Bundle of Joy
EJ: Just a little something that I thought of while looking at fanart of baby turians... Gah! They were soooo cute 3
"Shit!" Shepard cursed as she hid behind a wall before the rocket exploded. A few hours ago, Aria had called Shepard, saying she wanted to talk to her person. Of course Shepard agreed reluctantly (it was the queen of Omega who called after all..) so as the Normandy landed and she stepped out, she was immediately taking heavy fire by a squad of Blue Suns Mercs. She only managed to dive behind the nearest alley just as one of them let a rocket loose.
"When I get out of this, I am so going to kick that bitch's blue ass." Shepard hissed, running through the alley to lose the mercenaries. The blonde woman kept shooting behind her to slow down any pursuers as she ran.
After what seemed like hours of running, the Commander came to a stop in an empty alley. She looked around with her widow aimed in front of her in case any of the Mercs came around the corner. When she realized she was in the clear; she lowered her weapon.
Only to bring it up once more when she heard a wail coming from the other end. Shepard noticed that there was a slumped figure hiding and the shadows and approached it with caution.
"Come out." Shepard called, but there was no response. "I know your there, come out with hands on your head." again, no response.
When she was a few feet away, she realize it was a turian in civilian clothing, leaning against the wall holding a bundle of cloth. From the looks of it, the turian was asleep, but the little pool of blood under the turian told otherwise.
Shepard leaned forward and placed her two fingers on the neck to check for a pulse; she sadly found none. As she leaned away there was another wail coming from the body. The commander was immensely confused until she notice the bundle shifting.
'What in the world?' the woman thought and picked up the bundle. She carefully lifted a piece of cloth up and gasped when she saw a pair of jade eyes blink back at her.
It was a baby turian! Its undeveloped plates were a silver colour, making the infant stand out from the navy blue cloth. Its head was tilted in a curious manner and its mandibles quivered slightly. The baby's tiny talons were tucked under its chin as it kept staring at her with the jade eyes.
Shepard could only stare at the child in surprise at how it managed to survive this long, all alone...
And that's when it did the strangest thing; it started to make happy chirping sounds, like it just saw its mother. The tiny talons sprang out from their former position and tried to grasp the loose blonde hair that fell out of the Commander's ponytail. This made the baby seem even more adorable than before and Shepard couldn't help but giggle at this.
The woman carefully looked around once, then turned her attention to the dead turian. Feeling immense pity for the deceased parent, she put a finger to her ear piece and commed the Normady.
"Mordin." she said.
"Commander," a voice replied, "how can I help?"
"I want you to gather Tali and Garrus and come to these coordinates," she ordered, glancing down on the little turian, "there's something I want you to see."
When the three had arrived, they noticed the body right away and the bundle in her arms. Before they could ask any questions though, Shepard filled them in on what she knew. By the end, they were astonished. Mordin had begun examining the body and the baby at once while Garrus shook his head.
"Whenever we leave you alone for more than one minute, the strangest things happen." he said in a nonchalant tone.
Shepard could only grin, "It just follows me." she replied cheekily. Meanwhile Tali was awwing and cooing at the baby in Shepard's arms.
"Child's health seems normal." Mordin reported, "But looks as though the mother was shot and died from blood loss. Must've tried to protect the baby from harm."
"I wonder where the father was in all of this.." Tali mused out loud. Everyone thought the same thing as well, it seemed unusual to see no father around (unless it was in the military).
Mordin continued to examine the mother's body until he noticed the woman's talon was clutching something tightly in her free hand.
"Hmm, what's this?" Mordin asked himself and opened the turian's hand to reveal holo-pad. He examined it further and noticed a button on the side and pressed it. The object sprang to life and a holographic image of the dead woman appeared, only she was alive and had laboured breathing. The blue glow attracted the other three (four if you count the baby) and they all turned their attention to the woman.
"If you are seeing this recording," the turian stopped to take a deep breath, "Then it means that I died, and hopefully my daughter is still alive." She clutched the baby tighter to her and flinched in pain. "My mate and I were attacked by a group of batarian slavers who thought my baby would've been worth a lot of credits as a slave. My husband didn't take it well and managed to kill at least three of them before he was shot in the head." Her voice was full of sorrow at this point and seemed ready to cry, but she didn't. She brought her gaze back to the holo.
"Knowing that I couldn't take them myself, I ran. I ended up getting shot in the back, but I couldn't let my baby die. I couldn't let Namia die…" Shepard could see her shoulder's sag and hear her words slur. "I know I'm going to die…" She continued, "I know I'm not going to be there to see Namia graduate from the academy or see her enrol into the military. But please, if anyone finds her while she is alive, take care of her and when she is old enough; tell her that I, Syra Allo and her father, Treyan Allo love her very much." The holo ended cut off and everyone gazed at Namia, the baby's eyes were full a joy and innocence. And Shepard's heart broke.
The infant didn't know what happened to her parents, and never will. She may grow up thinking that her parents abandoned her if she was raised in an orphanage. She knew because it happened to her. Shepard grew up in the streets with no family and always thought her family hated her and left her there. It all changed when she found that file in the Shadow Broker's lair that revealed her parents were murdered when she was a baby. The commander never felt so terrible in her life that she hated the people who died to protect her, and little Namia would experience the same thing.
As Shepard gazed at the little turian, new found determination fueled her. And it seemed to show because Garrus looked at her.
"I know that look Shepard." He warned, "You really think it's a good idea to raise a child upon a military ship?"
"Well why not?" was her thoughtful reply, "The Reaper war is over and we always wanted children." But aren't compatible. That part was left unspoken, but still crossed the two lover's minds. No matter how hard they wished or how hard Mordin tried, it never worked. This could've been there only chance to have a family.
Garrus gave the child one look over before approaching the Commander. He raised a talon and stroked the Namia's undeveloped fringe. The baby cooed and grabbed the talon with her tiny hand… before sticking the talon in her mouth. Garrus couldn't help but chuckle at her actions.
"That tickles, you know." Garrus teased. Shepard smiled at this with warmth and hope spreading through her chest.
Unknown to them, Mordin and Tali were standing at the side and couldn't help but smile at them. Those two been through the biggest hardships and were happy for them. Garrus and Shepard deserved happiness.
"I guess were going to be an aunt and uncle." Tali giggled, Mordin could only nod in agreement.
Once aboard the Normandy, everyone took notice to the small bundle in the commander's arms. Yeoman Kelly Chambers practically squealed in excitement and wanted to hold the baby first. During the entire time, Namia kept trying to reach for Kelly's bright red hair, when she managed to catch a lock she put it in her mouth and began to chew it. Well, tried to, she didn't have any teeth yet…. So she only gummed Kelly's hair, who giggled the entire ordeal.
When Joker saw Namia, the only thing he said was "So we finally got ourselves a mascot. Now we need some hot cheerleaders." He only received two glares from Garrus and Shepard as response.
The rest of the crew seemed ecstatic about Shepard and Garrus' bundle of joy and were happy to be part of Namia's new family. Even Grunt seemed happy to have her around (even though she's a turian), but the couple decided to keep an eye on Grunt whenever he was near the baby.
But through all of this, the young child did not notice anything was wrong. Unaware of what really happened to her parents until the time came for the people she thought were her parents showed her the vid.
Soooo what do you think? I left the ending like this in case you guys wanted me to do a oneshot series of this…
Now the only reason I'm not writing new chapters for Split Past is because I ran into some writers block and I wanted to actually finish playing ME 3. (A lot of computer problems playing the game…)
So as I have said before, READ AND REVIEW DAMNIT!