A/N - I know it's been forever since I've updated, so thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story! This chapter is a little different, as it isn't from either Shepard or Garrus' perspective. Hope you enjoy it!

Liara found it surreal being back on the Normandy. She had to keep reminding herself it wasn't really the Normandy. Not her Normandy. The old ship was dead and gone, and this one was full of Cerberus logos and twice as big.

Of course, there were one or two familiar faces.

"I'd heard you had a respectable job again, and an office over the Nos Astra trading floor on Illium," Dr Chakwas said reproachfully. She glanced away from the medical monitor, meeting T'Soni's gaze. "Not the sort of job that usually ends in fractured ribs and second degree burns."

Liara found herself peering up in bemusement at the doctor leaning over her. She hadn't even noticed the burns from their fight with Tela Vasir, until Shepard insisted she visit the medbay. "An information broker's job is not entirely free from injury, Doctor. Then again, neither is that of an archaeologist."

The good doctor muttered something under her breath. "The number one killer of xeno-archaeologists is disease. Not gun shots." Chakwas snapped the monitor back into its resting place and stood back from the bed. "That medi-gel will need a good 24 hours to work properly. It will take at least that long to get to this mysterious Shadow Broker's base. Try to avoid any firefights on the ship, hmm?"

Pushing herself off the bed, Liara smiled faintly at the irascible human doctor who had patched up so many of her wounds in the old days. "I'll do my best."

Chakwas sighed. "However did you get involved in this spy nonsense anyway?"

There were so many things she could say to that, and most of them gave away more than she was comfortable with. Shepard, Liara thought ruefully. It was too big an answer for such a casual question.

"Unfortunately in academic circles, when you try to publish articles about a mysterious ancient race bent on destroying all of civilisation without any sort of hard evidence, it doesn't go very far. The nicest thing I've been called in academia lately is 'obsessive' and 'myopic.' It didn't help that the Council denied the Reapers even existed." Liara shrugged at the doctor's sudden grimace of understanding. "It doesn't bother me. I have a feeling that we will all have rather more evidence of Reaper existence than we would like soon enough."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Chakwas nodded. "True enough. You can take mild painkillers if you need them, but I recommend you eat first. Our local cook has turned out to be more skilled than he appears."

"Thank you, Dr Chakwas."

Leaving the medical bay compounded the sense of deja vu. The open galley was almost the same as the original Normandy; standard Alliance design for a frigate. In the old days, this had been one of her favourite places. She and Tali and Kaidan had usually ended up sharing a meal together at least once a day, chatting over the latest mission or hashing our Saren's strategy.

Liara studied the scattering of figures seated around the big table, knowing they were all part of the new tactical crew. She knew most of them by sight, having kept a close watch over Shepard's new recruits.

Samara, the asari Justicar from Illium, was calmly eating a meal beside Grunt, the very young krogan with his blue eyes and barely-scarred face.

Jack and Zaeed, scarred and tattooed human criminals, were huddled together at the end of the big table, peering at a display on the woman's omni-tool. Half-empty plates of food sat by their elbows and as she watched, Jack absently shovelled a forkful of food into her mouth.

"I'm telling you Massani, this will work," the heavily tattooed biotic said as Liara passed them by.

Zaeed grunted. "Cryo tech works on slugs. You'll never scale up the cooling laser enough to work on a gun. It'll explode in your face."

At the galley bench, Liara picked up a plate and began scooping food into it from a simmering pot. Some sort of human dish, but she could spot animal protein in it and whatever it was, it smelled wonderful. She tuned back into the conversation as she took her meal to the table.

"...look, right here. The mass effect bubble goes first, it'll keep everything stable while the laser does its thing." Jack shoved a finger at the omni-tool display; it looked like some sort of heavy weapon. "Then it's just the same as your normal cryo rounds. Super-cool to the subatomics and ice your target."

The older mercenary snorted. "Think Shepard even wants a freeze ray?"

Liara settled herself a few seats down from the two humans, earning a welcoming nod from Samara. The krogan was more interested in the ongoing discussion.

"Who doesn't want a freeze ray? You need someone to test it out? I'll volunteer. I don't want my krantt losing an arm to frostbite," Grunt said.

Jack's tattooed face split in a wide grin. "That's the spirit, kid. But enough of this freeze ray shit."

