Sympathetic Fools
Summary: Shepard gets hurt during the retaking of Omega, Aria doesn't leave her to die, and Nyreen sees what Aria refuses to acknowledge.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or anything associated with it. I am not making a profit off of this story. I am just a poor college kid who is addicted to the game.
A/N: Takes place during the Omega DLC, sometime before reaching Afterlife. No idea where this came from; it just jumped out of my brain. Really.
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"Ow!"
"Shepard, stop squirming."
"You stop!" Shepard retorted childishly, watching apprehensively as her companion's blue hands once again reached for the hole in her side. Recoiling instinctively at the pain she knew was coming, Shepard yelped as her movement caused the hands to slip and roughly prod her wound once more, sending a fiery jolt up and down her side. "Ouch! Watch were you put those things!"
"Shepard," Aria breathed crossly, resting her red-slicked hands warningly on the human's twitching stomach, noting almost absently how toned it was. "If you don't stop moving…"
"You'll what?" Shepard whined petulantly, eyeing the hands warily as the pressure they applied increased slightly at her words. "You try having someone poke at a big ol' hole in your side with their dirty hands and tell me you didn't move!"
"Dirty…" Aria growled lowly, swiftly applying more pressure, bringing forth another yelp. "What exactly are you implying?"
"Not sanitary," Shepard gasped out. "I don't want to survive this only to die of an infection later. You're not even using medigel!"
"And whose fault is that?" Aria huffed, leaving one hand on Shepard's stomach and moving the other to once again inspect the wound. "I seem to recall we had a sufficient amount of packets when we left the bunker. Imagine my surprise when I look again and see you giving the last one to a salarian."
"He was dying!" Shepard shot up from her prone position to defend her actions, only to groan as the pain intensified. "The only thing keeping his guts on the inside was his hands. I couldn't just leave him there!"
"Yes you could have," Aria answered coldly, her voice in stark contrast to the gentle insistency of her hands as she urged the commander to lean back once again. "And you should have." Pushing her fingers into the broken flesh once more, she gently probed, the pads of her fingers just brushing against something hard and twisted. Shepard's reaction was instantaneous; the moment she touched the foreign object Shepard jerked back violently, a strangled whine ripped from her throat.
"Stop being such a baby," Aria chided, her restraining hand preventing Shepard from curling up and causing herself more pain. "You sound like a dying varren."
"Can you blame me?" Shepard panted, sweat beading on her brow. It felt like someone had sadistically cast incinerate at her side repeatedly.
"Yes," Aria stated, matter-of-factly. "You shouldn't have gotten shot if you can't deal with the consequences."
"Your barrier was down; it would have torn right through you," Shepard grit out through pain clenched teeth. Was it just her or was it getting hotter? She felt like it was getting hotter.
"I didn't ask you to take that shot for me," Aria bit out tightly, fist clenching in remembered annoyance at having to drag the injured commander to safety.
"I know." Shepard's eyes locked unerringly onto the blue ones hovering above her. Slowly, by focusing on the asari's penetrating gaze, she found she was able to get her breathing under control and begin to relax her clenched muscles. A small, lopsided smile lit up her tired face. "You didn't have to."
Silence permeated the small room at Shepard's statement, broken only by the low humming of the flickering light above them. Neither one was willing to back down from their staring contest; Aria because she refused to lose even if she was unsure of what exactly she was trying to win. Shepard just liked gazing into the asari's eyes, and wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to get lost in them without anyone commenting. She found the blue orbs oddly comforting; like a memory of a cherished childhood friend, they made her feel safe and warm. Or maybe that was the infection.
"You're crazy." Aria frowned, refusing to admit the human's odd smile was beginning to unnerve her.
"I know." Still with that damned smile.
"I won't say thank you, if that's what you're waiting for." Aria warned her, eyes narrowing slightly.
"I know." Shepard replied, voice oddly light.
"You're an idiot." Aria finally stated in a flat voice after a long pause.
Shepard blinked, seemingly breaking the spell as Aria frowned and averted her eyes, outwardly appearing absorbed in studying her blood-soaked hands. "Maybe," Shepard admitted ruefully.
Squinting, something caught Aria's attention. Bringing her hand up closer to her face, she studied the predominately red liquid. Flickering back and forth, her eyes came to a stop on a small patch of discolored green liquid amongst the copious amounts of red. Eyes narrowing in suspicion, she held the startled commander down once more and leaned closer to the wound. Eyes searching the sluggishly bleeding hole to no avail, she ignored Shepard's protest and resorted to swiping her fingers through the wound and before bringing them to her face to study once more.
"Shit." She swore.
Her head whipped towards the downed commander. "How do you feel?" She barked.
"Like I got shot," Shepard blinked. "And someone tossed my dying corpse into an active volcano."
She swore again, this time louder and in a language Shepard's translator was having a hard time translating.
"Why the hell didn't you mention this before?" Aria glared at the slight sheen of sweat she could just make out, now that she was looking for it. There was a thin layer spread evenly on every piece of the human's exposed skin.
