"Are you sure you're okay?" Nihlus asked when he found Shepard sitting at the table with her head on her arms.
"No, my head is killing me from when that krogan threw me around like a sack of flour." she admitted without raising her head.
Nihlus sat down beside her and put a calming hand on her back. "Let me see." he asked and she lifted her head, flinching from the sudden light. His mandibles twitched at the sight of her. Her right cheek and eye were turning a deep purple, her nose was clearly broke, her bottom lip was split open on the left side, but worst of it were her eyes, the whites of them were red and pupils wide. "Can you stand?" he asked and she shrugged.
"Everything is already spinning, already feel like I'm going to vomit." she admitted. "I was able to hold it off while we were fighting, but adrenaline wears off…" She leaned her head against his cool armor, but he pushed her off.
"Hey, no sleeping." he said, shaking gently until she opened her eyes again. "I think you have a concussion." he said and picked her up. "I'll set you in your room now while I set a course to the Citadel." he said and that perked her up.
"I thought I wasn't allowed back there." she said cautiously.
"You need medical attention and we can get another omni-tool for Joker." he said, sub-harmonics rumbling with a quiet coo, showing his compassion for her in a way that his voice didn't.
She wiped her bleeding nose on her armored hand. "Then put me in your room, the bed is hard as hell, no one can sleep on that thing." she said and he chuckled.
"I like my bed," he defended, but brought her into his room and set her on his bed. "I'll be back in a bit, you stay awake." he ordered and pressed his forehead to hers for a second.
Nihlus went back into the cockpit, nodding to Kolyat who stood awkwardly off to the side. "Why don't you go down to the mess and get you and Jeff something to eat?" he asked, watching as Joker's head snapped to him when he heard his name.
"How do you know my name?" he asked and Nihlus rolled his eyes a bit.
"Please, I'm friends with Shepard, can't you figure that out?" he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I hope that your species as a whole is more like Shepard and less… ignorant." He leaned over him and started typing on the console, setting a route through the relays that would get them to the Citadel. "Then again I'm just stressed…" he muttered and he glanced back over to the corner Kolyat had been in to find him gone. "Alright, food time." he said picked Joker up, ignoring his protest.
"Stop resisting, Joker, he isn't going to hurt you." Shepard said, coming out of the bathroom as they were heading down the hall, wiping off her mouth and leaning most of her weight on the wall.
"You should be resting." Nihlus frowned at her, his mandibles dropping slightly.
"I had to throw up, figured I should not do that on the bed you like so much." she said and followed them slowly into the mess.
Nihlus set Joker down gently and he limped back to her. "Shep…" he said, taking in her face that was steadily getting a darker purple.
"Hey, you okay?" she asked, plastering a large fake smile in an attempt to disguise her pain, but it didn't fool Nihlus and by the looks of it she didn't fool Joker either.
"You're the one who is beat to hell." he said, his hand hovering above her left, less damaged cheek. "Can I…? Are you too hurt?"
"I'm not going to break, Joker, I'm not you." she said and accepted his embrace when he wrapped his arms around her, hiding her wince as much as she could.
"You're an ass, I don't know why I was sad when I thought you were dead." he said, his face buried in her hair. "But… damn I'm happy you're alive, cripple jokes and all."
Kolyat, who was in the kitchen looking through the different foods, turned to look at the engage, but not from the words he couldn't understand, he turned because of the sub-harmonic growl coming from Nihlus. Nihlus felt the eyes on him and glanced over, instantly trying to muffle out his sub-harmonics. He had forgotten that drell could hear them. Kolyat kept looking at him, glancing at Shepard a few times and Nihlus knew that he knew. The growl was clearly jealousy, something that a male turian would give to tell other males to back off his woman. 'Good going, Nihlus.' he berated himself, hoping the kid would keep quiet about it.
Kolyat squinted, trying to get a look at Shepard's neck, but he didn't see any marks. That meant they weren't mated, but Nihlus was clearly growling at Jeff to tell him to back off. Though it appeared the two pink creatures couldn't hear it. He took in how Nihlus' stance changed ever so slightly after he saw that the growl hadn't gone unnoticed. That probably meant that Nihlus hadn't told the woman about his feelings.
"Yeah…" she said to Joker, rubbing his back a bit. The sappiness of the conversation made her, clearly, a bit uneasy. "Come on, you need food and a good night's sleep." She pulled him back and wiped her hand across her nose to catch a few drops of blood.
"Kolyat can fix them something to eat, we need to get you changed and relaxed." Nihlus said, resting a hand on Shepard's shoulder.
"What did he say?" Joker asked, glancing in between them.
"He says I may have a concussion and I need to get out of this armor and take it easy." she paraphrased.
