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Chapter 23 – Hope from Ruin

The elevator was silent as they ascended, her men tense but ready for whatever they may find. Ashley flexed her hands around her rifle, willing herself to remain calm and collected in front of the marines she was tasked with leading in Shepard's absence. To herself, Ashley was an uncontrollable ball of nerves and she cursed how slow Citadel elevators were, wishing they could get to the Council chambers faster.

The Battle of the Citadel, as it was now being called hours later, had to be one of the most haptic space battles she ever heard of. The Citadel fleets had been absolutely decimated by the Geth's surprise attack, just like they'd feared. What forces which weren't being pummeled by the Geth were destroyed by Sovereign. Ashley had already known the Reaper ship would be a force to contend with, but she hadn't been expecting the raw level of destruction it could cause. Almost the entirety of the Fifth Fleet went up against the monster, and Sovereign had taken out eight cruisers before it was brought down. Ashley dreaded what kind of damage an entire fleet of Reapers could inflict.

From the initial drop onto Ilos, to reaching the Conduit, to traveling to the Citadel, Ashley remained on the bridge, listening to the ground team's progress whenever comms allowed. Ash was at least there in spirit when Shepard met Vigil, discovered the true nature of the Conduit, and eventually took down Saren Arterius once and for all.

The Normandy had been abuzz with jubilation when both Saren and Sovereign fell. However, the celebration was cut short when Garrus yelled something about one of Sovereign's legs colliding with the Citadel Tower. Ashley listened with absolute fear to Shepard yelling at the ground team to move before the connection was cut completely. Her dread only increased every time they tried to hail the ground team but were only met with static.

That was over seven hours ago. When she couldn't stand idle any longer, Ashley and a few of the other marines demanded they go ahead to lead a search party. Pressly initially barred her and the other marines from doing anything until there was more information to go on. Then Anderson had started broadcasting on still functioning C-Sec channels, requesting assistance from any and all Alliance personnel who could respond, and Ash and her men jumped at the chance.

Ashley rode upward in the elevator, flanked by Captain Anderson and Tali Zorah, who had insisted upon coming along as well. Joining them were several of Ashley's marines and more than a few C-Sec personnel. In the second elevator ascending with them were more marines and C-Sec officers. Ash heard the Citadel police force had taken a serious hit to their numbers because of the Geth. She was grateful they could spare at least so many men to help look for the commander and his team.

At long last the elevator finally slowed to a stop when they reached the Council Chambers. Ashley, Second Lieutenant Crosby, and Tali took up firing positions before Ash manually triggered the door opened. They moved out quickly, rifles and shotgun raised, surveying the chambers for any hostiles left. Across the way more of Ash's marines spread out from the second elevator much the same way, on the alert as well. Everyone waited for a moment, and when enemies weren't forthcoming, Ashley signaled for everyone else to start moving up. Anderson spoke into his comm. piece as he followed; informing the medical teams standing by it was safe to come up.

Ash mentally cursed when she saw the state of the Council Chambers. The far wall was completely smashed open, revealing the backdrop of black space and another of the Citadel's arms, smoking profusely. But they still had power, so the atmospheric barrier was active and they could breathe easy.

Everything else was a mess. The piece of Sovereign that collided with the Tower lay before them, making it nigh impossible to move forward on the right side of the room. There was rubble everywhere, from jagged remains of collapsed walls to sparking electrical panels torn from the ceiling. The grass enclosures were almost entirely burning, and the busted fountain spouted water off in odd directions like a paltry semblance of rain.

"You're sure the commander and the others are still in here?" she heard Anderson ask, his voice quiet.

"I'm sure," Tali answered. She tried to sound confident but Ash could still here the waver in her voice. "I tracked their Omni Tool signals to here, but I can't pinpoint their position exactly because of the rubble and faulty tech in here."

"Then we start digging," Ash surmised. She gestured to her marines and started making hand signals. "Crosby, I want you and your team to start canvassing the wreckage here and on the second level. Start clearing rubble and making sure nothing will start to come toppling down on top of us. Robinson, take your team directly up to the third level and do the same. Officer Bailey, I want you and your men to start scanning the rubble. Try to find any signs of life or at least help my men clear the wreckage so we can work faster. Everyone be careful! We don't know what kind of damage Sovereign caused up here, so tread lightly and be ready to bug out."

