A/N: I know that a lot of this chapter is very similar to the game but beyond this chapter I have a lot of other stuff planned. I promise! I just needed to get it started out. Also I am terrible with titles so if anyone has suggestions for a title I would love to hear them! Otherwise enjoy!

Liara scurried through the air ducts as quickly as possible. She could hear the Cerberus operatives coming up behind her quickly. A shot hit the metal duct near her left leg, damn Cerberus! She thought angrily, the only good thing that had ever come from Cerberus was-no she couldn't think about right now; she couldn't let her thoughts be clouded, she needed to find an escape. She rounded a corner in the duct and found a vent, thank the goddess. She hurried toward the vent as another shot whizzed past her head almost making contact. She quickly kicked the vent out and jumped down to the ground, she turned just in time to see the soldiers who had been chasing her come spilling clumsily out of the air ducts behind her.

Before they even hit the ground, however, Liara cast a quick singularity field, catching them in midair, and fired two shots, one into each of the soldiers and then let their bodies drop to the ground. From behind her she heard the shuffle of armor and a very familiar voice say, "easy big guy she's with us."

Liara's breath caught in her throat, could it be? She turned around slowly, scared that she had imagined hearing the voice, or else had mistaken who it had come from. When she finally laid eyes on the beautiful blond human her heart skipped a beat in her chest. "Shepard," she said almost breathlessly.

"Liara!" A smile spread across the Commander's face as she crossed the distance between them.

Liara's mind started whirling, she's not dead. When Shepard was close enough to her she put her hands on the Commander's arms just to be sure she wasn't a hallucination. Shepard stepped closer to her, Liara wanted so badly to plant a kiss on those full lips, but she knew this was neither the time nor the place for such actions. She reluctantly stepped backward and let go of Shepard's forearms.

"When I heard about Earth I feared the worst. Was it bad?"

"Yeah, it was pretty bad."

Ashley Williams stepped forward, "it was hard to leave."

Liara felt a flash of annoyance at the young soldier for her interruption but quickly squashed it realizing how hurt she must feel over what was happening to her planet, "I am so sorry Ashley."

Ashley simply shifted her gaze to the ground as a reply.

"Hackett sent us here, do you know why Liara," the softness had gone from Shepard's voice and was replaced by her 'business' tone.

"I do. I found plans for a Prothean device that could destroy the Reapers."

Shepard's eyebrows rose in the way that they always did when she was surprised, "what is it?"

"I don't know that yet, I would need to take a closer look at those blueprints. All I know is that it is a device of some sort."

Shepard nodded, "that explains what you are doing here."

Liara felt a sense of guilt wash over her, " I meant to come visit you," she said quietly.

"I would have liked that, " said Shepard just a quietly.

"As touching as this is we have bigger problems to worry about than whether T'Soni came to visit you or not Shepard. Cerberus remember," said Ashley.

Liara looked out a nearby window, "they may already be on their way to the archives where the blueprints are housed."

"So it's a race to the archives," said the hulking soldier standing close to Ashley.

"Right," Shepard said all business once again, "James you take the shuttle and be ready to land when we need you. Ash and Liara come with me."

As it turned out Liara had been right about Cerberus being on their way to the archives already. In fact they beat Shepard and her team to the archives and after a heated conversation with the Illusive man Shepard, Ashley and Liara had been forced to chase down his bionic agent.

They were lucky enough to retrieve the data from the bionic corpse but not before it almost killed Ashley by way of slamming her head repeatedly into the metal hull of its broken down shuttle. After that it was a race to the citadel to get Ashley to a proper hospital.

The citadel turned out to be just as much of a mess as the mission on Mars. Once again the council denied Shepard what she needed to save the galaxy, support. Their only chance now was to save the Turian primarch to gain some support. They set out immediately after a brief visit with Ashley.

The morning after their meeting with the council Liara finally found the courage and free time to go talk to Shepard. She took a deep breath and knocked on the Commander's bedroom door. It only took a moment for a very disheveled Shepard to answer the door.

"Liara," she said looking surprised and exhausted all at once.

"Austyn," she said using Shepard's first name, "are you ok?"

"No, not really," she replied quietly.

Liara crossed the room and placed her hand on Shepard's shoulder, "what's wrong?"

Shepard turned to face her, "back on Earth, there was a little boy, he-he died and I had a nightmare about it. I don't know."

Liara resisted the urge to reach out with her mind to soothe the Commander, instead she put her hand on the humans soft cheek and stroked it gently, "there is nothing that you could have done differently. It was not your fault. You cannot save everyone."

Shepard laughed weakly, "why not?"

Liara smiled at her, "you are not all powerful love," the word escaped her lips before she could stop it. Should she be calling Shepard love? Or be standing this close to her? Was she intruding? She started to draw backward but Shepard stopped her, started pulling her closer, "I missed you Liara. I-" whatever she was going to say was lost when the door to her bedroom opened and a young dark haired woman came strolling in.

Liara immediately stepped away from Shepard, the young woman looked at them in shock, "oh I'm sorry. I though you would be alone."

"I was just leaving," Liara said giving the young woman the once over. She didn't like the way the woman looked at Shepard and made a mental note to keep an eye on her, "come see me when you have some time Shepard. I think there are things we need to discuss."

Shepard nodded in consent but to Liara's pleasure did not turn away as the Asari walked away.