Apart from time spent in the operating room, Commander Shepard had been watched over by at least one of the Normandy crew since she had arrived on the SSV Orizaba. Liara, Tali, and Garrus had spent the most time there, but James, Javik, EDI, Traynor, and Cortez were also regulars. The doctors kept her sedated the first forty-eight hours and then started letting her wake up to see how she felt.
As Dr. Chakwas had suspected, most of her injuries were from falling. She had lost her grip on Bobby when they first experienced a return to normal space so he did not fall as far. Her biotics had continued to carry her upward to where she had been when she activated the catalyst, only there was no floor there now and she fell and was covered by the debris which was still shifting and settling. Only her biotic barrier kept her from falling to her death.
When she awoke, she saw Liara and Tali sitting beside her. Liara had been there long enough she was beginning to drift off but had refused to leave since the doctors were allowing Shepard to regain consciousness. "Is Bobby okay?" Shepard asked with a barely audible voice.
Tali responded, "The Lt. Commander is recovering well. His injuries were not as severe as yours. How are you, Shepard?"
Dr. Michel saw that they were talking and started that way. She wasn't close enough to hear Shepard say, "In pain. Did it work? Are the Reapers dead?"
"Yes, Shepard, it worked. You saved us all again. By the goddess I was afraid we had lost you though," Liara said, now wide awake.
"You're not getting rid of me that easy," Shepard managed to say.
"Commander, lie still a moment." Dr. Michel began scanning her and asked, "How do you feel?"
"Like I've gone ten rounds solo with a Yahg," Shepard said. "Can I see Bobby, Doctor Michel?"
Dr. Michel busied herself with scanning and didn't answer. Tali said, "I'll go see if he's able to come over," and walked away.
"You'll need time to recover, Commander, but everything is healing nicely. Unless there is a setback we will try having you sit up tomorrow and see if we can get up the next day. If you do okay, we can start some physical therapy the day after."
Lt. Commander Edwards had been put in a bed at one end of the med-bay with two guards posted by his bed. The guards stopped Tali as she approached. "Sorry, ma'am but the Lt. Commander is under arrest. No visitors."
"Don't 'sorry, ma'am' me. I'm an Admiral with the Quarian fleet and Commander Shepard, who just save all of us, is asking to see the Lt. Commander. I'm not going to take him out of the room we're just going over there," Tali said pointing to the bed half way down the med-bay. "If you don't want to create a cross species incident then you will help me get him there."
Tina had talked about Tali, and about how Tali had grown from a reserved Quarian on Pilgrimage to an admiral willing to stand against the other Quarian admirals and fight for what she believed was right. It appeared she was also willing to stand up for her Commander, but that part wouldn't have surprised Bobby about anyone who had served with Tina. The guards were out of their league dealing with her and didn't know how to respond, so when she made to move past them, they let her.
"Lt. Commander, I'm Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. If you are able, Commander Shepard is awake and would like to see you."
"Hi Tali. The Commander spoke very highly of you. I'm glad you, Liara, and the others have been watching over her," Edwards said and slowly got out of bed. He was a little unsteady, but able to move and the two of them, with the two guards following close behind, walked down the med-bay.
Tina saw him coming and was both pleased and dismayed. He was alive and walking, but why were there two marines shadowing him? Did he need protection for some reason? "Yes," she thought, "that's it. Tali and Liara were here to guard me so I don't need the marine guard."
"You did it, Tina," Bobby said, smiling. "You got us out." He bent down and kissed her forehead. As he stood back up she moved her head right to left and tried to lift her arm so she could touch his lips, when the arm wouldn't go that high, and stuck out her lips. Bobby smiled and kissed her. Tina managed a "I'm better now, doctor."
"Hush," Bobby said. "You get some rest and recover. I'll make sure they send part of my meals over here."
Tina smiled at that, then she looked at Tali and mouthed a "thank you." With Bobby holding her hand, she drifted back to sleep, where she woke up on a beach.
