Chapter 21: In Laws

Silence endured the little garden place. The trio of misfits were now together, bracing themselves for a full scale attack. Lia was close to Luke, huffing and keeping her hand on his hip, marking her territory from the Migrant Fleet Marine, Mara.

Tali and Shepard laughed somewhat nervously while staring at the pissed off admiral and soon to be executioner.

On the other hand, Xen was smiling beneath her helmet. This... interesting situation was not planned out but it would reap a lot of benefits to her. The fact that Raan could tear their relationship apart would play a key role in her sudden offensive for the most sought after man in the galaxy.

As the awkward silence continued to plague the scene, Xen thought carefully of her plan. Shepard, former N7 Commando, extremely skilled warrior and military genius, could be on her hands after all. That would bring her the necessary political push to rule behind the scenes and get her agenda on the top of the list. With the geth slayer at her side, nothing and no one could stand in her way. The quarians would support her, possible Cerberus or Alliance help could be arranged in case of war with the geth. Protection would be needed in case of taking control of the majority of the geth… her prime objective.

Of course, there were… other thoughts, intentions to be exact. She had seen how humans were eerily similar to quarians, sexual dimorphism being why humans were top of the list for some quarians looking for good looking models on the extranet. She was… obsessed with the Commander. He was an intriguing man… mysterious and highly… attractive. Very muscular, powerful blue eyes and this strength of character no one could match.

It was during the trial for Tali's innocence that she saw in him the perfect husband, mate. Loyal, relentless, intelligent, ferocious and skilled in a variety of fields, among those including leadership, weapons, strategy and administration, as his major in the academy had been Industrial Management, getting straight As. She was happy about hacking into the Alliance records to see how Shepard did, and it was not surprising.

"What is the meaning of this?" Sarko all but shouted as Luke nervously eyed his friends for help, but the turian and drell were beyond drunk to help in any way. 'Fuck me twice.'

Raan growled and approached Shepard slowly. "You! What do you think you are doing?"

"What?" Shepard said, clearly trying to skip around the subject.

"Ah, just why is everyone making a deal out of this?" Mindus asked, annoyed. Everyone turned to look at the drunken turian. "My uncle married a human just after the Relay 314 Incident, and THAT is fucked up!"

Silence….

The humans in the room, except for Luke who was keeping his guard from Lia's father, eyed Mindus and some snorted. Truly, something like this can't be shared, around large crowds. Garrus laughed though, awkwardly since everyone was too pissed, confused or drunk to understand.

The fiery admiral spoke once again, this time with more power in her voice. "Listen to me Shepard, just what in Keelah's name do you think you are doing by having this…. special relationship with Tali?"

He shrugged. "What? Special? Is she handicapped?" Joking on matters such as these was not the right choice in the matter.

BAM!

A slap, and his body rocked with such a force that he got dizzy for a couple of seconds. The admiral had a good hand, he gave her that. Instead of responding, he stayed silent, but the slap did not go unnoticed…

"Hey, hey! We've been dating for a couple of weeks, that is it! What is the fuzz?" Luke asked Lia's parents.

Sarko shook his head. "Human, you don't understand, she chose you for a reason, and yet you are taking this as just a relationship? Do you even love her?"

'Shit…'

To lie or not to lie, that is the question, no, the big dilemma. "Yes…"

'Am I lying? Fuck it, I am too drunk anyway, excuse for tomorrow.'

Lia heard him and huffed her chest towards Mara. "You hear that? He is with me, not you, so get out of here."

The marine snorted and left, somewhat fast, much to Luke's amusement. 'Love or not, I absolutely adore how territorial she gets.'

"Look human, there is a reason she has to marry to one of her species, to have children, she can't have those with you!"

Luke had enough. "Who the hell talked about marriage? I said DATING, Jesus Fucking Christ!"

Shouting in front of the home crowd was something that required balls, yes, but also meant that they had all the excuses to get his sorry ass and toss it out.

Sarko stood quiet now and shook his head for like the fourth time. His wife was just silent, but nevertheless strangely just looking at Lia.

For Shepard, things were barely getting interesting….

"Don't you dare put a hand on him again!" To get Tali pissed, you would get an amazing trophy for testing her patience, which Raan did in an epic way.

Raan growled. "Quiet child!"