"Uh, I thought it was pretty obvious," Shepard eyed the asari oddly, sluggishly rubbing her eye as a drop of salty sweat fill into it, making it burn. She was starting to feel fuzzy around the edges; she wondered if maybe she was starting to sprout fur? She hoped not; she didn't think she'd look good with fur.
"Damn it all; the fever's already starting to set in." She concluded, eyeing her patient calculatingly. "It has to come out. Now."
"What?" Shepard's face paled. She looked at the door frantically, hoping their turian companion would take that as her cue and walk through the door. No such luck. "Can't we wait for Nyreen to come back with medigel? I mean, what are a few more minutes?"
"No." Aria stated bluntly. "The projectile contained polonium inside. The casing has been degrading steadily; already the toxins are leaking into your body. It needs to come out, or an infection will be the least of your worries."
"B-but," Shepard spluttered, trying to come up with a good reason why having a bullet dug out of her body without painkillers was a bad idea besides the obvious 'it would hurt like hell'.
Eyes rolling at the human's stubbornness, Aria exhaled loudly through her nose and rolled her shoulders to loosen them. Twitching the fingers of the hand resting on the pale stomach, a few bands of biotic restraints appeared around the commander, effectively detaining her. Not giving her time to protest, Aria plunged her free hand into the wound, not phased at all by the slick blood and soft flesh. Ignoring Shepard's whimpers, she probed for the projectile in question. Finally feeling it, her fingers curled around the offending piece of metal and pulled.
Dropping the twisted projectile to the floor with a clang, she ripped off a good chunk of the commander's shirt. Noting absently that Shepard had succumbed to unconsciousness sometime during her removal of the bullet, Aria bunched up the piece of material up in her hand and pressed it firmly against the now gushing wound. Lips curling slightly in frustration, she glared at the downed commander; this was a completely avoidable delay. They should have been storming Afterlife by now; she'd make better time if she just left the wounded human for Nyreen to find and continued on her own.
She refused to examine why she applied more pressure to the cumbersome human's wound instead of following her own tactically sound advice. The answer would no doubt give her a migraine.
The door creaking open behind her had her whipping her head around. Glaring at the turian as she slipped through the door and closed it firmly behind her, she questioned moodily. "What the hell took you so long?"
"These buildings have been practically picked dry; it was pure luck I stumbled across these." Nyreen answered evenly, watching behind shrouded eyes as Aria took one of the packets from her outstretched hand. She observed how the asari quickly released the blood soaked rag and tore open the packet of medigel, quickly and efficiently applying it to the messy wound. Minutes passed in silence as the flood of blood began to slow into a sluggish trickle. Applying another packet made the bleeding stop altogether; the clear gel forming a protective layer and jumpstarting the healing process. Nyreen noted curiously that only once Shepard was fully taken care of did Aria apply medigel to her own wounds, something that was out of character for the normally selfish asari.
Glancing to the side, she noticed the turian staring at her with an undecipherable look on her face. "What?" Aria snapped, annoyed at the scrutiny.
Nyreen was silent for a long moment.
"Well?"
"I'm surprised." She looked at the commander pointedly.
"She's an asset I'd be a fool to lose," Aria stated dismissively with a look of warning on her face, correctly deciphering what had been left unsaid.
"I'm sure," Nyreen agreed slowly, contemplatively, ignoring the silent command to drop the subject. "Yet I don't believe that's all there is too it."
"And what exactly are you trying to imply?" Aria growled dangerously.
"Maybe nothing," Nyreen said after a small pause. "You don't show this side often."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"The side that cares," Nyreen pointed out, unflinchingly. "The side that made it hard for me to leave."
Aria quieted down, her expression turning undecipherable, a mask once more in place. "And yet you still left."
Nyreen nodded slowly. "Yes."
This time Aria was the one who looked away first.
"Give me the rest of the medigel." If Nyreen was surprised to find a hand suddenly shoved in front of her, she did a valiant job not showing it.
"I can carry it," Nyreen stated.
"No; I refuse to be delayed like this again," Aria shook her hand in emphasis, only retracting it when the packets were safely in her grasp. Her expression turned sour. "I seem to have the misfortune of surrounding myself with sympathetic fools. The two of you are too alike; I won't have these wasted on the first half-dead idiot we come across."
Nyreen quirked a turian half-smile, "And have you ever wondered why you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Surround yourself with sympathetic fools."
Aria glared at her old lover, refusing to deign that comment with a response. "Check your gear; we leave in ten." She growled lowly.
"And if the commander isn't awake?" Nyreen asked lightly for argument's sake, already knowing the answer.
Aria leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. Glancing once more at the prone human, she grumbled, before resolutely staring at the door. "We leave in ten."
"Of course, Aria." Nyreen drew up her hood to hide her bittersweet smile.
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A/N: Because Aria totally likes my Shepard more than she likes my friend's Shepard. :p