I'm taking a break from part 3 for right now, but I'll be back after Christmas with a new chapter. In the meantime, enjoy this Christmas special that I wrote for you. Merry Christmas!

Chapter 28: A White Christmas

Downtown Toronto

"Okay done!" Tali said. The young quarian stretched and yawned as she looked at the clock; it was showing ten at night. She had been at this for days, and it was now done…the creation of her new defense drone. She opened her omni-tool and activated the small sliver sphere on her desk, it floated above her…so far so good and then it started to spark and then smoke and then it dropped on the desk with a light thud. The quarian's eye twitched in annoyance. "Bosh'tet!" She then checked the sphere and saw the problem…the device to spawn the drone had shorted out. She sighed, she shouldn't be so surprised quarian tech last a long time but even they too have their expiration dates.

She decided to take break, Tali got up and looked out from her window and smiled. It was snowing in Toronto, she has been on Earth for a couple of months now and the beauty of the planet never ceases to amaze her. This was the first time she had ever seen snow, it was white fluffy and looked so inviting…from her father's stories of their homeworld, Rannoch didn't have something like snow it was much too arid for it but Earth was a hodge-podge of different weather. Some days it was raining, some days it was sunny…and now it was snowing, with so much variation it no wonder humans were so unpredictable, their planet was as random as they were. Her trance was broken when she heard a thud outside the room, Tali went to check it out and found her boyfriend putting some stuff up. "Wayne, what are you doing?"

Shepherd was startled by her voice and lost his balance on the ladder, falling in the box below the ladder. Tali giggled as she saw the big bad spectre, struggle to get out of a cardboard box…Shepherd was many things but clumsy was not one of them. Shepherd grunted. "If you're quite done making fun of me, could you help me up?" he said annoyed. Tali kept it together enough for her to pull the human out of the box, when she got him out he saw green bristles sticking to his ass, she lost control and laughed out loud. It has been three months since the charges against him for the Bahak incident was overturned and he was release from Alliance holding. Using the money he had saved up, Shepherd had bought an apartment near Alliance HQ…a quaint 20th century style two bedroom apartment that was updated for today's conveniences. It even came with an old decontamination unit so Tali could take off her suit sometimes. Shepherd wiped the green bristle off of him and gave an annoyed look at his still laughing girlfriend.

Tali came up to Shepherd and kissed him on the cheek, the spectre tried his best to keep his annoyed look but couldn't keep a straight face and smirked and kissed Tali's lips. She looked at the corner that he was working on, and saw those same green bristle line walls along with the colored lights. The wall had images of a human in a red outfit riding on a vehicle being pulled by brown and white creatures she had never seen before and a white thing with a pipe and a hat. In the corner, she saw a small tree with decorations; Tali looked at Shepherd with raised brow. "Wayne, what is all of this?"

Shepherd gave a big grin. "Decorations for Christmas" He went back to the ladder and finished putting up the green bristle, when he was done he opened his omni-tool and the den lit up with color and sounds of music. Tali was impressed, he went all out with this.

"What is Christmas?" Tali asked.

Shepherd got down to the floor. "Christmas is a holiday that humans celebrate every 25th of December" he said. He then stretched and yawned. "I'm surprised to see you out of your hole; I guess you're done with your new drone, then?"

Tali sighed and sat on the couch. "No, I need a new re-spawn engine for the drone…a lot of parts needs to replace due to being old" she said. "But never mind that, another holiday? Didn't we just celebrate a holiday last month, with the tookey and the maconi and chee?"

Shepherd chuckled. "Turkey and macaroni and cheese" he corrected. "But yeah, we did, Thanksgiving"

"Keelah, I don't think I've ever met a race so obsessed with holidays"

"Oh? What kind of holidays do quarians celebrate?" Shepherd asked. Tali lowered her head, the Migrant Fleet didn't have any holidays to celebrate and if they did it was probably lost due to losing Rannoch to the geth. They had more pressing things to worry about anyway, like a failed oxygen filter or if a pirates and slavers attack them. Tali felt a bit envious at the humans, it must have felt nice not worrying about survival all the time… "Hey Rookie, you okay?"

Tali snapped to attention. "Hmm, yeah? As for your question, I don't really know" she said. "Other than the banquet for a successful pilgrimage, I don't know any other celebrations" Shepherd looked a bit sad, Tali decided to change the subject. "So what's Christmas about anyway?"

"Christmas is about togetherness and family" Shepherd said. "There's usually a big feast on the day and then the best part…"

"Which is?"

Shepherd smirked. "The presents" He pointed to the small tree in the corner. "We put presents under the tree and then on Christmas day we open them up"

"I like the family thing, but the tree and presents sounds so weird" Tali said.

"It's not that weird…" Shepherd said. Tali raised her brow. "Okay maybe a little weird…but it's tradition"

Tali shook her head. "Whatever you say…" The quarian yawned and saw the clock, it was almost twelve. She got up and kissed Shepherd on the forehead. "I'll see you later, Wayne, I need to get up and go to the store for new parts"

"Err…that may be a problem…"

Tali looked back. "Why?" She asked.

"Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve and a lot of stores will either be close or you will have a mob of people trying to finish up their shopping" Shepherd said. "After that, the stories will be closed on Christmas and won't be open until the next day" Shepherd yawned. "We can get up early and go out, I need some items anyway"

"What for?"

"The party we're having on Christmas" Shepherd said. Tali looked at him; she didn't hear him say anything about a party. Before she could speak, Shepherd continued. "Before you say anything, I did tell you about the party but you were always out like a light" Tali blushed, as she somewhat vaguely remembered that…

"So, whose coming?" she asked.

"Kaiden, Lia, Kasumi" Shepherd said. "Donnelly and Gabby, James, Joker and I think Adams"

"Sounds good…" Tali went to the bed room, until Shepherd stopped her and kissed her lips. Tali blushed. "What was that for?" Shepherd smiled softly and pointed at the edge of the doorway. On it was a plant hung by a ribbon, she looked at it strangely…why would anyone hang a plant on top of a doorway was beyond her…humans were so strange. "I take it this means something"

"Another tradition of ours, when there is a mistletoe under a doorway and a person is under it, that person gets a kiss" he said. "It also a sign of good luck if it's a person you care about…" Tali smiled and kissed Shepherd on the lips, she might not understand this Christmas thing but that was one tradition she could get behind. Tali grabbed his hand and pulled the spectre into their room.

The Next Day

"Keelah…" The next day Shepherd and Tali met up with Kasumi, Kaiden, and Lia on the street for some shopping for party supplies. They had expected downtown to be packed with shoppers, but it was like a feeding frenzy at some of the stores. Some of the shoppers were pushing each other to get at an item on their list, some were racing down the street to beat others to a store with better deals, it was chaos. "Is it always like this?" Tali asked amazed.

"Yep, holiday shopping is probably the closest thing we have to a bloodsport" Kaiden said. "You're lucking to experience it, Tali" Kaiden after Shepherd's trial had been very busy with media interviews, press releases…though it was not his choice; the Committee had been pushing him hard as the brand new face of the Alliance even though Shepherd was acquitted. Nowadays he was mostly preparing for the reapers when he wasn't spending time with his parents.

"Yeah…lucky…" Tali said.

Lia smiled. "I think Kaiden was joking, it was never this bad on Terra Nova though" Lia was giddier than usual today, Shepherd wondered if it was because she had a boyfriend now. Things had been heating up for James and Lia for a while now, and the large human was even nice enough help Lia and Kasumi set up next door to his apartment. Lia smiled as he saw some kids get on the lap of a large human in red. Tali tilted her head.

"Who is that?" She asked. "I've been seeing images of him all over town…"

"Santa Claus" Kaiden said.

"Sana Klaws…?"

"Santa Claus" Lia corrected. "He's a large red human that flies around the world delivering presents to good children in one night, and he has workshop in the north pole with elves and things" The team looked at her strangely, and Lia blushed a little. "I heard it from the human kids from the town near the commune when I was a child"

"So the commune celebrates Christmas?" Shepherd asked.

"Yes, well the younger members do, but the older members find the whole thing strange" She said. "Either way, they were played along mostly because they wanted to see Santa, image their disappointment when they found out it was an old human legend." The group went their separate ways looking for what they were going to bring to party tomorrow. Shepherd and Tali had finished their shopping, though it was not easy…Kaiden was right when he said shopping was like a blood sport, there was times the quarian wasn't going to make out of a store with her limbs intact. Forget the reapers; shopping was a real war; however things calmed down by three and four as the shops started to close for tomorrow. As the couple began to walk back to their apartment, they heard the sound of people singing as they went closer to the sound they saw a group of people singing while other people were watching.

Shepherd chuckled and Tali looked at him. "What is it?"

"Those people over there are caroling, singing Christmas songs to get people into the holiday mood" he said. "Nowadays this considered to be very old fashioned, as we have intercoms to do the same thing and yet look at the crowd." Tali looked as more and more people came around watching the carolers sing. "I guess its just shows you, just because things are old doesn't they're out of date"

"Did you see a lot of them on Mindoir?"

"Nope, but I remember when I saw a group of them sing, I thought it was so lame" Shepherd said. "But now its one of my happiest memories with my family…" Shepherd then grew silent, and lowered his head. "My family…"

"Wayne?" Tali asked concerned.

"I have to be honest with you rookie…there's a reason I decided to celebrate this year" Shepherd said. "I just wanted to recapture that feeling of joy I used to have as a kid, celebrate that was something special with the person in my life" Tali wrapped her arms around Shepherd's waist, hugged him. Shepherd just wanted something to enjoy that didn't involve the reapers somehow, he looked at this landscape of happiness and beauty and saw a landscape of blood and ruin when the reapers came. In the back of his head, this wasn't going to last…but the best thing he could do was enjoy this moment with the woman he loved.

"Wayne, I may not understand this holiday, but I do understand that it makes you happy" Tali said. "That makes me happy" Shepherd smiled at her and kissed her forehead and the two lovers watched the carolers and for a moment they forgotten the reapers. All they needed was each other and this moment, it was just right…