She could feel his heartbeat. A steady rhythm, reminding her of the life it allowed - the strength it provided.
The wounds it had survived.
So often now she just lay there - her eyes closed - listening to his heart. Listening as it beat in time with the unyielding and unending sounds of the Normandy - as if the ship itself was driven by what drove the Commander. She found it hard to rest without the constant reminder of the man who had done so much for her... with her. It was impossible to put the weight of her responsibilities aside without his presence.
Without him.
So much of who she was had been defined by his influence. By his strength, devotion... belief.
Everything aside, the trust this man had put in her when they had first met had changed Liara at her core. That belief, combined with his relentless passion and drive, had compelled her to live as she had not imagined living before.
She fought. She learned. She adapted. She grew. She loved.
All for this man.
And he had died.
Liara pressed herself against him, forcing the beating of his heart to drown out the wave of emotions the memory forced her to relive. Despair at his death, anger at who had taken his body, and the desperation that compelled her to trust his revival with Cerberus.
But they had revived him, and she would never let him be taken from her again.
She would die before that happened.
She would die for him.
.
.
She would die for him.
Shepard stared down at Liara, her face lit by the faintest glow from the stars above his cabin.
She had changed, and watching her change had changed him. From the wide-eyed scientist who had trapped herself within her own ingenuity, she had become a woman who had survived everything the galaxy had thrown at her. She had watched her mother succumb. Watched friend after friend die. Watched him die.
He had tried so hard to deny his feelings for her. Deny the passion she inspired in him from their first meeting and the strength of his pride in her accomplishments since then. At the beginning, it had worried him. Now, it still worried him.
They lived a life where companionship only led to pain.
Yet still, companionship had formed.
Like it had with the friends he had been unable to save.
Like it had with Garrus... a wound still raw in his chest.
Liara was his guide. She had survived this loss before. She had watched him die, and it had only driven her to greater feats.
She inspired him.
And she loved him.
Loved him with such impossible intensity that he felt humbled every time they shared themselves with one another. She felt his pride and passion, he felt her love.
And she would die for him.
As if in answer to his thoughts, Liara's head turned and her eyes met his. The Asari's eyebrows creased in worry and Shepard realized there were tears in his eyes. He smiled and drew her closer, resting his head against her own.
If she died, he wouldn't be far behind. Their goal was to escape - bring as many souls as they could with them - but if the Reapers took Liara, he would never stop fighting. They would pay for taking her.
She was all he had left.