Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible - it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could.
-Barbara de Angelis
Eighteen months prior
It had taken almost a month but the Normandy had finally limped back to Earth after the conclusion to the war with the Reapers, occupying one of the many broken landing zones at Heathrow Skyport in London. A broken hero returning home after a lifetime of war, the trusty ship had earned a long rest after all it had been through.
The reason for the long wait was because the ship had been heavily damaged while skirting through a relay as the Crucible fired. Several of its internal systems had been knocked offline from the blast of energy and they did not have the proper facilities to make the needed repairs in a timely manner.
Luckily for the crew, the Normandy had safely landed on a planet suitable for harboring life, even if it was mainly levo-based in terms of chirality, which meant that the dextro lifeforms on board were out of luck when it came to sustenance. It was not a big deal, the stores of rations in both chiralities they had on board the ship could last them for three months maximum. Plenty of time for the crew to make the necessary modifications so that they could return home safely.
To Tali'Zorah, the entire month had been the worst period she had ever experienced in her life. Spending all that time and not knowing if her lover, her saera, was still alive, was the cruelest torture she could possibly imagine. It may have been a victory for the galaxy but she did not feel happy at all. Rather, it made her all the more miserable.
This was partly because the last memory she had of him was his outline running toward the beam in the distance, right after he told her that he loved her. She could only stand by and watch from the Normandy's gantry, helpless, as he ran to claim a better future for everyone at the cost of his own.
And…that brilliant man had succeeded.
For an entire month, it seemed to Tali like she had gone through all those hoops and hurdles, just to fall in love with a martyr. Ancestors, after all that time she had spent with him and telling herself that they would be together forever, reality had done quite the efficient job of beating her up for her naiveté. She saw the vids of the aftermath in her down time, entranced in horror at the spectacle of the remains of the terrible battle. She could not fathom the consequences. Shepard had already died once but how could he come back from an entire station exploding? Apparently that was what everyone else thought, as all of the news stations were declaring the human MIA: Missing In Action. That just meant that they had not found a body that was not incinerated beyond recognition yet.
The entire trip back to the war-scarred planet had been rather somber. While they did have this enormous victory hanging over everyone's heads, it was the loss of their commander that struck them so, pinning them down to the ground and muting their relief that any effort to celebrate seemed like a futile gesture. Even Joker, the loud-mouthed pilot of the Normandy, had nothing to say as he numbly guided the craft to the ground, to the awaiting gate.
The crew took their time gathering their belongings as they trudged off the ship. The Normandy had been directed to a pad well away from the main terminal, most likely to get away from the press who were so eagerly anticipating quotes from Shepard's crew. Anything that would get them a pay raise for the victory propaganda.
Garrus and Tali had been the first to step off the ship but almost immediately, the turian had softly nudged her in the ribs. Looking up in annoyance, she saw him motion his head to the foot of the stairwell and she blinked in confusion.
Admiral Steven Hackett, Alliance Navy, was standing below them, hands behind his back as a Kodiak shuttle idled twenty meters away. Tali was apprehensive at first. Maybe the admiral just wanted a debriefing from the crew, to get an initial statement or something along those lines. But no, there was a faint smile on the edge of the human's face. Something was amiss here, a hidden secret that the human was itching to share, it seemed.
Before she could open her mouth to ask, Hackett beat her to it, "Ah, Tali'Zorah, Garrus Vakarian, I'm glad to see that you all are okay. I understand that all of you have had a hell of a time getting back here and everyone is grateful for your safe return. Before I pry any further I must ask that you come with me immediately."
She faltered for a bit, confused. Garrus put a hand on her shoulder to steady her in assurance. "What is this about, admiral?" he asked the human, voice low and gentle. "Do you want us to detail where we've been for the past month? Right now, all of us are strung out pretty badly-"
Hackett gave both the turian and quarian his equal attention as he took a deep breath. "No, no," he assuaged gently. "I actually come with glad tidings. Someone has been asking for you. Someone who has been waiting a while to hear from you again."
She could not dare to believe it as her face must have paled underneath her mask, for all the blood rushed out of it as if she anticipated the admiral's unsaid answer. "Is…is it him?" she breathed. "Is it…J-John?"
"Yes, Miss Zorah," Hackett smiled warmly, quickly giving her the answer that she longed to hear. "It is."
Tali swayed on the spot but Garrus was there to catch her. Throwing her arm around his shoulders, he patted the dazed and moaning quarian's helmet as he straightened to address the admiral. "Are you absolutely sure?" he asked.
"Beyond a doubt."
"Spirits,we have to get going, then," the turian said automatically, brain running at hyperspeed. "We have to see him, Tali most of all." Garrus shifted his friend in his arms slightly, "She and the commander are…close, shall we say."
