"You taken a good look at the sky lately, Derby? It's filled with them, over three thousand tiny human-forged stations, just twinkling up there in the sky like glitterbugs to be squashed. But my boss wouldn't care for that kind of thinking. Anyway, they're med stations. About the size of a quarian space mine, each one of 'em. Three thousand plus, that's nearly a quarter of the Alliance Medical Fleet as I understand it, just orbiting the Citadel ruins. But I guess with tens of thousands of Citadel population still in need of medical attention after Saren's go at galactic domination, the Alliance will do whatever they can to help. And to stay on the council, of course. The boss was responsible for that, I suppose; did I mention her? She's up there now, amongst the masses. Got banged up pretty hard. But there's always benefits to…medical attention."
*~~*~~*
ALLIANCE MEDICAL STATION
34-B17
*~~*~~*
Alice Shepard sighed into Liara T'Soni's mouth, her hand pressing on the back of the asari's head, forcing their lips into each other. She wouldn't tell this to anyone, not even Liara, but she was certain that the taste of this beautiful alien girl was better medicine than any the Alliance could provide.
Liara moaned and leaned her body into Shepard's, straddling her, Liara's open palms flat on the Spectre's shoulders, making their way down to her chest.
Alice gasped.
Liara stopped, broke their embrace and backed off of her.
Alice opened her eyes and struggled to focus through a haze of lust into the darkness of the medroom. "What? What's wrong?"
Liara frowned, breathing as hard as Alice. "You, you were in pain, Shepard."
"What? Oh, you mean that noise I just made?"
"Your sharp intake of breath, yes."
"That wasn't a gasp of pain, Liara; it was a pleasure gasp, you know? Like, hey, I really like where this is going, let's not stop."
"You didn't make that particular sound on the Normandy, Shepard. I would've remembered."
Alice stared up at Liara quizzically.
Liara looked down at her uniform and straightened a crease nervously. "I would've catalogued it…" She took a breath, "-for future reference."
Alice sighed and removed her hand from Liara's smooth, soft tendrils, a smirk on her lips. "Jesus."
Liara nodded seriously. "Yes, that one I remember."
"C'mon!" Alice demanded, moving her hands to grip Liara lovingly beneath her arms, her thumbs pressing against the sides of the asari's breasts. "I gasped the first time we were together, plenty of times, it's a natural human reaction to pleasure."
Liara's frown deepened. She leaned forward, sliding her arms underneath Shepard's body, one of her hands gripping the nape of Shepard's neck beneath her red mane.
Alice grinned and moved to kiss her.
Liara dodged the kiss, leaning her head to the side, her lips dragging across Alice's neck.
"Oh," Alice moaned.
Liara's grip on her neck tightened, her lips finding a sweet spot and locking in place on her neck. Alice felt Liara's tongue slide along the skin she'd trapped in her mouth, not long before Liara began to suck on her.
Alice felt dizzy with passion, her eyes lolling back beneath their shut lids.
"Ah," she exclaimed, her breath hitching, her hand on Liara's back beginning to dig it's nails into the smooth rubber texture of her suit.
Liara's tongue swept faster, her mouth sucking harder until her hand moved from Alice's neck into her silky red hair, grabbing a handful, and twisting to pull Shepard's head up and expose more of her neck.
Alice gasped for air, breathing hard, a low steady moan building in the back of her throat.
Liara promptly dropped her hand from Shepard's head, her mouth leaving her neck and in one smooth motion she was sitting upright again on top of the commanding officer.
Alice laid there, twisting in the medical bed, her eyes squeezed shut, waiting for the return of Liara's touch until she realized it wasn't coming. She shook in frustration and opened her eyes once more, out of breath and fuming.
"What…the…fuck?"
"That, what you did when I pulled your hair, that was a gasp I have heard from you. I enjoy that sound very much, Shepard, it's gratifying and sexually explicit. I would not confuse that sound and the one you made earlier."
Alice ran one hand through her hair. "I told myself after Akuze that I'd never get involved with a scientist." She tried in vain to rub the burning sensation from her cheeks. "Now I remember why."
"Yes," Liara agreed. She reached forward and prodded Alice below her shoulder blade with one finger, hard enough to leave an impression in the green hospital gown Alice was forced to wear during her stay.
Alice instinctively winced, breath escaping from her gritted teeth in a hiss.
"Because you don't enjoy being caught in a lie," Liara finished.
Alice glared up at her. The asari was smiling in a way Alice had never noticed before. Almost…smugly.
Alice chuckled, reached up and stroked Liara's cheek. "You know,-"
There was a sudden knock at the medroom door, followed by the handle turning.
Liara moved to get off the bed and off of Alice, but the Spectre stopped her with a firm hand on her waist.
The door opened and a fresh-faced young man in his late teens peered inside. "Commander?"
"Permission to enter is a thing of beauty, serviceman," Alice said, having no doubt that the view the young man was getting was probably worth any retribution he'd face later. "Maybe you should brush up on your Customs and Courtesies."
The kid looked sufficiently cowed. "Yes ma'am, I'm sorry, it's just that something's come up, and I received word from Councilor Anderson that you were to be debriefed at twenty-fifteen."
Alice glanced at the clock on the wall. "Thirty-five minutes," she grumbled. "Thank you, serviceman; you are now free to report your failure to await permission to see me being straddled," Alice yawned, "so that I don't have to."
The young man looked crestfallen. "Yes, Commander."
After the door shut, Liara looked down at her remorsefully. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"You very rarely get moments to yourself like this, to enjoy… things that relax you. I had forgotten this."
Alice smiled. "You relax me, Liara. No matter what you're doing. You could spend all of our time together trying to uncover every little untruth I speak and I'd still be calmer for having you around."
Liara bent over her and kissed her softly on the lips. "I'd rather do this," she whispered throatily.
"Liara?" Alice whispered back.
"Yes, Shepard?"
"Go scrounge up some coffee while I find something that passes for pants, would you?"
Liara smiled back her and nodded, slipping her feet to the floor and removing herself from the bed. "Yes, Shepard."
Before Liara opened the door to leave Alice called out, "Oh, and find that serviceman before he rats himself out. Have him apologize to your chastity with an old naval song or something and tell him that's good enough for me."
"Your compassion is astounding, Shepard." Liara replied wryly.
Alice shrugged. "Hey, he's naval. He'd love to sing you a song, Liara. Maybe a little dance too."
Outside, in a corridor of the medical bay just beyond Shepard's room, a figure stood wrapped in a shawl. It watched Liara close the door behind her and walk off down an opposite hallway.
It waited.
Seconds passed.
It stepped out into the hallway and moved towards the door.
September 4, 2013- In researching for the update, I was delighted to discover that I get to keep my Navy joke. While it's never plainly discussed in the games, there are distinct naval/marine divides between ship and ground forces in the Systems Alliance, as noted in the codex entries. A small victory, considering how much I've mucked up in the ME Universe between these two episodes (I think in one part of Episode 2 I describe a salarian as having 'webbing' between fingers, and, of course, the entirety of Amongst the Halls of Legend is driven by the idea that there are no live birds on the Citadel when you can look up in-game in ME1 and ME3 and see them clear-as-fucking-day) but still; I get to keep the joke.