The quarian crowd had been watching all along, but no one dared to make a move. Some were hesitant to act in favor of quarian race and law. Others did not give a shit as long as the booze did not run out. The ones in favor were too drunk to say something…. Tough luck.

"You will do as I say, and this is too dangerous for you!" The admiral fought back.

Tali stood her ground, eerily close to Shepard. "I am no child! He is with me, so beat it!"

Dang….

"Listened to Michael Jackson I see? Legit work Shepard." An awkward Jacob added while smiling at Xen, making her move to another place.

The commander put a hand in the air, as if asking for permission to speak. "Admiral, maybe we should talk about this… in private?"

As much as she hated him right now, Raan knew he was right. With just a hand gesture, both Tali and the commander followed him like puppies, and then disappeared in the hallways.

Lia then stood close to his boyfriend and said, "I think we should do that too…"

Sarko nodded and the whole family, with the addition of Luke, walked in awkward silence to a room close to the garden.

As the silence went on, a voice broke it. "So who can fix my omni tool? I think I got a virus while looking for some hips…"

Kolyat shook his head as Mindus got even more of a cold reception by the quarians around them. One of the females laughed though…

One thing Shepard always liked about quarians was their fierce overprotective traits when dealing with loved ones. Of course, now he looked at this differently, with probably the most powerful admiral clearly pissed at him and disappointed at her adopted daughter. He did not blame himself though, they chose this, and went on with it, and the consequences were finally here. 'I wonder what my parents will say about my relationship with Tali now….'

His thoughts were interrupted as Raan ranted, pacing around the room.

"You humans don't know of our limitations! You are selfish! All of you! Don't you know you can kill her just by sharing your mouth with hers? Of course you don't, you think by helping us in every way I will approve of this? No way in hell!"

"I don't care about what you think Shala, but he is with me." Tali said defiantly.

Shepard smiled beneath his helmet. "Look Shala, I understand what is going through your head, and I have something with me for your to stop ranting about this."

The human then let go of Tali's hand, moved his omni tool up and down and silently laughed. "I just sent you a document of what we have for this… kind of scenarios. We are already having success."

Raan huffed her chest and looked at her omni tool, her eyes scanning every single word. Within ten seconds, her eyes widened. She looked at Shepard, whose hand was now once again circling Tali's waist, then back at the omni tool.

"T...T…This is true?"

Shepard nodded. "Yes Shala, it is."

The admiral sighed and duly sat on a small chair behind her. "I am sorry, but she is like a child of mine… I.. I was born sterile Commander, and when her mother died, I was the only one there for her. That is why I got so worked up."

Tali gasped when she heard the word sterile. It made sense now. Raan had no children, and no mate. Still, instead of being a cold hearted woman, she was a warm and caring one for that matter, strange indeed.

"I know Shala, I know." Shepard said, happily. He then walked slowly and, standing in front of Raan, put one arm on her shoulder. "It is an honor to help your race. Do you approve of us then? Do we have your blessing?" He added playfully.

She laughed. "Of course you do, but that doesn't mean I will go too light on you both!"

Laughing could be heard echoing in the room.

Shit… in laws were such a bitch. In every single culture and race, no matter which planet or system, hell even galaxies maybe, in laws were the same. Either they rant about how much suck to date their offspring or simply lecture on how you are not "good enough." Luke had no experience in that, since most of his relationships were incredibly short, or like Mindus liked to put it, "Girls, in order to relieve stress, press LUKE on your phone. No hard feelings or serious relationships after."

Luke tried to laugh while remembering that but could not. This situation was getting very tense. He was drunk and tired along the way. He did not want to snap or simply walk away but… they were really tempting choices.

"First of all, human…" Sarko began, "do you know about our immune systems?"

The human in question sighed inwardly. "Yes, I do."

"Then why are you having this… affair with my daughter?"

Lia screamed. "FATHER!"

The mother shook her head. "Darling, please…" She begged her husband.

"Because I want to." Luke simply stated.

The old quarian marine was close to lose it but then thought of using words instead of punches to punish the ignorant human.

"I read about you de la Vega." He said with disdain in his voice. "Read about your actions and your past in the military, what you did on Truba. No honor, no emotion, nothing. In my books, you are a monster that can't be involved with my daughter. I only let it go because you were her friend, but now… with this… no, a monster can't be involved with my daughter."

