"This is Spectre Nihlus requesting permission to land." he said over the com to the Citadel. He had pushed his ship and got gotten there in a day and a half, but Shepard was still getting worse.
"Welcome back Nihlus, the Council has told me to inform you that they wish to speak with you about your last mission." a voice responded after a second. "You have been cleared to land."
"Tell them I will as soon as I can, but I have something I need to attend to." he said and cut off the com before any rebuttal could be given. He docked his ship and then went to check on Shepard.
She was passed out on the bed, just like she had been the last time he checked on her a few hours ago, when he had forced her to drink some more water, but she got little of it in her state. "Hang on, you'll be better soon." he said and left.
He went straight to the hospital and went to the receptionist's desk. "Hello, how may I help you?" the asari asked politely.
He leaned on the counter and kept his voice low, didn't need everyone finding out he was bringing a new species onto the Citadel, too much havoc. "I need a doctor, your best doctor, to come back to my ship with me, I have someone who really needs medical attention." he said.
"Why not just bring him in? All of our medical equipment is here, we are not made for house calls." she said, suspicious.
He sighed, "She can't just come here… its complicated." She looked even warier. "Look, I'm a Spectre, if I could tell you what this was about I would, but it's… a delicate situation." he tried, but she didn't seem to be buying it.
"Sir, if you just bring your friend in we can treat her." she said and that was final.
He growled and left, going back to his ship and collecting Shepard up in his arms. If they weren't going to come back with him he'd take her to them, the council would have his head, but at least she would be alright. He bundled her up in a blanket, trying to conceal her and left his ship. The blanket didn't work as well as he hoped, right off the bat people saw him carrying something, someone, and they started whispering. He ignored them and made it to the elevator and hit the button for the floor the hospital was on.
"Nih…" she muttered weakly in his arms.
"It's going to be okay." he said and cradled her against him. "It'll be okay, Shepard, I'm going to get you help."
The elevator pinged and opened to let some other people heading down too on and he backed into the corner. It was a pair of salarians, and typical of their species their curiosity of what he was carrying got the better of them.
"Is that a body?" one asked and Nihlus glared at him.
"No, she is sick, I'm taking her to the hospital." he replied sharply.
The other one recognized him. "Wait, you're Nihlus, the Spectre."
He gave a short nod and both of their faces lit up.
"So is that another Spectre, did she get hurt in some heroic fight?" the first asked and moved aside the blanket to get a look at her, jumping back. "What the… what is that?" he asked frightened. The other one just stared at the strange pale creature with the red fringe.
"A very sick girl." Nihlus replied and shifted the blanket to cover her back up.
Both just stared at him as the elevator pinged for the hospital and he got off and started pushing his way through the crowds. When he finally made it he set Shepard down on a gurney and turned to the asari receptionist. "I brought her, now help her." he nearly demanded.
The woman called for a doctor and then got up to take a look at girl wrapped up out of sight. "What is the nature of her injur—what is that?" she shrieked as she pulled the blanket back.
Her tone caught the attention of everyone in the waiting room and they all started crowding to get a look at the new species. "She is sick, that is all that should matter." Nihlus snapped at the woman and tried to keep people back from her. "Damn it all," he cursed and grabbed the gurney and pushed it into the ER himself.
"Sir, you can't go back there!" the woman tried to reason.
"Spectre authority." he snapped back as the door swung shut behind him. He nearly ran into a salarian doctor. He knew this doctor. Mordin Solus. He remembered him from some talk awhile back about making him a Spectre, but the good doctor had denied, several times.
"Ah, Nihlus." he said and pulled the blanket aside to reveal Shepard, who was panting heavily and shivering despite the sweat collecting on her brow. "Figured it would be something big when heard you stopped by." He took the gurney from him and carted her into the ER.
Nihlus kept pace with him. "I found her on a wrecked ship, she has a broken leg, red tendrils have been making their way up her leg by several inches a day and it's getting faster, it's already up to her stomach. There was also a green color to the break so I drained several pounds of puss from it that varied from orange liquid to yellow clumps." he said quickly, relaying all the information he could.
