Author's Note – There will now be a run of (relatively) Feron-free chapters and crew cameos for your reading pleasure.
Thanks as always to those who read/fave/follow, with special shout-outs to my ever-awesome reviewers: Elena34, Aeowyn99, CainVulsore, Ehpoca, devildoc35, GriffinResult, JestaAOK11, Rayne Ariana Maranochi, Highlord & the still-anonymous Guest!
Four months later
"Motherhood suits you, Liara," Karin Chakwas observed with a warm smile as she stepped into the flat. "You look positively radiant."
"Thank you, Doctor," Liara replied, accepting an affectionate hug from the physician. "I've been feeling good."
"The morning sickness eased up, then?"
"Yes." The first trimester had been miserable, with 'morning sickness' lasting until almost noon. She'd spent far too much time hunched over a toilet in misery. The only thing that had made it bearable had been Beth's steady presence at her side: wiping her face with a cool cloth, helping her back to bed, feeding her ginger tea and dry toast until the nausea subsided. "Lisbeth will be back soon."
"Well, I don't need her for the physical exam," Karin replied, slipping the scanner from her bag. She had retired from active duty with the Alliance, but there had not been a power in the galaxy that could have kept her from serving as Liara's doctor during her pregnancy, and no one else that Liara would have preferred to have taking care of her and her daughter.
Plus, she made house calls.
Liara lay back on the couch, allowing the scanner to be passed over her: head-to-toe first, followed by a more focused examination of her abdomen, which had only recently began to curve out into what she was gloomily certain would become a sizable bulge.
"She's growing well," Karin reported. "Felt any movement?"
"Not yet," Liara replied. Her link to the tiny life within her remained much as it had on the night of conception: she was aware of its presence, but as yet had not felt the still-developing mind, though all of her research indicated that would be happening soon.
"You will before this month is out," Dr. Chakwas predicted. "She's perfectly healthy, as are you."
"You can thank Shepard for that," Liara said with a laugh as she sat up. "She monitors my exercise, my sleep ... and every pregnant woman should have a personal chef." Beth had dug up everything she could find about asari maternal nutritional needs and applied the knowledge with her usual attention to detail. Her skill and inventiveness in the kitchen also meant that she'd been able to satisfy the asari's more unusual culinary cravings, such as the night that only the asari delicacy of sauteed silkfish would do as a topping for her bacon cheeseburger.
Karin chuckled. "She's always been a mother hen, but she's always had a crew to spread it around on. You're her only target now, but I don't think I've ever seen her happier."
The unspoken question was gentle, well meant. "She is the truest friend that I could ever have wished for," Liara replied, giving the answer that she used to balm her own heart when it persisted. The last few weeks had been the happiest in Liara's century of life, and still she could not seem to keep herself from wanting more.
"Such friends are rare, indeed," the doctor agreed, then lifted her eyes to look past Liara. "Shepard. We were just talking about you."
"About my abysmal punctuality, no doubt," Beth responded as the door closed behind her. "Sorry I'm late. Good to see you, Karin." She hugged the doctor, then settled on the sofa beside Liara. "How are our girls doing?"
Our girls. Being doted on so completely was bliss, in a way, but she'd never fully shaken off Feron's words about Shepard's interest being only for the baby.
"Both doing very well," Chakwas told Shepard. "Fetal growth rate is going to start placing more demands on her from here on out, so make sure she eats enough."
"I can do that," Lisbeth replied readily, giving Liara a fond smile that warmed the asari to her toes. The small talk continued for several minutes, but when Shepard invited the doctor to stay for lunch, Chakwas declined.
"I'm scheduled to see Ashley in half an hour," Karin said, adding before either of them could ask, "and when I told her I'd be here first, she told me I could spill the beans. She and James are expecting."
"Already?" Beth was beaming with delight. It had been barely a month since she'd been matron-of-honor at the nuptials.
Chakwas nodded, looking no less pleased. "I told them that I could determine the baby's gender on this visit, but they both prefer to be surprised."
