A/N So this was far better and easier to write!

5th September 2191 – Crucible pulse + 4 years 11 months

Shepard was woken by a tugging on his arm. Slowly he opened his eyes, discovering the source of the tugging. Elizabeth was stood by the side of the bed, fully dressed. It took a second before he realised that she was actually clad in her school uniform, complete with the woollen cardigan with the school's logo embellished over her chest and even her little rucksack slung over both shoulders. She gave him a huge smile, though Shepard couldn't bring one quite as big to bear – because he was still half asleep. Seeing this she gave him another tug on the arm.

"Get up daddy, we're gonna be late for school!"

He looked to his left where Miranda was slowly waking up on his chest, and the fact she was still asleep spoke volumes. Miranda never slept beyond seven in the morning, she was always awake by then – even if it was just to lie awake in bed and watch him instead of getting on with any work. Shepard looked around to his right to the clock on his bedside table, and he got a shock.

"Lizzie, it's five to six in the morning!"

"I know," She nodded enthusiastically. "But mummy said we had to be up early."

"Oh," Miranda groaned as she dropped her head back down onto Shepard's chest. "Lizzie I meant at about seven thirty, not six o'clock!"

"Oh," She looked down at her shoes. "Sorry."

"Hmm," Shepard rubbed his eyes several times whilst yawning. "Can you go back to sleep?"

"John there's no point in that," Miranda sighed. "She'll just have to get dressed again in an hour and a half."

"Well what are we gonna do for an hour and a half then?"

Miranda raised her head, giving him an innocent look. "I'm sure you can take her downstairs and think of something."

"Whilst you stay up here and sleep?" Miranda nodded before collapsing back down on top of him. Shepard rolled his eyes, turning back towards their daughter. "Right Lizzie, why don't you drop your bag downstairs and I'll come down in a minute."

"OK." She nodded enthusiastically before turning and skipping off, humming a random tune to herself.

"Why didn't you just take her downstairs?"

"Well, I'm minus a pair of boxers at the moment."

"I'm minus a pair of bra or panties at the moment but..." Miranda gave him a wink before extravagantly rolling off him onto her side of the bed and collapsing once more. "I'm going back to sleep."

Shepard sighed before pressing a tender kiss to the back of her neck. Reluctantly he clambered out of bed, grabbing a pair of boxers and his bath robe, before heading downstairs. Legion followed him downstairs from his snooze spot on the first floor, and they walked into the kitchen on the ground floor to join Elizabeth.

"Do you want a drink?"

"Orange juice please."

"OK, one orange juice coming up," Shepard ducked down into the fridge, grabbing a glass from a cupboard just above. He handed it to her with a smile before heading over to the coffee machine. He pressed a couple of buttons and turned around to face his daughter whilst the machine warmed up. "You know, most kids aren't normally this excited for school. I mean, yeah there's some excitement – but you're really nuts about this aren't you?"

"I really want to go to school," She gave him a toothy grin. "I can't wait, it's gonna be awesome!"

"Hmm," Shepard stroked his chin in mock thought. "Strange child."

Elizabeth opened her mouth in protest. "I'm not strange!"

"I'm just kidding," Shepard tousled her hair, causing Elizabeth to chuckle, before heading back to the coffee machine to grab his espresso – one that he really needed. "It's great that you're so enthusiastic, really. I just hope you aren't disappointed."

She cocked her head. "Why would I be disappointed?"

"Well the thing is," Shepard took a seat on the bar stool next to Elizabeth, thinking how best to phrase what he was thinking. "Lizzie, you mustn't repeat what I'm about to say to anyone. Understand?"

She nodded. "OK, I won't tell anyone."

"Well your mother is an absolute genius, and because of that you're a genius too. You're as clever as most kids twice your age," Shepard sighed. "The other children in your class aren't likely to be as clever, you might find that the stuff you do in school is rather...boring. You can all ready read and write really well, and your mother's taught you some basic maths, how to tell the time..."

"It'll be OK daddy," She interrupted him, took another couple of gulps of orange juice, and then continued. "I don't mind that."

"OK, I just thought I should mention it."

