A few more author notes before starting-Firstly I've compared my story to some others on the site and I've come to the conclusion that my chapters are far to short so starting with this chapter I will be working to fix that. This ties into my first part but I also thought about using the horizontal lines I use to separate my author's notes from the story to skip forward in time or to change character POV(A concept I saw in Tairis Deamhan's story razors edge: Requiem) and I suppose I may as well give credit to Calinstel for his concept of Quarian bonding. I would continue to list of thanks but the list would be quite extensive. Just assume that if you wrote a Tali/MShepard fic I read it and thank you
Shepard was not a fan of being in uncomfortable situations,hell no one really was, and Ferros was proving to be quite uncomfortable. He had already dealt with a fair share of geth,encountered a group of rapid varren, and had just finished talking to a man who seemed in some state of constant mental pain. These things were unnerving in their own ways but none could quite match the feeling that Shepard got when interacting with Tali. He couldn't explain why but he felt that he was being cornered whenever she was around, and she seemed determined to be around as much as possible. Now Shepard had nothing against her of course but her behavior had been strange recently. Earlier he had ordered some of his squad to stay at Zhu's hope in case of further geth assaults while he took his own team across the the sky-bridge. Tali was meant to stay but she had done everything short of flat out refusing the order. Rambling on about how more geth would be at the ExoGeni headquarters,repairing the mako they intended on using, and how she could use some more field experience. Shepard noticed that as she went on she was getting more frantic and...desperate? She seemed to almost be begging when Shepard had finally caved and took her along with Garrus. Ever since then he swore he could feel a pair of eyes on him at all times. He decided that now was not the time to dwell on it though as he had just got his sights lined up on the first krogan guarding the geth transmitter tower Fai Dan had told him about, and shooting Krogan mercs was far simpler than figuring out what was going on with Tali.
"Garrus tell me you have the other one in your sights, my eyes are starting to get a little heavy from the waiting" Shepard whispered. Shepard had only recently meet Garrus but the two were quickly forming a bond, sure Garrus seemed a little too black and white for Shepard's liking but he had hoped he could change this over their time together. Plus while they had differing opinions on how to get the job some times they did have one thing in common, a awful sense of humor
"I've been waiting on you Shepard, you sure you know how to handle a rifle?"Garrus responded with a overbearing tone of smugness, something that Shepard had learn to associate with Garrus
"I like to think I know what I'm doing, now take the shot"Two shots rang out, both hitting their mark
Before Shepard could make a witty remark about how his shot was somehow better than Garrus's, a third Krogan had emerged from behind a wall and had started to rush towards Shepard. Shepard pulled his trigger only to sigh in annoyance as a clicking noise came out instead of the bang he was hoping for,his gun had overheated and seeing as Garrus was currently using the same model it was safe to assume his had as well. Shepard quickly pulled out his side arm and began to fire on the krogan. Sadly pistols weren't the recommended firearm to use against Krogan and it was quickly becoming apparent why as the krogan seemed to treat the rounds coming out of Shepard's as insect bites. Shepard liked to think he was more than capable of handling himself in close quarters combat but he'd rather not test his skill against a krogan,especially not one that looked as angry as the one in front of him, but it looked as if it didn't matter what Shepard wanted as the krogan was already upon him. Then suddenly a shotgun sounded of behind Shepard and a large chunk of the krogan's head evaporated
Tali had never been so furious in her life,never had the desire to kill something like she had now. Some worthless krogan merc thought he could harm her Shepard and she was more than happy to show him the error of his ways. The first shot had taken off almost a quarter of his head but that wasn't enough, she wanted his face completely wiped from existence so she fired again smiling as even more of his hideous face ceased to be a eyesore. Still there was a bit left so she fired again completely removing what was left of the krogan's face. She smiled in satisfaction and then turned towards Shepard, only to see a look of shock on his face.
"Tali I...I think you got him the first time"Shepard looked at what was left of the merc "Doubt he'd be getting up from that, right?"
