Sufficiently Awkward: Chapter 3
"Garrus!, are you ok?" Commander Shepard reached out his hand to grab the Turian as he was suspended in mid air, his armour caught on the remaining piece of rock that had just given way below his feet. "Juusstt peachy Shepard" Garrus clambered up back onto the cliff with Shepard's assistance. Joker: " Shepard are you guys alright?" "We're fine Joker but these mountains are collapsing a lot quicker than we thought, we need to get out of here ASAP" The ground started shaking violently, almost throwing Garrus back over the edge. "Can't you give us a little more on the scientist team's location" Miranda asked very calmly, Garrus was no fan of Miranda and made no secret of it but he couldn't help but admire her cool composure she kept no matter the situation.
EDI: "Judging by geth detection it's likely that the distress signal came from the centre caverns of the northern mountains, which is a half mile from your current location, beware, the disturbance is at its greatest in those caverns" "So how long will we have in the caves to find any survivors?" Shepard pushed his ear piece in his helmet in closer towards his ear to insure he could hear the response properly over the loud noises coming from the mountains. EDI: "You will have approximately an hour before they completely collapse" Garrus began to lose his calm, "Approximately!" Joker: "Hey don't blame us, you guys said yourself things were happening quicker than expected, plus there are geth out there we can't predict an attack" "We're not blaming you, it's just getting a little tense out here" Shepard, Garrus and Miranda began climbing deeper into the mountains. Joker: "I know commander I'm sorry, we're doing the best we can and we'll keep you posted if we find out anything else" "Thanks Joker" Shepard turns to Miranda and Garrus "I know we're supposed to be finding survivors but if the geth are here then its likely that there are Prothian ruins here, if there are artefacts here that the Reapers can use then our main priority is finding them before the geth do, we don't want another Eden Prime" The pair nodded "Yes Commander"
As they made their way through the mountains Miranda Lawson was debating with herself whether or not to bring up her and the Commanders time together , she refused to believe that Shepard had simply used her, he was not like her father or the Illusive man he was better than that, she knew he was, it had been her job to know everything about him past mind and personality. He wasn't a fuck em and chuck em type of guy. But then it wasn't his choice to split up with Ashley Williams and he'd wanted Ashley to join them on the Normandy against the collectors, perhaps that was it, despite how near perfect she'd been designed to be 'I'm not her' Miranda's heart sank a little, it took a lot to get her to let her walls down for Shepard and he knew it. That's probably why he has just let their fling pass because he still loved Ashley and didn't just want to use Miranda for sex, but she needed to know for certain just to lay things to rest. Yes, when she had the chance she was going to talk to him, but right now there are more important things at hand.
Joker: "Shepard, drop ship!" Pods containing geth shot down from the sky within meters of the 3 of them. Shepard directed Miranda and Garrus to take cover behind him while he proceeded forward on the assault. The Commander took out 3 geth simultaneously with his SMG, Garrus eliminated some of the geth troops that were further away with his sniper rifle while Miranda crushed the rest with her biotics. "That was too easy" Garrus lowers his sniper rifle , "Garrus is right Shepard, something's wrong" Garrus and Miranda regroup with Shepard, " There should be more, if they believed there were Prothian ruins here they'd guard it much heavier" Garrus lifts up his sniper rifleand puts his eye to the scope to check if there are any other geth in the distance, Miranda examines one of the geth troopers guns "They must believe it otherwise they wouldn't be here so maybe this was just a distraction?" A huge explosion crumbles the rocks around them, the force sends the 3 of them flying across the mountain top, Shepard quickly jumps to his feet and climbs with caution on top of the rubble to see a colossus and many geth troopers all firing weapons and biotics in his direction, he is hit by the colossus destroying his shields and heavily damaging his armour, his helmet had been set alight and was melting forcing him to have to take it off. He now had very little standing between him and geth weaponry, his only protection was in the form of 2 members of his team Garrus and Miranda.
Another biotic blast hurtled towards Shepard but Garrus just managed to deflect it with a concussive shot, he then leaped over the commander taking cover behind the rubble while holding the geth off so Miranda could try and help Shepard. "We need to get out of here, this would be challenging enough with the 3 of us but with your shields down we cant do it" Garrus ducks quickly as another biotic blast flies over their heads "But we cant let them find what ever it is they are looking for", "I'm not saying we do, Garrus look at the commander he's in no position to fight" "Listen I've known the commander a lot longer than you its going to take more than a melted helmet to take him down"
Miranda was now starting to get irritated with the Turian "No we cant risk it if Shepard gets injured then who is going to lead us against the reapers?, that would be me now you and the rest of the crew don't like me very much so either we come up with another plan or you risk answering to me" Garrus didn't need to think twice "Right so what's the plan?" Miranda looked at Garrus with a smirk on her face and radiating with self confidence , she loved it when she got would be tough guys like Garrus to do what she said. "Legion!" Miranda and Garrus quickly looked at the commander in confusion "Pardon?", Shepard picked himself up off the floor, "We get Joker to send Legion down here, he can hack the other geth so they fight amongst each other while he and one of us can then take down the colossus and any remaining geth, to allow 2 of us to sneak round them across the very top of this mountain to get to whatever it is they're trying to get to" Garrus swung himself over the rubble and ripped apart a geth trooper's armour with his shot gun and then returned to cover, "Ok so I'll stay here with Legion while you and Miranda go on your little stealth mission"
Shepard reloads his SMG "You sure Garrus?", "Positive , Miranda would stand a better chance at protecting you if you got into trouble anyway" Shepard nods and orders Miranda to request backup from the Normandy. Joker: "No problem, sending another shuttle down" The shuttle landed at safe distance away from the geth, out walked Legion "Shepard Commander, our assistance was requested", " Yeah thank you Legion , Garrus will give you your instructions" Shepard took the rest of his damaged armour off and put it in the shuttle. Legion joined Garrus while Shepard and Miranda began sneaking around the rim of the mountain tops. "Commander , down there" Miranda pointed towards a metal door hidden behind rocks and boulders, they climbed over the rocks and Shepard hacked the doors while Miranda covered him.
