Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect

A/N – Hello! Took me longer than I wanted to get this chapter written, so apologies as I was hoping to get it up yesterday! Thank you to all the people who are following, reviewing or have favourited this story – I hope you're all enjoying it.

Shepard sighed and mentally scrambled for an excuse that would allow her to get away from Lieutenant Tolan, who was clearly planning on lecturing her again on the dangers of curing the genophage. He'd already ranted about her plans to free the krogan female twice in the past two minutes, and it seemed he was going for the hat trick. He was without a doubt, the most disagreeable and frustrating salarian that Rennah had ever met and that was saying something since she found him to be even more unpleasant than the Dalatrass. As he spoke, his wide almond eyes flicked disapprovingly over her and he crossed his arms defensively as he continued to criticise her decision to back Wrex instead of the Dalatrass.

Rennah had only started talking to Tolan because he'd introduced himself to her and told her that he'd known Captain Kirrahe, and she'd stayed talking to him because she honestly had nothing better to do while she waited for the female krogan. But, boy oh boy, she was fast regretting her decision to converse with him; Tolan had such a high opinion of himself that it made her want to punch him and it was taking everything she had not to do so. He'd seemed nice enough at first, but then the criticisms had begun and then the complaints, and the tirade about why the salarians were superior to humans.

How much longer can he possibly talk for? Shepard glanced over her shoulder at Garrus and James, who were both looking just as bored as she was. Well, at least I'm not the only being bored to death by him.

"…personally, I would have executed the female rather than bring her back here." Tolan narrowed his eyes at Rennah and she glared childishly back at him as he twirled a hand through the hair in what he probably thought was an elegant gesture. "I always thought it was a mistake to keep her alive and now I've been proved right. Curing the genophage is folly and it will be the ruin of us all…"

Is he ever going to shut up?

Rennah sighed again as he continued to drone incessantly about everything she was doing wrong and about his misgivings about a war against the Reapers. Shepard had known a lot of salarians and in her experience the salarian people seemed to be split down the middle as a group and were either hard working with a lot of common sense, or were high minded and arrogant. Tolan was definitely one of the latter and talking to him was about as pleasant as nails on a blackboard, possibly even less pleasant.

She let her gaze roam around the facility again and saw Padok, the base commander, speaking into his omni-tool quickly as his eyes darted all over the room as though alert for danger. Something was clearly going on and the salarians were noticeably on edge. She wasn't sure if it was the presence of Wrex that had them acting so frenetic or the thought of someone curing the genophage, or something else entirely. Whatever it was, they clearly weren't happy and Padok closed his omni-tool quickly and looked up at her, almost as though he could sense her watching him.

"Commander, they're ready for you downstairs." Padok called to her and Shepard gratefully walked away from Tolan, who spluttered in indignation as she left him midway through a list of reasons why engaging in a war with the Reapers was a mistake. "Someone will meet you below and take you to the female."

She nodded her thanks at the commander as she walked with him to the elevator, James and Garrus a step behind her. "Is Tolan always that unpleasant?" She asked, "Or am I just lucky?"

"Just unpleasant?" Padok grinned as gestured for her to enter the elevator, his face stretched into a grin. "Tolan is normally much worse but he is very good at his job. Talks too much. Thinks too little."

Shepard nodded in amusement as the elevator door swished closed and Padok vanished from view, then she leaned back against the cool metal wall; already exhausted from talking with the salarians. It was like dealing with speed addicts back on the streets on Earth! They talked far too fast, were always hyper and had a tendency to assume that you wanted to hear their thoughts on everything. Their scientific know-how was impressive, she'd never try to deny it, but at times they could be a little too clinical. Personally, she preferred to roll the dice and see where they fell rather than spend her life analysing the odds and never taking the roll.

"I thought we were going to be stuck listening to that boring salarian for ever." Garrus complained as he leaned against the wall next to her, his sniper rifle slung casually over his shoulder.

