Chapter Text
It began with a headache. A mind-numbingly painful one, but that, in and of itself, wasn’t exactly unusual. All part of the fun that came with having an L2 implant – lucky me. What was unusual was that it was the fifth one in as many days, and the meds had ceased making even a dent in the pain.
So here I lay in the bedroom, blinds drawn, lights off, and the comforter drawn up over my face for good measure. Liam had left for his physical therapy appointment an hour ago, which meant I had the house to myself for at least another couple of hours. We’d talked that morning of joining one another for lunch, but that clearly wasn’t about to happen. I sent a quick cancellation message via omni-tool before downing the painkillers and holing up in the dark.
The beep of an electronic lock; the whirr of the automatic door; the almost imperceptible rumble of wheels on the laminate floor. Shit!
“Kay, you still here?” A voice boomed from the living room – okay maybe “boomed” was an exaggeration, but that was splitting hairs at this point.
If I didn’t love the man so much, I’d’ve considered homicide as a viable option about then. Not that death would have stuck. Liam Shepard was notoriously hard to kill. My response to the unappreciated inquiry was to throw a pillow at the bedroom door, and follow the resulting thud with a grumbled, “Oh, fuck off.”
“Another migraine? Shit. Sorry, babe. I didn’t know. Anything I can do to help?” Liam whispered through the door.
“Yes, you can please shut up and let me sleep.” There was a brief pause, some swearing, then the sounds of panicked stumbling, and the door to the en suite slamming shut. At least that would take care of the nausea...
Then I felt it, a warm, wet sensation starting from my nose and going down my chin. I wiped my face with the back of my hand. That’s a lot of blood... “Shepard. Help.” Then everything went dark.
***
Okay, so.... waking up in the hospital with zero memory of how you got there is a bad thing, right? Great fluorescent lights and beeping monitors that’ll improve the migraine... I really hate hospitals.
“Doc, he’s coming around” more than a tinge of relief in his voice. “Hey, you scared the hell outta me. How are you feeling?”
“Like a bomb went off in my brain”
“That’s pretty close to what actually happened, Major.” said a familiar British voice stepping into the room. “Captain Shepard, would you kindly give us the room. I’d like to discuss this with Major Alenko privately, if you don’t mind. But don’t go too far, I have a feeling you’ll be needed.”
Why wasn’t he objecting? He should be insisting on staying in the room, but the look on Dr. Chakwas’ face said she wasn’t going to brook any argument, even from the man who took down the entire Reaper fleet. Liam left reluctantly, though I could still see his shoulder through the glass in the door.
Karin Chakwas was not someone to be trifled with when it came to medical matters, especially when they involved her crew. Even if none of us was on active duty right now, the folks on the Normandy would always be “her crew.” She’d taken care of all of us from the start, and I could tell she sure as hell wasn’t going to stop now. The planet might still be in ruins, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t move heaven and earth to get the best care for all of us. She’d done it for Shepard; I guess now it was my turn.
“What’s up, Doc?” Ugh, way to be comic relief, Alenko. The stern look on her face didn’t change at all. “How bad is it?”
“Maj... Kaidan” oh crap, she used my first name. This cannot be good, “it’s about you implant.” Really not good, “As you know all too well, the L2 biotic implants were not tested as thoroughly as they should have been.”
No bloody kidding. “That’s an understatement.” Gods, my voice sounded weird.
“Yours was installed when you were just a child. Ten years old if I’m reading your file correctly?” I nodded the affirmative. “So 26 years ago. And to my knowledge you are the only L2 who has served this extensively in the Alliance.”
“Yeah, I guess. Only five of us ever enlisted. It’s been sixteen years, unless you count BAaT, then I guess it’s more than 20. Why is this important?”
“It would seem that the L2s have a shelf life that no one was aware of.... or no one made public at least. Yours has been utilized a good deal more than most, and you have a habit of pushing your abilities past recommended limits. Seriously, Major, why did you teach yourself to reave? That’s a taxing skill even for the most high-powered biotics.”
“Power has never been an issue. What can I say? I like a challenge” Too glib? Yeah, definitely too glib. “Give it to me straight, Doc.”
“You ruptured an aneurysm caused by your implant. We were able to stop the bleed before too much damage occurred, and we fixed 3 others. That’s the good news. The bad news is, if we don’t remove the malfunctioning device soon, things are only going to get worse. And by worse, I mean it will kill you.” I hadn’t heard that tone in her voice before.
“So my choices are potentially life-threatening brain surgery, or death. Is there even anything available to replace it? Does the Alliance even have tech like that lying around?”
“Fortunately for you, I have friends in high places. As do you, for that matter. Procuring a new implant isn’t the problem. The surgery to remove the L2 is not optional at this point, however, the decision to replace, or not, is entirely up to you. The first operation is incredibly risky as it is. Considering the state in which you came to us two days ago, we cannot risk replacing right away. You would need to time to heal before we take any further actions.”
I’m pretty sure at this point my jaw would have hit the floor if it could have. Did I want a new implant? Could I actually function without one? How would that even work? Now I understood why she’d asked Shepard to wait outside. He had a way of convincing others to do reckless things without thinking them through. I knew he’d think a replacement implant was the only option – a no-brainer, if you will. But it was my brain, and that brain really had to think about this. And....wait, back up... TWO days??