"That sounds like them," Shepard declared.
"So, are you starting a new career, doctor?" Liara asked.
"Only for a chosen few, my dear," Karin replied with a fond smile. "Seeing you all happy and thriving is the best retirement I could ask for, and being a part of it in this way is the most fun I've had with medicine in years." Green eyes shifted between them thoughtfully, and Liara felt herself starting to blush.
Beth didn't notice. "You don't have to work to be part of the family," she assured Chakwas. "The kids will all know their Aunt Karin."
The doctor laughed as she stood. "This isn't work, Lisbeth. I spent my career trying to save lives and failing more often than I wanted to. Helping to escort new lives into this world is a rejuvenation more potent than the Fountain of Youth. I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"She dedicated her life to the Alliance," Beth observed quietly after Chakwas departed. "It's good to see her finding some happiness beyond it."
"Yes," Liara agreed. Karin was a good person, though unnervingly observant. Still, she hadn't pressed the matter, and for that, the asari was grateful.
"So, eat out for lunch, or shall I cook?" Shepard asked, leaving the choice to Liara, as she almost always did. She was always subtle, always casual, but she'd spent much of the past four months trying to help the asari reclaim the autonomy that Feron had taken from her.
"Thai in the park sounds good," Liara replied, and it was true. Early on, her self-confidence had been so thoroughly decimated that every decision she made was based on what she thought Beth's preference would be, what Beth wanted her to do. Shepard never corrected her, never scolded. Gentle and patient, she gave Liara the space to stumble as she re-explored the freedom that she had once taken for granted, but was always, always there when the asari reached out.
The summer day was warm, and the trees in the park were crowned with leaves of rich green, with a verdant carpet of grass underfoot. Children played, lovers held hands as they walked; the healing continued, even as the reminders of war still remained stark in many places, and this park had become an oasis in the midst of those reminders.
Liara and Shepard got their food and walked to the tree that Liara couldn't help thinking of as 'theirs', settling to the grass beneath its shade.
"Sure you want the hot stuff?" Shepard teased her, hefting the two cartons in her hands.
"Absolutely." One of the more interesting changes that pregnancy had made to her palate was her new preference for spicy foods. After years of Shepard trying to coax her into trying one fiery recipe after another, suddenly, she couldn't get enough of the stuff.
Shepard grinned and passed her the red curry shrimp, then opened her fiery basil chicken. "The kid's gonna be drinking sriracha straight from the bottle," she predicted, looking pleased at the notion.
"Have you thought about what we should name her?" Liara asked. It felt surreal at times, discussing such things with her best friend, but if Beth found it odd, she never gave any indication of it.
She paused, chopsticks halfway to her mouth. "A bit," she said. "I figured we still have a few months to discuss it. Did you have a name in mind?"
Liara nodded. "I was just thinking … I wondered if you would like to name her after your mother?"
Shepard's eyes hazed up a bit at this. Hannah Shepard had died during the final battle, her ship destroyed in the desperate fight to keep the Reapers away from the Crucible. Beth's father had been killed during the First Contact War; her mother had raised her alone thereafter, and they had been exceedingly close. "I'd like that," she said softly. "How about your mother, too? Hannah Benezia?"
"I -" Liara faltered, beset by the same conflicting emotions that thoughts of her mother always incited. "Beth, I don't know. What she did -"
"She saved the galaxy, Liara," Shepard replied earnestly. "She fought against Sovereign's mind control and won long enough to get us the data that let us track Saren to Ilos and the Conduit. Without that, this war would have been over then and there. She was no less a hero than my mother, and I'd be proud for our child to have her name."
For a long moment, Liara could only stare at her. In asari society, Benezia's legacy was shrouded in shame. For a matriarch to have lost control of her own mind was seen as a weakness, and Liara's own memories of her mother were touched with a betrayed anger for the many things that Benezia had kept from her. If she had known from the start about the Prothean beacon hidden in the temple of Athame, how much sooner could the Crucible have been completed, how many millions of lives saved? Thessia might not now lay in ruins.
