Finished a little something from last night. I didn't really revise, so I hope it's not in too bad of shape. Enjoy:
The sun was just beginning to rise as its deep orange and purple light shone over the beach and ocean water. The beach was small with a great deal of large stones scattered in the sand, but the sand was pure and white. There was a strange yet pleasing silence to the scene.
The quiet was peaceful and soothing. Surprisingly, there weren't even any birds singing or flying around: no seagulls or pelicans in sight. The only sound was the tranquil repetition of the waves crashing serenely on the beach, the sound of the water racing as far as it could up the sand, and then receding back into the ocean. It was just the type of setting that Valerie Shepard had been looking for.
The red-haired woman sat on the beach silently and she had been there for a few hours now, but she had lost track of the time while her light green eyes stared out at the sunrise. She had woken up in the middle of the night again, so she threw on her Alliance uniform and headed out the door without waking the only other resident of the house. All she knew now was that it had been dark when she had walked down from the beach house to sit by the ocean.
She'd come to the area to take a break from saving the galaxy. After her most recent experience on the Citadel, she needed to get away. She needed to stare blankly out into space and escape the horrors she had seen: the painstaking battle leading up to the Reaper beam, the heavy losses of soldiers and friends along the way, the bodies of her fellow sentients littered across the floors of the Citadel, the concluding moments of her debate with the Illusive Man, one of her oldest friends dying by her side, and then The Catalyst...
She shook her head to push the images out. It was enough that they haunted her dreams and turned them into nightmares, but she didn't want them infecting her conscious realm as well. The terrors and torments of war and the Reaper conflict had finally caught up to the impenetrable, immovable Commander Shepard. That's why she had taken leave after being extracted from the Citadel after all that. That's how she came to be sitting on a beach overlooking a sunrise.
And now her shoes were sitting beside her, her toes were neatly buried in the dry sand, and her back was pressed against a large boulder that formed a natural chair as she sat on the sand. Another large stone just to her right was currently serving as her armrest. A soft breeze started to roll over the beach and caress the woman's face. She almost smiled, but she still wasn't sure that her face muscles remembered how to do that. However, the Alliance Navy commander was oddly comfortable given the circumstances.
The waves continued to come in softly as she thought the same thing that one of her oldest and dearest friends had told her: "it feels like it's been so long since I just sat down." Two weeks by the beach had passed now. Two weeks since the events on the Citadel. Two weeks since... A whole different life time ago. But another thought about the Citadel...
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back craning her neck in an almost uncomfortable position. Her make-shift rock chair only came up to the middle of her back and provided no headrest, but that didn't matter now. She kept her eyes closed when she felt a presence walk up behind her. She didn't bother opening her eyes because she knew who it was. She knew that presence and could never get enough of it.
"Yes, Samantha?" asked the commander in little more than a whisper.
"Couldn't sleep again?" asked the woman from behind her. She had stopped walking and was simply standing a few metres behind the other woman.
"No, but I'm not surprised anymore. It's not like it's uncommon or unexpected," replied Shepard in a tired, lazy voice.
"I know, but - I just..." stammered the woman behind the commander.
"What is it?" Shepard asked with her eyes still closed.
"I wish there was something I could say - something I could do," responded the other woman nervously as if it were her fault that Shepard was struggling.
"All you need to do is be here, Samantha," Shepard said softly. "That's all I need from you. These things take time."
"That can't stop me from wanting to make it all go away, though," said Samantha almost sternly. In her mind's eye, Shepard could see Samantha standing in the beach with her hands on her hips in protest to her inability to help. With that mental image, Shepard finally cracked a smile.
"Come sit with me, Sam," requested Shepard as she turned her head around and opened her eyes.
The daylight had grown stronger, but it was still quite dim while dawn continued through the motions. In the soft light, Shepard saw Samantha looking back at her and standing in the sand with a nice, purple robe made of some silk-like material draped around her shoulders that flapped a little against the light wind.
Samantha walked closer to her partner and sat on the rock on which Shepard was leaning. She put her legs on either side of her and put her hand on Shepard's shoulders. Shepard turned back towards the ocean, leaned her head against Samantha's right knee, and wrapped her right arm around Samantha’s calf.
"This is a beautiful spot, Val," said Samantha after a short silence.
"That it is. I told you Vancouver wasn't so bad," Shepard said jokingly.
"Well, I guess you were right," replied Samantha with a single soft chuckle at the reference. "You can't get this view in Paris. It's a bit warmer there, though."
"I can deal with the cold," said Shepard.
The two fell back into silence to enjoy the quiet of the setting as the sun continued to rise into the sky. Shepard, like many humans in those days, was glad to just see another sunrise. For her, seeing a sunrise on Earth while not aboard a starship was even more outlandish and spectacular than for the other humans on Earth.
