"Grunt contacted you?" Garrus repeated, unable to hide the shock from his voice.
"I could hardly believe it myself," Miranda answered with a smirk. "I received a message on my omni-tool shortly after the war ended."
"She's the one that knows Shepard," the young krogan shrugged. "She brought her back once, she could do it again."
"That was a fantastic idea, Grunt," Liara said with some awe. "Thank you for doing that."
Grunt huffed in response.
Miranda shook her head and continued. "I was working my way to my sister's location when he contacted me. Oriana was all right, so I decided to redirect my course. With all of the records of the Lazarus Project, I've been working with the doctors since I landed."
"So is she all right?" Tali asked, unable to contain it any longer.
"I can explain more in a few minutes." The dark-haired woman nodded toward the entrance of the building. "Now, I think we should all head inside. Standing in the rain has never been one of my favorite activities."
Taking her advice, the group filed into the Linds building with Wrex and Javik taking up the rear. Inside, there was a continuous din of voices, beeping, and the occasional cough. Garrus felt the feeling change in the group almost immediately. One time, when she went to Huerta on the Citadel, Shepard commented that she thought no one felt comfortable in hospitals, not even the doctors and nurses. Though several people were treated and recovered in hospitals, the constant feeling of possible loss hovered to her. No matter what you went in for, there was a chance you would not come back. Of course, Shepard (and most of her crew) was used to the feeling, but seeing so many others feel that nervousness made her uncomfortable. Shepard was the savior type, after all; she would do whatever she could to keep from people feeling that way. But here, in the hospital, the doctors and nurses were the heroes.
Most people walked by in casual clothing, talking among themselves in hushed tones. A few stories above, Garrus could make out the faint sounds of children laughing. Miranda walked up to a makeshift that was placed to the right of the entryway, nodding toward the group that followed her.
"We're here for room 45," she explained. "It's all right. I know all of them."
The dark-skinned woman behind the desk nodded. "Just make sure to talk to Vann beforehand. You know how he gets."
"Believe me, I know. Thank you, Morna."
It was interesting to see what they had done with the warehouse. Miranda briefly explained the set-up: three floors, the main for simple treatment, waiting areas, and simple kitchens to feed those in the building; the second for more regular patients, children's rooms, and an impromptu lab set up for blood storage and testing; the third for surgeries, bulk equipment, and more critical patients for privacy. Accommodations for the patients were simple, mostly consisting of walls built up with haste. The cots were simple, but the equipment was as advanced as they had in the Normandy's med bay. In some place, sheets and blankets were strung up to separate the rooms. For the most part, the building's main concerns were treating their patients. Luxury was not something of importance.
As they began to walk through the building, Garrus noticed a vast majority of the population in the building were human, though a portion of them were other races. Tali nudged him once, pointing out a hanar that was hovering beside a bed of a young girl, an object that Kaidan observed as a teddy bear held in one of its tentacles. It was an unusual sight, seeing a hanar play, but the girl giggled and played along, waving her own stuffed animal at the bear.
"Can you tell us how she is?" Kaidan finally asked as they began to walk up the stairs to the third floor.
"I will," Miranda reassured him. "Major Coats and most of the crew here know she's here, but not everyone. We've decided to put her in a room off to the side, away from the other patients. I'll explain more once we're there."
With that, the others decided to hold off on their questioning. It made sense that they not directly mention Shepard for now. Once up on the third floor, they were intercepted by a salarian man. His skin was an ash gray with dull white scales on his face, his eyes dark with deep violet irises. The expression on his face was stern.
"Miss Lawson, I hope there is a reason you have such a group on the third floor," he said in a deep pitch. "Visitors are restricted."
"They're here for room 45," the woman said, looking toward the open door the salarian came from. "They're exceptions."
"This is the group Coats told us about? I didn't expect it to be so … large." He eyed Grunt and Wrex suspiciously. "One of them almost managed to break the equipment last time."
"Not my fault you have everything so close together," Grunt grumbled, glaring at the salarian.
"They won't cause any problems," Kaidan interrupted, putting a hand out toward the young krogan. "None of us will. We're just here to see her."
The salarian paused for a long moment before nodding. "Fine, but everyone won't fit in the room at once."
"This is Dr. Vann Kirron," Miranda said. "He's overseen most of her treatment, until I came in."
"More like until she forced her way in," Kirron huffed as they began walking down a hallway.
