A/N: This is the first In Between chapter. I consider these to not be as important to the main story, and could potentially be skippable if you wanted to to do so, but still important enough that I wanted to leave them in.

Shepard was waiting at the Casino for Miranda. She had seen her a few times during the war now, but it was always in the midst of chaos, until finally resolving the issues with her father, resulting in his death.

Their friendship had admittedly gotten off to a bit of a rocky start. Shepard had always been thankful that Miranda's hard work was the only reason she was alive, but in the beginning that was the only thing she liked about her. They had constant back and forths about the morals of Cerberus.

Shepard may have been working for them at the time, but that was only because she agreed with them that the Collectors were as serious a threat as Sovereign once was. She cursed the fact that the responsibility for the galaxy was resting solely on her shoulders again and that no one seemed to believe how significant the situation was, except for Cerberus.

Just because she was working with them though, didn't mean that she would ever trust them, or believe in their general cause. "Humanity first, and at any cost" was not a sentiment that she wanted to be a part of, much less contribute to. Many of her best friends were not human, and she would never see them as anything but equals. Not to mention the horrific means that they were known to take for any kind of advantage.

Miranda's argument was always that 'Not all of Cerberus' operations followed the same protocols,' and 'Most of the bases that Shepard had encountered before her untimely death just painted them in a bad light.' It had been a big point of contention when Shepard always challenged those thoughts by saying that the illusive man and Cerberus in general even allowing their terroristic actions to occur was a bigger sign of what they actually stood for, and how they would stop at nothing to get ahead.

Whether Jane liked it or not at the time, she was stuck working with Miranda until her mission was complete, so she made it her personal mission for them to get to know each other. Part of what made Commander Shepard so effective, was having the trust of her team on the battlefield, and she wouldn't be able to trust her if all she knew about her was her affiliation with Cerberus.

They shared many conversations throughout their time together. Despite Miranda's constant reminders at how 'perfect' she was, Jane could easily see that she was just as troubled and human as everyone else. For the most part she could see that Miranda was always well intentioned, and didn't seem to forego her own set of morals to bend to Cerberus.

As they actually started working together, slowly but surely, Shepard could see changes in Miranda. Witnessing the results of the other Cerberus operations with her own eyes, was starting to make her question things. The first major straw was David Archer. Seeing what his own brother was willing to let happen to him in the name of their experiment. Miranda's sister was the most important thing in her life, and she couldn't imagine anyone allowing such an atrocity to happen to their family. It only made things worse that it was all done to such extremes because "the illusive man doesn't broker failure."

She finally handed in her resignation at the Collector base, when the illusive man wanted to use the Reaper tech that they had only just barely managed to survive from. That had seemed like the ultimate betrayal to humanity, not to mention the rest of the galaxy, trying to keep that tech when so many lives had been brutally sacrificed to be made into a weapon against them in what would be the greatest war they've ever faced.

Watching Miranda tell off the illusive man in that moment had made Shepard extremely proud. But more than that, she had felt like that trust that they had been working towards for so long had truly and fully come to fruition. They had learned to trust each other before this final mission, but now Shepard had no lingering feelings of doubt. Miranda had shown that she now believed in Shepard more than Cerberus, and was willing to risk her life and safety to have left their cause. They were both sure that Cerberus would be looking for them after this. They weren't known for letting people out of their grasp easily, but Miranda and Shepard were more resourceful than the average person after all. They both had faith that they could get away from them.

When they eventually had to part ways after the success of their supposed suicide mission, Shepard knew that they were leaving as friends. It was rather unexpected to both of them, but with everything they had gone through together up to this point, Shepard considered Miranda to be among some of her closest ones, comparable to the relationships she had made with her crew on the SR-1 even.

As much as Shepard may have appreciated their friendship, Miranda appreciated it more. She was never one to have many friends easily, but especially after leaving Cerberus, she realised she had no one important anymore save for her sister and the Commander. Miranda loved her sister more than anything, but even Oriana had only recently learned of her existence. She had seemed more than willing to have a relationship with Miranda, but she knew it would take time to really get to know each other. It was nice to have a friendship outside of that, and she was grateful to have Shepard.

Shepard had been lost in thought about their time together while nursing a glass of wine at a table looking over the casino floor while she was waiting. Her attention was broken when she saw a woman in a floor length red gown walking towards her. Not surprised to see that it was Miranda looking stunning as always, she threw back the rest of her drink, so she could go over and greet her.

"Miranda."

"Cute outfit Shepard. Perfect."

"I feel like I should be the one telling you that. Maybe cute isn't the right word for it though. Whatever. You look amazing, but I'm sure you already know that." Shepard said teasingly.

"Oh shut up. I thought we might try an evening out."

"Sounds like you finally have some time to catch your breath."

"I do. Just… not used to it. Feeling a bit lost. It's kind of sad, really. I got to thinking we need a break. No point in saving the galaxy if we can't enjoy it once in a while."

"I have to say, I'm a bit surprised."

"I thought you might be. I can be… severe."

"You're focused. Believe me, I understand."

Miranda smiled and started to play at one of the tables, as Shepard watched. She had lost of course.

"Damn, I'm not very good at this. Truth is, Shepard, I'm not very good at being normal, either. Bit of a disaster, really."

"I get it. We just need a little practice."

"Any ideas?"

