Author's note: Yes, sorry, another story, but I have to. It's a Mass Effect fanfiction... so, it's different. :D Let me know what you think! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Warnings: Language and OOCness.
Word Count: 4,933
Jack doesn't believe in faith. It's just not something that's in her. Growing up with the life that she did, at first faith was all that she had. But she was a kid then. She was ignorant and didn't know better. But she does now and knows that faith is a bunch of bullshit. One has to make their own luck if they want to survive in the fucked up universe that they live in. Jack knew better than that. While locked up, if anyone asked her, she'd swear up and down that every decent person that ever lived was made up, or were killed by the fuckers of the universe.
That is until she met Shepard. At first she didn't care either way about Shepard. She was just a means to an end. A diplomatic pain in the ass. But a fair one. She made sure that the Cerberus Cheerleader kept their end of the deal. But as she began to know the team, and her new boss - Shepard, not Cerberus. Never Cerberus - she began to wonder if this shitty universe did have some halfway decent people left in it.
By the end of her time with Shepard leading to the attack on the Collector Base, Jack saw Shepard for what the girl really was to her; a friend. There was no person that Shepard couldn't somehow adapt to. She made it hard not to like her. She was always so disgustingly good. She would help anyone and everyone she could up until she couldn't anymore.
While she could be the nicest, most giving person, Jack had come to learn to know. But where she could be a saint, she could also be Satan. She is capable of being the nastiest, vengeful person in the universe.
Jack quite liked that about her. There was nothing false about her. Either she liked you and took care of you, or she hated you and would destroy you if you fucked up. Jack liked that. She learned to just be straight up with Jack. While the tattooed girl appreciated - somewhat - that Shepard would try and spar her feelings, she was a lot stronger then the delicate flowers that this universe had to offer. She told Shepard straight up to be straight up and that's how the Commander had been ever since to her.
If Shepard was anything - other than being completely badass - was that she really listens to people. If they wanted something, whether it's to be called something or to be told something. She's good at keep up her side of the bargain. Whatever that ends up being, she is always working hard to keep her side of things. Shepard is many things, a liar isn't one of them. Unless you piss her off. Then she'll lie, cheat, beat down, then destroy you.
And Jack loved that about her.
Then Jack found something else to love. More like people. Now, she would deny it until her face is blue; but she loved the kids in Grissom Academy. They were annoying and they fucked up a lot, but they were pure. Innocent, in a way that seemed un-corruptable. Now, Jack isn't foolish enough to romanticize any of this. It's too mushy and gooey for her anyway, but she did know that if she kept after them long enough, she could keep those kids on the right track for as long as she could and somehow, that would make up for all the shit she's done in her life.
She wanted to become to those kids what Shepard had become to her: invincible.
And then Shepard: the untouchable, the unbeatable, the unstoppable, died. That was the end of her story. But if anything could kill Shepard, it was something that would require the entire universe to live in her stead. That's just how it goes. The magnificent, benevolent, oozing with a high degree of bad-ass-ery, Shepard had to die somehow, and it wasn't going to be old and in her bed. It was going to be young and in a blaze of glory. It was going to be for the sake of everyone else. She would die so they could live.
Jack knew that. Everyone who knew Shepard knew that. There was no other way. Shepard was a survivor. She could survive everything up until it was her or someone she loved, then it was always them. Just like when she died the first time, before Jack knew her. It was her, getting into the life pod knowing that Joker was trying to save the Normandy SR1 and get the hell out of that fireball, or make sure Joker made it out alive, knowing that at least she, but both of them could have died in the attempt.
She took it. Because that was Shepard. She made people believe in her - love her - because there was only one other option. You hated her. Sometimes, when Jack thinks back on how they lost Shepard, she hated the damned martyr. And she didn't feel bad about it, either. She knew, wherever Shepard was when Jack was drinking up a storm and cursing her out, that Shepard would only smile and laugh and think to herself that she was glad Jack was alive to still be able to do that.
Because that was Shepard. She viewed the universe in a strange form of black and white. Without the people she loved, the universe became a lesser place. But she never stopped to think how much darker the universe would be without the Commander. But no, that would mean Shepard had to think about herself over some other bastard in the universe, in Jack's opinion.
