Note: For the masskink kink meme. (Spoilers ME1) Shiala was the Benezia follower left to be enslaved by the Thorian on Feros.
MAYBE SOMETIME, WHEN...
"Maybe sometimes, when..."
It had startled her. Shiala had said it with a tiny bit of hope and a not-really lingering touch on her arm, and she seemed so vulnerable, in a way, that Jane had been... a little moved. She had more pressing matters to attend on Illium, though, and didn't dwell on it.
At the time.
Later, alone in her quarters, she would allow her mind to wander, and, step by step, night after night, imagine and create a time and day where she had taken the asari on her offer and saw where that had led them. Shepard had the feeling that it'd be far, and that made her smile. Dreaming was nice, once in awhile.
It surprised her, to realize that even after having taken a lover - after surviving the Collectors base, after David and the Batarians and Alchera (even more after Alchera) - she still thought of Shiala, and what could have been.
It probably counted as cheating, Shepard knew, but couldn't bring herself to care. It wasn't as though she was going to act on it, anyway. It was just the cold sky of Feros, the asari's resigned eyes as she waited for the Commander to pass the sentence, back then, and maybe, maybe, one time or two or more, a child who would have been able to remember her for a thousand years.
"... and you're not... doing whatever you do."
Garrus moved beside her, then engulfed her in his arms, gently. She suppressed a shiver, before closing her eyes again, chasing a vision that would never come to be.
END