A/N Inspired by Evanescence "Bring me to Life", Salser's amazing story "Forever as One" and my own loss… Title inspired by Garbage's verse from "My Lover's Box."

Thanks to everyone who added, reviewed and fav'd. You make this worth continuing. More reviews = more chapters.

Nov. 27th, Retake Omega DLC release date oh yeah! Sad note, no Shep in Me4. Hope Bio makes up for the travesty and total failure they like to call "the end" in this one. Bio offered me a job, cuz I fit in their binder. Will see what they want and keep you posted.

To all those who are on my fav's, just getting around to reading will be leaving my comments as usual… Ace, Theo, Tayg, Spirit, DD… just to name a few :P

Bioware (unfortunately) owns all, I just make them cry.

Piece by Piece

"Shepard!" Liara felt a prick on her neck as warm arms lifted off the ground. Her fight to stay awake lasted all of 5 seconds before darkness found her.

The med bay was a fury. The medical staff and machines (if at all possible) were in a frenzied state of panic, as was Shepard's flailing body.

"Lawson! What the hell is happening?" Chakwas yelled.

She didn't like not having answers, nor did she like looking like she didn't have answers. Bloody hell. Show me something. Anything. Please!

It seemed as though the gods were in her favor, because not a minute too soon everything was instantly quiet. She wiped the sheen of sweat forming of her brow, scanned over her omni-tool's readings and quickly came to a conclusion… Yes, it was the most logical of conclusions. Many sets of eyes looked to her for an answer, any answer. And by god did she hate it.

Clearing her throat, Miranda spoke. "It seems as though Shepard's nanites and consequential implants performed a, to put in layman's terms, a hard restart of all systems."

"How, and why?" An unidentified voice in the room asked.

"Simple really." She smirked as her confidence built. Yes, now it all made sense.

"When Cerberus… when I rebuilt Shepard I had to graft cybernetic implants and nano-regenerative chips into her physical body, to allow the organic Shepard to restore her natural tissue, and heal." She looked around the room, all eyes were peeled on her. Never had she felt so vulnerable, yet so important.

"Her physical injuries, while severe, are no longer life-threatening. However, her synthetic implants are completely different avenue of care in themselves. While they work in harmony, we have been concentrating on her physical injuries since finding her."

An air of confusion filled the room as Chakwas stepped forward, gritting her teeth. "And this means what… As the bulk of us were not privy to the Illusive Man's cybernetic, indoctrination, dragon tooth, monster-creating technology! I've seen the bodies, a God-damned abomination…"

Cleary the rest of the medical staff was behind Chakwas, their postures and body language spoke louder than words. It's not their fault, what we... what I did was… Forgive me.

"If I may summarize, as we're wasting time… I can only surmise that Shepard's organic body has out-healed her synthetic body. The Geth's intervention saved her life yes, but as the two work as one, her cybernetics now have some catching up to do… so to speak. Hence, her memory loss."

"I still think this was an absolution abomination to everything we have ever believed…" Chakwas says while scanning over Shepard's sleeping body.

"Well believe it or not, without this 'abomination' a much worse travesty would have incurred. We'd all be dead. She'll be fine. You will all be fine. Can you live with that?" And can I?

Silence.

"I thought so. Call me if there is any change in Shepard's situation, I'm going to take a bloody shower." Miranda stormed out of the room, leaving stunned doctors in her wake.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

2 hours later:

A pair of nervous green jackets stood watch outside Shepard's room. 18, served on Hackett's ship. Yes, they had seen space battles, but had never been posted to ground combat. They likely had their lives because of that.

"What if… what if t-the Reapers aren't really d-dead? Oh man, they're gonna be pissed at her." Subban stammered.

"Relax fuckwad, they're dead. I'm due for a break, want me to get you a diaper, Nancy?" Price mockingly answered.

"Fucking stop calling me Nancy man. Piece of…"

A rumbling and roars were heard coming towards them. Getting louder be the second…

"Oh fuck! I told you! Shit!" Subban closed his eyes and fired towards the stampeding sound.

"Hahahhahaha… pyjaks… good for nothing… nice gun. Got real bullets in them?" Wrex bellows as he pulls out a bullet fragment from his leg.