But in all the things which Shepard was good at - and dancing wasn't one of them - she was good at making unlikely comrades into lifelong friends. Not just with her, but on occasion, Jack will get a call from one of the other crewmen of the Normandy for drinks or a meet up for one reason or another.
And then Shepard died.
It hadn't been long. It was about a year, before they somehow managed to get the Mass Relays working, making travel convenient again. It was unspoken, all those that worked alongside Shepard, that were actually friends with her, met up. Those that weren't on the Normandy with her during her final battle to take back Earth, raced to the Normandy to see her name be put up onto the wall with the names of all the other dead Normandy crewmen, alongside the late Captain Anderson. The circumstances leading to hers and Anderson's death are still shrouded in mystery.
After classes were over at Grissom Academy and all the kids were sent home once the school year is over, Jack went to the Alliance and told them that if they needed her, she had a few months to help them before returning to the job she's actually come to enjoy. But because Jack is known for getting shit done, they utilized her to the best of their abilities.
Jack was sent to an old Alliance military that they lost contact with following the end of the war against the Reapers. Normally, Jack wouldn't want to be sent on a boring ass mission like that, but she was on another mission in the system when they put the order in and the next Alliance team was about a week out and the base had been dark for long enough already and needed to be looked at immediately.
A week and a half, Jack had before she had to return to Grissom Academy for the new school year. This was probably her last mission until the next school year was over and decided to kill a little more time before heading back. So she took the mission.
The defenses for the base were still up, Jack nearly got shot out of the sky - which pissed her off - the security for the building was still active - and they were anti-biotic based robots - which pissed her off even more - before she came to learn that aside from the robots, the entire base was empty. And that pissed her off the most.
Who the hell activates an entire bases defenses, both inside and outside, and then leave it unmanned? The base wasn't damaged in any way, indicating that there wasn't a battle over the base, but there was no personnel at all and the security cameras hadn't been recording since the base went dark when the Reapers invaded the system. There was signs of damage on the planet, but the base was left alone.
So what the fuck happened?
Did they turn on the defenses and hoped it would tickle the Reapers to death? Jack sure as hell didn't know.
But one look at the ship she came in on and Jack knew that piece of shit wasn't going to be getting her back to Grissom Academy. Turning on her Omni-tool she radios in for nearby Alliance ships, waiting for a ping.
It was about twenty minutes of her wondering around the abandon base, looking for any other clues she could have missed on what happened to this base. Her Omni-tool pings, catching her attention as she walks through the stark white halls, that painfully reminds her of her childhood, but she forces the thought away with an angry sneer on her face, wondering when that assholes of Cerberus will stop haunting her in the back of her mind. She'd think it'd be now, since the asshole Illusive man was dead, but no.
Sometimes, without Jack's permission, this feeling of anger and hopelessness will crawl up her spine, reminding her of her time as Subject Zero. But that too is shook away.
"This is the Normandy SR2 responding to the Alliance hail," Joker's voice comes through Jack's Omni-tool, making her stop in the middle of the hall. "Respond."
"Joker?" Jack says, grinning down at the orange computer on her arm. "It's Jack. How the hell are you?"
A pause, then, "Jack? Hell. If I'd known it was you, I would have just ignored the hail. Shit," Joker teased, letting out a little laugh. Jack's grin broadens a bit more at the sound of a familiar voice.
"Screw you, Joker, get the hell down here and pick me up."
Another laugh. "Yeah, alright. Turn on your beacon. Garrus just gave me the go-ahead to come pick you up."
"He better have," Jack mutters.
"I did," Garrus's voice comes through her Omni-tool too, his voice is somewhat amused. It's not the usual Garrus boisterousness. The sadness is still in his voice. Shepard's death hit them all hard, but Garrus and her were a thing. They were in legit love with one another. Make all the jokes she wants about their inter-species relationship, Jack could see how they were with one another. They were in love and they were good for one another.
Even Jack, who's ignorant to love, could see that. If what they had wasn't love, Jack doesn't know what is.
"Garrus, huh?" Jack says, leaning heavily on one hip. "I thought the Alliance brass would commandeer the Normandy. Who the hell did you have to kiss ass for to get it?"
