Yeah :D another chapter! Super excited about finishing this chapter ahead of schedule and the next chapter is one I've been dying to write for forever now. I'll be focusing more on this story now that I've gotten rid of one so good news.

We were jumping around the galaxy like the old Pong game. The crew was slowly coming closer together now that the whole gang was here. Fiona even managed to get a Quarian and Geth to work together, not that Tali was happy about it.

Time on the Normandy seemed surreal, and no one really talked openly about this being a suicide mission, we came to terms with it on our own. That's why we were spending all this time going from place to place for each squad member, so they can have closure before meeting their fate. This slightly bothered me, I was convinced we would win and no one was going to die on my watch. Not again, not against these bastards. We've faced them once before and we would come out on top. How could we not? Fiona gathered the best people in the galaxy to work together. And I was making sure the Normandy and her crew got the best upgrades we could come up with.

And, y'know, going to the Quarian fleet? It was great, I'd never seen so many Quarians before. The Admirals were a bunch of asses, but they were politicians, and all politicians were asses. What happened with Tali's father though…terrible. It was a painful reminder of my own father's death and how people thought he crashed the ship on purpose. To cheer Tali up I tried teasing her about Kal'Reeger's polite respect for her. Kal was such a gentlemen and he didn't act how most Quarians I'd met. He didn't seem to know much about technology at all, but he was tough and smart and willing to fight on the front lines. I wasn't into aliens, but if I was, I'd be into Kal'Reeger.

Legion was one of my favorite crew members now. For the most part the others treated him how Jeff treated EDI, like a machine. But EDI and Legion were both A.I's and I felt like they deserved to be treated like anyone else. I was pretty sure Legion had something akin to feelings or something human, because if he didn't then why didn't he have an answer for why he used Fiona's body armor to repair himself? Jeff said it was creepy, but I thought showed there was something there in Legion that connected him to Fiona. Plus I taught Legion the robot. Ha, robot doing the robot. I would say A.I doing the robot, but it doesn't have the same ring to it.

Having Thane aboard has helped my hand-to-hand combat immensely; I've been able to practice with him and learn so much. I'm sure Garrus would have helped me with hand-to-hand combat and stealth, or whatever, but Garrus is so much bigger than me he slightly scares me. I love the guy, but he's still a tall, scaly alien with sharp teeth and was so strong he could accidentally kill me.

Between practicing with Thane (who was also teaching me how infiltrate places and not get caught), occasionally sparing bioticly with Jack, and trying to act casual about asking Samara for stories and biotic training (bothering Samara usually ended with her telling me to meditate with her and I tried to maintain a biotic ball of energy like she did), I had barely any time to help out Jeff in the cockpit. Jeff commented on it one day, "Jeez, I'm going to need a new co-pilot if you're going to try and be social with the rest of the crew all the time," he said still facing the flight console. The orange light made everything darker, but his eyes seemed greener somehow. He was looking at me from the corner of his eye.

I grinned at him anyway. "So you don't think I should be spending all my time with the most dangerous killers in the galaxy? Can't imagine why."

He turned his head towards me now, a smirk on his face, "Well at least my co-pilot is a kickass biotic. You can protect me from all the crazy aliens on the ship."

***** N7*

There was actually quite a lot of blood, but Chakwas didn't seem too concerned. That was her job though, so maybe she was biased. I felt lightheaded, like I was going to faint. Definitely lost a lot of blood then. Damn. Looking at my arm didn't make me feel optimistic, the stupid thing was mangled. I don't remember getting back on the ship, maybe I did faint. Shit.

The fuckers didn't lower the lights in the med bay, so I had to squint when I woke up. I tried moving my arm to shield my eyes from the harsh light, but I forgot it was only kind of broken. Mostly healed now, it was resting against my chest in a sling. I remembered dozens of husks coming, with no signs of stopping. I was trying to buy some time. None of us noticed the husks coming from behind us. Those bastards were like sand, they got into uncomfortable places and you regretted not being more vigilant earlier.

"Ah, Angelia, you're awake," Chakwas interrupted my thoughts. The graying woman stood from her chair and began to examine me. That's when I noticed Jeff. He was slumped, sleeping in the chair by Chakwas' usual seat. In his hand was a glass of some liquid I was pretty sure was hard alcohol. That was entirely unlike him.

"Is Jeff okay?" I asked. She looked at me with sympathetic eyes and a kind smile. Traits that usually made me want to flee made me comfortable when Karin Chakwas was using them.

