Sin Complicaciones

Shepard knocked on the door to the hospital room and then glanced over her shoulder again. Being on the Citadel put her on edge, pushing her to hypervigilance which left her nerves raw and exposed. The amalgamation writhed, her thinking roiled by their whispers about the Intelligence and their fears of being watched by the malicious AI. It made it increasingly difficult for her to maintain control—as if the memories of waking up to assailants in her bedroom and seeing James torn to shreds wasn't enough to make her uneasy. At least his hospital room remained under guard.

The door slid open, seemingly of its own accord.

"Shepard!" The excitement in Kasumi's disembodied voice carried hope and promises of James' recovery.

Shepard smiled at the slight distortion standing in the doorway, tension easing between her shoulder blades. "Hey, Kasumi." She stepped over the threshold. "How is he?"

"Ídola? That you?" James called from somewhere deeper into the room. "Scars with you, too?"

Garrus chuckled and started down the hall, leading her by the hand. "Still laying around in bed, Vega?"

Moving slowly—but all on his own—James rounded the corner. "C'mon, Scars. You know it's going to take more than this to keep me down." He gestured at the scabbed over talon marks slicing through his face and smirked.

"He must've refused the stem cell therapy treatments." Jane studied the rough, still-healing wounds leaving behind very definitive scars. "Either the scars don't bother him, or …."

"Or," Shepard thought, "he isn't willing to take the extra downtime the treatments would require."

Jane hummed. "Exactly."

Something brushed against Shepard's arm and a moment later, Kasumi's tactical cloak dropped. Kasumi stood next to James, wrapping an arm around the small of his back as if she intended to support some of his massive weight on her tiny frame.

Instead, James stood straighter. His expression slipped into a stoic mask, and he brought his hand to his forehead in salute. "Commander."

"Lieutenant." Shepard smiled and returned the gesture. "How're you doing? You look a lot better."

"The doctors say I'm healing just fine. Sin complicaciones." He gestured behind him into the hospital room. "You wanna sit?"

"Sure," she said with a nod; it was likely the only way he'd sit back down himself.

She watched his movements, stiff and measured, as she followed him. She didn't doubt he was getting better, but she read the pain behind his mask as clearly as a predator stalking wounded prey. Brushing aside the odd, disturbingly morbid thought, she attributed it to the amalgamation and sat down in a chair near his bed.

Garrus hummed, meeting Shepard's gaze when she looked at him, and she knew he'd picked up on the same telltale signs of an easy target. Probably even more she didn't notice. She pressed her lips into a tight line and gave him a little nod. He pulled a chair closer to hers and took a seat, reaching across the space between them to take her hand.

"Captain Toni came to visit a couple of days ago," James said, easing himself onto his bed, but he perched on the edge instead of laying back. "He offered to have me re-stationed somewhere low-key and quiet so I can rest, at least until the reapers arrive." He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, wincing a little with the gesture. "I told him I want to stay with you."

"What'd he say?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

"He said if you're still willing to sign off on it, I'm yours until I'm needed elsewhere." He watched her with a set jaw, determination burning in his eyes. "So I told him when the reapers get here, if you want me on your team, then there's nowhere else I could possibly make more of a difference, and that's where I intend to be."

"'Atta boy, James." Jane chuckled. "John likes that one, too."

Shepard smiled. "I can't imagine it any other way."

"Me neither, Ídola, but the captain didn't make any promises. If I have to, I'll resign." He shifted his weight, pulling himself further onto the bed. "But maybe if you talk to him, or Anderson …."

"I'll see what I can do." She nodded and studied the talon scars across his face. "Don't worry, James. I'm not letting you go without a fight."

Shepard shifted her weight, leaning forward and gripping the back of the chair situated in front of Anderson's desk. "I want to put Vega's name forward as a Spectre candidate."

"Lieutenant Vega?" Anderson's brows raised, and he cocked his head before humming and nodding. "Alright, I'm listening. Convince me, Shepard."

"His career trajectory changed the moment I came into his life. Fhel Prime would've gone completely different if I hadn't interfered. He would've been recommended for the N7 program for his actions during the collector invasion … and either Kaidan or Ashley would be the next human Spectre." She stood up straight again, squaring her shoulders and lifting her chin as she fell into parade rest. "I can't give them back their lives, but I can give James this. N7 is great, but we need another Spectre right now. I think he's more than proven himself. Fhel Prime, the Council Four, working with me, and … protecting me."

