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"All right, Commander, look at this." Joker's eyes were on Shepard's face, though, watching for her reaction to his surprise. "They only told me about it yesterday."

Over the course of her career she had trained herself to be impassive, to be certain of what she thought before those thoughts showed on her face, but this was important to Joker, whatever it was, and he was important to her—not just her friend, but right now also her only connection to all of the life that had gone before her reconstruction by Cerberus—so she tried to relax and let herself be wowed.

And it wasn't hard. There on the other side of the glass was the Normandy. Rebuilt, renewed, with what appeared to be the same attention to detail that had gone into the rebuilding of Shepard herself. She laughed, the surprise as thorough and delightful as he had hoped it would be. "Joker, are you ecstatic? Tell me you're ecstatic."

He was grinning widely, an extreme reaction from a guy who usually stuck with a sardonic smirk. "Pretty damn happy, yeah." Looking out at the ship, he put his palm on the window, almost as if he could touch the new Normandy through the glass. "Beautiful, isn't she?"

"She always was," Shepard agreed. But her initial enthusiasm was already fading. It wouldn't be the same, not without the others. Not without Kaidan. The familiar halls—because she suspected the inside had been rebuilt with equal care—would remind her of him, the rooms … He would be everywhere in spirit.

"I didn't hear what happened to him. Last I knew, he was on the Citadel," Joker told her.

Shepard smiled. "Am I that transparent?"

"Only to someone whose life you saved." He cleared his throat. "Uh … I never said thank you for that; thought I'd never get the chance. But … if you hadn't hit the button to eject the pod …"

"I'd be out a good helmsman." She nudged him, very gently, in the ribs. "Can't have that."

He nodded, then, in mock outrage, he said, "What do you mean good? The best."

Chuckling, Shepard amended her words. "Sorry. I meant, 'how could I have deprived the galaxy of its best helmsman?'"

"That's more like it."

She leaned her shoulder against the glass, more interested now in watching him than looking at the ship. "What did you do the last two years, Joker?"

"Healed up, trained up, got fed up with the Alliance's red tape and stubbornness, joined up with Cerberus … and waited for you to get up."

"When did you find out about me?"

"Cerberus tracked me down. They knew I'd about had it with the whitewashing—the Council and the Alliance don't believe in Reapers, it turns out. Too big and too scary for them. So everything was Saren's fault, now, and he's the one who brought the geth in. They tried to erase anything that could remind people of you. The team was broken up, the records sealed … and I was grounded."

Shepard put a hand to her forehead, closing her eyes. "Figures."

"People don't like to be scared of the big bad thing in the dark, Shepard. If they can forget it's there, they will. And without their hero to stand between them and the scary thing, they didn't see any hope against the Reapers. Easier to pretend they didn't exist."

"Even with pieces of Sovereign scattered across the Citadel? It's got to be obvious that isn't geth technology."

Joker shrugged. "Couldn't tell you how they justify it, Commander. I'm not in on the Council's decision-making. I agree, any engineer worth his elbow grease ought to know he isn't looking at typical tech, but no one listens to those guys anyway. And even if they did believe it, who were they going to send out, with you gone?"

Sighing, Shepard turned to look at the Normandy again. "You talk like I'm the only person in the universe who can get things done."

"You see anyone else out there taking a stand, Commander? Because I don't, and neither did anyone else. Is it any wonder that the Council and the Alliance chose the path of least resistance?"

"That's a lot to put on one set of shoulders, Joker."

"Yeah, but I figure yours can handle it. Look at you now—barely up off the bed you spent two years on, and you're in charge of a new mission, getting ready to assemble a team and go after another shadowy bad guy of legend, and I bet you already have a plan to take care of the Reaper threat after that."

"I wish." But she had to smile at his confidence in her. "I'm glad to have you with me."

"Had to, Commander. The Alliance took away everything that ever mattered to me. Cerberus promised to give it back." His eyes narrowed under the brim of his ballcap as he studied her. "How's it been so far, coming back?"

Shepard shook her head. "It's been a lot to take in. Having a familiar face around, a trusted face—it makes a big difference."

For a moment, Joker almost looked touched. Then his familiar cocky smirk was back. "Glad I can be of service, Commander. Now—how about we go look at that beautiful ship there from the inside?"

Shepard could feel that certain sense of adrenaline, the anticipation, the sharpness that came with being on a mission, having a job to do, beginning to build. Despite the pressure of everyone looking to her to save the world, she loved being out there, her ship hurtling through space, with important work before her. Yes, she was ready to be on the move, ready to go after the Collectors and after them the Reapers. "Lead the way, Joker."