In every action vid Joker had ever watched while lying in hospitals, there was a moment where the entire team of good guys walks together looking awesome and ready for a fight. Only in his wildest dreams did he imagine that he would be there along with the heroes, crutches and all, ready for a fight. Given- he wouldn't be doing any actual fighting, but walking towards CITA's docks surrounded by Shepard's armored crew, all armed to the teeth, Joker was still feeling extremely overwhelmed and even a bit nauseous. 'Deep breaths, Moreau. You are the best flight recruit CITA's seen in years. You can do this. You can-"

"Are you ready, Moreau?" A muffled voice came from behind him on his left, followed by the armored form of Captain Shepard. He caught his reflection in her visor and almost laughed realizing that THE PRODIGY had to look up at HIM, even when he was leaned over his crutches. This soldier was only an inch or two taller than Nora- and that easily could have been the Captain's combat boots. 'What is it with all these tiny chicks?'

"Sure thing, Ma'am." He finally answered trying to look confident and not like a moron. Joker heard a sharp snort from behind his back.

"Shepard, I am not so sure this is a good idea… I mean… A first year recruit? Have you even actually made a live relay jump?"

"Only once." Joker mumbled. The satisfied look on Alenko's face lit a fire inside him. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, ages ago. I stole a battle cruiser and flew it through the Citadel before jumping to the Sahrabarik system. I made it passed Bindur and halfway through the second asteroid field before Citadel C-Sec officers could catch up with me. I was on my way to Omega so I wouldn't get arrested." For a moment all Joker could hear was the echo of heavy footsteps and tapping of his crutches. Then the tension broke as entire team excluding Alenko burst into laughs. Joker received a number of heavy pats on the back- one extra crippling from the Krogan. 'Jeez… easy!'

"Leave it to Battlemaster to find the only flight student around here with a quad!" Wrex's voice boomed echoing through the halls.

"What is it like traveling through a relay?" The Quarian, Tali'Zorah, asked dreamily. Like Shepard, she was wearing her entire suit including her helmet. "The migrant fleet's ships are so very large we can't feel it that much. Anyways, we travel through relays so rarely."

"What is it humans say? 'It knocks your socks off'?" Garrus answered making Tali giggle. "Or in this case maybe it was his hat?"

"Yeah, about the hat- You shouldn't be wearing it anyways. We have a uniform." Alenko chided silencing the crew.

"The hat stays." Joker answered coldly. 'What is this guy's problem?!'

"Recruit, for professionalism's sake I suggest-"

"Enough Alenko!" Shepard spoke up. "The hat stays. It's not a big deal."

"But Captain, the regs say that-"

"What has gotten into you? Since when do the Titans care about those regs? We all bend the rules somehow. Garrus wears a visor so personalized it's silly-"

"Hey!"

"Wrex's armor is covered in scratches and bullet holes-" The Krogan released a growl and pounded his fists together.

"Don't forget my blades aren't exactly standard CITA grade." Shepard finished. "The only one of us who actually follows all the rules is Tali. And that is only because I haven't convinced her to upgrade to prototype hacking gear. And if you want to remain on your high horse, you can give back the Combat Sensor VII I bought you for your birthday last month. I am sure that your old III is in the Axis' basement somewhere."

"What's the Axis?" Joker mumbled to Garrus, who had come to stand next to him while Shepard scolded to Alenko.

"It's the Titan's…uh... headquarters, I guess. Most of us live there so we don't have to pay rent." He replied softly.

"... You were invited to join the Titans because you are a good crew member. A strong fighter. You are loyal and you follow orders. Right now you're still being a good soldier, but maybe not the best person, Kaidan. Think about it. And anyway, I like the hat," She offered Joker a glance. "so the hat can stay. Are you all done wasting time?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Good."

The Titans lightly bantered with each other while they hurried the rest of the way to the docks, and Joker couldn't help but notice that they acted more like a family than an elite team of the best warriors in the galaxy... Garrus and Wrex argued who was a more effective teammate until they decided that the only way to know for sure was to create a headcount for the upcoming match. This was joined by Ashley, who playfully joked that no alien was as quick as she was when bringing down the mark Shepard had given her. Only Alenko stayed silent and seemed extra broody. The Quarian, who shyly but formally introduced herself to Joker as Tali'Zorah nar Rayya knew a lot about the inner workings of a good ship, and together they tried to break down exactly what made the best Frigate. She was extremely passionate about everything she talked about, easily excited, and reminded Joker EXACTLY of Hilary. 'It's actually kind of creepy how similar they are…' he thought to himself.

