Trigger Warning: Mentions of drugs and overdosing.
Javik walked the Alliance yards, watching the marines train as they all looked at him with odd reactions of their own. He was still a sight to behold. Not many had seen him in person, only vids regarded the Normandy and its crew. Javik was too busy to care, he was heading towards Liara's office.
The comm buoys had brought the Shadow Broker back, she was using her contacts to help those stuck around the galaxy. Nearly a third of her agents were dead or MIA, she'd hoped more would have made it out alive but she had to make do with who she had.
Feron was alive, currently stuck on Thessia after she'd sent him there to get more information on the Prothean beacon found there. He'd be waiting it out there until the Normandy was due to go for their trip to different worlds. Thessia was the first on the list to go, being the closest to being stable enough to visit.
Javik knocks on the glass office door, she looks up from her metallic black, glass desk. Waving him inside. "Javik, it's good to see you. Do you need something?" she asks typing on her terminal at the same time.
Javik walked in, looking at the stale artwork on the wall and left side wall just filled with terminals, datapads and paperwork. "Yes, I came to speak with you." Liara stopped the typing, looking at him with narrowed brows. "Are you too busy?" he grumbles as he sits down across from her.
"No, just... I know I've avoided you since we returned to Earth. I didn't mean to... the Shadow Broker takes up a lot of my time," she explains as she sends out a 'don't disturb' to her agents and shuts the terminal down. "I'm all yours, what's up."
Javik narrows his four eyes at her, she seemed at peace with her role being filled again. Did that have room for him as well? "Before, on the ship. We became... close. That has now stopped and it's confused me," he calmly says.
Liara nods, understanding she'd completely ghosted him when they were trying something new together. "I know, I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you or confuse you. I want this with you... but we are so different."
"In what ways?" Liara stands up, walking around the desk to stand in front of him. She looks almost too upset to tell him.
"I know about what you said to Shepard before the final push to the Crucible beam. You were ready to kill yourself once your purpose was complete." Javik quickly shakes his head, standing up to fight his corner on that subject.
"I did mean it... once. Not anymore, you changed that. The crew have changed that, your cycle is much different than I first thought. It would be too sad to give up when we fought hard to get here now." Liara felt her eyes well up, she was confused herself. She'd only ever treasured two others before, Shepard and Feron. Neither relationship took off as she wanted, Javik was the only one that actually understood her for who she was. "Can this work, you are a powerful woman now. Do you have time for us?"
"I want to Javik, I really do," Liara says as a tear falls down her cheek. They heated up to a darker shade of blue as Javik places his warm hand on it. "I don't want to stop you from accomplishing your own goals as well."
Javik almost chuckles at her, "I have no goals, Liara. You are the only person keeping me here right now."
"Really?" she sniffles. Javik nods, pulling her cheek with his hand as she leans into him. Their lips finally touched after months of walking around eggshells with each other.
Javik had never kissed another species, he never expected the sensation to be near the same as kissing his own kind. Liara's lips were much bigger than his but just as warm. Liara lays her hands carefully on his chest, moaning slightly as he deepens the kiss, his sweet taste and scent of his antiseptic water. Javik really was something else to her, but she was very much attracted to him.
They both finally pull away, foreheads leaning on each other. "Wow," Liara breathes. Javik only offers a deep chuckle. "Then I guess, with that argument you gave. We can see how this would work."
"Nothing would make me happier," he says, pulling her in to hold her head into his chest. He smiled as she wiggled against the sound of his heart, it would be a fun and enlightening experience for them both.
Miranda knocked on Gemma's door for the fourth time that day. She'd not left her room in nearly four days and would only open it to get the food left outside her door. They tried breaking it down more than once but Gemma's biotics had put a permanent barrier around the door, making it impossible to break into.
Today was the only day that it finally dropped, but they didn't want to just barge in. The fear she'd do it again was too strong for them to try. "Please, Gemma. Open up," she begged as she knocked again. Shepard had finally rounded the corner, Kaidan in tow with her.
"What's happening?" Shepard asks as they stop by the door.
Miranda looks at the door before answering. "The biotic barrier has finally dropped, but she won't open the door." Kaidan moves Miranda out of the way, pressing his eyes against it to try to hear in, but it was dead silent in there.
"When did someone last check on her?" Miranda couldn't answer. She hadn't seen Gemma for a few days prior, concentrating on helping the scientist rebuild Shepard's cybernetics. She knew the Lazarus Project better than anyone. "And you didn't think to break the door down?!" he shouts as he lines his shoulder up against it, before ramming it into the door.
"We didn't want to scare her into putting the barrier back up," Miranda argued. Kaidan ignored her, pushing hard into the door, then completely backing away to kick it in. The hinges snapped and the door came clean off its brackets. He pokes his head through, seeing Gemma barely lying on the bed, her legs and right arm dangled off it.
"Gemma?" he shouts, rushing over and placing his hands on her chest and neck. "She's so warm," he yells as Miranda calls for the doctors to come with the stretcher. Kaidan checks her pulse, "she's barely breathing. What the hell happened!" he orders as he scopes her into his arms and rushes out of the room.
Gemma's body was struggling, her skin had a yellow tinge to it and she stank of alcohol and body. The doctors met them down the hall, Kaidan placing her on the stretcher as they all rushed to the hospital. The doctors were shouting orders between them all, they checked her eyes. Both her eyes were dilated to hell.
"She has overdosed on something, we need to know what!" The doctor shouts between them all. Shepard and Miranda stopped, turning back around to rush to her room.
