Shepard finally reached the shuttle and walked inside, Tali still laying in his arms. "There's an isolated medical area at the end of the shuttle. When you seal the door, it'll do a decontamination cycle." Tali informed him, and he proceeded to walk towards the end of the shuttle. He entered the very small room and the door closed behind him; an automatic decontamination cycle began, sterilizing the air. He very gently lowered Tali's body unto the medical bed.
"Thank you, Shepard" Tali said quietly as she was laid down. Shepard noticed a cabinet next to the medical bed, obviously where the supplies where.
"I've had to patch myself up quite a few times. I can't imagine it being a whole lot different for a Quarian. I'm guessing all I need to do is thoroughly clean the area, inject some antibiotics, and apply medi-gel to the wound?" Shepard asked, as he dug through the cabinet, picking the supplies he figured he'd need.
"Um…I should—uh, I think I should take it from here." Tali replied, suddenly sounding very nervous.
"Is something wrong Tali? You don't need to worry, I can't tell you how many wounds I've had to patch up. I know what I'm doing, and you really should have someone help you." Shepard said, reassuringly to her.
"No it's not that…it's just that...um—I trust your ability to tend to the wound—It's just…" Tali was nervous, and sounded very embarrassed. She took in a deep breath, pulled herself together, and continued speaking. "The problem is, Shepard, the wound is in my upper thigh, and the bottom half of my suit would need to be…lowered. There's noth—Quarians don't, um…wear under…garments...with our suits…"
Shepard chuckled quietly as he put his hand on his face. "Wow… yeah. I see now why you're so uncomfortable." Shepard said to her. He sighed. "Tali, it's your call. I understand how it could make you uncomfortable. If you want to try and tend the wound yourself, it's okay. But please know, I have a lot of respect for you, you're my friend and you were my crew member. I really couldn't care less what I see; I just want to help my friend with her injury." He said to her reassuringly. Without realizing it, he had taken her hand, and had been gently squeezing it. He felt a little awkward when he noticed he was holding her hand, which he knew was a somewhat intimate gesture. But Tali just squeezed his hand back; she enjoyed his hand holding hers.
"I trust you…" Tali said, very quietly.
Shepard smiled at her, and responded by giving her hand a gentle, tight squeeze. He let go of it, and positioned himself to treat Tali's wound. He unwrapped the cloth fabric which had been around her thighs, and placed them on each one's respective side. The left cloth fabric was stained red with blood. Her leg had clotted sufficiently that he was able to remove the fabric without significant blood coming out. His hands moved up to her waist, and he found where the bottom half of the suit connected with the torso part. He fiddled with the mechanism that kept both parts connected.
Both sections of the suit were suddenly separated, and he began to slide the lower part of her suit down. Tali was tense and embarrassed; she wouldn't dare say a word or make a sound. She just wanted to seem as invisible as possible. Before she knew it, her lower suit was down to her knees; she could feel cool air touching her sensitive skin. Shepard avoided looking, out of respect for Tali, but it was impossible not to notice her private area; it was impossible not to notice it looked identical to a human female's. But that didn't matter, it wasn't why he was here; he immediately got to work on her leg.
"Your injury isn't too bad, Tali" Shepard said as he was wiping the blood off her thigh, trying to comfort her by talking to her.
"It's not the injury that worries me. A suit puncture is bad enough, but having an injury like this is… dangerous for me." Tali responded, her voice nervous and unsteady. She was obviously still very embarrassed.
"You're strong Tali. I know you'll beat this." Shepard said in a confident voice to reassure her. He finished cleaning the area.
"I… don't know. But, thank you, Shepard"
He then injected a dosage of antibiotics right next to the wound; Tali's leg twitched from the sudden stinging of the needle. "Alright, time to seal this up and we'll be done" He said, grabbing the bottle of medi-gel he had pulled from the cabinet. He squeezed a large amount of gel on the wound, and very gently rubbed it in. Tali's leg tensed up from the pain of having her wound rubbed, but it relaxed as the anesthetic properties of the medi-gel kicked in, and the pain began to fade away. "And we're done" Shepard said.
Tali didn't say anything. The moment was still very awkward for her, but she was feeling a lot better, a lot more comfortable with Shepard having seen so much of her; she trusted him. She felt Shepard tugging up on her lower suit, sliding it back up her legs. She helped him by arching her back, raising her body up so that her lower suit could slide up all the way. Shepard finished raising it, and connected it to the torso section.
"I take it this is for suit-repair?" Shepard asked Tali, holding up a roll of a very heavy, black tape.
"Yes Shepard" She answered. Shepard immediately pulled out a strip of the suit repair tape, and covered the suit puncture with it. He added a few extra layers, just to be safe.
"Looks like I'm done, Tali. That wasn't so bad, was it?" He asked as he grabbed a chair that had been off to the side, and pulled it up next to Tali's bed. He sat down, right next to her.
"I… don't even know how I should be feeling. Tonight has been so strange. One moment I was on a simple mission, then I was looking right at death—my life even flashed before me—then I saw you, back from the dead. And now you… 'saw' me…" Her voice took an embarrassed tone as she said that. "I'll be okay—I hope—I just need some time to rest. It'll be good to return to the fleet."
"I know you don't like Cerberus, but I'd really like it if you joined me on my mission. I'd really like to see Tali'Zorah nar Rayya on my crew roster again." Shepard said with a smile, as he gently took Tali's hand again.