A chuckle that sounds a lot more like the normal Garrus. "It wasn't easy. There is still a lot of things that they are letting us get away with until the universe settles down from the Reapers. The Normandy is the best suited for the current state of the universe. We could move fast and quiet. The Alliance wanted the Normandy to keep moving, as it is a symbol of hope, and they needed someone to command it. I'm acting as a stand in until they decide what they really want to do with it." There was a strangeness to his voice.
Jack doesn't say anything on first, she wastes a bit of time turning on her beacon before saying, "I got it. It'll be good to see you again, Scars."
A pause, then, "You too, biotic bitch."
Jack busts out laughing, doubling over at the suddenness of it. The affectionate name Jack had pressured Shepard into calling her was now like music to her ears. Her feelings couldn't be hurt, not by Shepard.
"I'll see you soon, Vakarian," Jack says, rolling her eyes.
"Okay, Jack," Garrus says before her ear piece falls silent. Jack looks around the hall, trying to remember her way back around to the hanger. The base is too small for the Normandy to land, so it'll probably be in the Kodiak, but she doesn't know which way will lead her back to the hanger. Jack spins around, looking in all the directions she could before choosing at random and heading there. If push comes to shove, she'll just wait for the Normandy crew to find her and feign that's what she wanted to happened.
Jack ran her left hand along the wall absently, not really paying attention. She didn't hear the sound of the base opening fire just yet, so she must have been able to shut the defense turrets down.
Suddenly, her fingers run across a glass-like surface. She pauses and looks down at the plain white wall, raising an eyebrow curiously. She feels along the wall until she touches the glass-like surface again to see an invisible little computer screen. Well, it's not invisible, it just blends in to the wall really well. If Jack hadn't been running her hand across the wall, she would never have found it. It's probably the reason she must have passed it up the first time.
"What the fuck are you..?" Jack mutters, playing around on the computer, seeing if she can hack it. But Jack isn't tech-savvy. Once she realized she could get nothing from that computer, she did what she did best. Summoned her monstrous biotic power and with an angry roar, she punches her fist right through the computer. It died in an explosion of sparks before a door, completely invisible to the naked eye, just like the computer opens up right next to Jack. What Jack saw made her entire body freeze.
Garrus and James round the corner in time to see Jack standing in the middle of the hallway, her hands hanging loosely at her side, with her eyes wide. Her entire face is completely expressionless, with her large dark eyes staring into the room in front of her. There wasn't really a door in front of her, it was more like a break in the wall.
"What's wrong with her?" James asks, looking over at the turian to his right. "Why is she just standing there?"
Garrus shrugs. "No clue." They make their way closer to the seemingly stunned - which at any other point in time would be hilarious, but now it's just kind of worrisome - biotic. Jack didn't move an inch as they approached her, her eyes still locked on whatever was inside the room in front of her, a strange look on her face, like a mixture of disbelief and almost... fear. A small crease has formed between her eyebrows.
As James Vega waves his hand around in front of Jack's face, trying to pull her out of her thoughts, Garrus peaks into the room. The first thing that comes to the attention of the large blue-marked turian, was the starch-whiteness of the room. It was definitely a very sterile environment. There was even a tangible smell that makes Garrus's nose crinkle a bit.
He steps a bit closer to look around the long, narrow room. There was a lot of medical equipment scattered around the room, hooked up to the person lying in the middle of the room. Suddenly, Garrus's heartbeat picks up and he steps into the room. Stepping closer and closer, vaguely noting the wires across the ground and stepping over them, as he draws closer.
"What's in there, Scars?" James asks.
Garrus doesn't respond, eyes locked onto the unmoving figure in the better. All the IVs hooked up to the person were changed just recently for most off them are just about completely full.
A woman lays against the crisp white sheets, her skin nearly translucent from both the lack of blood and sunlight. There is dark discoloration around her eyes, leaving them a dark purple color. Her pale face is slightly sunken-in. Her face is covered in heavy bruises in different stages of healing.
The white covers are pulled up to her waist, revealing a flat stomach, ribs, collar and hip bones prominent, and medical bandages wrapped around her breasts. There was bandages all up her right arm, from shoulder to finger tips, around her neck and head with a patch on her right cheek. There is splatters of healing burn marks all along her torso and arms, slight white discoloration. Her hair was cut short, a splash of black peach fuzz over her entire head with a noticeable, but healed scar going down the right side of her cheek from the beneath the bandage down to her cheek bones.
She was thinner, paler, but without a doubt, Garrus knew who this person was.
