A/N: I edited the last chapter a bit so perhaps it'll clarify things. Here's the next chapter.
They fixed Garrus' leg and Tali was flooded with anti-biotics. They were fine. But Shepard wasn't. Captain Anderson entered the Citadel medbay and nodded to Dr. Michel. "Where's Shepard?" Garrus asked hurriedly, jumping up from his seat.
Captain shook his head sadly before answering his question. "We don't know. The search teams are still looking for her."
"We'll find her ourselves!" Garrus snarled and stalked off out the door with Tali following him closely. "They're not looking hard enough!"
When the Normandy docked at the Citadel, the whole crew rushed out and was greeted by a rescue team worker. "Where are Shepard, Garrus, and Tali?" Kaidan spoke quickly.
"Down in medbay." The worker mumbled before entering the elevator.
"Idiot!" Wrex yelled after the worker before slamming on the closed elevator door. "This elevator takes too long."
"We'll find a way to get down there." Kaidan reassured them. Joker rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Did you like my kick-ass flying?" Joker asked, his puppy eyes shining through.
"Ugh, yes Joker we did." Kaidan moaned before hailing a nearby cab. "Everybody in!"
Dr. Chakwas helped Joker guide himself over to the cab but Joker waved her off. "I'm fine. I'm fine."
"I'm sure you'll be saying that when you fall over Joker." Chakwas scoffed. Kal giggled a bit and Joker flinched as Kal's biotics flared up, a clear warning to use the help from Chakwas. He begrudgingly did in fear of Kal's wrath.
Kaidan got in first along with Liara, Kal, Wrex, Joker, and Dr. Chakwas. All of them thinking the same thing: Shepard's not fine.
Kaidan leaped over the cab door and rushed into the medbay room. He hit headlong with a very angry turian. "Garrus?"
"Come on Alenko. We've got to go find her."
"Find who?" Kaidan whispered; he already knew the answer but couldn't help but ask.
"Shepard." Garrus shoved people aside as he sprinted to the Presidium, blue eyes glowing worriedly.
The team tried to keep up with Garrus as nearby people stared after them, fear entering their eyes. "Isn't that the Normandy crew?"
"Where's that Commander of theirs?"
"What's happening here?"
"I heard a rumor that Shepard…uh." The man cowered beneath Kaidan's glare and made room for him on the stairway. The group took turns glaring at the poor man and continued on.
They all hopped into the elevator and the air was suffocating. The smell of death still hung in the air after the attack and it was hard to breath it all in. That and the smell of Wrex.
Garrus and Kaidan led the team to the Citadel tower and flew up the stairs, eyes scanning the area closely. Screams filtered the space again and Garrus shivered, remembering the sound. He knew he wasn't imagining things. Tali perked up, using her omni-tool to map the source of the sound. "According to this, that sound is being transmitted over…"
She glanced up and saw what had startled the group. A large piece of the Reaper debris was sticking out and an arm was hanging out of it. "Oh…" Everyone said their species' curse word at the same time and Joker's stood out the most. "Is that…" Tali froze in fear of who it may be. "How is this even possible?" Tali's mind was racing with impossible answers.
"OH GOD!" A muffled voice screamed out. "The hell! Let me out!" The voice spoke from within.
Kaidan's eyes widen with realization. "Get her out! Hurry!" Kal and Kaidan used biotics to life the debris off slowly in fear of hurting the Commander.
"Oh man…" Joker trailed off, turning away. "That is pure luck."
Apparently a piece of debris which was 'hollow' fell over Shepard and her arm got snagged in a gap making her virtually impossible to see. But Garrus knew she was there. "Your screaming…but it stopped." He mumbled.
"Lungs…need…rest…once in…awhile Garrus." Shepard choked out, her infamous grin shining through.
"And we all thought we were hallucinating." Tali piped in, small tears of joy falling down her unseen face.
Shepard laughed before coughing violently. "Thank you…you guys." Her eyelids fluttering closed; Kaidan lurched forward and kept on murmuring, "Stay awake Shepard. Stay awake."
"She'll be fine Kaidan. Just mental exhaustion. Come on…let's go take her to medbay." Chakwas spoke softly, lifting Shepard up with help from Garrus. "She'll be fine." She reassured one last time, leaving Kaidan gazing off at the destruction that just occurred not so long ago.
"Yeah."
Kaidan never left her side that whole night. And no one expected him to. A couple hours before the whole Normandy officially woke up, Shepard awakened. "Kaidan?" She mumbled quietly. "Kaidan where are you?" Her voice was still hoarse and her eyes were tearful. She quickly blinked them away before Kaidan could comment.
"I'm here Shepard." Kaidan gazed at her and remembered those horrifying minutes of his life as they were searching for her.
