Shepard?
Liara stood at her desk, staring at an empty screen. She was an accomplished scholar, a galactic hero, and a powerful information broker but she still couldn’t write a simple message.
Shepard was back. That’s what Sekat had said last they spoke. She’d asked him to keep his ear to the ground for any possible leads on the hero of the citadel. She gave her body to Cerberus just for that reason, and they still haven’t delivered. Where was she? The Illusive Man had promised.
She had all but given up hope until Sekat had mentioned her in an offhand way. “Oh, by the way, that marine you asked me to look out for is back. Shepard?” Liara’s world stopped when he told her.
“Thank you, Sekat,” she’d said, cutting him off mid-sentence and ending their call.
She’s back? She was told when she found her body, if it even could be considered a body, that Cerberus would bring her back. She had dreamed every night of Shepard’s voice, of the heat of her arms around her. But after a few months, Shepard had settled down to the back of her mind, always there but faint like a headache. A whisper in the back of her mind. Eventually, she had become so engrossed in her work tracking the Shadow Broker that she’d go days without thinking about Shepard.
She still loved her, or at least loved who she had been, the idea of her. She and Feron, there had been something. Not quite love, but something. His presence had eased the hole in her heart for a moment. But, then, the Broker took him too.
Shepard?
Sekat’s voice echoed around her mind, Shepard’s name on repeat like her favorite song.
Liara stared down at the still blank screen. How do you start a message to someone who has been dead for two years? How do you bridge that gap? Did she still have her memories?
The same memories Liara had? The same memories which still plagued her dreams. Did she remember the way their lips felt pressed together? Like sweet electricity.
How do you bridge that gap?
Liara closed her monitor, tired of the blue light and the words that wouldn’t come.
Shepard?