AN: Okay, this chapter was longer, but then I didn't like it and ended up cutting out about 2k, so it's a short chapter this week, unfortunately.

Thanks to everyone who reads, with special thanks to those of you who follow/favourite, and super-special, rainbow thanks to DeltaAgent, Laufeyson'sWife, barbex and Horrorclown for the awesome reviews!

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 25 - Nuclear Wessels

"Kira?"

Her head jerked upwards at his gentle tone. If her nerves hadn't been clear before, they were now. "Yeah?" Her voice was breathless, a combination of nerves and how worked up she already was from their heated kisses, their shirts already lying discarded on the floor.

He brought his hand up to her cheek, stroking gently as his subharmonics trilled the odd combination of both nerves and reassurance. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to..."

"No, I- I want to. Unless... I mean, you sound pretty nervous too..."

He nodded. "Yeah, but... I still want to-"

"Me too."

"Okay then..."

She quickly decided that the fastest way to end the awkward dialogue was to press her lips to his, a move which he quickly reciprocated. He had never thought much about kissing, other than through idle curiosity, before the day she had been let out of the medbay, immediately coming to see him to tell him that she understood that what he said had probably just been because she had been hurt and that she was allowing him to take it back.

The moment he had told her that she was being ridiculous, that was the first time she had kissed him. Seconds later she had been pulling away, apologising for her ineptitude, admitting that she had never kissed anyone before.

But he hadn't noticed. It had been Kira, his Kira, and she had been kissing him.

Also, he was turian and had never kissed anyone himself, nor knew even vaguely what it was supposed to feel like, but he figured that sounded a little less romantic than simply having been happy that it was her kissing him.

"You seem distracted," she murmured into the skin of his neck as she trailed kisses downwards.

"Just thinking about the first time you kissed me."

"You don't think this will be as bad as that, do you?"

"I didn't think that it was bad."

"Well... okay then..." She decided, once more, that kissing was probably a better idea than talking.

"Kira," he halted her again as she explored his torso with her mouth.

"Yeah?" she replied softly, catching his breath in his throat as her brilliant blue eyes met his.

"I... erm, Kira, I just wanted to say..." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Kira, when I look in your eyes and you're looking back in mine, everything feels not quite normal. I feel stronger and weaker at the same time. I feel excited and, at the same time, terrified. The truth is, I don't know what I feel, except I know what kind of man I want to be."

Her heart melted more than a little at his words, before something clicked in the back of her mind, telling her that those words were very familiar. "Cai... was that from that really old Spiderman movie?"

"I, erm... I don't..."

She sighed a little. "Did Tom tell you to say that?"

"He... might have helped a little."

She shook her head. "That's one of his favourite movies. And one of the ones I really hate."

"I'm sorry, I... I fucked up, didn't I?"

She just smiled in response. "No, you didn't fuck up. You just probably shouldn't be going to Tom for romantic advice."

"I'm sorry, I just... Kira, I am never lost for words, but when I'm around you... it's as if all of my skills of diplomacy fail me and I turn into a bumbling wreck... You deserve something better than me tripping over myself as I try to tell you that I love you."

She responded instantly by pressing her mouth to his once more, moving around so that she was straddling him, his hands moving to her back to bring her torso flush with his own.

"That," she finally said as she pulled away, "was exactly the right thing to say, amore mio..."

"Aww," Kasumi sighed as Kira finished her story, "that is the sweetest thing ever."

Jack simply shook her head. "Doesn't count."

"What do you mean it doesn't count?" Kira exclaimed as she took another swig of her drink.

"You left out all of the important details," she countered.

Tali nodded. "She has a point."

Kira simply rolled her eyes, to which Jack snorted. "That's code for he was finished in less than a minute."

"Is not!" Kira argued. "He managed quite well, considering."

"Bullshit."

Kira shrugged. "It's true. I mean, we'd done other stuff before so-"

"Well then it wasn't your first time."

"It was! Or do you need me to get you a dictionary? It's not my fault you want awkwardness."

"Two virgins going at it? How is that not awkward?"

Kira smirked. "I never said it wasn't awkward at times. I just said that he wasn't as... quick as one might think."

