Prompt: Aches and pains
She clearly remembers getting shot for the first time: the blinding pain, the gushing blood, and the white noise that filled her head until her squad's medic slapped quick-acting anesthetic on the wound. It was the first of many injuries.
She's also been stabbed, burned, smashed by a charging krogan, and on several occasions, biotically slammed into the ground. Her bones have been broken, her organs have been boiled by vacuum, and when she was a kid, her brother once pulled a fistful of hair from her head.
But those aches and pains pale in comparison to this...
"Hey, how're you doing?"
She opens her eyes to meet his brown ones, crinkling at the corners. She manages a weak smile for him, though she feels more like groaning and throwing up.
"I've had shotgun wounds that didn't hurt this much."
He chuckles. "I'll ask the nurse to adjust your pain meds, but I figured you'd want to be awake for this first." He leans over and carefully deposits a small wrapped bundle into her arms.
She touches the tiny nose, counts all ten fingers and all ten toes, pushes back the blanket to reveal a tuft of dark hair - far more than a newborn should have - and she laughs. "He has your hair."
He leans down, resting his forehead against hers, and the pain fades to memory.