A/N: One of my dear readers asked that I update y'all on the miscreants and Falere and all them, so here you go! Enjoy! ^.^

Chapter 49

"Shepard?"

"Yes Wrex?"

"What the hell is it?"

"It's called a grill."

"But you're cooking that meat on rocks."

"It's called charcoal."

"What the hell is charcoal?"

"Will you stop complaining? This is imported all the way from Earth. You are about to taste the best rack of steak ribs you've ever had in your life."

"What the hell is steak?"

"Cow meat."

"What the hell is a cow?"

"Don't make me head-butt you, Wrex. I'll do it."

"Can I head-butt Uncle Wrex? Can I can I can I can I can I?" Naiala asked, tugging on Shepard's shirt.

Wrex barked out a hearty guffaw. "There's that krogan spirit! All right, come on little pyjack!"

"Okay but just don't knock him out," Shepard cautioned with a mischievous grin. "He's getting fragile in his old age."

Wrex chuckled as he leaned down a little so Naiala could reach and they gently head-butted. Naiala immediately burst into giggles which caught Elaria's attention. She scrambled out of the pool, somehow escaping the small swarm of Wrex and Bakara's krogan babies, and dashed over.

"I wanna head-butt Uncle Wrex!"

After the twins had thoroughly head-butted Wrex, Liara came over and shooed the girls and Wrex away to the pool. Falere stepped up behind them as Shepard began adding wood chips to the burning coals.

"Ah, Falere you're back!" Shepard said with a bright smile. "How did your trip to Sur'Kesh go? Did the salarians treat you well?"

"Oh yes, they were very professional and polite," Falere said with an excited smile. "Their new biotic suppressor worked!"

"It did? That's fantastic, Falere!" Shepard set her grilling fork down and gave her a warm hug. "So it's tested and everything?"

"My mother was able to meld with me for the first time in four hundred years! I still can't initiate melds, but I can receive them thanks to the biotic suppressor. Oh Shepard it was heaven to be able to feel my mother's mind again. She's changed so very much, but to feel how much she loves me and how proud of me she is . . ." she trailed off, happy tears spilling down her cheeks.

Liara joined their embrace and kissed Falere's cheek. "Cry all you need, my dear, dear friend. I should think you've earned it."

"So where is it?" Shepard asked after a few moments of happy embracing. "Not too cumbersome, I hope?"

Falere stepped back and held up her wrist, revealing a small bracelet with a few buttons and lights. "It's very light, and it's very easy to take off so I don't have to shower or sleep in it. Oh Liara, I feel like a new person!"

"The twins have been dying for you to get back. They've been pestering us to let them meld with you for ages," Liara said with a grin. "Something tells me this will make their day. Well . . . more than head-butting with Wrex. It may go down in their history books as 'the best day ever.'"

Falere giggled. "Today is quite possibly the best day of my life! I'm going to get in my swimsuit and surprise Naiala and Elaria."

As Falere happily dashed off to change, Shepard slung an arm over Liara's shoulder and kissed her temple. "She's in love with you, you know."

Liara blushed quite prettily as she helped Shepard turn the giant rack of ribs on the roasting spit over the grill. "I know," she said quietly.

"If you . . . if I were an asari, do you think all three of us would be lovers?"

Liara's brow marking twitched and she gave Shepard a curious look. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm asking if it's what you want. Do you eventually want a community of lovers? I know that's very common with asari. Not so much with humans because of our short lifespans, but I know it's common here. I . . . I want you to be happy, Liara. And more than anything, I don't want you to be alone after I'm gone."

"Shepard, don't-"

"I'm serious, Liara. My lifespan is a fraction of yours. We've never talked about this, and I think we should. Not right this instant, but I would like to."

Liara heaved a sigh. "I don't think I'm ready to think about this. Asari tend to absorb a lot of their partners' desires through years of melding, and I have most certainly accumulated your strong desire for monogamy. I care a great deal about Falere, but I'm not ready to open my bed to her."

Shepard wrapped her arms around Liara's waist and tenderly kissed her neck. "Me either. I just . . . Your happiness is all that matters to me, Liara. And the thought of you being alone after I'm gone . . . Nothing about that makes me feel good."

Liara pressed her lips firmly to Shepard's in a loving kiss. "I know. I'll give it some thought. And honestly this isn't something we should be discussing without Falere, considering it will profoundly change her life as well. So how about we talk about it when the time is right?"

Shepard chuckled. "Okay."

A while later, after everyone's bellies were full of ribs (Grunt and Wrex fought over who got to eat the bones) and a whole lot of asari sushi, everyone lounged around the pool while the kids and the varren pups splashed around. Grunt and Wrex were currently seeing who could pack away a whole keg of beer faster while the rest sipped/chugged their various drinks.

