Mass Effect Gossips

From a suggestion by pandasize.

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><p>Kasumi looked up from her book when the doors to the observation deck whooshed open, and immediately broke into a smile. "Come in and take a load off, Doc," she called.<p>

Dr. Chakwas surveyed the lounge. "So this is where you've taken up residence, Ms. Goto. An excellent choice. You seem to have made yourself at home."

"No sense in roughing it if I don't have to," Kasumi said, glancing at the bookshelf and artwork and other things she'd put out to make the space a little more lived-in. It hadn't needed much. The lounge was remarkably comfy, really, and the view out the observation window was unbeatable.

"I've never served on a ship with a full bar before, I confess," Dr. Chakwas said, moving toward the bar. "On most ships you can't do better than an illicit still or two."

Kasumi grinned. "You sound like one who knows, Doc."

The older woman snorted. "More like I've had to deal with the aftermath. Now this—" She surveyed the collection of softly glowing bottles and tubes of liquor and let out a soft sigh. "This is more like it."

"More to your taste?" Kasumi asked, smiling to herself.

"Mmm." She took a bottle off the shelf and poured herself a small glass before joining Kasumi on the couch. Kasumi recognized the somewhat floral aroma of one of the asari brandies she'd picked up after overhearing a thing or two about the good doctor's preferences. It was simple courtesy, really. Snooping was by far the easiest way to find out what other people might like.

Dr. Chakwas took a sip and sighed in pleasure, stretching out her legs. "Very nice."

"I'm glad you approve," Kasumi said.

"I'm nearly sure that wasn't there the last time I perused the supply, though."

"We must have taken more supplies on at our last stop," Kasumi said vaguely, flipping a page in her book. She wasn't really reading it, but she didn't need to; she must have read this one four or five times already.

"I suppose we must have," Dr. Chakwas agreed dryly.

The two women sat in silence for a time, while the good doctor savored her glass of brandy, until Kasumi said, "So how is our fearless leader, Doc?"

Dr. Chakwas chuckled. "There _is_ such a thing as doctor-patient confidentiality, Ms. Goto."

"Kasumi," she corrected. "Come on, Doc, I won't tell a soul, but it's obvious those scars aren't natural." She would have had to be a fool not to notice the peculiar crevices on Shepard's face, as well as the absence of the commander's old scars.

"Oh?" Dr. Chakwas turned her nearly empty glass in her hand. "What else is obvious?"

Kasumi shrugged. "She's supposed to have been dead two years ago."

"Yes. So she was."

Kasumi stole a look and found the doctor frowning. "I'm guessing the two things are related."

Dr. Chakwas's mouth turned up abruptly. "Nice try, but I will neither confirm nor deny."

Kasumi smiled back. "Well, a person has to try." It was no matter, really, she could hack her way into the ship's medical records. It sounded like a fun challenge, in fact. She just liked to get the personal touch when she could.

Dr. Chakwas finished her glass and looked at it contemplatively. Kasumi set down her book and unfolded her legs from under her, rising from the couch. She plucked the glass out of Dr. Chakwas's hand and strolled over to the bar to refill it with more of the same brandy. "Listen," she said once she'd returned to the couch and handed the doctor her glass. "What I'm really curious about isn't precisely medical."

The other woman's eyebrows rose. "Oh?"

Kasumi settled herself on the couch, a little closer than before. "Is it really her? She acts like the real deal, but who knows what Cerberus is capable of? You served with her before, so I figured you'd know."

Dr. Chakwas's brows pulled together. "I did," she said, and took a sip. She paused for a moment longer, apparently collecting her thoughts. "She's the real Shepard. I'm confident of that."

"She's been supposed dead for two years," Kasumi said. "It was a very fancy funeral."

"Yes." Dr. Chakwas focused on Kasumi, suddenly, her eyes sharp. "I was there. She's been through a great deal, but I assure you it's Shepard."

Kasumi sat back and nodded. "It's good to hear it from someone in a position to know."

Dr. Chakwas gave her a slight smile. "Happy to serve." She took another drink.

"Whatever she's been through," Kasumi said slowly, "if she really died, or came near it, that can mess a person up."

Dr. Chakwas swirled the remnants of the liquor in her glass. "It can," she acknowledged. "Not to say too much, but she's doing... rather better of late. As the crew increases."

"Is that it?" Kasumi inquired.

Dr. Chakwas shrugged, smiling. "She likes having people to look out for, and people she can trust. She does better with more people around her. Why?"

Kasumi smiled. "I was just thinking a certain turian might have something to do with that."

