Parallax

by Celtican

One: The Monsters in the Closet

2177—Shepard

In the darkness, the bandage across her eyes made her face itch ferociously. Her bruised and broken limbs sang a muffled, painful tune under its smothering blanket of medi-gel and pain killers, but the drugs didn't do anything for the itching. She wanted nothing more than to scratch and scratch and to hell with the consequences she just needed to scratch. At the very least the pain and itching distracted her from thinking about the mission to the colony, about the colonists cowering in their pre-fabs, speaking timorously about noises in the dark (Rafel shouting Contact contact LT we got contact and they're fuckin huge!).

She felt her empty stomach lurch and boil with nausea; drugs and stress and memories and food she couldn't keep down weren't helping her recovery. She had achieved a few hours of unbroken sleep, only to have several more of sweating, restless nightmares. Her fingers twitched. She wanted to shut off the silence (with her rifle the smooth click-click THOOM of her Avenger) her guitar, quieting the shouts from the dark with (Her own voice: Toombs the LT's hit where's LaGuerta then an evil insectoid screech SHEP GET DOWN then her vision went dark and then the burning oh god my face, my fucking face!) with a simple tune, maybe some old Earth rock or that Asari piece she'd been practicing. God damn I would murder for a cigarette right now-

Footsteps; Thank god, I can complain about my face itching, she thought, clearing her throat and getting ready to speak in more than just a muffled drug-addled slur. The footsteps paused, and she heard a soft intake of startled breath. Fuck. Visitor. Not doctor.

"Hello?" She rasped. Cool, my voice works this time...sort of.

The visitor's footsteps softly crossed from the door to the bed; she comically pictured the person tip toeing like the old Earth cartoons where someone didn't want to get caught. She managed to keep the drug giggles under wraps for the time being.

A voice: "Sabrina? Sabrina, honey, are you awake?"

Instant tears erupted into her barely healed eyes, the salt burning less than the thresher juices at least but still burning like hell. Mom. God damn they took me shouting for my mother for mama to come kill the monsters that finally came out of the closet to stop them from eating my face seriously. Fuck, it's good to hear her voice again. "Mom?"

"Oh god, Sabrina..." a cool, soft hand stroked the one patch of skin not covered by bandages, just over her left eyebrow. "They sent a dispatch as soon as they stabilized you," she said. Sabrina Shepard had rarely heard Hannah pause and swallow and catch her breath (The last time was dad's funeral on the Agincort after the Blitz We commend the body of Jared Avery Shepard to the stars Hannah swallows and catches her breath but holds back the tears until the torpedo casing closes and slid down the tube where the mass accelerators sling it into the sun) but this was one of those times. This time it was for her. Sabrina swallowed.

Hannah pressed on, stronger this time, "Tell me what happened."

This was not the interrogatory demand for a sitrep like the insensitive bastard from a few hours back. This was talking to mom and telling her about an admittedly fucking horrible day at the office. She could rage and cry and blame and despair and not have to worry about her jabbing a needle of sedative into her arm so she could sleep it off.

So she started talking.

"We touched down...supposed to investigate some reports of strange activity in the hills around the colony. The LT was a new guy, barely had enough time to learn more than our last names...we found a malfunctioning distress beacon out in the hills...when we went to fix it, the monsters...sorry, the thresher maws. They just came from underground...the LT...got torn in half, Sergeant LaGuerta was hit but barking orders on the comm to get reinforcements from the base...Toombs was there, but then I couldn't see...I got hit in the face with the spray from the acid that killed Rafel...I think I blacked out, because I woke up alone...it was so quiet, mom...like there hadn't been anything that happened there ever. Like I'd gone for a walk by myself and fallen asleep like the kids in the stories you told me at bedtime...only I knew it wasn't that because why would a spacer kid who'd never gotten dust on her civvies ever do that and I couldn't see, I couldn't see...I just couldn't see and it hurt..." She stopped short, the dying echoes off the walls making her realize she'd been shouting. Her throat closed around a sob. She gripped the bed rail with her good hand to keep herself from scratching her bandage off.

She she lost her grip on the sob as her mother's hand slipped over hers.

Author's Note: Comments and critiques are most welcome. My goal is to create small scenes from different perspectives in the Mass Effect universe, adding flavor to characters who otherwise don't have much (or enough, in my opinion!).

Thanks for reading! - Celtican