All quiet on the western front, Garrus thought as he gazed out over the cliff. Back during the Collector mission when he hadn't been working on his rifle, the Thanix, or consulting with the Primarch, Garrus had taken up some light reading of human literature and history into how the Normandy had acquired her name, and in the process, had found himself reading a few pieces of human pre-spaceflight literature. While he hadn't gleaned anything new regarding human nature or warfare, he had gained a deeper respect for humans in general…after all, had not both the human and their Normandies brought together several very different cultures for the purpose of defeating a greater evil? Spirits willing, we did, too, he thought as he turned his attention back to Joker, who was moodily poking at their watch fire.

Garrus sighed and shifted his weight as he mused silently to himself. One standard month since the crash.

Roughly four standard weeks since you, Tali, the Shadow Broker, a Prothean, and the barely-skeleton crew of Jimmy, Ash, Cortez, Joker, Chakwas, Traynor, Adams, Ken, and Gabby just barely avoided death by severe burns or electrocution after your pilot overloaded the FTL systems because they either had access to better engineering, armor, or biotics to protect themselves-

Nearly thirty standard days since you burned your dead and laid them to rest in makeshift urns in the AI core alongside the dormant robot body of what used to be our shipboard AI, who/emem's been dormant since we crash-landed her-

Over seven hundred man-hours of Tali, Adams, Gabby, Cortez, and Ken going over every inch of this ship and cataloging what they can use to get her space-worthy again-

Forty thousand minutes stuck in this tropical rain forest, and you wonder how Joker hasn't already drowned in his own tears cooped up in the AI core, grieving for everything he's lost- Garrus reflected as the sun finally lowered itself over the horizon. He moved a bit to refshift where his armor hung, as it had begun fitting a bit more loosely since he'd willingly decreased his own rations for Tali. Lead by example, he'd reasoned, as he thought back to the meeting around the dimly-lit conference table that had determined the current chain of command-

-"Ash, are you crazy? I was the turian Reaper adviser, not their leader," he says as he leans into the table. "I'm in no position to take command of any ship, much less an Alliance vessel."

As if on cue, Ashley and Liara exchange glances before simultaneously glaring at him, which has the effect of silencing him. Ash speaks first. "Liara told me about the turian lines of succession and how generals were saluting you on Menae, Garrus," she begins as she crosses her arms and stares him down, which only meant that Ash knows that-

-ah, crap-

You never told Shepard that you held a single-digit ranking in the turian lines of succession, did you?" Liara adds, and based on the expressions from everyone else, Garrus realizes that everyone else had been aware of this fact before this meeting was called to order.

Garrus sighs. He'd purposely avoided having that discussion with the commander even when she had asked him directly, as it would have required a detailed conversation regarding the different levels of turian generals and the meritocracy…and given that this was his first time alone with her in six months, he didn't want to spend it discussing the inner workings of his own government. Even worse, when it was discovered he'd actually physically fought Reapers, Primarch Fedorian had grounds to advance him to a spot usually reserved for second-from-the-top turian generals. Hell, when Victus had come aboard the Normandy, he had immediately informed Garrus that he would be next in line for Primarch, whether he wanted it or not. (Much to Garrus' dismay.)

"Look, why not give it to Tali, she's an admiral amongst the quarians-" he counter-offers.

Tali throws her hands up. "Only because my father was. I'm not really cut out for politics, Garrus."

"That makes two of us, then."

Liara hands her datapad to him. "Previous Shadow Broker had been keeping tabs on you, Garrus," she says as Garrus takes it and reads it aloud.

"Exceptional tactical and team-building skills…leadership potential overshadowed by Shepard..." he trails off as he looks back with a glare at Liara, whose face wears a look of smug contentedness. "You're getting back at me for my Shadow Broker comment on Sur'Kesh, aren't you?"

Liara simply smiles again as she nods. "I'm a very good Shadow Broker, Garrus," she responds casually as she smiles.

