Short one this time.

In the hours after the shuttle was found a few things came to light. Jane explained the situation in a debrief with the whole team sharing what they knew about this 'Reaper' threat. The ship they had though Saren used to hit Eden Prime was in fact one of a race of sentient machines bent on the culling of advanced life in the galaxy. Thing said like that in a room food of experiences soldiers even got quiet responses. Out of the corner of his eye Matt had been certain he saw Varkarian's eyes widen at the news that Matt's sister had undergone a similar experience to what happened in th mission that started all this. Inside the compound there had been another beacon, one with what Jane thought might be the last piece to the puzzle in solving just how to find Saren.

Of course it was as just as jumbled as the one Matt had endured so that meant only one thing. A meld with the Doctor. Watching from his chair amongst the group the biotic ex-marine said nothing when the topic was brought up. It was only a matter of time before Jane go around to it, but for some reason it rubbed him the wrong way, Liara running around inside of his sister's head. Unlike Matt his sister had no reservations about melds and even insisted on doing it there before the whole team so that they could have their answers as soon as possible.

Black eyes, a few moments and they had their answer. Illos, a prothean world thought to be long lost and something called the conduit amongst the ruins. Something that had drawn the attention and as such theirs now. Only one problem. The council wanted Jane back for a little pow wow, forget that the rouge specter that they had been chasing had finally been found. Better than that, they knew where he HAD to be. Just like politics to get in the middle of things. The Normandy beat feet for the Citadel.

"Matt do you have a moment?"

A little disgruntled everyone scattered after the news they would not be heading straight for Saren. For the younger of the Shepard siblings that meant the mess table with a datapad on the Geth and a drink. A hard one.

"Uh…,"Matt offered lifting his eyes up from the pad he had been reading for the better part of the last hour only to find a demure looking T'soni standing on the far side of the table rubbing her gloved fingers together, "Sure whats on your mind?"

Those near trembling lips drew Matt to set down his whiskey glass all the way and give Liara his full attention.

"Would you come to my room please?" she asked hardly able to stand in her place for much longer by the looks of it.

After a quick glance around the mess Matt noted only a few other crew members about and he wondered just what Liara wanted to talk about that could not be shared here. Still he pushed back from the table and followed her after a small nod back into that little room of hers behind the med bay. The door closed behind them with a heavier sound than usual.

"Whats bothering you Liara," Matt said moving over across her small room to sit down on the cot she had set up to sleep on leaving the only chair in the room for her to take, only she did not, she paced.

Those oddly human brows of hers furrowed with worry and cerulean blue eyes fought their way off the floor to look his way. So much hesitation flooded them Matt was not sure she was going to say something at all until of course she managed to.

"I...I may have broken a promise that I made you Shepard," she stated plainly coming to a stop there in the center of the room, "That first time, our meld."

Matt had not forgotten it, that strange feeling of having someone share your mind was not something anyone ever forgot. That time he had seen something of Liara, one of her memories crying on the beach, but he could not place what the Doctor could be worried about.

"If this is about what I saw Liara," he started, but dropped at the expression she wore so he tried again, "Something you saw?"

Silently those eyes closed, he watched the scientist nod and Matt raced to understand.

He should have been angry, he had been so against the meld in the first place that he made her understand that anything other than the beacon information was to be off limits. Though here she was telling him that not only had she broken her word, but that she had been holding it back all this time. Matt wanted to get up, but the white in his knuckles holding onto the edge of the cot kept him in place.

In the end he released the hold he had on the edge of her bed and sighed letting his head tilt back and rest against the bulkhead of the room.

"So what did you see?"

A small step taken forward by the Asari she seemed alarmed, like he was a bomb that should have gone off, but did not for some unknown reason, "You are not angry?" She sounded so fragile in that whisper.

Again, like he had many times Matt reached his hand up and ruffled his slightly longer than normal brown hair, he would need to get it cut soon if it kept up like this. Then he smiled faintly meeting her confused gaze.

"Of course I am...but whatever you saw obviously bothered you this much," searching his own memories for what she might have stumbled across he frowned, "Was it the Blitz?"

