Since most of the crew, Joker included, had slept through the night, due to the intense couple of days of missions they'd just had, the Normandy wasn't exactly speeding through space toward the Citadel the next morning. In fact, even after Joker finally got up at oh-eight-thirty, he didn't seem to be in a terrible hurry to push the ship to its forbidding limits, distracted with EDI and their overdue conversations.
Shepard herself didn't mind – she didn't wake up quite as late as the pilot, but she didn't rush to leave her quarters, particularly since Kaidan was shirtless inside and she wasn't against keeping it that way.
"Do not," he grumbled the moment she shifted a millimeter under his arm. "'S not time for day stuff yet."
She resisted the urge to laugh and moved back under him, content to lay there in her musings while he wrestled wakefulness.
Eventually, though, she did need to make an appearance when rest was no longer an excuse that held up with the rest of the busy crew, who reacted without hesitation upon sight. For some reason, everyone was very eager to give her meaningless ship condition reports. The Normandy's data terminals had suffered massive upgrades in connectivity, personal accessibility, and logging. The engineers continued to announce improvements to everything from the core's performance, the reserves, the efficiency rates, the main control systems and all sensors. Jenkins had nervously mentioned he'd been diagnosed with a cold without so much as a sneeze.
It was only when Pressly found it necessary to inform her that EDI had been 'requisitioned' by Tali down in engineering, in what Shepard suspected had actually been a rescue mission, that she realized she was being tested. Or her reactions were, anyway. Everyone was on edge with the sudden AI involvement in their lives and Shepard was supposed to be reassuring, or at the very least dismissive, of any concerns.
"Well, she can multitask with the best of them, I'd imagine," she said casually. "I'm sure Tali just wants to bounce ideas off her. EDI's been very busy, I've been told."
"She's certainly efficient," Pressly said noncommittally.
Shepard left him with a smile and no one bothered her about it again the rest of the day.
Not exactly out of wanting, but more out of a sense of responsibility, she searched out Nihlus, figuring at the very least the crew tended to keep a wide berth from him. Sure enough, he was by himself in the cargo hold, a datapad in his hand that she assumed he was using to peruse data relevant to the story Shepard had told him.
He glanced over when she came into his line of sight. "Commander," he greeted. "Is there something I can do for you?"
She crossed her arms, staring at him critically. "You don't have anything to say? After yesterday?"
He paused and put the device away. "Such as?"
"Really?"
He shrugged noncommittally. "What do you want me to say?"
It was her turn to hesitate. "I'm not sure, actually."
"Something is bothering you."
"Not bothering, precisely. I'm just waiting for you to- you know, I don't know that either. I was- surprised, I guess, to be so easily believed."
Nihlus rolled his shoulders lazily, not looking at her. "You're forgetting nothing about your actions has been rational or free of suspicion from the beginning. Both Williams and I knew something was up, we were just having trouble coming up with a reasonable explanation. Turns out, that was because the explanation was anything but."
"That's it? 'You time-travelled, okay. What else?'"
"Your story explains a lot of things, Shepard. It fits well enough. If it's a lie, time will tell as the things you claim turn out to not happen at all. I'm pretty sure, however, that won't be the case. If I still need convincing, that will do the trick."
Fair enough. "And Eden Prime?"
He feigned obliviousness. "I'm looking forward to meeting that prothean, yes."
"Not what I meant, and you know it."
Nihlus was silent for a long time, looking anywhere but at her. "I'm alive, Shepard. I already knew it was thanks to you. If anything, the fact that your timely rescue wasn't the product of chance should make me even more thankful. Do you want me to go into an in-depth speech on second chances and the fortunate miracle of life?"
"Sure."
He grinned a little. "I'll spare you. Suffice it to say, Commander, I'm indentured to you. Happily. As for anything else that might be battering me over the head, it's nothing a good fistfight can't cure. There's no shortage of chances for that around you."
