"I'm sorry, Shepard, it doesn't look too good," Doctor Chakwas said as she looked over the chart in her hand. "I must advise that you refrain from any possible hazardous activities."

Tali was hovering over the doctor, trying to grasp a glimpse of the chart. Keelah, how bad is it?

Tali already had her side patched up. The sniper wound was a clean shot, missing any internal organs, but she was still running a fever. The same couldn't be said for her human fiancé, however.

"Because of the mix of DNA in your systems, they don't seem to agree when they are directly introduced to each other, it's even more dangerous when they're increasingly changing," explained Chakwas as she set down the chart on her desk. She continued running scans on the little white machine.

Tali could read that the doctor's body language wasn't exactly confident. "This is a large setback for you, I'm putting you on strict bed rest."

"Alright, Doc," Shepard groaned, "For how long?"

"If things go well, perhaps only a week, if not," Chakwas took a nervous breath, "Months."

"How many months?"

"Just...months." Something isn't right. "I'm sorry, Shepard, but I must get back to work, your condition won't get any better just by waiting around and talking."

"I understand, thanks, Doctor."

The older woman only nodded and walked over to her desk, where she got to work compiling data and making treatment plans. Her eyebrows furrowed in furious concentration as her eyes scanned through them.

Tali narrowed her own eyes as she tried to read the calm and collected woman. After a moment, she tore her gaze away to look at her beloved hybridized human laying on the bed. This action did not go unnoticed by him.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked.

What am I not thinking about? It was only earlier that she got shot by an experimental sniper, its user hungry for revenge. Tali scoffed at the thought. Then her lover took two rounds to his core and still managed to beat the living daylights out of the man, all because Tali was insulted.

She was touched, of course. But it was frightening to see what great lengths he would go on her behalf. She will never forget the pure, unbroken fire of fury and rage in the one eye that was visible through the hole in his mask as he took the man's head and repeatedly, brutally, smashed it into the wall. She was relieved that the civilians didn't see such a horrendous act.

Speaking of the civilians, there was no doubt that the galaxy couldn't conclude that Shepard and her were in a relationship. The more serious news shows only covered the attack, but other more pop news covered Shepard's personal plans, and already facts disguised as rumors started flying about them being together. Something Tali guessed that the people already knew to be true.

Then her old childhood friend, of all people, that she assumed dead or in hiding, comes in to save the day and was revealed to be serving on the Tonbay all this time. He was part of some special secret service that not even she, an admiral, knew about. Even more, he was tasked alongside a purple geth to be their secret bodyguards. Already had they saved their lives before without them even knowing, and that was back on Earth awhile ago. They stopped another assassin from the same group that the one on the Citadel had come from.

Now she is running a fever while her future lifemate is stuck in a hospital bed...again.

This is all so much, so fast.

She had to admit, this was a big damp in their engagement.

"Hey, you alright?" Shepard asked attempting another time to get her attention.

"I don't know," she admitted, "I'm just mixed up."

"How so?"

"I don't know, confused...sick...hurt...frightened. I thought it was all supposed to be blown over so we can get to go home and live our lives in peace after all the hell that we keep going through...but...I don't know," Tali gasped in exasperation. "Ancestors know that it's just not fair!"

His nonluminescent eyes behind the mask looked towards her with compassion. "I know, and we will. After Chimera, or whatever they call themselves, is stopped, we will."

Tali's eyes widened in bewilderment at his words.

"What? No! John, no! You aren't going back out there again on some crazy mission! You have retired! You are retired!"

"I know...and not in this state I'm in...but Tali, I can't risk another chance on your life!"

She began to pace the floor slightly and wring her hands once more as the frustration built up within her. "No! No! I won't allow it!"

Shepard, however, wasn't swayed by her motions. He kept his gentle, loving demeanor. "Tali, It's for the best, we have to insure us a future."

"Can you stop playing the hero for one damned second?!"

She said that a little louder than she originally intended, and she looked around to Doctor Chakwas to see if she heard the outburst. If she did, she showed no signs of it as she compiled data with heavy set eyes focused on her task.

She returned her view back to Shepard. Her skin crawled in fear. She remembered when she first woke up and saw him laying there with black tape scored across his mask to cover the hole, as well as the bloodied bandages over his abdomen. She thought he was dead before she saw the simple rise in his chest under his armor.

She remembered when her Auntie Raan came in with a new visor for him. Tali had requested that more of them with translucent eye areas be made for him in case of any accidents. Although she wished those accidents didn't involve guns.

She had taken it and scooted herself over to his bed where he still slept. They were in the decontamination chamber at the time, so she felt comfortable replacing it.

