Little warning for adult antics... because reasons. Hope you enjoy everybody!

Showers and Dreams

I checked in with Tali and we chatted for a while. I told her a very brief and censored version of what Samara and I had done to "apprehend" the fugitive while she told me that she was almost finished her little project, an upgrade to the Normandy's shields based on cyclonic barrier technology.

"Once we're back out in space, I can activate the new defences and see how the Normandy handles it," she told me excitedly, "it should give us a better chance against a Collector ship."

"You're a genius, Tali," I told her, "I've got to check on everyone but let me know how it works."

I kissed the Quarian on the top of her head and left her to tinker and tamper with her new favourite toy. However, I had not even left the engineering section when Mordin burst in to find me,

"Commander. Have important topic to discuss, need to see you in the lab."

"Ok," I said, "what's this about?"

"Not here. Have details in lab. Private matter, personal matter."

The Salarian was in an emotional flap, not something I was used to, so I accompanied him back to the privacy of his laboratory before I began to ask for answers.

"Have to tell you about previous work," Mordin said urgently, pacing back and forward in front of his window, "high-level assignment with STG, approved by Salarian government. Involves Krogan Genophage."

That got my attention. I had always been against the Genophage, the slow genocide of the Krogan race, and had always regretted that we could not have saved Saren's crude version of a cure on Virmire. If Wrex were here he would have had the Salarian's neck in his huge fists, but I controlled myself,

"What did you do?"

"STG was studying Krogan population and made remarkable discovery. Krogan numbers were rising, they were evolving to adapt to the Genophage virus. Led a science team. Spent years researching countless scenarios, thousands of scenarios to investigate what increasing Krogan population would do to galaxy. All results pointed to violence and war."

"The Genophage was a terrible mistake," I told him, "the Krogan should have been given another chance. They've paid for their mistakes long enough."

"Naïve viewpoint," Mordin said flatly, "volatile conditions of Tuchanka combined with over-population would encourage mass exodus of Krogan to other worlds. Attempts to colonise other worlds would lead to confrontation with other species. All-out war inevitable. Understand now?"

"So what happened? What did your science team do?"

"Created new version of Genophage to bring birth survival rates back to pre-industrial period levels. Birth survival rate one-in-one-thousand, perfect level. One of my team, Maelon, has disappeared on Tuchanka. Need to find him."

"Do the Krogan know what he's done?"

"Don't know. But if discovered would cause outrage among Krogan and galaxy. Please, need to find him, as a personal favour to me."

My blood was up a little about what Mordin and his team had done, but Mordin was my friend and ally.

"What do you want me to do Mordin? I'll help but only because it's you, I don't like what you did."

"Thank you, Gardner," he seemed relieved, "other reason I asked for your help specifically is past friendship with Urdnot Wrex. Maelon was last seen in Urdnot territory."

That was a pleasant revelation to think I could get to see my old Krogan friend again, but I had to warn Mordin,

"Wrex and I were good buddies, most of the time," my mind went to the brief moment on Virmire where we were literally about to kill each other, "but that doesn't mean he'll like our reason to be there. If he has Maelon and knows what he's done, he won't think twice about ripping him in half, then he might come for you as well."

"Aware of sensitive issue," Mordin said, "but Wrex does not have to know. Please Commander. Have noted your aid of Tali'Zorah and Samara, have seen how you bring our team together through bonds of loyalty and friendship…"

"Don't worry, Mordin," I reassured my eccentric friend, "I'm going to help, I was just warning you that Wrex has a temper."

Mordin laughed,

"All Krogan have temper… but thank you. Will continue to assist EDI in integrating Reaper IFF in the mean-time. Less alcohol and mood music required than relationship with Quarian," he winked and I left his lab with a chuckle and a grin. My next port-of-call was Grunt and when I told him that we were going to Tuchanka and that he should come along he was ecstatic. For the tank-bred Krogan, the prospect of seeing the homeworld of his mighty people was an opportunity he could never pass up.

