A/N Inspired by Evanescence "Bring me to Life", Salser's amazing story "Forever as One" and my own loss… Title inspired by Garbage's verse from "My Lover's Box."

Thanks to everyone who added, reviewed and fav'd. You make this worth continuing. More reviews = more chapters.

Tayg and T.A. Blackwell, well can't say enough good things about you girls.

Also, I don't hate Traynor, just can't pass up a good story/soap opportunity.

Bioware owns all, I just make them cry.

Piece by Piece

The machines scream, a flat-line…

What was once a quiet, somber room was now a bustle or noise and urgency. Miranda Lawson being the loudest of them all, barking out orders, including: "Get Dr. T'Soni the hell out of here!"

She knew the woman was a staunch professional, but never would she have imagined herself thrown out of her bond-mate's room, discarded.

She could hear Ms. Lawson's muffled yells from outside the room. Something about a 200 volt charge… something about, adrenaline… repeat, again… again… Then suddenly the room went quiet. Goddess she's dead, no! With a simple biotic flare the guards were on the ground and she stormed the room. Her eyes caught the machinery, and the faint smiles all indicative of success.

"She's ok Dr. T'Soni… Liara." Miranda smiled faintly, the colour of her own cheeks starting to rush back in.

"Can I go see her?" The worried Asari asks.

"I don't see why not… however she make not wake for a while."

Liara practically pushes her way through the pack of people. She pulls up a chair to her bond-mate's bed. "Don't you dare die on me. If you think I'd get mad at you for a world falling, by the Goddess I'd never forgive you for dying on me… again."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The rest of the Normandy crew finally had permission to disembark the ship. They were all anxious to see their famed Commander, leader and friend. As they made their way to Germanotta Hospital, Traynor could not help plot, and run possible scenarios in her head.

"Commander… I'm here for you. I have always been. I'll take care of you, now and always." She says while cupping the injured soldier's face.

"I know Sam, you've always been there for me. You've helped me, shown me what love is. I can't believe I was so blinded by Liara, you're the one I really want. Come here…" Samantha feels a hand coil around her neck and draw her down.

"Traynor…" Nothing… "Traynor!" An agitated Ashely yells. "Get in the fucking elevator if you wanna see the Skipper."

She feels heat rising to her cheeks. "Yes, of course." She steps into the elevator and is once again lost in her fantasies.

"I hate to speak ill of anyone Commander, but Liara was only using you, to advance her own interest. If she truly loved you she would have accompanied you on the Collector mission."

Shepard steels her stare, piercing her soul and softly takes her hand to her lips, kissing each knuckle gently. "I know, and I have you to thank for showing me the truth. I'm sorry I didn't play chess with you, I know you wanted more, but I was still under her influence. But thanks to you, I'm finally free."

She leans down to capture her heart's lips-

'DING' {Fifth floor, Intensive Care.}

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

She ran her hands through her bond-mate's hair, trailing soft kisses down her face and neck. "Please wake up love…" She gently runs her tongue along Shepard's ear lobe. "We have little blue children waiting to be made…" She takes her lobe between her lips and gives a gentle suck. "I know you wouldn't want to miss out on, that."

She feels the feathered caress of another's hand on her fore arm. Looking down she sees her love is awake… finally.

"Li….Lia…" All she wants to do is jump on her broken love.

"Shepard, I knew you were alive, I never stopped believing…"

A pair of fingers rest on her lips. "Shh… Kiss me…"

She could not be happier to oblige. The war was won, her bond-mate was alive. She could not have asked for a happier ending.

'I dunno, marriage, old age and a lot of little blue children.'

As she kissed her lover fully she never felt so complete. A promise to always come back, a promise to bond, a happily ever after.

Shepard finally broke the kiss and sunk back into her bed. "I'm really tired, I have to sleep. Will you be here when I wake up?"

"Always." Now that her lover was back nothing would keep them apart. Shepard was asleep almost instantly so she decided now was as good a time to grab a shower and some food. As she stepped out of the room she saw the rest of the Normandy's crew had gathered.

"Lola ok?"

"Keelah, will Shepard be alright?"

"How's the Skipper?"

"My battle master's no squishy fool, she'll be fine."

"Fuck, is Shepard gonna be fucking ok?"

"Rage is one hell of an anesthetic, she'll be ok."

