A/N: I feel I should point out, when I refer to Shepard in dialogue, assume I mean Hayley unless I say otherwise.
Also, there is post sexy time stuff here...I refuse to write an actual sex scene because I feel awkward writing the many synonyms for 'breasts' and 'vagina' (and its various parts)...and 'penis' if there is a guy or futa (yes I'm 17 and know what that is. If you don't know, I'm not telling you)
Also scene changes are being made super obvious now because whenever I type dashes they bugger off to Narnia whenever I post a chapter.
Hayley begrudgingly sat in the wheelchair the hospital provided her with, trying to focus on her upcoming physiotherapy which would help her be able to walk again.
She thought about where she was going. She knew she wasn't staying on Mars, and Earth was still a no go for anyone who wasn't trying to help with the post-war clean up. It felt strange, as for the first time in her 32 years, she actually wanted to know where she was going as the excitement of mystery seemed lost following all that she had been through.
"Hello, Shepard" Hayley was snapped out of her thoughts by the gentle voice that came from the doorway. Liara.
Her first instinct was to ask her where the hell she had been and why she stopped visiting her, but she held back when she realised it was probably her fault for yelling at her and "Hey, Liara" flowed from her mouth instead, although she avoided eye contact.
"Are you ready to go?"
"Where?"
"Thessia. I know it sounds like a bad idea, but part of the planet remained untouched by reapers and-"
"That sounds nice" Shepard interrupted Liara. In the 3 years she had known her (although it was more a year as Hayley was dead for 2 of them), she had seen her grow from the shy, asari maiden into a woman that could hold her own, who could be both gentle and caring as well as utterly terrifying. One habit she never seemed to have lost was her rambling when she was nervous, although Hayley found it adorable.
Liara went to the back of Shepard's wheelchair and began escorting her towards the shuttle that would take them to the one untouched part of the shadow brokers homeworld. She had been to that part before, when she was in her 40's, and she never recalled seeing such a beautiful place.
There were mountains that surrounded a lake that had sand at the edges, almost like a hidden beach. The position of the sun meant it always rose between the two smallest mountains and set between the two largest ones. The only thing Liara didn't like was the house there for tourists to stay, as it was typical asari architecture and therefore totally out of place for an area of natural beauty, although the two large windows that started on the first floor and ended on the second allowed for whoever was inside to see the mountains that framed the sun, which the asari thought was a nice touch. Although this memory was 60, almost 70 years old, so there is every chance the place has changed somewhat, but Liara's sources had informed her that it hadn't.
-To Thessia-
The shuttle ride took about a day and it was early evening when they arrived, due to damaged mass relays that, while they were mostly repaired, sometimes didn't quite get the shuttle to the right location as the shuttle sometimes decelerated too early.
When they arrived, Liara felt as though she was a child again, and the look of amazement on Hayley's face shown her that she had made the correct decision by bringing her here, although it was thrown into doubt when she started laughing.
"What's so funny?" The maiden tried to hide her instant concern but failed miserably.
"Nothing. This place is beautiful, Liara. It's just that it has taken a near death experience and an actual death to get me to appreciate things like this" Hayley looked up and smiled at her girlfriend, hoping that she imagined the brief pain in her eyes.
"Okay, Hayley. Should we go inside?"
"I don't know why you're asking me. You are pushing me around after all" the human woman feigned annoyance and for the first time since Liara had come to visit her on the Normandy after becoming the shadow broker, she heard the asari laugh. Not forced laugh, or a small giggle because of an intimate moment, but a genuine laugh from being happy and amused.
As Liara began to push her towards the entrance of the house where they would be staying for the next two weeks, she heard Hayley tell her that she loved her, and she replied with the same.
-Later-
3 months.
3 months since the reapers arrived. 3 months since Earth fell. 3 months since the crucible plans were recovered from the Mars Archives, and this is what those plans-what the galaxy's efforts came down to.
Hayley stood next to the catalyst and considered her 3 choices.
Control, synergy or destroy?
