Author's Notes: Heeeeeyy everyone I'm back after that damn writer's block! I know you guys have been 'puppy dog-eyeing' me for an update for months now, so you can stop giving me those burning looks of condemnation…*sobs*Anyways, on with the story! Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate your input.

Commander Russell Patrick Shepard had just finished his meeting with the Citadel Council after we recruited Kasumi, and it didn't go well even though he got confirmation from Councilor Anderson that his Spectre status still stood. In fact, I've never seen him this pissed before as he railed at the Council, whom he'd saved (for nothing, if you ask me. They were still as stupid and utterly useless as usual).

Actually, he was just railing at the turian and the salarian, and he was outright flirting with the asari councilor, whose name was Councilor Tevos if I remember correctly. This asari matron who was supposedly wise and completely stoic was now behaving like a teenaged schoolgirl with a massive crush as Russell hit on her.

It made me feel a little sick that a supposedly sexless asari was trying to get fresh with Commander Shepard. What was so special about him anyways? Sure, he looked really handsome, I'll admit that (hey, I'm still a red-blooded young woman with desires and needs after all), was a good shot, was a very powerful biotic, knew some mind tricks, and could read people easily. So what? I'm certain at least a few hundred people out there had the exact same skills that Shepard had, and were probably better than him.

Some may call it 'animal magnetism', but I found it utterly ridiculous. From an anthropological viewpoint (I had a PhDs in both human and xeno-anthropology), it was complete bloody rubbish. Pheromones were what determined sexual attraction in both human and alien alike, and the theory of 'animal magnetism' was the exact opposite of this proven science.

Anyways, we were headed down to Zakera Ward, which was the shopping district of the Citadel. Whenever I had some free time, which was a scarcity these days, I always loved coming here for shopping sprees. I mean, Leather n Lace's flagship store was right here, and so was Dara's, and Impressions…okay, the point is, Zakera Ward was basically thirteen floors of shopping heaven. However, Russell remained on the 28th floor and the first stop he made was at the games kiosk.

Yes, the almighty Commander Russell Patrick Shepard's first stop was a bloody game kiosk, where he bought some in-game items for his level 136 warlock in Galaxy of Fantasy (which was a yawnfest. I quit after getting my mage to level 64), and he bought a copy of Medal of Duty: Overt Ops as well. "You have no idea how much I was looking forward to this title! They released the trailer a week before I died and it just got released two weeks ago! Thanks for bringing me back in time Miranda sweetie."Russell grinned as I inhaled sharply.

"You're welcome, Commander."I faked a smile, which I knew (and fully intended) came out as a snarl, and I made sure that my tone managed to make his rank seem like an insult.

"Okay…"He mumbled, raising one hand up in defeat as I smiled genuinely in satisfaction, while Jacob and Kasumi, who were behind me, both started sniggering at Russell's wounded expression.

"Well, if you're done satisfying your inner nerd, let's go get some weapon upgrades, Commander."I said in a sickeningly sweet tone that sent Jacob and Kasumi into another sniggering fit as Russell's face fell even further.

"Okay. Let's go."He sighed sadly as he fell in step behind me as I walked into Rodam Expeditions, where a turian stared at me suspiciously before he started to appraise me, and from the way he looked at me, he was more than happy at what he saw. Sometimes, I just wish I didn't have this accursed genetic perfection that made me so bloody sexy, beautiful, hot, alluring, charming, and-okay, the point is, while I enjoyed being the centre of attention sometimes, I just preferred to keep a low profile most of the time as having so many eyes on me could be quite unsettling sometimes.

"Welcome to Rodam Expeditions humans. What do you want?"The turian, which according to his shopkeeper's nametag, was named Etarn.

"Well, we're here to get some weapon upgrades…damn. The Ariake Tech XCR700 superstabiliser is out! I always wanted that thing for my sniper-shit."Russell mumbled as soon as he saw the price tag, which was a rather ridiculous 65 thousand credits. Hell, I could get it direct at half the price.