"The Goddess has blessed her, I only hope Athame protects her in her hour of need…"

The questions and statements were almost dizzying. And annoying. But she knew they genuinely cared. "Provided we can restart her Cerberus implants and get her new legs, she will be fine." She was exhausted and hated sounding so defeatist, but that was the truth.

The elevator dinged once again, and sounded and over-weight capacity alarm as 6 gigantic primes stepped off. Liara readied her biotics, so tired she momentarily forgot they were now allies.

"We are here to assist Shepard-Commander. We have assimilated the Quarian's pulse harmonic which the consensus believes will repair Shepard-Commander's implants. We will need to scan her to confirm our suspicions."

Liara held the door open for the Primes, signaling them to enter. As they headed towards the Commander's bed she raised her voice and asked: "Will this hurt her?"

The Prime leader turned to face her. "No T'Soni-Doctor, she will not feel a thing. We will simply be retuning her nanites to sub-harmonic frequency 1765.999965, the same frequency that re-activated us, given a few Creator adjustments."

Liara stepped forward in order to have her concerns heard. "What is this frequency? What if it stops transmitting? What happens then?"

Tali lays a gentle hand on her shoulder. "As I explained earlier we simply sent out a bio-metric pulse to reactivate the Geth. It took our entire fleet to generate such power but given this is local the Primes can replicate the same pulse here. Liara, she'll be ok. It's a mass effect pulse, so as long as there is eezo her implants should not degrade unnaturally."

"She's right." The cocky ex-Cerberus woman states as she saunters into the room. Miranda studies the look on Liara's face and knows the question she wants to ask even before it crosses her lips. "Given Shepard was revived with top of the line tech I imagine she will even out-live me. Her implants have a minimum 400-year life span, and include molecular regenerative enhancers. Shall we?" Nodding at the Geth.

Goddess, she will live almost half my life span… Maybe we can upgrade her tech in a century, the technology will surely change and improve. She could see our daughters grow up… Oh Goddess…

The group of Primes stood around the fallen soldier and activated their omni-tools. Blips, bleeps, crackles, nods… Liara could only assume they were speaking Geth, as their omni tool translators had yet to be upgraded to the new sentient species' language she could not understand a word said.

"Meaning?" She said not masking her impatience.

The Geth Prime leader turned to face her. "To facilitate communications you may call me Exodus… It derives from the Earthen holy book referred to as-"

"That's facinating… Exodus, but what of your scans, can you help her? She made absolutely no attempt to hide her distain.

"Yes. Please stand back as we may inadvertently expose you to unwanted bio-metric eezo based shocks. We will begin transmition of this signal in…"

The room cleared out, all were watching through the doors tiny windows.

"5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

"1"

A blue energy emanated from the 6 Primes. The smell of electricity filled the air. A zapping hum filled the room. The Primes talked among themselves. One of them motioned "thumbs up" before the static storm started again. As the energy faded omni-tools flared to life. More Geth chatter. Exodus motioned to the fixated window group to come in.

"We have determined Shepard-Commander was indeed implanted with Reaper technology, how ever as they have been destroyed she is in no danger of further indoctrination."

Miranda is the first to take notice of that statement, scowling in disgust. "Further indoctrination?"

"It would appear that the Old Machines started to influence Shepard-Commander through her Cerberus-Reaper implants."

Oh Goddess… I let this happen. Miranda… I will kill her…

Almost sensing her thoughts Miranda turns to Liara and says; "I honestly had no idea… I… I'm so sorry and so ashamed…"

"We are detecting active nanites, Shepard-Commander is waking up. Her vitals are stable, she will fully recover." Exodus states as he sweeps his omni-tool over the soldier once again.

"GET OUT!" Liara can no longer contain herself. "All of you, just leave, now!"

A shocked crowd exits the room leaving the 2 alone… Liara pulls up a chair, and caresses her bond-mate's face. "I'm here, I'll never leave you, I love you."

The Commander's eyes flutter open as she looks once again panicked at her surroundings. Noticing her lover's duress Liara places a hand on her cheek, stroking it gently.

She was unprepared for what followed. Shepard violently swatted her hand aside. "Who the fuck are you?"

Goddess no this can't be happening… She reached down again only to have her hand batted away. "Shepard, it's me, Liara… Please, let me-"

"You still haven't told me who the fuck you are, now get away from me."

A/N: Reviews people, are what keep this story going. I like to know you want more from this story, so will continue so long as there's interest. Yup, I'm an asshole.