@verhexen Thank you for the prompt! I hope I did it justice!
“I haven’t slept in four days.” My Shepard and her best friend.
My participation in this week’s Mass Effect Drunk Writing Circle @masseffectwritercircle
Shepard got out of the Mako, followed by Kaidan and Garrus. They were coming back from the mission on Solcrum, and they were exhausted. Shepard knew her men were in dire need of rest; she had taken them on two missions back-to-back. Shepard herself had barely gotten any rest between the last five assaults against the geth outposts. She was just glad it was over for now. Her entire team needed some well-deserved downtime.
She retired to her cabin for a shower, grabbing a ration tray on the way, and afterwards she filed her report. She was going to lie down finally when her omni-tool pinged.
“Shepard, may I speak with you, please?”
The message was from Tali. Shepard considered ignoring it for a few hours, but the Quarian was more than a squadmate, Shepard had come to view her as a friend. Her bed could wait a moment longer. With a resigned sigh, she made her way down to engineering.
“Hey, Tali,” she said as she walked up to her friend.
“Shepard! Thank you for coming down to see me!” exclaimed the Quarian.
Her voice betrayed her excitement and her nervousness, and Shepard’s alertness reared its head, relegating all thoughts of sleep to the background.
“What can I do for you?” Shepard asked.
“Garrus told me about the geth data you recovered on Solcrum. It would mean the world to my people… to me, if you let me make a copy of it.”
Shepard looked at the young Quarian, not for the first time wondering what her interactions with her would be like if she didn’t wear that mask all the time. She could barely see Tali’s eyes, and that made it very difficult to read her.
“You want to take it back to your people as part of your pilgrimage?”
“We could learn so much from it! It’s invaluable to my people. I would take it as a personal favor, one I could never repay.”
Shepard smiled. “No need to repay me, Tali. You can have a copy, of course.”
She entered some commands on her omni-tool and heard a matching ping on Tali’s, indicating the Quarian had received the copy she sent. Tali checked her omni-tool and looked at Shepard.
“I can’t thank you enough,” she said softly.
Shepard remained silent. Now that she knew everything was right aboard the Normandy and there was no imminent crisis, she allowed herself to relax. Of course she had helped Tali. The Quarian was risking her own life all the time, and she was making herself damn near indispensable aboard. Adams definitely loved having her around, and her knowledge of tech was itself invaluable. There had been no question in Shepard’s mind that Tali should receive what she had asked for.
She opened her omni-tool and forwarded a copy of the data to Tali. “Of course you can have a copy,” she said.
Shepard looked at her friend. “Yes?”
“You just sent me the same data… a second time?”
Shepard blinked. “I did?”
When the Quarian nodded, she looked at her omni-tool again and chuckled. “Well, I guess I did. Don’t mind me, Tali, I haven’t slept in four days, I’m barely functioning.”
“And you’re here talking to me?!” exclaimed Tali. “You should go get some rest!”
“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all week. I’ll see you later, Tali.”
“See you later, Shepard. And thanks again.”
Shepard nodded. “It was my pleasure.”
With that, she made her way back to her cabin and collapsed on her bed where she slept soundly, with only one or two nightmares, for the following eight hours.
