Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect. Tragic, I know. I cry myself to sleep every night.

Chapter 3: Home

"I'm not afraid to shed all my skin,

I'm not afraid of the faults you see.

I'm tearing down these walls right now,

They're coming down, 'cause I believe..."

-Blind as a Bat, Meat Loaf

***

"How was it out there?" Joker asked Thane, trying not to sound too anxious over Shepard's plan.

Thane had arrived only five minutes ago with the recovered crew members of the Normandy. They all were in med bay right now, and Chakwas, despite being captured herself, had insisted that she log each member of personnel's health status upon return.

Thane, it seemed, had been unable to stand still himself, opting instead to pace the bridge and drive Joker slowly insane while he tried to conduct repairs with EDI.

However, much to Joker's frustration, communication with Shepard had been compromised by the Collector swarms. He'd overhead her plan, and now it was a waiting game to see if she made it to the other side. And he hated it.

"It was… glorious."

"Yeah, I hear those gruesome piles of corpses are referential to Monet's art," Joker scoffed.

"Excuse me?"

"It's just that I find your choice of words… unsatisfactory," Joker tried again with a frown.

"It was glorious," Thane said again, his low voice cryptic as always. Just another thing that was irritating the hell out of Joker. "It is indescribable, beyond both verbal description and non-visual comprehension."

"Yeah, whatever," Joker muttered agitatedly. "EDI, what's our status on our ground teams?"

"Personal scanners showing steady movement. All targets are being neutralized without hazardous complications. So far."

"Good, keep me updated."

"Of course, Joker," EDI answered. "I also have regained 65% of the Normandy's power, if you were interested."

Joker nodded but didn't answer. He kept trying to bring his piloting monitors up without the ever epileptic fit-inciting flicker.

"Do you think the commander's plan will work?" Thane pressed again.

"Hey, if you're going to be up here can you at least make yourself useful and see if you can get the navigation station back online?"

Thane didn't answer and after a moment Joker turned to see if he'd heard. The alien was leaning over the console in question and doing as the pilot had asked. Joker still found it creepy that anyone could move that silently.

"You didn't answer my question," the assassin pried.

"I've seen Shepard pull off more miracles than a certified saint," Joker answered roughly. "She'll do it. I know she will. She doesn't know howto fail."

"You have great confidence in her."

Said the overgrown grasshopper, Joker thought. Wow, Shepard had been right; he can get brutal when he's truly irritated.

"Was it strange, going from being friends to something more?" Thane asked when Joker didn't respond.

"How did you find out- you know what, no, how did that even become your business?" Joker rotated fully now to face the man spouting the invasive questions.

Thane's big dark eyes blinked and his shoulders lifted in an awkward shrug. "To your first question, I have been trained since the age of six to pick of even the slightest variations in people's interactions. To your second… I was simply curious. You show a heightened amount of concern but also a great deal of respect. I was only intrigued."

"Oh. Well, oh…" Joker said to himself, turning away from Thane again to return to his monitors.

Speaking of Shepard, he should've heard from her by now.

"Well, if I may ask again… was it?"

"No it wasn't," Joker sighed irritably. Still, that answer had come to him instantly. He hadn't needed to even think about it. It was with seriousness that he finally understood why. "It felt like… we should've been together the whole time."

"An interesting dynamic."

Joker rolled his eyes, feeling his divulging mood die just as quickly as it had flared. "Look, you asked, I gave an answer, and it was more descriptive than 'glorious'." He dramatically overstated the last word, and he heard the drell produce a short snort of laughter.

"Shepard to Normandy, come in Joker." Shepard's strong alto filled the cockpit, and with a palpable sigh of relief Joker's fingers began waltzing over his amber keys.

"Nomandy here, Commander," he said, feeling a strange smile form on his lips.

"We're about to make our final push. Will the Normandy be ready for takeoff?"

"I should regain enough of my original power by then to get us outside the blast radius of the explosion, Commander," EDI announced. "Though I will not have enough to fire weapons again should we need them."

"Then we'd better make sure we do this right," Shepard's voice responded.

