Sorry for another long wait! It's Thanksgiving up here in Canadaland, so this weekend was a little crazy, but in a good, turkey-filled way. Thanks for reviews and follows, and don't worry, all will be explained, in time…

The MSV Andrelia, the ship where Shepard was being treated, was ridiculously well-guarded. It was a fairly small, out-of-the-way civilian ship that had originally been used by some scientists working on the Crucible. It was now just one of many non-descript civilian ships floating around in Alliance space, waiting for the mass relays to be fully repaired before it could go back to whatever system it had originated from. Nobody looking at it would ever have guessed that it housed the woman responsible for the salvation of the galaxy.

Inside the ship, however, was a different matter. The airlock had two security checkpoints, and well-armed Alliance soldiers stood guard every few feet. Peace may have been made a possibility thanks to the synthesis of organic and synthetic life, but Shepard had made some powerful enemies in her time as a soldier, and some of them could still be holding a grudge. Nobody was willing to take the chance that the commander could be murdered in her bed before she ever regained consciousness, and so the name of the ship, and the nature of its purpose, was extremely classified.

Thane, Kaidan, EDI and Liara were the second group to be allowed in, Garrus, Tali, James and Joker having been the lucky ones to be on the first shuttle over to visit Shepard. As the transport whizzed through the distance between the Normandy and the Andrelia, Thane felt his tension growing. It was only his years of training and practice at stillness that kept him from pacing back and forth through the cabin, as Liara was doing.

"Liara, sit down," Kaidan said, his voice betraying his own agitation, "You're making me dizzy."

"I'm sorry, Kaidan," she said, and she stopped her pacing and perched on one of the benches in the back of the shuttle, "I'm just so nervous. It doesn't make any sense. She's our commander, our friend, but I feel like I'm heading to a funeral. From what Garrus said, she doesn't sound like she's in very good shape…" she trailed off, and then got up and resumed walking back and forth around the small cabin space. Thane reached a hand out to grasp hers, pulling her to a halt.

"She's Shepard," he said, "She's already been dead once. This is nothing." She gave him a wan smile, and sat down again. EDI, who was unusually silent, placed a hand on her shoulder. Kaidan looked over at Thane.

"Listen, Thane," he started, "I never really got a chance to thank you when you were looking out for me in the hospital, but… I'm glad that someone was there for Shepard. Especially after Horizon, when I… when I wasn't." Thane was touched by the sincerity behind the young man's words. He recognised the same depth of feeling for Shepard in Kaidan that he himself felt, and knew how difficult it must have been to return to her life but find her with someone else.

"There is no need to thank me, Kaidan-" he began, but the major cut him off.

"Yes, there is," he said, almost angrily, "I was an ass to Shepard, and there's no excuse for it. I ruined whatever chance I may have had. She deserves to be happy. She may not have shown it, but after you died…" he went silent again, and Liara picked up where he had left off.

"I'm sure she'll be very happy to see you," she said to Thane, and then to Kaidan, "And you, as well. She told me that we're who she was fighting for, her friends, her loved ones. She needs to keep fighting, and we have to let her know that we're still here." Both the men and EDI nodded, and the shuttle was silent again until the pilot called back,

"We're about to dock with the Andrelia." Thane made one last futile attempt to calm his nerves while the shuttle flew into the docking bay, and then the three teammates stepped onto the bay deck.

They were met by a young Asari doctor (young by Asari standards, somewhere in her mid-200s) and two armed escorts.

"It's not that we don't trust you," the doctor, who introduced herself as Korinya, explained, "It's just protocol." Kaidan said that they all understood perfectly, and they walked through the two security checkpoints. It took several minutes for Thane to pass through, having to remove several of his more cleverly concealed weapons. Liara protested, stating that it was obvious he wasn't there to hurt Shepard, but he didn't mind the extra security measures. In fact, he approved of them. Security was better here than on the Citadel, that was for certain and anything that kept Shepard safe was fine by him. The doctor walked with them the rest of the way, explaining the commander's condition and what they were doing to help her.

"You understand, she hasn't shown any signs of regaining consciousness yet, but right now, that's a good thing," Korinya said, "Whatever happened to her… there was a great deal of damage. We've been regrowing her skin with good success thanks in part to the synthetic and organic blend in her DNA, and the cybernetics left over from whatever Cerberus did to bring her back have been helpful, but I want to warn all of you. She was very badly injured, clinically dead when they brought her in. The battle on Earth broke several of her bones, and whatever happened on the Citadel caused extensive trauma to her arms and face, not to mention severe internal bleeding and brain swelling. She spent a very long time in the vacuum before the rescue teams found her, and while we think that her synthetic tissue may have saved her…" she stopped talking and looked at the stricken expressions that Kaidan and Liara had, as well as the one Thane knew he wore himself. EDI looked more like she was listening intently to the descriptions of Shepard's injuries, but the doctor was still obviously embarrassed.

"I-I'm sorry," she stuttered, "I'm not used to interacting with loved ones. I was just a student on Thessia before the war hit and… just… talk to her. Let her know she needs to keep fighting. We're doing everything we can." With that, she stopped in front of a door that said nothing but "4B" above it, and used her facial scan to open it. Liara hurried forward, closely followed by Kaidan, and Thane took a deep breath, steeling himself against his anxiety, and stepped inside.