The Show Must Go On (Ducks in a row)
When Tali awoke the next morning still clad in her underwear. And Tali was partially disappointed whilst being partially relieved at the same time. Disappointed that Garrus hadn't removed her top for she knew that he knew that she preferred to sleep topless. And relieved that he hadn't because she'd like to be present when she showed off the girls. Not that there was much to show off. Which might not matter anyway because he might not even be into quarians. And one thing that turians definitely lack are breasts. So her lack of breasts should really be a nonissue. And it was a nonissue. Really, it was. Maybe if Tali kept telling herself that enough she'd believe it. Eventually.
Body and self esteem issues aside, Tali did have a reasonably good rest of her week. She did give Solana a few days to talk to Liara and Jane. Even with the start date for production to begin looming, Tali wasn't a heartless businesswoman. She let Jane have a few days to adjust to rehab and some private visitation time with her girlfriends.
Tali did keep herself busy. She had bought up a small store front that had opened up near the studio. It wasn't big enough for the restaurant she and Adrian were looking to open, but it was in a good location. Until she came up with what to do with the space, Tali decided just to hang on to it.
In addition to her small real estate purchase, Tali did some press for the show. And some work for the Theatre, and finalizing a few last minute deals for the show. Merchandizing mostly. T-shirts, toys, and Tali had started negotiations for a video game deal.
Still, by the end of the week Tali couldn't put it off any longer. She needed to know if she had Commander Shepard back or not. If she didn't, then Tali had to do a casting call. And get her writing staff back from vacation early to start writing. However, if Jane did come back Tali's life would be made so much easier. And that would open the door to the possibility of Liara returning to the show as well.
Which is why Tali asked Liara and Solana to join her when she visited Jane. Well, to put it more accurately, Tali had asked if she could join the two when they did their daily visit to St. George's. Tali dressed casually and had given her staff the afternoon off. Regardless of the outcome, Tali was going to take the rest of the afternoon off and thought it only fair that her staff get the afternoon off as well.
And Tali hoped that if she was dressed casually it might help make everyone a little more at easy. Solana had been tense the last few days and even Liara was terse with Tali. Still, Tali was visiting Jane with them so there was that at least.
The trip over via public rapid transport was a quiet and tense one. Tali had only had what she was wearing and a set of padds in her hands. Contracts, which she heard Solana whisper to Liara. Liara just hummed in response.
Fortunately, the quiet mood was broken when they saw Jane. Tali had hung back and let Solana and Liara enter the large visiting room first. But even in the hallway she could hear Jane's happy exclamation of greeting. Tali gave them a few seconds before entering the room.
And she wished she had waited a few seconds more. She wasn't against the relationship or even displays of public affection, but watching Jane trying to consume Liara's mouth was something she could have gone without seeing. Mostly because it made her feel like she was intruding even though they were in a very public place.
Liara, thankfully, was very aware of their surroundings and gently pushed Jane off. "Just 3 more weeks." Liara murmured which elicited a groan from Jane and Solana.
"Don't remind me." Solana took Liara by the hand and pulled her off to the side so that they weren't blocking the main door any more. It was then that Jane noticed Tali and gave another shout of joy which caused Tali to flinch. Jane could be really loud at times.
"So, are you going to stand there all day or are you going to greet me?" Jane asked. Instead of waiting for Tali's reply Jane just skipped, actually skipped, up to Tali and engulfed her with a big hug.
Tali was a bit surprised, but hugged the older redhead. What Tali didn't expect as part of the greeting was a peck on the cheek. Tali could only imagine what her face looked like, but whatever expression she did have seemed to be a funny one. Solana's chuckle and Liara's more refined giggle certainly told Tali that they thought so at least.
"Thanks. For this I mean." Jane explained as she used one hand to wave at the facility. "Solana told me you're footing the bill for this place."
"No, I believe you will find that Solana is the one that is footing the bill." Tali corrected.
Jane turned to Solana. "I thought you said"
"Why don't we all find some place to sit? We are sort of still blocking the doorway." Liara cut in diplomatically. She'd probably seen Solana's right mandible start twitching. Vakarian family trait or tell for when they were starting to get steamed up.
Jane took Tali by the hand and lead the group towards a semi sheltered alcove. Inside were several chairs and sofas around a coffee table. Liara directed Solana towards one sofa while she stole Jane from Tali. Tali took one of the chairs perpendicular the sofa, and watched with a smile while Liara took a seat and very insistently made Jane sit in her lap. The human laughed but Tali could still make out some color creeping into Jane's features. Now that she knew she had a dedicated audience, the older woman was a tad bit embarrassed by the very open show of affection.
