"And Joker made the whole crew taste the damn cake!" Jane laughed along with Jack and Miranda while Kaidan and Liara listened intently.

"It tasted like ass!" Jack cried while she chuckled.

Miranda nodded. "The first and last time I attend a turian's birthday."

Liara smiled. "Must you make me feel even more guilty for not joining you?"

"Sorry, Liara. It was probably a good thing you weren't there for that." Jane said.

"I can't imagine Joker's cooking being any worse than yours." Liara teased.

Kaidan sipped on his beer. "Trying your hand at cooking, Commander?"

"Let's not go there."

"Couldn't be any worse than your driving." Kaidan joked.

"Or your dancing." Jack added.

Liara roped an arm around her bondmate's shoulders. "Trust me, it is."

"How the hell am I supposed to know how much flour a batch of cookies is supposed to have? I was a solider remember."

"Here's a hint, love. If it's 90 percent flour you've done something wrong." Liara said and they all chuckled as Shepard rolled her eyes and polished off her beer.

"So what's been happening in the Alliance these days?" Shepard asked.

"Boring bullshit." Jack said.

"Final relay repairs in the distant systems. Leadership restructuring now that we've begun rebuilding our numbers after all our losses. There has been a rather dramatic rise in attacks in the Terminus however. After the Terminus Ring seemingly disbanded it's been chaos. Terrorist attacks on Alliance reconstruction crews and on civilian populations like Horizon." Miranda answered more seriously.

"They've sent a few men out there to deal with them but the've yet to find a cause of it all." Kaidan added. "Hackett thinks there's a pattern to the attacks as opposed to just random violence. Last I heard he was rallying a fleet to deal with it."

"Not that we need to tell any of this to you, Liara." Miranda said.

Liara rubbed her belly. "I've been a little busy. I'm taking a short vacation. However I did hear rumors of a new councilor."

Kaidan smiled. "Admiral Shaw. Hell of a guy."

Jane arched an eyebrow. "Really?"

Miranda nodded. "A man worthy of respect. He helped repel the Reapers from New York City during the war, saved a massive amount of the civilian population."

Jack shrugged. "Shaw is alright I guess."

Jane and Liara shared a confused look. "Interesting." Liara muttered before yawning loudly.

"Are you tired, beautiful?" Shepard asked.

Liara nodded. "Regrettably, yes I am."

Kaidan finished his drink. "I can show Liara to the guest room if you wanna stay up a little longer, Shepard. I'm gonna call it a night too."

Liara took Kaidan's hand. "That would be lovely. Thank you, Kaidan."

"I'll be up soon." Jane said and watched Alenko help the preganant asari up the stairs.

Jack was a bit drunk and was so on top of Miranda she may as well have been sitting in her lap as she planted kisses on her lover's neck. Miranda chuckled. "Jack, We can continue this in private in a moment. I believe Shepard has something she needs to discuss with me alone."

Jane nodded. "If you don't mind, Jack."

The convict groaned. "Fine. But hurry up or i'm gonna start without you."

Miranda planted a kiss on her plump lips. "Don't you dare." she hissed.

Jack chuckled and retired to their bedroom. Jane shook her head. "I still can't wrap my head around that."

"What?"

"You two together. Was it really just sexual tension all that time on the Normandy? I had no idea you were even gay."

Miranda smirked. "I've always been gay. But i've also always been very good at keeping secrets."

"Which is why I need you."

Lawson shrugged. "Obviously."

"It's about Liara."

"You're worried you can't be a mother."

"Father." Jane corrected her. "And how do you know?"

"Figured it out about 2 minutes after you first walked in to this house. You forget Shepard, I had to learn all about you during the Lazarus Project. It may have been a few years now but I still know you like the back of my hand."

"Then I guess I can be totally honest with you."

"Always."

"I can't do it, Miranda."

"Don't be ridiculous."

Jane got to her feet and paced around the living room. "I love Liara more than anything. She's everything to me. But the closer we get the more I realize I have no business raising a daughter. I'm just gonna let her down, I'm gonna let Liara down."

