Surrogate for Tali (Excerpt - The Proposition)

“Who is it?” Jack asked with a slight edge as she sat up in her cot, looking toward the stairwell. Whoever was sneaking up on her was huddled around the corner. She didn’t like being woken up one bit, but at least she didn’t need her beauty sleep like Miranda probably did, the prissy bitch. 

“Jack? It’s Tali. Can I…speak with you?”

Jack rubbed her eye, wiping a strand of hair from in front of her face. She’d only recently decided to start growing her hair in a bit. Why not? It was not as if she planned on ending up a prison inmate again anytime soon. Not if she could help it. 

“Yeah yeah, sure,” Jack replied. There was a time when she would’ve told anyone of this ship to fuck off if they tried to intrude on her little space of the ship. But she couldn’t help but feel a sense of…camaraderie with this crew, not that she’d ever admit that to them out loud. Sure, some of them still annoyed the shit out of her, namely Miranda. But after they’d fought together and took down the Collector Base, they didn’t feel like strangers anymore. 

Tali walked into her line of sight. The masked quarian woman was wringing her hands together, clearly nervous about something. “Hello Jack. This isn’t a bad time, is it?”

“If you’d walked down here an hour ago, it would’ve been. I was…”

Fantasizing about getting my pussy pounded by your boyfriend, she thought with amusement. 

“Ah, never mind,” Jack said, waving her hand with a smirk. “So…how can I do you?”

Tali looked at her quizzically, the innuendo clearly lost on her. She rubbed the back of her neck. “So, ah…where do I even begin?” She paced back and forth. “You are, erm, aware of quarians and their weaker immune systems, correct?”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, I kinda got that from the suit and everything.”

Tali laughed nervously. “Right. And, you know that Shepard and I are, are…”

“An item? Yeah I got that too. Congratulations. So?”

She kept pacing back and forth and refusing to look at Jack directly. She sure was acting pretty damn fidgety, Jack thought. “Erm, well, my immune system has made it…difficult for Shepard and I to, well, you know.”

“Fuck?” Jack finished with a smile as Tali’s violet eyes widened under the mask. 

“N- not how I would’ve put it, but yes,” Tali said. 

Jack shrugged. “Well, that sucks, but what’re you coming to me for? Shouldn’t you go to the salarian or Chakwas for medical advice?”

Tali nodded. “I am. I mean, I have. I even spoke with a few people in the Flotilla. I’m taking some new experimental supplements. I am working on strengthening my immune system. Just…not as quickly as I would like.”

“I’m not really sure where you’re going with this, Tali.”

She turned back to Jack, sighing. “Look…I care about Shepard. A lot. I just…can’t be with him in the way that I’d like. Not yet. Even a bit of kissing and skin-on-skin fondling before the Collector Base was enough to make me sick. And I want to do something nice for him…something to truly thank him for everything he’s done for me...”

Jack began to realize where Tali was going with this, and why she needed so much setup to get to her point. Her eyes widened as the lightbulb clicked. 

No. There’s no fucking way she’s about to…

“Basically what I want to know is …what I’m trying to ask you is…” Tali huffed and shook her head. “Oh Keelah, I’ll just say it! Do you want to sleep with Shepard?”

Jack blinked with utter disbelief. Yep. She had to be dreaming. Either that, the translator had glitched out, or Mess Sergeant Gardner put something weird in the last meal she ate. 

Already she could feel her blood pumping from the sheer implications of what Tali was apparently offering to her. Shepard’s quarian girlfriend was offering to share him with her like cake on a silver platter? She’d have to be the biggest dumbass in the galaxy to turn down an offer like this. 

“Yes. I’m in. Done. Agreed.” It took all of Jack’s questionable restraint to keep the excitement out of her voice and treat this like she was agreeing to any other business proposition. 

Tali was surprised at the ease of the former convict’s answer when she’d barely even gotten the words out. 

“Oh…just like that?” Tali asked with a small laugh, rubbing her arm. “I’ll admit, I thought you were an, ahem, adventurous and…s- sexually confident sort of woman, Jack, but I didn’t think it would be that easy to convince you.” 

Oh Tali. Sweet, innocent Tali. If only you knew, Jack thought with amusement. 

“Tali, no offense, but have you seen your boyfriend? The man is stud from head to toe. Asking me to fuck him is not a big ask. Not for me. You could’ve opened your pitch with, ‘Hi Jack. Want to ride Shepard’s cock?’ and I still would’ve said yes.” 

Tali laughed at that. “Hah, point taken.” After a lapse of silence as the two women stared at each other, Tali was about to turn on her heel and leave. “So…I will find a night that works and invite you up to Shepard’s cabin. Does that work…?

Jack raised her hand. “Hold up. Before you agree to this, don’t you want to inspect the goods?” 

Tali looked at her, cocking her head with confusion. “Inspect?”

Jack said nothing more, merely grinning at the stunned widening of Tali’s glowing eyes behind her mask as Jack unzipped her jacket, tossing it aside. She unclipped her bra next and let it fall to the ground nonchalantly, before her pants and camo panties soon followed. The tattooed human biotic stood completely nude, displaying her body proudly before the innocent quarian mechanic.