Title: A Commander's First Duty
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Bioware. 'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons.
Beta Reader: NothingSoSpecial
Story Requested By: NothingSoSpecial
Summary: After a particularly rough mission Commander Shepard, Garrus, and Thane are on their way back to the Normandy when the shuttle is shot down. They miraculously survive the resulting crash, but they're all seriously wounded; some more than others, and in ways no medicine can treat. It becomes a race against time and Shepard's not sure if they'll all make it. A commander's first duty is always to ensure the safety of their team, and Shepard will willing die to honor those words.
Chapter One
Cracks
Commander Joleen Shepard woke with a pounding headache and a turian on top of her. The gray fringe and electronic blue glow were familiar enough that she instantly knew the who it was so, instead of pushing him off, Shepard gave herself a few minutes to gather herself.
Yet, the thrashing in her head was not letting up and she could only focus on the sound of Garrus' breathing, as it rumbled so deep in his chest that it shook her with each warm puff against her neck. It wasn't bad having him pressed against her, even in full armor, and she was a little surprised at that. She always figured turians wouldn't be very enjoyable bed partners, if only for their size and hard body plates. But if she didn't mind his armor then maybe she wouldn't mind… okay, exactly how hard did she hit her head?
Forcing herself to focus, she found Garrus' weight was becoming uncomfortable. Heavy even.
Ugh, if I closed my eyes I could swear this was Grunt, she thought with a groan as she lifted herself up on her elbows, only to gasp in pain at the movement. Her right side ached horribly as she pushed Garrus off her enough to slide free.
"Siha," a gravelly voice called, oddly muted to her ears. Her head only pounded harder as she tried to listen to it and gave up, letting her body go slack and falling flat on her back. Above her, she noticed a ribbon of charcoal gray smoke streaking the slightly purple atmosphere and she watched as the wind swirled the edges of the dark pillar, blending it into the sky. There was a popping noise in the air, the crunch of sand or the crackle of fire, or maybe both. Long, broken beams of jagged metal were skirting the edge of her view and were in focus enough she knew they weren't too far away.
Black orbs replaced the tower of smoke and it took her a few seconds to realize they were dark eyes peering down at her and it didn't just suddenly become night.
"Commander," the voice tried more urgently. Tight, green skin and wide, full lips joined the dark eyes and she gave a small smile in recognition.
Thane moved to kneel next to her and brushed a strand of dark brown hair from her head. "You need to focus." Hell, she'd been trying. "You're injured… we are all injured. And it looks like Garrus' leg maybe broken."
"Injured?" she asked, and thankfully her voice was stronger than she'd thought it would be.
The assassin didn't verbally respond, only gave a slow nod as his eyes left hers to look over at their knocked out team member. Thane was crouched down between Garrus and her and this time ran his hand across Garrus' brow. He frowned and hit his omni-tool, quickly running his lit arm across Garrus' still form.
Shepard watched Thane for a moment, noticing his clothes were streaked with splashes of red blood and, through two holes in his tight vest, she could see white bandages tinted slightly pink. Not seeing any other indications of any other wounds, she waited until he was done with his scan. Seeing that Thane wasn't voicing what he found, it was either nothing important, or something very bad. She gritted her teeth as she sat up, gently pushing Thane's hands away as he turned and offered her aid, and looked around at their surroundings.
They were still in the shuttle. The same one they were heading back to the Normandy on. Only now it was a twisted shell of what it once was. The roof was peeled completely back and the smell of burning metal, plastic, and fuel was growing more pungent by the second.
They had to move, before the fire grew and the failsafes that were keeping the ship from exploding gave out.
"We were shot down?" Shepard growled out in a low voice, anger anchoring her senses and numbing the pain in her side. She's never been the best pilot, her crew could attest to her blatant disregard for personal safety behind the wheel, but she drove like she did because an erratic target was harder to hit. But, damn it all, she had to navigate in a straight line when re-docking with the Normandy, and that provided the perfect opportunity to attack them.
"I am afraid so," Thane sighed as he spared a glance around the shuttle. "I've already removed the survival kits from the wreckage," he added, nodding at four small bundles outside the open doors, sitting in the cleared out path the shuttle must have made during the crash. "But time is short," he warned with a tight jaw.
