The Show Must Go On (The Series had landed!)

"You slept with him?!"

Tali didn't even look up from the paper work she was going through.

"Adrian, who I sleep with is none of your business." That earned her a sputtered series of sounds that might have been words. At the very least it got Tali to look up at her younger brother who had what she could only describe as a confused expression on his face. She was pretty sure he was confused as to what the proper response he was supposed to give.

And she was sympathetic to his plight. Pretty much universally across all the species it would have been clear cut had she been the younger sibling and he the older. Older brothers protected younger sisters. They beat up and chased away boyfriends and always pretended their little sisters were innocent up until they got married. And little sisters weeded out bad girlfriends to make sure their older brothers weren't dating a crazy girl. At least that is what Tali thought things were like for older brothers and younger sisters.

With them it wasn't so clear cut. Tali was the older one, the one that had to forge the path first in their family while Adrian followed. It made her more independent, more outgoing and more capable. Still, Adrian was a man and even though gender had nothing to do with one's ability to do anything, it was hard to turn off that primal part of the brain that told him he should be protecting his sister. From what exactly, Tali certainly didn't know and she suspected her brother didn't either.

"If it will make you feel better you could go beat him up. He's supposed to come get me for dinner in about 10 minutes." That earned her another sputtering of noises to which she just rolled her eyes and went back to her paperwork.

It was an amusing thought even if Adrian would never do such a thing. She knew that he practically worshipped Garrus. Their father wasn't home much and when he was he was often in his office busy working. So during his formative years, a still ongoing process mind you, Garrus had appeared and served as a male role model. Hell, Tali knew that the reason Adrian had gone into C-Sec was entirely because of Garrus. Add in the fact that Garrus had taken Adrian under his wing at work. So Garrus was his boss, his friend, his mentor and a seasoned military veteran who knew way more fighting styles than what was taught at C-Sec. Yeah, any fight between Garrus and Adrian would be hopelessly one sided.

"He's my boss sis. Besides he'd kick my butt and we both know that. It's just. I don't know. I feel like I should be doing something about this."

"No you shouldn't. It's sweet, Adrian, really. But your sister is a big girl and can sleep with whoever she wants to. Just like you're a big boy and can sleep with whoever you want to. Now dating on the other hand... You sure you don't want me to set you up? I've seen the last few you dated."

"Okay fine. And no, I can get my own dates. Even if they don't meet your standards."

"I meddle because I care brother dearest."

"Love you too sis. Well I'm going to not go kick his ass and go find myself a date that you will disapprove of for the premiere. Oh hi, Garrus. Bye Garrus."

"Adrian." Garrus said in way of hello and goodbye before walking over and giving Tali a peck on the cheek. She tried very hard not to blush. It was how he greeted her now and she found it very sweet of him. "Whose ass was he not going to kick?"

"Oh yours. He finally found out that I spent a night in your bed."

Garrus laughed. "That was over two months ago."

"Solana must have been bored. You know she likes to tease him about us." Tali responded. There were three people that know that Tali had slept in Garrus' bed. Tali, Garrus and Solana because Tali told her everything. They were practically sisters and had treated each other as such for as long as Tali could remember. This of course meant that Solana knew about everything that happened between Garrus and Tali while poor Adrian was kept out of the loop as it were. So Solana had taken it upon herself to fill in the poor boy. Just usually not in a timely manner. Instead she saved information to drop on Adrian for when she was bored and wanted a good distraction. Tali always told her his reactions after all.

"All done?" Garrus asked as he watched her tidy up her desk.

"Where are we going?" Tali asked as she gathered up the last of her things and put them in her purse.

"I found a new place up on the Presidium. Does all sorts of fusion food."

"Sounds like fun."

Things were going well in her life. They had managed to move forwards, he wasn't actively mad at her anymore, and their mutual life had resumed its course. They spent time together, had their usual dinners and a sprinkling of outings that she tentatively labeled 'dates'. More importantly they talked with each other on set. She had been right, she deeply enjoyed the time she got to spend working with him. Performance arts might have taken him out of his depth but he adapted well and gave good performances. He even offered suggestions on how action scenes could be redone to be more realistic or more dramatic.

Of course there was a collective sigh of relief when they started talking to each other on set. There had been considerable tension amongst different groups for different reasons. The crew held Garrus up in some regard because of the quarians telling his story. And at the same time Tali was the big boss. So everyone just walked on egg shells whenever they had been remotely close to each other or when they shared a scene.

The cast didn't like the tension between the two off camera. On camera they managed to make it work and the writers limited their interaction. It did give their characters a great undercurrent between them. Off camera the cast felt like they had to pick a side but then felt bad about whoever they picked.

