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Suvi watches as Sara, somehow relatively unharmed, emerges from the core of Meridian, her brother hanging from her side almost limp. Lexi takes over quickly, taking Scott away, and giving a quick nod to Suvi on her way out.
Take care of Ryder in the meantime.
For a couple of minutes, she leaves Ryder to her small celebration with the ground team. It’s not until Drack sees her silently to the side that he yells about how it's time for drinks, then quietly pushes Ryder in Suvi's direction while directing Liam and Peebe to the opposite way. Although she was ready to wait as long as it took, Suvi feels nearly thankful. Sara deserves to rejoice with the others. She earned a whole world of applauses and appreciations. And Suvi was just a single person, not nearly capable enough to show Ryder the love she deserved. But she could still try.
“Hey,” Ryder whispers when she nears her, her voice sounding almost childishly.
“Hey you,” Suvi answers, and when Ryder gently wraps her arms around her, Suvi leans in and touches their foreheads. Ryder smells like metal, blood, and eezo, but Suvi couldn’t care any less. Suvi had spent hours preparing for the prospect that they might never have this moment, but there she was, alive and well in her arms. As long as Ryder was breathing, not in pain, and was happy, Suvi was ready to take whatever the future had in store.
“You okay?” Ryder suddenly asks her and Suvi almost laughs.
“Darling, I wasn’t the one who got shot at,” Suvi said, looking up at Ryder’s blue eyes. Eyes that had been looking at her with so much love in the past few months. With so much respect, purity and affection. Those same blue eyes now looked so exhausted, that Suvi immediately snapped, “But you don’t look okay.”
“I am just very, very tired,” Ryder finally confesses and as if waiting for permission, the Pathfinder suddenly leans a good amount of her weight at Suvi, “Lexi said that the withdraw from the drugs she gave me will hit hard.”
“I know, I know, love,” Suvi says, pulling Ryder’s side. “Let’s get you to the Tempest. We are prepared for this.”
When they finally got back to the Tempest, as much as Suvi was expecting injuries, she wasn’t ready for the entire ship to be filled with various Milky way and angaran soldiers. Lexi and Harry were running around them, stopping here and then to assist somebody, as the Moshae battles with a deep bleeding wound from an angaran nearby. With the Hyperion emergency landing, Suvi expected that it would take some time before the medbay there was operational.
“Suvi,” Lexi brushes past them, “Get her to her room, I will be there in a second.”
Even though it takes some time, she does so. Everyone wants to offer Ryder their congratulations, shake her hand, and share their version of events. And under normal conditions, she would have left things alone, but as she turns to face Sara and sees her glassy eyes and somewhat bewildered expression, she pushes Sara ahead and into her room. There is complete silence as soon as the door closes behind them. Ryder does not even move a finger as she remains still in the center of the room. Suvi needs to remove Sara from her armor because she knew Lexi would be here shortly to perform a check-up and connect an IV line.
Ryder remains silent, as Suvi carefully helps her unbuckle the different pieces and throws them to the side. At some point, she feels Sara lean her head onto her shoulder, as she tries to remove the shoulder piece, but it is stuck hard, slightly bent in from a bullet.
“My head hurts,” Sara murmurs as the shoulder piece finally comes off. At this statement, Suvi nods and guides her girlfriend to sit down on the edge of her bed.
“SAM?” Suvi asks, gently brushing against Sara’s face, with her thumb tracing her cheekbone.
“The Pathfinder suffers from a mild concussion, but I do not detect any complications. She is also dehydrated and suffering from acute withdrawal symptoms,” the AI says, his cold metallic voice coming from the small station from Sara’s desk and not the speakers, probably not wanting to cause further discomfort, “Dr. T’Perro is on her way.”
“Alright, thank you, SAM,” Suvi nods her head, even when the AI can’t see her. Or he probably could, through Ryder, but she wasn’t sure. Instead, Suvi turns again toward Sara, “Let’s remove the undersuit. Then you can lay down.”
Ryder doesn’t protest, doesn’t react, and doesn’t even throw a joke around when Suvi finally strips her from her undersuit, which is also tight stuck to her skin because of sweat. She leaves her just boxers and sports bra before guiding Ryder back down (and making a small mental note about how stiff Ryder felt), just as the door opens, Lexi storms in with a small back and a tall metal stand.
“I promise to be quick,” Lexi says, reassuring more Suvi than Ryder, who had closed her eyes, but judging from her breathing was still conscious. “Suvi, get the cannula in.”
