"So, if I understand correctly, commander, the Alliance has just given to us the equipment?"
Ashley gave Zaal'Koris vas Rannoch a disarming smile.
"Yes sir. That's correct. Admiral Hackett suggested it to our councilor and she agreed wholeheartedly."
Zaal - surprised - put his hand to his vocalizer. "Well, Admiral Hackett had said that he would attempt to assist us as part of our agreement, but I was not expecting this. And your councilor was Lilly'Kenworth, correct?"
"Yes sir."
"Hmm. I remember her." He caught himself. "Well, I remember Tali telling us about her. She said that your councilor was one to be respected." He let out a good-natured laugh. "Keelah, she knows a thing or two about your people, commander."
"That she does, admiral. So, where are we taking the hardware to?"
"Take them over to Building 6. It's in sector 2-9, which is right on the outskirts here, overlooking the river from a rather lovely hill." Zaal was about to meander on about said hill that overlooked the river - as well as its spectacular views - but thought of Pomii, who would be receiving the gear. She would have shot him a look that would have told him that he was needlessly rambling. He cleared his throat. "Right, commander. They'll need to get it to my mate, Pomii. She has been working on our networks since the Pulse hit. She can direct your people further once there."
"Of course, sir."
Ashley was not used to referring to anyone but Hackett, Shepard, and the councilors as 'sir' (or "ma'am" as circumstances required), but she was determined to make a good impression. Besides, this was not her backyard, and she didn't make the rules. Sure, she was a Spectre and as such really answered only to the Council, but…this was as close to being "shore leave" (well, it was at least a far less stressful assignment) as they were likely to get, which placed her in a curious predicament. Her mandate from Hackett had been to assist the quarians in order to help facilitate "positive human-quarian relations", and from the council it was simply to help them to reintegrate into the larger galactic society. Both required a curious mix of formality and informality, and Ashley wasn't entirely certain how best to proceed. Ideally, she thought that Shepard would have been perfect for such a mission. Instead, circumstances being what they were, Ashley found herself assigned to this task that she felt wholly inadequate to accomplish.
Up until now, their assignments had been limited to making supply runs or for providing "security" on some of the backwater colony worlds that would not have required to much extra effort to return to something close to normal. The idea was that the sooner the smaller worlds could be brought back up, the sooner they could be utilized to support the larger galactic effort. To be honest, Ashley didn't give a fuck where they went, the damage was extensive almost everywhere. As a soldier, she simply needed the target and she'd hit it.
But Rannoch?
Well, this planet was a category all its own, wasn't it? It had not received much damage from the war itself (Reaper base notwithstanding), but had suffered its own dramatic damage, this time seemingly inadvertently from a former enemy. She waved Chief Harris over to their location.
"Yes ma'am?" He snapped a tidy salute to the commander.
"Harris, get the network hardware to the hub located at," she checked her omnitool to confirm where it was to go, "sector 2-9. It's just outside the city to the east. Deliver it directly into the hands of Pomii'Koris." He gave her an expression of surprise.
"Yes, chief. The admiral's wife. Do not make her wait."
The young man nodded in understanding then saluted the commander before backtracking to the hauler that Zaal had provided.
From behind her, she heard Zaal speak. "Commander, may I ask a question?"
"Yes, of course, sir."
"Do you know where…that is, have Shepard and Tali'Zorah…might you know…well, what are their, I suppose, long term plans?"
She cocked her head in mild confusion. "Do you mean 'where are they going to be staying', sir?"
A smile crept across his face despite this bit of awkwardness. "Yes, commander. I suppose I do."
She nodded her head in understanding. "Well, Tali pointed out an area here," Ash pulled up a map on her omnitool, "that they had thought might be okay to settle down at."
The Spectre had indicated an area nearly 100 kilometers away from the city, not too far away from what he recalled to be the very place where they had felled the Reaper.
Koris saw no reason to not agree. If that's where they wanted to be… "Hmm, but it's so…isolated."
