Hey there ladies and gentlemen! Hope you enjoy my idea on how the reunion party should've gone, and be sure to tell me what you thought!
Games Food And Alcohol
Shepard exited the elevator to be greeted by the sounds of loud music and shouts of laughter. There was a loud sounding techno beat, which reminded him strongly of Aria's "afterlife" club music, and the yells of people cheering someone on at something.
Looks like the party is already in full swing. Better find out just what they're betting on.
Waiting for Tali's reassuring nod, he then walked around the bulkhead and into the mess hall. The sight that greeted him was one that he would never forget as long as he lived. The majority of his friends seemed to be on either side of one table in the mess hall, cheering loudly to be heard over the music. Some, like Jack, already had drinks in hand, while still others were shoving food into their mouths as they watched the two sitting on opposite ends of the table.
On one end sat Zaeed, who had a very concentrated look on his face, as he stared across at Aria, both had their arms locked in an arm-wrestling match. Aria had a face of stone, not letting any emotion show as she held his arm in check. Shepard could see beads of sweat on Zaeed's face as he continued to concentrate on Aria, but he showed no sign of losing just yet.
"Come on you old geezer! Shut her down!" Jack shouted above the rest and threw some more of her drink back as she did.
"Come on Aria, I know your stronger than this. Take him down!" Wrex was practically shouting right in her ear but she didn't pay him any attention, she just kept staring Zaeed down and keeping her arm level. Shepard noticed Garrus off to the side with a smug grin and started to head over when Tali pulled him back.
"I'm going to go find Kasumi ok? Have fun now." She squeezed his hand with affection then took his mother and Admiral Raan with her to the lounge. He watched them until they turned the corner, then continued on to where Garrus was standing with his arms crossed.
"Glad you could finally make it, Shepard. You've missed out on a couple good matches so far."
"Oh yeah? Like who?"
"Like Wrex and Grunt, Jack and Samara… I tried to make it Jack and Miranda but, well, you know." He had to laugh at that last one, Jack and Miranda would likely rather skip the wrestling and get straight to the fighting.
"How'd they turn out?"
Well I believe Samara won her bout, but mostly because Jack is half drunk already. And as for Wrex and Grunt, well the little guy's got quite an arm on him, but Wrex still managed to beat him."
"Old age and treachery beats youth and exuberance every time." Shepard ribbed his friend with an elbow, but Garrus just laughed and nodded his head, both turning to watch the match. "Can I assume you're the bookie for this little event?" Shepard practically had to shout for Garrus to understand him.
"If by bookie you mean, "holding all the money" then yes. You know, I gotta say Shepard, this room turned out really great." Garrus took his eyes from the fight to look around at all the decorations, his eyes lingering on the buffet table.
"Yeah, Miranda really went all out didn't she? But you know what? I still get the feeling that something's missing…" Going to his Omni-tool, he quickly brought up some music more to his taste, tapping a few buttons to link his device to the stereo system. Shepard waited a few seconds with his finger hovering over the play button, watching Garrus give him a confused look, before he brought his finger down. Suddenly the club like music stopped, replaced by his own playlist. The first on his list was a very old pre-space song, Black Betty by Spiderbait. The reaction amongst the party varied immensely, Aria broke her eye contact with Zaeed as she looked around with a confused glare, only just barely stopping him from taking her down.
"You got good taste Shepard; I'll end you yet, you hag." Zaeed had a smile now as Aria was struggling to take back lost ground.
The others seemed to mostly enjoy it, with a few exceptions. Grunt was indifferent, still stuffing his face at the buffet, whilst Jack eyes lit up and she started to bob her head. Miranda simply compressed her lips to a thin line. Well what kind of host would I be if I didn't have something for everyone? His grin made Garrus raise an eyebrow at him, but he waited for the end of the song before making the switch yet again. This time it was 'Long Tall Sally', by Little Richard. Shortly after it started a chorus of cheers and aggravated groans came from the betters as Aria's arm thudded into the table. Aria simply shook her head as Zaeed stood up with both arms raised over his head in victory. Slowly, the betters all shuffled over to get their money from Garrus, who apparently had bet on Zaeed.
