the vehicle before it was stopped, her heart pounding as she raced toward Grunt. He was bloodied and leaning into a crumbling wall.

"Grunt, where is she? Is she okay?"

Grunt pointed to his right, down a short set of steps. Liara held her breath as she turned in the direction he was pointing. Her head was filled with visions of Shepard lying broken and unmoving on the ground. She let out a broken sob when she saw Shepard, looking somewhat battered but alive, helping Mordin to his feet. A thresher maw was lying dead just a few feet away. Liara stood motionless for a heartbeat before running to Shepard and wrapping her arms around her.

Grunt watched as Shepard embraced Liara and held her tight, all the pain and weariness seeming to fall from her as they touched. For the first time in his short life, Grunt understood the pride a Krogan felt for his battlemaster. He had the best and, in that moment, knew that he would push himself to any lengths to make her proud of him.