Joker couldn't stop the eyeroll if he tried. He didn't bother trying. On his screens security footage from the mess hall showed Vega and his new, devoted fanclub. After Jo had put him to bed the other day and declared to the crew that he'd done so good at his endurance exercise, she'd tasked Westmoreland with getting the man some water and food to his bunk for when he'd wake up, dehydrated and famished. The girl took the order very seriously. Vega slept for twelve hours and ever since he was back on his feet Westmoreland was constantly around him, expressing her deepest admiration for his strength, endurance, devotion to his training and bravery.

Joker thought it was kind of disgusting, but then again who was he to talk? He had the toughest, most hardcore woman in the galaxy mooning over him at any chance she had, so maybe Vega was due some wide-eyed adoration of his own. It did turn quite ridiculous when four more girls - two of his navigators and two of Rodney's security guards - joined Westmoreland. It was painfully obvious how deeply Campbell wished to be a part of the fanclub, but she was still duty-bound to watch Alenko. At least she had the good sense not to admire the former Major's good looks.

Now, a day after his return to the land of the living Vega was kind of holding court in the mess hall, surrounded by all the girls. They ate up his every word, begged for more heroic stories and sighed deeply, their admiration growing deeper and deeper.

It seemed that the moment Jo sent out that memo, telling the whole crew that he was now an N recruit, his appeal sky-rocketed. Well, Joker guessed that if they'd been in the military and in real contact with other troops, Vega would already be a legend. Everyone who got into the ICA was a legend to common soldiers. It was a guarantee for a fast and great career, it signalled an exceptional individual, the only trouble was: normal N recruits packed their shit and disappeared to Brazil, only to emerge heroes or to die trying. Vega's training was basically open to everyone and it made him unique. The girls had clearly lost their marbles over such a fine specimen. Joker had no doubt that all of them had already calculated what their babies by Vega would look like.

What did they know, really? Muscle didn't equal toughness. Or else why would the most accomplished N7 in the world choose Joker as her safe haven? But yeah, whatever, some women apparently liked their men big, smelly and tattooed.

What earned Joker's eyeroll was Vega's reaction to his sudden fame. He wasn't encouraging the women, but he wasn't sending them on their way, either. Frankly, Joker wondered if he even noticed what was going on. He mildly flirted with each of them, used lots of Spanish, smiled a lot, touched their hands and arms, even played his muscles. Flirting was like breathing to this guy, and Joker hated him for that. What he saw on his screens was exactly what he could never have. He'd cultivated his porcupine personality because it helped him cope with his own inadequacies. He wasn't good at dealing with people. He hated dealing with people, it was exhausting and sucked the life out of him. Impressing women? That concept was alien to him at its core. He never could, so he became someone who didn't give a shit.

But seeing Vega right now just drove home why Joker would never be invited to the Academy. No matter what Jo said, he would never be good enough at certain things. Still, being him had its perks. It became very obvious when Jo walked into the mess hall and headed towards the Main Battery to talk to Garrus. The moment she appeared - and she wasn't even paying Vega any attention - his flirting died off. His attention turned away from his fanclub and focused on Jo. He got this look, like a devoted follower in the presence of his deity. He even followed her with his glance until she disappeared behind Garrus' door, like she was the centre of Vega's world.

And that made Joker grin with deep, selfish satisfaction.

"Mine," he said softly to himself.

"Jeff, may I ask you a question about human behaviour?"

Joker cursed silently. He'd completely forgotten about EDI in the co-pilot's chair.

"Only if it's about porn," he said to her.

"Not exactly," the mech turned its sexy body towards him. "It's about attraction. I have observed that since Lieutenant Vega has become an IT Academy recruit he started getting more attention from human female members of the crew. They often display sexual interest in him while they hadn't before. Why is that?"

"Because some women don't know what they want," Joker grumbled under his breath. Was it too much to hope that EDI wouldn't hear him? It was.

"Could you explain that phenomenon to me?"

"I'm not a woman, am I?" He finally snapped. "Can't explain what no man has ever understood, EDI. That's life for us, men."

"I should probably ask Shepard about that," EDI concluded.

"Yeah, probably. Sorry for snapping at you."

"It's fine, Jeff," she said and the tone of her voice sent a shiver down his spine. She sounded just like Jo did when he said something nice to her. A little coy. Was EDI flirting with him? Hadn't Jo shot her head off once for even suggesting such a thing? Women, seriously!