"Hm. You think?" Dr. Chakwas took another sip.

"You don't?" Kasumi said. "Have you seen the way they look at each other?" _She'd_ seen it. She could practically smell the subtle tension between the two of them underneath the battle-buddy camaraderie.

"Mmm." Dr. Chakwas considered. "They're old friends. I'm sure they could both use a familiar face."

Kasumi shook her head. "Just old friends? Are you sure?"

Dr. Chakwas pursed her lips slightly. "A ship is a hotbed of rumor, and I never heard rumors about the two of them on the SR-1."

That forced Kasumi to discard at least one of her pet theories, but it left several others still viable. "Maybe things are changing, then," she said cheerfully.

Dr. Chakwas finished her glass and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What makes you think so?"

"What doesn't? They steal little looks at each other when they think no one's looking. They're more relaxed together than they are apart. Sometimes Shepard can hardly stop smiling when she's around him. I mean, he's funny, but he's not _that_ funny." Kasumi shook her head again. "I watch people a lot, Doc, and I think there's something there."

"You could be right," Dr. Chakwas allowed after considering for a few moments. "She was very distressed when Garrus was injured."

"I heard," Kasumi said. She'd boarded the ship after that adventure on Omega, but the crew tended to talk, and she'd picked up most of the details as she explored the ship.

"She would be upset if any teammate were so badly wounded, of course, but now that I think of it, there was a little extra intensity for both of them. And Garrus simply wouldn't stay in the infirmary, even though he'd just been through major trauma and surgery."

"Well, there you go," Kasumi said. Turians were tough, but even so, there were limits. She leaned forward a little. "Do you think they need any encouragement?"

Dr. Chakwas smiled. "I imagine matters will take their course without our meddling."

"Aw," said Kasumi. "But meddling is fun!"

The doctor chuckled. "Let's just observe."

#

After that the two of them got together every few days for a drink or two, just to unwind, and one day a week or two later, Kasumi said, "I made a little progress on our lovebirds."

Dr. Chakwas gave her a stern look over the rim of her glass. "Kasumi. Didn't I tell you not to meddle?"

"I didn't!" Kasumi protested. And she really hadn't. Much. She had just made sure that Garrus got a good long look at Shepard in heels and a little black dress before they zoomed off to Bekenstein. She hadn't even been entirely sure that the dress would do much for a turian, although it really did hug Shepard's figure nicely—showing that she _had_ a figure, which her usual armor and uniforms entirely obscured—but she'd thought he might be interested in what the heels did to her legs. Judging from the once-over he'd given those nice, long, muscular legs, Kasumi had been right. It helped, no doubt, that Shep looked good when she was in a temper, standing with one hip canted out and eyes flashing while she treated Kasumi to a rant on the subject of women's dresswear. So it wasn't _really_ meddling, just... taking advantage of the unusual opportunity provided by Shepard needing to dress up a little. So what if Kasumi had also manufactured that opportunity?

Dr. Chakwas chuckled when Kasumi told her a lightly edited version—one that minimized the extent of Kasumi's meddling. "An old ploy, but a good one," she said.

Kasumi grinned. "Any other old ploys you think might work?"

"Let it go," Dr. Chakwas admonished. She gave Kasumi a more serious look over her glass of white wine. "You and Shepard were on an errand of yours, weren't you? How was it?"

Kasumi settled back into the cushions, her smile growing tight. "I got what I needed." It would have been good enough just to have Keiji's graybox out of Hock's hands, but—she didn't regret Hock's death, either. Not at all. It gave her a dark sense of satisfaction, a little black pearl that she'd keep tucked away deep in her heart.

"I'm glad," said Dr. Chakwas. She smiled, but her eyes were serious, and understanding.

These weren't things Kasumi was ready to talk about, not now, maybe not ever, but perhaps she could with the doctor one day. She smiled back.

Mostly, over the next weeks, they talked about other things. Good books and fine liquors, and places they had traveled. Dr. Chakwas had been just about everywhere an Alliance vessel might travel in its service; Kasumi had traveled more than the average, herself, often to alien worlds. Anywhere the rich and idle and careless went.

They talked about the crew, too: about Jack and Miranda's occasional spats, about Kelly's all-too-obvious crush on the quiet drell assassin, about whether Zaeed's stories were likely to be true, about whether anything would ever happen with Gabby and Ken, about how Joker claimed to hate the ship's AI and yet _kept on_ talking about it (her?) ("EDI," Kasumi said one night, "do you mind us calling you _she_?" and the AI replied, "Using traditional gendered pronouns rather than _it_ allows the human crew to personify me. Since the register of my voice falls into the standard range for human females, it is only sensible for the crew to use _she_." A pause. "No, Kasumi, I do not mind.").

