AN: First story on the site. I must admit, this chapter is a bit... serious. Shepard can't not be serious when dealing with Miranda's conception issues! I promise forthcoming chapters will be sufficiently light-hearted, where it can be that is. FYI, my Shepard is Commander Rain Shepard, Renagon, Colonist, Ruthless. She isn't a complete renegade because where her crew or innocent people are concerned, she's a secret softie. She's only mean to the bad guys... and politicians.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Miranda Lawson

"Curious as to why you must know, Commander. Very curious. Find mating and producing offsprings the natural way too much... effort? Wait. You see none worthy enough to mate with! You wish for yourself, your identity, to be percolated through to this new being. Much like cloning. Why you would suddenly- wait- you know you will die soon! How? Such lack of confidence, Commander? If you must know-"

Shepard simply raised two fingers to silence the babbling scientist she had been unfortunate enough to indulge. "Mordin." she said, suppressing a sigh. "I wish for no such thing. Things. Whatever you just implied. None of it."

Before he could even open his mouth to enquire further, she had lifted herself up off his table and swiftly left the room. His gaze followed her back for a second, before he went back to sticking one eye into the observing tube of his microscope. "Curious," he whispered to himself. "Very curious."

Shepard exited the elevator and quickly strode to the door of her XO. "Miranda?" she called.

"Commander, come in." The reply was swift, only expected of her ever-alert, ever-efficient XO.

Shepard walked in through the now open door. Miranda looked up for a second, gave a slight nod, and resumed to gaze at her screen. Shepard took a seat in front of her and waited another second or two before Miranda straightened and turned to look at her. "Yes Commander?"

"Miranda-" Shepard paused. She did not have the slightest idea of how to handle a conversation like the one she was about to have. Up until then, she had merely went around gathering facts pertaining to the situation, and had hoped to state them all out to Miranda and leave her to choose. She didn't think about how she would approach the situation emotionally. Shepard was never good with emotions. It was a side of her that she had locked out and left to die the day her parents were killed on Mindoir. But sitting there right then looking into the narrowed eyes of her XO waiting for her to continue, Shepard could only hope she wouldn't fumble and make a fool out of herself, or even worse, offend Miranda in any way.

Taking a deep breath, she continued- " I'm going to be direct." She saw Miranda's posture stiffen. " You know the previous mission I was on was to help Liara T'Soni to infiltrate the Shadow Broker's base, right?"

Miranda nodded, eyes still narrowed. "Of course, Commander. That mission was a success."

Shepard kept her gaze. "Yes, it was. We had access to all of the Shadow Broker's files, and I... came across some interesting dossiers."

Miranda tilted her head slightly, an eyebrow raised in question. "It isn't like you to take so long to come to the point Commander."

Damn!

"I found out that he had been maintaining dossiers of all my crew, including you."

Shepard felt a slight relief to see Miranda's eyes widen. Fumbling was definitely not good. Shepard would not fumble. Not again.

Shepard leaned forward to place both hands on the table, locking Miranda in a softer gaze this time. She knew she wouldn't like it in the least bit to find out that somebody had gained access to the most private details of her life. But Shepard had decided then to confront her about it- in view of keeping her crew at their optimal levels of functioning, she had explained to herself then. It was better than admitting that she actually felt sorry for her XO. She was sure Miranda herself wouldn't appreciate sympathy from anyone, even her CO.

"I'll need to speak with Legion and EDI regarding how in hell that bastard actually managed to bypass all security protocols to retrieve data from the Normandy's systems, and-"

"Shepard-" Miranda's voice was low but forceful. "What did you find out about me?"

It didn't sound like an accusation, Shepard realized, more like a request. Shepard had to try hard not to physically fumble in her seat. She reminded herself situations like these were exactly why she simply didn't do emotions.

Shepard kept her eyes focused but not piercingly so. Miranda didn't move a muscle as she waited for her CO to elaborate. "I found out that you were unable to conceive."

Shepard could have sworn she heard Miranda gasp inwardly, and saw her rigid posture tremble slightly.

Shepard only waited a millisecond to see if Miranda would lose her composure and lash out at her before she began to talk herself.

"If you're intending to ask me why I browsed through the dossiers, it was because I needed to find out if whatever the Broker found out about my crew could sabotage us in any way if that information were to end up in the wrong hands. I found out it wouldn't, and-" Shepard saw that Miranda was looking down at the table, her expression withdrawn. "I apologize that I came upon facts of such personal nature."

When Miranda still didn't speak, Shepard rolled her seat forward, reaching her arms out further to pointlessly grasp at the spot on the table where Miranda's gaze was fixed at. "I realized it wouldn't be right if I didn't inform you that I'd come to know these things. That's why I'm here right now."

Miranda turned her head to the side, looking at the ground as she finally spoke. "Its alright Shepard. You know a lot about my life anyway. You're the only reason I'm even talking to my sister now." She turned back to look Shepard square in the eye, but her gaze was anything but hostile. There was a ghost of a smile on her face, and Shepard's eyes twitched slightly as she noted the subtle gleam in Miranda's eyes that wasn't there a second ago. "I'm just glad its you and not anybody else."

Shepard let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. She had honestly not expected Miranda to react so pleasantly at the news. She hadn't expected an outburst, of course; Miranda wasn't that kind of person. But she'd definitely expected harsh glares and sharp words of reprimand.