James nodded as he crossed his arms over his chest and stood facing them, his eyes unusually reserved and lacking the usual teasing spark as he watched her, "Yeah, I'm surprised you didn't deck him, Commander."

"It was tempting." Rennah admitted with a slight grin that James returned only briefly before glancing away again, as though he found it hard to look at her.

James' change in behaviour was her fault, Rennah acknowledged guiltily as she fiddled with her omni-tool, but she had no idea of what to do to fix the problem. She felt awkward as hell that she'd hurt his feelings when she'd tried to put their friendship back on a more normal level, but after that moment in the car, she hadn't felt like she had a choice. It had been too intimate and it had made the journey to Sur'Kesh awkward to say the least. She'd been glad when they had arrived for many reasons.

For one thing, Garrus seemed to know that something was up between her and James and he'd attempted to corner her in the mess several times with pointed conversations about Vega. So, she'd taken to avoiding her usual late night cup of tea since that was when Garrus invariably tried to talk to her one on one. It was uncomfortable. She didn't even know how she felt about James and she didn't want to try and explain it to Garrus.

Plus she really missed her cups of mint tea.

The awkwardness with James was the other reason she'd been glad to arrive. She'd gone out of her way to avoid being alone with him and apparently she'd been a little too obvious about it and he'd taken it to heart. She hadn't meant to hurt his feelings, but the moment they'd shared coming back from Purgatory had been a little too intense for her to handle and she'd been shaken by it. She wasn't used to feeling this way about men and since the last person who'd made her feel this way had crushed her heart, she was wasn't sure if she could trust her own feelings.

When they'd locked eyes in the back of the car, it had almost been like James had seen straight into her heart and she'd felt an intense rush of desire that was stronger than anything she'd ever felt. Only the bump as the sky car landed had stopped her from closing the distance between them; she'd wanted James to hold her and kiss her again and it was terrifying to know that he had that kind of power over her. So, she'd done the only thing she could think of and had started putting some distance between them again.

I'm such a fool.

Rennah knew that James had picked up on her fear; although he was clearly at a loss as to what he'd done to make her back off from him. Maybe it was cowardly not to talk to him about how she felt, but it had been beaten into her as a child that emotions and feelings were weak and even as an adult she had a hard time expressing herself without feeling exposed. To give James credit though, once he realised that she needed some breathing room, he'd backed off and had given her the space she needed.

But she could tell that he was hurting and she knew that it was her fault.

Despite how much time she'd spent avoiding both Garrus and James, they were still the most useful members of her crew because of their combat experience, so she'd included them in her landing team in spite of her personal feelings. James was a professional soldier and though it was easy to forget that when they were joking around on the Normandy, as soon as his combat armour was on he became a completely different person. His experience fighting the Collectors had already proven to be invaluable when they had encountered Reaper troops, and Vega had proven himself capable of handling any situation he was in.

Rennah trusted both of them to watch her back when they were in the middle of a fire fight, as James's physical prowess coupled with Garrus' sniping abilities made them an excellent team. She wasn't expecting any trouble today, but after the way the salarians had greeted them with weapons raised she was glad she'd brought along two such physically imposing people. Despite her frightening reputation there were always people who saw her as just another pretty face and didn't take her threats of violence seriously.

Rennah made herself look away from James as the elevator opened and she strode out, surprised when she heard a familiar salarian voice that she hadn't expected to ever hear again; Mordin Solus. She felt herself grin despite the serious situation, Mordin and his dry deadpan sense of humour had been a never ending source of amusement when she'd been taking on the Collectors. He was the kind of person who was far more than he appeared as physically he seemed to be nothing more than a harmless scientist, but he was absolutely devastating in a fight.

"Ah, Shepard! Good to see you!" He came towards her quickly, grasped her arm as though pulling her in for a hug and quickly whispered to her, "Glad it was you they sent. Was worried that the krogan might try to come in force. Glad my information reached Wrex." He winked at her as he let her go and straightened.