She had unlocked the broken visor and lifted it from his face, and her eyes drank in his features. His face was paler compared to the last time she saw it, and his hair had gotten longer. His face had also started growing a small, short beard. But the main feature she focused on was his lips. It's been too long. She looked around nervously, they were in a decontamination chamber, after all.

But to her disappointment, Doctor Chakwas had came in to roll them both out to the medbay, so she took one last glimpse and pushed the mask back on him. She sighed at what could have been if the moment lasted longer.

"Tali..." Shepard spoke, breaking her from her memories. She returned to her upset state of mind.

"Don't do this again," she broke, "I won't be able to take anymore of it. You...you p-promised me."

"Tali, I can't-"

"No, I-I can't. I just can't." She turned away. "I'm going to go talk to Auntie Raan. I'll be back later."

She started walking out the medbay at a fast pace, causing the bullet wound in her side to cry in pain.

"You can use the vid comm if you like," Shepard called after her.

Before she could leave the medbay, however, Doctor Chakwas caught her by surprise when she grabbed her elbow. Tali was about to ask what the matter was, but she noticed the grim look on her face.

After a heavy sigh, the doctor spoke. "I don't know whether if it's a good thing or not, but I don't think Shepard will be chasing anybody anytime soon."

Tali only blinked as an icy shiver ran down her back. Oh please, don't let it be bad, She pleaded quietly.

The silence broke when she mustered the courage to speak.

"What do you mean?"

Tali perfectly knew what she meant, but she didn't want to give up hope that there was something else entirely that didn't involve Shepard's health. Unfortunately, she was wrong.

"I won't say how severe the wounds were, but I will say that it was enough to probably do more than just mix the levo and dextro portions of DNA in his body."

"What does that mean?" Tali explored cautiously.

"Hopefully nothing, there's a possibility that the two differences will continue as that and have nothing to do with each other. But there might be a possibility for different results."

"What kind of results?"

"I don't know," the doctor said with an exasperated sigh. She continued with even more frustration in her tone. "You must realize that this is well above any medical understanding. No one can just randomly change their DNA!" She paused for a calming breath, resting herself on her desk. "Shepard has become just a strange individual inside as well as out."

Tali began to worry greatly, the last person she wanted to see get frustrated about Shepard's condition was Doctor Chakwas, and if that's happening, then something was truly wrong. Tali also took a calming breath, and did her best to reassure the doctor.

A confidence boost would do her some good.

"Hey, I'm sure you can figure it out. Nobody else can do it better than you. You can do it. I believe that."

The older woman replied with a warm smile, "Thank you, dear. I appreciate it greatly." Chakwas then turned in her chair with renewed energy and started compiling data once more. "I won't keep you much longer, you go on and talk to your Aunt."

Tali nodded and continued to the vid comm room. EDI gave her clearance, on Shepard's orders, of course. She looked at the small circular pad in front of the cylindrical area, and carefully stood on it.

She began to grow confused as nothing happened.

"Um, EDI? How do I communicate with the Tonbay?"

"I can do that for you, if you'd like."

"Yes, please."

"Alright...calling. It will be a few moments."

Tali gathered her thoughts of how the conversation should go. She hadn't thought about it much on the way here. Where do I begin? Of course she was going to have to address the issue of keeping her old friend a secret, not to mention a murderous organization as well. She just didn't know how to get around to it.

Shimmering particles of cobalt blue light began to swirl like a miniature tornado in the cylindrical room, and out of it came the form of her Aunt. This was definitely not what she expected by the term like vid comm.

"Shep-Oh! Tali? What are you doing calling me through here?"

Tali pushed down her admiration of the blue light and put on her serious pose. She folded her arms and popped out a leg to tell her that she meant business.

"Raan, we need to talk."

It didn't give the desired effect. Instead of seeing Raan acting fearful, she just looked confused. Not even the nervous kind either, she seemed genuinely puzzled. "About what? Is something wrong? Is Shepard alright?"

Tali gave a sigh of defeat. Clearly the older admiral didn't believe she had done anything wrong. "For the time being," she answered. "I wanted to talk to you about Silont."

"What about him?" It was Raan's turn to fold her arms. Tali took her earlier thoughts back. Raan knew what she did wrong, she just waited for to bring it up.

That just made Tali more infuriated. "Why didn't you tell me about him? It's not everyday that your friend just shows up to save your life and find out that he has been your bodyguard the whole time!"

Raan gave a tired sigh. "Tali, trust me. It was better that you didn't know. Silont was the only person I trusted to protect you and Shepard. If anyone saw you and Silont interacting, that would have blown his cover and turned him into a target. That's how he saved your lives the first time in the middle of the summer. Poor Chimera freak didn't even have the chance to put his sniper up before Silont got him."

