Chapter 25

Joking with Joker

After giving Miranda a small reality check that he had been waiting to give her, Ty retreated back to the Med-Bay to meditate and watch over Shepard. He had a few reasons for his little talk he gave the Cerberus Operative, first being that she needed someone to give her that reality check and the second reason being she also needed to know that she wasn't alone with the whole being created thing. His final reason was that he needed to make her realize that she didn't have to hold herself to such impossible standards of perfection because of her genetics.

He wasn't sure how successful he was, but he hoped that he had made her lighten up a bit more, or as much as someone like Miranda could with this mission. Getting her to stand down was good but he was sure it had more to do with the fact that she was tired and less to do with what he said.

The former mercenary didn't doubt the effect his words had but she wouldn't have taken being thrown over his shoulder on a normal day without her actually trying to fight out of it. She was just too tired to fight it all. The good news was that she had no choice but to get some sleep. Ty on the other hand was going to have a sleepless night remedied with watching out for Shepard and some normal meditation that didn't take away his sense of the outside world.

He figured that nothing would happen since Chakwas said they got her stable, but he wasn't going to revisit a memory and have Shepard's memory wiped or die while he was supposed to be watching her. That wouldn't do him any favors among the crew or the galaxy and knowing Shepard she'd probably haunt his ass for being stupid. Ty got into the Med-Bay and put Miranda's omni-tool onto the table that Chakwas terminal sat on and then turned to go back to his bed.

As he walked in the direction of his bed he stopped at Shepard's and examined her. Her face held no sign of stress which was a bit different since her features usually showed some stress, but seeing as she was asleep it made sense. Her scars were healing but they still had a slight orange tint to them. "One hell of a night huh Shepard?" Ty asked to himself. He patted her hand. "You'll be fixed up in no time and back to kicking ass. Sleep well. You of all people need it."

Ty moved over to his bed and plopped down on it. He looked over to EDI's terminal to ensure she was still watching after Shepard. "EDI are you still keeping a constant check on Shepard's vitals?"

"Yes Ty, she is stable at the moment and there hasn't been a flare up since they found her. It would seem that Doctor Chakwas and Miss Lawson may have solved the problem completely, but I cannot speculate further without more data."

Ty let out a sigh. Shepard didn't need this crap happening to her and he felt completely useless with it. "Okay…I'm sure they did their best and I know you did too. Keep me posted if there is any irregularity or if she wakes up."

"I will. Is there anything else you need?"

Aside from a doctorate in some type of medical field, there wasn't much she could do for him. "No, I'm good EDI." He suddenly had a thought. "Actually, can you tell me if Miranda is lying down or sleeping?"

"Miss Lawson is asleep. Anything else?"

"Tell Joker to cancel the funeral he was planning and to not crash the ship, otherwise you can leave if you want."

"Logging you out, Ty."

It was going to be a long night even with meditation so the purple eye warrior moved himself so his back was against the wall behind the bed and crossed his legs as he relaxed his body and mind. Meditation would help pass the time and help him relax from the semi-stressful night of the Normandy. It wasn't everyday your Commander and friend nearly had their memory wiped and though he had more stressful days, this one was different. He wasn't sure why it felt different, but it did.

He didn't let that bother him though, letting his mind relax to start meditating to pass time. His thoughts drifted across different things but they were mostly focused on the squad. This new squad was turning out to be very formidable all the while becoming his friends. The former wasn't a huge surprise since they all were fighters of a sort with their own specialties and pasts, the latter surprised him slightly.

Ty took being a part of a crew seriously and knew he was going to watch all of their backs and get to know them a little, but the way all the friendships had formed so far was surprising, especially with Jack and Shepard. Jack was in the mission to survive and stop the Collectors then cut loose, but somehow the two began to bond. Perhaps it was because he treated her differently than she had been treated by anyone else or maybe it was just a façade, though he doubted that. Either way the friendship they had formed was unexpected.

Then there was Shepard and that was a confusing conundrum in of itself. Ty never figured that Commander Shepard of all people would want to get to know him or even give a damn about him in the first place but that was mostly because he didn't know her at the time he deduced that conclusion. Now though he considered her as a great friend, his confidant as of late and just an overall good person.

Why she took interest in him was beyond him, but he didn't regret meeting her. Meeting the N7 was the only reason why everyone who had to do with the murdering of all his friends and Ka'Reena were dead. Meeting her was the only reason why he was able to save Haley from death. If it wasn't for her he'd probably have never lived to see them all die or been able to save Haley, he owed her more than he'd ever be able to repay.