The two sat next to each other sipping their drinks for a little while in silence. After a couple of minutes Shepard opened up his omni-tool, triggering the radio to power up. It started playing music from the classical station that Miranda enjoyed listening to, and Shepard and Elizabeth shared a disapproving look. He flicked a couple of buttons on his omni-tool and retuned the radio, putting it onto his favourite rock station – Galactic Rock. Lizzie laughed as he began to play air guitar to an old piece of 'Colonial Nu-Metal' – a genre formed from first generation colonists to rival the bands from Earth during humanities initial phases of colonisation – that was halfway through. It was at that moment that Miranda chose to walk in, an incredulous expression across her face.

"Erm..." She shook her head before jumping up to sit on the worktop on the other side of Elizabeth. "Why do I put up with your father eh? He's ridiculously...silly."

"Because you love me," Shepard challenged her, approaching with a grin. He gave her a quick kiss, slipping a hand inside her furry bathrobe to caress her toned stomach. Miranda gave him a strange look, as if she was about to say something. She obviously thought better of it and just gave him a simple smile. He gave her a questioning look, answered by a quick shake of the head. He leaned in for another kiss, whispering to her as he did. "Are you OK?"

"Fine," She nodded as he pulled back, giving him a smile. "Go and have a shower, I'll be up when you've finished."

"Sure thing." Shepard nodded, still giving Miranda a quick once over with a questioning glance after their silent conversation. He gave Elizabeth a quick kiss on the cheek before heading off. As he left Miranda spun Elizabeth's bar stool around and ran her hands through her daughters hair.

"So Lizzie, what are we doing with your hair for school? One ponytail, a pair of plats, perhaps spike it up and go all punk like this ridiculous music?"

XXXXXXXX

"I want to learn chemistry, and biology, and physics, and maths, and..."

"Lizzie, I'm not sure you'll get to do all that in your first couple of years." Shepard turned to face his daughter in the back of the skycar. Her feet were swinging back and forth with excitement, and a huge grin was plastered all over her face.

"Well, what will we learn?"

"Well you'll probably do a lot of reading, and writing as well. Also they'll probably do a lot of art with you, painting and drawing most likely."

"That is fun I guess," Elizabeth looked a little disappointed. "But I want to do science, like mummy."

Miranda chuckled from the drivers seat. "Lizzie, that kind of thing is really, really, really difficult. It takes years of training."

"Oh."

"You could do it of course, but not till you're much older," Miranda turned her head to flash her a reassuring smile before turning her attention back to flying the skycar. "You have to start with really basic stuff OK?"

"OK."

Shepard nodded. "Like I mentioned earlier, remember?"

"I remember."

"Now, a quick check," Shepard rolled his eyes as Miranda began to list off items. "School bag?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Yes."

"Pencil case, with pencils, rubber, sharpener, a couple of pens, ruler?"

There was a pause as Elizabeth peered inside her rucksack. "Yes."

"Pad of paper?"

"Got it."

"Data-pad?"

"Got that too."

"Lunch?"

"Yes," Elizabeth quickly opened up her lunch box. "Cheese sandwich, packet of crisps, crackers, apple, grapes, and a chocolate bar."

"Chocolate bar?" Miranda gave Shepard a knowing look. "I wonder how that got in there?"

"Erm..." Elizabeth giggled. "Daddy gave it to me."

"Ha!" Miranda chuckled. "Busted!"

"Well, she deserves a nice treat," Shepard flashed Miranda a cheesy smile. "As do we all every now and then."

Miranda rolled her eyes as she descended the skycar to the bustling metropolis of Milan. The school was quite near the centre of the city, and had been rebuilt from scratch after the war. Despite being in Italy the school was an international school, English was the predominant language. Students came from far and wide across the continent to study there, and it was about the only school Miranda had accepted as good enough for their daughter in the area. Of course Elizabeth was in the primary school section, which was in a separate set of buildings from the senior school.

The skycar slowed as Miranda dropped it down into the car park for the primary school, cycling the engine down with a smile. Shepard turned around to look at Elizabeth once more, she was enthusiastically gazing out of the windows at the buildings around them, and at the many other children getting out of their own vehicles with their parents.