"I don't doubt it," Hackett grinned. "The commander has been asking for her every day."
Hackett gave a wave to the Kodiak pilot, who started to warm up the engines in preparation. Understanding the need for haste in this situation, he reached for Tali's hands so that he could help guide her over to the awaiting craft. "I'll make sure that the rest of the crew meets up with you later. I can tell that this is more important right now."
Truly, Tali was ever so lucky to be surrounded by understanding individuals who knew what the poor woman was going through. Her mind was racing so fast it was about to blow out at the next little tidbit of data inserted into that fragile place. The sheer, sheer joy that she was paralyzed with had completely overridden any train of coherent thought at the moment. John…her John…was alive. It was there out in the open, he lived for her! She did not know what she was going to do when she would see him, going through the option to either kiss him or punch him. Maybe both, that damnable human certainly deserved them, scaring her like that.
Tali was silent the entire shuttle ride over to the hospital, rubbing at her arms absentmindedly as she inexplicably felt nervous shakes all over her. Why was she afraid? Was she still concerned that this was all a lie, that she was merely trapped in a dream? Tali pinched her arm as hard as she could and gasped at the sharp pain that flared from the motion. Nope, no dream.
Perhaps it was not a good idea for Hackett to idly mention the room number that Shepard was housed in on the way over, for when the Kodiak landed on the roof of the Royal London Hospital, Tali shot out of the Kodiak as soon as the doors opened, sprinting straight to the nearest elevator. Before anyone could blink or make a move to slow her down, she sprung into the awaiting doors and pressed the button for the seventh floor, the trauma unit.
Once the doors opened for Tali, her feet beat heavily onto the scuffed tile floor as she took long strides across it. Her heart was in her mouth as she took several deep breaths at a quick jog. She ignored the cries coming from behind for her, to slow down. Garrus had ostensibly followed her in the adjacent lift and was now in hot pursuit. She did not listen; she had to get to him. She needed to be there for him.
From the gaggle of Alliance marines flanked on either side of a door just ahead of her, she determined that her destination lay only feet away from her. Before she could even reach the door, a marine boldly stepped in front of her and halted her rush by grabbing her arms in a firm grip, his face blank as the quarian struggled.
"Let go of me!" Tali shrieked. "I have to be with him! He needs to see me!"
The soldier did not comply, merely grunting out, "No one is allowed in the room at this time, miss."
Tali howled as she tried to push through but the man was too strong. She felt herself faltering, her strength sapped away as she desperately tried to peer around the marine's bulky armor at the door, longing for a glimpse of the man inside.
She heard a huffing noise as Garrus caught up to the group, eyes instantly lowered at the sight of Tali being restricted from entry. "Back off right now, soldier," he growled, feeling his fringe ruffle in fury. The turian was unarmed, unarmored, but he would rather be damned if these jarheads were going to prevent entry for the two of them. He felt his hands tense as he prepared to lay into these blank-faced idiots as they continued to bar access.
Tali was sobbing now at the futility of it all and Garrus stepped in front of her, potentially putting her out of harm's way as he braced for fisticuffs. He eyed the soldier and was pleased to see a spark of fear in the other man's face as the turian towered over him. The human swallowed, "My apologies, sir. But our orders are to let no one at any point. It's for his safet-"
Garrus moved into the man's personal space, his jaw barely moving as he spoke dangerously, "I will not ask you a second time. Move out of the way and let us through. That is our commander in there, as well as her boyfriend." Garrus gestured to the trembling quarian as he spoke, "I don't care what your orders are. Step aside right now or I will force my way in. And you won't be able to stop me."
The marine reflexively tilted the rifle in his hands, leading Garrus to widen his eyes in astonishment. Surely these meatheads would not dare…they could not be so blindly stupid as to-
"SOLDIER!" a commanding voice barked, the noise excruciatingly loud despite the source having come from halfway down the hall. Admiral Hackett, red-faced, was striding purposefully towards the group, fury lining his features. "Stand down this instant! What the hell is wrong with you? Did you not get the notice I put out this morning detailing that the Normandy crew would be here today?"
The man was about to speak but Hackett waved him off, "I don't want to hear any excuses from any of you. I want the name of your superior and you can all expect severe punishment for interfering with the crew that saved your asses ten times over. Get out of the way, RIGHT NOW!" Lowering his voice and gently grabbing Tali's arm, Hackett guided her over to the door as the marines made a hole. Looking behind her, she nodded a silent thanks to the admiral and watched Garrus motion for her to go on, to see him once again. Taking a deep breath, she hit the green switch and the door slid open to allow her through.
