Bex found herself in Dr. Chakwas' office the morning after the Normandy anniversary, pacing a circuit in the small room as she waited for the good doctor to finish a meeting.

While Joker got the easy job of sitting in on a virtual auction for a ship, Bex had begun the recruitment process. She'd been all ready to vidchat with Liara when Hackett had asked why she wasn't talking to Chakwas first.

She'd sprinted out of the apartment before she had to answer his follow-up question of "why wasn't she already at the top of your list, Rebekah?"

Because some of us got shot in the head and have shitty memories, Steven.

But that didn't excuse Joker from not remembering that the two of them, of all people, needed a goddamn doctor on a ship, especially for a mission like this. Which is why Bex thought he should have been the one to ask her.

Not that she'd say no. She had said many times that she wasn't built for space stations and planetside assignments. She craved the excitement of being a ship's doctor. And this mission, like the hunt for Saren, was sure to provide tons of it.

Of course, without Chakwas' brilliance, Bex wouldn't be standing in her office in the first place, so a little boredom had done everyone good.

"Shepard?" Chakwas raised an eyebrow as she stepped into the room. "I wasn't expecting to see you until your next check up in a month. Is something wrong?"

Bex winced as she shook her head. "Bit of a headache—regular, not migraine—but that's not why I'm here." She swallowed nervously. "Don't suppose you've heard about my latest… job?"

"You mean your idea of flying off with Jeff and going after these Collectors, whatever they are?" Chakwas said as she sat behind her desk and motioned for Bex to take the seat on the other side. "Yes, I got quite an earful about it from Steven this morning. Why do you ask?"

Bex sighed. "Well, I… we'll need a doctor, if for nothing more than my migraines and Joker's Vrolik's."

"Oh, so you don't plan to get shot at every other day the way you have the last three or four years?" Chakwas' eyes twinkled with amusement. "Well, if this is your way of asking if I'll join this venture, for good or ill, then I accept. I can easily take a leave of absence."

Bex blew out a long breath. "Good, because I didn't have a backup lined up."

"I'm flattered." Chakwas leaned her arms on her desk and leaned forward. "Speaking of Jeff…"

"He's off doing what he does best," Bex said with a grin. "Drooling over ship specs. And hopefully getting us one."

"It will be strange flying on a ship other than the Normandy, after all this time," Chakwas said. "It wasn't the longest assignment either of us have had, but I think it may well have been the most impactful."

Bex nodded. "You're not wrong, doc. And this one will be… nothing if not interesting." She huffed a laugh as her omni-tool beeped with a message from Joker just as she stood up to leave. "Guess we both had a productive afternoon. Looks like we've got ourselves a ship."

"Excellent news." Chakwas stood up as well and walked with Bex to the outer office. "And what will you name her?"

Bex stopped short in the doorway. "I'd completely forgotten about that bit."

"Well, I'm sure between you and Jeff, you'll come up with the perfect name."

She nodded absently, her mind already running through names. "Thanks, doc. See you soon. Oh and don't forget to brush up on alien anatomy. I have a feeling you'll be needed by more than just me on this one."


Deciding to celebrate their initial success with happy hour, Bex and Joker sat in the same booth in which they'd hatched their plan, trying to come up with a name for the ship. Joker's suggestions had become increasingly ridiculous the more he drank.

"Batwing."

"What? No."

"Batmobile?"

" No ." Bex shook her head. "No Batman references. No superhero references."

"Damn. I was going to suggest the Invisible Jet next," Joker said with a lazy smirk. "What about Bob?"

She sighed. "Joker, be serious."

He glared at her. "Fine you come up with something."

"Charade."

"Shepard, be serious," he said mockingly.

"I am."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Really."

"Charade." He muttered the name to himself a few more times, frowning into his beer, before he looked back up at her. "All right, I'm lost. Why Charade?"

"One, it's one of my favorite movies."

Joker groaned.

"The jackass who suggested Batmobile can shut his goddamn yap."

He waved dismissively and said nothing.

"Second, a charade is basically a pretty exterior hiding an uglier interior, yeah?" Bex shrugged. "Kinda like me."

Joker frowned. "That's ridiculous. You're not…"

Bex narrowed her eyes. "Yes?"

"You're not ugly on the inside."

She snorted. "Oh honey, you have no idea." She shook her head. "Anyway, it's like… I dunno. We'll look like a merc crew or some shit, but we're really trying to be heroic. Or something."

"Nah, I get it," Joker said after a minute. "It makes sense. Whether it'll make sense in the morning, that's a whole other thing."

"Been awhile since you actually got drunk, huh?"

He nodded. "Few days after the Normandy, I drank so much I passed out. Woke up a day later, Hilary trying to bang down my door. Told myself I wouldn't drink that much anymore."

