A/N: Yeah, I know. A lot of plot points bear a lot of similarities to the works on another author. What can I say? I loved those bits, and I wanted to include them in my own fic universe (fic-iverse?) anyway, kinda short this time. Just thought I'd let everyone check in with our favorite couple ^^. Enjoy!
Jane Shepard stirred with a quiet sleepy yawn and nuzzled her bondmate in morning greeting. Liara hummed happily and made to roll over, but her belly made it quite difficult. Shepard giggled and kissed her cheek. "A little encumbered this morning?"
Liara scoffed quietly. "I can halt wars, save the galaxy and topple tyrants but I can't figure out how to roll over when I'm pregnant," she mused.
"Eh, it's not that important. It just means I get to hold you longer," Shepard teased, resting her head against the asari's shoulder. Liara sighed and smiled, closing her eyes and settling back into her bondmate's arms. Shepard's hand wandered downward to lovingly caress Liara's newly acquired pot belly. Slow gentle rubs, giving love to both her bondmate and her rapidly growing daughter.
The asari had been worried that Shepard would be repulsed by the change in her figure, but if anything she only made her affection even more apparent. The human fussed mercilessly over her day and night, insisting she handle cooking, asking if she needed anything at least once every couple of minutes, pouring over countless articles about pregnancy, showering her in kisses and all but refusing to leave her side. Any object moving at even slightly higher than average speed around her made Shepard tense up and half-strike a defensive pose, as if to shield her family from the oncoming death (that usually turned out to be Aethyta, offering a glass of water or some such.)
"How's she doing?" Shepard inquired, as per usual.
"Mmmm, not bad. I think she kicked a little while ago but otherwise nothing new."
"Heh, she takes after her mother I see."
Liara gave her as hard of a nudge as she could manage being trapped in her embrace. "Here's hoping she's not as stubborn as her father on the way out."
Shepard laughed. "She shouldn't be if all goes as planned." The asari people had long known of the existence of orgasmic birth, and had it pretty much down to a science. While a little discomfort was still common, a union of minds commonly aided even more, especially by calming the fledgling consciousness of the newborn child.
Liara made to get out of bed, but found herself still trapped in her lover's embrace. She giggled and craned her neck to fix her eyes accusingly on the human. "Shepard?"
"Hmm?"
"We need to get up soon. In case you haven't forgotten, you scheduled a doctor's appointment in a few hours."
"Well excuse me for being cautious."
"Really Shepard, I'm pregnant, not dying."
Jane kissed the tip of her crest, making her squirm a little. "All right all right. Go, flee, be free of me."
The asari struggled to her feet, a hand comfortingly supporting her silken red shrouded bulge. "Mmm, I could use breakfast."
"I can handle breakfast if you want," Shepard offered.
"After that last incident? I think I can handle cooking at least."
Shepard blushed and sank lower into the bed. "Why does it always burn? I can cook fine but for some reason eggs always get me," the human mumbled grumpily.
Liara laughed in her usual musical way and held her arms out for her bondmate. "I don't know, Shepard. But it doesn't mean I love you any less." Shepard smiled with adoration and slid out of bed, quickly accepting her embrace. It didn't matter how often or for how long she was in her arms, there was never a moment she didn't adore or want it. "Mmm I wish I could hold you closer," Liara commented, glancing down at her engorged middle.
"I don't mind." Shepard placed a hand to the warm soft silk of Liara's nightgown. "I love your big beautiful belly."
Liara giggled and kissed her quickly. "Food now, more cuddling later," she proclaimed, putting a finger to her lover's nose. Shepard made a playful snap at her finger and released her, turning to the task of breakfast. Liara was eating for two now after all.
"So…what's your evaluation doc?" Shepard asked a few hours later. While the Normandy had pulled into port on Thessia, Doctor Chakwas had volunteered to perform a routine checkup on both of them, along with checking on Liara's pregnancy. At the moment, Liara was lying on her back in a medical scanner while they all looked at a readout of her fetus. Nala T'Soni looked happy and healthy to Shepard's eyes. Doctor Chakwas finished what she was doing on her datapad and passed her omnitool over Shepard one last time.
"Well, I've got bad news, good news, and fantastic news," she said with a smile.
"Okay, bad news first," Shepard instructed.