So when they showed up to work together talking with each other there was great rejoicing. Actually there was a great collecting of winnings by Liara. The shy Maiden was quick to explain that a betting pool on when they would make up had started and she picked the correct date. Only after having been coerced into partaking by the other cast members. Liara had been so embarrassed about the whole thing that she gave the money to Tali and Garrus. Her reasoning was that the others shouldn't have made a wager in the first place so they deserved to lose their money. And since Garrus and Tali were the subject of the bet, they should get the money. Tali turned around and used the winnings to get extra snacks for everyone that day.

Making a TV show was a slow process. Especially one as detailed and massive in scope as what Tali had put together. In 4 months of being an official production, they had shot only 3 episodes. A lot of the first few weeks was handling the legal portion. Tali had created a company to handle all of this and keep it separate from everything she managed or owned. Then there was hiring a director willing to do the project and who shared her vision. Same with producers, and writers, and crew. Then came the great casting call and weeding down the many hopefuls to the select few that made up the main cast. Then there was support actors to be hired. And extras. And all of that took money and a mountain of paperwork written in legalese.

Then there was trying to get any station to give them a time slot to air their pilot episode. A time slot that wasn't doomed to failure. Tali had had to sacrifice her idea of having audience interaction with her work. No network was willing to touch Mass Effect if that was to be in every episode. Even then she also had to rebrand the series into something of a made for TV movie and a regular TV show to get sponsorships and ads to help fund it. She could have just made her own TV network but she didn't have the money for that.

She hadn't told anyone but if the pilot wasn't a hit, that was it. She'd spent all 10 million credits of her birthday money on making the three episodes they had made. If she had been stingier maybe they could have made a fourth episode but she wanted to have solid production values to help sell the show.

The premiere Adrian spoke of was the premiere of the pilot episode. She'd finally managed a favorable deal with a network that actually gave Mass Effect a chance. She'd spent the last of her money on advertisement for the show once they had a solid air date. It was a bit silly but a lot of the cast and crew were going to meet at a TV theatre for the big night.

TV theatres were just what you would think them to be. A movie theatre style screen that played a feed of a certain channel all day long. They were very popular for sporting events in particular and did serve food and drink. Tali had booked one for the occasion and had invited the press to come join them.

Everyone was excited and in a good mood on premiere night. Everyone was dressed up and had brought friends and family to join them. The place was packed. Even a few media outlets showed up, though it was junior reporters who had been sent to field this story. The only reporter of note was Emily Song, a friend of Garrus'. Still Tali was optimistic. Some paparazzi had even showed up. The cast was in costume and had posed for some photos. Tali just hoped those were the photos that would be used in tomorrow's articles.

She didn't watch the showing herself. She spent those two hours watching people watch it. She'd seen it already, having the final say on what cut they broadcasted. She felt good about it though. It certainly looked nice even if it was an old story being told. Heroes racing against time to stop a madman from ushering the end of all life as they knew it. Who hadn't told that story before? But Tali was sure that their telling of it would be interesting enough to be picked up more permanently by a network.

Solana was there of course and dressed to kill. She was wearing a short cocktail dress that Tali knew that Garrus hated seeing his sister in. Usually because it showed off all of her and meant she attracted a few suitors. And he usually ended up having to chat with them after Solana grew bored with the flavor of the month.

Adrian was dressed in his C-Sec dress uniform. He had finer made suits at home but he was very proud of his association with Citadel Security. And girls did like men in uniform. He was right though. Tali definitely did not approve of his date. She was had a bit of a reputation of chasing only rich men and rumor had it she was even willing to get knocked up to catch one. Tali would have to warn her brother sometime during the evening.

Cast members had invited some family. Jane was the exception having no family to invite. Instead she had been abducted by Liara and her family for the evening. Liara's very regal looking parents were both Matriarchs of some standing who had been together almost 500 years. Liara's older sister was a Matron who was rather heavy with child at the moment. Her hanar bond-mate wasn't able to attend on account of an emergency at work.

Kaiden had a sister show up as well as a young man. Tali wanted to say it was his boyfriend but she wasn't sure. Ashley's three brothers all showed up with their wives as did a lovely young lady that spent most of the night at Ashley's side. Lastly Wrex had brought a nephew who he kept calling Runt. Tali wasn't sure if that was his given name or a nickname bestowed upon him by the old krogan. Either way the kid was shy and polite and put up with Wrex bragging that Runt had won some big krogan competition. Maw riding Tali thought it was.

