Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect. Obviously.

Chapter 7

The haze around me started to clear and Miranda's voice started to make sense. "What's happened to EDI?"

"Shepard, I don't know, she was working on the decryption and the next thing to happen was the whole ship going haywi—"

"Miranda… Miranda?!" I pushed myself off the bed and searched the ground for my discarded boxers, something was going on. I headed towards the weapons locker to get my armor, I had a feeling I would be needing it.

"Shepard." Miranda's voice came through my omni-tool. "Damn it she's cut off communications, we'll have to communicate by omni-tool."

"Miranda what the hell is going on?" I tried the locker and it wouldn't open, great.

"EDI has taken control of the ship. She's locked everything down and has taken her body to the AI core." This was just getting better and better. "We can't get to the core to shut her down."

"You can't shut her down!" Joker's angry voice came through.

"Joker we can't just—" The lights went out cutting Miranda off, the lights flared red, and the sound of the generator cutting off had us all stopping.

"Did she just do what I think she did?"

"Life support has been disconnected." Miranda said in a somber tone.

The cocking of a shotgun behind me had me turning to where Tali now stood. She tossed me my pants and placed her shotgun on her back. "If we're going to get to the AI core were going to have to go through the vents."

I nodded, slipping my pants on. "Joker can you send the schematics to Tali's omni-tool? Tali and I will try and make it there through the vents." I slipped my shirt over my head as I waited for a response.

"Shepard I…"

"Joker, I promise you, if we have to shut her down… We will bring her back." The line was quiet, but the schematics came up over Tali's omni-tool. "Okay."

I turned to find Tali already standing under the entrance to the vent. I followed after, grabbing my gun from the table. She looked back at me before blowing the lid off with her shotgun.

"Shepard, we only have 20 minutes until oxygen runs out, you need to hurry." Miranda's voice didn't give any of her emotions away. "We'll try to get to the core ourselves to back you up."

"Okay, Shepard out."

I walked to wear Tali stood. "Well, don't just stand there, give me a boost. I'd rather get the vent part over with."

"What is it with you and vents?" I asked chuckling a little as I bent cupping my hands at my knee. She slipped her foot into my hands placing her hands on my shoulder. I hauled her up, hearing her grunt as she pulled herself up the rest of the way.

"Yes, well, I always do tend to have to crawl around in them, and I was set on fire." She reminded me as her hand shot out from the vent. "Come on." I jumped up catching her by her wrist and pulled myself up with her help.

It was dark in here, so dark I couldn't see the hand in front of my face. I brought the map from my omni-tool and it lit my surroundings up dimly. John settled in behind me and I started off. "I can barely see in hear, this is going to be a little harder than I thought."

"I don't know, the view is pretty nice from where I'm at." I felt my cheeks burn, and I tried to push my thoughts aside.

"John, now is really not the time." He tried to smother his laugh behind me and it almost made me want to kick back at him.

"Whatever you say Miss Vas Normandy." I kept going watching the map as I went, we weren't too far from the AI core we could get there with plenty of time to spare, the problem would be getting EDI shut down in time.

"When we get there what do you want to do?" I asked. John was quiet for the moment before he answered.

"I'll go in first and lay down some cover fire so you can get to the console. Then I'll hold EDI off while you shut her down."

I felt my heart skip a beat. "That plan is awfully… dangerous John." Dangerous, indeed. I swallowed hard and felt my heart in my throat at the thought of John being in that situation.

"Hey, don't worry about me, I can handle myself Tali." His words didn't bring much comfort, but I bit off my protests. I may have wanted to keep him away from all the danger, but I knew I couldn't, just as he was probably feeling the same about me, doubly so if he knew about…

I cut myself off, no need to think about that now. I glanced back at the map. "Okay there's going to be a drop of— Ahhhhh." I was talking one second and then the next the ground was no longer below me and I was falling.

I hit the vent hard and I felt a spike of pain through my arm that I used to catch myself. "Keelah that hurt." Then I felt my stomach plummet, my baby. I was starting a scan before I even finished the thought. My heart was pounding in my chest waiting for it to finish. Then there it was a picture of the fetus in full health, no damage done and I exhaled the breath I had been holding.

"..ali… Damn it Tali, answer me." John's voice broke through my mini freak out. I looked up to see the outline of his face in the darkness.

"We're okay…" I whispered, before I realized he couldn't hear me. "We're... I'm okay!" I yelled up at him.

