I awoke to someone shaking me, I grabbed for my pistol but felt it forced from my hand, so much for that hell of a fight, hahaha... did I just laugh at myself?
" Shepard... Shepard... LACEY!" The voice of someone familiar broke through my senses, a distorted, gruff voice. Opening my eyes slowly, I saw the scarred face of my best friend.
" Garrus?" Even I was surprised at how tired that sounded. My eyes hurt.
" Shepard! Ha ha, even an Eezo bombardment can't kill you huh?... Hey stay awake now."
Forcing my eyes open, they stung. I glanced around, everything was blurry, dusty. Behind the disgruntled Garrus another familiar silhouette appeared.
" Shepard, Keela, I can't believe you are alive," Her tone suddenly changed to urgency, " Garrus, pick her up, we need to get her to the shuttle!"
Garrus put his arms around me, but I wriggled weakly, " Hell if anyone is carrying me off into the sun set."
Every muscle in my body felt like it was ripping from bone as I forced myself, slowly, to my feet. Spectre Shepard moved on her own power. Garrus' face was that of surprise, but he smiled anyway.
" You're as tough as a Dreadnaught, Shepard."
" I'll get back to you on that." I managed to get out as I stumbled into Garrus, who caught me instinctively.
" I don't know any Dreadnaught that could survive an Eezo bombardment like that and move on it's own power." Garrus grinned sharply while he righted my stumble.
Tali stared at us for a second blinking(I always liked how they glowed behind her mask), " We need to get to that shuttle, NOW!"
Garrus helped me out of the metal shed into the cavity of the cave that protected me from certain annihilation. A shuttle waited only a hundred feet from where I was, then it hit me, the transponder. Well I guess I'm just the luckiest woman in the galaxy right now.
" Um, the cave is destabilizing above us Garrus." Tali said hanging out of the open shuttle door(When did she get in the shuttle?), " Which means please move faster."
Garrus glanced down at me before pulling me off my feet and sprinting us to the shuttle. Maybe it wasn't so bad to be rescued by a handsome... when did I start thinking a turian could look handsome? Before I could dig deeper into my thoughts we were leaping into the shuttle. Tali signaled the pilot and the shuttle jerked up and began it's decent. Garrus held me in his lap. I got a good look at the fact that the cave had not completely held out and a hole a little bigger than the shuttle existed at it's roof.
As we exited the cavern the cave collapsed violently in on itself. As I had suspected, the bombardment had left a crater miles long. It was humbling to see it from above as we lifted into the sky. Suddenly nothing else mattered as I felt fingers run through my matted, bloody hair. I glanced up and Garrus was staring out of the shuttle door absent minded, but his hand were running through my hair. My eyes fluttered and closed.
" Shh, shh, open your eyes slowly." A voice said.
Instead my eyes shot open and I regretted it immediately, however I looked around against the pain. It was cool and dim in the room I now laid. Steel bulk heads and the hum of engines told me I was on board a ship. Clenching my eyes closed to get relief I slowly regained my awareness. My fight with Kaiden and escape. Being rescued by Tali and Garrus on the planet before the mining cave fell in on itself after an Alliance Eezo bombardment to kill me. I opened my eyes again and peared around. The walls were not smooth and shiny like the Normandy's, so I must be on another vessel. As the voice and person matched up to Tali, I assumed I was on her ship.
" It's me, Tali." I always liked her voice and accent.
" Hey there... how long was I out?" I asked blinking a few times to focus on Tali.
Tali laughed, " Only an hour, looks like you got all your sleep back in that cavern."
I felt drowsier than that, " How long was I asleep in the cavern?"
Tali looked at her Omni tool, " Well if you fell asleep around the same time as Garrus' beacon went off..." She tapped a few buttons, " About 10 hours."
Well that was a surprise, " So hows my legs... doc?"
Tali walked over and pulled the sheet back. I had been stripped to my under armor, which looked like a black leotard wetsuit with red accents and a short rounded collar, crossed with armor. Adds extra protection to the core and neck while still allowing full mobility of the arms and legs. It of course had an N7 insignia over the heart.
The gun shots in my thighs had almost completely healed. What wasn't had been filled in with medigel. There wasn't much they could do for the bruises and cuts that was decorated my pale skin, I could only imagine what my midsection looked like.
" So how did those thermal round wounds in your thighs heal in just 10 hours?" Tali asked with a bit of suspicion in her voice.
" New secret weapon Kaiden didn't see coming." I replied rubbing my shoulders and sitting up slowly, yep definitely a bruised rip cage, maybe even cracked.
I didn't notice right away, with most of my effort focused on sitting up and swinging my legs off the table, but Tali was staring at me... with confusion I would guess.
" Kaiden? Are you joking?" She finally managed to ask.
" Yeah, I didn't see that coming either." I hopped off the table with a grunt, didn't expect to be so stiff.
Tali hesitated and set her hand on my shoulder, " Shepard, I am so sorry."
I turned to respond to her but the medical bay door slid open. It was much louder than the sliding doors on Alliance vessel, yes, it startled me.
Garrus strolled in, stopped when he saw I was standing and then smiled that arrogant smile he had, " Commander, good to see you're up and moving. Took a pretty long nap on us in that shed, is the captains bed really that stiff on a Cerberus ship too?"
His faux taunting made me smile, " I dunno Garrus..." I put on my best faux overly seductive face I could muster being half beaten to death, " You could always come up and help me soften it out."
" I uh... um." It was the first time I'd seen Garrus genuinely uncomfortable, and this man took a rocket to the face. I heard Tali giggle to my right and I think I saw Garrus' plates go red. He coughed and blinked a few times, then said sincerely, " I'm sorry about Jack and Miranda."
