CHAPTER 4

The Wounded

Tali awoke with a pounding headache hours later lying on a small cot in the back corner of the Normandy's cramped medbay. She groaned as she slowly picked herself up, acutely feeling the sinus pain and aches she had tried so hard to ignore on the engineering deck.

All of the other beds were filled with wounded soldiers. A nurse she didn't recognize was redressing wounds on one rather unlucky technician, and she spotted Chakwas administering pain medication to another, very pale, marine. Tali's heart sank when she recognised this one. It was one of the guards in the war room. A young woman who always greeted her warmly whenever she came through.

Keelah… So many were injured. How many did we lose? How many more are we going to-. She stopped herself from finishing the thought. She couldn't bear to think of what the answer would be.

She turned to put her feet on the floor when Chakwas finally noticed she was awake. "Stay right there!" Chakwas yelled from across the room.

The veteran doctor hastily walked over to Tali and began scanning her up and down with her omni-tool. "I'm not done with you yet, Miss Zorah," she said sternly. Tali didn't dare move an inch.

"Tell me, how do you feel?" Chakwas asked without looking up from her omni-tool's display.

"I'm feeling much better," Tali lied. "I just needed some more rest. That's all. The antibiotics you gave me have done their job. I'm ready to get back to work."

Chakwas remained unconvinced. "I'm seeing that you still have a slight fever."

Bosh'tet...

"However, your injuries have healed nicely, and it seems the infection isn't spreading. I'm going to give you another dose of antibiotics to finish off the fever," Chakwas stated, professionally.

Hearing that brought Tali's spirits back up a bit. "Thank you. I'll take the meds and make my way back down to engineering."

"Oh no you won't," countered Chakwas. "You need rest. I've ordered Adams to keep you away from the engines until you've recovered. You are free to wander around this deck if you'd like. But if you set one foot in engineering, I'll have you confined to a bed faster than you can say drive core."

Tali audibly groaned, finally forcing Chakwas to look up from her omni-tool and offer her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, my dear. Adams assures me he has everything under control, and that the Normandy will be space worthy again soon."

"I know," Tali replied softly. "I just hate not being able to help."

"I understand, dear. I would feel the same way were I in your shoes."

Tali waited patiently watching Chakwas rifle through a drawer next to her, hunting for another dose of quarian antibiotics. She braced herself for the familiar yet uncomfortable sensation as Chakwas readied the dose, and administered it through a port in her suit.

"Has... there been any news? About the Reapers? About..." Tali asked, cautiously.

Chakwas didn't answer. She finished by pulling the sterile syringe she had used on Tali, and quickly threw it away in a bin.

"No," she finally admitted with a frown settling on her face before once again tapping away on her omni-tool.

"Oh... I see."

"Last I heard, comms are still down. Traynor is still working on it, I presume," Chakwas continued, keeping her eyes glued to the display on her omni-tool.

Tali glanced over to the door to the AI core. Several alliance techs had been walking in and out of it while she was in the Medbay.

"What about EDI? Any progress on her?"

Chakwas sighed and glanced toward the AI core with a sad look on her face. "None, I'm afraid. The techs are still trying to understand what exactly happened to her. It's such a shame. We could really use her help right now."

"Yes...we could," Tali admitted mournfully.

Being a quarian meant one would have a strong distrust towards any form of AI. Tali felt ashamed now to admit that when she first met EDI, she wanted nothing to do with her. But over time, the more and more she interacted with EDI, her preconceptions as to the nature of AI began to fall apart. Even more so after she had to work with the enigmatic geth, Legion. She now considered EDI to be a great ally, and even a good friend. But now her friend was unresponsive, and it pained her to think about what that meant.

"I need to get back to my other patients. When you are ready, feel free to wander, but if you start feeling any worse then come straight back to me. That's an order." Chakwas turned off her omni-tool, nodded to Tali, and moved on to the next unlucky soldier in the room.

"Understood," Tali said, standing up off the bed. Carefully, she walked out of the Medbay and surveyed the surrounding crew deck.

So much damage.

