How We Met

Liara toweled off her hands, coming into the living area from the kitchen. She stopped before entering upon seeing a sight she was absurdly grateful for every day.

"Come on, Dad!" Shepard's eldest asked her. "Tell us!"

"Yeah!" her younger daughter seconded her.

Her youngest looked up at her from her lap with a pacifier in her mouth, but with a clear smile.

Shepard smiled and covered her lips to hide it. "I don't know…"

"Daaaad!" her second child piped up again in impatient anticipation. "Pleeeeease!"

Shepard chuckled. "Oh alright. How does it begin again?" she pretended to struggle with her memory, stroking her chin in mockery of deep thought.

Her eldest daughter stepped up. "You were on Therum."

"That's right," Shepard nodded with pursed lips. "And then…"

"And you had to go into these aaaannnncient Prothean mines," her daughter continued.

"Hey!" her sister interjected. "Let Dad tell it!"

"Oh, be nice, you two," Shepard smiled fondly at them and nuggied their crests. "Right. So I was on Therum—the first human spectre after a powerful Matriarch's daughter to see whose side she was on and if she could help me in my mission to stop Saren."

"Boooo!" the daughters said together at her once adversary's name, making the spectre laugh.

"I crept down dark and dank mines. When I got to the bottom I heard," she put on her best Liara voice, "'Hello! Is there anyone there? I need help!'"

"Well, not exactly, but ok," her eldest waved her on.

"I find my way to the voice and I see the most beautiful creature I've ever laid eyes on. She has blue skin," she caressed her youngest daughter's cheek in her arms to emphasize it and nuzzled her nose before continuing. "And these eyes that I was immediately lost in."

"And she was in trouble," her second daughter chimed in.

"Yes," Shepard nodded solemnly. "She had accidentally pressed the wrong button trying to get away from a mean krogan and his geth. She ended up triggering some sort of biotic bubble that trapped her."

"But you found a way for her to get out!"

"That's right," Shepard smiled. "Although to tell the truth, it wasn't the best way. I used a powerful laser to get through to her. When I got in, the beautiful asari was amazed. She was probably pretty hungry and tired from being trapped there for so long. Otherwise, she probably would have been less amazed and more frightened with how I got in and what that would soon mean. Anyway, she thanked me, but before we could leave together, the mean krogan appeared."

"Booo!" her daughters said again together.

Shepard stifled laughter for the story's sake. "He says he's taking the beautiful maiden whether she or I want him to or not. I say 'She'll stay with us'."

"Yaaaay!" her daughters cheered.

"But the krogan decides to fight us. I tell the beautiful, young asari to take cover while my team and I fight Saren's people off."

Her daughters' eyes were all wide as they stared up at her, gripping their seats and nodding for her to continue.

"We beat them, but just when we think everything is safe, the mine starts to rumble! We're going to be buried alive!"

"Noooo!"

"Yes!" Shepard nodded. "So I hurry everyone out, making sure the asari we've just helped is in front of me. We get out just in time." She smiled at each of her daughters. "And that's how I met your Mom."

Liara, understanding the 'story' to be over, stepped forward. She came to the center of the living area and bent to kiss the crown of Shepard's head. "That's how I met your father."

Shepard closed her eyes to savor her bondmate's caresses on her back as she sat down beside her, taking their second youngest in her lap.

"Mommy were you scared all by yourself in that bubble with the mean krogan and geth?"

"I was," Liara nodded at her eldest. "And I didn't know why they were after me. When I saw your father I wasn't sure if she was there to help me or them, but she told me to stay calm and she'd get me out of that bubble. Something," she turned to Shepard and scanned her lovingly at the mystery "in her voice and her eyes told me I could trust her."

Shepard smiled. She leaned to give Liara a peck, making their middle child in Liara's lap go "ick."

The former Alliance Commander laughed before her eldest asked "Daddy, how did you ask Momma to be with you forever?"

"Well," Shepard smiled at Liara as she began. "She asked me to meet her at the Presidium on the Citadel..."