Joker went to say something, but paused. He couldn't tell Shepard to take it easy. She wouldn't listen to him even if he did. No one could get her to do anything she didn't want to. He always thought it was because how much her parents tried to control her when she was a kid, not that he had ever said it out loud. Instead he turned to Nihlus, "Take care of her?" he asked and the alien nodded. "If anyone here can get her to sit still it is the seven foot dinosaur."
"Dinosaur?" Nihlus repeated, looking at Shepard for an explanation.
"Large reptiles that used to roam Earth a long time ago, he is trying to be funny." she said and accepted his arm for support.
He lead her back to his room and guided her to his bed. 'As many times as I imagined bringing her to my bed… this is not the situation I would prefer…' he thought as she sat down on the edge and he started undoing the locks on her armor, starting at the bottom. 'This is also not the scenario I would like to be undressing her.' he added in his head.
"You know what I could really use?" she asked, waiting until his eyes turned up towards her. "A cigarette, but you don't let me smoke on the ship."
He chuckled. "You don't smoke very much, but when you have a serious head injury is when you want one?" he asked with a shake of his head.
She shrugged, "What can I say, I'm a complicated person." They shared a laugh and he pulled her cigarettes out of his nightstand where he kept them away from her normally.
"I think, given the situation, I can make an exception." he said and handed them to her.
"I fucking love you," she said, putting one in her mouth and lighting it.
His fingers slipped on the next lock. "What?" he asked, mandibles twitching, heart beating too fast in his chest.
She drew a deep breath in through the cigarette. "What?" she asked looking down at him. "It's an expression… guess I shouldn't use them with you…"
"No, you shouldn't, translates badly." he said, going back to her armor and tried to calm his heart. 'Of course she didn't mean it like that, you two are different species. Sure it doesn't matter to you, but it would to her.' he kept telling himself. He swallowed a bit, trying to rid himself of the idea of her saying and meaning it in the same way he felt. 'She is going to be the death of me…' he thought as he pulled her armored bottoms off and started working on her top, his nose twitching from the smoke. He glanced at her face and shook her a bit, getting her closing eyes to open back up. "Keep talking to me," he told her and went back to the locks.
"About what?" she asked, blowing out a puff of smoke into the air.
"Anything, it will help you stay awake." he said and pulled her chest piece off, setting it with the rest of the armor.
"Ah…" she thought while he took off one of her gloves. "This one time me and Joker managed to get a bit of shore leave together and we went to this club in Rio." she said, moving her cigarette to her other hand so Nihlus could take off her last glove. "Rio is this place full of life, and dancing, and partying, and drinking… I had wanted to go for a while and when Joker found out he worked it out so we could go. He said it was a collection of birthday gifts, since I never really celebrated it anyways."
Nihlus moved to sit beside her and she leaned against him. "Sounds fun, what did you two do?" he asked, nudging her when she started to drift again.
"Drink… a lot… Joker caught some tail—" she paused at his expression, realizing that must have not translated "He got laid." she reworded.
"Ah, you need to watch those sayings, they won't translate properly." he said and slid them back to the wall, not arguing as Shepard got comfortable with her legs draped over him.
"Why don't you ever trip up and use them?" she asked, putting the used cigarette out and pulling out a new one.
"I'm used to having to avoid them." he explained. He watched her fumbling with the lighter for a bit before he took it from her and did it for her. "Head still hurting?"
She nodded and puffed the cigarette a few times to help get it going. "To the point my hands don't want to work." she said and blew out a puff of smoke away from them. "Anyways where was I… oh right, so Joker got laid, and since we were sharing a hotel room I stayed at the bar to give them some privacy." She snorted a bit of a laugh at the memory and shook her head, "Bad idea, and let's just say that Joker doesn't let me near whiskey anymore."
"I take it whiskey is a type of liquor." he said to clarify and she nodded.
"A very strong liquor. I got wasted and for some reason when I get wasted off of whiskey I switch to Irish. So there I was stumbling around Rio where few people even spoke English spouting some Irish nonsense." she started to laugh, but winced and held her head.
"Irish? English? Your species still has several languages?" he asked, rubbing her back while she tried to fight off the pain.
"Tons," she said, finally looking back up to him. "English is the one I'm speaking now and is the dominate one, but there are dozens of languages and even more dialects."
"You're species just has to be complicated." he said with a shake of his head and she swatted at him, missing given her poor condition affecting her aim. "Say something in Irish?" he asked, taking the attacking hand in his.
"Ah…" she took a few breaths through her cigarette while she tried to think of what to say. "Tá mo cheann tinn." she said with a chuckle.
His mandibles twitched as he listen to her. The language was different from the one she normally spoke, smoother, with an appeal all its own. "What does that mean?"
She chuckled again and blew smoke through her nose. "My head hurts."