When he said the word monster, Lia felt enraged. Her boyfriend was not at fault for the situation he went through. She was so mad at her dad, but when she was about to give him a piece of her mind, Luke's cold voice silenced her.

"Tell me sir, have you ever seen women get raped en masse?" The question lingered in the air for a few seconds before the human continued. "Have you seen your best friend's eyes slowly getting devoid of life? Or children bleeding to death, dying in your arms?"

Sarko just looked at him, not being able to come up with a retort. 'That… was not in the article…'

"Better yet," the human began sarcastically, "have you ever seen the fetuses of women cut out of their wombs with a damn knife? Ever smelled burning flesh? Or seen countless bodies scattered around, as small as a baby? You know that babies are useless to batarians since they can't be implanted a chip right?"

The other quarian female in the room listened intently while her daughter just stood there dumbfounded. Most of the things Luke was saying were not discussed or even slightly mentioned in the article she read about him, except for the rapes. Still, this was getting very tense and incredibly sad... Her father was already looking at the floor.

"No you have not. You just sit on your ass here, on this very fleet training new soldiers to serve their people, yet you don't go out to battle. I have seen that and many things I won't talk about because it does not add purpose in this conversation." The human then laughed bitterly. "I have the utmost respect for you sir, but don't you ever dare to judge me for who I am, ever." He finished coldly.

In the blink of an eye, the human turned around, activated the door and walked away, his body rigid of the rage that flowed through his veins.

"You have a big mouth Sarko." The wife said. "Many times I've told you to not judge people when you don't know anything about them."

Sarko turned to Lia and was about to say something when she just put a hand. "Save your excuses for him, I am leaving." She turned and left the room, walking fast, probably on her way to see her boyfriend.

"Honestly, I did not know about that…" The marine shook his head and hanged his head in shame.

The wife just shook her head. "Now you do."

He just sighed and sat on the floor. He felt really bad about the recent turn of events, and making his daughter upset. "Tomorrow we shall see him again."

The garden party slowly began to gain rhythm thanks to the great efforts of Mindus and Kolyat spreading more alcohol around, but not before some apologies came out from the turian's mouth.

There was no more dancing but at least, the tension felt a little less than minutes earlier. Mordin just went around, checking quarians and members of his crew alike, muttering some unintelligible words of approval or disapproval. It was amusing to see the salarian so busy, still working in a party, but what could you expect from a hard working genius….

"Luke has been in that room for over thirty minutes now, you think he is in trouble?" Mindus asked his drell friend.

Kolyat shook his head. "His business, not ours, we should just make these quarians happy before they mount a Morning War on us because of your antics."

"Shepard and Tali already got out, and the admiral looks happy, the commander must have done a great job in that room…" Mindus was having these thoughts, probably due to the great amount of alcohol in his system and the hips on the net.

Zaeed still had his marine fans around, hearing his countless stories about breaking someone's neck or kicking the ass of a batarian so hard his eyes got out of his face. Of course, every little detail was true, since his records say so. The quarian soldiers were asking questions constantly, they went from what was his favorite type of knife to what his skills were in close combat.

The other crewmates were still around, talking to other quarians or amongst themselves but wary of their surroundings.

Admiral Xen was sitting on the benches, talking to another quarian, in a red suit…

"Tell me Kal, you know Tali'Zorah personally, since when did she had a… thing for Shepard?"

The marine's eyes looked at her suspiciously. "Why do you ask admiral?"

Xen sighed. "Because it created this mess…" she pointed at the tensions between the Normandy crew and the still sane quarians, as the majority were drunk enough to not care, "tell me."

"Since she returned from her pilgrimage, all I know to be honest. She always talked about him but got sad right after, since he was dead."

Another reason she found him incredibly interesting. He was raised from the dead. His body had cybernetic implants that made him very strong. Adding to that his biotic levels were off the charts for a normal human. He had a very intelligent mind too. The fact that Commander Shepard was still here, after he died, was something that made Xen… feel amazed, even proud of meeting him personally.

"I see…" Her tone was… furious perhaps?

"Yeah." He was desperate for a way out.

Awkward….

"Yo Kal!" Someone from the crowd shouted. "Come here dude, we need more beer!"

That was Garrus, he was still mad about his supplies dwindling due to the quarian livers all around him. He was a messiah for Kal now, getting him out of an awkward conversation with the craziest quarian alive. Still, he had to report this to Tali as soon as possible, the admiral was behaving really strange.

