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Bullets and Scars Ch. 16

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The last hour had been chaotic.

Avery and the team of surviving soldiers and archeologists had managed to get almost all the way to the closest exit from the catacombs on Armeni, but then the geth had attacked them from both directions, coming from out of nowhere it seemed.

They’d fought them off quickly and without harm, but when the last geth had been destroyed, she had noticed Hart slumped down against the wall of the tunnel, with his hand tightly clutching his shoulder, bleeding profoundly.

He’d tried to tell her it was nothing at first, but when he tried to get back up on his feet, he fell back down, dizzy from the blood loss.

Shepard had given him a medi-gel shot to stop the bleeding, and then ordering the others to get out as fast as possible – still not sure they were completely safe from more geth ambushes.

She helped him back on his feet and, using her biotics as a boost, she carried him out from the tunnels and into the Normandy, to the med bay, where Dr. Chakwas had started treating him as soon as he was lying down on one of the cots.

Hart had lost a lot of blood, in just a few minutes, but the doctor managed to close the wound, and replaces the lost blood with plasma they had on board.

Things had calmed down now.

Shepard had given orders to Joker to take them to the Arcturus Station, to leave the soldiers and archeologists with Hackett, and was now sitting beside her friend, watching over his sleeping form.

He was so pale compared to his usually tanned skin due to the blood loss. Still more color to his skin now compared to hers though. And his hair had grown long since she last saw him. He almost looked like a complete stranger to her now.

She sighed and buried her face in her hands, rubbing her temples.

“What’s up with the sigh?” a hoarse voice asked her, and she looked up again only to see a grin on his face.

“It was for your stupid ass getting caught in the crossfire!” she growled, barely managing to ignore the impulse to slap him, “What happened?”

“I saved your stupid ass from getting caught in the crossfire,” he replied with a grin, slowly lifting his arm and nudged her arm with his hand. “You didn’t notice the geth coming from the left.”

“That’s what shields and barriers are for, moron,” she scolded, glaring at him, “And I clearly remember that when I asked, you said yours had been burned out.”

Hart chuckled, “Well, I remembered that a certain woman taking a bullet for me, so I figured I should take one for you.”

“Damn you, Connor! That was different!”

“I don’t see the difference,” he smirked.

“For starters…” she said, pouting with her hips as she tried to think of a way to finish the sentence. “For starters; you’re stupid!”

Connor laughed for a second, before his face in the next moment was twisted in pain from the wound in his shoulder, and he groaned loudly.

Avery leapt from her chair, “Connor!”

He shook his head, holding up his hand between them as a sign that he was alright. “Calm down… Mom,” Hart chuckled, as her expression shifted from concern to a frown when he called her that.

“Funny, very funny,” Avery muttered, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned back into the chair with a deep sigh, glaring at Connor, “I got really worried!”

“I know,” he replied with a barely contained laughter, “That’s why it’s funny.”

“You’re such an ass.” Her frown slowly faded into a smile. “I’ve missed you.”

He grinned back at her, “And I you.” He lifted his hand, cradling her cheek, his fingers playing with a lock of her mahogany hair. “You’ve let your hair grow.”

“So did you.”

Shepard reached out to touch his blonde hair, feel the softness of it between her fingers. For as long as she’d known him his hair had been shaved, like it had been the first time they met all those years ago. Her fingers reached up to touch the scar above his brow, her fingers trailing it up to his hairline where she knew it would continue almost all the way around his skull.

He was hiding it. He never used to hide his scar.

“Why?” she simply asked.

“Because Ophelia hated seeing it,” he replied, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

“Since when do you let your girlfriends dictate the way you look?” she almost growled in distaste.

Hart chuckled, “Growing out my hair so people don’t have to see my creepy scar isn’t a big deal.”

Avery brushed away the hair from his face. “It’s not that creepy.”

“I guess the creepy part for her was to know how close we Alliance soldiers come to death during some of our missions.” He grinned at her, and Avery gave him a weak smile back.

“She’s an ex-girlfriend now though.”

She smiled at him, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he laughed like he had no care in the world, “I ended it because she wanted things to get more serious than I wanted them to be.”

Shepard chuckled, “Still untamed and unbound?”

“As untamed and unbound as you are,” Connor smirked at her.

Her lips curved into a smile.

“So I heard you’ve become the first human Spectre,” he continued after a few moments of silence, still with a smirk on his lips, “You always have to be better than the rest, don’t you?”

She laughed, shaking her head, holding up her hands in front of her, “Hey, I had nothing to do with it. It was the Alliance that was aiming for this. I’m still just an Alliance grunt, only with less red tape.”

“Right…” he teased. ”But how did you manage a feat like becoming the very first human Spectre?”

Avery chuckled yet again, “Yeah, how did I manage that? I guess I caught the Alliance’s eye during the Skyllian Blitz, but I got the feeling that the Council only made me a Spectre to get humanity off their back. They claimed it’s because I’m the only who discovered that one of their Spectre agents had betrayed them, but they could’ve sent any of their more experienced Spectres on this mission, without having to go through the trouble of making me one.

“Now you’re not giving yourself enough credit,” he said, nudging her hand.

“I’m not saying I’m good,” she grinned, “Because I know I am. But good enough to join the ranks of the best in the galaxy? I don’t know…”

“I don’t think they would make you a Spectre to appease humanity, because if they think we’d be satisfied before they give us a spot in the Council, they’re dead wrong,” he grinned back, “Don’t you agree?”

“Well, I know it won’t be long before the politicians start talking about it again. I just hope they won’t pull me into it again. Dealing with the Council when they don’t even believe me is bad enough,” she sighed.

“They don’t believe that their agent’s gone rouge?” he asked, “How come they even authorized this mission?”

