A/N: The timeline is slightly tweaked here. Instead of meeting the quarian admirals (and Tali) after the Citadel Coup, I simply switched the two. Therefore, Tali was there to help Shepard during the coup.
"Have you heard? Shepard's letting Kaidan rejoin the crew."
Liara takes a polite sip out of her spiked tea that tastes tart, bitter, and not at all sweet. "I have."
"Yeah, I don't know what to think of that either." Tali leans over the table, propping her chin with her hands. "Especially considering how a few days ago we had guns trained at each other on a Presidium rooftop—and instead Shepard shoots Councilor Udina who turned out to be a Cerberus pawn."
"But he ultimately chose to believe her." She can't help but replay their last conversation on Arcturus Station in her head after saying that. How much has hechanged?
Unaware of this, Tali goes on. "Which I'm glad he did. Only now it's going to be spectacularly awkward on the ship for a while."
She hums in agreement while observing the singed railing and cracked glass that surround Apollo's Café. Business, surprisingly, has held steady in the aftermath of the coup, with Aethyta looking slightly harangued at the counter. They nod at each other, acknowledging the unspoken relief of seeing the other alive and well. With Mordin and Thane's recent passing, the feeling has grown increasingly difficult to come by.
Tali abruptly lets out a heavy sigh. "You know, when I think about how much worse the situation could've been—" She cuts herself off with a muttered quarian expletive.
Liara shrugs. "What? That one of us would have had to shoot Kaidan if he hadn't backed down?"
"Exactly," Tali exclaims, "Keelah, if I had to—with my gun, I—no. No, I couldn't do it."
The condensation beading on her glass seeps through her gloves. "If either of them had hesitated a moment longer, what do you think would have happened? Kaidan is extremely lucky that we weren't forced to make that decision."
"Could you?"
Liara pauses. Details begin to resurface: the pistol's sure and steady weight in her grip, the stillness of her hands, the certainty in her mind. Shepard had looked calm at the time, but there was a visible tremor to her body when the commander finally lowered her gun. She swirls her drink around before quietly answering, "Yes."
For a split-second, Tali's posture goes rigid, and then quickly relaxes. "…really?"
Liara simply looks at her friend.
Silence fills the space between them, expanding into the faraway corners and hard-to-reach nooks of what they had previously thought to be true about each other. Tali glances away. Liara tries to salvage the conversation. "We don't have the luxury of waiting for things to solve themselves anymore, not during this war."
"You're right, I know. It's just…" Tali shakes her head. "Sometimes I forget how much you've gone through. Like, I can see you sitting here with your drink and it's you, but that's not the same person who was with me at the standoff."
"People change," Liara says restlessly.
"Until I can't even recognize them—?" Immediately, "Keelah I'm sorry, I didn't mean that."