Shepard dusted off his hands as he took a step back. He and a trio of Geth had just finished raising another wall, and a fourth was now bolting it to the beams that had already been placed as studs. That made number twelve at least, and with each one that passed Shepard was more and more grateful for his re-enabled cybernetic upgrades. He was still put to shame by the Geth, but at least he wasn't tiring out at normal human rate. "Nice work, guys," he rasped, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. Rannoch's sun was relentless; especially since he wasn't used to spending so much extended time in any sunlight. Climate controlled ships and stations were much more pleasant. "It's just the outside walls now, right?"

"That is incorrect," Garth, one of the Geth, warbled informatively. "There are five walls of the interior that need construction remaining."

"Great," Shepard groaned sarcastically, flexing out one of his arms. At least he was getting to work on his tan. But come to think of it, he didn't even know if Quarians typically found tan skin attractive. The question took over his thoughts as he headed back to the supply of metal sheets with the Geth following closely behind. Most Quarians probably hadn't even been exposed to people with a tan, it definitely didn't happen for them, and they were a majorly isolated people .Tali though, she had been around plenty of humans. Granted, not many of the crew on the Normandy had the time to get a tan, so Shepard still didn't know what she thought of it. It wasn't like having bronzed skin was a priority for any of them, but just because he wasn't tanned didn't necessarily mean she didn't like the idea of it.

"Hey, Puppy," a familiar and sweet voice called over to him, dragging him out of thoughts as he started to stoop down over the metal. He stopped himself when he heard Whisper though, returning to his full height and looking over. "I'm liking the tan."

"Yea, it's been a couple days in the making," he returned casually as he made his way over to the woman, who was leaned against her parked skycar. "It's just recently started to show. I'm hoping Tali will like it too."

Whisper's lips curled into a frown. "That's the greeting I get for showing up unexpected after half a week?"

"I was kind of thinking you'd to show up sooner, actually," Shepard answered with a mild shrug.

"That's not what I meant," she returned, her bottom lip sticking out in a subtle pout.

Shepard's eyebrows cocked as he contemplated what she did mean. "Mentioning Tali?" A simple nod was his answer. "Well what did you expect?"

"I dunno, maybe something like," Whisper started, taking a pause to lower her voice to a surprisingly accurate impression of Shepard. "Whisper. Now that we're here alone, I can confess my undying love for you. Let's run away together."

He had to chuckle about the impersonation, but that was about the only part he was laughing at. "Whisper, I love her," he responded with a shake of his head. "I would never do anything to hurt her."

"What's that old saying?" she asked rhetorically as her lips split into a cheeky grin. "What she don't know won't hurt her?"

Shepard raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms and leaned back. "Please tell me you're joking."

"If you say yes I'm serious, if you say no I'm joking."

"No."

"Joking it is!" she exclaimed with a dazzling smile and chipperness most people would have thought was genuine.

"Can you ever take anything seriously?" Shepard asked with rapidly growing exasperation. That had been a point of argument even back in the day. Not everything had to be a joke or sarcasm, despite what she believed. Hell, even Garrus could be serious sometimes. Some things deserved to be legitimately addressed, but it took entirely too much effort to get Whisper to act like it.

"Of course not," she scoffed condescendingly. "And you know you wouldn't want me any other way. Don't you remember how you used to follow me around everywhere and crack jokes right along with me?"

Shepard sighed deeply. "Things have changed, no matter how much I wish they hadn't," he responded somewhat regretfully.

"You really wish things hadn't changed?" she asked as a reply, unable to hide her sudden spike in hope.

"You serious?" he returned with mild surprise. "You really think I wanted to leave earth alone, have my squad die on Akuze, and be given the responsibility to take on a rogue Spectre, the collectors, and the god damn Reapers?" he listed with escalating emphasis on each point.

