Survivor

Chapter 15

Garrus
Garrus paced the waiting room, thoroughly agitated by what happened today.
  Samantha should have been safe there in the apartment, and yet those bastards had easily breached their lock and assaulted her.
  His stomach turned at the memory of how he had found her. It took everything in him to not beat the life out of the Batarian and Turian left. At least he shot the Asari, though. That was a small consolation to him.
  She had moved toward him and his anger got the best of him, he shot her and the C-Sec officers didn't question him when he told them she had been threatening them before he shot her.
  Of course they wouldn't, he was one of them, after all, and her death just meant one more piece of scum out of the Wards.
  They easily let him go, which let him rush Samantha to the hospital.
  He kept glancing at her. Begged her to stay with him, stay awake, but she had passed out before she was even set in the Skycar. He couldn't blame her, though. She had been tortured and shot, after all.
  Finally, Garrus saw a doctor approach him and he stood taller, eager for news.
  "Are you Samantha Shepard's caregiver?"
  "I'm her boyfriend, yes."
  The doctor nodded her head and pursed her lips before she spoke, which made Garrus even more nervous.
  "She's out of surgery. The good news is she's going to be fine. We were able to fix the damage the bullet made, it wasn't anything too serious. She's lucky you rushed her here, the danger was her bleeding out and she was pretty bad off in that area. It's a wonder you found her moving.
  As for the bad news, she has a broken wrist and her hand was shattered in a couple places. We had to pull fragments of her Omni-Tool out of her hand and wrist too, but the damage was able to be fixed also.
  One broken and three fractured ribs accompany that, along with burn marks, multiple bruises over her body, and signs of stress on her heart from the electricity. Needless to say, she's going to need to stay for observation for three days minimum, and I highly advise she stay away from strenuous activities. No lifting anything above 5 pounds, minimal bending over and slow movements. I've also prescribed some pain meds to help her out through this."
  Garrus signed and nodded as he ran a hand over his forehead. "Can I see her?"
  "Of course. She's probably going to be a bit out of it from the sedatives, so some things may not make sense."
  Garrus nodded in reply and let the doctor lead him to Samantha's room.
Inside, she laid in her bed sleeping with the monitors attached to her and the doctor left him alone with her.
Garrus walked over and took a seat next to her and took her hand into his own.
"I'm so sorry, Samantha," he whispered. "I should have been there. Should have made sure security was top notch, not that shit. I should have done more."
His sad eyes traced over her broken form, back in a hospital bed. Not even 2 weeks after she left the hospital. What did that say about him? He rushed off back to work and left her alone in the apartment knowing she was blind and still adjusting.
He blew out a frustrated breath and cursed softly.
"Garrus?"
His head jerked up at her hoarse voice calling out to him.
"Yeah? I'm here, Sam."
She squeezed his hand and nodded slightly. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to drag you away from work. I should have been able to handle it, but I couldn't... I..."
Her sentence faded away as she stared straight ahead looking distressed.
"No. Don't apologize. You didn't do anything wrong by calling for me. Not a damn thing. I'm glad you pinged me."
She didn't look convinced, though. She simply bowed her head so he couldn't see her face clearly.
Garrus reached out and turned her face to him. "You scared the hell out of me, Sam. I was afraid I was going to find you... I don't know what I would have done. I don't know what I could do without you. My only regret is that I couldn't get there sooner."
She nodded, still looking conflicted, but at least the frown eased out of sight.
"The doctor is supposed to come to me today, here at the hospital. He got the news and wanted to check on my vision, see if we can do anything."
Garrus nodded. "Good. I was wondering what would go on with that. Did he say when he should get here?"
"In about an hour."
"He must have dropped a few things to make time for this. I already like that."
Samantha shrugged. "If he's dealing with someone that can be healed, he should keep up with them. Especially if they're younger."
Garrus clenched his jaw and shook his head. "No. He should do what he sees as necessary and obviously this is important to him. As it should be."
"Garrus, I had my run. Someone else should be allowed that. There are so many people coming from Earth that need his work and here he is with a blind soldier that did her job."
"And you deserve to live a normal life. You've sure as hell earned that much!"
Samantha traced circles over his knuckles with her thumb and smiled at him. "I'll admit it's hard, but it's something I can accept. Especially with you here for me like this. I was bitter about it, but why should I be? It's my sight, not my life. We should both be grateful for that."
Garrus sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand. "I just... I hate seeing you like this. I feel so damn helpless. I can defeat a Reaper and work on one of the biggest batteries in the Alliance and I can't even help my girlfriend like I should."
Samantha snickered, which caught his attention and he looked up at her, confused.
She had an evil grin on her face and it only grew bigger. "You mean calibrating? Because you're damn good at that, apparently, considering how many times you were too busy doing some calibrations to talk..."
