Alright, back to my main story! Holy cow it has been a while, but I've read and reread what was written a couple times to get my mind back into the story, so I believe I can finish what I've started. It won't be easy, but hey, it's for Tali! :D

Chapter 7

Tourists

John Shepard sat smiling at his daughter, hopping up and down excitedly in her seat as the shuttle landed in the Normandy's docking bay. She hadn't seen the ship very many times, but every time her excitement was unparalleled.

There was a slight bump as the shuttle touched the cargo bay floor, and Cortez turned his head and spoke to his passengers, "We've landed. Welcome back to the Normandy."

"Thank you, Cortez," Kaidan said, unbuckling his seat belt and getting up. "I'm sure you would both love to see the new additions to the ship, so I think a tour's in order."

"Can I come too?" Jane asked, getting up on her tiptoes and placing her hands behind her back.

"Of course, pumpkin." Kaidan smiled and opened the shuttle's door, then stepped out and motioned for the others to follow him. Several crewmen were already coming forward to take the Shepards' luggage. "You probably noticed that not much has changed out here," he began, "but we have gotten a few upgrades." He noticed the Shepards' wandering eyes. "All of the clamps have been replaced, the shuttle has been revamped with additional armor plating, and we have a Mech, finally, for ground patrols."

Shepard turned to look at the Mech, and was slightly taken aback at how eerily similar it was to the Cerberus Mech he had used in the final battle with the Reapers.

Noticing his gaze, Kaidan explained, "The Alliance studied Cerberus technology for some time and created models based off their designs, regardless of Cerberus' past they can make some good military machinery."

"Seems like you're having a blast being a Spectre, Kaidan," Tali said as she readjusted Val in her arms.

The Spectre shrugged, "It's got its advantages and disadvantages." He pressed the button for the elevator. "The adventures are great but missing my family isn't. However, I've got a job to do and we all knew that, so I just make do with the time I have."

The elevator door opened and he ushered the Shepards inside. James and Cortez gave them a wave, which the Shepards reciprocated, and the door closed behind them.

Kaidan pressed the button for deck 3. "I'm sure Tali will love what we've done with the engines." he smirked, "I can't tell you the technical details, that's for the engineers, but with the Alliance's tech teams studying Reaper remains, we've increased both the engine speed and the stealth capabilities of the Normandy."

Tali's eyes beamed and she tried to ask Kaidan a few less technical questions about the upgrades, to which he usually replied with something along the lines of 'I don't know' or 'Maybe Gabby will know about that.' The retired Commander just smiled as his wife continued her passionate questioning until he felt something pull at his pant leg.

Shepard knelt down next to his daughter, "What is it sweetheart?"

Jane looked around, concerned, "Has the elevator always been this slow?"

He chuckled and shook his head, "Yeah, we've advanced far enough to be able to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other in a heartbeat, but our elevators are still slow as syrup."

His daughter giggled, "The galaxy is weird then."

"That it is, Jane, that it is."

The elevator door opened to deck 4 and Kaidan stepped out with Tali behind him. Shepard stood back up and followed them with Jane at his heel. Kaidan turned to engineering and began walking towards the core. Ken and Gabby were typing away at their consoles, but turned up with a smile when they noticed Kaidan and the Shepards.

"Ah the Shepards, good to see ya back on the Normandy," Kenneth Donnelly said cheerfully.

"Welcome back, Shepards." Gabriella Daniels said.

Engineer Adams was working at his usual station and smiled at the family, "Commander, Tali, it's a pleasure seeing you again."

"Here, Tali, these people should be able to answer your questions." Kaidan then checked his omnitool and his eyes widened a bit, "Shoot, I was supposed to meet Zaeed for a drink, I'll be right back."

"Wait a minute, soldier, I'm coming along too. It's been too long since I've said hi to old Zaeed." Shepard turned to his wife, "Send me a message when you're done in here, honey."

"Ok, say hi for me." Tali returned. She was already moving towards her old station, Jane on her heel, and spouting technical jargon that was already way over Shepard's head.

Shepard followed Kaidan out of engineering and to the starboard cargo door. He knocked a few times and the door opened with the grizzled veteran standing on the other side with his usual demeanor. The room looked a lot different than when Diana Allers had occupied it; there were weapon parts and the mercenary's possessions on multiple tables, a grease stain or two on the floor, and a target in the corner with scorch marks from target practice.

