Author's Note: Standard disclaimers apply - I don't own Mass Effect or any of its characters, I'm only looking to improve my writing skills and hopefully share some of the fun I had writing this. Feedback and critique very welcome, as this is my first post to the site. Rated M for language, violence, and mature themes.

I wake up screaming.

For a few eternal seconds, my world is airless, a vacuum echoing with the hammer-strokes of my heart in my ears. I cannot see, I cannot think. Gasping, I manage to suck down a breath, two, three. Lucidity returns; the world slowly bleeds into focus. Sight first, the dim silhouettes of my surroundings tinted blue by the glow of the backlit aquarium on the wall. Dark metal walls around me, and above me, if I crane my neck, a viewport ordinarily possessed of a stunning view of the galaxy. Now, the sky above is dull grey, clouds in a planetary atmosphere obscuring the stars.

Feeling returns next; heat, sweat, the close clinging of damp bed sheets wrapped around me in a wrestlers' hold. Whatever I was dreaming of was not pleasant. And pain. My head aches, and a sympathetic pulse throbs in my shattered leg, despite medication and medi-gel. Hearing makes an entrance as I become aware of the oppressive stillness. It's too quiet, no hum of engines in the background, no music, no soundtrack of computer beeps and squeaks to signify either my eagle's-eye view of the galaxy's deepest secrets, or Shepard working too late, working too hard.

I disentangle myself from my bedding, wincing as the movement sends a shock of agony through my leg, flip the pillows and try to settle. I close my eyes, shutting out the painfully familiar room. I'm lucky just to need rest and recovery, so Dr. Chakwas tells me; I'm lucky to be alive after Harbinger threw a Mako at me; I'm lucky to have survived the Reaper War.

I don't feel lucky.

I feel sick, I feel impossibly tired, I feel sore. Most of all, I feel alone.

"You're not alone."

Shepard's voice murmurs in my aural cavity, and I smile as the ends of her short, bobbed hair tickle my cheek. She is beside me, her arm wrapping around me to hold me close, her chin resting comfortably in the hollow of my neck. "I promised I'd never leave you. Thank you for making sure I didn't have to break that promise." A kiss brushes my neck just under my jawline.

"Why thank me? I didn't do anything."

"Sure you did, but I'm not arguing with you about it right now. You need to sleep, sweetheart."

"I tried. It did not work out all that well."

Warm fingers stroke the back of my neck, intimate and impossibly comforting. "Try again. I'm here, I've got you."

Wrapped in her safe embrace, sleep comes easily. As my consciousness slips away, there's the faintest whisper. "I love you, Liara."

I wake up screaming.

Or at least, trying to. My throat is dry, caked with dust and clogged with blood, and my cry sputters into a gut-wrenching cough to clear the blockage. I suck in a lungful of air, and the movement releases a tidal wave of agony through me. Dimly, a tiny voice tells me I'm in bad shape, and that moving is a really fucking stupid idea. Trying to keep my breaths shallow, I crack open an eyelid. It's dark, pitch dark, I can't see a thing. Or maybe I'm blind.

Oh, fuck.

I panic, and I try to lift my hand to my face, but something heavy is stopping me from doing so, and the attempt produces another white wall of pain. I pant some more, dragging oxygen into my brain, and I realise I can't feel my arms or legs. Not good, my tiny advisor whispers.

No shit, I retort, but my heart isn't in it. I want to go back to sleep.

"Shepard, listen to me. You have to try to stay awake."

I know that voice. "L-liara?"

"I'm here, Shepard."

"I can't... I c-can't see you."

"I know. It is very dark in here. Shh, it's alright. I won't leave you, I promise, but you must stay awake."

I'm so tired. Black is lapping at the edges of my vision. "I don't know if I can, Li."

"You can. You promised me that you would always come back. Don't you dare break your word." Her fingers dig painfully into my cheeks, cool and strong. "Stay awake!"

"Keep talking, please, Liara. Help me. It's so hard to...to think."

"Tell me why you love me."

"What?"

"Tell me why you love me."

"Y-you know why."

"I do." Liara's mouth brushes mine in a soft kiss. "I know everything you know. But you need something to fight for. So tell me again."

I do close my eyes now, but not to surrender. To remember her. "You're so beautiful," I whisper. "You're kind, compassionate, selfless, gentle."

"I'm blushing."

"Funny. You understand me. You're strong enough to carry me, forgive me my flaws."

"I don't see many of those in you."

"Rose-tinted glasses," I murmur.

"What? Oh, wait, I know what that means." I can hear the smile in her voice. "Funny, your mother says that about you."

I don't recall ever telling her that, but I don't recall much at the moment. I try to reach for her, and fresh agony erupts. The last thing I hear as blackness rolls over me is her voice. "I love you, Rachel. Stay with me."