Chapter 3: Alive

The smell of smoke filled my lungs, choking me. After almost coughing out a lung, I opened my eyes to find that I was lying on my back with debris from the Reaper pinning my legs down. The chambers were filled with dark smoke from the fires that seemed to be everywhere. I had to get out of here before I burnt to a crisp. Sitting up, I pushed the debris off of my legs and tried to stand, but I collapsed back to the floor. Wait a minute, where's Shepard and Tali?

I frantically looked around me, trying to find a sign of either of them, but I had no luck. I have to stand up. Looking down at my legs, I yelled at them in my head. Come on, damn you! I slapped my left leg and pain shot up it, making me cringe. Bad idea. There was a fallen pillar near me. Maybe I could crawl to it and use it to help me up. When I reached it, I held onto it and slowly brought my legs up to stand. It worked, but I felt wobbly on my legs, like a young turian learning to walk.

Behind me, I heard shuffling of feet. Oh no, please don't be a husk. Glancing back, I discovered Tali shuffling towards me as she held her side that was bleeding. She looked up at me and stopped. "Garrus," she said weakly, "I don't feel so good." I noticed that the hand she held her wound with was slightly twitching.

"Just sit down, Tali. I have to go find Shepard."

She slowly sat down against a fallen tree and sighed, clutching her side. "She's probably dead. Don't waste your time."

"Don't say that! She's still alive."

Tali didn't respond. All she did was moan and clutch her side harder to stop the bleeding.

"I'll be back. Don't move from that spot," I told her, then I hobbled away as fast as I could, searching for Elizabeth. I started to search near where the bridge ended up, broken in half. As I was lifting some rubble, I heard voices behind me. At first I thought it was Tali talking to herself, but then I heard a male voice. Dropping the rubble, I turned back to see two Alliance soldiers along with Captain Anderson with Tali.

"Garrus! Over here!" Anderson yelled as he waved his arm. I began to limp towards him, but then something caught my eye. Under some rubble there was what looked like a finger. My heart raced as I thought of the worst. Ignoring Anderson's calls, I rushed towards it, and when I reached it, I removed the rubble to find Elizabeth underneath. Falling to my knees, I touched her bloody face to see if she would respond. She didn't. She was either dead or unconscious. Panicking, I put my ear to her nose to see if I could hear her breathing. A soft exhalation tickled me. She was alive! I knew it!

I gently picked her up and cradled her in my arms. She was heavy, so my limping worsened as I returned to where Tali was now being helped by a soldier. When Anderson saw that Shepard was not moving, he looked at me worriedly.

"Is she alive?" he asked as he came to me and peered down at her face.

"Yes, but we I need to get her to Chakwas or else she won't make it."

He motioned for me to continue on. "Don't let me stand in your way. The Normandy should be docked, and when you get there, make sure she takes a look at your legs."

"Will do, sir."

As soon as I entered the Normandy, Kaiden rushed over to me with tears in his eyes.

"She's gonna be okay, right Garrus?"

"Yes," I responded, "but she won't be if I don't get her to Chakwas."

When I tried to walk away, he blocked my path. "Let me take her. You're injured. You might drop her."

"She's losing a lot of blood, Kaiden. It will be quicker if I keep going." Not at all.

"Please, just let me have her."

"Kaiden, shut up and get out of the way!"

That shut him up. He quickly stepped out of my way and let me go on.

"Lay her on the operating table," Doctor Chakwas ordered as I entered the room.

I carefully placed Shepard on the table while Chakwas moved around the room to grab some things.

"I'm staying here," I told the doctor. There was no way I was leaving until Shepard woke up.

"Garrus, you're going to get in my way."

"Please," I pleaded, "I want to stay."

She looked at me, obviously irritated, but said, "Fine, but go sit down somewhere away from the table."

Plopping into a nearby chair, I watched as Chakwas cleaned the blood from Elizabeth's face, revealing cuts and bruises, yet she still looked so beautiful. My eyes lids began to feel heavy as I watched. I wanted to stay awake, but fatigue got the best of me, and I drifted off to sleep in the chair.

I woke to the sound of Doctor Chakwas humming. After yawning and sitting up, she glanced over at me from her chair at a desk and smiled. "You finally up, Garrus?"

"How long was I asleep?" I asked as I stretched.

"I would say about nine hours. Everyone visited Shepard while you were sleeping. She's still unconscious, though."

