Had a good holiday? So did I.

...

...

Looking around the empty engine room, she emitted a small sigh and forced herself to gaze idly at the terminal in front of her. For the first time in her short life, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya felt that she was out of her depth.

One would think that getting a posting on an advance alien stealth frigate would be something she would be ecstatic for, and for awhile, yes that had been the case, but now… now it all felt wrong to be there. This honour was something she no longer felt entitled to hold… not after

It all started with the mission to rescue the asari on Therum. She had all but insisted she join the fight against the geth incursion. She ended up lying to Shepard, embellishing her combat training. Shepard seemed a little amused, but permitted her joining the rest of them. In hindsight he must have been able to see through her assurances.

At first it was all good. Primarily fighting in the Mako land rover, but then they had to fight on foot, and that was where the truth came out: that while she could improvise, she had no discernible aptitude for combat whatsoever. sure, in the lead up to her pilgrimage she been given a basic combat training, but that meant nothing. It became painfully clear just how bad she really was when she was fighting alongside a N7 Alliance Shock Trooper, a biotic officer, a talented Marine, an ancient mercenary krogan and a C-Sec Turian. All of them exponentially better combatants then she was. They did all the work while she was bringing up the rear, unable to handle all the gear she was weighed down by, even with the added exoskeleton she environmental suit provided. Keelah, even the unarmoured asari Doctor had brought more to the table with her biotics and she had never been in fight before.

This whole thing… It was embarrassing. To say that she was mortified by her performance would be the understatement of her lifetime. While they all seemed polite and praised her on her quick repairs to the Mako, they spoke nothing about what she did when faced with actual combat… at least not to her face. At one point she caught Chief Williams talking to Lieutenant Alenko about it, judging from how quickly they stopped talking the moment she showed up in the mess, it just had to be about her.

So now, it was two days into her forced exile from the rest of the crew outside of the Engineer team. Perhaps it would have been better that she just stay there. Play to her strengths. At least Chief Engineer Adams was nice enough to her. Keep her head down and leave the professionals to do their work. She was not the representation of the quarian people which Commander Shepard deserved.

So that settled it for her. She would approach the Commander, inform him that she was not fit for ground combat and would instead offer him her engineering and technical expertise instead. That way she did not quit on him in this hunt against the rogue Spectre, and she would not get in his way and become a hindrance to the mission-

"Tali?"

Tali's mind went blank and numb as she heard the voice of the Captain of the Normandy, Commander Shepard. What his first name was, she did not have the courage to ask.

He was a hard man to read, and humans were unusually expressive. Him on the other hand… well she never saw him smile, frown, get angry, or show even a hint of joy. He was a blank slate, and that was not to imply he was simple minded. He was a man who refused to let any sort of emotion betray what was on his mind. It left her with the impression he did not want weakness to be on display.

She could understand in all honesty. During her downtime, she found herself bored long enough to start doing extranet searches on the human who had saved her life. She looked up Torfan and found the bloodbath that Shepard had left in his wake. It was little wonder why the Council had named him a Spectre. It left her… concerned about the mission she had chosen to embark on with little foresight to her own mortality. Would Commander Shepard sacrifice the whole lot of them to stop Saren? She would not put it past him after a deliberation.

Silently, Tali wondered if it was too late to just walk away now. Find a ship and take it back to the fleet and leave Shepard and his team of professional soldiers to their mission. What use did she have among these sorts?

"Tali?" the Commander repeated.

She could no longer pretend to ignore him, so instead she turned around and widened her eyes so that the Commander would believe she had been startled. It was an easier explanation. Rubbing her hands together, she stepped forward to join the human, whose arms were crossed over his chest, no expression on his face as he inspected her mask as though she could see right through it.

"Oh... Hello, Shepard…" she returned, her voice glummer than she wanted to use.

The Commander tilted his head to one side, his eyes squinting as he examined her. Inwardly, Tali chastised herself. Her emotions betrayed her and now the Commander knew that something wrong was going on it. She did not want to go into this sort of conversation looking for his pity. All that she wanted was his respect. With any luck, he would just accept her request for a lessened role on the Normandy.

