"Commander."
"Commander."
A muffled groan came from somewhere to the right of her. "Spirits, Shepard. Answer that."
"Hung? Hnnngg. Ugh. What is it?"
"Commander, Ms. Lawson has requested entry to your quarters."
There was a series of muffled groans and some particularly colorful expletives coming from the two on the couch. Shepard sat up and rolled her neck, and immediately pushed her palms into her eyes resting her elbows on her knees. Garrus glared at the empty bottles on the table and then at Shepard.
"That's my cue to leave." Now Shepard returned Garrus' glare. "What? No wayy, Shepard. Not sticking around for the toungue lashing you'll get from that one. My skull aches as it is. She's too .. what did you call it .. bitchy? For me. See you."
He ran into Miranda at the door and tried to look somewhat turian and not like an extremely hungover husk, sidestepping her and muttering some forced greeting as he entered the elevator. Miranda scowled at him and walked into the captain's quarters where Shepard was stumbling to the stairs.
"Good morning, Miranda." She said through clenched teeth.
"Shepard. I see you had ..fun.. last night. But we've got reports to file. Maybe next time you can get drunk on your own time, and not ours?"
Shepard stifled the outburst that was bubbling just beneath the surface. She felt like she was run through by a company of krogans last night.. She must've drank more than she thought. Instead, she conceded and said, "I'll think about it. Let me stop by the med bay and eat breakfast, I'll meet you in your office in an hour."
Miranda arched a brow at Shepard and grudgingly nodded her ascent, turned and left.
It was going to be a long day.
After she had eaten, she was half heartedly listening to Miranda and responding even less. She couldn't bring herself to be interested in the reports to the Illusive Man. She never was much for paperwork. After prattling on for more than an hour, Miranda stopped talking mid sentence and watched while Shepard busied herself with picking at her fingernails, not even noticing Miranda had stopped talking and was staring at her incredulously.
Miranda gave out an exasperate huff. "Commander. This isn't going to work, is it?"
"Um, sure. Whatever you think Miranda." She continued to pick at her nails.
"Shepard. What did I just ask you?"
"Huh? Oh." Shepard threw her head back and sank into the chair. "I'm sorry, Miranda. Really. I don't have the attention span for this. I'm not a secretary; I'm a soldier. Any way you could just handle all of this paperwork nonsense?"
Miranda sat in her chair and crossed her arms while giving her a long stare.
"Sure, Shepard. It seems to already be the case, at any rate."
Shepard hadn't expected that response. For all intents and purposes, Miranda was the proverbial slave driver on this ship... but she had just let Shepard off the hook. "Really? Why the sudden burst of compassion, Ms. Lawson?" she drawled, skeptically.
Miranda arched a brow. "I'll admit, you were very efficient on Omega. Now that you've got Garrus, I don't think you'll be taking me on the ground team very much. I'll have the time. I'm better at this job than you are, clearly. You're better at your job than I am. I'm your second in command, so I feel that this is... mutually beneficial."
Shepard jumped up and shook her hand. "See? I knew you couldn't be all icy through and through. I think we could be friends if we made an effort. Just try to dial back the insubordinate bitchiness from time to time, and we'll be alright." Shepard threw her a sarcastic grin. "Thanks again, Miranda. We'll be at the citadel in a few days. Try to take a break between now and then. You deserve it."
And with that, Shepard decided to go see her newest recruits. On the way, she sent Garrus a message.
KS: Gare, the ice queen is defrosting. Serious.
GV: That's great, Shepard, but my head has literally and figuratively split in half. What even happened last night?
KS: Wouldn't you like to know? I'll just say that you got well acquainted with the Hanar edition of Fornax.
GV: I'm going to throw up. Bye, Shepard.
She chuckled as she walked into the lab. She looked up to see Moridin tapping furiously at a terminal talking to himself.
"Ah, Shepard. Good. Wanted to talk to you."
"Hey, Moridin. Settling in okay?"
"Yes, yes. Already began work with Collector data. Implications, intriguing. Also, saw that your death was not a myth. Looked into Project Lazarus. Fascinating. Could use for variety of purposes, technology truly remarkable. Will have to send samples to STG."
Shepard's higher functioning apparently wasn't working as well as she had thought, so all she could do is stare at the talkative salarian in disbelief. Wow, he talked really fast.
He apparently took note of her dumbfounded expression and went on another tangent. "Hm. Faint smell of alcohol, eyes squinted, stress lines visible. Equilibrium slightly off. Ah. Shepard, you are hungover. Here, take this." He shuffled through a cabinet and tossed her a bottle of pills that she almost didn't catch. "Will help. Do not worry, am not offended. Settling in nicely, thank you. Have a good day, Shepard." He ushered her out of the lab. The doors closed behind her and she was still staring blankly. She shook her head, looked over her shoulder, and shook the entire encounter off. Hell, at least he was interesting.
She decided she needed a cup of coffee after that, and went to her quarters. She plopped down on the couch and pulled the bottle of mystery pills out of her pocket and eyed them suspiciously. There was no label. She barely even knew the doctor, but she didn't think he was trying to poison her.. and frankly, her headache was getting pretty desperate. What the hell. She popped one in her mouth and was pleasantly surprised that it wiped the headache out completely. She'd have to make a note to thank him profusely later.
Feeling refreshed, she decided to go talk to the old merc, but he wasn't in the mood for company. Testy, that one. No matter. She'll get through to him eventually. Garrus had a glaringly red lock on the main battery, so she figured he was still feeling pretty nasty. Nothing to do but work out, then.
Maybe she'd visit with Kelly later. Someone on this ship was going to talk to her, damnit. They still had 3 days before reaching the Citadel.