A/N Well just a short one to round off the latest sub-plot arc, should be far less drama for the next couple of chapters. A bit more fluff instead.

I do have a large amount of ideas for the future stuff but if anyone has any ideas, no matter how small, that they want to see included then let me know – open to any suggestions or recommendations.

Enjoy.

28th June 2188 – Crucible pulse + 20 months

Shepard stretched out his arms as he reached the top of the hill, yawning as he waited for his companion to catch up.

"Come on Garrus!"

"Yeah yeah," Garrus waved a dismissive hand at him as he strode up to join him. "I'm here."

Shepard grinned in reply. "You getting old Turian? Can't handle some exercise?"

"Shut it Shepard," Garrus shook his head. "And I'm not getting old."

"Whatever Garrus," Shepard walked over to a nearby boulder, sitting down on it and taking off his rucksack to grab a bottle of water. "Fancy a drink?"

"Yeah," Garrus nodded and came to sit next to Shepard, pulling out a drink from his own bag. "It's a nice view from here."

Shepard followed Garrus' gaze down to the south, looking down at his house. He could make out Miranda and Tali on the back patio, next to the small paddling pool for Elizabeth. He moved his stare further down the valley, towards the giant diggers working in the distance.

"Aye, another beautiful day in a beautiful place," Shepard looked back to Garrus with a grin. "Though I fell guilty about being the reason that the valley's being dug up."

"I was gonna ask, what are they doing exactly?"

"When Cerberus had that jammer there was no communications at all, I could have given Miranda a good ten minutes warning otherwise – she could have got out in time," Shepard took a swig of water. "So as part of our security upgrades we're having hard-lines installed, they go through the village and on to the nearest Alliance base. It means we have, not only communications, but also panic buttons for an instant response."

"They?"

"Yep, Miranda reviewed the suggested upgrades and upgraded them herself once more. Her idea was three sets of lines buried at different depths, if someone finds out and tries to cut them then there is two more sets to cut."

"That's a good plan."

Shepard decided he a little hungry as well so he grabbed a chocolate bar from inside his bag, breaking it open and enjoying the sweet treat. Garrus seemed to have a similar idea, he began to munch on some dextro nuts of some kind. After a few mouthfuls the Turian turned back to him.

"So, how is the investigation going? Into the attack, I mean."

"Intel are pretty sure about what happened, I'm inclined to agree with what they have concluded. After we trashed Cerberus HQ their scientific cells went to ground, at least what was left of them, and their military forces that weren't on guard details fell back to preplanned rally points – Miranda said that that was standard Cerberus protocol," Shepard took another bite of chocolate before continuing. "Obviously they were lacking direction and a group of soldiers decided they were going to take out their loss of fortune on me. There was a operative with them, who was some kind of agent like Miranda used to be. It's possible she was the brains behind it all, but we don't know for sure."

"So another Brooks style woman?" Shepard nodded as Garrus did the Turian equivalent of furrowing his brow."So some of them just banded together and decided to hatch a plan to kill Miranda to get back at you for foiling Cerberus?"

"Yeah, they took one of their ships and began to hatch their plans. Initially we think they were going to assassinate Miranda at one of their bases, but Valern couldn't persuade me to let her go so they changed it around to lure me away instead," Shepard gave Garrus a significant look. "And that was worse, they could've got Lizzie too."

"It must have been scary for you Shepard," Garrus shook his head. "I would be terrified to be in that situation with Tali."

"It was like Sanctuary all over again. No, actually it was worse."

"By the way, what's happening about Valern?"

"Well he's been fully co-operative with the investigation, he's revealed everything he knew. And he has repeatedly apologised to us," He paused. "For what it's worth I can't bear him too much ill will, his family was taken by Cerberus after all."

Garrus gave him a suspicious look. "And there's proof of that?"

Shepard nodded. "Yeah, STG spent three months chasing the ship they were imprisoned on."

Garrus shook his head disapprovingly."So he was an accessory to the attempted murder of your family, yet you aren't too annoyed with him?"

"It doesn't work like that Garrus," Shepard sighed. "He was put in an impossible situation, his family would have been killed if he hadn't complied. If I had of been in his position...I don't know what I'd have done. I would probably have gone along with them whilst Liara tracked them down with her intel."

"I suppose I can see where you're coming from," Garrus finished off his bag of nuts. "What does Miranda think of it all?"