Garrus let out an exasperated sigh, but his mandibles moved in a smile and he shook his head. "You're never going to let that go, are you? I help you prepare for attacking the Collector's base and this is what I get..."
"Well I didn't think it would take so many damn calibrations or I would have locked you out of the main battery the moment we got you on the Normandy!"
Garrus chuckled and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "You know I can't sit around doing nothing... We're alike in that manner."
"We're alike in so many more ways than that, Vakarian. Probably why we drive each other crazy in both the good and the bad ways."
Garrus chuckled again and smiled. "True enough. For the record though, you drive me crazy more than I drive you crazy."
Samantha snorted a laugh. "Yeah. Right. Keep telling yourself that, honey."
Garrus shook his head but he let her have the win. He was just happy she was okay and feeling well enough to joke around and make him feel better.
  Her laughter faded and she turned her head to give him a loving smile, which spread to her eyes.
  Samantha continued to amaze Garrus. After all that she had seen, all that she had suffered, had to do and withstand, she still smiled at him as if he were the only thing that existed for her. As if he were her whole world and everything was okay.
  "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?" Garrus asked as he brushed the back of his talons gently across her unburnt cheek.
  She laughed softly and smiled. "I believe you have a few times."
  "Samantha, I-"
  A knock on the door cut him of and he grimaced before he turned to see Miranda step into the room.
  "Shepard. I'm glad to see you're awake. How are you feeling?"
  Samantha shrugged, then winced. "I could be better, but it's not the worst that's happened."
  Garrus snorted his disagreement, which made Samantha give him a reproving look.
  Miranda chuckled. "Ever the optimist. I see why you never ran out of your damn pep talks and speeches."
  Garrus couldn't help but laugh, which turned to a cough to cover when Samantha shot a glare his way.
  "Pessimists don't win wars as often. Especially when they spread their views to the soldiers under their command."
  "I think it just depends on the leader. Anyways, I came by to see how you're doing and let you know that I've given the doctor new tech that could possibly help improve your vision. It's no promise, but I wanted to make sure you were okay with it, as it is experimental technology..."
  Samantha had begun to nod her head before Miranda had even finished speaking. "Yes, I'm definitely willing to give it a shot."
  "I'll warn you now, it could have side effects and it doesn't always work for everybody. It could be instant or take up to a week to work. But it must be small doses at a time, so depending on how much, if any of your vision is restored, you could have your vision back by this time next year."
  Samantha covered her mouth and nodded, but Garrus could see the hope in her eyes and the grin that spread across her face.
  It broke his heart to think that this may be for nothing.
  "Miranda, could I have a moment with you? Outside?"
  She nodded in agreement and they both stepped out into the hall and shut the door so Samantha couldn't hear.
  "What the hell are you thinking? What if this doesn't work? You're giving her this false hope just to snatch it away!"
  Miranda clenched her jaw and shook her head.  "No, I'm not. I'm nearly 100% sure this will work. You forget that I was head of the Lazarus project! This means that I know more than you think about what was used to restore her full body function."
  "And you said you don't have the damn files to be sure!"
  "No, I said that I didn't have the complete file and procedure. But I'm sure that this is what was used to heal her vision when she was in pieces."
  Garrus threw his hands up in frustration. "Damn it, Miranda! This better work, because if it doesn't, your ass is on the line for what happens after. She is hoping for this. She has been for two weeks now! More than that because she's been hoping for it since she woke up to find she's fucking blind! You're not the one that has to see her suffer! That has to see her stumble through a house when she used to run across a battlefield she had never laid eyes on before! You don't have to hear her cry at night when she thinks you're asleep!"
  By the time he finished, Garrus was heaving out each breath and shaking from his anger and frustration.
  "I can't say I can imagine how hard this is for you," Miranda started gently. "I can't say I ever will, but I can say that I think of her as a friend and a hero to me, too. I want her to get better as much as you and any of her other friends do. I'm trying my best here. Sometimes, what people need is a little bit of hope, though. Especially after what happened to her. You heard what she said. Pessimists don't lead very many winning battles. Their soldiers need to hear winning words."
  Garrus was about to speak when Miranda held up her hand to stop him.
  "That's enough. The doctor is here. That's what we need to concentrate on, now."

((A/N: Hey guys!!! So what do you think of the last three chapters?? I'm hoping the reads count is an indication of you guys liking it?? Lol I'm super excited because I had found out that not only does this fanfic have over 475 reads, but it made "What's Hot" and "What's New" under the #masseffect tag!!! Thanks so much guys! I couldn't do it without all of the support!!! Gonna be hitting 500 reads soon and it's hard to believe! Thanks again! And hey, don't forget to vote and comment, lemme know what you think! I love to hear feedback!!!))