"Thank you. Will take it from here." Mordin said before other doctors stopped him at the entrance to the surgery room.
Nihlus stared at the door for several long seconds before he turned. "I want to be notified when she leaves the ER." he said before heading to the council, preparing himself to be chewed out for creating such a ruckus.
TdC
"We expect more rational action from you, Nihlus." the turian councilmen, Councilor Velarn lectured him. How he hated to be lectured by other turians. He was never a very good turian, but what "good turian" would ever want to become a Spectre? Turians were all about following the rules of those above you, Spectres were all about saying fuck you to the rules and getting the job done, which is what he did when he brought Shepard to the hospital. "You brought an unknown species onto the Citadel. It could be hostile, it could be infected."
"I have had Shepard on my ship for nearly a week and I am not ill, and she understands that we are trying to help her. She is scared, but not hostile." Nihlus defended.
"Shepard? She? You can't even understand it, how can you possible know its name or gender?" the salarian councilor piped in, Nihlus never could remember his name.
"She told me her name… or it might be her species… She pointed to herself and said Shepard, at any rate it is something to refer to her by." The salarian went to say something again and Nihlus cut him off. "And calling her a female is more of a guess. I've had to help her bath and her anatomy is similar to that of a female turian and a female asari." His omni-tool beeped and he rudely looked at the message. "She is out of surgery, I'm going to make sure I'm there when she wakes up." he said and the Councilor Verlarn went to speak, but again Nihlus cut him off. His patience for dealing with them was wearing down. "If she is hostile it would be best for the one familiar face she knows to be there." and with that he left.
Shepard
She groaned as something kept shifting her back, pulling her out of her sweet drug induced slumber. It was great to feel them going through her system, numbing the throb in her leg and the constant itching to have her lungs be filled with nicotine. Whatever kept shifting her needed to stop. She cracked her eye open and was blinded by all the bright white lights. She drew in a deep breath as the pain in her body returned, the drugs not strong enough to numb her aware mind. A blue face looked up at her shocked. She had a moment of relief that it was human, that the strange creature that she had spent the last week with was a strange dream, that she was home, safe on Earth. And then everything fully came into focus and it was clear this thing wasn't human. She jumped away from the strange blue hands on her and fell off the bed. She let out a cry as her leg jolted. It was wrapped up in a clean white cast. She ripped the needle out of her arm and held it in front of her at the blue creature, murder in her eyes.
The alien backed out of the room, but the relief was short lived as it came back with a familiar toothy face behind it. Nihlus quickly took the needle away from her, it having no effect on the thick armor he always seemed to wear. He picked her up and set her down on the bed and kept a firm grip on her shaking shoulder. The two aliens had a conversation and then the blue one left.
"Nihlus…" she said quietly. "What the fuck is going on."
He looked down at her and stroked her hair, chirping something at her. Another alien came in, a different looking one this time, short and thin with a slight hunch, it reminded her of salamanders. Nihlus looked at him before leaving and stepping outside of the room. And now she was alone in the all white room. Well damn it all if she was just going to sit here. She stood, using the bed as support so she wouldn't have to use her broken leg, and hobbled over to the door, looking out the window to see Nihlus standing next to the salamander and looking over a handheld screen with symbols scrolling past it. The blue alien came back with a tray of food and went to open the door, jumping as she saw Shepard's face pressed up against it. Nihlus turned and it looked like he laughed. He handed the handheld screen back to the salamander and opened the door, catching Shepard as she almost fell. Then he picked her up and carried her back to the bed. The blue one put the tray of food on a table beside the bed and moved it so it was over Shepard. She swallowed at the sight of the food and, despite it all looking horribly un-tasty, tore into it, just enjoying having something into her stomach.
"Levo?" she heard Nihlus ask the blue one and it nodded. He nodded and moved to sit beside the bed again.