One thing he couldn't figure out about her went back to their conversation about her moving on from Kaiden. The man walked away sure, but in Ty's mind it was probably a heat of the moment thing mixed with him being there since no one in the Alliance really liked him for obvious but false reasons. Shepard probably didn't really want to be with Ty of all people, she was probably just saying that he forgot to mention himself in that list of people he gave her for who she could move on with.

Still, it confused the warrior. The way she gripped his hand while he was sitting in front of his bed when she gave him a pep talk after rescuing Haley and the pep talk itself showed a great amount of care towards him, but he himself showed the same amount of care towards his crew so maybe it was just his mind toying with him. Whatever it was, he couldn't help but feel he was missing something.

Did she really consider him as someone she would move on with? Probably not and Ty didn't want to put her life at risk anyway with the crazy people he dealt with and even if she did consider him, it wouldn't work. They were on two very different sides of the law and any association with him would ruin everything she worked for, something the purple eyed man wasn't going to do to her.

Ty shook his head at himself. He wasn't sure why he was even thinking about her in such a way, sure she was attractive and had a great personality, but it was impossible and never going to happen. There was no sense wasting thoughts on it. He didn't really want to just jump into another relationship anyways. His father was right on a lot, but he was dead on when he said that he had chosen not to listen to the second half of his advice and not go searching for love again. He wasn't planning on going down the hurting highway more than once in this life and though it was going against Ka'Reena's wishes, he couldn't bring himself to think about being with another woman right now. Maybe someday in the future after the war was over, but not now.

The purple eyed warrior didn't know how long he had been meditating but he knew it was long when he began to feel a bit of numbness in his legs. He opened his eyes and checked his omni-tool for the time. It was going on nine in the morning and Chakwas was already up and on her terminal hammering away. "Morning Doc." Ty said as he uncrossed his legs.

Circulation began to flow through his legs as the doctor looked over to him. She gave him a warm smile. "To you as well. I hope I didn't wake you, I was trying to not be too loud because you looked almost completely at peace."

"No you didn't. My internal clock was just waking me up telling me I've been meditating too long, along with my legs starting to lose circulation. Anything new on Shepard?"

Ty glanced over at Shepard. She was still asleep or unconscious, he wasn't sure which, but it looked like she hadn't moved since she was put in the Med-Bay. Chakwas shook her head. "No, right now she seems to be sleeping and she hasn't had any flare ups, but that doesn't mean the threat has passed." He nodded as he looked back over to the doctor who continued. "Otherwise with you it seems you haven't had any side effects from being knocked out and being slightly concussed exception of course for your rhymes and becoming a little more tactically sound." She said with a cheeky grin.

He allowed a smile to form on his lips at the jest. "So do you need to do your final evaluation?"

"I suppose I could so you aren't confined to bed-rest anymore." Chakwas did several tests on him starting with using a pen light and shining it into his eyes and ending with some internal head scans. She grabbed a data-pad after finishing and said, "It seems that you have recovered completely from your head injury and as long as you don't engage into another head-butting contest with Grunt, you should be fine. I do not condone you participating in anything like that again, but if you find it necessary then I cannot stop you. My advice for right now is to relax a little while we wait for the Commander to recover and refrain from hitting your head."

It was sound advice, he couldn't promise he wouldn't do it again, but it was still sound advice. He nodded as she put the data-pad down and unwrapped the bandage around his head. After she finished she went back to her table and went back to work on her terminal. Ty grabbed the Avenger off his bed and looked to the table for Miranda's omni-tool but did not see it. "Did Miranda come get her omni-tool?"

"Yes and she wanted me to tell you she needs you to unlock her terminal."

That got a chuckle out of him. He'd be surprised if she was even seventy-five percent of the way through breaking his hack. Ty put his hood up and said, "Alright, that's my first stop then. If Shepard wakes up while I'm gone tell her I say she needs to lay off the sand and to take her time recovering since we need her at her best."

"I will tell her when she wakes up. Be careful Ty."

"See you, Doc."

Ty walked out and through the Mess Hall where two crew members he did not know were eating breakfast talking about the man's family being on a colony near the Collector attacks and the woman reassuring him that they'd be fine. Though the guy was Cerberus, the former mercenary did hope his family would get out of there. No one deserved the fate of being taken by the Collectors.

He shook off the memories of the frozen colonists and the cocoon pods all over Horizon as he got to Miranda's office. The doors opened revealing Miranda with her omni-tool up as she pushed buttons on it with a bit of a frustrated look on her face. "Hey Princess, how's hacking my lock working for you?" Ty asked sarcastically.

