Unseen: Mass Effect FanFiction (ReWritten)

Chapter 13

Aster woke up in immense pain from several areas of her body, but mostly coming from her left shoulder; the massive migraine wasn't helping either.

'What's going on?' She thought, trying to get her bearings. 'Where am I?'

'Huerta Memorial,' a voice answered. 'Go back to sleep, you're safe.'

Aster felt tired out of the sudden before she was back in the darkness. The next time she woke, the migraine was gone, and she wasn't in so much pain.

"I think she's coming to," a voice sounding a lot like John said. "I'll go get the doctor."

"Aster," another voice said. "It's David, your father."

Aster groaned and tried to roll her head closer to the voice; her head felt a bit heavy.

"It's alright," Anderson said. "Don't strain yourself so hard. Your brother is bringing the doctor."

'Brother?' Aster thought a bit confused; she hadn't realized she had a brother. 'I have a brother...a brother called...'

'John,' the same voice answered; this time she could clearly hear it coming inside her head. She had thought it was a dream.

'Yes,' She agreed. 'John is my brother.'

Aster could hear the door whoosh open, and two sets of footsteps walk in.

"She's trying to wake up," Anderson said.

"Aster, can you hear me?" the doctor asked. "I'm Dr. Michael."

"Yes," she tried to say, but it came out as a groan; her lips felt like they were glued together.

"Here," the doctor said as Aster felt the rim of a cup get pressed to her lips. "It's water, take a sip."

Aster did as she was told and didn't realize how parched she was until that sip of water hit her throat.

"Can you try opening your eyes?" Dr. Michael asked as a bright light was shown on Aster's eyelids.

Aster fluttered her eyelids, trying to open them, but couldn't manage anything but a squint.

"That's alright," she said. "You did great. It'll take some time for you to recover."

There were some hushed whispers between the doctor and her family before the door whooshed open and closed.

"You did great," Aster heard Anderson say next to her. "Why don't you go back to sleep? You need all the rest you can get."

Aster settled back into bed and relaxed, waiting for sleep to come.

*

Aster woke and found that opening her eyes was easier this time around. Her eyelids didn't feel as heavy as before. She was feeling better than she had in a long time. But there was still a dull pain coming from her arm. Aster tried to straighten up but found that she couldn't.

There seemed to be a problem with one of her arms. She got the feeling that something was wrong, taking a deep breath, Shepard used her good arm and felt her shoulder. The motion left her breathless.

Her shoulder was still attached; she began to feel below the shoulder and found only a few inches of arm left before there was nothing but air. Aster took another breath, blinking away the moisture that threatened to leak from her eyes before looking down at her arm. There was no mistake; the rest of her arm was just gone.

She tried to clear her throat but found that she couldn't. This time, she couldn't hold back the tears, no matter how hard she tried. It was no wonder that she felt so much pain. After she calmed down a bit, she wiped away the tears the best she could.