Garrus sighs again as he turns back to Lieutenant Commander Williams, who now stares back at him, arms folded across her chest. Between her grandfather's role in the Relay 314 and Shepard practically ordering him to stand down during the standoff with Udina, Garrus isn't entirely convinced that Ash isn't harboring some sort of resentment or concern regarding him practically inherting the command of the Normandy. "Ash, you're still a Council Spectre who outranked Shepard-"

If you're gonna use the rank argument, Garrus, then Liara's information regarding your position in the Hierarchy's line of succession would dictate that you, not I, take command," Ashley counters back. "Besides, I still deferred to her leadership even after I came back aboard."

She's got a point there...

Garrus leans against the table again and flicks his mandibles, as he's quickly running out of reasonable excuses. "I'm one of four aliens aboard a human vessel, and you're telling me that the humans are choosing a turian over their own?" he says as he stares down at floor between his hands.

"It was unanimous, actually," Dr. Chakwas chimes in as he, Dr. Chakwas, Ken, Joker, Gabby, Traynor, Vega and Cortez all nod, and Garrus realizes that this decision was made prior to his arrival. He shakes his head in disbelief. "Ever since you came aboard the Normandy, you did everything you could to keep it running smoothly, despite your opinions of your crew-"

"That has more to do with me being a turian-"

"You have excellent aim, turian, but you are blind to the bigger picture here," Javik interrupts.

Garrus looks back up at the four-eyed member of the crew. "Which is?"

"In everything that you have done, you have done so for the greater good," Javik begins. "You have sacrificed everything in order to ensure the defeat of the Reapers-"

"Except my life-" Garrus mutters.

Well, she wasn't about to let you throw that away, wasn't she?" Joker mutters quietly beside him. It's the first time Joker has spoken since the crash, and judging by the silence that falls over the table, everyone seems eager to hear if he anything else to say-

"No…she didn't," Garrus admits, partially to fill the uncomfortable silence that followed Joker's comment. Of all the people he's argued with at this table, he can't bring himself to argue with the one other human who saw past the tough guy exterior and convinced him to pursue the love of his life, despite the competition surrounding her...and as much as he wants hear Joker talk again, he knows deep down that now isn't the time for that. With a heavy heart, Garrus sighs as he looks back up at everyone. "If you all insist, then-"

"We do, Garrus," Kenneth's Scottish accent cuts in, "Everyone here stood behind Shepard one-hundred percent-"

"-even when our own governments were willing to put us behind bars," Gabby finishes.

"You'll make an excellent leader, Garrus," Adams chimes in.

Garrus stands up straight as everyone holds their right arms up to salute him-

After he'd reluctantly accepted temporary command of the Normandy (with Ashley and Vega next in line to assume command if anything were to happen to him) Garrus determined that Tali, Ken, Adams, Gabby, and Cortez should be tasked with getting the Normandy airworthy again, while Dr. Chakwas and Traynor would deal with logistics of keeping everyone fed and alive. That left Javik, Vega, Ashley, Liara and himself with the responsibility of paired nightly watches lasting six hours each. Predictably, Ashley and Vega had immediately paired up together (no surprise there), followed by Liara and Javik. (Which somewhat more surprising, considering how those two had bickered during the Reaper War.) These arrangements left Garrus alone, which had suited him just fine, as he usually spent his nights tracking the nightly movements of the indigenous animals (which included two killshots on strange, pig-like animal kills that provided a source of food for anyone with levo-DNA) or making minor adjustments to his armor, whose interior continued to grow roomier despite small adjustments to keep it form-fitting-

Until today, when the repair team said they needed to take inventory of the AI core, and drove Joker from his hiding place. (Tali reasoned that with EDI down, parts of the core might be salvageable for parts needed to restore critical systems.) Severely handicapped by his Vrolik's, Joker had become virtually useless for hunting or repair work, so he'd spent most of his time surrounded by the dead within the darkened interior of the AI core. In private, Dr. Chakwas had already pulled Garrus aside and told him that she was concerned that increased time out of sunlight would increase Joker's risk of bone fracture. In response to her concerns, Liara, Traynor, and even Dr. Chakwas had tried approach him, but one angry glare from the Normandy's once-wisecracking helmsman quickly discouraged any further attempts from the crew...