Shepard nodded, understanding. Someone would come looking for their prize pretty soon, and all she planned on giving them was a smoking crater.
"Alright," Shepard gritted her teeth once more and forced herself to stand in one fluid motion, not even letting herself flinch. One fleeting glance at her side told her she didn't have an open wound and, while it may hurt, she doubted it was anything serious. Garrus was still unnervingly still and she took a moment to crouch down next to him. She saw why Thane had touched his head; the plating was cracked at his brow and a bit of blue blood was bubbling up from the fissure.
"He's not waking?" Shepard asked with a frown.
Thane shook his head and stood. "So far, no."
The commander straightened and took a step towards Thane. "The Normandy?"
"Dead air."
"Alright," she sighed. "No telling when back-up's coming, then."
Outside the shuttle, past the small bundle of supplies, looked to be grassy flatlands. She squinted as a blob of gray in the distance caught her attention and she felt her heart drop. "And please don't tell me the only cover is— what?—miles away and the only damn thing out here?"
Thane gave a dry laugh. "Then I shall refrain from doing so."
For a moment she let her body sag in defeat, knowing that nothing was about to be easy, and then let that feeling of hopelessness go. She'd been in worse and gotten out of worse, and she was not about to let her team suffer just because she was feeling incredibly lackluster at the moment.
Plus, her head was killing her. She'd had headaches before (she had a pretty nasty one after head-butting that krogan back on Tuchanka) but this was a whole new deal. It felt like someone was drilling holes in her head from several different angles at once. If this is what Kaidan felt when he bitched about his headaches, maybe she shouldn't have called him a wuss that one time….
Rolling her shoulder, Shepard prepared her aching body for what it needed to do. "Which means," she started as she circled Garrus. "We either head there, dragging Garrus along, and go hide in the first place anyone with a brain bigger than a vorcha will look, or we walk in a random direction and anyone with access to a satellite will spot us in seconds. There is also the huge chance that the rock formation is hiding the base of whoever shot us down, as that's normally how it goes. Which wouldn't be so bad if we weren't already shit tired from that run-around the Illusive Man just sent us on."
"We have little choice, I'm afraid." Thane looked off at the rocks. "We need a vantage point, even one that will draw our enemies." He gave a small smile. "And even that can be turned to our advantage."
"Yes, true. Would be nice to have our best sniper conscious, though." She bent down on Garrus' left, Thane on his right, and they lifted him in one smooth motion. That must have been the jolt his body needed, because Garrus let out a small pained groan and Shepard was relieved to see his eyes crack open.
"By the Spirits, Shepard. How did your driving get worse?"
A smile broke wide on the commander's face and she felt her headache ease a little as she chuckled. "Sorry, Garrus. For once it wasn't me. Easy there," she warned as he tried to support his own weight and he flinched as he shifted his weight on his right. His leg didn't appear too bent at any awkward angles, but seeing how most of his body moved a lot differently than hers, it was hard to tell.
"Damn," Garrus cursed as he leaned back on her and Thane. "Damn," he repeated as he scanned the wreckage around them. "Damn," he hissed, fringe lifting and eyes narrowing as he looked out at the grass lands. With Garrus' turian eyesight being the best and Shepard's being the worse (even for a human and, frankly, she was amazed Cerberus didn't throw in some laser eye surgery while they were at it) she was the last to see what her two companions did.
"Of course," she smiled a little as the small convoy of military-grade looking combat ground vehicles drew closer. "What are the odds they're friendly?"
Thane and Garrus both gave her blank looks and Garrus drawled, "With you here, Commander? Zero."
The convoy slowed to a stop and from the three combat vehicles—ground rovers meant to transverse even the most alien of landscapes—four batarians emerged from the rear of each, twelve in total.
Shepard was a little surprised. She was expecting Blood Pack, as they had come to this backwater planet to take out one of their bases station not too far away in the first place. The batarians were clad in plain, non-descriptive armor, a tell-tale sign they were slavers, and were equipped with some very advanced weaponry and tech, signs they weren't a joke.
