With the final chapter of Seeker of the Nora coming up soon, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for giving me so much love while writing this. Thank you for all of the DMs screaming at me about how much you guys loved my story and my writing. Thank you for the almost 11,000 hits on my story. This fandom is the absolute best. Also, thank you for embracing a polyamorous relationship. I knew it was a risk and you guys have all been so supportive of the work and how I handled all characters involved. I am proud to have this work out there and I know this isn't the end of my writing for HZD.
If any of you like Mass Effect, that is my next WIP and feel free to join me on @mrscullensrutherford or @n7addiction for more on that work.
âShe wonât talk to me.â Liara turned to Garrus with a sad smile.Â
âSheâs been through a lot, Liara. Six months in lockdown only to be fed to the wolves right out of the gate. Kaidan has to be messing with her head. She loved him at one point, ya know.â Garrus spun his chair around and walked back behind the bar to fix himself another drink.
James sat in one of the cozy armchairs, looking out into the sea of stars that surrounded them. He had come here to wrap his mind around all that was happening and it seemed to be a popular thought. Heâd caught Altea on her way out but she looked and sounded exhausted, so heâd kissed her cheek and let her go. Now, he sat listening to a conversation he wasnât sure he should be a part of. He couldnât interject. That would let them know there was more going on between them than was appropriate. But he couldnât stop himself from overhearing what was being said.
âYeah, she mentioned that.â Liara fidgeted with the glass in her hand. âWell, no. That wasnât exactly it. But she said that she had so much on her mind that she was restless and not sleeping well. Nightmares. Ash, Kaidan, Saren. Itâs all becoming a jumble in her brain but she hasnât spoken to me beyond that. Even when Kaidan got hurt, she pushed me away.â Liara shot a look over her shoulder at him and he attempted to hide his face in his drink, to make it look like he hadnât just caught something interesting in the course of this conversation.Â
âLiara, you worry too much. Sheâll be fine.â James was sure the Turian was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to comfort the Asari.Â
âYou didnât see her yesterday. I went up to talk to her about the Prothean device and she was stumbling around like a drunkard. She could barely stand up. Iâm pretty sure sheâs running on protein packs and medi-gel. Sheâs going to burn out soon if we donât help her.â She seemed sad about the fact that Altea hadnât wanted to continue their conversation.Â
James couldnât blame Altea. Heâd seen enough horrors in his life that he had problems sleeping at night but he was pretty sure the Commander had faced ten times what he had. He sat and listened to them a while longer. Liara continued to voice her concerns and the Turian continued to gently talk her down. It wasnât like a father to a child or even a lover to their lover but one born of the mutual understanding of another person. Heâd noticed moments like these more and more as Alteaâs crew grew. These people had served together for quite some time and had bonded over some of the worst moments in their shared histories.Â
As the pair was winding down and deciding to leave, James finished off his glass of whiskey. He hadnât wanted to interrupt them before and he didnât want to now, so he casually walked over to rinse out his glass in the sink. One, he wanted to be there if Liara decided to mention that he was the one to take care of the Commander after Mars and two, he wanted to make sure he knew where each of them headed when they left the room.Â
âCommander Shepard, Lieutenant Vega.â Anderson gestured to each of them in turn.Â
Vega seemed to collect himself then. His mouth closed and his body took on a rigid military stance as he saluted. âCommander.â
âThe Lieutenant here will oversee your security detail. He has been assigned as your jailor and your liaison. Should you require anything, you need only to ask him. We will make this as painless as possible until your hearing.â The last was almost whispered as if he were trying to be discreet. It wouldnât do for the media to catch wind that she would be treated differently than any other prisoner. Nor would it do her any favors for the brass to catch wind of the Admiralâs idea of confinement.Â
âUnderstood, Sir.â Finally, she was given liberty to stand at ease.Â
As her arms lowered, James approached. He looked nervous but this was his duty, his responsibility. He patted her down, careful to only let his hands linger where they needed to and as they reached her waist, he found the datapad and slipped it out of her pants. He handed the device to Anderson and stepped away allowing the soldier who had taken aim on her, to cuff her.
Altea had been staring at the monitor as the shuttle flew into Menae. She could see the grids and lines of the Turian homeworld. The ones that were standard in mapping out the terrain. But, as the shuttle moved in closer, the image shifted to real-time. The red haze on the horizon. The machines. Sheâd witnessed the devastation on Earth but that was up close and personal. She had no idea how much of her home planet looked like what she was seeing now. Fuck, she thought. Fuckity, fuck, fuck.
It didnât matter that she was a space child. All humans had the right to call Earth home. Just as any Turian had the right to call Palaven home. Sheâd heard the numbers, read the reports but this was an all too realistic view of what both the human race and the Turianâs were facing. Her stomach lurched as her worries for Garrusâ safety tried to claw their way out of her belly.
Liara, lost in her own thoughts, finally looked up to the monitors. Altea heard her breathy, âOh no⊠no... Palaven.â The Asari twisted her fingers together as she watched the devastation play out, saw the ships that now surrounded them.
James stood across from her, worry etched in the lines of his brow as he looked between the two of them. Altea could tell he wanted to wrap his arms around her and tell her everything would be alright but Liara didnât know about them and the less the crew knew, the better. This was so new that neither of them wanted to deal with the fall out should someone not approve of their relationship.
âGarrus, please be alive.â Altea nearly whispered the words but she knew both James and Liara heard her. She leaned her head back against the hull of the shuttle gently tapping against the metal, not wanting to seem entirely crazy but needing something else to focus on.
James was growing weary of being tossed about like a rag doll as he tried unsuccessfully to hone in on Shepardâs location. Usually, flights didnât bother him but this one, he was on the verge of getting seasick⊠airsick. He wasnât sure what the proper term was for it, all he knew was that if he didnât find Altea soon, heâd have to land and purge the tide rolling in his gut.
Searching the horizon, he tried to find any sign or signal that the Commander had made it to her desired destination. As he was about to give up hope, red plumes of fire, followed by the pitch-black smoke of explosives could be seen coming from the tram rail. It had to be her. Those werenât the type of explosives they had brought with them but he would bet money it had been Cerberusâs way of trying to stop them.
Turning the shuttle back to the tram station, he tried to catch sight of their small team but through the smoke and the storm, all he could make out were greyish figures. He wasnât even sure that he could be seen through the dense dust storm. He knew he had to try and signal, find some way to let Altea know he was there, he saw her. But there wasnât anything he could think to do. His only hope now would be to find the Cerberus shuttle before it took off. If it took off. There was a good chance that Altea would make it to the Archives in time to stop them. This was her thing after all. Commander Shepard swoops in to save the day. It was the reason she had always been his hero. It was the reason that he had spent his whole life trying to emulate her in some way. She would get there and she was relying on him to cover her six. He couldnât fail her now.
