Chapter 16
Shepard awoke in a hospital bed, she felt a dull ache in her chest that soon faded into glorious euphoria as the magic drug machine hooked up to her arm kicked in. That machine was her new friend, and she sure hoped Tali wouldn't be jealous.
"Tali" She yelled, startling the Quarian who had fallen asleep in the chair next to her bed.
"Keelah Shepard you're awake!" Tali said, her heart overflowing with relief and joy.
"Heya baby, whasss a place like you doing in a girl like thisssss?" She asked.
"Uh what?" Tali asked.
"You know, you remind me a lot of my girlfriend. She's a Quarian like you." Shepard said.
"Keelah did you hit your head?" She asked?
"Uh no that would be the pain medication." a nurse clarified as she walked in to check Shepard's vitals, having been alerted to her consciousness by the equipment in the room.
"Any trouble breathing Lieutenant?" She asked Shepard who slurred a negative response before drifting off to sleep again.
"Well, I suppose we can try this again without the pain mediciation next time." The nurse chuckeled. "Sweetheart why don't you got get a nap?" She asked the Quarian.
"Please let me stay." Tali said "I want to be here for her." She said. The nurse smiled kindly then stage whispered to the young woman,
"You know hun, that bed is big enough for two, and her injuries are more than stabilized. You're not gonna do her any good collapsing from exhaustion." She said then collected her cart and walked out of the room. Tali took the advice to heart and climbed into bed with Shepard, draping an arm over her sleeping girlfriend. Soon the sounds of two people gently snoring could be heard in the room, one distorted by a helmet vocal filter, both women with contented smiles on their faces.
They both awoke with a start when Shepard's assigned doctor, a tall Quarian woman gently shook Tali's shoulders to wake her up.
"Sorry to wake you but we need to look at the Lieutenant's vitals." She said.
"Of course." Tali said, and as she rose, Shepard groaned, sad for the loss of contact. The doctor went over her systems and used a mobile internal scanner, one of many medical contributions the Quarians made to the alliance over Shepard's chest.
"Everything is sealed up nicely, thank the ancestors for medigel. I don't want you running any drills, just light exercises for at least a week and then I want you back in for reevaluation, do you understand?" The doctor asked.
"Um, Yes thank you. Wow that was fast." Shepard said.
"You've been here a week." Tali told her as she sat back on the bed next to her girlfriend.
"Jesus a week?" Shepard yelled. "How's baxter? Oh my god, Jiminez.." she trailed off as tears sprung to her eyes.
"Baxter is already back on duty, the bullet nicked an artery but aside from that did little damage." Tali explained.
"As for Jiminez, Jane there is nothing you could have done. He died doing exactly what he trained for, what he signed up for." Tali tried to soothe the Lietuenant.
"God, he was just a kid Tali. He had a boyfriend. They were going to adopt." she said, openly crying now.
"I met him. His name is Neil. He came by to check on you while you were out." Tali said. "He was sad but he said the same thing I did. He died doing exactly what he felt he was put here for. Neil was worried you'd blame yourself so he left this." Tali said, handing a sealed letter.
"Thank you, Tali. I'll read it later, right now I'm just... Ugh." she bowed her hands and began sobbing. Tali scooted over on the bed and wrapped her in an embrace.
An hour later, Shepard was eating what she described as "godawful prison slop" when a soft knock was heard at the doorway. She looked up to see Captain Anderson standing there with a PDA under his arm. Shepard went to stand but was restrained effectively by the Quarian sitting next to her.
"Don't you dare, Lieutenant." Anderson said. She reluctantly gave up her attempt.
"Yes sir." she grumbled.
"You up for a quick debrief?" Anderson asked. Shepard nodded so he sat in Tali's old chair and brought out his PDA to take notes. She explained the events of the attempted invasion. They'd stuck strictly to the hit and run doctrine they'd been ordered to use. Each section they managed to stop the Batarians and thin out their numbers before moving to the next, then she explained the untimely death of Private Jiminez and the capture of the remaining invaders.
"Very Good, Lieutenant. Let me fill you in on what's been going on. During the duration of the invasion, not a single civilian was harmed. Everybody made it to their shelters and were accounted for afterwards. The Batarians walked right past the radio center and didn't even try to investigate it, they were too busy chasing you. You and your Squad's actions saved the lives of 10,000 human beings and 1700 Quarians." Anderson explained. The pride that would normally come with such a revelation was muted significantly by her still raw feelings regarding Private Jiminez' loss.