By the appearances, Garrus had to guess this area was once the offices and conference rooms of the warehouse. Large windows were in the halls to look into every room, but nearly every one was covered by blinds or more sheets. The surgery areas were marked with various symbols above the doors, and all of those doors were shut. They filed down the hall in twos, turning a couple of corners and stopping at the last room on the right side. Kirron and Miranda turned to them with semi-serious expressions.
"If I'm correct, the nurse is tending to her right now," Kirron said. "She's reducing her sedative. With luck, Shepard will be conscious in a short time."
"Sedative?" Garrus repeated.
"We had to keep her sedated for most of her treatment," Miranda explained with a sigh.
"Yes," Kirron agreed. "Even when the krogan brought her in, her biotics were struggling to defend her. Putting in a sedated state was the only way to take care of her."
"Even when we reduced the dosage, she struggled to wake up. Which is a very good thing, but not when you're in the middle of a surgery or test." Miranda smiled. "It's just like during my last project with her. She kept trying to come to when we were still working."
"So why keep her under?" Kaidan asked.
"She wasn't ready yet. Shepard is alive, but a lot has happened to her. Whether she wanted it or not, her body needed rest. We had no choice but to put enough sedative in her to keep a krogan down."
Wrex and Grunt chuckled proudly while the others smiled.
"I suppose you should know the extent of the damage," Kirron sighed. "It has been about 20 days that we've treated her, and she's made impressive progress. However, I'm certain she will not be the commander you remember."
"Her biotics did a lot of shielding," Miranda cut in, giving Kirron a sharp look. "She could have been much worse, but her body has a lot of natural defense to it."
"Please, just tell us what happened," Liara said with impatience.
"By appearances, she's lost vision in her left eye. There was shrapnel and her left eye socket broke. We can't be certain if the damage is permanent until she can tell us, however. Her armor covered most of her body, but there are burns on about 25% of her body, her left side taking the most damage. We've done some skin grafts to avoid infection, but there is a lot of scarring, the worst area being from her left shoulder up to her ear. Her cybernetics were still operational, which is extremely lucky."
"But she did suffer a collapsed lung, so she was equipped with a chest and breathing tube for some time to treat it," Kirron went on. "Also several small bone fractures, her right leg was broken in three places, we assume from a heavy object falling on it. The leg had to be reset, but it will heal properly. I assume Miss Lawson is avoiding the most damaging news for your sakes, so I will be the bearer of bad news."
He took a breath as the group looked to one another anxiously.
"Shepard's left arm was either pinned or crushed at some point," he said solemnly. "Since it was under pressure, the circulation was cut off from her arm for unknown amount of time. This basically means that the blood in her arm died from the lack of oxygen, and once she was freed, it began to travel through her system. Her blood was poisoned, and the source was her left arm. Transfusions and antibiotics were delivered to clear her bloodstream, but we had to make sure it didn't happen again. To ensure the spread didn't continue, we amputated her arm … just under her elbow. Now, most of the humerus was able to be reset and saved, but the rest of her arm was damaged beyond repair."
"It will take some time," Miranda's voice was quiet, "but I'm going to find the equipment and parts I need to design a proper prosthetic for her. With luck, I can even do something to help with her vision loss. For now, though, I've done everything I can."
"She is officially considered stable," Kirron said. His tone turned serious as he looked to them. "However, she'll need more bed rest, fluids, and someone to keep an eye on her to make sure actually stays in bed. We'll be removing her breathing and feeding tubes, but I will not be allowing her to leave this 'hospital' until further notice."
"Hopefully, Laura has already tended to taking the tubes out. It may take her a bit to be able to speak."
"But we can see her?" James wondered. Garrus had almost forgotten the human soldier was with them; he was eerily quiet since they left the Normandy.
"Yes," Kirron answered hesitantly. "But only a few at a time. She's too excitable without even knowing where she is. Seeing all of you could make it worse. Don't force her to speak right away, either."
"Thank you, Dr. Kirron," Kaidan said, offering his hand.
The salarian shook his head, holding his own hand up. "You'll understand if I do not shake your hand. I try to stay as sterile as possible even before I go into the surgery rooms …"
With a quick nod, the salarian man walked around the waiting group, leaving Miranda to stand between them and the door. Catching everyone off-guard, Tali stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the woman. Miranda froze up momentarily, not used to the close contact.
"And thank you," Tali said quietly, giving the woman a squeeze. "For everything you've done."
"Oh, I—" Miranda stopped. She brought her own arms up to hug Tali to her. "You're welcome."