Shepard

She watched him as he removed the handcuffs and left, the door turning red so she guessed he locked it. She looked down at her splinted leg. Well she wasn't going anywhere, that was her only stimulate and once it wore off she wouldn't be able to stand at all. She sure didn't look forward to when it wore off, having a broken leg with no form of painkillers, she'd done it before and it was hell. She moved so she was lying down on the bed and tried to get comfortable, but it was stiff as a bored. Since there wasn't anything else to do she let her mind wander to her crew, hoping they were all alright, at the very least she hoped they were all alive.

She didn't know how long she laid there, she had fallen asleep at one point, and as far as she knew the creature hadn't come back. The roof of her mouth and tongue felt so dry it took several seconds for her to work the moisture back into her mouth. She looked over at what she assumed was a digital clock on the wall, but the symbols were alien to her, literally. Damn her throat was still dry, and she was hungry, a cigarette would be welcome too, not to mention painkillers for her leg. Why she was at making a list she also wish she could get a shower, she was still covered in grime from the ship wreck. She also had to pee. A quick look around the room confirmed that there wasn't a bathroom and she groaned and forced herself up. She moved her broken leg off the bed and tried to stand up, but her leg wouldn't hold her and she fell with a cry.

Tears welled up in her eyes and she clutched her leg, trying to hold in her scream. The door opened and she jumped. The creature looked down at her and sighed, moving to pick her up. "I have to pee." she told it.

It looked at her curiously, trying to figure out what she was saying.

"Argh… how do I…" she said and tried to think of how she could explain this without words. "I have to go to the bathroom." she said and pointed to her groin.

It looked to where she was pointing and after a moment it took her out of the room and to another one across the hall, to her relief it had a toilet, at least that was the same thing. It set her down, supporting most of her weight as it was clear to both of them she couldn't stand. She undid her pants and with its help sat down on the toilet. It let her go and turned around politely. "Thanks." she said and started to go. Once she was done she tapped it and it turned back around. She pointed to the shower beside the toilet and it nodded and started to take its armor off. Yeah she would still need its help, but it was the only way she was going to get clean.

It removed the top half of its armor and then pulled off its gloves, revealing sharp talons. She shivered at the sight of them and it held out its hand for her to see. She took it and looked the claws over. It gripped her hand, careful of the claws and she nodded in understanding. It wouldn't hurt her. It continued to strip down, carefully stacking its armor off to the side, until it was down to only a pair of under armor pants.

She looked at it, all the plates and the raised ridge around its shoulders. "So… I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and say you are a guy." she said and he just stared at her. "Because you go topless, but kept your pants." she explained even though he couldn't understand her.

He chirped something, his mandibles flaring slightly.

She smiled back at him in reflex before pulling her pants down her legs, needing some help getting them off over the splint, then pulled her shirt off, then her bra, leaving her completely bare. She should be more embarrassed than she was, but she had been showering in front of crowds for years, being in the military meant little privacy sometimes. He helped her up and moved them over to the shower and he turned the water on. She leaned back against him and let the hot water pour down her front. She looked up at him and found him staring at her and she covered her chest with her arms. He looked away quickly and she went back to scrubbing away the grime with her hands.

He turned off the water when it ran cold and helped her dry off with a rough towel. Her clothes needed washing and he seemed to understand that too because after dropping her off into her room he left and came back with one of his under armor shirts and pants. He helped her put it on and it was big, but at least it was clean.

Once she was dressed he just stared at her, one of his hands brushing against her hair, letting the wet strands through his fingers. She watched him just as carefully. He let her hair fall and pointed to himself. "Nihlussss," he said slowly.

"Nihlus…" she repeated and he nodded. "Your name is Nihlus? Or your species… We'll go with name." She pointed to herself like he had. "Shepard." she told him.

"Shay-pur?" he said and she shook her head.

"Shep" she said to break it down.

"Shep," he repeated.

"Ard, Shepard."

"Ard… Shepard." When she nodded he smiled.

"Can I have some water?" she asked and then remembered he couldn't understand her, but she had an idea and squeezed her hair and collected a bit of water in her head. "Water." she said and pointed at it and then made a motion like she was drinking from a glass.

He stared at her for a bit before he left and came back with a cup of water, well it was kind of a glass, it had a weird top, probably for his lipless mouth. She took it though and drank it with spilling as little as possible.

"Water," he repeated and she smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile back. Maybe if they could learn to understand each other she could find out what happened to her crew. She hoped they were alright.

