Episode 3:

"Maybe we were meant to be lonely"

(Maybe we don't have to be all alone)

Chapter Genre: Hurt-Comfort/Humor

Characters: Tali, Shepard, KRONOS, Han'Gerrel, and A mysterious caller.

Chapter Summary: His thirst to get out reminded her of a fish that somehow knew the aquarium was all it would ever see.

Morning

Shepard was bored, sitting in the window sill as he watched Tali leave for work.

He tried not to show it when she left, but it almost pained him when she closed the door behind her every day. A part of him felt ridiculous at the thought of pining like a puppy dog for attention. But love, love hit him harder than anything that he had ever felt before. He went through a relay that was thought to be impossible to come back from. He fought banshees and brutes as though they were foot soldiers. Hell, he could stare at a reaper, face to face and not flinch. But, they were easier to combat than this. He was lonely when she was gone.

Shepard slipped off the wooden beam, a scowl edged into his face. He was growing impatient and irritable. His contact had agreed to bring him the supplies, personally. However, the man didn't say how or when he would get here. It's been a few weeks since he first contacted him. Yet, somehow, he had decided to take his sweet time to get to Rannoch. But, he trusted his decision.

That didn't make this any easier.

So now. Almost a month later with nothing left to do, he had taken up fixing things around the house. Tali thought it was a good idea for him to make his mark in their home. Admittedly, he felt it was an undeserving request. Her father had promised to make a house for her. He, himself, had also made that promise. Neither could keep to their promises. She ended up building the house alone. So it felt unfitting, unworthy even, to make it anything like him.

That didn't stop Tali from ordering things for him.

Even now, KRONOS was working with a lot of the heavier items. The green colossus moved at a sluggish pace, yet he had easily refurnished most of the rooms to better fit the couple. Currently, it had a large pool table in its grasp, easily above its head as though it was a wicker basket. It set it down within a room to the side and slowly walked down the stairs tirelessly. "Need a break, sport?" Shepard said, keeping himself upright enough with the frame of the door.

KRONOS turned its head. "No."

"You sure?"

"Synthetics do not fatigue, Shepard," KRONOS responded with an almost sarcasm in its robotic voice. For a geth, this one had grasped a sense of humor quite well.

"I know that, jackass." God, now I'm sounding like Zaeed. I really need to get out of this house, he thought. "I just need someone to keep me company as all."

After contemplating for a while, KRONOS stopped what it was doing. It sat its large body on a wooden plank of the stairs. For a minute, Shepard thought it was going to break from the weight, but somehow it survived.

"Do you have a query, Shepard?"

"How do you…" Shepard held his tongue for a second. "How do you feel working here?"

KRONOS went silent for a moment. "Feel is the incorrect word, Shepard. The Initiator did not instill feelings within the consensus, just gave each a large quantity of understanding. We are intelligent, yet we aren't living completely. But, there has been emotion, for a lack of a better term, since the code has been uploaded. So I suppose that you aren't asking a completely foreign request."

"The Initiator…" Shepard repeated puzzled. "Legion?"

"That is the unit name that the crew of the SR-2 Normandy called it. Yes."

"Then what do you…think about working with me?"

If the juggernaut could smile, Shepard knew that it would right now. "It's been…" it searched for a word, "it's been an honor."

Shepard looked down, grinning. "I needed that."

"This unit is aware you needed emotional reinforcement."

"It's that obvious, huh? You see that I'm lonely when she's not around."

"Affirmative. However, the concept of loneliness is foreign to geth." The emotion, that almost human spark, leaked into the robotic voice. "We are never alone. We will never be alone." KRONOS got to its feet. "You are never alone, Shepard."

With pride in its steps, KRONOS headed towards the door to continue his work.

"KRONOS…thanks, but one more question…"

KRONOS didn't turn to face him, but stopped to listen.

"You chose this job to come see me, didn't you?"

Shepard could have sworn that he heard a mimic of a laugh as KRONOS pressed the button for the door. "I did, Shep. I did."

Afternoon

"Shepard!"

Shepard tossed down the book—a quarian novel by the name of Machina—to see Tali standing in the doorway of his newly assembled study. Sweat poured from her forehead as she huffed. She struggled to get her breath, hand against her chest as she took in ragged inhales. "You have to hide! You have to hide now!"

"Tali—"

"No time to explain, Han'gerrel's coming by. He was asking a lot of questions today at the meeting. And I didn't know how to exactly answer them. So I froze. Then he said he was going to come by to see what I've done with the place since I had a geth juggernaut over moving things. So he's coming down for dinner…or whatever this is right now. I couldn't say no. The stupid bosh'tet was always really nosey anyway. Keelah. Why are you still sitting there?"

Shepard was about to explain that he couldn't exactly move at the swiftest of paces. But, he wasn't about to get the wrath of an obviously disgruntled Tali. He got himself upright. "For a person that didn't have time to explain, you are explaining well. Is he coming now?"

"Right now. Like right now, right now. That's how much right now he's coming right now."

As much as Shepard wanted to burst out into laughter, he held it painfully in his stomach. He hopped past her through the doorway. "You could have called or something."

"No time," she said, pacing briskly ahead of him. "I was too busy pretending that I'm not hiding my boyfriend, who happens to be a famous Alliance Marine Veteran, in my house."

"Well excuse me, princess."
"Just get going!"

"I'm moving as fast as I can." That was a lie, of course. He could move a lot faster, but it was a bit of a thrill. "This is the type of thrill the other guy in an affair must feel like. About to be caught by the other mate of his lover—"
"You've been reading too much Machina, Shepard!"