Ashley grinned at him. "Noticed that too, sir?" She shrugged. "Maybe they'll just want some peace and quiet."
It might have been a little queer for any ordinary quarian to desire such isolation, but Tali was not an ordinary quarian, and she did not have an ordinary mate. Therefore, he found the very idea that anyone should offer a dissenting opinion - any opinion at all - to be distasteful and rude. And after what they'd done for the quarian people and the galaxy at large, he dared not be either.
Besides, it's not like they didn't have the space.
—
They'd both watched Shepard and Admiral Raan go quietly into, and then out of, the nearby building, curiosity the primary thing that they felt. Well, Kasumi also felt the familiarly sweet yearning of expectation.
"What do you think went on in there?"
Kasumi chuckled at Garrus's question. She didn't know, but she had a damn good idea. She smiled.
"I couldn't possibly have any idea about that, G." He gave her a sidelong glance.
"Mmmhmm. Somehow I don't believe you."
She patted his shoulder and giggled. "I think you'll know the answer to that soon enough."
They were walking along a path leading away from the city and its still-standing high-rises with their gracefully sloping curves. They were heading back toward where the quarians had said that their "guests" could stay for the duration of the Normandy crew's shore leave, such as it was. In reality, it was just a small outcropping of unused homes from before the war, but Gerrel had reassured them that they'd been inspected and were fit for use - certainly for the short amount of time that they would be here.
"You know, Garrus, I wanted to thank you." She slipped her arm through the turian's own.
He looked straight ahead, asking "for what?"
The thief sighed. Sometimes he was so exasperating. "You know what for, you baka." Kasumi knew she could have called him an idiot in English, but she just got a kick out of watching him suffer through the pain of a word that his translator didn't quite know what to do with.
He had, of course, stayed with her and listened to her as she poured out what had happened on Crucible Station. How David had saved her life and how she had almost lost hers, abandoned as she was in the frozen mountains of a planet she didn't know the name of before she was rescued by the Alliance.
The hallucinations had not been fun.
He smirked, shaking his head. "I'm going to presume that I have been called something unsavory in your native tongue." He turned to her. "I don't even mind. It actually sounded…cute."
"Well, if you say so."
"You're welcome, then."
Overhead, she watched a bird of some kind squawk and glide past them. It reminded her of a vulture from Earth, except this seemed to be quite a bit larger.
"Garrus?"
"Yes?"
She stopped where she was, tugging lightly on his arm to indicate that he should as well. By the time he turned around, the young woman was already sitting cross legged on the ground under the shade of a tree. Garrus turned his head to her, then back up the trail they were walking, momentarily thrown off.
"Huh. Hmm. Okay."
When he was finally able to compose himself enough to join her, again she slung her arm around his and rested her hooded head on his shoulder with a sigh.
"G, what are we going to do now?"
For a moment, his eyes widened. He wasn't really sure.
"I, uh, really don't know. I guess I should have thought about it by now, but there were other things…" he trailed off, unsure how to say how his mindset had changed in the time since the end of the war. Had it changed enough? Had it really changed at all?
She squeezed his arm. "I know. There was a lot to deal with. But," she looked out over the horizon, where a few stray clouds still clung on to the daylight, "maybe we have time now."
Neither said anything for a few moments, Garrus was content to have Kasumi rest her head on his shoulder.
It was the turian that broke the silence again. "You know, for a long time, I was convinced that 'duty' was all that mattered." He gazed out over the horizon as he spoke. "I'm a turian, our lives are duty. Spirits, I've been doing this for so long. Between C-Sec, and…Saren, then the Collectors, then…" he sighed. "Kasumi, what does it say about me that maybe 'duty' isn't all that matters anymore?"
For a seconds, she said nothing on response; perhaps giving the question serious thought. "You know G, there's more to 'duty' than the military. It can be for anything…or anyone that you're committed to. Even yourself." She slipped her hand into his. "Take Shep, for example. He fought for the Alliance his whole life. He became a Spectre and fought for the galaxy - for all of us. And now? Well, his duty is to Tali. He's…paid his price."
