She found him standing near the Citadel's memorial wall. "Jeff has been standing there for thirty-six minutes and seventeen seconds," EDI quietly updated when Shepard drew near. "My sensors indicate…" She shook her head, almost as if she were trying to remind herself not to be so analytical all the time. "He is upset. I do not know how to act in response to this situation, Shepard."

Juliana stood there and watched Joker, noticing that he was holding something that he kept looking at. Every so often he would take a step towards the wall as if he would leave it with the other mementos, but then he would shake his head and take a step back, holding the object tightly in his hands. This was the first time in almost two weeks that they had been able to dock at the Citadel. Hackett had sent them out to investigate a Cerberus lab on Sanctum after he had been informed of Reaper artifacts being studied there.

For nearly two weeks after hearing of his sister's death, Jeff had been a shell of his usual self. He had a way of compartmentalizing his emotions – his grief in no way bled over to his performance on the Normandy, but Shepard could still see that it was there, just under the surface. "You comfort friends when they need you."

"I have tried that tactic. He normally responds well to an attempt at levity, but he did not react at all to my rendition of the Who's on First sketch."

"Sometimes you have to read a person to see what to do." She had been at a loss as well. She had tried her best to be there for him, but he had drawn his defenses around him, effectively shutting her out. For the first time since she had met him, she actually respected his silent request to be left alone, no matter how much her gut instinct was telling her otherwise.

EDI looked at her with a confused expression. "I do not understand. Using past examples of grief and sadness from a cross-section of the Normandy's crew as a base line of comparison, I have come to the conclusion that Jeff might wish to be alone, but that he does not actually mean it."

Shepard nodded. "I was thinking the same thing."

"Then if I am to be in his company, what should I say?"

Shepard looked at the AI. It was obvious that while she might be made from metal and wires that there was something inside of her just as human as the rest of them. "Sometimes all you have to do is be there for someone. It's enough without having to say a word."

"What would you do in my situation?"

"I would go over to him and hold his hand." They hadn't had much contact since the night he stayed in her cabin. Their work had kept them busy; between responding to side requests from Hackett or SOS calls that Traynor would pick up, there were days where she only had a few brief minutes to spare on the bridge. The most she saw of him otherwise was in passing in Mess, she and her ground crew picking at their meals with whatever energy they had left after coming back from a mission before crawling to their quarters to sleep.

She missed him.

EDI nodded. "I was thinking the same thing," she echoed.

"Then what's stopping you?"

"I assumed that you would like to be the one to offer comfort first, seeing as he places you higher on his list of preferences than he does me."

She frowned. "He doesn't do that."

"Not consciously, no. Yet I have noted upon several occasions since being fitted onto the Normandy up to the present that Jeff's levels of vasopressin and oxytocin spike while in your presence and remain high long after you leave. While amiable towards me, his hormonal levels do not change."

She raised an eyebrow. "Plain English, please?"

"Jeff likes you. A lot." She turned as if to leave. "He has formed a bond with you that he does not share with me, which is why I have concluded that you should be the one to approach him."

There. It was slight and barely noticeable, but Shepard saw something sad flicker in EDI's eyes. "He values you as a friend, EDI. Just because…" Shepard floundered for a word that wouldn't sound insulting. "He doesn't react in the same way towards you doesn't mean that you aren't an important person in his life." She gently pushed the other woman's shoulder. "Go on, I'll talk to him later." She hung back and watched as EDI made her way towards Joker to stand at his side. EDI didn't say anything, but it seemed as if her presence gave him the quiet push he had needed to finally leave something at the wall. He spotted her when he turned around.

"Hey," he said, coming up to her. "How did your little play date with Garrus go?"

Shepard shrugged. "It was good. We broke a few laws, shot some things."

There was a hint of a smile. "Business as usual, then?"

She smirked. "Pretty much, yeah."

He rocked back on his heels. "I wanted to leave something. For them, I mean." Jerking his thumb back at the wall, he continued. "You remember those Junior Pilot pins that were the prize at the bottom of this box of candied popcorn when we were kids? The ones that looked like Alliance flight crew pins and were painted all these weird colors? My sister was nuts about them; collected them like crazy when the company put them back on the market. I'd send her a bunch of those prizes when I could. Dad would eat through his share of popcorn too, and even though Mom said that stuff would rot our teeth, she still bought it. The last time I went home, I could swear that Hilary had hundreds of pins in this huge glass jar in her room." He looked down at his boots, a fond smile on his face. "Every birthday, she'd remind me that I'd better watch out for some competition now that she was one more year closer to enlisting. She promised that when she earned her official wings after flight school, she was going to beat every one of my records and be the new top dog in the Alliance. Until then, she practiced pinning on those cheap metal things, just like…" He paused, his chin digging down against his chest to try to hide the sudden trembling of his lip. Shepard looked at EDI, who nodded before slipping her hand into Joker's. He squeezed EDI's hand tightly before continuing. "Just like mine."

He took his free hand out of his pocket and wiped at his eyes. "Damn, it's dusty in here. My allergies are really acting up today."

"This docking bay is ninety-seven percent dust and allergen-free. Your…" She stopped herself. "Oh. That was a colloquialism."

Joker laughed. For the first time since finding out about his family's fate, it seemed as if the sadness that had surrounded him lifted, even if only a little. "That's what I like about you, EDI. Don't ever change." Tugging on her hand, he added, "Hey, I'm starved. Want to go grab something to eat?"

"I do not eat, Jeff."

"I know, but I could use the company."

"I…I would like that."

"Great." Reaching out, he put his other hand on Shepard's shoulder, his palm sliding down her arm until her fingers were cupped loosely in his. "You wanna join, Jules?"

She held onto his hand, grateful that his aura of keep away had lifted as well. Squeezing his fingers, sheshook her head. "You two go on. I'll catch up with you back on the ship." She waited until they were out of sight before walking up to the memorial wall. She took her time looking at all the pictures and mementos before finding the most recently placed one. Her fingers brushed over the brightly painted metal wings and the For my Gunny. Love, your Space Cowboy digital note the pin was perched on.

"I don't have anything for you," she whispered. "But I wanted to let you know that I got the messages you sent me while I was gone. I read every one of them too. I just wish that we could have had a chance to talk more. I wish that I had been able to meet your parents too; Jeff speaks fondly of you all.

"I know that wherever you are, you're looking down on him. And I…" she tried to find the right words. "I'll take care of him too, Hilary, I promise." Heading to the elevator, she bumped into Garrus.

"You okay?" he asked, noting her watery eyes.

She sniffed and swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Allergies. It's damn dusty in here."

Throwing his arm around her shoulder in understanding, he gave her a supportive sideways hug. "Yeah, it sure is."

My headcanon says that Joker actually hates Cracker Jacks (they've been around for over a hundred years already; I imagine they'll still be around in the future.) There was an incident when he was a teenager involving a friend throwing them at him while he tried to catch the candied popcorn in his mouth, a Heimlich maneuver gone wrong, and a trip to the emergency room to treat several broken ribs where his mother spend the majority of the ride reading him and his friend the riot act on Dumb Things Not To Do Just Because You're Bored. But his sister loved the stuff, so he'd buy a couple of boxes whenever he was on leave just to dig around on the bottom for the prize to send back home to her before handing the rest over to one of the other crew members who had a sweet tooth.