A/N:
Another one-off fluff chapter (this is the last one, I think). What can I say, I love obtuse references.
Chapter 28:
Shepard knocked on Major Carter's lab's door. She received no response. The door was open, of course, but Shepard preferred to be polite when entering other people's spaces. Victoria poked her head into the lab and saw Carter's back hunched over a work bench. Actinic flashes silhouetted her and an occasional spark flew past he shoulder arcing away as it faded into invisibility.
Shepard let her eyes wander over her backside for a moment and then she caught herself. Liara had, of course, seen Victoria's attraction to Samantha in the bond. She chided her gently about it. Victoria had seen she harbored similar feelings in turn, after all. But they had decided to leave those feelings as a silent, subtle compliment on Carter's beauty, both physically and in personality, and nothing more. Besides, since their meeting on Therum they had both been monogamous, even during her brief stint as a corpse she had learned, and never harbored any serious inclinations to break their unspoken vows to each other. Still, Sam certainly is pretty, she shook her head and smiled as she found a set of protective goggles and put them on.
Victoria knew better than to disturb Carter, or anyone for that matter, while they were doing something delicate and or dangerous. She waited quietly for Samantha to finish her current project. She didn't have to wait long before she placed the welding unit, or whatever that device was since Shepard didn't quite recognize it, in its cradle and removed her mask. She turned and regarded Victoria with a start, "Oh! I didn't hear you come in, been standing there long?"
Shepard removed her goggles and placed them back on the work bench, "No, a few minutes."
Carter smirked, "Don't take this the wrong way Shepard, but you're pretty big." Shepard arched an eyebrow. "How do you move around so quietly? And in those combat boots too?" She motioned to her impeccably maintained boots.
Victoria chuckled to herself, "Long hours of practice." She paused. "Liara tells me I move like a predatory cat. I can only assume that's a compliment." Of course, through the bond, she knew it was. In more ways than one, she thought with a sly internal grin. "I was wondering if I could ask a favor of you."
It was Carter's turn to arch an eyebrow. She and Shepard had become fast friends since her arrival, and she had certainly become more up-beat and outgoing since Liara had joined her, but she had never come to her like this. She looked at her, she seemed a bit pensive. Something had the big bad Spectre nervous, I wonder what that could be? "Of course, Victoria, what do you need?"
Victoria looked over her shoulder and closed the laboratory door with a gentle flick of her biotics. She motioned for Carter to join her at a clean lab bench and produced a laptop computer. Placing it on the counter she poised her hand over the cover and looked at her, "If this in any way makes you uncomfortable, just say so and I'll ask someone else. I thought about asking Janet but I don't know if she'd worry about Cassandra intercepting it, so figured I'd come to you first."
Carter arched an eyebrow in concern. "Okay?" she said haltingly. Shepard opened the cover of the laptop and her eyes went wide. Then she sighed in relief. "Doing some shopping then?"
"Yes, I was wondering if I could have it shipped to your house; it'll already be wrapped, you just need to take it out of the shipping box. I'd really rather not have Walter see this come in through the base post, and I don't know if Jack would be able to resist bugging me about it." She looked up at the security camera to make sure the screen was shielded from view, "I also want this to be a surprise. Can you help me out?"
Carter chuckled, "Sure Victoria." She looked at the screen, "You have good taste."
Shepard actually blushed.
Liara came upon the door to Major Carter's lab to the sound of grunting. She poked her head in to see the Major struggling with a large piece of equipment, trying to push it back into position against the wall with little to show for her efforts. The Asari gently placed her laptop computer on one of Carter's work benches and came to her aid. "Major Carter?"
Samantha looked up and smiled, "Hello Liara, how are you?"
"I am fine. Please, let me assist you." Liara approached the heavy object and with a graceful sweep of her arm she enveloped it in a mass effect field. She then helped Carter gently guide it into place before she allowed it to settle to the ground.
Carter dusted off her hands. "Thanks. I had to fix a short on the back of that unit. Getting it back in was harder than pulling it away from the wall."
Liara smiled, "I am glad that I could help. May I ask you something?"
"Sure, what do you need?"
Liara closed the door to the lab and used her biotics to drape a rag over the security camera. Uhoh, Samantha thought, what now?
Liara opened her laptop computer. Carter knew that Liara preferred to use her omni-tool, but she did make the effort to also learn the SGC's technology. "I was hoping that you could…" she trailed off trying to navigate to her web browser. Her nose scrunched up in concentration, a look that she knew Shepard found adorable. Sam chuckled, she had to admit, it was cute. "Ah, goddess, I do not know how you can stand to use such a crude interface as this."
Carter arched an eyebrow. She knew that Liara was speaking truthfully, not a drop of sarcasm in her voice. "We make do," she said, "What is it that you need?"
"Ah!" Liara succeeded in bringing up a now familiar website. Carter sighed, she hoped Liara didn't notice. "I would like to purchase a few items for Shepard," she paused, "and myself," she added demurely, "for us to enjoy in our private time together."