Everyone let out a chorus of 'Aye aye's and jumped to their assigned tasks. Ash grabbed Tali's arm and said, "Get to work on triangulating their signal. See if you can make it come in stronger." The Quarian nodded and ran off to boot up a nearby Avina terminal that still had power. Before she went to join her men, Ash briefly met Anderson's gaze while he waited for the medical team. There was something strange in the look he gave her, sort of how Shepard looked at her sometimes. However, Ash didn't have the time to worry over it, and she went off to help the search.

The work was slow going. They didn't have any heavy duty equipment to clear out rubble, and they had to spend more time making sure whole piles of wreckage didn't come crashing down around them than actually searching through them. Ash tried to keep as much distance between her men and the Reaper leg as possible while they worked. It may be dead, but Indoctrination was a strange, Lovecraftian manifestation, so Ash had every right to be wary.

She was on the second level about to help move a fallen support girder when Bailey caught her attention. "What have you got?" she asked.

"I was talking with your Quarian friend, and we both agree Shepard's team isn't down here," he answered gruffly. "The readings my boys have been getting aren't finding anything more than Geth scrap. Even if Shepard and his team were dead, we'd have found the tech in their suits by now. That means if they're here, they have to be on the third level."

Ash ignored the comment about her friends and lover possibly being dead. To everyone in ear shot she called out, "You heard Bailey! Start moving toward the third level. Search in a grid pattern and keep your eyes and ears open. The longer we take, the less time they have to keep holding on."

As Ash starting picking her way up the stairs along with everyone else, Tali fell into step alongside her, still fiddling with her Tool as she watched her footing. "Ash… we are going to find them, aren't we?"

"I know we will," Ash replied with a conviction she was still trying to fully believe in herself. The more rubble they cleared, the more damage they found, the more her anxiety levels rose. Ash was still doing her best to remain optimistic, but she wasn't sure how long she could keep it up. "The reason we're even standing here is because Shepard and the others saved our asses. The least we can do is save theirs."

Tali nodded warily, probably trying to keep herself psyched up the same way Ash was. "Alright, I'm getting some strong readings up ahead. Somewhere off to the right."

They crested around the Reaper leg, and Ashley saw what Tali was probably referring to. Off to the right side of the Council Chambers was a massive cross work of fallen ceiling beams and chunks of wall, scattered with the same care a toddler would apply to Linkin-Logs.

"You really think they could have survived something like that?" Ash heard a Turian C-sec officer ask.

"The Skipper can survive anything!" Robinson shot back. He paused a moment to help push aside a boulder and send it tumbling to the floor. "And Wrex is way too goddamn stubborn to die. They're alive; I know it."

"Report, Robinson?" Ashley asked when she came up on the pseudo-mountain. Marines and C-Sec officers scoured all over it, trying to find gaps to clear away without compromising the whole structure.

"It's all a giant cluster fuck, ma'am," the corporal answered. "We can get the scraps on the surface, but we can't move anything without turning the whole thing into a giant game of Jenga. Not without heavy equipment. If Shepard and the others are in there, we won't be reaching them anytime soon."

Ash cupped her chin in thought. "Maybe we can work from the top, down. Hook up a simple pulley system to start clearing away-"

"Over here!" someone shouted. Ash snapped her head around to see a Salarian C-Sec officer clawing away some debris at the base of the pile on the far side. "I've got survivors here!"

Her heart leapt into her throat and Ash scrambled over to the C-Sec officer's position, followed closely by Robinson and a few of the other marines. The Salarian moved out of the way to let Ash peek through a small hole he had created. She powered up the flashlight on her Tool and shined it in, the circle of light falling on a suit of red armor.

"Wrex!" Ash called. "Wrex, can you hear me!?"

"What the hell took you so long?" a gravelly voice muttered back. Ash and the others around her let out a chorus of relieved sighs.

"Liara and I are here too, Ash," she heard Garrus' dual tone voice call out. "We could really use a way out, though. Not exactly comforting sitting under hundreds of tons of steel and rebar."

