Title: Sharing Pain
Fandom: Mass Effect
Characters/Pairings: Zeek Shepard/Jeff "Joker" Moreau
Genre: Love, Pain
Warnings: Incurable diseases [Lupus & Vrolik Syndrome], medicine for disease, and "drug abuse" [joking only - briefly, too].
Note: I have Lupus as well. I wanted to make my OC of male!shep have something in common, sooo. Here it is! Enjoy. :)


Jeff looked around Zeek Shepard's lounge room. It was huge, magnificent even! It had its own sound system and everything! His amazement quickly changed to a sense of fear, stabbing him the gut, as he looked down to the table. Countless bottles lay in a row upon it.

"What are all of these for, Shepard?" Jeff picked up one of the bottles. "Got a drug problem, or something?" He laughed at his own joke as he examined the bottle.

Shepard immediately turned around, as a look of worry flushed his face red. "Oh... Don't worry about that, it's nothing--"

The name read something Jeff was all too familiar with: anti-inflammatories. "It's certainly something."

Luckily Jeff didn't make eye contact with Shepard, or else Jeff would have noticed the insecure blushing. Instead, Jeff continued to look at the bottle's description, as memories overwhelmed him. Anti-inflammatories were a big part of helping him walk every day, no thanks to Vrolik syndrome. A crippling disease that caused his bones to be extremely brittle. Ever since birth, it's been a problem. Modern medicine, no matter how advanced since the Mars discovery of Prothean technology, couldn't make it easier for him to walk without relying on crutches and leg braces. If Prothean technology didn't reveal anything useful to help find a cure for his disease, how could it even have a cure to begin with? Doctors would always tell Jeff, in a determined and hopeful voice, that one day they "would find a cure". As time passed, it seemed more and more that the doctors were only giving him false hope to cling to. And until then, if it even happens - if a cure even exists, Jeff had to take anti-inflammatories to help alleviate his pain and slow down the attack from his body on his body. Jeff had dozens after dozens of pill bottles lined up in his cabin, and stashed hidden in the pilot's room. It was rare for him to speak of his condition. Not many aboard his 'baby', the SSV Normandy spaceship, knew of his condition, and he planned to keep it that way. He didn't want sympathy from anybody; he wanted respect. Respect which he certainly earned.

The pilot academy definitely overlooked him most of the time. If he had started believing in all of the bullies back then, he'd still be overlooked. Fortunately, he studied and became the best student in the academy! That certainly showed them how awesome he, "creaky legs", was as he stood there, winning his award with a huge, intentional, arrogant grin on his face. His memories started to race, until-

"I guess the jig's up." Shepard let out a sigh, as he sat down next to Jeff. "I've got a... condition, you could say."

"Tell me about it." Jeff's racing mind slowly came to a halt. The crew, his family, is more important than bad memories. Memories that should stay in the past.

"I didn't tell the head in charge, or anyone in the Marines. I was afraid they'd reject me, when I'm good enough. I've got Lupus, but don't tell anyone that I do, okay?" Shepard's view fixated on the floor.

"I think I've been rubbing off on ya. You're so believable right now!" Jeff chuckled and patted Shepard on the back. When Jeff didn't get a 'I got ya!' or 'Fooled ya!' in response, his chuckle stopped. "Wow, you're not kidding me, are you?" Jeff blinked, looking to Shepard, who's eyes remained tensely staring at the floor.

"Please don't tell them... I know it can kill me, but I'm fighting it with all I've got. Just like the Blitz. If our enemies can't kill me, then Lupus won't kill me, either! Not if I keep fighting it and never give in."

Jeff looked to the bottles of anti-inflammatories on the table once more, then back to Shepard, then frowned. "I guess the jig's up for me, too, then..."

Shepard paused as he looked to Jeff. "What do you mean-"

"I've got an incurable, well, condition, as you call them." Jeff put his arms folded behind his head. "I'm not sure if you've heard of Vrolik syndrome, Shepard..."

"My doctor told me of it, since I'm beginning to form a type of Osteo, myself..."

Jeff sat up in excitement, looking to Zeek. "You don't say?"

"Well, my doctor was explaining the usual rundown of Osteo-types. You'd know, I suppose." Zeek laid back on the couch now. He felt less tense and more relaxed, and Jeff could tell that Zeek was beginning to feel like his normal, cool-headed, laid back self.

"Yeah, I take anti-inflammatories just like you do. And plenty of them!" Jeff laughed. Zeek laughed in return.

"I figured! But how come I never seen any of these so-called anti-inflammtory bottles, Joker?" Zeek hesitantly looked to Jeff. Was Jeff pretending to make Zeek feel better? Jeff was the type to make comical attempts of cheering others up. "During cabin inspections, I've never heard of any bottles lying around."

"I hide them in places you'd never guess to look!" Jeff lifted his pant leg and showed Zeek his leg brace. Inside was a well-hidden compartment and Zeek's answer: a couple anti-inflammatory pills well-kept in a bag with writing on it. Zeek looked more closely and read the name of one of Jeff's medications... It was the same one Jeff had looked at.

"Wow, you weren't joking for once!"

"Surprised, are you?" Jeff shrugged and put his medicine away carefully, and then he pulled his pant leg back down over his leg brace.

"I'm not so sure if I'm more surprised at you having an incurable disease, like me, or the fact that you weren't being a sarcastic prankster!" Zeek laughed and got noogied by Jeff.

"Oh, c'mon! I'm mature sometimes..."

"That's your problem, there, Joker: sometimes." The two laughed.

"Well, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one aboard my baby with physical problems now..." Jeff nodded.

"Yeah, sharing pain is better than being alone in this kind of crap." Zeek sighed.

Jeff sighed as well, "I hear ya."