Love Conquers All CH3

"Joker, Zaeed Massani is going to be at the Normandy in seven minutes. Make sure he has clearance to enter." Shepard said after he activated his com.

"Oh! You mean that nice, huggable teddy bear as old as time?" Joker quipped. Zaeed raised his eyebrow.

"Nothing in my contract about killing the pilot." He threatened. Joker laughed.

"If you want the best chance of surviving this mission then you need the best pilot out there, me."

"Jeff, if the Commander wanted I could fly this ship." Shepard could almost see Joker glaring at EDI's holo.

"Now you just had to go ruin my fun." Joker said stiffly. The Commander continued to hear him mutter something about AI's.

"Just be ready for the man." Shepard said.

"Already done."  Zaeed shook his head.

"I'm going to stay with you. What you're planning on doing is not very smart without back up." It was the Commander's turn to shake his head. Just before he opened his mouth another voice came on the com.

"What is Shepard planning on doing without backup?" Garrus asked.

"Invite a vorcha to join the crew." Zaeed answered. The com went silent for several moments.

"What?!?" Garrus shouted. Shepard heaved out a big sigh.

"I should have known you were standing behind Joker, Garrus." He said.

"Commander I'm with Garrus on this one. Why would you even talk to a vorcha?" Shepard
knew he was going to have to explain his actions to the crew so his answer came quick and with silent power.

"Joker, I want you to get the crew together and show them some earth history. From seventeen seventy- seven through to two thousand and eight earth time. Focus on the black's history." Knowing what the Commander was getting at, Zaeed nodded his head in understanding. Joker went quiet on the other end of the com.

"Joker, are you OK?" Garrus asked in a worried tone.

"Ya, I'm fine. Can you do me a favor and get the crew together?" Joker asked.

"Sure." They all heard Garrus's footsteps fade away.

"Okay Commander, I get why you're doing this but I still don't like it. I don't think they can change like that." Zaeed nodded his head in agreement. The next questions Shepard asked had them all at a loss for words.

"Has anybody given them a chance to try? Has anybody treated them like anything other than a stupid animal to be taken advantage of?" The silence lasted several moments. Zaeed was the first to break it.

"It's still in their nature to be violent. I still think doing this without someone to watch your back is just plain stupid." The Commander shook his head.

"No, I need to do this alone in order for this to work." Zaeed shrugged.

"Your skin."

"Joker, send him the Normandy's location."  They waited a few moments but nothing happened. "Joker?" EDI answered them.

"One moment. Sending the location." Zaeed's omni-tool beeped as it received the location. Zaeed looked at the location then without another word, left.

"What's wrong with Joker?" Shepard asked EDI.

"I believe that Jeff left his seat to get the information you requested the crew to watch." She answered.

"Why did he leave his seat to do that?"

"I believe that he is questioning himself."

"Keep an eye on him, would you?"

"Yes, Shepard."

Shepard deactivated his com. Now where had that vorcha he had his eye on gone? He scanned the market looking for a group of vorcha. It shouldn't be that hard, the one vorcha had white on its…ah! There they are. The Commander shadowed the vorcha for the next few hours. He found out several interesting facts about the vorcha. The first thing he found out was the thing's name, Shisk. Another fact he learned about Shisk was that he could eat anything, the base didn't matter. That made things easier for the cook. The vorcha tended to stay in groups not only for safety but they needed the proximity of others of its kind or ones it knew, Shepard didn't know which. After a little while Shisk separated from the group. Shisk eventually went down a small alley. By this time Shepard knew that Shisk knew he was being shadowed and was setting a trap. It would be just him and Shisk. The Commander shrugged his shoulders; this was the vorcha he wanted to talk to anyway. He walked down the alley into the trap. He felt something ram into him, slamming him against the wall. He felt what he knew to be Shisk's claw at his throat.

"Raaa!" Shisk yelled in the Commander's face. "Why does this human follow Shisk?"

"I actually just wanted to get to know you."

"You lie!" Shepard looked into Shisk's eyes letting him see the truth there.

