Por el amor de Dios.
James was Shepard's guard, a responsibility entrusted to him by Anderson. It was his job, his duty to keep her safe.
And of course, she got attacked on his watch. This kind of shit should just be expected in his life. When would he just be right for once? Wrong decisions always seemed to follow him.
The workout schedule should have been changed and they should have taken different routes. But Shepard was ornery, stubborn on getting her run time at the exact same time, in the exact same place. It was just asking for trouble.
But even with all her stubbornness, she hadn't gotten back to her normal schedule. Now she just staying cooped up in her detention cell until the committees called for her.
It had been three days since the attack. The wound healed well, but Vega had noticed that Shepard had been a lot more sluggish and more winded with her words. Not something to expect from a good example of a marine.
She kept waving him off that she was fine, saying her bloodwork, scans, every test had come back fine, just listen to the doctors on this one.
A whistle caught his attention, cutting through his thoughts. It was weak, ragged and completely out of tune, but he was still able to recognize it; an old Alliance recruitment jingle, one that he was so used to hearing growing up.
"Hey, Vega?" Shepard just finally came out and started talking to him. The conversation between the two was little at best. But that didn't mean she didn't try to pull words out of him.
"Yeah, Commander?"
"First off, stop calling me that, it's annoying." She breathed in quickly between sentences. "And second you look pretty lost in the head. We've been over this, he got the drop on me, but I'm fine. But are you alright?" It was always prying questions with her.
"A stab in the shoulder isn't what I'd call fine." She had shaken off the stabbing like it was nothing.
Shepard smirked at him as she answers. "Would you believe me if I said I'd been stabbed in almost the exact same place before?"
James let out a laugh, it caught him off guard. "You have a thing for being stabbed? Anything else I should worry about?"
"Fuck off." Shepard coughed back a chuckle, James didn't like the sound of that cough. "Nah, it was just some dumb kid stuff, I was doing a run for some Red Sand. The guy wasn't willingly to pay and pulled a knife on me. I brilliantly thought to fight him."
Shepard's name carried a lot of weight in the Alliance. When he first enlisted, she had been named the Hero of the Elysium. Soon after he had found himself pouring over her public bio way too much after that. Learning that some kid also from the Pacific, who came from way worse streets than him was inspiring, to say the least.
A nickname wasn't needed to remember her.
But with the person he'd imagined her to be, the name Shepard didn't fit so well anymore. He had been kicking names around, maybe Lola. She was definitely tough enough to handle the name.
Not that she still wasn't a damn hero, but within the past two months, he saw a lot more the human side of her. The anger, stubbornness, and the constant denial of health were eye opening. He was going to be dragging her to the clinic soon, he just needed her to give him an excuse.
"Ah, right, just normal kids stuff."
Shepard replied with a wheezed cough. Her face paled as she tried to drag in haggard, sharp breaths. That was it, there was definitely something wrong with her.
"That's it, I'm taking you to the infirmary."
He pulled at Shepard's arm and out of her chair, she may have been a great example of marine to him, N7, a goddamn hero, but he was sure as not going to wait around watching her choke on her own breath.
"Seriously? I'm fine, just tired." She let out a protesting whine.
"Bullshit."
"You're not supposed to talk to a superior officer like that," she sarcastically wheezed out.
"You're not. We're going. That's final." James kept his words short and concise, it was the easiest way to the message across.
"At least you'll admit it for once."
James ignored the comment and pushed her towards the door. She may have been headstrong, but James decided to be the more stubborn son of a bitch.
He stayed quiet through most of the walk other than calling into the clinic to have a doc ready until they arrived at the stairs. Just seven flights up and he'd finally get her ass into doctor's seat.
Shepard let out another sharp breath as they approached the stairs. "Can we, uh, take the elevator?"
He wanted to make a joke, but instead called the elevator. It took two minutes for it finally arrive. Damn Alliance elevators were notoriously slow.
James hit the location on for the clinic on the vidscreen while Shepard slumped back onto the elevator's wall. It took twenty seconds just to get the damn thing going. Amongst the twirling background music, Shepard broken the silence between them.
"So, uh what's his name? The batarian, I mean."
"I know as much as you," James replied curtly.
Shepard scrunched her face up, obviously not happy with his answer. She continued on to question him.
"His family, Patia Semmark and Besine Kodsoh?"
"What about them?"
Six more flights. The elevator jostled only throwing Shepard off her balance a little. Vega almost reached out to catch her, but she waved him off and went on speaking.
"They were on Aratoht when I-" Her voice cut off with a sigh as she rested her head back and closed her eyes. "Could you look into for me, please? I'd just like to know."
"Sure thing, Commander."
Her lips curved up as she spoke. "You're an ass, you know that Vega?"
"Yeah, but a fine ass I must say." Shepard let out a curt laugh to his answer. Four more flights.
The elevator continued to shake and moved them both out of place. James was able to easily hold still, but Shepard caught the railing and slumped back again. Her face grew pale by the minute and breath more shallow, yet she just kept talking at him.
Her voice was low and parched. "I could have done more, you know? I could have gotten there soon. He shouldn't be sitting in a cell. He should have the chance to be with his family." James turned to her, but she didn't look at him. She kept on with her questions, though, it was always questions with her.
"Do you think I made the wrong decision?" Her words echoed his own that he had barely spoken a year ago. Vega wasn't sure how to answer. Instead, he looked forward towards the vidscreen. Two more flights.
Sacrifice the few now to the save the many later on, that was the logical choice. Vega's clenched his jaw. His men and colonists were lost because of that logic. He wondered if those lives weight on Shepard just as they did him.
Vega finally returns her question with his own. "Why do you care what I think?"
"You've been sitting in on this whole shitshow, you must have an opinion."
"You made the best choice you could with your situation." His words rang hollow.
The best choice didn't help him sleep at night. The best choice at Fehl Prime didn't even matter now, the Collectors were dead, the intel for their lives was useless.
"Ha, that's what I keep telling myself, maybe one day I'll believe it."
Her answer surprised him. He wanted to ask so many questions, look for guidances, but it wasn't his place. Instead, he just escorted her off the elevator and into the infirmary ward.
***
The docs said James had made the right call to get Shepard to the infirmary when he did.
Three hours after her arrival, Shepard's heartline had gone flat. Only for a minute, but it was enough to scare the shit out of it, the staff had kicked him out after that. Within ten hours, they had her stabilized.
Although the medical staff came out looking more confused with more questions than answers. Within two hours she back awake, only complaining about pain, as if that was the most she had to worry about.
He didn't understand any of it when the docs tried to explain other than it was most likely a poison that had gone undetected for their test. James tried not to yell at the doctors and just focus on the positive. The positive being that Shepard was alive breathing normally, and that she was pumped full with enough morphine to take down a Krogan.
"Hey, Veeeeeeega, come here!" James rolled his eyes as she sung. Dios Mio.
James entered the room with Shepard hooked up to an unaccountable amount of machines beeping and whirling. An air mask dangled from Shepard's face, she had lifted it off to speak.
"Would you believe." She started, looking like she was concentrating on every word before she spoke. "If I said this wasn't the first time I've been poisoned by a batarian?"
"Let me guess, just dumb kid stuff."
"Oh, definitely." She breathed in a laugh with the air mask jumbling. She grabbed at it as she spoke. "So, happy to be right?"
Another prying questions from her, but he was happy to answer this one. Another death on his hands wasn't something he could take.
"You know it, Commander."
Shepard scoffed and pressed the air mask to her nose with one hand and as used the other to flipped him off.
James smirked. Yeah, she was definitely a Lola.
