Chapter 2 – Sleepless Dreams and Restless Nights

Sarah looked out over the clear mountain lake before her. The Scandic mountains were always beautiful in the fall, one of the last untouched wildernesses on the planet. She took a deep breath, the air was crisp and cool, yet she didn't feel cold at all.

"Been too long since we were last out here, huh sweetheart?"

She turned around to face father. Eric Shepard hadn't aged a day since she last saw him. That, of course, made a certain kind of sense. Though she couldn't say she actually knew the rules of this place.

"Mm." She replied, turning back to the lake. "I used to love it here. Never went back after you left though... Missed it, if I'm honest."

He scowled as he walked up beside her and sat down on a log. "Do you have to say it like that? Makes me sound like som deadbeat."

"Fine," she sighed. "died. Whatever. Same thing."

"Pretty sure one's voluntary and the other one isn't, sweetie."

"Pretty sure you didn't have to go on the mission. Pretty sure you could have signed up for shipboard duty like a normal person. Or a desk job." she grumbled, but immediately felt guilty, and not just a little bit like a massive hypocrite.

Her father chuckled. "Do I even need to say anything?". His smirk was infuriating, but it melted her anger just as it had when she was was a little girl.

She sighed again. "No. I know." she sat down next to him, chucking a rock into the lake absentmindedly. "I paid for it too."

"I know" he replied sombery. "I'm proud of you, you know? Always knew you were going to be a hellreaiser, but even I didn't picture half the stuff you've done."

"Thanks, Dad." she said quietly, but didn't say anything more for a long moment.

"Ok, I'll bite. What's the matter?"

She sighed. "I don't know, I just... I shouldn't need this. I'm over 30, I'm a badass marine... I said goodbye to you a long time ago, Dad, and I just..." she shrugged "I love that you're here, I've missed you so much. But after waking up again the last time, I'd just kind of resigned myself to never seeing you again. It was sad, but I dealt with it, this just... makes it hard again, I guess. In some ways."

"You'll never really be alone... you know that, right?"

"I felt alone a lot, for a long time." She said "And I used to believe that... I want to believe that. Maybe I will again..."

They fell into a companiable silence for a long time, watching the sun start to set beyond the ridge, her head on his shoulder. It was blissful, but she knew it wouldn't last. That it wasn't real. She finally voiced her thoughts.

"It's also how I know none of this is real."

He turned to her with a slight frown. "What to do you mean?"

"It's how I know I'm not dead. I already did that bit once. No trips down memory lane with dear old dad that time, just darkness and then I woke up on a medbed and it was 2 years later."

He seemed to consider the point. "I mean I agree, you're definitely not dead. As for wether I showed up that time you did die, I don't know sweetie... might be you just don't remember?"

"Feels like something you'd remember though, doesn't it? No, I'm probably dying right now, tripping balls under a few metric tonnes of debris on what's left of the Citadel. It's all happening inside my head, which means I still have a head for it to happen in..."

"Well, of course it's happening inside your head Sarah, but why sh-"

She leveled him with a deadpan expression "We're not doing the Dumbledore speech, Dad."

He chuckled. "You asked me to read you those damn books at least 20 times, seems to me you actually love them."

"Still do." she admitted. "I even went to London eventually, like we talked about. Though it was kinda blowing up at the time". He chuckled again at that.

"It was one of the things I was looking forward to the most actually, all the books we sued to read. I Was planning to read them to-" she stopped, a deep sadness settling at in the pit of her stomach.

Eric placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "You will." he sook his head "Blue granddaughters, didn't see that one coming." smiling, he went on. "She's quite something, isn't she; your girl?"

Sarahs face split into a dreamy grin. "The best." she turned to face him "Do you think Gramma Nina would have keeled over over the whole gallavanting with an alien thing?"

He snorted. "No way. I happen to know she was quite the fan of the asari. You know... aesthetically speaking." he rubbed the back of his neck, much like she herself was prone to do. "Ma Rosalie was lucky there weren't any around for competition back in the day, if anything."

She laughed loudly. "Ok, maybe I am dead. There's no way I could have known that... or maybe I'm just projecting. I do have a type, apparenlty."

He hugged her against his side, and she sank into him "You're not dead, sweetheart. We will see eachother again though, but hopefully not for a really long time. Now stop worrying about it, and just enjoy the vacation until it's time to wake up."