"We're working on it," Ash placated. She ordered the marines to start moving upward and see what they could remove without sacrificing structural integrity. "We need you guys to stay still for now. There's no telling when this whole thing could come crashing down."

"Krogan do not fare well in tight spaces, Williams," Wrex cautioned.

"Go and get the car jacks," Ash ordered to a couple of the C-Sec officers. Chain of command was in turmoil after the attack, supply lines equally so, and C-Sec had reverted to appropriating whatever local businesses were willing to loan them.

Ash inspected the rubble immediately near the hole that had already been dug out. She spied a boulder leaning against a girder, but it didn't appear to be holding up much weight at all. "Tali, see if you can give me a hand with this." The Quarian joined her, and together they braced themselves against the mountain and pushed against the slab of concrete. It took no small amount of effort, but after a moment the boulder finally began to budge before popping out of place and tumbling to the ground.

They were rewarded with a fresh hole in the side of the rubble, just wide enough for a thin person to squeeze through. On the other side Ashley could see Garrus, Liara, and Wrex huddled together, looking beaten and bloody but no less relieved to see the cavalry.

Their smiles were short lived, however. A moment later the mountain of rubble let out an ominous sounding rumble and small bits of rock started raining down around them. "Everyone clear out!" Ash yelled, so her men and the C-Sec personnel immediately began scrambling off the rubble before they were taken down with it. Several girders within the mass started to groan with protest as they succumbed to gravity.

"Hurry up with those car jacks!" Ash ordered from her spot next to the hole, unwilling to leave her friends. If they were lucky, at this point they'd maybe have enough time to get Liara out before the whole thing came crumbling down around them. But Ash could never leave Garrus and Wrex behind to die.

"To hell with this," she heard Wrex growl. Ash looked back into the hole to see Wrex moving around and positioning himself. Wrex got down on one knee whilst applying his hump and palms upon the ceiling, like the titan Atlas holding up the celestial spheres on his shoulders. With a great bellow, Wrex pushed upward steadily, forcing their low ceiling to lift. The rubble around them continued to fall out of place and tumble away as Wrex further pushed them past their breaking points.

But his gambit paid off. As the mountain lost integrity, the pieces of debris around the hole Ash and Tali had previously created started to loosen as well. Acting quickly, Ash and Tali clawed away at bricks and chunks of cement, widening the passage until a normal sized person could fit through.

At long last a couple of C-Sec officers finally arrived with a pair of car jacks. They were placed at either side of the opening, supporting a beam which hung over the now larger hole. The mountain of wreckage they stood upon threatened to tumble any second, but at least their friends' means of escape would be stable for the moment.

First to be urged through was Liara, who required both Garrus' and Tali's aid as she stumbled drunkenly through the passage. Next Ashley reached in and unashamedly grabbed Garrus by his collar to yank him out and pass him off to a couple of the marines.

"Lookout!" someone yelled. Ash barely had time to glance up and see a girder snap free from the ceiling and come falling down. Everyone even remotely in its path jumped aside, clearing out of its way before the girder smashed into the side of the mountain of rubble. It landed left of the hole they'd made, scattering bits of debris through the air with the collision. The mountain groaned and shifted dangerously as the girder slid down the side, destabilizing several of the load bearing pieces at the bottom.

Ash barely waited for the dust to settle before she scrambled back to the opening they'd made. The beam which had previously lain above the hole was now sitting diagonally over the opening. It had caused the car jack on the right to snap in half once it couldn't take the pressure anymore. The car jack on the left was still in place, but Ash could see it was starting to warp from tons of debris weighing down on it. Wrex had mere seconds until the whole thing came crashing down on him.

"Get the hell out of there, Wrex!"

"Fuck this!" she heard the Krogan yell back. Wrex let out a mighty roar, and Ash realized what he was doing just in time to jump out of the way. Wrex came barreling out of the opening, ramming the beam in his way and sending it flying. The Krogan himself came tumbling out as well, winded from head butting a solid piece of steel. There was even a dent in his head plate from where it collided.

