"Where will he sleep?" Liara asks, looking around Anderson's (now Shepard's) apartment. Jane was lounging on her couch making a show of ignoring Liara and John awkwardly standing at the entrance with his few belongings in a duffle bag at his feet.
"I made up the other room, put a bed in there. If he wants more, he can get it himself." She is clearly baiting her, but Liara sighs and goes to look dragging John along.
Peeks into the small room to the right of her bathroom.
"Jane, wasn't that a closet before?" She yells into the other room and is ignored.
"I won't need much space," John mutters.
She turns to him, hands on her hips. Looks him over. He feels awkward, wearing an old (well, for him it was old), dirty teeshirt and sweats. His hair had grown out, his former stern buzz cut giving way to slightly curly red hair that had maddeningly chosen today to look wild and unkempt. He was also in desperate need of a shave.
Like always the weight of her kind gaze is too much. He glances down at his feet.
For reasons known only to her, Liara had been his most stalwart defender since Jane spared him on the Normandy and the more he liked her, the more awkward he felt. He was having a hard time finding the right words to say sorry. He had so little practice in interacting with people he was sure he would botch it, yet the longer it went unsaid the worse he felt.
"Are you sure John?" The way she speaks his name makes him look back up. It stirs something in him and he can't verbalize what. He just knows he wants to hear it more.
"Yeah. It's more than I ever expected. You have to agree it's better than an Alliance holding cell?"
She just looks at him, for what felt like minutes. Finally she says "Ok. Ok, John. Just...keep me in the loop? If you need anything, I'm here?"
He smiles at her, a forced, shaky smile.
"Of course. We'll have dinner together once I'm settled in…assuming Jane ehhh…allows it. Not sure she will give me much leeway in foreseeable future"
Liara looked at him strangely, about to say something. Instead she fisted her hands in his teeshirt, raised herself up on her tiptoes, and pressed her lips against his cheek. He almost jumped back with a start, but stopped himself. Liara wouldn't hurt him.
"Don't worry so much about Jane. She might keep you at distance initially, but she wants you in her life. Otherwise she wouldn't have pulled so many strings to have you released to her responsibility. So try to be happy, ok?"
"Yeah, thank you..."
With that she leaves him, stranded in his new home, a please stay on the tip of his tongue.