Atmospheric Reactions

Garrus could only assume that two years worth of vigilante work and near death experiences had enabled him to get to the end of this last mission. He'd never had any kind of reaction like this to a planet's atmosphere before, there were no hazard warnings and Shepard and Samara had been perfectly fine.

"Damn it." Garrus muttered too himself as he stepped out of the Shuttle and into the cargo bay. His chest was on fire and his vision was starting to get cloudy.

"Garrus!" A voice echoed from his left. That probably wasn't good. "You look fucking terrible, what the hell is wrong?"

He felt her hand around on his arm, but the second she pulled on it to make him look at his head spun and fell towards the cargo bay floor.

"Ah. Good. Waking up."

Garrus flinched as he breathed in heavily, his chest ached and he felt terrible, but at least he could tell that it was Mordin hovering around him. "What happened?" he croaked out.

"Planet atmosphere toxic to dextro-amino based life forms. Undocumented. Others probably didn't survive to do so." Garrus was finally able to focus his eyes on Mordin, who was prepping an injection above him. "Lucky to survive. Quite surprised you lasted so long. Impressive. Atmosphere gives initial allergic reaction and then becomes poisonous toxin with prolonged exposure."

He winced as Mordin planted the injection quickly into his neck. "Given you second dose of synthesised antidote. Need one every four hours for the next 24 hours. Have to stay in med bay, lung functions significantly weakened."

"Great." Garrus said finally, as the Salarian left his sight to go and get something else. "Thanks for the antidote Mordin."

"Wouldn't thank me yet." He said moving back with a second loaded up injection. "Sedative, can't have Shepard yelling at you yet. Need more rest." Mordin stated as he pushed the second injection where the first went.

"Is she really that angry?" He asked groggily as the sedatives began to take hold.

"Yes, but, will have cooled down by the time you wake up."

The next time Garrus came to, the med bay was darkened along with the mess hall outside, signalling that it was the night shift.

"Finally awake huh?"

He turned his head towards the female voice to his left, finding Shepard sitting in a chair in the shorts and oversized hoodie that she had explained previously, were her 'pyjamas'. A bunch of data pads sat in a pile next to her, she added the one she was typing away onto it and looked up to him. "Any particular reason why you, you know, fucking lied to me throughout that entire mission."

He just groaned in response and looked away from Shepard's piercing gaze. "I thought it was just an allergic reaction. Nothing serious."

"Bullshit. You could have died Garrus. What the fuck did we agree on two months ago?"

He sighed, pain striking through his chest as he did so. "No dying."

"Exactly." She replied, getting out of her seat and making her way over to the prep bay. "I need to give you another dose, it's been four hours."

"I'm ecstatic."

"Consider this your lesson learnt, Officer Sarcasm." She quipped back, walking back over with another dose. "Hold still." Shepard placed her hand on his forehead to gently hold his head in place, as she placed the injector to his neck and dosed him.

"Your plates are hot, how much pain are you in?" She asked.

"Minimal."

"Garrus."

"A lot."

She moved back to grab one of the dextro-based shots of painkillers. "I'm going to give you a dose of Modins pain meds" She told him as she placed her hand back onto his forehead and gave him the second shot.

"At least you don't just jab them." He murmured, trying to focus his eyes on her ask she moved around above him.

"Yeah, I'm real talented." Shepard replied, grinning down at him. "Mordin and Chakwas are the ones who do the whole life saving thing though, they don't have time to be nice."

He groaned in pain as he tried to laugh. "Mordin gets everything done like someone's life is on the line."

Shepard just shrugged. "That's what makes him Mordin, really."

The settled into a comfortable silence as Garrus' new lot of medications kicked in, and Shepard sat back down in her chair.

"Why are you doing all this?" Garrus asked.

"Do I need a reason?"

"Maybe." He was starting to feel a bit fuzzy from the pain medication; Mordin must have put some sedative in it as well. "Just because we were talking about-"

"It has nothing to do with that." Shepard cut him off. "And you know it. You take away all of that and you're still my friend, Garrus. So you're stuck with me for at least the next eight or nine hours until Chakwas comes in here and realises Mordin let me take then night shift, and kicks my arse."

"This is embarrassing." Garrus said, his breathing slowing down.

"For you or for me?"

"Me, you have no shame." With that, the drugs finally took effect again and he drifted back off.

It was the early hours of the morning when Shepard was jolted out of her staring contest with a datapad, she'd been sitting like that since after the last antidote shot about an hour ago. Mordin had warned her about the possibility of his antidote working faster than expected. Garrus had started shaking to the point where it was the shakes were quickly becoming convulsions.

