"What?" Shepard stared at Joker open mouthed, "What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Just what I said, there is no way I'm going to let you go through that." Joker squeezed her hand and moved to pull her into a hug, as Shepard resisted the movement.

"Joker, I may be the only chance you have at this…why would you say no to that?" Shepard dropped Joker's hand and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Haven't you done enough for me already? Wasn't dying enough?" Joker's face flushed. "I mean God, Kai, you can't spend your entire life trying to save me, and do you have any idea how much this is going to hurt?"

Shepard stood up to face him directly, "you're being an idiot again Jeff. I get shot at for a living; do you think that this is worse than that? Hell I got hit by an exploding canister last week and had to come and have bits of metal pulled out of my back. In comparison having a cut on my leg and getting a week off for it sounds like a vacation to me." Shepard turned to Dr. Chakwas who was watching the argument silently, "surgery is on Doc." Joker moved to interrupt and Shepard cut him off, "I'm not going to discuss this Jeff, if I am your only chance in this it's being done."

Joker looked at his hands in his lap, "it's not that I'm not grateful that you're willing to do this for me, I just can't ask you to do it."

"You never asked, I'm offering. This is my choice Joker; let me do this for you." Shepard took Joker's hands in her own and he met her eyes. "Please."

Looking into her strange blue eyes he felt his resolve go, "Okay…let's do it."

Shepard beamed down at him pulling him into a hug, "it'll be fine, I promise. We have the best Doctors on the Normandy; if it makes you feel better you can be my sexy man slave while I get better."

Dr. Chakwas cleared her throat loud enough to make Shepard jump, reminding her that they weren't alone. Shepard flushed, "sorry, got a little side tracked…"

"Anyway," Dr. Chakwas raised an eyebrow at Shepard, "Do we have a date in mind?"

"Well, I was given more dossiers so I'd like to pick up the rest of the crew, thankfully I should be able to get that done within a week. Sounds like as good as time as any to take a week's vacation." Shepard turned to Joker, "sound good to you?"

"That works for us," Dr. Chakwas nodded, "I also meant to mention Commander, your C6X implants are ready next time you land on Illium I'll have them delivered to the ship, the C5X implants you have now won't last much longer so the sooner the better."

Pulling up her Omni tool Shepard quickly went over the dossiers that the Illusive Man had given her, "well, I guess I'll go and get the assassin then…two birds with one stone and all that."

"Sounds like a plan; I'll have Mordin prepare everything for the surgery."

"Sounds good," Shepard turned to Joker, "get us to Illium Joker."

"Can do Commander," Shepard turned to go to leave but was stopped by Joker's hands, "hey, don't I get a goodbye kiss?"

Shepard smiled, "if you insist…" their lips met in a brief kiss, "now go fly the ship."

"Yes ma'am," Joker stood and made his way out the door.

With a quick wave Shepard went to go and suit up for the day, turning the corner towards the mess she saw a large crowd quickly backing away from the med bay windows.

"If you're quite done watching me kiss my boyfriend?" Shepard rested a hand on her hip and tried to stifle the smile that threatened to give her amusement away. "Who wants to go and pick up the assassin with me?"

"Assassin?" Jack smiled, "sounds sexy, I'm in."

"You're going to need a decent sniper with you Shepard," Garrus stood up from his chair, "I'll go."

"Sounds good, suit up and I'll page you when we're ready to dock." Heading towards the armory Shepard was excited, it wasn't very often when you got yourself a new boyfriend and got to meet a famous assassin on the same day, this was promising to be an interesting week.

Thane Krios was interesting, and that was putting it mildly. Shepard couldn't understand the problem that Jacob had with him as he had been nothing but polite since arriving on the ship but she decided not to press the matter.

Heading down to the mess hall Shepard felt a wave of nausea sweep over her, taking a deep breath the bee lined for the woman's washroom as soon as the elevator came to a stop.

"Shepard?" Jack watched the Commander run into the washroom with a hand over her mouth and got up to follow, "you okay?"

Jack heard a wretch, shortly followed by a scream that ripped through her and left a cold panic. "Shepard?"

Shepard arched her back as a shock wave of pain rocked through her body, all of her muscles tensing her nerves lighting up with a burning fire. "Go…get…Chakwas." Shepard screamed as the pain surged again.

Turning on her heel Jack ran from the bathroom shouting for help as soon as she was around the corner, "Chakwas! It's Shepard!"

Garrus lurched to his feet from the table he was sitting at. "Where is she?"

"The bathroom, I don't know what's wrong but she's down and doesn't look good."

Dr. Chakwas came out of the med bay at a jog, "Garrus come with me, and I may need you to carry her. Jack take me to her, EDI page Joker."

A scream filled the air as Dr. Chakwas rounded the corner on Shepard, "hang on Commander, I'm here."

"Everything…hurts…" Shepard took heaving breaths, her face pale.

Rolling Shepard onto her side Dr. Chakwas immediately saw the problem, a black burn hole sitting where one of the C5X implants rested in her spine, all of Shepard's scars lighting up in threatening red as the light flickered on the implant.

"Garrus get her to the med bay, sit her on one of the tables don't lay her down. Jack go get Kasumi, we're going to need her tech expertise." Dr. Chakwas put a hand to her ear as Garrus picked Shepard up in his arms and rushed past her. "Mordin, you better get down here, we've had a complication."

"Joker, there is an emergency. You must go to the med bay." EDIs orb pulsed brighter than Joker had seen it before.

"What's going on?" Joker grabbed on to the back of his chair pulling himself to standing.

"Shepard's C5X implant has failed; she is being prepped for emergency surgery. I would recommend haste."

