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It happened quick, so quickly they barely had any time to process what happened.
They were almost done clearing the last section of the base. Cerberus troops had planted themselves deep within it and weren’t giving up without putting up one hell of a fight. There was one Phantom left, but it had cloaked and they lost it.
“We’ll have a better chance to find it if we split up,” said Shepard.
“I don’t know about that Lola,” said James in reply. “You know how that ‘let’s split up’ thing always works out in horror movies.”
“While this isn’t a horror movie, I’ll have to agree with James’ sentiment.” Kaidan pitched in. “Phantoms are about as dangerous as an ATLAS mech, only smaller. You know this Shepard.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s on its last legs,” Shepard said. “We’ve nearly taken it out already. What’s the worst that could--”
That’s when their world came crashing down. Before she could finish her sentence, the Phantom decloaked right beside her, drew its blade, and ran it across her side. James and Kaidan immediately put two bullets in its chest and forehead, but the damage had already been done. Shepard fell to the ground and lied unconscious in a pool of her own blood.
“Cortez! We need an evac now! Have a med team on standby when we get there,” James screamed into the comm as Kaidan tried to stem the bleeding. Cortez had them back on the ship in record time and Karin was waiting for their arrival.
“What happened?” asked Karin as she ran her omnitool over Shepard, examining her injuries.
“Phantom decloaked beside her and almost ran her through.”
“She sustained heavy blood loss, but it looks as though no major arteries or organs were hit.” Karin said, finally looking up at both of the men. To anyone else, they looked like two soldiers worried about their commanding officer. To her though, they were two men terrified of losing the woman they loved. “I’ll need to stitch her up, but as soon as I’m done you can come see her.”
Half an hour later, they both sat in the med bay on either side of Shepard, with the privacy shutters closed. James sat on her right, her small hand clasped in both of his larger ones. Kaidan sat on her left, running his fingers gently through her tightly coiled hair.
Karin had explained to them both that she was still unconscious because Shepard was anemic and the blood loss impacted her heavily. While she was stable, she wasn’t completely out of the woods just yet. She assured them that Shepard would pull through, just this time it would take some time. James and Kaidan were still scared. Shepard’s normally sun-kissed, golden brown skin had taken on a dull, ashen hue and her breathing was still quite shallow.
“She’s gonna make it through this, right James? I can’t lose her, not again.” Kaidan said, shutting his eyes tight in an effort to keep the tears from falling.
“Hey,” James said barely above a whisper, placing a hand atop the one that rested on Shepard’s hair. “She will get through this. Our little estrella is tough. It’ll take more than a goddamn ninja on speed to take her down.”
They lapsed into a companionable silence, the beeping of the machines and their own gentle breathing the only sounds in the room.
“Por favor, despierta mi pequeña estrella.” said James as he held her hand to his chest.
“Não nos deixe,” Kaidan whispered into her ear. “Agora não.”