A/N Thanks for the reception of the 1st chapter guys, I wasn't thinking so many people would like it straight off!

This chapter was going to be completely different but then I realised it would have been confusing to read. So this chapter is just a small link chapter, with another larger chapter half done already. I might need to do these every once in a while so things don't just seem random.

Can I also just mention that any medical matters I mention in the story may not be perfectly correct, I did look up benign neoplasm but as I am not any form of doctor most of it went way over my head!

11th November 2186 – Crucible pulse + 7 weeks

Miranda scratched her head as she looked over the pile of data pads arrayed in front of her, furrowing her brows yet again as she attempted to unravel the various problems she had to fix. Her benign neoplasm was not a simple condition to correct at all, as with everything of her fathers – there were many variables to consider. Primarily there was the physical problems of the tumour itself, and any damage caused by removing it. Then there were other more general problems, a main one being the hormonal imbalances she had identified. Yes it was a complicated issue, but so was death and she had beaten that herself.

Currently her focus was devoted to the hormonal imbalances, she had already established that she would need to go on a trial program of injections before even beginning to think about removing the tumour. She had planned to start today so Miranda double checked the graph on one of the data pads before deciding on a course of action, standing up and heading over to one glass cabinet. She opened it and reached inside, removing a long needle and a small vial of Oestrogen. She pulled out some cotton wool from a draw below, placing it on to the main work bench with the syringe and vial. She rolled up her t-shirt, Miranda had decided a lab coat wouldn't be needed for the provisional work, and filled the syringe before placing it low on her abdomen, three inches below her belly button. As she pressed the needle into her skin the door of the lab opened, a sweat soaked Shepard entering. He stopped in his tracks as he saw Miranda injecting herself, eyes slightly wide at the sight.

"Erm, Miranda?"

"Yes?" She emptied the contents of the needle whilst speaking, not looking upwards. Then she removed it, pressing the cotton wool lightly against the entry point as she placed the syringe back on the desk.

"Never mind."

"No," She looked up at him, giving Shepard a questioning look. "What's up?"

"Well," He walked slightly closer, eyeing up the syringe. "It's just I want to be here to help you, I mean I can't do anything scientific but I don't want you going through anything alone."

"It's only an injection John, hardly the most painful of things." She eyed him up, looking over Shepard's body. He had been in the gym again, wearing training shorts and a tight t-shirt now covered in sweat. Miranda knew he was desperate to get back to his former fitness, but of course there was his clear ulterior motive. She knew Shepard was trying to drown out his nightmares by exercise, maybe he hoped that tiring himself out enough would mean a dreamless sleep – something that of course was not true. It was painful for her to watch him at night, when he was in the grip of one of these nightmares, and although Shepard had tried to hide it from her she knew it was more than just general dreams about the war. Miranda had heard him calling out the names of his closest friends and even her own name, the sheer terror in his weak calls breaking her heart. Despite the difficulty he was going through she had to wait for him to volunteer the information, for now all Miranda could do was gently reassure him. Any force applied would just cause him to close up to her, something she really didn't want to happen.

"Still, I want to help if I can," Shepard walked over to a cabinet, looking over the chemicals inside with a curious expression. Miranda gave him a smile before walking back to her chair, binning the slightly bloodied cotton wool on the way. She began to look over the data-pads in front once more as he spoke again. "I remember the last time I was doing science in a lab."

Miranda spun the chair around to face him, noticing he had taken a seat on the workbench. She loved hearing stories of his youth for two main reasons, only one of which she had revealed to Shepard. Firstly it was purely because she had never had much of a childhood of her own and hearing these stories from him gave her something from a real past to delight in. The other reason, of which she had not revealed, was an educational one. Despite her desire to be a mother Miranda did have concerns of her ability to raise a child, but she knew that John Shepard was the best person she had ever met. Therefore she had deduced that if she could do half as good a job of raising a child as Hannah Shepard had done then, between her and John, they would raise a healthy family. These stories gave Miranda an insight into how he was raised gave her more knowledge than any of the parenting books she had read. Although it might not be related directly to mothering, Shepard in a science lab sounded like a rather intriguing story.

"So, what did you blow up?"

