"Wake up, my love."

Tali'Zorah vas Normandy woke up to see Shepard standing in the bedroom doorway.

"I made breakfast."

She got up, dressed in her robes, and walked towards Shepard. He caressed her cheek and kissed her. Outside their cliffside house on Rannoch, Tali sat down with Shepard and ate.

Tali: "Hard to believe it's all over, isn't it?"

Shep: "It's hard to believe you could settle down and build such a nice house"

They both laughed for a little while and then sat in silence for a few minutes until Shepard spoke

"I wanted to tell you-"

A loud noise came from behind her, Tali jumped and turned around.
It was a Reaper, that awful horn sounded and it fired a laser at her.|

Tali jolted awake in Shepard's cabin. She reached for her face only to feel the suit that kept her from the outside world.
She cursed herself, she'd been having nightmares ever since London, ever since he had left her behind.
Tali reluctantly got up and went down to the CIC where Garrus and Liara were conversing.

Liara: "Nice of you to join us, Tali. More nightmares?"

Tali nodded, the crew of the Normandy had taken Shepard's loss hard, but Tali had it the worst, it was almost impossible for her to think about anything else but him.
After the Crucible fired, they had been stranded on an unknown planet far from Earth for weeks, or had it been months?
Tali hated the uncertainty, if he was alive, where would he be?

Garrus: "James and Javik are out gathering food, and me and Liara were able to scavenge some components for you, they're down in engineering."

Tali nodded and went down to engineering and searched through the components. Most of it was trash, but Garrus had gotten some key components Tali needed to repair the core.
When she was working on the Normandy, Tali could easily set aside the horrible thoughts of Shepard's fate.
After a few hours of repairs, Tali went to the main console and started calibrating the core.
She started drifting off when multiple explosions suddenly sounded.

Tali Looked around, she was in London. Shepard was ahead of her and Garrus, running towards the Citadel beam.

"Shepard, Wait!"

Tali ran as fast as she could, but he was just out of reach.

"Please… Slow down."

The Citadel beam was just ahead of them when a Reaper, Harbinger, landed and fired a laser, sending a tank flying towards Tali and Garrus.
They dove out of the way, but it exploded as they got up, injuring both of them. Shepard turned around and got them, Tali couldn't hear him, or anything at all, but she saw the Normandy arrive.
Shepard walked her to the Normandy's bay and handed her to Garrus.

Shep: "Here, take her!"

Tali: "Shepard…"

"You gotta get out of here!"

"I can't stay behind"

"Don't argue with me!"

"Don't leave me behind."

Shepard walked up the bay
"I need you to make it out of here alive, Tali. Go home… get back to Rannoch, build yourself a home."

"I have a home, come back to me…"

"GO!"

Tali felt like screaming, but she couldn't.

Shepard ran towards the beam. He felt like crying, seeing Tali like that, but he had to keep going. The Citadel was right there, the Reaper's defeat was in reach.
Suddenly Harbinger fired a laser that knocked him and killed the rest of the ground forces.
Regaining consciousness, Shepard got up as the Reaper flew away, he felt pain everywhere.

But this didn't feel right, his heart was hurting.

Shepard gasped awake. He looked around.

Where am I? The Citadel.
What happened? He fired the Crucible, killing the Reapers, and the Geth. And EDI.
Why does my heart hurt? Tali…

Shepard tried to get up, but he was pinned by rubble, and his body screamed at him for moving. He looked around and found a rod to break the rubble.

How long have I been here? Days, months… years?

He got up, wheezing. White hot pain seared throughout his legs. Shepard leaned on the rod and inspected himself. What was left of his N7 armor was still burned onto him, and his arms were covered in blood. He felt his face, scars everywhere, and his stubble was now a full beard. His legs trembled as if a single pebble could shatter them.

Shepard had to find help, he had needed his crew, he needed Tali. He looked around for parts to build a beacon. The Normandy had to be out there, searching for him.
Shepard felt a certain eeriness walking around the Citadel, normally it was bright and bustling with people. Now, only things that were forgotten were left behind.
After a few hours of scavenging, Shepard sat down, applied some medi-gel, and went to work.

Tali snapped back to reality, she had drifted off again. Emotion welled up inside her as she started tearing up. Every time she zoned out, it brought her back.
She thought, even if she got the Normandy fixed, even if they got off the planet, even if the mass relays were repaired. The chances of her ever seeing him again were slim, the Normandy had been stranded for so long.

Javik came down, but Tali just wanted to be left alone. The Prothean knelt beside her, but Tali did her best to deny him from reading her feelings.