While long range commutations may have been out, thankfully the short range wasn't, so their comms were still functioning. They were dangerously low on ammo, but she was sure they had enough to at least take this squad out. Shepard watched as half of the squad moved cautiously forward, sparing a fleeting glance at the pile of supplies, and drawing their weapons as they neared the smoking shuttle.
"Commander Shepard!" the batarian at the front yelled as he stopped near the shuttle. "Come out now if you want to live," he growled.
Through the comm Thane chuckled. "It seems they are looking for you, Siha. Perhaps you should be courteous and say hello?"
Shepard felt her lips pull back into a sneer that would make Jack proud. "Of course. Wouldn't want to be rude, now would I?"
Garrus sighed. "Try not to be too reckless, Shepard. I only have six shots and I normally need at least seven to save your ass."
Shepard absentmindedly nodded as she felt her heart quicken in anticipation. Slowly, she pulled her shotgun from her back, careful not to draw attention to her position. "Now," she barked, jumping up from the grass, where she had crawled around to flank the six slavers near the vehicles. The last thing they needed was for them to get into one of them and get a tactical advantage.
One, she counted in the back of her head as adrenaline pumped violently into her system, slowing down the world around her to a muddled flow. She pulled her shotgun up and fired, taking out the closest slaver, just as two in front of that same one dropped, their heads missing.
Two. The three left from her group turned to her, just as the six in the farther group opened fire on the shuttle and she reloaded.
Three. Shepard jammed her shotgun into the nearest gut and shot, tearing through armor and flesh and spraying the field with green blood.
Four. She reloaded quickly, knowing her time was almost up, and jammed her elbow into a batarian's face as she aimed her gun at the other.
Five. She shot as the slaver behind her let out a pained cry and fell back. The one in front deadlocked on his gun as his lifeless body fell, spraying the area with a torrent of wild bullets. A few impacted on her shields and cut its durability in half.
Six. The world quickened to its natural pace and, with a terrible vengeance, her head pulsed with searing pain. Shepard stumbled, not expecting her headache to worsen from the use of her Adrenaline Rush, and panicked as she felt herself being tackled to the ground.
Her shoulder—the shoulder that's never been quiet right since Cerberus rebuilt her—hit the ground first, taking the brunt of the fall and the weight of both her and the slaver. The slaver shoved her onto her back and jammed his pistol into her face, the metal of the muzzle cold on her skin.
His nose was oozing emerald blood and his four eyes were glaring hard at her. "Fucking stupid human," he growled. "You rather die out here than give up?"
Shepard felt herself go slack. She should disarm him. It was simple to do. But something wasn't right. The purple sky above the slaver's head was suddenly a pale cerulean blue. The tall grass around her was fading from her vision and her armor felt light, like it wasn't there at all.
And the slaver was still a slaver, but a different one. Three eyes with a bleeding hole where the fourth should be and a gleaming knife in his clenched hand instead of a gun.
"Fucking human," he growled, voice echoing alongside the crash of waves. "You think one little pyjak can stop us?"
From behind him came a light, amused laugh. "Good thing she's not alone then." A shot, no, two shots rang out—one in her head, one in her ears—and the slaver's head was gone.
Shepard gasped as her senses returned to her, the weight of the dead slaver on her chest and the feel of his warm blood soaking her anchored her to reality. Her head was beating alongside her heart and for the life of her she couldn't muster enough energy to push the corpse off.
What the hell was wrong with her?
That… that was from….
"Shepard!" Garrus snapped through the comm. "Commander! Say something! Are you hit? Shit, Thane—"
"Cover me," was the quiet reply. It didn't take long for black eyes to pop into her vision and darkness leaked from them as she felt a weight lift off her.
"Siha," Thane called, voice growing dim as her eyes grew heavy and all she could feel was the pounding of her head.
Shepard's eyes fluttered open as she slowly woke up. From the steady rocking and loud hum, she could tell she was in a vehicle of some sorts. Her first instinct was to check for restraints. Not feeling any kind of bondage, she carefully turned her head, not wanting to alert anyone to her waking state, just in case she needed the advantage.