"You were Wrex's insider?" Rennah chuckled quietly and clapped Mordin on the shoulder, "I always knew you regretted the genophage."

Mordin narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head, "No, not regret. Right decision at time. Times have changed. Choices changed." He drew in a deep breath and nodded as he spoke more slowly, "Genophage is the only hope for the krogan race. Eve is the only hope."

"Eve?" Garrus rumbled from behind her and Mordin glanced up at him.

"Ah Garrus, good to see you." The salarian offered him a hand which Garrus shook, "Eve is the female krogan. Name seemed appropriate."

"Wait, I thought the salarians recovered more than one female?" This time James spoke, and Mordin looked at him curiously before nodding.

He led them over to a containment cell and sighed sadly, "Yes, more than one female found, but all now dead except Eve. She was strongest but is still sick. Best chance we have though. Lucky we kept Maelon's data."

He nodded at the cell and Shepard saw a female krogan inside who was covered head to toe in beautiful flowing robes, except for her eyes which glittered furiously as they glared out at her. They were the eyes of someone who had suffered too much, the eyes of someone who wanted freedom but wasn't expecting to get it. She could remember the same look in her own eyes as a teenager, and without thinking about it she walked up to the cell and began talking the female inside; Eve would get her freedom if it was the last thing Shepard did.

James half-listened as the salarian talked to Shepard; Mordin seemed even more on edge than a regular scientist, and it was clear that the security lockdown that the salarians had issued only moments ago had him worried. James could empathise as there was a feeling in the air that something big was about to happen, it the same feeling he always got before a battle. So when the lights flickered and went out and the emergency lighting came on, dim and red, James wasn't surprised and he didn't even flinch when the salarians began to issue alerts about incoming ships.

He unslung his assault rifle and readied a clip, trying not to focus too much on Shepard as she and Mordin spoke to the female quietly, their voices so soft that he couldn't hear what they were saying. The female was in a containment cell and was restrained, a security measure that seemed completely pointless to James given how ill she appeared. When she spoke, her voice was heavy with anticipation of death and pain and he felt a swell of pity that any sentient creature should have to go through such painful medical procedures. That she had watched her friends die, knowing that she would suffer the same fate, was even more heart wrenching.

Rennah seemed similarly moved by the female krogan's fate and when she turned to answer a bleep on her omni-tool, James saw a look of deep sympathy and regret on her face. The vids could say what they liked about Shepard being a hard cold bitch; he knew she had strong emotions that ran deep, and she was just as touched as anyone would be to see a living creature treated so cruelly. Seeing her so moved by Eve made James even more aware that somehow he'd somehow stuffed things up between himself and Shepard and a rush of dejection sweep through him.

He didn't know what he'd done wrong exactly, but for some reason what had been an amazing moment for him in the back of the sky car had made Shepard retreat from him emotionally. It had horrified James to see her look frightened of him whenever they were alone together and he hadn't known what to do except than let her work through her problems by herself. At some point he knew he'd have to talk to her again and find out what he'd done wrong, but for now he couldn't bring himself to confront her when he was sure that pushing this issue would push her further away.

"Shepard?" James jerked his attention back to Rennah as Wrex's rough voice boomed over her omni-tool and he moved a little closer so he could see the Krogan's face on the screen. "Cerberus is landing troops up here and attacking the base, you've got to get the females out of here now."

"Only one female survived." Shepard spoke in a no-nonsense tone as she glanced back at Eve. "I'll get her moving but do what you can about those troops." She closed her tool down and whirled to face Mordin, "We need to get out of here fast."

"Agreed." Mordin quickly walked up to the security panel that controlled the containment cell and typed in a code which opened the front. "I'll need to monitor her condition as the cell passes through quarantine. Meet us at the next checkpoint, Shepard. The cell has limited shielding so delays are not advised."

