Later that day Jo called Joker to check in.
"So, how is it going?" He asked. "Any new scars or bruises?"
"No, nothing of the sort. It's actually going quite nicely. We're both here, you know, talking. Bonding."
"Oh, great, thanks for that image in my head. Two Shepards bonding… I think I'm getting a nosebleed."
"Keep dreaming," Jo chuckled.
"How do I know it's really you, though?" He squinted at her. "You could be the other one posing as you."
"I'm still pregnant."
"It's not like you're showing."
"You changed one of your tattoos for me."
"Hm. So, where is… the other one? How are things really going? Did she try to run? Or kill you again? Don't tell me she just trusts you. What is she like?"
"She is… angry, confused and lonely."
"That's a diplomatic answer. How is she really?"
"It's the truth. I would tell you that even if she didn't stand right outside my room, eavesdropping."
Joker chuckled, and Jo heard a little shuffle from the corridor. She curled up on the bed on front of her opened computer. Joker grabbed the opportunity:
"Move closer to the camera. Stretch out your legs and lift your shirt."
"Oh, I knew it. You didn't want to see me at all, you were just waiting for a chance to see someone else."
"Are you jealous?"
"Only a little."
"We won't make mama jealous, will we, little baby?" He cooed, talking to her belly. Jo arched her back, exposing her midriff to the camera.
"You're going to spoil that kid rotten before it's even born, I swear."
"That's what they're for."
"No, they're not."
"Are you saying kids are there for military drills?"
"I'm saying sometimes drills aren't such a bad thing."
"Well, you can drill my ass for insubordination any time you want, sugar."
"I might just do that."
"Promises, promises."
"Would you like that?" She made herself comfortable for a longer conversation with her husband. Another shuffle outside her room told her that Justine sat down on the floor, shamelessly listening in.
"Oh, Mistress, please, spank me hard!" Joker moaned, half-laughing.
"You know I don't do things half-assed. You want to be spanked, you'll get bruises of all colours on your pretty ass."
"Again, promises, promises!"
They kept the banter up for a while. A part of Jo cursed her for coming here alone. She missed her man like there was no tomorrow, his absence felt like a hole in her soul. A bigger part of her knew that Justine needed to take it slow in her new life.
Next morning Jo found Justine in the kitchen trying to make breakfast. It wasn't going so well.
"You don't cook?" Jo asked and received a deadly glare:
"Yeah, that was the first priority for Cerberus after I woke up. Teach me how to cook."
"I did wonder how that went down. You said that you spent months learning how to be human."
"They taught me what I needed to know to survive and get to you."
"In short, they didn't bother to make you a decent person, it sufficed to make you a Shepard-hunter?"
Justine looked away and muttered:
"Something like that."
"So what really happened? Tell me."
Justine left the breakfast alone and sat down on the floor, leaning her back against the counters.
"When I woke up, I was disoriented, in agony, but I didn't even know the word for that. I had no memories. Nothing. Blank slate. Maya was there. She put a neural implant in my skull. It gave me the necessary language skill. I could talk and understand what she was saying. It was weird, having all the words in me but no meaning attached."
"Like Grunt," Jo nodded. She had seen this happen before.
"Wouldn't know. She asked me questions I didn't know how to answer. How I felt. If I remembered anything. That's how I learned what anger and frustration were. Didn't know anything except a bunch of meaningless words. Maya put me in a training room to get me in touch with my body and got me some more neural implants. There was information. On you. On me. On the Reapers, the war, the galaxy. I was working through that and working out in the gym. After a few weeks she made me watch vids. About you, mostly. She kept talking about how I would be a much better Commander Shepard. What reason did I have not to believe her? I didn't even know there was such thing as not believing. I watched news, vids, learned the most basic concepts of what it means to be alive. Eating. Hygiene. Clothes. Reading. Things like that. She said it didn't matter whether I had a sense of humour, it was more important that I knew how to shoot."
"Fuck," Jo exhaled. "It makes me furious on your behalf. If I could bring her back to life, I'd decapitate her all over again."
"Look," Justine shot her another evil stare. "I don't know what you think is going on here, but I still don't trust you."
"Yeah, and that's a good thing." Jo took over making breakfast. "With your life experiences it would be silly of you just to believe me. I for my part will do whatever I can to earn your trust. Thing is, I have to go back in three days. It is entirely up to you what you want to do then."
