Liara woke up early that morning. She was alone. Shepard had already spent two weeks away with the Normandy, but would return at some point later in the day. Liara sighed, she was reluctant as to staying alone in these days. Her daughter would be born in less than two months and Liara wanted Shepard to be around. She got up and put only a thin robe of light blue silk over her yellow pajamas. She loved this light, thin fabric from earth, which had been given to her by Ashley as her wedding gift. Then, Liara walked slowly down to the first floor of their house.

They lived on a colony near Thessia. This was too small and insignificant and therefore had been hardly destroyed by the Reapers. Shepard had fallen in love with the colony and suggested that they should live there. There was a small settlement nearby and some of their friends, such as Ashley, along with her family and Dr. Chakwas had followed them. Their house - in the style of an earthly log cabin - stood on a small hill, which led into a lake and even on cold days the temperature did not fall below twenty degrees.

Liara strolled through the open living room and opened the two large glass doors to the porch and her garden. She enjoyed the sight of colorful flowers. It reminded her of her childhood, the visits to the park with her mother. She felt peaceful and satisfied, but interrupted her thoughts after a few minutes and went into the kitchen. She took a glass of water, went over and sat down at her terminal and scanned the received reports. She had transferred most of her duties as Shadow Broker to Feron, but she still enjoyed the work. It distracted her when Jane was on the Normandy. To revive the network of her agents again had been a huge challenge, but it was worth it. Once more, all important and at first glance unimportant information and secrets ran through her fingers. Feron had initially refused, but then realized that Liara alone could not cope with it and that it was too dangerous for her now that she had a family. It was better that way, especially since she knew that this way her friend was safe and not rushing headlong into reckless action.

Liara looked at one of the clocks. She had received no news of Shepard yet and she was restless. What if she did not come back today? When would the Normandy be ordered to travel to another sector to disable last Cerberus or Reaper troops? She shook her head to banish the thought. If that had been so, she would have discovered it this morning through her sources. Much more likely, Jane just wanted to surprise her. She leaned back and closed her eyes. It was ridiculous, but she was worried. So she got up and went back into the kitchen.

Her original idea had been to make a cake, but as she stood over the ingredients, she doubted herself. She was better in digging and managing ruins or information. Cooking and baking were not necessarily her strengths and most of the times she also ended up breaking something in the kitchen.

She picked up her datapad and looked skeptically between the ingredients in front of her and the pad, back and forth. Sarah, one of Ashley's sisters, had actually shown her how to do it, on top of giving her a guide, and it did not sound so difficult: Mix the ingredients, put them in a tin form and place it in oven. Really quite simple, until the eggs fell down, the flour package exploded and smoke came out of the oven, even though she had only just turned it on.

Jane Shepard rejoiced to come home to Liara after those boring missions. The Normandy, as the ship which had led the battle for Earth and against the Reapers, had become a diplomatic ship. It was a symbol of victory and hope. Their task was to bring the new established Council to different planets and a little posing around for the press.

After the battles of the last years nobody complained about these diplomatic flights, she enjoyed it enough, but in truth Shepard had had enough. She would have to leave Liara again in a week for one last mission. Nervously, she bit her lower lip as she thought that Liara would not react that well. Shepard was hoping the little Prothean artifact that she had found on Illium off a black market dealer would distract Liara and comfort her.

As soon as she opened the door she heard a loud bang, coming from the kitchen. She quickened her pace, slid through the open door and got a little out of balance, so she grabbed the door frame. Liara was standing with her back to Jane and she was surrounded by a blue glow, shrugging her shoulders and holding her head down. Above her hung a small singularity, from which flour was steadily falling down like snow.

Liara must have heard her, because she turned around slowly. In her azure blue eyes gleamed pure desperation. As their eyes met tears started to run down her cheeks.

Shepard walked up to her and gently wiped them away. "Hey," she murmured softly and gave a gentle kiss on her wife's forehead. Liara said nothing, instead only clinging close to Shepard. As the singularity collapsed, it was raining flour, eggs and chocolate chips on them and Liara broke into tears again. Shepard hugged her, patting her on the back and murmuring words of comfort, till Liara had recovered.

