chapter 31

Upon waking up from a rather comfortable nap had brought a rather startling sight to his eyes, well aside from the fact that Tali had moved around in her sleep, tossing one leg over his waist and somehow wrapping her other arm around his torso without waking so she was literally cuddling him like a giant plushy toy, that didn't bother him at all.

It was the fact that Jackson's face was less than a foot away from his, looming above him like a shadow.

"Good morni-!"

Jackson was abruptly cut off when Jason used his free hand to wallop his larger twin across the face, failing to notice Garrus handing a credit chit to a smug looking Wrex in the background.

Hold on.

"What are all of you doing in the elevator?" Jason frowned as he looked around, "What is the cargo bay doing in the elevator?"

"Ow, okay in order, we had to remove the two of you from the elevator without waking the two of you up, so we slowly lowered the elevator, got the doors opened and lifted both of you out," Jackson winced as he nursed the bruised side of his face, "speaking of which, you two are really heavy sleepers."

"Nahhn," several pairs of eyes turned to look at Tali, who was waking up by yawning loudly and curling back up around her new favorite heat source (Jason) with a content murmur.

"Utter a word and I will kill you." Jason glowered at the members of the ground team, who had grown by Ashley and Alenko.

Jackson got three pictures taken with his omni-tool before a biotic attack made him relocate, Garrus got two before he felt the sudden urge to hide after Jason tossed another one of his trademark glares in his direction, Wrex didn't so much as blink and remained where he was, slouched in his chair.

"That is so cute," Jackson giggled as he stood behind a suddenly nervous Alenko, holding the man by the shoulders to act as an unwilling meat shield, "all we need is for the others to show up and-"

"SSSSSSQQQQQQQQQQUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEE!"

Jason, along with everyone else in the cargo bay, minus Tali of course, jumped in surprise when none other than Jane Shepard came tumbling down the elevator shaft (a large portion of the floor was missing) with her husband right behind her.

"You fucking jinxed it asshole," Jason scowled as he used the momentary distraction to nail his twin with a biotic hook shot, again failing to notice a triumphant looking Garrus receiving a credit chit from Wrex, having missed a very lucky Alenko by inches.

"OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!"

Jane was doing something similar to an excited twelve year old jumping dance, completely ignoring the numerous sweat drops and speechless expressions she was receiving from a majority of the ground team, well Garrus looked incredibly confused, Wrex didn't show any outward sign of surprise and Tali was still asleep.

"As my wife was attempting to say," John coughed as he stepped forward, "the both of you should have been more responsible and found a better place to take a nap."

Of all the things he expected to hear, Jason was fairly certain that Dr. Chakwas was actually a secret Cerberus agent and drugged him with a powerful hallucinogen to put him under, because he was expecting the Miranda Right speech from Jane while John simply stood there glowering over her shoulder over the inconvenience they managed to put on the crew, something that he was certain would cause massive guilt when Tali woke up.

Jackson giggled, "You two were all cuddle buddies for a few hours, it was priceless to see your face when you woke up."

Because his taller counterpart was too busy bending over at the waist laughing, he failed to notice the incoming biotic attack that sent him back towards the Grizzly, which was now taking up the other half of the cargo bay, but it had been parked far enough to the side so they could still utilize the firing range.

"Ahem," eyes turned to look at John, who had a tick mark above his eye, "first order of business is to fix the elevator so the rest of the crew can get back to work."

"Of course Commander," Jason figured that it wouldn't hurt to show some professionalism as he slowly sat up, gently transferring the still sleeping Tali into his arms as he got to his feet, "I'll simply drop Tali off in her quarters and begin repairing the elevator."

"I wasn't talking to you," John turned so he was facing the others, "Liara is still the only one hard at work doing her job and the rest of you are doing what exactly?"

"Waiting for the elevator to be fixed so I can see Dr. Chakwas about my migraine."

"Need to get my repair manual from the mess hall."

"Running a self-diagnosis calibration program for the optic software."

"Shepard."

"Ugh," everyone turned to look over at Jackson, "wondering why it hurts to think?"

John had to good grace to sigh instead of face palm or roll his eyes, "Congratulations, you get to fix the elevator."

"Oh, alright Boss Man, I'll have fixed in a jiff," Jackson shook his head before turning towards Jason, "you should really get some more sleep bro, your kind of cranky without your usual eight hours, though it is kind of cute you are willing to carry your beloved to bed."

Everyone sweat dropped on cue when another biotic attack went sailing across the cargo bay, though Jackson had the agility to dodge this one in favor of taking it to the face.

"Right," John sighed again while Jane simply stood there giggling madly, "Jason, take Tali to her bunk and get some sleep, that's an order."

Guess the man really does care in his own way.

"Copy that Commander," Jason felt awkward trying to address Jane in her current condition, which amounted to an aura of hearts and kittens flying around the woman's head as she continued to giggle.

XXX

Jason held back a groan as he finally reached the drive core, listening to the door shut behind him as he approached the bed and gently placed Tali onto it.

Strange wasn't even a word he could use to describe what just happened.

Chief Adams had a small smile on his face as he took a few of the engineers to assist with the attempts to repair the elevator and leaving the drive core largely deserted, save for a few engineers to monitor the workstations.