"Ice blaster?" Zaeed offered, smirking.

"I like freeze ray," Grunt argued.

"Snowstorm?" Massani's smirk widened.

"What's wrong with freeze ray? That's what it's meant to do."

Jack glared down the table at Grunt. "We're not calling it a damned freeze ray."

Samara wore a smile of patient tolerance. "Perhaps Cryo Blaster?" the serene asari suggested smoothly.

There was a moment of silence, as Liara ate and waited expectantly. Then Jack nodded.

"It'll do. For now."

It reminded her painfully of the old days. The cheerful camaraderie of people who regularly faced death together, the relaxed banter of a very disparate group united by a common purpose. She could so easily imagine the same conversation taking place between Wrex and Garrus. It made something in her chest ache, being here on the Normandy and remembering those days.

Despite the severity of the threat facing them, those had been some of the happiest days of her life.

"Were you injured, Dr T'Soni?"

Hearing her name uttered in the smooth, serene tones of the asari Justicar broke through Liara's distraction. She blinked to refocus her gaze and found the others around the table all looking in her direction. Despite everything she'd been through, all her achievements over the years and having faced down Saren and a Reaper, Liara still found herself unaccountably shy at being the centre of all that attention.

"N-no, not really," she managed, gesturing vaguely to her right arm. "A dislocated shoulder. A few cuts. Dr Chakwas saw to it."

Massani grunted. "Heard you took down a Spectre. Would've like to have seen that."

"Vakarian said they blew up half a building trying to take you down." It was the young krogan, looking at her like he was trying to figure out whether it would really require that much effort to subdue her. "Seems like overkill."

Liara felt herself smile. "It would appear it wasn't quite enough to get the job done."

Massani and the tattooed biotic laughed; vicious sounds full of black humour. But it was the Justicar's severe state that kept her from joining in with them.

"A great many innocent civilians were injured today," Samara reminded them all.

"More would have suffered under a less permanent outcome than we achieved today." Liara met the gaze of the Justicar steadily. Her surveillance had caught enough of Samara's antics on Illium, and her sources had filled in the gap. Any Justicar was an unpredictable element but this one was devout even beyond the norm for her kind. The last thing she wanted was for Samara to come track her down once her current mission was over, to discuss reckless civilian endangerment. "We should all be grateful for Shepard's willingness to take down a rogue Spectre."

There was a heaviness to the silence, as the two asari regarded each other. Liara ignored the fine tremor in her stomach, keeping her chin locked firmly in place and her gaze steady. It took a long moment but eventually Samara inclined her head in recognition.

"Perhaps we should at that."

Liara exhaled carefully and allowed her gaze to drop back to her meal. The moment passed, an awkward silence that extended in a bubble around them until Grunt made some muttered comment that had Jack and Massani chortling and the three of them were off chatting cheerfully about a mission Liara knew nothing about.

It was a good reminder for her. This wasn't her Normandy. This wasn't her crew. Whatever ghosts echoed on this ship for her, Liara T'Soni would never call this place home.

That was as it should be, after all. Shepard had her mission and so did Liara. This was just a temporary overlap of the two, she firmly reminded herself as she turned her attention back to finishing her meal.

Best she keep that front of mind.

After sleeping away most of their transit time to the coordinates of the Shadow Brokers base, Liara woke restless and antsy. She couldn't quite face being alone with Shepard just yet. There was too much history there, too much memory. Too much intensity within Liara's emotions for her to face the honest conversation that would come of that meeting right now.

The VI had told her she could find both Garrus and Tali on the engineering deck, so instead she made her way down.

At the wide doors to the shuttle door, the asari hesitated, peering into the cavernous space. Her gaze lit almost instantly on a familiar figure standing beside some sort of ground vehicle in a way that gave her an almost dizzying sense of déjà vu. A very beat up vehicle, she realised in retrospect. Her attention shifted to Garrus Vakarian in surprise. Was he still spending his days banging dents out of broken vehicles?

Before she could enter the bay, Liara heard a muffled curse echo from under the damaged frame of the vehicle. Long legs in a Cerberus uniform shifted and Liara watched as a dark-skinned human dragged himself out to glare at Garrus.

"You used to fix this kind of damage after every mission? Seriously?"

