A/N: I see that a lot of people added the story to their lists but did not leave any comments.. :( Let me know what you guys think. I am open to constructive criticism as well! Thanks so much for reading!

Again, I don't own the characters, they belong to BioWare :)

p.s. I hate proofreading, I did read over it, but please excuse the grammer. :)

"What the hell did she think she was doing? She's going to fuck up the chance to save the galaxy because she had to argue with a drunk Batarian?" Miranda was pacing furiously in her office while Jacob sat in a chair against the wall following her with his eyes. He knew better than to interrupt her rant. She became silent and paced even faster now. Just as Jacob was about to begin daydreaming while looking out the large window in Miranda's office she began again.

"She is just so childish sometimes. Can someone who acts like a sixteen year old boy really save the fucking galaxy? What the hell was the Illusive Man thinking. She just makes me so fucking mad!" Jacob ducked quickly as the other chair in Miranda's office flew in his general direction.

"Fuck, Jacob, I'm sorry." He smiled.

"No worries boss. At least someone has finally brought out some passion in you." And with that Jacob walked through the sliding doors leaving Miranda's jaw on the ground.

This wasn't passion, this was utter rage. She couldn't possibly feel passion towards someone so idiotic. Well Passion didn't have to mean sexual desire right? The Illusive man had passion to for the supremacy of the human race, her father had passion to create a perfect daughter, Miranda had passion for the Lazarus Project. That's all it was, passion for the project. Shepard was simply a project that needed tweaking… a lot of tweaking.

She settled down into her chair and began to distract herself with the lovely pile of data pads in front of her. Miranda was only halfway through a requisition order for more MRE's when the door to her office swished open.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore Jacob."

"Well good thing I'm not Jacob." Miranda looked up to see the tall redhead standing in front of her desk.

"Now is not a good time Shepard. I have a lot of work to do."

"Fuck your reports. You need to explain yourself to your Commanding Officer, Operative Lawson."

"Explain myself?" Where the hell did Shepard get off demanding an explanation from her?

"Yes, explain to me why Jack won't be accompanying me on the next mission because she and Doctor Chakwas will be getting rather comfy with each other?" Oh, of course Jack had gone running to the Commander like a hurt puppy. Miranda stood up to meet Shepard eye to eye.

"The Illusive man has given me permission to take care of anything that could get in the way of the mission."

"So that gives you the right to nearly kill a loyal member of the crew?" Shepard moved around Miranda's desk so that nothing stood between the two women.

"Yes, if she jeopardizes the mission, I am allowed to do what I see fit. And I wasn't trying to kill her."

"Could have fooled me Lawson. You and Jack are no longer allowed on the same floor of the ship. And you will not be accompanying me on any missions until otherwise stated." Shepard was so close to Miranda, the younger woman was worried Shepard was going to punch her. "I can't have someone I don't trust watching my back." Those words stung more than any blow would have. Before Miranda could respond the doors to her office swished shut. Miranda hated being benched. Shepard had taken her on every mission thus far; however what hurt worse than not being able to help, was the fact that the one person in her life she had come to respect didn't trust her. The look of disgust that the redhead had as she was leaving stabbed the operative right in the chest. This was a wound that no amount of medigel could cure.

She pushed the data pads into a pile on her desk, flipped the lights in her cabin off and crawled under the sheets. Only EDI would know that the strong Cerberus Operative Miranda Lawson cried herself to sleep that night.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Shepard…. You know you want to…" Jack dangled a drink in front of her face. Why was she here? Robyn wasn't going to drink, she had sworn that shit off after that last night she spent at the Dark Star. But after Garrus' encounter with Sidonis, he needed a drink. Robyn knew that Garrus wouldn't go with just Jack, so here she was, in the corner of the bar watching Garrus throw shots back like it was water in the desert.

"The Cheerleader isn't here. You won't get in trouble." Jack was a horrible influence. In reality it didn't matter if Miranda was there or not, she had no desire to taste the blue liquid sloshing out of the glass as jack moved it about. The amount of guilt Robyn would have felt for each drop that graced her lips wasn't worth all the credits in the world. If she hadn't known any better, she would have sworn Miranda lied about not having implanted her with a control chip.

"Really Jack, this night is for Garrus. I'm DD." Garrus looked up from his millionth shot, confused and blurry-eyed.

"DD?"

"Designated Driver. It's a human term…."

"But Shhhhepard, we came in the Normandy." Robyn laughed.

"It's an expression. Don't worry about it Garrus." He shook his head and stumbled back up to the bar. About ten minutes prior, Robyn had asked the bartender to serve him fruity non-alcoholic beverages for the remainder of the night. He'll thank me in the morning she thought.

"Shepard, you called for me?" Grunt walked up to the table, full armor, as if ready to fight.

"Yes I did Grunt. It's your turn to play babysitter." Grunt did not look pleased.

"Shepard, these two are not the worthy enemies you promised me."

"Ah, Grunt, you must look closer. That turian there is actually a deadly assassin pretending to be a drunk former C-Sec officer. And that woman with the tattoos next to him is actually planning on murdering everyone in this room with one look." Grunt snorted as if to hold in a laugh.

"Good luck warrior, make your Krantt proud." Grunt elbowed Shepard hard in the ribs.

"Alright turian, get off the table., you are not an Asari and you won't be 'earning your keep' as you put it." He looked at Shepard as she was leaving. "You owe me Shepard!"

"Have fun!" Shepard laughed as she exited the Dark Star. She just wanted to wander the ship and think in actual peace and quiet.