How did that happen? We talked just minutes ago! We were laughing and talking and it was like old times...Not Liara, not Ellyon... They're everything I've got. It's a joke to get back at me, they'll be there at the hospital entrance and laugh because they played a prank on me. Please let it be a prank, I'll be the better person and go like "Good one guys! You got me there!" We'll laugh and go for drinks and everything will be all right and then Liara and I will fall asleep in each other's arms and everything will be all right.

The staffcar swerved through the airborne traffic like that traffic didn't exist. But what was a staffcar to Steve Cortez? The MP that had collected Shinobu, still in full N7 armor, shot worried looks at the admiral. Tears streaming down her face, rocking back and forth, eyes that saw nothing and mumbling like an idiot.

"LT, can't you go faster? If the admiral starts trashing around we have big problems, that N7 armor is combat augmented!"

"Sergeant, if the admiral starts trashing around, you're authorized to pacify her command."

"Sir! I can't obey that order! Admiral Shepard is the hero of the reaper war!"

"Then I hope you brought a parachute, sergeant. Just keep a close eye on the admiral and let me take care of getting to the hospi-"

The radio crackled to life, "Shep1, shep1, this is AMH-emergency, do you read, copy?"

This is bad, priority callsign, Cortez thought, "AMH-emergency, this is Shep1, Lieutenant Cortez speaking for Admiral Shepard, go ahead."

"Shep1, asari surgical team is standing by, they need to act now, over."

"AMH-emergency, where is Dr Chackwas, over?"

It will be all right, it's a prank, Liara is fine, Ellyon is fine, we are fine. We'll laugh and we'll dance and we'll sleep in each other's arms and it will be all right. Act now act now act now...

"Cortez, tell them to save my wife's and daughter's life if they don't want their biotic glands ripped from their azure bodies! And step on it, mister!"

"Uhhh, shep1, copy! Out!"

Cortez smiled despite it all, "Welcome back, sir. Eta 5 minutes."

"I better shut off this combat augmenter, right sergeant? We don't me trashing around.", Shinobu smirked while she worked a few buttons on her omni-tool to set her exoskeleton to passive, "Come on Cortez, pretend you're Joker and do some serious flying, my wife needs me."

Cortez mashed the accelerator and the staffcar lunged forward. Lines blurred, but Cortez kept master control over the lithe craft. A memory flashed before Shinobu's mind's eye.

It was on Illium, Shinobu drove, Liara in the passenger seat, in pursuit of a corrupt asari Spectre. They pursued with reckless abandon and Liara was scared witless.

TRUCK! TRUCK!

Shinobu laughed like a maniac. The sergeant was terrified. A lieutenant flying at breakneck speeds being ordered to pretend he's a joker and now she's laughing like mad? He just hoped he would walk away from all this with his life...

Shinobu thought she had collected herself in the staffcar, at least enough to calmly walk into the hospital, listen politely to some doctor explaining Liara's condition and that of their unborn daughter. That she would ask relevant questions in a precise military manner and then she would politely request to see her wife. Dignified, admiral like.

Yeah.

Shinobu bolted as soon the staffcar had touched down. She grabbed the first medical looking asari by the neck and screamed, "Where's my wife, tentacleface?" The asari was mortified and could only stammer incoherently. Shinobu shook her violently, "Answer me, you azure freak! Where's my wife?"

Cortez, who finally had caught up with Shinobu, punched her in the backplate of her armor, "Let her go, admiral, she's just a doughnut-doll, please, let her go. Come on. Easy does it."

Even an exoskeleton set on passive still augmented and Shinobu's understanding of easy equaled forcefully throw aside right now. It didn't register with her that she had thrown the hapless asari a few feet away as she bounded down the nearest corridor.

Cortez was out of options. The MP would hesitate, he himself carried no weapons... There, unmistakenly an asari commando. Probably visiting a friend, maybe here for a check up. It didn't matter, "Commando! Chase down that N7 and pacify her command!"

