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When the Normandy was safely away from the Collector ship, Shepard called her team together in the briefing room. She waited, leaning her hip against the table, her arms crossed, thinking about the Illusive Man and his betrayal. Had it been only herself, she wouldn't have minded so much being used as a pawn. But to endanger her team, as well? Not just Thane and Jack on the Collector ship with her and Garrus at the helm of the shuttle, but the entire crew. And after the same Collector vessel had blown up the first Normandy to begin with! Anyone who understood her so little couldn't be trusted to direct her movements, she thought.

The others were trickling in now. Mordin from his lab, still muttering to himself; Jacob from the weight room; Samara from her meditations; Miranda from her office, datapad in her hand, reading as she walked. Jack and Grunt came up from the basement together, arguing about who was the most powerful. Shepard hoped they'd decide to have the eventual contest on land instead of on the ship. She didn't want to have to explain to Joker how she'd let her team get out of hand and scratch his baby.

Garrus and Thane came in together, rather to Shepard's surprise. Garrus seemed disgruntled, Thane very pleased with himself.

Once everyone was seated around the table, she began. "I believe you all know why I called you in."

"Cerberus screwed us over. As I said they would from the start," Jack said.

Miranda glared at her. "That's not quite the way I would have put it."

"No shit, cheerleader."

Shepard fixed Jack with a severe look, and the other woman subsided. "Jack's colorful turn of phrase notwithstanding, the fact is that the Illusive Man had certain knowledge that he kept from us."

Garrus shook his head, muttering something about C-Sec and the Alliance.

"He says he did it because he didn't want me giving away our intentions to the Collectors, and because he trusted me—us—to get in and out in one piece. But it was mighty close."

Joker's voice crackled over the speaker. "Too damned close, Commander. It was like déjà vu … only it actually had happened before."

"I know, Joker. And I was with you just like before, and like I will be again," she told him. "That's a promise."

"Yeah, I know." He clicked off, but she could hear his unhappiness even in the silence. That was one memory neither of them wanted to revisit, and knowing what had happened the last time made her promise less reassuring than she'd hoped it would be.

"So where does that leave us, Commander?" Jacob asked. "If we can't trust Cerberus, and there's sure as hell no one else we can trust …"

"I think that's an exaggeration," Miranda commented.

"It may be," Shepard told her, with a warning glance at Jack that caused the biotic to snap her mouth shut with an audible click of teeth. "But it's not entirely wrong, either. If the Illusive Man falsified information once, he'll do it again. He as good as told me he would. On the other hand, we learned things aboard the Collector ship that we couldn't have learned any other way. I would have preferred to do so with a bit more advance planning, but I have to be thankful I had Thane and Jack along. They saved my ass several times." She smiled at both of them.

"You mean, every time you ran around a corner without looking and got into a firefight without waiting for us?" Jack asked. Her question was followed by a general chuckle, and Shepard looked at them all sheepishly.

"That's not new," Garrus told them, shooting her a mock glare.

"What? I take the hits so you all don't have to."

"You tell 'em, Shepard." Grunt raised a fist in solidarity. "You sure you aren't part krogan?"

"She did get some breeding offers while she was on Tuchanka," Miranda said.

"Wrex always was her favorite," Garrus added.

Shepard raised a hand, shaking her head, although privately she was pleased to hear the conversation and see some camaraderie building among her team. "I think we've gotten a little off-track here, everyone."

Jacob seemed to agree. He sat forward with his elbows on his knees, hands clasped earnestly beneath his chin. "The question is, where do we go from here?"

"Exactly." Shepard nodded at him approvingly. "Apparently, EDI's calculations put the Collectors' homeworld in the midst of the galactic core." Once the general disbelief had settled, she went on, "EDI suggests there might be some kind of protected area on the other side of the Omega 4 relay that ships can jump into, and perhaps a space station hidden within the core. I guess we'll find out when we get there." She looked around, wondering if any of them were having second thoughts, but no one seemed to be. They were either looking at her or lost in thought, trying to work through what she'd told them.