"How'd you know he would win?" Shepard waited for Garrus to finish handing out money, and then the Turian finally faced him.
"At first I was looking at weight and arm muscles. But apparently Aria doesn't apply to those, as she really held her own. But thanks to you, it still paid off." He laughed before he replied.
"Me? I was just adding a little more life to the party."
"Life?" Aria had gotten up from the table and was almost to them when she spoke up. "If I wanted to listen to crappy music I would've stayed on earth, whatever that noise was lost me ten credits." Her glare switched from Shepard to Zaeed as he walked up behind her.
"Don't go finding excuses you bloody harpy, I won fair and square." Aria turned fully to face him before responding.
"And what, exactly, did you win?" Shepard frowned in confusion for a second. Did I just hear a hint of… flirting? No, of course not. But he continued to frown as Zaeed feigned indifference.
"Handful of credits and bragging rights. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe I see a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with my name on It." he sauntered over to the buffet table and left them looking around at the rest of the party in silence. After a minute or so, Garrus spoke up.
"Well it looks like it's lunch time Shepard, wagers on who finishes first?"
"You're on Garrus. I'll bet five on… Samara. What about you?" He looked back to see who he would pick but found him missing. "Garrus?" He looked around and saw him at one of the tables, already scarfing down a plate of something Turian friendly. Laughing, he decided it was time to catch up and win the bet. You're goin down, Vakarian.
Tali sat on the couch in the lounge, listening to the music from the other room drift through the doors. Auntie Raan sat beside her, talking with Hannah about various things like her and Shepard's childhood, or the fleet's condition. Tali just ignored most of it; they weren't really talking to her anyway. Kasumi stood behind the bar again, looking over the shelf of alcohol for something she might like.
Tali sank into the couch a little more and enjoyed relaxing with the music, letting her head settle against the comfortable backrest. There had been a dramatic shift in the music from the previous tracks in the last five minutes or so, but she liked the sound of the new songs too. Every now and then she'd hear the sounds of laughter or a chorused "aww" as the old gang mixed with the new. She couldn't help but smile when Shepard walked through the door, carrying a plate of food paste tubes in a neat and precise row, but more interestingly, he was covered in food.
"Hello my dear. I took the liberty of bringing you lunch." He bowed slightly, in what she took for his imitation of a butler.
"It looks like I missed the fun, who did you make angry at you?" she looked down at his shirt which was covered in what she assumed to be human food. Some runny looking purple juice, a smear of something yellow across his chest and a big splotch of ground up meat near his right shoulder made it clear he hadn't ducked.
"Oh, this? We uh, had a bit of a food fight." His face turned a little red as he saw the look his mother gave him from the couch. She thought she heard him mumble, "Wrex started it." before he handed her the plate and took a seat on the couch between her and Hannah.
Hannah just snorted and scooted over to give him more room.
"Hey! Don't sit on my couch with all that stuff on you!" Kasumi finally had her drink in her hand and was moving around the counter with a stern expression.
"Your couch? I'll have you know I own this entire ship."
"Right, and I happen to live in this part of it, so get off of my couch until you clean all that off." Her expression made him throw up his hands in surrender before pushing himself back off the couch with a grunt. Kasumi nodded in satisfaction as he walked over to the bar and grabbed some napkins.
"I was unaware human vessels were so… hectic." Raan shook her head a little as she watched Shepard attempt to wipe the grime off of himself.
"Well normally they aren't Shala, but my boy here is a Spectre after all, so he can run his ship however he sees fit."
"I see, and does this extend as well to how he runs a house?" She looked at Tali as she finished.
"No. No it won't Auntie Raan. The house will be far more organized than this. Right Shepard?" She heard him grumble something that she took for a yes.
"Damn right, I didn't raise you in a barn boy. I'm sorry I didn't stop him before he sat Kasumi, I wasn't thinking clearly." She lifted her wine glass and swirled it a little to show why.