A few nurses glanced up from a bed as they saw Tali enter. The quarian nodded to them as she walked around the wheeled surface. She dimly heard them say that they were about to whisk him off to surgery but she did not acknowledge them further. Instead, she was focused on the frail form seemingly dozing in the bed in front of her.
A tangle of tubes stuck out from his arms, his face was heavily bandaged, she could see parts where his skin had been rubbed raw, signs of second-degree burns. His upper body was propped upright on the bed and she could see the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. Despite the heavy coverings over his face and the breathing mask around his mouth, Tali was completely positive it was him.
Shepard was alive.
Tali let out a soft cry of happiness and the bedridden man's eye twitched slightly. She clamped her jaw shut, wary if the man was all right to talk but she needn't have worried. Shepard's head tilted in her direction as his eyes fluttered open to her voice, resulting in the most pained but loving grin to spread upon his face as he took her in at last.
"T-Tali…" he managed weakly, a tear running down his cheek. "You're…you're here…"
His left hand was twitching toward her and she eagerly grabbed after it, careful not to apply too much pressure lest she snap a bone in half. Her eyes were also rapidly welling with tears and she tried to speak but all that came out was a strangled sob. She attempted speech one more time but quickly dissolved into blind weeping, hanging her head so that Shepard could not see her like this. She hated it when she cried in front of him, thinking that it made her look like a stupid, emotional girl.
From the human, Tali heard nothing, but she felt her hand being gently squeezed, a thumb moving across the back of it in a way that she enjoyed. The familiar sensation came back to her and she looked up at Shepard, watching his tired smile and seeing him fully relax onto the bed. He now could see that his loved one was safe and well. He could rest easy from here on out.
Fatigue overcame Tali as a result from her violent emotional outbursts in the past hour. She started feeling her body tremble as an adrenaline crash rapidly approached her. A nurse gently put a hand on her shoulder and whispered that they were about to take Shepard away to surgery. Something about a minor procedure for setting a broken ankle but she was strangely fine with that. Knowing and seeing for herself, that her John was alive, after all the Reapers threw at him, was the greatest thing she could ever imagine at that time. Tali now had the mental fortitude to realize that Shepard was going to be just fine. She started to willingly pull back to let her love get wheeled away until he suddenly tightened his grip on her hand.
"W-Wait," he coughed, feeling a burst of agitation. Confused, Tali awaited whatever he had to say with bated breath. What could be so important to tell her right now when they had all the time they wanted to talk in the future?
Whatever scenarios she had in her head, they did not even come close to reality.
"Will…" he whispered raggedly, staring intently through her visor into her eyes, "Will you marry me?"
It was as if she was a dot upon a blot of paper, still and stark against the bare background. The hushed gasps of the nurses did not register, the blazing sunlight from the windows hitting her legs went unnoticed. Her heartbeat seemed to have slowed by a factor of ten, everything blurring around her. Her addled brain tried to focus helplessly but all of her senses had been abandoned.
It had been just her for all this time…but now a new dot joined the page.
Taking a breath, the filtered oxygen flooded her lungs and the room cleared, the contours sharp and straight. Tali took a long time to blink, closing her eyes and opening her mouth, the word instantly upon her lips in the infinitesimally small time it took to process Shepard's request.
"Yes," she spoke quietly before increasing her volume, her knees weakening as she fought not to pass out from happiness right then and there, any and all frustration pushed aside. "Yes…yes…yes, yes, yes! Yes, you bosh'tet, yes!"
Shepard smiled through the tears that were now pouring down his face, using his sheets to soak some of them up while simultaneously trying to stifle his sobs. The choked up nurses briskly wheeled him out the door before they could become too emotionally impaired to do their duties properly. It did not matter to Tali, she watched him go with a patience she had not felt in years, numbly giving a wave through his happiness.
Tali staggered over to a nearby couch and collapsed upon it, finding the comforting tendrils of sleep approach her like an old friend, a reprieve from her eventful morning. Before she finally succumbed, she pondered the foreign prospect that she had just agreed to, clearly something the human had had on his mind for a while.
Marriage. It was quite the step but it actually seemed logical to her. Tali recalled hearing about those human ceremonies but the minutiae had gone over her head, there would be time to learn them, however. But Shepard knew that quarians bonded for life, that they took the idea of mating very seriously, more seriously than the average human. A request such as this would not have been asked otherwise unless…unless he was completely serious. He fully understood the implications for asking her of such a thing, this was something he would never dare joke about. He wanted to be bonded to her for the rest of his life, and she in turn wanted the same thing.
The beautiful thought overpowered her but she did not cry.
She did not cry.
