Things go back to normal for a while once I pull my head out of my ass and my dick out of everything that moves. After I spend a few days sober, I can't imagine what I was thinking. It never would have worked, trying to hide from my pain in other people.

I can't hide from it. I am a bonded Turian without his mate, and that will always hurt.

But I'm also Archangel, and I have work that matters and a team that needs me. And throwing myself into that work helps in a different way than throwing myself into a bottle did. It doesn't numb the pain as effectively, no, but it does make me feel useful. Accomplished. Valuable in some way, even if it's not to her.

I have purpose, and that purpose gives me strength to move on. Or at least move forward.

And Aria is still around for fuck occasionally. We both benefit from that arrangement, and the advantages are seen almost instantly. Yes, the crew may have been right; I'm in a better mood when I'm getting laid even semi-regularly. I get darker when I have to do without it, and I'm not about to unpack that baggage, especially when I don't have to. Aria doesn't seem to have any complaints, and so neither do I. The partnership is beneficial in other ways as well; Aria can keep her boot on the throat of the gangs operating on her station without any of them wise to her source of information on their potential threats to her, and I can stay abreast of all their movements from above and below their radar.

With Aria's help, by the time Christmas has come around, we have put a dent in all of the gang operations on Omega. The citizens here are living noticeably freer lives, and free commerce is becoming a stable and driving force. Omega could pull a profit in a few years if this keeps up; I'd love to see what the Council might think of that. With information from Aria, and her silent backing to take whatever means are necessary without repercussions from the queen of Omega, we are prepared to amp up our own operations. Archangel is going big time with the gangs in my crosshairs.

It's not all easy. It's not always easy. The few days around Christmas are a mixed bag. I get stuck vacillating between being pissed at Shepard for leaving me and daydreaming about what that holiday might have been like for the two of us. They're two sides of the same coin, and that coin is a big platinum chunk of self-loathing.

Thoughts of Shepard, when I'm coherent, bring on thoughts of our friends and my family as well. I abandoned that crew for this one; no one from the Normandy even knows where I am. I wonder if Joker recovered fully from his injuries, I wonder if Wrex and Tali ever needed help with their people, I wonder if Dr. Chakwas is being treated well by whatever crew she's part of now. They'll never be able to update me; I'll never know how their lives turn out because I won't risk them finding me. Memories of Shepard are hard enough in my head; I can't have them walking around in the form of the crew we served on together and the friends we shared for a year.

My family...thoughts of them hurt. I know that Solana must have gone out of her mind with worry when she realized that I left Spectre training, quit C-Sec for good, and disappeared. She must have told my mom, my nieces and nephews, my sisters in law that I was gone. The thought of them crying breaks my heart, but I won't do anything about it. I can picture my oldest brother scouring every corner of the galaxy he has access to in a search for me; he'd never just write me off, but he'll never find me. I can also picture my father; I wonder if he was even surprised that this, whatever he thinks came of me, is how his greatest disappointment turned out.

But again, I'll never know. I won't contact them, I won't even let them know that I'm safe. And this time it's because I'm ashamed.

Bonding wasn't my choice. I didn't even realize it had happened until it was too late, until she was gone for good. But it did happen. I'm a shell of a Turian not only because my bondmate died but because I bonded with someone from a species incapable of returning that bond. Stupid. Pathetic. A waste. My father's voice rings through my mind with each word, easily spewed from a man with his own bondmate. He isn't at risk for being abandoned, though. Even if my mother dies, my father got a lifetime of love. I got nothing. My reward is Omega.

If I were to return or admit where I am and what I'm doing, I would shame the entire Vakarian clan. I refuse to let my foolish heart and my decisions be their demise. They may not see it, but they're better off without me. I'm no good to anyone off this station. I cannot be apart of any of their lives anymore.

And so, when someone arrives on this station and starts asking questions about Archangel and Garrus Vakarian, I go on instant alert. That connection is dangerous for me, even if I'm the only one putting together the pieces of that puzzle at first. Whoever this is, they're a risk, and I'm either going to neutralize them or eliminate them.

Akart starts monitoring our feeds for any sign of the person fitting this description. I set Yom'Jenna to chasing leads and, frankly, to stalking; the lithe Quarian can get in and out of anywhere almost entirely unseen. I get Devon to keep his ear to the ground. And it's only a couple days after I first started hearing these whisperings that the human comes to me with a name, with the identity of the person looking for me where no one should ever look.

Liara T'Soni.

