Chapter Twenty-Five – Surgery

For days after the heater broke, Shepard noticed how the pain in her right leg and hip wasn't going away. As a matter of fact, it seemed to be gradually getting worse the more she moved around. Then, it got to the point where it was getting harder to even get out of the bed without Garrus's assistance.

After a week of all of this, Garrus convinced her to see a doctor to figure out what the problem was. Luckily for the turian, he didn't have to argue his point since Shepard completely agreed to his suggestion. Garrus did remember talking with a human doctor during his last visit to Syracuse some weeks ago and had offered to look over Shepard's recovery if she decided to. He went ahead to make an appointment, but as soon as he mentioned what was going on, the doctor asked him to take her in right away.

At the office in Syracuse, the new doctor looked over Shepard's old X-Rays and made new ones as well to figure out the problem. Once the new x-rays came in, it was very easy to tell what had happened... one of the bolts had loosened from its hold and a rod had slipped from it's original spot, causing it to rub against the muscles and nerves in her thigh. The bolt was still connected, but it was barely clinging on to where it was screwed in, hence why Shepard hadn't considered that a possibility until now.

Shepard knew that she was lucky... had she fallen at some point, or made any quick motions within the last week, the rod surely would have stabbed right out of her. Of course, the bolt loosening and the rod slipping alone required surgery right away.

That was two days ago.

Lying in a bed in a newly built hospital in Toronto, Shepard knew she would be cared for well by the same doctors who saved her life more than a year ago. Garrus sat next to her in a chair, barely leaving her side since she was admitted as a patient.

As the morning sun rose high towards the sky outside, Shepard knew that the doctors would be wheeling her in for surgery soon. The doctors don't think it would take very long, a few hours at most, but Shepard knew that, once it was over, there was going to be another new scar added to her collection.

"This sucks," was the first thing Shepard said not long after waking up. She was able to sleep pretty okay last night thanks to the small dose of morphine to ease the current pain in her leg.

Garrus managed to chuckle. "You've been saying that ever since we saw the x-rays," he pointed out.

"I know, but this still sucks..." Shepard took a deep breath. "I just hate hospitals."

"We all do."

"Except doctors."

"... True."

Shepard turned her head to gaze out the window nearby. It's been months since she was in Toronto, the last time was after the XLSixteen incident when she was bombarded by a gossip media reporter.

Shepard turned her head back to Garrus. "You know, ever since I figured out what was going on with my leg, I'm starting to consider getting those artificial bones... but I guess I've been delaying because, well... I just hate hospitals..."

"Look on the bright side," Garrus replied. "At least you won't be in the hospital for long this time... not like last time when it was eight months long..."

Shepard suddenly felt bad as she reached her hand to her turian, who met her halfway before wrapping his fingers around hers. "I'm sorry, Garrus," she said. "All that waiting you have to do..."

"At least I know you'll be okay this time," he assured her.

That was when an old memory came over her mind and she frowned a little. "Waiting does suck for sure... I know it doesn't seem like it, but I have been in your shoes before."

"When was that?" Garrus asked.

Shepard looked into his blue eyes. "When we found you on Omega... after the rocket hit you..."

Without thinking about it, Garrus reached a free hand up to brush his fingers over the scars on the right side of his face. They were much more healed than they were in the immediate aftermath of that event, but Shepard could still remember the blue blood oozing from the fresh wounds and how painful they looked even with the bandage that remained over most of them for the remainder of their Cerberus days. She usually loved blue, but that was the one time in her life where she truly hated that color.

"Just trying to get you back to the Normandy was nerve-wracking," Shepard mentioned. "I was almost so sure that you were going to die in my arms before we could reach it. And later, when you were having surgery, I had gone in the shower and remembering thinking how I wouldn't forgive myself if you didn't make it."

Garrus gently squeezed her hand in reassurance before his mandibles widened a bit into a smile. "First of all, you shouldn't blame yourself if something did happen to me."