The Shepard siblings were well known for their military history in the conflict with a warlike race called the Batarians. Some might even call them heroes for their exploits holding positions against impossible odds. Matt just wished the nightmares of seeing his friends faces as they died would go away some day. He hoped Liara had not seen that.

Quickly shaking her head she shifted and moved to sit down on the cot beside him hands sliding across the knees, covered by her issued Thessian University scientist uniform.

"No that was not it, forgive me I did look a bit into your history after coming aboard," she said watching her hands while she spoke, " As well as your sister of course. I just wanted to get a handle on who it was I was with. I hope you do not mind."

That made him smirk, thinking of Liara huddled over her omni-tool having to dig through the ships records on he and his sisters history in military files.

"You could have just asked you know?"

She, mimicking his action, tilted her head back and rested the whole of her form back against the bulkhead eyes closed, "I will...do so in the future."

"So…"

"Matt you need to see the memory for yourself, first hand," Liara said without the hesitance that he had seen in her since she came to get him, "I do not want to confuse what you see until you do so."

After letting out a long drawn out sigh the biotic marine shook his head and eyed her out of the corner of his view, she was waiting for his answer, or rather the denil. She was going to be disappointed in a fashion.

"Lets see it."

Shock was an expression easily read on many races.

""You are certain?" she asked while reaching her head over to cover the one he had left on his knee closest to her, be it intentionally or not, Matt noticed it. Rather he noticed the gesture behind it.

He let his lips curl into a grin and he shrugged his shoulders somewhat under her attentive gaze, "Let's see what memory of mine is bothering you. The quicker we do the sooner I can explain it all and put it behind us."

With some effort Liara shifted on the cot beside him so that she could face her future love and closed her eyes. When they opened they filled themselves with darkness and the sound left the room around the,

"Embrace eternity."

It was so cripplingly dark for the longest time after Liara said those words. Had something gone wrong? Matt knew these things worked best when one did not struggle much, but this was surely a sign of a problem.

That changed however when he felt a sudden pressure, a sweet taste on his lips that the biotic instantly placed. This only added to his confusion. Matt was already in the memory. He was kissing T'Soni, hard to forget that experience after sharing it first hand after their short dinner on the citadel. Surely this was not the memory she had meant to show him. Liara had appeared so worried to share it.

Why did he feel so tired?

Those hazel eyes opened finally, on a rail unable to control his own movements Matt watched from the back of his own mind shocked at how heavy they felt. Any questions of why he felt the way he did was pushed aside when he saw the blue skinned woman though. Standing there, in his arms, Liara was wearing that same armor he had seen her wear back on the citadel and on a few missions since, but there were plates missing from it here or there. Really it looked like the object of his affections had seen just as many bad days as her gear had if you went by her scraped up cheek and crest.

A sound rushing overhead like some sort of train signaled him to take his attention away from the woman before him, but that Matt was not really to look away just yet. What...is...happening?

"This is...it isn't it?" Liara spoke quietly so that the soldiers moving about near by would not overhear wanting to keep the two of them at least for a time within their own world.

God he loved her, he wanted to protect her, but they both knew the truth.

That Matt smiled, painfully so because of chapped and split lips from combat, " I dunno...we have been in worse spots. Wouldn't be my first suicide mission I got a team through now would it? " He tried to feed confidence into his voice which took a hell of a lot more effort than the unstoppable smile Liara always brought out of him, "I love you Liara."

From the back of his own mild Matt did a double take, what had he just thought? Or rather the other Matt. In no uncertain terms he...himself...admitted that he loved her. Is that what that feeling was? That tight feeling this Matt got in his chest when he looked at her that matched the same one he wore in the present day to day?

"All those little blue children are going to be upset that it came down to this and I didn't have something good to say…"Liara joked with Matt lightly thumping him on the chest of his battle-scarred armor with a loosely balled fist. The scene was obviously something of a goodbye, a final one, but Liara looked so happy to have him regardless.

