A/N:

Sorry, sorry! I know, I'm terrible. I had a hard semester, and then had to be comatose for a few weeks into summer hols to be functional. I had a hard time figuring out how to move the story along to where I want us to be, so this chapter is a bit of an introspective timelapse deal, and thus also a bit short, and I promise I will try my darndest to get back to it as soon as I can. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this short chapter.

Chapter 4 - In Time

The wooden boards were cool against her naked feet as she patted softly across the small patio to sit down on the top step leading down onto the lawn. The air, too, was crisp and fresh, the few insects she could see seeming sluggish and docile in the early morning air. As an Asari, Liara had never really grown up with the cold. In fact, the ill fated trip to Noveria was the first time she'd seen snow in person. She found that the harsher climate of the human homeworld was growing on her, however. Entirely ridiculous form a biological perspective, and she suspected it might simply be because of the hot flashes she'd been experiencing lately. It was beautiful here, though. The mountain lake like a mirror, reflecting the distans peaks of mountains already covered with a fine dusting of bright, clean snow even now in early fall, grass and trees of an irridescent green colour that she had seen elsewhere but that still seemed somehow brigther here than elsewhere. Perhaps she was biased. Sarah said this part of the planet would be extremely cold in just a few short months, and that the sun would barely rise above the horizon for some of the winter months. She was fine with that. Having spent many years on ships and installations meant that the dark didn't really bother her, and Sol was a tad too bright for her liking anyway, having grown up with the softer, orange glow of Parnitha. It still felt unreal in some ways. It had all happened so fast. One moment they were fighting, fighting for their lives, and the next it was all over. Now, here, in this tranquil place, it all felt like a dream. Another life, or a life once lived, lost far in the distant past. As if it happened to someone else. But she knew it like no distant memory, or historical account ever could be known by someone else.

'History forgets people', one of her professors had once told her. We know the overreaching narrative, the 'big picture', maybe some of the names. But who they actually were, their faces, their laughter, all those things that makes a person truly alive are lost in the annals of history. And she knew the people from that other life that felt so distant now. She missed them terribly, but would never say so. At least not until she knew it wouldn't burden them. They all had to go, at least for a while. The not completely repaired relay network made travel difficutl and slow, and their own homes, their own families, needed them. She didn't begrudge them what they needed to do, didn't blame them for leaving. But all the same, she missed them. Despite herself, and despite all the pain, the loss and horrors they had face, they had all become her family. There were people she would never see again, or not until the Dawn on the other side at least. Pressley, a dour man who initially held little love for her and she for him, had become a friend, and she felt his absence. Kaidan even more so. When her mind was taken by flights of fancy she even imagined that maybe the oung Liuetanant had harbored a small crush for her. She missed him, and she knew Sarah did too. Her bondmate felt his loss keenly. Sarah had confided in her a few weeks ago that, to her own dismay, she found that she could no longer bring his face to the forefront of her mind easily, she was forgetting him, little by little. History forgets people. Liara had scoured her files and found a photograph of Sarah and Kaidan joking around, servicing their rifles in the SR1 armory. Sarahs eyes had been wet, the kiss a bit shaky, but she had been smiling. The photo now rested on the mantlepiece of their cabin, proudly displayed.

The life she had now was so different from anything she would have ever imagined. She had always seen herself as an academic, a 'bookworm' or a 'nerd', as Sarah would say. But circumstances had led, or thrown her down a different path. She'd become a soldier, in the greatest war the galaxy had ever known. And she'd survived, they had survived. A human bondmate had alos not been in the cards. Of course that wasn't strange in and of itself. She had already been in university when the First Contact War took place. She'd once confided in Sarah that she had barely noticed, just another skirmish out in the ass-end of nowhere for the Turians to take care of. She'd gone back to her books without giving it much thought. Sarah had pretended to not be slightly offended, but Liara knew she understood. Human or not, she was so different from anyone Liara had ever pictured she would fall in love with, but now she could hardly even imagine what her life would be like if she'd never met Sarah. Smart, yes, but not the academic sort. She was bisterous and fun, brave like none she had ever met before. Self-sacrificing, and loyal to a fault. Those who could Sarah Shepard a friend were lucky, and she, who could call her more than a friend, even more so. She had regrets of course, but they were in regards to her own priorities. She would never regret meeting this wonderful human woman, and the only real regret she had was that she hadn't thrown herself at her as soon as she stepped into her office on Illium. So many things had felt so much more important then, and she'd pushed Sarah away. Even during the Reaper War, when she knew, could feel it in her bones, that time was short, had fully expected one or both of them to die, she had pushed her away for what felt like more important things. It wasn't until the night before the final push, the last offensive, that she'd realized her mistake. She'd gone to her then, and Sarah, ever steadfast, had welcomed her as if her actions hadn't hurt, as she knew they must have. She'd held on to her tight then, for one last time. She hadn't meant to do it, not really, but her father had been right. Conception wasn't something that happened by accident, not for Asari. She had wanted, desperately, to keep Sarah with her. Preserve some small part of her, should the worst come to pass and she was left in the aftermath alone. It was a violation, at least by Asari standards, to concieve without first discussing it with your bondmate. Her father had been furious, the two humans women didn't fully understand, but Hannah Shepard had been extatic, Sarah even more so.

The next few days had been a blur for Liara, a mild scolding from Karin for not keeping her strength up, followed by being fussed over by Sarah who seemed to think even standing up from her hospital bed after having her electrolytes stabilized was too much of a risk for a pregnant woman. It made her come alive again, however. Commander Shepard had a mission once more, and took to it with the same zeal as she undertook everything else. The cabin had been Hannahs idea. The Shepards, a family of spacers, didn't have an 'ancestral home' per se, not like the T'Soni Estate on Thessia certainly, but the humble cabin in the nordic mountains had been in the family for many generations, and was as good as. It was fitting, Liara thought as their shuttle landed and she saw it for the fist time. Rustic and a bit rugged, but warm and inviting, much like Sarha herself. It was a good place to heal, a good place to let the dust settle around them, and a good place to be at peace. And, she found herself thinking as she looked out over the tranquil land before her, they finally were.

The humans have a saying, 'time heals all wounds'. And it was true to an extent. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing Sarahs unruly mop of red hair sticking up from underneath the covers, longer now as it had once been, vibrant as she was again becoming, more so with each day. The nightmares had been frequent, then less so, until one day they barely happened at all. She touched her belly gingerly then, now noticeably swollen, and thought of her mother as she often did when she thought of her, of their, daughter. Benezia would have been so happy to become a grandmother, she knew. She even thought, now in a way she hadn't a few years ago, that she would also have approved of her choice in bondmate. There was so much that was left unsaid, so much between mother and daughter for which there would never be any closure. She'd spent much of her short life running away, never feeling like her mother understood her fully, and never feeling like she had the words to explain. But her mother had been proud of her, in the end. It was still painful to think about, but the more she did, the more that sharp stab changed into a dull ache, and the fondness grew ever stronger than the loss she felt.

She got up from the step and padded softly back into the cabin. As she got back into bed, she felt Sarahs hand slide into her own, strong, warm and alive. 'Yes', she thought as she closed her eyes, the humans do have a point. Time heals all wounds, and all sorrows end, in time.