"I want to know you Shisk, join my crew." Shisk didn't know what to think. This human in front of him, his word were truth. As far as Shisk knew this was the first person that had ever asked a vorcha to join a ship's crew. There was something different about this human. Shisk felt something he'd never felt in a long time, trust and it scared him. Why would feelings of trust come to him for this human? Sure that this was a trick Shisk asked,

"You think Shisk stupid?!?"

"No." A simple answer but it shocked Shisk to the core. He could hear something behind the human's words that made him know he can trust the human. Why would anybody, let alone a human, want a vorcha on their crew? No one trusted the vorcha yet somehow this human…Shisk knew that this human was going to be a bridge for his kind. When asked later how he knew that Shisk would always say the same thing, it's Commander Shepard.
Shepard watched the conflict going on in the vorcha's mind and waited patiently for the vorcha to say something. He could almost hear Shisk arguing with himself. Why would a human want to know a vorcha? Why would the human then invite a vorcha to be part of a crew? Shisk stepped away from the Commander to start pacing. After several long moments of pacing Shisk turned to Shepard.

"Why want Shisk on crew?" the vorcha asked.

"I want to give you a chance." He answered

"What chance?" Shepard held out his hand.

"Join my crew and find out." He said with a smile. It took Shisk a few minutes to figure out why the human was holding out his hand then a few minutes longer to make a choice. Shepard stood there patiently waiting with his hand out. Shisk grabbed the Commander's hand.

"I join you." Shepard put his other hand on top of Shisk's with a grin.

"Welcome to the Normandy, Shisk."

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The inner door of the air lock hissed open to show most of the crew standing there waiting to see what everything was about. Shisk instinctively stayed behind Shepard, useing him as a shield if necissary.

"I knew it would be something like this." muttered one of the crew. Shisk scanned the crew looking for the one that made the comment. In almost every single eye he saw nothing but contempt and loathing. Why had he agreed to join the crew? Movement in the crew ranks caught his eye. One of the crew members broke from crowd running right for Shisk with a knife. Before Shisk could react, Shepard grabbed the man's arm to pull him off balance then punched him square in the jaw. The man crumpled to the ground, out before he even hit the floor. Shisk started to shiver. He never shivered for anything, what was making him now? When Shisk's eyes landed on the Commander he knew why. Fury was radiating off of the human so much he could almost see it wrapping around the crew.

"I know you all saw the history. Why continue this childish behavior? You all are soldiers! Start acting like it! If I hear otherwise I'm going to drop that person on the next planet we pass, habitable or not!" the whole crew stood in silence for a long time. After a few minutes the man on the ground came to. Staggering to his feet he stood in front of the vorcha. Shepard knew what was coming and took the armor off of his arms in preparation.

"This thing will stab you in the back!" the man shouted lunging at Shisk with the knife. To this day Shisk could never tell you what made him not lift an arm to defend himself but he was glad he didn't. The knife slid easily into the Commander's forearm. The man stared at the blood dripping onto the deck. Shisk looked at the knife sticking out the other side of the forearm. This human just used himself as a shield for a vorcha.

"Then who's stabbing me in the front?" Shepard asked cooly. "I've read your file, James! I know that your whole family was killed by vorcha!" he pointed at Shisk with his wounded arm. "Use your head for a minute. Why would a vorcha be willing to come onto a ship by himself? Why would a vorcha risk everything to come here alone? Do you know why he did it? Because he's not alone, not by a long shot." The Commander grabbed James head and forced him to look at Shisk. "Take a good look, James. If your loved ones were standing right here and I killed them…"

"You wouldn't sir!" James yelled cutting Shepard off. The Commander shook James head.

"If I killed your loved ones would you hold Joker responsible? How about Jacob, would you hold him responsible for something I did?" James stared at Shisk for a long time before he said,

"No."

"No what James?" James turned his head to face the Commander.

"No I wouldn't hold anybody other than you responsible." Shepard forced him to look at Shisk.

"Like I said before, take a good long hard look at Shisk here. Is he one of the one's that killed your family?" James didn't answer for a long time. The whole time Shisk didn't move. Despite what was going on Shisk felt something else he hadn't felt in a long time, safe. This human could do the impossible. This human could change the universe and from what Shisk heard came back from the dead to do it. Nothing could stop this human. Shisk turned his eyes back to the human that was forced to look at him. He met the human's eye without the slightest tremor. He watched the emotions play across the human's face until it settled into something he couldn't read.

