Tali raised her head up from the soft pillow. 'Let's see it's been about 3 days, so that means there's 22 days till Christmas day.' She thought to herself. She sat up and gazed down at Shepard's sleeping form. He was sleeping peacefully, although he was clutching his pelvis for some reason. She got up and hit the side of her helmet, turning off sleeping mode. "Time to get my day started." She said aloud. She looked once more at Shepard, and couldn't help but imagine that man in the shower. Tali blushed heavily from what her brain was imagining; maybe she should take up Kasumi on her offer to install a camera in Shepard's shower. That made her blush even harder and she proceeded to leave on the elevator. She pushed her slender finger against the button leading to the crew deck. As soon as the elevator doors opened, a great force slammed into Tali, pushing her up against the wall. "TALI! We have an emergency!" Kasumi said urgently. "Kasumi calm down! Please, and put me down." She said glaring at her friend. "Sorry, sorry." She said meekly.

"Kasumi what's wrong?"

"Well Kelly and I were going over the decorations we had, and it turns out we don't have any!"

"That doesn't seem so bad; we can just go get some from the Citadel stores."

"No Tali you don't understand, this is an earth holiday!"

"Yeah so?"

"Do you realize how hard it would be to find a place to buy Christmas decorations on the Citadel!?" At that Tali's face dropped and turned into one of horror.

"Oh Bosh 'tet! What are we going to do!? Wait," She said suddenly realizing something she should have realized before. "Why don't we just order some from Earth? I'm sure they have plenty there."

"Don't you think we tried that? They said it wouldn't make it until after Christmas!"

Tali felt like the whole world just collapsed in on itself. Shepard entrusted her with this one task and she blew it before even starting on it. She started growing nervous, sweat doing down her cheek and she was twirling her fingers. 'Okay this is no big deal; all we have to is remain calm and….oh keelah what are we going to do? Shepard's going to be so upset and I hate seeing him so sad.' Tali sighed and spoke to her friend again. "Kasumi see what we can do with what we have, I'll go down to the Citadel and see if I can find anything that resembles Christmas decorations." Kasumi nodded and disappeared. Tali headed up to CIC and walked to the air lock. "Joker I'm heading out, just tell Shepard I went to do a bit of shopping."

"Aye Aye, Ms. Vas Normandy." He said in a sarcastic tone. Tali rushed out of the airlock and into the crowded areas of the Citadel.

Tali pushed through the crowds, trying to reach the markets. She finally reached one labeled, Zakera's geek shop. 'Oh that's just perfect…' She groaned in her head. 'Well then again Shepard does call me his Adorable Geek, so maybe it's a compliment on Earth.' She beamed thinking of him. She walked inside and was amazed at all the gadgets and knick knacks on the wall. She reached for a shelf and got a snow globe with a miniature Shepard, holding an M8-Avenger inside. "I think I'll buy this for myself." She grabbed a crate by the handle that was sitting in a pile with other crates and put the snow globe inside. Tali walked over to the counter top and ringed the bell. Suddenly a human male, roughly taller than Tali was, smiled and greeted her. "Hello customer, what can I do for you?"

"Hi, I'm um looking for some Christmas decorations, you wouldn't happen to have some would you?"

"Hmm I'll have to check with my wife in the back." The human walked over to a door and opened it up. "Hey honey! Do we have any Christmas decorations!?"

"What!?"

"I said do we have any Christmas decorations!"

"Hang on let me come to you! I can't quite hear you." The male stepped back as an Asari came out and greeted her husband with a kiss. "What is it you said?"

"I was asking if we had any Christmas decorations in the back."

"I think we have a few, but not a whole lot. How much is needed."

"Let me ask. Excuse me! Miss? How much do you need?"

"I need enough to decorate the entire interior of a ship." The Asari and Human gave a sad look as the man leaned over the counter. "I'm sorry, but we don't have enough, we only have roughly enough to maybe fill an apartment."

Tali sighed and crossed her arms. What was she going to do? There wasn't nearly enough to decorate the entire ship. And a shipment of decorations wouldn't come till after Christmas, 'Keelah what will I have to do.' She thought to herself, clutching her helmet in her hands. She sighed and paid for the decorations they did have and bought a few extra trinkets. Then she walked out of the store and sat down at a food court. She ordered some steak paste and grumbled to herself. The citadel bustled about her, people bumping in to each other, rushing all over to get where they needed, only a few realizing the special occasion that was coming up. Tali slowly consumed the paste, wishing her intuition to kick in, if she had any. "Is this seat taken? Or are humans not allowed?" Tali looked up to the friendly face of Jacob Taylor. "Oh hey Jacob." She said, melancholy laced in her voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just picking up a gift for the secret Santa thing, don't tell anyone but mines Kelly." He said in a hushed tone. Tali just waved him off without even a chuckle, simply swallowing her paste. Jacob sat down in the chair across from her, a look of concern on his face. "Hey now what's the matter? Commander wouldn't put out?" He laughed as Tali weakly punched his arm. "No you Bosh' tet."

