It took Shepard exactly 27 minutes of reading through the geth data she found before she smiled brightly, pretty sure she knew who could use those files.
She kept smiling the whole way from her quarters through the elevator ride and until she was standing in front of the core and in front of a very cute quarian. "Hey, Tali."
Tali's eyes shined with happiness, it was obvious even through the helmet, as she saw the commander. "Hi, Chloe. What can I do for you?"
"It's not about what you can do for me but about what I can do for you!" Tali tilted her head in confusion at the commander's words so the redhead continued. "I found something that might be really useful to you." With a big smile, she handed her a datapad that had some of the data she found.
While Tali was reading through it with interest Shepard continued. "I found a lot more and I…well I thought you can actually use those for…for something?"
Tali looked at the commander and before Shepard knew what was happening the quarian was hugging her tightly. "Thank you, Chloe! I can use it for my pilgrimage!" The spontaneous gesture awarded them with a raised brow from engineer Adams but he didn't say anything.
Shepard chuckled and almost in an instant she was hugging her back. "I'm happy to help."
Tali pulled away and her happiness was obvious in the way she bounced on her heels. "I'll never be able to repay you!"
Shepard leaned into the railing, as she always did when she visited Tali, and folded her arms. "Well…you're helping me save the galaxy so I think we are even…" There was an easy smile on her face at her words. It seemed the smile was always on her face with the energetic quarian around.
Her words made the younger girl chuckle in answer. "You know I would do that even without the geth data, right?" There was an obvious amusement in her words.
Shepard matched it with a smirk of her own as she pretended to think about it. "Well, then how about you giving me one more hug?"
It was like Tali's eyes suddenly got shinier through her visor. "I think…." She made a dramatic pause before finishing her sentence. "...that could work."
Shepard grinned, completely forgetting the whole crew around them. "I'll cash it once we find Saren, deal?" One more nod from Tali followed.
They bid their farewell shortly after. Shepard went out of the engine room with a huge smile on her face but as she was getting closer and closer to the last crewmate she needed to talk with she was turning more and more serious. "Chief Willaims." She said with a slight disdain
"Comander?" Ashley immediately saluted - an old habit.
"I want to talk with you about the mess that happened a few days ago during lunchtime…"
The chief straightened herself and nodded, not saying anything and instead letting the commander continue.
"I don't know if you hate aliens or why and frankly I don't care. They and us are on a mission to stop Saren and that's what we will do TOGETHER. I don't want to be worried that if I take you with any crewmate on the mission I will have to check if you are not shooting them in the back just because they're blue or can't eat the same food we do."
Ashley quickly nodded her understanding. "I would never let my feelings jeopardize the mission, commander. I was raised in a military family so if you tell me to kiss turian I'll ask on which cheek"
Shepard slightly relaxed on her words. She was glad that she doesn't need to kick Ashley from her ship. After all, she was a good soldier. "I'm glad you said that…" She intently watched the woman opposite of her for her reaction. ".. because I set course on Feros and I want you and Garrus on the team."
Ashley once again curtly nodded her understanding. "Of course, commander!"
The hangar wasn't really a big space so of course Garrus heard their talk. "Will there be kissing of my cheeks involved?" He asked with obvious amusement in his voice.
It made the commander smirk slightly towards him. "Maybe, if you're lucky, Vakarian, some geth will kiss you!"
Garrus groaned. "Well, there is still time to pick Wrex instead of me then…"
Wrex from the other side of the space scoffed. "I would go only to see the geth kissing you!"
Garrus groaned once more before speaking to himself. "Note to me: don't speak to your friends about kissing ever again…"
Shepard chuckled at the interaction and even Ash seemed a bit amused. "I really can't promise any kisses but I'm still taking you two with me so gear up."
After the nod from Ashley and Garrus Chloe went to gear up as well.
The mission on Feros was quite surprising to say at least. They learned there is some ancient being called Thorian that is controlling the colonists. Fortunately, they managed to neutralize as many of them as possible without killing them. Once they defeated Thorian they also found out that matriarch Benezia left behind one of her asaris - Shiala. She proved really helpful as she gave Shepard a cipher so she can understand her visions a bit better and as she seemed really sorry for her involvement with Saren and Thorian so the commander decided to let her live and help rebuild the colony.
After one briefing and merging of minds with Liara, which once again proved as an interesting experience for the commander, later it was time to update the council. Surprisingly the three aliens proved to be helpful for once as they pointed the commander and her team to a facility on Virmire. So without further ado, Shepard set the course there.
As she had some time on her hands before they will arrive she decided to grab some food. As she was looking for the place to sit with her tray she noticed Garrus waving at her from the table he shared with Wrex, Tali, Liara, Kaidan, Samantha, and surprisingly for everyone, even Ashley. "Commander, over there."
She shrugged as she made her way towards the table, sitting down between Traynor and Liara as the two automatically made room for her. "How many times will I have to remind you guys that out of the mission it's simply 'Chloe'..."
Garrus tilted his head a bit. "Sorry…it's unusual on turian ships to address our superior officer by name…"
Chloe shrugged but before she could say anything Kaidan spoke up. "It's unusual on human ships too. But commander Shepard is special…" There was a little teasing smile on his words so Chloe was sure he was doing it on purpose. "You're all unbelievable…"
Garrus's mandibles moved in amusement. "Well, anyway…Chloe…" He put an extra emphasis on her name which made the commander nod in appreciation. "We were thinking…"
Wrex groaned. "Jeez you're as fast as one-legged Pyjak…"
The turian turned to him. "Well, I don't see you saying anything and we agreed it will be me who will say it!"
As the two kept bickering it was actually Sam who leaned to Chloe to speak. "We were planning that next time we are on Citadel we'll go grab a drink." She gave Shepard a little smile. "And we wanted to ask you to join us."
Wrex pointed at Samantha and then shoved Garrus, making the turian almost fall from his chair. "See? That's how you do it fast! Just ask…"
"Traynor!" Garrus did his equivalent of a pout, clearly sad that he wasn't the one to say it.
Shepard watched them all before chuckling. "Yeah, I think I can join you for one beer."
Kaidan smiled her way. "Just one? I would expect better from the first human Spectre…"
It was unusual for Kaidan to tease her so of course Shepard squared her shoulders before pointing with her fork towards the human biotic. "You're on Kaidan! I bet I will manage to drink more than you."
"I'll be the judge of that. But no way I'm bringing you two back on the ship if you won't be able to walk!" Ashley joined in the little teasing as well.
"Of course, you won't...because you'll be just as drunk as them…" Traynor said with a little shrug.
Liara sipped from her glass of water before she finally joined as well. "That's why we have Wrex…he should be able to carry three humans, right?"
Everyone went silent and looked at the asari who under so much attention blushed and actually got nervous. "I...I said something wrong?"
Shepard started giggling at first and the rest of the table soon joined. The only one who wasn't chuckling was Ashley who actually groaned.
Kaidan was the first one who talked to clearly confused Liara. "We didn't know you have a sense of humor, doc!"
Traynor with a little smirk held her hand towards Ashley. "Pay up chief! I told you she can be funny!"
As Ashley grumpily send some credits to the specialist's account Joker spoke up over the comms. "We will arrive in Virmire in 15 minutes, commander."
The words made Shepard wolf the food down very quickly before she spoke up. "Garrus and Kaidan with me." She quickly got up. "The rest of you… please don't destroy my ship…" After the nod from the two she named she left, actually for once feeling really good about the next mission. What could possibly go wrong?
