"Commander Shepard, it's time to wake up now."

The words sounded like I was hearing them under water. My eyes weren't opening. They felt like they had been glued shut.

I remembered the sensation and what caused it. Heavy pain medication; waking up from the drug is difficult and I always hated it. Even though the experience only lasts a few minutes it feels like an eternity when you can't open your eyes or move your limbs.

"There you go, take it easy. You're going to be groggy for a while."

Gotta love it when someone states the obvious.

After some struggling to get my body to respond I finally managed to open my eyes. My sight was still blurry but I could make out the shape of a small room. Standing to my right I saw a Salarian checking me over, he smiled and said. "Welcome back to the land of the living Commander Shepard, I'm Doctor Ilset. How are you feeling?" Trying to blink away the blurriness I replied, "Groggy but I feel alright." My voice came out with difficulty and my tongue felt like a cotton ball, I must've been out of it for a while.

The doctor stood up, walked around to the end of the bed, picked up a data pad and began looking over what I suspected was my file. "Good. The monitors picked up the fact that you woke up last night and then promptly sedated you when they detected a spike of pain. However we determined that you would be well enough to be awake. What do you last remember?" I moved to sit up, looked around the room and saw Ashley's cot. "I remember the moment before what I suspect was the Crucible firing. After that I remember seeing Ashley sleeping on that cot, hearing a beep and then going back to sleep again." The doctor smiled, "Excellent. Your memory seems intact and you're making an excellent physical recovery. Thanks mostly to your bio-mechanical implants. However, according to the diagnostics we did on your implants, it seems they were briefly shut down due to a power surge of some sort. Possibly that energy wave from the Crucible. I'm sure if it was powerful enough to shut down the Reapers then simple implants like yours would be affected as well, especially that close to the source." The doctor stopped his recitation and started typing.

I was shocked. I had completely forgotten about the Reapers. Hell, they were the reason I was in this mess. Now I had to know.

"So the Reapers are dead?" I asked. I was scared to hear that all of it had been for nothing. The weeks of negotiation to get the allied fleets organized, the Hammer ground forces that were nearly decimated running to the beam, the months of effort to build the Crucible. I've heard nothing but a near constant stream of bad news since the Reapers invaded Earth and I had forced myself to expect the worse so as not to be disappointed. I realized that I had been holding my breath when Ilset brought his head back up, smiled and said, "Oh yes! After the wave hit, we started getting reports from all over the planet that the Reapers and their forces were shutting down. Over a period of several days we were getting reports from population centers around the galaxy that the Reapers are dead." The doctor stopped, his eyes unfocused and then continued, "It was the strangest thing to see, one moment the Reapers were wading through our fleets and ground troops like a pestilence, and the next the Reapers simply fell over dead." The doctor looked back at me and continued.

"Over the past several weeks, ships of the allied fleet have been steadily returning to find out what happened and have begun to take part in search and rescue efforts." The doctor turned back to me, a small smile on if face as he leaned in, as if to share a secret, "Despite the need to help people, many stopped and celebrated at least for a few hours. The Council has even started calling it Liberation Day." I smiled. It was a relief to hear some good news.

The doctor straightened back up, cleared his throat and said, "Anyway, back to your diagnosis; we found that after a short time your implants came back online and began to repair some of the damage to your internal organs as well as the burns to your body. The injuries that your implants couldn't repair we had to repair in surgery. You were in and out of surgery several times over the past three weeks, but as near as I can tell you'll do just fine. You're still badly bruised in some places and your scars are still fairly fresh but you should make a full recovery in time. Also I'll make sure to have some broth brought up. I'm sure you're hungry." Doctor Ilset looked back to the pad again and continued typing.

I didn't feel like eating, pain meds always unsettled my stomach but arguing with a doctor is like trying to hold back the tide.

I remembered some of my injuries from before the explosion and I was curious about how bad I was, not to mention the fact that I was somehow rescued. "How was I rescued and what was my condition?" I asked. Ilset looked back up and replied, "You were found by a group of C-Sec officers who were attempting to secure the Citadel Council chambers when they found an access way that connected to the Crucible. It was there where they found you. When you were brought in you had lost a significant amount of blood from a gunshot wound, you were badly burned although your armor took the brunt of that, your ear drums had burst, and you had large bits of heavy gauge glass imbedded in your face. I was ready to declare you dead, but your heart kept beating. As I said, your synthetic implants were the only things keeping you alive, if you didn't have them you would've been dead long before you were found."

I blinked in shock. I knew I was in bad condition but I didn't realize it was that bad. My face frowned in confusion, "Wait, you said my ear drums had burst. How can I hear you now?" The doctor smiled as he replied, "During your times in surgery we had difficulty with figuring out how to restore your hearing until we received a donation from one…" Ilset paused as he looked at the data pad "M. Lawson. Not sure who that is or how they knew what we needed but the donation was in the form of implants to replace your ear drums and a specialist to fit you with them. We knew we wouldn't be able to test them out until you regained consciousness but it seems they're working well enough." With that comment the doctor paused to take down a note and continued, "We'll still need to run tests to determine how well they function."

I sat back in thought, there was so much to digest. The Reapers dead and the war over. Now what was I supposed to do? I could barely remember what my life was like before my encounter with the Prothean Beacon on Eden Prime. My life was so caught up in discovering a way to combat the Reapers and ready the galaxy for their return that I had nearly forgotten my prior ambitions. Then I remembered my final thoughts as I shot that tube. I wanted peace, a quiet little corner of the galaxy and most of all I wanted Ashley. I wanted kids. The thought made me smile but a tingle of fear crept in with it. Would she want a family too? Or would she want to continue to redeem her grandfather's name and further her military career? It seems Ashley and I were going to have a lot to talk about.