He hurt so much, when 'Matt' looked down to the thumping fist Liara laid on him Matt figured out why. Although it was an armor set he had never seen before he noticed that whatever conflict the two of them were in it had been a lengthy one. The gear had multiple pockets around the waist, half of them empty, and like Liara's there were bits torn or just flat burned away here or there. In particular on his left side there was a large gash with a fresh application of medi gel no doubt keeping him from feeling a broken rib or two below it.

"Ah, well I am sure we can think up something grand to tell them when the time comes," Matt said pulling a hand back from around her waist so that he could reach up and draw her in with soft fingers on the skin of the back of her neck until her forehead rested gently against him.

Inwardly Matt growled in frustration. LOOK AROUND DAMMIT!

The sense of foreboding was all encompassing; this was something that they had been preparing for after years of hardship. All of it led up to this, a final battle, Matt's emotions betrayed that much. When his eyes panned up and looked out to the ruined city it was one that he knew instantly he had seen it in pictures on a superior officers desk. Anyone could see that it was nothing other than ruble, a war zone torn apart by some attacker now. There above the scattered men running about and the buildings aflame he saw it, a hulking mass of metal in a shape he couldn't have guessed. The ship was huge and the army was less than flies against it. Every time a tank or fighter moved in to strike it they were burnt from the Earth without hesitation or problem. Reapers. That's what it was, this was what wiped out the Protheans and it was wiping out Earth. Better yet a certain large landmark somehow still partialy standing behind Liara in the distance gave him a more exact location. London. Anderson's home town.

What the hell.

The small room behind the med bay that been the home for the scientist for the past couple of months was as quiet as it could be. Both bodies left for a mind somewhere between experiencing the memory that had sent Liara into a tailspin ever since she had seen it. Neither of them moves, neither of them said anything, together they experienced something so important it was going to shape the both of them forever.

Gasping for breath Matt shot up off of the makeshift bed and scrambled to his feet, the first to come out of the meld. Liara seconds behind a more calm exit just exhaling deeply blinking back the color into her eyes .

Matt stood on the far side of the room near the door with hand pressed against the bulkhead breathing heavily.

"That….what was that?!"

Behind him Liara shifting and stood so that she could slowly close the distance and place a steady hand on his back, "Breathe Matt, please try to calm down."

Shoulders gave and he slumped further nearer to the wall resting his forehead softly against it. What was all that? When was that? What in holy hell was going on.

"That was Earth Liara, a part of it torn apart by a conflict that has not happened yet," he shook his head and tried to push the impossibility of what he had seen out of his mind, "Its real isn't it?"

Tender fingers dug into the fabric of the shirt he wore in hopes to soon the tense feeling he could feel welling up between his shoulder blades. It felt so soothing that he almost missed her quiet answer confirming his question.

"We need to go to Jane. She has to know about this."

After a frown he could not see she asked, "is that wise Matt?"

Against the metal of the bulkhead Matt curled his fingers and swore under his breath. These things…these Reapers...they were going to hit Earth if that memory was true. Not only hit it, but if he went by the state of London from the 'vision' they were going to win.

"You mean because we do not have any proof," he gathered after running through the options in his mind.

In the dim lit medical storage room behind the med bay where Liara had made a home she gave Matt the answer she had already fought with many nights herself.

"For now. I do not have to tell you how crazy it sounds...you know...you felt how impossible the images we experienced together just now are."

This had been what she was carrying around? How was something like this bouncing around inside his mind….it did not make any sense. At least it answered one question even if it opened a whole truck load of ones they needed to chase now.

"Liara, one thing...and this is the most important thing I took away from what you just showed me," he said calmly focusing on that feeling of her fingers rubbing on his broad back attempting to do something if even something small to calm him.

"Yes Matthew?" she was quiet, Liara wanted him to draw his own conclusions from the memory shared. That much was obvious with how she was giving him so much space now.

"I love you."

"Yes the memory was filled with an extremely intense feeling."

Slowly he turned around so that he had his back flat against the bulkhead, she had missed it and that had him smiling faintly once again. Mostly at her flushed expression no doubt brought on by the memory of what they had just seen. There was no doubt in his mind what they had meant to one another in that that short slice of time shared.