When they finally caught up with the quarian envoy ship in Dholen, the quarians sent a clear message that they were offering their help in the war against the Reapers in exchange for Jo's help in their war against the geth. The admirals of the quarian fleet requested the Normandy as a neutral ground for negotiations. Jo stood right behind him with her hand on his shoulder when she gave them permission to come aboard. Joker could feel her caution and tension through her touch. Whatever she was bracing herself to hear from the quarians, she fully expected not to like it. Maybe that was the reason why she'd asked Garrus to join the conference.

Joker watched the camera feed from the war room and ran his own diagnostics on the intel the quarians were giving Jo. It didn't seem like they were lying or hiding something, but their whole plan reeked of crazy. Attacking the geth fleet when the Reapers were marching on? Strapping guns to their civilian ships? Violating treaties with the Council? Not only did they seem generally crazy, there was also division among the admirals regarding the plan. Two admirals wanted to save quarian civilians, the other two seemed set on destruction.

"Still spying, as usual?" A familiar voice from behind him made Joker jump. He turned his chair to see the last, belated guest to the Normandy.

"Tali!" He exclaimed. "Boy, is it good to see you. My baby never runs quite as well when you're not around."

"I missed her, too," Tali looked around slowly, nostalgically. "I wish I could stay."

"Can't you?"

"My people are at war and need me, Joker."

"Everyone is at war and everyone needs something," he let a little poison enter his voice. "No rest for the Normandy, ever. We could use you here."

"I know," she lowered her head, looking quite sorry. Joker didn't push further. He knew what it looked like when a strong person carried too much weight. "I have to get in there before they tear each other to pieces," she said and left him with a little wave of her hand. Joker called after her:

"Garrus is in there!" And sniggered when Tali almost tripped. Oh, yeah, the girl had it bad for a certain vigilante. The only one worse off than her was Garrus himself. The poor guy lost his speech whenever she was around.

Joker returned to his screens and watched Tali's entrance. She declared her allegiance very clearly when she introduced herself as Tali'Zorah vas Normandy and reported for duty directly to Jo. Joker couldn't say if she spared a glance towards Garrus, her helmet hid her face too well for that, but she remained highly professional. So did Jo. It wasn't until later, when the other admirals left for their envoy ship, that Jo grabbed Tali and pulled her into a heartfelt hug.

Joker bit his lip. The three of them in one room again: Jo, Garrus and Tali. If Wrex were here, the family would be back together and nothing could stop them. Would they ever be together again? With Wrex ruling over all krogans and Tali being an admiral it didn't seem very likely, but the war sure had the tendency to bring people together.


"It's just a formality," Tali turned away from Jo and walked to the window, wringing her hands. "I'm not a real admiral, I'm just the expert on the geth."

Jo saw all the signs, she knew what was happening. She stepped closer to her quarian sister and spoke quietly:

"Don't talk about yourself like that. You are a real admiral. You are one of the sanest, most honourable and devoted people I've ever known. I would trust you and Garrus with my own mission if I died right now, because I know you, I know your heart, and I know you would make me proud just by being yourself. You always have and I don't have a moment's doubt that you always will."

Her younger sister needed a little confidence and morality boost. Jo believed in Tali like she believed in herself and saw all the great things the young quarian had the potential to achieve. If it was Jo's faith in her right now that she needed, Jo had plenty to give. Anything for her.

"Thanks," Tali straightened up, soaking up the power of her true family's love and faith. "I'm sorry about Earth. We've got the largest fleet in the galaxy. If you can help us, we'll hit the Reapers with everything we've got. Or... however much is left after this stupid war."

"You don't support it?" Garrus asked cautiously.

"No. After talking to Legion I thought there was a chance for peace."

"So why help them?"

"I'm an admiral," Tali sighed. "People look to me for guidance. A public disagreement would divide the fleet."

Both Jo and Garrus snorted loudly at that.

"A little public disagreement can be good for the end result, Tali," Garrus said.

"He's right," Jo said. Right now Tali was in over her head into politics and had no training in how to navigate those minefields. She needed advice and she didn't have to ask for it directly, not in this room, not with her and Garrus. She would always get what she needed here because it was her home. "Sometimes the commanders are too stuck in their old beliefs to see another way out of their problem. If you show your people another way, a better way, that public disagreement could be the only thing that can save your race."