During the journey through the stars to Tuchanka, I went about my usual routine with the crew and my squad-mates. Samara had recovered from the emotional shock of killing her daughter and completing her four-hundred-year-old quest. Even Thane appeared a couple of times at meals and was welcomed warmly by everyone. By this point everyone had seen him fight, moving like wind as he killed enemies with his bare hands as if he was born to the job.

However, no one had gotten the chance to really know the assassin, but now he found himself at a loss at what to do when surrounded by my group of warriors that wished to be his friends. Tali, of course, was the first to greet him and invited him to sit down next to her, which he accepted with his usual grace. Thane and Garrus then started talking shop about different sniper rifles and techniques. Miranda, Jacob, Jack, Tali, Garrus, Samara, Sophie, Thane, Grunt, Mordin, Zaeed and Kasumi all sat together with a few other members of the Cerberus crew and bonded.

I felt like a proud father watching over his children, his many children, as they shared stories, laughed together, listened to each other's personal tales. Could my team really take on the Collectors? These unique individuals, each of whom I was privileged to know, had indeed grown into a strong team. Even if there were members of the team who were at odds with each other, like Jack and Miranda, they knew what we were up against. They knew how many lives rested on the success of our mission and were willing to put their differences aside. When the time came to pass through the Omega 4 Relay I had, for the first time, a glimmer of hope. Hope that we would defeat our enemy and make it back alive.

As I pondered at our odds of success and survival it occurred to me that our newest ally was absent and I went to see Legion in the AI core in which he spent all his time. In traditional organic fashion I greeted the Geth as any other friend,

"Hey Legion, how you doing?"

The light on Legion's head flashed over to me,

"We do not understand the purpose of the question. There has been no change in our situation since we were integrated into Normandy."

"Right, sorry," I said with a laugh, "I was wondering if you wanted to come into the mess, everyone's out there."

"We do not require the sustenance of food," his computerised voice said back innocently.

"I know that. But you could come and meet the rest of the team. You wanted to cooperate with us on our mission, but most of the squad haven't met you yet."

"Organics do not trust Geth," Legion said, "your crew will not tolerate our presence."

"Legion, I brought you onto our ship and allowed you to join us," I explained, "I know Geth don't have the best reputation, but some Organics believe in giving second chances."

"Commander Gardner and his crew have treated me very respectfully," EDI interjected said, "their mistrust in artificial intelligences can be swayed given time. This includes Tali, whose people have more reason than most to distrust AI."

"Enhanced Defence Intelligence has proven worth to organic crew through its actions. Your crew will not tolerate our presence."

"Ok," I eased off, "we'll give it time. Do you mind talking to me?"

"Gardner-Commander is willing to cooperate with Geth. We are prepared to share data."

"I was wanting to know more about you… or about Legion. You said you're a unique platform before, made for operating in organic space. What were you looking for?"

"You," Legion replied.

"What?" I was knocked sideways by this new information. "Why?"

"You fought Heretics and Old Machines. You defeated them."

"Lots of people fought against Sovereign," I said, "I had a whole team as well, why am I so interesting?"

"Many fought, you led them. Your code is superior. We began our search on the first planet that you encountered Heretics."

"Eden Prime," I said as the memories came back, feeling like they were ancient after everything I had been through since then.

"We searched Therum, Feros, Noveria, Virmire, Ilos. The trail ended on Alchera with the crash site of Normandy SR1. You were not there," Legion explained.

"I died," I told Legion, "and my corpse was scooped up shortly afterwards, as I hear it."

"You were rediscovered on the Old Machine. Organics are more resourceful than we thought."

"What were you doing on the Reaper anyway?" I asked. Legion's face panels moved erratically and there was a pause before it answered.

"The Heretics have created a virus that, if released, will alter the basic runtimes of the Geth and make us accept their views as our own. We will accept the Old Machines as they do."

"They'd rewrite your entire race?"

"Yes."

"And the Reapers would use the Heretics and the Geth to fight for them," the thought horrified me.

"Yes. The Heretics stored the virus on a data core provided by Sovereign. We used data recovered from the Old Machine to determine the location of the data core. It is on a Heretic Station on the edge of the Terminus Systems."

"Where?"