Oh course there were Garrus and herself. They arrived as a couple, him dressed up in C-Sec armor and her in the environmental suit she wore for the show. The final suit was a bit embarrassing. Because they were shooting for a Teen rating but still wanted to sexualize the character, Tali's suit had extra padding in the thighs, hips and rear. This gave her a very pronounced lower portion of her body. Apparently, big breasts scared the ratings board something fierce but blowing up the lower half of a woman was just fine. At least they made it look natural. Her height helped with that a lot. And she could hide behind that face mask all day, negating the need for makeup.

Garrus on the other hand, had on more make up then she'd ever seen on a person but it did a great job of hiding his scars. She could only tell he had scars because she was right next to him and knew what to look for. Garrus had been very pragmatic about the makeup. For the episodes they had digitally touched him up where needed and had otherwise shot him on his good side as often as possible. For the premiere he had wanted to match what his character looked like and had spent over an hour in the makeup chair to achieve that end. After all, TV was for pretty people and if he was going to be on TV he had to play the part. No one ever said anything during the premiere or after it at the after party. Except Emily Song, to rib her friend a little.

People seemed to enjoy the screening. But it was a largely bias crowd. Tomorrow evening she'd get to see the reviews and the rating numbers and know if her first business venture as an adult was a success or failure.

The after party did do a good job of taking her mind off of that. After the screening Tali had enlisted Solana's help in getting out of the hot suit that was her costume, and changed into a nice evening gown for the party. It was strapless but that was all the more indecent Tali was willing to go. And besides, her dress clung in all the right places and showed off enough to be appealing without giving away everything. Unlike Solana's outfit. But Solana was a much more outgoing girl who was trying to attract some attention. Tali already had someone's attention and didn't need to do much to peak his interest. Besides, giving him something to look forward to could be a very powerful tool as well.

And he did notice right away. "You should have told me you were going to change. I would have brought a change as well."

"I like seeing you dressed up like this. All geared up and ready to take on the world." Tali cooed as she settled easily into his side, his arm firmly around her waist. "Come on, we should mingle."

Garrus groaned but let himself be steered towards a small clump of people. He hated mingling at fancy parties because of how impersonal it all was. But if he did the mingling thing he might get her to do a few more energetic or challenging dances with him that evening. She didn't like to show off just how good a dancer she was if she wasn't on a stage and he just loved doing exactly that.

It was a good party. Garrus danced a few times with his sister to cheer her up after she hadn't caught anyone that evening. Even Adrian danced with her once to help cheer her up. Tali danced with her brother as well as with a few other people. Practically the entire cast shared a dance with each other. And of course there was the informal dancing as well. And that is when everyone found out that Jane couldn't really dance. At all. And that having a mosh pit with a pair of krogan is not recommended. No bones were broken, no one concussed and everyone had a good time. All in all, it was a good party.

Tali and Garrus were among the first to leave. It was a bit early yet, only 11 pm but social rules were social rules. It would be rude to leave before the boss and Tali was the boss. While she had tried to at least learn everyone's first names, she didn't know who were married or had kids or what their day to day lives were like. So she left at a respectable hour so that others could do the same.

"Headed home?" Garrus asked.

"Yes. Carry to escort me?" Tali asked even though she knew he was going to anyway.

"It would be my pleasure." Garrus offered her his arm which she took and they set off at a very leisurely pace. "Could I tempt you with an alternate destination?"

"Perhaps."

"What about my place?"

"I don't know. Solana said she was going to try to fish some guy out at the after after party."

"What about my place?" Garrus asked again.

"Oh." Tali stopped making the turian beside her stop as well. She hadn't been in his room since that night. Not that she was afraid to go so she'd have some good memories of his room but she was unsure of just what he was proposing. To date, their physical relationship consisted of one kiss that she stole when she was 15, the kiss he gave her for her 22nd birthday, hand holding on 89 occasions, and 16 kisses on the cheek. Not that she kept track.

"I actually said that out loud didn't I? You know what, forget I said that. I've had"

"Okay." Tali cut him off. "Your place." She emphasized. She wasn't still wasn't sure what was in store for her there but she wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. She trusted him and knew he would stop at whatever boundary she put in place. And she knew that the cast and crew and a good chunk of her social net work actually, thought she was sleeping with the rugged turian. Would it be so bad if she actually did?

Given how often was at the Vakarian residence Tali actually had a decent sized wardrobe in Solana's closet. She slipped out of her evening gown and hopped in the shower quickly before slipping on her nightie. It was white, a nice neutral color with no extra meaning attached to it. Which was good because not knowing what this evening had in store for her, Tali didn't want to jinx it one way or the other. She did up her hair in a loose braid, the tip of it touching the small of her back. And then she debated what to do with her veil. Was it too forward to not wear it? Should she just bring it with so she could wear it in the morning?

