Chapter 7:

The conference room aboard the Normandy was a mess. Shepard spent a little time working out her frustrations by getting the debris cleared up a bit, but eventually she gave up. Instead, she called what remained of her squad to the CIC for a brainstorming session.

"This is going to sound really weird," Shepard started explaining. "It's weird enough that I don't really understand it yet, but it's important enough that we have to get to the bottom of it."

Her squad looked at her quizzically and she met Garrus' adoring eyes that were tinged with confusion and concern.

"I'm being blackmailed by Cerberus. When I dropped off Miranda and Jacob's bodies at the Cerberus facility on Earth, I met a young child there about the age of two.

"Bastards!" Jack exclaimed, unable to stop herself, "they're still experimenting on kids!"

"That was my initial thought too. I spent a little time with her and she seemed in good physical condition and well developed for her age. I couldn't outright remove her then, but I asked Liara to dig into Cerberus files to find out any information about her in case I needed to plan how to get her out."

Shepard took a deep breath and continued.

"When I returned to the ship I got an anonymous message with a Cerberus logo on it asking me if 'I enjoyed meeting my daughter.' Because I have never been pregnant, I laughed this off and sent the communication to Liara to document in her Cerberus files.

"Yea, like we have time for sex on this non-stop suicide mission ship." Joker scoffed while subtly checking eyes to make sure that was the case with more than just him.

Jack caught his coy play and smirked at him. "So because we're here, I'm assuming shit's about to hit the fan?"

"Basically, yes. The reason we booked it so quickly off of Earth despite my pending arrest was that Liara sent me a priority message to meet her as soon as possible. She found something. Apparently the child is genetically mine."

Gasps of shock rang out around the room, but Garrus, as usual, remained unnervingly stoic. Shepard pulled open the Project LAMB file and started passing it around the room.

"These are the files that Liara pulled from Cerberus. It details two projects, the "Lazarus Project,' which we all know was their successful attempt at bringing myself back from the dead, and the second, 'Project LAMB.'"

"Holy shit" Jack commented incredulously as she paged through the report's gruesome pictures.

"No matter how it happened," Shepard continued, deflecting attention from the traumatic images, "the child is genetically my daughter. They are no doubt holding her to get me to play their game again, but that isn't going to happen." Shepard's determination was contagious.

"As we speak, Anderson is on Earth with a reliable team searching the Cerberus base for the child. If that fails, Liara is compiling a list of all known Cerberus bases, projects, and operatives. If we don't find the girl on Earth, we're going to hunt down the people involved in the project one by one until we find who has her."

"Getting ahead of yourself, Commander." Mordin finally spoke up. "Child's DNA on file could be altered. Files could be faked. Occam's Razor favors original hypothesis."

"I know Mordin, and I agree. That's why we're going to tackle this problem from both sides. We're going to split into two teams: one group assuming the child is genetically mine, the other assuming she is part of an elaborate ploy. Either way, I believe this puts the child into immediate danger and we need to do everything we can to get her out of Cerberus' hands: either to find her real family, or to confirm that I am her real family."

"Effective strategy Commander. I concur." Mordin agreed.

"Garrus, Joker, myself, and Liara will form group one, assuming she's genetically mine. Mordin, Thane, and Jack, you will be part of group two, assuming she's not. I want all information shared between groups. Hopefully, by double-checking each other's data this way, we won't miss anything crucial or jump to any conclusions. Get to work."

As the squad pulled out their data pads and settled in for a long night of work, Shepard pulled Garrus off to the side and together they traveled up through the elevator and into the comfort of her own quarters. When they were alone, Garrus finally spoke.

"How are you?"

"A bit numb feeling. It just doesn't feel real, or possible."

"There's something more to the story isn't there?" Garrus deduced.

"The files say I was pregnant when I died on the SR1. Four weeks pregnant to be precise."

"Why didn't you tell the others?"

"It's in the files, they'll figure it out. I didn't want to blindside you with it in front of everyone."

"I appreciate that."

"Plus, we're not even sure if the file is accurate. I don't know if I was pregnant back then, I certainly didn't notice if I was. If it is true though, I know who the father is."

"Kaiden" Garrus finished for her.

"Yes." Shepard confirmed.

"Are you going to tell him?"

"I'm not sure. Probably not until I know for sure she's really mine."

"I can't imagine how hard this is for you."

"Me? I'm worried about you!" Shepard exclaimed, taken aback. "This isn't what you signed up for in a relationship with me."

"And you're still jumping the gun." Garrus sighed as he moved closer to her, laying his hands on her waist and pulling her into him. "We don't have to figure everything out today. We have time to take this slow and we can handle the hurdles as they come up."

Shepard pulled herself deeper into his embrace, pressing her head to his chest. "This is all happening so fast."

"It doesn't help that you haven't gotten a chance to process this yet."

"No." she agreed. "I keep trying to picture her face in my mind, and it feels like the more I try to remember it, the more it blurs into the background. Part of me thinks that if she was really my daughter I would have been able to see it...feel it."

"Ok," Garrus said, smiling down on her, his subharmonics rumbling low, "now you're just being hard on yourself."

"I know. Logically I know this is just a fucked up situation, and part of it is just blatant fury at Cerberus. I mean they named her after my MOM for christ's sake!" Shepard felt like she could melt into Garrus' arms and never come out. "Poor kids barely two years old and I've already royally fucked up her life."

"That's not your fault, and besides, you're going to make that kid, yours or not, the happiest kid in the galaxy when you get her out of Cerberus hands."