"Okay, I'm coming down so move over." I could hear the relief in his voice and I scrambled out of the way. Then there was a loud thud where he landed, he reached out grabbing me and pulling me into his arms. I relaxed against him for a moment, before I pulled away. From the look on his face I could tell it was much too soon for his liking.

"We need to hurry." I mumbled and he nodded. I turned and kept going. It felt like we went on for a long time, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes before we ended up outside the core. I crawled past the vent and turned back to look at him.

He looked at me communicating with his eyes to be ready. I gave a slight nod, I was ready. Than he kicked out the vent.

I was out before the vent landed and heading for cover. EDI or what used to be EDI's body was firing automatically. I returned fire hitting her… It with every shot, it didn't bother to take cover, but why would it? Ducking back behind the pipe, I waited for it to empty its clip. Than I was firing again. "Go Tali!" I yelled.

I saw a blur of movement from the corner of my eye. I didn't stop to look, I continued till my clip emptied and I went for another, my last one. Damn, what I wouldn't give for my assault rifle right about now.

EDI's body was firing off rounds constantly and I needed a change in position. To put myself between Tali and it. I scanned the area there was no cover anywhere and after I was out of ammo Tali would be a sitting duck. I shot again aiming for its legs, wanting to stop it without destroying EDI's body. When my clip was empty, I reached back for Tali's shotgun she had left with me.

I glanced down at the shotgun, it could do some serious damage, but was I willing to inflict that damage to EDI? Making a quick and probably one of the craziest decisions of my life, I tossed the shotgun to the side and dashed out covering the distance between me and it, in a matter of seconds.

I tackled it, knocking it back only a few feet. I brought my pistol up smashing it on the side of its head as many times as I could, before I was smacked away like a fly and hit the wall hard. The wind left me and I tried to pull in a breath. Pain racked my body and I lost my footing from where I had pulled myself up.

And damn if I hadn't broken all my ribs. I pushed myself to my back leaning against the wall and looking up just in time to see it standing above me, gun in hand. I couldn't get out of this, but I had to. I had seconds, if that; I was looking for an escape route when a shock was coursed through its body. Chatika slid into view, I didn't think as I was rolling past it and running through the pain. I launched myself at it, as Chatika fizzled out.

I slammed it into the wall where I was moments ago. Ignoring the pain, I brought my gun down on her eyes. Doing what Tali often had Chatika do, going for the optics. I didn't stop for as long as I could and when I felt it push itself off the wall, I jumped back to a safe distance.

EDI's face was now crushed and her eyes were all but gone. I felt guilt thrum through me, but I pushed it aside plenty of time for that later. That should at least slow it down. "Tali, how are we doing?".

She let out a sound of frustration behind me. "Keelah, this is harder than I thought it would be. No wonder EDI couldn't stop it." I jumped to the side as it made a blind dash at me. My breath came in gasps of pain, but I pushed through it. "I just have to shut her down, but it's going to take at least, oh, I don't know. 10 minutes."

That was ten minutes I didn't have, but I was going to have to deal. "Just try and hurry." I dodged another attack, rolling off to the side and when I tried to pull myself up; I felt my knees buckle underneath me.

Okay, I figured two things out from what just happened. It was attacking at any direction, talking was happening, and rolling was a no no. Reaching for the wall behind me, I hauled myself up. I watched it as it stood perfectly still, waiting for the next word, or hell even a gasp. My eyes left it and landed on Tali, hard at work.

There was a distant sound of what could be gunfire, but I couldn't tell. My attention snapped back to it. Not wanting to miss any movement and for a moment I thought that if I stayed quiet enough I could wait here this whole time until Tali could finish this, but things were never easy. There was a shocking noise and a gasp of pain from Tali that had my eyes rushing to her. It was nothing serious just a small shock, but I knew that it wouldn't end well. It was already turning in Tali's direction and I did the only thing I could.

"Hey, over here! This way you pathetic piece of hardware, come and get me!" I had no time to stop it as it rushed me smashing me into something hard, which I could only guess was of course the damn wall, and if my ribs weren't broken before they were sure as hell crushed now. It's hands came around my throat and I felt the pistol slip from my grip.

I brought my hands to her wrist and tried to pull away from her. I could feel myself fogging up from the lack of oxygen. I struggled, hell did I struggle, if I was to die Tali would be next and I couldn't handle that. I felt my strength leaving me.

There was black next and a distant sound of something crashing and then I was on the ground, taking in shallow breaths, the pain in my throat and chest almost unbearable. There were words that I couldn't mistake, being said.