Unconsciously, Shepard brought her hands closer to home, and offered Miranda a nod of understanding before continuing.

"I understand if you don't want to talk about it. But I've been doing some research." Shepard braced herself for impact. She literally had no idea how Miranda would take her suggestions. "You could always go ahead with the same genome reproduction that your father-"

"No!"

Shepard's words caught in her throat as Miranda slammed both hands on the table and shot up from her seat.

So much for not being that kind of person.

Shepard mentally punched herself for bringing herself into the present situation. But she'd come here with a solution, and she'd be damned if she didn't even get an opportunity to present it. Sighing, she slowly got up to stand in front of Miranda- who was now breathing hard, her face angled to the ground again.

"I don't claim to understand Miranda. But it is a solution to your current predicament. You seem to consider it abhorrent not because of what the procedure inherently is, but for what your father intended with it."

Shepard walked around the table to stand within a foot of her XO, carefully avoiding coming up too close and provoking her in some way. She raised a reluctant hand and placed it gently on her shoulder. When Miranda didn't flinch or shove her hand away, Shepard spoke again.

"I spoke with Mordin earlier about the possible implications of the process. He confirmed that it would not cause-" Shepard paused. For a moment she appreciated what people like Kelly Chambers did every day of their lives. "-impotency."

Miranda whirled her head around to face Shepard, eyes wider than she had ever seen them before. Shepard involuntarily brought her hand away from her shoulder. Miranda's mouth opened once to speak, closed, then opened again. "That means-" Her voice carried a quiver that Shepard would never have expected to hear, coming from her. But she should have known that being the bearer of news like she had would have led to many an unexpected actions from her XO.

Shepard continued to bear a forceful gaze at Miranda, hoping it would somehow get her to gather back her strict disposition again. The last thing Shepard thought she would be capable of doing would be to console an emotionally decapitated Miranda Lawson.

"That means that you were made sterile with intent, Miranda."

Shepard watched as every part of Miranda's body seemed to tremble in built up tension. She could only catch a glance of the blue aura surrounding Miranda's balled up fists before every soldier instinct kicked in and Shepard let herself fall to the floor on the other side of the table, both hands over her head. Not a moment too late, as she heard what she assumed to be every item on Miranda's desk being flung around and crashing all around her. The resounding crash rang in her ears a moment after the commotion, and Shepard took another moment to get up, hardly believing what she saw.

Miranda stood with her back facing her, and her normally crisp clean room was now littered with the consequences of the biotic throw that she had inflicted on her desk. Shepard was glad she hadn't managed to lift the desk itself off its place. She could have done it easily, but even in her moment of turmoil, Miranda had managed to grasp hold of some amount of restraint. It was commendable, and Shepard would have voiced the same, had it been in a different circumstance.

But this particular circumstance- Shepard had had enough. She took long strides over the fallen items on the floor and stood directly across her XO. Shepard knew she didn't actually feel the amount of anger her eyes would be showing, but she had no intent of backing down. Shepard never coddled anybody. She'd learned all her lessons the hard away- since Mindoir- nothing was ever handed to her on a silver spoon. Sometimes life wasn't fair, sometimes it felt like all the world was against you- but as a soldier she had learned to deal with it. It was the only reason she was standing there now as the Commander of the Normandy, as a Specter.

"Miranda" she said, voice laced with harsh authority. "Look at me."

Miranda looked. There was no defiance in her eyes, only sorrow and desperation. Shepard hated it. This wasn't Miranda. Miranda Lawson was better than this. Miranda Lawson could deal with this and a lot more.

"Pull yourself together Lawson. That display was nothing short of juvenile." Shepard's tone did not change, even when Miranda's shoulders fell and that glaze returned to her eyes. "What your father did to you was horrible. That man deserves to rot in hell, and some more. But you cannot let him affect you like this."

"Shepard, I-"

Shepard raised her palm to silence her. "I don't want to hear it. It's done Miranda, its over. You can sit here and mope about it or put it behind you and do something good with your life."

Shepard lowered her voice a bit, and took in a breath. "You want a child, and there is a way." Miranda seemed to relax a bit, and nodded slightly. "And this time, you get to do it right."

Miranda said nothing. Instead, she went to sit on her bed, face warped in contemplation. Shepard went around her table and bent down to pick up the stuff she had scattered around a moment ago, and placed it haphazardly back on the table. Casually dusting the datapads, she took one last look at her XO. Her face no longer nurtured the lost expression she had on a while ago. She now seemed resolute, like she was actively considering what Shepard had told her.

Satisfied with that, Shepard turned to leave. She reached the holo on the door and started to type in the command to exit when Miranda spoke.

"Shepard-"

Shepard turned her head slightly to the side, not looking back to face Miranda, but indicating that she had her attention.

"I must admit, I never delved deep into the procedure that created me." Shepard heard her get up from the bed to presumably sit at the seat behind her desk again, arranging the things atop it. "It was taboo for me in a way. So I always assumed that the issues with my body were a result of it. And until today I never would have imagined having my own child the same way." There was a pause. "Thank you Commander, for everything."

Shepard waited a moment longer before keying in the last digit into the console. The door opened. Shepard didn't turn around, didn't respond; she simply smiled at herself, for the first time in many days, before walking out.