"No need to worry, he's fine. He came to check up on you, and I offered him a drink," she smiled in a knowing way and my face felt hot and my chest too tight. "Anyway, you'll be fine, but you need to rest. No dangerous missions, at least for couple weeks," Chakwas patted me on the leg before whisking away with her data pad. "I'll inform the Commander of your condition," she said before leaving the med bay.

Slowly I eased up off the med bay bed Chakwas had me on. My shoulder and ribs were incredibly sore on the side of my mangled arm. I peeled back the t-shirt I was wearing, and I had blue and purple covering almost my entire left side. Various bites and scratches were there too. I had no doubt under my bandages my arm was bruised and scratched worse than my body. Slowly I crept across the room to behind Jeff's chair. He was snoring softly and drooling too. Not a lot, but enough for it to be slightly gross. The observatory windows were dark, probably for my privacy, which I didn't mind Jeff breaking. We've known each other for years after all.

"Jeff," I whispered softly. He didn't even twitch. With my right hand I gently nudged his shoulder, "Jeffff!" I whispered loudly. He groaned and snuggled closer to Chakwas' desk. Ugh, I felt awful for Chakwas, she had to deal with a drooled on desk. I started pulling on his beard, yanking the little hairs harshly. He flinched and finally sat up groaning.

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly against the blinding white light, squinting up at me and wiping the drool off of his chin. "Wha?" he glared at me before blankly staring at me and frowning. "How…How are you feeling?"

I was able to pull off a small smile; the pain meds were already doing wonders. "Just peachy," I said, taking a seat in Chakwas' usual chair. "I thought you didn't like hard alcohol?" I asked, leaning back in the chair and looking at the glass of serice ice brandy.

"I don't like being in the med bay either, but the Commander gave us shore leave and I thought I'd try and get a hangover to celebrate," he droned out, voice still gravely from sleeping.

"You do know now that you've told me that EDI and I are going to hound you tomorrow morning? I'm thinking me and EDI should sing karaoke over the intercom. That'd be a lovely wake up call, don't you think Moreau?" I grinned.

"Good to know the meds haven't affected your sadism," Jeff mumbled, reaching forward to pinch my nose between his pointer and bird-flipping finger. When he held on for a moment too long I frowned, reached for his hand, and gently pulled at it. He let go of my nose, but latched onto my hand instead. I watched as he put our hands on Chakwas' desk and didn't take any action to move his hand away from mine.

I had seen Jeff drunkish before (he didn't like to get raging drunk because "that's how people start breaking bones, Ange"), but I had never seen him this touchy before. How drunk was he? If he was going to get raging drunk and plan on breaking bones, at least it was here in the med bay.

I looked back to Jeff, his face too close to my face. I stared wide-eyed, too aware of my hand sweating under his and my morningesque breathe. For once, I didn't have a thing to say.

The med bay door flew open, releasing me from my trance and causing me to fly back into my chair, spine instantly straight and face flushed, wincing when the chair made rough contact with my injured left side; Jeff let go of my hand at record speed and looked over his shoulder at Fiona. She took two steps into the med bay, then stopped. Her hands found themselves on her wide hips and one eyebrow perched itself above the other in a silent question: what is going on here? Something I too would like to know, if anyone was wondering.

I felt like Fiona had caught me with my shirt off, straddling some half-naked bad-boy in the dark. That experience is not one I would like to repeat. No, she had just caught Jeff and me too close for comfort, staring at each other. Maybe it felt against the rules because she was the ship's captain and Joker was afraid of anything against regulation, for whatever reason.

"Hey," I half-smiled at Fiona.

She looked unimpressed, then gave a dazzling smile—her real smile—something rare as of late. "Hey yourself, soldier. I'm getting flashbacks from Virmire, you all stitched up," she chuckled, crossing her arms over her chest and putting all her weight on one foot. This was my favorite signature Commander Shepard pose, I wished the Alliance had used this image for their recruitment posters after Fiona died instead of her looking mean as hell.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Jeff grumbled, turning back around to pay close attention to his brandy. Oh yeah, Jeff and I had a falling out briefly after Virmire. Back then he was arguing that my job was as his co-pilot, but he was really worried. He was worried now, that's why he was drinking. Jeff didn't do emotions, he hid behind sarcasm and his SR-2 hat.

"Well, I won't be doing anything for a couple weeks. Chakwas' orders. Guess I'm back to being full time co-pilot," I looked at Jeff.

He looked surprised, like he hadn't thought of that, and then smiled. "Yeah." His yeah sounded a lot like good.