Essentially an add-on to the previous two fics I've submitted. It can be read as a stand-alone, or as taking place in between the two. Kal'Reegar wakes up in the hospital after miraculously surviving the Reaper attack on Palaven. Tali, having heard that he was awake, immediately goes to his side. Were I a better writer, I would have dealt with the torrent of emotions Kal must be feeling after realizing he was the only survivor out of his entire squad. But I'm not, so here you go. :) Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or the characters, because if I did, Kal wouldn't have died, or at least would have got more than a half-assed e-mail which was the equivalent of breaking up with someone via text message. BIOWARE, STOP BLOWING HOLES IN MY SHIP.

Kal'Reegar woke up to an obnoxiously bright light shining directly in his face. He tried to put an arm up to shield it, but a painful tug made him stop. Squinting down at his arm, he saw countless tubes plugged into his biosuit, which was patched with hastily-made repairs. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the light, and the injured soldier cast his gaze around the room. He was in some sort of medical facility. There was a dull beeping coming from a machine to the left, its screen covered with several different colored squiggly-looking lines representing his vital readings. Medical supplies covered the counters, from gauze and bandages to scalpels and needles of a size and sharpness that would make even the toughest soldier blanch and run for cover.

"Take it easy, sir," a deep, soothing voice with a distinct flanging said nearby. Kal looked to my right and saw a turian doctor leaning against a counter, pouring over what he assumed where his charts. "You've suffered some serious damage. Frankly, I'm amazed you even survived, with how many suit lacerations you sustained. The infections alone should have killed you, to say nothing of the injuries."

"Where am I?" Kal heard himself ask blearily, his tense, raspy voice straining faintly as if it were leagues away. He feebly tried to lift my arms again, the tubes resisting steadfastly.

"You're in a hospital on Palaven. You and your team were taken out by Reaper forces while fixing up one of our comm relays," the doctor explained gently. "We thought you were all dead, but when we sent a team out to recover your bodies…" he shook his fringed head in disbelief. "They found you alive, just barely. The team brought you back here to get you fixed up and sent home. You're a hero in our eyes, sir." He said with a reverent nod. Turians respected dedication and honor more than anything. Kal'Reegar's valiant refusal to risk any turian lives with a rescue attempt had garnered attention among turians everywhere, and even other species spoke his name with a hushed awe.

Kal turned his head away angrily, pressing his eyes closed against the tears that fiercely burned in their ducts. "You should have left me to die with my men," he hissed, feeling as though the weight of Rannoch were pressing down on his chest. "They gave their lives to protect that relay, because of my decision. I should be with them."

"Kal!"

His eyes snapped back open, and he craned his neck toward the familiar voice with a sudden eagerness. Tali'Zorah vas Neema…no, vas Normandy now, was hurrying toward him, the visor in her helmet strangely fogged up, slender arms outstretched. He made to reach out to her, glaring irritably at the tubes still attached to him that prevented from moving more than a few inches. He didn't have long to be angry though, as Tali suddenly wrapped her arms around him and buried her masked face into the crook of his shoulder.

"Kheela, I thought you were dead! Everyone did!" she exclaimed in a choked voice, pulling away to look at him. "I couldn't believe it when a message from Palaven control came through saying they'd found you. It was…" her shoulders slumped wearily as she trailed off. "It was just too good to be true," she croaked finally, clutching his hand in hers. Weakly, he threaded his fingers through hers and gave her tiny hand a reassuring squeeze. His hands were considerably bigger, but he knew that even had he been in perfect health instead of an invalid in bed, she could probably win a fight against him. The petite girl could give a firm handshake that would cripple even a krogan battlemaster. Of course, they tended to headbutt, rather than shake hands, Kal's medicine-addled brain thought vaguely.

"I'm okay now, Ma'am," he assured her, idly wondering how long he'd been out that Tali was able to come to his side. Shouldn't she be helping Shepard in the war against the Reapers? "I can't say the same for my team, though…" the soldier sighed. No matter how many times it happened, he could never quite shake the crushing feeling that came with losing one's teammates. He'd been responsible for them. Although he'd done everything in his power to keep them alive, in the end they had simply been overwhelmed. Turian soldiers were too important to waste on rescuing a repair squad. It had been the right choice. Still, that didn't stop the feelings of guilt.

