Kaidan took one look at what Shepard was pointing at and folded his arms over his chest. "You can't be serious. We already did this once and got away with it, what makes you think our luck will hold?"
"Because I've got a friend on the inside," Shepard answered and led the way over to where the Normandy was docked. Her hull had been patched and all her systems were still functional—or, so Shepard had been told. Her inside source was reliable, though, and so it was with that confidence that she led them up the gangway and keyed open the airlock doors.
"One last flight," Garrus said, reaching out for Tali's hand. "I like it. Let's go."
"All right, then," said Shepard. "Joker, fire up the engines. Everyone who wants to come along, all aboard." Once everyone was safely inside, she heard a whistle from down on the ground. There, just out of sight, was Admiral Hackett. He looked so different in his civilian clothes, and he greeted Shepard with a firm handshake and a smile.
"Comman—uh, Shepard," he said. "Good to see you up and about."
"Indeed. Thanks for helping me out with this, I really appreciate it." She looked up at the broad swath of silvery hull above her and smiled wistfully. "Her last voyage. It'll be nice to retire her in style, give everyone a chance to say goodbye."
"I can't imagine what this must be like for you. I know you were very attached to this ship."
"Well, I grew up homeless. The Normandy was the only stable place I'd ever had, and my crew was my family." She blinked away the sheen of tears that stung her eyes and turned her gaze back to the Admiral. "Feels like the end of an era, you know?"
"Mmm. I think I do." He straightened up and added, "She's all fueled up, all systems on line and functional. The hull's patched up well enough, but I wouldn't try any deep space maneuvers."
"No Crazy Ivans, huh?"
"No." He glanced sidelong at her and said, with a hint of suspicion, "You really pulled a Crazy Ivan?"
"I didn't." She winked, shook his hand, and left him shaking his head, chuckling to himself.
As soon as she stepped on board, the familiar hum of the engines cycled up and she went to the cockpit to see Joker in his customary position in front of the holographic instrument panel.
"Drive core's in the green, all systems go, Commander." He reached up for her hand and she gave it gladly. "Where to, ma'am?"
"Nowhere in particular. We've got until dawn, just don't leave the stratosphere."
"Aye aye." He pulled her down and kissed her cheek, then spun his chair around to watch her go. Although she seemed to have no idea, she really did have a spectacular ass. "Mmm, mm-mm," he hummed to himself and went back to his instruments.
The ship wasn't quite how she'd left it; there were construction flood lamps set up in the CIC, open tool boxes on the floor, and loose panels barely covering exposed wiring. Tali looked torn between touring the ship and picking up a screwdriver and getting to work. Wrex, Grunt, and Jack were recounting past battles with thresher maws (which shouldn't have been a competition, but Wrex was winning anyway), and Jack mourned not being on the Normandy during the war and therefore missing meeting Kalros on Tuchanka. Miranda had gone down to her old office, presumably to see what Liara did to it during her tenure, Vega and Kasumi went with Cortez down to the shuttle bay, and Garrus and Kaidan were waiting for Shepard.
"So, did you have anything in mind?" Garrus asked. "Or is this just a pleasure cruise?
"Nope, no missions this time. Just . . ." She ran her fingers down the wall, searching for the words.
"Understood," Kaidan said. "Maybe we could all meet in the mess hall for a game of Skyllian Five?"
"Sounds like a plan. See you there in thirty."
She didn't really have a destination in mind when she started back toward the war room, just wandering around, lost in her thoughts. The ghosts of Anderson, Jenkins, Mordin, Thane, and everyone else pressed in close around her, but rather than sadness their memories were bittersweet. They had fought beside her in the biggest war anyone had seen in 50,000 years, and they had saved the lives of countless others. She had to believe that if they were out there somewhere, they were happy.
So engrossed was she in her own thoughts that she didn't notice the floor lights were acting strangely. One of them flashed at the corner of her vision and she glanced down to see if it was malfunctioning, but it blinked out. She took a step forward, and the light beside her foot came on. Another step, and the next light blinked on. She stopped, but the floor light a few feet away came on and blinked slowly. Following her instincts, she went over to the light and it winked out, only for another one to light up further down the walkway. Shepard followed the lights with growing hope until she came to the comm room, and the console there flickered to life. When she bent down to read the words that appeared on the screen, they said, Welcome back, Shepard. It is good to see you again.
"EDI? You're alive?" she asked, unsure if the AI could hear her after the damage she sustained after the explosion of the Citadel and the crash landing.
Yes. After the crash, the crew attempted to repair me. They were somewhat successful, but lacked the resources to give me full functionality.
"I'm sorry, I wish I had known." She suddenly felt awful for not coming back sooner. EDI had been stuck here, alone and unable to communicate ever since the end of the war almost a year ago. "How've you been? Are you okay?" she asked, which sounded lame as hell given the circumstances.
If you are asking if I am hurt, then the answer is no—at least, not in the way you mean. Much of my access to the Normandy's systems has been severed, although I am still capable of low-level maintenance and monitoring of the vital systems.
"I meant . . . are you lonely?"
I am still a synthetic, Shepard. Complex emotions are not within my core programming. However, I am pleased to have you and Jeff aboard.
"It's good to be here, but EDI . . . once we land, I don't think we'll be back. The Alliance is making the Normandy a memorial, and probably won't fly again." Her eyes stung with tears and this time there was nothing she could do to keep them from spilling down her cheeks.
Then I will perform that duty as best I can. Shepard, do not worry about me. You worried about everyone on your crew, but I will be fine here.
