For the next four months, Shepard was fairly certain she was going to go insane. Kirron was insistent that she stayed in the Linds building to be treated, which already made her restless. Being confined to one place always made her uneasy. To be confined to a single cot for so long was driving her to madness.
Reluctantly, she understood why. She was put through six more surgeries for skin grafts and resetting various bones in her body. The decision was made to repair the most severe breaks first, then come back to reset the smaller fractures later. A decision she didn't have the chance to argue, unfortunately, but Miranda reassured her it was for the best. The various casts and bandages changed position every time she woke up, except for the damn bulky one on her right leg.
Thankfully, though, most of the crew visited her or messaged her on her omni-tool on a regular basis. Joker, Traynor, Kaidan, Javik, and the operating crew stayed with the Normandy, assisting with supply and refugee runs around the world, the moon, and the Citadel. According to Kaidan, the Keepers had already begun repairs on parts of the Presidium. They even took food and water to the pockets of survivors that they found. Survivors managed to band together and make their way through the Citadel to safety, so they were brought back with shuttles and the Normandy itself. Now, Admiral Hackett had asked them to begin expanding their trips through the Sol system, reaching the bases on Mars to see if they could offer any assistance.
Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Normandy came to Shepard with official news. There was a collection of quarian engineers and asari scientists who agreed to band together and travel to the mass relay on the other side of Pluto. With their talents and research, they were hoping to begin the appropriate repairs on the relay. How long it would take was unknown for now, but they had to start somewhere. Other quarians reported to one another about using their ships from the Flotilla to sustain living near the relays all over the galaxy. Two cruisers, one for the asari and one for the quarian, launched from Earth about two months after Shepard woke up. And they asked for Tali to be part of the expedition, especially since she held such a high position in quarian culture. Saying goodbye to Tali was extremely difficult, but she sent Shepard a message nearly every day, updating her about progress and interesting engineering secrets she and the others discovered about the relays. With luck, they could link some of the relays together to create a small traffic line for ships to get survivors back to their home planets.
Urdnot Wrex and Grunt came to say goodbye about a week later. Most of the krogan ships were in working order again, so about half of the soldiers would be boarding for the long trip back to Tuchanka. Wrex promised to keep in contact while they traveled, and Grunt promised to name his first-born after her. After all, the saviors of the galaxy had to have nearly every female asking for their attention, and with the genophage cured, the krogan people had a lot of catching up to do. Both of the krogan made her promise to come to their planet when she was well to throw a krogan party in her honor. Plus, Bakara would want to see her soon.
James finally came to see Shepard a couple of weeks after the rest of the squad did. He apologized multiple times, but she was just happy to see him. Besides, Shepard had a feeling James wouldn't do well in visiting any form of hospitals. Like herself, he struggled with understanding why he was still alive and functioning while so many others couldn't be. Admittedly, she still didn't have answers for either of them, but he would be the first to tell if she ever figured it out. The soldier told her about joining up with the Alliance ground forces that would be branching out to contact other parts of Earth for survivors and reconstruction. Several distress calls were still being sent out, so they would follow them as they needed. It was going to be an extremely long process, especially with any hope to bring order back, but James seemed hopeful about the whole approach. Shepard sensed, for possibly the first time since they met, contentment in the soldier. He was happy to go out and actually do something for people. Being part of the crew that helped bring the galaxy together was "awesome," but he was ready to get his hands dirty.
Liara gave up her office on the Normandy to allow more room for possible passengers. She found a small, but intact, house on the fringe of West End, the basement her choice of location to continue the Shadow Broker's business. Shepard thought it strange for the asari to work out of a basement in London, but she had to remember her friend was used to working in ancient burial sites. A basement was hardly the worst place she worked in. More impressive was the fact that she offered the rest of the house for a few stranded people to stay with her. Counting Liara, nine people stayed in the house: one asari and her turian bondmate, their two children, two salarian friends, and a human couple. She admitted to not being a particular fan of the noise, but knowing she was helping someone made the inconvenience hardly noticeable. Her free time was spent out and about in West End, talking with several of the people in the emergency residences, even helping with cleaning up and rebuilding. The asari excitedly showed Shepard the schematics of a new energy plant she and some other scientists were in the process of developing. Once they finished, the plant would provide regular electricity and extranet connections throughout all of London again, giving a chance to create more housing and maybe even re-open businesses. Shepard had a feeling the Shadow Broker would pool its resources to help the project quickly.
