Thank you all, again. If you have any advice or wishes or concerns, I like hearing them even if I don't agree with them.

"The doctors on Eden Prime kept your body in a brace during most of the time you were in your coma. It seems that whoever paid your bills, parents, guardian, the state, it seems they wanted your body to be ready for physical therapy as soon as you regained consciousness…almost like they knew you were going to wake up.

"It's good news! Great news, actually. Because it made sure that your muscles never shrunk enough to cause any permanent damage to your joints." Doctor Chakwas was pacing back and forth in front of Noah's bed, reading his file with an excited look on her face.

"I know what you're thinking, 'what do we do next?' Well, the answer is quite simple. I'm going to inject you with a few steroids, a few muscle relaxants and then begin you on a vigorous physical therapy routine. Your doctor on the Citadel will be able to get you walking in no time.

"But…you'll never regain full mobility. Your file is amazing already with all the speech and memory exercises, but muscles are not like the brain. They are black and white, dead or alive. And while they aren't dead, you'll never run or walk without a cane.

"I know this must be shocking, but it really is amazing news. You should feel lucky." Doctor Chakwas finally stopped moving, both her mouth and her feet. She looked at Noah as if he was supposed to have a response other than complete blankness.

"You can thank me later, Noah, after Shepard tears you a new one and I sew it up."

"What do you mean?"

"I…" Chakwas laughed. "I think it would be best to not tell you until she's here."

"She?"

"Yes, the commander of this ship is a woman. I thought these issues were resolved long ago. I guess out in the colonies men like to revert back to there…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, no, stop. I just thought you said…tree." Chakwas shook her head before exiting the medical bay.

"What the fuck have I done?" Noah asked to the ceiling, keeping his voice barely above a whisper. Nihlus was alive. That was the one thing that kept popping up in his mind. Nihlus should be dead…killed by Saren. If he's not dead, does the crew of the Normandy know about Saren?

Noah certainly couldn't tell them. They'd want proof and all sorts of other things that Noah just couldn't give. He didn't even remember how he found Nihlus or how he made it onto the Normandy. He just remembered the hospital and the dreams…the damn genocidal dreams.

And Shepard was a chick. Somewhere below his belt he wished that she was hot, but from what he's been told, by Nihlus and Chakwas, she seemed like she was a hard ass. The kind of Shepard that wasn't racist, but disliked everyone and made sure everyone knew it. It seemed like she was the kind of Shepard that Noah always hated to see played.

"I wanna go home…" Noah pleaded with the ceiling.

"Eden Prime's no place you want to be now, kid." The voice was familiar. It was Jennifer Hale, or, Noah supposed, Jane Shepard. "Unless that's not home to you, Mr. Idris." Noah froze, mainly from fear.

"Do you have any idea what you've done from the time you awoke from your 'coma' to the time you awoke on my ship?"

"I…I…I woke up…"

"Yeah, skip that part. I've got that much of the story down pat. I just want to make sure we're on the same page."

"After that I…I…"

"Stop stuttering and speak up, Noah. What the hell were you doing on Eden Prime?"

"Please!" Noah yelled. The words seemed to scrape against his lungs. "Just please stop yelling at me. You are…very intimidating and it's making it very hard to think." Shepard gave a small laugh.

"But you don't need to think, do you?" She leaned in close to his face. "You don't remember a damn thing, do you?"

Noah shook his head and put his gaze on his legs.

"God damn it, kid. You really fucked up my mission and everyone's telling me that you won't remember a damn thing, but I don't believe it." There was fury in her eyes, confusion, and pain. "Now tell me the truth or I will dump you off of this ship if Batarian space with a sign that says 'Bounty'."

Noah tried to gather his thoughts. The truth. He pondered the thought. In his own mind he wasn't sure what 'the truth' was. But then again, Shepard wasn't giving him much of a chance to figure it out. The only thing he could do is speak and hope that this Shepard wasn't as evil as she seemed. She never was, right?

"Okay, I…I can tell you everything that I know. Just, give me a moment."