Way to bring me back to reality, just thrust it in... ehm, anyways admittedly Miranda and Jack were not personally some of my favorite people, but they were my crew and damn capable. I suddenly felt very full of homicidal rage, " Don't worry, we'll make Kaiden and the Alliance pay for it."
Garrus again looked confused and glanced at Tali. I forgot that they hadn't been there. I'm grateful, they may not be here with me now and I might still be in that cave. During the Geth conflict and the Sovereign Incident these two were my number one team. They are my two best friends and most capable squad I have worked with. We may have stood a better chance of defeating Kaiden, but I'm not sure all of us would have made it through the Eezo bombardment. I am not happy Miranda and Jack died, but I'm happy it wasn't these two.
" Sorry Garrus, I'm still a little out of it. I'll fill you in to Tali. Kaiden ambushed us after Tali launched. He killed Miranda first, throwing her into the sun and using biotic Slams on her until she was unconscious in direct sunlight. Jack put up a fight, but Kaiden has gotten a lot more capable since we last met. He was cold when he threw her over the side of a cliff." I paused and the gravity of the situation sunk in, " If he hadn't been in such a hurry he probably would have been able to kill me too. I was thrown into the air about twenty feet, but landed on a service walk way with a ledge to shield me from the radiation."
Tali chimed in, " You three took down a whole company of Geth and a Goliath in a very hostile environment. Kaiden may have grown more capable, but he ambushed you three after all that. He was a coward."
Garrus set his hand on my shoulder, " Shepard, she's right. No matter how powerful you three are, with that amount of combat fatigue, exposure to radiation and heat it would have been taxing on anyone. He sat and waited for the best time to strike. He is a coward!" Garrus turned and clenched his hands into fists, "And worse he's a traitor!"
I knew they were right, Tali pretty much said word for word what I said to Kaiden on the planet, still isn't easy to accept defeat. I don't lose crew members often, especially to former squad members.
" With the amount of injuries you sustained, it sounds like you went a second round with him Shepard." Tali said.
" I was making my way back down to him when he killed Jack. We engaged in a very hectic battle." I chuckled, " He thought he had me," I tapped my thighs, " He told me that the Alliance did not believe it was really me and that he agreed." Tali seemed upset by that, they both knew I had been in a relationship with him, " They had sent him to kill me and the Dreadnaught to clean up the mess, but I surprised him, stabbed him then used my biotics to make a tactical retreat." I smiled again, " I don't think he was in any condition to follow me."
" Do you think he is dead?" Tali asked stepping closer to me.
" No." I shook my head, " The immediacy of the Eezo bombardment confirmed that. Kaiden would have had to radio in that he failed."
" I wish I'd have been there with you Shepard. I would have taken him out as he crawled his treacherous ass back into his shuttle." The cold calm fury was very fitting of Garrus. I believed him.
" Garrus, what happened to the Normandy? I assume since you are here it survived the pursuit by dreadnaught."
Garrus' mandibles twitched for a second, then he unclenched his fists and faced me again, " They are a few systems away at the moment. The Normandy was to damn fast for the Dreadnaught, but that also means they know we are still out here."
" Joker's a hell of a pilot." I said with pride, leaning against the cold steel bulk head, " The Alliance will assume I am dead." The two nodded in agreement, " Let's try to keep that top secret until we're prepared to declassify that info. What does Cerberus know?"
" I'm not sure, he probably knows of the Alliance strike and that they assume they killed you." Garrus folded his arms and leaned against an adjacent bulkhead and shook his head, "He probably didn't know that Miranda was dead."
" Didn't?" I cocked my head at him.
" As soon as I got the transponder S.O.S. I told Joker to turn around and find the Quarian vessel. When Tali and I told her you were still alive she immediately agreed to take me back to find you." Tali smiled at me, Garrus pushed off the wall and continued ," If the Illusive Man tried to contact Miranda... well we know that it wouldn't get answered. I left shortly after the Eezo strike and he hadn't contacted Jacob yet, but it's been over 10 hours. Either the Illusive Man contacted Jacob or Jacob contacted him. We've decided to only contact them via com buoy when you awoke."
I pushed off the wall and stretched my arms, which hurt, " Thank you... both of you. You two have always been my closest friends and most capable allies. If it hadn't been for you two I'd be trying to dig out of a ton of rock."
Garrus nodded and grinned, Tali came up and hugged me, " I'm so glad we found you Lacey. You saved me so many times, I'm glad I could repay the favor at least once."
" I'm glad you were here Tali." We embraced for a moment longer and parted. " So I assume we left system already?"
" Back to Commander already. Ha, first thing we did, we've jumped to the Horse Nebula." Garrus had his hands behind his back standing tall. He had gained so much more authority since I'd met him on the Citadel, a young frustrated C-sec detective to my next choice of 1st officer.
" I'll go up front and send an encrypted message to the Normandy. Garrus told me that they should be expecting us." Tali turned and left the room.
" Well Shepard I'll be up front with Tali... calibrating some weapons... if this ship even has any." Garrus turned to leave but I interrupted his exit.
" I liked it better when you called me Lacey..." his shoulders stiffened, " And when you brushed your hands through my hair."
I could see Garrus' mandibles twitch even from behind and there was a long silence before he finally replied looking over his shoulder, " We may want to talk about this later... I know the perfect place on the Citadel, Lacey." His grin was wide as he finished.
" I'll hold you to that, Vakarian." I said with my own wolfish grin.
" In the meantime Shepard maybe you should get a shower." Garrus snickered, " I can smell you from here."
I looked around and shrugged, " Do Quarians even have showers?!"
As he was walking out of the Med bay he replied, " I sure hope so Shepard."