Suvi works quickly, applying a tourniquet and tapping a couple of times. Thankfully Ryder was athletic enough for her veins to pop out almost instantly, the medical doctor inside Suvi feeling almost excited at how good it was. She cleans the area and then swiftly, under 30 degrees, inserts the needle in. As a little bit of blood pours out, she quickly removes the needle and applies some dressing, keeping the cannula in place.
“Ryder, you won’t like this, but just stay with me,” Lexi says in the meantime, taking a small flashlight from her pocket and forcing one of Ryder’s eyes open, before flashing it. Ryder instantly moans at this, her fist wrapping tightly around Suvi’s hand. Suvi carefully caresses her arm, trying to keep Sara calm, to reassure her that she was safe and sound with them.
“I know it’s uncomfortable,” Lexi explains quietly, for once not being sarcastic. She brings the light to Sara’s other eye, before finally leaving her alone and turning towards Suvi, “She is for sure concussed. Let’s start her on a bag of saline and painkillers to keep the edema in check. We will need to keep an eye on her for seizures.”
“I will be here the entire time,” Suvi reassures her, watching Ryder’s face twist in discomfort, “And the withdraw symptoms?”
“I can give her methadone, but we will mostly need to tackle them one by one. It will take 2-3 days for her body to fully clean itself. For now, let’s bandage any wounds and give her starting drugs.”
It takes approximately half an hour to deal with Ryder. Although she was relatively unharmed compared to others, Suvi and Lexi had to bandage several burn wounds and apply medigel to numerous bruises. Thankfully her ribs were not broken, just fractured. Suvi observed Ryder's face immediately relax as the painkillers began to work shortly after they connected the bag and how her breathing slowed and became more even. By the end of it, Sara actually looked comfortable enough to fall asleep, her grip finally relaxing around Suvi’s hand.
“I need to go check up on everybody else,” Lexi stands up, “I have left some medication for when she wakes up. She might feel dizzy and nauseous, if she starts vomiting, please call me.”
Suvi just gives a thankful nod, as Lexi leaves. For some time Suvi just sits on the edge of the bed, running small circles with her finger on Ryder’s stomach. She desperately fights tears, even though she doesn’t know why she was actually crying. Sara was alright, here, laying in front of her. She got out of Meridian alive and well, victorious. If she hadn’t… Suvi couldn’t even imagine what she would have done if Ryder hadn’t come out of this alive. Yes, she had her life and purpose before she met Sara, but Sara was her lover. Sara was the one person whom she loves more than anything, for whom she would give the stars and galaxies and even the biggest secret of the universe, no matter how tempting. Sara was Suvi’s encore point- the sun around which Suvi spun. Her soulmate, who was there through every moment, no matter if it was ugly and bitter or cheerful and happy. To lose her… only the possibility of hurt so much, what about if it actually...
“What’s wrong?” a tiny whisper gets her attention and Suvi looks down to find Sara watching her confused, her pupils pinpoint, even when the right one is way bigger than the other.
“Nothing, I was just thinking,” Suvi explains, her voice coming out harsher. It is then that she realizes that she was desperately trying to choke down a sob, “ I am just so happy you are okay.”
“Yeah?” Sara smiles when Suvi tucks some hair behind her ear.
“Always, love,” Suvi says, before swallowing hard, “Go back to sleep. You need to rest.”
“Can you stay?” Sara looks up at her, “I won’t sleep nearly as well if I am alone.”
Suvi understands there is no use in objecting as Ryder gradually shifted to the side to make more room for her. Suvi swiftly strips off her trousers and hoodie she had stolen from Ryder earlier, tossing them on the couch before laying down and bringing the blanket over them both. Sara turns to the side, carefully not to tackle the IV line, before facing Suvi, smiling sheepishly.
“We won,” Sara whispers happily, earning a quiet laugh from Suvi, as she lays a gentle hand on her cheek.
“Yes, you did it,” Suvi says, “Rest for now, we will celebrate later.”
“My ears are ringing,” Ryder murmurs, and Suvi furrows her brows.
“Yeah, that’s normal. You would feel better after sleeping,” Suvi explains and when Sara suddenly shifts, she moves with her to make sure she wouldn’t move the IV. As Sara turned to lay down on her stomach, Suvi carefully cuddled her head, resting it on Suvi’s chest. She places a soft kiss on Ryder’s head, watching as her girlfriend fought exhaustion, before her eyes slowly close and her body relaxed against Suvi. And just like this, she was out.
“Rest love, you earned it.”