This was not a decision for a mere soldier to make. Whatever she chose would affect the galaxy forever, and while she will not live to see the effects, the reality was people she cared about might do...
Shepard held the gun she somehow managed to keep with her up at the catalyst, ready to admit defeat and let the reapers have their way with this cycle, but before she pulled the trigger ,she looked behind her and at Earth.
Balls of orange and red were plunging into the atmosphere, with vessels from one of the many fleets brought to the battle still putting up a fight, blue beams of light flashing and impacting the reapers that broke through the galaxy's combined forces, one frigate at a time, with most not obtaining a single burn to their exterior metal casing.
The exploding vessels had parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, spouses, friends -an endless list of people, not all human, some asari, turian, salarian and so on, who are giving their lives for this war, hoping someone stops the reapers before there is no one who can miss them. Before there is no one left to miss.
The Normandy and her crew could be one of those exploding fireballs, or it could be far away...it could have already gone back through the Charon Relay to keep them safe and...what? They'll be alive, expecting Hayley to end this...only to find out the crucible never fired. That Hayley willingly chose to let them die.
That final thought forced Commander Shepard to face her choices again.
"Shepard" The commander looked at the catalyst for a second, certain that she heard it speak, before returning her gaze at what was ahead.
"Shepard" 2 metal handles with a current surging through them-Control...the reapers will be Hayley...
"Hayley Shepard" A greenish-blue beam of light, filling the space between the citadel and the catalyst-Synergy...all organics are synthetic, all synthetics are organic...
"Hayley" A single power conduit, with a reddish glow surrounding it-Destroy...the reapers will be gone, and so will the geth, and so will EDI.
"Wake up Hayley!"
Hayley sat upright in bed and panted. It took her a good few seconds to realise she was no longer on the citadel, but safe in bed at a tourists house on Thessia. She looked down to see she was holding Liara's hand so tight, the asari's skin had become a lighter shade of blue, before looking at the hands owner, who's eyes were conveying limitless amounts of worry. It took Hayley a couple seconds to acknowledge the fact she should release her grip on Liara's hand, as her own knuckles were white, therefore she must have been hurting her girlfriend.
"Hayley, you were having a bad dream" Liara sat up herself and began stroking the humans hair with her now dead hand to comfort her. Liara had always found hair strange, as asari didn't possess it, but she liked how it felt soft and looked shiny...well, when it wasn't caked in post-combat mess, which was fairly often for Hayley prior to the end of the reaper war.
"Yeah...what happened at the citadel I just..." Hayley paused for a second trying to find the right words, "Have you ever made a decision, not knowing if it was the right thing?"
Liara looked away from Hayley for a second, trying to think of a situation where she had done the same thing, smiling and turning back to the Commander when she thought of one, "Before Ilos. I didn't know if we were going to die, and I wanted to tell...and show you how I felt" a smile ghosted the red heads lips, "but I was unsure if you felt the same...or even if I felt the right way to do it. In the end, I-what's that saying you humans use for stupid things? Ah! In the end I threw caution to the wind...and I'm glad I did"
"Hayley, what you have done was the right choice. I don't know what happened, and whether you show me or not is your decision to make, but what you did meant we are still here and the reapers are not" Shepard was beginning to feel tired again, content by how Liara was playing with her hair.
"I wish it was that easy..." Hayley rested her head on Liara's shoulder and allowed herself to fall asleep again.
-Next Morning-
The next morning Hayley was lying on the bed spread out like a star fish, and when she woke up, the first thing she noticed was the drying drool that was present on her cheek and pooling on the bed sheets.
"Liara?" She lifted her head slightly as she tried to blink the morning haze from her vision.
She could hear some movement in the kitchen that was across from the downstairs bedroom (wheelchairs and stairs don't go well together) and there was a pleasant smell drifting under the crack under the door, accompanied by the faint sunlight that also crawled along the wooden floor.
Hayley flipped over and went to stand up, totally forgetting about her minor spinal fracture and falling to the ground with a heavy sounding thud that clearly caught the attention of the asari in the kitchen.
"Hayley, was that you?" She called, her voice coming closer.
