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Medicine Man	By : Nicker Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 7405 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Ashley was violently sick. She was heaving and retching but nothing would come up. Her trembling hands sank into the mud, clenched into fists as the warm tropical shower soaked her hair and naked shoulders.
“Oh, fuck...” she groaned, shivering from the fever. She was a mess and she didn’t care any more. She pulled her hands out of the mud, shook most of it off and rolled back under the canvas, breathing heavily, resting her back against the cooling rock. She pulled up her legs and turned her head to look miserably at Garrus.
Garrus sat close to her, looking utterly flustered. He sat on the ground quietly, not really knowing what to do for a long time now. Ashley’s condition worsened in the last few hours alone, and she refused any help. Not that Garrus would know how to even comfort a human. She slapped his hand away when he tried to hold her shoulder earlier. He didn’t go near her in the last hour or so. He said sorry a couple of times out of politeness. He understood humans used this phrase to express sympathy in general. It was getting pathetic. So he just sat there, looking at Ashley suffer, quietly, very much like a bird.
Ashley was breathing hard. Her cheeks were flushed with the fever, hair sticking to her skull in damp locks, eyes red, pupils dilated. She had trouble focusing on the turian, but she tried anyway.
Still trying to catch her breath, the human closed her eyes and turned her head away with a distressed moan.
“Fuck.” Pause. “Okay.” she sighed. She was trying to gather her strength. When she opened her eyes again, she seemed stronger. She turned her head towards the turian and groaned like it hurt her to look at him. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Garrus blinked, mandibles quivering.
* * * * *
5 DAYS AGO
The Kodiak glided out silently from the Normandy hangar bay and immediately started drifting towards the planet. Cortez switched on the autopilot which started calculations and preparations for atmospheric entry. As soon as they cleared the proximity of the Normandy, he radioed in.
Joker replied back and put the Normandy on a course to leave orbit. The ship was en route to Omega to pick up supplies and contact some informants. Shepard thought it would be best if Garrus would steer clear of Omega for a while. Archangel was not easily forgotten, and he didn’t want to compromise their mission. Garrus couldn’t agree with him more. Ashley was also iffy about setting foot on the station, her Alliance presence not exactly a welcome sight in Aria’s domain. Mordin just didn’t care. He lost interest in the station long ago.
So when the opportunity presented itself for Mordin to do some research on a nearby garden world, Garrus and Ash jumped on it and volunteered to go with the salarian, solving several of Shepard’s problems at the same time.
It would have been awkward to ask his two oldest friends to sit this one out and stay on the Normandy while they docked at Omega, Mordin got some serious firepower to protect him if things went pear-shaped, and he still had some muscle left on the crew to back him up on the space station, just in case.
After the Normandy cleared orbit, Cortez released the satellite that would be their eyes and ears and would act as a distress beacon if necessary. He let the computer do the approach, and the Kodiak started shaking and rattling as it entered the upper atmosphere. He switched on the comm.
“Starting the descent, ladies and gentlemen. Get ready.”
In the back of the shuttle, the salarian, the turian and the human all sat, strapped in, occupying themselves with cleaning guns, checking gear, or in Ashley’s case, writing a letter to her sisters on a datapad.
After a few minutes, the shaking and rumbling stopped, the thrusters guiding the Kodiak into a smooth trajectory towards the planet’s equatorial area.
When Cortez started the final approach, both Garrus and Ash started into to the cockpit. It was a bit awkward since Ashley came back to the Normandy. Technically she would be second-in-command after Shepard, but Shepard was not with the Alliance any more. Technically. Garrus on the other hand, while clearly not in the normal chain of command, was the one serving under Shepard for the longest time. They had an understanding. It was not clear, however, who was the boss on this mission.
“Cortez—” they said both at the same time after entering the cockpit. They exchanged glances, politely waiting for the other to give the go-ahead. Garrus cleared his throat, Ashley frowned and after several heartbeats she relented and gave a curt nod.
“How does it look?” Garrus asked, both turning their attention to the landscape.
Cortez was leveling the descent and starting a lazy turn towards the planned landing site.