"Garrus," she quickly got up and leaned over to him to try and get his attention. "The toxin is having a final breakdown in your system, whatever happens will be temporary, ok?" Mordin had said it was best not to mention that it was his sight and hearing that would probably be temporarily disabled in the breakdown.

"Fuck." She swore as she could see his eyes blinking rapidly, panic. She jumped up on the table beside him and grasped his hand with one of her own, and set the other down on his fringe, stroking it gently.

Shepard let out a sigh of relief when the shaking lessened, and he squeezed her hand back. "I've got you." She said, not even knowing if he could hear her.

She sat like that with him for almost two hours, his plates had felt overheated and the shaking had been constant.

"Will i-i-t ever st-stop?" Shepard jumped slightly at Garrus' broken up speech.

"Yes. Mordin said we'd just have to wait it out" She said, trying to sound as confident as ever. "Hearing's back then? That's a good sign, your plates are starting to cool down as well. Can you see?"

"N-no" He said through the shakes that rattled his body. "I'm a fucking u-useless sniper now, h-huh?"

"You were always a useless sniper." She joked. "Couldn't hit a merc at close range, even if you wanted to."

"A-always think y-you're funny." Garrus shot back, at least she could hear some sarcasm in that one. "H-having trouble f-feeling anything."

"You've been like this for a while, maybe you need a bit of a jolt." Shepard said, pondering for a few seconds.

"N-no biotics, thanks."

Shepard gave him a smirk he couldn't see. She leaned forward moving her hands to either side of his face, and lightly pressed her lips against his mouth. "Still feeling nothing?"

He gave her a shaky laugh. "No, d-defiantly felt that."

"Then you will defiantly be fine."

"Shepard, what the hell are you doing in here?" Chakwas asked her, raising an eyebrow at the Commander's attire. "Where's Mordin?"

"Working." She replied quietly. "I took the shift instead. I should have had another hour to sneak out and change before you saw me though."

"Shepard." Chakwas hissed back at her. "You know how imperative it is for you to not disrupt your sleep patterns with all your nightmares-"

"It was my fault." Shepard ran a hand through her hair, exhausted. "I should have noticed how bad he was sooner. I couldn't leave him to fucking suffer alone."

Shepard grabbed her datapads and whispered something to the sleeping Turian that Chakwas couldn't hear before she walked over to her. "The dosage and progression notes are there for you and Mordin to look over. I need to go change before the shift switches over."

The next time Shepard was allowed into the med bay (Mordin and Chakwas had forcibly teamed up on that one) Garrus was sitting up, leaning against the med bay wall as Chakwas typed away on her computer.

"Feeling better?" Shepard asked him with a grin, walking up beside him.

"Much better, thank you." Garrus replied with flair of his mandibles. "Mordin says that there's still some toxins in my system, but I should be fine to leave by the night switchover."

"Good." Shepard smirked. "'Cause we've got to go get you that sniper training you need so badly."

He just laughed at that one. "Still not funny, Shepard."

"Still don't care." She said with a smile as Chakwas made a loud coughing noise behind her.

Garrus gave her a look of confusion.

"She's still pissed I lied and stayed here last night" Shepard leaned in and whispered to him. "I've gotta go before they kick me out again."

"I'm glad you did now." Garrus quietly said back. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers. "It wasn't you fault."

She let out a small laugh. "You were supposed to be asleep."

"Your voice is loud."

"I'm not arguing about this now." Shepard told him, leaning back so she could see him properly. "But know that next time you start acting weird, I'm beating the information out of you."

He gave her a mock salute and an "Aye, Commander," As she left the room under Chakwas' annoyed gaze.

This was the prompt:

Say Garrus has a very strong reaction to something in the air they encounter on a planet.
Being the brave fool he is, he keeps soldiering on through the mission, then promptly collapses
when they get back to the Normandy.

The doctor on the ship - Chakwas or Mordin, your pick - helps him out of course, but can't really
offer any comfort for the poor turian (who totally didn't want any comfort either! ) other than medicine
and "It'll be over in a day or two - but stay in the medbay. Really." advice.

Then Shepard decides it is time to show her mommabear side and stay at Garrus' side through
the entire thing, taking care of him and soothing him and just in general being nice (even if a little
annoying - Garrus has a damn reputation to keep damnit!).
Fetching drinks, medication, offering comfort and petting and whatnot. That stuff that gives
me diabetes.

- Bonus points for Shepard still being Commander Fucking Shepard (You will take my offer of comfort and you will like it! You got yourself into this mess - poor baby.).