Chapter 27

"Anderson thank god, I need you to warn Ashley to be on her guard, I got a tip that Cerberus was hunting down everybody that was a part of the Lazarus Team." John said worried.
"Relax John, Ashley can handle herself , she'll be fine" Anderson said trying to calm John down.
"Joseph can handle himself as well but he ended up having to reave his wife to survive" John explained "Just tell her to be on her guard and not to trust anyone" he said to Anderson sitting down.
"Is Joseph ok" Anderson asked.
"I don't know haven't heard anything from him since that little bit of information came my way, he probably went off grid to avoid Cerberus detection" John said." How's Ashley doing, I haven't heard anything from her since I got here, I thought she'd have a few questions about the relay incident" he told Anderson looking down.
"Ashley's ok John, I'll tell Lieutenant Commander Williams you asked about her" Anderson said before leaving the room.

Miranda was preparing to watch another data pad as she had nothing else to do sitting in a hospital bed.

DATA PAD 3
(MIRANDA'S APARTMENT ON ILLIUM)
"Joseph Shepard was slowly pacing the floor, he had just gotten his operation done and Miranda ordered him to stay in bed but that went ignored. He was trying to figure out how he was going to propose to Miranda.
"Ok here we go, Miranda I love you and I wanna be your wife" he said holding the ring "no that didn't come out right, shit" he said pacing the floor again not realizing Miranda standing in the door until she made her presence known.
"Hey Miri, uhhh how much of that did you hear" he asked scratching his bald head.
"Right around the part of you wanting to be my wife" she said laughing with tears streaming down her face as he walked over to her grabbing her hand dropping to one knee.
"I love you, you mean the world to me, will you please do me the honor of being my wife, and I promise to always love and protect you and never be bald and ugly again and I'll never hurt you, all you have to do is say yes" he said looking up into her eyes as she laughed through tears.
"You had me at wanting to be my wife, yes Joseph I'll marry you" she said as he slipped the ring on her finger, standing up to kiss her.
END DATA PAD

Miranda watched that back as tears rolled down her eyes then she began to wonder how the hell Liara got that footage. "Bitch probably bugged my apartment with her pathetic crush on Joseph" she said shaking her head playing the next data pad.

DATA PAD 4
"Leng get in here" TIM said pacing his office.
"Yes" Kai Leng said walking into the office.
"Have you located Operative Lawson yet" TIM asked taking a drink.
"Yeah, she's on Illium playing house with the Shepard brother" Leng informed him.
"Bring her this information and have her come here" TIM said as he passed Leng incriminating, falsified evidence on Joseph Shepard.
"And if she doesn't fall for this...little bit of information you've 'procured'" Leng asked sarcastically.
"Eliminate her, she's too risky to have running loose and not under my thumb" he replied sitting back as Leng left the room.
END DATA PAD

Miranda couldn't even speak after watching that one. It all became clear to her at that point. She didn't even want to watch the last one but she had to get it out of the way.

DATA PAD 5
(TIM AND THE DOCTOR'S ON ILLIUM)
"Sir, we were able to keep the fetus alive after Miranda Lawson left" the head doctor said.
"There's a but coming isn't it" TIM said with a cigarette.
"We don't have the supplies here to sustain it and make it grow" the doctor informed him.
"Very well, get Henry Lawson on vid call tell him the situation and who the baby belongs to, he'll be eager to take it on" TIM informed the doctor.

(CONVERSATION BETWEEN HENRY LAWSON AND TIM)
"What's the status of the fetus" TIM asked.
"He's doing very well, physical growth and brain development is in order. He seems to have natural biotic abilities, if I knew more about the father this would be easier" he answered
"The father is none of your concern , all you need to know is that fetus belongs to your daughter" TIM said coldly.
"Yes, well Joseph is growing nicely" Henry informed.
"Joseph?" TIM said giving him a questioning look.
"Ah yes, it's a boy and I always liked the name Joseph, so we've named it Joseph" Henry said with a smile.
"...Hahahahahahaha" TIM couldn't hold it in after that one.
"Is something the matter" Henry said giving TIM a look.
"No, but back to why I called, I gave you something now I need you to do something for me, what do you know about indoctrination" TIM asked before the feed cut.
END DATA PAD

Miranda jumped out of the bed after that one quickly getting dressed exiting the hospital. For some reason it was quiet and empty on the street and it made her nervous. As she turned the corner she noticed a team of Cerberus soldier's waiting for her.
"Operative Lawson, the boss wants to speak with you" the captain of the squad said as he released a mobile QEC in front of Miranda.
"Miranda I just got word of the attack are you ok, I sent this team to safely escort you back to base" TIM said sympathetically.
"You are an amazing actor, I applaud you, you used my sister against me , you turned me against my husband, and you gave my child to the worse man in the galaxy outside of yourself" she said in pure disgust with her arms folded.
"Ah, well there's no use in pretending now, Miranda I'm sorry it had to come to this. It's been a pleasure working with you, but I have to contain the situation. Goodbye Miranda, Cole finish her" he said to the team who were a little too late in raising their arms as she tore the entire squad apart before running off getting a shuttle. She took a shuttle to the citadel hoping she would find her husband to inform him of their son.