She decided to do just that, and closed her eyes.

The veritable brigade of doctors assigned to Shepards care had declared her mostly out of harms way a few days ago,, and she'd started to be allowed more than one visitor at a time shortly after that, albeit with strict instructions to remain calm and quiet while in the room. The entire crew, plus friends both old and new had stopped by since then. Perhaps most surprinsg of these visits had been councilor Tevos. The asari matriarch was, as far as anyone knew, the only surviving member of the Council, having ridden out the Reaper onslaught in on of the militia strongholds. She seemed to feel, and rightly so if you were to ask Liara, that she owed Shepard her life for this alone, let alone the final defeat of the enemy. Stoic as the matriarchs tended to be, she wouldn't say the woman quite threw herself at Sarahs feet, but it was as good as, and she assured Liara that whatever assistance she could provide going forward, be it professional or personal, she would gladly offer.

The krogan contingent, consisting of Wrex and Grunt, had been unusually somber. Liara guessed that a great warrior who was gravely injured and helpless was far more disturbing for their kind than a heroic death in battle. To see Wrex being so gentle as he was when speaking to Sarahs unmoving form was quite heartbreaking. 'Goddess, I'm so tired of crying.' she thought as she wiped at her eyes again at the memory. Grunt had wanted to stay and stand guard, but had been promptly shooed off by Dr. Chawkas under threat of a full physical. The chair next to the bed, however, had been near consistently occupied by the same asari maiden continously for over a week. Liara T'Soni was exhausted, if she were to be honest with herself, but there was no way she was leaving Sarahs side for even a second.

She'd had a lot of time to think over the past week. Too much time, really, but once it was clear that Sarah was not in immediate danger of dying, and as her prognosis continued to improve, her anxiety lessened and the worst catastrophy scenarios started to ebb from her mind. The fear that she would never wake up remained, however, and was currently the most persistent worry Liara had. So enraptured was she by pondering the future that she almost missed the slight stirring on the bed in front of her. Not until she felt a faint squeeze from the hand she was holding did her focus shift and she gasped. A pair of deep emerald eyes, bloodshot and unfocused, but open and looking at her, met her gaze.

"Hi." Sarah rasped, voice barely above a coarse whisper.

The mundane greeting felt so out of place that Liara felt a surprised laugh escape her, before tears, this time of joy, spilled down her cheeks.

"Hello, love." she whispered, leaning over and kissing Sarahs forehead.

"M'srry." she mumbled.

Liara squeezed her hand gently. "Shh, don't try to speak. Apparently you inhaled fire, your throat is still healing."

"Blew up t' C'del."

Liara chuckled wetly. "Yes, you did."

"C'ncil'll be mad..."

"Don't worry about that now." she said, kissing the hand she was holding gently "Just rest now."

"M'kay... love..."

"I love you too. I'll be right here."

With that, Sarah Shepard drifted off to sleep again, and Liara followed her a moment later, her head on the side of Sarahs bed, her mind finally able to rest."

Sarah woke up only sporadically over the next few days, speaking only a few mumbled words each time, but Karin assured her it was normal with extensive trauma. That she apparently seemed to recognize Liara, and likewise appeared to be able to remember events up to and including the trauma was also a very good sign, she was told. As for the injuries themselves, the Cerberus cybernetics in Sarahs body had recovered somewhat, and she was expected to make a full recovery save from some mild dermal scarring. The human skin, Karin explained, was a complex organ and hard to repair seamlessly, and at any rate, the genemods were apparently doing a better job than anything the Allience medical corp could muster. The genemods were a marvel, apparently, not only were they able to regenerate cells to a degree not otherwise seen in medical science, human or otherwise, but they enabled the cells to regenerate near perfectly each time. Karin said it would certainly have an impact on shepards longevity. How much of an impact she couldn't really say, since there was no presedence, but she assured Liara that Sarah would likely outlive any human currently alive, if that meant a few decades or a few centuries more than the average human lifespan of 150, however, she couldn't say.