Acting quickly, Ashley scuttled to his side and looped one of his arms around her shoulders to support him. She lifted Wrex out of the space they'd been camped out in, mere moments before the thing caved in, and together they hurried away from the mountain before it came toppling down around them. The group of marines and C-Sec officers gave the whole thing a wide berth as it collapsed to the ground. After a few moments the internal network of concrete slabs and fallen girders reach some sort of equilibrium, and the whole pile settled down once more.

Ashley coughed into her hand to try and not breathe in any of the dust displaced into the air because of the avalanche. "Everyone all right?" she called out. Her marines and the C-Sec officers all answered back with reassurances of their health and safety.

She helped Wrex hobble over to the far wall and sat him down. To her surprise, the Krogan was actually laughing hysterically. Then he was bent double as a coughing fit wracked his body, but then he was back to laughing loudly again. "Joining you humans on this little adventure of yours was one of the best ideas I've had in centuries."

"I certainly wouldn't call it 'little' but I'm still glad as hell you tagged along, Wrex," Ash said with a relieved smile. She stepped back to let the medical team attend to Wrex, same as they were doing to Garrus and Liara already. Ash crossed over to Garrus' side, though she kept her gaze on Liara. The Asari kept nodding in and out, requiring the aid of her medical attendant to keep her awake.

"Is Liara okay?" she asked Garrus as she kneeled down next to where he sat.

"She pushed her biotics to the limit. And then she kept pushing." Garrus batted away an annoyingly persistent nurse from grabbing his visor off his head. "Liara created some kind of biotic bubble to keep the ceiling from falling down on top of us. The moment we were safe, relatively speaking, she passed out and didn't wake up for several hours."

"You all look pretty beat up, even Wrex. How are you feeling?"

Garrus shrugged tiredly as the nurse began to wrap his left arm in a sling. "From this day forward I will always remember my training in basic to be a cake walk compared to what we went through getting here. But in retrospect we could have gotten off a lot worse. We're not dead, so there's that." Garrus shifted himself into a more comfortable position. "How's Shepard doing? He must have gotten pretty banged up too."

"He wasn't with you?" Ashley asked, unable to keep the bit of panic from her voice. "We haven't found him. I thought you would know…"

"You haven't found him yet?" Garrus shook his head and sighed. "Shit, Ash. We got separated when Sovereign's leg collided with the tower. I haven't seen him since the ceiling came crashing down around us. Wrex, Liara and I only wound up together out of sheer dumb luck."

Ash stood back up and gazed out over the disaster zone which had become of the Council Chambers. John could have been anywhere in the wreckage. He could even still be somewhere in the rubble that just collapsed… or maybe he'd been flatted under Sovereign's leg...

No! Ashley berated herself. I am not going to let John die here. Not now, not after everything we've been through.

"Where was the last place you saw him?" she asked Garrus.

"I don't know, Ash, somewhere beyond the wall of bent steel and former architecture?" She turned back to him with a stern glare, and Garrus cast his gaze away with shame. "We were down in the garden below the Chamber. Saren just sort of exploded after he died, sending us flying in odd directions. Liara, Wrex and I landed by the near wall, and Shepard ended up by the far wall, underneath where the Council stands. I think Shepard managed to climb out on his end, but after that I just don't know."

The podium where the Council normally stood wasn't doing too well, from what Ashley could see. It too was now covered in a small mountain of debris and rubble. A few of her marines were just starting to scour it, but Ash could see reticence in their movements. Obviously that pile was far less stable than the others.

Leaving Garrus for the medical personnel to attend to, Ashley carefully picked her way over to it. "What have we got over here?" she asked Lieutenant Crosby as she came up.

The lieutenant was shaking his head. "Lustrums said she thought she heard something from over here. I'm not saying Lustrums is going crazy, but if someone was actually moving around in there, the whole thing would have come toppling down already."

"I know what I heard," the corporal called over her shoulder crossly.

"Have the C-Sec officers picked up any life signs?" Ashley asked.

"They're still working their way up to us," Crosby told her. "But our Tools are picking up some weird static. I can't be certain, but maybe-"

"Hey watch it!" the third marine yelled. Ash and Crosby looked over to see Lustrums scrambling around the side of the hill of rubble just as it started to give way, kicking up a small cloud of dust as it collapsed somewhat. Ash and her marines backed away a few steps just to be safe, but it took mere seconds for everything to settle down again. The whole set-up hadn't shifted nearly as spectacularly as the other avalanche from before.

