A/N: I wonder if it's the habit of all writers to be overly critical and generally disliking their own efforts. I can't help but feel 'this is just so meh' about most of my stuff, even if the logical part of my mind tells me it's actually quite decent! Ah well. I wonder if it's a good sign that I don't actively dislike this chapter. I actually feel it's somewhat decent, though of course, there's nothing that couldn't be improved on.

As always, big thanks to all those still reading and adding this story to favs, but especially to those reviewing. If people are too shy to review, but still add the story alert, I generally view that as a 'Cool story bro' kind of review, anyway. ;)

Chapter 7 - Vacations and Routine Missions

In the quiet of the captain's quarters on Normandy, tightly embraced, they hold each other and hatch grand plans. Liara speaks of showing her the sights of Thessia. Shepard wants nothing else but to show her the wonders of Earth. They finally agree on a compromise, for now it will be Earth, as long as Shepard promises to spend her next, longer vacation on Thessia.

Before they leave for Earth, however, there are farewells to say.

Shepard has hoped to retain her entire crew, even though she realizes that at least a few of them will be moving on. Tali stops by her quarters first, embracing her fiercely. She is returning to the flotilla with a collection of useful insights about the geth, knowledge of paramount importance to her people. Her Pilgrimage is now complete, and she must return to the Migrant Fleet.

"I hope you understand, Shepard," she says, and there is both joy and sadness in her voice. Joy from finally returning to her people, her family. Sadness to be parted from friends with whom they have went through so much together. "Perhaps one day our paths will cross again, Shepard."

"I would like that, Tali," Shepard replies. "Don't be a stranger and stay in touch." The quarian nods and leaves, allowing Wrex to step up to the doors of her cabin. "You're not leaving too, are you Wrex?" she asks, her heart sinking a little. She has become genuinely fond of the gruff krogan.

"Fraid so, Shepard," Wrex nods. "Got some business on Tuchanka I need to attend to."

"Tuchanka? You're going back to your people?" Shepard is surprised.

"Perhaps it was a mistake to give up on them as quickly as I did," Wrex admits after a brief pause. "Maybe it's just me growing old. Or maybe my travels with you have thought me something, Shepard."

She swallows heavily before replying. "Then I wish you the best of luck, Wrex." They shake hands, Wrex leaves. The doors to her cabin close, she turns around, slumping back against the metal panel, overcome by sadness. "Everyone's leaving," she speaks to Liara, resting on her bed and also looking pensive.

"Garrus will stay, I don't think he really has anything to return to," the asari replies, trying to sound encouraging. "And Kaidan will continue to serve on Normandy, of course."

"You're not going to abandon me for some Prothean digsite, are you?" Shepard asks, a little teasingly, as she walks over to the bed.

Liara rises up in the bed and pulls Shepard down to rest alongside her, wrapping her arms around Morgan's waist. "You carry around more knowledge about the Protheans than any old digsite," Liara says softly, leaning closer to kiss her on the cheek. "And you are far more interesting to explore..."


Even though she has been looking forward to showing Earth to Liara, it takes her some effort to actually choose a destination. Considering that the asari are deeply interested in art and culture of other species, in the end she chooses to first visit the cradle of the Renaissance.

Shepard herself has never been well educated in all things art and culture, heck, for a while she had thought that baroque and rococo were brands of ice-cream. She is a soldier, she shoots things. She has no need to know whether the building she just blew up with well placed explosive charge was built in this or that style of architecture. And yet, since this would be such a perfect opportunity to play a guide for Liara, she feels deeply disappointed that her explanations are lousy and likely foolishly inaccurate. In the end she guiltily confesses her lack of knowledge, but Liara merely smiles and offers words of encouragement. They continue to explore the great museums and galleries of Rome and Florence together, aided by the available VI guides and Shepard soon finds herself genuinely interested in the subject, Liara's enthusiasm downright contagious.

After a few days in the sunny Italy, they travel to Paris. In the Louvre, Shepard ends up paying handsomely to the security for their aid in staging a false fire alarm, which ends in her bravely evacuating Liara from the premises. That is the only way to get the asari peeled away from the treasure troves of the grand museum.

They visit a theater play, fortunately this time Shakespeare's Hamlet is not performed by an all elcor cast, Morgan managing to convince Liara that fourteen hours of torture would not give an accurate impression of Earth's culture. The next evening, sitting through La Traviata in the famous Palais Garnier, cringing all the time, Shepard worries that the dreadful screeching of the 'singers' might cause damage to the asari's sensitive eardrums. Strangely enough, Liara appears to greatly enjoy the experience. Shepard gives up, admitting complete defeat in face of this culture and art bollocks.

