A/N: I altered the Shadow Broker's death just a tad. A teensy wincey little tad. Really. Itsy bitsy.


"Really?" Jacob blinked, light strobing over his face a moment as he peppered the corridor with pistol-fire. Ducking back down behind the wall, he heard the whine and snap as return fire barely missed his face. "It puked on her?"

"Directly in her mouth," Garrus responded from his own cover, slapping another thermal clip into place.

"Jesus, I'd have nightmares for decades after that."

"It was especially interesting with the toxin made her start hallucinating. You think she's scary when she's sane-"

Jacob risked a glance out of cover, gesturing at Garrus. The pair opened fire again, three of the Broker's mercs collapsing as their shot tore through shields and armor. The remaining two mercs retreated back behind their cover again, spraying the hallway.

"Scary doesn't begin to cover it," Jacob replied. "Did I tell you what she did when she woke up? Barely an hour on her feet, dressed in scrubs, and she takes out a goddamn heavy mech with a fire extinguisher. Two days later? She takes out another one with just a grenade and a pistol. I swear she would have throttled it barehanded if she'd had to."

Garrus chuckled. "Yeah, sounds about her speed. 'You gotta get in close to the big, scary things Garrus. The bigger and scarier, the closer you gotta get.' I prefer sniping myself. Remind me to tell you about the time she went hand to hand with a thresher maw-"

{Garrus, Jacob, report!} Shepard's voice suddenly barked in their ears.

"We nearly got this hall clear," Garrus replied, touching his ear-bud. "Couple of hangers-on still wanting to dance but nothing we can't handle."

{Liara's nearly got the door open. Get your tuns back here.}

"On our way."

"You heard the lady," Jacob grinned, unclipping a grenade from his belt. Setting it, he tossed it down the hall. The two mercs had been creeping forward again. At the rattle of the grenade they tried to leap behind cover again, dropping their weapons.

They didn't make it.

The heavy boom echoed like thunder in the close metal corridor. Jacob shook his head a little, trying to clear the ring as he and Garrus headed back along the hall toward the T-Junction.

Liara was crouched, busily hacking a heavy metal door. Shepard had cleared out the other hallway and was watching her back as she worked.

"All clear this way, Shepard," Garrus reported.

"I have it," Liara announced before Shepard could answer, the door clicking as its lock released. Immediately as she straightened, Shepard leveled her rifle, covering the opening as it slid aside.

Garrus fell in beside her, Jacob and Liara taking flank as they entered the small control room. Swiftly clearing corners, Shepard nodded.

"We're go-"

"Feron!"

Liara rushed to the console, eyes wide as she stared through the observation window. Shedding her helmet, Shepard moved over and looked as well.

The drell was strapped into a chair surrounded by monitors and equipment. He did not look good, his eyes lidded in semi-consciousness, his color ashen.

Swiftly finding the intercom into the other room, Liara activated it. "Feron!"

The drell stirred, blinking slowly, his eyes moving to the window. "L-Liara?"

"Do not worry, we are going to get you out of there," Liara replied. As she attempted to unlock the clamps holding him to the chair, however, electricity suddenly arced and flashed, blue-white lances spitting through the drell. He cried out and Liara snatched her hands back from the controls as if they'd caught fire.

"Wow…that's…a special kind of cruel," Garrus grumbled.

"He's wired into the power and data network of the entire ship," Shepard murmured, eyes following the heavy conduit and cabling all around the chair. "We try and pull him out he'll cook. We need to shut it down directly at the source."

"F-Feron, can you hear me?" Liara asked tremulously, afraid her actions had rendered the poor man unconscious.

"Yes," he said weakly.

"I am sorry, I did not mean to…we are going to shut down the network, get you out of there."

"The power hub is in the Broker's offices," the drell murmured. "Liara, you can't-"

"We have come this far, we are not stopping now," Liara said firmly. "We will be back. I swear it to you."

"C'mon," Shepard touched her arm. "Through this way. According to the schematics we hacked, the Broker isn't far."

Reluctantly Liara abandoned the console controls. Shepard set her hand on the asari's shoulder reassuringly a moment, before dropping it again and re-donning her helmet.

The final door was easier to hack, mostly because they did not have people shooting at them. The guards and mechs all finally seemed to be dead…or had re-thought their employment. Still, with a single hall between them and the Broker's own front door, Shepard didn't buy that the last stretch of corridor would be unguarded.