"You misunderstand, " Matt said lifting a hand to catch her own down near her hip so that he could cradle it between the both of them with surprising gentle care," I love you." His intense hazel eyes could never look anywhere, but at those depths of blue fighting to not shy away under his attention, "From the second you pointed that gun at me back at your dig site."

Despite herself Liara mirrored the smile Matt wore and couldn't help by clutch that hand he used to hold her own that much tighter, "Matt I was trying to kill you."

She had pointed a gun right at the back of his head with a shaky finger on the trigger, but the instant he got a first look at her something had clicked in the back of his mind. At first he felt that she was familiar, but it had always been something more than that. This Asari had meant something to the biotic from the start. A building tight feeling in his chest signaled it.

"Like I said Doc, you were certainly not the first person that tried that with me," he said with a laugh," but it does not mean what I said is any less true. You should know me pretty well by now. Just how long do I need to usually make my mind up about something?"

Liara inched their bodies closer together and she set her forehead against the front of his shirt resting just over where she could easily hear the specialists beating heart, one hand going up to claim a grip amongst all that fabric.

"We will need to address just what the memory means Shepard."

Matt sighed and lifted a hand to rest on the back of her neck, coming up across her back smoothly to get there. Just like he had in the shared memory, but none of his affection had anything to do with the future seen. What he had seen both bothered and excited him. The 'Reapers' had just had their name solidified that afternoon, but this evening he knew...knew...they were much more dangerous than they had imagined. Just what could he do to change that? Who was going to believe him?

"Pretty sure I asked you to call me Matt, Doctor," he said with warmth in his voice pleased just to be able to tease the woman," In any case we should be arriving at the citadel in a few hours. A little shut eye would probably be a good idea after all...this...whatever that memory was."

The woman clutching his shirt uncurled her fingers and drew a few steps away, almost as if she realised what she had been doing and thought better of it. She had seen the memory as well, it was all Matt could think of. Liara had felt what he did, better than that she had seen her own reaction to it.

"I will com-," he started only to be stopped by a gloved hand raised to grab at his hip.

"Stay," she said so quiet it might have been easily missed had she not tried again with a clearer tone and a strength behind her eyes, "Stay with me. I…" she tried to find the right thing to say and it seemed to elude her for the longest time they just looked back at one another, "Do not want to miss any chances."

Back on the Citadel she had said something similar, there in that cafe she had said she did not want to wait and had pushed to explore what they had felt for one another. It had all come from this memory she had experienced. Every look, meeting, and conversation they had shared she had that information in the back of her mind eating away at the way she felt. Liara knew just as he did that if this was indeed true and Matt was fairly certain somehow it was that their time was just that. Limited.

"Liara I…."

Whatever strength she had been attempting to show started to waver with that short start, "I would understand if you need time...I myself..."

No, not that look, not the crestfallen expression Matt had only seen her wear a handful of times. The feelings he had for her would not allow that to show again. Beside him, where he stood the door controls taunted the snap decision making of his into being bumped by an elbow to make sure that the door would remained locked. This prompted a small alert sound and the attention of one Asari scientist.

Sure that he had her attention Matt pulled away from the door and in doing so, Liara, so that he could cross the room to her desk where the only small light burned to warm the room. A small tap of his fingers and the bright torch dimmed considerably to be nothing more than that of a night light.

"Then why don't I just go ahead and sleep with you?"

In the now darkened room he couldn't be totally sure in the color of her cheeks, but Matt swore...swore...he could feel it go up a few degrees in temperature. This left the Asair woman throwing her attention to the small cot on the far side of the room that was a mix of blankets around her one singular pillow.

Looking back at him where he stood those shining hues of her's were the only thing he could clearly make out now, "Shepard I-."

He smiled, "Relax Doc I only meant resting together. We can wait for anything else," through the dim light Matt noticed her form visibly relax somewhat, shoulders sliding down releasing stress, "I am not going to let some vision set the timetable for us. Can't say i wouldn't be disappointed, but I could spend the rest of the night going over mission reports instead?"