I should probably feel bad for the way my team...acquires Liara. She was a teammate, after all, and a friend. Well, at least a friend to Shepard; I never got exactly close to the shy and naive professor. It didn't help that she was extremely intimate with Shepard right in front of me on multiple occasions and only served Shepard with a headache.

So maybe having Kana and Pem, the grim muscle of my team, literally grab Liara from the street, drag her down a dark alley, and bring her to our apartment blindfolded was just a little bit vindictive. And maybe a little bit unnecessary. And maybe I enjoy the video a little too much. And maybe I shouldn't save it. But I can't dwell on the maybes. After all, I have a squealing Asari being dragged into my apartment.

"I don't...I don't know what you want," she screams and stammers, thrashing without actually impeding the Turian and Batarian dragging her into my living room, "but I don't have anything."

"Oh, I don't know about that," I reply, motioning for them to drop her on the couch. Liara goes silent in an instant, and I can see the wheels in her head turning. I know enough to know my voice is recognizable, but I leave her blindfolded for a moment before sitting on the table just in front of her. "You have quite a bit of Prothean knowledge in here. And I remember a dorky interest in archeology."

Liara surges forward so suddenly that she almost headbutts me in the face, and I have to grab her shoulders to protect myself. "Garrus! Garrus, you're..." She's stammering again, so I pull the blindfold off to put the poor thing out of her misery. "By the goddess!"

This time when she moves, she leaps forward so suddenly that I'm powerless to stop her, and I end up with an Asari plastered up against me.

"Easy there, Professor," I tease, trying to console the girl who instantly starts sobbing for some reason I will never understand and simultaneously trying to figure out where to put my hands when she's practically straddling me. In front of just about my entire gang. I don't have a chance to figure it out before she shoves away from me and smacks me right across the face. Hard. "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"Everyone thinks you are dead, Garrus Vakarian!" she shouts, shifting to stand so that she's almost taller than me and clearly trying to use her new height as an advantage. "Your friends - who had just gotten done mourning Shepard - had to mourn you. Do you have any idea what..." She trails off when her voice starts to crack, and my heart cracks with it.

This time I pull Liara into me, standing so that she's safely against my chest. "OK, alright. Please breathe."

"We should go," I hear Devon mutter from the side of the room, trying to herd the others out of the room.

Liara startles, just realizing that there are other people around, I think. "Oh, oh, goddess. I'm so sorry," she breathes, shaking her head and furiously wiping her eyes and cheeks. "I just...coming here to find you was a total shot in the dark, Garrus, I never actually thought...I mean, I really came for Archangel! And then here, here you are, and I am - "

"Liara, you're going to have to start taking breaths, or you will pass out," I advise her, genuinely pretty worried about her health at the moment. I think she might have a total breakdown. I shoot a quick glare around the room in warning; if any of them tells her right now that she did find Archangel, and that it's me, I don't think she'll survive it.

"No, yes, you're right." She shakes her hands and her heads, pulling in a couple deep breaths, and then manages to look up to me with a smile. A real smile. Well, that's kind of nice from a familiar face. "It's...it's really good to see you, Garrus."

"It's good to see you, too, Liara." I open my arms cautiously, giving her a look that I hope is a clear warning that I do not want to be mauled or sobbed on again. She laughs and steps forward, lifting onto her toes so that she can hug me around the neck. Much better. And again, kind of nice. Familiar. But we have a problem. "Hey, Liara?"

"Yeah?"

"You have to stop saying my name. Like, ever." She pulls back enough to give me a suspicious look. "I'm standing in front of you, but Garrus is dead. Anyone who thinks that needs to be allowed to think it."

"I...I, uh...what?"

I keep a grip on her arms just in case. "You found Archangel, Liara. And that needs to be the only name you - any of you," I add to the room, "use for me."

"You got it, Archie," Dhelem quips with an obnoxious wink that he follows up with an obscene gesture at Liara's ass.

Even if he wasn't standing behind her, Liara likely wouldn't notice the gesture - which, if it's anatomically correct, would make it impossible for Dhelem to fuck anything but Krogan and Elcor. The Asari is too busy gawking at me, mouth and eyes gaping while her hands are starting to glow with biotics that I think she might not even be aware of.

I grab her hands and squeeze gently. "Liara, I thought we were going to keep breathing, remember? Do you need a drink? Devon, could you grab us a glass of whiskey?" Liara falls backward this time, collapsing on the couch so quickly I don't have a chance to catch her. "Maybe the whole bottle. Liara, are you gonna make me smack you?"