Shepard smiled broadly as he took his time down the stairs, with Tali's help. "Do you still think that it was a good idea to "masculinize" some of the space for me?"

Tali pursed her lips. "Yes."
"What if he asks questions?"

"I can say that I'm seeing someone and he stays here sometimes," Tali said. Shepard raised an eyebrow. "I won't be lying!"

"I just hope you are talking about me."
"Who else could I be talking about?" Tali questioned, already knowing the answer.

"It better not be Garrus," Shepard said with a smile.

Tali adopted a sardonic expression. "Yes, of course! Who else could it be? I mean really."

"I knew it!"

"Stop joking, Shepard! This is serious and—"The doorbell rang, leaving Tali's face to go pale. "Keelah, he's here."

"I'm almost to the workshop. Go answer the door."

Tali sneered at Shepard. She knew that he would probably risk being seen by Han just to add some excitement. He was that type of person. It was almost like a kid in that aspect. He would look to find as much of a thrill as possible in the most mundane or already dangerous situations. Yet being seen by the Admiral that would probably be the most adamant against his stay was just crazy. Not to mention that Shepard had punched Han before in the gullet.

She sprinted to the doorway. "Who is it?" she said, pressing the video screen to see the familiar face.

"Han'gerrel vas Neema."

It was indeed the Admiral. If any quarian could look like he had lost more than one bar fight, it would be him. He had long straggly hair tied into a ponytail, a messy black beard dripping down his chest, a few missing teeth, and a countless amount of scars on his face. It was amazing that he had even survived the amount of suit punctures he had in his life. He was the pinnacle of rough and tough Marine material. Han was the perfect person for a friend of Shepard if they hadn't already been established as enemies. "May I enter, Miss vas Normandy."

"Yes…yes."

She clicked the button, praying that Shepard wasn't just standing behind her. The door flung open.

"Thank you, Tali'zorah."

Han'Gerrel, a rather wide and tall man for a quarian, looked past Tali the moment he had a clear view.

"Is there a problem, Han?"

"No. I just thought I saw something."

Tali turned around. Nothing. Damn it, Shepard. Tactical Cloak, she thought shaking her head. "Come in, Han. I'll make us some dinner."

Late Night

With Han's curiosity sated and hours upon hours of business, he left. It wasn't until late that night Tali got a break. By that point, she had crashed on the sofa, sleep. Shepard smiled as she hugged a pillow on the couch. He had thought to wake her up, but ultimately chose to just let her stay there. If he could, he would carry her to their room. But that wasn't an option, not yet anyway. He gave a smile.

As to answer his thoughts, his Omnitool beeped. He removed himself from Tali's makeshift sleeping space, pressing a button on the orange display. A small screen popped up, only of blackness and fuzz. He knew it was his contact.

"You are up late, eh, Rowan?" the caller said.

"Pretty rude of you to call this late at night," Shepard responded.

"I didn't know you had a damn bedtime, but I thought that you would like to hear some news."

"Only if it is good."

"News is news. But in your case, this may be good…"

The man took a dramatic pause, as though to soak in his own mystery. "I got the supplies for you. I'll be there tomorrow, 18:00 Galactic time. I had to work really hard to get these supplies."

"Cry me a river, bud. You basically jumped up and volunteered for this."

"I said it was hard work, not that it wasn't fun. A friend of yours, Liara T'soni, has arranged for Tali to receive these supplies as a project around the house. She also arranged for me to send you a few things extra, sentimental keepsakes. So, I guess I'm playing your courier."

"You are far from that and you know it," Shepard said, laughing.

"I guess you are sort of sentimental to me now, just don't expect baked cookies. Make sure your evening is clear, I'll be arriving with a friend but you won't have to compensate for her." The man stopped for a moment, as though he was distracted by someone else. "I should go."

"Yeah. I should go too. It's pretty late. Stay safe.

"In my line of work, I can't promise that."

The man cut off his communications smoothly, leaving nothing, not even a trace of his call.

Author Notes: WOAH! Thanks to everybody for the reviews, follows, and the alerts! It's been really fun writing this! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Side note: I have bonus scene for this chapter; but it's more from the mysterious caller's point of view (it's rather action-y). If you want to see it, I post it in an extra episode after this one.

Time for some responses to the reviews!

Anonymous Guest: Ha ha. Thanks for your review! I've always liked the idea of a geth being rather diverse after the Reaper Code upload. Thanks for taking your time to review!

Mrmrgriff: Thanks for reviewing! I actually have a whole alternate ending that you will get to see in this story; Shepard just doesn't remember it yet. I hope that you like it!

Way of the Sheikah: HEY! Thanks for coming by! The mysterious person is actually someone that I don't think many people will expect. There are clues in this chapter that clears it up. I'll be sure to come by and read your story too!

Nightstride: Thanks! I like when people ask me to stay true to the universe. The clone tissue replacement actually came from Mass Effect 3 in the Huerta Hospital where you overhear a soldier and doctor talking about it. I thought that I would have to clear up why that wasn't an option for Rowan Shepard. And that omnitool prosthetics thing is a GOOD idea! I don't know if I want to us it unless I have your permission. Thanks for coming by.

TW6464: Hiya! Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you keep coming by!

Wing-Broker: I hope I keep you hooked, forever! MWAHAHAHA! Thanks for reviewing!

kill-phil: Thanks, man! KRONOS is like really awesome geth butler that is going to stick around. I'm glad you like it!

I will also like to thank the favorites and follower. 16 alerts, 8 favorites, and 1012 views. Thank you so much guys! New followers and favorites (if I missed you, I will definitely shout you out next chapter):

Mrmrgriff

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Song of the Episode: The Fighter by The Fray

Keep 'em coming guys!