"I lost a crew member for the artifact on Prime and because of you we lost that artifact. So I don't have the patience, or the will to give you anything more than one more chance to tell me what you know."

"Okay, okay, okay! I was writing a term paper and I dozed off listening to this song and when I woke up I was in a hospital bed and the doctors were telling me that I had been in a coma for my entire life, nineteen years, and that I wouldn't be able to talk or walk but when I did talk and knew stuff they said that it was extraordinary, but I still couldn't walk, so then there were crashes and explosions and the building started collapsing and it did collapse, right on top of me and I was lying there dying and these Geth started taking bodies and they came for me but when they saw I was stuck they were going to kill me, so the Geth pulled the trigger but it didn't kill me, I stopped it with my mind or something and then I crushed them with this barrier which also pushed the debris from my back and freed me, but I still couldn't walk because I had been in a coma and my muscles were dead or something, so I was stuck on the ground, but I tried anyways, I tried to get up and when I did this weird blue aura stuff, like the stuff that killed the Geth, wrapped around me and supported my body and let me walk and then I started having these nightmares and then I woke up here…"

Noah breathed in for the first time since he started speaking. Shepard was looking straight into his eyes. Down below his belt he thought she was hot.

"So you're only nineteen?" Noah gave her a questioning look. She smirked before returning to her stern expression. "It was a joke…to see if you were lying. Your story sounds…completely ridiculous, but you look terrified out of your mind.

I don't care how hard this is for you, that's not my job. Is to make sure you're not a danger to my crew, working for the Geth, something stupid like that. And I have a lot of questions that you are going to answer before I decide your fate. Do you understand me, kid?"

Noah nodded his head.

"First of all, what did you mean by 'writing a term paper'? You were in a coma."

"I don't know. I…it must have been one of those coma-dreams or something."

"Yeah, maybe, but you don't believe that. Don't lie to me."

"I don't know what to believe, okay? I'm confused. If I was in a coma for nineteen years, then my mind has made a life for me inside of my own mind, letting me live every day like I wasn't lying in a hospital bed. I don't know what to believe!"

"Okay," Shepard's eyes went soft for a moment. "I don't know what to think about that. So let's move to the next question. So these crashes and explosions, that was the Geth attack, correct?" Noah nodded his head. "Did you see the ship? Did the Geth say anything, or did you hear anything?"

"Nuh, nuh, no. I…the building just collapsed. I didn't see anything."

"Okay. Doctor Chakwas report says that you have biotic implants, but that they weren't on your original medical report. I can't expect you to know why, but I have to ask."

"No, I don't know a thing."

"That's for damn sure. But your biotic powers…Nihlus said that you were able to…"

"Yeah…I saw the video."

"Those weren't normal powers, or at least they were nothing like anyone has reported. If what you and Nihlus say is correct, then I can't technically hold you responsible for what you did on Eden Prime. But you have to understand, that this story is hard for anyone to believe.

"You just happen to not remember? You were in a coma and just were able to do these unheard of things when you woke up? You just happened to wake up on the day the Geth attacked? That's a lot of coincidences…but you were in a coma."

"I'm sorry."

"Oh shut it." Shepard shook her head, half smiling. "Kid, this was just the wrong time for you to show up. And I don't know what to do with you."

"If…if it means anything to you, ma'am, I want the answers to those questions as much as Nihlus, as much as you."

"I'm not sure if that will mean anything to the council when I try to explain what happened. But yeah, it means at least a little to me, kid." Shepard patted Noah on the shoulder and headed for the door.

"Uh, Shepard, ma'am?"

"Yeah, Mr. Idris?"

"What did I do…to mess up the mission?" First she smiled, but then her face contorted to a frown.

"Well kid…you were unconscious, Nihlus had you and we were waiting for extraction." Shepard looked down at the ground before continuing. "He placed you down by the railing and the next thing I see, is you walking towards the beacon. When you got close enough it lifted you into the air, held you there for a moment and then exploded. A soldier of mind was killed by the shrapnel."

"What was his name, Ma'am?" Noah wasn't sure what to think.

"Alenko, Kaidan Alenko."