"I'll work on the ship, commander," Joker interjected. "You just focus on getting out of there without so much as a broken nail," he tried to keep the worry out, but unfortunately the only emotion left in his tone was anxiety and irritation.

"Yeah, I love you too, Joker."

It sounded like a joke, and he wasn't sure anyone else would know the difference, but behind him he could tell the assassin smiled. Joker shook his head. He couldn't hear the damn man cross the floor behind him, but he could sense him smirk.

"Kick some Collector ass for me, ma'am," he finished, intending to save sweeter words for a time he could say them to her face…

"Then get your ass back home."

***

"They're not going to make it in time!" Thane explaimed, frantically moving about the cabin, no doubt feeling as helpless as Joker was at the moment.

Shepard would've made it just fine with time to spare if the Illusive man hadn't wasted so much time delivering his mad-man speech about trying to keep a Reaper pet. Joker wanted to say a whole lot of things in that moment, but now that Shepard had started the countdown, only to then spend an additional five minutes killing the damn thing, he had only a couple of choice words that were at the forefront of his mind.

"Fuck that!" Joker shouted back at the drell. EDI fired up the engines and he guided the Normandy off the hull of the Collector base.

Behind him, Thane was putting a new thermal clip in his pistol.

"You better load an assault rifle while you're at it," Joker growled to him, hastily guiding the Normandy to where EDI pinpointed Shepard's exit.

The Normandy's powerful heart hummed to life as it floated now next to the base.

"We're running out of time, Jeff!" EDI announced.

"Keep it to yourself, EDI," he muttered, but still opening a comm link with the commander. "Come on, Shepard, move your god damn ass!"

"We see you!" Shepard's voice was frantic, her breathing labored. "But we can't get to you. We're pinned down and there's no cover between us and you!"

"EDI, take control of systems!" Joker shouted, already beginning to stand, "I'm going to provide cover fire for Shepard!"

"Joker-" the computer began to argue, but he already on his feet, moving as fast as possible and yanking the assault weapon Thane proffered with an extended hand.

"Don't argue, damn it! Just open the airlock!"

He heard Shepard shout to the others of her squad to press forward as EDI obeyed.

The doors swung open as Joker approached them and he took sight of the great cavern the team was trying to fight through.

Shepard stood towards the back, gesturing wildly at the few people behind her to get them to move faster.

Joker began firing, trying to take aim for the first few moments to take out the few Collectors that were practically nipping at their heels. Next to him, Thane was waiting with outstretched arms to pull Jack, who was the first to reach them, onto the ship.

In one swift motion the drell pulled the biotic with enough momentum to throw her almost immediately into the protection of the ship before turning to reach for the next person.

Meanwhile, Joker watched his commander hurl herself over a block of debris and make a controlled fall onto the ground on the other side. She sunk to the floor, take cover for a moment before kneeling and shooting behind her to distract the enemy while the others made a mad dash to the ship.

EDI began pulling a little from the base in warning, letting them know that they were down to seconds to escape.

Next to him, Krios began grunting as he hauled each person across the gap, the last one, Garrus, jumped and pushed the others back inside the cover of the hull.

"Come on, Shepard!" Joker shouted over the firing of his own weapon. "It's only you!"

The Normandy began to pull away and Joker nearly screamed at EDI to stay.

Across the way, Shepard nodded and rose, still firing but more sporratically as she began backing towards the ship.

"NOW!" Joker screamed, suddenly holding the trigger continuously to mow down the swarms that were desperately trying to reach her.

She finally turned, full-on sprinting to the ship, dropping her uselessly empty rifle in the process. Her feet flew beneath her, but Joker's heart grew cold. How much longer, twenty seconds? Fifteen? Even if she reached him could they escape the blast in time?

The gap was larger now, she might not make it. He could hear Shepard's crew, her family, crying out to move just a little bit faster. Even Jack was swearing her bald, arrogant head off.

In the last moment that Shepard had solid ground beneath her feet she lunged, a yawp of her own sounding as she threw herself at the ship.

