A/N: Thank you, all of my readers, for making All The Pretty Things a success. I was overjoyed to see the feedback and praise, as well as to see the novel beat out so many other established authors as a best seller. Thank you, everyone. I could not have done it without the support from this community. If you haven't heard... All The Pretty Things is a novel coauthored by Rae D Magdon and myself. It is available to read via Amazon Kindle download, a platform that functions on just about any electronic device. If you decide to read it, let us know what you think via amazon or goodreads! If not, enjoy the fanfiction.

Interlude III

Shepard sat at her desk with her arms folded over her chest. She leaned back in the cozy chair and stretched her feet out in front of her. Domestic life had taken some adjusting, but overall, she enjoyed her semi-retirement. The paperwork and meetings were still a pain - and time consuming - but they were necessary, and certainly easier than going toe-to-toe with a reaper.

And there were always moments like this where she had downtime, nothing to do but sift through old archives and queue up vids to watch. She tapped her foot to the soft melody and smiled when she saw a familiar face appear on the screen.

The salarian sang out with the best of them in Shepard's opinion. She had found many recordings of him in local productions native to the salarian, but this one seemed familiar enough for Shepard to follow along with.

She was so focused on the vid that she did not hear the soft padding of Liara's footsteps as the asari walked up behind her. She was approaching the end of her pregnancy and moved with a much more careful step than previously. Shepard did not notice her until she stood directly behind the Commander. "Is that Mordin?" she asked, looking over Shepard's shoulder at the screen.

Shepard nodded. "I found an old performance of him in Pirates of Penzance."

Liara pulled a chair up next to her and sat down. "Pirates of what?"

"Penzance." Shepard scooted her seat over so that Liara could have a better view. "It's an old musical from Earth. He once told me he had performed in a Gilbert and Sullivan production. I managed to find it." She smiled softly as Mordin burst into the crowd of people on stage, a pith helmet perched crookedly on his head. "It figured that they'd make him play the Major General. He's the only one who could talk that fast."

"They just said he was the Modern Major General though, Shepard."

The Commander shrugged. "It's not much of a difference." Though Liara was perfectly fluent in Shepard's native tongue – and Shepard was slowly gaining fluency in Liara's language despite her bondmate's protests – she had yet to understand some of the subtle distinctions in the language, with or without the help of a translator. Shepard suspected Liara would always find it difficult to make the distinction, mostly because of her unique sense of humor. Their wedding had been an exercise in patience with Shepard when Liara had insisted on having every Earth saying in the ritual explained in full to her.

"The asari in the tight pants is a rather famous actor, from what I recall," said Liara.

"Frederic?" Shepard asked. "That would make sense. It's one of the more prominent roles. I was surprised they chose an asari to play him."

"Why would you be surprised?" Liara asked. "The vocal range for this character seems perfect for her."

Shepard listened more closely to the character for a moment before nodding. "You're right," she said. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, then."

They watched in silence for a few moments before Liara shifted in her seat and spoke again. "He must have been very old when we met him," she said.

"What makes you say that?" asked Shepard.

"Salarians usually don't pursue the arts until they are past middle age. How old is this production?"

"About twenty years or so."

Liara nodded and leaned back in her chair. "Yes. He was well past retirement when we knew him, then. It always astounded me that he kept going along. He kept pushing to do the right thing. There was always one more great deed for him to accomplish."

"It's a shame he didn't get to see the result of all that work," said Shepard. She felt a hand on her shoulder and glance over to see Liara smiling sadly at her. Shepard smiled back and covered her hand with her own before glancing back at the screen. Mordin's scene was coming to a close. He'd be off stage for a while longer after this. "Do you want me to start it from the beginning?"

"I think I'd like that," said Liara. "Though perhaps we can pull this up in the living room so I can lay on the couch."

Shepard nodded and stood up, pausing the video. "That sounds like a fine way to spend the evening." She let Liara go ahead of her out to the living room. She lingered in her office a moment longer, staring at the screen, paused on Mordin's figure as he reached out with a grand gesture. She had shed her tears over her lost crew long ago. But in that moment, she did not feel any sadness at the sight of her old friend. Instead, she felt a wistful fondness. She grinned down at his frozen image one more time before shutting off the screen. "We miss you, Mordin," she said, and then walked out to the living room to join her bondmate.