"Shepard!"
"WHAT?"
As Kaidan darted into the elevator in Shepard's wake, the Commander truly felt like punching him, but for the fact that he'd probably fall over from doing it. He was already leaning heavily on the side of the elevator, and by the time they reached the CIC, he was in too much pain even to scowl at Alenko.
"Come on, Commander," Kaidan murmured, as the doors slid open to reveal the CIC. "You need to get back to the med bay, you're hurt..."
"I need to do this, Kaidan," Shepard muttered, not even bothering to hide the worry in his voice. "It's not about some silly argument, not really... I need... I need to know..."
"...whether you did the right thing," the other man concluded.
Shepard nodded. He felt pitiful, almost doubled over with pain, but if he'd staggered this far, he could reached the cockpit.
"Come on then," Kaidan sighed, reluctantly looping his arm around Shepard's shoulders and helping him stumble out of the elevator. "But if Chakwas asks, I was totally against this."
Together, they moved slowly out across the CIC – as they passed the galaxy map, Traynor shot them a worried glance, but evidently decided to keep her questions to herself. While Kaidan half-supported, half-dragged him along the deck, Shepard was peering at the seats arrayed around the CIC – particularly the empty ones.
"There's crew missing," he said, sadly. "A lot of crew."
"They're not dead, Commander," Kaidan reassured him. "The Normandy wasn't in the fight long enough to take casualties... well, excluding the marines... Most of the crew went down to help in engineering once we left Earth."
"And the marines?" Shepard asked, backtracking.
"We don't know," the lieutenant admitted. "Last we heard of them was from James, at the FOB."
"He's still out there?"
"Everyone's accounted for, except him..."
There was a pregnant pause at that. Before either of them could think of anything new to say, they reached the cockpit, and staggered in.
To say the cockpit's occupants were surprised was an understatement. Granted, EDI looked unphased, as ever, but Joker almost fell out of his seat, and Garrus, leaning against the wall behind him, actually did lose his balance and stumble across the cockpit.
"Shepard..." the turian murmured, dazedly, as he straightened up.
"Garrus," he grunted back. Then, turning to Joker, he added, "What's the news? From Earth, I mean?"
"We haven't heard anything since we left," Joker replied, quickly recovering from his surprise.
"Okay, what did you hear before you left?" Shepard persisted, anxiously.
"I... not much..."
"Just tell me!"
Joker looked taken aback at the outburst, just as Kaidan had before, but he quickly shook it off – perhaps Kaidan had made some explanatory gesture behind his back, it didn't matter.
"Hackett destroyed the Crucible, just like you said. Took a couple dozen Reapers with it. When we left, Shield and Sword were pushing the Reapers back."
"And Hammer?"
"Well, Wrex sounded like he was having fun... He was drowning husks in the Thames."
"So... it's going good, then? You think it's good, you think the chances are good?" Shepard stammered, becoming rather jittery. The look of worry was back on Joker's face.
"Are you alright, Commander?" the pilot inquired.
"Commander, you'd best get back to the med bay," Kaidan interjected, before Shepard could answer. "It's alright... everything's alright, now get some rest..."
"Yeah... rest," Shepard nodded, absent-mindedly. Relief was flooding his mind, but it carried with it a thousand new questions, and frankly his brain was struggling to cope. For the first time since waking up, he really began to notice the aching in his bones, the pulsing in his head, and the burning sensation in his flank. He almost dropped to his knees again, but just about managed to stay upright on Kaidan's shoulder. Without warning, he felt someone else grab his other arm, and looked across to see Garrus smiling grimly at him.
"Come on, Commander," the turian sighed. "Get some rest, and we'll take care of the galaxy. Believe it or not, it can manage without you for a few hours..."