And here I am again, here to entertain you...Hopefully.

Had lots of work, now less, so maybe can concentrate on writing now more...

Thanks to Robert Falcon, my faithful beta for his contributions to this chapter... Writing when you're tired is not a good idea...

Here we go!


Another week had passed. Tali had now spent three weeks on-board the Normandy, the most advanced ship the human Alliance had. It was still sometimes hard to believe that she actually was where she was. Sometimes she didn't believe it, so she pinched herself, wondering if it was all just a dream. Both fortunately, and unfortunately, it wasn't.

Another week. A week had passed since she had...shot at the colonists. She thanked her suit, her weak immune system; because of the fever caused by the suit rupture, she really didn't remember much of the event. Of how she had...killed them.

She had tried not to think about that too much. It always made her sad, made her want to cry. Like Shepard had said: there was really nothing that she could do about that. Not anymore.

Shepard... After that dream a few days ago, she had started to become scared of sleeping. She just couldn't understand why he kept haunting her all day and all night. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

It was not because she didn't like him...She did, more than she herself probably knew. It was because there was nothing she could do about it. How could Shepard even notice her, even consider her? He did...seem to like her, since he had talked to her...twice now, not counting all the short conversations they had had during dinners. She did like that, but it also hurt her... As closer he came, the farther he seemed to be.

Still, she did like speaking to him...

But even if he...cared...how could she do that do him? Tear him away from all the things other women could give him...Without dying, that is. She couldn't even kiss...

Without even noticing, she sighed out loud.

Kaidan's forehead wrinkled, and he looked at her from under his brow. "Worries, Tali?" His fingers still kept tapping away at his workstation.

Tali snapped awake from her slumber. "N-no!" She gasped, perhaps too loud...Now he would most certainly suspect something... Even her hands had stopped working, something she immediately tried to remedy.

Kaidan's brow wrinkled even more. "If you say so."

Closing her eyes, Tali tried to focus her mind at the task before her; the probe they had picked up yesterday... She managed to find her trail of thought, and continued working. If the probe would allow her to work, that is.

Data not found. Data not found...

Tali bit her lip, desperately trying to stay calm, and continued working.

Incorrect input, please try again.

This time, biting a lip didn't help. First her stupid sigh, then her gasp...now this. "Damn it! Work bosh'tet!" She almost beat the keyboard with her fingers as she forcefully kept tapping.

She could hear a quiet chuckle coming from Kaidan. "I don't think that's gonna work." She stopped, as if ordered, and just kept glaring at the console. Kaidan, having discontinued his work too, wrinkled his brow again, his head slightly tilted. "Are you okay?"

No? Yes? What should she say? "Y-yes." That was convincing... She lowered her head, desperately trying to figure out a good excuse to escape the situation. She came up with one..."N-no...I guess I'm little tired."

"Understandable," Kaidan replied, nodding his head. "You've been working almost non-stop, since..." His head sunk, along with his expression. "...since..."

Feros. He was talking about Feros... Tali had been so wrapped in her own problems, that she hadn't even thought about how it had affected everyone else. She felt incredibly selfish, and subsequently: Bad. "Are you okay Kaidan?" How could she be so inconsiderate? It had taken her this long to understand, that this was not just about her...

Kaidan slowly raised his head, and sighed."I'll be okay. Don't worry too much."

Her hands began fidgeting nervously against each other, her head stayed quite low, and she nervously kept biting her lips. "I'm sorry I didn't ask you sooner...I wasn't thinking."

"Don't worry about it, Tali. I'll be fine." A slight smile came to his face. "But thanks for asking anyway."

They both stood there for a while, and slowly, eventually, Kaidan started working on the probe again. "You should get some rest. If you are feeling tired..." He glanced Tali again from under his brow.

If...Truthfully, she was a little tired, but not enough to stop working. Her being down had other reasons. Reasons she didn't wish to share...Or rather a reason. Somebody.

She quietly sighed again, and restarted working. Now, having calmed down, she easily managed to avoid the errors of last time, and could continue working on the probe. As she worked, she noticed Kaidan staring at her. He had again stopped working. "What are you looking at?"

"I thought you said you were tired."

"I...did. But I'm not feeling that tired anymore."

"Oh?" Kaidan brow now rose a bit, and his mouth began to curl, like he was hiding a smile. "Then why are you working at the wrong keyboard?"

Tali stopped, and noticed that he was right. "Oh..." she let out a frustrated moan, and crashed down to a chair nearby.

"You should really get some rest. I'll get Garrus to help if I need it," Kaidan said, nodding towards the turian working at the Mako near them.