Shamed, Kal turned from Tali, only to find her hand gently guiding his face back to hers. "Kal, you're a hero. Your men didn't die in vain. If you and your squad hadn't gotten there when you did, Palaven would have lost a huge advantage. That comm tower was the only one on the whole planet that picked up the distress calls from Earth when Sol's relay went down. Somehow, they managed to get the message and send ships in to lift the turian and quarian troops out of there. You saved THOUSANDS of people, Kal!"

Reegar suddenly shot bolt upright, tearing the tubes from his suit and splattering the wall with antibiotics, painkillers, immuno-boosters and even some of his own blood. "THE RELAY IS DOWN!" he roared thunderously, ignoring the pain shooting through his body. "What the hell happened? Those relays are supposed to be goddamn indestructible!"

With a heavy sigh, Tali went on to explain, as the turian doctor hurriedly replaced the tubes, grumbling in frustration over his suddenly uncooperative patient. While Reegar had been in a medically induced coma to heal his wounds, Shepard had launched her final attack against the Reapers down on earth. Millions of people, of all species, had arrived in hordes, engaging the enemy in the fiercest, most violent battle that had ever been witnessed. Everyone fought valiantly, distracting the Reaper forces while Shepard and her team lead the main attack Earthside. She had gone up into unknown parts of the Citadel to engage the Catalyst alongside Anderson. Though she had apparently been able to deactivate the Reapers using the Crucible, the resulting shockwave had severely damaged Sol System's Mass Relay and completely destroyed a few others. Tali'Zorah intuitively had sent off a flurry of distress calls to Palaven, begging them to send help for the thousands of dextro-amino organisms that would be trapped on the levo-based planet with limited supplies, just before the huge blast that finally rendered the relay completely useless.

It had been months since then, Kal having lain inert in the alien hospital while the battle raged on and was won. He felt ashamed and disappointed that he hadn't played a bigger part. He knew if he'd been able, he would have flown straight to Earth to fight alongside his brave little Admiral, given his life to protect her, to ensure that she emerged unharmed. Looking at her now, though, so obviously equal parts distressed and relieved, Kal wondered whether that would have been the best course of action. She gave a weak sniffle and his heart ached. She had thought he was dead, she'd shed tears for him, and now shed them again to see him alive and well.

A sudden thought occurred to Kal, a piece of the story conspicuously left out. "Ma'am…what happened to Shepard?" he queried carefully. "Is she…?"

Tali gave a shuddering sigh. "She's…alive…sort of." The Admiral shook her head and clutched her friend's hand tighter. He bit back a grumble of pain for her benefit. "It's not looking good, Kal. She took a nearly direct hit from a Reaper's laser, from what I heard, then crawled to the Citadel beacon and somehow put them completely out of commission. They just stopped working and fell apart…and then the Citadel fell."

An ice cold rock dropped into Reegar's stomach. The Citadel had crashed into Earth with Tali's commanding officer on board, along with millions of civilians. How was it possible for anyone to survive that? "And she survived?" he gasped in disbelief.

"Barely. Miranda says she looked worse than when she got spaced three years ago. It's…" she choked back a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sob. "It's not looking good, Kal." She perched herself next to him on the bed, and leaned heavily against his shoulder. The doctor, taking his cue well, discreetly left the room, shooting a warning look at the tubes in his patient's arm as though daring them to pop out again. Reegar hesitated only a moment before wrapping an arm awkwardly around Tali, weakly tugging her closer to him. She rested her head against his, their masks coming together with a dull 'thunk', and gave his hand another light squeeze. "What am I going to do without her, Kal?" she asked in a helpless voice he hadn't heard out of her since she was a child. Even when she had been accused by the flotilla of treason, she hadn't been so hopelessly distraught.

"You'll pull through, ma'am." He assured her, rubbing her shoulder gently. "You always do. You're the strongest woman I've ever met, and damn if I'm going to let you fall apart on me," his whisper was fierce and possessive. "And if you do…I'll be here to help put you back together again."

The woman at his side gave another sigh.

"Kal, I love you."

Reegar sputtered stupidly.

"You're one of my best friends."

Oh. Well. "Th-thank you, ma'am. You…" he hesitated. "You mean a lot to me, too."

"Kal, my name is Tali."

"Yes, ma'am, it certainly is."