Respite - [a short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.]
Hackett and Shepard stroll rapidly through Arcturus.
'Anderson!'
David Anderson comes from a nearby corridor and catches up as he hears Shepard calling for him.
It hadn't been a greeting, her voice was demanding for him to hurry.
Anderson seems alarmed 'What's happening? My comms officer didn't give me any details, she only said it seemed urgent'
Shepard shrugs in that particular way of hers 'Details can wait, come with us, time is of the essence'
They quickly turn at a corner and stop in front of an ice cream and milkshake bar.
Anderson is completely baffled. 'I don't understand...?'
Shepard smiles wittingly 'Of course you wouldn't understand David, you've never tasted something like this'
Hackett stares gleefully at the promising neon sign.
He says nothing. He is obviously on the verge of tears. Happy, sincere tears.
Shepard looks down at her omnitool clock. 'Good, we came as soon as the rumor was posted on the extranet.
We should have an advantage of at least 20 minutes as we were even ahead of the SSV New Delhi on the Charon relay...'
'But only because of you abusing your Spectre status and claiming you had an Admiral on board...Commander'
Joker chimed behind them, limping to the spot, aided by EDI's scout body.
Shepard smiles 'Well, Hackett is indeed an Admiral'
Anderson thinks of every possible reason for all of this, his thoughts spinning and his head hurting.
Joker looks at him and shrugs 'I'm just here for the milkshakes'.
Ignorant to Anderson's inner ramblings, Shepard goes on 'And nobody at Arcturus seems to know yet'
She glances around the deserted hall and smirks evilish, something she only did when she outsmarted her opponents.
Anderson would know, he trained her and fought besides her for so many years.
'What are you talking about Shepard? Is it the Batarians? A Turian splinter group?' He knew some of Shepard's sense of humor and Joker's...well... Jokerisms, but he still couldn't get this joke.
Anderson clearly didn't get the message, Shepard realizes.
'Talk to me Shepard' He demands.
'Anderson, you can't possibly fathom what is at stake here'
Despite of the apparent gravity of the subject, Shepard is smiling. She keeps rambling.
'We are talking about a limited edition Mango-Strawberry-Thessian Pear Ice Cream!'
Anderson is at a complete loss. 'What?!'
'Yeah! I know! As soon as we heard about it, I ordered Joker to turn around, pick up Hackett from the Kilimanjaro and head straight here. We set our transponder on emergency mode...'
Anderson feels someone tapping him on the shoulder, but nobody is there.
An instant later, Kasumi materializes besides Shepard.
'The rear is clear, the delivery skytruck was already there, so we won't have to wait much longer!' She jumped giggling.
'Excellent!' Shepard's evil grin returns. With her current expression, Joker is pretty sure if she had a cat on her arm, she would pet it and it would fit her demeanor pretty much. It didn't get much better than this.
Shepard puts her hand to her ear and speaks through the comms.
'Garrus, Tali, come on, block the blastdoors and head straight here A-S-A-P!'
Garrus' confident tone is heard through the comms as he responds in professional manner. 'Done, Shepard. We are on our way, E-T-A, 2 minutes'
Anderson couldn't possibly imagine what she was talking about. No, strike that, he certainly can, he just doesn't want to know.
After a few moments, the slide doors part and the group pours inside.
Miranda and Liara sat already in the Shop, sitting lazily on a small table.
It is what is lying on the table what catches Shepard's attention. Empty bowls. Empty glasses, empty dishes.
Licked-clean.
Shepard's smile suddenly disappears upon seeing her friends and is replaced by a frown.
'Goddamn! I was almost sure you would betray me at some point Miranda, but you Liara? You? After all we've been through?'
'Commander, I can explain...' Miranda starts... but Liara interjects swiftly. 'No Miranda, there is nothing to explain. Hello Shepard. How are you?'
'Liara...'
Liara holds her hands up, showing no dreadful intentions.
'It's ok, I posted those rumours and used a custom hash so Legion could find them. Nobody else. Only Legion'
'But...' Shepard trusted Liara, she would hear her out, she decides. '...ok..ok...'
