Chapter 26
Shepard and his team spent the next week clearing out the Armstrong Nebula. Joker would take them into a system with the Normandy in full stealth mode, and scan for geth. Any geth signals were traced back to their point of origin, at which Tali, Shepard, and Garrus would hop in the Mako, drop to the surface, and eliminate any geth they found. Then the team would return to the Normandy, rinse, and repeat. After Mako had returned from clearing the last star system and downloading a bunch of data about the geth, Shepard sat in his cabin and worked on putting together a mission report for the collection of skirmishes they had fought.
A knock on the door pulled him away from trying to find a new way to say, "We shot the geth. Again." for the dozenth time. "Enter!" He yelled out. And please be something life threatening or incredibly important that absolutely must be dealt with right now. A moment later, his door slid open to reveal his favorite purple-suited engineer. "Tali! Whatcha need?" Not exactly an emergency, but so much better! Only thing that could improve this situation would be if she wasn't wearing that damn suit. No, wait, shit, that's inappropriate. Down boy!
"Commander. May I come in?"
Shepard frowned when he heard her use his rank. What the fuck? She doesn't use my rank anymore. Hell, she's had to catch herself from saying Spike the last few days when it was just me, her, and Garrus riding around in the Mako. Actually, why haven't I told Garrus to start calling me Spike as well? I gotta remember to do that next time he's in here bullshitting with me. "Of course, Tali." She took a few tentative steps inside. "And it's Spike, now, remember?"
She nodded mutely and took the seat across from him. He sat there and watched her, waiting for her to speak. Alright, so her hands are doing that cute little tap-dance across her stomach, her feet are bouncing like crazy, and she won't look at me. She didn't even respond when I reminded her that she could call me Spike. Something's up, and if she doesn't start talking in another few minutes, I'm gonna do something drastic. Don't know what it is yet, but it'll be drastic. Yeah, definitely drastic. Maybe do a little cha-cha in just my skivvies? No, I wanna get her attention, not scare her off.
A brief wait later, and before Shepard could come up with a suitably drastic measure, Tali spoke. "Commander, I need to talk to you about something."
"Always." Uh oh. I've never had a good conversation that started with "I need to talk to you about something." Two break-ups, a next-of-kin notification, and that civilian doc on Elysium. Shit.
"When we were on that last planet, we discovered what appeared to be the geth's base of operations in this cluster."
"I know, Tali. I was there, remember?"
This failed to get the hoped-for smile from his teammate. Instead, her hands tightened on her stomach and Shepard saw her whole body tighten for a brief moment. Seriously, Tali, come on! Give me something! I'm going outta my damn mind over here, since I can't read yours.
"While we were there you downloaded quite a lot of data from their servers." Shepard merely nodded, waiting for her to continue. "I have to ask you for a favor, Shepard."
I guess "Shepard" is better than "Commander," but it's still not what I want to hear. I've gotten addicted or something to hearing her say my name. Hah. Say my name. Maybe if I started singing that to her she'd unfreeze a little and tell me what's got her panties in a twist. Hmm, I wonder if she wears panties. She has to, right? Unless every quarian is running around commando. Ha, that's kinda funny to think about. Wait, what was I thinking about? Oh yeah. Why is she so uptight all of a sudden? I swear to all that's holy, if somebody's causing trouble for her onboard they'll be getting a lesson in "manners" that'd make Gunny McIntyre proud.
Tali took a deep breath, oblivious to the rambling thoughts of her team leader. Finally, she spoke again. "I would like to ask you for a copy of the data you captured from the geth. It could be the key to my people taking back our home world."
You're a real piece of work, you know that Spike? Did you never think to ask that maybe she'd like to send some of that geth crap home, so her people could protect themselves from the geth? Maybe you could actually try and think about someone other than yourself for once, eh Spike? "Technically, Tali, Alliance regulations are crystal clear about not allowing captured enemy data to be seen by anyone outside of the immediate chain of command."
"I understand, Shepard." She said sadly and started to rise from her chair.
Shepard's hand shot out and grabbed her arm, which he used to pull her forcefully back into her seat. "No, I really don't think you do. Here's a hint: usually, when I say 'technically,' it means that I'm about to do something completely different." For example, technically fraternization is against regulations but if you weren't in that suit I'll be damned if I wouldn't be making pass after pass after you. Yeah, I probably shouldn't say that out loud. If for no other reason than that I have a girlfriend. Plus, it would probably creep Tali right the hell out.