Until today. About a week ago, Garrus had gained new information regarding Joker's family when Liara and Javik had relieved him-

-"How's he doing, Liara?"

Liara shakes her head slowly. "Not good. He still refuses to leave the AI core."

Garrus flicks his mandibles. "Damn, still?"

Liara shrugs. "Losing Shepard, EDI and over half the Normandy crew on top of his father and sister?"

Garrus blinks. Garrus had only shared his concerns regarding his sister and father with Shepard, and only because Shepard had asked. "Joker never mentioned family…"

"Father and a sister. His mother died years in an accident on Arcturus Station years ago." Liara sighs as she brings up reports on her omni-tool. One is clearly a medical file from a hospitalized asari huntress that described an encounter with Reaper forces. The commando speaks of fifteen-year old human girl named Hillary who aided her until their hiding spot was discovered by Reaper forces until-

It takes Garrus a moment to process the last few words of the transcript as his mandibles flick. "Spirits…" is all Garrus can manage to respond with, as his own sister had endured a broken leg in her escape from Palaven, but she'd survived long enough to make it off planet. "How did you find this?" he asks, knowing full well that Liara had practically unlimited access to information as the Shadow Broker.

Shepard accidentally overheard her at Heurta, and thought nothing of it until she walked in on a conversation between Jeff and I regarding Tiptree." She sighs again. "I found it shortly after the downfall of Thessia…"

Something in the pit of his stomach sinks. "When did you tell him this?"

Liara glances down at her feet in an attempt to hide the tears running down her face. "Shortly before we returned to Earth," she finishes, her voice breaking as she looks back up at Garrus and covers her face. "Goddess, why did I tell him this so soon after-" Her wavering voice gives way to almost-silent full-body sobbing. Garrus wordlessly reaches out and embraces her as Javik places a hand on her shoulder. This is the first time he's seen her show any emotion since the crash, and it's almost unnerving for him, but he pushes the thought away and focuses solely on consoling the weeping asari in front of him as he and Javik exchange looks, which is follwed by an almost undetectable jerk of Javik's head towards Liara. Garrus shoots a grumbled subvocal version of 'I get it' at the prothean, whose face remains unreadable.

"We…we, have to help him, Garrus," Liara pleads as she looks back up at him.

Garrus hugs her a little tighter. "We will, Liara. You have my word-"

Garrus sighed again. Since that conversation, he'd taken it upon himself to approach Joker once each day, offering him objects like sun-warmed blankets (the AI core was bit too cold for Garrus' liking), extra rations from Liara (she claimed that she really didn't need them) and as of yesterday, and cooked varren meat spiced by Vega. Initially, Joker hadn't even acknowledged it, but Vega later informed Garrus that the twig he'd skewered the varren chunks on had been empty when he'd returned for it later. Progress, right? He scanned their surroundings one more time before he returned his attention to one of the sticks on the ground that he'd been whittling into sniper rifle models (this one was a replication of his beloved Mantis) on for the past week. Here goes nothing, he told himself as he collapsed the Widow, holstered it on his back, and squatted down to retrieve carved piece of wood.

How do you know when a turian is out of ammunition? Joker had asked during their exchange after they'd cured the genophage on Tuchunka.

"When he switches to the stick up his ass as backup weapon," Garrus finished quietly as he examined his finished replica. He rose back up to a standing position and turned to face the brittle-boned helmsman poking at the fire. "Hey Joker," Garrus began, as Joker startled slightly at the broken silence, but didn't say a word as Garrus approached him. "Found this for you," he said as dropped it directly in front of Joker's toes.

Joker looked up at Garrus, his face momentarily puzzled as he looked between the half-charred stick in his hands and the well-carved one at his toes before the smallest trace of a smile turned the corners of his mouth up and gave a short chuckle. "Expecting a fight soon, big guy?