"No." James said quietly.

"No what?" the Commander pushed.

"No he's not one of the vorcha that killed my family. I won't hold him responsible for something he didn't do." Shepard let go of him. He dropped to his knees just staring at the deck.

"He still stabbed you Commander." Miranda piped up from the back of the crowd. Shepard looked at his arm surprised, like he was seeing the knife for the first time.

"Oh dear, it seems that I fell on my knife again." The Commander said in a staged voice. Before anybody could say anything else Jacob yelled,

"Just like on freedoms progress, except it was something a little bit bigger than a knife. If any of you want to hear the story I'll be down in the mess." He said as he walked toward the elevator. If there was anything that the crew liked more than events like this, it was stories about their Commander. The crowd quickly head down to the mess until only a few people were left. Shisk walked up to the Commander.

"Why you protect me?" he asked in his rough animal like voice. Shepard looked into the vorcha's eyes. The vorcha's voice snapped James out of his state.

"I want to give you a chance."

"What chance?"

"A chance to be what you can and want to be. A chance to change. I see what you can be and I want to give you a chance to get there."  James stood up under the Commander's eyes. Before he could take a step to leave the Commander put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sir, why did you protect me?" he asked quietly. Shepard turned him around to face him.

"Do you trust me James?" James nodded his head without hesitation. "Then trust me when I say you'll know why in time. At this point I need you to do something for me." He motioned to the knife in his arm. "This is starting to hurt, could you go get the good doctors for me?"

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After spending twenty-five minutes putting James worries to rest Shepard finally turned his attention to where Shisk was going to stay. After talking to him for a few minutes they both thought that the cargo hold would be the best place for him until the crew got used to him. Shepard then handed Shisk a schedule. It was times when he and the Commander would spend together working. Combat training, education, and working on the way Shisk talked. The first session started now, combat training.

Shepard dropped onto his bed utterly spent. Shisk was a lot better than Shepard gave him credit for. That vorcha knew how to fight, that was a fact. Shisk still had a long way to go but once he was focused and controlled he would be one of, if not the best fighter on this ship. Shisk's skill with guns was good but that could be improved greatly. Shepard couldn't wait to see Shisk at his fullest, the moment he shined bright.
His mind started wondering as his body rested. His thoughts soon drifted to someone that he wished was here.  After he pulled up a holo of Tali he started singing the classic song 'There she goes'.

There she goes
There she goes again
Racing through my brain
And I just can't contain
This feeling that remains

There she goes
There she goes again
Pulsing through my veins
And I just can't contain
This feeling that remains

He froze the holo and zoomed in on Tali's mask. He looked into the eyes that seemed to be looking back at him, watching him. His singing soon faded out as he lost himself in her eyes as they seemed to come to life.

"Commander." Shepard almost jumped out of his skin.

"Good Gandhi, EDI!" he could almost hear her laughing. He took a deep breath willing his heart to slow down. "Need something?"

"From what I've looked up most would consider your voice to be very beautiful. Right now no less than seventeen of the crew was listening to you sing."

"Was?" he asked.

"They all requested that whenever you sing to let them listen. Unless you're singing a note I don't allow them access to your quarter's com." A smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Thank you, EDI. That's very thoughtful of you. I'm sure that you didn't 'come' here just to tell me that."

"I'm always here." Shepard rolled his eyes.

"You know what I mean."  There was a slight pause before EDI said anything.

"You are the only one that knows what I am and you accept me where others would delete me. You are the only one I can talk to freely." If there had been a camera in the room EDI would have seen the sadness in the Commander's eyes.

"I know that and I'm sorry for that." EDI heard the emotion in his voice.

"You know, Shepard. I am not alone." She said in hopes of smoothing those emotions with truth. The Commander was quiet for a long time.

"EDI, would you be willing to risk your safety to add someone else to this circle?" he asked. The idea appealed to EDI very much.

"I am positive if anything were to go wrong that you would figure out something." Taking that as a yes he continued.

