Bored Meeting

Tali did her best not to nod off. Admiralty Board meetings were important, she knew that, but if the Board wasn't asking for expertise about the geth than Tali felt very out of place and useless. She knew her way around an engine room and was a highly qualified machinist, but just because she brought back some data discs did not make her an instant expert.

Yes she had a lot of contact with them thanks to her adventure with Shepard, and yes she had gotten to interact with the geth platform Legion. Admiral Xen though had lots of experience tinkering with geth as well, but it was definitely of a much more aggressive nature. Maybe that was why Admiral Rann had sponsored Tali's ascendance to the Admiralty Board. To have a different sort of expertise on the geth.

If that was the case, Tali did offer the alternative view but it didn't seem to matter. The Board had voted and was making preparations for war. Quarians from all over the galaxy were being recalled from their pilgrimages. If the war went in their favor then pilgrimages might just be a thing of the past. If not, then the entire people would go down in one last ditch effort to retake the home world.

The latter prospect was rather grim but the former was tainted in Tali's mind as well. Even if Rannoch could be retaken, the Reapers were just on the horizon. Victory on the home world would be short lived at best before the Flotilla would be stuck defending a static world. Being mobile in the coming Reaper invasion could be an actual benefit. However, any of her warnings were brushed aside. The galaxy had abandoned the quarians to their fate, and the quarians should abandon the galaxy to its own fate was more or less the explanation Tali was given.

As the Flotilla got closer and closer to actually invading Rannoch, the excuse shifted to the priority being the war for the home world. Tali still attempted to bring up the Reaper issue now and again behind closed doors, but being the youngest and newest Admiral didn't give her any weight at all. It wasn't for lack of trying. Tali could project confidence when she had to.

Years ago she brazenly demanded protecting from the old Shadow Broker in exchange for incriminating evidence on the Spectre Saren. After that, her skills and confidence in her abilities landed her passage on the Normandy. Throughout that hair brained adventure Tali's faith in herself actually grew so that all of her bravado was just a front any more.

That helped when Tali made it back to the Flotilla and joined the Neema. Tali managed to fit in well but her confidence got her into some trouble. People seemed to think she'd make a good leader, and maybe she was, at smaller groups of people. The mission on Haestrom was a disastrous first command outside the engineering decks of the Neema.

And of course, they had to show up and save her, just like they had on the Citadel. She was supposed to be dead and he looked like he had had a recent close brush with death himself. Their third companion wasn't Wrex, but naturally it was a krogan. Shepard always managed to have on in her crew and Garrus got along famously with them.

After being rescued, there was the whirlwind of finding out Shepard's story and then trying to come to terms with her working for or with Cerberus. He seemed okay with it, and there was a krogan and salarian there as well, but Tali didn't have to like it. Hell, Tali was even willing to put up with the AI on the ship. Still, Tali stayed to indulge her school girl crush she had on a certain rugged turian, not that he ever found out about it.

She kept things as normal as they could between the two dextrose on Shepard's crew. Didn't stop Dr. Mordin from once offering to assist in administrating immune-boosters or Shepard from making remarks about the meal time "dates" Tali had with Garrus, or Joker from setting up a MASSIVE betting pool… Truthfully, Tali was pretty sure that Garrus knew about her crush on him since day one way back on the Citadel. As silly as it sounds, him acting normally towards her got her through a lot of her days on the Normandy SR1 and SR2, even if her feelings were unrequited.

In fact it made things easier both times she headed home to the Flotilla. If he ever asked her to stay with him Tali would happily never see the Flotilla again. Thankfully, he didn't because the situation in which that particular request might have been asked never existed in the first place.

That doesn't mean though that Tali wasn't tempted to ask him to join her on the Flotilla. And Tali almost did as well, except then Shepard had to take in a geth. From there, the worst ten days of Tali's life played out. A standoff with the geth Legion in which Shepard broke up. Tali had gone to Garrus to vent only to find him on the machine's side. Tali demanding that Shepard drop her off at the Flotilla and barely speaking to anyone for the week's time it took the Normandy to take Tali back home. The rude reception and shock of being branded a traitor. The horror of finding out what her father was doing. The pain at finding his body. The shame of taking comfort in Shepard's hug and later defense in front of the Admiralty Board. The further shame in Shepard still offering Tali a place on the Normandy, which Tali took. She owed Shepard too much not to do something for her.