"Did he get you off?"

"Yeah."

"Had he got you off before?"

"Yeah, but never actually with his cock. Well, I mean... not, you know, in me." She immediately took another drink to wash away her embarrassment. She wasn't used to talking about this stuff so openly, but she had to admit that it was nice. Although she took a little solace in the fact that Tali seemed just as embarrassed.

"Okay, okay, fair enough. So, whose turn is it next?"

Kasumi raised her hand, pointing it towards Tali and making odd squeaking noises as she finished her drink. "Tali's next," she finally said as she lowered her beer. "We've been going clockwise so it's Tali then Jack."

Kira just shook her head vehemently. "If it was my brother, then I have to veto."

"Well, if you mean under the suit stuff, then yeah," the quarian replied.

Kasumi raised an eyebrow, leaning forward. "And if we mean over the suit stuff..."

Tali sighed, slumping in her chair a little. "Then... it's still Tom. I just didn't want to sound like I'd been a complete loser."

"So, wait, you hadn't done anything with anyone before Tom?" Jack asked, incredulously. "How old were you when you two met?"

"I'd... just turned twenty two..."

"That's not so bad," Kira assured her. "Despite what teen dramas have indoctrinated us to believe, lots of girls don't get boyfriends until they're grown up."

"Weren't you just telling us how you lost your virginity at sixteen?" Jack argued.

"Yes, to the only man I ever dated."

"Wait, you haven't been with anyone since your husband?"

Kira froze a little at that. "Weren't we talking about Tali? I've already had my turn!"

Kasumi nodded. "Yes, we can pester Kira about her lack of action after we figure out just why Tali went for so long without a boyfriend."

"Like Kira said; it's no big deal."

Kasumi frowned. "Tali, you're positively adorable. How have you not had a boyfriend before now?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I've always just been... quiet and shy."

"I bet they were intimidated by how smart you are," Kira told her sincerely.

"I always thought that was the kind of bullshit they told nerdy kids to make them feel better," Jack countered, narrowing her eyes.

Kira rolled her own in reply. "It's not bullshit if those nerdy kids in particular are Tali and I."

"Loving the modesty," Kasumi commented.

Kira just shrugged. "It has been scientifically proven that I am hot. But, bar a couple of drunken encounters that really don't count, no guy paid me the slightest bit of attention until Caius. Or, if they did, I was completely oblivious to it."

"Wait, why do they not count?" Jack asked. "Drunk sex is still sex."

"Woah! Who said anything about sex? I'm talking about bad passes made shortly before failed attempts to grope, followed by them spewing up or passing out. Hardly conducive to a girl's self esteem."

Tali sighed. "That's still more than I ever got. Being shy coupled with the stupidly restrictive rules of my father meant that the closest I ever got before Tom was romance novels."

"And your nervestim program?" Kira supplied.

Tali seemed to blush beneath the mask at that. "No comment."

Jack snorted. "That's a yes."

"So, how long did it take for you to rip the suit off after you two started dating?" Kasumi asked cheekily.

Kira shook her head. "Lalala... I'm not listening... lalala..."

"Actually, he was really reluctant once he found out that I was a virgin. Something about how his first time was really crappy."

Kira narrowed her eyes a little. "Okay, I'll admit, that was always a mystery to me. The first shoreleave after Cai and I started dating, we went to the Citadel to... spend some time together, as evidenced by my story. We didn't see Tom again until a few weeks later and he had already screwed half the ship by that poin- and you probably don't want to be hearing this about your... boyfriend?"

Tali shrugged. "He's told me most of this anyway. And... yeah, I guess boyfriend covers it."

"Would you prefer 'lover'?" Kasumi joked.

"So, wait," Jack interjected, "you're telling me that you're really okay with knowing that your man fucked half the galaxy before you got together?"

Tali shrugged once more. "I guess... I mean, they're all just stories to me. It's not as if he's been with anyone else since we got together. Or, since we met, for that matter."

"That seems... far too sensible. I was hoping for a little more possessive rage," Kasumi admitted.

"I... well, I mean, if anyone tries to make a move on him now, they'll quickly find my shotgun in their face but, so far, that hasn't happened."

