Miranda was running out of corpses.
It was kind of ironic, really, given Cerberus's reputation. Here she was saving lives (or at least attempting to) and she was running out of people to save. Maybe she should do an exchange program with some of her old colleagues in weapons research.
Her latest subject twitched in it's... his treatment chamber, and the steady beat of his heart monitor shifted to a higher tempo. Success! Miranda checked the display, and it was just as she'd hoped: the subject's readings were definitely heading from a comatose state towards wakefulness. Quite a change from the poorly preserved cadaver she'd started with a week ago.
She adjusted the adrenaline balance and heard Jacob's breath hiss behind her. "Did it's...eyes just move?" he asked.
"Quite possibly," said Miranda. She tried not to let her pride show in her voice. She'd made appropriate noises about it being a pointless waste of time for Jacob to come in and observe, but secretly she liked having the chance to show off.
"Wow," said Jacob. "That's amazing. He was totally dead, and you..."
The subject gasped, and so did Jacob. Miranda lived for moments like this.
And then the subject screamed, or tried to. The dry lips opened and let out a feeble squeak of pain from lungs that could barely support their own weight. The eyes opened and turned towards Miranda as she shone a light towards the retinas.
"Subject appears aware," she said to the recorder. "Vital signs typical for this stage of reanimation."
The subject opened and closed his lips as if trying to speak. "Subject appears to be trying to communicate," said Miranda. Sweeping her eyes down his pale torso she added "Muscles twitching, subject likely in pain." The beeps of the heart monitor started to increase steadily, and the subject's lips became dampened with blood specked foam.
"Can we do something for him?" asked Jacob.
"No need," said Miranda. "He should..."
The beeps reached a crescendo and the subject's muscles all tensed at once. His mouth opened in one last silent scream and then his heart stopped entirely, the flat tone of the heart monitor covering the soft thump as the no longer reanimated corpse fell back onto the dampened sheets of the treatment chamber.
Miranda scrolled through the final burst of data and summarised the information for the recording. Jacob knew better than to interrupt. "Time of death: 9:49:06. Cause of death: multiple organ failure, combined with..."
When she was done, Miranda closed the lid on the chamber and set it to preservation mode. It was a pity their reanimation technique only worked once per corpse, but there was still useful data to be obtained from the remains. She allowed herself a small self satisfied smile at a job well done and then turned to Jacob, now standing a few steps away from her, pushed up against the wall. "So, you wanted to go out for coffee?"
He was still staring at the treatment chamber. "Are they all like that?"
"No," said Miranda with a smile. "That was a record. Twenty seconds! I'm glad you got to see it."
"Uh, yeah," he said, his lips screwed up in distaste. "It was certainly...something. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm impressed, I just didn't realise coming back to life was always so unpleasant."
Miranda liked Jacob, but he could be so sentimental. She grabbed his arm and started walking them both out of the lab. "He was already dead Jacob. What's twenty seconds more pain? No worse than dying in the first place, I'm sure."
"Hmm. Maybe. I guess Shepard can tell us herself when you try it on her." He tilted his head towards the main lab, where Shepard's slowly regenerating body lay in it's own treatment chamber, waiting for it's turn at a second beginning.
"Oh no, it won't be like that for Shepard! We want her to stay alive, her reawakening is going to be slow and gentle. Like waking up from a dream. I didn't spend six months regrowing her heart just to have it short out due to stress."
"Slow and gentle, huh?" repeated Jacob with a sly smile, moving closer so that the solid warmth of his arm rubbed against hers. Jacob really was a very attractive man, doubly so when he looked at her like that. "Didn't think that was your style."
She grinned up at him. "Why, do you like slow and gentle?"
"It has it's appeal," he said. "But I'm an open minded man, I like lots of things."
They reached the cafeteria. Not the most romantic place for a first date, but they were both busy people. A few of their coworkers looked up in surprise to see the head of their cell arm in arm with the chief of security but then looked away discreetly.
Miranda thought about making a crack about experimentation but decided it would be in poor taste. She'd never entirely gotten the hang of flirting, or social skills in general, really. Luckily her 'perfect' body mostly took care of all that for her.
For lack of anything better to say, she said "I like lots of things too."
"Really," said Jacob. "Then how would you feel about...cake? My treat?"
Miranda laughed. "Yes," she said. "I think would like that."