"I guess you're right.." Tali muttered, got up, and started towards the elevator. As she passed Garrus, they exchanged nods. They weren't still particularly friendly to each other, but neither were they hostile, at least not anymore.

Something that couldn't be said about Garrus and Wrex... Still, weeks after Garrus had voiced his opinion about the genophage, they were openly hostile. Shepard was probably the only thing keeping them from each other's throats...

Tali stopped in front of the elevator, and called it. She glanced at the display over the elevator's door, and saw that it was at the top floor. It would take a while for it to come down.

Suddenly, a large shadow was cast over her. She turned her head to the right, and saw Wrex standing next to her. "Hello, Wrex..." Tali greeted him, her voice seeming to shrink in his presence.

"Quarian."

The elevator rang, and the doors opened. Both stepped in, and Tali sent the elevator to second floor. She turned at Wrex. "Where do you go?"

"The same," he growled.

"Right."

The doors closed, and the elevator began to ascend. Tali wrapped her hands together, her fingers fidgeting, and she kept glancing at Wrex. She had never seen a krogan before, and while she knew that Wrex was quite peaceful, for a krogan, she still felt nervous...He was just so large, and could crush her with one hand...She felt very small, and fragile.

"Stop twitching," Wrex grumbled, only his red, bestial eyes turning to Tali. "I'll warn you if I'm gonna eat you."

"S-sorry. I just haven't seen many krogan before..."

"We're not that wondrous."

"Well, you are large, and...have a reputation," Tali carefully tried to suggest the reason for her shakiness...

Now Wrex's whole head turned at her. "So do you, quarian."

"The quarians' reputation is less..." she tried to pick a word that would describe the krogan generally, but still not be offensive...A hard task.

Apparently Wrex decided to help her. "What? Monstrous?"

"I was going to say violent..." Tali muttered, starting to feel quite anxious about the conversation. It was not like Wrex was making any threatening gestures, but rather the whole demeanor of his that made it so...He just seemed to radiate some raw, untamed power.

Wrex turned his head back straight. "Violent to some, normal to some. You shouldn't look everything through that glass of yours."

"That's...smart." This wasn't the first time Wrex had surprised her. Almost right after she had met Shepard and his team, right after showing the evidence to them at the elevator...Wrex seemed to be different...Or were the krogan different? Was Wrex just a normal krogan?

"You were expecting something else?" Wrex growled.

"Well...I... You do know what the galaxy thinks of your people? You are hardly considered to be thinkers."

Wrex snorted with his rasp, low voice. "Makes it easier, doesn't it?" Tali tilted her head quizzically; she didn't know what his vague reference meant. "The Genophage." he said, a little louder this time, like he was annoyed. "Justifying it."

"What do you mean?" Tali asked, her head still tilted.

Quietly growling, Wrex answered: "It's easier to justify the Genophage, when all krogan are mindless beasts."

Tali began frowning. Wrex's words had weird wisdom, like he was very old and had seen much. Come to think of it, Tali didn't know how old Wrex was. The krogan were said to be able to live for over a millennium, unless destroyed. Was he that old? "Well, you're clearly not mindless, Wrex. You're actually very different to what the stories on the Flotilla told about your people."

Wrex again snorted. "I'm old."

Tali was just about to ask how old he was, when the doors opened, and Wrex stepped through.

"Tali!"

As soon as she had managed to close her eyes, somebody was already waking her back up...Go get some rest...Now she wished she could.

She opened the dome by pressing a button, and searched with her eyes for the holler. It was Garrus. "Suit up. We're answering to a distress call in Hades Gamma cluster."

"Distress call? Where are we now? What about Artemis Tau Cluster and Doctor T'Soni?"

Garrus shrugged. "Wondered that myself, but apparently this is on the way anyway, so why not?" Despite his words, he didn't look very excited.

"What's on the way?"

"I'll tell you while we walk." He gestured Tali to follow him. "C'mon."

Tali jumped to the floor, and half-jogged, half-walked to him. They started towards the elevator on the way to the lower deck.

Garrus called the elevator, which was still at the same floor, since Tali had used it only a few minutes ago. As had Wrex...Wonder where he was?

But Tali had other things to think about, like this sudden mission. So, after they stepped inside the elevator, Tali spoke: "So, what's this mission about?"

"An Alliance survey group's gone missing. They haven't answered to any calls, or been in contact with the ExoGeni for a while. Some Alliance Admiral asked if we'd have time to investigate," Garrus' tone made it quite clear that he didn't really care about this distraction. He kept tapping the 'close the doors' -button quickly. The doors obliged.

