That sinking feeling

"YOU GOT MARRIED?!"

"Um, sort of?" Tali sheepishly said as she tried to hold backa giggle at Liara's bewildered expression.

"What do you mean 'sort of'? I'm looking at the marriage notification right now with my own two eyes. How? What?" Liara, normally much calmer and collected especially after she entered the information brokering world, was flabbergasted. Tali and her had talked at length about marriage when it came to their respective partners and had come to the conclusion it wasn't for them. At least at the time. Less than ideal role models of their parents' married lives was the main motivating factor.

"It was important to him." Tali started with before going on to explain Garrus' rather foolish speech. When she was done Tali could dimly hear Garrus's voice starting to protest before Jane and Liara spat back at him that he was in fact an idiot.

"You could have at least invited us. Or told us." Liara said a little dejected.

"It was very spur of the moment. We'll have something once things quite down a little and are a little more settled. Big party I promise. Now I have to go, I think I hear the kids waking up."

Tali headed to what was now the children's bed room only to find Legion already there with about 5 other geth.

"Greetings Vakarian subunits. I am Legion. What are your designations?" Legion was squatting next to the low bed so he was closer to their eye level. As poorly thought out as this whole thing was, Garrus had had the foresight to show the children pictures of Legion and tell them some stories about the geth as Garrus explained that Legion was a good guy and would take care of them. It's the only think that stopped the kids from bolting at the sight and sound of a geth leaning over them.

Instead the children merely stared wide eyed at the geth and all in the room turned their attention towards Tali as she made her entrance.

"Hey kids are you hungry? How about we all go for a walk and get something to eat?" Tali said in as pleasant a tone as she could. There wasn't any food in the entire compound so walking back to the city for food was the only option. And maybe, she could try to get to know the children a little on the way.

There was a thick silence that was only punctured by the gentle whirs of mechanical parts moving as 6 heads swiveled back towards the turian younglings.

At first there was no reply as the younger pair just studied Tali. Tali was wondered if she just shouldn't go get some food and bring it back when the female finally spoke.

"You're the pretty lady from the pictures that makes Uncle Garrus coo." The girl then turned to address Legion, looking him square in the eye stalk. "I'm Camilla. This is my brother Leto." Camilla pointed at her brother.

"Legion." Camilla reaffirmed as she pointed to him. "Tali."

Tali just nodded as the younger girl pointed to her.

"That is correct Vakarian-subunit-Camilla. That is Tali-creator."

"No just Camille. Not all that other stuff you said."

"Vakarian-subunit." Legion repeated.

"Nope. Camille."

"Vakarian"

"Caaaaaa"

"subunit."

"miillllllllllaaaaa."

Tali could only roll her eyes and did her best not to laugh. Instead she started to shepherd out the geth in an attempt to get the group moving. Much to her delight, it tactic worked and got the kids off the bed and out of the house.

Unfortunately that was the high point of the afternoon and her rudimentary mothering skills. The walk was a disaster. Being a half hour from town at an adult walking speed meant it would have taken much longer with children. Fortunately the children didn't last more than 10 minutes before their energies gave out and they had to be carried. Leto by Legion, and Camilla by Tali. The girl proved to be a lot lighter then she looked and looking her over again Tali couldn't help but wonder if that was normal. Both Camilla and Leto seemed to be thin but maybe turians didn't fill out until later in life.

Dinner was a somber experience. Apart from the stares and whispers at Admiral Zorah not only having a troop of geth but also two turian children that seemingly appeared from nowhere, there was the meal itself. Camilla barely ate anything and her brother even less. When asked why, Camilla just looked at her brother for a moment before looking back at Tali.

"He's being stubborn. He wants to make sure there is food enough for tomorrow and the day after. He'll eat more then."

It took a lot of coaxing but Tali did manage to get the kids to eat a little more. Tali had to buy an extra meal to bring home but never mind. She even let Leto hang on to the plastic container that held their leftovers on the trip back to the compound. This time they didn't even bother with having the children walk.

Once at home, Tali finally heard Leto make a sound. It was a growl as Tali had reached to take the food container from him to put in the refrigerator. A touch from Camilla was enough to make him very reluctantly left go and both children very intently watched as Tali put the box of food on the lower shelf of the fridge.

And then the kids were put back to bed. Their sense of time was all off due to having been on a ship for at least a week. But it was early evening on Rannoch now. With some luck they might sleep through most of the night.

For her part Tali got a copy of whatever files Garrus had given Legion and poured over them as she sat on the edge of her bed. There wasn't much other furnishing but that was something to be remedied at a later time. For now, Tali had to catch up on as much as she could on what were now legally her two children.

The files Garrus had sent were grim. When Garrus had ordered the civilian evacuation corridor closed off one of the transports that had been cut off was the one carrying his family. The transport crashed killing most of the passengers save for a few initial survivors. Later, when krogan boots helped make a counter assault on Palaven possible, Camilla and Leto were the only two survivors pulled from the wreckage.

A detailed investigation wasn't possible but quick notes from the rescuing team did note that just about all of the bodies small chunks of flesh missing. The ship was a short range civilian transport meant for short journeys with in the greater Trebia system. Even with all those that died on impact, the ship didn't have nearly enough food for those that did survive to hold out the month it took for rescue to come.

Psychiatric reports showed that food was major concern for the children, with Leto being far more occupied with it then Camilla. This behavior extended to making sure Camilla ate before he did and that Camilla ate more than he did. The experience of the transport deeply scarred the children, and a return to a normal environment had no effect so far. Granted the report was dated three days ago, which according to Garrus's note would mean the kids had only been out for a week at that point.

A medical report showed what Tali had come to fear. Both children were severely malnourished and underweight but otherwise in comparative good health. There was no physical reason as to why Leto didn't talk. It was merely chalked up to the trauma of the transport. As was Camilla's seemingly sudden burst of outgoingness. Prior to the transport, Leto had been the talker while Camilla had been the quiet twin.

Garrus had put in a footnote mentioning biotics and had references to several ancient turian legends. The heroes of those legends all were magical, capable of summoning up a shimmering shield that protected them from harm. Of course today they would have most likely been labeled biotics throwing up barriers. Maybe Camilla was able to summon up a barrier that saved them, and all Leto could do to help was keep quiet.

Whatever the case may be, that was just the tip of the iceberg of the files Garrus sent. There were simple things like birth certificates to a whole curriculum on turian education. Thankfully, Legion, in his zealous manner, had prepared for this. All of the strange extranet traffic the geth had been up to prior to Garrus' arrival made much more sense now, as did that posse of other platforms Legion had with him. Over the next few weeks in particular, but also in the years to come, Tali would be most grateful to the geth for helping out as much as they would. She still did a lot of the heavy parental lifting, but it was a great relief to have such dedicated help.

All in all, Tali felt she did alright for her first evening as a mother. Hopefully, she could do better tomorrow.