"Go back where?" Justine sounded just a tiny little bit panicked, and Jo inwardly punched the air in triumph.
"Home. Joker and I live on Chrysalis now. The colony grew to several million people after the war, the industry is booming, the cities are expanding. All races are there, living and working together. I'm the new leader of the ICA now, by the way. I teach my recruits Leadership. Joker is one of my instructors, he teaches them flying. We just had our house furnished. It's on the planet's surface. I never had a house, so it takes some adjusting. Nobody knows that I'm pregnant yet, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread it around. Since we didn't tell anyone where I went, people will start getting curious soon. I can't leave my recruits for too long, so I'm heading back in a few days."
"And what about me?"
"You have options. Mostly it all depends on whether you want the galaxy to know about you and our relationship, or if you'd like to make a name for yourself without being judged by my past and your Cerberus connection. Either way, I'll stand by you and support your decision."
"And what do you reckon will happen if I announce publicly that I'm your clone?"
"A gigantic shitstorm."
"And if I don't?"
"Depends on what you want to do. If you want to become famous, people will notice the resemblance very soon. If you want to stay low-key, it'll be easier. Whatever you decide, I would like you to come with me to Chrysalis for the time being. I need to go back, but I'd love to spend a lot more time with you, get to know you. However, if you decide to accompany me, there are a few rules."
Justine narrowed her eyes:
"What rules?"
"First: if you as much as bat an eyelash threateningly in my child's direction, I will rip you to tiny pieces, sister or not. Don't make the same mistake Brooks did. This is not a threat, it's a warning about my intentions. Second: if you make a move on my husband in any way, I will destroy you and piss on your ashes. And third: leave Vega alone. He's madly in love with me. It would be unimaginably cruel if you showed interest in him. He couldn't resist you, but only because you look just like me. He doesn't deserve being played like that, he's a good guy."
"That's it? What about your other friends?"
"They can handle you," Jo shrugged and put two plates with omelettes, toast and waffles on the table.
Justine took a fork and poked the food silently for a while. Then she said, trying to sound nonchalant:
"And what if I meet this Vega guy and it's true love or something?"
"I would rather you first learned a bit more about love, before you decided you're in it."
Justine's face scrunched a little in resentment, but Jo had a feeling it wasn't directed at her.
"Have you ever actually had sex?" She asked apropos. Justine shook her head. "Good," Jo nodded. "I don't approve of the company you kept before we met."
"So that's how it is? I need your approval now?" Justine snapped.
"For your own sake, just make sure you care about the guy or the girl at least a little bit before you fuck them. If not, you'll just end up wondering why people would want to do that again."
"Is that what happened to you?"
"Very much so, I'm afraid."
"Yeah, whatever." Justine abandoned her breakfast and returned to her room, which she didn't leave for the rest of the day. Jo had no idea what her sister would decide regarding her future. It seemed that sometimes she thawed a little bit, opened up to the possibility of trusting Jo, but then clammed up again and went back to silent treatment. Of course, Jo could relate to the emotional rollercoaster after the resurrection. She just wished there was a shortcut through this, and that Justine didn't have to deal with Cerberus teachings on top of coming back to life.
Justine only resurfaced in the evening of the next day. She found Jo working on her computer and datapads in the cafeteria, and sat in a chair opposite her.
"What are you going to name the kid?" She asked out of the blue. Jo paused.
"We haven't talked about it yet. I can only say for myself, but if it's a boy, I'd name him Jeff, like his father. Haven't thought about a girl's name yet."
For a long time they sat in silence. Jo looked at Justine, Justine looked into space. Eventually she shrugged and muttered:
"I don't know what to think. You're so different from what Maya taught me you would be. I don't know anything anymore. She really screwed me over, didn't she?"
"Yeah."
"What would you do if I said I wanted to venture out on my own once you leave?"
"I would give you money, a shuttle, a very detailed galaxy map, all the possible ways to contact me and Jeff, and put Dex on your trail. He's an AI I'm working with at the ICA. I'd want to know how you're doing and if you need help. And then I'd keep sending you birthday cards and pictures of your nephew or niece."
Justine chewed her cheeks from the inside.
"Birthday cards? Do you even know when my birthday is?"
"Sure I do. April 11, 2154."
"That's not..."
"It is. You're my twin sister and we share the same birthday. In fact..." She pushed one of the datapads towards Justine. She took it and looked. The datapad showed the digital copy of her birth certificate and ID, complete with a picture and a handprint. It was issued for one Justine Solveig Shepard, born 11.04.2154.