She scowled at her omni-tool as a message popped up, it was one of Ty's personal fail messages for those who tried to hack his locks and by the look on Miranda's face it was the "I can't believe you are seriously still trying" message.

The chuckle that escaped him brought the Cerberus Operative's eyes up to him. She looked severely frustrated at the hack but even with her frustration it wasn't really at him, just his hack. "I've been working on it all morning and I haven't even gotten a quarter of the way through it. Could you please unlock it now?"

Though his initial comment was going to be something about not being able to hack his lock, he stopped short as the word please rang through his head. "Oh my god. Did you just say please?" Ty asked in shock.

"Don't press your luck. Now could you unlock this, I have reports to send." Miranda said pointing at her terminal.

Figuring it'd be better to just leave it alone despite his inner sarcasm wanting to have fun with it; the purple eyed man opened his omni-tool and pressed a few buttons to undo his lock. "You're clear, Princess. If you need me, I'll be in the Cargo Hold fiddling around with this gun." He said showing her the gun.

Miranda nodded. As he was walking out she said, "And Ty, thank you for what you said last night, though I'm not sure I believe it all."

Ty smirked a little, not only had she said please but thank you as well. Was this the same Miranda who had threatened to rip him in half with her biotic's? The voice of Miranda yelling at him made him smile bigger. "Don't mention it Miranda, you may not believe it because we're from opposite sides but I did mean it. See you later."

The warrior had a plan on what he was going to do with the guns but he figured it would take him a while to get them all done, especially figuring out the special ammo. He was game for figuring it out. He liked working on stuff like this, it was how all four space bikes had ended up getting created, that and a lot of hours getting zapped.

That's how he found himself down in the Cargo Hold with the Avenger he had cleaned the night before on a workbench as he had his breather part of his mask on and was spray-painting the new weapon slowly and precisely. He didn't know that the Normandy would have boxes full of special spray-paint that he was able to use on the guns, similar if not the same type of paint he used on his own guns, but he was happy since he didn't have to buy all the paint and he had practically an unlimited amount.

He had music blaring again but this time it was actually more instrumental music from the twenty-first century. Ty enjoyed the music which is why he was listening to it while he was working. Each weapon was going to resemble their owner in some way through color, ammo and/or names carved into it. He had a good idea for the color of Grunt's but he didn't know what for the engravings yet. Maybe bloodrage or I am Krogan.

He was still figuring everything out.

His precision spray-painting lasted another three hours since he added a custom paint design into it turning the front of it into a Varren's face with its teeth showing. This looks awesome if I do say so myself, Ty thought as he finished the Varren's teeth. Now if he was fighting someone who happened to have the face of a Varren on the front of their gun, well it wouldn't change much for him but he figured that if a bunch of mercenaries saw Grunt charging at them with a battle cry and the gun in his hands they'd probably panic before dying, or panic more than usual.

Ty left it to dry and washed the paint off his skin and let his mask retract off his face as he sat down at a terminal to research how to put special ammo into the weapons. He himself had never taken any interest in modding his ammo, whether or not the people had armor, barriers or shields didn't matter to him because his rounds would cut them down no matter what. If that didn't work, his tomahawks would find their way into their chests, skulls or backs.

Grunt on the other hand used incendiary rounds, incendiary rounds were good against weaker armor but the warrior knew of a special type of inferno rounds that also happened to be illegal in Council space that ripped through the toughest armors all the way up to Thresher Maws, a creature who had some of the toughest armor that he had run into.

He found what he was looking for after an hour of searching and being unsuccessful due to the fake extranet sites that claimed to know but really didn't. With the correct information at his fingertips, he downloaded the information onto his omni-tool so he could always have access to it.

Ty didn't know if everyone in the crew would accept the new guns, but he figured even if they didn't at least he'd have fun making them and he could probably sell them on the extranet to get some extra cash or give it to Jessica, Haley or Darian since none of them had custom guns. The good news was if he screwed up he could get some more from the armory or in the field, but he didn't plan on messing up.

After he got the information, he sat down on a crate to relax but as he did Joker's voice came over the intercom. "Hey Ty, you busy?" Joker asked.

Ty turned his music off. "No, just relaxing for a second before I continue work on the gun I just finished spray-painting. Something important going on?"