"Tali, are you okay?" he asked her, verbalizing his strange concern at long last.

Frowning behind her mask, all Tali could do was shrug.

"I don't know," she chose to admit, her voice drained of any sort of emotion. "The ship is wonderful, the crew has been kind... but."

She trailed off, her hands fidgeting together as she watched the human for any noticeable reaction. That was when she witnessed a first from him. His blank inquisitive expression softened into quite possibly the first discernable display of emotion she witnessed from him. It was the look of sympathy… empathy maybe.

Whatever it had been, Shepard uncrossed his arms and stepped forward, his mouth curling up into a half smile. His eyes only glanced sideways once to examine the console she stood next to. He turned his eyes back to her and gestured her to join him.

"Come on, it's 03:23, let's get out of here," he pointed out to the quarian. "Mess hall should be empty, and if not we'll talk this over in my quarters."

Knowing better than to question the Captain of the Normandy, Tali nodded and silently, she followed the human out of the engine room, her mind racing to figure out how exactly to articulate her fears to the Butcher of Torfan.

…

…

The mess hall of the ship was not emptied as she had hoped it would be.

Gathered around the table sat Williams, Alenko, the turian Vakarian and Doctor Chakwas. All of them appeared surprised to see Tali and the Commander in their presence, all of them curious as to why the quarian was following the Commander like she was serving as his assistant or something. That, or the fact she had isolated herself for these past few days and her coming out of hiding was a surprise for the crew.

Whatever it had been, the Commander paid no attention to any of them and instead loaded a plastic tray with rations. Instead of sitting down at the table, he only paused to wait for the quarian to gather a food paste tube for herself to consume and a canister of pre-filtered water. Silently, the Commander walked to his cabin, with Tali not far behind him.

The room he occupied was sparse. There weren't any trinkets, there were no personal effects. There was nothing but a bed, a desk with a terminal on it and a chair. The bed itself was immaculate, as though he had never slept on it. Judging from his demeanour, he didn't sleep period.

Silently Tali watched the human turn back to face her, his expression was once again dispassionate.

"You can sit on the bed," he simply informed her as he took a seat on the chair and his tray down.

Tali did so and silently attached both the water canister and the food paste to her suit insertion ports. She looked up, watching as Commander Shepard picked through his powdered eggs, meat and caffeine based beverage. None of it seemed to interest him. It was as though eating was an annoying task he had to do. He downed his drink, ate one and a half mouthfuls of food and immediately opened his desk drawer, pulling a small cardboard box out. If what she had learned about human vices was correct, they appeared to cigarettes. He placed one of the cylindrical sticks into his mouth and flicked the lighter flame over the end of it.

He still did not look at her; his head was low as one hand supported his forehead while the other held the cigarette between his fingers, which he occasionally placed back into his mouth to inhale and exhale the carcinogenic smoke . Tali found herself both intrigued and horrified that the man was placing his health in jeopardy so casually.

"So…" Shepard spoke through the plume of smoke that surrounded him. "Are you going to tell me what's going on? Or am I going to have to make the assumption this has to do with you lying to me about your training. That I took a lying civilian headfirst into combat without making sure you weren't just offering platitudes."

"I-"

Tali did not get a chance. Shepard was not ready to let her explain herself.

"Do you have any idea how stupid it was to do that?" he chastised her as though she was just a little girl. "Do you have any idea just how lucky you were that you to make it through that fight unharmed, let alone dead? I lost far better trained men in lighter scrimmages!"

"I-I know… it was-"

"No, you clearly don't know, Tali. Not really. You could have died out there; you could have gotten others killed out there," he growled at her. "You have some training, no doubt, but not enough for the sort of combat we're about to face. That mission was small time. That was Saren just warming up! How could you have been so stupid, did you lie about your abilities to impress me?!"

Tali bowed her helmeted head. She could not look at the sharp blue eyes glaring at her. It wasn't rage, nor was it anger which was fueling what he was saying to her, it was a deep seeded disappointment in her. To Tali, that was quite possibly the worst sort of tone to have to listen to. It was driving her to the point of tears.