Her heart stopped. Did she displease him? Did he hate her for doing what she just did? No,no it couldn't be that they were meant for each other, there was no way he could hate her. This...this was just a slight misunderstanding. She knew just what to say to clear things up
"I-I heard that Krogan's had extreme regenerative properties and I wasn't sure if one shot would be enough so I- keelah did I overdo it? I-I've never fought a krogan before so I wasn't sure if-"
"It's fine Tali I understand, you were just caught up in the moment" Shepard sighed and continued "Regardless you probably did him a favor, you wouldn't have liked to have seen what I would have done to him" he said with a self satisfied grin
Tali felt like a mountain had been lifted from her shoulders. She loved the way Shepard could ease any situation with humor.
"Oh of course, I think it would be better to have no face than to have a face that's been put through your wrath"she said with a small nervous chuckle
Shepard had a small smile while speaking "Relax Tali its fine" he walked up and put a hand on her shoulder "And thank you"
She had never felt so warm, Shepard's hand on her shoulder was filling her with feeling of comfort she had never felt in life but sadly it didn't last forever as he removed his hand from her shoulder and continued to speak
"That should be all the side objectives we had let's go ahead and make our way to the sky-bridge"Tali knew they had a job to do but she desperately wanted the contact with Shepard to continue, surely those colonists could wait a bit?
Sadly Shepard was already on his way towards the sky-bridge so Tali decided that she'd just have to corner him later...and maybe get something a bit more than a hand on her shoulder while she was at it.
She was about to follow Shepard on his way out when she felt a hand on her shoulder stopping her, then turned to see a Garrus glaring at her
"Later we are going to have a serious talk about what just happened there" Tali was about to say something when he continued "That was no accident, we both know that, but I intend on figuring out what the hell it really was"He removed his hand from her shoulder "Now lets move we have a job to do" and just like that Garrus had followed Shepard out.
Tali was at a loss for words, she was sure the innocent act was convincing enough, it had seemed to work on Shepard after-all. She was not looking forward to the talk that turian bosh'tet had planned but she doubted she could escape it. Now was not the time to dwell on it however. Like he had said they had a job to do, and more importantly Shepard was too far ahead for Tali's liking so she jogged ahead to correct this error and continued with the mission
Ferros was meant to be a simple first stop on the quest for Saren, a mission to help get the crew situated. Ferros was everything but simple and Shepard was starting to wonder if it would have been better to look for that Asari scientist first. What had started off as a simple kill geth,save civilians mission had turned into a kill a ancient plant life-form with mind control powers, save civilians that are shooting at you mission. They had already meet up with the group that Shepard had left to defend Zhu's Hope and blazed through a swarm of new creatures that had been dubbed "creeper" by Shepard for their...well creepiness. They had also managed to incapacitate almost all of the colonists and were now on their way to confront the creature that had caused this whole mess(after leaving Kaidan,Ashley, and Wrex to tend to the wounded colonist). Of course Shepard was on point with Tali and Garrus following(or in Tali's case, practically walking on top of him)
"As soon as we enter the area fan out and look for anything that may be a plant with mind control powers" Shepard ordered, he hoped they would just follow the order without pointing out how ridiculous it sounded
"Right shouldn't be that hard, you see C-sec training made sure to teach me how to separate mind control plants from normal plants" Garrus quipped, crushing Shepard's earlier hopes "If I remember correctly the mind control ones looked more menacing"
"Look Garrus I really don't know what you want me to say, I'm trying my best" Shepard sighed "Okay just...just follow my lead" The three walked inside and were immediately meet with the sight of a very menacing plant.
"Hey boss, I think I found it"Garrus said innocently
Shepard sighed "Great work Garrus, glad to see those years of c-sec training put to use"sometimes he had really wished Garrus could be a bit more like Tali on these missions, sure she was a little on the creepy side with her constant staring and closeness but at least she was quiet for most of it. She always seemed to be thinking about something, only really speaking up when addressed directly or if something extremely noteworthy occurred on the mission.
As if the the Thorian had been reading Shepard's mind,which for all he knew could be a possibility, something very noteworthy did happen. A Asari had spawned from the mouth(?) of the Thorian. Shepard spared a glance towards Tali expecting some form of outburst only to notice that she had noticeably tensed up when he had done so and quickly focused his attention back towards the Asari.