Well, that's a first since we've crashed. "No, but if we do, and if I run out of thermal clips, I'm holding you personally responsible for keeping that stick safe until I need it," Garrus replied. After all, you're part of the reason I'm in charge now.

The slight grin morphed into Joker's more mischeveous ones. Crap. "You gonna 'savor your last shot before you pop your heat sink, too?'" he began, complete with air quotes.

Garrus started, momentarily shocked at Joker quoting his words to Shepard prior to their pre-Omega 4 relay rendezvous. "Where did you hear-"

"-your painfully sexual metaphor to Shepard?" The human's smile faded a bit as Garrus sat down next to him. "EDI," he answered simply before a smile crossed his face again. "After Shepard told the Illusive Man to fuck off, she gave me full access to all of the information she'd been ordered to keep on us-"

Garrus' mandibles flicked involuntarily at this statement. Spirits, don't tell me the Illusive Man saw Shepard and I-

"-and yeah, he probably saw you two doing…well, whatever you two did that night," Joker finished with a grin that lingered momentarily before fading away. "Don't worry, that's the one vid I had no interest in watching."

"Says the man who supplied nearly seven zetabytes of porn for Cerberus' viewing pleasure," Garrus quipped, referring to when the Illusive Man had attempted to remotely deactivate the Normandy…and had been denied by EDI, who had subsequently updated said explicit images 'as a joke.' "Figured you of all people would actually want to see proof of a turian 'pulling the stick out of their ass-'"

"Okay, one, pretty sure that's not how you turians work-"

"So you DO know how we-"

"-and two…" Joker continued over Garrus, "…well, let's just say I couldn't do what you did with her." Joker finished with a deep sigh. "Or even speak to her like Vega did." Joker paused as he examined the scope on the stick. "Not that she isn't attractive or anything, it's just-"

"-you humans have specific regulations regarding fraternization within your chain of command," Garrus finished. Not that it stopped Kaidan from going after Shepard, or James and Ashley from hooking up…and now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that Shepard said she ran into Ken and Gabby embracing-

"Turians don't?"

Garrus shook his head. "Not really. We're pretty much raised from birth to place societal or familial needs over our own…hell, right before my mother was hospitalized after a hit-and-run on Palaven, and she told my dad to stay on the Citadel because she 'didn't want C-Sec to lose one of their best detectives because a few broken bones.'"

Joker uttered a low whistle. "Damn, your mom got hit by a skycar-and survived?"

Garrus casually tapped his scarred plates. "Perks of metallic exoskeletons," he replied as he turned his head away from Joker to briefly glance at one of the larger electrical burns on the Normandy's port side. "Speaking of which…"

Joker let out an exasperated sigh "-Dr. Chakwas is probably worried about mine, huh?" he replied with a glance at the ground. "She keeps leaving my pills and skin ointments right inside the AI core."

Garrus raised a browplate. "And according to her, you weren't taking them for the first two weeks we were here…" Garrus continued, with a slight hint of scolding in his subvocals.

"She tell you why?" Joker said as he picked up the wooden Mantis and used it to push himself to his feet, his back to Garrus.

Garrus closed his eyes briefly as he recalled the encounter. "You told her she 'shouldn't be wasting the last of our meds on the guy who just killed half the crew,'" Garrus quoted Chakwas. "Just for the record, Joker, that was the first time I've ever seen her cry."

Joker looked back over his shoulder at Garrus, his expression a mixture of confusion and concern. "She…what?"

Garrus reached into one of his insulated armor pockets, pulled out a large syringe that allowed for self-administration of its contents, and offered it to Joker. "You don't remember taking this from her and angrily throwing back into the med bay?"

Joker did a complete 180 and leaned over to inspect the contents of the turian's hand. "My gene therapy…" he said as he gently took it from Garrus' outstretched talon and examined it briefly before looking back up at Garrus with a puzzled expression. "Why do you have it?"