Liara's movement was quiet after he offered up an out, a dodge to let her remain at a comfortable distance, if that is what she needed. Those studious digits of hers moved to clear the 'bed' or what it could be called of the mess she left it in until she felt it was presentable. Ever the Matriarchs daughter, even in times such as this. Then she turned to face him once again with hands clasp together in front of herself.

"I would indeed like you to stay the night Matthew Shepard," head slightly bowed and eyes showed by lids when she said this, "I would enjoy the company."

No matter how confused he was over the sudden formal action she took Matt was not going to let himself hesitate to answer, "Of course...but why did you ask like that?"

Her head came up and those hands covered her mouth with eyes wide, "Forgive me! Was that wrong?"

In the darkness Matt cracked a smile then laughed despite the situation. There was certainly a lot of differences between them.

He was so busy thinking and laughing over the small action that he missed Liara moving until he felt the feel of her textured fingers against the skin of his stomach. That. That got him to shut up and look at her again. Only now he found nothing to say. Instead there in the darkness at her urging he helped her rid him of his regulation Alliance off duty dress shirt. Arms raised so that she could remove it entirely to be side aside on the desk covering up a few datapads.

The temperature was indeed up a few notches.

"What are you doing T'Soni?"

Continuing her quiet motions she drew hands back until they rested on his chest, just below the collar bone on each side unable to raise her head and meet her eye, "Surely you would be more comfortable sleeping undressed?" the aspect of nudity certainly meant very different things between the two races as well, "Is this wrong for Humans as well?"

Now at a disadvantage Matt swallowed trying to regain something of sanity then set a hand on her side so that he could gently press her back a pace and meet her questioning eyes, "No...you are not wrong Liara, but in the future just try to calm the use of formal polite nature with me. I am a Marine, not a politician after all. Oh and I should probably keep my pants for tonight."

Confused those eyes dropped to where her right hand started to drag down his abdomen pausing when she saw it, "Yes...yes of course," she stammered realising what the connotation might mean to a human at last. "What should I have said if not so formal?"

"Come to bed." simple, sweet, and it was really all Matt could come up with.

Those cheeks of hers flushed behind the shield of the dark room and Liara took Matt by the hand to lead him, "Come to bed then Matt."

Allowing her to lead him he sat down on the cot and through the darkness he was surprised when she did not join him. Instead she stepped out of reach to remove her gloves, setting them down on the desk beside his discarded shirt. Matt opened his mouth to make a snappy remark. That never came, instead the next sound was that of her uniform hitting the floor. Honestly he was not sure how one got on or off one of those outfits. The fact that she had removed it so swiftly had him even more confused now. As well as a little on edge now that she was free of it.

Out of reach those eyes flicked back to him after setting the garment aside and tried to calm what she must have guessed were rushing nerves, "I cannot sleep wearing my uniform unlike you Matt, but I can in my compression fabric. Will that be alright?"

That would be fine, nothing he had not seen a thousand times in the military. Really just a tight tank top and shorts when you got down to it. Besides, he could hardly see her with how much he lowered the light down. Stupid move Matt. Stupid move.

"Of course."

Out of the darkness she was back, he could just make out the blue pigment of her skin in areas he had never seen before because of how her usual dress covered almost the whole of her body. After some awkward moment, agreeable on both their parts, Matt got her agree to stretch out across the cot and in a way back up against his chest. This left him with his arms around her under the heavy issued blanket with his back up against the cool metal bulkhead. Liara had worried that he would be uncomfortable unable to sleep. That would not be the reason, but he assured her that he would be fine.

"Mathew?"

"Yeah?"

Matt could feel her swallow just like he had then speak again, "That name on your chest. A tattoo I think Humans call it? Thats her right your mother?"

She must have seen the name he had just below his left collarbone tattooed in black ink against tanned skin when she got so close to him, "Yeah thats her. I didnt want to forget is all."

"Maybe I should try that," Liara said softly out into the dark room thinking no doubt of her own lost family.

Thinking it over Matt tightened his arms around her form just that little bit more then shifted a bit to get somewhat more comfortable against the wall, "People do what they need Liara. So will you."

After a long pause she spoke once more.

"I think I love you as well Matthew Shepard."