Mass Effect: Lover's Guide

It's Going To Be Okay - Shepard/Tali

Processing. Processing. Processing. Gah! All this was accomplishing was numbing the world around Shepard. He didn't understand. Was he living or dead? Stuck in a dream, a memory? Nothing made sense since he's returned to his corporal form. He didn't wake from his death three days later and waltz out his tomb nor did he rise from the ashes of his former self like a pheonix. Just, dying, suffocating, dead, back. Pow! Just like that. Like dying was just an inconvenience. Two years missing along with his friends. Unfamiliar world, unfamiliar faces and I the paws of an enemy. It was hard to keep up. Dead. Alive. Attacked. Escaped. Evaluation. Reapers. Progress. No, not his progress. Freedoms Progress. That's where he was. Information was so hard to retain when thrown at him like a biotic attack. Reapers plus human colonies equals bad. That's what it boiled down to. No time to rest or recover. Normal soldiers at least got a break from gun shot wounds but Shepard died with no consideration. No consideration on anything. Is he okay? Does he need to think? Did he even want to come back? Cerberus didn't care. He was an investment. He missed his friends. Even the two people with him were just noise. The mechs just noise. Didn't care. Brain was working overtime. Shepard was just killing and replying from the most basic parts of his brain as the others were busy with tasks of comprehension.

Door slides open. Organic presence. Pull weapon, take aim, analyse. Quarians. Human colony, why quarians? Keep aim. Quarian weaknesses: suit sustains life, slender neck makes vertebrae easy to break, long clumsy fingers, low resources mean minimal training, extreme lack of biotics, low mass means easy to topple. Prepared to kill. Another quarian. Female, young... Beautiful. Gah! Knock it off Shepard. Primal instincts are receding as Shepard's thoughts once again become coherent. The first time since he'd awoken from his entropic sleep. Shepard stored the information of his revival away for later reference. He had to focus on current issues and his friend. "Shepard?" Tali exclaimed. Lowered his weapon and commanded his comrades to do so. He was now prepared to kill humans if need be. His synapses were afire. The adventures on the Normandy, his conversations with Tali, stopping Saren. It all came flooding back. He'd missed two years of his life. That came back too. Tali, the sweet kid he'd helped on her pilgrimage, was all grown up. Even had her own command. What else had everyone been up to? How much had he missed? Why was he working for Cerberus? How did any of this happen? "Tali." Shepard's voice quivered. His silence was the dam. The last thing keeping back the flood. The last piece of solid stone in a wall of cracks. The foundations were gone. Shepard dropped to his hands and knees to begin sobbing. Was he a monster now? The crying was silent but there was no masking the tears that ran down his face and off the end of his nose. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. The floor took in the salty influence. "Shepard!" Tali yelled dropping next to to him. "Shepard." Her voice was softer now. She wrapped her arms around Shepard's torso and rested her head on his for comfort. "It's going to be okay Shepard."