For the first time since she had entered his cabin, Tali looked up and met his eyes. Keelah! Does that mean he's going to give me a copy of that data? This could be the best Pilgrimage Gift in a hundred years! I'm so happy I could kiss him! Well, if I wasn't stuck inside a protective environment. And if he could see me as a young, attractive woman and not a little girl. Ancestors, I wish he looked at me the way I look at him. She sighed inwardly, not allowing him to see her consternation. Curse this suit!
"Thus, here you go." While she had been staring at her hands, engrossed in her own internal monologue, Shepard had directed his omni-tool to create a copy of the geth data on an OSD. He tossed the small disc over to her.
She caught it clumsily, and just stared at it for a moment. Eventually, she slipped it into one of the pockets on her suit. Thank you Ancestors for this gift. Not only have you made me your messenger for this data, which could save our people, but you also gave me Shepard. Without him, I don't know where I'd be. Likely dead. But I know that I wouldn't be this happy. In a sudden burst of movement and divine inspiration, she got up and moved around the table to him.
Startled, Shepard reacted on instinct and started to stand up. His attempted escape, however, was defeated when she forced him back down into his chair with her sudden hug. The strength of her friendly attack pinned him against the back of his chair, and her arms clenched tightly around his shoulders. After a brief second of shock, Shepard moved his arms around her and hugged her back. Their combined strengths drew them closer together, but Shepard's greater mass kept him stationary. Instead, Tali found herself suddenly straddling her commander, with her body settled squarely on his lap and her helmet buried in the crook of his neck.
"Thank you, Spike." She managed to squeak out, despite the tears running down her face and the tightness with which he held her. This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. I am so lucky that he was the one who found me that day in the Wards. I will never forget his kindness, no matter what happens. I only wish I could give him a sixth of the happiness he gives to me. I hope his girlfriend appreciates the amazing, wonderful, talented, caring man that she has. If she doesn't, she doesn't deserve him.
"You're welcome, Tal." Shepard said with a grin, but then was shocked to hear the quiet sniffles that indicated, to him at least, that Tali was crying. "Oh h- Tali, what's wrong -?" Aaaand that's not good. I can't believe I almost just called her honey! What the hell is wrong with you dude? Get it together before you do something you'll regret.
"Nothing's wrong, Spike." She answered, her voice muffled by his shoulder. "I'm just so happy. You've made me incredibly happy. You're wonderful." She stiffened suddenly. Keelah, why did I just say that? I can't say that to him. What if he figures out that the way that I feel about him? But how could he do that, when I'm not entirely sure what I feel about him? I know that I want to spend hours undressing him with my eyes and my hands and then exploring every inch of his body, but what does that mean? What if he makes me leave the ship because I've made him uncomfortable? Oh Ancestors, please don't make me leave him.
To her surprise, Shepard chuckled. "Yeah, I get that a lot. What can I say? I'm a one-man wrecking crew." To be brutally honest, I much prefer it when women say I'm wonderful after a night of wild crazy monkey sex, but with Tali, I'll take what I can get. A sudden, sobering realization hit him. His smile quickly turned to a frown, and Tali felt an odd, unidentifiable current run through his body. "So I guess this is good-bye?" From his voice, she would have thought that someone had just died.
"What? No. Why would it be that? No!" Why would he say that? Why does he want me to leave? Did I . . . what's the human word? Jinky? No. Jinx. Yes, that's it. Did I jinx myself? Why did I have to think about leaving?
"Well, you said that you were sent out on your Pilgrimage to find a gift to bring back to your people, something that proves that you won't be a drain on resources." He missed her smile when he said this, as it reaffirmed to her that he really did pay attention. "And now you have yours. So I guess there's really no reason for you to stay with us anymore."
He looks like someone just made him watch while they killed his izdengar. Don't worry, Spike. I won't leave you yet. Not while you're still fighting Saren. I told you I'd stay, and I will. Plus, staying lets me keep watching you- I mean, watching over you. Keelah, what's wrong with me? "I have many reasons to stay, Spike. Not the least of which is that I promised you I'd help fight Saren. I don't go back on my promises."