"Just give it time," Kira answered, at which point Kasumi rounded on her once more.

"I think Tali's turn is up. Back to Kira."

"Hey! No, we're going clockwise, remember?"

"This is the lightning round."

"Does the lightning round have different drinking rules?" Jack asked.

Kira simply frowned. "There were drinking rules to this game? I thought it was just 'drink until the embarrassment goes away'..."

"That is the rule," Kasumi clarified. "Now, embarrassing question for you; have you really not had any action since you came to the past?"

Kira shrugged. "Define 'action'."

"Have you fucked someone?" Jack interjected.

"I... No..." Kira admitted reluctantly.

"Have you kissed someone?" Kasumi corrected.

"I, erm... one guy. Once."

Tali gave her a questioning look at that. "Wait, who?"

"Tom didn't tell you?"

"No, who'd you kiss?"

Kira sighed, slumping in her chair a little. "It, erm... it was Nihlus..."

"Nihlus?!"

"Wait, who's Nihlus?" Kasumi asked.

It was Tali who answered her. "The turian Spectre who was with us on the SR1. I'm actually not sure why he's not here now..."

"Oh, wait, is this the turian you were talking to on the Citadel?" Kasumi took Kira's silence as an admission. "Kira told him not to join up," she informed the others.

"Why not?" Tali asked.

"Look, I just... When I saw him again, I realised that, despite how stupid it sounds, I still have feelings for him. A lot of them. But he doesn't return them, so he would have only served as a distraction..."

"Aw, but you two would be so good together," Tali argued. Kira simply remained silent, her gaze fixed to her drink.

"Ah," Kasumi said as she realised what was bothering the other woman. "It's nearly finished, isn't it?"

Kira nodded. "Yeah. All I'm lacking is a power source... Anyway, let's get back to the game."

Kasumi nodded, allowing the change of subject for once. "You know, maybe we should include Shepard in our girls' night next time..."

Kira groaned. "Come on guys, this is one of the few times I don't have to be careful with what I say."

"It's kind of mean to leave her out, though," Kasumi countered.

Kira sighed. "Fine... you're right. I just... let's not play this game next time.

"No promises."

"I hate you guys..."

"Are you responsible for Drunk Tali last night?" Tom asked his sister as she sat in the mess hall, eating her breakfast.

"'Drunk Tali'?"

"It's quite possibly one of the most adorable things ever. She woke me up, rambling about... I think it was hats or something, only to then pass out on me."

"Yeah... We were having a girls' night. I think she might have had a little too much to drink..."

Tom shook his head, about to respond, when Shepard walked in, hands on her hips, frowning as she surveyed the room. "Where is everyone?"

"Define everyone," Kira replied.

"Well, I can't find Jack. It looks like the turians have managed to disable a Collector ship and I wanted to bring her along while we go and sort it out."

Kira's head jerked up at that. "The Collector ship? Mind if I tag along?"

"Well, if I can't find Jack, I guess so..."

"And Tali?"

Tom frowned at that. "Why do you want Tali to tag along?"

Kira shrugged. "I just think that her technical expertise will come in handy..."

"No, the real reason."

"Female bonding..."

"The real reason."

Kira sighed. "Tom, don't be an overprotective boyfriend."

He narrowed his eyes, but nodded in agreement. "Fine, don't tell me if you don't want to. But she might be too hungover, so don't pester her if she says no."

"I haven't said yes, yet," their mother interjected.

Kira turned to give her the puppy-dog eyes that almost had Tom in tears with laughter. "Please. I'm trying really hard to get to know my future sister-in-law."

Tom choked a little at the implication. "Stop saying that!"

"Why?" Kira asked, keeping her features completely innocently blank.

Tom sighed. "How about you let me decide when I should bond with my girlfriend."

"I'm not telling you that you should right now, I'm just saying that you will," she explained. "But, for the record, I don't understand what you're waiting for."

"Again, I can't bond with her while she's in the suit."

"Yeah, I keep forgetting that. Don't worry, I'm on it."

Shepard interrupted them again at that point. "If Tali's up to it, then fine, you two can accompany Garrus and I. If not, then you're up, Tom. I want to be in and out, so I don't want more than four of us."