Later on, they dress up and hit the nightclubs of Paris. They both wear tight leather pants and matching jackets, Shepard for once unties her ponytail and lets her red hair flow loose, hardly able to recognize herself in the mirror, too used at seeing herself only in her military uniform. That is also why nobody has recognized her during this better part of the week spent on Earth. She is the Alliance poster girl, her image on most of Alliance recruitment vids, but now in her casual clothes, sometimes wearing a dress, dark sunglasses covering her eyes, nobody knows who she is. She is just a girl named Morgan.

If there is any attention drawn to them, it is because of Liara. Even if alien tourists are not rare on Earth, it is still considered a backward, somewhat hostile and xenophobic, out of the way planet that nobody really wants to visit unless they absolutely have to. To see an asari walking around, hand in hand with her human lover, it raises a few eyebrows, but mostly smiles and curious stares from the population of younger males.

And in the nightclubs, there is nobody that dances the way Liara does. By her own admissions, she is rather shy and inexperienced, but Shepard strongly believes this is something that comes as natural to all the asari, their shapes simply move in ways that are so fluid and attractive that it is hard to tear your eyes away.

Later on, in their hotel room, they make love, again and again, until the first rays of sunlight outside the window. Exhausted and happy, wrapped in blankets they sit on the balcony, side by side, drawing body heat from each other as they watch the sun slowly rise above the horizon.

"I'm glad we decided to come here, Morgan. Earth is truly beautiful," Liara says, pressing closer. "Or at least, you make it appear so."

"I'm glad you think so," Shepard replies. "I will love Thessia as well, I'm sure."

"Do you have any family back on Earth?" Liara asks.

"No," Shepard shakes her head. "My mother is with the Alliance and currently on mission somewhere in the Traverse. It's all classified, as you can imagine."

"I wonder what would she think of me," Liara muses thoughtfully. "Have you told her anything? About us, I mean."

"Not yet. We don't really speak that often during missions. As for what she would think of you," Shepard says, affectionately squeezing her lover's shoulder. "I imagine she would be a little surprised at first. But then she would grow to like you a great deal, I'm sure."

Liara smiles back at her, silent before asking. "You never mention your father, what about him?"

"Killed in action," Shepard replies. "I was very young and barely remember him." There is a moment of silence, before she speaks again. "I've been meaning to ask. After what happened with your mother... have you put any thought into finding out more about your father?"

She can feel Liara tensing next to her. "I... don't know. Maybe. It's all a little bit too fresh still." There is another pause, interrupted only by Shepard's yawn a while later. "Perhaps we should go to bed?" Liara asks. "To sleep, this time."

Shepard looks at her fondly, chuckling. "I don't think I'm in a condition for anything else but sleep." They rise and head back inside. "There are still some places I want to visit and show you..." she says, falling face first into the pillow. "But first, sleep..."

Two days later, they stand at a grave in the New Kensington Cemetery, Gunnersbury Park. Black trenchcoats and umbrellas shield them from the welcoming rain of the Isles. They place red roses at the feet of the monument, final resting place of Rear Admiral Kahoku.

"I would have wanted to do the same for Ash," Shepard says heavily. "Her family put up a plaque to honor her memory back on Sirona. The colony world she was born on."

"We have honored her in every possible way, already," Liara says, touching her hand. "And we made Saren pay for what he did."

Shepard nods. "I feel as if we did not do enough to Cerberus for murdering another great man," she says angrily, looking at the roses on Kahoku's grave. "If our paths ever cross again... I now have a clear shoot first, ask questions later policy regarding those scum."

"Their experiments were sick and twisted, yes," Liara agrees. "And their actions can reflect very badly on the whole of humanity. If we had not contained the release of out of control rachni... it could have ended very badly for your people."

"I don't like Black Ops," Shepard says, as they turn to leave. "Never have, never will. Not having to answer to anybody means they will go bad, sooner or later."

"I have heard the claim that Spectres are much the same," Liara says. "But I disagree with it. Spectres have a lot of freedom, but they still answer to the Council. And Spectres that go bad are still being chased down and eliminated, we proved that with Saren."

"Exactly so," Shepard says, nodding. "And speaking of Council..." she sighs, realizing that their vacation is slowly drawing to the inescapable close. "I believe it's past time we checked in with them..."


"So, Commander..." Kaidan is the first to welcome them back on Normandy. "You were wondering how long it will take for the Council to change their tune? It's been hardly over a week, they have exceeded even my cynical predictions!"

Shepard just groans, before Garrus appears to add with a knowing grin. "Good to see you again Shepard. You too, Liara," he says. "Looks like you two have had a good vacation." Shepard declines from a comment on that, and Liara stays silent as well.

Yes, the Council has changed their tune quickly indeed. A week after Sovereign's attack on the Citadel, the Reapers have once again become a mere figment of imagination, a child's fantasy. In order to avoid a wide-spread panic if the knowledge of coming Reaper invasion became common, the blame for the attack has been shifted solely to Saren and the geth. The large pieces of debris including unexplainably advanced tech are simply just some surprising upgrades of the geth.

