Liara

The med-bay was quiet, save for the soft beeping of equipment and monitors. I looked to one of the bio-beds and saw Feron, deep in slumber. I scanned the monitors above him, encouraged to see a normal heart-rate, blood pressure, and temperature.

"How is he?" I whispered to Doctor Chakwas, not wanting to wake him.

"Quite well, considering what he's been through." Karin answered. "Garrus informed me of the electric shocks he endured. There are extensive first degree burns, some second degree burns, and the possibility of nerve damage. However, beyond mild dehydration, there is nothing wrong with his body."

She left the rest of his diagnosis unsaid, but I understood well enough. Who knew the horrors and scars that lay inside his mind? For two years, he had been tortured by the Shadow Broker. Perhaps not solely in body...but I knew that if there had been anything in the galaxy that he cared about, the Broker would have destroyed it…if possible, while Feron watched.

Chakwas stopped at the med-bay's surgical center, entered the code, and the door opened. I lowered my gaze as I entered, not certain what I would see, not certain if I would be able to endure what might happen next. Karin had told me the truth. I had no right to ask of Shepard what I had…and yet she had done it. She had followed me into danger and into bullets against any enemy that we did not know. She had been badly hurt…because she loved me.

"You don't have to look so sad." I heard a low, groggy voice from the bed. "Everything's fine."

At the sound of her voice I raised my eyes, knowing that I needed to face what I had done. Not only did I need to face her, I wanted to look into her eyes. I wanted to remember how it felt when she had pulled me into her arms and kissed me. How for a transcendent, resplendent moment, she had made me feel like the asari I was before my soul had been burned away above Alchera.

Serena lay in the bed, looking relaxed. Her arms were extended, outside of the covers that went up to her waist. Each one of them had an IV line attached, one connected to a bag of saline, another to a bag of blood. She was still too pale, and I could not help the tightening of my throat as I saw the line of stitches across her face, leading to her ear. My lips trembled as I saw the missing flesh that had been torn away. Her earlobe was missing, sliced off at an angle that went to the middle of the shell of her ear.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, wondering why she had wanted to see me…it was my fault that she was here, like this.

"Glad that I never got my ears pierced." she smiled with the unhurt side of her mouth. "Otherwise I'd have wasted a shit ton of money on earrings."

A bashful laugh left my lips, feeling entirely out of place, but it seemed to be the reaction she desired, for a dazed, happy light crossed her silver eyes. She lifted her hand and pointed to the small seat beside her, an invitation for me to stay longer. I remembered Chakwas' request, that I not overtire her, and shook my head.

"I shouldn't." I murmured. "You need your rest, and I…well…I have a new career, apparently, and a ship."

"This isn't your fault, Liara." Shepard spoke to my heart, as she had always been able to do, pushing past the layers of deflection and confusion and piercing straight to the heart of the matter.

"Yes, it is." I resisted her words and the forgiveness that they promised. "You…you have a very important mission outside of what I asked you to do, and I've been of no help. Instead, I've put you here, hurt, and…"

"This isn't your fault." Shepard insisted, her fingers directing to me to the chair once again. I sat down. Shepard relaxed against the pillow and closed her eyes. "I'd do it again." she told me and I winced at the blatant honesty in her statement. "I know you don't want to hear it but my life is too damn short for me to stumble around, tripping over my heart…strangling it trying to do what you've asked. I love you, Liara T'Soni, and I'd go through hell for you."

I wanted to believe that it was the pain medication flooding her system that made her say such things. But I knew it was not. I knew that she was speaking from the depths of her heart, and inside, I felt something shatter. It had cracked when I kissed her, cracked further when she had kissed me, when I had tasted her blood and sweat and beauty.

"You don't have to say anything." Serena turned her head to me and closed her eyes. Her brow creased and her lips twitched and I knew that she was in more pain than she would ever admit. "'Cause I know I hurt you. I know you're mad at me. But I'm not gonna hide from what I feel."

"Serena." I breathed her name and watched a slight smile cross her lips. "This isn't the time for this conversation. You need to rest and…and I'm not certain of what I will say."

"That's…fine." Shepard sank further back against her pillow, her eyelids fluttered closed and my heart ached. She looked so tired. "Everyone's…more honest when they're tired. I just want…the truth. I want to know…where I stand."

Between heaven and hell, Serena. Where you have ever been, protecting all of us, being the soldier that the galaxy needs. Believing the impossible, defeating the unbeatable. Letting your blood color the ground in sacrifice and substitute for the fools who have sworn to protect us and failed.

"Right now," I rose to my feet, unwilling to tax her mind with the complicated emotions and conflicting desires invading me, "is not the time. You are unwell, I am fatigued, and I would not wish to say anything amiss. Go to sleep, Serena, and we will speak when it is time."

"Mmmkay." she mumbled, her face relaxing in the sort of peace that only slumber could bring. "It's…never the right time for us…is it?"

Tears crept into my eyes and I rested my hand on the door, thinking back to all the moments that we had to seize from times of despair. All the moments that we had wrested from fate and from the enemies that threatened to shred the galaxy apart. She was right. It never was the right time for us. I trembled in my spirit.

Always before, she was the one who found time for us. Now, this is my decision. I can walk away, and let her linger painfully in love…or I can take the chance to solve this, once and for all. Goddess help me…help me snatch time from the stars, for my hands are weak, my heart is adrift, and I am without an anchor in this sky.