"That was scary." A small pause and she chuckled a bit, Kaidan feeling dumbfounded. She had just nearly died and she laughing? And that was what intrigued him about Shepard. She faced death and laughed at it.
Kaidan leaned in unconsciously and Shepard shied away at first but relented. An audible 'aww' floated behind them and they both jerked back and glared at the surrounding crew. "Finally!" The intercom yelled out. "About time you two hormonal teenagers…" Joker trailed off.
Kaidan felt a subtle boost to his ego and boldly spoke out, "This wasn't the first time we kissed Joker." Another cooing 'aww' was heard. Shepard gasped and slid behind Kaidan's back.
"Goddammit Kaidan. The Alliance has…you know. Rules?" She gestured vividly.
"Don't worry Shepard. This is a secret between the crew. Besides, we kind of already knew about you two." Chakwas chuckled out with a wink. Kal strolled over and slapped Kaidan hard across the arm.
"Good for you big brother." Kal grinned, the rest of the crew agreeing with her. "I just knew it from the start." Shepard was visibly blushing and buried her face underneath her arms.
"Gosh Kal will you shut up?" Shepard grumbled.
"I doubt she can do that Shepard." Kaidan said, giving Kal the 'look'. Kal backed off, hands up in defeat.
"Alright alright back to work crew." Shepard commanded, getting up from the medbay bed gingerly, wincing slightly. "The brother sister team come with me. I'm guessing we're going to have to pay a visit to the Council."
"Aye aye ma'am." Kal and Kaidan salute at the same time. 'That never fails to crack Shepard up.' The two think as Shepard grins and struggles to contain the upcoming laughter, wincing each time.
Weeks later...
"I'm sorry but wasn't it just weeks ago that we were taking down Saren and the reaper Sovereign and saving the whole damn galaxy? It was weeks yes?" Kal asked, her chirpy behavior has gone down considerably since the Alliance sent the Normandy out to investigate geth activity.
"I lost track of time already. After this geth 'mission" is over I'm going to head out back to the Migrant Fleet." Tali responded, barely glancing at her omni-tool as it searched for nearby geth transmissions.
"Well if we don't get a chance to talk later, I'll say this. Good luck Tali." Kal shook hands with the three-fingered quarian and then headed off to Kaidan's 'console'. It was declared Kaidan's console and not broken since everybody knew that Kaidan only worked at the unbroken console because it was nearby Shepard's cabin.
"Kal."
"Kaidan."
Kal just sat there beside his console, eventually droning out the noises around her and fell asleep.
Kaidan left Kal's sleeping form and proceeded to join Joker in the cockpit. "Hey Joker."
"Hey buddy! Where the hell have you been? Been ban-" Kaidan's glare shut him up.
"Any geth activity yet Joker?"
"No. It feels like I'm going to go insane if I don't get to do awesome tricks with my 'baby'. I can't believe I'm going to say this but I miss when we were chasing Saren down. I actually got to do something!"
"You're not the only one thinking that." Kaidan said, gesturing to the tired and bored faces of the crew behind them. "Moral is lower than ever and for once I feel like spacing Pressley's ass out the airlock."
"Whoa Kaidan. Took a trip down the darkside did we Master Jedi?" Joker glanced nervously back at his friend.
"You're such a nerd Joker."
"What? Hey look just because I appreciate the great years Star Wars gave us doesn't make me a nerd."
"True." Kaidan left it at that and sat down in the co-pilot's seat, observing the console in front of him.
Liara sat alone in her office and quietly observed their findings of the reaper Sovereign and the numerous holopads that was scattered about her desk. She sighed, seemingly starting to get bored. She laughs to herself. 'Me bored reading about the greatest findings ever? Oh no.'
Liara blinks her eyes tiredly and continues reading, oblivious to the world around her.
"Hopefully Wrex does okay in uniting the clans or whatever the hell it was he's doing." Shepard mumbles to Garrus, who's busily fixing the Mako.
"Hmmm…yeah me too." Garrus slides back underneath the Mako and continues tinkering around with the Mako.
"It's going to be a lot less smelly and quiet without that krogan. And Tali just told me she's returning to the Migrant Fleet after this mission. To tell you the truth, I wish another Saren-like figure came around one last time so we could get our moral boosted back up. This ship is like a dead house. There's no life here." Shepard sighs remorsefully and gives Garrus his tools.
"I know. Hand me that will you?"
"And there's no sign of damn geth anywhere. It's pissing me off that the Alliance sent us off to find geth! They're barely a threat at all ever since we stopped Saren and destroyed those geth bases." Shepard ranted, handing Garrus another tool.
"Yep. The Alliance…wait. Did you hear that?" Garrus jerks away from the Mako and wavers protectively over the rover.
