The blue light of Liara's biotics swirled around her fists as they grew in power. The size of the glowing mass grew to match the intensity behind them. Soon the tension behind the blue forms reached the level of strength that Liara needed and they were released, smashing into the door in front of their creator. The door buckled under the ferocity of the biotics and fell away from its hinges, leaving an open entryway into the hotel room.
"You'll be paying for that," shrieked the asari hotel attendant from down the hall.
Liara ignored the comment and pushed past the broken door. She barely made it a few feet into the room before her right foot made contact with a glass bottle. The force from the kick sent the bottle rolling. It rolled across the dirty carpeting until it hit a solid mass at the foot of the bed. Liara squinted to make out the shape in the light of the uncovered lamp. As her eyes gradually adjusted, the shape revealed itself to be Shepard. She was completely disheveled from head to toe. Her hair was a tangled mess and her clothes were covered in stains from where her drink had spilled out of her mouth. Her mascara was smudged and some of it had run down her cheeks and was mixed with dried tears.
The asari crouched down and moved the bottle aside. It was completely drained. She moved forward to check on Shepard's condition. The woman was asleep but it was far from sound as she made noises full of incoherent mumbling and grunting in her sleep. Liara wondered if Shepard had been sleeping when she had let loose the stream of hysterical laughter.
Now that she knew the Commander's condition was at least stable, she turned, still crouching, to Garrus and Tali behind her. "Garrus, help me get her out of here. And Tali, can you call for a taxi?"
"I told the one we took here to wait for us outside," she replied.
"Smart girl," Garrus commented, a touch of adoration evident in his voice for a moment before he turned his attention back to Shepard. "Uh, sorry. What do you want me to do?"
"Help me get her standing up. I doubt she'll be able to walk so we'll each take an arm over the shoulder and get her out that way."
"Sounds good." He bent down next to Liara on the other side of Shepard and started to take her arm. His actions were interrupted when she groaned and swatted his hand away with one big sweeping movement. "Shepard," he growled. "You're not making this easy."
"Leave me alone," Shepard slurred angrily as she tried to move away.
Liara grabbed ahold of the struggling woman's wrist. "No. Not again. Never again." She pulled Shepard to her feet with some assistance from Garrus. Following Liara's plan, each took one took one of Shepard's arms and slung it over their respective shoulders amidst her murmured and incoherent protests. They made their way out of the hotel room and down the hallway where they were stopped in the lobby by a hysterical hotel attendant.
"You need to pay," she commanded. "My boss is going to have my head if he comes in and sees that the room has been damaged like this. I-"
Tali cut the asari's demand short with a disgruntled sigh and produced a pre-paid credit chit from a small bag that was attached to the belt at her waist. "Keep the change," she said as she placed the chit in the attendant's outstretched hand.
"Well that solves one problem," Garrus muttered as the trio exited the lobby and went out through the front doors. Their vision was blinded for split second when the surrounding area suddenly lit up with brilliant lights, rapidly flashing.
"What the-?" Tali started.
"Cameras!" Liara cried. Shepard had been a popular figure in the media for years now but she had really become a sensation in press after the war against the Reapers had ended. Especially when the media had discovered that there was an angle of romance that they could play up. Liara tried to do everything in her power with her contacts to remove any information that they possessed for sensational purposes before it could be published. Tabloid features were the last thing Shepard needed to see. But no one could have seen this one coming. It wouldn't be good. "Someone must have called them."
"The hotel desk clerk?" Garrus called out, trying to be heard over the reporters shouting questions and the clicking and whirring of the cameras.
"She never took her eyes off of us," Liara shouted back. "It must have been the driver who dropped her off here."
"Bastard," grumbled Garrus.
Liara gave a nod in response then turned to Tali, trying not to struggle under the seemingly increasing weight of Shepard. "Can you take care of these?" she asked.
Tali was already activating her Omni-tool to summon Chikktika. "On it," she called. The purple drone materialized in front of her before speeding off to take its place behind the distracted reporters. It hovered as the quarian rapidly entered commands into her tool. An array of sparks erupted from the front of each of the cameras, the lights suddenly cutting out. The chaos turned from being directed at Shepard to the equipment.
Liara seized the opportunity. "Move!" she ordered. The taxi was parked just beyond the crowd. She and Garrus dragged Shepard past them with Tali following behind, controlling the drone as she ran. Some members of the swarm of reporters were still distracted by their now faulty gear but others looked up in time to see their target go right past them. Tali moved ahead to open the backseat door and slid in and helped pull Shepard in next to her. Liara and Garrus got into the backseat soon after, squeezing in as best as they could. Garrus slammed the door shut.
The speaker crackled to life. "Where to?"
Liara quickly rattled off the address of the hotel and the taxi lurched to life. Gagging sounds emitted from Shepard. "Do not throw up on me," Tali ordered. Shepard groaned and moved her head to Liara's shoulder.
"Do you have any bags?" Liara asked, directing her question to the speaker.
A panel towards the bottom of the right door opened, displaying a container holding a package of plastic bags. Liara grabbed one from the top of the pile and opened it. She moved Shepard so that she was leaning forward and put the bag down by the human woman's face. Then she moved her hand to Shepard's back and began to rub small, soft circles.
The backseat was completely quiet, save for an occasional noise from Shepard followed immediately by soothing sounds from Liara. Finally Garrus spoke up. "Are you mad at her?"
Liara looked up at him and gave a sigh. "To be completely truthful I have no idea what I'm feeling. Or how I'm supposed to feel."
"What do you mean?" the turian responded.
"It's just-" she sighed. "Am I supposed to be angry that she violated her promise to me? Or should I be understanding because of the situation that she's been through? I don't know what to feel or how to react and I feel like I should. It should be obvious. In this relationship, at least for right now, I need to be the one who knows what to do. But I don't and it's terrifying." She took a shuddering intake of breath, trying to calm herself down.
For a moment Garrus seemed to ignore her; his attention was fixed on Tali who had fallen asleep next to Shepard, exhausted by the night's events. But soon enough he spoke up. "You're not supposed to know what to do all the time, Liara. And I know that scares you because you're, well, you. But you have an advantage over all the other clueless people in this universe."
"What is that?" she asked.
"You have us. You have a huge group of equally clueless people that are here to help in whatever way you need. Anything at all. You can call any of us and we'll be there, okay?"
The asari smiled gently. "Okay. Garrus?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you help me get her inside when we get home?"
He nodded and his mandibles twitched into a smile. "Always."