ABLE/NOVEMBER:

The update today (the 26th on my calendar) is a few corrective updates I overlooked going from DocX to posting.

Sorry for getting your hopes up. But don't fret, you'll have a new set of ~2k words for this story within a few days

Chapter 13

Family Breakfast

Tali awoke midway through the morning, somewhere around 8:30 or 9, but the bed wasn't as warm as she was expecting. The heat from Mark's body was absent. It took her a moment for her to realize that Shepard wasn't laying next to her.

"EDI, where's Shepard?" Part of her was afraid she had dreamed yesterday.

"There was a meeting he had to go to with Admiral Hanna Shepard. He left several hours ago."

"Okay. Thank you." She got out of bed, putting on her environmental suit. It felt good, no, wonderful to share the bed with Shepard again. But it also felt good to put her suit back on.

She left the cabin, looking to get some breakfast. Despite the large amount of food she consumed the previous night she was oddly famished. 'Maybe some turian oatmeal. With dried nuts and cinnamon... then again, there was quite a bit of leftovers.' Her stomach soured a little at that particular though. 'No. I think I'll stick with the oatmeal.'

She left the still slightly dimmed room. EDI had been polite enough to ease the lights up slowly. She still had a hangover, though it was only mild. Especially when compared to the suffering she felt the morning after the Citadel party. She pressed the button on the elevator to summon it.

When the door to the crew deck opened she found Amanda Shepard standing there with a tray of food. The middle of the Shepard women was shorter than the rest of her siblings, but still quite tall standing at five and half feet. Her strawberry blonde hair rested just below her shoulders. Her deep hazel eyes were startled to see Tali.

"Oh, well that's convenient. I wanted to have breakfast with you." Amanda said. "We didn't really have much chance last night."

"Sure." Tali agreed.

They sat down at the table in the mess hall. Amanda handed Tali a bowl of dextro-based oatmeal. But the coloring was different; there were blue and orange-brown swirls and patches. "What is this?"

"Oatmeal. It's also got some spices and fruit in it. Don't know if it tastes any good so go ahead and get some more if its crap." Her voice told Tali that she wouldn't feel if she spat the food back out.

She nervously took a small spoonful's worth. It passed the toxin scanner with no issues as it entered her helmet. It was good. The flavor was particularly strong, but it was good.

"Heya little sis." A woman behind Tali spoke. Turning she saw Sonja, Markus' eldest sister. Her vibrant red hair was pulled back into a short sporty ponytail.

Sonja moved into the kitchenette where she began rummaging through the leftovers from the previous night's festivities. She eventually stopped on the plate of five-layered lasagna. It was dripping with cheese, chalked full of meat and a few assorted vegetables. She then started working on a pot of coffee though she started throwing some strange things in it with the coffee grounds. "Makin' some triple S. Want some Mandy?"

Amanda thought it over for a minute before responding. "Yeah I'll take a cup or two of the devil's spit."

"Excuse me, what's triple S?"

"Shepard's Sunrise Surprise." Sonja answered.

"According to mom and dad, it's an old family recipe." Amanda added on. "Personally, I think it's descended from an ancient from of torture on prisoners during the last world war."

"Then why drink it?"

"Because," Sonja said. "It has strength in it as only the great gods could hold. I've seen all but wake the comatose and dead."

"It's that good."

"I wouldn't call it 'good'," Amanda said. "Effective? Most definitely. Good taste? Absolutely not! I'd rather eat liquefied dirt than drink this stuff."

"So why drink it?" Tali was trying to figure this apparently abhorrent, yet almost coveted liquid.

"Why the hell not." Sonja said as she brought two large cups to the dining table sitting on the same side as Amanda. Even from the distance though, she could smell through the old-factory ports in her suit. It was a rather pungent smell, not at all pleasant.

"So what's next for you two?" The younger Shepard asked. "Just so you know, there's a small betting pool among the crew. I'm looking for some inside information."

"We, uh, we didn't really talk about what we'll be doing last night."

"Told ya! Pay up!" The elder practically shouted at Amanda. Her hand was practically outstretched to her sister.

A disgruntled Amanda started digging through her pockets for the money that was bet. "There was also a bet between us sisters about what you two would be doing."

"I put 10 creds on you two going at it. I know what every soldier who returns home from a long tour on the lines and my little brother is no different." She added a coy wink at the end.

"No, we didn't, I mean," Tali stuttered out. This was something was hard for her to openly talk about things like this to her Shepard. It made her terribly uncomfortable to talk with Garrus or Chakwas whom she trusted as implicitly. But a stranger? Even if it was someone who was to be family, well that was all but impossible.

"You see we were... I mean were but..."

"Oh yes!" Amanda nearly hissed sliding the coins back into her own hand.

"Knew you two would simply fall asleep." She said to Tali as Sonja now mimicking Amanda's facial expression from a moment ago.

