You Can Run…
Shepard lay on a bench on his back, staring up at the heavy weights he held in both hands above him and trying to ignore the sting of sweat in his eyes. It was around seven hundred pounds he was bench-pressing, lighter than his usual workout, but double the repetitions. He pushed one last time, straining to get the last bit of clearance and set the weights down in their crook above his head.
"Mmm." Tali watching him workout was nothing out of the ordinary, but her purr of approval made him smile mischievously.
"You like?"
"Much." She had her mask off and sat on the bench beside him, her eyes wandering over his still sweating muscles until they reached his face, making her smile even wider.
"When is it gonna be my turn to watch?" Shepard held out a hand to her for his towel, which she tossed him with a snort of amusement.
"You get a show every time I have to peal out of my enviro-suit. And don't tell me you don't watch." He nodded his head and raised both eyebrows to concede the point, and slung the towel over his shoulder as he stood up.
The morning sun shone through the tiny window in the shed, and the air was brisker than normal as the desert recovered from its nightly freeze. Ria was still asleep, or at least, she had been when they came down here; but knowing that kid she was likely up and studying or something. He never understood how she did that, as he had always shirked his school duties when he was a teen. He'd only passed certain classes by the skin of his teeth because he was constantly busy trying to help around the ship.
Of course, I preferred it that way. I'd much rather be fixing a ship engine than doing homework. His quiet laughter made Tali cock her head inquisitively, but he just winked instead of answering, making her roll her eyes playfully. Her silver irises made the gesture a fascinating one to watch, but he kept moving towards the next machine.
He laid the towel on the armrest of a treadmill and hopped on, but Tali's movement caught his eye before he started it up. She was swaying her hips the way he loved, and her smile was anything but calming, sending a chill up his spine as slowly made her way to the side of his machine.
"Oh don't stop on my account. I was just-"
"-Shamelessly teasing your poor husband? Yes I know." He stepped back off the treadmill and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.
"You know Ria could come in here at any time." He whispered.
"Not if she wants to live she won't." He chuckled and started kissing her down her neck, and the tension in her melted quickly. He got down to her shoulder when his omni-tool beeped, and he closed his eyes at the immensely horrible timing. Tali hissed in frustration, raking her fingers along his thigh through his pants and making him wince for a moment. He turned from Tali to hit the accept button on his omni-tool and groaned again when Aristotle's image appeared.
"Shepard-Commander, the geth cruiser Kreen'Ia has reported a ship asking for landing permission, and has asked several questions regarding you and your whereabouts. Were you expecting guests?" Aristotle's straight to business attitude made Shepard's withering response die on his tongue, to be replaced by confusion.
"Wait, someone is asking to see me?"
"Negative. The sole occupant is a human male, and has not directly asked to see you. We thought it would be best however that you be aware of this before we allow him through."
"Thanks Al, appreciate the warning." Shepard slapped his omni-tool to end the call quickly and perhaps a tad too abruptly, but damn if that call wasn't bad timing.
"So, where were we?" He turned back to Tali with a grin, but her eyes seemed troubled.
"Shouldn't we at least tell Ria if someone we don't know is coming here?" Shepard sighed inwardly, and shook his head.
"No Tali, even if this guy is actually headed here, it will take him at least four hours to get here from the spaceport, not to mention he's alone. But I guess it did kind of kill the mood huh." He smiled again, but this time it was weak smile. Tali cocked her head again, and walked up to wrap her arms around him and look up into his face.
"Don't worry John, this mood is always alive near you." Her smile was once again seductive, but he restrained himself from throwing her over his shoulder and taking her to the bedroom.
"That's good to hear Tali, I might be worried if all it took to distract you was a phone call." She laughed and rose on her toes to plant a kiss on his lips before grabbing his hand and leading him toward the house. As they waited for the Shed door to open, He dropped her hand and scooped her up into his arms, getting a brief squeal of surprise before she wrapped her arms around his neck for stability. Smiling wide once more, Shepard carried his lovely wife into the house and instantly had to laugh at his daughters face.
Ria sat on the living room couch with no mask and nightclothes, baggy pants and a t-shirt that was far too big for her. But her expression was the good part; she looked at her parents with a look of disgusted curiosity, both eyebrows furrowed down and mouth open slightly.
"Seriously? Get a room." Shepard stood in the doorway still holding his wife, but the two glanced at each other, and Shepard whispered low.