"Sol-what?" Justine frowned at her new middle name.
"Sol-vay, or Sool-vei, whichever you prefer." Jo pronounced it for her. "It's Norwegian or Swedish. Sol means the sun, veig means strength."
"Justice as strong as the sun?" Justine mused, still looking at the screen.
"Something like that."
"How did you get this?"
"Called in a favour," Jo shrugged. In truth, there was hardly anyone in the universe who wouldn't bend over backwards if Jo asked for something.
"So if I go on my own, I can still have this?"
"Yes."
"I'll go with you."
"Is that a hypothetical question or your decision?"
"My decision. For now."
Joker sat down at his new computer for a scheduled check-in with Jo. On Earth it was the morning of the last day she was going to spend in Greenland and he was very nervous about what was going on.
When the call finally came through and the screen lit up, Joker instinctively jumped back. There were two of them. Identical. Two women that looked just like his wife sat on the bed, looking at him through the camera.
"Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" He cursed and lifted a finger at them: "Whichever one of you it was the other day, I told you, I'm not playing that kind of game, I don't like to be set up for failure!"
They still watched him silently. One wore her hair down in soft waves around her face, the other one had it in a slick pony tail in the back of her head. They both wore clothes Joker thought could be Jo's. And from his angle he couldn't see any distinguishing marks. Shit.
But then suddenly… his eyes darted back and forth between them, seeing something he never thought was possible to see. Not that easily. And yet…
"Wait a moment," he looked even closer, as both women were watching him. "It's actually not that hard." His eyes finally rested on the one on the left, the woman with the slick ponytail, wearing a yellow shirt. He looked at her firmly and declared: "You. Are not my wife."
"You sure?" She asked and her voice just confirmed his conviction.
"Absolutely."
The other one, with open hair, wearing a dark red shirt with a low cut neckline, tilted her head:
"How?"
Now, her voice was the last argument he needed to know for sure. He looked back and forth between them again, smiling this time:
"I never thought the difference was so big, overwhelming, even. Same face, same woman, only you," he pointed at red-shirted Jo. "You're in love with me. And you," he nodded at the yellow-shirted clone. "Are wary of me."
Jo smiled in such a brilliant way that his insides boiled.
"Really?"
"Positive. When I look at you," he spoke to his wife. "I know you. Every inch of you. Your face, your skin, your whole body belongs to me, you carry my seal on you, you're marked mine, I could probably point you out in an army of clones. Don't know if you could hide that love in your eyes even if you wanted to. You're my woman and you know it. You, on the other hand," he turned to the clone. "You're blank. You may have the same face, same lips, but I know for sure I never touched them."
"Well," Jo said with a proud smile. "Now you know that you can indeed tell the difference. If she ever tries to take my place, you'll know exactly she's not me."
Now that this was sorted out, Joker leaned back and sagged on exhale. How could he ever have thought he wouldn't be able to recognise the love of his life? Every minute his Jo seemed more and more obviously… his.
"So, how are things going? How is this freaky-Jo acclimatising? Oh, wait, freaky-Jo is already taken. What are you?" He turned to the other woman. "Pseudo-Jo? Robo-Jo? Copy-Jo?"
"Her name is Justine," Jo chimed in. "Please, be nice to my sister."
"I'm never nice, it's my calling card."
"Oh, I can handle an asshole," Justine chuckled almost bitterly. Jo gently stroked her arm:
"Please, kids, be nice. For me."
"Only if I absolutely must," Joker shrugged.
"Who is Freaky Jo?" Jo asked.
"You when you just got resurrected the first time around and went on a murderous rampage. Wait a second, turn your head."
"Why?" Jo turned her face the way he indicated.
"What is that?" He pointed at a shadow on her cheek bone.
"Oh, I had a nightmare last night, Justine had to wake me up."
Joker turned to the clone with menace:
"What the fuck did you do to her?"
"Slapped her."
"I'm the expert in my woman's bruises and that doesn't look like any slap I've ever seen!"
"I punched her, okay? She was screaming, thrashing, and wouldn't wake up, so I sucker-punched her. Woke her up just fine."
"Never punch my woman again," he said with murderous intent. Then turned to Jo: "I never had to punch you to wake you up."
"How do you do it, then?" Justine demanded.