Nihlus

He had just gotten up on the second day after his strange guest joined him when he heard it cry. He quickly went to the door and opened it to find it on the floor. He sighed and picked it up, and to his surprise it didn't flinch, instead it spoke. Its language was a lot harsher than turian, but it had a strange appeal to it, he liked it. However, he blinked at it when it pointed to its groin and after a moment he thought he might know what it wanted and took it to the bathroom. He set it down, careful to keep a tight grip on it so it wouldn't put weight on its hurt leg again. To his relief it started to undo its pants and he helped it sit down on the toilet, then turned around to try and give what he now was pretty sure was a female some privacy. He had guessed it was a girl before, because of the chest being similar to asari, but now he was sure as the glimpse he caught showed that she had very similar parts to a turian female.

She said something before he heard the sound of water hitting water in a stream. Once it stopped he felt her tap his elbow. He turned back around and she pointed at the shower. He nodded, yeah if he had been in a ship wreck like that he would want a shower too. So he started to take off his armor. He undid the clasps keeping his armor together and stacked it in the corner, but when he got to his gloved and took them off he saw her shiver. He held his hand out for her to see, trying to show her that he wasn't going to hurt her. She turned his hand this way and that and he moved to grip her hand, careful of his claws like any good turian was, and when she gave a nod he took his hand away and continued to strip.

He left his under armor pants on, not wanting to freak her out again. She just sat there and stared at him and he let her, he had nothing to hide, a lot of women thought he was attractive with his dark plates and his built body, so being stared at was a common thing. It also didn't help that he was a Spectre, which tended to have the ladies flock.

Her speech brought him out of his conceded thoughts, but she didn't make any gestures to give him any hints as to what she said. "Oh sure, sit there and stare at me and don't even give me a hint if you like what you see." he teased with a smile and she smiled back, her lips turning up and revealing a few white teeth.

Then she started to strip and he couldn't help but watch, more out of curiosity than anything perverted. He helped her get the pants off past her splint, afraid that she would hurt herself. Her body was covered in the pale pink flesh; it made her look so exposed. Now that he could see everything he made several comparisons between her and an asari, but before she could realize he was staring he helped her up and practically carried her into the shower part of the bathroom and turned the water on warm for him, not wanting to burn her tender pink flesh. She sighed and leaned back against him and he shifted to keep her up, looking down at her as the water made trails past her breasts. They looked like asari, even had the little raised centers, which meant they nursed their young so this was definitely a female. Her arms moved in front of her chest and he looked back at her face and gave her an apologetic chirp, but it was clear she didn't hear it, and he turned his head away. So their hearing range wasn't as broad as turians. He would have to write all his down on his datapad later.

He wished he had some soap or something she could use, but he only had his and it would scratch up her skin. He sighed went the water went cold and hoped she was clean as he turned off the water.

"You need clean clothes…" he muttered as he helped her dry off with a towel and then carried her back to the bedroom. "I might have something that wouldn't be too big on you." he muttered to himself and went into his room across the hall and a door down. He shifted through his wardrobe until he found his smallest pair of pants and shirt. They would still be big on her, but at least they were clean. What creature managed to dominate their planet covered in no natural defense or weapon and nowhere near six foot was beyond him. This girl was probably barely five and a half feet.

He was right, the clothes were way too baggy on her, but he rolled up the pants so she wouldn't be walking on it and then stood back to look at her, barely containing his laughter at how cute she looked. He reached forward and ran his fingers through the interesting cowl on her head, now soaked with water. It was so interesting, before the shower it had been so light and individual strands, but wet it was heavy and clumped together.

He left the dark red clumps fall and pointed to himself. "Nihlus." he said slowly.

"Nihlus…" she repeated and he nodded. "Jksl idof wk Nihlus? Tl jksl gkwlei… Gkwl oa dkls idof" At least she understood that his name was Nihlus, the rest of what she said was gibberish to him.

She pointed to herself, "Shepard." she said and he tried to mimic the sounds, but obviously didn't get it right so she slowed it down into two parts. When he got it right she smiled and nodded.

"Alg w algk dlgw algki?" she asked and he just stared at her until she squeezed her cowl and held out her palm now covered in water. "Algki." she repeated and made a motion like she was drinking something.

He stared at her before he left into the mess and got a glass of water, wondering if she could even use the kind of cup. And also hoping she didn't ask for food, as he didn't know if she was levo or dextro in DNA and he didn't want her having a reaction to whatever he guessed.