"It's a nice theory, but I don't have anything solid to offer. You saw the intel. The geth are being controlled by the Reapers. Even I don't have a solution for that problem."

"Well, your people sought me out," Jo shrugged. "I always bring my very own brand of problem-solving and they all know that. You know that. So now that I'm here, I'll find a way to stop this war before someone gets wiped off the face of the galaxy."

Tali turned to her sharply:

"What do you mean? You wish to save the geth?"

"I don't know. Something about this whole situation just doesn't seem right. Legion was adamant about not working with the Reapers, so why are they under their influence now? I trusted Legion and we had an understanding. I'm not going into this conflict with a preconceived idea that someone has to die. I don't want to destroy all geth, you should know that beforehand."

"But they're slaughtering my people! They are working for the Reapers!"

"I'll believe that when I see it," Jo said firmly. "Right now all we have is your side of the story. Under different circumstances it would be enough, but deep down even you know that this war is wrong. We need to know the other side's story before we make any drastic moves. I just hope that Xen and Gerrel honour the agreement and retreat behind the relay once we disable the Reaper signal."

"I hope so, too," Tali kind of sobbed - it was hard to tell through the helmet.

"You okay?" Garrus asked immediately. He and Jo moved closer to Tali and flanked her in front of the window.

"No, I'm really not," she sobbed for real. "Seventeen million lives are riding on me... and I don't know if I can save them."

Garrus' arm went around her waist, and so did Jo's from the other side.

"You're not alone," Jo said.

"You know I would do anything for you," Garrus said, then added: "We all would."

"This was supposed to be my father's fight, but he left me with all of this!" Tali sounded angry now and Jo preferred that over desolation any day. "I feel like I'm bluffing, trying to convince them that the admiral's daughter knows what she's doing."

"Not the admiral's daughter," Jo cut her off decisively. "The admiral. And Tali, you do know what you're doing. You're not only a badass, you're my badass. Our badass. Hey, I'm winging it most of the time, but deep inside I always know what the right thing to do is, and Tali, you're just like me that way. You know. You feel it. And you have the guts to stand up for what you believe in. That's why you're a worthy admiral, not because of your father."

"I couldn't do this without you guys," Tali nodded, still looking at the void outside. "And at least now I can push against the worst ideas."

"Exactly."


Joker didn't like it, not one bit. Sure, it was nice to have Tali on board, for however long it lasted. He could feel his baby purr like a kitten under his fingers once Tali got to Engineering. But they were headed into a war where they had allies on both sides, where both sides had valuable resources for the Reaper war. He still wasn't sure how it was supposed to work - in his understanding they would need to find Legion to start any real negotiations between the two sides, but Legion always reiterated that it wasn't an individual, just a platform for the geth consensus. In that case any geth platform would do, right? It was mind boggling.

Jo had to give Garrus a look when he demanded to go with her to the geth dreadnought and she shot him down, taking Vega instead. Grumbling, Garrus remained in charge of the ship in her absence. Vega tried his charm on Tali by giving her a nickname, Sparks, but even her helmet hadn't stopped her from shooting him a look of her own. Joker cackled quietly: Tali was too smart and too independent to join his fan club. Good girl.

Joker absolutely didn't like being parked right next to the dreadnought and sitting there, hoping that the geth wouldn't look out of the window. Jo, making her way into the dreadnought, egged him on about geth not using windows, and he knew she had a point, but he still didn't have to like it. He felt like they were sitting ducks and the shit would hit the fan at any moment.

"Holy cow!" Jo exclaimed when they reached the source of the Reaper signal and realised it was transmitted through Legion. Joker shared her sentiment, and so did Garrus, who observed the whole mission from behind Joker. "Why do I always have to be the one to find people strapped into these kinds of contraptions?! First David Archer, now you, Legion. What the fuck?"

And then Legion said the one thing that Joker knew would seal the fate of the entire quarian-geth conflict:

"Shepard-Commander, help us!"

Joker held his breath, and so did Garrus, as Tali cautioned against releasing a possibly hostile unit and Legion agreed to submit to confinement if freed, gaining some of Tali's trust. The team got to work on removing the shackles holding Legion in place, and Jo started pumping the geth for information:

"How did the Reapers get control of the geth?"

"They did not," Legion sounded a little panicked, if such a thing was possible. "The creators attacked. The geth wished to live. The Old Machines extended an offer."