Rannoch – Present Day
The transition from sleep came naturally to her, as it had been for more than a year now. Tali mumbled quietly as she slowly moved her arm across the bed, reaching out for the person who lay beside her, keeping her eyes tightly shut to prevent any of the intruding sunlight from trespassing upon her vision.
However, her fist closed on empty air and she sat up instantly in confusion, the sheets falling off her body. Her dark hair wisped messily around her shoulders, grey skin covered in goosebumps as her bareness was exposed to the air-conditioned room. She wiped the intruding strands out of her eyes as she tried to determine where her partner had gone.
A quick glance around the room alleviated her brief panic, after she glanced toward the sliding door that led outside. Shepard, instead of accompanying her in the room at the moment, looked like he was sitting on the balcony of their house, steam rising from what had to be a cup of the stuff that he called "coffee."
Tali smiled, swinging her legs out of the bed, eager to embrace the new day. She padded over to the chair in the corner of their room, naked, towards her enviro-suit that she had left neatly folded on the comfortable surface the night before, her helmet positioned right beside it. She stretched out a hand for the suit but stopped in place as she analyzed the potential consequences in her head.
It had been almost a year since both Shepard and Tali had moved into their new house on Rannoch, near the main quarian settlement, and it had been nothing but pure bliss for the both of them. It was quite spacious for the both of them, seeing as they were used to living in single rooms on spaceships for pretty much most of their lives and now they had their own house. It stood two stories tall with a stone theme, a bedroom and bathroom on the top floor, kitchen and living room at the bottom. It even had a small workshop on the side of the house, an area for Shepard and Tali to store most of their weapons and armor, as well as providing a place for the technically proficient quarian to tinker around with tech (one of her creations being a modified FENRIS mech that Shepard just called "Dog"). Really, the place was practically a palace for the both of them, considering the huge influx of amenities now available to them.
Almost immediately after they had settled in, Tali had taken to removing her helmet a few times a week, gradually adapting to the atmosphere of their house (already purposed to make the environment as sterile as possible), enduring the few weeks of sickness to achieve total comfort inside her own house. She only wanted for Shepard to see her as much as possible, as there was no war to tear them apart again, and the fact that ever since they had resigned their military commissions (a well-deserved reward), they had no duties that intruded upon their togetherness, leaving just them in their own little world.
Adapting to the house was one thing for Tali but the planet itself was another story. There were more germs and potential strains of bacteria inhabiting the area outside the safety of their house but Tali was determined to look out on her planet without a mask and breathe the air her ancestors once shared. Shepard was concerned at first for her health but she made sure to limit these cases to only once a month if she could help it, enjoying the plethora of foreign scents as they came unfiltered to her nose, breathing in the natural splendor of her world. Of course, each time she did this she got a little sick but her reaction had been decreasing steadily each time she made the effort. Perhaps one day, she would suffer no ill effects at all.
Now, as she stood above her enviro-suit with her conundrum pondered out, she shrugged and moved to the closet instead. Despite having spent the night without a mask, she noted that she did not feel under the weather at all and it had been some time since she had walked outside without a protective covering anyway. What harm could a few minutes outside bring?
Smiling, Tali opened the closet and pilfered one of Shepard's robes from its hanger. She slipped the loose clothing over her shoulders, the warmth feeling like she had wrapped herself in a heavy blanket. Rubbing her hands together eagerly, Tali glided down into the kitchen as she prepared to join Shepard out on the balcony, wanting to first fetch a drink to quench her thirst. She looked over on the table and giggled softly when she saw the mug of dark liquid on a hot plate set out in front of her. Shepard had already prepared her drink for the morning, perhaps anticipating her daily routine.
Tali retrieved the mug and took a long whiff of the seeping drink. It actually smelled very similar to the coffee that Shepard drank every morning. And perhaps that was the entire point, for the turians had gone through something of a cuisine revolution once they discovered what humans did with their cooking. Particularly, the turians were enamored of the fact that the majority of the human population drank this hot brown liquid that seemed to perk them up after a quick slumber that they became curious about the social and chemical implications of the drink itself. That soon led them to discover the properties of caffeine and would model their newly synthesized drink after the human variant of coffee, no less. It quickly became a huge hit amongst the turian and quarian population, as both had dextro chirality, quickly and unimaginatively dubbing it "dextro-coffee," but most preferred to call it just "coffee." It did not matter to Tali, she actually enjoyed the bitter drink. It was certainly more flavorful than the nutrient paste she had to eat for rations aboard the flotilla. Quarian hypersensitivity at work on all fronts.