Shepard decided that was enough and left him to his devices, still skirting around the crew but knowing the turian liked his alone time. Handling this was never going to be easy, she told herself, for him or anyone else. There was hardly precedent she could study, people whose wisdom she could search out. The closest thing was Shepard herself, in all honesty, brought back to life by technology and scarily smart people. Time-travel was a different approach.
Time and patience. A tactic that had served her well enough. She'd leave him to his musings for as long as he required.
A few minutes later, as she passed by the bridge trying to draw no attention to herself, she noticed Joker, alone and muttering to himself over his controls, distracted from any parts of the outside universe that didn't fit into his ship. EDI wasn't there, and Shepard remembered Tali had taken her down to the lower decks.
She approached him cautiously. "Trouble?"
He started and stopped muttering. "No, just talking to myself as regularly scheduled. You're interrupting."
"My apologies," she said, smirking. "Got a couple minutes?"
He finally glanced away from his keyboards to look at her briefly. "Sure. I can always finish my conversation later."
She made a face at him and he turned his back to her again with a grin. "I haven't had a chance to talk to you one-on-one outside mission stuff, Joker. Not since-"
"You died? Yeah, I feel like one of us might have been kinda busy."
"Yeah? Busy with what?"
"Not sure, but someone has definitely been getting in all sorts of messes. I know very few people that blow up so much shit just walking by. Even less that manage to walk out of it."
"You don't blow things up."
"Well, then, it's probably not me that's been busy."
"I'd hit you if I wasn't worried about cracking your skull."
He grinned. "A beautiful sentiment."
"Smart-ass."
"You'd miss me if I were gone."
"Only because EDI would stop liking me the minute I threw you starboard," she quipped, dropping into the aforementioned AI's chair.
"Ouch. So it's true what they say, man really is being replaced by machine. Sentient, intelligent, extremely attractive machine. And what a way to go."
"That's the end of that."
Joker guffawed but turned serious quickly. "You know, speaking of you dying and other fun stuff, I've been meaning to pick a bone with you, Commander."
Shepard made to stand back up. "Oh, no, no you haven't-"
"Sit down, we're talking about this."
She never felt so compelled to follow an order that wasn't even given by someone with the authority to do so. "Joker," she groaned.
He shushed her and seemed to take a second to think.
"You realize," he started slowly, "that no matter the orders anyone is given, no matter who's on the ship, no matter who you're leaving behind or who's kicking and screaming about it - one way or another, I'm always the one with the hand on the metaphorical button? I seal your fate."
"No, you seal yours and everyone else on this ship's," she said warily. "My decisions are mine alone."
"Your decisions end in me being regularly unable to look Alenko in the eye. Situations like Feros are getting less funny by the minute, and they began by being about as funny as Krios' existential tirades. Whether you end up being fine or not."
She winced. "Kaidan doesn't blame-"
"I know he doesn't, I know it's not really me. But I'm still the one he always looks to for answers. Every time, every time, I walk out without you and I get a front row seat to his world shattering." She hadn't really needed to hear that, but Joker was agitated and not paying attention to the look on her face. "And even when – even when I'm not just leaving you behind, I still end up being the reason you-"
"We've been through this, and I'm tired of having you explain to you that you weren't aiming that collector ship," she said evenly, and if her tone of voice was less friendly than usual, he didn't mention it.
"You know exactly why I blame myself."
She had every intention to insist on her previous arguments, but something in his face gave her pause. He wasn't looking at her, tensed like he was waiting for her to finally hate him. "Let me explain a few things to you, Joker." She hesitated, scrambling for the best way to phrase what she was about to say. "You're right. I do know why you blame yourself." He breathed in sharply. "Every time I go to bed, there's this endless list of names and faces that scroll by before I let myself fall asleep. It's like my brain won't settle down without that thought spiral. And that feeling you have? That you need to punish yourself like that – or that you need to keep bringing it up to see who will punish you instead - because what you have feels like a reward for other people's suffering? I know exactly what guilt is."
"Oh."