"Lustrums!" Ash called out after a moment once everything was quiet again. "Are you alright?"

There wasn't any immediate answer from the corporal, and for a second Ashley feared the worst. Then a moment later the air was filled with Lustrums' maniacal laughter, so obviously she wasn't in any real danger.

"Yeah!" Lustrums yelled back from out of sight. "Yeah, we're both a-okay!"

We? Without even thinking Ash began moving toward where Lustrums had disappeared. Two figures rounded the corner, and Ashley's breath caught in her throat.

It was obvious he was favoring his left leg, seeing as how Lustrums had to support him in his right side. He was flat out missing pieces of his armor, and what was still there looked chewed up all to hell, both from bullets and from being buried under rocks. The visor on his helmet was near completely shattered, revealing his bruised and bloodied face.

But the moment she caught his deep blue eyes, John Shepard gave her a smile full of as much life as possible, and Ash knew everything was going to be alright.

Ashley rushed to his side, a huge smile on her face while she fought off the watering in her eyes. She helped support Shepard on his left side, and together she and Lustrums helped the commander hobble back to a safer area. By now the rest of those in the Council Chamber had caught on that Shepard had been found. Already Anderson and a few medical personnel were rushing over to see to the commander. The marines let out a round of cheers to seeing their CO safe and sound. Next to her, Ashley could hear Shepard laughing quietly, and she knew there was a relieved smile beneath his helmet.

The nurses ushered him onto a stretcher, and Anderson was by his side in an instant, patting the Commander's shoulder fondly. "You did good, son. Real good." To the medical personnel, Anderson ordered, "Get the Commander and his team to Huerta Memorial Hospital, ASAP. Myself, C-Sec, and the marines will stay here to continue canvassing the area, see what else we can find."

Anderson turned to her next. "Gunnery Chief Williams, go with them as their escort, just in case." Ashley caught the knowing wink he gave her, and she resisted the urge to thank him profusely. Instead, Ash merely saluted and followed along as Shepard and the team were led back toward the elevator. Garrus and Liara had also been relegated to being transported on stretchers, although Wrex was still enough of his indignant self to insist upon walking without aid, even if he was just a tad bit wobbly on his feet.

On the elevator ride down, Ashley stood as close to Shepard as she dared without getting in the way of the nurses as they tended to him. An Asari nurse very carefully pulled his helmet off so she could begin cleaning the wounds on his head. Shepard had a large gash above his left eye, streaming bright red blood down the side of his face, and there were dark purple bruises running down the right side of his neck.

But in spite of everything, Ashley was overjoyed to see him like this. Wounded meant not dead. Trouble walking by himself meant not crippled. Not coughing up blood meant no serious internal damage. All of which meant Shepard, her John, was alive, and he'd get better. And Ash couldn't have been any happier. John was going to be okay. They were both going to be okay.

She laced their gloved hands together, and John glanced up at her with dazed eyes and a lazy smile as the nurse cleaned his cut. "Hey you," she offered.

"Hey you," he whispered back. He inhaled sharply when the nurses pressed the damp cloth a little too firmly into his cut. The Asari muttered an apology and retreated for a moment to find some gauze for his head. John breathed deeply, trying to keep himself awake. "So… we won?"

Ashley laughed only slightly as she petted his hair reassuringly. "Yeah, we won." Of course, they both knew this wouldn't be the end of the Reapers. If anything their returned had only been delayed. It might take months, years, or even decades, but one day the Reapers would come. But that just meant all the more time they could prepare. So they were taking today as a victory, for what good it would hopefully do in the end.

John's smile widened and he squeezed her hand. "And we both made it through. So what was it?"

"What was what?" she asked, perplexed.

"The promise," he explained. "Before I left, you promised to tell me what you wanted to say when I came back. And I came back. So what was it you wanted to say?"