"…Love them even when they become mutant teenagers…" Tali giggled at his words, the same he'd used so long ago. But Ria just rolled her eyes and went back to watching some form of TV show. His fourteen-year-old daughter was very good in so far as teenagers went, rarely doing things she shouldn't and a very hard worker. But even the best of them had their bad moments.
He set Tali down on the couch beside Ria, and went to grab one of the many pistols he had scattered in hidden places about the house. Finding a Carnifex under some papers in a cabinet, he snatched it and put it on the coffee table next to him on the couch. Ria eyed the pistol with curiosity, her gaze switching from it, then to him with a small flicker. He gave her a small shrug, which he hoped would convey he was simply paranoid, but the damn kid was too smart for that. She kept the skeptical expression on her face, but didn't press him.
Tali often thought it odd that so few reporters and paparazzi tried to find her and Shepard, but she hadn't been curious enough to ask him about it. The biggest reason might be the fact that the geth kept anyone looking for Shepard away unless he told them to, but that never seemed like a good enough reason to her. Since the geth were only the enforcers of the law over Rannoch, they weren't allowed to say who could and couldn't land. Those laws were made up by the Conclave, and no one was actually banned from landing so far as she knew.
But it became blatantly apparent that security was lacking when a few hours later Aristotle called again. This time to tell them that the man they had let through had rented an air-car, and was currently heading towards their house. Shepard hadn't worried of course, but he had told Tali to grab her shotgun, just in case. She patted the weapon in her lap, remembering things she'd rather not remember by looking at it.
Ria coming down the stairs with her drone Tikkun, to which she had added weapons, thankfully distracted her. The girl knew something was up of course, and since both her parents had guns out, she decided to bring something as well. Tali smiled at her daughter as the girl motioned for her drone to move next to the door before shutting down. Non-verbal commands for a drone required lots of high end engineering, but that was something she'd been doing since she was a child.
"Ok guys, whoever he is should be here soon. Remember the emergency plan?" Shepard asked the question at both of them, but his eyes were following Ria, who nodded impatiently.
"Yea dad, if he tries to attack, get to the Shed and lock it up behind us."
"Good girl. Alright, anybody want a snack?" They passed the next few minutes munching on a quarian version of cheez-its while Shepard wolfed down a couple nutrition bars.
When the sound of an engine was finally heard, the three stopped what they were doing, and the tension was palpable as the air-car door slammed outside. A few seconds passed as the man walked up the front steps, and hesitated briefly before knocking on the door.
Shepard gave one last stern look at Ria, making sure she remembered the plan and didn't try anything stupid, then opened the door.
The man that stood before her bondmate looked to be at around Shepard's chin in height, and he was balding with only the sides of his head showing greying hair. The face had a few wrinkles, and Tali placed him at about forty or so as he smiled and tucked a black folder under his arm.
"Commander Shepard! Pleasure to finally meet you sir. My name is Albert Winston, and I represent the movie production company of-"
Shepard shut the door in the man's face before calmly walking back around to the couch.
They want him to do a movie, after how bad that last one was? Yeah right.
The knock came again, and Shepard gave a growl. But this time Tali stood up with him.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going with you. This guy isn't going to back down easy, I can tell." Her words made him squint a little; giving the impression that this was now a challenge to him.
Opening the door again, she saw the man didn't look upset. In fact, she got the distinct impression he was used to it.
"I realize I'm an inconvenience sir, but this will really only take a moment of you-" Shepard held up a hand, stopping the man once again mid-sentence.
"First, I get the right to veto whatever you put in this movie. Second, I want to see the script, and third, if you're going to have quarians in the movie, they have to be real quarians, not asari stuffed into a suit." Shepard ticked off each demand with a finger, and the man nodded at each, waiting for him to finish before speaking.
"Well I don't make those kinds of decisions sir, but I would be happy to connect you with someone who can. I am mainly here to fulfill demand number two." He reached under his arm and took the black folder under his arm to hand to Shepard. He took it with a skeptical glance, but after a moment of silence, Tali decided to intervene.
"Mr. Albert, right?" Tali eased her way past Sherpard as he skimmed through the folder, and extended her hand. She had decided to suit up since they had been warned of his coming, and so she was in full kit as the man took her gloved hand and pumped it warmly.