"It's not about the people who pay steeper prices you think are unfair. It's about you. The truth is, you're where those thoughts begin and end. They're a part of you because you're a good person. They always will be. But you can't – you can't spend your life trying to deal with them. You need balance. Like self-imposed reminders before bed. But not something that will break you so easily. It's not worth it. It's a waste of everybody's pain."
"Aw, shit, Shepard." Joker sighed, leaning his head back heavily. "Damn it."
"Have I finally convinced you to let it go?"
"Well – no. But you've at least convinced me to stop trying to get you to finally snap at me over it."
"Good enough."
Joker pressed a handful of controls at lightning fast speed and then swiveled his chair around to face her properly. "I've just got – one last thing. It's – don't answer if you don't want to."
He'd never given her such a blatant out, and he'd never sounded so nervous. She was starting to think there were negative aspects of her having a positive influence on him. "Don't leave a girl hanging," she said lightly.
"Did you – EDI said her calculations concluded your best– your only chance of survival was destroying the reapers."
"Destroying all synthetic life," she corrected.
"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Exactly."
"EDI failed to take into account the fact that I would never pick that, which would make any hypotheticals depending on it null and void."
"I – she was comparing the possibilities, not your willingness to-"
"If something was never on the table, it's not comparable. Null."
"But it was. You could-"
"Then by that logic I could have also shot myself in the head. Or hung around and let the reapers go on their merry way. I could have jumped off the Citadel with no purpose. I could have done a million things."
"Yeah. And the only one you had a shred of hope of surviving would still be destroying-"
"Destroying her. Killing EDI."
He flinched like he hadn't wanted it to be put in those terms. Unluckily for him, his point was transparent. "And all other synthetic life," he added lamely.
"So again – where was the choice here?"
"I don't know. From my limited point of view, it feels like – you were picking between yourself and – and her. I mean – sure, synthetic life too, but what's that? Some machines you don't know, sentient computers. Abstract beings you never met. EDI, though – it was either you or someone with whom you've discussed – y'know, existence. And like, the merits of human-AI relationships." Joker went quiet, and Shepard let him, leaning forward to contemplate him, elbows on her knees and chin on her hands. "She understands. She said something about priorities and sacrifice and friendship and-" Joker tapped his fingers against his leg. "I guess I'm just not as-"
"Joker, you're one of the best people I know," she finally interrupted. "Wouldn't be here otherwise. And some of the best things in life are selfish," she told him pointedly. "Trust me when I say that I know."
"I really wouldn't like to be Kaidan," was all he ended up saying to that. The strange thought that she'd also been picking between which one of the two men would get his heart broken floated along the edge of her consciousness, and she pushed it away before she had something else to obsess over.
"He does wish I were a little more selfish sometimes, I think." A smile tugged at her lips. "On the other hand, he knows who I am. He knows that's part of-" She gestured vaguely and Joker seemed to understand.
"Yeah, I always knew he was a bit of a masochist. You two are perfect for each other," he said, back to his usual self.
"Right, thanks, you little shit. You're lucky your girlfriend's so likeable."
He started laughing, more genuine than usual. "With that out of the way, shall we do the catching up you came here for?"
Shepard liked every single member of her crew, some more than others, but they all shared things with her no one else in the universe could ever understand. That said, there were precious few she loved just talking to regularly. Tali, Kasumi and Liara liked chatting a little too much, and James just ended up either forcing her to discover her inner Anderson or dragging her into a competitive display of machismo that didn't turn into a dick-measuring contest solely because she didn't have one. Ashley, Jack and Miranda always seemed to bring out in her the unstable, aimless young girl all four of them were deep down, and while some reckless part of her cherished those moments sometimes, the unease she tended to carry for hours afterwards wasn't always worth it. Chakwas was unnervingly caring, something between a mother and an older sister, and while occasionally she had a terrible urge to join her with her favorite wine, in some ways it was almost worse than getting delinquent drunk with Jack. Mordin, Samara, Javik and Thane usually negated the escapist nature she wanted out of a conversation, and Wrex, Grunt and Zaeed weren't the talking type, unless she wanted to discuss kill counts. Legion hadn't had EDI's range, at least back then, even if she appreciated his distinct perspective on matters once in a while, and Jacob was the guy she occasionally had a cheerful beer with, the one who would surprise her one day by telling her he'd had a dog for the greater part of their acquaintance, or some other prominently personal detail.