As the team made their way toward the end of the docks, Tali'zorah had to drag Joker passed the real versions of the ships he had mastered in his many hours of practice on the simulators. The Cornucopia, the Corsica, and Leipzig all sat like shining beacons tempting Joker to abandon all he was doing. 'It would be so easy…' He almost forgot that he had a mission passing by a Turian freighter model, knowing that they reserved the simulation codes for upperclassmen only, and actually did stumble only saved by Garrus' Turian reflexes when he recognized the familiar silhouette of the Miritrix. Joker was halfway convinced that he had died and gone to heaven.

"You can put your tongue back in your mouth, Recruit. You haven't seen anything yet." Williams grinned at him. By the looks on the other members' faces, most were enjoying the unexpected enthusiasm that shined through him when surrounded by next generation flight technology.

"What do you mean? We aren't taking the Miritrix?"

"Uh… No. Why would we?"

"I don't know. I just thought we would be taking something I had practice with. How do any of you know I can even do it? None of you have ever seen me fly before. But you know I can fly her."

"Well, Shepard has assured us you can fly anything."

"Oh." Was all he ended up saying, because he was too shocked to say anything else.

"Besides- we have a ship." Ashley added pointing to the end of the dock.

Joker's jaw dropped, and that was the last time he ever thought about the Miritrix.

Joker sat deep in thought, barely noticing galaxies and nebulae pass by. He already successfully passed through two relays and, as ordered by Shepard, was manually piloting to the next instead of continuing the chain of relays. She suspected that there would be a crew waiting with cannons ready to fire at the next relay and after discussing it with Joker and the Titans she decided they would risk the few extra hours it would take to bypass it. The Captain considered everyone's opinion, including Joker's to his great surprise. He had his doubts at first; years of pity and false compassion led him to worry that Shepard would simply use him like a tool or a publicity stunt before ignoring him. But now he had hope that maybe Shepard wanted him there after all.

The Normandy was exactly the ship he should have expected from the Titans. An elite technological breakthrough for an elite team. Joker admired the sleek profile of the ship for as long as he could before Tali had practically shoved him into the helm. Pulling away from the docks, Joker had barely held down his nerves as he put into play the months of practice and tried as hard as he could to look as confident as he wished he felt. He couldn't imagine the laughing stock he would become with the other flight students if he totaled the White Titan's ship before they even left CITA. Once safely pulled away, the crew stopped crowding the helm, leaving to the lower levels of the ship with mumbles of "Too late now"s and "Don't you dare kill us, Recruit"s. He was used to people underestimating him because of his disease, and almost expected this from everyone. Only Shepard had remained, standing arms crossed behind her back, and with a silent nod of confidence, reassured him that for whatever reason she had complete faith in him.

The entire day consisted of Joker flying towards Therum for the actual match. It went flawlessly and Joker was proud of the time he made getting the Normandy to the planet and into a cloaked orbit. By the time Tali had hacked the beacon's signal to find the location on the northern hemisphere dusk had fallen on the mining facility. According to CITA's guidelines, LAVA flares and creatures of Therum were too dangerous for a mission this early in the season, so all battles were to be paused at sunset. Shepard called for a drop in the Mako at the facility's dawn the next day.

Joker was exhausted and decided to autopilot the orbit, get up and find his way to the Normandy's mess hall for some food. All he could think while taking the elevator to the second level was how slow it moved. 'You would think that such a high-tech ship would have this problem solved…' Even before the elevator doors opened and he came around the corner to the open mess area, Joker could hear the debate and ribbing of the rest of the Titan's. The deep growl of Wrex's voice juxtaposed Tali'Zorah's voice that, though it was through a mask, still rang higher than the rest. He had hoped that they wouldn't all be gathered, not wanting them all to see his struggle to balance while getting his food. Over the years he had learned how to work around the problems he faced in the everyday, but that didn't mean that it was a pretty process. He passed by the table they were gathered around trying not to drag attention to himself and opened the fridge marked LEVO.

"...But honestly, we can all agree that Professor Verner's 'History of Spectres and Their Effects on Modern Day Justice' class is ridiculous!"