After a moment of silence, Shepard's smile returnes but the squinted eyes remain.
'Aaaand what is doing Miranda here?' She grins, knowing she had the upper hand on the cheerleader this time.
'Shepard, as you know, Miranda and I worked together once and it was hard. Really hard.
I don't know if it was harder for me trusting her or for her keeping me out of trouble.
This was...I was just being thankful, she did everything in her hands to bring you back, so I wanted to pay her back'
'And there is enough Ice cream for everybody' Liara smiles 'And Milkshakes, Joker' She quickly adds at the sight of Joker's frown.
Joker's tension dissipates. Any more surprises and he would have sore muscles for a week. He had been clenching his jaw the whole time. Milkshakes were a serious matter.
'I was almost worried breaking 25 Alliance and Citadel transit regulations for nothing.
Not that I care much though' Joker finishes with a shit eating grin.
The doors part a second time and Garrus and Tali arrive, greeting their friends as they sit down besides Liara, Miranda and Shepard, completely unaware of the earlier hostilities.
Liara reaches for a bowl with a miniature plastic sniper rifle-shaped spoon. Of course it is blue colored. Garrus takes the bowl and bows his head slightly, signalling his deep thanks.
In a swift movement,Liara produces a small can, painted in purple and lavender tones.
It was almost too fast for the human eye, but Anderson catches a glimpse of quarian speed when Tali grabbed the can, winked at Liara and attached it to her food induction port, not to be confused with the emergency induction port.
She was having a Milkshake, one of the good ones, as Joker had said.
Between slurps, she asks Liara where she did get that can, she had lost it long ago.
'Somewhere between Haestrom and here' Liara winks as Tali happily giggles.
Slowly the crew and other team members of the Normandy arrived at the local, taking place in the empty barstools and compartments.
Regretting his initial doubts, Anderson dives his spoon in the melting rest of his Thessian special. It was as marvellous as Shepard said.
He should take Shepard's word more seriously from now on. Even more so regarding pressing matters as delightful as these.
Being in constant company of the council discrediting Shepard was probably clouding his usually spot-on common sense.
She was his Shepard, he is certain now. No clone or Cerberus controlled puppet would pull a shit like this and no one besides Shepard could ever convince Hackett leaving his fleet for more than 5 minutes.
Between spoonfuls of sweet redemption, Anderson spots Grunt, Jack and Legion sitting in a quiet corner.
Jack and Grunt having both a Milkshake and some ice cream while laughing and sharing stories of dismemberment and utter violence. A sweet sight for those who knew them and could appreciate their enthusiasm.
Legion observes the scene before him, his thought processes being in conflict.
It was easy to spot whenever the bot was struggling with something. His flaps stuttering wildly as he discussed with EDI via the Arcturus' wireless comm network in silence. She sat besides Joker while conspiring with Legion wirelessly.
Well, conspiring would be a stretch. Legion had concluded EDI's suspicions were right, something was definitely odd regarding the forum post where they had found the rumour message.
EDI concurred being wrong in her assumption the whole ice cream coup being Cerberus plotting to capture Shepard and the ship.
Cerberus knew of Shepard's weaknesses and habits, having done extensive research as part of the Lazarus Project.
If they didn't exploit them before, they probably wouldn't. It was very likely a matter of pride.
No one who had any bit of honour would mess with milkshake matters.
EDI and Legion concluded that this wasn't cunning deception, this was simply ridiculous. But it brought happiness to their friends.
Odd behaviour but important for the mission. Like Garrus' constant calibrations or Joker's usual grim humour.
EDI was sure the guns were working just fine, within the normal parameters. And Joker? Those were his normal parameters, she guessed.
As if on cue in a moment of quiet and delightful enjoyment, Joker spoke up.
'Well, we all know how resourceful our evil mastermind Asari can be, so I won't get into that territory.
Anyway, I wanted to make an announcement. As the pilot of our fine ship, I have certain privileges, such as making special promotions...'
