Three Little Lovebirds
Chapter 15 – Going Under
After a few minutes that passed far too quickly, Lucy broke off the embrace.
"You going to be okay?"
Tali hesitated briefly, but nodded her head.
"Yes, don't worry about me; I guess I'm just a bit shaken."
"Your dad certainly knows how to make an entrance."
"I've never seen him like that before," the young Quarian glanced at the recently vacated airlock, as if expecting to see Rael re-enter at any moment. "I mean, I've seen him angry plenty of times, but that was unbelievable."
Her voice quavered noticeably as she spoke and it took her a few seconds to find the words she was looking for.
"I-I was so scared...for you; I thought he was going to kill you."
Lucy's hand instinctively went to her throat where the tip of the Admiral's sword had left a tiny nick in the skin. It was a sobering thought that, should he have wished it, Rael could have ended her tale there and then.
Refusing to let what might have been plague her thoughts, Lucy gave Tali a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder.
"Well, I'm still here. You're not going to get rid of me that easily."
She couldn't resist placing a brief, chaste kiss on the top of her lover's head. Lucy wasn't sure exactly what it was about Tali that brought out her protective instincts, but she did know that the Admiral had been right. If it ever came down to it, she would put the young girl's safety above her own any day.
"I love you Tali."
She felt, rather than saw, the warmth of her lover's smile. It was uncanny how well she'd learnt to read the young Quarian; she hadn't even realised she could until they confessed their feelings for each other. Since then, her mind had attuned itself to picking up the subtle cues in Tali's body language.
"Those words will never cease to bring me joy Shepard."
"Well I hope not because I'll never get tired of saying them."
Lucy was certain she had the most gormlessly mushy expression adorning her features. She couldn't help it; whenever she was with Tali it took an active effort to remember that she was meant to be a tough-as-nails spectre whose primary duty was to protect the galaxy. There were times like now when she wished she could just forget the whole thing and give her young partner the love and attention she deserved.
Sadly, spending a romantic evening with Tali would do little to slow the Reaper's invasion plans. Until Saren and his Geth were brought to justice, their love life would have to work around their duty schedules.
With fond farewells and promises to meet in Lucy's cabin after their shifts, the two parted ways. It wasn't until Tali had exited down the stairs to engineering that the spectre suddenly recalled what had been curtailed by Rael's untimely arrival.
'Liara'
Making a sharp, 180˚ turn, the spectre hurried back to the Medbay, almost colliding with Garrus as he came up the stairs.
"Shepard, I wanted to congratulate you on the way you..."
"Not now Garrus! Kinda busy, sorry."
Before the Turian could formulate a response, Lucy had disappeared from view, leaving an apologetic and rather forced smile in her wake. Clicking his mandibles in his species form of a sigh, the C-Sec officer continued on his way.
"Nobody ever tells me anything."
After several near misses with most of her squad and awkwardly excusing herself from their questioning, Lucy finally arrived in the medical ward. The ever-present Doctor Chakwas glanced up at her as she entered.
"Anything to report?" the spectre enquired, nodding towards the bed where Liara lay unconscious. The medical officer's expression told her all she needed to know.
"It just doesn't make sense. According to her brainwaves, Liara may as well be asleep yet nothing I can do causes so much as a stir. Frankly, if your duel with the Quarian didn't wake her, I don't know what will. Speaking of which..."
Chakwas broke off mid sentence to rummage through a draw full to the brim with various pieces of medical equipment. After a few seconds of searching, she withdrew a liquid filled bag and handed it to the spectre.
"Ice pack. I was told you sustained a head injury, although from the hyperbole I've heard flying around it sounded more like decapitation."
Lucy accepted the bag without protest, suddenly too tired to offer any kind of token resistance. In the wake of all that had happened in the past few days, complaining about such a simple thing would seem rather petty.
"Thanks Doc," the spectre murmured, grinning at the scowl her colloquialism drew from the doctor "To be honest I'd completely forgotten about it."
"Yes, it's always the same with you." Chakwas remarked "So focused on protecting others that you forget to extend the same courtesy to yourself."
Lucy raised a quizzical eyebrow at her medical officer's tone.
"You're no good to anyone dead, least of all the people who love you."
"What brought all this on?"
The doctor cast a sidelong glance at the motionless Asari.
"She's been calling your name. At first I was sure I was imagining it, but it's definitely there. It's the only thing she's said aloud since the incident."
Lucy felt fresh pangs of sympathy for the comatose Asari. Her life had steadily gone from bad to worse and now she was left thinking there wasn't anyone in the whole galaxy who cared about her. Shepard was all too familiar with the feeling, having lost her parents to Batarian slavers when she was young, but at least then she'd had the Alliance and other, off world relations. Liara quite literally had nobody; or at least, that was how she saw it.
"What can I do Doc?" the spectre whispered, too tired to try and conceal her vulnerability. "Seeing her hurt like this is killing me but the only solution I can think of could potentially ruin the life of someone else. Someone I love very much."
Doctor Chakwas was no psychologist, but it was obvious Lucy wanted her advice as a fellow woman and friend, not a professional opinion. Of course, Shepard's situation was quite different to anything she'd ever experienced, but sometimes all it took was an impartial observer with no vested interests to help make sense of conflicting emotions.