Shepard and Garrus, to Kasumi's mind, were irritatingly intent on being professional and aboveboard, keeping their relationship strictly platonic in public and confining any personal matters to their private conversations. Kasumi liked to imagine that those conversations waxed highly romantic, possibly even torrid, but she'd watched, and Shepard usually emerged from the main battery looking altogether too composed.

A few times, though—a few times, she emerged with her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright, once actually biting her lower lip. _Those_ occasions Kasumi treasured up, and told Dr. Chakwas about later.

"It may not mean anything," Dr. Chakwas would say, with a smile.

"Oh, it means _something_," Kasumi would reply, with a smirk. And they'd both laugh and take a drink and move on to some other topic.

#

One day Dr. Chakwas entered the lounge, glanced around, and said sternly, "Kasumi, did you meddle again?"

"Me?" Kasumi put on her best guileless expression, not least because she had no idea what the doctor was talking about.

"Don't give me that look," Dr. Chakwas said, crossing to the bar and selecting a bottle from the shelves. "You're always up to something."

"I'm as innocent as the driven snow," Kasumi said, closing her book. "At least give me a hint, Doc."

Dr. Chakwas chuckled as she returned to the couch and sat down with her glass. "Well. Garrus, ah... escorted Shepard in after she returned from Omega with Samara..."

"Oh, I heard," Kasumi said. She was a little regretful that she hadn't been in the CIC when Shepard boarded, but Goldstein and a couple of the others had been talking about it later, and she'd overheard that just fine.

"He brought her all the way down to the infirmary, and practically hovered outside the door when I told him to leave." Dr. Chakwas frowned at her glass. "I hate hovering."

"Don't we all," said Kasumi. "How's Shep's head? I heard some asari did a number on her."

"Mmm." Dr. Chakwas took a drink and shot Kasumi a narrow-eyed glance. "Confidentiality," she reminded her, again, and then shrugged. "She'll be fine."

"And what about Garrus?" Kasumi drew up her knees so she could rest her chin on top of them and wrap her arms around them.

Dr. Chakwas shrugged again. "Came right back in when I cleared Shepard for visitors. She was just resting, but he didn't leave her bedside for three hours."

"And you thought there wasn't anything there," Kasumi said, grinning.

"As _I_ recall," said Dr. Chakwas sternly, "I said you might be right." She paused for another drink. "You really didn't do anything?"

"Nope! If anything happened, it was all them."

"Well, it does begin to look as though you were correct," Dr. Chakwas said. "And a good thing, too."

Kasumi smiled, delighted. "You think so?"

"You don't?"

"Oh, of course I do," Kasumi leaned back on the cushions. "It's an excellent romance! Friends who start looking at each other just a bit differently—two soldiers united on a dangerous mission who find comfort with each other amid an uncaring galaxy—"

"Do you write the advertising copy for romance novels?" Dr. Chakwas inquired.

Kasumi sighed dramatically. "If only! She's a veteran soldier, he's a jaded cop. She's the first human Spectre, prime example of her species, he's a down-on-his-luck vigilante. She's—"

"I see," Dr. Chakwas broke in, laughing. "They're well matched, and they can rely on each other."

"Yeah," said Kasumi, with something like a sigh, thinking back to what that was like.

Dr. Chakwas reached over and patted her knee.

Kasumi smiled. A bit forced, but only a bit. "You need a refill," she said. "And I need a drink."

#

It was too quiet, after the crew was taken.

Kasumi had lent a hand with the engines and taken care of her other responsibilities, which left her with far too much time to ghost around the empty ship. She didn't really need her tactical cloak, with no one to avoid. She was using it anyway, though. You could never quite tell when one of the squad would appear, and some of them (Thane, for example) were quiet enough that she might not spot them coming.

She had wandered through the CIC, but all those silent consoles were really too depressing, so she had returned to the crew deck. At least there she could simply pretend everyone was asleep. That was probably true, for the most part, of the handful of people left on the ship. She should consider getting some sleep herself.

She was crossing the mess toward her quarters when the main battery door slid open with a hiss, and Garrus emerged, dressed in civvies (civvies!) and with a bottle of wine in hand. Kasumi leaned back against the counter, silent and invisible, and grinned. It was not the most flattering suit, perhaps, but at least it wasn't his battered armor, and the wine was a nice touch.