Her eyes fell upon what was left of the mess hall. Where once there was a clean space with tables and chairs for the crew to sit down for meals, had now become a disorganized pile of wires, broken chairs, and twisted metal. Everything from bits of torn armor, broken tools, and loose bulkheads had been piled upon the table in an effort to try to consolidate loose debris.

The rest of the deck wasn't much better off. Loose wiring and bulkheads still hung down from the ceiling, and several of the doors had to be propped open due to failures in the locking mechanisms. Of all the decks on the ship, the one to receive the least amount of attention was the crew deck. On the list of necessary repairs, it apparently had the lowest priority. This made sense to Tali. While it would be nice to have a comfortable place to rest and eat, it was more important to get the engines, comms, and nav systems back online. Beds and chairs could be fixed in transit back to Earth.

Her eyes eventually made it to the memorial wall in front of the elevator.

Damn that wall.

When she first saw it upon returning to the Normandy, she had thought it a nice gesture. A way to remember all those who had made the ultimate sacrifice in the effort to stop the Reapers. But as time went on more and more names were added to the wall. Many of them friends she knew personally. Mordin Solus, Thane Krios, and even Legion now had placards upon the wall alongside Kaidan Alenko and the other lost crew. It became more and more difficult to walk past that wall each day. The more names they added, the heavier the weight of their loss seemed to become. There was still room for more names however, and she thought about all the new ones that would soon adorn it. Her mind went to one in particular.

No. She buried the intrusive thought as best she could.

Tali became determined to avoid that particular wall for the time being. She made her way toward the ship's main battery, past the pile of twisted metal and the kitchen into the hallway with the sleeping pods. Several had shaken loose in the crash and were left strewn about in the edges of the hallway. As she approached the battery she could hear a faint but familiar voice muttering colorful expletives from behind the door. A turian voice.

"Hey, Garrus," she said as the door slid open.

The turian was on his knees inspecting the underside of the control panel in the center of the room. He nearly jumped and hit his crested head on the console when he heard the quarian's soft voice. Tali couldn't help but grin at her flustered friend as he stood up to greet her. Garrus was still wearing his battle scarred armor and eyepiece that he had a strange attachment to. Truthfully, she had never seen him without it. Even when they first met back on the Citadel all those years ago, he was wearing it. She had begun to doubt if she'd even recognize him if he took it off.

"Hey Tali," he said with a tired sigh. Garrus looked her up and down, stopping at the crudely sealed puncture holes in the side of her suit. Tali, aware of where he was now looking, tried to hide them by holding her arm tightly to her side. "How are your injuries? I heard Adams had to knock you out just to get you back to medbay."

"He didn't knock me out! I was just... a little tired," she grumbled. "And my injuries are fine. Chakwas gave me more antibiotics and I'm feeling much better." Tali couldn't help but get somewhat annoyed by everyone constantly questioning her health, but she at least got solace in knowing that they cared. Yes, she was a quarian, and any injury a quarian receives in battle could be life threatening. But Tali was tough and wasn't about to let an infection take her down. After all she had been through, that would be insulting.

"If you say so." Garrus too was unconvinced. "I take it you are over here talking to me because Chakwas refuses to let you go back to engineering?"

She blushed faintly behind her mask. "Is it that hard to believe I want to have a chat with my friend?" Tali posited back to him.

"I suppose not," he shrugged, turning and walking back toward the wall opposite to Tali before leaning his back against it. Turian facial expressions could be notoriously difficult to read for non turians, but Tali could see the fatigue in his body language. He hadn't gotten much sleep either, but he didn't have the excuse of an injury to take a break. Not that he would take one even if offered, she figured.

"How about you, Garrus? Feeling alright?"

Garrus shrugged. "Could be worse, all things considered. Wish I knew who ransacked my computer though," he said, gesturing a thumb toward his now empty shell of a console. Many of its inner parts had been ripped out, leaving nothing but a screen and a few loose circuit boards.

"Well, whoever it was, I'm sure they had a good reason to. Besides, is now really the time to be running targeting sims?" she asked slyly.