"Holy shit," Garrus hissed. "Now what do we do?"

Joker shrugged, chewing his knuckle. He understood the implications as well as Garrus did. If Legion spoke the truth - which it most likely did - then Jo had no right to help the quarians in the war. It was her moral obligation to solve this conflict peacefully. Garrus was right: how were they supposed to do that?!

The shit hit the fan rather unexpectedly. Though... did it really? Legion disabled the dreadnought's drive core, leaving the ship vulnerable. Admiral Raan ordered the civilian quarian ships to withdraw behind the relay, but Xen and Gerrel had other plans. They turned the Heavy and the Patrol Fleets to fire on the dreadnought. Tali spoke for them all when she shouted:

"What are they doing? We're still on board!"

But the quarians didn't seem to care. Right in front of Joker their ships took formation and aimed their main guns at the geth flagship. Joker panicked, turning over his shoulder to Garrus:

"Do something!"

Garrus leaned over to his console and brought up the audio connection to the quarian fleet. His voice sounded menacing:

"Admiral Gerrel, this is Garrus Vakarian of the Normandy. If you or any of your ships open fire on that dreadnought while Commander Shepard or Admiral Tali'Zorah are still on board, I will open fire on your flagship and our negotiations with the quarians will be over."

Joker's heart didn't beat in the seconds of silence that followed. But in the end Gerrel chose to ignore Garrus' threat. Joker's guts froze when the man spoke on all channels:

"Open fire."

Joker felt like he was having a heart attack as he watched the ships line up their cannons and open fire. In desperation he turned to Garrus. The turian nodded grimly and gave his own order:

"Do it. But don't fire on Gerrel's flagship, go for this one," he pointed at the most formidable ship in the fleet with the best guns. It wasn't the biggest, but it packed the most power. "Aim for their guns and give them hell. Take their shots if necessary, our shields will have to hold until the women are off that dreadnought."

Joker was immensely grateful for the orders. His hands flew over the console as he brought the Normandy between the quarian fleet and the dreadnought. He heard through another channel that Legion was evacuating the team in a geth fighter. They needed some time and he would give them as much as they needed. He opened fire. The ship Garrus chose had weakened shields after a lengthy battle earlier and it wasn't difficult to take them down. Their guns however were still strong and took Joker's shield down fifty percent before he finally shot down four out of their five cannons.

"Normandy, what are you doing?" The Captain of that ship shouted.

"Admiral Han'Gerrel declared war on us and committed treason by attempting to murder one of your own admirals, Captain," Garrus reasoned. "I have been forced to take action in return and will continue to do so until the safety of my people is secured or until you cease fire."

"Keep firing," Gerrel shouted.

"I have only one cannon left, Admiral," the quarian Captain sounded conflicted. "Cease fire."

"Go for Gerrel's flagship," Garrus ordered Joker immediately, but before he could move Legion spoke up, sending them rendezvous coordinates. Neither Joker nor Garrus cared about anything else. It sounded like the team plus Legion had made it out just fine and the Normandy left the area immediately, abandoning the quarians and the dreadnought to their fate.

They arrived first at the coordinates and in the minutes before the geth fighter docked Joker, trying to get his hands to stop shaking, realised that the entire crew was fuming with righteous anger at the quarian admirals. And when Jo, Tali, Vega and Legion stepped on board, they were fuming just as much.

Garrus abandoned the cockpit and caught up with Tali to make sure she was all right. Joker couldn't help a small grin. Jo was right: the two of them were so hopelessly in love that it was painful to watch, and yet they seemed oblivious.

"Normandy, this is admiral Raan requesting a meeting with Commander Shepard," one of his channels spoke up.

"You've got the nerve!" He snapped.

"I know," the woman sounded resigned. "And I am sorry. But we need to resolve this situation one way or another and we need each other's help. Please, let us meet and talk it out."

"I will relay your message to my Commander," Joker spat. "The decision is hers."

"I understand."

When he did, Jo's decision was clear:

"Let only the admirals on board and follow the hostile boarding protocol."

"Gladly," Joker nodded and sent a message to Rodney. When the quarian shuttles showed up, though, it wasn't just Rodney and his security team aiming their rifles at the airlock. Vega, Garrus, Cortez, Liara, Javik and EDI joined them with their own guns.