"Yeah, but -"
"No 'buts' Garrus. Do you think he feels guilty about trying to finally just live?"
He did not pause in his reply. "No, he definitely does not. But he's different." He paused, not really sure exactly how he was different. "What about you? There's not a lot left in the galaxy to steal."
She laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. "Well, that was uncalled for, Mr. Vakarian." He laughed at her response. "But…I think I'm done with that life. Or at least I can be. And everything that I had thought was important…?" She looked out over the horizon, shrugging before she answered. "Well, it turns out that it didn't mean shit."
The turian laughed out loud at her use of "shit". Kasumi, who was normally soft-spoken and rarely uttered expletives of any kind, caught him off guard with its use.
"Besides, I'm not sure how much use the galaxy has - at least the reputable part of it - for an 'expert supply procurer'."
Another laugh. "That's one way of putting it. But, I guess what I mean is that I never saw a future for me - not really. C-Sec was a dead end, but before Shepard came along, I never really saw a way out of it. Then once we took down Saren, I never saw a way back. I mean, I thought about trying to join the Spectres again, but the way the Council just…" He sighed. "And it's been one precarious situation after another until…now. So, I don't really know what I'm supposed to do."
"What about Victus? Weren't you going to help him on Palaven? Didn't he want to make you an 'expert supply procurer'?"
Damn it. He hadn't forgotten, nor was he looking to get out of it. But right now?
"Yes, he did. And Shepard seemed to think that it was a good idea. But there are times when…"
Kasumi had reached up, turning his face towards hers. She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. The roughness of his hardened skin always felt…exotic. She liked it.
He'd forgotten what he was trying to say. "Yes, well…hmmm."
"We could try that, G. We could slow it down." She let out a little laugh. "Maybe I could pick up painting again."
He tilted his head, regarding her with curiosity. "Painting?"
"Yes, Garrus. Painting. I wasn't always a thief, you know. Well, I didn't always want to be one."
"Is that why…?"
She wrapped her arm around him, once again leaning her head on his shoulder. "Yes, that is one of the reasons why I 'collected' so much artwork. I liked to study it, try to get in the artist's head. What did she see that I didn't? Could I see that, too?" She smiled to herself. "Well, that and they also fetched a damn good price in certain circles."
After a few minutes of what felt like an unintended silence, he cocked a hairless turian eyebrow. That's when he noticed that she was no longer looking at him, but past him.
Peering out above Garrus's shoulder, she saw Shepard approaching Tali, who was talking to Liara. He was…what the hell? Was Shepard fidgeting?
—
"So you are meeting with them tomorrow. Not today?"
"Yes, even Daro'Xen agreed to give us this bit of time."
"I am glad to hear it. It will give you a chance to…settle in a little bit here." Liara looked out to the horizon before returning her eyes to Tali. "Do you know where you'll be staying?"
"Hmm, well tonight we'll stay here with you guys. But Zaal offered us a little place here in the city for now." She smirked. "Apparently, he interrogated Ashley about where we planned on staying…as our actual…"
Liara smiled to herself. "Home, Tali?"
A satisfied smile of her own crept across the admiral's face as she considered this. "Yes. Home. Our home."
Her friend caught the detached way that Tali had said this; it was a tone of voice that she recognized well in herself. "It will be good for you both to finally have one." She considered. "Besides the Normandy, that is."
Tali had indeed spoken with the admirals separately earlier, and they had told her in no uncertain terms that she should take the rest of the day to rest and prepare her presentation for the rest of them. She was surprised at their "generosity", but she shouldn't (according to John) "look a gift horse in the mouth", whatever the hell that meant. Tali had never heard him use the phrase before, and barely remembered what a horse was. Some goofy long-necked hairy thing, maybe? She shrugged it off and guessed at his meaning.