In all of the excitement of taking down Sovereign and finding her lover, Ashley almost forgot what she'd said in his cabin less than a day ago. Or rather, what she'd intended to say before she thought better of it. Ash couldn't say for sure if they'd have ever seen each other again. She already knew John would be fighting like hell to make his way back to her, but she'd wanted to add in that bit of extra incentive, if only just to give him something tangible to look forward to.

Smiling broadly, Ash leaned in closer and whispered, "The secret… is I love you too." And to prove she meant it, Ashley closed the little distance remaining to give him a soft but lasting kiss.

Off to the side of the elevator, Wrex let out a displeased noise.

Several hours later…

Now cleaned and decked in her BDU's instead of her armor, Ashley stood within one of the many halls of Huerta Memorial, keeping vigil over the room where John, Garrus, and Liara rested off their injuries. Outside, people everywhere were working to clean up after the mess the Geth had left, finding those who had gone missing, or making sure society as a whole didn't come crumbling down around them. Maybe Ashley should have been out there helping to rebuild. But she didn't want to leave her friends and lover, not again.

She gazed fondly at John as he rested on the bed from behind the pane of glass separating the hallway from the recovery room. She could see the skin not covered with the blanket was near covered in a myriad of bruises and bandages covering up treated wounds. Even with MediGel, no doubt John would walk away sporting a few more scars from today. But Ashley didn't mind. She's already spent more than enough time acquainting herself with each every mark and scar on John's body. Any new ones would be a testament to how he'd come back to her.

Anyone who might have seen Ash would probably think her to be suffering from lunacy, given the manic smile she had no hopes of repressing. It wasn't her fault she was feeling as though she were walking on air. She'd told John she loved him, and he'd been so overjoyed the man might have jumped off the stretcher to pick her up into his arms were it not for the pain relievers in his system. John kept that same smile throughout all of the procedures he'd been subjected to since arriving at Huerta. Even now as he slept, Ashley could see the pleasant quirk to the corners of his lips.

Ashley Williams loves John Shepard, and she knew he loves her back. With the Reapers defeated for now and her friends alive, Ashley had absolutely no reason to be melancholy.

She picked her head up when she heard footsteps coming toward her. Instead of finding another doctor like she'd expected, Captain Anderson came striding down the hall. He looked tired, but there was a spring to his step, like a man who's finally achieved his goals after years of labor.

By habit Ash saluted him as he came closer. "At ease, Williams," he commanded softly. Ashley relaxed, and Anderson stopped next to her, arms crossed behind his back as he gazed at the commander.

"The Council Chambers have been properly quarantined," he informed her. "Teams are moving in to assess the wreckage of Sovereign and begin transporting to an offsite location."

"Have you been taking proper precautions?" Ash wanted to know.

Anderson nodded. "We still don't really understand just what exactly Indoctrination is. But we're using special shielding that should block any and all forms of data transmission, and none of the pieces are being handled directly. In any event, I've ordered for all workers to receive regular psych evals, myself included, just in case."

"That's good to hear. Whatever tech Sovereign is made up of, it's way too above my pay grade to understand. But I've seen the kind of damage Indoctrination can inflict. The more info we can crack out of Sovereign, the better."

"If we can even find enough wreckage to study," Anderson acquiesced. "We've already had reports of widespread looting and Keepers dragging parts into whatever holes they reside in. Pieces of Sovereign landed on each arm of the Citadel. We don't have the manpower or the time to carefully register and evac every piece of wreckage there is."

Ash didn't have an answer for that. Keepers were in fact supposed to be constructs of the Reapers, so it would be natural if they had built in protocols to clear away Reaper tech in case one of them did die, so that no one could learn their secrets. At the same time, small time looters and thieves probably thought they were scoring a jackpot by lifting some rarely seen before tech for sale on the black market. But they more than likely had no idea about Indoctrination. At this moment, the remains of Sovereign could be working its dark magic on thugs from all different walks of life.

There was only so much they could do to prevent it. The Citadel was in disarray, its government and major political/commercial powers trying to pick up the pieces. Even if the Citadel's network of leaders and man power was working at one hundred percent, there would always be pieces of Sovereign that fell through the cracks, never to be seen again. There was simply no helping it.