The ones she could talk to all day, on the other hand - Kaidan was her best friend, the one she could tell anything for support, the one who would hold any conversation with her and match her word for word and thought for thought. EDI had the most fascinating things to say and ideas to share, and whenever Shepard was feeling intellectually restless, that's who she went to. There was also Anderson, whom she interacted with rarely, which at once was shameful and made their conversations that much more special – each one grew in her a yearning for things she'd never had; the kind of guidance she could have used as a child and wouldn't waste now. Garrus was the easy listener she needed when she got a little fed up of listening herself; her fellow sniper, the steadfast comrade-in-arms she needed as the calm in the eye of the storm. Joker, however, was her version of a bro; talking to him was their version of gossiping, even if was just a garbage collection of shit-talking and wisecracks.
The fact that she hung around the cockpit for hours, fully invested in futile banter with her pilot, was a testament to the importance of the truly little things in life.
By the time Kaidan, Tali and EDI found them, they'd just unearthed some unidentified asari bottle. All Shepard knew about it was that it was alcoholic, which was all Joker had needed to be told.
"There you are," Kaidan said. He noticed the drink and became amused. "Commander Shepard, drinking on the job? Is that even safe for human consumption?" he added upon closer examination.
Shepard shrugged. "Probably." She didn't specify which question she was answering.
Tali placed her hands on her hips. "You're having a party and didn't invite me?"
Joker snorted. "Who throws a party and only invites the boss?" Shepard kicked the foot of his chair and made it spin. Joker returned to the exact same position as before, looking extremely self-satisfied.
"We were just chatting, Tali."
"How terrible are quarian parties, jeez."
Tali snatched the bottle away in retaliation. "I'm getting a straw." She disappeared, to everyone's disappointment.
Shepard noticed EDI just taking the scene in with a tilted head and stood up. "You can have your chair back, EDI. I think that's enough R&R for today."
"Speaking of which," Kaidan piped up, "how long 'till we arrive at the Citadel?"
"You should ask me that as soon as I start flying us there."
EDI clicked her tongue in disapproval. "Three hours and thirty minutes would be an approximate ETA, Lieutenant."
Shepard gave EDI a reassuring look as she passed her. "It's okay, today we can take it slow. We've been running around for what feels like weeks."
"Months," Kaidan corrected.
"The point is, I'm allowed to drink," Joker concluded.
"Not until we're at the Citadel."
"ETA two hours then." EDI seemed to defer to his judgement on that.
Kaidan followed Shepard out and through the bridge. "So what's on the schedule for today?"
"I'll start by trying to reach Miranda and go from there."
They were almost at the comm. room when she saw him surreptitiously look around and then sneak his hand through hers. "You're very quick to up and disappear. Also, drinking in the morning?"
"It's noon," she protested.
"And have you had lunch?"
"Have you?" she retorted childishly.
"I've been down to engineering to check out EDI's work all morning. Also, to find out how many people had tried to shut her down already. Last count puts it at three. Four total attempts."
Shepard fed the controls in the comm. room well-known inputs and waited.
"The point being that we were both equally busy and we'll go grab something to eat after I speak to Miranda."
"'Equally busy' is certainly an expression."
"Shut up, you knew what you were getting into. You were the one who wanted to marry me."
That made him grin a little. "I think you saying yes means I get to nag you about these things, though."
"It does? Why did no one warn me about this?" she complained without any real heat.
"Warn you about something? Aren't you supposed to know everything, Commander?"
"Hey, look, you got through. Let me know how that goes," Kaidan said, exiting the room at the speed of light.