"It's fine Hannah, I'm really just giving him a hard time. He's usually quite cleanly, he even had a decontamination chamber installed to his cabin." Admiral Raan made a noise in her helmet that sounded like she spat her drink out of her nose as Kasumi finished. After a few moments Raan regained her voice.
"He what?" Oh no, here it comes. She put her head in her hands, practically shaking with embarrassment. "You had a decon unit put in your cabin?" Raan's voice sounded strangled, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Well sure, I don't want Tali to be stuck in her suit any longer than she needs to be. Plus, how else could I see that wonderful smile everyday?" He had the gall to wear a grin as he announced to the world that they could have sex whenever they wanted.
"You misunderstand me Shepard, that is the sweetest thing I have ever heard. In the fleet, if one wanted to be with their bondmate they would need to request time within one of the few decontaminated rooms on the ship, as it was far too expensive to have one installed for each individual like that. I envy you, Tali." Raan reached across the couch and patted Tali's knee as she concluded, and Tali grabbed it with a squeeze, but was cut off before she could respond.
"Hey hey! There's the girl of the hour!" Garrus strode through the doors with most of the crew in tow behind him. "Sorry to interrupt, but I promised Vega I would give him a rematch at poker." He and a few others went to the bar first for drinks, then thanked Kasumi before going to the card table. Tali had just uncorked her food tube when Shepard finally got done wiping himself off and walked toward her.
"Hey Gorgeous, would you like to accompany me to the poker game?" he held his hand out for her, but she had to decline.
"I can't Shepard, I'm eating."
"I said accompany me, not play against me." His hand was still extended toward her and she finally took it, a small smile on her face as he led her to the table. He sat first, then pulled her on top of him so she could rest against his chest. Tali had absolutely no idea how to play this "poker" but she did her best to learn. It was hard to concentrate on the game though, as she was trying to contain her laughter at the remnants of the food fight.
Garrus still had a huge glob of something smeared over his back, and Grunt's face was mostly white with what appeared to be cake frosting. The best one though, was Ashley Williams. Her entire front was covered in various colors and sludge, as though half the buffet table had came along with her.
"Ok, I have to ask. Ash, how did you manage to get completely covered in food?" Tali's question garnered a few chuckles from the collective table, but Ashley rolled her eyes and sighed, spillng the story.
"Dingus here thought it would be funny to push me out from cover when the entire ship apparently decided to throw their food at the same time." She nudged Garrus, who was sitting next to her.
"What can I say, it was the perfect opportunity."
"I can't believe I fought with you once."
"You looked hungry, I thought I was helping."
"Would you two shut up? I'm here to take your money, not shoot the shit." Jack grabbed the deck in frustration and started shuffling and dealing. As the game progressed, Tali thought she started catching a few rules of the game, but held back from really participating.
"What do you think, Beautiful? Should I go all in?" He spread his cards in front of her, waiting on her answer.
"Shepard, I don't really know how to play." He just shook his head not buying it.
"Come on Tali, I know you've been watching, and your way to inquisitive not to try and learn. So what do you think?" She wanted to kiss him right there and then, but just looked down at the cards instead. The cards were all the same color, and had the same little symbols at the corners. A… suit. Isn't that what they kept calling them? They all had faces of people on them, except for two of the five. One that had a large human letter on it, and another had many little symbols on it with a number. Feeling incredibly nervous that she would cost him money, she just nodded to him.
"Alright folks, my good luck charm has called it! I'm all in." He moved his chips forward and put his cards on the table face down.
"Damn Shepard, you finally get out of the crap cards?" Jack threw her cards down, a fold. Everyone but Zaeed did the same, the old merc just looked at him for a minute.
"Yeah, I'll risk it. You're full of shit, Shepard. I see your 20." He put all his chips in as well and waited for Shepard to concede, a small smile on his lips.
"Well I'll grant you, I am full of it, but I'm not lying. Read 'em and weep." He reached across her hips and turned all his cards face up, making everyone at the tables eyes widen.
"Well jump on my back and call me an Elcor." Zaeed shook his head and slapped his cards face down, not even bothering to show them.