"About guddamn time you came back, Shepard, almost thought you'd gone soft." Zaeed smirked.

"It's good to see you again too, Zaeed." Shepard heard the door close behind him, "Now, I've been meaning to ask since I'd heard, what made you come back to the Normandy?"

"What? Did you think I could sit on a guddamn beach my whole life? The vacation was nice, but I'll be damned if I sit on my arse until the day I bloody die."

Shepard shook his head and smiled. "Good to hear you haven't changed a bit."

"The pay's good too, Mr. Second-Human-Spectre here gets good credits for the jobs he does, and credits is my guddamn middle name, even if I have to be a bloody Boy Scout to get'em." Zaeed grabbed a bottle of his favorite alcohol and a few glasses, "Now, how about we all have a drink on me."

The mercenary poured the drink into 3 glasses and passed them to the other men. He then made a toast. "Here's to a peaceful galaxy thanks to our favorite guddamn Boy Scout, Commander John Shepard."

The three men clinked their glasses together and drank up. As usual Shepard finished his glass in one gulp, setting the empty glass down on the table. Zaeed did the same, while Kaidan took more time to finish his own drink. When he finished, he too set the glass on the table. Zaeed coughed. "Took you guddamn long enough, rookie," Zaeed grumbled.

"Sorry, not all of us can drink as quickly as you two," the spectre rebutted.

"Anyway, how's life on the Normandy been besides the credits, Zaeed?" Shepard asked. "Have you had any new adventures?"

Zaeed chuckled with grizzled glee, "Now you're talking, Shepard. See this new gun here?" Zaeed lifted up a Geth spitfire from one of the tables, "She ain't no Jessie but she got the job done on one mission on Ontarom, you should have seen her ripping those Geth fanatics a guddamn new one! I call her Betsy, she's a tough one. Very well made gun in my guddamn opinion, she-"

Shepard interrupted him. "Sounds like she's tough, but you skipped something there. What mission on Ontarom, and why would Geth fanatics want to go there?"

Zaeed coughed. "Right, I should probably give you the whole guddamn story before praising her. Well, the rookie here got a mission from the Alliance about a group of Geth fanatics causing trouble on Ontarom. They had apparently built a base near a dead Reaper that no one had discovered yet, and were trying to bloody bring it back to life! Can you believe the stupidity of those guddamn machines? Anyway, we flew into the city and set up our attack party. The Geth were entrenched in their base so a frontal assault wasn't an option, and the Alliance already knew. We discovered a weakness in their patrols and were able to sneak into the base via a drainage pipe of some kind. Didn't really know what it was there for at the time, but later we learned the Geth fanatics thought pouring tons of water over the Reaper corpse would reawaken it or some other guddamn insane shit. When we entered the actual base through the pipe, we were almost immediately attacked, and the team was pinned down hard. I was using a standard Avenger at the time, and it was bloody useless. It just didn't feel right using it, I'm sure you get that."

The mercenary lifted up Betsy. "But then I discovered her. I shot down a Geth trooper and, I don't know if it was a miracle or just dumb luck, but my gut told me to pick up its rifle. I'm so guddamn glad I did, this baby destroyed the Geth fanatics faster than a bloody knife slices through butter! After that moment, we immediately pushed back against their guddamn metal heads and were able to set the charges in their base. Betsy continued to slash through the hordes of insane Geth as we escaped the base, and it became rubble behind us. The remaining Geth were captured or killed by the Alliance forces and she's been with me showing her beautiful efficiency ever since."

Shepard was impressed, and nodded his head as he examined the rifle, "Sounds like quite the rifle, mind if I hold it for a second?"

Zaeed hesitated, then handed it over. "Just make sure you don't hurt her, Shepard, I've got my eye on ya."

The retired Commander examined the rifle more, noticing the scratch marks on its paint that spelled out 'Betsy'. The rifle looked well cared for and seemed to be calibrated properly. "This is a nice rifle, Zaeed."

"The guddamned best, after Jessie of course," Zaeed responded.

