Chapter 8- Every dark cloud has a silver lining
"The shining beacon of hope huh?"
Shepard wondered to himself out loud with a hint of nervousness. Tali was at his side interlocking both of her arms around his waist while she rested her head comfortably on his shoulder.
"Yeah, who would have thought that someone like you would assume that role?" She teased at him warmly. Neil just responded with a grunt and continued to walk slowly down the hallway.
"Is there something wrong, Neil?" Tali began to sound worried again. He hates it when that happens to her. A beautiful woman such as her, full of optimism and positive energy, doesn't deserve to constantly be tacked on with problems. The last thing he wanted to do is make Tali worried about him.
"It's…nothing, Tali." He responded hesitantly.
"No, I will not let you bottle up your thoughts and emotions when I'm around. Tell me what's wrong." Tali had been very direct and assertive with him as of late. Neil wasn't sure if it was because she was beginning to get angry with everything that's happened to him in the past month alone, or if she was simply being over protective. Perhaps it may be a little of both.
"I'm just...I don't know. I am really unsure of the future I guess." He responded blandly.
"Neil, I've been with you long enough to know when you are making things up. It's usually when you end up saying something stupid. Of course the future is uncertain; it was like that with everyone before they even knew the reapers existed."
He responded with a heavy sigh as they continued walking towards the main entrance of the hospital.
"There was some truth in it. I don't know of this makes any sense but, I'm as worried about you as you are for me."
"That is what loving couples do, Neil."
"I know, but today it broke my heart to wake up see you crying like that over me."
"And it broke mine to see you suffer as you slept." Tali responded sorrowfully.
"That's exactly my point. Tali, do you know how frequently I experience episodes like that?"
"The doctor's told me it happens quite often. "
"I experience it every night. Every, single, damned-"Neil was caught off by Tali softly putting her index finger over his lips.
"Neil. I thought I made this clear many times before. I don't care. Well I do care greatly, but I told you that I will do anything and everything to heal you. I want to always be by your side, no matter what happens. I care about you so much that I will follow you to the edge of universe itself, and I will protect you from anything."
Neil paused and closed his eyes and took in deep breathes. Neil loved Tali back just as much, and they both knew that there were no boundaries to what they feel for each other. They were at the front doors now. Everyone outside of the hospital, and possibly everyone in the galaxy will get to see them if they decide to open the doors. If the people outside needed their dose of catharsis, then he'll gladly give it to them.
He opened both of the doors to see the refugee settlement just outside. They already had a few onlookers. Neil quickly spun towards Tali and gave her possibly his most powerful and affectionate hug he's ever given her.
"I'd kiss you too, but I figured that both of us needed a little break from the hospital right now." He responded so soothingly that Tali began to sob silently. Neil continued to provide comfort by nuzzling himself into the side of her neck.
They did not utter a word to each other for several minutes, and the only sound they heard were their sighs of relief and content. Though soon they heard the cheers and whistles from refugees and soldiers of all races alike, and the sound of sheer triumph bathed both of them in a strangely relaxing way. It was shocking to both of them at first. Everyone has been through so much, especially the people observing them right now. Not only have they survived the reapers, but they also survived another act of extreme evil committed by what was suspected to be the remnants of Cerberus. They were cheering and celebrating both of them when it all appeared to be stained with death, despair, and suffering. Neil didn't believe he truly deserved such praise. In the end, he thought of himself no better than any of them. He thought he was just someone who was doing his duty, and somehow made it out alive more than once. On top of that, he had supposedly committed genocide on the geth and sacrificed his pilot's synthetic girlfriend in order to put an end to the reapers once and for all. That is nothing to be proud of. If he didn't have people that he had become so attached to, then he would have just let himself bleed out after the citadel exploded right then and there. To him that's all he deserved after all of the horrible things he had to do in order for the galaxy to survive. Yet here he was, being comforted by the most beautiful individual his eyes have ever had the privilege to see. The most amazing part of it was that she belonged to him, and he was given the honor to belong to her.
"So I guess this makes it official then?" She spoke softly and quietly into his ears.
He let out a deep and touched his forehead to the top of her faceplate. His eyes were locked onto hers, and he looked into them for a while. Neil remembered looking at extranet pictures of quarians, and he thought that the glowing white eyes were terrifying to him for some odd reason. It reminded him of ghost stories that his father told him when he was growing up. Though now he is gazing into Tali's eyes and all he can think about is how utterly beautiful they really are.
