Author's Note:Hey guys, sorry for the long delay. Been on vaca at Pax Prime and fighting off the con crud after.

Hope you guys enjoy the new chapter.

R&R please!


Shepard slowly wakes, the feeling of a warm body beside her is disorienting at first before memories of the night return to her. She turns her head and sees Liara nestled in the crook of her arm, head resting on her shoulder. She gently caresses Liara's cheek, memorizing each curve and smooth plane of her skin and face. Sheer joy and amazement that she denied herself these feelings for so long. Looking at her, all Shepard can think is how much a fool she'd been. She knows now this is what the consort spoke to her about. Liara is who she meant.

Liara shifts, curling up closer to her, sighing softly. shepard grins as holds her, stroking her shoulder lightly, admiring the sleeping beauty in her arms.

That is until the coms go off, Joker yet again interrupting at the most inopportune moment. "Commander, Joker here. we're approaching the Mu Relay."

"Liara shifts and opens her eyes, blinking sleepily at shepard as the commander groans before answering Joker. "Seriously need to stop spying on me."

"I swear I'm not, commander." Joker sounds abashed.

"Never mind." shepard pinches the bridge of her nose, sighing as Liara sits up and starts to dress, "Notify me when we're through, I'll be up shortly."

"Roger that ma'am, Joker out."

Befor Liara can put her shirt back on, Shepard sits up, wrapping her arms around her waist from behind, kissing the asari's shoulder at the base of her neck. "Running away on me?"

Liara turns around and kisses Shepard softly. "There are things I must do. Thank you, Kelly. You are an amazing woman."

Shepard grins crookedly, kissing and nipping at the skin of Liara's neck, below her jaw, leaving a faint purple mark. "There, now you're mine." she smiles and kisses Liara softly. "I'm not the only amazing one. You're pretty incredible yourself."

Liara sighs softly as she extracts herself from Shepard's arms, slowly getting dressed. Her shyness returns tenfold as she touches the mark under her chin. "I must go."

"Wait, Liara." Shepard takes Liara's hand softly in her own, she looks down momentarily before meeting her eyes, "I love you."

Liara leans in for a soft kiss, whispering softly, "I love you, too." She turns and quickly leaves, fully dressed now and hurrying away.

Shepard sighs as she lays back on the bed, her thoughts back on the events of the night. She revels for a few minutes before she sits up and gets dressed. She pulls on her ship blues uniform before quickly pulling her hair back into a horsetail. She looks at the remnants of their meal still on the table. She quickly gathers it all up and takes it to the mess. Grateful it's empty and there's no one there to ask questions. Ones she's not sure herself how to answer. After depositing the dishes in reclamation she makes her way up to the bridge.

Once up on the bridge, pressly and Kaiden are already there, Liara is shortly behind Shepard as the commander steps up behind Joker. Looking at the relay ahead of them.

"Alright, take us through Joker."

"Aye commander." Joker sets in the coordinates for the relay. As they near it pulls them into it's gravity field before launching them at beyond ftl speeds, making Shepard's stomach do phantom flip flops. Coming out the relay they can see a fleet of Geth ships patrolling the planet of Ilos.

"Joker, can they see us?"

"That's a negative ma'am. Our stealth systems are active. unless we get close enough for a visual, we're undetectable."

"Ok, take us in. we need to be on that planet." Shepard turns to Liara, "Any ideas where Saren might be?"

"I don't know. He could be anywhere."

"Commander," Pressly says, pointing out a nav point on his feeds. "I've got some strange readings coming from this site."

"Find me a landing zone. That's got to be where Saren is."

"Can't Commander. Only area big enough for the Normandy is twenty klicks away."

"We'll never make it in time from that far away." Liara exclaims.

"Then we'll take the mako down. Found us somewhere closer."

"There's nothing bigger than twenty meters long to land."

"The mako needs at least a hundred meters." Kaiden speaks up, doubtfully.

"It'll have to do. We can't let Saren get away."

"I can do it." Joker says, breaking up the discussion.

"Are you sure?" Shepard leans over his chair, looking out the view ports at the planet ahead.

"Positive. Best at the academy. I can get you down."

"You heard the man. Liara, Kaiden, suit up and load out." Shepard watches as they go and turns back to Joker. "Thread that needle as if your life depended on it." She turns and follows her team down to the cargo hold, quickly suiting up and arming herself.

Stepping into the mako Shepard settles into the driver's seat and preps the mako. "Ready when you are Joker."

"Roger that commander, approaching the planet's surface now. Buckle in for a rough landing."

"You heard the man." Shepard says towards her squad. "Buckle in and hold on to something." She turns back forward as Joker initiates the final countdown to departure. The mako slides out of the cargo bay doors and Shepard immediately draws back on the dorsal thrusters, pushing the mako's nose as high into the air as she can. Seeking to brake its speed as they hurtle toward the bare twenty meters of landing they come lower Shepard sees a gateway leading to an underground tunnel, she noses the mako down, aiming for the strip of road leading down. As they come down the mako connects solidly with the ground, bouncing once, twice before skidding sideways into the tunnel.

Shepard unbuckles and turns to survey the hold. "Everyone ok?" THe lights of the mako flicker as the systems go on the fritz from the landing.

Liara shifts in her harness and nods, "I"m ok."

Kaiden nods as well, "All five by commander."

Shepard nods and sits back down, booting up the controls from the hard reboot. "Good, odds are Saren is down this tunnel. We need to move fast to catch him." She turns and guns the mako down the tunnel, squeezing every ounce of speed she can.