Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA, not me.

This is a collaboration between myself and my sister in law, please enjoy!

Part 2 of 2

Chapter 2

Hunger finally woke me up, or maybe it was the pain. My stomach growled and gurgled, demanding attention immediately. My head argued with it. My brain was pounding on my eyes with my skull. There was also a watermelon sized ball of guilt and shame sitting in the pit of my stomach. I crawled to the nearest vent and looked out of the slats into the entryway to our room. There was no one there. The ship hummed in the background. The engines were thrumming along as if we were flying through some system at sub-light speed, but they sounded softer than they usually did. Maybe we were just orbiting.

I gently eased open the vent and slid out. When I tried to stand my feet screamed at me. I collapsed to me knees with a whimper, and then my knees complained too. I looked down and gasped. My grey shirt was covered in a large stripe of sticky maroon flowing down from my left shoulder. I touched my neck and my fingers encountered a crust of dried blood that flowed down from my ear, across my neck and down my shirt. This small tendril was joined at the shoulder by more blood that came from a large gash just under my clavicle. I had blood on my face too.

I shuffled over to the door and punched the button, but it didn't open. If I couldn't wash the blood out of my shirt I would get bathroom duty on top of whatever else my mom doled out. I was going to be in so much trouble! I tried the door one more time, but the light stayed red. I frowned at it and stuck out my tongue. The options for plan B were pretty slim. I could go to the mess hall and feed my overly demanding tummy, or I could go to the med bay and get a band aid for my arm, and maybe a few for my knees, and feet. Maybe they would even have one for an ear shaped hurt. I still couldn't hear out of it right. Every noise seemed to hum a little too much. Maybe it would be best if I went there first.

I stood up and tried to walk to the elevator, but my feet hurt a lot. I sat down again. It would be really embarrassing if I rode the elevator sitting down, and then had to crawl across the crew deck to the med bay. Better to take the ducts again. I sighed and turned to the ducts.

I felt a sudden sense of apprehension as I crawled into their rectangular confines again. Why was that? They had never been scary before, and it hadn't been the ducts that had tried to hurt me, it had been the stars. The stars with their bright fire so cold it burned. If it hadn't been for Ankara's shields and her help with the door, the stars would have gotten me, and pulled me out into their airless ocean.

Stop being silly, I told myself. I patted the firm grey metal, the tunnels that were my freedom, and slowly crawled off in the direction of the medbay.

I opened the duct to the back of the medbay and looked out. There was a lot of activity in here, but most of it was concentrated on the forward side of it. Here in the aft portion the lights were dimmed. Several of my mom's marines were here, some asleep on gurneys, others just resting on the floor, too tired to walk to their beds just down the hall. I carefully replaced the vent cover and stood up. I was mostly hidden in the shadows. No one noticed me. In a way that would be easier, then I wouldn't have to walk up to them and report what had happened. For a few moments I just stood there wondering what to do.

The man in the next bed over began to groan, clenching and unclenching the bed sheets with his powerful hands. Maybe he was having a bad dream. I wished I had Adm. Tuffington with me. The admiral would have kicked those nightmares into the next solar system. Well, it was my turn anyway. I crept over to the man and grabbed his big hand in my two smaller ones. The man turned his face towards me. My breath stopped.

It was Chief McGarrett, but he was hurt. The whole right side of his face was black and bloody, his right eyelid swollen and shut. The other side of his face was ok, maybe the doctors had already fixed that side and had run out of medigel to fix the other. Maybe that's what they were doing over there by the other beds in the light, looking for more medigel. For a moment we stared at each other, unable to say anything.

I licked my lips and tried to smile, but I felt myself crying instead.

"Sidra" he breathed.

"Chief" We stared at each other again.

"They must have, run out of medigel" I stammered. I didn't have anything else intelligent to say.

"Yeah," he agreed, "They didn't have any for me either."

I looked down towards the far end of the medbay, where the doctors were still bustling about between the occupied beds. "Are you in line?" Lines made sense, especially in the military. You didn't always get what you needed right away, but there was usually a line you could wait in to get it.

A breath rushed out of him, a laugh, a cough? "You could say that."

I nodded.

Chief McGarrett reached up and pressed his hand to my face. He ran his big calloused thumb over my cheek. All of a sudden he was angry, furious. He gritted his teeth and growled. His other hand clenched into a fist so hard it shook. I was frightened. What had I done? "I should have been here!" He cried. "Here. Here! Not on that damn planet!"