"Shepard!" He gasps, reaching out a hand to run a long talon down the side of her face, not daring to touch her too hard for dear of her shattering. Shepard was, by no means, a small woman. She was tall and lanky, but at this moment, she seemed tiny.
"What?" James could be heard from the hall. "What did you say?"
Garrus couldn't believe what he was seeing. Coming back from death once, that was a miracle! Cerberus retrieved her body and somehow managed to bring her back to life, if that wasn't a miracle then Garrus didn't know what was. But this is time number two. She was there, right in front of him. The heart monitor confirmed it. Her heart rate was low, but no doubt beating.
She was alive.
By the spirits she was alive.
"Oh shit..." James breaths from the end of the bed, brown eyes wide. "She's... Lola, she's..."
"Chakwas," Garrus manages to mutter out, blue avian eyes locked on the unmoving figure in the bed. "We need Chakwas."
It takes a few moments before James blinks out of his shock and puts a hand up to his ear. "Joker, we need Chakwas down here. Like, ASAP."
Since they found Shepard, Garrus hasn't moved from her side. He's surely getting on Chakwas's nerves with all his hovering, but she saintly ignores him other than the occasional nudge out of the way when he unconsciously moved close. They set a course for the Citadel and has been burning space to get there as fast as they could.
Outside the room, by the large windows looking in, Vega and a few other Normandy personnel have gathered. They shift back and forth, whispering excitedly things like, "Immortal," and "Un-killable". But Vega didn't take his eyes off of the unmoving figure in the bed. He had mixed feelings about the whispers. On one hand he wanted to punch the daylights out of them. For no reason. They weren't doing anything wrong. They were just whispering about their former- commander.
But she wasn't just a former commander to him. She was an inspiration. A role model. A friend. And now, she was just the center of a rumor maelstrom.
But at the same time, he was right along side them. He believed that as well. This powerful woman was completely unstoppable, in Vega's eyes. He saw it in the battle against the Reapers, and believed it, but seeing her now, alive once more after once again being deemed KIA, was unlike anything that the soon-to-be N7 recruit could believe. He heard all the stories of her exploits, all of them did, but it was one thing to see them in action.
Vega knew what it was like, now. He now understood what Joker and Garrus told him about the pain of losing her. It was like a physical hole was left in his body where she used to be. He could imagine what it was like to lose someone - he had lost plenty of people - but then to have them be returned to him? It sounded like her first return opened and resealed the wounds that she had put there with her death. He didn't really understand until now. Now he was one of those people that loved her and were left behind by her.
Because he did love her. She became a good friend, above all else. Sure, she was his commanding officer and he made a show of flirting here and there, but he held great respect for her and mourned her deeply when she was gone. The official report was that her body was incinerated in the firing of the Crusible.
He could recall, at her funeral for a second time - first time Vega was there - standing beside Joker, who was staring down at the casket that was to be her final final resting place muttering, "And yet another empty casket to go on her resume."
But now she's back again but this time, she's not on her feet. She's small and weak - which is a strange thought because this is Commander Shepard who is anything but weak - and unconscious in her medical bed with a near seven-foot-tall turian bodyguard at her side at all times. Every time Vega had ever seen Shepard, she was upright and proud and strong. She could take a Reaper head-on and walk away from the battle relatively unscathed.
But here she was, small, weak, unconscious. Who knew if she would even wake up this time? Who found her in the first place? Who healed her? Certainly wasn't Cerberus again, she pissed them off for the last time, but then who? She was found in an Alliance base that should have been out of commission for a while now, except it wasn't.
Someone was there. Someone who found Shepard, snuck her off the Citadel, and nursed her back to health the past couple of months.
The question now is; who was it and why did they do it?
"What do you mean we can't get a room in Huerta Memorial?" Garrus growls, clawed hand gripping the back of Joker's chair. On any other day, and circumstance, he would make a whiney comment about how the turian's claws were ripping apart the fine leather, but he couldn't even bring himself to think one up. He was just as angry as Garrus was.
"I'm sorry," the salarian nurse says, holding up his hands from the screen in front of them, "but we just can't afford to have any more patients at this time. The Citadel is still in a state of disrepair alongside the hospital. Even if I wanted to help, I can't. I'm sorry."