"I have no idea who you are or what you're doing here,or rather how you got here but I suggest you lea-"
"The old growth answers to no one"the Asari suddenly blurted out, cutting Shepard off mid sentence
"Oh okay, old growth, got it, fully understand" Shepard pulled out his pistol "Open fire"
Shots rang out in rapid succession and brought a quick end to the strange green Asari that spouted out. Shepard had quickly deduced that was no real Asari however, after-all last time he checked they only came in blue and purple. Add the fact that "it" had referred to itself as the old growth and Shepard was more than eager to end the conversation and find a way to get rid of the center of mass still dangling in front of him.
Shepard noticed a weird tentacle attached to the wall to the right of them...Dangling, well that was pretty simple to deal with. With this in mind Shepard's squad set out to solve the Thorian problem and release the colonist from it's control
Tali was in high spirits, she had just spent a good ten minutes gunning down the same Asari bosh'tet who had the audacity to try and have a conversation with John. Of course it wasn't a real Asari and the conversation was less than twenty words long but Tali wasn't the picky type. However those high spirits soon faded and for very good reasons.
They had just stumbled across a Asari commando that had apparently worked for matriarch Benezia(and in association Saren) who appeared to be the genetic template for all of the strange Asari clones that they had just finished seemed to genuinely regret her actions and wished to do no further harm but she wanted to meld minds with Shepard.
A mind meld. Tali started to see red if a woman so much as shook hands with Shepard, and a mind meld was far more than a handshake. They would connect their mind and knowledge for a brief period of time, essentially becoming wanted to kill the Asari just for suggesting it but no matter how much she hated it, it needed to be done. Without that "cipher" she had mentioned Saren would find the conduit and the reapers would knew that if the reapers returned it would mean the end of the galaxy, more specifically the end of Shepard. She couldn't let that happen so she'd sit here,boiling in rage, while that Asari bosh'tet melded minds with Shepard, After-all she could sort out these feelings after the mind meld was done.
Luckily mind melds were almost instantaneous so she didn't have to wait long
"Well that was...different"Shepard rubbed his head "Hope it was worth it, got a nice little headache from the whole ordeal"
"I'm sorry but any pain should go away shortly" the Asari commando, Shiala said "Normally mind melds don't cause any discomfort but I did just try to pass on the entire essence of a species"
Shepard chuckled "It's fine but please don't try to explain what just happened anymore, would just make my head hurt more" He glanced around a bit before continuing "Well guess that's that guess we'll be on our way now."
Shiala seemed taken aback "Y-you'll really let me go?"
Shepard spoke as if the whole situation was perfectly normal "Well I don't see any reason not to. It's obvious you have no intention to go back to Saren and you haven't attacked us...technically"
Shiala smiled "Thank you commander, I wont waste this chance you've given me"
She had no idea. No idea that while Shepard had decided to be merciful and spare her life that Tali had no such intentions. She had gotten far to close with her Shepard by melding minds and there was only one woman who was aloud to be close to him, not to mention she had caused Shepard pain and the way Tali saw it was her duty to protect him from any harm. She had already done so with that Krogan merc from earlier and she had no problems doing it again.
"I'm sure you won't" Shepard said while heading towards the exit,fully intending to finally get off of this strange planet "Now I don't want to seem rude but we're on a bit of a tight schedule here so...We should go"he said while gesturing towards to Tali and Garrus
Tali wanted to get of this planet,preferably to spend some time with Shepard back on the Normandy, but she needed to stay just a while longer. She had to get rid of another problem, had to protect Shepard like she did earlier. "S-Shepard if you don't mind I'd like to stay a while longer" She heard a slight groan emit from Shepard "Y-you don't need to stay I just wanted to see if I could...do some repair work around the colony"
Shepard sighed "Understood, but I want you to report back to the ship within thirty minutes"Shepard grinned before continuing "Should be more than enough time for a genius like you to fix this whole colony up"
Tali loved getting compliments from Shepard, loved knowing that she had pleased him in some way. She knew that no one could see her face but she still worried about the blush she was currently sporting. "T-thank you Shepard and f-for the record fifteen minutes would have been enough"
Shepard chuckled "Of course sorry for insulting you" he shifted his gaze to Garrus "How about you Garrus? Care to keep me company on the way back to the ship?"