She was lying on metal bench; the cockpit was past her feet and the back door somewhere, she guessed, behind her head. Propped up on the bench next to her was Garrus. His wounded leg was lying flat and his good one was on the floor, keeping him upright as his body shook with the occasional rock of the rover. The benches were close enough that his left hand was gripping the edge of hers (maybe to keep her from rolling onto the floor in her sleep?) and his eyes were closed.
"Garrus?" she called softly, not wanting to wake him if he was indeed sleep.
His eyes snapped open and instantly locked with hers. "Shepard," he let out a relieved sigh and she felt herself warm at the care in his voice.
"How's your leg?" She asked, because she didn't get a chance to before.
"I've locked my suit's joints to act as a split, so it's fine for now. I'm more concerned about you two."
"I'm fine, just a little—wait. You two?" Shit, did Thane get injured helping her?
Garrus looked over his shoulder towards the cockpit, where she could see Thane driving. "It seems Thane was impaled in the crash and he's been bleeding all over the place," he said reproachfully, his voice still heavy with the concern he had for her.
Shepard moved to sit up and Garrus placed his hand on her shoulder as she did, to make sure she was steady. "Bleeding? He wasn't bleeding earlier."
"I had bandaged it and the medi-gel had stopped the flow," Thane explained, not taking his eyes off the road. "But it appears too severe for medi-gel alone to handle."
"You should have said something," she hissed.
"I believe I did say we were all injured."
"Don't be a smart-ass," she chided. "Anything else I should know?" she said as she looked at Garrus to let him know she was including him.
"No," Thane answered as Garrus shrugged.
"My heads killing me, but it's manageable," the turian narrowed his eyes at her as he spoke, "And you? What happened back there? You just froze up."
"Don't know." She shrugged this time. "Maybe I hit my head when he tackled me? My head's been pounding since the crash."
Garrus frowned, he eyes calculating as he looked her over. "You froze up before he tackled you. And you have no head wound. The only injury your suit registered is two broken ribs."
Oh, so maybe her side hurting was a big deal.
"Well, my head's still pounding like a jackhammer, wounded or not. And why were you watching me so closely? I've told you before to stop that. I don't need you to watch my every move, not when you have your own squad to take out."
He shifted and looked away, mandibles clamped to his face. "Try arguing that when I didn't just save your ass."
She wasn't trying to sound ungrateful, but that wasn't the first time she'd caught him watching her more than he should. If he had targets to take out, then she needed him to do so as quickly and efficiently as possible, not worrying about her. But after her dying two years ago and him losing his team, that maybe an argument she was never going to win.
She could still lecture his ass for it, though.
"I'll argue it now, Vakarian," the commander snapped and was slightly pleased to see him flinch. He was just so cute when he ducked his head like that… seriously? What was wrong with her head? Since when was Garrus cute? 'Turian' and 'cute' only go together when the word 'gun' was worked in there. Like 'The turian though the gun was cute' or 'The turian thought it was cute that gun was pointed at him'.
Her head gave a throb and she closed her eyes, trying to find some relief from the pain, but it was useless. "Forget it," she sighed as she rubbed her temples. "Where are the med-kits? There has to be a pain pill in there." She opened her eyes and Garrus looked towards the back of the truck and moved to stand. "Don't," she ordered, hand reaching out to press down on his chest. "Your leg," she reminded.
Standing up made her head swim and the swaying of the truck was far from helping, but she retrieved a bottle of human grade pain-pills from the kits salvaged from their wreak. She noticed a bottle for each species that was currently serving on her ship and, while Cerberus was a pain-in-the-damn-ass, they at least knew to plan ahead… sometimes.
Garrus and Thane had already taken some, and told her not to worry about them. She was willing to set aside her concern for the moment, but it was in favor of making a plan.
Currently, Thane was driving them away from their crash site. The ground rover had a map onboard and from it they could tell that the rock formation was indeed the slaver's base. They also had the Blood Pack's base listed on it, leading them to believe that the two groups were working in tangent somehow. The rover's comms were not made for long range (which she found odd until she remembered she was dealing with slavers and they'd most likely disabled the long range in the occurrence that someone in their 'care' escaped and stole a rover) and so they were still cut off from the Normandy. They agreed their best bet was to head to the Blood Pack's base, as they had merely taken out the gang and had left the base standing.
