"She is WHAT?" Garrus' voice was a bit on the sharp side. But no one blamed him. The briefing room was not small, but it seemed full with Lawson, Raan'ita, Vega, Williams and Garrus in it. None were sitting despite the chairs laid out.

"The pulse that occurred when I attempted to access the device attached to her implant seems to have regressed her to childhood." Miranda said heavily. "I accept full-" She broke off as Raan'ita snapped at her.

"Oh hush, Miranda. NONE of us had a clue what that thing was or what it could do." The Quarian medic said with a snarl. "Anya KNEW the risks. None of us expected this, but she wouldn't blame you. So don't blame yourself." She paused, then grimaced, looking around the room at the faces that were goggling at her. "Sorry..." She said, slumping a little.

"Oh, don't be sorry." Garrus said with a smile. "I have wanted to see Mrs Lawson here rendered speechless since the day I met her." Miranda made a rude gesture in his direction and Garrus smiled wider. Both Spectre Williams and Lieutenant Commander Vega seemed to be fighting smiles as well.

"Jokes aside." Miranda said quietly. "We hurt her. We have NO idea why it happened or how. We need more information and since it seems to be a Prothean device. We need an expert in Prothean..." She broke off as Garrus snarled.

"No." The Turian general snapped.

"Garrus." Ashley said slowly. "If she can help..."

"No." Garrus said with flat finality.

"Garrus." The Spectre said softly. "I know your feelings. I know why you feel the way you do..."

"Do you?" Garrus asked coldly. "Do you indeed?" Ashley sighed and looked helplessly at the others. Miranda finally shook herself and spoke.

"Garrus, please..." Miranda said heavily. "I don't like it either. I said it at the time, and I say it now. What she did was wrong. The way she did it was worse. To just do it like that, without explaining, without offering Shepard the right to choose... Even the Asari were and are mad at her."

"It's not the same." Garrus said slowly, turning away from the group to stare at the wall. "Neither of us would have minded, if she had just asked." He shook his head. "She didn't. She couldn't be bothered to. To give Shepard the choice. That is what rankles the most. Shepard fought for all of us to have a choice! That blasted Asari took that choice from Shepard and just... just..." He snarled and spoke quickly. "Part of me wishes Grunt or Wrex had been there when we found out. They would have killed her. Not let themselves be disarmed before they could more than wound."

"Scars..." Vega said softly. "We were all mad at her. We are all mad at her. You are right." The N7 said with a sigh. "What she did was unforgivable. None of us are going to forgive it. None of us are going to forget it. But that is immaterial." Garrus stiffened as Vega snarled slightly. "What would Shepard do in this case, dude? Think." Garrus shook his head. "Come on, Scars. You know what the Commander would have done."

"Yeah." Garrus said softly. "I do." Pain sounded through his voice now. "I just..." He shook his head savagely. "She would do whatever the hell it took to help Anya. No matter the cost to her." The others nodded soberly. "It was always about others with her. Helping others, never a thought about herself. When I heard what that blasted AI told her in the recording, the choices it gave her on the Citadel to fire the Crucible, I knew what she was going to choose before she started moving. She couldn't let EDI and the Geth be destroyed. And she couldn't trust herself to control such power without being corrupted by it. That left her with only one choice." He shook his head and tears were falling. "Always helping others..."

"Garrus." Ashley stepped to his side and laid a hand on his shoulder. He jerked away from her and walked to the wall where he turned and glared at all of them. "Garrus..." She said in warning.

"You are going to do it no matter what I say. So..." Garrus snapped. "Keep her away from me. I see her and I am going to shoot her again, and this time I will aim for the head." With that, he stalked out of the room. The others looked at each other and then Miranda sighed deeply.

"That went...about as well as I expected." The others nodded to her sad words. Raan'ita nodded to her and Miranda shook her head. "I don't think we should do any more scans until we can figure out what happened to Anya. The enclosure freaked her out."

"We got a lot of information. Your Prothean specialist can...Um..." Raan'ita said slowly. "Um... Do I want to know why General Vakarian reacted like that?"

