I make no illusion about owning Mass Effect or any of its characters. I am just borrowing them for a while.
It's just not the same, Shepard thought to himself with a shake of his head as he stared at the Cerberus built hover tank. I really miss the Mako.
"Something wrong with the Hammerhead, Captain?" a familiar and very welcome voice said, jarring him from his thoughts.
The first human spectre looked over at Tali as she walked up to him. He smiled as she stood by his side, looking up at the tank as it lay in its holding rack.
Placing a hand on her shoulder, he says softly, "it just makes me miss the Mako." Shepard laughs, before continuing, "You remember the first time I took you with me in that old tub?"
"Keelah, that was a surprise!" the engineer said, a grin in her voice. "I don't know what was worse - your driving or Garrus's complaints about how much he had to repair it!"
Shepard frowned, dropping his hand from her shoulder. "I'm not that bad a driver!"
"Yes you are Captain," Tali replied, laughter ringing out afterwords. "Do you remember when we went to Therum? I thought Garrus was going to quit and return to C-Sec."
"It wasn't that bad," he responded in a growl.
Tali just kept laughing. Shaking with mirth, she says, "Wrex and Kaiden had to use explosives to get it out of the crevice you got it stuck in."
"I thought it would fit!"
The engineer just giggled and shook her head. After a moment, she said fondly, "There were some good memories of the Mako though.
Shepard smiled softly. "I was just thinking the same thing Tali," he said. "I remember one trip, where we found that prothean artifact."
"That was a good day," Tali agreed with a sigh.
After a relatively rough ride far from the initial LZ, Shepard pulled the mako to a halt. As he, Kaiden, and Tali exited the tank, they could see the ruins. Inside was a large, silver orb that was letting out a distinct hum. Other than the floating orb, everything looked perfectly normal on the lush planet they were exploring.
"What do you think it is Commander?" Kaiden asked.
"I'm getting a lot of strong dark energy readings Shepard," Tali said softly.
With a nod to both crew members, Shepard approached the orb, touching it lightly. He and the orb flashed in a white light. Once they could see again, Alenko and Tali could see Shepard staring at the orb with a look of fascination and awe on his face. After a few moments, he shook himself, as if coming out of a trance.
Tali approached him. "Are you alright Shepard?"
"Yes I am," he said with a smile. "That was amazing." Shepard looked around. "I'll tell you about it later. Now it's time to leave." With that, he activated his coms.
"Joker, come pick us up."
As they returned to the mako to prepare or pickup, Shepard sat down in back, Tali to his right and Alenko across from him. He was exhausted. It had been a long day, albeit peaceful. The artifact had taken a bit out of him as well. With just a bit of prompting, Shepard told them about what he had seen.
During his story, Tali slowly tilted sideways in Shepard's direction. Initially it was to hear him better. But then the events caught up to her and she found herself drifting off. slightly embarrassed, she tried to stifle a yawn.
"If you want to take a nap, go ahead," the spectre said with a smile. "It'll be about two hours before Joker picks us up. "
Tali nodded and tried to get comfortable even as she asked him to continue. Eventually, Shepards voice lulled her to sleep. She slept well, until a loud metallic clang woke her. She started, realizing she was leaning on something softer than the metal walls. Opening her eyes, she realized that she must have slid in the seat; she found herself resting with her head on Shepard's shoulder.
Immediately she started to stammer an apology. Shepard shook his head. "It's alright Tali," he said with a smile. "If you're comfortable, go ahead and stay there. We still have time until pickup."
Very surprised, she almost shot out of her seat, catching herself at the last second. Instead, she closed her eyes, glad that Shepard and Kaiden could not see how hard she was blushing. They stayed that way until the Mako was back in it's berth.
"So, what do you remember most about that day?" Tali asked softly.
Shepafd smiled and looked over at her. "I remember a certain quarian engineer trusting me enough to fall asleep on me." He winked at her.
He turned slightly more serious. "That was also when I started to realize that you meant more to me than the other crew did. I don't think I would have been comfortable with anyone else doing that; it didn't occur to me for it to be out of place until I though about it later." He looked at her, his eyes warm. "That was also the day I knew you trusted me."
"Oh keelah," she said softly. Tali reached out and took his hand. "When you told me that I could stay, my heart nearly leapt out of my chest." She brought the hand to her heart. "That was the day I started falling in love with you."
The spectre smiled, turning to her. "That was a big day for both of us then." She nods.
Shepard brought his other hand up and touched the side of her faceplate. He then brought the hand to his lips before placing his fingers over her flashing mouthpiece. He could see Tali's eyes widen; clearly him knowing the quarian version of a kiss and using it so casually delighted her.
"Tell you what," he began after a moment. "Why don't we take the hammerhead down planet-side instead of scanning; do some more exploring with just the two of us. Sound fun?"
Tali nodded, before saying softly, "You lead, I'll follow Captain."
Shepard smile and took her hand before saying to EDI, "load up the Hammerhead and prepare for landfall EDI."
As the Hammerhead is made ready for flight, the docking bay doors open revealing the panorama below. "You ready?"
"Definitely."