The world faded in and out of blackness, and Shepard was only vaguely aware of the glare of fluorescent lighting and white tiles rushing overhead. Hospital? She wondered. A familiar voice, low and fraught with concern growled out nearby, "You can't let her die. Not again." and the world slipped away once more.
When next she awoke, there were voices again, but she couldn't quite muster the strength to open her eyes... She heard a mature, female voice, that she couldn't quite place...
"You should get some rest. I'll get one of the porters to drag an extra bed in here. I'd tell you to go back to the ship if I thought it would do any good. At any rate, you'll be no use to anyone if you spend another night in that chair. Not exactly built for comfort, those things."
At that, there was a throaty chuckle from another person in the room, her mind connected it as coming from the same source as the voice she heard last time she stirred. She searched her mind for answers. Who is in here with me..?Then suddenly everything fell into place. Visions flashed before her eyes. The Crucible. The Reapers. Dying under rubble...
Months before that, being held by strong Turian arms, as she wept for the friends she kept losing. The sweet nothings he whispered in her ear to comfort her, in that rich, velvety voice she so adored. The way his mandibles flared as he smiled at her later that evening, after kissing her. It was an act of affection that shouldn't have come naturally to them, but to her, his lip plates felt like the most spectacular thing in the world. So much of him was so harsh and unforgiving, but she needed that as much as she needed the gentler, kinder nature of his spirit, the side no-one else really saw. He was the thing that had grounded her, as she had dragged them to hell and back on her mission to save the galaxy. Her reason to fight; no longer just the hoard of faceless, nameless bodies that depended on her, but her mate, her future.
Her Garrus.
And now he spoke again, voice the same, deep rumble she remembered. "Thanks Doc, I'd appreciate that."
Shepard struggled with herself to show she was awake. It was hard, but eventually she managed to move her hand a little. With control of herself returning, she pushed open her eyelids, turned her head, and saw him there. So handsome, so alien, so perfect. "No need," she croaked, and her throat felt like sandpaper. "I've slept long enough, I should really get up." The look of shock on his face put a smile on hers, and then he grinned back at her.
"You stubborn, stubborn woman. You did it, again. They nearly stopped CPR... I told the doctor kept going when he should have called it. I think I scared the poor man half to death. Then, there you were... But you'd been dead, actually dead for a while. They thought you were going to suffer serious brain damage when you woke up, if you managed it at all..." Garrus shook his head, and looked at her in awe.
"You knew me better than that," She whispered, filling up with pride in her mate. Her heart swelled with his faith in her, his loyalty and devotion. "Takes more than a little death to kill me, right? Get the Doc back in here, so I can get out of this awful place. Hospitals and I... Do. Not. Mix."