"Do you think he can handle that much power and independence, though?" Jane made a fair point—Vega wasn't the most mature and he definitely had a reckless streak. "He's different with you, but not so much that he won't find trouble without even trying."

"We find trouble without even trying," Shepard thought, giving Jane a mental scoff. "He won't be operating on his own, anyway. He'll be with us, at least through the war. I think he can handle it, and he deserves the opportunity to try."

Anderson rubbed his hand over the growing stubble on his chin and jaw. "Have you spoken to him about this yet?"

"No." She shook her head and shrugged. "I wanted to talk to you, first. Get your thoughts on it, see if it's something the Council will even consider. I changed so much, Anderson. The only way I can be sure he'll be on my team is if the Alliance isn't a part of the equation. He wants to stay with me through the war, and I need him at my side, but Captain Toni seems to anticipate re-stationing James when the reapers arrive. James said he'd resign if that's what it takes."

"Mmm. I think you're right, he has proven himself." Anderson sighed and nodded. "I'll broach the topic with the others later." He stood and stepped away from his desk. "For now, we'd better call them and get this meeting over with."

Shepard stood on the Council's platform, Garrus at her right, Mordin at her left. Personally, she'd rather have Thane in Mordin's place, but it was good to have Mordin's support, too. He definitely carried more political clout. She was glad he'd insisted on staying with her since the krogan no longer needed his medical services. It was especially nice given she teetered on the brink of falling head-first into the abyss. The amalgamation kept an iron grip on her ankles, tugging her closer and closer to madness with each new person to press their way into the crowded room. She fought like hell to keep it together, to stay her and not them.

Scanning the crowd, she latched onto the familiar face of Emily Wong. The reporter grinned and waved, and Shepard returned the smile with a dip of her head. She thought focusing on Emily might help shut out all of the noise. Soothe the amalgamation a little. Things started to calm down as C-Sec worked their way through the crowds, slowly bringing a hush over the room.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Shepard steeled herself and began speaking, "Thank you for being here today. As I'm sure you've all heard, deep space scanners have picked up on what we believe to be reapers headed toward the Milky Way." She paused as a cloud of furious whispers rose up from the crowd and waited until it dissipated once again. "I know you're scared, and I'm not going to lie, you should be. The enemy we're about to face will be terrifying and will bring with it horrors beyond your worst nightmares."

When the crowd erupted into Chaos, Garrus leaned in and spoke directly into her ear, "Hmmm, I'm not sure this is what the Council had in mind when they asked you to make a statement."

She glanced at him and frowned, brow furrowing deeply. "Maybe not, but when have I ever done anything the way the Council wants?" Shaking her head, she added, "I'm not going to lie to these people. I'm not going to fill them with false bravado; it'll only leave them defenseless when the reapers arrive and they see it all for themselves."

"Hmm." He rumbled and nodded his head before standing straight again. "I'm with you, Commander. All the way."

"Everyone, please," she called out, turning her attention back to the masses, "we may not be able to avoid this war, it's atrocities, or the destruction it'll leave in its wake, but I promise you: We can defeat this enemy if we work together."

The crowd hushed, gazes filled with a mix of fear, doubt, and hope turning to Shepard. Tears rolled down more than a few cheeks, and all around, lovers clung to one another as if they might survive so long as they remained together.

"Now is not the time for interspecies conflicts. Old grudges need to die. Everyone needs to contribute everything they can to the effort. There can't be corporate tech secrets or resource hoarding. No price gouging to raise profit margins. We must go into this war united." They couldn't stress the point enough. They knew far too well just how much death and suffering was owed to everyone being too damn busy looking out for their own self-interests. "When the enemy arrives, they're not going to give a damn whether you're human, turian, salarian, or asari. They don't care if you're elcor or volus, hanar or drell. Batarian, krogan, they don't care." They sliced their hand through the air as they spoke, driving home the point. "The only thing they care about is harvesting every last one of us. We're in this together, so, we can't care about species, either. This is how we survive."

"Now you need to do your part." Shepard crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one hip.

"Our part?" Valern blinked and studied her in silence, his granite eyes unreadable.

"It's time for the Council to truly represent everyone in the galaxy." She glanced between the four councilors. "Send out a message inviting representatives from every species to join the Council. Acknowledge them as your equals and accept their right to be involved in galactic decision making regardless of their population or particular resources … including the geth."

