Chapter 2
Shepard lay on her back and listened to the nothing. It was so quiet on this new Normandy, no engine noise, and her private cabin was on a floor all to itself. She liked it at first, the privacy. But the quiet was deafening and she could hardly sleep at all.
Shepard pressed her palms to her eyes and sighed. She hated this. She was a Cerberus lap dog now, she could practically feel the Illusive Man’s leash around her neck. She’d spent two years dead, flitting in and out of unconsciousness, and losing herself in her memories of Liara.
She could remember tracing her back with the tips of her fingers as she slept beside her, smiling sleepily at the rise and fall of her breathing. Their first kiss had been spontaneous, catching Liara’s usual hard commander completely off guard. Shepard still blushed whenever she remembered it, reliving the slightly scaly but soft feel of her lips.
Shepard rolled over in her bed to stare at the picture of Liara on her bedside table. The clock ticked beside the photo, marching steadily into the early morning hours. She sighed, knowing she’d be awoken soon by EDI.
She moved to the edge of the bed and cradled the photo of the Liara. She wondered where she was now, what she was doing. If she missed her as much as she did.
An hour later, Shepard was down in the CIC and reading the dossiers of her new team. The “assassin”, how ominous, was located on lIlium.
“EDI.”
“Yes, Shepard?”
“Set a course for lIlium, we’ve got an assassin to pick up,” she said, tossing the tablet on her desk. She was so tired, she couldn’t wait to get this over and done with.
“Yes, Shepard. We’ll be there within the hour.”
Shepard ran her hands through her hair and looked out the window as they headed to lIlium.