"Lizzie?" She turned to meet Shepard's gaze. "You ready?"

"Yeah!" Without another word she hit the release button on her seat restraints, jumped up and swung her rucksack onto her back. She beamed at her parents. "Ready."

Shepard chuckled as Miranda opened the main doors of the skycar, The pair of them having to bail out rapidly to follow Elizabeth. As the skycar closed itself Shepard positioned himself on Elizabeth's right, taking one hand. Miranda took her left hand and together the three walked towards the main building, following the throng of people heading inside with their own kids. He was surprised that they blended in so well, there was an absence of the usual whispers and pointing that followed him everywhere in public. He guessed it was because the children here were probably too young to know who he was, and the parents were probably too busy with the children to notice him. It was a welcome occurrence.

They headed in through the doors and into a large, modern atrium. Whilst it was rather chaotic inside, particularly because of the children running around and shouting at the top of their lungs, there was some semblance of order. Miranda pointed to one of the signs on the wall that read 'New Reception Students' and steered them down a corridor to the right. As they headed down he noticed Elizabeth gazing at the walls that were adorned with the work of students from the last year. Much of it was artwork of kind, various posters of historical events, and paintings of all sorts of animals, people, and places. It was amazing that there was so much of it, despite the fact that this was only the second year that the school had reopened since the war.

"Lizzie, you'll probably be doing stuff like that," Shepard smiled. "Should be fun, right?"

"Hmm, looks fun." She nodded.

They emerged at the end of a corridor into a hall and, whilst it was still full of people, things were a little more organised here. They were greeted by a middle aged woman, Shepard would put her in her mid forties, with sandy blonde hair. She smiled kindly at Elizabeth, and Shepard noted with surprise that the lady greeted Elizabeth first.

"Hello young lady, I'm Mrs Evans head of the primary school," She knelt down to be eye level with Elizabeth. "And what's your name?"

"I'm Elizabeth Shepard," Elizabeth stuck a hand out to shake Mrs Evans' hand, the teacher accepting it with a rather amused expression. "But you can call me Lizzie for short."

"OK then Lizzie," The lady stood up to face Shepard and Miranda, acknowledging them for the first time with a smile. "It's fantastic to meet you Councillor, and you, Miss Lawson isn't it?"

"Yes," Miranda nodded, shaking Mrs Evans' hand before Shepard did the same. "We spoke via the extranet I believe."

"Mmm, yes," She nodded. "I apologise for not being here when you toured the school, I was dealing with an illness in my family at the time. All better now though."

"That's good to hear," Shepard nodded. "We were really impressed with what we saw here, and Lizzie's been really excited about coming here – haven't you?"

Elizabeth nodded as she begun to glance around the room, looking around at the many pupils and teachers. She looked back up at Shepard.

"Daddy, I thought Steven was going to be here."

"No, don't you remember we mentioned about this," Shepard explained kindly. "Jacob and Brynn moved to Eden Prime, for Brynn's work placement."

"Oh, I remember." Elizabeth looked a little disheartened, she was becoming fast friends with Jacob's eldest son. Seeing her disappointment Mrs Evans knelt back down again.

"Lizzie, I'm sure you'll make lots of good friends here – all of the pupils are very friendly."

Elizabeth nodded.

"Now then, lets just double check who's going to be your teacher," Mrs Evans peered at the data-pad in her hand, whilst the family looked around at the various teachers who were interacting with their brand new form. Nearly all of the teachers were very friendly looking women. "Ah yes, your teacher is Mr Evans, no relation to me though."

She pointed over to her right at the only male teacher in the room, and Shepard raised his eyebrows at the choice. The man was getting on, perhaps in his late nineties, and was sat with the children around him – talking to each one in turn rather seriously. He was wearing a dark brown cardigan on top of a green shirt, with dark green trousers on his legs. He looked a rather stern old man, with ruddy skin, thick pointy eyebrows, and a small tufts of grey hair around the sides of his head. Mr Evans wasn't exactly what Shepard had been expecting, and he noticed raised eyebrows from Miranda in his peripheral vision. Neither made a comment however.

