A Tali/John chapter. Because you can never have enough of those two. Read, Enjoy, Review.
When Tali had entered the Commander's room, it was dark and quiet. She took a tentative step forward, looking into the room as she walked. She saw Shepard's form at the end of his bed, quiet and unmoving, his hands folded in front of his face and his eyes watching the couch in front of him intently. She sighed sadly at seeing this, and walked towards him. "Hey." She said softly as she approached John. When she didn't get anything back, she took a deep breath and sat next to him on the bed.
She didn't say anything and he didn't either, both of them at a loss for words. The only movement in the room was when John moved his hands down between his knees, allowing them to hang limply. Tali look at her own hands as she began to wring her fingers together nervously, unsure how to proceed. She had always watched the vids and read the stories. Wasn't this the moment when she was supposed to have some magical words that would fix the situation that would make pull him out of the gutter?
Inside of her helmet, she bit her lip as she tried to think of something. But every sentence that came to mind, every gesture just seemed inappropriate for the circumstances. Even the mere attempt to ask him if he would be okay caught her throat as she felt it would just be an insult. Of course he wasn't okay, he just killed a bunch of innocent people. If he was okay, then he wouldn't be John. She sighed inwardly.
So there they sat, in silence. Occasionally, Tali was sure she was making too much noise whenever she tried to say something and quickly had to close her mouth when her own doubts caused it to end prematurely. But John said nothing, lodged no complaint, and continued to stare at the point he had been for the whole time she had been up there. She was beginning to wonder if he even realized she was in the room. Eventually, she did do something.
She reached over and took one of his hands in hers. Beyond a quick tense, John did nothing to stop her as she needled her three fingers between his five and then gave his hand a small squeeze of reassurance. Not one that told him everything was fine, not one that promised better things. No, this was a gesture to show that she was there. One quick squeeze and then she just held onto his hand. With that, she sat with John in his room.
A Short, but hopefully sweet addition. If you are unsure, this happens after the Arrival DLC. I just always found it odd that Bioware didn't have even one squadmate try and comfort you after the fact. So I chose the most reasonable (I.e. the love interest) and hopefully, I pulled it off well.