Nihlus didn't leave her side for very long all day, which Shepard was grateful for. She knew that Nihlus wouldn't hurt her, if he wanted to he would have already done so, he had plenty of opportunities, but she didn't know what to say about the others. The salamander, Mordin as Nihlus had told her, talked really fast and it hurt her head to try and keep up with anything he said, she wasn't even sure if there were words in there, his speech didn't sound anything like Nihlus'. The blue girl was her nurse from what she had gathered, but the poor girl wouldn't go near her without Nihlus there, she must have really scared her.
When the lights finally went off in the hospital she looked to Nihlus, whose markings and eyes were the only thing visible in the dark. "Please stay…" she asked pathetically. He seemed to understand before he nodded and held her hand until the drugs kicked in and she fell asleep. It was actually a cool system. If her heart rate got to high it would give her a dose of the medicine, as well as giving her regular doses throughout the day. The dose that followed the lights going out was a larger one than the others and she felt it numb her pain and sent the darkness crawling at her vision until she was completely out.
Nihlus
He made it to the room Shepard was in right as an asari nurse rushed out of it. She looked to him and quickly explained that Shepard had woken up and was using the needle from her IV as a weapon. He sighed as he went in and took the needle away from her and put her back in the bed. She was shaking so he kept hold of her shoulder as the talked to the asari. "Can you go get her something to eat and go get Mordin?" he asked and she nodded and quickly left.
Mordin showed up not long after and Nihlus left the room with him to go over Shepard's medical file.
"Definitely female. Levo too, good idea not to feed her. As far as can tell she is not allergic, but in weakened state… could have been bad. Leg was severely infected and blood poisoning was progressing. Another day and she would have been dead." Mordin filled him in. "Gave powerful antibiotics and a bone weave. Should be fully healed in a few weeks based off her body's ability to heal. Also will have a linguist asari come by and merge minds, quickest way to learn and upload her language into the omni-tools." he said as Nihlus read through the report.
He heard the asari nurse gasp and turned to look, laughing when he saw Shepard looking out the window on the door. He chuckled and handed the datapad back to Mordin and opened the door. Shepard started to tip back, not stable on her broken leg, and he moved to catch her, carrying her back to the bed bridle style.
The asari set down a try of food on the little table and moved it so it was over the bed, and Nihlus felt so guilty at how Shepard tore into the food. He had basically starved her, even if the doctors agreed with his decision it still was cruel, she didn't know why he did it. "Levo?" he asked the asari about the food, just to make sure, and the asari nodded.
Nihlus stayed with her for the rest of the day, minus the occasional summon for him by the council where he quietly stepped out and gave reason after reason of why he couldn't leave her side for now.
Mordin came in every now and again to check on her and Nihlus told her his name. And to pass the time he let her play on his omni-tool, he had a game where you just tried to keep the ball from going off the screen with a beam you moved around in a circle. It was mindless and easy and she seemed to be enjoying it, and getting pretty good at it. To make it easier he was sitting on the bed beside her with his right arm out across her, the omni-tool up and glowing. He shut it down about an hour to lights out and moved back to the chair so that the nurses could get her ready for the night.
The lights went off and the IV gave a beep to signal the morphine being injected into her. She was looking right at him and it made him wondering how good her night vision was. Turians could pretty much see in the dark, but salarians were pretty much blind in the dark. He heard her whisper something past the drugs and after a moment he nodded and took her hand until she fell asleep. He had planned on leaving at that point and going back to his small apartment on the Citadel, but every time he tried to leave she would tighten her grip on his hand in her sleep and how could he deny that? So he leaned back and slept in the uncomfortable chair.
A/N: So this is only a six page chapter but damn it all if it wasn't confusing to write. I kept having to go back to Shepard's part to make sure Nihlus' matched up. It also didn't help that in making my new cosplay I burned the tips of two of my fingers with a hot glue gun, typing is a bit painful. Oh and for my follows from DWBUA I hope you are enjoying my new project.