Chapter Fifty Four: In Hot Water

Today was the day the Normandy crew was having a small ceremony on the Citadel. It wasn't just the Normandy - it consisted of all the admirals in the Alliance. They were having a war meeting on the Citadel, and someone decided to make it a three-ring circus. Shepard was an especially good ringleader, so he was invited. Plus, he was a major player in the fight, and served as motivation to the battle-weary admirals. The crew came along because wherever Shepard went, his crew went.

Shepard hoped this publicity stunt went better than the last one in which he had been threatened. It wasn't just any threat either, he had been a rival gang member. He didn't like when the past and present collided. Not because of the people he had known, but of the person he had been.

A requirement for this meeting was formal wear. Currently everyone was desperately trying to get into itchy formal wear. He hadn't seen Turian formal wear, but he hoped it involved feathers.

…

Shepard was allowed to walk in front of the admirals. It wasn't because he was the highest ranking; it was because most of the admirals detested media attention. His mom was amongst the admirals who hated the attention. Shepard had received word that she was safe almost exactly one day ago. They planned to have lunch after this charade. He had only recently heard from her, because he didn't want to ask anyone. It was better to think she was okay, than to know she wasn't. Nobody thought to tell him either.

They walked in pairs through a corridor of people and media. It was very similar to the situation where he had been threatened. He had been told that the security was very good, however. Liara was the person next to him, with her arm looped around his.

"Something terrifying is happening between those two," Shepard whispered in Liara's ear. He gestured to Admiral Hannah Shepard and Admiral Hackett. They were the two in their row, and they were talking quietly. It wasn't serious talking either - they were laughing. The thought of having Hackett as 'Dad' was scary.

"Well, maybe they're just good friends," Liara turned a little to watch them. Shepard waved at the crowd, and held a few poses for the media. "Soooo, you might have to call Hackett 'Daddy'. They seem really entranced by each other," Liara turned back to Colt, and laughed.

"Like me around you, or like Gabby and Ken?" Colt couldn't bring himself to look.

"Not quite as awkward, and funny as you get. Yet not as casual as Gabby and Ken. So somewhere in the middle," Liara looked him in the eye. It really wasn't fair how she could make him so useless with just one look. His knees felt a little weak.

"I'm not that bad," Colt tried to save himself. He turned his attention back to the crowd and threw out a few jokes.

"You're doing it right now," Liara whispered in his ear. He turned to see her blushing.

He was going to turn her violet, "Well, you're just too damn smart and pretty for me to ignore you." His plan worked, and Liara turned colors. He laughed, and said, "I win."

He was distracted from Liara when a startling message entered his ear. Shepard had his comm. system hooked to the event's security. "We have a suspicious figure moving quickly through the crowd," a deep voice said. The banter had been back and forth the whole time, but this caught Shepard's attention.

"Where is he?" Shepard lifted his hand to his ear, and replied.

"Commander Shepard, I can assure you that the situation is under control," the same deep voice replied.

Shepard ignored the man's words, "Who is this person heading towards?"

"He's heading toward Admiral Hackett, sir," the deep voice gave up arguing with him.

"What?! Someone get him right now!" Shepard was inching along the path, holding the entire procession up. He was looking back towards Hackett's location.

"Rodriguez! Get him!" The deep voice yelled this. The urgency in his voice told Shepard that he was getting dangerously close to Hackett. The time to let security get this guy was up, it was Shepard's turn now.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" Shepard turned fully around and yelled at the people who stood between him and Hackett. He summoned his biotics, and in a second he was transported next to Hackett via biotic charge.

Shepard summoned the rest of his energy and put it into a barrier. A massive blue shield grew behind him, and protected those behind him. A man ran up to the barrier, and threw a pot. His aim was awful, because Shepard didn't feel a thing. He threw a punch from his left arm, and knocked the guy down. In seconds security was all over the guy, so Shepard let the shield go.

A strange sensation started affecting Shepard's right side. It was slight pain, and just general numbness. In an instant he realized that he couldn't feel his right arm. Moving it proved futile- nothing happened. Something very bad had occurred. Shepard was scared to look at his right side.