"Hey," she mumbled into Shepard's shoulder. "I dare not ask, but what exactly did you want to do here?" A shiver went through Liara and she mumbled something that sounded like a cake. Shepard had to clear her throat to not start laughing. She picked up Liara in her arms and carried the Asari toward the bathroom.

Jane carefully put Liara on the floor outside the shower and took off her clothes. "This is not how I had imagined coming home," she whispered in Liara's right ear. "So, did you...?," Shepard did not answer, she was busy dedicating her attention to the soft skin on Liara's neck with her lips. Liara inhaled trembling, and leaned against Shepard, her breath quickened.

Once Jane realized that Liara had relaxed, she turned on the water in the shower and gently pushed her underneath the stream. She did not even notice that she was still dressed as she carefully soaped up her wife.

Liara turned and clung to Jane, and both sank into a deep kiss. She had missed Shepard so much and that she still wasn´t able to feel her skin was almost tearing her apart.

Liara unbuttoned the heavy uniform jacket, threw it to the floor and sighed in frustration. The thin white shirt let her see Shepard's soft skin, but it clung tightly to her and Liara wasn't able to get Jane naked. Moreover, it was now so tight that she wasn't even able to get underneath it with her hands. Frustrated, she groaned and leaned her forehead against Shepard.

Jane ran her fingers over the soft skin between Liara's hair tentacles and started another kiss. She was glad she could bring Liara to other thoughts. She pushed Liara against the wall of the shower and deepened the kiss, while her hands were walking other Liara's body.

When they left the shower after fifteen minutes Shepard felt happy and relaxed, and Liara was beaming again too. They put on fresh, comfortable clothes, and returned to the kitchen, where a Mech had already cleaned up the mess. Jane took the datapad with the recipe, looked at it and threw an astonished look to Liara. "How far were you able to make it?" She asked confused, because it was a really simple version of an earthly chocolate cake.

She quickly took care of the oven and then stirred the ingredients together effortlessly. Not ten minutes later the dough was in the cake-tin in the oven and was ready to bake. Liara had said nothing during all that time, but had watched her with interest. "Was it Sarah that brought up the idea?" Liara nodded. "It looked easy when she was doing it." Shepard grinned. "Do not worry, no one is saying that the largest information broker also needs to bake." Liara gave her a disgruntled look.

"Oh, I brought you something." She hurried toward the door, where she had dropped her bag and pulled out the box with the artifact. She gave Liara the package, "A black market dealer wanted to sell it, and I promised the authorities to bring it to an expert." Liara took the fragment and turned it around in her hands. Then she looked at Shepard's eyes and sighed. "You have to leave again?" Shepard felt horrible, she felt like she had been caught and she felt bad, as Liara lowered her head. "Li .." she wanted to start, but Liara only looked sadly to her and tears shone again in her eyes. It was embarrassing for Liara, but at the end of her pregnancy almost everything brought her to tears.

Shepard cursed. "Look, it will only be a few days and just in a week," she began softly and Liara nodded, but didn't look up, she only turned the stone-strewn artifact in her hands. "After that I will stay at least half of a SOL - year and then you'll be glad, to get rid of me for a few days." Liara laughed and nodded. The nice atmosphere was gone. "How did you ..?" Liara gave her an angry look. "Notice? You always come home with a Prothean artifact if you think I will not like something!" Shepard winced at the sound and Liara ran a hand over her face. "I'm sorry," she said softly, "It´s just... I miss you..."

Shepard walked closer and hugged her. "I know, honey, I miss you too." She gave Liara a kiss on her cheek. She would not tell her that this was her last mission for the Alliance. Liara would not ask her to leave the military, she knew, but she had had enough. The service seemed to her to be only a nuisance and she longed for peace and her family. She had passed the necessary papers already to Admiral Hackett and he had not been happy about it. When she wanted to hand over her dog tags, she had thought for a moment that he would hit her. Yet one last mission, and then she would retire. When she looked at Liara, which seemed lost in studying her gift without real interest, she knew it was the right decision.