Shepard's mind was reeling. She had so much to digest; the apparent loss of two years, the loss of her crewmates (exempting Joker and Chakwas), the loss of her very life. So much loss. After getting briefly acquainted with the Cerberus crew and investigating Freedom's Progress, she had been struck with the urgency of the situation. The Collectors had to be stopped. With seemingly no help coming from anywhere but the human terrorist organization, she decided to pull herself up by the bootstraps and get on with it. The rest would come in time.

So, The Illusive Man wanted words with her. He'd given Miranda a list of potential recruits and they were en route to Omega. Nothing to do now but find a way to bide the time of space flight. Even with the relays, interstellar flight still took a good chunk of time; after all, they were traveling many light years. Even traveling the speed of light, it sometimes took weeks to reach the destination. No matter, Shepard was raised on starships and was rather acclimatized to such long periods of time cooped up in a small space with a lot of people.

However, right now, the ship was feeling a bit... empty.

Shepard busied herself with getting to know some of the new crew at first. She decided she rather liked Kelly, the resident psychologist. She was lighthearted and had a smile that could light up a room. Oh yes, they would be fast friends indeed. Miranda, however.. Shepard had taken to privately referring to her as "the ice queen." She was apparently trying to see just how quickly she could get on Shepard's shit list. The constant nagging and questioning about Shepard's mental health was getting really old really quick.. but somehow, Shepard was going to make this cold, isolated woman her friend. In time. That is, if she could tolerate her that long. Hmph.

Jacob reminded her a lot of Kaiden. Loyal, duty driven, but there was just something about him that rubbed her the wrong way. Albeit, he was much more kind than his former lover, Miranda, she was still holding onto her reservations.

Days had passed and she felt the absence of her best friend Garrus keenly. What she wouldn't give to see him right now. Hell, she'd settle for just being able to contact him. Oh, god. He was probably devastated when she died. She probably would have lost her mind if it had been Garrus who died.. First opportunity she had, she was going to find him. It was settled. And Tali? Sweet, innocent Tali? She had to find her old crew asap. If she had to be working for Cerberus, she needed people she could trust watching her back.

After her normal routine of chatting with the skeleton crew, she would work out incessantly. Exercise, and the bone tired weariness that came along with it, was all she sought out hoping to sleep her way to Omega. She couldn't wait to get to some kind of society. She needed to see what happened in the galaxy during her absence. She'd slept so much she could hardly stand it. It was high time to go bother Joker.

She crept up behind the pilot silently and bent right down to his ear and whispered, "Miss me, Moreau?"

Joker jumped visibly, hands flailing to seek the source of the noise, but quickly regained his composure and let out a huff. "Dammit, Commander. How many times have I told you to knock that off already? You trying to make me break my ribs? All of them?"

She arched a brow and giggled. "Good to see you haven't changed. Oh, and even though I'm a cyborg zombie or whatever.. I haven't changed either. There are a hundred ways I've planned to terrorize my favorite pilot." She threw him a wink and plopped down in the neighboring seat, pulling her knees up to her chin and grinning mischievously.

"Just great. Now I have two bionic women to deal with, as if this loud-mouthed AI wasn't enough." He glared at the large red mute button on the control panel, and slid his eyes to Shepard. "Can't we just like.. you know.. unplug it?"

"Mr. Moreau, that would be ill-advised. My systems are designed to uphold optimal functioning-"

"EDI, enough! I know, you've only told me about a hundred times already! Ugh." He slammed his fist on the button, and gave Shepard a scathing look. "Seriously. There's got to be something we can do about … that."

"Joker, you're really gonna let a sweet little AI get you all riled up? Come, now. I'd expect more from you." The sarcasm was practically dripping from her voice. Joker rolled his eyes at her. "But seriously, Joker, how have you been? How did you get tangled up in all of this?"

"It wasn't like I planned on it. Watching you get spaced for me..well, Shepard. It wasn't even a choice. When they got in touch with me and told me they'd give me my baby back and my CO, I couldn't say no. The Alliance was dicking around anyway. What was it Garrus used to say? 'Too much red tape?' Yeah, I'm beginning to think he had it right."

The mention of her lost best friend struck a nerve. "Have you heard from him? Any of them? I've got to tell them I'm alive.. They won't believe it. I can hardly believe it."

"After you died, we all kind of..split up. Everyone went their separate ways. No one's really stayed in touch, except for Chakwas. The tough old bird just can't stay away from her favorite patient. When you have one as handsome as me, I can't say I blame her. I've always had a way with women."

Shepard gave him a half-hearted smile, but he could see she was hurt.

"Shepard, listen. I can't imagine what you're going through. But don't worry. We'll find them. We've got your back. We're your team. Besides, I still need to see you pull the stick out of Garrus' ass and beat him with it. I've had a betting pool on who would win that fight for a long time, believe me."

"Thanks, Joker. I guess you're right. Nothing I can do right now, at any rate. How much longer until we reach Omega?"

He shrugged. "Two more days. You're going to catch us a vigilante and a doctor? Nice. Let's just keep the crazy toned down this time, alright? I've got enough going on as it is. I can't babysit your crew all day, Shepard."

She smirked. "Alright, alright. Yeah, we'll see if they're any good. I'm reluctant about taking anyone on Cerberus' recommendation, but we'll see. We're gonna need a helluva team to get through this." Joker nodded in agreement. Before he could say anything else, Shepard interrupted him. "Joker.. I don't want to be alone. Some fucking genius installed a skylight over my bed. Like I want to stare into the cause of my death nightly, like it's a good bedtime story. I can't shake the nightmares. Can I just stay here for a while? I'll get out of your hair soon enough. You can update me on the happenings of the galaxy, that surprisingly survived without me for a whole two years."

Joker snorted. "God, that sounds rough. Sure, Commander. I could use a little company myself. Let's see, in the last two years..."

It wasn't until he looked over thirty minutes later that he saw the commander sleeping, a little bit of drool coming out of her mouth. Attractive. Yes, this is the Savior of the Citadel. Sleeping beauty. He smiled and went back to work.

It was good to have her back.