This bit of news had Liara quite giddy, though she was careful not to show it. As an asari and... bonded 'Is that what we are... I know we both agree that there is no one else, but we never talked about it... the war always came in the way, one crisis after another...', to a shorter lived species, she was supposed to have a long-term philosophical outlook on the whole thing. Sarah would eventually die of old age, Liara would still be young, and she would move on, carrying a part of her with her always but taking new lovers, maybe even new bondmates. But privately Liara was forced to admit that she was quite bad at being asari. The idea of outliving the woman who she was very certain was the love of her life, her 'one true love', as the humans would say, scared her immensely. She'd have to go through it once, and at that point their relationship had still been new. Even then it had been utterly devestating, it had completely changed her, made her cold. With Sarahs help she eventually found herself again, but it took time. So to be given some reprieve from this eventuality was most welcome. 5 or 600 years without Sarah, if they were lucky, would be hard, but more tolerable than 8 or 900 to be sure. At any rate, she couldn't imagine there ever being anyone else, no matter how many years she would be left alone in this universe. Perhaps it was childish, perhaps the matriarchs and matrons had been right and she was still little more than a child. But it was how she felt, and narcisstistic as it may be she felt she'd alredy done more in her just over 100 years than most of her kind accomplished in a lifetime.

She turned her attention back to the datapad she had been reading. It was a collection of human poetry that Ashley had given her on her last visit, someone named Tenyson, who was apparently the other womans favorite. It was... interesting, she thought. Not quite as flowing and asari poetry, kind of austere and to the point. Much like humans in general, in fact. Even after several years of being around many of their kind, and even after falling deeply in love with a human woman, she still found them perplexing at times. They were just so contradictory and multifaceted, intelligent and thoughtful yet blunt and, if she was being honest, oddly fond of abject stupidity, often for no other reason than thinking the outcome might be entertaining. Caring and compassionate yet prone to ruthless violence if and when the situation called for it. It was odd to know a person who could fluctuate so wildly depending on the situation. Sarah was a prime example, really, she mused. She was lithe and ethereal, the most beautiful person, of any species, that Liara had ever seen. She was also the kindest and most compassionate person she'd ever met. And yet she'd personally witnessed the woman rip the antennae of a salarian with her bare hands and dispatch too many of her enemies to count with ruthless efficiency. At times it felt almost like being with a tiny, very compassionate krogan who was also easy on the eyes. She chuckled softly at the mental image. She'd brought these thoughts up to Sarah on a few occassions, but her lover would just laugh and sum the whole thing up with a shrug and a 'What can I say, we're weird?'. And she was at that, Liara thought. And she loved it, all of it that made the woman she loved who she was, she loved, even the quirky and sometimes scary parts.

She was so deep in her thoughts that she hadn't heard the door open behind her, and jumped a bit when the visitor spoke.

"Doctor T'Soni?"

Liara whipped around and stood up. Her first instict was to fight, but the managed to remind herself that the war was over, and the location was, as far as she knew, secure. She looked the newcomer over. She was a human woman, middle aged if she had to guess, and wore Alliance Navy bridge blues that needed a good wash and a press, the bars indicating a higher rank though not one she'd remembered seeing before. The green eyes and red hair, even though streaked with gray, made her quite certain who this person must be.

"Yes?" she replied, warily. She was quite certain Sarahs mother wasn't about to attack her or anything of the sort, but she was decidedly not in the headspace for, as Sarah would say, 'meet the parents' just then. From her research it seemed to be a very complicated and daunting ritual.

She was worries increased when the woman strode forward quickly. She needn't have worried however, and was startled when instead of a blow, or angry words, she found herself enveloped in a firm hug.

The woman seemed to catch herself and let go, taking a quick step backwards. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" she said, sounding flustered. "I'm not quite myself these past few days. Hannah Shepard." she extended her hand to Liara.

Liara herself was still reeling from the unexpected greeting, and just blinked at the elder Shepard for a moment.

"Oh no, you don't shake hands do you? Do you bow? I took the interspecies relations course once I swear but-"

The mannerisms were so like Sarahs that it flipped Liara even more off kilter. The older version had a slight accent that was different from Sarahs, Liara would call it almost musical, but otherwise the mannerisms and speech patters were remarkably similar. 'It really is like talking to an older clone, this is surreal' she managed to think before composing herself. "Oh no, that's quite alright, I was just surprised is all." she finally replied, taking Hannahs hand and shaking it in the humans fashion. "Liara T'Soni, just Liara though, please. It's nice to meet you, Admiral Shepard."