Shepard chuckled when Legion nipped one of the varren pups trying to get too rough with Elaria. "Good boy, Legion," she called, slipping her bare feet into the cool water. "And thanks for the new pups, Wrex. I was thinking it was about time for a Mordin and a Grunt Junior."

"Given your track record with exotic fish, he probably shouldn't be encouraging you to have anymore pets," Jack drawled from the sun lounger she was currently sharing with Miranda.

"Hey. I haven't killed any fish since moving into our estate. So shut it, you," Shepard shot back.

"So how go your adventures aboard the Normandy?" Liara asked, taking a dainty sip of her cocktail. "I heard a journalist is looking to write a book about your exploits across the galaxy. I believe it is to be entitled, 'The Normandy: The Ghost Ship of the Shadow Broker.'"

"He'll write that book over my dead body," Joker grumbled. "I hate reporters."

"Joker, you pretty much hate everything," Shepard replied.

"Yeah. Well. What can ya do?"

"I say," Tali butted in after taking a large swig of her drink, "-hicc- let any journalist who thinks they can find the Normmmanneee -hicc- may the best -hicc- journalist win."

"Dear lord who gave her a drink?" Miranda drawled. She rolled over onto her stomach and sprawled out like a spoiled cat while Jack rubbed sun screen on her back.

"Hey bitch," Tali fired back. "I can -hicc- drink if -hicc- I feel like drrrrrri-hicc-inking."

"Garrus, we'll talk about that intervention later, yeah?" Shepard said with continued amusement.

"Hey, leave me out of this. I'm a married man now," Garrus said.

"The Shadow Broker has been gaining quite a lot of notoriety since the war," Liara commented as she adjusted her umbrella to protect a sleeping Isis from the sun. "According to what I've been reading, your team has helped immensely with the rebuilding effort by coordinating supply runs and keeping communication between worlds open. If you're not careful, the galaxy may start thinking the Shadow Broker has gone soft."

"I'm sure the last idiots who tried to raid one of our supply ships would disagree," Jack retorted.

"Heh heh heh," Grunt agreed a chuckle.

"Sorry I brought it up," Liara said, taking another dainty sip.

Shepard's eyes lingered on Liara's lips for several moments. She secretly loved it when Liara acted like the spoiled matriarch of the household, and she also knew Liara was currently doing it for her sake.

"Well I'm sure the former Shadow Broker is very proud," Shepard said, lightly running her hand along Liara's neck and shoulders.

"How are things on Tuchanka, Urdnot Bakara?" Garrus asked.

Bakara glanced up from the two krogan babies currently sitting in her lap. "Now that the krogan are actually motivated to build a future for our children, the rebuilding of our homeworld is going faster than I ever thought possible. The females have been keeping the peace with any idiot males who have been trying to start any kind of revenge plot against the salarians. You would think after a thousand years of losing to the salarians, they would be ready to give it a rest."

"And I've been personally stomping out any rabble I find," Wrex said proudly. "Keeps this old krogan fighting, and it keeps the damn salarians from cursing us with another thousand years of sterility."

"Well I speak for the entire asari race when I say, we would not allow the salarians to do that again," Liara said with a passion in her voice that never failed to give Shepard chills up and down her spine. "The krogan have been invaluable in helping Thessia and Earth rebuild since the war. Not to mention you have accepted my own daughters into your krant."

"And you and Shepard," Wrex corrected, taking a huge gulp from his keg.

"DONE!" Grunt suddenly bellowed, setting down his keg. "Beat you, old man!"

Wrex looked down at his keg, then looked at Grunt's. "DAMN IT! I demand a rematch! All these damn girls distracted me with their chatter!"

Shepard threw a beer can at him. "Behave yourself, Wrex. You were just gaining favor among 'us girls.'"

"So how goes the ambassador business, Shepard?" Garrus asked before Grunt and Wrex could get into it.

"Oh basically a battle with the salarians every time I go to the damn Citadel. Fortunately I have yet to overplay the 'saved the galaxy' card. It's really the only leverage they seem to care about. Damn dalatrasses anyway," she grumbled.

"I must say, Liara and Falere," Kasumi said from her sun lounger, "I do love what you've done with the gardens. You two make quite formidable business partners."

"And it is my belief that in times like these, times of hardship and rebuilding, that art and beauty, more than ever, is needed to keep people going, to remember what they fought so hard for, and what they're working to rebuild," Samara said in her usual eloquent way.

Shepard didn't miss the soft blush that filled Falere's cheeks as she cast a glance at Liara. A fond grin tugged at the corners of Shepard's lips. She wasn't quite ready to share her beloved Liara, but she, too, cared very much for Falere. And if anyone in the galaxy deserved some happiness after all the lonliness and loss she'd suffered, it was Falere. But there were still plenty of tomorrows.