Vakarian's low chuckle floated across the length of the shuttle bay to where she stood. "This is pretty mild, actually. I think she went easy on it this first time out."

To the right, Tali emerged from the Kodiak, chuckling. "Now that she's got an idea of how it handles, she'll want to really push it next time."

The quarian headed to a pile of supplies nearby; apparently she was restocking the Kodiak for its next mission.

"Damn. She's bent the port thruster. How did she even do that?!" the human demanded. "Didn't you have the kinetic barriers up?" He turned to Garrus, glaring.

The turian held his hands up in denial. "Sorry, Jacob. Barriers don't help much when you're trying to leap a ten meter chasm and slam belly first onto a cliff edge," he explained ruefully.

Jacob's eyes widened. "She didn't."

"She did," Tali confirmed cheerfully, hefting another crate past them to the Kodiak. "Like Garrus said. She was taking it easy. I didn't even throw up this trip."

"Glad to hear some things haven't changed," Liara said, venturing deeper into the shuttle bay. She saw Vakarian's mandibles shift into a smile but Tali and the human turned towards her in surprise. Of course, Garrus would have known she was there. That visor of his wouldn't miss an additional thermal presence in his vicinity.

"Shepard will be ramming vehicles over cliff sides when she's geriatric," Vakarian assured her cheerfully. "Li, come meet Jacob Taylor. He's our local Cerberus watchdog and pretty neat with a gun. Jacob, this is T'Soni. I'm sure Lawson already briefed you on her."

She expected his smug tone would aggravate the human, but Jacob Taylor just laughed and slapped Garrus on the shoulder.

"You know Miranda." He turned his dark eyes onto Liara and she studied him in return. "Welcome aboard, Dr T'Soni."

Did he know her involvement in Shepard's resurrection? Liara suspected he might, given his involvement with the Cerberus cell that arranged it, but she didn't have the energy to worry about it right now.

"If you want to make yourself useful, you can grab one of those ammo boxes and help me lug," Tali invited cheerfully, pointing towards the neatly piled crates of gear nearby.

"Everyone works on Shepard's boat, Li. You know the drill," Garrus reminded her with a smirk when she didn't immediately move.

"Remind me next time I should come aboard as a paying guest," T'Soni answered dryly, but obediently went to grab a case of ammo. It was familiar. So damn familiar. Prepping the shuttle with Garrus and Tali. The laughter, the camaraderie. It was too easy to fall back into it and forget that she was a different person these days, to forget the drell held captive on the Shadow Broker's base, to forget she'd spent nearly two years chasing the corpse of the Commander that had brought them all together.

Maybe it's not a bad thing to forget for a little while.

The idea was alien but she didn't want to resist it. Maybe just for a little while, Liara T'Soni could be amongst friends and allies and feel safe.

Just for a little while.

In all too short a time, they emerged into the system where the Shadow Broker kept his hidden lair.

The fight to take out the Shadow Broker was long and brutal. There had been times, as they crawled their way along the storm-buffetted exterior of the ship, that Liara questioned the sanity of her choices. But sane or not, she was committed and she'd had Commander Shepard and the infamous Archangel at her back. There was no way they wouldn't succeed.

For all that, it hadn't come free, and it hadn't come cheap. Despite the savage glee accompanying her success, T'Soni felt an equal amount of guilt twisting her guts. It was all over now and everyone was alive, but the price... the price seemed too high to her, as she made her way quietly through the Normandy once more.

The medbay doors opened before her as Chakwas exited. The human woman seemed calm enough, tense from the long hours of surgery on Garrus, but without the sharp lines of stress that would suggest serious complications.

Liara hesitated briefly, exchanging a nod with the doctor as she entered the medbay quietly. Further into the room, she could see the Commander hovering beside Vakarian's bed, her head dipped low as she spoke softly to him. Liara could only hear the murmur of her voice, but couldn't discern any words.

She watched silently as Shepard gripped the turian's hand tightly. The part of Liara's brain that didn't stop observing took note of how familiar the gesture seemed to them both; there was no awkward fumbling as two aliens strove to adapt the gesture to their varying number of digits. Garrus' long fingers curled about the Commander's slender hand protectively, even though he was the one lying wounded on the medical bed.

"Dammit, Garrus."

