Shepard stood in the comm room, Hackett's pale blue image in front of him. "You know, Commander, I was against your mission to Sanctuary at first," the Admiral said. "But I was wrong. We've got the Illusive Man's location thanks to you, and Ms. Lawson."

Shepard nodded in appreciation. "We need to end this fight with Cerberus. Focus on the Reapers."

"I agree," Hackett responded. "How soon can you be ready?"

Shepard paused, thinking. "Two or three days. There are still some things I need to wrap up."

The Admiral nodded. "Keep me updated. Hackett out." Shepard saluted as Hackett's form shimmered and vanished.

As soon as Shepard exited the war room and security checkpoint, Traynor beckoned him over. "What is it?" he asked as he approached the specialist.

She leaned in closer to him, but kept her eyes on her terminal. "Tali's taking what happened on Sanctuary pretty hard. She's down in the lounge, if you want to-" she looked over, and stopped talking when she realized Shepard wasn't there anymore. She turned and he was already in the elevator, giving her a small wave as the door slid closed. Traynor smirked as she turned back to her work and the elevator descended a single level.

Shepard went straight to the lounge. Tali had been there for him right away after Thessia; the least he could do was return the favor. She was sitting at the bar, rolling a glass full of a dark liquid in her hand. Her other hand was supporting her head, which was bowed. Her legs were spread, not crossed or together like they usually were. A bad sign.

She glanced over her shoulder when she heard the door. "Shepard!" she exclaimed once she recognized who it was (which did take a bit longer than usual). She raised her head off her hand and turned her body towards him. "Want a drink?"

Shepard could tell immediately that she had already consumed several rounds herself. Besides the dead giveaway of the half empty bottle close by, her speech was ever so slightly slurred, and her tone was jovial. That was a stark contrast to her body language though: her arms on the counter and head down. "Sure," he answered while he stepped behind the counter. They could deal with the heavy stuff in a bit. "But how are you getting drunk?" he asked as he pulled out a shot glass and some liquor that wouldn't poison him.

Tali drew out her next two words. "Veeery carefully," she told him as he took a seat on the stool next to her. "Turian brandy…triple filtered…and introduced into my suit through an emergency induction port," she explained.

Shepard glanced over as he poured a glass for himself. "That's a straw, Tali."

Tali elongated her words again. "Emeeergency innnduction port," she corrected, giving Shepard a light shove as she spoke the last word. Shepard smirked at her as she went on. "It's actually getting harder to get it into the slot," she said as she twirled the straw between two fingers. "I think that means it's working." Tali waited until Shepard lifted his drink before raising her own above her head. "We're toasting Miranda," she explained, stopping him from taking a swig. "…I think." Tali looked back to her own glass and huffed. Shepard watched her as she lowered it and continued. "She was so rude. Cerberus cheerleader," she said with a sneer. "As Jack would say. With her perfect genes. And that attitude." She turned to face Shepard again. "Do you remember, back on Ilium when we saved her sister? She didn't even want to see her afterwards! You practically had to force her."

"That's not exactly how it happened," Shepard interjected.

Tali didn't answer him. She paused for a moment, cradling her shot with both hands. "And still. She got it done. She stopped her father." Tali let out a huge sigh, but before Shepard could say anything, she started the toast. "Nice job, Miranda, you genetically perfect, Cerberus cheerleader, bosh'tet. Keelah se'lai!" Tali sucked up her drink through the port, but Shepard didn't have any of his. He had something more important on his mind.

He put his glass down and swiveled in the stool to face Tali. "I didn't realize this would be so hard on you," he said lightly.

Tali glanced over at him as she poured more brandy for herself. "I don't really like her. Keelah, what a bitch." Shepard couldn't help but chuckle. "But I respect her. I guess that can be better than liking sometimes." Tali sighed again, and Shepard's heart dropped a little more. "She did whatever it took to stop her father. Never gave in. Never changed herself."

Shepard thought he had a realization. "Ahhh. Seein-"

Tali cut him off. "Don't ahhh me," she said as she struggled to use her induction port. "You sound like a Vorcha," she added just before taking another sip.