Han'Gerrel was the last one to appear and his escort to the war room looked more like a terrorist transfer. In Joker's eyes that was exactly who the man was.

The shouting started immediately and most of the crew stood behind Joker, watching it on his screens.

"I should charge you with treason!" Raan got in Gerrel's face.

"I was within my authority as the admiral of the Heavy Fleet!" He shouted back.

"And what of Shepard? And Tali'Zorah?"

"Punch his teeth out, girl," Joker snarled when Jo and Tali entered the room on his screens. His company agreed with him. Jo didn't disappoint. When Gerrel appealed to her military history to get her to understand his decision, she grabbed the hoses connecting his helmet to his suit and ripped them so hard that not only did they come loose with a hiss - the admiral was forced to his knees in front of her.

"What have you done!" Xen screeched, trying to fix his suit. Jo towered over the kneeling man with an icy face:

"Admiral, you jeopardised your mission and your people, you tried to murder one of your fellow admirals as well as an emissary of the Council with the authority to offer you assistance. I formally charge you with treason and insist on being present during your trial."

"I might not survive with such damage to my suit!" He groaned, gasping for air.

"So you know how my team and I felt. It's the same kind of odds you gave us: you're only mostly likely to die, not for certain. I'd say we leave it to fate. If you die, you won't have to stand trial, be stripped of all your ranks, honours and your good name in public. Maybe I've done you a huge favour, admiral. Now, get the fuck off my ship."

She snapped her fingers and Rodney forcefully escorted the man towards the airlock. Joker would have taken pleasure in watching his undignified departure, but Legion chose that moment to enter the war room.

"What the hell is this?!" This time it was Raan who screeched, while Xen's eyes lit up even through the helmet mask.

"Everybody calm down," Jo barked. "This is Legion, my old friend."

"This is a fascinating prototype," Xen's grabby hands already stretched out towards Legion, shaking with greed. "With some study I may be able to use it to find a weakness in the geth consensus."

Jo put a hand on Xen's shoulder and slowly turned her to get face to face. She spoke slowly, but her voice sent shivers through everyone who heard her:

"And I, with some study, may find a way to turn your skin inside out, make your heart beat on the outside of your body and your intestines to go back up through your throat. And if none of that works, I may still be able to find a weakness in your skull and scoop your useless brain with my ice cream spoon."

"The scientific benefits..." Xen tried to use her authoritative voice but she was as successful at intimidating Jo as a hanar baby would be.

"Are off the table. Unless you want your brain to end up on my table. Legion is a member of my team, it's your best and only chance to reach an understanding with the geth without dooming your entire species to eradication, so its place on my ship is more than justified. You, on the other hand, aren't even a real admiral, so shut up and listen when your betters speak."

"How dare you! I am an ad..."

"All you command are a few research vessels, so you're of no use in the war. And don't you come to me talking about your valuable research because you're an unscrupulous, immoral, depraved, corrupt and greedy woman who'd sold her soul to the devil a long time ago and values science more than she values the lives of people who depend on her, more than any life, really. Something tells me that if other quarians had a closer look at your labs, they'd find enough evidence to lock you up for unethical experiments for the rest of your life, so as I said: shut up, or I'll take your threats against my friend personally. You don't want to know what happens then."

Xen stood, stunned by the outburst and Joker was absolutely sure that she wasn't going to mention those unethical experiments again because she definitely had a few skeletons in her closet and an inspection in her labs would be the last thing she wanted. Raan, ever the diplomat, spoke up, trying to soothe the tempers:

"Shepard, I understand your anger..."

"Your ruling body is in desperate need of cleansing, admiral Raan," Jo spoke calmly and politely, showing everyone in the room that despite her harsh words she was in perfect control of her nerves and only directed her anger at those who deserved it. "I have the authority to negotiate a treaty between the Council forces and your fleet, but I will not be dealing with liars and traitors who openly break any deal I make with them before the mission is even over. I can help you in this war against the geth, but I will only negotiate with you, Tali'Zorah and Zaal'Koris. If you want my and Legion's help, make sure that nothing like today happens again."

"She sure knows how to shame and motivate people," Allers noted from the crowd behind Joker's seat. As a journalist she wanted to see everything, especially when history was in the making like today. And she was right. Jo had unpacked her larger-than-life personality for those admirals and they had better be shaking in their boots.