"…yes…" she could only whisper out loud.

"Yes what, Tali?" he snapped back, making her flinch. "Look me in the eye and give me a proper goddamn answer. You owe that much."

Fighting back the urge to tear up, Tali exhaled and looked the human dead in the eyes. In spite of his harsh language, there was no anger in his expression. Knowing that she was in no position to lie, nor evade the question entirely, Tali bowed her head in a display of deep seeded shame.

"Yes Shepard… I lied to impress you, to show I was just as capable as your crew," she quietly confessed to the Spectre. "I needed you to know that a quarian could offer just as much to your mission as the rest of this crew does. But you're right. I wasn't ready; and I could have gotten someone else killed… I don't belong in your ground team, fighting the geth. I don't… I don't belong on this ship."

Tali watched as Shepard's eyes rolled.

"Now you're just being stupid, Tali, and you're not stupid, so if you think acting like this is what I want, you are wrong," he pointed out with no tact offered to her. "You know the geth. That makes you an invaluable asset to the mission, to the squad whether or not they realize it yet. If it wasn't for your actions before you met, the bravery you showed in the face of death, we would still be fumbling around on the Citadel, trying to scrounge up whatever evidence we could find on Saren. It was you made this mission possible. I don't know how things work on your fleet, but you don't have to leave the Normandy unless it's what you want."

Yes, she had got the information about Saren to the Commander, but how exactly did her knowledge on the geth was vital for the mission to succeed? She had played her part. His mission now was to stop Saren and to kill the geth; it would not take a liar like her to be there in the fight directly to turn the tide.

Still, it felt… nice, that the Commander had so passionately spoken of the events which occurred in the leading up to their meeting. It was nice to know that getting shot with polonium rounds was not something the Commander would just brush off…

"Thank you for your kind words," she murmured lowly to him. "I can still help you, however… I can patch up the Normandy, I can repair the Mako. In a pinch I can use a shotgun and fight a geth or two, but I am that I'm not a soldier. I still don't know if I should even be here. I have next to nothing else which I can offer to you..."

Her piece said, Tali fell into a deep tense silence as she awaited the Commander's judgement. He did not reply. His attention returned to the cigarette he had been smoking. His eyes didn't blink as he held his eyes on her. He continued to act as though he could somehow see through her tinted visor. After a moment or two, the Commander took a final drag of his cigarette and stubbed it out.

"Why did you agree to join us?" he finally inquired, there was no anger in his question, just a curiosity which needed to be sated. "Did you actually think this was going to be an adventure? People are going to be doing a lot of dying, preferably those who stand against us. But I know what we're facing. We're going to lose people on our side as well. Why did you demand to risk your life as well? You have no skin in the game…" Noticing her confusion, he added. "… I mean, this isn't your fight."

Tali could only shrug.

"I don't know, I jumped in to help you out of obligation I suppose," she admitted to the human. "The quarians created the geth. Having them attack human colonies – a race that never left their home world 300 years ago – it just seemed so wrong to just ignore your fight. I guess it was just something I thought my father would expect out of me."

Shepard stared at her blankly. He did appear to be as impressed by the answer as she expected him to be. Perhaps she had been expecting the human to use quarian morals and reasoning and completely forgot that the man sitting in front of her was from another species altogether.

"That's a goddamn stupid thing to do… risking your life because you think your father would expect it," Shepard stated, his mouth curled at one side as though he appeared unable to believe Tali's explanation.

Tali did not have a response to offer the man. She knew exactly how foolish it must have seemed to an outsider that she would risk herself based on what she assumed her father would expect out of her. She knew it was foolish. It was just something she had to do. Obligation to her family was an important part of her traditions…

…Even if it was indeed stupid...

"So, is that what you want to do? Remain on board the Normandy as a maintenance crewman?" he finally inquired. "Nothing wrong with it, of course, but is that something you want to settle for?"

Tali could not look the Commander in the eye.

"It's all I know how to do. You saw me in the field," she reminded him, trying to hide all traces of her disappointment from plain view.