"I know, but I couldn't help it at the time." Shepard sighed a little. "You know, at that time, I was trying to figure things out after being clinically dead for two years, and with the exception of Dr. Chakwas and Joker, it was hard for me to trust anyone. Zaeed and Mordin were new recruits at the time. I initially took them to pick you up first because I thought getting you out was going to be a breeze. It was their first mission under me, a field test if you will. Though I have to admit, taking Mordin that day was the right decision because he was able to keep you stable until we got you back on the Normandy. The night of your surgery, Zaeed convinced me to join him at the Normandy's bar. He ended up telling me a lot about his past missions over shots of whiskey. It did help to ease the stress for a little while.

Shepard then reached a free hand to gently squeeze the bridge of her nose. "If only I had asked Aria about Archangel first before I asked about Mordin. Got information about Mordin, went off picked him up first... then went back and got information about Archangel, and look what loss time did..."

"You didn't know what was going to happen," Garrus replied. "You can't blame yourself just because you're not a psychic. And look on the bright side... these scars have been driving you wild ever since."

That made Shepard lightly laugh. "If you want, you can take my place in the surgery room and get new scars."

Garrus laughed. "I'll pass... though maybe one of these days, Felix just might dig his claws deep enough through my thick skin."

"We would have to stop clipping his nails just for that to happen."

"That reminds me," Garrus said. "Why does he always swipe my ankles and feet from his hiding spot every time I walk by him?"

Shepard shrugged. "Beats me. All I know is that he's better at stealth mode than you are at this point."

Garrus eyed her. "Very funny."

That was when a knock was heard at the door. Turning their heads, they soon notice a female nurse taking a couple of steps into the room. They both knew right then and there that the time had came.

"Hello Shepard," the nurse greeted. "I just wanted to inform you that the doctors will be taking you to surgery in just a couple of minutes."

Shepard nodded. "Thank you... I'm just about ready when they are."

The nurse nodded before departing. When they were alone again, the two of them turned their heads to each other, not saying a word for a few seconds.

"Don't worry," Garrus eventually said. "You'll be in and out in no time."

"I know," Shepard replied. "I'm sorry you have to wait a while again..."

"It won't be so bad this time," Garrus assured her. "I'll take one day over eight months – or two years - any time..."

The turian then leaned down until his forehead gently touched his human lover's. Both closing their eyes, the two of them remained silent for a while with the only sound behind heard was their soft, rhythmic breathing. It wasn't long before they heard the doctors coming into the room. Opening their eyes, Garrus began to pull away before Shepard leaned up to leave a gentle kiss on his mouthplate.

Shepard smiled a little as she pulled back a bit. "I should go."

Garrus breathed out a small laugh. "I wish I had a clever comeback for that right now."

"You'll think about it in about five minutes," Shepard said. "Then you can tell me when I wake up."

"Won't be relevant by then."

"... Yeah, you're right. Either way, I'll be back."

"I know you will."

Soon, Garrus had to back away as the doctors began to get the bed ready to be wheeled away. It wasn't long they were ready to go. Shepard and Garrus shared one more goodbye before the doctors began to wheel her bed out of the room and towards surgery.

As soon as the room was emptied out, a vid-call alerted sounded on Garrus's omni-tool. He went to see who was calling and quickly noticed that it was Solana.

"Oh crap..." he uttered. No, it wasn't because his sister was calling... it was because, with everything that was happen in the last two days, he completely forgot to tell his family that Shepard was even in the hospital!

The first thing Garrus did was close the door of the now-empty patient room behind him in order to have more privacy. He then went over to sit down in his chair before he pressed a command key, opening up the screen. Solana's face was immediately seen.

"Wow!" Solana called out in surprise as soon as Garrus answered the vid-call. "I call my brother and he actually answers!"

"Hi to you too, Solana," Garrus replied.

"Hi there. I might as well cut to the chase... Xarius and I finally set up the wedding date and, according to the universal date times, it'll be around your Earth time spring season."

"That's great," Garrus managed to say.

Solana tilted her head, her eyes showing a bit of worry. "I'd thought you'd be more excited."