For a while they all watched them make plans to find and disable the Reaper short range control base. Everyone could see how shocked Raan and Xen were when Legion offered assistance in order to limit casualties among the quarians.

"What a day," Joker said to Jo much later, when all their guests had departed and Legion was working hard on finding that Reaper signal base.

"It's only just starting," Jo said after kicking EDI out of the co-pilot's chair. "We're going to have to look for Koris, disable that server, and destroy the Reaper base - all today, if at all possible."

"No pressure, then," he deadpanned. He was already setting course to admiral Koris' ship's last known coordinates. "How are you doing?"

"Not sure. On the one hand I'm sick of dealing with liars and cheaters who can't wait to stab me in the back. Why don't they ever realise that no matter how hard they stab, I'll always come back to get even? I actually came back from the dead, that should have given most people a clue by now. On the other hand I have this feeling..."

"What feeling?"

"Before we went to the dreadnought I had a feeling that I shouldn't promise the quarians my assistance blindly before I heard the other side of the story. Now I have and it turns out I was right. The geth only allied themselves with the Reapers out of self-preservation. And now I have this feeling that there is a way out of this without choosing a side, a way to make everyone happy. I just have to find it. And to do that I'll have to put a lot of faith in both parties. Parties that haven't exactly been straight with me so far."

Joker thought about her words and something struck him as strange:

"Why are you discussing this with me instead of Garrus, who is your second in command, or with Vega, who's been designated by the ICA to learn your trade?"

"Because I like talking to you more. You don't look up to me as they do. You just believe in me, the way I am. You're not only my lover, you're also my best friend and as such invaluable."

"At the risk of sounding like a silly douche, you're not only my lover and my best friend, you're also the goddess I believe in most. I'd follow you anywhere, as you already know."

Jo smiled a little before turning serious again. She said very quietly:

"I need to say something. I need someone to know before the shit really hits the fan, and you're the best keeper of my secrets."

"Uhuh?"

"I'm not going to kill the geth in this war," she declared. "I mean, sure I'll kill some geth to get where I need to go and they're in my way, but I won't be siding with the quarians to eradicate the geth as a species. I can't do that. It's jut not an option for me."

"Like you couldn't kill the rachni queen," Joker nodded. "I understand, I do. You can't commit genocide, no matter what's the race's history. Can I ask you something, though?"

"Sure."

"Can you kill the Reapers? Not just one or two in a battle, but all Reapers as a species?"

It almost shocked him when she responded immediately without taking time to even think about it:

"If the Reapers give me any other choice but to seek their total annihilation, I'll consider it very strongly. No matter what our history says, I don't actually hate them. They are my opponents in this conflict, but just like with the quarians and the geth, the Reapers have their side of the story. I've tried talking to Sovereign, asked every Reaper I could to tell me their side. So far they refused, but it doesn't mean that their side isn't legit, at least in their own understanding of the situation. As long as they threaten me and mine I will work against them, of course, and if that means killing them all, then so be it. But if there was a chance to come to an understanding, I would make use of it."

"That wouldn't be a very popular view of things with the public," he observed carefully.

"I know, and I'm not really the right person to talk about this. I haven't lost anyone to the Reapers so far. You lost your mother to them, you have a reason to hate them. Garrus probably lost his family, hell, everyone on this ship but me has lost someone. I'm just the lucky one who doesn't have any blood family to lose, so I don't act out of hate here."

"Which probably makes you the only person in the galaxy with enough distance from the situation to see the bigger picture."

"And that observation, my love, is the reason I'm talking to you and not Vega or anyone else," she said with an enigmatic smile. Her words surprised him enough to distract him from calculations.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning your integrity, hidden beneath thick layers of sarcasm, snobbishness and disdain, is as great as mine. Meaning your opinion matters to me. Meaning you don't judge, not when it really matters. Meaning every day I thank my lucky star for bringing you into my life."

For a very long moment Joker simply didn't know what to say. Nothing meaningful came to mind, nothing that would match the weight of her words in any way. So, when his mouth finally started to work, there was no filter to his speech:

"Geez, Jo, don't get all mushy on me. I don't like tears and snot on my uniform."

Instead of being offended, though, she reached out and took his hand.

"That's what I love so much about you," she said and leaned back in her chair, still holding his hand. Why, yes, he could navigate the ship one-handed as well, which he proudly demonstrated as they sat together for a while, holding hands between their seats and saying nothing.