"Yes, it does." His voice was full emotion as he spoke. Tali couldn't help but shiver as she felt his lips touched the top of her hooded cloth.
"Shepard! There you are you damned slippery pyjack!"
"Neil, is that…?"
"Yeah, I'd recognize that jolly voice from anywhere."
He spotted Wrex and a few krogan walking through the crowd like if they were sharks in the sea. He was then able to make out Grunt as being one of the krogan that was following Wrex. His old friend approached him with open arms and a loud bellow that anyone would recognize as a krogran's.
Wrex patted Neil's shoulder with restraint, but he would still probably get a bruise from it anyways.
"Damn, you look like shit Shepard." Wrex said as he looked at Neil's bandaged face.
"My battlemaster is starting to look like a true krogan warrior." Grunt added with a stupid grin on his face.
"You know it." Neil responded with his patented line.
"But can he beat me in a drinking contest?"
The only thing Neil remembered was that embarrassing time at the citadel where he took almost a dozen alcoholic shots, and passed out on the bathroom floor while a turian was pissing in a urinal over him.
"Uhhhhh….."
"That's what I thought." Wrex said with a half grin.
"So, this is like the tenth giant explosion you survived huh?"
"I'd guess so, Wrex."
"Heh heh. You are still way behind my score Shepard."
"Never knew this was a competition."
Wrex gave out a deep chuckle that seemed to have made the ground rumble.
"It was a competition from the very beginning."
"You are strong, battlemaster. But our leader is much stronger."
"Grunt! Come on man you are supposed to be on my side!"
Grunt just gave Neil an amusing shrug and chuckled.
"You know Shepard. After you cured the genophage, and then saved the galaxy you have about two hundred mating requests from our females."
Neil just gave Wrex the most genuinely shocked face he could give him. Tali decided to answer back for him.
"Wha…what?" She responded nervously.
"HA!" Grunt yelled out in the background.
"He's taken, Wrex. Thank you very much." She said rather annoyed.
"Yeah, I know. About damned time you decided to hook up with Shepard. "
"Wait, you knew…?" Neil couldn't help but ask.
"Yeah, it was pretty obvious."
"So not only Liara knew but…you knew too?"
"Hell Shepard, the whole galaxy sort of knew once you took Saren down."
The couple simply looked at each other and thought back to their first mission together. Now that they've thought about it, there were signs that they were fantasizing about each other quite a bit.
"I've even made a bet with Garrus on how long it would take you two to realize it. I lost. Thanks for that by the way."
"He did what?" Both of them asked in unison.
All three krogan laughed in response.
"Well, anyways. I heard about what Cerberus did here. I also heard about this Caleb Ronan whelp. Just letting both of you know that we will crush these cowards the same way we crushed the reapers." Wrex turned his head and faced his company that was with him.
"Isn't that right krogans!" He shouted at them.
All of them cheered and bellowed in triumph as a response.
Wrex turned back to face both Neil and Tali.
"Know this. You both now have friends to pull your asses out of whatever fire you will end up stumbling into. If any Cerberus whelp decides to show its face, then it will soon find out that when you are in a fight with a krogan you will begin to lack a one."
"Thank you Wrex. We both greatly appreciate what you are doing for all of us."
Wrex nodded his head and patted Neil's shoulder. As he began to turn away he looked back to him.
"Oh and Shepard? Don't get yourself caught in another firey explosion. That's supposed to be a past time for krogans, not you squishy humans."
Neil simply grinned as he watched Wrex and company stomp away. He always seemed to brighten his mood even when things are turning for the worse. It's a good quality that any leader should have. Of course, there was one person in the galaxy that can do it better than him. He looked down at Tali and reeled her in for another hug before they walked into the refugee camp.
Both of them were paying respects to both the living and the dead. The amount of support and praise for their well being has been over whelming. They have both become celebrities at that moment, though they weren't sure whether to feel excited or nervous about it all.
After a while Neil eventually got pinged with a message.
"Hey, if you aren't busy showing off to the galaxy that you've finally got a girlfriend with those amazing facial looks of yours, meet me in the skyscraper behind you."