"Well, when you put it that way," Whisper trailed off, taking a kick at the dirt as an attempt to rely on her cute factor. "Even with meeting your wife you wish things hadn't changed?"

"Tali, along with a few other people, were about the only good thing to come out of my life after joining the Alliance. I died, Whisper," he explained, pausing after the last bit for the effect to sink in. Most people assumed Shepard had gone under the radar for those two years; that he had faked his death somehow. Whisper opened he mouth to address the new confirmation, but no words come out. "The Alliance doesn't like to tell people that. Better for publicity if most don't know I was brought back in a lab owned by a terrorist organization. The crew of the Normandy is basically what saved me."

"Saved you?" Whisper finally managed to get out. "Saved you from what?"

"Plenty of things, but mainly myself," he began, his mood dropping rapidly. "If I hadn't come across Garrus when I did, I don't know how much longer I would have lasted."

"You mean…oh my god, Pup," Whisper gasped in realization, covering her mouth with a hand. "Why?" she squeaked out from behind her palm.

"I was revived by the organization that caused what happened on Akuze, and had no choice but to work with them on a ship that did nothing but remind me of the one that was destroyed on my watch, plus was the only place I had felt like I had a real family in years," he told her through several sighs. A sense of depression had settled in pretty strongly by that point. "You tell me what you would have been thinking."

Whisper stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder cautiously. When he didn't react, she pulled him into a tight embrace. "I'm so sorry," she mumbled into his shoulder.

It was all she said, but it meant a lot to Shepard. "Hey, it's ok," he responded soothingly, returning the hug warmly. "It obviously got better. Different than before, but still good. I only wish I didn't have to go through so much to get there."

"I had no idea you had to deal with all that," she said as she carefully broke the embrace. Shepard smiled gratefully at her, but she still paused awkwardly before continuing. "So…Tali…she was there for you?"

"Always," he answered, simple and direct. Even when Tali was off helping her people, he had never felt like he was abandoned or that he couldn't talk to her if he wanted or needed to. And she was the first person from the SR-1 he saw when he was resurrected. He figured he didn't need to tell Whisper all that for her to get the message though.

"Well, then, I'm happy for you," she practically grumbled. Shepard raised an eyebrow at her skeptically. "What? I'm serious."

"You don't sound like it," he countered with a short chuckle. She basically sounded like she was whining.

"I don't have to be happy about being happy for you," she asserted with dramatic pride, turning her nose towards the sky.

Shepard finally cracked a grin at that. "Fair enough," he responded as his posture relaxed.

"But you did miss me, right?" she asked cheekily, putting her hands behind her back and swinging her hips side to side playfully.

"Yes," he answered immediately and honestly. She deserved that much at least. "Until Tali and I got together, I really never had anybody who filled the role you did."

"You went without sex for more than ten years?" she returned, her mouth gaping open sarcastically.

"Har har," he deadpanned with an eye roll. "You know what I mean."

"And you're losing your sense of humor," she laughed. "You haven't' made a joke this entire time. I've had to fill your quote."

"This is serious business," he returned, smirking over at her. "Old boyfriend's sex lives are basically the pentagon papers, right?"

"And now you're trying too hard," she poked with a teasing wink.

"What do you want from me? You started this."

"Did not."


Tali watched out her car window as Whisper wrapped her arms around Shepard. It was a good thing she was inside, or the two of them probably would have heard her growl when he reciprocated, even from the couple hundred feet away she was. She had come to see if he wanted to break for lunch, but she pretty quickly changed her mind when she saw Whisper there talking to him.

But as she continued to watch, she gradually began to realize that that was all they were doing. The hug had probably thrown Tali for a loop, but they were only talking. The longer she kept her eye on the two of them, the more she was able to cool off. It took a while to be sure of, but they seriously weren't doing anything. Tali's grip on the steering wheel slowly loosened, and tension she didn't realize she was holding flowed out of her body at a similar speed.