"It seems that we do..." Tali muttered, slightly agreeing with him. This was a distraction, but there were also lives at stake, and if they could save them, instead of just..taking them, it would be very good.

The elevator began to descend.

"So... Why is an Alliance survey group working with ExoGeni?"

Garrus gave her another one of those 'you're stupid' -looks of his. "Subcontracting."

"Right," Tali muttered, and felt her cheeks blushing.

A while went by in silence, the elevator grumbling and clattering in the background.

"So...How was that suit breach? You got sick?" Garrus asked, quite suddenly.

Tali glanced at his direction, but saw that he wasn't looking at hers. "I'm...okay now. Thanks." Okay...She couldn't find a better word to describe how she exactly didn't feel. She wasn't okay...she had tons of things on her mind, none of them pleasant.

"Good to hear," Garrus responded, rather rigidly.

After pondering for a second whether or not to ask the following, Tali decided to go through with it. "What about you?"

"You mean Feros?" Garrus asked, now his head turned at her. Tali looked back and nodded. Garrus's head sunk a little "The mission succeeded. That's what's important."

"What about...the colonists?"

Garrus's mandibles fidgeted once or twice, and it looked like that he was biting his teeth together. "It wasn't...very nice."

"It wasn't..." Tali agreed with him, her head sunk as well.

As the elevator kept descending, the duo stood quiet, heads hung low.

"You know something, Tali?"

Her brow wrinkled. "Know what?"

"You're..." he let out an embarrassed chuckle, interrupting himself "...okay."

Tali chuckled lightly as well. "Did you just figure that out?" she asked mischievously, grinning behind her mask.

Garrus chuckled again, this time louder. "Looks like it..."

Again, both were silent, but this time their heads weren't hanging.

"Well I guess you're...tolerable. As well," Tali said, her head turned at Garrus, face drawn into a wide grin.

"And you did also just figure that out?" Garrus retorted, his mandibles flickering.

"You didn't make it easy to figure," Tali responded, still impishly.

Garrus's head turned "And you did?"

Tali began frowning "I did save you."

"I saved you twice."

"So did I."

"So we are counting points?"

"Apparently you are, but as usual; incorrectly."

"Ouch," Garrus gasped, faking a hurt reaction. Then suddenly, the hurt disappeared, and his mandibles began flickering again. "That some of that quarian arrogance again?"

Tali crossed her arms. "That won't work this time. You should figure out something new."

"Just give me time."

After getting their weapons from Chief Williams, the whole team of five was spread around the Mako, a large APC kept within Normandy's cargo bay. Tali didn't even know why they were there, since Chief Williams hadn't mentioned the reason for it, and Shepard hadn't shown himself.

So she decided to ask. "Lieutenant, are we waiting for something?"

Kaidan frowned slightly "Yeah, for the mission to begin."

"But why here? Shouldn't we be at the airlock? Like the last time?" Before the mission at Feros, they had grouped at the airlock...Not now, it seems...

His frowning deepened "You don't know?"

Now Tali's brow wrinkled as well " Know what?"

The burrow of his brow lifted, and he began smiling. "You'll see..."

"See what?" Tali asked, but their conversation was interrupted by Shepard entering the room.

Shepard wore his usual dark gray armor with N7 logo on its chest, probably an Alliance standard armor for elite soldiers... Since he was wearing his armor, it seemed that he was expecting trouble...But of what sort?

"Alright!" he said, hitting his hands together. "Let's get into the tin can."

"Is Saren here?" Wrex asked, having turned completely to Shepard.

"Probably not."

"What are we doing here then?" the krogan growled a question.

"Distress call. Figure it out," Shepard answered strictly.

Wrex didn't answer, just growled lowly.

"Is that all?" Shepard asked, looking at the five members of his team in turn. As none spoke, he did. "Let's go, then."

Of course, Tali had seen the Mako already countless times, but hadn't yet been inside it. This should be interesting... Quarians didn't have war machines like it at all, the military of the Flotilla relied on fast shuttles to provide backup for their lightly equipped and fast strike teams. Not these wheeled...things. It was weird that humans used these, and not shuttles. Shuttles were a lot faster, and could be used in a same way...Except... They couldn't fit into as small of places, where this armored vehicle could...And shuttles were also expensive... These were most likely cheaper.

First in went Williams, who climbed on top of the vehicle, and opened a large hatch. She disappeared into it shortly after. Then, rather clumsily, over the vehicle climbed Wrex, who barely managed to get through that same hatch. Thirdly, was Kaidan. As he took a few steps towards the vehicle, the voice of Shepard stopped him. "You're driving."