"Algki," he repeated and she smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile back. Hopefully they could maintain this understanding until they reached the Citadel in a few days.

Shepard

Shepard groaned as her stomach let out a growl. She was starving. Going off of when she slept it had been three days since the shower and Nihlus still didn't give her anything to eat. And her leg was always burning up and throbbing, but she was too weak to sit up and take a look at it. She just wanted food, she had tried to tell Nihlus, but he always shook his head when she tried to act out eating something. Why would he put so much effort into saving her just to let her starve to death.

The door opened and she turned her head to look at it. "Food…" she muttered weakly and he sighed and shook his head sadly, saying something in his language and went over to her with a cup of water. He held her head up and helped her drink it. "Why won't you give me food…?" she asked and put a hand on her stomach as it let out another growl.

He looked down at her sadly before messing with her broken leg, making her cry out in pain. She tried to cringe away from his touch, but her leg wouldn't move. He kept touching it, examining it up and down. Then he got up and left.

She watched him leave and let out a weak sob and wiped the cold sweat off her forehead, slowly drifting off into sleep.

Nihlus

He coaxed his ship to go just a bit faster, pushing it to its limits to get them to the Citadel, but it was still about two days away. He slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair. They would be there if he hadn't had to go so far out of the way to refuel. That was his bad, he thought that he would have enough to make it there, and when it was clear they didn't he had to backtrack half a day's flight to the nearest fuel station.

He turned to look down the hall with the sleeping quarters and got up to give her some water. He filled the cup and stared at it for a minute. If they didn't get there soon she would either starve or die from her leg. It had gotten infected and he didn't know what to do to treat it. It was beat red in tendrils all the way up to her thigh and where the break was had a sickly puss green color to it. Her body temperature was also steadily rising. He sighed. Hopefully she could hang on a few more days.

He went into the room and looked sadly at her. She was obviously very ill, it broke his heart to see her like this, so defenseless. She muttered a word to him and he recognized it as the word that meant food and he shook his head. She had been asking him that for days, but he couldn't risk her having a reaction in her state.

"I can't… If I give you the wrong kind you could die." he said, wishing she could understand.

He moved to sit beside her and held her up so she could drink and after he set her back down she said something to him, he wasn't sure what exactly, but he heard the word for food again and shook his head. He moved to check on her leg, letting out a low apologetic coo when she cried. The red was slowly working its way up her leg and was worrying him. The green had also gotten worse and was getting bigger. It clearly needed to be drained. His mandibles twitched in thought before he left.

He sat in the kitchen with a scalpel from his small med-bay and tried to convince himself that he needed to do this for her own good. More importantly he needed to find a way to convince her that it was for her own good, he didn't want her freaking out if he came at her with the scalpel. He gritted his teeth as he grabbed a few towels and a bowl of water and went back into the room.

She was sleeping so he handcuffed her hands to the headboard and sat on her uninjured leg. Hopefully that would keep her still if he did freak her out. He put one of the towels under her leg and then moved the scalpel to the discolored green area. "Sorry," he said before he cut into the flesh.

He felt her jolt awake, but he was too busy wiping up the foul smelling puss that poured out of the wound to look at her. He dipped a rag in the water and wrung it out over the cut to wash away what he could, then pressed down on the raised green flesh around the break.

She screamed in pain and thrashed against the binds, but he kept the pressure on, forcing more of the puss and blood out of the wound. The smell alone made his stomach churn, but the sight was just as horrible, a puss that varied from an orange liquid to thick clumps of yellow and everything in-between.

"It'll make it feel better," he tried to sooth her, his sub-harmonics sending out a constant low coo in apology for hurting her. Why he had such a soft spot for this girl he had no idea.

He soaked the rag again and wrung the water out over the wound and wiped away the puss, then repeated it, turning the water a rancid orange color. She didn't scream again as he worked, but whenever he touched it she would whimper and he would coo. Once only blood would come up he wrapped it up in a gauze and gave her an apologetic look, but she had fallen back asleep. He sighed and brushed her fringe out of her face. "Hang on…" he pleaded and left the room.

A/N: This chapter is a lot longer than the last, and it is still a short chapter for me. Once things get moving a bit more they will grow in length. I would like to thank you guys for the good feedback and I had someone tell me the name of the fanfic that inspired this. It is called "The Final Frontier" by jambajunkie. You guys should go read it. Anyways review please, I love seeing if you guys are liking it, what I can improve on, ect.