Not to be left out, Solana placed Jane's legs across her lap and ran her hand up and down its length. Jane was wearing, what Tali assumed was, a very plain dress that the facility provided. And as Solana's hand made one of its upwards passes, Tali got an eyeful of Jane.
Tali very quickly averted her gaze and made herself busy with the two padds she had brought whilst asking Jane how things were at rehab so far.
Jane was quite happy to tell everyone about the things she had done so far. Tali got the feeling a lot of it was a recap of the week that Solana and Liara already knew about. Which made sense since Tali knew for a fact the pair had visited Jane every single day.
And Tali really did try to concentrate, but Solana's journey up and down Jane's leg was really distracting. Especially on those trips that travelled particularly high. Jane seemed to be doing her best to ignore Solana's antics and was doing a remarkable job of it too. Her story never had an unexpected halt or change of tone. Her face, however, was slowly starting to match the top of her head.
Liara was oblivious to all this. She had her eyes closed, arms wrapped around Jane's middle, and was resting her forehead against Jane's shoulder. Once Jane finished her story, Liara did open her eyes and look up to see Jane's very red neck. A glance over at Tali at the right moment revealed a wide eyed quarian. A quick glance over to Solana showed why.
"Brown, dear, watch your hands. I think you are giving your sister an eyeful of Red." Liara tried her best to sound unmoved, but she did feel her own face flare up with embarrassment.
"Sorry." Solana offered in way of apology.
"Three weeks." Liara reminded.
"Three weeks." The other two women intoned.
"Do I want to know?" Tali asked.
"I'm not cleared for conjugal visits until I get out. Which is in three weeks."
"And Liara thought it would be a good idea if we refrained until Jane could join us." Solana said in a tone that told Tali exactly what she thought of the idea.
"Aww, that's sweet. And something it turns out I didn't want to know." Tali directed at Liara.
Solana just huffed. "Just wait until Garrus gets you to touch heaven. And then go a month without that."
"I thought Tali was already sleeping with Garrus. Don't tell me he hasn't gotten her there. Do you need me to talk to him? I can give him some really good pointers." Jane offered.
Tali was pretty sure she was going to die. Most possibly from embarrassment. Or if her prayers were answered, by a freak accident, if only the floor would open up and swallow her whole. A tiny portion of her brain wondered if that offer for advice would work the other way, but that tiny part was being drowned out by the rest that was begging her ancestors for achieve corporeal form just to kill her.
"Oh they've been sleeping together alright. Except just sleeping together." Solana supplied earning an admonishment from Liara.
"But you told us you did it twice that time we all went fishing. If you didn't fuck, then what did you do?" Jane wondered, directing her bewildered gaze at Tali. Jane, too, earned a shushing from Liara who offered an apologetic smile Tali's way.
"We kissed." Tali answered. Partially to stop Solana from blurting it out and partially to take some control of the conversation.
"What?" Jane said flabbergasted. Even Liara had a shocked expression on her face, though she schooled it fairly quickly.
"It was a big step for us, okay?" Tali offered in way of explanation.
"Glacial." Was Solana's comment to her girlfriends.
"But we're not here to talk about my sex life" Solana snorted, "or your current lack of a sex life." Tali fired back. "I came here today hoping to talk a little business with Jane. And depending on what Jane says, maybe some business with Liara."
"To put it bluntly, I'd really love it if you'd come back and be Commander Shepard again Jane. And the public at large agree with me. You are by far the most popular character on the show, which is only befitting the star after all. There is a megathread a thousand pages deep now on the forums asking for you back. And a disturbing amount of fanfiction written about you. Some of it is actually good. There's a particularly cute one about you and Liara here having some beautiful blue babies."
Admittedly it was a low blow, but it had the desired effect. Everyone on the sofa was suddenly very stiff. Good, Tali just had to keep command of the conversation and maybe she could leave this place with some of her blood not decorating her cheeks a dark purple.
Tali launched into the spiel she'd spent the week preparing. She handed Solana one of the padds and walked everyone through various sites and charts showing Jane's popularity. She explained her vision for the second season. Or rather extended second season. Everyone found the idea interesting, which was a good thing. Seeing as Jane was favorable to the idea, Tali moved on to the actual contract.
There were a couple of rough patches, but the objections came from Liara and Solana, not Jane. They weren't happy that Tali had put in a clause that any work that Jane did outside of Mass Effect had to be run through Tali.
