A/N: I didn't mean to leave this for so long, but I read through chapter 11 and thought 'damn this sucks' and now we have a new and improved chapter 11!
In other news, I started a new fic called 'The Making of a Commander', that is events in Hayley Shepard's life before this. Now some of this fic is AU to the TMoaC timeline (which is my headcanon) but some of the events in that are mentioned here. So feel free to check that out.
Shepard slowly limped towards the door to her and Liara's new home. She didn't have to rest frequently anymore, but she was still unable to walk as she could before, her left ankle always giving out slightly whenever her right foot left the ground.
"Can you believe this place survived?" Hayley asked Liara, as the latter opened the door to the apartment, "I mean, Tayseri is all but written off due to the damages, but Zakera is still standing strong!"
Liara smiled in acknowledgment, walking through the door and sighing with relief at the familiar sight. During the war, she and Shepard hadn't spent much time here, with most of the shore leaves on the citadel lasting no more than a few hours. The only extended time they'd had off was when the clone and Brooks tried to make off with the Normandy, but even then that wasn't really a vacation. Still, it was enough for the asari to regard this place as a home.
Shepard ran (read: limped with vigour) to the opposite side of the fireplace, mentally screaming with joy when she saw the vid screen had survived. The crew of the Normandy was shown in all their glory, and Shepard couldn't help but feel a sense of victory when she remembered that all of them had survived the end days of the war, except for EDI.
The redhead let out a joyful sigh before she promptly flopped onto the sofa in a less than graceful fashion.
"I've requested for your personal belongings to be brought here," Liara said as she took a seat besides Shepard, only for the human to wrap her left arm around her and pull her closer, "with the favours I've called in, they should be here within an hour or two."
"Great! I just don't know where to put my model collection…there isn't a display case here like there is in my quarters," Shepard glanced around the intact apartment, picking out a wall that could be seen as unnecessary so she could have it replaced with a display. She did enjoy having the model of the SR-2 on the dining table just beyond the kitchen, and the model of an alliance cruiser on the shelf in her office out in the open, but she hadn't put them together, so felt less sentimental towards them.
"You will figure something out," Liara sounded distracted as she spoke, and Shepard noticed that the asari had brought a datapad with her and was currently scrolling through the information on the page.
There was a lot on reaper tech, with most of it being far beyond Hayley's comprehension. Sure she had killed a couple reapers and spoke to three of them, but that didn't mean she knew everything about them. Most of the words went straight over her head and she wondered to what degree Liara understood what she was reading.
Eventually, the information on reaper tech disappeared from the screen, and just as Shepard thought she and Liara could go and 'celebrate' the survival of the apartment in every room, she saw the older woman pull up another file that was full of information, this time about the Citadel.
Much of the information was detailing the level of destruction to the five wards and presidium, as well as estimated time for repairs, ranging from a few more months to several decades. The estimated cost was also through the roof. If most of the galaxy hadn't just been horrendously and irreparably damaged by Harbinger and his friends, there would be uproar over the incoming economical state.
Then there was the death toll. 19 million and counting. Hayley hoped it wasn't true, and by the sigh Liara let out, it was likely she hoped for the very same, but there was no way around it. The death toll would be high, no one had fooled themselves into believing otherwise, but it was still hard to see a number with so many zeros.
Suddenly, Shepard was no longer in the mood for some fun with Liara, and settled to staring back at the vid screen. She still had a majority of their friends, but there were people who had lost all of theirs. There were families that had been torn apart by this war. Children who would grow up without parents, like Shepard had done, although she doubted many of the current generation of minors would have a parent come crawling out of the woodwork in around 30 years' time.
"Why do you think my mother did it?" Shepard asked out of nowhere.
"Did what?" Liara replied, although the way Hayley looked at her told her that she already knew what 'what' meant, "She was young. Maybe she was not prepared."
"She wasn't that young, and she dealt with me for 3 years…" Shepard sighed before shaking her head, "Never mind. Forget I brought this up."
Liara was about to say something in return when the apartments VI notified her and her bondmate of a visitor.
Shepard was about to get up before Liara stopped her and quickly cleared the distance between where they were sitting and the door, opening it to find that some of Shepard's belongings had already been delivered, closing the door once she had signed for the delivery.
Hayley was beginning to stand so she could go over to Liara, but the asari told her to sit down, close her eyes and cup her hands out in front of her. She heard her lover getting closer before something small and furry was placed in her hands.
"Admiral Squiggles!" Shepard resisted the urge to squeeze the hamster with glee, not wanting to end it with love after all it had survived, "How did you-"
"Your models were not the only things that survived the crash, or 'purposeful rough landing to scare the crew', as Joker calls it," Liara went back to fetch the other box that had been brought over, this one containing the holographic chess set and model of the Destiny Ascension.
"Wait, does that mean my fish survived?" Shepard's voice was filled with hope, only for it to be replaced by disappointment when she saw her girlfriend shake her head, "Oh well, they probably would've died without that VI anyway," the human laughed, although she didn't sound as though she felt amused.