Something about the research area in the caves was starting to unsettle them both, "The distress signal said that a lot of the crew had been killed, where are the bodies?" "I don't know, there isn't even any sign of a break in or fight, this is strange Miranda ask EDI if we're in the right place" " I cant reach EDI or Joker commander, I can only hear Garrus and Legion" Commander Shepard noticed a data log underneath a crate. (Data Log : "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I hope you get this, you need to get out of there they made me do it I didn't want to, there are no Prothian ruins here its an old merc base") Garrus: "Miranda tell Shepard the geth and colossus just upped and left they're heading for your direction!" "Shit! Commander this was a trap!" Shepard and Miranda ran back towards the doors only to be greeted by a huge blast from the colossus, they were forced to run the other way deeper into the caves, the ground and walls around them began shaking furiously causing rocks to fall from above them.
"No geth have followed us Shepard" "No they wouldn't of, they are there to keep us in remember what EDI said? These mountains are going to collapse on top of us" Miranda threw her gun down to the floor and stood by the commander "We're going to die then basically, fantastic" "Hey I only asked Garrus to come along so don't blame me" Shepard nudged Miranda on the shoulder playfully giving her that cheeky smile that she hated him yet loved him for. Miranda couldn't help but laugh a little "Oh shush you" she pushed him back on his chest, as she went to pull her hand away Shepard grabbed it and pulled her in towards him. They began kissing passionately, Shepard lifted Miranda up and sat her down on one of the crates, she wrapped her legs around his waist, feeling his bulge pushed right up against her, the caves were falling down around them but all Miranda was aware of was the commander kissing and biting her neck. She knew where this was going and she came very close to giving in but she resisted him and pushed him back, "Problem Miss Lawson?", "What is this to you? Shepard we made love not long ago and you have barely spoken to me since and when you have its been about work, and now we're trapped in here and you want me again, why do you only care about me when we are close to death?" Shepard almost lost his temper at Miranda's words "What channel have you been watching? Because I seem to recall constantly pushing a relationship with you and you always needing 'more time' then right before a supposed suicide mission you've finally done your thinking then you just go cold with me again"
"If you don't think enough of me to at least talk to me about it Shepard then I am not going to chase after you, if you're looking for a little love struck puppy to follow you around aimlessly then go to Tali" , "Hey! So why am I the one that has to do the chasing I thought you trusted me, and that's Commander Shepard to you." Miranda walked in front of Shepard and responded to him in a cocky superior tone of voice " Certainly...commander." Shepard didn't know whether to be angry at her attitude or turned on, but seen as he was probably going to die he decided to be turned on. Miranda also had the same idea. She pushed him down on the floor and climbed on top of him she lifted up his shirt over his stomach and began licking up his body and then softly kissing his chest, then back down his abs , around his pelvis getting lower and lower... Shepard was getting increasingly excited, just as Miranda's lips and tongue had gone as far down his body as possible without reaching his penis Shepard heard Garrus's voice. "Shepard! are you in here, Shepard!"
"We're in here Garrus" Miranda lifted herself off the commander and smirked at him "Wow those under clothes really are skin tight, maybe you shouldn't of taken your armour off" Miranda winked and went to collect her gun, Shepard looked down and saw his own erection looking back up at him. Miranda threw some armour left behind by a merc at the commander to hide Shepard's embarrassment from Garrus who was just about to come around the corner. "Shepard we need to go now while the colossus is repairing itself, Legion is standing guard in case it comes back up" The 4 of them quickly ran across the mountains and into one of the shuttles, forced to leave the other behind.
Once out of the near death situation both Shepard and Miranda realised that although they almost got intimate in the caves, whatever there was between them still hadn't been resolved. This thought left them both feeling confused and irritated, one of the biggest things the 2 had in common was their pride, both too proud to chase after each other. They returned safely to the Normandy exhausted from the days events, they and Garrus stood in the elevator in complete silence, Garrus didn't know what exactly but he picked up that there was something going on and it wasn't too pleasant, he wasn't sure whether Shepard and Miranda had tried to have sex in the caves or tried to kill each other either way he felt very uncomfortable standing between them, the elevator doors opened and Garrus stepped forward to leave " Well this has been sufficiently awkward, goodnight guys" Garrus left them and walked towards the medical bay to see the doctor about a wound he'd picked up after he'd momentarily taken the colossus down.
Miranda Lawson was very irritated at herself after hearing Garrus's remark, she couldn't believe that she had let someone other than the commander know she was pissed at him, she liked that most people believed she lacked emotions, and if it wasn't for the pig next to her they'd still believe it. Both Shepard and Miranda had the opportunity to tell each other how they felt, but that pride thing got between them, Miranda left the elevator after Garrus and went to her office, Shepard continued up to the captains quarters although he desperately wanted to follow Miranda. For yet another night they both went to bed alone.