"It's been a long time coming..."

.

"What happened next?"

"Hm?" Miranda tore her eyes away from Emily's irritating jumpsuit and looked at her sister.

"What happened next?" Oriana repeated her question. "You told me about Emily's origin, Shepard's pregnancy... what came next?"

"You mean her birth?"

Oriana tilted her head in thought. "That depends... Is it worth telling?"

Miranda shrugged her shoulders. "Which story involving Shepard isn't?"

. . .

"What do you think you're doing?"

Shepard raised her head, but winced a second later, clutching her stomach as she heavily leaned on their skycar. "Miri, I love you, I really do, but if you don't get into the skycar right now..." she hissed through clenched teeth.

Miranda stepped next to her, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're not driving! Not in your state..." She pointedly looked at Shepard's belly.

Shepard groaned, as another contraction hit her full force. "I have driven a Mako through Noveria's snow storms, I have chased an asari Spectre in a taxi through Illium's night traffic and I've steered a skycar while a crazy assassin was stomping over its roof, I think I'm able to drive now, so please get in the car. I won't argue with you!"


Five minutes later, Shepard was sitting in the passenger seat of their skycar, sulking and grinding her teeth while shooting sideglances at the woman in the driver seat every couple of seconds.

Miranda sighed in annoyance. "What?"

"Could you go a little faster?"

Miranda sternly shook her head. "Speed limits, remember? We'll get there soon, just... try to relax... And breathe..."

Shepard whined and turned her head away. "Can I at least listen to some music?"

"No! That awful music only distracts me!"

Another contraction made Shepard bury her head in her hands. "Ow, for god's sake! When does it stop?"

Miranda's eyebrow rose. "You got spaced, but having a baby makes you scream and whimper?"

Shepard forced a laugh through clenched teeth. "Well, it was kinda hard to scream with all the air being sucked out of my helmet back then..." Her eyes caught sight of something and she straightened in her seat, pointing to her right. "There! Go through there, it's a short-cut!"

"A constructon site?" Miranda snorted. "Definitely not!"


Miranda's eyes followed the nurse as she carried their newborn daughter away to bath and clothe her. Miranda had followed her out of the room, anxious to leave the baby out of sight as soon as she'd first set her eyes on her – and to give her hands time to heal the marks Shepard's fingernails had left... She absent-mindedly brushed her fingers over the red streams on one of her hands and winced. God, that woman has a grip...

She slightly turned her head back to the room she'd just left. If one would have only been able to judge by the sounds coming from it only minutes ago, they'd have suspected a slaughter taking place behind the closed door... Miranda testingly moved her jaw. Yes, the ringing in her ears was still there...

The nurse still wasn't back with Emily and Miranda slowly started feeling a bit out of place standing in an empty hallway, so she turned to her right and entered the waiting room, but immediately regretted her decision...

Jacob's head rose from the datapad on interior decoration he'd been reading and his eyes widened. "Miranda?"

"Jacob..." Miranda cleared her throat, trying to sound as casual as possible while still keeping an eye on the hallway in case the nurse came by again – silently hoping she'd hurry up... "What a surprise. Didn't expect you here..."

Jacob put the datapad down and nodded, smiling widely. "Yeah... Brynn and the baby are sleeping right now. Thought I'd give them some time to rest..."

Miranda's eyebrow rose. "The baby?" How many of those do they have by now?

Sparing Miranda the effort of trying to remember how many messages filled with baby pictures and a grinning Jacob and Brynn they'd received so far, Jacob nodded, still smiling proudly. "Yeah, it's our fourth now..."

Miranda pursed her lips as she forced her eyebrow to lower, nodding to hide the effort. "Wow... four, huh?"

Again, Jacob nodded by way of an answer, but to be fair, Miranda's sentence didn't exactly leave him much choice in that matter... She forced a smile, unsure what to do next... Sure, she and Jacob had been close once, but that was years ago and the closeness hadn't exactly been on an... emotional level... So what was one to do in a situation like this anyway? Should she pat him on the shoulder?