The commando threw a quick salute and started after Shinobu, her biotic field springing up as she gave chase. Cortez kneeled down beside the poor asari doughnut-doll. Poor girl. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was relieved when the girl sat up under her own power, "Whoa, whoa, slow down there. You have survived a run in with a juggernaut. You better take it easy."

Further down the hall, a panic broke out. The tell-tale sounds of a struggle between two formidable opposing forces were deafening and then the flare of a biotic discharge. It was suddenly eerily quiet.

On Cortez' omnitool, the general military channel crackled into life and the asari commando reported in. The commando's voice was strained and exhausted but she managed, "Mission accomplished. Request medical assistance for both of us. Ungh."

It took a while for Shinobu to come to. She started to get up but a familiar voice caused her to give up immedeately, "Stay down on the gurney, commander."

"Karin! Liara! Where's Liara?"

Dr Chackwas, addressed as Karin, couldn't hide a smile. In three long years Shinobu had stuck to Dr. Chackwas. But today she was Karin. She could live with that. Maybe I should have told her the truth right from the start and then she would never have fallen for T'Soni... The lies we tell to the ones we love...

Unlike Chackwas, Shinobu had never made a secret out of her sexual orientation. The stigma of it was gone long before Shinobu or Chackwas were even born. Homosexuality was as accepted as dirty pictures on the extranet. Only the xenopheliac monthly magazine Fornax tried to mystify the preference. The early "human on human same sex action" pictures that appeared in Fornax shortly after first contact with the turians were legendary because of how off base they were.

Chackwas had always held her preferences close to the vest. She felt it to be personal and if it started to hurt too much, there was always booze. And the satisfaction in the knowledge that she was the only one who could still call Shinobu commander. And live to tell about it.

Shinobu tried to sit up again and this time she managed. The armor pieces were gone from her hardsuit, she noticed. It was probably for the best, "Liara, Dr. Chackwas, how is she?"

Chackwas again... But for one glorious, heavenly moment I was Karin...

"Liara is resting now, commander. The baby was delivered surgically, there was no way Liara could have carried it to full term."

"It's because of what I did this morning, isn't it? It's my fault. All of it is my fault. But I love her so much it just becomes too much to bear and then I just have to let her know somehow. I stop thinking, Karin, I stop using my brain and all that matters is my stupid lesbian hard on for Liara. I force myself on her and I keep going, going, going...", Shinobu forced her eyes shut but she couldn't hold back the tears, "And I keep going till I'm done. She wanted me to stop, Karin, but I kept going. I caused this, didn't I?"

"Commander, unless you believe you that your bumping and grinding Liara's behind and pulling her scalpplates causes natural abortion, what you could have done to her wouldn't be much worse than having trouble cleaning the awkward spots where you transferred your body-fluids to. And you can't force yourself on someone who consents. Everytime, I might add. I had Liara on the link after you left for LAO, commander, she wanted you to go easy but you were too far, uhm, gone. She was uncomfortable and felt a little woozy, but that's nothing to worry about. A hearty breakfast and lots of dayrest takes care of that. No one could have foreseen this, or prevented this from happening.

"I'm only telling you this because you're beating yourself up over something that only exists in your head commander."

"So, just like that, from one moment to the next, Liara just stops being pregnant? What happened, Karin?"

"According to the asari doctors, the genophage happened."

"Dr. Chackwas! This is not the time or the-"

"Shut it, commander. You're in my care so your rank means nothing. You don't get to tell me off, you get to listen. Are we clear, commander?"

Look at her, not even 30 and an admiral. A kid playing war and unable to adapt to a normal life. So deeply flawed her strenghts are the only handle she has on reality.

"Commander, the pairing between Liara's parents only led to a succesful term because Matriarch Benezia was the mother. But there's quite a lot of krogan in Liara. The doctors are amazed she was able to become pregnant at all."

"And our baby... Ellyon, is she..."