"Oh, sign me up for that, Daddy," Devon teases even while heading for the kitchen to grab that bottle for me.

Fortunately, it forces a laugh out of Liara, and that snaps her out of the mild panic I could see her slipping into. She leans forward a little, grabbing my hand this time. "By the goddess, Garrus, please don't drop any more surprises on me today. I don't think I'll survive it."

"Yeah, I thought you were gonna sic your biotics on me for a minute there." I motion to the hand on my arm, both of which are now glowing.

"Oh! Sorry." The glow fades immediately, along with the very warm and far too pleasant tingle. "This is...kind of a lot."

"You're telling me. How do you even know about Archangel?"

She smirks, and her face flushes a bit. "I, uh...I'm not really working in archeology anymore. Or with Protheans at all. And my new job involves being...aware of things going on everywhere in the galaxy. Not just on Ilium...where I now live."

Now it's my turn to just gape for a moment. "Well, shit, Liara. It's only been, what, a year and a half since I left?"

"I just moved and got a new job - you died, you started a crew, and you're turning Omega on its head!"

I laugh at her and roll my eyes. "I did not die. Not really, anyway."

"I love that you're still rolling your eyes, Garrus." She says it sweetly, her voice getting softer, but it hits hard. Especially since she knows exactly who I got the move from. I get some comfort in seeing it hit Liara too, though; her gaze becomes pained. "Sorry, I...she's still on my mind often."

I try to respond to that, but my throat is too thick for words to get out. I just nod instead. It helps, though, to know that someone else is still missing her. That someone else looks like they're in physical pain at just the mention or memory of Shepard. Misery loves company; the one human idiom that actually translates across culture and species.

Someone clears their throat and snaps me out of that. I stand, pulling Liara up with me and turning her to greet the crew. The entire crew. All of whom are staring at us and have been throughout this entire conversation. That's not awkward at all.

"Uh, guys, this is Liara. We served on the same crew for a little while. Liara, this is...well, there's too damn many of them. You can all introduce yourselves. As long as you behave."

Dhelem, Pem, and every Turian male in the room smirks at me for that. Let's hope Liara learned how to handle herself on Omega.

"Hey, Arch, you have..." Sertis motions to his Omni-Tool as a signal of the time for me.

"Right. Liara, I have a...thing." Aria is waiting. Aria and Grizz, if I interpreted Aria's messages this morning correctly. "You're welcome to hang out here. Devon, protect her for me, please?"

Devon sidles up beside Liara just in time, wrapping his arm around Liara's shoulders, already assuming they'll be best friends, I'm sure. "I'll take good care of you." He waves the bottle of whiskey at me. "And I'll liquor this gorgeous piece here up so that I can get all your dirty little secrets."

"Oh, Gar...Archangel guards his secrets closely. If Joker were here, though..."

I point at Liara on my way to the door and warn her, "Not a word. Not a single story. Don't you dare say anything about day dates on virtual racetracks with pilots." I get the door shut just as Devon starts squealing, and it lets me leave with a smile. It doesn't stop my mind spinning, though.

Liara T'Soni, in my apartment. On Omega. Using my real name, for fuck's sake. At least I can trust the entire crew to keep that quiet; they're all personally invested in Archangel being successful, and being anonymous is a big piece of that. And now with Liara waiting in my apartment, someone that I helped Shepard rescue and who served on Shepard's crew - someone that Shepard considered a friend - I'm off to meet Aria.

We have business to discuss, me and Omega's Dark Madam. She needs to know about a few whispers among the Eclipse Sisters, and I need to know if she heard anything else on a new Blue Suns slavery ring I'm looking to shut down before it ever gets off the ground. But we've been working together for a few months now, and none of our business meetings have managed to be exactly business-specific. And when she plans to meet me this late at night, I'm fairly certain I know what she wants from me.

My 'Tool dings and I open a voice message from Grizz, playing it through to my visor for privacy. "It's Grizz." I roll my eyes; he does his best to sound tough, but I can hear his subtones - aroused and submissive - over the call. "Aria wants you to meet us at Afterlife instead of the hotel. Our guys know to expect you, so they'll let you up. See you soon."

The club? It doesn't feel like good news. For one, I hate Afterlife. Everyone in there considers themself a stripper, and every one of them is trying their best to strip me. I also have some really awful memories in there. It probably also means that I'm not getting laid tonight, at least not unless I want to find someone else. Usually, I approach the after-meeting sex with Aria as a bonus, but this time, I was kind of eager.