Upon arriving on the citadel she made her way to Joseph's apartment hoping to find him there. She looked around the apartment finding his terminal with her name written across it. She turned it on and set it to play, showing Joseph clearly still feeling the effects of blood loss and her knife to his stomach.
"Hey Miri, if your watching this then it probably means your here to finish the job and if that's the case then you can go fuck yourself because you'll never find me. But if you came here to apologize and have crazy ridiculous make up sex with me then I'll find you" he said with the smile that she loved to see.
"Well you should know the entire team knows about what happened on Illium so I would definitely watch out for Kasumi and Jack, especially Jack, you know she's teaching now. I'm getting off context but Rolston, Hawthorne, and Goldstein are all dead and they're after us too, so I wouldn't trust dear step daddy Timmy boy. Well I've spent too much time here and I should go I love you I always will, and this computer is rigged to trigger a neural shock once my voice stops so I would advise moving now" he said as his voice shut off and the neural shock went off just missing Miranda.
"Well if he didn't think it was safe to hide here then neither should I" Miranda said walking towards the door to have it kicked in by none other than Kai Leng.
"Ah Miranda I was actually hoping to get a little revenge on your bastard husband, but this will be so much better" he said drawing his sword attacking Miranda who was successfully dodging his attacks getting a few of her own in. She was doing great until Leng let off a powerful overload bringing her to her knees. He stalked over to finish Miranda off lifting his blade to bring it down removing her head. As he swung he was met by Joseph's omni blade and a kick to the chest. Joe stood in front of Miranda facing Kai Leng biotics flaring.
"I had a feeling you weren't dead, I won't make the same mistake this time" Joe said to him.
"I wanted you anyway, more of a challenge then that pathetic bimbo" Leng said insulting Miranda.
Joe threw a warp at Leng that he deftly dodged swinging his sword at Joe as they fought for a moment. Leng was ready to strike again but was lifted and dropped hard several times by a crippling slam from Miranda. Joe picked up Leng's sword bringing it down in his stomach trapping him to the floor. Joe lifted Miranda up through the hole in the ceiling he came through before climbing up himself sealing it.
"How'd you know I was there" Miranda said following Joe through the tunnels.
"I also triggered the terminal to alert me when you touched it, then I saw Kai Leng on the feed I connected standing in front of the apartment while you were listening to my message" he informed her leading the way back to the safe house.
"Joseph listen I'm really-"
"Save it Miranda, I don't want your apology" he said walking faster ahead of her.
"Ok I deserve that" she said catching up with him, "But that's not why I'm here I found out something interesting I have to show you", she said following him into the safe house.
He walked in standing on the other side of the room drawing his pistol holding it at his side staring her down. "Speak now or forever hold your peace" he told her folding his arms. She threw him the data pad containing the information on their child. He watched and read the entire thing in shock.
"Your father is Henry Lawson? The Henry Lawson." He said to her in shock. "I've met him a few times, once when I was fifteen strangely I can't remember much about that night and again when he came to offer me a job, before I went all bad ass of course".
"Yes, he's an egomaniac Joseph don't admire him, and he has our child doing god knows what to him", she said pacing the room.
"You mean the child that you didn't want Miranda, you discarded him like trash and now you want to be upset because someone picked him out of the garbage", he said looking at her clearly appalled.
"Joseph you don't understand, he won't love him, he'll treat him like a science experiment, something to poke and probe" she said outraged at his lack of caring.
"I'm sorry if I'm not as upset about this as you are, but I've made my peace with this situation, if you want my help I'll help you, but forgive me if I don't run out of this room behind you showing blind trust" he said sitting down.
"Is that what this is about, you'll condemn our child to a life of torture because your mad at me" she said yelling at him.
"You killed our child remember, and you tried to kill me, Miranda if I didn't know how to reave what would have happened" he said staring at her blankly. "I'd be a dead motherfucker right".
"Joseph how would you have reacted if you got condemning evidence against me warning you that I was a threat to John" she asked.
"You always were a threat to John, and you became an even bigger threat to John when I realized I had feelings for you, but I didn't stick a blade in you now did I" he answered her "The difference between you and I is that I would have always taken your word, no matter what the truth turned out to be".
"Fine Joseph don't help me, I'll do it myself", she said walking towards the door.
"Wait, I'll help you, but we can't do anything right now, every Cerberus agent on the citadel is looking for us and we killed that Kai Leng guy he had to be pretty important. We need to stay off the radar for a while you understand me" he said walking over to her "We have to be smart Miranda or we'll both end up dead, John needs me alive, Jess needs me alive I can't just throw my life out there stupidly until it's right" he explained to her.
"Fine Joseph you made your point, I need a shower where's the bathroom" she asked as he directed her to it.
This was a lot to handle reapers, a child he thought lost, a child he reconnected with, a wife he didn't trust, and a brother in lock up for doing the right thing. This was gonna be tough but he'd been in tighter spots, the only thing left now was to wait for an opportunity to move. Maybe the damn reapers would come and attack already so they could move between the hustle and bustle. The only thing left to do was to play the waiting game.

TO BE CONTINUED

A/N: THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READ THIS FIC. THERE IS ANOTHER PART TO IT THAT I'M WORKING ON NOW AND I WILL UPLOAD IT FOR MY FOUR AWESOME FOLLOWERS. REMEMBER I DON'T OWN ANY OF THIS GOODNIGHT.