Shepard opened her eyes and saw a grey metallic ceiling. She tried to move but something was preventing it. Hospital. For some reason, she had restraints on. She opened her mouth to try to speak but nothing would come out, her mouth too dry to form words. A moment later, two doctors came into the room. One of them ran her omni-tool over Shepard while the other tried to get Shepard to drink some water from a straw.
"How are you feeling, Commander? We had to restrain you because we were afraid you would move and damage the skin grafts on your side. If we remove them, do you promise not to move around too much?"
Shepard nodded. Doctor Michel hit a few buttons and Shepard tentatively moved her arms and legs. Shepard grabbed the water beside her bed and drank some more before trying to speak again.
"Doctor Michel. It's good to see you survived the war. How bad am I?"
The Doctor smiled at Shepard. "And it's good to see that you survived the war, Commander Shepard. That will make a lot of people very happy." The Doctor looked at her holographic chart. "Let's see. When they brought you to us, you had a shattered left arm, five broken ribs, a punctured lung that had just collapsed, internal abdominal bleeding, and severe burns on your left side and legs. Not to mention, you were suffering from exhaustion and dehydration. Oh and a slug or two were still lodged in your body but why mention those? The good news is that if you are a good patient and do as you are told by your doctors, you should recover from all your injuries."
"Good. Thank you Doctor. How long have I been out? How is the Citadel? Is the Fleet back yet? Can I get up?" Shepard moved to sit up and then winced as she felt the pull on the skin grafts on her side. Doctor Michel hit the buttons again and reactivated the stasis field.
"That is not a good patient. That is not listening to your doctors."
"Sorry. I'll be good. I promise."
The Doctor released the restraints again.
"In answer to your questions. You have been out for two weeks, most of it induced because we needed you to heal. The Citadel has been stabilized though, of course, it is still in pieces. The engineers figured out how to get the keepers working again. The Fleet returned shortly after you passed out. Finally, I would prefer it if you stayed off your feet for another week at least."
"Doctor, I have to pee and if I can avoid the whole bed pan indignity, I would be very grateful. Not that I don't appreciate the whole adult diaper look I have going now."
The Doctor smiled. "I think we can get you to the bathroom, Commander. It wouldn't do to make the Savior of the Galaxy pee in her bed. Use the bed mechanism to get into a sitting position. You then need to swing your legs off the bed very slowly and let us help you. Remember, your legs will be very weak."
"Savior of the Galaxy? Please tell me that they are not calling me that."
"I'm afraid they are, Commander. And there are a whole bunch of people who have been trying to get in here to see you but we stopped them. Admiral Hackett is on the Citadel and will be here to debrief you shortly. Now, slowly, Commander. Don't use your stomach muscles if you can."
Shepard pushed the button on the bed's controls until she was sitting up. The two doctors flanked Shepard as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and lowered them to the floor as carefully as possible. Shepard finally managed to stand and the doctors walked her slowly to the bathroom.
"Remember to be careful with your left side. Use your right arm to help lower yourself."
After getting out of the bathroom, Shepard wanted to walk around some more but the doctors would have none of it. They returned her promptly to her bed.
"So, how bad are the mass relays? Can they be repaired? Have any of my friends stopped by to see me? How are things on Earth? What can I do to help from this bed?"
"You can rest, Commander. As I said, Admiral Hackett will be here shortly to debrief you. In the meantime, I will let you watch the news feeds but if you try to move from that bed or you try to help with anything but getting yourself stronger than I will restrain you again and put you under again."
"Yes, Doctor. I'll be good."
Shepard watched the news from her bed. The fleet was back. The mass relays were severely damaged and no one was exactly sure how to rebuild them but the asari were offering to provide technology to get them back up. The tone of the broadcast was optimistic but there was no celebratory tone. When one of the feeds started to relay some of the numbers, the reasons for the muted tones became obvious. An estimated 564 million humans dead in the fighting or by the harvesting on Earth and her colonies. Tens of thousands of ships lost. Communications to most of the home worlds for the races who composed the fleet had not been reestablished so estimates of the current populations of other worlds were unknown. Millions still homeless on Earth due to the near destruction of whole cities. Hundreds of thousands homeless on the Citadel. For now, it appeared that the Fleet had been able to coordinate food distribution so that no one was starving but Shepard imagined that hunger would be a real threat as well. 564 million human lives lost! The number was incomprehensible to Shepard.
Before the numbers could truly sink in, Admiral Hackett entered the room, an uncharacteristic smile on his face. He moved over to the side of her bed and sat down in the chair next to it. Also uncharacteristically, he reached out and held her hand briefly. Despite the smile, Shepard could see the lines on Hackett's face and could tell that he still had much to worry about.
"How are you feeling, Commander?"
"Okay. My side hurts and I feel weak but I'm okay. How are things with the fleet, sir?"