"Still the luckiest damn human I ever met." Wrex rumbled from across the table.
Tali glanced around for a second, then looked back at Shepard with her eyes wide.
"Did we win?" He smiled so warmly that she felt her heart start to burst.
"You bet we did, that's a royal flush. Best hand in the game." She squealed and squirmed in his lap with excitement before putting her helmet under his chin.
"Good luck charm, hmm?" She teased.
"Oh yeah." He looked around the table seeing everyone relaxing and chatting before the next game, but frowned. Bringing up his Omni-tool, she watched him in confusion as he put a call in to Joker.
"Hey Commander, having fun down there?"
"We would be, if you were down here with us. What's takin' you?" Shepard's question made Joker rub the back of his neck as he answered.
"Well knowing the guests, it seemed a little too rough for me. But if you insist, EDI and I can head down. Some of that buffet looked delicious." He looked to the side as if looking for her approval, before looking back.
"Of course I insist! It wouldn't be a party without you and EDI." Joker nodded and started to turn but stopped himself.
"Oh yeah, Jacob called and said he wouldn't be making it."
"Huh, that's odd. Oh well, I'm sure Kasumi will forgive him." They shared a laugh before they mutually cut the link.
Shepard carefully lifted her off his lap, allowing him to get up. Stretching his back and throwing his hands up he addressed the assembled guests.
"So, who feels like dancing?" A couple of groans passed around the table, but a few got up to join him.
"Shepard, if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times. You. Cant. Dance." Ashley's comment had the whole party laughing, but he wasn't deterred.
"Well my love, would you care to learn a human dance?" he once again offered his arm, allowing her to wrap around it with both arms as she leaned on him.
"What dance would that be, Shepard?" he smiled briefly as he motioned for Kasumi to come over. She crossed the room from the bar with a confused look on her face, but quickly nodded in understanding.
"Kasumi, I'd like to do the two step with my girl here, can you find me appropriate music?" she walked back toward the bar and worked her omnitool, and after a few seconds slow, enchanting music started drifting from the speakers.
"Take your left hand and put it here, then just follow my lead, ok?" His voice mixed with the music gave Tali chills, but she did as instructed. She felt Shepard put an arm around her waist, and a big smile bloomed on his face as they slowly started to move back and forth. She never looked away from his face, as they swirled around the middle of the lounge to the hauntingly beautiful music. I didn't know humans even had music like this, I thought it was all that loud and screeching stuff. She was glad to be wrong.
They danced slow like that for a long time, but it felt like moments to her before someone tapped her shoulder.
"Might I have this dance my dear?" Hannah Shepard gave her a light hug as she reluctantly turned from Shepard, then she moved in and started to dance with him as she had been. John gave her a wink before they turned and danced off. She realized suddenly that there were other people dancing, EDI and Joker had finally made in down, and were doing the same dance her and Shepard had done, actually everyone who was dancing did the same one. There was Wrex and Aria, both looking at each other with amused smiles, then there was Ashley and Vega, she also saw Liara still by the card table trying to convince Garrus to dance. Even Doctor Chakwas was in the room, taking the seat Hannah had left next to Auntie Raan. Tali stood on the sidelines, watching everyone else dance. This feels familiar. I've been left out. Again.
"Hey there girl, you look a little down. Care to dance?" Kasumi stood beside her, looking at her with a smidgeon of concern, but Tali just wanted to hug her. No matter what gets me down, there's always someone here to help me, who cares about me. This truly is home.
"I would love to."
Shepard waltzed around the room, his mother smiling at him as she had when she'd taught him this dance.
"You know John, she really is something special. Such a nice girl, and her aunt is interesting to talk with as well."
"Yeah, I noticed you two spending a lot of time together." He asked his questions and used his child hood skill of half listening to his mother. His eyes were focused on Tali as she and Kasumi danced on the opposite side of the room. Her graceful movements, the sway of her hips as she moved side to side, was worse than hypnotic.
"She was telling me about the fleet traditions and customs on the way here, even a little about the Geth but- John? Are you even listening to me?"