"Agreed! His romanticized version of every Spectres wild contributions to the benefits of society is complete nonsense!"

"Not to mention he's a complete moron. -Hey! Do you all remember that one time Verner formally invited Prodigy to come in and talk about his conspiracy theory that 'the illuminated Captain Shepard' is a Spectre spy and No-" Kaidan was quickly cut off by Ashley elbowing him in the side. She directed an obvious glance at Joker, "Oh. I mean, Shepard had to submit a formal apology for 'denying our class her presence?'" This raised a few laughs. Joker caught on that they were keeping some sort of secret but didn't have any idea what it could be.

"I heard that next week, Professor Solus' Lab hours are going to include a member of each group getting injected with Scale-Itch while the rest try and develop the cure."

"No! You don't think he would do that… do you?!" Tali asked, covering her mask with her hands. "Isn't that disease only spread you know...when varren… you know…"

"I know he would! He is Mordin after all!" Garrus assured while Wrex just filled the mess with booming guffaws.

"I don't know Vakarian… is that even legal?"

"Human!" The Krogan spoke up. Joker had simply been watching the discussion, and it took him a moment to realize that Wrex was referring to him. "I see you go in the Salarian's Lab often. Almost every day. You are familiar with his ways? Yes?"

"Uh, I suppose, yeah."

"You think he would, or no? Prove to these pyjacks that they may need to fear a little Itch!" He grinned wickedly. Again, all eyes fell on Joker and he felt like he was the new toy that Mom, or in this case the Captain, brought her kids to play with. 'I don't think they would want my real answer…"

"Is that something you are familiar with, Big Guy?" He diverted. Joker hoped he wasn't about to get his bones broken by an insulted tank when the Krogan's face fell open. But after a silent moment, he realized he had nothing to fear.

"BHAHAHA!" Wrex boomed, voice echoing down the corridor with sleeper pods and up the stairs. "YOU SURE DO HAVE A QUAD. You I like, HUMAN! Make some room, Pyjacks!"

They continued to talk about professors and classes, like Joker imagined would only happen at a normal high school. It was still strange to him that these highly trained soldiers could also be just like normal people. The general agreement was that the best professor was obviously Professor Anderson. This made Joker think of Nora, and he wondered how she was doing in her competition. They had barely been together a few weeks, and he already missed her. 'Since the Captain and Garrus Vakarian are so close, she probably knows Nora, too.'

"Hey, where's Shepard?"

"Oh, she's always spent most of the travel time during away matches in her office planning our game strategy. Each mission she changes our main positions a bit. You know; who takes point, who stays on her six during assaults. That kind of stuff. It throws off the opponent." Ashley spoke from behind her holo-pad. Joker could just make out the title from across the table, and read it backwards. It was titled Elanus' Complete Rifle Encyclopedia'. 'Huh...Ashley GUNNY Williams makes a lot more sense now…' "She's good with that kind of planning stuff. Always six steps ahead of her opponent."

"Shepard says that she already knows if she is going to win or lose before she even starts fighting." Tali added with something that could easily be taken as idolization in her voice.

"So she's someone you don't want to play chess with?" Joker questioned.

"No, that wouldn't be a great idea." Ashley continued. "Last season we used to play cards during down time on missions."

"Used to? What happened, did Captain Shepard find out and get upset?" Joker asked.

"No, that wasn't the problem. The problem was Shepard started playing with us and never lost. Not once. I lost track of the credits I owe her, luckily she never came to collect. Kaidan would be broke if she ever did."

"Hey! We ALL lost. It's distracting to play against her. No- not like that, I didn't mean- ugh! She has no tells!" Kaidan countered blushing.

"That is what makes her a strong immovable battlemaster." Wrex cheered pumping his fists together.

"Yeah, that and she cheats." Garrus trilled across the table from Wrex. He was barely paying attention, twiddling with the wires in his visor, and hardly spoke a word until now.

"No, she would never cheat!" Kaidan argued. Garrus just rolled his eyes in response.

"What's wrong? Your lady love too much of a princess to cheat at cards?" Ashley taunted.

"You and Shepard?" Joker started to ask, eyebrows raised, genuinely surprised and another strange feeling he could not name. 'The Captain wouldn't…. Would she?'

"Ha! He wishes!"

"Hey, I just really know her well, okay Ash? And who knows…we spend a lot of time together training. And she focuses a lot on helping me train...Maybe she feels the same about me as I do her. And is just too shy or waiting for the right time. Maybe it's because she is my Captain. It wouldn't be appropriate."