She ended up wearing it. Her reasoning was in case she ran into Executor or Mrs. Vakarian in the middle of the night she should have it on. Never mind their rooms were on the other side of the residence and they had no reason to be on this side of the residence at this time at night. She found that he had left his door ajar so she could get in.

She closed the door behind her and paused there a moment to gather herself. He sat up and put away the data padd he was reading. Then he lifted the blanket in open invitation and Tali quickly turned off the lights to stop him from seeing her blush. But she did crawl into his bed with him, and after taking off her veil, she settled into his side.

And so they spent a completely innocent night together, only this time very much in each other's company. Well not completely innocent as Tali did ask if she could kiss him. Garrus had nearly been asleep when she asked but had replied that she didn't need to ask permission for every little thing. So she kissed him good night. And the next morning as well. She didn't ask him, but she had waited until he was awake. And had stopped, mere millimeters from his lips to search his eyes for permission. He'd let out a playful growl before closing the distance between them.

Part of how she was making up for her blunder was to always make sure she asked Garrus about anything that involved him. At first he put up with it, then he tolerated it, and now she could tell it was starting to irritate him a little. However, she never wanted to hurt him like that again, so she had spent the last two months asking permission of him when he was involved. Provided it was his decision of course.

The day after the premiere was a quiet one. At Garrus' suggestion the cast was getting together to go fishing. There was a quiet place on the Presidium that had a fishing pond and a small lazy river that went in a loop. The whole thing was enclosed and had pictures of scenic wild lands projected on the walls. Best of all, it was the only none technology zone on all of the Citadel. Everyone had to leave their pagers, cell phones, omnitools, even watches at the desk. The most advanced thing anyone was allowed was their fishing pole. The attendants would come and get someone once their allotted time was up or if they had an emergency phone call. Otherwise it was peaceful tranquility.

Only Jane and Liara showed up to meet Tali at first. Liara had never even known this place existed and Jane had never been fishing before. At least fishing in a manner that involved rod and reel. On the mining colony where she grew up, fishing involved explosives. Which left Tali as their "expert" fisherman. She at least knew what to do and was competent enough that none of the attendants came over to help. Coming fishing wasn't her favorite thing to do but Garrus really enjoyed it and she did have fun when she caught something. So they had spent a few evenings here and thus Tali had a general understanding of what to do.

Liara and Jane were good if varied students. Liara was so apologetic and slow about putting the worm on the hook. Jane was much more aggressive and after skewering her own worm, did the same with Liara's. After that they did a few practice casts. It took a few tries but they managed to get their baits sufficiently far enough away from the edge of the pond. Eventually.

"And so we wait?" Asked Jane.

"We can talk." Tali replied.

"Other activities that accompany fishing include listening to music, reading, and drinking." Liara supplied earning herself surprised looks from the other two women. "I did a little research this morning."

"Well, drinking is always fun."

"Jane, it's 9 am. And didn't you have enough last night? I seem to remember you being a little tipsy and groping a certain someone." Tali watched Liara flush a deep purple while Jane just laughed.

"I'm biotic, remember? Fast metabolism. But fine, no drinking. And how can we read if they took our omnitools?"

"You could get a book from the library." Liara suggested. "They have a fine selection and the insurance fee is modest enough." A book, a real solid made of paper book, still existed in this day and age and were available to the public like Liara said. You just had to pay an insurance fee to make sure you returned to book and to cover any damages that might incur while it was on loan. Most people that had books were the rich. In a world where data storage was near infinite, storing and displaying data in such an ancient and inefficient manner was a way to show off.

"I think I will stick to the talking option." Jane said. "So, Tali. You and tall, brooding and handsome left early last night. Run off for a little fun did you?"

"I uh..." Tali looked over at Liara. For what she wasn't sure. Help? Support? Something. But the asari looked just as shocked at Jane's forwardness.

"Oh come on. You look really happy this morning and are practically glowing."

"Maybe I'm just confident in how we will do in the ratings."

"Nope. That's why we're here remember? So we have no idea and won't know until we leave. So how many times you do it?"

"Jane really, that's quite enough. Tali is our boss"

"And our friend and you pester your friends with all sorts of embarrassing topics of discussion. That's how you know you are friends." Jane told Liara though she kept her gaze on Tali.