"I don't know. Maybe we can talk about regular stuff. No evil clones, no ticking time bombs… just talk."

"Regular stuff? Okay. Like shoes or something?"

"Sure… We're not really girly girls, are we?"

"No. We can't pretend to be anything other than troubleshooting space divas."

"You know, that does sound pretty cool."

"It does."

There was a slight pause as they contemplated their failures at normalcy. Then Shepard gave her a small smile.

"I may have some outlandishly normal gossip you'd be interested in."

"Oh, do tell."

"I got married."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yup."

"I guess it's my turn to say I'm surprised. You and Kaidan must have picked things back up right where they left off."

"I never said it was Kaidan." Shepard said playfully.

"You better be joking, otherwise that would be enough to convince me that you're the clone."

Shepard laughed. "Alright. You got me. Of course it's Kaidan."

"When did this happen? Why wasn't I invited? I have to say, I'm a bit offended."

"Don't be. No one was invited." Shepard glanced at the time on her omni-tool quickly. "And it happened about 14 hours ago, give or take."

"Jesus, Shepard! What the hell are you doing here with me? Shouldn't you be plowing him until you both pass out from exhaustion or something?"

"Eww. I really don't need you having that mental image of me. That being said, we've already had our time for celebrating. Besides, he wanted some time to talk to his mom. I still haven't even met her, so he decided it would be best to break the news to her alone. When I got your message inviting me out, he told me to go enjoy myself."

"How could you not have at least mentioned that you were engaged?"

"Because our engagement only lasted about 12 hours too. Seriously Miranda, don't be offended. We didn't leave anyone in the dark on purpose, it's more that things just happened quickly."

Miranda gave her a pointed look now, "There better not have been any shotguns involved in this wedding. And I mostly mean the figurative kind. Knowing you, I wouldn't put it past you to literally have a shotgun at your wedding."

"I'm not pregnant if that's what you're asking. Don't worry," Shepard responded with a laugh. "God, could you imagine? What awful timing that would be."

"Hmm, that it would," Miranda said with a smile. "I'm really happy for you, Shepard. I don't know him very well, but I know how much it killed you after what happened on Horizon. I'm glad you two were able to work it out."

"Thanks, Miranda. Me too."

"I would say that this is all pretty far from, how did you put it? 'Outlandishly normal?'. Who gets married after 12 hours of being engaged?"

"Ha… I guess you're right, that isn't exactly normal."

"Not at all. But it is very you."

They paused in silence for a moment, taking in their surroundings once again.

"All right. Let's quit worrying about our ability to be normal, and just enjoy ourselves… at least until we run out of credits," Shepard said.

"Right. Need more wine."

"Now you're talking. Waiter, space diva needs more wine!"

"Oh god, I'm going to regret this," Miranda stated with the most elegant way of face palming.

"What? We're a couple of girls out on the town. What's the worst that can happen?"

Miranda just scoffed at that, knowing Shepard shouldn't be testing her luck by even saying that.

"Come on partner. Let's start some trouble."

Miranda just laughed at her as she shook her head. They both started drinking their wine.

"For what it's worth, I think you'd make a good mother." Miranda smiled at her, as Shepard looked at her, completely stunned.

"What? What brought that on?"

"Well, it's true, what you said. The timing may be awful right now, but if we make it through this, and it's something you want, I think you'd be good at it."

"Really?"

"I don't say things I don't mean, Shepard. In the short time that we've known each other, you've always so easily shown how deeply you care about the people that are important to you. You'd do anything for them."

"Well, thanks I guess. That means a lot to me, Miranda." She paused for a moment before hesitantly asking, "Can I even get pregnant?"

"Are you asking because of what we had to do to put you back together?"

"Yes… I mean… I died, right? I just kind of figured that wasn't even an option anymore."

"I see. Well, honestly if it had been up to me at the time, I wouldn't have wasted the resources or time on your reproductive system. It simply wasn't necessary for bringing you back, so I personally didn't think it was important."

"Luckily for you though, the Illusive Man was adamant about bringing you back exactly as you were, that included. Firstly, because of the more scientific aspects, like ensuring your hormonal chemistry was unchanged, in turn also meaning that your thought processes would be the same as they had been before. Secondly, because the truth is, there was no way of knowing with 100% certainty, what made you tick deep down inside. We did our research learning all about who you were and what you were about, but you can't learn everything about a person without having access to their thoughts. We had no idea what your personal motivations may have been for your determination and resolve. In the off chance that the only reason you fought so hard was the idea that you were fighting for a safe future to have a family in, the Illusive Man didn't want to bring you back, only to have your reasons for fighting be gone."

"Personally I always thought that it was a rather silly reason, but then again, I did want to put that control chip in you too. It's just one of the many things that I'm glad that I listened to the Illusive Man about in relation to the Lazarus Project now that I actually know you though."

"Hmm… Good to know. Thanks, Miranda."

"For what?"

"For what you said. And, you know, for bringing me back to begin with."

"You're welcome, Shepard. For what it's worth, I think you've done a lot to fix me too. So… thanks for being there for me."

"Of course. You're family." Shepard threw back the rest of her drink. "Alright. Enough mushy crap. We're here to have fun, right? Let's go celebrate!," she said as she started walking towards some of the games.

Miranda just shook her head and laughed, as she started to follow after her.