"Hey, how about a turn with Uncle Urdnot?" My eyes cracked open to see Wrex slamming EDI into the wall by her head over and over. It was almost like a repeat of what had happened to Ashe that I wanted laugh, wanted to, but couldn't, because the black was surrounding me again.

Tears were burning my eyes and my heart was skyrocketing, but I had to keep it together. I rushed for my shotgun fully intending to put a stop to E.D.I.'s, that was about to kill the man I loved. When the door to the room literally busted in and an 800 lb. raging Krogan rammed EDI and Shepard fell to the ground, lifeless.

I wanted to rush to him, but than Garrus was there with him and yelling at me to finish what I started. I was numb when I made it back to the console and continued the hack, and now with my emotions securely locked away it seemed almost too easy for me to finish and shut down EDI.

The lights came back up and I was taking in gasping breath as the now stale air was replaced with fresh oxygen. Wrex tossed EDI aside and was then there hauling me to my feet. I looked around and John was no longer where he laid just minutes before. All of my emotions came pouring back into me. I pulled away from Wrex and headed out the path of destruction left in Wrex's wake.

"John!" I screamed as I made it to the Med Bay and saw him lying unconscious on one of the tables. I dashed toward him, but Garrus stepped in front of me holding me back. "Tali, calm down, you-" I brought my fist up connecting with his face and he pulled back allowing me to break his grip. I dashed to where John laid. He looked bad, he was bruised all around his neck and his chest didn't have a spot that wasn't black and blue. Oh, keelah…

"John… John."

Chakwas was pushing me away and I was too emotional to stop her. "Garrus, get her out of here, I need space to work." Then there was the same iron grip on my shoulder as I was hauled out of the Med Bay, over his shoulder. That brought me out of my emotional state enough to fight back. I was kicking and hitting him as much as I could, but he didn't put me down until we were in his room. He placed me on the ground gently, this whole time he had carried me it was with caution.

When my feet hit the ground I was running again, but he stopped me, he was too fast for me to get past. "Tali, you need to calm down. Chakwas will take care of him." His voice was calm and his grip was firm, but gentle at the same time. I didn't want to listen, I needed to see John.

"This isn't good for the baby." His words stopped me cold. He was right, about all of it, and just like that, I stopped. The tears still slipped down my face, my nose was still running and I was still so worried. I couldn't think straight, but Garrus was right. This could harm the baby, and Dr. Chakwas was the best for John right now. I wanted to be there, but I knew I would just be in the way.

I stood there and then I wrapped my arms around my best friend and cried, all out cried. "Just tell me, hic… He'll be okay…" I begged and Garrus didn't disappoint.

"He'll be okay Tali, I swear it."

I was a wreck, well close to one. I sat down on the bench and my hands instinctively went to my stomach. I knew that he was the reason I was so emotional. Pregnancy tends to mess with hormones pretty badly. In truth I was lucky that I hadn't experienced any morning sickness yet today.

A cup appeared in front of my face and I looked up at Garrus. I took it without arguing, placing the straw into my filter and taking a large gulp of water. "Thank you." I murmured. He turned away than and went back to what must of been some calibrations.

My thoughts swirled, they were all over the place. The only thing that was keeping me together at the moment was my hand on my stomach. This baby, he was the glue. I don't know how long I sat there contemplating all that had happened in the 20 minutes that it took to stop EDI. Keelah, I couldn't even tell myself half of the thoughts that I had, but in all this turmoil there was one that was clear as day. I needed to voice it, and so I did.

"I almost lost him today." Garrus stilled but didn't turn to look at me as he waited for me to continue. "I almost lost John. He just came back and now he's already injured, and I haven't…" I chocked, and had to take a calming breath reining my emotions in.

"I realized that, keeping this from him is wrong. He deserves to know." Garrus turned to look at me now and I met his stare. "This promise isn't worth it. If he had died today, died never knowing that we're having a baby… I just can't keep this from him, anymore." I thought tears would be streaming down my face, but no.

I wasn't feeling sadness, I was feeling joy. I let out a laugh, "I'm going to tell him. Oh, he's going to be so happy." I had no doubt that John would be. Garrus smiled at me and walked forward.

"It's about damn time you came to your senses." I laughed and then I laughed again, because it felt so good to be laughing and to no longer be carrying this alone, I was going to tell him and we were going to be happy together.

I stood and rushed for the door, I needed to tell him and now. "Whoa, hold up." Garrus stepped in front of me again. "He's not awake yet. Plus, don't you think that you should do it when you're alone. I mean if I was going to be told I was a father, I would like a little privacy afterwards to be with the mother alone, if you know what I mean."