"Does this other person know about your feelings for her?"
Lucy nodded, taking a moment to consider how Tali had reacted when she'd told her. The issue was still nowhere near settled. Beyond reassurances that it didn't diminish her love for the spectre, the Quarian had not really had a chance to actually voice her opinion.
"She does, but it's something of a grey area." Lucy admitted "We haven't really had a chance to talk things through, what with the mission on Verdus and then Rael showing up."
Chakwas nodded sagely, hopping up to sit of the operating table facing Liara's. Beside her, Shepard did the same.
"What makes you think there's actually a problem? How did Tali react to the news?"
"I guess it was naive of me to think you didn't know who I was talking about." Lucy smirked, although the humour didn't quite make it to her eyes. "At first, she was fine, but I think it just hadn't sunk in properly because I found her crying later on. God, that image is going to stay with me as long as I live."
"Did she say anything else?"
"She thought I loved Liara more than her. I-It was heartbreaking...she seemed to care more for my happiness than her own...as if she'd somehow failed me and not the other way round. I tried to explain as best I could and eventually, she seemed to accept what I was saying. We haven't really had the chance to talk any further...I was planning on addressing it tonight."
Doctor Chakwas spent long seconds considering what Lucy had told her. The spectre had an uncanny knack for attracting trouble, and it was evident this didn't end when she stepped off the battlefield.
"So, what you're saying is that Tali's reticence sprang from a feeling of inadequacy? She thought you had fallen for Liara because she wasn't good enough for you?"
"I-I guess so." Lucy muttered, surprised at the ring of truth in her officer's words. "God, she couldn't be more wrong if she tried...she means so much to me."
"Have you considered the possibility of a three-way relationship?"
Shepard glanced at the doctor in total shock.
"Oh come on Commander, this isn't the 2100's. People are less hung up about that kind of thing than when I was young. Besides, both Tali and Liara are different species; maybe it's not an uncommon occurrence amongst their people."
Lucy opened her mouth to tell Chakwas what a ludicrous idea it was, but found herself forced to close it without saying anything. Crazy as it might seem, there wasn't actually a single reason she could come up with to just dismiss the notion out of hand.
"I-I'll admit, the possibility hadn't really occurred to me." Lucy faltered, suddenly out of her depth.
"Well, I'm just speaking from a purely logical standpoint. Seems to me like you've loved your way into a corner, so to speak, and the only way to escape is by thinking outside the box."
Lucy was surprised to find that she was actually considering it. The thought had crossed her mind before, but only now did she actually realise that the possibility wasn't quite as far-fetched as it first sounded. There was still the more immediate problem however.
"You've certainly given me a lot to think about, but we're still no closer to finding a cure for Liara." Lucy sighed. Before it had seemed like a simple solution; confess her love for the Asari and hope it would be enough to reach her grief-stricken heart. Now though, it just didn't seem to be the right thing to do. There was absolutely no certainty that Tali would be in any way agreeable to the rather unorthodox plan. Until there was, anything she said to Liara could just be false hope...something far more destructive than no hope at all.
Then again, could she just sit by and do nothing when a woman she loved was in pain and the means to potentially end it lay within her power? It was an all or nothing thing...there was no guarantee Liara could even hear her, and it would certainly take something shocking and powerful to penetrate her subconscious.
"I'm at a loss," the doctor admitted, shaking her head sadly "The only thing I could think of that might help is if someone joined with her. Unfortunately, we'd need another Asari to initiate the link."
Shepard froze, the cogs of her mind spinning at an incredible rate. Of course; the answer was staring her in the face.
"Not necessarily Doc, I think I may have an idea."
"Care to share it with the class?"
Lucy felt a broad grin spread across her face. In any other situation, Chakwas' matronly attitude towards the spectre would be bordering on insubordination.
"Me and Liara share some kind of link," Lucy explained, already formulating her plan of action. "I'm not exactly sure of its nature; perhaps it's something to do with our joining after Therum. However it works, it's enabled me to subconsciously enter Liara's dreams while I'm asleep. It's how I knew she was in pain before Rael arrived."
A similar smirk appeared on the medical officer's face as comprehension dawned on her.
"And you're thinking that if I can induce the REM sleep when it occurs, you can use it to contact Liara, brilliant!"
"Can you do it?"
Chakwas scoffed "Of course I can, just give me a second to set it up."
Lucy hopped down from her perch, retreating to a safe distance whilst the doctor bustled around the Medbay, retrieving all the bits of apparatus she'd need. When she was done, the spectre reclined stiffly on one of the gurneys, glancing apprehensively at the half-dome of mesh that encased the top half of her head.
"That is just so I can measure your beta waves." Doctor Chakwas informed her, peeling the adhesive off several electrode pads "It'll let me know if you're in danger, not that I'm anticipating any."
Sticking the wires in place, the medical officer made a few quick checks before taking position at the control panel.
"Try to relax Commander, you'll begin to feel quite sleepy; just embrace the feeling as you normally would and the neural stimulator will do the rest."
Lucy gave the tiniest of nods, careful not to make contact with the sensors encircling her cranium.
"Wish me luck Doc."
Chakwas grimaced, and the last thing Lucy heard before she drifted off was her muttered grumbling.
"I hate it when people call me that."