The routine buzzing of the life support finally ceased, and not a moment too soon for Doctor Liara T'Soni.
4 months ago, Liara was on the Normandy as the ship outran the beam from the crucible and crashed on a jungle planet. The damage wasn't extensive so the ship was able to leave after a couple system checks.
The first thing they did was get to the local cluster and search for Commander Hayley Shepard. It seemed fairly hopeless but as they were about to give up, Garrus, the Normandy's resident turian, spotted something unusual in the rubble of the citadel. The burnt armour, the N7 dogtag, the shoulder length crimson red hair. It was Commander Shepard.
They scooped her up and took her to the nearest hospital that was on Mars. She was practically dead when they arrived and the idea of losing her beloved Commander again emotionally destroyed Liara, but thankfully Shepard was beginning to pull through.
Shepard was not going to be awake for a while still but she wasn't reliant on a machine to breathe for her, and that was an improvement.
Liara took Shepard's hand in her own and thought of all the time they had spent together, how three times they broke alliance regulations -although the second time Commander Shepard was with the now disbanded Cerberus- how Shepard joked about 'old age, marriage and lots of little blue children'. Even the time Shepard told her and EDI to get back on the Normandy during the run to get to the citadel played on her mind for a while, but the anger and pain the memory held forced Liara to push it back into the furthest recesses of her mind.
Liara ran her fingers over the calluses that had formed on her girlfriends hand after years of shooting guns and hand to hand combat, primarily the former.
To Liara, Hayley Shepard was a beautiful 32 year old woman. Her crimson red shoulder length hair framed her face perfectly, making her cheeks and mouth look adorable and kissable. Her brown eyes were so easy for Liara to get lost in, and the black eyeshadow she always wore brought out the colour even more.
Liara felt so plain compared to her, but Hayley seemed to always make her forget how she felt; like it was her personal mission to make her happy.
"I just wish you'd wake up" Liara sighed, resting her head on Shepard's shoulder, which allowed her to feel the gentle rise and fall of her chest.
Liara was about to fall asleep when the door behind her opened.
"Your daughter is re-Oh sorry, I didn't realise there was already a visitor" The salarian doctor looked at Liara, and Liara looked at the woman next to him.
The woman had red hair that had began to grow grey in her age and chocolate brown eyes that had fine lines in the skin that surrounded them.
This woman...she looks like Shepard, Liara thought silently.
Is that...no...maybe?
"Who are you?" The woman spoke with a trace of anger instantly, as if she had already judged the asari as being a lower life-form to her.
"I'm Doctor Liara T'soni, Commander Shepard's second-in-command. And you are?" Unlike the woman, Liara was able to hide anger and feelings with ease, thanks to 2 years as an information broker on Illium.
"Captain Hannah Shepard, Commander Shepard's mother"
It is her.
A/N: so this is up earlier than expected because, as I said I'm on my third playthrough of ME3 and I was skipping through dialogue and goofed and romanced Kaiden instead of Liara, and I really don't like Kaiden (honestly, I wish I saved Ashley) so instead of finishing chapter 4 I'm replaying through all the Tuchanka missions on narrative difficulty to get back to where I was asap.
Anyway please leave a review, it's good for my confidence and motivation :)