Standing up, I walked over to Shepard's bed and looked down at her. She seemed so at peace with the well deserved break she was getting from all the hard work she has done. Grabbing a corner of the sheet that covered her, I began pulling the cover off, but Chakwas yelled at me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

I stopped and said, "I want to see what you did."

"No. Absolutely not. She's completely naked under that sheet."

My eyes widened in surprise. Completely naked, huh? I dropped the sheet back down. "Sorry. Didn't know. What damage did she have?"

"Elizabeth had three broken ribs, a broken arm, a bone fracture in her left leg, a concussion, and various cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over her body, but nothing I couldn't handle."

"So Kaiden was here? Did he get overemotional like always?"

Chakwas glared at me. "Yes, he did cry a bit, but it is understandable. He is in love with her, and has been ever since he met her in the Alliance."

Yeah, right. "Sure he has. I bet he just wants to be with her so he can say he was with the woman that saved the Citadel."

"How dare you! You wouldn't know what love looked like even if it was standing right in front of you! You never loved anyone, so you can't judge their relationship like that!"

Never loved anyone? I'm in love with someone right now, you stupid human! I'm in love with the woman that is under that sheet, unconscious! I wanted to say all those things to the doctor, but I didn't want anyone to know my feelings towards Shepard. Besides, humans and turians were never meant to be together, right?

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "Maybe he is in love with her for a legitimate reason."

"Of course he is. Now go away before I loose my temper."

"I think I'll stay for a little bit longer, if you don't mind."

She sighed and said, "Do whatever you want."

I pulled up a chair next to Shepard's bed and sat. After a while of staring at her face, I reached under the sheet, found her cold hand, and held it between my hands. Chakwas looked over at me, curious of what I was doing. When she saw me holding her hand, a quizzical expression crossed her face, but she eventually went back to what she was doing. I decided I was going to sit here like this until she woke up.

The door to the room opened and Kaiden walked in. Chakwas turned around in her chair and greeted him with, "Hello, Kaiden. If you're wondering, she still isn't up yet, but I expect she will be up shortly."

Kaiden looked down at me with her hand in mine and asked, "Why are you still here? Shouldn't you be down in the cargo hold fixing the Mako like you always do?"

"I have plenty of time to do that later. Right now I am waiting for Elizabeth to wake up."

"You have been here long enough. I think it's about time you go now."

"You can't tell me when I should leave. I'll stay here as long as I need to, whether you like it or not."

"Garrus, get out of here! Why do you have to be so stupid?"

I stood, appearing as menacing as I could. "You had better turn around and walk out of here as fast as you can before I rip all your intestines out of your asshole!"

"That's enough!" Chakwas intervened. "Both of you get out of here at once!"

I stormed out of there as quickly as I could. I wished that I could kill Kaiden, but I was afraid that Shepard would hate me for it, so I decided to keep him alive for now. My peaceful escape from it all was the cargo hold. The Mako looked... well, it looked pretty bad. To me, it looked like a pile of metal that was smashed thousands of times. Elizabeth sure knows how to wreck things. I sighed and walked over to it to fix the old thing.

As I was working, I thought about all the times Shepard would come down here and chat with Ashley when she was still alive. I would be an eavesdropper while working on the Mako and listen to what they would talk about. They talked about their families, they talked about relationships, and they also talked about their religion, which interested me the most. They both believed in God, which I have no idea who or what that is. I also remember them talking about what happens after someone dies, that you either go up or down. Shepard also mentioned something about angels and how they were watching over us to protect us. I would have never thought that Elizabeth was a religious woman, but she surprises me everyday.

I needed to quit working on the Mako; it gave me too much time to think of things that I didn't want to think of right now. I needed to talk to someone that could talk all day about nothing important. That person would be Tali. Dropping my tools on the ground in front of me, I walked to the drive core room, where I expected her to be, and long behold, there she was, leaning over the railing, staring at the core. She must have had the operation on her side already.

"Hey, Tali. Got a minute?" I asked when I was right next to her.

She slowly turned her head to look at me and said, "I suppose. I'm still a little shaken from our ordeal on the Citadel, the whole Saren and Reaper thing."

"How's the side?"

She straightened to show me where her wound use to be. "I'm doing okay for now. It's a little sore, though." After glancing around, she asked, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

Chuckling, I responded, "What, I can't make small talk with you?"

"You never make small talk with me. It's always important things that we talk about."