That was loud enough and clear enough for her to make it out. Shepard's unhappiness was blatantly apparent; in her slumped shoulders, the tense line of her back, the uncensored emotion in her voice.

T'Soni paused inside the doors, waiting rather than intruding on what was clearly a private moment. It seemed she was spending most of her time on the Normandy hovering in doors, unsure of her welcome. She heard the muffled flanging tones of a turian voice speaking softly and when she cautiously glanced their way again, she was startled to see Shepard's forehead resting gently against Vakarian's.

It solidified the suspicion that had grown since she first came on board again; the gesture was somehow more intimate than even a kiss could have been. Part of her, the old part that had once had an adolescent crush on the very impressive Commander Shepard, felt a pang of wistfulness. The rest of her surged with pleasure for her friends; if any two people deserved happiness, it was Shepard and Vakarian.

It was another moment before they separated. Shepard straightened, the cant of her head indicating she was still watching the prone turian. Liara took the opportunity to gracefully announce herself; she cleared her throat loudly.

Shepard's expression of surprise as she spun around was almost amusing. The Commander stared at her in uncomfortable suspicion; behind her from his propped-up position on the bed, Garrus smirked.

"Come on in, T'Soni. I'll take all the sympathy I can get. Especially if you're bringing gifts for the man who selflessly sacrificed himself to save your life."

As always, Garrus made her smile. The relaxed lines of his body eased some of the guilt roiling inside her. Liara approahed his bed, her gaze shifting between the two of them before settling on Vakarian. In her minds eye, she saw once more the impact that sent her old friend crashing to the ground in their battle with the Shadow Broker. Heard Shepard's frantic cry of alarm as the lanky turian body remained unnaturally still and limp on the deck plating. Liara blinked deliberately to clear her vision, focussing instead on the healthy, alive man in the bed before her.

"I'll have to owe you on that score, I'm afraid," she managed to say. "I'm a bit short on belongings at the moment - I don't even have a spare set of clothes."

Shepard shifted beside the bed. "We'll rustle something up for you. You can always rip the Cerberus patches off."

Liara realised their hands were still touching; no longer clasped but resting alongside one another on the bed. "Thanks Shepard. I'm not sure I'd exactly fit into the former Shadow Broker's wardrobe. I just stopped by to see how Garrus was doing. I can come back later if you'd prefer...?"

The Commander exhaled. "Not at all. I know we're leaving shortly. Are you sure you have everything you need?"

"I think so. Feron has been exploring the ship for the last few hours and we're starting to get a handle on it."

"You really going to stick it out here?" Garrus asked.

Liara nodded. "For now, at least. Until I'm sure I have a solid grasp of the... extent of the Shadow Broker's operations. The ship is the most secure place for me right now."

"I'll stop by there before we leave." Shepard seemed to hesitate, glancing down at the prone man on the bed by her side. "Call me or Chakwas if you need anything, big guy."

Liara watched the way Vakarian's expression softened; his mandibles tilted into a smile very unlike his customary smirk. "Thanks Shepard."

They both watched the Commander leave, and despite his seeming bravado, Liara had the entertaining suspicion that her old friend was the slightest bit uncomfortable around her.

She snagged a chair and dragged it over to his bedside, settling into it. "So," Liara said softly. His eyes watched her now with the tiniest hint of wariness. "How's your mother?"

It threw him, coming around the corner like that, as she'd known it would. Garrus coughed, mandibles flicking briefly. "She's, uh... she's doing a bit better. Mordin had some old friends who looked into her condition. They sent her something that seems to be working so far." He paused. "Didn't think the STG would know much about turian diseases. It was Shepard's idea."

Her eyes must have brightened because Vakarian held up a warning hand. "It's not a solution. Just a temporary measure. But Sol said she's not in as much pain anymore. And it might give her a bit more time."

Liara could hear the relief in his voice. She knew that for a turian, the mission would come first. But if he could do both, finish the job and make it home to see his mother before the end, he would find some sort of peace with it all.

"And... how's Shepard?"

Vakarian eyed her sidelong for a moment. "Just like old times, Li. What are you really asking?" There was a sharpness to his tone, a pronounced flanging, that took her by surprise.

The asari hesitated. Once Kaidan and Shepard had hooked up, she'd teased Alenko mercilessly. Partly out of envy, but mostly because she found it hilarious watching him stammer and stutter and turn red. Alenko had been adorably besotted, and she'd expected to get the same response out of Vakarian. After all, nobody did awkward stammering better than Garrus.