"Hear what Gar-" A large shudder shakes the ship and Shepard falls to the ground.
"Commander do you read me?" Joker's voice rang in her ear and she answered hurriedly.
"What's happening Joker?"
"The ship is under attack by an unknown enemy. I'll outmaneuver them. I suggest you get the crew in the escape pods."
"Unknown enemy?" She whispers to herself and collapses to the ground again. "Garrus get the engineers off of this floor. I'm going up one level. Go!"
Garrus nods once and rushes to the engineers. Shepard leaps into the elevator and paces impatiently as the elevator slowly crawls upward one level. She curses and hits the door, immediately regretting doing so. She shakes the pain off and sprints toward her locker.
She slips into her medium N7 armor and grabs her spectre pistol. By then, everything had gone to hell. Fires were raging around her and people were screaming as the fires consumed them. The crew was escaping into nearby pods and all of them waited till the pod was full. 'That's my crew.'
She hugs her helmet tightly to her chest as she reaches for a fire extinguisher. She heard loud footsteps thudding toward her and she equips her helmet on, cool fresh air rushing in. "Commander! Is the Alliance coming for us?"
She turns around to see Kaidan in full blown armor and let's herself smile a bit at how he looks. Shaking her head, she nearly tumbles back down and braces against a sleeper pod. "They better be. Get the remaining people into escape pods Alenko."
"Everybody else in escape pods already ma'am. Except Joker…he's trying to save the ship."
"I'll deal with him. You get yourself in an escape pod."
"Shepard…" His husky voice sounding grim he's about to retort until she interrupts him.
"Kaidan…go. Now."
"Aye aye ma'am." Kaidan reluctantly runs off to the nearest pod and helps a tumbling person in. Shepard sighs loudly and glances around the Normandy. The ship was in ruins…she wondered if the Alliance would come and help them.
Hands in front of her, she sprints all the way to the cockpit, slowing down as gravity kept her place when she reached the bridge. Her face is crestfallen at the extent of the damage. 'Oh god…'
She finally reaches Joker and grasps his seat as the ship rages on; falling apart with each move it takes. "Commander! I'm not going to leave her. I can save her! I can save my baby…"
"Joker the Normandy is dead. You can't save her. Don't throw your life away…"
Joker hangs his head low, realizing that his ship is gone. "Yeah okay…help me up."
Shepard looks behind her as another blast hits the ship. In one swift movement, Shepard yanks his arm and lifts him out of his seat. "Watch the arm!"
Ignoring him, she shifts all of his weight on her and drags him to the escape pod. The blast draws nearer and Shepard finds herself floating away from him. "Shepard!" Joker cries out.
She sees the button in front of her and smiles bleakly. Shepard hits the button and slams into a nearby wall, yelling out in pain. She could feel bruises growing over her ribcage as her body flies around in circles. Aching sensations wrapped around her body as she struggles to make every breath count. Voices echo in her helmet, making everything around go quiet and still.
"Commander, are you there?" Joker's voice…she reveled in the sound.
"Shepard I repeat, are you there?" Silence. "Come one Shepard, don't leave me hanging." Guilt engulfed his voice and she grinned…grinned because she didn't know what else to do.
Each breath she took was ragged and she gasped each time there wasn't enough. "Shepard…please be there."
With all the strength she had left, she responded back breathless. "Kaidan…I did…love...y-" Still grinning, she stares at the destruction of the Normandy and…'Oh…'
Kaidan rushes toward the last escape pod and pries it open. "Joker! Where's Shepard?"
Without a word, Joker activates his omni-tool and replays Shepard's last moments.
"Commander, are you there?"
A suppressed chuckle…"Shepard I repeat, are you there?"
Silence…"Come on Shepard, don't leave me hanging."
Ragged breaths continue to echo in the background. A loud gasp…"Shepard…please be there."
A quiet out of breath voice finally speaks. "Kaidan…I…did…love y-"The voice cuts off and is replaced with an 'Oh' sound and the transmission goes blank.
"And Kal?" Kaidan choked out, tears threatening to break out.
Joker types into his omni-tool and plays back his conversation with Kal.
"Hello! Anybody out there! This is Corporal Kal Alenko. Is anybody picking this up?"
"Kal…this is Joker. Where are you?"
"Oh thank god! Joker, our pod isn't heading toward the planet's surface. We're drifting away…oh no. One second."
Shuffling noises could be heard in the background and one unknown voice spoke out. "Humans…what do we do with them?"
"Hostiles…batarians…no don't…we won't…go ahead and…please…shoot the-!" The transmission was severed and Joker cursed repeatedly.
"Not you too Kal…oh shit."
Kaidan was silent. He gazed up at the stars and a stray tear fell down his cheek. "Good-bye you two." He hadn't realized that Joker said the same thing as well.