He raised an eyebrow and glanced behind him. Lo and behold there he was, the great Garrus Vakarian, looking down on him from the second floor of the building with the most ridiculous grin he's ever had.
"Yyyyyep. I know that look means he's going to propose something stupid. And of course I'm going to go along with it…"
"Hey Tali? Sorry to tell you this but I'm going to take a quick look around the camp by myself. I promise I'll be back as soon as possible."
"Is it Garrus?"
"Y-yeah. Yeah it is."
"If you find him can you punch him for me?"
"Will do." Neil kissed the top of Tali's visor and smiled at her.
"I promise that there won't be any explosions and monsters involved."
"Knowing Garrus, he's probably going to drag you into something much worse than that. But please stay safe. If you don't and I see you in another hospital bed I am going to get very angry with you."
"Mhm."
He slowly backed away from her and headed towards the building in front of him. As he approached the top of the first flight of stairs he noticed Garrus leaning against a wall, still wearing the same grin he's seen only minutes ago.
"Alright Garrus. What do you want to do this time?"
Garrus simply nodded his head in a random direction and asked Shepard to follow him. They were walking towards the opposite side of the building, where there was no one there except two makos in an empty street.
After Neil looked at the makos for several moments he rolled his eyes as he figured out what Garrus was implying.
"You have to be kidding me Garrus."
"Oh? And did you think I was kidding when we decided to shoot canisters on top of the presidium?"
"Well…yeah."
"There is your answer."
He followed the turian down to the street and towards the makos.
"I've never really driven a mako before Shepard. Though knowing your driving skills you'd probably hit a wall in the first ten seconds if I decided to race you."
"Hey now, I'd let you know that I happen to be one of the best mako drivers in this part of the galaxy."
"Uh huh. You know now that I think about it, you happened to say the same exact thing to me and Tali during our Therum exploration. And guess what happened just moments after you blurted that out?"
Neil attempted to reminisce what happened on that mission. (( watch?v=bqBnYBmcPaE))
"Sorry, I got nothing. Don't know what you are talking about."
Garrus gave out his deep and cool chuckle.
"Of course you don't. Pick a mako. Let's see if you can beat me in a race from here to that tower you humans call the 'Big Ben'."
"You sure you want to do this? I mean, we are stealing someone's mako here."
"Not stealing, borrowing. That is the excuse you gave me whenever you cracked open all the random wall safes and looted all of the credits."
"Touché."
When Neil got himself situated inside the mako he paused for a minute. "If Tali finds out what I'm about to do with Garrus she is going to kill me." He wondered to himself out loud with a frown. But then he had a grin wide enough to reach both sides of his cheeks.
"Still totally worth it."
Garrus's voice over mako's intercom interrupted his train of thought.
"Hey Shepard, are you ready? Just as a reminder, the pedal on the right is the accelerator and the one of the left is the brakes." His voice was covered with sarcasm.
"Shut up before I decide to shove that stick of yours right back up your ass, Vakarian."
"Kinky. Start your damn engine already. I've been waiting for an opportunity like this to come up eventually."
"Oh, Garrus. You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into this time buddy."
"Of course, Vakarian." He revved up the mako's engine with a giant grin on his face.
"Alright, let's do this Neil. Three…two…one….go!"
Both makos raced off down the empty road. Eventually they had to dodge all of the random rubble that fell onto the streets. Garrus's mako then darted off ahead of Neil's, and his voice went through his intercom.
"Come on Shepard! I knew you are a piss poor driver but you can at least try to make this challenging!"
Neil turned into the street on his right and attempted to cut Garrus off from the other side.
"Oh come on now, that's just cheating."
"You never said there were rules Garrus. Just that one of us had to reach the Big Ben before the other."
Neil chuckled as he heard grunt in annoyance over the intercom. The ground under him began to shake and he looked at his surroundings to see what was going on. A building that was about twenty stories high began to crumble and collapse right in front of him.
"Shepard, look out!"
Both of them slammed on the brakes and the makos went to a screeching halt. Their vehicles shook violently as the rubble made an impact to the ground in front of them and engulfed the makos in smoke.
"Damn it Shepard. I told you not to crash into a wall and look what happened."
"Your driving skills are not so special either. Come on let's back out of here and find another way around."
"Already did."
