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Shepard’s life has become an endless cycle. Swoop in somewhere, take out some Geth, some Collectors, some Cerberus troops, some Reapers, retrieve whatever they have to retrieve, destroy whatever they have to destroy. If Shepard is quite honest with herself, it has come to the point where they start to blend into each other. The stress of the war has reduced her to just reacting, doing whatever has to be done, trying her best to save everyone. It’s draining. It’s stressful. It’s the absolute worst. Garrus keeps telling her to sleep and she keeps ignoring his concerns because there is always something to do and if she doesn’t get to it right this second it will cost lives.
They are on another ground mission, another hour of running and screaming and adrenaline, when a sudden pain cuts through the routine, quickly followed by Vega yelling “FUCK” and Garrus screaming her name. Shepard looks down at the blood seeping through her armour before saying “Huh” and promptly collapsing.
Someone picks Shepard up by the arm and starts dragging her. It takes her a second to realize that James is pulling her into cover. He rests her against a wall and starts applying medigel to the wound. Shepard is in pain, the bullet pierced right through her armour and hit her in the stomach, this can’t be good.
She realizes James is talking. “Stay with us Shepard. You will not be taken out by a fucking bullet. How did that even get through your armour. What the…”
“Seems like the armour wasn’t sitting on her body properly. I was just about to tell….you really need to get more sleep, Shepard.”, Garrus cuts in through the comm. “You can’t even put on your armour properly any more.” To any one but her the annoyance in his voice would sound real but Shepard can sense the fear underneath.
A few more shots ring out, then silence. While James was applying the medigel Garrus cleared out the rest of the room. Shepard would appreciate the teamwork if she wasn’t in so much pain. Garrus comes into view kneeling down in front of her, looking absolutely mortified. “That’s a lot of blood. Vega, how much blood can a human safely loose?”
“Not that much”, Vega grumbles looking at the wound, still seeping blood despite his efforts. “We need to get her out of here.”
“Mission”, Shepard manages to say, immediately hissing in pain.
“Ah she speaks. And of course she wants to immediately sacrifice herself”, the annoyance is back in Garrus voice. “Seriously, Shepard, you know I love you but we need to talk about…”
“Doors behind us….sealed….forward”, she manages to get out through gritted teeth.
James sighs and looks at Garrus. “She’s right.” “Fuck.”
“I don’t suppose you can walk?”, James asks turning back towards her. Shepard shakes her head. “Right then we’ll have to carry you, Scars?”
“On it”, Garrus picks her up, cradling her to his chest “This is not how I imagined carrying you around, I have to say.”
Shepard faces him and wiggles her eyebrows, earning a laugh. Some day they will have to address their tendency to ruin any serious moment with inappropriate flirting. Today is not that day.
They continue on, with James scouting ahead and Garrus setting her down behind cover whenever he needs to fight. It’s a pretty good system and soon the pain killing properties of the medigel take effect with Shepard being able to bark out orders again and even throw a few warps and singularities from behind cover. By the time the reach the scientist they are supposed to rescue she is speaking full sentences again and even manages to apply some of her charm, even though she has to do it through gritted teeth and leaning onto Garrus to stand.
Something goes wrong, as always and they are herding the scientist to the shuttle, while trying their best to fight of the Cerberus troops that were still in the facility. Shepard is standing on her feet, leaning against a wall shooting. She turns around to run at the shuttle, the pain suddenly coming back, she starts to go dizzy. She wonders if this is what death feels like.
Time slows down, Garrus is running in front of her. He hears her scream of pain and turns around. Their eyes lock.
Shepard only manages to say “I love you”. Then everything goes black.
-
“She does have a tendency towards the dramatic, doesn’t she?”, Liara’s voice cuts through the darkness. Shepard immediately knows she’s in the medbay. The sterile smell, combined with the soft whirring of the A.I. core have become intimately familiar to her over the last few months.
“Garrus does to, honestly. Probably why they like each other so much.”, Tali’s voice replies.
Doctor Chakwas chimes in. “If you two are just here to sit around and gossip about my patient…I highly encourage you to continue. Garrus alone is far from amusing company.”
“Oh excuse me for being WORRIED.” Garrus voice is much closer than the others, he must be sitting right next to her.
“You flatter yourself if you think her last words would actually be ‘I love you’”, Liara replies.
Tali is giggling. “Yeah, it would definitely be ‘I should go’.”
Shepard opens her eyes blinking into the light. Garrus is really sitting right next to her. She smiles at that before making herself known. “Hey.”
“Oh. Hey.”, Garrus responds.
Doctor Chakwas is by her side in an instant. Telling Shepard to keep lying down and let her check her over, Shepard of course ignores her and instead heaves herself up into a seating position to look at Tali. “Do I really sound like that?”
Liara, standing next to Tali, nods. “Yeah it was a pretty close impression.”
Shepard’s face scrunches up. “Ew”
“Commander, could you please lie back down.”
“It’s okay Doctor, I feel good.”, Shepard smiles again.
“Yeah, that’s because you are on a dose of painkillers suited to a Krogan”, Chakwas replies. “You can be glad Cerberus modified you so can take donations from every human blood type. I used nearly all our reserves on you.”
Shepard wiggles her eyebrows at Garrus again. “Your girlfriend is special.”
“I know”, he replies lovingly.
“Aaaand they are flirting again. I can’t believe you two sometimes”, Shepard can practically hear Liara rolling her eyes.
She shrugs in response. To her it’s moments like this that make the endless cycle bearable.