It's humiliating that the first he hears of her revival, it's from that charlatan al-Jilani.
She asks him if the Council is aware that their pet Spectre isn't quite dead anymore.
He thinks guiltily back to the messages he received a few weeks ago. They're marked from Shepard. Dated just after the second anniversary of her death. They come from a Cerberus extranet domain, and Anderson thinks it's a sick joke. He finally writes back that they can shove whatever they're doing right up their asses. There's no reason in the entire universe why the Shepard he knew would ally with Cerberus. He gets only one more message, after that.
I guess you didn't really know me, then.
But he can't tell al-Jilani that. He can't say that Shepard tried to contact her mentor but he didn't believe her. So he throws "classified" around like it's the only word he knows.
Anderson's on the comm with Hackett when his interview airs. It's only his decades of command experience that keep her from making him look downright incompetent. He glowers at her with enough authority that even she can't spin the story that the galaxy is in the hands of three bungling aliens and a witless human, too oblivious to realize that the late Commander Shepard's no longer late.
Instead, she plays it like the Council is just too stupid to keep their classified missions a damn secret.
Al-Jilani's a good investigator. She ferrets out her tidbits and pieces them together better than both the Alliance and the Council, evidently. He dreads to think what she could discover if she could get her weasely little hands on some security clearance. She's got the potential to be a huge asset to the Alliance. It's too bad she's out to prove that Shepard's the worst thing to happen to humanity since the aliens.
He doesn't blame Shepard for decking the woman.
By the time Shepard accepts his invitation to the Citadel, the whole galaxy is aware that she's not dead. No one's sure if she's back from the dead of if she was never actually dead in the first place, but they're definitely sure she's not dead now. Khalisah's black eye and broken nose make sure of it. Al-Jilani, at least, is convinced that Shepard's the same as she ever was. Two for two on assault when attempting an interview.
He knows Shepard looks like shit. He's seen footage from grainy second-hand security cameras on Omega. It still startles him when he finally sees her face to face.
She doesn't have freckles anymore, he thinks first.
She doesn't look…finished, he thinks second. Her eyes glow red, and she's got a grid of gashes across her face that do the same. She rolls her shoulder like she fired a krogan rifle but forgot to brace it. When she talks, her voice is flat, tired. She's still belligerent and rude, but her manner's more withdrawn than it was when she was alive the first time. Apathetic.
She's flanked by a turian he recognizes with faint surprise as Vakarian and a tattooed woman who reminds him a hell of a lot of Shepard when she first enlisted. All three eye him suspiciously.
He knows he's lost most, if not all, of her loyalty after that damned message. It stings, knowing his protégé doesn't quite trust him anymore. Still, it's the only thing he can think to say.
"It's good to have you back."