As soon as the door unlatched she urged Liara to move to the side, Shepard lowering to one knee and readying her rifle, before nodding at the asari. Liara hit the control and the door slid open.

A great glut of flame spat out of the opening doorway, riding on a stream of high pressure napalm. As the initial stream ended, flames licking up from the metal flooring where the fuel had landed, Shepard turned into the doorway, still on her knee, and fired.

Her bullets shredded into the legs of the merc standing there. His pads caught a couple of shots but the rest would not be daunted. Blood flew and his cry of pain was almost instant. He tried to swing the nozzle of his weapon in her direction and actually managed a short spurt of fire directly at her before he stumbled. Shepard landed two more shots to his chest, before a well-planted shot from Garrus shattered his helmet face-plate and ended his career.

Her HUD was flashing madly at her. Rising, Shepard quickly unfastened her helmet, removing it. Some of the jellied fuel had clung to the crest and was still flaming. She shook it off as best she could, swiping her hand over her shoulder pads to make sure none had stuck there, even as she jerked her chin at the far door.

"Go!"

They edged around the still flaming puddles and darted down the hall. Liara immediately set to unlocking the door. Holding her smoldering helmet in hand, Shepard reached down and picked up the flame-thrower, gripping it a third of the way down its length, mindful of the still hissing pilot light.

Unlike its cheaper counterparts, this particular weapon had the both its flammable and inert gas chambers as part of the actual weapon instead of a separate backpack. Nothing but top of the line shit for the Broker, apparently.

Liara got the door opened in record time. Shepard was only halfway along the corridor when it slid open and her three companions disappeared within, weapons ready. Striding in the door, Shepard arched a brow slightly as she looked around.

The room was large, a computer console hub spanning half of it. It was illuminated by a direct energy plasma power system, a single cache of what had to be hundreds spread throughout the ship casting a shimmering white light down from the ceiling. It gave the room the appearance of being underwater, almost, or of being caught in shafts of sunlight that filtered in through summer clouds.

In front of the console was a desk, at which sat a mountain. The thing there was even bigger than Wrex…and that was saying something. A sentient species, no doubt…but not one Shepard could recall ever having seen. It was hard to imagine the beast as being the Broker. He was made of muscle on top of muscle, every inch of him screaming predator.

Liara, Garrus, and Jacob all had their weapons trained to it. The creature itself was simply watching them and seemed to have no weapon in hand or nearby…not that it would need one. Fucker looked like he could accidentally knock down walls if it farted too hard.

Shepard let the butt of the flamethrower sit on the ground as she stopped shoulder to shoulder with her comrades. Casting her smoking helmet down idly, she reached into a pouch on her belt.

"Commander Shepard," the beast behind the desk greeted, his voice deep yet oddly mellow.

He'd make a good blues singer, she thought as she drew out a cigar. Tucking it in her teeth she lifted the flamethrower, lighting the smoke with the pilot light before letting the butt drop to the ground again.

"That's me," she replied, then let out a stream of gray and white. "Sorry I didn't knock."

"You should have," the creature rumbled. "I would have let you in."

"That so?"

"You are extremely valuable, Shepard. The Collectors offered a great deal for your body. The offer still stands. Thank you for saving me the trouble of having to retrieve it again. And you brought gifts, as well. There are many mercs who would pay a lot for Archangel…if they knew he was still alive."

Garrus glared, but said nothing.

"You are not taking anyone," Liara said, more hatred than Shepard would ever have expected in the woman's voice.

The beast only half looked at her, its expression weary…as near as Shepard could translate it.

"Dr. T'Soni, your little mission has grown quite tiresome. It was amusing at first but it grew old, quickly. This is your doing, doctor. You have brought your friends to this end. Their fate is not my fault. You were warned. Ignorant little asari…this is what happens when you meddle in things you don't understand."

"And what is it I do not understand?" Liara asked, heated. "That you tried to steal my closest friend's body? That you have spent the last two years punishing Feron for helping me to stop you from doing it? Or is it more personal things you think are hidden from me? Like the fact that you're a yahg, a species quarantined to their home world when they slaughtered the Council's first contact teams? Or the fact you cannot possibly be the original Shadow Broker, since this base is older than your planet's discovery? No, it must be the dirtiest little secret you have of all…that you were originally taken from your home world to be made into a trophy…or a pet-"

Shepard could see the beast getting more and more agitated as Liara spoke. Cigar firmly tucked in her teeth, she shifted her grip on the flamethrower, drawing it up to her hip and sliding her hand around to the trigger as she saw his gaze was firmly fixed to Liara.