"It lies in between stars," Legion said, "organics have no need to look there. The Heretics use this station to launch attacks against organics. We have uploaded the coordinates to the Normandy SR2. We offer assistance."

This new situation was bad. The Reapers had the capability to turn the entire Geth race into their willing servants. However, our work against the Collectors had to come first and after I had thanked Legion for giving me this information I went straight to the computer in my room and logged it down. Maybe when this was over, and I had survived, we could deal with it then. Helping Mordin to find his friend, working to destroy the Collectors and now aiding Legion in taking out the Heretic base, the workload was piling up.

It only got worse when I opened up my e-mails and saw that there were a few messages from the High Command of Cerberus' military branch. One required me to investigate a project on the planet Aite that had dropped out of contact called Project Overlord, while another was a message regarding Liara. Cerberus had information about the Shadow Broker and the Illusive Man had sent it to me saying that I was free to disclose this information to her as thanks for giving them my body.

Each of my current tasks were important in their own way and would have their own impact on the galaxy and the future, but the mission against the Collectors was paramount. The others could only be done when I had time. I checked again with EDI how long it would take to get the IFF sorted but was met by the same excruciatingly long estimate. What made it twice as bad was that the Illusive Man had also informed me that the Collectors had hit another colony called Ferris Fields and left with everyone. He had not found out about it until after the attack was over. In his e-mail, the Illusive Man genuinely sounded remorseful about the loss of Ferris Fields. However, I could not help but to wonder if he was more upset about the fact that the Collectors had gotten one-up on him.

Before I drove myself mad, I decided that I had some down time, and I was going to bloody well use it. Ever since I had first come aboard the SR2 the guitar that Cerberus had provided for me had lain unused. I took out of its case, hooked it up to the amp, tuned it and began playing away. Hearing music again was like going back to a simpler, better time. A time before the Reapers and the Collectors, before Saren and Sovereign and even before the blitz on Elysium. I played until my fingers were nearly bleeding and with a cleared head and cleansed soul, I fell into a peaceful sleep.

When I woke up, I felt infinitely better. I put on some music and had a good work out for an hour before I disrobed and headed for the shower. To the mellow sound of the music, I stood under the water for quite a while and let the warmth rejuvenate me. Then, out of nowhere, I felt a pair of hands reach around my waist from behind me and they felt their way up my six-pack to the base of my chest. While I enjoyed the sensation, a sexy voice whispered in my ear,

"You know that reward I was planning for you?"

Tali's hand slipped down and took hold of my shaft, slowly rubbing backwards and forwards. I held her free hand while she kissed my neck and shoulders, making me tremble with excitement and anticipation. I turned to face Tali and the sight of her completely naked with the water running down her gorgeous, toned body made my heart want to jump out right through my ribs. Our hands explored each others' bodies with reckless abandon. Rubbing, squeezing and teasing. Tali pushed my back against the wall and smothered my mouth with her own before sinking down to her knees and taking me in her mouth.

"That's fucking amazing Tali…" I was in heaven. The most beautiful woman in the galaxy was in the shower with me!

Tali and I had a huge amount of fun in the shower. Tali had herself up against the wall as I took her from behind before I turned her around, picked her up and moved her gently over to the bed where I lay her soft, wet body down and kissed my way down from her lips to her breasts, from her stomach down to in between her thighs. She could not control herself and her thighs closed around my head and her hands took a hold of my hair as I pleased her. Tali's body trembled and shuddered as I kept going until she climaxed hard and all tension was washed out of her body. She lay still as I moved up to lie beside her, both of us still dripping from the shower, and we kissed.

"That was incredible," Tali said once she had regained her breath.

"You're incredible," I responded lovingly, "where did you get the idea to do that?"

"I was watching some educational vids about Human courtship and I saw that, looked amazing and I was right," she smiled innocently. That did not make sense to me, but when it clicked, I suddenly laughed.

"What?" Tali asked.

"I… um… I've never seen a sex "education" video with a shower scene, Tali," I smiled at her.

"What? Then what did I watch…" The expression that appeared on her face was absolutely golden as the true nature of what she had been watching dawned on her,

"Oh Keelah…"

When I literally creased up with laughter, she could not help but do exactly the same thing.