A nurse looked over from the nearest cot, but after a cursory glance she went back to her work on the patient in the bed. She didn't even notice me. She looked sad, and determined all at the same time.

"I don't understand Chief" I stammered. He was acting so strange. I was confused and a little afraid. "Of course you had to go down to the planet. They needed you."

"You needed me." He insisted. "I needed to be here. I should have been here."

"I'll be ok." I said. "I only need a bandaid or two. I'll get one after they come back and finish helping you."

The chief took my hands in his again. His hand was shaking hard. "I want you to know… You were my reason little one." He turned his head away to look at the ceiling. A tear fell out of his eye and snaked down his brown cheek. "Lot of guys have a reason, and you were mine."

He paused, tears were pouring out of his good eye now. He looked desperate, like he had to explain something important to me. "There were these kids see. Playin' in the depot when they hit. They didn't stand a chance but somehow… Somehow the batarians passed over 'em in the first wave. Hiding under a skycar. We land two blocks away, start working our way to the center. Came around a corner, n' there they were, fear and hope all rolled into the biggest eyes you ever saw. They saw me and started to run over. Left their cover without even looking. Three batarians saw em. One opened fire." – "I shot that one" – I nodded. "Then one of those bastards threw a f%^&ing grenade, those new sticky kind. Right in front of em. Kids didn't slow down at all, just kept running at me like I was gonna save em." He huffed out another laugh. "So I did." He fell silent after that. I didn't really know what to say. That sounded like he was a hero, but I didn't understand why it made him upset.

"Why are you here?" he suddenly demanded in a loud voice.

That was a silly question. What did he think I was doing in the medbay? Coming to do homework? I looked around but no one was paying attention to us, but if he didn't quiet down he was going to wake everyone else who was sleeping in the dim area. "Isn't it obvious?" I asked in a soft gentle voice, hoping that he would calm down too.

He huffed again. The fight suddenly seemed to go out of him. "Yeah, I guess so."

He looked at me again and grabbed my hands in his. "I'm so tired little one. I'm just so tired." He cried.

"You should go to sleep." I said, that was a simple problem to solve.

He blinked at me. Tears still leaking down his face. "I'm scared little one."

"I'll protect you." I replied, happy I could do something to help. "Admiral Tuffington used to protect me at night when I had bad dreams. He taught me how to chase away nightmares. I'll stay with you and make sure you can find all the good dreams."

The chief sniffed and nodded. He shook both of my hands in the way that marines do before they go on a mission. "Ok" he said.

I nodded firmly, it seemed the thing to do. I crawled up into the bed with him and assumed my command. I curled around his big beefy arm, using his muscular shoulder for a pillow. Even lying on his back, and me on my side, his chest was taller than me. After a few minutes his ragged breathing eased into something a little shallower. It wasn't long before I drifted off to sleep too.

Six hours later a nurse began to walk down the line of men laid out in the dimmed medbay. "Oh my God!" She whispered, when she found two people in McGarrett's bed. "Oh, Oh My GOD!"

I was startled awake as the nurse ran shrieking out of the med bay. A moment later the doors opened and a flood of people poured into the room. A tide of people rushed to my bed and lifted me up and away from McGarrett. The faces of marines, doctors, engineers and nurses whirled around me. Everyone was shouting at everyone else to do something and the cacophony was deafening.

"Doctor! Doctor!"

"Sidra, it's Sidra"

"Here, in the med bay!"

"Get the captain!"

"Commanding officer to the med bay!"

"We found her!"

"She's alive!"

"It's Sidra!"

The next thing I knew the doctors had pushed their way to the center and were pulling my socks off, poking light into my eyes and dabbing at me with cotton swabs and gauze. The nurses did their best to form a human barrier against the marines and other crewmembers that were enthusiastically trying to breach the tight circle of medical personnel that surrounded me.

Suddenly, the non medical invaders began to retreat. Someone new was shouting at the back of the crowd. The press around the doctors evaporated as the new voice, ringing with authority and something else, overrode the discordant ruckus. I knew that voice. I tried to shrink down inside the ring of doctors and think invisible thoughts, but it was no use. Everyone knew I had climbed out of the vents looking like I had been run over by a tank.

