Sorry for the wait but I finally found the time to finish this chapter. A big thank you to those who have been reading and I hope that you continue to read as I continue to add to this still growing story. I'm not sure when I will get the time to work on the next chapter but until then please enjoy!

Chapter Three

Commander Shepard sighed explosively as he stepped out of Anderson's office. The spectre did not envy Anderson one bit. Throughout the entire meeting he had felt as if he was arguing with a wall. He glanced down at his omnitool and swore when he saw the time. He had been in there for over seven hours! The inspection of the Normandy alone was two hours and he had immediately left to attend the meeting as soon as he was told that C-Sec had found no evidence of anything that could be harmful.

As usual he had Anderson's complete support, but that alone wasn't enough to sway the other councilors. At his insistence, Shepard was allowed to present the data that they had managed to salvage from the collector base. He was met with the usual series of denials that was to be expected whenever he reported to them. When asked for more information, Shepard had given the same report he had given to Admiral Hackett about the Reaper invasion. At that point the Tevos and Valern seemed convinced and said that they were grateful that the commander was done with Cerberus. Councilor Sparatus however scoffed at the report and had even went as far as accusing the commander of the destruction of the Bahak system was some form of revenge for what happened to his unit back in the Skyllian Blitz. Although the meeting had been more of a win for him, the council were still dragging their feet.

Taking his mind off of the meeting he wondered if the crew had finish their assignments. Pushing the thought to the back of his mind he approached the nearby transport terminal and boarded a waiting skycar. The skycar took off and begun to glide along with hundreds of other vehicles. Shepard watched the vista below him speed by and concentrated on trying to alleviate himself of his splitting headache. Ten minutes later he had arrived at the Zakera ward docks. The docks seemed busier than usual and the noise that came with it only aggravated the headache as he made his ways through customs. The ward was crowded as usual with various individuals going about their businesses. As he looked around he spotted Garrus leaving the Cafe. The turian was taking a sip from a container which on closer examination turned out to be a dextro equivalent of a soft drink. Garrus had apparently noticed the commander and jogged over to his friend while waving his free hand.

"Shepard! Good to see you out here finally." Garrus shouted over the noise of a nearby group of asari.

"You and me both. The council is more annoying then a pack of pyjaks." Shepard shouted back.

"I take it that the council is still as stubborn as ever?"

"Yeah, It wasn't a complete loss though. They agreed to change the registry on the Normandy to a spectre vessel and to fund our assignments. At least they know that we aren't working with Cerberus anymore. "

"Did you show them the data we got from the collector base?"

"They gave me the usual "We will need to verify this information." speech. I even gave them my report on what happen while we were in the Bahak system and Sparatus had the nerves to tell me that I did it out of revenge. I swear their not going to fully trust me unless I have drop a reaper on their heads," Shepard paused as a particularly rude krogan shoved his way between them before continuing, "On the bright side, Anderson is seeing to it that the repairs to the Normandy will be finished before we leave. Apparently he has an assignment for us to look into, he hasn't told me anything about it though."

Garrus chuckled at the joke about the council however he understood his commander's frustration. He had dealt with many situations like that when he was in C-Sec. Seeing that it would be pointless complaining about the council if they weren't going to fully cooperate he decided to change the subject.

"If its any consolation the crew is almost done with all their tasks. I'm not sure about the new crew uniform though. Gabby said it was coming along nicely but she and Jack wants to wait until everyone is together before they unveil it."

"Sounds good to me. We're gonna be here for another day or two so I might as well schedule a bit of shore leave for the crew. Everybody has been working hard, they deserve it." Shepard said feeling relieved that everything was going smoothly and found the idea of having some shore leave immensely appealing.

"Alright. Well I'm gonna check in on the weapons shipment I ordered. Grunt said he was gonna make sure the shipment would be on time. Knowing what kind of paperwork that will be involved I'd better get over there before something unfortunate happens. I'll see you later."

"Take it easy Garrus." Shepard waved as the turian spun around and made his way to the warehouses.

Not knowing what to do next Shepard decided to wander around a bit. He ran in to Samara along the way and noticed that she had a bag filled with what seemed like fifty vids. When he had asked why she had bought so many she explained that in her experience missions such as theirs could prove to be quite taxing on the crew, she knew the crew could use some form of entertainment now and then and thought that some vids would do the trick. Agreeing with her he asked her opinion about giving the crew some shore leave and Samara had actually smiled and thought that was a terrific idea.

After chatting with the justicar for a bit he decided he would go see what Tali was up to. Thinking that she would be at the tech shop he quickly made his way down the stairs to the next level. Along the way he saw Kasumi, Kelly, and Gardner all eating ramen. Kasumi had noticed Shepard's presence and waved and then pointed at several crates. On closer inspection he had noticed they were all labeled provisions. He was impressed, the amount seemed like it would last them close to a year. However he had the sneaking suspicion that some of them were "acquired" rather than purchased.