"Completely understandable. I did the same thing, many times, after Torfan. Til it bit me in the ass," she added bitterly. She shook herself before she dove down a dark rabbit hole. "So, what happened tonight? What made you drink so much?"

He shrugged. "I think this whole conversation, picking a name, made it really sink in, that we're really doing this."

"Surprised the actual buying of the ship didn't do that."

"Hush."

"Having second thoughts?"

"No, not second thoughts exactly. First thoughts, to be honest."

"First?"

He drained his beer, seemed to consider ordering another before thinking better of it and settled back in the booth. "I said yes to all this without actually thinking about it. I heard 'we're getting revenge on the bastards that killed our friends' and nothing else."

"And now that you've had time to think on it and all? You still in?"

"Hell yeah. It's not just going after the Collectors, though that's a big part of it."

Though Bex thought she knew what he was going to say, she said nothing, only waited for him to gather his thoughts and continue.

"I sat by and watched for a year as everyone moved on with their lives, you included. Everybody was getting reassigned and promoted—or living my dream of telling the Council to go fuck themselves—" he saluted her with his empty beer bottle. "I passed every test the Alliance threw at me, jumped through every hoop, and nothing. Then you waltz in with this idea to go rogue and even after I almost got you spaced, you still want me to fly."

Bex shrugged. "'Course. Like I said last night, you're the best pilot I know, and for shit like this, I need the best. You've long claimed you're the best pilot in the Alliance, and proven it over and over. Now you'll be the best pilot in the galaxy."

Joker laughed. "You stroke my ego any more, my head won't fit in the cockpit of the Charade."

She grinned and poured two shots from her bottle of asari whiskey, sliding one to Joker. "Careful, this shit's strong for a non-biotic." She raised her glass. "To the Charade."

Joker raised his own glass. "And to kicking the Collectors' collective ass."


Riding high on the successes of the day, Bex settled on the couch in the home office she shared with Hackett and called Zaeed. She knew she still needed to talk to Liara, but Zaeed was the one person she needed on her crew, no matter what.

"Are you out of your goddamn mind?" He heaved a galaxy-weary sigh. "You… we couldn't take on Vido and his idiots, idiots we know and should have been easily prepared for, and you want to take on the fucking Collectors?"

Bex rolled her eyes. She should have known, after the simplicity of recruiting Dr. Chakwas, that talking to Zaeed about the whole idea would go south, though she hadn't expected it to go bad quite so quickly. "Look, Z, if you don't want to join in, you can just say no and we'll leave it at that."

He shook his head again. "Oh no, I'm coming along for the ride. You think I'm gonna let you go into this by yourself?"

"Won't be by myself, if I can track down everyone on my list."

"Suppose Wrex is right at the top."

"Nah, you were, actually. Always are."

"Only because she forgot she'd need a doctor on the crew," Hackett said from his desk, apparently giving up any pretense of working and not listening to their conversation.

"That's not even a little bit surprising," Zaeed said.

Bex groaned. "When I said I wanted you two to get along better, that absolutely did not mean I wanted you to team up against me."

"Not teaming up, my love," Hackett said, "merely observing."

She rolled her eyes. "If you say so."

"Who else is on this list of yours?" Zaeed asked. "And what about a ship?"

"Already covered." She sent him the specs Joker had given her. "As for the list, it's basically the alien half of the Normandy crew. Wrex, of course, Garrus, Tali, Liara, though we think she'll probably mostly be an information point."

"Interesting."

"You know of anyone we could add?"

Zaeed shook his head. "Not off-hand, no. But I'll think on it."

"Cheers."

"So when's this thing starting?"

Bex sheugged. "Not sure yet. Suppose as soon as everybody's got their ducks in a row and the ship's been delivered. Still need to talk to Liara anyway, find out if the others are even a possibility or if this thing ends before it begins."

"Right. Well, keep me posted. I'll meet you wherever."

"You could always come stay here."

The collective sputtering from both Zaeed and Hackett made Bex roll her eyes again. "Suit yourself. I'll let you know when we know what's what."

Zaeed nodded. "See you soon then."

For the second time in as many days, Bex found herself staring at a blank screen without so much as a "bye." She sighed. "Suppose I should actually get on to calling Liara then."

"Or you could sit and rest for a bit," Hackett said, leaving his desk to sit beside her on the couch. "You keep up this pace, you're going to wear yourself out before the mission has even begun."

She sighed again and leaned into him. "Suppose you're right. I just feel like that's all I've been doing all year."

"Forgetting your little misadventure with Massani already?"

"Trying to," she groused. "But even with that, that was a couple months, tops, and it might have gotten me off the station but, Steven, can I tell you something? Bounty hunting is boring as shit. So much laying around, watching people, following people, sitting in silence eavesdropping on people."

"You wouldn't make it a week as an admiral," Hackett said with a laugh.

Bex shook her head. "Nope. Not even the ones on ships. Maybe during a war, but not during peacetime. No action whatsoever. That's the one thing I miss about being a Spectre."