"Yes ma'am, and you must be the famous Tali Zorah! I must say it's an honor. My family was on Earth when the Reapers hit, but you got back in time to save them… rest assured sir, madam, that you will be treated with the utmost respect in our dealings."
Tali had heard this story thousands of times by now, from the emails and letters that still got sent to the Normandy. EDI filtered out any spam and such, but she sent on all the gratitude and well-wishing ones to them. It never hurt to remember that all the pain they had been through meant something to people, and that made Tali smile warmly at the man from behind her mask.
"You'll have to forgive my husband, Mr. Albert, but we still remember the last movie someone did about our exploits, and we won't be a part of another catastrophe." The man nodded again, this time in understanding.
"I agree ma'am, but I would not have volunteered to present you with this if I thought my employer would jerk you around, so to speak."
"Ha! They gave Garrus a love interest! You know, I'm surprised he isn't playing the role himself." Shepard's words were directed more to himself then anyone in particular, but the smaller man took it as a request to speak.
"Actually we haven't approached any of your other crew mates about this yet Commander. We wanted your approval first." John eyed the man for a moment, looking like he'd just found a bit more respect for him at this latest information.
"This script looks alright to me, but it could use a few improvements. There is a couple areas that are just down right wrong. Like Thessia, we didn't have troop support really; we had a single gunship and one asari scout. Is your boss willing to work with us on this?" Albert paused at the question, frowning as he thought it over.
"Without asking him I can't say for sure, but if I were to guess from the way he spoke, I'd say yes."
"Well come on in then Albert, I suppose we'll need to hash this out." Shepard handed the script back to Albert, who once more put it under his arm and followed them in.
Ria was watching from the couch, her unmasked face giving the man a start as he saw an unmasked quarian likely for the first time. The girl laughed at his bulged eyes, then stood up to greet him.
"Ria'Shepard Nar Rannoch." Her extended hand was caught and shook vigorously by Albert, who looked genuinely surprised.
"I had no idea you had a daughter Commander! And she's lovely! Pleasure to meet you Ria'Shepard, I am Albert Winston." Ria eyed him with a raised eyebrow at his enthusiasm, and bowed slightly at the compliment before taking her seat on the couch once more. Tali led Albert to the couch as well, and began ferreting out everything she could about this movie.
If nothing else, we might have something to laugh at when the old crew comes over next time.
Shepard found himself in the doorway a few hours later, waving as Albert took off once more in his air-car, and once the man waved back, he took off into the distance in a haze of dust. Closing the door to stop the cloud from getting into the house, Shepard sighed explosively and walked to the couch, only to slump into it with exhaustion. It was well past his usual bedtime, and the sun was just now getting past its peak. He still hated needing to sleep so often, but he knew from experience trying to stay awake wasn't the answer.
With his head in Tali's lap, Shepard closed his eyes and relaxed, not really hearing Ria's declaration that she was going to go practice shooting for a while. Once the sliding glass door in the back was heard closing, Tali began to caress his face and hair.
"Are you okay John? You seem a little tired." He could here a bit of laughter in her voice, but it was mixed with some concern… some.
"Mhm."
"You want to go sleep on the bed instead of my lap?"
"Uh uh." He could practically hear her rolling her eyes underneath the helmet, but his mumbled responses seemed to be getting him some sympathy. He could feel the heat of her through the suit, and the firmness within made an excellent pillow, but he found himself slightly less tired as she took off her visor and kissed him. When she finally came up for air, he noted he didn't feel nearly as tired.
"You know, that movie probably won't have the best parts." She smiled down at him as she said it, and from the curve of her lips, he thought he knew where this was going.
"Oh? And what might those be?"
"Right before the collector attack, and right before the assault on Cerberus, to name a few."
"That's true, it might make everyone jealous if they did though. I mean, can you imagine how bad Garrus would feel if he saw how much bigge-"
"Shut up, you Bosh'tet. You owe me a show still, remember?" He frowned at her for a moment, at a loss, until he remembered the conversation from that morning.
"Wait a minute, I already gave you a show." His hand touched her legs, and he ran it along the smooth material of her suit, making her shiver a little.
"Maybe, but I want another one. I have to take my suit off again tonight."
"Tonight? No, that sounds like it might take a while, why don't I just help you do it now?" She giggled as his hand went under her bottom and he lifted her up like he had earlier, then trudged upstairs. He no longer felt tired at all.
