Joker was asleep in his chair in the cockpit when the call came through. He was woken rather abruptly by the comm beeping furiously at him, as if the Normandy herself knew the importance of the call.

"Joker, you'd better get everyone down here." Garrus was obviously excited, and when it clicked in Joker's brain the only reason why that would be, he snapped up like a shot.

"She's awake? The commander's awake?" Joker almost pleaded.

"You'd better believe it!" Garrus answered with a chuckle. Joker was out of his seat as fast as his bones would allow him.

"EDI, Shepard's awake! We've got to…" It was then that he remembered. EDI was a burnt out shell in the AI core. Although her core functions were protected by the main server, they hadn't managed to extract her personality functions from it yet. There was no guarantee that they could.

Joker almost visibly faded at the prospect. He roused the others, and whilst they rushed to the hospital, Joker was less enthusiastic. Garrus got his happy ending, he thought. Will I?

Karin was the first there when Joker had made the call. She burst into the theatre to find Artemis alive and well. She also found Garrus crying his eyes out, and seriously hoped Liara was going to bring Glyph – and his photographic skills – with her.

"Damn it, commander." She laughed. "One of these days you are going to run out of lives, you know. Can you please stop going through them faster than your thermal clips?"

"I'll try my best, doctor." Shepard smiled back. "It's good to see you again."

"Likewise. Now, before you go running off and gunning down another invincible foe, I'm going to take this opportunity to run a few tests while you're still bedridden."

"Alright, doctor. Can there be no scalpels this time as well?"

"It seems that I am doomed to be forever disappointed on that front, Shepard." Karin smiled at her.

"Um," Garrus asked, seemingly missing the joke. "Scalpels?"

"Another time, sweetie." Shepard smiled and squeezed his hands, whilst Dr. Chakwas scanned the commander with her omni-tool. Just then, Tali and Vega barged in, closely followed by Liara and then Joker and Traynor, the former being helped along by the latter.

"Shepard! By the goddess, you're alive!" Liara almost ran to the other side of the bed.

"Well, shit." Vega laughed. "I know I say this far too much for anyone's good, but you are truly loco, commander. Can't even die without screwing things up somehow."

"I missed you too, Vega."

Everyone gathered around, and more than a few tears were shed, when all of a sudden –

"Shepard!" Silence descended as everyone turned to look at Tali, and whilst they couldn't see her face very well, it was quite obvious that she was utterly furious.

"Tali….?" Liara asked timidly.

"Keelah, Shepard, if you ever try to do something like this to Garrus again, you heartless, self-centred little bosh'tet, I swear I won't rest until I've found you and made you wish you could die. You have no idea what you put him through when you 'died' on the citadel. He was an absolute mess of a man, barely able to think straight. I hope this isn't how you intend to treat him for the rest of his life, Commander Artemis Shepard, because believe me you'll regret it if you do." Everyone looked in utter shock at Tali, then expectantly at Shepard. She sat up a little straighter in the bed, and looked Tali squarely in the eyes before saying, "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, I am so happy to see that you survived with your spirit intact, but can you please stop protecting Garrus?" She turned to smile at the love of her life, who was utterly gobsmacked by the way Tali had reacted. "That's my job, and I have the rest of our lives to keep doing it." And, for the second time in as many minutes, Shepard successfully relieved Garrus of his remaining Turian dignity as he pulled her into the deepest, most tender hug he had ever given anyone, totally lost for words.

And as everyone else reached for the nearest box of tissues, Tali lost what remained of any quarian dignity she had and joined Garrus in the most heartfelt and awkward bear hug that any of them had ever seen.

As the Normandy crew slowly made their way towards theatre 9, rejoicing that their commander had, yet again, crawled her way out of the jaws of death, Javik sat in the observation deck, contemplating his future. Now the Reapers had been destroyed, there really wasn't a need for the Prothean avatar of vengeance to exist anymore. Of course, he wasn't that anymore. His task complete, his mission over, his psyche had begun to settle into a more open-minded pattern. He was now at a cross-roads, for the first time in 50,000 years. From the moment of his birth there were only two choices – win or die. He had been fighting all his life. Peace was an unusual thing for him.

He had seriously considered ending his life, and joining his brothers and sisters. He suppose he would have, if he had seen the contents of the memory shard he carried. The pain that was contained within it. He sat with the very thing in front of him. He looked down at it, concern etched on his face. He didn't know what it contained – if he did, it really wouldn't serve much of a purpose. All he knew was that when he went to sleep, his world was burning around him – and 50,000 years later, a new galaxy, one in which he was alone amongst billions, was suffering the same fate. He may not have saved his people, but he had avenged them, saving the younger races in the process. He had fought the Reapers twice, more than anyone in all of history had managed, even the Leviathans themselves. Did he really need that pain? Had he not suffered enough?

He closed his eyes and nodded to himself, seemingly making up his mind. He stood up, picked up his particle rifle – he never did find out how Shepard had gotten her hands on such ancient weapons – and shot the memory shard. Javik looked at the scorched remains, the last memories of his people, and smiled. For the first time in 50,000 years, he was free.

"What it did it do to you?" A voice came from behind him.

"Nothing," Javik replied. "And I think the universe would be better off it continued to do so."

"I'll take your word for it. I was just going to check in on Shepard, although I think that the shock might not be the best thing for her right now."

"The commander is strong." Javik reassured the voice. "You need not worry."

"I'm sure. Care to join me?"

"Of course, Admiral."

It had been an hour or so since Shepard had regained consciousness, and most of the crew had come and gone, leaving her to rest. All except for Garrus, of course, who just sat there, holding her hand, talking endlessly about anything, still trying to accept that it was all real.

"You know, Arty," he said. "I've been giving it some thought, and I've come to the professional conclusion that we both really, really need to retire."

"Somewhere warm and tropical?" Artemis smiled. "Where we can live off the royalties from the vids?"

"Something like that." He smiled back, then his omni-tool started flashing – a message had come through, one that he had been expecting all day.

"What is it, Garrus?" Shepard asked, curious.

"Well," He had an almost guilty look about his turian features, one which only Shepard would have spotted. "As we were combing through the Citadel looking for you, we found some other survivors. Most were just people who had somehow escaped the worst of the Reaper attack, but there was one person in particular that you might like to see."

"Who's that?" She asked, confused, just as the door opened. Javik stepped in, and gave the commander a rare smile, followed closely by –

"Well, damn if you aren't a sight for sore eyes! Seems some of us really only do live twice."

Shepard stared, hardly believing what – or more particularly, who – she was seeing. No part of her brain could convince her that, in defiance of every law the universe had, the man standing in front of her was none other than -

"Anderson!"