There had been several times in Ben Branson's life that he'd seen Shepard as a wreck of a human being.
The first, when they were teenagers, and he was still in puppy dog love with her, back when she was just Liv then.
It was under the supervision of his father; she had begged them to get clean off Red Sand. There was a lot vomiting, shaking, and lying to get out of her deal with herself.
She even punched him once when she tried to escape. They had to handcuff her to a bedpost after that. It wasn't until her fourth and finally try did she truly get clean.
Even with how she acted, his father always had a soft spot for Shepard. He liked her better than most of Ben's other girlfriends, even if she was a junkie at the time, and had no prospects in life. Always encouraging her with school, getting out of the Reds, and finally off Red Sand. His father had seen a potential most ignored. Himself include.
Ben had dumped her soon after the ordeal, as a broken nose tends to put a damper on a relationship, but it was mostly to spite his father.
Fortunately, they worked better as friends anyway after she sobered up. She was still someone who lived through that hellhole on tenth street with him. That damn street was something they'd have to carry their entire lives. They both joined the Alliance to get away from it. She did anyway; Ben just wanted to get away from his father.
His father the family doctor. They could have lived anywhere, but he wanted to help the neighborhood he was raised on. Where Ben had to live around those who would so much as stab him if he looked at them wrong. And for all his father's hard work, the street only paid him by gunning him down in his clinic.
Ben ended up following in father's footsteps in medicine. Although he would never put his children through such an experience as tenth street. They got the best home and schools an Alliance salary could buy.
Next was when he was two years into med school and long since they had broken up, and Shepard had gotten clean, Ben found her at the local bar down on tenth street. Spinning a six-year recovery chip between her fingers with her drink rested in her other hand. She was in town for her mother's funeral.
"I'm not going end up like her." It was the most coherent thing she had said that night as dragged her back to his dad's place.
This time, Shepard wasn't strung out or drunk, but recovering from a poisoning, coming down from enough morphine to take out an elcor.
With her medical datapad in hand, Ben looked over her file again. The poison used on her was unidentifiable. The labs weren't even able to pick it up until they knew they were looking for it. It was nothing he or any of his colleagues had seen. An agent that caused sudden respiratory failure after days after exposure?
Biopsies showed it began to degrade the tissue of her lungs. Further testing showed it targeted the human lung specifically. Everyone that had contact with the base within the past week had to go through testing. Luckily, no other cases came up.
They kept her under supervision since she'd been stabilized, barely over three days had she made a recovery when anyone else would have been dead. Although the pain she in lungs was described as a "fuckload".
The whole experience just raised more questions than answers, but the disappearing poison wasn't even Ben's main concern.
It was the readings of elevated Eezo levels in her blood. Higher than what was normal for a biotic, definitely too high for her own abilities. The signs pointed to usage of Red Sand.
Ben wouldn't admit, just out of the sheer unprofessionalism and ethical concerns of it. But wasn't really scheduled to be as her doctor. He made sure to switch rounds so he could see her. If she was using again, he needed to be there. Hopefully, there'd be less punching this time.
She was still hooked up to several monitors, with an oxygen tank nearby just in cause she had difficulty breathing again.
Shepard laughed as she saw him. "Son of a bitch, I want a real doctor!"
"Sorry you're going to have make due," He quipped back.
"Ass, fine. I want my doctor." Shepard sighed and sunk into her bed, focusing on the far corner of the room. "Dr. Karin Chakwas, the most beautiful doctor in the galaxy."
"I'm insulted I didn't win." Ben deadpanned.
"Good." Was all he had got from her before she went back to staring at the corner.
He checked over her vitals from what the nurse had noted. Ben when through the list of questions he needed to ask. Shepard responded with varying answer of "I'm fine."
Maybe high on morphine wasn't the best time to come by. But sober or not, he was going to figuring out what was going on with her.
"I wanted to go over something with you." Ben started.
"Fire away."
He tried to keep his voice level and non-accusatory. But it was hard to hold back the anger.
"I'm not really sure how to start this, so I'm just going to say it. You have elevated levels of Eezo in your blood." Ben grounded back and paused.
All that work his father poured into her, and she just goes back to using? He wanted to ask what happen to that promise? That you weren't going to end up like you mother? Instead, he asked, "Care to explain why?"
"It's not what you think." Shepard laughed in his face.
That caught him off guard, but he kept pushing. "Really, Olivia, if you're using aga-"
"Good, Lord. It was one-time exposure to Minagen X3 like I said I'm fine. If you had check back in my medical report from my time with Cerberus, I'm sure Dr. Chakwas, my actual doctor, should have that noted in the file."
Ben looked back at the at his datapad with her file. It was right there in plain English. In his anger, he just jumped right to conclusions.
Accidental high exposure to Minagen X3- known drug for biotic enhancing powers. The patient was kept in recovery for seven days after near fatal exposure.
"This is why I said I wanted a real doctor." His anger was thrown back at him. "So is that why you're here? To lecture me?"
"That and to see if you needed more morphine." Ben hoped the humor would work to calm her down. It normally had when they were kids.
Shepard out of a laugh and even snorted, covering her mouth as she spoke. "Well, considered all forgiven then, you really know how to sweet talk a girl."
"I'll take that as yes then on upping the dosage?"
Shepard perked up from her bed while dramatically grabbing at her ribs. "Yes, please! My lungs feel like they're on fire."
Ben rushed through his assessment with her; He adjusted the setting on her IV and let the drug trickle out at a faster pace.
Shepard happily sighed and sunk back into her bed. "That's better."
Ben looked at his watch as he spoke, wanting to get out of the room to let her rest.
"Glad I can help, let the nurses know if you need anything, but I've got to go."