Hannahs face lit up with relief "Just Hannah, please. Sarah's told me so much about you." she sombered then, glancing towards the hospital bed where her daughter lay sleeping "I just wish we could have done this sooner, and under better circumstances."

She moved to the bed and sat down on the side of the bed, careful not the rustle her daughter. She tucked a stran of the shirt har that had started to grow back away from her forhead. "My poor baby..."

She turned to Liara. "They said she's stable, but how is she really?"

"Improving." Liara said, taking her seat in the chair on the other side of the bed. "She's woken up a few times, but only for a few minutes at a time. It's still hard for her to speak."

Hannah nodded. "Does she know where she is, that we won?"

"I think so... she remembered that she, and I quote, 'blew up the Citadel'"

Hannah snorted at that "That's my girl." she smirked "I'll have to tease her about doing it half-assed though, it's still there after all. All those jibes about being a bad-ass marine..."

"You never served in the ground forces then?" Liara asked, she'd been told that it was always important to 'make conversation', no matter how flustered one was.

"No, ship rat trough and through." Hannah relplied. "Ground combat is too dirty and gritty for me. Should have known this one would become a ground pounder though." she said, nodding her head at Sarah. "Grew up on ships, but still managed to find the one planter on within walking distance to muck around in the dirt."

Liara laughed then and had to clamp a hand over her mouth so not to disturb Sarah too much. "Really?" her eyes shone with mirth. "No."

"Honest to God" Hannah said, laughing softly as well. "I have the pictures to prove it. I'll show you sometime. But I think it's only fair if the victim of the baby-pictures rirual is actually awake for it, not much fun without the embarassment, really."

Liara found herself feeling oddly disappointed, seeing images of Sarah as a small child held an odd sort of appeal.

"Which," Hannah went on "also goes for having the what-are-your-intentions-towards-my-daughter talk with you, equally lackluster without her awake to glare at me while I do it." she finished with a wink.

"My intentions are to spend my life with her." Liara said, then her eyes widened as she realized she'd spoken her thoughts out loud.

Hannah raised an eyebrow, but smiled kindly. "Pretty blunt, aren't you?"

"Well, I- that is to say I don't intend- not that I don't-"

Hannah laughed softly again. "Wow, ok." there was no mocking in her tone, however. "Yeah I can see why she fell for you. Cute when you get flustered, that's for sure."

She composed herself and grew more serious. "Look, Liara. My daughter has told me enough through correspondence to know that she would do anything for you... and I assume you feel the same way. The fact that you, if the doctors are to be believed, have lived in that chair for over a week makes me believe that my assumption is entirely warranted."

Her face softened then. "I'm happy she found you, because she's happy she found you. That's all I care about. As for threatening you with bodily harm should you hurt her, I guess I could, for traditions sake, but based on what she's told me I'm pretty sure it's a fight you'd win."

"Besides," she grinned "Sarah's at least twice the fighter I am, so I doubt I'd have to do it myself." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, Eric- that's Sarahs father- always used to joke about it, scaring off boys. I always thought it was stupid and antiquated, but when we figured out that these hypothetical troublemakers would be girls rather than boys then suddenly it was supposedly my job. Honestly! For a man with two mothers he could be surprisingly old-fashioned in his ideas about gender roles."

They spoke some more about Sarahs childhood, Hannahs life in the Allience Navy and all the ships and stations they'd lived on during Sarahs childhood, before Hannah decided to change the subject.

"Enough about me, though, I want to learn about this woman who's swept my Sarah off her feet."

Liara got flustered again. "Oh! Well, there's not much to tell, really. I'm an academc, really, with a speciality in exoarcheology."

Hannah leaned forward, looking genuinely interested. "That sounds fascinating. You must have visited a lot of worlds?"

Liara smiled, the reaction reminded her a lot of Sarah when they had first met. Someone actually listenting to her and, above all, taking what she said seriously had been a novelty then. "A fair few, yes. My research was almost exclusively on the protheans. It's how me and Sarah met, actually, she needed the expertise and found me being attacked by another... faction, who wanted the same thing."

Hannah hummed. "Mm, she told me a bit about it in her letters." her eyes darkened slightly "I'm sorry about your mother."