At the word pet, however, hell broke loose. Faster than she would have thought from such a big creature, the Broker was on his feet, the huge desk he sat behind rising in his clawed hands as he lifted it and flung it at them, an ear-splitting roar shaking the air.

Shepard dropped the flamethrower, turning and tackling Liara to the ground a breath before the desk sailed over them. Jacob managed to drop but Garrus wasn't fast enough. He was slammed hard to the deck as he was hit, the desk tumbling away in a riot of dented steel and shattering wood.

Scrambling to her feet, Shepard hauled Liara up with her, shoving her toward cover even as she drew out her rifle. Somehow, she hadn't lost her cigar.

Whirling she opened fire at the huge beast, cursing internally as the bullets merely spanked off a set of shields.

The Broker roared again, and in a breath she had three tons of very fast predator bearing down on her. Turning, Shepard bolted, half-leaping, half-skidding over a console bank and dropping down behind it.

The Broker whipped around as a biotic slam slapped across his face, and oriented on Jacob. The former marine grit his teeth as he laid down his own fire, the blaze soon being joined by Shepard's and Liara's as the pair recovered themselves.

Though she could not see the shield generator that had to be clipped somewhere on his huge frame, it was only a matter of time before their attrition overheated it. Once it went down, the fucker was theirs.

Shepard could see Garrus laying, unmoving, still out in the open. She didn't know if he was alive or dead but right now there was nothing they could do but try and take the big fucker down before he spotted him.

Liara sent a wave of biotics at the Broker as he closed in on Jacob, but the slam barely stumbled him. Instead of turning toward her he sent out a backhand that knocked Jacob flying from his feet and into the wall. As he crumpled Shepard snatched her knife from her boot and whipped it at the Broker's back.

As it was slower than gunfire, the barriers did not stop the blade and it sank to the hilt directly between the beast's heavy shoulders. He was far too big, his musculature far too thick for her to even hope it would penetrate to spine or organs, but it sure as fuck got his attention.

Whirling back her direction, he lumbered away from Jacob's limp form, streams of saliva running from his triple-jawed mouth as he shrieked.

Strafing to the side, Shepard resumed her gunfire, determined to bring his shields down. Liara managed to stagger the yahg again but even her strongest biotic attacks were doing little more than this.

His species must have some kind of natural resistance to biotics, Shepard thought. She'd seen Liara deliver a strong enough biotic slam to addle a full-grown thresher maw. Hitting him as hard as she was, she should have been sending the beast sailing across the room, not merely stumbling his steps.

She heard the tell-tale alarm as his barriers began to overload, even as Liara hit him again. Bellowing in fury, the yahg turned, focusing on the little asari. Shepard rushed out of cover, gun overheating as she aimed every shot toward his head.

The barriers dropped just as she fired her last shot. The bullet sang toward his now unprotected skull but just as it was about to strike, there was an incredible white flash of light. Shepard was slammed back off her feet, her mag-locks…tweaked to withstand 100 kph gusts of wind…tearing off the deck with astonishing ease. She crashed into the wall, then dropped hard to the ground.

Coughing slightly, she spat the remains of her cigar out as she struggled to push herself up, to reorient herself. Her hard-suit had absorbed most of the impact but she was damn lucky she hadn't hit the wall head first. Her brain would have been nothing but a pink smear on the metal if that had happened.

Staggering to her feet, she realized she'd lost her rifle and whipped out her pistol instead, aiming it toward the beast still in the middle of the room.

At the far end, she could see a dazed Liara also getting to her feet, darting back under cover. She had been knocked flying by the blast as well.

What the fuck was that? Shepard wondered. The Broker wasn't moving, his entire body seemed to be shimmering with white light. Shepard strode forward, firing at him, but the bullets just sang away from his skin.

"The fuck?"

Liara rushed over to her side. "Shepard," she panted. "He has access to top of the line technology intel. That is a prototype kinetic energy barrier. Bullets and biotics will not penetrate, and it will not overload through attrition, not without heavier caliber slugs."

"Great," Shepard glowered, then grinned the kind of grin that usually made people extremely nervous. "We do this the old fashioned way, then."

