This chapter was a bit more difficult for me to write. After the last one, I wanted to make sure I didn't cast Tali in a light that made her look immature. She is after all one of my favorite characters in Mass Effect. So hopefully I handled that fine here.
Why can't I control this feeling? My head feels fuzzy and I can't hear anything. All I see is a haze and the only thing I can make out is Miranda looking at me. I can't see anything else around her. I just have this urge to hit her. To make her go away. But Shepard has chosen me! Tali was attempting to fight the possessive instinct to protect Shepard. Her entire body was shaking with rage. Fists clenching and unclenching. She growled again. She could feel her heartbeat increase in intensity. Glowing eye's narrowing to dangerous slits. I must regain control! Keelah, I do not want to hurt anyone!
Miranda was still in her seat, legs crossed and regarded the quarian with a bit of admiration. She has always felt Tali lacked backbone. It did take sleeping with the commander to get her out of her shell it seemed. But she was also annoyed that she would have to grovel and act meek in order to prevent Tali from attacking her. I am not afraid of her, I can easily take her down with my biotic's alone. But Shepard wouldn't like it too much if I hurt his girlfriend. He does have a strange taste in lovers I must admit. Miranda glanced over to the geth construct Legion. It seemed totally absorbed in the situation at hand and hadn't added anything else for advice. This is just great, get called to this meeting only to have Tali all possessive over Shepard. The commander is probably enjoying this. Being fought over. Well screw that. She had half the mind to just throw Tali across the room and end it.
Shepard glanced over to Miranda. He could see the anger in her eye's at the thought of being submissive toward Tali, and berated himself mentally for calling her into this meeting after discovering Tali's new feelings. Damn it. Need to take control of this before Tali flips and hurts herself or anyone else. Not taking his eyes off Tali Shepard whispered, "Miranda, you need to back away. Maybe not groveling but no eye contact. Look at at your feet and just slowly back away. She will probably take that as being submissive enough." Shepard hoped Miranda will cooperate and that nobody would get hurt.
Miranda shot Shepard a quick glare then straightened her face. Shepard, you will owe me a huge favor for doing this. God I can't believe I'm going through with this, must be getting soft now damn it. Miranda put on her best poker face, showing absolutely no emotion that would set off Tali, and backed away from the table. Never looking directly at Tali. Keeping her head down. If I find this on the extranet I'm going to strangle them all in their sleep!
Tali's posture began to soften up. It looked like it was working, and the growling stopped completely after a few more seconds. Mordin was quickly tapping on his omnitool that he kept up the entire time. Taking notes and scanning Tali's hormone levels and brain activity. Yes! Fascinating readings. Signs of subconscious primal level of brain activity very active. Also hormone levels very high, already have 3 possible sedative solutions to alleviate problem. Good readings for future cross species relationships with quarians. Thinking quickly he finished typing and closed his omnitool sniffing deeply.
Shepard relaxed as Tali slumped against the wall holding her head in her hands. He moved over to her quickly and crouched down close to her. "Tali? Hey you ok?" concern etched across his face as he attempted to remove Tali's hands gently from her mask.
"Oh Keelah...damn it. I lost it didn't I? I..I'm so sorry Shepard, you must be so embarrassed of me." Tali said remorsefully. Her shoulders shook as she cried silently. Miranda at that moment had enough of this scene and headed for the door. As she passed Tali she heard her whisper, "I'm sorry Miranda." and she stopped and glanced down at Tali. "Its not your fault. But don't let it happen again." she replied coldly. She nodded to Shepard and exited the conference room.
Mordin then exited the conference room a few seconds after Miranda. Muttering about his new findings and data as he headed to his lab. Shepard wanted to ask him what he was going to do with the data but he didn't feel it was safe to leave Tali alone at the moment. He was finally able to gently remove Tali's hands from her mask. Tali's glowing eyes met his and he could vaguely see streaks of tears on her face. He wanted so badly to just brush them away but couldn't. He placed a finger on her mouthpiece and whispered, "Shhh, hey its alright. It will be alright." Tali took a deep breath, looking deeply into Shepard's eyes.
"I'm feeling better now. Just having you near me is soothing." Tali looked over to where Garrus leaned up against the wall and Legion's "Face" was turned toward them. Tali felt very warm as her cheeks flushed at the thought of having an audience. "I think I need a chair at the moment Shepard." Garrus pulled out a chair for Tali and Shepard helped her take a seat.
"We recommend you stay close to Creator Tali'Zorah until Doctor Solus returns with remedy Shepard Commander." Legion spoke in his usual robotic speech.
Shepard sighed and pulled Tali into a hug. He then heard Mordin's rambling as he approached. "Shepard! Amazing results scans show in regards to quarian bonding. Have also produced remedy to help Miss Zorah's condition. Just got back from lab with promising results." the professor beamed at Shepard eye's crinkling by the wide grin on his face. Tali looked up at that moment.
"You can fix my condition? Is it safe?" she breathed in relief. Mordin nodded and produced a small vial with a light green liquid inside. "One shot will prevent hormone levels from reaching dangerous levels again. Would like to prevent unnecessary bludgeoning or stabbing to rest of female crew." he quipped as he handed the vial to Tali. "Trust me. Should fit easily into your suit's injection adapter."