"It's standard practice. Face it, any advertizing deals or endorsement she is going to get will want to jump on the show's momentum and image. This is to protect the show's image. And hers. And this way no one can try to pull a fast one over her in a contract. Because even though I'm sure you two would help her out, you aren't exactly experts in this field."
"And you are? You've been doing this for just a year." Solana retorted heatedly.
"How do we know you aren't trying to short change her now?" Liara asked in a much calmer manner.
"Girls, we already talked about this." Jane cut in before Tali could answer.
"And what would that be exactly?" Tali asked Jane.
"Well you sent Solana to feel me out for the Shepard role and I told these two that I'd do it almost regardless of the terms. I mean, you did give Solana a lot of money, which we need to pay you back and this role could really launch an acting career for me." Jane replied though she was giving warning glares at both the ladies she was sitting on.
"Ancestors preserve me. I told you that was a gift. If not to my sister then to a friend in need. And besides, if you do rejoin the show I can write the whole thing off as a business expense and reimburse myself from the shows coffers."
"Why didn't you say that before?!" Solana shouted garnering shushes from Jane and Liara.
"Because it really shouldn't have mattered one way or the other. But back to the contract." Tali said before Solana could get in another word edgewise. "I'd like to think that I wouldn't try to cheat any potential employee on a contract. Especially not the star of the show. Never mind my friend or my sister's girlfriend."
That seemed to satisfy and embarrass Liara enough to make her back down and got a mumbled "Sorry" thrown Tali's way.
"It's fine. You're just being protective of her. We all are." Tali gave Solana and Liara a look that she hoped conveyed that she really was going her best for Jane. The contract was rather generous but still within the range of someone of Jane's stature within the acting world. At least with what Tali could dig up for reference.
"Well, the contract look very impressive, but I can't sign it." Jane said sheepishly.
"Oh, well, your thumb print will do just fine." Tali motioned Solana to show Jane were to put her thumb on the padd.
"No. I mean I can't sign this. I can't sign anything, actually, until Garrus reads it." Jane replied.
"Garrus. As in my Garrus?" Tali's use of the possessive did get her a raise eyebrow from Solana which caused Tali to blush. Still, Tali stood her ground.
"What? He's my boyfriend now, I can call him mine." Tali said with as much confidence as she could muster. "We made it official earlier this week."
"Just this week?" Liara asked.
"Like I said earlier. Glacial, those two." Solana replied.
"Anyway, what does my Garrus have to do with anything Jane signs?" Tali prompted. Liara answered as she had A: talked to him, and B: actually read up on the laws involved. Garrus' prediction about Tali being cross with him turned out to be true. Just a few days off.
"I'll give him a call and see if he can't do this today. But if he says yes you'll also sign?" Tali asked Jane. Jane nodded with a smile.
"Good. You've just saved me about two weeks of rewriting. With Commander Shepard back, how would Dr. T'soni like to rejoin her? I have one hell of a plot hook for you after I give Garrus a ring." Having planted that seed, Tali activated her omnitool to make the call while Jane started to already beg Liara to come back to the show.
The sight that met Tali could only be described as frazzled. Garrus was frazzled. Sure his features were well schooled but Tali knew her turian. She could read his eyes and there was a lot of emotions swirling in them. Most of which Tali had never seen before.
"Detective Vakarian speaking." Garrus answered mechanically. He wasn't looking down at the screen but out in front of him and scowling. Whatever he was seeing did not make him happy.
"Garrus are you okay?" Tali asked tentatively. She so rarely called him when he was at work. Partially because both he and Adrian had been adamant that about keeping her out of some portions of their jobs and because texts worked just as well. Tali had intended to tease him a bit and maybe try to guilt trip him into coming to the rehab facility if he could find the time today.
"Natalia?" Recognition washed over his face and his features softened considerably. Or as much as they can on a turian face. "Where are you? Are you okay?"
"I asked you that silly. I'm at St. George's visiting Jane."
"Tali?" A second voice called off screen before the screen moved around some and focused in on Adrian's face. Like his sister, he wore a veil which both fulfilled the covering face requirement while at the same time letting him see his surroundings. "Sis, where are you? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I'm at St. George's. Did something happen?"
"Stay right there, I'll be there in half a rotation." Adrian yelled before disappearing off screen.
"Adrian! Get back here now!" Garrus yelled. The picture on Tali's end suddenly started to move rapidly and it sounded like Garrus was running. The chase was short as Garrus had a good half foot over Adrian and thus a longer stride. Tali listened to her brother get caught, and judging by the surprised yelp and subsequent sounds, taken down to the ground. That's where the call ended.