"What old-fashioned…no, wait!"

Shepard ran forward as the yahg seemed to catch his breath, finally looking around for his prey. As he turned his head, Shepard's fist came sailing out of the gloom, slamming him hard right in the eye.

He bellowed in surprised pain, swinging a big arm out to where he thought she was, and missed. Pain ripped through his back again as she swung up, managing to grab the hilt of her knife and ripping it out of his flesh.

That sword Kasumi gave me would come in real handy right about now. I seriously need to have her teach me to use it, Shepard thought as she let herself drop back to the ground, barely missing another swipe of the huge claws.

There were always constants to consider when fighting hand to hand, regardless of the species or gender or sheer unbelievable size of one's opponent. First, there were always vulnerable spots. Eyes. Throats. Genitals. Sometimes finding those things could be a little tricky as they weren't always in the exact same spot from race to race, but…there was always at least one.

Second, the bigger something was the closer you had to be. Instinct was to try and stay away, keep out of reach, but you only let a swing or a strike gain momentum that way so if one did hit you, you were paste. Big things were clumsy up close. They had a harder time orienting on a closer target, could gain no real power into their blows, and did not compensate as fast.

Stay close, stay fast, and you stayed alive.

Praying that the yahg kept their naughty bits in roughly the same place as most other species, Shepard rolled and jabbed in with her knife, even as the Broker stepped over her and started to turn, trying to figure out where she'd gone.

The knife struck flesh, sinking deep, and the Broker's alarmed and horribly pain-filled shriek told her that yes, indeed, their naughty bits were exactly where she'd hoped they were.

Dodging a weakly aimed stomp, Shepard ripped her dagger out and scrambled to her feet, leaping atop him again. Arm swung around his neck as if embracing an old friend, her feet off the ground, Shepard jammed the blade to the hilt in his eye, driving it deep enough to, she hoped, reach his brain.

He thrashed convulsively, and she lost her grip, thrown free. As she tumbled to a halt, Liara was suddenly between her and the Broker.

"Li!" she called in alarm, unsure what the asari was planning.

Then she saw the flare of biotics, saw glass start to crack, and surged to her feet.

The direct energy plasma held in the cache above the middle of the room would dissolve flesh on contact. The Broker was directly beneath it, flailing in blind, furious madness, streams of foaming saliva and thick gluts of blood spraying everywhere. Even as Shepard gained her feet Liara tore her hands downward.

The cache erupted in a rain of glass and energy plasma, the flood spilling down over the Broker in the split second before the failsafes locked the flow down. The power flickered, consoles dying, the entire room going nearly black for a moment, save the shining glow of the plasma-coated Broker screaming in the center of it.

The lights rose and power returned a moment later as the other caches took the load and restored energy.

The plasma did not retain its destructive property long once in contact with oxygen. The Broker died hard, but even as he fell to his knees…his screaming halted, half his body almost skeletal as his melting flesh slid off of bone…the fluid coating him was going inert.

Enough, however, landed on the prototype barrier generator at his belt, swiftly eating through the plastic and metal and striking its power source.

Shepard was not expecting the Broker to explode. There was no warning, no chance to dart for cover or even shield their faces. One moment the thing was dead, falling apart, slowly crumpling to the ground, and the next, the world lit up.

Once again, Shepard found herself flung from her feet as everything went white. Then pain rang through her skull and she fell, white vanishing as black lifted its heavy arms and swallowed her down.


She became aware first of something tapping her face. Black slowly melted as sound and feeling returned to the world. Her head hurt abysmally. She blinked, trying to focus, a blue smear resolving into Liara's frantic face.

"Shepard! Shepard, are you ok?"

Dazed, the human woman managed a languid smile. "You're the best concussion I think I've ever gotten," she quipped.

"Oh, thank the Goddess," Liara breathed in relief. Taking Shepard's shoulders, she steadied her as the commander gingerly pushed herself into a sit, lightly touching the back of her head.

"Not bleeding, that's a good sign," she noted.

"Do not…do not do that to me again!" Liara said sternly, suddenly grasping Shepard's face in her hands, her sky blue eyes furious.

"Hey, I didn't make the Broker expl-" Shepard began, only to be cut off, uttering a muffled sound of surprise as Liara pulled her forward and kissed her.

