Chapter 4

He realized keenly one morning after a particularly interesting dream, that in the two weeks he'd been on the Normandy, he hadn't had sex once. Of course he'd gone longer than that before, but that situation was easily corrected in a crowded place such as the Citadel. Here on the small ship, however, a few problems stood in the way of his release.

He didn't want a relationship. He only wanted a way to periodically calm his libido, and he doubted that an arrangement of casual sex with another crew member on a military ship would be a good idea. Even if this hadn't been an issue, he needed only to look around the ship to remind himself: he was the only turian here. And unless he planned on rolling around with one of those floppy-looking humans (or Wrex), he was shit out of luck until the next time they docked.

He hadn't even considered Tali.

She approached him one day in the mess hall, sitting across the table from him.

"Hello, Garrus."

"Tali," he'd responded, his mouth still full of dehydrated meat.

They sat in silence for a few moments, and he looked up at her.

"You're not eating. Did you want to talk about something?"

She shook her head. "No, not really. It's just sort of lonely being the only quarian on a human ship. I wanted some companionship, and thought maybe you would too."

He shrugged. "Sure, why not? I'm guessing you quarians are a more friendly lot than turians. I've never really been lonely before. We're raised to be self-sufficient, so we don't rely on others much. That being said, I don't mind the company."

"I can't believe it doesn't bother you to be alone," she murmured. "I'd rather be with someone I didn't like than be by myself." She caught his expression and hurried to explain herself. "No offense intended, of course. I have nothing at all against you."

He laughed quietly. "And I, you."

"So, do turians get lonely in other ways?"

"What do you mean?"

Her voice was a bit too casual when she replied. "You know, for contact."

His brow plates rose in shock.

"Oh. That. Well, yeah."

"So do quarians." He could almost hear the mischievous smile in her voice.

Wasn't she still practically a child? She had only just started her pilgrimage a few months ago.

"Look, Tali, you seem very nice, so I don't want to let this conversation get out of hand... I don't want to start any kind of romantic relationship while I'm on the Normandy. Anything that could create tension between crew members is... probably not a good idea. But if you need a friend to talk to, I'll be around."

"Oh. Okay. Uh, thank you, Garrus."

He couldn't see beneath her suit, so he didn't know whether she was embarrassed or not. She stood up to walk away, but her voice still sounded friendly.

"Talk to you later."

Well, that was awkward.

His hand rose to rap lightly on her door. He'd drawn the short straw, so he was the one who had to check on her. Most of the rest of the crew members were too scared.

When the response to his knocking was an infuriated, "WHAT?" that was painfully loud, even from behind the door, he understood their fear.

"Hey, Shepard, you've been in there for a while, and some of us were getting worried."

He heard her groan. "Fine. Come in."

He opened the door and saw her sprawled out face down on her bed, tangled in sheets. His jaw went slack.

"Have you been sleeping this whole time?"

"Yeah," she moaned into her pillow, obviously still tired.

"Shepard, it's been three days."

"Five more minutes?" she bargained pathetically, her eyes still closed.

He shook his head at her. How had she slept for so long?

"I think you should get up now. Half the crew thinks you're dead, and the other half is taking bets on the exact number of copies of Fornax you smuggled in there."

He ducked, fully prepared for projectiles, but to his surprise she only muttered back, "Tell them sixteen and get the hell out."

He smirked. "Really? Sixteen?"

"No. Two hundred eighty-three. Now get out."

Obviously she was too tired to care about anything other than sleep, so he sighed, marching to her bed. She had already passed out again. She was still sprawled with her limbs at awkward angles. Her mouth was slightly open as she breathed deeply, the threat of drool a very real possibility. He stared down at her, shaking his head. How could she be so weak and so powerful at the same time? He took a risk and grabbed her by the ankles, pulling her off the mattress.

As soon as her skin touched the cold, metal floor, she was conscious and glowing with biotics.

Garrus yelped as she threw a lift at him, bumping against the ceiling and walls in the small cabin. Kaidan rushed in at the sound.

"What happened? Is everything okay?"

He let out a cry as he was also caught in the lift, and the two bumped together awkwardly, limbs flailing.

"Get off, Alenko!"

"Argh! What in the world...?"

Shepard rubbed sleep out of her eyes and stared up at them. "Did one of you try to wake me up?"

"He did it!" they yelled in unison, pointing at one another as they cartwheeled through the air above her head. She ducked to avoid a boot to the face.

"Shepard, help me down and I'll toss Alenko out the airlock for you."

"What? I just came in to help when I heard someone screaming like a little girl."

"Turians don't scream."

"I think I'm going to be sick..."

Shepard grabbed a change of clothes and exited her room, throwing a casual, "You both deserve it," over her shoulder on the way out, ignoring their panicked protests and shrieks.

When the lift field finally collapsed, dropping Garrus on top of Kaidan with a resounding crash, Garrus stormed out of the cabin in search of the commander.

She was on the observation deck speaking to Liara, the asari they'd found at the dig site about a week ago. They both looked very serious. Garrus didn't care.

"The hell was that for, Shepard? I was just checking up on you."

"Stop squawking, Bird," she chided. "We're in the middle of a conversation."

"You slept for three full days. How is that not important?" he demanded.

"That's what we're talking about. Liara thinks the reason I slept so long is because of the beacon on Eden Prime - well, more specifically, because she helped me make sense of the vision. All that strain on my mind wore me out."

"So, does it make sense to you now?"

She shrugged. "It's some sort of warning, but I don't understand what it's about. We got a comm from the Council while I was sleeping though - there's a Salarian STG team on a planet called Virmire who may have information about Saren. I guess the message was mostly static, so it's not really clear what's going on, but they may be in trouble. We'll need a ground team to investigate."

He sighed. "Fine. But let me sit down for a few minutes. I'm still dizzy from that damn lift field."

"Lift field?" Liara asked, confused.

"I have it recorded on my omni-tool, check it out!" Shepard grinned, motioning the asari closer as Garrus groaned and headed quickly away from the laughter that followed after him.

(A/N): I'm not overly fond of the Tali romances. She seems like a little girl until the third game, in my opinion. Weird for Shepard and Garrus, who act so much older than she does, to be interested in her. Yell at me for dissing the GarrusxTali and ShepardxTali if you want. Sorry for the somewhat boring chapter, hopefully the sparse bits of humor made up for it.