RP: Shepard, Kaiden & Ashley

[keelah_selai]

Down the stairs to the lower deck. Around the base of the drive core to the maintenance shaft entrance. Up a ladder, and into the duct tunnel. Up a second ladder and turn to the left. Crawl for a sixth of the ship's body and another left turn. Up a short ladder, and out into the room housing the AI Core...

The AI Core was dark and silent, just like the Engineering deck. Tali had never spent much time here - both Legion and EDI frightened Tali a little. She'd been trying to make amends, for Shepard's sake, ever since her argument with Legion, but it was hard work, overcoming years of ingrained prejudice. There was something...off about the room, though. Tali couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong or different. It must be the lack of noise, she thought, and moved quickly to the electrical panel on the doors.

Just a few moments, and the doors to the Medbay sparked and slid open with a metallic groan.

Comments

[itsinmyblood]

Ashley didn't care that she was in pain. That Kaiden's arms were hurting more than they were helping. None of that mattered because Kaiden was here. He was alive. By some miracle he was alive and nothing else mattered.

"I watched you die." Ashley whispered into his shoulder, hugging back as hard as her arms would allow. To this day, the guilt plagued her. That she should have been the one to die and not Kaiden. Because Kaiden had deserved so much more than to die on a foreign planet surrounded by aliens, by people who didn't even know him. They had made a promise, to all go home together, and not a day went by where Ashley wished that she could have taken his place. She would have, in a heart beat. If there was a way for her to go back and convince Shepherd to let her go in Kaiden's stead, she would have taken it a long time ago.

Tali's comment went ignored for the moment, simply because Ashley still couldn't wrap her head around what was happening. Maybe the random stranger was right... Maybe they were all dead. That was the only real explanation.

"How are you here?" She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes, and also to relieve the searing pain that pulsed against her left side.

[cmdr_shepard]

Ashley ignored him. Shepard sat down hard on the bed that Tali had indicated. "Kaidan," he called and nodded his head back at the bed. It didn't occur to him to encourage Kaidan to claim his own bed. "Come on, Tali's right. And you," he said to Ashley,"should get some medigel on those wounds. Tearful reunions can happen when we aren't all about to fall over from fatigue or blood loss or both."

There was something going on here that they didn't totally understand. Kaidan was missing time, Tali couldn't remember the Reaper War, Ashley was dead, there was a fucking castle outside...

"Ashley," he asked suddenly, "Do you...know me? Do you know who I am?"

[kaidanmod]

"There's no one in the universe that doesn't know Commander John Shepard," Kaidan said with a breathless, still-shocky laugh. He obeyed because, well, because this was John giving him a command. Of course he obeyed. But it was so hard to let go of his friend and move to sit.

[keelah_selai]

Tali busied herself gather medical supplies - medi-gel, sanitized towelettes, antispectic spray, and other necessary supplies - before grabbing the armor clippers that Chakwas had kept on hand. She moved slowly and obvious towards Ashley, ready to help the human woman out of her decimated armor if she needed the help.

"I don't know - there was that guard on the Citadel who tried to arrest us..." Tali's tone was absent-minded.