The cell door closed and both the salarian and the krogan female looked down at Shepard silently as they began to slowly pass through quarantine and vanished from view. There was a moment of silence as they disappeared and then a loud explosion rocked the base as the elevator they'd used only moments ago exploded in a billowing cloud of fire and smoke. Shepard whirled around and sighed angrily, and James almost chuckled at the frustrated expression on her face as she pulled her heavy pistol from its holster and began to glow with that rippling blue biotic light.

"Nothing's ever simple, is it?" James asked her lightly as he raised and readied his assault rifle and glanced at Garrus who was fixing the scope on his sniper rifle.

Rennah shook her head and looked at him with eyes that sparkled with blue light, meeting his gaze unflinchingly for the first time in days, "Not when Cerberus is involved."

Shepard signalled for them to move out and they began to advance towards the far end of the facility, where an emergency exit was visible. James and Garrus followed closely behind Shepard, both of them ready to provide covering fire should she need it; and she did. Cerberus converged on them like a swarm of angry insects and the air became alive with the fire of turrets and rifle fire as Cerberus troopers did their best to stop them from freeing Eve.

The next few minutes became a mad rush of climbing ladders, storming across balconies and fighting off wave after wave of Cerberus troops, and soon James felt himself falling into the familiar rhythm of battle as he pushed forward. He knew how to fight and was starting to recognise Cerberus tactics, so ensured that he was always covering Shepard so she could clear Mordin and Eve through the checkpoints. He hadn't arrived on Sur'Kesh expecting such a ferocious fight, especially not a fight from an enemy as well organised and well-resourced as Cerberus, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let them win.

It wasn't the waves of troops that were posing the biggest problem; it was the engineers who were constantly setting up and repairing turrets that kept them pinned down for more time than they could spare. Even worse was that as many troops and engineers as James and Garrus put down, it seemed there was always another drop ship that would let off even more soldiers. It was insane, and it made the fight against Cerberus on Mars seem like child's play.

James leaped over a low wall and took cover behind a column as Garrus took out yet another engineer who was setting up a turret. Shepard was a few metres to the left of him and Vega glanced around the corner to see where the nearest troops where, counting three of them before he ducked back behind cover and signalled for her to wait for his sign to move. He ejected the spent thermal clip and then quickly leaned out from cover and fired a burst of rounds at the troops who were trying to take cover in one of the labs; they went down screaming and James nodded at Shepard that it was safe to move.

He moved forward and ducked behind a low wall as he watched her vault a console and clear the cell through the final checks, her body still glowing blue as she kept her barrier active while she was exposed. The landing pad was on the other side of this level and although Cerberus opposition had been strong, the corridor that led to it was clear for now. He just hoped it stayed that was as he was running low on ammo and had only a couple of grenades left.

"Shepard! Wait! More troops!" Mordin frantically waved Rennah away from the controls as another drop ship hovered over the facility and this time dropped a hulking Atlas along with the regular troops.

The facility shook as the mech thudded to the ground and the other Cerberus troops landed around it and fanned out. Shepard's biotic energy spiked and she sent a singularity at them, the biotic attack immediately pulling three of them up in the air as they thrashed uselessly and fought to get free. James disposed of them with his assault rifle and then swore viciously as one of the remaining troopers fired at him; the bullets hitting the wall behind him as ducked back behind cover.

"Let's do this fast and get the hell out of here." Shepard yelled at him as she ducked down behind the control panel as the Atlas turned in her direction and began to stomp forward.

James could hear the Atlas as it began to approach and felt the slight trembling in the ground with each step it took. He risked a quick look up from cover and was surprised to see that the soldiers and engineers weren't even attempting to fire at any of them, instead they had taken up flanking positions alongside of the Alas and appeared to acting as a guard envoy to protect it.

Well, I guess I know what I'm going to be firing at first!

