After Kallini: Ardat-Yakshi Monastery
When the elevator reached the surface, Shepard saw that Falere was still heartbroken, angry that they couldn't save Rila, but she couldn't have guessed that Samara would turn out to be the more serious problem. The justicar looked at the flaming wreckage behind them and apologized softly. At first, Shepard was confused, but as the older asari drew her pistol, and said, "The Code is clear. An Ardat-Yakshi cannot live outside of a monastery," she thought she knew what was happening.
When Samara raised her gun to her own temple though, Shepard was shocked to realize she was wrong, but not so surprised though that couldn't react. Before Samara could pull the trigger, the Specter had her arm in a bind. The justicar protested, but seeing what her mother was willing to do reached Falere through her grief. When the Ardat-Yakshi pledged she would not leave the grounds of the monastery, Samara agreed that the Code was satisfied and promised that after the war was done, she would come back and see her daughter again.
On the shuttle, Samara remained very much on the commander's mind. When they first met, she'd admired, been attracted to, not just to the justicar's strength and beauty, but to her clarity of purpose. When Samara had rejected her despite their mutual interest however, Melanie had started wondering if the Justicar's Code might not be too rigid. At the time she hadn't been sure if that was just her own frustration talking, but now, with her romantic interest in the past, she knew she'd been right. Samara's unbending devotion to its rules had cost her hundreds of years with her daughters, and today, it had almost claimed her life as well.
After returning to the Normandy, Shepard concluded that the crew needed a little shore leave. The war had taken its toll of late, especially with the deaths of Mordin and Kirrahe, and the list of requests on her terminal to meet up the next time they were on the Citadel confirmed her impression. None of her crew came out and said they needed the leave now, but she'd been in command long enough to read between the lines. Given that she had some business to take care of there anyway, she figured they might as well go.
It didn't hurt that one of those requests was from Liara. They've never been as close as they are now, so achingly near to becoming more that every time they're together, Melanie wants so much to just reach out to the asari, to touch her, to hold her, to kiss her. She hasn't. She feels like she has no right, given that she'd been the one to reject Liara three years ago. And yet, what if Liara is waiting for her to make the first move for just that reason? She's no good at this, and adding the end of the galaxy as they know it hasn't made things any easier. Is that a reason to say something or a reason not to? She wishes she knew.
She finds the cause of her confusion standing on a patio near some of the weapons kiosks, looking out on some greenery that had escaped the recent battle with Cerberus. At first, she doesn't say anything, just watching Liara enjoy the scenery, but after a minute, she comes over to stand next to her against the railing. Liara smiles when she sees her and Shepard makes a joke about not meeting someplace more exciting, because what they need right now is definitely more thrills.
Liara takes the quip seriously however, and tells Shepard that the garden reminds her of where she grew up on Thessia. Soon, they're talking about Liara's childhood, the scientist reminiscing about the woman Benezia was before she joined Saren. It's nice to be reminded of more pleasant days in the midst of the war, and clearly Liara agrees, because she gives Melanie a wistful look and tells her how much wishes they could spend more time together like that, "Just… friends."
There's a pause, though, before she says "friends" that makes Shepard's hope rise. She looks into the asari's bright blue eyes, and a part of her is afraid, afraid of ruining her friendship with Liara, of looking like a fool, a part that wants to just let the moment go by. But there's another part too, one that remembers all the regrets she's had because three years ago she was scarred, that thinks of all the centuries that Samara wasted, and that doesn't want that to be her, and that's the part that wins.
"I think we'd be good together, Liara," she says softly. "I…" Liara's stutters in response, fumbling over her words the way she did when they first met, and the uncertainty in that breath scares Melanie more than a whole army of Reapers. She's worried that she's made a mistake and, nervously, she tries to reassure the scientist that there's no pressure, even though Liara's answer is all she can think about.
Liara stops her though, tells Shepard she can give her an answer now, and when Melanie hears her say "I like you a lot too, Shepard. And I'd… like that very much," the only words she can find to reply are "I would, too," but she doesn't need to say more.
Their first kiss is brief and gentle and electric. She can tell that Liara is inexperienced, but it couldn't matter less. Just the soft touch of her lips against Shepard's thrills Melanie and when they come together, kissing more deeply the second time, she feels transported away from the war, the deaths, the burden of responsibility. In that moment, nothing else matters but the beautiful asari in her arms.
Shepard doesn't know how long they stay that way, just kissing, and talking, and kissing some more. She wishes it could go on forever but of course it can't. She still has a hundred things to do, and a war to win, so she gives Liara one last kiss and starts back towards her duty.
When Melanie gets to the elevator though, she's overwhelmed. She uses her Specter authorization code to halt the car and lets the emotion built up inside her go. Tears are in her blue eyes remembering all the ways this almost didn't happen. How, foolishly and out of fear, Melanie threw away her chance to be with Liara after Feros. Floating away from the wreckage of the Normandy after the Collector attack, oxygen leaking out of her suit, convinced that those were her final moments, when her thoughts had been of Liara. How angry she'd been when she left Illium for the first time, believing that the asari was lost to her forever, that she didn't want to be a part of Melanie's life anymore. The cold, empty feeling in her chest when she thought the bombing at Baria Frontiers might have killed Liara and the warm flush of relief when she heard her voice again. There were so many way she could've lost her, but she hadn't. She had another chance, and now, she would hold on to Liara T'Soni no matter what.