"Alright," I agreed. "I'm slightly angry right now."

"Why is that?"

I leaned against the rail and looked up at the drive core as I spoke. "I'm not too pleased with Elizabeth's relationship with that bastard."

"Garrus, they really like each other. Leave them alone."

Clenching my fists, I said, "He doesn't deserve her! Elizabeth needs someone greater than him."

"And... who do you propose is great for Shepard? Hmm?"

I was about to say something, but I stopped. Was I really going to say myself?

Tali tapped her foot on the floor, waiting for a response. "Who, Garrus? Come on. Spit it out."

"Well, she needs someone who will stand by her no matter what, someone who would be willing to risk their own life to save her, to be not only her best friend but a mate too."

"So you're talking about yourself, am I right?"

I was quiet.

"I knew it!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. "I knew it! I knew it!"

I turned around to look at her. I'm glad no one was in here to hear her. "Now, Tali, don't draw any conclusions..."

She squealed and jumped at me, wrapping her arms around me, hugging me as hard as she could. "Garrus and Elizabeth. Garrus and Elizabeth," she repeated into my shoulder.

Pushing her away, I said, "Tali, listen..."

"How long?" she interjected.

"How long what?"

"How long have you been in love with her?"

"Since I met her on the Citadel."

She squealed yet again. "That's so cute! When are you going to tell her?"

"I... what?"

"You have to tell her, you know."

Shaking my head, I said, "No. I'm never going to tell her."

"Why not? She needs to know."

"No she doesn't. It would be... awkward. I mean, she's a human, and I'm a turian. Those kinds of relationships never work out."

"You never know until you try, Garrus. Whoever told you that is wrong."

"My father said that," I growled.

"He's wrong. Would you at least give it a chance?"

I thought about it. What could really happen if I told her? She could be disgusted, slap me in the face, and order someone to kill me. Nah, not likely. "Fine, I'll tell her."

She clapped her hands together in excitement. "You should do it when she wakes up. It would be a nice surprise."

"No, I'm going to do it when I feel like it. And don't go around telling anyone about this."

"I won't. But I will tell you something Shepard told me once."

"What's that?"

"One day, Shepard and I were chatting away because we always do, and..."

"Get to the point," I interrupted.

"She said that she thinks you're a real bad-ass."

That made me stand up straighter. "Really?"

"Yes. So you should go visit her and see if she is awake."

"Don't rush me, Tali." I turned towards the door and sighed. "I'll go see if she's awake."

When I entered the medical room, I noticed that the lights have been dimmed. Probably for Elizabeth. Then I saw her, standing in front of her bed with her back to me and with no shirt on. Her back was covered in bruises and cuts. She must have known someone was here because she snatched her shirt off the bed and slipped it on.

"Elizabeth, it's good to finally see you up."

Shepard turned around, her face slightly swollen and bruised. She smiled with tears in her eyes, then rushed to me and embraced me. I held her as softly as I could because I didn't want to hurt her now fragile body.

With her head on my shoulder, she whispered, "Thank God you're alive. I didn't know if you were dead or not; Chakwas wouldn't tell me."

"I thought I lost you," I whispered into her ear. "When I found you under rubble, I was afraid that you were dead."

She let go of me then and stood in front of me, her eyes on mine. "I'm sorry, Garrus."

Perplexed, I asked, "Sorry for what?"

Averting her eyes down to the floor, she said, "For almost getting you and Tali killed."

"We both knew that that would be something we had to accept when we joined you, Elizabeth."

Shepard giggled and looked back up into my eyes. "You're the greatest."

"Shepard!"

I turned around to find Tali standing in the doorway, probably here to see if I asked or to encourage me.

"Oh, Tali!" Elizabeth opened her arms wide, inviting a hug from Tali. Of course, Tali accepted.

When they finished, I said, "Tali told me not to look for you. She said it was a lost cause."

Shepard looked at her, stunned. "Tali? Why?"

"It would be hard for someone to survive that. Since you were the one closer to the debris' impact, I thought it would have killed you for sure. It was a miracle you survived, Commander."

"That is true," Elizabeth agreed. "I'm glad I'm still alive to see you two."

Hopefully mostly me. I smiled at that thought.

We stood in silence for a bit, then Shepard said, "I should go talk to Joker and see if Anderson sent a message."

As she slowly walked out the door, I watched her. She was still beautiful even with bruises and cuts. I couldn't wait to see what was in store for us next.