"I am, honestly," Garrus assured her. "The last two days have been a little chaotic somewhat. To make a long story short, there's been a complication with Shepard's previous surgeries. She's in the hospital now getting it corrected."

Solana's mandibles flickered a bit. "Will she be okay?"

"She'll be fine," Garrus replied. "It's just that this is going to set back her recovery process by who knows how long."

"I see," Solana said. "Well... now I feel bad... I go off and get all excited about my wedding while Shepard goes into surgery... fine timing..."

"It's okay, Solana. I should've told you two days ago, but-"

"It's been chaotic, I know," his sister finished.

"Don't worry too much about it," Garrus continued. "That's just some good news I can tell Shepard as soon as she's out of surgery. She loves hearing about what's going on with everyone in Palaven."

"I bet she loves hearing about my impending motherhood."

Garrus smiled. "Of course she does. That's her future niece and nephew you're carrying."

Solana almost gasped. "Spirits... my child's aunt is not only going to be a human, but it's going to be the Commander Shepard." She suddenly shook her head. "Oh spirits, I put her up on a pedestal like an adoring fan... if I remember correctly, she doesn't like that very much."

This made Garrus laugh. "Solana, it's fine, but if it makes you feel better, I won't say anything to her."

"Thanks," Solana replied. "Sorry for my weird mood, by the way. You see, I have to take these vitamin pills first thing every morning for the sake of my health and the baby's... nothing bad, it's a common, normal prenatal routine... but I think they use the same amount of sugar as twenty cups of kava because I am beyond hyper for most of the day... at least I'm not jittery."

"If anything, your call made me feel a little better," Garrus mentioned. "Is Dad home?"

"He's at work, and then he'll be at a dinner meeting with the Primarch later tonight. Do you want him to call you back when he gets home?"

"Only if he wants to," Garrus said. "I'm going to go now. Give Xarius my regards."

"Will do. Bye, Garrus."

"Bye, Solana."

Garrus then pressed a button, ending the vid-call. That was when something came to mind, but the person he needed to contact, well... he didn't have their omni-tool number in his vid-call address system.

There was only one way to find the person's contact... he dialed a certain code before waiting for an answer, and it wasn't long before the screen got bigger. Soon, Garrus saw the blue face of a familiar asari.

"Garrus," Liara T'Soni greeted on the screen. "I was just about to call you."

"I assume you got word about Shepard going to the hospital?" Garrus guessed.

"A few news sites are already reporting about Shepard being admitted for surgery, but it's not quite widely known in the universe just yet... only on Earth and a few human colonies."

"I'm sure it won't be long before the universe does hear about it," Garrus said.

"I'm sure too," Liara agreed. "In the meantime, what can I do for you."

"I was wondering if you happen to have the extranet address for Miranda Lawson."

Liara immediately began typing some information on her computer. "Just give me a little time to find that out."

"Certainly."

"I assume you wanted to talk to her about Shepard's surgery?"

"In a way," Garrus admitted. "I did want to get her opinion on a couple of things, and with her knowledge of Shepard's medical records, as well as her cybernetics, I thought this would be a good time to contact her. Needless to say, she's not easy to get in touch with."

"With her former association with Cerberus, it's understandable," Liara replied.

Garrus tilted his head a little. "Isn't Cerberus defunct now?"

"They are, but there are still a few factions around the universe remaining," Liara informed him. "The Alliance have been working hard to wipe out those factions. I've been working with them as the Shadow Broker to give them the information they need."

Soon, a beeping noise was heard on Liara's end of her call. "Here we go... I'm sending you her contact code through your extranet address right now. And according to her omni-tool data, she's currently on Illium."

"I see," Garrus said. "Thanks Liara. How much do I owe you?"

"Garrus, please," Liara began. "You and Shepard are my friends. For something like this, I am willing to give this for free, especially since Miranda is a friend of ours. Now, if you were to ask me about Councilor Sparatus's personal endeavors, however..."

"Eh, I think I'm good, thank you. I'll talk to you soon, Liara."

"Goodbye, Garrus."