Edwards looked up to see an angry Admiral Shepard closing fast. The only thing that kept her from yelling at the Lt. Commander was that she had seen her daughter fall back asleep. Instead she pointed at his bed as an order for him to get back down there. She followed the guards and, after a moment, Tali followed her.
Struggling to keep her voice down, she berated the Lt. Commander, "What the hell were you doing down there? Do you not understand what kind of trouble you are in, Lt. Commander? Confined to the med-bay doesn't mean you have free roam of the place. If you did we'd just post guards at the door not at your bed." It was obvious the guards were uncomfortable with where this was going.
"Admiral, if you are going to blame someone for this blame me," Tali said. "Your daughter wanted, no, she needed to see him; to know that he was okay. I get that he made a mistake, but …"
"Tali, you don't need …" Edwards started but Tali held up her hand.
"But that mistake ended up saving your daughter's life," Tali finished.
"Based on what? A story that an AI told. An AI that admitted it would have sacrificed her to save him? Who knows what they did to her in there and what that AI made her believe. I'll let this go this time," Admiral Shepard looked at the marines, "but this is my ship and this is not to happen again. Do I make myself clear?"
"Aye, ma'am," the marines responded.
She then looked at Tali. "You're a member of my daughter's crew and I understand you wanting to help her, but don't push me or back to the Normandy you go." Without giving Tali time to respond she turned to Edwards and said, "As for you, if you're able to walk down there, you don't need to be in here anymore." To the marines she said, "Get his things and take him to the brig." She then stormed away to find Dr. Michel to learn how Christina was doing.
"I'm sorry, Lt. Commander," Tali said.
"It's not your fault, Tali. I'm just glad I got to see her. Watch over her," Bobby said.
A couple of hours later Shepard woke up again. Tali and Garrus were sitting beside her with Tali leaning against Garrus half asleep. Garrus saw Shepard was awake and said, "Does the Alliance pay you for sleeping on the job, because if so I might just have to enlist."
Shepard smiled and, with a bit stronger voice than earlier, asked, "Did everyone make it?"
"Everyone on the Normandy is okay, Shepard. There were heavy losses elsewhere, but our crew is intact."
"Jack, Miranda, Jacob, and the others?"
"Not sure about all of them. Jack and her team from Grissom Academy survived. Jacob survived. Wrex and Grunt as well. But we haven't heard from Miranda, Samara, or Zaeed. Doesn't mean much though because a lot of communication links are still down," Garrus said.
"Still down? But it's been almost a year," Shepard said.
"Ah, no one has told you. Long story, Shepard, but what was almost a year for you was just a few seconds or something for us."
This caused her to turn and look down the med-bay. She didn't have a good line of sight but she didn't think Bobby was down there. "If you're looking for the Lt. Commander, they've moved him. It's part of the long story, but it's for his own protection," Garrus said. He and Tali had discussed what they would tell Shepard about Bobby when she woke up. They decided that it was better to be vague and half-truthful then to get Shepard excited about the prospect of the Lt. Commander being court-martialed. Besides, getting him out of the med-bay meant Admiral Shepard was less likely to kill him, so it wasn't a complete lie.
Shepard turned back, looking disappointed, Garrus thought. She asked, "Are the Reapers all dead?"
"All reports we have say they are; Palaven, Thessia, Tuchanka. There are places we haven't heard from but it worked every place we have been able to contact. There's damage to the relays but initial reports indicate they are repairable," Garrus said.
"And the Geth?"
"EDI and the Geth blacked out when the pulse hit, but they've come back online. A less complete Crucible would have killed them and probably caused more damage elsewhere. And if people would have listened to you and started work earlier there might have been even less damage, but overall, we came out of this better than I expected."
Shepard looked at Tali and Garrus sitting together and smiled, "You two make a cute couple."
"Oh, we're not a couple. I'm just using him," Tali said.
"The same way I'm using Bobby, I'm sure," Shepard said. They talked about the Normandy and what repairs were needed. People were busy right now looking for any remaining life pods in earth orbit and they were looking for wounded on earth. They told Shepard not to worry, though, it was all going well. Soon, she was drifting back to sleep.