Javik:"Hey… you cannot beat yourself up like this. We are all going to get out of this alive."

Tali:"I don't care if we get out of this alive, I want to know that he got out alive"

He touched her shoulder, but Tali continued to shut off her feelings.
"Tali, I know how much you loved the commander, I saw the two of you on Rannoch, but you cannot let your emotions slow you down-"

"SLOW ME DOWN? HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT, YOU BOSH'TET!"

Tali stood up and headed towards the elevator
"WHAT DO YOU EVEN KNOW ABOUT LOVE, YOU WERE BORN DURING A WAR!"

Tali stormed up to Shepard's cabin and locked herself in. She took her visor off, despite the risks, and sat on Shepard's bed, crying.
She then stared at the aquarium for hours, seeing all the fish swimming around peacefully calmed Tale down and she fell asleep.

Shepard had a beacon ready, this was gonna work, it had to. He set it on and tuned channels to listen for a few minutes he heard a response.

Comms Worker: "Sir, I think I'm getting an SOS… from the… Citadel?"

Supervisor: "Say what? show me,"

"Wait… Nevermind, the signal's *static*

No! Shepard needed to find better components and larger power source for the signal to stay active long enough. He got up using the rod to support himself, and it felt like daggers stabbed into his legs.
The pain caused Shepard to fall down and hit his head.

When he opened his eyes, he was standing on a cliff on Rannoch.

Legion stood in front of him.
Shep: "Shepard-Commander, why would you give the Geth another chance, then knowingly kill us?"

Legion: "Legion… I- I didn't have a choice."

"If I am correct, the Catalyst gave you many choices."

"They were all bad choices, and I couldn't leave them behind."

"You couldn't leave her behind?"

"Legion, I love her, and I don't want to think about how she feels right now"

EDI:"What about my feelings?"

Shepard turned around towards EDI.
"Remember when I told you I felt alive because of you? I loved Jeff too, but you killed me..."

Shep: "EDI, I had no other choice"

"Yes, you did, but you were selfish. What will you tell Joker if he rescues you? Would you lie to your best friend?"

"Well- I mean- no- No!"

"Even if he never forgives you?"

"He'll understand, I know he will."

Shepard regained consciousness and decided to sleep it off.

The door to Shepard's cabin opened, Tali walked in. He was standing beside his bed, reading from a datapad.

Tali: "So.. I've taken some antibiotics, as well as some herbal supplements that should bolster my immune system."

She took the data pad from Shepard's hands and set it down

"I was going to bring music, but I didn't know what you'd like… and I'm babbling like an idiot."

Shep: "It's okay. Come here."

They hugged each other.
"I just don't want to… I want this to work. I've thought it over. I've minimized the risks, but I'm still nervous."

They sat down on his bed.
"And that always makes me talk too much. It's a defense mechanism, and it's stupid and people who- who just see the helmet can't see my expression, so I have to make it clear what I'm-"

He took off her visor.
"What I'm feeling…"

She dove onto Shepard.

Tali stirred awake, and reached for Shepard, only to be reminded by an empty pillow. She coughed up some mucus and put her visor back on, activating some immune boosters.
Tali went straight down to Engineering, but Garrus was by elevator.

Garrus:"Hey… about yesterday, I talked to Javik."

Tali:"I don't want to talk about it"

"Tali, he's been frozen for over 50,000 years. You can't expect him to be good at comforting people, or small talk in general for that matter. It's just…"

"Just what?"

"Tali, if Shepard is alive, if you want to see him again, you need to focus and get this ship flying"

"I know, Garrus, but if we make it back and he's- "

"Don't think like that, just focus on getting this ship off the ground."

"It's just-."

"I know, you wanted more time, but-"

"No, I understand now"

"Do you want any help?"

"I'll be fine."

For the entire day, Tali worked nonstop, Garrus was right, the longer it took to get the Normandy up, the less likely it was she could see him alive.
After finishing up maintenance, Tali came to the cockpit and sat next to Joker

Tali: "Try it now, Joker."

Joker: "Aye, let's hope this works"

Joker attempted to fire up the Normandy, nothing.

"Come on, baby, don't let me down."

Joker punched in some commands and the Normandy slowly rose off the ground

"Woah! this might be a bumpy ride, Tali."

"Can you get any higher?"

"Let's see..."

The Normandy ascended further. it was working! They were free, and she was going to find him.

But an alarm sounded.
"Thermals are reaching critical levels, I have to set the ship down!"

"No! Not when we're this close!"

"This isn't up for debate, Tali! The core won't last much longer!"

The Normandy plummeted to the ground.
Joker turned to the copilot seat but Tali was already gone.