"In the other sections of the station, we saw similar results from the other squads, though there were quite a few losses. Lieutenant Alenko and Lieutenant Williams both lost members of their squads, and Lieutenant Schneider's entire squad was wiped out preventing them from reaching the Civilian shelters by sealing off the docking bay and venting it out to space." Anderson continued. That one stung too, Schneider's squad were good people.
"I see, Sir." Shepard said. "What next?"
"Well first you need to heal up, you're on leave for the next two weeks minimum, you too Ensign." he said. "After you're fit for duty, we're going to be reassigning you both. With this attack we've decided to evacuate the civilian population to safer locations, mostly outposts, merchant ships, back on Earth wherever they want to go. We need soldiers like you out there ready to act if this thing turns into some big space war." Anderson informed them. They both nodded solemnly.
"Before I forget." Anderson said, handing Shepard two packages. "You lost your PDA during the fight, the brass have determined that they are too clunky and inefficient, so you're being issued a new Quarian-made omnitool. They'll be implanting it once you sign the consent form." he said. Technically they could have implanted it while she was asleep, she had signed over the right for that kind of thing over when she enlisted, but Anderson was big on getting consent before violating the bodies of those in his command.
"This is a gift from the kids in your sector. They wanted to present it in person, but preparations are already underway for their evacuation." He handed over one package which she opened. Inside was a framed picture of her squad, in the streets near the domestic section playing soccer with a group of kids both Human and Quarian. It also included letters both in English and Kheelish form the kids thanking her for keeping them safe and wishing her well on her next assignment. Tears sprang to her eyes not the first time that day but this time they were happy, she had been honored to receive such precious gift and she would treasure it always.
"This one is from me." He said, handing over a package that was far heavier than it looked. She carefully opened it to find a bronzed adjustible wrench attached to a wooden plaque with "Follow your gut." engraved on a plate underneath it. Anderson started snickering at her incredulous look.
"Come over here you old bastard and I'll knock your ass out again." She said, grinning.
A few hours later a nurse came by and gave her another once-over, then after confering with her doctor they decided to discharge her provided she spent the next two days resting at least. Honestly, Shepard was so exausted both mentally and physically she didn't feel she would have much trouble following those orders. While it wasn't strictly necessary, Tali insisted on helping Shepard to her feet and then over to a wheelchair where she was wheeled out of the building and to a waiting transport. After they were in and they were buckled, the pilot took off and headed towards their domicile, to which during Shepard's convalescence Tali had taken the liberty of moving the rest of her personal effects.
Shepard had a warm feelign in her chest as she walked by tali's door towards their shared room to see it full of her things. She was thankful that her girlfriend hadn't planned on going anywhere. Tali helped her to a chair and then went to the kitchenette to get her a glass of water. When she arrived, she saw shepard looking at her longingly with tears streaking down her face.
"Jane's what's wrong?" She asked.
"Tali I'm so, so sorry." She said.
"Whatever for?" Tali asked.
"Almost dying on you. God If I saw you crumple like that." Shepard said.
"Keelah, it was the worst feeling." Tali said, her own heart sinking remembering her beloved laying limp in her arms, a river of crimson leaking from a hole in her armor.
"I never want to make you feel that again, but neither of us can promise not to get hurt, doing what we do." She reasoned.
"I know, Jane, I know. " Tali said, carefully sitting on Shepard's lap and placing the glass of water on a side table. Once she found that she wasn't causing her discomfort, she reached down and hugged her, both women sobbing again. A few minutes later that abated, and Shepard finally grabbed the glass Tali brought for her. They talked for awhile about nothing important when shepard noticed much to her chagrin that she smelled like a track athlete.
"Tali I think I'm going to go take a shower, laying in a bed for a week, well let's just say you should be glad your suit has air filters." She said, smiling.
"Oh, ok." Tali said as she stood up, and offered her hands to help the Lietuenant up. Once again she accepted the assistance gratefully.
"Should only be a few" she said, then winced as pain flared up in her chest. "Ok, maybe more than a few," She said.