"About that! Why didn't you tell us that we were being hunted? I didn't expect such serious information to be withheld by my own Aunt!"

Raan's head dropped slightly, "I didn't want to ruin your happiness with Shepard by giving you news that could caused fear. Even Silont agreed with that."

"Yeah, well, because of it, we got a pretty nasty scare," Tali said mercilessly.

"I understand that. Can you forgive me?"

Tali was taken aback. She didn't expect to get to this point so fast. She was more thinking a long, beaten and drawn out argument would occur instead. She considered to continue it, but realized how childish that was. So she let her temper cool off, relaxed and happy that the understanding was straightforward. Why can't all quarian politics be like this?

She nodded, "Yes, Auntie...I'm glad we worked this out. And sorry as well, on my part. I guess I shouldn't have been so upset about it."

"I do want to get home as quickly as possible. But it would be better if their wasn't any bad blood when we get there."

Tali gave a sigh of understanding. "True, I guess. How much longer until we leave?"

"I was supposed to get word from Shepard, we've been ready to go from this end since we left planetside."

Tali turned to call Shepard, but his earlier words were brought back to her mind. It's probably best that we leave before he gets any funny ideas.

"Um, he says he's ready," she lied.

"Alright," Raan replied. "Tell him we'll be able to go once the bay opens and gives us clearance. I'm contacting the tower now."

Tali thumbed her speaker light, I'm going to regret this.

Before her Aunt could cut the vid comm, Tali instantly remembered something important and called out to keep her attention. "Wait, wait, wait!"

Raan looked up curiously, "Hmm?"

"Is Silont on your ship? Can you send him over?"

"I'm sorry, Tali, but he has his own fighter to fly. He's watching over the Normandy from there."

Watching us, huh? "Can you just hook me up to him?"

"Of, course. But he doesn't have a vid comm set up..." Raan opened her omni-tool and started tapping up something. "He flies a stealth fighter, so his communication channels are encrypted every minute to prevent jamming. You'll need a program to keep decrypting it in order to keep talking to him. Here, I'm sending the program to you now."

"A minute is all I need, thank you Auntie."

"Keelah Se'lai. Fly safe."

"Keelah Se'lai. You, too."

Then her holographic appearance was gone. Tali stepped off the pad and looked at her omni-tool. The program was there and she began uploading it to the Normandy systems.

"EDI, can you contact the stealth fighter that this program is assigned to?"

"Sure thing, relaying the call to the room."

Well, That was fast.

A loud amount of static noise crossed the room until her old friend's voice was heard, cutting in and out from the heavy encryption. "-pard! How...you get the prog...am to my ship's com...ations?!"

"Silont, it's me, Tali."

"Tayi?" He sighed over the static. "I'm guessing Ad...al Raan gave you the program?"

"Yes, I was wondering if you could come over and help me out with something."

"What is it?"

"It's about John...er, Shepard. I'll tell you more if you come over."

"Hmm," He thought aloud, "Alright, we might as catch up since we're about to leave. Dyad, change of plans. Take over the ship, I'm going on the Normandy."

"Oh, you don't have to, it'll only be a quick second," Tali interjected.

"We're about to leave in a quick second. Raan already called the bay to open, I don't think anyone's too keen to wait any longer than they have to. Besides, I think I can take a break from Dyad."

This time the purple geth spoke over the call. "I didn't name myself Dyad for no reason, partner."

"For the last time, we are not partners! Sorry, Tayi, I'll be over there as fast as I can."

The call ended before Tali could respond. He doesn't seem to like the geth unit. I wonder why?

She shuddered at one of her thoughts, Ancestors forbid that he's a racist! That wouldn't sound like him at all, he was always the most understanding one in her group of childhood friends, for him to be this cold to someone else was unnatural.

She drove the thought from her mind and walked towards the ship's airlock, waiting for her friend to arrive.

After the doors opened, She looked out and over the steps down to the dock, eyeing for a black clothed quarian approaching the ship.

Suddenly a small black mass glided off the dock's floors and flew over near the Normandy, and below it, an even smaller mass dropped from underneath and rolled across the path that lead to the steps that Tali was on. She was surprised as it extended upwards and started running towards her, a small pack in hand. It was Silont.

Nice grand entrance. "What? Did you win a billion credits or something?" She called.

"Ha, I wish," he replied as he took the steps two at a time. She stepped back to invite him into the ship in which he promptly accepted, shifting the pack into the crook of his elbow.

"What do you got there?" Tali asked.