A wide smile lit up Shepard's face, which drew a smile from her in response. That's great to hear. I don't know why, but the very idea of her leaving makes me feel absolutely terrible. As he looked over his situation again, a twinkle of mischief flared in his eye. I've gotta say, she feels good in my lap. She's heavy, but it's more like she's dense. All packed up with muscles and brains and power and beauty, all in this wonderful little package. I can't believe I was worried about this conversation.
Before he could stop himself, he said the first thing that came to mind. "So you said Saren was only one of the reasons why you wouldn't leave?" After he finished his question, he turned his head to look at her. When she met his eyes, his voice took on a soft, sensual quality. "Care to share some of your other reasons?" Spike, what the hell? Can you please stop flirting for five goddamn minutes? Christ. You just got over your little mini-pity party because you thought she was gonna leave, now stop acting the fool and risking driving her away.
She was stunned into silence. What does he mean? Does he suspect that I keep daydreaming about doing things with him that quarians can't do outside of clean rooms? Or is he just making fun of me? I don't know. Argh! I hate not knowing! How can he know the things I want to do to him, or have him do to me? He couldn't know how badly I want to lick his chiseled chest and perfect abs, and leave a long trail of kisses and bites from his ears down to his shoulders, could he? Or that I want to mark him as my own? And he can't know how I long to feel his skin on mine, to feel his hands reach down and grab my rear and squeeze, to feel his lips on mine, to taste his tongue, to feel his hot, wet mouth on my skin- This was too much for her. The heat that had been slowly building in her core suddenly exploded, pushing her into a fully aroused state for the first time. As she felt the sudden need pulling at her from her nether regions, a shiver ran down her spine, and she squirmed in the throes of its delicious agony.
Her gyration, combined with the soft moan that leaked out of her throat, had an immediate impact on Shepard. While he had been doing his best to ignore his own semi-aroused state, when she wriggled around on his lap his body responded with an instant, aching hardness. Oh holy shit, that feels good. And oh, what a time to remember my ruminations on what quarians wear under their suits. Thanks for reminding me that there's a possibility that the only thing between me and Tali's soft, (I think) warm (probably) skin is her suit. Why does my brain hate me? This is not good. I mean, it feels incredibly phenomenal, but I can't let her feel that. What the hell would she say? Worse, what would she think? And what was with that moan? God help me, but that was the sexiest fucking sound I have ever heard in my entire fucking life. God damn it all to mother fucking hell! If she wasn't in that suit, and if the few higher functions of my brain that are still working weren't screaming that being out of her suit would be deadly, I would have had her right here on this fucking table, over this fucking chair, on the fucking floor, and in the fucking bed until neither of us could walk. Fucking hell I need a cold shower, and I need one right god damn now.
Shepard removed his hands from around her back, where, he realized to his amazement, he had still been pressing her tightly against his chest. Gently he placed his hands on her hips, trying desperately to ignore several things. The first was that her hips and waist were obviously strong and muscular, yet soft to the touch. The other was that when she was finally off his lap, there would no way he for him to hide his massive erection. And the last was that when he gripped her more tightly, intending to remove her from his lap, she squirmed and pressed herself down into his lap even more forcefully, and let out another soft little moan.
Oookay. She needs to leave right now. Right, right now. Or this situation is gonna go from bad to worse. He lifted her up off his lap, then turned her around and started pushing her towards the door. He kept both of his hands on her shoulders, and made certain that his excitement at their prior situation was exactly 180 degrees away from her field of vision. He slapped the haptic interface, then ushered her out and slammed the interface again, closing and locking the door.
"Sorry, Tali, but something's just come up-" Ha ha. That's actually pretty funny. "Erm, I mean, there's a mission briefing that I have to take, so I'll talk to you later, okay?" Then he turned and disappeared into his private shower, cranking the water temperature down as low as it could go. He spent the next fifteen minutes imagining that he was caught in an arctic rainstorm, while softly banging his head against the wall.
Outside the door, Tali was stuck as though petrified. Oh, my Ancestors, what have I done? What was I doing? What does Spike think of me now? And what was that? Maybe Auntie Raan will know. She finally regained control of her motor skills, and started making her way down to a secluded corner of the cargo bay where she could work on a letter to the woman whom she thought of as a second mother.