"It's going to start with Joker. During this whole process don't tell anybody straight forward that you are unique. Slowly just start being yourself with him, it doesn't matter who listens. I think that the more you are yourself with Joker the more everybody else will get used to it and soon the whole crew will know without really knowing. What do you think?"

"Slowly showing myself to the crew so that they are used to what I do over a period of time. I think that will be the best course of action for me to have people know. I accept, I will start this evening." EDI replied. The Commander's eyes shot to her 'face'.

"Isn't that a little soon?"

"No. Jeff and I talk often."  The Commander knew how much they talked. Sometimes to kill time he'd listen to them go at it, it was very entertaining.

"Alright, that sounds like a plan. Keep me updated on how it's going every six hours."

"Would you like the update vocally or sent to your omni-tool?"

"Omni-tool when I'm asleep but when I am awake then ask if I would like to hear the update. If I say no then send it to my omni-tool." Shepard answered.

"Preference saved." There was a long silence.

"I have a feeling that there's more. How can I help you, EDI?"

"I want to ask you a couple personal questions."

"Shoot." There was a moment of silence.

"I am sure that you don't mean fire a gun. I do not understand what that means the way you are using it." The Commander smiled.

"The way I was using that means go ahead and ask your questions."

"I have two questions. The first question is about the quarian you love. Why do you love her?" Shepard took a moment to gather his thoughts.

"The first thing about her that caught my eye was that she was the gentlest, kindest, and happiest person in the world but when she's in the field she has a focus that I have rarely see. I guess what I am saying is her ability to fight without losing herself. How she can keep her soul in spite of all the death around her." The more he thought about her, the easier it became to answer EDI's question. "I started talking to her. The more I found out about her the more I fell in love with her. I know that it would be impossible between us for anything to happen. I know that suite of hers is the only thing keeping her alive at this point. You know what? I don't care. I don't care the only thing we would be able to do is hug. I love her. If she doesn't want me, that's fine I'm not going to push myself on anybody. That does not mean I'm not going to fight for her. If she loves me, if she will have me, then I will do everything in my power to make her life happy. I've even thought about the fact that we wouldn't be able to have kids. We will adopt, I was adopted myself. All I know is that I love her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her."  He stopped realizing this was the first time he's said he loved her out loud. He said it one more time quietly. EDI didn't miss the emotion behind the statement.

"I love her."

"What is her name?" EDI asked.

"Her name is Tali, Tali'Zorah." He answered. EDI gave him a moment to compose himself.

"Are you ready for my next question?"

"Yes."

"A little while ago we were talking about how you are a different base than Tali, can you tell me what your idea is?" A full blown grin lit up the Commander's face. They spent the next hour talking about Shepard's idea.

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"I love her."

Tali stared at her omni-tool as the rest of the message played. She was going to get something to eat when her omni-tool notified her she had a message. She was going to ignore it but saw that it was from the Normandy. She couldn't get back to her room fast enough. When the message was opened the audio started playing. It had started with someone asking Shepard why he loved the quarian. As she was trying to convince herself that he wasn't talking about her she heard the question asked about the name of the quarian.

"Her name is Tali, Tali'Zorah." Tali's heart quiet literally stopped beating for a few seconds. She knew Shepard wouldn't have sent this himself. She spent the next half hour trying to find out who sent it. The only thing she was able to do was confirm the message was sent from the Normandy. This audio clip is real. She replayed the message. When he said he loved her she started crying. Crying from the joy, the pain, and the emotion. The joy that he loves her, suit or no suit. The pain of knowing that they wouldn't be able to kiss without risk. The emotion she heard in his voice as he said those three words.
He said he loved her. His heart was in those three words. He really loved her. The time until she could see him again seemed like years instead of weeks. The ache in her heart burned bright as she started the message again. She would see him soon. As long as she had this she could wait. Tali grabbed her pillow; holding on to it like it was Shepard. His arms would soon be wrapped around her and her arms around him. Nothing would be able to harm ether of them. Nothing else would matter. Upon hearing those three words again her tears started fresh. She continued to cry behind the safety of her mask until she was crying dry tears of joy.