"I assure you that he is a really fantastic teacher, very nice as well."

"Oh," Elizabeth nodded, though slightly dubiously. "Do I go over there?"

"Yes, if you are ready you can say goodbye and head on over," Mrs Evans stood up to face them. "I must see to the next family, but it was great to meet you. If there are any problems I'll let you know immediately, though I believe Elizabeth will settle in without any problems."

"Brilliant, thank you," Miranda smiled as the teacher headed over to the next family, before kneeling down to face Elizabeth. "Are you all right? We can always wait another year if you don't want to stay. You're all ready joining a year early"

"No, I'm OK mummy," She gave her mother a hug, though Shepard noted how reluctant Miranda was to let go of her. "Though Mr Evans looks strict."

"I'm sure he'll be great Lizzie," Shepard leaned down as well, taking one of Elizabeth's hands with his own. "Now have fun, and if there's any problems then just find Mrs Evans – I'm sure she'll sort everything out."

"OK, love you." With that Elizabeth turned and hurried off towards her new class, without a single backward glance. Shepard watched as she sat down next to a couple of other girls, and almost immediately Mr Evans turned and began to talk to her. After a few minutes he turned to Miranda, and she smiled sadly before indicating that they should leave. He slipped a hand into her own before heading off with one last look.

They walked out in silence, squeezing through the throng of people at the main reception area. It wasn't long before they were in the skycar, and once more in the air. It was at least five minutes before either of them spoke, Miranda being the one to break the silence.

"Do you think she'll be OK?"

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Shepard paused, he couldn't help a small sense of anxiety. "I'm pretty sure she will be, I mean she's a rather brave little girl."

"Yeah," Miranda nodded, before flashing Shepard another nervous glance. "Though that Mr Evans did look a little strict."

"Perhaps he's really nice," Shepard nodded, though he was sort of convincing himself at the same time. "They wouldn't employ a teacher for primary school who wasn't nice, would they."

"I suppose not."

There was another few minutes of silence.

"You know, it's rather quiet without Lizzie."

"It is, isn't it?" Miranda nodded.

"Well have to find something else to do from nine till three, Monday to Friday."

"Like what?" Miranda raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps I should start knitting?"

"You? Knitting?" Shepard chuckled. "Come on..."

"Obviously not, I have plenty of projects to work on in the lab," Miranda hummed. "And you have plenty of stuff to do as well."

"What about Keprals Syndrome? How is that going?"

"Still going, but on hold," Miranda sighed. "We just can't get anywhere with it at the moment, it's really pissing me off."

"I'm sure you'll crack it at some stage."

"Perhaps, there'll be other things to do as well in the future."

They lapsed into silence once more as Miranda piloted the skycar towards the house, approaching from a couple of kilometres. Shepard regarded her closely, considering how to phrase what had been in his mind since far earlier that morning.

"Miranda?"

"Yes?"

"Is there something up? Just this morning..." He trailed off

She gave him a questioning look, cocking her head. "This morning what?"

"You gave me a really funny look, when we were in the kitchen this morning," As he spoke he couldn't fail to miss the grin slip into Miranda's face, and it was a rare occasion when she couldn't completely keep a straight face. "Miri, what's up?"

"Well, I wasn't going to mention it just yet but..." Miranda paused as she dropped the skycar down onto the ground. "You know that new scanner we were working on in the labs?"

"That super dooper thingy that can scan and analyse cells to within an inch of their lives?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes the super dooper thingy that can analyse cells to within an inch of their lives. Well we were trying it out on various staff members recently, and I volunteered for a full body scan."

"And?"

"Well I'm pregnant again," She turned to him once more as a huge smile spread across both their faces together. "And the thing's so advanced that it told me what I'm carrying – we're having twin boys John."

"Twin boys?" He scratched the back of his neck, still grinning. "Awesome! I'm gonna have minions!"

"Oh god," Miranda rolled her eyes, but she flicked back to a rather serious expression. "But you want this right? You do want more kids?"

"Of course I do!" Shepard took one of her hands, rubbing his thumb tenderly across her own. "This is fantastic, absolutely brilliant."