They both shared a laugh. "Okay, can you say something other than a statement I already know?" he asked.
She looked at him for a long while before she spoke this time. "Tá tú i bhfad ró-chineál agus a bheith déanta níos mó dom ná mar a tuillte agam. Agus tá tú láidir, sa tír, gabháil fíor. Tá sé iontach go bhfuil tú fós le Céim. Ach b'fhéidir go bhfuil tú cosúil liomsa, le outcase i measc do speiceas féin agus ag féachaint do solice i gceann eile. Ifreann fhios rachaidh mé chomh fearr leat ná daoine eile." she said and put a hand to his cheek.
She didn't produce sub-harmonics like he did, but he felt that there was some sort of underline tone to the word, something that she couldn't describe in words. "What does that mean?" he asked after a bit, his hand going over hers on his cheek.
She gave a bit of a smile, "I'd rather not say." she admitted. "That is the beauty of another language, being able to speak your mind freely without fear of being judged."
"Shepard…" he said, leaning his face down towards hers. "I would never judge you."
She gave an awkward quiet laugh, "This headache is messing with my perception. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were trying to hit on me." she said, dipping her head a bit to increase their distance.
"Would that be a bad thing?" he inquired, gently poking at the idea of them.
"I'm… not good with relationships… probably would just fuck it up." she answered honestly and went to lift the cigarette to her mouth again, but Nihlus' hand caught it.
"You do not give yourself enough credit." he said and when she lifted her head up to look at him he met her, pressing his forehead against hers.
"Why do you do that…?" she asked, her eyes shutting a bit from the cool contact.
"It's… a sign of affection." he answered truthfully, but hesitantly. He was in dangerous territory; if she rejected him… if he did this wrong it could destroy her trust in him. He didn't want her thinking he was some horrible sex predator, which in a way he kind of was, but he didn't want her thinking that. He looked down at her lips. They were similar in appearance to asari lips, he wondered if they had the same sensory reaction.
"So you're affectionate with me?" she teased and they shared a chuckle.
He felt her breath brush across his face, drifting in the space between them, mingling with his own breath. "Is that a bad thing?" he purred, his hand moving from hers and slipped to the small of her back.
"Hm…" she pondered, her free hand moving to his upper arm. "I fell asleep didn't I? And I'm having some weird coma dream… not that I haven't had dreams like this before…"
He swallowed a bit. She had dreamed about this? She hadn't specifically said him, but that is what he wanted to read out of her words, and that is the idea that stuck with him. He leaned close and his tongue rolled over her lips, experimentally. She let out a bit of a surprised noise, but didn't pull back. Given that it wasn't necessarily a bad reaction he did it again, and this time she opened her mouth a bit. He let out a purr as his tongue slid inside her mouth, being met by hers. 'Spirits…' he thought, not having another way to describe the way this felt, the way she tasted. He pressed back against her tongue, dueling with it in a fight for dominance that was almost sweeter than the kiss itself.
Finally they had to pull apart, gasping for air they had forgot they needed. "Yeah, I'm in a coma." she confirmed with a brisk nod.
"What makes you say that?" he asked brushing his teeth over her ear.
"Being kissed by someone who doesn't even have lips and he just happens to be an amazing kisser?" she said, shying away from his mandibles that were brushing against her neck light enough to tickle. "I'm not lucky enough for things to go my way like this."
He pulled back and looked at her. "Let's… stop for now… let's wait until you don't have a concussion." he said, brushing his nose against her hair, taking in her scent. 'If I don't get a medal for this there is nothing right with the galaxy.' he thought, his hands still gripping her to him for a second longer.
"Okay." she said and laid her head on his shoulder.
"Hey, don't fall asleep, you still need to stay awake." he said, shaking her shoulder a bit. "Talk to me. Tell me… tell me what happened after you left the bar in Remo."
"Rio," she corrected and lifted her head back up. "Well after I left the bar I tried to make it back to the hotel, but I got lost down some back roads away from the tourist areas, which pretty much means even fewer people speak English, not that it would have mattered, I'm pretty sure I was speaking Irish at that point. Long story short there were some misunderstandings on what was said and I got into a fight with a local gang. The cops eventually broke it up and those involved were arrested. Joker found me the next morning sitting in jail with a black eye, and a busted lip."
"Ouch, so they got the upper hand?" he asked.
She gave a short bark of a laugh that made her grip her head. "No, actually three of them never made it to the jail, they went straight to the hospital, and the other guy was in the cell with me and terrified to get within five feet of me. Not that it mattered, I was too hung over to do much even if I had wanted to."
He chuckled and rubbed her back. "Remind me not to get on your bad side."