Lisbeth had cut to the heart of the matter with her calm, clear assessment. Benezia had fallen victim to Reaper indoctrination, but she had been far from the only one, and she had been one of the few strong enough to overcome it, even briefly. If she had not managed it, if they had not obtained the location of the Mu relay from her, Saren would have reached the Conduit unopposed, used it to travel to the Citadel and opened the heretofore unknown relay in the enormous station to admit the Reapers from their realms in deep space. There would have been no warning, no knowledge of the Crucible, much less time to build it. The Reapers would have stripped the galaxy clean of all spacegoing civilizations in a matter of decades. No one could have stopped them.
Her vision blurred. "Beth, I am a horrible daughter!"
"No." Beth caught the carton of curry as it tipped from her hands, set it aside with her own and shifted closer, slipping an arm around Liara's shoulders. "No, you're not."
"I am!" she insisted miserably. "I should be fighting to see that my mother's sacrifice is honored by the asari, not cringing away from the mention of her name!"
"We'll fight for it," Beth promised her. "Starting with our daughter."
Our daughter. Liara swallowed and nodded, wiping her eyes and looking up at Shepard. "Hannah Benezia?"
Beth nodded, smiling at her. "I like the sound of it."
Liara nodded. "So do I."
"Aethyta should approve, too," Beth teased her gently.
She laughed, leaning against Beth's shoulder. "Yes, she will," she agreed. Beth's steady presence made even the notion of challenging the decrees of the matriarchs seem less formidable, made everything easier to face -
Her peripheral vision registered him first, and her heart skipped a beat. Her hand hit the cartons of food, tipping them over, but she barely noticed, head turning and wide eyes scanning the perimeter of the park -
"Lia, what's wrong?" Beth regarded her with concern. "What -" Comprehension washed over her features, followed by fury, and she was on her feet in an instant, dark energy beginning to pulse around her hands. "Where?" she snarled, ready to launch herself in any direction.
"I don't – he's gone." He was gone, but she had no doubt that Feron had been there, waiting until she saw him, then ghosting away. There had been no sign of him in the months since he had left their flat; why would he return, make his presence known now? "Beth, no." She caught her friend's hand, tugging at it. "He's well away by now, and he knows how to stay out of sight." He might also be counting on Shepard giving chase, letting him circle back and catch Liara alone. She was no longer the cowed woman she had been, but she had not been tested by his presence … and she didn't want to be. Not yet. Not ever.
The flare of biotics faded, and Beth let herself be drawn back to the grass, but she still scanned the milling crowds balefully for another long moment. "I'm not the one he needs to worry about anyway," she muttered, activating her omni-tool and typing into it. "Your father wants his hide for a suitcase."
"Beth, you don't have to tell her," Liara protested in chagrin. Aethyta's protection was considerably less subtle than Shepard's; it had been a month after she'd left Feron before she had been able to convince her father that she did not require constant surveillance while she was at work.
"She'll know as soon as she sees your face," Beth predicted, "and then she'll have my ass for not telling her." She finished with her message and deactivated the omni-tool. "Besides, if he's busy dodging her, he won't have time to try for another visit." She righted the tipped containers, peered in at the remaining contents. "No ants," she announced, holding Liara's out to her.
"I don't know if I can," she admitted. Her stomach was roiling, her heart still racing. The idea that he could so thoroughly dismantle weeks of progress was nearly as disheartening as his presence had been. She and Beth had spent hours talking; she knew now on an intellectual level the insidious way he had manipulated her, isolated her, played on her sense of guilt and responsibility to bind her to him. She knew that she hadn't deserved his abuse, knew that her biotics made her more than a match for him. Her mind knew it; her gut was not so easily convinced.
"All right." Beth accepted her words, though she plainly wanted to push. It hurt sometimes, how careful she was, as though fearful of committing the same sins that Feron had, when she didn't have a controlling or cruel bone in her body.