So, they quickly turned around and headed back the way they came, towards the slaver's base, because it was a given the slavers would either expect that or already be there salvaging the place. What they won't expect would be Shepard coming right to their door.
Or maybe they would. Honestly, she was so used to doing half-thought out, hair brained schemes that she didn't even know what the inside of the box looked like anymore.
Her two teammates agreed, so that made her feel slightly better with her choice. They had salvaged all weapons and tech from the dead slavers and were no longer running the risk of running out of ammo. Garrus had disabled the trackers in the rover's systems, so they would be approaching the compound undetected. Thane and Shepard were both mobile enough to sneak in and get word to the Normandy, and Garrus would be ready on standby for their getaway.
So, with a plan laid out, Shepard eased herself into the co-pilots seat to wait. The pills had done their job and she sighed in relief as her head finally stopped pounding. She ran a system check of her suit and read over her injuries. Combat suits were made to record all wounds, so that med-gel could be dispersed to the proper location. Currently, only her two broken ribs were showing up on the report screen on her omni-tool. Strange, as she was sure her headache was from hitting it and that… hallucination as well.
Going through a backlog of reports she found some surprising things; the upper right panel on the back of her armor had been chipped in the firefight that morning with the Pack. Her left thigh plating, the paneling over her stomach, chest, and left foot were all severely cracked, to the point her armor would shatter from any drastic shift in atmospheric pressure. The blood from the slaver had leaked into the cracks and fried some of her shield generators, making those areas exposed during a fight and her shield only able to work at two-thirds efficiency.
And there was an unknown substance clogging her suits filters.
This is why you always were a helmet, Joleen, she lectured herself as she ran the substance through her suit's scanners, only to get no results. Wearing a helmet wouldn't have helped, not after the crash and her cracked suit. Plus, she was planetside this morning and she felt fine then. But she was inside the base the whole time, so if the substance was the source of her headache, it may not have been in a big enough quantity in her system yet to cause it.
But this is a slaver planet, she reasoned as she looked out the window and at the expansive grassy fields. No place to run, no place to hide. They would find any escaped slaves in no time here, so why risk any type of ill effects on their 'cargo' with a toxic atmosphere? Plus, Cerberus sent her here; they do warn her about breathing toxic atmospheres, even if they don't like telling her about 'ambushes' and 'those dead Collectors aren't actually that dead' and….
"Damn it," she sighed loud enough for her team to hear. "I think something in the air is giving me my headache." She doesn't mention the hallucination, as she's not too sure it was one. She used to fall back into those memories a lot; used to remember ever step along that beach and hear every gull and child scream in her ears.
She thought she was free of those memories, but to lose them would be to lose a bit of him, and she owed him far too much to forget one second of his sacrifice. Just now was not a good time for those thoughts and feeling to take hold; Garrus and Thane's lives were her responsibility and her crew's safety took priority over a ghost any day.
Garrus spoke up from the back, "Possible. But EDI would have warned us of any health threats."
Thane looked at her from the corner of his eyes and added, "If she was aware. This wouldn't be the first time the AI was not given all of the details. I, however, find it strange how quickly the batarians were on us. They did not happen to see our shuttle, take it out, and know the occupant inside all by chance."
Garrus snorted. "Every damn crook in the universe knows Shepard."
"But how? They did not see her and many still do not believe she is even alive. Even fewer are aware of her connection to Cerberus. This has been a trap from the start."
"Why risk her life with toxins? With the Collector ship it was straightforward, but how can they expect her to fight off the air?"
"My upgrades," Shepard cut in, her mind working a mile a minute as she tried to piece everything together. "If the Illusive Man thought my upgrade would protect me from whatever's in the air, that man's so damn full of himself that he wouldn't hesitate to send me. The idea of something he's made—some plan of his or anything else—failing is surely foreign to him. So the question is; what's so important on this planet?"
"Couldn't be the merc base we took out," Garrus mused and Shepard turned to look at him. "It has to be at the slaver base. Maybe a captive there we wouldn't save if we knew who it was, or some type of tech. Or maybe the slavers themselves. You don't exactly have the best history with batarians."