"Hmm? Sure I'm listening, she was telling you about the fleet." His mother gave him a most unpleasant glare before her eyes moved to something past him. Turning to look he saw Admiral Raan standing a little ways behind him.
"I'm not entirely sure what the proper way to ask is, but could I switch with you Hannah?" His mother just snorted.
"I think you'd better, I'm about to smack him." she gave him a faint smile before handing him to Raan.
"Pleasure to see you Admiral, I hope you like our music." It was a weak conversation starter, but it seemed to work.
"I do, we have music much like it. Although all of our songs have words to them." He thought about it for a moment, but didn't ask why. This didn't seem like the time for a culture lesson. The Admiral just continued dancing for a while before she made another attempt to talk.
"Your mother is a wonderful person Shepard, and you seem like a good pair for my Tali. I just wanted you to know, that I'm glad she found you, and you her." The Admiral gave a small bow before leaving to resume her place on the couch. He stood there for a moment, looking at the other pairs still dancing, but Wrex caught his eye and moved toward him.
"Just found out something interesting about Aria, Shepard. You remember that asari commando the volus hired me to kill?" he nodded in her direction.
"You're kidding." His incredulous expression got the Krogan laughing.
"Small galaxy, ain't it? Anyway I just thought that you might find it as funny as I did." His old face scanned the crowd of people dancing, then sighed as he turned back to Shepard.
"Sure wish Bakara were here for this." Shepard put an arm on his friends shoulder.
"You'll see her soon Wrex, just hang in there." Wrex just nodded, but didn't get to respond as Kasumi's voice could be heard over the PA.
"This one's a personal favorite, hope you enjoy." The slow music had come to a stop, and she quickly replaced it with a more club type beat. Allowing people who actually knew how to dance, do so. Jack finally got up from the card table and started to dance a little, drink still in hand. Liara had Garrus out on the floor finally, but she was still doing most the dancing by herself. Apparently dancing is something every asari is good at. He was pulled form his thoughts by Wrex's deep voice.
"Hell of a party you threw here Shepard, maybe when they rebuild the relays we can show you how we party on Tuchanka. But I think it's about time we got moving, my men and I want to go home as soon as possible." Shepard reached out and shook his friends hand as warmly as he could.
"I understand Wrex, and I hope you get there quickly."
"Thanks Shepard, for everything. Oh and I'll need to take Grunt and the quarian with me, we're borrowing their ships for this trip." He looked toward Grunt, who was leaning against a wall near the card table snd raised his voice.
"Come on Whelp, let's get moving." Everyone turned at the sound of his voice and registered what he meant, then came flooding over to them.
"You're leaving?"
"It was good to see you Wrex."
"Give me a call once in a while ok?" The flurry of goodbyes and well wishes seemed to have caught the big krogan slightly off guard, but he adapted quickly and raised his voice.
"Thanks everyone, it's been fun but we got a schedule to keep. Admiral Raan, will you be coming back with us to the fleet?" She looked at Hannah then Tali in turn, and then nodded.
"Yes, I think I will, Urdnot Wrex. And thank you."
The party slowly wound down after Wrex left; with people remembering their duties and responsibilities they too had to leave. Not too long after there was only a handful of people left aboard, both Joker and EDI left for the bridge. Even his mother had had to leave early, after giving them both loving hugs and warm smiles.
The few who brought presents stayed to watch them be opened, taking up spots in the mess hall where they had all been piled. The engineers Ken and Gabby had finally come out from their rooms, having stayed in earlier due to not feeling like partying. At least, that's what they claimed.
"Go ahead Commander, open up a couple o' them buggers." Ken pointed to the stack of boxes piled off to the side of the mess hall. Liara walked over to it and grabbed one off the top, setting it on the table where they'd chosen to sit, and gave another of her warm smiles as she did so.
"This one appears to be from Ashley," Liara said as she backed away to watch.
He ripped off the wrapping, earning a slight hiss from Tali, to find a medium sized box, again wrapped. He undid the wrapping again to find yet another smaller box wrapped in yet more paper.
