As the Seconds Drift: Answers

Characters: Sarah Jane Shepard, Liara T'Soni, Kasumi Goto, Giselle, James Vega, Jeff "Joker" Moreau , Kaiden Alenko, EDI, Dr. Chakwas
Timeline: After Reaper Destruction
Location: Thessia, Citadel

Although the room was dark, Shepard's keen senses picked up on the cloaked figure moving towards her bed. There wasn't time to wake Liara, she needed to act fast. She took a deep breath as she prepared a biotic throw. Just seconds before she was about to unleash it, she heard "Shep, it's me."

"Kasumi? I could've killed you! What are you doing here?"

Liara woke up panicked. "What? What's going on?"

"We have a visitor…"

"How did you get past the commandos?"

"I'm good at what I do. Since they can't ever know that I was here, I have to make this visit short. I was asked to personally deliver this message to you." She keyed up her omni-tool and played a pre-recorded message.

"Commander, the information you seek can be found in the honeymoon suite. I will be in contact again once you have reviewed it. Shadow Broker out."

"Who gave you this message?"

"It was sent through the same channels as all of my other communications from the Shadow Broker. I'm sorry, I don't know anything more about this. Now, it's been wonderful seeing you again, but I really do have to go. And Shep?"

"Yes?"

"Next time I'll give you a little more warning so you could, um, put some real clothes on."

Shepard's face reflected her embarrassment when she realized she was wearing her sheer night gown. She quickly pulled up the sheets. "Yeah, that would be good."

They watched Kasumi leave then Shepard got up and began pacing the floor.

"Sarah?"

Shepard sighed. "I need to follow through on this. It may be a trap, but I have to find out what's going on."

"Then we're coming too."

Shepard stopped her pacing and all but yelled her response. "No! I won't put you and Lisa in harm's way!"

Liara raised her tone to match Shepard's. "And I won't just stand by and let you walk out that door without me!"

"Liara, be reasonable. We have no idea what is going on or how dangerous this could be."

"Which is precisely why we are going with you. The Reapers showed us that no place is truly safe. We could be in just as much danger here on Thessia as we would be on board a ship."

"What about Lisa?"

"We can take Giselle with us. We'll tell her we're going on a family vacation and ask her to watch the baby if we need to meet with someone."

They stared at each other for a minute while Shepard pondered Liara's words. Then she sighed and left the room. Liara got up to see where she went and found her standing by Lisa's crib. Liara walked up behind Shepard and wrapped her arms around her.  Shepard turned to face Liara and quietly kissed her. She took Liara's hand and led her back to their bedroom.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you. I can't bear the thought of being apart from you two, but I also couldn't bear it if anything happened and I could've prevented it."

"If something did happen, if something did go wrong, I would rather we go through it together as a family."

Shepard nodded and fought to keep her tears at bay. They put their foreheads together and closed their eyes allowing them to calm down and reconnect. Liara reached down and took Shepard's hands into her own. "Now Commander, come back to bed and I will see if I can help you relieve your stress."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Asari provided them with a small ship and their  journey to the Citadel was relaxing and uneventful. After they docked on the Citadel and disembarked, they were all amazed how far the rebuilding had progressed.  Although the Citadel remained in Alliance space just above the earth, all of the other races had sent small envoys to re-assert their positions in the galactic community.

When they disembarked, there was a Keeper waiting for them.  They filled Giselle in on the Keepers and of their connection to Shepard as they made their way to Ward 26. When they arrived at the apartment, the Keeper took its place at the terminal just outside the door. Shepard handed the baby to Liara then preceded her and Giselle inside. They found Kaiden, James, Joker and Dr. Chakwas waiting for them. When everyone had their turn fawning over baby Lisa, Liara had Giselle take her into the other bedroom.

Shepard got right down to business. "Now is someone going to tell me what the heck is going on?"

Kaiden chuckled. "You never did have much patience Shepard. Perhaps the quickest explanation would be to show you."

The bathroom door opened and out walked a woman. "Hello Shepard."

"EDI? What…? How…?"

Kaiden answered first. "She put her request forward and considering all she has done for us, I decided she should do what we could to help her out. I told Admiral Hackett that we needed to go silent for some Shadow Broker tasks. While we provided aid where we could, Specialist Traynor met with agents to obtain the information and necessary technology we needed for this project."

Dr. Chakwas interjected. "We were able to add microscopic sensors to the exoskeleton of her former physical platform and then we layered an artificial skin graft material over the sensors."

"The new sensors interact with my neuropath ways sending me signals when the skin is touched. Jeff assures me that it feels real to him as well."

EDI extended her hand and Shepard marveled at how soft it was. "If I had just met you, I would never know you were not human… in the traditional sense."

"So Kaiden, here I thought you had gone all rogue Spectre on me and you were actually doing something the Alliance approved of?"

"Well, we never used any Alliance resources so I didn't think they needed to know all the details. Dr. Chakwas did most of her work while we were out in the Terminus Systems to avoid any AI treaty embargo issues."

Liara turned to Shepard. "Sounds like something you would've done."

Everyone including Shepard laughed. "What's next for the Normandy and her crew?"

Kaiden looked at James for the briefest moment before responding to Shepard. "We will be taking on a new crew member, someone you know – Dr. Ann Bryson."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's been my experience that having a scientist on board can be very useful and she all but jumped at the chance to work on the Normandy."

Shepard looked at James and noticed he had a faraway look in his eyes. "I think she'll be a great addition to the team."

They talked for a little then the Normandy crew had to leave. Shepard walked out with them and escorted Giselle to the apartment across the hall so she could have her own space during their stay.  When she got back, she saw Liara standing at the door to their bedroom. She was wearing a robe with the sash loosely tied around her waist. "Commander…"

"T'Soni…"

Shepard made her way over to Liara, pulled her into the bedroom and quietly shut the door behind them.