Shepard woke up the next day to Liara entering her room. The asari smiled and nodded in greeting, then sat down on the chair next to the bed. Shepard slowly got up, rubbing her eyes and running her hand through her hair.

"Good morning Shepard."

Shepard nodded in reply, feeling that her voice will croak if she tried to speak. Liara smiled knowingly. "I'll be performing that check-up scan I mentioned yesterday. Though now there's an additional reason," she said, referring to Athixa's attack. "How do you feel?"

Shepard tossed her blanket aside and swung her legs over the side to face Liara. She cleared her throat before speaking. "I'm good. If I have any injuries, it's probably back from when I was captured," she answered, rubbing the back of her neck.

"What happened yesterday was nothing, really," she added with a shrug.

"You were scanned in the ship after you were captured. This is just to a follow-up." She lifted her hand and swept it over Shepard. A few taps and beeps later, "It is as you said, Shepard: all good."

Shepard replied with a small smile.

An alert beeped from Liara's omni-tool. She checked the message and looked back at her patient. "Garrus would like to speak to you, if you're up to it. He didn't say what it was about, other than that it's not a session."

Shepard found that strange, and wondered what it could be about but nodded her assent anyway.

"I'll let him know. In the meantime, I'll show you to the showers," Liara said, getting up. Shepard got up from the bed and raised rolled her shoulders to get the last bits of sleep off of her, before following Liara out into the hallway. The two walked silently for a few meters before the asari turned her head slightly towards Shepard.

"Shepard, if you don't mind me asking, do you often have nightmares?"

Shepard nearly tripped on her own feet. Of course they'd know—they probably have a camera in her room, watching every move. Why bother denying it? "Yeah, but I don't really want to talk about it."

"That's fair. I just wanted to ask," Liara said, stopping to turn and fully face Shepard. "I could help if you'd like." Shepard had heard of how asari could connect with others' minds, but who knows what else Liara would do once she had access to her mind. Even without the mind melding, Liara seemed to read Shepard's thoughts anyway: "Oh, don't worry, I'm not using it as an excuse to extract Alliance information. Doctor-patient confidentiality."

Shepard was relieved, but still wary. "I'll manage, Dr. T'Soni."

"Please, call me Liara," replied the asari, with a smile, as she turned to lead the way again. Shepard shook her head and followed, focusing on looking forward to her shower.


AN: Yay, an update! Uploading the rest of the chapters I already have. Also planning to rewrite a number of things across the story before continuing.