Miranda rolled her eyes. "You want to know your problem, Shepard? It's the same annoying problem you had on the Normandy."

"Let's hear it."

"You're so obsessed with denying what's completely obvious to everyone else."

"And what's that?"

"You're Commander Shepard! You know why I hated your guts when we first met?"

Jane arched an eyebrow. "You hated my guts?"

Miranda nodded. "I loathed you. After the Illusive Man tasked me with bringing you back, I spent months recovering you and two years bringing you back. And in that time I learned every last shred of information there was to know about you. Every victory, every loss and a picture became clear of the woman I was bringing back. I truly believed that nobody could live up to the woman I read about. And yet, once you were back and right on track to save the galaxy again I quickly realized you were every bit that woman. You were so bloody incredible that you even made me look bad. I was jealous. But you even made a believer out of me. There's nobody else I have more respect for."

Jane sighed. "You sound like everybody else."

"That's because everyone knows you're a hero Shepard. The entire galaxy loves you and here you are wallowing in self-pity."

Shepard crossed her arms. "What a kind observation."

"I'm not trying to be kind. I know when you need tough love."

"I never asked for the entire galaxy to love me."

"Why would you? Why would anyone?"

Jane paused. "You know one thing has been stuck in my head the past few months."

"What's that?"

"My fifteenth birthday." she answered. "My own parents couldn't ever bother being around, I had to raise myself."

"I know."

"Well on my fifteenth birthday both my parents were actually together to celebrate it. And you know what they gave me?"

"No. What?"

"A gun. I was fifteen, Miranda! And my father hands me a pistol and says 'Jane, why don't I take you down to the shooting range'"

Miranda sipped her beer. "Never cared for your father. Or fathers in general. Perhaps i'm bias."

"My whole life I wasn't going to be anything but a marine. It's all I know. I left the Alliance to try and get away from it and all i've learned is I can't do anything else. I can't cook, I can't go out for groceries without being swarmed by people, I can't raise a kid."

Lawson rolled her eyes. "You love Liara?"

"Of course."

"Then you can and you will. It doesn't matter how awful your own childhood was or how dreadful your parents were, be better than them. It's what your good at, Shepard. Being better than everyone else. You don't quit, you never quit. Cowards do that and if there is one thing Commander Shepard isn't it's a coward." Miranda finished her beer.

Shepard was silent while she thought over Lawson's words. "You're right."

"I usually am."

"I can do this...for Liara. Thank you, Miranda. I needed to hear that." Shepard looked at the decorations in the living room and found a small picture frame resting on an end table. She lifted it up and looked at the image. In the picture Shepard had her arm roped around Miranda's shoulders and they both had warm smiles on their faces. "You kept that photo?"

"Of our last day on the Normandy together? Of course." Miranda moved to her side and they both looked at the photo. "I may have acted like a cold bitch back then; maybe I still do. But those were the proudest days of my life. I meant what I said that day, it was an honor to serve by your side." Miranda didn't feel the need to get too sentimental, but Shepard helped her along the path that led her to where she was now. She was the first real friend she ever had, excluding Niket who Miranda hardly thought counted anymore.

"So you really know everything about me?" Shepard asked as she set the picture back on the table.

"Yes."

"Then you know why I don't let anyone call me Jane?"

Miranda nodded. "I do."

"Do me a favor and keep that to yourself."

"Does Liara know?"

"Only you and me."

"I'll take it to the grave."

Shepard smiled. "Goodnight, Miranda."

Lawson returned her smile. "Goodnight, Shepard."

Miranda watched Shepard climb the stairs before she moved towards her bedroom. She opened the door and found Jack waiting for her on the bed naked with her hand working between her legs. Lawson smiled and closed the door behind her. "I told you not to start without me."

Jack grinned. "Then don't take so long next time." Miranda stripped out of her dress and crawled on top of her lover, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss. Jack brought her thigh between Miranda's legs. Their lips separated and Jack whispered in her ear. "Thanks for standing up for me, cheerleader."

Lawson kissed the scar on her neck. "I'll always stand up for you, Jack."