"Hey, Etarn, could you give me a discount man? I wanna buy it, but the price is just too steep."Russell smiled disarmingly at the turian shopkeep, who looked at him suspiciously.

"Who do you think are, asking me for a discount? What's so special about you that I have to give you a discount?"

"Well, I'm Commander Russell Patrick Shepard, and-" "Really? The Commander Shepard who saved the Citadel? Yeah of course, anything I can do for you! Spirits, I'd even name my first child after you if you wanted!"The turian cut Russell off with pure glee as he activated his omnitool and gave Russell a discount just like he'd wanted.

"Hey thanks! But nevermind about naming your child after me. It's just too egoistical."Russell grinned at Etarn as he scrolled down the electronic catalog list and purchased some SMG recoil compensators, a dozen of his much-coveted sniper stabilizers, a few dozen advanced grade mass effect generators that were made for pistols and several bandoliers.

"All this is rather unnecessary Shepard. You could've just asked me to put in a requisition order and we would've definitely gotten all of these."I remarked as Shepard just grinned at me.

"Well, this is how I always acquired new weapons and other stuff when I was still with the Spectres. Force of habit. Besides, I'm saving Cerberus quite a few credits with these discounts I'm getting."He smiled as we walked down the stairs and into Citadel Souvenirs. The asari shopkeeper greeted us Russell looked at the catalog and rubbed his forehead.

"Hey…Deleia…"Russell said politely as he read the shopkeeper's nametag. "Yes, how may I help you?"She asked sweetly as she smiled at the Commander.

"Well, I was wondering if you could give me a discount, because nine grand for a space hamster is pretty over-the-top."

"Yes, but it is very adorable, and I'm sorry, but you'd have to sign up for the customer loyalty package."Deleia replied as she handed Russell a pamphlet as he looked deep in thought for a moment.

"Or how about the Spectre who took Saren out endorsing your store? I'm sure that your sales volume would increase dramatically."Russell smiled as revelation dawned on the asari shopkeeper.

"Oh my goodness! I knew you were Shepard! Well, speak right into my console here!"She was almost squealing like a giddy schoolgirl as I facepalmed. Jacob and Kasumi had been given leave to go do some shopping elsewhere, and therefore I was stuck with this cheap, annoying moron. Alone.

"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel."He chuckled as the asari looked like she was going to faint from pure joy.

"God…that was so bloody corny…"I moaned as Russell perused the catalog, and he grinned.

"Thanks for the 50% discount miss!"He grinned, flashing the clerk a thumbs up and a charming smile as she swooned over him. "Oh you're welcome Commander!"

After he'd finished his purchase of some Illium skaldfish, a 1:150 replica model of the first Normandy, and a 1:500 replica model of the Destiny Ascension, he sauntered out of the store. "Well Miranda, it's time to grab the supplies Gardner wanted."He smiled at me, not knowing how badly I wanted Gardner to have those supplies.

The first meal I had onboard was a simple tuna salad, yet it was horrible. The ingredients were the furthest thing from fresh, and I highly suspected that the salad dressing was nearing expiry. When I questioned Gardner, he'd complained about sub-standard supplies and asked me if I could requisition some better grade ones.

Unfortunately, Cerberus could get anything from L5x biotic implants to experimental M10 anti-material sniper rifles, but somehow, good food seemed to be beyond Cerberus' ability to obtain, and I had to spend an hour explaining that to him. Honestly, I was as incredulous about the whole thing as he was.

I fully expected the Commander to ask the turian shopkeeper behind the counter if he could get a discount, but Russell defied by expectations by just buying the supplies without talking to the turian clerk, who was engaged in a debate with a man about not mixing spice chiralities in steak. And when I say 'buy supplies', I mean a whole lot of it.

Russell bought about ¾ of a ton of fresh space beef, a ton of fresh Earth chicken, tuna…okay you get the general idea. When the Illusive Man received the bill, he was probably going to go into a massive cardiac arrest as well as a massive stroke. Or maybe Russell had it all planned already…

"Well, let's go Miranda. What's wrong?"He enquired nonchalantly upon seeing the look of disbelief I was probably wearing as he turned back to face me.