Several hours later Shepard stumbled out of Nihlus' room. He had fallen asleep on her and if she didn't get up and move around she was going to fall asleep too. Hell she was already starting to hallucinate, like when she thought her and Nihlus had kissed. She hated concussions, they were worse than alcohol when it came to altering things around you.
"Shouldn't you be resting?" Joker asked from the table in the mess.
"I'm not allowed to sleep, might not wake up." she said and sat down beside him. "And Nihlus fell asleep trying to keep me up."
Joker got up and limped to the sink, getting her a glass of water and coming back. "At least your nose stopped bleeding, looks like it's broken though." he said, setting the water down in front of her and sitting back beside her.
"I wouldn't doubt it with how they were slapping me around." she said, looking at the water in her hands. "We are heading to the Citadel, there is a doctor there that can treat me, and he should be able to get you an omni-tool."
"Omni-what?" he asked with a yawn.
Shepard looked at him sympathetically. He was tired, but she doubted he would go to bed knowing that she had to stay up. "Omni-tool, it's like a computer in your arm." she said and brought hers up for him to see. "It connects to you mentally somehow, allowing easy interface and even a translator, it's how me and Nihlus can understand each other."
"You let them put a computer in your arm? Have you not seen the movies?" Joker asked, looking and poking the omni-tool around her left arm.
"Well I was bed ridden with a broken leg, there wasn't much fighting. Besides, if it would help me find you and the others I wouldn't have hesitated." she said and put the omni-tool away.
"Do you always have to be so selfless?" he asked, putting his head down on the table, clearly tired. "You can think of yourself, you know."
"I will when everyone is safe." she said and stood, stumbling a bit. "Well you're falling asleep too, go lay down, I'll find something to do." she said and headed back towards Nihlus' room. "Play around with the omni-tool maybe." she said without looking back.
Joker stood and limped to Shepard's room, since Shepard was currently in Nihlus' room Kolyat and him had taken up refuge in hers. Kolyat was already asleep on the floor, one of Shepard's pillows under his head. "You could have had the bed." Joker muttered to the sleeping alien, but accepted the gesture and crawled in the bed. It smelled like her, like serenity and safety, and it pulled him into sleep quicker than he had since all of this started.
"You should get some sleep, you haven't slept at all since you came back from your mission." Joker said, looking up from his monitor to a very tired Shepard standing next to him.
"I'm fine, I have to get these reports done." she said, sinking down into the chair beside him.
"No you're not." Joker said and tried to take the papers from her, but she held firm to them. "When is the last time you slept? Actually slept, not your half assed rests?" he asked, taking in her face, the sunken eyes, the bags under them, her dry lips and deepened breaths. She looked like hell, and it was only a matter of time before they sent her back out.
"I don't know… three… four days?" she said with a shrug and snatched one of his pens, shaky hands starting on the report.
"Geeze, Shep, you need to go rest." he said, going back to his monitor, but glancing at her often.
"I will once I finish these reports." she said with a long sigh. "I have a few hours before my shift on guard."
Joker frowned and snatched the papers from her, not letting her hold onto them this time. "You have guard shift?" he snapped at her. "I thought that you were running convoys."
She held out her hand for the papers back. "I took an extra shift, Johnson is sick." she explained.
"Go rest." Joker said, moving the papers further from her. "You need to sleep."
Shepard took a slow, deep breath, her hands rubbing her eyes. "Fine." she caved and stood up.
"Rogers, come and cover me, I'm going to go make sure Shepard actually gets some sleep." he said, getting up with her.
"You don't have to…" she said as they headed towards the barracks.
"I don't trust you to actually take care of yourself." Joker said, earning a light shove from her.
They went to her barracks and she flopped down on the bed, not bothering to take off her boots or get under the covers. He sighed and started to undo the laces to her combat boots and set them by the bed. "You are hopeless." he told her, getting a sleepy reply as he pulled the blanket over her.
"Lay down too… I'm not going to bite." she said, rolling onto her side to give him room.
He smiled and slid onto the bed beside her above the blanket. The bed was hard and the blanket was an itchy wool, but it smelled like Shepard, like his friend. He looked over at her, staring at the small of her back. He worried about her when she went on missions. They tended to use her squad for some of the riskier missions because of their high success rate. In the five months they had been stationed in Afghanistan they were one of the only squads that had never lost a member, all thanks to Shepard. People around Shepard felt safe, because she would do anything to protect them.
When Joker woke up he had a smile on his face from the pleasant dream. It was odd that now that that time had passed it was "the good old days" when at the time it was hell. He sat up slowly, his body giving protest from his disability and tension from sleeping so long. How long had he slept anyways? He looked over at Kolyat, but the boy was gone, leaving only his pillow behind.