"And you'd like to ship them to my house instead of the base?" Carter asked, instantly afraid that she had given away Shepard's surprise.
"Yes," she didn't seem to notice, "I think Shepard would rather this sort of thing kept private. You are a dear and trusted friend to us."
"That," Carter responded in surprise, "means a lot to me." It did, it truly did. Carter had come to be quite fond of both Shepard and Doctor T'soni. She was glad that they had found each other across the expanse of the multiverse, and that she could be there for Shepard in her time of sadness before they did. Even the awkward flirting early on was forgotten.
"Excellent," Liara turned to the computer and made a few clicks, "Do you think that Shepard would like this one?"
Carter rolled her eyes despite herself, and there's the awkward again.
Shepard could sense Liara approaching the door to their room. Well, not sense with any sort of telepathy, despite their ability to meld with others the Asari were not telepathic; but Shepard's keen sense of hearing could detect the very subtle squeak Liara's shoes made on the concrete in the corridor. She had surprised her a few times, opening the door for her just before she reached for the door knob. When confronted Shepard claimed she could feel the approach of her beloved, a disturbance in the force; a reference Liara only recently got after a movie marathon with the members of SG-1. Shepard smirked, Teal'c was certainly batty over the original trilogy. Through the bond, Liara knew that her explanation was full of shit. Still, she never called her on it. Shepard thought that maybe she was just too flattered to spoil her fun.
Shepard didn't rise to open the door for Liara this time. She had a better surprise for her. Victoria calmly placed her bookmark, a laminated $2 bill, in her novel, closed the book, and tossed it across the room towards her desk. A minute twitch of her biotics guided it in for a landing next to her laptop. Like Liara, she was attempting to become more tech-savvy with the local equipment. She pulled her legs into a cross-legged position, sitting up in their bed. A hand reached under her pillow to make sure that the package was still there, then she folded her hands in her lap and waited.
The door opened and a vision of beauty stepped into their quarters. Liara wore a rough approximation of an Asari-style casual robe she had a seamstress on the internet make for her and a smile. One of her hands was held suspiciously behind her back. Shepard arched an eyebrow in curiosity, but then centered herself. She beamed a smile to her mate and held out her arms beckoning her to an embrace. Liara smiled in response, closed and locked the door, and glided across the room to her. "You look beautiful, Liara," Shepard said as Liara sat on the side of the bed, discreetly dropped something on the floor, and wrapped her arms around her.
A tender kiss; starting chaste but increasing in duration and intensity as neither of them wanted to let go. Shepard reached up and gently rubbed a thumb across Liara's cheek. "Love," she said, "I have a surprise for you." Shepard smiled.
"I have a surprise for you as well," Liara responded.
"Would you like to go first?" Shepard asked.
Liara merely smiled in reply and reached off of the side of the bed to return with a small wrapped package. Shepard cocked an eyebrow, that wrapping paper looks familiar, she thought. "I bought it online, from a shop with what I thought was a very clever name considering who I was purchasing it for." Uhoh, Victoria thought.
"I'm sure I'll love it regardless of where it came from," she said opening the box. Shepard's eyes went wide, but not as wide as Liara's. Oh shit!
"That is not what I bought you," Liara said confused and slightly upset.
Victoria held up a pair of panties; blood red, lacy, cheeky. They, along with the matching top still in the box, would contrast beautifully against her beloved's pale blue skin. At least that's what Shepard thought when she bought them for Liara. She quickly rooted through the rest of the box; all of her other purchases were there too, thankfully.
That would suggest that the box currently under the pillow was the present that Liara bought for her. Which meant that Liara not only bought her something from the same store, hence the same wrapping paper, but she also had it shipped to Carter. All of the pieces fell into place, that sneak! She'd have to compliment Carter for keeping a straight face when she handed her her package, knowing that she was about to hand Liara a similar parcel.
Shepard concluded her introspection and noticed that Liara was frowning. That won't do. Shepard smiled, reached up to caress Liara's cheek and kissed her. "No, but it's what I bought for you." She reached under the pillow and produced the other box. "I think Carter might have mixed up our gifts." Shit, I hope that's what happened, Shepard thought, it'll be extremely awkward if I open this box to find something Sam bought for herself.
Realization appeared on Liara's face. She smirked. "I believe the correct expression is, great minds think alike?" She was already holding her new garments up to herself, she approved.
"Yes Liara," responded Shepard, "though I think you've got me beat in the brains department by a few IQ points." Liara pouted and motioned for Shepard to open her box. God she's hot when she pouts like that, Victoria thought as she sliced open the wrapping with her finger nail. She opened the box and her eyes went wide, "Wow."
"Should I ask you to try those on for me?"
Shepard looked up to her mate's gaze, then she looked down at the contents of the box, then she looked at Liara, then the box. A stretch of elastic and a biotically assisted undergarment knocked the surveillance camera out of position. "Maybe tomorrow," she said as she pulled her beloved towards her and kissed her.
A/N:
Next post will get back into the main story arc. Hope you enjoyed the comedic interlude.