Instead of answering, Ashley went back to looking at John through the window. It was so much easier to focus on her little slice of the universe, where the only things that mattered to Ashley were her family, her friends, and the man she loved. She wasn't cut out for working with the big picture like John and Anderson did on a regular basis. She preferred to be a helping hand, not the one leading the party.

Anderson followed her gaze, watching Shepard's sleeping form with a fond expression. Changing tactics he asked her, "How's the commander and his team doing? Nothing serious enough to take them out of the fight, I hope."

"A minor concussion, five cracked ribs, hairline fracture in his left arm, dislocated the knee joint on his right leg, plus a whole lot of bruising and surface cuts," Ash rattled off. "Doctors told me he's lucky; Shepard could have been a lot worse off, considering what he'd been through. Vakarian busted up his left arm a bit, a few of those spurs on his head snapped off. I think I heard somewhere they grow back. Liara's just exhausted more than anything. Too much biotics use."

"And the Krogan, Wrex?"

"Eh, redundant nervous system takes care of the big guy better than any doctor can. He left a couple hours ago, wanted to find a still working bar and 'drink to the nines' before... uh, hold on." Ashley stalled, her face scrunching up. "I… Achoo!"

"Gesundheit."

"Thanks," Ash said as she covertly wiped her nose clean. "Anyway, the docs have Shepard pretty heavily medicated, you know. He probably won't wake up for a few more hours, so you're a little early if you wanted to talk to him."

"Let the boy rest," Anderson deflected tenderly. "Lord knows Shepard deserves it more than most. Besides, the person I wanted to talk to was you, Chief Williams. I… owe you an apology, Ashley."

Taken off guard, she turned back to him with a queer look. "I don't recall being offended, sir."

"I don't suppose I was overt about it. But nevertheless, I did insult you. Not intentionally, or course, but I have to make things right."

Anderson was quiet for a long moment, starting to look nostalgic. For the life of her, Ashley couldn't figure out what exactly he'd done to insult her.

"Daniel Shepard was one of the closest friends I'd ever had," Anderson began after a moment, his voice quiet. "We'd met back when I was still in basic, and we were nigh inseparable ever since. He was there to help me get black out drunk after I made it through ICT. I was there to help make sure he didn't royally screw up with Hannah when they first started dating. Danny… he was like a brother to me. I'd have taken a bullet for the man, and I knew he'd do the same for me.

"His death took us all by surprise. John was barely more than five; Hannah still had a long future of service ahead of her. So I followed through on the promise I'd made Danny on his deathbed. I vowed to always be there for Hannah and John, to guide John into the kind of man his father hoped he would become. And like his father before him, John became a sort of surrogate family to me. I love him as though he were my own son. Pushing him toward ICT, and the nominating him for the Spectre position may seem contradictory to this, but all I've ever want is to keep John safe."

That love was plain for Ashley to see as Anderson talked about John. The Captain was usually so stoic and hard to read, a trait John had obviously taken after. So like John, seeing Anderson without his Mask was a strange sight to see. "I don't quite understand where I fit into this story, sir," Ashley tried.

Anderson paused again, clearly nervous before going on. "After the attack on Eden Prime, you were left in flux, Miss Williams. Because of our unique situation, it would have been perfectly understandable for me to simply hand you over to military high command and let them decide what your next assignment should be."

He turned to her, his gaze both stony and alight with emotion. "I studied your service record. The Normandy would have been lucky to have a soldier like you. But an above average skill set couldn't really justify adding on another marine we didn't necessarily need. But then I had a much more compelling reason to place you under my command, and by extension, Shepard's command."

"You thought having me aboard the Normandy would help keep John safe?" she guessed.

A nod. "You never truly met the Shepard I had known before Utukku. He was still courageous and noble, yes, but Shepard was a hard young man. He rarely if ever allowed himself to feel emotions that weren't essential to completing the next mission. But when he came back from your mission together, all those years ago, I saw a side of Shepard I thought I'd never see again. John smiled without restraint, laughed with the crew, became a beacon they could all look to and admire rather than cower in fear from.