She pursed her lips once more before adding, "Impressive..."

Jacob waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, it's just the most beautiful feeling in the world. Being part of something so..." He was lost for words, but for once he didn't need to finish his sentence for Miranda's heart to skip a beat at the memory of her daughter. She knew exactly what he meant and her eyes lit up at the thought.

The effect wasn't lost on Jacob and his smile widened even more. "You're already up and running again, I see... Heh, guess having the perfect genes pays off once more..."

Miranda took a step back and her eyes widened as she realized what he'd implied. "Oh, I'm not..." She nervously cleared her throat while raising her arms, gesturing through the air helplessly. "I mean, I wasn't the one... giving birth..."

Jacob's jaw dropped. "Shepard?"

Miranda shrugged, smiling shyly. Jacob gave a short laugh and shook his head, his smile back in place again as he rubbed his chin. "Well, she certainly never striked me as the... motherly type..."

Miranda's cheeks darkened as she evaded Jacob's eyes. "Well, she..." She involuntarily rubbed her arm nervously. "She can be... very caring..." she offered, cursing herself for feeling the need to defend Shepard and their decision in the first place...

"Sure, sure. I didn't mean to..." Jacob shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "You know... I just thought..." He shook his head and got up from his chair, approaching her. "Nevermind. Congratulations!" And before Miranda could read his expression to know what he was up to, he'd already wrapped his strong arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace. With her movements suddenly limited, Miranda simply settled for a few pats on Jacob's broad shoulders as a response.

Right before she was forced to break the hug with her biotics, Jacob released her and took a few steps back, still smiling – and making Miranda silently wonder if she herself looked like that right now, although she doubted it... She would never grin like a lunatic... would she?

"Feels good, doesn't it?"

"Yes." Her smile was finally back in place, an honest one this time. "Yes, it does."

The following silence was all too soon broken by a hoarse scream from next door.

"Miranda!"

Ugh! The called woman rolled her eyes and, after nodding her goodbyes to Jacob, turned on her heels, storming back into the room she had just left a few minutes prior. Somebody please give her a sedative...

The door to Shepard's room hissed open and as soon as the commander spotted the raven-haired woman, she sank back into her pillow, sighing in relief as she ran a hand through her damp hair.

"Damn it, that hurt!" Shepard cursed, closing her eyes as she rested her head back on the pillow. She gave another deep sigh as she blindly reached out with her hand, fumbling through the air until Miranda closed her own hand around it, sitting down on the bed next to Shepard.

Her former XO grinned mischievously as she lightly patted Shepard's hand. "Ready for round two?"

Shepard snorted and shook her head vehemently. "Don't even think about it! One's definitely enough! If you want any more, we're going to adopt!" the former commander stated, resting her head in Miranda's lap. "Why couldn't we have a tube-baby like you were?" she whimpered.

"Because I couldn't think of anything more fun than having your bloody pregnant ass around me for the last nine months..." Miranda stated dryly, half-heartedly slapping Shepard's head for her insensitive remark beforehand.

Shepard rubbed the back of her head. "Ow, I'm the mother of your child, you could be a little more grateful." Pouting her lips mockingly, she rubbed her belly. "My body's still recovering..."

"And you could stop being such an ass-" The door to the room hissed open. "-tonishingly sensitive and caring person," she finished her sentence as she smilingly turned around to face the nurse with the small bundle in her hand.

"Asstonishingly sensitive and caring, huh?" Shepard chuckled as she straightened up again, resting against the bed's pillow.

"There we are," the nurse cooed and stopped in front of the bed, looking back and forth between the two women until Shepard nodded towards Miranda.

"Go on, I've carried her long enough..."

Miranda shot her a disapproving glare before she turned to the smiling nurse who handed her the baby.

"I'll come and check on you later," the nurse announced before she turned and left the room.

At a loss for words, Miranda simply looked down at the small baby sleeping peacefully in her arms. She remained like this for a couple of seconds before she carefully placed Emily back in Shepard's arms and lay down on the bed next to her, propping her chin in the palm of her hand while she placed her free hand protectively around the small bundle between them, brushing a few strands of soft, dark hair with her thumb.