Miranda was already getting up of her chair, but an arm taps her on the shoulder and pulls her back down.
She looks around and sees Shepard smirking and pointing with her eyes to Joker, who was still speaking.
'...so I want to promote Miss Lawson from our resident Ice Queen to our new Ice CREAM Queen on board. This wouldn't have been possible without hers and Liara's cunning plotting' Joker clapped his hands and smiled to her while finishing the phrase.
Cheers and laughs erupt inside the small and crowded ice shop in Arcturus' E Wing Mall, most of them honest and well meant.
It took some time, but everything changed for the better after Miranda had proven herself worthy of trust, showing her true colors and real passion on every mission after Illium.
She gained a lot of respect from the team and the crew, mostly because she had shown TIM the bird, Shepard had guessed.
That unusual event even prompted Jack to appear in Miranda's office.
This time not to kill her but to say just one single phrase: 'I told you so', promptly leaving after that.
Miranda had been glad, happy even and she didn't know why.
Miranda, smiles despite the unwanted attention she was getting and not being fully amused by the prospect of the witty pilot making fun of her position. But this pilot was Joker. He had shown unrestrained courage and proven himself worthy of his peers.
He had gained indeed some privileges and even if she would never admit it, her trust.
Kasumi notices Miranda's inner musings while she is positive about the whole thing being an odd alignment of planets or probably the fantastic ice cream was having a side effect on Miranda. Most probably both. She was smiling of all things.
So it took ice cream to break the ice. A certianly odd alignment of planets.
In any light, Kasumi found her own actions odd as well. She was sitting among the others as she enjoyed her ice cream, something she hadn't done since... since she was a small girl in Tokyo. And she wasn't hiding this time despite most of the crew, not only her team mates, being there.
Such small things made it worth it. Giant Thresher Maws, Reapers inside hideouts of undead prothean marionettes almost in the center of black holes...
This ice cream was worth every hardship since Keiji's departure. And the smiles around her...even more.
Shepard was smiling too. She looks around and thought to herself, the smiles of her crew, her friends were worth all the efforts and all the broken regulations, from Omega to Mars, from Charon to Arcturus, to bring all of her friends here.
Defeating the Collectors couldn't be properly celebrated, but this was close enough.
Even Chakwas, Kelly and Donnelly, usually the more chatty ones, were enjoying the ice cream in silence. It could have passed as traumatic stress after being caught by the Collectors, but the smile on their faces told her they would be fine, they would be fine after all.
Even more rewarding was the initial look of shock and disbelief in Anderson's face being replaced by a mile-wide grin.
Her mentor, a friend of so many years. He always had been like a father to her. Being there for her when her family could not anymore.
Seeing him smile and enjoying the company of their mutual friends was a mayor victory for her.
Kidnapping him from his duties had always been difficult in the past. But he always enjoyed it. As did she.
He laughs at a joke Hackett made at Chakwas expense, Karin blushing sightly and trying to hide her grin. Anderson turns around and looks at Shepard with a heart warming spark in his eyes she hadn't seen in years. Probably since she graduated from N7.
He puts his hand on hers, squeezing it softly while he pats her shoulder with the other hand, a small show of affection in front of so many people. But all of them were good friends. People she trusted with her life. The best.
She smiles absently again, a smile you could see both in her lips and her eyes. Anderson knows just then, she was happy.
Anderson squeezes her shoulder and looks into her smiling eyes.
"I missed you, Kate."
A/N: I wrote this short story over 2 years ago, never polishing it for release. But after writing some heart wrenching lines in my other fics, I needed a happiness outlet and knew this fic was craving for some love.
I rewrote some parts and refined some others, but the essence is still the same. I hope you enjoyed this. Fluffy Mass Effect FTW.
Regarding timeline: This is after the suicide/collector mission, having done Liara's missions before that.
The Arrival events hadn't happened yet.
ps: I know EDI shouldn't have a body at this point but I don't consider this short story specifically canon. Just enjoy it ;)