Shepard nodded.

"Yes I certainly did," he replied. "But what if the next mission we deploy on, you are actually prepared for it?"

Finally, Tali looked up and examined the Commander with a heavy scrutiny she reserved for very few as her curiosity had gotten the better of her. What exactly was the Commander talking about?

"I got an invite to Pinnacle Station shortly after my Spectre confirmation. It's a Council funded military simulation training program for recruits," he informed her. "I was going to just blow it off altogether, but then I saw both yourself and Liara fight first hand. The two of you need proper training and if you are interested in staying in the ground team, Pinnacle Station is where you're going to get it."

As the offer of training under Shepard had flattered her more than she thought it would, Tali blinked. Liara? For a moment Tali had thought that this was a personal extension to her only, but yes, it made sense that Liara T'Soni would be trained as well as her. Liara had to rely on more than her biotic abilities as Tali had to with her engineering and mechanical skillset. She ignored the strange feeling building up in the pit of her stomach at the thought of her holding a special interest from the Commander.

Exhaling, Tali stood up from her seat on Shepard's bed and slowly, she begun to pace in front of him. The idea Shepard had to take them to Pinnacle Station for training… it wasn't a bad idea. It would certainly serve as a good first step to showing her worth to the rest of the ground team. Still, she found herself… bothered by the one question that plagued her most.

"So… what- how does this work?" she inquired. "You're just going to leave us there at Pinnacle Station with the instructors while you head to your next assignment?"

She did not want to leave the ship while he continued the mission. Not when she knew he wanted to give her this second chance. To her surprise, the Commander shook his head.

"No… I've been asked by Udina for a personal report about Therum, which means devoting minimum 36 hours for a goddamn two hour meeting. I'll blow him off and instead, I'll run the drills with you," he reassured her as he too stood up from his seat. "I'll teach the two of you how to use your weapons. A shotgun is nice and all, and goddamn have I been impressed by your knack for improvisation, but I don't think you want to fight geth that close quarters all the time. You might want to place some distance between yourself and them. You'll be a rifle marksman by the time the training program is complete."

Tali nodded finally.

"Well... it might even be fun," she mumbled more to herself than to the Commander, but it was loud enough for the human to hear it.

For the first time they met, the Commander did something she suspected he was incapable of doing. Commander Shepard laughed. It wasn't a small laugh, or a chuckle, it was a full on laugh at what she had said. His usually stoic expression broke down and she saw the human smile grin with genuine emotion behind it.

"Oh no… no, no, no, Tali, it won't be. You'll have an N7 instructor riding both of your asses the entire time," he promised her, still very much amused. "I'm not going to be gentle. I'm going to be mean and awful if I think you aren't up to an acceptable level. I'm training you not just to shoot, but to survive. I'll be training the two of you to be like the rest of us."

Tali could not help herself, she bounced in place as she found herself somewhat flattered by his offer.

"So... so, you would actually do this for me?" she replied. "You would give me this second opportunity to fight alongside you?"

Staring at her as though making sure he could not find a sign of hesitation in her, the Commander nodded curtly.

"36 hours of training isn't much, but it'll be enough to supplement your real world training," Shepard informed her, much more animated then he had been only minutes prior. "Look, I'm going to be honest with you, you are absolutely shitty at fighting conventionally Tali'Zorah. But I saw the things you could do in a pinch. Hacking the geth to fight each other, that little trap you laid on Fist's thugs. You have raw talent that is going to waste. You could be a force to reckon with if you have the right instructor. I want to be that instructor…If you would have me, of course."

Tali stared at the Commander, who appeared almost… eager to take on this responsibility, as though he was fine with accepting yet another burden on his already encumbered mind. It bothered her, to think she would be this new strain, but he seemed okay with it. Perhaps it would just be for the best to accept the offer. In the long term this would even pay off. Better to know what she was doing then to rely on others all the time.

"Okay, I will commit to your training…But… why are you doing this, I just need to know?" Tali found herself asking in spite of everything. "It would be easier to just accept my suggestion and leave me on the ship… Liara as well. We're flat out civilians."