I know it has everything to do with Liara showing up. She felt so familiar. She's the only person I've encountered since living the Citadel who wasn't a stranger on sight, and her connection to Shepard makes it feel a little more...real. Liara is a living tie to Shepard, and I've actively been trying to reduce how tight a hold on me that tie has.

Liara being around, if she plans to be around for any amount of time at all, could ruin any steps forward I've managed to take toward moving on or healing or whatever the hell it is I was doing. I don't want to fall into the hole of finding some strange again, but I do need something. Some comfort. I don't care if it's pathetic that I can't be alone for long and that I can't be alone at all if thoughts of Shepard come up, I'll go ahead and be pathetic while I'm balls deep in someone who deserves it.

And if that someone is both Aria and Grizz in one night, I don't have any complaints at all.

I might end up forced to find someone at Afterlife. Or maybe I should just finally give in and let Caeria get some. Shit, I'm really walking a razor's edge here.

The Elcor guarding the door at Afterlife, and wrangling an impressively long line, is evidently expecting me. He gives me a nod when I walk past, and I try to ignore the rather blatant way he checks me out. I've never had an Elcor, and no matter how crazed I might be feeling tonight, ready to crawl right out of my plates, I have no intention of ever exploring that avenue.

I nod to the bartender, familiar though I don't know his name, and head straight past the dance floor. Afterlife has a number of small outcoves, hallways that lead to more hallways and private rooms for all manner of activity. But Afterlife also has something of a throne, and that is where Aria sits. At the very end of the club, on either side of a wall that I know is designed to make the sound more intense on the dancefloor, are two more little outcoves except that these lead to a central set of stairs behind that sound wall and up onto a platform overlooking the club.

Usually, it's damn near impossible to get up these stairs. Aria absolutely always has one guard on either side, and a number of others stationed around the club though less noticeably. I watched footage of someone once dumb enough to try and get up to her throne without permission; six of Aria's goons surrounded and incapacitated the brave little idiot in less than twenty seconds. She's an Asari running arguably the most dangerous place in the galaxy; Aria doesn't take chances.

So when I'm nodded at by the Batarian guarding the stairs and immediately granted access to the throne area, I can't help but feel a little special. And feeling special is not helping my levels of horny for the night.

There is no actual throne, of course. The space overlooking the club is dominated by a massive sectional couch, white leather and ultra-modern. It's very Aria. The only other furniture is a small coffee table, used far more often for liquor than coffee. This is Aria's office, her meeting space, her throne room - when she doesn't want privacy, of course. Not that the patrons of the club can see her, but with the open air, it always feels like there are eyes and ears on you here.

And when I walk in, the eyes and ears on me belong to Aria and Grizz. They're both on the couch already, their postures loose and their smiles relaxed. I'm sure the glasses in their hands help with that, but the attraction humming between the two of them helps, too. Grizz is far more than a bodyguard for Aria, and I'm rather grateful for that.

"Uh-oh, someone is tightly wound," the Turian in question teases, eyeing me with a grin. Of course, he can hear my needs through my subtones. And I'd be encouraging him to take care of those needs if we weren't in public. OK, maybe I still want to anyway, but that's not a limit we've discussed. I might need to encourage that discussion, though.

"I wonder if that has anything to do with your new friend." Aria is leaning against Grizz's side, her arm rested over the back of the couch, and one leg pulled up onto the cushion beside her. The position is totally casual and sexy as hell, but I'm much more interested in her words at the moment.

"Impressive, even for you." Liara has only been at our apartment, and in Archangel's possession, for an hour, and Aria already knows about it. I take a seat on the couch on Aria's other side, close enough that she could touch me but not so close that I'm forcing it. "For what it's worth, she's an old friend. I think she needs something but didn't know exactly who Archangel was. And we didn't get around to the terms before I came to see you."

"So I pulled you away from that pretty blue thing?" Aria pokes out her bottom lip in an extremely tempting pout.

I accept the glass of what looks like Turian ale Grizz hands me. "You know, I'm sure I could find some way for you make it up to me...if we'd somewhere else. Some reason you wanted to do this here?"

"Here?" she repeats, reaching out to run her hand over my thighs. "Here, where anyone can see us?" That strong blue hand slips further up my thigh, squeezing lightly while my dick leaps to life. "If we weren't here, Archangel," the Asari purrs, sliding closer and draping her leg over mine, "what would you need for me to make it up to you?"