Joker caught her. Clasping her forearm strongly in his he pulled forcefully, making her nearly collide with his body as he wrenched her violently to him. He held her tightly against his waist for a moment, shouting to EDI to get them the hell out of there as he unloaded the rest of his thermal clip into their pursuers.

EDI immediately did as he asked, picking up speed so fast Joker had to pin himself and Shepard to the wall before throwing her inside the airlock and dashing in after her.

He hobbled as fast as he could manage to the controls, bellowing commands to EDI as she drove them away, knowing the explosion would not be far behind the ship.

They seemed to only be shouting back and forth, Joker hearing nothing even when it was him that was speaking, all that mattered was getting away-

BOOM!

Explosions, the sound of cracking rock cascaded around their ears and the ship pitched forward dangerously, her inhabitants crying out and falling to the ground in the violent rumble.

Joker thought for a terrifying moment that it was all over, he could swear he could hear the crackling of melting material somewhere deep within the ship.

But the darkness never came.

It was with shock that he realized he was still alive. The blast doors were closed around the observation windows, and Joker couldn't see anything around them. But the Normandy had steadied… and all was calm around them.

"Holy fuck," Jack sounded, breathlessly. Joker turned to see the bridge littered with the bodies of the team, all huddled and collapsed next to each other, panting heavily after their run. "Did we seriously just survive that?"

Further down the hall Mordin began laughing. Weakly at first, then more maniacally until the others all turned to watch him go into hysterical shock.

"Great, the mad scientist has finally cracked," Garrus said with smile. And soon the bridge combusted with laughter, everyone snickering madly, simply in desperation to somehow express their relief.

It was the last thing anyone expected to see after such a fight, but there was no other reaction to be had in that moment. Jacob was chuckling so hard, he fell on his side from where he'd been sitting and pounded the floor weakly; Which in turn caused Miranda to snicker and clutch her stomach as she gasped for air. Thane and Samara produced quiet but still very real chortles as well.

Grunt's low rumble bled and mixed with Zaeed and Jack's naturally dark sounding tones, and it somehow harmonized with the metallic clicks of Legion, Garrus, and Tali's bouts of giddiness. And Shepard... Her bright laugh dance over the top of it as she leaned her sweaty head against the bulkhead.

"We did alright, team," she said, her white smile a beacon of light behind flushed lips and a bloody cut that spread across the left side of her mouth. "I'm damn proud."

The laughter began to die after her words as they all looked at her, feeling the same pride for what they'd just accomplished.

"Aye, aye, for Commander Shepard," Jacob finally said, "the hardest and luckiest son of a bitch in the whole damn galaxy."

"Aye, aye," they all repeated.

Joker watched with warm love for the most amazing woman born of the galaxy. And she was his.

None of them showed any signs of moving, all exhausted, euphoric, and shocked. Joker slid to Shepard's side, sitting next to her and grabbing her hand as the small army she had cultivated all sat in camaraderie, without the words to say much else.

With careful fingers Joker reached up to Shepard's bloodied lips and pulled the bottom one carefully from her gums, examining the wound. She winced slightly but otherwise showed no acknowledgment of the pain.

"Anyone got any left over medigel?" he asked the group as he tenderly brushed his thumb across the cut.

Mordin began digging around in his suit but Shepard lifted her hand to indicate he shouldn't. Joker let go of his hold on her lip a watched her curiously as she knitted her fingers through his.

"Nah, I'll keep it," she said. "I kind of like the idea of having a scar again."

She looked around at her companions and sighed, a contented smile settling on her expression. She was bruised and sweaty, her hair was a near matted mess, her grip on Joker's hand was sweet but tired...

But as he slipped his other arm around her, he felt her become the most relaxed he'd seen her in weeks.

"For the first time in a long time," she said quieter, turning her head a little bit so it was as though she were speaking just to him, "things are exactly as they should be."

"Your love is blind, blind as a bat,

The way that you're leading me home like that.

Your love is blind, blind as a bat..."

The End

There we have it! My first Shoker fic! See, I *told* you it could be done! XD Sending you my love! I hope you enjoyed. :)