Six days later:
After being recovered, Shepard was taken to an Alliance hospital ship. Despite his unbelievable injuries, he's stable. He's out of immediate danger but he's still got a long way to go.
After six days, he still hasn't woken up. Miranda is leading the medical team looking after him. Jack has hardly left his side, only stepping out briefly to get food. She's wracked with worry. Miranda is concerned for her. That night, when it's time to change his IV, Miranda relieves the nurse and does it herself.
When she steps in the room, Jack is still in the same spot as always, seated next to Shepard, gripping his hand. She looks terrible. Her face is red and puffy from crying, she has dark bags under eyes and her hair is a disaster.
After tending to Shepard, Miranda speaks softly.
"Jack, have you been sleeping?"
"Of course not, how the hell could I?"
Mirandas heart goes out to the younger woman, she wants to think that in Jack's place she could handle it but she's not sure that's true.
"The Normandy is nearby, you should head over and get some actual sleep."
"No! I can't go anywhere, I need to be here when he wakes up."
Miranda's heart nearly breaks at that. Worrying about Shepard was running Jack ragged.
"Jack, that's not going to happen for a while." If it does at all she thinks bleakly. "With his injuries, I can promise he's not waking up for at least two weeks. You have time to get some actual sleep, you really need it."
Jack thinks about it. She does feel terrible. She doesn't want to leave him, but she feels like shit, she really does need some real sleep. If he can't wake up, it should be fine, but she still feels a little guilty.
"I...yeah, okay. Keep an eye on him?"
"Of course. Now go get some rest and get yourself cleaned up, have to make sure he's got something nice to wake up to, right?" She says with a small smile.
"Heh, yeah, bet I look like a fucking raccoon. Thanks cheerleader."
She catches a shuttle over to the Normandy and makes her way up to the loft. She stands in the middle of the room and looks around, remembering all the happy memories she had from here. From big things like their first time making love to little things like a laugh shared over something stupid. The thought that there might not be more...no, fuck that. He's gonna wake up. He's gonna wake up, push me up against that fish tank and fuck my brains out, and everything is going to be fine. It's gonna be just us from now on, no Reapers, no Cerberus, just us.
With that she gets undressed and crawls into bed on his side. She drifts off, and dares to dream about what her, no, their, life would be like now that they were free.
It's the best sleep she's had since the war ended. For the first time in a week, she isn't harshly jarred awake, chased by nightmares about losing him. Instead she'd had several blissful hours imagining a happy, peaceful life together. Two years ago she would have puked if she'd even thought that sentence. Now, she wants to make it a reality more than she'd ever wanted anything else.
She looks at the clock and finds she'd slept for eleven hours. She didn't realize she was that tired. Reluctantly, she gets out of bed and takes a long, relaxing shower. When she steps out she feels infinitely better. She pulls on a pair of cargo pants, plain black t-shirt and Shepard's N7 hoodie. She eats a quick breakfast and takes a shuttle back to the hospital ship.
True to Mirandas word, he's exactly where she left him. She sits with him for a little while before Miranda comes in to check on him. While taking his vitals, she speaks casually.
"Well, you're looking much better."
"Feelin' better. Thanks for talking me into it cheerleader."
"Oh don't thank me, I just wanted to get you out of my sight for a little while."
"Yeah, it was nice not having to watch your gigantic ass bouncing around."
The smiles and light tones take any venom out of the barbs. They're just more comfortable shitting on each other than they are with being decent human beings like they were last night.