"Stand Aside!" Captain Shepherd's awe inspiring voice rang out over the din. Everyone hurriedly shrank against the walls as my mother's firm steps strode sharply down the center of the room. Here it comes. I thought.

I felt the nurses flinch away from my mother. The doctor's were a little more reluctant. They were like a pack of varren, once they got a hold of a wounded animal they never let go and they protected it to the death against any foe. My mother, however, wasn't just any foe. One unfortunate man tried to stand in her way. "Ma'am, we need to…"

What ever he was going to say was cut off as my mother punched him right in the mouth. He spun around and then collapsed in a heap on the ground. My mothers boots stepped over him and then stopped. I couldn't bring myself to look her in the eyes. In all the running around in the vents, and then protecting McGarrett while he slept I hadn't had time to come up with something to say to my mother when this moment finally arrived. So I just stared at her perfectly polished boots. I sniffed and a tear rolled down my cheek. After a moment when nothing happened I looked up at her face.

It was the most astonishing sight I had ever seen. I had heard my mother yell, I had even heard her cuss. Once I had seen her give a dress down so biting that she had made a young marine faint with scathing words alone. Occasionally, I saw her sweat a little when she was commanding a particularly close fight. The one thing I had never, ever seen my mother do was cry.

Now there were not only tears in her eyes, but streams of them pouring down her perfect cheeks, dripping off of her jaw and on to her perfect blue uniform. I stared at her, mesmerized by the two rivers of emotion. Her mouth was slightly open and her eyes were wide with disbelief. Suddenly, she collapsed to her knees. I was swept up into her arms and crushed against her in a fierce hug.

I had not expected this response at all. I didn't know what to do, but I hugged her back with all my might. The last several hours had been terrifying but suddenly I was in the safest haven of all, tucked into my mother's strong protective arms; I began to cry too.

"Oh baby," My mother sobbed into my hair. "Oh my sweet baby."

She was weeping now, with long ragged breaths and choking sobs. Her grip on me never let up on its crushing strength. "Mom," I said distressed. Everyone was watching us, I could feel it even though my face was pressed into her shoulder. "Mom, the commanding officer's not allowed to cry."

"Hush Sidra" my mother said, "and let me hold you."

My mother began to rock me back and forth murmuring into my hair. I didn't catch most of what she said. She was talking to my dad, Andrew. "Oh my love, I don't know what I would have done. My baby, our baby, our sweet little girl. I almost lost her, Andrew. I couldn't do anything. Oh my Sidra, my precious little Sidra. My baby girl."

"I'm sorry I disobeyed you Mommy." I said softly. " I won't go into the vents again. I'm sorry."

My mom's arms tightened around me all over again. "Oh baby, you can climb through the vents as much as you want. I'll never get mad at you for it ever again. I promise. Ducts, vents, elevator shafts, you can go wherever you want as long as you stay alive. Oh I love you baby. I love you. I love you so much!" Eventually, Mom calmed down and stopped rocking me, but she didn't let go.

After a while a voice softly cleared its throat. "Sidra has a broken clavicle Ma'am and some other cuts and scrapes we would like to clean up when you're ready."

I felt my mother nod her head. "Of course."

She picked me up and carried me to the nearest available gurney. Then she took half a step backwards and allowed the doctors to approach. They gently eased my socks off and doctored my bleeding feet. They pressed antiseptic covered gauze onto my neck and ear. They shone lights into my eyes and took my pulse. A nurse gently cleaned away the blood from my shoulder so the doctors could look at my collar bone. Then another nurse helped fit my arm into a sling. Through it all my mother stood one step behind me and to the left, watching them with the eyes of a hawk, looking for any mistake they committed with the care of her precious daughter. Dr. Harinski stepped over and murmured a question to my mother. My mother's scowl deepened, but then she assented. The doctor then approached me with a syringe, wiped a spot on my arm with disinfectant, and gave me a shot.

I felt drowsy almost immediately. The nurses eased me back onto a pillow and then began to pick up. My eyelids grew heavy and I looked at my mom. She smiled down at me and passed her hand through my dirty hair. Then she leaned down and kissed my nose, and then my forehead. "Goodnight Sidra. Sleep well. I love you."

"I love you too mommy." I mumbled as I fell asleep.

AN: We have several other short stories about Sidra Shepard written. If this gets a positive response I may type them up and post them.