Tali knew about the rumors of course. It wasn't a far leap after all and sex was a perfectly normal and healthy activity. Humans just liked to gossip about it. Even more than asari did. And Tali was fairly sure Garrus wouldn't mind if she told them. Boys bragged to each other about this sort of thing, so why couldn't girls do the same.

"Twice. Last night and this morning." Is all Tali offered though Jane whooped and Liara let out a quiet "oh my." It was followed up by a louder and much more surprised "oh my" as Liara's bobber went under.

Liara set the hook like Tali had told her to and was very methodical in reeling in the fish. It turned out to be a rather small fish and though Tali didn't need it, she still netted the little pan fish. Jane had gone and fetched an attendant to take a picture of Liara's first fish. Jane was also brave enough to unhook and release the creature back into the pond.

Once all of them had recast their baits their conversation picked up again.

"So Liara, get an numbers last night or leave with anyone?"

"What? No! It would have been highly inappropriate to leave with someone. Especially with both Mother and Father there."

"What about you Jane? Grope anyone else last night?" Tali asked, rescuing Liara from Jane's attentions.

"Yes actually. The after after party was great. Met this turian chick. Great legs."

"Oh ancestors please tell me she wasn't in a short cocktail dress and had blue facial markings and light brown plumage."

"Yeah that's her. How do you know all that?"

"Did she say she was a dancer and was her name Solana?"

Jane nodded and Tali face palmed. There weren't that many turians at the event last night and of those few, even fewer were female. And Solana was the only one that Tali would have described as having "great legs" as Jane had to eloquently put it.

"I'm guessing that she knows the turian in question." Liara suggested to Jane who looked slightly worried.

"She's Garrus' kid sister. And my sister. We grew up together." Tali said in way of explanation. "Look, it's fine you're both adults and all that. It's just that Solana isn't sure of herself right now and hasn't told anyone else that she's sampling the other team as it were. So you can absolutely not tell Garrus. It's not anyone's place but hers to do that. Got it?"

"Okay okay. I got it. Geez you don't have to go all big sister on me." The look from Liara earned a defensive "I didn't know" from the human redhead. "If she is Garrus' sister, and your 'sister' then wouldn't you sleeping with Garrus mean you are sleeping with your 'brother'?

That sparked off a very awkward discussion of just how closely related people were allowed to be in their various species which mercifully segwayed into genetics in general. That found its way to animals and then fish and fishing.

Wrex showed up with Runt in tow and the two krogan convinced the girls that they should move onto the intermediate area which was lure fishing in a different section of the pond. They had better luck there, actually managing to catch a few fish worth keeping. They handed the fish over to an attendant who saw to it that their catch was part of their noon time meal. Kaiden and Ashley joined them after lunch and the group spent the remainder of the day fishing in various groups. It was a good bonding experience and it kept them all sufficiently distracted.

Someone who was also sufficiently distracted was Garrus. He had work that day which suited him just fine. Bad guys weren't just going to turn themselves in after all. He kept busy that day looking into a robbery that had gone wrong and turned into a double murder. It was fairly cut and dry and it was really a matter of building up a proper case against the guy while they looked for him.

And it's not like the guys at work didn't try to elbow him a bit. It was all fair and good natured so Garrus let it slide. It was when they kept interrupting him by mentioning a new article or review they had just read that he had had to put a stop to it all. The unfortunate victim was a human detective named Jacobs whose only crime was bad timing. His punishment was to cross the room and back doing a simple exercise that turians called metal legs. The human name was iron mike. It was an easy forward lunge but it absolutely devastated the thighs of anyone who did them properly. And Garrus made sure he did them properly.

Of course the captain did wonder why one of his detectives was lunging across his bullpen, and Garrus merely explained that the detective had not been concentrating on his job and was distracting others from theirs as well, which was bad for the units productivity. A correction had to be made. And with that the captain merely told them to carry on, after doubling Jacobs punishment.

After work and on his way to pick up Tali, Garrus allowed himself to idly wonder how the reviews were. He'd been quick to cut off anyone who had tried to talk to him about it and after the Jacobs incident no one at work tried to say a thing about it. As a peace offering Garrus had promised them that tomorrow they could lay into him all they wanted.

Garrus however was gracious enough to wait until he had gathered Tali and whisked her off to the relative safety of the Vakarian residence before they sat down and started going over the reviews and ratings data that Tali had had an assistant gather up and forward to her omnitool.

Not surprisingly, the show was a smash hit.

A/N: Good news everyone! I'm doing a visa run and thus have to stay a hotel. This means internet. Bad news everyone! I have to go back home to work. But I have uploaded everything I have written so far. It's amazing how much writing you can get done when you aren't distracted by cats and tubes.