Shepard and Miranda
Miranda woke up feeling groggy and surprised to find that all her cloths were flung around the living room and she was lying, naked, under one of the rugs that covered the chairs. For a brief moment she wondered how she had got into this mess and then suddenly she realised. She sat bolt upright. Where was he? He couldn't have left? He had to be real? All her fears were laid to rest as she saw the dark mass of sprawling limbs which she knew to be Shepard. She gingerly crawled over to her Shepard's hoodie was lying on the floor, she pulled the smooth fabric over her torso and then, feeling slightly more confided now that she had cloths on, walked over to where Shepard was sleeping and snoring. She crouched down next to him and whispering in his ear:
"Shepard I can offer you more comfortable places to sleep than the floor."
He grunted as he woke up from his slumber saying, "Along as I am with you I don't really mind".
After that remark she smiled to herself and helped Shepard off the floor and offered him his shirt which had been thrown on the floor but he refused to take it. He motioned to the hoodie that Miranda was wearing, "I'd like my Hoodie back please."
"Your joking right," said Miranda with one eyebrow raise.
"Not in the slightest", said Shepard with just the slightest hint of a smile, "Now hand it over."
Miranda couldn't be bothered to argue and so pulled the hoodie over her head. She threw it back at Shepard standing defiantly with her hands by her side saying "You happy now". Shepard with a grin replied "Very!" Miranda couldn't help but smile she walked off upstairs with Shepard in tow.
She arrived upstairs and she crawled under the sheets of her double bed. Shepard got into the other side and she coupled up to him. He put his arms rounder her shoulders and learned in to kiss but she put her two fingers over his mouth and said "you might have been able to sweep me off my feet the first time but no more funny stuff until I learnt how you got off that dam ship."
Shepard after some persuasion agreed to tell his story,
"We had just finished the fight and I saw the admiral lying in front of the viewing window looking out at earth as we circled above it. I was weak from the blood I was losing and so I managed to the muster the strength to go and sit by him. We talked and as his voice began to grow weak he said to me that there was a built in escape pod that could only be unlocked with the key and as he was dying he pressed the small round access chip into my hand saying, "Carry on Shepard, and don't let them forget about what we did. Live your life and remember that you are Commander Shepard, Saviour of earth and you have to fight to protect them. I am proud of you." And with that he passed away. I couldn't deny the old man's last dying request so I crawled over to the last remaining escape pod. I pressed the access chip into the door and fell through it into the small escape pod. Thankfully it had voice activated controls and so I managed to find the emergency medical kit and stop the bleeding slightly. The pod took me to earth and I landed at a small city I couldn't tell you where. I was found and rushed to hospital . I had an emergency operation to remove the pieces of shrapnel in my body and I spent a year in ICU, six months of which I was in a coma. When I finally recovered enough to leave hospital I found odd pieces of work, enough to pay the rent and I spent the rest of the time dedicated to finding out what happened to the rest of my team. More importantly what happened to you Miranda, you were my life aboard that ship and I had to know what had happened to you. Even if you didn't want to see me or even know me I wouldn't have minded. I just had to know that you were safe. I managed to find that you had quit 3 years ago from the Cerberus data base and then I tracked you down to here, which leads me to the present."
Shepard fell silent and Miranda could see that he had been through more than he let on. She clung to him closer and tried to comfort him just with her presence. Miranda suddenly remembered her daughter, the existence of which Shepard had no idea. With a sly smile she got out of bed pulled on a t-shirt which had been left in the draw and beckoned for Shepard to follow her, with a quizzical glance Shepard followed Miranda down the hall to Hope's room.