Joker sighed and slowly moving to the edge of the bed. He leaned down and pulled his leg braces on and pulled his pants down over them like he always did in an attempt to hide them. He thought back to the dream, back to his time serving with Shepard. She was one of the few people who didn't judge him or belittle him because of his disabilities. Actually the first day they had met had been their third day in flight school. A group of guys where ragging on him for his disabilities.
"Hey," a female voice called behind him and he turned away from the three guys that had been pestering him. "Surely you aren't picking on your fellow soldier like some pathetic high school drama king." She slid between him and the men.
"Shepard right? The new recruit who flunked out of the Marines?" the ring leader said with a laugh.
"I didn't flunk out, I switched, wanted something different." she corrected. "But it's ballsy of you not to back down now that the odds are a bit more even."
They laughed, "It's you and the cripple verses the three of us." he said and put an arm around her shoulders. "But I'll tell you what, you come with me and I'll show you what friendship with a real man can feel like." he smiled.
She looked at his arm for a second before grabbing it and twisting it behind his back. "Not looking for any new friends." she said and let go when he pleaded. "Come Joker, let's go get some lunch." she said to him, her arm going around his shoulders.
"It's Jeff actually…" he muttered, looking away from the beautiful woman, a slight blush on his cheeks.
"Oh? But I thought everyone called you Joker… like a nickname." she said, pausing a bit.
"An unwanted nickname." he corrected.
She was quiet for a couple paces. "I like Joker better," she decided, a smile on her face. She didn't seem bothered at all that the man had hit on her at all, actually if Joker didn't know any better—and in the present he did and knew it for fact—she didn't even realize that she had been hit on.
He smiled and went to the door, pressing the green button in the middle and watched it slide open. "What the…" he muttered at the scene in front of him. Frog-boy was standing in the hall, curiously peering into the room across from Shepard's. Nihlus was pacing about back and forth in front of a bed. Joker assumed this was Nihlus' room, but currently he was more concerned with Shepard's sleeping form on the mattress. He knew that Shepard had a concussion last night and given how unsettled Nihlus was Joker could put together that Shepard sleeping was not a good thing. He went to her, past Nihlus who paused in his pacing when he entered. "Shepard," Joker said, sitting on the edge of the hard bed and shook her shoulder gently, getting no response. "Shepard, wake up." he said, shaking her a bit harder, still getting no response.
Nihlus put a three fingered hand on his shoulder for a moment before he left the room.
Nihlus
This was all his fault, he had fallen asleep, he should have been watching her. Now she was comatose and wouldn't wake up. He had tried shortly before Joker had come in and tried. "What is our ETA to the Citadel?" he asked his ship as he went down to the cargo bay.
"Five hours, thirteen minutes." his ship replied.
He growled and gripped his workbench. "Get us there faster." he ordered.
"Adjustments will be made to the engines to attempt to increase speed." his VI informed him.
"And inform Mordin to meet us in the docking bay." he added as an afterthought. It would be quicker for Mordin to meet them than for him to get Shepard to the hospital.
"Understood." his VI replied as he slid to the ground.
He put his face in his hands and let himself have a moment to grief. It was his fault. He had taken her with him into danger again, he had let her get hurt, he hadn't watched her. It hurt, knowing she was hurt, knowing that it was his fault, and all of it made him want to grab her, to kiss her again, to pin her down and have some sort of physical affirmation that she was okay.
"You like her, don't you?" Kolyat said from the stairs of the cargo bay.
Nihlus looked up at him and quenched his sub-harmonics too abruptly to be normal, like answering a question to quick. "Yes." he answered truthfully and stood up.
"And she doesn't know." It wasn't a question and Nihlus didn't answer it. "How can I suddenly understand Jeff?" he asked, giving Nihlus an escape from the sensitive topic.
"I had an asari meld minds with Shepard and upload her language into my omni-tool, once you were aboard my ship I sent the program to your omni-tool too, though it takes a while to install." Nihlus explained. "But what I want to know is what a young drell was doing in slavery. They couldn't have taken you from Kahje, it's too well protected for raiders."
Kolyat looked down. "I… I ran away…" he admitted. "I was trying to find my father, my family says that he was working off world… since I was ten… I'm fourteen now and no one knows what happened to him." he said, but Nihlus could tell he was being vague.
Rather than push the boy, though, he dropped the subject. "Well you can travel with us if you want until you can find a lead on him." he said and turned back to his workbench, signaling to Kolyat that the conversation was over.
"This is Nihlus Kryik, requesting permission to dock." Nihlus said, trying to bit down on his worried sub-harmonics. 'She is going to be ok, we are here and now she will get medical attention.' he kept telling himself as he lined up his ship to dock.
"Request denied, Mr. Kryik." the traffic officer replied back over the coms, making him pause and bring his ship to a stop.