"What the shit!" turning towards the CIC Joker jogged towards the elevator as fast as his legs would carry him. Slamming his hand against the button for the crew deck hard enough it hurt he let out a frustrated growl, "EDI can you speed this thing up?"

The door slid open in front of him and he heard a scream that made his heart temporarily stop, "shit, MOVE PEOPLE." The crowd looking into the med bay parted to allow him in. Shepard was sitting on a table with Dr. Chakwas wiping down her back with some kind of strong smelling disinfectant. The pink scars that covered Shepard's body suddenly lit up to a deep red and Shepard let out a shriek.

"Hang on Shep; we'll get you fixed up. I just need a few more seconds…" Kasumi was typing on a keyboard which was connected to four chunks of metal lying across the counter. "I've never configured implants before."

Mordin brought a tray of surgical instruments over and placed them on a trolley next to Dr. Chakwas, who noticed Jokers entrance.

"Keep her calm Joker; this isn't going to be fun." Dr. Chakwas reached over and grabbed a scalpel, "brace yourself Commander."

"I've got it!" Kasumi quickly disconnected the implants from the computer and placed them on the tray next to Dr. Chakwas before stepping aside to give the Doctor room to work.

"Someone is going to need to hold her up." Joker stepped forwards but was cut short, "not you Joker, Shepard was strong before, with Cerberus upgrades she would kill you if she gripped you too hard. Garrus, you've still got your armor on hold her straight. Joker, talk to her."

Garrus stepped in front of Shepard and she placed a hand on each of his shoulders. "Hang on Shepard, you can do this."

Walking around to the side of the table Joker watched Dr. Chakwas run the scalpel down Shepard's back, carefully cutting around the dark hole. "You're okay Kai, take a breath…" the marks on Shepard's body lit up once again and she let out a scream, closing her hands on Garrus' armor the loud groan of metal could be heard and her fingers bent his shoulder plates.

Shepard ground her teeth together, her body was on fire. "Hurry up…"

Joker watched the line of blood running down her back. "It's almost out…keep breathing." Joker felt tears sting his eyes as Shepard arched her back and let out a sob. Reaching over Dr. Chakwas picked up a tool that he didn't know and attached it to the burnt implant, with a twist it gave way she dropped it on the table in front of Joker. Shepard went limp. "Kai? Kai talk to me!" he touched her arm and she slowly turned her head, the angry red lines all over her body fading.

"It's ok, I'm okay…I can't feel anything." Shepard rested her head against Garrus, exhausted. "Sorry about your armor Garrus."

"You should be okay now Commander," Dr. Chakwas stood up reaching for another tool. "Everything below that implant is now offline and numb until I replace it with the C6X."

"Wait," Shepard looked over her shoulder, "takes the bone marrow now…I won't feel it."

"Kai," Joker rubbed her shoulder, "now's not the time, we need to get you patched up."

Shepard closed her eyes and dropped her head, Garrus pushed some hair out of her face the angry red lines now their normal light pink. "Now is the perfect time, you were so concerned about the pain of the surgery earlier, this is the best solution."

Dr. Chakwas looked over to Mordin, "do you think you could do it quickly?"

"Yes." Mordin nodded, "I'll get started now."

Cutting away one of the legs of her pants Mordin made quick work of retrieving the bone marrow from Shepard's thigh, while Mordin worked Dr. Chakwas removed the rest of Shepard's C5X implants leaving her resting heavily against Garrus.

"Done." Mordin stood up and held up a vial to the light, regarding his work.

"Alright Commander," Dr. Chakwas rubbed Shepard's arm in a motherly fashion. "I'm going to put your new implants in, this won't take long."

Shepard nodded weakly, "let's get this finished." Dropping her head against Garrus he ran his talons through her hair. Joker tried not to feel jealous at the Turians ability to be there for Shepard in a way he couldn't be.

Pulling out a new tool Dr. Chakwas made fast work of twisting the new implants into their designated places. "Alright Kasumi," the thief appeared beside Joker, "let's start them up."

Kasumi ran her hands across her omni tool and waved her arm over Shepard's back, four blue lights flickered on and Shepard groaned.

"Ok Commander?" Dr. Chakwas walked around to the front of the table encouraging Shepard to sit back on her own. "Can you feel your feet?"

Shepard was exhausted, but swung her feet back and forth then rolled her ankles. "Yeah, I can feel everything…unfortunately. I feel like I've been hit by a truck, can I lay down now?"

"Just a minute Commander, let me wrap you up first. Thank you Garrus, you can go." Turning to face the crowd that was standing at the med bay door the Doctor smiled "Shepard will be alright, you should give her some time to rest."

The crowd slowly started to dissipate and Joker grabbed one of Shepard's hands, she smiled and gave it a weak squeeze.

"That sucked," Joker let out the breath he was holding, "a lot."

"Yeah," Shepard nodded, "it really did. I hate to be a buzz kill but I think that I may have to cancel our date for tonight."

Joker laughed, "I guess I can let you off, we'll do something another night."

"Actually you should probably dock the ship somewhere safe for a while Joker." Dr. Chakwas pulled her gloves off, "Shepard won't be much use to anyone for the rest of the week. I'll contact the Illusive Man now and let him know what happened. "

"Right," Joker helped Shepard lay back onto the bed, "anywhere you want in particular?"

"The Citadel," Shepard groaned as her back it the bed.

"Why the Citadel?" Joker brushed her hair out around her head.

"Cause after a day like that, I could really use a pizza." Shepard closed her eyes and drifted off into sleep.

Joker leaned over and kissed her forehead letting out a quiet laugh. "Aye aye Commander."

Heading towards the door Joker headed back towards his cockpit, the great Commander Shepard needed pizza, and that's what she was going to get.