At the time I could never understand why Shepard always made sure she took the time to get to know each member of the crew, even me. And I sure as hell didn't make it easy. But no matter what I said or did, she always came back.
She was the only one to actively come down to my pit and converse with me. I resisted at first. Only giving bits and pieces of whatever conversation subject she had initiated.
First it was every few days I'd hear her clunk down the steps. She'd come under the pretence of making sure I was settling in or whether I'd found anything interesting in the Cerberus files. Then it was every day that she would come down and talk. Seemed I was first on her list as she did the daily walk through the ship. After a while I started to explore the ship a bit more. I barely knew the rest of the crew, even the other team members I only knew from missions.
Miranda, I stayed away from when possible, but for some reason Shepard liked to pair us up a lot on missions. I guess it was her way of forcing us to get along. After I blew up the Cerberus facility on Pragia and she relocated her sister, well we managed to settle our differences. For the most part.
Grunt I got to know pretty well. I may have gotten really pissed off at him when he was stomping around too much, that didn't end too well. This was before Tuchanka. I went up to his room and started threatening him. Him being a Krogan didn't take too kindly to a human threatening him. Apparently Shepard is the only one that can do that. Well long story short, we both ended up in the infirmary worse for wear. Shepard was not impressed. Forced us to stay in the infirmary and get along til the Doc said we could leave. We ended up swapping stories of bloody battles while I taught him how to play Skyllian-five poker. Then I helped him and Shepard kill the Thresher Maw. Fun times.
Every so often Tali would come down to my pit to access various parts of the engine. At first she always kept to herself which suited me just fine. Then one time Shepard took both me and Tali along to the Citadel. We picked up supplies, Shepard bought a hamster; I think she named it Branston Pickle the Third..? Anyway after that was done we hit up the Dark Star for a couple of drinks. Shepard, she really got into the spirit of things and ended up having Ryncol. Funniest shit I've seen in ages. The great Commander Jayne 'Renegade' Shepard, drunk off her ass. Me and Tali had to drag her in to a bathroom. After we blew the Collector base she went and did the exact same thing in the Normandy's lounge.
Kasumi. That nut ball and her stealth tech. Every so often she'd go all ninja girl and creep around the ship. Just whispering the names of whoever was in the vicinity. I'm pretty sure at one point at least half the crew thought the ship was haunted. The few of us that had actually been on missions with her knew what she was doing. Fucking hilarious when she did it to Joker. Somehow she convinced EDI to go along with it as well. The fucking ship was pranking the crew.
For a Turian, Garrus was actually pretty cool. Me and him would talk on occasion, usually over some drinks, he'd tell me about what Shepard was like on board the first Normandy, and how bad she was at driving the Mako back in the day. We'd piss ourselves laughing. He told me what happened when he went rogue after Shepard died the first time. I was there when he took down the guy who killed his crew. I'm actually glad him a Tali got together, from what I've heard they deserve whatever happiness they can get in this shit storm of a universe.
Happiness. Heh, I never knew what that was. All I knew was pain, anger, rage. To me things like happiness and love meant you were weak. I was wrong; Shepard showed me that, with her compassion and friendship.
Looking back I realise how much I came to depend on that. I never realised how much I really needed a friend. Shepard, shit. She was the best fucking thing to happen to me. Then she had to go and be a big goddamn hero.
Fucking hell.