"By touching her face, shoulders, arms, hands. She responds very well when I rub her cheeks with my thumbs."
"Okay, it sounds like your magic touch." Jo nodded. "Nobody can do what you can do. When you're not here, someone has to punch me."
"Which tells you one thing."
"What?"
"You should be back with me and never leave."
Jo chuckled gently and gave him a look filled with so much love that he almost died.
Justine now looked back and forth between them with a slight pain in her eyes. Jo or not Jo, he didn't like that particular expression on that particular face. It changed something in him, woke his protective instinct, made him feel a little like he'd felt about Gunny.
"So, Justine," he said. "Did you pick your own name?"
She blinked, surprised to be spoken to so lightly, with acceptance.
"Uhm. No, Jo did."
"Why Justine?" He asked Jo, and she smiled. It was the right question.
"Well, it had to be a J, it's like tradition. My name is at once simple and pretentious, just like my whole personality. Justine sounds just as pretentious, as I have no doubt you are," she said to her sister. "You'll find your own way, of course, but I like to think that you'll be scarily good at bringing justice, unwavering, unbending and true, loyal only to the greater good, like those statues they used to put up in court houses: Lady Justice, blind, wielding a sword and holding the scales. I don't think my sister could become anything less than that."
"Great, no pressure or anything," Joker chuckled, as he saw Justine being quite moved by the words.
"Yeah, all those expectations. Aren't you afraid I might fail?" She said with a forced smile.
"No. In my eyes you can never fail. Besides, I'm always here if you need help. We both are, right?" Jo turned to the screen for Joker's approval.
"Uhm. Sure. And what should we call you, as a nickname?" Joker raised an eyebrow at Justine. "Tina?"
"Hell no."
"Tiny Teen?"
"No!"
"Ju-Ju?"
"I will hurt you."
"Girl, I've been hearing threats for years now from people far scarier than you," Joker shrugged nonchalantly. "How about Genie?"
"You will call me Jen, if you absolutely must have a nickname for me." Justine graced him with a reply.
"Of course we must. We all have ours so let's call it family tradition."
"Would that be a Shepard or a Moreau tradition?" Justine mocked.
"Same shit, as far as I'm concerned."
"Jeff, we'll be coming back to Chrysalis together," Jo grew more serious. Joker turned off the teasing and asked Justine:
"Will you be staying at our house?"
"I'd prefer not to. Since I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with my unexpected new life, I don't want to become the centre of a media circus. If it's all the same to you, I'll stay at some quiet place and... look at what your world is like."
"I'll take care of it," Joker nodded. "You'll have a place to stay and I'll guide you to the planet in a way nobody in customs will know there are two of you."
"You're the hero of my dreams," Jo flashed him a brilliant smile. Joker heart's pinched at the sight of it. After disconnecting the call he sat down to work out details.
"You did that on purpose!" Justine snarled at Jo when the screen went dark. "Let him see the bruise!"
"Yes," Jo agreed calmly. "I wanted to make a point."
"What point?"
"First of all, my husband is not a pushover. And he's incredibly possessive and protective of me. He may not be strong enough to hurt you with his fists, but he can still drop a Kodiak on you. Repeatedly. He also has about five hundred people at his disposal who would do anything for him. If he takes offence, you should be very afraid. Second of all, I wanted you to see that he doesn't hate you on principle. His main concern was that you would try to hurt me, or take my place again, that you could cause damage to our marriage and to the whole galaxy. Now that he saw that he can distinguish between us and that you're not running from us towards world domination, he's willing to give you a chance. He's even explained to you how to handle my problems correctly. That was an olive branch, so take it."
"Pfft," Justine huffed, but there was no venom. If anything, she seemed pleased.
Before they left the planet Jo took Justine on a little detour to Canada. She could see signs of new life in the ruins of her home city, even though all the tall buildings and monuments were dust.
"Where are we?" Justine shivered in the cold October wind when they stepped onto a field dotted with headstones.
"If you ever wonder about your roots, there they are," Jo waved her hand at a small, neglected plate. John and Janina Shepard. Justine cocked her head, reading the names.
"Those are your parents?"
"Our parents, yes."
"You sound like you don't care about them much," Justine abandoned looking at the plate, deeming Jo a more interesting subject.
"I don't. They were two junkies who shouldn't have had children in the first place."
"I did some research, but I never found out anything about them."