"You know, I could go in and help." Tali said, in a suggestive flirty tone to try to make Shepard feel better. Shepard laughed, making the pain flare up worse.
"You know, all joking aside, I might need to take you up on that." She said holding a hand to her wound. All of the false bravado she'd mustered to make the joke in the first place fled Tali as she realized the implications of what was about to happen. Her attraction to the Lieutenant was not based exclusively on her personality, in Tali's eyes if perfection had a form, that form would be a six-foot redheaded amazon with green eyes, a slightly crooked grin and the most amazing set of abs she'd ever set eyes on. Tali audibly gulped, before nodding in acquiescence and saying
"Um, sure. Of course." tali squeaked as she followed Shepard into the bathroom. The process of helping Shepard undress was agonizingly slow for Tali, every movement of her upper half was made awkward both by the occasional shooting pain and also the stiffness from having been stuck in bed for so long. Thankfully Tali's dexterity was sharp enough to manage unclasping Shepard's bra but when she did her heart sank as she saw the dark, red exit wound from the projectile that nearly took her.
"Keelah." Tali said. Some of her shock and sadness made it into her voice.
"Uh, I know I'm a mess but I promise I clean up real good." Shepard said, her voice half-kidding.
"No it's not that. It's just, Keelah that bullet made it all the way through you." She said.
"Oh sweet there's an exit wound! That'll make for a rad scar, let me see!" she said turning around to face Tali, but looking over her shoulder at a mirror on the wall. "Nice!" she repeated, unaware that this action had rendered her girlfriend nearly comatose. Tali, bless her heart, had put up a valiant quarter-second struggle to raise her gaze to her girlfriend's head but her restraint had its limits. She gasped audibly as she saw her love naked for the first time. Shepard was an absolute goddess of a human. Even with a week of atrophy her muscles stood out proud, showing off the considerable work she had done to gain them. This musculature did nothing to diminish the femininity of the ethereal creature standing before her however. Shepards breasts appeared to be larger than her BDU would leave you to believe, and were two wonderful globes of pale white flesh capped by surprisingly dark red nipples. Her wide hips flared out from a narrow waist, and a sparse tuft of red hair gave the quarian only a tantalizing glimpse of her womanhood. Tali tried to say something, anything but all that came out was
"Hurk.. Gug, Shepard..."
"Hey, Yoo-hoo, Zorah. Eyes up here." Shepard said, snapping her fingers in front of the Quarian's mask.
"Keelah I'm sorry, I just. Ancestors you're beautiful. I'm, sorry, I couldn't help." Tali explained, now feeling horrible.
"Hey, it's ok, I'm glad you think so. I was only playing with you. You're the only one that gets to look at me like that, and I love it." She said. "But seriously I stink like a garbage fire, let's hurry and get me cleaned up.
"Right. Ok. Yes. Let's." Tali said It was a testament to her self-control and love for her human that she was able to get through the shower without ripping her mask off and ravishing her right then and there. She didn't know, but Shepard was having similar thoughts, and was hoping beyond hope that those damn researchers would hurry and science up a Quarian immune system cure.
They sat down to lunch and enjoyed each other's company while watching an old Earth Vid when Shepard dozed off sitting up on their sofa. Even though it was only mid afternoon, she was still recovering from a bad case of Batarian bullet through the chest, and even with the miracle of medigel the human body was bound to run out of steam. Tali quietly got up and retrieved a pillow and a blanket, then settled in next to her carefully lifting her head up to place the pillow. Shepard muttered a half-conscious "thanks Tali" and then immediately started snoring softly. Tali, feeling tired herself, decided to crawl beside her and under the blanket, using Shepard as a pillow.
Hours later shepard awoke and smiled as she looked down at the sleeping Quarian draped over her. Shepard was in heaven, despite the awkward position causing her injury to ache she'd love to spend the rest of the night like this, but sadly her bladder was staing a coup on her, so she carefully extracted herself from the couch, moving the pillow under Tali's head and got up. She looked down again at Tali, ascertaining that she was still asleep, then leaned down and kissed the top of her helmet.
"I love you Tali'zorah Vas Arcturus" She said, then walked off to the bathroom. She had no way of seeing the contented smile and happy tears adorning the beautiful face of her beloved Tali.