"I think I'll see about talking to Garrus later tonight." Tali said breaking the stone dead silence that had fallen over their group. "Now back to Liara. I have this great idea for you."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Garrus had been having a good day. That morning there wasn't a body for him so he had roped Adrian in to help with paper work. Well, he had roped another detective to show Adrian the paper work. He was busy being bored out of his skull as an Internal Affairs agent read off a list of his latest exploits. Just as Garrus had predicted, the Jane case had caused a few waves. IA had been quick and efficient per usual and wanted to strip him down a rank and have Jane brought in to be handled by Social Services and possibly deported.
It had been immensely satisfying to point out the exact law he was using to stay out of trouble. Mostly, because it was fun watching the older turian agent flap his jaw and mandibles a few times in wordless speech. It was even more fun when the agent had gone after Adrian, point out the blatant favoritism that Garrus showed the quarian lad.
There was no hiding that. Everyone in the damn organization knew who Adrian Zorah was. It was hard not to know him as he was the only quarian in C-Sec. C-Sec after all was 99.8% turian. Garrus was pretty sure that Tali had used every single non-turian in her show last season as extras. Those in his precinct knew that Adrian was being groomed. He was going to be a detective plain and simple. Garrus was going to make sure he earned it of course, but come hell or high water, Adrian was going to be detective.
Which is why he was learning how to be one on the more slow days like today. Technically, he should be out working a beat like other uniforms. But Adrian was a smart kid and had already done 2 solid years of bog standard uniform duties. It was only in the last year that the extra lessons and mixed bag of duties had started.
And to their credit, IA could even pin point the date when it all started too. They even had what passed for a routine that that Adrian did in the office. It was pretty chaotic because some days were like today. A sort of classroom learning, so to speak. Other days were out in the field whenever a quarian got killed. Yes, they handled other species that decided to kill each other, but Garrus' small unit was primarily dedicated to just quarian matters.
Naturally, the IA agent wanted Adrian back out in the field and transferred to a different precinct. Normally, Garrus would have been inclined to agree. Except he was following orders. Orders that came from much further up than an Internal Affairs agent.
For maximum fun factor, Garrus decided to solve his problem with a simple phone call.
"Hi dad, it's Garrus. I have an IA agent that wants to dismantle Project Adrian. Just thought I'd let you know."
Garrus waited about 2 minutes before the IA agent got a call from the head of the entire IA telling him to drop the matter. On top of the IA being stonewalled and sent packing in the same morning, Garrus had won a bottle of very fine brandy off of his father. They had bet on how long it would take IA to kick up a stink once Adrian's alternative training had started.
Both Vakarians had plans for the boy and it happened to be the same plan up to a certain point. Garrus was training a replacement. For many years down the line mind you, as Garrus did enjoy his job and did like being the boss of his little group. However, it would do wonders for Public Relations if the senior lead detective of the quarian homicide was actually quarian. Which happened to be the elder Vakarian's long term goal. It had already been decided that Garrus would train Adrian so that he could pass the necessary tests by the time he finished his apprenticeship. Five years was more than needed to qualify for a detective spot. And one of the team members was due to retire around the same time so it worked out beautifully.
Just about everyone in the office was in on it except Adrian. It was explained to him that since C-Sec had no set apprenticeship programs for quarians they were just sort of making it up as they went. Which was true. Past the basic training course at the academy, Garrus was winging it while at the same time making sure Adrian hit the needed bench marks.
And Adrian did that with flying colors. He was a smart kid, from a good family and dedicated. Most importantly he was a even keeled about things. It would have been rather easy for a rich kid to just coast through his apprenticeship because he knew he had a multimillion credit trust fund waiting for him at the end of it. Adrian had the good sense not to go overboard with his wealth. He did buy them a very high end coffee maker for the precinct. That had endeared him to everyone pretty quickly.
And his gear was well above the average C-Sec issue. It was within the regulations so Garrus let it slide. He didn't begrudge the kid having a tougher suit of armor or even having a personal shield unit. Those were expensive. Garrus' own shield unit was from his days working with the Office. No one had asked for it back yet and he wasn't going to send it in voluntarily. Likewise, his armor was a parting gift from the Office. After he had ripped out all the electronics and replaced them. Didn't want the Office tracking his every move. Or at least make it easy for them.
He was pretty sure the Office did track all of the Thanked. Garrus knew that C-Sec had a list somewhere in his father's office. Garrus kept up a list of those Thanked that were on the Citadel. They had a once a month meeting that totally wasn't a support group.
