Chapter Twelve
Garrus catches her before she cracks her head on the bulkhead again. "Here, help me lie her down." Garrus slides out of the seat and eases Shepard's upper body down.
Liara grabs her feet and rolls her up on the seat. "Did you really have to drug her?" She props a hand on her hip accusingly.
"It was that or watch her complain and bitch and moan about being coddled again. Easiest this way."
Liara sighs impatiently as she sits down beside Shepard. She wonders if her lover will ever learn how to stay out of trouble. Or at least you'd think she would've figured out how to dodge. "Lieutenant Cortez, radio the Normandy and have standing by in the cargo hold. Shepard has been hit. She needs medical treatment."
"Right away Dr. T'Soni. ETA is in ten."
"Copy that Lieutenant." Liara holds Shepard's head in her lap, stroking the commander's red hair.
"Liara?" Garrus asks, imploring. "Do you want to talk?"
Liara looks up to Garrus standing at the door, he's holding Shepard's helmet. "What Garrus?"
He tosses her the helmet, "Another inch up and we wouldn't have her right now."
Liara inspects the hole and cracks. Garrus is right, another inch and the bullet would have burned straight through the seam at the rear of the helmet. She shakes her head. "I'm trying Garrus. I really am. She won't open up to me. I've seen what's haunting her. But she won't talk to me about it. I'm afraid the nightmares will return." She sets the helmet down on the seat to her left.
"We'll figure this out." Garrus give a decisive nod.
"Final approach to the Normandy. Everyone hold on."
The shuttle shudders as it transitions to the docking bay. Then eases down, a slight jostle and they are secure to the Normandy. "Wheels down, equalizing pressure now." A hissing sounds through the cabin as the pressures equal out.
"Garrus help me with her." Liara stands up taking Shepard's upper body in her arms.
Garrus steps in to carry her, "Here let me."
Liara lets him pick up Shepard as she opens the door. There is and EDI with a gurney. Tali, Kaiden, and Vega stand off to the side.
Tali is wringing her hands nervously. She steps up as Garrus lays Shepard face down on the gurney. "Is she ok? How bad is it?"
"It looks worse than it is." Liara says holding Tali close in a one armed hug. "Garrus doped her. She'll be ok." Garrus looks up at Liara and gives her a small smile. She returns it. He's impressed by her ability to lie to the Quarian. Shepard is pretty bad off, just not in the way that Tali meant.
As and EDI rush Shepard up to the med-bay, Liara and Tali follow. Garrus turns to the others. "Stray round." He says as he turns to the work bench and begins to clean the weapons.
James steps up beside Garrus and takes the Commanders weapons. "What happened down there?" He starts to wipe down Shepard's rifle. Cleaning the blood off it methodically.
"We took care of the Cerberus cell. But the colonists refused our continued help."
Kaiden steps up and takes the Commander's pistol, he begins to disassemble and clean it. "How did Shepard get hit?"
"We're not sure. Liara and I were pinned down and taking fire. We had our own targets to deal with. We didn't even know she'd been hit until we got back to the shuttle."
"How does someone, even a soldier get hit with an incendiary round and not notice it?" James sounds disbelieving.
"Heat of the battle, I suppose." Garrus scowls at the sniper in his hands. There's got to be something they can do. The men remain silent as they work at cleaning the gear up.
Shepard slowly comes around. She blinks her eyes open and is confused by her surroundings. Everything is white and blurry. She slowly raises up to a sitting position.
"Whoa, hey. Take it easy commander. You've had a rough day."
Everything comes rushing back to her, and she remembers that she needs to kick Garrus' ass. "Where the hell is Garrus? That Turian is overdue for an ass whooping." She tries to lever herself to a standing position.
puts her arms firmly on Shepard's upper arms. "Sit right back down. Now."
Shepard sits. She's always admired . She reminds her of her own mother. Its nice to have a motherly figure around. "Aye Ma'am." she says sheepishly, "I'll behave."
"You had better do so. Or I'll have to tie you to the bed, and it won't be fun. Now hold still I need to look at this."
Shepard turns to her left, trying to get the doc out of her line of sight. It always hurts worse when you watch and are expecting it. She sees Liara seated on the bed next to her. "Liara? Are you ok?"
She stands up and comes to Shepard's side. "I'm alright love. I was just resting."
"Oh ok. Ah!" she cries out in surprise and pain as Chakwas pulls the bandage off. "What the hell? Are you two trying to kill me?"
mutters an apology, but Shepard can tell her heart wasn't in it. "It looks to be healing well. Between your implants and the medigel, you should be fine in a day or two. You will have a new scar though. The wound was a deep one, and the burns surrounding will take a little longer to heal. You got off lucky. Any higher and we would still be picking up the pieces of you from off the ground."
"Way to cheer a girl up doc."
"Go on, get out of here. Liara keep an eye on her. if it becomes red or inflamed get me immediately.
"Yes Ma'am." Liara attempts a salute, but her nerves are too shot and she hasn't had a true military training. It ends up being a weak hand wave.
Shepard stands up and braces herself as the world tilts ever so slightly. "What the hell did Garrus give me?"
Chakwas just grins. "Take it easy for the rest of today and tomorrow. I don't want to see you back here until at least three days from now."
Shepard snaps to attention, a little unsteady, and salutes, "Aye, aye Ma'am." Liara helps steady her as she walks out of the med bay.
"Joker," Shepard can't help but look up towards the bridge as she calls him on the radio. "Plot a course to the next colony co-ordinates."
"Aye aye ma'am." Joker responds.
"You had better hope that is takes us at least a day to get there. You are supposed to be resting." Liara scolds her as they board the lift.
"Gods, I'm tired of resting. I need to move. To fight." They disembark the lift and Shepard brushes off Liara and her help. She determinedly walks to her desk chair and has a seat.
"Moving and fighting is what gets you into these situations." Liara stands to Shepard's left, arms crossed over her chest. "Are we going to talk or not?"
"Talk?" Shepard turns to look up at Liara. "What's the point in talking? All it does it make things worse. It does nothing to help. I'm tired of talking."
"You don't get a choice anymore Kelly. You're not doing anyone any good by bottling all this up. Its affecting your performance as a soldier and I know that Hackett could take your ship away and put you in therapy if you don't fix this."
Shepard stands up pissed now, "Don't you dare tell me what I can or cannot do. You are no judge of my capabilities to perform my duties."
"As the only one who is with you nearly every moment of everyday. I think I'm the only one capable of judging you."
Shepard growls and turns away from Liara, she can't do this. "Why can't everyone just leave me the hell alone?" She bellows as she starts toward the door.
Liara grabs her by the shoulder, using her biotics to hold tight. "Don't you dare walk away again. You have got to get a hold of yourself. You have to straighten up and fly right." She looks hard into Shepard's eyes, "Or, or I won't be here anymore. I'll leave." There, she'd made it final. Made the final step to get Shepard to help herself.
Shepard wrenches out of Liara's grasp. The pain of Liara's ultimatum stings her in the heart, a burning acid to her. "Then you had best leave. I'm fine. I'll be fine." She turns and takes the lift down to engineering.
Liara stands there, completely in shock. She had not expected Shepard to actually leave. Sinking into the desk chair, the sobs and tears she held back all day, escape her. She literally feels like she is crying her heart out. She can only pray that when Shepard cools off she'll come back. Please goddess, let her come back.