“I didn’t mean that, it’s-” Shepard sighed, “I’ll tell you another time, it’s a long story, and it’s pretty unbelievable…”

“Okay,” he replied, “Well, let’s hope that they won’t drag you into the politics then, if you’ve got your hands full. Or at least that they wait until you’ve finished your mission.”

“Let’s hope for the sooner rather than the latter.” She smiled softly at him while the room fell silent, before she got up from her chair. “You should rest. We’ll arrive at Arcturus Station in an hour or so.”

“But Mom!” he protested, really stretching out the words as he said them, and she frowned as when he referred to her has his mother again.

“Well, since I’m your mother, you have to do what I tell you to do!” she grinned, placing her hands on her hips, “And now I’m telling you to sleep, so sleep!”

“Ugh…” he groaned in response, “Fine!”

Shepard leaned in and pressed a kiss to the top of his head before giving it a pat. “Such a good boy!”

He frowned, making a face at her.

“It’s your own fault,” she laughed, before waving her hand in front of the panel on the door, and it whooshed open, Avery stepping outside, giving him a last smile before the door closed again, and she headed for her small room.

“Joker?” she asked out into the air.

“Commander?”  the flight-lieutenant’s voice cracked over the comm.

“Let me know when we arrive,” she said, “I’m going to finish my report on the mission to the Alliance.”

“Aye aye, Commander.”

- - -

Docking the Normandy to the station was going as smoothly as it ever did with Joker piloting the ship.

Avery stood ready by the airlock, waiting for the final approving and the docking to be complete, so that the medical staff of the Arcturus station could come aboard and bring the wounded soldiers and scientists to a better equipped medical bay than the one they had on board. The Normandy may be a state of the art ship, with a fully equipped med bay, and Dr. Chakwas was one of the best – if not the best – military doctor Shepard had ever met, but there was only so much she could do to treat the kind of injuries that they had suffered down on Armeni.

“Admiral Hackett requesting permission to come onboard the Normandy, Commander,” Moreau called from the bridge.

“Let them onboard, Joker.”

“Aye aye.”

The door whooshed open in front of her after just a moment, the Admiral already walking up to her.

“Commander,” he greeted.

She saluted him, “Admiral.”

“At ease.”

Shepard relaxed her posture slightly, letting her right hand drop to her side again. “I’ve sent my report to you, sir. I’m sorry to say that we didn’t manage to get everyone out.”

“That is not your fault, Commander,” Hackett said, a harshness to his voice even as he was trying to soothe her feelings of guilt, but she couldn’t help but to feel responsible. She should’ve been able to save everyone.

“Without you there, all of them would’ve been dead now.”

Her reply was simply a nod. She knew he was right, but it didn’t feel like she succeeded with her mission if not everyone got out alright in the end.

“You’ve been around long enough, Commander,” he continued, “You know getting everybody out is rarely the case.”

“I’ll still try,” she said, a small smirk curving her lips.

“That’s why they made you a Spectre.” He nodded, starting to walk towards the galaxy map, the crew saluting as they went by, “I’m almost surprised they didn’t recruit you sooner after what you did on Elysium.”

“Thank you, sir.”

He stopped and turned to face her, “I don’t need to tell you what a big chance this is for the Alliance. If you do this right, humanity could have a seat in the Council.”

“I’ll do my best, Admiral,” she nodded.

“I know you will, Shepard.” He turned around again, continued walking, “Where is Staff-Commander Hart?”

“He should be down in the Med-Bay.” Though Avery seriously doubted it. He’d been running around almost every centimeter of the Normandy, driving Dr. Chakwas insane as she tried to get him to lie down and rest, or let her change his bandages.

“Take me to him,” Hackett responded, “I want to talk to him about the mission.”

“Yes, sir.”

As they walked down to the med-bay in silence, Avery couldn’t help but to wonder if her actions on Elysium were the only reason the picked her as a candidate to become a Spectre. There were plenty of good men and women in the Alliance, and a lot of them fit more into the image she had of the Spectres; Agents willing to do anything to finish their mission.

Shepard had never been one to believe that the end justifies the means. If she had to get her hands dirty just to reach a goal, wouldn’t that goal be just as tainted then?

She had never disobeyed an order from a superior, but when the choice was hers to make, she would always choose the right way, even if it was the harder and longer road.

“Admiral Hackett?”

Avery woke up from her thoughts when she heard Connor speak. She looked up and saw him hurry to get up from the cot and salute the Admiral, but Hackett raised his right hand in front of him, to stop him from getting up and possibly hurting himself in the process.

“At ease, Staff-Commander.” He turned his head towards her. “I would like to talk to him alone, Commander.”

She gave him a quick nod, saluting him, “Aye aye.” And then she turned and walked out the door, before it whooshed closed behind her, and she relaxed her posture once more.

It gave her an odd sense of security having the Admiral around. All this business with her becoming a Spectre and getting the command of the Normandy had happened to quickly, that now that Hackett was on board; she remembered how it felt having a superior around, the comfort she took in knowing that she had someone to turn to when things started to hit the fan. Now all she had was herself.

“Commander?”

Avery turned the head in the direction the voice came from, and felt her lips curving into a smile as her eyes met the amber eyes belonging to Kaidan.

“Yes, lieutenant?”

“I was wondering if-“

He was interrupted by a voice roaring from behind her;

“AVERY!!”
After a looooong Writer's Block I finally managed to finish chapter 16 of Bullets and Scars! Hopefully it won't take me as long to finish the next chapter, but I still have a bit of school work left before I can take a break over the summer.

Avery Shepard, Connor Hart © me,
Kaidan Alenko, Admiral Hackett and all other characters and things related to Mass Effect © BioWare.
© 2013 - 2024 AmandaSylvia
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GyftedA's avatar
great chapter! making us want more? sigh lol