Jason had just finished tucking Tali under the covers when she finally decided that now was the time to wake up, arms stretching as the universal signature yawn could be heard from her voice speaker, though Jason figured the way her eyes narrowed to slits meant that she actually had room inside her helmet to yawn.

"Oh, hello," Tali yawned again as she lowered her arms, "did I fall asleep again?"

"Relax Tali, an order from Shepard," Jason answered as he grabbed the edge of the blanket and brought it back over her again as she struggled to sit up, "you are confined to bed rest for another twenty hours, orders from the doctor as well."

"Which one?" Tali bobbed her head, though the way her eyes were drooping meant that she was just about to sleep again.

Jason grinned, "Both of them."

He knew for a fact that Dr. Chakwas would have his hide for letting Tali attempt an escape from the confines of the airlock and subsequently falling asleep in the elevator, now that he thought about it, the more hot water he was in as well.

"Get some rest, then we'll see what the doc says about you returning to full duty." Jason replied as he patted her shoulder and stood up to leave.

However, his plans on leaving Tali to rest and helping his idiot brother repair the elevator were quickly sidetracked when a three fingered hand grabbed onto his, causing him to stop and look down.

"Please," Tali bowed her head as her fingers began fidgeting, "stay for a little while?"

For about a second Jason weighed the pros and cons of either denying Tali's wish or accepting her offer and obviously went with the latter option as he kicked off his boots and climbed into the bed next to her as she scooched over to make room. After a minute of adjusting themselves, Jason found himself under the covers on his back with Tali curled up on his right side and nestling her head into his shoulder while he intertwined his fingers with hers.

Another thing he learned before he fell asleep again was that the bed was much more comfortable than either his workbench or the bunk beds out in the cargo bay as Tali finished moving around, though she managed to wrap her other arm around his chest and hog a majority of the blanket.

The other thing was that he was pretty sure Tali kissed him, using the mouthpiece of her helmet to gently nudge the side of his head before lowering her head back to his chest to fall asleep.

In fact, it was close to the same place where he had kissed her helmet come to think of it…

XXX

"It's a good thing the elevator is fixed," Jane happily sang as she stepped into the elevator with her husband, "it wasn't fun climbing down the elevator shaft."

John answered with a grunt as he tapped the console command, "Though I can't help but wonder."

"About what?"

"Why are there bucket seats and five point safety harnesses installed in the elevator?"

XXX

"Are you sure it was a good idea for the commanders to be the first ones to test the elevator on its trial run?" Chief Adams glanced back at the clearly insane man with a massive grin on his face, "Especially since he fixed it?"

"Eh who know it might be faster than before." Garrus didn't exactly sound convinced with what he was saying as well.

"WHO CARES! NOW LETS US WATCH AN ELEVATOR WITH SPEED!" Jackson cried out as the doors slid shut with a soft whump before the modified system activated.

Ding!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

WHAM!

Ding!

"Ha! Success!" Jackson gloated as everyone stared at the elevator dumbfounded, "In less than three seconds the elevator has reached the first deck!"

"Is that even safe!?" Chief Adams felt a massive migraine coming on at the thought of what this madman had done to the elevator.

More importantly if the commanders were alright.

XXX

Liara briefly wondered if it was worth having her go down to the cargo bay in order to conduct firearm practice when she should be busy working on her research. She was close and she could fell it, considering all of the resources she had on hand, the relics they managed to locate and even the memories of her commanders, which were by no means faked.

Of course there was still the problem of deciphering the puzzle, everything was slowly coming together piece by piece with each new discovery that was made, it was amazing that she could know speak Prothean, though from what she could tell, it hadn't been a pleasant way on how to learn it.

That being said she noticed that the elevator had arrived, strange, usually she had time to browse through her notes, guess she was getting to carried away thinking, as usual.

Of course the sight before was enough to stop her dead in her tracks at the sight before her, rendered speechless.

Both Commander John and Jane were…entangled in each other's limbs on the floor of the elevator, it didn't take a genius to figure out what they had been doing.

Though she spotted a couple sinister looking chairs along the walls and were those straps?

It was as if her brain short circuited.

"I'll…..just…..be on…my way," Liara blushed vividly as a pair of groans answered her, turning on heel she bolted for the safety and sanctuary of her quarters.

Goddess, they didn't just….

Did they?

Liara couldn't help but feel mortified that she had sounded hopeful in her own mind.

XXX

"What happened?" John groaned as he lifted his head off the floor to look around, noticing a familiar looking Asari disappear from view as he nudged his wife, who splayed across his chest groaning incoherently, "Baby, wake up."

"Huh?" Jane groggily looked around as she latched onto him, "Why does my head hurt so much?"

Noticing the set of dents in the ceiling John felt his ire being directed towards one person in particular.

"I'm thinking about using Juggernaut as target practice…"

"I feel like that agreeing with you, but first let's get out of this death trap."

XXX

Jackson paused mid victory dance as a chill ghosted across the back of his neck.

Should he be worried, that usually only happened when Jason was trying to kick his ass and he was passed out in the drive core snuggled up to Tali like the world was about to end tomorrow.

But why did he feel like suddenly donning his armor all of a sudden?