"Just a few mementos over the past years, I'd thought it would be interesting to show them off a little while we catch up," he explained as he walked further on, his head pivoting as he looked around the bridge.

"That'll be fun, "Tali began. "Oh, wait! Sorry!"

She turned her head towards the cockpit, summoning the pilots. "We can head out now, EDI."

"Will do," she replied.

"Gotcha," Joker chimed.

Almost immediately, the Normandy began to raise itself from the docking bay and moved slowly away from the Citadel.

"I'll be honest," Silont began, "I never thought a ship with a collection like this would be where you are."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you being an Admiral and all, one would think that you would feel comfortable among your own species. This ship is far from that. I got to know everyone a little bit through Raan. They seem very diverse from each other, both in personality and species." He gazed down the bridge down into the CIC where multiple crew members were hard at work.

"I never expected to hear that humans, a turian, an asari, heck, even a real prothean to be on one ship. It feels odd that an advanced vessel like this would belong to such a group of people...It's like walking into an arms store to find it actually be a zoo."

Tali laughed. He definitely still holds his ability to use descriptive humor.

Silont laughed a little as well. "Anyways," he continued, "what did you need me for?"

Tali's expression suddenly turned more solemn, killing Silont's light in his eyes.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked.

Tali only answered by grabbing his hand and leading him to the elevator down to the observation deck. Luckily, Kasumi was out in the mess hall eating.

Ever since she got engaged, the Master Thief had made it a point that she was rejoining the crew until after Tali's and Shepard's bonding ceremony. The two of them were happy to bring along an old friend of theirs, so of course they agreed.

Once Tali and Silont got to the observation deck, she motioned for him to take a seat, and she took one that stood across from it, her back against the window to the outside of space.

She inhaled deeply, mentally preparing herself about how she wanted to start the conversation.

"How close are you to tracking down all of Chimera?" She finally asked.

A pause, then Silont sighed in disappointment with himself. "I know...I know that what happened frightened you...and that I failed to protect you...but you don't need to worry about it anymore. I promise to be more resilient, more capable of taking them down...You stay with Shepard, no harm will come to you anymore."

Tali got a warm feeling in her heart. He is also still loyal as ever.

She had to remind herself of why she really asked the question. "Silont, thank you. But I'm not the one to hear that...John is."

He looked at her, puzzled. "Why?"

Tali relaxed herself and rested upon the back of the seat and crossed her legs, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice. "He is being a little...overprotective. He's worrying more about me than himself...He's talking about getting out there and taking Chimera down himself."

Silont rested his arms between his knees with his hands clasped together, his back arched forwards. "But he's retired?"

"Exactly!" Tali couldn't help but explode. "He has two holes in him, and yet he still wants to fight!"

"Did you forget that he is the one that took down the reapers?"

"I don't care about the reapers anymore. This is different! He's wounded and needs to recover...and relax! He's done too much for this galaxy already. He needs to settle down and live happily...with me!"

"Hmm...changing his mind would be pretty difficult. I mean he's got the heroic spirit."

"That's the problem! How are we supposed to live together if he keeps trying to get himself killed?!"

Silont started laughing fairly hard, which Tali tilted her heads towards, confused and a little hurt. This wasn't the first time she had this response to a serious question.

"Now, how is that funny?"

Silont slowed to a chuckle, "Isn't that the dry joke on this ship? 'Oh, we keep trying to get ourselves killed, that's normal on the Normandy!' I think those months on Earth has made you soft!"

Tali only glared, she bit back a retort and instead decided to explain why this was so important to her.

"Si...you never knew what life was like when we were running around the galaxy trying to save it. Everybody on this ship was only concerned about living another day and nothing about how they were going to live afterwards..."

Silont had instantly locked onto her words when she started, his eyes gave a small sign of regret for his previous actions. But still, he kept on listening.

"I felt like the only one who had a dream of what to do with my life after the reapers were gone. I did my part on keeping hope around. But now that the reapers are gone, I intend on keeping that hope alive. I asked you here to help John understand that there's more to life than fighting and protecting, like actually living."

After a short pause, Silont answered. "Alright, but I have to ask, do you want me to do this because you really care for him? Or because you care for your dream?"

Tali scoffed, "Si."

He replied with a shake of his head, "I know you aren't selfish by heart, but sometimes we all end up a little carried away. But I need to know before I try. So...what is it?"

"Both," she answered. "John and my dream are one and the same, but I recognize that he has his own needs, too. I just don't want him to get himself killed."

Silont paused in thought, but was satisfied by this answer. He began to sit up. "Alright, I'll talk to him. Believe it or not, I'm known fairly well as a good persuasive speaker. But considering that I'm meeting the legendary Shepard, he might be quite the challenge."