"You mean Elysium? It's slavers I don't like, and they come in every single race," she said in distain. But even then, in the back of her mind, she knew she tended to expect the worst from a batarian. "And if I knew there was a slaver base here, I would have hit them first, so why not tell me?"
Thane gave a dry laugh. "Looking for reason, were none resides, is a fruitless endeavor. The best we can do is get off this planet so you may ask the human yourself, Siha."
Shepard sat back in her seat and gave a silent nod, agreeing that it was pointless guessing what that madman was thinking. After all, she'd just got rid of her headache and thinking about him was sure to bring it roaring back with punishment.
They were quiet after that. Shepard found herself turning to check on Garrus and watch Thane closely for any signs his wound reopened. They would have to stop soon, so they could properly sew it up. We, at least try. She has had basic field medic training, like all soldiers do in Basics, and she couldn't risk him leaving a trail of blood behind them once they got into the base. How bad was it anyway? Impaled never sounded good and Thane was one tough son-of-a-bitch; he was surely down playing his wounds, like she did her ribs.
Ah, her ribs. She needed to bind them. Her suit could be tightened enough to add some pressure and support, but without an open wound it wouldn't dispense medi-gel, as her intact undersuit wouldn't let it through. She needed to apply the medicine directly to her skin for it to help. Even then, it wasn't about to mend the broken bones; if they even were bones. They could be made from steel or some type of alloy for all she knew, as the full extent of her upgrades had never been disclosed to her.
Looking out the window, she saw the sky was darkening to a deep lush purple, which she took to mean that night was coming soon.
"Thane, how long until we reach the base?"
"Three hours," he answered looking at the map. They had traveled quite a distance while she was out and most of the time was simply retracing their steps.
"We'll stop for a few hours; let it get dark before we approach. If they had a way of tracking us, I think they would have shown up by now." The fact that a backup shuttle hadn't been sent down for them was more alarming. The Normandy was state-of-the-art in every field, so there had to be a damn good reason why they didn't immediately retrieve them after the crash. But between the advance ship AI that could counter most cyber-warfare and the one-of-a-kind stealth drive, she couldn't think of any.
"Or they see we're headed right to them and are simply letting us fall into another trap," Garrus said in a chipper, helpful tone that made her roll her eyes.
"Yes, or that."
Thane slowed to a stop and, with no trees or hills or anything to use as cover, that was really all he could do. Shepard left her seat to sit on the vacant bench, after pulling a med-kit next to her. She started unlatching her suit as she called back to Thane, "We'll sew up that wound of yours while we have a chance. I'm not proficient in alien care, but as long as you stick one piece of flesh next to the other piece of flesh and sew? Then we're good."
Thane stood, bending slightly, and she could see from his grimace that it wasn't just from the low ceiling.
"How's your breathing?" She asked as she set aside the last of her armor. She planned on cleaning it, and hopefully Garrus could get her shields back to full working order while they waited for dark.
"Fine. This planet is humid, but not terribly so. I will be fine." Thane settled next to her and looked at Garrus. "Your leg?"
Garrus gave an irritated sigh. "Still broken."
Thane smiled. "I know being crippled is not easy to handle. I will make sure to watch Shepard's back the same way as you," his said with a light teasing tone in his voice. Garrus glared at Thane only to quickly glance at her and then away, his head ducking cutely.
Cute again? Sheesh, fine, Garrus is adorable. From how awkward and sweet he is around her to how badass he gets in fights. Freaking adorable.
Shepard felt a light heat on her cheeks and she looked down at her suit's zipper, like she had forgotten were it was and needed to double check its placement. She eased the undersuit off her shoulders and looked down at her side. Just below her military-grade white sports bra (that had Cerberus' logo on it just for the hell of it, she was guessing) her skin was a wicked mix of purple, red, and blue. One of her broken ribs was even pressing against her skin, creating a lump.
"That looks bad," Garrus said, voice rumbling with something she couldn't place. His flanging was deeper and almost sorrowful, and his eyes even more so.
"It's just my soft human skin making it look worse than it is. It's still better than a broken leg and being stabbed in the gut by the ship," she joked but Garrus was still looking at her like seeing her wounded was hurting him more than his own wounds and—knowing that big heart of his—it probably was.