"I might be okay with this hushing down the truth," Shepard tells Anderson aboard the Normandy, as they prepare to leave the Citadel space. "But only if I had reason to believe that the Council actually takes these warnings seriously, silently preparing for the Reaper invasion, without alerting the civilian masses. What are the chances they will be doing that?"

"Slim to none," Anderson shakes his head. "Your warnings have found some support amongst the Alliance Command, Hackett's word alone carries much weight. He will continue building the fleets, even as he fights the detractors, claiming your theories are simply sensationalist fiction, aimed to secure personal fame and glory."

"They say that?" Shepard grinds out angrily, clenching her fists.

Anderson nods, looking disgusted. "It's disgraceful. Look, Shepard, I know this mission the Council is sending you on is mostly to just get you out of the way. But maybe we can use that to our advantage. Look out for anything that would lend proof to your theories about the Reapers. There's got to be something out there in the Traverse that we can use."

Shepard agrees and they part, wishing each other well. The Council wants to get her out of the way, indeed, with her wild theories and penchant for stirring up trouble, her presence is likely undesirable for the politicians. So, they are sending her back out into the Traverse to clear out the last remnants of Saren's geth, a mission unbecoming of a Spectre.

For three weeks they chase shadows, now and then finding some geth stragglers, batarian slavers or pirates, who are then promptly and efficiently eliminated. The lack of ground action is starting to wear down on them, Garrus in particular seems frustrated and angry, now and then musing of perhaps leaving Normandy to engage in something more satisfying than playing a tourist. Kaidan complains less, he is one of the few who is generally happy when he does not have to shoot someone or destroy them with his biotics. But Shepard knows things are bad when even Liara is starting to make remarks about how their abilities are grossly misused by sending them on what is just another routine mission.

And then, this placid boredom is crudely interrupted by a shocking surprise attack. Loud noises of explosions and hull breaches suddenly awaken Shepard, resting in her quarters. She quickly shakes Liara awake, the asari lying with her head on Shepard's shoulder. "Suit up fast, we're under attack," she utters quickly, Liara understanding immediately, and they escape their cabin to find Normandy up in flames around them, bodies of scorched crewmates lying here and there.

Shepard throws a fire extinguisher to Liara and grabs another one herself. "Move down to the escape shuttles and help the survivors off the ship," she orders Liara, hearing Joker reporting on the comms about multiple hull breaches, seeing the alarms blinking for immediate evacuation.

"What about you?" Liara demands.

"I'm going to check the bridge for survivors. Joker is still up there, I need to get him to safety. Knowing him, he will not want to evacuate," Shepard insists, growing impatient when seeing that Liara is about to protest. "I'll be right behind you, Liara, don't worry! Just go!" The asari turns around and quickly hurries off, stopping only to free an injured engineer, pinned down by a piece of falling metal construction.

Shepard rushes to the bridge, past the ruined CIC. "We've suffered heavy damage from an unknown enemy," she hears Joker's desperate report over the comms, her helmsman probably realizing that by now the ship is ultimately lost. Who could have done this, Shepard thinks frantically, fighting through the quickly spreading fires. The stealth drives would have been engaged, was someone close enough for a visual scan?

Normandy is a wreck, barely holding itself together by the time she reaches Joker. As she had thought, Joker refuses to abandon ship and she pulls him out of the chair forcefully, dragging him to the nearest escape pod and throwing him inside, probably breaking some of his brittle bones in this less than gentle process of extraction. He will thank me later, she tells herself, about to follow Joker back inside the pod, but just then, their unknown assailants come back for another round of attack.

The energy beam of their main cannon just misses her and their escape pod, but the resulting wave of the force shakes her around like a rag doll, forcing her to let go off the handle. She tries to grasp at the broken, bent pieces of the carcass, but the force throws her through the large hull breaches in the bridge. Bouncing against the pieces of metal, rupturing her suit, she is thrown outside the ship and into the open space, as Joker watches after her with mouth agape in shock, before with trembling hands he closes the escape pod and launches himself to safety.

She floats in the vacuum, helpless, watching the myriad of escape shuttles on their way down to the planet's surface. Air quickly escapes through her punctured suit, as she spends her last moments of consciousness praying that Liara made it to the shuttle safely. There is a ringing sensation in her ears, and she realizes that her eardrums are about to explode, and she feels her limbs quickly starting to swell as all water quickly evaporates from her body.

Not fair, she thinks, last few coherent thoughts before her brain shuts itself off from the asphyxiation. So much left unfinished. I had to stop the Reapers. I wanted more time with you, Liara...

She looks after the shuttles again, but now there is only darkness around her, and she wonders whether they have already landed on the planet safely, or whether it is the moisture in her eyes boiling away, making her blind. Moments later, she thinks no more, as her brain gives up the fight. Death comes, swift and merciful.