"That's because I classified all intel. If there is a legend of Shepard, these two people don't deserve a spot in it."
"You're really full of yourself, aren't you?" Justine snorted. The sound snapped Jo out of her thoughts. She smiled widely. This was exactly what she'd imagined having a sister would be like. Someone besides Joker to slap some sense into her when she got carried away. Someone to bring her down to the ground if she lifted up on the wings of her own glory.
"Guess I am," she shrugged.
"Tell me about them," Justine jerked her head towards the stone plate, but steered Jo towards the Corvette. It was clear that the place and the headstone meant nothing to her, Jo's memories were her real connection to their roots.
Jo told her everything she knew about her parents, showed her the few pictures she had of them, and flew Justine over Vancouver, showing her the Tenth Street and the abandoned warehouse where she spent ten horrific years of her life. She told her about Gore Stanbury, his gang, his ways of treating her and other children, showed her the place where she'd killed her first man, and the spot on the shore where she'd ended up after Gore had attacked her on her eighteenth birthday, where she made the decision that changed her life forever: to join the Alliance.
When the story ended, there was nothing left for either of them on this planet.
Several days later they approached Chrysalis. Being locked together on a small Corvette didn't make Justine more talkative. She spent most of the time on her bunk, sunk deep in her thoughts. Joker guided Jo to a tiny dock in a village far away from the capital, where nobody expected Commander Moreau in a million years. When he showed up at the dock flashing his name and all authorisations, the dock security was too stunned to look closely at the Corvette, let alone check how many people were on board.
When Joker boarded the ship, Justine was staying out of sight. He didn't even seem to notice as he rushed over and grabbed Jo in a tight embrace and planted a hungry kiss on her. After claiming her profoundly and covering her whole face in small kisses he finally crouched before her and buried his face in her belly, greeting his baby.
Justine still stayed away while Joker took over flying the Corvette and steered it towards a small city just an hour away from Chrysalis and their own new house. He landed in a big garden of a small house Jo didn't recognise. Neat lines of trees hid the property from neighbours. Finally it was time to leave the ship.
It was late evening and lights were out on the property, which allowed the three of them sufficient cover to get inside the house without being noticed by the neighbours. Once inside, Joker fixed an intense stare on Justine. She tried to look tough, but it was clear to Jo that she was squirming under his scrutiny. Joker took a full minute to look her over, before he hmpf-ed and pulled out a datapad.
"Let's get business out of the way first," he declared, activating it. "This is the information on your new bank account and the deed to this house. It's officially yours. Tomorrow afternoon your car will be delivered. You are also a shareholder in an insurance company, which generates modest income, so that you don't have to look for a job if you don't want to. None of it is linked to me, Jo or the ICA in any way."
Justine stared at the datapad with awe:
"You did that for me in just a few days?"
"It's the least I can do if you're going to be my sister in law." Joker still stared at her heavily, even though Jo was almost jumping up and down next to him, excited about his efforts. While Justine was still looking at the datapad, Joker went to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of liquor out of the cabinet. He put it on the kitchen table with a firm clink. "And now you and I will have a drink and a long, hard talk."
Justine's face fell. She eyed him warily, then the bottle, then him again. She had half a mind to refuse and curse him to leave her alone and never come near her again.
"Sit. Now," Joker pointed at the chair uncompromisingly. Before Justine knew what hit her, her legs carried her to the chair. Jo smiled when she saw her sister surprised by her own obedience. Oh, she had a lot to learn about Joker yet. "Jo," he turned to his wife. "Give us some time alone, please."
Justine panicked and tried to get up, but he pointed a warning finger at her.
"I'll wait for you in the ship," Jo nodded, kissed her man and left the house again. She grinned all the way outside. Justine was about to have her first cultural shock from interacting with a real human being, not an Alliance reject or a Cerberus renegade.
Joker pulled two glasses from another cabinet and poured the drinks. Then he sat down across from Justine, who was still clutching the datapad, and took a big sip.
"So," he began. "Here we are." She eyed him with barely hidden panic, he could tell. He pushed the second glass towards her and ordered her to drink. Just like Jo, her sister didn't seem capable of disobeying his direct command. He understood now what Jo meant when she said that there was no real depth of personality to this woman yet. There was force behind her eyes, but no conviction. She'd lived for six months and spent a year dead. She was basically a blank page and he may not be stronger than her physically, but he had her firmly in his grip just by looking at her. "I'm not usually the guy to give people a second chance. But for Jo's sake I'm willing to try with you."