Her coffee retrieved, Tali ascended the stairs and slid open the door to join Shepard in watching the sunrise over the bay, where their house was located. Dog was lying down next to him, perking up at the close sounds, blue optics glowing. Turning slightly in his chair, she saw Shepard's eyebrows raise with pleasure as he appraised her robed form sidling towards him, faint lines of cybernetics glowing on her body, up and down her arms and tracing around her jaw. These implants were meant to assist the weakened quarian immune systems from their time in their suits, necessary additions that facilitated any health complications that could potentially arise from a breach.
Shepard grinned warmly as the grey-skinned alien approached him, her beautiful face drawing forth a fire within him. Tali could be considered a lovely woman from all walks of life, her glowing white eyes dipping modestly at his warm gaze. Interestingly, her shyness at exposing herself to anyone except the human she now lived with gave that beauty such an intense amplification that made Shepard greatly appreciate all the risks she took just to be intimate with him. For this woman, Shepard would have traveled through the pits of hell to get to her. Luckily, he only had to travel through a mild inconvenience on board the Citadel.
Shepard's appearance had certainly changed in the past year for he now had a full head of hair rather than close-cropped covering that barely qualified as such. The right side of his face was lightly scarred, either from the explosion on the Citadel or from the enormous amount of rubble that he had been trapped under immediately after. Hiding most of this was the dark black beard that definitely surpassed Joker's in terms of its fullness, its lines straight and clean, giving him a more weathered look. Tali actually liked the beard, to her surprise. It was a quality she could not put her finger on but it seemed to suit the man immensely.
Before she could reach him, Shepard stood and closed the gap between them. Tali noted, with a pang of sadness, that Shepard was still limping slightly as he walked. His broken ankle had not been set properly as it was a rush job but he had declined to have it fixed, one of the many injuries inflicted on his body that served as a constant reminder of what he had been through. Tali would quietly wish sometimes that Shepard would get past his pride and get himself properly healed. But Shepard knew that setting the ankle would be a more invasive procedure than it seemed, it was an ugly injury that simply could not be fixed under the knife. He would have to lose his foot if that was the case and he did not fancy having any more metal underneath his skin as it was already.
Smiling and pushing such negative thoughts out of her head, she leaned down and planted a kiss firmly upon his lips, enjoying the slight taste of coffee upon them, his beard tickling her. Pulling away, she grabbed the other chair as both sat down together, with her positively glowing. "Morning, John," she said, taking a sip of her dextro-coffee as she reached for his hand, to which he immediately reciprocated.
"Morning, saera," he grinned, causing Tali to quiver in delight as they sat down together. The universal translators typically were rather petulant in adapting to the quarian language and a few terms would slip out every now and then if the proper phrase was spoken, saera being one of those. Shepard had picked up on it some months back (when Tali was not aware that it would not translate properly) and fell in love with it immensely once the actual meaning was made clear to him.
Khelish was the sort of language that had many multiple meanings layered underneath their words, conveying emotions that English simply could not put into words in the first place. Saera could be crudely translated to "Keeper of my Soul" but Tali had explained to Shepard that there was more to this simple translation. It was a term that was spoken in private, between lifemates, that conveyed complete and absolute trust between the other. It was a term that went beyond whatever sanctions the stagnant institutions of marriage imposed (that symbolical boundary would be cleared soon enough in due time) and transcended base chemical reactions into something metaphysical. Hell, they were practically lifemates at this point anyway, which made the term all the more relevant.
Unable to control her wide smile, Tali set her cup down on the small table in front of her. "You were up rather early today," she noted.
Shepard shrugged and moved his thumb across the back of her hand, just how she liked it. "I guess I was," he said nonchalantly. "I was just not keen on sleeping in, most likely."
"Last night's exertions had nothing to do with it?" Tali wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, remembering the joyful and private encounter shared between the two.
Shepard snorted, shaking his head in derision, "You're terrible, you know that?"
"What, me? I seem to recall, John, that you were the one who exposed me to this change in my lifestyle. I probably would not have even gotten out of my suit by now at this point in my life if it weren't for you."
He waved a hand in denial, laughing, "Oh, no. You're not going to put the full blame on me for your sexual corruption, Tali."
Tali laughed in earnest as well, "Really? Then that does mean that some of the blame is attributed to you."
"So are you telling me that you wanted to avoid this particular avenue in your life? That my introduction rather derailed that plan for you?"
Tali put on a mischievous look as she deliberately glanced to the side, humming distantly, "Hmmmm…no."
"But you have to admit," Shepard added just as facetiously, taking a few glances towards the glorious sun peeking over the horizon. "If it hadn't been for me, you would never have been rescued by a dashing commander, asked to join his crew, and then gone off to save the galaxy. What does that tell you?"
"You tell me," Tali laughed. "I'm marrying the bosh'tet of that dashing commander."