"No, but you need to." Williams said with a sigh. "It is going to come up. Right before the final battle on Earth kicked off, the attack on London and the diversions, Shepard talked to Doctor Liara T'soni. According to the few witnesses who survived, T'soni said she had a 'gift' for Shepard. After the battle ended, after the Normandy was found..." The female human took a deep breath and spoke carefully. "Doctor T'soni told us that she had...taken some of Shepard's DNA to make a child. Without Shepard's knowledge."

"She what?" Raan'ita snapped, aghast. "Nonconsensual?"

"Yeah." Vega said softly. "That was our reaction, minus the cursing. Garrus was...irate."

"Garrus shot the doc. Three rounds from his Vindicator, center mass. If she hadn't been armored, it would have killed her. She didn't have barriers up, she never expected him to shoot her. None of us expected him to react so strongly. We grabbed him, I mean... Gunplay aboard ship is bad." Williams said with a sigh. "He nearly killed her. The doc healed her up and then we threw her off the ship. None of those of us who were there have talked to her since that I know of. Miranda?"

"I... have..." Miranda said slowly. "Hunting Cerberus, I needed the her contacts, her assets. I saw her...kid and yeah... I knew the moment I saw the little one." Miranda shook her head. "You bring her anywhere near the Normandy and there will be fireworks. If she runs into Garrus, there will be bullets and biotic effects flying."

"Keala..." Raan'ita said in a tone of total consternation. "I have other critical patients aboard. I can not have a firefight break out on this ship."

"We will make sure that doesn't happen." Williams said with a sigh. "James?" She asked and he nodded, his face remote. "I hate to ask it of you, but can you?"

"We never get easy jobs. Probably wouldn't know what to do with them if we did. " James replied with a snort. "I can do it. I can keep them apart." The huge Alliance Marine continued with a matching sigh. "I respect him and he respects me. I will stay with him, keep him away from wherever the witch is."

"If they do encounter each other..." Miranda started softly then paused as Williams grimaced.

"We knock them both the hell out, separate them, and go on from there." The Spectre clarified. "This is a hospital ship. I will not see it turned into a war zone. Miranda?" The other human woman nodded to the Spectre and Williams continued. "Give her a call. If she just has information, all well and good. IF not? Get her here as soon as you can. The last transmission I got from the Council said they were debating the merits of sending a team of their own." Raan'ita stiffened and Ashley spoke quickly. "Nothing against you, doc. They are planning to send investigators, but they all want to see Anya healed first. They are going to flip when they hear about this. They may want to take her back to the Citadel." Miranda nodded and left the room.

"More infrastructure there." Raan'ita agreed. "I want Anya given the best care available. I have the best care here, but they have better. More of everything. One thing... Might there be any other Prothean experts around?" Raan'ita said after a moment. "I don't know if I want that being around my kids."

"None with her expertise or resources." Williams said with a groan. "I will be her shadow. I won't let her out of my sight."

"Why do I get the feeling we are going to regret this?" Raan'ita asked sourly as they all moved to leave. "Anya said that she wants to get better and will cooperate in any way before she fell asleep. She has essentially demanded to have the next series of scans done soon."

"Aside for the thing in her skull..." Ashley mused. "You and Miranda haven't found anything else wrong in the scans have you?"

"We didn't get it all done." Raan'ita admitted. "I do want to focus on the surrounding tissue, see what that thing attaches to. I am not sure it attached to the implant."

"Carefully." Williams said with a shudder.

"Oh yeah." Raan'ita agreed with a matching shudder. "And Crado won't leave her side..." She paused. 'He is going to be a problem."

"How so?" Williams asked cautiously.

"He is not sleeping." When James opened his mouth, Raan'ita continued quickly. "And no. Alcohol would be a bad idea for him, commander. Not the least fo which because of what Anya would do to him when she recovers" James shut his mouth with a click and nodded. "That is one reason he is such a mess, lack of sleep. I am tempted to sedate him, hook him up to support and let him sleep for several days, but..."

"He would not react well." Ashley stated.

"No." Raan'ita agreed.

"I will talk to him." Ashley said with a sigh. "If all else fails, I can order him to sleep, and have you dose him."

"You know about him and orders." James said sourly.

"Which is why I am going to talk first." Ashley said with a nod.