"…ode?" Shepard managed to finish as Liara drew almost instantly back again. She could feel the asari shaking, and reached up toward her cheek, only to lower her hand again as Liara drew back, getting to her feet. "Li?"

Pushing herself up, Shepard ignored a faint wave of dizziness as she straightened. She'd had far worse concussions before. They were almost as much old friends as were broken ribs.

Liara didn't look at her, heading to where Garrus was weakly trying to regain his own feet, the lump on his skull far more dramatic than Shepard's.

Shepard headed to his side as well, taking his arm to steady him and narrowing her eyes at his uneven pupils. "You just earned yourself a visit to Chakwas, Mr. Vakarian," she said sternly.

"Did we win?" he asked with a weary flap of his mandibles, before spotting the melted, blown-up, unrecognizable mess on the ground. "Uh…guess we did. Sorry I missed the party."

"You just need to quit trying to stop shit with your face," Shepard admonished, clapping him on the shoulder.

Voices suddenly made her look around. The consoles had gone out briefly when the plasma cache had been destroyed. The network had finally completely powered back on and restored itself and now the huge console screens were lighting up with masked, audio-only communications feeds.

A dozen different voices were identifying themselves and asking for the Broker, asking for a report on the loss of connection. More and more were lifting with every moment, the words becoming an almost incomprehensible jumble.

Liara started that way as Shepard turned her head, scanning for Jacob. The man was leaning against part of the ruined desk, using it to steady himself.

"Jacob, you five-by?" Shepard called, still holding Garrus on his feet.

"Yeah, I got a pretty thick skull," he said. "I think I broke my wrist but nothing major. What the hell did you do to the Broker, Shep? He looks like Rupert's leftovers."

"This is the Shadow Broker."

The voice, deep, male, synthesized, suddenly filled the room. Almost instinctively Shepard reached for her pistol, her heart nearly stopping. So the yahg hadn't actually been the Broker? He was a ruse, a distraction-…

Then her eyes landed on Liara, standing at the console. She could hear her voice too, speaking the same words that filled the air in that damned synthetic baritone.

"We had a minor power fluctuation while upgrading hardware, however we are now back online."

"Wh-what is she doing?" Garrus murmured, shocked.

Running footsteps. Jacob turned, his biotics flaring weakly a moment before he recognized the drell. Feron had freed himself from the chair when the power had dropped. He shakily lifted a pistol slightly toward Liara before he dropped it again in surprise. Shepard headed over to him as Liara continued, having not even noticed.

"I expect a report on all operations within the next solar day. Shadow Broker out."

"Y-you're the Shadow Broker?" the drell asked weakly, staring at the asari as she finally turned her head. "H-how…?"

Shepard reached his side, catching the man as he suddenly sagged. Helping him to sit, she withdrew as Liara rushed over, dropping down at his side.

"Feron, are you ok?"

"Just…tired, and…wh-what happened? What did you do?"

"The Broker is dead," Liara murmured. "I…all his contacts, all his information would have been lost. I-"

Liara shook her head, sitting back and covering her face. Brows knit, Shepard gestured Jacob over, then looked at the drell.

"Feron, there was a small medi-lab that we passed on the way in here. Jacob's going to take you and give you a quick scan, make sure you're all right."

"Oh…yes….okay," he replied shakily. Shepard helped him up to his feet, relinquishing him to the former marine.

"Check Garrus too," Shepard ordered Jacob. "Call for the shuttle to come and bring Chakwas down. They can dock now that we have control of the ship."

"Aye," Jacob nodded, supporting the drell as he led him out, Garrus following rather drunkenly.

As soon as the door had closed, Liara pushed herself back up to her feet, turning away and heading for the console.

"Hey," Shepard murmured, following her. Looking up at the monitors she asked, "Are you sure about this, Liara? Are you sure this is what you want?"

"I-…this is what I must do, Shepard," Liara replied softly, leaning on the equipment bank. "All this information, all these contacts…with it I can help you, don't you see? I can help…Goddess…two years, and it's all…it's all over…"

Her voice broke. Shepard reached out, gently taking her arm and turning her, before she drew her in and hugged her tightly. Liara clung to her as if she were drowning, shaking.

"It's all right," Shepard murmured. "It's ok. It's done."

Liara lifted her head, once again cupping the human woman's face before drawing her in, kissing her with urgent force. After a breath, like before, she started to draw back, to recoil, but this time Shepard didn't let her. She held her firmly, not letting her pull away. Liara's fingers left her cheeks and tangled in her hair, gripping almost painfully tight. After a moment, the kiss broke. This time, Shepard let it, but neither woman tried to draw away from the other.