"T-thank you." Liara replied, stuttering slightly. "She came back to me, before... before the end. We got to say goodbye.".

Hannah nodded sympathetically. "It's important. Saying goodbye, I mean." She got a faraway look on her face. "We never got that, with Eric. Life went from routine to utterly broken in a single day."

"I'm sorry, Hannah."

"Thank you. It's alright though." she replied. "It was a long time ago."

"Sarah rarely speaks of him. Her father, I mean." Liara commented.

"No, I know." Hannah said with a sigh. "It's still raw for her. She was angry for a long time. Still is, I think. She was only 14 at the time, and that's a rough age for anyone -for humans, anyway-, and having something like that happen is just... unfair."

"I understand." Liara said softly. "I didn't have the best relationship with my mother, she didn't approve of the path I wanted to walk, and I resented her for it. When she died we'd been estranged for several years. I regret that now, I'm not sure I was wrong, exactly, but in the end our disagreements seemed... petty, and unimportant." Liara was shocked at how frank and open she was being. She'd just met this woman today, and yet it felt like speaking with an old friend, someone she'd known for years, someone she trusted. It was another similarity between mother and daughter, Sarah had had much the same effect on her all those years ago, even when they'd first met on Therum.

"We can't control the tides of fate." Hannah mused. "Everyone makes mistakes, especially when we're young, but parents do too. I'm sure your mother was proud of you, even if she didn't know how to tell you as much."

"I'd like to think so." Liare replied softly.

"What about your father?" Hannah asked gently, not wanting to stir any more painful memories.

"She left when I was very young and my parents separated... it was complicated. She's also asari, and there's a certain... stigma, in asari society, when it comes to procreating within our own species. Alien partners are preffered."

"Seems like a very odd stigma?" Hannah asked, one of her eyebrows arching.

"I agree. We're supposed to learn from our bondmates -err, spouses?" Hannah nodded in confirmation "Spouses. And there's a feeling that if both are asari then nothing new is learned. But I've come to realize, especially since meeting Sarah, and spending a lot of time around humans and other species, that we're all just individuals. Race doesn't matter for much, in the end."

"Very wise." Hannah replied, nodding. "Did you ever reconnect, you and your father?"

Liara smiled sadly. "Yes. I found out who she was not so long ago, we were making some strides just before the final battle. "

She sighed. "She was on the Citadel. I haven't heard from here, nor do I know if she's even alive... I feel like I should be more worried about that than I am. I am worried, don't misunderstand... but I hardly know her. I suppose the worry I feel is more like that for an aquaintence than a parent, but-"

"I think that's understandable." Hannah reassured her. "Things like that takes time. I'm sure you'll be able to locate her once things stabilize." she smirked "Might be nice to have another grandparent around so I don't have to spoil the grandkids all on my lonesome."

Liara flushed blue "I- we have talked about it but-"

Hannah laughed heartily "Don't worry, love, I'm only teasing. Not that I'd be opposed being made a grandmother, mind you, but I'm pretty sure there are both written and unwritten rules saying it's none of my business."

Both womens attention were suddenly drawn to the bed, where Sarah Shepard, perhaps awoken by her mothers somehwhat loud laughter, began to stir. Liara leaned forward.

"Sarah?"

"Mmm..."

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I blew up the Citadel..."

Liara chuckled warmly "Yes, so you keep reminding me. Yes, love, you are a very mighty warrior."

"The mightiest."

"Your speech is getting better. Are you in pain?" Sarah shook her head slighty.

"Good." Liara said with a smile "Because you have a visitor."

Sarahs singed eyebrow rose slightly and repositioned her head to look on the other side of the bed, her chapped lips broke into a tired smile. "Mom."

Hannah smiled at her daughter, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "Hi sweetheart."

"Hi mummy..." Sarah mumbled sleepily.

Hannah chuckled. "You really must be out of it, honey, you haven't called me that since you were 9."

"S' your name..."

"That it is. So, I showed your girlfriend your baby pictures."

Sarahs eyes shot open in an instant. "You did not!"

Hannah laughed, turning to Liara with a broad smile "Oh look, she's up!"

