Short chaper this time. It took me a while to get back to it, this is my first story, there's a lot of tweaking I need to do in both chapters. Hopefully my writing improves and I can get new chapters up more quickly.

There were doctors on either side of her. They had needles. Sam was crying out for Kaylin, but Kaylin was dead. Her parents were dead too, and Bobby. No one could save her, it would only be the needles now. The needles hurt. Sam started screaming, and she hated herself for screaming.

"Lucy."

Sam woke up sweating, as she usually did since she was free. She looked up at the woman standing over her and shoved her hand off her shoulder. "It's Sam now."

Shepard nodded, "Alright, Sam then. I think we should talk now. I was going to wait until you woke up, but you were having a nightmare, so I figured it'd be okay to wake you myself."

"Yeah, well thanks. What'd you do to Tali?"

Shepard looked at her sadly before answering."She's on the engineering deck. And before you get suspicious, she's there by choice. I asked her to leave us alone, but she stayed with you for a long time. You two seem close."

This brought a small smile out of the younger woman, and Shepard smiled back. It faded quickly, however, and Sam looked at the Commander pointedly. "Yeah, we take care of each other. She's like a younger sister to me…like we used to be I guess. If you're really Jamie."

"Jamie huh? It's me Luc…Sam. I know you must think I betrayed you…I thought you were dead, I saw your body." Shepard put her head in her hands, "This is not how I wanted this to go."

"I thought you were dead too, fuck I thought I was dead for a while. I guess we were both wrong. This is weird, yeah? So you're an officer in the Alliance, and I'm a homeless teenager who runs with a homeless quarian. Your Doctor says you're on an important mission or something, and I'm feeling a lot better. When Tali comes back we can leave, and I'll stay in touch or something."

A laugh erupted out of Shepard, "Nope. Tali's coming with me, and so are you."

Sam sat up angrily, and Jamie jumped up to shove her back down. She didn't need to, Sam fell back almost immediately. "You need to stay still. Chakwas is good, but your shoulder is still a mess and I imagine you have a hell of a headache. Tali gave me something, that recording helped me get permission to chase after a rogue Spectre. And she's an engineer too, she probably knows more about the ship than I do already.

This only got a glare from Sam. "And what am I? A charity case? Your younger sister that appears after ten years and immediately things go back to how they were when you were sixteen and I was 9? Fucking idealistic. I'm not the same anymore."

"You're not a charity case, you're my deputy. And if that doesn't make you stay, then I'll arrest you. I'm a Spectre, I can do that you know. I have so many questions, and I'm still reeling from the fact that you're alive.

"I…look, I can't just trust you automatically. When they took me I thought…never mind. Just go away for a while, I'm not thinking clearly. Fuck I think I think I'm still dreaming.

"What happened to you, Sam? Who took you?"

Sam looked up at Jamie and smiled bitterly,"Cerberus happened. That's all anyone needs to know. Please, go away now."

The Commander watched her sister wince in pain, and she wanted to reach out and hold her and never let go. She couldn't though. I lost that right when I left her to die. She turned and left the room. Tali was pacing outside impatiently, and Shepard tried to expel the spike of jealousy over the smile she knew would appear on her sister's face when the quarian walked in. Baby steps. We'll fix this somehow. I have her back, now I just need to keep her. The commander shook her head at Kaidan's expectant look and headed straight to Joker. Her sister was back, but she still had her mission.

"Joker, take us to Therum."

"Aye aye Commander. ETA seven hours."