Tali giggled softly, which was a pleasant surprise to Shepard. "Actually… I'm Tali'Zorah vas Neema now. After my pilgrimage I became crew of the Neema." She told him, gripping his hand.
"Well, my apologies Miss vas Neema" he said with some slight sarcasm in his voice. "But… congratulations on completing your pilgrimage, I know how important it was for you. I wish I could've been around for that" Shepard said, disappointed. Tali reached over with her other hand and held his with both of hers. Shepard looked at Tali's mask, right at the subtle shine of her eyes; he could tell she was very relaxed.
"I would love to be with you Shepard—" Tali said, and immediately realized it sounded wrong. "To join your crew, I mean." She added with a slight stutter, and continued. "I wish I could, but my mission is too important. The Admiralty would be very unhappy. My dad… I don't even want to think about how he'd react."
"I understand Tali. Maybe when you're done with it, we'll get to be together—work together, I mean." Shepard responded. Tali noticed his little slip up; it was always very rare for Shepard to mix up words like that. She loved hearing it.
There was a slightly awkward silence after both of their verbal slip ups. After a short while, the silence was broken by Tali. "Shepard… I told you that I was worried, because of an infection from my injury. I think I'll be okay, but it's not out of the question that I… won't make it." She said slowly; Shepard squeezed her hand, and she continued. "You rescued me when we first met, and then you let me join your crew. On the Normandy, you treated me so well. Quarians are always treated poorly by others. But you… I felt like an equal on your ship, respected and welcomed. The Normandy felt like home to me."
Shepard responded only by smiling, so as not to interrupt her; she continued talking. "This… is a little hard for me to confess, but I already missed the chance to say it once, and if I can't beat the inevitable infection from my injury, I'll miss the chance for good. Shepard, I…care…about you, a lot. More than just a friends, I mean. I have for so long… I can't tell you how often I wished I wasn't trapped in this suit, so that I could tell you how I felt. I just, I never imagined you could see past it."
Shepard inhaled and sighed. He then took one of Tali's hands, brought it up to his face, and kissed the back of it. She couldn't feel his lips through her suit glove, but seeing the gesture made her heart skip a beat.
"You have nothing to be embarrassed about, Tali, I feel the same way about you. I knew you were a special person since the moment I met you. And all the time I spent with you on our mission back on the Normandy, showed me just how special. Tali… I have always been able to see past your suit."
Tali's eyes watered up under her mask. Hearing Shepard confess he cared for her, just as she cared for him, was just too much. She couldn't help herself; she reached up and threw her arms around Shepard, hugging him from where she laid. Shepard leaned forward and put his arms around her, returning her embrace, holding her tightly. It could not be seen, but a tear rolled down Tali's cheek.
There was silence for a while as they embraced. Shepard couldn't help himself, and with their feelings having been revealed to each other, he felt comfortable enough to say it: "I didn't have to just see past the suit tonight, though"
"Shepard!! Oh Keelah…" Tali immediately reacted, letting go of him and embarrassingly covering her mask with her hands. "Why did you have to remind me of that?"
Shepard laughed quietly, and very gently took hold of her wrists, guiding her hands away from her mask. "You really have nothing to be embarrassed about, Tali. Everything I've ever seen of you since we met, has always been absolutely beautiful…" He said softly, staring into Tali's eyes. She immediately felt better upon hearing his words. "I have always wondered… if the face under that mask is as beautiful as every other part of you…"
Tali just stared back, his words lingering in her mind. It was at that moment, when she came to a decision; to a realization. She loved Shepard, and she decided she wanted him to see her face. He would be the only one to have ever seen it. "Shepard, I've… never shown my face to anyone, but, I want to show it to you... I want you to see it… to see me." At the end of those words, her hands moved upwards toward her mask, towards the small buttons on each side of her helmet that would release her mask, and expose her face to Shepard. In just seconds, Tali's face would be revealed to him.
"Shepard, you there?" was suddenly heard from Shepard's communicator, sounding far louder than it really was. The moment was utterly disrupted, and Shepard let out a big sigh.
"Yes, Jacob, I'm here. What is it?" Shepard responded, with some noticeable impatience in his voice.
"We found a Quarian, Veetor. He was here when the colony was attacked. You need to come see the security footage he pieced together, this is major."
"I'll… be right over." Shepard responded, looked at Tali, and sighed again. She took his hand and squeezed it. "Tali, you heard, I need to go. I'm still technically on a mission."
"I know, Shepard, I understand" she responded.
Shepard smiled at her, and leaned towards her, letting his arms slide around her back to hug her. She immediately wrapped her arms around him in return, and they hugged tightly. "And as for you Miss vas Neema... you get better, finish your mission, and join my crew" he told her as they embraced.
"I will. I promise." Tali replied, with heavy emotion in her voice. "I have so much reason to."
Shepard slowly let her go, and stood up, stepping towards the door. "Shepard… please make sure they send Veetor back. He's traumatized, and both him and I need to get to the Flotilla for medical attention. I'll program the shuttle VI to automatically fly us back there with my omni-tool."
"I'll make sure of it, Tali" Shepard said, and smiled at her. It was once again the same, loving smile she had seen earlier. "I'll see you later" he told her, and walked out of the room. The door sealed behind him.