During the course of one beautifully long night…

Exhaustion has finally won over as Shepard lets out a large gasp of air and falls heavily into the bed. Unable to gather enough strength to move a large strand of hair blocking half of her face she causally tries to blow it off. Lying next to her, Liara giggles at the display of the mighty Commander Shepard, Human Spectre unable to muster enough strength to clear her face from the obstruction. Liara slowly rolls over to face the panting heavily Commander. She smiles brightly as she gently caresses Shepard's face and brushes the hair to the side. Shepard asks, "Are you not exhausted as I am?" Liara sweetly replies, "Oh I am! But I always save a little something for rogue hair emergencies." They both laughed at the silliness of it. No longer able to keep up her façade Liara collapses onto Shepard's chest as their sweaty bodies meld into one and they drift off to a blissful night of slumber.

A few hours later Commander Shepard was in the shower whistling happily while Liara was desperately trying to use her biotics. She was so weak that she could barely create a spark much less send a 2 ton shipping crate flailing. "Oh this isn't good! This can't be happening!" She looked back towards the bed which looked more like a battle zone than a place or rest and relaxation. Did I – Did we? Suddenly enlighten by the memory, her glance raced from the bed, to the shower and back to the bed. Her hands slowly rubbed at her waist in shock, "Oh Goddess, what did we do?"

Without as much as a goodbye to Shepard the extremely exhausted Liara struggled to the medical lab desperate to see Dr. Chakwas.

~ ~ ~ ~ x x x x ~ ~ ~ ~

Once at the medical lab, Liara informed Dr. Chakwas that she isn't feeling well and would like a quick examination. Seeing the paleness in Liara's face and the physical signs of weakness, Dr. Chakwas dropped what she was doing and immediately attended to Liara. "What are your symptoms my dear?" "I feel so drained, I mean really exhausted like there is nothing left!" The doctor raised one brow and with an amused look, she conveyed a theory to Liara. "Besides that! We did sleep if you must know!"

Still amused, Dr. Chakwas pulled out her medical omni-tool. "How much sleep did you really do?"

Admitting defeat, Liara replied, "Ok maybe not that much sleep but this is different. I never felt this.. feeling." Wincing, she raised herself onto the medical table. Watching Liara strain to lift herself completely onto the examination table, Dr. Chakwas realized, Something is definitely not right. "Here, lay all the way back." Dr. Chakwas immediately started scanning her body with her omni-tool.

Breathing heavily from the minuscule task of getting on the table Liara informed the doctor, "I… I can't use my biotics either."

Deeply concerned now, Dr. Chakwas increased her questioning. "What? How long? OK. Start from the beginning."

"It started this morning. I was going to the washroom when I knocked over Shepard's dog tags. I went to use my biotics to stop them from crashing to the floor, and nothing!" Rolling her eyes, "It woke her up."

Dr. Chakwas swung the large body scanner over to the bed. With a few commands of the buttons it began to power up. As the scanner reached max power, the doctor rapidly punched a few buttons on the machine. Humming loudly, a bright orange light illuminated up and down Liara's body as it began scanning.

Making mental notes of everything Liara was telling her the doctor asked, "Anything else?"

"I did feel a little dizzy when I walked back to the.." Sheepishly smiling up at the doctor, "the Commander's bed."

The doctor was checking and double checking her results because, in her opinion, her asari patient was the second most important crew member on board. If anything is wrong with Liara, it would send Shepard into a tail spin and we don't need that right now. Not when we are on the verge of catching a rogue spectre.

After several minutes of testing, Dr. Chakwas released a deep sigh of relief as the third analysis came back negative. "Liara, physically you are fine! You are somewhat dehydrated but we both know what that is from. Get some rest and you should be back to normal in a couple of hours."

Liara nervously looked down at her body. Apprehensively she asked, "Can we run one more test?"

Returning the large scanner back to its original location, the Doctor was stunned by the unusual request, "I've run every test there is for asari physiology."

Liara softly quipped, "Well, not every test."

Dr. Chakwas put on her official doctor persona and asked Liara blankly, "What's going on Liara? Something tells me you have an idea of what's wrong with you and you're trying very hard to keep it a secret. And worse, knowing that Shepard isn't here by your side; you are keeping it from her as well!"

Liara pleaded, "If you run the test, I'll… I'll tell you everything!"

"If that's what it takes to get you talking, then fine. What is it?"

"Run the alter rhythms of my nervous system, specifically my amacrine cell count."

Raising an eye brow in suspicion the doctor retorted, "That's very specific," as she powered up the large scanning device adjacent to Liara.