Shepard returned the light push he had received earlier. Tali didn't recover from it. She just leaned on her arm more, looking at him with her head almost sideways and her body titled away from him. "Seeing a bit of yourself in Miranda fighting her father?" Shepard asked, working not to laugh at her fairly pathetic posture.

Tali returned her head to an upright position and looked straight at him. "I spent my life trying to live up to him. Then making up for his mistakes. Doing what he would've wanted."

Shepard had had the wrong realization, but he didn't time for a pity party. Not for himself, anyway. He rubbed Tali's lower back as she propped up her arm on an elbow and rested her forehead in her palm. "It's never that simple," Shepard responded as comfortingly as he could, not knowing what else to say. Tali looked at him appreciatively regardless, enjoying his touch. The moment lasted for a couple seconds before she barked out a dark laugh. Shepard had never heard her make that sound before. "What?" he asked, slightly cautiously.

"I'm having a drink with my fiancé," she said. "My human fiancé." She made a similar sound to the laugh. "My father would have hated you," she told him bitterly. "All his rules…and traditions…and…"

She trailed off. Shepard tried to recover. "Here's to him then," he said as he raised his still full glass.

Tali started to do the same, but suddenly dropped her head to the table with a thud and let out a sob. "I miss him so much," she explained as tears started running down her cheeks. Shepard delayed for a split second out of surprise. He downed his shot with a single gulp and stood to draw Tali into his arms, his chest against her back. She sat up and sunk into him, placing her arms on top of his and leaning her head against him. She just kept crying. There was plenty to cry about, and she hadn't shed tears like this for too long. And at least she was with Shepard, not by herself.

He began to rock side to side slowly after a while, and her crying gradually started to die down. "I hate seeing you cry," he whispered as he kissed her neck softly.

Tali mixed a sniff and chuckle. "I can hold it in if you want."

"No," Shepard responded without hesitation.

A small smile crossed Tali's face as she sniffed again. The silence returned until Shepard could tell she was finished crying. But he didn't let go of her, and she didn't want him to. "When do we get to stop reacting to our parents and start living for ourselves?" she asked tiredly.

Shepard stopped rocking her and stood still, thinking. He didn't know. Both his parents had died when he was fairly young, so the 'we' didn't apply to him. "I think the answer to that one is at the bottom of that glass," he said as he pointed a finger at her cup of Turian brandy still sitting on the bar.

Shepard felt Tali's body shake as she chuckled. "I might need help with the induction straw." She paused. "Port," she corrected herself. She rotated in his arms, her shoulder pressed lightly against his chest, so she could look at him. "You know." Shepard smiled at her before reaching out with one hand and grabbing her glass. He steadied the straw with a finger and placed it just inside the hole that lead to her mouth. Tali tilted her head back, pretending to be offended. "Bosh'tet," she muttered, her voice full of sarcasm.

Shepard persisted, matching her movement with the shot. Tali's charade ended quickly. She took a drink with a dramatic slurp. Shepard smirked at her. "Feel better?"

Tali hiccupped. "Not really," she said. "Want to try?" she asked as she pushed the glass towards his lips.

Shepard rolled his eyes. "Only if you try some of mine," he joked. Tali had had more drinks than he thought. She started to reach for the bottle of liquor Shepard was using. He quickly grabbed her hand. "Hey, I was kidding," he said with a chuckle. "We can't switch drinks, remember?"

Tali stared at him for a second, thoroughly embarrassed. "I'm drunk," she reminded simply. "What's your excuse?" Shepard shook his head at her and huffed. She was too cute. Tali leaned into Shepard and nestled her head under his jaw. "I'm sorry, Shepard," she said as she closed her eyes.

Shepard could tell she wasn't apologizing about the narrowly avoided drink fiasco. "You've got nothing to be sorry about," he said as he rested his chin on top of her helmet and closed his eyes as well.