He looked like a man on a mission as he marched down the corridor. When he got to the mess hall, he paused, his eyes flicking from left to right. He must have had infrared sensing on, because his eyes narrowed and zeroed in on Kasumi's position.

She dropped the cloak, smiling. "It's just me."

"I figured," he said, sounding normal enough. "And what are you doing here?"

She shrugged. "Just walking around. It's too quiet."

"Yeah," he said, with a rough undertone.

"And where are you headed?" she asked, just barely containing her delight. "With wine?"

He cast her a wary glance. "I'm – er –"

"Never mind," said Kasumi, gleefully. She looked him over again, with a critical eye. No, _not_ the best suit, but clean and presentable, and most importantly, not armor. "Go. Have a good time. Take both your minds off of things."

"Yeah," said Garrus, and shot her a look that seemed a little uncertain, but Kasumi smiled encouragingly and made shooing motions with her hands.

"Go on now. Don't keep Shepard waiting."

He went, and Kasumi kept smiling until he disappeared around the corner. She'd have to tell Doc about this, she thought, and sighed, her good mood curdling. Well. They'd get the crew back; Shepard would see to that.

She looked around the empty space once more and drifted back to her own quarters to sleep.

#

"I brought you some brandy," Kasumi said, brandishing the bottle.

In the stark lights of the infirmary, Dr. Chakwas looked older and frailer than usual, dark shadows under her eyes. She rubbed both hands across her face and sat upright in her chair. "Yes. Brandy is the best idea I've heard all day."

It had taken a few hours to patch everyone up after blowing up the Collector Base and coming back through the Omega-4 Relay. At Shepard's order, nearly everyone had gone to rest, leaving just a skeleton crew (those least affected by what they'd been through on the base) to staff the ship. The ship was quiet again, but not like it had been before they'd activated the relay; it was filled with the low, but tangible hum of breath and pulse, dozens of lives safely restored.

Kasumi wasn't surprised to find that Dr. Chakwas hadn't retired, though. She'd been in the infirmary earlier, and the doc had been as brisk and professional as always, but that was the sort of thing that caught up with a person later. Therefore: brandy! And possibly some distraction.

She opened the bottle while Dr. Chakwas opened a drawer and pulled out two small glasses. Kasumi filled them without comment and sat down. She kept an eye on the older woman as they drank in silence, taking one glass to Dr. Chakwas's two. But she was surprised when, halfway through her third, Dr. Chakwas said, "I'm glad you came for us."

"Our pleasure," Kasumi said, lifting her own glass. "You know Shep wasn't going to stand for anyone kidnapping her people, even Collectors."

"True," Dr. Chakwas said. "Still."

Kasumi drank, and then said, "Saw Garrus going up to Shep's quarters before we hit the relay?"

Dr. Chakwas lifted an eyebrow with a sudden spark of interest. "Oh, really?"

"Really! In civvies, with a bottle of wine, even!"

Dr. Chakwas smiled, the haunted look fading from her eyes. "Tell me you didn't sneak in and spy on them."

"Doc, please!" Kasumi said, putting on an indignant face. "I'm not that bad."

Dr. Chakwas cocked a severe eye at her.

"Besides," she added, "they probably wouldn't take it well, and I don't think I could take either of them in hand to hand." Especially not both of them together, she reflected.

Dr. Chakwas took another sip. "I'm glad," she said. "I'm glad to see something good come of all this, even if—" She stopped, her mouth turning down and her eyes growing distant.

Kasumi rolled her chair over so she could slide an arm around the other woman's shoulders. "Time to get some rest, Doc," she said.

Dr. Chakwas sighed, slouching into her chair and rubbing her eyes. "You're right, I know you're right."

"I'm always right," Kasumi said brightly, squeezing a little. "You're safe and sound, Doc," she added gently. "Let's get you to bed."

Dr. Chakwas sighed again and acquiesced, allowing Kasumi to pull her to her feet and lead her out of the medbay. She slowed as they approached the observation deck Kasumi used as quarters, though. "This isn't usually where I bunk," she pointed out.

"Nope," Kasumi agreed. "But how about a slumber party? I've got more than one couch."

Dr. Chakwas laughed a little, a tired sound, but Kasumi was glad to hear it anyway. "Good enough."

It would be, Kasumi thought. They'd all been through enough for now, and no one should have to be alone tonight. Maybe not everyone had found love on this voyage, but they'd found friendship.


End file.

Mass Effect, Friendship, Sci-Fi