Interlude Three

"Are you sure about this?"

Kelly paused. Shepard's eyes were locked onto hers. That steely gaze that too many people had seen just beyond the barrel of a gun.

"Yes," She gulped audibly, "Absolutely."

"You're telling me that both Samara and Miranda need shore-leave, immediately?" Shepard's fingers locked together and she pressed them to her chin, her lips contorted the way they always did when she was deep in thought.

Kelly nodded energetically, forcefully, "Yes."

"Miranda I can understand, she's been tense for awhile now, even without these nightmares of hers," Shepard let her hands fall onto her desk and began tapping her fingers impatiently against the surface, "But Samara? I had no idea she was so stressed."

"She likes to keep everything bottled up inside," Kelly shrugged, "You can't know everything, Commander."

Shepard nodded slowly, "Okay. But I want an annotated report of your reasons for this and an update on Miranda and Samara's condition afterwards, understood?"

"Yes, Commander."

"This is the last time though, Kelly," Shepard said, pointing a single finger at the young psychiatrist, "I want to help Miranda and Samara through this as much as you do, but we've got a lot of problems right now and we need everyone active and ready."

"I thought we were on stand-down until Admiral Hackett responded to our message?" Kelly asked, feigning confusion.

"We are," Shepard nodded, "But Tali and Jacob intercepted a Cerberus message earlier today, from the desk of the Illusive Man himself. Something to do with a 'Project Overlord'. We're headed there now to deal with it. But we can make a detour to drop off your two patients wherever they're looking to take their leave."

"Thank you, Shepard. I realize how unorthodox this is," Kelly stood slowly, turning to leave.

"Kelly?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"Make sure it's somewhere Miranda will have some fun, for once."

Kelly smiled; a thin, unpleasant smile that didn't fit her features, "Oh, I'm sure she will."

"You asked to me to take you along," Miranda said quietly, "Well this is me asking you to come."

Samara nodded, "I assume you have cleared it with Shepard?"

"Kelly's doing it right now," Miranda leaned back against the shuttle and folded her arms. The engineering deck was oddly quiet and completely empty aside from the two women.

Samara nodded. Her high cheekbones flexed underneath her taut, azure flesh, "I assume you have a destination for us?"

Miranda brought her omni-tool online; an e-mail hovered in the air in between them, "This is the second message I've received."

"What does it say?" Samara said, squinting and stepping forward to get a better look at it.

"To go to where I thought I killed a man, the survivor I told you about, and his allies," Miranda looked down and away, the e-mail blinked out of existence.

"The unjust being," Samara said quietly.

"Yes," Miranda nodded, flexing her neck and rubbing a hand along the back of it.

"This man, the one you thought was dead, do you plan to kill him?"

Miranda paused, her mouth hung open as she stared at the alien woman, "It's what I do, isn't it?"

Samara had no response.

There was the sound of a throat clearing from behind them. Kelly strode towards them, her face set and impassive.

"Kelly," Miranda greeted her with a nod. Samara bowed slightly as the young women came to a halt next to them.

"It's done. You've got your leave," Kelly said quietly, conspiratorially.

"Thank you, Kelly."

"Miranda?"

"Yes?"

"Before you go, you promised me something," Kelly reminded her.

"Yes, I did," Miranda said, pulling a data-slate out of her pocket. She offered the small device to Kelly, "It's all on here, Ms. Chambers, everything. The whole story. Enjoy."

Kelly took the slate without a word. She slowly stepped back, briefly looking up into Miranda's eyes. Then Samara's.

"Be careful you two."

Shepard's eyes surveyed Miranda wearily, "Thank you for coming to see me before you leave, Miranda."

"Of course, Shepard. Anything I can do after you've been so generous."

"This sojourn you're taking with Samara?" Shepard took a swig of her drink and settled back into her chair, "Do you know how long you plan on being?"

Miranda shrugged, "Only a day or two, maybe a couple more at most. Not really planning on staying away for too long. It'd just be nice to get some fresh air."

Shepard nodded slowly and took another swig, "Okay."

Miranda got up to leave, but Shepard's voice stopped her, "Miranda, I can understand if you're feeling stressed because of how things turned out with Cerberus. I know what it's like to be cast off by an organization that you've known your whole life."

Miranda's eyes narrowed as she turned back to the Commander, "With all due respect, Shepard, our situations aren't really comparable. You were a soldier, you knew your career was going to end someday. You knew there was going to be something else waiting for you, anything else. On some level, you were ready for this. Hell, you're a hero, the Alliance will take you back no matter what you do."

Shepard's mouth slipped open soundlessly.

"Me?" Miranda continued, "I'm a gun. A weapon. All I would ever get from Cerberus is another assignment and a burial without a tombstone. What do you think is going to happen to me after this, after the Reapers? There's nowhere waiting to take me back in. There' s nothing."

"There's Oriana," Shepard said quietly.

Miranda gave a pained laugh, "Oriana is as much family to me as Mess Sergeant Gardner is. I love her, I'd do anything for her. But I can't ever be in her life."

Shepard's eyes dropped low and her body trembled slightly as she spoke again, "Miranda, I've seen you face down hordes of Mercenaries, Geth and Collector's without batting an eyelid. You're perfect. You were made to be. So where does this doubt come from?"

Miranda stopped dead. Her eyes glanced around the room; looking anywhere but at the woman across from her.

"Miranda the only person I've ever seen stop you from doing something, or being someone else," Shepard stood up gently, stepping around the desk in between them and setting a hand on Miranda's shoulder, "Is you. If you want to be part of a family again, you could be. If you want a place where you can do good, no one in the Alliance is going to turn you away. No one anywhere will. How could they?"

Miranda brushed the hand aside and stepped towards the door.

"You don't have to be a killer any more than you have to be anything the Illusive Man tried to make you," Shepard sighed, "You just have to decide when and how you want change."

Miranda shook her head slowly, then pushed open the door to Shepard's office and stepped outside.

The shuttle pulled gently out of the docking bay. The two women at its helm were only indistinct, blurred shapes from Kelly's vantage point on the observation deck.

She pressed a single hand to the reinforced viewing window and slid the data-slate out of her pocket. It glowed a feint orange against the black of the void.

With a sigh, she began to read...

End Interlude Three