"Well..." Miranda grinned once more. "Brilliant then."

"Why weren't you going to say anything?"

"Lizzie's just gone to school, that's really important," Miranda pressed the open button for the doors, hopping out. Shepard followed suit. "I think we should wait until she's settled in to tell her, She has to be priority one at the moment."

"If you want to do that then fine," Shepard nodded. "I'm gonna struggle to keep it in though!"

"Hmm," Miranda nodded as she pressed her thumb to the DNA scanner. She hummed as Shepard wrapped his arms around her stomach, protectively splaying his hands around her her and massaging in circles. "I love how you instantly become protective like that."

"I love you."

Miranda rolled her eyes as she pulled Shepard into the house, grinning at him. "I love you too."

XXXXXXXX

Lizzie followed the line of children into Mr Evans' classroom, passing through the door inside. The classroom was warm and colourful, filled with several low tables and small stools to match. One area across the other side of the classroom had a series of comfortable looking bean bags, underneath a series of shelves containing books – a very rare occurrence in a classroom of the twenty second century. The rest of the classroom was filled with other miscellaneous things, a sink and cooker in one corner, filing units with draw labelled for stationary, and even a fish tank.

Mr Evans cleared his throat. "Now then, if you could all sit down please."

The children all followed his instruction, all heading to a seat. Elizabeth found herself sat between two other girls, one with chestnut brown hair and hazel coloured eyes and the other with blue eyes similar to Elizabeth's own and bright blonde hair. She gave each one a smile which was returned from both before turning to face Mr Evans a little anxiously. All of the children seemed to be a little nervous and were all rather quiet, none of them exactly knew what to expect from each other or from their new teacher. He gave them a quizzical look before breaking out into a huge friendly smile.

"Why are you all looking so nervous?" He chuckled before sitting down in his large, comfy looking brown leather spinning chair. "I may look like a grumpy old man, but I don't bite!"

At this a few of the children laughed, Elizabeth included.

"So, we need to all get to know one another," He reached into a file on his desk, pulling out a few pieces of paper. "So, here I have some stickers for you all, with all of your names on. So first we have, Tom Andrews."

A boy on one of the tables put his hand. "Hello."

"Hello Tom," Mr Evans stood up and walked over to the table, peeling off an passing Tom one of the stickers. "Now if you could stick that on, now we all know who you are young man."

The boy nodded and took the sticker, placing it on the front of his cardigan. Mr Evans repeated the process in alphabetical order, and it was a while before he got to Elizabeth. In the mean time she learned that the blonde haired girl next to her was called Lauren, whilst the girl with chestnut hair was called Anna. Eventually, it was Elizabeth's turn.

"Ah, now then," Mr Evans looked around the room until his eyes settled on Elizabeth. "Elizabeth Shepard?"

She nodded. "Yes Mr Evans."

"A pleasure to meet you," He leaned forwards and gave her the sticker with a wide smile before handing out the few remaining stickers. After he had finished he sat back down on the chair, the class being a little more at ease. "Now last night I was thinking of something I could give you all, to welcome you all."

He bent down and reached into his bag, pulling out a large Tupperware box with a kindly smile.

"Now then, who likes chocolate muffins?"

Lizzie leaned forwards to whisper to both Lauren and Anna. "I really like chocolate muffins."

"Me too!"

"And me!"

There was a chorus of similar sentences as Mr Evans began to hand out the muffins, passing one to each child. They all sat there eating rather happily, smiling to one another. Mr Evans then went about handing out paper and coloured pencils to them all.

"So I'd love to get to know about you guys, and about your lives," He gestured to an empty section of wall. "So I'd like you guys to draw some pictures, about anything you want really. It could be your family, your house, pets, something you enjoy, it can be anything. And then we'll copy them and the copy can go on the wall and you can take your drawing home to put on the wall there. Does that sound like fun?"

There was nods all around the class.

"Great, well you guys crack on with that. If you want any help, just ask," He peered over the top of his glasses. "I'm not such a bad drawer myself, you know."

With that the children all grabbed pencils and begun to draw, and slowly enough they all began chatting to one another – making friends rather quickly.