"What?" he asked. There was never a problem before. "This is Spectre Nihlus Kryik, requesting permission to dock in my personal dock." he growled.
"We are aware of your status, but the council has flagged your ship with dangerous cargo and thus your request has been denied." the officer replied calmly.
Nihlus gripped the sides of his pilot chair, glad his gloves where back on so he didn't puncture it with his claws. The anger passed as quick as it came, leaving his mind clear. "I have sick and injured on my ship, one of them is a young drell, would you like to explain to the hanar why one of their residence is being halted in his trip home? Or would you rather have a life on your hands if my friend doesn't receive medical attention?" he said, his voice even, unnervingly relaxed.
"The council has ordered…"
"That I do not bring my 'cargo' onto the Citadel, but we will not leave the docking bay." he said and the woman was silent for a long moment.
"Permission granted, welcome back Mr. Kryik." she said and he was allowed to settle his ship down into the docking bay.
"I don't want to go home." Kolyat said, timidly backing out of the cockpit and back down towards the mess.
"You won't, I just needed the leverage." he assured him and stood up, opening his airlock and stepped off the ship, looking around for the professor.
"Ah, Nihlus, pleasure to see again. Take it Shepard is in need of medical care. Have brought tools." Mordin said, walking down the doc with a large medical bag in one hand.
"She hit her head really hard yesterday and has been sleeping." Nihlus filled him in. "I also need another omni-tool… we found one of her crew…" he added quietly, not needing any ears of the council knowing he now had two humans.
"Interesting, would like to compare medical notes to Shepard's. See what traits are unique and which are species based. Male or female?" he asked as they slipped into the ship and Nihlus took them to his room where Shepard still slept with Joker worriedly by her side.
"Male, his name is Jeff or Joker, Shepard said it was his nickname." Nihlus said as Mordin went to the humans and pushed Joker aside. The human tried to resist, not wanting to be away from Shepard, but there was little he could do given his condition and he crumbled to the side.
"Interesting, not strong like female." Mordin noted, but didn't look away from Shepard as he started examining her.
"He is crippled, Shepard mentioned something about it, but wasn't specific." Nihlus said, helping Joker over to a chair.
"Good to know Shepard's species isn't all like him." Mordin said as he lifted up her eyelids and flashed a light in her eyes. "Pupils responsive, not in deep coma then, will give her something to help wake her up to assess mental damage." he felt the bones in her arms and legs, then her ribs, making sure nothing else was damaged. "Two broken ribs, bone weave from before helped to protect the rest." he said and pulled out another bone weave from his back. "Modified a stronger one for her while you were away." he explained to Nihlus. "Received the translation program by the way, finished installing shortly before your arrival." he said as Nihlus helped him roll Shepard on her stomach.
"Good, actually was hoping to find a way to broadcast it to all omni-tools on the Citadel, would help a lot in proving that she isn't some violent animal." Nihlus said and brushed her hair behind her ear tenderly.
Mordin saw the gesture, but ignored it. "Indeed, would at least need to get it to the council, no doubt they will want to speak with her." he said as he took out a scalpel and slowly cut along Shepard's spine just enough that the bone as visible. "We are lucky her spine is so close to the surface, makes putting in bone weaves much easier and safer." he commented and stretched out the bone weave. It was the length of her spine and a thin, light red mesh. Once in place it would slowly adhere to her bones, stretching out along them. Once it was fully stretched out it would harden, giving the bones extra strength. It wouldn't hurt, though some have reported being able to feel the mesh move like a phantom itch.
"What are you doing to her?" Joker asked, starting to get up from his chair.
Nihlus went over to him and pushed him back down into a sitting position. "Do you really think I'd hurt her?" he growled, but it wasn't any use, Joker couldn't understand him. "Mordin, where is that omni-tool for Joker?" he asked.
"In my bag," Mordin replied, not turning around or pausing as he inserted the bone weave.
Nihlus grabbed it off his desk and started digging through it, finding the disc at the bottom. He opened the packaging and grabbed Joker's arm.
Joker looked at the disc and tried to jerk his arm away, old alien movies playing through his head. He glanced at Shepard for help, but she was still passed out.
"Omni-tool, it's like a computer in your arm." Shepard's words echoed in his head from the night before. "It connects to you mentally somehow, allowing easy interface and even a translator, it's how me and Nihlus can understand each other."
He swallowed and stopped struggling, letting Nihlus press the disc to his underarm. It hurt, but he bit back any cry of pain, as it burrowed its way into his skin. Once the pain stopped Nihlus let go of him and let him inspect his arm. There was a thin cut about three inches wide across his arm, but other than that there wasn't any damage from the device. "That… was horrible…" he said, poking at his arm where the disc laid under his skin. "I've officially have been probed by an alien."