Garrus decided not to stay with Liara. Not that their asari friend didn't offer, but the turian felt like there were several other people who deserved the room more. Instead, he stayed in the emergency residences with some of the turian soldiers that were under his command before the attack. They tried to keep formalities with him, but Garrus refused. Since the war was over, he considered all of them on the same level once again. He slept in a simple cot, worked, and ate with them. But no matter what, he came to visit Shepard every day, covered in dust, ash, dirt, and anything else he got into, much to Kirron's dismay. They were working on clearing more streets nearby, even helping to rebuild buildings and houses to expand the living conditions. Primarch Victus was in regular contact with him, and they coordinated to help stranded turian ships get to refuge locations. According to Liara, the turian was offered to leave Earth and return to Palaven to help with the reconstruction of his home world multiple times, but he always refused.
Shepard was slightly upset by this news. If she knew any true turian trait in her boyfriend, it was his love of his home world. Palaven was his home, where he grew up and his family came from. She would never forgive herself if her condition kept him from his priorities. One day, she couldn't keep her opinion to herself any longer. The two of them were walking the hallways of the third floor, a regular routine to keep Shepard's legs muscles working. A thick cast around her right leg made it difficult, but a crutch on her right side (and her turian on her left) made it a bit easier. Garrus just shook his head when she brought it up, saying that he knew where he belonged for now.
"I'm being taken care of," Shepard argued. "You should go back to Palaven. Victus probably has one of the highest positions in the government open for you."
"Probably considered the second highest in your government," Garrus shrugged.
"Why would you turn that down?"
"I'm not a fan of politics, you know that."
She stopped walking and pushed him slightly with her shoulder. "And I also know when you aren't telling me the truth."
Garrus shook his head again before putting his arm around her waist. "I never admit to my weaknesses very well, Shepard."
The statement hurt when she realized. "I'm one of your weaknesses."
"What? No, of course not!" He shook his head again. "And I never use words very well, either. I do have weaknesses, but don't ever think it's you. What I meant is I've lost you three times. If you want to go to Palaven and help with the turian government, then I'm sure Victus will welcome you with open arms. I'll probably sign up with you. But I'm not leaving this planet until you do. And if you never do, then Earth will be my new home. Doesn't matter what you say, I'm not going to lose you again."
Shepard smiled, feeling a flutter of emotion in her stomach as she hugged him. The two of them were never great at sharing their feelings for each other. It was yet another thing they had in common, but hearing him talk so candidly about wanting to stay with her made her nervous. In a beyond-words happy sort of way. She had to tug at him slightly to have him bend to kiss her. Garrus didn't argue the gesture, pressing his forehead against hers gently.
"Was it really three times?" she asked with a slight smile.
"Yes, three times." He held up his fingers as he recounted them. "The first Normandy, the Alliance taking you in after we stopped the Collectors, and you running off to play hero on the Crucible."
"Poor thing. I didn't mean to worry you."
"Well, my other weakness is women handling big guns, so I suppose it can be forgiven since I got to watch you play hero."
She laughed as he went to kiss her again. A pointed throat-clearing sound made them separate to see Kirron standing outside of one of the doors. The salarian had a stern expression as he crossed his arms. Being chastised for "over-stimulating too soon" didn't stop the two of them from giggling a little bit.
One unfortunate bit of news was that she was now officially blind in her left eye. Some surgeons tried to correct the damage, but to no avail. Now, her left eye was a cloudy pale gray in her iris, but it moved in time with her right eye. Apparently, the eye was still functioning normally, other than the not being able to see part. They offered surgeries to put false eyes in its place to make it look more natural, even link a mechanical one to her cybernetics. It would function similar to how Garrus's visor worked, it would just be in her actual skull. That idea unnerved her slightly with visions of bright red beams emitting from her left eye socket. After some debates, Shepard settled on leaving the eye as it was.
The final bandages were removed to reveal a decent burn scar running from under her left ear and stretching down over her clavicle and shoulder of her left side. The skin grafts helped the scars to not look so severe, but they would still be apparent. Miranda suspected the machinery in the Normandy's med bay would remove them. As Garrus ran a finger gently along her neck and joked that they now had a matching set of scars, though, Shepard decided it wouldn't be too difficult to live with.
It was three months and a week after she woke up in the Linds building that the cast of her right leg was finally cut away. Laura, her nurse, helped to bend her leg tentatively for a minute, helping her get the feel of her muscles again. Garrus helped her stand from the bed, keeping a grip on her right arm as she tested her weight. The muscles were still horribly weak from being in the cast for so long, but Laura assured her with some physical therapy that she would be walking normally soon.
Another month of physical therapy for the leg made her continue to stay at the Linds building. She read datapads, books that Liara found, messages from her friends, extranet posts from various places in the galaxy … she was pretty sure she had read damn near everything when Miranda came with a surprise one day.
She carried a metal case, placing it on the edge of Shepard's cot. The weight of the case was apparent as it settled into the mattress. Shepard straightened up to look at the case, noting Miranda's smile.
"I think we're finally ready to get started," she said as she opened the case with a flourish, revealing a collection of wires, metal, and some equipment. "So, Commander Shepard, are you ready to have both hands again?"