"That's what I thought," Joker answered, continuing to the ship.

Tali patted the turian's arm; he could see her smile spread across her features under her helmet. "Shepard's been rubbing off on you."

He shrugged, but couldn't stop his mandibles from stretching open, his own turian smile on his face. "Wishful thinking" was not a turian custom. Instincts, however, were one of their strong suits, and he couldn't doubt what his instincts were telling him. Somehow, Commander Shepard was still alive on the Crucible/Citadel/Catalyst, whatever C-word they wanted to call it. And the Normandy crew would do what they needed to get to her.

"Will you take her to the core?"

The turian turned to look in his direction. Joker's voice was quiet. His back was to the two of them, stopped just short of walking into the Normandy. Garrus wondered if Tali could even hear him. Though he couldn't see the man's face, he knew there was a lot of hurt in his voice. He was pushing his own emotions aside to help Shepard. Humans were remarkable.

"I'd do it myself, but—" Joker paused, his shoulders sagging.

"Of course," Garrus answered, nodding.

"Thanks."

Tali looked down to the ground once Joker disappeared inside of the ship. Her arms crossed over her chest and she squeezed her upper arms tightly. Garrus had noticed she did that when she was saddened about something, probably a defense mechanism.

"So really no luck?" he asked.

"Not that I can see," the quarian sighed. "Her body's perfectly fine. Systems are all functioning like they should. She's just … gone. It's like her personality was completely wiped out."

"So like what happened to Legion?"

"I think so. It's hard for even me to understand, but I guess they really did … die. Their bodies are still intact and functional. The machinery part has no problems, and there's potential I could find some code in the ship …"

"You could find EDI's programming, though, right? I'm sure the AI core has something you can look into."

"Even if we were to use the Normandy's databanks to find her programs, even if we actually reboot her into her body, I'm worried it still wouldn't be EDI. Not the EDI we know. Does that make any sense?"

Garrus nodded after a moment. "Her programming was never who she was. It'd be like if one of us were human instead of the species we are. We can be extremely similar, but we'll never be the same."

"And I would hate to have Joker see EDI's body walking and talking, but it's not really EDI. No matter what he says, I know it'll hurt him too much."

"He'll make some joke or shrug it off, but I think you're right."

"I plan to keep looking into it when I can. Maybe there will be something. I hope there will be something."

"I'll take her down to the AI core in a few minutes, let Chakwas take care of him before I carry her through the med bay … Did you get that cut looked at?"

Tali reached up to touch the top of her helmet, where her forehead was underneath. "Oh, not yet. No ruptures in my suit, so no worries about infection. I don't think it's deep."

"Still, you should have the doctor look at it."

"Garrus, if she touches me, I'll be running a fever in seconds. I'll get it taken care of. Kaidan was bleeding more than I was, anyway."

"All right. Just make sure it's not serious."

The quarian looked in his direction, a smile in her voice. "Archangel is worried about a scrape on my forehead?"

He chuckled. "Hey, you should be thankful I'm not Wrex. He'd throw you over his shoulder and carry you to the med bay himself."

Tali laughed. "If he shows up next to my bed with soup, I'm bringing out my shotgun."

"That's probably how krogans show affection. I'm sure he'd be flattered."

Garrus practically snorted as Tali attempted to impersonate Wrex's voice, even holding her arms out at her sides to mimic his large form. Here, the two were able to forget what they had lived through, and everything that was set before them to put their lives back together. They could mimic their friends, despite still being unsure if some of them were safe or not. When they stepped back on to the ship, all of it would come back to them in full force, and the seriousness of the situation would make everyone stoic again.

For now, though, they laughed. Maybe the clean fresh air made them giddy. Because, for a turian, Garrus Vakarian felt unnaturally optimistic about all of it.