Another comfortable silence settled in. The heavy stuff was dealt with, for now. It all just needed to sink in. Eventually, Tali opened her eyes and started to examine some of the scars on Shepard's arm. She found a particularly large one, which looked fairly recent, and ran a gloved finger along it. It trailed from his elbow up to the middle part of his bicep. "Is this from a banshee?" she asked, remembering Shepard's promise to let her compare his scars.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his arm. "No, that one was a brute," he told her. "I braced my arm against it when it charged me. Spike went right through my armor." Tali continued to examine it as she took in what he said. The scar was fairly jagged, and it looked like the wound that had caused it didn't go that deep into his arm. It wasn't all that bad, in retrospect. Tali looked over at his face, indicating that she was done studying his scar. Shepard released her from his arms so she could see his jaw better, where the scar from the banshee was. "This," he said, dragging a finger along a thick red line running from his ear to his chin, "is from a banshee."

Tali had to look somewhat closely to see it. It ran along the underside of his jawbone, which meant it was in a shadow, and his beard hid it to some extent as well. But even with all of that, it was clearly worse than the one on his arm. The cut was almost perfectly straight, and was thicker and went deeper than the one from the brute. She could even make out a few marks from stitches near the middle. "What happened?" she asked simply.

"Almost got a hold on me when I slid by to get to Samara's daughter," he explained. "It had better reflexes than I thought; it swiped at me and gave me this." Tali ran her hand down his neck, the finger on the end of her hand running along the scar. Shepard raised his chin to give her a better view. Tali went through a similar process to as when she examined the other scar. This one was a lot nastier; it had a sort of wicked simplicity to it. The stitches must've been painful as well. "So who wins?" Shepard asked when she was finished.

"Banshee," she answered. "You're lucky it wasn't a few inches lower."

"That's what Chakwas kept telling me," Shepard replied with a shrug. When his shoulders moved and his neck muscles tensed slightly, Tali noticed a slight glint.

"Hang on," she said as she leaned in again. It looked like there was another scar there, but it wasn't nearly as red as any of the others. In fact, it was practically invisible except for in this specific lighting. And even then, it was tough to make out. There were slim breaks at small intervals, sort of like it had been stitched together. But the scar wasn't that bad, it wouldn't have needed stitches. Whatever had caused it hadn't even pierced his skin, although it had come close. Tali placed a finger on his neck, where the unusual mark was. "What's this from?"

Shepard paused as he thought through where she was touching. His eyes opened wide when he remembered, and he started to laugh calmly. "I'm surprised that's still there."

Tali looked back up to his eyes. "What is it?" she asked, now very curious.

"That's a lovebite," he said, grinning at her. "From our first time."

Tali gasped as she remembered as well. It had been not only her first time with Shepard, but her first time at all. At that time, she didn't know how to stop herself from screaming in response to the incredible new pleasure. Just as a baseline reaction, she had sunk her teeth into Shepard's neck. He hadn't minded. He even called it 'sexy' afterwards and only hid it at Tali's request.

Apparently, she had bit him much harder than she thought. She started to giggle. There was no point in apologizing again; she had done that enough after she created it. "I can't believe it's lasted this long," she said.

"I guess you've got good teeth," Shepard replied as his laugher died down. He could tell she was smiling, trying to show him her teeth: he could see it in her eyes. He guessed the drinks had made her forget he couldn't see her mouth with her mask on. Shepard chuckled at her. "I'm so lucky to have you," he told her as he rubbed her back.

Tali rested her head on his shoulder again. "I was thinking the same thing."

Shepard kept his smile as he leaned his head against hers. Yet another silence sunk in, but neither of them minded.

After a while, Shepard's omni tool beeped. It was a message from Traynor. He needed to get back to work. "Hey, I have to go," he told Tali softly. "You should go to the cabin; I won't be up there unless you need me." Shepard waited a few seconds, but there was no answer. He ran a hand down her arm. "Tali?"

He moved his head to look into her mask. There was no glow, her eyes were closed. She was asleep. Shepard smirked as he delicately picked her up and carried her to the elevator, so that he could drop her off in his cabin.

Thanks everyone for the reviews and support. I appreciate it!