"Yes. Yes it will." She gazed out over the horizon, watching the clouds.
"Settled." That's a word I haven't used in a long time. Tali looked behind her for a moment, seeing the numerous buildings (both modest as well as what John had called "high rises") of Jal'Himom, their windows pouring out the light from within. Said light was being cast by quarians. Settled quarians, no less. Is that what we are now? "Settled?" She traced her eyes to the skies above and thought that she could spot a few outlines of some of the larger vessels that remained in orbit.
"Liara, do you think that…" Did she want to pose this question to her asari friend?
"Do I think what, Tali?"
"Could you do it, Liara? Could you settle down somewhere? You know, live a normal life?"
The one-time archaeologist frowned. What was "normal" anymore? Living aboard a starship? Traveling off to some distant world, hoping to unearth the past? Did it entail another mind-bending adventure?
Or would she rebuild the old world? Return it to something old, yet new?
Would she leave her past behind? Could she leave her friends behind?
Tali had closely watched her face as Liara failed to answer her. She'd seen this face before: Liara was deep in thought, and likely considering what - and how much - she wanted to reveal.
"Tali, I do not want to…"
She sensed her hesitation. Gently, she nudged her friend. "Want to what?"
She watched as the former Shadow Broker shifted her eyes over her shoulder and saw them widen in slight surprise. Whatever it was that Liara had wanted to tell her was choked off.
"Tali, I should…go." A very strange mix of facial expressions crossed her face - Tali thought that she was perhaps trying to stifle a laugh. "I'll see you?" Liara turned away and escaped with quick steps just as John walked up behind the admiral.
"Liara? Are you all right…?" It was no use. She continued away from them, offering a quick, timid glance that hinted at a smile over her shoulder.
John placed a hand on her shoulder from behind. "Um, is everything okay?"
"I don't know. We were just talking about what she wanted to do now that things had settled down. She was about to say something, and then just…scampered off."
She gripped his hand as it rested on her shoulder.
"Do you want me to go talk to her? I can't imagine why she would have -"
"No, John. You know how she is. Maybe I'll try to talk to her later." She turned to face him. "So, what do you want?" He smirked at her mock irritation. She wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I, uh, wanted to see if…you wanted to maybe…take a walk?" His smile was inconsistent, stuttering.
What was that about? He sounded almost…uncertain. She tilted her head in curiosity, but was going to dive right into this. "John, are you asking me out…on a date? On Rannoch?"
His face brightened. "Yes," the confidence had returned, "I guess I am, Miss vas Normandy."
A smile cut across her face. "Keelah, John. This is going to be so romantic." She noticed the pouch strapped to his waist but thought nothing of it. Probably just levo-rations anyway.
Walking along with his cane, Tali hooked her arm around his and rested her head on his shoulder. She was content to listen to the light wheeze that accompanied the soft rhythm of their footfalls.
From quite a ways away, Kasumi and Garrus had watched the whole scene unfold.
"Huh. That was odd. I wonder where they're going now." The turian chided himself for having removed his visor that would have given him much better long-distance vision.
Beside him, he heard and felt Kasumi shuffle her way to her feet.
"Now just where are you going?"
"Shhh, G." She patted his shoulder lightly. "I think I know what's going on, and I am not going to miss this." She leaned down and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, such as it was. "Wait for me at the camp, okay?"
He laughed at her, incredulous. "What else would I have done?"
She faced him with a shrug. "I don't know. Get drunk? Maybe get your ass handed to you by Donnelly in Skyllian Five?" With that, she turned around and began to jog toward their two admirals, with her cloak activating and rendering her invisible.
—
"You know this is quite a place you've got here, Tali."
He stopped for a moment on the dusty trail, reaching up to touch the lowest branch of the tree just off the path here. He was pretty certain it was safe for him to do so. He'd been given a copy of Geru's survey results, and the tree - colloquially referred to as a da'rna - was quite likely safe for him to touch. The leaves, which to him actually resembled the needles of an Earthen pine tree, were surprisingly soft. He noticed that it even smelled similarly. "Tali, do you want to…" he was about to suggest that she touch them herself, before he remembered that they may be back on Rannoch, but they weren't completely on Rannoch.