"I'll try." Liara took the carton and began picking at the food, willing the churning to subside. Missing a single meal would not hurt the baby, but doing so would give Feron another victory.
"Take your time," Shepard told her, digging back into her own, though her eyes frequently lifted to survey the surrounding area.
"I need to get in to work soon," Liara replied. Bit by bit, she was shutting down the Shadow Broker operation: ending some operations, shifting others under the purview of carefully vetted intelligence agencies. It had required careful work, maintaining the balance, giving no one group a clear advantage.
She was down to less than a dozen key operatives reporting to her, but the matters they handled were vital: stability on Tuchanka, continued searching for holdout Cerberus cells, a handful of other issues that posed a substantial threat to the stability of the still-recovering galactic community. By the time the baby was born, even those operations would be either concluded or handed off. The Shadow Broker would disappear. Perhaps another would rise in time, but that was something that Liara could not concern herself with. Her daughter's safety was her first concern.
It wasn't as though she needed the money. The book that she had written with Javik was a best-seller, and if she grew bored, she had at least a dozen offers to teach at prestigious universities across the galaxy. The idea of spending a few years doing nothing but being a mother, enjoying the peace they had fought for, was appealing … but first, that peace had to be secured.
Beth accepted this with a nod. "Would you like me to walk with you?" she offered.
"That would be nice," Liara replied after a moment of thought. Tempting to walk alone, to defy Feron's attempt at intimidating her, but she would enjoy Beth's company, and that would be another type of defiance. "I -" she broke off, eyes widening.
"What?" Shepard sat up, fully alert again. "Where is he?"
"No." Liara shook her head. "It's not that." Goddess, in her anxiety, she'd almost missed it: the faintest flutter of awareness from a developing mind, sleepy and content, cocooned in warmth and safety, soothed by the thrum of her heart. The delicate tendrils wove their way into her soul: the first strands of an anchor that was one of the strongest bonds an asari could experience. "It's her, Beth. It's Hannah!"
"You can feel her?" Beth's face lit up. "She's all right?"
"She's fine," Liara assured her, seeing the worry start to cloud her friend's face. "He didn't hurt her. He couldn't." The thought of it sent something dangerous and not the least bit cowed or submissive surging along her veins. "It's faint. She's not really conscious yet, not awake, but she will be soon, and my connection with her mind will grow stronger each day." She touched her belly, awe sweeping over her at the feel of this tiny creature growing within her, connected to her as no one had been since she was an infant in her own mother's womb.
Beth hugged her, and she returned the embrace, Feron all but forgotten in their shared joy and wonder. "Still want to go in to work?" Shepard asked as they drew apart.
"No," Liara admitted, "but I want more than ever to be done with that part of my life, which means that I have to go in, at least for a little while longer."
"Sound logic," Beth agreed, "but after I drop you off at the Normandy, I'm going home and cooking a special dinner to celebrate, with something chocolate for dessert."
"And tomatoes?" Liara asked hopefully, the mention of chocolate triggering another of her cravings.
Shepard winced visibly but nodded. "And tomatoes."
A.N. - When I was first writing this, I attempted to do a more day-by-day approach to the followup of the previous chapter, but decided that was more angst than I really wanted to load up. Hopefully the retrospective approach will provide sufficient detail to make things plausible. Bringing someone back from that dark of a place is never an easy process, or a short one, but I think that Liara's recovery was likely to be easier than many because hers was not a lifelong cycle of abuse. The damage that Feron would have done over a year or two was no less real or painful, but the scars would not go so deeply into the psyche, and the 'real' Liara would not have been so deeply buried.
As with all of BioWare's games, it is the NPC's that make Mass Effect truly memorable for me. The Citadel DLC ranks as my favorite of all time, and if they could make a DA equivalent, I would be in heaven. The crew appearances that will be taking place over the next few chapters were especially fun for me to write.