"What, that's it?" Joker asked as I stood up from the co-pilots seat to leave.

I didn't stop moving as I replied, "That's it."

"Pff," Joker seemed irritated for whatever reason.

"What you were expecting something else?" I asked.

"Well, yeah!" Joker exclaimed throwing his hands up and turning to look at me, "You're telling me that through all three of these games I only had like, two moments where I absolutely kicked ass? AND I don't get any chicks? I was a 'secondary' character in this thing?" I gave a nod to which he replied, "Lame."

I chuckled and decided to elaborate on one part, "Well, technically there were multiple possible romantic relationships that could occur throughout the games. I didn't mention them because they didn't have any significant impact on what was going on, plus it would probably be awkward for everyone."

"What?" Joker said incredulously, "Hell no! You are giving me details!"

I shook my head and tried to fight a grin as I started walking away, "See you later, Joker."

"Oh come on!" he shouted after me, "Fine! But next time you step into this cockpit you are telling me or I'll throw you out the airlock!"

I couldn't stop the grin from appearing as I rotated my head to the side to shout back at him, "Good luck with that!"

As I walked though the CIC I came to a stop next to Pressly. He turned and looked at me, "Oh, Dazac, I didn't see you there. Was there something you needed?"

"Um, well," I began, "I figured you pry had questions for me..."

"Hmm, not really," Pressly said with a shake of his head, catching me off guard. I must have been giving him a really confused look because he added, "You look like I just said something about all puppies being ugly..."

That knocked me out of the daze and I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Puppies?"

"It's a- Never mind," he said, "I trust Admiral Hackett's judgment on this, so I'm fine going along with it. Besides, I figure that if there's anything we want to know later we can just ask you.. Plus I think you'd pry come to us with anything you thought we needed to know that wasn't a part of... well, you know."

I gave a nod of understanding, "Alright, thanks. So... really no questions?"

"Nope," Pressly said, "Not a one. Besides, the way I see it, anything that occurred in those games of yours is up in the air now that you've told us about it. Especially after we've dealt with Saren. A whole two years of us focusing on preparing for what's coming? I can't imagine that wouldn't change things."

"Heh, good point," I conceded.

There was a moment of awkward silence where I wasn't sure what to say, but Pressly spoke up then, "If there's nothing else, I've got to get back to work."

"Oh, yeah," I said giving him a nod and a smile, "Nice talking to you, and... thanks."

"You're welcome," he said before turning back to what he'd been doing.

Well so far so good. I hadn't had anyone give me the cold shoulder yet so that was something. Shepard seemed okay with it, if a little uncertain. Everyone else I'd spoken to though was taking it rather well. That meant they either genuinely trusted me, or were just waiting for me to slip up on something... So long as I didn't lie about anything, that shouldn't be a problem.

I made my way to the crew deck to see Kaiden walking out of Doctor Chakwas office. He gave me a smile and motioned with his thumb over his shoulder, "Hey Dazac, good timing. Doctor Chakwas wants you to go talk to her. Something about getting some more detailed medical records on file for you."

"Alright," I said, deciding to just go there and get it over with.

"Don't sound so enthused," Kaiden said as I passed.

"Oh, ha ha," I replied over my shoulder.

I walked into the medbay with a smile, Chakwas turning her head to look at me from where she was, doing something with one of the machines by the beds. "You look rather happy," she said as she stepped around the bed and strode toward me. I just shrugged, earning a chuckle from her before she motioned to the nearest bed, "Have a seat, Dazac. I just wanted to go over a basic medical history for our records. How about you start with anything you can think of?"

The next forty minutes consisted of going over all my past illnesses and injuries of note. I also told her of a genetic condition that made me seem anemic when I really wasn't. I was pleased when she told me that with a proper workout regimen and proper diet, it could actually benefit me; Something about my blood replenishing oxygen faster. Of course she told me I would need to be in peak condition, something I wasn't anywhere near. I left after talking to her about what sort of exercises I should do and what foods I should eat. The moment I stepped out my attention was dawn to the small mess area. Ashley and Liara were sitting there and Wrex was standing nearby with his arms crossed. They all turned to look at me at the same time and I knew what was coming before they even said anything.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Several hours later I found myself back on the crew deck. Ashley had been very skeptical about whether or not I was telling the truth with everything. I finally convinced her I was by talking to her about the poetry she liked and how she always read her dads favorite when she went to visit his grave. After an awkward silence with that, she let out a sigh and simply said "fine," before letting me know that she really didn't like the idea of me having a better understanding of everything going on. While I may have told the truth so far as she could tell, whether I could be trusted was apparently still a matter for debate in her eyes.

The conversation with Wrex was much shorter, and more surprising. As soon as I approached him, the first words out of his mouth were, "Where's my family armor?" I just blinked in disbelief before he let out a frustrated sigh, "Do you know or not?" I nodded dumbly and he asked me again where it was,so I told him that some turian collector had it on a planet called Tuntau. He gave a satisfied grunt after that and practically stormed off to the elevator. I was baffled by that, but then, truth is stranger than fiction, right?

Garrus and Tali were much more amiable, both telling me basically the same thing. They thought it was rather wild, but beyond that weren't sure what to think about it, and that if they ever had any questions they'd come to me. I spent a while talking with both of them about what their lives had been like before joining Shepard and got a basic description of rather monotonous days from each.

