"I died Joker."

He knew the statement wasn't accusatory but he cringed whenever she broached the subject. He didn't want to talk about it, as far as he was concerned she was alive now and that was all that mattered.

He caught himself watching her on the surveillance cameras, she drifted about as she used to talking to the crew. He had the overwhelming fear that if he looked away for even a second she would disappear, and it would all be a dream. She would still be dead and he'd be unwanted and destroyed.

Joker hated the AI, he felt as though he were being spied on, and the way it called him Mr. Moreau irritated him to no end.

"Mr. Moreau, the surveillance cameras are for surveillance, I'm sure the Commander will be pleased to know that her star pilot is daydreaming over her all day."

He knew he could hear a condescending tone it its annoying voice and it raised his hackles.

"Shut up you stupid machine, man if I had known Cerberus was going to let an AI run loose I would have given my resignation then and there."

"I do not 'run loose' as you so eloquently put it, I am quite securely shackled to the AI Core, so any thoughts of opening me into deep space are unreasonable."

"Shoot me now," he muttered turning back to his console.

"Joker!"

Her voice made him jump and his heart skip a beat, "Yes Commander?"

"I assume everything is going well up here?"

"Yeah I was just thinking of manipulating the drive core to get more of an output in the engines and-"

"Safety procedures advise against manipulating the drive cores when the engine is running and in use."

The disapproving tone of the AI made him scowl.

"Man Cerberus really dropped the ball in this one."

Shepard was smiling at his discomfort, "You have a mute button, use it."

"Yeah but that doesn't change anything, it's still watching. Like some creepy kid staring at the back of your head in comp sci you just want to punch him but he's "special" and sets fires or something."

He knew he was rambling and Shepard seemed quite amused.

"Not my problem."

"yeah thanks, I'll remember that."

He felt like sticking out his tongue at her and at that split second it felt like old times, but then her smile faded and her face hardened slightly. It took him aback, she had never locked him out before, he had a feeling it was his own fault.

"I just came ask you if you had a message you wanted me to pass onto the Cap- I mean the Ambassador."

When Anderson had become the human Ambassador he tried to plead Joker's case to the Alliance Military but they would not be swayed. To tell the truth he kind of missed the old guy, but he knew Anderson would disapprove of his current position.

"Uh...tell him I said hi?"

"Joker..."

"Well, what do you want me to say, we didn't exactly end our last meeting in the best of circumstances. If I remember correctly he said 'If I join Cerberus he would personally drag my crippled as back to Earth even if it meant breaking every bone in my body.' Yeah, something like that..."

Lanah looked at him, trying to gauge whether he was being serious.

"Hi it is."

Without another word she turned and left the cockpit.

He let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"Mr. Moreau if I could-"

"Mute!"

He mashed his finger down so hard on the button he heard a crack.

"Dammit! Stupid machine!"