Miranda's distorted expression was still clear enough to express endless entertainment. "Dedicated, isn't he? And still rather uncomfortable in Cerberus presence."
"Everybody needs to shut up today."
Miranda laughed. "Your timing was impeccable, Shepard. I'm supposed to have gone dark and am not expected to check in for a little while. But I'm afraid I only have about an hour of time to spare you."
"Right – well, EDI's already given me the basics, so I guess I'll start with the whole-" Shepard grimaced. "Time-travel thing."
"I'd appreciate that," Miranda drawled.
There was something Shepard really appreciated about Miranda, her practicality. She could see she wasn't without emotional reaction to what she was hearing, but she was also the only one to simply thank her for sharing and move right along with little to no fanfare.
"Let's focus on how we put this situation to good use, and fully exploit all our newfound advantages," she said, eyes bright in a way Shepard both respected and feared a little.
"Sure, so long as we do it with the appropriate caution."
"You and I are good at juggling caution."
Shepard sighed even as a small smile grew on her lips. "Sure. And sometimes we're way off, and it's good to have someone nearby with a cool head full of reminders."
Miranda hummed in acknowledgement. "Speaking of cool heads, I have news on the biggest hot head we know."
Shepard immediately straightened. "Jack?"
"She's not exactly an unknown name at Cerberus, as you well know. I was able to access a very extensive amount of information."
"She in trouble?"
Miranda rolled her eyes. "She's always in trouble. I'm handling it."
"I – You are?"
"As best I can. Leave it to me," she said, tone so self-assured Shepard almost didn't ask further questions.
"But what-"
"It's not important, and I'm confident I can take care of it." Shepard merely raised her eyebrows and Miranda sighed impatiently. "She's fine. She – I'm going to try and have her join Cerberus."
"That's the worst idea I've ever heard."
Miranda scowled. "Maybe not. We'll see. I have a plan."
Shepard only hesitated momentarily before giving up. "Well, if you need help, let me know. Just-"
"It'll be fine. We'll keep in touch, as best we can. I'm sure Jack is eager to demand all sorts of answers from you."
"Plus, someone should really stay on top of this ship's modifications. I hear you already are."
"Shepard, I'm a very efficient employee."
Shepard cracked a smile. "You're not working for me."
"I'm an even more invaluable friend."
"You are," she agreed. "One I'd like to keep. Watch out for yourself." Shepard herself was beginning to tire of her repeated warnings, but in her defense, Miranda's demeanor was leaving her increasingly frightened.
"I'll forward to EDI the upgrade data and the team I've assembled for the job. You should know I did it all in your name – I requisitioned Alliance resources. You'll find some of the names familiar."
Shepard didn't bother asking how she'd done that, and sighed exasperatedly as they signed off with the mutual understanding that constant worry was a part of their relationship.
"Shepard, ETA to the Citadel, twenty-eight minutes," EDI's smooth voice sounded in her ear.
"Good going."
"You should know – there's an unusual amount of reporters who caught wind the Normandy was docking. They all seem to be angling for an interview with you."
Shepard groaned loudly. "Great. What are my chances of deflecting it to Kryik?"
"Very slim," the Spectre in question told her, having excellent timing in passing her in the hall.
"I believe he was being ironic, but he wasn't inaccurate."
Shepard thought she heard him bark out a laugh in the distance, but that would have been so out of character she decided she'd imagined it.
Soon enough she was stepping out of the Normandy and onto the Citadel, where her crew was enthusiastic about the downtime. Shepard, on the other hand, was less so, particularly as she noticed a group of reporters whose eyes and cameras lit up as soon as they laid eyes on the ship.
"Think we can make a run for it?" she mumbled to Ashley under her breath, glancing at the line the journalists weren't allowed to cross.
Ashley exchanged a look with Kaidan and they both smirked. "We can."
Shepard glared at Kaidan and the point got across. "Sorry," he offered placatingly, bothering only a little to hide his merriment. "I think if you give them a crumb, you might get through alright."
"I don't want to give them a crumb."