I let my eyes drift down to her cleavage without trying to be subtle. I let her see me slip my tongue over my mandible. I want her to notice, but the reaction isn't for show. Especially tonight, Aria is exactly what I need, and I know she can deliver. And if she wants it right here, right now, where anyone in the club can see - where her guards are definitely watching, I have no problem with that. Let all of Omega know that Archangel does not get unmoored by any woman, and certainly not a dead one.

We finally exchange information after the three of us are sated, Grizz still stroking my dick when Aria and I swap datapads. I'm barely aware of it, though. It's over now, and I have to go back home. And this is always the hard part.

There was something about me that believed, even at the end - even when it ended - that Shepard and I would have a life together. I got to spend far too few nights in her bed, only a couple of nights comforted by her presence all night. And now, even when it's not Shepard and even when it's someone I don't want to spend the night with, going home to sleep alone is...cold.

It might even be worse tonight because of who is in my house. Liara is here, a tangible reminder of Shepard. They had next to nothing in common, but Shepard and Liara were friends. I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at Liara and not think of Shepard. And tonight, that means going home ashamed that I smell like sex with another woman. A woman who is not the redhead I so desperately need.

If Liara judges me, if she's disappointed in me for it, it'll feel like Shepard is. And I don't know how well I can handle that.

Maybe I need to just get Liara the hell off of Omega. If she came looking for Archangel, she wants something from me. I can probably have someone on the team deal with it. I might even be able to have Aria deal with it. It's possible that I could avoid seeing Liara ever again. And hell, if she's going to out my identity, I'll airlock her with zero shame; no one is going to threaten my team.

I have a feeling I'm not going to get so lucky as to be able to avoid Liara, though, and that gets confirmed when I arrive back at the apartment to find the Asari on the couch with Devon. The two of them are laughing like old friends and deep into what looks like at least a third bottle of wine. The Liara I knew was a lightweight, but this one seems at least functional still. Devon is slurring magnificently, and his smile seems big enough to split his face when his head drops back to look at me. "Hey there he is!" he shouts, lifting one arm over the couch for me.

"Spirits, Devon, hush. I'm sure everyone else is sleeping."

"They are!" he stage whispers, somehow managing to be even louder this way. "They went to bed because...because YOU were out soooo long. Out of here, and," he pauses to giggle at himself, "inside Aria."

I can feel my throat go aflame, well aware that Liara's eyes snap to me instantly. The shame is like a smack in the face, my secret laid bare. I've never been ashamed of sex before but knowing that someone who knew what I was like with Shepard is aware that I fucked someone else makes every one of Aria's touches weigh on my conscious.

"OK, it's time for you to go somewhere that no one can hear you," I tell Devon, walking around the couch and pulling the glass from his hands. He doesn't resist me and lifts his arms, whimpering pathetically. I might make him try to walk if I didn't think he'd throw up or faint on the walk to his bedroom. And besides, he weighs next to nothing.

Devon is a little limp, but he manages to wrap his arms around my neck and rest his head on my shoulder. "You make me feel like a princess when you carry me like this," he coos, kicking his legs awkwardly.

"Let's go to bed, Princess." I don't look at Liara when she laughs, not ready to face her yet, and instead take Devon into his bedroom. He's small and pliant enough that I can get him down to his shorts and into bed with little effort. "You must be trashed if you don't have a lot to say about me undressing you."

"You're mad at me," he slurs, managing to look like he's swaying even while he's lying down.

I frown at him, though. "What would I be mad at you for?"

Devon does something like a shrug, and both of his arms end up flopping around. "Dunno. Told your friend...you and Aria."

"Ah. I'm not mad at you," I assure him, pulling the blanket up and tucking it in around him. "I'm mad at myself. A little. I don't know. Just go to sleep."

He raises his arms up to me, making grabby hand motions. "Gimme a kiss night-night." I appreciate him making me laugh and pat his head instead of going anywhere near him for a kiss. He rolls over with a smile and falls asleep in an instant, and I leave him, turning the light off on my way out.

Liara is still on the couch, cleaning up the classes and bottles from her evening with Devon. "Don't worry about any of that," I assure her, waving her off. "Where are you staying, Liara?"

"A hotel. It's not that far from here."

"I'll walk you back." I want to get rid of her as soon as possible, but I'm not going to turn her loose on Omega this late at night. She might seem more worldly than she did the last time we met, but she's still Liara, and I don't want her facing the shit Omega has to offer on her own. Fortunately, Liara seems grateful and doesn't make me argue. She doesn't seem thrilled that I keep my armor on and carry my rifle. Still naive for sure. "So, tell me what you've been up to."