As Shepard started to fall back into thoughts of the recent past for the umpteenth time that morning, she was glad that Samantha broke the silence to keep that from happening. She wondered if her better half had sensed it the same way she had sensed her arrival earlier.
"Did you see the new message?" Samantha asked kindly trying not to push Shepard too much.
"Yeah, but I'm not ready yet. Hackett's anxious for me to get back to the real world, but that's just not where I need to be right now," answered the commander pulling her head off its resting position against Samantha's knee.
"I'm not trying to pressure you. I just thought I should bring it up. The admiral really seems to think that you're needed. There's a lot to be done and the world could use a look at its biggest hero," said Samantha softly.
"I don't know what he expects me to do. Should I just stand there and smile as species from all over the galaxy look at me like I know how to get them back home? Or are they going to turn me into the enemy and blame me for what happened?" asked Shepard more rhetorically than anything as she sat up straight. "There's only so much I can do at once."
"I know. Calm down," Samantha said soothingly starting to massage Shepard's shoulders. "I didn't mean to get you riled up. Relax."
"Sorry..." Shepard started before pausing to think. "I just wonder if I'm really harming everyone by sitting out here on a beach while the rest of the galaxy runs around trying to figure out what to do now.” She paused again. “It's going to be a rough road, isn't it, Sam?" Shepard finished turning around to look at her masseuse as if she had all the answers.
"I don't know any more than you do, but I don't think it's going to be easy," said Samantha honestly despite the voice in her head telling her to be optimistic. "But I do think you can help us get through this. You're an amazing leader. Look at all you've already done from the Collectors to driving away the Reapers. You're an incredible woman, Valerie. But like I said before, you'd be a terrible backseat pilot. I don't think you're quite cut out for this selfish stuff. You like being in the middle of it all – in the fray – but someone like you deserves a rest every now and then."
Shepard thought to herself and turned back around to face the ocean. She placed her head back on Samantha's knee and gave it a soft kiss to indicate her appreciation for the words, but Samantha already knew; she always knew.
Was she being selfish? Was she causing the newly freed galaxy a great deal of pain, suffering, and confusion by sitting on her backside in the sand trying not to feel bad about herself? Was it time to act like a true soldier again and meet this challenge head on? Shepard wrestled with these thoughts for a short while before making them vocal.
"Is it time, Sam?" Shepard asked with no indication of the subject. Samantha knew what she meant.
"Are you ready? This is going to be rough trying to get everyone on peaceful terms, fed, and sheltered. The world could use your leadership, but not if you're falling apart from nightmares and visions," answered Samantha plainly. "I know you love being the hardened, rock-solid soldier, Val, but you're still human. And I worry about you."
"And sometimes I wonder if I can keep doing that… or if I did the right thing,” said Shepard lowering her eyes almost shamefully. “Did I do the right thing by getting rid of the Reapers? Is the immediate threat gone while the long-term threat remains?”
“I can’t answer that,” said Samantha in a sad whisper. “Only time will tell, but I know that I’d rather keep living another day than be killed by a Reaper. Everyone on this planet right now owes you for that privilege.”
“I didn’t think I’d be stranding everyone here, though. I thought I’d just be getting rid of the Reapers once and for all. I might have doomed them all to a death of starvation and homesickness,” said Shepard sadly.
“You did better than anyone else could. You made a tough decision, but one that had to be made. I don’t know the details of it all, but I’m sure you made the right decision for everyone,” explained Samantha trying to cheer up Shepard.
“It was very hard, but I hope so,” replied the commander.
“Do you want to talk about it?” asked Samantha patiently. It had been two weeks with no explanation of what had really happened. She had just remained calm and waited for Shepard to tell her, but she was starting to think that she never would.
“I don’t want you to worry about it,” said Shepard truthfully and confirming Samantha’s suspicion. Shepard really didn’t want anyone to have to ever experience what she’d gone through on the Citadel. “I saw a lot of troubling things, but I think it’s time to go back. People are waiting for me; people miss me; people… people need me, Sam.”
“They certainly do, Val, and me most of all,” replied Samantha with a smile. She then ducked her head down and kissed the top of Shepard’s head. “But let’s finish watching this sunrise before we get ready to leave.”
“Copy that,” Shepard said almost as a joke at some distant past life of hers.
Shepard smiled and pulled Samantha’s calf closer. The two of them continued to stare out at the ocean as the light became more yellow and fierce while the day came forward. Samantha continued to massage Shepard’s shoulders as she fell asleep leaning on her leg. She knew that she was tired, so she sat patiently on the beach for her to wake. Until then, she knew she’d just enjoy the view.
Modifié par Flyers215, 05 mai 2012 - 05:37 .
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sorry for the wall o text here. Of course everyone feels differently. This romance just blew me away. Give it a try, you might just like it. 