"Sorry, Alenko, but Shepard doesn't have those feelings. But don't worry, it's not just you. Haven't you heard the rumors? The N7 spy training final test is a surgery that disables the part of the brain that creates emotions. Now she's just a cold blooded killing machine!" Everyone laughed and even Tali was giggling behind her hands. "So now, even Garrus is a third wheel to Shep and her knives!"

" 'Shep and her knives?' " a voice came from behind the counter. Everyone was too distracted listening to Ashley and Kaidan bicker that no one had noticed Captain Shepard walk down the stairs from her quarters. Now she leaned over the island, apple in hand, listening to them talk about her.

"Captain!"

"Ma'am we were just messing around!"

"Don't worry, Ash. I didn't hear much. Just the end." Shepard assured her worried team. To Joker's surprise, she then addressed him. "Moreau. I need to see you in the med bay."

"Uh, yeah Shep- Captain." He corrected himself. He stood up and followed her. He was never one for authority, but this was his chance and he couldn't blow it because of some claimed "disrespect".

"Anyway, if you truly knew her, you would know she cheats." Joker heard Garrus mumble behind them.

"Sit down there, Recruit." She said pointing towards one of the beds in the brightly lit med bay. .

"Sure… um. Captain. Ma'am..." 'Eloquent, Moreau.'

"Please, just Shepard. You don't have to call me that. Besides I am, technically, not your captain." She was rifling through different drawers and cabinets, tapping her fingers on the counter, not finding what she was looking for.

"Right…" He said slowly. She started spinning around and re-searching drawers, "Are you okay?"

"Of course, I just- Aha!" She dragged a silver box out from under the desk. She opened it and pulled out an intense metal spine shape that looked like it belonged in a 21st century sci-fi movie. 'What the-'

"Know what this is, Recruit?" She asked, pushing different buttons and connecting pieces to extend it. She leaned on the bed Joker was sitting on and focused on the strange machine like it was a puzzle. 'Or a bomb…' He smirked to himself. She was holding it so close to her face that it was almost knocking on her helmet.

"It's...obviously...the apparatus that is...going to turn me into a crutch carrying Doctor Octopus. Right?" He replied sarcastically. She froze and turned to stare at him. Even though he couldn't see her face it was obvious that her jaw dropped.

"Oh man, you are a total geek." She laughed. "It's your temporary implant. So that the Titans aren't disqualified. We obviously didn't have time to get a real one installed, and as neither of us knew about you flying for us until this morning, I didn't order one. Depending on how these next few days go I will need to get a word to Chakwas. This one is not as comfortable as the real one. It itches a bit."

"Oh, so no super powers?"

"Hilarious, Moreau. Lay down on your stomach."

"Man. Do I have to take off my hat?" He joked while he maneuvered to follow her order... His only reply was a snort through the mic in her helmet.

"No. But you do have to take off your shirt." For some reason, he felt unnerved taking his shirt off in front of his Captain. The years of crutches gave him a defined body, though lean, but there were scars along his back and curving to his ribs. His Vrolik's was the worst in his legs, but did also make the rest of his body susceptible to danger. Surgeries stacked on surgeries to heal broken ribs caused by pressure, wrong movements and falls. He had been shirtless in plenty of doctor's offices before, but the Captain was not a doctor. He decided to deflect his nerves with humor.

"If you wanted to see me shirtless, you could have asked."

"Cute. Don't move, Moreau." Joker heard some whirring and clicking sounds before a cold piece of metal was set on his back from his neck down to his lower back. He couldn't help but flinch expecting cold, heavy armored gloves, but her working was more gentle than he expected, and he realized when soft warm fingers arranged the pieces of his implant that the noises he heard were that of her taking off her armored gloves.

"This isn't going to hurt, Moreau, but it may take some time. Because of your condition I have to take special care to not hit any vertebrae."

All he could think while she worked was that he was surprised that she had such soft hands.

I am back! I am so, so sorry, It has been a long time!

A few things!

I know it takes me a while to post SOOO I made a tumblr so that I can update you all a bit more on my progress and thought process. You can all talk mo me there! PLease comment there or here on what you feel. I REALLY do want to know, I promise!

I know SSV Normandy doesn't have elevator, but…. Artistic license?