"I assume you're both comfortable with the other hearing medical information about you?" They both nodded. "Liara, you have a minor deficiency in your mammary glands. This…"
"What!? What do you mean!? How will that effect Nala!? How…"
"Liara, relax, let me finish," Doctor Chakwas said, smiling with admiration at her familiar gushing. "It's to be expected, honestly. You're still in the Maiden stage and thus aren't all the way up to producing milk. You've got a couple of options to deal with this. You could formula feed her in addition to normal breastfeeding, or, Shepard, you could help."
Jane raised her eyebrows. "Wait, what?"
"A little estrogen and the necessary vitamin supplements and yes, you should be more than capable of both feeding her." Jane and Liara looked back and forth between each other, searching for approval.
"I think that sounds great," Liara said. "The good news?"
"All right. I'll write the prescriptions you'll need. The good news is that you, Shepard and your daughter are all in perfect health. She should be born in a little under a month at this rate. I take it you have a plan already?"
"Yeah, we're going to stay at a birthing resort near home in a week or so. We'll take her home as soon as we can," Shepard said.
"That sounds lovely. And as for the great news…" Chakwas paused, searching for the right way to introduce this next piece of information. "Well, by now I should be used to finding medical mysteries around you Shepard. You aren't just in perfect health, your cells are replicating and replacing themselves with irregular efficiency." She hit a key and the display changed to show a diagram of Shepard's body and cybernetics. "Through the combination of cybernetics and genetic modification Cerberus used to return you to life, along with your usual healthy lifestyle, and what I can only describe as some sort of miracle…you, aren't really aging. Or if you are, it's happening slower than usual."
Shepard blinked confusedly. "What?"
"It's not really that hard to fathom. I'd expect the shockwave from the Crucible might have had something to do with it. I'll want to check in on you every now and then, god knows I'm having a hard time believing it myself. For the moment, you can expect to most likely live extraordinarily long for a human being, and even during that time you won't show as many signs of aging. In short, stay healthy and don't try and save the galaxy again any time soon, then who knows? You'll probably have only one or two grey hairs by the time you're my age." There was silence. Liara and Shepard stared at Doctor Chakwas, trying to understand what she'd just said. "Shepard, to put this another way, you're going to get to see your daughter grow. And you won't be leaving your bondmate alone for a long, long time."
The stunned silence that followed this announcement remained in the room until the door opened. "How's our favorite power couple doctor?" Commander Ashley Williams asked.
"They're doing just fine, commander."
"Good to hear it." She turned her eyes to her former CO. "You okay skipper? You look like you just saw a ghost."
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Doctor just stuck me a good one," Shepard said quickly, rubbing her arm like she'd just gotten a shot. She didn't think she was quite ready to share this just yet. Or perhaps ever.
"That's just how we welcome you aboard around here," Ashley teased. "How's the little gal?"
"Perfectly fine. Born before the month is over," Chakwas said.
"Send me pictures you two. Shepard, you still down to blow off a little steam at the arena?"
"Guess that's up to the doctor here."
Chakwas shrugged and shut her work down. "As far as I care you're cleared for combat. As far as your wife is concerned…" Chakwas lead off, turning to the asari.
"Oh go on, I know how you get when you don't 'get action' for a while."
"You see why I married her," Shepard said happily.
"Back before dinner, understood?" Liara said with a finger raised.
"Yes ma'am."
"I expect additional cuddling as penance."
"Of course."
Liara winked. "Have fun my love. This isn't a televised match, is it?"
"No, it's just us having some fun."
"Oh well, I'll have to live without you for a while. I'm not sure how long I'll survive."
Shepard crossed the room and sealed her in a long, deep kiss. "I love you."
"I love you too," Liara said, her heart fluttering.
"See you in a few hours." Shepard and Ashely left the med bay, leaving Liara and Doctor Chakwas alone. The human watched Liara look after her bondmate left and smiled to herself.
Liara caught her look and blushed a little. "What?"
"You two," Doctor Chakwas said. "You're adorable." She shut down the medical scanner and helped the very pregnant asari to her feet. "You kept the crew sane during the war, you know?"
"What do you mean?"
The doctor gave her a knowing look. "Your being together wasn't exactly the best kept secret even in the beginning. Shepard walked right through my med bay at least once a day and disappeared into your little hidey hole for a while." Liara blushed a little more, but still smiled. "You were sort of like the class couple," Chakwas continued fondly. "In all this mess, we could look over and see you two making things work. There was still something worth living for. If two people who'd had lives as crazy as yours could find each other, maybe we could all get through hell and back. Maybe even find someone we love as much as you two love each other."
"Doctor I…I never knew."
"Of course you didn't! You think we'd want that kind of weight in addition to everything else?"