XXXXXXXX

Shepard noted that Miranda was rather impatiently tapping one foot as they stood outside the main door of the school. They had both been rather relaxed during the day, having spent much of it uncharacteristically lounging about on the sofa. But in the last hour or so he had noticed Miranda to be a little tense again, he knew she was anxious to get Elizabeth back within her grasp again. He used the thumb of the hand around her waist to gently tickle her stomach, prompting Miranda to look towards him with a smile.

He looked around them at the other parents around them, nearly all the mothers seemed as anxious as Miranda. Now it was far quieter than the morning, as Elizabeth's year group finished earlier than the rest of the primary school there's was significantly less people milling about. But because of the slightly less chaotic atmosphere people had begun to realise who Shepard and Miranda was, and the common whispers and pointing had returned. He ignored it though, and busied himself with trying to keep Miranda relaxed.

After another couple of minutes the doors opened, and Lizzie's class was the first one out. Shepard noted, with a relieved smile, that she was animatedly chatting with a pair of other girls as they walked down the steps from the reception. The three turned and waved to Mr Evans, who waved back with a huge smile, before walking towards their parents. The three waved to each other enthusiastically before parting and running to their families. Elizabeth ran ran straight into her mothers arms.

"Mummy!"

"Hey Lizzie," Miranda lifted her up effortlessly, placing a loving kiss on her cheek. "Are you OK?"

"Yes, school was awesome!"

Miranda chuckled before putting Elizabeth down, letting her run to Shepard. "Good to hear."

"Hey little miss," Shepard pulled Elizabeth up into his arms as well, almost mimicking Miranda's actions. "I see you've been making friends."

"Yeah, that's Anna," Shepard followed her point to a girl with chestnut hair walking away with her family. "And that's Lauren." Shepard followed her other point to the little blonde girl who had been with Elizabeth. As Shepard looked over he noticed the girls older sister and brother staring open mouthed at Shepard, and the brother clearly mouthed the words – 'you're friends with Shepard's daughter?' – with a look of utter disbelief. At this Shepard chuckled before turning around to head off with Elizabeth in his arms and Miranda following.

"So," Shepard asked as they climbed into the skycar once more. "Did you have a fun day?"

"Yeah." She nodded enthusiastically.

Miranda looked at her through the rear view mirror of the skycar. "Is Mr Evans all right?"

"He's really funny, and he made us muffins."

"Oh wow," Shepard exchanged a surprised expression with Miranda. "He's won you over then."

"He's really kind, and he was teaching us loads of stuff," Elizabeth counted off on her fingers. "We did some writing, and some reading, and some maths, but we did some drawings first."

"Oh," Miranda looked up again as she headed towards one of the flight lanes. "What drawings did you make?"

"I did this," Elizabeth went into her bag and fetched out a piece of paper to show to them. It was clearly a drawing of them all with Legion, though there was a lot of...artistic interpretation present. For example, Shepard's head was at least as large as his body, and they all had rather pink skin. Though, it was better than a lot of three year old children could do, in Shepard's opinion. "What do you think?"

"It's lovely Lizzie," Miranda smiled genuinely. "We'll put it up on the fridge when we get home, won't we John?"

"Definitely," Shepard nodded. "Anything else interesting?"

"Mr Evans has a fish tank like ours in the classroom, but it's smaller," Lizzie smiled enthusiastically. "He has two goldfish called Stevie and Wonder."

Shepard chuckled. "Hmm, sounds like my kind of guy."

Miranda rolled her eyes.

XXXXXXXX

"Mmm, just there." Miranda moaned as Shepard worked his fingers over her naked back. He was rather good with his fingers, regardless of where they were on her body. She was in his lap on their bed, naked, enjoying the attention she was getting from him. In fact, Miranda always enjoyed their 'snuggle' time in the late hours of the night.

"Uh-hu," Shepard complied, circling one thumb on her particular pressure point underneath her right shoulder blade. "I better get something in return for this."