"Okay, I'll ask her now," Kira told them, about to run off to Tom's quarters, before he stopped her.

"Wait... is this the... well, the, erm... the Ackbar ship?"

Kira frowned in confusion before realising what he meant. "Could you be a bigger nerd right now? And, yes, it is."

"So, are we going to tell her?"

"Tell me what?" Shepard asked, folding her arms.

"It's a trap," Kira told her.

"A trap? Wait, okay, Ackbar ship. That makes sense now," she told them, before frowning. "So, what kind of trap?"

Kira shrugged. "The turian signal is fake. They're playing dead."

"Ah. Okay... well that... There's not much we can do, is there?"

Kira shook her head. "We still need that data."

"Okay, well, same plan. We get in and out as quickly as possible."

"Okay, sounds good," Kira replied brightly before bounding off to Tom and Tali's quarters.

Sophia frowned, turning to Tom. "Does she seem... more energetic to you?"

Tom nodded. "Yeah... Something's definitely off."

Tali groaned as the door to their quarters opened again, wishing that Tom would just leave her to sleep off her headache. She knew that she had work to do in engineering, but it was nothing urgent.

"Come on, sorellina. Get up!"

Tali frowned turning over to face Kira. "Grhm... Go away..."

Kira simply rolled her eyes at her. "Come on. Mom needs us for a mission."

Tali's frown deepened at that. "I thought you were avoiding calling her 'mom'..."

"Look, do you want to shoot some Collectors or not?"

"You're not going to leave me alone unless I agree, are you?"

"Nope."

The quarian sighed, sitting up, only to groan once more as her headache seemed to hit her even harder. She hated tweaking her suit settings to deal with hangovers (mostly because she'd always forget to change them back), but she figured that she had little choice.

"Fine, fine. I'm up. Happy?"

"Very. Now, I need your help with something once we get there."

Tali frowned at the odd request as her suit began to pump her full of painkillers, relieving her headache. "What do you need?"

"There's a piece of equipment that's vital to some work that Mordin and I have been doing. It's a device. I was the one who drew up the plans and I incorporated a power source that I didn't realise had been a technology we had gotten from the Collectors."

"So you need me to help you retrieve one of their power sources?"

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"Does Sophia know?"

Kira shook her head. "No... I guess not. I just... I can't be sure that she'll understand how vital this is."

"How vital what is? What is this device, Kira?"

Kira sighed, sitting down next to the quarian. "It's... a window. A window back home."

Tali frowned. "I thought that it was too dangerous for you to go back."

Kira nodded. "It is. I won't actually be physically there. It'll just be a projection. A way to say goodbye."

"I... I think I understand."

"So, you'll help?"

"Yes, I'll help."

"Thank you, sorellina. You're the best."

"Do you think we could have a mission where we don't almost get blown up?" Sophia huffed as they returned to the Normandy.

"It's the 'Shepard' element," Garrus told her softly, as he drew her into his arms, feeling the need to have her close after such a narrow escape.

"It certainly seems to be," she replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and yell at TIM."

"I thought you weren't yelling at him," Kira countered.

"Yeah, well, he deserves it this time."

Kira just smirked as her parents left the room, just as Tali turned to her. "Will it work?"

Kira's expression sobered as she nodded. "Yeah, it should work just fine..."

Tali placed her hand on Kira's arm in a comforting manner, earning her a slightly confused look. "Kira, you don't have to do this."

Kira sighed, shaking her head as she pulled away. "Can you- could you please ask Tom to meet me in Mordin's lab in the next half hour?"

Tali simply nodded in agreement as she handed over the power source, hoping that Kira knew what she was doing.

"Kira?" Tom asked as he entered the medbay, only to see his sister setting up a device that looked... more than a little frightening. It looked as if it had been hacked together with no care for aesthetics, and if he didn't know better, he would have been sure that it looked as if it was meant to be fitted around a person's head. But not even Kira would be that insane, he figured.

"Hey, Tom," she replied, not looking up from her work.

"What is all this?"

"It's... a doorway of sorts."

His subharmonics immediately began to trill with disapproval as he realised what she was saying. "Kira, I thought we were in agreement about this; it's too dangerous to go back."