Looking back at Ashley's cot I began to feel lonely. I hadn't spoken with her since I sent her away with the Normandy. "Where's Commander Williams?" Doctor Ilset looked up again and replied "She was called back to the Normandy. Apparently Admiral Hackett ordered them to take part in search and rescue missions down on the planet."

Planet? Where was I now, the Citadel? More questions raced through my mind as I realized I was behind on a lot of news. The doctor must've seen the look of confusion on my face and headed me off, "I'm sure you have plenty of other questions Commander. I would like to stay and bring you up to speed but I do have other patients to tend to. I'll have a nurse bring you an Omni-tool so you can catch up as much as you can. I'll also make sure that Commander Williams and Admiral Shepard are made aware of your status." Ilset turned to leave, stopped and added, "They've been rather insistent that I contact them once you woke up." He gave an irritated huff and promptly left, all the while muttering something about being every one's personal secretary.

I spent the next several hours reading up on local news and sending messages to the Spectre office as well as Alliance FLEETCOM to update them on my condition. After that I kept myself busy by checking myself over to find out what my body could and couldn't do when my Omni-tool beeped. I flicked my fingers over the orange display and Ashley's face came up on its small screen.

My heart began to race and I felt a grin spread across my face. She looked tired and her hair was tied back in a messy ponytail, but she was still beautiful. I always liked it when she had her hair pulled up like that. I spoke up and said, "Hey Ash."

She broke out in a grin and despite the size of the screen I could see the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Shepard…you're awake." She barely choked out the words in disbelief, a few seconds ticked by with neither of us saying anything. I smiled and said, "So, did you miss me?" Ashley chuckled, bringing up a hand to wipe her face as she spoke, "That's an understatement." Her smile turned serious and her tone took on an edge, "I was ready to drag you back from the afterlife just to kick your ass for doing that to me again." She wasn't amused by the joke and I realized I was in for another tongue lashing like on Horizon. The last time I had truly died there wasn't much I could have done but that doesn't diminish the pain she went through. Right now she was hurt and needed to let it out. "I'm sorry Ashley, you were injured and I wanted to get you to safety."

She let out a frustrated sigh, "Scott, we're soldiers. We're always in dangerous situations. I told you I wasn't going to lose you again but you sent me away. I'm not some shrinking violet that you have to protect, I could've been there to back you up." Her anger faded as fresh tears started down her face. "You didn't have to go alone." That last statement stabbed straight to the heart. I would've loved nothing than for her to be with me until the end. In hindsight however, she likely would've been killed by Harbinger's laser, but I also understood what she was getting at; she would've rather died with me than to be left behind to pick up the pieces.

"I'm sorry Ashley. Sending you away was one of the hardest things I did that day and I knew you would've been there for me. I know how much that must have hurt you, and I never meant to put you through that again. I've always felt better when you were there to fight with me." I paused to let Ashley weigh in. A hint of a smile tugged at her mouth and her dark eyes glittered, "Go on." she said.

It was true. I wasn't saying it just to get back in her good graces. She was the best solder to guard your back, and even better at charging ahead and smoking out the enemy. I suppressed a grin as that thought gave me an idea to tease her with. "Especially when I could stare at your ass during combat. I mean, why do you think I made you take point all of those times?" Ashley broke down laughing, it took her a few seconds to recover and fire one back. "So that's why you're such a horrible shot? I wondered why I was always scoring more kills than you." Her tone turned a little serious but she used that playful half grin that I always loved, "I know you meant well, but don't you dare leave me behind like that again."

I smiled and tossed her a mock salute, "Yes ma'am. Next time I'm in a life or death situation I'll be sure to drag you right along." On the screen I saw Ashley turn her head away for a few moments, then she turned back to me and said, "Listen I have to go, we're running SAR right now and we just got a report of some more people we need to pick up. We'll talk more when I get back in a few days…I love you Skipper." Smiling, I replied "I'm looking forward to it Williams…and I love you too." Ashley grinned at the reference to our conversations years before and the display turned off.

Sitting back I smiled at the thought of seeing her again, holding her in my arms, smelling her hair. It would be nice to have some real time alone together that didn't involve combat or the prospect of dying the following day. That's how our relationship had always been, a relationship born of war and I was curious to know how it would hold up to peace time.

I brought up my Omni-tool again to begin checking messages. I came across one from Traynor talking about how glad she was that I was awake and that she was planning a party aboard the Normandy to celebrate the end of the war, in addition to an offer for a rematch at chess. Then I found another message from a group of merchants from Zakera Ward of the Citadel demanding to know which one of their stores was truly my favorite. It seems they had been itching to get a hold of me about it and finally found me. I started thinking how I was going to get myself out of this quagmire when I heard the door swish open. Looking up I saw an older woman walk in wearing Alliance dress blues decorated with the silver star of a Rear Admiral.

My Mom.

This is the first chapter of a small story I plan on writing. This one took me a while to write down and went through several revisions before I felt it was right. I wanted to thank Aurora313 from the BSN for ideas on how to write dialogue, especially for Shepard and Ashley. I'm already working on the next chapter, hopefully it won't take as long to get that one out like this one did. Reviews are welcome, I'm still very new to writing and any help is appreciated. Thanks for reading!

scotiej