"What is this?" He looked at Ashley in confusion but she simply smiled and told him to keep going. He eventually got down to a box about the size of his palm, and flung open the lid to find a credit chit.
"It's got 10,000 credits on it Shepard, Hackett and I thought you could use a little help."
He laughed made her come closer for a hug,
"Oh I do need the help alright, building a dream home is no cheap thing. Thanks Ash, and tell Hackett I'll need to speak with him before we go." Ashley just nodded before she snapped a salute then left for the elevator. Liara watched her until she left, then grabbed another gift. This one was from Garrus, and was extremely heavy.
"Damn Garrus, what did you put in here, boulders?" The turian just laughed as Shepard unwrapped it then popped the box open to reveal a brand new Cain.
"May I present to you, the Cain – M1000, the new and improved version that allows for faster firing and less heavy ammo consumption." Garrus made a flourish as if unveiling something dramatic. Looking it over he noticed a few things were different about it, for one it had a different paint scheme, mostly black but still wearing the tell tale hazard symbol on it's middle. It was noticeably smaller than the old Cain, and it had less visible components outside of its frame.
"Wow, I must say I'm impressed Garrus. Did you make this yourself?"
"You know it. What, you didn't think I spent all my time calibrating did you?" Shepard looked at Tali from the corner of his eye then back to Garrus, trying to contain his grin. He was saved of having to explain why he was laughing by Liara grabbing another present and setting it on the table in front of them.
"Why don't you get this one, Gorgeous." He slid it more over to her side and watched her carefully unwrap it.
"It's from Liara! Now let's see…" she finally got all the wrapping off and grabbed the gift in both hands to set it up straight In front of her.
"Oh." Was all she said, Her body going rigid while she stared at it.
"Tali? That looks like a picture frame from here, but what exactly are you looking at?" Tali slowly turned the frame to face him and the rest, allowing them to see a photo of him and Tali on Rannoch, forehead to helmet and a setting sun behind them.
"Oh wow… how did you get this Liara?" He felt a bit of wetness in his eyes, but blinked it out before anyone saw.
"I took it right after you killed that Reaper, it was quite possibly the most romantic moment I've ever witnessed, so I took a picture from the hatch of the escape vehicle Legion acquired." Tai was still speechless, so he thanked her himself.
"This is amazing Liara, I don't know what to say."
"You don't need to say anything Shepard, I'm just glad you like it." Tali got up and circled the table to give Liara a strong hug, her voice slightly choked up due to crying.
"Thank you, I'll treasure it always." Liara hugged her back and sat with Tali still crying softly. Gabby walked quietly to the last two presents and brought one over to him.
"This one says it's from Zaeed." Setting it on the table she walked over to the picture frame from Liara to admire it.
Where is Zaeed? I don't think I saw him leave. Shrugging, he opened the slightly larger box and found a large supply of pots and pans, silverware and other kitchen instruments with a small tag on the side of the box that said, "For your new home."
"Huh. I gotta say, this isn't what I pictured getting from Zaeed, but it's welcome all the same." He set the kitchen utensils aside and stood to get the last box himself, but froze when he saw the nametag.
"Is this someone's idea of a joke?" he pointed down at the last box and got nothing but confused stares, until EDI spoke up over the PA.
"No Shepard, that is not a joke. We found that in Doctor Solus' old possessions just after he died. He had a message attached to it that stated it should be given to you at your wedding." Shepard gave a confused frown, turning to look at the small box that said, "From Professor Solus."
"How would he have known we would get married?" He tried to find the logic trail, but found nothing and waited for EDI's reply.
"It was obvious from long ago you loved Tali Commander. It stands to reason that should you both have lived through the Reapers, you would bond."
Now that's thinking ahead. We sure do miss you down here, Mordin.
"Maybe… maybe we should go, Shepard." Garrus nodded to them before walking to the elevator. The others taking his cue, started saying last goodbyes and departing until once again the crew deck was empty save for him and Tali.
"Don't be strangers," he whispered after them.