And out of that whole wreck came the one tiny beacon of hope. Garrus joined Tali in the port viewing lounge and just held her as she grieved her father. He came to her, as oppose to the other way around. It would be an isolated event, but that didn't stop Tali from treasuring that bittersweet moment of time. It was then that Tali knew that her crush on Garrus was far more than a simple crush and she was going to do something about it.

Plan A had been to ask him to join her on the Flotilla. With his skill set, there was no way Garrus wouldn't have been a welcome addition to any ship in the Flotilla, even if the taking in of outsiders was extremely unusual. Unfortunately Tali had to work up the courage to ask him and by the time she had, her timing was horrible.

Tali had gone to the forward gun battery that was Garrus' quarters/office/hangout and walked in on Garrus looking at an enlarged picture he had recently received. The title was "Vakarian Family Portrait" and showed five turians all smartly dressed smiling at the camera. An older turian was seated and over his shoulders stood a younger male and young female. At the old turian's feet were two children.

Tali's mind immediately put two and two together and assumed that this was why Garrus never did anything towards her that could be considered overly romantic. Yes there was some banter and what could be considered light flirting now and again, but who didn't do that in the middle of a fire fight?

Thankfully, before Tali could explode due to jealousy and say something she would regret, Garrus noticed her and explained the picture that his sister had sent him, pointing out his father, brother-in-law, sister, and nephew and niece. He also explained that it had been a matrilineal marriage, which was why his nephew and niece had the Vakarian last name.

Apart from the shock of Garrus sharing such personal information, as it turns out not even Cerberus had known Garrus had family part from his father, Garrus shared that this was his reason for fighting the Reapers. To give his nephew and niece the chance to grow up in peace even though he had never met them.

Unable to bring herself to ask her selfish request Tali retreated and would eventually form Plan B, or the dumbest thing ever in retrospect. Step one was to gather up as much false confidence as she could. This would only take until the night before the Normandy went through the Omega-4 Relay.

Step two was to swipe some immune-boosters from the medbay and self administer. Step three was to rewatch way too many vids on turians that Tali may or may not already have saved and with her. Step four was to throw out anything she may have learned from said vids and just wing it.

All things considered, it didn't turn out that bad. Tali just showed up at the forward guns, turned out the lights and went after him. It was hardly the stuff of movies where everything had to be perfect and glorious. She merely advanced, gave him a chance to stop her, and when he didn't the deed was done right there on the deck plating. No mushy words or comfy pillows, just barely enough clothing was removed as needed and that was that. Two or three times, Tali can't quite remember the exact number.

The next morning Tali woke up on top of Garrus and just got up and left to get ready for the insanity that normally occurred whenever she followed Shepard into battle. Of course, having a "breach" in her suit all night meant she was running a temperature and as the day wore on it only got worse.

By the time she was crawling through that cursed heated pipe she was slightly delirious and was slower then she should have been. Her sore hips, knees, and pretty much entire lower body didn't help matters any either and Tali's less then top notch state would get her slightly toasted. This slowed her down even more, which lead directly to Garrus taking a shot to the gut while he was providing covering fire when the two fire teams met up. If Tali had been moving faster, he wouldn't have stood there exposed so long.

As the mission wore on, Tali became more and more handicapped. By the time Shepard was making some silly speech, Tali was running completely on autopilot. During the holding of the line Tali can only remember bits and pieces as her fever would overcome her and she'd slip into unconsciousness. Tali remembers waking up upside down at some point and then waking up a few days later in the medbay on the Normandy. Assuming that heaven didn't look like the Normandy medbay, Tali assumed they had succeed doing the impossible.

Of course the victory was short lived, since Shepard, one of the none wounded crew managed to do a solo mission that only destroyed a mass relay and an entire batarian system with it. From there none Alliance crew were dropped off at the Citadel and that is how Tali ended up back with the Flotilla and sitting at mind numbingly important but boring Board meetings.

A/N: So any thoughts on Tali's home coming/reminiscing on the past/ the doubling of the words in the entire story so far? Next up is Garrus and he will fill in some blanks and move time forward a little.