"You dirty girl, Tali!" I teased her. Her purple eyes looked at me and a cheeky grin appeared on her face,

"Well, it was totally worth it."

After we had a laugh and a joke about Tali's perception of "educational videos", Tali put her envirosuit on while I was relaxing in my uniform on the couch. When Tali came and sat on my lap I had to ask,

"Are you going to be ok? Your immune system won't be used to… that."

"I should be alright," Tali sounded confident, "my system's well adapted to you by now and I was swimming in anti-biotics when I came up. I came up to give you a good time, not worry you."

"Well I definitely had an amazing time," I said, "I wish we had more time to spend like this."

"I know. So do I," Tali looked out of the window at the galaxy outside, "what do you think will happen when we've beaten the Collectors?"

I loved her happy tone and optimism,

"Dunno Tali, I haven't thought that far ahead. Plus, I don't know if I want to say what I think."

"Tell me."

I gazed at her wide eyes that shone out at me from behind the mask,

"Well there's what I want to happen, and then there's the more realistic scenario."

"What do you want to happen?"

"After we're done with this mission, first I'll take you to visit Earth where we'll visit where I grew up in Scotland. I could take you horse riding, you've always wanted to see horses since you watched Lord of the Rings."

I knew that Tali was excited by the prospect.

"After that we could go to the Mediterranean somewhere, maybe the south of France or Spain. The Greek Isles are really beautiful as well. We can take a cruise on a real blue-water boat to these little isolated bays and go swimming in water that's crystal clear."

"That all sounds wonderful," Tali said dreamily, "what else?"

All my thoughts of what I wanted for the future all pointed in the one direction, to one single desire,

"We find somewhere in the galaxy to call our own and we spend our lives together. And you never know… with the way science goes maybe we would be hearing the patter of little Scotts or Talis going around our home."

Tali looked at me thoughtfully, taking on board what I was telling her. Her head came to rest on my shoulder,

"You'd want that? With me?"

"I would," I told her without a second of doubt, "I do."

"I do too," she said happily, "the first Quarian-Human child. I wonder what he or she would look like?"

"Well," I smiled at my girlfriend, "our child would have to get its good looks from its mother. They'd have to get their mother's intelligence, her pure heart, her caring and beautiful personality…"

"And don't forget my hair," she giggled, "blonde is just so… weird." She ran her fingers through my hair, "but that's not leaving you much to give our child."

"Well I tend to land people around me in trouble so… yeah," I joked.

"Yeah," she agreed, "but you have the charm to get away with it."

"So… my charm?"

"If we had a son then he would have to have your cute bum, the girls wouldn't be able to resist him."

"Thanks," I laughed, "at least I have something good to pass on."

"What would you call our child?" Tali asked as she allowed herself to get caught up in the fantasy.

"I always liked Robert for a boy, after my dad. His friends would call him Rob, or Rab. For a girl? I don't really know to be honest."

"You'd rather a son?"

I had never really thought about what I would have preferred before, but I suddenly realised that Tali was right,

"I guess so. Not that I don't want a girl. When it comes to my child, I would love him or her regardless. Of course… there's no reason we couldn't have one of each."

Tali became full of energy when I said that,

"Keelah! That would be amazing. On the Flotilla parents aren't allowed to have more than one child; it would strain our resources. That would be so exciting! We would have little Robert and little Sari running around, causing trouble as kids do…"

"Sari?" I said, allowing Tali's excitement to spread to me, "is that what you'd call your daughter?"

"I've always liked the name, Sari'Zorah Gardner," she said.

"Do Quarian women take the names of their spouses too?"

"No," Tali told me, "but I've… looked into various Human cultures' weddings, they look a lot more fun than Quarian joinings."

"So… you'd be called Tali'Zorah Gardner? I like that."

Tali giggled and closed in to me again,

"I love it. But what about what you really think is going to happen?"

My smile disappeared momentarily. This was not the time or place for me to go down this route,

"I'm not gonna say. Let's just get lost in the dream for a while."

"You're right," Tali knew not to pry, "our dream sounds perfect."