"Nothing spectacular. Shepard's still playing Snow White and we're about to dock at a re-fueling station before we can finally finish getting to the Citadel. The crew knows about Shepard now since they were all starting to question why she hadn't been around to talk, Miranda gave them the lowdown but not the whole story. Can't say I blame her."

On that they agreed. They didn't need panic among the crew or doubt and last night's little adventure would cause both. "I can't say I blame her either. It was pretty bad and it could affect the morale of some of the squad like Garrus and Tali getting worried about her health and someone calling it quits because they aren't completely dedicated yet."

"I wouldn't want to explain that one to Shepard 'hey yeah, since you almost lost all your memory and died half the crew left'." Joker jested. Ty laughed at his joke and as he laughed Joker continued. "I know you put a lot of hard work into recruiting them Commander, but they weren't going to follow you if you almost died and you weren't even in battle. Only Ty could pull that off and get away with it. Speaking of Ty, he's gone too. He left because there was a Krogan uprising and he was going to stop it by head-butting them all and getting blown up by a missile, but hey at least we still got Garrus and Tali, right?"

His laughter continued due to the joke. He could only imagine the grin on Joker's face as he joked about his injuries. When Ty got control of his laughter he said, "Good one Joker, you finally got one over on me." "Yes! Finally! I've been waiting for this moment and it feels good." The pilot said with Ty assumed a big smile.

EDI was quicker on the draw for responding to the pilot of the Normandy. "I don't think it was the joke that is making you feel good Mr. Moreau, it might be that site you have booked on the extranet."

"What!" Joker yelped in shock.

"That was a joke."

This led Ty into bursting out with laughter because EDI had gotten Joker good and this time he didn't have anything to do with it. "Did you set that up?" The pilot asked in an accusing tone.

The former mercenary wasn't capable of answering because of how hard he was laughing, he wanted to take credit for it because it was good but he couldn't, not when it was EDI's first joke on Joker. She set it up so perfectly or just picked a great time to say it without knowing how perfect the timing was. "I do not think Ty is able to answer you right now, but no, it was not him." EDI answered.

"I can't believe it, beat by the talking toaster! Ty you are so going to pay for teaching it human emotions!"

Ty got a little more control over his laughter but he still was laughing a little as he said, "I'd say it wasn't my fault, but I take full responsibility for it. Good one EDI, that joke was great. Make sure you make a note of that to tell Shepard."

"Really Ty? You have to have it make a note about it? Now I'll never hear the end of it." The pilot groaned.

"Do not worry Mr. Moreau; I will not incite your emotions with it. As you said, no hard feelings, good game." Ty started laughing again hearing EDI use Joker's material against him, it was funny and he could only imagine the look on the pilot's face now.

"Yeah, well, look at it this way…Shut up." He responded.

Once the warrior managed to get better control of his laughter, he said, "Calm down girls. Joker how much longer till we reach the Citadel."

Ty heard Joker mumble something about him taking EDI's side in the conflict then he answered, "About ten hours. Hopefully Shepard will be up by then. If she's not then I don't know what we are going to do about the mission."

"I'll think of something to keep everyone on track. I may not be a second-in-command or anything, but I think most of the squad trusts me more than Miranda."

"Maybe you should go talk to Garrus about what he needed to do on the Citadel. If anything you and him can take someone on the mission if Shepard's still down." Joker offered.

That was something that Ty did not want to do. Stepping into being the leader of a squad, even if it was temporary, was not something he ever wanted to do again. Besides that point, this was Shepard's squad and they needed to be loyal to her, not him. "I don't know about that, Joker. That's stepping way too far into the Commander's territory for my liking. Their loyalty has to be to her, me doing their mission in her stead would screw that up. Plus I don't think Garrus would want me snooping in his personal business." He explained with his unease seeping into his voice.

"Well better you than Miranda. It's just an idea, I personally think Shepard will be up and going by then, but if not then someone needs to do something while she's down. Like it or not, you're the top candidate."

"Mr. Moreau has a point Ty. Although all decisions should be handled by the second-in-command, which is Miss Lawson, you have a good working relationship with most of the squad. They would surly follow you if you asked. You could also get information for the mission to brief the Commander when she awakens." EDI said.

Ty still was uneasy on the idea. Yeah he had been the leader of his own squad which made him understand that decisions like this needed to be made and information needed to be retrieved. On the other hand, he knew Miranda and her position on the mission of being the second-in-command which meant that she thought all decisions had to go through her if Shepard didn't make them. He knew that if he went ahead and did the mission it could have bad ramifications on the main mission and between him and Shepard. "I don't know you two."