"Well that's another story," Shepard chuckled. "I thought she was going to be arrested by C-sec for attempted murder."

"Of Valern?"

"Yeah, initially she said she wasn't going to get involved with the investigation at all. I went along to a Council meeting where we were questioning Valern, supposedly on my own. Miranda caught up with me on the way."

"And?"

"Two C-Sec Turians tried to stop her from entering, one of them is still in Huerta," Shepard paused as Garrus snorted with laughter. "Inside the chambers she pinned Valern to the wall with biotics and it was only my intervention that stopped her from seriously hurting him."

"Wow, that's pretty nasty," Garrus grinned. "Can't say I'm surprised, she can be a scary woman."

"Quite. I had to take her off for an hour, to calm her down," Shepard caught a smirk from Garrus. "Not like that, you foul minded Turian."

"Are you sure? I guess she really wanted to release some...frustration."

"Look, we may be rather obsessed with each other and wildly in love – but we aren't into PDA or anything that kinky."

"Two words," Garrus grinned. "Engine room."

"Two words," Shepard grinned back. "Fuck off."

"So, after you had," Garrus made inverted comma's with his talons. "'Calmed her down'...what happened?"

"We went back in, to hear Valern explain. Miri spent the entire time pacing behind me – for a whole two hours – whilst staring at Valern. She didn't say a word for the meeting, just listened."

Garrus chuckled. "That's pressure."

"Aye," Shepard took a final swig of water before placing the bottle back in the bag. "The Council is still deciding on whether to remove Valern or not."

"You mean he hasn't been chucked yet?" Garrus shook his head in disbelief. "How can a Councillor who almost got another one killed by betraying the, be allowed to serve?"

"That's exactly Miranda's opinion, Wrex and Balak too. Raan and the Geth Councillor have abstained whilst Sparatus and Tevos firmly believe in second chances."

"Ah," Garrus hummed. "Meaning it's down to you."

"Exactly," Shepard considered for a moment. "But I'm not so sure about it, like I said – he was in a horrible position. We're all still in discussion about it at the moment."

"Yeah."

"Any way, we should get a move on," Shepard stood up off the rock, slipping his back pack on again. He began to walk but after a few paces he realised Garrus wasn't following him. "Garrus, you coming or what?"

"What are these Shepard?"

He turned around to the Turian who was facing away from him. Garrus was staring at a group of inquisitive sheep that had crept up behind them. One particularly bold sheep took a few steps forward, locking eyes with Garrus and bleating rather loudly. Garrus clearly wasn't expecting it and jumped at the noise.

"Chill out Garrus," Shepard chuckled. "They're just sheep."

"Right," Garrus crouched down to examine the animal closer. "What do they do?"

"They're herbivores, farm animals. We use their coats for wool for clothing and their meat tastes pretty good too."

"I see," Garrus stood back up. "They're kinda sweet, well compared to Turian farm animals. Most of those are pretty violent."

"Hah!" They turned away from the sheep, walking over the top of the hill to the north. They went for several hundred metres before stopping. "You think this is a good place for the last device?"

"Yeah, they should be about a kilometre apart."

"Right." Shepard nodded as he set his backpack on the ground, taking out a circular device, about half a metre in diameter with a wide spike on the bottom. It was another of their new security measures, provided by Liara. The device was one of many, surrounding the house entirely. They monitored their surroundings and provided a warning system of any approaching person, providing alerts to the occupants of the house.

He placed the device on the ground, pressing and holding the link button on it to link the device to his omni-tool. After the connection was established he issued the bury command to it, the spike on the bottom opening to reveal a group of mini drills. The device burrowed itself into the ground, descending a couple of metres. Shepard used his feet to press the dislodged earth back over the hole it had created, disguising the device's presence.

"Man, I can't get over how cool those things are. Do we want to know how Liara got hold of such tech?" Shepard didn't receive a reply from Garrus so he turned with a quizzical expression to the Turian, who was wandering off slowly again. "Garrus?"

"Shepard, you have some really strange animals on this planet."

"What've you found..." Shepard paused as he realised the creature Garrus was heading towards. "No Garrus, get back!"

"Why? It's kinda sweet." Garrus took another step towards the animal.

"No! That's a badger..." Shepard locked eyes with the badger and, with horror, realised it wasn't just any badger. It was the badger, and it began to growl as it recognised Shepard in return. "Shit Garrus, it's the one that got in the house last year!"