"Ah, Garrus." I laughed and smacked him, I turned and set back down, suddenly feeling exhausted. "You're right."

"Well of course I am." He smirked.

"First I want to be there when he wakes up. I need to tell him, it just has to be the right place—" The door opened and I looked over Garrus' shoulder and my heart jumped.

"J-John?"

There was an intense light, one I recognized from all my trips to the Med Bay. My eyes adjusted and the ceiling, that same bland ceiling, came into focus. Yep, definitely the Med Bay, now, the questions of the day, how did I end up in here and why?

Of course then my head decided to feel me in, in a very painful manner. I sucked in a breath and immediately regretted it. Yeah, there were those broken ribs. There was also a constant burn in my throat, which I could only guess was from where EDI had choked me.

"Shepard?" I sat up and almost regretted it, but the pain was bearable. She rushed to me to help, but I waved her off.

"It's okay Chakwas. Uh, how bad is it?" The pain was starting to subside, and I knew the soothing effects of medi-gel as soon as she applied it. I stood and which she was about to protest, but she stopped herself deeming it useless. She knew me to well.

"2 cracked ribs, 3 broken, a minor concussion and of course a bruised larynx." She answered in that tone she often used when she was showing exasperation.

"Is that all?" I chuckled and regretted it, as it turned into a coughing fit. She was there almost immediately, looking at me with concern. I ignored it; I only had one concern right now.

"Where's Tali?" Chakwas sighed she obviously wanted me to pay more attention to my own well-being, but I couldn't until I knew she was safe.

"She's with Garrus, she was quite upset when you were brought in. I couldn't have her here in the way."

"I understand, so I'm guessing that means we got EDI shut down?" I asked pulling my shirt over my head. I hissed from the pain.

"Yes, it's taken care of, you can imagine how upset Joker was when he saw the state of the Normandy, and then when he saw EDI it was worse. Wrex can cause some serious damage, but of course her face was the worst part." She gave me a knowing look and I swallowed the guilt for later. "You were out for a few hours."

I headed for the door, ignoring her concerns. "Shepard, Miranda wanted to see you as soon as you were awake." I stopped for a moment, Miranda huh? She could wait.

It was a short distance from the Med Bay to the gun battery, but my body didn't take it too well. As soon as the door opened, I was stepping in, to find Tali sitting on the bench, Garrus stood in front of her.

"… I'm going to tell him, it's just has to be the right place—" She stopped mid-sentence when she looked across Garrus' shoulder. "J-John?" The next thing I knew she was dashing past Garrus and flinging herself on to me.

"Ugh…" I couldn't stop myself from grunting in pain. She stilled and tried to pull away, but I held her to me. I was relieved she was safe, even though what she had been saying before she noticed I was there, left a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"John… I was so… Are you alright?" Her words were slurred and I could tell she was crying, so I pulled her even closer to me, and rested my head on hers. "John, you're hurt."

"It's fine, I hardly feel a thing." A lie, but I didn't want to let her go. Garrus cleared his throat from in front of us, I looked and he gave me a small smile. "Hey Garrus."

"Shepard, how are you feeling?" He asked glancing at my bruises.

"Nothing I can't handle." I looked down at Tali, who was burying her face in the crook of my neck, the cool from her helmet soothed my bruises. Than my eyes went back to him, and then the nagging feeling came back. What and they been talking about? Tell who, what? I had a feeling, a bad one, that the who, was me.

"Shepard." Miranda's voice came through the com breaking the silence. "We need you in the War Room, all of you." Miranda was calling another meeting, probably about what to do next. I needed to be there, to show the crew I was back in control of the ship. I also needed to have a chat with Joker, no doubt he needed to talk.

"Okay we'll be right there." I answered. Tali turned to look at Garrus and I didn't miss the pointed look he gave her. I ignored my unease and led Tali out. She pulled me closer as we got into the elevator, laying her head on my chest. Something was up. I just hope it's not what my gut was telling me.

The room was buzzing with anxiety, the crew seemed to not know how to handle EDI's little escapade. John walked straight to the front of the room, where Miranda stood and the whole roomed silenced, the presence of their commander already putting them at ease. The room was quiet just a moment before John's voice came out strong.