He was disappointed when he did not see Tali inside the store. Shepard sighed and greeted the storekeeper as he stepped into Saronis Applications outlet and idly browsed the kiosk. He scrolled through the inventory list looking for anything that might be useful. After about a minute of searching he found a decontamination unit that looked promising. 'Hmm. A decon chamber could be useful. I could always have it installed in the hallway between the cabin and the elevator.'

His mind made up he placed an order and had the shipment routed to the Normandy. He was confident the technicians repairing the ship would have no problem installing this particular upgrade. He swiped his credit chit and grabbed his proof of purchase receipt. It wasn't until he left the shop that he noticed the growling sensation inside of him. Glancing down at his omnitool again he decided he had the time to grab a bite and it wasn't long before he flopped down into the seat next to Kasumi and Kelly.

"Hey Shep! Glad you could join us," Kasumi cheerily greeted and signaled the cook, "Another bowl for my friend please!"

"Thanks. How did everything go with the supplies?" Shepard asked as he waited for his food.

"Good all things considered. Gardner here knows his stuff. Kelly, and I could barely keep up with him." Kasumi grinned as she nodded towards the mess sergeant.

"Don't let my looks fool you Miss Goto. I'm pretty spry for my age." Gardner laughed.

"Well with all the supplies we picked up I just hope we have the room for it. And I always thought I had a spending problem." Kelly smiled absentmindedly as she fiddled with her chopsticks.

Before he could ask further, a bowl of ramen was placed in front of him and without a thought Shepard had already grabbed his chopsticks and began to eat eagerly. As he ate the others continued to update him on their task as well as some of the other tasks the crew was working on that they had seen. As soon as he finished his bowl he sat back and let out a contented sigh.

"That's much better. It sounds like to me that you did good. If there isn't anything else that the three of you need to do you can head back to the Normandy for a break. Oh by any chance did any of you see Tali? I need to speak to her about a couple of upgrades for the engineering deck I thought of."

"I'm pretty sure I saw her wander off to the Sirta store commander. Don't know if shes still there though." Gardner answered.

"Thanks. Oh and Kelly, when you get back to the ship would you be so kind as to tell everyone that as soon as the repairs are finished that the crew is gonna have some shore leave on the Citadel."

"Of course Shepard. I'll take care of it." Kelly smiled.

He watched the three of them stand to leave and he noticed that Kasumi was the last to leave. The petite young woman didn't say anything but she winked knowing what Shepard had actually meant when he asked about Tali before disappearing. He let out a long sigh. He knew that the others would eventually figure out what was going on between Tali and the commander. It was always the same thing on each vessel he had served on, scuttlebutt always managed to find its way around the ship. Shaking his head he turned and made his way through the crowds towards the Sirta outlet.

As soon as he saw the Sirta Foundation store he noticed that Tali was inside browsing the kiosk. Smiling he decided sneak up on her. Unfortunately his plan didn't really worked as he thought it would because as soon as he stepped into the store he heard the advertisement of himself proclaiming that this was his favorite store. 'Yeah and three other stores' He thought to himself.

Hearing the advertisement Tali had turned around to see who had come in and she spotted Shepard groaning, though from what she did not know. With a smile she quickly ran up to him and threw her arms around him.

"Shepard! I thought you would be back on the Normandy. What are you doing here? Tali exclaimed.

"Well I just wanted to check in on how things are going. So what were you looking at?" Shepard asked.

"Oh. Um I was just browsing really. I didn't see anything that I could use for my suit." Tali replied as she begun to wring her hands together.

"Tali, you know you don't have to be nervous about telling me whats bothering you." Shepard spoke in a low enough tone that only she could hear him.

"I know. Well its just I was hoping to find something that could help my immune system more. You know so that I could try to be out of my suit more often. I just want to be able to make you happy and I know that you are but I just..." Tali stopped realized she was starting to ramble again.

"Sorry." Tali placed her hand over her visor.

"You've got nothing to be sorry about Tali. It doesn't matter to me if you can't be out of your suit when we're alone. What matters is that I'm with you and that is more than enough for me." Shepard said as he placed both of his hands on her shoulders.

Tali immediately felt better after hearing Shepard's comforting words. He had such a unique ability to turn almost any situation into one that benefited everyone.

'Keelah. How could I have been so lucky? Hes everything I've ever wanted and more.' She felt him take hold of her hand with his and guided her back out of the store and back in to the crowd of the busy ward. She saw several passerby's giving her dirty looks and she started to feel the same hurt she had felt during her Pilgrimage but then she would see Shepard glance at her with a smile and she forgot about the stares that were directed towards her instantly.

"Come on Tali, lets get back to the Normandy. I'm eager to see the new uniform that Gabby and Jack are working on. Who knows maybe they are done with it by now. And I was also hoping that maybe we could have dinner together." Shepard winked at her.

"I'd like that Louis." Tali giggled.

"Oh breaking rules now are we?" Shepard grinned.

"Do you approve Louis?" Tali whispered in a seductive tone.

"Oh I could definitely get use to hearing you say my name." Shepard grinned even wider.

Hoped you enjoyed this chapter. As always please leave a review positive or negative. I'll try not to keep you waiting to long for the next one.