He took one of the two frag grenades he had left and lobbed it at the mech, ducking back behind the wall as he heard panicked cries as the grenade skittered across the ground and came to rest in the path of the mech amongst some troopers. There was a flash and a resounding boom as it went off, although he could still hear the Atlas moving, so he knew he'd only damaged it. He glanced up again and saw that several of the troops and one of the engineers was lying dead and still on the ground, some of them missing limbs from the force of the explosion.

He picked up his last grenade and threw it at the Atlas just as a Cerberus soldier hurled what looked like a flashbang grenade in his direction. James swore again and dodged back behind the wall as he saw the flashbang land on his side. He had a moment to wonder if he could lob it back, before it went off and the force of it sent him reeling to the ground and staggering backwards, temporarily blinded by aftershocks as his ears rang.

Frantically, James scrabbled blindly back against the wall and stayed low, holding his gun tightly to his chest as he tried to shake the aftershock images away unsuccessfully. Noise was retuning in a confusing blur of gunfire, yelling and the sound of Garrus' concussive shocks hitting the Atlas, but his vision was slower to recover from the damned grenade and he stayed down and blinked slowly as he waited for the shock to pass. Bright white spots danced in his vision, but slowly his eyesight returned to normal and after a few moments he could see well enough to look around and get his bearings.

The Atlas had stopped moving and James noticed something he hadn't seen earlier; a strange weapon mounted on its shoulder, a type of gun which he'd never seen before, but which was glowing blue in a way that reminded him of biotic energy. An engineer was up on the back of the mech and adjusting something on the gun as the Atlas aimed the weapon in the direction of the containment cell.

James looked across and felt a rush of dread as he saw that Shepard was still near the control panel and in front of the cell door, pinned down and unable to get to cover. The troopers weren't even trying to take her out; only to stop her from getting away. Each time she tried to break cover or use her biotics on them, the Cerberus troops that had survived his grenades would lay down suppressing fire and she would have to duck behind the console again in full view of the Atlas.

Although she was staying calm, he could tell that Rennah was terrified as she looked around frantically and he knew that she was stuck with no way out. The mech adjusted it's gun to aim in her direction and James felt adrenaline surge through him as he moved fast to bring his rifle up; none of them had realised he was up again and he sighted down his gun and began firing at the troops that had her pinned down. The familiar rattling growl of the gun loud in his ears as he took two of them out easily before his thermal clip emptied and his gun flashed red to show it was out of clips.

No no no!

He dropped his rifle and drew his handgun, fear crawling across his skin at the inadequacy of his weapon as the troopers ignored him completely and continued to keep Shepard pinned down. He managed to take another troop down but knew that there was no way he could get all of them in time to save her and he looked across at Rennah as she stayed low, her face pale as she glanced at him and their eyes met again. Time seemed to slow for a moment, just as it had in the back of the car, and with a horrifying jolt James realised as he stared into her eyes that Shepard thought she was going to die. He could see it in her gaze; the fear and resignation in her eyes as she looked at him helplessly, recognising that there was nothing either of them could do to save her.

Where the fuck is Garrus?

There was a whine as the weapon on the Atlas powered up and James tore his gaze away from Shepard and focused back on the mech, determined to do something to keep it from firing on her. There was no time left and he wasn't going to lose Shepard. Not again, not ever, especially after everything they'd been through together and how close they'd become. Without thinking, he did the only thing left and used Carnage on the gun mounted on the arm of the mech just as it fired, the gun jolting as the Carnage ripped it to shreds.

Too late! I was too late!

The gun managed to fire out one blast of peculiar glowing nodules as it broke apart, firing them in a scattering pattern much like shotgun pellets. They hit both Shepard and the containment cell behind her and embedded in her armour, flashing brightly and then emitting a pale blue pulse. Shepard screamed, a harsh sound of excruciating pain that hit James like a punch to the stomach, but he could only watch as the nodules in her armour pulsed and she dropped to the ground, clutching her head as though they were affecting the implants in her skull.