"Are you serious? That much food?"I said, the pitch of my voice growing higher with every word as he simply nodded and grinned as he walked off. Unbelievable.

We then went down to level 26, where we saw a quarian, volus and a human C-Sec officer in a heated argument. "This clanless is a thief, and I want her arrested!"The volus snorted as the quarian extended her arms in protest.

"Whoa, what's going on here?"Russell interrupted with a raised hand as the officer sighed tiredly. "Sir, I'm trying to take a statement here."

"There's nothing to talk about! She stole my credit chit. Arrest her!"The volus breathed with indignation as the quarian stiffened. "I did not! Just because I'm a quarian-"

"I need you to stop and take a deep breath."The officer sighed, directing it at the volus who got offended.

"You're mocking me Earth clan! Just-" "Look, are you sure you didn't just drop or leave your credit chit somewhere?"I interrupted the volus exasperatedly, sick of their bickering.

"Of course not! You think I'd make a mistake like that? She ran into me outside the Sirta Foundation store."The volus huffed as Russell broke in.

"How does running into you make her a thief?"He asked as the volus shook his pudgy head.

"That's how pickpockets work. They bump into you and use that as a cover for rifling your pockets. You can't turn your backs on these clanless quarians. Thieves, all of them."The volus grunted as both Shepard and I sighed simultaneously.

And those misguided morons in the Alliance and elsewhere said Cerberus was xenophobic. What a bloody joke.

"And you say you've been falsely accused?"Russell asked the quarian as she nodded.

"I was walking to the used ship dealer when he barged into me outside the Sirta Foundation. He didn't stop or say sorry. A minute later, he runs up with C-Sec and accuses me of stealing his damn chit!"The quarian raged as Russell nodded.

"So, does she have the chit on her?"I asked the officer, whose badge read 'Tammert'.

"My omnitool scan for the chit came up empty. But she could've stashed it for recovery later."He replied as he scanned the quarian once more, but it came up negative.

"Righto. I'll look into this and see if I can get that chit back."Russell said, mostly a statement as he walked off and I followed him, both of us ignoring Tammert's protests of 'C-Sec matter', and not needing 'civilian help'.

Unsurprisingly, Russell went into a store. "Welcome to Saronis Applications. Can I-ah! Shepard!"The salarian clerk, whose name was Marab, chattered excitedly as soon as Russell stepped in with me by his side. "I don't think I remember you, sorry…"

"But I remember you. Even a senile hanar would remember the human who fought off the geth! I thought you were dead!"He enthused as Russell broke into a rather charming and shy grin. "Yeah, I can't blame you because almost everyone on this station thought the same."

"Please, look around the store! It's a pleasure to have you here."Marab said as Shepard did just that, perusing the catalog until he found a Hahne-Kedar YF33 Shield Harmonizer and a Serrice Council Savant omnitool. "You know, I buy a lot of software. I mean, the damn Alliance is still giving 2183's star charts!"He grinned as Marab's eyes widened incredulously.

"2183? Why don't they just give you a slide rule and ask you to eyeball it?"The salarian shook his head in dismay as Russell grinned in agreement. "Exactly, right? That's why I need a good dude like you to sell me the tech I need at wholesale prices."The Commander smirked as he clapped Marab on the shoulder.

"Wholesale? But of course! It's the least I can do for you!"The salarian grinned as he programmed the catalog to charge Shepard half-price.

"Thanks a bunch! By the way, did a volus come in here and leave his credit chit here?"Russell asked as he bought the upgrades.

"Oh! Yes. He bought some environmental system drivers, and then left without his chit. I didn't notice it until he was already gone. If you see him, tell him I have it here behind the counter."Marab replied as Shepard smiled. "Thanks a bunch!"

We then went into the Sirta Foundation store, where Russell seduced the asari clerk into giving him a half price discount by giving her the endorsement I was already tired, but would grow even more tired of in the near future. "I'm Commander Russell Patrick Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel."He spoke into the console as I groaned in dismay.

