Author's Note: An update took so long to get here because I was evacuated. A fire near my house forced me out for awhile. No worries, however. Everyone is fine, as is my home. Sorry about the wait, but it's just one of those things.

Chapter Sixty One: Something More

"You look very dressed up for a girl's night out," Colt commented, while eyeing Abby's dress. It was one she had never worn before.

"Women dress to impress other women, not men," she stood up, and glided to his spot by the door. Their apartment was tiny, so he had to awkwardly stand at their bedroom door trying to avoid getting in her way.

"Well, I'll take your word on it. Have fun," Colt leaned down, and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

"I will," Abby looked him the eye, with a loving look gliding over her pretty face. "What are you going to do?"

"Stay in, I guess. Sam wanted to hang out, but I'm just not up to it," Colt pulled his gaze away from her when she gazed at him with disappointment.

She sighed, and placed a hand on his arm, "Colt-."

"I'll get better," he responded quietly. "You go have fun. Don't worry about me; I keep myself pretty good company."

"Okay, I'll be back by twelve. See you later," Abby kissed him one last time, and left. Now he could settle down and watch season eight of Fleet and Flotilla.

He was three episodes in when a ringing noise made him jump. It was definitely an omni-tool, but it wasn't his.

"Shit," Colt muttered when he saw that Abby had left her omni-tool behind. He grabbed the damn thing, and left their apartment.

…

Where could Abby be? She told him where she was going, but he couldn't remember. The grocery store was a dead end, as was the theatre. Where else could she go? He had been deployed too long to remember the area very well.

The fates decided to smile upon him today, however. He could hear her voice around the corner. Colt rounded with the corner with a smile that turned to confusion. Abby was standing next to a lamp with another person of the male gender. Confusion clouded Colt's mind even when the two figures clearly kissed.

They started walking towards an apartment, with Colt in hot pursuit. He caught up to them right when the guy pulled her close into a passionate kiss.

"What the fuck?" Colt snarled at the pair. Abby jumped away from the other guy, and stared with shock at him. Colt shoved the other guy (he could easily take this guy), and cocked his fist backwards for a jaw breaking punch. Then he remembered that humans weren't the enemy, batarians were. The memory of humans screaming at Elysium stopped him from adding more.

Pain he normally got from running wasn't present in this retreat. His recovering right leg didn't protest as he jogged out of that suffocating apartment building.

"Colt! Colt stop!" Abby was following him quite easily. He jogged a few more steps before turning abruptly on her.

"WHAT?!" He screamed in her face.

She started crying, but he didn't care. Serves her right, "It was-is-hard for me. You were deployed so long, and I needed someone to help me through your absence. I was going to end it when you came back, but I still needed an escape. The echoes of Elysium are hard on me."

"Elysium was hard on you? I practically killed my younger brother, I watched people being shot up and shelled, and I was alone for hours fighting against a never ending tide of batarians!" Colt spat the word batarian. "Now tell me how it's hard on you!"

"I'm the one picking up the pieces. I'm the one that has to somehow repair you, and I have no idea how to," she tried to put a hand on his face, but he jerked his head away. "Elysium changed you," the words were whispered, but it felt like a frigate had hit him.

"Wow, didn't realize that one! Thanks for telling me Abby, now maybe I can be in peace. Any other insightful observations?" Colt was in her face again. She was an awful person.

His words pissed her off, he could tell. Her eyes turned from apologetic to fury, "You are so screwed up! I can't believe you. That's the way you soldier types are! You want to do all this stuff, go off and have your adventures, get your glory, and then you come back messed up, expecting everyone else to wait for you. Well, you know what? I got tired of waiting, and I'm tired of fixing you!"

"I managed to keep myself in check the whole time I was gone! I flew around the galaxy, and didn't cheat on you once. Every place I went had asari, Abby, and everyone loves asari. So why don't you and your new boyfriend cry me a river? There is no part of me that feels remotely sorry for you. I wish you the best with your new lover. With any luck he won't be totally fucked up! Goodbye Abigail," he grumbled before jogging away. There was nothing else for him. There was no one else in his life. They had all left one way or another. He was alone and forgotten.

…

"Liara!" Colt yelled after the rapidly retreating figure. She had stared at him for a few seconds, and then she just started walking away. Colt stood in between his friends and Liara, trying to decide if he should let her go, or follow her. Everyone else was looking at him with disbelief. Doctor Chakwas' eyes were dark with the truth. He would've stayed to talk to them, but he couldn't just let Liara go.

"Liara!" He started jogging after her desperately. She was already going pretty fast, and when he got near her, she started running. He would've caught up to her quite easily, but she kept taking sharp turns. A logical pattern of running didn't seem to exist, she simply just ran, and Shepard followed.