Shepard tied the arms of her suit around her waist and got to work tending to her ribs. Once she had pushed the bone back into roughly the proper place, and added a thick layer of medi-gel, she just needed to bandage them. Seeing that she didn't want Thane pulling on his wound and making it bleed right before she was about to sew it up, she stood—bending slightly from the roof—and moved in front of Garrus.
With a handful of clean white bandages that she pushed into the seated ex-cop's hands, she said, "Here, wrap my chest. It's easier to have someone else do it so it won't slip, and I don't want Thane pulling something."
She expected Thane to protest, but he didn't (did he just chuckle?) and Garrus only silently nodded as he took the bandages. From the ceiling she ended up with her chest far closer to his face that would be proper, and she held in a joke about it, as she didn't to draw to much attention to it. She only needed one hand to hold the binding in place as he worked (Garrus would have her placed it were it was needed) and, with nowhere else to sit the other, she placed it on his head, along the curve of his fringe, slightly curious about the texture. It looked rough, she'd always assumed it was, but was surprised—almost pleasantly so—at the smoothness of it.
Garrus jumped at her light touch; face smashing against her chest, causing her to jump back as pain shot through her breast, and they both gave startled noises.
A strange hissing sound was coming from behind her and she quickly turned to see Thane holding his sides as he let out long hissing laughs. She'd never seen a drell laugh uncontrollably before, but she was sure she was seeing it now.
A low growl made her turn back to looking at Garrus, and she saw he was glaring holes in the drell.
Feeling like she was missing something, Shepard cleared her throat and drew Garrus' attention to her. "I, uh, guess touching your fringe is a no-no?" she awkwardly asked. She was still holding the bandage from where he had last had her place her hand, so he didn't need to start over as he reached out to continue.
"No, not exactly, I just wasn't expecting it… and I was focusing on not bumping into your—you! I was trying not to bump into to you. Because I know your two—ribs, your two ribs are broken and… " he sighed in defeat and clamped his mouth closed.
The hissing behind her quieted and Thane's amused voice rumbled out, "Yes, bumping into her two ribs would be unfortunate. I've heard they are quite sensitive."
Shepard felt her face heat as Garrus quickly snapped, "Shut up, Thane!" which only caused the drell to laugh once more.
With her ribs wrapped, the commander couched down next to Thane. She left her upper suit off, not wanting to get any blood on it.
She was still slightly annoyed. It wasn't often the older man teased them, but he did so enough that it wasn't surprising. She knew he enjoyed it mainly from being able to. Having friends—real friends that he could tease and smile and joke with—was something he rarely had, and even less so over the last ten years. And now nearing the end of his life, she knew he was lucky to find good friends like them.
Shepard was surprised by how easily the three of them fell into that dynamic with each other. On the SR-1 she had only spoken to Garrus when doing rounds, and even then their talks were brief. If she was being completely honest, she was more caught up in her developing feelings for Kaidan, as she had always made it a personal rule not to get involved with crew members, on or off the ship, as she knew from experience how badly things could go. But Kaidan was just the right mix of good guy and persistent that when he showed up at her door before Illos she couldn't, for the life of her, send him away.
Garrus was there when he turned his back on her on Horizon and from then on she knew she had his loyalty, far more than someone who could claim to love her and call her a traitor all in one breath. Sure, the reasonable part of her understood how he was hurting, but reason didn't mix with affairs of the heart, and it sure as hell didn't stop the hurt.
Only Garrus did when he joked about Kaidan losing a certain body part with an ill-placed shockwave backfire on the shuttle ride back to the Normandy. Only Kasumi did when she cursed and called 'that overly gelled' man every insult in the book. Only Joker did as he rolled his eyes at Kaidan's nerve and promised to start a few rumors about that same poor body part that suffered the shockwave blast.
It was her friends, her comrades-in-arms, that made her second life livable and reminded her everyday what she was fighting for. What she was called a hero for.
Shepard gave Thane a small, reassuring smile as she pulled back his leather suit. It had apparently acted as a bandage itself and once it was removed she saw his dressing was quickly becoming soaked. Pulling them away, Shepard couldn't help glaring at the assassin.
