Just a quick story that I came up with after reading an AU story where they landed on Rannoch before the events of ME3. I started daydreaming about what would happen if my own Shepard landed on his love's long-lost homeworld while the fate of the galaxy still hung in the balance and his worries and doubts began to catch up with them there, on a planet that represented hope and peace to an entire species but could quite possibly serve as their final resting place in the near future.
"How can you defend him?" Tali protested, flushing in anger as Shala'Raan led her down the grassy slope toward the ruins of the city two kilometers away.
Shala only stopped and grabbed her arm, turning her to look up at where Shepard stood leaning against the shuttle, his arms folded across his chest as he stared off into the sun, as distant and as troubled as he'd been when he'd softly urged her to go on without him. "Look at him, Tali!" she hissed. "What do you see?"
Tali scowled in anger at the rough grip her aunt had taken on her arm and the way she stuck up for her stubborn, withdrawn human. "I see a man who can't be bothered to be happy for us on the most important day of our lives!"
"Then you're blind!" Shala practically yelled, yanking her arm to turn Tali back around to face her, their visors inches apart. "Returning to our homeworld has been a fairly tale, a dream for our people for centuries. But to him? It's a mission." Tali tried to jerk her arm away, but Shala held fast, shaking her head and speaking with a soft, disappointed voice. "You don't see it. The woman who loves him with all her heart doesn't see it. It feels as though it may as well be over for us! We're on our homeworld! But for him?" She lifted her head to gaze sadly over Tali's shoulder at Shepard, who had dropped to his knees and whose head was bowed as his shoulders shook in what could only have been sobs. "For him, it's never over. He stopped Saren and Sovereign. He died, Tali! And as soon as he came back to life, he had to leap back into another impossible battle to stop the Collectors!"
A part of Tali began to understand, but she shook her head and her angry voice came to life again. "I was there, Shala, I know-"
"No, you don't!" Shala cried, shaking her head sadly. "One mistake almost drove us to extinction, but our feet are back on Rannoch. But if he makes one mistake, every race goes extinct. Every world falls...forever. The woman he loves dies, and her people along with her." Tali's head fell in shame as she finally understood, and Shala's voice fell to a soft, saddened whisper while she watched Shepard slump against the shuttle and bury his helmeted head in his hands. "Try as you might, you can't imagine what that weight feels like on his shoulders...and neither can anyone else." Shala turned and let her hand slip from Tali's arm as she began to walk away, down the slope, speaking softly to Tali behind her. "But if you can't even try to understand, then you don't deserve him."
Tali slowly turned to gaze up the slope and her tears began to fall as she sprinted back up the slope toward her husband.