"Damn right you are," he punctuated in mock seriousness. "I didn't buy an expensive suit for nothing, you know."
Tali raised her eyebrows in amusement, "Hey, I have to get dressed up for this occasion too. What, did you think that I'm just going to show up in my regular enviro-suit?"
Now Shepard was rapt with interest, "So you're saying that quarians also like to dress snappy whenever they're wed as well?"
"Of course, you fool. I had Kasumi help me pick it out, in fact." She noticed Shepard's apprehensive glance and grinned, "She didn't steal it, if that's what you're thinking."
Before Shepard could chuckle again, Tali grabbed his head and lowered her lips onto his once more. He fully surrendered himself in her grip, taking in the pleasing sensations as their sensitive surfaces brushed together, locked in a trance in the still air.
After a few seconds, Tali broke away, brushing her hand across Shepard's furry face. "At least I had the good fortune to bond with a cute human, though," she shrugged in a flippant manner.
Shepard mimicked her motion, placing his palm flat across her cheek, the soft sensations causing her to sigh in pleasure as he gently smoothed her skin. He cocked his eyebrow suggestively, "I think, in my case, that I had just as good fortune meeting a beautiful quarian who was probably the most earnest person I've ever known."
Her fingers began plucking at his hairs absentmindedly as she grinned, "You sappy bosh'tet. You just wanted to get me out of my suit."
"I guess I succeeded. Hell, if I recall correctly, you practically jumped out of it on that first night. I don't think I even got to use my persuasive voice before I knew what was happening."
She lightly swatted his leg, giggling, "Now who's being terrible, hmm? You're just lucky that I was completely overwhelmed that night before we went off to the Collector base."
"Oh? And what difference would that have made if you had been more lucid?"
She gave a coy smile, "I would have been out of my suit much sooner."
Shepard barely had a chance to grin before he embraced his best friend, his fiancé, in a terrific hug as he deeply kissed her. All this time they had known each other and they still acted like each day was their last, as if they were hardly daring to believe their luck that they were still alive after all they had went through.
Shepard had a brief thought flutter through his head and he pulled back, squinting, "Did we ever finish Fleet and Flotilla last night? I can't remember."
Tali now scrunched up her face as she struggled to recall the previous night. "I…we might have left it playing after…after things kind of deteriorated for us."
"That's putting it mildly," Shepard said with a hint of teasing. "I think it was your singing that set me off. I had no idea the film was a musical so it came as something of a surprise to me. It was so cute how you couldn't resist singing along to the music numbers."
She shuffled in her seat, cheeks darkening in an intense blush. "Well," she stammered, "I don't think I've ever sung to anyone before outside of the flotilla. Can you imagine what Garrus would say if he found out about this?"
"I haven't the foggiest idea. Speaking of which, I checked the extranet purchase and it turns out that you deliberately bought the musical adaptation."
"So?"
"So," he said in a teasing manner, "You knew what you were getting into when you bought the vid. I knew something was amiss when Bellicus and Shalei started singing onscreen because I read that it was supposed to be an epic, not a musical."
"Hey," she pouted, "That version was my favorite as a kid! How was I supposed to know that trying to relive my childhood would end with you pouncing onto me?"
"I'd guess we can call it even, then?"
"Bosh'tet," she sighed but still could not stop the smile spreading across her face. The two of them basked in the sunlight until Tali gripped Shepard's hand tightly. "John?"
"Yes, Tali?"
"I've just been wondering…about the marriage ceremony…"
Shepard sat up, all playfulness gone, face serious. "Something troubling you?" he asked gently.
Tali quickly shook her head, "Oh no, nothing serious. It's just something I've had on my mind. I mean, the concept of mating is something both of our species share but I just wanted to know, what does marriage mean to you?"
Shepard sat back, holding Tali's hand as he gazed upward at the soft purple sky. "To put it simply," he began, "I would have to describe marriage as a union that enacts obligations between two people. From what you have told me, the concepts are practically similar to one another."
"Yes…but I've also heard of several cases in which…in which marriages dissolve because the mates weren't compatible with one another…"
"Ah, yes. That process is called a divorce and they are much more common in human society than quarian, I'm ashamed to say." Shepard locked gazes with Tali as he continued, "You're concerned that because I'm a human then that brings the probability of a divorce in the equation, yes?"
She silently nodded but he did not falter. "That's understandable, there are many new things about this that can be frightening for most people. But here's the interesting thing, Tali. Most marriages between humans are completely loving and caring, with both partners successful in finding their match in life. And that's just by the regular methods of dating."