"I know you're all wondering about what's going on. These past 24 hours have been crazy, and this attack by Cerberus proves just how organized they truly are." John's voice was raspy no doubt from his confrontation with E.D.I., but he didn't seem to take notice. His eyes scanned the war room gauging the reactions of the crew. "We have shut E.D.I. down now and for the foreseeable future. Are A.I. expert Tali, will be working on a way to be getting her back online, minus the Cerberus virus. We will still be heading for Tuchunka to see what Cerberus is up to. This may have been a surprise but it will not stop us from reaching our goals."

With that the room started to clear, John turned toward Miranda telling her something I wasn't in the range to hear. I pushed my way through the crew, and heading towards where John stood. Miranda's eyes seemed to catch mine even through my mask and the look of curiosity she gave me almost made me flinch, I had completely forgotten about having told Miranda that I might of been pregnant to get back to the Flotilla. She was no doubt expecting an answer.

I turned to John breaking the eye contact. "John, I know that I told you I would handle taking care of E.D.I., but I could use an extra pair of hands." He glanced at me from data pad Miranda had handed him. The look in his eye surprised me, it was one that was distant, the one he used when he was talking to people he wasn't happy with. "You had someone in mind?"

I jumped at the sound of his voice, it wasn't cold or anything it was just, almost numb, like he was pushing me to the side. I looked up to meet his eyes but they were firmly set on the data pad. "Well, you know I was thinking of someone we know with blue hands that can be pretty handy at these kinds of things." I expected a chuckle at my very lame joke, but all I received was an all but blank stare. Okay, what was going on why was he treating me this way, there was no reason, at least not one I could think of, for him to be acting like this.

"Ahem." Miranda cleared her throat from behind us, gaining our attention and making it even more awkward, I had completely forgotten she was there. "I'll send out a message to the Shadow Broker, give her our coordinates, how long should we wait for her?"

"Will give her two days; let her know that's all the time we can spare."

"Yes, Commander." She walked off, leaving us alone. Normally if we were alone John would have at least tried to have some sort of conversation, but now he seemed content with staring at his data pad.

"Um John, are you feeling alright? How are your injuries?"

"I'm fine." His answer was curt and distant, and it sent a pain through my chest.

"Are you sure?" I reached out to him placing his hand on his cheek, he didn't pull away from me which was a good sign, but he still wouldn't look my way. So I turned his head to face me. His eyes flashed with emotion so fast I couldn't tell which ones they were. Then they were back to how they had been.

"Yeah, I'm fine Tali; just a little tired is all." He took my hand in his own and brought it down from his face. He held it for a moment, before he let go.

"Then I'll see you later, in your cabin?" He was silent for a moment before he answered.

"Yeah, of course."

She noticed, of course she did. I was making it obvious by the way I was acting, but, dammit I just couldn't help it. The end of the conversation between her Garrus had been lagging in my thoughts since I heard it. There were so many things she could want to tell me. Why would I automatically think it would be that…

There was no way that it was true; I mean Tali and Garrus… That has got to be the most ridiculous thing I had ever even thought of.

But, even if though that was impossible, there was still the fact that she was keeping something from me. Something that was obviously important and she told Garrus, but not me. There was a burning feeling in the pit of my stomach, one that was unmistakable, jealousy.

Dammit now I was jealous of my best friend, what the hell was wrong with me? "Shepard?"

I looked up, Joker was here, and I hadn't even noticed. Well, I needed to talk to him anyway. "Hey, Joker I was just about to come and talk to you."

"Yeah that's just like you Commander, make the guy with glass bones come to you." I chuckled at his joke, even with the way things had gone down trust Joker to continue making jokes. "Wow, you look as bad as they were saying, no offense."

"Yeah, you should know it feels way worse than it looks."

"That bad, well you've always been tough, slap some medi-gel on it and I'm sure you'll be fine." The room grew silent after that and I knew I had to be the one to break the silence.

"Joker look, I'm sorry about E.D.I. I tried my best not cause too much damage, but it seems like she's going to need a lot of repairs." He was quiet for a moment.

"Yeah well as I already pointed it out, you didn't come out looking to good either. So I think she won't be to mad about what you did to her face." He looked away rubbing the back of his neck. "So look its cool okay. I know you did what you had to do, and that it could've been worse, for both of you."

"Yeah okay, thanks."

"Pfft, are you kidding me Commander I should be the one thanking you." I looked at him waiting for him to finish. "Oh no way Shepard, you already ruined the moment." I laughed and he turned from me heading back towards the C.I.C. "Later Commander."

"Yeah."

A.N: Yeah, so I know it's been over a year and I'm surprised if anyone even still remembers this story and for not updating I am truly sorry, but the good news is I have already started working on the next chapter. So please review and tell me what you think. Thanks.