He heard Nihlus laugh and said something, but it was still just a bunch of jumbled words and clicks.
"But… I thought this was supposed to let me understand you." he asked, confused and worried it wasn't the omni thing that Shepard had told him about.
Nihlus tapped the top of his wrist and after a moment the meaning clicked. It would take a bit of time.
"Is… is she ok?" Joker asked, looking over at Shepard and then back to Nihlus for an answer.
Nihlus nodded and pointed at his chest, then made a breaking motion with his hands.
"She broke some ribs?" Joker guessed and Nihlus nodded, his mandibles flaring in what Joker thought was a smile, but all Joker could see was sharp teeth.
Once Nihlus was sure Joker would sit still he returned to Mordin's side, hovering over his shoulder as he finished placing in the bone weave and used a bit of med-gel to seal the incision back up.
Joker watched them from the chair, trying to make any sense of their speech.
"Rait ori kelsik weas ot ri vilision akwel?" Mordin said to Nihlus.
"Aa tij alko… wekali ajkw wikla wece can actually talk to her they will see that before she was just scared." Nihlus answered with a sigh and Joker blinked. He could understand the last part of that.
"Shepard? Scared?" Joker said with a bit of a laugh. "The only time I have ever seen her be scared of anything is when someone else is in danger."
They both looked over at him. "Looks like the omni-tool is done installing." Mordin commented. "Glad new modifications have shortened time."
"Yes it does." Nihlus confirmed, thinking back to Shepard's panic attack on Nempos. The woman was clearly very capable, but she wasn't fearless. It interested him that Shepard hadn't let anyone see her fear before, not even her best friend. "Hello Joker, I'm Nihlus Kryik, this is my friend Mordin Solus, he has been helping me whenever Shepard needs medical attention." he introduced them.
Joker nodded and watched as Mordin grabbed a syringe and pull down the back of Shepard's pants, revealing her butt. "To wake her up." he explained, feeling both pairs of eyes on him, and jabbed the needle in her ass, pushing the liquid into her.
After a minute she stirred and let out a groan. "Who dares wake up the all-powerful co—"
"Shep," Joker cut her off, not needing the spew she had been using ever since she was promoted to commander.
She pushed herself of the bed and got to her feet. "Joker?" she said, staring at him in disbelief.
"Careful," Nihlus said, catching her as she stumbled and fell against him.
"When… how long was I asleep?" she asked, looking up at Nihlus.
Nihlus' mandibles twitched nervously. This was not a good sign. "Only about five or six hours, the krogan threw you pretty hard." he said, his arms still around her even after she managed to stand on her own.
"What krogan?" she asked, putting a hand to her head and wincing.
"Shepard, what is the last thing you remember?" Mordin stepped in and she jumped, having not noticed him. Yeah this was a bad sign, Nihlus thought, and the glance at Joker confirmed that he saw the signs too.
"I… we, Nihlus and me, where on Nos Atros." she said and bent over, using Nihlus' arm for support, her stomach dry heaving, but having nothing in it to throw up.
"Seems like she has mild amnesia, not uncommon for people not to remember the actual head injury." Mordin said, not thinking anything too serious about it. "Also probably dizzy, body is trying to expel whatever might be the cause, should go away within a few hours, but feed her bland foods just to be sure."
"So she doesn't remember yesterday at all?" Nihlus confirmed, swallowing back his sub-harmonics. She didn't remember their kiss then. He was back to square one with her. All the hope he didn't know he already had from the chance of making her his deflated. "Will her memory come back?" he asked, hoping for a yes, that she would remember and accept his advances.
"Maybe, probably not. Most don't recover short term memory." Mordin said and started back up his things, but paused at the door on his way out. "Oh yes, one more thing." he said and turned back to Shepard. He put a hand under her chin and the other on her nose. She barely had a chance to prepare herself before he jerked her nose back into place.
"Ah, son of a horse fucker." she cursed, pushing herself back against Nihlus and tried to blink away the spots of pain.
"Will return to hospital, call if you require assistance again. And good luck with council." Mordin said and left without another glance, as if he didn't just reset her nose with a violent jerk.
Nihlus' mandibles twitched at the mention of the council and Shepard caught it. "Are you in trouble?" she asked and he rubbed the back of his head.
"Probably," he answered truthfully and loosened his grip on her. "But I'm going to stay here till you feel better." he said and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the look Joker was giving him so he quickly tried to cover up his concern. "The council will want to see you and talk with you."
"Great," she said and sat back down on the bed. "Have I mentioned that I'm not a people person?"
"That's an understatement," Joker muttered, earning a glare from her. "I'm just saying, you would be promoted a lot further than you are if you could keep your mouth shut more."
"I've noticed that," Nihlus agreed. "Great soldier, but tends to… what is that phrase you used before?" he asked her and she glared at him, crossing her arms.