Adrian, despite being handpicked by both the elder and younger Vakarian to go far, was not above punishment. Whether that was a talking to or some form of physical punishment. Like being hauled down to the ground by the collar. And being sat on. Now Adrian wasn't a slouch at 6 foot tall. But Garrus was stronger, faster, and certainly harder and better than the quarian who had lost his head. Nothing a good tongue lashing and maybe a stint in the back of his own squad car couldn't fix.
How Garrus came to be pinning his own protégé to the ground was sadly nothing special. Shortly after lunch a call had come in and Garrus and Adrian had gone to investigate. Partially because Garrus was tired of paper work and partially because it was their turn to be the ones to go.
As per standard procedure, they weren't the first ones there. Nearby uniforms had answered the call first and confirmed there was in fact a very dead body. And they had secured the area, which was normal. What wasn't normal was one of the older uniforms meeting Garrus on his side of the car and quietly whispering "You might want to leave the kid here for this one, Detective."
Adrian wasn't a complete greenhorn and had seen from pretty gory crime scenes before. And seeing as Adrian had come through mostly sane, Garrus didn't see the harm in letting Adrian join him in entering the house. It would be a decision Garrus immediately regretted.
Not because of the red blood splattered all over the room or the general chaos of a room that was clearly the epicenter of a fight. It was because of the body that was laying on the floor. It was a taller quarian female. Red hair was fanned out and darkened with blood around the head. Lifeless green eyes stared back at them.
For Garrus, training and experience kicked in. He shoved whatever horrifying thoughts and fears he had into a little box and went about his job. It was just basic turian behavior. At least for anyone that had served in combat arms. There was a job to be done and that mattered more than freaking out that one of your bodies had just been shot or blown up. Getting the job done was the only way to save the rest of the team. Or so the rational was. Confirming that someone was dead was something to be done after the job was done.
Adrian, however, never had such thinking pounded into him. So his reaction was much more wild than Garrus'. A call from Tali minutes later was both relaxing and frustrating at the same time. Relaxing because it did let him relax as he knew for sure she was alive now. Frustrating because Adrian had completely lost his head and was rushing to get to her.
And that is how Adrian ended up in the back of his own squad car while Garrus finished up the initial round of the investigation. Afterwards, Garrus did cut Adrian loose for the day as he was still clearly not over the incident. And Garrus made an appoint with the department shrink for Adrian for the following morning.
Much later, after Garrus had gotten home that evening, he did feel quite a few emotions. The "mission" was over for the day and he could let all those emotions he had boxed up out. He'd had a brief moment of panic. Thankfully, Tali had great timing in her call so Garrus didn't have much time to panic. Now though, he had plenty of time to feel that cold dread that he hadn't felt earlier in the day.
Unfortunately for him, that feeling was a hated old friend. Perhaps he had never felt it quite as strong as he had that afternoon, but he was familiar with that sickening feeling. Given that his work was with dead quarians, it wasn't a stretch to say that he came in contact with some scenes that made him uneasy. Usually, it was only for a moment or two. Most often it was whenever the victim was a redhead. Even if the victim was male, just seeing a dead redhead did stab at him. Sometimes it was seeing the dull green eyes of a victim that got to him for a moment, or their age. This was the first time though, that so many of those factors had come together to create almost the perfect nightmare fuel. And as much as Garrus did love Natalia, losing her wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen to him. Losing Leto would probably be the end of him.
And he'd had plenty of those scares over the years. Garrus usually dealt with it by calling his son. And sending Leto a jar of his favorite jam. Which, thanks to Garrus' traveling in Leto's younger years, wasn't anything native to Palaven. It was a made from a human berry called "straw", which genuinely confused the detective because that word was used for both dried out grass and the berry. Though, this was the same species that decided that "blue" was also a color and a berry. Basic Terran was confusing, which could be part of why Garrus hadn't learned the language properly.
This time however, it wasn't a Leto scare he was trying to get over. It was a Natalia one. Normally, he saw her that very same day which calmed him down considerably. But given how badly Adrian had taken it, Garrus suspected that Tali would be spending her evening calming her brother's nerves. So, Garrus baked. He finally had his own kitchen, as any proper courting turian male should, so he could make her something.
The many years he had known her made it easy to know her likes and dislikes when it came to food. And so Garrus picked something easy. He'd good all out another time. Maybe for her upcoming birthday party. And he could rope Solana and maybe even Liara to help. With decorating, not the cooking. He was going to do the cooking himself.
Buoyed up with plans for Tali's birthday, Garrus set about making her favorite cookies.
A/N: Yay, we made 5k words! And the plot lumbers slowly forward as Tali gets her cast finalized. Cheers.