"Figured I'd try to convince you to take it tonight," Garrus answered simply, choosing not to disclose the fact that he not only followed a tearful Chakwas out of the med bay, but had spent at least twenty minutes consoling and swearing on his and his ancestor's lives that he'd try to get through to Joker on her behalf. Shepard, if this is what you did with most of us, you weren't getting paid nearly enough, Garrus had thought as he had left Chakwas and headed to the upper deck to begin his shift. "After all, we're going to need someone to fly her-" -Garrus jerked his head in the direction of the Normandy- "-when she's space-worthy."

Joker gave Garrus an incredulous look as he briefly glanced at Garrus, the Normandy, and the syringe. "Right…getting her airborne…" he trailed off.

Garrus narrowed his browplates. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this ship was still spaceworthy even after a Collector Occulus punched it's way into our shuttle bay?"

"Well, yeah, but the power core was still functional, and EDI-" Joker's expression fell again.

A cool breeze wafted from behind him, the sound faintly reminsient of the automatic doors in the gun battery. The same gun battery where I tried to hide from my own failures, he thought as he the first time that he'd ever been alone with her after he'd been marveling at Cerberus' rebuild of the Normandy after carving out his own survival on Omega for a few months-

-"I wish that we'd joined up with them sooner."

She scowls, which immediately reminds him that part of the reason she wanted him aboard was because she wanted someone she could trust. "We haven't joined' Cerberus…they're funding our mission. That's all."

Garrus raises a hand defensively. "Relax, Shepard…it's just a figure of speech. I can't exactly doubt your judgement…not after I got my own squad killed-"

In one smooth motion, Garrus brought his hands up to his head, removed off his visor, and practically shoved it in Joker's face as his left eye took a moment to adjust to a view sans visor. "Read them out loud, Joker," he commanded, his own eyes locked on the pilot's expression.

Joker's lips moved soundlessly as his fingers traced the inscriptions. "This…isn't standard English…" Joker asked with a puzzled expression as he examined the carvings on the visor. "I can only make out a few names, the rest of this looks like a mix of turian, asari, salarian, and batarian scripts…including this burned-out one-" Joker laid a finger on the burned-out turian script.

"That would be Sidonis," Garrus answered as he looked down at the portion of his visor where he'd furiously taken a blowtorch to the turian's name as soon as he'd been able to get access to one after his rescue on Omega. "In exchange for his life, he told the Blood Pack the names and locations of our team and where to find our hideout on Omega-"

Joker jerked his head up from the visor and stared at Garrus for a about thirty seconds. "Zaeed mentioned something about 'bodies left behind' after they brought you, aboard-" Garrus watched as Joker's face went from puzzled to horrified comprehension. "Holy shit, Garrus…that was YOUR team?"

Garrus nodded. "I barely had time to cover the dead and ease the suffering of the two that did survive before being forced to defend my position alone for hours…and if Shepard hadn't come when she did, well…" Garrus trailed off as he tried to force himself to think of something other than the final moments of his asari squadmates. "My point is, there isn't a single person aboard the Normandy right now who hasn't made a questionable decision during their military career-"

Joker opened his mouth to say something, and Garrus answered by gently placing his free hand on Joker's shoulder, which seemed to tense up under the turian's grasp.

"-or blaming you for attempting to outrun that energy field," he finished as he relaxed his grip a bit, and this time, Joker's shoulder relaxed. "Which brings me to my next request: would you stop beating yourself up about not being able to help us repair the old girl? The entire crew's worried about you.

Joker sighed as returned Garrus' visor. "That obvious, huh?"

"To put it mildly, yes," Garrus answered as he took back his visor and slid it back under his crest. "From the way Dr. Chakwas talks about you, you'd think that Mako landed on your legs and not my head." He walked back over to the edge of the cliff and briefly scanned the ground for any signs of activity. Quiet as always…good, he thought, as a red star blinked steadily above Joker's head. "Seriously, Joker, I haven't seen a crew member this reclusive since I looked in the bathroom mirror after Shepard rescued me from Omega." (When he'd rejoined her after Menae, he made an active effort to engage with the new Alliance crewmates, who were far more conversational than the Cerberus ones.)