He noticed that she was starting to perk up a bit so he continued on, "And if you take into account what we've been through and look where we are now, I don't think that I could ever be capable of finding someone half as perfect as you, Tali. When I asked you if you wanted to marry me all those months ago, I did it with no regrets and a clear conscience. I asked you to marry me because…because I wanted our union to be official, for us to clearly be marked as lifemates, as husband and wife. I wanted to marry you, because I love you."
Tali's eyes were lapsing into her normal habit of filling with tears whenever she got extremely emotional. Shepard carefully caught the delicate drops with his thumbs as he cupped her head, heart breaking as he watched her struggle with her breathing.
Between erratic gulps of air, she managed to choke out, "I…only…wanted to know…just the legal differences…between our cultures…not a heartfelt speech…you idiot."
Unexpectedly bursting out into laughter, Shepard hugged her frail body as she started to laugh as well, quickly lapsing into hysterics as they soon lost their breath due to their convulsions, giggling so hard that their sides ached. He nuzzled Tali's head as they began to calm down, listening to the nearby waves crash over the rocks in the bay miles away, the noise a peaceful soundtrack.
Good lord, he thought in amusement. This woman is going to give me a heart attack.
The Citadel
Garrus Vakarian, ex-C-Sec, grimaced as he walked into the security station, already spotting the problem as he skirted past the illegal tech scanners. The blue blood stain on the shiny ground was nigh impossible to miss, seeing as it was positioned by the door and he took careful measures to step around it without planting his foot in the evidence. What a way to start the week.
Glancing in front, he spotted the person he wanted to see who was over by the consoles, conversing with a technician. Citadel Security Commander Armando-Owen Bailey saw the turian headed over to him and abruptly ended his chat with the tech, preferring to meet the turian with his hand held out in greeting.
Garrus yawned as he accepted the shake, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "You better have a damn good reason for waking me up this early in the day, Bailey," he grumbled.
The turian had a right to be grumpy this morning, seeing as he had been blissfully retired for the past year and a half ever since he helped stop the Reapers with Shepard. Choosing to stay on the Citadel for the time being, he had shoved most of the fortune he accumulated over the years (saving the galaxy resulted in a lot of perks for Shepard's crew) into an investment portfolio, waiting until his interest added up so that he could retire properly, away from all the hubbub. He heard that there was quite the rage on Palaven for beachfront property right about now. The prospect of being near water was not enticing, but the weather was. Turians loved warm climates and the comfortable thought of natural heat gave the turian a glow whenever he pictured what his future would look like in a few years.
So now, Garrus had been delegated to either collecting guns or fantasizing about his future tropical home, while he reaped the praise from every passerby he ran into. Life was good for the turian, he slept in, ate well, made progress with his hobbies, and kept in touch with his friends. Today marked the first time that routine had been spoiled, however.
Bailey paused and gave a shrug of regret, sighing, "Believe me, Garrus, I didn't want this any more than you and I held out calling for your presence unless I could get some semblance of what the hell went on in this room."
"So? What did happen?"
"You used to be a detective, hazard a guess."
Garrus looked back at the large blood stain to the body bag a couple of coroners were now zipping up in the corner. He pointed at the contents of the bag, "Who's in there?"
"A Lieutenant Orirus," Bailey offered as Garrus strode over and crouched, unzipping the bag so that he could take a closer look. "Poor guy must have been caught off guard for his mid-shift break, he was found with the remains of a drink next to him."
Garrus did not wince as he examined the damage to the unfortunate turian's head, gently turning it so that he could take a look at the massive exit wound at the back. "No burns near the entry point," he noted. "So it wasn't an execution. Was his pistol drawn?"
"Nope. It was still holstered when we found him. We even examined it to see if it had been fired recently. No dice."
"Hmm. An assassin would never go to the trouble of deliberately placing a gun back in an effort to confuse us. Do we have any footage to piece together what happened here."
"Zilch," Bailey grimaced. "Our cameras were already spiked with a still image of the area in question hours before this ever happened. Everything tied up nice with a little red bow on top. It probably meant that Orirus spooked whoever was in here when he entered and was dropped before he even knew what was happening."
Garrus squinted his eyes, "How do you think the assassin got in here?"
Bailey pointed to the side, where the ventilation grate had been placed aside. "It was loose when we examined it. Duct leads to a keeper tunnel and that means any future investigation is going to be one gigantic clusterfuck as there's no way to track the assassin's path. We may have most of the keeper tunnels mapped but they are in no way monitored so we won't be able to discern where our friend originated from."
Garrus stood, dusting his pants off as he sighed, "It's a terrible inconvenience, Bailey, I will admit, but I still don't see what exactly this has to do with me. I mean, I don't even know this guy here and I certainly was never stationed at a simple security checkpoint which means I am completely out of my depth. Just cut the crap and give it to me straight because I want a good reason. Now."
