Pain. Blinding pain.
That was the first sensation I knew, when I woke up.
The air was full of smoke. Dry, irritating smoke, not the calming warmth of a cigarette, or the choking terror of a burning building. It was smoke you only ever get in one place. Warzone smoke. It carried memories of a dozen fronts, hundreds of planets, dozens of ships.
Next to me, someone stirred. I lifted my head. Looked around.
Facing me was an Asari, wearing what looked like N7 issue thermals. She smiled when I looked at her.
"Shepard." She said, grinning like a information broker who controls the entire Council, which she probably did, to be honest. "I've got something to tell you."
"What is it?" I asked, trying to sit up. She pushed me firmly, but gently, back into the makeshift hospital bed. The sheets prickled with dust, a mixture of plaster, brickdust and mortar, likely along with a wide range of metals. A chemical analysis would take weeks by now.
"I'm going to be a mother." She said. "Shepard, I'm going to be a mother." She was almost giddy with excitement as she said it, despite the fact she would have known she'd conceived within moments of trying to.
"I love you too, Liara." I responded, finally. "I hope I'm going to get to hold her."
"You know?" It wasn't really a question, but she seemed to feel a need to ask it.
"I know that there are no half-Asari."
"Sometimes, Shepard, I am not so sure about that. Look at Nassana Dantios. Greatest bitch on Illium, in her day. I reckon she had some batarian DNA, perhaps crossed with romulan and undine DNA or some such. You sorted her out in the end."
"That was Thane." I reminded her, wondering how she knew about those species of fictional aliens. "He took care of her. I wish they'd sorted out his Keprals in time for him to be there when it all ended. And I didn't know you were into Star Trek..."
"I'm not." She responded, defensively, and extremely rapidly. That was her birthday present sorted out then. "They were just the most evil races I could think of off the top of my head. Thane went out well, Shepard. He stopped Kai Leng wiping out the council. He was the best."
"I know."
"He probably had days, perhaps a maximum of a few weeks left to live, but he managed to stop one of the most dangerous assassins alive from killing a man he had at his complete mercy."
"I just wish the cure they are working on had arrived in time." It would have been a very short fight if he was at his best." For a moment, I just sat there, remembering the enigmatic, highly spiritual being who had been the deadliest assassin alive, in his day.
"How is the reconstruction going?" I asked, after about a minute.
"They've started to rebuild the known galaxy. Everyone is coming together even further than during the war. Batarian slavers have been turning to bulk transportation of vital goods, often carrying food, medicine and aid workers into the terminus systems. The units which formed during hammer are staying together. Asari are bunking next to Vorcha. Krogans and Turians are sharing quarters with STG commandos and even drinking ryncol together. Even the Volus and Elcor are mixing with everyone. The Hanar are off doing whatever hanar do."
"The team?"
"We're all alive. Garrus is grumpier than usual, since he has nothing to calibrate except his phallus, and he's still with Tali. Tali is being slightly annoying for everyone, but no more than she used to be without a drive core to maintain. They've managed to recover Cortez from where he ended up. Miranda is still around, somewhere. She's got some warrants out on her, but she's staying ahead of them. Eventually, she'll get careless and find out exactly how ommicuffs feel when you're wearing them. Wrex is up to his hump in children. Eve is managing to keep him on track, rather than levelling Sur'kesh for 'fun and exercise'."
"That'll last for the next fifty or so years, until he gets bored."
"Jacob has gone back to his family, Samara is doing what she does best, much to the terror of any black-marketeer she tracks down. Grunt is being Grunt, but he has a female keeping him in check. Kelly has shown up at a relief station. Zaeed is propping up one end of a bar, while James holds up the other. Gabby and Ken are dealing with his still, which was using one of the coolant lines for heating. They've got an EOD tech to help, so I'm guessing his plumbing skills weren't up to snuff. Kasumi has stolen my laptop, but isn't going to get too far. Jack is off looking for her students. Ash is guarding your bay, mostly from politicians wanting to pay their respects and grab some of the luster of beating the crap out of the reapers."
"How long was I out?" I finally asked, after processing the list. It was the thing you were supposed to ask when you woke up in a different place to where you'd blacked out, especially a hospital.
"I've been here for fifty-six hours." Liara replied promptly, holding up her comm to check. "You've been in here for nearly a month."
"Right. How are you holding up?"
"Very well, thank you, Shepard. When Glyph gets back from laptop retrieval, I'll be restarting operations."
"No, Liara, you won't."
"Shepard, I gave two years of my life to acquire this network. It helped us win the war."
"And you are too attached to it. You will always be in danger as the Broker. I'll be in danger from people wanting to strike at you. You'll be in danger from people wanting to strike at me anyway. Our daughter doesn't need ruthless gangsters after her, just to hurt her mother or acquire information they think she possesses."