For the first time in days, a chuckle emerged from Joker. "Now that's the pot calling the kettle black…" he said.

"True…but you're talking to the pot who then spent most of his time calibrating a giant gun after losing his team… half his face…his home planet…" Garrus trailed off on purpose, in hopes that it would elicit another response from the pilot.

Joker raised his eyebrows. "Calibrating a giant gun was your way of grieving?"

Garrus nodded as he looked up at the stars as his subvocals hummed low. "We're pretty much raised from birth to channel negative emotions into productive tasks that benefit the platoon, family, or society," Garrus explained. Something you haven't been able to do since we crashed here, he thought to himself, not wanting to remind Joker of his infirmity. He looked at Joker, and then he remembered part of the footage from the Illusive Man's base-

"Send me the psych profile on Shepard's pilot-"

"You couldn't fly after losing her the first time, could you?" he turned to face him. "EDI showed footage of the Illusive Man requesting some sort of psych profile on you when they were rebuilding her-"

Joker shot him an extremely annoyed look as he crossed his arms. "You're referring to the psych profile the Alliance slapped me with prior to grounding me?"

Garrus nodded. "Figured you were overcome with grief-"

Joker snorted in response, which silenced Garrus. "Uh, no offense big guy, but that 'psych profile' had less to do with me being 'mentally unstable' and more with 'hey, how do we shut up the guy who won't tote the party line of 'the geth did it!'" he finished, complete with the mocking tones of voice he reserved for such occasions. "I thought that Anderson would have been able to help me out like he did after I stole the Normandy the first time, but apparently only General Invectus has THAT kind of sway-"

Garrus shot a Joker a puzzled look at the mention of a Vakarian family friend and well-known figure in the Turian Hierarchy. "Invectus got you out of jail once? What'd you do, steal-"

"-the Normandy?" Joker finished with a grin as he clasped his hands together and put them beside his head, and leaned "From Arcturus station?"

Garrus' browplates went up. "You stole the most closely guarded secret of both the turian and human governments…and weren't confined to a cell somewhere on the outer edges of the galaxy? This I have to hear," Garrus said as he resettled himself on the log and leaned forward.

Joker's grin grew larger. "After I got out of flight school, an old friend of my mom's got me a job shuttling around diplomats on Arcturus Station where I'd grown up," he began. "She figured it'd be fairly safe for someone with my condition, but she also designed some of the security systems for the new Normandy…"

Garrus' browplates narrowed. "She told you how to exploit the weaknesses and get aboard, didn't she?"

Joker's grin grew larger as he nodded. "Some old flight school buddies who'd been short-listed and felt that I deserved it more than they did, so they offered to help me with any heavy lifting" Joker looked down at the stick and sighed happily. "Watching them stuff Crooks into my shuttle? So worth it…"

Garrus shook his head in disbelief again. Explains why he didn't bat an eyelash when Shepard told him our plans to hijack it and haul ass out of there, he'd already done it once before. "So how does Invectus fit into this picture?"

Apparently, he was your representative for the test run…and he just happened to take the shuttle I was piloting that day…."

Because his dreadnought had one of the highest kill counts before and after the Relay 314 Incident, Garrus thought to himself. "My dad said Invectus was one of the most brilliant tacticians he's ever met," Garrus commented. "Considering that the CIC's location was based on turian military command tactics, it makes sense they'd send him." Garrus reached back for the Widow. "Must have made quite the impression on him."

"Not really…he made a point of telling me that you guys 'would never hand control of the Hierarchy's most sophisticated starship over to a cripple," Joker finished in a spot-on impression of Invectus' gruff manner.

He's not wrong, Garrus thought to himself. "So let me guess: you stole the Normandy and finished their course in record time before safely returning the most expensive aircraft in both the Systems Alliance and turian Hierarchy safely back to dry dock-"

"Uh, remember who you're talking to-"

"-where half the station's security and an entire turian platoon was waiting to haul you off to the nearest prison cell?"