"For the love of God Russell, did it need to be that corny?"I asked disparagingly as he shrugged, using the catalog to buy some armor, a few hundred units of medigel, and a medigel storage upgrade. "Hey I thought it was pretty good myself…"He mumbled as we walked out of the store and back towards the troublesome trio, who were still busy bickering.

"You forgot your credit chit. Marab at Saronis Applications is keeping it for you."Russell informed the volus exasperatedly as the volus shifted uncomfortably. "Oh. Well. The quarian could've stolen it…"He stuttered abashedly as the officer spoke up.

"I'll close this event report. But I'll be watching you. Get a permanent residence, or-"Tammert warned, pointing at the quarian as Shepard took a stride forward, getting right in the officer's face.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"Russell growled, which personally intimidated me somewhat-no, just a little. The volus looked at Shepard and asked "What?" in an incredulous tone of voice as Russell bent down and was almost face to face, or face to mask in this case, which was an extremely intimidating gesture to do to a volus.

"You falsely accused her of stealing from you. And not only do you not apologize, you even say that she could've stolen it."Russell snarled as he stood upright to confront the officer, ignoring the volus' splutters of protest.

"And you, defender of the law! She gets harassed and insulted by this jackass, and you don't defend her! No, you even have to threaten to run her in!"Russell snarled, grabbing the officer by the lapels of his uniform as I felt my respect for Shepard grow. He really was like the Commander Shepard in the reports and the tales, caring about even the outcasts and taking time to help everyone.

"How about if I run you in for obstruction of justice?"Tammert scowled, trying but mostly failing to keep his fear under check. "Run in a Spectre? Really. Now fuck off."Russell spat as both the volus and the officer realized who they were talking to.

"Son of a…"Tammert grumbled as he walked off, and the volus quietly went off.

"Thank you. I-I wish I could give you more than words."The quarian stammered out, eternally grateful as Russell raised a hand. "Just did what anyone else would've done. Take care of yourself, and watch where you're going next time."Russell bade farewell as he turned around and slipped his arm around mine, earning a gasp of shock followed by an insulted glare from me.

"Well, Miranda honey, let's go get your favorite Marsden cherry chocolates and Claire Laver strawberry shampoo from the Hightown downstairs eh?"Russell grinned as I spun on him in shock.

"How the bloody hell did you know I love Marsden's cherry chocolates and that I use Claire Laver strawberry shampoo?"I asked, my tone low as Russell's expression became a classic 'oh shit' expression.

"I…uh…Gunny Williams used that a lot, and uh…you…um…have posh tastes, so…only Marsden for you, right? …Right…?"He stammered uncertainly as my eyes narrowed into slits as I saw through his blatant, terrible lie.

"Oh? A tomboy NCO in the Alliance using an absolutely feminine shampoo that costs 265 credits a bottle on a regular basis? Liar. Also, Marsden chocolates are handmade, which is why only high society people know about them as it's never advertised."I scowled at him as he was lost for words.

"I-well, I saw your box lying around in the mess-" "Liar. How. The. Fuck. Do. You. Know."I seethed as Shepard's eyes darted about frantically.

"Well, I have a copy of the ship's inventory, and I happened to spot them and I assumed they were yours."Russell replied as I narrowed my eyes even further.

"So, what else did you hack into besides my documents?"I growled, still grabbing him by his shirt lapels as he sighed apologetically.

"Well, I hacked into all of the nine cam-shit."He whimpered as he realized that he'd given himself away.

"My room is bugged?" "Yeah. But it was already bugged when I got onboard and I just happened to chance upon them. Those bugs are high-end L7 bugs used only by Cerberus, the Spectres and the STG. Even the fourteen bugs I found in the communal ladies bathroom were just HG4s."He replied.

"Are you bloody kidding me? !"I hissed in disbelief as he just nodded. It didn't make sense! Why on Earth would the Illusive Man bug my quarters? I was his most trusted, most loyal, and the most beautiful operative…oh. Oh.