Alenko turned, frowning. "Why don't you drive?"

Shepard shrugged. "Lazy. And Commander. Now shoo." He made a few over-exaggerated waves with his hand.

Kaidan sighed, shook his head, and started towards the Mako, to which he climbed over, and dropped inside. After him went Garrus, and then was Tali's turn. She walked to the vehicle, grabbed a handle at it's side, put her leg on top of one of the wheels, and pulled herself on top. She rose to one knee, then back to her feet. As she stood over the vehicle, she realized how high the Mako actually was; it was a lot more 'taller' than her... She looked down, towards the floor, and began feeling slightly dizzy, scared. She wasn't used to heights; the Flotilla didn't have any altitudes, just decks. It was weird, seeing something from higher...And scary. Tali decided that she had had enough, and sat down on top, her legs hanging in the open hatch. Noticing that the distance was surprisingly low, she jumped inside.

As soon as she landed on her feet, she began exploring the surroundings with her eyes. The inside was quite different, and contrasting, to the outside; unlike the clinically white exterior, the interior was dark gray, with red lights illuminating it. Tali saw Garrus sitting at her left side, and Wrex at her right.

"Tali!" someone hollered her. As she turned over, she saw that it had been Williams. "Go sit next to Mr. Grumpy." she pointed at Wrex. Next to her, was Kaidan...Both of them had their backs at Tali, so they were most likely sitting at the driver's and the gunner's seats.

As Tali began moving towards her place, she noticed how very low the interior actually was. Even she, the small quarian girl that she was, had to crouch a bit to be able to move forward without hitting her head. She couldn't imagine how uncomfortable this must have been for Wrex... As she glanced at the krogan while walking past him, she noticed that he looked especially sour... Or maybe he always looked like that? Williams had called him grumpy, and looking at his expression, he certainly earned that name...

She found her seat at Wrex's right side, and sat down at it. Then she just crossed her hands, and just waited to see what's next. After a moment, she heard something dropping to the Mako's floor, and felt it shake slightly. Then she heard steps, seeing Shepard sitting right across her, having put his helmet on.

Shepard moved his hand on his ear, and began speaking. "Joker? ETA?"

"Two minutes out, Commander." Joker's voice boomed from both the Mako's intercom, and Tali's own. It was rather disrupting, so she shut her radio off. "Just reaching orbit."

"Excellent work, once again..." Shepard replied to him, most certainly sarcastically.

"I try my best."

Shepard stood up from his seat. "Listen up!" Everyone inside the Mako turned at him. "The drop is in two minutes. Get ready!"

Tali saw Shepard sitting down, fastening his seatbelt. Deciding to just follow his example, Tali fastened hers as well.

Perhaps this mission would be better than the last one...It had to, for she couldn't imagine anything going worse than Feros... Hopefully the survey team was all right, and their communication devices had just ran out of batteries or something...Hopefully. But she had already learned that things most often didn't go the way she hoped.

"All right, Commander! The cargo door's open. Go flying." Again Joker's voice filled the Mako.

"Will do!" Shepard responded, hand on his hear, grin on his face. "Go ahead, Kaidan."

Kaidan nodded, and the suddenly Tali could hear loud rumbling around her; the motor of the vehicle was running...Quite the soft landing... She turned at Shepard. "The landing was pretty soft. I didn't even notice that we had touched down."

Shepard frowned. "Touched down? We're still in the air."

Tali tilted her head. "So why are we..." Suddenly she realized; they weren't even going to wait for the ship to land...They were going to be dropped off...Literally. "Oh..." Her nervousness multiplied... This could easily be the last trip she saw. What if something went wrong? What if the retrorockets wouldn't function? They could be smashed to the surface of this planet...She didn't even remember it's name. Suddenly, she wasn't feeling that well.

And seemingly Shepard picked that up. "You all right? You look pale, so to speak..."

"I don't like heights..." she muttered quietly, swaying slightly.

"Well, this isn't about the heights, but about falling from them."

"Yes, I know. Thank you for reminding me..." Again the mental image of being squashed flat surfaced.

A grin spread over Shepard's face. "Sometimes we even turn off the motion dampeners, so you can feel the fall, then turn them on before we hit the ground... Wouldn't want to feel that..."

Tali's mouth opened, and horror began creeping inside her. "Y-you do? What if something goes wrong?"

"Doesn't. And is fun."

"Not really to me..." Tali muttered, almost inaudibly.