"You go, Kaidan. We will find what she took," Shepard shouts as they rounded the corner and went out of sight. Kaidan could only grunt in response, his emotions were flying through the roof as it was. They got into the hospital room, being close by to their quarters.
"Get some fluids in her now!" the nurse shouts as another grabs the needle and forces it into Gemma's hand. Two I.V drops were set up and a bag of fluids that her body practically guzzled through the cylinder.
"Her liver is barely functioning!" the doctor informs them all as he looks at her body with the scans from his omni-tool. "She is also Jaundice, I believe this is alcohol poisoning."
"Can you save her?" Kaidan asks as they all rush around him. He tries his best just to hold Gemma's hand. The doctors started to push him out of the room, needing to get on with the surgery.
"We will do all we can, we must pump her stomach." The doctors already knew she was struggling enough when her biotics weren't reacting to the chaos around her. The door slid shut in his face and windows tinted black made it impossible to see inside. Kaidan can only stumble over to the chairs across the waiting room, feeling the weight bare down heavily on him.
It had been three hours, Kaidan had fallen asleep in the chair, the tears still stained to his face. Shepard and Miranda had returned not long after him being kicked out of the room. They found the bottle of Filoxtin, the whole thing was empty, along with six bottles of whiskey and two bottles of vodka. Gemma had completely destroyed her liver and kidneys.
The whole crew had found out and when Kaidan finally opened his eyes, he almost had a heart attack when he saw them all surrounding him. "Kaidan?" Garrus asks with worry.
"Hey, you all came?" Everyone sat down. Even Thane was there, though he sat in a wheelchair, Kolyat at his side.
"Of course we did," Tali says with some annoyance that he'd question if they'd all come. "Gemma is a part of this family, we miss her just as much as you do." Joker was sat next to Wrex, he was still struggling with the loss of Edi, but he'd be there for Kaidan or any of the crew when they needed him.
Javik sat on the small couch with Liara, she'd fallen asleep and was leaning on his shoulder. He decides to only wake her when they need to. "What's the news?" Kadian asks as he rubs his eyes. He was shattered, physically and mentally.
"We gave the drugs she'd taken to the doctors. She is still in surgery, they can't even think how she is still alive she's done that much damage," Shepard explains from her seat next to Garrus. Cortez was there as well, sitting between Kaidan and Vega. He'd done nearly the same, finding comfort in alcohol when his husband died. But he got help before it went this far.
"How did this happen?" he asks Miranda. She can only look back at him with the same face of the unknown. She really didn't know. She thought Gemma was turning a corner with her mental health, but she was wrong.
"I don't know," she replies. Kaidan stands up, the chair scraping against the ground.
"Bullshit, you were the only one who she'd let near. Where were you when she needed you?!" he asks as he bends down to face her. Miranda can only glare at him.
"I was saving your Commander!" she shouts in return. Liara woke up to the shouting, she wasn't at all surprised. It was a matter of time before someone snapped.
"Then you should have gotten one of us!"
"Who? The only one she remembers is Thane!" Miranda shouts, pointing at Thane. He only shakes his head in response, he then felt bad for being so sick he couldn't help his Siha.
"Don't drag my father into this," Kolyat hisses to her. Thane puts a hand on his forearm, claiming his son down.
"This isn't getting us anywhere!" Garrus shouts. Shepard felt deflated, she was tired from the constant depression and arguing between the whole crew.
"We fucking know that Garrus," Kaidan shouts at him. The doctor slamming the door shut caught their attention.
"Can I remind you this is a hospital and we have sick patients trying to rest! Are you Major Alenko?" he asks looking at Kaidan, being the only one who stood up. Kaidan nods, looking very apologetic, he really needed to sort his anger out. He never snapped this easily. "We have done what we can, she's stable for now, but her liver and kidneys are beyond repair. She will need them both replaced."
"Jesus Christ, what did she do to herself," Kaidan groans as he sinks into his seat. Miranda walked over to the doctor.
"I might be able to help. I know tissue regeneration, could we possibly give her stims that would give new growth and repair the damage?" It was a slim chance at working. Only Krogans were known to have any really good results from it, though it worked wonders on Shepard.
"I... I am not sure. We have never tested it on someone with this amount of organ damage." The doctor did some typing on his datapad, looking at the work Miranda sent over from the Lazarus Project. "We could try, we need to run some tests and she may need cybernetics. Her biotics are very unstable at the moment as well."
"In what terms?" Shepard asks.
"It seemed she was using her biotics for a long period of time. The barrier you mentioned... She kept it functioning for a good couple of days. Her implants have suffered heavily because of it." Kaidan drops his head into his hands, another implant fried.
"Fuck," Wrex hisses. They didn't have any newer implants than the ones Gemma already had.
"We could try fresh ones of the same type, or new cybernetics might help handle the eezo output." Miranda nods, it was doable with the money and technology. She needed to do some research and work to see what the outcome might be.
"Give me a few hours and I will come back to you with my proposed ideas?" The doctor nods, giving his goodbyes and leaving them all in the waiting room. "Kaidan, I will do what I can for her."
Kaidan looks at her, now feeling like an asshole. "Thanks, Miranda. I'm sorry for snapping." He stands up, "I just need to be with her for a bit, thanks for coming guys," he shuffles to Gemma's room, closing the door quietly behind him.
"We have only three weeks to sort Gemma and Kaidan out before we leave for this expedition," Cortez informs them all. They had very little time to sort them both out, the Alliance will want answers soon on what really happened on the Crucible. Hackett was already breathing down Shepard's neck about Anderson.
"Just give them time," Joker says as he is the first to leave. The depression stretched between them all, it was a hard time for the crew. But with time, wounds would heal.