Commander Shepard stepped out of the Normandy airlock and into the CIC. It was unusually quiet, most of the crew either asleep or on the citadel, so he made his way to the elevator undisturbed. He planned on placing Thane's plaque on the wall alone, avoiding as much attention as possible. It had been an emotional enough day without having to make some sort of speech about the friend he'd just lost. Shepard felt there were no words that could do Thane justice anyway.
As he exited the elevator on deck 3, Shepard checked the area around him to make sure he was unaccompanied. Once satisfied, he slowly fixed the plaque to the wall, as he had done with every other plaque on there. Shepard always felt responsible for those deaths, that as their commander they had trusted him with their lives and he had failed them. Of course, everyone around him told him that each of those men and women knew the risks when they signed up and would have, without question, sacrificed themselves for the greater cause. The feeling of guilt remained though.
"Tell me about Thane." Liara's sudden appearance behind him caught Shepard off guard. "I didn't have the opportunity to get to know him very well."
"I thought you were still on the citadel."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. I just thought maybe-"
"It's fine. I'm fine." Shepard welcomed the company, despite his earlier reservations. If there was someone he felt he could talk to at that moment, it was Liara. "When I first met Thane, he was...not what I expected."
"How so?"
"He wasn't like any other assassin I've ever met. I thought he'd be like Zaeed, cold, uncompromising, you know? Instead he was thoughtful, spiritual, almost...caring." Shepard recalled their first meeting in the Dantius towers. How Thane prayed for forgiveness, and how he told Shepard of his ambition to make the galaxy a brighter place before he died. Then he remembered how eager Thane was to aid his son Kolyat. "He cared about his family, too. He wanted to help his son, even after they'd fallen out. It worked as well. I met Kolyat in the hospital. We were both there when..."
"He meant a lot to you." Liara could see the emotion in his eyes, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. She was one of very few people who could read him so deeply.
"I guess he did. He was a good friend."
"And an even better man" Garrus announced as he strolled up alongside Shepard. "Now how about we honour him at the bar?"
"I think that might be the best thing I've heard all day, Garrus."