"What was the bug distribution?"I asked Russell urgently as he called up his omnitool. "Well, you had five in the bathroom and four surrounding your bed."

"Oh no-no-no-no-no…"I moaned in dismay, realizing that everything, even my little masturbation session in the showers, had been seen by both my CO and my boss. Oh, how I wanted to just drop dead right there and then.

When we left Minuteman, we were an hour out from the relay when Jacob had managed to procure heavy Silaris armor plating for the Normandy, and he told Russell and he had immediately turned the ship back to Minuteman, wasting a good two hours for the trip, and we were to remain on the ship for the entirety of the five days that it took for the armor plating to be installed.

Unfortunately, by the second day, my already high state of sexual desire was unbearable, and on the third morning, I finally gave in and masturbated in my private shower. Which meant that both my CO and boss had a really good private show of my little 'solo-loving time' session and I hadn't the slightest clue that they were watching.

"I-uh, well I understand your needs completely, but I swear the bug discovery was accidental!"Russell defended himself as I shoved him against an ad projector in fury.

By now, the two of us had attracted quite a bit of attention, and I had to end this soon or risk getting C-Sec called down on us. "Sure. But you tapping those bugs sure as hell isn't accidental. I'll be watching you, and you better bloody well disconnect those bugs."I snarled as I shoved him away before pushing past the crowd to head to the Hightown a floor below.

Three hours later, we had all the supplies and upgrades we needed, and we were en route to Omega. Shepard, Jacob and I were in the briefing room poring over the dossiers that the Illusive Man had given to us. "Okay, I concur with Miranda that going after Mordin Solus first is the best idea. Archangel can come later, because we don't need a sniper at the moment as I've already got that covered. We do, however, need a genius that can create some kind of countermeasure against those Collector bug swarms, and Mordin is that genius we need."Russell said with finality as both I and Jacob nodded in agreement.

"Okay. So Archangel comes after the Professor…then what about Zaeed Massani?"I asked, leaning back into my chair as Russell leant forward to grab his mug of coffee and the datapad on Jack, a Cerberus experiment who was a super biotic because of those experiments.

"I get the feeling we'll just run into him randomly on Omega. Last word that Timmy has on him says he's pursuing a contract there. After we get these three musketeers, we go for the krogan warlord Okeer, then finally Jack. Jack's in the space version of Vorkuta, and I don't want to just go in there waving creds around to secure some super-biotic's freedom. I want some serious firepower on my side first so that anyone who wants to even consider fucking with us will have to drop that line immediately. Any objections?"The Commander asked as I nodded, but Jacob shook his head.

"One thing. We're going to have to infiltrate Donovan Hock's party on the 28th of October, which is slightly more than a month away as today is the 15th of September, so do remember to keep that in mind sir. We can't miss that party."I reminded Russell as he nodded.

"Duly noted XO Lawson. If there's nothing else, dismissed."He said as he walked out of the room with all the dossiers in hand as Jacob and I went our separate ways.

I headed to the lift, but Russell was there in front of the lift with an OSD in hand. "Miranda, could you please play the songs in this OSD for me? I have absolutely no idea how to play it over the ship's PA system."Russell asked me as I merely raised an eyebrow at his request but acceded to it.

"Alright Shepard. EDI, play the OSD."I ordered EDI as I placed the OSD on her console for her to scan. Almost immediately, a very catchy tune came up as I heard some groans and could even hear Joker yell "For fucks sakes Shepard! Not again!"

"What's going on?"I asked, slightly confused as even Yeoman Chambers facepalmed.

"Well Miranda…you've just been Rick rolled."Russell replied with a smarmy grin.

"Huh? Rick what?"

"Rick rolled. It's a prank, Miranda. You've just been rick rolled!"He smile wavered as I scratched my head.

"Why would it be a prank? I mean, this song is really pleasant!"I replied, honestly having no clue as to why the hell people would get irritated at such a good song.

"You're shitting me right, Lawson? Right? …Right?"His grin faded as I shook my head in all sincerity. "Of course not! I've never even heard of this 'rick roasting' thing. A full commitment's what I'm thinking of…you wouldn't get this from any other guy…"I sang along as I slipped into the elevator, leaving Russell spluttering in shock.