"Put her foot in her mouth?" Joker guessed.
"That's it," Nihlus confirmed and they both laughed.
"Since when have you two been able to understand each other and do you have to use it to gang up on me?" she said, knocking her fist against Nihlus' armor.
"His omni-tool finished syncing up with him shortly before we woke you up." Nihlus explained, since Joker likely didn't know as much about what they put into him.
"And you have always liked it when odds weren't in your favor, Shep." Joker added and she flopped back on the bed in defeat, they clearly weren't going to give it up.
Nihlus had gone and explained the situation to the council later that day while Shepard rested. And three days later she was strong enough that Nihlus agreed to take her to the council.
"So this is the new species?" Valern, the salarian council asked, looking at the strange pale creature with red fringe falling messily around her face.
"Yes," Nihlus said turning to Shepard and nodding that she could speak.
She took the cue and stepped forward, her hands clasped behind her back and feet spaced in what Nihlus gathered was a stance to do with her military training. "Hello, I am Commander Shepard of the Alliance military on Earth." she said, very official.
"As if we know what Earth is." Sparatus scoffed, his sub-harmonics showing clear dislike, making Nihlus' hand twitch and he had to put in effort to stop himself from making a fist.
Shepard either was oblivious to the disrespecting tone or she simply didn't react. "Earth is the name of the planet my kind, humans, are from. Where it is located I will have to get back to you on."
"And how did you end up in the Terminus on a wrecked ship?" Tevos asked, her tone much kinder than the other two.
Shepard took a deeper breath before answering. "I was to lead an exploration team to the edge of our solar system and back in a prototype ship with the ability to travel faster than any previous ship with the use of element zero that was discovered on a nearby planet, Mars. Near our destination we came upon a large metal structure I've confirmed as a Mass Relay. It sucked us in and shot us into space where we were attacked by a batarian slave ship. Most of my crew is still missing, I can only assume that, like the one we have been able to rescue, they have been abducted and sold as pets." she explained, pausing to give them a chance to ask questions.
"How many crew members are there in total?" Tevos asked.
Shepard took a second to verify her number in her head. "Including myself there were thirty-six." Nihlus was listening pretty intently. He hadn't really heard her talk about this stuff, she normally skirted around questions about herself.
"When you ran from the hospital you injured people and nearly created a station wide panic, the political clean up alone was staggering." Sparatus said, the dislike dripping into his tone and not just his sub-harmonics.
Shepard slowly curled her hands into fists behind her back and she took a slow deep breath. She had more control than Nihlus. "I already explained the behavior, Shepard was scared, in an environment where no one could understand her, it stands to reason that she—"
"Nihlus," she cut him off, a hand going to his lower arm. "I can speak for myself, please." she said calmly, giving a soft smile that didn't reach her oddly void eyes. He didn't like it. Her eyes normally were so full of emotion and life, to see them void as she hid her feels was unsetting. It was like seeing a forest, lush with green, but without any creatures to fill it with life. She turned her eyes off him, breaking the trance, and turned back to the council.
"I was the superior officer for the exploration, I ordered my crew into the escape pods… I took away any chance of them fighting back… I never made it to the escape pods. Instead I had gone to send the distress signal, so when those aliens… those batarians boarded, I had a fighting chance." The corner of her lips turned up a fraction. "I am a bit of a gun fanatic and managed to get to my work bench. Normally they wouldn't be brought on the exploration, but they help keep me busy so I don't go stir-crazy." Sparatus' mandibles twitched at this, recognizing the very turian like trait.
"It was my fault my crew was captured, I only left myself a fighting chance. I couldn't just sit in a bed knowing that my actions allowed me to be spared and sacrificed them. I ran; I did what was necessary to keep going; I was desperate. I did not mean to hurt anyone, or cause you any problems, and if I must be punished for the effects of my actions so be it." She held her head high, a proud soldier.
Nihlus ached to hold her, to assure her that it wasn't her fault. That she reacted the best way she could have. She didn't know it would get her crew captive. She didn't know that he would save her. But he managed to still himself and silence his sub-harmonics before they started.
Sparatus nodded, "That is very admirable. We will take a brief recess while we discuss what the repercussion of your actions should be." he said and the holograms disappeared while the actual councilors slipped away.
A/N: Sorry for the late chapter. I had finals and Cyan has life so it took a while to get it fine-tuned. Hopefully the fact that it's long will partly make up for it. And if anyone is wondering I made it out with an A, 2 Bs, and a C, which officially qualified me for my associates. Just 2 to 3 more years and I can quit my crappy part-time job for a career!
Any who, poor Nihlus, finally getting his girl and she doesn't remember, cliché, but I think it turned out well. Review please and tell me what you think!