Someone behind them cleared their throat and as they both raised their heads, Kasumi deactivated her tactical cloak, smilingly waving at the couple on the bed.

"God, you gotta stop doing that!" Shepard shook her head and shot a quick glance at the still closed door. "How did you get in here anyway?"

The master thief shrugged. "Followed the nurse," she said matter-of-faclty before she turned and took a small picture off the wall behind her, placing it in her bag. With both Shepard's and Miranda's disbelieving eyes following her, Kasumi proceeded through the room, collecting various hospital equipment and placing it in her bag, whistling happily.

After a while, Shepard cleared her throat. "Erm, Kasumi? What are you doing exactly?"

The thief stopped next to the bed and placed a vase in her bag before she raised her hands, her eyes widening innocently. "What? It's not like they're gonna miss it..."

Shepard sighed, slightly shifting in her bed as she answered, "Well, let me know if you need me to get out of this bed in case you want to take that too."

"You'd do that?" Kasumi gave a mocking sigh before she gracefully jumped on the bed opposite to Miranda who shook her head.

"Don't encourage her!" the raven-haired woman chided before she turned to the smiling master thief. "You really should think about a change of carreer..." she told her sternly.

Shepard turned her head towards her. "What are you doing here anyway?"

Kasumi shrugged once more. "I wanted to be the first to see the baby of course!" She smiled, leaning forward to get a better look at the still sleeping Emily.

Miranda's eyebrow rose at Kasumi's statement. "And your presence has nothing to do with Jacob sitting next door, I take it?" she asked skeptically.

"Jacob's here? Well, what a coincidence..." Kasumi giggled bashfully. "I... I didn't even notice..."

"M-Hm..."

Now even Shepard had raised her eyebrow and the two of them eyed the squirming thief mercilessly.

"Did you talk to him? Did he mention me? Do you think he and Brynn are still an item?"

"With Brynn having just given birth to their fourth child? Hm, maybe..."

Kasumi's brows furrowed while she contemplated Miranda's words for a while before her eyes lit up again and she faced the couple.

"Do you think he would get jealous if he saw me with a child?" Her smile widend. "Could I borrow yours for a minute?"

"Absolutely not!" came the response from both Shepard and Miranda. And while Miranda shot Kasumi her most threatening glare – oh yes, she still had it in her – Shepard carefully tightened her hold on the baby in her arms.

Kasumi raised both hands and hopped off the bed. "Fine. Don't help me, that's fine by me... It's not like I've ever done anything for you..."

"Out!"

. . .

"That Kasumi sounds like quite the character..."

"As long as you keep her and Jacob in separate rooms, she's quite all right, actually... Just don't ever ask her where she gets her presents from... and don't put them on display in case the authorities storm your house..." Miranda gave a heavy sigh. "...And be prepared for her to rush into your house, unnanounced, and reclaim her gifts a few months later when it's safe again to sell them on the black market..."

"Wow..."

"Yes, that's Kasumi..." Miranda turned to her sister. "But enough of that. What do you want to do now? Watch another vid?"

She nodded towards the terminal where the end credits rolled. Oriana glanced over Emily's shoulder and pursed her lips. She hadn't even realized the movie had ended while she'd listened to Miranda's story. Smiling at Emily, she shook her head.

"Nope, I think we've been sitting around enough already, let's do something else. I was thinking of baking a 'Welcome home'-cake for Shepard."

Miranda's eyebrow rose. "I think a 'Hurray, she's still got all her limbs'-cake would be more appropriate..."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, always with the sarcasm..."


A/N: Almost done with this one-shot collection now... thanks a lot for sticking around and all your responses.

Oh, and don't let these one-shots fool you: children are a lot of hard work, they scream, they're needy, they're moody, etc. I just haven't felt the need to portray that in my stories... :) Though it might be interesting to see Shep's reaction to a screaming "bundle of joy", right?