"Oh, you just might." Miranda replied softly as Shepard pressed his lips to the back of her neck, moving her hair gently over one shoulder with his free hand. Then he moved both his hands around her torso, wrapping them around her waist whilst resting his chin on her shoulder. Miranda sighed in contentment.

"I can't wait for this Miri."

"I can't wait for the babies, I can wait for the pregnancy though," She sighed again. "I'm gonna be twice as big, twice as quickly, with twice as much back ache and foot pain."

"I'll be here," Shepard ran a hand down her thigh before chuckling. "And I don't mind, you'll look drop dead gorgeous regardless, you'll be two times sexier."

"John Shepard," She spoke in a scandalised tone to him, grinning from ear to ear. "Are you trying to tell me you have some weird fetish you've never mentioned before?"

"Of course not," Shepard stammered. "Though there was something alluring about your body when you were carrying Elizabeth...something extra alluring I mean...and this sounds really weird doesn't it? I don't mean it how it sounds."

She raised an eyebrow. "OK, it is a bit weird."

"You know what I mean right?"

"Sort of," Miranda nodded. "You're still weird."

"I thought you'd accepted that I'm weird."

"Ha!" Miranda chuckled. "It's one of your strangely attractive features."

Miranda leaned back into Shepard, allowing her head to drop back onto his shoulders. She slowly ran her right foot up his own leg, scratching him softly with her toenails. In reply Shepard used his left foot to tickle the bottom of her own left foot. That initiated a kind of footsie war, the pair tickling each other with their feet. Miranda couldn't help but laugh, and before long she spun in his arms, straddling his lower torso. She dropped down to meet his lips with her own, feeling his hands creep around her buttocks and...

"Mummy?" The call was accompanied by a knock at the door. The warning gave them enough time to dive underneath the duvet, though only just.

"Lizzie?" Miranda cocked her head, able to flick straight to her doting mother state of mind as Elizabeth opened and walked through the door. She was clutching her plushy seal, and looked rather pale. "What are you doing up this late?"

"I had a bad dream."

"Oh, come here," Miranda patted the bed in between herself and Shepard, allowing Lizzie to clamber over her. She placed an arm around Elizabeth, Shepard taking one of her hands as well. "Do you want to say what it was about?"

"It was about these weird...things." Elizabeth shuddered.

"Things?" Shepard cocked his head, speaking softly. "What things?"

"They were human, but with weird grey skin and bright blue eyes," Elizabeth shuddered once more, squirming closer to her mother. "They were scary."

Shepard and Miranda exchanged a significant look, the description sounded disturbingly familiar. Shepard slowly voiced the thought forming in his mind.

"Have you seen these things, perhaps on a vid? Or did you just imagine them?"

"Well, today we were in the canteen and there were some of the older boys in year six who knew who I was," She explained slowly. "They asked if I knew why you were famous daddy, and I said it was because you were a Councillor."

"And then what happened?"

"They said it was because you had beaten the Reapers, and they showed me some vids, and you were both in them," She screwed her face up whilst she was reminiscing, shaking a little. "You were fighting the things, and some other weird things that looked like uncle Garrus, and aunty Liara as well. And the boys showed me the Reapers, and they were these tentacled ship things – they were scary too."

"Oh Lizzie," Miranda wrapped her other arm around the girl, pressing a kiss to her temple. "There's nothing to be scared of, the Reapers are gone."

"OK." Whilst she did nod, Miranda could hear the disbelief in her voice.

"Lizzie, why didn't you mention this before?" Shepard softly stroked her hair. "You should have told us, or your teacher."

"Sorry."

"Hey, there's nothing to be sorry about," Shepard cooed. "It's you we're thinking of."

"OK." She nodded.

"Come on Lizzie," Miranda deftly grabbed her bath robe from the side of the bed without flashing herself. "Lets get you a drink from downstairs."

She took her daughter by the hand and lead her out of the room, turning to mouth to Shepard – 'put some clothes on!' - and leading her downstairs. In the kitchen she poured Elizabeth a glass of milk, and decided to pour one for herself as well. She seated herself on a barstool, helping Elizabeth up on the one next to her.

"Mummy, what were the Reapers?"