"God, Thane, it went all the way through?" she felt her body shake with rage. Both at the foolhardy drell and the slavers that caused his wound in the first place.
"Nothing vital was pierced," he assured, but had the decency to look admonished as she glared at him. He knew that wasn't the point.
She wondered whether or not it was whatever was in the air, but a sense of helplessness washed over her as she treated Thane the best she could. If only for that one moment she wished to be a medic, a doctor, anything that could help both him and Garrus. It was her job to keep them in one piece and so far she was failing.
"I am sorry, Siha," Thane said softly. "I did not wish to alarm you."
She nodded silently and continued to work carefully. His skin was a lot thicker than a humans and she had to press down harder than she felt comfortable doing. Worse, sometime her hands slipped, from the dark red blood coating them and the force she used, and Thane held in a flinch she only noticed because she was looking.
Once done with mending his front, she tended to his back and then wiped her hands on his already soiled bandages before getting a fresh set. Against her better judgment, Thane also had her add a layer of medi-gel. It would easily close the wound with the stitching there, but with the massive amount of internal damage it would have to be reopened back on the ship. Plus, they won't notice any internal bleeding with the wound closed, and that worried her.
With everyone's wounds cared for she ordered both Thane and Garrus to get some rest. Seeing that her mood wasn't very high, they both agreed without protest. Garrus was stuck resting with his leg propped straight and Thane laid on his back with his arms crossed as he evened out his breathing.
Shepard sat on the floor to clean her armor, but the smell of blood was strong in the cramped space. She tapped the upper section on her armor's right leg and the storage compartment popped open, revealing her glasses. She only wore them on ship, as the only time she would need them in battle would be when dealing with long range shots with her sniper, but her scope mods were made to adjust to the user's sight automatically.
She slipped them on and stood, hitting the door release for the back and the door lower into a ramp, crushing the tall waist high wild grass with little difficulty. There was a hard wind blowing and it wasn't until the whistling of the wind eased for a bit that she realized she started humming.
The setting sun was blinding and she lifted her hand to block it as she stepped farther down the ramp, until she heard the crunch of sand. The sea air felt good on her skin and the smell of salt was like home. All she needed was the bellows of foghorns in the distance and the startled cry of gulls to complete it.
"'I'm waking up to ash and dust'," she hummed, "'I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust'." She smiled as she took a deep breath. "'I'm breathing in the chemicals'."
A familiar laugh behind her warmed her heart, and two lightly-tanned arms wrapped firmly around her. A face was next to hers; soft lips pressed against her cheek as stringy, long sun-bleached blond hair fell into her eyes.
"Breathing in chemicals' is right. How the hell you miss New York is beyond me."
She shrugged against his hold. Elysium was nice, but Earth—New York—would always be home. "I told you; I would have been quite happy working the docks with you barefoot and pregnant at home," she teased with a smirk.
He gave a deep laugh, making his chest rumble against her back. "Sorry, Shep. As far as I know science hasn't advance that much. If you want kids, you'll have to do yourself."
She pulled away and looked back with a thoughtful expression. "Myself? Hmm, you won't want any part in it, Ranger? I'll make note."
He quickly adopted a panicked expression and quickly pulled her to him. "Hey now, let not be hasty here. There are a few parts I would like to be present for."
She tipped her head coyly to the side, looking up at him through her lashes. "Like?" He gave a fox like grin and she squeaked as she was dropped down on the sand.
The setting sun was striking his dark blue eyes in just the perfect way; revealing the tiny specks of light blue nestled between the strips of midnight, making them twinkle like stars in a vast night sky. His voice grew deep and husky as his face lowered to hers, lips teasingly brushing hers and making her shiver. "Like now," he breathed, lips fluttering against hers.
And when he kissed her nothing the else matter but the two lovers on the beach.
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A/N: This is my first story request, and seeing that the person who requested it is also the beta as well, I've been getting a lot of feedback on this. Let me know what you think! (And if the rating needs to go up.)
And, yay! Thane! I love Thane! He was my first ME romance and while I'll never romance him again (Damn you Bioware! That was some sad shit. I can't go through that again.) he's still awesome!