Shepard's omnitool beeped, so he handed Betsy back to Zaeed and checked his messages, "Looks like Tali's done with her deal now, want to finish the tour then Kaidan?"

"Alright Shepard, let's go." He stood up and began walking towards the door. "Thanks for the drink, Zaeed."

"No problem rookie, just don't get guddamn drunk off of one bloody drink will you?" Zaeed chuckled.

Kaidan shook his head, "That was one time, and she said it was only 70 percent alcohol, not 95!"

"Don't worry Zaeed," Shepard reassured, "If Kaidan becomes intoxicated, I'll just have to take my ship back and have it be just like the old days again."

"Sorry Shepard, she ain't yours anymore, she's mine now." Kaidan smiled devilishly.

Just then EDI's voice was heard above them, "To be clear, neither of you have, or will, own this ship. Though it could be argued Shepard owned the ship when he left Cerberus after the suicide mission against the Collectors, the Normandy has officially been owned only by Cerberus, and then by the Alliance Navy. The Alliance is its current owner, and will remain the owner as long as it flies under their banner."

"Way to ruin the fun, EDI," Kaidan said under his breath.

"Fun is a subjective thing, Kaidan," EDI responded. "For example, that was fun for me."

Shepard chuckled and shook his head as he finally opened the door out of Zaeed's room, "Let's go finish this tour."

The spectre and retired Commander both walked back to engineering to find Tali still at her old console with Val on her hip. Jane was below her, trying to see what she was typing.

Shepard picked up his daughter, "How long has mommy been at this?"

"She started just after you left, daddy," Jane explained gleefully. "Mommy wanted to see what was changed in the Normany, and she said she could find that out in the console."

"It's Normandy, sweetheart." Shepard smiled.

"Nor-man-dy, ok daddy."

Shepard moved closer to Tali's old workstation and put his free arm around her waist. "How's the inspection going, my lady?"

"I'm not 'inspecting' anything, Shepard, I just wanted to make sure they didn't ruin our old home... I mean ship." Tali blushed, "You know what I mean."

"I understand." He lightly rubbed her side, "Are you ready to go, though?"

"Yes, everything seems alright." Tali logged out of the console and leaned into Shepard's side. "Now let's go see the rest of the Normandy."

The two of them separated reluctantly, waved goodbye to the engineers, and returned to the elevator with Kaidan, kids still in hand.

Once they were back aboard the elevator, Kaidan pressed the button for deck three and the doors closed behind them. "Now I've taken the liberty of arranging for quality sleeping arrangements for you and your family, Shepard." Kaidan began. "Obviously the captain's quarters are no longer available to you, as I have to sleep somewhere, but we had room here on deck 3. The XO quarters have been vacant for some time, so we decided to rearrange it a bit to make it more family-friendly. The rest of the deck hasn't changed too much, besides the absence of a few crew members, that is."

The door to deck 3 opened and Kaidan stepped out with the Shepards behind him. "This is where our tour will have to end, Shepard. Deck 2 hasn't changed a bit and I've got some business I need to attend to up there, so make yourselves comfortable in the XO quarters. If you need anything I'm sure EDI can help you, if she's done having fun that is."

"Thanks, Kaidan, but one quick question, where are our bags at?" Shepard asked.

"One of the crewmen should have brought them up here while we were on our tour," he responded.

"Alright then, thank you Kaidan," Shepard said. "It's good to be on the Normandy again, thanks for going out of your way to give us a safe trip."

"Don't mention it, Shepard. Now I've gotta be going, see you later Shepards."

"Bye Uncle Kaidan!" Jane said cheerfully.

The Spectre smiled and waved as the elevator door closed. Once the Shepards were inside their new room, they looked around and noticed how different it was compared to their last visit. Before, many of the computers and equipment from Liara had still been there, but since she had moved out, most of those computers went with her. Shepard set Jane down on her bed, and he promptly began opening his bags, making sure none of them had been forgotten. Meanwhile Tali set Val down in his crib and made sure he was comfortable. Soon the child's eyes grew weary, and Tali placed the small blanket over his tiny frame as he descended into dreamland.

"Val sure sleeps adorably," she whispered as she moved towards her husband, keeping her eyes on her son.