"Only six, actually," Joker answered as he counted them off on his fingers as he named them, "Two Alliance MPs, Anderson, Dillard, and General Invectus himself," Joker said with a contented sigh, "until Invectus informed both Anderson and Dillard that I was, and I quote, 'exactly the kind of man" they wanted for the job'" he finished with an almost perfect imitation of Invectus' "you'll do it or else" demeanor. "Anderson ended up agreeing with him, and, well…" he shrugged, "The next thing I know we're picking up the hero of the Skyllian Blitz up from Earth and barreling towards the Charon Relay for a 'test run of the stealth system'…" Joker rolled his eyes and shook his head before he looked back at the smoldering remains of the fire and the Normandy just beyond it before he sighed. "Just wished she could have lived to see the end of it."

Garrus tightened his grip on the Black Widow and stared at the fire for a minutes as his heart ached.

"There's no Shepard without Vakarian"-

But here I am, still alive and trying to hold the crew and my act together while you remain dead and unaccounted for-

Garrus felt the weight of a hand on his arm, which prompted him to look down and into Joker's green eyes, which had always eerily reminded him of Shepard's. "I'm fine, Joker…"

Joker snorted. "Yeah, if I had a credit for every time Shepard said that-"

Garrus chucked. "We'd both be retired and living in the tropics somewhere, wouldn't we?"

Joker shrugged. "Well, I did manage to crash-land us in some sort of rain forest-" he said as he held out his other arm and motioned to their surroundings. As he did, Garrus' stomach grumbled loud for Joker to hear, which made Joker look down at Garrus' stomach. "Although it probably would have helped if I crash-landed on a planet with food that you could actually eat," he finished as he looked back up at Garrus.

"Tali needs our dextro rations more than I do," Garrus replied evasively, which wasn't entirely untruthful. (He decided to leave out the part about the extent of her injuries requiring a higher caloric intake, as it would only serve as a harsh reminder of Joker's actions, and Garrus was bound and determined to keep the helmsman's mood up, whatever the cost.) If we don't get this ship up and running, we'll both starve, and her brains are our best chance of getting home, he thought as he stretched his neck out a bit.

As if to further discredit him, his stomach rumbled once more, even louder, which caused Joker to look back down at the turian's midsection again. Joker looked up and made eye contact with Garrus again, his face filled with doubt. "Uh-huh," he said, his eyebrows and his tone reminiscent of Shepard's whenever she had reason to doubt that someone wasn't telling her the truth. He turned his head and glanced back at the open airlock door for a moment before he turned back to face Garrus. "And how much longer is it going to take our resident quarian to get her up and running again?"

"As of this morning, Tali says they're maybe a day or two away from restarting the main power core."

Joker's face lit up. "Engines?"

"Severely damaged, but repairable…if I authorize them to go after parts of the Thanix," he added with a sigh. Because apparently the universe has a sick sense of humor and wishes to destroy one of the few projects that kept me sane aboard this ship.

Joker grinned. "That's gonna mess with your calibrations a bit, huh?"

Garrus chuckled. "Well, we don't exactly need my giant guns anymore now, do we…" he said as he looked up at the sky above before looking back down at his Widow. Hell, I've barely needed this one since we've been stranded.

"Hey, your 'giant gun' helped keep us in one piece while I was navigating through space junk in the galactic core," Joker said as he finished with a yawn.

"-which we only stayed alive in because of you," Garrus reminded him. "And when we get off this planet, if Invectus is still alive, I'm going to thank him personally for his insistence of putting you aboard that ship," Garrus finished as he pointed at the SR2 with his Widow.

Joker grinned again. "Before or after our massive welcome home party?" he asked as he looked back up at the sky.

Garrus chuckled as he looked up at the red star in the sky. "After," he said as he exhaled and his shoulders released some of the tension they'd been holding for weeks.

#####

A/N: Once again, thank you to everyone who commented and let me know that my formatting had been blown to hell after the update. A little teaser: what some of you have been waiting for happens in the update, which I hope to have uploaded prior to the Christmas holidays. As always, thanks for visiting and commenting!