"Do I want to what?" She asked this…seductively? Her voice was low, sweet. She knew what he was about to ask, but she didn't let it bother her. Keelah, how could it have? She was walking freely with her bondmate? Boyfriend? It didn't matter. She was here with him, and they were walking the sandy paths of her homeworld. "Hmm, John?"
He cleared his throat. "Well, if you would…" He looked out toward the horizon, he was running out of time. In an instant he decided top pivot from the tree to his primary objective. "Mind walking a little bit more. C'mon, I think I see the perfect spot up there." He pointed to a clearing maybe another 100 meters ahead.
"Perfect for what?" Tali's confusion was evident and genuine.
Good. I think she still doesn't know. I have no idea how she doesn't know - this feels so damn obvious - but I'll take it.
"You'll see. Now come on." He extended his hand.
"Fine, you big bosh'tet! I'm coming!" She slipped her hand in his.
A few meters away, they were being watched. "Come on, Shep. You're almost there," their invisible watcher whispered her encouragement.
Minutes later, they had arrived at the spot. John stopped, looking out over the darkening orange horizon. Overhead, a few birds flew by, squawking their presence to them. Tikkun cast long shadows behind them. He felt Tali slip her arm around his waist, resting her helmeted head on his shoulder.
"John," she whispered, "it's so beautiful."
Tali wasn't wrong. Above them, the orange light of the sunset was trailing off into the telltale purple and deep blue of night. There were still low clouds floating by overhead on their way to the horizon. Below them, the cliff raced frantically to the bottom, ending in a watery wound cut by the Ghanxi river as it forced its way south then west again. The water flicked and spat out shards of the cast away light, creating its own little fireworks display. If anything, he thought that the word did the scene before them a fair amount of injustice. "Breathtaking" was the word that John might have used. Might have, if he didn't have other things on his mind. He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants before retaking her hands again.
John's heart was pounding. Why, he did not know. After all, this was just a formality, right?
That was a fucking lie, and he knew it. "Formality" his ass. He was going to do this, and there would be no more room for doubts. Shepard harbored none, of course, but there was something both exhilarating and frightening about this. This was…this was Tali, for crying out loud. He wanted to do this right; he wanted to give her everything because she deserved as much and so much more. The only way to get started was to do this, and to do it well. No better time to start than now, right?
"Tali." He stepped away from her, still holding her hand.
"Yes, saera?"
His breathing was not the calm and measured breathing of a man who had stared down a Reaper on this very world, who had managed to survive the very worst of what the galaxy had to offer. "I, um, have something…to, uh…ah man…"
Here he was, stuttering. What the hell?
John, calm yourself.
Tali was genuinely worried at his odd behavior. "What is it, John? Is everything all right?" Concern was evident in her voice.
John, you are fucking this up. Calm down and focus!
He closed his eyes, focusing on the image of Tali's face. It was the one thing that he knew would calm him down. Stepping away from her, he placed his cane against the side of the tree. Kasumi watched with bated breath, her omnitool's camera at the ready.
"I'll start again, Tali." This time he held one of her hands and grunted as he knelt down. Tali immediately moved to help him, thinking that he'd hurt himself. The look he gave her - one of seriousness - coupled with the slight shake of his head made her stop. Still holding her hand, with the other he reached into the pouch that was slung around his waist. His fingers fumbled for just a moment - he wanted to ensure that they were secure in their purchase. Satisfied, he pulled the contents from his pouch, and relinquished her hand. Carefully, he slipped the corners of the tan cloth away, revealing its contents.
Tali sees a sparkle.
Her heart stops for an instant. She knows what this is. The extranet has its uses, and she was an avid researcher.
