Palaven's moon
"Shepard?"
"Vakarian." she greeted him with a small smile on her face. Even by the dim light of the moon he could see the dark circles under her eyes and the pale colour of her usually tanned skin.
"You look awful." he remarked with a critical look at her.
"Says the half-faced Turian." she teased playfully, smacking him on the shoulder.
He chuckled and shook his head. "What are you doing here?"
"Saving your ass of course..."she grinned , and turned around to head over to the main barricade.
He followed her automatically, falling into step beside her. It felt so good to see her again.
"This is Lieutenant James Vega." she nodded over to the soldier on her left. "James, this is Garrus Vakarian also known as 'Archangel'..." she made an extravagant gesture at the name.
He shook his head and rolled his eyes with a groan. "I'll never live that down, will I ?"
"Nope." Shepard answered, popping the p, and flashing her white teeth at him in a wicked smile.
It really felt good to see her again. When they reached the top of the main barricade, Shepard gestured to them to mount the turrets on either side of the barricade, while she positioned herself in the middle, right on the edge of the barricade. She turned on her biotics and little strings of electric energy sizzled over her armoured body.
"Gentlemen, here they come." she announced when the first wave of husks rushed over the hillside.
He and James opened fire and Shepard greeted the swarming husks with a series of Warps and Reaves, effectively slowing them down so the two soldiers could take them out easily without wasting to much ammunition.
Garrus couldn't help his gaze wandering over to her every now and then, seeing her fight had always inspired him. Shepard hauled her biotics with practised proficiency and deadly precision at the enemy below. After the first few waves had been obliterated she caught his eye and graced him with one of the rare smiles of hers, that always seemed to illuminated her eyes.
Still caught by that smile, he let out a small yelp when a Brute charged into the barricade. Garrus stumbled and fell down on one knee, when he looked up again, she was gone.
"Commander!" he heard James yell over the edge of the barricade, already swinging a leg over the wall, preparing himself to jump down. Garrus scrambled to the edge of the barricade his eyes franticly scanning the rocky ground below until he spotted her in the middle of the open airfield, surrounded by two massive looking Brutes, one on either side of her.
"Shepard!" he yelled, feeling the blood rush out of his face while he gripped the edges of the wall with his talons so tightly that the tips of them went numb.
"Stay there!" she yelled back, her body falling into a crouching position, her arms outstretched on either side of her, hands surrounded by swirling waves of blue light; head swishing from side to side to keep an eye on both of the brutes. "I've got this."
"She's absolutely crazy." he heard James muttered beside him, at the same time as the two brutes charged simultaneously.
Garrus's breath caught in his throat when the two enormous creatures missed her by a hair's breadth. She'd ducked out of their reach in the last second, biotics flaring up brighter than he had ever seen them before, surrounding her whole body with blistering waves of energy.
The two Brutes charged at her again and again she spun out of their reach, with a movement so fast his eyes could hardly follow. There was a loud hauling noise cutting through the air, coming from one of the Brutes. She had managed to hit the beast with a Warp right into it's face. It staggered and waved his massive arms around in, apparently blinded.
Shepard had turned on the other Brute in the meantime and his heart skipped a beat when he saw her jump high into the air, unsheathing her omni-blade she caught the beast first with a Reave and then drove her blade in-between his eyes. She fought with a grace that almost scared him.
The second Brute had apparently regained his vision and was already charging at her again, when the first toppled over to the ground with Shepard's omni-blade still embedded in his thick skull. Shepard half turned, tugging at her arm to loosen the blade which didn't move. With a quick motion of her free hand she send an enormous wave of energy toward the beast, it rushed over it like waves crushing against a rock, effectively stopping its charge, with a grunt she tore her omni-blade out of the dead beast's skull and lunged at the second, jumping up into the air and spinning around once, she beheaded the creature with a single stroke.
There was a stunned silence in the air above the camp before the entirety of the watching Turians broke out into cheers of triumph that could probably be heard on Palavan.
"That's Shepard for you" Garrus had to shout over the deafening roar of the soldiers around them. He was so proud of her he thought his heart would burst with the feeling.
"She's a hell of a Soldier." James roared back at him, grinning from ear to ear.
They both jumped down the barricade simultaneously to join Shepard on the field. She was breathing heavily, resting her hands on her knees, but the smile on her face could only be described as radiant.
"That...felt...good." she said between heavy breaths.
"Damn...Commander, that was awesome." James clapped her on the back.
"It was..." Garrus agreed. "But please, Shepard...Never do that again." he said with a pained expression on his face. "You almost gave me a heart attack."