"Shepard, I..."
"I know. There'll be another broker in time. If it causes some fallout in the meantime, people are busy rebuilding too much to fight another war. And think of the girl I fell in love with; she was a young, bookish and uncertain archaeologist. Not a ruthless information broker threatening to flay people with her mind. What would your father think?" I knew I hadn't won the war by a long shot, but I hoped for eventual victory in an extended campaign.
"I wasn't actually going to do it." Liara replied, defensively. "And she'd be very disappointed. With my actions anyway. I think she'd approve of my language skills." I pretended not to notice her moving the topic away from her role in galactic politics.
"Very much, I imagine. That is the dirtiest Asari I've ever encountered, and she can swear like boot-camp drill sergeant. Any news on your father, by the way?"
"No. I haven't been looking. I should have been, I guess. After Thessia and the citadel were hit, I fear the worst."
"Liara, I love you too much not to defend you from yourself. Remember, that Yhag was evil enough before his career. Imagine how upset I'd be if that turned out to be you, in time." I said, briefly moving the topic back to her career.
"I love you." She replied, as if she hadn't noticed, before kissing me. "As for Miranda ending up wearing omnicuffs, I might be able to squash her warrants, in exchange for some favours."
"Like?" I asked. To describe Liara as being suspicious of the honourable (or otherwise) intentions of Miranda Lawson was an understatement, to say the least.
"Her finding herself a husband. Getting herself a fertility treatment. Settling down in a lab. Preferably in Australia, seeing as our new home is near somewhere called Hereford, just a short trip north of here. The reapers didn't do too much damage before the Regiment took out the destroyer they'd sent."
"She used to be fairly disinterested in anything other than casual sex." I said, wondering why we were moving to the most rural place in the entire UK.
"Not that you had any with her?" Liara asked, teasingly.
"God, no. I only had eyes for you." I responded, remembering briefly the Psychotic Biotic, and how I'd decided that Liara meant more to me than the broken, hurting woman I'd briefly fallen for during the hunt for the collectors.
"Good." She said, smiling like a predatory dinosaur scenting raw meat. "Anyway, you have been given a tenure as chief badass at Stirling Lines, and they've offered you a colonel's commission, which I have accepted on your behalf."
"You seem pretty sure of yourself." I said, smiling. "I might want to retire." Inside, I was smiling for a different reason: Stirling Lines. Home of the one unit in the galaxy more renowned than N7: the British SAS, the Special Air Service, and the first special operations unit in human history.
"Shepard, if you had wanted to retire, you would have handed in your notice after the Alpha Relay." She said, pretending not to notice my shuddered remembrance of three hundred thousand Batarian colonists I'd been forced to sacrifice to buy the galaxy a single, ultimately wasted, month. "And anyway, someone needs to keep an eye on your behaviour."
"And you've volunteered, huh?"
"I can get all of the benefits at the same time. I love you, Shepard."
"I love you too, Liara." I responded, before kissing her, tenderly. "There was a little red box in my desk." I said, once we'd broken our kiss. "It contains something I found on Eden prime when we were there last. Two somethings, actually."
"I see." She replied, baffled. "Do you want me to fetch them?"
"When I'm up and about." I told her, before pulling her closer. "I'll have a few things to say before I open the box, but I want you there when I do. It's an old human custom."
"I see." She replied, looking unsure. "Is there anyone else you want present?"
"If you can round people up, then sure. Just don't let Kalisha or any form of journalist, even Allers, within a mile."
"I wouldn't dream of it, Shepard. Anyway, Garrus has his own ideas on how to deal with the paparazzi. Most of which are large calibre and high velocity." She said, with a gentle smile. All of the small group the galactic media had named 'Shepard's Originals,' the surviving five members of the specialist team from the SR1 Normandy, were close friends and comrades; even Garrus and Wrex.
"I can imagine." I said, smiling, as she lent close, her lips once again brushing mine.
I've had this in-progress since I finished Mass Effect 3 for the first time more than a year ago. It stalled when I couldn't figure out what to do after the second chapter, and went unpublished. I've now got quite a few idea as to where to take this story, which will very much consist of a number of parts or semi-one-shots. I also apologise for the title: it was the only one I could come up with that fitted the concept. Edited 4/9/15 for improvements.
Details about this Shepard: Spacer/War Hero Paragade, mostly paragon. Stayed faithful to Liara throughout, in terms of sexual contact. Ashley saved on Virmire. Saved the Council, chose Anderson. All teammates survived suicide mission, blew the collector base. geth heretics destroyed. Reconciled Geth and Quarians, chose to destroy the reapers with very high EMS. Served in military police prior to Skyllian Blitz, before being transferred to SpecForce training by order.