Justine grunted, downing the whole drink at once.
"You've made a very bad first impression, girl," he informed her. "You touched my ship. That's the kind of crime I'd be hard-pressed to forgive even if you were my best friend. You also ruined my date with Jo, you made her break her hand and destroyed our whole shore leave with your antics. Most importantly, you upset Jo so much that she wasn't herself for several days after your death. I might forgive you touching the Normandy one day, but upsetting Jo is a crime that deserves capital punishment in my opinion. Make sure you never ever do that again."
He finished his drink and poured them both a second one.
"Jo is a big softie when it comes to family. She wants a sister, which puts you in a perfect position to break her heart. Are you going to break her heart?"
"I'll... uhm... I'll try not to," Justine croaked through dry throat. He could tell that she was scared shitless right now.
"Not good enough," he snapped. "Why did you come here with her? What are you planning to do?"
"I don't know."
"Try harder. Why did you choose to come here?"
Justine downed another drink and grimaced.
"I don't know, I guess I was intrigued by Jo. She insists that she's different than Maya, that she wants me for who I am, not as a means to an end. I wanted to see if that's true. Maybe... I don't know, maybe I just wanted to see what the big deal is about having a family."
"Did you attack Jo when you came back to life? Tried to hit her? Maybe used a weapon against her?"
"Well, yeah, to see how strong she is. To see if she's a good a fighter as the legends claim. But she wouldn't fight me, even a little!" Justine defended herself quickly. "She explained that she's pregnant and done with fighting."
"And you accepted that?"
"Sure."
"Why?"
"She's pregnant, man. I may be a meat bag rejected by Cerberus, but even I understand the meaning of 'pregnant'."
"And you care?"
"That's my nephew," Justine snapped at Joker with indignation. "I don't know what you take me for, but I would never harm a child, especially one that's related to me by blood."
"You tried very hard to make everyone believe you're an unscrupulous, cold, calculating bitch, so don't snap at me for wondering, girl. According to Jo you only wanted her attention and approval, you never really tried to kill her. She's the fighter, so I trust her when she says that. I want to know your side of the story, though. Is it true?"
Justine finished her third drink and poured herself a fourth.
"Yeah," she admitted after drinking half of it.
"Why did you agree to the Bitch's plan to steal Jo's identity?"
"Hey, show me a person who wouldn't want to be Commander Shepard."
"You're looking at him. 'Cause I know exactly what it takes to be Jo, and trust me, it ain't pretty." Joker finished his own drink to get the next one. "It's despair and desolation. And never ending exhaustion."
They were both starting to feel the buzz of alcohol.
"Do you still want to be Johanna Shepard?"
"No. I gave it a lot of thought since waking up. Maya told me that I was destined to be a new Johanna Shepard, that it was my life's purpose. But when I asked Jo what she would name me, she said Justine, and it felt like a krogan punch in the gut. My own name. I'm not a copy, not a back-up plan. I'm my own person."
"And what about those ideas about human superiority you used to sprout left and right?"
Justine snorted, downing another drink. Her speech was becoming slurred, just as Joker's vision was starting to blur at the edges.
"I'm done with politics. In truth I couldn't care less about humanity right now, let alone other races. I got other problems."
"Like what?"
"Figuring out what I want. Getting over the fact that I died. Committed suicide, actually."
"How is that going for you, by the way? Do you have nightmares, like Jo?"
"Don't know yet. Haven't slept."
"For eleven days?" Joker hiccupped in surprise. "Fuck, you're as hardcore as Jo."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Actually, yes." He pushed the glass aside and got up. "There's a computer in the study for your use, a gym in the basement, some clothes in the wardrobe. That's also for you," he pulled a new omnitool from his pocket and put it on the table. "There's my contact in it. When you've had enough of sleepless agony, call me. I'm not your husband, but I can help."
"So, do I pass muster?"
"I reserve judgement."
"Until?"
"Until you call."
He left her in the kitchen and headed to the Corvette. Jo was sitting in the pilot's chair, looking at ICA files on the console.
"How did it go?" She asked.
"I can handle her," Joker nodded through the dizziness of alcohol. Then he gave her coordinates and told her to fly there. It was another small dock not far away. "We'll leave the Corvette there and fly Swan back home."
For the first time in as far as Jo could remember he leaned back and let her fly.