"So what's next for you two? Staying here or are you gonna build a house somewhere? Like I said, wanted a little inside info."

"We haven't had a chance. Like I said, last night we just fell asleep. And Markus had an early meeting of some sort."

"Oh yes. I heard about some high-ranking brass meeting." Sonja said. "Figure he'll be back in an hour or so."

"It'll take that long?"

"I worked with general Hannigan in the early days of the war. He put me back in the field after two weeks. I was, according to him, 'blunt, vulgar, aggressive and exactly the kinda soldier that should be shooting on the line'. I was so damned happy to get back to the trenches."

"You like fighting?"

"No. But when there is a fight, I prefer to be in the center of it."

Tali had a slight smile. She was a lot like Markus in attitude. Not much on the face though. They eyes themselves, while holding the same almost cocky determination and and optimism, were deep dark blue but they held a few silver flecks in her eyes.

"So he did that big proposal." Sonja said, her eyes were looking at her fingers which were moving around as if there were some invisible haptics she was working on some puzzle. "Now he'll make a big show on something. I'd wager odds that he'll-"

A large commotion from the elevator cut her off.

"I don't care what you want. You're going under so EDI and I can work on you." The voice belonged to doctor Chakwas. But who was hurt?

"Dammit just give me a local!" Markus grumbled back to her. "I'll fix it myself. It's a damned software hiccup not a gushing artery."

His sisters and Tali jumped from the table to see what happened, make sure he was really as fine as he was indicating.

He was supported by Chakwas while EDI was running scans of his legs and working on a blueprint of some sort.

"Keelah! What happened?" Tali practically shoved Chakwas out of the way.

"Just wear and tear. These were assembled half-assed in an emergency field tent. Now it's kinda falling apart."

"That's one way of putting it." Chakwas said as she opened the door to medical. "Get him on the table and strap him down. I'm reading serious nervous system damage around the prosthetic attachment sites. You should have had this tended to weeks ago."

Chakwas pulled a needle with a small amount of a clear solution. "Doc! I said a local. I can fix it myself, EDI come on you know I'm right. Tell her."

"I'm sorry Shepard, but doctor Chakwas is right. As it is, I do not know if we will be able to keep from taking more of your injured extremities."

"What. Happened?" Tali repeated.

"I told you, it's no- OW! DAMN IT!" Chakwas injected the needle near the base of Shepard's spine.

"Sorry Shepard." He tried to protest, only a faint grumble of unintelligible words coming out. "Need to shut down most of your brain functions. I need everyone except EDI to get out. Now."

Tali hadn't stopped pacing in front of the door for several hours. Her stomach was running on empty but she didn't have any appetite. She had been told what happened, simple "issue" with how the prosthetic limbs were installed. How they were creating a slow but dangerous cumulative neural degeneration in the synthetic and organic pathways around the interface.

Garrus had joined them soon as he heard that Shepard had gone into surgery. The windows had been tinted black to prevent anyone outside from loosing their lunch. They hadn't heard a word from Chakwas since, which wasn't that unusual in and of itself, but the silence from EDI was driving everyone mad. He tried a couple of times to talk to Tali, comfort her, but she kept pacing without a word.

Finally the doors opened, Chakwas stepping out wearing a slightly bloodied surgical gown. "We're done." She said. The words had barely escaped her lips as Tali ran past her.

"He's still out cold. I gave him an extra, slow metabolizing dose of sedatives to help his body's adjustment to the new augments." Chakwas continued to Garrus, and the Shepard sisters.

"How bad?" Garrus asked. They others were afraid to ask. They'd already gone through his funeral once, then worried about what happened to him and the rest of their family after the Battle of Hell's Gauntlet for months. Now, their brother was on a table yet again after a serious injury.

"I'm not going to lie, EDI and I needed to take a little more of his arm. More so than I was thinking. The degeneration damage extended a quarter of the way up his forearm so we had to replace just behind that. At this point, nearly 30% of it is artificial but, thanks to EDI, the new one won't cause any scarring along in his nervous system."

Sonja turned around to pound the visible support beam in the mess hall with a closed, very fast moving fist. "How the hell is this good news?!" Her knuckles started to bleed from the force of the impact, small drops of blood falling to the floor.

"Good news is, I'm the best doctor in the Alliance. Anyone else would have hacked it off at the major joint for not only the arm, but the leg. I managed to keep every centimeter of the leg." It wasn't like Chakwas to boast. More than likely, what had been done was damned impressive even with the near minor miracles she performed.

"He should have full functionality after only a week of physical therapy." EDI said. She had been fairly silent, preferring to let Chakwas explain to the family. It was part of her job. One she didn't particularly like, but it was a part of it.

"But the best thing for him right now is rest, like I said, let the man rest. I'll notify you if there's a change in his condition."