Hours...or days? She couldn't tell any more. The pain in her legs had faded, the crushing agony when the support strut slammed down across her knees and pinned her to the ground had receded in one of her bouts of unconsciousness, and yet Shepard had a feeling that wasn't a good thing. She lay face down, dimly aware of the sticky puddle of blood her face rested in, blood that had trickled from the wound across her face and the graze where a bullet just missed her head but nicked her temple and her nose and her lip, dimly aware that she couldn't move anything below her waist and she wasn't sure whether that was spinal injury or numbness or just that fact she was buried under rubble. She was trying not to focus on how raw her throat was from screaming orders in battle and now lying here desperate for a sip of water to help her parched mouth. Trying not to think about how the hunger pangs had turned into a twisting, painful emptiness that, along with the pain, had her feeling dizzy and weak and slipping in and out of blackness with no concept of how long she had lain there.
At first she had tried to move, or tried to raise somebody through radio contact, but she no longer had the energy to do either. Instead, she focused on breathing, keeping it slow and steady and ignoring the sharp pain in her side when she sucked air in.
They had won at least...right? She had destroyed the Reapers...and the galaxy could rebuild. That was the thought her mind turned over when it was capable of thought. It was done. This time, she hadn't failed.
She let her mind drift to better times. Poker in the lounge, drinking in her apartment, laughter, friends, Kaidan...half formed memories and images drifted through her brain at times. When she heard a voice, she was sure it was part of these thoughts. A voice calling her name. So sure was she it was her mind, at first she made no attempt to respond or react. But it continued and eventually she became aware it was not one voice, but a few, and there were other noises as well, the faint whirr of biotics and rubble being lifted...
Awkwardly she tried to lift her head and failed. Her arms tried to get purchase on the broken floor beneath her so she could push herself up, look around, but her elbows shook and she could not manage it. So she tried to yell, her dry tongue scraping across cracked lips before she tried to call out, nothing but an awkward croak escaping her, but it was heard and the footsteps were moving closer, and a sweeping light.
"Commander? Shepard!"
Things above her started moving, rocks and beams and a chunk of curved metal that had domed over her and protected most of her upper body.
"Sophie, oh thank God". A very familiar voice, and somebody was dropping into a space beside her torso, a hand on her own, another on her shoulder, and a face that was so dear to her leaning close. "Sophie? Can you hear me? We've found you, you're gonna be just fine, ok?" But she heard the falter in his voice as he looked at her legs, crushed beneath an enormous metal beam. Right now she didn't care though, her fingers curling so she could hold the tips of his.