"The other races are already starting to get restless. Communications have still not been re-established with any of the other home worlds except for Thessia. I don't know how they did it but the asari back on Thessia have almost already repaired their relay and have been instructing the engineers here how to repair the Sol relay. Without those relays and the communication buoys, communications are at standard faster than light speeds. It will be weeks more before we hear anything from Palaven or the other worlds."
"How many ships did we lose, sir?"
"We're not sure yet. We are still hearing from new ships almost hourly. The shockwave from the Crucible threw many ships off course and they never made it to the rendezvous."
Shepard swallowed. "And the Normandy?"
"We haven't heard from them yet, Shepard but like I said, we are still hearing from other ships all the time."
"They didn't report to the rendezvous?"
"No. But we have reports that they were seen hitting the Sol relay right before the shockwave hit so they probably made it out of the system. We know that they were not destroyed in the fighting but we don't know where they ended up or where they are now." Hackett paused before continuing. "There is good reason to hope, Shepard. There were a couple ships that saw the Normandy right before she hit the relay and they said that they did not see any significant damage."
Shepard nodded. She felt her stomach drop as Hackett was talking. They have to be alright. Please be alright.
"Any other news, Admiral? From any of my other former squad mates?"
Shepard saw a flash of sadness in Hackett's eyes before he smiled again reassuringly.
"There'll be plenty of time for reports later, Shepard. I'll leave you to rest…
"Please sir, if you know anything, please tell me. Not knowing is always worse."
"There are reports that the private ship being commanded by Miranda Lawson was lost in the fighting. The ship was defending the Crucible and was hit directly by a reaper beam. Reports say that the ship exploded."
Shepard closed her eyes. So unfair. She never even got the chance to find out who she was without her father, without Cerberus .I wonder about Oriana...
"Thank you for telling me, sir."
"There is good news as well. Your former biotic squad mate, Jack, made it as did her students. She tried to come see you about a week ago. And then the asari justicar? I forget her name but she was here as well."
Shepard smiled before speaking again.
"What about the krogan? Have you heard from Urdnot Wrex or Grunt?"
"Both are fine. The majority of the krogan insisted on leaving for home at normal FTL speeds right after the battle, your friends included. We tried to discourage them. Tried to tell them that they would be better off waiting for the relays to be repaired but I'm sure you know how hard it is to tell a krogan anything. Assuming everything goes alright for them, they should be back on Tuchanka in a couple months or so. Wrex asked me to give you this."
Hackett passed a small datapad into Shepard's good hand.
"Duty calls, Commander. If you need anything, contact me directly. I want you to stay in this bed until you're fully healed and that's an order."
"Aye, aye Admiral. Thank you for stopping by. And Admiral, you look like you could use some rest yourself, sir." Hackett nodded before leaving the room. The door whooshed shut behind Hackett and Shepard was left alone with her thoughts. There had been so much death, so much destruction. Now the battle to survive and to rebuild was just beginning. Shepard didn't envy Hackett. He still had the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders. Liara! Where are you? Shepard didn't know what to think about the Normandy. The news was not good. Good would be the Normandy sitting in dock right now, her crew safe and sound. But the news wasn't bad either. If any crew could get back here, it would be the crew of the Normandy even if they were damaged. Even without Edi. The full weight of what Shepard did came racing back to the forefront of her mind. Shepard tried to push it back into the recesses of her consciousness. Can't focus on the past, need to focus on the future and what still needs to be done.
Shepard hit the button on the datapad that Hackett gave her and Wrex and Grunt shimmered into view on the recording.
"Shepard!", both grogan said simultaneously.
"Sorry we couldn't hang around until you woke up from your little nap but there's no telling how long Bacara and the other allied clan leaders will be able to keep the other pyjaks in line on Tuchanka without us there." Wrex smiled.
"We knew you'd make it, Shepard. They don't make non-krogan any tougher than you." Grunt interjected.
"I hear that you were the one to make it up to the Citadel to fire the Crucible. It's only fitting that you were the one to fire the last shot in the Reaper War. And since you're an honorary member of Clan Urdnot, it means that the krogan saved the galaxy again." Wrex laughed at his own bad joke.
"Too bad you lived, Shepard. It would have been a great death. Now you run the risk of dying in your bed like a salarian or something." Wrex growled a little and Grunt quickly spoke again. "But we're glad that you made it. Wouldn't want it any other way."
"Take care of yourself, Shepard. And don't forget about your krogan clan. We might need some of those damn salarians to get our Relay up again. We'll contact you as soon as we can."
Shepard smiled, glad that her two krogan friends seemed no worse for wear. Shepard could hardly believe that she was still alive. It was like waking up from a nightmare. She still didn't feel awake and was unsure if she could really discern what was real and what wasn't. She stretched her body out and felt the pain in her side. The physical pain was somehow comforting. It cut through the mental fog and reassured her that what she was experiencing was real. There was nothing that she could do at that moment except get better so that she would be ready for the overwhelming challenges that the galaxy would no doubt face in the coming weeks, months, years. And when her ship and her friends did finally return home, she would be well and ready for them.