Garrus then ended the vid-call before he found himself a bit hesitant for a minute as he thought about Miranda. Like Shepard, he had known her since the Cerberus days on the Normandy SR-2. Back then, Miranda worked as the ship's XO as well as reporting to The Illusive Man. The mission had actually set the motion to Miranda's eventual resignation, especially when she heard later how The Illusive Man wanted to keep the Human Reaper rather than destroy it, thus the death of thousands of humans to create it would have been in vain.

Even now, Garrus and Miranda weren't the greatest of friends or anything, but there was a mutual respect that remained between each other. After all, it was Miranda who helped bring Shepard back two years after the destruction of the SR-1 and it was she who assisted in her recovery after the end of the Reaper War. He figured that, if anything, Miranda deserved to know what was currently going on with Shepard.

Taking a deep breath, Garrus began to dial the code to Miranda's omni-tool. He had expected her to not answer the vid-call right away and he was preparing to leave a message so that she knew it was him. To his surprise, however, the screen extended before the ex-Cerberus operative's face was shown. She seemed to look suspicious at first, but after a split second, she relaxed once she recognized the turian.

"Hi Miranda," Garrus started.

"Garrus Vakarian," Miranda greeted with a small smile. "You almost gave me a scare."

"I know, I have such a scary looking face," Garrus joked.

"Oh no, it's not that," Miranda replied. "It's just you never know what to expect when your vid-call alert says, 'unknown caller.' I assume Shepard gave you extranet address."

Garrus decided to go along with it. "Yeah, she did."

"In that case, what can I do for you?"

Garrus took a deep breath. "I have a question for you, but first, I want to let you know that Shepard's back in the hospital for surgery."

Miranda frowned at that news. "What happened?"

"One of the bolts loosened and it caused one of the rods to slip a bit," Garrus explained. "Honestly, it could have been worse, we just got lucky to catch it in time. Though now I wonder how the bolt loosened to begin with..."

"Anything could've happened," Miranda replied. "But that's just one of those mysteries that's hard to resolve... that is unless the surgeons discover that the bolt wasn't placed on properly when it was installed the first time."

"Now that brings me to my question," Garrus started. "For a while, Shepard and I were discussing the possibility of getting artificial bones in hopes of a better recovery. It was suggested by a doctor we know in Geneva when we went to see her last summer. Shepard hasn't really pursued it yet because of the possible complications, plus you know how much she hates hospitals."

Miranda laughed in agreement. "That I do. One of the first things she asked me after she woke up was whether or not there were any escape routes around so she could get out as soon as possible. And that was before we even began physical therapy."

Garrus shook his head. "Sounds like Shepard. Anyway, about the artificial bones, I wanted to get your opinion on them."

Miranda took a deep breath before answering. "Believe it or not, I had actually considered using them for the bones that were not recoverable after we found her in Alchera. However, The Illusive Man highly insisted we use the cybernetics to make her better than before... which was interesting because I thought her body had more of a chance to reject the cybernetics than the artificial bones.

"As for the bones, they act just like the real thing, though as I mentioned, there is a chance for her body to reject them. I also advise not to have the entire procedure done at once, and even then, we have to wait until Shepard is strong enough to have the procedure."

Garrus inwardly sighed at this. It was the same advice that Dr. Michel had give them when she told them about the possibility. He guess that it was common knowledge.

"Listen Garrus," Miranda continued. "I'm going to be on Earth in a few days, I just need to finish up some business on Illium. I assume Shepard's in Toronto?"

"In a newly built hospital, yes," Garrus informed.

Miranda nodded. "Okay. Once I'm there, I just have to make a quick delivery in Vancouver, but once that's done, I'll take the next shuttle to Toronto to see you both."

"I'm sure Shepard would love to see you. And if you have time, we'd like to invite you to see our new cabin."

"I heard a rumor about that," Miranda said. "Guess it was true after all. In that case, I'd be very happy to take you up on that offer. I'll see you both in a few days."

"Later."

From there, the vid-call ended, and Garrus now found himself a bit bored... and also a bit worried. He was sure that things will be fine with Shepard's surgery, but at times like this, he couldn't help but think of the worst. Then again, he once said to Shepard, 'There's a small chance I'll be pleasantly surprised.'