But the look on his face now wasn't besotted, it wasn't adorable or anything she'd ever seen from Alenko. It was serious as hell.

Oh.

Oh my.

Liara mentally backtracked, rethinking her entire approach. "Nothing. Let me extract my foot from my mouth and try again."

At least that got a low chuckle from him, full of more relaxed subharmonics. "Don't worry about it. I should have remembered you're even worse than Tali at minding your own damn business."

"Does she... do they all know? About you and the Commander?"

It was out now, undeniable and too blatant to pretend he didn't understand what she was asking. Garrus flicked his uninjured mandible in annoyance.

"You're worse than my kid sister, Li. You really think anything can stay secret on this boat for more than five seconds?"

Her mouth pulled up into a half-grin. "Not with that sneak thief you've got onboard." Kasumi had already startled her three times by seeming to appear out of nowhere. And Liara had found what looked like pretty impressive listening devices mixed in with her gear before she relocated her stuff onto the Shadow Broker's base. "No issues? Cerberus aren't known to be big on interspecies relationships."

There was a silence loaded with... something. Then Vakarian leaned back against his pillows, sighing. "Not that kind. Not even from Miranda."

Liara studied her friend thoughtfully. "So what then? Is it because she's human? I know you've never been involved with anyone but another turian..."

Asari knew the complications of intercultural romance. It was their main reproductive pathway, after all. And Garrus was straighter than most turians she'd known, despite his rebellious instincts.

"No, but that's not it." The tense subharmonics were back, a pronounced flanging that filled the room. "I wouldn't care if she were turian, human, krogan or a damn yahg." Garrus grimaced. "Okay, I'd care if she were a yahg. But you know what I mean. She's Shepard. It's about who she is, not what she is."

Taken aback by the response, Liara could only nod silently. She knew. Oh, how she knew. Shepard was unique in this universe, and her species was the least relevant fact of why that was so.

"It's... me."

Oh Goddess.

Garrus could be awkward and adorable when embarrassed, but she had genuinely never seen him insecure.

"She's the Commander, she's the first human Spectre. She came back from the dead to keep fighting Reapers." Garrus exhaled, soft and tired. "I'm still just a beat-up old sniper whose first instinct always seems to be the wrong one."

That was specific enough to catch Liara's attention immediately. She straightened in her seat, pinning him with her gaze. "What are you talking about now, Vakarian?"

He was fidgeting, his talons clicking together rhythmically. Garrus never fidgeted unless he was nervous or unsure.

"Our last mission. This rathole called Zorya, it was Zaeed's meal ticket for joining the mission," he began and Liara let him talk.

Once he'd started, it was like a dam overflowing. The words tumbled out, loaded with tense flanging and she let him babble his way through it. The retelling of Massani's hunt for revenge against the Blue Suns and the man that had crossed him, betrayed him. It didn't take long for her to catch the parallels between Massani's history and what happened to Archangel on Omega.

You poor messed up bastard.

Liara let him tell it his way, listening to the conclusion of the mission and Shepard's insistence on putting the civilian lives ahead of the old mercenary's revenge.

"I saw Zaeed's face, Li. I recognized it. It's exactly how I felt when I had Sidonis in my sights..."

The asari frowned as her friend grimaced. Garrus lifted his head enough to meet her gaze straight on, and she saw the misery sitting there.

"If Shepard hadn't talked me down from killing Sidonis... Hell, Liara. That could have been me. It took me this damn long, but after all the crap I gave her for it, I finally figured out what Shepard was trying to tell me. About what it would have done to me."

Liara exhaled slowly, weighing her friends words against what she knew of the Commander. "Have you told her this?"

Garrus flattened his mandibles and said nothing. Of course, Liara realized ruefully.

"She already knows."

The turian sighed heavily. "I didn't have to say anything. Shepard knew. On the shuttle on the way back from Zorya... She told me I would never have taken the shot. She still has that much faith in me."

And there it was. The raw, festering wound that plagued Garrus Vakarian enough to have him bring it up with her. He still doubted Shepard's faith in him, and that had further reaching consequences than his ability to follow her command in battle. At least, if what she'd seen earlier was any indication.