Instead of heading back to my office, I went up to Shepard's cabin, which I noted with a pang of jealousy was about twice the size of mine and have a large aquarium which already contained the fish he'd bought on the Citadel. "Never gonna give you up…never gonna let you down…"I softly sang along to the song as I accessed Shepard's terminal with my special password that overrode ever other account user's privacy privilege.

It took me about 5 minutes to find the folder where Russell had put all of the footage of my cabin in, and I opened it up and promptly saw a full color, high definition video of me fingering myself furiously while the water from the shower head beat down upon my wet, naked form as my moaning could be clearly heard.

I disabled the surveillance from his terminal and deleted all the videos, especially the one where I successfully masturbated myself to an orgasm before I left his cabin and headed back down to mine while I sang to the ending of that song.

"Never gonna make you cry…never gonna say goodbye…"I hummed in satisfaction as the lift doors closed.

Slightly more than six hours later found me with my back pressed to the wall as I took cover against the sloppy full auto rifle fire of a bunch of Blood Pack vorcha. Suddenly, Zaeed Massani, our newest recruit (whom I had literally run into on the Omega docks, which was somewhat true to Russell's prediction) and one of the most notorious mercs in the galaxy, threw one of his incendiary grenades past the corner.

However, I was at the edge of the wall, and in order for Zaeed to throw his grenade, his arm had to make contact with the bust of my armor. "Hey! Watch it!"I yelled at him in irritation as a loud clacking signified the collision between the arms of his armor and the chestplate of mine.

"Oh I'm sorry cupcake."He guffawed in amusement at my irritation as I just shook my head as I leaned out to cleanly remove half of a vorcha's head with a short burst from my Collector Assault Rifle. Shepard, Jacob, Kasumi, Zaeed and I were trying to get to the ventilation control room that Professor Mordin Solus, who was the salarian genius we were trying to recruit, had indicated so that we could release the cure into the ventilation systems for the lower blocks of Omega and cure the plague the vorcha had unleashed onto the populace.

After eliminating the krogan who had been set on fire by Zaeed's grenade, we arrived in the central control room, which was more of a series of walkways and bridges than a room, and the control console was located in a large alcove right at the back, and there were at least a platoon of vorchas in between us and the console where Mordin said that we could inject the cure.

Of course. Those damn vorchas.

"Ragh! You no come here! We shut down machines! Break fans! Every-"The vorcha who rushed out to greet us had his little tirade ended prematurely by a burst from Russell's rifle which blew the vorcha's head clean off.

"Yeah yeah, heard it all before…"Russell sighed wearily as we began to open fire on the vorcha. I killed two with my rifle before I hit a vorcha wielding a flamethrower with an overload pulse from my omnitool and blew it up in a rain of fiery chunks of flesh. "I've scanned the area. The central control centre is in the alcove at the back wall. You may insert the vials containing the cure there."EDI informed us as I muttered out my thanks before I peeked out of cover to warp a vorcha into nothingness.

Meanwhile, Russell was busy taking out vorcha and a couple of krogans that were coming out of a door on the left of the platform we were on with his Collector Assault Rifle, and I ran over to where he was and reloaded before I began firing at the mercs. Kasumi cloaked and reappeared behind another flamethrower wielding merc as she simultaneously stuck a small square of RDHPX (Research Developed High Penetration eXplosive) to the high-octane fuel tanks of said merc.

"Got a present for you!"She said sweetly as all the mercs turned to face her, but she recloaked and disappeared just as the RDHPX was detonated, killing all the mercs on the left side. She reappeared right by my side a few seconds later, grinning like the cat that ate the canary as she sucked in deep breaths, a testament to how fast she'd run back to our position after sticking the explosive to the hapless merc.

"Nice one Miss Goto. Let's go help the old man and Jacob."Russell ordered us as he ran over to where Zaeed was sniping vorcha with his Mantis while Jacob kept them suppressed with incendiary fire from his Revenant.

