AN: All credit yet again goes to Alilypea for making my rambling make sense. Also for Betaing at warp speed. Thank you to all who have saved this store to their favs. and subscribed for updates. It gives me the motivation to keep writing.

Heading back to her Captains quarters for the shower that she had missed earlier Shepard had time to reflect. She was excited for Joker; this was something that he had wanted for as long as she had known him. He used to have her go with him to doctors appointments all over the Terminus as support only to be told the same thing: 'We're sorry Mr. Moreau, there is no treatment available.' Go figure a Salarian had figured it out although she shouldn't be surprised really; Mordin could solve any problem that he put his mind too. She could only hope that there was a match on the ship, and that Joker wouldn't totally forget about her when the girls were falling at his feet when he was well. She sighed, it was perfectly clear that he only viewed her as his Commander, and a friend. Even saving him from the burning wreck of the Normandy had failed to get his attention.

Grabbing the shampoo she made quick work of washing her hair before shutting off the hot water toweling off and heading down to the mess hall to address the crew. Deciding to leave her hair down to let it dry instead of putting it up in her usual bun, no point in risking a headache this early in the day.

Turning towards the mess hall she wasn't surprised to see that Joker was already waiting, smiling at him more to reassure herself that this would go well and headed over to the coffee pot to get her second cup of the day. They were going to a prison after all, it didn't hurt to be alert.

"Hey Commander, that stuff stunts your growth ya know," Jeff winked at her.

"Shut up, mister. 5'7 is a perfectly good height for a woman." Shepard had to chuckle. Grabbing a second cup and pouring a coffee for Joker while she was at it. "Still take it black Joker?" Joker nodded

"EDI?" Shepard looked towards the blue orb off to the side of the kitchen grabbing the coffees and heading to the table where Joker was seated.

"Yes Shepard?" EDIs blue orb flashed in response.

"Activate the intercom please," Shepard took a sip of her coffee taking a seat next to Joker the orb flashed again.

"Ready Shepard."

Shepard cleared her throat, "All crew please report to the mess hall immediately"

Joker shifted in his seat, "Shepard, what if there isn-"

"Stop it," Shepard cut him off, "there WILL be a match okay? I promise. There is no way that there isn't at least ONE match for you in the terminus, we will find someone."

Joker smiled at Shepard, who had gone back to looking at her coffee with unfocused eyes. Though she didn't know it he had been lost without her, those two years were the worst in his life.

When his escape pod had landed at the Citadel he had been almost immediately grounded, his license to fly revoked and the death of Commander Shepard put squarely on his shoulders. The crew had arrived before him and it didn't take long for word to get around that he had refused to leave the Normandy, causing Shepard to sacrifice herself to save him. He had never asked her why she had done it; there really hadn't been the chance to have that kind of heart to heart.

The second she had woken up she had started gathering the new crew to fight the collectors. He could still remember that day like it was yesterday watching her body arch and twist while she fought for air he had been screaming and trying to get the emergency pod doors open. Pounding his fists against the little window of his escape pod until he had fractured the bones along the side of his hands, screaming her name with the off chance that she may hear him. He was watching the woman that he loved die; of course Shepard didn't know that he had feelings for her. He didn't want to complicate things; she would want to be with someone strong, a soldier like herself, a real man like Kaiden Alenko.

When Cerberus had contacted him a few months later to let him know that they had recovered her body and they were going to bring her back he'd collapsed. They had asked him to go to the facility where she was being rebuilt to offer some insight into the kind of woman she had been before she had died. Seeing as he had been one of her closest friends he had all the answers, he spent hours telling him about her training for the Alliance military, how her parents had been killed by a bunch of Batarian slave traders and how she had moved past that to become the respected Commander that she was right up until she had died. When they finally let him see her almost a year after that he couldn't stop himself from getting a little emotional, she looked perfect, whole even. She was lying on the table with her hair fanned around her, tubes running under the sheet that covered and kept her alive but other than that she looked like she was sleeping. Miranda had reminded him that it was still going to be months before she was going to be awake, and there was no guarantee that she would be the same woman she was before she had died.

Miranda had told him that dying often changes people and there would be no way of knowing if she would remember how she had died, but if she did it would be very traumatic for her. Joker knew that no matter what they said that Kai Shepard would always be the woman that she was, something like dying wouldn't change her. He had asked to be left with her awhile and just sat next to her, watching her sleep and running his fingers through her hair.

Coming back to reality his eyes shifted to her hair which he noticed was loose and hanging around her shoulders in wet tendrils, it had grown a lot since then. Without meaning too he reached out and ran his fingers through it. Shepard jumped, snapped from her silent reflection over her coffee cup unaware of Joker's trip into his memories. "Oh sorry," Joker blushed. "I just noticed how long it is, you never wear it down."

Shepard looked down at the ends of her hair as Joker pulled his hand back. "It gets in the way of the scope of my rifle, when you only have one chance to make that shot it's not really a risk I'm willing to take." Shepard shrugged flicking her eyes to the elevator as a ding indicated that the crew had started to arrive. Looking back at Joker she reached over and gave his hand a squeeze. "Ready?"

"No," Joker went pale again, "what if they say no to the testing?"

"Let me handle it okay?" Shepard got up and started to greet the crew and find everyone a seat, Rupert was busy handing out coffee while Mordin prepared the data pads with all of the information on them. Once everyone had arrived Shepard walked to the front of the room, taking a deep breath she addressed the crowd.

"Good Morning everyone," a murmur of good mornings made their way back to her. "Joker and I had some exciting news today, but we need your help. As you all know Joker has Vroliks disease, which makes his bones very brittle." The crew nodded, clearly listening and wondering where this was all going

"Mordin has found a cure...possibly...but he needs a bone marrow donor for it to work. I have gathered you all here today to ask that you please submit yourself to testing, I would consider it a personal favor..." Shepard trailed off looking at Mordin, "Anything you need to add?"

"Yes. Donor will have to be a 100% match. Donor must be human. Test done by saliva. Bone marrow will be removed via surgery." the crew started to move around at this, showing their discomfort at the idea. Having your spit taken was one thing, but having surgery was another.

"Need I remind you," Shepard found herself leaning over the table speaking louder than she meant to, "that Joker has flown into dangerous situations time and time again to get our asses out of trouble even though he faces more danger than any of you combined should it go wrong. He never wavers, never hesitates to help any one of you if you need it." She glanced over at Joker, who was blushing and trying to hide under his hat. She smiled "and if any of you were in this situation Joker would be the first person to agree to testing, surgery or not," she sat down, heart pounding and hoping that her mini impassioned speech was enough to convince the crew this was right.

"I'll do it!" A female voice called out from the back of the crowd Shepard glanced up to see Kelly standing up and walking towards Mordin. "I like Joker, and we're a family on the Normandy, I'm glad to help our Commander and our Pilot any way that I can." Opening her mouth Mordin ran the swab along the inside of her cheek before handing it over to Dr. Chakwas who labeled it.

"That was it?" Kelly bounced on the spot, "no biggie!"

At Kelly's approval the rest of the human crew made a line in front of Mordin for testing.

"Well there ya go Doc," Shepard smiled at her crew. "how long does the test take?"

"3 minutes each test," he replied swabbing Engineer Daniels mouth before handing it to Dr. Chakwas.

"Well I'll leave you too it then, Garrus and Grunt can come with me to get Jack and you can update me when I get back," walking over to Joker she leaned down towards him, "there's at least 50 people here Joker, at least one of them has to match okay?"

Joker nodded, face still flaming red. "Thanks Commander."

"Have fun!" Shepard waved and loaded her shore party into the elevator. "I'll be back soon."