Title: The Miss-adventures of Kaidan Alenko – Part 2
Author:
DinkyMew
Game:
Mass Effect 3+
Disclaimer:
Bioware owns all Mass Effect content, characters and world – the character of Abigail Shepard is my own creation inspired by the character of Jane Shepard created by Bioware
Pairings:
Kaidan Alenko and Abigail Shepard (F)

Through some kind of miracle, or blind luck I am still alive.

I wake in a room thundering with noise of people – shouting and screaming, crying – the wails of the injured and the dying reaching a cacophony of sound that pushes on my eardrums as my eyes flicker open.

The scene is chaotic, doctors are scrambling over patients left lying on sheets on the floor – the waxy green flooring is slick with blood and I gag as the smell of corrupted flesh and death reaches me. Slowly I push myself to sit, examining my body as though it belonged to someone else. I have no armour on, only my tank top and some hospital issue trousers, the kind that look like pyjamas – blue with white stripes.

I touch a hand to my head gingerly, the majority of my injuries appear to have been dealt with. With everything considered I feel great and then I remember where I was. The Citadel. Admiral Anderson. Abigail.

I push myself off the bed, bare feet touching the sticky floor beneath me as I pick my way through the patients lying here there and everywhere. Hands reach out to me and I steel myself; seeing this much suffering causes me great pain but I have to know what happened. I have to know what happened to her when I closed my eyes.

The corridors are as bad as the rooms; swarming with injured patients, but there is a clear walkway for wheeling gurneys. I pause in the doorway, gripping the frame as my legs wobble beneath me. Where the hell am I?

A white coat breezes under my vision and I grab for it, my fist wrapping around the fabric I pull the wearer toward me.

"Let go of me!" The man sputters, slapping at my hand and I release him now I have his attention. He smoothes his coat, looking closely at me, his thick eyebrows crashing together as he shakes his head.

"You're the crash patient they brought in." He says, his moustache bobbing over his top lip as he speaks "You shouldn't be out of bed yet sir."

"Where am I?" I ask, wiping my forehead with the palm of my hand.

"You're safe." He nods slowly, speaking to me as if I cannot understand him, enunciating each word carefully "You are at an Alliance space station in the Sol System; you were brought in by a scouting patrol who found you amongst some wreckage on the Citadel." He touches my shoulder and I swallow dreading the next sentence "It would appear your biotics somehow protected you – we're not sure how you survived to be honest, you were damn lucky."

"What… ah… what about the Reapers?" I ask, my head beginning to thump in time to the noise.

"The Reapers?" The doctor frowns "They were destroyed a few days ago, we're still cleaning up the mess – supply lines are still getting re-established, it's slow work. We're doing everything we can."

I swallow, my throat feels tight as I open my mouth to speak "Was I alone?" I ask and the doctor shakes his head.

"You were brought in alone if that is what you mean." He glances away from me, nodding to someone in the distance and then turning to me once more "Get back into bed, please, I will send someone to answer your questions just shortly."

I barely hear him as I sink back against the wall. It's happening all over again.

I've lost her.

As if in answer the doors to my right swing open and there is a buzz of noise as doctors stride past with a gurney between them, shouting at each other. My eyes are drawn to the movement, and I recognise the still form in the bed – it's Abigail!

I cry out, wrenching from the wall and running after the doctors as they swing the gurney into another room. I break through the double doors and they all pause to look up at me.

"She's been under that rubble for a while." I hear one say urgently, tapping furiously on his omnitool as it whirs and scans over her.

"Who are you?" The one nearest me barks, his skin is dark; brown eyes look me up and down and he frowns impatiently. A doctor pushes past us, shouting orders down the corridor.

"I'm … I know her." I say, trying to look past him, to see her, but he blocks my view with his shoulders.

"Family only." He says holding up a hand and shuffling me backwards. I consider telling him I am family; but I know now he would be unlikely to believe it. I think quickly, standing my ground and asserting as much authority as I can muster.

"I'm her husband." I say, then to make sure he understood me I add "She's my wife."

He looks at me dubiously and turns to his colleague who shrugs her shoulders.

"You know her?" He asks and I nod.

"You know her well?" I nod again and at last he relents.

"Get over here then." He says, gruffly moving around the gurney toward her head. She looks deathly pale and I pause, wondering if she is alive at all. "She needs blood." The doctor says, his voice crisp as he sticks a needle into her arm "You can give blood?" He asks, but I can tell he is not really interested in my answer.

"Absolutely." I breathe, "Whatever she needs." I move forward and he fixes me with dark eyes.

"Good lad." He nods, and his colleague steps toward me taking my arm and begins to feel at the inner elbow for a vein. She presses the needle into me and leads me to a stool where I am made to sit, close enough that I can reach out and touch Abigail's fingers. I draw her hand into mine, it's like ice.

"Is she going to be alright?" I ask, and neither will look me in the eye.

"There has been a complication." The dark skinned doctor says, connecting the transfer machine and flicking the switch; the room is filled with a whirring noise and I swallow, watching as my blood slowly creeps from my arm, down the clear tube into the machine and then along another tube into Abigail.

"What kind of complication?" I ask, fearful.

The doctor looks at me seriously, those doubts creeping back into his eyes once more. "She's carrying a baby." He says firmly.

I blink. My mind is blank.

Did he just say…?

"She's pregnant?"