"The geth?" Tevos scoffed and shook her head. "You can't be serious."

"She's always serious," Anderson said, giving her a proud smile, "and trust me, we want them fighting on our side."

"The geth, quarians, krogan, volus, elcor, hanar, drell, batarians, raloi, rachni, yahg, hell, even the leviathans if any of them will listen." Shepard ignored the dumbfounded looks on all of their faces, even Anderson's, and continued, "When I said we all need to work together, I meant it. We need to unite and show the reapers that this is our galaxy and we will not surrender."

"Great speech, Commander!" Kelly smiled brightly as Shepard stepped up to the galaxy map. "Where to now?"

"I need a decent cup of coffee." Shepard opened the galaxy map and began inputting the coordinate for Hagalaz.

"Should I—Oh! You mean we're going to see Grundan Krul." Kelly laughed and pushed a stray lock of hair out of her face. "Of course."

Glancing at the yeoman, Shepard smirked and finished setting the coordinates. "That we are."

"How is the lieutenant?" Kelly asked, moving a little closer to Shepard. She dropped her tone, lacing her words with concern. "I hope he's not in a lot of pain."

Stepping down from the galaxy map, Shepard leaned against the edge of the yeoman's workstation. "He looks a lot better, but yeah, he's still in some pain. He's going to have some pretty wicked scars, but he's up and moving around on his own. He's going slow, but he's going. Kasumi's with him, she's taking good care of him."

Kelly smiled, her shoulders dropping as she let out a soft sigh. "Oh, good. I'm glad he's not having to go through recovery alone. Will he be rejoining us once he's fully healed?"

"That's the plan." Shepard nodded but shrugged. "The Alliance might try to make it a temporary placement until the reapers arrive, but I'm working on that one, too."

"I'm sure you'll find a way to make it permanent." Kelly flicked her wrist, waving her hand through the air dismissively. "It must've been good to visit Kahje and see Thane again, too."

The naïveté of Kelley's statement did nothing to lessen the sting Shepard felt deep in her chest. It was good to see Thane again. Of course it was … leaving him was the problem. They missed him like crazy. He was such a calm, grounding influence for them, and so many of them loved him with all that they were. He didn't have much time left before Kepral's left him incapacitated … and then dead. And to think for even a second that he'd been exposed to indoctrination, that he might be used as a tool of the reapers against them—

Kelly reached out, grasping their elbow in her hand and stepping closer. "Commander? Are you alright?"

The world came crashing in around Shepard, every sound the roar of a thousand storms in her ears. Whole body trembling, heart beating furiously against her sternum, she swallowed and sucked in a slow, deep breath. She forced a smile and nodded. "Yeah, sorry. It's just been a long … well, everything. I think I'm going to get some shut-eye before we reach the Shadow Broker's base."

"Oh." Kelly dropped her hand back to her side before giving Shepard a gentle smile. "Okay. If you need anything, just have EDI let me know."

"I will," Shepard said, shifting toward the elevator, "I promise."

~69696969~

Garrus purred and pulled back the covers before waving Dawn over. "Come on," he said, "lay down and get some rest."

He still worried about her, constantly wondering when the next 'big fucking deal' would happen and send her spiraling out of control again. The increasingly common scent of fear and uncertainty wafting off of her at the strangest times left his head spinning. He couldn't help her, couldn't keep her safe from the thoughts inside her own head. And he hated it.

"What about you?" she asked, pulling her pants off and laying them over the arm of the couch. "You going to take a nap, too?"

"I'm not tired." He shook his head, knowing he couldn't sleep just then even if he wanted to. "But, I'll stay with you until you're asleep. Then, I think I'll do some calibrations down in the main battery." He hadn't really given more than a cursory glance at the weapons system since they took over the Normandy again.

She snorted and smirked, crawling onto the mattress. "You can take the man out of the calibrations, but you can't take the calibrations out of the man."

Chuffing, he shook his head and narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Nothing." Shifting, she laid down and tugged the covers up to her chest. She looked at him, the soft, adoring smile on her lips stealing his breath for a moment. "I love you, Garrus Vakarian."

Mandibles fluttering, he leaned over and pressed their foreheads together. "Well, that works out just perfect because I love you, too, Dawn Shepard."