Disclaimer: Bioware and EA own the Mass Effect franchise. I am not Bioware or EA, thus I don't own it.
"Pathfinder, Sara is awake." SAM's voice startled Scott Ryder out of a barely conscious day dream. It hadn't been his best one, but he could still imagine his kids' voices as they played in the background, the fertile sand on Eos, the smell of roses, Cora's sweet smile –
"That's not something you joke about, SAM." He brought himself back. The rickety chair he was sitting on helped as it flattened his ass and he had to readjust himself for the umpteenth time. He pulled his head up and rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes as he reacclimated to the LED lights of the cryo chamber. Once a week for the past seventeen years he'd be there and he'd yet to actually grow accustomed to the eeriness of the place. It was reserved for those who had somehow made it on the ark and were terminally ill, awaiting a cure, or those forced back into cryo due to…complications in Heleus. It was depressing. And quiet. But mostly depressing.
"It is not a joke, Pathfinder. Sara Ryder is exhibiting normal brain activity associated with consciousness and is ready to be taken out of stasis."
Shocked and just a bit excited, Scott's body reacted before he could mentally process SAM's words. Jumping out of the chair, he knocked it down with a resounding clank that could've woken the dead and headed straight for the door, frantically searching for Dr. Harry Carlyle.
Unable to find him, but spotting his assistant, Dr. Lia Herrera, he motioned frantically toward the cryo chamber, "Sara. It's Sara. SAM says she's good to go. SAM says – holy shit…"
Lia put down her datapad and rushed back with Scott to Sara's stasis pod. As she checked over the pod, Scott antsed around in the background, hopping lightly from foot to foot and patting his pants.
It'd been seventeen years. Seventeen years since Peebee had dragged Sara's body back to the Tempest after what was supposed to have been a simple RemTech exploration mission. Seventeen years since Sara had hit his arm and told him to not to do anything stupid until she got back.
Seventeen years since the second human Pathfinder was taken out of commission and no one but Peebee really knew why. SAM had been disconnected, they'd gone AWOL, and then when Peebee finally signaled the Tempest for emergency extraction, Sara was already hemorrhaging. He'd assumed Sara had used RemTech without SAM's help, but Peebee had refused to divulge anything. In fact, Peebee hardly said two words the entire time they were taking Sara into the medbay and then into SAM Node.
She'd stuck around for a few days after Lexi had explained to them that Sara was beyond her help and that the best she could do was stick Sara in a stasis pod and let SAM help her fix and regenerate arteries and brain tissue. Of course, Lexi was far more eloquent in her explanation, but Scott couldn't remember even half of the specifics. All he could think about was that Sara was practically dead in a pod meant to preserve life – not heal it.
Peebee took it harder, he thought. He wasn't actually sure. When it became clear that sticking Sara in a stasis pod was probably just to avoid having a funeral, she'd fled the scene. No word to anyone. No goodbyes. Just gone. He'd been angry with her, at first. How could she profess to love Sara and then just leave so callously, so fast? She'd said she was part of the family – whether she wanted to be or not – but she'd abandoned them almost as soon as possible after Sara – no. Sara hadn't died.
As days turned into weeks that turned into months that turned into years, his anger ebbed away. When he thought of Peebee now, he just felt sad. He'd seen the way his sister and her had interacted. How they'd fall in step when out on the field, how'd Sara and Peebee would satellite each other in any room, or how they'd talk each other into ridiculous situations that they'd then need the other to get out of. The year he'd spent with the Tempest crew before Sara's incident had been one of the best he'd ever had. It also allowed him brief glimpses into who Sara had grown up to be. It was the first time he'd seen her really, truly happy. And he couldn't help but feel that Peebee had been trying to delay mourning the loss of that same happiness.
The sound of a cane by the door brought Scott back to the weirdness of the present.
Scott stood back and watched as Dr. Carlyle limped into the room, presumably having been notified of Sara's condition by SAM. Sara hadn't died. It'd been seventeen years and for all intents and purposes, she was in a coma, but she'd lived. And hell if Dr. Carlyle wasn't opening the pod door open and he'd heard his sister's first gasp in almost two decades.
"Welcome back, Sara Ryder," Dr. Carlyle smiled down at her.
A small, raspy voice answered back, "Usually people call me Pathfinder."
Dr. Carlyle's smile dropped. And then it hit Scott. It'd been seventeen damn years. How was he going to explain…everything?