"No, no, no. It's not going back. At least, not permanently. Or, actually, at all. I won't actually be there. Or, you won't. That's actually why I asked you here."

He placed his hands on her shoulders, halting her rambling. "Kira, you can start making sense at any point."

She rolled her eyes at him. "This device allows you to project a mental image of yourself into another universe. Or timeline."

He paused, giving her a disbelieving look. "Wait, so, we could... go back?"

"Only temporarily and... it's a one-time trip. Only one of us could make it. Which is why I asked you down here."

Tom paused as he realised what she was saying. It could only be one of them. Only one of them could say goodbye, to their parents and his best friend.

Her husband.

"Kira," he started, "it should be you."

"Tom, don't just say that because-"

"No, listen to me. Kira, we both had to leave that life behind, but I've found a new life here. I don't want to be so blunt, but you... have been struggling. You may not admit it; you may even think that Omega was a step forward but, honestly? I think you're still trying to find a place here and the lingering issues of leaving everything behind aren't helping. You need this more than I do, even if you don't want to admit it."

"Holding no punches are we?"

"Just... being honest with you."

She nodded before wrapping her arms around him. "I know that I don't say this nearly enough, but you are the best twin brother a girl could ask for."

He laughed a little at that. "You're right. You don't say it often enough," he joked as she pulled away. "So, how long until you're ready to use this thing?"

"Well, now is as good a time as any, I guess."

He frowned as he eyed the contraption once more. "So, how exactly is this going to work?"

Mordin moved over to them to answer. "Device will project a mental image into the other timeline. It will appear real to everyone there, but will only be anchored by their minds."

Tom frowned. "Wait, what?"

"I won't really be there," Kira explained, "they will just think that I am."

Mordin nodded in agreement. "Will require someone to already be thinking of her."

"So, I should show up not long after we left. I'll explain what happened and I'll let Cai know that... well, that he can move on."

"Okay then," Tom agreed, "sounds like a plan. Just... tell everyone bye from me? And that I love them?"

"Of course," she assured him softly, as she lay down on the examination table and Mordin started to strap her into the device.

Tom had been right; it did go on her head.

"Mordin, are there any dangers in this?" he asked.

"A few. Kira has already consented."

"What do you mean 'a few'?"

"Tom," his sister said, drawing his attention, "it'll be fine, okay? I promise."

He nodded as Mordin finished his work, finally moving over to the control panel. "Activating in five..."

The world began to blur in the edges of her vision.

"...four..."

The colour quickly drained as she lost the feeling in her limbs.

"...three..."

The world faded to black...

"...two..."

"...one..."

Tom quickly decided that the waiting was unbearable. Kira would occasionally twitch, but gave no other indication of what was happening. Mordin appeared too wrapped up in the data appearing on the monitors to give him any reassurance that his sister was okay, but Tom simply took his silence as a sign that everything was going as planned.

Although, he found it more than a little unnerving to be in the same room as both Mordin and Kira, and to be in complete silence.

He was quickly pulled from his worried thoughts by the sound of Kira gasping, drawing his attention back to her. He was surprised to see tracks of tears down her cheeks, wondering when they had occurred as his sister bolted upright with little regard for the machinery she was attached to.

"Kira, are you okay?" he asked, placing his hands on her arms to keep her still so that she wouldn't hurt herself. She seemed to begin to shake her head, before she turned so that her gaze was locked with his, noting her brother's worry. She paused before nodding mutely, although he didn't believe it for a moment. "What happened?" he asked softly, loosening his grip on her arms so that she could begin to tear away at the wires Mordin had attached to her.

"It didn't work," she answered shortly. He couldn't figure out if he was hearing anger or pain in her subharmonics, but he did know one thing.

She was lying to him.

It was just like his sister to lie, but not like this. Never badly. It made him wonder what exactly had happened to make her lie to him like that.

"Kira-" he started, but was cut off by her shutting the door in his face as she fled the lab.

He turned to the salarian, who had returned to his work. "Mordin, do you have any idea of what actually happened?"

"No. Everything as expected on this end."

"So then, what happened on her end…?"