The commander did not say anything else but instead waved for the turian to follow, heading back to the line of monitors at the edge of the room. Waving a hand in front of one screen, the motion detectors picked up on the movement and the holographic display lit up, showing a list of computer jargon that was completely meaningless to Garrus so he waited for Bailey to come up with an appropriate explanation.
Responding to his mental request, Bailey gestured to the screen, "The boys managed to recover a few sets of hidden subroutines that were issued to this very workstation at the supposed time our assassin was here. We're still trying to figure out if our friend managed to slip a virus into our net, probably going to screw up our security for the next few days, but he did make a public domain search while he was here."
Garrus tilted his head slowly, "And what was he searching for?"
"Just one file, a call record made from the Citadel," Bailey tapped at the keyboard and the item in question popped up on screen. "I'm not sure exactly the significance of this is so I thought you could help clue us in a little."
Garrus squinted at the screen as he tried to read it, wishing he remembered his trusty eyepiece to enhance his vision. Finally processing the results, he straightened up, confused. "I'm…" he mused, trying to run through the reasoning, "I'm not entirely sure how significant this is."
"Try me," Bailey offered.
"As it says on the screen, I made a personal call on the Citadel to a private address the past week."
"And? Who was the recipient? We've searched high and low on every record on the Citadel for that exact address and nothing's come up."
Garrus wilted, "That's because this person doesn't live on the Citadel. It's a Rannoch address. More specifically, it's Commander Shepard's address."
Bailey blinked in surprise, "Damn, so that's where he's gone to. So what we have here is that someone snuck onto the Citadel and killed a C-Sec officer, just to get Shepard's number?"
"It's worse than that. If you have the right software you can pinpoint the area where the recipient lives to the exact millimeter. Whoever these guys are, they probably wanted the number to know where Shepard lives." He glanced over to the zipped up bag, "And they were most certainly willing to kill for it."
"Shit," Bailey mused. "Should we alert the commander?"
Garrus thought for a moment before shaking his head, "Not right now, no. Rannoch has one of the most heavily protected planetary blockades in the galaxy. No one sets foot on that planet except specifically designated individuals based on a rigorous permit process or through special permission. For someone like you or me, going to Rannoch on a whim is an impossibility. Shepard retired there for some privacy in his life and I think that all of this evidence stacks up as nothing more than futile effort at best. I say let C-Sec continue to investigate, these clowns are sure to show their hand again."
Bailey nodded in satisfaction, "Well, that settles it. I believe that with your analysis, I would like to deputize you as a temporary C-Sec officer for the remainder of the investigation, Garrus."
The turian's mandibles twitched in surprise, "What? No, no, no. I'm done with all of this, Bailey, you know that. In case you haven't heard, I'm retired as well. Besides, there isn't much more to this case that I could possibly contribute to."
"True," Bailey nodded, "But it would do the other officers some good to see that you're busy working with us in light of this grisly murder. A huge boost in morale would be appropriate considering the current setting. Garrus Vakarian, 'The Best Shot in the Galaxy,' working with C-Sec again in one final reunion. Sounds like headliner material to me, huh buddy?"
"I admit, it all does sound very flattering, but-"
"I'll even pull some strings to have you receive a stipend equivalent to three months' pay, tripled."
Garrus' eyes widened dramatically as his mandibles quivered in delight. Well, if he was going to run an investigation with a dead end, then the prospect of a whopping paycheck was certainly cause for him to sign up. With cash like that, he could pay for some new upgrades for his Black Widow rifle that he had been longing for, its heat diffusion system was improperly calibrated and a new one would increase the number of shots dramatically. With that much cash, he might be able to afford the X series of upgrades, the thought a tantalizing prospect to the turian.
Garrus gave a huge shrug and held out his hand in agreement, to which Bailey accepted. Garrus lowered his eyes in as close to a pleased expression as he could muster, "Hell, Bailey, why didn't you just say that in the first place? I'm in."
"Glad you're in business, Garrus," Bailey responded eagerly. "Come on, we've got to fill out the necessary paperwork so that you're official. I would wager that you would have preferred to forget about paperwork entirely, right?"
"Small change, in my book. Now, I do seem to recall you saying something about 'headlines'…"
A/N: I decided to post this chapter a little early in my schedule. Just wanted to get it out of the way as I spend the next week working a little more on the story and trying to coordinate my hectic schedule at the moment.
So we have our favorite characters laid out, all living their lives after the war.
Now…what will become of all this?
I'll post Chapter 2 next Friday, so hang in there! (Of course, if I get ahead of schedule, I might just post them early as well)