"If you excuse me admiral, but I must go."

She nodded and looked at Shepard, talking to Raan. As usual, the whore of Tali was very close to him.

Xen just sighed. "I will get this over with soon, very soon." She then left quietly, no one noticing that the strange and awkward admiral had left the party.

He was mad, no, he was pissed. How dare that man judge him? How dare he try to ridicule him in front of his girlfriend?

Luke was mad at himself mostly though. He snapped in front of Lia's family. He was reckless and stupid, acting like a little child, giving a tantrum, and then walking away, which made things worse. A damn coward, he felt like that.

The human was leaning on a wall, looking at a window, very close to the exit to the Normandy. He had done the impossible… pass by unnoticed by his friends. They were too drunk anyway, he would have had to be very close for them to notice. The stars looked beautiful…

His actions at Truba still troubled him to this day. If it wasn't for Mindus' antics, Kolyat's loyalty and Lia's support, he would be dead by now, or worse, insane, locked in an asylum like how some of his friends ended up.

As he continued to stare at the distant starts, a pair of arms enveloped him by the waist, surprising him. His body shook lightly at the surprising arms but calmed as they massaged his chest.

"I am sorry, so sorry Luke." That voice belonged to none other than Lia.

He could not help but smiled beneath his helmet. "Not your fault honey."

The quarian smiled at the new pet name, very sweet in her opinion.

"I still owe you an apology because I got you into this mess and…" She was interrupted by Luke's hand on her mouthpiece.

"Will you stop being so selfless for a second?" He asked with a playful tone. "I don't hate your parents, you are too special for me to fall that low. I will always be here okay?"

She giggled quietly and embraced him warmly. "I think we should go report to your lunatic friends."

Luke laughed out loud. "Yes, let us go see what those retards are doing."

"I am telling you, I was only joking!" Certainly, Mindus' little antics about quarians had made some in the garden a little…. unstable. Those not drunk enough and that actually listened were already glaring at him.

"I told you not to start rambling about stereotypical jokes, especially about quarians since, well, we are in… THE MIGRANT FLEET YOU RETARD!" Kolyat was so pissed parts of his suit were probably melting.

Both were getting in a heated discussion when both Luke and Lia arrived. "Sup bitches."

The drell and the turian looked at the couple, hugging each other, earning some glares from the non drink zone of the quarians.

In a few seconds, the group began talking about the night and how Luke's meeting went. Lia's parents were not seen after their daughter left them in the room. According to Mindus, Shepard was doing sexual favors for Raan in exchange of keeping Tali. Kolyat slapped him and explained that their turian friend's version was bullshit.

After half an hour, most quarians retreated to their respective dorms, but the mad quarian mob was still there, in a small group glaring at the Normandy crew. It was time for Super Mindus for his incredible antics to start. Very good time and stress release for Luke, though he would have to make sure Tali and Lia were far away from them.

As they were leaving, Mindus and Luke stayed behind to snatch some beers left. In truth, they were going to troll around…. They had been wanting to do this since they got into the fleet, even though they had the utmost respect for quarians… sure.

"Ready?" Mindus asked with a smile on his voice.

Luke laughed and nodded. "Armed and ready to troll sir!"

Both laughed and looked at the quarian mob, eyeing them up. Over three quarters of the quarians were drunk and left, and those were laughing and cheering sometimes, so they were no problem whatsoever. These, however, were the ones that had always mantained their distance and now were behaving like Inquisition Authorities, much to Luke's amusement.

"Hey guys!" Mindus shouted, getting all of their attention.

The human then waved his hand. "Thank you for coming into our little gathering! It was nice having you guys here." Some of the quarians were now talking amongst each other.

Mindus then laughed and nodded. "Yeah!" The duo then prepared to leave, moving faster towards the door. "Hopefully we, being the greatest outsiders of all time, will make a party at the closest shelter in your honor!"

"And remember that the engines must be fixed!" Luke added as they laughed while most quarians screamed in fury.

"I LOVE TROLLING THESE GUYS!" Mindus shouted as he headed for the dock. Luke only laughed right behind his best friend.

Sorry for the delay guys but college is being an ass on me. I barely have time to read, much less write but finally found some in my schedule.

It is short, yes, but all round good. Jack of all trades chapter for y'all.

As always, a pleasure to write for you. Don't forget, review! Tell me what you guys think!