"Nothing actually," He gave a small chuckle. "It was when I was fifteen, mum was stationed on Arcturus for some officer training for half a year. I was with cadets but as well as the military stuff we had to do academic lessons in the afternoons, really it was just to keep all of the kids out of trouble."

"So they shoved a bunch of Alliance bound adolescents in science classes?" A comical image of a young John Shepard alongside a young Ashley Williams, James Vega, and Jeff Moreau in a science lab came to mind, causing her to chuckle lightly as well. "Sounds like a bad plan."

"It wouldn't have been if they had sensible classes, though of course we were not. Anyway, we were doing respiration in biology, and we spent a couple of lessons on fish gills," He gave her a grin. "We were given the opportunity of doing a fish dissection."

"Ah," Miranda raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to know what followed?"

"Well, it started off with the discovery that you can sword fight with fish. It was pretty painful actually," Miranda's jaw dropped, that was one of the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. Her expression prompted Shepard to continue. "Then we realised you can play catch quite effectively, though it kinda turned into dodge ball."

"I'm just..." Miranda shook her head as she searched for something to say, an incredulous look across her face. She wasn't quite sure whether to laugh or not, it was so far both hilarious and disturbing. "Well, I'm just speechless really, did you ever do the dissection or were you all chucked out?"

"Yep we did it, though it was grim to say the least," He shook his head, plastering a look of mock sadness across his features. "Blood flying everywhere, bits of hacked apart fish all over the desks. To be fair I was one of the few trying to do it properly."

Miranda gave him a look, she hadn't expected such an absurd revelation from him. "So you started your mass vendetta against fish when you were fifteen?"

"What vendetta?"

Miranda raised an eyebrow. "How many different sets of fish died on the Collector mission?"

"Well, I was busy."

She raised her other eyebrow. "And the mass murder of several hundred fish when you blew up that sushi restaurant."

"That was the other me!"

"Whatever John," She gave him a cocky grin, Miranda loved the easy banter between them. Somehow it was just natural, containing no trace of malice or seriousness whatsoever. "I need a cup of tea, you want one too?"

"Yeah sure," Miranda walked up to him, Shepard placing an arm around her shoulders as they left the lab. "But I didn't kill all my fish. I kept one lot alive during the entire of the war."

"You bought an aquarium VI," They headed up the stairs from the basement level, Miranda shutting the lab door behind them before returning to Shepard's arms. "That's cheating."

"If you insist, but what about the one lot that survived the Collector Base?"

"They only survived because Chambers fed them before and I fed them afterwards," She gave him a kiss on the cheek as they came into the hallway, heading around to the kitchen. "But keep on dreaming about your successes as a good owner."

"I will, but there was something weird about Kelly's habits with feeding them."

"Really?" Miranda extracted herself from his grip, walking over to the kettle and filling it up. She had always thought there was more than just something weird with that women, for a start her willingness to jump in bed with whatever species walked through the door. And of course the woman was obsessed with Shepard like many other women, and even some men, in the galaxy. True to his caring nature John hadn't put the woman off, instead being his usual charming self towards the infatuated yeoman. Personally Miranda didn't like Kelly Chambers, and she wasn't exactly sure why The Illusive Man had insisted for her to be placed on the Normandy – Of course the honey trap had crossed her mind, but fate had gotten in the way of that plan.

"Yeah," He grabbed a pair of mugs from the drying racks, depositing a tea bag in each before turning his attention back towards Miranda. "She said she was going to feed them when I was away, but the only times she did were literally just after I returned to the Normandy."

Miranda smirked, she already knew the answer to that one. "John, she was trying to catch you in the shower."

His eyes widened, a confused look settling over his face. "You think so?"

"Oh come off it," She rolled her eyes. "It was bloody obvious."

"Well, I wasn't even tempted Miri."

"Oh?" Miranda pushed herself off the counter, slowly sauntering over to him with a cocky look. She stopped right in front of him, placing a quick kiss on his lips. She had no doubts that he wasn't tempted, Kelly wasn't his type, but Miranda did like to occasionally show her possessiveness over her man. "Good."

They shared a grin before she turned back around, walking over to the now boiling kettle. As she began to pour out the water into the mugs a bleeping noise was heard behind her. She placed the kettle back down and looked behind her, seeing Shepard studying his open omni-tool.

"What is it?"

"A message. From Alliance command," He looked up, appearing slightly puzzled. "Here, take a look."