Sarahs wakefullness had been short lived, however, and she soon fell alseep again. Dr. Chakwas had stoped by and when both Liara and Hannah asked they were assured that it was normal for a body healing from massive trauma. Hannah, sadly, couldn't stay much longer. As she was uninjured save for a few scrapes and bruises she remained on active duty, and as such had, as she put it, 'places to be and people to see'. Liara leaned into the hug this time, and promised that she would keep her updated on Sarahs progress and well-being until Hannah could get away from work long enough to come see them again.

Once it was all over and done with, Liara looked back on the events of the day with fascination. She liked Hannah, she really liked her. She made her comfortable, if a bit flustered, but above all she felt accepted, seen and welcomed. Hannah Shepard appeared to be so many things that her own mother hadn't been, and now that she had met the woman, she wondered how she had ever been able to imagine the person who raised her Sarah to be anything different than who she'd just met. Their talk had made her think about her Aethyta, however. Her relationship with her father was brand new, and fragile. But she felt increasingly guilty about her lack of care in finding out if the older woman was even alive. She had family, so many people did not. And if she still had family of her own left in the universe, surely that was a gift worth pursuing. A part of her also relished the idea of introducing Hannah and her father and watch events unfold. 'Poke it with a stick to see what happens', like Sarah usually said. With that in mind, she stood up and kissed Sarah on the forehead.

"I'll be right back, love."

She left the room and made her way to the front desk, the same woman that had been on duty when she first arrived at the hospital was again seated behind the terminal.

"Ah, Doctor T'Soni. Good evening, I hope everything's alright?"

Liara smiled. "Yes, thank you Natalie. And you?"

"These 15 hour shifts are brutal, ma'am." she replied, rolling her shoulders for emphasis "And I'm not entirely sure if we're actually being paid still. But hey, I'm alive and employed in the middle of an apocalypse, so that's something." she smiled at her own joke. "What can I do for you."

"I need help locating someone who was hopefully evacuated from the Citadel. Do you have a databese of evacuees?"

Natalie nodded. "We do, it's being updated all the time still, though, the evacuation wasn't exactly organized. More of a using whatever spaceworthy craft could still fly and then landing them wherever there was access to food and water kind of thing, yaknow?"

"I understand, could you run a search for me?"

"Certainly, ma'am."

"Excellent, an asari matriarch, Aethyta."

"And last name?"

Liara blinked, feeling embarassed. "You know, I'm not actually sure..."

"That's alright." Natalie reassured her. "Maybe it's not a common name?"

"Never met another one, so I don't think so no."

"Alright, we'll see what we can do. It might take a little while, a lot of the databases are still independnet, not much of a centralized system in place right now."

Liara nodded, thanked the woman and asked her to contact her in Sarahs room if anything turned up.

Meanwhile, in a makeshift camp on the North American pacific coast, a very frustrated elderly asari was having a heated discussion with an equally frustrated Alliance clerk.

"As I told you already, ma'am, my system can only track Allience military personell, as you're daughter is asari, civilian or otherwise you'll need to contact asari authorities."

Aethyta growled at the man "Listen here dipshit, like I've told you a million times, she served on an Alliance warship. And where the fuck would I find 'asari authorities' on this shitheap of a rock anyway?"

The clerk frowned at her. "And was she actually on the crew roster of that ship? Because if not there's really nothing I can do for you."

The asari fumed "All I'm asking you to do is look, asshole!"

A tall woman wearing officers bars approached the quarreling pair. "Is there a problem here, Corporal?"

Before the man in question could respond, Aethyta turned to the newcomer and answered for him "You're damn right there's a problem. I'm trying to locate my daughter, and this piece of pyjak shit won't run a simple search!"

The woman frowned, but turned to the corporal. "You're relieved, go get some chow and some rack time, I'll take over.."

He nodded and stalked off in a huff. She turned back to Aethyta. "Apologies ma'am, we're all overworked. Now, how can I help you?"

Aethyta took a deep breath,. "I'm sorry for my outburst... I just want answers."

"I understand. I'll be happy to do what I can for you."

"Ok. Thank you. My daughter, she served on the Normandy. In what capacity I have no fucking clue. I heard the ship made it back, but I have no idea if she was still on board or if she's alive or dead."

The officer hummed, but nodded. "If she was on the roster, we should be able to locate her, or last known whereabouts anyway. What's her name, ma'am."

Aethyta perked up a litte. " Liara. Liara T'Soni."

The officer nodded and began tapping on her haptic interface.