"Ok?" Shepard whispered, looking upward a little to meet Liara's sky blue eyes with her own.

"Ok…" Liara murmured in return. She searched Shepard's face a moment, before tracing her cheek with her fingers.

"It really is you," she said softly, eyes gloss. "I didn't want to believe…even after you came back, part of me…didn't dare to believe. I thought Cerberus might…might change you, make a copy, a clone, even though they promised they wouldn't. But…it really is you. You're really here."

"I'm really here, Tianlán," Shepard replied, lifting her hand and taking Liara's, before she gave a weak, lopsided grin. "In all my foul-mouthed, ass-kicking, blues-loving glory."

Liara half-laughed, half-sobbed in relief as she hugged Shepard tightly again, letting the tears fall. They didn't matter. Nothing mattered. The Broker was dead, Feron was safe, and she had her Del back.

The nightmare was finally over.


"Why is it that everyone managed to get a wall to the head, except Liara?" Chakwas asked, running the scanner over Shepard's skull. The med-bay on the Broker ship was small but very advanced…more advanced than some elite hospitals on Thessia. Setting foot within it was, for Chakwas, akin to a kid walking in a candy store. It was a pity she couldn't stay.

"To be fair," Shepard replied. "Garrus got a desk to the face, not a wall to the head."

"One day I wish I could come with you on one of your missions. See first-hand the inexplicable ways you people manage to get yourselves injured. There you are. One minor concussion, all better."

"How's the drell?" Shepard asked, rubbing the much smaller bump on her head.

"Dehydrated, exhausted. There is some small amount of neural and nerve damage from repeated jolts of electricity but nothing permanently disabling. The Broker was careful to inflict pain but no lasting harm. Physically, anyway."

Shepard nodded, looking past her to where Feron was sitting near the corner, Liara standing nearby and holding his hand. The two seemed intent in conversation.

"Thanks, Doc," Shepard murmured, rising and moving past her, heading over to the pair.

When Feron glanced her direction, Shepard nodded politely. Liara smiled slightly, then gestured. "Shepard, this is Feron. Feron, this is Commander Shepard."

Something strange passed through the drell's eyes. A mix of disbelief, awe perhaps, and some measure of…sadness? It was an odd look, and Shepard wasn't familiar enough with his race to truly interpret it. He reached out a hand, and Shepard took it with a nod.

"My honor, Feron," she greeted.

"No," Feron replied. His voice sounded younger than she had expected, a gentle tenor. He folded his other hand over their clasped hands, looking at her intently. "No, the honor is mine, Commander."

Shepard cleared her throat awkwardly. "Well, um…thanks. Uh…Liara tells me that you…helped her out a couple of years ago. That whole mess with my um…yes. Well. Thank you, Feron. I appreciate what you did."

"It was the right thing to do," he replied, releasing her hand with a nod. "Though Liara was determined enough. She would have found a way, even without my aide."

"Yeah, she is kind of stubborn."

"I wonder where I learned that from?" Liara hedged gently. Shepard smirked, then nodded at the drell.

"It was nice to meet you. I…need to steal Dr. T'Soni for a moment. If you'll excuse us?"

"Of course."

Lightly taking the asari's arm, Shepard steered her over near the door, where they could speak unheard. "Are you sure you're ok?" she asked gently.

"I am fine, Shepard. A…bit shell-shocked, still adjusting to the fact that it's all over but…yes. I am fine."

"The Normandy will be staying in solar orbit for a bit," Shepard told her. "A day at least, maybe two…until we get all this mess figured out. I've got to head back on board, get some things squared away. Not the least of which is I need a serious shower. I…imagine you'll want to stay here, talk to your friend…get a grasp on things?"

Liara nodded, then caught Shepard's hand, looking at her eyes. "We…do need to talk."

"I know," Shepard said softly, then rubbed the back of her neck. "Why don't you come up later tonight, after things have settled down? You hardly got the best look at the Normandy from the medi-bay and we can…you know, eat. And talk."

Liara smiled faintly. "I would like that."

"Good. Good, then I'll see you in a few hours."

Giving Liara's hand a squeeze she cleared her throat again, offering the asari woman a final smile before she turned and headed out of the infirmary.