Tali appeared behind them that exact moment. "What's the hold-up, Shepard? Oh," she said, noticing the growing crowd. "Don't you get tired of being famous sometimes?"
"I'm not fam- Well, it's not for nice reasons."
Tali was no longer paying attention to her. "Hey," she yelled, and everyone in the group turned their attention to her eagerly. She pointed at a woman and Shepard recognized Diana Allers with a pang of shock. "You – no, not you, bosh'tet, her – yes, you. Come here."
The officers keeping them at bay hesitated when Allers turned to them expectantly and with a bright smile. Shepard ran a hand through her hair. "Let her through," she said, trying to make her tone even instead of resigned.
"There you go. A crumb. Problem solved." Tali clapped her on the shoulder and linked arms with Kaidan, disappearing into the sea of people. Ashley shrugged and followed, slipping past Diana as she approached.
"Commander Shepard, it's a real honor! I'm Diana Allers with-"
"Why don't we go inside?"
Allers looked like Christmas had come early. "Of course!" This woman was blissfully unaware of the war she'd reported from her ship, Shepard decided.
She led her back inside the ship to the debrief room, where the journalist sat and looked around, an obvious mix of awe and nerves in her expression. As soon as Shepard sat too, however, she turned back into the professional she remembered. "Before we turn the camera on – I assume you called me here because you don't want an uncontrolled narrative about you in the media?" she questioned shrewdly. "You've been remarkably private so far."
"Partly."
"I don't cater facts."
"I don't expect you to. That's why I'm hoping you and I can work out a mutually beneficial relationship. One that revolves around you being the first person to share the facts. If that's of any interest to you."
Allers beamed. "I'm very interested."
Naturally, part of the deal was an immediate exclusive interview. Shepard hoped this would be worth it – at the very least, she now had a reliable way to promote her warnings and findings. Allers was the most fair-minded journalist Shepard had met so far, even if she liked her (occasionally out-of-touch) sensationalism as much as the next one, so it went much better than her actual first interview as a Spectre.
Shepard didn't ask her to board, because the Normandy wasn't (yet) a war vessel, but Allers didn't seem to expect or want it. She was convinced she'd just been handed the ticket to the rest of her career. Hopefully she'd become conscious to the gravity and stakes of her position as time went on. Shepard was desperate for a snowball effect.
"So, why me?" Allers asked out of nowhere as soon as the interview ended. Her eyes were narrowed, clearly trying to work out how she'd been so lucky now she'd had time to process it.
"I'm vaguely familiar with your work," Shepard lied, which was definitely going to come back to bite her in the ass. "And you were the one reporter who hung back and watched, instead of getting the camera blazing as soon as I stepped into view."
Allers was clearly not stupid enough to think that was all there was to it, but she seemed content to accept it as an answer. "Well, I hope we can both be what we expect out of each other."
Shepard chuckled, taken aback. "Sure. I'll walk you out."
The string of reporters outside had thinned by the time they emerged again, so Shepard was able to finally enter the Citadel without too much trouble. Waiting for her just outside C-SEC was Garrus, leaning against the wall with his arms and legs crossed.
Allers made eye contact with him and his eyes widened, shifting immediately to Shepard with a question. "I'm meeting my friend here, Allers. I'll call you up the next time there's something juicy for you to know."
That earned her a smile. "Don't save the galaxy without telling me first, Commander." She pressed forward by herself, and Shepard stared after her.
"I can't decide if she's too clever or if she knows what's up and is trying to be coy about it," she said, turning back to Garrus.
He was amused. "Will it make a lot of difference?"
"Not really." Shepard sighed and considered him. "So. I'm about seventy-three per cent sure we'll find Kaidan, Tali and Ashley at the seediest bar here. The question is, do we join them now or later?"
Now he was smirking. "Don't you have business to attend to? Should you be getting drunk?"
"Business is why I get drunk. But fine, you have a point. Later, then. I need to find Liara. Her father should be here."