“Nothing out of the ordinary. Humid tropical forest, low hills, the usual. Nothing on the radars.”
“Bring us closer and do a circle. Let’s take a look around before we land.”
Passing over the next hill they finally saw the abandoned base at the deep end of a low, rolling valley. It was in good enough shape. The jungle started to claim the site back, vines and roots growing on the walls, some crumbled here and there. The site was clear enough to land. Cortez started to put the shuttle into a low descending spiral and they did several passes around the two hills.
“Sensors are green across the board,” reported Cortez checking the readouts.
“There—” Garrus and Ashley pointed out the window at the same time. They both frowned in their own way. It was getting creepy.
“That ledge, over there. See?” Ashley continued, pointing at a rocky spot above the base in the hillside.
“Perfect for a lookout post.” Garrus finished, nodding. He tapped Cortez’s shoulder and straightened. “Put us down at the base.”
They started to walk back to Mordin, but almost got stuck at the door. Garrus let Ashley pass. It was frustrating.
On the ground it was a different matter. After taking the Kodiak down, Garrus took point, Ashley stayed with Mordin, and Cortez stood guard at the shuttle. They swept the base quickly, going from room to room, signaling clear when they finished. Like a well oiled machine. Just like old times. They met back in the hall, nodding to each other.
“Conditions acceptable. Power source still working.” Mordin declared, looking around, not really paying attention to the others. “Will set up workstation immediately.”
The rest of the day was spent with packing out gear, setting them up, establishing a perimeter around the base, placing the sensors and cameras for defense, and settling in. It went smoothly, they only talked when necessary, instructing each other, discussing the layout. They cleared some space for Mordin, hooked up the generators, barricaded up sections of the base they didn’t need. Good old times.
After dark, they retreated back into the hall from the insects and nightlife of the jungle, and went through the plan. The ledge they spotted was about a two hour hike uphill behind the base with clear vantage point over the whole valley. Not that they were worried about anybody attacking them, but they wanted to be prepared. The planet was on the fringes of the Terminus Systems, technically up for grabs, but colonization was halted after the collapse of the Batarian Empire. Massive weather fronts and extreme conditions outside the equator made this place less than desirable for massive colonization. There was nothing remarkable about the planet itself. Except for Mordin, who wanted to tap into the genetic research they did here before closing down. Besides, sitting around the whole week or so, listening to Mordin’s rambling was no life for a soldier.
The next day Garrus and Ashley backpacked up the hill. They found a trail that snaked between the trees. Gigantic boulders were thrown around between the lush vegetation. Apparently, the builders of the base had the same idea as they did because some parts of the trail were reinforced, and up on the ledge, remains of a previous lookout post were obvious. It was very humid between the trees, but out on the ledge, the breezes were a blessing. Ashley let out a relieved sigh, threw down her gear and started to peel off her soaked military tee. She spread her arms, eyes closed, enjoying the cool air. Garrus was huffing, too, putting his packs down and leaned against a boulder to catch his breath.
“Is this too much for a turian? I thought Palaven was hot.” Ashley asked, covered in a thin layer of sweat. She was pulling of the pants, too, putting her garments to dry on the hot rocks. She stood there in a pair of workout pants and a sports bra.
“Hot, yes. Humid, no.” Garrus replied between gasps, looking around. They could set some kind of a guard post here, close to the old one, at the foot of the boulder. Perfect.
Ashley was almost glowing. Pent up in military bases and spaceships made her edgy. She was burning up months if not years of tension. She practically bounced up the trail.
“Look, Garrus! A pond!” came the shout. Garrus blinked. He lost track of time enjoying the view, and checking for target practice spots.
Ashley stood on a boulder nearby, pointing at something behind it. Garrus reluctantly joined her on the rock and looked down. A small creek filled a natural rockbed with fresh water at the edge of the clearing, before it overflowed and disappeared between the trees. Just big enough to swim in it.
“No thanks. Turians don’t swim.”
Ashley blinked. “Really?!”
“Well yes— no— generally they don’t— okay, I don’t.”
Ashley laughed and shook her head.