Tali gave a half hearted chuckle. "Yeah, considering that he might be angry when you show up."

"Why?"

"I sort of...gave the order to leave without him knowing," she said carefully, fumbling with her hands.

Silont rolled his luminescent eyes behind his own dark purple mask. "Now you tell me."

She only shrugged, "Good luck."

Silont walked out towards the medbay with a clearly irritated tone shown through his body. Meanwhile Tali settled in the sudden emptiness of the observation deck, and noticed that Silont left his bag behind on his seat. She stood up and grabbed it.

Her first intention was to go after him to return it, but her second thought told her otherwise. Instead she began to fumble with it's contents as she walked towards the window that made up the wall of the deck, getting more light to see what she was doing.

She pulled out something small from the bag as she looked at the passing stars and planets. They were headed towards the mass relay that will take them home. To Rannoch.

She looked down and saw that what she was holding was a small model of a ship. It was flat with a centered cockpit, its wings flowing backwards before smaller sections shot forward, the guns protruding out of the angles in between. It was sleek and dark. She turned it over once, twice, and looked out at the stars again.

There was something off about the view of the observation deck. There was a section of space that held no stars. This frightened her for a split second.

Perhaps it's just the Tonbay's shadow? No, that's not right, we're not facing the Sol star.

She noticed that stars had started disappearing more and the central darkness grew larger. She was getting more nervous until her eyes started seeing bits of metal reflecting little amounts of light within the mass shadow. Her eyes focused along the lines of darkness until she figured out that it was actually a small fighter.

She studied it close until she realized it looked familiar. She took a quick glance at the model and back at the dark mass.

It's the same ship!

She followed along the outline of the ship until she found the cockpit. There she saw a smaller purple figure waving at her. It was Dyad.

She smiled and waved back. Dyad's head flaps twitched, pleased that he had gotten her attention. He then looked forward and a small darker piece of metal began to cover the window of the ship, hiding him from sight.

That is a very advanced stealth fighter, Tali thought.

She pulled something else out of the bag before they passed the final planet's orbital path, the dwarf known as Pluto, before the mass relay.

Her hand felt something flat, she took it out to find a piece of paper with an inked heart on it. It was definitely not Silont's doing.

In all her years of knowing him, he could not make anything this fancy looking. She flipped the paper over and to her surprise found a picture. In the picture was Silont with a small quarian woman in blue standing next to him, hugging him. Her eyes were light with joy and her hand was on his chest armor. The picture was taken during a sunset, or sunrise. She couldn't really tell.

It was a cute picture, she never knew Silont had a bondmate. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she knew this girl from somewhere. She searched her memory but couldn't find anything.

She gave up and just sat there, studying the picture and its smaller details. Her imagination started to take her to Shepard's and her own relationship. Perhaps we can get a photo like this soon? She smiled at the thought.

She must have been standing there for a long time, because she was growing tired and Joker gave the call that they were approaching the relay.

Heavy footsteps of a certain turian sounded as it got a few feet into the observation deck.

"You have a lot of nerve for calling the ship to leave," Garrus grunted.

"Is he angry?" Tali asked without turning around.

"Absolutely as furious as much as I was."

"Sorry."

"You don't just do that!" His hands flew up, making a frustrated gesture.

"Sorry."

Garrus took a deep sigh, cooling off. He was already showing signs of authority, granted the ship will soon be his. But he knew responsibility and kept himself in line.

Tali smiled. He'll make a good leader.

The thought pained her. She recognized once again that she was leaving her best friends behind to live her own life on Rannoch with Shepard. She will miss all of them and their crazy adventures. It was a good ride.

"Chakwas told me it was a smart thing you did," Garrus continued. "I know that Shepard needs to take a step back from fighting, but still..."

He sighed once more. "At least your friend managed to calm him down, and more, surprisingly. Seems like Shepard's a bit more excited to get to Rannoch."

"Really?" She asked with surprise.

"Yeah, said something about nearly forgetting a project over there. Your friend has good persuasion skills though, I even found myself fully invested a quarter through his...monologue," Garrus half-joked the last word. "Have you started planning your bonding ceremony?"

"Not since the attack. But I've been planning non-stop before that. I already know where and when I want it."

"Where?"

Joker's intercom crackled, interrupting their conversation. "We are coming up through the Mass Relay. Get ready everyone."

A sudden shock of realization overcame Tali. "I should be down in Engineering!"

She sped off, leaving a slightly irritated Garrus behind.

"Well then. I guess we'll just get going," he said to himself.