"I had you reassigned because I knew wherever the mission took Shepard, it would place him in mortal peril. I felt having you aboard the Normandy would keep him focused, make his reason for fighting visible to him on a day to day basis. So the reason I want to apologize to you, Chief Williams, is because I did not see you as a person. I saw you as a means to an end. A comfort to help aid the boy I care about. I am truly sorry for that."

Ashley didn't know how to respond to this confession. The logic made sense, seeing as how Ash and John had saved each other countless times during the mission. John himself had even suspected Anderson's intentions when he transferred Ashley to his command. But Ash understood where the older man was coming from. He merely wanted to do everything her could to ensure his 'son' would be safe. And in no way could she fault him for that.

Crossing her arms behind her back and adopting a businesslike stature, Ashley turned to the captain fully and said, "Sir, while I believe you have no reason to be apologetic, I accept your admission of guilt and forgive you. I have nothing but the utmost respect for you, sir, and I'm glad to hear you feel the same way about me."

A weight lifted off his shoulders, albeit a smaller one, and Anderson relaxed his posture with a small smile. "Thank you, Ashley. John cares for you quite a bit, so it means a lot to me to hear you say that."

"John means a lot to me too," Ash told him with a reassuring smile. "Knowing his mentor approves of me as well is more than enough. But if I might ask, sir, what brought this on now?"

Anderson hummed thoughtfully as he turned his head to look back through the window. "Shepard and I chose the marine detail from a pool of veterans, soldiers who had proven to be good at their jobs. So we needed a CO who could keep seasoned marines in line, not just greenbacks. Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko was the clear choice for me. I'd worked with the man before, and I saw how he can control his men. His marines respect him, follow his orders, and never question him." Talking about Kaidan reopened the wound she still had from Virmire, though Ashley did her best not to let the captain see it.

He turned back to her and said, "I was surprised to hear that Shepard made you the head of the marine detail after Alenko's death. However, after what I saw today, I can't say I'm surprised anymore. Your men more than just respect you; they look up to you. They trust in you. You've held your new position for little more than a few days and the men already put their unquestionable faith in you.

"Today I realized I saw more in you than merely the soldier with the marred past. To be honest I see of lot of Shepard in you, Miss Williams. You share a certain of quality of courage and devotion to your goals, one that doesn't let you stop even when the whole galaxy seems to be trying to hold you back. I see now what drew Shepard to you when you first met."

Ashley could feel the heat in her cheeks rising. She still wasn't so used to people openly praising her. "Thank you, sir," she muttered with much less confidence than she wanted.

Anderson chuckled at her naivety. "Another trait of Shepard I see in you; modesty, even when you have every right to be otherwise." Smiling broadly, Anderson patted her on the shoulder before turning and walking back the way he came.

"I expect great things from you, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams," Anderson called over his shoulder. "And with Shepard to go by, you know I'm a good judge of character." Leaving the thought floating in the air, Anderson turned the corner and was gone from her sight, leaving Ashley alone to think about everything he'd said to her.

Author's Note: We're back after yet another hiatus! So that pretty much wraps up the Mass Effect 1 story arc. The next few chapter will be focusing on what happened to our lovable band of misfits in between the games.

So, I purposely waited until after the new Mass Effect was announced at E3 (Yes, that's the story I'm going with, and now the whole "I'm really lazy" thing).

My first impressions... I'm not terribly excited, unfortunately. I like the idea of the song choice they went with, but Johnny Cash doesn't fit well in the ME universe if you ask me. I preferred the techno beats and symphonic overtures that were more prevalent in the first two games.

We saw new planets, which is to be expected since we're supposedly playing in an entirely new galaxy. We saw a whole bunch elements from the old games (Omni Blade, N7 logo). We saw a jetpack, but that's pretty par for the course with games nowadays.

I don't really know how I feel. Of course there's the whole, "Yay, new Mass Effect!" feeling. But at the same time, because the new game isn't supposed to have any overlap with the original trilogy at all, I'm fearful players won't actually get to see how their stories with Commander Shepard and their crew affected the galaxy as a whole.

So what what was your reaction to Mass Effect: Andromeda? Anything else at E3 that's initiated your hype train? Of course everyone is excited for Fallout 4. Dishonored 2 looks freaking amazing.

I hope everyone has a really good summer!