"Still, it was pretty cool of you to knock that bitch out for me."

"Someone had to."

Jack laughed and kissed her again. "You know what you need?"

"Your fingers inside me?"

"I was thinking you need some ink."

Lawson's eyebrows rose. "A tattoo?"

"To let the whole galaxy know you belong to me." Jack said and kissed her again. "And I belong to you."

Miranda smiled. "I'd like that."

"I love you, now fuck me."

Miranda moved down Jack's slender body. "Gladly." she hissed before wrapping her lips around one of Jack's breasts and sucking on the stiff nipple.

Shepard entered the guest room and found Liara going over some Broker business on her omni-tool in bed, dressed in her pajamas. She looked up from the tool's display. "Everything alright?"

"Everything's perfect." Jane replied and began stripping out of her clothes and changing in to her sleep wear before settling in next to the asari and wrapping her arms around her.

Liara kissed her forehead. "I was rather surprised when they spoke so highly of Shaw."

"Me too. Do you think we have the wrong guy?"

Liara shook her head. "No. I saw the evidence first hand. He fed a staggering amount of intel directly to the Illusive Man. However he never received payment which I found curious. It doesn't matter, the intel he gave could very well have gotten men and women in the Alliance killed. Whatever his motivation was, he's not someone we want on the council."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. So we're still on?"

"We're still on. I might have to look in to those attacks they mentioned in the Terminus Systems..."

"Liara, we're having a baby. The Terminus Systems can wait. After we're done with this all we're focusing on is raising our child."

The broker rested a hand on her lover's cheek. "I take it that means you're feeling better. About the baby I mean."

Jane nodded. "Yeah. I..." Jane stopped talking when the muffled cried of two women could be heard directly below them.

"Oh fuck! Keep going! Right there!" Jack's muffled voice screamed.

Liara giggled. "I actually think it's rather sweet how in love those two are."

Jane nodded. "I'm really happy for them. They both deserve it."

"Jack! Yes! Ah! Ah!"

"I was thinking of more names." Liara admitted.

"Oh?"

"Harder! Hard-Ahhhh!" Miranda's now high-pitched voice cried from the bedroom below.

Liara ran her fingers through Jane's hair. "Ashley is a beautiful name, however it isn't very asari. I was thinking we could give her two names."

"Like a first and a middle?"

"Is that something humans do?"

"Fuck me, Cheerleader!"

"Yeah." Jane said.

"What's your middle name, love?"

Shepard paused, "It doesn't matter..."

The Broker glared at her. "Oh come on, Shepard. I'd like to hear it."

Jane sighed and closed her eyes before she spoke. "Catherine."

Liara smiled. "That's a beautiful name."

"We're not naming our daughter after me." She deadpanned.

The asari giggled. "I imagine there are already enough children being named after you. No I was thinking of something not human."

"Do that thing with your tongue...yes! That's it!" Jack hollered.

"Something not human? Okay, what?"

"Benezia."

Shepard felt like she should have expected that. While the idea of naming her daughter after someone she personally killed seemed a little morbid she knew how much the Matriarch meant to Liara. And it was a pretty name. "Benezia." Jane repeated out loud. "Benezia Ashley T'Soni. I like that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I think we just named our daughter."

The asari held the human close. "I feel as though we should do something special to remember this moment."

"Oh shit! I'm gonna fucking come! Ahhhhhh!" Jack screamed

Jane chuckled. "Something tells me I won't have any trouble remembering it."

Liara returned her laugh before she took hold of Jane's breasts. "I know we haven't been as...affectionate as usual lately."

"Put your legs right...there, perfect!" Miranda screamed.

Jane grinned. "Really? Hadn't crossed my mind."

The asari chuckled. "I'm in the mood if you are."

Shepard placed her hand on Liara's stomach. "Are you sure?"

"Mhm." Liara hummed before planting a kiss on Jane's lips.

Notes- This chapter has a second part but instead of doing a massive 4000 word chapter I thought I'd split it up into two. The next chapter will be coming very soon.