"I know what you are, but it seems like you want to help in this capacity, and… well…I consider you a friend, Tali," he finally responded, his tone as firm as always. "This may come to you as a surprise, but I don't have many friends. People aren't exactly clambering over each other to have a personal connection to the Butcher of Torfan; hell, I lost all my relationships from before that incident over that. So if fighting is what you want to do, then I'll train you to do it properly. The last thing I want is to lose anyone else… like you…"

He paused and winced, as though he regretted allowing that statement to cross his lips and be shared with the younger woman so freely. Tali did not mind it. It was nice to know that he wasn't infallible or unshakable… and that in spite of her lies, he considered her a friend.

If anything, it was the nicest thing she heard someone say to her in quite some time… That someone out there wanted her to live through this…

…

…

"That was probably the first moment my attractions to your father stemmed into something deeper than a schoolgirl's affections. Your Dad was a very different person back then. He didn't let his guard down around anyone, and hadn't for a very long time. So for him to show this… fragility for me was a real eye opener. It showed him as a man I could love… Did love, in all ways but saying such a thing out loud."

"Dad sounded like such a badass. Why did you make him change?"

Tali Shepard narrowed her eyes at her eldest daughter Margaret… or Maggie as she liked to go by now for some inexplicable reason. What was it about 16 year old girls and not wanting to just stay the same? Why did they insist on complicating everything? She most certainly didn't. Whatever was going on in Maggie's mind, it must have been a human thing.

"I did nothing of the sort," Tali protested her daughter's accusation. "Your father was a badass Spectre from the day I met him, until the day we came home with you. It was you who changed him, Maggie. The first time he held you in his arms, he never wanted to pick up a gun ever again… I mean… he did… and Keelah he still does stuff that scares the hell out of me… but when you both were little, his first priority was you, and then your sister."

"Pfft. Way to go, Maggie. You totally messed things up as usual."

Next to Maggie, was Calia – who, like her sister, wanted a shorter name and now went by Lia – nudged her human sister hard in the ribs, making Maggie squirm and proceed to punch Calia in the breast, making Calia yelp and jump. Before Tali could intervene, Calia had tackled Maggie to the ground and the two of them went into fight mode as they wrestled for dominance of their rival sibling. This was not new. This happened every other day...

They loved each other, of that Tali knew with no doubt in her heart, it was just that they showed it to each other in the most violent of ways.

"Shut up, Lia, you did too!" Maggie got out through her struggle against her hyperactive sister's struggling.

Turning her attention away from her work, Tali stood up and pried the smaller Calia off of Maggie and hauled her back to the kitchen table, the 13 year old laughing as she watched Maggie rise unsteadily, flustered by the state her quarian sibling had placed her in.

"I imagine Auntie Ash wasn't too impressed by any of this," Maggie spoke up as the battle between the two siblings came to a ceasefire. "They were dating and you just swooped in and took him away!"

Tali stiffened as her daughter slumped down into the chair next to her. She was not aware that Margaret had known about the intimate relationship that occurred so many years ago between her father and Ashley Williams. How ever it was that Margaret got that information, was unimportant. She was quite correct in her hypothesis about Ashley and her. It took quite a long time before they worked through it completely. Now Ashley and her were friends. Keelah, sometime Ashley referred to her as a 'Sister from another mother… and race'.

It as a far sight better then Ashley being three seconds away from punching her in the throat, that was for sure.

"It… wasn't like that or that simple," Tali managed to get out as she forced herself to remain collected in the face of the accusation. "She wasn't aware of it until after Dad was arrested by the Alliance, and your Father and I were under the impression she had ended the relationship months prior. By then I was a different woman. I mean, I wasn't exactly open to discussing the relationship in a public display for the eyes of the people to judge and make their conclusions, but around people I knew. Yes, I made her aware that I was going to fight her for him if necessary. Thank the Ancestors it wasn't."

Silently Tali thanked the Ancestors. Fighting Ashley would have resulted in a fist fight, and she doubted she would have the ability to go hand-to-hand against Goddamn Ashley Williams.