"Oi! Fuck off Shepard! I am not an old man!"Zaeed protested as he shot, only to miss the vorcha he was aiming at as I cleaned up for him with a heavy warp, vaporizing the vorcha.

"Well, cupcake, looks like I just cleaned up for you."I said with a cloyingly sweet tone as we continued firing at the mercs.

"Bloody disrespectful youngsters these day-" "Miranda, go insert the cure into the control console, we'll cover you! Zaeed quit whining and get up on that platform and cover us with your rifle."Russell bar ked, interrupting Zaeed's grumbling as both Zaeed and I ran for our respective objectives.

I reached the console and immediately plugged the cure in. However, a notification came up, instructing me to turn on fan one and two, which had their controls located in the rooms at the end of the left and right platforms respectively.

"Shepard! We've got a problem! We need to activate two fans, and the controls are located behind the rooms on both the left and right platforms!"I yelled as I ran back to Shepard, who had just fried one hapless vorcha with an incinerating plasma jet from his omnitool while I gunned another down with a long burst from my rifle.

"Okay! Jacob, Kasumi, take the right! Miranda, you're on me and Zaeed, take out any fucker that shoots at us!"Russell hollered as Jacob yelled "Hoorah!" in reply as Kasumi just nodded as they proceeded to do just that, and Jacob gunned down a krogan in a hail of incendiary rounds as he ran down the steps, followed closely by Kasumi.

"Got one!"Zaeed cackled in delight as he shot a vorcha in the head before Shepard and I began running as we fired at the dozen advancing vorcha and the two krogan overseers. The vorcha were easy enough as Russell warped two of them, and I overloaded the fuel tanks of yet another flamethrower vorcha, blowing it and four of its nearest companions to fiery hell. Meanwhile, Jacob and Kasumi were slowly making progress as Blood Pack anti-armor squads were firing at them with rocket launchers, but Zaeed was doing his job very well and opposition on the bridge they were on was much lighter than our bridge.

The krogan were a bit more of a challenge, but the power of my biotics added to Russell's and some well aimed fire took them down. I glimpsed that one had dropped a datapad as he fell, and I noticed that he was the Blood Pack equivalent of a major. "Cover me Russell! I'm going for that datapad!"I called into my mic as I sprinted for the datapad. "Wait! I'm still reload-fuck!"Russell cursed, but I didn't notice as I kept running down the long corridor.

I bent down to pick it up, but when I bent over and grasped the datapad, the door which simply had to be right in front of the corpse opened to reveal two more flamethrower troops. Who had their weapons pointed right at me. "Oh, bloody hell."I breathed in fear as I had absolutely no time to do anything, not even call up my biotics. I closed my eyes as I braced myself for the inevitable end, the deep dark blackness as I thought about Oriana and what she was doing. "I'm so sorry Ori…I guess that not knowing me was for the best."I quavered as I resigned myself to the grasp of death.

I saw the bright flash of the flames emitting from their flamethrowers and felt it touch…I felt someone tackling me to the ground and pin me under his body weight and shield me with his body…

Wait, what the fuck just happened?

My eyes snapped open to find Commander Russell Patrick Shepard cradling me as he used his body as a shield against the flames, and his face was contorted in a grimace of pain as he yelled in pain.

I reacted quickly, bringing my omnitool to bear at the two vorcha and overloaded their fuel tanks once more and blew them up. "Fuck!"Russell roared in agony as he quickly rolled off me, beating at his badly melted armor which still had little patches of flame still on it.

I swiftly jumped on him and successfully put on the fires on his armor as he groaned. "Oh God Russell are you alright?"I babbled out in a rush of panic, fearing that Project Lazarus had come to naught as he tried to protect me.

"Besides the fact I'm kinda roasted on the outside? Yeah I'm fucking peachy."He growled as he picked up his rifle.

"Shep-Russell, you shouldn't have saved me. It was my mistake, I should've paid the price. Not you."I said softly as we entered the control room and he reactivated the fans, tapping away rapidly t the Haptic Adaptive Interface (HAI).