He steps towards the trembling green jackets. Followed by the rest of clan Urdnot… Werloc… Tynac… Ghera… Rekno… Smiling, Wrex takes another step forward, nose to nose with one of the soldiers.

Sniff, sniff... Huh… Wrex turns to the other soldier. Sniff… Grrrr….

"I'll let you live on the condition that you both go change your pants… Kalros strike me down, there is nothing as foul as the smell of pyjak shit. Get outta here!" Wrex grows as he pounds his chest, earning an oorahhhhh from the rest of his company.

From inside the make-shift med-bay Chakwas heard the commotion. "Looks like the Krogan are here, suppose I should let Wrex in. Bastard will never die." She smiles to herself.

She drew the curtain back and was face to face with the burly Krogan. "Wrex, pleasure to see you. Not so keen on smelling you, however... I would ask your angry horde to wait outside as Shepard is somewhat fragile these days."

"Fragile my ass, get out of my way puny human…" He swung the curtain closed and leaned in to Chakwas, whispering, as subtly as a 700 pound Krogan could. "Thanks Doc, that was just Krogan-"

"Hot air I know. Get on with it, you have 10 minutes. Mordin left me his scalpel…I'll give you some privacy. Remember… chop chop." A sly smile graced the elder doctor's face as she made her way out of the med-bay and into the crowd of Krogans. "Oh for the love of... Who actually knows what a bath is?" Grunting. More grunting. This was going to be a very long 10 minutes.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

He'd heard she had been awake. Seeing her condition he wondered if that was the Alliance's version of Krogan hot air. She had done everything for him, and he knew it. From the beginning, training him, preparing him to be the leader he was born to be.

"I never leave a job unfinished. Fist is mine, as I was paid to do." 'She actually let me blow him away, this human pyjak isn't bad.'

"Why the fuck do you care about the Krogan's future?" Wrex paced back and forth, angry, ready to charge this insignificant human. Her response, calm and collected, was enough to make his blood boil.

"Because the Krogan people deserve more. And are worth more than selling yourselves out as bounty hunters and mercenaries. A united Krogan would be an unstoppable Krogan. But for now, you have pledged an oath to me and I do believe we have yet to seal our arrangement."

What does this insolent human know of Krogan tradti-

Crackkkk!

She is bleeding like a stuck vorcha, but had the nerve, will and strength to knock a Krogan Battle Master off his feet. From this day forth, Wrex knew she was right. He had to unite his people. Invigorate them, educate them, and most importantly, have them see themselves as the powerful force they were destined to be. Yes from this day forth, this human would be his battle sister, Urdnot Shepard, Warlord and Chief in name. He would make sure of it.

"Crazy human… You'd better live." He looked around the room, and his privacy was reassured.

"You tell anyone I told you this and I'll kill you myself. You've been a champion to the Krogan. From day 1. I'll never forget what you've done for us. Battle songs will be written about you, I swear it. You've earned a warrior's death, but I'd like to see you around to hear the songs my people will sing about you."

He reached over and placed a hand on her forehead. Wake up sister.

"Your 10 minutes is over." Chakwas says while waving Mordin's scalpel to discourage any "funny" ideas.

Without any fuss the clan chief leaves. Chakwas then returns to her readings. The Commander is stable, vitals normal, in deep sleep, cellular regeneration is…

"No, this can't be right." She walks over to the comm systems and pages Dr. Miranda Lawson. Moments later the ex-Cerberus operative arrives.

"Take a look at these regenerative readings. How is that even possible?"

Because I do damn fine work, but this was… unexpected…

"Should she survive, which I'm convince she will, her nanites and implants have somehow been upgraded. You readings, Doctor, indicate she will live longer than we initially thought." A lot longer. I was built on the beta version of this tech, could I also be?

"We gave her a 400 year lifespan, Miranda. Longer than any human will ever live. Do you think this had something to do with the Crucible's blast?"

"I can only hypothesize, but my best guess is yes. By my calculations she will live close to 1000 years naturally." Liara will surely be pleased by this, only best make sure she's out of the woods first.

A/N: Again sorry for the long delay. Been a shit storm of shit, but finally a light at the end of the tunnel. Oh, and after this, think crack fics are my new found calling as I had such a good time writing Toy Story (yes, insert shameless self-promo).