"Don't worry, it's all under control"
Liara opened the door to see Shepard flat on the floor, her hair a total mess as she picked her head up and gave a reassuring smile.
"Shepard, when you say 'don't worry', I worry. Also, 'under control' is something you normally say when the circumstances are not, in any way, shape or form, under control" Liara sighed before helping her girlfriend to sit on the bed again.
"That is not true" Shepard defended herself, only for Liara to respond with an unimpressed stare, "okay maybe it is, sometimes"
"Always"
"Yeah whatever..." Shepard looked down at the ground trying to be annoyed, but she failed miserably as she burst into a fit of laughter, which caused Liara to smile.
"I made breakfast. It's an omelette. Do you want me to bring it into you, or bring you out to it?" Considering Shepard's current predicament, the question was entirely valid, and she opted to eat it in the bedroom, to save Liara from pushing her around for awhile.
Liara left the room and promptly returned with what Shepard assumed was the omelette, but was more of a blackened mess haphazardly positioned in the middle of the plate.
Hayley grabbed the fork and hoped the shadow brokers...creation tasted better than it looked. The human pressed the fork sideways into the black mound and pushed through so she could get a little bit on the fork.
At least it's the correct colour on the inside
Suddenly feeling Liara's eyes burning into her, she brought the fork to her mouth and ate what was lovingly prepared for her.
"How is it?"
"It's delicious" Hayley smiled up at Liara, forcing herself to take another bite. "Mm-mm"
"Would you like some cereal?" Liara sighed after watching her girlfriend take another bite, that was much smaller than the previous two.
"I'm sorry..."
"It's okay. I thought it looked wrong...extranet recipes looked nothing like that. I just assumed that you liking bacon slightly burnt meant you like eggs that way too" The asari brought her hand up and rubbed the back of her neck, feeling herself blush slightly.
"Liara, the king of meat does not compare to the spawn of a chicken!" Shepard adopted her commanding tone of voice to try and heighten the humour of the statement that seemed to have flew 50 miles above Liara's head. Of course, bacon and chickens have no significance to asari, seeing as they have no equivalent of the former, and no idea what the latter even is, since chickens were extinct and all eggs now came from ducks (although this wasn't until about a decade ago, hence why most people still refer to eggs coming from chickens).
Following breakfast, Liara and Hayley sat in a shallow area of the lake, as neither of them trusted the latter would be able to tread water and not drown. They found a few stones under the sand and Hayley taught the asari how to throw them so they bounced along the surface instead of disappearing under the it the first time they hit the water. It took a few attempts before she mastered it, and they were both somewhat amused at their disappointment when they ran out of stones to throw, but they quickly got over it by just cuddling together.
The rest of the morning was spent being happy in each others company, and this continued until late in the afternoon.
-Night Time-
Liara moved herself up Shepard's body, rested her head on her chest and wrapped an arm around her possessively, listening to her heartbeat that began to slow quickly, due to how physically fit she was, all things considered. The erratic rise and fall of her chest began to return to its usual slow, steady rhythm and relax Liara even more than she already was.
"I love you" The thought echoed around the meld that the asari had yet to pull back from, only severing the ties when Shepard's exhaustion made it hard to maintain the meld as she subconsciously began to throw up her mental barriers again.
"I love you, too" They both said in unison, as neither were sure who had the original thought. Although it was late summer in the particular region of Thessia, the nights were beginning to grow cold and Liara decided to pull the blanket up over her and her lover before the temperature dropped too much and caused them to be cold.
"Isn't it a little warm for that?" Hayley sounded exhausted, and her eyes were closed as she spoke to Liara. Of course, Liara forgot 10° is cold for asari, but for Hayley it's still warm as she grew up in Vancouver, which had an unstable temperature since global warming took its hold, but it usually never got any warmer than 15°.
"Sorry..."
"It's okay. It's not unbearable. It's actually really *yawn* comfortable" Hayley laughed slightly and a couple seconds later, her breathing became deeper as she fell asleep.
Liara smiled up at the sleeping commander, before nestling her head into her chest and falling asleep herself.