If she knows that I'm trying to keep her from asking me about what Devon said, she doesn't call me out on it. Besides, Liara has a pretty interesting story to tell.

She left the Citadel a couple weeks after Shepard's funeral, which I knew; she had tried her best to be around for me and for Joker, and we both rejected her. Liara is too kind to say it like that, though. She tells me that she tried to return to her old job, to searching for answers about Prothean society among ruins, but it didn't feel the same. "You called me naive once, and it stuck with me because you were right."

I called Liara naive a lot more than just once, but I choose not to point that out to her now.

"I was at the university on Ilium, and one day, someone came in looking for help. They needed to find research on a very rare, very old, and very valuable artifact that may or may not have existed. I poured myself into it. I needed something, anything to feel like I was doing something."

"Yeah. I know something about that." It surprises me a little to know that Liara does, though. I knew she liked Shepard, looked up to her. But I didn't know she cared this much. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention. Or maybe I've just refused to believe that anyone else is dealing with what I am so that I could isolate myself even further.

And now here Liara is staring me in the face.

She gives me a sympathetic smile and then hooks her arm around mine, leaning lightly into my side while we walk. My first instinct is to push her away, but when I allow it...it's kind of comforting. Even more so, I think, because she did know Shepard. She's a living tie to Shepard. I let her walk with me while she continues with her story.

"Anyway, it paid off. I chased down a dozen channels and leads, I learned a lot about how to manipulate the channels I did have to reach ones I should have had, and I got the artifact. The guy then offered to hire me as an information broker, and I accepted. I work for myself now."

"You work on Ilium as an information broker." I laugh, genuinely surprised, and more than a little bit impressed.

"It seems almost impossible, doesn't it?"

"Almost."

We slow, reaching her hotel. It's not the worst part of Omega, but I still don't like it, and I insist on making sure she gets into the door. Liara might have changed a lot, but I'm willing to bet she's still the naive, sheltered professor I knew, and I'm not letting her mugging - or worse - rest on my conscious.

Liara doesn't release my arm until we're standing in front of her hotel room door. "Do you, uh...did you wanna come in for a drink? The mini bar is a little suspicious, but I'm sure there's something in there."

She laughs, and it's the kind of laugh I recognize. The kind of laugh I've come to know too well. And the kind of laugh that tells me what's coming next.

"Liara, I...it's probably best if I just go." A walking tie to Shepard. Being with Liara would be...

"Right, of course. You're right. I just..." She clears her throat and shakes her head, a flush coming to her cheeks that I refuse to let myself acknowledge. "I do still have the information I wanted to give Archangel. Can we talk about it tomorrow?"

"Oh, yeah. I'd almost forgotten about that." Because seeing Liara was a shock, and then fucking Aria was a distraction. So much for Archangel being on the top of his game. "You want to come back over tomorrow? I'd prefer you told the whole squad."

Liara smiles and leans on her door. "That seems familiar to the last squad you were on."

"Yeah. Maybe I learned a thing or two." My hand finds the back of my fringe and rubs, an effort to get rid of my thoughts when they want to dwell on the non-mission things Shepard taught me. Like how to kiss. How soft humans are. And those thoughts, in a hallway in the middle of the night with a woman who wants me, are going to be dangerous.

Liara would be a mistake. No matter how comforting being that close to someone with a connection to Shepard would be.

"I'll have one of my crew come back tomorrow," I tell her, hoping my voice sounds normal still. "They'll walk you back to our apartment."

"I'm capable of walking on my own. And if anyone was going to take me for a walk, I would prefer that it were you."

Do not think about Liara on a leash, Vakarian, don't you dare.

"I can try to come back, but I have a few things I need to handle in the morning." Liara's eyes narrow just enough that I know she wants to know if I'm handling the same sort of thing in the morning that I did tonight, the thing that Devon confessed to her for me. They don't narrow in an accusatory way, though. Yet another thing I'm choosing to ignore today.

"I understand if you can't; I'm aware of how busy Archangel is these days."

I manage to smile at that. "I'm sure you are. Dr. T'Soni, the big shot information broker."

"Just doctor will do, thank you very much." She laughs and shakes her head at me, but turns to open the door at least. And I feel a lot less awkward now. Although still very aware that I'm going to be alone, despite having had sex earlier tonight. And I really used to prefer sleeping alone. Shepard ruined me, and it still isn't getting any better.

I step away from Liara, needing the space. "I'll, uh...see you tomorrow. Looking forward to what an information broker has for me."

"And I can't wait to see what Archangel can do for me."

Oh, crap.