He tapped a few buttons on his own omni-tool, Miranda's bleeping a second later. She opened up the device, bringing up the message.

Commander Shepard,

We trust you are enjoying your vacation from service.

On 25th November, in the Citadel Council Chambers, there is going to be a ceremony for the Reaper War and it's veterans. It is for both the remembrance of the fallen and a celebration of the achievements of the galaxies forces, in particular the actions of the Normandy and her crew. We would like you to be there to receive a special commendation alongside those that served with you commander, as a small token of our immense gratitude.

For your information, versions of this message have been sent to all former and current members of the Normandy with the exception of Miss Lawson – You will obviously be showing her this.

Sincerely

There was an entire list of names and signatures at the bottom, surprising Miranda that it was addressed from the entire Admiralty Board. A small footnote was attached below.

Shepard,

I know this really isn't your kind of event, but it would be appreciated it if you were to come. You deserve a moment of appreciation like this, especially considering how you were treated by the media, Council, and even the Alliance after Bahak. In addition I was also sure you would like the chance to pay tribute to Admiral Anderson and those that died alongside him.

Hope you are enjoying retirement (Not 'vacation from service')

Hackett

Miranda finished reading the message and looked up at Shepard, trying to gauge a reaction from him. He was staring intently at his omni-tool, re-reading the message, before looking up to her and speaking.

"What do you think?"

She raised an eyebrow. "That you need a new suit."

"I was meaning about whether it's even worth going or not." Her attempt at a light-hearted reply was clearly lost on him.

"What? How can you say that?" Miranda softened her tone slightly, realising that she sounded a little too harsh. "Surely you would want to be there, for Anderson especially."

"Well..." He dropped his head slightly, adopting a look of shame. "You're right as ever."

"What are you concerned about?" Miranda approached him, laying a hand on his arm.

"This thing is meant to be about remembrance, but it'll just end up as glorification of what I've done," He shook his head, scoffing slightly. "And a chance for all the politicians to be seen brown nosing us, so they can impress their public with how close they are to the 'galaxies saviours'."

"I understand," She really did, Miranda knew Shepard's disdain for the glorification of his achievements was immense. He was proud of his successes – who wouldn't be? - but he wasn't the kind to shout it from the roof tops, or ram it down the throats of everyone he knew. He was correct that there was likely to be a lot of that at this ceremony, and the politicians would indeed be playing their own games. "But maybe you should just grin and bear it."

"I can't Miri, I can't just sit there receiving applause whilst so many others fought just as hard, while others died," He narrowed his eyes, scowling into no where in particular. "I was just in the public eye."

"You were also the one who destroyed the Reapers, the one who stopped the Collectors and Sovereign," She rubbed his wrist absent mindedly, reassuring him lightly. "You deserve recognition and so does the team, though pomp and circumstance isn't necessarily what we are all into. I can't see Kasumi the Master Thief wanting to be presented with an award in front of the entire of C-Sec."

"I guess not." He still looked a bit glum so Miranda leaned forward, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"You know, if you're so concerned about it turning into something like that then maybe you should make sure it doesn't happen," She leaned back again, turning towards the forgotten tea. "Damn it, I overdid the tea."

Miranda removed the tea bags, placing them in a small bin on the workbench. She was about to reach down to the fridge for milk when she felt arms wrapping around her waist, Shepard lightly pressing kisses on the back of her neck. She smiled at his display of affection, purring contently.

"And what is this for?"

He kissed her again before replying. "Being brilliant and an absolute genius."

"It's a habit I guess," She paused, placing her hands over his own that rested on her stomach. "Though there is another reason for going to the Citadel though."

"Really?"

"There's an expert in Huerta, his name is Dr Richard Walters," She used her foot to open the fridge by her legs, biotically pulling the milk carton up and onto the worktop. "He has made lots of breakthroughs in the field of infertility in general, I would like to meet up with him and get his opinion on my case."

"Sounds great," Shepard reached around her sides, pouring the milk into the mugs himself. "I suppose we could do both at the same time."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

A/N Proper chapter coming up soonish, please leave your thoughts on this anyhow guys.

BTW, the fish dissection thing is a rather grim and true story from my GCSE biology class... lets just say some members had no lunchtimes for quite a few weeks...