"So how do we guarantee we get through safely?" Thane asked. His black eyes were trained on her face, regarding her steadily. Somehow she felt the stronger for his silent support; she wasn't sure she wanted to question why that might be.

"According to the Illusive Man, we need a particular device called an 'IFF'; apparently it tells the Omega 4 that we're friends and not foes. But we don't know where to get one."

"Are we sure we don't know, or is that Cerberus just telling us we don't know?" Jack asked.

"If Cerberus knew, we'd already be on our way to get it," Jacob answered. "They want this done."

"So do I." Shepard looked around. Much as she liked her work, much as she liked these people she had gathered around her—for the most part, anyway—she had to admit to being a little tired. She thought of the colony on Mindoir briefly, and with a sense of nostalgia she rarely allowed herself. She had wanted off that colony so badly, pestered her mother to let her join the military or the mercs or anyone who would take her off that bucolic rock and somewhere that she could do something interesting. Well, she'd gotten what she wished for, hadn't she? No bucolic rocks for her, not anytime soon, at least. "But there's plenty to do while we wait for the wheels of Cerberus to turn. I still have another couple of dossiers, and I know several of you have places you want to get to and things you want to take care of before we go through the relay, and I'm not going to let any of you down, I promise."

She saw Thane take a deep breath, as though he had just thought of something, and she wondered what it was, and if he would tell her or keep it to himself. He didn't seem like the kind of man to ask for help … but then, everyone asked her for help.

"If that's all?" Mordin practically jumped out of his seat. "Experiment in process. Research waits for no meeting. Must get back."

"Be my guest, Mordin."

He nodded quickly and hurried from the room. Samara followed more slowly. Jacob hovered near Shepard for a moment, and she said quietly to him, "I haven't forgotten about your father's ship. We'll get there as soon as we can, I promise."

"Thanks." He still didn't look convinced as he left, though, and Shepard sighed inwardly. He'd proven to be a hard one to get to know so far, still Alliance-trained, hard as he tried not to be, and uncertain how friendly he was allowed to be with his superior. She didn't mind that, entirely, but it made it difficult to talk to him. Kaidan had been similar in outlook, but somehow had never been hard to talk to. She missed him and their easy talks, possibly even more than she missed what they had eventually become.

Miranda gave her a brief smile before returning to her datapad and leaving the room. Grunt and Jack were arm-wrestling in their seat, dangerously close to EDI's pedestal on the table.

"You two!" Shepard called, and they both looked up at her, startled. Jack used Grunt's distraction to slam his arm down.

"Hey!"

"Take it downstairs," she said sternly, trying to hide her smile as Grunt glared at the smug human holding his arm down. "And if you hurt each other, it better be something Dr. Chakwas can fix," she called as they left.

Thane and Garrus were involved in an intense conversation, and she went over to see what it was about.

"Trouble, gentlemen?"

"None at all, Shepard, except that you have a chess-sharp on board." Garrus glared at Thane, who looked unrepentant.

"I said I had played."

"You said you'd tried it once or twice," Garrus snapped.

"And you fell for that, Garrus? Isn't that what Wrex said about poker?"

"Maybe," the turian admitted grudgingly.

"You should stick to games you know you can win."

"I thought I was."

"Do you play?" Thane asked her.

Shepard shook her head. "Too slow and fiddly for me."

He smiled. "Of course it is."

Winking at Garrus, Shepard said, "What I really like is a good driving simulator."

The turian groaned. "Stick with the simulators." To Thane, he added, "Never get in any wheeled vehicle with her. She's got no respect for people's bones."

"Now, Garrus, no one ever got hurt. Much." Shepard chuckled. A wave of weariness hit her, and she suddenly wanted a hot shower and a long sleep. "I'll say good night to both of you, and leave you to your games."

"Good-night," they both said. She was conscious of them watching her as she left the room, and couldn't decide if she found their concern sweet or irritating.