Neil watched in shock as Garrus backed up a few hundred feet, and vaulted his mako over the collapsed building.
"I'll meet you at the tower, Shepard!" He exclaimed excitedly.
"That sly son of a bitch." He looked around to see if there was any other way to get ahead of Garrus. After a minute of looking at the rubble and the rooftops of all the other buildings he began to laugh out loud to himself.
"I'd tell Garrus, but I 'd rather listen to his reaction first hand once he sees what I'm about to do."
He activated the makos boosters in order to get on top of the rubble and made it climb on top of the adjacent building's roof. From there he was able to quite literally jump from one building to the other towards the tower. Below him he noticed Garrus had just made a turn onto the street below him.
"Perfect timing."
He activated the makos accelerators and flew off the top of the ten story building onto the streets below him. His plan worked perfectly, he was now directly in front of Garrus and in the lead.
"Spirits, Shepard you crazy bastard!"
"Come on Garrus. Didn't you just say that my driving skills were piss poor a second ago? At least make it challenging for me." He mocked Garrus as he was getting closer to the finish line. Once he was directly in front of the Big Ben he spun his mako 180 degrees and got out of his vehicle with a bright smile on his face.
Garrus got out of his mako and walked towards Neil while shaking his head disapprovingly. Both of them leaned back against the mako comfortably and watched the sun set over the horizon.
"Damn show off."
Neil laughed heartedly at the remark and Garrus chuckled along soon after. They just sat back and watched everything around them silently. There is a saying about friendship, about how you know you have a true friend when you are able to sit quietly together and still enjoy each other's company. If there was ever an illustration of this saying, it would look something much like what Shepard and Garrus were doing at that very moment.
Garrus then broke the silence with a hint of amusement in his voice. "She's going to kick both of our asses. You realize that right?"
"Yeah, I've sort of figured."
Then Neil's omni-tool was bleeping with an orange glow.
"Talk about timing. Is that her?"
Neil didn't answer his question directly, but his chuckle gave Garrus the implication.
"Yeah sweet heart?"
"Neil where the hell are you?" Tali scolded him over the omni-tool's intercom while Garrus was trying to control his laughter.
"And who is that in the background? Is that Garrus? What did you two bosh'tets do this time?" She continued to scold him through the omni-tool. This time Garrus couldn't control it anymore and started laughing on the ground.
"Oh you know, just paling around is all sweet heart."
"Paling around huh? There are two Alliance makos that have gone missing in the past twenty minutes. Perhaps you two have seen the culprits drive off with them?"
"Uh oh." Garrus blurted out loud without thinking.
"Uhhh…I can't lie to you Tali. It was us, we were just taking a nice little stroll around the city that's all-"
"Oh keelah. Garrus you dumb, idiot turian! I know you can hear me! I was going to talk to you about how you made a bet with Wrex about our relationship but now I think I'm just going to punch you now."
"Ooooooh noooo." Garrus responded back childishly.
"I know he convinced you to race him Neil. He was fantasizing about it while I was visiting him calibrating the normandy's guns."
Neil looked at Garrus with an amused smile on his face as he spoke. "Oh did he now? Alright Tali, yeah we raced. But come on now, we've used to do things like this all the time and you didn't really care much. Why are you all upset?"
"Because…uh, well. I've sort of um…"
"Come on, spit it out."
"I wanted to tag along with you when it happened."
He gave Garrus a confused look, and the turian just shrugged back.
"Seriously? Tali, I thought you told me that my driving was terrible as well."
"Well yeah, it is. Sorry Neil. But it was always so much fun!" She responded with so much enthusiasm and excitement that it took both of them back.
"And next time you two decide to race, find me a mako too. I'm a better driver than both of you combined."Both Neil and Garrus exchanged confused glances at each other.
"If you are, why didn't you volunteer to drive Miss vas Normandy?"
"Oh, you know. Seeing you try to maneuver such a simple vehicle always amused me. It also made things a lot more interesting!"
"Tali, you are absolutely amazing."
"I try. Get back to the camp soon, I'm already starting to miss you."
"I'll be there in a bit Tali. I'll see you soon." Neil exclaimed to her warmly before ending the call. When he turned to look at Garrus he was still chuckling with his body leaning against the mako.
"Alright you damned turian bozo, let's give these makos back to the Alliance before we get ourselves into trouble, again."