People called to him. He could pick up his mother's voice, Liara's, Garrus', and Hackett's. Shepard was so far off though, everything was disconnected. Finally, he looked towards his right side.

The skin was black, and leathery. Parts of it were burned off so much that you could see muscles, and wiring. His dress blues were burned off in patches and just generally tattered. Oddly enough, his first concern was his dress blues. Green code flickered over his skin, something that had never happened. Blood and clear liquid was running down his arm. A small puddle had already formed on the floor directly under his arm.

Someone touched his left side. That was the precise moment Shepard knew he was going into shock, and needed help quickly. He didn't feel any pain, though. None at all. Someone said something to him. Faces were everywhere, but he couldn't make anyone out. "I think I need to go to the hospital," Shepard told anyone.

…

Liara watched Shepard's face turn from playful to worry. He was walking quite slowly, and kept turning to look at Hackett. He was also yelling at someone over his communicator. At one point he unhooked his arm and hers. The conversation got even louder, until Shepard finally turned around. He screamed at the people behind them to move. The he smacked his hands together, and was carried by a biotic charge.

He appeared next to Hackett in less than a blink of an eye. A massive biotic barrier separated him from the rest of the Normandy crew and the admirals. It must have been at least ten feet high, and thirty feet wide. An amazing biotic feat.

Then Liara saw what the problem was, a man was rushing towards Shepard with some sort of canister in his hand. Paralyzing fear for Shepard took over her body. The man tossed what looked like water onto Shepard. Liara watched in horror as Shepard's skin started to turn black, and steam. She screamed his first name and ran past everyone.

Shepard threw a tremendous punch that snapped the guy's head back. He fell towards the floor, before the security team tackled him. Shepard kept his head down, and stared at the floor. "Colt... are you...okay?" Liara tried to say the words without choking up. She gently touched his left arm.

Nothing happened, Shepard continued to stare at the floor. At this point everyone was around him. Chakwas was at the front, already inspecting his damaged arm. His mother was begging him to answer if he was okay. Garrus was wondering what happened, probably not aware how seriously burned Shepard was.

Finally, Shepard turned very slowly to face everyone. He looked at the people around him with a shocked face. "I think I need to go to the hospital," Shepard said to the crowd. In seconds the color drained out of his face. Liara had never seen anyone so pale. Then he collapsed.

Liara caught him with her biotics, and lowered him down gently. Chakwas was by his side in an instant. "He's going into shock! Call Heurta Hospital now!" Chakwas was already connecting her omni-tool to him. It's orange glow cast an eerie glow Shepard's unconsciousness face. The omni-tool projected his heartbeat.

His heartbeat was quick and shallow. Liara didn't register how bad that was; instead she only saw green. Throughout the whole ordeal Shepard glowed green. Numbers flashed through his skin, and code repeated. Now the green was dimming, and Chakwas' omni-tool was bleeping. Liara stood off to their left, watching in some sort of trance. They were in the middle of the walkway and the crowd was still on the sides. C-Sec was pushing them back and urging them to go back home.

"Where are those doctors?!" Chakwas shouted. She was preparing some type of shot.

"They should be here in a couple of minutes," Traynor answered.

"Shit," Chakwas swore. Chakwas never cursed, ever.

Her omni-tool chirped, and beeped with more urgency. The heartbeats were getting slower, and shallower. "Dammit Colt," Chakwas started pumping his chest.

His heart hadn't completely ceased to work, but the beats were few and far between. The green code that had flitted across his skin dimmed, and then went out. "Where are they?! He's not breathing," Chakwas said almost to herself.

Suddenly, green code started traveling over his skin again. It was almost blinding. The omni-tool ceased to give off warning messages when a normal heartbeat registered on it. It was followed by more regular heartbeats. Shepard face remained still for a moment, before his eyes flew open. He turned on his left side, and started gasping for air.

"Shepard, don't move too much. You've been injured," Chakwas told him while he was still gasping for breath.

"I'm so cold," he managed to choke out.

"Commander, we're just going to take you to the hospital," a Turian knelt beside his side. Three more moved around Colt. As gently as they could, they lifted him into a stretcher. It took them about twenty seconds to put oxygen on his face and stabilize his body.

Liara watched with dull eyes as the medical hover car took Colt Shepard to Heurta.