Garrus chuckled softly. "I know you all like to joke about how often I run my calibrations, but this thing could do more than just run targeting sims. I could send emails, look at star charts, open vid comms. And yes, even browse the extranet or watch a vid or two if I got bored. It was a very versatile little machine. That is, until somebody gutted it."

Tali smiled. Shepard loved to poke fun at Garrus for all the time he spent working on the guns in the main battery. She couldn't help but try to take a stab at it as well.

Garrus laid his head back and silently stared up at the bulkhead above him. Squinting as he worked something out in his head.

"47…" he said, after a long period of silence.

"47?" Tali repeated, confused.

"That's how many husks I killed in London," replied Garrus.

Tali was instantly reminded of her little wager she had made with Garrus the night before the attack. Both betting a bottle of turian brandy on who would kill the most husks.

"How many did you get?"

"Oh… uh" Tali scrambled to think of a number. "I don't know… I lost count at around... 50."

Garrus shook his head and laughed. "You really expect me to believe that? I was watching you while we were down there. I know you couldn't have gotten more than 20."

"Do you always watch me when we are out on a mission, Garrus?" she asked playfully.

"Well, someones got to make sure you stay in one piece. Hate seeing that pretty suit of yours get torn up."

"If that were true, then how come you always seem to let husks run up to me?"

"I figured you needed the practice. Wouldn't want you to get rusty with that shotgun of yours."

Tali laughed softly while rolling her eyes at him.

"I'll take that bottle of brandy you owe me now. Could go for a stiff drink," Garrus said, rolling his weary head around on his shoulders.

Tali shrugged, "If I find any, I'll be sure to save some for you."

"You'd better. Can't say how much of that stuff is still left in the galaxy at this point."

Tali looked down and shook her head in sad agreement. The Reapers had destroyed so much since their arrival. She wondered how many things they had taken for granted would be lost forever once this was all over. Her eyes eventually fell to the new patches in her suit, and she sighed remembering just how close she herself was to becoming lost as well.

"Garrus…"

"Yes?"

"I wanted to thank you."

He gave her a puzzled look. "For what?"

"Dragging me to back the Medbay when I was injured."

Garrus shook his head in rejection. "No thanks necessary, Tali. You know I would've done it even if Shepard hadn't asked. And I know you'd have done the same for me if the situation was reversed."

"I wouldn't count on it. With all the chocolate Dr. Michel has been giving you, I don't think I'd be able to lift you."

Garrus threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh. "You may be right about that! It's a shame I didn't save any of it. Would be good right about now."

"So... when are you going to let her off the hook, Garrus?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

"I've tried, but she's… determined. Might need to have Shepard go talk to her if he's-"

Garrus caught himself before he could finish the thought. He had almost forgotten everything that had happened these last few days.

Tali's smile evaporated.

She looked away from Garrus and around to the rest of the room, finally noticing the loose bulkheads and hanging wires that she missed when she had first entered the main battery. The relief she had gained talking to her friend slowly melted as she took it all in.

"Garrus?" she said, quietly turning back the turian. "Do you think he's alright?"

Garrus' mandibles twitched. It was a question he hoped no one would ask of him. Or one that he would ever have to answer. Part of him really wanted to believe that Shepard was alive. After all, the man had survived Mindior, Akuze, and the battle against Sovereign at the Citadel. Shepard did die to the Collectors, only to eventually come back to life two years later and obliterate them all in return.

But the Reapers.

They were something far worse than all those combined, and Garrus feared that Shepard's luck may have finally run out.

"Spirits, I hope so, Tali," he finally breathed.

That was not the answer she was hoping to hear. In truth, she wasn't really sure that anything anyone said would alleviate the fear that gnawed at her. She just wanted to go. To get this ship running again so that she could go back to Earth. She cursed herself for getting injured, for getting sick, but most of all for not being able to fix the Normandy.

Solemnly, she walked over to where Garrus was standing, leaned her back against the wall beside him and sat down pulling her knees to her chest. Garrus, while he couldn't see her face, could feel the misery emanating from her. Gently sitting down beside her, he reached a hand around her shoulders and drew her close.

As Tali laid her head against his chest and closed her eyes, Garrus took a deep breath and sighed "Spirits, I hope so…"