"Human courtship" had been the search query. Keelah, there was a lot of…unfamiliar stuff. Some of it she would use to program her NerveStim with.
But why did she even bother? Just a young girl's fantasy, right? Because there was no way that he would ever choose her and her damned suit. Not when there were the likes of -
Liara. The beautiful blue enigma. Exotic, yet familiar. She could touch him in ways that Tali could have only ever dreamed of - she could even touch his mind.
Ashley, also beautiful. Human, like him. Strong-willed. An easy decision, right?
But he'd chosen neither. There was hope, maybe? But she had to leave, even though she didn't want to. Her body demanded that she stay.
But that choice was taken from her before she'd been able to tell him anything.
Two years of anguish. Pain. A complete and utter inability to move on from her neyha.
And her perfect memory had never let her forget any of it, both good and bad.
But he somehow had returned to her.
Then aboard this Cerberus ship, she found others whom she thought he would have chosen.
Miranda. Human, so beautiful, and keelah she was literally perfect.
Kelly. Smart, quirky. Available.
But it was her.
…
It was me.
It was me that he chose. It was me that he trusted. It was me that he fought for.
It was me that he would have died for.
It was me that he came back for.
Before words even escaped his lips, she felt herself start to tremble, and she almost lost her footing.
Finally, John Shepard spoke.
"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, we have been through so much together. You have fought beside me, you have fought with and for me. You have been at my side through everything that you could have possibly been there for. Tali, you opened me up to new possibilities. About companionship, friendship, strength, bravery, drinking games (this elicited the expected giggle)…love. When I couldn't go on, you did. And when I could, you gave me a reason to do so in the first place. When you had no reason to…trust me, you did. That (she of course knew he meant their reunion on Freedom's Progress) was easily the most nervous I'd ever been outside of combat." He paused, looking first at her trembling form, then directly into her glowing eyes that shimmered with tears. He stood up, without a grunt this time. Removing the cloth fully, she saw what he held in his hands in its full splendor: two braided golden chains, each adorned with a ring made of gold and mixed in with something…else. She thought that she should recognize it. Whatever it was, it was green and spectacular.
"Is this what I think it -"
He smiled at her. "It probably is, but please let me finish this." He held her hands up, and draped the chains around them, before he brought his hands to hers. He had slipped them through the necklaces as well, and grasped her hands with his so that the necklaces were laid upon them easily, freely.
"Tali, I don't have a pal'tec vis surden to give you." He felt her hands tremble noticeably, and definitely heard her gasp. How did he even know what one was? "For that I am truly sorry. Maybe someday I can do this the way you deserve. But what I can give you right now is…me. All of me. Yours. Forever. Because I love you, Tali'Zorah. I love you more than I could have ever imagined loving anything or anyone. And if you'll have me, I'm yours."
For a moment - an eternity - Tali did not move. She couldn't. Did she even breathe? Everything that they had talked about before - love, bonding, saera, being the other halves of each other - keelah, this was it.
He was doing this, confirming their bond with his own oddly human courtship ritual. She didn't even mind. How could she?
John had a look of mild concern. He hadn't anticipated this pause. Was there something that he had misunderstood? Had Raan somehow been wrong? "So, uh, what do you say?"
Unbelievably, Tali simply blinked at him. Did he just ask me -
"What do I say? Of course, yes! I'm yours, you bosh'tet! That's all I've ever wanted to be." She giggled, her nervous energy combining with her heretofore unmatched happiness. "Well, you know, since I met you. Because, um, before that I wouldn't have known who you were and that would be pretty weird, right? To just know that you wanted to be -"
John chuckled, and closed his eyes, leaning his head in to rest on her visor. She did the same. They stayed that way for a long time. Tikkun was being cut neatly in half by the distant horizon, casting them in silhouette. The rings sparkled in the deeply orange light.
"Gotcha! Great job, Shep." Silently, Kasumi took a quick look at the photo she had just taken. It was -
"Perfect."