The next few hours were filled with finding places for the several models and memorabilia that the former Commander had picked up over the years. The models were placed wherever there was space while they waited on an actual display, Admiral Squiggles was given a makeshift house made from an upturned storage crate, and the last remaining husk head in existence was placed carefully into the buildings incinerator.
Eventually, most of the boxes had been unpacked, with Shepard and Liara opting to leave the remainder for another day so they could watch 'Shepard: A Real Hero?' an enlightening show presented by the ever-lovely Khalisah Al-Jilani.
So far, the reporter had tackled Shepard's past on Earth, detailing the days Shepard spent womanising while she ran with the Tenth Street Reds, to which Shepard had joked that she wished she was that popular among the ladies back then, quickly back tracking when Liara glared at her.
Alas, that segment had long since passed and the current focus was on Shepard's current love life.
"I do not see why you felt the need to punch her three times," Liara said, quickly becoming enraged when the reporter on the vid screen said something about the asari and human meeting at Chora's Den, "Never mind, I understand why now."
Shepard laughed and kissed the top of Liara's crest. Khalisah had always struck her as the type to jump to conclusions, even with information such as how she had met her lover being available to the public now. Still, she assumed that false gossip was required to keep spirits high, as destroyed as the galaxy was these days.
"If we had met at Chora's Den, do you think the same would have still happened?" Liara asked.
"That's…a strange question," Shepard's brow was furrowed with confusion, although she aimed to answer anyway, "maybe. I don't know. Truth be told, if I had met you at Chora's Den or any of the other clubs in the galaxy, I may not have given you a second thought. I'm sorry."
Liara couldn't help but grin with the amount of love she felt for Hayley in that current moment. The human looked so embarrassed about speaking the truth, and her apology bled sincerity. She evidently was truly ashamed that, had she met Liara in a sleazy club, she would not have had any desire to take her with her or even acknowledge her existence.
"There is nothing to worry about, Hayley," Liara quickly kissed the Commander, "had I passed you on a planet where I was on an archaeological dig and not trapped in a Prothean bubble, I would likely have ignored you too."
Hayley let out a small laugh, before returning her attention to the screen.
Now Khalisah was talking about Virmire, and how Ashley had been left behind to die.
The more the reporter spoke about Shepard's fallen comrade, the more the woman felt herself being pulled back into those memories.
The way Ashley fully embraced her role in the frontal assault on Saren's lab. How Shepard felt overjoyed when Kaidan told her she had time to go and fetch the Gunnery Chief before the bomb detonated and left nothing but a crater on the beautiful planet's surface. Ashley's reaction to finding out Shepard was going back to save Kaidan when his positon was compromised, meaning that there wouldn't be time to save her.
Damn it, Ash…Kaidan was with the bomb. I had to make sure it went off…
"Hayley?!" Shepard looked straight ahead to find that Liara had moved from lounging at her side, and was now knelt on the floor in front of her, gripping her shoulders and staring into her eyes.
"Li…Liara?" Hayley's voice sounded distant to her. She was fully aware she was speaking, but at the same time she felt as though it wasn't her.
"Thank the Goddess!" The asari threw her arms around her lover, pulling her in to a tight hug, "I couldn't get through to you for 10 minutes!"
"Ten…" Shepard placed her arms on Liara's back, returning the hug but with less rib-breaking force. She could have sworn she was only thinking about Virmire for a few seconds. The flashback had seemed so real, it was as though she was really there. In comparison, being startled out of it by Liara had felt as though she was being pulled into a dream.
"This is the 3rd time this has happened. You are harder to get back every time," Liara was unwilling to let go, and Shepard knew her words were true.
The flashbacks had come fast and hard, each one more intense than the last. They weren't as frequent as her nightmares, which plagued her virtually every night, but even after three, she was concerned for herself.
"I…I think I'm okay now," the human pulled herself away and rubbed at her eyes, now noticing how dry and itchy they felt. Maybe I was out for that long…
Liara relinquished her hold and sat back on her heels, brushing a lose strand of Hayley's hair from her face, "maybe we should get some rest, we're probably both tired after today."
"Yeah," Shepard stood and stretched her limbs, trying to push her fear of another nightmare as far out of her mind as possible while she helped Liara to her feet before leading her through to the bedroom.
After finishing the nightly routine of getting into their pyjamas and brushing their teeth, Shepard and Liara opted to just cuddle together while they waited for sleep, content to be in each other's arms in a familiar bed, without the worry that this may be the last time they are together.
Eventually, Liara's breathing began to slow and Shepard decided that she should try to put effort into sleeping now, as opposed to staring at the dark ceiling above.
"Liara?" Shepard asked, deciding to continue despite the lack of response from the fast asleep woman, "I want these nightmares and flashbacks to stop before they get any worse. I'm calling Chakwas tomorrow."
Within minutes of finishing what she had to say, Shepard was deep into another nightmare about the long since finished war.