"I just can't seem to find any decorations for the ship, the most I found was a snow globe and enough to decorate Shepard's cabin." She sighed and finished the last of her paste. "Yeah, I would be upset too. But hey don't beat yourself up too much about it; I think Shepard's going to love you decorating his cabin anyway." He said with a smile. "It could be worse you know."

"How could it get worse?" She asked, barely paying attention.

"You could be decorating the ship for every alien holiday." He said with a laugh. But Tali wasn't laughing, instead her face lit up bright. Her mood cheered and it felt like the Ancestors were singing to her. "OH THANK YOU JACOB THANK YOU THANK YOU!" She hugged his head and squeezed tight. "Quick take this back to the Normandy and put them in my spot in engineering, I got work to do." She paid for the meal and ran off. Jacob just sat there with the most confused look on his face. "I don't know what's gotten into that girl, but I better hurry up and get that gift for Miranda, or she'll start lecturing me on how perfect she is and perfect timing and all that bull." He got up, grabbed Tali's stuff and walked to the nearest Adult toys store.

"Garrus is the coast clear?" Shepard asked in a hushed tone, hiding behind several bushes. Garrus looked over the flora and watched Tali run from the table and into the nearest shop. "Yep she's gone, we can move out now." Garrus hopped over the bush and signaled Shepard to follow. Shepard crawled through and sat next to Garrus. "Alright Garrus here's the plan. I'm going to distract Tali with my amazing actor skills, flirt a little and what not, while you get that filtration system with the money I gave you."

"Remind me again why we can't do this while Tali is on the Normandy?"

"Because Garrus she could come up while I'm installing it and I could be caught! And I have to install more than one so there's double the chance of getting caught. Plus this is a hell of a lot more fun than just doing it while she is on the Normandy."

"Good point." Garrus walked over the bridge, with Shepard following close behind. Shepard headed into the store that Tali had walked into. He saw her picking out several decorations from an old Turian holiday Garrus told them about. Slowly he crept ever so carefully, making sure she didn't see him. Then at the right moment, he grabbed by the waist and hoisted her in the air. She screamed for a moment until she saw who it was. Then she started hitting him demanding to be put down. All Shepard could do was laugh and drop her into his arms. "You know Tali this isn't the first time we've been in this position." He said with a wide grin on his face. "Oh can it you bosh 'Tet." She said, smacking him on the rear. "Don't scare me like that!" She said through her giggling. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Just browsing, thought about scaring you in public, maybe save the Galaxy again from the Shopping mall of doom!" He said in a mocking tone. She crossed her arms over her chest, although she was laughing at his joke. "I swear Shepard what am I going to do with you?"

"Maybe you can join me in my cabin Ms. Vas Normandy?"

"Hmm and what would you have me do in your cabin?" She said in a flirtatious tone. "Just the usual, risk your life and make me the luckiest Commander in the Galaxy." She purred at that last bit and got ever so closer to his chest. "Maybe we can test your luck now…" She said as she dragged her finger across his chest. Shepard glanced over at the entrance, seeing Garrus there standing with the filters he needed. "Yes, let's do that Miss Zorah." He carried her off the Citadel and to the Normandy.

4 hours later, Tali attached her helmet to her suit. She made sure all the seals were set and stood up. Arching her back, releasing all the tension from it, she proceeded down the elevator, and to the CIC. However she could barely stand up as she felt weak in the knees. 'Keelah he's still got it; I swear I will never get tired of getting sick.' Tali waltzed over to the air lock, checking her Omni tool to make sure her order had arrived. Satisfied, she opened the doors to be greeted by a volus merchant. "Hello, please sign here for the decorations." He handed her a data pad and pen. She signed it and handed it back to him. "Thank you for your time, alright boys bring it in!" He shouted. Box after box was carried in, filled to the brim with Christmas decorations, however almost none of them were actually meant for the holiday. Kelly gawked at all the stuff that was being taken down to the cargo hold. Tali smirked and walked over to the clearly shocked Chambers. "Am I good, or am I good?" She said, learning that expression from Shepard after he won a bet against Garrus in a fight against a Krogan. "But how…I mean what…." Kelly's jaw looked like it was about ready to fall off. "Tali, how did you manage to get all this Christmas stuff!?"

"It was simple really, most of it isn't Christmas decorations, they're decorations from holidays for all species." Kelly looked at Tali with confusion written on her face. "Look, I thought to myself, what to do if we don't have enough decorations. Then I realized, why not take decorations for other holidays, mix it in, and so everyone can celebrate with their own species traditional decorations for a Christmas! It's a Xeno-mas!" Tali proudly proclaimed. Kelly smiled at her friend and looked on. "Tali you really are one clever bosh 'Tet." Tali growled but laughed looks like she was rubbing off on her.