Title: Artemisia Shepard, War Hero
By: Midnight Unicorn
Disclaimer: Main character semi-mine, others and places are not

A/N: I debated about posting this in this anthology because Shepard doesn't dominate in it, but it is for the same play through and it's touching on something I think the game missed. Brace yourselves and proceed with caution.

"Hey, I'm getting depressed over here, somebody say something funny," Joker spoke suddenly, breaking the quiet that gripped the medical room. The two women stared at him, at least, he felt like Tali was staring; her face plate was turned to him anyway. "Or not."

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Jeff, but we have to be careful," Chakwas said, a small, patient smile on her lips. "Tali could get an infection from even a few moments' exposure."

"And I need to be in top form. This fever is getting the better of me." Her frustration was clear across the room.

"Yeah, you might blow up the mass core if you get sloppy. Carry on."

As he waited, he sank again into the contemplations he was trying to avoid. He didn't know if he'd call Chakwas or Tali a friend but they were somewhere between important and irrelevant. They had been on the Normandy, Tali had ensured she was capable of doing anything he asked of the beauteous original. Some nights he wondered if they might have survived that Collector attack if only she'd been with the engine, fine tuning its needs and reacting to the situation. But then maybe she would have died; almost everyone else in engineering had.

And Chakwas had been there, she had burns she didn't talk about and she sat if she could help it so no one noticed her favoring her right leg. Joker only knew because he had seen her pulled out of that escape pod and had been stabbed by a fear of losing her at a time he thought he was too numb to feel anything else. So maybe Chakwas was a friend.

After her treatment, Tali relaxed and stayed while Chakwas did her check up on Joker and after standing for so long, Chakwas couldn't hide a spasm of pain that crossed her face and she gripped her thigh. "Doctor, are you alright?" Tali was up and at her side in a moment.

"I'm fine, Tali, just…war wounds." She didn't fight the quarian's assistance to her usual seat and stretched her leg carefully.

"I didn't realize you were on a battlefield," Tali said, hovering nervously for a moment before perching on the chair near Chakwas. Joker watched the doctor intently as he too stretched his legs, wondering what she would say.

Chakwas sighed, swiping her hair out of her face with fingers that trembled. "I wasn't, technically. I was pinned by the collapsing ceiling in the med room on the original Normandy. A piece of my leg was left there. I don't know who pulled me out."

"Laflamme and Gladstone," Joker said quietly. "They went back for more but didn't…" he stopped. He didn't like talking about that.

An awkward silence claimed them for a while. "We couldn't get a clear answer of who lived and died for a long time," Tali finally remarked quietly, tracing a design on her suit idly. "Not that anyone in the Fleet really cared, although they were interested. I only knew that Shepard had died. You two had disappeared. Cerberus' doing, I guess." Anger tinted her voice.

"No, plain old cover-ups and politics," Joker said with disgust. "But never mind that, lets keep bitching about Cerberus, it's not like they can hear us."

"Very funny, Joker." It sounded like Tali might be smiling; he took pride in that.

"I know what you're doing, Jeff." He hated to see Chakwas' kind smile; it wounded and soothed at the same time, or maybe he was just a bit prickly.

"Heading back to the bridge, yep, you're right about that." He wasn't going to let her talk about this now, not ever, especially not around Tali. He liked her, that much was easy enough, but that only went so far. "Don't stay up too late, girls."

He hobbled out of there as fast as he could and back to CIC. Shepard wasn't in sight, but Kelly was and for some stupid reason he paused rather than ignoring her per usual. "Hey, I've—" he stopped but she was already looking at him expectantly, big eyes curious, big lips curved in a friendly way. "…got a question."

"Certainly I will answer as best I can." She seemed pleased that he was interacting with her and he grimaced at the full brunt of her attention.

Huffing at his own idiocy, Joker jammed his hands in his pockets and plowed on. "Is there a name for when you…like, when someone keeps thinking about something that happened, something bad?"

Kelly pursed her lips and tipped her head thoughtfully. "I need a little more than that, Joker. What bad thing are we talking about?"

Feeling trapped and irritable, he shook his head and stepped back. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

"Wait," she extended an arm, preparing to stop him from leaving but didn't touch him. "Is it…are we talking about a friend who's thinking about this?"

"Yeah, sure." Friends. Right.

"What did this bad thing involve? What happened?"

He sighed again and reminded himself this was his fault. "Someone dying. People dying." He looked around the CIC but saw someplace narrower, darker, a little less refined, cutting edge and new.

"Is it Doctor Chakwas? It's not uncommon for doctors to blame themselves for people they couldn't save." He scrambled to pay attention to what she was saying and peered at her curiously and then flinched away. Her words followed the misdirect, but her shrewd gaze had him pinned. "Sometimes it's called survivor's guilt."

"Great, thanks, I'll let her know."

Joker swung around to make for the bridge. This time she did touch his arm; he jerked away, feeling slightly violated but she ignored his angry expression. "Do you—"

"No." What he wouldn't give to be able to move faster, but at least she didn't follow him. Dropping into his seat carelessly, he grimaced and then crowed at EDI's projection. "Honey, I'm home. Did you miss me?"

"Doctor Chakwas does not suffer from survivor's guilt."

Joker ground his teeth and rolled his eyes. "You need to learn not to eavesdrop."

"There are no eaves on the Normandy."

"Shut up, you stupid soup can."

Scorcese, hooray for resolution :3 Thank you for your continued comments

SammiexKnightxMagic, I appreciate the compliments ^_^