Tali took the vial in one hand and tapped the side of her wrist where a section of her suit opened revealing the injection adapter. She attached the vial and pressed down and sighed as it injected into her blood stream. She felt her body began to calm down. Heart beat returning to normal levels and her head felt very clear.
Mordin nodded to himself, satisfied that the remedy worked and turned to Shepard. "Now that is out of the way. What did you need us for Commander?" Shepard patted Tali on the shoulder and looked up at Mordin. "I need you all to find the rest of the surveillance bugs and tracking devices that the Illusive Man probably has hidden on this ship. Garrus, you are in charge. If you need anything send me a message to my terminal or omnitool."
Garrus nodded. "You got it Shepard. Trust Cerberus to have this ship crawling with bugs." He walked up to Tali and put a hand on her shoulder. "That was an impressive display of quarian growling Tali. I was just happy you didn't have your shotgun with you. Got any friends who would be interested in a former C-Sec officer with some mild facial scaring?" Garrus's mandibles twitched into a grin as Tali chuckled at the comment.
Garrus then lead the rest of the team out the door to began sweeps of the ship leaving Shepard and Tali alone in the conference room.
"Are you upset at me Shepard?" Tali said meekly after a few minutes. Shepard sat down heavily into the chair next to Tali and took one of her hands into his.
"I'm not upset at you Tali. How can I be? It wasn't your fault. I didn't know you would react this badly to Miranda." He pressed his forehead to her visor and could hear her sigh. At that moment he felt like he was being watched and realized Kasumi had cloaked earlier.
"You can come out now. I don't think Tali would attack you Kasumi." Shepard smiled as the thief decloaked in a chair across from them. Smiling from ear to ear. "You two do make a very cute couple. I just couldn't leave after Garrus until I made sure you didn't scold Tali. I would of socked you in the stomach if you did." Kasumi said playfully leaning back in the chair slightly.
Tali smiled at her friend and then said seriously, "I'm just glad I didn't hurt anyone. I think you being my friend prevented me from seeing you as an enemy." Shepard made a mental note to talk to Miranda about getting a new uniform. Cerberus had done some terrible things to the Migrant Fleet, and a uniform without their symbol would help.
Kasumi nodded. "Glad you didn't think I would try to steal a hunk like Shepard away from you. I know he's already taken. I have my eye's set on someone else anyways." Kasumi then brought her omnitool up and made a pouting face. "Garrus is calling for me. I better get going and leave you two love birds to your fun. Bye!" She waved happily at the two and departed through the doors.
Tali was feeling much better, but still embarrassed to have put on a show in front of the crew like that. Going to have to make some apologies to those I offended. Think I'll leave Miranda for last. I did kinda felt she did deserve my wrath a little bit. Tali smirked at the thought and looked over at Shepard who was watching her. "I'm feeling better, was thinking I should probably go apologize to anyone I offended." she said sheepishly.
Shepard snickered and nodded. "As long as you are feeling up for it. Seems like Mordin's remedy is working fine. Should I get more just in case?" Tali looked at the empty vial now on the table.
"I should be fine for the rest of the day. But it wouldn't hurt to have some on hand." Shepard nodded and stood up. "I will go get some more from Mordin. Knowing him he would of already made a large batch by now. You go ahead and make your rounds and apologize to anyone you felt you offended. I'll check up on you in a few alright?" Shepard pulled Tali up out of the chair and gave her a quick hug before leaving to the Tech Lab.
Guess I'll go talk to Kelly first. She didn't deserve the look I gave her. Tali thought as she left the room, waving to Jacob who smiled and waved back from his workbench where he was doing maintenance on the ML-77 Missile Launcher and continued out onto the CIC. Kelly was at her terminal typing away.
"Um..Kelly? You busy?" Tali asked delicately. Kelly quickly turned around and saw that Tali didn't have that I know what you did look and smiled at Tali. She could see that Tali was back to her normal semi-nervous self. Woman intuition saying she was safe again.
"Not too busy now Tali. What can I do for you?" Kelly beamed happily.
"Oh, good. Well I wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier this morning. I wasn't myself and if I offended you I did not mean it."
Kelly smiled broadly. "Oh don't mention it. I have never seen you so angry before. But you look fine now. How did it happen?" she asked curiously.
Tali blushed a little, which thankfully nobody could see through her mask. "Um, well I think everyone here has heard that me and Shepard are in a relationship. When we quarians bond with a mate...we can get a bit overly possessive of them."
Kelly hasn't really had that much on quarian relationship practices and habits so she was eagerly digesting this new data. It makes sense though. They don't really own anything so a relationship is really something very important to them. Just a bad case of jealously on a hormonal level. She thought as she gave Tali a friendly hug and let her be on her way.
Tali felt more relieved that Kelly didn't seem offended by her actions. Then again the yeoman was easy to forgive anyone if they tried. She had that golden personality that Tali admired.
Tali turned and made her way into the elevator and pushed the console button for deck 3. Apologizing to Kelly was so simple and easy. Miranda...well I am very much not looking forward to that. Tali sighed and waited for the elevator to bring her to the crew deck.