Without thinking he broke cover and tried to run to Shepard, but the Cerberus troops were finally taking notice of him and they fired en masse, forcing him to roll back into cover again with Rennah's shrieks still echoing in his ears. He felt pain rip through his shoulder and knew he'd been hit, but he ignored it, guessing he'd been hit by a stray shredder round that had got him in between his armour plates. He refused to focus on the warm feeling of wet blood tricking down his arm and chest under his armour; medigel would kick in soon, he just needed to stay focused and find a way to Shepard.

He heard the sound of a concussive shot and glanced up to see Garrus taking cover behind a garden bed about twenty metres away, his sniper rifle up and aimed. Around him were the bodies of several Cerberus troops, and James realised they'd tried to sneak up from behind and had run into Garrus instead. The turian fired again and the Atlas exploded loudly, showering huge twisted chunks of smoking metal all around the room.

From the corner of his eye James saw movement and he looked back and saw the remaining Cerberus engineer had made it to Shepard while the troops covered him. He had his omni-tool out and was scanning Shepard who had finally stopped screaming, but was still covered in the glowing blue light that the nodules were emitting. The man ignored the containment cell completely, his attention fully on Shepard as she clutched her head and writhed on the ground.

They weren't after Eve, James realised with dawning horror, they were after Shepard!

The engineer closed his omni-tool and spoke into his transponder as he signalled to several of the troops to come help him, pulling Shepard up into a sitting position and getting her ready to be moved. James saw red and forgot everything except a burning need to keep Shepard out of the hands of Cerberus. He charged forward again and this time the troops were too slow to try and pin him down with fire. He could hear Garrus distracting them and saw that the Atlas explosion had injured a few of the Cerberus troopers as well.

He smashed into the engineer with as much strength as he could and rammed him against the containment cell door, rage pumping through him at the thought of this man trying to hurt Shepard. The engineer tried to pull free and James growled as he grabbed his head and slammed it against the cell door as hard as he could, the helmet shattering as the cell door cracked from the force. He activated his omni-blade and rammed it into the engineer's chest while he was dazed, twisting and ripping it upwards and spilling his insides as the man screamed and then went silent.

A chunk of the engineer's helmet fell away and James saw the blackened and husk-like face of the man beneath, but before he could look at it properly he saw movement again and whirled around with his omni-blade raised, ready to kill anyone who came near Shepard. Relief flooded him when he saw that it was Wrex and Garrus, both of them holding shotguns and splattered with blood, but then his gaze fell on Shepard and the relief vanished under cold hard fear. Up close Rennah was a mess and was clearly in agony; her face deathly pale as the blue light crawled over her skin, her arms and hands twitching spasmodically.

"Take care of Shepard, we'll get Mordin and Eve out." Garrus leaned his rifle against the panel and began to clear them as Wrex acted as a lookout, clearly expecting more troops to attack them.

James carefully grasped Shepard's shoulders and lay her down softly, almost gasping as the blue light tingled up his arms like electricity and numbed his skin where he touched her armour. Unsure what to do to help her, he leaned over her and tried to see if any of the nodules had hit her neck or face, but she seemed clear and he cupped her cheek gently as she continued to twitch, a soft whimpering sound just audible through her tightly pinched lips.

"Shepard?" He moved his hand from her cheek to grasp her hand and held it, trying not to let the wave of terror he felt at seeing her like this overwhelm him.

Please let her be okay. Please.

He felt worse than helpless as Garrus released Mordin and Eve, and the salarian sprang forward with his omni-tool out and quickly scanned Shepard, the nodules and even the dead engineers omni-tool, nodding as though whatever he saw was expected, "Need to leave now; more Cerberus ships incoming." The salarian drew in a quick breath, "Shepard needs immediate medical attention."