"I know you're desperate to spend time with me Shepard, and I hate to break your heart, but I also intend on staying behind for a bit" He then shifted his gaze towards Tali "See if I can help out Tali a bit"
Shepard sighed "Guess only time can tell if my broken heart can be mended"He began to mutter while walking towards the ship "so much for loyalty"
As soon as Shepard was out of hearing range Garrus spoke to Tali "So about that talk"
Garrus had planned to figure out what the hell was wrong with Tali back on the Normandy between missions but the perfect opportunity had just presented itself. He noticed Tali glaring at Shiala and if looks could kill...well the conversation with her would have been cut very short. Garrus had a suspicion that Tali didn't intend on killing with looks however and decided that leaving her alone with a perfectly working shotgun wouldn't have worked in Shiala's favor so he simply decided to stay as well. So here they were with thirty minutes all to themselves
"So about that talk" Garrus narrowed his eyes " I was thinking now would be the perfect time" when Tali failed to respond he decided to continue "Let's start with you telling me just what your idea of "repair work" is"
"Fixing a problem" Tali said without any emotion
"Let me guess, that Asari is a problem"Garrus already knew her intentions but he was still hoping to find the motive
"S-She hurt him, of course she's a problem" Tali had already decided to abandon the innocent act. As much as she hated to admit it Garrus seemed a bit to sharp to fall for it "No one should get away with hurting him"
Garrus's eyes slightly widened. It didn't take long to figure out that Tali was referring to the headache that Shiala had given the commander by melding minds. Even so that couldn't be the real motive could it? Surely it was something else that Shiala had done. Was Tali holding her responsible for the actions of her strange clones that the Thorian had made?
"Hurt him?" Garrus said with a tone of disbelieve "I'm assuming that you're talking about the commander and last I checked all she did to him was give him a headache...accidentally need I remind you."
"IT DOESN'T MATTER" Tali suddenly screamed "That...bosh'tet hurt him."
Garrus wasn't ashamed to admit that the sudden outburst had caught him by surprise but it had given him some valuable insight. Tali cared deeply for the commander,that much was obvious, but even then a headache wouldn't have driven her to kill someone for him.
"This isn't about revenge for hurting the commander"his thoughts went back to the krogan merc" We both know what happens to someone who tries to hurt the commander don't we?" He understood the situation perfectly,why she had butchered that krogan earlier "No this isn't because she hurt the commander, this is because she got close to the commander"
Tali was at a loss for words "I-I Just wanted to protect him"
"Protect him?Come one Tali no need to lie I've already got you all figured out. You're jealous,jealous because that asari managed to get so close to the commander"He switched to his trademark smug tone before continuing "You're jealous that all that asari had to do was ask and she was able to do one of the most intimate things in the galaxy with the beloved commander"
Tali didn't know what to say, so she said nothing. Opting to instead sulk as she prepared herself for whatever this Turian bosh'tet would say next.
Nothing could have prepared her for what he did next
"Have you ever wondered what the commander would do if you asked?"
"W-what?"
"Well you're no asari but there are things just as intimate as a mind meld...more exciting too"
Tali was lost, she was sure this was some form of c-sec interrogation but he was...teasing her?"
"I-I don't understand"
Garrus smirked(or at least the Turian equivalent) "obviously not so here's the rundown, You keep the cold blooded murder limited to people who are actually trying to kill us and we won't have a problem" he narrowed his eyes "But if you go around killing anyone who so much as glances in his general direction, we WILL have a problem"
"I...I understand" Tali muttered like a child who had just been scolded
"Great...well I think our thirty minutes are about up"He started to make his way towards the ship as if nothing had happened
"W-wait!" Tali had no idea how he was treating this whole situation so casually, but that didn't matter she had a very important question right now "W-what should I do if...if someone gets to close for my liking"
Garrus looked her dead in the eyes "Make them know he's off the market...of course you have to let him know he's of the market first" he winked at her "I'm sure you'll figure out how"
"I-Thank you Garrus" Tali smiled. Maybe Garrus wasn't all that bad
"Don't mention it...seriously don't, not sure how the rest of the gang would react to knowing a deranged quarian with a obsession with the commander has access to the ships drive core"
...okay maybe he was that bad "Wha-I am not "deranged" l-lets just head back to the ship"
"Right wouldn't want to keep the commander waiting would we?"Garrus said with his usual smug tone
Tali Didn't even bother to respond, she was too busy thinking. Let him know he's off the market? She had just a few ideas...and she couldn't wait to try them out