"Found it!" Joker announced, thumbing through a barrage of virtual screens.
"Where?" Shepard sat up so quickly that she smacked her head against the bottom shelf of her closet. She rubbed her forehead and accidentally smeared ash across her face.
"Yeah. Right here." He pointed. "Twelve steps to overcoming your gaming addiction…"
She scowled and retreated back into the stack of poorly labeled boxes. He wasn't quite sure what she thought she would find, other than some charred remains and useless medical records, but he wasn't going to stop her. Memory cards, she swore to him, had survived her accidental attempts to bake and flush them, so they were obviously impervious to the effects of atmospheric re-entry.
"You know…" He laced his fingers behind his cap and rotated the chair toward her. "If you wait a month, you can just buy the DLC. Shit, they'd probably find you a brand new copy if you just asked nicely."
"I worked my ass off to get the Platinum Trophy for Code of Honor. I am not starting over." She huffed, frustrated by the Alliance's dedication to preserving everything but the important stuff. "I deserve that loyalty bonus."
"We could get Legion to re-play the first three games…"
She gaped. "That's cheating!"
He rolled his eyes. "Oh, and being an actual N7 operative gives you absolutely no unfair advantages at all."
"That's … different."
Her fingers brushed against something soft under the rubble of her documented life. Pushing aside a stack of binders, she uncovered a well-worn SR1 ball-cap.
She stared at it for a moment. "Is this…"
His eyes widened but he quickly hid the expression beneath the shadow of his new hat. "You…weren't supposed to see that."
She double-checked the box she'd pulled it from. It had her name on it. Her records. Her shoes. Her photo of Ashley. "But why…?"
"They wouldn't let me bury it with you." He coughed, disguising an unexpected hitch.
"Oh." She froze, unsure of her next move. The gesture was symbolic; Joker had buried her, the ship and all the pain in one swift move. He tried to move on and now she'd accidentally reopened the wound.
She didn't enjoy being a walking funeral.
"Well, it's a bit crinkled and kinda musty," she paused, comparing the fraying seams and sweat-caused discolorations to his personality, "But, I can't imagine flying without it."
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I can't take it back."
"Good! It's mine now." Shepard smirked and donned the hat like a trophy, then continued rooting through the box at her feet. "Finders keepers."
He arched an eyebrow, processing the turn of events and working out a suitable rebuttal.
"Come on, slacker. I have a game to play. Did you check the save-game archives?"
He pivoted, turning back to the computer and grumbled unintelligibly, "I deserve a loyalty bonus."
"I know." She promised. "And the sooner I recover my gamesave, the sooner we can work on that."
"Aye aye, Commander."