"You're just getting old." she winked at him, straightening up.
"And you never get old if you keep pulling of stunts like that." he said only half joking.
"Aww...Vakarian, you were actually worried about me." she flashed him a crocked grin before she turned and jogged ahead.
"Of course I was." he said to no one in particular.
Shepard had never really grasped the fact that there were many people in her live who actually lost a lot of sleep at night, because of her.
"You coming." she shouted back over her shoulder.
"Wouldn't miss it." he replied, shaking his head he went to follow her.
She would never change...
….
Annos Basin, Normandy
"Shepard."
"Wrex."
Shepard greeted him with a nod at the entrance of the Normandy.
He never knew what to make of Shepard, for a squishy human she had quite the balls though. She could even stare down a Krogan with that piercing green eyes of hers, but now that he saw her again, her eyes didn't look like he remembered. They were tiered and dull, dark circles underneath. Her shoulders were also slumped, like a heavy weight was crushing them, all in all she didn't look like the woman he knew and respected.
"You look like shit, Shepard." he remarked after following her inside the Normandy.
"Love you too, Wrex." she answered with a wry smile on her too pale face.
He chuckled amused, that was more like her. He followed her inside the comm room were Primarch Victus was already waiting with the Dalatrass Linron by his side and the negotiation began.
Despite the fact that she didn't look like herself, she certainly did act like the Shepard he knew. She wasn't even batting an eyelid when he demanded a cure for the Genophage and she managed to keep the peace during the argument between him and the Dalatrass. Which wasn't a small feat, to begin with.
It was only due to her presence beside him that he did not wrung the neck of this insulting Salarian bitch. His hands still itched at the thought... maybe later, when Shepard wasn't looking. He grinned wickedly.
And as he had expected of Shepard, she immediately sided with him, as soon as he presented the footage of the female Krogan held captive by the fucking Salarians.
What he'd not expected was the deadly stare she directed at the Dalatrass when that bitch called her a bully. Shepard really could be intimidating for a small human if she wanted to. Whatever was bugging her, it made her fiercer than ever. And he liked it.
….
Sur'Kesh
In the Kodiak, he was readying his favourite shotgun. He needed this females, his people needed this females. They were probably the last hope for his people and he did not trust the Salarians one bit.
But when Shepard put a hand on his arm to stop his fidgeting and said "Be nice, Wrex." He'd felt a little better, calmer maybe, still itching like hell to use his gun but he would try to 'Be nice' for her, as far as a Krogan could be nice anyway.
"Commander, salarian ground control says we don't have clearance to land." the pilot had informed Shepard.
"Tell them the Dalatrass authorized this herself." she had replied
"I knew they'd never keep their word. Let's see them stop a Krogan airdrop!" he'd laughed before jumping out of the Kodiak.
"Wrex!" he'd heard her call after him.
What he had not expected was that she would jump after him, and when she'd noticed the red dots all over him, coming from several snipers on the roof, she'd actually stepped in front of him throwing up a barrier and shielding him from the angry salarians in front of them.
He couldn't see her face but her whole body was tensed up, her biotics wild and barely restrained. It was almost like she was challenging them, daring them to make the first and fatal move. He really liked that.
She wasn't crazy, she was actually insane to risk her live for a Krogan. It was this fact and the knowledge that she would probably fight for the females the same way he would, that kept him from following her inside the facility.
"Trust me, Wrex"she'd said
And he did.
And when she'd cried out in pain because she got shot in the shoulder, while protecting the last surviving Krogan female, the last hope of his people, he actually worried about her, worried, about a human.
He was probably just getting old, but he couldn't deny the fact, that she'd actually grown on him.
Huerta Memorial
Kaidan slowly regained conciousness, fighting of the darkness that kept pulling at him. His whole body ached from head to toe, his limbs felt like lead, his tongue was swollen and his mouth was dry,
there was not a single part of him that didn't feel like it had been run over by a Mako, twice.
At first the light had been to bright, blinding him and leaving little swirling dots on the inside of his eyelids whenever he blinked. Slowly he grew more aware of his surroundings, he was in a dimly lit room, the smell of germicide and the low beeping sound of monitor nearby told him that he was probably in a hospital or something similar. Why was he here? What had happened?
Kaidan's memories were hazy at best, swift images of flames, an incredibly strong and gleaming hand, a voice calling out to him...no, pleading with him to hold on. A scream, a scream so loud and filled with fear and rage that it still rung clearly in his ears. He shook his head slightly, nothing of it made any sense.
When the fractured memories slowly began to subside, he grew more aware of the fact that he wasn't alone, there was someone holding his hand.