Liara thought about it, then took a deep breath and looked earnestly at the human. "Thank you. Thank you for telling me, and for, well, everything."
"It was my pleasure, Liara. Any plans for the rest of the day?"
"I was going to catch up with whoever didn't go to the arena with Shepard."
"Just in the lounge?"
"Yes. Care to come?"
"I'd love to. You two were my only set appointments anyway."
As it turned out, Joker, EDI, Samara, Samantha Traynor, Kelly Chambers and engineers Adams, Donelly and Gabriella were aboard and soon occupied the lounge with Liara and doctor Chakwas. The more permanent members of the Normandy's crew explained that the vessel now served to transport Commander Williams and her team to her various assignments. She was still a spectre after all. Shepard's old squadmates frequently aided her. Overall, the Normandy family was doing well, and was largely intact. Gabriella sat comfortably across Donnely's lap, permitting her to lightly knee him whenever he made some sort of terrible innuendo.
The conversation eventually came around to Liara's pregnancy. A few drinks in everyone (minus her, of course) had loosened a number of tongues and Kelly began asking a few interesting questions. Traynor joined in after a while, they wanted to know if genes could be combined from multiple partners. When Liara grudgingly explained that it could be done, both began mildly dropping hints. She was understandably a little uncomfortable with the subject. Eventually all three curled up on the couch in a pile. Samara gazed fondly at both of the women she loved, considering the possibilities before her. Liara gave the justicar an inquisitive look, to which she returned a small smile. Not now, but, perhaps later, she seemed to say. Since both of them were human, the past had no chance of repeating itself.
"At least you two don't have to worry about that. Or should we be expecting a cute little circuit board in the next couple months?" Donelly asked Joker. Everyone, especially Joker, had to laugh at that one.
"How do you guys, y'know, do stuff anyway?" Kelly asked teasingly.
"How does Joker insert his connector into your storage drive, EDI?" Gabriella groaned and nudged her boyfriend.
"It's actually quite simple," EDI started in her usual calm tone. "I have run extensive analyses on Jeff's bone structure and condition, and can easily calibrate every servo in my body so as not to put too much pressure on any part of his body."
"In short, she gets to be on top and I try really really hard not to move too much," Joker said, grinning in an embarrassed way.
Conversation went on until Shepard and Ashley returned, both worn out but in a good mood, and even then they lingered. Jane had a drink or two, just enough to get a little bit rosy-cheeked. Eventually the sun began to sink lower in the sky, and the two set off for home, promises of photos and future visits following in their wake. Liara drove them home, they enjoyed dinner together, then curled up early in bed.
Shepard dropped off quickly, but Liara lay awake a little longer, unable to keep herself from gazing at her lover's sleeping form. A tear welled up at the corner of her eye and a small sniff escaped her. Jane stirred and blinked open her eyes. "Whu..? Liara, what's wrong?"
"*sniff!* Nothing, it's just *sniff!* what the doctor said today and I wouldn't be like this if I weren't pregnant and my hormones weren't going wild." Shepard was silent, pleading with her eyes as to what she was supposed to do. "About you," Liara clarified.
"Oh! Oh my god, would you believe I forgot about it." Liara smiled through her tears. Only Jane Shepard could forget about something like this, she was so used to the wild and impossible. "If you want some time away from me at some point, I get it. I mean, you were probably just thinking about spending a century or less with me, you've got plans and all and…" Liara silenced her with a fevered kiss.
"Shepard," she said, breaking away. "Oh Shepard I'm happy! *sniff* asari don't usually think about the end of this kind of thing, but sometimes I can't help it. It's *sniff* haunted me, every now and then. But, you aren't going to leave quite so soon. You're here with me." The asari put a hand to her cheek. Jane was smiling and tearing up herself. "I love you so much. I know there will be times we need our space, and I know neither of us were planning on this but…I can't think of any reason I could ever grow tired of your company." The asari carefully tucked her fingers into Shepard's hair. "I am with you, as long as you want me, Jane Shepard."
"Then you are with me till the day I die, Liara T'Soni." They wrapped together in another chaste, adoring kiss before snuggling closer and beginning to doze off. A small movement at the edge of the bed followed by a familiar "Mrow!" announced the arrival of Nezzie. The kitten had grown into an energetic and pleasantly fluffy cat. She'd grown a little chilly and sought refuge beneath the covers. The two women laughed and Shepard lifted them for her, permitting her to crawl under and settle in against Shepard's back. She purred contentedly. "Now we've got the whole family," Shepard remarked.
