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Liara was waiting for her when Shepard exited the War Room. "Shepard." She looked hastily around the CIC, and ushered Shepard to the elevator. When the doors had closed behind them, Liara put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

"Really." Liara raised her eyebrows. "Do you expect me to believe that?"

"It's been coming for a long time, Liara. I've had time to prepare."

"That doesn't mean you have to be all right. You know that, don't you?"

Shepard shrugged wearily. "Who has time?"

"No one has time for you to break down in the middle of a firefight, or a negotiation, either," Liara pointed out.

"I won't. I promise."

"Because you'll talk to your friends?"

"Because I'll talk to my friends."

The two women looked at each other, and slowly they both smiled, knowing equally that Shepard wasn't about to talk about it, and Liara wasn't about to give up on her.

"I'll tell you this—I don't know what I would do without you." Shepard reached forward and pulled her friend in for a hug.

"You won't ever have to find out," Liara promised.

The elevator opened on the engineering deck, and Liara let Shepard get out, although she still looked worried as the doors closed between them. Shepard proceeded down the hall and knocked on Emily Wong's door.

"Come in!" Emily looked up from her datapad as Shepard entered, her eyes searching Shepard's face. She got to her feet. "Shepard. I heard what happened. How are you? I mean, really. And off the record."

"I'm fine, both off and on the record. Speaking of, you wanted to ask me a few things about the attack on the Citadel?"

"Are you sure you're ready for this?"

Shepard sighed. "No time like the present." At some point she wanted to be able to put everything that had happened today behind her, and to do that she had to get this interview out of the way.

"All right. So … 'a brazen attack on the Citadel by Cerberus, bravely repelled by Commander Shepard and her crew'."

"No. Leave me out of this. I don't want my name and Cerberus mentioned in the same breath again if I can avoid it—and better by far for the security of the Citadel if the galaxy thinks C-Sec managed it with only minimal assistance from me."

Emily nodded, making a note on the datapad. "Good point. 'Bravely repelled by C-Sec.'"

"Better."

Getting to her feet, Emily set up her camera and put Shepard where she could be seen clearly by it, taking up her own position just opposite. "Ready?"

"Ready."

The camera rolled, and Emily began, in her reporter voice. "Commander Shepard, it's no secret that Council space has suffered some serious losses to the Reapers lately. Now Cerberus has struck directly at the seat of our government. If something as small as a human terrorist organization can hit the Citadel, is anywhere safe?"

Shepard faced the camera directly, making eye contact with it as best she could. "Cerberus has limited resources." Less limited than she would have liked, but compared to the rest of the galaxy? Even the Illusive Man was going to have to run out of money sometime. "This coup attempt was likely the best they could do, and it cost them a lot of money and troops. A little fear is understandable—but it can't paralyze you. They've failed as many times as they've succeeded."

"But humanity has lost its Councilor," Emily pointed out.

And good riddance, too, Shepard thought, although she knew better than to say that out loud.

Emily went on, "The Alliance Parliament is destroyed, and the prime minister is dead. The line of succession is getting pretty short. How long do you expect any new Alliance administration to last?"

"Leaders will rise," Shepard said, sounding more confident than she felt. "They always do. You can't lose hope. Our enemies won't rest until they've taken the last human being. We're not going to let them do that—and as long as even one of us stands, we're not beaten. Right now, it's everyone's duty to step up."

"Strong words, Commander."

"They're the truth."

"Now, you were on the Citadel shortly after the attack occurred, weren't you?"

Shepard nodded, feeling some of her tension ease as Emily, an expert interviewer, led her through the events on the Citadel. She left out Thane's contribution to the day and Kai Leng entirely, focusing instead on the events, on Bailey's bravery, and on C-Sec's response.

Finally the interview was over, and Emily turned off the camera. "You're a natural, you know."

Shepard smiled. "Hard to believe. I hate being on camera."

"Well, you couldn't tell. This interview is going to boost morale. People are frightened, and what happened on the Citadel is going to frighten them more. The fact that you can stay calm and treat this as just one more thing to fight will give them courage."

"I hope so. They're going to need it."

"Shepard, you know you can always come talk to me—off the record, of course—if it would help."

"I know. And thank you. I'm … not much for the talking." It was Thane she most wanted to talk to, Thane who had always understood. But Thane was gone; she would never talk to him again, never hear his wise counsel. She would have to be her own counsel going forward, and despite being on a ship surrounded by people who loved her, she had never felt so alone. "I'll be all right."

Emily nodded, taking that for the evasion it was, but Shepard could feel her friend's worried eyes on her all the way down the hall to the elevator.