Work Text:
Shepard hasn’t been sleeping. It never came easy to her but it’s gotten worse since she died. Every time she closes her eyes her throat tightens and she feels like she is suffocating again, every time she opens them she stares into the void of space above her bed.
She takes to wandering around the Normandy at nights. The hum of the ship is calming to her. Mostly she walks around engineering, sitting down in front of the core, she always tries to make as little noise as possible but sometimes Jack hears her and sits down next to her, quietly. They don’t talk, just stare into the light.
Tonight, however, she exits the elevator on the crew deck. Her feet carry her to the main battery almost on autopilot. She has been coming here a lot during the day. Garrus’ presence is like an antidote to her stress and fear. Shepard expects to find the room empty but before she even opens the door she can hear noises from inside.
Cautiously Shepard pushes the button for the door to open, a biotic throw loading up in her right hand. Garrus is standing at the console, tapping away, just like he does during the day. He turns around at the sound of the door opening and Shepard instantly relaxes. “Hey”
“Hey”, Garrus tilts his head “What are you doing here?”
“What are YOU doing here? Why are you awake?”
“I could ask you the same thing”
“You go first”, Shepard crosses her arms “I’m your commanding officer”
“Of course you pull that card”, Garrus shakes his head. “I don’t know, I just couldn’t sleep.”
“Yeah”, she sighs “Me neither”
Shepard walks over to sit lean on his workbench, her arms still crossed. Garrus follows her movement with his eyes, leaning onto the console himself. “Want to talk about it?”
She shrugs. “I just...I remember dying. It’s hard to sleep when you feel like you’re suffocating.”
“Hmm yeah”
“What about you?”
Garrus shifts uncomfortably. “I don’t...I don’t know really. It just doesn’t come. I’m not even really tired. Too busy thinking, I guess.”
“Weird”
“Yeah”
They spend a few seconds in silence, Shepard is staring at her feet. She can feel the effect of sleep deprivation. Everything feels weirdly muffled and she’s dizzy. “Do you mind if I just, sit down here?”
“Of course not”
Shepard slides to the floor next to the workbench, leaning her head against the wall. Garrus goes back to calibrating and she watches him, her knees pulled up to her body. At some point the exhaustion overpowers her and she falls asleep.
-
She wakes up in her cabin, neatly tucked in. Shepard frowns and looks at her omni tool, she’s got a new message from Garrus.
“You feel asleep on the floor of the main battery so I put you in your own bed. That’s a very impressive cabin you got there.”
Shepard smiles and rises out of bed to deal with whatever the day decides to throw at her, feeling just a little bit better.