The war was won, the reapers were gone, and Shepard was in the hospital recovering for what had felt like something that was entirely longer than necessary. The fact that she was still in the middle of learning how to walk again hadn't changed her mind on the matter.
Being stuck in a bed and confined to a stuffy hospital room had been frustrating to say the least. She was beginning to understand the meaning of 'stir crazy'. It was just one more thing to add to the growing list of unwanted things that this war had given her. It was a wonder that being stuck in what was really nothing more than a glorified tin can had never managed to elicit the same reaction, and with nothing but the cold vacuum of space on the other side to boot.
Her whole time in recovery had been a constant struggle of reminding herself that these things took time, and to be grateful for still being alive. That despite her restlessness and annoyances, this was ultimately a gift.
Her recovery had not been a short one to say the least, but things were finally starting to get better. After months of surgeries, and rigorous physical therapy, she was starting to be able to walk by herself with the help of crutches.
The doctors had granted her permission to go on an excursion as long as she had a chaperone in case anything should go wrong, and she couldn't remember the last time she had been this happy. Just the thought of being able to be out in the fresh air felt like it would do her so much good, and give her more will to be confined in her stuffy room again, knowing that she at least had the ability to have freedom now.
The fact that Garrus would be the one to take her on her first outing, was just that much more special. They had spent months apart as he and the Normandy desperately tried to make their way back to Earth. He had been back for a short amount of time, helping her with her therapy, but the fact that he would also be the first one to share such a special moment with her meant everything.
She was glad that she was getting this opportunity to show him something of her home planet. It was something they had discussed often during the war. Their hopes for an after, and being able to finally share their experiences and things that were meaningful to each other beyond war and military. To just be normal for a change.
Admittedly she hadn't even spent much of her own time here, save for her N7 training and being incarcerated, but she still felt a special connection to it. In one way or another, it was her birthplace. It's part of what she fought so hard to save. It was her heritage, and now here she was, able to show this all to the person she loved.
She felt a bit conflicted about being in Vancouver for this particular moment though. It was beautiful, and showed a lot of what Earth had to offer, but it's also where she was when the Reapers hit. It was a reminder of all of the destruction, and still in ruins, but there was greenery beneath the rubble and snow capped mountains in the distance. It was an image of the state of things, and how life would persevere thanks to everyone's efforts. She was glad that she got the chance to see it.
She took in a deep breath, as she walked out the hospital doors, and took a slow pace down the road, Garrus gladly accommodating her recovering stride to walk beside her. The mess of everything was being cleared away slowly but surely, granting them a clean sidewalk to get them to their destination. They found themselves ending up at the waterfront after not too long of a trek all things considered.
It was everything that she could have asked for. There were trees that were still in tact where the grass met the sand. There were people enjoying the scenery, and laughs off in the distance. In the midst of all of this destruction, there was life. It was rejuvenating, and exactly what she needed. It was everything that she had ever imagined showing Garrus, with the exception of the dystopian city lying in shambles right behind them. But she would take what she could get on that front.
Shepard was staring out at the water in awe, and Garrus couldn't get enough of her. He couldn't remember a time seeing her like this. The top of the presidium came close, but there was something about her now that looked like she had finally felt free. He wanted to stay like this forever.
It didn't though. Her reaction changed rather abruptly, and it was enough to startle him.
"Duck!" she yelled.
Garrus grabbed her, with quicker reflexes than he knew he was capable of, and brought them down to duck behind the nearest rock, completely in a panic.
"What? What is it? Was there a piece of a reaper out there or something?!"
Shepard just lied there in the sand, looking at him with a big grin on her face before bursting out into laughter.
"What?!" he said, peeking his head up above the rock, to try to get any idea at what she was looking at.
"Jees, Garrus. For saying turians didn't know how to do such a thing, you sure managed to do that rather quickly."
He just stared at her blankly, still not having a clue what was going on.
"Here, help me up," she said, already trying to stand up herself, but still not being fully capable.
Garrus took one more look over the rock to make sure it was okay before finally helping her. He quickly grabbed her crutches that had dropped in his haste to get her to safety, and handed them to her.
She stood and adjusted herself properly, making sure to get her footing before looking back out to the water.
"I meant, it's a duck," she said, pointing to the water.
Garrus could see that there was an odd fluffy thing floating on the water. There were even smaller ones floating behind it too.
"What the hell is that?"
"It's a bird," she said, looking at it in wonder. "I know I haven't had much more than the view outside my window, but I haven't seen any wildlife yet before this. There's just too much destruction. Not enough vegetation. But there it is," she said, pointing to the family of ducks swimming together on the edge of the ocean. "Life goes on."
Garrus looked at her then, seeing the absolute look of awe she had with the view. He agreed with the sentiment. Life did go on, and it was all because of her. He would never dare tell her that to her face, ever the embodiment of humility.
"Yes it does," he agreed with a lighthearted chuckle, as he nodded. "Yes, it does."
A/N: This is a more cleaned up version of a Sunday Sprints from the MEFFW a while ago. The prompt was "Duck!" and this is what I came up with. I was either in the middle of writing A Bite to Seal Their Fate, at the time or had just finished it, so I was still heavily in that mindset in case you read both, and there are a bit of overlapping themes. This could almost be read as a prequel to that even, but I didn't necessarily write them as such, as much as they fit. But anyway, thanks for reading.