Ben was well on the way to get out before Shepard grabbed his arm. The strength on her was almost frightening.
"Wait! Come on. If you're going to accuse me of using, I least get to get some questions out of you. I've got loads of them."
It was always questioned with her, even when they just kids, she always had prying questions for anyone who'd listen to her.
"Fine, but I've got limited answers and barely two minutes."
"Alright, fine. First, have you talked to Alex or Charlotte about me? How are they?"
"I haven't spoken to them in a while, and I haven't told them anything. I can't, so don't ask me to." Ben let off in a curt tone.
Both of her siblings had been trying to get information from him for the past week. They all really knew how to wear a person down with constant questions, a shared trait in their family it seemed.
"Why not with Alex then? He's a doctor; you can talk about doctor stuff."
"His opinion on eyes aren't needed." Ben had tried not judge other's professions, but that fact that a profession that focused on unnecessarily cosmetic procedures like changing eye color was even connected to his was insulting.
Shepard threw her arms up; the IV moved rapidly as she laughed. "Useless, the both of you."
"Is that all? I know this may come as a shock to you, but you're not the center of the galaxy, and I have other patients I have to get to."
"I'm insulted. I'm just trying to catch up. I've haven't seen you in what a year?"
"Three." Ben corrected.
"Shit right. Then I need to hurry. How's Emma? Is she causing a havoc for you and Rachel?" She perked up in bed. Almost as if she was more lively on the drug. "Or your dad? How is the old bastard? Still toiling away in his clinic?"
Fuck. Of course, she was going to ask about him.
"Dad, uh, he passed away last year." Ben's words caught in his the throat.
If Ben were to tell her the truth, that the bastard Joshua had sent men to shake him down, only to leave him bleeding out on his own clinic floor. The report said it took hours until he finally went. There was no telling how she'd react, and Ben wasn't willingly to risk it with her in such a state.
"Car accident." He finally gulped back. He hated himself for going through with that lie.
Shepard's eyes grew wide with shock as she stuttered through her words. "Oh, I'm, god, Ben. I'm so sorry." She slumped back down into her bed, less lively now, but her questions kept coming.
"How are you holding up? I'm sorry I couldn't have been there." She paused, looking a little lost at what to say. "Fuck, I-I'll have a visit when I get out of here. Does he have a grave site?
"Down on 14th street, and yeah he'd loved that." At least that wasn't a lie.
Her two minutes were up, but that didn't seem like the right place to leave it. She deserved better from him anyway.
"Thank you, things have been difficult for everyone. But, uh, Emma starts Kindergarten soon. Rachel's pretty excited for that, but I don't know how I'm gonna handle it. I don't want to see her grow up."
"She's five now, right?" Shepard's eyes drooped down to her IV. "She was just a toddler. Jesus, I've lost sooo much time." Her words began to slur with the energy in her voice whining down. The morphine probably kicking it.
"I'm running out of time." Her eyes focused back on the corner; her eyes strained to focus off in the distances.
Ben laughed a little and prodded at what she was saying.
"Running out of time for what? You worried about settling down? I don't really see you going the maternal route."
She let out a small chuckle. "No, that not it and I'll have you know, I have an a-adopted krogan son. I even took him out to kill a thresher maw. You know, mom stuff."
"Of course, that sounds like you. So a krogan son, huh? I would have expected something like an asari wife and daughter from you."
"Fuck off, and I'll have you I have a turian boyfriend, not any asari wives or whatever." She sighed, still concentrating on the corner. "Maybe, I don't know; we weren't exactly clear on how we left things, being under house arrest tends to put a damper on relationships."
Ben laughed, that had definitely caught him off guard. "You're serious?"
She turned to Ben and gave him a confused look. "What, a little weird?"
"Yeah, but if you're happy, then so what?"
An interspecies relationship was actually pretty common, at least it seems so from a number of patients that asked him about it. Of course, asari and human were definitely the most common, but turian and human weren't even the weirdest ones he's heard about throughout his career.
"Yeah, I am."
"So what's he like then?" She sunk into her pillow with a wide smile on face at the question.
"He's funny, smart, and almost a good of a shot as me." Shepard's smile soon quickly faded. "And I miss him like crazy."
"Then why isn't he here?"
Shepard blushed and looked like she was being to grow frustrated with his questions. "What happen to those two minutes? I didn't realize this was grill your ex on her current relationships time."
"You're the one who brought it." Ben laughed, at least she got to see how annoying all the constant questions were like.
She blew a raspberry at him. "You really want to know, why?"
"I'm asking aren't I?"
"The Reapers." She yawned as she said the name with her eyes closed. "I don't care if you don't believe me. But the Internal Affairs Committee is starting to listen, and he's hopeful getting the Hierarchy to listen to him too. We need to getting moving on it; the galaxy is running out of time."
"What are you talking about, is that why you destroyed that system?" The news had been constant to denounce her as crazy, but Ben never paid much attention to it. Too busy with work and his family.
She began to mumble her words; she was almost asleep. "You know that attack on the Citadel three years ago? That was just the beginning."
"You mean geth then? Are they resurging?" Ben felt himself panic a bit. He hadn't been the Citadel during the attack, but still the idea that Earth, his family, could also be in danger, made him feel powerless.
Her voice was almost too soft for Ben to hear. "Jesus, how much do they keep you all in the dark?" She laughed at him lightly before finally falling asleep. Ben felt a chill run down his back at that laugh.
After finishing up his with his paperwork, Ben left her room at a hurried pace to get to his next patient. He had expected to get some answers when came to check up on her, only to leave with more questions.
First being brought back from the dead, destroying an entire system, an unknown and untraceable poison, now Reapers? What hell was going on in this galaxy? And why hell did Shepard seem to be at the center of it?