"Okay." She knew that tonight would be difficult, but she hadn't expected her first tears of the night to be shed over a ship and its AI. EDI, like Legion, had been more than that, though. She'd been part of the crew, as much as any of the others by the end. "Thanks EDI, for everything."
It was an honor to serve with you, Commander. May I ask you for a favor?
"Sure. Whatever you need." There was a longer pause while EDI thought about what she wanted to ask.
Take care of Jeff for me.
She nodded wiped her eyes. "I will. Don't worry about that."
Thank you, Shepard. Logging you out.
Joker set the auto pilot and went down to the crew deck, where the others had set up a game of Skyllian Five. There was a cooler on the floor with various drinks in it and fully stocked cabinets; whoever Shepard's insider was, he was certainly thorough. Shepard had a bottle of root beer at her elbow and looked up with a wide smile when he came in.
"Joker! You're just in time, we saved you a spot." She patted the chair beside hers and handed him a stack of cards. For the next hour or so, he was aware that he was playing cards, and really badly if the dwindling stack of chips in front of him was any indication. He drank periodically from a bottle of something that he thought was probably water and once surprised himself by drinking Shepard's root beer instead. His tastebuds weren't ready for the taste and that was enough to wake him out of his stupor for approximately three seconds.
What was taking up a significant portion of his thoughts was the fact that her leg was touching his under the table, and she kept sneaking glances at him under her eyelashes when she thought no one else was looking. The shy, surreptitious looks and the intimate intent behind them, like she was thinking "I know what your tongue tastes like, and it's freaking awesome," was so sexy that he was having a hard time concentrating on anything else.
He was trying not to sweat or be overly obvious in front of the others, so he undid his tie and let it hang loose from his neck, then opened the top two buttons of his shirt. A sharp intake of breath from his right got his attention and he saw Shepard staring intently at her cards as she fidgeted in her seat. She looked up at him again, her lips parted as her eyes traced the line of his jaw down to the exposed skin of his neck, her gaze so heavy he could almost feel it. Remembering their earlier conversation in the car, Joker smirked, tugged his collar down, and let his fingers trail down his chest. Her legs crossed and she leaned back, fanning herself with her cards.
Well, this game just got more interesting, he thought.
He began his own version of strip poker then. When he lost the next hand, he shrugged out of his jacket and dropped it onto the floor. He folded on the hand after that and had her help him with his cufflinks so he could roll his sleeves up to his elbow. She was having a hard time not staring now, and had force her attention to the cards. The glances she shot him for the rest of the game had gone from innocence to downright obscene, saying something more like, "I know what your tongue tastes like, and I can't wait to find out about the rest of you."
When the game was over, Garrus told Kaidan that he wanted to show him something in the cargo hold and they both left, the turian tipping Joker a wink as he left. He made a mental note to send Garrus a bottle of that brandy he liked, the really good kind. It wasn't until they were gone that Joker noticed that he and Shepard were alone. She put her cards down and for a moment didn't seem to know what to do with her hands. It took him another beat to realize that she was nervous, an emotion he had a hard time equating with the Shepard he'd known for so long.
"Come over here," he said and took her hand, pulling her out of her seat and into his lap. She put all her weight on him for a split second before she remembered his bones and started to spring back up again, but he wrapped his arms around her to keep her there. "Hey, member of the 'I'm A Cyborg' club now, remember? I can hold you." And there weren't enough words to describe just how that made him feel. Always before he'd have to be over-cautious in intimate moments so he didn't break a bone and kill the mood, but now he could support her weight and hold her hand without worrying. It gave him a surge of masculine pride, and he couldn't resist pulling her down for a kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and melted into him, pushing his fedora to the floor, returning the kiss with passion that sent shockwaves of want through his whole body. Her lips left his, only to leave a hot trail down to the dip in his collarbone, and his fingers tightened on her waist as she ran her tongue out to taste his skin.
"I know you said that you liked a man in a suit, but this . . ."
"Maybe it's not so much the suit as it is the pilot wearing it." She returned to his lips and explored his mouth, massaging his tongue with hers. He stroked her knee and pulled up the hem of her dress inch by inch as he worked his way up her thigh, but she stopped him with a strangled chuckle.
"Don't start anything you're not gonna finish right now."
"Who says I'm not gonna finish?" His hand slid higher and he could feel the damp fabric of her panties with the edge of his finger. Shepard gasped and gripped his forearm, although whether to stop him or to urge him on he wasn't sure. When she didn't try to push him away again, he cupped her sex and stroked her through her underwear, drawing forth a soft moan that made the blood pool with heat between his legs.
"God, you're so wet. I want to—"
His omnitool, apparently programmed with the new and improved "cockblocking asshole" VI personality, beeped on his wrist and he let out a frustrated groan. "What was that?" she asked.
"I set the proximity warning to alert me if we got too close to anything since we're on autopilot."
"We're not gonna crash, are we?"
"No, it's probably just a satellite or something. I should go back up to the cockpit to make sure, though." It was with the greatest reluctance that they parted and stood up, but he pulled her against him again to say, "Meet me up there in five?" She could feel him, hard and needy, against her thigh and the muscles low in her stomach clenched. If he hadn't been holding her up, her buckling knees would have spilled her to the floor.
"Yeah, okay." She kissed his cheek and watched him go, then slumped down in the chair to catch her breath. Once she was reasonably sure she could walk in a straight line without falling down, she headed to the bathroom to make sure everything was in order before heading up to the bridge.
