Shepard and Tali stepped out of the taxi and took a quick look around the surrounding area. They were on Elysium, one of the Alliance's oldest and most productive colonies. Shepard had
earned the Star of Terra and the nick name "Lion of Elysium", after rallying the garrison and armed civilians into a desperate battle to hold back the pirate and mercenary army that launched an attack against them. He was the only reason why the colony was still standing when the
fleet arrived and beat back the attackers.

Shepard and Tali had come here for a bit of well deserved R&R after their suicide mission on the Collector base. What surprised Shepard about the whole mission was that the whole team survived, and he had even got the entire crew of the entire crew of the Normandy, who had been kidnapped, out alive.

After the mission, Shepard reported to the Council on the events that had transpired. He gave them something that he knew they would try to "dismiss" but in the end accept as
truth, cold-hard data and recordings. They told him it would take them a standard week or two to shift through the data and see if everything was true.

He didn't mind the amount of time it took them "make sure" that everything wasn't doctored up. His
ship needed repairs, and his crew and team needed some time to rest before they went back to work at stopping the Reapers. Also, he was quite happy to be spending that time with his newfound love, Tali.
He looked at her and smiled. "C'mon, let's see if we can find that statue they made of me." He started to reach for her hand to lead her to where the statue was, but she stopped him. "Do you think that this is a good idea?"
Shepard looked at her in confusion before asking,"A good Idea? It's just holding hands, Tali." Tali stood there for a second and started to wring her hands before answering. "Well,I know the crew knows about our relationship, but I am not sure many people would like it if they
saw you with a Quarian."

Shepard stared at her blankly before answering."Well honestly I don't give a damn what anybody thinks of our relationship." Shepard moved closer to Tali and took both of
her hands into his. "The fact is I love you, and people's stupid
prejudice will not stop me from loving you, no matter what."

He let one hand go but firmly kept the other. "Let's go, and if they stare, good, that way they know I am the happiest man in the galaxy." Tali only nodded; she had muted her suit's speakers so that Shepard couldn't hear her cry. These were not
tears of sadness but of happiness. She was so happy that he had chosen her out of millions.

As they were walking, Tali could see some of the people staring at them. A few looked angry or aghast that a human would seem to be with a Quarian, others had looks of approval
while the rest looked confused. Tali felt very nervous, but when she
saw Shepard looking back at her with a loving smile her nervousness simply
disappeared. I faced armies of Geth, mercenarys, pirates, and the
Collectors and I am scared of what people think of me and Shepard?

She moved closer to him and moved her arm to lock in with his.

When they got closer to where the statue was they could see that a
ceremony was taking place. Tali didn't know what was going on, but
Shepard did. When she asked him what was happening, he simply told
her to wait and see. There were several young men standing in line
wearing clothing similar to what Shepard had worn when he'd gone to help Kasumi. The man on the right of the elderly man seemed very nervous.

She looked to the left and saw several women in very nice dresses, but they were more than an arm's length from the elderly man. What kind of ceremony is this? Tali thought to herself. That's when she heard the music play. Everyone looked down the aisle and saw an older man leading a women. Keelah that dress looks beautiful she thought. She looked back at the nervous man, and she saw that he wasn't nervous anymore, but calm and happy. She had seen that look before.

That's when Shepard told her in a whisper what was going on. "They're
getting married." During the rest of the ceremony Tali stayed quiet. When they were taking their vows, Shepard got behind Tali, wrapped his arms around her waist and began whispering to her. "I was looking around the extranet tryingto find out how Quarians propose, but I couldn't find anything." He took an object that he was holding in his hands and brought it up for her to see.

It was a ring. She looked at the ring and looked back to the stage, where the ceremony was nearing its end. She saw the young man put a ring on
the woman's finger, and that's when realized what the ring meant.

"Will you marry me?" Shepard asked. He was worried that she would turn him down due to her strong commitment to the Migrant fleet but at least he was giving it a shot. She turned around and looked deep into his eyes. She was overjoyed at what she saw. When she hugged him, everyone began applauding, but it wasn't for them. It was for the couple of the hour, but soon, someday soon, it would be for them both.

A/N: Well I had this idea running around my head for a while and decided to write it down and publish it and see what other people thought about it.

Thanks to Phonypapercut over at the Bioware forums for doing an intial/grammer check and thanks to

my Beta reader Brownco0at for making it a lot nicer.