"Just think about it, Ty. You still have ten hours before we get there and Shepard could still wake up between now and then, but if she doesn't you're the next best one on here for collecting data and leading a team." Joker said.

Ty chuckled and said sarcastically, "Last team I led a team, all but two of us died."

"Gah, you are such a downer. Shepard trusted you with being the Haestorm over-watch instead of Miranda, I'm sure she'd trust you with being the one in charge while she was out. Besides, with the way she looks at you, there's no doubt she'd trust you with it."

The way she looks at me? Oh fuck me; my mind wasn't just playing tricks on me. "If I may interject, I believe Mr. Moreau has a valid point, though Cerberus protocols would make Miranda in charge."

"Plus it's not like you answer to Cerberus right. You can do what you want as long as it doesn't compromise the mission, not to mention you already basically do what you want, like leaving the ship without consent."

Another chuckle escaped the purple eyed man despite the lingering unrest he suddenly felt with Joker's comment. If Shepard really held any interest in him…he really didn't want to think of all the bad things that could happen. "I had EDI's consent and my own. Okay, I see both of your points. I'm still not sure about it but I'll think about it and if Shepard isn't up by the time we're only three hours away, I'll make a decision, okay?"

"That's all I was asking. We're about to undock from the fuel station and continue to the Citadel after we hit one last relay. I'll talk to you later, Ty."

"Talk to you later, Joker." Ty said as he got off the crate.

As Ty walked back to the gun he could feel his nervousness building. Why would she hold any interest in him? She had to know it wouldn't work; she had to know it was way too dangerous for them both to even be thinking about that. Even if it was just a blow off steam kind of thought, it was still a bad idea. If somehow someone ever found out, all of her hard work would be ignored and she would be blacklisted faster than Ty and his family had been.

He would speak to her about it when they had time to themselves if Joker's and his own suspicions were right. Ty let the thought leave him as he pulled up his omni-tool data on inferno ammo, as he read through the data and started making the adjustments he realized that one, it was going to be very time consuming, and two, after that talk with Joker and EDI he wasn't sure that he should be doing this right now since he might have to go onto Citadel and find information. In the end he forced himself to keep working hoping Shepard would be up and going by then.

Six Hours Later

Ty was working on the ammo of the Avenger when it let off a tiny fire blast going across his left hand, burning it. "Ow, shit! What the fuck was that!" Ty yelled as he retracted his hand quickly. He got up and walked away from the gun to the crate he was originally sitting on. "Fuck that burned." It had been six hours since he talked to Joker and so far he had made progress on the gun getting it seventy-five percent complete, but he couldn't get past the new direction because, well the gun let off some fire burning him.

He checked his omni-tool data in an attempt to figure out what he did wrong and when he saw it he felt stupid. "You've got to be fucking kidding me? All because I forgot to turn the safety on and fold the gun back up. Spirits be damned, who makes these stupid rules?" Ty said to himself then shut his omni-tool off. Fucking stupid. I should've known to do that, but no what did we say, "fold the gun up and turn the safety on? Why do I need to do that? It's not like it'll shoot while I'm working on it." Stupid, stupid, stupid. You always put the safety on and fold a gun up when you work on it, that's the number one rule, like turning your space bike off when you decide you want to mess with the electronics, Ty scolded himself then sighed. Four hours until we reach the Citadel, no news on Shepard and in an hour I have to start making a decision on what I'm going to do when we get there…Let's give Haley a call. I can have her meet us there or talk to her about it now and see what she thinks I should do, he thought as he opened his omni-tool and dialed Haley's number.

It didn't take long for her to answer and when she did she answered, "The answer was no."

"Huh?" Ty asked in confusion.

"Jessica and Darian haven't got past the species barrier yet, but they say they are working on it. Remember at the table on Illium Z accused Darian and Jessica of shacking up." Haley reminded.

Ty saw and heard his brother yell and point at Darian and Jess again causing him to breathe out a chuckle. "Oh yeah, they got really uncomfortable about it. So they haven't made the bond yet?"

"Nope, they haven't, but they are working on it trying to get around the species difference. Anyway, what's up? Something going on?"

"I need your advice."

"Hmm, who are you and what have you done with my Ty?" Haley asked in a joking manor.

"Ha. Ha. I really need some advice Haley."

"Sorry. Alright, shoot."

"I think the Spirits have too much time on their hands but they decided to hand me another opportunity at a type of leadership close to what I had before and I'm conflicted on what to do."

"I think I know why. Give me all the details."