"I'm fairly sure there are boring parts to being a Spectre. Remember when Nihlus joined the Normandy, his only job at the time was to observe."

"Fair enough." Bex pulled away so she could see Hackett's face. "Just so we're clear, I'm not bored with you ."

"The thought never crossed my mind, my love," he murmured as he closed the distance between them and brushed his lips across hers. "How about we take the rest of the night for ourselves? Order pizza, watch our favorite movies, no messages, no interruptions."

Bex hummed contentedly. "Sounds perfect. You keep this up, you may convince me to stay put." She eyed him with suspicion. "Is that your angle?"

Hackett laughed as he pulled up a takeout menu on his omni-tool. "No angle, not that one anyway. Just want to see you smiling and less stressed for a bit before you leave."

She snuggled into his side again, hooking her arm through his as they scrolled through the menu. "I can work with that angle."


Bex woke the next morning happy and relaxed, and alone. She wondered what had woken her—from the state of the room, Hackett had been up for ages; last night's passion-flung trail of clothes from the living room had been picked up and she could smell breakfast, ready and waiting.

As she lay under the covers, trying to remember the wonderful dream she'd been having, she heard voices from the office. She fumbled for her omni-tool to check the time.

Bugger.

Nearly 1000. Hackett had let her sleep in.

She threw on the nearest available clothes, smiling at the dress shirt he'd left for her at the end of the bed. She'd have to remember to nick a couple when she packed her duffel.

Passing by the office on her way to get breakfast, she paused when she recognized the voice at the other end of the conversation.

She backtracked and stepped into the office, an eyebrow raised as she rounded the desk and saw the asari on the screen.

"Oh Shepard!" Liara said. "I am glad to see you. You look well. How do you feel?"

"Thanks." Bex smiled around a yawn. "Pretty damn good actually."

Hackett vacated his chair, pressing a kiss to the top of Bex's head with a whispered promise of coffee as he left.

"So what's up, T'Soni?" she asked as she settled back in the chair. "I'm assuming this wasn't just a friendly chat or you'd have called back later."

"Your assumption is correct," Liara said, a little of the brightness leaving her voice. "I need a favor, actually, if you are up to it."

"Whatever it is, I'm game." Bex gave her a salute. "I literally owe you my life."

"I think that honor actually goes to Dr. Chakwas, but I am flattered nonetheless."

"So what's the favor?"

"As you know, I was not alone in recovering your pod on Omega. In addition to the Cerberus agents, I was accompainied by a drell, an agent of the Shadow Broker."

"And he double-crossed the Broker, yes?"

"Yes. He was the one who first came to me, who first told me you were in trouble." Liara sighed and didn't speak again for several minutes. "He was himself betrayed and captured just after the fight on Omega."

"And now you'd like to rescue him."

"Yes. Until now, I did not know where he had been taken, or if he was even still alive. Thanks to one of my informants, I have located the Shadow Broker's ship, where I believe Feron is being held."

"Sounds good. Only problem, I don't have my ship yet, and I sure as shit don't have a crew." Bex held up three fingers. "I've got Joker, Dr. Chakwas, and Zaeed. That's it."

"I can assist with that," Liara said. "If you do not mind an asari commando unit for your crew."

Bex just stared at her. "Who are you?"

Liara frowned. "I do not understand."

"It's nothing," Bex said with a laugh. "Just you're not the same Dr. T'Soni who I rescued from a prothean trap a year and a half ago."

"I see."

"Most people don't have an asari commando unit stashed away for emergencies."

"They were my mother's."

"Oh?" Bex shook her head. "Lot more to Lady Benezia than I thought. Anyway, I'm always up for an asari crew."

"Excellent. When is your ship expected to be delivered?"

Bex shrugged. "I couldn't honestly say. The ship was Joker's job, so you'd have to ask him. Should be within a couple days though."

Liara nodded. "That should be the perfect amount of time for the commando unit to travel to Arcturus."

"Time enough for Zaeed to get here, too. Hopefully." Bex frowned. "You're not coming with the commandos?"

"No, there are several matters I need to attend to here before we leave."

"And where is 'here' exactly?"

"Illium."

Bex's eyes lit up. "I've always wanted to go there, ever since Aria told me about it when I was a kid."

Liara laughed. "Yes, I think you would do well here, Shepard. It is very glamorous to the untrained eye, but it is just as dangerous as anyplace on Omega."

"Yeah, 'cept on Omega, you know to watch your step."

"Precisely."

Bex leaned back in the chair, arms stretched over her head as another yawn overtook her. "Guess I'll get on to Zaeed and start packing. See you in about a week, I expect."

"Thank you, Shepard. I do not think I could do this without you."

"My pleasure." Bex grinned. "Always wanted to be the one doing the rescuing instead of being rescued."