"Jane?" he whispered through cracked lips, his voice raspy and barely audible even to himself as he struggled to open his eyes again. His vision was blurry and he couldn't make out any details, but he could dimly make out a figure sitting by his side.
He saw a face with soft tanned skin broken by a silver scar running down on one side, framed by sleek black hair; the ever so lightly dusting of freckles above the nose and cheeks barley visible, and vivid eyes, painted in the colour of first spring leafs framed by thick dark lashes.
He felt himself smile softly, but when the hazy fog began to lift and his vision cleared the face transformed; the skin paled and the hair transferred from midnight black into a shining gold blond; the eyes, a liquid green a moment before turned into a soft light blue, like the sky on a cold and cloudless winter morning.
"Alice.." he whispered again when he finally recognised the woman sitting by his side.
The lovely smile Alice wore on her face began to falter and she swallowed hard when she caught the disappointment in his raspy voice. She reached out to run a hand through his thick dark hair down to his cheek were it came to rest. No buzzing of energy accompanied her light touch and he felt even more disappointed.
"How are you feeling?" she asked in a voice ringing with affection he didn't return.
"Awful" he cracked a smile, just to wince with the strain it put on his barely healed facial muscles. "What...happened?"
"You've been gravely injured during a mission...with.." her voice wavered and her eyes dropped to his chest. "Commander Shepard." she concluded after a moments hesitation.
"I don't know any details, they brought you here, to the Citadel, and you've been unconscious for over two weeks." she explained. "I heard that you were here and came immediately to check on you...I've been worried sick about you, Kaidan." she pulled his hand up to her lips and kissed it.
"Jane? Is she...?" he asked, trying to retrieve his hand but his muscles were still too weak and wouldn't comply. Was Jane alright? Had she been hurt, too? Where was she now?
He felt Alice's hand tense on his face and she quickly pulled it away.
"Is that all you ever think about?" she said accusingly.
He saw tears forming in the corners of her eyes."You nearly died that day...Kaidan. And all you worry about is..her?" she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand smudging her make-up in the process.
"What's so special about her anyway?" she sniffed. "She didn't seem so impressive when she came here to check on you."she muttered under her breath.
"She...was here?" The warm and comforting feeling that spread through him at the thought felt like a blanket, easing the pain in his limps and chasing away his weariness.
"It's the least she could have done, don't you think?" she crossed her arms. "After she nearly got you killed."
"It's not...her fault." he said in defence of Shepard, his voice growing a little bit stronger. Even if he couldn't remember any details yet, he simply knew that Jane wasn't responsible for what had happened to him.
"Kaidan..." Alice said imploringly, retaking his hand."This woman isn't good for you." Her blue eyes on his still glittering wet. "I've looked her up on the extranet, death and destruction follow her every step. Did you know that she lost her entire squad during the Skyllian Blitz?"
"I know." Kaidan replied "But she saved...many more."
"You actually believe that stuff don't you?" she huffed. "That she held them off...alone?" She shook her head and sat up straight.
"Yes." he said without a doubt in his voice. When he saw Alice continuing to shake her head he went on. "I've seen her fight...she's unbelievable."
"Is that why you choose her over me?" the bitterness in her voice made him shift uncomfortably sending small waves of pain through his body. He bit back the wince that formed in his throat.
"I thought we talked about this...?" he sighed tiredly.
"Yes, you've made it pretty clear that you don't have feelings for me, but after I met her in person...it's just that...she's not what I've expected." Alice stood up and walked over to the large window, her arms wrapped tightly around herself she stared with unfocused eyes into the distance.
A small smile tucked at Kaidan's lips, remembering the day he had first met Shepard on the Normandy, he'd been disappointed too at first.
"Why?" he asked still smiling at the memory.
"I don't know...in the vids I've seen...she always seemed so...grand...unbeatable, like the Hero she's supposed to be." she explained starring into the distance."...but when I met her...she didn't look like that...she looked tiered and ..there was nothing special about her...she was just a woman..." she sighed and turned around to face him. "I just want to understand it, Kaidan. Why her?"
No one had ever asked him that question and he took a moment to think about it, while Alice waited for him to answer."You just said it yourself...she isn't that special."
Her eyebrows drew together at his words and she opened her mouth to speak again but he held up a hand to stop her. "She isn't and at the same time, she is. It's hard to explain...I guess you won't understand...until you see her smile..." Kaidan said his voice trailing of and his eyelids growing heavy.
He couldn't keep them open any longer and faded back into sleep with the memory of the smile that had once changed his life.