"What?" Garrus looked back at him with confusion. "The one you threw at the Admirals?"

"I didn't throw..." Shepard stopped. "Just leave it..."

Shepard didn't get to finish his sentence as the badger jumped at Garrus with a high pitched screech. The Turian got a huge shock and threw himself backwards from the violent beast, throwing a foot up and kicking it away.

"Holy shit!" Shepard hauled Garrus up off the floor as the badger dusted itself off and began to circle around them with the most furious of expressions. "Just run!"

With that the pair turned and sprinted away from it, pursued closely by the rampaging beast.

XXXXXXXX

"Did he really spend an entire day looking for that module?" Miranda laughed as she questioned the Quarian sitting at the table behind her. Miranda was kneeling on the grass next to the patio, carefully managing Lizzie in her little paddling pool.

"You mean did he spend a whole day chasing monkeys?" Tali laughed. "Yes, but he annihilated every monkey colony in a three click area from the landing zone."

"Oh god," Miranda chuckled again. "Of all the ridiculous things he's done, maybe that is the funniest."

"Well, maybe," Tali hummed thoughtfully. "What about his hamster?"

"The one he got on Illium?"

"Yeah, it escaped when the Alliance impounded the Normandy and was running around in engineering for months," Tali snorted with laughter. "According to Adams he was in engineering trying to catch it for a good few hours every day, but he didn't manage to get it until just before Rannoch. EDI's got the funniest footage ever."

"He didn't tell me that," Miranda raised an eyebrow at Lizzie as she happily threw a rubber duck across the pool. "Maybe he was too embarrassed that he spent most of the war trying to catch an errant hamster?"

"Oh most definitely," Tali mused. "He has a way with animals."

Miranda nodded. "Bloody strange one."

She turned back to Elizabeth who was now splashing the water around her with her hands whilst giggling madly. Miranda put her hand into the water to flick a tiny amount of water at her daughter, Elizabeth's retort was a full on splash that soaked Miranda's jeans.

"Lizzie!" She reprimanded her with a sigh, whilst Tali was laughing once more. "I'm soaked now!"

"That's rather Shepard like," Tali waved extravagantly in the air. "Someone does something rather minor, lets say waves a pistol in his direction, and he retorts with something a little mad, lets say an orbital bombardment."

Miranda chuckled. "Yes, she's picking up some of his eccentricities. I better put my foot down."

Miranda had to admit she had warmed greatly to the Quarian, in fact she had warmed to the majority of Shepard's friends. She corrected herself, they were their friends now. She had tried to have a more outgoing and friendly attitude with the people he was close to, as per John's suggestions, and that had actually given her a chance to begin to truly get on with them. She still wasn't perfect in social situations, but Miranda was working on it. And, of course, she was sure that Shepard had asked people to give her a chance as well – something she was very grateful for.

"So, how are things on Rannoch?"

"Coming along well, very well."

"And the Geth?" Miranda voiced tentatively.

"We're co-operating really well, the relations between our species is really good," Miranda was pretty sure that Tali was smiling behind her mask. "Obviously there is still some mistrust on our side, but most people are beginning to realise we were wrong about the Geth – that we forced their hand through our own stupidity."

"That's great news."

"It's fantastic. Without the Geth our progress wouldn't be any where near what it is. We have entire cities that have been established, on our own we'd only have crappy hab blocks to live in for years," Tali's voice was full of pride. "Garrus and I have a beautiful house out in the country and a twenty first storey apartment in the capital city. Twenty first storey!"

"I've heard that the Geth are helping with your immune systems," Miranda had indeed heard the rumours, but nothing had been confirmed officially. "How is that going?"

"Again, fantastically. The volunteers have undergone brilliant progress, now they can be out of their suits in public places for hours at a time."

"Wow, we might finally get to see you guys," Miranda cocked her head. "I admit, I've always been intrigued."

"You and half the galaxy," Tali dead panned in reply, then she looked up. "Oh, the boys are on their way back Miranda."

"Hmm," She turned her head, seeing Shepard and Garrus sprinting towards the house from the forest. "Why are they running?"

"I don't know, maybe they're racing?" Tali snorted. "A male pride thing? You know, who's the strongest, who's the fastest, who can pee up a tree the highest..."

This time Miranda guffawed as she watched them run. Soon she stopped however, she noticed what was snapping at their heels.