Liara leaned back, folding her arms over her chest as she considered her friend carefully. "Shepard told me how she found you on Omega. Pinned down, nearly out of ammo, last man standing."

The apparent segue puzzled him, distracted him from the myopia of his thoughts. "Liara, what do you -"

She held up a hand to quieten him. "Everyone thought she was two years dead." Everyone but me, her conscience added with a guilty pang. "She showed up, covered in Cerberus logos, with two former enemies at her back. And you didn't even hesitate, did you? You didn't question her, whether it really was her."

"I'm not Kaidan," he retorted, and the bluntness of that answer told her how confused he was.

Liara smiled warmly at him. "Exactly. You had faith in her, and you trusted that if she had Cerberus at her back, it was the right call to make. Garrus, you've never hesitated to back her call, never questioned that she would make the right choice. Are you surprised she believes in you just as strongly?"

That got him where he lived; she watched her old friend subside into bemused silence for a few moments. When he did speak again, his voice was wry.

"Sure you don't want to stick around after we're done here? We could use you, and not just for your biotics."

Liara smiled gently down at the turian, patting his bandaged shoulder lightly. "I wish I could. But someone needs to keep an eye on the big picture while you and Shepard go hunt down these... Collectors."

Her mouth twisted on their name, refusing to let her thoughts settle too firmly on the revelation that the Collectors were the twisted descendants of her beloved Protheans. She saw Garrus twitch a mandible at her tone.

"Is that why you're planning on staying on the Shadow Broker's ship?"

Vakarian had always seen clearly, cutting through the noise to get to the heart of the matter. She nodded quickly. "With the resources available to me there, I can give you - give Shepard - another source of intel that isn't Cerberus. We can look into these attacks on human colonies and try to identify which are most at risk. We might even be able to dig up some hints about what the Reapers are doing while their agents are running about collecting human samples."

T'Soni knew he could hear the passion underlying her voice, as the words burst free. But she knew, she knew right down to her bones, that there was a bigger picture here. Shepard had to keep her team focussed on the immediate threat and that blinded her to the larger strategy of their enemies. And the enemy was and always would be the Reapers.

Garrus nodded slowly.

"Good thinking, Li. Have you told Shepard?"

"Not yet. I'll run it by her when I show her what I've learned about the Shadow Broker's resources."

"She'll appreciate having another source of intel," her old friend commented mildly, glancing idly about the medbay. It wasn't hard to guess that Cerberus had the whole ship bugged to hell and back, so Liara nodded and let the matter drop there.

"I thought so too. But there's still some time before I have to head back, and I've missed you, Garrus. Tell me some more about what you've been up to... and this interesting new crew you've collected."

He grinned back at her with a tilt of mandibles and Liara settled happily back into her seat. She had time. Spending it catching up with an old and dear friend was the best way she could imagine to spend it.

"Get comfy, T'Soni. I'll fill you in on Tali getting put on trial for treason against the Flotilla, Shepard going undercover to help our resident thief with her big heist and... oh, have I told you that we killed a thresher maw?"

Liara blinked in shock.

"Guess not." Vakarian chuckled. "Let me start there, then..."

Eventually, Liara managed to summon up her courage and meet privately with Shepard. The conversation was equal parts awkward and embarrassing, and went pretty much exactly as she'd expected it would. Before she left, almost fleeing the quiet intimacy of her dear friend's private room, Liara had remembered to invite Shepard to stop by the Shadow Broker's ship before she and the Normandy departed.

There was something she needed to show the Commander before she ventured back out on her hunt for the Collectors.

It had been a theory at first, based on the early analysis of the Broker's expansive intel about the alien ship and its objectives. While Liara had been saying her farewells to the Normandy crew, Feron had been reviewing, dissecting and validating the data to assess how valid her theory might be. He'd managed to get the Broker's info drone working on the matter as well, and by the time Liara returned, they had an updated report ready for her.

Her theory had been proven correct, and the reality of it was a like a rock in her stomach.

When Shepard stuck her head into the Broker's intel center, the asari forced her racing thoughts to some semblance of order and turned to face the Commander.

"Shepard. I'm glad you had time to stop by."

"You made it sound important," Shepard answered pointedly, her gaze distracted by the many different stations within the large room. She seemed quite interested in the open armor locker over Liara's shoulder.

