Liara

"Surely you can understand that the payments-"

"T'Soni, you're information gathering skills are significant-you certainly live up to your reputation." The holographic projection of one of my current clients interrupts me yet again, "Which is why you must know how busy a man I am and that you will receive your payment in due time." Not good enough. My grip tightens ever so slightly on the datapad in my hand-of which contains records of his many overdue fees. I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out the sigh I have been holding for much too long. It seems he isn't quite getting the message. They rarely do—I am honestly surprised that I even try to reason anymore.

"Have you ever faced an Asari commando unit before?" I question, lacing the words with my increasing frustration, "Few humans have." In the back of my mind I laugh bitterly at myself as flashes of my mother on Noveria burn their way through into my conscious thoughts—if only for a split second, "I'll make you a deal: either you pay me or I flay you alive." I add, no longer attempting to control my temper, "With my mind."

Breaking the connection just as I see him fidget uncomfortably, the sound of my office door opening and closing registers in my mind. Odd, I don't have any clients this afternoon and usually Nyxeris messages me before—goddess, it can't be! Already! Reflexively, I turn and look over my shoulder and the stars be damned I am met with the midnight-green eyes that haunted me both while awake and asleep.

"Shepard!" My mouth moves and my voices cries before I can help myself. In one last attempt to remain calm and collected, I quickly mumble for Nyxeris to hold my calls as I step slowly towards the woman before me. I can barely believe she is real, let alone attempt to define what the sight of her was making me feel. I had just spent the better part of the last two years trying to recover from the last time I saw her. Saw her body.

I swallow hard, reaching for her in an attempt to verify that she isn't another figment of my imagination, haunting me. I think I whisper her name with the inane thought that it'll prevent her from disappearing again. Tears burn the back my eyes when I am met with the cool, rough, very-much-real armor, covering her body. I almost breathe a sigh of relief but I need more. I need to feel… her.

My body acts on its own in response to the thought. I draw her closer and lean in to touch her lips with my own. She is trembling—or perhaps it is I, I cannot tell for sure. She really is back. She really is alive. Alive and here in my arms. Countless times I've dreamed of this. Begged and pleaded silently for it—yearned for it. Cried myself to sleep over it, accepting that not only would it never be a reality but also that I didn't deserve it. Not after what I had done. Goddess, forgive me.

It takes every fiber of my being to pull away from her. I quickly turn away to avoid her eyes, afraid of what I may see in them. I tell myself that if I had let it go further, I would have lost what little control I have left. And I cannot afford to lose it now. Not when I am so close to finishing what I had started a year ago.

I move to my desk, still avoiding her eyes as I force myself to regain my composure, "My sources said you were alive," willing my voice not to crack, "but I never believed…" I accidentally let slip but caught myself quickly, "It's so very good to see you."

She is standing across from me on the other side of my desk now. I then come to the realization that she had yet to say anything since she arrived. The thought causes me to stiffen slightly. My mind races as I cannot help the many possibilities of what could happen, from flooding my thoughts. Yes, she was back but to what extent? Even with my information-gathering skills I had not been able to find out anything about Project Lazarus. Oh Goddess, what if they brought her back without her memories? What if they somehow… altered her—changed her? Yes, she is real, but is she the same woman that had died saving her crew two years ago? The thoughts are racing as fast as my heart as I stare at her, the silence becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

"Wait, you have sources now?" She asks in that playful, carefree, almost child-like tone of voice. A tone she—and only she—can pull off and still be taken seriously as a dedicated soldier and savior of the galaxy. It is music to my ears and it is all I need.

Turning away quickly again and covering with a small semblance of a laugh, I choke back a sob and hide the single tear that escapes my control.

A/N:

Well then. That was interesting.
The initial exchange between Liara and Shepard when they first meet on Illium in ME2 was a tad short for my tastes so I decided to... elaborate a little bit.
I mean yeah, I wasn't expecting a full-on love scene or anything but it would have been nice to have had a little more than a peck before it's down to business.
Lucky I have an overactive imagination I guess...

In terms of Shepard's POV; I get that Shepard is this big hero that goes around saving the galaxy but in my head, my Shep has kind of a... quirky mind. Maybe since she's full-on paragon and a spacer/war hero (aka angst-free). Or maybe because hey... I'm playing as her so she acts like me, only natural she thinks like me, right?

And Liara... writing in Liara's POV was hard.
It would have been easier if the story featured her during ME1 but since she'd changed quite significantly by ME2 it was a little harder to portray that and still make it believable.

Blarp.