"You know, Mom, I'm surprised Auntie Liara and Dad never seemed to hook up," Calia piped up as she sat down next to Tali on her other side. "Auntie Miranda too for that matter; they both are very close to him."

Tali narrowed her eyes at her youngest. Where in the hell was this coming from?

"Your Father and Auntie Liara are best friends," she reminded her. "In the lowest moments of the Reaper War, the only person who could get him back into the fight was Liara."

Calia frowned at the information she was given.

"Why?" she asked. "Didn't that bother you?"

Snaking her hand around Calia's shoulder into her hand was resting on the back of the teen's head, Tali nodded.

"It did." Tali admitted to her children, a small smile etched onto her lips in spite of the topic. "I was so… envious that she could do it… at least until she told me. There were things about the war that he didn't want to burden me with, his deepest fears… he could confine these fears in her instead. We all did our part to keep the team together, really."

Tali paused as her daughter's absorbed the nature of the relationship between their father and their asari aunt. It gave her time to figure out how to word the second part of the question. Miranda Lawson and John was far less clear cut as John and Liara were. It was a genuine mess that Tali just learned to deal with. Miranda was an acquired taste, even to this day Tali struggled with her at times.

"As for Miranda, she is another confidant to him," Tali spoke slowly, deliberately. "She is unfiltered, and unbiased. When your Dad needed to go to someone to talk about something deadly serious, with far reaching consequences Miranda was always the first one he approached for advice. I did not like her at first, but Auntie Miranda never lets personal feelings get in the way, unlike me and most other people. In some ways, Miranda has become your dad's pseudo-sister… sort of a nicer Auntie Jane, I guess…"

Tali had hoped the answers would sate the girls so that they could move on or drop the line of questioning all together. Such a thing was merely wishful thinking on her part.

"What about Jack? Have you seen the sort of tension they have?" Maggie piped up, leaning over the table, not to address her mother, but Calia instead. "Oooooh, Garrus' sister is a sweetheart, and on the plus side we'll have a turian to teach us hand to hand!"

What.

"What about Samara and all their talks. Or maybe Dad could swing the other way and go after Garrus!" Calia replied to her sister. The two girls broke into a wild laughter as their poor Mother found herself growing more and more confused with where in the hell all of this was going.

"Are… are you… Why are you trying to hook your father up with other people?" Tali managed to inquire, her eyes wide as she examined her children as though they had just revealed themselves to be Reaper agents.

Lia threw up her hands in a mock surrender.

"We are totally not writing fiction stories about Dad romancing the rest of the team. That is totally not a thing on the extranet that we are engaging in because that would be wrong," Calia immediately denied, only further increasing Tali's growing concerned.

A hand fell on Tali's shoulder. It was Maggie. She was smiling sweetly and it was bugging the hell out of Tali.

"You never know if something might happen to you," Maggie spoke as though nothing she was saying was controversial. "We're going to need a replacement mother as soon as possible, and so Lia and I are just figuring out who to settle with. We're just being prepared here!"

Tali pressed her hand over her face.

"Oh, you are just the worst sort daughters I could end up with," Tali bemoaned, earning dual laughs from the two girls, who were clearly not being serious about all this wild speculation.

"You know, speaking of Auntie Miranda, Dad calls her 'Mom' on occasion. What's that all about?" Maggie went on, her tone curious as she pushed herself back into her seat.

Tali sighed and rubbed her face. That was a whole other can of worms, which she wasn't inclined on opening yet. It was something that would be discussed when they were older. Or never…. Yes, never worked just as well for her.

"Your Dad has a lot of unresolved mother issues," was all that Tali was willing to commit to about the issue. Considering the nature of the relationship between he and his actual mother, it was the truth too.

"I have what now?"

The three Shepard women turned around in their seats and found John Shepard, Father and Husband to them standing there in his combat armour. He looked exhausted, which of course was to be expected as he had been deployed to put down a pirate incursion into the Veil. Both Calia and Maggie pushed back their seats and flung themselves at their father, who grunted, but nonetheless managed to catch the pair of them.