"Can you just look after Lizzie for a minute?"

"Sure." Tali stood up, walking to the pool and kneeling down by it. She put her hands around Lizzie to support her as Miranda moved away, heading into the house through the back door and grabbing Shepard's mattock from the fish tank. She returned to the patio, ignoring the questioning from Tali, and took aim just behind the men at the badger.

She didn't want to murder the animal just yet so she aimed just in front of it, firing a round just in front of it's paws. It skidded to a halt immediately, glaring at her with furious eyes. A loud bark from inside the house signalled that Legion had caught the scent and he bounded out onto the grass to defend his territory. He had healed well since the attack, and of course he had only been a pup when he had his last confrontation with the badger. With the odds he faced the badger began to back away, clearly it didn't want to push it's luck.

As it turned tail and disappeared Shepard and Garrus slowed to a halt, both bending over with their hands on their knees and clearly exhausted.

"Erm.." Tali broke the silence. "What just happened?"

Garrus paused before replying. "We just encountered the devil incarnate Tali."

"Yeah," Shepard took another few deep breaths as he agreed. "Furry Lucifer that thing, makes Harbinger look like a pansy."

Tali peered over towards the disappearing animal, cocking her head. "What was it?"

Miranda chuckled as she replied. "A badger."

Shepard corrected her as he wiped some sweat off his brow. "Nope, it's the badger."

"You mean the one you threw at the Admiralty board?"

"Why does everyone bring that up these days?" Shepard shook his head as Tali burst out laughing. "It's gonna be on my gravestone, along with insults about my driving and 'I should go'."

"Tali, you don't understand," Garrus had a very serious expression on his face as he explained. "That thing is terrifying, it's obscene."

"You wimp Garrus."

"Hello?" The call from around the side of the house drew their attention as Hannah Shepard walked up to them. Miranda had completely forgotten that Hannah was coming to visit from her her nearby house. She stopped with a surprised expression as she saw Garrus and Shepard still recovering from their exertion, Miranda with an assault rifle, and Tali in fits of laughter. "Should I ask?"

Miranda replied. "The badger came back."

"You mean the one he threw at me?"

"Oh for god's sake," Shepard shook his head. "C'mon Garrus, lets get some beer. At least the drink won't accuse me of anything."

"Thank the spirits for beer." Garrus nodded as the pair headed indoors. "And good to see you Mrs Shepard."

Hannah laughed at Garrus formal address of her, and Miranda found it quite comical too. "And you Garrus."

"John?" He turned at Miranda's call. "Did you get all the devices in?"

"Yeah, we were finishing the last one when we were attacked."

"Great," Miranda gave him a tender smile as he left, Tali following him inside as well. "Thanks."

"So how is my lovely grandchild?" Hannah questioned Miranda as she bent down by the paddling pool, giving Lizzie an extravagant kiss. "And how are you guys?"

"Great thanks," Miranda knelt down by Lizzie as well. "We're good."

"I see the new security measures are coming along well."

"Yeah," Miranda gave a wry smile. "Though it's not really a good thing that you saw them."

"Ha! Suppose it's only temporary though." Hannah paused. "Listen Miranda, you don't mind me calling around this often do you? I mean this is the second time I've been here this week."

"No, Lizzie loves seeing you," Miranda paused. "And I admit it's rather nice to have real family around, especially someone who's a bit..."

Hannah gave her a crooked smile. "A bit weird?"

"No, I meant..." Miranda struggled for the words, this wasn't something she had admitted to anyone other than John. "To have someone who's a bit like a mother figure, or a parent. I never had that."

"I'm chuffed that it's how you feel, I really am," Hannah smiled kindly. "And it's also good because living so close I can hardly stop myself from flying over!"

Miranda chuckled.

"I hear you're starting some work on the Citadel soon?"

"Yes, it's about time I get myself another project or two," Miranda smiled, she was looking forward to getting back into work. "I'm gonna be with some of the best medical minds in the galaxy, specifically looking at creating cures for the incurable diseases we still have."

"You sound excited."

"Oh I am, it's the kind of thing I relish – a real challenge. And the end results will be far more satisfying than most of my work for Cerberus," Miranda paused as she caught Shepard and Garrus duelling with a pair of bread sticks inside the house in the corner of her eye. A cocky grin spread over her face as she gave him a once over. "Mind you, John is a rather satisfying result."

"Ha!"