When Shepard and Whisper were still talking several minutes later, Tali decided to head to their apartment for lunch. It wasn't everyday he got to talk to Whisper (which she was thankful for), so she would let them be. She was still expecting a full report from Shepard when he returned home, though.

Tali forced her thoughts to stay in line as she drove back to the complex. The 'what ifs' were easy to get overdramatic with, but she kept reminding herself that she trusted Shepard. She had no reason not to. She literally couldn't think of any time he had betrayed her. The scares with Liara hadn't even amounted to anything, and she was actually getting pretty tired of the drama. Since she couldn't exactly get rid of Liara or Whisper, the easiest thing to do would be to control her reactions.

So far, it seemed to be working. There was no slamming of the car door when she arrived, no stomping through the door to the building, and no jamming of the elevator button. She was completely calm as she waited patiently for the elevator to reach her floor.

But she did jump when she saw who was waiting for her at the top. "Sor!"

"Oh, hey Tali," Keel greeted as he looked up from his omni tool. "There you are."

"What brings you here?' she asked as she stepped out of the enclosed space and faced him.

"You said you were headed home for lunch, so I thought I'd keep you company," he answered, tilting his body against the wall casually.

"That's…sweet," Tali lied as genuinely as she could manage. "You remember I'm bonded, right?"

"So can't even have lunch with you two?" he countered, seemingly unfazed. He was still cool and collected, and Tali wasn't sure if he was being persistent or if he was just ignorant. Maybe a bit of both.

"It's a little weird when it's at my own house," she returned, trying her best to put an off putting inflection in her voice.

It didn't appear to have any effect, though. Apparently, she would have to work on her subtle rejections. "No more strange than anywhere else," he replied with a one sided shrug.

Tali was about to straight up decline the offer, but she realized this might be her big chance. If she could go through an entire meal with Keel and keep it professional, maybe he would get the message. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt," she said, feigning more reluctance than she really had. Which didn't turn out to be all that difficult. "You better not be trying anything," she added as she started off towards her apartment.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Keel assured her as he purposely walked behind her. "Well, actually, that's not true," he clarified with a smirk.

Tali sighed quietly through her nose, fighting her instinct to slap him upside his silly little head. But he probably wouldn't even get the point of that. She took her frustration out on the door panel instead, practically punching the button to open her apartment. Her force didn't transfer to how the door opened; it still slid out of their way at a leisurely pace.

"Where's your mate?' Keel asked, looking around as he trailed after Tali into the living space.

"He's off building me a house," she answered, putting more emphasis than usual on the pronoun. Normally she would have said 'us,' but she was sure Keel could have skewed that somehow.

He had plenty to misinterpret as it was. "He's not even here, and you're having me over?" he asked rhetorically, his cheeky grin evident even though the mask.

"Er, yes?" she responded as she headed off to the kitchen. Sharing meals was a common practice for Quarians back on the fleet, basically out of necessity. Lack of food and space was the main reason. It didn't matter if someone was bonded or not. "Doesn't that type of thing happen all the time?"

"Back in the flotilla, maybe, but things are different here on Rannoch."

"How do you figure?" she questioned as she went on her toes to reach up into the cabinets, looking for ingredients. She had been working on dextro cooking as well as levo, so she could put together a few basic meals. Nothing fancy, but it was passable. Better than nutrient paste to be sure.

"On the ships, we didn't have much of a choice who we ate with. But here, with our own planet, there's a variety of options. More space, more food, same amount of people.

"You're the only one I've heard so far who sees it that way," she countered as she pulled out a box of the Quarian equivalent of pasta and turned to face I'm again. She was more than little upset to find his eyes snapping back up to meet hers, clearly having been wandering elsewhere on her form. "Really?"

"What can I say? I love to observe beautiful things," he returned, his attempts at charm falling flat to her ears. The ulterior motive was clear as day; and she much preferred genuine compliments over fake ones. Not that she particularity wanted them from Keel, regardless.