"The doctors are fighting for her, commander, and Ellyon is fighting too. However there is news that sounds troubling."

Shinobu sighed and steeled herself, "Let me have it, Dr. Chackwas."

"Well, she doesn't have biotic activity to start. That means that everything asari is basically not there, apart from a long 1000 year lifespan. She will be shorter than you, if you excuse me, and she'll probably not physically mature beyond early puberty. She also has weird eyes, according to the asari doctors, but I explained that the father is of asian descend and that slanted eyes are perfectly normal.

"Ellyon is a little fighter, commander. There's a little krogan and human fire burning in her and if you ask my personal opinion, she's here to stay.

"At any rate, we'll know for sure later this evening."

Shinobu slid from the gurney and made to the door, "I'm going to see my wife. Don't stop me, unless you're prepared to lose my friendship, Dr Chackwas."

"I can do better, commander, I'll walk you there. Come on."

Shinobu thought she was prepared to face Liara's bed. But you never are really prepared for a very sick and hurt person who is hooked up on tubes and computers that are making weird noises. Shinobu's heart sank and she just stood there, in the door frame.

"Go on, commander, you can't talk to her all the way from here.", Chackwas said while pushing Shinobu further into the room. Then she closed the door quickly behind Shinobu.

Shinobu had no idea about what was happening on the other side of the door when Chackwas had closed it behind her. She didn't care too. Right now, the distance between the door and Liara's bed was like a chasm of gargantuan proportions and it seemed like it took forever to bridge it.

But she managed and now she was looking at the love of her life, beaten down by a salarian decision made centuries ago.

Liara! Nononononono, not like this, I'm taking you home, I'll take care of you, make you better. We'll talk and we'll laugh and we'll buy all kinds of babystuff on the extranet until we're broke and then we'll fall asleep in each other's arms. I'll even cook traditional asari-food for you and I will eat it too. I can do that. It's only weird looking food. Come on, remove those tubes and cables and get up, we're go-

"Stop that train of thought right there, blabbermouth,", Liara spoke with little voice, ".., but I can recommend some good entry level asari cookbooks."

"You know that we'll just end up ordering out from the asari take-away, right? I really wish I could stop thinking out loud.", Shinobu moved a chair next to the bed and sat down. She took Liara's hand and held it to her face.

"You know, you also talk like that in your sleep...", Liara paused and focused her eyes on Shinobu, "Our daughter, Ellyon.., I-is-"

"Yes, they're fighting for her, Liara, Ellyon will pull through, we must believe that for her. For us. We're mothers now. Do you know how to change diapers?"

"In theory, there are some very informative manuals, but strangely, they're all quarian... We'll manage."

"Auntie Tali..."

"I suspect as much too. 'The little bosh'tet' gives it away, I think."

Shinobu took a deep breath. If she wanted to say it, this was the time. Now or never, "Liara, I'm sorry. For this morning and all other times. I'm so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you, it's just... I love you so hard it hurts and I want you to know it and... I lose myself in you like some sort of animal."

Liara stared at the ceiling, while Shinobu didn't even dare look Liara in the face. Liara turned her head to the weird alien sitting at the side of her bed, "If I truly wanted you stop, I would hit you with a biotic slam so hard your teeth disintegrate. I love my kink as much as you do. You know how many times you said my name this morning when you did what you were doing?"

"Liara..."

"45 times. Shino, I can't do that embrace eternity stuff every night, it would kill me. I'll be around for hundreds of years after you're gone, it's just not possible to do that. But I won't deny you your human version of it. Maybe, you know, sometimes, wait till I'm awake too, or not asleep yet. I don't want to miss a thing, my bondmate."

"I need another you, so I could love you more..."

There was a quick knock on the glass shield that separated Liara's room from the corridor. A nurse had manouvred a neonatal unit before it. In it was little blue baby resting, as it seemed, comfortably.

Liara's eyes filled with tears, "I took care of that for you..."