A/N: Based on this prompt:

"I'm not sure if anything like this has been requested before, but if it has, I haven't seen any fills for it.

What if asari could meld with two minds at once? Or that FemShep and Garrus were just so close that they were basically of one mind. Shep and Garrus can't have biological children of their own but what if Liara offered to be some sort of asari cross-species surrogate to them? She would take the best of both Shep's and Garrus' traits and turn them into a blue baby. Basically this might be one of the fluffiest ideas for a prompt I have ever entertained but I love happy feels."

Mothers and Fathers, Daughters and Sons

It started with a question, as these things so often do.

"Have you ever thought about children?"

Of course, with these two, nothing is ever quite so simple.

"I'm flattered, hon, but I think you've gotten so used to me that you've forgotten the not-insignificant biological incompatibilities."

Around them, though, the impossible tends to be simply… improbable.

"Very funny, dear. But I'm serious. There are other ways of having children."

And the improbable becomes likely.

"The only doctor I'd trust to combine our DNA in a test tube is, God give the angels earplugs, dead."

It's just how they are.

"Not Karin?"

Really, the universe should take a leaf from their book.

"She's a military doctor, not a wizard."

Life would be happier, if more people loved like they.

"What about adoption?"

Even with just the two of them, though…

"There's no framework for that right now."

The Reapers never stood a chance.

"You and your bloody insistence on proper channels. I'm tempted to say you sound like Udina."

Because, after all…

"The world's got to rebuild somehow! And I do not sound like Udina."

There's no Shepard without Vakarian.

Liara leaned back, datapad forgotten on her lap, watching two of her best friends from across the room. She made sure she came out of her office at least once a day to have a cup of tea. One needed distance and objectivity, after all. Today, clearly, Garrus and Shepard had had the same idea. The two of them were sitting on a couch, Shepard leaning up against the arm, her calves resting on Garrus' lap. Garrus was idly tracing patterns on her shin with the tip of one gloved talon, currently taking a drink from his mug. Shepard had both hands wrapped around her mug, held up to her lips, and was contemplating her turian partner-in-crime through the steam. Even with their respective mugs obscuring their faces, Liara could tell they were smiling. Or, well, Shepard was smiling; Garrus was smiling as much as he could without spreading his mandibles too wide and spilling whatever that turian drink was all over himself.

She knew that Shepard was likely very tempted to say something funny just so that he'd grin.

She couldn't help but ponder their plight. Everything had fallen apart after the war. There were a lot of children running around, many of them sure to be orphans, but it was too soon to start picking up children and taking them in permanently. She made a note to dedicate some of her remaining resources to doing what she could to help them. She knew that Garrus and Shepard had semi-jokingly mentioned adopting from the impending generations of krogan, and while she admired their initiative, and believed that they, of all non-krogan, could raise a krogan, she doubted if they actually knew what raising a krogan involved. She hid a sudden smile in her own mug as she imagined their faces when they found out.

As to combining their DNA, they were absolutely right: Liara, even with her long list of contacts, could not think of anyone better suited to that task than Mordin Solus. Karin Chakwas, for all her inimitable ability to keep a dying soldier alive, did not specialize in reproductive science. Mordin would have figured it out. The child would likely have gestated in a laboratory, unless Mordin could have worked more magic on Shepard's twice-rebuilt body, because her body (upgraded as it was) would have rejected the little one–

Shepard's body would reject a turian child.

Liara drained her mug and stood up quietly. Garrus and Shepard both looked up at the same instant– no doubt due to their military training, or perhaps the synchronicity of lovers and friends. Liara smiled at them, and they smiled back. She left them to their conversation.

She walked to the small kitchen and rinsed her mug, then dried it and put it away. Her movements were fluid, a perfect cross between the deadly focus of the Broker and the curious attention of the archæologist. No one could see the speed at which her mind was working, or the butterflies that had abruptly popped into existence in her stomach. Her office door slid open.

"Glyph? I need you to find some data for me."