They went back, radioed in, and sat down to eat their rations, discussing shifts, logistics and weapons. The usual stuff.
Garrus never saw Williams like this. The always formal, always reserved human usually behaved professionally. Career military, just like he used to be. Now she was like a tourist. Positively giddy. He doubted that he ever saw her in an outfit like this except when she was working out at the Normandy gym or sparring in the ring with one of the other soldiers. Usually she didn’t show this much skin.
Not that it bothered him. Human anatomy was different enough that he didn’t know what to look for in a human anyway. They were all so— round and curvy. Round muscles, shoulders, waists— not edgy, sharp, full of lines like the turians. And knowing Williams for a while now, he knew that she just didn’t care what aliens looked like, so she didn’t care how they viewed her. Humans were soft anyway.
They did target practice in the afternoon, lying down at the edge with their rifles and making a competition about hitting a tree, a branch or a rock somewhere in the valley. Ashley checked the water with the portable analyzer before going for a swim a couple of times during the hot afternoon. Cooled off she returned to the ledge, laid down on a blanket still dripping wet, and shot at some more trees in the distance.
It was good to see Ashley this happy, Garrus decided. She was too on the edge most of the time. Just like him. He still couldn’t relax after Omega. Maybe now a bit. Good times.
The way back to the base was trickier. It was getting dark, the air was cooling off, and there were plenty of insects. They didn’t bother Garrus, but Ashley was having a hard time. Cursing and slapping at her neck and arm, she was making a racket on the way down. The path was slippery, they lost their footings now and then. A few times, when Ashley lost her balance, she grabbed the nearest thing which sometimes turned out to be some thorny vine or some slimy, stinky plant. Ah, there she is, Garrus thought as Ashley got more and more frustrated.
A couple of days went by like this, Mordin doing his research, collecting samples, experimenting, hacking into half-dead mainframes mostly with the help of Cortez, who had the most patience around the eccentric salarian. They took turns at the lookout post: somebody doing a full watch, and the two others switching at midday.
Garrus found that Cortez was almost as bad company as Mordin, only the human talked a lot about people he lost, mostly his love. He was trying to be polite, but after a while, he just phased him out. The salarian was at least not depressed. Garrus usually slept when Williams and Cortez were on watch. Ashley was definitely the best companion. There were long silences. Blissful.
They occasionally talked nerdy about weapons and ships, and the good old days. Ashley would go swimming, take a bath in the sun naked, but returning shortly to take over and let Garrus relax. One day even the salarian came up to take a good, long swim in the lake. He was unbeatable. It was weird. And on the fifth day in Paradise, it all came crashing down.
In the afternoon, clouds were rolling in from the west, promising a proper rainstorm by evening. Cortez confirmed the prediction when he went down from his watch and checked the satellite readouts. He radioed back up to let them know. Williams patted Garrus’ shoulder and nodded towards the pond.
“I’m gonna take a quick last swim before it hits, okay?”
Garrus nodded, returning to calibrating the scope on his rifle. He heard her jump into the lake, water sloshing around, and then, not long after she was back and in a hurry. She didn’t dry herself off with the towel, just stormed into the camp and started digging into her backpack, cursing under her breath.
Garrus looked up at her curiously. Ashley looked nervous.
“I stepped on— something.” she blurted, digging out the medkit from the backpack. She sat down, opened the box and started dabbing her leg.
Garrus leaned closer.
“What was it?”
“I don’t know!” she hissed. She cleaned the blood from a small wound, the skin reddening around it, and she started generously pouring something on it before putting band-aid on it, all the while explaining nervously. “It was a— thing. Like a frog back on Earth. Small and squishy and with these creepy colors, bulging eyes— and this one had fucking spikes. I stepped on it. Eugh!” she exclaimed, shuddering. “I pulled out the spikes and washed off the thing in the water but it fucking stings. And itches.”
She was furiously digging into the medkit, checking vials, and popping a few pills into her mouth, swallowing them down with a few gulps of water from her canteen. She started to shiver.
Garrus was already on the radio.
“Mordin. We’ve got a problem.”
Thunder rolled across the sky and the clouds marched in relentlessly.
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Medicine Man