" What the hell are you talking about? I can never see a member of my crew get wounded and do nothing when I can do something about it. I did what should've been done. Did you get that fucking pad?"He asked as I nodded. "Good. At least me getting toasted wasn't in vain."He winced in pain and some satisfaction when we heard that Jacob and Kasumi had reactivated the other fan.

"Russell, thank you. But please, don't ever do something like that again. You're too damn important to sacrifice yourself for me."I replied as he snorted as we walked out of the room.

"Miranda, you may consider me as nothing more than your CO, but I consider you to be my family. I would sacrifice myself to save any of you any day. If it came down to a choice between me dying or my team, my family, dying, I would definitely pick me. It's to be expected of an officer."He replied as our team regrouped. "Shit Shepard, what the fuck happened?"Jacob asked as Zaeed piped up.

"Shep here got the flame purifying treatment while trying to save Miranda."The merc grunted as he inspected Shepard. "Goodness Shepard-" "Eh I'll be fine. 'Sides, we're going back to Mordin's. No biggie."Russell interrupted Kasumi with a groan as we headed back to Mordin's.

"So, I take it that you'll join my squad now Professor?"Russell asked as Mordin treated his burns. We had spent twenty minutes getting back to the clinic , and we saw the assistant we rescued from the batarians back at work treating an asari.

"Yes. Work here complete. Thank you for helping me to spread the cure and get rid of threats to clinic. Will join you once done with treating your burns. Not too severe. Very lucky man, Shepard."Mordin said in less than three and a half seconds.

"And thank you from me too. Those batarians would've killed me. I really thought you were going to shoot them even after they let me go. By the way, who's Marnak and why were you asking them for info on him?"Daniel, the rescued assistant asked Russell as the Commander just grunted.

"I was kinda tempted, but since they were scared shitless and had no info or links to Marnak, which is none of your business, I just let them go."Russell winced as Mordin applied some medigel to a burn on his deliciously well toned and well defined left biceps before bandaging it.

"Hmm. Merciful of you. Would've killed them myself. Dangerous."Mordin muttered as Daniel's jaw dropped in horror. "Doctor, how can you say that? ! You believe in helping people-"

"Many different ways to help people. Sometimes cure them, sometimes execute dangerous people. Either way helps."Mordin sniffed as Russell nodded in agreement.

"Yep. Kid, it's rough as shit out there. Oh yeah, there's a batarian at the entrance to this neighborhood who needs medical attention."Shepard informed the young assistant as Mordin turned to him.

"Go tend to him. Cure him. Do what you do best Daniel."He said simply as Daniel nodded and walked off. "Good kid. Bit naïve. Leaving him the clinic. And the mechs, just to be safe."The professor hummed as he finished up his work.

"Okay then Mordin. Get your gear and follow us to our ship now if possible."Russell said as Mordin nodded. "Indeed. Will pack my equipment. Need about three minutes."

Shepard, the team and I walked out into the reception area which was still full of sick but recovering patients and human refugees and I pulled Russell, who was clad in his N7 undershirt and a pair of spare slacks, aside.

"Thank you for saving my life Russell. I really appreciate it, and well…thank you. I owe you."I smiled thinly but gratefully at him as he just laid a big hand on my shoulder. "Miranda, you're family to me. I'll do anything to protect you. Remember, we're family."He grinned at me as he sauntered off to open up the package containing a new set of his N7 armor that was delivered by Bowman, a Cerberus commando who was stationed on our ship.

Family. I quite liked the word. Family.

A/N: Well, this is the start of what's gonna be a scandalous, steamy relationship between Miri and Russ. Please don't crucify me for the slow updates, uni's a bitch…*bursts into tears and hysterical sobbing*so please, review! I love reviews! It's food for the writer in me.

Also…BIOWARE JUST FUCKING TELL US IF MIRI'S GONNA BE A FULL TIME SQUADDIE IN ME3 ARRRGGG *ends fangirl rant*

XOXOKatherineXOXO