"He sure falls asleep fast, too." Shepard whispered back. "But when he gets to have a mommy as wonderful as you, no wonder he can fall asleep so quickly."

Tali blushed again, and lowered her head. "Thank you, John." She then sighed, "But sometimes... sometimes I wonder if me being away on all of those meetings for the Admiralty Board is hurting him and Jane somehow."

John lightly stroked her chin, and lifted her head to see her eyes. "The kids will be fine, Tali, as long as you care like I know you do, they will be fine. Besides, pretty soon you won't have to worry about the Admiralty Board anymore, and you can have as much time as you want with the kids."

Tali wrapped her arms around her husband and pulled him close. "And as much time as I want with you," she said seductively.

"Well, I can't say that hadn't crossed my mind too." Shepard responded in an equally seductive manner, putting his own arms around her and pulling her close. He checked Val and Jane, seeing both of them silently sleeping, then turned his eyes back to his wife and lover. "I wonder if there's a quiet section of the Normandy we can sneak off to while the kids are asleep to... release our tensions."

"But you said this morning would be the last time for a while," Tali replied devilishly.

"You can't blame me for searching for... opportunities, can you?" Shepard pulled her petite frame just a little closer to him. "EDI, I know you're listening, could I ask you something?"

"If you wish for me to find you a quiet place on the Normandy Shepard, can I suggest the Life Support Control Room?" She responded. "No one goes in there unless one of my machines isn't working properly, the bed and room itself was recently sterilized, and I can lock the door and not save footage from the cameras for you to ensure privacy."

Shepard chuckled, "I was going to ask if you could keep an eye on the kids for us, but thank you, EDI."

Shepard slowly pulled away from Tali, then grabbed a blanket from their bags. He held it under his arm and placed his other arm around her again.

"So, my darling purple rose of Rannoch, care to join me in Thane's old room for another... inspection?"

She smiled and kissed him again, "I don't know, I've been... inspecting things all morning."

"Well, maybe it's my turn to do the inspecting then." Shepard then opened the door and checked to see if the coast was clear. He then grabbed Tali's hand and led her to the room.

Shepard closed the door and heard EDI lock it behind them. He set down the blanket and turned to his lover. "Are you ready, my love?"

Tali hesitated, and looked him in the eye, "Can I ask you one question first?"

"Of course, Tali." Shepard replied.

"Are you... still ok with tomorrow?"

Shepard sighed. "I'm glad you know how hard this is for me... yeah, I'm still ok will it. I'm not happy about it, but... I'm ok with it, and I know you'll be there with me through it all. I don't know how the ground of Akuze will feel when we land there but... you'll still be there, so..."

"And I always will, my love." Tali whispered with a soft smile on her face.

Shepard and Tali kissed again, and he pulled her close to him once more. They both moved towards the bed and Tali laid down first as Shepard crawled above her. They kissed again, and once more showed how important they were to each other.

Author's note: Man, I suck. I suck the big one. I'm so sorry this took so long, and I really don't have an explanation besides incredible writer's block mixed with a... well, I guess you could say fear of relationships. I don't want to bore anyone with my life, but I... well, tried to get a girlfriend only a short time after publishing my last chapter, and well... let's say when you feel incredibly rejected after you think everything's working out it's hard to even dream about a happy relationship, let alone write about one, ya know? Especially when you're just a little bit too dumb for your own good like I was. But I've discovered in myself what I truly value in relationships and well, I hope to not be so blind with stupidity next time when all of the signs are there that this is a bad idea. I've gotta keep true to what I believe in, and change it for no one, only then can I really find a girl that fits me. It's all about what's in her mind, not how nice she looks, and I can't believe it's taken me so long to realize that even though that's the exact reason I rejected all of the other women in the Mass Effect universe for Tali! Man I was blind! XD I've also gotten my passion for writing back, especially for Tali, who I never forgot, so that benefits y'all! :D Anyway, I'm done with life stories, and I hope now that everything's back in place and school's over I can write more frequently and get to the main plot (though I always adore writing my fluff as you know! :P FLUFFY FLUFF IS THE BEST!) Keelah Se'lai everyone, and I really hope to see you next chapter! P.s., special thanks to Nightstride for helping me work out the kinks in this story!