Tali smiled and remained in her seat, pretending not to be too interested in his timely arrival. She was being coy, and he had a serious attraction to her coyness. She would play the game if only to amuse herself until the girls were gone and the proper greeting could begin.

"Mom was just telling us about how you thought she was a sucky soldier," Tali heard Calia speak to her father animatedly.

"She still is," John replied to his daughter, his voice thick with amusement as his words were clearly directed at her. "Too bad she didn't take it up full time; the Reapers would have laughed and went to another galaxy to find better prey."

Tali rolled her eyes and stood up to face the girls and her husband. The three of them all staring at her, the three of them all wearing the same identical shit eating grins that told her they were now just pressing her buttons to elicit a response.

"Why do you all hate me?" she demanded to know her voice high and mellow dramatic. "You two, and your plots to get your father a new wife; and you and your insulting my ability to fight! That hurts!"

Tali watched in silence as Margaret, Calia and John all shared a look. They all seemed aware that they were reaching a point where their teasing of Tali was reaching the critical mass stage. There was only so much they could get away with before they suddenly found all their electronic items hacked and disabled for longer spans of time then they would prefer them to be.

Letting go of her Father first, Margaret stepped forward and gave her mother a kiss on her cheek.

"It's all just an exercise in critical thinking mom," Maggie explained with a small smile. "When it all comes down to it, who in our life could possibly replace this galaxy's greatest mom?"

Next to Maggie, Lia appeared and kissed Tali's other cheek.

"So far nobody can do it, and we doubt that will ever change." Lia assured her mother brightly.

With that, the two sisters left the kitchen, leaving John chuckling and Tali struggling not to break down in a mess of happy tears for what her terrible, awful, sweet, perfect little angels had just said to her.

"You know what?" Tali spoke, ignoring the lump in her throat as she watched her girls leave the room. "Just when I think they're utterly hopeless they go and say the sweetest things."

Tali felt John's armoured arm wrap around her shoulder, she felt the man pull her closer to him, and she did not resist as she buried the side of her head against his neck as her own arm reached outwards and extended around his waist. The two of them remained there locked in each other's embrace and shared a long, comfortable silence together.

"Well… I can't speak for the whole who could replace the galaxies greatest mom thing, but my exercise in critical thinking would be who could replace the galaxies' greatest hips and ass," John spoke up, his voice thick with a lust that must have been building up over these past two weeks he was away from her.

"And did you come to the same conclusion as the girls?" she purred next to him. "That I am irreplaceable to you as well?"

John could only shrug, leaving Tali suddenly scandalized by his refusal to flat out placate her.

"I don't know. It's a little less clear," he replied without much of a hesitation. "I mean, there's Miranda, Solana… Samara… This of course would occur once you were gone. Now if I was into necrophilia which I am probably not - can't rule it out as I haven't yet tried it, then you would definitely remain at the top."

Tali groaned and pushed her husband away from her as he broke into a dark laugh. She never thought it was possible, but she missed it when Commander Shepard was a hard ass.

…

…

I just had a bit of a revelation. Not once in any of my works have I written a Tali/Shepard story that featured Tali'Zorah still Nar Rayya.

About two months after the release of Mass Effect, I was going to start writing a Shepard/Liara story, but it quickly spiralled into a Shepard/Tali one. If I stuck to it, it would have been the first of its kind on this site. It's crazy to think about, but probably for the best. I wasn't very good back then.

You know, I always had a problem with how in Mass Effect, Tali and Liara went into combat with no actual military training beyond basic survival training. I know, I know quarians get training for their pilgrimages, but would it be up to standards of the rest of the galaxy, and I somehow doubt the training was meant for anything as big as chasing a Spectre around.

I had a recent explosion of ideas for the PTSD series. As in as I finish this, I have 6 more stories in various levels of completion, including a look into Tali's training at Pinnacle Station. Next one up, however, will be an Ashley, Shepard and Tali reconciliation fiction set in ME 3 during the events of Sarah Williams mourning her husband's death.

Anyways, something to look forward to. Thanks for reading!