"But we have-" Garrus tried again only to be cut off.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Vakarian, but whomever is hurt will have to be taken somewhere else," the salarian says with finality before cutting the feed. Garrus growls in rage, hand flying up to his face as if to claw it off, but stops a few inches away from the plates of his face before dropping to his side. His mind racing, running through all viable options in an effort to find somewhere to take Shepard. A hospital good enough to save her. But there wasn't one. At least, not close by.
It ready took almost a week to get here and they were running out of time trying to get her to a hospital. Chakwas has already informed Garrus that she's made due with what she can for Shepard but their Commander needs an actual hospital.
Joker turns very slowly, looking up at Garrus slowly. Taking the chance that the enraged turian won't just outright attack him for speaking, he says, "Ashley is on the Citadel, Garrus, she might be able to pull some strings..."
Garrus stares blankly forward, before turning around with a sharp, "Dock, and send Vega to medical," before heading back toward the elevator with quick, precise steps, heading down to the medbay and walking up to Shepard, he throws the covers away, revealing loose, light blue medical scrubs Chakwas put her in, and leaning down, scooping her up into his arms. Her head rests on his shoulder, not even slightly being disturbed. Her face has cleared up well, the bruises almost all gone. Chakwas quickly grabs all the IV bags and follows after, keeping them upright.
Vega walks in right as they are walking out.
"What are we-" James starts to say, but stops when he sees Garrus walking down the hall with a sleeping Shepard in his arms. Chakwas gestures for him to follow them, handing him one of the IV bags. They both struggle to keep up with the long strides of the tall turian. James looks down at Chakwas for a moment, as if she could explain what exactly they were doing but neither dared to speak when they entered the elevator. Garrus impatiently taps his three toed foot as he waits for them to reach the main floor.
As they leave the Normandy, Joker yells after, "I called Ashley, she's on her way!" as they left.
They leave the docking bay, people sending them weird looks as they pass. Once they leave the docking bay, Ashley is riding up on a hover car, swinging the door open, long brown hair flapping back and forth in front of her face.
"Get on!" she yells.
Vega hands his IV bag to Chakwas and climbs into the front, next to Ashley, they share a nod, before Chakwas slowly climbs in, making sure not to move the bags too much as to not disturb the needles in Shepard's arms. As Garrus climbs into the back of the car, holding Shepard tightly as to not drop her, and sit down, sliding comfortably into the car.
He rests Shepard on his lap, looking down at her peacefully sleeping face, watching it for any sign of discomfort. But no, Shepard hasn't moved or awakened since they got her. There is eye movement and signs of dreaming, but nothing. She's sleeping so serenely that there is not even the slightest bit of shift in her expression no matter what. No outward reaction to stimuli. Lost in a state of dreaming.
For as long as Garrus has known her, Shepard has always been alert to a fault. When they began sleeping together, he learned just how alert she was. He couldn't so much as shift in bed next to her without waking her up. A part of that probably stems from not being used to having someone sleeping beside her often - which gave the blue marked turian a bit more confidence in their relationship - but another part of it has to do with almost her entire life being lived on the edge of her seat. When her colony world of Mindoir was attacked by batarian raiders and then when she joined the Alliance a few years later, she was in the Skyllian Blitz. Her entire life all the way up to this point has been on the edge.
But now she's sleeping without a care in the world. When Garrus expressed concern for her not waking up, Chakwas made it clear that the medicine Shepard was taking was keeping her sleeping, it did little to give him comfort. He would give anything just to see her open those large blue eyes and look at him, acknowledging his existence. That he wasn't just talking to himself while he held her hand at night. That he wasn't the only one listening to the sound of both of them breathing over the sound of her heart monitor. That he wasn't the only one still fighting.
But that was a silly thought. One derived from desperation and loneliness. Even though Shepard was just inches away from him in physical form, she couldn't be further away.
None of that matters, though, because Shepard is a fighter. The strongest person that Garrus has ever met. She wasn't scared of anything - or at least she was a master at hiding it if she was - and she knew what she wanted and would fight tooth and nail to get it. She loved whole-heartedly and fought to the death to protect those she loved. Literally. This makes two.
It'll be alright, though, because Shepard is alive. She'll be okay. She'll wake up and everything will be okay. She'll be just fine. Garrus had to believe that. He just had to. He can't lose her, not again. Never again.