James nodded and with Garrus' help he lifted Shepard, supporting her weight between them as they jogged down the corridor towards the shuttle. Wrex and Eve waddled ahead of them as Mordin covered them from behind. Despite the salarian's fears they made it to the shuttle without further incidents, although they could see more Cerberus drop ships approaching and Cortez wasted no time in lifting off. James and Garrus put Shepard down on the floor and made room as Mordin approached again, his omni-tool out as he scanned the nodes embedded in her armour for a second time and frowned slightly.

"Recommend removing armour. The nodes are designed to emit a signal that disrupts and overloads biotic implants and amps. Unsure of how much damage may be done to Shepard." The salarian looked concerned and he gently brushed some of Rennah's dark hair off her face, the ashen colour and clammy appearance clearly not reassuring him.

James nodded and he and Garrus set around unclipping and removing her armour segments. He knew there was an emergency release for her armour that would automatically unlock every part of it, but he wasn't sure where the release was for the N7 armour and he didn't want to go searching for it when Shepard was still twitching in agony. He and Garrus worked quickly and within a minute they'd removed the armour and Shepard was left in her underclothes; a black tank top and skimpy black shorts.

The blue light was still crawling over the armour, but as soon as they removed it from Shepard and tossed it in a corner, the light faded from her skin and she stopped trembling and lay still on the floor. Her skin was covered in goose bumps and the only movement she made was to clumsily raise her hand to her head where her implant sat closest to the surface. James didn't know what to do; he didn't know if touching her again would hurt her or reassure her, but he wanted to stop her from clawing at her head in case she harmed herself more.

"What would the weapon have done to her?" He caught Rennah's hand in his and pulled it down and away from her head, holding it in his own as she lay still, the only sign of life was the rise and fall of her chest and flickering of her eyes behind her eyelids.

"Scanned Cerberus orders from engineer's omni-tool. Priorities were to kill Eve in order to prevent genophage cure and to capture Shepard alive using their new prototype weapon." Mordin stood up and paced and Garrus moved to crouch on the other side of Shepard, his eyes worried as they moved over her. "Unlikely Cerberus would have wanted permanent neural damage, but if implant is shorted there is the possibility of a brain haemorrhage. Not sure; Shepard has been extensively altered with cybernetics, so impossible to know exactly what damage had been done."

James squeezed her hand tightly and gently smoothed her hair back with his other hand, fighting hard to keep his fear in check at the thought of Shepard being hurt so badly. That Cerberus could do this to her and risk giving her a stroke or permanent brain damage chilled his blood beyond belief. He could feel Garrus watching him as he stayed kneeling next to Shepard, but he didn't care; if the turian hadn't realised that James had feelings for her before today, he would have to be a blind idiot not to know that he cared about her now.

But it didn't matter; nothing mattered except Shepard.

"She'll be okay, Vega." Garrus reached out and patted the hand that held Shepard's "Death couldn't stop her, so she'll bounce back from this."

"Yeah, of course she will." James nodded and looked up gratefully at his friend, the knot of fear inside of him loosening slightly at the certainty in the turian's voice.

He and Shepard had spent the last few nights dancing around each other awkwardly because of a moment of closeness that should have been something special for both of them. He didn't know why it had terrified her, or why she'd backed off, but he shouldn't have let her pull away from him after they'd had that moment of connection in the car. He should have asked her what he'd done to scare her and done everything he could to reassure her that he wasn't going to hurt her…because now it might be too late.

James hoped Garrus was right, he really did, but as he looked down into Rennah's deathly pale face he couldn't help but worry that this might be something that she wouldn't be able to come back from, and that Cerberus might have taken Shepard away from him forever.

A/N – Poor Shepard! Poor James! I had to write this chapter in chunks because it was action packed and had so much in it, which is why it took me so long. (Okay, 4 days isn't 'long' but I started writing this chapter as soon as I finished the last, and 4 days of snatched writing time is 'long' for me.)

I hope you enjoyed it! Poor James and Shepard – it's one step forward and two steps back for them at the moment.