Her eye roll must have been clear to Keel by some stroke of luck. "You don't like being called beautiful? Does you bondmate even do so?"

Tali felt a surge of heat up to her cheeks. "Yes, he does. But he's actually seen me; you're saying it so you can try to see me."

"Is it working?" he teased, taking a step towards Tali. "If we linked for brief times over the next few weeks, we could see each other and what we really look like within a month! I'm sure you could come up with some excuses for mild sicknesses!"

Tali's mouth simply hung open as he made his exclamations, the box of noodles going slack in her hand. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked in utter surprise and confusion, taking a step away to counter his step forward.

"Nothing," he answered determinedly. "When I find something I want, I pursue it. Passionately."

"You can't just…I'm not a…who do you-"

"Tell me, what can your bondmate do for you that I can't?" he interrupted confidently, cutting off her sputtering. She started right back up though when her mind went to the exact physical act she could do with Shepard and couldn't, nor wanted to, do with Keel. "Well, we do this one thing…well, it'd kind of, actually, multiple things…positions…did it get hot in here?"

"That's the heat between us," Keel persisted. Tali, who had been backing up away from the advancing admiral, felt her back hit the wall. "You cannot deny it."

"I can deny it all I want," Tali returned, feeling her instincts take over when she realized she was cornered. "Because it's not there," she added with a snarl, her upper lip twitching with agitation.

"You're sexy when you're angry," Keel complimented huskily, still gradually getting closer to her.

Tali finally took an aggressive step towards him. In the fight or flight response battle, fight was definitely coming out on top. "Stop, Sor," she growled. "I am not something; I am not some prize for you to win."

"I could take care of you! Be there for you! Provide for you better than him!"

"How dare you," Tali said strongly in a dangerous monotone. "Being an Admiral doesn't make you automatically better. You don't even know him," she started, getting right up into Keels' faceplate. "He's done more for the Quarian people, and for me, than you could ever dream of. He's even done more than me!"

Now it was Keel's turn to start shuffling backwards. "Who are you talking about?" he asked in confusion. "Outside of you, no one Quarian played a major role in our return or did more than you did."

"Who ever said he's a Quarian?" she countered, practically in a shout. "You don't know me, you don't know him, and you don't know what we have! I couldn't have done any of what I did without him."

Keel stopped in place, gears clearly grinding in his head. "You bonded with…Commander Shepard?"

"At least you're not stupid," she deadpanned as she took a step back and crossed her arms deliberately over her chest instead of under. "It only takes you a couple weeks to figure things out."

Keel was silent for a surprisingly long. "You never made it clear that your relationship went further when you told me about the Normandy," he stated lamely.

"We're not looking to be a celebrity couple, so the less people who know, the better," she explained condescendingly. "I shouldn't have had to tell you anyway," she added, bitterness thick in her voice. "No matter how much you want it to, our culture isn't changing quickly. If we as a people get to where you think we are, it's going to take time. Real time, not a couple of months. And I'll probably be one of the last ones to change. I guess what I'm trying to say is: stop with the propositions. I'm not interested."

Keel just stared for a few moments, as if evaluating whether she was serious or not. "Alright," he finally agreed, dropping his proud attitude for the single word. "I think I'll venture elsewhere for my meal. Thank you for the offer," he added, giving an ever polite nod before turning to show himself out. Tali released a quiet sigh of relief when she was sure he was out of earshot.

"Well sure, nobody would want to get on Commander Shepard's bad side," Keel muttered to himself as the door swished closed behind him. "I bet I can find a way to get around that though…" he trailed off ominously. A low chuckle escaped his throat, and it continued to grow, evolving into a fit of mild, evil laughter.

He cut it off suddenly though when he felt like he was being watched. Sure enough, he spun around to find a golden haired woman looking over at him through narrowed eyes.

But Keel was not expecting her spoken response at all. "I can probably help you with that."