T'Soni shifted hesitantly. "Yes, I suppose I did. I'm not sure how to put it. But..." Liara moved quickly to the nearby station, calling up the analysis she had been reviewing. "I've been using the Shadow Broker's resources to analyse sightings of the Collectors in comparison to the Normandy's movements. I agree with Tali and Garrus," Liara stated softly. "There is a statistically significant correlation."

Shepard approached slowly, looking steadily at the display before them. She was stiff as a board, her jaw muscles clenching visibly along the line of her face. "What does that mean, Liara?"

The data itself was half-encoded still, and Liara wasn't sure that Shepard would be interested in the detailed review.

She went for the quick and dirty version instead.

"They're after you. I'm sure you're not naive enough to think the Collectors give a damn about some hybrid ship. I stole your body back from them, Shepard. It's always been about you."

The Commander turned away, but the tension in her shoulders was painfully obvious. Liara waited her out, silent and watchful, calling on every ounce of patience she'd learned from countless archaeological digs over the years.

"There's no reason for..." Shepard cut herself off with a quick shake of her head. "You're sure of this?"

It was so very Shepard. How she felt about the information took a distant second place to the reality of it. It was the way her human military had trained her to be: compartmentalised, goal-oriented and a problem solver. If Liara said the Collectors were definitely gunning for Shepard herself, the Commander would accept it and look to use the information.

"As sure as I can be. The resources of the Shadow Broker are..." Liara glanced about them pointedly. "... Significant."

The Spectre sighed heavily. "I trust you, Liara. Tali and Garrus have been using the Normandy to draw them away from the colonies. I guess I should have trusted their instincts. Honestly, I thought it was a waste of time."

"I suspect that's why we're already overdue for another colonial attack." Liara had run the numbers, assessed the shortening time frames between attacks. Since Shepard had brought the Normandy into this sector of space, there had been a definitive shift in Collector behaviour. "That won't last, though. They clearly have some need for human samples which will force them into another attack in the near future."

"Suggestions?"

The tone was crisp, sharp, familiar. It almost made Liara want to smile.

"I should be able to give you some warning before the next attack. The Shadow Broker has eyes everywhere, it seems. His operation is more extensive than your Alliance or Cerberus."

Shepard nodded once. "That's a better offer than I've had from either of those outfits. I'll take it. Give me as much of a heads up as you can, okay Liara?"

"Of course, Shepard."

"Anything else you've picked up that I should know about?"

Liara looked briefly around the cavernous room, taking in the constant influx of new data on the various stations, pausing a moment to consider the hovering intel drone that had served the previous Shadow Broker. She shook her head. "Not yet. I know the Reapers are behind all this somehow and I'll find something, I'm sure. I know how to reach you when I have more information. There's just... so much..."

She felt overwhelmed for a moment, the size and sheer scale of the task before her looming like a tsunami of data about to crash over her head. It made her jump when Liara felt the familiar press of her old friend's hand against her shoulder.

"You'll do fine, Shadow Broker," Shepard assured her warmly.

Now Liara did smile, turning to face the Commander. "Thank you, Shepard. Good luck out there and please... be safe."

With a warm smile and a final squeeze of her shoulder, Commander Shepard took her leave.

For a long moment, Liara stood unmoving in the Shadow Broker's intel center, listening to the receding footsteps of her dear friend. She let the constant flicker of lights and beeping of incoming messages wash over her, absorbing it without letting herself really notice any of it.

"Shadow Broker?"

It was the intel drone, hovering expectantly by her shoulder. Waiting for commands. Waiting for her to act.

T'Soni exhaled carefully, letting herself release the tension and anxiety and focus of the last two years. Her work to find and recover first Shepard, and then Feron, had been completed. Both her friends were safe, free of the Shadow Broker's agents.

Now those agents would serve her needs, and support Shepard's mission. She would turn those many eyes to tracking the Collector ship, to hunting down each and every rumour of Reaper activity, to seeking out and destroying their enemies.

"Let's get to work," she said suddenly, her voice breaking the silence that had fallen over the room.

Straightening her shoulders, she turned back to the station waiting for her and the drone followed.

She might not be on the Normandy, or running and gunning by Shepard's side, but Liara T'Soni had rejoined the crew. Her mission was their mission once again.