They met Liara down in the markets, where she was talking to Aethyta in hushed but heated whispers. Garrus gave her a pointed look that she interpreted as an expression of doubt in the stealth capacity of blending into a crowd. Clearly, it'd been the asari's chosen strategy, sitting out in the open as they were, and earning themselves looks at their strained interaction.
Shepard followed Garrus over to them, and caught her friend's attention easily.
"Shepard," Liara greeted in relief.
Aethyta took her in from head to foot. "So this is her?"
Shepard glanced around, noticing a suspiciously quiet volus not too far from them, and tapped her foot in discomfort. "Maybe we should move this conversation somewhere more private."
Garrus gave the volus a mildly menacing look and he vanished in disproportionate terror.
"He wasn't a problem," Liara said dismissively.
"No one's taken him seriously ever since he made a colossal investment mistake, he's got a reputation for dimness," Aethyta added.
Exasperated, Shepard gestured to the nearest transit. "Can we please discuss sensitive matters, which are only in-the-know for a handful of people, somewhere private?" she rephrased.
Aethyta narrowed her eyes at the three of them. Liara grimaced. "Right, of course. You'll – requisition an office, then?"
"C'mon."
Aethyta was not as easy to convince as Ashley and Nihlus, which was saying something. In the end, she seemed to simply accept that someone she cared about needed her help, because Liara was a persuasive manufacturer of emotional entanglements, purposeful or not. Shepard wasn't convinced the matriarch had accepted their story, but they armed her with a bunch of unlikely information with the promise it would come to fruition soon enough, and that was all they could do beyond waiting.
"So – you'll help my mother?"
Aethyta considered Liara in silence for a long time. "Kid – even if-" She sighed, deflating. "I'm glad we met. I cared for your mother a lot, once. You didn't have to try so hard to persuade me."
"All we did was tell you the truth," Liara promised. "But thank you. How do you want to do this?"
Aethyta had brought her own vessel, and Shepard didn't ask where she would take Benezia. They helped with the transfer, and as Liara gave her mother's hand one last squeeze before she disappeared into a different ship, Shepard hung back with Garrus to give her privacy. The asari was probably the one going through the wildest emotional rollercoaster out of all of them, but both her and her father seemed happier for the reconnection.
"Well – don't be a stranger," she overheard Aethyta saying awkwardly.
Liara didn't bother replying and simply gave her a hug.
"Well, shall we? There's much to do, I'm sure," she said briskly as she rejoined them, her father boarding her ship in the background.
"We could start with the boring stuff, I'm sure everyone's requisitioned something."
Both Garrus and Liara cringed at that, and Shepard laughed at them. "I'm kidding. I need a drink. Or a dozen."
Liara was uncharacteristically enthusiastic about this plan, so they set off in the direction of loud, unpalatable music and the smell of booze and vomit. Shepard could always ask Kaidan and Ashley to suffer through her errands later, and she was sure EDI and Joker were on top of the upgrade progress.
"Bet you Wrex and Kryik are doing target practice somewhere they shouldn't be instead of drinking. Loser pays a round."
"You projecting, Vakarian? I remember you had no issues with going off reservation to defeat some bottles with inferior sniper skills."
"I'm pretty sure we established they were unmistakably superior that day."
"Who's gonna believe you?"
Garrus made a rude turian gesture in Shepard's direction and she cackled because she didn't really know what it meant.
Liara shrugged good-naturedly. "I'll pay for the round."
"You're not supposed to announce you think you'll lose so soon, T'Soni."
"I'm pragmatic."
"Defeatist," Garrus corrected.
A message pinged in Shepard's omnitool and she hummed sympathetically. "Turns out Garrus wins. Fractionally. Wrex is the only one not supposed to be at the Spectre offices."
"Hey – I earned that one. Come on now."
"Yes, you did, congrats. You can get a little drunker for free now."
Liara laughed, a mood change Shepard approved of. "Hurry up. I'm feeling reckless and we're dawdling instead of ingesting harmful substances for fun."