When they arrived at a hover car rental place, Colt didn't really think of the significance until Liara had already climbed into one. Without thinking anything through, Colt jumped through one of the open windows in the back seat. Seconds later, the hover car took off. "Liara put the hover car down," he said gently, while leaning forward into the space between the front seats.

His heart sank when she glanced at him with wet eyes. Liara listened to his request and parked the hover car off to the side. The silence between them was only interrupted by Liara's sobbing. What could Colt say to right this? Instead of reassuring her, he went with his own needs. He was disgustingly selfish. "Please don't leave me," his voice was so full of emotion he barely recognized it. Panic arose in his systems when Liara said nothing. "If you leave me, I don't know what I'll do," he barely got this out through the lump in his throat. Colt climbed into the passenger seat to see her more clearly.

"I'm not going to leave you," Liara managed a smile with her words. He didn't know who to thank. What a feeling relief is. Colt's whole body relaxed, and he no longer felt like he might have to flee at any moment. He half pulled Liara closer, and half dragged himself towards her. When their lips met, it was salty from Liara's tears. Not one part of Colt cared.

"Thank you," he whispered after a much too short kiss. He rested his forehead against hers, and gazed at her downcast eyes. She should've stayed away from him and all the heartache he seemed to bring people. Between the Reapers, Cerberus, and his cybernetics, he wouldn't live long. Why had someone like Liara gotten mixed up with him? He wasn't a good person, and she was practically perfect, so why did she stay? Probably because she loved Commander Shepard.

"You should leave me," he turned his head so he wouldn't have to see her reaction.

"Didn't you just beg me not to leave you?" Liara laughed without humor. He was still turned away.

"Just because I don't want you to leave, doesn't mean you shouldn't," he murmured.

A soft hand reached out, gently turning his chin towards Liara. "I will not leave you," her voice was as powerful and reassuring as her words.

Colt stared at her for awhile, trying to see if she was sincere. His next words could not be said if she didn't mean it. No one else had looked at him the way she was looking at him. It gave him all the courage he needed. "Liara...I like you a lot. This sounds so corny, but ya...I-ah-well-I love you," Colt wasn't able to look at her. It was a big enough step to say the L-word. The Shepards did not say the L-word, so this was new territory. He only used it when talking about things like food, or pets. Not people, and certainly not the ones who deserved it.

Liara blinked at him for a few seconds, before a huge grin spread across her face. She didn't say anything for a bit, so he resigned to his fate. Liara would never need him as much as he needed her. So naturally he started to talk much too fast to cover himself, "I'm sorry. I know that you've always just wanted a casual relationship. I mean you're like twenty one, so why'd you want something serious. Plus you're kinda old for me...Wow, that sounded bad. Not like that, like maturity wise. I'm too immature for someone like yourself. You've always been someone who would eventually marry a serious doctor, and have tons of serious blue children. Actually it's weird that you ever liked someone like me. Now you understand my humor, but before you had no idea what I was talking about. I have enjoyed your off-beat jokes however... I'm not very good at this. You don't have an off-beat sense of humor-"

His ramblings were interrupted by purple lips. The kiss itself was very unsatisfactory, since it lasted only a couple of seconds. It was obviously used to shut him up, but he was okay with that. She laced a hand through his hair, which was an odd sensation since he had a shaved head for the past twelve years.

She rested her head on his shoulder. Liara's heavy breathing was interrupted when she said, "I love you too... but Goddess you talk a lot."

"I recall you telling me that my voice was sexy. So I was making you feel better," a smile made its way across her face at his words. Colt's own smile faded when he realized that they would have to discuss his cybernetics, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the cybernetics. I was going to, but I couldn't figure out a way to explain it."

Liara started crying again. He was going to start crying if she kept going like this. "You're going to get through this. We'll live through the Reaper War, and the cybernetics. Then we'll have all those little blue babies, okay?"

Then Colt did something incredibly stupid. Something that he would probably not be able to fulfill. "I promise that I'm always coming back. I'll live through all of this for you...and Garrus. Actually the whole crew, but especially you." He smiled at her hopefully. Liara laughed lightly.

"I'll hold you to that... About earlier, did you not think I was going to say it back?" Liara was so close that he could feel her heat.

"Well, it took you awhile to say it back. I'll admit, I was worried for a second," he stopped when he saw how amused she was. "What?"

"I have felt this strongly about you for awhile now, but I didn't think you felt the same. I thought you were the one who saw us as casual," Liara explained.

"We're good at communicating," Colt laughed at his own joke (people didn't realize how funny he thought he was). "We should probably go back to the others. I kinda left them to find you," they looked at each other regretfully before they got back into their own seats. So they had gone from a casual relationship to something important, and real. They would never be the same.

…

A/N: It only took sixty something chapters. Good things do happen to patient readers.