Now that I was on the crew deck I decided I'd try to find Liara. She hadn't really gotten a chance to say anything before I'd been dragged down to the cargo bay. I made my way toward the medbay and opened the door. Dr. Chakwas looked up from where she was sitting at her terminal, "Yes, Dazac, did you need something?"

"Uh, no," I responded and pointed toward the far door, "Just going to see Liara."

That earned a sigh and a smile from Chakwas, "I think that would be more than ok. She came back rather disappointed that she didn't get the chance to talk to you. She said she had, 'So many questions about the Protheans, it's hard to know where to start.'"

I nodded. I figured that's probably what she wanted to talk about. I made my way to the door and opened it, and sure enough Liara was sitting surrounded by datapads carefully going over what I assume were notes. The door closed behind me and I stood there for a moment, waiting for her to turn around. When she didn't, I tried clearing my throat. No response from her prompted me to try again, "Liara?" Nothing. She was really absorbed in those notes. I stepped toward her and gently rested my hand on her shoulder, "Liara?"

Big mistake.

In the next few moments there was a shriek, blue glow, blow that knocked the breath out of me, and door sliding open as Chakwas found me on the ground against the wall with Liara trying to prop me up. All this and all I could think to say was, "Ow."

Liara looked panicked and mortified as she crouched down next to me. "Goddess, I am so sorry Dazac! You startled me, and I-! I...well, I reacted without really thinking about where I was, and-... Oh, please tell me nothing's broken!"

As Chakwas used her Omni-tool to apply some medi-gel to the apparent bruising that the push had caused, I couldn't help but start laughing quietly. I held my head and grinned as I continued laughing and Liara simply gave me an incredulous look. "I just blasted you into a wall and could have seriously hurt you, and you're laughing?!"

That comment only made me laugh a bit harder and shake my head. I wiped at the tears forming in my eyes as I tried composing myself with some success before looking right at Liara. "I'm not laughing at that," I explained, "It's how you reacted to it!"

Liara frowned at me, "How I reacted? I was worried! What's so funny about that?"

"It's the game," I tried to explain, "You reacted exactly how I would have expected you to! Your personality is spot on with what I recall from the first game."

Liara looked at me for a moment before her frown disappeared, "I still don't see how it's funny."

Chakwas gave me a pat on the shoulder before turning around and leaving the room. I waited until the door had closed behind her before trying to talk again. "It's not so much that it was funny," I said, "It's more like it's a relief." At the confused look she gave me I smiled and took a breath before getting to my feet and then explained, "It's a relief to know that it's not just the crummy things from the games that remained true, but the good things too."

"I'm... I'm not sure I understand," Liara stated, "Me, being how you expected, is a good thing?"

I gave a nod, "Yes!" I sighed and looked around the room, taking a few steps toward the desk where all the datapads were scattered. I turned to look at Liara again and she was watching me with a confused look. "I guess..." I started and then groaned, "I'm not really sure how to phrase it... Um, well, in the games there was a part that I didn't mention in what I wrote down for everyone, mostly because it didn't really have a big impact on events, just on certain characters."

"It's difficult to imagine that I was... Am, a character in a video game, where you're from," Liara said to me.

"Yeah," I replied, "I guess that would be a bit difficult to believe... Anyway, in the games the player could pursue relationships with some of the other characters."

"Wait! What?" Liara said with wide eyes. I just gave her a nod as if to confirm that she'd heard correctly. "Are you implying that I was one of those characters?"

Now I was feeling slightly awkward, "Uh, well... yeah."

She shook her head and looked at the ground, covering her face with one hand and muttering, "Goddess. What does any of this have to do with you laughing because I'm what you expected?"

"I'm getting to it," I assured her, "So, yeah, you were one of those characters, and what I gleaned about you from that was that I really liked your personality. So that's why I was laughing. I was happy to know that what I found appealing was still there."

I looked at Liara and waited for a response. She just blinked at me with wide eyes for several moments before trying to speak. When she did, she seemed to have a difficult time looking directly at me though. "Are..." she started, pausing to take a deep breath, "Ok... Forgive me if I'm wrong, I'm not used to interacting with humans, but, are you saying that because my personality is the same, you'd like to... pursue a relationship with me?"

... And now it was my turn to blink with wide eyes. That had obviously not been taken the way I thought it would be. I finally found my voice then, actually startling Liara at first, "NO! that's not what I was trying to say! I just meant that I was glad to see something I liked about you actually turn out to be real!... Dammit, that's not any better and sounds even weirder! I mean, it's not like I don't like you. It's that I do and-..."

My words just trailed off and I stood there mortified. If I hadn't been so thoroughly embarrassed now, I probably would have laughed at how similar this conversation was to the one in the game... only, I was making a fool of myself in this case. We stood there for what felt like forever but was likely only a few minutes at most, without saying anything while I was trying to force myself to calm down. I could feel my face heating up as it turned red in embarrassment.

It was Liara who finally broke the silence, "Perhaps, we should focus on something else."

Yes! Something else would be, much better. Liara seemed to be looking around as if to find something to talk about. "Protheans?" I offered.

Liara's reply was immediate and rapid as she looked at me, "Yes! Protheans! Let''s talk about the Protheans." She moved to sit down and I stepped out of the way as she did, "I actually wanted to ask you what you knew about them. You had written that we actually found and worked alongside one in these games? What can you tell me about that?"

Ok, this was a better topic. I pulled a crate over to sit on as I started telling Liara what I could.