"Lizzie, this is a really difficult topic," Miranda took a sip of milk. "It's really complicated stuff, complicated and horrible."

"But I want to know."

"Well I'll give you the basic gist of it," Miranda stroked her chin, thinking of exactly what to say. "The Reapers were very evil, and they wanted to destroy everything. Your daddy found out about them, and tried to warn everyone. Not everyone listened, and there was a very big war, loads of people died."

"And you and daddy fought in it?"

"Yes, well...your dad did an awful lot of fighting in the war, I spent a lot of it trying to save your aunty Oriana," Miranda paused, feeling rather guilty as she spoke. "But your daddy lead the entire galaxy against the Reapers, despite being outnumbered."

"And daddy won?"

"Oh yes, he saved the entire galaxy – more than once," Miranda smiled as she stroked Elizabeth's cheek softly. "He did all that for us all, for you and I, so we could have a life together as a family."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's very hard to explain, it's very sad and scary stuff," Miranda sighed. "That vid is not suitable for people of your age, but I promise you we'll explain everything when you're older. We'll have to, everyone else knows all that your dad has done and it's only fair that you know too. Is that a deal?"

"That's a deal."

"Good," Miranda drained the rest of her glass of milk, Elizabeth doing the same, before she hopped down from her stool. She helped Elizabeth down, but stopped before getting out a couple of cookies from the tin on the counter. "Have one of these darling."

"Thank you." She smiled as she took a bite, heading out of the kitchen with one of Miranda's hands on her shoulder. As they entered the bedroom she saw that Shepard was sat up on the bed, typing into a data-pad.

As Miranda crawled into bed, allowing Lizzie to climb over her into the middle of the bed. "What are you doing John?"

"Writing a message to the school, what happened today should never have happened," He frowned. "Kids in the primary school shouldn't have ever seen that vid, let alone show it to a three year old."

"Daddy, I don't want to leave the school," Elizabeth spoke with a sad voice, and the tell tale sign of tears was beginning to show on her face. "I really like it there."

"Hey, we're not going to take you out of the school if you want to stay," Miranda frowned at Shepard whilst hugging Elizabeth closely. "Are we John?"

"No, of course not," Shepard placed the data-pad down on the bed. "I just wanted to make sure the school knows so they can discipline the kids involved, and so this doesn't happen to any other kids."

"OK." Elizabeth nodded and sniffed, settling back down in between them. Miranda rolled over and placed her arms around her once more, smiling at Elizabeth whilst playing with her hair. Shepard picked up the data-pad and resumed typing, though he turned down the lights of the room to allow the other two to sleep. Elizabeth still looked a little out of sorts, and Miranda made a decision.

"Hey Lizzie, there's something I want to tell you. Hopefully, it'll cheer you up." She noticed Shepard raise an eyebrow.

"What is it?"

"Well," Miranda began to grin. "How would you feel about having...two little brothers?"

"Two brothers?" Lizzie chuckled. "But boys smell!"

"Now that is true," Miranda chuckled in return, stroking back a loose strand of hair behind her daughters ear. "But would you be OK with that?"

She nodded. "It would be fun."

"Well, I'm pregnant," She smiled. "So in nine months time, we'll have two little babies in the house."

Elizabeth smiled as she snuggled back into her mother, nestling herself underneath Miranda's arm. Shepard finished off his letter and placed the data-pad down on the bedside table, rolling over on the bed to wrap his own arm around Elizabeth and laying his hand over onto Miranda's stomach. Miranda felt herself almost drifting off to sleep, when she was interrupted by Elizabeth.

"Mummy, daddy," She paused. "Where do babies come from?"

"Erm..." Shepard scratched his head, Miranda let out a guffaw of laughter despite herself.

"Well Lizzie," Shepard started off. "This is a tricky question to answer but...well there's the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees, and..."

"John, let me handle this – you're too immature," Miranda sighed. "Now then Lizzie, every living thing in the galaxy is made of cells, and cells are really small and contain something called DNA – you'll learn about it someday. Now to get a new person, you have to mix the DNA of the two parents..."

A/N So, I'm gonna try to get another chapter out before Christmas – It's gonna be a Christmas special