"Hey Skipper, so what are you doing for Christmas this year?"
Shepard looked up from her datapad. As Ashley was walking over to her, she couldn't help but notice that slight grin her gunnery chief had. The one that always meant she was up to something.
"Not much, you kind of lose track of the holidays when you just transfer from ship to ship all the time," she answered while the chief took the seat opposite of her.
"And you LT? Anything planned?" Ashley waved for Kaidan to come join the two ladies.
Kaidan put down the coffee mug he'd been fully focused on and grabbed a chair for himself, replying "I was just going to order something on the extranet and send it home in time."
"I'm sorry Ash," Shepard remarked sadly. "I know family means a lot to you, but we can't afford the delay. I don't think Saren's going to wait for us if we go on holiday break."
She had been thinking about how she might be able to squeeze in a trip back to Earth, but they had to get to Noveria soon; Benezia might already be gone and they needed all the information they could get. She fully expected a frown at her answer.
Instead Ashley just kept her grin and went on. "I know, that's why I've come up with a little something! Why don't we just do it right here, on the Normandy?"
"Do what?"
"A Secret Santa of course!" Ash paused for a moment to emphasize her point. "It will be fun!"
Kaidan raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's a good idea? What about Liara and the others, it's not like they'll have any idea what's going on."
"You don't really have to know what it's all about, you just need to get someone a present. And it would be great for the human crew members aboard, who can't go home either!" she answered cheerfully.
Shepard was still trying to process Ashley's suggestion, when another voice joined the conversation.
"Hey, what's going on?" Liara smiled as the doors to the med bay closed and she approached the little group.
Ashley wasted no time and started to explain the basics to the young asari.
Before she got far though, she was interrupted as the comm crackled to life: "Hey Commander, I've got Admiral Hackett on the line. Something about a biotic commune gone crazy."
"I'll be right up," Shepard replied to the ceiling before turning back to the gleeful marine in front of her. "Ashley, if you want to do this thing that's okay, but don't drag anyone into it that doesn't want to." Shepard stood up and almost bumped into Garrus as he walked around the corner, followed by Tali and Wrex.
"Joker said there was something you needed to discuss?" the turian asked with a rather urgent tone in his subvocals.
Shepard started wondering just how much of their conversation her pilot actually had overheard before interrupting, but she wasn't in the mood to get mad. After all, he had wanted to see his family as well.
"Relax Garrus," she laughed laying a hand on his shoulder. "I think Joker made it sound like more of an emergency than we have here."
The response came from the ceiling again. "Hey, presents for everyone. That's pretty important, right?"
"Just don't start playing any carols over the comm," Shepard laughed again as she made her way up to the CIC.
In the meantime Ashley had finished briefing everyone on the human custom of anonymous gift exchanges for Christmas and they all agreed that it might be fun, with or without the original holiday in mind. It was a good a reason as any. That's when Ashley started compiling a list of names and within 24 hours almost the whole crew had signed up.
With the Normandy not running into any firefights and Garrus fixing the Mako for them, the engineering crew managed to get an automated drawing system up and running. It included wishlists and anonymous messaging and other functions no one usually needs, but were of course absolutely essential for the positive outcome of the operation. At least that was how Adams explained it.
Shepard could feel the whole mood aboard her ship getting a little lighter than it had been these past few weeks. With the hunt for Saren and the conduit not really taking any major steps forward, organizing presents was a welcome distraction for everyone.
Whenever they managed to stop at a larger port, Shepard noticed a few more items on the shipping list than usual. She even got a message once to specifically not look at the list that day, so instead she just handed it over to Joker and trusted that he hadn't smuggled 24 bottles of asari wine aboard.
"So Wrex, who'd you get?" she asked the krogan during one ride on the Mako.
"Well I'm not telling. But I know what I'm getting for them", at that he grinned at her and started his triumphant laugh.
"Wrex, the head of a dead thing doesn't count as a gift."
"Aww that's not fair."
It was still a mystery to Shepard why he had signed up in the first place.
Three days before Christmas, they went to Virmire.
Ashley didn't make it out.
They just couldn't do it without her, then.
That dumb sweater Shepard had bought for Adams had been a bad idea anyway.
"Beam me up, Scotty." It's not like anyone would have gotten the reference from some old science fiction show.
She wondered what might have happened, if Scotty had beamed Ash up in time.
That was the first Christmas aboard the SSV Normandy SR-1.
And the last.