Then again, he hoped that the surprise would be a much bigger chance in this case.

Standing up from the chair he had been sitting in, Garrus began to pace around the room. He was feeling glad that he has some privacy right about now while he waited for Shepard's surgery to be over. He then noticed a human calendar hanging on the wall and, out of curiosity, went over to take a look at it. At the moment, the picture on top of the dates showed a cartoon drawing of a strange-looking small animal dressed up like a doctor with the stethoscope around its neck and wearing a head mirror on top of it's head. The animal was brown ad fuzzy, it's body and tail long, it's face a bit pointy, and it's legs were short. It also had small ears and whiskers that reminded him of Felix's.

Garrus then happened to look at the dates below. That was when he realized what tomorrow was... the human tradition of Valentine's Day. Garrus had already learned the tradition a few years ago when he and Shepard first got together. He could still remember how nervous he was as he wondered if he was even doing this tradition right. Shepard assured him that though the stuff he looked up on the extranet was good guidance, the best thing was to follow his own instincts.

They didn't even get to celebrate the next Valentine's since Shepard was incarcerated in Vancouver at the time. Their last Valentine's was spent in the hospital after the war and he wasn't able to get her anything then. And now there were here again.

That was when an idea hit him. Remembering that there was a gift shop downstairs, Garrus left the room and began to head down there.

Shepard only woke up once after the surgery was over, but then she ended up falling asleep again before the doctors wheeled her back into her room. It was until right before sunset when she woke up again. Even though she was feeling groggy, it wasn't hard to miss the dozen red, white, and pink balloons that were spread out on the ceiling around her bed. One balloon was shaped into a red heart and the others had different sayings like, 'Happy Valentine's Day!' and 'I Love You.'

She then turned her head to the left and saw Garrus sitting in his chair, a smile on his face. That was when she noticed something else on the table next to her. Turning her head more, she noticed a red vase filled with fully bloomed red and white roses with some baby's breath added to it.

Shepard gazed at her turian after that. "Is it Valentine's Day already?" she asked.

"It's actually not until tomorrow," Garrus informed as he placed an object next to her. He then leaned towards her to place a turian kiss on her forehead. "The surgery went well, by the way. You should be going home next week."

Shepard then looked at what Garrus placed on the bed; a white teddy bear holding a heart that said, 'Be Mine!' She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "As much as I appreciate the gifts, don't you think you went a little... overboard?"

Garrus shrugged. "We, eh, hadn't really celebrated the two Valentine's before this one so... I'm making up for lost time. I'd get you chocolates, but you can't even eat those right away until you're out of the hospital."

He then took Shepard's hand into his. "I know usually this is something for tomorrow, but... I figured that I, um... well.. I figured, well... I didn't need one day to tell you how much I love you..."

Shepard couldn't help but smile as she felt her heart flutter inside her ribcage. "That... is the sweetest thing I've ever heard... and now I'm sure that my sudden sappiness is coming from whatever drugs I'm on."

Garrus laughed. "Something I learned during my C-Sec days is that some narcotics or alcohol tends to make people tell the truth."

Shepard smiled more. "I think you're right." Her smile then went away as she began to yawn.

"You should get some sleep," Garrus suggested.

"I don't want to..." Shepard moaned. "I want to be up... but I guess my body is not agreeing with me right now, so I guess I'll listen for once..."

Garrus chuckled before he gently squeezed her hand with his. "I'll be here if you need me."

Shepard began to close her eyes, but not before saying, "I love you."

Garrus gave her another kiss on the forehead. "I love you, too."

Soon, Shepard fell into a peaceful slumber. Garrus then happened to turn his head towards the window, noticing the light snowflakes falling towards the ground. It reminded him of the day Shepard woke up. It had been sunny that day, but then the clouds moved in later that evening. Just like last time, the snowflakes fell slowly and gently, and all was quiet around him.

Garrus soon realized there was perhaps one good thing about snow... it seemed to do a good job in emphasizing the peacefulness he was currently feeling...